We don’t direct you to many obituaries in a2view, but when we do it’s because the subject was a towering figure whose passing earns national attention. And because I didn’t grow up around here or during the 1960s, it’s always an education to me.

Such was the case with John Sinclair. I lost myself for a while reading the articles this week about the original cannabis activist’s life and times. I mean, John Lennon wrote a (really good) song about him!?! Holy wow. To live in an era when you could be imprisoned for years for pot possession to one where there’s a legal marijuana shop on seemingly every corner must have been incredibly satisfying. 

The rest of the news shows that of the things the hippies fought for – peace, love, and dope – the first two remain elusive. The war in Gaza continues to roil U-M’s campus and we have no fewer than three crimes that appear to have occurred because people are so quick to be angry and violent toward others at the slightest provocations. We can do better, as I’m sure Sinclair hoped.

I’m struggling with a miserable head cold and wondering why my kids don’t understand that I need a day off, so I’m grateful to editor John Hilton for a helping hand this week. I wish you all a healthier, happier week ahead.

– Steve Friess, editor

U-M students walk out after Ono defends U-M’s “disruptive activity” draft policy: The university’s president posted an open letter on Tuesday saying he is taking stock of the “robust response” to the proposal, which includes potential expulsion for interfering with university activities ranging from blocking traffic to disrupting graduation. The university has been grappling with how to respond to incidents such as a pro-Palestinian demonstration that interrupted Ono’s speech at the honors convocation on March 24. “One group’s right to protest does not supersede the right of others to participate in a joyous event,” Ono writes. Today, hundreds of students walked out of class and congregated on the Diag to show their opposition to the proposal, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Critics, including ACLU, call it overreach, faculty say disruption is necessary: In the Michigan Daily, Michigan in Color assistant editor James Scarborough contends the proposal “would essentially grant the administration the authority to punish students and faculty participating in any demonstration, protest or rally perceived as disruptive.” And an email sent this week by a group of faculty in support of their own open letter opposing the policy argues that “disruptive protests, including at honors convocations, have historically been an important and necessary way for minoritized groups silenced by the administration to make their voices heard.” At press time, it had already more than 1,500 signatures. Also, the ACLU of Michigan issued a statement Wednesday urging Ono to “either abandon the proposed policy or substantially re-write it.”

Shut It Down party wins student vote: The party, which ran on a platform of halting all Central Student Government activity until U-M divests from companies connected to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, won the presidency and a majority of open seats in the student assembly, the Daily reports. However, opponents have filed a lawsuit in the student court alleging the party committed a range of violations including campaigning through unauthorized listservs, obscuring opponent’s campaign flyers and posters, and campaigning within 100 feet of polling sites. The lawsuit will be heard and resolved before the election results are certified next week, the paper reports.

Regents say they won’t divest: Pro-Palestinian student and community groups are demanding that the U-M’s governing board end investments in companies linked to Israel, but the University Record quotes regent Sarah Hubbard as saying that while they “have listened carefully” to the objections, they “are not moving to make any divestment of any kind.” At the same meeting, regent Michael Behm disputed claims “that one-third of the endowment was invested in companies with ties to Israel,” saying that “less than one-tenth of 1% of the endowment is invested indirectly in such companies.”

Hillel hit with antisemitic graffiti: A bench outside the Jewish campus life group’s headquarters on Hill St. was defaced with drawings of “a Star of David, an equals sign, and a Nazi swastika” on Tuesday, the group wrote on Instagram. It said a similar drawing was found on a flier on a nearby telephone pole on Monday. Hillel says police are reviewing security footage.

Eclipse prompts delay in public meetings regarding schools budget: Neither the board nor administration has yet to provide a detailed plan to fill the $25 million gap, and that may take even longer now that AAPS canceled a public-comment meeting scheduled for April 8 to accommodate people who want to see the solar eclipse. The district’s online budget and revenue survey remains open, and a virtual town hall meeting is now scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on April 15.

