2 $ MAY 15, 2026 | VOLUME 17| ISSUE 11 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Surrounded by robbers and thieves. page 9 VENDOR NO. 560 MEET YOUR VENDOR: ANDREW WHITE 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. At the Ann Arbor District Library downtown's front Lobby Shop, Silky Grooves, shoppers will find affordable vintage clothing, vinyl records and other retro knick knacks. Big steps for small business. page 5 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 MAY 15, 2026 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Anabel Sicko ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Teresa Basham Lena Buhl Pedro Campos David Crane La Shawn Courtwright Shelley DeNeve Cindy Gere Mike Jones Rachael Lanier Cisse Love David Mitchell Marie Ken Parks Haniyah Siddiqui Laurie Wechter PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett June Miller VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Jud Branam Libby Chambers Stephanie Dong Ben Foster Glenn Gates Jacob Fallman Robert Klingler Aklesia Maereg Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropiate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. MAY 15, 2026 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Andrew White, vendor No. 560 In one sentence, who are you? Love me or hate me, I’m me. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? Outside Cherry Republic, on the corner of Main and Liberty Streets. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? In all honesty, I don’t know when I started. The reason why is so I can have an income. What is your favorite spot in Ann Arbor? Hanging out on State Street or the U-M Diag. What words do you live by? Just keep 100. What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover? The ability to make money and to conversate with people. What was your first job? I worked as a bagger at Kroger. What’s the best way to start the day? A cup of coffee and a morning smoke. What is a small thing that makes your day better? When people actually talk to me when selling Groundcover. What is your pet peeve? When someone forgets to give me back my lighter. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Earth Day reflections — so many lessons, so few listening Earth Day is a very important time to show respect for all that the sacred earth has given to humanity. This is not a religion; it's an homage to what has been giving the bounty of life we have on this planet. As a Native American I was honored to do a speech at the Earth Day event this year, 2026. What was hard to grasp was the fact we had a very small group of people in attendance. Each year the gathering for this sacred time is smaller and smaller. As I look deep into the past we have many examples of humanity over-harvesting, taking too much and depleting the land. All one needs to do is go to places like parts of Africa. The greatest example is the Sahara Desert, once a vibrant tropical land with diverse animals. The people lived as we do now, with towns and cities. Other locations are the Middle East when Babylon was a vibrant diverse location with trees and land and water — yet now much of that location is dry and depleted. Madagascar was an amazing sustainable land with many trees and good land to grow, yet now it’s all blown to the winds with sickness all around. We can then go to the great lands of India. In the northern provinces the dust makes it CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 sap. Burdock and sorrel plants and ferns. Acorns and pine gum are some of the alternative foods we have in Michigan. Tribes have in the past been sustained exclusively by acorns, the one-stop shop tree. The Earth provides if we take a closer look at what is possible. Real rejuvenation is coming to pass in areas of depletion such as China and the reforhard to breathe and nothing grows, yet only 100 years ago the land was thick with vegetation and people living in harmony. America suffered a massive dust bowl that created real suffering. Mother Earth has a delicate this balance and we forget repeatedly. The winds of change happen fast! All the old nations and lands, they too felt invincible and full of freedom. Mother Earth gives freely yet we use unnatural chemicals to feed the world, creating chemical-resistant insects. Must we play out the warning of Atlantis? Do we not know the end of that story? Can we make real change for a better world in harmony with nature as organic farms do each and every day? Mother Earth provides the foraging lands for the humans with grains such as wild rice. Deer meat. Wild maple The "Mighty Mac"-kinac Bridge SHELLEY DENEVE Groundcover vendor No. 22 Did you ever wonder about the Mackinac Bridge being maintained? Who has the nerves of steel to do such a job? There have been many who braved the height of this phenomenon. Over 11,000 workers have worked on the project since construction began, with a high volume of daily workers on-site. The bridge was designed to replace the ferry service connecting Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. Construction began in May 1954 and was completed in 1957, opening to traffic on November 1, 1957. The fivemile structure took over three years to build at a cost of $99 million. It was designed by Dr. David B. Steinman. Approximately 90 full-time, permanent, intermittent and seasonal staff members operate and maintain the "Mighty Mac." The team of employees include engineers, maintenance workers, painters, bridge inspectors (steeplejacks), mechanics, electricians, welders and toll booth staff. The staff maintains the structure 24/7, providing services such as towing, snow removal, and the bridge camera/radio communication systems. They also provide a driver-assistance program for individuals who are nervous about driving across the bridge. Six workers lost their lives in connection with the Mackinac Bridge: five during its construction (1954–1957) and one during maintenance in 1997. The five construction fatalities included deaths from a scuba diving accident, a fall into a caisson, a drowning, and two from a fall from a temporary catwalk. Enough about that depressing information. So when was the last time you crossed the bridge? For me it’s been over 30 years, when I crossed on foot. I did the Labor Day walk on the bridge. We got up at three or so in the morning, drove to Mackinaw City and parked our vehicle. We got on a bus and we crossed the bridge to St. Ignace. Then we walked back to Mackinaw City. As we drove over the bridge to St. Ignace, we saw the sunrise — it was beautiful. As day broke we started walking the bridge. I was kind of apprehensive. Walking the bridge took a while. I don't remember how long it took, but I remember how beautiful the day was when we got back to Mackinaw City. I look back now and think how brave I was. Right now I would probably freak out. I wish I could go visit it now estation of their deserts and the re-grow projects across the world. China and India, In African countries, deserts are being reforested. This is truly essential for Mother Earth, for our own survival. Each and every one of us needs to pick a project and help with what we can. The seventh generation of your family will benefit from making a powerful choice right now, whether it’s here in Michigan or across the world. Everything starts with commitment and determination. What we are doing in the long term is what matters for each of us in every way. It takes just one additional drop of water to create a flood or make a desert into a sea. Soft movements for real change, that is real honor to Mother Earth … She is waiting … Kulema kungfu panda. just to see how nervous I would be going over it. You know it’s a shame that I haven't been up there since then. It's only 4-5 hours away. My two kids had to see the bridge with other people; other unexpected life circumstances prevented my husband and I from going at the time. Oh, I wanted to go and visit it but my husband at the time was too busy working two and three jobs, and drinking. The drinking was his life force. The jobs he worked barely kept us afloat. It makes me angry and sad that I let this happen. Maybe the fairly new car I purchased recently can get me there this summer. Right now I'm having trouble with this car and my mechanic can't seem to figure out what exactly is causing the problem. It seems like there is always something preventing me from doing what I would like to do. Walking the bridge again and silently thanking the workers is at the top of my list. 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS IN MEMORIAM In loving memory of Donna Marie McGaughy Donna Marie McGaughy, Groundcover vendor No. 310, passed away in April 2026. We remember Donna as small but mighty, full of stories and songs. She was often found on 4th Ave, with Angel (her stuffed monkey) enjoying a cigarette or selling Groundcover News. "No matter what was going on in the day, Donna was always happy — even if she was actually sad. She loved everybody and always had a smile on her face. She was a kind-hearted, caring person. I called her 'Little Bit.'" — Cindy Gere She will be missed by the Groundcover News family, and her neighbors and friends at Courthouse Square in downtown Ann Arbor. She is survived by her daughter. Donna and Angel If you don’t know, now ya know! I’m Donna & I have my sidekick Angel, We’re here to hang out With my family With the Groundcover sisters and brothers. If you don’t know anything about me, just ask my girl Panda and she will let you know more about me Groundcover has welcomed me & helped me a lot with financing. I appreciate everything they do for Angel & me. Just ask Panda about Angel & me Because if you don’t know, Now ya know. Originally published in the January 10, 2025 edition of Groundcover News community EVENTS CINETOPIA FILM FESTIVAL Saturday, May 13-17, 5-7 p.m. Michigan Theater. Cinetopia brings audiences and filmmakers together to celebrate bold cinema, independent voices and films you cannot see anywhere else. Experience a curated lineup designed by people who love film as much as you do. As one of Michigan’s premier film festivals, Cinetopia brings together independent films, Michigan-made shorts and fresh voices from around the world. Every selection is chosen for originality, perspective and impact. marquee-arts.org/cinetopia/ SPRING BAG SALE: FRIENDS OF THE ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY Saturday, May 16, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.. Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library, 265 Parkland Plz. Sale of used books, puzzles, CDs, and other items. $5 per bag. HURON RIVER DAY Saturday, May 16, noon–4 p.m Riverside Park, 1000 Canal St., near downtown Ann Arbor. The afternoon festival will feature hands-on activities and games, live animals from Leslie Science & Nature Center, a kids' area with inflatables and face painting, a craft area, local eco-friendly exhibitor tables, food trucks and live entertainment. Noon: Festival opens; live music by Hullaballoo Band 1 p.m.: Belly dance performance and lesson by Karma Belly dance 2 p.m.: Live music by Margo Solomon teen band from Neutral Zone 3 p.m.: Alexander the Magician 4 p.m.: Festival concludes. YPSI FLEA MARKET Sunday, May 17, Ypsilanti Freighthouse, 100 Market Pl, Ypsi. Show and sale of vintage items ranging from the early 1930s to the 1990s, featuring clothing, jewelry, furniture, records and more. Concessions. Free admission and parking. REVOLUTIONARY FOOD GATHERING Tuesday, May 19, 5-7 p.m. Ann Arbor Friends Meeting House. Potluck and discussion to discover who we are in relationship to our food, the earth and each other. Hosted by Groundcover News and Purslane Commons. WOMEN’S WILDFLOWER WALK: ANN ARBOR PARKS AND RECREATION ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION Tuesday, May 19, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Scarlett-Mitchell Nature Area, Scarlett Middle School parking lot, 3300 Lorraine. Adults age 18 and up invited to take a 1-mile hike to learn about and look for wildflowers. Free, preregistration required at tinyurl. com/a2parksrec POEMS FOR THE PEOPLE: CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF ANN ARBOR POETRY & COMMUNITY Friday, May 22, 7-9 p.m. Pioneer High School Schrieber Auditorium, 610 W Stadium. Poetry readings by 2025 National Book Award Winner Patricia Smith, along with Ross Gay, Hanif Abdurraqib, Shira Erlichman, Sarah Kay, and other local poets and youth poets in honor of the retirement of longtime PHS creative writing director, and award winning poet, Jeff Kass. Tickets $15; $5 for students of all kinds. Purchase in advance at bit.ly/poemsforthepeople THE ROAD HOME SCREENING Thursday, May 28, 6 p.m. EMU Student Center, 900 Oakwood Street, Ypsilanti. The Road Home is a documentary exploring mental health, housing insecurity and homelessness in Washtenaw County, highlighting community efforts and challenges. Local organizations face fragmented responses, funding cuts and limiting support. The film's goal is to unite stakeholders, raise awareness and inspire collective action to ensure compassionate, sustainable solutions. After the film finishes, there will be a 4-5 person panel of speakers and a moderator from various commumity organizations. DANCE INTO ACTION Saturday, May 30, 4-8:30 p.m. hear. say brewing, 2350 W. Liberty St., Ann Arbor. Presented by Pilar's Foundation. Uniting to benefit local immigrant families. Live music by Jive Colossus, Killer Diller, Backbeat Manifesto. Food and drink from Pilar's Tamales and hear.say brewing. Purchase tickets at pilarsfoundation. org or inside Pilar's Tamales. ANNUAL TASTE OF ANN ARBOR: MAIN STREET AREA ASSOCIATION Sunday, May 31, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Main St. between William and Washington Streets. A chance to taste entrees and desserts from more than 30 downtown restaurants and cafes. Also, kids' activities and live music TBA. Free admission. Food tickets, $1 each (items range from 1-6 tickets each). Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@ groundcovernews.com MAY 15, 2026 MAY 15, 2026 LIBRARIES GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Left: Wander + Gather storefront offers cards, stickers, calendars, mugs and more adorned with illustrations by owner Maia Hausler. Right: At Silky Grooves shoppers will find affordable vintage clothing, vinyl records and other retro knick knacks. Big steps for small business HANIYAH SIDDIQUI U-M student contributor Walk into the downtown Ann Arbor District Library on any given afternoon and you might notice something unexpected tucked into the lobby. The faint crackle of a vinyl record. A full bouquet of fresh flowers. A handwoven textile draped across a display table. These are not decorations. They are small businesses run by real people who, until recently, had no affordable path to a storefront of their own. The Ann Arbor District Library launched its Lobby Shops pilot program last summer, transforming three vacant suites into low-cost retail spaces after the Friends of the Library Bookshop relocated to Scio Township. Monthly rent is set at $250 for the largest suite and $100 for each of the smaller ones, rates that stand in sharp contrast to typical downtown prices, where commercial rents can reach several thousand dollars per month depending on location and size. The demand reflected this gap. Sixty-three applicants competed for just three available spaces. The businesses selected to inaugurate the program reflect a deliberate range of backgrounds and products. Silky Grooves, a vintage reseller that has operated since 2019 through festivals and pop-ups, now occupies the largest suite with its collection of records, retro clothing, toys, and collectibles. Co-owner Hannah Jacobsen described the opportunity as surreal, noting that a permanent downtown storefront had previously felt unattainable. Another suite was occupied by Gardens Within, which offers locally grown flowers, houseplants, and handmade pottery from regional artisans. The third space belonged to JFSMade, a collective supported by Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County, featuring handcrafted goods created by refugee entrepreneurs who have historically relied on farmers markets and temporary venues. (See Editor's note below for times for the currrent participating shops.) For JFSMade, the storefront represents more than a place to sell products. As Market Coordinator Mibrak Tewolde explained, the space serves as a bridge between refugee experiences and the Ann Arbor community, highlighting both cultural expression and economic resilience. That perspective underscores the broader significance of the program. Groundcover News has consistently reported on the structural challenges that limit economic mobility, particularly for those operating on the margins. One of the most persistent barriers is access to affordable commercial space. While the Lobby Shops initiative does not resolve this issue entirely, it offers a tangible example of how public institutions can expand their role. A library, in this case — a library is not only a place for information but also a platform for opportunity. At the same time, the program is not without its constraints. AADL representative Rich Retyi acknowledged that physical space is the primary limitation, noting that additional capacity would allow for more participants. The six-month tenancy model also places pressure on vendors to establish a customer base quickly before their term expires, which can make it difficult to build lasting customer relationships. Furthermore, the setting itself presents challenges. A library lobby does not function as a traditional retail corridor, and casual visitors may not always translate into consistent sales. Public libraries have long served as access points for knowledge and resources, particularly for those who might otherwise be excluded. Extending that mission to include commercial opportunity represents a meaningful evolution. For vendors such as those involved in JFSMade, the value of a downtown presence extends beyond immediate revenue, offering visibility, credibility and a sense of belonging within the local economy. The Lobby Shops can only operate during regular library hours, and are open to all visitors without the need for a library card. This accessibility reinforces the program’s underlying principle of lowering barriers for both entrepreneurs and the community members they hope to reach. In a city where access to commercial space is often determined by financial resources, the presence of these small businesses within a public library stands out. It creates a space where opportunity is not exclusively tied to wealth, but instead shared more openly. Whether the program expands will depend on what the library learns in the coming months. For now, three small businesses continue the quiet, persistent work that is entrepreneurship. They show up daily, present their work, and trust that the community will meet them there. Silky Grooves Vintage & Vinyl will be open until the end of May; shop Thursdays 12-6 p.m., Fridays 2-6 p.m. and Saturdays 2-6 p.m. IG: @silkygrooves Wander + Gather is open Thursday and Friday 3-6 p.m., Sunday 12-4 p.m. IG: @wandergathershop True Timbuktu will be open Saturdays and Sundays 1- 6 p.m. IG: @ trutimbuku Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Visit any of our five locations across town to browse books, magazines, newspapers, and more. Check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, or even home tools—you name it! Enjoy fast and free WiFi, study and meeting rooms, and plenty of comfortable spaces to relax or hang out. Public Computers The AADL has public-access Internet computers available for use by both cardholders and noncardholders at all five locations. Each station has USB ports, headphone jacks, and some of the fastest WiFi speeds in town! Byte Club An exclusive club for AADL SUPER FANS and library people like you! Byte Club will help you connect deeper with the Library you know and love, and share special sneak peeks of new things coming soon. The first rule of Byte Club is that you tell everyone about Byte Club! Ready to join? Visit aadl.org/ byteclub to get started. FEATURED EVENT 5 Wednesday, June 3 • 11 AM–4 PM • Downtown Library VISIONS features a variety of exhibitors demonstrating the latest products & services for the blind, low vision, & physically disabled. Enjoy presentations on topics related to vision health, services, & assistive technology. Learn more at aadl.org/visions.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HEALTHCARE U-M hospital is failing homeless patients Editor's note: The opinions expressed in this article are of the author's own and not that of Groundcover News, as Lanier indicates. University of Michigan Hospital has never given me, personally, any problems. The care I have received any time I’ve been there has been above average and well worth the visit. They knew I was homeless and didn’t discriminate against me for anything … until I became an emergency contact for a friend. Then I learned that Officer Fransisco Holguin could use a few lessons in manners, and the hospital staff needs a lesson in Patient Affairs. Also, I have come across three individuals in the same situation that I am as unhoused persons, whose treatment borderlines neglect or abuse from U-M medical staff and security. Jeannie J., a single mother of three, was admitted into U-M hospital for a lung infection in early April. Her caseworker lied about an available bed at the Delonis Center, stating Jeannie had a bed there and could be discharged. One call to the Center revealed this was a lie. Then she lied about the closure date of the Daytime Warming Center, stating it was April 15, Jeannie’s discharge date, when it was in fact the 12th and had already closed. I was a patron of the warming center and can confirm it closed on the 12th. Her condition was treated by a doctor Michael Mashab (there might have been a last name of Keone), who felt her recovery was sufficient. He later discharged Jeannie on April 15, which Jeannie felt was too early, especially not having housing or a safe place to fully recover, thanks to the laziness of her caseworker. (There was another caseworker involved who tried to help, but her efforts didn’t land the end result she was hoping for.) The doctor also threatened removal by security if she refused to leave. Jeannie appealed the decision for discharge and was ultimately denied staying any longer without having to pay $3,500 per day. She left the hospital and met me back at the Delonis Center to discuss details of her visit. This sparked my interest in writing an article. We also discussed how she had been discharged to a Havenwyck Hospital in Pontiac before, where she was raped by another patient, but no one received consequences. The police took a report and something happened to the investigation; either it was completed and rendered inconclusive results or otherwise halted by local police. You will see why I included this hospital in another part of this article. The next day, my friend Steve D. was assaulted in the early morning by a group of minors who had been going I told him I was Lux’s emergency contact and Lux was still on property and I wanted to speak with someone to keep them from “trafficking” her to another county, I was not allowed to know where she was going to be transferred. I got Holguin’s name and ended up leaving. I called U-M Patient Relations and RACHAEL LANIER Groundcover vendor No. 695 around pepper spraying people at random. He called for emergency assistance. The police took a report and caught up to the group of children and proceeded to inform Steve of his options. When he went to U-M for help, they cleaned his eyes (not very well), then they discharged him the same night and threatened removal by security if he didn’t leave. There was no case work for housing or other resources. Caseworkers apparently are only employed at U-M for status and looks. I say the hospital didn’t clean his eyes well enough because I myself met with him later that morning only to see an orange crust around both eyes and hear his complaints of soreness. I gave him some baby wipes and offered to put his story in this paper as more evidence that U-M is abusing or neglecting the unhoused. I think it’s urgent to inform unhoused persons of the maltreatment at this hospital and offer suggestions for another facility that will maintain the practice of treating unhoused patients with dignity and respect. I have another friend, we’ll call her Lux, who had been off her psych medicine for three days and was starting to regress. Her symptoms were hallucinations, audio and visual, and tremors, all from a brain injury she incurred as a child. She drove both of us to U-M hospital where I, at her request, signed her into the Psychiatric side of the Emergency Department, giving my information so I could be her emergency contact. I left feeling as if she would be cared for properly and a few days in the hospital would definitely help everything. I got a call from her later stating the hospital was going to transfer her to another psych ward outside of Ann Arbor, against her wishes, and that she wanted me to come up there and discuss options. While I was at the hospital, I was promised a chance to speak to Lux, which was ultimately changed to speaking to a caseworker, which ultimately led to Mr. Security Officer Fransisco Holguin telling me to leave because I had no reason to be there. He stated that Lux was a grown woman and that she could call me when she got where she was going. Even though spoke to a house manager whose name I didn’t quite hear, and explained that Lux had a support system here, that she only needed her psych meds refilled, and that sending her away from Ann Arbor meant she wouldn’t be able to come back for her car or any of her friends. Being unhoused means when you find people who don’t take advantage of you, those people become friends. I was promised a call back and never received one. This goes back to a lack of accountability because: who will ever know? She was homeless anyway. Lux was transferred to Havenwyck in Pontiac, the same facility I mentioned above that already had a history with Jeannie. Lux called me to let me know she had arrived and that a caseworker, Scott, would be assigned to her. Throughout her stay there, she was sexually assaulted by a male nurse while threatening her with an injection. She did report the assault, but who knows if that hospital would be doing any kind of investigating. Jeannie didn’t get any justice, Lux will probably see the same result. She also requested help from the Easter Seals assistance organization, who never called me as her emergency contact to discuss her plan of discharge. Her Havenwyck caseworker Scott called me only hours away from her discharge instead of making contact earlier in her stay at his facility, to plan her return to Ann Arbor. I didn’t answer the call, so Havenwyck decided she would be discharged to a shelter in Oakland. Lux called me as soon as she was at the Hope Shelter and wanted help getting back to Ann Arbor. She stated the shelter staff were kind and professional but that area of Pontiac had a bad reputation and she was still fearful. I had been fortunate enough to have some money and a friend in Detroit who Ubers for a living. He went immediately to get her and she arrived in Ann Arbor around 9:30 that night. She came to the Delonis Center to get some gear out of storage and went to go get her car that was still parked at the hospital. U-M “trafficked” Lux to Oakland county with the knowledge she didn’t readily have the means to return to Ann Arbor. It’s almost as i U-M Hospital has an agenda to “rid” Ann Arbor of any and all unhoused persons. I make that statement on my own without any affiliation to Groundcover News, so if someone wants to sue, you come for me and me alone. I got you, darlin’. Another friend of mine, who is also an unhoused person, is Robin N. She had a blister on her foot that burst, causing extreme pain. She hasn’t had much luck finding shoes in her size, not good ones anyway, as the last pair she received were used and actually speculated to have caused the massive infection inside her foot. She had already been cleaning the site, as it wasn’t her first blister. Only it kept getting worse from walking, and had begun to become more of a hole instead of just a popped blister. Days later, she had so much pain coming from her foot that she called an ambulance to take her to the U-M Emergency Department. They examined her foot and advised her to keep it clean, gave her some pain medicine similar to Ibuprofen, and discharged her the same night. Some days later at the Delonis Center, all the while taking care of her sore foot as instructed, the pain became so intense that, with a little convincing from myself and another friend, she opted to call the ambulance again. She had already been wearing the other pair of used shoes for a few days at this point. When emergency services arrived, we asked our caseworkers to please instruct the drivers to take our friend to St. Joseph’s (Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital in Ypsilanti) for treatment. Discrimination, maltreatment, or more possibly neglect from medical staff at U-M would only make things worse at this point and we didn’t want her to lose her foot. We all feared she would have been threatened with removal by security and she already couldn’t walk anymore. We were already aware there was a history of U-M mistreating unhoused persons based on the real experiences already detailed in this article of people I know personally. When she first arrived at St. Joseph’s she was pulled into surgery as her foot was so infected. They had to fillet her foot open on the top to allow for drainage. It was debated whether or not she would lose her big toe. Thankfully, their treatment plan worked. She was treated for diabetes as well, so this could have ended badly for her if her concerns and pain had been dismissed or she were discharged the same day again. Her foot has been sewed up and she is expected to make a full recovery at a facility in Ann Arbor. I have written this article as a cry for see HOSPITAL next page  MAY 15, 2026 MAY 15, 2026 HEALTHCARE The business of healthcare There are many variables in the living equation for the formula of life. The solution to this formula is seen by the decisions we make that determine how we live our lives. Some of us just live life one day at a time in a passive state and make excuses for our poor decisions. Everywhere we go we witness the painful results in the lives of those who reside in a passive state of mind. This article is written to give hope to those who have a need for someone to come into their lives and walk beside them and gently guide them onto the road to a healthy lifestyle. With great pleasure and pride let me introduce you to Mr. Daniel VanAssche. I met Dan during the brutally harsh winter of 2025/26. I was living at the Robert J. Delonis Center where space was limited due to the overwhelming demand for a warm place to stay to avoid the life-threatening effects of being left out in the sub-zero temperatures that were all too common during our recent winter. My daily survival routine included visiting the warming centers that rotated throughout Washtenaw County. It was during one of those visits that I had the honor of meeting Dan. I was charging my phone and warming up to coffee and an abundance of delicious food donated by countless organizations and individuals who went above and beyond to make sure that I was safe, clothed and fed with enough to make it through the day. You can only imagine how your health can suffer when you are living every day in survival mode. Then I looked up and noticed a new face in the crowd. This unassuming man simply sat quietly among us and blended in and was  HOSPITAL from last page help among the collective of unhoused. Please help us alleviate our burden of medical maltreatment and neglect from U-M Hospital. As I stated before on my own, this hospital mistreats or neglects unhoused, IF they don’t turn around and traffic them to random facilities outside of Ann Arbor. I look forward to seeing someone in court over this. I’m ready. I propose a petition to the city of Ann Arbor. Please allow funding for a medical facility for unhoused and low-income only. This city has multiple streams of resources for the unhoused, but no real solutions. NO housing without being allowed to remain homeless for up to two years per HAWC (Housing Access of Washtenaw County). (Editor’s note: This seems to have improved lately, for many.) No jobs that pay a living wage or allow for one employee to work more than one job, because the ever outwork me, and I will never quit.” Dan grew into a man with the heart of a lion and a work ethic that compels him to put in long hours and sleepless nights to get the job done. “After high school I applied to sevDAVID MITCHELL Groundcover vendor No. 661 welcome. During my walk to the free clothing closet I went past his table and introduced myself. We shook hands, then we sat together and enjoyed a cup of coffee and a life-changing conversation. Of course we talked about sports and the news of the day, you know, just anything to pass the time. Then our conversation elevated when we touched on topics directed to healthy living and how to make the transition from homelessness to living healthy, wealthy and wise. First things first, in order to be wealthy and wise, you have to be healthy. Then, like magic, we got down to business, and for the next half hour we exchanged information that led me to take aggressive action to improve my health and live a better life. Here's a little more about Dan. Born in Wyandotte, Mich., and raised in Taylor, Dan is a home-grown Metro Detroiter who grew up with all the toughness and strength that comes with living in the Motor City. Dan said, “I was raised to live by the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Dan went on to say, “I was never the biggest or the fastest, but nobody will eral colleges and landed at Eastern Michigan University.” Dan added, “My initial interest was to study criminology with the goal of pursuing a career in law enforcement.” While in Ypsilanti, Dan’s thirst for knowledge continued to grow. “I found myself taking business courses at Washtenaw Community College, and that is where I discovered my gift for helping people through the application of business principles for healthy living.” Dan soon found career success. “I was blessed to land a job at Quicken Loans, then Rocket Mortgage.” Dan’s love for people led him to perform as a top producer in underwriting. Working in the mortgage industry Dan watched his hard work reap the fruit of providing housing for his clients throughout the region. “I learned at an early age that no one wins in business working alone.” Dan went on to say, “All of my success came as a direct result of working together as part of a team. I believe success is measured by your ability to build healthy relationships by placing the needs of others before your own.” While our conversation led to a number of interpersonal discoveries, I found out that for the past five years Dan has focused his energy on building the business of the Diversity Insurance company. Dan told me, “My office is based in Saline, but my time and life are spent companies demand loyalty and open availability, even though it’s never enough hours. Join us in asking that the city of Ann Arbor, or the county of Washtenaw itself, provide us with our own medical center. All the resources for this collective are here. We need a hospital with better-trained and more compassionate staff and security. If that isn’t an option, move all the resources to another part of Michigan, like Oakland County, since U-M wants to displace us there anyway. We could just go have our meals and shelters over there. We could get our clothes and used filthy shoes from over there. We could go and have our fake interviews from employers and ghost job postings from over there. Then your medical case workers won’t have a job to do and your doctors and security staff can just show up and put forth any effort into their housed patients. Problem solved, right? Or we could try to solve the problem here. working among the people throughout the region.” Dan is an expert in helping people pay for healthcare. “I’m licensed and certified to provide my clients a complete portfolio that covers all insurance.” Dan takes the time to listen to and assess your needs. In the end you come away with a plan of action that is doable and affordable. My 30-minute introductory conversation with Dan led to meetings throughout Washtenaw County where we participated in the mutual exchange of ideas and information all directed to improving my health and quality of life. I now have an affordable insurance provider that allows me to receive a thorough dental examination, complete physical examination, an optical exam, and my own primary care physician. Talking with Dan literally changed my life. I just met with my primary care physician, Dr. Shahnoor Amin, MD, PhD, who attended The University of Illinois Medical School. Dr. Amin said, “Mr. Mitchell, you are in excellent health, just continue to exercise and manage your diet and you will be fine.” Wow, what a difference a friendly conversation can make. Now the warming centers are all closed for the season, but my new friend Daniel VanAssche is open for a conversation about the business of healthcare. I strongly encourage you to call Dan directly at 734-502-8666, or reach out to him through email to dvanassche@diversityins.com. This will be a conversation worth having. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VOTING RIGHTS MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 In the process of creating social change, fundamental ideas are implemented through the arts, through journalism, through organizing and mobilizing efforts with vigorous action to achieve a great purpose. But, in The United States of America, one good way to solidify progress is to enter a court of law to present and plead one’s case to make social change a reality. Civil rights law consists of federal and state statutes, amendments to the Constitution and regulations designed to protect individuals from discrimination and guarantee equal treatment in areas like employment, housing, education and public accommodations. It enforces protections against discrimination based on characteristics such as race, color, sex, religion, national origin and disability. Regarded as the legislative crown jewel of the civil rights era, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted as a comprehensive tool meant to undo the political hold of Jim Crow policies in the South and related discriminatory structures nationwide. Congress adopted the law to ensure that states followed the 15th Amendment’s guarantee that the right to vote not be denied because of race. The law fundamentally opened political opportunities for Black and brown communities to participate in all aspects of the political system on an equal basis. Gerrymandering is the deliberate manipulation of electoral district boundaries to give one political party, incumbent, or group an unfair advantage. By using techniques like "packing" (concentrating opposition voters) and "cracking" (diluting them), map-drawers reduce competition, ensure predictable election outcomes, and distort representative democracy. Racial gerrymandering is illegal. The Voting Rights Act mandates that when a minority group is sufficiently large, geographically concentrated, and politically cohesive, a district must be MAY 15, 2026 Civil rights law and weakening the Voting Rights Act Gerrymandering uses the tactics of "packing" or "cracking" to give one political party an unfair advantage. Image from MIT Election Lab drawn to allow them to elect candidates of their choice. April 29, 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down a voting map in Louisiana, and with it dealt a blow to the landmark civil rights law. The decision opened the door for other states to redraw their congressional maps in ways that could affect elections for years to come. The Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais significantly weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by shifting the standard from proving discriminatory effect to proving intentional discrimination, which is difficult to do. This makes it harder for voters to challenge racially gerrymandered maps. The ruling, as described by the American Civil Liberties Union, enables states to adopt maps that dilute the voting power of Black and minority communities. I talked with a fellow Groundcover see VRA next page  Poor People’s Campaign brings new life to MLK Jr.’s vision LAURIE WECHTER Former Groundcover Human Services Director In 2017, National religious leaders, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis declared a National Call for Moral Revival of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign. King’s movement was cut short by his murder 50 years ago. However, a 1968 initiative that King had planned to conduct was carried out this summer from May 14 to June 28. Thirty-five states participated in the 40 days of protests and direct actions. Fifty years after King’s death, 140 million Americans are poor or low-income and 43 million people are living below the poverty line, living with ecological devastation, systemic racism and an economy harnessed to seemingly endless war. The Poor People’s Campaign now beckons our nation to take the higher ground. It calls upon our society to see the predicaments of the most vulnerable among us and seeks to halt the destruction of America’s moral vision. The Campaign works to continue Dr. King’s legacy of gathering citizens across the nation to take a stand on major issues affecting all Americans, but particularly poor people and people of color. During the National 40 Days of Moral Action, hundreds of church and union members and concerned citizens marched singing songs, carrying signs and demanding a massive overhaul of the nation’s voting rights laws, the implementation of new programs to lift up Americans living in poverty, increased attention to ecological devastation, and renewed measures to curb militarism and the war economy. Among the protesters, 85 people — many of them leaders from temples, churches, synagogues and mosques — were arrested for trespassing. This amounted to blocking doors and parking lots of government buildings in Lansing, and stopping the Q-Line tram in Detroit. These acts have garnered media attention and have shown our neighbors that it is possible to have a voice in the public arena. The Poor People’s Campaign hopes to increase its ranks over time, just as the leaders of the Civil Rights movement did 50 years ago. At present, Campaign members are canvassing citizens to get out and vote — and to vote “Yes” on nonpartisan Proposal 2 in the November 6 midterm elections. Proposal 2 will stop the unfair practice of drawing voting district lines that empower one party and deny representation to a substantial number of poor and non-white voters (aka gerrymandering). Proposal 2 will establish a Citizens Redistricting Commission made up of four Democrats, four Republicans and five unaffiliated voters to redraw these lines and allow Michigan voters to be truly represented. Please join the effort to create a more just Michigan and America for all! To get involved, go to: www.poorpeoplescampaign.org or www.VotersNotPoliticians.com. Originally published in the September 2018 edition of Groundcover MAY 15, 2026 EXPLOITATION Surrounded by robbers and thieves Most of us have keys to protect our homes and belongings. If you lose something, the first question you hear is “Did you have it locked up?” The implication is that if you did not then the loss is your fault. When my trike was stolen someone checked my “almost-lock” and undid it. At 211 E. Davis, where I live in Avalon housing, if you leave anything in the dryer it can disappear. Most of my towels, smart wool socks, big comforter blanket and more have been taken. What is the problem here? There is a bumper sticker that says, “Before the white man came there were no police or prisons, no unemployment, hunger or homelessness. The white man thought he could improve on that.” In capitalist culture we are surrounded by a climate of shortage, even when there is an oversupply. How can we still believe this is reality-based? The recent “Living with Treaties” conference at the University of Michigan explained how the treaty process was the main player in privatizing indigenous land. Privatization of public resources continues as the cult of wealth accumulation extends its reach into every nook and cranny. The investment class now talks of social security as an entitlement and how much better it would be if investors were in charge. Investors are the core of the ruling class and now practice neoliberal imperialism. Hedge funds and other techno-financial innovations show that financial capital is supreme over industrial capital and can thrive by destroying industrial capital. The working class elected Bill Clinton who then signed NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which funneled investors to Mexico. In the global economy to maximize profits, China became the place of choice and jobs went from Mexico to China, joining the Apple I-phone  VRA from last page board member and volunteer, Jacob Fallman, who is a lawyer for Sugar Law Center. Sugar Law’s work seeks to amplify the voices of low income workers and their communities. Jones: What made you get into civil rights law? Fallman: It always made sense to be a lawyer for the people. When deciding what I wanted to be when I grew up, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer. Civil rights lawyers, I looked up to in our society because they are fighters and they represent the people. Jones: What type of work do you do KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 and others in a profit frenzy. So, you can say that bosses are thieves who will sell your job to the lowest bidder. “The Earth’s Greatest Enemy” is a great documentary on the U.S. military and the damage they cause. In it you meet the people of Okinawa, the main U.S. military base in Japan, who protest the poisoning of their community. Of course this poisoning is made possible by the thieves who channel unbelievable amounts of tax money to the corporate arms of the war machine. There is no way at this time to put a padlock on your income tax so it can prioritize people. There is a Move the Money coalition on this issue. It may look like the power of the corporate state is invincible but a closer look shows that our labor power is the foundation of society. Please do a critical reading of “Preparing For a General Strike" and “Winning a General Strike,” two of my many Groundcover News articles that help us face reality and choose the path of freedom. Earth Day 2026 had some good presentations on this theme. Ann Arbor Community Commons will continue many collaborations and extend it to Indivisible and the NO KINGS rallies. Change and impermanence are in full play. Take a breath and look where you can do something good. Small things count. I hope the Ann Arbor Coalition Against War restarts the Friday evening vigils by the post office at Sugar Law? Fallman: We seek to help in areas of unfair employment practices, inappropriate development deals, environmental harms, and a range of discriminatory corporate and government policies. I work in administrative law to make sure the government follows due process and respects people’s rights when it comes to people getting their unemployment benefits. Jones: What are your thoughts on the Supreme Court decision to strike down the Voting Rights Act and what do you think we as a nation can do to remedy and reverse this decision? Fallman: The decision is Picket line outside Ypsilanti Transit Center, in solidarity with theTransit Workers Union's ongoing bargaining with the AAATA, on May 1, International Workers' Day. Photo submitted. at Fifth Ave and Liberty soon. I will be there sooner or later. Come and greet Alan Haber with his sign “Abolish the Whole War System.” Bosses and war go hand in hand to steal natural resources and labor power. The vast destruction of the environment happens as wage slavery carries out the orders of the ruling class. We have yet to learn how to use our labor responsibly. Compliance culture cannot allow this. The Transit Workers Union (TWU) has been working without a contract for a month now. All of TheRide bus drivers and support staff are not allowed to go on strike by Federal law. Negotiations are stalled as management wants to cut maternity leave benefits and not give a cost of living wage increase. I lost my Gold Card which gives seniors free rides on the AAATA, and when I went to replace it, I discovered the picket line at the main office on Industrial. Please support the TWU. As we learn to take a natural breath and focus our awareness on reality we will discover new ways to live in solidarity with life itself. Let’s breathe together from earth to sky and live fearlessly. The etymology of the word “conspire” means breathe together. heartbreaking, but in a lot of ways it was not surprising that the court took this step with a 6-3 conservative majority that put the nail in the coffin in the process of reversing hard-fought gains won during the civil rights era. We won the rights we enjoy today, that are being attacked right now, by being out in the streets, and willing to fight for our rights. Not just that, but people need to be informed about things that are going on around them. The decision that recently happened in the Supreme Court is from a lack of paying attention and from the capitalist forces around us. If we are to win back our rights or win better rights that we should have The Conspiracy to Save Lives was my first political work in Detroit beginning in 1969. It was a defense committee for the Berrigan brother priests and others who poured their blood on draft board files. They were charged with conspiracy to destroy government property. Look around and listen to what speaks to you. Practice until we get it right! The Common Good is a group inspired by the work of Peter Block. Some 120 people, including me, gathered in Cincinnati May 4-6 to share and learn about connecting and building the world we want to live in with the courage to care about ourselves and others, beginning in local neighborhoods and understanding that the future is local. “Our future is local” is the slogan of Argus Farm Stop. Their popular coffee is locally processed and brewed. I meet some wonderful people there. By appearances, we’re surrounded by robbers and thieves. But if you look beyond appearances, we are surrounded by buddhas and bodhisattvas and every kind of holy being. We can learn to breathe together and move together. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 had long ago, we are going to need a big movement like those in the past, if not bigger, to put the powers that be in their place and assert people's power. Jones: There is a Michigan constitutional amendment Proposal 2 (setting up the Independent Redistricting Commission) that removed the power of redistricting from legislators in 2018 and gave it to a citizen commission — will that still be in place after the SCOTUS ruling? Fallman: Yes, that will still be in place for the foreseeable future and will continue to determine what legislative districts will look like here in Michigan. (See page 8 for more details.)

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS RECOVERY DAVID CRANE Groundcover contributor In Washtenaw County, compassion has become a public language. It appears in mission statements, grant proposals, awareness campaigns and policy discussions. We speak often about helping the vulnerable, reducing stigma and meeting people where they are. Yet for many of us living inside that reality, another truth exists: people are still slipping through the cracks while the systems built to help them continue to expand. I know because I am one of them. I am approaching three years in changed my habits, recovery. I changed my thinking, and rebuilt my life through discipline, accountability and persistence. Anyone who has walked that road knows recovery is not a slogan or a single decision. It is daily work, often done quietly and without recognition. That is why it can be difficult to watch progress become invisible. Too often, our public conversation celebrates stabilization while overlooking transformation. If someone reduces harmful behavior, that can absolutely be a meaningful step forward. Harm reduction can save lives, reduce immediate danger and create opportunities for change. But when survival becomes the highest goal, recovery risks becoming secondary. The message many of us hear is this: staying in the cycle is understandable, but asking to be recognized for leaving it is inconvenient. Accountability is treated with suspicion. Standards are dismissed as judgment. Long-term change becomes less compelling than short-term crisis management. That imbalance matters. When communities focus only on managing emergencies, they can unintentionally create systems that sustain suffering more effectively than they solve it. Programs multiply. New initiatives launch. Careers advance. Funding grows. Yet many of the people these efforts are meant to help remain trapped in poverty, instability, addiction and despair year after year. Meanwhile, those who have fought to rebuild their lives can feel unseen. This is not an argument against harm reduction. Preventing overdose matters. Preserving life matters. Treating people with dignity matters. But dignity should not end at survival. Real dignity means believing people are capable of growth, responsibility, healing and independence. It means investing not only in keeping people alive today, but helping them build a life tomorrow. It means valuing treatment, sober housing, employment pathways, mentorship and leadership from people with sustained recovery experience. Washtenaw County is filled with intelligent and compassionate people MAY 15, 2026 Invisible process: recovery in the harm reduction era who want to help. But good intentions alone are not enough if visible homelessness rises, addiction persists, poverty deepens and hopelessness spreads. Those outcomes should prompt honest reflection, not automatic self-congratulation. We need balance. Support harm reduction, yes. But support recovery with equal seriousness. Measure success not only by crises managed, but by lives rebuilt. Ask whether programs are producing progress or simply preserving the need for themselves. Most of all, stop overlooking the people who chose change. There are many of us in this county. We may not fit the preferred narrative of permanent struggle. We may not be the loudest voices in the room. But we exist, and our lives are proof that transformation is possible. A community that forgets how to recognize recovery may eventually forget how to create it. Between abstinence and acceptance LENA BUHL Trott-War street paper Courtesy of Trott-War, a street paper in Germany, INSP.ngo. Many of those affected by addiction never seek help. The mental barrier is hard to overcome, and the journey to the door of the clinic is a long one. But there are places where this door is wide open; places where people listen and encourage each other with honesty, where nobody has to lie anymore. One of them is in Stuttgart — at the Blue Cross. The first Blue Cross Society was founded in Geneva back in 1877. Eight years later, the movement arrived in Germany, where it celebrates its 140th anniversary this year. The founders took inspiration from the Red Cross and saw themselves as “stretcher-bearers venturing onto the battlefield of life to rescue the victims of alcoholism and the pub life.” That is why they chose the cross as their symbol. In the Anglo-Saxon world, the color blue has traditionally been associated with the temperance movement. The Blue Cross is now active in almost 50 countries worldwide. Back in the 19th century, members were still required to sign a pledge of abstinence from alcohol. Nowadays, however, the aim is not necessarily to achieve abstinence, but rather to bring about a positive change in a person’s substance use and psychosocial situation. The Blue Cross Centre in Stuttgart attempts to achieve this through addiction counseling, supported living services, self-help groups and activity groups. Generally speaking, we describe a condition as an addiction when the craving for a particular behaviour or substance is so intense that it significantly disrupts the person’s life. Addiction can manifest itself in various ways: through the use of substances such as alcohol, recreational drugs and medication, or through behaviours such as gambling, eating and media use. However, the point at which people turn to the Blue Cross varies greatly. Some come after just a few months; others take 30 years. “The sooner, the better,” emphasized Benjamin König, head of the Stuttgart office. Caregivers also receive support from the Blue Cross: in 2025, 15% of all those receiving counselling were relatives. Some people try to persuade their loved ones to seek counseling. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. König prefers not to speculate on the likelihood of a successful recovery from addiction: “Of course, the sooner you seek help, the easier it is,” he admitted. “They say the first year or two are the hardest. And you’re on your own at times. You have your self-help group and the addiction support center, but, unlike in clinics, there isn’t a therapist you can call whenever you need. Those who still have a functioning support network around them simply have it much easier.” As well as therapy, it is the self-help groups in particular that give people strength. Self-help groups are associations without professional leadership, consisting exclusively of people affected by addiction. Although each group organizes its meetings slightly differently, they are all centered around the sharing of personal experiences and current challenges — it’s about openly discussing what’s on your mind, asking questions, getting advice and learning from others. This helps people to gain new perspectives and develop a greater awareness of certain issues. At the same time, it helps people to keep their feet on the ground and avoid falling into the trap of complacency; it fosters awareness of the reality that addiction is a lifelong struggle, even after many years of sobriety. There is a palpable sense of trust - among the members of the Blue Cross group in Bad Cannstatt. Every Wednesday, they host a safe space where attendants can be heard, supported and encouraged, no matter where they are on their journey. “It’s as if I can finally recharge my batteries on Wednesdays, after they’ve been draining a little bit every day of the week,” said one of the members. “I’m not really the whistling type, but I’m practically whistling all the way home this evening after our meeting.” The Blue Cross Center is not a facility that provides physical warmth, whether through its premises or its meals. Instead, what it aims to do as an addiction support service is to offer human warmth. “Addiction is a highly stigmatized issue. Some people might be afraid that they’ll come in here and learn that they’re full of flaws, that they’re doing everything wrong, and that they’ll have to sit through a sanctimonious lecture before getting help,” said König. “So, hopefully, they’ll be pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome they receive. “We all have the odd bad day, of course. But it’s important to me that we convey a sense of calm. There are people who are very, very nervous and have sometimes taken years to come and seek help.” Even today, there is a lack of openness and acceptance in society when it comes to dealing with addiction. The term “inclusion” is commonly used in the field of support for disabled people — but it’s a concept that should extend far beyond physical or mental impairments. It relates in equal part to people see ACCEPTANCE next page  MAY 15, 2026 OPPORTUNITY GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 More than a newspaper: how Groundcover vendors are rebuilding lives and community JONATHAN GLASS Groundcover contributor When Bridget Gotham talks about Groundcover News, her excitement is immediate and contagious. “I meet new and amazing people every day,” she said. “I wish I had started sooner.” For the past six months, Gotham has worked as a vendor for Groundcover News in Ann Arbor, selling newspapers throughout the community. What began as a leap of faith has become a source of stability, purpose, friendship and hope. Now, she wants others to experience the same opportunity. A job with freedom, dignity and purpose Groundcover vendors purchase newspapers for 50 cents and sell them for $2 plus the occasional tip, keeping the difference. Many vendors develop loyal regular customers, and every conversation becomes a chance to connect with the community. Gotham now sells around 100 papers each week. “I love that I can work on my own schedule,” she said. “It’s the freedom of self-employment I like most.” But Groundcover offers more than income. Vendors and contributors gain work experience, professional references, community support, and access to local resources throughout Washtenaw County. Writers, poets, and community storytellers are also encouraged to contribute articles and creative work to the paper. For many people facing housing  ACCEPTANCE from last page with mental health conditions, offenders, sex workers and those in need of housing. Many of these people face exclusion, and this is precisely where greater acceptance and open-mindedness are needed. Experience shows that even small steps towards greater visibility are met with a great deal of prejudice: the Blue Cross Center’s inquiries to restaurants and retailers regarding partnerships often go unanswered. Finding somewhere to live is also virtually impossible, especially in cities like Stuttgart. The mere suggestion of setting up a houseshare for former addicts usually results in an immediate “no.” One of the visitors from the Blue Cross group sums it up like this: he wouldn’t “come out” as an alcoholic today; the fear of rejection is too great, and the social stigma too deep-rooted. As another person put it: “When someone is diagnosed with cancer, they are met with compassion. When someone is experiencing addiction, they are met with judgement.” It is important that everyone is given a genuine opportunity — an opportunity in the labor market, in community life and in their local neighborhood. And that they are greeted with a smile on the street. After all, those struggling with addiction are not just fighting against a substance, but often against a society that is too quick to judge. Translated from German via Translators Without Borders. insecurity, unemployment, mental health struggles, or major life transitions, Groundcover can become a pathway forward. Before joining Groundcover, Gotham worked as a security officer. After being assaulted on the job, she left the field and spent a long period unemployed. “It scared me,” she said. Family members helped support her while she searched for a new direction. A friend and fellow vendor, Mary, encouraged her to look into Groundcover, but it took time before Gotham felt ready to walk through the doors. When she finally interviewed at Groundcover’s office inside Bethlehem United Church of Christ, she found something unexpected: encouragement. “The process was welcoming and hope-inspiring,” Gotham said. Even with prior sales experience, she admitted the idea of working independently was intimidating at first. “I wasn’t sure if I’d be good at this,” she said. “But I tried, and I am good at this.” That willingness to take a chance changed everything. Opportunities beyond selling papers Groundcover vendors are not only salespeople — they are journalists, poets, advocates, artists and community leaders. Many vendors contribute stories, essays or poetry to the newspaper and are compensated to do so. Contributors can also participate in “Groundcover Speaks,” an audio storytelling project that allows writers to record their work for additional compensation. For vendors balancing tight budgets, every opportunity matters. Gotham herself has become increasingly active in the community. She now participates in outreach events and is helping build partnerships with organizations that support mental health and recovery services. At a recent fundraising event hosted by Fresh Start Clubhouse Gotham gave tours, connected with guests, and sold newspapers — proudly representing Groundcover and the people behind it. For anyone nervous about becoming a vendor, Gotham offers simple advice: “Hold up a paper and let people come to you.” She says most people learn quickly. Success comes from consistency, kindness, and conversation. Sometimes a person may not have the ability to pay. Sometimes they may be having a rough day. Gotham doesn’t let rejection discourage her. “In those cases, I might give away a free paper,” she said. “A lot of times that person becomes a regular after they see what we’re doing.” That spirit of patience and human connection is what makes Groundcover different. Ask Gotham what Groundcover means to her now, and she answers without hesitation: “Friends. I’m always in good company with friends.” For many vendors, Groundcover becomes more than work. It becomes community — a place where people support one another, rebuild confidence, and discover new purpose. Bridget Gotham, vendor No. 674 Gotham says she would love to see more people join as vendors. “The more papers Groundcover sells, the more people it can help,” she said. She also hopes to see expanded resources for people experiencing homelessness, mental health challenges, and substance use disorder throughout the area. Looking for a fresh start? Groundcover News is actively welcoming new vendors and contributors. No experience is necessary. If you enjoy meeting people, telling stories, writing, or simply want an opportunity to earn income while becoming part of a supportive community, Groundcover may be the place to begin again. For people searching for purpose, community, and a chance to move forward, Groundcover is more than a newspaper. It’s a new beginning.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY MAY 15, 2026 What does Ann Arbor have in common with the poet and novelist, Paul Laurence Dunbar? CISSE LOVE Groundcover contributor I am truly honored to share with readers of Groundcover News about the historical significance the name Dunbar brings to Kerrytown. Before discussing the area’s new asset, Dunbar Tower, let's visit the life and times of the poet and novelist Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906). Dunbar is considered one of the first black poets to earn a living as an artist while establishing a national and international reputation. His 1899 published poem, “Sympathy,” in the collection of “Lyrics of the Hearthside,” is the first instance of the well-known lyric, “I know why the caged bird sings.” Maya Angelou, who has openly given full credit to Paul Laurence Dunbar, is well-known by most people for this lyric in her poem “Caged Bird” (1983), in the collection “Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?” Dunbar is an example of the American dreamer … a descendant of parents who overcame the oppression of slavery with service and education. He was an exceptional student, the editorin-chief of his school paper and the president of the literary society at Dayton Central High School. Segregation in the 1800s had obstacles and barriers that forced Dunbar into manual labor rather than attending college. Paul Laurence Dunbar pursued his writing as a poet and novelist and was able to earn a living through direct sales, partnerships and expanding into various forms of art. Dunbar’s claim to fame is his writing style, which excellently paints pictures in English and dialect associated with enslaved Americans. After the personal loss of his wife, and illness, Dunbar passed away at the age of 33. The richness of his life cannot be summarized and justly captured in such a short paragraph. All over the country, you will find schools and centers like Ann Arbor’s Dunbar Community Center. At an earlier time in Ann Arbor history, the Dunbar Community Center, formerly located at 209 N. 4th Street, was the answer to surviving segregation. The center later expanded to 1009 N. Catherine Street where it could provide housing for laborers working for the University of Michigan. With the help of other community-centered partners, the Dunbar Community Center’s name was changed to the Ann Arbor Community Center, and it still stands to this day, now at 625 N. Main Street. We commend them for providing valuable programming for children, supporting families with a clothing closet and emergency food, and more, inspired by the contributions of Paul Laurence Dunbar. I must state that as a writer and new resident in Ann Arbor, I am dedicated to continuing the legacy of a meaningful presence and supporting the vulnerable in my community. I feel right at home and appropriately so in Dunbar Towers, the newest residential addition to Ann Arbor’s landscape, recently built on the Catherine Street site that once housed the Dunbar Community Center. If you have strolled down Catherine Street near 4th Avenue, you might have noticed the new maize-and-blueadorned six-story building, and new faces about town. Ann Arbor Housing Commission has partnered with Avalon Housing to create something in Ann Arbor that is a first of its kind, providing project-based housing to artists and some of our most vulnerable community members. As someone who is presently a resident of Dunbar Towers, I can share transparently that this experience is life-changing. Dunbar Towers offers affordable housing to local artists, remaining true to its namesake, and at the same time it has removed some of our most vulnerable residents from harsh living conditions. Residents and the community will be able to build and explore more art in suite L, adding wonderful Paul Laurence Dunbar opportunities to build community and experience creative expression. Both residents and local artists have adorned the building inside and out with beautiful murals and expressions of the iconic area of Kerrytown. Please be sure to visit the murals the next time you are out for a stroll near the Detroit Filling Station, No Thai or the Farmer’s Market. I hope your curiosity is piqued and your imagination even more so. I invite neighbors to embrace the people, bring your artistry to the community space, and please be kind to those new faces. Help them experience what it means to be in Ann Arbor, with the same midwestern kindness and strength we’re known for as one of the nation's most educated cities. See you around town. Gourmet on the Beach: A Tale of Three Rivers MARIE Groundcover contributor Pass the Salt I laid down on just the right spot In the sand Below the spitting mesquite. Until my siesta was disrupted by a hiker passing by. The man offered me a bottle of iced agua. After the Kool satisfied the parch of the blazing summer sand, I noticed a prick more gentle than a pear. My shrink wrapped fruit salad Once nested in stretched arms. Was now the leftovers from a one eared groundskeeper. The Marlboro men arrived One eye on the fly, And the other on a canoe. A single pan between us, As they served me as canapes. The Sault I parked rear end Near the base of Bear Bridge. As I peered into the water, I caught the glint of a tag lodged deep into the fin. I drudged up trees forming an apex lined with birch paper. Dumb and Dumber rolled through in tandem, While on their Bud Light tree decorating spree. Raggedy Ann and Andy dropped by for their lost lure. In its place were the ingredients for castiron peach cobbler. A vet with six wounds enjoyed salmon corn cakes, Sprinkled with shredded cheese and served with instant coffee, Only recently pulled from the depths of cargo. Rock Salt She was captured near the banks of old fieldstone. Sentenced to churning, spinning, bobbin, and cranking While sitting upon a tuffit. Within a view from the train of scary toys, A derailed caboose exposed a tiny gem packed for the rapids. High atop the newly named tower suite, A double rainbow arched through the mist, As it rose from the banks of the arboretum. A pillow fight brought the need for another groundbreaking sight. They rubbed two sticks together as they proofed fresh bread. Then fell into the iris bed. MAY 15, 2026 POETRY Woodstock PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 Disregard destination I follow my instincts against the river reaching higher ground for a better perspective breathe in, breathe out I say to myself the air gets rare and cold a cloud passes by obscuring my vision sunset sunrise I saw trouble, so I ran urges to move on breaking boundaries grab my bag and leave my honor with me here I am turning stones into stairs leverage along the way free as a bird trails open as I walk the bears and the bees I’m going for the honey sources coyotes, eagles, snakes my new gang now I get around what I understand from experience commit and persist you shall prevail sunset sunrise there’s a special joy in being proud of the Man I’ve become values shared in life I climb the mountain high enough to fall deep into myself suddenly, back to earth keep it simple sunset sunrise Pure air, spring water good conversations some mystery a little adrenaline lots of adventures nature’s power On river flow Once again I’m on my own Sunset sunrise silence is filled by the living sounds from the forest not to fear GROUNDCOVER NEWS Beautiful Woman, Broken Heart LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover writer I am a beautiful woman with a broken heart Everyone I love and those who love me Have been taken away from me This is not how I ever imagined My life would come to be my near future splashes ahead of me refreshing waterfall smoke rises from my pipe high on the mountain sunset sunrise later stars come out followed by my magnetic moon yes, this all belongs to me that’s who I am It brings me joy how blessed I am I am here everywhere I am someone else but same cause I know this is the closest to God I’ll ever be sunset sunrise precious moments better memories for my self learned my lessons now give me time mountain lion season starting now Shame especially on you Ronnie!! You are very wicked To torture our daughter My baby I can not have another child How can you look at her Look at yourself in the mirror What you have done and continue to do Is tortuous to both her and me You lie and put me and my name down in the mud While destroying me inside And your own daughter, your flesh and blood Yes, I am a beautiful woman still With a broken heart Not only you, but a whole lot of my family That I was only good enough for When and if they were in need Now, I sit alone a lot now I will never look at anyone else the same you understand This is way beyond anything fathomable to me This is worse than any nightmare I am living in a wake state of the most horrible things Yet, I am a beautiful woman, hoping to mend my broken heart before it bleeds out From all of the many, many, continuous horrors beset on my precious babies and me Yet, I'll never give up, I am a strong BEAUTIFUL WOMAN, with a BROKEN HEART 13 Beach SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 As I walk along the beach I see seashells and sand dollars all over. As the water rushes up to kiss my toes and my feet the sun is shining. I feel the warmth of the day welcoming me to my morning. I can hear and see seagulls flying overhead; in the distance there are dolphins swimming in their pods.

