Ann Arbor

Special Olympics bowler from Ann Arbor: I can beat the President!

By Newsroom

●

April 1, 2009

One of Ann Arbor's own thinks he can beat President Obama at bowling no matter what the handicap.Excerpt:ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- So President Barack Obama thinks he bowls like a competitor in the Special Olympics? He's obviously never met Kolan McConiughey, a mentally disabled man considered one of the nation's top Special Olympics bowlers, with five perfect games to his credit. He'd like to go to the White House and show the president a thing or two about how to roll strikes. "He bowled a 129. I bowl a 300. I could beat that score easily," McConiughey said Friday. His challenge to Obama followed the president's offhand remark on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" Thursday comparing his famously inept bowling to "the Special Olympics or something." Recognizing his blunder, Obama apologized to the chairman of the Special Olympics before the show aired. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Friday said the president believes that the Special Olympics are "a triumph of the human spirit." Gibbs added that Obama understands that the athletes "deserve a lot better than the thoughtless joke that he made last night." During an interview with The Associated Press, the 35-year-old McConiughey quickly rolled several strikes with his left-handed hook in a short demonstration of his prowess at Colonial Lanes in Ann Arbor. Read the rest of the story here.

New hybrid buses set to roll into Ann Arbor at end of month

By Newsroom

●

Development News

●

April 1, 2009

Seven new hybrid buses are set to hit Ann Arbor's streets quickly yet quietly, offering service by the end of this month. The buses, known for their quieter engines, will be the latest shipment to the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority's fleet, giving the transit authority 27 hybrid buses out of its fleet of 69. "They are being manufactured," says Mary Stasiak, spokeswoman for AATA.The hybrid buses are built by Hayward, California-based Gillig Corp and are significantly more fuel efficient. AATA expects to buy at least 80,000 fewer gallons (10 percent) of B10 bio-diesel per year because of them. The hybrid buses also produce lower levels of pollution, making them a key component of Mayor John Hieftje's initiative to make Ann Arbor more environmentally friendly. Recently, the city started a campaign to transition all its facilities to 30 percent renewable energy by 2010.Source: Mary Stasiak, spokeswoman for AATAWriter: Jon Zemke

Praise flows as visitors flock to new University of Michigan Museum of Art

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

April 1, 2009

The University of Michigan's newly refurbished Museum of Art has reopened to rave reviews in Ann Arbor this weekend.Excerpt:It was no quiet "Sunday Afternoon" by Seurat, nor a chaotic "Night Watch" by Rembrandt. Instead, the painting Saturday night at the newly remodeled University of Michigan Museum of Art was of a happy crowd celebrating a community institution and its long-awaited reopening.When the front doors flung wide at 6 p.m. sharp Saturday evening to the peal of bells throughout campus and Ann Arbor, a crowd of several hundred cheered and began pouring inside. The initial throng of visitors kept coming for a solid quarter-hour, welcomed with the soft applause of museum staffers and volunteers standing just inside the entrance.It was first time the public has been able to step inside the museum since it closed for the $41.9 million renovation in mid-2006.Read the rest of the story here.

U-M Innovation Partnership targets diseases with funding

By Newsroom

●

Economic Development

●

April 1, 2009

The University of Michigan's Innovation Partnership is off to a fast start, raising $2 million of its $10 million goal and investing $680,000 into four promising projects.The university announced the partnership last year as a way of breathing life into promising healthcare research at U-M's Life Sciences Institute. Many of these discoveries never make it out of the ivory tower due to the lack of seed funding at the onset before commercialization.That's called the Valley of Death by researchers and venture capitalists. Often there isn’t enough venture capital or angel investors to go around for all of the discoveries made by U-M's top-shelf researchers. It hopes to bridge this valley with precious start-up funds.The partnership is funded with philanthropic sources. The partnership also pairs up researchers with mentors and advisors to help them bring their discoveries to commercialization and help create more jobs locally.Source: University of MichiganWriter: Jon Zemke

U-M student group calls for tuition freeze

By Newsroom

●

Education

●

March 25, 2009

The cost of living for Ann Arbor's student population doesn't just come down to rental rates and pint prices.Excerpt:ANN ARBOR -- Students at the University of Michigan called on the school's regents Thursday to freeze tuition rates if the state keeps funding to the university constant. The recession has so battered students and their families that the dream of graduating college has become uncertain for many students, members of the newly formed coalition Stop the Hike told regents at their regular board meeting. "I know that the University of Michigan values diversity among its students but without a tuition freeze it may lose many of its low-income and working class students," said first-generation college student Rachel Long, 19, of Almont. Her mother is a hairdresser and her father is an electrician who has been laid off often within the last five years. Despite working summer jobs, Long struggles to pay for rent, food and textbooks, in addition to worrying about rising tuition costs, she said. In order to retain socioeconomic diversity here at the university, students ... need to be told that regardless of their economic background, their talents are still welcome at the University of Michigan." Read the rest of the story here.

