Archive for May, 2010

John U. Bacon

The Red Wings bowed out of the Stanley Cup playoffs Saturday, in just the second round. It was disappointing for Red Wings’ fans – okay, crushing.

But it’s worth remembering the Red Wings have made the playoffs for 20 consecutive years – the longest active run of any team not just in hockey, but in baseball, basketball and football. The last time the Red Wings didn’t make the playoffs, George Bush was just getting started – George H.W. Bush, that is.

That 1990 team was decent, but nobody thought it would spark a streak of 20 straight playoff seasons. To do that, the Red Wings have stayed at the top of their game with four different coaches, 25 goalies and hundreds of players. Not one has spanned the entire streak. But the team has been led during the entire stretch by just two captains: Steve Yzerman and Nicklas Lidstrom – and no team has ever had better leaders than those two. [Full Story]

Bloomberg News reports on the practice of “transfer pricing,” a technique used by corporations to dodge an estimated $60 billion in U.S. taxes each year. The article quotes Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, director of the international tax program at UM’s Law School: “If multinationals cannot be prevented from shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions, then it becomes impossible to maintain the domestic corporate tax base.” [Source]

Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board meeting (May 12, 2010): With the expiration of two board members’ terms on May 1, and no replacement finalized for either, an absence further reduced the now five-member AATA board to four at its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday.

The mailbox at the AATA headquarters on South Industrial. There's no particular connection between the mailbox and this meeting report – it's here for pure aesthetics. (Photo by the writer.)

The meeting had been rescheduled from its usual slot on the second-to-last Wednesday of the month to avoid additional absences.

The four board members who were present listened to a glowing review of the AATA from McCollom Management Consulting, which had been hired to perform an organizational audit.

The only business transacted by the board was to approve a contract for architectural and engineering services to design a replacement of the downtown Blake Transit Center. The $343,439 contract was awarded to DLZ Michigan Inc., which had three representatives on hand at the meeting to field any questions. [The Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority may eventually provide a grant to the AATA for foundation work related to the newly constructed transit center.]

Before the meeting, the trio from DLZ clustered in conversation in the board room and noticed the missing members in the set of official framed board member photos hanging on the board room wall – “Where’s Paul?” one asked. [Full Story]

Maitelates Alfajores, cookies made locally by food entrepreneur Maite Zubia, are featured in Real Simple magazine’s 2010 Summer Gift Guide. [Source]

Officially, it was an interview. But with just a single candidate vying to head the Ann Arbor Housing Commission, there was little doubt about the outcome.

On Wednesday evening, the commission’s five-member board listened to a 30-minute presentation by interim executive director Marge Novak and voted unanimously to take the interim off her title after posing fewer than a dozen questions during a 40-minute Q&A.

With 10-plus months as a temporary leader of the commission, Novak has considerably more time with the organization than some of the commissioners who endorsed her. Effective today, the hiring comes less than two months after the Ann Arbor city council dissolved the previous board. [See Chronicle coverage: "Housing Commission Set to Hire Director"]

Despite the unusual circumstances, the decision was well received by most of the roughly 30 residents of commission-run properties who attended Wednesday’s special meeting. [Full Story]

Editor’s Note: On April 20, 2010, an explosion on an oil rig 50 miles off the Louisiana coast left 11 workers missing and presumed dead. Efforts are now focused on the underwater challenge of trying to cap off the oil well on the sea bed. Local history columnist Laura Bien takes a look back 150 years into the past to recall a Lake Erie underwater challenge resulting from a different tragedy.

In the summer of 1852, $36,000 in cash and gold bars lay in a locked safe 165 feet deep on the floor of Lake Erie.

Many of the overloaded ship's immigrant passengers slept on the deck, as there was no room below.

Worth $920,000 today, the riches lay within the wreck of the steamship Atlantic. So did more grisly testimony of the shipwreck’s victims, estimated as ranging from 130 to over 250. The deaths represented about a third of the 576 travelers packed onto a steamship meant to accommodate far fewer.

The era’s stream of immigrants pouring west made a profitable trade for passenger steamers traveling the Great Lakes. The Atlantic was the fastest one of all, speeding to Detroit from Buffalo in just 16-and-a-half hours. A towering steam engine churned huge paddlewheels on either side of the vessel. Despite her power and 267-foot-long brawn, the Atlantic succumbed when she was struck on the night of Aug. 20, 1852, by the Ogdensburg, a ship from a rival ferry line.

