In the heart of the largest concentration of Muslims in the U.S., the Detroit Institute of Arts this weekend is opening a new permanent gallery of Islamic art showcasing exhibits including a rare 15th-century Quran of a Mongol conqueror.

“The Arab and Islamic community is significant enough that it needs to see itself in the museum,” said director Graham W.J. Beal. “Their collection had not been shown very prominently in the previous recent decades.”

Sunday’s opening comes as several museums worldwide are broadening their collections. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is working on a suite of Islamic art galleries and The David Collection in Copenhagen is preparing to close its gallery for a reinstallation. The Louvre in Paris and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London also boast of major renovations to their collections. And Egyptian officials plan to reopen Cairo’s Museum of Islamic Art.

In Detroit, the gallery of about 170 works of art from the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, Central Asia and India was several years in the making. It was to be part of the museum’s $158 million makeover completed in 2007 but required extra time and money.

The gallery, with its pointed arches, narrow columns and soft lighting, give the collection a solemn yet inviting feel. Themes spanning 1,500 years include “Silk Road Inspirations,” whose works reveal the reach of the Islamic world and its role linking East and West; and “Sacred Writings of the Islamic World,” which includes Christian and Jewish manuscripts from the Islamic world.

Among the gallery’s treasures: one of the largest-known Ottoman mosque candlesticks from about 1500; an elevated giant cut-velvet summer floor covering made between 1650 and 1700 in Turkey, believed to be the largest of its kind; and a 15th-century leather-bound Quran, whose gold-flecked paper was given by the Ming emperor of China to Timur, one of the Mongol conquerors of the Middle East.

Heather Ecker, the museum’s Islamic art curator, described it as the “most spectacular and important piece in the collection” and said it’s one of four surviving manuscripts and the only one in the U.S.

The new gallery also seeks to “engage the public by telling the stories that the works of art can tell about themselves,” she said.

The gallery’s completion follows an ambitious, in-house archaeology project. A cut-tile mosaic panel hanging above the Quran dating back to 15th century Iran was found in storage, and the mosque candlestick also was stored, covered in green wax and misdated to the 18th century. Both have been at the museum since the 1920s.

Ecker says interest in Islamic art has risen since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Before then, it was largely kept on the sidelines or in a supporting role to European and American art.

“I think there’s a wish to understand and I think much more energy is being dedicated to understanding what the Islamic world is, its languages, its cultures and its people,” she said.

Beal said a new generation of museum directors are pushing to abandon geographical or cultural hierarchies and develop collections that “connect with people.”

Detroit’s effort has come with criticisms. Most disturbing to Beal was a letter from a member who asked why the museum was “promoting godless Islam.”

“Nobody has said, ‘Why are you showing Native American art?’ I’ve never had that question in my whole career,” he said.

Ecker said it’s impossible to separate the museum’s work from those outside tensions, but it can help dispel ignorance.

“When a museum has a collection as we do, we do feel a responsibility to provide not only a beautiful experience … but also an educational experience, because I think there’s a lot of ignorance,” she said. “Not only among non-Muslims, but a lot of Muslims don’t have a good understanding of the 1,500 years of Islamic history.”

On the Net:

The David Collection

Detroit Institute of Arts

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar

The Louvre

Victoria and Albert Museum

Ohio leaders say the state was unfairly omitted from a new $1.5 billion federal program to fight mortgage foreclosures.

President Barack Obama says the money is going to housing agencies in the five hardest-hit states of Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray on Feb. 26 sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urging the administration to add Ohio. A record 89,053 foreclosures were filed in Ohio in 2009.

Phyllis Caldwell, who heads the Treasury Department Homeownership Preservation Office, says the newly announced program is part of a broader housing stabilization effort. She says Ohio has received more than $145 million in neighborhood stabilization grants.

Ohio issued a record 56,691 concealed handgun licenses in 2009.

That tops the previous high of 45,497 set in 2004 when the concealed handgun law first went into effect. It’s also the third-straight year for an increase.

State Attorney General Richard Cordray attributes the increase to more Ohioans feeling comfortable exercising their right to carry concealed handguns.

Jim Irvine, chairman of the Buckeye Firearms Association, says he thinks more people are concerned that President Barack Obama is going to do something to limit gun ownership.

But Toby Hoover, executive director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, blames firearms supporters for creating that fear in order to drive up membership in their groups.

A group challenging a policy used to enforce Ohio’s ban on workplace smoking said Feb. 25 that a judge’s ruling in favor of a Columbus bar means other taverns cited by the state could have their violations tossed.

The state is appealing the Franklin County ruling, which says the Ohio Department of Health exceeded its authority by holding Zeno’s bar responsible for the actions of its patrons.