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES Beautiful on the Inside Victor Schmitt MAY 15, 2026 ACROSS 1. Trouble 4. Like some personalities 7. Eve's garden partner 11. Club relative, for short 14. The "I.V." of I.V.F 16. Pixar movie that takes place during the day of the dead 17. Put on 18. Certain inlaw 20. Place to get pampered 21. White of the U.F.C. 22. Île-de-France city 23. Full of back talk 25. Columns with a slant? 27. Filmmaker Spike 28. Word with pot or pork 29. Club ___ (resort chain) 30. Track and field event for Armand Duplantis 34. Dom's counterpart 35. Laura of "Jurassic Park" 36. At some point 37. Set one's sights, say 41. Most neat 43. "That's my cue!" 44. Earned 47. Chi-town airport code 48. One of around 250 in Sue—the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever found 51. Compressed computer file extension 54. Bulls in a bullfight 55. Sign on some bathroom doors 56. Davis of "Thelma & Louise" 58. Colorful parrot 59. They might be peddled 61. "___ mate!" (Aussie greeting) 62. G.A. airport 63. Generous souls... or a hint to 18-, 30-, and 48-Across 66. Tee follower 67. Play start 68. Country on the Gulf of Finland 69. They're handed to bouncers 70. "Africa" band 71. "___ and Chicken" (90s Cartoon Network show) 72. Central DOWN 1. It can be conventional or infinite 2. Like some books 3. Made flush 4. "___ be my pleasure!" 5. "Shoot!" 6. Compound pronoun contracted in the south 7. Accomplish, as a goal 8. Dippin' ___ (frozen ballpark treat) 9. One of the rockets in "pocket rockets" 10. Tasty tad 11. Low-pitched part of a song 12. Mouths along to a song 13. Airplane meal's platform 15. Apple tablet 19. One of the seven deadly sins 24. Tic Tac alternative 26. Tater 28. Toe affliction 31. First Family after the Bushes 32. It's in the eye of the beholder, in a saying 33. Fetch 34. Spanish title 37. Help 38. Aped 39. Fancy pieces of eyewear 40. Sigma follower 42. Remnant 45. Medical-themed nintendo game 46. Film critic Robert 49. "...and?!" 50. "Hold on..." 51. Equine hybrid with striped legs 52. Bad place to be caught 53. Biweekly date for many workers 57. Big name in frozen waffles 58. When doubled, a tropical fish 59. Unit on a light bulb 60. Meh 64. Green prefix 65. "Victory is mine!," in text speak PUZZLE SOLUTIONS May 1, 2026 edition MAY 15, 2026 RESOURCES employment RESOURCE CORNER JOB DEVELOPER'S ALLIANCE A collaborative of ten community organizations with the mission to help underserved job seekers find suitable employment. The clients are invited to two events per year to help connect them with employers. Washtenaw County agencies that are represented in the JDA: Ann Arbor Housing Commission, Bureau of Services for Blind Persons, Wash-tenaw County Office of Community and Economic Development, Department of Corrections - Women's Huron Valley, Jewish Family Services, Michigan Ability Partners, Michigan Rehabilitation Services, Path For Ability Vocation Enterprise, Work Skills Corporation, and Washtenaw Community College Career Services www.washtenaw.org/4497/ Job-Developers-Alliance GROUNDCOVER NEWS 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor (In the basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ) 734-263-2098 contact@groundcovernews.com Office hours: Monday through Saturday 11a.m. - 3 p.m. New vendor orientations: Tuesday and Thursday 10 a.m. A street newspaper which offers employment to people selling it: those experiencing homelessness or poverty. MICHIGAN WORKS 304 Harriet St., Ypsilanti 734-714-9814 Mon.-Wed.-Fri.: 8 a.m.-5 p.m.;Tuesday: 8 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sat. and Sun.: Closed. Resource room with computers, printers, and copiers; Unemployment pairing — once an active resume is on the state's website; Direct lines to the unemployment office; Workshops; Job fairs twice a month (first and third Thursday of the month); Helps to train entry level workers so they can move up in positions; Variety of adult programs (depending on needs and wants); Younger youth (14-17 years): out of school and in-school job options; Older youth (18-24 years): summer employment in partnership with U-M; Tuition assistance; Car repair and insurance assistance depending on the program; Work clothing; Mileage to get to/from work/school; Outreach programs: resume training for those exiting jail; Free background checks; Assistance with the $30 for GED classes — must be enrolled in a MI Works program. WASHTENAW COMMUNITY COLLEGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER The team is available via phone at 734-249-5880, or email at entrepreneurship@wccnet.edu, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday - Friday except for holidays and closures. Explore their website at: www. wccnet.edu/succeed/entrepreneurship-center/index.php/ The Entrepreneurship Center at Washtenaw Community College is a welcoming resource hub that supports individuals in developing their entrepreneurial capacity. Through thoughtful conversations, partnerships, and programs, those at the college and in the surrounding communities are inspired and driven to actively grow their ventures as professionals, social innovators, or business owners. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Love like the weather TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 15 Babe I wanna let ya kno, Never gonna let cha go, Therez alwayz gonna be a way, Ya kno I’m alwayz gonna stay, I love your touch, I love ya so much, Therez gonna be, Upz & downz, Joy & pain, I’m alwayz gonna be around, Through sunshine & rain, I’m so in love wit you, I kno youz in love wit me too, I kno itz all good, Therez nothing I wouldn’t do, Ta keep you close ta me, This love that we found, Izz so real, I kno how we feel.

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Garlic broccolini ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 bunches broccolini (about 1 pound total) 1 tablespoon olive oil 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1/2 cup water Directions: Rinse the broccolini under cool water and shake off the excess water. Trim about one inch off the bottom of the broccolini stems. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add the broccolini and sauté until the broccolini is bright green and some of the stems and tips of the florets are lightly charred, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes. Continue to sauté until the garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the water, cover, and cook until the Broccolini is vibrant green and crisp-tender; this is about 1 to 2 minutes. Serve broccolini immediately. A very easy, quick recipe. MAY 15, 2026 Navigating new Michigan SNAP work requirements LINDSAY CALKA Publisher On March 1, 2026 “HR1” took effect — and if you receive food stamps, you need to take action. HR1, or “The Big, Beautiful Bill,” installed new work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamp) recipients in select counties in Michigan without high unemployment, including Washtenaw County. This is particularly important for parents of children 14 and older (before, work requirements only applied to parents of children over 18), and adults ages 18-64 — previously it was 55. To satisfy the work requirements, SNAP recipients must work more than 80 hours monthly, or earn at least $580/ monthly (calculated with federal minimum wage). Alternatively, SNAP recipients can volunteer for a certain number of hours — determined by dividing the value of their program group benefits by the Michigan minimum wage. You can be exempt from the work/volunteer requirement if you care for an incapacitated person or a child under age 6 (any person, not necessarily kin.) If you are already working or volunteering, you cannot quit or reduce your hours to maintain eligibility in another way. Still, many are eligible for exemptions PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI MAKE MEALS YOU LOVE! Fresh ingredients to $5 OFF ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. 06/11/2026 OFFER EXPIRES 5/30/2026 and deferrals, including those who are: pregnant; receiving unemployment or disability benefits (new application or appeals); physically or mentally disabled; attending a qualified (state-supported) training program half-time or more; American Indian or Alaskan Native (up to second descendant if living in Metro Detroit, verify through self-attestation); mentally/physically unfit for working (domestic violence, unhoused, substance use — verify through self-attestation and documentation) — or if the SNAP recipient is already complying with the work requirements for Family Independence Program. If you were not aware of these changes, or have not reported any work or exemption since March 1, you will not lose benefits immediately — a person is allowed three months of not meeting the work requirements over three years. If you are concerned about maintaining access to food benefits, take action by updating your MIBridges profile and contacting your local MDHSS office.

2 $ MAY 1, 2026 | VOLUME 17 | ISSUE 10 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Sentenced beyond bars: the fight for justice at Women's Huron Valley. page 8 MEET YOUR VENDOR: FELICIA WILBERT PAGE 3 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Augustine, Marie, Steve, and Brandy (left to right) on a Saturday with tea and sack lunch in the courtyard of YDL Michigan Ave, while conducting research about library support services. A library of support. page 10 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 MAY 1, 2026 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Anabel Sicko ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Emeri Jade Bey Jason Church Jim Clark Marquetta "Q" Clements Jay Cooper La Shawn Courtwright David Crane Amanda Gale Carole Hittinger Mike Jones Marie Gregory Maisonville Savon Salvador Will Shakespeare Steven Scoop Stevens PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett June Miller VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Ben Foster Glenn Gates Robert Klingler Aklesia Maereg Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropriate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. MAY 1, 2026 CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Cold thoughts CAROLE HITTINGER Groundcover vendor No. 701 This world that we live in is Felicia Wilbert, vendor No. 234 In one sentence, who are you? A loving, giving mother and gramma. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? 4th and Liberty Street. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? 2015. Became homeless due to a tragedy. It was a chance for stability. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Back in time to the signing of the Constitution. I would let them know the effects of the lies they created. And how they harmed people generations into the future. If you could go back or forward in time, where/when would you go? 1810 to find out who my great, great granddad’s parents were. What’s your hottest take? Groundcover is a job not a handout! If you could have dinner with one person in history, who would it be? George Washington. What is the best day of the year, in your opinion? My birthday! Books or movies? Both of my books, "Billy Don't Kill Us" and "3333 Mystery," need to turn into movies! What is your favorite thing about yourself? I am blessed to be able to change employment when it's necessary. Would you make a good world leader? Yes. Is social media a net positive or negative? Good when it is utilized correctly! way too much, at times. It reminds me of times in my life which I have long prayed to never relive. I am disheartened more and more every day by thoughts of what may happen next, or worse, what already has. Justice seems so far from our grasp, even as the land of the free. I am angered and confused so often. Yet, I will not let this keep me down, nor my loved ones. While it seems impossible — very hard at best — we all must persist. This is neither the life nor love that God would want for ANY of us. God is a loving and forgiving creator, no matter your personal religious beliefs. Some religions wait still for their savior in human form, and others for his final appearance. I do not believe it really makes a difference what others believe in. We are all in this together, and we’re all creations of God —a higher power if you will, or parents if not. The division we feel is across the board, yet so is God's love. This is often overlooked, but that love can bring us together. Of that fact I am sure. While I do believe we all have free will of our own, we often forget that judgment is not our job. I should clarify: in most situations. There are some who earn a paycheck to serve as judges and the like. While there needs to be some order, far too much is beyond our human ability to control. So why must we continue to judge? I know that God does not hold grudges: that is human nature alone. While nature seems to hold bias like us humans, it is truly incapable of GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 having emotions. Our actions may be up to us to decide, but grace is something only God seems to extend, these days at least. It is shameful and silly to think of so many examples, just this past week, in which humans thought that they had the right to throw stones, or even cause harm. Some share only angry words or looks based on another human's beliefs. I have even heard fellow Michiganders claiming credit for freezing temps. Chuckle I must, and pray even more. I will continue to pray for mercy and grace to flow between us all. God allows us all to change, learn and grow, for our entire lives. While some refuse, I know it is part of the experience of being alive. I know we ALL can come together and realize that judgement is not something we should offer each other. Only love. I still believe love and time can heal all, if we persist. Opinion: Origins of the USA SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover vendor No. 638 The 1772 Somerset vs. Stewart court case was the writing on the wall that slavery was coming to an end in Great Britain’s 13 North American colonies. Since all of the colonies had slave owners who profited from slave labor, preserving the institution of slavery was the cause that united the colonies to secede from Great Britain. Was taxation without representation really the cause that united the original 13 colonies to secede from England? The fact of the matter is, the colonies were well-represented. The taxes imposed were to pay for the 7 Years War (1756-63) that the colonies benefited from. The taxes were not onerous and did not hinder commerce. Preserving the institution of slavery was the cause that united the colonies to secede from England. Great Britain ended slavery in their colonies in the 1830s. Slave owners were compensated for releasing their slaves and newly freed slaves were given land to start their new lives as free people. This would have happened in America if the colonies had not seceded from Great Britain. Therefore, it seems clear to me that preserving the institution of slavery was the real cause that united the colonies in the War of Independence against Great Britain. In 1861, 11 southern states entered into a confederation in violation of Article 1 Section 10 of the United States Constitution. President Lincoln put an army in the field to bring these rebelling states back into the Union, which would preserve the institution of slavery because this was the purpose of the United State’s existence. As the war dragged on, the original purpose of the war was no longer tenable; this led President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The Civil War only then became a war to free slaves. This was when the United States of America really came into existence as a nation. Poems by Jason Church Vocab: Diligent Rain sleet snow still he went. Postal workers sure are diligent. Vocab: Prodigious You want to go dig he up? Absolutely no way. That would take all day. That guy is prodigious. Vocab: Stultify When she goes walking by, We get them bulging eyes. She has a way that just stultifies. Looking better than a cheeseburger and salted fries.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS OPINIOIN Executive order directs HUD to cut Section 8 spending STEVEN Groundcover contributor On March 2 of this year, the U.S. regime currently in power proposed draconian alterations that would essentially end housing subsidies, also known as Housing Choice Vouchers, or Section 8. The federal Housing Choice program is the largest affordable housing program in the country, funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Ending Section 8 would affect more than 3 million people, half of whom are children. This puts all of them at increased risk of falling into homelessness because the pompous pumpkin POTUS said cutting rental aid by 40% and putting a two-year limit on benefits for able-bodied people would “Make America Affordable again.” Is he trying to make real estate more affordable for the already-bloated predatory landlords through the inevitable evictions of the working class? Is that going to, as the administration is crowing, make them more self-sufficient? Many landlords oppose this plan as well, preferring to keep longterm government-subsidized, reliable tenants for longer than two years. “Establishing Flexibility for Implementation of Work Requirements and Term Limits.” That's what the plan is called. Government double-talk at its finest — a long, obscure title with big words saying nothing. This is a directive to HUD to get around Congress who already rejected the plan. The “flexibility” is that the states will have more flexibility on how to spend the smaller amounts of money they will receive. Similar to how the states can spend welfare money. Maybe they’ll spend it on poor people’s rent even if they don’t have to? Unlike how they diverted the welfare money when it was awarded in the same way. To find out what it actually means I read "The Federal Register." "The Federal Register," I recently learned, is the official daily journal of the federal government used to announce notices of proposed rules (allowing public comment), final rules (changes to the law), presidential proclamations, and executive orders. I want to make sure you notice that it is open to public comment. Comments are open until May 1, 2026 on this issue. After Googling “The Federal Register,” it was my top choice. I was greeted by an avalanche of data. The current issue, published April 6, 2026, has 101 documents from 42 agencies consisting of 474 pages. If you don’t know what to call what you're looking for, good luck finding it. But I did know what I was looking for. I typed in the name of the proposal and found it. There are only 228 comments as I write this. This topic that will affect millions has less comments than I routinely get on Reddit. This forum should be talked about more and engaged with more. I’d never heard of it until this week. I urge people to comment. Whatever you think, show them we are paying attention. Most of the people affected by HUD’s plan are employed — brutally underemployed, but employed. Deborah Thorpe, deputy director at the National Housing Law Project, said in a statement, “This proposal is based on false and harmful stereotypes, rather than concrete data or best practices, it ignores the fact that most participants in federal housing programs who can work do in fact work. Saving enough to move off of assistance takes a long time and a lot of support.” As of 2023, 50%, more than 22.6 million renters, were cost-burdened, paying more than 30% of their income on living expenses. This includes more than 12.1 million who are severely burdened, spending more than half of their income on housing and utilities. Between 2019 and 2023 the share of renters with cost burdens increased in 43 of 50 states. More than half of all renters were cost-burdened, which indicates paying more than 30% of income on rent, in 13 states and in 50 of the 100 largest metro areas. Trump is asking HUD to cut rental aid by 40%. Where is he planning on spending all that sweet, sweet poor-people money? The cost of the current war-crime, based on the Pentagon’s briefing to Congress was $11.3 billion for the first six days plus $1 billion/day ongoing. As housing costs have grown, many households have less money available to cover other necessities. In 2023, renters with incomes below $30,000 had a median of just $250 per month left over after paying for housing. Many are forced to make difficult spending trade-offs between crucial needs, employment RESOURCE CORNER JOB DEVELOPER'S ALLIANCE A collaborative of 10 community organizations with the mission to help those underserved job seekers find suitable employment. The clients are invited to two events per year to help connect them with employers. Washtenaw County agencies that are represented in the JDA: Ann Arbor Housing Commission, Bureau of Services for Blind Persons, Washtenaw County Office of Community and Economic Development, Department of Corrections - Women's Huron Valley, Jewish Family Services, Michigan Ability Partners, Michigan Rehabilitation Services, Path For Ability Vocation Enterprise, Work Skills Corporation, and Washtenaw Community College Career Services www.washtenaw.org/4497/ Job-Developers-Alliance GROUNDCOVER NEWS 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor (In the basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ) 734-263-2098 contact@groundcovernews.com Office hours: Monday through Saturday 11a.m. - 3 p.m. New vendor orientations: Tuesday and Thursday 10 a.m. A street newspaper which offers employment to people selling it: those experiencing homelessness or poverty. MICHIGAN WORKS 304 Harriet St., Ypsilanti 734-714-9814 Mon.-Wed.-Fri.: 8 a.m.-5 p.m.;Tuesday: 8 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sat. and Sun.: Closed. Resource room with computers, printers, and copiers; Unemployment pairing — once an active resume is on the state's website; Direct lines to the unemployment office; Workshops; Job fairs twice a month (first and third Thursday of the month); Large annual job fair, often held in May; Helps to train entry level workers so they can move up in positions; Variety of adult programs (depending on needs and wants); Younger youth (14-17 years): out of school and in-school job options; Older youth (18-24 years): summer employment in partnership with U-M; Tuition assistance; Car repair and insurance assistance depending on the program; Work clothing; Mileage to get to/from work/school; Outreach programs: resume training for those exiting jail; Free background checks; Assistance with the $30 for GED classes — must be enrolled in a MI Works program. WASHTENAW COMMUNITY COLLEGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER The team is available via phone at 734-249-5880, or email at entrepreneurship@wccnet.edu, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday - Friday except for holidays and closures. Explore their website at: www.wccnet.edu/succeed/entrepreneurship-center/index.php/ The Entrepreneurship Center at Washtenaw Community College is a welcoming resource hub that supports individuals in developing their entrepreneurial capacity. Through thoughtful conversations, partnerships, and programs, those at the college and in the surrounding communities are inspired and driven to actively grow their ventures as professionals, social innovators, or business owners. MAY 1, 2026 including healthcare, food and retirement savings, according to the 2023 Consumer Expenditure Survey. In those circumstances, how does one save for a deposit on a new apartment, let alone find an apartment that is close in cost to a vouchered apartment in two years? If you have an answer that works please email Groundcover News and I’ll write about it. He’s coming for you, too, middle-class readers. While households with lower incomes constitute the bulk of burdened renters, the strain is creeping up the income ladder. Fully 83% of renters earning under $30,000 were cost-burdened in the most recent data, including an astounding 67% with severe burdens. But burden rates were also over 70% for renters earning $30,000-$44,999, an increase of 15 percentage points since 2001. During the same period, burden rates doubled to more than 45% for renters earning $45,000-$74,999. Lots of statistics to crunch here. These are big numbers. This issue affects millions of our fellow citizens. People doing it right. Working people. The goal posts of the American Dream keep getting moved further out of reach. Nobody should have to choose between food or medicine. Retirement savings are a thing other people do. My $250 a month doesn't stretch as far as I’d like. Dentists? Doctors? Mental health medications? Nope, just rent. Editor's note: Readers who miss the May 1 deadline to share public comment are encouraged to contact their federal U.S. representatives. MAY 1, 2026 OPINION GROUNDCOVER NEWS Pallet home proposal shows Ann Arbor doesn't have the language to address the rent crisis, and that's intentional JAY COOPER Groundcover contributor At the December 8, 2025 planning session, Ann Arbor City Council heard a report from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation on the rent crisis. The report (aaacf.org/ news/housing-study) doesn't call the situation a rent crisis, they call it a "problem" of "affordability" and referred to "the clear shortage of rental units for higher-income renters" as the reason "an unusually large number of units came online in 2024.” When reports on housing use language like this, when they claim “Single mother families in particular tend to have incomes that create significant affordability challenges," they are redirecting the blame of the rent crisis away from landlords. There is one reason for homelessness, and that is rent. So long as rent exists, there is homelessness, and without it, homelessness disappears. To say that "affordability challenges" are created by people's incomes is to wildly twist reality. At the very same December 8 planning session, City Council heard a proposal for building a village of shacks. Hank Kelley, the City’s deputy planning manager, and Supportive Connections director Johnathan Laye made the presentation. Supportive Connections is the City of Ann Arbor's social support program. They don't call them shacks, they call them "pallet homes.” According to a December 2025 MLive article on the pallets, Kelley said, "Even pets are welcome," as if that's some kind of bonus and not an inherent feature of housing since the dawn of humanity that's only recently been put behind a paywall by landlords. A village of shacks in Ann Arbor, if we're entertaining the idea they'd ever build such a thing, would be better than the tents (or worse conditions) people are currently living in, but it does not solve homelessness because homelessness is created by rent, and it doesn't address rent. Shacks aren't meant to address homelessness. They didn't propose a location for the shack village. If they had, history gives us the data to predict that scene: the gentrifiers crying over property values, their unsubstantiated fearmongering about capital flight and crime, as the project gets pushed into less and less viable locations, compromises shave away value, activists get distracted fighting a losing battle over scraps of a project that was never meant to succeed. Proposing a village of shacks to address homelessness is an insult. There are plenty of vacant homes to house people. The reason the city won't put people up in those homes is because it breaks the illusion that rent is valid. They don't want people who aren't paying ungodly high rent to live in those homes. Those homes are not for people, they are landlord investments meant to generate billions. Those homes are especially not for the class of people they're trying to exterminate. Those homes are to attract "higher-income renters" for the next wave of rent ratcheting. This is settler colonialism. You and your ilk are not desired on this land. In November, Johnathan Laye and police chief Andre Anderson proposed SPROUT, a joint unarmed response project between Supportive Connections and police. "Unarmed response" is corrupted language. The people did not ask for unarmed response, they asked for "unarmed, non-police response." Just as "opensource" deliberately subverts the politics of free software to co-opt its benefits for the wealthy, just as free breakfast was perverted into meanstested "free and reduced lunch options," just as guaranteed pensions were replaced with fickle 401(k)s, every real proposal for positive change is perverted, corrupted, stripped of its value. It is then resold to you as a means-tested, bureaucratically crippled neoliberal half-measure that masks the source of the problem and serves the wealthy (the source of the problem). Anyone coordinating, collaborating, cooperating with police is not working to solve homelessness as police are the landlord's legbreakers. When rent is past due, it's the police that landlords send to your home with guns to get you off the land. When the bank forecloses on you, it’s the police they send with guns to get you off the land. Abolishing rent is the solution to homelessness. Saying so scares some people, people who don't pay rent, or people who have been convinced that abolishing rent will somehow hurt their prospects, but be not afraid of abolishing rent, because you have no prospects. Statistically speaking, you will never own a home; any money you think you can squirrel away will be taken from you by ever-ratcheting rents and stagnant wages, as well as wartime gas prices, inflation, shrinkflation, automation, high-speed stock gambling, the coming AI bubble crash, and/or when the firehose of vibe-coded malware "pwns" your bank. Billionaire landlords are insulated from these things. They own a diverse range of capital that feeds them income, your income, which they reinvest into more parasitic capital investments that steal more income. Have you asked your boss to raise wages? How did they respond? If you haven't, how do you expect they would respond? Lackluster income does not create "affordability challenges." You are kept underpaid to keep profits up. Your rent will increase until you are priced out, then you will be replaced by a slightly wealthier class of people, who will suffer the exact same exploitation just with another zero on the check, and so on, as robber barons eat the city alive. Understandably most people are afraid of confronting the real villains creating the rent crisis. After all, when your name and face are on your facebook account, naming and shaming your landlord could get you evicted; police might show up at your door and kick you out of your home, then where would you be? Maybe then you'd be homeless. The only proven method of taking on landlords to get tenant protections is the same as the only proven method of taking on employers for worker protections, unity and solidarity en masse. You alone will never have more sway over your government than billionaire landlords. You alone will never have the power to stop a team of armed police from kicking you out of your home. You alone will never convince your employer to pay you a living wage. If you want housing security, if you want a world without homelessness, you must organize with fellow tenants to protect each other, and eventually, to abolish rent. 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY People in the Neighborhood: Travis JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 Let’s meet our neighbor Travis. “Tell me about yourself, where are you from?” I began. Travis replied, “I came from the Commonwealth of Virginia. How y'all doing, Yankees?” “Doing very well, thank you!” I answered and then followed up with this question, “What was your childhood like?” Travis thought out loud. “Childhood. You know, looking back, I'm not sure what childhood I was supposed to have. I'm from Virginia where smoking tobacco, smoking cigarettes, is just a fact of life. I remember getting burnt by cigarettes in the kitchen of my parents' house. I grew up with parents who were cigarette-smoking alcoholics and stuck in a house which was loaded with nicotine. They were always addicted to something. I was raised to be sick without realizing it. But I'll admit, I was lucky. I wasn’t abused (except for the cigarette smoke) and I got to grow up with nice things. Unfortunately, only nothing lasts forever, even here in the land of the free.” “Why do you say that?” I asked. “Because in 1996 I got hit by a car and almost died,” Travis replied without hesitation. “Oh no! How did that turn out?” I asked. “Well, here's the thing,” he replied, “I don't know. I'm not sure because that was back in 1996 and traumatic brain injury*, head injuries and concussions weren't a thing. They could not give me anything [pain meds] as a kid. But for some reason, they started giving me psychiatric medication.” Travis continued, “People keep trying to slap me with that label because they want to tell me no human is illegal unless you are medically disabled or in some aspect invalid. Are you familiar with that word? In-vuhlid? As in medically invalid? The truth is, I'm sorry to say, that I am iatrogenesis incarnate, a victim of the medical error epidemic. That is why I'm here. Yes, medical errors were what brought me up here to Michigan. And that's why I ended up houseless in the city. Because I got hit by a car.” “But then you couldn't get it, the medical care?” I asked. “Well, here's the reason why. Because I was branded by the system, OK?” he challenged. “Branded in what way?” I asked. “If you are labeled with a mental illness for any reason, no matter how valid or sound it is, guess what? You are dead to rights in the same way a felon is. OK. In fact, even worse than a felon because at least a felon can get the conviction expunged. When it comes to mental illness, for some reason, that's a designation that always makes me a potential criminal,” he replied. Travis pivots slightly left. “Don't you mean thought criminal? Oh, where do I get this wacky idea? George Orwell, 1984. Welcome to the future.” “How did your experience with being unsheltered happen?” I asked. “Like a lot of millennials, I ended up a boomerang baby. It was tough living with my parents, it did break down; we couldn't get along and I ended up having to leave. When I got up here in Michigan, I was basically homeless. I stayed at the Victory Inn until it was shut down. It was a nasty tobacco den, just like Delonis, just like my childhood home,” he replied. “What happened after Victory Inn?” I asked. “After Victory Inn, I languished here in the county,” he answered, “and while I did have some outside help trying to get money and whatnot, it isn’t easy when you don't have private property, which makes it difficult to store food and other necessities for your benefit.” Travis continued, “So that's why I ended up homeless here. I stayed outside because the Delonis Center was not an option. Sleeping outside was cleaner. It was decent in 2022 and 2023. During those winters it was still tepid enough to sleep through, not like the following winters. I slept outside in a sleeping bag in Argo Park under some awnings and buildings. As long as there wasn't heavy precipitation, I was good. I was able to get motels when I needed them, like when there was heavy snow.” “Are you homeless now?” I asked. “Homeless? Okay, see, I'm not homeless, I never was because, well, George Carlin, home is an abstract idea. Home is what you make it, Joe Dirt, and that's why this house is not your home. Get it? Please, no, not homeless. I was indeed houseless and indigent and having a difficult time finding a place to stay. But I can't say 'homeless’ because it turns out that's a legal designation,” he replied. “That’s an interesting point of view. Do you know from night to night where you're going to sleep?” I asked. “Yes. I do have a residence. I'm only poor because my conditions have not improved, even though I got the housing I needed. It's deeply ironic that the place I'm living in was no better than the Delonis Center,” he replied. “So houselessness was in the past, not currently,” I clarified. “My houselessness status does not change in any real way for some reason. I've come to find that in Washtenaw County, I perpetually have the label of homeless under my name if I MAY 1, 2026 commit a crime, and that's the way it is,” Travis replied. Now he becomes more emphatic. “It’s almost like they're subjecting me to third-estate policing or broken-windows policing. Why am I a criminal? Just because I'm homeless and houseless? Oh, am I a landless peasant? Sure. Do you get the picture yet, Yankee?” Travis added, “I do have housing, yes. I had to go through Avalon Housing to get it, and they made it the worst nightmare ever. I'm at my second unit now. The last unit, let's just say that ended when a Karen called. Why would you send police SUVs to me? I'm on my front porch, hitting my vape, because someone said I was talking to a tree.” “What were you and the tree talking about?” I had to know. Travis fired back, “If you must know, this tree was just trying to warn me about all the Karens around here. If you would just talk to them [the trees], you would probably know that.” *Signed into law on July 29, 1996 by President Bill Clinton, the Traumatic Brain Injury Act of 1996, known as “the silent epidemic,” was specifically designed to address the under-recognized public health crisis of civilian brain injuries. Reflections on saying 'yes' to the warming center MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Another winter has come and gone. Thank you to Zion Lutheran Church, Ann Arbor Friends Meeting House, First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor, Lord of Light Lutheran Church, St. Mary’s Parish, First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor, First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor, and the Freight House in Ypsilanti for successfully hosting the 2025-26 Daytime Warming Center. This is a reflection on the May 29 First Presbyterian Church discussion on hosting the Daytime Warming Center for the first time, and its impact on their congregation. On short notice, First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor committed to hosting the Daytime Warming Center for the unhoused for two weeks in December. According to their website, "First Presbyterian Church is an inclusive and diverse faith community, led by the Holy Spirit, who welcomes people of all ages and backgrounds to come together to explore, nurture and deepen their faith. Through worship, shared discussion, participation and service, we aim to make God's love felt throughout our congregation, and community, and echo throughout the world. Our challenge is to serve God with joy and to bear witness to God's transforming love made visible in Jesus Christ." The Warming Center started this season on November 10, 2025 and finished on March 27, 2026. On March 28, while hosting a Groundcover News stand at the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow, I ran into Resident Pastor Sarah Rutherford of First Presbyterian, and she informed me about the church having a discussion about having said "yes" to the Daytime Warming Center. I couldn’t make the discussion in person, so Pastor Rutherford sent me a YouTube video of it titled, “Exploring The Faith / Learning from our Experience of saying Yes to the Warming Center.” In this YouTube discussion Jane Dutton, a former professor for forty years who focuses on compassion in the workplace and a First Pres Church member, explored how this experience affected First Pres volunteers individually and the church community as a whole. Dutton shared see YES page 11  MAY 1, 2026 COMMUNITY content CORRECTIONS In the April 17, 2026 edition of Groundcover News, in "Pinball Pete's comes to the heart of Ann Arbor," the owner of Bill's Beer Garden was incorrectly named. Scot Greig is the owner of Bill's Beer Garden. In "Disability Revolution Club" a sentence regarding the original leadership of the club was erroneous quoted, and physically redacted from many copies. community EVENTS APPRENTICESHIP FAIR Friday, May 1, 4 - 7 p.m,Ypsilanti High School. This annual fair, organized by the Job Developer's Alliance, is aimed at high school students and adults looking to find apprenticeships. Attendees have the chance to learn more about apprenticeship programs where participants would learn a skill or trade under a professional in the field on the job. Please register in advance: www.bit.ly/4iVB6xY MAY DAY DINNER IN HONOR OF FARM AND FOOD WORKERS Friday, May 1, 4-7 p.m. Tantre Farm, 2510 Hayes Rd, Chelsea. Everyone is invited to a deep local dinner. Free to farm and food service workers for their most valuable work. Asking $10 per eater donation. Offered by community farm chef Kori Kanayama and guest chef Farmer Richard Andres. YPSI MAY DAY Saturday, May 2, all day. 11 a.m., 9/11 Memorial (Cross/ Perrin), May Day march. 12-4 p.m, Frog Island Park, Workshops and discussions. It’s a potluck, bring things to share! Childcare will be provided. 4-7 p.m. Frog Island Park, Assembly of neighborhood assemblies. Come speak with local popular assemblies and neighborhood rapid response groups. Share best practices, lessons learned, updates and goals. 8-10 p.m. Frog Island Park, Documentary film screening of "The Elements of Mutual Aid." The world premiere of the first episode of a 4-part docuseries on liberatory mutual aid. PAPER PAPER ART BOOK FAIR Saturday, May 2, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, May 3, 12-5 p.m. Cluster Museum, 307 N Main St. Ann Arbor. Paper Paper is an independent art book fair in its first year, organized by artists and held in an independent art space. The fair brings together contemporary artists, small presses and independent publishers working in printed and bound formats. A Zine Swap will also be featured, and anyone is welcome to come peruse, contribute, leave and take a zine during the fair. YDL REPAIR CLINIC Saturday, May 2, 1:30-3 p.m. Ypsilanti District Library-Michigan Ave, Program Room. Bring your broken zippers, fraying hems, busted bags, and battle-worn jeans. Repair Clinic is free, drop-in, no appointment needed! Just show up with the thing that needs saving. A2 ROLLER DERBY Saturday, May 2, 4:30-8 p.m. Buhr Park Outdoor Ice Arena, 2751 Packard St Ann Arbor. Home Gamer #1: A2 Roller Derby vs. Detroit. Doors open at 4:30 p.m., game starts at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. STAR WARS DAY (OBSERVED) Sunday, May 3, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Ann Arbor downtown library, 343 S. Fifth Ave. Ann Arbor. "May the Fourth Be With You!" You don't need to travel to a galaxy far, far away to celebrate Star Wars Day. Just come to the Downtown Library! We will have photo ops, games, crafts, screenings, music, and more! Costumes are welcome, but please leave lightsabers and blasters at home! THE ROAD HOME SCREENING Thursday, May 7, 6 p.m. Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor. The Road Home is a documentary exploring mental health, housing insecurity and homelessness in Washtenaw County, highlighting community efforts and challenges. Local organizations face fragmented responses, funding cuts and limiting support. The film's goal is to unite stakeholders, raise awareness and inspire collective action to ensure compassionate, sustainable solutions. Reserve your free ticket at marquee-arts.org SUSHANNA SHAKUR "MEMORIES OF MY REVOLUTIONARY BROTHER" Saturday, May 9, 2-4 p.m. Blackstone Bookstore, 214 W Michigan Ave, Ypsilanti. Join author and lifelong Detroit activist Shushanna Shakur as she discusses and signs her personal memoir about her influential brother, Chockwe Lumumba — the revolutionary attorney, organizer and former Mayor of Jackson, MS. He earned national recognition for unwavering fight for the freedom and empowerment of his people. REVOLUTIONARY FOOD GATHERING Saturday, May 9, 5-7 p.m. Ann Arbor Friends Meeting House, 1420 Hill St., Ann Arbor. Potluck and discussion to discover who we are in relationship to our food, the earth and each other. Hosted by Groundcover News and Purslane Commons. CINETOPIA FILM FESTIVAL Saturday, May 9, 5-7 p.m. Michigan Theater. Cinetopia brings audiences and filmmakers together to celebrate bold cinema, independent voices, and films you cannot see anywhere else. Experience a curated lineup designed by people who love film as much as you do. As one of Michigan’s premier film festivals, Cinetopia brings together independent films, Michigan-made shorts, and fresh voices from around the world. Every selection is chosen for originality, perspective and impact. marquee-arts.org/cinetopia/ DANCE INTO ACTION Saturday, May 30, 4-8:30 p.m. hear. say brewing, 2350 W. Liberty St., Ann Arbor. Presented by Pilar's Foundation. Uniting to benefit local immigrant families. Live music by Jive Colossus, Killer Diller, Backbeat Manifesto. Food and drink from Pilar's Tamales and hear.say brewing. Purchase tickets at pilarsfoundation.org or inside Pilar's Tamales. Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com GET TO KNOW YDL! WHERE TO FIND US: Online at ypsilibrary.org Call us at 734-482-4110. TO GET YOUR LIBRARY CARD: 1) Fill out the easy online form at ypsilibrary.org/library-cards. 2) Call 734-482-4110 3) Or stop by any YDL location! DON’T HAVE A DRIVER’S LICENSE? We can work with a variety of IDs to get you your card. Seed Library All locations (including Bookmobile) There are more than 200 unique varieties of fruit and vegetable seeds in our Seed Library. Come to any location, including the Bookmobile, to check out our selection, or donate your own extra seeds. FEATURED EVENT Spring Native Plant Swap Sat. | May 16 | 11am-12pm YDL-Whittaker Drop by and exchange your favorite native plants with fellow gardeners. Bring your own plants to share and leave with new treasures for your garden! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MOTHER'S DAY GEMMA BONNEY U-M student contributor “Fix it or shut it down!” rang out from the small crowd gathered on the curb outside of the Central Campus Classroom Building (CCCB) on U-M campus on April 10. The statements "Mold = State Sanctioned Death Sentence" and "Free Krystal Clark!" were written across posterboards and displayed to the public. Cars and a Blue Bus honked in support, and several people driving by looked on in curiosity, unaware that at a correctional facility just 8.6 miles away, there are approximately 1,800 women living in an unsafe environment. Mothers fighting for improved healthcare and living conditions. Daughters fighting for their lives. Two hours prior to this scene, about 40 people got plates of food and found a seat in Room 0420 of the CCCB. They were gathered there for a Lunch & Learn, before a rally for Justice For Women at Huron Valley. The event was put on by three organizations including the sociology department’s Project Community course; Survivors Speak, a nonprofit with the goal “to give the voices back My Mother ... The outstanding and wise woman, she never gives up hope and never gives in, but faces many obstacles silently. She is my favorite character. She is known as Felicia Wilbert, “Truths or Lies” author to you, but she is known to our family as Mother, granny and friend. My mother cleans, cooks, tussles our obstacles while writing at late hours feeding her fans literature fantasy stories, whether true or false. People told her she was stupid, ugly and wasn’t going to make it and I, her son, encouraged her to focus, breathe and launch because she is beautiful, creative, and she is going to make it! They were haters and they couldn’t read anyways. She laughed with confidence knowing I believed in her. I needed her for many years, for her knowledge and strength to complete my essays because I would undergo writer’s block. In the summer, Mom would give me real lemonade squeezed down to the pulp, add sugar, add water and chill it with some ice cubes to help me, and in the winter mama’s hot cocoa with caramel drizzled around the coffee cup, warm milk on the stove, cocoa powder with whipped cream and gummy SAVON SALVADOR Groundcover vendor No. 273 bears with sprinkles on top to warm me up. And it worked, I would write like I was making a song featuring Drake. Moments when I was down, she always slid money to grease my pockets but never overstepped; I would sort clothes and mysteriously there was money in my pockets. My mother went through dark times. We didn’t always have lights, but we had candles to meditate. She didn’t even buy anything for herself unless she knew we were covered and that was her rerunning clothes. She just asked God in prayer, “Lord, after all my financial obligations are resolved, may I buy myself some Bath and Body Works so that I may smell outstanding. Amen.“ Who wouldn’t love someone to those who have been unjustly silenced;” and Michigan Innocence Club, a student-led organization based around innocence work and the criminal justice system. During the information session, attendees heard about the conditions at Women’s Huron Valley correctional facility (WHV), along with the story of one woman in particular: Krystal Clark. WHV is the only women’s prison in Michigan, and the conditions are horrendous on every front. As was explained at the Lunch & Learn, women with health issues are repeatedly given inadequate care, or denied it altogether. Their medication is not being given, their dosage is reduced or substitutions are made to their original prescription. Women have complained about the mold infesting the prison, and there are reports of inmates being ordered to clean it off the walls without masks on, and workers painting over it in order to pass inspections. One woman was in need of mental health assistance and upon request was denied access to the help she needed. She saw guards place bets on her likelihood of committing suicide before later taking her own life. Overall, the facility is costing women their mental and physical health, when it should only be their time they are losing. Krystal Clark is experiencing health complications due to the mold in the prison. Clark has been incarcerated for over 13 years, and in that time, her health has visibly deteriorated. In 2023 it was found that Clark had the mold Aspergillus growing out of her ears and in her lungs. This common mold can cause diseases “including localized infections, fatal diseases [and] allergic responses,” according to the National Library of Medicine. The mold in her ears is visible, and growing to overtake her ears. She is having a hard time breathing, among other issues, and her face is drooping, contributing to the visible difference in her health. Clark is in desperate need of help, and the group championing her cause has recognized that the best person to save her now is Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Whitmer has the ability to provide medical clemency, which is a type of executive pardon. If provided to Clark, she would serve the rest of her sentence outside of jail, and would be able to seek the life-saving care that she needs. MAY 1, 2026 Sentenced beyond bars: the fight for justice at WHV This campaign is about more than just Clark’s health and freedom — the broader goal is to get the facility shut down. The women in the prison and the organizations outside who are working on this do not want to see other women suffer the way Clark has. Anyone can help. People can find links to the emails of the Parole Board as well as Governor Whitmer on the website for Clark’s freedom at this freekrystal.com/support/ see KRYSTAL page 13  who is unselfish and wholeheartedly supportive? I couldn’t trade nobody else with my mother because she was just that caring. When you see her on Liberty Street in Ann Arbor, uplift her, give her a smile and the biggest hug you can. Because she has had rocks thrown at her instead of marshmallows. She has had family and friends turn on her because she had a vision and purpose. She cried at night because she didn’t think there was any help, hope or desire. Her heart sank because they attacked us and wanted to kill her only child and world. She lost everything to build her son back up and keep her only grandchild alive but also safe. That’s why she writes, because I told her to write about her pain. I want you to do that for me, supporters. Don’t be rude, be kind and supportive to Felicia Wilbert. I want you to look at your trials and tribulations and reflect on what has happened in your life and reach out and know that as mothers and fathers you can always make it — just try because my mother did it! I love you Groundcover, I love you Felicia Wilbert — because that’s my Mother. MAY 1, 2026 TRANSIT GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LIBRARIES A library of support MARIE Groundcover contributor Over the past few years I have traveled the country, and while doing so visited several libraries. During my travels, I have experienced library staff attempting to restrict my library use and staff treating people in the library differently based on background. One library, located in a small town along the northern bank of Lake Huron, upset me so much I painted a sign that said “solid rights protest” and began wearing it around my neck while in the library. When the head librarian returned after a week of being out due to illness, I was surprised to be reunited with a family friend of nearly three decades. For about a month, the librarian and I often enjoyed at least one allergen-friendly meal together a day, while I participated in library activities, was introduced to library patrons, combed through books in an extensive art collection and painted. Sometimes I opted to paint inside and sometimes I sat outside under the gazebo erected in a small park across from the log cabin style library. When the library was closed I enjoyed the nearby nature trails, watched the comedy of the season’s water fowl and attempted to identify different foliage. Experiencing discrimination and prejudice in this small yet beautiful library sent me on a mission to continue visiting libraries while traveling, and to better understand the experience of unconstitutional barriers to equitable access to library resources. In the process, I discovered that Ypsilanti District Library (YDL) was the first library in Michigan to have a full-time licensed social worker on staff. Unlike most libraries, YDL is working to eliminate or at least decrease access barriers to resources, especially for underserved populations such as the homeless, housing-insecure, elderly, those living in poverty, formerly incarcerated patrons, those experiencing an emergent need or those experiencing a crisis. Library social work programs may be thought of as an extension of more traditional resource access. Unlike traditional library staff, a library social worker is an extension of the library. They are resource experts with specialized training to help with a trauma-informed, culturally-responsive approach that often extends beyond the walls of the physical library. YDL’s Library Care Coordination (social work) Program began assisting patrons in January 2025, at YDL’s Superior branch, with a few EMU social work interns, under the guidance of EMU professors. The social work program at YDL began operating with funding secured for three years, each year contingent on approval, through the Washtenaw County Community Mental Health’s portion of the Public Safety and Mental Health Preservation Millage. By April 2025, their first full-time, licensed clinical social worker, Kat Layton, had been hired, and was available when the Michigan Avenue branch reopened after lengthy renovations. Services are available at all three branches of the YDL, however the Michigan Avenue branch presents with a higher need and demand. YDL’s LCC program recently entered its second year of the three-year grant. The American Library Association has a code of ethics and a Library Bill of Rights, to help guide making informed decisions and drive professional improvements “in this changing information environment.” YDL recognized that many libraries have policies that limit library access especially for marginalized populations such as the homeless. One example is requiring a qualifying address, or excluding specific addresses known to belong to agencies that serve the homeless such as the Delonis Center. Some libraries such as those at the University of Michigan Undergraduate library and the Duderstadt offer 24-hour access, which can only be officially accessed by MCard (U-M identification card) holders. Numerous Washtenaw County residents have complained about U-M library staff profiling, accosting, assaulting, looking through belongings and trespassing patrons who are using the library as intended during operational hours. Therefore, it appears U-M and other libraries are regularly violating patrons’ constitutional rights to safely and equitably access publicly funded library resources. YDL is reported to have trespassed or limited access for some patrons; however, according to YDL patrons and staff, these restrictions are often related to violence or drug use while on library premises. Fair access to library resources may benefit from federal intervention, similar to formal mandates to desegregate libraries during the 1960s. YDL is not the first library in the country to introduce social work. The move is modeled after successful efforts including San Francisco, Utah, Minnesota, and New York. San Francisco, in 2009, was the first library in the country to have a full-time social worker. One library system in Arizona opted for a nurse who could address physical health needs on-site and facilitate access to medical care. According to EMU interns for the 2025-2026 school year, other libraries in Michigan have recently started similar social work YDL's Eastern Michigan University social work interns for 2025-26 school year, Ashley and DesaRay, during a resource fair at YDL. programs, including Plymouth, Monroe and Grosse Pointe. Ryan Dowd, a well-known shelter director and advocate for serving homeless patrons from the Chicago area, stated, “Staff at public libraries interact with almost as many homeless individuals as staff at shelters do.” Several published resources, local library staff and patrons recognize and value how important libraries are for accessing resources, obtaining guidance, and seeking shelter from the elements. YDL staff across all of its branches expressed positive feedback related to training developed by Ryan Dowd and from hiring professionals with expertise related to de-escalation, trauma debriefing after traumatic experiences, mental health, and substance use. Library staff feel that, with the addition of social workers, clerks and librarians are better able to manage the expectations of their more traditional assigned roles, while the social workers are better equipped to identify needs, eliminate barriers and link patrons with community resources best suited to those needs before they escalate. More than a year into its inception the LCC program has grown from a few interns compiling paper resources a few hours a week at the Superior branch. At this time, the library now has a resource table and a white board that is updated weekly, and has transitioned from scheduled appointments to include regularly scheduled drop-in times. A major accomplishment in 2026 was the addition of an interactive online resource list on the YDL website, so physically obtaining paper resources during library hours is no longer necessary. Since January 2025, the LCC program - grew from a few patron contacts at one branch, to over 1300 documented interactions across multiple branches, according to the last quarterly grant report. These documented interactions, however, are known as not fully representative of the true number as numerous contacts are under-documented. At the end of March, EMU was still waiting for Institutional Review Board approval for its formal evaluation process. However, the YDL community speaks highly of program growth and meaningful impact for all patrons. Services currently available include, but are not limited to, quick access to a hygiene drawer, housing advocacy for both the unhoused or housing-insecure, meals, clothing and obtaining identification from the Secretary of State. During the first year of the LCC, YDL became a Fare Deal Authorized Agency through AATA; expanded resource fairs; and continues to build its partnerships with local organizations. Layton explained, “Coordinated events and bringing outside partners into the library meet people where they are at.” Social workers, clerks and librarians expressed they are grateful to have supports in place to better serve patrons in a deliberate and meaningful way in the community instead of being limited to confines of the library. Older patrons have benefited with help navigating discrimination related to housing, as well as questions related to obtaining and maintaining healthcare. Homeless patrons or those living in poverty have been assisted with transportation, phones and paperwork. Patrons who were not born in the United States have been assisted with obtaining replacement documents, addressing language barriers and obtaining immigration paperwork. They can feel better knowing the community is willing to support them as evidenced by the response to a recent ICE raid across the street from the downtown YDL branch. During the April raid, ICE agents stopped traffic, and ICE whistles were reportedly heard being blown across several city blocks. One patron, who is a homeless young adult, stated, “Most of the resources we already know about. The difference is that Kat doesn’t just give you the piece of paper for you to figure it out. Kat gives you step-by-step instructions, and see LIBRARY next page  MAY 1, 2026 MAY 1, 2026 RECOVERY Dear Alcohol, MARQUETTA Q CLEMENTS Groundcover contributor Dear Crack, I love that I hate you I hate that I love you Placed not a dime above you Honestly, I trust you How do you break and build me? Capture but I feel free Puppet Master Along you string me I just want to feel peace Can’t heal unless the pain sinks Choose you over my dreams Choose you over family Alone and weak, I’m Bambi Conquered fears without thee Surrender all, Defeat With sobriety I am King With you, I can’t see me I’d probably end up 6 deep Scared to go beneath God please protect and mold me A fiend that’s the old me You no longer control me I miss you, I claim boldly But I will not let you hold me Goodbye dear friend, I’m worthy Is this love? Is this real? I gave you all of me You don’t seem to to care how I feel I accomplish a goal Celebrate with you as a meal You pick a fight with my emotions And I destroy everything I’ve built Why do you hurt me? Why do I let you? I feel ashamed that I kept you Misused and abused Everyday I regret you I’m boo boo the fool And today, I accept the truth This toxicity is poison I choose me I am woken I admit I am broken Tunnel vision, I am focused I choose God And I noticed This life chapter I’m closing I am free  YES from page 6 insightful, impactful stories and reflections from volunteers who served our unhoused neighbors. This discussion helps to discern how faith-based organizations can make a difference in their community through engagement projects like hosting the Daytime Warming Center. I watched the video in full and was impressed by the discussion and the impact it had on this place of worship and its congregation. Dutton led the discussion where church members listened and participated in meaningful dialogue. Throughout the presentation Dutton showed video interviews of Church member volunteers who expressed their experiences journeying into the unknown. During these interviews one can observe that the interviewees experienced meaningful purpose from hosting the DWC. In one of the interview sessions, Pat Gilbreath expressed that she felt as if, "We were not just helping them, we were helping ourselves ... We felt kinda like the Grinch. Our hearts grew three sizes because the response received from our unhoused neighbors was amazing. It made us feel wonderful." A different volunteer, Andy Price, said with a hint of emotion during the interview, “I’ve enjoyed talking GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 to you these past couple of weeks, but I hope I don't see you here next year.” Pastors interviewed included Associate Pastor Melissa Anne Rogers, Associate Pastor Mark Mares, Resident Pastor Hanna Richards, and Resident Pastor Sarah Rutherford. Church volunteers interviewed included Pat Gilbreath, Daine Knibbs, Andy Price, Daine Tamblyn. The first interview was with Resident Pastor Rutherford. She set the scene on how they became the host for the DWC. Rutherford explained how there were several meetings with DWC staff in preparation before actually hosting the DWC. From December 8-19, during record low temperatures, First Pres utilized 45 church member volunteers for the two-week period. “Hosting the DWC on short notice stretched us logistically, but as we reflect on the experience afterwards, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the gift of hosting our neighbors. It was a blessing for our congregation to grow in Christ’s love for all people,” said Resident Pastor Rutherford. Shoutout to Lead Pastor David Prentice-Hyers and a big thank you to all who volunteered at the Daytime Warming Center. Stigma vs. Everybody DAVID CRANE Groundcover contributor We say we want to be seen. But being seen is exposure. So we represent the version that won't get rejected and call it growth. Don't confuse survival with healing. We don't thrive in chaos; we adapt to it. Intensity feels like home. Peace feels like a setup. We don't fear being misunderstood. We fear being understood. Being seen doesn't free you — It removes your excuses. Paid in Silence DAVID CRANE No one claps when you choose restraint. No crowd gathers when you swallow anger and let it die unnamed. But somewhere — in the quiet architecture of your own mind — a foundation sets that no chaos can collect from.  LIBRARY from last page makes sure you have what you need to accomplish it. She will tell you exactly what buses you need to take, and makes sure you have the bus fare to do it ... I would really like to start a youth group for teens and young adults that teaches de-escalation and actively gets them involved in the community through activities. It’s harder to get two people to become friends than it is to get two people to fight.” Kat explained that her goals included “not just helping people, but assisting them so they will be able to help someone else accomplish the same task in the future … I wasn’t trying to completely reinvent the wheel. The goal is to prevent duplication of services, identify gaps, and serve as a resource hub.” Like San Francisco, YDL hopes to eventually have peers integrated into the programming. (Peers are people with lived experience who receive training to use their experiences to help others navigate similar situations.) On April 15, during its monthly board meeting, YDL trustees announced they had hired a new licensed social worker. Kat transitioned this quarter to a new job developing programming with the state. During a recent interview, Kat shared she cried several times after making the very difficult decision to move on to the new opportunity. According to the YDL Board of Trustees, the new library social worker, Tommy, is scheduled to begin work on May 4, and is expected to be working full-time by the end of the month. Arguably, Kat was a great fit to help “kick-start” YDL’s library social work program, as she was already well-known and trusted by the community members she was serving. The new social worker, according to the Board of Trustees, has years of experience in the field and has a spouse who is a librarian. While the personnel may change and there may be modifications to the program we can’t currently predict, the social work pilot will continue.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS TECHNOLOGY MAY 1, 2026 AI digital transformation: community interests, socio-technological impacts and the future of work From the perspective of ethics and human values, Professor Eric Swanson of the U-M Philosophy Department and Anja Sheppard, PhD student in Robotic AI at the University of Michigan College of Engineering, have shared their ideas. Will: What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Anja: Generally, we define artificial intelligence as something that mimics human intelligence, and when people think about AI, they might think about ChatGPT. There is actually a debate on whether this counts as artificial general intelligence because ChatGPT, which is an LLM (Large Language Model), has not accomplished human reasoning. LLMs are very good at generating language. If I ask it to write an essay for me, it would sound very human-like. But the underlying ideas of the essay may not be factually correct or make sense. And this is the reasoning gap that I was talking about. Will: Why do interdisciplinary researchers call AI “digital transformation?” Anja: I think people are thinking about AI as a transformation or a revolution because it is going to substantially change how people live, learn and work. Just think about the internet, which similarly revolutionized the way we live today. Will: What is the difference between Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Robotic AI (RAI)? Anja: So, the big challenge for robotics is actually physically engaging with the world. Robots have to safely operate to complete physical tasks. This involves understanding sensory information such as from cameras, microphones, radars and lidars (light detection and ranging). This differs from AI like ChatGPT because robotics have to understand more sensors and they have outputs, with physical commands. ChatGPT takes in text and outputs texts. It is a fundamentally harder problem to design AI for robotics. Why? Because there is far more textbased information on the internet which can help us train AI like ChatGPT than there is data about robots. You cannot use the internet as a source of training data for robot AI. Will: A couple of years ago, ChatGPT made a huge splash in the mass media and the high tech world. Tell us more about what ChatGPT is. What are the benefits? What are the consequences? Anja: ChatGPT is a LLM. It is very good at generating texts. But the drawback is that it is not always trustworthy WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 because it is prone to hallucination, or making things up, basically. [There are] benefits, for one example, in programming or coding, ChatGPT is very good. This makes programming a lot more efficient, and less tedious. In general, people see it as a tool that improves efficiency. As a consequence, improving efficiency can take away some of the humanity in our work. For example, in the arts, what does it mean to watch a movie written by an AI versus made by human beings? Will: Our readers may want to learn more about how AI would displace many jobs, especially factory work and other occupations such as engineering, writing, journalism, legal researchers, librarians, teachers, movie roles, healthcare or hospitality services. Anja: The jury is still out on this. We are still trying to understand how AI will impact the workforce. There are already reports of entry-level programming jobs being out. So, coming up with strategies to mitigate a huge loss of jobs is really important. The federal government has a job to do: protect people from displacement by regulating the AI industry. Will: What is the future of AI technology in American society within the next two years? Within the next five years? Within the next 10 years? Anja: I do not think I have a good answer for this. I just say that AI will impact pretty much everything we do. Questions asked of Dr. Eric Swanson Will: What are the general and specific impacts on American society of AI? Any hope for Gen Z students who major in computer science? Eric: Great question! Current AI has two impacts on American society, culture, and work that I especially want to highlight. The first is that AI really isn’t the sort of thing that makes commitments to people. Instead, its outputs are more like a prediction that is influenced by Anja Sheppard (left), PhD student in Robotic AI at the University of Michigan College of Engineering, and Professor Eric Swanson (Right) of the U-M Philosophy Department have shared their ideas on AI from the perspective of ethics and human values. what people in general want to hear. By contrast, a person generally has a point of view that involves certain commitments. One person’s point of view involves being a farmer, another person’s involves being a physical therapist, and their expertise and experience influence their commitments. AI isn’t anything like that. It’ll be interesting to see to what extent people embrace or reject a form of life that doesn’t have the kinds of commitments that we do. The second impact involves what the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre called ‘seriality.’ When we relate to each other in a ‘serial’ way, Sartre says, we are anonymous to each other and interchangeable with each other. We don’t have any shared project or goals. It’s like waiting for a bus; our actions are organized by waiting in a line, but your project of getting where you need to go isn’t really related to my project of getting where I need to go. We don’t share projects or goals with current AI at all; we treat it serially and its treatment of us has lots of serial properties. Of course, in some ways it’s good for AI to treat us anonymously! But I wonder whether the influence of AI will make people treat each other as interchangeable in new ways. This might make people less inclined to make commitments to each other, and I’m not really sure what that would look like. I myself suspect that it would be a sadder, less meaningful world, but perhaps another interesting perspective is that it would be a freer one. Will: In view of the divergent views of AI from the mass media, what is the public interest? What are the ethical concerns from the perspective of public values? Eric: Another great question, and it interacts with the first! In part because AI doesn’t make commitments and we don’t make commitments to it, and because our interactions with it are relatively serial, it’s pretty easy to just throw it at a problem and see what happens. It’s not like it’ll get mad at you or resent you in any meaningful way! And going back to your first question, you can just tell it that it’s overreacting if it does produce mad sounding text, and close your browser if you want! People do ignore and dismiss each other, but it’s not as easy to do. And people who know you could just ask AI will sometimes resent you not just asking AI. But the drudge work involved with trying and failing to make progress on problems is absolutely crucial to becoming an expert on something. It’s going to be a real challenge to figure out how to balance the availability of a shortcut with the importance of struggling to understand. So much in philosophy is the struggling to understand — better understanding the nuances of the question you started with without necessarily answering every aspect of it. I hope AI use in colleges and universities doesn’t make that seem less valuable than it is. History of AI The online magazine "Tableau" discussed the origin and development of artificial intelligence. It is suggested that AI can be traced to the Ancient Greek period of 400 B.C.: “The idea of ‘artificial intelligence’ goes back thousands of years, to ancient philosophers considering questions of life and death. In ancient times, inventors made things called ‘automatons’ which were mechanical see AI next page  MAY 1, 2026 MOTHER'S DAY A Mother Attending Her Daughter's Prom A Mother attending her daughter’s Prom What anticipation To see Her wearing her glorious head covering on her, anticipating Prom day Then her full length Dress that reflects Her First, her true Accomplishment Shine And that is to cover Herself while working on her true Self Her Worth!!! The way She stands on that stage and smiles For Her true accomplishments are, Her knowing that to this day It took awhile... Now She has made Her goals Realities!! Yet, I Knew that... Although I was made to be absent from your, Head Start, Elementary, and Middle School Graduations... I will be on Time for all of the preparations and Wanted as Well as Needed Presence for My Baby Girl’s upcoming Prom Who has become More of A Beautiful Young Lady, Always My Baby Girl, My Precious, Beloved Daughter!!! With "A Mother Attending Her Daughter’s Prom!!!"  AI from last page and moved independently of human intervention. The word ‘automaton’ comes from ancient Greek, and means ‘acting of one’s own will.’ One of the earliest records of an automaton comes from 400 BCE and refers to a mechanical pigeon created by a friend of the philosopher Plato. Many years later, one of the most famous automatons was created by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1495.” Search the “Tableau" website for more information. AI as we know it today was born between 1950 and 1956. The maturation of AI was from 1957 to 1979. Some scientists give credit to mathematician Alan Turing for the computer science programming language which revolutionized systems technology during and after World War II. After Turing, there were several scientists. Edward Feigenbaum and Joshua Lederberg were some of the early people who in 1965 created the first “expert system” which is described as a form of AI “programmed to replicate the thinking and decision-making of human beings.” The Lawrence Livermore National Research Lab of UC Berkeley discussed the topic, “The Birth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) research in terms of key eras and concepts.” The lab suggested that symbolic AI started in the 1950s to the 1980s with a focus on using logic and rules to represent knowledge. The machine learning of the 1990s focused on algorithms that allowed computers to learn from data. The third key concept (2010 to the present) focuses on deep learning GROUNDCOVER NEWS  KRYSTAL from page 8 There are sample emails written out right there on the website for anyone willing to take a few short minutes to copy and paste a message. Writing physical letters is also helpful, and the Governor's address is listed on that same page. More information is listed on the website for anyone interested in learning more about Krystal Clark, Women’s Huron Valley correctional facility or how to be involved in their cause. Just before heading out, Clark spoke to the people LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover writer there rallying via a phone call. People were moved not only by the pain in Clark’s voice and words, but also by her resolve to continue to fight. She is a victim of an unjust situation and a clear violation of the 8th Amendment — the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. As Washtenaw County Commissioner Yousef Rabhi proclaimed during the rally, Clark was sentenced to time behind bars, not to lose her health. Her debt to society was not to be paid for with her life. Clark extended her gratitude to everyone in the room, and provided those participating with a greater sense of what their voice was being used for. They all filed outside and held their signs proudly while demanding that the state “fix it or shut it down!” Krystal Clarks's family has organized a fundraiser to support her medical care upon release, www.freefunder.com/ campaign/medical-help-4-krystal which features a subset of multi-layered machines which work together as neural networks to process complex data, learn from the data, and act independently. In 1956, at the Dartmouth University conference on Alan Turing’s work on machine intelligence, John McCarthy coined the term “AI.” The bottom line, according to the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, is that “early research focused on symbolic reasoning, followed by expert systems in the 1980s, eventually shifting to machine learning and deep learning driven by big data, leading to the current era of “Generative AI.” IBM.com provides the definition of Generative AI: “Generative AI, sometimes called gen AI, is artificial intelligence (AI) that can create original content such as text, images, video, audio or software code in response to a user’s prompt or request.” It continues, “Generative AI relies on sophisticated machine learning models called deep learning models - algorithms that simulate the learning and decision-making processes of the human brain. These models work by identifying and encoding the patterns and relationships in huge amounts of data, and then using that information to understand users' natural language requests or questions and respond with relevant new content.” Community interests and concerns Recently, the news media, social media and college communities have been talking about AI. Today, the American public and Washtenaw County residents are trying to digest and make sense of all the new headlines — good or bad? On March 16, 2026, some Groundcover News writers, vendors, and volunteers attended the Eastern Michigan University “Generative AI” conference. In Ann Arbor, at the University of Michigan, there have been several meetings and conferences on AI in recent times. Across the U-M campus, many students and faculty members have been talking about the AI effects on young people’s careers and employment prospects. From the government perspective, AI must be regulated because of the effects on children and teens. Parents have expressed numerous concerns about chatbots like ChatGPT, GEMINI, and CLAUDE which have negative influences on the lives of young people. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an inquiry into chatbots which act as companions to consumers. The FTC has issued section 6(b) orders to seven companies that operate consumer-facing chatbots. Below is the FTC’s regulatory statement: “Protecting kids online is a top priority for the Trump-Vance FTC, and so is fostering innovation in critical sectors of our economy,” said FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson. “As AI technologies evolve, it is important to consider the effects chatbots can have on children, while also ensuring that the United States maintains its role as a global leader in this new and exciting industry. The study we’re launching today will help us better understand how AI firms are developing their products and the steps they are taking to protect children.” From the business perspective, AI is a bonanza for efficiency and profitability. For the manufacturing industry, robotic AI has helped the bottom line by the adoption of Lean manufacturing which increased the use of robots as a tool in the production process. U-M professor Jeffrey Liker is well known for his research and book titled, “The Toyota Way” about the Lean process. The Silicon Valley and Wall Street business ventures are bullish about the transformation of business organizations and market capitalization of AI-related products. Computer chip manufacturer NVIDIA and other hightech companies are talking about multi-trillion dollars in the value of their stocks. They have said very little about high-tech workers who will be displaced or fired. There is a belief that AI will change everything in business and society. How can we deal with the issues of massive AI data centers and rising consumer energy costs? AI is spreading like wildfire. We urge communities such as Washtenaw County to hold community conversations on AI, human values and the future of work. Questions about AI need to be explored and answered in high-engagement meetings. Sharing ideas and feeling empowered can go a long way to help our society deal with the challenges and potential impacts of AI. 13

