Free Republic

Traci Kornak, the former treasurer of the Michigan Democratic Party, was hauled into probate court this week, suspected of embezzling from her ward, a brain-damaged elderly woman. I caught Kornak feasting on the woman’s finances nearly four years ago and have written many stories about it since. I’ve made TV appearances. I even lost my newspaper job over it. After my first story was published, Attorney General Dana Nessel, a close friend of Kornak, opened a superficial investigation that was no investigation at all. Her detectives made a few cursory phone calls before Nessel prodded them into shutting down the...

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie LeDuff has reached a settlement with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to gain access to data on the number of COVID-19 nursing home deaths in the state. The health department agreed to release some of the public records LeDuff requested. The department also acknowledges it can’t determine if some patients killed by COVID-19 contracted the virus at a nursing home or other long-term care facility. LeDuff sued March 9 after submitting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for data on COVID-19 deaths but the MDHHS failed to produce the requested records. The...

Do we have another COVID nursing home death scandal brewing? In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing intense criticism and calls to resign for cooking the books in the states COVID nursing home death toll. He’s also facing scores of allegations of sexual misconduct from former aides and staffers. Top Democrats from the Empire State are calling for him to resign. So far, he’s refused to do so. The gears of impeachment are starting to turn in Albany, but there could be a COVID death toll scandal occurring in Michigan. Reporter Charlie LeDuff wanted to know the number of...

Fox News host Tucker Carlson said insiders in the Joe Biden presidential campaign believe he will not be mentally fit to be president come Election Day. While appearing on the Charlie LeDuff podcast, Carlson claimed that Biden insiders told him they don't believe the former vice president has the mental fortitude to last until the 2020 election in November, speculating that the Democratic Party may revoke his potential nomination.

Democratic Rep. Brenda Lawrence of Michigan now favors censuring President Trump after backing impeachment proceedings over allegations that he withheld military aid from Ukraine for his personal benefit. Lawrence appeared on the Michigan radio show No BS News Hour with host Charlie LeDuff on Sunday to discuss the impeachment process in the House. Lawrence told LeDuff, to his surprise, that she does not support removing the president from office and that she would ask her caucus to censure him instead. "We are so close to an election. I will tell you, sitting here knowing how divided this country is, I...

Detroit homeowner Sarah Hamilton wanted to sell her house, but was having some trouble. No, it wasn’t a down seller's market -- it was a squatter... But things got more interesting after WJBK reporter Charlie LeDuff entered the picture. He met with the homeowner and her attorney, and was given a set of keys and the proper paperwork...

Government Motors. Remember that one? That's a huge, overlooked detail in this whole GM recall crisis - the federal government's oversight of a company they bought out of bankruptcy four years ago and, under their nose, that same company is hiding its deadly, dirty laundry. Charlie LeDuff caught up with California Democrat Henry Waxman, who was head of the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at the time of that purchase.

Looks like the New York Times has another ugly Jayson Blair-like scandal on its hands. This time, the young minority reporter is Charlie LeDuff, a part Native-American, part-Cajun writer, known as a rising star and favorite pet of former executive editor Howell Raines. The hotshot LeDuff is now in hot water over his cribbing of anecdotes from someone else's book about kayaking down the Los Angeles River for his own Page One fluff story about — you guessed it! — kayaking down the Los Angeles River. An embarrassing correction published in the New York Times on Dec. 8 explained: An...

These days, finding New York Times lies and cover-ups is like shooting fish in a barrel, but Navy Lt. Cmdr. Mike Beidler has told me about one fish story too obnoxious to pass up. Beidler, on his way to Iraq in January, was walking with his family toward the end of Naval Station Pier 2 in San Diego when the Times' Charlie LeDuff asked him for his view of war protesters. Beidler recalls offering a couple of sentences defending the rights of protesters and stating his hope that they offer reasonable solutions. The article LeDuff wrote, though, had Beidler attacking...