The
websites
were
all
published by Locality Labs,
LLC on behalf of their client,
the Metric Media Foundation,
according to a Locality Labs
employee
who
wished
to
remain anonymous. Locality
Labs already operates its own
networks of similar websites
in Maryland and Florida.
The
Metric
Media
Foundation,
a
non-profit,
501(c)(3)
organization
registered in Missouri earlier
this year, only lists a Kansas
City-based attorney on its
filings,
though
an
online
biography
lists
Bradley
Cameron as its CEO. The
biography describes Cameron
as being a strategist “presently
retained
by
national
conservative leaders to direct
responses
to
government
targeting of their operations
and initiatives.”
Locality Labs, the company
building
the
websites,
emerged out of Journatic, LLC
and BlockShopper, LLC —
two now-defunct companies
with histories mired in ethics
concerns.
Tribune Media Company, a
media conglomerate that once
owned major outlets including
the Chicago Tribune and the
Los Angeles Times, invested
in Journatic as a service to
provide
hyperlocal
news
coverage. Journatic reportedly
distributed
fabricated
and
plagiarized content and used
workers in the Philippines
writing
under
pseudonyms
to remotely produce stories.
Due to these scandals, many
outlets suspended their use
of the service and stopped
publishing Journatic articles.
Tribune Media has since
been absorbed by Nexstar
Media Group, Inc., the largest
local television and media
company in the U.S., but
still has not fully divested
from the venture, which has
since reorganized as Locality
Labs. The Daily requested
comment from Gary Weitman,
chief
communications
officer at Nexstar, regarding
investment in Locality Labs,
and was told Locality Labs
was not a subsidiary. While
acknowledging
Nexstar
does partially own Locality
Labs, Weitman downplayed
the influence of Nexstar’s
investment.
“We have very, very, very
small ownership stake in the
company,” Weitman wrote.
Locality Labs CEO Brian
Timpone has a long history
of facing ethical questions
regarding
his
enterprises.
When asked about one of his
ventures in 2004, he told the
Washington Post, “I’m a biased
guy. I’m a Republican.” Brian
Timpone did not respond to a
request for comment from The
Daily.
Timpone
is
also
the
co-founder
of
Local
Government
Information
Services, a network of more
than 30 Illinois print and
web publications that have
been considered to propagate
conservative news and hold
an identical layout to Metric
Media’s websites.
Before
the
conception
of LGIS, Timpone founded
Newsinator Receivable, LLC.
Newsinator began producing
publications LGIS has since
acquired and has come under
fire for engaging in paid
political and marketing work.
In
2016,
the
Liberty
Principles PAC, a conservative
super PAC established by Dan
Proft, a conservative radio
personality and co-founder
of
LGIS,
provided
almost
$200,000 to Newsinator for
the sake of mailing print
publications to voters.
That
same
year,
Think
Freely Media, a nonprofit
supporting
“limited
government” in which Proft
has served as a consultant,
funneled
almost
$350,000
to Newsinator to aid in the
creation of their websites.
Think Freely is prohibited
by law from spending on
politicking due to its status as
a nonprofit, but has described
the
articles
it
funded
as
strictly news content.
In
addition
to
these
enterprises,
Timpone
is
associated
with
Franklin
Archer,
a
publishing
organization operated from
Chicago.
Franklin
Archer
hosts a similar network which
consists of a set of nationwide
business
journals.
Earlier
this year, Franklin Archer
published the Hinsdale School
News — a publication that
infringed upon the name and
logo trademarks of Hinsdale
High
School
District
86
in Illinois and potentially
violated
election
law
by
attempting to influence the
vote on a $140 million school
district referendum.
“I feel like Northwood is
kind of the only option, but
the downfall is that it is on
North Campus, and that’s
not ideal for anyone who’s
not an Engineering student,”
Carlson added.
Baghdadchi wrote in his
email that transfer students
are given the freedom to
pick the kind of housing that
works for them.
“For all students across
campus, space in residence
halls
and
apartments
is
limited,
so
we
don’t
guarantee a room will be
available,” Baghdadchi said.
“‘Transfer students really
have different needs based
on where they are in their
academic careers, and the
kind
of
experience
they
are looking for. So in our
process, transfer students
can browse online and select
for themselves from what’s
available.”
Koch commented on how
students find a place to live
for the following year during
the fall of the previous year,
wishing
there
was
more
transparency about that to
transfer students.
