Monthly Archives: December 2008

Off guard and then some

By Joel Thurtell If somebody offered me a fifth of my favorite single-malt Scotch, I’d take it. But I hope I never have to take the fifth the way ace Detroit Free Press reporter David Ashenfelter took it on December … Continue reading

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Detroit dailies not so daily

  By Joel Thurtell For months, I’ve been reporting that the Detroit Free Press was planning to drop daily print publication and go to twice or thrice a week delivery, with the remaining four or five days of news plopped … Continue reading

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Freep home delivery: Adios!

First, you read it in JOTR, on November 30. Detroit dailies to drop daily delivery.Today, December 12, 2008, you read it in the Wall Street Journal:  “Detroit Dailies to Curtail Home Delivery.”  

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Measuring the Rouge

By Joel Thurtell On an overcast morning last month, as I followed Mapquest to a bridge on Military Street spanning the Lower Rouge River in Dearborn, I did a very un-Mapquest thing — hopped my car over a curb, stowing … Continue reading

Posted in Adventures on the Rouge, Lakes and streams | 1 Comment

Canada’s view of the Ambassador

By Joel Thurtell Before you read this article, I wish you would do a little field work. Please hop in your car and drive to Windsor, Ontario. If you don’t want to put money in Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel “Matty” … Continue reading

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Off guard: The Free Press and the leakers

By Joel Thurtell Several weeks ago, I began writing an essay about the case of former federal prosecutor Richard Convertino, who’s suing my former paper, the Detroit Free Press, to force Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Ashenfelter to name the … Continue reading

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Ford, GM and the other arsenal

By Joel Thurtell Remember, too, that Detroit helped rescue America as the Arsenal of Democracy in World War II … Now, when our automakers and autoworkers need a hand up, will America really turn its back? — Detroit Free Press, … Continue reading

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HEY, AMERICA: IT’S A LOAN

By Joel Thurtell Can we get something straight between Detroit and America? What the newspaper industry is seeking in Washington is a loan,  L-O-A-N, as in something you borrow and then pay back — with interest. This is not a … Continue reading

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Still Matty’s park

By Joel Thurtell Amazing how people, especially legally-trained people, can take a picture that is perfectly simple and turn it into a mind-dizzying maze. I watched something like that happen Thursday, December 4, 2008, in Detroit’s 36th District Court when … Continue reading

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Notice to quit

By Joel Thurtell An October 3, 2008 letter from Detroit city attorney John Nader to Dan Stamper, president of the Detroit International Bridge Company, explains the city’s position in trying to get the bridge company, aka Ambassador Bridge, to take … Continue reading

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