NOTE: It’s fundraising week at Eclectablog. If you find value in what we do here, please consider making a donation to ensure that all our regular contributors can be paid for their creative work. Click HERE for details. Thanks so much. – Chris On April 16, 2013, Flint Emergency Manager Ed Kurtz signed an agreement on behalf of the city […]

We’re nearing the end of our first quarter fundraiser and, unfortunately, it hasn’t been a particularly robust one. This worries me. With taxes due soon and our bank account dwindling, there is a real possibility that I will need to restrict how many posts our regular contributors can publish because there simply won’t be enough money to pay them. And, […]

Yesterday, months after being asked by multiple groups including Congressman Dan Kildee, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder finally asked the federal government to declare a state of emergency in Flint. This move, if approved, will open up federal funds to deal with this human-made disaster that will be Flint’s and Rick Snyder’s legacy for decades to come. Snyder’s tardy response comes […]

NOTE: It’s fundraising week at Eclectablog. If you find value in what we do here, please consider making a donation to ensure that all our regular contributors can be paid for their creative work. Click HERE for details. Thanks so much. – Chris Last December, a Flint government staffer returned from the Christmas break and discovered that an office in […]

On Tuesday, I wrote a piece titled, “Wouldn’t it be outrageous if Flint was still billing its residents for water? Hah! Oh, wait. They are.” The sad truth is that, despite the ongoing crisis with lead-poisoned tap water in many Flint homes, the city has continued to bill customers for water. Today we learn it’s actually worse than that. After […]

In April of 2014, the city of Flint began to get its drinking water from the Flint River, switching away from Lake Huron water supplied by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. On top of the problems with e. coli bacteria and other contaminants and then the subsequent leaching of lead from home water lines, the Snyder administration is now […]

On Monday, I announced that we are bringing on a new writer at Eclectablog. Today, I am pleased to make the official announcement that Sommer Foster will be a regular (and paid) contributor to Eclectablog. I’ve been asking Sommer to come on board for over a year now and the stars have finally aligned in such a way that she’s […]

The human catastrophe unfolding in Flint is the direct result of the elimination of representative government (aka “democracy”) under Gov. Rick Snyder’s Emergency Management program. With elected officials unable to help their constituents, the citizens of Flint had only one place to turn: an un-elected, state-appointed Emergency Manager. And, because the EM has no one to answer to except the […]

Journalism is defined as “the activity or job of collecting, writing, and editing news stories for newspapers, magazines, television, or radio.” In this new media age, you can add blogs and podcasts and other online news sources to that, as well. It is my firm belief that journalism – TRUE journalism – goes farther than that: it is a necessary […]

Yesterday, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton issued a statement on the ongoing crisis in Flint, Michigan where their drinking water has been poisoned with lead due to misconduct by the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder. In that statement, Clinton called the actions of Snyder administration “unconscionable” and applauded the Department of Justice for joining the Environmental Protection Agency for investigating . […]

Imagine if you lived in a city where the drinking water supply had been poisoned by lead after cost-saving measures were enacted by an unelected, appointed official. Now imagine you were being billed for that “privilege”. Pretty outrageous, right? I mean who would have the audacity to bill people for THAT? Flint, Michigan, that’s who: Residents of the impoverished City […]