Maybe someone out there can explain this to me.

Have you ever been east of US-23 on Washtenaw Ave. and found that, for about two miles, there is absolutely no cell service? Perhaps it’s just my carrier, AT&T, but it has been a persistent experience for us for years now.

I don’t understand how this problem persists. Let me know if you have an answer or just want to commiserate! If I’m not in the Dead Zone, maybe I’ll even be able to read it.

That’s all that’s on my mind this week, so I’ll turn you over to the news. It’s a rough week with more violence and tragedy than we’ve seen in a while. But there’s also a photo of an absolutely awesome marching band formation and more proof our schools are churning out a lot of very smart kids.

Yeah, that’s all I’ve got. Some weeks are like that.

–Steve Friess, editor

Reward offered following attack on Jewish teen: In a show of solidarity, the Council on American-Islamic Relations is offering $1,000 for information leading to the conviction of the assailants of an attack early Sunday downtown, WDET reports. A nineteen-year-old told police a group of men asked if he was Jewish; when he replied ‘yes,’ they hit him and fled. The victim suffered minor injuries and was not hospitalized. This was the third anti-semitic incident locally in recent weeks, and it was widely condemned, including by AAPD chief Andre Anderson, who wrote in a statement, “There is absolutely no place for hate or ethnic intimidation in the city of Ann Arbor.” It came days after anti-Jewish leaflets were left in the yards and driveways of dozens of residents. Anyone with information about any of these incidents can call police at (734) 794-6939 or send email to tips@a2gov.org.

Eleven U-M protesters charged: Nine face charges stemming from resistence to police clearing a pro-Palestinian encampment on the Diag on May 21, according to a news release from attorney general Dana Nessel’s office. Two pro-Israel demonstrators also were charged in connection with an April 25 counterprotest against the encampment. The accused, who are “mostly students and alumni” of the university, face charges that range from misdemeanor trespassing to felony resisting or obstructing a police officer. “I hope today’s charges are a reminder to everyone who chooses to assemble, regardless of the cause, that the First Amendment does not provide a cover for illegal activity,” Nessel said in the statement. Detroit congresswoman Rashida Tlaib denounced the charges on social media, calling them a “ shameful attack on students’ rights.”.

Budget crisis damaged AAPS reputation: Board president Torchio Feaster tells the Observer’s James Leonard this month that the district’s job now is “restoring trust” after cutting $20.4 million in staff and programs to balance the books. District leaders were caught off guard by the shortfall–while then-superintendent Jeanice Swift warned that revenue was falling behind expense, she also hoped that a pandemic-induced enrollment drop would be temporary. Meanwhile, MLive reports (paywall) that all but three of the fifty-five teachers whose positions were eliminated have been recalled to fill vacancies elsewhere in the district.

Skyline High tests cellphone ban: The school’s 1,300 students must surrender their devices during class unless they need them for an educational purpose, MLive reports. It’s the first school in the district to institute such a policy, which is being carefully watched by the school board. “We’ve had multiple students come and actually thank us and say that they’ve never been so engaged in their learning, they’ve never been doing this well in their classes, they’re actually paying attention,” principal Casey Elmore says.

AAPS produces 10 percent of state’s National Merit semifinalists: Fifty-one of the 500 honorees from Michigan come from the district, according to a press release. They are among some 16,000 semifinalists across the country who qualified through their PSAT scores to compete for $26 million in scholarships to be awarded in the spring. Another thirty-four hail from other districts in Washtenaw County, MLive writes. 

Ex-teacher gets bernadoodle back: Lexi Fata and the AAPS board settled the saga by letting the former kindergarten teacher have Gracie, a therapy dog who lived with her but that Wines Elementary administrators claimed belonged to the school, MLive writes. Other details of the settlement for Fata’s lawsuit were kept confidential. Meanwhile, the news site reports, Brick Elementary in Lincoln Consolidated Schools started the school year with a therapy dog of its own, a three-year-old golden retriever named Mindy.

City shuts down Victory Inn: Inspectors cited a myriad of code violations for the motel on Washtenaw Ave. near US-23 including a bedbug infestation, suspected mold, and various other unsafe conditions, MLive reports. Plans to raze the building and construct a new four-story hotel were approved in June by Ann Arbor’s planning commission. The article includes photos from an Aug. 30 building inspection obtained from the city via a Freedom of Information Act request.

