The owner of Biener’s Wieners, the hot dog stand which has been at the corner of State Street and North University of over 20 years, died on St. Patrick’s Day of heart disease, although his partner will continue the business. Interestingly, on the day he died he experienced chest pains, but didn’t go to the hospital because he didn’t have health insurance. Now, had the United States had a national single-payer health insurance system like virtually every other industrialized nation, or even a state-regulated opt-in system like Mexico, who knows what might have happened …

” Barry Biniarz, the chatty owner of Biener’s Wieners, died unexpectedly of heart disease at his Michigan Center home in Jackson County on St. Patrick’s Day. He had turned 50 in January.

Fineran said Biniarz worked the day he died, but later at home complained that he didn’t feel well. He didn’t go to the doctor because he didn’t have medical insurance and thought it was only indigestion anyhow, he said. Fineran’s mother, Mary, said her son found him dead on the floor, and that an autopsy showed he had heart disease he hadn’t known about. …

> AANews: “Owner of Biener’s Wieners, Barry Biniarz, dies”

“The Trial of the Century”

A new book about the case of Dr. Ossian Sweet was released this week. Dr. Sweet was a wealthy and successful black doctor in Detroit in the 1920s. While attempting to move into a home he had purchased in an all-white neighborhood in 1925, the Sweet family and some of their friends were attacked by a white mob which surrounded the home. After one man died in the melee, Dr. Sweet and nine friends and family members were charged with murder. Clarence Darrow, recently famous for his oratory during the notorious Scopes “Monkey trial,” agreed to accept the case. One trial resulted in a hung jury, and a second jury acquitted the defendants of all charges.

” … What Dr. Sweet did was probably more American than most things that we consider today,” said Baxter, 38. “He had to fight for what he believed in. That’s what America is all about.

“That marker to me means everything,” Baxter said. “It acknowledges not just Dr. Sweet but all African Americans who had to struggle to be enfranchised with those unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” …”

> From Freep: “RACE RELATIONS IN EARLY 20TH CENTURY: 1925 trial of black Detroit family who defended itself against a white mob is detailed in historical book”
> Purchase the book on Powell’s: “One Man’s Castle: Clarence Darrow in Defense of the American Dream”

On The Slow Death of Student Journalism at Michigan

Yes, part of the changing ideology of the editorial page of the Michigan Daily is an institutionalized and regular hostility towards student activists. I first wrote about this phenomenon on February 2 after reading editorial page editor Jason Pesick’s signed editorial announcing the beginning of his term as editor. In it, he likens patriarchal administrators of the 1960s to a multiethnic coalition of student organizations who boycotted the newspaper last year. In this brave new world of fiercely professional journalism, apparently if you dare to criticize the newspaper, you are fair game for attack – whether you are an administrator seeking to expel students, or a student activist seeking fair treatment in the media.

Mr. Pesick and the editorial staff of the Daily have taken it a step farther in today’s newspaper, running a full left-side editorial criticizing “inconsistencies” in the platform of Student Voices in Action, accusing them of being “loose with the facts.” It turns out that the facts seem fairly clear-cut, and the only inconsistencies I can find are with this editorial and the Daily’s own editorial precedents. Among their complaints – the Daily says that SVA should mention that President Coleman has pledged $500,000 to the University’s capital campaign, and that although the salaries of coaches Lloyd Carr and Tommy Amaker are high, “they fail to mention the importance of these two positions to the athletic department.” Yes, apparently “failing to mention” the arguments that might be made against your position means your entire organization should be the victim of a full left-side editorial attack, on the day when they need as much support as possible since they’ll be meeting with administrators about their demands.

Meanwhile, I would argue that it’s the Daily’s job to provide the facts about the situation, something it has failed to do. Almost every issue raised by Student Voices in Action has either been underreported by the Daily, or not reported on at all – in fact it is a testament to the knowledge and skill of the student activists involved that they have been able to sift through the facts on their own, independent any help from mainstream student media. Hopefully, the Daily news department is burning the midnight oil preparing FOIA requests to get to the bottom of the funding changes, aggressively seeking Royster Harper’s papers, and planning an investigative series on the budget cuts and the plight of minority students on campus. Although I doubt it – former Daily Editor-In-Chief Jon Schwartz said in staff meeting once that “The Daily used to do investigations, and now we have Rob.” And then he fired me a few weeks later. Hopefully, the editorial staff is trying to brainstorm innovative ways the University could find funding so that all-important student services can be maintained, and making sure they’re writing supportive editorials when the activists need it the most. Although today’s editorial makes me think that’s not about to happen, – however, I have a few ideas of my own, for what they’re worth. And after I hand in my 80-page honors thesis Wednesday, I’ll get cracking on the FOIAs.

In case you’re not familiar with my little saga at the Daily, not might be a good time to check out my “Inside the Daily” series, which I have available in print form if anyone is interested.

U-M Alumni Friendster

The U-M Alumni Association has purchased software developed by Stanford Alumni and plans to launch a Friendster-like service targeting only U-M alumni sometime this spring. Here’s what Stanford had to say about the software, called “Affinity engines,” on their “customers” page which includes the University of Michigan:

Stanford University

Howard Wolf
President, Stanford Alumni Association

This website was featured in the April 2004 Ann Arbor Observer in a short “guide” to local weblogs published on pages 14 and 15. Read more about the coverage on Arborblogs, Airbeagle (and co-author Brandhast), srah blah blah, and commonmonkeyflower. Meanwhile, Hillary’s The Bunker, and Steve’s Seat of the Revolution resent being characterized as Ann Arbor blogs. My criticism is more elementary than that: it just doesn’t seem to be a particularly good guide – they even listed the wrong URL for the arborblogs site, which I started back in December. Here’s the entry they come up with for this site: (I’ve added links to the February and December posts they characterize as “recent”)

“Goodspeed Update (Rob Goodspeed, goodspeedupdate.com)
Recent Posts: Lee Bolinger’s “imperial presidency,” support for AATA service to Metro Airport
Quote: “I’ll be spending today at the ‘Creating Cool’ conference held as part of the governor’s statewide cool cities initiative.”

While I appreciate the publicity, I suspect the story has been “on hold” for a while – making its content a bit dated. I find it interesting that none of the city’s media outlets has covered the local blog scene very well – although this ‘guide’ is probably the best so far. The Ann Arbor News hasn’t printed anything, save a mention of Ann Arbor Is Overrated in their “Talk About Town” column, the Michigan Daily published a story about student blogs that didn’t include any of the popular local blogs run by U-M students.

“There’s a new University of Michigan team on campus. It held tryouts, signed on the three top players, has a roster of coaches, and practices weekly.

They won a berth in the international competition when they placed fourth out of 127 teams in a regional contest in Ashland, Ohio, in November. Since then, they’ve been meeting weekly to practice for the international contest, sponsored by the Association of Computing Machinery. ..

> AANews: “‘Mighty Hackers’ take on world in computer contest”
> See also this Daily article from December: “Computing team wins seat in global contest”

Here’s some more on the Thompson street home invasion:

“A University of Michigan student said she screamed and fought in fear as an intruder ripped at her clothing after climbing through a window in her Ann Arbor apartment early one morning last week.

Police said the woman’s computer was found in the vehicle Hall was driving. …

> AANews: “Suspected Intruder Charged”