Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Alito abhors affirmative action

Posted by David Boyle on 10. January 2006

Just a little reminder about life outside Ann Arbor impacting life in Ann Arbor: hearings started today for Samuel “Sc”Alito to be Sandra Day O’Connor’s replacement on the Supreme Court; the same O’Connor who gave the U. of M. Law School its famous affirmative action victory in the Grutter case…
Alito has mischaracterized affirmative action as being “quotas”. So much for legal expertise.
See, e.g., today’s Daily Kos diary “Why is Alito ashamed of his past?” for some more insight on “elitist Alito”.

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Petition to Support the Calthorpe Plan

Posted by Brandon on 9. January 2006

A petition in support of the Calthorpe Associates downtown recommendations has been initiated:

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Got a favor? Need a favor?

Posted by MarkDilley on 9. January 2006


Favorville – facilitating the exchange of helpful acts.

Favorville.com is a social networking tool which provides members with the opportunity to help and be helped by others. With Favorville, members can post help requests, offer help and help grow the community. Favorville makes it easy to get in touch and build lasting connections with helpful neighbors, both in your locale or across the global village.

(Site help! I don’t know how to add this into the sidebar. I put it under What’s Hot, I also have a link under Consumables that isn’t showing.)

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Save Detroit Radio: WDET

Posted by MarkDilley on 9. January 2006


I stopped listening to the Detroit Newspaper Scab host Martin Bandyke’s early afternoon program in ~1996, but enjoyed everyone else that was part of making this radio station a fantastic place on the dial.

We, the Public, are deeply disappointed in Wayne State University’s decision to stop the broadcast of all community programming and local daytime music on WDET, 101.9 FM, Detroit Public Radio. We should have a say in what is aired on WDET, OUR public radio station in Detroit. We have supported, promoted, and cultivated WDET for 35 years. Music is art, and it is also an integral part of Detroit’s rich and noteworthy history. Therefore, it should remain a large part of WDET, OUR public radio station. WDET is a part of the fabric of this city, and was one of the last mediums to expose listeners to a wide variety of diverse music from local to global artists, to independent and underexposed films and festivals, the marketplace to Detroit’s cultural festivals and events, local dining venues and much more.

> Save Detroit Radio
> WDET

I do like the inclusion of Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now!

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BAMN Leader: “Court order, shmourt order”

Posted by Ari Paul on 8. January 2006

The Michigan Daily says there is still a dispute over the language of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative:

With the proposal to ban some affirmative action programs already a lock for this November’s state ballot, the State Board of Canvassers has one final chance to settle a dispute over the language.

The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, the group sponsoring the proposal, and BAMN, which opposes it, are still arguing over whether the initiative’s language is misleading.

BAMN also claims that the MCRI committed fraud when gathering signatures.

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Wind power and commuter rail for A2

Posted by MarkDilley on 8. January 2006

The Mayor’s getting some good press today, as the News discusses his quests to meet the city’s electricity needs with wind power from the Thumb:

Mayor John Hieftje, who has said he would like to see city government using 20 percent renewable energy by 2010, wants to add wind power to the city’s energy portfolio.

The city’s energy commission will discuss how realistic those goals are and how the city might meet them during a working session of the City Council on Feb. 13.
...
The Noble Environmental Power company is now building 32 windmills in Michigan’s Thumb, with plans to build 218 more. Energy from those first 32 will be purchased by Consumers’ Energy as part of its renewable energy program.

and (not so successfully yet) to build regional co-operation on a north-south commuter rail line and public service provision:

Regarding the north-south rail line, Hieftje said he went to Lansing to talk to Michigan Department of Transportation officials about developing a “Washtenaw County Railroad’’ that goes from Saline to Whitmore Lake. Hieftje said the rail system is already in place for such a route, which he envisions as a commuter rail.

Hieftje said some of the northern townships are supportive of expanding US-23, a road project that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Before the money is spent on that, Hieftje wants to look into the Saline-to-Whitmore Lake rail.

Whether the idea goes anywhere depends on support in the region, and not all of the regional ideas Hieftje has pushed have moved forward.

Hieftje played a large role in creating the Washtenaw Metro Alliance in 2002, which includes the cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Washtenaw County and several townships – Ann Arbor, Pittsfield, Scio, Superior and Ypsilanti. He proposed regionalizing the fire departments within the alliance since the early spring, but has said he’s seen no desire from township officials to move forward. He said the fire chiefs have been more receptive.

