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Tomorrow, I take our (newly healthy!) son to his first art fair. We’re going in the morning to avoid crowds and I’m not sure what he’ll make of it, but it has been hyped for both of us for years in, of all things, a children’s board book called “Good Night Michigan.” We first started learning about all the state’s interesting attractions from this book during the pandemic when we could not partake in most of them, so this shall be the first of many we check off the list. (No. 2 will be a game at the Big House this fall followed, inevitably, by a journey to Frankenmuth.) You can see the aforementioned page below.
I’m looking forward to this A2 rite of passage. My husband says we went once years ago, but I don’t recall. I plan to bring a photo of my late grandmother to see if I can hire someone to make a painting of her to have for my daughter, who is named for her. Is that a thing people do at the art fair? I guess I’ll find out.
This was another difficult news week, with two more homicides and a local man among the sixteen Republicans charged with crimes related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. But there was some positive news – Covid was less deadly here than elsewhere, the mental health retreat Garrett’s Space got its approval, and the tortured path to opening day of the local franchise of Big Blue Swim School is almost over. What’s more, I feel enriched just learning that some industrious U-M students have raised an eye-popping $5 million since 2017 for water projects in Pakistan, don’t you?
As I study where to park so I’m not caught illegally consulting my phone while circling the art fair, I wish all of you a safe, hands-free week ahead.
– Steve Friess, editor
(Correction: In the July 13 a2view newsletter, the first name of the founder of CareYaya was misspelled. He is Neal Shah.)
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The page from “Good Night Michigan,” a 2011 illustrated children’s book by Adam Gamble and Mark Jasper that references the art fair. Your a2view editor and his son plan to make like these people and eat ice cream this weekend at the fair. Credit: Steve Friess.
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Son arrested in brutal slaying of father: Shaquille Williams, twenty-seven, was arraigned on a charge of open murder on Saturday, two days after sixty-year-old Clifford Williams was stabbed twenty-two times, MLive reports. The homicide took place outside a home in the 1700 block of Devon St. in Superior Twp., after which the suspect fled in his father’s car to Marshall. He turned himself in there, police said.
Man found shot to death in car on M-14: State police found the twenty-eight-year-old Detroiter in a vehicle on the shoulder with a gunshot wound, MLive reports. Witnesses told officers a black sedan fled the scene driven by a man in a hoodie. Anyone with any information, including dashcam footage from the area around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, should call (877) 616-4677 or click here.
Police nab suspect in road-rage shooting in Inkster: David Copeland, twenty, was arrested by Ypsi police last week after being sought since May following an incident in which he allegedly shot at a mother and daughter who rear-ended his car, Fox 2 Detroit reports. Mobile phone video showed him limping away from the scene with one leg in a cast. Ypsi police stopped Copeland’s vehicle because they thought it was connected to a local shooting. The occupants, including Copeland, led police on a brief foot chase.
Ypsi Republican among sixteen indicted in 2020 fake electors scheme: Timothy King, a fifty-six-year-old retired tool and die worker and local GOP activist, was among the group of Republicans who tried to replace Michigan’s electoral college representatives with a slate of pro-Donald Trump electors despite Trump’s decisive loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged each of the sixteen with eight felonies including conspiracy to commit forgery, forgery, and election law forgery. King, who lost a 2016 race for Washtenaw County commissioner, faces up to eight years in prison.
Discrimination suit filed against VA in A2: Dena Leath, who is Black, alleges she was mistreated and harassed during her time as a criminal investigator from July 2018 to May 2021, ClickOnDetroit reports. Leath, who retired from her job as a Detroit police officer in 2017 after twenty-three years, received a Right to Sue letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in March 2023.
County commissioners OK’s big raises for themselves, other officials: Administrator Greg Dill is getting a 16.3 percent increase to $272,363 and all countywide elected officeholders – clerk Larry Kestenbaum, prosecutor Eli Savit, sheriff Jerry Clayton, treasurer Catherine McClary, and water resources commission Evan Pratt – will now earn $170,000, MLive reports (paywall). Commissioners also more than doubled their own pay to $36,315 starting in their 2025 terms, and agreed to spend $4.4 million to provide one-time payments of up to $8,000 for pandemic first responders.
Seven-story apartment building approved: The 196-unit structure at Maiden Ln. and Broadway will complete the Beekman on Broadway development, following 254-unit and 286-unit towers, according to the city. Despite objections that its use of gas heat will set back the city’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality, council voted 9-0 to approve it.
City selling 54 acres of farmland at a discount: Under a new “buy-protect-sell” model, Ann Arbor is offering up a twenty-acre parcel of protected land on Nollar Rd. for $122,000 and a thirty-four-acre parcel for $204,000. The city and county purchased the Northfield Twp. property last year for $624,000, according to a request for proposals posted online. Interested parties have until September 11 to explain how they would maintain it for agricultural use. Open houses to explain the program are scheduled for 10 a.m. tomorrow and July 27 from 4 to 7 p.m. on the property.
