Lessenberry Ink: Recent Episodes
Lessenberry Ink
The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains. -Paul Simon
We have very much appreciated all those who have been reading my columns and other work on Lessenberryink.com in recent years. While this site will continue to exist, my new columns and other writing will now appear on substack, the same platform that brings you Heather Cox Richardson and other important voices. I would be…
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LANSING, MI – In a lifetime of covering Michigan politics, I have never seen anything like the mess in Lansing last week. Michigan Democrats, especially those in the state house of representatives, did everything they could to convince voters that they were not only right to turn control over to Republicans in November,…
The post Lansing Democrats: A Disgrace to the State appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Hard to believe now, but for a long time presidential pardons were mostly noncontroversial. That changed on a fall afternoon half a century ago, when Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon a month after he became the only president to resign. When I heard the news I felt betrayed, as did most Americans. President…
The post Why the Biden Pardon Is Different From the Nixon One appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Eleven years ago, I thought for a few days that Mike Duggan had lost his political mind. A white guy from suburban Livonia, he had moved to Detroit a year before to run for mayor. Detroit’s population was four-fifths Black, and there hadn’t been a white mayor in 40 years. Though…
The post Mike Duggan’s Amazing Political Odyssey appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Once upon a time, stores weren’t packed with Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving, or at least Halloween, and politicians didn’t start campaigning for the next election until at least a year after the last one was over. Well, those days are long gone. The presidential election was only a month ago today,…
The post The Election Is Over – So Let the Campaign Begin! appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
OKEMOS, MI –The Nowlin family will be sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner at their suburban Lansing home today, like millions of other families across the nation. There’s mother Carrie, a former teacher and corporate social media manager; Michael, the dad, a proposal writer for a tech company, and their teenage sons, Miles, a student at…
The post Supportive Mom; Transgender Son. What Will Happen to Them Now? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
LANSING – The biggest change Michigan’s economy faces next year won’t be a result of this month’s election. Instead, the restaurant industry is about to be rocked by a little-noticed Michigan Supreme Court decision last July 31. That had three major components. The first two were that 1) starting next year, minimum wage…
The post Should Restaurant Workers Get a Higher Minimum Wage? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
(Editor’s Note: I presented this lecture twice this week, and a number of people have been interested in reading it; I’d be very pleased if you would too.) The Election is Over: So, What Happened? And What Happens Now? ) The most important national election in decades is over. So what’s likely to happen –and…
The post The Election: What Happened and Why appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – There’s no doubt that Detroit’s image has vastly improved since the days when it was known as the murder capital of the country. Suburbanites used to brag that they hadn’t gone into the city in decades, and the top official of Oakland County suggested it be fenced off “like an Indian reservation.”…
The post Detroit: Nice Place to Visit. But Would You Want to Live appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
Donald Trump plowed through the Democratic ‘blue wall,’ and Michigan was no exception – but the devastation was less than elsewhere
The post The Election: What Happened In Michigan appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
TROY, MI – It’s hard to find the right word to describe how Jim Hoffa, the man who rebuilt the modern Teamsters’ union, felt when he learned that his union wouldn’t make an endorsement in this year’s presidential race. Disgusted might come closest. ‘It doesn’t make any sense. None,” he told me. “Biden has been…
The post Why Won’t the Teamsters Endorse Harris? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
EAST LANSING, MI – Bill Gelineau knows how frustrating being a third-party candidate can be. Six years ago, he was the libertarian candidate for governor of Michigan. His campaign was remarkable in that he offered a broad range of interesting and innovative ideas, such as a plan to break up Detroit’s failing public…
The post Want Your Vote to Count More Than Ever? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
WARREN, MI — Two years ago, the national Democratic Party threw away a seat in Congress they had held for decades, by refusing to listen to those who insisted that it was still hotly competitive. This year, with control of the U.S. House of Representatives very much in doubt, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee…
The post This Race Could Determine Control of Congress appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT — Late last month, I came out of a lunch meeting in downtown Detroit only to be trapped in an unexpected traffic snarl; Donald Trump, traveling with his entourage, had suddenly decided to speak at a National Guard conference a few blocks away. I wasn’t surprised; any more than I would have been…
The post Why is Trump in Michigan So Much? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
OAK PARK, MI – Recently I completed a book on this unusual little city, which for many years was the heart of Detroit’s Jewish community and boasted one of the best school systems in the state. The story of Oak Park’s public schools is utterly fascinating, both unique and a good example of…
The post Why Too Many Michigan Schools Are Failing appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Could the conventional political wisdom be wrong about Shri Thanedar, the scientist-turned-congressman from Detroit? When he won his seat two years ago, African-American leaders in Detroit were horrified. Thanedar, an immigrant from India with a doctorate in chemistry, won the Democratic primary in 2022 with a mere 28 percent of the…
The post Were We All Wrong About Shri Thanedar? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
PENTWATER, MI – The political world knows that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi played a key role last month in pressuring President Joe Biden not to run for a second term. But what they don’t know, former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard told me, is that she played at least as much of…
