Stories indexed with the term ‘Del Dunbar’

In my favorite movie “Animal House,” John Belushi delivers a classic line: “Over? Nothing is over until we say it is. Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no, and it ain’t over now!”

With the same level of determination and a lot more smarts, 700 members of AFSCME Local 2733 and members of six other smaller bargaining units gave back contract benefits totaling about $6.6 million to help reduce Washtenaw County’s projected 2010-11 budget deficit. I have lived in Ann Arbor 49 years and do not recall a similar circumstance. Were county services over? Were the jobs of up to 150 union members over? The Locals said “Hell, no.”

It was a big deal. [Full Story]

Bill Lockyer, California State Treasurer, says that Winston T. Lee of Lafayette, Calif. owes his department $9,940,513.49 representing unfiled state income tax returns since 2002. One wonders, since both Bill and Winston agree that the returns were not filed, how Bill determined the delinquent income tax amount so precisely? At least you would think he could have rounded down on the 49 cents. (Google “California Delinquent Taxes.”)

“Not so,” Mr. Lee tells CNN on tax day. The assessment seemingly was set high enough in hopes of encouraging Mr. Lee to file his past-due returns and pay the correct tax with interest and penalties. “Won’t happen,” further retorts Mr. Lee. “I feel badly about the whole thing but I just can’t bring myself to figure out the complexities of the California income tax forms. I hope they will call me and we can agree on some number and I’ll just pay it.”

If Mr. Lee, a businessman with a few rental properties, is confused by the California returns, he is most fortunate not to be doing business in Michigan. The governor’s new Michigan Business Tax, with its mind-numbing complexities and inequities, sets the gold standard for costly tax attorneys and CPAs. Likely the governor’s  State Treasurer has already realized – or soon will – the significant free give-a-ways, tax credits, and subsidies that will be needed to get any prospective new business to buy into the MBT mess, a tax adopted at 2 in the morning by a sleep-deprived (brain dead?) legislature surrounded by dozens of well-paid and wide awake lobbyists. [Full Story]

It would be good to be more like Kevin.

I only talked with him a few times before he got sick. He seemed far too quiet and too young to have had so many successes. Plus, he was always skinny despite devouring at each Michigan Historical Society meeting what seemed to me to be an inordinate number of raisin oatmeal cookies.     

“The world is run by those who show up” was the motto he adopted in dedicating his life to improving health care for the people of Michigan. He worked tirelessly to ban smoking in the workplace, increasing childhood immunization rates, advocating for AIDS education and better end-of-life care. Although a Michigan State graduate, his adage seems particularly applicable to Ann Arbor. [Full Story]

I miss my daily newspaper as I remember it. Beginning at age 8, I delivered the Detroit Free Press starting at 5 in the morning. It was a small town that depended on two bikes and two people to get the paper out before the milk was delivered to most doorsteps by Alward’s Dairy. It was my world.

I still remember the streets and house numbers as well as some of the more scandalous family entanglements on “my route.” It was hard to keep anything from the paperboy since things seem to either happen or clear out just before daybreak. Recently, a retiree in Ann Arbor said that she grew up at 126 Tyrell Street in my home town. I blushed … [Full Story]