“I think it’s very unusual
that (in) Michigan and Ann
Arbor in general, everybody
knows where they’re living
by mid-October,” Koch said.
“So when you’re accepted
as a transfer student in
February,
you’re
already
months behind the game,
and that expectation wasn’t
made clear by the University.
At the same time, they don’t
control
when
people
get
houses, like it’s not their job
to regulate the off-campus
housing market to make sure
that transfer students can
find a place.”
“I know everyone’s like, ‘Oh,
you’re going to get such a great
job and pay off your loan,’ but
you never know what’s going
to happen, and it has put so
much pressure on me to do
well,” Tringali said. “You want
to do well, but (having student
loans) puts so much more
pressure on doing well and
getting internships just so you
are sure that you’re going to get
a job after college, or else you
will be left with all of this debt
and have to pay it off.”
Tringali works at Staples 16
hours a week to help pay for
her tuition. She said having
a job often makes it difficult
to balance her time between
studying and being involved
with activities.
Like Tringali, LSA junior
Victoria Sheetz has taken out
student loans to pay for her
tuition. She said she tries to
keep the thought of her future
student loan debt in the back of
her mind.
“As of right now, I try not
to think about it as much as
I can,” Sheetz said. “But it is
definitely something I will
think about after school, and
how I’m going to pay them off,
and if I’m going to be able to do
so with minimal impact to all
the other things I will have to
pay for.”
The study found college
towns are disproportionately
affected by student loan debt,
Smith said. The majority of
cities listed ahead of Ann
Arbor are also college towns,
such
as
Gainesville,
Fla.,
Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C. and
Colombia, Mo.
Living in Ann Arbor, Tringali
said she often sees issues with
the cost of activities.
“On a social level, sometimes
there’s times where everyone
wants to go get food or go do
this activity,” Tringali said.
“You don’t want to say ‘no’ and
be a downer because it’s Ann
Arbor; there’s so much to do.”
Ann Arbor also has a shortage
of affordable housing. Sheetz
said the high price of living in
Ann Arbor is outrageous.
“The cost of living, including
rent
and
bills
and
other
groceries … just to get an
education at a good school is
kind of ridiculous,” Sheetz
said.
The University of Michigan’s
Office of Financial Aid website
advises students to think ahead
to the time they will begin to
repay their student loans. The
website also offers information
on how to manage student loans
after graduation, and the OFA
offers walk-in appointments to
help with financial planning.
Laura Rall, Rackham student
and president of Affordable
Michigan,
will
have
taken
out four student loans by the
time she graduates with a
master’s degree in May. She
wrote in a statement to The
Daily on behalf of herself, not
Affordable Michigan, that she
thought the University could
play a bigger role in helping
students financially plan and
should put forth more effort
in reaching out to students to
discuss their loans and offer
guidance.
“It’s easy for U-M to look
at the numbers and assume
that because the majority of
students come from wealthy
family
backgrounds,
that
students know and understand
what they are doing with loans,
but that is not always the case,”
Rall wrote. “There are a lot of
misconceptions
surrounding
loans and college finances and
I do wish the University would
take more action in educating
and guiding students through
the process.”
To help manage student
loan debt, Smith said it is a
good idea to talk to a financial
adviser to create an overall
financial
picture.
She
said
it is also important to set up
an
emergency
fund
before
attacking student loan debt
more aggressively.
“It’s very important to run
the numbers and not hide from
them,” Smith said. “It’s much
more empowering to actually
run the numbers, take a look
at them, make a plan and start
taking action towards that
plan, even if it’s a very small
amount each month.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, November 1, 2019 — 3
SITES
From Page 1
TRANSFER
From Page 2
DEBT
From Page 1
“Most of this applies to
people who are no longer
in jail or in a prison, people
that
have
completed
their sentences, that have
completed their probation,
that have completed their
parole, but that still have
those
offenses
on
their
record,” Rabhi said in an
interview with The Daily.
“And that is problematic of
course because when you
apply for a job, when you
apply for housing and you
still have that crime on your
record, it is nearly impossible
to find a good job, or even to
find good housing.”
Yet,
even
if
Ann
Arbor
enacts
these
anti-
discrimination
regulations
for housing companies, it’s
unclear how city council will
guarantee companies abide
to the new protocol. City
Councilmember
Elizabeth
Nelson,
D-Ward
4,
said
ensuring housing companies
do not discriminate can be
difficult to enforce.
