“THE FACE OF ANN ARBOR” — VOLUME 3, NUMBER 9 75¢ TOP $ GOLD OVER

$1400!!

FOR
GOLD & SILVER
Sell Your Unwanted/
Inside WE WILL

8-A OUR IMAGES BEAT ANY

OFFER BY
10% OR
Broken Jewelry Here
WE BUY ALL
Moving Forward: MORE!
COINS & CURRENCY
Family and Fun Inside: Former firefighter files Chelsea
Page 1-C whistleblower lawsuit Page 3-A Rare Coins
1170 S. MAIN STREET • CHELSEA

Thursday, March 3, 2011

(734) 433-9900
Minutes from Ann Arbor
I-94 Exit 159

Con-way employees help unravel terror plot On the

Texas man charged after
company flags shipments
By Art Aisner
Special Writer
Federal investigators are applauding the
work of employees of an Ann Arbor Township-
based freight service with helping unfold a
potential terror plot that targeted the Texas
home of former president George W. Bush and
critical infrastructure.
The employees, based in the Con-way
Freight’s service center in Lubbock, Texas,
were the first to contact authorities about a
suspicious package that was addressed to Texas
resident Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari Feb. 1, a com-
pany news release stated.
Based on their training and experience from
shipping hundreds of thousands of tons of
items around the globe, company officials at the
local office flagged the shipment and notified
the corporate security department.
The package reportedly contained concen-
trated phenol, a toxic chemical that can be used
to make trinitrophenol, or TNP, which is an
explosive.
“The shipment matched profiles outlined in
RAIL
Con-way’s security protocols for identifying
shipments of a suspicious nature, and which
appeared for use not consistent with known
commercial application,” the news release
stated.
The company implemented its homeland
security escalation plan and notified law
enforcement, which came to the Texas facility
and inspected the shipment.
Aldawsari, 20, was arrested last week and
charged with attempted use of a weapon of
mass destruction.
The Saudi national was studying business
and chemical engineering at South Plains
College, located near Lubbock. He was in the
United States on a valid student visa granted
in 2008, when he was a student at nearby Texas
Tech University, records show.
Federal officials said he planned to bomb at
least a dozen reservoir dams in the western Sports
United States and also researched the Dallas Huron boys’ and girls’ basket-
home of the former president online. New York ball teams clince league titles.
City was also named as a possible target in Page 1-B
Aldawsari’s personal journals, which were con-
fiscated, according to federal documents.
“(Aldawsari’s) arrest demonstrates the
need for and the importance of vigilance and
the willingness of private individuals and Employees of Con-way Freight, an Ann Arbor Township-based
subsidiary of Con-way Inc., helped foil a terror plot that includ-
ON THE WEB
PLEASE SEE PLOT/5-A ed the home of former President George W. Bush as a target.

Young
pregnant
PART I: PREVENTION
By Jana Miller and
Gerald LaVaute
A2 Journal
Editor’s Note: This is the
first in a three-part series on
teenage pregnancy.
& Become a fan of A2 Journal on
anything but new. However,
the statistical trends and
data released about teen
births are new, and they
offer an interesting perspec-
tive on our perceived teen
pregnancy problem.
Statistically, it’s actu-
Facebook (468 fans) and follow
us on Twitter (2, 492 followers).
Also, check out our blog,
including Jodie Mason’s Inside
the Newsroom. Links provided
on the A2 Journal home page.
Weave the Web:
Make sure to click on
www.heritage.com around
the clock for the most
in-depth coverage of
Washtenaw County. One of
our “Most Viewed” stories is
“Saline Police Briefs.”

T
eenage pregnancy
Photo courtesy of Julia Jackson is as taboo a topic as
The Jackson family –– Doug and Julia Jackson, and their two children, Heather, 17, and Robin, 14 – it gets.
poses for a photo in Greece at the Samaria Gorge during their travel around the world. Even families
who profess to be open and
ally one of the least of
the nation’s problems.
Nationally, the birth rate for
females age 15 through 19
has decreased 10 percent in

Local family to share Check out our video:

understanding of acciden-
tal early pregnancies can be
jarred if it happens to them.
Yet the last few decades
have served as an interest-
the last eight years, accord-
ing to Kids Count Data
■ 2 for U
Center. In Michigan, there
has been a decrease of 15 ■ The Jeremy Kittel Band
performs at the Ark
percent during the same

