Day 344/365

     This morning I covered a status hearing of sorts where a circuit court judge turned down the plea deal of a man who's one of three, (plus one who's still at large), charged in connection with the death of a 6-year-old girl. The shooting, which resulted in the girl's death and her father in critical condition, happened this past August when Saginaw was finishing off an extremely violent summer that resulted in the city breaking its 20-year homicide record. Notorious for its "no snitch code," Saginaw residents rallied for that code to be broken, and seem to have been successful as one of the men involved is now testifying against the two alleged shooters. 

Day 337/365

     One of my assignments on Tuesday/day 337 was photographing former Detroit Red Wing Darren McCarty during an appearance he made at the Saginaw YMCA to sign autographs and pose for pictures with fans. There surprisingly weren't too many kids there, but this boy was one of the few who was, and I ended up liking his reaction to McCarty the best. 

Day 324/365

     After working late last night/day 323 I covered the opening arguments in an alleged armed robbery trial, with the defendant being charged with eleven felonies. He's a 20 year-old being accused of shooting another person during a botched robbery. I'm starting to see a theme here...

Day 323/365

     99% of the time I absolutely love my job. Every once in a while though, that 1% rears its ugly head, and being in a place like Saginaw it shows up much more than it should. I worked the day shift yesterday, but got called out to a double shooting later at night when all of the other photographers were either out sick or out on assignment. There was a botched robbery out in one of the more sketchier areas of the city, and it resulted in a man and his 5 year-old grandson being shot. When I got to the crime scene police were sending out K9 units. Being in a residential area at night, with flashing police lights, people screaming when they realized who had been shot, and dogs barking as they're being ran around the area looking for the shooter/shooters was a bit unreal. There's a very prominent "no snitch code" in Saginaw, but I'm really hoping it gets broken in this case. 

Day 322/365

     Last night/day 322 I got to shoot my first ever college/Big Ten/NCAA basketball game. It was the University of Michigan vs. Michigan State women's basketball matchup, and each team had a former local high school standout. #24 Jenny Ryan who now plays for U of M is a graduate of Saginaw's Nouvel Catholic Central, and MSU's #52 Becca Mills is a graduate of Midland Dow. It was a great game to shoot, with two pretty good teams that made everything interesting. Not to mention the lighting in the arena was fantastic. It'll be hard switching back to high school basketball, but it was an awesome experience all the same. Hopefully I'll get to shoot another one soon!

Day 316/365

     Tuesday/day 316 I got to shoot a new antique store in Saginaw, and then a high school basketball doubleheader. Two local Midland rivals played each other, the girls varsity teams followed by the boys. Both games were fun to watch. One of the girls teams had a come-from-beind victory, which is always crazy, and the boys were pretty evenly matched.

Day 309/365

     Tonight I shot a girls basketball game in Saginaw. There weren't very many people in attendance, which is probably due to the fact that it was ridiculously cold out today. It's supposed to be even colder tomorrow, and I'll be shooting another basketball game tomorrow night so I'm expecting more of the same. Stay warm, friends!

Day 274/365

     Yesterday/day 274 consisted of another demolition site assignment. Yet another building in Saginaw is being torn down, and the razing began yesterday. I've happened to cover each of the demolitions that have gone on since June, and with the same construction company being at all of them, I'm now on a first-name basis with have of the crew.

Day 251/265

     Saginaw got a dusting of about an inch of snow overnight, so waking up to a little wonderland Sunday morning was a nice surprise. It was Kip's first time seeing snow, and he absolutely loved it. I wish I had time to go to the dog park, because when we went out for a walk it was so easy to see how much he was dying to run around and bound through it. It's since melted away for the most part, leaving just a little bit here and there with a bit of ice. Next time it snows though, I'll have to make sure to let him loose so he gets a chance to play. A

Day 247/365

     Today I got to cover a really nice Thanksgiving assignment. The two co-owners of a local bar/grill in Saginaw held their sixth annual Thanksgiving dinner today, where they provide an entire dinner for free to anyone who comes in the door. Last year they had around 450 people, and they expected at least that many to come in this year. They prepared 26 turkeys and made 60 pumpkin pies, and any leftovers will be donated to a local church for their Thanksgiving day dinner tomorrow. It was such a great event to see, let alone photograph. People from all walks of life were sitting at tables together, from homeless people to newscasters that work one block away from the bar. Everyone was happy, whether they were sitting down eating or they were back in the kitchen making food. It certainly was a nice refreshing reminder that there are still people who realize what tomorrow's holiday is supposed to be about.