Emails show A2 leaders mulling reparations: Several council members have shown an eagerness in electronic communications to pursue a way to repay Black people for historic injustices, MLive reports. Some ideas being considered include housing subsidies, payments to families affected by the incarceration system, and those who experience health challenges, according to the messages obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request. Both Washtenaw County and Detroit have authorized panels to study the issue and devise plans.
Brown Chapel marks 180th anniversary: The second-oldest African Methodist Episcopal Church in the state was once a stop along the Underground Railroad helping enslaved people escape to freedom in Canada, Concentrate reports. The church remained at its original location at Adams and Buffalo streets until 1999 when it relocated to 1043 W. Michigan Ave.
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Skinny Farm of Scio co-owner Tim Redmond, left, joined Theo Mourad and Aaron Brodkey for a May pop-up at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market. Their Beet Jerky incorporates 96 percent of the beet, the packaging is compostable, and the greens are composted by the organic farms that supply the beets. Credit: Mark Bialek.
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County says local Covid death rate was low for Michigan: A report on the pandemic’s first three years, from March 2020 to February 2023, tallied 642 deaths from “confirmed or probable” coronavirus cases in Washtenaw County. That’s about half the per capita statewide death rate. In a press release, WCHD health officer Jimena Loveluck credited the region’s testing, contact tracing, and vaccine promotion as making the difference: “Our work to respond together saved lives.”
Mental health retreat wins approval: Garrett’s Space, slated to be a 76-acre residential center for young people at risk of suicide, is a go thanks to a 5-2 vote of the Superior Twp. board on Monday, Bridge Michigan reports. Opponents had argued the operation violated the land-use plan and could create traffic and safety issues. The center, which received a $4 million federal grant, is named for Garrett Halpert, a U-M graduate who died by suicide in 2017. His mother, journalist Julie Halpert, is a longtime Observer contributor.
Scio Twp. tax auto-pay plan hits reset: The township told its residents it could begin receiving payments via bank draft but halted the system after one week out of concerns for data security because it allowed users to submit sensitive information via attachments to e-mail, MLive reports (paywall). Township trustees voted 6-1 to stop the program; treasurer Donna Palmer, the lone opponent, asserted that the system is secure. Still, it appears Palmer jumped the gun; state law requires municipalities that move to such a system to pass a resolution authorizing it. Security experts say e-mail is insecure and can be easily intercepted.
Marching Band move to new site punted: The $15.4 million facility was supposed to be ready by August, but they’ll still be practicing at Elbel Field when the football season begins because of a stormwater drainage issue on the new location, MLive reports (paywall). Practices will be held at the old site until construction starts on a dorm complex that is set to rise there. At that point, they’ll move to Ferry Field off S. State St. until the new Elbel Field off Hill St. is ready.
Lights delivered by helicopter for Big House upgrades: The $41 million makeover of Michigan Stadium this summer includes new $12 million scoreboards and additional illumination for night games. The football team’s Twitter feed, which has been tracking the progress of the construction, provided video of new fixtures being air-dropped by a chopper. The upgrades are being privately funded, U-M says.
U-M’s solar-powered three-wheeler to compete in Australian race: Astrum, a bright maize single-passenger vehicle with Michigan Blue detailing, is the seventeenth by the Michigan Solar Car Team since 1989 as part of a series of challenges to encourage student-built green innovation in transportation, the University Record writes. The team expects to travel to Darwin for the 1,800-mile Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in October. U-M finished third in the 2019 edition of the biannual race, which skipped 2021 during the Covid pandemic.
A2 natives go regionwide with “beet jerky”: The low-cal snack developed by Huron High and U-M alums Theo Mourad and Aaron Brodkey recently hit the shelves at Whole Foods stores across the Midwest, Trilby MacDonald reports for this month’s Observer. Mourad, with gigs at two well-regarded farm-to-table restaurants behind him, created the product in his Chicago apartment during the Covid lockdowns.
Firm developing electronic Braille display technology lands venture capital: The locally based Accelerate Blue Fund is investing an undisclosed sum in NewHaptics, a start-up that grew out of research at U-M, D Business reports. NewHaptics holds a patent on “tactile display technology that enables the creation of a compact, portable, and large-area tactile ‘screen,’” according to the company website.
State Street District names new leader: The group behind the State Street District Art Fair hired Angela Heflin, previously of the Michigan Venture Capital Association, to replace outgoing executive director Frances Todoro-Hargreaves, MLive reports. Heflin, a fifteen-year resident of Ann Arbor and a soccer coach at Huron High, is expected to start on August 7.
