A few years ago, I was working on a profile for the Michigan Alumnus about then-basketball head coach John Beilein. It was at that point when the U-M hoops squad routinely made deep runs in the March Madness tournament and the football team had lost six straight against Ohio State.

I tried to slip in a line about how Michigan, despite its history, had become more of a basketball school than a football school. My editor took it out. “This will always be a football school,” she told me. “You’ll see.”

My goodness was she right. In fact, at this moment, Michigan is the best football school in America. Years of watching games with one hand over your eyes and the other on a bottle of Tums gave way to a national championship run that was suspenseful and occasionally competitive but, in retrospect, never in doubt.

Obviously, we’ve got a lot of coverage of the Wolverines this week. But there’s also news of  a deadly fire, a missing time capsule, and a terrific profile of MSNBC star Barb McQuade.

As I debate spending big money on championship Michiganalia at MDen or just waiting for whatever schlock ends up at Meijer, I wish you a very maize and blue week ahead.

– Steve Friess, editor

Michigan beats everyone: The Wolverines’ 34-13 victory over Washington in Houston on Monday drew more than 25 million viewers to ESPN. Check out the Michigan Daily’s recap for the nuts and bolts of the thrilling game, and the always-superb columnist Connor Earegood for the Blake Corum of it all. The day after was Michigan Wolverine Day per a proclamation by governor and MSU alum Gretchen Whitmer. President Biden tweeted his congrats, Google offered animated fireworks when people searched for “Michigan football,” and Battle Creek-based Kellogg sold out of a $18.19 commemorative cereal box that, despite containing no cereal, is now going for more than $100 on eBay. It wasn’t all sunshine, though; on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Alabama fan Joe Scarborough reminded viewers that the team remains under investigation for a sign-stealing scheme and New York magazine’s Will Leitch (paywall) assailed the “victorious, villainous” Wolverines as a prototype for everything that is wrong with college football.

Parade, party slated for Saturday: Hundreds of die-hard fans stood in the cold rain at the team’s practice facility on Tuesday night to welcome the undefeated, conquering heroes back to Michigan, with more celebrations still to come. A victory parade kicks off at 4 p.m. Saturday outside the president’s house on South University and snakes down State St. en route to Schembechler Hall. That will be followed by a party at Crisler Center starting at 7 p.m. for folks willing to spend between $30 to $60 per seat. A general public sale of tickets will open at 9 a.m. tomorrow via the Michigan Athletic Ticket Office if there are any left after season ticket holders get their chance today. The money goes to Championship Circle Collective, an organization that provides money to student-athletes for sponsorship and other deals it arranges. 

Fans gather to watch, celebrate, set little fires everywhere: From the student-only viewing party at Crisler Center to the jam-packed bars around campus, Monday was a joyous and communal experience, WXYZ reports. The city’s beefed-up police presence and special parking restrictions may have kept the partying from getting more out of hand than it did; the worst of it was seventeen couch or mattress fires doused by AAFD and zero reported injuries, ClickonDetroit writes. 

In A2 and beyond, curiosity builds about what’s next for Harbaugh, the team: Winning the championship was lucrative for the head coach – he got $1 million for Monday’s triumph on top of $2 million in other incentives he netted for the wins at Ohio State, in the Big Ten title game and the Rose Bowl, USA Today reports. He even earned an apology from one of his harshest ESPN critics, Paul Finebaum. But the big question is whether the sixty-year-old will accept the reported ten-year, $125 million offer from U-M or return to the NFL. Harbaugh has avoided answering reporters’ questions about it, but MLive notes that the cost of buying out his current five-year contract dropped today – the start of its third year – to $1.5 million from $2.25 million. Also unclear is the future for quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who is a junior and may enter the NFL draft. “I don’t know how I could leave y’all,” he told the crowd that greeted the team upon their return from Houston. “Everything about this place is home to me.”

One dead in downtown fire: Caliyah Scott-Robinson, twenty-four, perished in a second-floor unit at the city’s Baker Commons apartments at Packard and Main on Monday night amid a blaze that followed an explosion in her home, MLive reports. Nobody else was injured, but the smoke-filled, five-story building had to be evacuated, and residents from eight units remain displaced.

Vigil held for victims of Whitmore Lake house explosion: Members of the community gathered in the gym at Whitmore Lake High on Saturday, a week after the explosion killed an Arkansas couple and two of their children, Fox 2 reports. They were visiting the mother’s father, seventy-two-year-old Richard Pruden, who survived along with his sixteen-year-old grandson. Both are improving but remain hospitalized, according to updates on a pair of GoFundMe pages that have raised a combined $91,000 so far to defray medical and funeral expenses.

