Archive for September, 2008

Micheline Maynard, a NY Times reporter who works out of their Detroit bureau, writes about her experience buying a Prius from Dunning Toyota in Ann Arbor. [Source]

Pfizer senior vp Toni Hoover, who formerly worked at the Ann Arbor facility, told a group of site specialists visiting southeastern Connecticut that about 70 percent of scientists from Ann Arbor eventually moved to that area after Pfizer shut its R&D campus here, according to an article in The Day, a Connecticut paper. Hoover said they’d originally expected only a third of the scientists to relocate. [Source]

David Moran, a UM law prof and head of the Innocence Project, is quoted in a Freep article about problems at the Detroit police crime lab. Of the audit that uncovered problems, Moran said: “The language may be dry, but it destroys the credibility of the firearms lab and calls into question all the lab work in general…When they talk of ‘Class I inconsistencies’ that’s just a polite term for a false positive – they said a bullet came from a gun and it didn’t.” [Source]

The Ypsi Tattler wonders why that town isn’t riding the film industry gravy train: ”So how come no one from Ypsilanti or Spark is doing anything to market our fair city? Ypsilanti even has an entire school that is vacant. While there is a steady parade of officials from surrounding communities visiting the Michigan Film Office, no one from Ypsilanti has been calling. But last week, Ypsilanti DDA director Brian Vosburg spent two hours judging a door decorating contest in the EMU dorms. Is that where limited taxpayer funded resources should be spent, judging college dorm door art?” [Source]

The World Socialist Web Site reports on a meeting in Ann Arbor hosted by the International Students for Social Equality at UM, with Socialist Equality Party presidential candidate Jerry White as the featured speaker. He told the group: “The government’s plan to take over the nearly worthless mortgage-backed securities being held by the banks and big investment firms will, in the end, make even richer the financial aristocracy whose anti-social and no doubt criminal activity has brought the US and indeed the world economy to the brink of financial collapse on a scale not seen since the Wall Street crash of 1929.” [Source]

A Toledo Blade article – on how some pastors this Sunday will give political sermons to challenge IRS rules about not mixing religion and politics – quotes Patrick Gillen, an assistant professor of law at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor. Calling the pulpit protest “an interesting and worthwhile initiative,” Gillen said: “Religion has been vitally important to our country’s civil life from the beginning and I think it should not be censored on important issues of our times.” [Source]

By the time the presentation was in full swing, close to 40 people had streamed into a ground-floor meeting room at Miller Manor to hear city of Ann Arbor park planner Amy Kuras, plus a supporting cast of consultants, sketch out options for improvements at West Park and listen to reaction from residents. Residents and planners alike might have disagreed on the specifics, but there seemed to be a consensus on at least one point: the future of West Park should be filled with activity. [Full Story]

A customer buys flowers from the Pleasant Lane Farm stand at Thursday's West Side Farmers Market.

A customer lingers indecisively over the collection of honey jars, then picks up the smaller one for $3.

“You’re gonna like it so much you’ll wish you bought the $6 one,” jokes Mike Smith, handing her some change.

Smith is one of about a dozen vendors at Thursday afternoon’s West Side Farmers Market, set up in the parking lot next to Zingerman’s Roadhouse at the corner of Jackson and Maple. They’re selling pumpkins and potatoes, mums in all shades of autumn, eggs, garlic, tomatoes – the harvest is bountiful.

But though it’s hot and feels like summer, it’s the final day of the season for this market. [Full Story]

The Sonic Lunch series has its own brown bag for carryout from local eateries. The Chronicle has no idea what's inside this one.

September means transition – summer vacations end, school starts, nights get chilly, trees begin their inexorable palette change.

And on Thursday, the weekly Sonic Lunch series came to a close at Liberty Plaza, just as workers started hanging holiday lights there.

They couldn’t have ordered up better weather for their season finale, and dozens of people turned out to eat lunch in the park or just listen to this week’s band, the Dave Sharp Quintet. (Or, as Dave pointed out during a break, the Dave Sharp Quartet, plus musical guest Topaz, on sax.) [Full Story]

The Above the Law blog urges UM Law School to “stop the insanity.” Apparently, the school’s new Wolverine Scholars Program allows applicants to circumvent the LSAT if their GPA is high enough – which means those LSAT scores don’t factor in to the U.S. News & World Report’s law school rankings. “For a Michigan college student with a 3.8, the Wolverine Scholars Program looks like an interesting example of game theory. But for the rest of us it looks a straight bribe. It’s like Michigan Law School is saying: ‘Please, please, please don’t take the LSAT. Because if you get a 167 we probably have to accept you anyway. And if you get a 175 you will better deal us … [Full Story]