Judge David Cain ruled last week that the department improperly levied $33,100 in fines against Zeno’s despite the bar’s “no smoking” signs, removal of ashtrays and employee requests that smokers extinguish cigarettes. He vacated the ten citations that led to the fines.

Cain said in his ruling that the bar was being unfairly held responsible for its customers’ decisions, which it could not control.

“(P)roperty owners can only do so much …. They can put up ‘no smoking’ signs. They can take away ashtrays. They can ask patrons that are smoking to leave. Outside of these things, there is little property owners can do,” Cain wrote.

The bar was defended for free by the Columbus-based 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, which says the ruling allows bars across the state to challenge fines.

The ruling calls into question fines imposed since voters approved the smoking ban in November 2006, said law center Director Maurice Thompson. He said that could mean refunds for bar owners who have already paid.

The health department has been enforcing the law in a way that is “unconstitutionally antagonistic” to businesses and it must re-evaluate its policy and investigate complaints by talking to smokers and bar owners before issuing fines, Thompson said.

Cain did not rule on the law’s constitutionality.

“In doing this, the health department has effectively taken the law into its own hands, and administrative agencies aren’t allowed to do that,” Thompson said.

Penalties for proprietors violating the ban range from a warning letter for a first violation to fines of $100 to $2,500 for subsequent violations. Fines can be doubled for intentional violations.

The health department said it has issued 3,395 warning letters and 2,227 citations carrying a fine, according to data compiled Monday. Fines levied have totaled about $1.1 million, with about $473,000 collected through last week.

Through January, the ban has cost about $2.4 million to enforce.

Health department Director Alvin Jackson said the decision is surprising because dozens of other cases have been decided in the state’s favor in Franklin County.

“(The department) always has and will continue to follow the law and enforce the law regarding smoking in public places,” Jackson said in a prepared statement. “The negative health effects from smoking and secondhand smoke are widely known and detailed in numerous studies.”

Thompson said the case involving Zeno’s was different from others in the Franklin County court because the others were administrative reviews and because the attorney general attempted to make an example of Zeno’s.

“We simply believe that in a free society, with a constitutionally limited government, it’s important that government agencies not run amok all over private businesses, small business owners,” Thompson said. “Our business climate is tough enough here in Ohio.”

A state panel will now require Ohio paramedic training programs to be nationally accredited, a move advocates say will improve patient care.

Critics say accreditation is costly and unnecessary.

The state Emergency Medical Services board approved the change on Feb. 25.

Currently, only five of the more than 50 paramedic training courses in Ohio are accredited, with another 14 pursuing that status.

Supporters of accreditation say Ohio’s paramedics should meet national standards. But opponents, including EMS agencies, say Ohio already has standards that are higher than the national ones. They also complain about the roughly $2,000 cost for a program to be accredited.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has signed a bill extending health insurance to jobless Ohioans for three additional months under the state’s mini-COBRA law.

The bill extends coverage from 12 months to 15 months to allow those who lose their jobs to take full advantage of federal subsidies available to help them pay for the temporary mini-COBRA coverage. It is the second extension of mini-COBRA benefits Ohio has enacted in about a year.

Lawmakers of both parties supported the legislation and Strickland praised them for coming together to help the unemployed. Ohio’s jobless rate is just under 11 percent.

Cuyahoga County Special Prosecuting Attorney James A. Gutierrez released a report Feb. 26 in which he stated, “criminal prosecution is not appropriate” in the GOP signature fraud investigation.

Gutierrez reported that while Lucas County Republican Party Oversight Committee Chairwoman Kelly Bensman admitted to filling out a campaign finance form and signing the name of LCRP Treasurer James Damas, she and LCRP Chairman Jon Stainbrook “were under the impression they could sign the form … and they had express permission by James Damas to sign the forms.”

Gutierrez also reported, “Since Stainbrook and Bensman completed the act in the open and obvious circumstance [witnessed by a Lucas County Board of Elections employee] would give rise to the inference that Stainbrook and Bensman intention was not to deceive the BOE that Damas actually signed the document … to say that Stainbrook and Bensman intent was to deceive or defraud the BOE under these facts is dubious at best.”

The case was sent to Cleveland on Oct. 26 after Lucas County Chief Investigator Frank Stiles concluded his investigation. A decision to turn his investigation to date over to a special prosecutor was made by the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office to avoid an appearance of conflict of interest. It was determined the allegations from the BOE involving the Republican Party could cause a conflict of interest since the board of elections is a client of the prosecutor’s office.

Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller sent a letter to the Lucas County Board of Elections and Ohio Secretary of State on July 30, alerting them to potential inconsistencies among signatures on Lucas County GOP campaign finance reports and other official documents. The apparent inconsistencies came to light as the result of research conducted by Lisa Renee Ward, operator of Glass City Jungle.

