For my day job, I write a twice-weekly column about the gambling industry for a website called PlayUSA. I’m not a big gambler myself, but I’ve covered the business for more than twenty-five years and have a progressive-libertarian slant that I apply to my coverage and observations.

I bring this up now because, for the first time since I started writing the a2view newsletter, I’ve written something for PlayUSA I think you’ll enjoy. It’s all about why I bet against Michigan last weekend and robbed myself of the pure pleasure of seeing them beat Ohio State yet again.

While you’re at it, I strongly recommend yet another outstanding column by Michigan Daily sportswriter Connor Earegood in which he astutely notes this may have been the last really important faceoff in the storied rivalry thanks to the coming Big Ten expansion. Earegood’s observant work this season has been consistently excellent.

Your week’s news digest is below for your perusal. Also, the Observer has a new blog on our website – Poet Tree Town’s Poem of the Week – so bookmark it and enjoy! 

– Steve Friess, editor

P.S. Our December print edition has a serious error: a photo of Barbara McQuade was published in place of one of profile subject Karen TenBrink. We will republish the TenBrink piece along with a profile of McQuade in the January issue. Read our corrected piece on TenBrink online here. We regret the mixup.

Council to interview four finalists for AAPD chief: The public can watch tomorrow via a YouTube livestream at a special meeting that begins at 8 a.m. It’s the second time this year that council has quizzed a quartet of potential top cops about their crime-fighting and public safety philosophies and priorities; none of the four finalists interviewed in August were hired. The new contenders are former Tempe, Ariz., assistant police chief Andre Anderson, Albany, N.Y. police chief Eric Hawkins, Detroit second deputy chief Kyra Joy Hope, and San Diego PD lieutenant and U-M alum Carmelin Rivera. Read their bios on the city’s website.

Harbaugh gets $500K bonus for winning The Game despite scandal: That’s the sweetener in his contract, regardless of the fact that he didn’t coach six of the twelve games this season on account of two three-game suspensions, USA Today reports. The Wolverines bested Ohio State 30-24 at home without him on the sidelines to earn its third straight trip to the Big Ten championship game and, most likely, a berth in the College Football Playoffs. With the NCAA’s ongoing probe into an alleged sign-stealing scheme putting contract extension talks with Harbaugh on ice for now, U-M president Santa Ono nonetheless threw his support behind the coach yesterday in an interview with ClickonDetroit. Meanwhile, the rumor mill churns with grist about whether Harbaugh is a contender for head coach of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers.

Ohio State faceoff draws protesters, season-high expulsions: Fifty-one of the 110,615 attendees at the Big House were removed for reasons ranging from intoxication and smoking to disorderly conduct and misusing student ID cards, MLive reports. Also, about seventy members of Washtenaw County 4 Palestine blocked traffic at the intersection of Victors Way and S. State near I-94, WWJ reports.

Ypsi reverses course on police commission rules, Palestine support: City council voted 6-0 at first reading to exempt its police advisory commission from Open Meetings Act rules but flipped to preserve the requirements 5-1 after resident pushback, according to city records. At the same Nov. 21 meeting, the council also retracted a Nov. 7 resolution declaring “support and solidarity” for Palestinians amid a “campaign of ethnic cleansing and collective punishment by the state of Israel.” Following a firestorm of criticism from residents, the council voted 4-2 to take it back. 

U-M won’t punish School of Information advisory board member: Carin Ehrenberg was filmed throwing verbal barbs at students demonstrating in support of Palestine on Oct. 13 outside the university president’s house, the Michigan Daily reports. Ehrenberg, a clinical psychologist and long-time U-M donor, is seen in a video trying to grab a student’s phone and shouting “rapists and murderers” among other epithets. More than 100 people signed a letter calling on dean Elizabeth Yakel  to remove Ehrenberg from the board and strip her name from a scholarship her family funds. Yakel expressed disappointment in Ehrenberg’s conduct but declined to discipline her.

