June 9th, 20180DEARBORN – Local officials in Wayne County hosted several iftars for area Muslims.
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans hosted his annual iftar for county Muslim leaders at the Grapevine Restaurant in Canton.
Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly held two iftar dinners at Habib’s Cuisine, one for heads of local Arab and Muslim...
April 2nd, 20180Dearborn Heights — The police and Fire Departments recently celebrated the addition of new employees during swearing-in ceremonies at the Dearborn Heights City Hall. Two new Police Officers were sworn in at a March 19 ceremony, and one new firefighter was sworn in at a March 26 ceremony.
Police officers:
Ahmed Alhalili, a 4-year...
March 23rd, 20180By Farah Harb
The Arab American News
DEARBORN — As part of its high school voter registration project, the League of Women Voters of Dearborn/ Dearborn Heights visited Dearborn and Fordson High Schools the week of March 19-22.
The nonpartisan political organization aims to bring awareness of the importance of informed and...
March 16th, 20180Dearborn Heights — Mayor Dan Paletko cut the ribbon at Sianna Muscles in Motion on March 5. Officials from the Dearborn Area of Commerce, employees and friends of the business joined the mayor to celebrate the ceremony.
The business is the city’s newest spa/rehabilitation center. The facility is located at 27247 Joy Road. It...
March 9th, 20180GARDEN CITY — Garden City Mayor Randy Walker announced he is running for the 11th district seat in the Michigan House of Representatives, which comprises Garden city, Inkster and portions of Westland, Livonia and Dearborn Heights.
Walker served four two-year terms as mayor before being elected to a four-year term in...
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 2nd, 20180DEARBORN HEIGHTS — Women's activist Dana Mohammad is working to form the Dearborn Heights Commission on Women and Girls. The commission would be the first of its kind in the state, according to Mohammad, who held a meeting at the Caroline Kennedy Library on Jan. 25 to gauge support, brainstorm ideas and raise awareness about the...
February 2nd, 20180DEARBORN HEIGHTS — As federal officials and states remain in a tug of war on the legality of marijuana, cities across the nation where the consumption of the drug is permitted on some level are grappling with whether to allow dispensary stores in their neighborhoods.
In Dearborn Heights, residents of the largely bedroom community...
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...
December 15th, 20170DETROIT — A Dearborn Heights man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to bribing public officials while trying to open a medical marijuana dispensary.
Ali Baydoun, 52, could spend up to 16 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to a bribery conspiracy charge. His sentencing is scheduled for April.
Baydoun reached the plea deal four...
November 17th, 20170Allen Park —Dearborn Heights police officer Larry A. Little, 32, is charged with causing a fatal crash due to reckless driving.
The crash happened on January 2 at the intersection of Van Born and Pelham Roads and resulted in the death of Timothy Lee Turner, 59. Little’s first hearing will take place on November 27.
Little was...
November 17th, 20173DEARBORN — Amid a recent spike in threats against places of worship, officials and mosques in Metro Detroit are tightening security and bashing a new gun legislation that passed in the Michigan Senate last week.
It was tense at the Michigan Capitol on Wednesday, Nov. 8, when the Senate passed in a 25-12 vote a bill allowing the...
November 10th, 20170DEARBORN HEIGHTS — It looked to be a close race between Mayor Dan Paletko and City Councilwoman Lisa Hicks-Clayton in Tuesday's election, but once the absentee votes were counted, Paletko won by 1,143 votes.
Paletko won with 4,467 votes, which was 55.83 percent of the total votes for mayor, and Hicks-Clayton received a total of...
November 3rd, 20170
DEARBORN HEIGHTS—“It picks up something from the ocean around it, from the humidity, from the surrounding trees,” said Mohamad Zeitoun, manager of the Roasting Plant coffee shops in Dearborn Heights and Ann Arbor, about the flavor profile of the Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee bean.
The Dearborn Heights location opened in June;...
November 3rd, 20170DEARBORN HEIGHTS— Back in May, The AANews spoke to Dearborn Heights Police Chief Lee Gavin about the lack of Arab American interest in the police force.
At the time, Gavin said that they barely apply.
"We've had meetings ," he said. "Right now, in all the law enforcement agencies in the area, there are a total lack of...
November 1st, 20170DEARBORN HEIGHTS— Next week, residents and drivers along Beech Daly Road will experience a partial closure due to a water main construction project.
The project is scheduled to start on November 6 and will require closing the right-hand lane of southbound Beech Daly between Hass and Ford Roads.
Work will be put off during the...
October 27th, 20170
DEARBORN HEIGHTS — The main races in the November 7 election are between incumbent Mayor Dan Paletko and challenger Lisa Hicks-Clayton, and also for the four open City Council seats.
Paletko has been mayor since 2004. He came in first in the Aug. 8 primary election, with about 1,000 votes more than Hicks-Clayton.
In the City...
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...
August 20th, 20171By Abed Hammoud
The recent tragic events in Charlottesville, VA should be a lesson to our Arab and Muslim community here in Metro Detroit, specially in the Dearborn-Dearborn Heights area. These events show that personal attacks, character assassination and the spread of false information on social media and elsewhere can have...
August 18th, 20171DEARBORN HEIGHTS — Dearborn's neighboring city seems to be tackling drastically similar types of reckless driving on its roads and has found no better way to control it than to heighten traffic enforcement.
The Dearborn Heights Police Department kicked off the crackdown in July, According to Police Chief Lee Gavin, it's been a...
August 11th, 20170DEARBORN HEIGHTS — On August 8, Dearborn Heights held its municipal primary elections for mayor, City Council, City Clerk and treasurer. Mayor Dan Paletko won first place in the mayoral race, followed by Councilwoman Lisa Hicks-Clayton who came in second. The two candidates will face off in the general election on November 7. Eduardo...
August 4th, 20172DEARBORN HEIGHTS — Debbie Schlussel, an attorney known for her anti-Muslim rhetoric, filed a lawsuit against Dearborn Heights and its officials on May 15 for being denied access to booking photos and videos of resident Malak Kazan without her hijab.
Police had arrested Kazan for driving on a suspended license on July 9, 2014....
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 28th, 20171As Dearborn Heights' community and economic landscape transforms to reflect its neighboring city of Dearborn, so must the city's government transform to reflect its constituents.
Over the years, many Arab Americans have steadily moved from Dearborn to Dearborn Heights, a bedroom community whose obstacle to tremendous ambitions has...
July 14th, 20171DEARBORN — After a lengthy process, the Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC) endorsed candidates for various positions in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights' for the August 8 primary elections.
For two days, the group interviewed candidates running for mayor and City Council in both cities, and for city clerk in Dearborn....
July 7th, 20170DEARBORN HEIGHTS — Few know the barrier-breaking story of Nawal Hamadeh, president and CEO of Hamadeh Educational Services, despite her accomplishments.
In 1998, Hamadeh did what few women had up to that time. She opened two charter schools, Star International Academy in Dearborn Heights and Universal Academy in Detroit.
In doing...
July 7th, 20170By Stephen Martin
DEARBORN HEIGHTS — On July 5, local food blogger Zee Shami held the grand opening of her new culinary studio, ZeeTheCook. The studio offers cooking classes, etiquette coaching, unique culinary workshops and birthday parties, as well as fall, spring and summer camps for children.
It also offers adults a variety...
June 30th, 20170DEARBORN HEIGHTS — In mid June, Crestwood High School sent 312 graduates on a life-altering path that will ultimately result in an even more prosperous new chapter as 178 of them have been offered a combined $13.6 million in scholarships and awards.
All the graduates applied to college.
Principal John Tafelski expressed his...
