Elena Herrada is a Detroit community activist and the leader of the non-profit organization, Centro Obero (Worker Center). She also serves as an adjunct professor at Marygrove College.

Herrada is running for a seat on the Detroit Charter Commission because she believes there needs to be a structural change in the charter to decentralize power from the mayor and give more authority to the city council. She also supports council by districts. This stance is in line with an organization she co-founded, the Committee for the Political Resurrection of Detroit, which seeks to bring progressive change to a city that some believe is burdened with a conservative, business-as-usual political infrastructure.

“I have reviewed the charter and discussed it with many people from many different perspectives,” said Herrada. “We all live with what is in it, what is left out of it, and what is ambiguous and left to interpretation.”

If elected she plans to provide a charter that clearly states how to remove public officials who have violated public trust; one that closes loopholes in Detroit expenditures, lawsuits and civil settlements; that authorizes prosecution of officials that break the law, and prevents pension board members from traveling on public funds or from benefiting through gifts, parties and other perks.

“I hope to be elected in this citywide race to encourage other regular people to run for office with genuine ideas of how to make things better for all Detroiters,” she said in a recent statement.
Herrada is also a staunch defender of Mexican immigration, citing their struggle to find economic stability and basic human rights. Her grandparents were immigrants and activists who came to Detroit from Mexico in the 1920s. Herrada says that they were also companions of legendary Mexican patriots Pancho Villa and Emilano Zapata.

She believes that Mexican immigration is a human rights issue because many immigrants have been deprived of their right to work with the enactment of NAFTA which empowered huge corporations to decimate jobs and, consequently, the number of immigrants has increased dramatically in recent years.

“It’s like having long lost relatives visit,” Herrada said of Mexican immigrants arriving in Detroit. “Everybody that I’ve talked to in our community is happy to have them.”

Steven Malik Shelton is a journalist and human rights advocate. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Brenda Jones was elected to the Detroit City Council in 2005 on a platform commitment to provide safer streets and increased opportunities for development throughout Detroit. In a recent conversation with the Michigan Chronicle she said she remains devoted to this pledge. She also named the city’s huge budget deficit as the biggest obstacle standing in the way its prosperity.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy last week handed down four felony counts and one misdemeanor count against Art Blackwell, former Highland Park Emergency Financial Manager (EFM). Blackwell, who served as EFM from 2005 to 2009, is accused of misusing his office by writing $264,000 in checks to himself after pledging to work as EFM for $1 annually.

In this exclusive interview with editor Bankole Thommpson, Blackwell, who was a campaign strategist for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, dismissed the charges which he called “political” and added that Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who appointed him, may have to testify, if necessary, at his trial.

To most Detroiters th eface of Charles Pugh is easily identifiable. He worked for ten years as a broadcast journalist for Channel 2 News and traversed, perhaps, every community in Detroit as he reported breaking news to the residents of Southeast Michigan. Yet Pugh’s early life was just as painful and devastating as many of the stories he related through the lens of a television camera.