The post The Truth About Pelosi and the President appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Democrats often complain, and rightly so, that one of the biggest consequences of Donald Trump’s presidency will always be the three justices he appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. That almost certainly led to Roe vs. Wade being overturned, blanket presidential immunity being granted, as well as other important decisions, with…
The post Supreme Court Shocker: Restaurant Worker To Get a Big Raise appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
CHARLEVOIX, MI — Hill Harper, an actor best known for his roles in TV shows like The Good Doctor and CSI, might have done well to talk to billionaire Mike Bloomberg before jumping into Michigan’s Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat. Four years ago, Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire who had been mayor of New…
The post What the Michigan Primary Results Mean appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Michigan’s primary election system is apt to be confusing to those who live in Ohio, say, which combines its presidential primary with those for other contests in March. Michigan, on the other hand, held its presidential primary in February, and will hold a primary for all other offices, from U.S. Senator…
The post Michigan’s August Primary: What’s at Stake appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT, MI – Donald Trump is not the first presidential candidate to have been shot at during a campaign, or even the second or third. He’s the fourth, and the other three all had two things in common. To begin with, all had a Michigan connection. Theodore Roosevelt had the first and probably most dramatic…
The post Trump Wasn’t the First Candidate to be Shot At appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
LANSING, MI – Gretchen Whitmer ran for governor six years ago, vowing to do more for education than anyone had in eons. She won, but Republicans kept control of the legislature, which put limits on what she could do. Then two years ago, she was reelected by a landslide, and Democrats also won…
The post Michigan’s Disappointing Education Budget appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT — Two days after President Biden’s disastrous debate performance, the buzz started among Michigan Democrats: Why doesn’t he step aside in favor of Gretchen Whitmer? Michigan’s two-term governor is, after all, young (53 in August) charismatic, a proven vote-getter and clearly ambitious. Her just-published biography, True Gretch: What I’ve Learned About Life, Leadership…
The post Could Democrats Nominate Whitmer Instead of Biden? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Happy Fourth of July! Years ago, people got together outdoors on this day, a mayor or some dignitary read the Declaration of Independence aloud, and everyone cheered. That doesn’t seem to happen as much these days. We still do picnics and fireworks and sometimes sing the national anthem, but I have the…
The post Would the Founding Fathers be happy with America today? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT –Michigan’s primary election for state and local offices isn’t till August 6, and both parties have multiple candidates trying to win nomination for an open U.S. Senate seat. But it looks very much like voters will end up having a rare choice between two candidates who have considerable experience and are both highly…
The post Does it Make Sense to Pick Inexperienced Leaders? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT –Detroit elected its first African-American congressman in 1954, a funeral director named Charles Diggs, and its second, John Conyers, a decade later. For more than half a century, Michigan always had two Black members of Congress. Then, in 2018, after Mr. Conyers resigned, died and Palestinian-American firebrand Rashida Tlaib replaced him, there was…
The post Detroit Will Again Have No Black Congressmen appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
MONROE, MI – Paul C. LaMarre III, the director of the Port of Monroe, loves tugboats. He photographs them, does vivid paintings of them, pilots them and restores them. Late last month, he took me out into Lake Erie and pointed at the New York, a huge, gorgeous new, multi-deck tug which looked…
The post The Biggest Local Economic Success Story You Never Knew appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Last month, Detroit, or at least the city’s officials and the media, erupted in celebration. According to a new U.S. Census Bureau estimate, the city had gained population for the first time in nearly a lifetime. “This is a day of celebration!” crowed Mayor Mike Duggan, who has always said his administration…
The post Detroit Finally Gained Population. Does it Really Matter? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – For years, I’ve been irritated by people, especially Americans, who called anything they didn’t like “fascist.” In my experience, the vast majority of the time, people who use that word have no idea what fascism really is. This isn’t something new; George Orwell, who spent his short life fighting both fascism and…
The post Could America Really Go Fascist? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Several years ago, the mother of a couple teenagers called me to ask if I knew off the top of my head which states were red and which were blue. I told her if she meant how they had voted in the last presidential election, the answer was yes … but why?…
The post How Did We Get Ourselves Divided Into Blue and Red? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
NORTHVILLE, MI – Kimberley Davis, who grew up on a small farm near Adrian, MI, has done a lot of things in life. Now 67, she’s been a political science and journalism professor; coordinated medical programs for the University of Michigan and elsewhere; worked in Mozambique. Most recently, she’s been a planning executive for an…
The post Sickle Cell: The Disease America Has Forgotten appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
Then, a Frightened Palestinian Child FARMINGTON, MI — There are many who know Terry Ahwal as a longtime, highly effective government official, fundraiser, and as someone influential in politics. She was an assistant executive in Wayne County, the state’s largest. She had successful careers in development and was a Democratic National Convention delegate…
The post Now, a Michigan Political Powerhouse appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
