Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Wal-Mart Faces Sex Discrimination Suit

Posted by Ari Paul on 22. June 2004

A Federal Court will hear a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart on allegations of sex discrimination.

The BBC reports:

The judge’s decision means the case now involves up to 1.6 million women who have worked for Wal-Mart since 1998.

It is the biggest civil rights case against a private employer in US legal history, the plaintiffs’ lawyers say….

It alleged that Wal-Mart systematically paid women less than men and passed them over for promotion.

San Francisco-based judge Martin Jenkins dismissed Wal-Mart’s argument that a class action lawsuit would be too unwieldy.

“Up till now, Wal-Mart has never faced a trial like this,” said Brad Seligman, the lead counsel for the women.

“Lawsuits by individual women had no more effect than a pinprick. Now, however, the playing field has been levelled. Wal-Mart will face the combined power of 1.6 million women in court,” said Mr Seligman in a statement on the Impact Fund website, a campaign group backing the women.

Comment [22]

Governor Granholm ...

Posted by Rob Goodspeed on 22. June 2004

... has re-lauched her campaign website in preperation for her re-election campaign.

"Arts on the Diag" ... This Friday

Posted by Rob Goodspeed on 22. June 2004

From an email:

“Attention U-M arts community!

This friday (6/25) from 11-4pm, The Mural and Sculpture Club is hosting “Arts on the Diag.” Everyone is invited to paint, sculpt, chalk, and have fun!

Here’s how you can be creative:

A table where you can paint a cool wooden tile and take it home!

Massive amounts of chalk for designs – right on the diag itself!

Air-drying clay you can use to make your own mini-sculpture

Two blank 24X36 canvases acting as a “community mural” you can paint any of your own ideas on

Two pre-sketched 24X36 paintings you can paint by “filling in the
lines”

For more information please contact Dave Landau at Cobrax11x at aol.com

Ann Arbor Premiere of Fahrenheit 911

Posted by Rob Goodspeed on 22. June 2004

Well, it’s been confirmed: “Fahenheit 911” will premier at the Michigan Theater one minute past midnight on Thursday, at 12:01 Friday. Tickets are $8 and are available at the Michigan Theater Ticket office (open 6:30 to 9:30 daily), the Michigan Union Ticket Office, or over the phone or web via Ticketmaster.

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Kiblawi Released from Israeli Captivity

Posted by Ari Paul on 21. June 2004

Fadi Kiblawi was released by the Israeli military today after his lawyer fixed a settlement stipulating that Kiblawi could no longer enter the West Bank with the exception of East Jerusalem.

Writes Kiblawi to AU reporters,

“The protest Sunday was completely non-violent, not even a stone was picked up. However, the soldiers beat us, threw sound bombs at us, and fired tear gas at us. The entire time I was in prison, my eyes were burning me from the amount of tear gas I sucked in. I also have deep bruises on both my arms and some scars on my neck and face, which I intend to photograph shortly.

“I do not consider this in any way some sort’ve MLK experience, that’s a tremendous insult to Dr. King. I do not consider my experience and actions here any more courageous than those of the Palestinians who come out every day in Az Zawiya, Biddu, Iskaka (and the list of villages goes on) with no weapons. God, the sight yesterday was just unbelievable. The oldest villagers, men and women in their 70s, led the protest with their arms up telling all the shabbab (youth) to not depart from the straight path after they fire the tear gas, and to march through the line of soldiers and in front of the bulldozers to stop them. What is happening is a nightmare, and the entire world has turned their back on it.”

Kiblawi was held on charges for being in a “closed military zone”. Kiblawi explained to the military that this was not posted anywhere, or at least where no one could see. He was then told that the entire village was a “closed military zone”.

Comment [16]

Protesters Beware

Posted by Rob Goodspeed on 21. June 2004

Well, it’s official, “If a cop asks your name, you have to tell.”

Comment [6]

Zoolander at Top of the Park.

Posted by Ari Paul on 21. June 2004

Zoolander, starring Ben Stiller and Will Farrell, will be playing at Top of the Park on Monday, June 21st. TOP is located, not surprisingly, on top of the Fletcher Street parking lot, and the screening will be at 10 p.m.

Zoolander is the story of Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller), who, upon his fall from grace as America’s top male model, is brainwashed by Mugatu (Will Farrell) to be his slave and carry out his evil plans. There is much to be learned from Zoolander, especially the imperfections of the modeling industry, the anti-sweatshop movement, and a revisionist history of political assasinations over the past two centuries.

Come, learn, laugh, and enjoy.

Comment [1]

Crony Environmentalism

Posted by Rob Goodspeed on 21. June 2004

It turns out local power broker and republican-turned NIMBY environmentalist Doug Coward’s name was quietly removed from the panel which will decide how to administer the city’s greenbelt funds:

... Four years ago, Cowherd was in a meeting with real estate agents and developers talking about a land preservation initiative.

Cowherd soon went on the attack. Fisher said Cowherd warned the group opposing him that he could make them “look like the tobacco industry.”

“He heavily implies, ‘If you don’t agree with me or do what I want done,’ he is going to walk through you,” Fisher said. “Either go with him or you are public enemy No. 1 to him.”

Some were concerned about what would happen if Cowherd was appointed to the Greenbelt Advisory Commission and there was disagreement.

