Author's Posts
ACC president writes to Biden urging support for Jordan’s King Abdullah
July 17th, 20210 TROY — Dr. Haifa Fakhouri, founder, CEO and president of the Arab American and Chaldean Council (ACC), wrote to President Biden on Thursday, urging "moral and financial support" for Jordan's King Abdullah II, on the occasion of his visit to the White House on July 19. "As Jordan being the United States' longest and strongest ally...
Senate includes Child Tax Credit monthly payment extension in budget deal
July 14th, 20210 Local leaders are encouraging working families to watch for advance monthly payments of the Child Tax Credit of up to $300 per month per child beginning Thursday, July 15 through December. The credit has been lauded by the Biden administration and Democrats as one of the key provisions to aid working class families, as part of the...
Hamtramck Public Schools purchases new property to expand services
July 14th, 20210 HAMTRAMCK — Hamtramck Public Schools (HPS) announced this week the purchase of additional property, the second such purchase this year. The district, which services much of the area's diverse population, including Yemeni and Bengali families, has finalized the purchase of the property at 8633 Joseph Campau Avenue. This comes after...
Dearborn call center lets residents report flood damage by Aug. 9 deadline
July 13th, 20210 DEARBORN — The city government is reminding residents of a phone line for flooding-related business. Residents can call the Dearborn Flood Response Call Center at 313-586-3181 to report flood damage to the city and get information on resources. The deadline for residents affected by the storms of June 25-26 to report flood...
Q&A: Dearborn Engineering Dept. answers questions about flooding, sewage, east and Southend of Dearborn
July 10th, 20210 DEARBORN — The Dearborn Engineering Department answered the following questions regarding recent flooding in the city. The questions from The Arab American News were conveyed through the city's public information director, Mary Laundroche. A federally-mandated sewer separation project to mitigate pollution into the Rouge River was...
Mayor O’Reilly makes statement on public absence during flood crisis, cites health issues
July 9th, 20210 DEARBORN — After alarm from the community about the very public absence of the city’s longtime mayor during a historic flood, Mayor O’Reilly made a statement declaring he has had health issues on Friday. The statement, attributed to O'Reilly, says health issues have impacted his "ability to attend public engagements" and make...
14-year-old sentenced to juvenile detention in death of Uber Eats driver
July 7th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — A second teenage girl has been sentenced to juvenile detention, and will be released when she turns 21, for the tragic death of Pakistani American Mohammad Anwar in Washington D.C. Anwar, 66, was an Uber Eats delivery driver. He was killed in March when two teenagers attempted to carjack him. Anwar clung on to...
Delta variant spells danger for unvaccinated people, continues to alarm experts
July 6th, 20210 With the more-infectious Delta variant emerging as the most common strain of the coronavirus, parts of the U.S. with the lowest vaccination rates are threatening to halt progress on the pandemic in the country. Southern states like Arkansas, Missouri and Alabama have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, according to...
Dearborn Artspace Lofts denies tenant help after flooding, threatens eviction
July 2nd, 20212 DEARBORN — Ever since his basement level apartment flooded last Friday night, Ramsey Turkmani, a tenant at Dearborn’s City Hall Artspace Lofts, has had no real help from his building’s management. In fact, after almost an entire weekend of pleading with them to remove the continued water seeping into the apartment he shares...
New digital banking platform promises halal certified banking, no-interest loans
June 24th, 20210 A new banking system offers its customer the first halal banking experience in the U.S., by promising no-interest lending and ethical investments. Fair is a "neobank", or digital bank, that practices principles in line with Islamic law, which forbids usury, or collecting interest on loans. Fair's customers can conduct business through...
Bay Area Yemeni community wins recognition of its needs in the school district
June 23rd, 20210 CALIFORNIA — The Bay Area’s growing Yemeni community has made strong headways recently, by organizing an effort to secure much needed representation for Yemenis, Arabs and Muslims in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). Local Yemeni groups, parents and allied organizations and officials worked towards bringing more...
U of M fellowship honors cystic fibrosis researcher Dr. Samya Nasr
June 23rd, 20210 ANN ARBOR — A University of Michigan pediatrics professor’s work in cystic fibrosis (CF) is being honored with a fellowship program. The Bonnell Foundation: Living with Cystic Fibrosis is raising money to support the Pediatric Pulmonology Fellowship Training Program at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, to honor Dr. Samya Nasr and...