Day 242/365

     Tonight I covered "Holidays in the Heart of the City," a Christmas festival in Saginaw. It started with the lighting ceremony of all the Christmas lights in downtown and Old Town Saginaw, and ended with a fireworks display off of Ojibway Island. In between there were living nativity scenes, gingerbread house-decorating competitions, live reindeer, Santa and Mrs. Claus walking around, free tours of the zoo, and trolley and horse-drawn carriage rides. Guess which part I liked best. 

Day 235/365

     Friday/day 235's belated post is a product of me driving around Saginaw and knocking on some more doors for the "dangerous dogs" ordinance story that I shot photos for last week, (I posted one of them for day 225). The story actually launched today on MLive here, and will have other viewpoints/opinions/side stories  throughout the next week or two. The "dangerous dogs" ordinance passed in June 2011 and requires owners of designated breeds, (like pit bulls, rottweilers, German shepherds, etc.), to register their pets at the City Clerk's office for $20, post a "dog on premises" sign on the front of their home, and keep their animals either on a leash or within a 4-foot-high fenced area or kennel. Personally, I follow the mantra, 'there are no bad dog breeds, just bad people who raise them that way,' so I had a great time playing with the different pit bulls and the German shepherd that I took pictures of. The photo for day 235 is of Diamond, a 7 month-old pit bull who has to be one of the sweetest dogs I've ever met. 

Day 225/365

     Yesterday/day 225 was one of the craziest work days I've had in a while. My boss and one of the other photo interns were out for the day, so it was just one other photo intern and myself covering anything that happened between the Saginaw and Bay City coverage areas. We got a lot of nasty weather compliments of Hurricane Sandy, which meant lots of car accidents, (including an overturned semi hauling corn!), so those kept us pretty busy, on top of other assignments that we had already. There were definitely some interesting ones, like a new stroke prevention tool that one of the local hospitals is now operating thanks to one of its doctors being its champion, or the ride-along another reporter and I did with an arson watch group last night. 

     I think the assignment I was most interested in though was the one about dogs, ( go figure). Apparently the city of Saginaw passed an ordinance last summer called the 'dangerous dog ordinance.' Anyone with dogs that have had past aggressive or violent behavior that's on file had to pay a fee to get a 'dog on premises' sign to hang on the front of their home. That part I understood. The part I wasn't so sure of was any dog owner with a certain dog breed, typically those with the 'aggressive breed' stigma, (pit bulls, German shepherds, dobermans, rottweilers, etc.), also had to get these signs, regardless of whether or not their dogs have ever had any problems. A reporter and I went knocking on the doors of some of the houses with the signs posted, and ended up talking to a really nice lady who had two pit bulls, (along with another dog and four cats). Her dogs were sweethearts, and were extremely photogenic!

Day 217/365

     Today was a super quiet one work-wise, although I was officially offered an extension on my internship, so I will be in Saginaw until June! It's a big relief. I love my job and I work with some great people, so I'm really glad I get to stay longer. 

     Anyways, before I was on shift, I took Kip for a walk around the apartment complex and took a quick photo of the steadily-growing ground covering of leaves. Quite a few are still hanging in there on the trees, and have started turning this fantastic golden color; it's quite pretty. Today was mostly sunny, until right before our walk it let loose for about fifteen minutes and then abruptly stopped, leaving huge puddles on the easily-flooded sidewalks by my building. 

Day 205/365

     Today's post is a two-for-one from the Ken Bluew trial. The Saginaw County Medical Examiner testified today, stating that Jennifer Webb died from being in a choke hold, and not from hanging herself with an extension cord from the roof rack of her car. The Saginaw County Prosecutor asked him to demonstrate what he meant by a choke hold, and thus the gem that is today's top photo was born. The bottom one is Bluew watching the medical examiner walk down off of the stand and out of the courtroom, (or, at least, that's what it looked like to me). Since where I'm allowed to sit in the courtroom is behind Bluew and to his left, most of my shots of him are him in profile like this photo, but I still liked this one even if it's been overdone a bit by now. If you'd like to see more photos or articles from today's coverage, you can find them on MLive here.

