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Superintendent Patricia Green told the Ann Arbor school board that she's taking new steps to close a so-called "discipline gap" and expects by March to outline a comprehensive district-wide plan to reach that goal. The information was presented Wednesday at a meeting when the Board of Education heard new student suspension data from the 2010-2011 academic year that shows consistent discipline disparity among students of different races and income levels. It’s no secret the district traditionally has had a disproportionate number of black, special needs and economically disadvantaged students be removed or suspended from the classroom, said Board President Deb...

The ACLU has sued the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority and CEO Michael Ford over the agency’s refusal to accept an advertisement calling for a boycott of Israel from pro-Palestinian activist Blaine Coleman of Ann Arbor.The lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Detroit alleges AATA violated Coleman’s First Amendment right to free speech and 14th Amendment right to due process. It argues AATA’s policy is vague and overly broad. It asks the court to order AATA to display the advertisement under the same terms offered to other advertisers and to award Coleman damages, court costs and reasonable attorney fees...Coleman sent...

Ann Arbor officials are considering an expansion of the Greenbelt district boundaries one mile east into Salem Township and one mile west and south into Lodi Township.The Greenbelt Advisory Commission recommended the expansion plan at its Sept. 14 meeting, and GAC Chairman Dan Ezekiel, a local science teacher, appeared before the Ann Arbor City Council Monday night to lobby for its approval by council."The result would be to add seven sections in Lodi and three sections in Salem, and a section is a square mile," Ezekiel told council members.The council voted 9-1 to give initial approval to the expansion, with...

An increase in the amount of graffiti in downtown Ann Arbor and other parts of the city has city officials responding to what they consider a growing nuisance. In recent months, city officials say, there has been a clear increase in the amount of graffiti, which they argue detracts from the aesthetic appeal of the community, can decrease property values and has a negative impact on sense of safety and security. This graffiti has been on a building on the 300 block of East Liberty Street in downtown Ann Arbor for several weeks and has not been removed yet. It's...

An Ann Arbor Public School board member and president of the teacher’s union both underestimated the cost of hiring a teacher by more than 40 percent in a guest column the pair penned for a local newspaper. Glenn Nelson, a member of the school board, and Brit Satchwell, president of the Ann Arbor Education Association, wrote a guest column for Heritage Newspapers, in which they stated the average cost of a teacher including benefits was $65,000 in an article criticizing Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget cuts. But the average cost of a Michigan school teacher is about $94,195 while the average...

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...