According to the Ohio Revised Code, section 3517.10, “The statement of contributions and expenditures shall be signed by the person completing the form.” Under Ohio law, according to the office of the Ohio Secretary of State, “A fifth-degree felony conviction [of election falsification] may result in a prison sentence of six to 12 months and/or a fine of up to $2,500.

Dear Casey Kasem,
Please consider my long-distance dedication:
I planned a playground party recently to celebrate the expansion of my lemonade stand. Very few lemonade stands in my neighborhood are doing well, so I wanted to share my good news. I arranged to have the party at a friend’s house and invited some other friends I respect to stand beside my lemonade stand as we celebrated.
Everybody said yes and I was ready to party!
But then I sent the invitations out, and some of my friends changed their minds. They backed out!
Now, Casey, I know there are a few bullies here and my pals are afraid of them. And while none of my friends can or will admit it, kids on the playground say the bullies played a part in my pals breaking their promises.
Casey, what good is a promise if you are willing to break it at the first push from a bully?
You see, the bullies own a much bigger and older lemonade stand. My lemonade stand generally offers sweet lemonade. The bullies’ lemonade stand usually sells very sour lemonade; not only that, but sometimes the bullies are just peeing in customers’ cups and calling it lemonade. A growing number of kids on the playground are very, very tired of the bullies dominating the lemonade business and would like to try my lemonade once (or twice) a week, but the bullies scare kids and tell lies about me stealing their ideas and do just about any dirty thing they can to keep making kids drink their lemonade every day.
There’s lots of thirsty people on the playground and lots of demand for lemonade; we could all sell our drinks and be fine. But the bullies don’t like sharing and would rather intimidate the kids than make room for anyone else.
My friends know I will not bully or hurt them, so they are willing to hurt my feelings, even though the bullies will continue to pick on them, no matter how much my friends appease them or pretend to like them.
I know it’s wrong, Casey, but I am getting closer and closer to giving one of my so-called friends a very, very hard shove into the playground dirt.
If that’s what they respect, maybe I should play along, even though I don’t like it.
I hope that at some point we will all play together again,  because we should all be working to make the playground a better place for all of us. But right now I am just sad.
Casey, will you please play a song about my playground troubles and dedicate it to my friends?
Thank you, Little Mikey Miller
P.S.: We still celebrated; we just went to the movies!

Dear Little Mikey,
Thanks for listening to American Top 40! Here’s a song for your playground friends; it’s a 1983 tune from Joan Jett and the Blackhearts that got to No. 35 on the charts.
Here’s Joan with “Fake Friends.”

“When you were down
they were never there.
When you’re all alone
you really get to learn.
If you get back up
they gonna come around.
All the sycophants
they love to make romance.
To the ugly sound
of ‘em tellin’ you what you
Wanna hear an’ you pretend.

Losin’ friends, losin’ friends
Ya got nothin to lose
Ya don’t lose when you lose fake friends

’Cause they all agree
you’re supposed to
have a better life.
But you’re feelin’ worse.
And they build you up
’til you fool yourself that you’re
something else and it’s like a curse.
’Cause  you can’t live up
to what they made of you
And they tell you that you’re losin’ friends

Losin’ friends, losin’ friends
Ya got nothin to lose
Ya don’t lose when you lose fake friends

Ya go an tell ’em
you were king of the hill.
When ya need a hand
that was yesterday.
Ya see ‘em laugh
while you’re on your knees.
And it breaks your heart because ya gave so much
And ya can’t believe that ya hit the gound and
Ya notice ya been losin’ friends.

Losin’ friends, losin’ friends
Ya got nothin to lose
Ya don’t lose when you lose fake friends