world travels at REI time period. ■ AutoRama 2011

Unusual hobby
brings family
closer together
By Sean Dalton
A2 Journal
Every family values spend-
ing time together with a com-
mon hobby. But for the Jackson
family of Dexter, that hobby
travels the globe.
From June 2006 to June 2007,
the Jacksons — Doug and Julia
Jackson, and their two chil-
dren, Heather, 17, and Robin, 14
— traveled to 32 countries.
“It was a life-changing expe-
rience,” Julia Jackson said.
The Jacksons gave a presen-
tation at Foggy Bottom cof-
feehouse in Dexter last month,
and are giving another 6:30 p.m.
March 15 at REI in Ann Arbor
and another this summer at the
Dexter District Library.
In addition to cultural expo-
sure, one of the more remark-
able points is that the family
travels for just $100 a day as a
result of a thrifty mindset, sav-
ing them money while exposing
them to culture.
“We not only talk about
where we went, but we also
talk about how we traveled, and
how to save for something like
this, and we talked about com-
munication and transporta-
tion,” Julia said.
The Jacksons said they get
many of their ideas from Amy
Dacyczyn’s “The Complete
Tightwad Gazette.”
“Since 1990, we’ve been fol-
lowing (it) and doing a whole
bunch of things like hang dry-
ing our laundry,” Julia said.
“We don’t have cable. We get
a lot of used furniture and
clothes.”
Doug says he got the idea to
travel around the globe after
taking a trip to India with
AFS Intercultural Programs’
Washtenaw County chapter, a
group that handles exchange
students and promotes global
citizenship.
A buddy from college capped
his nuptials off with a much
smaller-scale trip touring
several countries around the
world, further adding to the
Jackson family’s inspiration.
Even at $100 a day, traveling
the world costs a lot of money.
The Jackson family spent
$40,000, not including $20,000
for four around-the-world
airfare tickets, but while they
were away, they rented their
home to tenants whose rents
partially replaced the trip
money.
The Jacksons say it’s not just
about saying they went around
the world, but the exposure to
other cultures and people is a
life-changing experience that
they want to share with as
many people as possible.
Since returning, the family
has participated in an exchange
student program, and daughter
Heather wants to study to work
in international affairs after
she graduates from Dexter
High School this year. She also
plans to be an exchange student
in Turkey.
“I definitely think it was the
world trip that got me inter-
ested in being an exchange
student,” Heather said. “One
of my friends last year was an
exchange student to Turkey
and they liked the experience.
“I hadn’t even thought about
other countries before then,
let alone being an exchange
student.”
Aside from finding a career
path, Heather has obtained
scholarships and other oppor-
tunities that wouldn’t have
been possible if the family
hadn’t boarded their around-
the-world flight.
“One thing that sticks out
for me is how much I like art
and art history now. But when
I was a child, I thought the
museums were flat out boring,”
Heather said. “Even though my
interests and the trip weren’t
timed the same, at least I have
that exposure and know what’s
out there so I can pursue the
interest.”
The Jacksons say they
learned about each other in
ways that they otherwise
wouldn’t have.
“Traveling with the same
group of people for an entire
year and those people being the
only constant source of support
and companionship can some-
times make you sick of them,”
PLEASE SEE TRAVELS/5-A
ing meeting ground for a
generation of late bloomers
that see over-sexed mes-
sages in the media every
day. The millennium years
— and to some extent the
’90s –– have been the breed-
ing ground for the “Peter
Pan” generation, those
20-something and teenage
individuals who put off
financial independence lon-
ger than any other genera-
tion and rely on the support
of their parents.
These late bloomers are
the same “adolescents” who
are also exposed to more
adult programming than
any other generation, and
whose teenage role mod-
els dress and behave like
they’ve been sexually active
since puberty.
The programming on
ABC Family is a prime
example of the development
of sexual behavior in the
media. One of television’s
most wholesome networks
has the extremely popular
show, “The Secret Life of
the American Teenager,” in
which the main character is
a teen mom, and her friends
and siblings are sexually
active at a level that could
compete with “Animal
House.”
Or look at MTV’s “Teen
Mom” series, which follows
these mothers through
their pregnancy and after
care.
This discussion about
sexualized media and its
effect on teen birth rates is
Additionally, teen birth ■ Levin on unrest in
Middle East
rates were one of the few
children’s health areas to
improve in Michigan in
recent years. Additionally,
Washtenaw County ranks
as the best county in the
state in terms of teen birth
rates with just 13 per 1,000
pregnancies. Click on the “jobs” tab on
“Although we have room the home page of our Web
to improve in the area site or go directly to http://
of high school dropouts jobs.heritage.com.
and recent teen suicides
are a concern, our com-
munity can be proud of
many efforts being made
to help teens succeed,” INDEX
said Washtenaw County
Commissioner Kristin Editorial Page 4-A
Judge in a news release fol-
Calendar Page 6-A
lowing the most recent Kids
Count data report. Deaths Page 7-A
Sports Page 1-B
Sex education
So where is the statistical Classified Page 1-D
improvement coming from?
If teens are perceived as
more sexually active than
ever before and teen birth
rates are showing decreases
in prevalence, then
Washtenaw County either
has very pure teenagers or
very solid sex education.
The elementary, middle
and high schools of
Washtenaw County follow
very similar sex education
measures to schools in Printed News Tip
other counties and states. on Hotline:
For the most part, sex edu- recycled 877-995-NEWS
cation begins young and is paper (6397)
PLEASE SEE PREGNANT/5-A