Head designer for Zara under fire for anti-Palestinian message to model
June 15th, 20210 Fast fashion giant Zara has come under fire after Palestinian model Qaher Harhash revealed messages sent from Vanessa Perilman, the brand’s head designer for women’s clothing, in response to his posts calling for justice in Palestine. "So your point is that you are trying to show the world that Israel is a horrible evil country...
U.S. Supreme Court to hear case involving FBI’s spying on California mosques
June 11th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to look at a decade-long class-action case involving the FBI’s use of an informant to spy on several LA and Orange County mosques, the Courthouse News reported Tuesday. For more than a year, the FBI planted an informant in the mosques and instructed him to coerce and gather...
Michigan no longer has the highest car insurance costs, but still second in the U.S.
June 8th, 20210 MICHIGAN — A new car insurance industry report shows that Michigan is no longer the most expensive state in the country to insure a car. But that doesn't necessarily mean good news for drivers in the Motor City's home. The 2021 Insure.com report shows Louisiana has take over the top spot for premiums in the country, though......
Wayne State University president blocks student senate statement on Palestine
June 7th, 20210 DETROIT — A statement on Palestine issued by the Wayne State University Student Senate has seen objection and censorship from the large urban university’s administration, most notably by President Roy Wilson. The Senate, which is comprised of dozens of students, had gone through lengthy and intense deliberation on making a...
New study shows number of U.S. mosques continues to grow
June 6th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and Center on Muslim Philanthropy have jointly published an extensive study on the characteristic of the U.S. mosque. Entitled The American Mosque 2020: Growing and Evolving: Report 1 of the U.S. Mosque Survey 2020:......
Pro-IDF restaurant owner Jeremy Sasson says critics of his pro-Israel post are “anti-Semitic”
June 5th, 20213 DETROIT — During the beginning days of Israel’s 11-day assault on Gaza, the owner of two popular restaurants took to Instagram to say he stood with Israel. Jeremy Sasson is the CEO of Heirloom Hospitality Group, LLC, which operates Prime + Proper in Detroit and Townhouse in Birmingham and Detroit, establishments regularly...
Gantz arrives in Washington to ask for $1 billion for Iron Dome
June 3rd, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz arrived in Washington D.C. to visit the Pentagon and the White House on Thursday and ask for $1 billion to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome after the latest, multi-week, bombing campaign on Gaza, which killed more than 250 Palestinians, including 67 children, displacing more than...
Far-right nationalist Bennett and centrist Lapid could end Netanyahu’s reign
June 1st, 20210 Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing an end to his long reign over the country, as his rivals pressed on with a political pact to unseat him on Tuesday. After March’s inconclusive election, the country's fourth in two years, Likud emerged as the party with most votes. But after wooing smaller right-wing and...
Tlaib calls for end to censorship of Palestinian voices on social media; activists tank Facebook ratings
May 27th, 20210 On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) sent a letter to the parent companies of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, urging the platforms to cease censorship of Palestinian political speech in the wake of a report they’ve been censoring content and disabling user accounts raising awareness about recent Israeli state-backed......
Up to $10,000 in down payment assistance available to new MI homebuyers
May 25th, 20217 LANSING — A new program in Michigan seeks to make homeownership more accessible for millennials and working families by providing some help with down payments. The MI 10K DPA program offers homebuyers in certain zip codes across the state – including several in Wayne County – up to $10,000 in down payment assistance, funds that...
“Behind the scenes” documentary on Hamtramck politics premieres on WORLD Channel May 25
May 19th, 20210 HAMTRAMCK — The city of Hamtramck, known to be the nation’s first Muslim-majority city, is the subject of a documentary set to makes its broadcast premiere on the WORLD Channel (formerly PBS WORLD) on Tuesday, May 25. A synopsis for the documentary, titled Hamtramck, USA, says it "goes behind the scenes of small-town politics,"......
Abdullah Hammoud talks of his interaction with Biden in Dearborn, handing him letter on Palestine
May 19th, 20210 DEARBORN - During Tuesday’s visit to Ford’s new electric vehicle factory in Dearborn, President Biden had an interaction with Democratic State Rep., and Dearborn mayoral candidate, Abdullah Hammoud. The visit sparked multiple protests in Dearborn on Tuesday. During that brief conversation, Hammoud was able to hand Biden a letter...
More then 200 Palestinians now killed in Gaza, Blinken says he has not seen proof Hamas was in destroyed media tower
May 17th, 20210 PALESTINE — As Israel continued its assault on Gaza, with at least 220 Palestinians killed, including 59 children, and more than 1,300 wounded by Monday tallies, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had personally not seen evidence for Israel’s claim that Hamas was present at a building used by international media it......
