When was the last time you picked up and read a comic book? Well, on May 2nd you can get reacquainted with your favorite comic book for free.

It is all part of Free Comic Book Day, when more than 2 million comic books will be given away by participating stores, as a way to introduce as many people as possible to the wonders of comic books.

Dearborn’s Green Brain Comics on Michigan Avenue will be one of thousands of comic book shops around the world celebrating the comic book art form on Saturday, May 2nd.

“The wide array of comic books being published today ensures that readers of all ages — children, teens and adults — can find something appropriate that will stir their imaginations,” said Dan Merritt, co-owner of Green Brain Comics.

Now in its eighth year, Free Comic Book Day has proven to be a big success, spreading the word, Merritt says, that comics can be good reading.

“We at Green Brain Comics want to spread the word that comics are perfect for today’s times,” Merritt said. “Comic books and graphic novels are considered hip, hot and smart.”

Comic Books have propelled to the front ranks of pop culture, many being adapted into movies. Wolverine hits the big screen on May 1st, the day before Free Comic Book Day. So the first weekend of May is going to be a big day in the comic book world.

Regular updates, information about comic books, and a list of participating publishers and their free comics are all online at  www.FreeComicBookDay.com

Free Comic Book Day kicks off at 10 am on May 2nd and runs until 8 pm at Green Brain Comics, 13210 Michigan Ave.  For more information call 313-582-9444 for more information.

The Dearborn Inn is playing host to the entire CBS television crew, in town this weekend to bring millions of TV viewers the NCAA basketball tournament from Detroit.

While the Final Four college basketball tournament is bringing big business to Detroit, there seems to be a good amount of business coming Dearborn’s way, too. The Henry Ford is expecting to see a slight pickup in business on Sunday for fans looking for something to do ahead of Monday’s championship game, where we are betting Michigan State will be again.

Fans from both North Carolina and Connecticut have filled the Dearborn Inn, along with the CBS team. We also spotted some Michigan State fans there, which was a good thing to help keep those pesky University of Connecticut Husky fans in check.

“Any big event in Detroit always brings us business,” said one employee. “Given the state of the economy, we’ll take it.”

Just three weeks ago, the Dearborn Inn was the site of filming for the upcoming Hilary Swank movie, “Betty Anne Waters”.  The Ten Eyck Tavern was used to film a scene in the movie that takes place in Boston. The décor of the restaurant brought that Boston atmosphere to Dearborn for the crew without having to film in Boston.

Hilary Swank and actress Minnie Driver and crew stayed at the Dearborn Inn during filming for the movie, which is based on a true story in which a single mother goes to law school to defend her brother, who has been wrongly convicted of murder. The movie was shot in Southeast Michigan for several months and wrapped up in April.

We talk a lot on these pages about the news in Dearborn’s west business district but there is a great deal quietly taking place on the east side that sometimes gets overshadowed.

Raad Alawan, editor of Dearborn’s Your Community Voice recently caught up with Michael Boettcher, executive director of the East Dearborn Downtown Development Authority,for a look at what’s happening in east Dearborn. 

Beyond the medical center groundbreaking in May at Michigan and Schaefer on the former Wards site (scheduled for completion in 2010), Boettcher sees the growth opportunity along Schaefer, north of Michigan Avenue, which years ago was the heart of the east Dearborn downtown.

Below are quotes from Boettcher in his interview with Your Community Voice:

• Long term, what I see happening is the head of the district moving to the block of Schaefer north of Michigan Avenue. It’s a little less noisy, busy and congested than Michigan Avenue. Schaefer allows for better window shopping. It could be similar to downtown Ferndale at Nine Mile and Woodward, where they narrowed it to two moving lanes, parking on both sides, and managed to bump out the sidewalks to make enough room for outdoor seating.

• We have a functional downtown with a wide variety of business types. But I think we need the kind of businesses where people like to stroll and do window shopping. That’s what I’d like to see happen on Schaefer, where it can happen most naturally. That may mean some of the service businesses moving back to the upper floors or outer storefronts.