Pittsfield Twp. OKs farmland for development: Sixty-six acres along US-23 south of Textile Rd. are slated to become Willowcrest, a Pulte Homes of Michigan subdivision of 125 houses, MLive reports. Neighbor are concerned that the extra traffic will require installation of a traffic light at the nearby intersection of Textile and US-12, but MDOT says it does not see the need at this time. 

Scio Twp. blocks townhome complex: Amid opposition from nearby residents who questioned the density and environmental impact of the thirty-five-unit project on five acres along Zeeb Rd., the board voted 4-1 against allowing Arbres Grove to move ahead, the Sun Times News reports. One issue was the potential impact on wetlands if the builders were permitted to cut down 471 trees. 

New Elbel is a practice field of dreams: So says Michigan Marching Band director John Pasquale to Jan Schlain in this month’s Observer. Pasquale gushes about the $18.2 million spread build on 6.5 acres just north of the old Elbel Field – now a construction site for a new dorm. “On the primary field, the turf matches the turf in the Big House, identically,” he says. In place of the old field’s portable audio system, Pasquale explains, speakers “cover the entire complex,” while cameras can feed live video to a large display. “We also have the capability to stream live performance videos from the field directly to the students’ phones so they’re able to watch themselves march in real time,” the director says, “which is incredible from an instructional perspective.”

Head-on crashes claim five lives: Three people perished when a 2024 Nissan Rogue going the wrong way on eastbound M-14 collided on Wednesday morning with a 2020 Tesla entering the road on the eastbound entrance ramp at Gotfredson Rd., Michigan State Police said in a social media post. The Tesla driver, a fifty-three-year-old man from Munith, and the driver and passenger of the Nissan, a thirty-one-year-old man and twenty-seven-year-old woman from Battle Creek, died. This comes a week after two drivers perished in a mid-afternoon collision on Sept. 11 along US-12 near Willow Run Airport, ClickOnDetroit reports.

Eighty-one-year-old killed in home invasion: Susan Hammerton died from stabbing injuries she sustained when she, her dog, and her eighty-two-year-old husband were attacked Friday in their Pittsfield Twp. home, CBS Detroit reports. Police arrested forty-year-old Anthony Flanagan of Ann Arbor, who was naked at the time, when he tried to enter another home nearby, ClickOnDetroit reports. The Hammertons did not know Flanagan; he faces several charges including open murder, first-degree home invasion, and second-degree animal cruelty. The man and dog suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Gun deaths up in 2023: There were thirty-two firearm-related deaths in Washtenaw County last year, up from twenty-six in 2022 but below the forty-two in 2021, according to a health department report. Two-thirds of those were suicides, as has been the case every year for the past five years, and 81 percent of those who died by suicide were White. Black people, however, made up 64 percent of gun-related homicide victims. About one-third of homicides involved violence between intimate partners. Anyone subjected to domestic abuse can call (734) 995-5444 for help; people considering self-harm can call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org/chat twenty-four hours a day. 

Kitten shot thirty-five times with BB gun: Seven-month-old Sugar was found at the intersection of Carpenter Rd. and Washtenaw Ave. and brought to the Humane Society of Huron Valley, the shelter says in a press release. “Someone who would repeatedly shoot a sweet, innocent kitten—one likely trapped somewhere that did not allow for her escape—is clearly a disturbed individual who needs to be stopped,” HSHV CEO Tanya Hilgendorf writes. The kitten is recovering. Anyone with information can call (734) 661-3512 or submit a tip online at hshv.org/report.

County warns against eating fish, swallowing water from Ford Lake: A harmful algae bloom was detected in tests last weekend, the health department writes. Swimmers should “stay away from water that has scums or mats, looks like spilled paint, or has colored streaks.” People and pets should rinse off after swimming. The advisory will remain in effect for any areas with visible blue-green water or water with a green sheen, the alert says.

Residents praise mobility, criticize DTE, housing availability: The overall quality of life in Ann Arbor was rated as excellent or good by 89 percent of residents and 91 percent rated the city as an excellent or good place to live, according to the results of a random sample of 3,000 Ann Arborites in the National Community Survey. The survey, taken every other year, found support has increased for the city’s “economic impact on family income” and “preservation of natural areas” but a drop in those approving of “overall quality of the utility infrastructure” and the quality of K-12 education.