Michael S. Miller is Toledo Free Press editor in chief.
E-mail him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Last week, we wrote an article on how incorrectly titling accounts such as 401(k)s, IRAs, life insurance and annuities can be an absolute disaster. If this is not done correctly children and grandchildren can be unintentionally disinherited and IRA and other retirement accounts can turn into tax time bombs. This week, we wanted to point out two big mistakes we see people making to help you and your family avoid these traps.
Last week “Tom” came into our office because of the death of his wife. When this happens we sit down and go over all of the accounts and make sure everything that needs to be changed as a result of the death is taken care of. We look at the beneficiary of each account, who the owner now is, if there is a spouse and who the survivors are. It is called our BOSS review. After checking the beneficiary designation on an account, we noticed that there was no secondary beneficiary named. If this was never updated and Tom died, the account would go to his estate rather than his son as he intended. This could be a taxable event and could add additional probate costs and time delays. And before you know it, his son could lose as much as 50 percent of the account in the form of taxes, fees and expenses. Even if Tom’s son wanted to avoid the loss of 50 percent by fixing the forms, it would be too late after his father passed away. You only get one shot at getting the forms correct, in most cases there is no second chance.
Grandparents and Adult Children pay attention to default beneficiary designations. As an attorney, I (Mark) will throw some legalese at you. When considering your beneficiary designation it is important to understand the difference between the terms per stirpes and per capita. Per stirpes is “through the roots” or “by representation” which means that each distributee takes in a representative capacity and stands in place of a deceased ancestor, down the bloodline. This form of distribution is distinguished from per capita which is “an equal division of the property to be divided among the beneficiaries, each receiving the same share as each of the others, without reference to the immediate course of descent from the ancestor.” In plain English think of “by the head.” The money is paid out to the surviving named beneficiary only. To sum it up, if you have grandchildren it may be the perfect time to get a professional review of your forms so you aren’t confused on how your money would be paid out at death.
Here is an example that happened in my (Mark’s) family that may make this easier to understand. My grandfather David had an annuity account that he named his three children, Doug, Don and Lois, as equal beneficiaries. David died at the age of 94 and the proceeds were to be divided up. The problem was that Don had died prior to his father David. That left only Doug and Lois (two heads instead of three). By law the proceeds were to go to the surviving beneficiaries Doug and Lois and they were not obligated to share the money with Don’s wife or son (David’s grandson also named David). I have a feeling that my grandfather’s intention was to have his son Don’s share go down the bloodline. The problem was he never got around to changing it.
This is an example of the wording being per capita instead of per stirpes. By the way, my dad and aunt did the right thing and gave a third to Uncle Don’s wife to use for the benefit of David. Although this worked out in Mark’s family this simple mistake could have caused major family problems and could have been a tax nightmare.
Be sure to have complete information on beneficiary forms. There are five key elements of a good beneficiary designation. 1. Full name. 2. Date of Birth. 3. Social security number. 4. Physical address of the beneficiary. 5. Exact percentage each beneficiary is to receive. As we discussed earlier it is also important to indicate whether you want the proceeds of the account to go down the bloodline or merely be divided among the surviving heads.
All of this can be very confusing so here are a couple of ways you can take action to avoid a disaster. First, on our Web site at www.retirementguysradio.com we have made available a free copy of My Beneficiary Form Checklist. This is a great form that takes you through 15 important steps regarding your beneficiary designations from the basic idea of having a physical copy of your form and where do you keep it, to the legalese we talked about in this article. Second, The Retirement Guys are holding a series of upcoming workshops where we actually spend some time during the meeting going over this form with you. Third, send us an e-mail with specific questions to letters@toledofreepress.com. Make sure that you review each account to avert disaster and take steps to make sure your exact wishes are carried out.

Securities are offered through NEXT Financial Group Inc., Member FINRA / SIPC. The Retirement Guys are not an affiliate of NEXT Financial Group. Their office is located at 1700 Woodlands Drive, Suite 100, Maumee, OH 43537. NEXT Financial Group, Inc. nor its Representatives provide tax advice, always consult with an Accountant.

British author Benjamin Disraeli said, “the legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.” But according to author Linda Swink, both can easily be forgotten. The goal of her new book, “In Their Honor: The Men Behind the Names of Our Military Installations,” is to ensure these heroes’ legacies won’t be lost.
“In Their Honor” is a collection of 524 biographies of men the military has honored by naming an installation after them. Installations include everything from barracks to airfields in all divisions of the military.
Swink, an Ohio native, said the idea emerged from personal curiosity. As an Air Force veteran of 15 years, she would often look up who the names of installations were honoring but it wasn’t until she learned more about the stories behind the names that she became inspired to write a book.
“So many of these men lived courageous lives,” Swink said. “I really got into it when I saw the stories of what these men went through and how they sacrificed their life to help protect the lives of the men around them.”
One of the examples in Swink’s book is native Toledoan 1st Lt. James E. Robinson, Jr. Born in 1918, Robinson fought in World War II and died in Germany of a throat wound in 1945. Robinson’s Medal of Honor citation, which details his acts of heroism, is included in the book. Named for him are the Robinson Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany, and two additional installations in California and Oklahoma.
Swink also cites Col. Gerald Johnson, a pilot who voluntarily went down with his aircraft after giving his parachute to a fellow passenger who didn’t have one.
Swink said she hopes to increase the ease with which information can be found on these individuals. Since Robinson’s installations are still active, information on him was easier to obtain. Others proved more frustrating, especially if their installation had already closed because, Swink said, information on the honoree disappears.
“It opened my eyes to the fact that so many of these men have been forgotten,” Swink said. “We have forgotten. We know that there were battles, that there were men who died in battle but we don’t know them individually. And I think that’s the important part — knowing really who these men were.”
Swink said it is rewarding knowing her book might make a difference in the history of military bases.
The 519-page paperback includes a foreword by Maj. Gen. Edward J. Mechenbier and is available in area bookstores and from the publisher, Little Miami Publishing Co., at www.littlemiamibook.com. A preview of the book can also be found at www.intheirhonor.info.