Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Gas Grills: More Deadly Than Porch Couches?

Posted by Brian Kerr on 27. July 2004

Blogger Ryan Vis left a comment on Arbor Update describing a putative gas grill ban for Ann Arbor residents and citing a letter he got from his landlord(s). More details are available on his blog.

Anybody have more or different information about this? It’s news to me, at least.

Comment [3]

Michigan Indymedia Update

Posted by dilleym on 27. July 2004

The Michigan Independent Media Center (IMC) has a bunch of good stuff:

Bands Against Bush

Report on Surveillance Cameras in Grand Rapids

Check Boston Indymedia for latest on DNC protests>

U-M and AATA Program Publicized

Posted by Brian Kerr on 27. July 2004

The University Record announces the U-M and AATA agreement which was tipped to this site last week. The Record article provides few new details, but features a host of happy-talk quotations from the directors of the University’s Parking and Transportation Services and of the AATA.

Comment [1]

Or We Could Just Stop Paying Them at All...

Posted by Ari Paul on 26. July 2004

In a move that would please the capitalist class and widen the gap between rich and poor, many American workers will likely lose their rights to overtime pay, if the Bush administration has its way, The Christian Science Monitor explains.

Royster, Families Square off on Housing

Posted by Ari Paul on 26. July 2004

Vice President for Student Affairs E. Royster Harper and the University administration stand firm on their anti-family housing agenda. The Michigan Daily reports:

Three-year-old Wesley Olson held up a sign that read: “I was born in Northwood II,” while his mother, Renee Olson, pushed him along in a stroller and tried to keep up with the rest of the protesters.

Wesley and his mom joined a crowd of more than 100 residents of Family Housing who marched throughout Central Campus Friday. The protesters voiced their opposition to the relocation of undergraduates to three of the Northwood apartment complexes that are currently home to families and some single graduate students.

“I have been very involved with Resident Housing … and I feel like they’ve lied to us,” said Olson, who now resides in NW IV.

Comment [5]

Art Fair: Judgement Day

Posted by Brian Kerr on 26. July 2004

The Ann Arbor News Magic Eight-Ball reports that MOST LIKELY 625,000 human beings visited the art fairs, and—regarding their impact on local businesses—concludes ‘REPLY HAZY TRY AGAIN.’

60 Million to Silence DNC Protestors

Posted by Ari Paul on 25. July 2004

The City of Boston will be spending $60 million on security during the Democratic National Convention.

CNN reports:

At first, Boston planned to spend $10 million for security. In 2003, Congress added $50 million for security to be split between Boston and New York, where the Republicans will meet in late August.

Earlier this year, [Boston Mayor Thomas] Menino and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg each requested an additional $25 million, bringing Boston’s total to $60 million.

Comment [2]

Are We a Cool City Yet?

Posted by Ari Paul on 25. July 2004

Gov. Granholm has handed out awards to several communities for their urban revitalization projects. Ann Arbor Township was one of them:

The awards ceremony, which was sponsored by the State of Michigan, also heralded restoration work in Detroit, Escanaba, Kalamazoo, and Ann Arbor Township. In a statement by the governor released in tandem with the award ceremony, which she did not attend, Ms. Granholm noted that increased historic preservation activity across the state has made it harder to choose the award winners. “I am passionate about these awards because I believe preserving Michigan’s historic resources is critical to creating vibrant, attractive spaces in which we all want to live and work,” Ms. Granholm said.

Bush's Anti-Semitic Alliance

Posted by Ari Paul on 25. July 2004

Michael Moore exposed to the American public how the Bush administration deals kindly to Saudi Arabia. Now, members of the Jewish-American establishment are getting upset about it, and rightfully so.

Gordon Goldstein, of the Foreign Policy Leadership Council, remarked in the pages of The Forward:

Most observers acknowledge that Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, himself a Saudi, are the culprits behind the terrorist strikes. Key figures in the Saudi leadership, however, have remarkably tried to blame the attacks on unidentified Jewish forces. Following last month’s terrorist attack in Yanbu, Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto Saudi ruler, told local television that “Zionism is behind terrorist actions in the kingdom…. This has been established, I am not saying by 100%, but by 95%.”

A few days later, his comments were echoed by the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, who claimed: “Extremist Zionist elements are… disseminating lies and incitement against the Saudi government…. The terror operations taking place today serve the interests of the extremist Zionist elements.” Two weeks ago, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to Britain, remarked: “Specifically since September 11, the kingdom has been a center for concentrated merciless attacks by the Zionists.”

The Anti-Defamation League also has an extensive profile on Saudi Arabia’s anti-Semitic media.

Comment [7]

Free Speech for Fred

Posted by Ari Paul on 25. July 2004

Fredric Allen Maxwell, the Ann Arbor resident who was booted from the Ann Arbor Public Library for using the f-word (the one that rhymes with duck), finally has his say:

I mistakenly thought that Ann Arbor would be appalled, as the library called three armed police officers into the adult reading room and had me removed because, in their words, “Subject swore and refused to leave.” They banned me from the library for a year because of this without notifying me, they prevented me from arguing my case in front of the Library Board, and the library director circulated a memo to her staff stating that I used obscene language when, in fact, the words I chose were, at worst, vulgar, and that I lived in a homeless shelter when, in fact, I didn’t and don’t. Land of the free, home of the brave.

And I guess the library’s $400 an hour lawyer, forgetting one’s right to petition our government, is correct to have ordered me to cease and desist from writing the library director or staff. Such actions have the library in such a pickle that, to cover their, well, selves, they’ve hired two more attorneys, a pair in East Lansing – East Lansing! Any port in a storm.

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