U-M election tech expert seeks to quash subpoena: The right-leaning cable network One America News wants Alex Halderman to give a deposition about the vulnerabilities of voting machines in its defense against a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, the Detroit News reports (paywall). The suit accuses OAN of spreading “false and manufactured stories about election fraud.” Halderman’s attorney, in a brief asking for the dismissal of the subpoena, wrote: “Given the growth of ‘election denialism’ in certain quarters of political discourse, he has taken care in his publications and expert performance to clarify that he has no evidence that any vulnerabilities he has observed were actually exploited to affect the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.”

Dexter woman competes in new season of “Survivor”: Rachel Lamont, a thirty-four-year-old graphic designer, is among the eighteen castaways in Fiji in the latest round of the venerable CBS reality competition that launched last night, Entertainment Weekly reports. The married Thai-born immigrant says assimilating in the U.S. as a child prepared her for the show’s challenges. This season also features former Obama speechwriter turned podcast host Jon Lovett as one of Lamont’s opponents. Lamont made it through the first episode; Lovett did not.

Ypsi salon relocates to escape troubled area: Malissa Gillett, owner of bg studios, tells MLive she moved from 25 N. Washington St. to 2520 Packard Rd. last month because her lease was expiring and “we were having trouble with clients feeling uncomfortable in downtown and not wanting to come to the salon.” Gillett says “a consistent and increasingly bad circumstance on Washington Street” had become an impediment to business. 

Chain president opens sweets shop franchise in A2: Pittsfield Twp. resident Dan Reese left a high-flying big-business career to take the helm of the MilkShake Factory, a family-owned Pittsburgh company seeking to proliferate across the country, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. The Ann Arbor site in Westgate is the sixth of what the company hopes will be dozens of MilkShake Factory locations. Working with Ann Arbor–based incubator Franworth, they’ve already signed licenses to open 100 locations.

Mancino’s in Scio Twp. to close on Oct. 12: Changing dining habits and rising costs, most notably an impending rent increase, are compelling the family-owned Italian eatery franchise to shut down its S. Zeeb Rd. location, the Sun-Times News reports. “The dining space that we currently occupy is much greater than needed and an unnecessary added expense,” the owners wrote in a notice taped to the window of the business.

HSHV soiree discount ends Friday: The tickets for the Compassionate Feast fundraiser at Saint John’s Resort in Plymouth on Nov. 8 go up $25 to $200 per person after tomorrow, the shelter writes in an email. The price includes cocktails, a three-course vegetarian or vegan dinner, and a raffle; there’s also a silent auction.

Kiwanis Thrift Sale holds Zero Waste Fall Festival on Sept. 29: The store will be open from noon to three – the only Sunday it is open all year – and will provide tours of the operation that saves countless items from the landfill each year. There’s also live music, donuts and cider, games, screen printing, and a zero-waste scavenger hunt. Admission is free, but registration is required at TrashTalkTour.Org.

First Steps PTO’s Trike-a-Thon is Oct. 5: The event at Westerman Preschool and Family Center benefits the scholarship fund to assist families participating in the various AAPS programs. Attendees are invited to bring their bikes and trikes to the school parking lot where kids can ride through an obstacle course and check out a fire truck, a school bus, and an ambulance. The suggested donation is $5 per child.

By Jennifer Taylor

Friday: Try your hand at making stop-motion animation, doing digital sculpting, and more at the Ann Arbor Art Center ArtLab “Hands-On Open House” today from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., A2AC, 117 W. Liberty. It’s part of Ann Arbor Spark’s a2Tech360, a weeklong tech festival that also includes the city’s annual A2Zero Green Fair today, 5 to 8 p.m. on Main St., ticketed panel discussions, receptions, and pitch competitions. Event starts Friday and runs through Sept. 27. See link above for the complete schedule.

Saturday: Tuck into some Slavic food and drinks, including blini, borscht, shashlik (kebab), and pelmeni (dumplings) at St. Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church’s annual Ann Arbor Russian Festival. Entertainment includes bell ringers, St. Vladimir’s Choir, and a Kazak games group. Also, a tearoom with Russian sweets, church tours, and a kids corner with a bounce house, games, and crafts. 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Sat.) and 1 to 7 p.m. (Sun.), St. Vladimir Church, 9900 Jackson Rd., Dexter. Free admission. (734) 475–4590. 

Sunday: Play eight games of pinball for International Flipper Association points and other prizes at Pinball Pete’s Pinball Tournament. Players of all ages and skill levels welcome. 5 p.m. (registration opens at 4:45 p.m.; ask for Ryan at the glass desk), 1214 South University. No entry fee; $1 per game.

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

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