What a Ride!
Anne Irvine doesn’t step into a roller coaster–she leaps. She grabs the handle and swings her legs into the car like a vaulting gymnast. “Woo-hoo!” she shouts as she lands in the backseat of the...
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No Confidence
In June, Maryam Barrie addressed the trustees of Washtenaw Community College. The president of the school’s faculty union announced that the union had filed a complaint with the college’s accreditation agency,...
Read MoreBackstage Drama
In May, Erin Sabo, executive director of the Performance Network Theatre, arrived at a meeting of the theater’s board of directors. They wanted an accounting: what does PNT owe? Sabo’s response wasn’t...
Read MoreFour for Mayor
The August 5 Democratic mayoral primary marks the end of one era and the start of another.After an unprecedented seven terms, John Hieftje is retiring undefeated. Since 2000, he has faced ten opponents in primary and general...
Read MoreThree Critical Council Races
The drama of who’s running for city council began in March when Bob Dascola went to federal court to get a place on the ballot and climaxed in June when Dascola won his case and Leon Bryson abruptly ended his campaign.That...
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The Hollywood Park Controversy
In the spring of 1964, the unmistakable sound of a bulldozer emanated from the small wooded area west of Haisley Elementary School. My family lived three houses away from the woods on Haisley Dr.The city’s bulldozer had...
Read MoreRunning for Judge
Julia Owdziej was in the middle of a phone interview about her campaign for probate judge when her other phone rang. She politely excused herself. A few minutes later she came back on the line and said, “They’re...
Read MoreIs Bigger Better?
It looks like Will Hathaway and his mom, Mary, will finally get what they’ve dreamed of for years: a park on top of the underground Library Lane parking structure next to the Ann Arbor District Library. “My mom has...
Read MoreBounties of Spring
Jesse Shepherd is an expert woodsman. In season he hunts wild turkey and deer, traps muskrats, and hunts small game. In summer he enjoys fishing the lakes in the Waterloo State Recreation Area between Jackson and Chelsea. And...
Read MoreThe Fine Art of Marketing
Ann Arbor native Helen Gotlib earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the U-M in 2003, with concentrations in printmaking and scientific illustration. That led her to develop what she calls “a process-oriented drawing...
Read MoreBirth of the Cube Farm
Driving by the deserted, dilapidated one-story building at 2285 S. State, no one would ever guess it was the birthplace of the office cubicle, an invention that radically changed the American workplace. The much-maligned...
Read MoreBreakthrough
The tumors were gone. A month earlier, scientists at the Pfizer laboratories on Plymouth Road had begun dosing mice bearing human tumors with a new kind of cancer drug. Now technicians examining the mice could feel nothing...
Read MoreThe Reinhart Legacy
From the mid-1980s through 2012 the horse race to watch in Ann Arbor real estate was between the Charles Reinhart Company and the Edward Surovell Company. “Every January, the numbers would come out,” laughs Steve...
Read MoreThe Coleman Era
A “Farewell Mary Sue” party in mid-March pulled out all the stops. Jeff Daniels introduced President Coleman to the crowd at the Michigan Union–faculty, staff, regents, and a lot of students. Regent Andrea...
Read MoreReasons for Hope
“By law we have to pass a balanced budget by our last meeting in June,” says Ann Arbor school board trustee Glenn Nelson. “This year that’s June 25.”To get there, the board will have to close a...
Read MoreThe Honesty Policy
It begins with a mistake. A doctor botches an operation, misses something on an MRI, or fails to make a diagnosis. Medical lawsuits are nothing new. Doctors are human. They make mistakes, and injured patients expect to be...
Read MoreSue Thy Neighbor
When Nick Delbanco and his wife moved from Vermont to Ann Arbor in 1985, they were drawn to a home near Nichols Arboretum. Just a block away, a short path led to the Arb’s Main Valley. “I felt like a country...
Read MoreThe Faculty Strikes Back
“The secret bonuses blew me away!”That’s U-M history prof Juan Cole, describing his response to the news that a growing number of university employees–chiefly top administrators–are receiving hefty...
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