Local Leaders in Running for NAACP Image Award Hometown Honor

Local Leaders in Running for NAACP Image Award Hometown Honor (Crystal A. Proxmire, Jan.12, 2015) The vote is on. Seventeen Detroit Area leaders have been nominated as part of the NAACP Image Awards Hometown Champion Award. Through an online competition, the nominee who gets the most votes will be flown to Pasadena, California for the…

Community Crowds Together To Save Oak Park Jewish Community Center

Community Crowds Together To Save Oak Park Jewish Community Center (Cheryl Weiss, Jan. 13, 2015) Approximately 800 people filled the gymnasium of the Jewish Community Center in Oak Park, and many more were turned away due to space limitations, at the Town Hall Forum Monday night. Community members gathered together to voice their objections to…

View: Letter to the Royal Oak Board of Education

View: Letter to the Royal Oak Board of Education (View by Shawn Lewis-Lakin, Superintendent, Royal Oak Schools, Jan. 12, 2015) Community-governed public education has been called the backbone of American democracy.   Indeed, it is one of the very foundations on which our democratic society stands. The publicly elected members of our Royal Oak Board of…

Farmington Police Report Increase in Package Thefts

Farmington Police Report Increase in Package Thefts (Farmington Police Report, Jan. 11, 2015) The Farmington Public Safety Department is advising residents that our department has taken 5 reports of larceny of delivered packages off door steps and porches in the last 2 weeks. These packages are delivered to the homes porch or doorstep by UPS,…

Library Picks: Kathleen’s Suggestions

Library Picks: Kathleen’s Suggestions (Jeff Milo, FADL Circulation Specialist, Jan.11, 2015) This regular column will provide Oakland County with cultural recommendations, in books, film, music and more, from an undeniably trusted source, one of its area libraries (as well as other community members in the weeks to come). The Ferndale Area District Library is part…

Possible Car Bomb Under Investigation in Springfield Twp.

Possible Car Bomb Under Investigation in Springfield Twp. (Oakland County Sheriff’s Dept, Jan. 10, 2015) At 8:15AM  today (01/10/14) Oakland County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the 8200 block of Tindall Rd. in Springfield Township for a possible car bomb that had exploded in the driveway of a home. No one was in the vehicle. Homeowners…

One Person Shot, Two Assaulted in Pontiac

One Person Shot, Two Assaulted in Pontiac (Oakland County Sheriff’s Dept, Jan. 10, 2015) INCIDENT: 0015 Hours- City of Pontiac-Shooting/ Assault w/ Gun/Pistol Whipping/Attempt Murder   # 15-0004486 SUMMARY: Deputies were dispatched to a home in the 300 block of W. Huron for the report of a shooting. Deputies arrived and discovered a shooting victim and two…

Melanie Piana: Twenty Years Revitalizing Downtown Ferndale

Melanie Piana: Twenty Years Revitalizing Downtown Ferndale (Melanie Piana, Ferndale City Councilperson, Orig. Meltropolis, Jan. 9, 2015)   In the December 2014 Ferndale Friends issue, I responded to questions about the 3-60 development project. My intent was to expand on that response here, but that intent evolved into answering my personal question “when DID Ferndale determine…

Basketball Jones Visits Angell School in Berkley

Basketball Jones Visits Angell School in Berkley (BPS Press Release, Jan. 9, 2015) Jim ‘Basketball’ Jones visited Angell at an assembly that encouraged kindness, “patient listening,” manners and good choices. Students listened intently as they repeated back nearly everything Jim ‘Basketball’ Jones said including, “I love myself” and “I am the best,” and, “I am…

Ferndale Adding STEM Program in Middle School

Ferndale Adding STEM Program in Middle School (FPS Press Release, Jan. 9, 2015)   The Ferndale Board of Education recently approved a new STEM program for 7th and 8th grade students at Ferndale Middle School (FMS) starting next school year.s STEM which stands for science, technology, engineering and math, is an interdisciplinary and applied approach…

Defending Snow Day Choice: B. Hills Gives Facts, Novi Gives Laughs

Defending Snow Day Choice: Bloomfield Hills Gives Facts, Novi Gives Laughs (Crystal A. Proxmire, Jan. 8, 2015) Posts of speculation, jubilation and disappointment speckled social media  Wednesday night and Thursday morning as students from area schools learned whether their district would be calling for a snow day. More specifically, a weather day, since it was…