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers Fool Moon EMERI JADE BEY Groundcover vendor No. 660 In April’s teasing, temperamental light, When winter loosens but won’t quite concede, The streets of Ann Arbor bloom overnight With papier-mâché dreams and riotous creed. FestiFools rises—half jest, half lore— A carnival stitched from wit and glue, Where giants wobble and spirits roar In colors no ordinary springtime knew. A dragon of headlines bends through the square, Satire stitched in its shimmering scales; A politician puppet with windblown hair Trips over punchlines the crowd unveils. There’s laughter loud as a Midwest sky, Children pointing at creatures absurd, While elders grin as the fools go by— Truth disguised in the ridiculous word. ACROSS 1. "We're #1!," e.g. 6. Low-___ diet 10. Computer architecture acronym 14. Kind of ticket 15. ___-Altaic languages 16. "What's gotten ___ you?" 17. Pricker 18. Japanese soup 19. Hardly haute cuisine 20. Clerical drudges 23. "___ Flux" 24. Couch 25. Laborer who moves bricks (Brit.) 28. A Judd 30. "___ we having fun yet?" 31. Pristine 36. Drop, to an editor 38. Cow chow 39. French Sudan, today 40. Commiserator's words 45. Mother Teresa, for one 46. Whip 47. Fit as a ___ 49. Mark over a long vowel 52. Worse than fair 53. Sophomore, e.g. 57. Old European capital 58. ___ Bowl 59. Flooded 62. Coagulate 63. Carbon compound 64. Bar offering 65. Does some tailoring 66. Regard 67. Neuters DOWN 1. Short order, for short 2. "___ Baby Baby" (Linda Ronstadt hit) 3. Above 4. Current 5. Open rear seat in old cars 6. Spice in Indian cooking 7. Husk 8. Coarse file 9. Loose garment pulled in at the waist 10. Conservative doctrine 11. Arm of the sea 12. Cache 13. Small woods 21. N.Y. neighbor 22. 18-wheeler 25. Muslim pilgrimage 26. After-lunch sandwich 27. Kosher ___ 28. Civil rights org. 29. Chemical compound 32. "___'s the breaks!" 33. Full house, e.g. 34. Jewish month 35. Sup 37. Petitions 41. God with a hammer 42. Slouched over 43. Roswell sightings 44. Organic matter used for fuel 48. Draft 49. Soil enricher 50. Like an old woman 51. Kind of drive 52. Church song 54. "Clair de ___" 55. ___ vera 56. Houston acronym 60. Diffident 61. Towel stitching Groundcover News is seeking more crossword writers! If you are interested in contributing crosswords to our paper on a regular basis, please reach out at contact@groundcovernews.com The air tastes faintly of paint and rain, Of cardboard kingdoms and clever deceit; Each step a dance on the edge of the sane, Each float a question rolling down Main Street. For here, the world is turned askew, Not broken—just tilted to help us see: That folly, when it’s honest and true, Is another form of clarity. And when the last grand puppet dips from view, And the drums fade soft into memory’s pool, Ann Arbor returns—yet somehow new— Forever marked by the wisdom of fools. MAY 1, 2026 Liz dressed in a fuzzy purple monster costume enjoying the Fool Moon street party with her friend. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS April 17, 2026 edition C A R D I O G R A P H T E C H N O C R A C I E S M A R I E A N T O I N E T T E A R E N A U S E S T A G S T O N E S A L E N S C O L T E R A E R A S A L O U D A L O F T A B A S E S O M B U D S M A N I R A D E S O T I C E M S S E M I S C O A T I L A W A G I N M A R R Y R I C O A G A D O M C A B L E T E L E V I S I O N E L A B O R A T E N E S S E X T R A V A G A N T N I T R O MAY 1, 2026 SPRING Reinforced spring recollections GREGORY MAISONVILLE Groundcover contributor A tea at Moka coffee house after Easter mass at St. Mary’s Student Parish has me in a pleasurable remembrance of yesterday’s merriment at Hash Bash. The “He has risen” philosophy ties in well with the buoyant atmosphere of business and the recreational bliss awarded now to tokers. Much alike to Christ’s early following, an underground wave of resistance has solidified for a superior society and negated the former mainstreamesque views of closed-mindedness. Hard not to notice the similarities of the clusters of followers today at church with the groups of tokers yesterday, all of whom wear the faces of expectancy for want of a notable difference in thought — dismissing the heavy-handedness of our society to the foils of yesteryear, and the building blocks of mercy and forgiveness laying claim to our constructive approach to a future merged with the earnest appreciation of our elder-taught timeless altruisms, albeit mixed with their deficiency of morality at times in the past. Like most people, spring is a very important time for me … March 17 celebrating my Irishness, the 22nd being my 10-year sobriety date from my drug of choice — alcohol; the 26th my 55th birthday; April 1 and the Artemis 2 launch to the moon; Hash Bash and Easter. All was incorporative of my individual specificities that define who and what I am in a mental pragmatic semblance of what my future holds from the melancholic to euphoric past. A typical example would be my substantive prayers for those astronauts making it safely into space, due to the nightmare of when a vice-principal knocked on the door of Mrs. Guest’s 11th grade French class to inform us of the tragedy that would shape our views on space exploration for decades to come. (Mrs. McAuliffe and crew will be with us always.) Now the recently launched Artemis is poised to irrevocably bind the younger generations to the magnitude of space exploration and colonization ... what a wonderful world, Louis Armstrong and Ray Bradbury would say. Back to the Hash Bash, where a drone about 200 feet to the northeast was seen as speaker after speaker filled the crowd with the problems of our forlorn federal government attitude towards any change, any despondency like the sentence of John Sinclair, quickly flitters off like the pigeons flying around from the rooftops or my first bumble bee of the season floating past. I’m perched on the ramp of Hatcher’s graduate library. The view is excellent, and after a joint the size of two fingers crammed into the large side of a conical tube is inhaled, a placative relaxation assumes control. Speakers of note were a handicapped woman who got the crowd in her grasp with a furor of freedoms mixed with some salty language that made me smile. The next, a man in a top hat and scarf who was clearly a staple of Hash Bash for years. “Why did it take our government 50 years to realize pot doesn’t kill anybody?” Sound question and a pupil of his I was. You do a lot of thinking high, and I could tell I was on good ground — ground covered before my birth. Even their footprints of fight and freedom still hold against the test of time's magnanimous hold. I lit a cigar, a luxury for a homeless man like me, careful not to send an ash on the people below like I did earlier. Then came my two high points of the day. First: a man called Tom Lavigne took the podium. He is a lawyer who currently spearheads the fight for marijuana legislation and acceptance. I immediately noticed his verbiage was prepared and insightful, and recollections of my own turmoils won or lost filled the fanciful mind I now participated in, as each of his fist pumps swayed those who remained to cheer GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15 and applaud. I hope someday to honor his speech and to fight with any society that displays authoritarian proclivities to settle human debate. Second was the jam band that I was unable to get the name of, but who lived up to the status of opening act of Hash Bash. Instantaneously I was whisked into a Deadhead feel of imaginary tiedyed shirts and dresses dancing in all the empty spots — a veritable Woodstock played out in my high but harmless mind. The singer gave quite a speech, holding up a small sequoia for testament to his belief in growth and renewal. I pranced mentally, and wobbled physically, LOL, a little with the music and scheme of things. In the middle of a very capturing groove of the fourth song, sprinkles of rain tingled my nose and alerted us that the looming dark cloud sneaking up from behind the library was going to have the final say … by the end of the song it was pouring. Many hung around since the cloudburst was over and gone in 20 minutes. So I put up my U-M blue and maize umbrella and struck out down the ramp, my confidence fully restored in the rogue fundamentals that made this country what it is. That all should fight for what you believe in so that peace may be attained through the salient stewards of equality, freedom of religion and person, and the spirit of what’s best for all and harmful to none.

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD An adapted family recipe for lasagna AMANDA GALE Groundcover vendor No. 573 This recipe originated from a Dearborn, Mich. Ford Motor Company cafeteria kitchen at which my Beloved Granny worked when I was a little girl. Ingredients 1 box lasagna pasta 1 jar Prego spaghetti sauce 2 cans tomato sauce 2 Lb ground meat with finely chopped garlic and onions 1 Lb ricotta cheese 1 egg; mix ricotta cheese and egg together 2 packages mozzarella cheese Parmesan cheese Directions Prep a tasty sauce for pasta; ie, a sauce you use for spaghetti, Prego for example. Fry finely chopped onions and garlic; when onions are clear on surface, though ‘filmy’ within, add the ground meat and cook until meat is cooked. Add the ground meat along with the finely chopped onions and garlic to a large, round boiling pot that has the pasta sauce (such as Prego) and two cans of tomato sauce already simmering in it. Alternate simmering and boiling pasta as necessary, ie, with the ground meat and onions and garlic also w/in it; cook about two hours until all is fully cooked. Meanwhile, boil the Lasagna pasta strips for about five to ten minutes, until pasta is bendable (pasta does not have to be fully cooked at this point, only bendable). Start layering when pasta is cooked enough to bend and drained, put one layer of pasta in a baking pan, then put a layer of sauce, on that put some ricotta cheese, then a layer of mozzarella, and a little bit of parmesan cheese. Repeat layering as before and continue with layers until your layers are complete; Place pan in oven when layers are done, for about 1 ½ hours at 325 degrees. ENJOY! :) !! Some additional possible adaptations for lasagna, from Amanda Alternately, ground meat and finely chopped onions and garlic can be mixed together, formed into meatballs and cooked that way and then added to sauce. Variations of cheese combinations can be used, such as shredded cheddar with or without mozzarella, and Romano with or without parmesan. My Family added dried rosemary and dried basil, along with Parmesan and Romano at intervals right into the sauce — it gets absorbed and greatly brings out the flavor. Additional toppings such as mushroom, hickory smoked, applewood, or honey ham chunks, chicken chunks, olives, and green pepper can also be used/included. It’s probably BEST to boil the Lasagna strips, though Lasagna can also be baked directly if water-immersed in baking pan. Sometimes Lasagna might need to be baked at 350 degrees for three hours — especially if not pre-boiled and/or depending on oven. MAY 1, 2026 PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI MAKE MEALS YOU LOVE! Fresh ingredients to $5 OFF ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 5/30/2026 By Amanda Gale, Groundcover vendor no. 573

2 $ APRIL 17, 2026 | VOLUME 17| ISSUE 9 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Does the Michigan 10-cent bottle deposit law need changing? page 7 VENDOR NO. 485 MEET YOUR VENDOR: DENISE SHEARER 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Pinball Pete's comes to the heart of Ann Arbor. page 8 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Pinball Pete's joins the Michigan and State Theater in Liberty Street's iconic signage. Photo by Mike Jones. • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 APRIL 17, 2026 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. We are hosting an Ypsi New Vendor Orientation on Wednesday, April 22, 11 a.m. at the Ypsilanti District Library (Michigan Ave branch - Room 2 in the basement)! STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Arav Bhatia Jay Cooper Terri Demar Anna Gersh Byron Flowers Mike Jones Joe Konczal Priya Kothari Rachael Lanier Marie Ken Parks Will Shakespeare Felicia Wilbert PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett June Miller Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Lyla Brooks Libby Chambers Luiza Duarte Caetano Ben Foster Glenn Gates Jacob Fallman Robert Klingler Priya Kothari Aklesia Maereg Harper Margolies Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropiate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. APRIL 17, 2026 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS Truth or Lies Mystery Lane: Time Travellers, LLC (part 2) FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 Read part one in the March 6, 2026 edition of Groundcover News. The voices got louder, and Denise Shearer, vendor No. 485 In one sentence, who are you? I love to make friends. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? On Liberty by the art gallery. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? I wanted to make friends and support myself, too. What is your favorite spot in Ann Arbor? The library and the Farmers Market. What words do you live by? Treat others like you’d like to be treated. What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover News? Supporting myself and making friends is important. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Go to Frankenmuth. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Hot dogs and chicken noodle soup. What’s the most interesting thing that happened to you while selling Groundcover News? I met some real nice people. What was your first job? I was a shampoo lady in a beauty shop. Life is a dance! I would like to start off by giving an honor to GOD, who makes all things possible. My topic is dance. It started with me BYRON FLOWERS Groundcover contributor as a kid break dancing, then dancing at parties doing other dances. It’s therapeutic for the soul, it helps the brain, it helps with posture. It's good to dance when you feel not-so-good, or when you feel good. It releases endorphins in the body. They feel good; endorphins help with stress. I am 51 years of age and I step-dance on the streets of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. I have a nerve problem, but my love for dance pushes me to step til my dying day! It puts smiles on people’s faces, it motivates the youth. Enjoy life right now, God got you. Leave your worries behind. My name is Byron Flowers. I grew up in a Baptist church in Muskegon, Mich., New Hope Baptist Church. I learned that the stuff you learned as a kid can bring you joy as an adult. louder! “Get out, return our property to our children!” The cook and staff used to hear Tom shouting at no one: “It’s mine, leave me alone!” Tom knew he had wronged the rightful owners; however, he did not care. He had a bold, menacing and controlling personality. Tom often bullied everyone in his path. He was the richest man in the county of Falconer, which was named after him. Murder and corruption were his way of life. He thought money could buy anyone and everyone. The twins, Lila and Delia, were two ladies who had fallen in love with the wrong men in his eyes. He detested the idea of two black men married to the ladies. The ladies were smart, owning the largest plantation other than the Falconer Estate. The Handover Estate owned one hundred and sixty slaves. Lila and Delia struck a bargain with their slaves, drafting freedom papers for everyone upon their death. They dug a hidden safety underground passage out in the fields, and one near the house where they hid the documents. The slaves’ job was to get their children and husbands to safety. Their plan was to sell the property and move to New York where they could be free. When they listed the property for sale, Tom realized they were moving away with the black men. He could not allow this! Armond, the Pinkerton man investigating what happened, talked with the cook and an older woman named Sady. She spoke with a raspy, soft voice and explained what happened. Sady stated it was a Sunday afternoon about 4 p.m. just before dinner was to be served. “Mr. Falconer and his henchman arrived at the plantation. Everyone started fighting, distracting the men and blocking them from the family. Those dirty men started killing everyone in sight. Only us and 26 people survived, hidden in the passage. They marched those girls right over to that old oak tree.” Sady was pointing at one of the three large trees. “Mr. Falconer kept asking where the men and the children were. Lila and Delia kept quiet, only saying goodbye to each other. Within three days they had shoved everyone’s body in a big pit, even the owners.” Sady pointed over near the oak trees. “This land has not been peaceful ever since that day. You can hear the girls crying and hollering, ‘Return the land to our children!’ They say that the spirit of the ladies marched Mr. Falconer right over to that tree." “Can I give you something Mister?” said Sady. She led Armond and Randal, the man from the Deeds Office, over to the field and instructed them to lift up the false door. It was covered with so much dirt, you would never know it was there. They ducked down into the passage. They lit a makeshift torch and looked around. Randal found an old wooden box. It was a fancy sewing box. Once outside, they opened the box. It contained freedom papers and birth records for the children of the ladies, and a book of births and deaths of slaves. Armond knew what had to be done. He said, “Come, Randal, we must return to your office immediately.” Once they arrived at the clerk's office, Armond searched the records, finding the name of the twins' father who had given the land to his daughters. He read the book of births, finding the names of the husbands and children of Lila and Delia. Armond looked at Randal and said, “I know you are an honest man who only wants to do the proper solution. Are you ready and willing to rewrite history, my man?” Randal was scared and nervous, only wanting this to be over. After hearing what really happened at the Estate just over a month ago, Armond said, “Now draft up a deed with these names on it.” He handed Randal a note with John Jr., Tom Jr., Stella and Cindy Hitchens. “They are the rightful owners, do you agree?” Mr. Randal was shaking; however, he managed to get the names correct. He said, “What about the signing of the deed tomorrow?” “Oh, don’t worry, it will not happen, for you have corrected history! Be proud and stay honest, or I will come for you.” Armond left, walking from the office. When he reached the train station, he turned his hat backwards. The deed had been transferred to its rightful owners. The next morning, Mrs. Carwell [read part one] returned. She was elated, saying “Thanks, there is no record of me and my family owning the property. I don’t know what you did, however, please accept this.” She passed Armond an envelope. He opened it. It was a title to a 2030 Yacht and a picture. “Hold it, I can’t take this.” Armond tried handing her the title. “Oh yes, you can Sonny. I am 88 and have no one to give it to. Please let this be your payment, and thanks for correcting everything. Now I can leave here in peace.” 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LOCAL TO GLOBAL APRIL 17, 2026 Ann Arbor woman in midst of Iran war calls on City Council to pass a resolution MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 It has been seven weeks since the start of the United States, Israel and Iran war. Dr. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, an environmental toxicologist from Ann Arbor who ran for City Council in 2020, became trapped in Tehran, Iran in early March 2026, while caring for her elderly parents during intensified military conflicts. She was experiencing the conflict firsthand. Surrounded by aerial bombings near her childhood home, she reported on the situation on March 5, in a Youtube video calling for an end to the U.S. and Israeli strikes. Known for her advocacy for cutting local ties to Israel, she has spoken out against the genocide in Palestine regularly at Ann Arbor City Council Meetings. Her husband, Blaine Coleman, remained in Ann Arbor and reported her situation to local media, advocating for her safety. She and her parents were staying as safe as possible under difficult conditions as of early March 2026. Mr. Coleman addressed Ann Arbor City Council on March 16, 2026, where he gave an update on his wife’s status, and he played video on his laptop of his wife's recorded video message from Tehran calling on City Council to pass a symbolic resolution asking governments to cut off military aid to Israel. At the April 2, 2026 Ann Arbor City Council meeting, Mr. Coleman stated Dr. Savabieasfahani and her parents were still under heavy bombardment, and he continued to ask Council to pass a resolution to end military aid to Israel. Savabieasfahani said if people of the United States want Iranians to have a better life, they should stop their own government from bombing and putting sanctions on Iran. “Bombing a society like Iran is not going to force them into submission. This is an ancient culture,” she said. “This is an old, ancient people who will not submit to the force of the United States and Israel. We have dignity and we will not submit to you.” Israel has done similar damage to other places, from Palestine to Syria, Savabieasfahani said. “And we must stop them,” she said. “American taxpayers pay for Israeli genocide in Palestine. They are paying for Israel to massacre Iranian people in their country, attacking them. And this is unbearable. We must stop the Dr. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani U.S. and Israel from attacking everywhere, trying to force people to submit to their rule,” reported Mlive. The conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran began on February 28, 2026, following failed negotiations that led to U.S. and Israeli attacks. This followed a previous 12-day conflict in June 2025, and lingering high tensions from the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War. EL CENTRAL Hispanic News independent community journalism, 37 years and counting! ANNA GERSH Groundcover Board President I had the pleasure of visiting a kindred collective this past month. At 37 years young, EL CENTRAL Hispanic News is Detroit’s oldest continuously operating bilingual news resource. I recently met managing editor Robert Dewaelsche to discuss the importance of local print journalism and to learn about all the amazing ways EL CENTRAL serves its community. One of the most valuable features of EL CENTRAL is its office location. Situated right on Vernor Highway, across from the beautiful and spacious Clark Park, and around the corner from Western International High School, EL CENTRAL is perfectly placed to observe the community and — in the spirit of local journalism — ready and able to provide feedback and an accessible community platform to residents. We met at Armando’s restaurant. If you’ve ever been to Mexicantown, it’s likely someone has suggested you hit Armando’s. Since 1967 Armando’s has been serving up some of the most delicious Mexican food in the area. As we sat and talked and ate, we were joined intermittently by friends and fans alike — it seems everyone appreciates the critical importance of EL CENTRAL. Though Mr. Dewaelsche was clearly a valued community member, he and his wife, southwest Detroit native Eva Garza Dewaelsche, only took over the paper in April 2022. Before that, it had been operating under founder-publisher Delores Sanchez since it was established. Ms. Sanchez, founder of Sanchez Media, created EL CENTRAL in 1988 to “provide complete media services to and for Hispanics in Michigan.” Since its founding, EL CENTRAL has won over 50 national awards and Ms. Sanchez was the first Latina to serve on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Hispanic Publications. She still supports the paper as Director of Advertising and Sales. Mr. Dewaelsche and I discussed many things over our long and enlightening lunch, including the possibility of an EL CENTRAL-Groundcover News collab!! Stay tuned for that. One thing about being at the center of things, as EL CENTRAL is, is that when things happen, you’re right there, ready to capture truth and offer it back to the people for their consideration. As we wrapped up lunch, we walked out to find that nearly all of the students at Western High School had walked out, with their principal’s permission, to stand against the very personal experience, for this small and closely knit community, of dealing with ICE on a daily basis. We briefly spoke with Dr. Angel Garcia III, principal at Western, about the protest. He had the air of a man not exactly sure he was doing the smartest thing but buoyed by the confidence that he was definitely doing the right thing: Gersh: It's great to meet you! This is a bold decision! How’s it going out here today? Garcia: It's great. I’m not going to say I’m completely relaxed. Every kid is out here and there are a few conflicts I’m concerned about, but look — you see what’s happening. These actions have galvanized the community. Most people out here have been affected, it’s your family, it’s your friends. At that point a concerned mother approached him, interrupting the interview, and asked after her daughter. It’s an unusual way to end a school day and Dr. Garcia isn’t the only one trying to figure out the best way to think about the situation. On my way back to the car I met a group of three young ladies who were eager to share their thoughts. Elainai C.A. (11th grade); Ava L. (11th grade); and Layla A. (11th grade), all Western High students: Gersh: What made you come out to the protest today? Layla: This is a pretty big thing for our school. A couple of kids have actually gotten taken by ICE. I've had friends who were taken. It had a big mental effect on them. And it hurts seeing that, like, as a friend, and I don't see EL CENTRAL page 6  APRIL 17, 2026 ANN ARBOR A2 proposes dismantling emergency sirens despite increasing threats JAY COOPER Groundcover contributor Author's note: The City of Ann Arbor announced April 15, following a tornado and severe thunderstorm warning, that it decided to retain and invest in its outdoor warning siren system. "We’re grateful for the thoughtful input shared by thousands of community members about the sirens and the city's other emergency warning tools." Ann Arbor is considering replacing their outdoor sirens with beeping buzzing phones. This is in line with what I've come to expect from Ann Arbor policies — sleek, modern and completely devoid of empathy for the most vulnerable. Also, as is to be expected from Ann Arbor governance, it’s a lie. The phone alerts already exist — they inexplicably want to get rid of the vitally redundant sirens. The three core principles listed for dismantling the sirens are: public safety effectiveness, clarity and comprehension, and responsible use of public funds. All three are absurd. Sirens are effective. They’re loud and when people hear them they know something is amiss and to seek more information. Sirens are clear signs that (unless it’s the predetermined testing day and time) there is something wrong. Sirens are an extremely responsible use of public funds. I cannot explain this penny-pinching at the expense of the most vulnerable, except that maybe some billionaire doesn’t like the sound once a month. Below the principles, on the website [https://engage.a2gov.org/ siren-review] it states: "Decommissioning sirens does not mean reducing emergency warning capability." All evidence points to the contrary. In regards to cost, they say the sirens will cost $60,000 each of the next three years to repair, and $17,000 annually to maintain. To claim this as a problem is disgusting. The fact they tried means they think you’re too stupid to look at how rich the city is. Sirens save lives, and this cost is pennies to the budget for a city like Ann Arbor, harvesting property taxes from billionaires. The projected increase in City revenue from property taxes for fiscal year 2027 is 4.58% or $2.8 million, the projected state shared revenue increase is 1% or $100,000, and the projected parking revenue increase is 6.8% or $253,000. Ann Arbor made $1.2 million taxing marijuana alone in fiscal year 2026, according to a presentation made by Marti Praschan at the March 23, 2026 FY27 Budget Working Session. In the face of serious concerns such as the deaths caused by lack of sirens in Texas' flood alley (see www. npr.org/2025/07/11/nx-s1-5460863/ flood-sirens-texas-warning) and in the Palisades fire (see file.lacounty. gov/SDSInter/bos/supdocs/207915. pdf), posing risks to people without cell phones, including homeless and elderly folk, Emergency Manager Sydney Parmenter responded with a firehose of damage control. Concerns were met with unscientific nonsense, the runaround, and lies you can evaluate yourself by visiting engage.a2gov.org/siren-review. (Emergency Manager is a title which sends chills up this Michigander's spine, though in this case she appears to be an emergency response coordinator, not a tinpot dictator that takes undemocratic control over Black towns. You can see how the grotesque euphemisms white supremacist systems use to steal your civil rights muddy the waters of communication and clarity.) Parmenter cannot honestly respond to interrogations of this proposal in good faith because the proposal doesn't hold water. In LA County's Palisades fire postmortem, it states the obvious: "While redundancies in communication mechanisms exist in the county, they still rely on effective cellular coverage and do not work when there is poor cellular coverage or when commercial power is lost to an area. Cellular coverage is weakened when there are fewer cell towers in an area, while signal quality suffers when its use exceeds available capacity or when heavy smoke from a fire interferes, reflects or absorbs radio signals." In other words, we need redundancy beyond the cellular. Power outages, technical difficulties, fires, cyberattacks and even the uptick in cell phone usage during an emergency can prevent people from getting the alerts on their phones, but Parmenter will hear none of it. She suggests you carry your cellphone on the river. She simply does not know how many elderly residents don't use cell phones. For any question of redundancy, Parmenter points to the Ann Arbor emergency alerts page (www.a2gov.org/alerts) which lists four channels of emergency alerts: A2 Emergency Alerts, which are signal-dependent via phone, email or text; Outdoor Warning Sirens, which they want to dismantle; Weather and Public Radio, which is partially signal-dependent as some people can only listen to these stations via Wi-Fi or cellular signal; and Wireless Emergency Alerts, which are entirely signal-dependent. Parmenter's non-answers parading as answers ring hollow and circuitous as she attempts to cite sensible emergency response wisdom that runs counter to her intentions. When asked about cell outages she responds, "It is best practice to utilize multiple tools to ensure emergency communications are issued and accessible." Did she forget the context in which this discussion is happening? The topic on the table is dismantling one of the multiple tools we use to ensure emergency communications are issued and accessible! She did not forget — she is redirecting, she is distracting. Another weird assertion that Parmenter makes is that sirens can't be heard inside. For decades when I had a home in Ann Arbor, I could hear the sirens. I'd say to myself: "Is it test Tuesday or should I be worried?" and I'd check the calendar to make sure I didn't need to duck and cover. Others, such as Groundcover associates Cynthia and Sim, attest that sirens sound very loudly inside their houses. So not only is it complete nonsense that you can't hear the sirens when you're inside, it also completely ignores the safety of people who aren't inside. If Ann Arbor were a humane place that sheltered its residents, maybe it would make sense to only consider those indoors, but Ann Arbor slumlords ratchet up rents, kick people out to get better rates on AirBnB, and tear down homes to build more expensive structures meant for the wealthy and their children. While we absolutely should (and already do) have cellular alerts explaining the nature of disasters, they are not a replacement for sirens. Just because something is old does not mean it is bad. Sirens are not affected by cellular outages, they are not disrupted by the uptick in cellular usage during an emergency as everyone tries to contact loved ones, and they are not nearly as susceptible to cyberattacks or technical failure. They work. They've worked for over a century, and the evidence says if we dismantle them, people will die. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Visit any of our five locations across town to browse books, magazines, newspapers, and more. Check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, or even home tools—you name it! Enjoy fast and free WiFi, study and meeting rooms, and plenty of comfortable spaces to relax or hang out. Fifth Ave Press AADL founded Fifth Ave Press in 2017 to support the local writing community and promote the creation of original content. The imprint publishes works by authors who live in Washtenaw County. Consider submitting your finished manuscript to Fifth Avenue Press today at fifthave.aadl.org. Washtenaw Library for the Blind and Print Disabled This free service loans books, magazines, & videos in alternative formats (audiobooks, large print, Braille books & magazines, and descriptive video) to individuals who are unable to read or use standard printed materials. Visit aadl.org/wlbpd/apply to apply. FEATURED EVENT 5 Saturday, May 16 • 12–3:30 PM • Downtown Library Create characters, go on guided interactive adventures, and forge your own stories at this celebration of tabletop Role-Playing Games! Try your hand at games and give miniature figure painting a go! Learn more at aadl.org/rpgday.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS OPPORTUNITY Finding opportunities for the unhoused I had only been in the Ann Arbor area for maybe a week and a half as of March 5, 2026. I have been unhoused several times in my life and none of those episodes were times I could have controlled. I have found that this area is more open-minded about people in my situation. When I asked the local volunteers about employment opportunities in the area, I was immediately referred to Groundcover News which is the only truly independent newspaper here in Ann Arbor. I quickly signed up to take their orientation and have been welcomed in with open arms. At the orientation meeting, the Director, Lindsay, invited me to the SHE TEAM women's group meeting that would occur in just a few short hours. I fell in love with the energy of this team instantly. The other members were so welcoming, and just taking that opportunity to brainstorm on different subjects to further not only ourselves, but also Groundcover, seemed so refreshing. I wondered to myself if there were any other organizations that would be just as inviting to people like me. I started a small project and it’s still ongoing so the results will either improve or decline depending on the participation of other people. It’s local to Ann Arbor only so if this is successful or if it yields the results I’m looking for, I would like to expand this project to Ypsilanti and Brighton. It basically starts with a request via a letter to interview leaders of different businesses to see if hiring unhoused persons is something they would consider. I have a form already created with different questions such as: What are their hiring practices? What would be the barriers that might prevent the unhoused from being hired? Would these persons need to have any special training or certifications? Ideally, I want to create a list of companies that could provide a safe space and opportunity for employment as well as growth to unhoused persons. Groundcover does a wonderful job providing entrepreneuri al  EL CENTRAL from page 4 think it's right, and I think we should stand up for what's right, and everybody should be civil and have their rights, you know?” Ava: I've seen a lot of just plain discrimination. Like Layla said, many kids have been taken away by ICE. That one case with a five-year-old kid, he was taken by ICE. Yes. One of our teachers at Western, her boyfriend was also taken away by ICE. And ICE has RACHAEL LANIER Groundcover vendor No. 695 opportunities for those trying to get back on their feet. As many times as I have been unhoused, throughout my travels across different states, 10 in the last five years looking for work, there are stigmas and stereotypes that present roadblocks and closed doors for people in my situation. I got here because, back when I lived in Fargo, I mailed a money order for a processing fee separately from my USDA loan application to the Arkansas USDA office. The fee never made it to the office in Arkansas, so my application could not be processed. The result was instant homelessness. My daughters, our pets and I all lived in my 2008 white Chevy Suburban and shelters for around three months before being offered the most disgusting housing available in Malvern, Arkansas. Three months and I had to leave because the conditions were so uninhabitable, my daughters were getting sick. I took them back to their father in Alabama, and I DoorDashed my way in a highjacked U-Haul to Wisconsin. I am homeless again, but my daughters are safe. Arkansas proved to be the worst decision of my life. My final service animal was rehomed in Cicero, Illinois. I finally made it to Detroit — where my original plan after losing everything was to claim asylum in Canada. I tried to claim asylum but it didn’t work. I was immediately commanded to leave federal property. They weren’t letting me over that border. So, I tried to tough it out in Detroit. After eight months and two evictions, just disregarded the law. They don't even have to hardly go to training. It's just horrible what they have done to our friends and the citizens of Detroit. It seems like it’s just for their amusement. Elaina: Yes. I just think it's just very cruel … it's not right at all. And I just think by taking steps like these [today’s school walk out] in our community, even little ones like these, it helps make things like this come together and push through it, even at hard no jobs, entirely too much free labor just to have a roof over my head and a few events of being exploited, I left for Ann Arbor via the Dearborn Police department. I don’t know how Ann Arbor feels about it, having another PD drop off homeless people in their city, but those guys were so nice to me — someone who has been stigmatized for anything and everything awful; from drug addict to alcoholic to sex worker. Wouldn’t you know it, I was originally transported to Ann Arbor to their Greyhound bus station to buy a ticket out of state and I was $10 short. So, I’m now here for a little while longer. I suppose I’m trying to tell you that discrimination against the unhoused has been so strong in my life for the last three years that I was expecting Ann Arbor to be the same as Fargo, North Dakota; Fort Smith, Arkansas; Malvern, Arkansas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Racine, Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; and Moorhead, Minnesota. With a few exceptions in Cicero Illinois, the organizations in most if not all other of those places refuse to help you. Their promises of housing, employment, resources, access to any services, were all just whispered lies on honeyed lips, to say the least. Or however that saying goes. Those organizations “manage” homeless populations, they don’t solve the problem of homelessness or provide solutions. My point is: they lied. In these other places, any attempt I made to become self-sufficient was immediately resisted. I was blocked from everything I tried. A case worker in Minnesota threatened to take my children from me if I went to work. Why? The goal was to become self-sufficient so I could afford my own housing and not be in their shelters. And for whatever reason, probably because I was homeless, none of the companies I applied to after leaving that shelter were hiring. I have an Associates of Science degree, over 25 years experience in customer service, 20 years in times when it seems like there's no faith, like everybody getting taken, the kids, the babies. Even little steps like these, they get us through the day and we fight for our people and we stand up for what's right, and that's the thing. Ava concluded, "Nobody's illegal on stolen land. Little stuff like this does a lot. It changes a lot. No matter how long it takes, it'll help." Detroit is so fortunate to have EL CENTRAL reporting on the issues that matter to the community. food and beverage, 10 years in manufacturing, 10 years in inventory and quality control, and 8 years in care giving, in overlapping jobs. I don’t understand how I could be denied employment for three years straight. I got interviews — loads of interviews, and it seemed like it all went well. But apparently it didn't and I was the only one who couldn’t see it. I’m fairly confident in Ann Arbor there are organizations like Groundcover, who want to help those who are unhoused and who want to help themselves. I just have to compile a list and disseminate it to those who are interested. This is also a big thank you to Groundcover for stopping that infamous gap in employment that seems to strike fear into the heart of every potential employer when they encounter us. The chance that we are given, this particular group with these particular sets of hardships, is indeed a godsend. I would like to see if there are any other companies out there that can be a godsend to us as well. If not, Groundcover has us covered. No harm, no foul. Declinations are also considered. We aren't forcing anyone or trying to guilt trip or shame anyone, no blasting in the paper or anything petty like that. I am just looking for other options for any of us unhoused people who really just wanna get back on our feet and get our lives on track. If there are any business owners interested in helping the unhoused, please email either me r2.lanier@ gmail.com or you can email Lindsay Calka at contact@groundcovernews. com, and ask for a copy of the letter and the questionnaire. An email containing a Word document will be emailed to your email address. You can schedule a meeting or answer the questionnaire electronically. In the meantime, I will be visiting different businesses and handing out physical copies of the invitation to schedule an interview and we will see how it goes. APRIL 17, 2026 APRIL 17, 2026 EARTH DAY community EVENTS 2026 INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL YPSILANTI April 16-18. Riverside Arts Center, 76 N Huron St. Ypsilanti. Offbeat screenings showcasing local creators and filmmakers from around the world. Times subject to change; for up-to-date schedule and details, see iffypsi.com. Tickets $13 (students and seniors, $10); purchase online in advance or at the door. SWAP & DROP Saturday, April 18, 9-11:30 a.m, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1385 Green Road, Ann Arbor. Come bring your things that need a new home and take what you'd like! Everything is free. Clean up will begin at 11 a.m. with all leftover items donated to Kiwanis at 11:30. Families, students and neighbors welcome! "WHO'S THERE?!" ARB DANCE PERFORMANCE Saturday, April 18, 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Nichols Arboretum, 1610 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor. The Department of Dance at the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance and Ladina Schaller present “Who’s There?!”This site-specific senior dance project consists of a walk through the Arb, along which the audience encounters a variety of characters, sights, sounds and scenes. The concert is around one hour long. Audience members are required to walk along Arboretum paths for the duration of the performance and are encouraged to dress for the weather and wear good shoes. This event is family-friendly and appropriate for all ages. Attendance is free, but RSVP is encouraged at this link: tinyurl.com/yhr62hj8 EARTH WEEK: COMMUNITY COMMONS INITIATING COMMITTEE April 19-25, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. Center of the City Commons, Fifth Ave at Library Lane, Ann Arbor. Weeklong celebration of the Earth. April 19, opening assembly (10 a.m.-noon), followed by a bike ride to the Leslie Nature Center (11:30 a.m.) where there will be an Earth Day Celebration. Concert (5-9 p.m.) with 70s funk sextet the Steve Somers Band, folk ensemble Mary and the Huz Band and others. April 20-24, “Conscious Cafe” (10 a.m.-noon), open discussion and various activities until 9 p.m. April 25, “Conscious Cafe” conclusions (10 a.m.), live music and closing panel (2 p.m.) and talks (6 p.m.). See page 8. REVOLUTIONARY FOOD GATHERING Tuesday, April 21, 5-7 p.m. Solidarity Hall, 169 N Washington St., Ypsilanti. Potluck and discussion to discover who we are in relationship to our food, the earth and each other. Hosted by Groundcover News and Purslane Commons. FLIP THE SCRIPT POETRY WORKSHOP Friday, April 24, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Ann Arbor District Library downtown, 4th floor. All invited to create a poem based on a personal narrative. ELECTRONICS COLLECTION REGISTRATION OPEN Saturday, April 25, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m., Ann Arbor Community Reformed Church, 1717 Broadway Street. Have electronics that you want to dispose of with confidence that they are being sent to sustainable and ethical facilities for refurbishing or recycling? Reserve your spot now at osi. a2gov.org/april25electronics. For more information and additional events, visit a2gov.org/electronics INDIGENOUS PEOPLE WHO WERE IN PITTSFIELD Sunday, April 26, 2 p.m., StoryPoint Saline, 6230 S. State, Saline. Talk by Henry Ford Museum curator and historian Heather Bruegl, a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. A2ZERO COMMUNITY COOKBOOK: SUSTAINABILITY FORUM Tuesday, April 28, 6-7:30 p.m, AADL downtown. City staff and contributors to this newly released cookbook discuss sustainable food practices. a2gov.org/sustainabilty CLASSICAL CREATIONS: WASHTENAW COMMUNITY CONCERT BAND Thursday, April 30, 7:30 p.m, WCC Towsley Auditorium, 4800 Huron River Drive. Conductor and Music Director J. Nick Smith and the WCCB present a classical musicthemed concert that celebrates both the history and future of this thing we call BAND. Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Does the Michigan 10-cent Bottle Deposit Law need changing? ARAV BHATIA U-M student contributor The state of Michigan is unique due to its implementation of the 10-cent bottle deposit law in 1976. Several states have a bottle deposit law where a bottle can be returned for five cents. Michigan is one of three states that gives 10 cents in exchange for each can. This does mean that each can cost 10 extra cents, however, that money is refundable when returned, in order to reduce waste and litter. In theory, this law helps the environment and also provides a source of income for those in need of extra cash without formal employment. According to the official government of Michigan website, no government ID or paperwork is needed to return the cans, making it an accessible option for unhoused individuals. While the money earned is far from enough to make a living, the law provides some sort of economic relief by performing an action that directly benefits the community and the environment. The law dictates that cans must be clear, unbroken, and marked as eligible for can returns (which most are). The cans are then scanned by a reverse vending machine, and the returner gets paid for what can they deposit. The acceptors of the cans must refund up to $25 worth, but do not have to exceed that amount. Additionally, it is important to note that only bottles or cans sold in a state with bottle deposits will be marked for eligibility and can be returned in Michigan. Data from the official Treasury website of the state of Michigan shows the trends of the bottle deposit law. In 2010-2014, the law showed high efficiency. Efficiency in this context is defined by the redemption rates of the deposits. During the early 2010s, redemption rates were 94-96%. This era was proof that the system could work and that consumers are willing to do the extra work to get money back and reduce recycling. In the following years leading up to 2020, the rate slowly began to decline, dropping to around 85%. This first drop in efficiency can be attributed to several factors, one being the challenges of finding a machine. The time spent collecting the bottles and returning them may not be worth the value of the returns. As economic inflation continues, finding 250 returnable cans and transporting them to a return center for a maximum of $25 seems unfair for the energy required. Greater access to curbside recycling and the declining value of a dime due to inflation also decreased people’s motivation to return their own cans. The COVID pandemic in 2020 marked the largest falloff of efficiency rates. As stores and return machines were shut down, the rate dropped to around 70%. The decrease in return accessibility correlated to a direct drop in the redemption rates. Up until 2024, the redemption rate has hovered around the 70-75% range. What can be learned from the pandemic years is that the system works best when it is convenient to return. To bring the redemption rates to the early 2010 era rates, accessibility needs to be improved. Especially when trying to benefit the unhoused population, making return centers and machines limited and far apart makes participating in the law very challenging without a car. More machines are the first step to reversing the decline in redemption rates caused by COVID. Another argument being made is to increase the price of the deposit from 10 cents. This would have downsides as the price of each can of the beverages sold would increase, yet it would also increase the incentive to return cans. People do not have to transport as many cans to earn enough money for basic necessities. The law has been proven to work in the 21st century, yet changes have to be made to ensure the law remains relevant in the quickly changing society.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FUN Pinball Pete's comes to the heart of Ann Arbor TERRI DEMAR Groundcover vendor No. 322 The Arnold brothers first started their arcade business in East Lansing. They took over a donut shop which happened to have an elephant on top of the roof. One night while staying up late, the brothers were joking around and painted the elephant bright pink. Ted Arnold, the owner of Pinball Pete's, asked his mom to make a papier-mâché cowboy to sit on the elephant. They decided to call the arcade "Pinball Pete's" and it went off from there. After success in East Lansing, Arnold expanded to Ann Arbor, with an arcade on William, then Packard (both now closed) and the store we all knew and loved on South University. When asked about his reason to move to Ann Arbor, Arnold reminisced about visiting all the used record stores in high school; "Ann Arbor was a cool town." In 2025, after more than three decades, the South U location closed. With 13 years still on the lease, they had to move out of the building because Landmark Property management (based out of Georgia) purchased the building with plans to redevelop the lot for luxury student housing. Landmark Property owns and operates five off-campus high-rise complexes, totalling more than 1,500 units, in the city of Ann Arbor. There was a public hearing at the downtown Ann Arbor District Library on December 5, 2023, and Landmark showed up and saw lots of people who were opposed to their takeover. Many people in Ann Arbor have met their husbands, wives and best friends — what have you — at Pinball Pete’s, so clearly this was an important place to townies and Ann Arborites (yes, there’s a difference). For example, Arnold was recently invited to a wedding because the marrying couple had their first kiss, first date, and got engaged at Pinball Pete's. So many people have had positive experiences there. Landmark was in shock. Eventually Top: Ted Arnold, owner of Pinball Pete's (left) with Terri Demar (right) at the relocated arcade, which "soft-opened" March 13, 2026. they paid for the sprinkler system after Pinball Pete’s found a new place with the help of Scot Greig, the owner of Bill’s Beer Garden and other downtown properties. Arnold shared with us that Greg called him personally to invite him to rent one of his spaces, the old Douglas J. Salon on Liberty Street that had been vacant for many months. Arnold has a little less space now in the new building at 500 Liberty St. because they had to install elevators, bathrooms with changing tables and a drinking fountain. But, location means everything. It’s going to be the new entertainment district with all neon signs, from Scorekeeper’s to Knight’s Inn to Pinball Pete's. This district started because the area already had neon lights at the Michigan Theater and State Theater. All of this was meant to be; everything fell into place. Groundcover News publisher Lindsay Calka and I walked around to see the customers who thrive on Pinball Pete's. We saw that there are many pinball machines, a Jurassic Park game and Dance Dance Revolution downstairs. On the main floor they have air hockey, Space Invaders, mini basketball and more. Also they have a game where you win money, not just tickets. In conclusion, Pinball Pete's is now in the heart of Ann Arbor where it should be. So it’s not just about nostalgia, it’s an invitation to come and see Pinball Pete's, make memories, and establish a new generation of game players. Arnold may have to take out another 20-year lease because it looks very promising, and the future is as bright as their neon signs. APRIL 17, 2026 Left: Demar tries out the Jurassic Park game. Right: Pinball Pete's still offers old-style games, such as Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. APRIL 17, 2026 DOCUMENTARY GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 The Road Home is a documentary exploring mental health, housing insecurity, and homelessness in Washtenaw County, highlighting community efforts and challenges. Watch trailer: bit.ly/watchTrailer2 Local organizations face fragmented responses, funding cuts and limiting support. The film's goal is to unite stakeholders, raise awareness, and inspire collective action to ensure compassionate, sustainable solutions.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LABOR POWER How to win a general strike I wrote “Preparing For a General Strike “ in the February 20 edition of Groundcover News. That sets the context for this article. The No Kings Rally was a big inspiration for me to think about what we need to do, that protests are not enough and that we need a deeper discussion about what we can do. By understanding this precious human birth and our sacred labor power, we can apply that awareness in our life. Mind training is an essential activity to prepare ourselves to face reality. As we develop our awareness we will discover the all-good expanse of primordial purity, which to me is the basis of underlying reality. Of course this is a faith assumption and needs to be tested in everyday life. By exploring the middle path which avoids the extremes of eternalism and nihilism we will become at home with our own mind. Eventually, natural mind will arise. And we will learn to appreciate all teachers who can point the way. In the belief that reality is a workable situation, our life becomes more interesting as we experience the interrelatedness of the parts to the whole and drop the ignorance of dualism, especially the dichotomy of self and other. It’s a simple philosophy but not at all in compliance with the feel for this at any powwow. “We are still here” is an indigenous expression based on a community of love and our natural connection to reality. Read my KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 dominant culture of capitalism. We are all socialized into habitual patterns that support the supremacism of the bourgeoisie and their monopoly on violence. Our labor power is seamlessly connected to the all-good expanse. This primordial reality is in fact our birthright, our fully awakened mind which is often hidden behind a veil of ignorance, usually an ego formation that fixates on self and other. This illusion is the world of compliance and bureaucracy that demands all your time. This mental slavery must be dissolved into the all-good expanse in order to be at home with our true nature, a fully awakened mind as Buddha, Jesus and all enlightened beings demonstrate. The elders at Standing Rock were holding this tradition. You will get a “Powwow Origins” in the March 20 Groundcover News. Take note of James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw who brings world traditions into our life in a good way. At the recent powwow, I learned that the American Indian Unlimited organization is the mother of the Native American Student Association and the U-M-related powwows. Our preparation will continue even as we engage in a general strike. We are learning that mass protests may be important but by themselves will not bring peace because the war machine ignores and belittles them. We go back to everyday life, which feeds the war machine. When we are prepared to engage in a deeper level of struggle, we will focus on bringing our work to build the world we want to live in and to strike as we simultaneously do the work that needs to be done to make the strike successful. The 1937 Flint sit-down strike is an outstanding example of this. The community went to work to support the workers who occupied the factories. Michigan’s legacy of musical genius includes Bill Meyer, the well known jazz musician who wrote an opera on this strike called “Forgotten.” His talents as a producer and director brought it to stage as an exceptional expression of working class culture. Now is a good time to revisit and promote this opera and learn about winning a general strike. I once was an activist supporting the American Serviceman’s Union, a drive to organize the military rank and file into a union. Search that! During the Vietnam war, peace activists visited coffee shops near military bases for some good networking. Can we restart the American Serviceman’s Union? We can advance our work as a working class by applying Fidel Castro’s advice "analizar y meditar.” Working with candidates and elected officials is an important front, especially as people begin to look for real solutions. The No Kings rallies are a good sign of a shift in public opinion. The campaign of Yousef Rabhi for Mayor of Ann Arbor is an expression of this new convergence to put people before profits. Let us work together in all the small ways that add up to a big difference. The future begins now. Take a breath and engage. We will learn more about the struggle on Earth Day (see page 8). APRIL 17, 2026 APRIL 17, 2026 OPINION GROUNDCOVER NEWS One Struggle, One Fight: The link between the struggles for trans rights and Palestinian liberation JOE KONCZAL GEO Queer/Trans Caucus “Fascism is colonialism turned inward.” As the crisis of capitalism worsens at home, we have seen this quote permeate discourse on the increasingly violent and chaotic state of American politics. But what does this idiom truly mean? To answer this, we must turn to history. The concentration camp, whose history is often understood to begin with the genocides carried out by the Nazis, does not have its origins on the European continent. Concentration camps have a long, bloody history in the colonies of every European power: the Spanish in Cuba, the British in South Africa, the Germans in East Africa. Then, the Germans at home. In a piece of historic irony, surplus khaki uniforms of the German Colonial Police in Africa were bought by the Nazi Party and became the uniforms of their paramilitary branch, commonly known as the Brownshirts. This concept has been termed the “imperial boomerang,” the process whereby imperial powers “bring home” the assortment of apparatuses, institutions and techniques developed in their colonies in order to repress dissent in the empire’s heartland. The boomerang returned home and colonialism was turned inward when the first concentration camps were built in Germany. We do not need to look far to see this “imperial boomerang” in action today. Consider the arsenal of oppression used by Israel. The Palestinians in Gaza have been subjected to a brutal genocide for two and a half years now, and the Strip now has the highest number of childhood amputees in the world. The Zionist occupation employs a broad range of sophisticated military and surveillance technologies developed by U.S. and Israeli companies to control the lives of Palestinians under occupation. Freedom of movement in Gaza is nigh-on impossible and restricted in the West Bank through almost complete elimination, with checkpoints, patrols and artificially-intelligent surveillance that watches, lists and tracks the movements of Palestinians everywhere. In the boundaries of the state of Israel established after the mass ethnic cleansing in 1948, Palestinians are subject to a complex system of legal discrimination which renders them less autonomous, gives them less access to democratic institutions, and levies harsher penalties on them for crimes. In Zionist prisons, particularly those housing prisoners from the West Bank and Gaza, sexual assault, murder and psychological torment are routine. (In all of these things the University of Michigan plays its own part, acting as a hedge fund for weapons companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin that supply the Zionists and maintaining holdings of Israeli shekels that directly support the Zionist currency and economy. This is not to mention the weapons technologies it develops in plain sight in its various aerospace labs, nor its academic partnerships with Zionist academic institutions and tech companies. See tahrirxmich.org/ research.) As crises mount at home and abroad — out of control price inflation, rampant unemployment, a prolonged and wildly unpopular imperialist war with Iran on behalf of Israel — the boomerang is returning home, and it's on a collision course with our trans comrades. Technologies of surveillance and the apparatuses of legal repression long used in the global south are now being used in the nationwide Republican “war on gender ideology.” Government data and surveillance was used in these past months to revoke the driving licenses of all trans people in Kansas, leaving them unable to drive legally. Similar surveillance undergirds a recent effort in Tennessee to create a public register of all trans citizens. People are beginning to realize now how the facilities used to house people kidnapped by ICE are not very different from concentration camps. Less people know about the fact that the Trump administration recently made all Federal Prisons into conversion camps. All forms of gender-affirming care have been banned, and trans people will now be subject to conversion therapy, which means taking hormones away from trans prisoners and forcing them to ingest cocktails of mood altering drugs. This will result in disastrous physical and psychological damage: depression, anxiety, insomnia and eventually for those who have undergone certain types of gender-affirming care, a severe loss in bone density and structure, potentially disabling them for life. The use of these technologies of repression (prisons, legal status, …) in the service of “anti-gender-ideology” fascism is not an end to itself, either. We can see how trans people, who the government paints as dangerous threats to children, the family and almost everything else, are a tool in the arsenal of distractions that allow the ruling classes in this country to maintain the status quo of imperialist foreign policy. In all their endeavors to “eradicate transgenderism from public life” as one conservative commentator eagerly put it, the administration has found a willing ally in the University of Michigan. At home, the University has worked to isolate its trans students, especially trans women, by apparently banning them from participating in intramural women’s sports leagues which play primarily for fun. They did this with no direct public pressure from the U.S. Presidency at all, citing an executive order regarding “keeping men out of women’s sports.” It has also begun to dismantle trans healthcare upon its own volition. Even before Robert Kennedy Jr. attempted to institute a nationwide ban on trans youth care by banning Medicaid reimbursements for gender-affirming care, the University of Michigan — via Michigan Medicine — stopped providing gender affirming care to anyone under the age of 19. Now with ICE being authorized to detain people whose gender markers do not match across various documents — birth certificates, passports, visas — the University's history of assistance in detaining and deporting students places trans international workers at outsized risk as well. This policy is unlikely to remain solely on international workers. Eventually, it will be applied to everyone regardless of citizenship, giving ICE carte blanche to terrorize anyone who has transitioned. The University is on both ends of the boomerang. They helped perfect the technique overseas, and now they have assisted in bringing it home. So how can we fight the genocide at home and the genocide abroad? It is a waste of our time to appeal to the hypothetical "good conscience" of university administrators or politicians. When State Attorney Dana Nessel expresses her outrage at Michigan Medicine, we must remember how she colluded with the University and the FBI on the violent raids that brutalized trans student organizers of the Palestine Solidarity Encampment on the Diag. When some Regent makes sympathetic noises to the plight of our trans comrades we must remember that those same regents allow the University to be run as a hedge fund that directly and indirectly supports the Zionist air force that in June 2025 struck the “trans wing” of Evin Prison in Tehran, killing hundreds of trans women in a heartbeat. It is no use signing petitions or working within non-profits whose strategies are constrained by funding guidelines; we must organize ourselves and take direct action. We must learn how to access hormone care ourselves, build mutual aid networks independent of our Bosses, and create a coalition capable of escalating a campaign of organized, collective action to force the University to give its trans workers what they are owed: safe working conditions and basic, fundamental, life-saving healthcare. We must force them to cease their genocidal work beside the Trump Administration at home and abroad. The liberation of Palestine and the liberation of our trans comrades is one in the same. One Struggle! One Fight! Palestine, Trans Rights! GEO is the University of Michigan Graduate Employees' Organization. 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LIVING ARCHIVE APRIL 17, 2026 American disability rights movement: from public policy to advocacy The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is the cornerstone of the basic civil rights protection for individuals with physical and mental disabilities. The 2009 Amendment Act strengthened the non-discrimination component of the Disability Act. Some people had wondered why the Civil Rights Act of 1964 non-discrimination provisions did not include Americans with disabilities. One reason is that society for a long time took for granted the disability rights movement and their constant struggles for respect, acceptance and basic human dignity. Brief history of the American disability rights movement The disability rights movement has faced generations and centuries of struggle. They have won many court cases, they have triumphed over many obstacles and they have managed to get the support of U.S. Presidents such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. The movement has succeeded in getting several laws passed for the benefit of disabled Americans. But there is no legislative triumph bigger than the Americans with Disabilities Act. A more detailed explanation about the ADA comes from writer Jennifer Govan of Columbia University. She noted, “The Americans with Disabilities Act is a comprehensive civil rights law that was signed into law on July 26, 1990 by President George H.W. Bush. ADA covers a wide range of mental and physical medical conditions, including those that [are] not necessarily severe or permanent in nature. ” As part of Columbia University’s celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Ms. Govan expanded the concept definition of ADA. She wrote, “It requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees, while imposing accessibility requirements in public areas, such as educational institutions, museums, stores, restaurants, governments and other service WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 establishments. Prohibiting discrimination based on disability in a broad spectrum, the ADA was later amended, becoming the ADA Amendment Act, effective January 1, 2009.” We urge our readers who want to get more detailed information on the legislative history of the Americans with Disabilities Act to watch a video titled, “Who are the Heroes? A History of Disability Rights Movement,” presented by Barry Whaley of Burton Blatt Institute — a disability law policy center at Syracuse University Law School. The presentation was made at San Diego Law Library on Friday, July 22, 2022, to help celebrate the 32nd anniversary of the ADA. A lot of valuable information was shared with the audience, including a chronology of legislation and events that shaped the disability movement before and after the 1990 ADA. Mr. Whaley said that the first Vocational Rehabilitation Act was passed by Congress in 1917. It was designed for veterans who were returning from World War I. The Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1920 extended the benefits and privileges to civilians. Mr. Whaley noted that in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President with an obvious disability. It was widely assumed that FDR was elected President in 1932 to help end the “Great Depression.” However, disability rights advocates said that it was ironic that the disabled President excluded people with disabilities in the largest recovery program of the 1930s, known as the “Works Progress Administration.” Congress passed the Fair Labor Standard Act of 1938. It prohibited child labor and established minimum wage laws. It also established Section 14 (c) which allows employers to pay people with disabilities minimum wages. It also provides sub-minimum wage certificates to employers who choose to pay below the minimum wage. Sadly, Section 14, which still exists today, allows low wages which continue to keep disabled people in lives of poverty. In 1940, the American Federation of the Physically Handicapped was created. The American Mental Health Federation was created in 1946. Their organizing and mobilizing efforts led to the passage of the National Mental Disability Act of 1946, which was signed by President Harry Truman. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark legislation which was designed to protect racial minorities and women who were often victims of discrimination and prejudice. We have noted earlier that the 1964 law did not include Americans with disabilities. In 1972, two court cases regarding including people with disabilities in educational classrooms were addressed. They were Mill v. D.C. and Park v. Pennsylvania. Congress passed the 1973 Rehabilitation Act which prohibited discrimination based on disability for Federal government programs and any organization receiving monetary assistance from the Federal government. In 1975, Congress passed the “Education for All Children with Disability Act," originally known as "Education for All Handicapped Children Act." In 1978, the nation witnessed a widespread protest known as the “ADAPT Bus Crisis.” Protesters aimed to shut down bus transit services, especially in Denver, to bring attention to the issues of accessibility for the disabled community. In 1986, Congress passed the “Air Carrier Access Act” which would provide equal access and equality of opportunity for air travel. In 1988, major headline news in print and TV noted that Mr. I. King Jordan had been appointed the President of Gallaudet University for the hearing impaired. Gallaudet was founded in 1864, and it took more than 100 years for the school to find a leader who was deaf. In 1999, Title II of the ADA Act was tested in Olmstead v. L.C. The Supreme Court validated the primacy of the ADA. Mr. Whatley described Olmstead as “The most important disability rights case, perhaps, in our lifetime." The High Court has set the precedent for the enforcement of ADA. The most recent congressional action on ADA is the 2017 ADA Education and Reform Act. Helen Keller and disability rights heroes PBS Learning Media presented an important story titled, “Advocacy for People with Disabilities — Becoming Helen Keller.” Keller was generally concerned about employment discrimination against people with disabilities, especially educated women. She also wanted to help address the issues of blindness in babies due to sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea. Helen Keller was blind and deaf but was educated. She became an advocate for job opportunities for women with disabilities who wanted to work in Massachusetts. With the help of friend Charlie Campbell, she appealed to the Massachusetts legislature to expand the civil rights of the blind and to help find employment for the blind. In Helen Keller’s time, more than 100 years ago, women were not allowed to talk about sex or venereal diseases (STDs). A cure was finally found for blindness in babies due to sexually transmitted diseases — a few drops of Silver Nitrate into the eyes of newlyborn babies. Keller was gratified when she visited the Children's Hospital in Boston’s Nursery Ward and found that there were very few babies in the crib who were considered blind. She said, “I think it was the happiest day of my life when I was told that the Day Nursery in Boston — once full — was then see RIGHTS next page  APRIL 17, 2026 CAMPUS Disabilty Revolution Club at EMU PRIYA KOTHARI Groundcover contributor Eastern Michigan University offers a variety of clubs. These range from academic clubs to organizations like the dance team. Student clubs help bring students with similar interests together to create friendships and create communities. This includes students with disabilities. During the 2024 school year, the Disability Revolution Club was created by EMU students Willamina Churchill-Torres and Autumn Persinger. As noted in the club's mission statement, “We are creating the Disability Revolution club to allow a safe space for people with disabilities and disability allies. Our biggest goal is to create a community of people who all believe in disability advocacy. We hope to spread awareness and inclusivity through educational discussions, meetings and social media posts." To achieve their goal, they have partnered with EMU's Disability Resource Center to highlight accessibility issues on campus. The issues the club highlighted on their Instagram page were that the problem with not shoveling the campus sidewalks was not fully resolved early in the semester. When getting the club up and running, Torres said, “Autumn and I started the club, and we first kind of looked around to find other officers. Just among the community and our friends, there was a lot. We spent most of the summer between my freshman and sophomore years making a constitution. We had lots of officer meetings throughout that summer. We talked about what we wanted from the club." Torres also mentioned that she had to complete a lot of paperwork. As stated on EMU's Campus Life website, any student who wants to start a club or organization has to do the following: (1) Undergo a formal recognition  RIGHTS from last page almost empty.” Keller and a few friends were invited by the highly circulated “Ladies Home Journal” to write articles about how the gonorrhea STD was unknowingly passed from the mom to the baby. Keller and friends were given very tough writing assignments because sex and STDs were considered taboo in 1903. The Massachusetts Association for the Blind and the Visually Impaired was formed by Helen Keller and Charlie Campbell. Keller expanded her work on disability issues and job process to become an established RSO on campus. You will be asked to submit the complete application, which will include your organization's constitution and bylaws. (2) A minimum of three members, all in good academic and judicial standing with Eastern Michigan University. (3) An EMU faculty/staff advisor or a graduate assistant is permitted to serve as an advisor of an RSO. After completing the first few steps of the organization forming process, Torres and Persinger needed a faculty advisor, since their club focused on creating a community for disabled students. They asked Liz Shall, who is the interim director of the Disability Resource Center. Shall said, "Academic year 2024-2025 was my first year on campus working for the DRC. Willamina came to me in the winter semester of 2024 and said, ‘I would really like to start a club for students with disabilities. I really want it to be an opportunity for us to build a community to support people with disabilities.’ I said awesome." As part of her role as a faculty advisor, she meets with Torres once a month to assess the club's needs. Shall also offers leadership support, outside resources for the club, and hosted a speaker series for the club in its first year. Shall also served as a moderator on a panel for the club back in December 2025. Several of the club members participated in the Flipping The Script Conference. Their panel focused on diversity in the college setting. When the club first started, membership was slow to grow. Torres said, "At the beginning, most of the meetings were just the officers and Ben, an original member." She went on to say that membership has increased this year. They created more awareness about the club primarily through social media during disability pride month, through word of mouth, and by having booths at opportunities for the blind. She lobbied steadfastly, and the Massachusetts legislature urged the necessity for employment of the blind. Helen Keller said, “It's terrible to be Blind and to be uneducated; but it's worse for the Blind who have finished their education to be idle.” The state legislature accepted Keller’s suggestion to form a commission to reduce blindness in babies. She was asked to be a member of the commission. There was no accommodation for Helen’s deafness while on the commission, so she brought in her own interpreters. She was not able to acquire all the relevant information Willamina Churchill-Torres Eagle Fest and Eagle Con. The club is a place for disabled students to be themselves. One of the many challenges disabled college students face is making friends. People tend not to interact with people with disabilities because they are afraid of saying something that will offend them. Able-bodied people may also feel awkward including them in everyday activities because they believe that they can't do those things. On this topic, Torres said, "My main goal has also been to create a community because before this club, I never really felt like I had a disabled community on campus. I just didn't know anyone else who was disabled. And then no one really understood what I was going through." Alyse David, an undergraduate student member of the club, had a similar experience. She said, "I was looking for a community, and I wanted to make friends on campus. Kind of what I was going through, being chronically ill. It she needed while serving in the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind. Predictably, she resigned. Syracuse University legal scholarFranklin A. Carcamo wrote a March 2020 article in the Syracuse Law Review. The title is “The Past, Present, and Future: ADA and Thirty Years of Progress in Access, Inclusion and Opportunity.” There is no doubt about the challenges and successes of the disability rights movement. The people with disabilities and their advocates will be eternally vigilant. The victories are hard-won, and as battle-tested soldiers for freedom, justice and dignity. The movie documentary “Crip Camp” Spencer Lyke made me feel less alone." Spencer Lyke, a graduate student at EMU, added, “The different clubs have given me opportunities to meet students who I know have similar interests to those of groups like the DRC. The biggest barrier that I find to making friends is, you know, the gamble of people who are ableist. But the DRC is really easy for that, and you've already confirmed that they're not. It was really nice for me to click with another group on campus and have a friend group so quickly." The club members enjoy spending time together outside of club meetings. Lyke said, "I enjoyed it when a bunch of us went to see 'June on The Moon' together. I enjoyed sharing something I've been working on with the group. And seeing different club members all just enjoy a performance and something that was accessible for everybody." Alyse David Liz Shall GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13 depicts a youth camp described by Barry Whaler as the “epicenter” of the disability rights movement in the 1960s. There have been millions of heroes in the American Disability Movement. Barry Whaley of Syracuse Burton Blatt Institute mentioned the School of Education Dean, Burton Blatt, and disability advocate Fred Kaplan. He also mentioned Ed Roberts of Berkeley, Marc Gold of alternative teaching modules, Fannie Lou Hamer, etc. There are plenty of stories of heroes in every community. Originally published in the October 20, 2023 edition of Groundcover News.

