Shawn Batt Aims to Help Ann Arbor Middle School Students Become Top Rate Orators
by Donna Iadipaolo
ONE MAN WANTS to change the face of debate and speech activities in Ann Arbor for middle school students. His name is Shawn Batt, and he is the founder of Michigan Speech Outreach (MSO), which began as a Lansing-based…
Let the Dysfunction Games Begin? Vote to Exclude CPA From Budget Committee, Repetitive Pleas for Concision
The Dec. 1 City Council meeting included members grappling over their own rules, a failed floor motion to put Council’s only CPA on the group’s Budget & Labor Committee and a lengthy debate centered around limiting members’ speaking…
EDITORIAL: Council Members’ Decision to Disallow Social Media Use a Wise Move
IN A 7-4 VOTE City Council members decided to disallow the use of social media during meetings: no Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat or Pinterest. Council members’ emails sent during their public meetings are subject to a variety of rules, as…
EDITORIAL: The Listening Tour—Growth
AAPS SUPERINTENDENT DR. Swift is preparing to launch another “listening tour” similar to the successful one she conducted shortly after her hiring. We congratulate her on this effort to get out of Balas and into the community to hear from…
Ann Arbor’s New Fire Chief Larry Collins Was Fired From Previous Post in Sept. 2014
CITY OF ANN Arbor officials put out a press release when new Fire Chief Larry Collins was hired. It was short and sweet. What it didn’t include was the fact that Collins had been fired from his previous job on Sept. 4. Before heading the…
City Suffers Legal Blow: Judge Refuses to Dismiss Footing Disconnect Drain Suit
by P.D. Lesko
ANN ARBOR POLITICAL insiders ask the question: Could Irv Mermelstein be the next Tom Weider? Between 1995 and 2002 Weider, a feisty redhead and hard-nosed attorney, represented a group of substitute teachers against the Ann…
Ann Arbor Independent & ACLU Press Police to Release Public Records About Rosser Shooting
The Ann Arbor Independent filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the incident report filed by AAPD officers after the shooting of Aura Rosser. The ACLU of Michigan has been in contact with the AAPD, as well, urging the release of…
EDITORIAL: The A2(You)FixIt App
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF the A2FixIt program and corresponding app was warmly welcomed in the editorial page of this newspaper. We complimented city staff who worked to design and launch the program which allows people to use a cell phone to…
A2Politico: Judge Tabbey Sets Good and Bad Examples
P.D. Lesko
TWO OF THE three judges who serve in the 14-A District Court were involved in judicial tenure review complaints. By now, if you don’t know the Judge Cedric Simpson and Judge Kirk Tabbey stories, you’re missing out on some…
A Day at the Museum—Tagging Along on a Tour of the U-M’s Dinosaur Exhibits
The children are restless and complain, “When does it start? Can we go!” Just when the kiddos are about to gang up on our tour guide, an enthusiastic 20-something U-M student named, Stuart Richardson, directs us up the stairwell to the…