Family seeking leads on missing man: Cayan Thaxton, thirty-seven, was last seen near Target on Carpenter Road in Pittsfield Twp. on Nov. 10 and his family hasn’t has not been heard from him since Nov. 18, his cousin tells a2view. “He’s never gone this long without reaching out for us and we’re extremely concerned for his health and safety,” Mahogany Thaxton writes. Pittsfield police have posted his photo and a description of his case here, noting he is “homeless, uses public transit and has occasionally stayed at local shelters. He has no electronic devices and often asks to use the cell phone of others to contact family in Pennsylvania.” Anyone with information can e-mail Mahogany or call Cayan’s mother, Shawnette, at (412) 675-1148. 

AG stalls rapist’s parole with emergency appeal: John Robert Lee, forty-four, remains in state prison after Dana Nessel asked a court in Washtenaw County to stay his release, scheduled for today, so her office can argue against the parole approval, according to a press release. Lee has served twenty-five years of the two consecutive life sentences he received in 1999 for the rape of a thirteen-year-old girl. In December, he was approved a four-year term of supervised parole in a decision Nessel’s office called “a clear abuse of the board’s discretion.” The victim’s mother urged Nessel to intervene.

AAPS, city council to weigh call for Mideast ceasefire: A resolution calling for a stop to the violence is on council’s agenda for its meeting tonight and a similar one is expected to come before school board trustees on Wednesday,  the Detroit News reports (paywall). The school board’s resolution also urges teachers to discuss the ongoing conflict in class, “to foster a deeper understanding among students and staff, and to combat misinformation and prejudice.” The AAPS resolution is being met with vocal opposition, including a change.org petition.

Judge dismisses attempt to block Garrett’s Space: Neighbors had filed a lawsuit to reverse a rezoning decision by the Superior Twp. board to allow a bucolic seventy-six-acre spread to become a treatment center for young adults facing mental health crises, MLive reports (paywall). Judge Carol Kuhnke on Wednesday threw out the case, saying she believed the township “properly applied its own standards in determining that the use that’s proposed is consistent with the master plan for Superior Township.” The plaintiffs said they may appeal.

Ground-penetrating radar locates missing Dexter time capsule: The size of a casket, it was buried in 1974 outside the Dexter Area Museum, which at the time was a church, MLive reports. When folks went looking for it in advance of this year’s bicentennial, they discovered it wasn’t beneath the stone marker placed fifty years ago. In December, the mystery was solved; it’s under the sidewalk.

Michigan Radio announces its rebranding: It’s heretofore to be known as Michigan Public, reflecting its expansion beyond over-the-air broadcasts. There’s a new logo, too, which the press release says will “represent the fluidity of thought, conversation, and sound. The logo’s gradient of four colors; light green, dark green, blue and purple, represent the four brand pillars of Michigan Public: Information, Connection, Inspiration and Participation.”

Ex-prosecutor rises as MSNBC legal star: U-M law professor Barbara McQuade became a prominent pundit and podcaster after leaving her post as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan at the conclusion of Barack Obama’s tenure, Micheline Maynard reports in this month’s Observer. Her first book, Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America, is available for preorder ahead of its February release and is already No. 1 on the Media & Internet in Politics list on Amazon. It arose following a well-received New York Times opinion piece in which she warned of the danger posed by 2020 election deniers running for Secretary of State positions in seventeen states where victories would give them control of future elections. 

(Lots of) free masks available tomorrow: With an uptick in Covid cases thanks in part to a new variant, the public is invited to pick up a box of 500 N-95 masks from 10 a.m. to noon at the Washtenaw County Facilities Warehouse, 2155 Hogback Rd. The giveaway will be repeated at the same place but from noon to 2 p.m. the following Friday,  Jan. 19. According to a county post on X, this is the county’s final planned mask giveaway, and you must take an entire box. Anyone with questions can email here.

Lessons in Chemistry, Spare, Taylor Swift top 2023 picks among library patrons: The Ann Arbor District Library posted its most-requested lists, and the fictional saga of a female mid-century chemist and the all-too-real drama of a British prince were in highest demand last year. Most of the rankings tracked pretty well with what was broadly popular or critically acclaimed; Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All at Once led the movie list, ten of the twenty album requests were by Swift, who also was Time’s Person of the Year. But there was some local flavor, too – the new tome from Zingerman’s Bakehouse came in second in cookbooks, and three of the twenty most-requested art prints were by local painter Karin Wagner Coron.

