Inside Hamtramck

Highland Park— While state officials decide whether to put the fiscally troubled Highland Park Schools under an emergency manager, observers see another likely fate: consolidation with a neighboring school system.

District officials will make their case for avoiding a state takeover at a hearing Friday before state school Superintendent Mike Flanagan.

But to some education experts, the die is already cast for the district, which required a cash advance from the state last week to stay open.

A report from an independent review team for Highland Parks Schools made one thing clear: The district cannot survive as a standalone entity……………………………………………………………………………. More >

Natalya Murakhver, a New York food writer and mother of an 18-month year old daughter, loved her premium brand orange juice — the “100 percent pure” and “not from concentrate” kind that comes in the colorful carton and tastes consistently delicious.

That is, until she said she learned from her first-time moms group that there’s a “secret ingredient” in all premium orange juices that companies are not required to put on their labeling.

Now, after writing Whole Foods, she refuses to buy her favorite, “365″ juice, amid uncertainty about its contents.

“One of the moms said she had read about [how the juice is made] and they held it in tanks for up to a year and it pretty much lost all of its flavor and had to be reinvigorated with these flavor packs, which are essentially chemicals,” said Murakhver, 40, and co-author of “They Eat What?: A Cultural Encyclopedia of Weird and Exotic Food from around the World.”……………………………….. More >