There are many things Flint, Michigan can be thankful for this season.

October 3, 2018
By Brad Emons

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver (middle) is all smiles with Michigan Bucks President Costa Papista (left) and Chairman Dan Duggan.

The City of Flint (click here) has found a new tenant for its newly renovated Atwood Stadium.

Welcomed with open arms, the two-time North American Premier Development League champion Michigan Bucks (2007 and 2016), is leaving the northern suburbs of Detroit to relocate its storied Under-23 United Soccer League 2 franchise following a press conference held Wednesday afternoon at Kettering University's Campus Center.

The Bucks, who played the past decade at Pontiac's Ultimate Soccer Arenas, an indoor venue, will be going back outdoors after the announcement was made by Livonia native Dan Duggan, the Bucks' Chairman and CEO.

Kettering University, which took over and renovated the historic Atwood Stadium through community donations, has now formed a partnership with the Bucks, which has a PDL record 249 wins (1996-2018) to go along with five PDL regular season, seven Central Conference and 14 Great Lakes Division titles....

Just some blastedly good luck.

October 31, 2018
By Madeline Ciak

Flint--Someone in Flint is waking up $2 million richer this morning! (click here)

The winning ticket was sold at US Energy Distributions LLC, which is located at G4005 Clio Road in Flint.

See the winning lottery numbers for Tuesday, Oct. 30.

Reflection on laws that kill.

October 31, 2018
By Caitlin Devitt

Outgoing Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's legacy (click here) will forever be shadowed by the lead poisoning crisis in Flint. The disaster will carry ramifications for decades, not only for Flint citizens, but for cash-strapped cities and counties across the state. Because the Flint disaster unfolded during a full state takeover and amid an effort to cut costs, the state's future intervention into local governments will come at a heavy political cost.

Since Flint, the state has dropped its oversight law like a hot potato and for the first time in decades does not manage any local governments. Have the cities, counties and school districts that suffer from falling revenue and rising retirement obligations suddenly become healthy? Not likely, based on a review of the state’s newly required local pension and retiree health care obligation reports....

Rebuilding democracy in Flint.

November 1, 2018
By Roberto Acosta

Flint -- The Flint Board of Education (click here) is seeking applications for a vacant seat following a recent resignation on the governing body. 

Applications are being taken until 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 5 after school board member Kenyatta Dotson announced at the Oct. 17 meeting that she was stepping down.

Her move comes due to plans on moving out of the boundaries for the school district, according to a district statement. She served on the board for approximately four years. 

Dotson was recently recognized by the Michigan Community Service Commission, which named her Volunteer of the Year at the 2018 Governor's Service Awards....

A way forward for children with incarcerated parents.

November 1, 2018
By Jasmyn Durham

Flint — A Flint woman (click here) has made it her mission to support Genesee County children whose parents are behind bars.

Shirley Cochran runs a nonprofit called Motherly Intercession.

The goal is giving the children a strong support system but also helping those mothers and fathers to be better parents from a distance.

"I pass the jail everyday going to work," says Cochran.

She says the development of this organization stemmed from a stop to the jail when she wanted to help a family at Christmas time.

"I just turned in one day thinking I could find one mother there and I found 23 mothers and 58 children who wouldn't be together at Christmas," says Cochran.

She says that's when she found her calling, naming it Motherly Intercession.

"We found a need and we tried to respond to it, never really anticipating it being a nonprofit"....

A helping hand for Foster Care children.

November 2, 2018
By Amanda Chodnicki

Flint — In 2015, 678 children in Michigan (click here) exited foster care, according to the non-profit Samaritas.

But before the kids are able to transition and be on their own, many of them first go through programs that help them to learn how to make it in the real world.

FOX66/ NBC25's Amanda Chodnicki went inside a home that recently opened in Flint for young women working on that transition.

She talked with one young woman, who is currently in the program....

A revitalized search of a missing woman.

