Browse Stories

Smashing ACORN: There’s a bigger scandal than the pimp tapes

By Curt Guyette

Published: 2/3/2010

Types: Cover Story

You haven't seen Carrie Guzman on the television shows hosted by archconservatives Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck. Her name hasn't appeared on the op-ed page of The Wall Street Journal. And she hasn't shown up in any surreptitiously videotaped sting operations conducted by youthful right-wing zealots. ...[MORE]

Fast times in Washington, D.C.: A Royal Oak stonemason makes his case with a hunger strike

By Curt Guyette

Published: 12/16/2009

Types: Cover Story

Striding across the gleaming marble floors of a congressional office building in Washington, D.C., Thomas Mahany does not look like a man who hasn't eaten for nearly a month.  He's moving too fast. And he doesn't rest, hitting office after office. The spacious hallways of the Cannon Building, a Be...[MORE]

Pickup lines: Will curbside recycling work in Detroit?

By Curt Guyette

Published: 11/25/2009

Types: News, Environmental

When it comes to curbside recycling in Detroit, city officials and activists looking to boost participation in a pilot program are hoping children can help lead the way to a greener future. It's help that is definitely needed. In place since July 1, Detroit's pilot program offers curbside recyclin...[MORE]

Tread lightly: Juan Cole argues against sending lots of troops to Afghanistan

By Curt Guyette, W. Kim Heron

Published: 11/11/2009

Types: News, War

A history professor at the University of Michigan, Juan Cole's notoriety as a scholar focusing on Islam was largely confined to academic circles until 2002, when he began writing his Informed Comment blog. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq by the Un...[MORE]

Making a race of it : Why this mayoral duel is worth watching

By Curt Guyette

Published: 10/21/2009

Types: Cover Story

On a crisp, clear Saturday morning, with a little more than two weeks remaining before Detroiters again go to the polls to choose a mayor in this oddest of election years, volunteers at the east side campaign headquarters of Tom Barrow are eagerly waiting for their candidate. The campaign has run o...[MORE]

Detroit council consultations: 18 candidates x 13 questions = too much for the paper alone

By Curt Guyette

Published: 10/14/2009

Types: News, Politics, Election

It is difficult to recall a Detroit City Council race that's been more wide open, or more important to the city. Two incumbents decided not to seek re-election. A third failed to make it past the primary. And one — Monica Conyers — was removed from the race after pleading guilty to a br...[MORE]

Courts and sparks: The powerful bridge company is tangled up in litigation

By Curt Guyette

Published: 9/23/2009

Types: News, Transportation

Like a besieged army, Manuel "Matty" Moroun and his Detroit International Bridge Co. are fighting legal battles on multiple fronts in their high-stakes effort to build a second span adjacent to the privately owned Ambassador Bridge. Moroun, an octogenarian billionaire and transportation m...[MORE]

Going down: Detroit isn't the only city on the fiscal skids

By Curt Guyette

Published: 9/2/2009

Types: News, Government

When it comes to economic news in Michigan, the headlines in recent months have been mostly about the financial crises facing the state of Michigan, the city of Detroit and Detroit Public Schools, all of which are awash in red ink. Below the radar of a lot of people, though, is another layer of tro...[MORE]

Higher and higher: What can stem the rising cost of higher ed?

By Curt Guyette

Published: 8/26/2009

Types: News, Education

Although specifics differed, as budgets for the coming school year were set, Michigan's public universities began issuing press releases with a similar tone: They were working hard to put a positive spin on unwelcome news. All the schools, dealing with anticipated cuts in funding from a state gover...[MORE]

The lucky 13 : Best films about college ... ever

By Bill Holdship, Curt Guyette

Published: 8/26/2009

Types: Screens, Film

Interestingly, there are probably more quality films about high school — running a gamut from the comedic John Hughes flicks to Scent of a Woman — than there are ones about college. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that college is so much fun for most of us that there's really not a ...[MORE]

Bing's wrong bus stop: Why we must put the brakes on the mayor's proposed service cuts

By Curt Guyette

Published: 8/19/2009

Types: News, Transportation

We read with interest last week's news that Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is considering the elimination of city bus service on Sundays and Saturday nights as one way to help reduce a deficit estimated to be about $350 million. That's it, Bingo — make hitting the poor where it hurts most one of you...[MORE]

Local or not?: A brief guide to whether 'Detroit' brands are really from here

By Curt Guyette

Published: 8/19/2009

Types: News, Business

It's not always easy knowing for certain what's local and what's not. Part of it depends on how you want to define the term. In reality, there's a spectrum of what qualifies as local, with the purest light coming from those companies that are locally owned with local manufacturing facilities. Then t...[MORE]

Too poor to parent?: Critics say when the state takes kids away, the real problem is poverty.

By Curt Guyette

Published: 8/5/2009

Types: News, Government

Melanie Morgan sits at the kitchen table of a mobile home in Lansing, nervously smoking a hand-rolled cigarette.  She’s nervous because she’s talking to a reporter with a photographer snapping pictures as she answers sometimes deeply personal questions about her four-year ordeal with the Michigan D...[MORE]

Mayor's race? What mayor's race?: Why there’s so little attention in a city with so much on the line

By Curt Guyette

Published: 7/22/2009

Types: Cover Story

On a Thursday afternoon in mid-July, about 40 folks have gathered in the sanctuary of Liberty Temple Baptist Church on Detroit's west side to hear from five people who want to be the city's next mayor. The candidates are varied and optimistic, earnest and ... What's that you say? There's a mayor's ...[MORE]