U-M pediatric emergency services expansion fast-tracked: The $5.5 million project will convert 6,500 square feet of staff and dining spaces at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital into treatment areas for children with “seasonal illnesses as well as sprains and strains and other minor injuries and lower acuity conditions” the Record writes. Luanne Thomas Ewald, chief operating officer for Mott and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital, told the publication that the “goal is to use the new space to accommodate families seeking timely, specialized care for children while preserving our capacity for moderate and high acuity care.” The work is expected to take about a year. 

University buys land in Troy for health-care expansion: The seven-acre site went for $4.42 million and is expected to become another Michigan Medicine outpost, ClickOnDetroit reports. The lot was once part of Kmart’s monumental headquarters, the Free Press reports (paywall). Though it won architectural awards after it opened in 1972, the 900,000-square-foot complex has stood vacant since 2006 and is currently being demolished. 

City council approves $14M in contracts for road work this summer: Of that, $7.3 million goes to Cadillac Asphalt to resurface 6.2 miles that include sixteen local streets in the Lakewood neighborhood as well as Burwood Ave., according to city documents. The remaining $6.7 million involves overhauls of S. Seventh St. and Greenview Dr. that will include lane reduction and pedestrian and bicycle improvements. 

Speed humps planned for Arella Blvd. and Bird Rd.: Ann Arbor neighborhoods don’t have to wait for the city to initiate traffic-calming measures. MLive reports that both projects started with resident petitions and are moving ahead after winning majority support in surveys. The installations on Arella should tame traffic between W. Stadium and Maple Rd., while drivers seeking a shortcut from Newport to Huron River Dr. will also find Bird Rd. slower going.  

“Pocket forest” coming to Buhr Park: A cadre of environmental groups won permission in February from the city’s Parks Advisory Commission to plant a diverse mix of native trees and shrubs densely in a fifty-by-fifty plot in an innovative approach to tree cultivation that can reduce the city’s carbon footprint, Julie Halpert writes in this month’s Observer. Planting trees in bunches to encourage them to compete for sunlight and grow faster has taken off around the world since Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki posited the notion in the 1970s, but the Buhr Park forest will be a local first when it breaks ground this fall.

EMU to livestream solar eclipse from balloon over Ohio: The much-ballyhooed celestial event is expected to be partially visible in our region, assuming clear skies, from 2 p.m. to around 4:20 p.m. on April 8, according to NASA. Because we are outside of the path of the full show, another option is to log onto this feed from Eastern Michigan University, which plans to have a high-altitude weather balloon floating over Ohio in the 100 percent zone. It’s one of several airborne feeds offered by universities that are planned as part of a Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project.

Famed marijuana activist John Sinclair dies: “John Sinclair’s band of hippies believed they were on the brink of creating a revolution through rock music, sex, and dope,” the Observer’s Eve Silberman wrote in 1991. “Unfortunately for them, the U.S. government believed it, too.” In a 2015 interview with the Observer’s Debbie Merion, Sinclair recalled the sting that led to his decade-long sentence in 1969 for giving away two marijuana cigarettes, and his release following the 1971 “Free John Sinclair” concert at Crisler Arena featuring John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, and Bob Seger. “I’m the pioneer,” he told the Detroit Free Press in 2018. “I was the first one in Michigan who said marijuana should be legal, and they said I was totally nuts.” Sinclair, eighty-two, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure, the Associated Press reports.

I-94 motorist killed by stray wheel: Michigan State Police don’t know why the tire detached from a westbound car and flew over the median wall on I-94 near State St. to land on the eastbound car driven by a forty-nine-year-old Dearborn Heights man, MLive writes. It struck the windshield and roof, causing the roof to collapse; the man was declared dead at the scene. The driver of the westbound car, a thirty-eight-year-old Jackson man, was not injured.

Separate knife incidents stem from accidental run-ins: In one, police say a twenty-five-year-old man slashed a twenty-one-year-old woman across the chest after they bumped into one another on an AAATA bus. He was arrested and she was treated at U-M Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. In the other incident, police say an argument ensued after two men bumped into each other in the doorway of the Target on State St. One pulled out a pocket knife and held it against the other’s throat. The victim pushed the man away and wasn’t injured; they parted and went on with their shopping.

