Latest news with #GrossePointe
Globe and Mail
5 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Grosse Pointe Park Insurance Entrepreneur Minya Irby Champions Personalized Coverage and Community Empowerment
In a rapidly evolving insurance landscape, where automation often overshadows personalization, one Michigan-based entrepreneur is redefining what it means to put people first. Minya Irby, founder and principal agent of MI Coverage Pro Insurance Agency, is proud to announce the firm's continued expansion and its growing impact on individuals, families, and businesses throughout the Grosse Pointe and Metro Detroit communities. Founded with the mission to make insurance simple, transparent, and truly tailored, MI Coverage Pro provides a full suite of services — including auto, home, life, and business insurance — with an emphasis on education and empowerment. 'Insurance isn't just about protection; it's about peace of mind,' says Irby. 'Our clients are more than policy numbers. They're people with stories, goals, and families. We exist to serve and guide them with integrity and care.' A Local Leader With a Big Vision Minya Irby launched MI Coverage Pro after identifying a need for accessible, community-focused insurance solutions. Her experience in the industry, paired with her passion for service, led her to create an agency where personalized attention and client advocacy are central. Through workshops, one-on-one consultations, and community events, Irby and her team work to improve financial literacy and equip people with the knowledge they need to make confident decisions about their coverage. Community-Focused, Relationship-Driven MI Coverage Pro is more than a business—it's a partner in protection. Clients appreciate the agency's commitment to walking with them through life's transitions: new homes, new businesses, marriages, and more. In an era of 'click-to-quote,' MI Coverage Pro restores the human element to insurance. Irby also leads efforts to support local entrepreneurs and underrepresented communities, including young professionals and first-time business owners. About MI Coverage Pro Insurance Agency Based in Grosse Pointe Park, MI Coverage Pro Insurance Agency is an independent firm offering comprehensive insurance solutions across Michigan. With a focus on education, trust, and community engagement, the agency delivers peace of mind through expert coverage recommendations and personal service. For interviews, speaking engagements, or feature requests, please contact Minya Irby at (313) 458-8280 or email info@ Follow MI Coverage Pro on Social Media: Instagram: @micoveragepro Facebook: Media Contact Company Name: Mi Coverage Pro Insurance Agency Contact Person: Minya Irby Email: Send Email Phone: (313) 458-8280 City: Grosse Pointe Park State: MI Country: United States Website:
Washington Post
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Megan Abbott and the lure of private worlds
NEW YORK — The first time the crime writer Megan Abbott set foot in a country club, she was about 13. A friend who had money had invited her to a cotillion. Abbott's left-wing parents — who didn't have money, not like that — bought her a white dress and kept their disapproval to themselves. She remembers looking up the word 'cotillion.' How smooth the other girls' hair looked. Going to the ladies' room and seeing perfumes laid out on a tray, and an attendant standing by, and not understanding any of it. 'And I thought, 'Well, I don't ever want to do this again,'' Abbott recently told me. 'It was a very useful moment for me. I realized not only did I not belong but that it wasn't for me — I had no desire to belong there.' Much of her fiction has circled around understanding that desire in others: What draws people to these insular subcultures, and what, exactly, will they do to stay? Abbott likes writing hothouse environments — 'to a fault sometimes,' she allowed. Her settings have a lush psychological and cultural specificity that's untethered from other markers of reality. The ballet studio, the research lab, elite youth sports: You can practically smell the sweat of these places, but you wouldn't be able to point to them on a map. Her new book swerves from that approach: 'El Dorado Drive,' out June 24, takes place in her hometown, Grosse Pointe, Michigan, a suburb just northeast of Detroit. It tells the story of the three Bishop sisters, who are among the suburb's many families of temporarily embarrassed millionaires, brought low alongside the auto industry. Then an old frenemy invites them to join 'the Wheel' — a way to start bringing in cash, tax- (and husband-) free. Women helping women, goes the pitch, and I don't mean by sharing Valium. All they have to do is pay in with a one-time gift of five grand — and, of course, recruit more new members. The sisters climb the Wheel quickly. As pressure mounts, exploding into violence, they soon learn how precarious it is at the top. I met Abbott on a drizzly May afternoon in Times Square. She had staked out a table in the back of Jimmy's Corner, an old-school boxing bar where she's greeted by name. (It's a good place for a New Yorker to know, she said, because you always end up in Midtown one way or another — in her case, because she'd just come from a screening at MoMA hosted by the stylish independent production company A24, which is adapting 'El Dorado Drive' for TV.) She had the round and inquisitive eyes, the thin arched brows, of a silent-film star. Skull earrings dangled from her ears. Writing the new novel felt 'weirdly nostalgic,' she said, over a Corona. Like the Bishops, Abbott grew up in Grosse Pointe during Detroit's rapid decline. 