The Detroit Free Press publishes a brief profile of CrowdClarity, a software startup launched by UM students Jonathan Carender and Dylan Imre. (The students are part of TechArb, a group profiled by The Chronicle in June 2009.) Says Carender: “It’s more fun to work on your own project till 3 a.m. than to work for an employer.” [Source]
The Detroit Legal News Examiner reports that Lloyd Powell, Washtenaw County’s chief public defender for 29 years, will receive the 2009 Frank J. Kelley Distinguished Public Service Award, recognizing extraordinary governmental service by a member of the state bar. He’ll be given the award on Sept. 16 at the State Bar of Michigan Annual Meeting Awards Banquet. [Source]
A mime, um, miming. [photo]
Throngs at the HomeGrown Fest. Smells like a really great dinner from blocks away. [Photo by Sue Perry]
Long lines to get into the Saline Community Fair. [photo]
2:30 p.m. A fleet of three orange tow trucks headed toward the Stadium.
Pre-game a very large parrot (about 2 feet including tail feathers) in full brilliant color is entertaining a crowd while consuming Starbucks baked goods perched on the back of a chair. His owners are overheard explaining how valuable it is to socialize him.
Rebekah Warren, current state representative from Ann Arbor, plans to officially announce her candidacy for Liz Brater's state senate seat on Sept. 19.
The year was 1992. Hecklers in Hamtramck threw broccoli at George H.W. Bush. Ross Perot got almost 19% of the presidential vote. And Michigan voters enacted term limits.
Fast forward to the present: Perot and Bush 41’s broccoli problem are largely forgotten, but term limits now shape elections for state office. Except in districts evenly enough divided between Democrats or Republicans that they might swing either way, it’s rare for an incumbent to face a serious challenge. Instead, political hopefuls wait for term limits to open the right slot.
That’s happening this election cycle with districts representing the Ann Arbor area. And jockeying is under way.
Next weekend, state Rep. Rebekah Warren (D-53rd District) will launch a campaign to succeed fellow Ann Arbor Democrat Liz Brater (D-18th District) in the Michigan Senate. A former state rep and former Ann Arbor mayor, Brater is term-limited and ineligible to run again for that seat.
Warren’s move will, in turn, trigger announcements from the Democrats who’ve politely waited for the two-term lawmaker to make her plans public before lining up to try and take her spot in the state House of Representatives. [Full Story]
Pre-game festivities in full swing: beer pong, Little Orphan Annie “Hard Knock Life” blaring. That tune sounds so much better at super-high volume.
The Detroit Free Press publishes an op/ed piece by Jim Burnstein, director of UM’s screenwriting program and vice chairman of the Michigan Film Office Advisory Council. Burnstein advocates for keeping the state’s tax credits for the film industry: “Today, as legislators struggle with the budget in Lansing, these incentives – up to a 42% refundable tax credit on a production company’s expenditures – are a tempting target for cuts. We should resist that temptation. It sends the wrong message to Hollywood that we are not serious about building a film industry and to the students, who represent the future the governor was thinking about when she signed this bill.” [Source]
University Townhouses, the polling location for Precinct 5 in Ward 3, had specific improvements made under a 2005 grant. (Photo by the writer on Sept. 7, 2009; links to higher resolution file.)
In a letter dated Sept. 1, 2009, addressed to Ann Arbor’s city clerk, Jackie Beaudry, the nonprofit Michigan Protection & Advocacy Service Inc. gave the city a Sept. 15 deadline to respond to its concerns about accessibility to polling locations in Ann Arbor.
The response deadline comes two weeks ahead of the expiration of a grant for which the city was approved in 2007 under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). The grant was for improvements in accessibility to Tappan and Eberwhite schools.
Lansing-based MPAS is concerned that the city has not submitted work for reimbursement under the 2007 grant. And that would put in jeopardy the city’s 2009 grant application for improvements to five additional locations – Northside, Dicken, Lawton, Lakewood and Pittsfield elementary schools. The MPAS letter paints a picture suggesting the city has not made progress towards addressing problems that the city itself identified in 2004 at 21 of the city’s 48 precincts.
