Stabbing at Heritage Festival

At about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22, officers responded to the scene where a fight broke out between five teenagers in the Childrens Village area of Riverside Park during the Heritage Festival.
As the officers arrived, approximately 150 teens all began running southbound toward Michigan Avenue causing a panic among visitors and vendors. One officer reported that “bystanders were screaming and vendors were hiding under their tables and closing their booths down prior to closing time.”
Many teens were trampled after an unidentified female yelled, “He has a gun.”
Moments later a second unidentified female was witnessed stabbing an unidentified male in the back with an object. The condition of the victim is unknown.

(There will be more to come on this story later this week and in next week's Ypsilanti Courier.)

Tweeting through Facebook?

This is a bit of a shocker. Facebook, who has seemingly been in a race to emulate many of Twitter’s features, just announced that it’s launching the ability for Facebook Page admins to simultaneously update both their Page and Twitter.

Facebook explains how this will work in a blog post:

“If you manage a Facebook Page, you now will be able to decide whether to share updates with their Twitter followers, and you also will be able to control what type of updates to share: status updates, links, photos, notes, events or all of them.

If you have multiple Pages, you will have the option to link each of those Pages to different Twitter accounts. This new feature will only link Facebook Pages to Twitter, not your individual profile. It will soon be available at http://www.facebook.com/twitter”

While that makes a lot of sense from a convenience standpoint – many big time Twitter users also have popular Facebook Pages and vice versa – it’s surprising to see Facebook so openly acknowledge Twitter’s reach. That said, by giving users the ability to update both services via Facebook, they’re clearly hoping that the Facebook Page will become the first stop for admins.

That would mean lots of “via Facebook” messages showing up in tweets, and in fact, it’s not hard to imagine Facebook quickly becoming one of Twitter’s most popular clients. However, I wouldn’t expect this functionality to be extended to user profiles anytime soon, which would clearly be a bigger win for Twitter than Facebook.

Incident Reports from Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office

On 8/8/2009 at approximately 3:00 AM, WCSO Deputies Hunt and Farmer conducted a traffic stop in the 1700 block of Ridge Road in Superior Township. It was discovered the driver was operating under the influence of suspected alcohol. The 50-year old Superior Township resident was arrested and transported to the WCJ. The report will be forwarded to the prosecutor.

On 8/8/2009 at approximately 4:00 AM, WCSO Deputies Arts and Cratsenburg conducted a traffic stop on Ecorse near Michigan Ave in Ypsilanti Township. It was discovered the passenger had a warrant for her arrest. She was arrested and transported to the WCJ.

On 8/7/2009 at approximately 10:30 PM, WCSO Deputy Wiese was dispatched to the 1000 block of Holmes Road for a traffic crash. It was discovered the driver was operating his vehicle under suspected intoxicants. The 42-year old Ypsilanti Township resident was arrested and transported to the WCJ. The report will be forwarded to the prosecutor.

On 8/7/2009 at approximately 11:30 PM, WCSO Deputies Arts and Teets conducted a traffic stop on Stamford and Macarthur Blvd in Superior Township. It was discovered the driver was in possession of suspected marijuana. The 19-year old Superior Township resident was arrested and transported to the WCJ. The report will be forwarded to the prosecutor.

On 8/8/2009 at approximately 12:20 AM, WCSO Deputy Rowley was dispatched to Textile Road near McKean in Ypsilanti Township for a possible medical assist. It was discovered the subject had been walking home, got tired and laid down on the side of the road. She had a warrant for her arrest. She was arrested and transported to the WCJ.

Sights of the Circus

The Kelly Miller Circus was in town this past Friday at Ypsilanti's Riversdie Park. Clowns, high-flying acts, elephants, tigers and candy apples are all familiar sights at the circus and those staples were definitely apparent here.

This is the first post to the YpsiCourier blog. It will be updated regularly with photos and breaking news, as well as fun newsroom stuff you don't get to see.