The Parent Trap: Balancing Truth & Secrecy With Kids When Parents Have Worries
by Betsy McMillin
My 14-year-old daughter came up to me yesterday and asked "Mumma, what's the matter today? You seem really sad." I replied, "Yeah, I got some sad news from a good friend."
Sad news? Try monumentally depressing news. From…
State Senator Rebekah Warren Becomes First and Only Democratic Michigan Legislator Targeted For Recall in 2011
Lawrence Kestenbaum has just 280 followers on Twitter. Not a grand following for the County Clerk of Washtenaw County. Kestenbaum, a Democrat, yesterday made the unusual choice to tweet about a new recall effort launched in the state of…
The Wheels Come Off The Recycling Cart: Projected Collections Down 40 Percent & Recycle Ann Arbor On the Ropes Financially
A2Politico has been consistently critical of the city's move to single-stream recycling, interviewing and quoting national experts who dubbed the move "environmentally regressive" and a "waste of taxpayer money." A2Politico questioned the…
In May Gov. Snyder Touts New Flat Tax As Best Lure For Business. In June Offers Sears $50M In Tax Incentives To Relocate HQ
Small businesses owned by individuals, couples and families do one thing really well: take out as much money as possible from the business, and minimize the tax burden as much as possible. This can be confirmed by just about any small…
Urban Exile: On the 4th of July Remember…The Few, The Proud, America’s 76,000 Homeless Veterans
by Erika McNamara
On June 11, 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported:
Contending that the region's population of disabled homeless veterans has reached crisis proportions, a coalition led by the ACLU of Southern California filed a lawsuit…
The Sleeping Giant Awakens: Michigan Education Association To Back Snyder Recall Efforts
A2P Notes: This is filed under "Scoops & Scores" because you read it here first!
Michigan Education Association spokesman Doug Pratt told A2Politico recently via email that the MEA was not endorsing the citizen-led efforts to recall…
Legislature Reforms Teacher Tenure: Education Experts Recommend Michigan Residents (1) Rejoice or (2) Mourn
As you might imagine, A2Politico gets lots of press releases. We never simply reprint press releases as "news." That would be cheating, as any fourth grade teacher knows. Yesterday, A2P got several press releases concerning the same news…
Pell Grants For Summer Study Eliminated—20K Students Impacted At Local Institutions
The end of the year-round Pell Grant program is here. During the 2010-2011 academic year, the Pell Grant award maximum per student was $5,500. In the 2008 academic year, it is estimated that the average Pell Grant awarded was $2,770, which…
The Culture Vulture: U2 Stamps Godzilla’s Carbon Footprint on Michigan
by Chris Savage
This past Sunday I got an unexpected call with an offer to purchase tickets to the East Lansing stop of U2's 360° tour later that evening. The show was a rescheduling of the original tour which had been postponed because…
House Calls: Michigan State Representative Jeff Irwin Talks About Tenure Reform
Representative Jeff Irwin, a Democrat, served for a decade as a Washtenaw County Commissioner. In January 2011, he began his first term in the Michigan House of Representatives. In his regular column, House Calls, A2Politico will pose a…