In the chaos and panic that ensued as the Atlantic began sinking, several of the lifeboats swamped when they hit the water. Some passengers grabbed cushions or anything buoyant and jumped in the water. The Ogdensburg circled back and picked up about 250 survivors from the water. [Full Story]

At their final meeting to discuss the city’s FY 2011 budget before its adoption next week, Ann Arbor city councilmembers focused on the East Stadium bridges reconstruction project and safety services – the possible layoffs of firefighters and police officers. While reconstruction of the bridges will be funded with money outside of the general fund, safety services account for around half of the city’s roughly $78 million general fund budget.

Hired six weeks ago, Ann Arbor fire chief Dominick Lanza answers questions about the impact of cutting 20 firefighters from the city's staff. (Photos by the writer.)

Margie Teall (Ward 4) and mayor John Hieftje had indicated at the council’s May 3, 2010 meeting that they hoped a $2 million payment to the city from the Downtown Development Authority would be authorized by the DDA’s board later that week. They’d said they intended to use that payment to stave off as many layoffs in safety services as possible, as well as to keep human services funding at last year’s levels.

Although the DDA approved the $2 million for the city two days later on a 7-4 vote, details were scant on Monday night about how the money might be used – how many positions would still need to be cut, and where those cuts would come.

Dominick Lanza, the city’s fire chief, and Barnett Jones, the chief of police, spoke about specific negative impacts on services that would result from the layoffs scheduled in this year’s budget, unless amendments are made next week.

How grim does the situation look from inside safety services? At one point, Jones paused nearly 10 full seconds before responding to a question from Sandi Smith (Ward 1). She’d asked him to comment on how community standards positions might be filled. When he finally did answer, Jones began by saying, “I really don’t want to.”  [Full Story]

Speaking to a packed room at Washtenaw Community College on Tuesday, Letitia Byrd recalled how even her husband eventually saw women as equals, though he grew up in an era when women were expected to stay at home. “Remember that, ladies?” she quipped.

Letitia Byrd, left, and Molly Dobson at Tuesday's Washtenaw Community College Foundation Women's Council lunch. Byrd was one of three honorees at the event. Dobson is a previous honoree. (Photos by the writer.)

Murmurs in the room showed that many of them did. About 300 people – mostly women – attended Tuesday’s luncheon of the WCC Foundation Women’s Council, where Byrd, Bettye McDonald and Marianna Staples were honored for their contributions as community leaders. The annual lunch raised about $25,000 for student scholarships and WCC’s Student Resource and Women’s Center.

Defying expectations and breaking stereotypes was a theme throughout the event, highlighted in a speech by Jean Jennings that took the audience through a romp of her unconventional path to becoming the president and editor-in-chief of Automobile Magazine, based in Ann Arbor. The saga included tales of unshaved legs, drill bits, cab driving, crash testing cars and starting a publication “with Rupert Murdoch’s money.” Jennings began by noting that the lunch would be a great place to pick up chicks. [Full Story]

Jennifer S. Hall, board member of the DDA, has provided in electronic form the prepared statement on which she based some of her remarks at the most recent meeting of the Ann Arbor DDA board. One highlight: “I do not support this type of conduct. I find it sneaky, underhanded, corrupt, possibly illegal, and in violation of the public trust in government. Obviously not everyone is in agreement with me on this or things would have happened in a different way.” [Source]

The Washtenaw County 4-H Marketplace blog has a post offering free goats: “Two dwarf/pygmy goats are free and available to a good home. One neutered male, one female. Current owner doesn’t have time for them and wants the pair to stay together.” [Source]

The deadline for filing signatures to qualify for the Aug. 3 primary ballot expired at 4 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. A couple of hours before that deadline, John Floyd was at the Ann Arbor city clerk’s office filing three additional “insurance” signatures to make sure he ended the day with the required minimum of 100.

At the Ann Arbor city clerk's office, Uncle Sam looks on as Ward 5 candidate for the city council, John Floyd, signs his petition sheet Tuesday afternoon. Floyd had previously submitted a sufficient number of signatures to qualify for the ballot. He was submitting three additional "insurance" signatures. (Photo by the writer.)

Floyd had already qualified for the ballot with 101 signatures. But a filing the previous day by another Ward 5 candidate, Lou Glorie, had revealed a duplicate signature – and both signatures are disqualified under the city of Ann Arbor’s charter. That left Floyd with exactly 100 signatures – and he didn’t want to take any chances that two other candidates who’d taken out petitions might file with additional overlapping signatures.

Floyd’s concerns weren’t completely unfounded. Glorie’s filing on Monday had bumped Ward 5 incumbent Carsten Hohnke’s signature total from 100 down to 97 – three of Glorie’s signatures overlapped with Hohnke’s. And Hohnke had needed to submit additional signatures to qualify for the ballot – his additional 15 signatures brought his final total to 112.