The National Elections of 2024: What’s Likely to Happen? (Editor’s Note: This is adapted from a speech I gave to SOAR, the metropolitan Detroit Society of Active Retirees a few days ago. Hope you find it interesting!) The National Elections of 2024: What’s Likely to Happen? The most important national elections in our lifetimes…
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TROY, MI – What do Albert Einstein and Whoopi Goldberg, former Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller, Walt Disney, Jennifer Aniston and Tom Cruise all have in common? They all have, or had dyslexia, a learning disorder that has nothing to do with intelligence, but can make reading extremely difficult. Fortunately, they all got help or managed,…
The post Most States Screen Kids for Dyslexia – but not Michigan appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – There’s little doubt that immigration is a major issue in this year’s presidential campaign. How it will affect the outcome is not certain. But what you might not know is that exactly a century ago, the issue of immigration, and keeping unwanted people out was an enormous issue nationally and in Michigan. And a…
The post Michigan Once Passed a Law to Control All Immigrants appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – It’s no secret that most Detroit children live in poverty, and very few are able to read as well as they need to. Experts say that if children aren’t reading well enough by third grade, their chances of catching up are very small indeed. For years, test results have shown that…
The post Finally: An Inner-City Reading Program That Works appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
CHARLEVOIX, MI –This little resort town on Lake Michigan, almost at the top of the lower peninsula, is not very much like most of the state — but this year, it is facing much of the same political anguish as everywhere else in the state and nation. There are few minorities in Charlevoix, and there…
The post What’s it Like to Be a Democrat in Charlevoix? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
LANSING, MI – For many years, it has seemed like the motto of the Michigan legislature could have been (with apologies to Humphrey Bogart in the Treasure of the Sierra Madre) “Ethics? We don’t need no (stinkin’) ethics.” Nine years ago, the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity rated and graded Michigan, and gave the…
The post Will Lansing Really Enact Transparency and Ethics Reforms? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – For the past few years, a debate has been raging over whether someone born in the United States is automatically a citizen, even if their parents are not. Ten years ago, virtually everyone, including the courts, assumed they were, based on this first sentence in the complex 14th Amendment to the…
The post The Man Who Defined American Citizenship appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Once again, the two great brawling states of the industrial Midwest haven’t come close to being represented in the presidential sweepstakes. Barring an act of God, as the insurance companies put it, the next President of the United States will either be a guy from Delaware who was born in Pennsylvania, or…
The post There’s Never Been a President Born In Michigan. Could that Change? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
EAST LANSING, MI — Ever since this presidential campaign started, most voters have consistently told pollsters they didn’t want another rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. But now, it seems that’s exactly what they’ve got. This is the first time there’s been a second straight election with the same candidates since Dwight Eisenhower…
The post The Primary Is Decided. So … How Will Michigan Vote? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Two weeks ago, I said in this column that while Detroit is in far better shape than it was a decade ago, and is a rewarding place to visit, it may still not be a great place to live. But why is that? To my dismay, most of the responses I…
The post What Detroit’s REAL Problem Is – and How to Fix It appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
Political Questions You Were Afraid to Ask DETROIT – Sometimes presidential campaigns are exciting from the start. Remember the epic battle for the Democratic nomination between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in 2008? Sometimes, of course they can be a complete yawner, like the 1996 contest between President Bill Clinton and Republican Bob Dole.…
The post But What If He Dies Before the Election? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Thirty years ago, those who lived in Detroit’s suburbs often boasted that they hadn’t been in the city for years. Ten years ago, the leader of the region’s most affluent county, trashed the city in a New Yorker article: Drop Dead, Detroit! But talk like that is no longer socially acceptable. There’s widespread agreement that the city’s…
The post Detroit’s Comeback: How Much is it Real? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
HUNTINGTON WOODS, MI — The days when someone could leave high school, get a job in a factory, and make enough to achieve a middle-class lifestyle are long over. Sadly, so are the baby boomer days when the average student could graduate, get a few scholarships, work summers, and emerge from college essentially debt-free…
The post The Promise of Promise Zones appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Samuel Beckett’s famous play Waiting for Godot was first performed seven decades ago, and critics have been arguing over its meaning ever since. But in Michigan, the politicians, especially the Republicans, are waiting for Mike Rogers. They are bound to get an answer sooner than those trying to figure out Godot — and…
The post Waiting for Godot, Michigan GOP Style appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
LANSING, MI – Maureen Howell had a career as a trauma nurse; her husband, Jim, is a Saginaw attorney, a Republican who served six years in the Michigan legislature, where he fought to protect the no-fault auto insurance system Michigan had for decades. They are not the sort of people you would expect to…
The post Lives – or Insurance Company Profits? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
REDFORD, MI — Lora Rosenbaum, who runs a clinic that helps people with traumatic brain injuries suffered in car accidents, was sad, dismayed and angry after the funeral earlier this month. “This man should be here right now,” she said. Brian Woodward, indeed, almost certainly would have been, had not the Michigan Legislature…
The post Michigan’s Auto Insurance ‘Fix’ Is Still Killing People appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
Once, America’s motto was “politics stops at the water’s edge.” Now, we seem like two hostile and divided armed camps. How this happen – and is there any way out of this?