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers 1 12 14 16 19 24 27 30 32 39 42 45 48 53 54 ACROSS 1. Instrument that registers movements of the heart 12. Governments run by many individual experts in their own fields 14. "Let them eat cake" is misattributed to her 16. "Gladiator" setting 17. "What's the ___?" 18. Victorian, for one 19. Alone 20. Kidney deposit 23. "-zoic" things 24. "Do the Right Thing" pizzeria owner 25. For all to hear 26. High up 27. "Star Trek" rank (Abbr.) 28. Stallion, once 29. Puts down 30. Official who investigations complaints against the government 32. Islamic ruler's decrees 35. Auditory 36. Dash lengths 39. 18-wheelers 40. Cousin of a raccoon 41. Police, with "the" 42. Not "fer" 43. Wed 44. Federal law applied against the Mafia 45. ___ Khan 46. Title for some monks 47. Rocket fuel ingredient, for short 48. Cord cutters forgo this to save money 53. Complexity 54. Recklessly wasteful DOWN 1. Breakfast choices 2. Breezing through 3. Perlman of "Cheers" 4. Letters from your parents? 5. Charged particle 6. Columbus Day mo. 7. Pulverized 8. Bring up 9. Pimples 10. Type of graph or dessert 11. They're straight, slangily 12. Clan plaid 13. Attack by plane 14. Expert pool shot 15. Bridge positions 20. People with poor hygiene 21. Fragrant tree resin 22. In the open air 23. Brio 25. High points 26. Old-timey counters 29. Accord 30. Father of Balder 31. Polaris, for one 32. Sir ___ Newton 33. Jamaican music genre 34. Friendly 36. Snob 37. Computer shortcuts 38. Faint 40. Photo capture device 43. Engine 44. Like dough that's ready to be baked 46. Balance sheet item 47. "A Postcard to ___" (Jens Lekman song) 49. Calif. airport 50. Head, for short 51. Info available at 49-Down 52. Relax 49 46 50 51 52 43 47 33 34 40 44 35 25 28 31 36 41 37 38 29 20 21 22 26 17 23 18 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 13 15 APRIL 17, 2026 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS April 3, 2026 edition 1 V 6 I 7 S 8 T 9 A L E N E I M I D A Y T O M H I P 2 E 3 R 4 S 5 E APRIL 17, 2026 POLICING MARIE Groundcover contributor The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and National Policing Institute are actively working to assist law enforcement leaders, mayors and communities to improve the appropriateness, effectiveness and accountability of specialized teams and programming. In 2024, the DOJ published “Considerations for Specialized Units: A Guide for State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies to Ensure Appropriateness, Effectiveness, and Accountability.” This guide may serve as a tool to investigate concerns raised during a 30-hourscene involving the Washtenaw Metro SWAT’s (Special Weapons and Tactics) team, spanning Jan. 4-5, 2026. Much of the community’s concern was aimed at how attempts to utilize funded and well-publicized (even advertised) crisis intervention resources devolved into a multijurisdictional, militaristic assault. The community feels Metro SWAT’s response to the crisis was overly aggressive. Law enforcement leadership explained the scene was viewed as a “barricaded incident” involving a suspect armed with a bladed weapon. (Multiple sources stated the weapon was a sword.) SWAT’s approach spilled into the street in the form of tear gas, flashbang grenades, guns, snipers, long range acoustic devices (LRADs) and other military grade equipment. The situation devolved further when it ignited images of 1963 Alabama with the use of firehoses, resulted in injuries to bystanders as well as neighbors, and culminated with making an entire building unsafe for human habitation. After this recent incident in Ypsilanti, law enforcement leaders expressed the opinion that there is room for growth, especially with respect to how SWAT and Crisis Negotiation Teams (CNTs) approach a mental health crisis. However, the goal of law enforcement when approaching situations with people who appear to be armed, is to prevent loss of life. According to non-law enforcement community members, ‘the siege’ is just another example of negative experiences resulting from attempts to utilize well-funded coordinated responses in the community. At this time there are multiple overlapping coordinated efforts between law enforcement and Community Mental Health; however it appears there is a need to review and overhaul the current methodology of SWAT, CNT, CMH, Crisis Response Unit, housing resources and other millage expenditures which many regard as wasteful and/or poorly executed. Regardless of what individual community members’ personal opinions may be about law enforcement, January’s experience with Metro SWAT traumatized an entire community. On the one hand, many community members feel SWAT is unnecessary under any circumstances. On the other hand, many community members feel SWAT has a purpose and there is a need for specialized law enforcement teams. Community members who were present at the incident feel their own presence was necessary, as they felt if they did not remain at the scene, the incident would have ended with a fatality. One neighbor stated, “Honestly I feel this incident could have ended more peacefully if they just let us surround the house while holding hands and singing songs.” Another Metro SWAT/CNT incident from 2018 was reportedly resolved using a cup of hot chocolate as a de-escalation tactic. A neighbor who lives a few blocks from the site of ‘the siege’ explained they were present at the perimeter maintained by the Ypsilanti Police Department (YPD) a few times over the course of the incident. This neighbor reported their eyes were impacted by the amount of tear gas in the air. According to the Michigan Legislature website, law enforcement is permitted to utilize two forms of “self-defense spray or foam device.” One form is what is commonly referred to as tear gas, and a canister in Michigan is not to contain “more than 35 grams of any combination of orthochlorobenzalmalononitrile and inert ingredients.” The second is commonly referred to as pepper spray and is “a solution containing not more than 18% oleoresin capsicum.” According to a 2023 NIH National Library of Medicine article, titled Tear Gas and Pepper Spray Toxicity, by Tidwell and Wills, tear gas and pepper spray “describe a group of agents used to subdue combative persons in a non-lethal manner.” The Tidwell and Wills article states that, “While the use of lacrimator agents have been banned in warfare for many years, they are still in use by law enforcement and civilians for personal protection.” These agents are known to cause coughing, breathing problems, chest pain, headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, loss of consciousness, blindness, skin rashes or blistering, liver and kidney damage and death. The severity of symptoms depends on a person’s pre-existing medical conditions, may be long-lasting or may take time to fully manifest, and worsens in poorly ventilated areas and after repeated exposures. According to a New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet printed in August 2000, there are workplace exposure limits on tear gas, and contact with skin may result in overexposure. During a Washtenaw Board of Commissioners meeting on Jan. 7, neighbors and witnesses shared their traumatic experiences, which included prolonged exposure to sound from the LRAD. According to an Oct. 27, 2020 article on phr.org (Physicians for Human Rights), titled “Health Impacts of Crowd-Control Weapons: Acoustic Weapons,” LRADs have the ability to cause pain, nausea, tinnitus and even hearing loss, especially at close range, over extended periods of time, or at the hands of abusive or inexperienced operators. According to the PHR article, "International human rights principles have been violated if the use of less than lethal incapacitating weapons is not adequately regulated, or if the weapons are used in an indiscriminate manner.” According to a 2021 article by Lethal in Disguise, called “Court limits LRAD use,” by the New York Police Department, a NYPD settlement, which followed injuries to Black Lives Matter protesters and journalists in 2014, included changes to policy regarding the use of LRADs and modified LRAD training. The NYPD now prohibits the use of “the painfully loud and highpitched ‘deterrent’ or ‘alert’ tone, though they may make voice announcements on the devices.” Several community members, neighbors and bystanders expressed concerns about the use of numerous flashbang grenades. During an NPR All Things Considered broadcast, titled “Investigation Reveals Rampant Use Of Flashbang Grenades By Police,” which aired Jan. 18, 2015, flashbangs are “A type of hand grenade used by the police and the military, but instead of shooting out deadly shrapnel, like a standard grenade, most of the flashbang’s explosive energy creates a blinding flash and a deafening boom.” The research presented during this broadcast described serious injuries up to death to law enforcement utilizing the devices, as well as to people inside dwellings where flashbangs are utilized. In one example, a flashbang landed in a portable crib causing the baby’s nose to be blown off, damage to the mouth and chest cavity, requiring eight reconstructive surgeries. In this NPR example, the flashbangs were utilized during a drug raid where no drugs were reportedly found, and the suspect in question did not live at the address. In another article available at GROUNDCOVER NEWS Metro SWAT/CNT’s room for improvement pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39624812/, from Dec. 2014, written by Patel and Echeverri, a “U.S. Army soldier sustained a left chest wall and shoulder blast injury with significant soft tissue damage, volumetric pectoralis major muscle loss, mild sensory nerve damage, and third-degree burns from a flashbang grenade.” The soldier required surgical intervention, pain management and physical therapy. The article reports the soldier had “a recovery with restored successful mobility and chest wall stability.” The article also states, “This case highlights the challenges of treating severe chest wall trauma with burns, emphasizing the importance of timely surgical intervention and a multidisciplinary approach.” Another less-than-lethal tool utilized during the incident in Ypsilanti was the Rook. The website for the Rook manufacturer Ring Power Corporation states there are four attachments that come standard: the armored deployment platform, hydraulic breaching ram, grapple claw and vehicle extraction tool. According to the website, the breaching ram is equipped with five infrared cameras which transmit to the inside of the Rook’s cab and can also be transmitted to the command center. According to an ABC13 Houston Aug. 25, 2023, interview with a SWAT lieutenant in Houston, the Rook is an armored vehicle generally used in situations involving dangerous and armed suspects. “This is usually reserved for when we have violent suspects inside, or something like that, who are refusing to come out peacefully.” According to the lieutenant, using the Rook supports the national preservation of life guideline “Property can be replaced, human lives can not.” According to a Washtenaw County law enforcement leader, Metro SWAT and CNT have operational commanders who report to the incident command on scene, which is the police agency’s senior officer requesting SWAT. For the recent Ypsilanti incident, YPD had the operational authority, as they were the jurisdiction where the incident occurred. “In Washtenaw County, CNT was created to ensure mental health experts from CMH were involved, given that barricaded incidents involving weapons typically have a mental health component. CNT will try negotiating first before escalating to SWAT whenever possible. The teams are a mutual resource for all police agencies in Washtenaw. If the teams need see SWAT page 16  15

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD White chocolate macadamia cookies ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 cup butter, softened 1 1⁄2 cups granulated sugar 1⁄2 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 1 1⁄2 tsp vanilla 3 cups flour 1 teaspoon salt 1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda 2 cups white chocolate chips 1 1⁄2 cups Macadamia nuts, chopped Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugars until combined; be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla and then the eggs one at a time and mix until combined. In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda. One cup at a time,  SWAT from page 15 added assistance, sometimes other agencies from neighboring areas also assist, as well as MSP [Michigan State Police]. This typically happens when a barricaded scene lasts multiple days as shift rotations have to occur and people need to sleep.” In 2023 the DOJ and National Policing Institute gathered in the wake add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Fold in white chips and nuts. Scoop 1 to 2 tablespoons of dough onto parchment-covered cookie sheet (make sure they are uniform in size). Bake for 10-12 minutes, until they are just beginning to brown. Remove from the oven and leave on the cookie sheet for 5 to 10 minutes. When totally cooled, store in an airtight container. So good! of recent deaths and several corruption cases involving specialized enforcement units across the country. In 2024, the above-mentioned guide (“Considerations for Specialized Units: A Guide for State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies to Ensure Appropriateness, Effectiveness, and Accountability”) was published by the DOJ. The guide was created with input from law enforcement, the community, academic institutions and advocacy organizations across the country. The guide is understood to not currently be the standard for specialized police units, and is currently described as just considerations “for the development of policies and practices to encourage evaluation, monitoring and oversight of specialized units within policing.” However, the guide was written with the purpose of addressing concerns surrounding how specialized units “... have at times run afoul of law enforcement’s mission and of the Constitution. These instances of police misconduct can destroy the legitimacy of their own and other agencies and severely undermine community and officer safety.” At this time it appears the guide may be a useful tool to enhance the investigation into the events surrounding ‘the siege,’ and a separate incident where several deputies were involved in a fatal shooting a few hours later. Both incidents occurred in the Ypsilanti community. At this time, people in touch with the person who was carried from the home in Ypsilanti report he is facing several charges, required extensive medical treatment and was linked to available supportive resources. According to Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer, “The city of Ypsilanti is going to pursue an independent review and since the incident is under jurisdiction of Ypsilanti Police, we will need to wait for the independent review to be completed before I can do any type of public forum. I did review everything I have access to and protocols were followed; there are some areas I think could have been improved though regardless. If Ypsilanti doesn’t do an independent review, then I’ll be free to start planning the public review meeting in partnership with the Chief.” THE FUTURE OF ENERGY IS RISING OVER ANN ARBOR The Ann Arbor Sustainable Energy Utility is an opt-in program that PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI MAKE MEALS YOU LOVE! Fresh ingredients to $5 OFF a2seu.com ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. 05/15/2026 OFFER EXPIRES 4/16/2026 Ann Arbor Sustainable Energy Utility The future of energy lives here. provides community-owned, 100% renewable energy using solar, battery storage and geothermal systems at participating homes and businesses across the city. APRIL 17, 2026

2 $ APRIL 3, 2026 | VOLUME 17 | ISSUE 8 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. In loving memory of Melvin Parson. page 13 MEET YOUR VENDOR: LARZELL WASHINGTON PAGE 3 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Public typewriter at Literati Bookstore poetry edition 2026 29 poems, by 21 unique poets THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 APRIL 3, 2026 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. We are hosting an Ypsi New Vendor Orientation on Wednesday, April 22, 11 a.m. at the Ypsilanti District Library (Michigan Ave branch - Room 2 in the basement)! STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Zoe Behnke Emeri Jade Bey Pony Bush Monique Caldwell Pedro Campos Cassie Catania Jason Michael Church Marquetta "Q" Clements The Confused Cloud La Shawn Courtwright David Crane Earth Day Planning Committee Christopher Ellis Diana Fead Amanda Gale Kimani Hamilton augustine jay Mike Jones Didem Kochan Lorraine Lamey Ryan McCarty Peter Michaelson Veronica Sanitate Denise Shearer Philip Spink Ciatta Tucker Joe Woods PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett June Miller Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Ben Foster Glenn Gates Robert Klingler Priya Kothari Aklesia Maereg Harper Margolies Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropriate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. APRIL 3, 2026 POETRY MEET YOUR VENDOR Spring has Sprung. EMERI JADE BEY Groundcover vendor No. 660 A nimals finally coming out of hibernation. P retty flowers and trees in bloom. R ain boots just in case. I love Spring time, how about you? L isten to the birds sing a sweet song of Spring every morning. Gratitude EMERI JADE BEY Thank you God for another day, Another day in the land of the living. Larzell Washington, vendor No. 128 In one sentence, who are you? I am a motivated person. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? Everywhere. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? Because I’m a peopleperson and I love to communicate. What words do you live by? Expect the same respect and you will make it. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn’t know? I can speak a little Mandarin and Japanese. What motivates you to work hard selling? My love for people motivates me. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Chef’s salad. What’s your superpower? LOVE. What’s the most interesting thing that happened to you when selling Groundcover? I have met the most interesting people who have walked the Earth. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? To get rid of opiates and stop pushing in the county jail. The county jail shouldn’t turn into a methadone clinic. Please Help! JASON MICHAEL CHURCH Everyone please listen to we. We all need to help the trees. All we have to do is pick up the leaves. If we do not, the trees will fall down indeed. Too many leaves cover the ground. Now from the bottom the sun is not found. When it rains the leaves soak it all up. The roots are not able to help their trees much. Let us remember that trees give us air. So get to the parks and show that you care. Bring a trash bag, fill it with leaves. Help mother nature who everyday bleeds. For us all to have our everyday things. It feels so good to help, you will probably sing. "Thank you so much!" The trees will surely say, If you go out and help them today. Settle KIMANI HAMILTON Groundcover vendor No. 518 Dancing in the rain KIMANI HAMILTON When I dance in the rain I simply thank God When I dance in the rain I’m simply at one with God When I dance in the rain I’m simply cleansed by the Earth’s natural water When I dance in the rain I’m peaceful In the world we live in we settle For basic happiness We settle For low paying jobs We settle For basic care We settle For today Hoping for a good tomorrow. We settle for basic love Which we think we deserve We settle for a basic medicine Which treats, not cure So why settle We finally figured out what is most important. In life, simply to not ignore it. Next would be breathing and posture. Not acting if the thinking is not sure. Also staying off drugs. Spreading only peace, kindness, and love. Most Important JASON MICHAEL CHURCH Groundcover contributor Thank you God for my health and strength, And a mind to employ them aright. Thank you God for the trials and tests. The more I read your word, the more I know I am blessed. Thank you God for loving me, The more I step toward you Almighty, the more you run toward me. Ase’ GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Tigress DIANA FEAD Groundcover contributor Mothers’ love a clawing tigress Wild instinct, ferocious Keenly watches Never lets go of her prize. Mothers prowl, pace and wait Snarl to every threat Powerful jaw Defiant against all. Tigress roams without a sound Senses alert to danger Hovers near the pride No cub has strayed.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CRISIS RESPONSE APRIL 3, 2026 Care-Based Safety has come to an end, but the work continues Care-Based Safety was an unarmed nonpolice response community that was established in September 2023. Care-Based Safety was dedicated to acting with principle and intention. CBS is taking careful steps in sunsetting this community response program that brought loving, unarmed support to people directly impacted by structural violence — without police. In planning, response and practice, CBS centered the needs of people who are Black, Indigenous, undocumented, unhoused, LGBTQIA+, using drugs and/or experiencing mental health struggles. From the start, CBS was focused not just on response, but also on community building. CBS was co-created through listening sessions and surveys. From their design team they heard over and over that: 50% of the work should be community building; building trust and a safety net in our community is the only way for success; and those who respond to whatever situations that might occur in our community should be from the community. To that end CBS created and launched a series of “place-based pilot programs.” “The pilot program is a place-based pilot, meaning we will be in the downtown area and if any crisis or conflict is brought to our attention, we will respond,” said Community Lead Sheri Wander. From June to September 2024, CBS hosted games, activities and connection two nights per week at the Growing Hope location in downtown Ypsilanti. During that time, they planned and delivered wellness and community-building activities that averaged around 28 participants per event, and distributed resources and supplies. CBS also provided rapid response crisis management including court and jail support, shelter support, conflict de-escalation, mental health crisis intervention and also launched a "nonemergency support phone number so people could connect with court support service, information about food pantries, transportation needs and more," according to Wander. Organizing for CBS grew directly out of organizing in protest of the murder of Aura Rosser at the hands of the Ann Arbor Police Department. Realizing that police oversight was not enough and there needed to be an alternative to the police, the Coalition for Re-envisioning our Safety (CROS) was formed. CROS eventually split into two MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 groups: CROS itself remained largely an advocacy group and the CBS Design Team was born. While CROS worked to push the City of Ann Arbor to fund a nonpolice response to conflict and crisis, the CBS design team designed such a program, Care-Based Safety. When (pushed by CROS advocacy) Ann Arbor launched a request for proposals (RFP) to grant an organization $3.5 million to do that work for the City of Ann Arbor, CBS applied. CBS was the only group that applied. In spite of that, CBS did not receive the grant. In fact, after the application deadline, the City revoked the RFP, stating that they had changes they needed to make, but that CBS could reapply when the new RFP was issued. When the new RFP was eventually issued, it was inconsistent with the values of CBS. It required info from response calls to be FOIAable and for responders to report crimes (including drug use and camping). It also required immediate 24-7 response which was not realistic, and didn't fund the community building pieces that CBS believes are so critical. So CBS had community meetings and asked if the group should apply for this new RFP and, to a person, the answer was no. So the focus shifted to Ypsilanti and was funded with smaller grants from private foundations and individual donations. Care-Based Safety operated one program with two core components: Community Building, which strengthened communities to prevent harm, and Care-Based Response, which provided support before, during and after conflict, crisis or other concerns. Using a public health approach, the program was led by highly trained, fairly-compensated peer workers, with additional support from dedicated volunteers. Shaped by CROS research and 18 community listening sessions in 2023, it was designed to be independent from government, separate from 911 and law enforcement, sustainably funded, and peer-led. In addition to responding to individual conflicts, CBS addressed structural violence — such as institutional Left to right: CBS staff Amal, Sheri , Essence, Nia and Tyler. neglect and discrimination — that fuels harm in our communities. Every decision is rooted in safety, self-determination, dignity and community consent. Back in 2023, I talked to Washtenaw County native Liz Kennedy, the former director, who led operations and culture work at CBS. I asked her, “Why does this community need CBS?” “The community we serve asked for (CBS). We are a very diverse group of community leaders, who work, live and play in Ypsilanti, and Ann Arbor, and in the wider Washtenaw County community. We are the representatives of people who are most impacted by police and state violence like people of color, trans and queer, and those suffering from mental health issues, and together we are developing a carebased system for all. Care-Based Safety is created by us and for us.” Message sent to community partners from CBS After deep and mindful discernment, we have decided that CareBased Safety will sunset at the end of March 2026. It is ironic, sunsetting the organization on the heels of the 30-hour violent police siege against a local community member resulting from calls concerned about his mental health, and the police killing of an unarmed individual following a police chase through residential neighborhoods in a separate incident. These incidents certainly underscore in very real and painful ways the need for this work and made this decision even more painful and difficult. Yet we believe it is the right decision. Over the last three to four years, since community members came together to dream CBS into being, the political and funding landscape has changed greatly. We realize that the CBS as designed by the community simply cannot currently exist without municipal funding and support. We also realize that organizations, like all living things, have life cycles. While Care Based Safety as an organization is sunsetting, by doing so intentionally — in a planned, mindful and values-aligned way — we help to maintain the space for the work of safety based in care to continue and to grow in ways we have only begun and sometimes haven’t even started to imagine! That realization is the sweet to go with the bitter, and gives us hope. We have learned so much over the past few years and are still learning. We look forward to sharing those lessons. Over the next month please look for one final newsletter, and other avenues to share those “lessons learning.” With NO pressure or obligation, we would love to hear your thoughts and ideas and lessons from this journey. As individuals we came to CBS already involved in this work of safety-based care in a variety of ways and look forward to continuing to be in community with you continuing the work even though it won’t be under the banner of CBS. Care-Based Safety sends a special thanks to friends and partners: Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice, Coalition for Re-envisioning our Safety, Peace House Ypsi, Detroit Justice Center, American Friends Service Committee, Vital Strategies, United Way Southeast Michigan, Borealis Philanthropy, Community Economic Development Washtenaw County, Community Foundation Washtenaw County, Michigan Justice Fund and Daytime Warming Center. APRIL 3, 2026 COMMUNITY EVENTS Maximizing affordable housing availability in Washtenaw County ZOE BEHNKE Zion Lutheran Church Adult Education Committee Access to affordable housing extends beyond the unemployed or unhoused population, encompassing a broad segment of the workforce. Individuals in of affordable housing often include retail employees, entrylevel workers, those in the hospitality industry, as well as essential personnel such as teachers, police officers and firefighters. Employees of small businesses and higher education institutions also frequently fall within this category. The issue has wide-reaching implications for residents across the county. When individuals are able to live in the same communities where they work, more of their income is spent locally, supporting local businesses and strengthening the regional economy. Advocates note that such housing patterns can also help reduce traffic congestion, encourage activity in downtown districts, and foster greater long-term investment in local neighborhoods. Zion Lutheran Church will be hosting a forum on affordability in Washtenaw County on Saturday, April 18, with 8:30 a.m. refreshments and a 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. program. Our panelists include: Panel 1: Amanda Carlisle, Washtenaw Housing Alliance Executive Director; Washtenaw County Commissioner, Andy LaBarre; Rev. Elizabeth Friedman, Lord of Light Lutheran Campus Ministries; and Christopher Taylor, City of Ann Arbor Mayor. Panel 2: Aaron Cooper, Avalon Housing Executive Director; Jim Haeussler, Norfolk Homes representative; Jennifer Hall, Ann Arbor community EVENTS HASH BASH Saturday, April 4, 12 p.m. University of Michigan Diag, Ann Arbor. The arrest and imprisonment of John Sinclair (for possession of two joints) set Ann Arbor on the trajectory as Michigan’s most pioneering cannabis community. Sinclair’s arrest and 10-year sentence led to protests and rallies, ultimately morphing into the iconic Hash Bash, an annual protest-fueled gathering of live music and speeches since 1972. EXPLORING THE POETRY OF MURIEL RUKEYSER: GAINING COURAGE THROUGH POETRY Thursday, April 9, 2026, 6:30-8 p.m. via Zoom. Muriel Rukeyser believed poetry to be a unique method of knowing oneself and responding meaningfully to one's world, and she used poetry to respond to numerous social, political and personal events. In this workshop, we’ll explore a specific use of poetry: What can poetry do for courage? Join YpsiWrites and retired EMU Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies Elisabeth Däumer, along with poet and clinical social worker David Boeving, in an exploration of courage and the poetry of Muriel Rukeyser. ypsilibrary.events.mylibrary. digital/event?id=278446 GROUNDCOVER WRITING WORKSHOP: DOCUMENTBASED REPORTING Friday, April 10, 10 a.m., Groundcover News office. A workshop to familiarize writers with using budgets, meeting minutes and FOIAs in their reporting. Attend alongside Groundcover vendors and writers. REVOLUTIONARY FOOD GATHERING Friday, April 10, 5-7 p.m. Ann Arbor Friends Meeting House, 1420 Hill St., Ann Arbor. Potluck and discussion to discover who we are in relationship to our food, the earth and each other. Hosted by Groundcover News and Purslane Commons. FOOL MOON Friday, April 10, 7:30 p.m - midnight, downtown Ann Arbor. This annual magical outdoor nighttime event features a vast array of quirky and beautiful community-made illuminated sculptures, a huge street party, live music and more. All invited to make homemade light-up costumes and drum on pots and pans in celebration! 2026 theme is "Fools of a Feather." WCC CONCERT BAND: SMALL ENSEMBLES Sunday, April 12, 2 p.m. Washtenaw Community College Morris Lawrence Building Towsley Auditorium, 4800 Huron River Drive, Ann Arbor. Join for a program of small ensembles — from duets and trios to 20-piece bands — playing a variety of musical genres. Light refreshments served. FESTIFOOLS Sunday, April 12, 4-5 p.m. Main Street, downtown Ann Arbor. Build and bring a giant puppet, make a costume or be a spectator! No matter your style, you'll have fun becoming part of FestiFools, a larger-than-life, monumental moving art display. The parade begins at 4 p.m. sharp. "WHO'S THERE?!" ARB DANCE PERFORMANCE Saturday, April 18, 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Nichols Arboretum, 1610 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor. The Department of Dance at the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance and Ladina Schaller present “Who’s There?!”This site-specific senior dance project consists of a walk through the Arb, along which the audience encounters a variety of characters, sights, sounds and scenes. The concert is around one hour long. Audience members are required to walk along Arboretum paths for the duration of the performance and are encouraged to dress Housing Commission Executive Director; and Alision Oumedian, Habitat for Humanity Director of Individual Giving and Fundraising. Some of the issues to be covered include: What is affordable housing and who qualifies for it? What are the obstacles causing this crisis? How are local non-profit organizations/ local governments addressing this issue? How can individuals or organizations get involved to address the issue of affordable housing in their local community and Washtenaw County? We will be having a Q&A after each panel presentation to encourage community engagement. This event is free and open to the public. Zion Lutheran Church is located at 1501. W. Liberty, Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Thursday | Mar 26 | 2-3pm YDL-Whittaker Award-winning local author Hadil Ghoneim reads from her new book, Arabic Folktales for Children, to celebrate National Arab American Heritage Month. FEATURED EVENT Friends of YDL Book Sale Thurs. - Sun. | Apr. 30-May 3 | See times in description YDL-Whittaker $1 for hardcovers, 25¢ for kids books, 50¢ for mass market paperbacks, and $1 for oversize paperbacks. On Sunday, there will be bags of books available for $5, and some books will be sold for a reduced price. Apr. 30: 6-8pm (Friends of YDL members-only sale) May 1: 11am-5pm May 2: 11am-3pm May 3: 1-3pm for the weather and wear good shoes. This event is family-friendly and appropriate for all ages. Attendance is free, but RSVP is encouraged at this link: tinyurl.com/yhr62hj8 Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 GET TO KNOW YDL! WHERE TO FIND US: Online at ypsilibrary.org Call us at 734-482-4110. TO GET YOUR LIBRARY CARD: 1) Fill out the easy online form at ypsilibrary.org/library-cards. 2) Call 734-482-4110 3) Or stop by any YDL location! DON’T HAVE A DRIVER’S LICENSE? We can work with a variety of IDs to get you your card. Arabic Folktales with Author Hadil Ghoneim

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Where the Roses Remember Me I did not know I was becoming while I was becoming— Somewhere beneath the quiet of my early years, I was already a rose bush in the making, gathering color in the dark, learning the language of roots before I learned the language of people. They entered my life like weather crossing a garden. Some were morning visitors— soft light, brief warmth, a touch that opened one petal and then moved on. Others came as storms, uninvited but essential, their winds tearing away what I clung to so something truer could take its place. And then there were the ones who stayed— steady sun, patient rain, a presence that asked nothing but offered everything. They tended me without knowing it, believing in my bloom long before I dared to unfurl. Every soul, passing or permanent, left a trace upon my branches. Some carved resilience by leaving, their absence a pruning that shaped my strength. Some taught the necessity of thorns— boundaries grown from lessons I once mistook for pain. And some watered the quiet parts of me, coaxing color from places I thought would remain closed. Now, when I look at myself, I see a rose bush in full knowing— not untouched by storms, but transformed by them. My blooms carry the memory of every season, my thorns the wisdom of every wound, my branches the stories of those who crossed my garden. We do not become ourselves alone. We become through weather, through touch, through the grace of those who arrive and the necessary departure of those who do not stay. And when I finally stand still— really still— I see it: a life shaped into color, a spirit rising again and again toward its own light. I see that I have become the roses. And I am beautiful. MONIQUE CALDWELL Groundcover contributor MARQUETTA Q CLEMENTS Groundcover contributor How is this fair? Homeless, A Criminal A victim to Despair Am I guilty for the things I do to maintain? Being poor is to blame No humility nor shame I’d kill for a chance that my family can see The Dream MLK once had, called change I fear I won’t see that Day I fight so these kids, & kids' kids can change that fate All this hate that circulates I avoid the tides and waves Call me Moses of my people LORD BREAK EVERY CHAIN TODAY From the POET in the Quran To King James Let my tongue be a vessel To keys that’ll free all the Enslaved Let these metaphors send shots, B-bang Let it pierce the ears and RESONATE Truth bombs have IEDs Lies are like pressured weight Set it off like Jada Pinkett Honesty shall detonate Let it hit like metal shards Ripping thru the veins God is God, God is Great Remember His Grace thru pain He ain’t do it to you, he did it for you Mercy that his plan leads to fate His timing is never late I am his anointed detained This Earth shall shake. Deliverance from YAWEH APRIL 3, 2026 Please Keep My Name Out of Your Mouth LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover writer Please keep my name out of your mouth!! Especially when you have no idea, not a clue of what you are even talkin about. Please keep my name out of your mouth!! Most of what you are saying are twisted passed along lies. As a matter of fact You don't even spell my name correctly!! "That's right" Soo... Please keep my name out of your mouth!! If you checked my resume... Most likely, you will be amazed. Soo... Please keep my name out of your mouth!! Which is full of decay, defamatory things!! It's not cool to use my name that way. If you took more time to put yourself in check, then maybe you wouldn't be so busy trying to make my life a wreck. So check yourself once again, and, Please keep my name out of your mouth!! Refinement DAVID CRANE Groundcover contributor You don’t sharpen a blade without taking something from it. Each pass removes material. Each correction leaves less behind. People talk about growth like it is addition. It is not. It is subtraction. What remains must justify what was lost. Cold-Blooded DAVID CRANE That’s what they call it — The world confuses kindness for harmlessness. But love has never been harmless. To guard what is sacred requires teeth and restraint. Requires the quiet knowledge of what you’re capable of. Either stay dangerous enough to protect who you loveOr admit you don’t deserve the trust. Mercy is a luxury for those with nothing to defend. APRIL 3, 2026 PLACE My Garip (strange) Hunger DIDEM KOCHAN Groundcover contributor Ever since I was a child, I found eating to be a chore that interrupted my daydreaming. Yet whenever my parents and I approached the ferry docks to cross the Bosphorus, a sudden, miraculous hunger would overcome me. “I’m hungry,” I would insist, wideeyed and urgent. My parents, ever hopeful my appetite would finally arrive, would buy me a simit (Turkish bagel, crusty, golden, thick with toasted sesame seeds). But as soon as we stepped onto the ferry and the engines began to thrum against the waters of the Bosphorus, my hunger would change shape. I didn’t want to eat the simit. I wanted to give it away. I stood at the railing, salt air whipping my hair, tearing the bread into small pieces. A white cloud of seagulls followed the boat like a screaming escort, as if they knew this ferry ritual was about to begin. I tossed the pieces into the wind and watched the birds dive and catch them mid-air without ever missing a beat. By the time we reached the other side, the simit was gone, the seagulls were fed, and I was full, not of bread, but of the simple joy of that ritual. I did not know it then, but years before I was born, someone in Istanbul had already been paying attention to moments like this. His name was Orhan Veli Kanık. In the 1940s, poetry in Turkey often favored elaborate metaphors and elevated language; art was meant for a refined elite. But Orhan Veli, along with his friends (Melih Cevdet Anday and Oktay Rifat), decided to strip the finery off the verse. Blending their socialist perspective with their poetry, they began what became known as the “Garip movement” (garip means strange, but it also refers to an outsider, or someone forgotten). Their manifesto was simple but radical: poetry should belong to the common person. The Garip movement focused on everyday subjects with a sense of humor, irony and satire. They abandoned traditional rhyme in favor of the natural rhythm of a conversation at a tea house. Orhan Veli wrote about life in his favorite city, Istanbul, the women he liked, men with empty pockets and fine weather. He famously wrote about the nagging discomfort of a corn on a man’s foot, a subject that shocked the literary establishment of the time. He let the street enter the poem. I would like to believe that Orhan Veli would not have judged me for my little lie to get that simit for the seagulls. He understood that sometimes we bend the truth of our needs to satisfy the truth of our hearts. He once introduced himself simply as “Bir garip Orhan Veli” (just a strange or simple-hearted Orhan Veli). There is something deeply human in that simplicity. His poems never demand greatness, they ask only for attention. In “İstanbul’u Dinliyorum” (I Am Listening to Istanbul) he begins and repeats: “I am listening to Istanbul, with my eyes closed…” This famous poem unfolds through sound and sensation: a breeze moving leaves, distant bells, water brushing against a pier. Nothing monumental happens. The city breathes, and he listens. Orhan Veli preserved the Istanbul that history books often ignore. He looked for the laundry hanging from balconies, saw the fishermen on the shore, and caught the late afternoon light striking the water just so. As the poem reaches its end, it turns from the sounds of the street to the pulse of a person: “I am listening to Istanbul, with my eyes closed; A bird flutters at your hem; I know if your forehead is warm or not; I know if your lips are wet or not; A white moon rises behind the pine trees, I understand it all from the beating of your heart; I am listening to Istanbul.” In ”Aşk Resmi Geçidi”(Love’s Parade), he lists his past loves without a trace of drama or tragedy. For example, he recalls his second love (maybe a childhood crush), Münevver Abla, an older girl whose garden he used to leave secret, earnest letters in, hoping she would notice him: “She’d burst into laughter as she read the letters I’d keep writing and throwing into her garden. As for me, I still feel the shame even today Whenever I remember those letters.” In his world, people pass through a heart as casually as they might walk through a neighborhood. There is humor here, and a gentle self-mockery. It doesn't feel like a declaration so much as a shrug, a recognition that life happens, we feel its sting, and we move on. Perhaps that is why his poetry has always soothed me. Now, I find myself living in Ann Arbor. The geography is different, of course. Instead of the vast, salty Just like Orhan Veli, Istanbul will always remain my favorite city. It is the place where my heart first learned to listen with its eyes closed. But I have crossed another kind of water since those ferry rides. I have learned that expanse of the Bosphorus dividing two continents, I have the quiet, winding Huron River. When I first moved here, I looked for my childhood Istanbul in the cracks of the sidewalk. I missed the ferry rides and the smell of roasted chestnuts on every corner. But as I settled into my new home, I started to realize that Orhan Veli’s Garip philosophy travels remarkably well. And slowly, Ann Arbor revealed its own “Garip” moments. They appear in the way people gather at the Farmers’ Market on a Saturday morning, in the person standing on the corner of a street, selling this very paper, or in the way the town holds its breath during the first snowfall. I would like to thank Orhan Veli for teaching me how to “listen to” a city, and I imagine a few lines in his spirit for our Groundcover vendors: “A stack of papers under one arm, A smile for the wind. He stands where the street meets the morning light, Waiting for a neighbor to notice.” A statue of Orhan Veli and his seagull friend in Istanbul GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Two simple souls sharing a bench: one in shape, one in memory. home is not only where the Bosphorus glitters. It is wherever I notice those simple Garip moments. I no longer pretend to be hungry before boarding ferries. Everyone knew, even then, that my hunger was strategic. But I still believe in small offerings, “the Garip acts.” A piece of bread tossed into the wind. A line of verse that does not try to be important. A quiet moment saved from vanishing, like a seagull snatching a crumb of simit in mid-air.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS APRIL HOLIDAYS All About Easter DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 Easter is a great holiday for children and adults Easter can be celebrated all of April Easter is a pretty holiday Easter is a great time for people to learn to love ourselves and forgive others Easter is a great time to celebrate God and Jesus, too, of course Easter is a great time, too, to have an excuse to enjoy some candy and goodies Easter is a great time to dress up and look the best way that we can. Easter is all about the fun, the candy, and the Easter bunny Because God and Jesus made all of that for us to enjoy. Sometimes it rains on Easter, but enjoying Easter outweighs the rain. It reminds me of the movie and song, “Singing in the Rain” April showers bring May flowers I hope everybody’s spring springs up something good in their lives, including myself. APRIL 3, 2026 Water EleMental: Fire, Earth and Air EARTH DAY PLANNING COMMITTEE As it’s been said, “So above, as below.” We mimic the Earth — Gaia — in every way. Our bodies’ circulatory systems are like the creeks and rivers, carrying in nourishment, carrying away toxins. Our bodies are bundles of energy, with many forms of ‘fire.’ We manifest as bodies in the physical, as all beings, and all things. And full circle, we release emotionally, releasing the energies we collect, as does Gaia. And ‘she’ does this in many ways — some of which are destructive: tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, to name a few. These are all ways to bring balance, as our bodies do with fever, exhaustion, chills and bursts of energy. There is a strong connection between the elements. Water evaporates from the action of the great fire in the sky, our star, the Sun. That same water falls to the ground, on our Earth and that physical element known as dirt. It dissolves into component elements, atoms and such. This makes way for release of these components — for change. Change is inevitable for energetic renewal. We can sense the energy of nature — in our healthy forests, a beautiful pristine beach, or a cliff overlooking a great chasm. We become one with nature when these same elements or aspects of our being — mental, physical, spiritual and emotional — balance. Some of these changes are natural, some are induced, through the actions of many. So are there too many of us, or are we simply conducting ourselves in a manner unfit for our level of consumption? Or is it in the way in which we go about serving one another? Or do we lean more toward taking from one another, leaving each other and our waste behind — as previous civilizations have?! Let’s not get too deep into that history, the ancient history that seems to have been buried deep in the layers of earth here with Gaia, as we plow on through while turning over the dirt to find remnants here and there. And the legends of these past civilizations become myths as the records of that history become obscured and corrupted, destroyed and stolen. Shall we look at this closer as we plow on? With practice, we can now work toward balancing the equations to reduce and minimize the negative effects of our ways of business as usual! So, on to practical applications of sustainability; permaculture, intentional community, cooperatives, collaborations, spiritual growth and development, study and practice … Many are the ways in which we can observe rather than reinvent the wheels of progress toward sustainability. Sustainability of our ways and means of dealing with each other in a wholesome fashion, balancing the aspects of our BEING. And let’s remember how that ‘being’ relates to the being known as Gaia, with ‘her’ connection to the ether, the ethers, the source of spirit — from our limited perspective. These aspects and these elements can be attributed to the directions. Although everything exists in all directions, each has its own orientation, once again — according to our perspective upon this little planet. Much of our water is locked-up in the ice to our north here on our North American continent; the fire energy originates from the Sun arising from the east every day; a great concentration of earth lies to the south from our Great Lakes perspective; and the air normally blows in from the west. And I would like to leave off quoting from James Taylor’s song, Fire and Rain: “Well there’s hours of time on the telephone line / To talk about things to come / Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.” Let us not lose this great opportunity of flying machines falling By Amanda Gale, Groundcover vendor no. 573 to pieces on the ground as we rush through the economics of scarcity. Let’s live in the gift of life within the context of “Sacred Economics,” as spelled out so eloquently by Charles Eisenstein … and so many others. These exchanges we make are meant to be a construct of our spiritual aspect. How often do our ways and means of manipulation and the forces of war, religion and corporate structures stand in the way of or destroy our spiritual ventures? Attend some or all of Earth Day Week, a variety of events April 19-25 at the Ann Arbor Commons. More in the next Groundcover. APRIL 3, 2026 DOCUMENTARY GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 The Road Home is a documentary exploring mental health, housing insecurity, and homelessness in Washtenaw County, highlighting community efforts and challenges. Watch trailer: youtu.be/ oRCf8GeKmKI?si=dWKk kZcq-6sIEDK9 Local organizations face fragmented responses, funding cuts and limiting support. The film's goal is to unite stakeholders, raise awareness, and inspire collective action to ensure compassionate, sustainable solutions.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Be nice PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 Never trust someone who tries to look nice. You’re either nice or you’re not and not nice is no good. No one tries to be nice when they already are. If you’re nice, you’re just nice no questions asked. So why bother looking nice? It’s not honest to wear it like a mask, to hide your evil eyes. It may look nice to be nice and it is indeed nice to be nice but only looking nice isn’t good at all. Not for you, not fair for anyone. Never rely on dice. In this life You don’t get to roll it twice. Humble you’ll be. Anyone can be nice. It’s a choice. Not an easy one. Do the work. Pay the price. Make the sacrifice. You're human, not a mouse Not the entire pie take a slice. Real nice is to be nice. People have been always nice to me. That’s how I became cooler than ice. feels nice to be me maybe it’s my spice. So follow my sincere advice: Never mind the looks, just be nice. Whoa Nellie! AUGUSTINE JAY every time i think i know the when and why of where to go i'm jostled jerking to and fro down upwards things get blurry 'till all sights to see are lost on me this forest isn't made of trees but self indulgent sloppy sleaze fake comfort puke a scripted pill i'm killing all the slaver screens but cold turkey without the ween dries out the jerky slow smoke's clean and tasty - suffering a thrill when ends don't justify the means or say, vice versa, *c'est la vie”'s a rotten lie or "lie and rot" more like it... this is not a drill — hey does anyone else feel like a shrew screaming at a freight train right now ...or is it just me? is anyone there? hello? hello??? ...*crickets*... Devil's Advocate MARQUETTA "Q" CLEMENTS Groundcover contributor Prejudice My skin They hate Isolate Detonate Want change But fear change Embrace fate Don't turn away Early age We dig graves We're criminals We're insane The psych ward says I'm deranged They caused my pain Then locked me in chains I can't get away Black face Losing race I go to the music to escape Wild and proud Systematically I'm tamed I'm dangerous I'm ashamed Wake up before its too late AUGUSTINE JAY Groundcover vendor No. 678 Forbidden words poetry On March 21, Groundcover News and PoetTree Town explored the list of words banned by the current United States administration and challenged the idea of censorship by creating art and poetry with these “forbidden words.” PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 APRIL 3, 2026 APRIL 3, 2026 LIVING ARCHIVE GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Emotions Costumes LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover writer Didn't know how to deal with all of the emotions I often felt at one time Most of them did not belong to me They were the ones I was dealt Those seem to be dominating any and every part of my own Feelings that remained or not usually felt No one to tell about what I was feeling I didn't know how to be vulnerable Cause every time I opened up about these things Most of the times the person I'd tell Made me feel more ashamed, of what I had revealed to them, Cause basically it wasn't what I told them It was me as a whole... they were not ready or willing to accept When they had hurt me My other emotions conjured an escape emotion In the form of a miracle drug It seemed at the time It was a temporary fix, that made my mind fly to the sky, as high or above the mountains peaks At least that is what, how I was feeling, for that moment, I thought, I think My feet were not on the ground The drugs' effects had lifted me up out of harm's way For a lil while I had managed my own escape Then came the emotions of the comedown Oh, what a let down! Again, that, those emotions were right back there again They're Not a Game Originally published September 1, 2022. Trying to be heard as a brother of those unheard JOE WOODS Groundcover vendor No. 103 It’s funny how people just look at a person’s costumes Prejudging before getting to know a person Costumes Categorizing just because of a person’s garment He’s a nerd because he wears High Waters, he’s a thug because he wears baggy jeans Costumes It’s weird how a person’s costume can determine how a person may act towards you If you’re in a shirt and tie and speak to somebody they will speak If you’re wearing holey, bummy clothes and speak to somebody they ignore you Costumes As a Groundcover vendor, I wore many costumes and got many different reactions from people Let’s take time to open our minds and get to know people and not just look at their costumes Originally published in the Groundcover News 2017 Vendor Reality Retrospective Anthology. Lost dog CHRISTOPHER ELLIS Groundcover vendor No. 483 PHILIP SPINK Groundcover vendor No. 630 I am discovering how difficult it is To be listened to by the mainstream, When trying to stay a brother of the unheard, By speaking first for the love of those Out ragged in the sun and winds and on dusty corners, And so of the too discounted root. It is natural to want to be of the mainstream, Yet in the silence of lower tributaries of status There are often people of higher waters Of true kindness, modesty and wisdom. Originally published December 29, 2023. The picture on the tree a sentiment human akin Some are adrift are all Is the whole wide world In this Population densed and filled and no place unclaimed Is lostness real Where is that dog but we are all here. Originally published in June 2019.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES APRIL 3, 2026 Poetry CROSSWORD Instead Of ChatGPT, I'd Ask CIATTA TUCKER Groundcover contributor a swaying oak tree in spring the slow steady stream of a river the heart shaped crystal in my back pocket the unopened books on my nightstand a broken lava lamp at the thrift store my microwave at 3am the troll underneath the bridge a Toyota RAV from the year 2001 Yahoo.com the rotten carcass of an apple or a pear or a tattered baby blanket maybe a toddler asleep on his mother's chest the biker gang on Washtenaw my favorite freckled lady on Packard a discarded magic 8 eight ball my 5 person group chat with a weird name my grandmother who's thousands of miles away an ancient fax machine a buried ancestor a pushed up daisy or blooming cherry blossom the worms fidgeting in soil after the rain subsides the decade old woodchips on the school playground a tired old swing with a loud creak the piece of gum stuck to the bottom of my shoe a group of geese sharing bread at the park the bugs hiding underneath a log an elder at the bus stop Or a swaddled newborn baby Maybe an undistinguished higher power Who wants me to figure it out Myself. MICHELLE LARDIE-GUZEK Groundcover contributor Healing, I see now, is more than simply finding It is the process of becoming. The determination to do, be, and create more, For yourself. This is not done through examination and understanding alone. It is the toil of hands in the dirt of habitual thoughts and patterns The endless effort to try and do otherwise PUZZLE SOLUTIONS March 20, 2026 edition T O S H S H E S I D E A H E R E N E E M E A S T M A H L E R The firm, unshakeable, knowing that how you have been bent in your efforts to survive, C A D S L A T H I A R M O R I N A R T I C U L A T E A D O N I S E R A T O S T H E N E S D E V O N W O U N D C P A A N O N D I M L Y H O O P L A C A E R I E S E N S E R O B E R T R O L L E R S K A T E R L I V E R Y I R R I T A B I L I T Y L I A N A L O O P S A R I L E V E L O T T O E X A M S L E D G A I N T E M P Is not how you will, or choose to thrive. It is saying, regardless of what others say, do, or believe I am my own I alone have the power to determine Who I am, How I feel, and What I do about it. APRIL 3, 2026 IN MEMORIAM In loving memory of Melvin Parson (1964- 2026) Pony PONY BUSH Groundcover vendor No. 305 Sometime in 2021 a friend from the church I was going to brought me to meet Melvin. My friend knew Melvin was hiring those who once were incarcerated and were now released and looking for work. It was hard to find work so I agreed to go with my friend to meet Melvin about a job. When I first met Melvin for my job interview I knew he was a good guy; I felt comfortable around him. We connected. We’re both from Detroit originally. I think we served time together but can’t remember when and where. During the interview Melvin told me about the farm and the work I would be doing. I never thought I would be working on a farm and planting seeds. When I started to work on the farm I was learning a lot about plants, seeds and even the sun. I didn’t know how many different types of tomatoes there are! I was working with a few other people who also had come out of jail or prison. Some people had a hard time working out in the sun — it Melvin would get hot and there wasn’t much shade. We had to be careful about dehydration. But most of the time we all were serious about the hard work we were doing. We realized how uncommon it is to be a Black farmer today. One of the bigger learning experiences from my time on the Farm was the pay schedule. I was used to fast money, but the farm job had a payout every two weeks. I had to be patient and have self-control over my money, especially if I wanted to stay out of jail. Melvin was giving away food to people in the community through a food pantry around the corner from the Farm. And, I would drive around with Melvin to deliver vegetables to different restaurants and to those working on the houses for Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley. I admired Melvin, like a positive role model. It’s hard to find work, housing and community when you are released from prison. Melvin was making sure people who have a hard time finding work had an opportunity through the Farm. He was doing something different and was making something I wouldn't have thought about. My time on the farm taught me many things. One thing I won’t ever forget is, “One seed can grow a big plant!” Melvin had an impact on me — he created opportunities for people like me looking for a way to work, learn work skills, learn more about farming, and commit to something I didn’t see for myself before. I’m going to miss Melvin. GROUNDCOVER NEWS To Be the Poem CASSIE CATANIA Groundcover contributor She’s on her knees, As if praying, Crying into the soil. She’s on her hands and knees, Carving into the dark, damp earth, Spreading roots. She’s on stage Moving her body through space In a way that says, “Look at all this potential.” She’s on stage Reading your poetry, Tending the ether, Carving space for your words To bring more light into the world. Beloved, you are the poem. 13

