Free Republic

While the City of Ann Arbor has laid off police officers and eliminated positions from the fire department this year, it is sitting on $1.5 million that it has set aside for public art. The city has raised $2.7 million for public art since 2009, but has only spent $1.1 million on two art projects, according to a city official and public documents received in a Freedom of Information Act request. The city set up its “public arts” fund in 2007, with the City Council agreeing to take 1 percent of the money that went into capital improvement projects that...

A driver pulls up to the U.S. Post Office in downtown Ann Arbor and leaves the car running in a parking spot to go in and drop off a package in the outgoing mail.Another driver walks outside before leaving for work on a winter morning and starts their car to try and warm the car up before leaving for the officeUpon returning, both drivers - in these typical Ann Arbor scenarios - could find a $100 ticket pinned under a windshield wiper under a new ordinance that would ban idling vehicles in the city.The new law is being recommended to...

Paul Christensen cast his line deftly into the water. Seconds later, the line went taut and he went to work to reel in his catch. The outcome was never in doubt, but the fish was not giving up without a fight. After a couple of minutes, Christensen showed off his catch, a carp of about 5 pounds (more like 3 pounds), hooked on the soccer field at Fuller Park in Ann Arbor Friday. That’s right, a soccer field. “It’s sort of a making lemonade out of lemons situation,” said Dirk Fischbach of Saline, who came out with Christensen Friday to...

One of three men accused in a September armed robbery at a medical marijuana clinic in downtown Ann Arbor has pleaded guilty to various charges in the case. Terrence Robinson, 34, of Detroit, pleaded guilty Thursday in Washtenaw County Court to armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, unlawful imprisonment and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He also pleaded no contest to resisting and obstructing police officers, Washtenaw County Chief Deputy Assistant Prosecutor Steve Hiller said. Police said Robinson and two other men robbed the Liberty Clinic on South Main Street at gunpoint at 8...

Al-Qaeda terrorist's son an Obama fundraiser Here's another 'associate' that Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama may want to throw under the bus. This is a Debbie Schlussel exclusive. Al Churbaji is a Syrian national currently living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from where he is fighting the Department of Homeland Security's endeavors to deport him. If successful, this will be the second deportation for Al-Churbaji, after a return to the U.S. that violated federal immigration and deportation policies. More on that later. But even if Al-Churbaji is deported, at least two of his six children, a son and a daughter,...

The high-profile case the Action News Investigators broke has taken a new twist. Chris Armstrong, the student assembly president at the University of Michigan, dropped his request today for a personal protection order against Andrew Shirvell, who works as an assistant prosecutor in the Michigan Attorney General's office. Court documents say the request is being withdrawn because Armstrong has not been contacted by Shirvell since the request for the PPO was originally made. Armstrong created a blog blasting Armstrong for allegedly promoting a radical homosexual agenda on campus. Armstrong called police when Shirvell showed up outside his Ann Arbor home...

12, 2008 EXCLUSIVE: Who is Mohammed Al-Churbaji?:; Islamic Terrorist "Mr. Mom" Mohammed Al-Churbaji, Dad of Obama Fundraiser Worked for Azzam, Bin Laden * How hard it is to get rid of known terrorists in our midst and how easy it is for a deported Al-Qaeda terrorist to return to America; * How corrupt U.S. embassy officials get away with re-admitting terrorists into the U.S.; * How easily terrorists and their families gain acceptance by our society, including the Barack Obama Presidential campaign; * How America's universities are not tools of moderation for Muslim foreigners, but breeding grounds for terrorist fraternization...

The debate in Ann Arbor, where firefighters are being laid off due to a multimillion dollar budget deficit, is over an $850,000 piece of art. That's how much the city has agreed to pay German artist Herbert Dreiseitl for a three-piece water sculpture that would go in front of the new police and courts building right by the City Hall. The city has the money to do it because in 2007, it agreed to set aside for public art 1 percent of money that went into capital improvement projects that were $100,000 or larger. Most capital projects involve streets, sewers...

The Ann Arbor school district has ended a controversial black-student only program at Dicken Elementary School. “Lunch Bunch is no longer,” district spokeswoman Liz Margolis said in an e-mail to AnnArbor.com. “It will be discussed among staff and some parents and be reworked. It has a valuable goal of assisting children who are not performing well on the MEAP, and this effort will continue.” Dicken Principal Mike Madison drew criticism from parents following his decision last week to take members of the African-American Lunch Bunch on a field trip to hear a black rocket scientist at the University of Michigan...

An Ann Arbor elementary school principal used a letter home to parents tonight to defend a field trip for black students as part of his school’s efforts to close the achievement gap between white and black students. Dicken Elementary School Principal Mike Madison wrote the letter to parents following several days of controversy at the school after a field trip last week in which black students got to hear a rocket scientist. “In hindsight, this field trip could have been approached and arranged in a better way," Madison wrote. "But as I reflect upon the look of excitement, enthusiasm and...