The post No Longer Indivisible – and that’s Scary appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
LANSING – Is Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gearing up to run for President? If she does and if she were to win, she would be believe it or not, the first President to have been born in Michigan. Michigan is, bafflingly, the only large industrial state never to have one of its sons (or daughters)…
The post Could Gretchen Whitmer Be Our Next President? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – As we head into next year’s presidential race (a contest that’s really been under way for months), we know two things: First, polls show a large majority of Americans don’t want either President Biden or Donald Trump to run. And second, a Biden-Trump return match seems more and more likely. Nobody of any…
The post We Know What’s Going to Happen in 2024 – Or Do We? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT — In this column last week, I took a look at Detroit’s much-celebrated comeback since its bankruptcy a decade ago. The good news is that there’s absolutely no doubt that the city’s downtown is in better shape than in many, many years. Thousands of people from outside Detroit stream into the city for entertainment,…
The post How to Make Detroit a Livable City Again appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – For decades, Detroit had a lurid national reputation as one of the worst places there was, the huge, old, decrepit and dangerous Murder City, USA. “I’m so bad I vacation in Detroit,” said a popular black T-shirt emblazoned with a hand pointing a gun at the viewer. (The color wasn’t an accident.)…
The post Is Detroit’s Renaissance Real? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
True enough, babies will be born to people who haven’t yet met before the next Presidential election on Nov. 5, 2024. But the campaign is already in full swing, especially the race to pick a Republican presidential nominee to challenge President Joe Biden, something that will be determined in the primaries. Michigan should…
The post Once Again: A Michigan Presidential Primary Crisis appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
HAMTRAMCK, MI — Few places in Michigan have gotten as much favorable publicity in recent years as Hamtramck, the famous little enclave city embedded inside Detroit. Once a town where you were more likely to hear Polish spoken on the streets than English, the tiny city has become an ethnic rainbow. Far more…
The post The City That Banned the Gay Pride Flag appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
OAK PARK, MI – Last month, I wrote about Highland Park, a tiny, once-prosperous city embedded in Detroit, a place that put the world on wheels a century ago, but which is now depopulated, poverty-stricken, and essentially without hope. But a very different and much happier story has been unfolding a few miles away.…
The post Oak Park: How a Little City is Making a Comeback appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
Michigan enacted a massive auto insurance “reform” bill in 2019 that was designed to lower rates – but in the process, did great damage to thousands of catastrophically injured people.
The post Michigan’s Disastrous Auto Insurance Reform appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
SOUTHFIELD, MI – Yes, it may be true that politics seem weird these days; after all, nobody dreamed we’d ever have a serious Presidential candidate under indictment who had already been convicted of sexual assault. But don’t think the bizarre is all that new. Twenty-five years ago this summer, Michigan witnessed a campaign like…
The post Michigan’s Craziest Campaign appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
PLYMOUTH, MI – Brian Calley, who spent eight years as Michigan’s lieutenant governor, today runs the Small Business Association of Michigan. Last week, he brought some startling and grim news to a lunch gathering in this Detroit suburb. Think it’s hard to find workers now? That’s because it is. Back in 2000, he…
The post Michigan Is Losing People. Here’s How to Turn That Around. appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – After last year’s midterm elections, there was a lot of talk about how different Ohio and Michigan, two supposedly very similar states, had become. Democrats swept the board in Michigan in November 2022, winning every statewide contest, gaining a congressional seat and taking both houses of the legislature. But in Ohio, it…
The post Why Michigan and Ohio Are So Politically Different appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – There aren’t many places about which you can say the future seems absolutely hopeless. But Highland Park, Michigan, the city that once put the world on wheels, comes pretty close. Highland Park, a little enclave city embedded in Detroit, has been begging the state to hurry up and allow it to declare…
The post Highland Park: The Little City Without Hope appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
WASHINGTON — Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there was a plain, ordinary, honest man who, almost by accident, ended up as a U.S. senator. Years went by, and then after several years of toiling in obscurity, he did something that made him a national hero. His name was Harry…
The post A Time When Washington Actually Worked appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
SOUTHFIELD, MI – Thirty years ago, Geoffrey Fieger burst on the scene as the flamboyant attorney for physician-assisted suicide crusader Jack Kevorkian, aka “Dr. Death.” Fieger, who had been an extremely successful medical malpractice attorney from the time he finished law school in 1979, got jury after jury to acquit Kevorkian, even though assisting…
The post Is Our Most Famous Lawyer’s Career Over? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – David Mahalab was a police officer on the tough streets of Detroit for a quarter of a century. He did it all: Worked the gang squad, chased killers, ticketed offenders, even the connected and influential, and won two lifesaving awards. He became a sergeant, and the brass wanted to promote him to detective,…
The post Politics and the Police: A Lifetime Detroit Cop Reflects appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Right after last year’s midterm elections, someone tweeted a picture taken in the wee hours of the next morning. It showed several slightly disheveled and stunned people in a room filled with laptops and coffee cups. One had a hand over her mouth. They were Democrats who had just realized that their…
The post Dizzy With Success? Democrats Pass Their Agenda in Record Time appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
SOUTHFIELD, MI – There’s no question that African-Americans have lost considerable political clout in Michigan. But a former legislator named Leslie Love intends to do something about that in a big way. She plans to challenge the conventional system and the odds and get elected to the U.S. Senate. “Why not elect a…
