Old Media Watch Section

The Detroit News published a column by Jenn McKee, entertainment writer for AnnArbor.com, about why she’s not participating in Saturday’s Race for the Cure, a fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation: ”This past February, when news broke about the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s decision to pull grants from Planned Parenthood – grants that fund breast cancer screenings for low-income women – I felt angry, betrayed and disappointed by an organization I’d supported for years. Even though Komen eventually reversed its decision, after days of heated debate and pushback, I didn’t feel elated about, or even satisfied with, the reversal. Not because I suspected that the fight wasn’t over for good but because I lost my innocence regarding an organization that … [Full Story]

Michigan Radio reports on a rally held in support of Camp Take Notice, an encampment of about 65 homeless people located on state-owned land in Scio Township, near I-94 and Wagner Road. The Michigan Dept. of Transportation, which owns the property, has told residents they’ll need to relocate. The report quotes David Williams, who lives at the camp: “If we lose this camp it would be difficult for me to find another safe environment to live. And I hope that people understand that. Anyone can be homeless.” [Source]

Channel 4, Detroit’s NBC affiliate, reports that an experimental plane crashed in Pittsfield Township on Friday, injuring two people. [Source] The Pittsfield Township Dept. of Public Safety has issued a press release on the crash, which occurred in the 7000 block of Warner Road: “Crews arrived to find a two seat airplane that had crashed into the ground with the two occupants trapped in the wreckage. There was moderate damage to the airplane and an active fuel leak. Fire fighters extricated the victims and they were both transported to St. Joseph’s Hospital in critical condition.” Another experimental plane had crashed in April 2012 at the Ann Arbor Airport, which is located in Pittsfield Township. One person was injured in that … [Full Story]

The new Argo Cascades are featured on a segment by Channel 7 Action News, Detroit’s ABC affiliate. The report mischaracterizes the drop pools of the Argo Dam bypass as whitewater rapids – the whitewater feature will be added later, on the Huron River – but Ann Arbor parks manager Colin Smith notes that the speed of the water is about 60 cubic feet per second. The city’s canoe liveries will be open daily starting Saturday, May 26. [Source]

Concordia University Wisconsin will take over the “troubled” Concordia University campus in Ann Arbor, according to a report in the Business Journal of Milwaukee. The move was approved this week by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. From the report: “The two campuses will continue to operate in their current locations, but will be managed by the CUW board of regents and led by CUW president Rev. Patrick Ferry. The resolution still requires the approval of the Higher Learning Commission.” [Source]

David Carr of the New York Times reports on changes in the works at the New Orleans Times-Picayune: “Newhouse Newspapers, which owns the Times-Picayune, will apparently be working off a blueprint the company used in Ann Arbor, Mich., where it reduced the frequency of the Ann Arbor News, emphasized the Web site as a primary distributor of news and in the process instituted wholesale layoffs to cut costs.” [Source]

The University of Michigan is paying a $50,000 stipend to Suellyn Scarnecchia, UM’s general counsel who is resigning that position, which she’s held since 2008. According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, the pay is in addition to her $312,000 salary as general counsel, which she will retain until May 2013. She will remain a special advisor to Coleman until then, when her contract as general counsel ends. She’ll return to teach in the law school in January 2013 after taking a semester off. [Source]

Larry Whitworth, former president of Washtenaw Community College, is a semi-finalist for the presidency of Edison State College in southern Florida, according to a report in the News-Press. Whitworth, 71, was WCC president for 13 years before retiring in August of 2011. He had announced plans to retire the previous year, and at the time said he planned to return to teaching. [Source]

The New York Times profiles Maya Stein, a poet who has embarked on a venture that combines cycling and typing: “She plans to ride 40 miles a day, typewriter in tow, for 40 days until she reaches Milwaukee, where the design for the first mass-produced typewriter was developed in the 1860s. Along the way, she is delivering the manual typewriter to public spaces and inviting people to take a turn at the keys.” Stein’s itinerary – posted on her Type Rider blog – brings her through Ann Arbor on June 3. [Source]

The Detroit News reports that UM’s connection with the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan – through a UM School of Social Work internship in community activism at the center – might be putting some of the university’s state funding at risk. Students were involved in protests organized by the center against the Andiamo restaurant in Dearborn. From the report: “Tucked in the House education budget at the request of the Michigan Restaurant Association is a provision prohibiting universities from collaborating with ‘a non-profit worker center whose documented activities include coercion through protest, demonstration or organization against a Michigan business.’” [Source]