'It was like the fall of Rome — slowly and all at once,' she said. 'Everybody's parents remembered this glory era.' Unusually for the time, her family often went into the city: Her parents worked in the political science department of Wayne State University and would take their kids to the movies or a museum. Detroit felt both exciting and forlorn — a place where streetlights, once they went out, never got fixed. Off the page, Abbott's never been a huge joiner: no sports, no secret societies, no sororal urges in general. But she was always driven and ambitious — a competitive person who hates competition, even avoiding board games. (She does take part in a jigsaw puzzle group: 'I'm gonna get a big chunk of that puzzle.') She chalks up her competitive streak to her older brother's long shadow — always the perfect student, and an athlete to boot. For a year in college, she lived with him and his buddies. 'I loved it,' she laughed. 'I didn't have to deal with any of the girl stuff.' Abbott graduated knowing only that she wanted to write and to move to New York, a city she'd fallen in love with through film. Attending grad school at New York University, she got both the city and the writing. While procrastinating on her dissertation about hard-boiled fiction, she wrote 'Die a Little,' a period noir narrated by an ordinary woman who, somewhat like Abbott, was a teacher with a much-admired older brother working in law enforcement. (Abbott's brother is a longtime attorney at the Macomb County prosecutor's office in Michigan.) Published in 2005, the novel won Abbott instant accolades from the mystery world. 'Everyone could tell she was going to be a star from the first book on,' said fellow crime novelist Laura Lippman. 'Some writers, especially when they have real literary cred, like a PhD, can be condescending to genre — even when they're in it. Sometimes especially when they're in it. But she was never that. You just felt that her love for the classic stories was utterly sincere, but she also was determined to make it fresh.' Two more novels and an Edgar Award later, 'it felt like I could do this forever, but it also felt in some ways — not to be super artsy about it — I didn't have skin in the game,' Abbott said. She shifted from writing about genre tropes to writing about adolescence, a time that seemed to Abbott — still seems — like the most dramatic and exciting phase of life. And who, after all, is more hard-boiled than a teenage girl? In 'Dare Me,' Abbott's breakout hit from 2012, one cheerleader, bent over the toilet, begs another 'to kick her in the gut so she can expel the rest, all that cookie dough and cool ranch, the smell making me roil. Emily, a girl made entirely of donut sticks, cheese powder, and haribo.' The narrator goes on: 'I kick, I do. She would do the same for me.' Thrillers are typically published in the summer; the true test of the page-turner is to be more alluring than the swimming pool. Abbott speaks, with winning candor, about how her stories always follow a simple three-act structure: temptation, followed by a reckoning (usually violent), followed by some form of payment or redemption. But atop this subfloor of plot, she builds worlds that feel murky, inviting, densely secretive. Her prose veers from sensuous to steely, delicious to revolting. You inhale it like freon-scented air. Abbott, who lives alone in the same Queens apartment she's had for decades, writes in four- to five-day sprints. She can be 'crazily ritualistic' in the thick of a manuscript: not talking to anyone, eating the same things for all her meals. She has totems — prayer candles, at one point a gold Furby — arranged on a shelf above her computer. A gymnast she talked to for her 2016 murder mystery, 'You Will Know Me,' told her: 'If something's working, don't do anything to change the routines. You don't know if some part of the routine is what's making it work.' Abbott understood the mindset: 'There can be no changes if I'm getting pages out.' She does take long walks, or will sneak out to a midday movie to jolt her senses. Horror is best, and a crowd that likes to scream. Often, in the infinite scroll and too-many-tabs of her research, an image will help jump-start her brain. For 'Dare Me,' it was the treadmark left on a squad mate's shoulder, nicknamed the 'cheer shoe hickey.' For 'El Dorado Drive,' it was YouTube videos of how to make 'money cakes,' dollar bills unfurling from inside the pastry. And though she's never written about Greek life, when she taught for a year at Ole Miss, she saw girls walking the campus in teeny shorts paired with giant sweatshirts. She couldn't figure out this look. Then a student finally let her in on it: The hoodies were trophies from boys they had hooked up with. 