Browsing Category
Opinion
EDITORIAL: The DDA and Graffiti Removal
REMOVAL OF GRAFFITI can cost a business owner between $500-$1,000 per incident. The Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority Board’s allocation of $3,500 from a $29 million budget to fund $25 “grants” to downtown business owners is an…
OP-ED: Campus Safety Must Trump the Right to Free Speech
by Brianne Recker
ONE OF THE pillars of American law and society is the First Amendment, specifically governmental protection of citizens’ freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Another celebrated aspect of our national identity is…
EDITORIAL: Michigan Legislators Once Again Target Gays & Lesbians
LEGISLATORS SERVING ON the Michigan House Committee on Families, Children, and Seniors have passed three bills out of committee. House Bills 4188 (LaFontaine-32), 4189 (Santana-9), and 4190 (Leutheuser-58) aim to allow taxpayer funded…
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: “Tiered” Drug Coverage by Health Insurers
There’s a new tool to limit the insurer’s pays for drugs patients need most. It’s called “tiered” drug coverage. Under a health care plan with “tiered” coverage, patients pay higher percents of the costs of drugs that patients need most…
OP-ED: Increasing Health Care’s Role on Death Row to Avoid Botched Executions
by Keya Patel
AT 6:23 P.M. on April 29, 2014, Clayton Lockett’s execution began. The doctor use a lethal injection never before tested. At 6:33 pm the doctor announced Lockett was unconscious. At 6:39 pm, Lockett said the word “man” and…
EDITORIAL: Safety at the Blake Transit Center
ON WEEKENDS, THE public bathrooms and first floor of the Blake Transit Center downtown remain open well after the front desk staff go off duty. Both the women’s and men’s bathrooms have entrances which are open. There is one family restroom…
EDITORIAL: Local Officials’ Roles in $12M “Debacle”
IN 2009, DAWN Gabay, then interim executive director of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) sent a letter to an MDOT official urging MDOT not to lease 23 outdated rail cars from a company owned by Louis Ferris, Jr. Ferris had…
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: A Guy Walks Into a Barber Shop
I recently read a column in your February 14, 2015 edition that deeply offended me as a customer, friend and community stakeholder in the article’s mean-spirited and unfair characterization of Rush’s Barbershop, and its beloved proprietor…
EDITORIAL: Fire, Ready, Aim
THE AATA SPENT about $1.4 million on consultants, marketing and collateral materials to shape and pitch to Washtenaw County residents a proposed $500 million regional transit plan. The amount spent did not include hundreds of hours of…
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Why Ann Arbor Needs to Vote on Deer Culling
Why Ann Arbor Needs to Vote on Deer Culling
I strongly believe that Ann Arbor should use humane methods of deer management, which have a proven track record as being far safer, more effective, and even less expensive.
At Ann…