The Lansing State Journal profiles Howdy Holmes, CEO of Chelsea Milling Co., the maker of Jiffy Mix. The article quotes Holmes commenting on his family firm’s recipes: “Our corn muffin has lard in it. Big deal. There’s a certain taste to that.” [Source]

Will Hathaway of Ann Arbor is featured in a Detroit Free Press article about stay-at-home fathers. He has been his family’s primary caregiver since the adoption of his first daughter about 12 years ago, and spoke about the challenge of re-entering the workforce: “It’s difficult to relaunch your career when the economy is running away from you. Part of the challenge for anyone getting back in the job market is selling yourself and explaining why you took time out of your career. I think it’s challenging regardless of gender, but more so for men because it’s unusual still for men to be the stay-at-home parent.” [Source]

Long-time Ann Arbor auto dealer Howard Cooper is selling his Howard Cooper Import Center to the Columbus, Ohio-based Germain Motor Company, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press. The deal was announced Monday. The Ann Arbor operation, which employs about 90 people, will be managed by Jessica Germain, daughter of the company’s owner, Steve Germain, and a graduate of the University of Michigan. [Source]

A spokesman for Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has told the Detroit Free Press that Snyder doesn’t believe the state legislature can force the University of Michigan or any other university to answer questions about its embryonic stem cell research. The state’s budget legislation includes language about answering questions on embryonic stem cell research as part of a requirement for state funding. Snyder spokeswoman Geralyn Lasher called the language “unenforceable and unconstitutional,” according to the report. [Source]

The Detroit Free Press reports that two University of Michigan graduate student research assistants (GSRAs) filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday against the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, opposing a recent law that bars GSRAs from unionizing. The majority of UM regents have also voiced opposition to the law, most recently at a special meeting in February before the legislation was signed by Gov. Rick Snyder. But university administrators have supported efforts to prevent GSRAs from being recognized as employees and from engaging in collective bargaining. There are more than 2,000 GSRAs at UM. [Source]

The Wall Street Journal reports on how health care providers are shifting their treatments to focus on quality-of-life outcomes for patients. The article quotes Noreen Clark, director of the University of Michigan’s Center for Managing Chronic Disease: “Quality of life happens to be the element that is most important in motivating people to deal with an illness. People aren’t motivated to follow their clinical regimen if in fact it doesn’t improve the way they function and get along with others and manage day to day.” [Source]

Michigan Radio reports that two University of Michigan professors are staging a tribute to John Cage – a musical morel mushroom hunt – as a nod to the composer, who was known to hunt for morels in this area. Michael Gurevich, Tim James and their students will use the sounds of their surroundings – Bird Hills Nature Area – to create their compositions. Says Gurevich: ”There’ll probably be planes flying overhead because the sonic environment isn’t quiet around here. There’ll be birds chirping, squirrels. We might make some other sounds like whistling or clapping our hands. And there’ll be probably cries of excitement when someone finds a morel mushroom, we hope.” The event is on Saturday, April 14 at 11 a.m. [Source]

The Detroit News reports that the Washtenaw County board of election commissioners, on a 2-to-1 vote at an April 9 hearing, approved language for a recall petition against Gov. Rick Snyder. This is the second time that recall language has been proposed and approved – commissioners took a 2-to-1 vote in August 2011, approving petition language for a Snyder recall. In that case, county treasurer Catherine McClary cast the dissenting vote, with Donald E. Shelton, chief judge of the Washtenaw County Trial Court, and county clerk Larry Kestenbaum in support. On Monday, Kestenbaum dissented. The previous recall drive, backed by the same group that’s initiating the new recall attempt, failed to collect a sufficient number of signatures to put … [Full Story]

Bloomberg News reports about concerns that U.S. intelligence officials have over increasing signs of spying at American universities. The report cites an incident at the University of Michigan, and quotes professor Daniel J. Scheeres – who now teaches at the University of Colorado, but says he encountered a situation at UM with a Chinese visiting scholar that made him uncomfortable: “It was pretty clear to me that the stuff she was interested in probably had some military satellite-orbit applications. Once I saw that, I didn’t really tell her anything new, or anything that couldn’t be published. I didn’t engage that deeply with her.” [Source]

The Detroit Free Press reports that Saturday’s 41st Hash Bash was more political than in previous years, with volunteers collecting signatures for a petition that would put a proposal on the Nov. 6 ballot to legalize marijuana for all uses, not just for medical purposes. Thirteen arrests were made for marijuana possession, from an estimated crowd of about 5,500 people, according to the report. [Source]

