Editor, @mich_enjoyer Formerly: @WSJOpinion, @CNNBusiness, @detroitnews Catholic, husband, father [email protected]
Joined December 2012
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Football from bed? Only at Ferris State! @LMoorehouse04
The Coolest College Dorm in the Country Is Right on the Football Field @LMoorehouse04
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Ferndale’s Haunted House Legend Takes His Final Bow @LMoorehouse04
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10/10 will play again
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The Coolest College Dorm in the Country Is Right on the Football Field @LMoorehouse04
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And what's she doing in that grow house?
What Happened to the Weed Money for Mayor Sheffield's Charity?
The owner of a Detroit pot shop donated tens of thousands to the mayor's charity, but that money isn't listed on the tax documents
By Charlie LeDuff @Charlieleduff
Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield is starting to remind me of disgraced former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
When the feds took Kwame to trial, the easiest thing for them to prove was that he used his tax-exempt charity—the Kilpatrick Civic Fund—as a personal piggy bank. It turned out that the Kwamster stole more than a half-million dollars from the charity that was supposed to go toward kids programs.
Instead, Kilpatrick treated himself to golf clubs, exotic spa treatments, and a 2000 Cadillac DeVille with leather seats and wood-accented trim.
Now comes Sheffield. Her ex-lover, Marvin Walker, claims she did the same thing while acting as city councilwoman. According to Walker, Sheffield would write him a check from her children’s charity—Detroit Donates—and have him cash it at the bank and then kick the money back directly to her.
"It ended up in her pocket," Walker said, as he showed me a text message from Sheffield detailing how the scheme should work.
There’s more. Sheffield’s charity—which is headquartered at her father’s activity center—was given about $40,000 over the last six years by Stuart Carter, a big marijuana guy in the city who owns a pot shop on the East Side called Utopia Gardens, as well as a grow operation and a processing center. According to his filings with state regulators, Carter claimed to have given the Sheffield charity six separate donations of $5,000 each, and one donation of $7,500.
“And upon receiving a recreational adult use license,” Carter wrote to the state,“ (I) will be in a position to increase these donations substantially.”
Carter did not respond to requests for comment.
Here’s where Mary has serious troubles. According to federal tax law, any donation made to a charity of $5,000 or more must be listed on the charity’s tax forms. In the Utopia Gardens case, it was not.
That’s a big problem. That’s how the feds got Capone.
Now Marvin says Mary really likes the weed. In fact, Marvin gave me a photograph that he claims is a portrait of the two former lovebirds working in a grow house that Marvin SAYS Mary was a private investor in.
That’s what Marvin claims, anyway.
Sheffield’s camp had nothing to say to us. That’s okay. She can tell it to the FBI. But she better tell the truth. Lying to the feds can lead to a five-year bid in the federal penitentiary. Just ask Kwame.
And people close to Sheffield are already talking to special agents. You don’t have to send Martin to the bank, madam. You can take that directly from me.
Mark Naida retweeted
What Happened to the Weed Money for Mayor Sheffield's Charity?
The owner of a Detroit pot shop donated tens of thousands to the mayor's charity, but that money isn't listed on the tax documents
By Charlie LeDuff @Charlieleduff
Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield is starting to remind me of disgraced former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
When the feds took Kwame to trial, the easiest thing for them to prove was that he used his tax-exempt charity—the Kilpatrick Civic Fund—as a personal piggy bank. It turned out that the Kwamster stole more than a half-million dollars from the charity that was supposed to go toward kids programs.
Instead, Kilpatrick treated himself to golf clubs, exotic spa treatments, and a 2000 Cadillac DeVille with leather seats and wood-accented trim.
Now comes Sheffield. Her ex-lover, Marvin Walker, claims she did the same thing while acting as city councilwoman. According to Walker, Sheffield would write him a check from her children’s charity—Detroit Donates—and have him cash it at the bank and then kick the money back directly to her.
"It ended up in her pocket," Walker said, as he showed me a text message from Sheffield detailing how the scheme should work.
