While driving up First Avenue in New York City the other day, my eye caught a flag with the Block M on it fluttering outside Hendrickson’s Pub. Of course, I wanted to stop for a pint but with two kids in tow and the need to get on the road back from my family’s Hanukkah party over the weekend, there was no way. I’m assuming that’s a Wolverine alum hangout? We really are everywhere.

I could’ve taken my time because the news this week was a bit blessedly slow. No gruesome crime, accidents, or fires to offer up. Some incremental steps forward on some ongoing matters involving local government. A little bit of news involving U-M head coaches.

I saved the loveliest piece here, though, for our Helpers section. The ClickonDetroit tale of the dad of a teen with cancer delighting kids at Mott with his cartoon drawings is just exactly the kind of thing you want to read and watch about this time of year. Go do that.

As I get ready for the full menorah to be lit tonight and sock away the rest of the gifts I’ve bought for Christmas, I wish you a successful final leg of the shopping season.

– Steve Friess, editor 

Seasonal bump in Covid spread: The county isn’t able to keep precise tabs on cases anymore because many diagnoses are done via home tests, but the health department website recorded ten confirmed or probable Covid deaths in November, the highest toll since March. Spokeswoman Susan Ringler-Cerniglia tells a2view that hospitalizations also are up, and the amount of the virus detected in wastewater is in the “highest level” category. She notes that free home tests are still available through the federal government, at the health department office at 555 Towner St. in Ypsi, and at local libraries. 

U-M establishes institute to combat antisemitism: With other university presidents facing backlash over their responses to the Israel-Hamas war, Michigan’s Santa Ono last week announced an initiative aimed at “bringing together leading U-M expertise and diverse perspectives toward a safer and more inclusive world, and even more, a brighter world of peace,” the University Record writes. The Raoul Wallenberg Institute in LSA will be accompanied by “complementary efforts related to enhancing religious inclusion and interfaith engagement” overseen by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Harbaugh reportedly in talks for five-year, $55M contract extension: If it goes through, he’ll become the second-highest-paid head coach in college football behind Alabama’s Nick Saban, according to CBS Sports. Negotiations had been put on hold after the allegations of a sign-stealing scheme erupted and prompted the Big Ten to suspend Harbaugh for three games. The team nonetheless won the Big Ten Championship and is now the top seed in the upcoming College Football Playoffs.

Panel OKs Ypsi recall petition: The decision by the Washtenaw County Election Commission gives a citizens’ group the go-ahead to collect signatures to force an election to remove city councilmembers Desirae Simmons and Jennifer Symanns, MLive writes. The group, which includes former mayor Karen Farmer, was angered by a decision to spend $3.7 million to buy a new public works building. It dropped its effort to recall mayor Nicole Brown after she voted to rescind the purchase, and Symanns announced she is resigning at the end of this year. Simmons, who abstained in the vote to cancel the purchase, remains a target, according to the group.

Whitmer backs Superfund designation for Gelman Plume: The governor sent a letter to the EPA’s regional administrator this week concurring with the agency’s recommendation that the 1,4-dioxane contamination deserves a spot on the nation’s toxic clean-up priorities list. The move “is the most viable alternative for addressing the issues with the source contamination remaining on-site and the contaminated groundwater on and emanating from the site,” Whitmer wrote.

Man sentenced to life for 2021 hotel murder: Madron Aldonijah Austin, fifty, was convicted in the stabbing death of Angel Mercedes Pritchard at Sonesta Suites, MLive reports. He was also given roughly fifty years on other charges related to the incident. Austin was sentenced on what would have been Pritchard’s thirtieth birthday.

Sweetwaters baristas launch union drive: Workers at the stores inside the Michigan Union, the Westgate Library, and the Meijer on Ann Arbor-Saline Rd. as well as the original W. Washington St. shop, hope to be represented by Teamsters Local 243, according to an Instagram post. The employees seek a “livable” wage, better benefits, and more predictable scheduling. 

DTE to decommission Argo substation: it’s unclear what will become of the property along the Huron River at the corner of Swift and Broadway once all of the circuits served by the site are transferred to the Buckler substation across the street, MLive reports (paywall). While city officials are champing at the bit to see the site redeveloped, DTE appears to be in no hurry to unload it.

Council approves $5M wastewater treatment plant upgrade: The contract, approved unanimously, involves building an ultraviolet disinfection system to replace a twenty-three-year-old one, according to city documents. The new system is expected to be in place by spring 2025.

Vacant Walmart may become self-storage facility: California-based real estate developer DealPoint Merrill, which is purchasing the thirty-acre Roundtree Place Shopping Center in Ypsilanti Twp., also plans to add some retail space and upgrade the parking lot, MLive reports. The Walmart closed in 2020.

