News

Where’s My Mail Carrier?

It was the single largest change in Ann Arbor mail delivery history: on April 2, twenty city carrier routes were eliminated. According to Ted Sims, officer in charge of the Ann Arbor post office, ninety-eight of the remaining...

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“We need more cops!”

When times are bad, conventional wisdom says, crime goes up. The idea is that desperate times can drive even law-abiding citizens to desperate crime.Not this time. During the worst economic downturn most people can remember, the...

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Special ed vote today

“Hello, I’m the parent of a special ed student,” began a recent robocall, asking voters to say yes in today’s vote on a special education millage renewal. Special ed parents have the most obvious...

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Who is Dale Newman?

“It’s not easy. You have to have a thick hide to live with the criticism,” says Dale Newman. “I’ve never Googled myself.” If he did Google himself, he’d find such headlines as “DTE...

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A taxing question

“We can have an intelligent discussion of a city income tax here,” asserts city council member Tony Derezinski. “Because it’s a legitimate question: what should be taxed–income or property or...

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Underwater

Just outside Chelsea, two whole neighborhoods are missing. One should be southwest of town off Pielemeier Dr., the other to the northwest off Sibley. With their comparatively small lots, the new subdivisions were designed to...

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Police vs. Taxes

Hard times usually mean more crimes, as some law-abiding citizens are driven to desperate straits. Not this time–at least so far. Reflecting a national trend, most crimes in most places in Washtenaw County declined last...

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Borders Goes Bankrupt

After filing for bankruptcy in February, the Borders Group will meet with creditors this month to outline its plans to reorganize itself and reinvigorate its business. In an email, CEO Mike Edwards told customers that the...

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Reinvention or Deja Vu?

At AnnArbor. com’s economic outlook luncheon on March 11, Governor Rick Snyder praised the website and newspaper as an example of the “reinvention” the state needs. Afterwards, photographer Lon Horwedel...

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What next for the HUD co-ops?

In 1965, Esther and Ben Rubin moved into a new four-bedroom townhouse off Platt south of Packard. What would eventually be the 427-unit Colonial Square Cooperative was still being built, but as a blended family with four...

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The Chamber Flexes Its Muscles

“We’ve made great strides,” says John Petz.Last June 1, Petz became the first board chair of the combined Ann Arbor / Ypsilanti Regional Chamber. In recent years, the neighboring chambers of commerce had seen...

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The Show Must Go On

“I’m in full ‘punt’ mode,” U-M conductor Jerry Blackstone emailed in February. For more than five months, Blackstone had been rehearsing the Choral Union for a pair of March performances of...

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Past Due

If you feel guilty because you never got to Hollywood Video before it folded to pay your fines for overdue DVDs, checking your credit report could change that guilt to anguish and anger. It certainly did for Dale Johnson, who...

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Brazen Break-in

When thieves broke into the rectory of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church on a Sunday morning in January, the priests who live there were just steps away–one working in the parish office, the other presiding at mass....

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What price pensions

Ask Washtenaw County Treasurer Catherine McClary about the perils inherent in underfunded retirement plans and she’ll tell you flat out: “It’s a time bomb for government at all levels. The assumption is that...

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Third and Long

For two days in January, the most-shared story on the Wall Street Journal’s website had nothing to do with business: it was a column by local writer John U. Bacon on the firing of Michigan football coach Rich...

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Storm Warning

With a rare “blizzard warning” in effect, the Midwest is bracing for heavy snows and high winds. At 4 a.m. on Tues. Feb. 1, the storm was expected to hit Ann Arbor at 7 p.m. To follow the storm, click here to see the...

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More Need, Less Money

How bad is the rise in homelessness in Washtenaw County? “We served 1,200 people last year, and we still have a waiting list of three people for every bed,” says Ellen Schulmeister, executive director of the Shelter...

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What Price Health?

The 2009 merger of Chelsea Community Hospital with the Saint Joseph Mercy Health System brought an unexpected thank-you gift to area residents: a staggering $25 million was set aside in a perpetual fund to improve their health...

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Upside-down Winter?

Jeff Masters, guru at Ann Arbor’s Weather Underground, thinks we’re in for another cold winter. But don’t count Masters among the global-warming skeptics–on the contrary, the U-M meteorology Ph.D. has...

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