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MUSIC My interpretation of the song “The Gambler” THE CONFUSED CLOUD Groundcover contributor When I found out a poetry issue was coming out for Groundcover, I knew right away it was a sign to write out my interpretation of the song “The Gambler,” which was made famous by the late, great Kenny Rogers. I remember hearing the song as a kid around the time of first grade. My grandparents on my mom’s side were country music fans. The Gambler was written by Don Schlitz, who wasn’t much of a gambler in real life, let alone a professional gambler. Bobby Bare and Johnny Cash also sang the song, but it was definitely made famous by Kenny Rogers. I still hear people singing it in public sometimes. In the song, two strangers are sitting in a train for what seems to be a long ride. There’s The Narrator and The Gambler. It starts with The Narrator saying “They were both too tired to sleep.” I’ve been on many Amtrak train rides often lasting between one and two days. I personally can relate to being exhausted yet not able to sleep. I’m not sure how common this is because everyone else in the train cars looks like they're asleep. I try at least fifteen times but almost never get any sleep. The train is bound for nowhere. My interpretation of this is it doesn’t matter where the train is going. This song reminds me of another great piece of poetry which is in the Bible — the Book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes, according to tradition, was written by King Solomon, the son of King David. One of the themes of Ecclesiastes is that many things, such as wisdom, pleasure and toil, are meaningless. I think a lot of the meaninglessness of life is also a theme of “The Gambler.” Anyway, the two people are The Narrator and The Gambler. The Narrator never said anything to The Gambler. The Gambler started talking out of boredom. When Don Schiltz wrote the song in 1976, walkmans and smartphones hadn't been invented yet, walkmans weren’t invented until 1979. Some people brought books on the trains, but for the most part train travel was much more boring than these days. The Gambler starts by telling The Narrator, “Son, I’ve made a life out of reading people’s faces and knowin’ what their cards were by the way they held their eyes. So, if you don’t mind me saying, I can see you’re out of Aces.” At this time, I can see the song isn’t really about playing cards for money, it’s meant to be a metaphor for life. In most card games, Aces are the highest card, so being out of Aces symbolizes being down on your luck. Who knows why The Narrator looked down and defeated. Many things make life hard. Maybe The Narrator was having marital, financial or health problems. Maybe The Narrator “being out of Aces” meant his life’s dreams seemed out of reach. Maybe he had no hope for certain goals. Maybe he felt judged and marginalized by the world. Maybe alcohol or addiction had taken over his life. The Gambler offers a bit more advice to The Narrator. His only price is a taste of The Narrator’s whiskey. In the 1970s, personal bottles of alcohol were technically not allowed on trains but the rules were rarely enforced. A practice called brown bagging, keeping liquor in a brown paper bag, was common on trains. It wasn’t until 1984 that Amtrak more strictly enforced alcohol rules, limiting alcohol to cafe, dining and private sleeper cars. The Gambler finished The Narrator’s whiskey, bummed a cigarette (which was still allowed) and asked for a light. Then his face changed and he “lost all expression.” He says, “If you’re gonna play the game, boy, you got to learn to play it right.” In the chorus The Gambler says “You got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them.” This is probably one of the most famous song lyrics in history, or at least in the last century. I interpret this line as a metaphor for life. Knowing when to hold them seems to mean don’t give up on goals, relationships, belief systems or a solution to one of life’s problems. Many motivational speakers have said don’t give up. Then there’s “Know when to fold them” or when to give up on a goal. This isn’t always bad. I used to want to be an accountant and make lots of money. But because of trauma and mental illness I had to give up on that goal. I also used to really enjoy alcohol. Eventually drinking became dangerous to me and I had to quit, “fold them.” I used to be a member of a controversial, extremely fundamental Christian church and I had to let go of that identity and many of my beliefs. Next, The Gambler said, “Know when to walk away, and know when to run.” It’s weird that the only two choices are to walk away or run away. Maybe it’s assumed that if you’re winning of course, you keep playing. Gambling-wise, walking away can mean The Gambler has realized he’s not going to win anymore, or has lost all he planned on losing before leaving. Maybe he’s tired or has other plans. There will be a time to play again. Running implies danger. Maybe he gambled more than he has and the other players are going to want their money. Maybe his creditors are going to get violent. In life, an example of when it's time for me to walk away is when I’m arguing with someone and neither of us are going to change our mind. If I can’t physically walk away, I try to agree to disagree or change the subject. As a last resort I pretend to agree until I can get away and avoid that subject with that person in the future. I don’t feel guilty being dishonest. My peace is much more valuable to me than what I see is a forced sense of integrity. Other times, to “walk away” can be cancelling plans when I’m sick or even just really tired. If someone on the street gives me a mean look or even makes an insulting comment, which has happened to me, I turn and go the other way. Some examples of when I’ve had to “know when to run” include if something upsetting happens and I’m tempted to drink I “run” by getting away from the situation and using coping skills such a calling for support, going out to eat, sitting with a soda and Youtube Music, or going to see a movie. I also try to run in abusive, toxic situations and I keep my phone with me if I can’t physically get away and need help. A really important time to “know when to run” is in severe mental health crises where I’m a danger to myself or others. I run by calling the crisis line, or some other option to get into the Psych ER. I’ve saved both my life and freedom many times by getting help in crises. The next line is, “You never count your money while you’re sittin’ at the table. There’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealin’s done.” This can apply in many cases. I used to really want to lose weight. I’d weigh myself every day and get so frustrated when I didn't see immediate results. When I first got on psych meds, I wanted to feel better right away. Now when I look back and realize how much better I feel over the years, it’s much more gratifying. Patience and waiting to “count my money” is more effective in many areas of my life. I really don’t trust things that give me instant gratification. So that’s how I interpret that verse. The next verse is probably my favorite because it contradicts all the extremism and division in the world today. The Gambler says, “Every gambler knows that the secret to surviving is knowing what to keep. Cause every hand’s a winner and every hand’s a loser and the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.” I want to first give my interpretation of “Every hand’s a winner and every hand’s a loser.” Let’s take the example of fundamentalist Christianity. Many people love it. It gives their life meaning. Many have quit alcohol, drugs and other addictions by converting to Christianity. Many lonely people have found a great sense of a loving family and community. In this case, “the hand” of fundamentalist Christianity is a “winner.” Other people have been abused by fundamentalist Christianity. In the group I was in I felt guilty most of the time. I was belittled by leaders and punished if I spoke up. I also gave a lot of time and money and was sleep-deprived. I was in college and my grades suffered. Other people in fundamentalist Christian groups have been physically and sexually abused from childhood. The Bible has been used to justify corporal punishment. Proverbs 13:24 says “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.” Many women and LGBTQ individuals have suffered because of fundamentalist Christian groups. So in that case “the hand” of fundamentalist Christianity is a ‘“loser.” This model of every hand being both a “winner” and “loser” can apply to other religions, political parties and beliefs, ways of life, and even diets (ketogenic, vegetarian vs. vegan vs. mediterranean and others). There’s also the example of different ways to recover from addiction. There’s AA, SMART recovery, just quitting, or just cutting back. People have successfully quit addictions using both the disease model and moral failing model. People have also failed with each model. Things I would also argue are that a “hand,” say a friendship or romantic relationship, can be a “winner” one day and a “loser” the next. (The song “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” by Chicago along with several other songs suggest a little time apart for couples to strengthen the relationship.) So back to the previous verse, The Gambler says that “Every Gambler knows the secret to survivin’ is knowing what to throw away and knowin’ what to keep.” In the example of fundamentalist Christianity, I got rid of a lot of my old beliefs and guilty feelings. Yet I still consider myself a Christian. I’ve heard people say I’m either a “believer” and “know the truth” or I don’t. For people who believe I can’t pick and choose which Bible verses I believe and follow, I recommend searching “President Bartlet Kicks the Bible Thumpers’ Butts” on Youtube. It’s a very enlightening clip from the show “The West Wing.” Like I said before, in relationships I can change the subject, agree to disagree, or get out of the conversation. I consider myself a liberal Democrat but I don’t need to agree with them on every issue. I also don’t need to hate every single thing about right-wing Republicans. I have Republican friends. (But I do hate a lot of things about the MAGA movement.) In recovery groups, personal therapy, while reading self-help see GAMBLER next page  APRIL 3, 2026 APRIL 3, 2026 POETRY From August to April VERONICA SANITATE Groundcover contributor When I see love, I see a deep purple plum, sweet swollen reward inviting the prick of teeth on its skin: velvet without, honey within. Have your fill. There will be juice! But life wanes, transmutes into a slow jog in the rain. The season cools. Plums fulfilled, then shrivel. Leaves yellow, dry and curl, meet shadow, think ruin, imagine removal. And what do we know of the soul of winter but its frayed black braided ribbon. Gravesend. Yet in the garden, the translucent snakeskin offers a hint of persistence. Seeds frost and sleep. Hope is the silver filament that coils from spring’s fragile soil. And isn’t this love? Pit of our pit, red of marrow, life-force pink.  GAMBLER from last page books and listening to videos and podcasts on mental health and recovery, I take what works for me and leave the rest. This is again where Ecclesiastes comes in. One of my favorite Bible verses is Ecclesiastes 7:16-18. It says, “Don’t be over-righteous neither be overwise, why destroy yourself?” “Don’t be overworked and do not be a fool — why die before your time?” (Both good questions). “It is good to grasp one and not let go of the other. Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.” I’ve realized that nothing is absolute and something that works for someone else may not work for me. So The Gambler seems to be giving advice on acceptance, change, compromise, patience, intuition and balance. But then there are his last words of wisdom, which turn out to be his last words. The Gambler said, “The best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.” This reminds me of the meaninglessness of Ecclesiastes. Unless medicine hugely revolutionizes, every single person on Earth (and the International Space Station) whether successful or a loser, rich or poor, a humanitarian or a sociopath, right wing Republican or left-wing Democrat, Christian or Atheist, in 150 years will be gone and it will be all new people on Earth. In the history of the world or even human history, 150 years is a fraction of history. If I become a famous writer, or if I drink myself to death, or any number of other possibilities, in 150 years it will be a different world. Then The Gambler crushes out his cigarette and fades off to sleep. The song says he “breaks even” which I take to mean he dies. But it turns out his life isn’t meaningless. The Narrator says that in The Gambler’s final words he found an “Ace” that he could keep. The Narrator gained wisdom, wisdom that I’m trying to continue to share 50 years later. That’s the irony of “The Gambler.” The song finds meaning in meaninglessness. I find that’s true with much of art, poetry, music, and movies. Morning Nothings That Mean Everything LORRAINE LAMEY Groundcover contributor Like a farmer with her buckets for feeding, watering, and rinsing, I make my morning rounds and sound a smacked lip chirp cardinal style with a pur-dee-bur-dee-bur-dee-bur-dee — (or two) thrown in for good measure — to let all the birds know their bath and watering holes are refreshed, and their feeders are full, as full as my heart when I round the garden of nectar blooms with the buzzies and flutterbyes already busy at their feast, while the joyful ones zip and hover between their hummingbird feeder and the forest of blooms. Neighbors stroll by in the perfect summer sun — blue sky, warm air, with a kiss of the north wind dissipating humidity and heat. Some have dogs who love skritches, strokes, and singing praise. Once again indoors, sunshine and fresh air stream through the open windows and screens unveiled after weeks of stultifying dripping heat, all to the soundtrack of WRCJ's classical tunes and Dr. Dave's dad jokes about long dead composers: You say "Carmina." I say "Burana." Let's call the whole thing "Orff." Peace breathes in and out of the morning air, falls like dew on leaf and blade. March RYAN MCCARTY Groundcover contributor My old neighbor’s staying with a woman around the block. It’s the start of spring. She works days. His feet are killing him. He needs a lift to Family Dollar. He’s planning a feast for her, something to cook in the less-cold sun. He’s carrying two phones but no chargers. One has a lock screen with a close-up of her breasts. All I can think to say is, with two phones, he could’ve spread the shot out. That gives him a jolt. There are four other cars in the lot, with four drivers waiting for someone, arms out their windows, soaking heat from the sun-beat sides of their cars. My neighbor decides on tuna with relish. She never eats after work anyway. But he scored triple-As for the universal remote. Now it’s a dinner show. He’s so worked up, he forgot the painkillers for his feet. It’s ok. He’s got a fresh set of batteries. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Musings at the Market PETER MICHAELSON Groundcover contributor In Ann Arbor this bright morning, my joy shoots up ten watts: a parking spot opens up by the Farmer’s Market’s flower pots. It’s late July, the hottest time up here in the north country. I slip into the knots of people eyeing the organics. Peaches preen and pepper powders sneeze at the gentle people gliding to their ease. They all take baby steps and are pleased with where they glance. Here time tarries where, entranced, the Motown Bakery and Cider Mill ogle fat blueberries in ten-pound boxes. The Green Things Farm Collective says the goodies are gourmet. Banter at the Frog Holler Farm booth claims the world will be okay. If I had a purist’s devotion, I would eat that Stony Creek cabbage and apply this Great Goat Lotion. Here the coffee tastes like slam poetry set to the bongs of an explosion. Caffeinated, my pensive mind throngs among the townies. Nature is so lush, I muse, and we stumble around bumping into her, smashing into her, not like this pressed juice we gently crush. We harm what overwhelms us, I deduce. I curb this grief, come back to the moment to romance the treats: baby kale, Mindo chocolates, fresh pressed juice, Dexter beef, Hippy Tea, pierogies and purses. Frozen natural meats coexist with catnip, snake, and shrimp plants. Flowers charm the eyes and crown the crowd by Fluffy Bottom Farms. Hey Honey consoles the dead duck and walleye across the aisle. The mushroom man sells caviar of fungi. Ennobled in Flora and Fauna’s showplace, we become the grace that smiles at passers-by. 15

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD AMANDA GALE Groundcover vendor No. 573 This is my Beloved Granny’s actual, handwritten indications for our Family Angel Wings Recipe, which we called "Stuchette" in our Northern Italian dialect. Stuchette means ‘pieces’ or ‘broken pieces,’ and that meaning fits well with the broken body of CHRIST and HIS healings of our brokennesses. These cookies are typically made during Lent; we made them then, and also along with our Resurrection Sunday meal. Since my Granny is passed from this life, including this recipe in her own hand feels like a special tribute to her; and like, she now has her ‘Angel Wings’. For folding, like many European holiday recipes, ‘Angel Wings’ appears in several countries, and with variations, though mostly for its shaping. There are simple ribbons and bow ties; our Family shaped these cookies as knot-bows, as follows: Cookies are always shaped before frying. Roll dough out as thin as possible (nearly transparent, like thick APRIL 3, 2026 Angel Wings for Easter lasagna noodles) on a lightly floured surface. Cut dough (with a round wheel tool for design or a butter knife) into strips about 1/2” wide. Cut a slit in the center of each strip; take one end of strip and tuck it through the center slit, pulling it gently to create a twisted bow or ‘wing’ appearance. Tug gently to lengthen and further thin pastry for a lighter texture. Fry each one in hot oil until golden, 30-60 seconds per side. Drain on paper towels, and generously dust with powdered sugar while warm. ENJOY! Key to some obscure words from my Granny’s handwriting: remaining ingredients, keep stirring, shape into ball, "+" for "and," through machine, have oil, Crisco oil, sprinkle with. Also please note ‘heavy cream’ could be just ‘heavy cream’ and not coffee cream. THE FUTURE OF ENERGY IS RISING OVER ANN ARBOR The Ann Arbor Sustainable Energy Utility is an opt-in program that provides community-owned, 100% renewable energy using solar, battery storage and geothermal systems at participating homes and businesses across the city. a2seu.com Ann Arbor Sustainable Energy Utility The future of energy lives here. PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI MAKE MEALS YOU LOVE! Fresh ingredients to $5 OFF ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 4/16/2026

2 $ MARCH 20, 2026 | VOLUME 17| ISSUE 7 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Ann Arbor can afford free bus fare, will they try it? page 6 VENDOR NO. 680 MEET YOUR VENDOR: CHAUNCEY MILLIGAN 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. HEALTH EDITION The everyday risks of street homelessness. page 8 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM For Wrexha, her wound is more than an injury – it is proof of what people outside endure unseen. Photo by Giles Classen, Denver VOICE. • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 MARCH 20, 2026 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Jaz Brennan Pedro Campos Giles Classen La Shawn Courtwright Cindy Gere Sarah Huber Mike Jones Rachael Lanier Ken Parks Wayne S Will Shakespeare Steven Scoop Stevens Washtenaw Health Plan PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett June Miller Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Lyla Brooks Libby Chambers Luiza Duarte Caetano Ben Foster Glenn Gates Jacob Fallman Robert Klingler Priya Kothari Aklesia Maereg Harper Margolies Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropiate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. MARCH 20, 2026 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR My mental health service experiences Hello readers. In my experiChauncey Milligan, vendor No. 680 In one sentence, who are you? I am Chauncey Milligan, a go-getter and hard worker. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? Cherry Republic. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? July 2025. I wanted to stay busy and work on my people skills. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Make money! What is your favorite spot in Ann Arbor? Cherry Republic. What words do you live by? You got to spend money to make money. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn’t know? I make things fun. What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover News? Music. What is your superpower? Mouth. (I'm talkative!) What are you most likely to be famous for? Dancing. Milligan is pictured above with Laura Slater, Groundcover vendor No. 682. What would YOU ask? If you have a question or issue you would like Groundcover vendors to discuss, email us at contact@groundcovernews.com We will be featuring vendor responses in future issues. ence, some people do not fully understand or grasp the concept of what mental health means. Mental health is the overall intention to maintain or establish wellness of the mind. Just because an individual receives services from a mental health organization does not mean that they are incompetent or that they do not have the same civil or human rights as others. As a matter of fact, an individual who receives mental health services has additional protections under the federal Disability Discrimination Act. When I initially began seeking out a mental health provider, my symptoms were misdiagnosed. It is now clear that I have symptoms of PTSD due to compound traumas and abuses that I've endured and continue to experience. I’m sure that I’m not alone in this with the ever-increasing hardships going on in our community and places around the world today. Unfortunately, due to that, I have had my rights violated numerous times over a 14-year period. I have also been forcibly dehumanized and injected with drugs that I am allergic to and that could have been fatal. I'd constantly been ignored by some of the workers of my former mental health team regarding my reports of these wrong-doings. I’m grateful that I survived these cruelties. I no longer receive services from that agency and never want to go to that hospital that subjected me to treatment that was not respectful or dignified health care. One case manager tried to have me court-ordered to be injected with drugs that I’m allergic to and caused me to have a medical condition that I still have today. This case manager illegally shared and communicated with the doctor, and I ended up being held against my will and illegally for seven days. My carjacking happened only two months after purchasing my vehicle. I was taken to the psychiatric unit at one hospital for two days, then was transported to another psychiatric ward at Pontiac General Hospital where I was held against my will for an additional seven days before they released me. Thank GOD they got rid of that doctor who had done this to other female patients at the jail for a misdemeanor with a recommended sentence of only 93 days. Thank GOD once again, I only LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover writer facility, too. After nine days of captivity in the two hospitals, I was able to file a stolen car report in the hope that I would get my car back. My car and all of the possessions that I had during this ordeal were taken by people at a church that I won't name that I had attended that day. I did recover my car from the impound lot after about 13 days after the ordeal. It was discovered that after I had filed the stolen car report, my car had been parked across the street from the police station where I’d filed the report and it had been taken to the impound lot where I was able to recover it and all of its contents for about $225. Thanks to a friend giving me the extra $100 to do so — Thank you, David J. I am not ordered to take mental health medications; I choose to take a certain drug to aid with sleep because I have bouts of insomnia sometimes. When I don't get sufficient steady rest of at least six to eight hours of sleep it can have effects on concentration, irritability levels and tolerance towards some things that I could otherwise reasonably cope with. I believe this to be true for any human being. I have been judged and have had my medical information that was not accurate shared without an ROI (Release Of Information) in place. I once opted to participate in Mental Health Court due to misdemeanor charges for behaviors that were the direct result of being illegally injected with intravenous drugs, against the medical use standard of those drugs, and against my will and permission. Although Mental Health Court may be a better alternative for others, it was not for me. I had some struggles with some of the expectations of the Mental Health Court program and was sentenced to one year in stayed in jail a little over four months due to taking in-jail classes and completing them, earning me an early release. Jail is not healthy for someone experiencing mental health issues. It is a punishment. You do not get the care you need and the jail may not prescribe and administer your medicine. And some of the ones that they will issue are crushed when they are meant to be a time-released medication, which violates the American Medical Association standards. I'm not against Community Mental Health case managers, only those who grossly wrong or neglect the recipients. I have asked some of the providers if they know the rights of CMH recipients. You would be surprised how many providers do not or feign ignorance. My advice to anyone that is looking to or currently receiving mental health services is that you should most importantly obtain a copy of the Community Mental Health Rights booklet for the state that you reside in; find out if you are entitled to a person-centered plan that should not make you feel disrespected, unsafe or undignified. Of course the staff are there for healthy intervention and suggestions that should improve your mental health, not contribute to deterioration of your mind’s health. Some mental illnesses are a result of a brain disorder and do require continuing medical treatments. I personally benefit from oneon-one therapy. There, I can talk about things that may otherwise be used against me in another setting. Due to my experience with betrayal like that, other than one therapist that I had, I don't trust that easily anymore. Thank you Megan S. I hope that you are finding your new area of expertise or practice satisfying. Out of all my experience with CMH and other therapists, I benefitted from your methods the most. Mental health is an everyday duty. I’m determined to continue to improve and maintain my peace of mind. Thank you. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS NATIVE Powwow origins Many of us in Michigan as well as nationally know about the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor. It’s an annual event in March that brings many people together to celebrate our Mother and the indigenous caretakers who are still here. “Standing Rock” is a December 2021 article I wrote about the Thanksgiving 2016 convergence which was a tipping point for thousands who answered the call to protect the water of the Missouri River from the Keystone Pipeline that was designed to carry tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast refineries. The Native American Student Association (NASA) at the University of Michigan, in partnership with the U-M Office of Academic and Multicultural Initiatives, is diligently working to make the 2026 powwow a success in the tradition of some 52 years of Dance KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 occupation of Alcatraz. AIM began in Minneapolis to counter the police violence and tragedy of forced assimilation. The largest mass execution in the United States took place in 1862 in Mankato, Minn., where a special scaffolding was built to hang 38 Dakota people, part of the punishment for the rebellion against starvation and broken treaties. It was after the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. There is a regular memorial in Mankato to remember this tragic execution. AIM is well known for the occupafor Mother Earth. The drumming circles are a miracle to behold and remind us that we are surrounded by the love of community that runs deeper than all the violence that distracts us. NASA was founded in 1972 in the context of the American Indian Movement (AIM), which is famous for the tion of Pine Ridge Reservation and the armed conflict at Wounded Knee. There are still unresolved issues around murders and disappeared people and the actions of Cointelpro, which was a U.S. government operation targeting AIM and the Black Panther Party in particular. Books still need to be written on this. AIM quickly gained national and international recognition, which led to the United MARCH 20, 2026 Nations Declaration of Indigenous Rights. Language, stories and visual arts promote the culture which gives life to us all with a felt body sense of the earth under our feet. The last NASA event I attended was an excellent presentation by James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw, who carries Turtle Mountain nation heritage. The Seventh Generation and the Seven Grandfathers was an unsurpassable video art collage based on his book. It brought indigenous and world culture together in a good way and pointed out this precious treasury of humankind. NPR’s "The World" recently focused on the art of indigenous people, especially from Brazil. Now is the time to learn and share in the prophecies of the Seventh Generation. Mother Earth is smiling at the thought. I am looking forward to seeing you on March 28-29 at the powwow. Keep an eye on the Groundcover community calendar for details about it and similar events. 25 years of fancy shawl dancing – what the powwow means to me talking about at the time. My tribe is from the far north of CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 Canada deep in the woods of Whitehorse, British Columbia, in a very small village called Good Hope Lake. The nation is called Kaska Dena. We are of the Athabaskan speaking tribes and I am of the Wolf Clan from the far north end of the Rocky Mountains. My tribe enjoys a game known as I was 19 when I first entered the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow held on the University of Michigan campus, that year at the sports coliseum. It is also known as the University of Michigan Powwow, hosted by the Native American Student Association. This was my very first powwow. I was in total shock. I never experienced anything like it in my whole life. My friends took me to the powwow and it was there that I fell in love with the whirling and twirling ladies’ fancy shawls. I was taken hook, line and sinker. This was what I wanted to do, and do it I did — for 25 years. My adopted mom told me we had attended a powwow when I was around four or five. My mom recalled we (a mixed race family) were not received well; she told me that AIM (American Indian Movement) was big then. I had no idea what she was stick gambling which involves hiding items in hands, drumming, singing and guessing. Line dancing and traditional dancing for the seasons and life cycles of the subarctic are also popular pastimes. I was told I was adopted with fetal alcohol syndrome spectrum disorder. All my life people had told me, “No you can’t do …” I saw the dancing at my Dance for Mother Earth Powwow and I felt like I was finally home for the first time in my life. This was where I saw people just like me and I could finally now be just native for the first time. I could dance with freedom to express myself for the first time — without judgment or prejudice. And being surrounded by other Native Americans — to me this was truly home. I created my very first outfit we call 'regalia.' A new dancer can start from scratch. Many of the first pieces were from other dancers — the dance feather, leggings and the fan all came from others. My shawl was pointed in the back (most shawls were square). For me it was not about what I was wearing but the dance itself. Mike Dashner, the NASA director, became a good friend. He personally knew a top dancer and she showed me the ropes of fancy shawl. It was so much fun and I fell in love with fancy dance. In 1993 I came out with a red, white and blue outfit with an eagle on the back of the shawl. I got comments and I got nasty looks. But as an adopted Native American who has had multiple disabilities, challenges and losses, I chose to take the high ground and dance to my own beat, to live life on the edge, and to reject the rejectors in my life. Just as I started to dance my set, back came the memory of when I was attending the Institute for American Indian Arts. I made the horrible mistake of running over some rubble. This tore my right foot up and I pulled the ligaments in my foot, costing me two years of no dancing at all. The Indian doctor at the Indian hospital told me in a negative tone, “You will be lucky if you walk, let alone run.” For me this was a challenge: I was set to dance no matter what was in my way … No one was going to tell me no, not now or ever, and with that I moved up north to Alaska, to the University at Fairbanks in central Alaska where I continued my education. It was at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Powwow where I perfected my fancy dance in relative peace and harmony, without the harshness of competition looming over my head. For me powwow was always for fun, excitement and the love of the dance. My outfits got fancier and focused. I got selective with the competitions and I won at smaller powwows. I won second place five times and took third place eight times. As I got older, my dance changed, and so did my outfits. I loved my black, white and red outfit with a wolf theme, with wolf paws and my tribal patch and identity on it, being from the wolf clan. My clan means so much to me. When I visited my great aunt she told me the clan system is what makes you Native — you’re Kaska Dena Wolf Clan. She told me you can not be Native without a clan. It's what makes us belong to that nation. I asked her why. She said it's a blood line thing that keeps you of that tribe and that when clans mix it up, we lose who we are. So to her, without the clan you could not be native. Clan defined your permanent position as a tribal member and Native American. Sad but true, many tribes have lost their clan positions as a way to destroy identity in a colonial-dominated erasure of tribal identity and land control. The blood line or breed card is the same way — I have this blood and you don’t, or better yet, then we can take your land because you have too little clan blood and with that the rub-out continues. Land-taking destroys tribal identity and sovereignty. We are the only people who must have blood quantum cards. Also known as a tribal identification card, this reminds me of the Jews being identified by a number. Now what we’ve got is a number on our cards, the same kind of thing just in a different way. Just another way to erase us as see POWWOW page 7  MARCH 20, 2026 COMMUNITY EVENTS community EVENTS FORBIDDEN WORDS POETRY WORKSHOP Saturday, March 21, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. AADL downtown 3rd floor, 343 S. 5th Ave. Ann Arbor. Hosted by PoetTreeTown and Groundcover News, this workshop investigates the “black out poetry” form. Participants will explore the list of words banned by the current U.S. administration and challenge the idea of censorship by creating and sharing art and poetry with these “forbidden words.” AAFF 2026 SCREENING: "FIND ONE WHO WAS NOT BORN OF WOMAN THAT ONE IS YOUR FATHER" Wednesday, March 25, 9 p.m., Michigan Theater. Ann Arbor Film Festival Feature in Competition; This film features mostly documentary shots of poor people, homeless people, and disabled people on the streets of Damascus, but it is not a social chronicle, nor a journalistic account of poverty. Groundcover is community partner org. Use code for $5 off your ticket. 64AAFFGROUND 52ND ANNUAL DANCE FOR MOTHER EARTH POWWOW Saturday and Sunday, March 28-29, Skyline High School, 2552 N Maple Rd. Ann Arbor The U-M Annual Dance for Mother Earth Powwow is one of the largest Powwows in the country hosting some of North America’s greatest Native American singers, dancers, and artists. An opportunity to witness Native dance and drum contests, shop with Native artists and craftspeople, and dance alongside Natives of all ages and nations. CARAVAN FOR CUBA: MICHIGAN STOP Saturday, March 28, 5-8 p.m. St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 120 N Huron St., Ypsilanti. Michigan Action for Cuba Committee presents a screening of "Teresita's Dream" and a panel discussion as part of the national Caravans for Cuba campaign. INTENTIONAL ENTELECHY II: A WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH HAPPY HOUR Tuesday, March 31, 5-9 p.m. 309 S. Main St. Ann Arbor. Art, music, conversation, featuring artists Betsy Valderama, Michael King Jr. Erika Cross, Constance McKinney, Kristen Hermanson Briegal. VISCERAL SOUP EMU MFA OPENING RECEPTION Friday, April 3, 5-7 p.m. 22 North Gallery, 22 N Huron St, Ypsilanti. A group exhibition featuring work by MFA students from Eastern Michigan University’s School of Art & Design. The exhibition highlights work across multiple disciplines including painting, sculpture, ceramics, furniture, printmaking, and animation, reflecting the breadth of material investigation within the MFA program. Runs through April 14, 2026. REVOLUTIONARY FOOD GATHERING Friday, April 10, 5-7 p.m. Ann Arbor Friends Meeting House, 1420 Hill St., Ann Arbor. Potluck and discussion to discover who we are in relationship to our food, the earth and each other. Hosted by Groundcover News and Purslane Commons. WCC CONCERT BAND: SMALL ENSEMBLES Sunday, April 12, 2 p.m. Washtenaw Community College Morris Lawrence Building Towsley Auditorium, 4800 Huron River Drive, Ann Arbor. Join for a program of small ensembles — from duets and trios to 20-piece bands — playing a variety of musical genres. Light refreshments served. "WHO'S THERE?!" ARB DANCE PERFORMANCE Saturday, April 18, 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Nichols Arboretum, 1610 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor. The Department of Dance at the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance and Ladina Schaller present “Who’s There?!”This site-specific senior dance project consists of a walk through the Arb, along which the audience encounters a variety of characters, sights, sounds and scenes. The concert is around one hour long. Audience members are required to walk along Arboretum paths for the duration of the performance and are encouraged to dress for the weather and wear good shoes. This event is family-friendly and appropriate for all ages. Attendance is free, but RSVP is encouraged at this link: tinyurl.com/yhr62hj8 Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Visit any of our five locations across town to browse books, magazines, newspapers, and more. Check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, or even home tools—you name it! Enjoy fast and free WiFi, study and meeting rooms, and plenty of comfortable spaces to relax or hang out. Preschool Storytimes and Baby Playgroups Join our storytellers on weekdays for fun songs, stories, puppets, and movement! Visit aadl. org/storytimes to view a list of upcoming in-person storytimes and playgroups. You can also stream and download our recorded storytimes online at AADL.TV. Public Computers The AADL has public-access Internet computers available for use by both cardholders and noncardholders at all five locations. Each station has USB ports, headphone jacks, and some of the fastest WiFi speeds in town! FEATURED EVENT 5 Saturday, April 18 • 11 AM–5 PM • Downtown Library Come to Downtown Library for a pop-up record fair, with vendors selling used records and gear! DJs will be spinning vinyl while you check out the vendors, pick up a cool pinback button, or make one yourself! Check out the details at aadl.org/recordstoreday.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS TRANSPORTATION WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 SARAH HUBER U-M student contributor Offering fare-free bus service in American communities was a popular move to enhance public safety during the COVID pandemic and now it’s an issue that is catching on across the nation. Communities from New York City to Richmond, Va. to Omaha, Neb. are either considering or providing farefree rides for some or all riders. Ann Arbor’s bus service, TheRide, offered fare-free service during COVID but has returned to collecting fares. With Ann Arbor reducing vehicle capacities on its roads (by adding bike lanes, for example) while encouraging rapid growth of housing units, the question becomes why not here? In New York, Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor on a platform that includes fare-free buses, funded with a new tax on the ultra wealthy. The fate of the proposal is not clear but it has stimulated nationwide conversation. Richmond, by contrast, implemented fare-free rides during COVID and never went back. “Zero fare is becoming a national topic,” said Ashley Potter, communications manager with the Greater Richmond Transportation Company (GRTC). In Richmond, bus fare income totaled $8 million a year pre-COVID, according to Potter. Backing out the $1.2 million cost of collecting and managing fares, the agency has pegged the cost of fare-free service at $6.8 million per year in a $108 million operation. Corporate contributions, on-bus advertising and individual donations have combined to cover the cost of not charging fares, Potter said. “Without minimizing the money and its importance, it is a small portion of what needs to go into operating GRTC as a whole,” she said. With the end of COVID shutdowns, Richmond ridership has grown from 8 million riders in 2020 to more than 12 million last year. “People still needed transit,” Potter said, “and not having to pay fare made all the difference.” Potter said the community has embraced the approach. “People certainly have their opinions,” she said, “but I wouldn't say there's been any opposition effort or group. We have the opposite — organizations that push for support for the community.” Ann Arbor Area Transit Authority CEO Matt Carpenter, in a statement provided to Groundcover, did not indicate support for moving toward fare-free service. "At this time, AAATA is not considering a return to suspending fare collection that was temporarily implemented as a social distancing measure during the early months of the COVID pandemic,” Carpenter said. “Losing this revenue would have unknown impacts on our services for the public.” AAATA anticipates $4.1 million in fare revenue this year, according to its approved budget. The Ride’s total budget is more than $70 million and local property taxes, which voters agreed to increase in 2022, will tally more than $40 million this year. The notion that fare-free increases ridership would appear to align with TheRide’s 2045 Long-Range Plan. The plan envisions a dramatic expansion of service, which includes more frequent buses, expanded weekend and evening routes and major investments in communities with lower access. Ridership is projected to increase by as much as 150 to 165 percent by 2045. The plan also emphasizes equity. Service increases in low-opportunity areas are projected to grow even more. While the number of people using the system is expected to double, riders in MARCH 20, 2026 Ann Arbor can afford free bus fare, will they try it? Low and Very Low Opportunity indexes are predicted to see around 123% growth. These expansions are designed to improve access to employment, education and essential services. Ann Arbor clearly expects transit to play a larger role in daily life. AAATA’s ridership topped 7 million pre-COVID, but had only rebounded to 5 million through 2024, according to the agency’s most recent Onboard Report. Groundcover spoke with several AAATA drivers about the question of going fare-free. There was widespread support for the concept. Relieving the business of collecting fares would improve efficiency and ease relations with passengers, they said, especially through ending conflicts with people who lack bus fare. AAATA CEO Carpenter pointed to several programs tailored to improve access to lower-income riders, such as the 50% discount offered through AAATA’s Fare Deal program. (Such discount programs could be expanded or promoted more widely.) In addition, he said the agency plans a comprehensive fare study later this year, which may stimulate further conversation on the possibility of making changes to its fare structure. MARCH 20, 2026 TREATMENT Could there be a cure for Alzheimer's? Cuba's Ministry of Public Health does research, on top of operating a highly-regarded, state-run, universal and free healthcare system that achieves top-tier health indicators — such as high life expectancy and low infant mortality — comparable to developed nations. It focuses heavily on preventative care, community-based clinics, and a high doctor-to-patient Michigan are living with Alzheimer's. The disease affects approximately 1 in 9 people 65 and older, 11% in this age group, with an increase to 33.3% for those aged 85 and older. Nearly two-thirds of Americans with ratio. However, the Cuban government faces challenges from a U.S.-led economic blockade that has led to shortage of medicine, and low pay for doctors. Cuban scientist Dr. Teresita Rodríguez Obaya at the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM) is developing a promising nasal spray drug that has shown potential to slow Alzheimer's progression and improve cognitive ability in trials. It is not currently classified as a "cure," but acts as a neuroprotective treatment. Dr. Obaya, the founder of CIM, has led this research, partly inspired by her own mother’s battle with the disease. Data from Cuban Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials indicated the intranasal drug (NeuralCIM or NeuroEPO) is safe and appears to significantly slow cognitive decline in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. Some trial data even suggest symptom reversal in a percentage of patients, which is an extraordinary claim not typically seen with other available medications. It is a laboratory-engineered version of a naturally occurring protein which is believed to stop neural cells from dying, promote their growth, reduce inflammation and enhance communication mechanisms in the brain. The intranasal delivery is designed to bypass the blood-brain barrier effectively. Though the full methodology and raw data from the trials have not yet been widely shared or subject to rigorous peer review, leading to calls for larger international trials, the drug  POWWOW from page 4 our clan blood thins through mixed marriage. How many ways to erase us, count the ways. My favorite fancy shawl was the AIM warrior shawl I created in 2003 as a tribute to the American Indian Movement. It was that year I attended the AIM Powwow at Pipestone National Park in Minnesota and gave a flesh offering for spirit. AIM has helped tribes across the nation achieve both awareness and outreach to inner city tribal members. AIM has been radical but AIM originally was, in fact, to help Native American Indians like me who MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Alzheimer's are women. Nearly 12 million family members and unpaid caregivers provided 19.2 billion hours of care in 2024. The United States population is has been approved for use within Cuba’s national health system. The results from the Cuban trials indicated that it is more impactful than current FDA-approved drugs. One U.S. physician who has accompanied patients to Cuba for the treatment reported “life-changing” impacts and described the trial results as “incredible.” While the published clinical data from Cuba is very encouraging and has led some experts and patients to seek access, the broader international medical community awaits independent, large-scale studies to fully validate the findings and potential of NeuroEPO. All recorded data reports, as of late 2025, indicate the drug could change how the world treats Alzheimer's. Alzheimer’s facts Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, irreversible brain disorder that destroys memory, thinking skills and eventually the ability to perform simple tasks. It should not be confused with other age-related cognitive decline disorders; it causes more severe symptoms. It is the seventh-leading cause of death in the U.S. An estimated 7.2 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer's dementia in 2025, making it a major public health concern. Approximately 200,000 to 203,000 people in had no connection to being Native because of relocation. I joined AIM in Detroit from 2005 to 2009. For my last outfit, I chose to dance out with my favorite bird, the peacock. My last compeition dance was in 2014, when I was 45. But my dance is not over. I am now transitioning to traditional dance. I hope in two years I will become a jingle dancer. Native dance is always a work in progress and should always be done for the pure joy of dance; competition is just an added benefit. I never set out to be a competition dancer. Come to the 2026 powwow and watch me dance! adoption or aging rapidly, with over 10,000 adults turning 65 years of age daily according to AARP International. By 2030, 21% of Americans are predicted to be 65 years or older. The population will also become more diverse with projected increases among Black (13.3%–15%), Hispanics/Latinx (17.8%–27.5%) and Asian (5.7–9.1%) people by 2060 (Vespa et al., 2018). Conversely, there will also be a decrease in non-Hispanic white people (76.9%–68.0%). Based on 2024–2025 research, dementia — including Alzheimer’s disease — is significantly more prevalent among the homeless population in the United States compared to the general population, with a 6.81% prevalence rate found in a meta-analysis of studies. Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2023 and 2024, respectively, Leqembi (lecanemab) and Kisunla (donanemab), are now being administered to thousands of people across the United States, and both have been shown to slow cognitive decline in people with early-stage Alzheimer’s. These leading U.S. Alzheimer's drugs are monoclonal antibodies that remove amyloid plaques, slowing cognitive decline by roughly 22-35% but with the risk of causing brain swelling/ bleeding risks. They do not show signs of reversal. Conversely, Cuba’s NeuralCIM (or NeuroEPO) targets brain cell protection and, in preliminary data, suggests stabilization or potential symptom reversal. U.S. drugs are approved, high-cost options that modify disease progression by clearing plaques. The Cuban drug is an experimental, potentially disease-reversing approach focused on neuroprotection. Resources for learning more about Alzheimer’s disease The Michigan Action For Cuba Committee invites Groundcover News readers to the movie screening “Teresita’s Dream” at St Luke’s Episcopal Church in Ypsilanti on March 28 at 5 p.m. The movie is about Dr. Obaya and her personal ambition, and the development of the promising nasal spray drug that has shown potential to slow Alzheimer's progression and improve cognitive ability discussed in this article. The Michigan Action For Cuba Committee is a part of The National Network On Cuba which is a U.S.based umbrella organization composed of more than 60 organizations advocating for an end to Washington’s hostility towards Cuba, especially the inhumane U.S. economic blockade against Cuba. The University of Michigan has extensive, ongoing research on Alzheimer’s disease through the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center, which offers over 20 active studies. Key initiatives include U-M Memory and Aging Project (a primary, long-term observational study on memory and aging); clinical trials (studies on new medications, neuroimaging, biomarkers and lifestyle interventions); and specialized care (research and treatment from the U-M Health Cognitive Disorders Program). Patients and volunteers can join studies, including the MiNDSet registry. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 forced

