Police, Fire, Parks, Millage Funds & Pools Dinged By City’s IT Fund For Millions In Assessments While IT Projects Remained Uncompleted
MAYOR HIEFTJE HAS repeatedly told the public that the cost of police and fire service is a strain on the city’s budget. In a 2012 interview he said this about the city’s safety services budget, “...All the water has been wrung out of the…
Ann Arbor SPARK Refuses To Release Audit
WARD 1 CITY Council member Sumi Kailasapathy is a CPA. It was Kailasapathy who pushed the Council’s Audit Committee to investigate further after it was revealed City Attorney Stephen Postema had allegedly “double-dipped,” in accepting a car…
University of Michigan Black Enrollment Plummets From 6.4 Percent to 3.9 Percent
A DECADE AGO, the University of Michigan waged a successful U.S. Supreme Court fight to save affirmative action. Now Michigan is learning to live without it.
Three years after the court allowed race-based admissions, Michigan voters…
Ward 1 Independent Challenger Snags Support From Council Dems
WARD 1 CITY Council challenger Jeff Hayner has landed the quiet support of several City Council Democrats. Ward 2 City Council incumbent Jane Lumm has the unabashed support of several City Council Democrats. So why are card-carrying members…
Dems Turn Out To Support “Paesano” Independent Jane Lumm At Campaign Kick-Off
WARD 2 CITY Council challenger Kirk Westphal sent out a fundraising letter that includes several interesting claims, one of which is he is the "only Democrat" running in the Ward 2 November general election. Well, yes. For those who were…
AnnArbor.com —30—
by P.D. Lesko
In 2009, AnnArbor.com Kontent King Tony Dearing announced the "future of journalism in Ann Arbor":
"Ding. Dong. The Witch is dead," wrote an A2Politico reader in response to a December 2012 piece about the falling…
Ward 1 Incumbent’s Campaign Literature Criticized As Full of “Half-Truths”
THE DICTIONARY DEFINES propaganda as the deliberate spreading of information, ideas, or rumors in an effort to either help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, or nation. Most commonly propaganda is used in the political arena.…
Four Years Later Ethics Problems Still Haunt EMU Governmental Relations Director
The only former Ann Arbor City Council member having a worse time of it politically than Downtown Development Authority Board member Joan Lowenstein (former Ward 2 Council member) is former Ward 3 Council member Leigh Greden. Lowenstein,…
Council Members Rebuke Mayor Over Proposed Appointee’s Perceived Conflicts of Interest
On August 20th, John Hieftje announced his intention to appoint Albert McWilliams to replace Newcombe Clark on the Board of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority. McWilliams, who works for Quack Media, is in his 30s and a self-styled…
Playing Politics With Ann Arbor’s Drinking Water and Massive 1,4 Dioxane Clean-Up?
GROUNDWATER BENEATH a swath of the city of Ann Arbor is currently contaminated by the suspected carcinogen 1,4 dioxane. The City of Ann Arbor website has a FAQ page dedicated to answering questions about the contamination. Likewise, the…