The 2009 Arab Film Festival, at Dearborn’s Arab American National Museum on Michigan Avenue, opens Thursday Dec. 3 and runs through Dec. 5.

The AANM’s popular annual event presents short and feature-length films made by Arab American and Arab World filmmakers on topics of interest to all movie fans.

One documentary being shown at the museum is a semi-finalist for an Academy Award in the category of Best Documentary Feature. Called Garbage Dreams the film is about the tale of three boys who make their living in Cairo’s garbage trade and their confrontation with a waste conglomerate. The film is one of 15 from a field of 89 entries to be named an Academy Award semi-finalist. Five finalists from this category will be chosen on Feb. 2, 2010 for a chance to win an Academy Award on March 7.

The screening of Garbage Dreams is Dec. 5 at 8:25 p.m.

Garbage Dreams closes out the AANM’s 2009 Arab Film Festival with a screening at 8:25 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5.

The complete December 3-5 festival schedule, advance tickets and weekend passes are available online at www.arabamericanmuseum.org; tickets and passes also available at the door. All screenings take place in the 156-seat auditorium on the AANM’s lower level. The museum is located at 13624 Michigan Ave., just west of Schaefer Road, in Dearborn. Call 313-582-2266 for more information.

Free, lighted parking is available in the municipal lot behind the museum. For driving directions, click here or call the museum.

Below are three Dearborn holiday events you’ll want to mark your calendar for next week.

First: Dearborn’s Christmas tree lighting, community sing-along is Tuesday, Dec. 1

Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., and Santa lead the crowd in a song at the 2008 Christmas tree-lighting and community sing-along.

The free event begins at 6 p.m. at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center, 15801 Michigan Ave.

The Dearborn High School Jazz Band will kick-off the festivities with a performance near the entrance to The Center’s Michael A. Guido Theater.

Following the band, five-year-old Maryam Majed will help Mayor O’Reilly light the tree. Maryam is a kindergarten student at Lowery Elementary School.

Second:The Dearborn Firefighters 25th annual Christmas benefit fundraiser for the Firefighters Burn Drive is Dec. 3. The event takes place from 6-11 p.m. at Cheli’s Chili Bar, 21918 Michigan Ave. Admission is free.

The evening will feature a chili bar, music and dancing, a cash bar, raffles, and gifts being given away every 30 minutes. All proceeds will be used by the Burn Drive to benefit children who are patients at southeastern Michigan hospital burn units.

For more information, contact John Ewing at 943-4145.

Third:The Dearborn Firefighters will welcome Santa at the Fire Safety House, 19750 Outer Drive, just across the street from Dearborn High School, on Dec. 4 and Dec. 5. Santa will make this unique entrance on the ladder truck both nights at 6 p.m.

Pictures with Santa, balloons, coloring books, cookies, hot chocolate and coffee will round off this holiday event. Donations will be graciously accepted and will benefit the Dearborn Firefighters Burn Drive.

For more information, call 313.478.6761.

Just a friendly reminder: Nov. 30-Dec. 4 is the final week for curbside collection of yard waste.

What this means is that if your neighborhood still has leaves sitting in piles at the curb at week’s end, you’ll have a choice to make: leave the mess at the curb and hope city crews pick them up (a service that also ends Dec. 4) or get busy bagging leaves to have them ready on the day of your regularly scheduled trash pickup.

Dec. 4 is the final day for leaf pickup in Dearborn. The week of Nov.30-Dec.4 is the final week for yard waste pickup.

Otherwise, they will remain at the curb or in yard bags alongside your garage until the Spring because crews will stop picking up yard waste after next week.

A Dearborn spokesperson says the city is trying to avoid overtime pay for crews, which is part of the reason leaves remain curbside in so many neighborhoods. The deadline week of Nov. 30- Dec. 4 for bagging yard waste is actually a week extension from previous years.

Let’s just hope we don’t get snow before then. Otherwise, snowplows will be pushing those leaves back onto the lawns of many a homeowner for a real sloppy mess.