Women take charge at the Ann Arbor Club: Attorney Maya Curtis and entrepreneur Emily Dabish Yahkind are co-leaders of one of the city’s oldest and most esteemed social groups, which until recently was all-male, John Hilton reports in this month’s Observer. Though only about a dozen of the eighty or so members of the lunch club in the Fritz Building are women, Dabish Yahkind says, “It seems like it was something that was wanted. … The club is looking for new ideas and for positive energy.” They hope to build the membership back up to about 100.
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A fire ravaged the Big Blue Swim School as it was being built in February 2022, so it’s been a long road to construction and opening that will end this week. Courtesy: Hiag Avsharian.
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Big Blue Swim School opens Monday: Delayed by a February 2022 fire that devastated parts of the Cranbrook Village shopping center on Eisenhower Pkwy., the business announced on Facebook that it expects to begin providing lessons for kids aged three months to twelve years next week. The Ann Arbor franchise of the growing national brand is offering a welcome deal of $25 for the first four lessons; after that lessons start at $32 per lesson. Jordan Scenna wrote about Big Blue Ann Arbor’s owner, Hiag Avsharian, and the short film he made about his misadventures involving a different kind of swimmer in the September 2022 issue of the Observer.
Crepe Nation relocates to Jackson Rd.: The breakfast spot is trading its original Golfside Rd. spot for Scio Township, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. Proprietor Complete Chijioki, a twenty-four-year-old who moved here from Indiana, launched the Ypsilanti Twp. location during the pandemic.
Iggy’s Eggies to replace defunct Salad’s Up on Liberty: The Detroit breakfast spot announced on Facebook last week that it plans to start dishing out its crispy hash browns, breakfast burritos, and egg sandwiches by early 2024. The original site, “your li’l neighborhood walk-up window” in Capitol Park, opened in 2018.
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U-M students raise $1.2M for Pakistan flood relief: The mission of Paani, started by four Pakistani-American undergrads in 2017, began as an effort to build wells to provide clean water in what the International Monetary Fund ranks among the world’s “most water stressed countries.” After last year’s historic floods, the group shifted gears to provide food and shelter, the Michigan Daily reports. Paani has raised more than $5 million overall so far, and continues to be staffed by Pakistani-American undergrads, according to its website.
Humane Society of Huron Valley seeks pet foster families: CEO Tanya Hilgendorf tells WEMU the shelter is in great need of homes for pets surrendered temporarily by owners experiencing hardships. The program, Safe Harbor, aims to prevent a top cause of abandoned and homeless pets, particularly dogs. To find out more, click here.
Couple donate eight $2,500 scholarships for music studies: The eponymous Remedios Montalbo and A. Michael Young Scholarships, now in their eighth year, are offered in collaboration with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra to support four college-bound seniors at Ypsilanti Community High and Pinckney Community High. The Ypsi recipients are Nyla Hood, who will attend U-M Dearborn, EMU-bound La’nyia Larsh-South, and Mohamed Kourourma and Jade Smith, both soon to be WCC students.
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By Jennifer Taylor
Friday: Catch live music and other performances on three stages as part of Ann Arbor Art Fair Entertainment. Highlights Friday include Chelsea singer-songwriter Rochelle Clark (5 p.m.) and local singer-songwriter and guitarist Billy King (6 p.m.) on the Ingalls Mall Fountain Stage (Ingalls Mall between E. Washington St. and North University). A2 native Ki5 (6 p.m.) and the Oregon-based pop-folk duo Jeffrey Martin & Anna Tivel (7:30 p.m.) appear on The Ark Stage (Palio parking lot at William & Main). See full lineup here. JFair hours: July 20–22. 11 a.m.–9 p.m. (Thurs. & Fri.) & noon–9 p.m. (Sat.), downtown Ann Arbor. Free admission. (800) 888–9487.
Saturday: Join the University Lowbrow Astronomers for a look at the sky. Participants are encouraged to bring their own telescopes. Visitors must turn off all electronic equipment (car radios, transmitters, phones, etc.) at the observatory entrance. Canceled if sky is overcast at sunset or if the weather is extremely inclement. If in doubt, call after 4 p.m. on Saturday. Sunset to 12:30 a.m. or as long as the sky remains clear, Peach Mountain Observatory, N. Territorial Rd. (about a mile west of Hudson Mills Metropark), Dexter. Free. (734) 975–3248.
Sunday: Check out farm animals at the Washtenaw County 4-H Youth Show. Also, crafts, exhibits, equestrian competitions, and assorted contests from animal decorating to a goat milk-out. Highlights later in the week include the popular “Llama Leaping Contest” (Wednesday, 2 p.m.), the livestock auction (Thursday, 6:30 p.m.), and the “Ag Olympics” (July 28, 2:30 p.m.), where 4-H youth compete in Olympic-style games involving water, mud, and agricultural products. For daily schedule, click here. July 23 to 28. 8 a.m. to evening, Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds, 5055 Ann Arbor–Saline Rd. Free. (734) 222–3877.
See the Observer’s online calendar for many more local events.
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