The Housing and Human Services Advisory Board will hold a Public Meeting on Tuesday, May 13, 6 - 8:30 p.m. to discuss recommendations on the replacement of the 100-affordable housing units at the former YMCA. The meeting will be held at the Washtenaw County Building, 200 N. Main, Lower Level Conference Room. Following a 15-minute presentation, the public is invited to comment. CTN will replay the meeting throughout the week.

Following a traffic study by the Michigan State Police, there are some new Speed Limit Changes in Ann Arbor. Washtenaw Avenue speed limits will increase slightly and the City will have new signs up by mid-April. Questions about the changes should be sent to Project Manager Homayoon Pirooz at hpirooz@a2gov.org.

Participate in democracy. Attend the annual State of the City meeting on Wednesday, April 9, 7-9 p.m. at City Hall. City officials will discuss budget and financial forecasts, government operations and take questions from citizens. CTN will air the taped meeting throughout the week.

Huron River Drive road improvements begin May, 2008, and the City is hosting a Public Information Meeting on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 from 6 - 8 p.m. at Forsythe Middle School. During the construction, HRD from Main Street to Bird Road will be closed to traffic. The detour route for eastbound HRD traffic will be Maple-Dexter-Huron-Main. The detour route for westbound HRD traffic will be Main-Miller-Maple.

We nearly had yet another president in our midst right here in Ann Arbor. Unlike Michigan native son Gerald Ford, however, Jan Svejnar was running for president of the Czech Republic. Svejnar is an economist and professor at UM's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. He was narrowly defeated in his bid for the Czech presidency. Svejnar will be chatting about his experiences in an upcoming event at the Ford School.

Running for the Czech Presidency
March 12, 2008, 5-6p
Betty Ford Classroom, 1110 Weill Hall
735 South State Street, Ann Arbor

P.S. Weill Hall is the shiny new building on the southwest corner of UM's central campus.

Proposal A may confuse and confound us in new ways this year as local governments wrestle with changes in assessed and taxable value. The City of Ann Arbor has a press release that explains the process and provides helpful examples for homeowners. The City Assessor's web page has an FAQ and Online Assessment and Property Tax Database where you can look up info on your property.

The R-word - recession, that is - has been bantered about a lot more recently. With job losses, a pitiful housing market, and the subprime mortgage crisis, its prominence isn't overly surprising, nor is politicians' desire for a bit of economic development. It also is not surprising that people aren't really in a spending mood right now, which further risks bringing about the R-word. In hopes staving off said recession, the House has passed a "stimulus package" that could result in a $600 check appearing in your mailbox. Providing that the Senate agrees, that is.

A $600 check does sound mighty nice. But the question is, will you spend it? The "stimulus" part of the economic stimulus depends on us going right out and buying that new ipod or laptop. Of course, with the economy as rotten as it is, some might want to save it for a rainy day.

So, what if you got a big, fat $600 check in the mail? Would you save it? Spend it? If so, on what? Let's see if Congress' plan is really going to work.

If you check out Amazon's business bestseller page, you'll spot an as-yet-unpublished volume on the so-called fair tax leading the pack. Even if you're not a tax policy wonk, you may have heard the term. And you likely heard it from Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee, who wants to implement such a plan.

Fair tax proponents want to eliminate the IRS and the income tax. They want to replace them with a nationwide sales tax of about 23%. The advantages of the tax, supporters say, is that it's much simpler and won't discourage saving. Not so fast, say critics. The less fortunate among us spend more of our income, so the tax ends up being regressive, even if you include rebates for the poor. Still, with tax season in full swing, many Americans may invite a simpler tax system, even if it's not quite perfect.

Want to learn more? Boortz & Linder, authors of the new book, have delved into this topic before. You can check out their first book from us!

The number to call to schedule an appointment with Washtenaw County Asset Building Coalition is (734) 544-3053.

The Washtenaw County Asset Building Coalition provides free income tax filing assistance to low-income individuals. The purpose of this assistance is to raise awareness of income tax credits (especially the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)) for individuals and families who qualify.

The AADL as a member of the Washtenaw County Asset Building Coalition is one of four county-wide sites for free tax assistance for those qualified to receive an Earned Income Tax Credit. Appointments at the Downtown and Malletts Creek Library locations the following dates and times:

Friday, March 7: 10:30am-2:30pm Malletts Creek Program Room B
Friday, March 14: 10:30am-2:30pm Downtown aadlfreespace
Friday, March 21: 10:30am-2:30pm Malletts Creek Program Room B
Friday, April 4: 10:30am-2:30pm Malletts Creek Program Room B

There are a lot of factors that make a city cool and pedestrian-friendly streets and neighborhoods is one of them. The public is invited to the City of Ann Arbor's annual Traffic Calming Informational Session on Wednesday, January 30, 2008, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at City Hall. Engineers, police and traffic consultants will be on hand to discuss the city's 10-step process to initiate traffic-calming procedures on streets in Tree Town. You can review the Traffic Calming Guidebook online or at the Downtown Branch Library.

The most requested federal tax forms and instructions are now available at all branches of the Ann Arbor District Library. Express stations linking directly to the IRS and Michigan Treasury tax forms are also available at all locations and forms may be printed free of charge. We’ll be happy to assist you in locating and printing forms at all our public service desks, too. To access forms, instructions, publications and tax info 24 hours-a-day from anywhere, visit the IRS and the Michigan Treasury web sites.

"The question of street repairs and improvements will always be with you and cannot be too thoroughly studied." So said the Mayor of Ann Arbor. No, not Mayor Hieftje in 2008, but Mayor Francis M. Hamilton in 1905. The collection of Council Minutes and Proceedings of the City of Ann Arbor in the Local History Room at the Downtown Branch of the Ann Arbor District Library provides ample proof that elected officials may come and go (and come again) but the issues, concerns and downright quirkiness of Tree Town remain constant.

Daniel Schorr, an institution at CBS for decades and a twenty-year mainstay of NPR joined Diane Rehm 12-13-07 on her radio show to talk about his life in journalism and the state of politics in America today and his recently released book "Come to Think of It: Notes on the Turn of the Millennium"

On Jan. 15, 2008, Comcast will move the four Ann Arbor CTN Community Access channels to digital service only stations. This will require all viewers accessing CTN to watch city council meetings as well as school and community programming to have a digital convertor box. CTN's press release gives full details on the changes and their response to the decision by Comcast.