Unusually high water levels kept paddlers off sections of the Huron River this spring. But regardless of rainfall, canoeists can look forward to an easier river trip next spring. By then, the city should have completed its...
Read MoreJeff Irwin was heading to an AATA event in June when a journalist stopped him on State Street. Asked how it felt to be out of Lansing for the day, the freshman Democrat replied, “Great! Because it means we’re not in...
Read MoreShortly after the New Theatre Project spent $3,500 to remodel a space on Felch Street, the City of Ann Arbor discovered their performances were occurring in a building zoned as “light industrial” and sent TNTP...
Read MoreThe four challengers in the August 2 Democratic primary might seem to have a difficult–if not impossible–task.Stephen Rapundalo, Ward Two’s representative since 2005, is well known for his tough negotiating...
Read MoreIf you’re armed and happen to see several hundred pounds of ugly, aggressive wild pig–shoot to kill.That’s the word from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, and state hunters have taken them up on it,...
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U-M lecturer Fawzia Bariun says that’s the ultimatum Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi gave his subjects. As a young journalist in Libya, Bariun interviewed the former army officer in the early 1970s, and recalls how...
Read More“Ann Arbor is getting screwed–again!”That’s Barbara Bergman’s pithy summation of the redistricting plan the county board of commissioners approved in May, which shrinks the body from eleven members...
Read MoreState budget cuts plus rising costs equal more pain for area school districts.When the legislature passed the state’s 2012–2013 budget at the end of May, governor Rick Snyder made good on his promise to deliver a budget on...
Read MoreThe long-running battle between the city and the Ann Arbor Police Officers Association flared up again in March. The union contends that officers should pay less for their health care than other city workers because high levels...
Read More“I’m going to be in the West Wing tonight–would it be all right if I took your book along?”Oran Hesterman’s Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All won’t be released till...
Read MoreHoward Scheps “can’t exactly say” when he last rolled his trash cart to the curb in front of his east-side home. “Maybe right after Christmas,” says Scheps, who works in the Ann Arbor City...
Read MoreA new model for U-M’s clinical psychology program marks a generational and gender transition.As late as the 1980s, “clinical psych” was a powerhouse. Ranked second in the country by U.S. News & World...
Read MoreNot everyone at Borders’ corporate headquarters on Phoenix Drive is waiting until the end of June to see if publishers will throw a lifeline to the bankrupt company. A former employee at the once-bustling headquarters...
Read MoreGovernor Rick Snyder promotes his proposed budget as sharing the suffering required to fix the state’s structural deficit. Few local Democrats see it that way.”I don’t think anyone disagrees that there has to...
Read More“People tell me I couldn’t have picked a worse decade to be mayor,” says John Hieftje with a rueful smile. Since he was first elected in 2000, state aid has slowed to a trickle, real estate values have...
Read MoreIt 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...
Read MoreWhen 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...
Read More“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...
Read More“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...
Read More“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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