State Roundup

Detroit Wayne State, faculty disagree over teacher reviews DETROIT (AP) -- Wayne State University and its faculty are clashing over a proposal to give administrators more power to review poor performing teachers. Faculty union leaders tell The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press that it's an attack on tenure, a long-standing custom that protects faculty from being fired. But Wayne State President Allan Gilmour says he wants to change the faculty are evaluated. He says bad teachers can't use tenure as a "place to hide." The faculty contract expires July 31. Negotiations began last month. Associate Provost Margaret Winters says reasons for suspension or dismissal should include failing to meet teaching and research responsibilities, not just serious misconduct. She says a review doesn't "destroy tenure." Wayne State law professor Michael McIntyre says the proposal will harm the university. Eastpointe Eastpointe firefighters deliver baby in ambulance EASTPOINTE, Mich. (AP) -- An Eastpointe firefighter says he and his partner "just reacted" when the pregnant woman they were transporting to the hospital decided to make an early delivery. Zangara tells The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens that he and Kirk Lee arrived at 39-year-old Nikesha Coleman's suburban Detroit home at 5:07 a.m. Monday, found her on the couch and immediately loaded her into an ambulance. But by 5:14 a.m., it was over. Baby "Ajia" had arrived. Zangara says he and Lee knew the birth was "imminent" and the baby's head emerged after placing the woman into the vehicle. It was Zangara and Lee's first delivery. Both also are paramedics trained for emergency deliveries. Coleman, who had been in labor for 24 hours, told WXYZ-TV that the firefighters are a "blessing." Detroit Illegally-tapped fire hydrants on rise in city DETROIT (AP) -- As southeast Michigan continues to bake amid rising summer temperatures, the number of illegally opened fire hydrants in Detroit has doubled in June from a year ago. Monday's highs hit 97 degrees in Detroit, 100 in Ypsilanti and 99 in Oscoda. Detroit fire officials say people illegally opened 884 hydrants last month, up from 426 in June 2011. They say open hydrants could result in higher water bills for homeowners and headaches for Detroit firefighters. Detroit Fire Capt. Gregory Turner tells The Detroit News "every second counts" for firefighters who rely on consistent water pressure. Officials say on last month's hottest day June 28, people opened 190 hydrants citywide. About 2,000 redesigned locks have been installed on Detroit's 27,244 hydrants since 2005. Each costs $256. Allen Park Landlords: Murder suspect skipped months of rent ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) -- Landlords say they evicted a man charged with killing and dismembering two people in suburban Detroit after he owed thousands of dollars in rent. The landlords went to court after Roger Bowling failed to settle his debt. Records show he was evicted from two Allen Park rental homes before moving in with old girlfriend Danielle Greenway and her companion, Chris Hall. Greenway and Hall were found slain last week, their bodies chopped up and dumped in the Detroit River. Bowling appeared in court Monday on murder charges and was returned to jail without bond. Landlord Hassa Nahhas says Bowling missed rent payments for at least five months. Another landlord is Alexandru Juhasz, who says Bowling left bullets, trash and dog feces inside a house when forced out in May. Augusta Cemetery readies graves for veterans in advance AUGUSTA, Mich. (AP) -- Fort Custer National Cemetery is planning ahead: This summer, 3,000 graves are being dug for veterans and their family members. "These are new initiatives to serve vets," said Roy Luera, director of the cemetery in Augusta. The pre-dug plots will save staff time and land at the cemetery, Luera said. Instead of digging two graves side by side, the caskets will be stacked on top of each other. Each casket will be in its own individual crypt. After the graves are pre-dug only 18 inches of soil will need to be removed for the burial, instead of 6 feet, Luera said. For Fort Custer employees, once the project is completed, future burials will take about 5 minutes of digging instead of 15 to 20 minutes on the old plots, Luera said. This will allow more employees to spend time working on other beautification projects at the cemetery. The plots will also be smaller: 3 feet by 8 feet instead of the previous 6-by-12 plots. Each 4,000-pound, prefabricated crypt will have pea gravel on the bottom and a metal separator in the middle. Only family members would be buried in the same crypt, Luera said. Individuals would be buried in their own crypt. Digging on the project began in March and will likely end in September, Luera said. The first burials in the crypts will occur in the fall. Until a gravesite is needed, it will be covered with grass. Luera said the crypt system has been used at other national cemeteries where space is more of an issue than it is at Fort Custer. "We're one of the last cemeteries to get crypts because we have so much land out there," he said. Fort Custer has 755 acres and 144 acres have been used so far, Luera said. The cemetery has about 500 casket burials a year. Published: Wed, Jul 25, 2012