Northside partners launch a neighborhood bar-cafe: Lowertown is the long-gestating brainchild of Pete Baker, Hubert Raglan, and Joe Bollinger, who turned the former Hall’s Barber Shop into a cozy indoor-outdoor gathering spot for nearby neighbors as well as folks enjoying the Border-to-Border Trail and the Huron River, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. The building was constructed in 1938 as a Pure Oil service station, and the remodeling was laborious and time-consuming – workers uncovered three previous foundations and a sinkhole – but well worth it. “This has been everybody’s idea for generations, it seems like,” Baker says. “We were lucky enough to be able to make it happen.”

Local Moosejaw closes on Wednesday: The outdoor clothing and equipment retailer is shutting down all but three of the chain’s fourteen brick-and-mortar stores nationwide, Algase reports. The move comes after competitor Dick’s Sporting Goods bought the brand from Walmart. Dick’s will continue to sell Moosejaw merchandise online.

Mallek’s new owner aims for spring reopening: The eighty-one-year-old service station at the Dexter-Jackson fork shut down in June 2022 after its owner, John Mendler, died, Antonio Cooper writes in this month’s Observer. Mendler owned it from 1976, when he bought it from Kasimir Mallek, until his death in October 2021. New proprietor Ihsan “Tony” Karim plans to move his Ann Arbor Party Center there from the neighboring shopping center.

Maker Works hosts potluck Sunday to celebrate fundraising: The community workshop is inviting the public to bring a dish for the event to honor the nonprofit’s netting more than $25,000 in its end-of-the-year campaign, according to a press release.  The money helps provide access to the metal and wood shops, textiles and jewelry studios, and electronics lab. All are welcome for free to attend the potluck, which will be from 5 to 7 p.m. at 3765 Plaza Dr. For more information or to donate, email Kymm Clark. 

Waitlist for roof aid reopens Tuesday: The county’s Roof Replacement Program only accepts new households once a year; online applications open at noon and in the past have filled within an hour, MLive reports. The cost of the new roof becomes a zero-percent lien on the property that can be gradually forgiven over thirty years, or repaid when the home is sold. 

$30,000 raised in concert for embattled Johnny’s Speakeasy: The sold-out fundraiser on Tuesday at The Ark featured more than a dozen bands, MLive reports. Proceeds are to go toward Williams’ legal fund and restoration of his home and concert venue, which was damaged in a September 2022 fire. At least four more benefit concerts are scheduled around the region according to SaveTheSpeakeasy.com, including one for $25 a ticket on Feb. 17 at the River Raisin Distillery in Manchester. 

By Jennifer Taylor

Friday:  Hear award-winning Israeli American jazz pianist Tamir Hendelman and nine-time Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Tierney Sutton in “Seasons of Mercer,” their celebration of the great Tin Pan Alley songwriter Johnny Mercer. Sutton has “a voice as pure and sparkling as mountain spring water,” according to the New York Times. 7:30 p.m., Kerrytown Concert Hall, 415 N. Fourth Ave. Tickets $35 to $70 (students, $20) in advance online and at the door. Reservations recommended. (734) 769–2999. 

Saturday: Hear veteran San Francisco Bay Area quartet Calextone perform “Januario, Music for the New Year.” Presented by the Academy of Early Music, the program features New Year’s music of the late medieval and early Renaissance periods by composers such as Guillaume DuFay, Antoine Busnois, Jacob Obrecht, and Baude Cordier, plus selections from the original medieval Carmina Burana. Preceded at 6:45 p.m. by a panel discussion with the performers. 7:30 p.m., St. Andrew’s, 306 N. Division St. $35 ($10 students, seniors $30) here; $5 more at the door. (734) 228–4338. 

Sunday: Watch or join Pinball Pete’s Pinball Tournament, where players of all ages and skill levels are invited to play eight games of pinball for International Flipper Association points and other prizes. 5 p.m. (registration opens at 4:45 p.m.; ask for Ryan at the glass desk), Pinball Pete’s, 1214 South University. No entry fee; $1 per game. (734) 213–2502. 

Monday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day): Hear civil rights lawyer and Union Theological Seminary visiting professor Michelle Alexander talk about myths surrounding the criminal justice system in her address, “Transforming the Jangling Discords of Our Nation,” the 2024 Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium sponsored by the U-M Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives. Alexander is a New York Times op/ed columnist who wrote the bestselling The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. 10 a.m., Hill Auditorium. Also via livestream here. Free. (734) 936–1055.

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

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