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Commissioners Ask County Administrator To Report On Employee Stays At Vegas Casinos
County Administrator Verna McDaniel says Ann Arbor Commissioners Rabhi and LaBarre asked her to prepare a report that addressed The Ann Arbor Independent’s March 11 story that documents county employee and elected officials’ stays at Las…
ARTS & LEISURE: An Interview With Dror Burstein
by Jesse Kohn
Dror Burstein is a telescope. To read Netanya, the Israeli author’s new memoir, is to pass inside the Givatayim observatory where Burstein’s grandfather once accompanied him, where the magnified vision of the moon so…
Washtenaw County 14a District Court Employees Use County Credit Cards To Make Dozens of Purchases At Ypsilanti Tim Horton’s
WASHTENAW 14A COURT employees Colleen E. Turek and Lisa Mull have each used their county-issued credit cards to make dozens of purchases at the Ypsilanti Tim Horton’s. The most recent purchase was one for $57.42 made on February 7, 2014 by…
Q & A: Washtenaw Watch Dogs Founder Dr. Douglas Smith
DR. DOUG SMITH, a pathologist, isn’t a guy who rolls over and plays dead in the face of injustice. Prior to July 2011, the University of Michigan’s campus trespass policy permitted lifetime bans. Between 2001 and 2011, 2,050 individuals…
UPDATED: County Taxpayers Foot The Bill For County Employee Stays At Vegas Casinos, Michigan Resorts & Other Luxury Lodgings
Please note: This article was updated with a quote from Sheriff Jerry Clayton's Executive Assistant, Katherine Wyatt.
AN ANALYSIS OF credit card charges made by Washtenaw County employees between 2012 and 2014 shows multiple charges for…
Since 2011 City Administrator Steve Powers Has Cut Spending On Automobile Allowances
While spending increases on meals out, travel, luxury lodging and cell phones, monthly car allowance costs drop significantly from a high in 2010.
UNDER FORMER CITY administrator Roger Fraser in 2009 and 2010, according to information…
Q & A: Italian Slow Food Pioneer Carlo Petrini
by Sarah van Gelder
IN 1986 CARLO Petrini and a group of friends threw a big pasta feed in Rome’s storied Piazza di Spagna (the Spanish Steps). The event was a protest against the opening of the first McDonald’s in Italy. Out of that…
An Interview With Naomi Klein: “Big Green Groups Can Be More Damaging Than Right-Wing Climate Deniers….”
by Jason Mark
Canadian author Naomi Klein is so well known for her blade-sharp commentary that it’s easy to forget that she is, above all, a first-rate reporter. I got a glimpse into her priorities as I was working on this interview.…
Interview: Nadeem Aslam
From the opening few pages of reading a Nadeem Aslam novel, I knew his writing was something to treasure and behold. Maps for Lost Lovers won the Kiriyama Prize, was longlisted for the Booker, shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Award, and…
Since 2005 U of M Financial Aid Spending Up 1.8 Percent While Tuition & Fees Revenue Up 50 Percent
STATE APPROPRIATIONS TO the University of Michigan dropped from $320,662,000 in 2005 to a projected $279,108,700 in 2014, a loss of a total of 12.9 percent over the past descade—some $41.5 million dollars. Drops in state appropriations to…