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Happy Fourth of July! On account of the holiday, we’re coming to you a day early.
A modest request of everyone: Please don’t set off firecrackers in your streets without considering your neighbors. Last year, the banging right outside our trying-to-sleep autistic toddler was incessant, prolonged, and terrifying. It’s no fun for pets, either, of course. As Fox News notes, military vets with PTSD are often triggered, too. And, in our case, our yard and cars were coated with ash and debris.
Besides being disrespectful, it’s illegal. It would’ve been nice if the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office had clarified in its social media post that fireworks are forbidden in the public right-of-way. Fox 2 Detroit has a better overview of the law.
If you simply must blow out your eardrums and risk your kids’ limbs to look like the cool parent, go somewhere away from other people. Or, better yet, attend a sanctioned, legal fireworks show. And at the very least, give your neighbors a heads up and keep the activity to a specific time frame.
Above all, be safe and considerate. It’s the American way.
– Steve Friess, editor
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Council took a dramatic pivot this week when it voted unanimously to hire a broker to sell the Kline’s lot rather than continue tts decades of inconclusive discussion. Credit: Mark Bialek.
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Council votes to hire broker for Kline’s lot: After decades of discussing the future of the downtown site, staff will look for an agent to sell it, MLive reports (paywall). Last year, the city received an unsolicited proposal to build a Sports Illustrated-themed hotel there, but it was withdrawn after public protest. “This is a good opportunity to get out of the way — we are the problem,” council member Linh Song said. The property at S. Ashley and William was last appraised at nearly $17 million, city administrator Milton Dohoney has said.
Stephen Ross’s company to develop former Y parcel: Related Midwest is entering a partnership with the Ann Arbor Housing Commission to turn a city-owned public parking lot at 350 S. Fifth Ave. into a high-rise with as many as 300 apartment units, according to a press release. Related is the powerhouse development firm owned by the U-M megadonor and business school and athletic campus namesake. The plan would require at least 100 of the units to be available for people earning 60 percent of the area median income.
Victory Inn to be demolished: The planning commission has OK’d a developer’s plan to replace the hotel across from Arborland with a new four-story, 101,357-square-foot building, according to city documents. Victory Inn and Suites, which has frequently been the subject of police calls, has 113 rooms; the new hotel, a co-brand of Staybridge Suites and Holiday Inn Express, will have 159. Siam Square, the Thai restaurant inside the hotel, will have to relocate.
AAPS releases “forensic report” on budget mess: The fourteen-page document confirmed that the district increased spending despite falling enrollment, including giving raises to all employee groups months before adopting a budget that showed expenditures virtually unchanged. “The obvious red flags should have been identified by management and the Board,” wrote Plante Moran, the accounting firm hired to assess how the district came to have to cut $20.4 million from the 2024-25 budget. The report also dispelled the notion that the fund balance was overstated by an accounting error. Though a $14 million disbursement from the state to supplement employee pensions was mistakenly carried forward from the year before, it was entered as both revenue and an expense, so the errors canceled each other out.
Board approves superintendent contract: Jazz Parks, who has served as interim superintendent for AAPS since the resignation of Jeanice Swift last fall, now officially has the top job, WEMU reports. The trustees approved a three-year contract with a base salary of $256,000, down from a four-year, $265,000 deal. Parks also will receive the same pay increase as the rest of the staff rather than a guaranteed 3 percent annual boost.
AG weighing state charges against U-M pro-Palestinian protesters: The Tahrir Coalition, an alliance of several student groups opposed to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, denounced the school’s efforts to prosecute participants connected with various demonstrations including the monthlong encampment that occupied the Diag, the Michigan Advance reports. The attorney general’s office confirmed they were looking “a number of cases involving protest activity around the University of Michigan.”
Students anxious, scrambling as Concordia contracts: Undergraduates of the Lutheran college’s Ann Arbor campus are unsure where they’ll complete their degrees following a bombshell announcement that it will cut almost all its academic programs as of the 2025-26 school year, the Detroit News reports (paywall). The school is encouraging students to take online classes that year or transfer to its sister campus in suburban Milwaukee. Student-athletes expressed similar frustrations and uncertainties to ClickOnDetroit this week because all but seven competitive sports teams are being cut this fall, with the rest canceled in 2025-26.
