Week in Review: Walk for Israel and More

A lot happened this past week, and we want to make sure you didn't miss a thing. Here are some of the biggest stories:

The sound of the shofar being played, passing cars honking in approval, and over one thousand marching down Orchard Lake Road in West Bloomfield on Sunday could only indicate another year of Israeli independence being celebrated at . 

The event, now in its seventh year since being reorganized by a group of volunteers, hearkens back to annual celebrations organized by the Metro Detroit Jewish community since the establishment of the Jewish state on May 14, 1948.

A former aide of State Rep. Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield) told Patch that she was wrongfully fired almost three years ago, an allegation deflected by Oakland County Democrats as part of "election year shenanigans."

Ericah Caughey, 30, of Potterville said Wednesday that when she told Brown she was pregnant in March 2009, that their working relationship quickly fell apart. Two months later, Brown had House staff fire her without a reason, according to Caughey.

Brown's supporters question why Caughey waited so long before speaking with press, as opposed to filing a wrongful termination lawsuit. Caughey said she comes forward to bring attention to House Bill 4799, which would essentially make it illegal to coerce a woman into having an abortion against her will.

 will conduct a Special Board Meeting on this week to approve the new Superintendent's contract. The board unanimously voted to negotiate with Gerald Hill of Glenview, IL, for the position opened after the announced retirement of JoAnn Andrees.

Board Treasurer Nick Hersh said May 5 that Hill "definitely did his homework" before his job interview.

Hersh said Hill's eight years experience as superintendent in Glenview followed eight years work as superintendent of Community Consolidated School District 146 in Tinley Park, IL, and that both places were "diverse communities, much like ours."

"He'll give us long-term stability," Hersh continued. "We asked him, where do you see yourself in five years? He replied, I see myself working here in five years and I see myself working here in 10 years."

The Bloomfield Hills Schools and Superintendent Rob Glass asked voters for one last shot to resolve a decade-long community dispute over the future of the district's high schools, and they got it Tuesday.

The proposal approving use of $59 million in public bonds passed by a 61 percent margin, according to  from the Oakland County Elections Office.

Now, the focus will be on implementing a two-year, multifaceted transition plan to use the bonds to house both Andover and Lahser high schools under one roof on the current Andover campus. "Now we have to execute," Glass acknowledged amid the fervor of district supporters and volunteers celebrating the victory.

A 20-year-old West Bloomfield man was shot in the arm after he and his friends were in an altercation with another group of men early Saturday morning, according to a report from Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe.

The victim told deputies that he was walking into the club Elektricity, 15 S. Saginaw St., in Pontiac, when three unknown men shouted racial slurs at him and his friends. According to deputies, words were exchanged and one of the men, suspected to be about 20 years old, retrieved a handgun from a vehicle. Shots were fired and the suspect fled in what deputies believe to be a dark green, four-door sedan, but the vehicle could not be located by the OCSO.

The victim was treated at McLaren Hospital for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. Sheriffs are investigating the incident.