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2 months ago | 
annarborobserver.com | James Leonard |Brooke Black
Good news for the one in five people who have difficulty processing written words: Michigan now has two strong laws governing how schools screen for dyslexia and train teachers to respond to it. And it has them largely because of Ann Arbor school board member and former special ed teacher Susan Ward Schmidt. This content is for subscribers only.
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Dec 29, 2024 | 
themercedfocus.org | James Leonard |Merced College |Jill Cunningham
Reading Time: 5 minutesEditor’s Note: In light of President Jimmy Carter’s death, we are republishing an article about a visit the 39th U.S. president to Merced back in 1980, courtesy of Merced College. The story was written when Carter turned 100 earlier this year. On the Fourth of July in 1980, in the middle of a presidential campaign and beneath the cloud of the Iran hostage crisis, politics were put to the side—mostly—on a historic day in Merced.
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Dec 22, 2024 | 
annarborobserver.com | James Leonard |Brooke Black
Alyshia Dyer ran for sheriff promising to reduce racial disparities in arrests and shake up the officeís leadership. In December, she held a Race and Economic Justice Town Hall to invite input for her agenda when she takes over this month. One thing she shouldn’t have to worry about is towing contracts.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
annarborobserver.com | James Leonard |Brooke Black
“I feel pretty good,” says AAPS board president Torchio Feaster of the November election results. “We elected a lot of good people in this community.”Subscribe Now This content is for subscribers only. Already a member? Log in here
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
annarborobserver.com | James Leonard |Brooke Black
In November, voters overwhelmingly supported two proposals placed on the ballot by city council: Prop A, authorizing the creation of a city sustainable energy utility, won 79 percent to 21 percent. Prop B, renewing a park maintenance and capital improvements tax, won 28 to 72 percent. The numbers were reversed for the two election proposals. Prop C, which would have eliminated partisan labels and primary elections, earned just 28 percent of the vote.
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Oct 25, 2024 | 
annarborobserver.com | James Leonard |Brooke Black
The 22nd Circuit Court’s Tim Connors’ term expires in January and the 15th District Court’s Joseph Burke plans to retire at the end of December. Both seats are for six-year terms, but the job usually winds up being for life or until mandatory retirement at seventy, because sitting judges seldom face challengers. When they do, they almost never lose. This content is for subscribers only.
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Aug 26, 2024 | 
annarborobserver.com | James Leonard |Amy Sumerton
A week after school let out in June, the Ann Arbor Board of Education voted to release a devastating report on the mistakes leading to a multimillion-dollar hole in the district’s budget: “The former Superintendent confirmed to us that discussions were held with the Board [in spring 2023] that there would need to be reductions in the cost structure of approximately $12 million in the next fiscal year,” consultants Plante Moran wrote. By the time the report came out, it was more than $20 million.
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Aug 26, 2024 | 
annarborobserver.com | James Leonard |Brooke Black
Morgan Foreman handily won the Democratic nomination to replace Felicia Brabec as representative for Michigan House District 33—and she did it with half as much money as her opponent, Rima Mohammad. Morgan, until recently Brabec’s constituent service director, got 11,258 votes to 5,572 for Mohammad, an Ann Arbor public schools trustee and professor in the U-M’s clinical pharmacy department.
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Aug 26, 2024 | 
annarborobserver.com | James Leonard |Brooke Black
Despite little sleep and no coffee, Dyer was “very excited” the morning after the election. “It took until late that night for the county clerk to determine the winner,” she says, and when she finally learned she’d won, it “was just such a relief!”Dyer believes she won because voters supported her “idea that we can have more forward-thinking, progressive law enforcement.
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Jul 30, 2024 | 
law.com | James Leonard
For decades, victims of Georgia trucking accidents have looked no further than the companies providing insurance coverage to motor carriers and their drivers. Alone among insurance cases, truck accidents were direct-action claims, providing injured parties a clear path toward resolution. Plaintiffs filed their actions directly against insurance carriers.
