I was told by a friend that there was some sort of incident on Vaughn street at 6:00 p.m. yesterday - there were ‘at least’ 8 police cars, an ambulance, and a fire truck. My friend told me a police officer told him it was an attempted murder/suicide, whatever that means. I suppose like a lot of student drug overdoses and acquaintance crime in Ann Arbor - it will be quickly swept under the rug.

Local TV news picked up on the ELF story, probubly because it involves radical environmentalists doing crazy things, which sells well when your audience is mostly nervous sprawl residents seeking reassurance all this anti-sprawl talk doesn’t have anything to do with them. I love Detroit TV news - how’s this for objectivity: “This group has an agenda and has targeted homes in Superior Township in Washtenaw County. Ironically, longtime residents of Superior Township are trying to maintain the rural feel of the area, but this group obviously doesn’t care.”

Finally, sans sheriff alerted me to a new Free Press story about the strange events leading up the death of U-M student Jessica Smith.

Our very own ‘SST’ has been waging a one-man crusade against Whole Foods recently for their anti-union tactics during a unionization campaign at their Madison, Wisconson store. The New York Times covered the story today in their article “Love the Worker, Not the Union, a store says as some organize.” Here’s another blogger calling Whole Foods the ‘Wal-Mart of Natural Foods’ for their anti-union tactics. According to the employees’ website, ‘Whole Foods Workers Unite!’ they have begun a advertising campaign in alternative weeklies in select cities. To me, the whole affair sounds to me like the efforts to organize Borders, Target, Wal-Mart, and other retail employees. The obvious question: will Whole Food’s Ann Arbor store be next? (In Current’s 2003 survey, they beat out People’s Food Co-op for ‘Best Specialty Grocery Store, and made runner-up for best produce.)

A writer for Detroit’s very own Metrotimes was ripped off by Jayson Blair.

Area builders are looking into security cameras to prevent from future ELF arson.

A discrimination lawsuit against Meijer gets nasty.

It looks if the city’s patriot act resolution has stalled - for now.

And last but not least: Sprawl, sprawl, sprawl! “Develpers sketch plans for US-23 north corridor”

The website to access your IFS space on the web has changed to https://afs.umich.edu.

Student activists have presented a petition to the Board of Regents and Mary Sue Coleman requesting that U-M Basketball team captain and convicted criminal Bernard Robinson Jr. be taken off the court, calling his presence on the court “tacit consent” to violence against women.

Also, a group of older students plan to create a support group tentatively called “The Returning Student’s Union.”

Finally, didn’t anyone tell Dan Krawiec that pure “markets” don’t exist in real life, or did he swallow intro to economics hook, line, and sinker? (Does anyone remember this?)

The Detroit Free Press is set to report tomorrow that the Earth Liberation Front has claimed responsibility on their website for two of four fires of luxury homes under construction near Ann Arbor in the past year. (See A.A. News March 22: “Police probe house fires for link to eco-terrorists”.

I recently discovered three new Michigan blogs. Jason Mironov, the Student General Counsel of MSA has launched The voteJason.com Blogger.

Also, the MBA Wire is the blog of a somewhat neurotic future UMBS student who chronicled the business school admissions process on his website. Another recently admitted student at the U-M business school has started MichiganMBA, an anonymous blog (until July, the author promises). The author’s plans for the website: “This weblog will cover my academic, club, and community experiences as an MBA student at the University of Michigan Business School. I hope that it gives applicants, prospective students, and the public at large a sense of what the Michigan experience is like.” So far the career-driven future Wall Street businessman seems fairly smitten with his choice. From his list of top reasons to go to the UMBS:
“9. College Atmosphere
Whatever else MIT is, a typical college experience it is not. The next two years of business school are a chance for me to live in the small, college town, be part of a small, strong academic community, and go tailgating before huge football weekends. The tight-knit, dynamic, “college town” feel of Ann Arbor plays a big role in this.”