The post Do Michigan Democrats Take Black Voters for Granted? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – When you spend a lifetime as a journalist, you meet a lot of people. I’ve interviewed presidents and prime ministers, a bank robber and a Roman Catholic cardinal or two. I’ve met wonderful characters and scoundrels and a whole lot in between. But out of all those thousands, I don’t think I’ve…
The post What Happens if the Truck Ferry Closes? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – In many ways, Detroit is clearly better off than just a few years ago. Though the pandemic slowed the pace of progress, the downtown is home to an expanding list of exciting new cultural attractions. Suburbanites who once shunned the city now flock to its concerts, exciting new restaurants, and even Detroit’s…
The post Another Neighborhood Threatened by the Ambassador Bridge appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – One evening in the early 1990s, I was on the phone with Jack Kevorkian, the pathologist waging a crusade to allow physician-assisted suicide, and who was then in jail. I asked him if he thought that what he did would ever be fully legal? “Well, of course,” he said, “but not for the…
The post OK, Millennials! A Guide to Understanding the Boomers appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
LANSING, MI – Perhaps the most surprising development in Michigan politics this year was U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s surprise January announcement that she wouldn’t seek a fifth term next year. And possibly the least surprising development was U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s announcement late last month that she would seek the Democratic nomination for the…
The post Is Elissa Slotkin Michigan’s Next U.S. Senator? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – Is the Michigan Republican Party determined to commit suicide? Lately, that’s how it seems to be behaving. Last year, Republicans nominated one of the more bizarre candidates in state history for Secretary of State, the oldest, and in many ways most important of state government posts. Secretaries of state are in charge of…
The post Michigan Republicans: Committed to Self-Destruction appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
BIRMINGHAM, MI – A few weeks ago, Sue Marx met a new mail delivery person as he stood on her front porch. “I know who you are,” he said, as she raised an eyebrow. “Could I see it?” he asked. She relaxed then, and smiled; she knew what he wanted. “Of course,” she said,…
The post She Decided to Make a Movie – and Won an Oscar appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
PERRYSBURG, Ohio — Sam Adler paused last week, between sips of green tea and bites of almond chicken. “I’ve tried to build bridges all my life,” he said. Thinking about the news, he added, “I think perhaps that’s needed now here more, in America, than anywhere else in the world.” He should know; he’s…
The post A Great Composer – and a Great Man appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – When the pandemic finally began to recede, I had lunch with a scientist in a modest restaurant. My companion asked the server if she was vaccinated. Yes, she said, but she wasn’t going to get the booster, because “that’s how they track you.” We showed her our smartphones. “Do you have…
The post America the Ignorant: Could Media Illiteracy Destroy Us? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
PITTSBURGH – This is, as we all know, the month in which we celebrate the very real achievements and struggles for freedom endured by Black Americans, the more than 40 million alive today and past generations who endured unspeakable horrors. Many of us, especially students, will read the words of The Rev. Dr. Martin…
The post Becoming Black When That Could Get You Killed appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – You might say we live in the Era of the Politically Bizarre — and what happened in New Mexico last month was further confirmation. Police and prosecutors say Solomon Pena, a failed candidate for the New Mexico legislature, hired four people to shoot up the homes of various legislators and county commissioners.…
The post When Losers Don’t Concede appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
PLYMOUTH, MI – When you enter John Stewart’s law office, in a century-old house on a leafy street in lovely Plymouth, you may think you’ve gone back in time more than half a century. The shelves are lined with books, not just law books, but biographies of Jefferson and Lincoln, and there’s a prominent…
The post A Country Lawyer, not a RINO appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – There’s no doubt that many Democrats enjoyed the spectacle of the seemingly dysfunctional Republican caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives failing for days to be able to unite and pick a Speaker. Even some Republicans acknowledged what happened was an embarrassment. But Democrats shouldn’t gloat too much. Something even worse once…
The post Looking Back on a Nightmare Scenario appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – When this year began, nobody in either party was devoting much thought to next year’s U.S. Senate race in Michigan. Democrat Debbie Stabenow, it was assumed, would run for a fifth term. Republicans would bluster and nominate someone … and then Stabenow would win, probably easily. For decades, Republicans underestimated her from…
The post Who Will Succeed Debbie Stabenow? appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT — Last fall, I unexpectedly found myself overnight in Battle Creek, and picked up a novel I’d been sent: Secret Service Journals: Assassination and Redemption in 1960s Detroit. That isn’t the world’s most catchy title, and I might not have started reading it at all, except I knew the author’s first book, a gripping…
The post It’s a Novel of JFK and Detroit-and I Couldn’t Put it Down appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DEARBORN, MI – Casandra Ulbrich knows how important education, particularly public education, can be. Forty years ago she was a small child in rural Yale, Michigan, in a single-parent home with little money. No one in her family had ever gone to college. Today, she not only has a Ph.D and an important job with…
The post What’s Really Wrong With Education in Michigan appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
DETROIT – The last time I talked with Detroit-area native Laura Eisenhardt, she wasn’t sure exactly where she was, except that it was at a field hospital in a war zone in Ukraine, and she was freezing. “IT’S SO (expletive deleted) COLD I AM HYPOTHERMIC!” she wrote. Eisenhardt, about whom I wrote a…
The post Christmas in Ukraine: A Michigan Nurse’s Story appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
TOLEDO – Universities often have official histories written about themselves, and most of those I’ve seen are mainly good for collecting dust on a coffee table. They are glowingly positive and have nice pictures of buildings, earnest students and sports teams. But you don’t expect to find much depth, let alone a book you’d…
The post Pulling No Punches: The Plight of One Urban University appeared first on Lessenberry Ink.