Water main repaired, road reopened: A rupture on Thursday on Ann Arbor-Saline Rd. north of Eisenhower Pkwy. closed the road until Monday afternoon, according to the city. Water service was restored on Friday, but repairing the road took longer.
Michigan Medicine CEO to retire: Marschall Runge, who also has served as dean of the U-M Medical School since January 2016, is stepping down at the end of his contract on June 30, 2025, according to the University Record. Runge will remain on the faculty as a professor. “He has been a visionary leader who is forward thinking, strategic and committed to academic and clinical excellence,” president Santa Ono wrote in an email to the U-M community. “Philanthropic gifts more than doubled under his leadership and resulted in important contributions to education, discovery and clinical practice.”
A2 athletes head to Paris Olympics: Zachary Hammer, eighteen, qualified in Sport Climbing at trials in Budapest last weekend by climbing a fifty-foot wall in 5.15 seconds, WZZM-TV reports. The event is making only its second appearance at the Summer Games. Runner Hobbes Kessler, also from Ann Arbor, qualified for a second race in Paris, the 800-meter, MLive reports. The former Skyline High phenom had already qualified for the 1,500-meter race.
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Four struck by lightning at Milan concert: All were impacted by the same lightning bolt, according to a Milan Fire post on Facebook. The incident occurred at a concert that followed the Mud Bash at the Milan Dragway. Two of the four were hospitalized overnight but none had significant injuries.
Bank robbery suspect held on $1M bond: Woody Harold LaBudde, forty-one, is accused of demanding cash from a teller at Old National Bank in Saline on Thursday morning before fleeing, the Sun-Times News reports. He was apprehended by police after a foot chase. LaBudde faces one count of bank robbery and armed robbery and two counts of resisting and obstructing a police officer.
Body found in rural Washtenaw County: The corpse of a woman was discovered in Northfield Twp. along Earhart Rd. just north of Six Mile Rd. on Sunday, CBS Detroit reports. Police have not released any further information.
Hands-free means hands-free – even at stoplights: One year after the state’s strict new policy banning the use of mobile phones while driving took effect, an AAPS spokesperson tells the Observer’s Brooke Black that most of the tickets issued so far were at red lights or stop signs. Prohibited uses include dialing and texting, punching in GPS information, using social media, and even just holding the phone. During Distracted Driving Month in April, AAPS issued 405 citations and 420 warnings.
Ban on criminal checks approved in Ypsi: The city council approved a measure this week to prevent landlords from asking about or requiring information about an applicant’s criminal history, according to city records. Landlords also would not be allowed to deny an application based on knowledge of a person’s criminal background. A second reading is set for Tuesday. The ordinance is modeled after Ann Arbor’s Fair Chance Housing Ordinance.
Avalon Housing project gets $9M boost from state: The nonprofit, which provides supportive housing for people coming out of homelessness, announced in a website post a $5.8 million bond-financed construction loan as well as $3.3 million in federal-backed permanent loans. The funds will be used to build twenty-two one-bedroom apartments at 206 N. Washington St. in downtown Ypsi.
Hyundai considers further expansion, supervisor says: Kenneth Schwartz writes in Superior Twp.’s quarterly newsletter that the Korean automaker “will be returning to the township planning commission for additional review” now that a $55 million addition to its spread at LeForge and Geddes roads is complete. Hyundai is the township’s largest taxpayer.
EMU to host refugee students: Welcome Corps on Campus, a State Department partnership with six nonprofits, places students whose studies were interrupted in their countries of origin at U.S. schools, according to a press release. EMU’s board voted to move forward on June 20, making it the first of the eighteen schools expected to participate to formalize its commitment.
Study shows end-of-alphabet last names receive lower grades: An analysis of 30 million grading records at U-M found that students whose names started with a W, X, Y, or Z also got more negative feedback and were more likely to submit post-grade complaints, the Michigan Daily writes. The study, conducted by researchers at the Ross School of Business and the School of Information, found the trend “is more prominent in social science and humanities.” One theory posited by researchers is that graders are tired by the time they reach these papers; they suggest randomizing the order in which submissions are reviewed to mitigate this tendency.
