Behind the Headlines

By Charles Slat
Passersby might have noticed a lot of excavation work going on recently at St. Mary’s Park.
That was the city “installing” more event seating.
Actually, the City of Monroe Department of Public Services did some plastic surgeon-like sculpting of the landscape to rid the venue of a grassy knoll near the bandshell.
The knoll was flattened and soil carted away to leave an even plane with the rest of the park. Seems the knoll was an obstacle for those attending events at the park and was most noticeably an obstacle during the annual River Raisin Jazz Festival. The knoll itself and festival-goers who used it for seating obstructed the views of a lot of people behind them.
From now on, the park will be a level playing field for all those attending.

By Danielle Portteus, danielle@bedfordnow.com

Monday morning I went to New Bedford Academy and witness what might be the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time.
Neil Sauter, a Blissfield resident, talked about overcoming his mild case of cerebral palsy to the students. He did some magic tricks and storytelling methods to teach students to work together and overcome challenges.
Neil began his trek across the state Monday, an 830-mile walk on STILTS from Lambertville to the Michigan-Wisconsin border in the Upper Peninsula.
He’s raising money for United Cerebral Palsy, a non-profit organization that donates wheelchairs and other assistance devices to people who cannot otherwise afford them.
Check out the rest of Neil’s story at:
http://monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/BN_NEWS/878392659/-1/BN

Brian Bosch took some fabulous photos too… you should definitely check those out.

To track Neil’s progress, visit his Web site, www.stiltstory.org

By Charles Slat

DTE Energy put on its power demonstration for the kids attending Ag Day at the Monroe County Fair Friday. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a pretty impressive show that demonstrates, in part, the dangers of high voltage electricity.
During part of the show, one of the DTE Energy linemen asked the crowd if any of them had experienced a power outage.
Scads of hands shot up.
You mean there are that many Consumers Energy customers in the crowd? he asked.
Consumers employees probably would consider such conduct revolting.

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

Monroe County is not part of this watch box, but you’ll want to know that a tornado watch is now in effect for much of Michigan and Indiana until 2 a.m. tonight (Friday May 2).

Detroit weather bureau

This storm system has been making headlines all day.

CNN story about Arkansas