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Student complaints about Daily at 12/15 Regents' meeting

Posted by David Boyle on 8. January 2006

At the December 15, 2005 UM Regents’ meeting, three students spoke during Public Comments time, in complaint about the Daily’s racially insensitive cartoons. Only 12 speakers are allowed (5 minutes each, 12×5 is one hour), so a notable proportion of speakers focused on the Daily.

One of the three speakers about the Daily was Alex Moffett (vice-president of the campus NAACP). Coincidentally, someone else also spoke against the Every Three Weekly and some “humor” it had including a manual on how to get first-year (freshwoman) girls drunk and sexually exploit them. So malfeasance and gutter taste in campus publications was a big topic.
(I spoke at the meeting too, primarily to get the Regents to pledge not to invest in Sudan; but I also spoke in support of the three speakers complaining about the Daily [I think I spoke before the E3Weekly complainant], and also found time to say something about UM’s failure to do the right thing in the Coke controversy.)

If students are willing to go to a Regents’ meeting to complain, maybe their cause is pretty important…

(Little note: the Daily forgot to report this week, that several students spoke against them at the last Regents’ meeting; is that “fair and balanced” of the D?...More to come.)

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"Teeter Talk"

Posted by Murph on 6. January 2006

“Homeless Dave” (who has a backyard in the OWS) writes with some justifiable self-promotion:

Here’s a link with material that readers of Arbor Update might find interesting … either to read, to recruit local luminaries for future participation, or to participate in their very own selves: Teeter Talk

Rene Greff holds the current record for cold-temperature tottering and there’s one potential totteree who won’t ride the teeter totter unless he can set a cold-temperature mark. Provided I can meet scheduling challenges like that, I should be able to reach my goal of at least one new totteree per week. Since starting in mid-December I’ve hit that despite the snow, cold, and the holidays, and I’ve got three people locked in for sometime in January, so I think readers will be able to count on one new Teeter Talk per week. There’s an RSS feed available, but for updates on the order of one-a-week, it might be more straightforward, even for hard-core users of feed-readers, to just head over to the site every once in a while. So if you could slide the link into AU somewhere somehow, I’d very much appreciate it.

The concept of Teeter Talk is to go out to Homeless Dave’s backyard, sit on a teeter-totter, and have a conversation-interview with Dave, which he then types up for the site, complete with pictures and weather report. Volunteer or submit nominations – I’m sure we can come up with plenty of people we’d like to see teeter with Dave. (...That just sounds weird.)

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Blogger meetup, 10 January

Posted by Murph on 6. January 2006

Word on the street is that Ann Arbor’s minor celebrities, “the bloggers”, will be having a meetup at Leopold Bros on Tuesday, 10 January, at 7pm. RSVP on the event’s Upcoming.org entry.

Maybe we can get them to put the Planning Commission meeting on the big screen?

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The Daily's "urinals tract": what a waste

Posted by David Boyle on 6. January 2006

     That’s “urinals tract”, not “urinal tract”; while I’ve been too busy to post about this until now, the Daily’s astounding page 12 back on December 13, a backpage “manifesto” or “tract” delivered against the background of 2 photographed urinals (which I refuse to scan in here), practically defies both description and decency.
     We’re not talking Marcel Duchamp’s artistic (?) use of urinals back in Paris, either, just modern Maynard Street squalor. Sigh.
     It’s titled, “for a good time, read The Michigan Daily”, and reads in part, “If you’ve been feeling lonely and in desperate need…then The Michigan Daily is the perfect fit for you. ...Best of all, the Daily is free and never looking for a commitment. Just use it for your enjoyment, then simply kick it to your recycling curb. With over 115 years under it’s [sic] belt, the…Daily has all the experience you need to satisfy your daily desires and make your wildest dreams come true.” Hustler Magazine would be proud, I guess; although in light of recent complaints about the Daily’s racially insensitive cartoons and anal rape “”humor””, their decision to issue their “urinals tract” is a little unusual, one thinks.
     Well, hopefully the Daily will improve, though it may take a leetle while… (I’ll post some other Daily iniquity and terrible taste over the next few days, too.) Maybe they can at least learn the correct use of “its/it’s”. Or maybe it’s too much to hope for.

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