In a previous piece on Impact 2008, The Chronicle reported that the city of Ann Arbor was working on a pilot project that would let residents subscribe to an email alert by subject, expected to be ready by year’s end. The pilot, at least, appears to be in place. We noticed the appearance of a little red envelope at the top right of the city’s website and followed the link to the email subscription interface. [Full Story]

The Ann Arbor-based Center for Michigan and Detroit Public TV held candidate forums in contested state races. Locally, the only contested race is in the 54th District, covering Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township. Here’s a video of the debate between incumbent Democrat Alma Wheeler Smith and her GOP challenger, Tom Banks. [Source]

The Rashy Null Planet blog comments on a recent incident in which a Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputy tasered a father who was picking up his son. “Getting between a parent and his child is like getting between a grizzly and her cubs: you’re just asking for serious trouble. Surely even a cop knows that, and should be able act accordingly without escalating the situation.” [Source]

The Providence (R.I.) Business News reports that Rhode Island has picked Deepwater Wind to build a 100-turbine wind farm off the coast of that state. According to the article, Deepwater is a five-month-old firm headquartered in Ann Arbor, where its CEO, Chris Brown, lives. [Source]

The Freep reviews “9 Parts of Desire,” a play running through Oct. 26 at Performance Network in Ann Arbor. Actress Sarab Kamoo plays all nine roles. “It takes only a few seconds in the dark between scenes for Kamoo the chameleon to morph into a sexually liberated artist, a shell-shocked emergency room doctor or a twitchy looter trying to sell her wares – ‘all from good families’ is her favorite pitch – to American soldiers who have a couple of dollars to spare.” [Source]

Candidate cookies at Jefferson Market & Cakery. The Chronicle did not ask why McCain's name is printed and Obama is written in cursive.

Combining politics and buttercream frosting – brilliant!

Jefferson Market & Cakery’s Cookie Vote ’08 pits Obama against McCain in the form of sugar cookies iced with red, white and blue frosting and emblazoned with each candidate’s name. As of Wednesday afternoon, Obama was outselling McCain by 66 to 5. [Full Story]

The Chelsea Blog reports that the town will be featured on Thursday’s NBC Today Show, as part of their “Battleground States” election coverage. The blog post quotes an email from Nancy Paul, director of Chelsea’s Faith In Action: “The filming was pretty straightforward – a local staff person asked the questions and the NY people will re-ask the question on the actual show. It’s my impression that you get the ‘impression’ of a live interview. It will be shown Thursday, 9/25, and will include many other stops/interviews from around the state.” [Source]

Hosted by Jim Blow, “Conversations” featuring Ann Arbor District Library director, Josie Parker, premieres Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 6:30 p.m. The series airs on  CitiTV Channel 19 Monday through Friday at 10:30 a.m., 6:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., and Sundays at 6:30 p.m.

Russ Collins introduces EMU President Susan Martin at Wednesday's Morning Edition.

Cars and movies bookended the topics covered at Wednesday’s Morning Edition, a monthly gathering that features short talks by community and business leaders.

Up first was Jean Jennings, the high-energy president and editor-in-chief of Automobile Magazine, which has offices above Champion House at the corner of Fourth & Liberty.

She described the current market for magazines in general as crappy (well, she didn’t use that word, but she could have). “As the car companies go, so go the car magazines,” she said, noting that the auto industry … [Full Story]

On the Eat Local Food blog, Joan Tobin Rozelle writes about attending a recent fundraiser for the nonprofit Growing Hope. “This year, through their leadership’s significant fundraising efforts, Growing Hope was able to acquire a permanent home at 922 West Michigan Avenue, just a few blocks west of downtown Ypsilanti, Michigan. The organization’s goal is to renovate the 1.4 acre urban lot and 1931 faux-Tudor house to provide year round urban food production, healthy cooking classes and a donation garden for people in need.” [Source]

The Chicago Tribune writes about Chrysler’s announcement that it will start selling an electric car by 2010. The article quotes Brett Smith, an analyst at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor: “I believe Chrysler can do this, at least at a scale above a pure demonstration but below full-scale production.” [Source]

The Toledo Blade reports on Congress passing the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact, which creates a common set of principles for retaining water there and banning bulk exports. Says Andy Buchsbaum, director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office in Ann Arbor: “This is an historic thing. Eight states now have a common standard to protect Great Lakes water.” [Source]