V­­­­­oters in Birmingham, Bloomfield Township and Bloomfield Hills will be determining the fate of candidates and a number of local and state ballot issues in the November 3, general election, either at the polls or through absentee ballots which are now being mailed out by municipal clerks. Below are our recommendations on candidates and the ballot issues. U.S. House of Representatives / 11th District (Birmingham, Bloomfield Township, Bloomfield Hills, most of Oakland Count

Voters across Oakland County, and in neighboring Wayne County, will be determining the fate of a special millage request in November to help fund the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and the Detroit Historical Society, and like with all millage requests – new or renewal – it’s critical that detailed information about this proposal be shared well in advance of ballots being cast. This millage request has been lingering for nearly two years, thanks to a deba

Ten cents. A dime. Two nickels. In today's world, where the penny has been discontinued from production, what can a dime actually buy you? It turns out, in the city of Birmingham, it has the potential to purchase $420,000 worth of actions to protect the city's beautiful natural resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the quality of life for residents, businesses and visitors. That's an amazing value for 10 cents. Yet the Birmingham City Commission isn't as cert

Voters in Birmingham, Bloomfield Township and Bloomfield Hills will be determining the fate of primary candidates and a few ballot issues in the Tuesday, August 4, election, either at the polls or through absentee ballots which are now being mailed out by municipal clerks. Reflected on voters' ballots this year will be the standard bearers for November for U.S. Senate, governor, state Senate and House, and Congress. Renewals for two public safety millages will face Bloomfield

We may well be in the minority when it comes to the news that the city of Birmingham has decided to ante up $5.2 million to purchase The Community House building on Bates Street in downtown Birmingham. But then again, we know we are not alone in our concerns about this purchase, based on phone calls and conversations we have had with members of the community who recently reached out to us. On the one hand, we wish we could be celebrating like some of the small but vocal grou

As an elected official it is often your job to make unpopular decisions. Our long held position is if you don't like what a politician does, go and vote in the next election and choose someone else. We are not fans of recalls – where an election is held before a politician's term is up. We have always maintained differences are settled at the ballot box, and recalls must strictly be for crimes, malfeasance or misfeasance in office. Recalls are difficult to enact and are cost

Birmingham City Commissioners are currently faced with a rare and unique opportunity – choosing a new colleague to sit alongside them at the commission table. The commission is comprised of seven commissioners, and Anthony Long, who was elected in 2023 after narrowly losing by only six votes in 2021, resigned on March 13 as he is moving out of the city after a marriage last year. We thank Long for his service and wish him well on his move. The vacancy at the commission table

We can just imagine a collective eye-roll by a few members of the Birmingham City Commission because we are again visiting, hopefully for the last time, the issue of a pool in the new home for Next on E. Lincoln in the city. We bring this issue up once again because it was the subject of a recent letter to the commission from the YMCA which reaffirmed that it is leaving the city and has decided against the offer from the city to have the outgoing nonprofit continue to operat

The heinous terrorist act perpetrated recently on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield and its 140 preschoolers, staff and clergy brought the international scourge of antisemitism frighteningly right into our backyards. Among the numerous blessings that came out of the day was that no one but the shooter was killed, by his own hand; law enforcement, led by Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard and West Bloomfield Police Chief Dale Young, performed stupendously after having prac

We normally reserve our editorial position on ballot issues until just prior to an election but are weighing in now on a November ballot question that may likely be facing the Michigan electorate this year – the Americans for Citizen Voting amendment to the state Constitution. To get this amendment on the ballot, backers of this proposal had to collect 446,198 signatures on petitions, which is 10 percent of the votes cast in the last election for governor. The petition drive