“The big challenge for us
is enforcement,” Nelson said.
“So, any housing issue, we
can make a rule about it, but
how are we going to enforce
it? We can make policies
of anti-discrimination, but
the question is, who’s going
to come to us and say, ‘We
experienced
this,
what’s
the penalty?’ If I have a
record and I’m going to
rent an apartment and I get
rejected, is there a process
for me to go to the city and
file a complaint? Is there
a process for the city to
impose
some
consequence
on that landlord? That’s the
challenge.”
Among the other bills in
the package are measures
that
would
expedite
the
otherwise lengthy and costly
process
of
expungement.
There are many steps, such as
notarizing an application and
mailing copies to prosecutors
and law enforcement, that
prevent
ex-offenders
from
even applying.
According
to
a
2019
study done by University
of Michigan law professors
Sonja
B.
Starr
and
J.J.
Prescott, over 90 percent
of people who qualify for
expungement
neglect
to
appeal their convictions.
Rabhi
also
noted
how
this
is
largely
because
expungement can currently
cost
hundreds
if
not
thousands of dollars in legal
fees.
Rabhi
said
passing
legislation on expungement
would alleviate this problem.
“One of the biggest things
is that a lot of people cannot
afford to get their records
expunged because it’s costly,”
Rabhi said. “You have to go
to an attorney and get them
to help you, and obviously
attorneys
charge
you
for
that, so the vast majority of
people who are eligible to get
their records expunged don’t.
And so one of the bills in the
package creates an automatic
expungement
process,
so
that peoples’ records can be
automatically
expunged
if
they’re eligible, without them
having to apply or petition for
expungement.”
Rabhi also acknowledges
that in many cases, crimes
like possession and sale of
marijuana do not occur in a
vacuum. Oftentimes, drug-
related crimes can occur
in conjunction with other
infractions — non-assaultive
crimes
or
misdemeanors
— a person may not have
committed before, but that
can
permanently
damage
their record. According to
Rabhi,
the
expungement
package deals particularly
with people who may only
have committed one crime,
like
small
time
robbery,
can be faced with dozens of
various charges.
“Oftentimes
what
happens is, honestly — is the
prosecutors
overcharge,”
Rabhi said. “They’ll find a
bunch of different crimes
that somebody did and they’ll
heap them on.”
Rabhi used the personal
example of his 2007 arrest
for protesting the use of
sweatshops in the production
of U-M apparel. According to
Rabhi, after he and a number
of other protesters occupied
a University building, he was
faced with a multitude of
various charges.
“They
heaped
up
two
misdemeanors on top of each
other,” Rabhi said. “That’s
what they do. And so this
‘One Bad Night’ bill, if I
had been convicted of both
misdemeanors,
then
those
would count as one for the
purposes of expungement.”
However, newly appointed
Ann
Arbor
Police
Chief
Michael Cox said he does
not know how much of an
impact the new legislations
would have on Ann Arbor,
as
cannabis
has
been
“deemphasized” for almost
50 years within in Ann Arbor.
“Drugs in general have
been deemphasized in a lot of
ways, but some of the things
that come around it, you
know, whether the people
who make money from it
— not legally but illegally —
they tend to do other things,
too,
whether
it’s
carry
firearms illegally, maybe rob
other people,” Cox said. “So,
we still have to pay attention
to that. I think personally, it
just helps us focus more on
real crime so to speak.”
Lily Tushman, LSA junior
and president of the Prison
Birth Project, is optimistic
about the future of these
bills,
even
though
they
might only affect a small
number of people in Ann
Arbor. She cited the fact
that
these
effects
would
greatly aid people of color.
According to MLive, “black
men age 18 to 24 are almost
10 times more likely to be
arrested
for
marijuana
offenses compared to white
women that age, even though
marijuana
usages
rates
between the two groups are
only fractionally different.”
“I think the expungement
proposal is an important step
towards addressing the racial
disparities
in
marijuana
charges
and
sentencing,”
Tushman said. “Making it
automatic also removes some
of the cost and time barriers
people face when they have to
deal with the court system to
get their record expunged.”
- Leah Graham contributed
reporting to this article.
PETITION
From Page 1
The
University
of
Michigan’s
winter
commencement
speaker
will be Hendrik (Hank)
Meijer, executive chairman
of
Meijer
Incorporated.
Commencement
will
be
held Dec. 15 at the Crisler
Center.