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS INSP MARCH 20, 2026 Left: Living unsheltered means that even a minor wound can become life-threatening. But Wrexha never thought that she was vulnerable to such a “crazy thing.” “It scared me,” she said. Right: Wrexha sleeps where she can. She sees herself as a protector of women on the streets and still has a seething hatred of bullies. Photos by Giles Classen. The everyday medical risks of street homelessness GILES CLASSEN Denver VOICE When Teaya Wrexha woke up near Paco Sanchez Park, her thumb was already swollen to about the size of a squash. She dug into her thumb and began pulling out a bug that had burrowed deep into her flesh. “I think it was a millipede, maybe a centipede,” she said. “I was sleeping outside, and I woke up with my thumb burning. It was like the thing had gone inside. I squeezed it, and it hurt so bad. I thought I was gonna lose it.” Living unsheltered means that even a minor wound can become life-threatening. But Wrexha never thought that she was vulnerable to such a “crazy thing.” “It scared me,” she said. Wrexha tried to clean the wound with what she could find, but she did not have much to work with or any money. She had some antibiotics for dogs, so she took those, hoping that they would help. But her thumb continued to get bigger and bigger until she lay on the grass in agony, sometimes screaming in pain. Wrexha is transgender but does not take hormones currently. “I found my own gender. I took it back,” she said. She added that it is difficult to access gender-affirming care while living on the streets, and she is not sure how her body would react to the treatment, so she is waiting until she is more stable before she explores her options. “Why they tried to convince me I was a guy is the real mystery,” she said. “Because I wasn’t a normal guy, and I was bullied. Now I stand up to bullies.” Wrexha has been homeless since she was a teenager. She exhibited behavioral issues in school and struggled with ADHD and bullying. Ultimately, her father forced her to leave the family home. Wrexha sleeps where she can. She sees herself as a protector of women on the streets and still has a seething hatred of bullies. But one insect bite had immobilized her in pain, barely able to stand. The injury lingered, but Wrexha refused to go to Denver Health and refused transportation to other clinics. She said that she has learned to be independent and find a way in impossible circumstances. “I’m not going to Denver Health,” she said. “They treat us like shit. I’ve had too many bad experiences there.” Wrexha did get access to bandages and treatment and said that she hoped that her hand would heal without needing to go to a hospital or clinic. Most people understand that in the event of extreme weather, people living unsheltered on the streets are at risk. But, like Wrexha, many also experience dangers and traumas that are hard to imagine. Dr. Sarah Axelrath, a primary care and addiction medicine physician with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, said that the reality is far more complex and dangerous. Working through Stout Street Health Center’s clinics and street medicine teams, Axelrath treats people living outdoors across Denver. She describes a web of overlapping risks — medical, environmental and social — that most people living in housing never have to think about. “People who are unsheltered have higher rates of both acute and chronic illnesses and injuries,” she said. “We see a lot of acute injuries like accidental traumas, a lot of acute illnesses, like skin and soft tissue infections, and bad flus and pneumonias. And then we also see higher rates of pretty much every chronic medical condition you can name, including hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and cancers.” Environmental risks and more traditional medical conditions often coexist, she said, compounding suffering and making treatment uniquely challenging. Even when someone living on the streets wants treatment, accessing care can be difficult. “When you are homeless and unsheltered on the streets, you can’t just pick up and go to a doctor’s appointment,” Axelrath said. “They would have to potentially leave their tent unguarded with everything that they own inside. It’s like walking out of your front door with the door unlocked and wide open, inviting somebody in to steal everything you own.” Barriers compound from there. Transportation and tracking appointment dates and times can be difficult when someone has few resources. And it is common for people experiencing homelessness to have deep trauma from past medical experiences, leading to distrust of medical institutions. That fear and distrust, Axelrath said, is rooted in real harm. Many patients see STREET MEDICINE page 12  MARCH 20, 2026 STREET MEDICINE GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Photos submitted by HVA. Behind the siren: nonprofit Huron Valley Ambulance prevents and responds to emergencies After I suffered an injury to my spine, the brave men and women of Huron Valley Ambulance played a significant role in my recovery. This article is dedicated to them. As a reporter for Groundcover News I am proud to showcase the tremendous contribution they make throughout Washtenaw County and beyond. I recently had the honor to speak with Marc Breckenridge, Manager for Government and Media Relations for Huron Valley Ambulance. The following is an exclusive look inside HVA. Marc, can you share with our readers about the history and growth of Huron Valley Ambulance? “On December 15, 1981, the Catherine McCauley Health Center (St. Joseph Mercy Hospital) purchased the assets of two failing private ambulance services, Fontana-Taylor and Emergency Specialties Services, to form a new nonprofit EMS provider called Huron Valley Ambulance. Over the following months, all five of Washtenaw County’s hospitals would form a partnership to provide leadership and financial support to ensure HVA had a stable footing. Then, after two years, they created a community board of trustees and gifted HVA to the Washtenaw County community. HVA continues to operate under this community-owned system of governance today. “Huron Valley Ambulance began stations with 47 employees. HVA inherited 10 ambulances and several across the county, every one of them needing repairs. But the employees were motivated and before long HVA began to grow in staff, call volume, ambulances, capability and reputation. “Today, HVA has 325 licensed and support personnel and 58 ambulances with a call volume that has are not only able to accept change, but drive it.” I am so inspired by this great orgaDAVID MITCHELL Groundcover vendor No. 661 nization that I am in the process of starting a medical outreach service called Ypsi Medic One. To help guide me in this process, I asked Marc to give us a look at the ongoing work being done in our community, schools and any other outreach programs. “HVA’s outreach initiatives are cenalmost quadrupled since its inception 44 years ago.” Paul Hood, HVA’s Chief Operating Officer, frequently proclaims just how proud he feels of the organization’s exceptional progress over the last 44 years. “Thinking back, I believe that there were three significant milestones in HVA’s professional development.” Paul said. "When we began providing Critical Care transportation (MICU or Mobile Intensive Care Units) was the first. Becoming one of the first EMS providers in the nation to gain national accreditation by both the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services and the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs was the second. After achieving both of those milestones, we found ourselves well positioned for our most recent milestone, providing Washtenaw County citizens with Community Paramedicine services.” Paul added, “Putting all that aside, we really do take a lot of pride in the many collaborative partnerships that we’ve formed over the last forty years. But it’s important to recognize that our people, all the members of HVA’s team, are at the heart of what we do. I know we have the most hardworking, compassionate and cerebral staff, who tered on community education and prevention. While these programs help the public better understand the role of EMS in the community, they also equip individuals with the knowledge and skills to prevent injury and illness, respond confidently in emergencies, and ultimately improve the overall health and safety of the communities we serve. “HVA works closely with community partners to expand the reach and impact of our education efforts. We collaborate with nonprofit organizations — including churches, libraries, health centers and community action groups — to provide CPR and First Aid training throughout the community. “We also host Scout Days, where local scout groups tour our stations, visit our dispatch center, explore an ambulance, learn about EMS careers and gain hands-on lifesaving skills as they work toward First Aid badges.” Marc went on to say, “In partnership with the American Heart Association, we organize cardiac arrest response drills to help nonprofit organizations meet CPR training grant requirements and strengthen their emergency preparedness. We also support initiatives aimed at improving cardiac arrest survival rates, including collaborations with programs such as Save MI Heart and MI Heart Safe Home. “Through these combined efforts, HVA is committed not only to responding to emergencies, but to empowering the community to prevent them and act when seconds matter most.” Marc then spoke about specific school programs. “We provide age-appropriate education and training across all grade levels. For elementary schools, we facilitate participation in programs such as Safety Towns, Community Helper Week, STEM Career Days and Hero Reading Week. These events help young students understand what to do in an emergency, when and how to call 911, and the role EMS professionals play in helping people. For middle school, high school and college, we provide Hands-On CPR and AED classes, Heartsaver® K–12 CPR/AED certification courses (plus a First Aid option), and BLS (Basic Life Support) certification courses for students in healthcare career tracks. For educators and school staff, there are Heartsaver® K–12 CPR, Automated External Defibrillator (AED) and First Aid training to ensure teachers and staff are prepared to respond to medical emergencies in the school setting.” I then asked Marc to share how members of the community can join HVA. “HVA has an apprentice-style work and training program that is 16 weeks in length. The students are full time employees during the course and receive high quality training to prepare them as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) to work on Basic Life Support ambulances,” Marc replied. I wish to thank Marc Breckenridge for his time and professionalism. Should you desire additional information, visit the Huron Valley Ambulance website at www.emergenthealth. org/hva.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers MARCH 20, 2026 ACROSS 1. Brit's "Baloney!" 5. "___ Like the Wind" ("Dirty Dancing" ballad) 9. Scoundrels 13. "I had no ___!" 14. "Catch!" 15. Police club used in India 16. ___ oil (skin care substance) 17. "___ of Eden" 18. Knight's "suit" 19. Tongue-tied 22. Composer Gustav 25. Hunk 26. Greek who measured the Earth's circumference 30. English county 31. Twisted 32. Busy one in Apr. 35. Soon, to a bard 36. How some things are remembered 37. Guard's target 38. Where the French might take a dip 39. Cliffside dwelling 40. Taste, e.g. 41. Oaks Park patron 43. Pattinson or Redford 46. Servant's uniform 47. Grumpiness 51. Jungle climber 52. Aerial maneuver 53. Indian dress 57. Carpenter's tool 58. Palindromic emperor 59. It might be oral or physical 60. Winter vehicle 61. Make up ground, with "on" 62. Fill-in DOWN 1. Sn on the periodic table 2. Words of praise 3. "Comprende?" 4. Popular Broadway musical 5. Clippers 6. Try, as a case 7. At one time, at one time 8. Org. looking for aliens 9. Guitarist Santana 10. Hindu soul 11. Hindu loincloth 12. Begets 15. Acclaimed 20. Gas used in ads 21. Shrewd 22. Cross, maybe 23. "Gladiator" setting 24. Devastation 27. Spin 28. Dawg 29. Famous 18th-century Swiss mathematician 32. Short story 33. Tough question 34. Imitation 36. Atlanta-based airline 37. Portly 39. From the heart? 40. "Saturday Night Live" segment 41. Curbed, with "in" 42. Loafer, e.g. 43. Small streams 44. Bay window 45. Plucky 48. Place to post 49. Bit 50. Money of Lesotho 54. Can 55. Battering device 56. Mischievous one PUZZLE SOLUTIONS March 6, 2026 edition MARCH 20, 2026 LIVING ARCHIVE GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 To vaccinate, or not to vaccinate ... JAZ BRENNAN Groundcover contributor On Monday, December 14, 2020, trucks packed with a newly approved COVID-19 vaccine rolled into cities and towns to set up shop for distribution. A highly anticipated event, as by December, over 1.6 million people had perished from the disease, more than 300,000 of those in the United States alone. The vaccine was furiously sought by many labs and drug companies. In the end, two took the lead: Moderna and Pfizer. Both vaccines are mRNA derived, which is different and new from what we have seen of vaccines previously. Instead of using small amounts of non-viable virus, mRNA enters into the cells and produces the viral protein spike which allows the body to recognize it as an intruder and produce antibodies to defeat it. Plainly put, mRNA acts as a blueprint for our immune system to fight back. Both Moderna and Pfizer report seeing 95% efficacy in preventing illness and complications. Although a small number of vaccinated people still became infected with coronavirus, only one was more than a minor case, suggesting that the vaccines are close to perfect in preventing serious illness from COVID-19. However, vaccines are only effective if you can convince people to take them. As the rollout amps up, so does the variance in people's willingness to be inoculated. There are two obvious camps here: 'yes, I will take it' and 'no, get that thing away from me.' Within each reaction, there's a spectrum of reasons why and how people are making their decisions. According to Groundcover News volunteer Jon MacDonagh-Dumler, it's all about the science. "We have to believe in science," said MacDonagh-Dumler. "We must have hope — I feel [the vaccine] is a good idea and it's going to help." This is not an uncommon phrase heard from proponents of the vaccination. Many are choosing to believe officials who advocate for the safety and effectiveness of the COVID vaccine. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, has striven to strengthen the confidence of those waffling with the decision. Misinformation and divisive rhetoric has left some worrying that they don't have enough facts to make the right decision. Still some choose the shot and are relieved to have the protection it confers. "It's like a car," stated community member Lisa Gizzi. "I don't know how any of that works, but I trust the mechanics who do." It seems reasonable to have trust in a system that has been growing and evolving over many years, developing some of the most impressive medical advances seen throughout our history. However, history may just be the reason others refuse. "The vaccine is bullshit," said Groundcover vendor, Joe Woods. "Maybe it'd be good if it was done right, but this is a money scheme from the government — you never know what they're putting in it." "I'm not getting that shot!" exclaimed Groundcover vendor Gary Robinson. "I don't want to be tracked or nothing. I just don't worry about it, that'll only cause more problems.” These statements may seem hyperbolic, however, medicine has a sour history of exploiting communities of color in the name of medical progress. Many are aware of the Tuskegee study where over the period of 40 years the United States Public Health Service falsely treated 600 impoverished Black men diagnosed with syphilis. The goal of this violation was to study the effects and progression of the untreated disease. Perhaps not as commonly discussed is the long standing medical mistreatment of the Black community. Forced sterilizations, historic inequity of healthcare access and resources, as well as the use of Black bodies for medical experimentation are just the tip of the iceberg of structural medical violence that communities of color have faced. Others take issue not with what's in the vaccine, but who gets what out of it. Another vendor, Derek Allen, noted his concern about the quick turn around of the product. "It's a setup. [The government] made the virus and spread it so they could sell the vaccine. It's all for the money." In a time where capitalism is being called into question, the concept of the vaccine being just another financial swindle isn't too far outside the realm of possibility. Others still declare concerns of the long term effects. Groundcover vendor Larzell Washington makes it clear that he is not planning to take the vaccine. Washington reports hearing too many mixed messages regarding the potential for problems from the vaccine down the road. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," concludes Washington. Groundcover publisher Susan Beckett admitted to an earlier reluctance to being one of the first to take the vaccine because of its foreshortened approval process and new technology, However, as she learned more, that ambivalence has changed to an eagerness to get vaccinated. “Once I learned that the vaccine essentially introduces my immune system to a geometric shape associated with the coronavirus without actually changing my RNA or exposing me to live virus, I was reassured on that front. And when I learned that the expedited approval process was not from cutting corners but from deliberate efficiency, I was convinced.” The efficiencies Beckett refers to are: 1. The mRNA technology, which has been in development for 10 years, allowed the usual years-long trial and error vaccine development to occur in two weeks once China shared the genome sequencing for COVID-19 in late winter; 2. The testing phase reached the statistically significant stage much faster than normal because COVID-19 was spreading at such a rapid rate throughout the population. 3. With funding from governments and philanthropists such as the Gates Foundation, pharmaceutical companies began building the manufacturing facilities for the most promising vaccines very early in the process instead of waiting for FDA approval like they usually do. While the long term effects of COVID-19 have yet to be realized, they may be worse than the struggle to overcome the initial infection. There have been reports of chronic health conditions as the virus viciously attacks the lungs, heart and brain. Enduring fatigue and joint pain are the most common, but heart defects and permanent brain fog are also being reported. And the new, more infectious and possibly more deadly strain that has made its way to Washtenaw County increases the likelihood of infection. When it comes to the vaccine, there are several reasons people choose one way or the other. No one knows what long-term effects there might be from the vaccine, though past vaccines have proven safe. A small number of people with allergies or autoimmune conditions might have adverse reactions to the vaccine. But the vaccine will ensure that nearly all who take it will be spared the battle to overcome COVID-19 and its long-term damage to their bodies. Vaccination holds the hope of a return to indoor dining and hugging loved ones. We don't have all the answers, which can make it difficult to decide. Meanwhile, wearing masks and keeping our distance have been shown to reduce the spread. Hope, health and being heard is all we can ask for as we work to battle this new age pandemic. Originally published in the February 2021 edition of Groundcover News.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS Health concerns for unhoused populations One of the bigger concerns for unhoused populations is health, both mental and physical. For physical health, the most common diagnoses were high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. Despite these being so common and all the medicines available to treat these diagnoses, unhoused people find it difficult to begin or continue treatment. Either the state benefits are denied and so all the costs of doctor’s visits and medicine has to come out of pocket, or doctors barely examine the patient as they are stigmatized or stereotyped and thus their concerns are dismissed. I know for myself. I don’t try to stay in a state where being unhoused will continue for me past a certain timeframe. If I feel like I cannot make my life better in the state I am in, or the opportunities are slim, I try to leave that state and move on to the next. North Dakota, for instance, denied my application for state assistance five times. For three of those applications I was in a shelter with no income. I spent eleven months searching for gainful employment, only to find it didn’t exist. Much of the population of Fargo ran a tax-exempt nonprofit food pantry in their backyard of generally less-desirable food like boxed macaroni. These people couldn’t feed their own residents, let alone homeless and unemployed people from out of state, most of whom only travelled to Fargo because of rumors of open employment. Rumors they were, indeed. So, it makes sense there weren’t any jobs available and the locals found a do I know? I didn't take eight years of college. Can we as unhoused find alternaRACHAEL LANIER Groundcover vendor No. 695 loophole for food at least. So, moving out of North Dakota was the only option for me. Still with no meds or with any scheduling for counselling. Being unhoused and unemployed often leads to lack of access to healthcare, medicines and counseling or therapy. I also have experienced where doctors have prescribed medicines that are almost impossible to continue taking, because either homeless people cannot stay in that state longterm or were denied benefits that would have paid for those medicines. Or, in many cases, because the physicians themselves either minimized, discounted or dismissed the concerns of the homeless entirely if they were not psych-related or led to a study they could get paid to conduct. For instance, if an organization you are referred to for medications will only focus on psych meds instead of medically necessary medicines like heart meds and diabetes medicines, you as an unhoused person are in a predicament. Can’t take an antidepressant if you have a heart attack or go into a sugar coma. But what  STREET MEDICINE from page 8 have been stigmatized or dismissed in emergency rooms and clinics, leaving them wary of returning even when their lives depend on it. For those who live outdoors yearround, the environment itself can also be deadly. “We see a lot of frostbite in the winter, which leads to amputations and lifelong disability,” Axelrath said. “Then we see the opposite in the summer: heat stroke and heat exhaustion.” People are also struck by cars or scooters, attacked or fall ill from pollution and environmental hazards. “We see a lot of skin and soft tissue infections just because they don’t always have reliable access to basic hygiene,” Axelrath said. “It doesn’t take that much for something that starts as a mild infection to progress to something pretty bad.” Respiratory illness is another recurring issue. “They’re inhaling smoke and exhaust fumes and staying in industrial areas [where they are less likely to be noticed] with dust or other chemicals,” Axelrath said. Physical dangers often lead to emotional trauma, and the trauma itself feeds back into homelessness. One of the most misunderstood aspects of life on the streets, Axelrath said, is how trauma and fear can drive substance use. “Substance use as a cause of homelessness is not even in the top three,” she said. “The top causes are housing instability, unaffordability and unemployment.” But once people are on the streets, drug use often becomes a coping mechanism for extreme circumstances, Axelrath said. “Many people who are homeless did not use meth before they became homeless. They end up using meth during homelessness because they are trying to stay awake at night so they can be safe and not feel so vulnerable.” That survival strategy can quickly tives? Absolutely. Service animals and farmers markets are examples. I’d rather have a dog or a cat than an antidepressant. I’d rather have fresh fruits and vegetables than anything else, but denial of food programs and lack of access to a stove or refrigerator make eating healthy almost impossible. A service animal would be just as miserable as me with no yard to run around or a home to keep safe in at night. The Farmers Market here in Ann Arbor has recently drawn my attention as they have a mushroom dealer. That’s right. A Shroom dealer. I’m so excited. And dandelion greens with a sunflower dressing sounds so springish to me. There are more options at the market that Michigan recognizes, and I’m impressed to say the least. Thank you to our USDA offices here in the state for recognizing the need for healthier food options and granting us access to support local businesses as unhoused persons through their SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, formerly called “food stamps”). There's information on the MIBridges website about the Double Up Food Bucks Program and our Farmers Market does participate; you just have to visit Tyler and Jade in the market office for those tokens. Unhoused populations have a high rate of depression, anxiety, PTSD, schizophrenia and psychosis. I just recently came across a man at the Delonis shelter who told me the most amazing story about how he was trap people in a cycle of exhaustion and addiction. “There’s nowhere safe for them to sleep during the day,” she said, “so sometimes they use opiates to come down and try to get a little sleep. If they can’t, they use more meth to stay awake, and they get trapped in this cycle of profound sleep deprivation and escalating substance use.” Traditional healthcare systems are rarely equipped to meet those realities. Many patients turn to emergency rooms, which provide only short-term solutions. Street medicine and integrated outreach models are growing, Axelrath said, driven by younger healthcare workers eager to serve outside of traditional clinics. That gives her hope. “We could work anywhere else, but we all work here by choice because we think it’s important and we really like doing it. That inspires me every day.” For Axelrath, the goal is simple but urgent: meet people where they are, literally and emotionally, before the actually Eminem’s father, and how as a fetus, Eminem was transferred to another womb to help him have a better mother. I don’t know much about biology, but that sounds like a concept for a sci-fi movie. If you don’t already know what psychosis is, please Google it and prepare yourself. Not having a house or a stable place to stay makes feeling safe and hopeful, or just processing reality, almost impossible. Depression especially, from what I have observed in the shelters and on the streets, is a direct result of the environment. If we as unhoused persons can fix our environment, we can reasonably deal with our mental health. Addictions are also a contributing factor in mental health. Finding rehab programs in churches may not be as difficult as finding an actual facility, but whatever is available at the time of need is usually what gets the most attention. If you find yourself in need of these services, ask the program managers what their rate of recidivism is for a 12-month period. How many times do they get repeat customers? That’ll tell you if that program works or not. Willpower has a lot to do with conquering addictions, but again, requires the help of the surrounding community. Other people getting involved should help and not hinder the recovery process. Not having access to the person's drug of choice, counseling, even medications can determine if recovery is possible and sustainable. MARCH 20, 2026 system fails them entirely. Despite the agony of Wrexha’s injury, she insists that she has seen much worse on the streets. She knew a man who froze to death in a Porta Potty in Pueblo as he tried to survive a particularly cold night. “Someone has to die for things to change,” she said. “They finally opened the shelters [during extreme weather], but a man had to freeze to death.” She paused, eyes heavy but fierce. “You’re gonna die in your sleep,” she imagined someone saying. “I won’t. I’m too powerful. I have trained and honed my body to be a fighting force, and that’s why I fight homelessness.” Wrexha studies the swollen mark on her thumb, the scar left from the burrowing insect. For her, it is more than an injury — it is proof of what people outside endure unseen. “I can live out here and sleep in a yard and survive the cold night,” she said. “That’s all I need, thank you.” Courtesy of Denver VOICE / INSP.ngo MARCH 20, 2026 PUBLIC HEALTH GROUNDCOVER NEWS Washtenaw Health Project reports significant drop in marketplace enrollment as premium costs surge WASHTENAW HEALTH PROJECT The Washtenaw Health Project reports a sharp decline in health insurance enrollment during the 2026 Health Insurance Marketplace Open Enrollment period, reflecting growing affordability challenges for local families. WHP assisted 551 individuals in enrolling in Marketplace coverage for 2026 — down from 804 enrollees the previous year, a 31.5% decrease. While enrollments dropped significantly, the need for help did not. WHP recorded 1,735 client encounters during Open Enrollment, only slightly lower than last year. “This year, we spent just as much time helping people understand their options,” said Jeremy Lapedis, Executive Director. “Many families kept waiting for Congress to lower healthcare costs, but when that didn’t happen, they had to walk away because they simply could not afford coverage.” The decline follows the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits at the end of 2025, which had helped reduce insurance costs for millions. New eligibility restrictions included in H.R. 1 — known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — also bar permanent residents and work-authorized individuals earning under 100% of the Federal Poverty Level ($15,650 annually for an individual) from subsidies. Estimates are that ACA health insurance premiums more than doubled across the country for 2026. This mirrors what WHP staff saw, with some seeing premiums increase even more than that. After a modest increase in income, one couple who paid $0 per month for coverage in 2025 was quoted $1,409 per month for 2026 — more than $16,000 annually — along with a $21,200 deductible. Their total potential yearly exposure now exceeds $38,000. “These are working families who did everything right,” said Lapedis. “But healthcare coverage that costs more than their monthly rent isn’t realistic.” Statewide, Marketplace enrollment in Michigan fell from 531,083 in 2025 to 497,064 in 2026, a decrease of approximately 6.4%, according to federal data. Nationally, enrollment declined by about 5%, with new enrollment dropping 14%. Early reports suggest higher cancellation and non-payment rates may further reduce coverage numbers in the coming months as premiums come due. WHP’s sharper local decline reflects the disproportionate impact of subsidy changes on lower-income populations and immigrant communities in Washtenaw County. Although fewer residents ultimately enrolled, many sought guidance in evaluating options, understanding eligibility changes, and weighing difficult financial decisions. “We are seeing people forced to choose between health insurance — accessing medical care and their prescriptions, essentially — and other basic necessities,” said Lapedis. “The need for trusted, community-based enrollment support remains critical.” WHP continues to provide free, unbiased enrollment assistance to approximately 8,000 residents of Washtenaw County year-round. For help with health coverage options, visit WashtenawHealthProject.org or call 734-544-3030. 13 Education, conversations on cardiovascular diseases WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 A few months ago, I interviewed a retired University of Michigan doctor and research scientist, Dr. Max Wisgerhof, on the topic of cardiovascular diseases. (He is also a Groundcover volunteer.) His answers to contribute to my ongoing series on community health literacy. This article is a followup to the Groundcover November 28, 2026 article titled, “November is Diabetes Awareness Month.” Dr. Max was interviewed and made a huge contribution to our community’s understanding of diabetes. We hope this interview sparks intergenerational conversations on health and wellness across populations and socioeconomic status. WS: Define Cardiovascular disease. Dr. Max: Cardiovascular diseases are diseases of: the heart (“cardio”) and arteries, blood vessels that carry blood to organs (“vascular”). WS: How is cardiovascular disease connected to type 2 diabetes? Dr. Max: The high glucose and normal or high insulin in blood vessels in type 2 diabetes, by complex and unknown mechanisms, damage the arteries and the heart, which impairs their function. Major causes of cardiovascular disease are diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, abnormal genetics, with family history, body weight and others, known and unknown. Some major symptoms are pain from insufficient blood supply to the heart and the legs; shortness of breath from damage to the heart; discomfort from infection because of insufficient blood supply to organs like the toes. The diagnosis is by the primary care physician, using interviews, exams and tests. Treatments for cardiovascular disease are primarily healthy lifestyle, medications and surgery. WS: Kindly share your knowledge and professional experience on high blood pressure/hypertension with the Washtenaw County community. Dr. Max: High blood pressure and hypertension are synonymous. High blood pressure has two types: primary and secondary. Causes for primary high blood pressure are not specifically known, so we treat with the expectation of control of the high blood pressure. Suggested causes and/or aggravation of primary high blood pressure include: abnormal genetics; “high” sodium (salt) intake, as some persons are more sensitive than other persons to sodium; “high” body weight and its distribution; others, including “inactivity.” Causes for secondary high blood pressure are excessive production and effects of hormones, especially from the adrenal gland (aldosterone or other steroids, or noradrenaline); excessive production of a hormone-like substance from a kidney or kidneys, which can cause constriction of smallest arteries (arterioles), which causes high blood pressure; abnormal amounts of other hormones such as thyroid hormone (too much or too little) and, occasionally, estrogens. Symptoms are the same as above, and other damage to organs from the high pressure in the blood adversely affecting/damaging the organs supplied by the blood. WS: What are interventions and treatments? Dr. Max: There are non-specific interventions such as decrease in sodium intake, decrease in body weight, and/or increase in activity. Specific treatment of high blood pressure involves use of medication to decrease volume of blood fluid (diuretics), to decrease arteriole constriction, and to decrease heart rate which, when high, increases blood pressure. Treatment of secondary high blood pressure is to detect the cause, as above, and remove or counter the cause. FDA approved medications to treat high blood pressure, when prescribed and used as indicated, have greater expectation of benefit than risk of harm. Other treatments have variable certainty of benefit. “Alternative” treatments have less certainty and need to be monitored closely for benefit and for harm. WS: What do you think about prevention? Dr. Max: From an early age, achieve and maintain recommended sodium intake, body weight and activity. To detect early onset of high blood pressure, have blood pressure measured by recommended method yearly, or more frequently if increasing. Cardiovascular disease is a worldwide health issue. The World Health Organization noted that poor people in developing nations have major problems when it comes to access to treatment and prognosis. However, for developed nations such the United States, there have been major improvements in diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of patients with cardiovascular diseases. In fact, there is a better understanding of how the disease happens, why it happens and what is needed to save lives and improve the quality of patients’ lives. Some medical researchers in U.S. universities have suggested that poverty is highly correlated with cardiovascular disease. Major studies done in Detroit and other cities attest to the magnitude of the problems. We also encourage our readers to watch brief YouTube videos which are titled, “Heart and Blood Circulatory System,” “Cardiovascular Disease Overview” and “Understanding Cardiovascular Disease: Visual Explanation.”

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PHILOSOPHY Philosopher-Kings of the American Republic SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover vendor No. 638 The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution is the origin of racist police work in America. When the Bill of Rights was ratified on December 15, 1791, the states already had lawful militias. The purpose of the Second Amendment was to ensure that the antebellum slave patrols were armed. After the Civil War the slave patrols evolved into America’s racist police departments. The next phase of the evolution of the police is for them to become philosopher-kings of the American republic. This can be accomplished by improving a police officer ’s education and compensation. The United States Department of Labor classifies workers into four categories: professionals, skilled tradesmen, technicians and unskilled labor. Police officers are classified as professionals. If police officers are professionals, the education requirement to become a police officer should be comparable to other professions like Spelling the Truth Truth is light. But light does not eliminate darkness; it reveals it. If truth makes life better, it is not because it guarantees comfort. It is because it makes cooperation possible. Civilization is not built on affection. It is built on trust — and trust rests on shared assumptions about reality. Without a minimum agreement about what is, there is no contract, no science, no journalism, no court, no republic. But who guards those assumptions? And what happens when they fracture? When Aristotle defined truth as saying of what is that it is, he was not offering a slogan. He was proposing a discipline. If language detaches from reality, it ceases to orient action. It becomes performance. Or weapon. Centuries later, René Descartes insisted that clarity requires method. “Cogito, ergo sum” (usually translated as “I think therefore I am”) was not bravado; it was procedure. Doubt, for him, was hygiene. How much of our public discourse would survive methodological doubt? And then Immanuel Kant complicated certainty itself. We do not access the world raw; we perceive through categories. Truth is not naïve transparency — it requires structure. But if structure shapes perception, who shapes the structure? These are not academic questions. They are civic ones. Language as action Language does not merely describe the world. It intervenes in it. “To say something is to do something,” wrote J. L. Austin. Every utterance performs an act. Every sentence rearranges expectations. For Émile Benveniste, the act of linguistic traps. Error is natural. Deception is cultivated. In the twentieth century, Michel Foucault described “regimes of truth:” systems in which discourse and power reinforce one another. Truth is not merely discovered; it is administered, circulated, validated. Who benefits when confusion PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 speaking installs both speaker and listener. The moment I speak, I position you. I assign roles. And Oswald Ducrot argued that every statement orients conclusions — it “imposes certain continuations and excludes others.” If so, manipulation is not an anomaly of language. It is a structural possibility within it. The ethical question is not whether language influences. It always does. The question is whether influence respects the autonomy of the listener. Trust depends on that restraint. Error, lies and asymmetry Not every falsehood is a lie. A mistake belongs to inquiry. A failed hypothesis is the price of discovery. Science advances through error correction — from Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein, truth has expanded without simply discarding its past. But a lie is different. A lie presupposes knowledge withheld. It creates asymmetry. And asymmetry scales up. When informational imbalance becomes systemic, trust erodes. When distortion becomes incentive, truth becomes fragile. Long before digital networks, Francis Bacon warned about the “idols” that distort human understanding — cognitive biases, social pressures, spreads? Who profits when spectacle replaces verification? Social media was once hailed as democratizing knowledge. Yet algorithms amplify engagement, not accuracy. Emotion travels faster than correction. Outrage outruns scrutiny. Is misinformation accidental — or incentivized? Trust cannot survive permanent epistemic turbulence. Public use of reason For Kant, enlightenment required the public use of reason — the courage to think and speak openly, accountable to others. For Karl Popper, knowledge grows through falsifiability. A claim shielded from criticism is not strong; it is brittle. A healthy republic depends on institutions that can absorb disagreement without collapsing. Courts, universities, journalism, peer review — all presuppose that truth matters more than faction. What happens when communities retreat into parallel realities? When loyalty replaces verification? When doubt is framed as betrayal? A republic cannot survive on mutually exclusive facts. Trust is not sentiment. It is infrastructure. Knowledge as common inheritance Knowledge is cumulative. It is sedimented effort across generations. No theory appears suddenly. It emerges from observation, experiment, revision. If knowledge is collectively produced, can it be morally hoarded? When does intellectual property protect innovation — and when does it obstruct the common good? These are difficult lines to draw. But a free society presumes that citizens have access to the informational conditions necessary for autonomy. Ignorance is not neutral. It is exploitable. And exploitation corrodes trust. Interdependence Some philosophical traditions remind us that the illusion of benefiting from another’s harm dissolves upon recognizing interdependence. We are not isolated victories. We are shared consequences. Trust reflects that interdependence. When one institution lies, others weaken. When one actor distorts, the network absorbs the cost. A society does not collapse in a single dramatic moment. It erodes sentence by sentence. The cost of thinking Thinking is labor. It requires attention in an age designed to fragment it. There is no shortcut to understanding. No capsule of comprehension. The scientific method — procedural, slow, self-correcting — lacks spectacle. It is patient. It depends on criticism, replication, transparency. Yet no alternative has demonstrated comparable power to reduce collective error. Is that not worth defending? see TRUTH page 16  doctors, lawyers, certified public accountants, etc. A doctor of philosophy should be the requirement to enter the police profession, with the minimum entry age set at 30 years old. The requirement for a philosophy degree specifically, would ensure that all officers would have a background in ethics and critical thinking to assist in moving the profession away from its inherent racism. In Plato’s Republic an elite class of philosopher-kings was tutored from childhood to be the rulers of society. As opposed to this, in the American republic, police officer-philosopher-kings would serve the public out of enlightened self-interest and have a reasonable expectation to be compensated for their service. After this type of education, a police officer’s pay should be comparable to other professions that I mentioned earlier. When the police are justly compensated for their service they are less likely to take bribes and pervert justice. After this transition, American society would be better able to make determinations about the role of police in society. MARCH 20, 2026 MARCH 20, 2026 IN REVIEW The Fisher King (1991) STEVEN Groundcover vendor No. 668 Terry Gilliam’s fourth movie, “The Fisher King,” premiered in September 1991. It was the first he directed that he hadn’t written. More sedate in its surrealism than “Brazil” (1985), grounded in real-world New York instead of the fantasy world of “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” (1988), it is still every bit a Terry Gilliam film. Grossing $72 million worldwide on a $24 million budget, it was considered a hit for Tri-Star Pictures that year and was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Robin Williams and Best Supporting Actress for Mercedes Ruehl, who won the Oscar. Why write a review of a 35-year-old film? Because its themes of trauma, mental illness, healing and redemption are timeless. On the surface, this seems to be a movie about homelessness and class warfare. When it came out, I was in high school and I absolutely loved it. I’ve watched it several times over the years, but this most recent watch-through landed very differently for me, now that I have experienced homelessness, been diagnosed with mental illness and have become more aware of the reality of class warfare in our country. It does contain those elements, but they are the framework to hang the Arthurian story of The Fisher King on. The film draws from this tale of a cursed, wounded king who is healed when Percival sees his humanity and asks the critical question of what ails him. Percival sees him not as a cursed king, but as a man in need of aid. The difficulty of seeing people for who they are, not how they present, challenges pretty much every character in this film. The human need to be seen, the unspoken requirement to be “valid enough” to be seen, rings deep with me now that I have been that unseen guy sitting on the sidewalk. Gilliam, as usual, weaves threads of metaphor throughout. Pinocchio shows up often in the film, alluding to the journey Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges) makes from a wooden narcissist to a fully realized, caring, empathetic human. Jack is a broken ex-shock jock working in his girlfriend’s video store. Early in the film, Jack has a drunken conversation with a Pinocchio doll, quoting Nietzsche and identifying himself as part of the “bungled and the botched," the expendable masses. Jack is broken because three years earlier, a caller to his then-hit radio show asked him for advice with a woman the caller had met at a hip new club. Jack rebuffed the caller, calling yuppies sub-human and saying “they must be stopped." The caller went on to open fire on an upscale restaurant, killing six people and himself. Now three years later, Jack is hyper-focused on how the tragedy has affected him. He straps bricks to his legs and drunkenly readies himself to jump into the East River, when he is attacked by a couple of psycho bros who douse him in gasoline to light him on fire. Jack is saved by Parry (Robin Williams) acting as an “errant knight,” with help from people who are portrayed as homeless weirdos. The next day Jack learns Parry’s story from a building super who lets Parry live in his boiler room. Parry’s real name is Henry Sagan, and he was a college professor dining out with his wife when Jack’s shooter attacked, killing her. After a period of catatonia, Henry awakened as Parry, a knight on a quest for the Holy Grail. Jack, gobsmacked by the story, returns home to his girlfriend Anne’s (Mercedes Ruehl) apartment above her video store. Ruehl’s portrayal of the long-suffering romantic, waiting patiently for Bridges’ Jack to figure out his pain, is a shining performance in a film full of dazzling performances. Jack becomes convinced if he helps Parry he will somehow be absolved of his guilt. He tries giving him money, which Parry promptly gives away. Parry insists he needs Jack to help him retrieve the Grail from a billionaire's house on the Upper East Side. Jack refuses to help Parry break into the mansion, and when he tries to push Parry into seeing “reality,” we encounter The Red Knight, a fire-spewing mounted knight, for the first time. This is a trauma-induced hallucination of Parry’s, and its design 100% fits Gilliam’s brilliant aesthetic. Jack soon learns that Parry is in love with a woman he doesn’t know. They follow her, something Parry has done often. It's presented as romantic, not creepy, a tricky distinction to make through my 2026 lens, but after all, it is a fairy tale. Jack hits upon a plan to try to get Parry the girl, thinking if he does this he might be absolved of his guilt. Jack and Anne contrive to get Lydia, played deftly by Amanda Plummer, into their video store so she and Parry can meet. During a charming scene of the four main characters having dumplings, Parry and Lydia hit it off. After a sweet end-of-the-date exchange at a door stoop, Parry is again confronted by the Red Knight. He runs panicked through the city, tormented by flashbacks of his deceased wife and his hospitalization; with his too-large suit coat reminiscent of a straitjacket. He ends up on his knees by the river where he rescued GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15 Pinocchio painting Jeff Bridges made and gave to Robin Williams. Jack, with the Red Knight bearing down on him. Outside his delusion, the two punks who had attacked Jack reappear to attack Parry while he’s in his fugue. They beat and cut him, putting him in the hospital. Not knowing what has happened to Parry and feeling pretty pleased with himself the day after the date, Jack reaches out to his agent looking to revamp his career. He breaks up with Anne to “focus on his career.” During the breakup fight, they get a call about Parry in the hospital. He's in a catatonic state that could be permanent, caused by his mental trauma, not his injuries. Jack's shaken, but his career is already reset. The third act ends with Jack in a meeting for a TV show. The pitch is about some happy-go-lucky homeless guys, and a switch flips in Jack. He goes to see Parry at the hospital. Bridges crushes a heartfelt monologue, explaining to the catatonic Williams about how, if he gets the Grail cup, it will be because he cares about Parry. His arc is complete. He cares about others now. As I mentioned I’ve loved this movie since it came out in the 90s. I love it even more now. As a teen and 20-something I loved the craft of the film-making and thought the direction the characters came from was “pretty cool.” Watching it now I still, even more so, appreciate the craft of it but now I’ve met these characters, I’ve been these characters. On this rewatch I had, early on, a negative knee-jerk reaction to the portrayal of the homeless people but was quickly dissuaded from this. It's not meant to be a documentary of the plight of the homeless but it does paint a stylized image of what that might look like. Parry’s portrayal of a disassociated schizophrenic that is made all better because his delusion is realized does a bit of disservice to our profoundly mentally ill people who don’t get an all-better button but again that's not the point. As the saying goes “It’s the journey, not the destination.” (Someone to help can make all the difference.) It’s about all the characters' journeys from broken to less broken. This is a movie about love, redemption and challenging our bougie echo-chamber preconceived notions. Not just homelessness. Not just mental illness. I found this streaming for free with no ads on Youtube. Absolutely worth a watch.

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Charlotte's teriyaki chicken ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 4 small chicken breasts ½ cup soy sauce ½ cup pineapple juice 4 slices of pineapple ½ cup butter ½ brown sugar 1 to 2 teaspoons water 2 teaspoons corn starch, dissolved in 2 teaspoons cold water 2 cups cooked rice Directions: Marinate chicken breasts in soy sauce and pineapple juice for two hours. Broil chicken in the oven until heated thoroughly (about 8 to 12 minutes). Remove chicken from the oven and put pineapple on top of the MARCH 20, 2026 "Where is the Outrage?" in stores now! Schuler Books & Black Stone Bookstore Mike Jones is a vendor, writer and chicken and broil for 1 more minute. Watch carefully! Melt butter and add a little water. Bring to simmer, do not boil. Slowly add the brown sugar, soy-pineapple marinade and finally the dissolved corn starch, just enough to and allow it to thicken. Simmer for 3 to 4 minutes. Serve chicken with the pineapple and sauce over cooked rice. A family favorite and very easy to make! board member for Groundcover News. He has positively influenced the content of the paper in recent years through his articles and photos. One of Jones' photos was submitted for "Best Photo" in the 2024 International Network of Street Papers Awards. Over the years, he has built a wide support for Groundcover in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor with consistency and a positive attitude. This collection is a look into local, non-profit and independent journalism. "From 2022-2025, I have been studying journalism by watching Youtube, attending college classes, conducting interviews, and writing articles. By doing so, I have learned to take a close look at what and where I receive information of any sort. This journal is a reflection of my thoughts and subjects learned thus far in my personal journey in and observation of the field of journalism. " While pursuing my newfound mission, journalism and reporting the facts, I find it somewhat frustrating to learn the hurtful truth of reality. As I critically analyze society and the direction in which it is headed; it seems we are 'back to the future' like the movie. Time traveling backwards. It feels like we are back in 1950s-60s and God forbid we go back any further. "Summer 2022, I was walking downtown Ann Arbor while selling Groundcover News when I met a friend of mine and also a writer Jaz Brennan. The first thing she said to me was, 'Where is the outrage!?' referring to the American people's response to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on ending the federal right to an abortion June 24, 2022. This decision overturned Roe v. Wade decision of 1973. "From 2022-25, global, political and social landscapes were reshaped by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, major geopolitical conflicts, rapid technological advancement, and increasing polarization. Written articles and my thoughts on these issues are expressed in my personal journey in journalism." $25 Paperback Book PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI MAKE MEALS YOU LOVE! Fresh ingredients to $5 OFF ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 4/16/2026  TRUTH from page 14 The ordinary spell Not the magic of superstition. Not the whisper of the occult. A different spell. The spell of a word kept. A promise honored. A signature respected. A reputation earned slowly — and lost quickly. In a family, truth is air. In friendship, it is a bridge. In commerce, it is credit. In science, it is method. In a republic, it is architecture. Break enough words, and walls collapse. Ancient formulas once claimed: I create as I speak. They may not have been entirely wrong. Every sentence builds or corrodes. Every claim either strengthens trust or introduces fracture. Every lie increases entropy in the civic fabric. The deepest magic is not mystical. It is mutual. To speak truthfully is to participate in construction. To lie is to introduce structural stress into a shared world. A republic cannot normalize lies. It needs honoured citizens whose words hold.

2 $ MARCH 6, 2026 | VOLUME 17 | ISSUE 6 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Rev. Jesse Jackson, iconic civil rights activist, founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, has passed on. page 10 MEET YOUR VENDOR: TODD JOHNSON PAGE 3 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church rolls out the red carpet for the rotating shelter. page 6 St. Nicholas Church volunteers hosted and staffed the men's winter shelter. Rotating host sites provide shelter, food, warmth and other indoor activities for the men for one week. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 MARCH 6, 2026 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Andrew Elizabeth Bauman Teresa Basham Susan Beckett Monique Caldwell Earth Day Planning Committee Kimani Hamilton Mike Jones Kevin Kinchen Elizabeth "Lit" Kurtz David Mitchell Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer Felicia Wilbert Joe Woods PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett June Miller Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Ben Foster Glenn Gates Robert Klingler Priya Kothari Aklesia Maereg Harper Margolies Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropriate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. MARCH 6, 2026 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR In 2023 I suffered a severe injury to my spine. The injury was so severe that I was Todd Johnson, vendor No. 689 In one sentence, who are you? I’m someone who loves people. Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? 4th Ave and Liberty St. — the Dunkin' corner. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Watch how everyone is living their lives! What words do you live by? Honesty and respect. What’s something about you that someone on the street wouldn’t know? I’m a great cook. What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover News? I know it helps with homeless issues. What’s the best way to start the day? Praying and thanking God for all he’s done. What is a small thing that makes your day better? Someone smiling even when they are going through something. prepped for emergency back surgery at the University of Michigan Medical Center. While waiting in the emergency room, I was moved with fear, my only thoughts being how I would live the rest of my life in a wheelchair or lying in a bed in a vegetative state. When my surgeon and nurse walked out of my room, an inner voice said, “Get up, and get out of the hospital.” Without hesitation I stepped up behind my wheelchair and made my way past security to the parking lot where I pulled myself up into my truck and drove away. This was a turning point in my life. That still, small voice guided me to the Robert J. Delonis Center, the only place I could turn to after being physically unable to work and with no place to stay. I was given a cane to support myself as I learned to walk again step-by-step, with great pain. I was awarded a scholarship to the Ann Arbor YMCA where I participated in swimming twice a day. I felt much less pain while swimming and, after several GROUNDCOVER NEWS Thank you for walking with me at Delonis for their unconditional love, acceptance and support. I want to thank the staff at the YMCA for their patience and for giving me the freedom to heal without judgment. I want to thank the Ann DAVID MITCHELL Groundcover vendor No. 661 Arbor Police and Fire Departments for literally picking me up off the street when I could no longer move or had fallen down in pain. And finally I want to months, I developed a healthy routine with 45 minutes in the morning, and 45 minutes in the afternoon. The rigorous exercise strengthened the muscles around my spine, and now I am able to walk without a cane, and even ride a bicycle. Though I still experience a little pain, I am eternally grateful for the great fear and that voice that moved me to avoid back surgery and walk by faith. The three-year period of ongoing recovery was not easy and continues to this very day. Along my road to recovery, I have a long list of organizations and individuals to thank as many of them literally carried me when I could not walk for myself. I want to thank the staff WORD SEARCH by Emeri Jade Bey I love St. Patrick's Day! Patrick’s Day is a friendly holiday, too. I like Irish music; it is relaxing and fun. I like mint ice cream all year round, but St. Patrick’s Day is more of a reason to have it. Corned beef hash is one of my favorite DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 St. Patrick’s Day is a very special holiday to me. It is special for a lot of different reasons. It is special because it is a Christian holiday and it is special because it is a beautiful and fun holiday. It is beautiful because green is one of my favorite colors. I love corned beef and mint ice cream. It is festive and fun. St. breakfast foods. I have a recipe, too. My famous corned beef stew. I like to put corned beef and carrots and mushrooms mixed with cream of mushroom soup and add a little garlic powder and seasoning salt and the stew is made! That’s one of my famous St. Patrick’s Day meals. Another recipe is my favorite sandwich — a corned beef sandwich on wheat bread. On both slices of bread, put Thousand Island dressing, plenty of corned beef, tomato and spinach. Cut it in half and enjoy! St. Patrick's Day is a good day to relax, wear and enjoy the color green, and celebrate the color green and praise Jesus. It is one of the most fun holidays of the winter! thank the men and women of Huron Valley Ambulance for getting me up, stabilizing and transporting me to the safety of a hospital. Now I live in Ypsilanti and have the privilege of giving honor to those who have helped me get back on my feet. In the weeks to come, I will give our readers a closer look into the history and inner workings of our first responders here in Washtenaw County. You will read about the brave individuals who have made a commitment to caring for those among us who can not take care of ourselves. Look for these in upcoming issues of Groundcover News. 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY EVENTS community EVENTS RIVERSIDE SWINGS Friday, March 6, 9-11 p.m. Riverside arts center. 76 N. Huron St., Ypsi. Swing dancing every Friday to recorded music. No partner or experience required. Wear comfortable low-grip/tread shoes. Preceded at 7 and 8 p.m. by hour-long lessons. Followed by a “late-night blues-&-fusion” dance. The 1st Friday of each month is free, and the 3rd Friday includes a Charleston lesson. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY BENEFIT SHOW Saturday, March 7, 5-8 p.m., LIVE nightclub 102 S. First Ave. Ann Arbor. Performances by Maddy Ringo, SK Rodriguez, Me Again Medicine Show, Juniper, Kira Blue and Michele Smolarski. Benefit show for Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. ANNUAL ADULTS SKATE TOO EXHIBITION Sunday, March 8, 12:45 -1:35 p.m., Ann Arbor Ice Club, 2121 Oak Valley. Local adult skaters of all levels show off their skills in freestyle, dance and showcase skating. Presented by the Ann Arbor Figure Skating Club. WONDER WALKS Matthaei Botanical Gardens lobby, 1800 N Dixboro Rd. Ann Arbor. Sunday, March 8, 1 p.m., "Signs for Spring." Walk to look for signs of thaw and birds returning. Wednesday March 18, 5 p.m. "Beaver Tales and Co-existence." Learn about how beavers have shaped local history and see changes in Matthaei since a family of beavers took up residence in 2023. OSCARS PREVIEW Wednesday, March 11, 6-7:30 p.m., AADL downtown, lower level program room. Attention all film fans! Join movie buffs Nick Alderink (Cinema Program Director at the Michigan Theater), Tara Calligan (Marketing Director at the Michigan Theater), Erica Gleichman (Head Projectionist at the Michigan Theater) and Martin Bandyke (host of Fine Tuning on Ann Arbor’s 107one) as they discuss who will win and who should win Oscars at the 98th Academy Awards. This Oscars preview event will include lots of movie clips and audience participation. SAFFRON KINGDOM SCREENING Thursday, March 12, 6-9 p.m., Rackham Auditorium 915 E Washington St., Ann Arbor. Screening of Saffron Kingdom, an exploration of the impacts of the Kashmir conflict, told through the journey of a family from Srinagar to Atlanta, highlighting themes of trauma, identity and resilience. Followed by Q+A with director Arfat Sheikh. Presented by United Asian American Organizations and Daffodil Productions. 2026 ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUMMIT Friday, March 13, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Washtenaw Community College Morris Lawrence Building, 4800 E. Huron River Dr., Ann Arbor This summit is designed to connect entrepreneurs and small business owners at any stage with the resources to help them grow their business successfully. This year’s event will include a government panel, a resource fair, presentations, multiple breakout growth lab offerings, and time dedicated to networking. If you plan to attend, please register here: bit.ly/4qjCMVp GROUNDCOVER WRITING WORKSHOP: STORY CONSTRUCTION Friday, March 13, 10 a.m., Groundcover News office. Sam Killian will be leading a workshop on presenting news stories: leads, hooks, closings and titles. Attend alongside Groundcover vendors and writers. BIKE SUMMIT 2026 Sunday, March 15, 11:30 a.m. - 4 p.m., WCC Student Center, 4800 E. Huron River Dr. All invited to join area bicycle advocates and enthusiasts for speeches and breakout sessions on topics related to improving individual skills and local cycling. Food and drink will be available for purchase. POTENTIAL ART SHOW: THE NEUTRAL ZONE Monday, March 16, 4-6 p.m., The Neutral Zone, 310 E. Washington St. Ann Arbor. Juried exhibition of art by high school students from across the country. Winning artists will receive cash prizes, scholarships, art supplies and a chance to exhibit at art galleries. EMU GEN AI SUMMIT Monday, March 16, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., EMU Student Center, 900 Oakwood Street, Ypsilanti. EMU is convening a regional "Gen AI Summit: Learning Together at the Forefront of Change" to bring together community members, educators, professionals, students and more for meaningful dialogue about how generative AI is reshaping our lives, work and learning. 30TH ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF ART BY MICHIGAN PRISONERS Tuesday, March 17, 6 p.m., U-M North Campus, Duderstadt Gallery, 2281 Bonisteel Blvd. The opening reception for this annual exhibit and sale of hundreds of art works by incarcerated residents of 26 state correctional facilities, features talks by U-M PCAP faculty. Artist talks and workshops throughout the week — for complete schedule see lsa. umich.edu/pcap AAFF 2026 SCREENING: FIND ONE WHO WAS NOT BORN OF WOMAN THAT ONE IS YOUR FATHER Wednesday, March 25, 9 p.m., Michigan Theater. Ann Arbor Film Festival Feature in Competition. Groundcover is community partner org. MARCH 6, 2026 MARCH 6, 2026 COMMUNITY EVENTS Chinese New Year 2026 celebration at Briarwood Mall: Year of the Horse I happened to go to the Briarwood Mall on Sunday, Feb. 15, around 10 a.m. just for fun. I love looking at all the fun love decorations for Valentine’s Day, the season of love. What I saw with my own eyes was a truly happy event. The Briarwood Mall was putting on a Chinese New Year celebration. This event blew me out of the water. It was so much fun. This clearly was organized by different local Asian organizations including AnnHua Chinese Association. This was a really amazing experience for me and brought back many old memories from growing up in Seattle, Washington — “the Emerald City” and “the Gateway to the Orient.” It was fun to see the mall decorations. The very first event was a mall dance dragon and lion parade with a drill team of drummers. Many people joined in and walked the length of the mall with the golden and red dragon. The atmosphere was of excitement and drumming in the new year. The first image was the very large golden dragon followed by a smaller red dragon clearly carried by kids of all ages. The drumming ladies followed with synchronicity and drill drummings. The dragons returned and everyone CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 gathered around the open area for the dancers in front of JC Penney with a lady in red who was the announcer for each event and dance. The tiny tots started the event with red streamers and jumping twirls, swaying to the right and left. Then the next age: sixyear-olds, with their streamers and fans. The different groups represented different ethnic regions of China and Mongolia, including three different age groups of dance Tai Chi. There was even a traditional Chinese opera ensemble in very elaborate golden costumes. The dancing went on into the afternoon with golden-agers showing the fun dance of a marriage, pretending to be a young man and woman together with a sprinkle of happy candy pitched Youth performers. into the crowd for the kids who were watching the event on the sidelines. At the end, people truly felt they had experienced Chinese New Year. And with that, like so many others, I found my way to the Panda Express Chinese food restaurant and ordered chicken barbecue and an egg roll with a yummy drink. This is the year of the horse. May all the luck of a running horse come to bring much wealth to you and peace to all the world. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 GET TO KNOW YDL! WHERE TO FIND US: Online at ypsilibrary.org Call us at 734-482-4110. TO GET YOUR LIBRARY CARD: 1) Fill out the easy online form at ypsilibrary.org/library-cards. 2) Call 734-482-4110 3) Or stop by any YDL location! DON’T HAVE A DRIVER’S LICENSE? We can work with a variety of IDs to get you your card. Repair Clinic Thursday | Mar 26 | 10-11:30am | YDL-Michigan In March, get help mending or sewing. Let us know if you have skills to lend, or things you’d like to see offered at a future repair clinic! FEATURED EVENT A2 Earth Day events will focus on the elements EARTH DAY PLANNING COMMITTEE The mental field upon which and within which we play and work and sweat, dance and dream is limitless! Upon this planet known as Gaia, commonly called Earth, we think — and feel — at times, “We got this.” “She’s got us,” though, is closer to the truth. Hopefully we do "Got this…" — at least enough of us to formulate the critical mass of Collective Consciousness necessary to keep the scales of justice tilted in the direction of the greater good. Mental clarity to the greatest degree we can achieve lends to our collective clarity in dealings with each other at various levels, and will lend toward our societal ability to stabilize and improve our relations with all — and with Gaia. Gaia has a mind of her own, of which we are a part. We need her, she ultimately does not need us; fortunately the current conditions at least seem to be giving us the chance to think things through. We (once again?) begin to integrate our thinking, feeling and physical being to summon our emotional fortitude to find our place in the universe, in the ethers therein. As we humble ourselves in knowing we know-not all the answers, we can be comforted in knowing all-of-the answers are there. These answers are available to us through observation; processing what we observe is possible with mental clarity; mental clarity is available with clearing; clearing is possible through meditation and silence. Not like the silence in “Silent Spring,” as so eloquently expressed by Rachel Carson in her book of that title. Eventually these writings of hers and others led to establishing Earth Day, which we will celebrate in Ann Arbor again — for an entire week this year, April 19-25. This will be in conjunction with a number of activities and events correlating with common concerns we share: Bicycle Day, Hemp Day, Arbor Day and an Earth Day event at the Leslie Science and Nature Center. Water: the element seemingly most closely related to the mental aspect of our being. Without clear circulation of clean water, our capacity to think clearly is compromised — as, I do believe, is the case with Gaia. This all delves into another dimension of the concept of thinking, which is a process of interrelated functions. Our thinking — and mental clarity — ought to lead us back to compassion, with the water circulating through our veins and her rivers to the heart, to the east and south. The east represents the spiritual aspect of our being, the south the physical, in this framework of distinction addressing these common concerns that we all share. And once we stabilize (as best we can) these aspects, we then are Phil Hale Quartet— presented by the Jazz Foundation of America Saturday | Mar 28 | 2-3pm YDL-Superior YDL welcomes the Phil Hale Jazz Quartet, featuring Phil Hale on keys, John Douglas on trumpet, John Barron on bass, and Djallo Djakate on drums. Their focus is on playing modern takes on standard jazz with a strong swing twist. prepared to look into the unknown, represented by the west, and leave the past behind, lending to more space for that clarity. Earth does this every day as Gaia, kissing the Sun good-night, in all our regions, every hour on the minute in this eternal existence where time as we know it exists-not. We have all of the time in the world, as she sails through the ethers, the universe within which we exist, and think — therefore we are.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS MARCH 6, 2026 St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church rolls out the red carpet for the men's rotating shelter JOE WOODS Groundcover vendor No. 103 Dear members of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, I am writing to express my sincere gratitude and to commend you for the incredible hospitality you provided during your recent time serving as a site for the men's rotating shelter. While Michigan winters are notoriously brutal — especially for those in our community without a permanent home — the warmth and care I witnessed at your church were truly exceptional. Having spent time at other local organizations like St. Francis and Bethlehem United Church of Christ, I have seen many groups do great work. However, my first interaction with St. Nick Greek Orthodox Church left a lasting impression. I typically feel uncomfortable in new environments, but your members made me feel completely at ease. I was amazed to see everyone treated with the level of service you would expect from a five-star hotel. From the homemade spaghetti and Mexican-style burritos to the "Greek Thursday" gyros and custom-made omelets, the effort put into every meal was extraordinary. And I forgot to mention that they had a foosball table! People were playing chess, board games, and the U-M street medicine team came. I initially became involved through my friend and church member, Ben Curtis, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to witness your mission firsthand. It is clear that your service comes from a place of genuine love and a desire to help. I wanted to personally thank Father Nick and the members of the church. I want to give the congregation "10 stars" for a spectacular first-time impression. Thank you for your kindness, your generosity and for the dignity you showed to everyone who walked through your doors. Sincerely, Joe Woods Top left: Volunteers serving a homemade dinner. Top right: The Church provided abundant hygeine supplies and winter gear for guests to take. Bottom: Church volunteers. Fr. Nick pictured center. Building a better understanding of trauma, mental health for men from everyone to try to sort myself out, so I went to London to stay with some friends. StayANDREW Changing the Narrative Series In late summer 2016, I was on my way home from work when I got a phone call from my sister. I could sense that there was something wrong from the tone in her voice — she was about to tell me that my mum had cancer. The news was terrible, but I already had a gut feeling that everything was going to change for me and our family. It was a bad, bad time — my sister Kirsty also found out that she had cancer, and three of my best friends passed away during that period. I ended up splitting up with my then-partner and moved back to Cardiff, where I’m from originally. I thought everything was going okay for me, but eventually I began to realize that things were far from fine as my drinking got increasingly out of hand. I was drinking heavily to hide the pain I was in. After a year of uncertainty and turmoil, I decided that I needed to leave Cardiff. I wanted to have a break ing with them long term wasn’t possible, so I found a homeless charity and we talked over my options. After talking to me about why I ended up homeless, they put in contact with a homeless charity called Emmaus in Gloucestershire. Emmaus asked me to come and visit, which I willingly did. While there, I was offered and accepted a place with them in their supported accommodation. It was time of change. While all of this was going on, I found out that my brother and sister had reported me as missing. I’d come off social media and didn’t realise they were so worried. I was also suffering with my mental health at the time, problems that I knew were getting worse, but I just could not admit that I needed to get help. Once again, I felt that if I moved on, it might help. So, in 2019, I decided to ask Emmaus if they had any places in Scotland, and they did, so I moved north. While I was at Glasgow Emmaus, I started to receive cognitive behavioural therapy to get some support for my mental health, and that helped a lot. Things were more positive at that time, and that helped me make the decision, just before my 50th birthday, to reconnect with my family after being away from them for so long. I even decided to move back to Emmaus Wales to be near my family, and to try to settle down and have a normal life. But truthfully, at the back of my mind, I knew I still wasn't right. I still found it hard to try to deal with my pain, partly because no-one knew how I was really feeling. And no-one knew because I found it hard to talk about my feelings; even talking to my family was difficult. Fast forward to 2024, and once again I was finding it very hard to cope with everything because of how I was feeling. Living in a shared house was not helping, Sso once again I packed a bag and headed back to London. I wasn’t sure what I was doing or why I was doing it because my head was so mixed up. I was trying to deal with a lot of emotions from past traumas that I had never really talked to anyone about. I found it very hard to talk about how some experiences had affected me over the years, and how they had affected my family. I had never really talked about what I had been through. But at last, I’m beginning to talk. I’m back in Glasgow, and I’ve been able to get more counselling, which is helping me understand and process what I have been through. For the first time, I’ve been able to talk about being abused as a child. I’ve begun to understand that the trauma caused by that abuse is what has affected my mental health so badly over the years. I realize now that I’ve been wearing a mask for so many years; a mask that I put on to present myself as a happy-go-lucky guy just going through life, when the reality was that I was falling apart. The counselling I’m having now is giving me a better understanding of how I’ve managed to survive everything I’ve been through. My hope for the future is to try to help others by sharing my own experiences — maybe that might encourage a better understanding of what mental health means to other men. Courtesy of INSP.ngo MARCH 6, 2026 LABOR Unions have a long, proud and often contentious history in Michigan, from the Flint sit-down strikes that launched the United Auto Workers in the 1930s to the current struggle by Starbucks workers in Washtenaw County to get better wages. Union membership in America has declined steadily since the 1970s. The share of all U.S. workers who belong to a union or are covered by a union contract has fallen over the past 50-55 years. In 2025, just 11.2% of all workers in the country were covered by a union contract, according to federal data. In the private sector, just 6.8% of workers were covered by a union agreement. This compares to 23-29% covered in 1970. Unions remain strong in some important areas of the Michigan economy. Recently, the UAW successfully fought to protect the job of Ford Dearborn assembly plant worker TJ Sabula who was suspended after heckling President Donald Trump as he toured the factory. But many workers face business monopolies that keep workers without competitive pay and little or no healthcare insurance. For example, executives for Starbucks refuse to honor Starbucks employees' decision to form a labor union. Nurses and teachers from all over America are striking, striving to receive the compensation and decency they deserve in today’s workforce. Since 1979, Labor Notes, a media and organizing project, has been the voice of union activists who want to reinvigorate the labor movement. Through their magazine, website, books, conferences and workshops, they promote organizing, aggressive strategies to take on employers, labor-community solidarity and unions that are run by their members. Labor Notes covers a wide range of MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 labor union and social justice issues. Labor Notes has often focused over the years on the United Auto Workers, which once set the pace for wages and healthcare across many industries. The UAW succeeded in February in winning 20% wage increases for Volkswagen workers in Tennessee and negotiated historic improvements (a 30% wage increase with over $42 per hour at the top end, reinstatement of cost of living increases, and elimination of the wage tier system) for workers at the Detroit automakers in 2023. But the UAW has also been rocked in recent years by corruption scandals. The 2026 Labor Notes Conference is scheduled for June 12–14, in the Chicago area, at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Rosemont, Illinois. This major gathering of union activists, reformers and workers will feature over 200 workshops and meetings focused on bargaining, organizing and strengthening the labor movement. The Labor Heritage Foundation's Great Labor Arts Exchange, an annual arts festival that celebrates the history of the labor movement, will be part of the conference events. Registration is now open. Jane Slaughter, the long-time editor of Labor Notes, now retired, spoke with Groundcover News about the state of labor unions and the challenges workers face. GCN: Is Labor Notes trying to get more readers outside of the labor movement? Slaughter: We have been mainly directed at those in the movement, but there are a lot of people that read it that are not involved with unions that support the publication. GCN: What’s the relationship between Labor Notes and big unions, especially the UAW? Slaughter: That has varied over the Published by Labor Notes (2016) years. When Labor Notes got started in 1979, UAW thought we were the worst of the worst because we criticized the union when they didn’t do the right thing. Since then some unions have changed leadership from time to time, so we were able to have good relationships with some union leaders like UAW President Shawn Fain. GCN: That brings me to my next What is a labor union? A labor union is a group of employees who organize together to collectively bargain with their employer for better wages, benefits, and working conditions, acting as a unified voice to gain more power than individuals have alone. Through democratic processes, members elect leaders to negotiate contracts (collective bargaining agreement) covering pay, hours, safety and job security, ensuring fairer treatment and greater job security. question: Do you feel that UAW President Shawn Fain is more in sync with the Labor Notes viewpoint than his immediate predecessors? Slaughter: Yes, he spoke at the last conference and was very popular. Shawn Fain is like night and day from UAW presidents in the past. Because those before him who ran the UAW were corrupt, and worthless when it came to standing up for the workers. We at Labor Notes support Shawn Fain wholeheartedly. We believe he is doing a good job as a leader, but the UAW needs a broader base movement, like locals standing up to management on the shop floor. It can't always come from the top. There is a long way to go to make the UAW what it should and can be. GCN: How do you think workers at Starbucks and Amazon can successfully unionize? Slaughter: As you know employees have been unionizing several years now, but they still don’t have a contract. They started bargaining with Starbuck’s management and management refuses to budge on a lot of things that are important to them. Starbucks has 10,000 stores and only 600 stores are unionized, so a strike is not going to have a huge impact. I believe they are doing the right thing striking and trying to get public support, and they are getting public support because it is such a visible brand, but still have a long way to go. Amazon is a whole ‘nother profession, also extremely hard to unionize because management, in the form of owner Jeff Bezos, opposes unionizing. I feel the Teamsters could be doing more because organizing Amazon is absolutely essential for the future of the labor movement. One of the Teamsters’ biggest employers is UPS, and Amazon tends to eat UPS’s lunch, and see LABOR NOTES page 11  Brief history of labor unions The era when workers fought for their rights spans from the late 18th century Industrial Revolution through the Progressive Era (early 20th century) and beyond, with major milestones including early strikes in the 1700s, the formation of national unions like the National Labor Union (1866), and militant actions in the 1880s-90s (Knights of Labor). Landmark legislation like the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) established minimum wage, overtime and child labor laws. There were ongoing fights for rights in the mid-tolate 20th century, with struggle in the Civil Rights Era (1960s), as seen in the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike. The first U.S. trade union, The Federal Society of Journeyman Cordwainers (shoemakers) was formed in Philadelphia in 1794, marking the start of sustained union organization, though efforts like the 1768 tailors' strike showed earlier worker action. In 1818 the General Union of Trades (Philanthropic Society) formed in Manchester (UK), an early attempt to unite different trades. In 1869 the Knights of Labor were founded, becoming the first significant national labor organization in the United States, recruiting diverse workers. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Labor unions and Labor Notes Conference 2026 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LAND USE I spoke at the podium, but was anyone listening? MARCH 6, 2026 The plan behind the plan AYAT SOHOUBAH U-M student contributor At its February 2 meeting, the Ann Arbor City Council approved the first reading of a 30-year renewal and expansion of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority (DDA). The vote extends the DDA’s tax ELIZABETH "LIT" KURTZ Groundcover vendor No. 159 While the inhumane realities of people living — and literally dying — on the streets of a college town known for its progressive ideals have become disturbingly normalized, it is difficult to accept the possibility that local government may be normalizing them as well. Having lived this reality for over a decade, I occupy a rare vantage point from which to speak about the destabilizing experiences of those surviving outside of traditional housing. I was genuinely elated to have the opportunity to present a solution I believed aligned with the City’s stated goals of equitability and sustainability. Survival is my full-time job. That reality afforded me only brief moments and cursory glances at the details of the Planning Commission meeting where the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) would be finalized. I arrived late, unsure whether I would be permitted to speak without having signed up in advance. As I listened to the final round of public commentary, I weighed each remark as it touched on affordability, equitability, sustainability, and dynamic growth. Shortly before public commentary closed, Chair Wyche asked whether anyone else wished to speak. Though I remained uncertain about certain procedural technicalities, I felt steady as I approached the podium, with the knowledge I was speaking from lived experience. A daytime stabilization center would not only advance the City’s stated goals, but also provide immediate structure and support for residents experiencing housing instability while creating realistic pathways toward employment and long-term housing. Without stability, employment — often the first step toward affordability — remains out of reach. I used my time at the podium to address the unique needs facing this community. My remarks moved beyond the familiar affordability debate and centered on the foundational need for daytime stability for those locked out of mainstream housing markets. Yet in the media coverage that followed, there was no mention of my commentary. Even The Michigan Daily, a student-led publication, did not reference or pivot toward the housing instability perspective offered by someone directly experiencing it. The omission is notable. Student journalism often presents itself as attentive to emerging and underrepresented viewpoints, yet this firsthand account of housing instability did not enter the public narrative. If I am being honest, that silence left a lingering sense that I did not fully belong in that space. Prior to my remarks, Chair Wyche offered an explanation of the meeting’s purpose that reflected a subtle institutional paternalism — a dynamic in which individuals experiencing homelessness are perceived as needing instruction and guidance rather than being equal participants. In a city where homelessness remains an ever-present crisis in our midst, it was mentioned only three times across the entirety of public commentary spanning all three meetings on the Comprehensive Land Use Plan. That scarcity — compounded by the absence of media acknowledgment — suggests not see PODIUM next page  capture authority through 2055, expands its district northward, and removes a 3.5% annual cap on how much its revenue can grow. While much of the public debate in Ann Arbor centers on the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP), this decision focuses on a less visible issue: who controls the tax revenue generated by that growth. The CLUP sets the city’s longterm vision. It shapes where housing can be built, how dense downtowns become, and which transit and infrastructure investments are prioritized. When development increases property values, property tax revenue increases as well. That increase is captured by the DDA through Tax Increment Financing (TIF). TIF does not raise taxes. Instead, it captures the growth in tax revenue within a defined district and reinvests it in that same district. According to the DDA, TIF funds capital improvements, such as streets, sidewalks, utilities and parks, as well as support for affordable housing. In 2025, the DDA collected $5.2 million that would have otherwise gone directly to the city. Washtenaw County lost over $2.2 million to DDA capture that same year. Those funds could have supported county services, including mental health, public safety and social services. Under the current structure, DDA revenue growth is capped at 3.5% annually. The proposed renewal would remove that cap and replace it with a “gainshare” model, allowing the DDA to capture 70% of tax growth while returning 30% to other taxing entities. The plan would extend this structure for another 30 years. Public comments at the meeting reflected sharp divisions. Supporters highlighted infrastructure improvements, transit investments, and most notably, housing support. The Ann Arbor Housing Commission said the expansion would enable improvements to housing properties. Critics questioned oversight and long-term financial trade-offs, arguing that diverting funds from the county creates a “zero-sum game.” Despite these concerns, the council approved the renewal and expansion unanimously at first reading. The timing wasn’t coincidental. The DDA renewal occurred alongside votes to rezone parcels at Fifth and Madison for a 14-story development and to approve a $370 million Brownfield TIF plan for Arbor South, another mechanism to redirect future tax revenue. Taken together, these decisions show how Ann Arbor’s growth strategy is structured. The Comprehensive Plan shapes where development happens. TIF determines how the financial gains from that development are distributed. Together, they shape both the physical and financial future downtown. The DDA renewal will return to council for second reading in April, after a 60-day window in which other taxing jurisdictions may opt out. As the city continues revising its Comprehensive Plan, public participation matters. The Planning Commission held a second public hearing on the Comprehensive Land Use Plan on February 18. The public hearing lasted for over four hours, with 56 residents expressing their thoughts both in person and online. In a unanimous decision, the planning commission voted to adopt the Comprehensive Land Use Plan. The Ann Arbor City Council will hold another public hearing and vote on the TIF plan March 2. Then, on Monday, April 20, the City Council will hold the second reading and final vote on the ordinance renewing and expanding the DDA’s Development and TIF Plan. Both meetings include opportunities for public comment, so let your voice be heard. Editor's note: The American Association of University Women are hosting an event on Wednesday, March 18, 12:30 p.m. at the Ann Arbor City Club (1830 Washtenaw Ave.) on Ann Arbor's Comprehensive Land Use Plan. The Ann Arbor Economic Development Corporation and Equitable Ann Arbor Land Trust board member Brian R. Chambers will be discussing the current land use plan and challenges of achieving housing affordability, sustainability and equity. of MARCH 6, 2026 SPORTS KEVIN KINCHEN Groundcover vendor No. 691 For those of us who know Michigan as the "Water-Winter Wonderland," it is only befitting that the Great Lakes State be granted at least a small stake, a minute share, a morsel, of Winter Olympic glory in the aftermath of the recent 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games. Men's Hockey Did you know that all four overtime skaters for the United States men’s hockey team, in their dramatic victory against Canada, are native Michiganders? Technically. Dylan Larkin, Zach Werenski and Connor Hellebuyck were born and bred here in Michigan (Waterford, Gross Pointe and Commerce, respectively). Golden goal scoring hero Jack Hughes was born in Orlando, Florida. However, he moved to Michigan at the age of 14 to play for the U.S. National Team Development Program based in Plymouth. It was this move that allowed him to join forces with Werenski, Larkin, and Hellebuyck as part of the Belle Tire Hockey Club in Detroit. Unbeknownst to them, they began weaving the tapestry of a destined return to glory for United States hockey that even Nostradamus didn’t see coming. It just so happens that the day on which the men’s hockey team won gold for the first time in 46 years, was the 46-year anniversary — to the date (February 22, 1980) — of the "Miracle on Ice" in Lake Placid, New York. This is the famed game in which a group of amateur ranked college kids — with dim prospects of making it into the NHL — beat the indomitable Soviet Union team, four goals to three. In the stands and in the broadcast booth, spectators were left to shout, “Do you believe in miracles!!!?” Just two weeks prior the Soviets had literally crushed United States in an exhibition inside Madison Square Garden by a score that read: USSR 10 USA 3. The event was so inspiring towards national striving and patriotism for the next generation of skaters that it eventually made its way to the silver screen as "Miracle" (2004). Figure Skating Ann Arbor-born Ice Dance figure skater Evan Bates, alongside his lovely wife Madison Chock, ensured just that with a series of riveting performances in the Individual Ice Dance event. Evan graduated from Huron High School and holds a degree from the University of Michigan in Organizational Studies. Madison is a talented and beautiful Hawaiian, Chinese, German, Irish, French and Dutch heritaged California native. Their showings in both the rhythm dance and free dance were nothing short of poetry on ice. A balletic opera performed with speed, precision, agility and synchrony that supercedes even the actors in a play by William Shakespeare. Dancing to “Paint it Black,” they were majestic; they could slide, glide and soar. They waltzed, tangoed and paso dobled across the Flagbearers Hilary Knight and Evan Bates of the United States in the parade of athletes during the closing ceremony. Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics. Verona Olympic Arena, Verona, Italy. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane ice with Chock the miniature matador and Bates the towering bull. Skating second-to-last in the final event, they temporarily seized the best score of the skate (134.67) before the final skaters, France’s Guillaume Cizeron and Lauren Fournier Beaudry, posted a 135.64 to bring their score for the dances combined to 225.82, edging our flag-bearing protagonists by 1.43 total points for the Gold. The scoring came with much controversy as the judge from France is considered to have given an inordinately high score to their home team. Some have gone as far as to say Chock and Bates were hands-down the best team, and that they were cheated out of Gold. After skating together for 15 years and four Olympics this is their first  PODIUM from last page merely oversight, but a troubling normalization of a crisis that has lingered far too long and continues with no visible slowing in sight. From a Comprehensive Land Use Plan standpoint, the City’s promise of inclusion began to feel more symbolic than substantive. The plan speaks of broad participation, yet the lack of recognition for voices grounded in firsthand reality — particularly those navigating housing instability — raises important questions about how equitability is actually practiced. It did not feel like a simple overMadison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States perform during the Exhibition Gala. Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics, Figure Skating. Milano Ice Skating Arena, Milan, Italy. REUTERS/Claudia Greco sight, but rather a continuation of longstanding planning habits that have historically kept unhoused residents outside of infrastructure conversations. I found myself individual medal. They have Olympic team medal (including one on Feb. 8 of these games), as well as medals in World Championships, Grand Prix Final, World Team Trophy and World Junior Championship. Full disclosure, I had no idea that I could gain so much enjoyment out of watching figure skating. Now, Chock and Bates are the envy of the world. As it turns out, Milano Ice Skating Arena in Italy was a place in the world where true love was alive, moving, grooving, and oh so soothing. At least, that’s the picture the most decorated United States dance ice skate team in history painted on the world stage, with their Olympic experience culminating in a Silver medal on February 11, 2026. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Mich. athletes represent in 2026 Winter Olympics 9 wondering whether my perspective was overlooked because it came directly from lived experience rather than from an organization or credentialed representative considered more formally recognized within the planning process. When planning processes lean more heavily toward institutional authority than real-world insight, the goals of sustainability, dynamic community growth, and equity risk becoming aspirational language rather than measurable practice. Still, whether or not my remarks were acknowledged by the media, the public record reflects that I was present and that I spoke. That fact alone affirms a larger truth: unhoused residents are not peripheral to the city’s future. We are part of its infrastructure, and we deserve a place in shaping its design.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LEGACY MARCH 6, 2026 Rev. Jesse Jackson, iconic civil rights activist, founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, has passed on On Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, the nation woke up to hear that Reverend Jesse Jackson had died during the early morning hours. He was born on October 8, 1941, in the town of Greenville, South Carolina. He was 84 years old when he passed on. His name at birth was Jesse Louis Burns. Jackson’s mother was an 18-year-old high school student and his father was a 33-year-old neighbor who was married at the time. The father’s name was Noah Louis Robinson. Historians say that a year later after his birth, Jesse’s mom got married to a man named Charles Henry Jackson. He was a post office maintenance worker with a stable job and income. He later adopted Jesse who took his surname and became known as Jesse Jackson. Historians and some biographers said that Reverend Jackson maintained close relationships with his real dad and his stepdad. He did refer to them as his fathers. Jackson attended racially segregated schools in South Carolina and his family and community lived under the Jim Crow segregation system. He attended the all-black segregated high school in Greenville called Sterling High School. He excelled in academics and sports. He stood out as a good baseball player, basketball player and football player. In 1960, he was recruited to attend The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on a football scholarship. He stayed for two semesters and later transferred to the predominantly Black North Carolina A&T University at Greenboro. After his graduation, he travelled to Chicago Theological Seminary to get his Master’s degree. In 1965, Rev. Jackson left the Seminary to join Rev./Dr. Martin Luther King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference members to make the long march from Selma to Montgomery. Dr. King saw his potential for community organizing and mobilization, and wanted Rev. Jackson to run “Operation Breadbasket" in Chicago the following year (1966), which he did. Jackson was a highly energetic civil rights activist. Because of his youthful outlook and shared cultural perspectives, Dr. King and SCLC relied on Jackson to inspire and motivate younger Americans to join the non-violent civil rights movement. In large crowds at a music event or a large Baptist Church congregation, Jackson could be heard shouting in an octane voice, “I am, I am, Somebody!!!” In many events, he might play the role of a preacherman and say, “It gets tough sometimes, it WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 gets dark sometimes, but hold on, hold out, until the morning comes. There will always be joy in the morning!!!” He was able to give an eloquent speech befitting a theatrical performance. Jackson joined Dr. King during his mass protest on behalf of Memphis sanitation workers who faced unfair labor practices such as wage exploitation and poor working conditions. On the afternoon of April 4, 1968, Dr. King was shot at the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. Rev. Jackson said he was at the first floor parking lot when Dr. King was shot. After King’s assasination, there was a leadership vacuum within the Black American population. There were several contests between Jackson and Dr. King’s successors at the SCLC. The majority of young Black people such as Rev. Al Sharpton of Brooklyn, New York, wanted Rev. Jackson to be the consensus leader of the Black community during the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and beyond. The political ambitions and diplomacy of Rev. Jesse Jackson Dr. King had confided to a few of his civil rights lieutenants that he admired Rev. Jesse Jackson’s courage, youth leadership, sense of community and fearlessness. However, he was a little concerned about Jackson’s ambition. Eventually, King trusted Jackson enough to explain away any concerns. King was a voracious reader and a reflective practitioner. It is likely he was familiar with author Joseph Conrad’s quote from his book “A Personal Record” which was published in 1912. Conrad said, “All ambitions are lawful, except those that trample upon the miseries and credulities of mankind.” Jackson made an ambitious decision to run for the presidency of the United States in 1984. His presidential campaign was nation-wide, unlike the presidential campaign of former congresswoman Shirley Chisolm of New York City. Jackson’s 1984 presidential bid was not successful. However, he Jesse Jackson pictured left of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Memphis Lorraine Motel on the day of King's assassination. was known as a trailblazer. He ran again in 1988 to become the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. He came close to winning the nomination, but eventually he lost to former Massachusetts Governor, Michael Dukakis. Historians and many members of the legacy mass media considered Jackson’s presidential bid a historic national experience. That was the first time a Black person was taken seriously as a presidential candidate. Jackson applied his political strategy of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition — basically, that various people of color should work for change together — in every state in the Union. He won eight states, including Michigan. He was able to change the Democratic presidential rules on awarding delegates during the primary and caucus elections. In the past, the rule was that whoever comes in on top, takes all the delegates. Jackson’s petition had the rules changed to proportional awards of delegates based on percentages. Many political analysts have said that change of democratic rules made it possible for Barack Obama’s bid for democratic presidential nomination in 2007 and 2008 and, eventually, the Presidency. During the January 2009 presidential inauguration for Obama, Jackson said, “The hands that used to pick cotton, are now picking the president of the United States.” In the world of diplomacy, Jackson traveled to various corners of the - globe, trying to help resolve global conflicts. He was a “Special Envoy” for President Bill Clinton. He secured the release of Americans who were held hostage in Bosnia, Syria and other regions of the world. He was right there in South Africa the day that Nelson Mandela was released from prison after spending 27 years in Robben Island detention center. Jackson was instrumental in the choice of names that Black Americans called themselves in the 1980s and beyond. American leaders such as Dr. King would refer to Black people as “Negroes.” Younger generations such as Jesse Jackson and Singer/Performer James Brown preferred “Black Americans.” Jackson would address a large crowd with the slogan, “I am, I am, somebody; I am, I am, somebody.” James Brown could be heard in concert venues, yelling, “Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud; Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud.” Jackson talked to several Black historians, including former University of Michigan historian and political scientist Dr. Ali Mazrui, about using a name change to link Black Americans to their ancestral home in Africa. Dr. Mazrui had finished the “Lord Reith Lectures” at BBC/Oxford University and wrote the book titled, “The Africans: A Triple Heritage.” In the book, Mazrui argued that Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Greek Americans and other ethnic communities take pride in their ancestral origins. Unfortunately, the mass media portray a more negative image of Africa as backward, poor and desolate. In fact the mass media would say, “Forget that you are Africans, remember that you are Blacks.” Jackson and some Black intellectuals worked with the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to promote the more enduring and historic name, “African-Americans.” One member of OAU provided a 747 jumbo jet to Jackson and his crew to travel to various countries in Africa to announce the name change and the solidarity with the African people. On his way back to the United States. he stopped by London where he received joyous appreciation for his diplomatic leadership. see JACKSON next page  In the 1960s some Black MARCH 6, 2026 LEGACY  LABOR NOTES from page 7 I know the Teamsters don’t want UPS to go out of business. I believe the Teamsters need to step up their game, and pull more resources when it comes to organizing at Amazon. GCN: What would be the best strategy for union leaders to convince workers who oppose unions to unionize? Slaughter: The power of a good example is the best way. If you can show by joining a union you are going to gain a 20% pay increase like the workers at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee and show other benefits non-union workers don’t receive, I  JACKSON from last page The Michigan connection Governor Whitmer of Michigan ordered that the American flag at the State Capitol in Lansing be flown on half mast as an honor to Jesse Jackson’s passing. Jackson had visited Michigan so many times. He launched his 1988 presidential bid at Flint, Michigan. He won the Michigan Presidential caucus which was deemed a historic upset. He brought to the national attention the plight of poor people in Flint and surrounding areas who were suffering under the weight of unsafe and polluted water. He also magnified the knowledge of people around the nation about deindustrialization and what happened to assembly workers when their jobs disappeared. During his presidential campaign, he visited many Michigan counties, including Washtenaw, Wayne, Oakland, Monroe and Livingston. He gave presentations at the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University and local churches. At U-M, Jackson’s presence was felt tremendously. He had helped with labor disputes on the U-M campus. He also helped with negotiations between U-M administrators and student activists. His most notable presence in Ann Arbor was in 1987 when the Black Action Movement III (BAM) did a sit-in at President Shapiro' s Fleming Administration Building. There were incidents of racial tensions, stress and acrimony inside some dorms. Some minority students did not feel safe and welcomed on campus. President Shapiro invited Jackson to Ann Arbor to help the campus heal and calm things down. Jackson met separately with the students and the administrator, and later they met together for an honest negotiation and, of course, conflict resolution. Jackson’s presence helped believe it is the best demonstration. The union should use workers who have lived experiences as non-union workers, too, and are now union workers, and show the benefits of unionizing. Workers will tend to believe a worker before they believe a paid union rep; plead your case 'worker to worker.' GCN: I see on the website that Labor Notes is featuring stories of ICE activities in Minneapolis. What are your thoughts on the labor movement and the current Administration's immigration crackdown by identifying, detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants across the United States? Slaughter: Divide and conquer to assuage the distrust between the “warring” parties and put the campus on a better trajectory of interpersonal cooperation, mutual respect and positive communication. A few years before the COVID-19 pandemic, former Ford School Dean and University Provost Susan Collins invited Rev. Jackson to Ann Arbor in order to share his knowledge and life experience with the School of Public Policy students, the University community and the Washtenaw community. More than three thousand people visited Rackham Auditorium to hear Jackson’s speech and participate in Q&A. It was a joyful occasion! Tributes and funeral ceremonies After Rev Jesse Jackson died on Feb. 17, the Spectrum News of New York listed the following tributes: “You don't drown cause the water is deep. You drown cause you stop kicking. You can never stop kicking, brother Crump. You can never stop kicking,’’’ said attorney Ben Crump, one of many paying tribute to the civil rights icon. “Time and again, we knew that hope still lived because Reverend Jesse Jackson kept it alive,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said. More came from the country's top leaders, saying they were saddened by his death, calling the leader and twotime presidential candidate legendary. In a social media post, Sen. Charles Schumer said he was a “fearless warrior for justice.” He went on to call him “one of the most powerful forces for positive change in our country and in our world.” President Donald Trump also reminisced by posting photos of the two from the 80s on his Truth Social account, and going on to say, “He was a good man with lots of personality, grit and street smarts. He was very Jesse Jackson delivering a speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. — they are trying to convince workers who are not immigrants that they have nothing in common with immigrants, but the reality is that all workers, immigrants and non- immigrants, face some of the same challenges in today’s work force. GCN: Do you feel that President Trump is pro-union? Slaughter: No, he doesn't have a union bone in his body. GCN: What should we expect at the Labor Notes Conference 2026? Slaughter: It will be very large. We are expecting around 5,000 people to attend this year. High profile issues will be represented in the labor movement topics like Starbucks and organizing at gregarious.” Closer to home, New Yorkers paid tribute. “Somebody who told us to keep hope alive and during this difficult time in history he gave us a blueprint on where we need to go to really keep hope alive,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said. Gov. Kathy Hochul said flags would be lowered to half-staff in Jackson's honor. “A nod to a life that's come to an end — and a legacy that lives on,” Spectrum News noted. “Jesse Jackson changed the civil rights movement. He was a consequential and transformative figure,” said noted civil rights leader, Rev. Al Sharpton. “He laid the foundation for my own campaign to he highest office of the land,” said President Barack Obama (published by Yahoo News on February 17,2026). On Feb. 26, the funeral for the late Reverend Jackson started with the movement of his coffin from the funeral home to the headquarters of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. His family GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Amazon. The conference will have two hundred workshops and meetings, and people and organizations from Minneapolis will be in attendance. One thing that always happens at Labor Notes conferences is a lot of networking, and I believe it will be even more so this year. People tend to use this conference to meet face to face with people and different organizations they've been communicating with, but now have the chance to meet for the first time. Read current and past articles at labornotes.org. Registration for the annual Labor Notes Conference in Chicago is closed, but you can join the waitlist at www.labornotes.org/2026 accompanied the entourage and they allowed several minutes for a press conference. Jackson’s children spoke and answered questions from the press. One of the memorable answers came from his daughter, who said, “The family always let their father and each other know that they love each other. We try not to go to sleep angry with each other and it is very important to our father that we express love to one another and to him as often as possible.” Jackson’s casket was moved to South Carolina’s State Capitol on March 2. The body will lie in repose at the Capitol’s rotunda for mourners to view with respect. Later, the body will be flown to Washington, D.C., to be honored by the public, civic and political leaders. After that, Jackson’s body will be flown to South Side Chicago for a final resting place. Throughout his political campaign and interactions with poor people in Chicago and across the nation, Jackson is known for having said, “KEEP HOPE ALIVE! KEEP HOPE ALIVE!!” R.I.P. Rev. Jesse Jackson.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers MARCH 6, 2026 ACROSS 1. Very, in music 6. Scoundrels 10. Atlantic fish 14. Navy ___ 15. Alliance 16. A non-American's unit of weight 17. Repeated behavior 18. Follower of the Pentagram 20. Protozoa 22. Papa's partner 23. "___ the season ..." 24. Branch of the United States Armed Forces 26. Australian runner 27. "Star Trek" rank: Abbr. 28. "___, humbug!" 29. Schematic drawing 31. Poison plant 33. Aardvark fare 34. What some might call a place without dissent 39. Oyster's favorite stitch? 40. Come to 41. Progress 45. Anger 46. Finish, with "up" 49. Born, in bios 50. Order including ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies 53. "To ___ is human ..." 54. Carbon compound 55. Have-not 56. They'll get your boat going in a jiffy, but don't ask for gas 59. Manicurist's or carpenter's concern 60. On the safe side, at sea 61. Exec's note 62. Clear, as a disk 63. "Check this out!" 64. Father of Balder 65. Force units DOWN 1. "That's ___!" ("Too bad!") 2. Deck figure 3. Light weapons? 4. Accused's need 5. City in the headlines for a crackdown on journalism 6. "60 Minutes" network 7. "Remember the ___!" 8. Geezer 9. Seafood dish 10. Schuss, e.g. 11. Water tanks 12. Final 13. Animals known for playing dead 19. Astronaut's insignia 21. Clothes lines 25. Crack, as lips 30. Acquire 31. Aria, e.g. 32. Aviary sound 34. Memorials 35. Solar system models 36. Drops from the sky 37. Canton neighbor 38. Intensified 39. Tree secretion 42. "Beg pardon ..." 43. Go-getter 44. Like salmon, often 46. Highway divider 47. End of a threat 48. Breaks down a sentence 51. Fragrant resin 52. Like some goodbyes 57. Rent 58. Howard of "Happy Days" PUZZLE SOLUTIONS February 20, 2026 edition MARCH 6, 2026 RESOURCES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13 Gratitude for outpouring of love, money and personal assistance sustaining vendors SUSAN BECKETT Pubilsher emeritus It really does take a village. Historically, Groundcover volunteer staff has been made up primarily of retirees with a sprinkle of college students. With COVID striking, most of the older volunteers had to isolate while college students returned to their parents. Miraculously, a covey of young adults appeared at our doorstep offering help. They have delivered groceries and money to homebound Groundcover vendors, set up and managed phone plans, made masks, provided tech support for many phones and devices, helped vendors file for the stimulus and unemployment and are now helping us sell papers to our vendors in the outdoor spaces around our office. Many of our older supporters and volunteers donated all or some of their stimulus checks to help our vendors stay housed and connected when vendors’ Groundcover income disappeared in mid-March. Some volunteers transitioned to helping remotely — checking in with vendors weekly and assisting with tax and benefit filing. Food Gatherers and the Community Action Network supply us weekly with appropriate food to distribute to vendors who are in need. Devoted readers subscribed to our online publication, providing us with cash that we passed on to our vendors weekly. To date, none of the Groundcover vendors have contracted COVID-19. Even though we are again publishing and selling a physical paper, we are continuing some of the supports. Many vendors have underlying health or age conditions that make it especially risky for them to be out. And we never know when the incidence of cases in Washtenaw County might rise to the point where we need to suspend print operations again. (For anyone wondering, you can subscribe to our online edition through our website, groundcovernews.org.) Even now, we are restricting our sales to the downtown and campus areas of Ann Arbor to avoid the areas where case counts are higher and to allow for better oversight. All vendors are required to go through a COVID orientation that details the safety practices we expect them to follow while selling Groundcover. These include wearing a facemask over the mouth and nose, maintaining a distance of six feet from others whenever possible and frequent hand sanitation. We are also encouraging cashless sales. So don’t be surprised if you are offered the option of paying by credit card, Cash App or Venmo! We give heartfelt thanks to all our donors and our pandemic support staff of Jessi, Glenn, Hailu, Lucy, Michael, Elahe (Eli), Andrea, Tyler, Stephen, Audrey, Matthew, Elizabeth, tax preparation RESOURCE CORNER Tax day is April 15! The IRS is already accepting and processing tax returns; don't wait until the last day! If your total income is less than $69,000 you likely have one or more cash benefits waiting and tax prep services are at no cost to you. Exact details vary based on the specific tax credit, your tax filing status and the number of people in your household. Some, but not all, tax credits require that you or your children have a Social Security Number. FINDING TAX FORMS Ann Arbor District Library branches offer physical copies of various federal tax forms beginning in late January. Librarians can print additional forms for no cost. Call (734) 327-4200 for more information. Ypsilanti District Library offers tax forms, while supplies last, at the Whittaker and Superior branches. Call the library for more information. Whittaker branch: (734) 482-4110, x2411 Superior branch: (734) 482-4110, x2431 Download necessary tax forms from the Michigan Department of Treasury website and check income tax refund status. www.michigan.gov/taxes FILING HELP The Housing Bureau for Seniors Offering FREE tax return preparation for seniors in partnership with AARP Foundation! Appointments are offered Wednesdays and Fridays from February 4 - April 10. Trained volunteers will be able to provide you with a full federal and state return or complete the Michigan Property Tax Credits you qualify for. Past returns can be completed from 2022 onwards. Call Housing Bureau for Seniors to schedule your appointment at 734-998-9341! United Way Southeastern Michigan Tax preparation services are provided by IRS-certified non-profit partners, Accounting Aid Society and Wayne Metro Community Action Agency. Participation requirements include: make less than $69,000/year, have a Driver's License or picture ID, have a Social Security Card or ITIN, live in Washtenaw County. Schedule your appointment at unitedwaysem.org/resources/ tax-preparation-assistance/ St. Francis of Assisi Parish Offers tax help to individuals with limited income ($57,000.00 or less) and simple tax returns. Call the parish office at (734) 821-2121 to make an appointment to drop off your return. Services offered February through April. Assistance also available in Spanish. ONLINE FILING MyFreeTaxes.com Free online service provided by United Way for preparing and filing your taxes brought to you by United Way. Must make $67,000 per year or less to use this service. Get started today at MyFreeTaxes.com Madi, Rainey, Shoshana, Jon, Lisa, Cheryl and Daniel, to our summer intern and layout editor, Lindsay, and to assistant director Michael. Originally published in the August 2020 edition of Groundcover News.

