I knew when I wrote last week about “Oscillation,” the public art installation in temporary residence at Liberty Plaza, that my son and I would be there ASAP. As an autistic child, he’s what’s known as a sensory seeker: he craves visual, aural, and tactile stimulation. In certain dosages, it can delight and fascinate him for long periods of time.

“Oscillation” is an array of five giant crystal-like objects that change hues and warble musically when you walk past, wave, dance, or just stand nearby. You’re not supposed to touch them. 

I have a hearing disability that made the music hard to hear, and I wished the color changes were faster and more obvious.

But Nevada loved it and we got twenty minutes of fun out of it on Saturday. It’s too bad it will only be here for the two coldest months of the year – it leaves on March 16. If, like us, you’re thinking of pairing your visit with a hang at the downtown library, know that the youth area there is closed for an upgrade that includes new furniture, new play area, and reshelving all 50,000 books. The work will take about eight weeks.

I hope you’re all keeping warm and dry. Because of all the closures for MLK and the extreme cold, there’s less news this week than usual. That’s not always a bad thing, right?

– Steve Friess, editor

Groups, local leaders respond to Trump’s return to power: The Washtenaw Congregational Sanctuary held a vigil and a march on Monday to observe Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and to brace themselves for the Republican’s second term, MLive reports (paywall). Mayor Christopher Taylor, Washtenaw County sheriff Alyshia Dyer, and others told attendees they would not assist efforts to deport undocumented immigrants and will push back against other anti-progressive policies. On that front, the Associated Press reports Trump’s Justice Department issued a directive Wednesday that local officials who impede the federal government’s anti-immigrant efforts would be investigated “for potential criminal charges.” In Chelsea, the city council was expected to approve a resolution barring city employees, elected officials, and members of city boards from asking about immigration status.

State files felony charges in campus Gaza protests: Detroit resident Samantha “Sammie” Lewis, twenty-eight, and U-M alum Alice Elliott, thirty-one, are accused of felony resisting and obstructing a police officer and misdemeanor trespassing, MLive writes (paywall). The charges stem from a “Die-In” in August where demonstrators laid down in the Diag to demand U-M divest from companies connected to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The Diag was reserved that day for a student event, and police cleared it forcibly after protesters refused to leave. Lewis was also charged with felony resisting when police removed the Gaza encampment on the Diag in May.

Michigan Medicine resolves three union contracts in a week: The United Physician Assistants of Michigan Medicine ratified a three-year contract, the University Record writes. The deal with UPAMM, which represents 380 physician’s assistants, comes days after tentative deals were reached with the Professional Employee Council of Sparrow Hospital-Michigan Nurses Association and the United Michigan Medicine Allied Professionals. Those contracts are still pending ratification.

U-M Medical School celebrates 175 years: The first building opened in 1850 with ninety-five students and five faculty members, the Record writes. The anniversary celebration includes the launch of a commemorative website with information, links, events, stories, videos, and a merch store. Michigan Medicine is expecting this year to open a new hospital—the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion—on part of the site where its Old Main hospital opened a century earlier. As part of its coverage, MLive this week posted (paywall) a cool piece about five famous U-M Med School alums, including assisted-death advocate Jack Kervorkian and CNN’s Sanjay Gupta.

Damian’s Craft Meats gets processing plant OK: A Scio Twp. couple’s proposed 21,000-square-foot USDA-inspected facility in Manchester received a green light from the city, MLive writes (paywall). Damian Rivera and Rosemary Linares say they expect to process cattle, hogs, sheep, bison, and goats raised by local farmers.

Zingerman’s cofounder says he’s “a line cook who’s doing pretty well”: In a book excerpt published this month in the Observer, Ari Weinzweig cites an upbringing filled with popular junk food as proof that he wasn’t always destined to have “a deep connection to food and cooking.” It was serendipitous that after graduating from the U-M with a history degree he got a job as a dishwasher and worked his way to line cook. “Working with food taught me to really taste, touch, smell, and savor. It helped me learn how to listen better to my body, to watch the way birds land on branches, to take in the grace of the bees as they buzz around colorful blossoms,” he writes in “Life Lessons I Learned from Being a Line Cook.” “Working with food in this way opened a whole new world for me.”

MSP says driver killed in wrong-way crash spoke of suicide: The twenty-four-year-old Pinckney man died Saturday night after colliding with a concrete barrier while driving the wrong way on the eastbound I-94 exit ramp from Ann Arbor-Saline Rd., according to a Michigan State Police post on X. The man had been stopped by Saline police earlier for speeding and, during that encounter, made statements about a desire for self-harm. Anyone considering self-harm or suicide can call or text 988 for help.

Two EMU basketball games flagged for unusual betting: ESPN reports the Eagles’ games at Central Michigan last week and against Wright State on Dec. 21 triggered concerns from Integrity Compliance 360, a firm that polices gambling issues for the NCAA. The suspicious bets include “high stakes wagers from two accounts in a different jurisdiction, both on Central Michigan 1st Half spread.” Gamblers on sports-betting apps can make wagers on a wide range of minutiae while the game is being played, and in this case the bets were about the score at the end of the first half. EMU officials say they are looking into the matter.