Meijer is the grandson of
Hendrik Meijer, the original
founder of Meijer Inc., a
superstore
retail
chain
founded and headquartered
in Michigan. Hank Meijer
became CEO of Meijer Inc.
in 2001, and then became
co-CEO and co-chairman
in 2003. A U-M alum, Hank
Meijer graduated in 1973
with a degree in literature.
From 1973 to 1979, Hank
Meijer was a journalist,
and his passion in the years
following
his
graduation
revolved around historical
research and writing.
Hank
Meijer
is
the
author of two biographies:
a
biography
of
Arthur
Vandenberg, a U.S. senator
from
Michigan
during
the
mid-20th
century,
and a biography of his
grandfather and namesake,
Hendrik
Meijer,
titled
“Thrifty Years: The Life
of
Hendrik
Meijer.”
In
addition
to
delivering
a
speech, Meijer will receive
an honorary Doctor of the
Science of Law degree.
The
University
also
announced that it will be
honoring
four
additional
honorary degree recipients.
Lawrence
Brilliant,
founder of an international
nonprofit to fight blindness,
president
of
a
fund
to
combat global threats and a
former executive at Google,
will be receiving a Doctor
of Humane Letters. Roger
W. Ferguson Jr., president
and chief executive officer
of
Teachers
Insurance
and
Annuity
Association
of
America-College
Retirement Equities Fund
will be awarded a Doctor of
the Science of Law. Kenneth
Fischer,
Doctor
of
Fine
Arts,
president
emeritus
of the University Musical
Society and a recipient of
the 2014 National Medal
of Arts. Janet L. Yellen, an
economist and former chair
of the Federal Reserve and
the White House Council of
Economic Advisers will be
awarded a Doctor of Laws.
JULIA FANZERES
Daily Staff Reporter
Executive chairman of Meijer Inc., former Federal Reserve chair, to be honored Dec. 15
University announces winter commencement
speakers and honorary degree recipients
“This is the highest ever
in Ann Arbor.”
According
to
Airbnb,
guests from all over the
country traveled to Ann
Arbor for game day, with the
highest number of guests
coming from the cities of
Chicago,
New
York,
San
Francisco and Atlanta.
During big game weekends,
hotels
frequently
reach
peak occupancy, allowing
Airbnb
to
significantly
expand its lodging capacity
through
owner-occupied
homes, where guests will
temporarily rent out a room
or a certain amount of space.
This also allows these hosts
to bring in extra income,
as they can charge visitors
to stay in a part of their
home that may typically be
unoccupied.
The
guests
don’t
just
provide a financial boon
for their hosts. According
to
Airbnb
data,
visitors
provide an economic boost
to the greater community,
as they typically spend on
average $110 per day at local
restaurants and stores.
In a statement, Airbnb
Midwest
policy
director
Kelley Gossett said Airbnb
was glad to help football
fans find places to stay.
“It’s clear, both of these
teams
enjoy
nationwide
fan bases that will travel
to see the game. Airbnb is
proud to help facilitate that
travel while providing an
economic opportunity for
hosts and bringing revenue
to the area,” Gossett said.
U-M football fan Casey
Miranda
traveled
from
Grand Rapids, Mich., and
chose to stay with friends in
an Airbnb for the weekend.
Miranda said the experience
was more enjoyable than
staying at a hotel.
“It’s been an awesome
experience,”
Miranda
said. “We have great hosts;
they’re amazing. Everything
has been waiting for us,
Michigan
paraphernalia
everywhere.
It
was
amazing.”
However, not all guests
said they preferred Airbnbs
to traditional hotels. U-M
football fan Bobby Cooke
traveled
from
Charlotte,
North Carolina and booked
an Airbnb about five weeks
in advance of his stay with
several other guests. He
said he would typically try
to arrange a stay at a hotel
but most had already been
booked for the weekend.
“We
chose
an
Airbnb
just because we couldn’t
find anything close to the
downtown
area,”
Cooke
said. “It was the only option
we had. Normally, I would
not go for that. I would go
for something like a hotel
or
something
closer
to
campus.”
He said the Airbnb he
rented was inconvenient due
to extra travel costs to get to
campus.
“The Airbnb is about 30
minutes from here, which
has not been very convenient
because
we’re
having
to
Uber back and forth, and
that’s
expensive,”
Cooke
said. “I would say it’s been
unremarkable at the most.”
AIRBNB
From Page 1
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com