Detroit Got Poisoned, But They're Opening a Case Against Me No one went to jail for the Flint Water Crisis, and so far only this journalist has caught a case over Duggan's poisoned dirt By Charlie LeDuff @Charlieleduff Southfield — Flint got poisoned, but nobody did a single day in jail. People got sick—and some died—from water fed to them from a river famously polluted with car batteries and corpses. And the hogs responsible for that calamity? They're laughing it up somewhere over a Porterhouse and a glass of Bordeaux. Now it’s the people of Southfield who may be the latest victims of a mass poisoning. This time it’s toxic dirt. Will anyone get charged for that? So far, I seem to be the only person who has caught a case. It’s no secret that the FBI has opened a book on former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and his demolition program. Authorities allege that Duggan’s handpicked contractor was allowed to run wild, throwing contaminated soil too toxic for human touch into holes where houses once stood and charging big bucks for it. Where did Duggan’s contractor get this dirt? Investigators say that least some of it came from Southfield. Specifically, from the old Northland Mall site that has been under redevelopment for the better part of a decade. The dirt there was supposed to go to a landfill. Instead, it was used to fill people’s pockets. No one seems to be digging into the Southfield side of things. Not as far as I know. Not the feds. Not the EPA. Not the attorney general. Not the state environmental regulators. Not even the newspapers, even though Northland site still has mountains of dirt blowing all over the community. I called the Southfield Police Department to check up on the status of the complaint I filed a few weeks ago—for crimes against humanity. That case is going nowhere, a detective told me. I was informed, however, that a case has been opened up on me. Trespassing. The police department even put two detectives on the case. According to the complaint filed by the developer “there has been ongoing trespassing issues with Charlie LeDuff… one of which he recorded a YouTube video while on the property.” The developer, Contour Companies Vice President Dave Dedvukaj, further stated: “It is unknown where LeDuff is making his entry.” Simple. Through the open gates near the unfinished offices of the unfinished condominium block where a curious member of the public might inquire about purchasing an unfinished condo surrounded by contaminated dirt. Imagine that. We are a year into this scandal, and I’m the only one who’s caught some legal paperwork. The whole episode is so cockamamie that I brought along Joe Demarco to the Southfield Police Department this week to act as my representative as I surrendered myself to the authorities. Demarco does not have a law degree, but he does own a shabby chicken costume and possesses a certificate of completion from the Specs Howard School of Media Arts. I figure this at least qualifies Demarco as a legitimate alternative to the current mayor of Southfield, Ken Siver. I promised the detective I would keep myself to the sidewalk. But also I promise the people of Detroit and Southfield I'll get to the bottom of things. The people of Flint deserve my apology. I didn't do enough. That won't happen again.

Detroit News Pollster Allegedly Laundered Dark Money for Democrat Elites By Charlie LeDuff @Charlieleduff The Detroit News, which clings to the pretense that it’s Michigan’s conservative voice, has not endorsed the Republican candidate for president in 15 years. Fine by me. I don’t read the paper, anyhow. I canceled it years ago. Most people have. But occasionally the paper publishes something that makes its way around and gets repeated often enough that it becomes the consensus. Things like political polls. Richard Czuba, founder of the Glengariff Group, is the pollster for both The News and WDIV. They quote him in print. They interview him on TV. The governor’s race is too close to call! Mike Duggan is a kingmaker in the U.S. Senate race! The governor's race is deadlocked! What the paper hasn’t told you is that Czuba is the subject of a criminal referral—drafted by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, no less—accused of raising and laundering more than $750,000 into the campaign coffers of a 2020 gay rights campaign co-chaired by Alanna Maguire. It is no small detail that Maguire is the wife of Attorney General Dana Nessel, a hyper-partisan Democrat. For her part, Nessel stands accused by the Michigan House Oversight Committee of tanking that investigation into Czuba and her own wife. Nessel herself will soon face impeachment charges by the House of Representatives. To this day, the paper’s political writers have not disclosed the incestuous affair to the public. Czuba, it is alleged, was the paid middle-man who collected dark money from DTE’s political arm and funneled it to Maguire’s campaign. Instead of divulging his name, the paper uses the name of Czuba’s now-defunct advocacy organization, Bipartisan Solutions. Would somebody please explain to me what is “bipartisan” about a pollster raising money for some of the most powerful and most connected Democrats in the state? Meanwhile, The News has spilled barrels of ink on a similar story. A conservative group, Unlock Michigan, pushed a ballot initiative back in 2020 looking to repeal Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s emergency Covid powers. People involved with raising money for that initiative were criminally referred by Benson to Nessel, accused of laundering dark money in order to conceal donor identities. Nessel brought criminal charges on that one, which carry up to 14 years in prison and potentially millions of dollars in fines. That case is ongoing, and The News can’t get enough of it. But the case of the Attorney General, her wife and their “non-partisan” pollster? Crickets. I don’t know. Sounds like a story to me. But there’s another question: Is Czuba is even good at polling? I called him to ask. Again, crickets. But there is this: The News published a Glengariff poll just a week before the 2024 election. Czuba had Kamala Harris beating Donald Trump by 3% (Trump, in fact, beat Harris by 1.4%). In the Michigan senate race, Czuba had Elissa Slotkin beating Mike Rogers by 4.5% (Slotkin beat Rogers by 0.3%). Both results were outside the poll’s margin of error. Did Czuba’s poll sway voter turnout? Not likely, since almost no one reads The News. Still, it’s farcical when you know what’s going on under the sheets. If you want to cancel your subscription to The Detroit News, it is easiest to cancel your credit card to avoid the financial loop the newspaper puts you through. And if you want real news, subscribe to our newsletter. Still 100% free.