P.D. Lesko

by P.D. Lesko In 2004, the Ann Arbor News Editorial Board published an endorsement of Hieftje's mayoral opponent that included this zinger, preserved for posterity by Google: “Hieftje’s largest failure is not one of vision, but leadership.…

Throughout the month of December, readers voted to choose the A2Politico.com Whopper of the Year Award winner. Last year, A2Politico.com gave the 2010 Whopper of the Year to former City Administrator Roger Fraser. For 24 months, Fraser…

by P.D. Lesko I read it, and I laughed. Out loud. I read it again, and laughed even more. I kept reading. Sometimes, I get bored and quit in the middle. Other times, reading this stuff is like taking flax seed oil. It's good for me, so I…

by P.D. Lesko How many direct hits from within can the Hieftje-Hive-Mind-Collective Cube withstand? In summer 2009, the Cube took its first hit from within: Ann Arbor residents woke up to a front page piece in the Ann Arbor News that was…

by P.D. Lesko Class size: one time when size does matter. Research on the success of K-12 students has concluded definitively that class sizes impact the performance of all students. Kids learn better in small classes. According to…

by P.D. Lesko For the past year, Governor Rick Snyder has been getting pretty much everything he wanted from the state's Republican-controlled legislature. Together, the state's Republicans have been accused of legislatively sucker…

by P.D. Lesko If you never read the Michigan Messenger, you missed some of the best investigative reporting around. Eartha Jane Melzer on the Benton Harbor and environmental beats outreported virtually every other news outlet in the state.…

by P.D. Lesko The headline at Salon.com says it all: "America's Corporate Tax Obscenity: A new report about companies' finances won't just enrage you it'll make you run to the nearest protest." Salon writer Andrew Leonard writes:…

by P.D. Lesko In June of 2009, the now defunct Ann Arbor News broke a story that revealed Ann Arbor City Council members were abusing email during open meetings to mock and make fun of constituents, to script debates and to rig votes, such…

by P.D. Lesko Despite her continued opposition to the city's Greenbelt millage, money that city officials have used to purchase thousands of acres of land (tip o' the keyboard to Rita Mitchell), including farmland, in the area…