'And that was awesome to me,' Abbott said, her eyes gleaming. 'There's something so tribal about it — like conquering something.' Throughout Abbott's career, she's maintained an almost spooky feel for the zeitgeist. Novels like 'Dare Me' were the crest of a pop culture wave that treated the darker stirrings of adolescents with dead seriousness. More recently, there was 'Beware the Woman,' a Gothic pregnancy novel that seemed to channel the public's post-Dobbs anxieties. 'El Dorado Drive' explores the resentment and desperation left behind by the disappearance of American manufacturing. (Amazingly, on the heels of President Donald Trump's recent comments about toys, it even flashes back to a scene of spoiled children casually destroying their expensive dolls.) 'I know it sounds like a really small thing — she pays attention to the culture,' Lippman said. 'And her tastes run from low to high. She's not a snob.' On any given week, Lippman shared, Abbott might be texting their group chat about the latest 'Real Housewives' or writing an essay for the Criterion Collection. Abbott herself can't quite explain it, can't trace the roots of her obsessions. Perhaps, she suggests, group psychology is the code she always wants to crack but is never quite sure she does. 'I always want to go to a place I haven't gone. The old fascinations will find their way in, but if it feels too comfortable, what am I doing it for?' She smiles. 'The fear is what keeps you going.'
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Detroit orders work stoppage for planned Chick-fil-A near Grosse Pointe
A controversial Chick-fil-A location is still coming soon to Detroit's east side near the Grosse Pointe border, but the project hit a speed bump this week. Hours after demolition began on Monday, May 19, to a former Buick service center at 17761 Mack Ave. to make way for the future fast-food restaurant, Detroit officials ordered an immediate halt to the work. According to the city, the problem was the demolition contractor did not give the required advanced notice of the demo work to nearby property owners. The notices eventually were sent out via UPS and received the morning of May 20 by the property's neighbors, which include a day care/Montessori school with 116 enrolled young children. A city spokesman said the demolition crew is now in compliance and can restart the teardown of the old Ray Laethem Buick building. Neighbors told the Free Press that the demo work had yet to restart as of late Wednesday afternoon. The Mack Avenue Chick-fil-A was first proposed nearly two years ago and faced opposition from some area residents and business owners, including concerns about traffic and the close proximity to The Giving Tree Montessori Learning Center that neighbors the site. More: Detroit officials propose changes to licensing process to ease burdens for small businesses More: I grocery shop almost exclusively at Eastern Market. Here's what to buy, where to find it The restaurant plan ultimately was approved by the city last year once all traffic was routed on Mack Avenue, with none entering or exiting the neighboring Marseilles Street. On April 4, Detroit issued a building permit for the 2,954-square-foot Chick-fil-A. The demolition permit for the site was issued May 14. The Grosse Pointe News has reported that the future location would be the first drive-thru-only Chick-fil-A in Michigan. Representatives for Chick-fil-A and the site's demolition contractor, Warren-based Blue Star, did not return messages seeking comment May 21. Renee Chown, owner of The Giving Tree Montessori Learning Center, which she said is a day care as well as a private elementary school, opposes the Chick-fil-A because it would bump up against the learning center and its playground. Chown said she was surprised Monday morning when the demolition work began and went outside to confront the workmen. "When they started that demolition, none of us had a notice," she said. "We are a little upset here.' Chown also questioned whether the Chick-fil-A location violates a city ordinance against locating fast-food drive-thrus on major roadways within 500 feet of a school. 'There is absolutely no way that they can put that drive-thru next to our playground," Chown said, "because those kids will be smelling smoke, marijuana smoke, the rodents will be out there, they are going to listen to people talk not in such a good language, and the noise control, the fumes of the exhaust pipes — there are many many things wrong with this project." However, city spokesman John Roach noted that Detroit's Zoning Board of Appeals issued its decision in favor of the Chick-fil-A in April 2024, which was two months before the Montessori center is said to have received its registration as a private school. Dave Bell, director of the city's Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department, said in a statement that a survey found no asbestos in the old Buick service center building, and that the contractor does have an approved plan to mitigate demolition dust. Bell also said the city asked the contractor to erect a perimeter fence before resuming demolition work, even though such a fence isn't always a requirement. Another neighbor to the site is Allemon's Landscape Center, a business that dates to 1910. Owner Joe Allemon said in a phone interview that he, too, received a demolition notice via UPS on May 20. Nevertheless, he has been opposed to the fast-food restaurant plan, largely because of all the traffic it would likely generate. 