Ann Arbor’s North Coast Tech Investors hits $100M in VC

By Newsroom

●

Economic Development

●

March 25, 2009

Twenty years ago venture capitalist Hugo Braun left California and came back to Michigan, taking a job at Access Ventures. Ten years later he and another partner turned it into North Coast Technology Ventures with $10 million under its management. Today that number has reached $100 million and is still expanding.The downtown Ann Arbor-based firm is getting ready to close on another investment vehicle (fund) this summer. It will be another large chunk of change that will allow North Coast Technology Ventures to make investments for at least the next few years."We feel this is an excellent time to make investments," Braun says. "Even though it's a depressing time there are a lot of excellent ideas out there."North Coast Technology Ventures is made up of Braun, one other partner and one more employee. The company will also have interns during the summer months, occasional venture partners and entrepreneurs in residence. It also uses its offices to help incubate companies in which it has made investments. Most of those companies are local."The nearer they are to us the more attractive they are," Braun says. "Our investments are in the Midwest and most of them are in Michigan."North Coast Technology Investors invests in a wide range of start-ups. They include the likes of software firm Arbortext and life sciences company Avidimer Therapeutics. Source: Hugo Braun, principal of North Coast Technology InvestorsWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti pushes envelope with news consumption

By Newsroom

●

Economic Development

●

March 25, 2009

A media revolution is taking place in Washtenaw County and the first casualty appears to be The Ann Arbor News, a venerable 174-year-old local institution.Replacing it will be a news website, AnnArbor.com, and a newspaper that publishes every Thursday and Sunday. The Ann Arbor News as we know it will cease to be in July. Booth Newspapers, which owns the paper, plans to continue providing news coverage in the Ann Arbor area.The purpose of reporting on local news will be the same, but the website's staff will be significantly smaller than the newspapers. How that reporting is done, what it looks like and how its presented are still details that are being worked out."This is not the end of local journalism in Ann Arbor," says Laurel Champion, publisher of The Ann Arbor News and who will serve as the executive vice president of AnnArbor.com. "This is just a changing in how it's served."But what happens next for local journalism is not as clear. A number of independent, web-based news organizations have popped up in recent years, including this publication, YpsiNews.com, The Ann Arbor Chronicle and the Ypsilanti Citizen. Local blogish websites, Mark Maynard and Arbor Update, have also surfaced as information alternatives.Much of the initial conversation in the aftermath of The Ann Arbor News' announcement has centered on how the business model for newspapers is irreparably broken, leaving a huge void when it comes to a community voice and watchdog. Some are not so certain."The model of current journalism is broken," says Steve Pierce, owner and managing editor of YpsiNews.com. "It's not unusual that the people who broke that model are running around saying the sky is falling."Almost in the same breath, Pierce says the recent developments with The Ann Arbor News are a "huge concern for me." Pierce started his website in 2006 after he thought local news coverage in his community was lacking and decided to step up. He isn't a journalist by trade, but his sometimes muckraking site has served as a watchdog of local government and events. But he concedes the community needs more than just him. He credits the Ann Arbor News for having the wherewithal and deep pockets to go after the hard investigative stories."There is no way my little media outlet can afford to do that," Pierce says. "The Ann Arbor News has been willing to spend the money on important fights like the President's house and the EMU murders. Even if The Ann Arbor Chronicle, Ypsilanti Citizen and Ypsi News combined resources there is no way we could take the EMU lawyers to task."He is currently looking at other avenues to help deepen local pockets, like Spot.us, and keep local media watchdogs barking. Not that there aren't working watchdogs today. It's just that they are more in the puppy stage of life. But they have been able to bark loud enough recently to make local government meetings more accessible and open to the public."There is this notion that real journalists are doing investigative reporting, routing out corruption, asking tough questions," says Dave Askins, editor of The Ann Arbor Chronicle. "There is the idea of the Fourth Estate. We aspire to some extent to fill that."Source: Steve Pierce, owner and managing editor of YpsiNews.com, Dave Askins, editor of The Ann Arbor Chronicle and Laurel Champion, publisher of The Ann Arbor NewsWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor’s MyBandStock.com opens local music to local investors

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

March 25, 2009

Many music entrepreneurs try to go the Berry Gordy route of making it in the biz: Start an independent label, sign acts, tour, sell records, repeat. The dozen or so people behind Ann Arbor's MyBandStock.com look at things from a slightly different view point.MyBandStock.com's motto is to give music back to the people who are passionate about it: the artists and their fans. It does that by letting customers buy stock in the bands they like through their website. Think of it as viral grassroots funding."This is a business but it's not all about making money," says Taylor Hulyk, director of public relations for MyBandStock.com. "This is us out there to help spread the music. MyBandStock.com wants to put the focus back on the music. We want to give the power of the music back to the people who love it."Right now there are 11 active young people (and a few more behind-the-scenes investors) getting the website and its accompanying web-based community off the ground. The founders are all Michigan-based people who went to the likes of University of Michigan, University of Michigan-Dearborn and Michigan State University.They all work from their own virtual office (i.e. laptop) where they continue to labor away on their passion – music. Right now that's all about their local music scene, but they have big plans on growing that."We hope to expand regionally in the next year and nationally after that," Hulyk says. "It's going to be a slow process."Source: Taylor Hulyk, director of public relations for MyBandStock.comWriter: Jon Zemke

Home But Not Alone

By Amy Kuras

●

Community Development

●

March 25, 2009

Cohousing - It's not just for hippies anymore. Sure, suburban condo complexes are the last place you'd expect a cooperative living community, but Scio Township (of all places) actually boasts three. And they focus on the virtues we've been taught since kindergarten: participation and sharing.

U-M innovation helps push computer chip development

By Newsroom

●

Community Development

●

March 25, 2009

Words like memristor, kilobit and nanoscale might as well be sci-fi jargon to most casual computer users. But University of Michigan electrical engineer Wei Lu knows enough to translate them into vernacular computer users can appreciate: smaller, faster and cheaper.The assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at U-M has come up with a way of making computer chips more efficient by allowing memristors to store more kilobits on a nanoscale. Such things have been done before, but Lu's innovation is considered a leap that will push computer chip technology forward significantly.In plain English this mean that it will allow for the chips to store and move more information quicker. That makes computer chips smaller, less clunky and cheaper to make. Which conversely may result in huge investments in the technology. Stay tuned for further information.Source: University of MichiganWriter: Jon Zemke