March 3rd, 20180State Oversight Board Abolished, Full Local Control Re-Established
LANSING, Mich. – Michigan Treasurer Nick Khouri today announced the city of Hamtramck has been released from receivership under the Local Financial Stability and Choice Act and dissolved the Hamtramck Receivership Transition Advisory Board (RTAB).
The state...
March 2nd, 20180DEARBORN — The conversation around upgrading an aging infrastructure is taking center stage around the nation and especially in Michigan, where lead-contaminated water pipes have poisoned an entire city, mold grows in middle school classrooms and bad weather makes for deadly potholes.
Weak roads, coupled with drastic thawing of...
February 9th, 20180
HAMTRAMCK — When Saad Almasmari made history in Nov. 2015 by receiving the most votes in the Hamtramck City Council race— making it the first City Council with a Muslim-majority in the U.S— he pledged to ensure proportional representation and that the city would handle resources well enough to move on from emergency...
January 26th, 20180By Farah Harb
HAMTRAMCK — Members of a Hamtramck family claim the police treated them pitilessly during a traffic stop on Jan. 3 in which the father was pulled over for an expired tag and ticketed for having no insurance.
Nasser Almasmari had his pregnant wife, 10-year old son and 2-year-old and 11-month-old daughters with him when...
January 19th, 20181HAMTRAMCK — Hani Omasan loves cooking. Although he has worked in different realms of the auto industry for more than 20 years, he's found cooking burgers to be a great hobby.
Last November, Omasan made his hobby a business when he opened California Burgerz, which sells 100 percent halal USDA premium angus beef.
The restaurant,...
January 5th, 20180Here's our 2017 year-in-review of the most important news and developments as reported by The Arab American News locally, nationally and internationally.
Community and local
1. Former Dearborn City Clerk Kathy Buda was convicted on embezzlement charges, after clerk office employees reported suspicions she was stealing cash from fees...
November 10th, 20170HAMTRAMCK — Mayor Karen Majewski won reelection to a fourth term on Tuesday, Nov. 7. She received 1,960 votes, while Mohammed Hassan finished with 1,231.
The overall voter turnout in the city's Nov. 7 general elections was 22 percent.
In the City Council race, Fadel Al-Marsoumi became the second Arab American elected to that...
October 27th, 20171HAMTRMACK – A few divisive races and shake ups in the City Council are bound to emerge during elections in a town as diverse as Hamtramck.
After a contentious debate over who to appoint as the new city manager, disparaging remarks by a Council member and a state investigation over voter fraud by an incumbent Council candidate,...
October 20th, 20170DEARBORN – It was an unfavorable outcome for some new candidates in Dearborn and neighboring cities' primary elections, but some might have another shot at making it into office on Nov. 7.
After a passionate debate on Tuesday, Oct. 17, The Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC) endorsed candidates in the general elections...
September 29th, 20170HAMTRAMCK— The Hamtramck City Council’s proposed resolution to censure Councilman Ian Perrotta over controversial comments he made about immigrants earlier this month was removed without any explanation.
The council did not vote Tuesday on the resolution introduced by Councilman Anam Miah that called for Perrotta to be “publicly...
September 14th, 20172HAMTRAMCK — A councilmember in one of the most diverse cities in the nation is facing a backlash after he blamed a trash problem on immigrant residents.
"There is an issue with trash in Hamtramck," Councilman Ian Perrotta said in an interview on WWJ AM 950. "I think some of it comes from the fact that some of our immigrant...
September 7th, 20170HOUSTON, DEARBORN — Striding strenuously down a freeway, mostly mothers and their children were knee deep in water, making the journey away from their drowned homes.
They carried on their shoulders only what they could save. The water rose so fast that few families in Southeast Texas were left unthreatened by Hurricane Harvey's...
August 11th, 20170HAMTRAMCK — Even though 33 percent of Hamtramck's residents are Yemeni, only one Yemeni candidate— Mohammad Al-Somiri— made it to the general elections this year.
Yemeni American Councilman Saad Almasmari said the community was hoping educator Akil Al-Halemi would make it through the City Council primary race because of his high...
August 8th, 20170HAMTRAMCK- So far, a low number of voters showed up at the Hamtramck precincts for this year’s primary.
According to City Clerk August Gitschlag, there are 1385 registered voters in precinct 1, 2076 in precinct 2, 1635 in precinct 3, 2738 in precinct 4, 1131 in precinct 5, 1099 in precinct 6 and 1421 in precinct 7.
A total of...
August 4th, 20170One might think that Dearborn prospers businesswise— mainly as home to Ford Motor Company's world headquarters—yet it doesn't, due to the lack of change in the system and in the administration.
Many businesses have moved out after Dearborn established restrictive ordinances. Business owners began setting up shops in nearby cities...
July 14th, 20176HAMTRAMCK — In 2015, Hamtramck became the first city in the United States to elect a Muslim majority to its city council. While many right wing pundits charged that the council would enact Sharia (Islamic law) at its first opportunity, the contrary occurred.
When Acting City Manager Katrina Powell's two and a half year contract...
July 14th, 20170HAMTRAMCK — As Michiganders mull over who to elect or reelect to various government positions, a town with a growing Arab American population is also preparing for the upcoming elections.
Hamtramck is facing shifting demographics, reflecting that of its neighbors, Dearborn and Dearborn Heights. It's also where an unprecedented...
June 30th, 20170By Afaf Humayun
HAMTRAMCK — During the month of June, the Dearborn-based Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) held four open viewings and one panel discussion at community space Bank Suey in Hamtramck regarding its portrait series of Michigan Muslims.
The portraits are a component of ISPU's research titled...
