Archive for October, 2008

Taylor Bond, CEO of Ann Arbor-based Children’s Orchard, is quoted in an Oklahoma City Journal Record article about how the economic downturn is good for used-clothing stores: “We’re prepared to provide a lot of great values and we’re hoping that will translate into some very good sales in the fourth quarter. …What we do for a living and how we do it is especially well-suited to meet a lot of the important needs that families have nowadays.” [Source]

Gerald Meyers, a UM professor and former CEO of American Motors Corp., is quoted in a Bloomberg News article about how the credit crunch is affecting GM dealers. The crisis “dried up traffic in the dealer showrooms. Their very business and profits depend upon lending to people with credit that is acceptable.” [Source]

Several local business and community leaders are participating in the Creative Cities Summit, held this week in Detroit. They include Grady Burnett, head of online sales and operations at Google Adwords in Ann Arbor, Stephen Forrest, UM’s vice president of research, and Dan Gilmartin, president of the Ann Arbor-based Michigan Municipal League. [Source]

Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn bemoans Michigan’s loss to Toledo: ”They’d already shown themselves to be mediocre this season (their two victories in the first five games were a 16-6 squeaker against Miami of Ohio and a miraculous upset of Wisconsin) but now there seems to be little question that they’re actively bad…well worse than they’ve been in the 40 years I’ve been following them avidly (as a native of Ann Arbor and Michigan alum). And I have to say that there’s part of me that’s pleased. The program has become increasingly unseemly in recent years.” [Source]

On an unseasonably warm October Sunday afternoon at Ann Arbor’s Wheeler Park, supporters of the open carry of handguns gathered for a picnic, to demonstrate “what doesn’t happen” when people wear a handgun openly.
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MVictors posts a Q&A with Doug Shand, a former WTKA host who’s suing UM athletic director Bill Martin, whom Shand claims caused him to be fired from the Ann Arbor radio station. Says Shand: “The stunning thing for us is that it appears that the University of Michigan is paying for his defense – we’re not suing him as an Athletic Director. I bet the legal bill is well into the six figures right now, and we’re not suing him as athletic director. To me, someone should ask, ‘Why isn’t he paying his own legal bills?’” [Source]

The Philadelphia Daily News compares the health care plans of both presidential candidates and quotes Thomas Buchmueller, a UM health economist who co-authored an analysis of McCain’s plan for the journal Health Affairs. McCain proposes ending a tax subsidy on employer-provided insurance. Says Buchmueller: ”If you take the tax subsidy off, a lot of employers are going to decide it’s not in their best interest to provide benefits…We estimate that it will be more or less a wash in how many people end up being uninsured.” [Source]

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that libraries at major universities have been creating a backup for Google’s digital books project. Called the HathiTrust, its executive director is John Wilkin, a UM associate university librarian. Says Wilkin: ”Google won’t be around forever. This is a commitment to the permanence of the materials…We’ve been doing this for a couple of hundred years, and we intend to continue doing it.” [Source]

Jessica Makolin, who grew up in Ann Arbor and was the 2004 Ann Arbor News Young Citizen of the Year, is featured in a Time magazine article about college students who rely on food banks because of rising food prices and tuition expenses. Makolin is a student at MSU, which operates the country’s only student-run food bank specifically for students. In high school she was a food bank volunteer: “I find somewhat ironic that I am now on the other side of the counter.” [Source]

Amy Alderman, a plastic surgeon at the UM Medical Center, is quoted in a USA Today Your Health column about post-mastectomy reconstructive surgery: ”We’re not educating women about (their) options.” [Source]

Entrance to Saturday's fundraiser.

If you’re an artist who’s passionate about politics, and you’re looking to contribute in a concrete way to the presidential campaign, what do you do?

That was the question six local artists kicked around this summer. They’d been meeting as a critique group, but “being a bunch of liberal Democrats, we’d been talking politics, too,” says Leslie Sobel. As for that question, she says, “Well, the obvious answer is to sell art.”

So sell art they did. Saturday night’s Obama Art-O-Rama fundraiser featured a silent auction of donated work from more than 80 local artists. The event was held at the Ann Arbor home of Carl Rinne and Tamara Real, executive director of the Arts Alliance. Before a single piece of art had been sold, they were already halfway to their goal of $10,000. (An update from Sobel came a bit after midnight – their total reached $10,500 for the evening.)

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In his blog Paper Tiger No More, former A2News sports columnist Jim Carty explains how it’s possible for Michigan to get a bowl bid even with a 6-6 record. [Source]

In an Old Media Watch item, we gave the incorrect name for the EMU newspaper, which is the Eastern Echo. We note the error here, and have corrected it in the original item.

An article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel looks at potential conflict-of-interest concerns following Chuck Gelman’s $5 million donation to UM’s Risk Science Center. The center was founded by Martin Philbert, who serves as its co-director. Philbert is also chair of an FDA panel examining the safety of bisphenol A, used to make baby bottles and aluminum can liners. Gelman, who lives in Ann Arbor and whose former business has been involved in a decade-long cleanup of contaminated groundwater in this area, considers bisphenol A to be safe. Says Philbert: “I am not open to any undue influence and have taken on this (unwelcome) task with all due diligence and seriousness.” [Source]

In its “Where We Live” series, the Freep profiles Washtenaw County’s Augusta Township. Resident Tracy O’Keefe explains the area’s appeal: “Taxes are a little lower, plus we get more house and more land.” [Source]

The Freep reports that turnout has been strong for poetry workshops by M.L. Liebler, the artist-in-residence at Chelsea Public Library. Says Liebler: ”We had a huge turnout and want to serve more. Some folks drove from Detroit and Jackson even.” [Source]

A Detroit News editorial praises UM’s Ronald and Eileen Weiser Center of Europe and Eurasia, which aims to study and support countries with emerging democracies. It was established this fall with a $10 million gift from the Weisers, who live in Ann Arbor. “U-M, recently ranked among the top 18 universities in the world, is taking another step with the Weiser Center to cement itself as one of the most important places in the world for scholarly research.” [Source]

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The New York Times reports that GM had explored merging with Ford before recent talks with Chrysler. The article quotes David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor. ”These are not normal times. The biggest problem is cash and whether these companies will have enough to survive this downturn.” [Source]

Maize & Blue Nation makes an assessment of today’s game against Toledo: “If anything, it looks like Toledo has the edge. But that’s on paper. In reality, Toledo is not a very good football team. They had a pretty bad scandal in the off-season in a point-shaving incident. And that left the team with a pretty bad taste in their mouths. Their head coach, Tom Amstutz, who probably pushes 400+ pounds, is lucky to have a job…and most likely won’t after this season is over.”  [Source]

A Freep article about General Motors’ financial woes quotes Jeff Shumway, a retired GM hourly and GMAC worker who’s now a real estate agent in Ann Arbor. He’s confident in GM’s future: “I bought about $56,000 worth (of GM stock) 10 minutes ago. If I had $1 million, I’d put it all in GM stock….If I’m wrong, guess what: This whole country’s in serious trouble – and that’s no joke.” [Source]