At their Sept. 1, 2010 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners revived a land bank that they had dissolved in March, making some changes to the agreement that governs its operation. They also voted to transfer an allocation of $10 million in federal bonds to Washtenaw Community College, which plans to use the bonds to build a parking structure. [Full Story]
Chronicle publisher Mary Morgan reflects on the publication’s two-year anniversary, and how The Chronicle has made a go of it, despite running counter to current media trends. [Full Story]
A framed reproduction of “Young Woman with a Violin” by Orazio Gentileschi, hung on the north side of the Zingerman’s Deli building as part of the Detroit Institute of Arts Inside/Out project. Another painting – “Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket,” by James Abbott McNeill Whistler – is installed on the Borders Books building on East Liberty. [photo]
At its Sept. 7 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council voted unanimously to award a tax abatement to NanoBio, based on an expansion that is hoped to add several jobs to the biotech company. The value of the taxes to be abated – on $200,000 worth of building improvements and $483,000 in equipment to be purchased – is estimated to be a total of $30,000 over the next five years.
The total state equalized value of all property in the city is $5,286,396,700. The total of abated property is $7,021,729, or 0.133% of the total. The city is thus comfortably under the 5% total abatement allowed by law.
This brief was filed from city council chambers. A detailed report of the meeting will follow.
The Detroit News reports that the animal rights group PETA is asking for a federal investigation of UM’s Survival Flight course, which includes training on cats and pigs. The article quotes Justin Goodman, associate director of PETA’s Laboratory Investigations: “It’s outrageous, absolutely indefensible and we believe illegal for the university to continue maiming and killing cats and pigs for medical training purposes for which they have already deemed simulators to be educationally superior to animal use.” UM officials defend the use of animals in training. [Source]
On her Relish blog, local photographer Myra Klarman posts her interview with Zack Pearlman, who’s starring in the film “The Virginity Hit,” which opens this weekend. Pearlman grew up in Ann Arbor and performed with several local theater groups, including Burns Park Players, Young People’s Theater, Pioneer Theatre Guild and Ann Arbor Civic Theater. Pearlman gives advice to aspiring actors: “Start doing improv classes. Start trying to get your name out there. Once you get through Improv 401, you hit a point where you’re performing all the time around town. You’ll start getting into that community, and who knows what happens from there? That’s my advice: just start!” [Source]
In a report on a recent meeting of the Ann Arbor public school board, we incorrectly spelled the name of the director of the Early College Alliance at Eastern Michigan University (ECA at EMU). The ECA is headed by David Dugger. We note the error here and have corrected the spelling throughout the original article.