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Ann Arbor pours millions into 262-home neighborhood to go ‘carbon neutral’
The city of Ann Arbor has set a goal to have the first neighborhood in the country to be carbon neutral, meaning the neighborhood won’t produce in aggregate greenhouse gas emissions.
Ann Arbor is committing millions of dollars in federal, state and local tax funding to transform its Bryant neighborhood. City officials hope it will become one of the nation’s first carbon-neutral neighborhoods.
The Bryant neighborhood sits in a floodplain bordered by a landfill and I-94.
Public funding includes nearly $10.8 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for geothermal heating and cooling, a $3.1 million Michigan grant to improve 50 homes, and a separate $5 million state award supporting a solar power pilot and the city’s Sustainable Energy Utility. Local property taxes will fund neighborhood outreach. Click here to read more.
The Anti-Capitalist System Keeping Americans From Reading Books
“In 1939,” writes Ned Rust for Bhaskar Sunkara’s socialist magazine, “the 25¢ paperback made America a nation of readers, delivering thrillers, classics, and Pulitzer-winning books. So why did the Big Five publishers just kill the mass market paperback?”
Just last year, the Big Five publishing houses (Penguin Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster) collectively ended mass-market paperback distribution, a compact book format popularized in 1939 that dominated the literary market in the 20th century. At their peak, writes Rust, these books sold close to “one hundred thousand units each, with a population a little over a third the size of today’s United States.” Today, however, Rust continues, “corporate consolidation” has “enshittified the product to the point where it has abetted the decline in consumer demand.” Click here to read more.
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UC Berkeley Professor Abandons Grading Students’ Homework Due to Overuse of AI
A UC Berkeley professor has reportedly abandoned grading assignments after noticing that his students have been abusing AI to secure top scores.
“Student use of AI for homework is now widespread,” Richard Borcherds told the California Post. “Grading for correctness just adds a huge incentive for them to use AI for homework instead of doing it themselves, and penalizes students for honesty.”
Borcherds — a renowned mathematician who received the prestigious Fields Medal in 1998 — added that there is “no point” in paying to have students’ work evaluated for artificial intelligence, calling it a waste of time and money. Click here to read more.
Not even 19% of CTU spending in 2026 went to teacher representation
The Chicago Teachers Union’s recent federal filing shows it does not prioritize its members in its spending.
The union just filed its annual LM-2, which details its receipts and disbursements from its 2026 fiscal year. What it reveals:
Less than 19% of CTU’s spending was on “representational activities.”
CTU spent more running its internal operations than on representing teachers.
CTU spent nearly $2.6 million on politics.
Stacy Davis Gates gave herself a 7.5% raise, bringing her total compensation to more than $310,000. (That includes her pay from the Illinois Federation of Teachers, where she also is president.)
More than 50 CTU employees made over $100,000.
With CTU members paying more than $1,500 a year in union dues, they may question whether they are getting a good return on their money. Click here to read more.
Armed Citizens Stopped 36.6 Percent of ‘Active Shooter Incidents’ From 2014 Through 2025
A report by Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) president John Lott shows armed citizens stopped a third of all “active shooter incidents” from 2014 through 2025.
Lott then presented the CPRC data as a correction to FBI reports which claim armed citizens only topped 3.9 percent of the incidents.
He noted that during his time in the Department of Justice during President Trump’s first term, his duties “included evaluating the FBI’s active-shooter reports.” In so doing, he “discovered that the reports omitted or misclassified numerous cases in which armed civilians stopped attacks.” Click here to read more.