'We are not against the brand Chick-fil-A — it's the location," he said. 'The overwhelming community is against this development, but it has just fallen on deaf ears." Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@ Follow him on X @jcreindl This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit orders work stoppage for Chick-fil-A near Grosse Pointe
Daily Mail
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Annoying Dem lawmaker who wants to impeach Trump makes hugely embarrassing gaffe on camera
A Michigan Democrat leading a rogue attempt to impeach Donald Trump struggled to name even basic details of his own district in an excruciating interview. Congressman Shri Thanedar was confronted by independent journalist Charlie LeDuff over the weekend as he asked the Democrat a simple question about his district in the Detroit suburbs. 'What are the five Grosse Pointe cities?' LeDuff asked the lawmaker. The Grosse Pointe cities make up much of Thanedar's 13th Congressional District, but the congressman appeared stumped when asked to simply name them. 'Well, look,' he responded with a stalling laugh. 'I'm, uh, I'm not here to answer a quiz.' 'I'm here to say that I'm going to fight for the people of Detroit,' he went on, repeatedly saying he would 'fight' for his voters without being able to name the cities where they live. After he said again he was 'going to fight for my constituents', LeDuff began listing off the Grosse Pointe cities, leading Thanedar to incorporate them into his answer. LeDuff appeared bemused that the lawmaker clearly didn't know the names of the cities, as he interrupted to say: 'Let me just do this real quick - Grosse Pointe, Grosse Pointe Park, Grosse Pointe Woods, Grosse Pointe Farms, and Grosse Pointe Shores.' After Thanedar failed to name the cities in his own district, LeDuff also brought up a controversy from the lawmaker's past as a pharmaceutical executive. Thanedar has been accused of abandoning over 100 dogs to starve after his company cruelly tested pharmaceuticals on them. The Detroit congressman was behind a testing lab that shut down in 2010. The lab - AniClin Preclinical Services - was closed after its parent company, Azopharma, owned by the Democrat, went bankrupt. Months after the New Jersey lab closed, local animal rights activists alerted authorities to 118 beagles that had been left behind locked in the facility. LeDuff told Thanedar he was 'getting nailed with this one' as the controversy made headlines following the Democrat's attempts to impeach Trump. 'The beagles - you abandoned the beagles and left them to die in their cages at your pharmaceutical testing,' the journalist said. Thanedar appeared lost for an answer as he smiled and responded: 'Ah, I love animals.' Congressman Shri Thanedar impeaches Donald J. Trump. But first, he impeaches himself. Watch. — Charlie LeDuff (@Charlieleduff) May 14, 2025 Thanedar has been accused of abandoning over 100 dogs to starve after his company cruelly tested pharmaceuticals on them, seen in footage of the canines being rescued 'My family loves animals, we have raised a beagle,' he said. 'Those are all, uh, you know, political attacks on me... uh, I love animals.' When pressed for an 'explanation' to the beagle controversy, Thanedar could not offer one, but claimed the Humane Society had given him 'two awards as the best legislator in protecting animal rights.' LeDuff showed images of the beagles being saved from Thanedar's lab and sarcastically agreed with Thanedar that it is not a big deal 'because those beagles were going to die anyway.' The lawmaker responded again with his rehearsed line: 'Look, I love animals... thank you.' Thanedar quickly left the interview as LeDuff asked him why other congressmembers had withdrawn support for his impeachment efforts. It comes as even Thanedar's liberal colleagues have come out to condemn his impeachment acts as a 'waste of f***ing time.' The Democrat proposed seven articles of impeachment against the 78-year-old president, including bribery, abuse of power, obstruction of justice and more. 'This is the dumbest f***ing thing. Utterly selfish behavior,' one anonymous Democrat told Axios of Thanedar's impeachment push. 'What a dumbs***,' said another. Party members indicated that focusing on impeachment is unproductive as they attempt to resist Republicans' maneuvering on Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' Veteran Democrats reportedly ripped the impeachment plan to shreds in a closed door hearing on Wednesday, the same day the Michigan lawmaker was supposed to force further action on the impeachment, Axios reports. They fumed with frustration over Thanedar's 'idiotic' and 'horrible' solo attempt to remove the president.