Groundbreaking set for $250M U-M Detroit Center for Innovation: Faced with a year-end deadline to assure $100 million in state funding, the research and education campus begins construction on Dec. 14, ClickOnDetroit reports. The initial three buildings in the city are expected to open in 2027. In addition to the state money, they’re being funded by a $100 million gift from billionaire alum Stephen Ross, with another $50 million to be raised from donors. The Illitch family’s Olympia Development is donating the site. 

The Arb fights insect deadly to hemlock: While the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum typically do not treat bugs, they’ve made an exception for hemlock woolly adelgid, or HWA, which reproduces asexually, spreads its eggs by the wind, and “suck the blood out of the tree,” U-M experts told Brooke Black in the December issue of the Observer. The tree-by-tree treatment cost the MBGNA some $50,000, but that’s seen as a small price to pay to buy time for more comprehensive measures to protect the state’s estimated 150 million eastern hemlocks.

Mobile “fowling” trailer returned by “good Samaritan”: The theft of the sixteen-footer, which the owner of Fowling Warehouse of Ypsi bought for $6,650 in 2021 to bring the football-bowling hybrid to public events, was so weird that the Detroit Free Press columnist Neal Rubin clucked about it. On Instagram this week, the business celebrated its return after someone bought it off Facebook Marketplace “for a price that was too good to be true.” When the buyer went to register it, they learned it was stolen and gave it back.

Council rezoning six acres on Pontiac Trail for 120 additional apartments: The property is in two parcels annexed from Ann Arbor Twp. as part of the two-phase Village of Ann Arbor development, according to city records. Council approved the first phase, which includes 164 homes and 440 apartments, earlier this year. The new approval, which garnered unanimous support in the first reading and is expected to sail through final passage on Dec. 18, also includes additional open space.

Segment of S. Main closing for two days for crane placement: The stretch from Packard to William streets will be inaccessible to cars from 7 a.m. Monday through 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to the city. Pedestrians will only be able to use the east side of Main. It’s apparently part of the conversion of the former DTE office tower at 414 S. Main to condominiums. 

Demolition kicks off AAPS’s billion-dollar rebuilding: The crowning achievement of ousted superintendent Jeanice Swift is getting underway as the school board moves to demolish a house and barn adjacent to the alternative high school Pathways to Success, MLive reports (paywall). The existing building – built in 1949 to replace the 1911 Stone School across the street – will remain in use until the new one is completed. It’s the first of a dozen new buildings and seven major reconstructions planned through 2030.

District expected to spend $1.7M on Huron High pool fix: The work would include new pumps and tanks, a new handicap-accessible lift, new starter blocks and electrical upgrades, MLive writes. The 23,000-square-foot pool was built in 1996 for $6.1 million. If approved during a second reading at the board’s next meeting on Dec. 6, the renovations would be paid for with bond funds.

Wait is on for electric trash trucks: The city ordered two $600,000 back-loading Peterbilts in 2021 and council last month placed an order for two $741,000 side-loading Macks, Jan Schlain writes in the November issue of the Observer. The first of the Peterbilts was due to arrive this month but is now expected by January, with the second expected six months later. Once they become part of the fleet, the big test will be how reliable they are, city officials say. 

Tween leads cops on forklift chase, hits a dozen cars: The twelve-year-old allegedly stole the machine from Forsythe Middle School on Saturday and was pursued for about an hour first by AAPD and then by Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputies, according to an AAPD Facebook post that includes video. The forklift hit several cars along the way before stopping in the area of M-14 and Gotfredson Rd. Police say the vehicle, which goes up to 20 mph, was left unlocked with the key hidden inside the cab.

Six-foot slug looms over High St.: The brown metal-mesh-and-concrete sculpture is the work of artist Joel Henry-Fisher, who put it on the lawn extension outside his home last summer after it was rejected from a competition, MLive reports (paywall). Henry-Fisher is an Ann Arbor native and EMU alum who does painting, tile work and stonemasonry for a living.