• I think this neighborhood has that much potential. This was downtown for decades. We had three department stores, a movie theater, City Hall of course. We had as much commercial use as a shopping mall. People knew this neighborhood, and still do.

• This past year, we did a promotion campaign with the tagline “See the World in One Mile.” Within walking distance, there’s Italian, Chinese, Polish, Arab, Tai, Greek, and all types of different foods. And the Arab American Museum has all different kinds of concerts on Thursdays. There are a lot of opportunities for a lot of cross-cultural experience in the neighborhood, and that’s what we want to tout. It was pretty successful. We heard back from businesses. Someone went into Alcamo’s after hearing one of the radio spots where they were one of the featured businesses and made a huge purchase. And they had never been there before, loved it, and said they’ll be back.

• From our survey, we found a lot of people go to city hall to pay taxes or take care of other city business. The medical center (at 5050 Schaefer) is a big draw. The museum ranks highly in terms of what people like and reasons to come (downtown). We found others like restaurants, ethnic food and shopping. Kroger was another big draw, until they closed  (in November 2008) at Schaefer and Colson. They didn’t want to operate two stores so close to each other, and Greenfield has better traffic counts than Schaefer. There is specific interest in the Kroger property, but it’s preliminary at this point. I think we need to maintain that as a grocery store. It’s a great anchor.

Dearborn Councilman Doug Thomas, long an opponent of paid parking, wants the matter to be put on the ballot again because he says the current setup in west Dearborn isn’t working.

In the event you missed his motion at the March 16 council meeting, we’ve attached a few video clips here from that meeting where Thomas lays out his case for doing away with paid parking and putting it before voters again. It’s classic Thomas, not letting the facts get in the way of the points he wants to make nor explaining how the city would cover its costs for the $10 million it spent to build two parking decks should voters reject paid parking, which we suspect they would this time.

Thomas called for the reintroduction of a Special Assessment District (SAD) – an area where a special assessment is imposed because of a public project that benefits the owners in the defined area. This was supported by Double Olive bar owner Joe Agius who shared his views on paid parking with the council.  With the city’s debt costs for the decks being rolled into an SAD this time around, we wonder whether the costs to business owners in the area would end up making an SAD prohibitively expensive.

“It all started with Jumbo and Dumbo, the white elephants sitting there and how to pay for them,” Thomas said of the city’s two parking decks. “It was put on the bar owners and merchants in west Dearborn, a paid to park scheme. Well it sure didn’t work out there for Jumbo and Dumbo and it’s not working for the restaurant and bar owners in west Dearborn today.”

Thomas does make a few good points, including the suggestion that the entrance to Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, now the Henry Ford, should be off of Michigan Avenue, just east of Brady, rather than Oakwood. If the entrance were on Michigan, merchants in west Dearborn might see additional business come there way. The way it is now, after a visit to the Henry Ford, people just pack into their car and leave, Thomas says.

With each new spring in Dearborn comes the annoying sound of airplane noise overhead. We’ve written on these pages here many times before about the need to notify the Wayne County Airport Authority if residents are bothered by aircraft noise and this year is no different.

To help limit airplane noise over Dearborn residents need to contact the Noise Complaint Hotline at 734-942-3222 or email Michelle Plawecki, noise manager for the Wayne County Airport Authority, at michelle.plawecki@wcaa.us

Dearborn has been battling the noise from Metro Airport since 1989 when the airport began rerouting flight paths over our city.

There may be some relief if recommendations stemming from a legal settlement with the airport and Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) are implemented.

Among the recommended changes the FAA is considering includes shifting aircraft departures to turn east sooner and reducing the number of departing flights over Dearborn. We will believe it when we see it as the FAA and the Wayne County Airport Authority for the last 10 years have done little more than shuffle papers and pretend to care about our noise complaints.

The two agencies continue to promise Dearborn that they are “seriously considering” a continuous descent approach for incoming aircraft, where arriving planes would come in at a higher altitude and then fly in at a continuous descent. Today, Metro air traffic controllers level incoming planes at about 5,000 feet when they are still 15 miles away from the airport, allowing them to essentially buzz all of our homes on the way to Metro and making us deaf in the process.