The Review Geek
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Grosse Pointe Garden Society – Episode 12 Recap & Review
The Fallow Period Episode 12 of Grosse Pointe Garden Society begins with us moments after Keith's death. The four are shocked and although it was just an accident, they're worried that the police may see this as manslaughter. All of this could be spun as an intentional murder in the eyes of the law, especially after Alice's messages to Patty, telling her to get down to the garden center and how she's going to 'take away what she cares about most'. The four decide to bury the body in the garden, and they place it in the trunk and prepare to leave. Of course Tucker is outside in this black car, showing how controlling and possessive he is. He's the one watching the gang and he has a tracker on the car too. While Tucker follows the car out on the road, Ford happens to cross paths with Birdie while she's at the gas station. Catherine is inside pawning her bracelet while this is happening. When Catherine heads outside, she's shocked when she finds out what's going on. Ford tries to convince Birdie to be the 'cool mum' but en-route back home, it's clear that their cover is blown when a call pops up on-screen listed as 'wifey'. Ugh, for using that term maybe Keith does deserve to die (I jest!) Birdie eventually agrees to get the boys beers (non-alcoholic of course!), mostly to keep him quiet. He's been crashing at a friends' place because his mum is pissed that he wants to hang with Birdie more. She's taken aback by this and eventually tells him he loves her. As for Alice, she and Brett show up at Patty's place and try to break into the phone to erase the messages. Patty shows up though and things are tense as Brett is hiding round the corner of the cabinet. She warns that things could turn bad if she keeps up this charade given she has feelings for Brett. Brett is listening to all of this, as Alice is forced to admit that she thinks of him as more than a friend, and thankfully she manages to erase the incriminating message before it's too late. Alice and Brett are forced to kiss that night though when police show up. The idea is to make it seem like they're finding a spot to make out, and it does the trick for them to move along. However, they both also wind up catching feelings. They skirt over their true feelings though and eventually the cops leave. When they do, Catherine and Birdie show up with Keith's body. When Patty rings, they decide to use Keith's phone to message back and avoid suspicion. Of course, they're completely unaware that Tucker's PI is back on the case, snapping photos of them. After burying the body, Birdie shows up to see Joel, and there's no love lost between them. He's not happy with the way she's handled (or not) their affair and the break-up thereafter, but that's not going to stop Birdie needing to give a statement at the station about what's gone down. However, it's here where she mentions that she's pregnant. This works to convince Joel that he needs to help, and he sorts out any evidence left in the garden society. However, there's still going to be evidence linking the four to the crime scene. Birdie and Joel have Keith's phone though and keep up the messages to Patty for the time being. Joel's idea is to ditch the phone at the shopping center, explaining those shots of the shoes earlier in the season. However, there's still the simple matter of that PI to handle, and he's determined to undo everything as he knows where Keith is buried. The Episode Review So the penultimate episode of Grosse Pointe Garden Society ties all the loose threads together, and the reveal that the body is Keith's and all of this is just a simple misunderstanding, with the gang needing to cover this up happens to be a bit… underwhelming. It's not outright bad but similarly, it's also a little obvious and perhaps after 12 episodes we could have had a couple of extra twists thrown in for good measure. The finale could still change that of course, so we're not completely out the woods just yet, but it's definitely worth bearing in mind. Grosse Pointe Garden Society is now starting to tie up all these loose ends and story threads, ultimately leading to what should be an intriguing finale next week! Previous Episode Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
