NEWS
Friday, November 14, 2003
Voting is tricky business, even in Ann Arbor, it seems:" Ann Arbor's greenbelt proposal won in the Nov. 4 election by an even greater margin than initially reported. The official vote count was 14,525 for and 7,037 against. That's one more "yes" vote than reported the night of the election, but 233 fewer "no" votes than reported. The city Board of Canvassers certified the final election results Monday. City Clerk Kathleen Root said a mathematical error in one precinct accounted for all 233 extra votes."
Meanwhile, the mini-controversy over the death of two U-M students on Plymouth road, with some members of the Muslim community insisting the community center's video shows the truck that struck the students speeding and hit them in the center turn lane. Here's part of today's Ann Arbor News story, "Video of crash under review":
"Abdalla Naser, president-elect of the Muslim Community Association, repeated his contention Wednesday that the police department's version of what happened is incorrect.
"It happens to incidentally capture the incident off in the distance with very, very poor resolution," said Ann Arbor Police Chief Dan Oates. "It has video recording technology that has split-second gaps in it. It is one piece in a whole body of evidence we are investigating."
Oates said the most important evidence from the tape is that the driver had his headlights on and that his brake lights were also working.
Naser saw the videotape on Sunday night and turned it over to police. Based on what he saw, he said, the truck appeared to be speeding and the women were standing in the center lane when hit and killed. Naser said he still believes the driver, a 22-year-old man from Newport, near Monroe, should face criminal charges."
Complicating all of this, is the fact the girls were returning from prayers, helping make the deaths a top story in their native Malaysia:
"You had just come back from prayers," Hashim said. "That is God's way of taking your life when you are still basically pure. I'm sure Americans probably won't understand this. It is the holy month of Ramadan. It's not like they just got back from the disco. These were good girls. They were best friends. They just came back from the mosque and prayers and they were struck down."
Posted by Rob at 10:49 AM