New fast-casual Korean eatery is region’s ninth: Kimchi Box, on Plymouth in the former Seoul Street, is the audacious brainchild of Greenhills School alum Min Kyu Kim, who came up with the idea for the chain during Covid, Dave Algase writes in the December issue of the Observer. The twenty-eight-year-old says he swooped in to take over faltering leases of restaurants closing because of the pandemic, scoring “A-list spaces in Novi and Sterling Heights and Troy that normally a landlord would not give to a person like me,” he says. His goal: become “the Panera Bread of Korean food.”

Bin & Pallet changes its name: Citing customer confusion about what the discount shop is, the owner Sara Graham announced on Facebook that they’ve rebranded as Graham’s Upscale Liquidation Store. The store sells leftover and excess merchandise from brand names like Target, Sam’s Club, Amazon, Wayfair, Kohl’s, and Home Depot. 

$7M pickleball venue to debut tomorrow: Wolverine Pickleball will be the largest such facility in Michigan, with twelve courts, a lounge, a thirty-tap self-serve beverage wall, and a pro shop across its 39,000 square feet, according to an e-mail press release. It’ll also boast outdoor courts for bocce ball, volleyball, and beach tennis along with firepits. The Observer’s Cynthia Furlong Reynolds told the story of Christy Howden and Leslie White’s fast-growing business last year. 

U-M hauls in $1.5M on Giving Tuesday: The sum came from more than 4,000 donors and will “fully fund forty-eight” projects, according to an email that sought even more gifts. Among other items, the money will provide for a music therapist position at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital,  fencing gear, and a test facility for the student rocketry team..

Volunteers sought to remove invasive plants: The Washtenaw Society, which has yet to announce a new name since axing “Audubon” from its moniker, is calling on folks to join them at 9 a.m. at the Beechwood Dr. entrance to Kuebler Langford Nature Area on Saturday or Searles Nature Preserve along Bolla Rd. west of Stony Creek Rd. in Augusta Twp., at 1 p.m. on the following Sunday, Dec. 10. Participants should wear long pants, seasonally appropriate clothing, closed-toe shoes and bring heavy gloves. It’s a free activity, but preregistration is required online.

Bidding opens tonight for online auction to benefit imprisoned artists: The Prison Creative Arts Project at U-M is selling pieces by people behind bars via this website starting at 7 p.m. Bidding closes on Saturday night when an in-person fundraiser at the Michigan Union ends. Online bidders will compete with live attendees. Other artwork will be on offer in a live auction at the Saturday event, which is free, starts at 6:30 p.m., and features live music and food.  RSVP for that here. 

By Jennifer Taylor

Friday: Get some holiday shopping done at the annual U-M Turner Senior Resource Center Jewelry Sale, which has a wide array of vintage and costume pieces, both pre-owned and donated. Cash or check only. 10 a.m.–4 p.m., 2401 Plymouth Rd. Suite C. (734) 998–9353. 

Saturday: Join in the “Hallelujah” chorus at the 145th Annual Choral Union Handel’s Messiah performance, an Ann Arbor tradition since 1879. Scott Hanoian directs the 175-voice University Choral Union and members of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra in Handel’s beloved oratorio. The soloists are all established professionals with national or international reputations. The audience is invited to sing along to the “Hallelujah” chorus. Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., Hill Auditorium. Tickets $17 to $44 (students, $12 to $20) in advance here, at the Michigan League, by phone at (734) 764–2538, and at the door if available.

Sunday: Listen in or join in on the annual outdoor performance that is Ann Arbor TubaChristmas, now in its twenty-fourth year. A wild collection of instruments, including tubas, euphoniums, sousaphones, and baritone horns, proclaim holiday carols. Musicians ($10) are invited to bring an instrument and a music stand (with clothespins) to join some forty players in the performance. Registration (9:30 a.m.) and rehearsal (10 a.m.-noon) at the EMU Alexander Music Bldg., East Circle Dr., Ypsilanti. Bring a sack lunch and dress for the weather. Music books ($16) and TubaChristmas hats ($15) available. 2 to 3 p.m., Farmers Market Pavilion, Kerrytown. Free to spectators. For more information, email here or call (734) 395–9544.

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

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