An Ann Arbor elementary school principal used a letter home to parents tonight to defend a field trip for black students as part of his school’s efforts to close the achievement gap between white and black students. Dicken Elementary School Principal Mike Madison wrote the letter to parents following several days of controversy at the school after a field trip last week in which black students got to hear a rocket scientist. “In hindsight, this field trip could have been approached and arranged in a better way," Madison wrote. "But as I reflect upon the look of excitement, enthusiasm and...

The University of Michigan Diag was alive with the spirit of protest Thursday night as the Ann Arbor Tea Party Patriots took the stage to complain they'd been taxed enough already. The Tea Party phenomenon caught on last year, driven largely by opponents of President Barack Obama's legislative agenda. This year's Tax Day Tea Party focused on Obama's greatest success, the passage of health care reform designed to increase Americans' access to health insurance. ..... But while this year's Tea Party saw much greater attendance than last year's - 500 people versus 150 last year - a lot of its...

Air Force Research Laboratory-funded researchers at the University of Michigan invented a new type of magnetron that may be used in defeating enemy electronics. A vital component of military radar systems since World War II, a magnetron is a kind of vacuum tube that serves as the frequency source in microwave ovens, radar systems, and other high-power microwave circuits. The newly devised technology--which is more compact, exhibits faster start-up, and demonstrates higher peak and average power than current devices--should enable higher-power, higher-frequency operation and, thus, improved potential for jamming and defeat of adversarial systems. While basic magnetron design has changed...

Tenured Radical Goes Global Malcolm A. Kline, October 16, 2009 A professor whom Accuracy in Academia has covered extensively is getting ready to take his act on the road. “Juan Cole, the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, produces a steady stream of writings that downplays the threat radical Islam poses to America and the West,” Jonathan Schanzer writes in The American Thinker. “His opinions are at odds with the beliefs of most Americans.” “Now, through a project designed to foster an understanding of America in the Arab world, he appears to be at...

The Motherhouse - view from heaven Ann Arbor, Mich., Aug 27, 2009 / 07:07 am (CNA).- Though the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor are celebrating the completion of the construction of their Motherhouse, they are already near capacity, with 17 new sisters entering at the end of this week.  The community has grown from four sisters to 99 in less than 13 years and shows no signs of slowing down. The community of sisters, which has an average age of 26, was founded in 1997 by four Dominican sisters responding to John Paul...

I have been wondering for a year now which American city will be first to lose its only daily newspaper. The results are in, and the dubious distinction goes to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the Newhouse family's Advance will shutter The Ann Arbor News in late July. Ann Arbor? Home to the huge University of Michigan, birthplace and headquarters of the Borders book chain and a pocket of relative prosperity with only light collateral damage from the auto industry, a literate place, population around 100,000, one might expect to be appreciative of what print newspapers offer. But some of those...

On the Edge with Thayrone X from WAAM AM 1600 AM, Peoples' Republic of Ann Arbor. Broadcasting from 4 to 6 pm est. If you're into Political Incorrectness, then listen and call in. http://www.waamannarbor.com/

Washtenaw County received a $4.1 million dose of stimulus money for its residential weatherization program. The program, which normally exists on a $350,000 annual budget, has 18 months to spend the money. Program coordinator Aaron Kraft said the funds should help assist some 600 low- to moderate-income households to make their homes more weather-proof. The program performs energy audits for homeowners. Based on the audit's findings, the program funds energy-saving retrofits like new insulation and efficient appliances. The program doesn't pay for aesthetic improvements such as new carpet or paint. An average of about $4,500 is spent per house.

DETROIT -- Big financial institutions have been battered by mortgages gone bad. But a tiny Michigan bank is getting attention in the industry by turning a profit on loans without even charging interest. Its specialty: financial products that comply with Islamic law. That means no collecting interest, no short selling and no contracts that are considered exceedingly risky. It also rules out some of the activity that got Western finance in trouble — subprime mortgages, credit default swaps and the like. "When you look at the economic crisis we're in, if you were to follow Islamic or Sharia financing, you...

In a decidedly Democratic town awash in a sea of Barack Obama political signs, William Wedemeyer knows he is going against the political grain with the McCain-Palin sign he proudly displays on the front lawn of his Ann Arbor home. Still, Wedemeyer was taken aback when he recently received a package in the mail addressed to "Joe Six Pack'' and containing a couple of bags of dog feces. He said he'd like a few minutes alone with whoever sent it. "I'd like to have a five-minute talk about First Amendment rights,'' said Wedemeyer, who lives on the 1000 block of...