|
|
|
|
|
Well, it sure looks like we’re in for a real, old-fashioned Michigan winter, huh? In my thirteen years living in these parts, I do not recall this much snow this early and … OMG isn’t it fabulous? By the time you read this, I will have taken the kids sledding at least three times already. Last year, there was but one occasion when the conditions were this good for the ninety-five-year-old metal saucer my husband’s great-grandfather fashioned out of steel purloined from a factory where he worked.
Thing is, the kids are getting bored of Montibeller Park. If we’re going to be doing this often, we need other choices. Where do you go for sledding around here? Share your best-kept secrets! You know, just between you and me.
And while I’m in an asking mood, Hanukkah starts Sunday night. Who has a foolproof latke recipe? Maybe something with an unusual ingredient? Email me.
Your news is here – and boy did it take a turn this week. We had a lighthearted item all set to go about the football team’s recruiting class and the maize-and-blue-blooded quarterback they signed, but that’s all quotidian compared to the blockbuster and mystifying Sherrone Moore firing and detainment. We’ve got the latest news here, but it feels like a fast-moving scandal
This was this week’s most-clicked link.
– Steve Friess, editor
|
|
|
|
Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
|
|
1. Sherrone Moore fired, detained: In a wild sequence of events on Wednesday, the second-year football head coach was dismissed “for cause” and later arrested in connection with an assault investigation. The married, thirty-nine-year-old father of three was fired amid “credible evidence … that Coach Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member,” athletic director Warde Manuel told CBS Sports. John U. Bacon, who has written several best-sellers about the football program, was all over the media with a chronology of what his sources tell him happened, and TMZ obtained a recording of the police call related to the alleged assault. Moore is expected to be arraigned today. Biff Poggi will be interim head coach for the Wolverines’ face-off with Texas in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on December 31, and both USA Today and Sports Illustrated speculate on possible permanent replacements. Also worth keeping an eye on: a chorus calling for the firing of Manuel, who has presided over several athletic department scandals, is growing even in the most U-M-friendly quarters. Yahoo Sports reports he has not been fired despite online rumors.
2. Data center opponents score a win and a delay: As residents of Saline Twp. and Ypsilanti Twp. continue to protest plans for mammoth computing facilities, they may take some inspiration and hope from news that their compatriots in neighboring Livingston County have thwarted one proposed for Howell Twp. It was a 1,000-acre project reportedly for Facebook parent company Meta, but the officially unnamed developer pulled its rezoning request hours before a public hearing amid a firestorm of local opposition. That came days after Saline Twp.–area advocates persuaded the Michigan Public Service Commission to postpone until at least December 19 a decision on whether to fast-track DTE’s plans and avoid scrutiny how it will power the $7 billion, 1.4-gigawatt OpenAI-Oracle-Related Digital data center planned for Saline Twp. DTE had warned the deal could be canceled if there’s any delay past December 5, but that appears to have been a bluff. The MPSC has received more than 5,000 online comments on the case and more than 800 people attended a virtual hearing. Another virtual hearing, this one hosted by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, is scheduled for 6 p.m. on December 18 to examine the Saline center’s proposed wetland, stream, and floodplain impacts. Protests already got the Ypsilanti Twp. data center delayed as U-M and Los Alamos evaluate other possible sites.
2.5. AI C-suiters are rattled: All this might have data center-related developers nervous, as proved by Related Co. CEO Jeff Blau’s op-ed defending the Saline effort. Blau, who oddly chose the Detroit Free Press for this rather than speaking directly to the local community via outlets like the Saline Post or Sun Times News, argues that nothing less than America’s place in the world hangs in the balance. “We recognize that some people still have concerns about data centers; the world around us is changing at an unprecedented pace,” he writes. “But one thing is clear — our adversaries around the world are not hesitating. They view our messy politics and reticence as an opportunity to gain a clear advantage. We simply cannot let that happen.” Translation: democracy is so inconvenient, amirite?
3. U-M spinouts spinning out of state: The university celebrated when its fiscal 2025 ended with a record of 673 new inventions and 326 license and option agreements as the result of research in the labs of Ann Arbor. Yet despite U-M ranking eighth among all universities the number of start-ups it spins out, Crain’s Detroit Business this week notes that about half of those companies move out of Michigan. The ones that do create significantly more jobs and shareholder value, too. The state “lacks the resources needed for startups to scale — capital, talent and infrastructure. Founders are forced to make the choice: move and grow, or stay and stagnate,” the story explains. Read more
|
|
|
|
Miso and Wasabi make a friend. Courtesy: Krista Larkin
|
|
|
|
Credit: J. Adrian Wylie
|
|
A crown, a sash, and a life in hair: In this month’s Ann Arborite profile, Jan Schlain writes about eighty-four-year-old retired hairstylist Fran Coy (pictured above), a one-time Miss Saline whose granddaughter won the same title in 2017. It’s a beautiful tale of a stylish lifelong go-getter whose eponymous salon on Wagner Rd. employs fifty, including twenty-five stylists. Read more
Farmers Market may get $21M upgrade: A “visioning process” begins next year to imagine how funding from the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority might enable a major overhaul of the popular local amenity, Eve Silberman writes. A new permanent headquarters to replace the demolished one is among the big-ticket items, as is a possible year-round pavilion. Read more
A month in home sales: A $4 million home would have set a record were it not for August’s $12.5 million purchase of the former Ferris estate, a student-built house goes for $675,000, and star builder Tom Fitzsimmons’ in-fill prototype sells. Read more and browse our interactive map.
|
|
|
|
Credit: Steve Friess
|
|
The Forward checks in on the anti-Israel protesters who have paced the sidewalks on Washtenaw Ave. outside Temple Beth Israel almost every Shabbat for twenty-two years. (I wrote about them in 2013 for Tablet Magazine when their campaign reached 500 days.)