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CREATIVE Jane DONNA LOMELINO Groundcover contributor I didn’t like Jane at first. She didn’t seem to care. She was blunt in a way that made people uncomfortable — sharp, sarcastic, openly irritated by anyone who approached her with practiced concern or polite curiosity. She had no interest in being agreeable, grateful or easy to help. The first time I spoke to her, she didn’t look up. She just said, loud enough for others to hear, “Oh great. Another one.” A few heads turned. Jane didn’t flinch. She had long ago stopped performing politeness for people who wouldn’t be staying. When I sat down beside her, she sighed. “What do you want?” Not: Can I help you? Not: Who are you? Just: What do you want? It wasn’t hostility for sport. It was assessment. Jane used sarcasm the way others use armor. Rudeness kept people at a distance. Intelligence kept her in control. She had learned exactly how to expose fake compassion and deflate people who came in believing they were different. So she tested me. Why are you talking to me? What makes you think you can help? Oh please — spare me. Every sentence was a challenge. Every pause dared me to leave. What I didn’t understand then was that Jane wasn’t trying to push me away. She was trying to find out if I would stay. At the time, I still believed helping meant fixing. I believed kindness would be enough. I didn’t yet understand what it meant to sit with someone whose life had taught them not to trust anything that came easily. One day, after an especially biting comment about “rookies who think they’re saviors,” something in me shifted. I didn’t snap back. I didn’t defend myself. I didn’t walk away. I stayed. Quietly. Steadily. She looked at me — real eye contact, for the first time — and said, “Huh. Interesting.” It wasn’t praise. But it wasn’t dismissal either. From that day on, small pieces of Jane began to surface through the cracks of her sarcasm. A story here. A memory there. A fear she didn’t name outright. Moments of clarity tangled with confusion. Honesty about the voices that sometimes lied to her. Jane lived with a level of awareness that made her suffering sharper. She knew when her thoughts weren’t trustworthy. She knew when reality slipped. That awareness didn’t empower her — it haunted her. And she noticed everything. One day, she said something that changed the way I understood this work. “You’re not listening like the others,” she told me. “You’re actually here. You might be good at this … if you don’t quit.” It wasn’t a compliment. It was a warning. People had stayed before — briefly. Then they left. Jane didn’t need promises. She needed consistency. She taught me that helping people isn’t about being liked. It’s about being present. About returning the next day after being pushed away the day before. About letting someone challenge your patience without taking it personally. Jane didn’t soften for me. She didn’t become easier. She didn’t change because of me. I changed because of her. She forced me to slow down. To listen differently. To understand that the people who push the hardest are often protecting the deepest wounds. Jane didn’t guide me with gentleness or gratitude. She shaped me through resistance — through honesty, through refusal to be managed or minimized. She didn’t just influence my path. She rerouted it. And in doing so, she taught me something I would carry into every space that followed: Before you can help, you have to be willing to stay. Author’s Note: This essay reflects on a past professional relationship. The individual described is deceased, and identifying details have been altered to protect privacy and dignity. MARCH 6, 2026 Truth or Lies Mystery Lane: Time Travellers, LLC (part one) The children’s names were John Jr., Tom Jr., Stella, and Cindy Hitchens. There was an old property deed, Freedom papers for Tom and John, a letter of Will and Testament. It also had two hundred dollars in old money. "I heard a rumor about the family FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 How do I start? Running from the past to the future is often a daunting task. Finding out who committed the crime is even harder. Especially when you have people who think the color of their skin will always protect them. Some don’t realize the only way to have peace is to correct your wrongs. Let's get to it — my name is Armond Councilor, Licensed Private Investigator. I am 28, one of the youngest PI’s in the field. I invented a handheld time travel machine that changes into any and everything I need. Enough about me. On a hot summer day in September, 2034, I was washing my Thunderbird in my driveway. A senior lady approached me and asked, "Aren’t you the one who travels? You know, solving unsolved murders and mysteries?" I thought carefully before answering, "Yes." "My name is Mrs. AnnaBella Carwell and I need you to straighten out my inheritance," she replied. I was thinking she was to old to inherit anything. "I was willed an estate in Alabama 60 years ago. The property was passed down three generations, I was the third owner. During my stay at the property there were several unexplained incidents. I kept hearing crying and voices; the voices would say return our property to our children. I would search the property seeking answers, I only found these items." Anna handed him an old box with two old faded pictures of twin girls. On the back it read "Lila and Delia;" they were about twenty or younger. The next picture had two Black men and four children posed with the twins. On the back of that picture it read "John, Lila, Delia and Tom." being hung for their property. That must mean my family had something to do with their demise. Please help me make things right," she said. Anna handed him the old money saying, "I don’t know how much it is worth, but keep it. You may need it." Armond thought and accepted the assignment. He took the letters and made copies, kept the pictures and placed everything in his briefcase. The next morning he started on his journey by placing his hat on backwards. It landed him in 1872 at the train station in Birmingham. He walked over to the town. He immediately went to the office of deeds and handed them his Pinkerton Badge. Armond showed the man behind the desk the deed and asked him who owned the land and estate. He then asked if he could be taken out to the property. "By the way your name would be Randel McDowel, right?" said Armond. Randel was nervous, conceding he knew the story behind the change of hands of the property. It was no secret that the Falconer family hung the twins who owned the property. "They say that he went crazy and hung himself, just last week. The property is deemed to be inherited by his children. The will shall be read in two days," said Randel. "Get us horses now, let's ride out there!" Upon their arrival, the house was quiet and only the staff was still there. Armond walked up and introduced himself to everyone. He immediately asked questions — who, what, when and where. The butler showed him the spot where they found Mr. Falconer. It was one tree over from the hanging tree of the ladies. During the questioning of everyone, they all reported Mr. Falconer used to holler out loud “This is my property, I won’t leave !” They never saw anyone with him or knew who he was talking with. To be contuined … Thank you Groundcover News readers and Truth Or Lies Fans. "The Box," published January 9, 2026, was based on a TRUE story. MARCH 6, 2026 POETRY Remembering the Girl Complaints KIMANI HAMILTON Groundcover vendor No. 518 MONIQUE CALDWELL Groundcover contributor You return to yourself in fragments— a lesson gathered from every storm, stitched into the quiet architecture of your name. The world tried to unmake you, yet you learned to rise by studying the ruins, reading the echoes of what once broke you. You remember the girl who walked through fire with trembling hands but unshaken will, who carried questions heavier than truth and still kept moving. Now you stand in the light you built, holding the knowledge carved from trial: that strength is not the absence of fear, but the decision to continue anyway; that identity is reclaimed, not given; that every scar is a map leading you home. And home, always, is you. I choose not To complain I choose not to complain Because it weakens the soul I choose not to complain Because I am aware I choose not to complain because I know there’s truth to all sides I simply choose not To complain but to Learn Time after time KIMANI HAMILTON Time after time I’m left wondering why Time after time I’m left Speechless time after time I’m left to pick up the Pieces time after time I choose to be strong So time after Time I listen So I don’t make the Same mistakes Time after time TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 You’re ominous & dangerous, I’m fallin in, We light a smoke, A shred of hope, Don’t break this lil heart, This izz a mystery, Will it be thee death of me, What can I do, I’m alwayz takin that risk, I just can’t resist, I alwayz bite my lipz, I feel thee heat, You’re my only desire, What can I do, To be close to you, I feel the rush in my bones, When we are alwayz alone, When you pull me in close, I’m alwayz losing control, My hertz alwayz on fire, I fell so deep, You pull me into thee dark. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15 Into thee dark

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Basic vinaigrette dressing ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1⁄2 cup extra-virgin olive oil 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard Generous 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey 2 medium cloves garlic, pressed or minced 1⁄4 teaspoon fine sea salt, or more to taste Freshly ground black pepper Directions: In a liquid measuring cup or bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Stir well with a small whisk or a fork until the ingredients are completely mixed together. Add another pinch or two of salt if desired. Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate for future use. Homemade vinaigrette keeps well for 7 to 10 days. Struggling to eat 'fresh' during the winter season? During March in Michigan, the following produce is in season and would be delicious additions to most salads, raw or cooked! • Broccoli • Cabbage • Parsnips • Sprouts and microgreens • Carrots • Beets MARCH 6, 2026 Email to submissions@groundcovernews.com or drop off at the Groundcover News office. Accepted poetry will be published in the April 3, 2026 edition. Stay tuned for National Poetry Month open mics and workshops. USE THIS COUPON ANYTIME $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 3/30/2026

2 $ FEBRUARY 20, 2026 | VOLUME 17| ISSUE 5 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Do you count? Point In Time Count. page 9 JAMES MANNING #16 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHO DO YOU LOVE? 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. ICE OUT protests in Washtenaw County! page 8 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Community High students organized a walk-out on Feb. 4, marching from their campus to the Liberty St. Post Office and held a rally. Photo credit: Mike Jones • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 FEBRUARY 20, 2026 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor VOLUNTEERS ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Pedro Campos La Shawn Courtwright Emeri Jade Bey augustine jay Mike Jones James Manning Marie Kevin Kinchen Ken Parks Paul Ranjan Watson Denise Shearer Tommy Spaghetti Kevin Spangler Steven PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett June Miller Anabel Sicko Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Luiza Duarte Caetano Ben Foster Glenn Gates Jacob Fallman Robert Klingler Priya Kothari Harper Margolies Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Glenn Gates Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropiate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons FEBRUARY 20, 2026 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR Who do you love? I've been in love with Geoff Tate from Queensrÿche since forever. —Cindy Gere, #279 God! My family! — Mike Jones, #113 The Circle of Love is growing! You are in it! — Ken Parks, #490 I'm learning to love myself. — Terri Demar, #322 I know this is cheesy, but I don't know what love is ... I guess it's feeling good in someone's presence and I feel love when I'm at the office! — Wayne Sparks, #615 That's very easy: my mom and dad. — Will Shakespeare, #258 You! — Todd Johnson, #689 GROUNDCOVER NEWS Things to celebrate during the coldest months of the year There are plenty of things and people to celebrate in the coldest months of the year. I believe you can celebrate Christmas and Jesus any time of the year. January and February are usually the two coldest months of the year in Michigan. Martin Luther King Day and Black History Month are good and perfect reasons to celebrate in January and February. This is because they are national holidays on the calendar and it is good to remember to celebrate them. I celebrate Valentine’s Day. I spend the day with my boyfriend Richard and we go out to the library or out to eat. I decorate my apartment and I make macaroni salad and chicken noodle soup. These are my comfort foods all year round. And, I can’t forget about chicken and stuffing dressing! I think writing nice poems DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 cards to give to people I know and care about. I like to cook special meals to celebrate holidays. I cook meals for all the special times like Christmas, MLK Day, Black History and Valentine’s Day. I especially like to make simple things like hot dogs, tuna Of Michigan Men and Wolverine Women KEVIN KINCHEN Groundcover vendor No. 691 Two years removed from its first National Championship in 26 years — and concomitant parades, festivities and other-worldly celebrations — the University of Michigan Wolverines Athletic Department is, oddly enough, at an all-time high. We all lived through the unexpected whirlwind of our very own “Storm of the Century” when now defamed, former Michigan football head coach Sherrone Moore was revealed as a man preoccupied with things well outside of coaching football for the most prestigious football program in all of the college football multiverse. (There is credible evidence that Moore was engaged in an inappropiate relationship with a staff member.) And then, suddenly and unexpectedly, Michigan hired Utah coaching legend Kyle Whittingham on December 26, 2025 instantly restoring order to make all things right in Ann Arbor, and consequently the world. It would seem that the revelation of our football messiah (Coach K, if you will) has led to a domino effect of order restoration that currently has three Michigan Wolverines teams as serious, betting-odds favorites, National Championship contender toward the ending of their regular seasons: the #2 nationally ranked Men’s Hockey team, #1 nationally ranked Men’s Basketball team, and the #6 nationally ranked Women’s Basketball team. Leading the way in our surge for multiple National Championships is the hockey team. Ending the month with back-to-back gripping, gritty comeback victories (one in overtime) against their natural enemy and archnemesis the Ohio State Suckeyes, has many considering the Michigan Men’s Hockey team the overwhelming betting-odds favorite to win the Natty this season. Not to be outdone, the #1-ranked Michigan Men’s Basketball team finds themselves in the midst of a winning streak highlighted by an exhilarating, defiant run of dominant victories against the best programs in the Big 10, including a mandatory beatdown of the Ohio State Suckeyes on January 23, 2026. Back to back wins against AP top-10 teams in the country — Nebraska and Michigan State — followed the week after. And, they started the month off with an absolute drubbing of Penn State, finishing that contest with a final score of Michigan 110 Penn State 69. Transfer 5-star point guard Elliot Cadeau and All-American Yaxel Lendeborg continue to lead the charge for the Michigan Men’s basketball team as they continue their quest of winning U-M its second National Championship in the history of the men’s basketball program. And I would be remiss if I didn’t seal it with a kiss. The kiss of the Wolverine Women, as I like to call them. The Michigan Women’s basketball team is a young but talented team. Led by reigning Big 10 Freshman of the Year Olivia Olson and Freshmen All-American Syla Swords, they’re figuring out how to win big games in the Big 10, and at the right team of the season. They closed out January by getting a big time win against USC (sans megastar Juju Watkins) 73-67. Then, they followed up the men’s defeat of the Spartans two days later with a gutsy, road win of their own against Sparty with a final score of Michigan 94 Michigan State 91. As I write this, it’s early in February. The weather is terrible, and times are hard. But at least those of us Michiganders that bleed Maize and Blue know that we have the ever valiant Michigan Men and Wolverine Women of the University of Michigan Athletic Department going to battle for us every day. Fighting not just to survive; but to break through to a better way, and a brighter day. The influx of National Championship parades and celebrations coming to Ann Arbor should have us all looking forward to much better and brighter days. and stories about the holidays is better than marching. I think writing stories is better especially for people with health concerns who may not be able to do a march for a long time. But if someone likes to march, I like that too. I think the coldest months of the year are perfect to have stay-cations and do artwork and write poems and stories. I look forward to seeing everyone outside once it’s warm again! 3 UPCOMING U-M ATHLETICS TO WATCH Michigan Women's Basketball Sunday, February 22, 12 p.m. Michigan vs. Iowa at Iowa Wednesday, February 25, 8 p.m. Michigan vs. Ohio State at Ohio Saturday, Feburary 28, 2:30 p.m. Michigan vs. Maryland at Crisler Center Michigan Men's Basketball Saturday, February 21, 6:30 p.m. Michigan vs. Duke at Duke Tuesday, February 24, 8:30 p.m. Michigan vs. Minnesota at Crisler Center Friday, February 27, 8 p.m. Michigan vs. Illinois at Illinois Thursday, March 5, 8 p.m. Michigan vs. Iowa at Iowa Michigan Men's Hockey Friday, February 20, 8 p.m., and Saturday, Feburary 21, 7 p.m. Michigan vs. Wisconsin at Wisconsin Friday, February 26 6:30 p.m. and Saturday February 27, 6 p.m. Michigan vs. Minnesota at Yost Ice Arena