However, after checking into the matter with MPAS, the state’s Bureau of Elections, and Ann Arbor city staff, The Chronicle has concluded that: (i) the situation with the 2007 grant is a matter of non-communication and paperwork follow-through, (ii) that prior to 2007, the city of Ann Arbor completed work under HAVA grants, with some reimbursements already made, and other payments still in process, and (iii) the city’s strategy for ensuring access uses a variety of temporary measures on election days, as well as a work plan for more permanent fixes. [Full Story]
Several variables affecting the county budget are still unknown – including how much, if anything, the county’s labor unions will concede on wages and benefits. In that context, Washtenaw County administrator Bob Guenzel is recommending another 21 job cuts to help balance the 2010 and 2011 budgets. The county faced a projected $30 million deficit over those two years. The job cuts are coupled with several efforts to slash expenses and increase revenues, including a proposed economic development millage that would not require voter approval.
Guenzel will formally submit his recommendations to commissioners at their board meeting next Wednesday, Sept. 16. This is the second phase of cuts. Earlier this year, commissioners approved the elimination of 26 jobs and almost $14 million in expense reductions.
In a memo to the Board of Commissioners posted Friday on the county website, Guenzel made clear that there will be additional, difficult decisions to make – and more jobs could be on the line. He described ongoing labor discussions as cooperative, but said that if no deals are struck by Oct. 16, he’ll need to make additional cuts in other areas. More than 80% of the county’s 1,350 employees are represented by 17 different bargaining units, which have contracts in place through at least 2010.
Further ahead, the county is projecting deficits of $27.5 million over two years in 2012-13, with revenues from property taxes continuing to fall and a huge question of whether the state will re-institute a revenue-sharing commitment in 2013. By 2013, general fund revenues are expected to drop to $90 million, compared to $99 million projected for 2010.
We provide a detailed look at the budget recommendations after the break. [Full Story]
Young woman in the passenger side of a car, holding a large bouquet of flowers and wearing a hat as fancy as an Easter bonnet.
USA Today reports that in 2008, U.S. median household income fell 3.6% to $50,303 – its sharpest drop since 1947, when the government began keeping records. The article quotes Sheldon Danziger of UM’s Population Studies Center, who projects that income will drop at least 5% this year, due to rising unemployment: “2009 is going to be dreadful.” [Source]
John U. Bacon
If you grew up in Michigan in the ’70s, as I did, Bob Seger sang the soundtrack to your summers, and Ernie Harwell provided the voiceover.
When I think about our family trips up north, they’re always accompanied by Harwell’s comfortable cadences filling the car. He didn’t simply broadcast baseball games. He turned them into stories. In Harwell’s world, a batter didn’t merely strike out. He was “called out for excessive window shopping,” or “caught standing there like the house by the side of the road.”
Unlike today’s announcers, who prattle on with mindless patter and pointless stats, Harwell treated his listeners to healthy doses of “companionable silences,” something Zen masters refer to as the delicious “space between the notes.” Harwell said the quiet allowed the listeners to enjoy the sounds of the ballpark itself, which he felt was richer than his own voice. [Full Story]
Writing on his Superintendent’s Blog, Scot Graden of Saline Area Schools describes a discussion he had with UM professor Elliot Soloway about mobile devices and their impact on public education. “We discussed perhaps piloting some research in this area here in Saline to see what we could learn about the impact on the classroom. He is currently working on an interface that would have students accessing a Moodle-like software from their phone to manage their classroom work.” [Source]
The Wall Street Journal looks at programs aimed at curbing malpractice abuses. The article quotes Richard Boothman, chief risk officer at the UM Health System, who describes an early error-disclosure system that UMHS adopted in 2002. ”Today the hospital encourages employees to report mistakes, and also to report issues that might lead to mistakes. A committee of peers reviews serious incidents. If the panel determines that a mistake has occurred, the hospital and doctors apologize. In addition, the University of Michigan compensates the patient or the family.” WSJ reports that while the hospital’s risk-management budget has grown to more than $3 million annually, claims against the hospital have been reduced to 106 in 2008 from 121 in 2001. [Source]
8:30 p.m. A car tries to proceed north on Seventh from the left turn lane. They receive a very long continuous horn from the car who was in the correct lane. Just before they made the mistake, I noted the vanity license plate, APROFSR. Absent minded?
Five of Washtenaw County’s top elected officials – the sheriff, prosecuting attorney, clerk, treasurer and water resources commissioner – sent a letter to the Board of Commissioners Thursday morning asking the board to consider putting a countywide millage on the ballot in 2010. The millage is aimed at raising money to fund human services programs.
But their main message was this: The county’s basic mandated services – those that are required by law – can’t endure additional funding cuts.