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season is now upon us. But before planning what store to hit on the day after Thanksgiving, we thought it would be a good time for some contemplation today of the things in which we are grateful.

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan wrote a nice piece about her take on this season of gratitude, writing that it has been a rough year for many of us and we are just grateful for just being here and still standing.

It’s a column worth reading. Enjoy your Thanksgiving.

Still Here After a Rough Year

We’re serving up a new gratitude this Thanksgiving.

Last Thanksgiving, it looked as if a hard year was coming, and it was and it did. The holiday was shadowed by a sense of economic foreboding—Wall Street failing, companies falling and layoffs coming. It isn’t over—no one thinks it’s over. But the mood of this Thanksgiving looks to be different.

An unofficial poll of a dozen friends yields two themes: “We’re still here,” and, “I am so grateful.” Almost all experienced business reverses, some of which were deep, and some had personal misfortunes of one kind or another: “I am thankful that my mother’s death was fast and that she did not have to suffer,” wrote a beloved friend. But something tells me that a number of Thanksgiving dinners will be marked this year by a new or refreshed sense of gratitude: We’re still here. I am so grateful.

 For the full story click HERE.

Dearborn Councilman Robert Abraham says he is setting his sights on improving downtown west and east Dearborn  business districts because what he and other elected officials have done in the past “has not worked.”

In an open letter to Dearborn, a copy of which was e-mailed to us here,  the councilman says he is going to work with his council colleagues and the mayor to promote existing business and work to bring new business to our city.

“Two big goals I have for the City of Dearborn are focusing on seeing that our new Neighborhood Stabilization Program is successful, along with improving downtown west and east Dearborn,” Abraham says in his two-page letter. “These are two big challenges I believe our leaders can work on to help make business in Dearborn much better.

“Through our Dearborn Federation of Neighborhood Association (DFNA) my goal is to bring back the standards of our neighborhoods with more than 30 neighborhood associations. We are seeing far too many foreclosures and rentals in Dearborn and with that come unique challenges.

“Both of our downtown districts have suffered throughout this economic crisis and need our help. I am going to work with the council and Mayor to see that we meet regularly to address problems and issues and to develop new and fresh ideas to promote existing business. I am also going to work to see that the city puts forth extensive effort in bringing new business to Dearborn.

“Despite our best efforts, what we have done in the past has not worked and I believe it is time for some “out of the box” thinking. I am also going to be regularly asking the citizens for their input as to what we can do to help our business districts.”

Echoing what many readers of this site have said in the past, Abraham also is urging residents to support our local businesses. “Many of these business owners and employees are Dearborn residents and they contribute significantly to our tax base, local charities and civic organizations,” he writes. “To lose even one business to closing or to a move to another neighboring city is a tragedy we cannot afford. If we support them, then we contribute to making them successful, which helps the entire city, including our citizens.”

(more…)

MTV’s popular MADE cable TV show is coming to Dearborn to begin taping an upcoming segment at the city’s ice arena.

If you aren’t sure what MADE is all about, you can click HERE for a look at some earlier episodes. In a nutshell, MADE says it is all about proving that with hard work, dedication and some help from MTV, “kids just like you can accomplish anything they set their minds to.”

MADE producers aren’t yet telling city officials what the segment will be about but the fact the show is asking for permission to tape at the Dearborn Ice Skating Center (the Adray Ice Arena to us longtime Dearbornites), our guess is that it will either be about someone wanting to be a figure skater or a hockey player.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., says the show is expected to begin taping in the next few weeks. While it isn’t clear if the person starring in the segment is from Dearborn, the program’s site selection suggests that it will at least be a person from metro Detroit.

Either way, it should result in some positive coverage about Dearborn.

Anyone who has taken the time over the past 33 years to drop in and visit Steven Bernard Jewelers in Dearborn knows that when it comes to finding a one-of-a-kind gift Steven’s shop on Michigan Avenue is the place to go.