LANSING, MI – Politically, everything in Michigan is finally settled, right? Democrats swept the midterm elections, winning every statewide contest except one seat on the state supreme court. Democrats did keep their majority on the high court, and not only easily won the governorship, but majorities in both houses of the state legislature for the…
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DETROIT – I know you must be tired of politics, campaigning, and being deluged with endless commercials and email blasts from candidates begging for money. And I expect you may hate me for saying what I am about to say, but this much is true: The 2024 presidential campaign is already under way —…
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DETROIT – Tonight, as is the case every night, more than two thousand homeless people will have a meal — this night, a special Thanksgiving meal — thanks to Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries. Some of them are homeless through no fault of their own, thrown out by abusers or forced to flee. Some are…
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BATTLE CREEK, MI – Bob Walsh knows the world of veterans, veterans’ affairs, and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs far better than almost anyone. He’s an attorney who has specialized for many years in veterans’ cases. And he is convinced that too many veterans who served their nation with honor are being…
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DETROIT – When Election Day began, Michigan Democrats were hopeful they could avoid what they feared what would be a national “red wave,” featuring huge victories for Republicans. But as the votes came in, they were stunned to discover that not only was there no red wave nationally, what happened in Michigan was in fact…
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What You Should Know and Why You Should Care (Editor’s Note: Longtime political analyst Jack Lessenberry spoke to SOAR, the Society of Active Retirees, about the coming election last week. This is a condensed version of his remarks.) We are struggling to make sense of the midterm elections … and I want to start by…
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BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI — Aliza Solc, the 30-something vice-president of a major communications company, doesn’t normally find public speaking difficult. But she was struggling one recent evening. “My husband and I were so happy and excited when we learned we were pregnant,” she said. They very much wanted a baby. But when she was 20…
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DETROIT – There’s a building on Warren Avenue on the east side of Detroit, not far from the freeway and the morgue, in which there is something like two billion dollars in cash, all the time. But don’t get your hopes up — you can’t get it, or get at it. The security is…
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MOUNT CLEMENS, MI — Four years ago, Michigan Republicans found an unexpected charismatic star candidate: John James, an African-American businessman who graduated from West Point, and served with distinction in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Following two tours of duty in Iraq, he earned an MBA at the University of Michigan and then went to work for…
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DETROIT – Few, if any, have accomplished as much for conservative Republican causes and candidates in Michigan as lawyer and lobbyist Bob LaBrant. He was instrumental in making Michigan a right-to-work state, something once thought impossible. As senior vice president of public affairs for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce for decades, he often successfully…
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DETROIT – Three days after President George W. Bush was narrowly reelected over John Kerry, I was at a party filled mainly with affluent white liberals who were stunned by the result. “How could this have happened? I’ve never even met anyone who voted for Bush,” one older woman literally wailed. Yes, you have,…
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DETROIT – Not too long ago, the Michigan Supreme Court was an utter disgrace. Many rulings were embarrassingly partisan: When Republican-nominated justices had a majority, they thought nothing of overturning decisions made when Democrats were in charge. Democrats were eager to do the same. The court took a further dive down when two…
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MONROE, MI – Democrats won’t admit it — but they have essentially no chance to beat U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, the congressman who has represented southern Michigan since 2010. That’s not because anything is wrong with the Democratic nominee, Bart Goldberg, a genial, “common-sense” lawyer from New Buffalo. It’s just that the district is so…
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DETROIT – Within an hour after the death of Queen Elizabeth II had been announced, I popped into a drugstore to buy a couple cards. The news was on in the background, and the clerk, a middle-aged woman whom I had never met before, looked at me. “That’s so sad. I guess Charles might be…
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DETROIT – President Biden’s decision to forgive $10,000 in student loans was, not surprisingly, deeply controversial, as is almost everything in politics today. “Well, I was a chump,” one man wrote. “I worked and paid off my loans myself.” But plenty of others disagreed. Renee Sebastian, a 41-year-old social worker who still owes…
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DETROIT – Today, it is easy to forget how incredibly important Mikhail Gorbachev really was. Millions of Americans too young to remember when he was in power have no idea. Yet they do know in Europe, all right. Everyone knows about the Berlin Wall. But you really had to see it to know how…
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DETROIT — For the last five years, I’ve heard from readers who complain that I’m unfair to former President Donald Trump. They say things like, “you used to be even-handed, but you seem to treat Trump differently. Why do you hate him?” Most journalists, columnists in particular, soon get used to being called biased and…
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DETROIT – So whatever happened to the new Gordie Howe International Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario? The answer is that it is, indeed, still coming, although delays partly related to the pandemic may mean the opening may not happen until 2025. Gregg Ward, who has been campaigning for a new bridge for many…
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DETROIT — Michigan’s primary election was more than two weeks ago, but many voters, especially African-Americans, are still reeling from one particular result: In January, there will be no Black members of Congress from Detroit for the first time since Charles Diggs was elected in 1954. Blacks made up less than one-fourth of the…
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DETROIT – Two things seemed firmly established by last week’s primary elections in Michigan. First: The Republican Party is now, for all intents and purposes, Donald Trump’s party. In every major race where he endorsed a candidate, they won. However, when it comes to winning elections in November, that may not necessarily be a good…
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DETROIT – One of the most bizarre primary campaigns in Michigan history ended Tuesday. While there was dissatisfaction with Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, no Republican of any stature stepped forward to challenge her. Indeed, many of the state’s top Republicans admitted that a year ago, they had never heard of any of the five candidates…
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DETROIT – To put it bluntly: Does former President Donald Trump have the ability to tell the difference between truth and a lie? Many of those who have known or covered him for years say that the answer is quite possibly no — at least when the lie is one that Donald Trump…