November 2, 2018
By Cole Waterman

Flint -- Two decades (click here) since a Flint woman disappeared, a reward is being offered in hopes of bringing closure to the case.

CrimeStoppers of Flint & Genesee County is offering a cash reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to answers in the disappearance of Christina Levonne Schutz.

Schutz was last seen on Nov. 2, 1998, in the 2000 block of North Vernon Avenue in Flint. She was 24 at the time, weighed 110 to 120 pounds, stood 5 feet 2 inches tall, and had several tattoos.

According The Charley Project, a database that publicizes missing persons cases, Schutz had argued with her boyfriend, the father of her children. Before disappearing, she said goodbye to her grandmother, who was caring for her 3-year-old son and infant daughter.

She has not been seen or heard from since....

And people that care while being movers and shakers.

November 3, 2018
By Carol Cain

...On Thursday, Mathis, (click here) working with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Kroger, United Food & Commercial Workers Local 876, Teamsters 299, Teamsters Joint Council 43 and others, he sponsored gathered, and delivered hundreds of thousands of bottles of water to Flint. He appeared last Monday on ABC’s “The View” and other national shows as well as “Michigan Matters” (11:30 a.m. this Sunday on CBS 62) to make it clear he will not rest until this tragedy is fully remedied.

Mathis first reached out to help Flint in 2016 and got some heat from the media over it. But it was after hearing the state had stopped distributing bottled water to residents still in need that sent him over the edge. He mentioned it to Franklin during their last monthly phone call before her death, and the Queen of Soul issued one final directive:

“She told me, ‘Greg you have to go back. You have to help. You’re from Detroit. You’ve got to sock it to ‘em,’” he told me....

I am sure there are decisions since this one, but, I found it interesting after the USA Civil War this decision came into focus.

United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) (click here)

What I found most interesting is the year-long deliberation before the decision was handed down. The case was argued on March 5, 8, 1897 (This was a Friday and Monday dates. March 6 and 7 was a Saturday and Sunday) and decided on March 28, 1898. That length of deliberation would never occur today.

There was an election in 1898. It was a mid-term election while President William McKinley was in the White House. In that election House seats were gained by the Democrats, but, they did not hold the majority. Oddly, enough there was a populist movement in the Democratic Party led by William Jennings Bryan (click here). Bryan would run for president under the populist idea of making silver the basis of the value of the USA currency. He believed the gold standard was bad for the USA's currency. He lost the race.

One way to MEASURE the decisions of a radical right Supreme Court in the year 2018, is to compare their decisions against past decisions. If it is grossly out of step with the past (The USA Constitution was only changed by it's Amendments. That in scientific calculations would be called A CONSTANT.), there must be something wrong and quite possibly a threat to democracy. I would hope if such decisions were discovered, the US House would legislate them into oblivion. I realize the only majority for such an effort is the US Democratic House, but, it is a launching point for the elections of 2020. The electorate should know the appointees by Trump are extremely out of step with the past.

A child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicil and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China, becomes at the time of his birth a citizen of the United States, by virtue of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution,

"All person born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

This was a writ of habeas corpus issued October 2, 1895, by the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of California to the collector of customs at the port of San Francisco, in behalf of Wong Kim Ark, who alleged that he was a citizen of the United States, of more than twenty-one years of age, and was born at San Francisco in 1873 of parents of Chinese descent and subjects of the Emperor of China, but domiciled residents at San Francisco, and that, on his return to the United States on the steamship Coptic in August, 1895, from a temporary visit to China, he applied to said collector of customs for permission to land, and was by the collector refused such permission, and was restrained of his liberty by the collector, and by the general manager of the steamship company acting under his direction, in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States, not by virtue of any judicial order or proceeding, but solely upon the pretence that he was not a citizen of the United States....

I don't watch FOX News because they add to the danger of the planet's climate issues. They don't cover it.

It is a rare occasion when FOX News anywhere is cited on this blog. On occasion, but, it is because I could not find another source of facts I know existed. But, I never make citations on this blog solely reported by FOX News. It is not a reliable source for information and why trust it?