Day 204/365

     This afternoon had me covering the Ken Bluew trial again, (the, currently suspended, police officer accused of strangling the woman who was pregnant with his child, then hanging her from the roof rack of her car with an extension cord to make it look like a suicide). The whole afternoon I was there was filled with the playing of a video of two Michigan State Police officers interviewing Bluew the morning after the woman, Jennifer Webb, was found. For the first two hours of the footage, Bluew said there was no way he could be the father of Webb's unborn child because they had never had sex. It wasn't until almost the very end of the tape that Bluew finally said that they had slept together, so there was a possibility of him being the father. Full coverage from today's proceedings, as well as the rest of the trial, can be found on MLive here.

Day 196/365

     I'm working the night shift this week, which means you'll probably be seeing a good amount of high school sports coverage. Tonight's assignment was a boys soccer game at the high school down the street from my apartment. The only soccer games I've ever been to have been the few I've covered up here in Michigan, so I'm still getting the hang of shooting the sport, but I think I'm improving. It also helped that tonight's game was by far the most interesting one I think I've seen; lots of flipping and rolling and diving from the guys makes for some pretty easy photo opportunities. 

Day 190/365

     Today I covered the beginning of a murder trial in Saginaw. A, (currently suspended), police officer is accused of strangling his girlfriend who was eight months pregnant with his son at the time of her death. Kenneth Bluew, pictured above on the right, took longer than usual to respond to a routine roll call over police radio during a night shift. His friend and fellow officer went to look for him, and ended up stumbling upon what appeared to be an abandoned vehicle. After the officer got out of his car, Bluew suddenly appeared with his patrol car parked in the distance. Bluew proceeded to ask his fellow officer how he wanted to process the car, as if there had been a call on it, which there hadn't been. When they both checked out the car, they found pregnant Jennifer Webb hanging from the roof rack with an extension cord around her neck; an apparent suicide. 

     Bluew never acknowledged that he knew the deceased, not until later when another officer found her license. Shortly after that the officer also found Webb's phone, with recent calls between Bluew and herself. After another officer spoke to Webb's family and found out that she had not appeared to be suicidal, but ecstatic towards the prospect of soon being a mother, and that Bluew was in fact the father of the unborn child, Bluew was then considered a major suspect. Fast forward to today, and Bluew is now charged with first-degree premeditated murder, (a mandatory life sentence without possibility of parole if found guilty), and is also charged with assaulting a pregnant individual intentionally causing miscarriage or stillbirth of a fetus or embryo, as well as two counts of possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony.

If you'd like, you can see more photos from today as well as find links to current articles surrounding the case on MLive here.

Day 165/365

     Tonight I covered a town hall meeting in Saginaw that Reverend Jesse Jackson attended. Due to the escalating violence and unrest since the Milton Hall shooting, national attention has been directed towards Saginaw, bring with it visits from the NAACP, Jesse Jackson, and soon to be Al Sharpton, along with other civil rights and watchdog groups. Another photo intern and I shot quite a few photos of Jackson and the events he attended throughout the day, so if you'd like to see more you can find different galleries here. While I know this shot is wider and doesn't zero in on Jackson as much as the others I took, there's just something about it that I liked.

Day 164/365

     There was yet another shooting last night; a house about one street over from the shooting I covered yesterday afternoon was shot up, killing a six year-old girl and leaving her father critically injured. Apparently they were just in town visiting family, and there's no word yet on whether or not the father was a target. Because of the escalating violence, the former mayor of Saginaw held a press conference this morning asking those who may have information relating to the murders but have kept quiet to come forward, whether it be to the police or to watchdog groups like the ones present this morning. While the former mayor, Gary Loster, talked about yesterday's victims, he mainly talked about Milton Hall, a homeless man that was shot 30-40 times by Saginaw police during a standoff back in July. The Milton Hall fiasco has caused a lot of anger in the area, mostly directed towards police, since most citizens are calling it an act of extreme police brutality. There's an ongoing investigation into the police department's actions, but not much has been said, leading people to try to take measures into their own hands, drawing national attention from CNN and garnering upcoming visits from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.