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DETROIT –David knows that two days from now, his email will be bombarded with Google Alert notices as his last name is mentioned in media reports across the county. “It happens on July 30 every year,” he said with a smile, shaking his head. None of the stories will be about him; though a…
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HUNTINGTON WOODS, MI – Michigan has more than its share of important issues that you might think would be the focus of this year’s campaign for governor: The state’s declining population. Poor educational performance by public school children. The economy. But at least two of the Republican candidates for governor are talking about something…
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DETROIT — Today is Bastille Day, which I grew up thinking was the day French citizens yearning for democracy rose up and tore down the infamous prison and freed their fellow patriots. Well, not exactly. The mob that attacked the prison that day was primarily interested in the prison’s stores of gunpowder. While the…
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DETROIT – You might say that when it comes to the race among the Republicans trying to become Michigan’s governor, this has been the year of the zombies — in more ways than one. The two leading candidates both have, yes, zombies in their past: Tudor Dixon starred in Buddy Bebop vs. the Living Dead, playing a…
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DETROIT –In November, 1960, only a week after John F. Kennedy had beaten Richard Nixon in one of history’s closest presidential elections, Ohio and Michigan got some good news from the census bureau. Each state was gaining a seat in Congress, proof that the heart of industrial and manufacturing America had continued to grow…
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DETROIT – Voting issues have become one of the bitterest of the many things deeply dividing Democrats and Republicans these days. Many Republicans are convinced that dead people and illegal aliens are voting, and want tighter regulations on who votes and how. Democrats think it is already too hard for most people to vote –…
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ROYAL OAK, MI — Most Americans have at least one dog or a cat, and most regard their animals as full family members. That includes me, and the worst thing is that their lives are so much shorter than ours. Last month, time ran out for my big red and white Australian Shepherd Ashley.…
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AUBURN HILLS, MI – Everybody expected that at least two of Michigan’s current members of Congress would have to run against each other in this year’s August primary. After all, once again, Michigan lost a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives after the last census, where it now has seven Democrats and seven…
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DETROIT – The traditional indicators all say this year’s midterm elections should be absolutely terrible for the Democrats. Inflation is the highest it has been in most Americans’ memory. Gasoline prices are at a record high. The stock market suffered scary losses in May; consumer confidence is low. Presidents, even popular ones, almost…
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(Editor’s Note: From time to time, I am taking a look at Toledo, Ohio, an aging industrial city which has many of the problems of Detroit on a smaller scale; though there are differences, there is plenty that is relevant to both places, as well as other Midwestern cities. ) ** TOLEDO – Nearly…
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DETROIT –Mike Norris wrote to tell me how frustrated he is with our entire political system. “Very few of us are actually represented in the legislature,” he said. “It is most certainly time for a third and fourth party,” he said. Norris is hardly naïve – he has degrees in political science and political management,…
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NORTHVILLE, MI – Tom Watkins knows about mental health issues in a way few ever do, both professionally and personally. Watkins, now 68, has worn many hats in a long career. He was barely 30 when he became health director for the state of Michigan. From 2013 to 2017, he was president and CEO…
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GRAND RAPIDS, MI — In Michigan, the last time an incumbent state attorney general lost a bid for reelection was in 1950. But Republicans thought former state Speaker of the House Tom Leonard had a golden opportunity to defeat Dana Nessel this year. As speaker, Leonard, now 41, won bipartisan praise (a rare thing…
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DUBLIN, Ireland — Back in 1985, I was in France and decided to take a car ferry to Ireland to visit an old friend, a legendary foreign correspondent, who had a cottage near Cork. I studied the map and figured out how long I thought it would take to get there, only to…
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DETROIT – Last week I was on trial, being grilled by one of Michigan’s toughest prosecutors as to whether I had done the wrong thing by pardoning a man who had lied and obstructed justice. My attorney, a famous distinguished law professor, did his best to defend me, and I thought I was fairly…
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DETROIT – Michigan has had an African-American in Congress ever since Charles Diggs managed to win a seat in Detroit in 1954. When he got to Washington, there were only two other Black congressmen, one from New York and one from Illinois. Ten years later, when John Conyers joined him, there were still only six…
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STERLING HEIGHTS, MI – Back when Ronald Reagan ran for President, Michigan’s Macomb County became nationally famous as the home of the so-called “Reagan Democrats” — blue-collar workers who felt their party had left them, largely over social issues. Indeed, those voters, who gave John F. Kennedy a huge landslide in 1960, were almost equally…
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DETROIT – ‘Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America better learn baseball,” the French historian Jacques Barzun famously wrote back in 1954, the year Willie Mays made his famous catch in the World Series. For a brief moment, I was thrilled earlier this month when the baseball strike was suddenly settled,…
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A Michigan native chose to risk her life helping in “hell.” FERNDALE, MI – When the war in Ukraine began, Laura Eisenhardt, a native of the Detroit suburbs, was living in The Netherlands, busy in her job as Chief Operating Officer of the American Institute of Minimally Invasive Heart Surgery. Three days later, she had…
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DETROIT – Have you ever heard the term “bedsheet ballot?” Sometimes, back in the days when voters used paper ballots instead of modern technology, there were so many candidates in some elections that the ballot seemed almost as long as a sheet. For example, a political squabble in Illinois in 1964 led to all the…
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BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI – Say “Teamsters Union,” and one name immediately comes to mind: Hoffa. Nearly everybody knows about the mysterious disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa in 1975, even if they know nothing else about him or the nation’s largest union. Most people also know that he was supposed to have been corrupt, was…
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DETROIT – Back in the 1970s and 80s, when I traveled to the Soviet Union first as a graduate student and then a journalist, we were sternly advised not to call it “Ukraine.” “It is ‘the Ukraine,’ a diplomat told me, a province or “republic” of the Soviet Union, not an independent country. That…
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DETROIT – Last month, Avern Cohn, a retired federal judge in Detroit, wrote an article analyzing a major flaw in the way the criminal trials in the Flint water case are being handled. It was original and incisive. Weeks before that, he completed another piece showing how unjust it had been to sentence Julius…