Kroger, eighty townhouses pitched for Pittsfield Twp.: Farmington Hills-based Schafer Development will tell the planning board tonight how it wants to use fifty acres at the northeast corner of E. Michigan Avenue and Old State Road, MLive writes. In addition to the supermarket, they’re proposing a fourteen-pump gas station, a drive-thru pharmacy, and two smaller retail buildings. Toll Brothers would build the townhomes.

Saline city manager resigns: Colleen O’Toole leaves at the end of January, prompting the launch of a search for a successor, the Sun Times News writes. Elle Cole, who has been serving as both deputy city manager and city treasurer, will fill in as acting manager. In a statement, O’Toole writes that the departure date “allows me to take ample time off to welcome a third child with my wife in early February before starting in a new role.”

Forsythe Middle School student advances in Kid’s Baking Championship: In the third episode of the Food Network series’ new season, Ann Arbor’s Ella Hayek and fellow contestant Arielle Yang took first place for a cake that made a cocker spaniel look like a pilot. The girls were assigned different parts; Ella made the head, a vanilla cake with bacon pastry cream and maple buttercream. (Part of the challenge was to use bacon.) “It is so well iced, the ears are the right scale, and I like that you did the anime treatment on the eyes,” judge Duff Goldman said of Hayek’s work. There are now nine contestants left vying for a $25,000 prize. The show airs at 8 p.m. on Mondays and is available to stream on Tuesdays on Max.

Dexter breakfast spot closes in landlord dispute: The Dexter Riverview Cafe announced on Jan. 10 on Facebook that it had shut down “due to unwanted and unforeseen circumstances” and pointed to a Sun Times News article describing a conflict with the building’s owners. The Hoxha family, who owned the restaurant, wrote on social media, “We wish to someday return to Dexter to continue spreading and receiving the love that this community deserves.”

Thai-Chinese eatery opens in Arbor Square Plaza: Bangkok Chinatown Cuisine is the brainchild of Ubol Saenthippkayap, who tells Dave Algase in this month’s Observer that she grew up cooking in her family’s business in northern Thailand. She learned American food service protocols—allergens are a much bigger concern here—during stints at Totoro, Tuptim, Basil Babe, Seoul Garden, and Taste Kitchen while saving up for a place of her own. Named for the popular tourist district in the Thai capital, it offers authentic Thai recipes and spicier takes on Chinese dumplings, soups, and entrees. 

Isalita to become Mani Next Door: Adam Baru has closed his Mexican cantina after twelve years and plans to remake that storefront as a space for family-style meals, larger parties, and private events for Mani Osteria & Bar, his Italian restaurant next door. Baru tells Dave Algase in this month’s Observer that he hopes to be open by U-M graduation in May.

Warm The Children meets rising need: The local (and largest) branch of the national nonprofit provides new winterwear to kids across the county, Cynthia Furlong Reynolds writes in this month’s Observer. By November, they’d handed out mittens, coats, hats, and other items to more than 1,500 children, which was more “than we have in many years,” says program manager Mary Stewart. Stewart’s father founded the charity in the 1970s when, as a local newspaper reporter, he noticed kids without adequate gear waiting for the school bus on a chilly late-fall day. Originally sponsored locally by the Ann Arbor News, it’s now housed at the Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor. For more information or to donate, email Stewart.

Animal refuge seeks helpers: Manchester’s SASHA Farm, which takes in abused, neglected, and abandoned farm animals around the country, needs volunteers for its fifteen-cat barn, according to manager Lynn Donell. Volunteers must be over twenty-one and available to work one morning per week from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tasks include feeding, scooping, cleaning and laundry to provide a clean, healthy environment for the cats. SASHA stands for Sanctuary and Safe Haven for Animals. For more information, email Lynn or call or text her at (734) 748-6251.

FedUp hosting volunteer info session Monday: The Ypsi-based program, which operates a food truck sent around the region to provide healthy eats for people who are food-insecure, is run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Southeast Michigan Synod. Volunteers need not be members of the church. FedUp holds these meetings at 7 p.m. on the last Monday of each month, so the first one of 2025 is Monday. Click here to register to attend; location is provided to registrants.

By Jennifer Taylor

Friday: Catch The Ark’s 48th Annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival, with two nights of performances by established and rising stars. Friday’s headliner is Waxahatchee, an Alabama-bred indie folk-rock singer-songwriter with a bright, lilting voice and poetic lyrics. Also appearing: master of moody and evocative ballads Josh Ritter, up-and-coming country-rock musician Jobi Riccio, “queer country” singer-songwriter Adeem the Artist, and Brooklyn-based six-piece world music ensemble Afro Dominicano. 7 p.m., Hill Auditorium. Tickets $48 to $250 in advance at the Michigan Union Ticket Office (734) 763–TKTS, theark.org or at the door. 

Saturday: Attend the Ann-Hua Chinese School’s all-ages Chinese New Year’s Celebration to usher in the Year of the Snake with crafts, yaogu drumming, a lion dance, and children’s folk dance performances. Traditional treats provided. Noon to 4 p.m., AADL Downtown. Free. (734) 327–4555. 

Sunday: Hear U-M music and musical theater students, including pianist Tzu-Yin Huang, in a “Gershwin Centennial Concert.” They’ll perform the songwriter’s virtuosic 1925 Concerto in F. 4 p.m., Michigan Theater. $27 to $52 (students with ID, $8). Tickets in advance only here. 

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

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