“Whenever you are looking at putting people on a commission, you have to look at not only qualifications, but who can work together well,” said Council Member Joan Lowenstein, D-2nd Ward. “Part of the decision was whether the group could work together.”

Also taken off the list was Bill Hanson, executive director of the Washtenaw Land Trust. Here’s some more details about how the decision to remove the two were made:

But Hanson is a member of the city Planning Commission and has missed the last 14 meetings. He wouldn’t comment on his attendance record.

He was also a part of a small group of perceived allies of the mayor whose names kept popping up throughout the greenbelt process.

Cowherd, Hanson and Garfield played key roles in developing the greenbelt property tax campaign and the enabling ordinance. Now, all three wanted on the advisory commission.

Woods said the council had to make sure it didn’t appear a small circle of people were calling all the shots.

“I thought it was important to spread the power,” said Woods, D-5th Ward. “It can’t be the same old gang.”

But Hanson and Cowherd object to the way the council made its choices.

Much of the discussion was held during a council caucus on the Sunday night preceding the regular meeting on June 7. Although the caucus was open to the public, there were no TV cameras, and only one resident attended. And comments said to be made Sunday night would not be repeated on the record on Monday by some council members.

When the decision was made Monday night, no names were mentioned. A resident who watched the meeting on the city’s public access cable TV channel would not have known who had been selected to serve on the advisory commission.

“Their voting process appears to be a charade to avoid public debate over candidates they sought to exclude,” Cowherd said. “All I wanted was a public vote and a public discussion about myself and other greenbelt candidates so the council explains to the public their thinking. It’s a political game.”

Hanson agreed.

“I got caught up in the politicization of the greenbelt and that is too bad,” Hanson said. “I think it is a mistake not to have somebody with professional land trust experience on the commission.”

Clearly, it’s a good thing Hanson and Cowherd aren’t on the commission: whether it’s acting like a political bully, treating local politics as a game to create a park in your backyard to reinforce your own property values (Cowherd did this) or missing 14 consecutive planning commission meetings, the city can and should find better people to administer public money. However, the council should debate important decisions like this in the open, and their secretive removal, however justified, should have taken place in full public view.

> All quotes from AANews: “Greenbelt backers crying foul over panel”

Comment [1]

U-M Library Data to Become More Searchable

Posted by Rob Goodspeed on 21. June 2004

The University of Michigan library is at the cutting edge of a new trend of Universities working with traditional web search engines to make their data more accessable to the public:

Yahoo has also signed agreements with the University of Michigan to make searchable the university’s compendium of academic collections from more than 250 institutions. And it has indexed a digital repository at Northwestern University of more than 2,000 hours of Supreme Court oral arguments.

> From NYTimes: “Old Search Engine, the Library, Tries to Fit Into a Google World”

And this from the Ann Arbor News:

U-M is in a position to share data with those two search engines after winning a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to start its own networked search service in June 2002. Called OAIster (pronounced oyster), which stands for Open Archives Initiative, the service began providing access to the online collections of 50 digital academic libraries. Users can pull up images and primary source materials. Now, it provides access to the collections of about 300 libraries.

Since it’s a new system, it’s not yet widely used by students but is gaining in popularity. It recorded 5,000 hits per month at the start of the year and by the end of this academic year, OAIster recorded 17,000 hits a month.

Now, OAIster essentially provides Yahoo the electronic keys to open the doors to the institutions’ online collections and a card catalog to find materials, so the search engines can better locate and index the information. Google now gets access to some data as well.

> From “U-M wises up Google, Yahoo”

I’m not exactly sure how this will work out for average users, however it might be part of the new MIRLYN they’re planning to roll out in July.

The Evens Please Treetown Rockers

Posted by Ari Paul on 21. June 2004

Nearly 70 people packed into the Neutral Zone tonight to see the Evens, the new project of punk legend Ian MacKaye, with Max Cloud and Eliza Beatrix Godfry.

The Evens, which features MacKaye on guitar and his partner Amy Farina on drums with both on vocals is touring only on word of mouth and in nontraditional venues such as museums, art galleries, and record stores.

“I have to say there is a traditional approach,” MacKaye said. The Evens, he insists, “is just music.” Staying away from bars and clubs where there are distractions means that the audience can just focus on the music, he said. “We’re trying to fuck with the form.” Mike Medow, who helped organize the event with the RadArt Collective, said “he was pissed that we had two openers.”

However, MacKaye did adjust to the lineup. He sat cross legged and attentively watched Ms. Godfry play acoustic guitar drinking a cup of water, nodding when she hit a note or busted a lyric he liked.

One attendee called his set “Politically-electronic-haunting-folk.” Around his more haunting melodies were a dissident set of lyrics, ranging from anti-war anthems to a song called “Mount Pleasant Isn’t”, which is about a riot in his hometown of Washington D.C. ten years ago.

The crowd was seated mostly, the only person dancing being a six year old girl. He felt that the communal nature without the distractions of a traditional venue “puts music in the focus. It makes me think about early punk rock.”

MacKaye said there are no immediate plans to record an album, but when there is one, he said, “it will probably be on Discord,” the label that he co-operates.

MacKaye was formerly the front man for Minor Threat and Fugazi.

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