Another day of scanning through stories and finding a headline that just grabs me and makes me say, “Well, I better read this one” Detroit news reporter and host of the No BS News Hour, Charlie LeDuff, often does this to not only myself but thousands of others who read him on a regular basis.
If you have ever read any of my previous stories, you know that I find LeDuff to be not only a damn solid reporter but an engaging writer with his reporting. Below are some of the previous pieces and topics he has tackled that very few reporters in the state of Michigan are willing to cover.
He broke the story about the undercounting of deaths in Michigan during COVID-19. Report: Michigan Nursing Home COVID Deaths Could Be Underreported by 40% or Higher
From that story.
According to LeDuff’s Deadline Detroit story above, they reviewed records after having to sue to have an FOIA request honored and found this: From March to June of 2020, the state audited 1,468 death records and of those 648 deaths were traced back to long-term care facilities. Taking that 44% as an average and applying it to the near 7,000 other vital records deaths recorded would be close to another 3,000 deaths for those who are being cared for in care facilities.
The places where some of our most vulnerable people live. Where we send our elders to be cared for and expect them to be protected by those who are analyzing the science and the data and crow about it ad nauseam.
I take this a bit personally being I am incredibly blessed to be a caregiver to someone who has Alzheimer’s and has spent a couple of sleepless nights worrying about making sure she is as well taken care of as possible during this COVID time. I’m working with one person but those who are working in a care facility have any challenge I face on daily basis times 100. I have so much awe and respect for those who work in these places where people that are not family are cared for like they were. The vast majority of those who work in care facilities are the best-kept secret in our society and are invaluable.
That he took on Governor Gretchen Whitmer and her storyboard about how GREAT Michigan was doing during COVID was unique for a reporter in this state.
He didn't stop there, though. He tackled her penchant for flying private during COVID-19 to avoid the unwashed masses.
Gretchen Whitmer Likes Private Jets, Even Flew on One to Biden Inauguration
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s transition fund paid for a private jet she took to attend President Biden’s inauguration in January, according to a new report.
Whitmer is already facing scrutiny for using the transition to pay for the vast majority of her trip to Florida – a trip she initially lied about taking.
Michigan journalist Charlie LeDuff reported during the Friday episode of his radio show, No BS Newshour, that the Michigan Transition 2019 fund also used nearly $21,000 – labeled as a “gift” by the fund – to charter a plane for the governor to attend Biden’s inauguration with her family in Washington, DC.
LeDuff noted that the Michigan Transition 2019 filings page was “dark for years” until the reports of Whitmer’s trip to the Sunshine State against her own travel advisories.
It is unclear if the plane Whitmer reportedly chartered in January is the same as the plane she chartered through Michigan air company AirEagle, LLC to fly to visit her father in Florida.
Whitmer’s office did not immediately return Fox News’ request for comment on LeDuff’s report.
So, now that I have established that LeDuff is worth following, he has a new claim out that grabbed my attention when I saw this tweet earlier today.
Junkies squatting in abandoned city owned houses. One next to an elementary school. City Hall does nothing!
— Charlie LeDuff (@Charlieleduff) September 20, 2023
The neighborhood around Gratiot and Seven Mile on Detroit's east side has been invaded by a horde of suburban dope fiends. Hundreds of them. A veritable Drugburbia. A… pic.twitter.com/tcy465p9eM
When I clicked on the story here, he made an interesting case.
The area around Gratiot and Seven Mile on Detroit's east side has been invaded by a horde of suburban dope fiends. Hundreds of them. A veritable Drugburbia. And if City Hall doesn't start paying some attention around here soon, Detroit may very well become the next San Francisco.
The homeless ratio is roughly the same in San Francisco as it is in Detroit, but here you don't see the junkies flopped out on the streets. In the Motor City, they've taken up residence in the abandoned houses, many of which are owned by the incompetent and absentee Detroit Land Bank Authority.
San Francisco (population 810,000 and falling) counted 7,700 homeless people last year. Detroit (population 630,000 and falling) claims 5,600 homeless. Surely Detroit's number is an undercount since the data is two years old, collected at the height of the pandemic.
HUD requires any community that receives federal funding for homelessness to conduct a head count on a single night once every two years. This includes people in shelters or sleeping outdoors, in cars or other places not considered permanent housing.
This would include those living in condemned houses, I would presume. But I've never seen a homeless head-counter knocking on those doors in the dead of night.
As long as I've been alive, there has been a debate about when Detroit started to go downhill. Some say it was after the 1967 riot, and others might say that it was in the economic slowdown back in the mid-70s or early 80s. I have even heard people claim to think that Detroit has always been dilapidated.
Detroit was at one time the most prosperous city in the United States of America, which means it was the most prosperous city in the world. Of course, that time was after World War II and into the 50s and early 60s, but the people who lived here at that time shook their heads in disbelief at what had happened to the city and wondered why it never recovered, no matter when the decline started.
The Detroit Land Bank has been just about as inefficient a government-funded entity that you could ever imagine being created. There are thousands of homes that have been on a list to be demolished for years, even decades in some instances, and this has just become a commonplace fact for the residents who live in Detroit.
The fact that homeless people are taking these buildings over is not surprising in the least, and it is incredibly shameful that this is being ignored by city officials, as LeDuff alleges.
People who have no hope tend to try to fill the hours of their days and nights with something that they believe will fill the emptiness and unfortunately, that means alcohol and or drugs. We have seen the video in the pictures from California and how they are absolutely mishandling the problem out there that, of course, is exacerbated by illegal immigrants flooding those zones.
That LeDuff is writing about this and highlighting it, means that there's a growing problem and, hopefully, with him shining a light on it, it will spur city officials into action, to try to stem this problem from growing -- and for Detroit not to become the San Francisco of the Midwest.