“Pillar in the Ann Arbor food scene” comes back post-pandemic: Jie Hye Kim, co-owner of the James Beard-nominated Korean restaurant Miss Kim, tells Micheline Maynard in this month’s Observer that Covid nearly killed her business. National attention helped; as she struggled to keep the eatery going, she was named one of the nation’s best new chefs by Food & Wine in September 2021. Next year, she leads at least two trips to South Korea for Zingerman’s Food Tours.
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Mom and pop boba shop seeks niche in crowded market: Sip Boba Tea House, next to Izzy’s Hoagie Shop on W. Stadium, is the product of Saline native Megan Stevens’ passion for the Taiwanese beverage, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. She acknowledges that there are any number of places in town serving boba tea these days, but she believes her community focus and original boba recipes – one has lemongrass-infused butterfly pea syrup – will win fans.
Miny’s Mexican adding A2 location: The Ypsi restaurant announced in a social media post in June that it expects to open a second eatery at a former Cottage Inn Pizza at 1141 Broadway. Miny’s opened in 2017; the owners, the Gonzalez family, say they hope it is the first step towards building a chain.
Four A2 restaurants nab Wine Spectator accolades again: Blue LLama Jazz Club, The Earle, Paesano, and Weber’s each received a gold star from the international magazine for the quality of their wine service, selection of wines, and how well they match food served at each restaurant. Weber’s has enjoyed an Award of Excellence since 1984, The Earle has received the honor since 1999, and Blue Llama and Paesano were first named in 2020.
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A2 specialists fit prosthetic limbs in Ukraine: Chris Perry and Mike Schroeder of Perry Prosthetics spent ten days in Lviv at the Superhumans Center where scores of injured soldiers come for care, MLive reports. The men worked twelve-hour days placing dozens of prosthetics; Schroeder said they typically place three to four a month in the United States.
U-M students raise $203,000 for C.S. Mott: Members of Dance Marathon at the University of Michigan say that’s their total haul from the past academic year, ClickOnDetroit reports. The organization paired up with Kroger to put on several fundraising events, DMUM leaders said. In total, the group has raised more than $7 million in donations and sponsorships for children’s therapies since it was created 27 years ago.
Friends In Deed seeks volunteers for climbing fundraiser: The Ypsi-based charity is holding its annual Over The Edge on Aug. 17, and helpers are needed to oversee the activities. For the event, groups raise money to sponsor a volunteer who’ll descend EMU’s Hill Hall on ropes. Specifically, the organization needs people willing to be trained “in ensuring the safety and seamless execution of the rappelling experience” as well as general volunteers to manage participants and spectators. Click here to learn more.
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By Jennifer Taylor
Independence Day: The Ann Arbor 4th of July Parade starts at 10 a.m. at E. William and S. State and ends at E. Liberty and Thompson. Afterward, dip into the Ann Arbor Fire Department’s Firefighter’s Spray Park, a demonstration of firefighting tools that also provides a chance to cool off by running through hose streams. 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., Maynard at E. William. Free.
Friday: Hear Detroit-born comic Nate Armbruster, whose material ranges from what it’s like being his mother’s second-favorite child to using Covid as his go-to excuse for getting out of obligations. 7:15 p.m. (Fri. & Sat.) and 9:45 p.m. (Sat.), Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase, 212 S. Fourth Ave. $20 at aacomedy.com and (if available) at the door. (734) 996–9080.
Saturday: Catch the Outfit, a Flint-based bluegrass quintet with a repertoire of original tunes and “grass-ified” covers of the likes of Jimi Hendrix, John Prine, and Bob Marley. Opener: Ypsi singer-songwriter Eric Moore. Outdoor performance; attendees encouraged to bring their own camp chairs, blankets, and coolers. 6 to 9 p.m., Broken Branch Ranch, 6090 Plymouth Rd. Free; tips accepted.
Sunday: Hear Kalamazoo-based essayist Samantha Irby discuss “We Are Never Meeting in Real Life,” her 2017 collection of humorous observations that capture powerful emotional truths and touch on everything from awkward sexual encounters to advice on how to navigate friendships with former drinking buddies who are now suburban moms. Followed by a signing and Q&A, all part of Ann Arbor District Library’s 2024 Big Gay Read Author Event. 6 to 7:30 p.m., AADL Downtown. Free. (734) 327–4200.
See the Observer’s online calendar for many more local events.
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