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Two weeks ago, I wrote a column (Toledo Was Once Seen as the ‘Next Great City of the World’) which looked at how the city has, in many ways, been in decline for many years, and invited readers to share their thoughts, and suggest how to make things better. To my pleasant surprise,…
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(Editor’s Note: What follows is a fantasy which is almost certain not to unfold quite as described here. However, all this is perhaps more likely than Donald Trump’s election would have seemed three years before it happened.) DETROIT, Nov. 6, 2024 — There is probably a professional gambler somewhere who is glumly calculating how…
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What Happened? TOLEDO – What would it take to get Toledo moving again — and why has the city slowly declined for decades? Believe it or not, Toledo, Ohio was once called the “future great city of the world.’ Jesup Scott, a Connecticut native who had moved to Toledo in 1831 and made a…
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LANSING – There’s been a lot of worry as to whether Detroit’s congressional delegation will have any African-Americans after this year’s midterm elections. But you could also ask … will it have any Jews? For the past four years, Michigan has had two Jewish members of Congress, both Democrats: Andy Levin, who succeeded his legendary…
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ROYAL OAK, MI – Years ago, when the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in tough and tense arms control negotiations, both sides agreed on this bottom line: A nuclear war “cannot be won, and must never be fought.” Those were the exact words Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev said, and that…
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DETROIT — I got an unusual phone call from a voter on Election Day, 1988, back when I was the politics editor of a newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee. The man was puzzled because he had just voted and didn’t recognize the names of the candidates for the senate. “I thought our senators were Al…
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DETROIT – For decades, every time Michigan’s legislature drew new congressional districts they made sure to create two in which Blacks were a majority of the registered voters. They did that primarily because they believed that was legally required by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was designed to give minorities opportunities to elect…
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READING,MI – Michael Johnson, a self-employed truck driver originally from Detroit, now lives with his two cats in this little Hillsdale County town of just over a thousand people, almost the same population it has had since 1900. He is 66, a U.S. Army veteran long since divorced, and his kids long since grown and moved…
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Those of you who have followed my writing and broadcast essays for years may be interested to know that we have now started a small company, Auld Classic Books, designed primarily to help a few selected authors create books. We offer services including writing, editing, ghostwriting, designing and whatever needed to make your book a…
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DETROIT – Two days ago, Michigan voters and politicians finally found out what congressional districts they will be in next year — and a bunch of incumbents are unhappy. U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Lenawee County) is likely to be very happy, however. His district will change from leaning Republican to one of the most…
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DETROIT – The incumbent President was growing more unpopular by the day. There were growing whispers that he was too old for the job. He had managed to get elected with barely 51 percent of the vote, but as his party headed into the midterms, inflation was more than six percent, and too many…
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DETROIT – Long ago, when he was Senate Majority Leader, I spent most of a day with Bob Dole. Ronald Reagan was in his second term, and Dole wanted to succeed him. I was working for a Detroit newspaper then, and one of the first things he told me was that he thought Michigan…
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Today I want to start by telling you the story of a young black guy who, eighteen years ago, was frustrated and unhappy with the way his career was going. He had rashly challenged an incumbent congressman in the Democratic primary the year before, spent a lot of money he didn’t have, and ended up…
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Black History Month begins tomorrow, and for a long time, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the whole idea of a special month set aside for our African-American heritage. Now, don’t get me wrong. African-American history is not only crucially important—it is absolutely fascinating, and I think it is as almost as essential that…
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I like restaurants that have photographs on the walls showing their towns in times past. Last weekend, I was in one with a picture of people lined up to get into the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth. Judging from their clothes and the cars, it was from the late 1940s. Another diner near me has a…
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Here’s a trivia question for you: How many movies have been made throughout history? I don’t mean class projects, industrial films or shorts, I mean full-length feature films. After spending a little time on the Internet, I was able to come up with this definitive answer: Nobody knows. I found estimates ranging from 140,000 to…
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Three years ago, I saw a silly article published by the Mackinac Center, under this headline: “Michigan Economy No Longer Dependent on the Auto Industry.” The author based that ridiculous statement on the fact that more people now work in retail trade and in hospitals than in the auto industry. I wonder what he thought…
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Though I am a Detroiter, I have never been a big car buff. I admire the styling of some really classic cars – especially from the 1930s. But I spend a lot of time in my car, and want it to be safe, comfortable, practical, and have whatever other features make sense. I’ve always felt…
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Michigan State University trustees had what they thought was a brilliant idea almost a year ago. They would appoint John Engler, the former Michigan governor, as their interim president. Their thinking wasn’t hard to figure out. Engler had been a very effective governor during his twelve years in office, and was especially skilled at bending…
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For years, we’ve been told that the classic car with a gasoline engine, completely controlled by a human driver and a steering wheel is yesterday’s technology. I get that. I know we are supposed to be thinking about electric or alternative fuel cars and hybrids, or better yet mass transit. But why then is the…
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I have to confess I don’t know what kind of cars Martin Luther King Jr. drove. I know that he had a car, because he spent a lot of time driving people to work during the famous Montgomery bus boycott following Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat. By the way, he was harassed…
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The North American International Auto Show is an absolutely amazing tradition; the first one was staged in 1899, at a time when almost no one had ever heard of Henry Ford. They’ve held it again every year since 1907, except for a few years during and after World War II. Since 1965, it’s been at…
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