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Grad student strike continues as judge rejects U-M demand for emergency injunction: The university must provide evidence at a hearing Monday that the Graduate Employees Organization walkout that started March 29 is causing irreparable damage, judge Carol Kuhnke ruled Tuesday. U-M asserts the strike is illegal under state law and violates the current contract; Kuhnke has yet to schedule a hearing to address those claims, the Michigan Daily reports. Meanwhile, the leaders of five other campus unions issued a blistering condemnation of U-M’s decision to seek the injunction as “a tool of first resort.” Undeterred, the university announced it would stop paying the strikers this week. The GEO is demanding a 62.4 percent increase in the minimum stipend, improved benefits, and funding “alternatives to policing.”
Michigan Medicine absorbs Sparrow Health, promises $800M investment: The move, approved by regulators, means U-M’s health system is now worth $7 billion, includes eleven hospitals and employs nearly 44,000 people, the Detroit Free Press reports. Sparrow, based in Lansing, brings six hospitals into the Michigan Medicine fold, and the combined entity could serve as much as 11 percent of the state’s population. Also this week, both systems announced they were relaxing their masking requirements as Covid cases continue to fall.
Chelsea Hospital closing in-patient mental health unit: Twelve of the hospital’s thirty beds will relocate to Trinity Health Ann Arbor later this year, but the other eighteen beds may disappear, MLive reports (paywall). Hospital president Ben Miles says half the beds were typically empty anyway because of staffing and regulatory issues, and that the system is improving access to outpatient services. Advocates with people with mental health challenges say the decision reduces important resources for patients.
City to spend $450,000 removing winter storm debris: With stacks of branches still idling on curbs more than a month after recent ice and snow events, council approved more money for Davey Tree Expert Co. to finish the job, MLive reports (paywall). The money is coming from solid-waste fund cash reserves. To check progress in your area, visit the city’s storm event response dashboard.
A2 in line for $600,000 in opioid settlement: That’s the city’s expected share of a multi-billion-dollar fund paid into by pharmacies Walgreens and CVS and drugmakers Allergan and Teva for their role in the national opioid epidemic, MLive reports. It would be Ann Arbor’s second windfall from opioid-related lawsuits; the city is expecting $827,000 from a different settlement. At least 85 percent of the money must be used to combat the opioid epidemic.
Harbaugh, U-M accused of failing to act appropriately on alleged sexual assault by player: In an explosive expose, USA Today digs into the school’s handling of concerns raised in 2021 by Mary Moffett, the mother of a 22-year-old woman who died by drug overdose. Moffett wrote to head coach Jim Harbaugh and athletic director Warde Manuel after Quinn Moffett’s death because she believed her daughter’s mental health had declined following an alleged 2018 rape by a football player while two teammates watched. The AAPD investigated the incident but didn’t file charges; the U-M said its authority to investigate was limited after the player transferred.
U-M establishes Opioid Research Institute: The medical school and the university’s office of research are pledging $3 million over three years to create a transdisciplinary center to advance the study of the epidemic, according to the University Record. The goal is to facilitate interaction between various areas of study including psychiatry, treatment, and pharmacology in order to develop “solutions that support communities in need and accelerate the translation of research to practice,” Michigan Medicine CEO Marschall Runge says.
Two more smash-and-grabs keep A2 gyms on alert: The car robberies occurred in the parking lot of LA Fitness on N. Maple Rd. a week after similar incidents took place at Orangetheory Fitness Center on S. Main, police say. In both cases, car windows were shattered and personal belongings stolen while owners were inside the facility. Police are again urging people to lock belongings in trunks or bring them inside gyms with them.
Ypsi council votes for $2.38M tax incentive for affordable housing: The break, to be realized over 50 years, supports nonprofit developer Avalon Housing’s plan to replace a burned-out building near downtown with twenty-two apartments for low-income residents, MLive reports.
Fire destroys auto salvage yard: Flames consumed B&G Auto Salvage in Ypsi Township over the weekend, the township firefighters union reported on Facebook. Nobody was injured, but the building is a total loss. The cause is under investigation, and anyone with information should call (734) 544-4225.
Ypsi man pleads guilty to lying to get classified job with US Navy: Yifei Chu, a fifty-seven-year-old ex-employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sought a security clearance for a post in Singapore without disclosing extensive contacts with a Taiwanese company and the Taiwanese navy, according to a U.S. Justice Department press release. Chu, who is expected to be sentenced in August, faces up to twenty-five years in federal prison.
Dexter Twp supervisor quits over workload, pay: Diane Ratkovich says the growth of the region has made the job, which pays $38,000 a year, a full-time responsibility at a part-time salary, MLive reports. She had asked the board to increase the pay to $48,000, but they instead voted last month to raise her salary to $40,549. Ratkovich was elected to a four-year term in 2020.