In suddenly less interesting U-M football news, MLive offers a good read on how NIL cost the team a much-wanted twenty-eighth recruit. Also, Barstool founder and U-M alum Dave Portnoy says he won’t put up any more money toward keeping QB Bryce Underwood if the freshman tries to renegotiate his $10 million deal.
One in ten AAPS students attend via School of Choice. Oddly, this MLive piece doesn’t address the most curious bit of data, that the largest group of new SoC students come from “out of state.” I’m unclear what that means; a district spokesperson didn’t write me back to explain.
Here’s a lovely video from the topping-up ceremony at the new Mitchell Elementary, complete with an explanation of why there’s a tree on the top of the structure now.
A Monroe parent filed a Title IX complaint against AAPS over a possible transgender Skyline High volleyball player. Read more
After a year of little major violent crime, a seventeen-year-old girl was shot to death on Sunday in a Pittsfield Twp. apartment; a seventeen-year-old male suspect was arrested. In an unrelated case, an armed suspect remains at large in connection with the shooting death of a dog during an attempted pre-dawn car break-in on Sunday.
EMU is expanding a loan repayment assistance program to sixteen additional majors. Read more
ClickOnDetroit does a nice job laying out this very sad story about a psychiatric patient who tells state regulators that she was swindled by an Ann Arbor nurse practitioner. Read more
EMU has named a new president to replace James Smith, who is retiring after ten years. Read more
The Ann Arbor Community Land Trust, with the city’s blessing and $5 million in tax incentives, is bringing out “a new model” of workforce housing called Townie Homes. The county commission must also approve it. Read more
First it was subsidized rakes, now it’s shovels, too!
Echelon’s bar manager is an alcoholic who quit drinking five years ago. It strikes me as brave to be so open about that journey, especially given his profession. Read more
|
|
|
|
Credit: J. Adrian Wylie
|
|
Slows Bar BQ arrives downtown: Its a homecoming of sorts for brothers and U-M alums Terry and Brian Perrone (above, left to right), Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. They launched the original Slows in Detroit’s Corktown twenty years ago along with Phil Cooley, and the upward trajectory led to a coming Berkley location and a recent visit in Detroit by Jimmy Fallon. They had operated out of food trucks and catering in Ann Arbor and jumped at the chance to take over the former Blue Tractor space, which already was fitted with barbecue smokers.
Wide world of sweets: Exotic Snack Guys, a national chain featuring candy, chips, cookies, drinks, and frozen treats from forty countries, has opened at Briarwood Mall, Algase writes. A perusal of the shelves revealed many unfamiliar varieties of some otherwise household names — strawberry Snickers bars, roasted seaweed–flavored Lays Stax.
Once-controversial Chick-fil-A replaces defunct Denny’s: The national fast-food chain opens its first Ann Arbor location today with an offer of a free entrée to guests who dress up as cows, according to its website. To defray its reputation as anti-LGBTQ, the chain more recently has embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion, an effort it continues to tout on its website even as conservatives have shamed several major companies and universities into de-emphasizing such initiatives.
|
|
Ypsi Community High lands $5,000 award for culinary program: It’s one of forty-eight schools nationwide to receive the competitive Rachael Ray Foundation ProStart Grow Grant, Concentrate writes. Chef Aaron Gaertner, who runs the program, says the money has been spent on a high-tech freeze dryer among other tools to “significantly elevate the hands-on food science and culinary experiences available to students.”
Local performers play for Ozone House: The Tipsy Ypsi Xmas concert begins at 6:30 p.m. on December 19 at Ziggy’s in downtown Ypsi. Black Note Graffiti and A Grim Existence are among the featured acts. Attendees are encouraged to pay what they can, with a suggested donation of $10 to the homeless youth charity.
Motown-themed show benefits C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital: The seven-piece ARB Band plays an array of classic R&B and rock tunes from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the American Legion Hall in Dexter. Folks are urged to bring toys for kids and give a suggested donation of $10.
|
|
By Jennifer Taylor
Friday: Are you a Janeite? Test your knowledge at the Ann Arbor District Library’s “Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday Celebration: Trivia” event, where adults and teens can compete for glory by answering trivia questions drawn from Austen’s six finished novels – decidedly not from movie adaptations. 6 to 7 p.m., AADL Westgate. Free.
Saturday: At Christmas in the Village, wander preserved & restored 19th century Webster Village, lit by luminarias and decorated in period style for the holidays, as Arbor Consort sings carols in costume. Santa appears in the Old Town Hall, and volunteers read “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” at 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30 p.m. in the one-room schoolhouse. Also, crafts, blacksmithing demos, and an outdoor bonfire. Hot chocolate and cookies for sale. 4–7 p.m., 5583 Webster Church Rd, Dexter. $10 cash or credit at the gate (kids 12 & under, free).
Sunday (Hanukkah Begins): Join the first ever Grand Menorah Lighting & Parade put on by Ann Arbor Chabad House. The parade begins (4 p.m.) at Chabad House and ends at Liberty Plaza, where a lighting of the menorah (5:30 p.m.) is followed by latkes, doughnuts, music, and crafts. 4 p.m., 715 Hill St. Free.
See the Observer’s online calendar for many more local events.
|
|
For Sponsorship and Advertising information
Email: [email protected]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