In a segment on her MSNBC show, Rachel Maddow highlights the Michigan legislature’s “immediate effect” controversy, including the recent lawsuit filed by state House Democrats against the GOP majority. Ann Arbor Democrat Jeff Irwin is a plaintiff in that lawsuit, which contests the way in which Republicans have used voice votes to declare the constitutionally-mandated two-thirds majority needed for laws to take immediate effect. Maddow calls the practice “the most radical thing Republicans have done anywhere in the country.” [Source] For additional background on the issue, see Chronicle coverage of an April 2 special meeting of the University of Michigan board of regents: “UM Regents Split on State House Lawsuit.”

The Eastern Echo reports on Ypsilanti mayor Paul Schreiber’s State of the City address, in which he lobbied for support of two proposed new city taxes on the May 8 ballot: (1) an income tax of 1% on residents and 0.5% on non-residents; and (2) a millage to pay off debt on the Water Street property. [.pdf of Schreiber's address] [Source]

Publishers Weekly includes an email interview with Josie Parker and Eli Neiburger of the Ann Arbor District Library. The interview focuses on AADL’s “innovative, analytical, and provocative approach to e-books and next generation library service.” Here’s Neiburger’s answer to a question on whether e-book rentals and purchases can co-exist: “It seems that the library market is about the only place that publishers feel they have some power to set terms right now, so we’re bearing the brunt of boardroom anxiety. But we know in libraries that our superusers are also publishing’s best customers, and that borrowing does not supplant buying, no matter the relative friction. It’s up to libraries to make deals that make sense for their communities and move the … [Full Story]

Hour Detroit magazine publishes a feature on the peonies at the University of Michigan’s Nichols Arboretum, in advance of next month’s blossoming. From the article: “The Peony Garden is undergoing an identification and conservation project designed to establish it as an internationally recognized living reference, as well as a destination for enthusiasts. Working with an advisory board of experts and armed with planting maps of the peony beds from various years (1927, 1949, and the 1970s), project participants are endeavoring to properly identify every plant. About 50 mystery plants live in the beds.” [Source]

Ann Arbor real estate agent Alex Milshteyn, 28, and restauranteur Adam Lowenstein, 29, are on the list of Crain’s Detroit “20 In Their 20s” – recognizing “the brainpower and entrepreneurial talent of the region’s young professionals and creatives.” [Source]

Ypsilanti’s iconic water tower will be lit with blue lights on Monday as part of the international ”Light It Up Blue” autism awareness campaign, according to a report in The Detroit News. The article also reports that Sally Burton-Hoyle, a special education professor and autism expert at Eastern Michigan University, was appointed last week to serve on a national advisory committee focusing on families that are dealing with autism. [Source]

The Detroit News reports on Saturday’s Dexter Tornado Cash Mob, which was organized by the Ann Arbor Cash Mob to support businesses in the wake of the March 15 tornado devastation. More than 100 shoppers came to town throughout the day. The article quotes Becky Harrison, who drove to Dexter from Manchester: “Even though it’s not our town – these small towns, we’re like neighbors.” [Source]

Two Ann Arbor area companies – Motawi Tileworks and Zingerman’s – were featured during a Friday segment about Easter gift baskets on NBC’s Today Show. Cookbook author Kathleen Daelemans showcased eight items for hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, saying the products were made by “little-engine-that-could companies in the heart of America.” The Motawi basket had three trivets – including one with the image of a bunny – while the basket from Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory was full of confections that Daelemans said “bring the flavor back into candy bars.” [Source]

Following the death of poet Adrienne Rich, National Public Radio interviews Linda Gregerson, a poet, critic and University of Michigan professor: “I remember when I first encountered Adrienne’s work and it was when I was a student at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and the fierceness of her intelligence and the power of her anger, her willingness to speak it directly, was really an amazing revelation, I think, for many of us. … And she’s been a stirring and necessary and really life-changing figure for many, many in the world of American poetry, not just women poets.” [Source]

The Detroit Free Press reports that the U.S. Dept. of Justice asked for a permanent injunction against Rosewood Products, claiming that the Ann Arbor firm has “failed to correct unsanitary and filthy conditions at its plant,” according to the report. Owner Phil G. Ye told the Free Press that conditions at the plant are sanitary. The company makes tofu and other soy products. It is located at Airport Boulevard on the city’s south side and has been in business since 1976. [Source]

Provided by The Chronicle: [.pdf of complaint filed in U.S. District Court]