The letter comes at a crucial moment in the county’s budget process, as officials battle a projected $30 million general fund deficit over the next two years. At their Sept. 16 board meeting, county administrator Bob Guenzel will be presenting budget recommendations, which will likely include job cuts. Commissioners – who are also elected – will spend the next two months deliberating, with the goal of adopting a 2010/2011 budget at their Nov. 18 meeting. County administration has tentatively set a public hearing devoted to the budget on Oct. 22. [Full Story]
Typical weekday at Washtenaw Community College – acres of packed parking lots, cars on grass because they can’t find spaces.
The Toledo Blade reports that Robert Brackenbury, a Pittsfield Township resident and former Washtenaw County commissioner, has been hired as the administrator and chief financial officer for Monroe County. The report notes that Brackenbury is married to Mandy Grewal, who serves as Pittsfield Township supervisor. [Source]
The University Record reports that budget cuts have reduced the number of plantings on campus this fall: “The reduction of 12,000 square feet of annual plantings and bulbs – primarily from Central Campus, especially Ingalls Mall and the Diag – will save some $152,000 per year.” The university also put a hold on its tree replacement program, increased its no-mow program, and cut back on turf renovation and irrigation crew staffing, according to the report. [Source]
MSN’s Careers column looks at low-paying jobs that pay off in the long run, and includes some insights from Rhonda Foxworth, an executive with the Bank of Ann Arbor: “If everyone worked in some kind of service job at some point in their life, I’m sure we’d all be a lot nicer to each other in our daily interactions.” [Source]
11:02 a.m. Human-powered sub-marine has just docked for display.
Ann Arbor City Council meeting (Sept. 8, 2009): It did not look like a lot was going to happen at Ann Arbor’s city council meeting on Tuesday.
Sandi Smith (Ward 1) indicated early in the meeting that action on the Near North development would be postponed. A speaker during public commentary noted that a controversial resolution affecting the municipal airport had been yanked from the meeting’s agenda. And Mike Anglin (Ward 5) announced a delay in his intention to bring a resolution that would make publicly available numerous city council emails dating to the early 2000s. Council did not contemplate any resolutions in connection with the Argo Dam. [The Chronicle will report separately on the work session held immediately prior to the council meeting, which focused on Argo Dam.]
But as it turned out, on Tuesday night a lot happened: Ann Arbor’s city council began a transition – to what will perhaps be a different way of doing business and to a new set of leaders. [Full Story]
The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is reporting that a 16-year-old Muslim girl of Iraqi descent was attacked Tuesday by teens on a school bus in Ann Arbor, according to an article in the Detroit Free Press. The Free Press could not immediately confirm the attack with Ann Arbor police. The article quotes CAIR’s David Walid: “We’re extremely troubled. We’re asking state and federal authorities to investigate these assaults as hate crimes due to the racial slurs used and that her hijab was pulled off during the assaults.” [Source]
Northeast corner Celtic harpist tuning up for a busking turn. Sign says “Broke and Hungry.” But the harp isn’t broke. Sounded sweet.
Lots of vendors wearing HomeGrown Festival T-shirts to promote this Saturday’s event at the market. Encountered Jason Frenzel, one of the organizers, telling market manager Molly Notarianni about his plans for strategic use of tarps at the chef’s demo.
Ann Arbor Public Art Commission (Sept. 8, 2009): Herbert Dreiseitl, the German artist recruited to design three art installations at the city’s new municipal center, is coming to Ann Arbor next week to answer questions related to his proposed nearly $800,000 project, which has not yet received approval from the city.
Unlike his previous trip, Dreiseitl won’t be meeting with the public. His agenda includes meetings with businesses in Tecumseh and Hammond that might serve as fabricators for his artwork. That includes a large illuminated water sculpture for the plaza facing Huron Street, and two smaller wall installations inside the building. He’ll also be meeting with city staff and architects for the municipal center, among others.
Katherine Talcott, Ann Arbor’s public art administrator, said the city hadn’t yet paid Dreiseitl for his design work, and that they wouldn’t deliver the $72,000 check for that work until they received more information from him, including detailed cost breakdowns for the project. [Full Story]
A New York Times article looks at how businesses are offering bargains to lure shoppers, and quotes UM economist Don Grimes. He notes that while programs like the federal cash for clunkers boosts consumer morale, people are still cautious: “People who are making $80,000 or $100,000 and who would go off to Disney World and blow $2,000 on a weekend, they aren’t going to do that.” As an example of bargains being offered, the article cites the example of Zingerman’s, which has started offering less expensive versions of some of its cooking programs. [Source]