Now Steven Bernard Jewelers is providing residents another reason to drop into this store at 22266 Michigan Ave. Called “coupons for coats”, the jewelry store through Dec. 31 will be collecting new and gently used winter coats, which will be distributed by the First United Methodist Church of Dearborn.

Bernard says he established “Coupons for Coats” to support those in need in our community. In exchange for a coat, Steven Bernard Jewelers will give participants a 20 percent discount coupon that can be used in his jewelry store, located just east of Military throughout December.

Steven Bernard Jewelers is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. Starting Nov. 29 the store will be open noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays for the holidays. For more information, call 313-562-8484.

A former Dearborn Building and Safety Department employee has pleaded guilty to a bribery charge – the second former employee to do so this year – and now faces up to 27 months in prison and $50,000 in fines when sentenced Jan. 21.

Wanda Smith, 42, entered her guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Detroit Monday to a bribery charge in connection with charges that she illegally issued work permits in exchange for money. She must also pay restitution in the amount of $29,000 to the City of Dearborn.

According to U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg, Smith received more than $15,000 in bribes and discounted repairs to her home and automobiles between 2006 and 2009 in return for issuing more than 1,000 permits. Berg says Smith issued the permits without charging a fee or at a greatly reduced fee.

Berg commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Dearborn Police Department for their investigation and thanked the City of Dearborn for their cooperation and assistance.

“Public servants owe a high duty of honesty and integrity to the citizens that should never allow the acceptance of money or services to avoid carrying out their official duties.” Berg said in a prepared statement. “We will continue to make such cases a priority.”

Smith is the second person from the Dearborn Building and Safety department to enter a guilty plea rather than go to trial.

In July 2009, Leticia Bosemon, 38, of Inkster pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in return for issuing temporary certificates of occupancy for residential property in Dearborn.

Bosemon admitted in court that from the fall of 2006 until June, 2008 she accepted in excess of $63,000 from many individuals in return for preparing fraudulent performance bonds and issuing temporary certificates of occupancy, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Under the terms of the agreement, Bosemon faces a maximum penalty of 37 months and a $250,000 fine. Her sentencing date has been set for Dec. 3, 2009.

Dearborn school officials are asking for input from parents, students, staff and community members to determine whether to change the high school start time from the current 7:20 a.m. to a later time.

We wrote about this very topic back in September. Now a public meeting is being held on Dec. 8 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. to gather additional input to determine whether 7:20 a.m. is too early to begin classes for high school students. We think it is and so have many school districts across the country that now begin classes at least an hour later. The meeting will be held at the Administrative Service Center, 18700 Audette.

Results from an online survey conducted earlier this fall revealed that 60 percent were in favor of some type of change in the school start time. The survey was conducted to determine whether a later high school start time was a topic of interest in the community.

Any change in the start of high school would impact the start of middle and elementary school grades, as well. So it is important for parents with a child in the school system to take part in this discussion.

With an overpopulation of cats at the Dearborn Animal Shelter, the Friends for the Dearborn Animal Shelter are hosting a “cat adoption express” Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 2621 S. Telegraph road in Dearborn, next to Pet Supplies Plus.

“The purpose of this adoption event is to quickly find new homes for the overpopulation of cats in the care of our Shelter” says Elaine Greene, the shelter’s executive director. “Due to two critical hoarding cases this summer and a slower rate of cat adoptions, the Dearborn Animal Shelter is in immediate need of placing felines into homes.”

Reduced adoption fees for the felines are as follows: kittens (less than 4 months) $45 each, cats (4 months and older) $20 each and any second cat or kitten adopted is free. Adoption fees include sterilization, microchip and first set of vaccinations.

“We hope this will expedite cat adoptions,” Greene said. “The Dearborn Animal Shelter training center (2621 S. Telegraph) is easier to access, this event will feature only cats and kittens and rates are reduced for quicker adoption.”

For more information, you can contact Elaine Greene, at DASGreene@aol.com or 313-943-2697