Road rage may have prompted Meijer lot shooting: Kenyasia Daijanique Johnson-Jackson, twenty-eight, of Ypsilanti Twp. was charged with assault with the intent to commit murder and discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle after a forty-six-year-old Ann Arbor woman was shot in the arm, according to a news release. The women did not know one another, but they had an encounter in their cars at Golfside Rd. and Washtenaw Ave. before the shooting in the parking lot of the Meijer on Carpenter Rd., police say. The victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries. 

Ypsi cops to no longer stop drivers for minor infractions: The city council voted unanimously to direct police to stand down on cracked windshields or other small-ball issues unless there’s a bigger reason to pull someone over. The move is similar to an ordinance passed by Ann Arbor last year.

U-M hockey beats MSU to reach Frozen Four: The Wolverines’ 5-2 victory on Sunday ended a four-game losing streak against the Spartans, ClickOnDetroit reports, and sent Michigan to the quarterfinals for the third year in a row. It was the teams’ 348th meeting, but only the first in a playoff game, the Detroit News writes. A week earlier, MSU beat U-M 5-4 to take the Big Ten championship. U-M plays Boston College on April 11 for a chance to advance to the finals.

The Border-to-Border Trail rolls on: The cross-county trail is nearing Washtenaw’s northern border, Mlive reports in a comprehensive update, and the gap between Dexter and Chelsea is shrinking. As the Observer’s Brooke Black reported in 2022, private fundraising through the Huron Waterloo Pathways Initiative has greatly accelerated the county project, but the stretch just west of Ann Arbor is especially challenging, requiring multiple bridges over the Huron River and a tunnel under the railroad. On the north side of Ann Arbor, work is advancing rapidly: a March MLive article (paywall) noted tree-clearing along Huron River Dr. to connect Bandemer and Barton parks in preparation for tunnel construction–which could happen as soon as this summer.  

Dates for home toxics disposal filling fast: The collection this Saturday at the county service center on Zeeb Rd. is already fully booked, but as of Wednesday, time slots were still available on April 20 and May 4. The service is free to county residents, but pre-registration is required. Appointments are also available Tuesday through Thursday April 9 to 11 at GFL Environmental on Five Mile Rd. in Salem Twp. As HomeTown Life reported in 2022, GFL agreed when it settled a lawsuit over odors from its Arbor Hills landfill to build a household hazardous waste center there and operate it free of charge for ten years.

Fire Department pulls April Fools stunt: The AAFD put up an amusing Facebook post on Monday claiming they were buying a fire boat so big that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would be dredging the Huron River and installing locks at each dam. Commenters took the joke in stride, with former a2view editor Micheline Maynard replying, “We need it for the yachts that alumni sail to Michigan football games.” 

Rosie the Riveter’s evangelist: Claire Dahl, a retired Pioneer High history teacher, has made it her mission to tell “as many people as possible” about the three million women who entered America’s workforce during WWII, Cynthia Furlong Reynolds writes in the Observer’s March Ann Arborite profile. Dahl dresses in the iconic Rosie the Riveter garb made famous by Norman Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post cover to give talks across the region about the “brave, brave women who might never have gone beyond the boundaries of their hometowns before” but answered the call to take the place of men who’d gone to war. Dahl asks her audiences to imagine the sense of pride the Rosies at Willow Run felt when they saw its huge garage doors open and another B-24 bomber roll out of the massive Ford factory.

CourtMerch sells whimsical tennis, pickleball duds: Self-described “passionate tennis players” Amy Gillett and Carolynn Hayman announced the launch of their online store with a press release on Wednesday. The tennis partners at Huron Valley Tennis Club write that they aim to “infuse courtside style with a dash of fun.” Initial offerings include T-shirts that announce “I Play Doubles: Twice the Fun Half the Responsibility” and a very meta bucket hat that features the business’s tennis-ball mascot, Courtney who’s also wearing a bucket hat. 

