John Carlisle

Detroit

News Columnist at Detroit Free Press

Columnist for the Detroit Free Press. I write about the people that nobody else writes about.

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Articles

NHS coffin ships: how saving our NHS could rescue the UK economy

2 months ago | yorkshirebylines.co.uk | John Carlisle

In 1819 my ancestors, fleeing a bankrupt Britain after the Napoleonic wars, boarded the HMS Chapman for South Africa. There was a long delay due to shipping congestion in the Thames. While waiting they were horrified to learn that a neighbouring vessel had sunk without warning, drowning the entire crew. The rotten bottom timbers had just fallen out. This was an example of a coffin ship.
Mystery water hose in woods of U.P. becomes source of contention between residents, state

Jan 13, 2025 | yahoo.com | John Carlisle

GREENLAND TOWNSHIP — There’s mystery water flowing from a hose that sticks out of a hole in the ground in an Upper Peninsula ghost town. And people in the area have been drinking it for years. “It is probably the purest water you’d ever taste,” said Ron Store, a 56-year-old Ontonagon County commissioner. “You can put this stuff in a glass jar, sit it on your porch for a month and it’s not going to turn green.
Mystery water hose in woods of U.P. becomes source of contention between residents, state

Jan 13, 2025 | news.yahoo.com | John Carlisle

Kayln Hudson-Store, 44, of Greenland Township, and her daughter Anneli Store,10, fill jugs of unregulated water from an old trailside artesian well near Ontonagon in Michigan's Upper Peninsula on Monday, March 25, 2024, after a late-season blizzard. For years, locals have used the water. Then the state found out and ordered them to stop. GREENLAND TOWNSHIP — There’s mystery water flowing from a hose that sticks out of a hole in the ground in an Upper Peninsula ghost town.
There's hidden library at Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park

Oct 24, 2024 | freep.com | John Carlisle

For decades, the cabins in the Porcupine Mountains have offered campers a notebook in which to express themselves. Thousands of them have taken up the offer and created a remarkable collection of book“Sitting back, by candlelight, on a cold, cold night, loading up the wood stove, getting ready for bed, wondering again how to take this back to everyday life. And when I read these stories, it makes me want to cry.” — Bo; May 1, 1991.
Haunted by military past and leg amputation, Army veteran fights back to run marathons

Oct 19, 2024 | freep.com | John Carlisle

An Afghanistan vet is running not just to prove something to himself, but in memory of someone else. DETROIT — He decided to kill himself. “I had everything that was needed,” said Kevin Bittenbender, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “I had the rope. I had my letters written.
NHS integrated care systems - reinventing the wheel?

Oct 16, 2024 | yorkshirebylines.co.uk | John Carlisle

The NHS was an integrated care institution, until the politicians began to meddle with it. Norman Fowler started the rot when he set aside the area health authorities (AHAs) in 1982, after being health secretary for less than a year. The AHAs had been running for eight years and were on the verge of integrating with local government to balance regional demand and supply. The management system was key.
The real economics of a humane democracy

Oct 10, 2024 | yorkshirebylines.co.uk | John Carlisle

In Place of Fear, a book of reflections by Aneurin Bevan, has often been overlooked for what it really is, i.e. a handbook for running a social democracy. Most people seem to assume mistakenly that the title refers just to the NHS, whereas the chapter ‘A Free Health Service’ is just 24 pages in a 203-page book. The rest of the book is a deeply insightful analysis of the post-World War II world and a prescription for Britain’s recovery by instituting social democratic practices in the UK.
Leonard Johnson: an old colonial’s finest colleague

Aug 22, 2024 | yorkshirebylines.co.uk | John Carlisle

One morning in 1995 I pulled into a Coventry hotel car park for a breakfast meeting with Leonard as my passenger. Leonard jumped out while I retrieved my briefcase. Suddenly there was a bellow: “STOP!”I froze, as did the occupants of other cars that had just parked. Leonard pointed. A three-year-old girl was walking behind a car that was about to reverse. Her mother scooped her up and stood there, white-faced. Leonard picked up my briefcase and walked into the lobby.
Michigan retiree bought historic hometown newspaper, became its only reporter

Jul 17, 2024 | yahoo.com | John Carlisle

HUDSON — Her hometown’s only remaining newspaper was about to go out of business, and although she’d never written a news story, hadn’t gone to school for journalism and didn’t even read the news very often, Barb Ireland bought the paper and became its only reporter. “I didn’t want it to close,” the 72-year-old retiree said. The Hudson Post-Gazette has chronicled small-town life without pause since 1858.
At this obscure Detroit coffee house, the décor is the draw

Jun 28, 2024 | yahoo.com | John Carlisle

John Carlisle, Detroit Free PressJune 28, 2024 at 6:02 AM·2 min readDETROIT — There’s a staggering array of distractions inside Detroit Vintage Coffee & Tea Shop on West Eight Mile Road, a virtual flower in the weeds here among the collision shops and liquor stores along this busy road. Antiques and decorations fill every inch from floor to ceiling, while people sip their drinks on plush old couches, as if lounging in their grandmother’s crowded attic.