Four-story apartment building to be all-electric, developer says: The North Maple Apartments, which expects to offer seventy-nine units, won’t use any natural gas, Jeff Wilkerson of A2 Collaborative LLC told city council this week, MLive reports. Wilkerson says a rooftop solar array will generate about 15 percent of the building’s energy, and the firm is considering a geothermal system as well. Twelve of the units are set aside for low-income residents.
Rooftop pool in plans for 16-story apartment building downtown: Swimmers could enjoy views of the neighboring downtown library on the site of current U-M Credit Union at 333 E. William St. according to renderings and other details revealed in filings with the city. Core Spaces, the Chicago-based developer, and Dwell Design Studios, are scheduled to appear before the design review board on Wednesday to discuss the project, which they aim to finish by 2026.
City rethinking rules that killed student high-rise boom: As developers warned, requiring market-rate buildings to include more subsidized units made many financially nonviable, John Hilton and Trilby MacDonald report in the April Observer. Ann Arbor housing commissioner Jennifer Hall now questions whether affordable housing belongs in market-rate buildings at all: she’d rather developers gave money to support nonprofit projects. Meanwhile, three developers have submitted high-rise proposals in long-dormant student neighborhoods. If they’re approved, it could presage even more seismic changes in the upcoming revision of the city’s comprehensive plan.
Fire chief warns that fighting fires in high-rises is hard, expensive: Mike Kennedy told city council that putting out blazes in the upper levels of many of the buildings coming online around the city will cost more, MLive reports (paywall). His current budget doesn’t include additional staff or equipment, but he wanted lawmakers to be aware that a request of as much as $2 million is likely in coming years to pay for a specialized unit.
U-M computer science and engineering department under review on Title IX compliance: The National Science Foundation is looking into concerns about gender inequality and mistreatment following recent allegations of sexual misconduct by faculty, the Daily reports. An NSF spokeswoman says the review may result in recommendations for corrective action which, if ignored, could jeopardize the department’s access to federal funding.
Assistant U-M football coach makes $1M salary: Ben Herbert, the Wolverines’ strength and conditioning coach, signed a new five-year contract in February that earns him seven figures, MLive reports. The forty-three-year-old starts out with a $600,000 base salary plus a $400,000 signing bonus the first year, with increases and potential bonuses that should keep him over the $1 million mark throughout his tenure. Herbert is believed to be only the second college strength and conditioning coach in the nation to earn more than $1 million.
Arbor Prep to pilot new AP African-American history course: The Ypsi high school is one of 800 schools nationwide that will offer the class focused on an intensive examination of the roots of American slavery and civil rights struggles, MLive reports. In Florida, the class has become a flashpoint for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attack on how racism and Black history are taught in public schools.
E-bike share program launches with free demos: Spin, the company responsible for the 400 dockless scooters around town, rolled out its new offering, 100 dockless electric bicycles capable of going up to twenty miles per hour. Like the scooters, the bikes cost $1 to unlock plus 39 cents per minute, with longer-term passes available. Before setting off on his own ride, mayor Christopher Taylor hailed the e-bike’s contribution to the city’s goal of cutting motor vehicle trips in half by 2030.
Avalon selling cookies alongside brews in new move: Most Ann Arborites know Jon Carlson for beer, but in March, the co-founder of Grizzly Peak and Jolly Pumpkin was in Detroit to cut a giant cookie. Carlson and Jackie Victor, co-founder of Avalon International Breads, were celebrating a deal that moved Avalon’s Midtown Detroit cafe into a nearby Jolly Pumpkin. Carlson and partners Greg Lobdell and Chet Czaplicka invested in Avalon during a difficult transition in 2011 and have been supporters ever since, Victor tells Anita LeBlanc in this month’s Observer. “When the story of Avalon is written, Jon and Greg and Chet are gonna be the kind of quiet heroes,” Victor says, “because they invested in the vision of Avalon and the people of Avalon.”
No-Mow May…all spring? Council passed a resolution encouraging homeowners to let their yards grow to between six and twelve inches this season to assist distressed “pollinator populations,” MLive reports. Last year, many residents participated in No-Mow May in which they let their lawns go wild and untamed for the month.
Rain can’t douse Hash Bash: Die-hards lit up on the Diag for the fifty-second annual marijuana festival, the Free Press reports. The once-subversive event still has a political tinge even as recreational cannabis is now legal in Michigan, with activists using the Hash Bash to voice their demands for expungement of convictions for people who committed pot crimes during prohibition.
Helicopter-hanging photog turns ninety with sale: Dale Fisher, best known for his spectacular aerial images of the Big House on game day, dates his interest in photography back to his teenage years at Slauson Middle School, MLive reports. In honor of his milestone birthday on April 14, he’s offering a “Birthday Sale” of his work at his gallery at 1916 Norvell Rd. in Grass Lake on April 14 and 15. Watch for more information about the sale on Fisher’s website.
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