Birmingham : In the News

The non-profit sector - including health care and education - accounted for 62% of new jobs created in Michigan in 2005 and local professionals are finding themselves rewarding careers.

Excerpt:

The non-profit sector - including health care and education - accounted for 62% of new jobs created in Michigan in 2005 and local professionals are finding themselves rewarding careers.

Read the entire article here.

Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano is confident that a compromise can be reached with Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson over the funding of the proposed expansion to Cobo Hall.

Excerpt:

"We need to get our staffs working together on this outside of the public forum," [Ficano] said. "We all agree Cobo needs to be expanded for the benefit of the entire region. We need to move forward and soon."

Red the entire article here.

At his annual state of the county address, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson proposed 5 ways to fund a Cobo expansion and discussed progress with the installation of Wireless Oakland.

Excerpt:

The other major topic of Patterson’s speech was Wireless Oakland, the plan to make wireless Internet access available to all 910 square miles of the county.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as we speak tonight, the wireless trucks are out on the streets of our pilot communities starting with Troy and Birmingham, and the installation of Wireless Oakland is now underway,” he said.

The Cultural Alliance of SE Michigan has received $400,000 in start-up funding from the Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan along with the McGregor Fund and the Hudson-Webber Foundation. The Alliance will work to increase collaborations between and visibility of arts and cultural organizations in the seven-county SEMCOG region.

The Cultural Alliance will represent the arts and culture community in regional planning efforts and will market the programs and amenities of member organizations to a diverse group of audiences.

The chairman of the Cultural Alliance’s board will be Steven K. Hamp, former president of The Henry Ford and Chief of Staff of Ford Motor Co. “The Cultural Alliance represents a new era for the arts and culture in our region,” he said in a release. “It embraces all dimensions of the cultural community: performing arts, visual arts, history and historic preservation, community cultural activities, arts education, science and nature, libraries and literature. Our goal is to foster innovation and creativity and enable our many and diverse cultural resources to contribute more dynamically to the people and communities of southeastern Michigan.”

All participating parties stress the Alliance’s inclusiveness, as organizations both big and small, fledgling and established, will have access to the collective’s resources and expertise.

More than 60 organizations from across all seven counties participated in an 18-month planning process to develop the Cultural Alliance, and several hundred will be invited to participate.

Source: CFSEM
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh

DMCVB has tapped Holly-based Detroit-muscle to build a custom hot rod, the D-Rod, to showcase Detroit's appeal as the Motor City and as a travel and leisure destination.

Excerpt:

Rick Dyer, Detroit Muscle project manager for the D-Rod, said the company's extensive knowledge and technical ability allowed Detroit Muscle put to put together, with passion and style, a street legal vehicle that represents the best of Detroit's past and future to prospective visitors.

Read the entire article here.

Michigan's Fair Housing Center conducted a study of discrimination towards gay and lesbian couples when looking for housing. The study showed the least discrimination in Metro Detroit, including Detroit, Ferndale and Birmingham.

Excerpt:

However, discrimination was far lower in Metro Detroit, where just three of the 36 tests revealed discrimination. Montgomery and others said Detroit's existing ban on gay discrimination, as well as similar bans in Birmingham, Ferndale and elsewhere in the region, may have "set the tone" that discrimination is not condoned in the area.

Read the entire article here.

Bill and Shanny Apodaca have turned their love of cooking into a growing business. They currently offer cooking classes at their Royal Oak home, but will soon begin to utilize a Birmingham location.

Excerpt:

The Apodacas started their Simply Good Kitchen cooking classes in November 2002. Originally, Shanny taught alone, but Bill joined her a year later. Each year they've served more and more students -- they now teach 70 classes a year and have 3,200 people on their mailing list -- and they recently released a cookbook, Simply Good Kitchen, containing 12 menus from their classes and available at www.simplygoodkitchen.com.

Read the entire article here.

Transportation Riders United and the Sierra Club will hold a seminar at 10 a.m. Saturday (1/27) in the Birmingham/Baldwin Public Library, 300 W. Merrill.

The lecture will cover the impacts of and solutions to global warming pollution, including the role of transit in preventing it. The event will also go over what other cities are doing to reduce their global warming impact and what citizens can do to encourage their local government to reduce it’s footprint on climate change.

For information, call Leigh at (248) 425-5277 or send an e-mail to leigh.fifelski@sierraclub.org.

Source: Transportation Riders United.

United Way for Southeastern Michigan CEO Michael Brennan discusses the agency's survey process that has led them to begin working on solving the region's major problems in three key areas: educational preparedness, economic stability and basic needs. He urges the region to work together in a collaborative manner to acieve success.

Excerpt:

During the course of our research at United Way for Southeastern Michigan, we collected more than 20,000 comments from 7,000 residents, and one theme reverberated consistently: This region aspires to be a place where all people have the educational and economic opportunities needed to succeed and to thrive.

Read entire editorial here.

Women pursuing IT careers can apply for over $50,000 in scholarships and technology stipends from the Michigan Council of Women in Technology.

Read more at MCWT's website.

Local PBS station WTVS has started a new weekly hour-long music series focusing on top independent talent in Metro Detroit.

Excerpt:
The whole idea began with footage that metro Detroiters James McGovern and Greg Sharrow originally produced for www.canyouhearmetv.com, an online platform the two created to showcase select indie artists from around the country. Ultimately, Detroit Public Television picked up the Detroit episodes and packaged them for the series.

"Detroit is known for its music scene -- it's Motown," says McGovern. "It's our hometown and there's so much respect we have for the city. We hope to create a better image for it by bringing music here and promoting the local scene."

Click here for the full story.

The newly elected mayor of Birmingham, former GM Executive Tom McDaniel, wants more green space in the town - and a larger Cobo Hall for the region.

Read a prfile of and interview with McDaniel here.