Education Beat: Flint schools to put up millage request, proposed closures considered
Highlights: Flint Schools bringing millage to voters Paraprofessionals ink new contract, attrition slows Wright to step down as board president Distraught stakeholders plead with board District to decide on proposed closures By Harold C. Ford Following four meetings of its board of education in December, Flint Community Schools (FCS) will ask Flint voters to...
AG Nessel rolls out legal team at new Flint office: now what?
By Harold C. Ford “The Flint water crisis is not over.” –Fadwa Hammoud, Michigan Solicitor General, Dec. 19, 2019 In front of several dozen citizens and a scrum of media, and with a panoramic view of the Flint River some five stories below, Michigan Attorney General (AG) Dana Nessel rolled out a large team of lawyers and support staff at a new office in Flint on Dec. 19. The office, a...
Unitarian Universalist ministers choose Flint as new spiritual home
By Harold C. Ford In the summer of 2019, Jerry and Lynn Kerr tearfully saw their only child, Rowan, off to Sarah Lawrence College in New York. They quit their jobs, sold their Ohio home, and moved to Michigan to take positions as co-ministers at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Flint (UUCF). Yes, Flint. The city with soaring headlines about a water crisis that poisoned its people, decades of depopulation hurried along by...
A tai chi chronicle: From marathon to moving meditation and 13 classes
By Teddy Robertson It all began with a New York City police officer. Michigan-native Gloria Kramer was an accomplished 5K, 10K, and half-marathon runner when she realized she wanted something more than what she got from a good run. Living in Florida where she worked as a registered dietitian, running had been her avocation. “I was in my thirties,” Kramer says. “Meditation was becoming popular and I was interested, but I had a heck of...
City Council Beat: Last council meeting of 2019 a panoply of democracy
By Tom Travis It was a jam-packed evening of activity at city hall on a chilly and snowy December Monday night, the last city council meeting of a tumultuous year for the city’s legislative body. The council meetings this year have been five, six, seven, eight and even nine hours long, some stretching past midnight. This year there have been arms raised, voices yelling, threats made, name calling and numerous points of order and...
The Latest Edition of East Village Magazine Is Available For Download Here (pdf)
