This is the Ann Arbor Daily Telegraph for Tuesday, 18 September 2012.
Groceries
Patel Brothers is "coming soon" to 3426 Washtenaw Avenue (at Pittsfield), the former home of Once Upon A Child. "Patel Brothers is the largest Indian Grocery chain in America, with over 35 stores nationwide and still growing." The store is about 3400 square feet in total. [Loopnet] [Twitter: @pbrosfan] Yelp readers are very happy (4.5 stars) about their store in their home town of Chicago. [Yelp]
Libraries
In Lincoln, Nebraska, the library system is looking at spending $43 million on a new main downtown library. "The study envisions a “21st century main library” with a café, 250-seat auditorium with green rooms, a black box theater, kitchen, Internet stations and larger adult, children and teen areas. There is no projected increase to the staff of 60." [Nebraska Watchdog] The current library is more than 50 years old and needs "costly updates". [Lincoln Journal-Star]
In Ann Arbor, Michigan, the library system has a ballot proposal that would fund a $65 million project to build a new downtown library. The library system FAQ envisions a "21st century library building" with a cafe, 400-seat auditorium, a grand reading room, expanded Internet production stations and a destination youth programming area. [AADL] The current library is more than 50 years old and is "deficient by today's standards" [Providence Report]
Your editor is strongly in favor of a new downtown library. [ed.]
Television
The Internet Archive has a new archival collection of television broadcasts, including three years of news footage. [Archive.org] The collection is searchable through captions. Among the footage collected is a Good Morning America segment on the March 15, 2012 Dexter tornado. [KGO]
Teachers
Chicago teachers start their seventh day of a teachers strike Tuesday, as the city goes to court to try to end the strike on the grounds that it is illegal. [Chicago Tribune] AP reports that teachers are concerned that the teacher evaluation methods used based on student standardized tests could put 6,000 teachers out of work in the next two years. [NPR] About 350,000 students are out of school.
Sidewalks
In 1888, an Ann Arbor City Council meeting was dominated by petitions from citizens for the city to put in sidewalks. In one case, a resident asked that a neighbor's dilapidated barn be torn down to make way for a sidewalk. [Ann Arbor Argus / Old News]
On Monday night, the Ann Arbor City Council meeting had an extended discussion of filling in the gaps in the city's sidewalk network. Council members noted several locations in their wards where students did not have a safe way to walk to school on sidewalks or a safe place to cross busy streets; others on council noted that the existing non-motorized transportation plan already addressed this and other issues. When it came to a vote, the proposal to study sidewalk gaps was turned down 6-5. [Ann Arbor Chronicle]
A small sidewalk gap on Summit Street was the subject of my 2009 FOIA request, which resulted in the missing sections of sidewalk being fixed by the city. [a2docs] [FOIA Coordinator]
Freedom of Information
A bill in the Michigan House would limit reform the state FOIA law by limiting the costs of photocopies and asserting a right to appeal the cost of a FOIA request. The bill is from Rep. Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake. [HB 5879] [Lansing State Journal] [via Roger Rayle]
Sports
Detroit Tigers lose to the Chicago White Sox, 5-4, in Chicago. [MLB] Detroit is now 3 games out of the lead, with 16 games to play; Chicago's magic number is 14.