There’s more. Sheffield’s charity—which is headquartered at her father’s activity center—was given about $40,000 over the last six years by Stuart Carter, a big marijuana guy in the city who owns a pot shop on the East Side called Utopia Gardens, as well as a grow operation and a processing center. According to his filings with state regulators, Carter claimed to have given the Sheffield charity six separate donations of $5,000 each, and one donation of $7,500.
“And upon receiving a recreational adult use license,” Carter wrote to the state,“ (I) will be in a position to increase these donations substantially.”
Carter did not respond to requests for comment.
Here’s where Mary has serious troubles. According to federal tax law, any donation made to a charity of $5,000 or more must be listed on the charity’s tax forms. In the Utopia Gardens case, it was not.
That’s a big problem. That’s how the feds got Capone.
Now Marvin says Mary really likes the weed. In fact, Marvin gave me a photograph that he claims is a portrait of the two former lovebirds working in a grow house that Marvin SAYS Mary was a private investor in.
That’s what Marvin claims, anyway.
Sheffield’s camp had nothing to say to us. That’s okay. She can tell it to the FBI. But she better tell the truth. Lying to the feds can lead to a five-year bid in the federal penitentiary. Just ask Kwame.
And people close to Sheffield are already talking to special agents. You don’t have to send Martin to the bank, madam. You can take that directly from me.
Mark Naida retweeted
I really like Halloween season, but decorations have become grotesque.
Don’t let people tell you, “Oh it’s always been like that.” It isn’t true
Link to article for @mich_enjoyer in comment
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Harry Houdini and My Dad Both Led America’s Magicians @BuddyMoorehouse
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Amelia’s legacy was completed by a Michigan woman @BuddyMoorehouse
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.@Charlieleduff was the first to explain how Canada was dumping gargantuan piles of trash in Michigan. Thank you to Mike Rogers and the White House for paying attention.
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Why Canada Gets to Dump Its Trash in Michigan
Michigan is a cheap place to dump and Nafta made waste not subject to tariffs
By Charlie LeDuff @Charlieleduff
It’s the Canadians, again.
They’re literally dumping on us. Millions of tons of industrial waste pour into Michigan’s landfills every year from Canada. Enough to build two Empire State Buildings of garbage.
We can’t stop it. And it’s all the fault of Nafta and the U.S. Constitution.
That notorious trade deal provided the legal framework that prevents Michigan from stopping Toronto’s detritus from passing through Detroit. Under the compact, solid waste is legally classified as a “commodity.” And because that commodity—garbage—is entirely “manufactured” in North America, it avoids a tariff.
Man in shirt points at Canadian garbage truck highlighting cross-border waste disposal issues
Michigan’s dumping fees are cheap—about half the cost of Ontario’s. It’s so cheap neighboring states also dump on us. We’re surrounded by more garbage per person than any state in the Union.
New York recently tried hauling in nuclear waste from the World War II-era Manhattan Project. Ohio attempted to truck in toxic phosgene dregs from the East Palestine train disaster. Phosgene is a substance so deadly that it’s banned by the Geneva Convention. Intense local opposition stopped both Ohio and New York’s poison from being buried here, but their highways, byways, and baby diapers still pour in every day and there’s not much we can do about it.
But then there’s Canada: a nation of environmental moralizers who live in a vast expanse but can’t seem to find a place to put their garbage besides their neighbor’s lawn.
Person waves at passing truck near stop sign as Canadian waste haulers transport garbage to Michigan landfills
The Constitution’s commerce clause forbids Michigan from charging out-of-state and international garbage haulers a higher price than we pay ourselves. That can only be done by an act of Congress. And you know Michigan’s unserious Congressional delegation.
So we in the Great Lakes State are stuck with mountains of foreign shit, the stench of methane and rot, and hundreds of Canadian trucks busting up our roads each day.
There is too much division in Michigan between the red-hatters and the green-thumbers. But I’ve got an idea I think we can all agree upon.
Tariff their garbage. Big beautiful tariffs. The best tariffs probably in the history of the world. The president has sweeping executive powers. Put a 100% tariff on Canadian garbage, and we can stop the flow altogether.