Floyd’s signature count held steady through 4 p.m., making him the only Republican candidate in the Aug. 3 city council primary  races. For the Democrats, Patricia Lesko and incumbent John Hieftje will contest the mayor’s race. In Wards 2 and 3, incumbents Tony Derezinski and Christopher Taylor, respectively, will be unopposed in the primary. The Ward 1 race will be contested by Sumangala Kailasapathy and incumbent Sandi Smith. The Ward 5 primary race is between Glorie and incumbent Hohnke.

[Full Story]

The Brewers Association website posts a video of testimony given recently by Rene Greff – co-owner of Arbor Brewing Co. in Ann Arbor and Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti – at the Congressional Small Brewers Caucus in Washington, D.C. Greff, who spoke about her company’s economic impact on the community, was lobbying for House bill HR 4278, which would reduce the small brewers excise tax. [Source]

On her Head of School blog, Joanna Hastings writes about the new website for Summers-Knoll School of Ann Arbor: “The process of creating the site has been inspiring. I am enormously grateful to Linette Lao (Clementine’s mother) and Anjanette Bunce for their tireless work designing and building the site. Their understanding of the things that make our little school important and special radiates from their work. Leisa Thompson, the photographer, also made a special connection with our school, and you can see the results of it in the luminous images she has captured.” [Source]

[Full Story]

A New York Times article about the nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court quotes UM law professor Richard Primus. He tells the Times that conservatives have been energized to influence previous nominations because the right resents court rulings that barred school-sponsored prayer, legalized abortion and upheld some affirmative action programs. “It still lives off of that anger, and nothing of that sort of fire has really taken hold on the other side.” [Source]

The author of Becca’s Blog, a recent UM graduate, writes about the things she loves about Ann Arbor: “I’ve traveled to many places around the U.S. and the world, but one place keeps me coming back time and time again: Ann Arbor, Michigan. Of course I grew up just outside Ann Arbor, so I am biased. However, at the very least, everything I’m about to describe is at least reason to visit the great little city. During my time in high school, I went to Ann Arbor to shop and dine, but I didn’t really come to know the city until I attended the University of Michigan.” [Source]

The Detroit Free Press reports that state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith (D-Salem Township) has dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination for governor. In a statement, Smith said: “Democrats need to unify behind a candidate and I have come to believe that my continued candidacy would only serve to divide us further.” She has not endorsed either of the other Democrats in the race, Lansing mayor Virg Bernero or state House speaker Andy Dillon. [Source]

An article in the Detroit News features Rick Richter’s family and their experience raising chickens in the backyard of their Ann Arbor home. Says Richter: “Local food and backyard gardening are really important to us. And what’s more local than getting eggs from your backyard?” [Source]

The Detroit Free Press publishes a commentary by Leon Drolet, chair of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, criticizing the recent field trip for black students at Dicken Elementary in Ann Arbor. He writes: “When it comes to matters of race, Ann Arbor Schools can’t seem to get it right. What’s so difficult to grasp about treating each child as a valuable individual human being instead of as a racial category? We owe each child that basic right – and the law requires it.” [Source]

The Ann Arbor Housing Commission‘s new board is moving ahead with the selection process for its new executive director, but is now considering only one candidate for the job – interim executive director Marge Novak.

Marge Novak, interim executive director of the Ann Arbor Housing Commission, talks with commissioners at their April 21 meeting. (Photos by the writer.)

Novak will be interviewed by the board at a special meeting on Wednesday, May 12. The meeting, which is open to the public, begins at 6 p.m. at Miller Manor, 727 Miller Ave. It will include an opportunity for public comment.

The board made its decision to move forward with the interview process at its April 21 meeting. That was the first meeting for new board members Ron Woods and Sasha Womble, who were recently appointed by Ann Arbor city council. Council had dissolved the previous board in March, following a consultant’s report that recommended an overhaul of the organization, and a follow-up report written by city administrator Roger Fraser at the end of February.

Jayne Miller, the board’s new president and a former top-level city administrator, supported Novak, saying the housing commission – which oversees the city’s public housing units and the Section 8 program for a three-county region – has transformed over a very short time. “I truly believe it’s because of her leadership,” Miller said. [Full Story]

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on the status of five-year-old copyright lawsuit against Google, which is digitizing books in the library collections of the University of Minnesota, the University of Michigan and other institutions. The article on the Google Books project quotes Jack Bernard, a UM law professor and assistant general counsel: “We can fight about this copyright issue for a long time as long as the books are preserved. The public good is that we are not letting these works disappear.” [Source]