The reason we remain skeptical of this continuous descent actually taking hold is that implementing such an action would require an investment by the airport for the installation of more sophisticated radar to actually “bring in” a plane by radar. Older aircraft, not equipped with the proper equipment to communicate with the airport, would still have to land the conventional noisy way over our homes.

So for now, all we can do is keep calling the phone hotline and emailing Michelle Plawecki, noise manager for the Wayne County Airport Authority. The Airport Authority and the FAA need to know that Dearborn isn’t going to walk away from this issue any time soon. You’ll want to include in any email the time of day the plane was heard and whether it was a departing flight or an arrival.

MDOT will replace both Michigan Avenue bridges over the Rouge River in Dearborn.

Get ready for some heavy construction and the corresponding traffic tieups along Michigan Avenue in Dearborn when a major project to replace two bridges over the Rouge River begins in a few weeks.

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) tells us that construction on the new Michigan Avenue bridges — located between Evergreen and the Southfield Freeway — will begin once a temporary crossover road is put down. This will allow MDOT to shift eastbound traffic on Michigan Avenue to the westbound side while work on the eastbound bridge begins. Traffic will then shift again as the work is completed on the westbound bridge.

Many motorists have probably seen phone and electric crews working on the side of the road in recent weeks wondering what was taking place. Well, those crews were working to ensure their lines would not interfere with the upcoming construction.

MDOT says the bridge project will be completed by November.

While the bridge work is taking place, MDOT says the resurfacing of Michigan Avenue from Evergreen to Greenfield Road also will get underway. This stretch of pavement is in relatively good shape, but MDOT says they are taking action now to stretch out its usable lifespan (MDOT likely doesn’t want  a repeat of Michigan Avenue in west Dearborn either).

In other construction, part two of the work on the deck of the Evergreen Road bridge over Ford Road kicks off in April and is expected to be completed in July. This year the southbounds lanes of the Evergreen bridge will be replaced, along with entrance and exit ramps. 

Finally, for those of you who travel Telegraph and might be wondering when that bridge work, just north of Warren, will be completed, MDOT tells us it will be in May. That project took four years, double what was expected, because once crews opened up the road they found that the entire bridge structure was rotting.

So rather than minor repairs, all four bridges — two over Hinds Drive and two over the Rouge River — were made new again. With the scope of the project changing so drastically and all new bridge beams having to be ordered, MDOT says the contractor was essentially free to work at his own pace to get the project done.

Some good news for Dearborn Hills residents: the traffic signal at Telegraph and Fordson will be returned back to normal operation in about a week.

Longer term, MDOT plans to install a traffic detection camera at Telegraph and Fordson, similar to the one pictured here.

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) tells DeepSaidWhat.com that the Federal Highway Administration this week accepted the state agency’s recommendation that the signal was needed and should remain.

MDOT said while sight distance restrictions justified keeping the traffic signal fully operational, the more than 250 responses from residents requesting the signal stay was a “key part of the decision making process.”

Longer term, MDOT plans to install a traffic detection camera atop the signal for traffic coming from Fordson.

This means the signal will remain green for traffic traveling north on Telegraph until the camera “sees” a vehicle approach Telegraph from Fordson. When that occurs, the light will turn red for Telegraph and green for Fordson motorists, functioning through the normal light cycle. Once Fordson traffic clears, the signal will return to a full green for Telegraph drivers and red for Fordson.

Currently, there is no state funding source for the camera system, which is estimated to cost about $10,000 to implement, MDOT estimates. For the earlier story on this subject, click HERE

Queen Latifah, John Mayer and Sesame Street’s Elmo are featured in the PBS special 'Coming Home: Military Families Cope With Change.'

Dearborn has been selected as one of a handful of communities in the U.S. to host a special pre-screening event for family members of persons serving in the military of a national PBS primetime special that focuses on helping children of wounded service persons and features Queen Latifah, John Mayer and Sesame Street’s Elmo.

