by P.D. Lesko Third Ward Council member Stephen Kunselman has been a pain in John Hieftje’s butter dish ever since Kunselman knocked off Leigh Greden in the 2009 stunner of a primary election. While Kunselman won by a 6 vote margin, Greden lost big overall in a three-way race that saw the 3-term incumbent manage [...]
by Pete Nicely Herbert Hoover once said, “Nothing is more important than balancing the budget.” As he was saying this, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York was busy turning a budget surplus into a deficit. Why? FDR was actually trying to create jobs. Governor Rick Snyder will surely trumpet (or perhaps even tuba) the [...]
by P.D. Lesko In September 2011, former Ann Arbor News reporter Tom Gantert did what he does best: published the truth. In point of fact, writing for Michigan Capitol Confidential, Gantert published information about the pay of staffers at the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority. Gantert published his piece after the Board of the AATA had [...]
by P.D. Lesko Fifth Ward Council member Mike Anglin sent out an email on January 15, 2012 in which he urged Ann Arbor residents to vocally oppose John Hieftje’s proposal that Ann Arbor enter into a regional transportation agreement under the auspices of which Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) would be dissolved and the entity’s millage [...]
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. Few are willing to publicly criticize Hieftje because they expect quick retaliation and there is good reason for [...]
by Nick Leshi Entertainment Weekly had a cool little article about movies that were produced full of potential to become huge franchises, but plans for sequels fizzled with their miniscule box-office performance. It lists Dune, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Eragon, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Green Lantern, Godzilla, The Golden Compass, etc. My rambling mind started thinking about movies [...]
by Sophia van Buren For the past eight years, I’ve adopted and grown into both the idea and reality of being a role reversal model of the mother as the non-custodial parent, but if current trends continue, the percentage of non-custodial parents will shrink. That is because recent trends indicate that more progressive state laws are [...]
by P.D. Lesko Michigan has bled jobs, and the state’s residents have suffered Depression-era unemployment levels. The Detroit Free Press recently concluded in its report card evaluation of Governor Rick Snyder that Snyder’s first year in office has been all about “jobs and kids.” The Freep went on to give Mr. Snyder a rather inflated set [...]
by Erika McNamara Detroit organizations that assist the homeless in the city report that the number of homeless individuals is on the increase and the shelters are at over capacity. The number of people requiring assistance this year is estimated to be way over the 22,000 plus people that were homeless last year in Detroit. [...]
by Warren Liverance Of late, our legislature and governor have set their sights on the reform of the public education system. According to a February 22, 2011 Free Press article “more than 50 percent of high schools have fewer than 10 percent of their students ‘college-ready’ with 230 high schools having 0 percent ready.” (I find [...]