And after that, maybe we can talk about opening the new bridge.
Mark Naida retweeted
Abdul was willing to take some heat from Charlie, but Mike couldn’t even give him one question? @Charlieleduff
Mark Naida retweeted
With Obama tier condescension, Abdul El-Sayed worked his ass off to avoid Charlie LeDuff’s questions about his record as Director of Health for Detroit.
Mark Naida retweeted
Where Did The Melon Heads Legend Come From? @LMoorehouse04
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This Woman Gave ActBlue $22 the Day We Met Her, But She Had No Internet
El-Sayed is raking in campaign donations from the Democrat fundraising platform, which apparently launders contributions through the elderly
By Charlie LeDuff @Charlieleduff
Milan — Elizabeth Waffle, the 88-year-old retiree who found internet fame as an unwitting political super-donor, is still living in a squalid trailer deep in the Michigan countryside.
And Waffle still has no electricity, no running water, and no Wi-Fi.
But being a true believer in liberal causes, and having no family beyond Georgie the arthritic hound, Waffle continues to donate a small portion of her modest retirement check to ActBlue, the online donation platform for Democratic candidates and causes.
But even Waffle herself was surprised to learn last July about the extent of her supposed giving. According to FEC filings, there were more than 13,000 transactions attributed to her, totaling more than $130,000 over the past five years.
“I think there’s something in there that’s off,” she said then. “I don’t have that kind of money.”
And something continues to be “off.”
Since our last visit, another 562 transactions totaling nearly $4,500 have been credited to Waffle in just six weeks. Among those transactions were four totaling $22 on the very day we first visited, despite the fact that Waffle had no access to the internet.
Among the recipients of Waffle’s alleged largesse over those 45 days is Abdul El-Sayed, the king of the Michigan micro-donors, who clocked in with a cool $51.
So we returned to the tattered trailer last week to show Waffle the printouts.
Then something strange happened. When the scope of our findings dawned on the old woman, she was not overcome with outrage, or even curiosity, but with latent hostility. She wondered if we were preparing a hit piece on ActBlue, the conduit to her cherished causes.
“I think it’s a bunch of hogwash,” she said of our questions. “If they’re cheating on the other side,” she meant the Republicans.
“Fight fire with fire?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “Exactly.”
Now, I believe in many of the causes that Waffle does. Clean air. Healthy forests. Affordable medicines. A good day’s pay. And I told her as much. But what I do not believe in is the apparent theft of an elderly person’s identity to launder donations from overseas or those that exceed the contribution limits. Fraud does not create a better world, I said.
She softened. “I believe in honesty,” she said. “I do care if somebody is fudging and putting stuff in.”
“So don’t you want me to continue to look?” I asked.
“Yeah, if they are,” she said.
“Then you want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Then I give you my word. I’ll keep going.”
As we walked back to the car, I wondered if at that very moment another campaign transaction was being made in Elizabeth Waffle’s name.
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Play our new game at the link in our bio!
How well do you know your mitten map?
Play our new game daily on the website!
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How well do you know your mitten map?
Play our new game daily on the website!
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Mark Naida retweeted
Imagine growing up seeing the demopublican government uniparty be utterly incompetent for your entire life, unable to build new energy, exporting factories, failing over and over at its ambitions in space, becoming bigger and more bloated and slower year after year until it threatens to eat the entirety of the U.S. economy, with the same geriatric 90 year olds piddling away the future year after year
Then suddenly you have an administration which accepts a flood of young people in government at every level, from the lowest bureaucrats to the halls of the White House
There is fierce debate and plenty of conflict, but there are also motions in policy which we've only dreamed of for decades. Five nuclear reactors turn on under the DOE after decades of stagnation. America returns to orbit the moon
Imagine seeing that and the reaction of a sitting senator is “haha yeah let’s put those fuckin kids in jail to make an example!!”
ON UCHICAGO CAMPUS: U.S. Senator from Michigan Elissa Slotkin hopes planned political prosecutions of republican leaders will scare young conservatives from getting involved in politics.
@ElissaSlotkin