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, has produced — in association with David Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants Inc., and Lookalike Productions — the 30-minute PBS special. It’s called Coming Home: Military Families Cope With Change.

The free pre-screening will take place at Dearborn’s Henry Ford Centennial Library on Thursday, March 26, at 6:30 p.m. A second screening will take place at 7:30 p.m.The Henry Ford Centennial Library is located at 16301 Michigan Avenue west of Greenfield Road in Dearborn.

Those planning to attend are asked to RSVP to reserve seats by sending an email to: cominghomedearborn@gmail.com.

Coming Home tells the story of service members who return home with injuries, visible and invisible, and explores the heroic struggles their families face in discovering ways of finding a “new normal.” The special salutes the extraordinary courage and strength of these military families and offers the general public a powerful glimpse into the lives of these amazing families.

The program will air nationwide on PBS on Wednesday, April 1, at 8 p.m. (check local listings) in conjunction with April as National Month of the Military Child.

“Coming Home is a fantastic opportunity for us to bring awareness to the struggles facing service members with combat-related injuries, and the problems their families face while coping with their ‘New Normal’. We hope that ‘Coming Home,’ will provide opportunities for the community to reach out to our Hometown Heroes and their families. We are proud to partner with the City of Dearborn and the Michigan Military Moms to bring you this screening,” said Gary Tanner, Reconnect Chairman, American Legion Department of Michigan.

For the fourth consecutive year, Dearborn’s Solstice Designs Jewelry is leading the efforts on a wonderful event that raises money so kids in domestic shelters can give their mom a handmade necklace on Mother’s Day.

This year Solstice Designs Jewelry hopes to raise more than $7,500 for its Project Mother’s Day Fundraiser, which is being held Friday, March 20 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Dearborn Hills Golf Course Club House, one of the event’s partners. Smooth Jazz V98.7 also is an event partner.

The fundraiser will feature champagne and all things chocolate, a jewelry trunk show and more. Solstice Designs will make, gift-wrap and ship 400 necklaces to honor women in 10 shelters across the country, including First Step of Michigan. Even sheltered women without children will receive a necklace as a special gift from a caring friend.

The “Project Mother’s Day” event is the brainchild of Sandy Boulton and Sherry Duquet of Solstice Designs, co-founders of the Dearborn-based artisan jewelry maker. The two very talented designers make some of the most unique and beautiful jewelry in Michigan.

Sandy Boulton gives the credit for the Mother’s Day idea to Sherry Duquet.

“One day in March, three years ago, it literally came to her plain as day,” Boulton said. “She said to me ‘I know we are just starting this business and don’t have any money, but I want to give something special to children in the care of a domestic abuse shelter so they will have a gift for their Mom on Mother’s Day’.

And that is how the idea to make a necklace for kids to give to their mother — while trying to find a way to raise money to help fund it — came to be. “We still don’t have the money on our own,” Boulton said, “but with the generous support of our clients, friends and the community, we know we do this again this year!”

"The Courage Within" necklace is adorned with three stacked charms: a sterling silver heart, a hand-hammered copper circlet; and a sterling silver coin hand-stamped with the word "Courage".

This year’s necklace is named “The Courage Within” and  represents the strength and the “courage” within every woman’s heart,  Boulton says.

Project Mother’s Day continues to grow. The first three events benefited First Step of Michigan. This year, in partnership with the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the program has grown to support nine more shelters across the country.

Last year, just over $2,500 was raised, allowing Solstice to make 85 necklaces and a cash donation to First Step of Michigan. This year, the target is to make 400 necklaces, which is going to require $7,500 in donations to cover the costs of components, boxes, bows and shipping.

The work Solstice is doing is getting recognized nationally, too. Family Circle magazine will feature a story about Project Mother’s Day in its May issue in the “Good Works” column.

“We are so excited about the momentum of this event,” Boulton said. “Good things are happening in Michigan and Project Mother’s Day is living proof!”

Indeed, it is.

Tickets are just $20 in advance online or limited availability at the door. You can purchase tickets or make a donation at www.solsticed.etsy.com