Report says assistant coach filed HR complaint against Juwan Howard: Rumors are swirling over an incident last week in which U-M’s head basketball coach had a “heated argument” with the team’s strength and conditioning coach, Jon Sanderson, The Athletic reports (paywall). The outlet’s sources say the two nearly came to blows but were separated; Howard’s job could be at stake if the incident became physical, because the fifth-year coach and former Wolverine star struck one of Wisconsin’s assistant coaches amid a melee in February 2022. Sanderson did not travel with the team for its game at Iowa over the weekend.

U-M linebacker wins Lott IMPACT trophy: Junior Colson was honored for his accomplishments on and off the field at a ceremony in California over the weekend, the Detroit Free Press reports. The twenty-one-year-old junior is a native of Haiti and works with author Mitch Albom’s Haiti-focused charity. He also has had a stellar year for the team, netting a Wolverine-leading seventy-one tackles. In winning the honor, he’s earned $25,000 for U-M’s general scholarship fund.

Michigan Medicine’s Dexter pharmacy is a financial lifeline: The new outpatient delivery operation, which sent out its first prescriptions in November, is in part a response by the health system to threats by drug makers to cut off hospitals that pass on Medicare’s 340B discounts to commercial pharmacies, Ken Garber writes in this month’s Observer. That’s a critical revenue stream for the health system: U-M Health president David Miller expects pharmacy sales to hit $600 million this year.

The Comic Opera Guild comes back after Covid: The troupe had to cancel a production mid-run when the pandemic arrived in 2020, but it will be back on the boards in 2024 to celebrate the city’s bicentennial Davi Napoleon writes in this month’s Observer. Tickets are on sale now for January’s semi-staged performance of Evangeline, the first comic opera by American authors, at Ypsi’s Riverside Arts Center. In May, a Michigan Theater concert will honor Victor Herbert, dubbed “the father of the Broadway musical.”

Longtime manager to take over Izzy’s Hoagie Shop: Acadia Mercer announced on Facebook that she’s “going to be the new owner” of the shop a week after it closed following the sudden death of owner Terry Lahner. She’s holding an open house memorial for Lahner from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday at Izzy’s.

Crazy Wisdom reopens on S. Main: The shop shut down in 2022 after forty years only to return this month with an eclectic selection of New Age books and merchandise, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer.The fond appreciations that followed news of its closure were “like receiving a gold watch from the community at large,” Zirinsky emails, and when he and his wife, Ruth Scheckter, were unable to find a buyer, they decided to reopen on a smaller, more manageable basis. They won’t revive the upstairs tea room, which Zirinsky says was “an ongoing drag on the store’s finances,” but plan to use the space for a variety of programs.

Bakery debuts in Westgate: The chain Tous Les Jours now has an outpost in Ann Arbor, one of more than 1,600 locations worldwide. The shop, known for French and Asian baked goods, held its grand opening in November, according to an Instagram post. Franchisee Jinwan Lee also owns the location in Troy, the only other one in Michigan. 

Dad’s drawing brings cheer to kids at Mott: Greg Martin Jr.’s sixteen-year-old son Owen, who has been hospitalized with leukemia since June, asked his father to draw Bart and Homer Simpson on the glass window of his door earlier this year, and now Greg does cartoons for any kids in the pediatric cancer ward who ask, ClickonDetroit reports. Some drawings take an hour, some take much longer, but Martin finds the work to be a reprieve from the challenging reality of his son’s illness. 

Free cats and dogs available at shelter: The Humane Society of Huron Valley, seeking to reduce a glut of adoptable animals, is waiving fees through the end of the year. The shelter has nearly 100 adult animals that are spayed or neutered and vaccinated. For more information, call (734) 622-5585 or click here.

Avalon hosting Holiday Drag Bingo fundraiser Friday: Jadein Black, who was profiled earlier this year in the Observer, is headlining the 7 p.m. event for Stand with Trans Michigan. The event is open to people of all ages and includes “the chance to win amazing prizes.”  Reservations are recommended but not required. 

By Jennifer Taylor

Friday:  Hear Tim Huth, Gale Kramer, and other local organists present a festive program of Christmas music at the American Guild of Organists’ “An Organist’s Christmas” on the St. Francis of Assisi Church’s impressive LeTourneau pipe organ. The program includes solo performances and a sing-along of favorite carols. 7 p.m., St. Francis of Assisi Church, 2250 E. Stadium. Free; donations accepted. (734) 769–2550. 

Saturday: Contribute to the nation’s longest-running ornithological database by joining the 124th Annual Christmas Bird Count. Novices and experienced birders are invited to volunteer as field observers or as bird feeder watchers with the group formerly known as the Washtenaw Audubon Society. While the count is never complete, much useful information is gained by comparing the results from year to year. The results are tallied at a potluck dinner at U-M Matthaei Botanical Gardens at 6 p.m. 12:01 a.m., various locations. Preregistration required here. Free. 

Sunday: Try out new board and card games from local designers and provide feedback at Michigame Design Lab’s Game Playtesting at Bløm Meadworks. 2 to 6 p.m. Bløm Meadworks, 100 S. Fourth Ave. Free, but purchase of food and drink encouraged. (734) 548–9729. 

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

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