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A2Politico
A2POLITICO: Economic Development Groupies Circle The Bentleys to Defend SPARK
by P.D. Lesko
AT A RECENT mayoral candidate forum, unabashed supporters of “crony capitalism”—what President Obama’s former economic expert Dr. Lawrence Summers called the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s programs—defended Ann…
A2Politico: Softball Questions and Myopic Politics
by P.D. Lesko
YOU PROBABLY DON’T know it, but sitting through a candidate forum in Ann Arbor is like watching paint dry. The same 50-60 people (many of whom are candidates in other races, office holders, political appointees or people…
A2POLITICO: AAPS Board of Education Members Leave District $35M Lighter
by P.D. Lesko
TRUSTEES GLENN NELSON and Irene Patalan have said they intend to step down from the Ann Arbor Board of Education. In 2003, they ran as a part of a slate of candidates and have, for a decade, served. In that time, they have…
A2POLITICO: The AAATA Bus Pass Blue Light Special
by P.D. Lesko
THE PRESIDENT OF Washtenaw Community College recently endorsed AAATA’s proposed $22 million tax hike. In a statement, WCC President Rose B. Bellanca said, “The AAATA is a valuable resource for our community and for…
A2POLITICO: AAPD Sources Dish on How Drug Crimes Might Get Classified as Trespass Violations
by P.D. Lesko
IN ANSWER TO how often the officers on Ann Arbor’s police department simply skip the step of filing official police reports, a source within the AAPD said: “Probably four times per month and all of the officers are doing…
A2POLITICO: Paying Attention to the “Public’s Perception”—Grudgingly
by P.D. Lesko
THE COUNTY EMPLOYEES had taken the majority of the chairs out of the waiting room and into a conference room, where a gaggle of them were gathered around a table having a meeting. The waiting room was full of people…
A2POLITICO: If I Eat At Your Restaurant and You Donate My Money To Rick Snyder. Should I Care?
by P.D. Lesko
BY NOW, MIDDLE-CLASS Democrats and independents all over the state of Michigan are reeling from the consequences of voting (or not) for a gubernatorial candidate who ran a campaign that, in essence, was short on substance…
A2Politico: County Treasurer—“There Was Too Much Possibility For Fraud Or Abuse.”
by P.D. Lesko
THIS NEWSPAPER, UNLIKE many in the United States, has a regular column that deals with the issues of hunger, homelessness and poverty in our city, state and nation. “Urban Exile” is not fluffy feel-good journalism. The…
A2Politico: The Ann Arbor Observer—“As you know, we made a serious error in reporting…”
by P.D. Lesko
IMAGINE MY SURPRISE when I opened the February 2014 issue of The Ann Arbor Observer and discovered my photo. The title of the piece? “A $250,000 Election: This Year’s City Council Race Is Shaping Up As The Most Expensive…
A2POLITICO: You Want What? “We Can’t Possibly Fix All The Roads.”
by P.D. Lesko
THE LAST TIME Julie Grand ran for City Council, she told a room full of voters at a Democratic candidate forum: “And I don’t know that we can get every road paved in the neighborhood. I don’t know that we can fix all of the…