I wish it was a USA media source that kept Hillary Clinton in the loop, but, I like the "Guardian" and I thank them for returning her voice to us.

23 November 2018
By Patrick Wintour

...Citing research on fascism (click here) by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Clinton compared Trump to authoritarian leaders abroad, describing him as someone who “craves dominance” and attacks those news outlets that challenge his assertions.

“Now [Trump] doesn’t attack Fox News, because they’re like a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump and the Republican Party now. So he attacks the press and the broadcast media that raise questions about him, that don’t give him fidelity and loyalty,” she said.

Clinton called on the press at large to “get smarter” about its approach to Trump and the Republican Party, because “that’s basically how most voters get their information.” She cited Lesley Stahl’s “60 Minutes” interview with Trump in mid-October, saying Stahl should have asked about a bombshell New York Times piece on the Trump family’s tax dodging.

She suggested the press rethink its quest for “balance” when it comes at the expense of fact.

“This is a person who believes in very little,” Clinton said. “He does have visceral responses to what goes on in the world around him. He does have a strong streak of racism that goes back to his early years.”...

The ACLU had Trump pegged even before he was the Republican nomination.

But, even since "belief" overtook fact from esteemed and real experts of the American landscape, their warnings were not heeded.

The one question I have since this point in time, is, how much of the Trump agenda that is blatantly unconstitutional belongs to the agenda of the Federalist Society?

July 13, 2016
By Anthony D. Romero

Last June, Donald Trump (click here) rode down the escalator of his Trump Tower to the tune of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” to deliver a message: He, Donald J. Trump, was announcing his candidacy to become the Republican Party’s 2016 nominee for president of the United States of America. During his speech, Trump basked in the crowd — which included paid actors cheering his name and wearing t-shirts with his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again” — before uttering some of the statements that would make him such a polarizing force in American politics....

...In the event of a Trump presidency, we have undertaken a constitutional analysis of his most controversial policy proposals. These include his pledges to deport over 11 million undocumented immigrants, to ban Muslims from entering the United States, to surveil American Muslims and their houses of worship, to torture again, and to revise libel laws. We have found them all wanting, to say the least. According to our analysis, Trump’s proposals taken together would violate the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution....

USA job growth is very weak.

With a glut of cash in the treasuries of Wall Street, why enter into hiring for jobs? To create a greater glut? Why risk the liability of growth? Growth by the very nature of it creates risk. That risk is tamped down by market research and the like, but, growth is a risk.

No CEO is going to enter into risk if the stockholders are receiving reasonable dividends. Why risk paying positive dividends?

No matter how it is assessed, by job growth or investment, there is no reason for risk if stockholders are receiving profitable dividends. Any CEO has to answer for any loss of income, why go there?

Most Republicans if not all state that debt and deficit spending is good for the USA's treasury. It is because government debt is enriching the private sector in government spending. Why, if debt and deficit spending is good for the government, isn't it good for Wall Street?

There ways of increasing production without job growth, namely mechanization. Below is the definition of economic growth per Canada. They don't lie.

Economists (click here) use many different methods to measure how fast the economy is growing. The most common way to measure the economy is real gross domestic product, or real GDP. GDP is the total value of everything - goods and services - produced in our economy. The word "real" means that the total has been adjusted to remove the effects of inflation.

There are at least three different ways to measure growth of real GDP. It is important to know which is being used, and to understand the differences among them. The three most common ways to measure real GDP are:

- Quarterly growth at an annual rate
- The four-quarter or "year-over-year" growth rate
- The annual average growth rate

Quarterly growth at an annual rate shows the change in real GDP from one quarter to the next, compounded into an annual rate. (This process is often called "annualizing.") For example, in the second quarter of 2001, the economy grew 0.1 per cent from the first quarter. If the economy had grown at that pace for an entire year, the annual growth would be 0.4 per cent. So the quarterly growth at an annual rate was reported at 0.4 per cent....