News

We Voted

Dec 11, 2016 | |

“In real estate it’s location, location, location,” veteran political reporter Tim Skubick told the Washtenaw Economic Club on November 10. “In politics it’s turnout, turnout, turnout.”In a...

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Turning the Research Ship Around

Nov 28, 2016 | , |

In her State of the University address in October 2009, then-U-M president Mary Sue Coleman proposed doubling the university’s annual research spending by 2017, to $2 billion. “It would require a tremendous...

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Three Millages

Nov 27, 2016 | , |

After years of negotiations following decades of failed attempts, the four-county regional transit millage nearly didn’t make it to the November 8 ballot.Two weeks before the language was finalized, Oakland and Macomb...

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Longshots

Nov 23, 2016 | |

Running against a virtually unbeatable opponent is one of the most thankless tasks in politics. So why do people do it?Baird is taking on Democrat Adam Zemke in western Washtenaw’s Fifty-Fourth District because the state...

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Religion vs. Regulation

Nov 20, 2016 | |

In 2012, Pittsfield Township rejected MIA’s request to build a new school on twenty-seven acres on Ellsworth Rd. With help from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the group sued. It looked like the township...

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VW’s Bill

Nov 16, 2016 | |

The cost keeps mounting for the Volkswagen scandal uncovered by Ann Arbor-based clean-air researcher John German. In September, the company confirmed it will pay its dealers $1.2 billion for damage to their businesses, and as...

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WCC Vote

Nov 11, 2016 | |

Judging from the candidates running for Washtenaw Community College’s governing board, the school’s faculty union is unlikely to achieve its goal of removing president Rose Bellanca. “We’ve not rescinded...

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Recycling Rift

Oct 31, 2016 | , |

After just a week on the job, new city administrator Howard Lazarus terminated the city’s contract with ReCommunity, the company that’s processed recycling at the city’s Materials Recovery Facility for the last...

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Slates Are Back

Oct 29, 2016 | , |

After nearly a decade’s absence from the local political scene, two slates are on the November ballot, one for the school board and the other for the library board. Eight candidates are running for each nonpartisan body....

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Early Voting

Oct 10, 2016 | |

The doors to the city clerk’s office are closed on Fridays this month to give city clerk Jackie Beaudry and her staff time to prepare for the November 8 presidential election. On the job since 2005, Beaudry expects a huge...

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Four More Years?

Oct 1, 2016 | |

While state and national elections occur every two and four years, half of city council is up for election every year. In practice this means voter turnout in odd-numbered years, with only local races on the ballot, is much...

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“A High Level of Satisfaction”?

Sep 11, 2016 | |

Does that mean they’re happy with local government?Complicating the answer is that in two of the three races, voters had to choose among three candidates. “A three-way race is difficult for challengers,” writes...

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Roundabout Crashes

Sep 10, 2016 | |

Accidents increased fivefold when the exceedingly congested intersection at State and Ellsworth became the county’s first two-lane roundabout in late 2013, from twenty-nine in 2012 to 168 in 2014–instantly making it...

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Crossing Water

Aug 29, 2016 | , |

Shopping at Meijer recently, Mike Hood saw pallets stacked with bottled water–and began to cry. The bottles, he says, “represented so much trauma and pain I couldn’t even talk.”Until last fall, Hood,...

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No Contest

Aug 8, 2016 | |

“Being mayor of Ann Arbor is a great job.”So why don’t more people want it?”I don’t know,” Taylor says. “I’m delighted to be serving.”There are primary races in three of the...

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Three Races, Eight Candidates:

Aug 1, 2016 | , |

The August 2 city council primary is odd in more ways than one.Mayor Christopher Taylor and councilmembers Kirk Westphal and Julie Grand are heading to reelection unchallenged (see Inside Ann Arbor, p.13). In two other wards,...

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WCC Millage 2016

Jul 31, 2016 | |

The speakers at Washtenaw Community College’s June board of trustees meeting couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about the college’s millage renewal and restoration on the August 2 ballot. Representatives from...

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First Steps

Jul 29, 2016 | , |

In the past five years, three Ann Arborites were murdered. In that same time span, six pedestrians and bicyclists were killed by motor vehicles.That alone could explain why no one running for city council in August’s...

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Snowflake Wanted

Jul 14, 2016 | |

In May, the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners voted 6-1 (with two absences) to launch a new search for a county administrator. The lone dissenter, Dan Smith, was unhappy that “we never did take a formal vote”...

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Pot fight

Jul 10, 2016 | |

On June 1, MI Legalize turned in petitions containing more than 350,000 signatures calling for a statewide vote to decriminalize marijuana. On June 9, the State Board of Canvassers rejected 137,000 signatures gathered before...

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