Couple sees past trash to turn University District house into a jewel
One potential buyer so feared encountering rats in the overgrown, garbage-strewn backyard that she wouldn't leave her car to look at the house she'd come to see in Detroit's University District.
But Tom and Kathy Bauer ventured into the foreclosed home on Parkside and somehow looked beyond the mounds of debris inside and out. Engine blocks, propane tanks and cord wood littered the living room; black grease and motor oil streaked the walls; the basement, filthy and water-damaged, overflowed with piles of paper, clothing and broken tools; and what passed for a kitchen buzzed with hundreds of flies.
Michigan Merit Exam scores at highest ever
State high school test scores are up -- at their highest levels since the Michigan Merit Exam was introduced four years ago for high school juniors. The test includes the ACT college entrance test.
Math and writing scores have been steadily improving over the last four years. In writing, 44% of students scored proficient or higher in 2010, compared with 43% in 2009; 50% were proficient or higher in math, up from 49% last year.
Network sees future in security
You've heard it countless times:
We share an international border, with tons of goods crossing back and forth each day. We're the epicenter of transportation research and development in North America. We've got private technical expertise, public research universities and excess industrial capacity created by the seismic downsizing of Detroit's auto industry writ large.