Detroit-style pizza will fill a Saline vacancy: Joseph Maino and Jason Branham aim to open DropTop Pizza in part of the former Smokehouse 52 on Michigan Ave., MLive reports (paywall). Maino tells the news site that he learned the Detroit style from the late Shawn Randazzo, and connected with Branham as a customer at the latter’s Maiz Cantina in Depot Town. He’s promising “a more elevated version of your traditional toppings” and an “exciting starter menu.”

Good-bye to crepes, pizza, smoothies, and scrubs: The Observer’s Dave Algase rounds up a batch of retail and restaurant closings in the March Marketplace Changes column. Less than a year after moving to a larger spot on Jackson Rd., its landlord confirms that Crepe Nation has permanently closed. Also gone: Surf City Squeeze and Scrubs Boutique in Briarwood, and La Piazza Pizza and Subs in Plymouth Mall. Owner Fred Ansari says he’s learned that takeout pizza is really a game for bigger players, so he’s sold to Cottage Inn and is scouting to buy an existing restaurant where he can offer more of a sit-down experience.

Videogame marathon aims to raise $500,000 for hospitalized kids: Gamers for Giving’s 36-hour live event on Saturday and Sunday funds portable video game carts for patients at children’s hospitals. Free to spectators, the contest at EMU’s Gervin Center also has an online component starting Friday. By Thursday afternoon, it had already raised more than $21,000 toward its half-million-dollar goal. 

“‘Horse mastermind’ helps those with disabilities learn to ride”: A University Record article profiles Jenny Jones, a U-M animal husbandry supervisor and volunteer “horse leader” with Therapeutic Riding, Inc. “People get confused because of our name, but we do not do any type of therapy,” she tells the publication. However, the writer explains, she does help “people with disabilities gain life lessons and foster independence by learning to ride horses.” Jones says she “would argue that for anyone who enjoys being around horses, it’s therapeutic, and riding provides awesome benefits for your body. We have goals and we teach riding, and all that’s needed is that adaptive environment to be able to do it for everybody.” 

Free healthy cooking classes for middle schoolers: Trinity Health’s “Nutrition Buddies” pairs participants age eleven to thirteen “with a medical resident physician buddy for four weeks of in-person culinary classes to gain confidence when preparing nutritious foods,” ClickOnDetroit reports. They also receive a weekly produce box and cooking kit from The Farm at Trinity Health. Classes are in May and July, and prospective participants can register here. 

By Jennifer Taylor

Friday:  Gawk at a large array of huge, quirky, and beautiful handmade illuminated sculptures at FoolMoon, Ann Arbor’s annual outdoor festival that also includes interactive installations, a beer tent, and more. All are invited to drum on pots and pans and dress in floral costumes to welcome spring in the spirit of this year’s theme, “FoolBloom.” A parade, live music by the local jazz and funk ensemble The Ruckus and DJ PBH, and more. 8 to 11 p.m., downtown Ann Arbor. Free. bit.ly/festifoolsstudio. 

Saturday: Catch some bluegrass and high-energy American folk by Saline Fiddlers Philharmonic, the renowned touring student ensemble. Tonight they perform jointly with a quintet led by Grammy-nominated composer-violinist Jeremy Kittel, a Fiddlers and U-M alum whose repertoire ranges from Scottish, Irish, and Cape Breton fiddle tunes to jazz, bluegrass, traditional Appalachian tunes, and originals. 7 to 9 p.m., Saline High Auditorium, 1300 Campus Pkwy., Saline. Tickets $10 (students, $5) in advance at bit.ly/salinefiddlers2024 and $15 (students, $10; kids age 10 and under, free) at the door. [email protected], (866) 257–5333. 

Sunday: Join in at FestiFools, the popular gigantic public art parade up and down Main St. featuring magnificent, huge, bizarre papier-mâché puppets that range from animals and fantastical creatures to local and national celebrities. This year’s theme, FestiFables, features fairytale and fable-inspired puppets made by students of festival founder Mark Tucker, art director and art instructor for the Lloyd Scholars for Writing and the Arts. Community members in costume are invited to join the parade, and volunteers are needed to do everything from “animating” puppets to loading trucks.  4 to 5 p.m., Main St. between William and Washington. Free. bit.ly/festifoolsstudio. 

See the Observer’s online calendar for many more local events. 

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