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY EVENTS In loving memory of Ismael Ahmed TOMMY SPAGHETTI Groundcover vendor No. 669 It is with great sadness that I report the passing of Ismael Ahmed, my dear friend and brother-in-law but also my mentor of the highest order. My relationship with Ish is long and storied. I met him in 1978 at the Freezer Theater in the Cass Corridor. He attended my concert and purchased two records from our merch table. It was a practical joke because we glued our own labels onto other artists’ 45s (cheap thrift store acquisitions). This marketing ploy was intended as a prank on our fan base. After all, we were a 1970s plagiarized version of the Merry Pranksters. Ismael at our first meeting was quixotic at best, igniting a relationship that lasted 45+ years. My sister Mary brought Ismael home to meet our family and he fell in love with my other sister Margaret; he married her and produced Ena, a wonderful child who looks and speaks like her eloquent father. (My sister Mary, who introduced Ish to my family, preceded him in death 66 days prior.) Attending Ish's memorial was a 'must' for me and apparently for some of the most esteemed dignitaries in the state of Michigan: Andy Levin, Mike Duggan, Rashida Talib, Bob Ficano, Steve King, Muruga Bookervich, James Zogby to name but a few. Ismael Ahmed's impact on society can't be diminished: Co-founder of ACCESS (Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services) community EVENTS AN EVENING OF SCENES: U-M RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE PLAYERS February 20-21, 8 p.m. RC Keene Theater, 701 East University. RC students direct and perform this popular semiannual program of five student-written comedy sketches. Pay what you can. FAMILY PROGRAM: WINTER SURVIVAL Saturday, February 21 2-3:30 p.m. County Farm Park, 2230 Platt Rd., Platt Road Pavilion. Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission naturalist Shawn Severance leads a family-oriented program in learning how to build a foolproof winter campfire and a debris hut shelter. S’mores provided, please bring anything else you would like to cook over a fire. Free, preregistration required. parksonline.ewashtenaw.org UNITY AGAINST EMPIRE: BLACK AND LATINE SOLIDARITY IN STRUGGLE Tuesday, February 24, 6-7:30 p.m. U-M School of Education Room 1315, 601 E. University Ave, Ann Arbor. Black History Month teach-in on Black and Latine revolutionary unity, examining the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords and the Rainbow Coalition. We’ll explore how their shared commitment to anti-imperialism, collective liberation and the Global South offers lessons for our movement today. NATURAL FEATURES: BUILDING THE RESILIENCE OF OUR PEOPLE AND OUR PLACE with MICHIGAN BOTANICAL SOCIETY Tuesday, February 24, 7 p.m. U-M Matthaei Botanical Gardens Auditorium, 1800 N. Dixboro Rd. Ann Arbor Office of Sustainability and Innovations analyst Sean Reynolds discusses the city’s 10,000 Trees Initiative, its Pollinator-Aware Yard Care program, and its air quality monitoring program, all part of the Ann Arbor's ambitious A2Zero plan to equitably achieve community-wide carbon neutrality. "TOE TAPPERS" WASHTENAW COMMUNITY CONCERT BAND Thursday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m., Washtenaw Community College Towsley Auditorium, 4800 E Huron River Drive, Ann Arbor. Horses, whistlers, trombones, and … Darth Vader! Mark your calendar now and plan to join us for a toe-tapping good time as we open the new year with tunes that will dazzle, delight, and leave you wanting more! Light refreshments to follow the concert. Free parking and admission. Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com in Dearborn. Ismael Ahmed. His wife and Spaghetti's sister, Margaret, is pictured behind. ACCESS is a social service agency that feeds, houses, clothes and administers health services for thousands of people every year. see ISMAEL page 7  FEBRUARY 20, 2026 What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Visit any of our five locations across town to browse books, magazines, newspapers, and more. Check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, or even home tools—you name it! Enjoy fast and free WiFi, study and meeting rooms, and plenty of comfortable spaces to relax or hang out. Unusual Stuff to Borrow There’s more to borrow at AADL than books, music, and movies. To name a few, there are games, telescopes, stories-to-go kits, and home tools. Check out these unusual yet handy items during your next library visit. Washtenaw Library for the Blind & Print Disabled at AADL This free service loans books, magazines, & videos in alternative formats (audiobooks, large print, braille books & magazines, and descriptive video) to individuals who are unable to read or use standard printed materials. Visit aadl.org/wlbpd/apply to apply. FEATURED EVENT Sunday, March 8 • 11 AM–4 PM • Downtown Library Celebrate Super Mario Day at AADL with themed activities, bingo, warp pipe bean bag toss, photo ops, crafts, Mario Kart, and more. Costumes are welcome! Check out the schedule of events at aadl.org/marioday. FEBRUARY 20, 2026 COMMUNITY EVENTS LIVE nightclub 102 S. First Ave Benefit concert for WILPF Women's International League for Peace and Freedom SK Rodriguez Me Again Medicine Show GROUNDCOVER NEWS March 7th 5-8pm Juniper Kira Blue for Int'L Women's Day Michele Smolarski Maddy Ringo 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS WASHTENAW COUNTY FEBRUARY 20, 2026 Sheriff sues BOC over 'arbitrary and capricious' Resolution No. 25-249 MARIE Groundcover contributor In a civil lawsuit filed in December 2025, County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer accused the County Board of Commissioners (BOC) of overstepping its authority when it transferred control of human resources for the sheriff’s department to the county administration. The suit alleges that the BOC's action is part of a pattern of behavior in which commissioners have attempted to undermine the sheriff and her operations. The resolution moves four key personnel, who are appointed special deputies under the Michigan Constitution, from the Sheriff’s office to the county HR department. In addition a dedicated county HR liaison would support the daily functions within the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office. According to the resolution, the BOC “is deeply concerned by widespread reports of misconduct and detrimental internal operations within the Sheriff’s Office’s internal HR function, including but not limited to allegations of intimidation, punitive retaliation and a systemic breakdown of employee confidence.” The BOC has failed to provide any specifics about the allegations. In her suit, case No. 25-002227-CZ, Dyer is requesting relief preventing the transfer of the four HR personnel, who are appointed special deputies. The suit claims the resolution violates Michigan’s 1963 Constitution, and is “ultra vires, arbitrary and capricious.” A link to the 87-page filing may be found at tcweb.ewashtenaw.org/ PublicAccess/CaseDetail.aspx? CaseID=442942. According to uslegalforms.com, “Ultra vires is a legal term derived from Latin, meaning ‘beyond powers.’ It refers to actions taken by a corporation or its officers that exceed the authority granted to them by law…” According to law.cornell.edu/wex, “To be capricious is to have an unpredictable, sudden, and unaccountable change in attitude or behavior. Arbitrary and capricious conduct is willful and unreasoning action without consideration or regard for the facts and circumstances.” According to the lawsuit, Dyer learned about the resolution via social media the day before the vote. One of the challenges with the resolution as passed includes the HR special deputies’ job descriptions, as they include responsibilities specific to the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement (MCOLE) standards, state laws, federal mandates and established law enforcement best practices. HR job descriptions and special deputization details may be viewed in the exhibits section of the lawsuit. The BOC is reported to have expressed concerns related to personnel issues during the Dec. 3 BOC meeting. On Dec. 18, County Administrator Gregory Dill, Commission Chair Katie Scott and Vice-chair Justin Hodge were interviewed on the 1290AM Lucy Ann Lance Show, and explained that a motivating factor for the resolution included an ongoing sexual assault investigation, and lessons from the #MeToo movement. In the lawsuit Dyer states that her approach to the sexual assault allegation is through an interdependent investigation by an outside agency. This is recognized as a best practice. If the BOC, WCSO personnel or residents are concerned about law enforcement misconduct, a complaint may be filed with the U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Misconduct complaints handled by the DOJ include federal criminal enforcement such as “excessive force, sexual assault, intentional false arrests, theft or the intentional fabrication of evidence resulting in a loss of liberty to another.” Federal civil enforcement includes the police misconduct provisions which “make it unlawful for State or local law enforcement officers to engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives another person of rights protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.” More information about addressing police misconduct law and how to file a complaint with the DOJ may be found at www.justice.gov. In the lawsuit the Sheriff reports learning about the resolution on social media, and several constituents have expressed concerns about online attacks of Dyer. The lawsuit references online messages that it calls reprimanding, chastising and condescending with the implication that the sheriff reports to them and not to the voting public. To gain an outside perspective into how HR is handled in other sheriff departments, a nearby county Sheriff was interviewed. This Sheriff stated, “If all 83 [Mich.] sheriffs were interviewed you would probably get 40 different answers. Smaller departments do what they need to do, and larger ones have specified personnel [with differing job titles and functions].” The nearby county Sheriff shared they have an “HR mix kind of. The Sheriff’s department is a unique animal as there is a co-employer relationship. For example, I don’t fund the employees, they [the county] do, but they can’t say who I fire, hire or discipline. Onboarding is dual, through county HR programs such as sexual harassment, but I have my own training procedures and protocols. The executive assistant handles a lot, including primarily education. Once the initial hire is complete, we keep our own records, except pay raises go through county finance. Discipline stays here until they leave. Medical file and corrections cleared is kept in a separate protected file. Internal investigations start with the sergeant and then go through the sheriff, if they are reviewed and unfounded then they go to the executive assistant for filing.” The month before the resolution was presented, Dyer gave a presentation to the BOC about the status of the WCSO budget, which includes a gap in funding for the jail. The jail budget shortfall is not new to Sheriff Dyer. Under Sheriff Clayton there were nearly identical budget shortfalls. While a large portion of the WCSO budget relates to jail funding, much of the anticipated shortfall is due to unbudgeted-for contracts, as well as to decreasing job vacancies for budget cuts, which increased overtime costs. Many jail contracts were negotiated during COVID. These contracts and budget expectations have been called predatory and harmful to physical health, mental health, dietary needs and staffing for WCSO personnel and inmates. See Groundcover News, Mar. 7, 2025, “Dive in Sheriff’s Budget Reveals Predatory Revenue Streams” for more in-depth coverage of a recent Freedom of Information Act request. The BOC answer to WCSO shortfalls, during the Nov. 18 meeting, was a demand for Dyer to implement more lockdowns and a 2% decrease in expenditures. According to the Sheriff 90% of inmates are in pre-trial diversion, and WCSO personnel have come to BOC meetings to remind the BOC, “They are innocent.” During the meetings following the budget presentation, residents and WCSO staff expressed their concerns over BOC statements during meetings and on social media — related to the Sheriff, the treatment of inmates and working conditions. Residents expressed concerns over lockdowns, as it shows a lack of understanding rights, a lack of empathy about what the lockdown experience means and a lack of fiscal knowledge about the cost of incarceration. Lockdowns mean inmates aren’t allowed to participate in programming such as substance use disorder treatment, which may be a condition of release. Lockdowns mean not being able to manage basic hygiene, and they further limit timely mental health and physical health care access. BOC changes to staffing vacancies have increased the hours worked per day, increased wages, decreased health for inmates and decreased the health of deputies. A few WCSO deputies, who are also Washtenaw residents, backed the Sheriff’s concerns about lockdowns, violence, inhumane treatment and lawsuits. Several jails and state prisons have recently been found in violation of federal laws. Wisconsin has seen multiple cases this decade, including court cases out of Waupun prison and the surrounding Waukesha County. Multiple news outlets have covered stories about unsanitary conditions, reports of drug use, neglect, abuse, bug and rodent infestations and several inmate deaths. Washtenaw County Edition’s Jan. 7, overview of the BOC meeting (on YouTube), provided an updated case status showing the defendants were given until Feb. 19, 2026 to respond. The case was reassigned to Judge John McBain Jr. in Jackson County after all Washtenaw judges disqualified themselves from presiding over the case as to do so “would create the appearance of impropriety.” In lieu of a final judgement in the HR resolution lawsuit, there is room for WCSO improvement beyond simply making cuts to the budget. At this time, Dyer’s efforts include working to improve jail conditions, mental health of deputies, decreased response times and maintaining MCOLE licensing standards. WCSO, like most departments across the country, is not accredited, and accreditation is not mandatory. According to the nearby Sheriff, “Not many departments are” as “it’s relatively new.” In 2016 the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police (MACP) created the Michigan Law Enforcement Accreditation Program. In 2020, the Michigan Sheriffs’ Association joined MACP’s efforts to enhance policing standards through accreditation. The nearby Sheriff interviewed described the accreditation program as being see SHERIFF next page  FEBRUARY 20, 2026 TAKING ACTION Preparing for a general strike The level of violence to which we have become accustomed has been so blatantly escalated with the scapegoating of immigrant communities, that government agents are becoming a threat to the general public. Dissent is being made the enemy by the supremacist ideology of the most elite of the capitalist ruling class. This elite is much smaller than the top 1% and is at the top of the chain of command. The top deciders and the most powerful enjoy anonymity so that cannot be held responsible and everything looks like an act of God. Mark Twain and Upton Sinclair were some of our folk heroes who spoke truth to power in their day. When the servants of the elites face the public with declarations about security and stability as if their experts are the sole relevant actors, people like Twain and Sinclair have exposed them. All the world is a stage and the play of supremacism seizes center stage until the audience gets up and declares its independence. Our everyday life is the real stage and all the media spectacles, entertainment extravaganzas, sports and wars do not really change the foundation of labor that makes all this possible. Imagine if we used our labor power to create the world we want to live in. Billions are spent to make sure you do not think about this. Commodity fetishism is the culture we live in. Academia is a specialty that glories in trivia with a display of intelligence that dazzles and confuses. I once was assistant to a professor whose Ph.D. thesis described how Indians took over a fort because the lawyers’ fees. It’s all there in the terms and conditions that no one reads. Legalese is an insult to the English language. Lawyers write the legislation that legislators pass without reading because they have advisors, probably those same lawyers. When you realize your labor power KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 they gates could not be closed due to dirt buildup. The thesis had no discussion of land sovereignty, treaties or critique of Manifest Destiny. Supremacism, the central ideology that undermines any struggle to finish the American revolution, is yet to be dismantled. This is a central task of intellectual workers if we are to create “liberty and justice for all.” The ideas you believe in create the world you live in. It is too easy to fall into compliance with the standard model. Do you want a job? Who writes the terms and conditions? Touch or sign here. Bureaucratic helpers such as social workers, case managers, senior specialists, human resources and mental health professionals do not want to evaluate terms and conditions. They are written by lawyers whose brilliance is used to camouflage the slavery that is hidden in terms and conditions. All bureaucrats advise “just sign” so we can move forward and you can survive in the slavery of terms and conditions. You can end up in court in an eviction suit you never understood and then they want you to pay their is trapped in terms and conditions made by the bosses, you may consider revolutionary action to change terms and conditions so that your reality is respected. The bosses are absolutely dependent on the working class to make the wealth that they exploit. At least read a good summary of “Das Kapital,” the landmark book by Karl Marx, so that you understand surplus capital, wages and profits. Many of you understand this when it is pointed out. The Democracy at Work Institute is a good place to search; there are podcasts and other materials. There is plenty of homework in my writing. As a lifelong student, I have learned that post-graduate work begins as you age — with curiosity as your guide. At what age do we reach maturity? Do what you can now as the best preparation for the future. It does not matter if you have more lifetimes. Reality is here now and inseparable from the timeless time that is the context for past, present and future. A calm and clear mind is the best way to prepare for anything. If you have not learned the seven points of good posture, check in with Khenpo Choephel at Karuna Buddhist Center and learn the stages of mindful awareness that promote calm and clarity. Ideas that promote the context for a good view of reality will thrive in a calm and clear mind. It’s good to start the day with “offerings down, prayers up” as our indigenous community teaches. Disciplined curiosity will be your companion on the path of awakening. Much gratitude to all those who help me on the path. The current talk of a general strike is of a one-day event encompassing work, school and shopping. A more advanced general strike would mean no work until terms and conditions that are working-class-friendly become the norm. This is the revolution to which we invite each other. Peter Block has much to say about life-friendly communication and community building. I was sent one podcast and will follow up on this amazing resource. When we learn to listen and communicate, friends, family, coworkers and neighbors will discover new meaning in our lives. The struggle is good. I mentioned the saints in my everyday life who replaced my stolen tricycle. I will continue our mutual work, especially revolutionary food. The goal of a healthy gut biome is worthy of study and practice. Food as medicine is a theme that goes from Hippocrates to Groundcover News' Food Special Edition magazine. The struggle continues, Hasta la Victoria Siempre. Remember the sacred nature of your labor power as you engage in the art of living. Begin the day with a few minutes of calm and clear awareness and cultivate compassionate intention. This is the best preparation for the work of a general strike. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7  SHERIFF from last page  ISMAEL from page 4 agency specific, with over 100 required written standards for policies and procedures. “Not only do you have to have a policy, you have to live it out and show proof.” During the accreditation assessment when issues are identified, efforts are made to rectify the issues, then accredited agencies are required to renew every three years. At this time no Washtenaw County law enforcement agencies are on MACP's list of accredited agencies. Accreditation has the potential to improve the transparency, access and trust the community has with the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office. Ish started ACCESS with his grandmother (Aliya Hassen) who told me one of the most amazing stories about pride, ignorance and dishonor. "A young Arab woman was showing signs of pregnancy. Because the young girl was in her mid-teens her father demanded to know the identity of her sexual partner. The young teen denied having sex with anyone. As time went on her belly grew larger. The parents were dreading the public embarrassment of an unwed, pregnant daughter. They killed her ... An autopsy was done revealing a large tumor in the child's abdomen rather than a developing fetus." Ismael Ahmed co-founded the National Arab American Museum in Dearborn, a very distinguished showroom depicting the positive influence of Arabic culture. My personal favorite exhibit is the astrolabe, a device that uses star position to calculate time. Ismael Ahmed also started the Concert of Colors now in its 35th year. CofC is metro Detroit's diversity festival which pays tribute to the many different ethnic groups that beautify our region. "Diversity is a strength not a weakness" — an important concept in our modern day resurgence of white supremacy and Maga hatred. Ismael Ahmed was chosen by Governor Jennifer Granholm to be executive director of Michigan Department of Human Services. "Ismael was selected to boost morale" in the worst economy, 29 months of steady decline. Ismael Ahmed hosted the very popular and always stimulating world music program, “This Island Earth,” on WDET radio. Ismael Ahmed was hand-picked by Joe Biden to be on the National Education Association board. Ish passed January 31, 2026. Truly a master of community relations. I was fortunate to know Ish intimately enough to know his idiosyncratic laugh, his sense of humor and his infectious smile. My bewilderment, however, is: How can anyone be so accomplished in such a short amount of time? 79 years on planet earth. Ismael Ahmed’s passing from carcinoma seems to create a huge deficit in our moral commitment to each other. Ismael was a successful community organizer who beckons to us to be like him and continue the work in front of us.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MELT ICE ICE Out protests and actions in Washtenaw! People in communities across the United States and Washtenaw County are not just protesting, they’re organizing response teams to support and protect their vulnerable immigrant MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Recent immigration arrests in Ypsilanti; the killings in Minneapolis, Minn., of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti; and the arrest of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, have sparked anti-ICE protests in Washtenaw County. As a result of ICE activities, communities all over America have been scheduling weekly protests. Since the start of 2026 Ann Arbor has had many significant, organized protest actions against ICE. Demonstrations included an “ICE Out for Good” rally in early January, and continued through February with walkout high school protests. Since early January, multiple ICE-out protests have occurred in Washtenaw County, with regular weekly demonstrations taking place on Saturdays at four major intersections in Ann Arbor: Plymouth and Green Road, Jackson Avenue and Maple Road, Stadium Boulevard and Main Street, Washtenaw Avenue and Huron Parkway In early February 2026, hundreds of students from multiple Washtenaw County high schools, including Pioneer, Skyline, Huron, and Community High Schools in Ann Arbor, as well as Augusta Township’s Lincoln High School, held walkouts and protests against ICE operations. These student-led demonstrations were organized to raise awareness and protest recent ICE activity in the area. neighbors. Teams in these communities provide practical needs like food, transportation and companionship, alongside connecting them with legal aid for immigration or safety concerns, and advocating for policies that protect their rights. Late January 2026, ICE arrested multiple individuals in the Ypsilanti area during a targeted operation. Identified individuals in connection with these incidents include Delmy Yamileth, Molina Vasquez, Gissel Alejandra Pavon Nunes, Carolina Hernandez-Aviles and Elder Alberto Veliz-Mencia. Another individual was detained during a targeted, separate vehicle stop, not at a school bus stop as initially reported. The Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office and Ypsilanti Community School officials have expressed concern and dismay over the timing and location of the arrests. Ypsilanti Community Schools Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross said, “The district aims to be a safe place for students,” and urged parents to have plans in case of immigration law enforcement presence. A spokesperson for ICE said the agency “does NOT target schools for enforcement actions or bus stop locations. To be clear, NO children were present during these arrests.” The people detained were in the United States illegally, the agency said, “and will remain in ICE custody pending immigration proceedings and will receive full due process.” The school district said it does not voluntarily cooperate with ICE and provides support to affected families. If you are looking for information on a potentially detained friend or family member, you can use the ICE Detainee Locator or call (866) 347-2423. Above: Skyline High students walked out at 12:40 p.m. Photo submitted by Eagles Abolish ICE. It is estimated 400 Huron High School students walked out of classes on Feb. 4. Above by Annabella Mi, below by Brody Turner. FEBRUARY 20, 2026 Photo essay: A2 highschoolers walk-out in protest of ICE Feb. 4 Community High students marched from their campus to the Liberty St. Post Office and rallied. Photo credit: Mike Jones FEBRUARY 20, 2026 HOMELESSNESS Do you count? Point In Time Count 2026 STEVEN Groundcover contributor One night, many years ago in the deep cold, ensconced in our bedding atop our cardboard beds after the sun had gone down, our small group of outdoor dwellers under the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Ore., saw a group of well-dressed strangers approach. They briefly attempted to explain that they were conducting the Point in Time (PIT) Count. They got as far as explaining that PIT is a nationwide governmental attempt to get an idea of the extent of the homeless population in the United States. But they were interrupted by one of my campmates rudely chasing them off. I shrugged and tucked back in against the cold January air. This was my first exposure to the PIT Count. I was intrigued. It seemed on its face stupid and unscientific. One data set from one night in January, of all months? When it was cold so fewer people would be out? I wondered. My buddy had chased them away before we could get much into the questionnaire, so I didn’t know what that might entail. All in all, I was glad to have been counted. It was one of the very few times as a homeless single man I felt that I counted for something, even something so inherently, obviously inaccurate. It's better than no count, I concluded. I went to sleep and didn’t think on it again for many years. All these years later, I’ve been more often homeless than not, and I’ve never been counted since that night in Portland 2,000 miles away. Here’s the reasoning behind the PIT Count, per the National Alliance to End Homelessness: “The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires that communities receiving federal funds from the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program conduct a count of all sheltered people in the last week of January annually. Electronic administrative records are used to enumerate people living in emergency shelters and transitional housing. Unsheltered counts are required every other year, although most communities conduct an unsheltered count annually.” This is a lot to unpack, so I’ll try to do it justice in broad strokes. The Homeless Assistance Grants, administered by HUD, were first authorized by Congress in 1987 as part of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. This act was an attempt to legally define homelessness, and established an Interagency Council on the Homeless. It was later updated by the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act. These are the laws HUD follows to inform its decisions on what organizations get what funding. The PIT Count is one of HUD’s mechanisms to determine need per community, in our case, Washtenaw County. Each year in January, teams of volunteers go out to track down and count people who may be homeless. When possible, they use a specific questionnaire to gain more information than just a count of homeless people on one cold night in January. Some of the 2025 PIT findings in Washtenaw County, according to the County Office of Community & Economic Development, included: • 350 people were considered sheltered because they were in emergency or transitional housing. • 23 people were considered unsheltered because they were on the streets or a place not meant for human habitation (such as a tent or car). • Total homelessness in Washtenaw County has increased 77% since 2022. • Veteran homelessness is down 73% since 2021. • 97 children under 18 were homeless, representing 26% of the county’s homeless population. The detailed questionnaire has some, in my view, very problematic questions. Some of the questions I have issues with, and I think many other homeless people may have issues with, involve giving your full first and last name and a nickname. It asks for your date of birth, and instructs the census taker to guess their birth year if there is no answer forthcoming. It asks what specific psychological or emotional issues you may have, with depression and schizophrenia cited as examples. It asks what gender you identify as, and whether you have AIDS or an HIV-related illness. The questions at the end of the survey, couched in a vague promise of unspecified “help,” ask where and when a person might be found on any given day. So, so what, right? These make sense, right? You don’t want to count people more than once so they should give you some personally identifiable information. It's good, isn’t it, to know how many homeless are homeless because of mental illness? Don’t we want to know if being transgender is a cause of homelessness? But the personally identifiable information could be used to steal your identity. And do you really Visualizations of 2025 PIT Count data from Washtenaw County. want to put your full name on a federal form then list yourself as mentally ill? As having AIDS? The questions are especially problematic after you read HUD’s recent announcement indicating major shifts in policies in awarding funds. Putting aside the very real fears of what an authoritarian regime might do (has done) with this information, let’s look at HUD’s recent changes for charities or organizations receiving funds. In a news release in November, HUD encouraged faith-based organizations to apply and said it, first, reserves the right to “reduce or reject” a project’s application for using “a definition of sex other than as binary in humans,” and second, will reject projects practicing what’s known as harm reduction — a way of addressing the risks of drug use through measures such as free syringe programs or fentanyl tests. HUD is indicating it can keep money from harm reduction programs and anyone subscribing to nonbinary gender identification. And in its PIT survey, HUD is asking homeless people if they are drug addicts or nonbinary. Here are some questions I didn't see on the survey. There was nothing about cost of living increases or wage increases (or the lack thereof), not even a question on if the person is employed. Was being incarcerated a reason for not gaining employment or losing housing? I know several people firsthand who lost jobs and homes over even just a few days of being in jail. A major part of why I became homeless was my rent increasing from an already too high 39% of my income to 49% of my income in three years. These numbers and statistics are (mostly) useful knowledge. If our government is going to function in a way to allow people to go hungry and unsheltered, then I guess we should try to figure out how many of our citizens are experiencing this. Or maybe use a minuscule percentage of the U.S. budget to just house and feed anyone who wants it? In the meantime, this is what we’ve got. Washtenaw County is 14% Black, but Black people make up over half (52%) of the homeless population. As noted above, 97 children under 18 walked our frozen January streets in 2025 not knowing where they might sleep on any given night. The first PIT Count was in 2005. We now have 20 years of data, and here we are with hundreds of disenfranchised, underrepresented people stripped of their agency, living as less-than in our own communities. The questions the government asks do not hide their conflict of interests and anti-trans, faith-based biases. The questions not asked stand in sharp contrast to the ones that are asked. No questions about economic or housing insecurities caused by rising rents, rising food costs, rising child care costs, rising gas prices, rising energy bills. Plenty of questions about what did you, you degenerate homeless person, do to end up in this sad lowly state? Which was it? Drugs? It was drugs, wasn’t it? GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ENTREPRENEURSHIP FEBRUARY 20, 2026 Pedicab business up and running KEVIN SPANGLER Groundcover vendor No. 307 I am finding my way here. I found a great place to stay in Ann Arbor — a perfect location for my pedicab business. I am in the beginning phase of the best pedicab tour company in Ann Arbor. So far I have the pedicab, which is most important. I have been only doing this for a few weeks so far, cruising around Ann Arbor in my seafoam-green, human-powered taxi. I have had many riders so far and they’ve been so great, enjoying the pedicab experience. Riding on a pedicab is different than riding in a car or walking. You just sit back, listen to the music and watch the scenery while I pedal you around beautiful historic Ann Arbor, and I learn about you and you learn a little bit about me. I have even been able to trade services with people in some instances, in place of taking money, and hope to continue using this barter system in the future. Other forms of payment I plan to accept are: cash, credit cards, Bitcoin, artwork, silver, and rCredits (a mutual credit system accepted as currency by local businesses). The bike is a Main Street Pedicab, made and built in America. I am extremely pleased with the exceptional quality of the taxi cab. I wanted the best for my patrons. I believe I got the best, while supporting our local American economy. My overarching pedicab business goals include preventing my fellow patrons from getting behind the wheel while being intoxicated. My short-term pedicab goals are getting on Instagram and Twitter, creating business cards and a website. I will create and offer multiple planned pedicab tours, including a Slow Food Crawl of the Ann Arbor restaurants that source their ingredients locally, a tour along the Huron River and a tour of the artwork around Ann Arbor. My long-term business goal is to establish a thriving tour business in Ann Arbor where I teach and train people in transition, like myself, to make a living and support themselves. Job creation is important for our local economy. Come enjoy a ride on my special pedicab! Come create an experience you will never forget! Let me be your guide to a fun time enjoying our beautiful city while also keeping it green! The neglected wildcatters of Dallas PAUL RAYJAY WATSON STREETZine Darick walks four miles to his overnight dishwashing job in downtown Dallas. In his free time, he spends hours sketching on scrap paper, designing sneakers. His work gets noticed only in Europe, where shoemakers have used his designs. Darick is also my friend, and he lives at a homeless shelter. Darick is a modern wildcatter. Wildcatters were long shots, digging for oil far from proven fields, in places where only wildcats roamed. Dallas became their backbone, a city that understood and bankrolled their gritty dreams. The Dallas ethos is built on this spirit. But it often comes across as an irrational conviction, or something where failure is almost guaranteed. At times one might catch a glimpse of that spirit when hearing about billionaire Mark Cuban sleeping on the floor of a shared apartment or Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, risking her life’s savings in her early days. Inspiring anecdotes from times past, right? Wrong; the wildcatter spirit continues to this very day. Take, for example, my friend John. He was born in Florida and raised in a drug-abused family. Now, he lives in Dallas, where he started a nutritional manufacturing company that distributes to consumers globally. Or Jennifer, a self-described midwesterner at heart. She resigned her secure consulting job and started a company in Dallas, which is now working with a consortium of municipalities to build “smart cities.” Unfortunately, in present-day Dallas, the wildcatters themselves suffer neglect. In my time visiting with friends at shelters across Dallas, I’ve met a city of untapped entrepreneurs. There is Demetrius, who once ran his own trucking company before a family crisis left him homeless; Mark and his brother, who use his old car as a makeshift taxi with remarkable hustle; and Gerald, who cuts hair like a painter on canvas. Like Darick, they are practicing entrepreneurialism. It’s not that Dallas lacks resources. Job training and medical attention are built into the ecosystem. But these entrepreneurs don’t fit the mold. They are often trapped by past run-ins with the law or are fighting off addictions, making them “untouchables.” Their voices drowned in the din of programs. “It’s nothing new,” said Willy, a program officer with a foundation offering job-skills training at homeless shelters. “I often see sparks of extraordinary talent in my line of work. The problem is, it’s extremely hard to position a talent for funding. The donor-guided programs are only focused to enable underserved communities. And our hands are tied, either because it’s beyond our scope, or it’s a task requiring uncommon initiative.” Still, uncommon initiatives in entrepreneurial ventures are not new to Dallas. Take Peter Brodsky, a contrarian capitalist. In a gamble spanning 10 years, he turned an abandoned South Dallas mall into a “work and play” system for the community. The once-failing asset anchors a medical facility and houses office spaces and call centers, creating jobs and sparking commercial buzz, lifting all boats in an economically challenged neighborhood. Or consider the PNC Bank mobile - Like me on Facebook under “Kevin Spangler” to see the pictures and videos of how much fun my customers are already having. Call me to schedule a ride or just flag me down if you see me riding toward you. Originally published in the April 2016 edition of Groundcover News. units servicing the “unbanked” at shelters across Dallas. “We want to be the modern banker for residents at shelters,” said Hannah Lopez, assistant manager of an Orange-Blue bank on wheels. “We see the person we help today as a striving employee, or perhaps a future small business owner.” While all banks are required to service the low-income, PNC Bank’s strategy of financial inclusion bets on the possibilities among the improbable. After studying 150 strategic moves spanning more than 100 years across 30 industries, professors W.C Kim and Renee Mauborgne concluded in their global bestseller, Blue Ocean, that the key to creating an uncontested market space and making competition irrelevant is discovering untapped markets. “The key is to reach beyond existing demand. It’s about creating not competing; about focusing on non-customers; about breaking the value-cost tradeoff,” they explained. The wildcatters are precisely that: the untapped market existing beyond the value-cost tradeoff. It’s time well-wishers took a second look at people experiencing homelessness, regardless of where they lay their heads at night. Courtesy of STREETZine / INSP.ngo FEBRUARY 20, 2026 ENTREPRENEURSHIP Always look on the bright side of life My life as a wanderer has been — and still is — difficult. Even with everything I have learned and achieved, I cannot say I feel safe, and certainly not comfortable. What I can say is that I have experienced moments of complete happiness. I have had the privilege of discovering incredible places such as Chicago, Detroit, Ann Arbor, New York City and Poughkeepsie. I have witnessed wonders, built loyal and caring friendships, and lived some of the wildest adventures imaginable. My arrival in Chicago was uncommon — or at least unexpected. People helped me without my asking. They offered rides, information, food, weed and something even more valuable: genuine American kindness. I heard the phrase “I’ve got your back” many times, and they truly meant it. For two days, I didn’t even touch my wallet. That generosity mattered deeply to me, especially because I had just left my home country behind. I was vulnerable, uncertain — and yet, supported. From Chicago, my destination was Fenton, Mich. I took a bus to Detroit, and during the ride, memories surfaced from the many times I had visited Ann Arbor back in 1995, when I lived in Fenton. I knew Ann Arbor was home to the University of Michigan, and the map showed that stopping there could save time on my way north. More than that, I wanted to explore. I had no schedule, no commitments. When I stepped off the bus at the train station, I was immediately enchanted. Walking through the streets, I was struck by the beauty of the city and the warmth of its people. Ann Arbor felt almost magical — like something out of a fairy tale — and it gifted me countless memorable moments. I was welcomed so deeply that, as a friend once said, “You were looking for a home, and you found one.” And it was true. That is why I call Ann Arbor my American hometown. Instead of spending just a couple of weeks in Fenton on my way to New York, I ended up staying in Michigan for almost a year. I’ve returned twice since then. If I had to highlight the best moments, I would mention the Huron River, the Law School that looks like Hogwarts, the Groundcover News office at Bethlehem United Church of Christ, the breakfast church at Saint Andrew’s, the Starbucks at Liberty and State (my favorite corner), long bike rides and, above all, the dear friends I made along the way. Detroit, unfortunately, I never had the chance to know as well as I wanted. I was usually just passing through, often in a hurry — still long enough to get into trouble. There’s so much I want to experience there: a Lions game, County caught my attention — its natural beauty, its opportunities. What was meant to be a weekend became a new chapter. I settled in Poughkeepsie, and I’ve been living here ever since. This place isn’t perfect, but it’s the PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 Greek Town, cross to Canada, the city itself. In March, I’ll finally have the chance. I’m heading to Detroit for a concert. We’ll see how it goes. New York City, on the other hand, gave me time and intensity. The city is fascinating, with layers of architectural history stamped onto its buildings and a deeply multicultural, cosmopolitan soul, especially in Manhattan. I’ve been everywhere. I can honestly say Manhattan is my playground, and Brooklyn is my hood. New York hits you hard, like a slap in the face. Or, as the song says, “Amerimacka, is like licking honey off of a knife.” Sweet, dangerously so. New York is not for everyone. You can arrive easily, but staying is another story. Belonging is even harder. I’ve tried three times already, and three times the city spun me out, dizzy and exhausted. I had to escape before losing my sanity — twice back to Michigan, and now to Poughkeepsie. I needed distance from the noise, the rush, the violence, the constant hustle. I needed to heal, recover and rehabilitate — to bite the Big Apple. And I will. I’m not afraid. All things considered, I think I’m doing well. I survived the winter, stayed safe and stayed busy. This time, I’m not starting from scratch. I have my belongings: good clothes, gear, phones, cameras, shoes, a bike — even books and board games. I love them. And most importantly, my application for permanent housing has been approved. I’m now on the waiting list for an apartment in Manhattan, hopefully before my birthday in July. Last year, at the end of October, after leaving the shelter and wandering for a month, I headed north from the city along an ancient Native American trail that begins on Broadway and stretches all the way to Albany and beyond. I didn’t know where I was going or how long I would be gone. I had my tent, my courage, and not enough clothes for the cold that was coming. I rode my bike forty miles north from the Bronx, then took the train to the last stop. My plan was simple: camp at Black Creek Park under the full moon, regroup and return. But as I researched the Hudson River region, Dutchess safest I’ve felt since being repatriated. For the first time in a long while, I found peace of mind in a positive environment. I’ve been productive, too. I recently wrote six new poems to submit to “The New Yorker.” I also wrote my first book — a cosmic fable for children, Sophie Star Adventure — as a gift for my seven-year-old niece Thais. One of my poems was selected by PoetTreeTown to be printed and displayed at the Ann Arbor downtown library. One way or another, I made it into the library — and that is a great honor. To see my words recognized, written in English, moves me deeply. From the streets to the university, from Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti, people read my work. They understand me — or at least try. I may come on strong sometimes, but always with respect. I recognize the responsibility that comes with being heard, and for that, I am grateful. As for New York City — I won’t give up. Actually, I’m just getting started. Many of my desires have already been fulfilled: walking around Daredevil’s neighborhood, Hell’s Kitchen, attending Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, playing chess at Union Square, visiting the Statue of Liberty, standing in Times Square. I’ve ridden my bike around Central Park, Broadway, Columbia and Harlem. I’ve been to a couple of plays, a rooftop party and an underground party. I’ve eaten great food, talked to people and improved my English. I visited the Museum of Natural History and even had one of my poems printed in a local newspaper called Street Voices. I’m working hard, preparing myself for the fourth round. In the middle of the civil war we seem to be living through today in our country, I’ve managed to keep moving forward — focusing, healing confirming my purpose. When the snow melts, I plan to finally put my ideas into practice: negotiating my writing, my art. I’ve chosen a spot along the westbound trail that will be my corner. In the summer, I’ll get a business license in Beacon, New York, a cultural and tourist hub just an hour from NYC in order to sell my writing and art. I’m excited to explore these parks by bicycle, swim in rivers, climb mountains, chase waterfalls, meet people, get into a little trouble, smoke my see BRIGHT SIDE page 16  GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THINK ABOUT IT There is a good reason why it is said the first thing we learn to do as human beings is lie. There’s a certain convenience to it that we come to recognize well before we develop any sense of right and wrong. Sadly for the majority of us, we continue its practice when we do understand it to be wrong. Perhaps it is because through deception we often achieve the desired outcome, which can be easily viewed as rewarding for the act itself. So as we are growing/developing, it’s very likely that whatever repercussions a person experiences for being dishonest are probably a very light slap on the hand, if anything at all. Therefore, despite being told and knowing the act of lying is wrong, a person’s view of lying becomes increasingly trivial. Now, take into account, this assessment is being made in the developing years of childhood where they have yet to interact with society at large, which also says dishonesty is supposed to be a negative trait. Yet its actions can only underscore its hypocrisy and corruption which, like the individual’s experience, is often more rewarding than anything else. I’ve always rather enjoyed studying the subject of philosophy. Unfortunately that’s all it is, just various theories and viewpoints of the principles on which this world and society at large operate. It’s not science or mathematics that has definitive laws that can’t be protested or challenged no matter how arrogant a person is. However, the nature of relationships between people, so far as I’ve observed, has no such laws and involves countless gray areas, justifications and Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed without saying our experiences and fortunes in life are going to shape our outlook of the world and the need to understand the why of it. Unfortunately, the whole notion of FEBRUARY 20, 2026 When people opt to take the easy road in an ugly society “vanity is king” JAMES MANNING Groundcover vendor No. 16 conditions. Humanity’s track record for conflicts, wars and atrocities committed shows a recurring trend for negative perceptions or, at least, outcomes. I find myself struggling to find any definitive explanation for such behavior, all while understanding this to be a fool’s errand to a certain point. Hence all the various theories and interpretations; one, for example, being the social phenomenon known as Monkey See, Monkey Do. Basically large groups and up to whole societies will adopt whatever behaviors, beliefs and so on that they observe in others, as if it’s a popular trend. This occurs so long as the behavior isn’t universally accepted to be wrong, as some social taboo. In that case I think it would be closer to the similar yet slightly different case called mass hysteria. However this is all just my own personal observations and I don’t claim to have a masters in human Psychology. Everybody is naturally gonna try their level best to make sense of our far-from-perfect world with its often disconcerting elements that conflict with our personal ideologies. It goes for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not making sense of the world or rather humanity at large is of course a deeply personal one. That obvious fact makes this particular topic rather difficult to explain because by its nature it will completely go over the heads of some people, while being relatable for others. However, it’s a viewpoint I have repeatedly attempted to share because my personal experiences unfortunately make acceptance of harsh, biased criticism absolutely not an option for me because I have the self-respect to refuse to give up on myself as well as life — regardless of how backwards it seems to function. As previously stated, I have my reasons for arriving at the conclusion that this world is plagued with corruption that never has or will sit right with me, and I refuse to take it lying down. In summary, my endeavors to find any sense of Peace and Contentment through understanding why people seek material gain and power and attempt to subjugate others is simply an exercise in futility. Humanity’s most basic instincts for self-preservation will ironically and inevitably destroy us. Those instincts show on the surface as arrogance masking fear, born of ignorance, making hatred commonplace. Despite the desire to believe our civilization is one of order that pursues a benevolent evolution, make no mistake our darkest fears and instincts for survival are fully exploited and used to keep us suspicious and ultimately threatened by one another. A sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. distraction so genius and foolproof the majority of us are not even aware of it. And those who are are terrified of the consequences of any protest, especially if you have anything to lose. Those who want to resist often have nothing at all of power or influence and you would only achieve being labeled a terrorist. When you think about it, isn’t that a label for anyone who would challenge the status quo? I’ve arrived to the point I no longer care about consequences since I’ve been subjected to endless labels and stereotypes leaving the only “job” society at large would tolerate seeing me employed in is likely a human test subject for viral and chemical agents, a trafficking victim or perhaps just simply keeping privatized prisons a lucrative industry. I know this all must sound incredibly pessimistic and negative, but I have my reasons, found in an incredibly messed-up world. Also this isn’t some dramatic self-serving manipulation either; almost laughably, I hate the idea of getting sympathy precisely because I hate the judgments made of me and their implied characteristics. I do desire the opportunity, the right to earn a better life for myself so, OK, perhaps the whole point I’m getting at is a little self-serving, but hey, I’m human despite popular belief. But much more importantly I’d like to see us, the masses, stand up for ourselves rather than kill each other over grievances brought onto us by a bunch of elitist dicks. And perhaps the most crucial fact about this world I shouldn’t need to leave you with … we outnumber them literally billions to one. FEBRUARY 20, 2026 COMMUNITY RESOURCES tax preparation RESOURCE CORNER Tax day is April 15! The IRS is already accepting and processing tax returns; don't wait until the last day! If your total income is less than $69,000 you likely have one or more cash benefits waiting and tax prep services are at no cost to you. Exact details vary based on the specific tax credit, your tax filing status and the number of people in your household. Some, but not all, tax credits require that you or your children have a Social Security Number. FINDING TAX FORMS Ann Arbor District Library branches offer physical copies of various federal tax forms beginning in late January. Librarians can print additional forms for no cost. Call (734) 327-4200 for more information. Ypsilanti District Library offers tax forms, while supplies last, at the Whittaker and Superior branches. Call the library for more information. Whittaker branch: (734) 482-4110, x2411. Superior branch: x2431 Download necessary tax forms from the Michigan Department of Treasury website and check income tax refund status. www.michigan.gov/taxes FILING HELP The Housing Bureau for Seniors Offering FREE tax return preparation in partnership with AARP Foundation! Appointments are offered Wednesdays and Fridays from February 4 - April 10. Trained volunteers will be able to provide a full federal and state return or complete the Michigan Property Tax Credits you qualify for. Past returns can be completed from 2022 onwards. Call Housing Bureau for Seniors to schedule your appointment at 734-998-9341! United Way Southeastern Michigan Tax preparation services are provided by IRS-certified non-profit partners, Accounting Aid Society and Wayne Metro Community Action Agency. Participation requirements include: make less than $69,000/year, have a Driver's License or picture ID, have a Social Security Card or ITIN, live in Washtenaw County. Schedule your appointment at unitedwaysem.org/resources/ tax-preparation-assistance/ St. Francis of Assisi Parish Offers tax help to individuals with limited income ($57,000.00 or less) and simple tax returns. Call the parish office at (734) 821-2121 to make an appointment to drop off your return. Services offered February through April. Assistance also available in Spanish. Accounting Aid Society In partnership with the United Way of Southeastern Michigan Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. Help with expert tax preparation, IRS support and guidance and home heating credits. Scheduling available now at 734-304-0943 or www.accountingaidsociety.org Located at 2305 Platt Road, Ann Arbor. ONLINE FILING MyFreeTaxes.com Free online service provided by United Way for preparing and filing your taxes. Must make $67,000 per year or less to use this service. Get started today at MyFreeTaxes.com GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers FEBRUARY 20, 2026 ACROSS 1. Gulf war missile 5. ___ moss 9. "La Vie en Rose" singer 13. A step up from a cigarillo 15. "And there you are!" 16. Where one might dock their boat in Alaska? 17. Homeric epic 18. Sub-field of sociolinguistics dealing in regional differences 20. Clairvoyance, e.g. 21. If you're fishing for this, you may be in for a shock! 22. Small songbirds 26. Cooking meas. 28. Come together 29. When tripled, a Portland taqueria 30. What one might get at night school 35. Met offering 36. Always, in verse 37. Christmas songs 38. Antiestablishment movement 41. ___ de Triomphe 42. "Do or do not. There is no ___": Yoda 43. "___ the fields we go" 44. Cordwood units 46. Boar's mate 48. Ground cover 51. Relating to the formation of speech sounds 55. Austrian composer 58. Barcelona's locale 59. Bread spreads 60. Kind of agreement 61. Agenda 62. Geek 63. Congers DOWN 1. Digger 2. ___ Major, home of Sirius 3. Open, as a bottle 4. Author Roald 5. Mental impression 6. Carry away, in a way 7. Star in Perseus 8. Old Chinese money 9. Coral colony member 10. Square root of IX 11. ___ mode 12. Beanie Babies, e.g. 14. Little piggy 15. Batman, for one 19. Crude group? 23. Less cordial 24. Oar pin 25. Without (Fr.) 26. Go bad 27. Untidy women 28. Expert 30. To the left, at sea 31. Wild card, often 32. Mysterious (Var.) 33. Calendar abbr. 34. ___ de force 35. Edible tubers 39. At one time, at one time 40. Area at risk of flooding 45. Locally feared noble gas 46. Suffix with sea or moon 47. Exterior 48. Weather balloon, for one 49. Bay window 50. Twosomes 52. Cultural figure 53. A pint, maybe 54. Strengthen, with "up" 55. A bunny's favorite scotch? 56. "Is that ___?" ("Anything else?") 57. Assent PUZZLE SOLUTIONS February 6, 2026 edition FEBRUARY 20, 2026 POETRY Attention LOVE ... LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover writer I do not hate anyone I say Yet Please do not try to do that to me Talk to me that way Matter of fact fact Last time I checked YOU ARE NOT IN CHARGE OF ME When was the last time YOU LOOKED IN THE MIRROR What did YOU SEE I am sure of this It was not ME So, please ‘Spand your attentions OUTSIDE OF ME I Ain Gotta problem with that You See Why are YOU Payin’ so much attention na' me Get outside YO head I am not constrained Liberated by your tyranny The only shame is PERHAPS Both of our heart Have been, are broken Not mending So much of a tragedy Let us pause, only momentarily Cause if you Think this' The end I do not Agree What do you believe still needs to be discussed? Can we just talk about it I'd prefer that Cause just as you We all seem to have More to do! VALENTINE'S DAY WORD SEARCH by Emeri Jade Bey EMERI JADE BEY Groundcover vendor No. 660 GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15 untitled 2 AUGUSTINE JAY Groundcover vendor No. 678 Why do I make the behold then out from in mine eyes the intrigue kept beyond your guise a wonder hidden cannot fly above and over demons if truly you can see whats there from where i sit, from in my chair i beg you please do not compare your own to what i see as fair for home is within reason

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Creamy cauliflower gratin ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 medium cauliflower head, cut into small florets 1 1⁄2 Tbsp olive oil 1 cup finely chopped onion 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 Tbsp cornstarch 1 (14-oz.) can light coconut milk 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg 3⁄4 tsp sea salt 1/4 tsp black pepper Generous 1/3 cup parmesan cheese Directions: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Cut cauliflower into small, even florets and steam in a large pot with a steamer basket (covered) until tender when pierced with a fork (about 15 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside uncovered to cool slightly. Heat a large oven-safe skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil and onion and sauté until the onion becomes tender and translucent, about 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant. Reduce the heat to low. Add the cornstarch and whisk to incorporate. Cook for 1 minute. Pour in the coconut milk a little at a time, whisking constantly to incorporate. Go slowly. Continue until all of the milk has been added. Simmer for 8-10 minutes or until thickened, whisking frequently. Add the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed, adding more nutmeg for warmth or pepper to taste. Add the steamed cauliflower to the sauce and toss thoroughly to coat. Taste once more and add more salt if needed. (Note: If you didn’t use an oven-safe skillet, you can transfer the mixture to an 8 x 8-inch baking dish now.) Sprinkle the top with parmesan and bake uncovered for 12-15 minutes, until the top is golden brown and crisp. Remove from the oven and let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving. An excellent side dish.  BRIGHT SIDE from page 11 weed, maybe try some mushrooms, drink fresh spring water and breathe the cleanest air I can find. New York State concentrates its urban chaos in a small southeastern corner; it’s mostly a vast, beautiful park, and I’m eager to discover it. Before that, I’ll make one more trip to Michigan. I bought a ticket to see my favorite band, Thievery Corporation, on March 18 in Detroit. I’ll head to Ann Arbor the next day. I’m also working on a more sociological article titled "Spelling the Truth," about the lies we’re all tired of hearing and possible paths toward clarity. I plan to attend the Groundcover News March 20 newspaper launch meeting, record a session at the library, reunite with friends and soak in some good Michigan love. In April, I’ll meet a great friend from Brazil who’s coming to teach FEBRUARY 20, 2026 a class at Harvard as part of his postdoctoral research in biophysics. Then we’ll head down to New York City together. When my friends back in Brazil ask how I’m doing, I tell them the truth: I’m still struggling. I still have a lot to learn — language, culture, laws. But I’m moving forward, planting roots while staying in motion. It’s a long road. Still, I feel like I’m winning. Between the hard moments, I’ve experienced real joy — especially the gift of being healthy and free. I’m starting my life over — not with dreams, because I’m awake — but with plans. God, I’m blessed. That’s why I always look at the bright side of life. Follow @pedrocamposbrazil USE THIS COUPON ANYTIME $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 3/30/2026

2 $ FEBRUARY 6, 2026 | VOLUME 17 | ISSUE 4 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. YouTube court increases access and transparency, violates privacy. page 4 MEET YOUR VENDOR: TERRI DEMAR PAGE 3 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Remembering Bob Marley on his 81st birthday. page 9 A MESSENGER of ONE LOVE, ONE HEART, peace and justice THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 FEBRUARY 6, 2026 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. We are hosting an Ypsi New Vendor Orientation on Wednesday, February 18, 11 a.m. at the Ypsilanti District Library (Michigan Ave branch - Room 2 in the basement)! STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Jim Clark Luiza Duarte Caetano Eliza Janssen Mike Jones Marie Dan Miesler Savon Salvador Will Shakespeare Tommy Spaghetti Steven Swiger Shawn Swoffer PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett June Miller Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Stephanie Dong Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Ben Foster Glenn Gates Robert Klingler Priya Kothari Harper Margolies Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropriate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons FEBRUARY 6, 2026 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Terri Demar, vendor No. 322 In one sentence, who are you? I am a person who likes to be aware of what's going on around me, locally and globally, to help people understand the nature of our times. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? On Main Street and surrounding areas. Why did you start selling Groundcover? I needed something to fill my time and figured out I'm good at reporting out the news. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Go to the LIVE bar and parks to chill out. What is your life motto? Keep going to make a difference in life before I die — I know it sounds morbid but it's the truth. What motivates you to work hard selling? I love it, especially when I am on top of my game. What's the worst thing about selling the paper? Having people ignore me while selling like I have nothing important to say. If you could do anything for one day what would it be? Get Elon Musk to take me on his private jet, out to lunch and SpaceX in Texas. What is one thing you could eat for the rest of your life? Pizza like everyone else. I love cheese. What is your superpower? I never give up. And the way I connect with people about knowledge. What are your hobbies? I like to create art — sometimes I’m good, sometimes I’m bad. I also Iike to dance and sing by myself. I like to walk a lot. It helps with my anxiety. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? Bring karaoke downtown by the ice cream place. We need a more vibrant atmosphere. Don’t worry, I would still sell Groundcover! What would you do if you won the lottery? Distribute some wealth among our struggling community, even Groundcover associates. Maybe start a UBI program for the poor so they don’t get kicked out of their homes. I would trust Yousef Rabhi with the cash to start it. What's the best way to start the day? Cheese bacon croissant and a strong cup of coffee and a walk downtown to my selling point. What is your pet peeve? I can’t stand stuck-up people and doctors that believe life isn’t as important as their ego. Impressive thing you know how to do? Be an emcee for karaoke and be funny. I have high expectations for myself and have had many roadblocks. That’s caused me much stress and fatigue but I’ve found a way to keep going because I’m smart. SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 The Sun and the Moon are glistening almost like glitter. I see rainbows in the sky more than one. Must be a wonderful day. I see the flowers with their vibrant colors. Could I be in love is that why my world is so colorful today? Must be a wonderful day. Could you see my world the way it is? Is it something that only I can see. Must be a wonderful day. I feel like like I could drift away with the wind. The smell of the flowers is in the air. Must be a wonderful day. Your image is in the water that I'm looking at. The smell of your perfume is all around me. Must be a wonderful day. Must Be A Wonderful Day Winter's Leaves STEVEN Groundcover vendor No. 668 The dancing silhouettes of song birds High in my tree Break my reverie. Evening sun Catching beaks bright orange, Orange again through their wings. Animated stained glass In the lofty reaches of my Cathedral. Gently, Sporadically, Life’s choir’s chords Escape down to me, Through the cacophony Of Pandemonium's howling autos. Winter’s leaves, Perched upon Winter’s skeletal tree, They group together Seemingly pointlessly. A glance away and They are gone. Evidence of them only the Weight in my chest abated, Serenity bestowed, And words, As life’s Prophet, I’m compelled to write. These feelings fleeting, As Winter’s leaves. Everything fits MONIQUE CALDWELL Groundcover contributor I love you for the way you steady the world, how your presence softens the noise inside me. You are the warmth to my winter morning, the anchor to my restless tide, the steady flame to my wandering wick. You are the harmony to my melody, the shoreline to my returning waves, the open sky that teaches my hope to rise. You are the honey to my tea, gentle, certain, perfectly blended— the compass to my journey, the quiet truth to my searching, the laughter to my long days. Loving you feels like recognition— as if my spirit remembers yours from a place beyond memory. With you, everything fits. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COURT FEBRUARY 6, 2026 YouTube Court increases access and transparency, violates privacy MARIE Groundcover contributor Over the New Year, a local resident served as a catalyst for this writer to investigate the current climate of using Zoom and YouTube for court. The resident sought community support with a cyber-stalking situation following personal information being shared via YouTube during landlord/tenant court. The stalker was sending pictures, personal information, and messages claiming they had seen the resident on YouTube court and were offering “help.” A peer provided assistance mitigating the situation by helping the resident change privacy settings on their social media accounts and blocking unwanted contact. According to the Michigan Judicial Council (MJC) Transparency and Public Access Live Streaming Policies/ Rules Workgroup Report and Recommendations, July 2023, there are several situations when information is considered protected and should not be broadcast, which includes, but is not limited to, information often shared during landlord/tenant proceedings and cases involving vulnerable stakeholders. The MJC is a 29-member panel established in 2021 by the Michigan Supreme Court [MSC] responsible for planning strategically for the Michigan Judicial Branch [MJB], enhancing the work of the courts, and making recommendations to the MSC on matters pertinent to administration of justice. After speaking with numerous local community members (who will all be referred to as “Buddy” to maintain anonymity), watching several YouTube court posts, and reviewing accessible information from the MJB, a pattern emerged, suggesting some overlapping viewpoints about the benefits and weaknesses of Michigan’s current internet court trends. For those who have internet access, attending court online or utilizing online court services saves time and reduces the cost burden associated with court activities. For many, online court access raises concerns related to privacy and decorum. For others, the use of livestreaming aids research and observation of courtrooms across the country. The basics of online court The concept of conducting court business with the aid of the internet is not a brand-new concept. All courts at this time have a website where information may be obtained and forms about how the platform operates, a channel with 1000 subscribers is eligible for monetization through advertising. The MSC Task Force report from 2021 suggests not utilizing a platform that has ads, and ads are among the options for monetizing YouTube channels. Task force concerns about ads at a minimum acknowledges a monetized incentive for livestreaming court proceedings. Using a monetized platform was identified as a conflict of interest by some stakeholders as it places profit or finances over the rights of people in the justice system. At this time whether the court system is earning any money is unclear. Investigations to gain clarity Judge Simpson hears a case remotely. accessed. Zoom court, or remote participation via the Zoom platform, has been around for many years, especially in areas where travel to courthouses is lengthy. The MSC’s Task Force on Open Courts, Media and Privacy Final Report, dated December 2021, defines Zoom court as participating in a court proceeding online via videoconference, without physically being in a brick-and-mortar courthouse. In addition, courts in Michigan use YouTube to livestream proceedings to accommodate observation (not participation) by the public. When COVID-19 hit, a major internet transition occurred when courts began livestreaming judicial proceedings via YouTube, and using Zoom for remote participation became the norm. YouTube court refers to the ability to view activities occurring in a courtroom either live or via posted recording. The MSC’s 2021 Final Report states: “To preserve access to our courts, parties and their counsel were generally allowed to participate in proceedings remotely. To preserve the transparency of our courts, those proceedings were streamed online using a variety of platforms.” Judicial transparency is “the idea that the public should be able to observe and receive information regarding judicial proceedings, including through media coverage.” To promote transparency, proceedings may be streamed online. Judicial access is “the idea that those who need recourse to judicial proceedings should be able to obtain it.” To preserve access to court participation, parties and their counsel may be allowed to participate using the internet. Positions on internet court The rules surrounding the use of the internet for court appear to be a work in progress, and according to the 2023 MJC report, providing live online streaming access is no longer mandatory. Both the MJB and the community express ongoing concerns including misuse of court proceedings made available online, monetizing live-streaming as evidenced by advertising, and violations of privacy. The MJC council presented the following list of stakeholders who require special shielding in all courtrooms: • protection of children and vulnerable adults, • protection of crime victims and witnesses, • preventing disclosure of sensitive financial details, • protecting privacy interests of parties, and • protecting privacy interests of jurors. A 2023 recommendation from the MJC suggests establishing guidelines for trial courts for the use of livestreaming, which include protections for stakeholders especially those who are vulnerable, throughout the process, as well as informing stakeholders in attendance about livestreaming prior to being streamed. Amidst ethical issues and concerns about constitutional rights, Michigan is utilizing procedures common in most states. Currently, the State Court Administrators Office Michigan Trial Courts Virtual Courtroom Standards and Guidelines, dated April 7, 2020, encourages the creation of a YouTube channel if a court does not have one. While YouTube.com provides more information around monetization are ongoing. Public comment Dozens of community members were approached and/or observed via the internet while conducting research for this article. Perspectives presented cover many judicial stakeholders, yet they do not represent all positions nor every population impacted by the justice system. While some of the following real-life examples were transcribed in real-time, many community members were engaged in a less formal interview format with notes written afterward. Buddy 1 didn’t know their court proceedings would be streamed: “[I had] no clue I was going to be on YouTube … the housing unit [in the jail] told me I was on the news … Judge has a YouTube channel and it was probably going to be on there … It’s B.S. the way they will exploit a person.” Buddy 1 also shared negative consequences of being on YouTube as “embarrassment and public humiliation … the judge kept egging me on, he’s supposed to be a professional.” On the positive side, they said, “I have a good rapport with [the] Judge now. I’m not going to smart off to a judge again. I learned a lesson.” Buddy 2 shared they have never been in trouble to the extent they had to appear in court, “but I would not want to be broadcast … it’s wrong and a violation of privacy.” Buddy 3 shared a story where they assisted a person who escaped a sexual assault and were coerced into testifying as a witness. While this buddy’s experience occurred prior to Zoom and YouTube court practices being implemented, they described testifying as traumatic, as they felt attacked while see YOUTUBE page 15  FEBRUARY 6, 2026 COMMUNITY Thank You Washtenaw County! GROUNDCOVER STAFF During the recent cold spell, where temperatures were near or below zero, Washtenaw County stepped up and offered hotel stays for over 50 people experiencing homelessness. As the cold snap stretched on, the county extended the stays for 11 nights! Many thanks to staffers Tabatha Reynolds, Ashley Hall and Terrence Williams, and of course to Administrator Greg Dill. Gratitude also to the County Commissioners, including Yousef Rabhi and Justin Hodge but especially Annie Somerville, for advocating on behalf of the community. Many groups and individuals letter to the EDITOR I just have to say how blown away I was by Pedro Campos' poem "Before love learned its name" published in the January 23, 2026 issue of Groundcover News. Pedro's poems are always good but this one is exceptional. I felt myself carried along and uplifted, verse by verse, compelled to share with you its effect on me. Please consider printing it again, perhaps in your Valentine's Day edition. — Susan Beckett community EVENTS ANN ARBOR HAPPY HOUR GROUNDCOVER FUNDRAISER Friday, February 6, 6:30-9 p.m. LIVE Nightclub, 102 S. First Street, Ann Arbor. Close out Vendor Appreciation Week with the Groundcover crew! Live music by Corndaddy and The Medicine Men. Groundcover merchandise for sale. Admission free. 'IN THE SPIRIT' POETRY CLASS Saturday, February 7 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. via Zoom. In trying times, often Spirit is all we can depend on. Spirit and the ability to call on it has sustained people of African descent for centuries. In this workshop, hosted by Eastern Michigan University professor Dr. Toni Pressley-Sanon, we will explore and celebrate spirit-inspired poetry by several writers, both in the United States and beyond, and then take up our own pens to add our voices to the praise repository. Register at: ypsilibrary.events.mylibrary.digital/event?id=253706 GALENTINE'S DAY Saturday, February 7 Main Street, Ann Arbor. Over 25 establishments are participating offering specials, deals and fun giveaways throughout the day. This year’s theme, Rom-Com Meets Ann Arbor Magic, brings meet-cute moments, postcard-worthy photo ops, and charming in-store experiences to life.The event features a passport style small business crawl, where you can collect stickers from participating businesses throughout Downtown Ann Arbor and be entered to win a giant gift basket of items. WINTER SIMMER POTS WITH GETDOWNTOWN Saturday, February 7, 2 p.m. Downtown Ann Arbor District Library, 343 S. Fifth Ave. Ann Arbor. Conquer the cold by making your own winter simmer pot with TheRide’s getDowntown program! We’ll provide ingredients and recipes to create a winter simmer pot that will make your home smell amazing. getDowntown staff will provide sustainable transportation resources, tips and tricks on staying warm while traveling in winter, and hot chocolate. AADL FIBER ARTS EXPO Sunday, February 8, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Downtown AADL, Ann Arbor. This fiber-filled day will have a full slate of hands-on programs, demos, and presentations, and a lobby full of local vendors. You can learn about knitting, crocheting, weaving, and spinning. Try your hand at macrame, embroidery, and more! Vendors will be on hand selling accessories, patterns, books, dyes and all things fiber related! YPSIWRITES OPEN MIC NIGHT Thursday, February 12, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Ypsilanti District Library Superior branch, 1900 N Harris Rd, Superior Township. Writers are encouraged to share their work, in whatever stage it is currently in, with supportive members of the YpsiWrites community. All are welcome to attend, read, listen, and encourage the writers. Sign up at tinyurl.com/YW021226 A.P. STYLE GUIDE WORKSHOP Friday, February 13, 10 a.m. at the Groudncover office. Learn the basics of the Associated Press Stylebook, the newspaper writing standard. Facilitated by Colleen Newvine. RSVP by calling 734-263-2098. Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com stepped up both to place additional individuals in hotel rooms after the County program filled up and to feed the hotel guests three meals a day. These include the Daytime Warming Center, Washtenaw Camp Outreach, FedUp Ministries and Pastor Anna Taylor-McCants, MISSION/Purple House and many many others. Finally, for assistance with coordination, meals, transport, guest relationships and so much more, gratitude to Corn Williams and LEAF Harm Reduction. This week and a half represented an amazing demonstration of everyone coming together in compassion and solidarity. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POLICING Two violent incidents within 48 hours involving Washtenaw County and city police have residents questioning whether law enforcement has become too militarized. Many in the community look towards a non-violent crisis response to neighbors instead of law enforcement to mitigate harm. January 4, and January 5, 2026, in Ypsilanti, law enforcement used what many thought was unnecessary force to remove a person having a mental health crisis. The next day an unarmed individual, who still hasn’t been identified, was shot and killed by Washtenaw County Sheriff Deputies. The siege on January 4 and 5 involved the combined police forces of Ypsilanti, Eastern Michigan, Washtenaw County, Livingston County, Plymouth, Howell, Hamburg Township, Shiawassee County, the state of Michigan police, and Washtenaw county SWAT, who surrounded an Ypsilanti resident for 30 hours because he had a sword in his own place of residency (see Groundcover News January 9, 2026). Ruben Peeler, 53, is still in the hospital but may be facing numerous felony charges. Final charges are unknown while Peeler remains in hospital custody, because he has still not been arraigned. January 20, 20 Ypsilanti residents spoke in support of resolution 202618, “A resolution condemning the militarized policing siege on West Cross Street, calling for all charges to be dropped, and demanding immediate systemic reform,” introduced by Councilmember Amber Fellows (Ward 3). The resolution didn’t pass (see Groundcover News January 23, 2026). February 3, Ypsilanti City Council Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not Flood said he represents the estate of a 34-year-old St. Clair man who was killed by Washtenaw County Sheriff’s deputies on Jan. 6. The man has not yet FEBRUARY 6, 2026 Two recent local injustices reveal law enforcement overreach been identified. "Four deputies are on administrative MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 voted to delay a proposed Police Advisory Commission review of the Ypsilanti Police Department's role in the incident. One day after the stand-off, early that next morning (January 6), a driver was shot and killed by Washtenaw County Sheriff's deputies after fleeing and crashing in Ypsilanti. Initially, authorities said the driver was armed, but later said no weapons were in the vehicle. January 22, 2026, authorities in Washtenaw County released dashcam footage of the deputy-involved shooting. The footage showed the chase and shooting that left the unarmed driver dead after multiple deputies opened fire on his vehicle. The deputy-involved shooting happened on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Prospect Road. Soon after the release of the dashcam footage the family of the victim of the deputy-involved shooting announced their plans to sue the Washtenaw County Sheriff Office for wrongful death. “This is a fatal O.K. Corral shooting of a man that did not have a gun, nor did he post a threat of great bodily harm or imminent danger as far as physical harm to another,” said Todd Flood, a Detroit-based lawyer. “It should have never taken place,” reported mLive. to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially leave and under investigation, and will remain on administrative leave while Michigan State Police conduct their investigation,” said Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia M. Dyer. “Law enforcement” refers to government-authorized agencies and personnel, such as police, federal agents, and sheriff's deputies, responsible for maintaining public safety and order. These entities investigate crimes, detain suspects, enforce laws, and protect property. Their core function is to ensure compliance with legal regulations allegedly intended to uphold justice. “Crisis response” refers to the immediate action and strategies implemented to address and mitigate the impacts of a critical event or emergency. It involves planning, mobilizing resources, providing assistance and communicating effectively to minimize harm and to facilitate recovery. Unarmed crisis response, as an alternative to law enforcement, is all about community, ordinary everyday people come together to help and render aid to those who are unhoused, those with mental illness, emotional issues, and those in distress who struggle with drug addiction. There is a noticeable difference between law enforcement and crisis response. I went out into the community and asked a few members of the community what would be the best response to an emergency situation like the stand-off West Cross Street and/or the deputy involved shooting? How should law enforcement respond? vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from A wooden heart decorated with flowers installed in the yard of 1111 W Cross St. invites neighbors and passersby to write positive messages for Ruben Peeler. Or should crisis response groups play a bigger role in deescalating tense situations in their community? Kimberly Daley, who is a social worker and an Ypsilanti resident, said, “The police response to the West Cross Street stand-off was totally inappropriate. I don't know if the police should have that level of military equipment. We need non-violent crisis response groups like Care Based Safety (a non-police team that responds without guns, pepper sprays and tasers), but city leaders refuse to fund Care Based Safety and this is the result.” Carol Smith lives in the neighborhood where the police stand-off took place. “The people in the neighborhood think the situation was handled poorly; the poor man was traumatized.” selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. FEBRUARY 6, 2026 LIVING ARCHIVE GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Vendor experiences with police brutality GROUNDCOVER COMMUNITY Violent, unjust encounters with police are nothing new for Black people in America, and these injustices can be compounded by homelessness. We sat down and talked with some of our Groundcover vendors to hear their experiences with racial injustice, homelessness and the police. La Shawn — Envisioning the future of public safety The murder of George [Floyd] does not surprise me at all. I myself have been a victim of the brutality and mistreatment by bad people who are and/ or have been employed as police officers. I would like to see the day when individuals who apply to become law enforcement agents are required by law to undergo a more thorough mental health evaluation over a twoyear period, as well as complete the National Alliance of Mental Illness classes. This process should also require that prospective had my papers in my hand and a small knife nestled among them because I had gotten in some fights with some haters earlier that day and the night before. A student came out of the Union and followed right behind me. I turned and asked him, “Hey, you want to buy a Groundcover News or buy me a beer?” He said no so I continued down the street. When I got to Dominos, seven cops told me. “Put up your hands.” I did. Then they asked, “You got a knife?” I said “Yes,” and gave it to them. I asked what I did wrong. They locked me up for attempted robbery. In court, the student said I held a knife to his throat. My public defender asked him a series of questions based on my account and the guy admitted that I didn’t ask him for money as part of a robbery. As soon as he was dismissed from the witness stand, he ran out of the courtroom for good. But I was still charged with armed officers receive education from licensed psychiatrists to educate these individuals about the numerous symptoms that are preexistent, those that are triggered in people who have a mental illness diagnosis, and symptoms in people who are not aware or capable of seeking treatment. I do understand that it is a dangerous task for the police, too, when they cannot tell what the risks are, if any, when responding to an incident. In my mind there are just simply people who choose to do the wrong thing by abusing authority. Overall, I’d like to see times where we as a whole demonstrate respect for humanity. Last but not least, be more openminded to things that we may not have a full understanding of and be willing to take a deeper look at another’s point of view. Matt — How it happened to me I was on my way home from selling Groundcover, on the edge of State St. I robbery because of the knife. The prosecutor gave me a choice of facing a possible conviction and five years in prison or accepting a plea deal of 18 months of probation in exchange for a guilty plea to felony attempted robbery. I took the deal but violated probation by drinking alcohol. I was in and out of treatment programs and jail for the next year, consequently losing my apartment. Joe — My experiences The police had me in handcuffs at the mall; they profiled me as a drug dealer. They came up to me and immediately put me in handcuffs. I asked them, “Why am I in cuffs?” and they wouldn’t tell me. They just kept on saying, “Where the drugs at, where the drugs at?” I didn’t have any drugs. I was chained for 12-15 minutes. The police ain’t nothing but a big ole gang. We talk about gangs, but the police are the biggest organized gang out here. The whole judicial system is. I wish people stopped the stupid hatred. I guess this is what we need to go through to get the love and the peace. Something tragic has to happen to get the good out. It’s kinda messed up. You gotta hit rock bottom to get back up. Quincy — Police and homelessness The police should protect and serve, but they go out of their bounds and overdo it sometimes. If I do have police contact, I have to have total respect for the police, because if I don’t, they’ll screw me up. You never know. Let’s say I called the police. Everything is reversed on me. First I’m the plaintiff, and all of a sudden I become the defendant. They try to beat me down. “Wait, I called you guys, why are you trying to beat on me?” When you resist, they use force. When they use force, they abuse their authority. They were holding George Floyd down by his neck. Regardless, they were gonna kill him. He’s choking, let him up. If I’m getting hurt, there’s not much they can do to help. If I’m getting jumped, they won’t get there in time. The police might be overrated. Conclusion When asked to define justice, Quincy replied, “Justice means free, it means honor, it means cherishing a moment of peace within yourself, within the next being around you. Justice is essential, it’s being found not guilty. I could look at that word in many different perspectives. It means you won your battle.” The end to police brutality—the fight for justice— is proving to be a long, hard-fought battle. We must continue to center the voices of those who are most oppressed in this country when imagining a future without police. Originally published in the July 2020 edition of Groundcover News. This was Groundcover's first printed issue after pausing print sales in March 2020. The article was written after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOUSING DEVELOPMENT Avalon awarded Low Income Tax Credits for the final phase of Hickory Way DAN MEISLER Avalon Housing Avalon Housing has been awarded Low Income Housing Tax Credits which will bring in approximately $10,000,000 in tax credit equity for the third phase of the Hickory Way Apartments campus in Ann Arbor. The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) announced the awards in December. The tax credits will pay for about 60% of the total cost of the project, which will add 39 one-bedroom units to the existing 70 units at Hickory Way. Securing the tax credits will allow Avalon to move forward in pursuing the remainder of the funding needed; depending on how that process goes, construction could start in the late summer or fall of 2026, with the project opening to tenants in late 2027 or early 2028. “We’re really excited to be able to add more local housing to help address homelessness in our community,” said Wendy Carty-Saxon, Avalon’s Director of Real Estate and Development. “We have seen what a difference it makes on an individual and community basis!” Other funding sources for the project include federal HOME and HOME ARP projects allocated through Washtenaw County; the City of Ann Arbor Affordable Housing Millage; a payment in lieu of taxes to the city that lowers the project’s property taxes; Washtenaw County Brownfield Program, construction loans from the Huntington National Bank and Chelsea State Bank; and pre-development funding from the Corporation for Supportive Housing. National Equity Fund is the investor limited partner. The City of Ann Arbor helped Avalon acquire the land by exercising its “right of first refusal” — when the previous owner sold the plot, the deed allowed the city to purchase it before any other buyer. The city bought the land, and entered into a purchase agreement with Avalon at cost, which was approximately $260,000. “When so many parts of a community come together — the federal level, the county board, the City of Ann Arbor, and our partners in banking and finance — we can do great things to address homelessness and make sure all of our neighbors have a safe place to call home,” said Avalon Housing Executive Director Aaron Cooper. Twenty-four of the new units will have project-based housing vouchers, meaning rents cannot exceed 30% of tenants’ income. Twenty of those apartments will be set aside for people directly leaving homelessness, and four will also be open to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Avalon provides all residents access to support services to help them thrive, including help addressing food insecurity, on-site health care, and transportation to critical appointments, among others. When the first phases of Hickory Way opened in 2021, the rate of chronic homelessness in the county fell by 31%. ELIZA JANSSEN Big Issue Australia Home is where the heart is. It’s an escape from the outside world, or the freedom to open up and let it in. It’s somewhere to thrive, to dream or simply to sleep. A home can be easily taken for granted — if you’re safe and secure in a place of your own. Aristea knows just how important it was to be given this kind of space. At the age of 11, she found herself in a tenuous living situation after her parents’ separation — with her mother and three siblings, she had to squeeze into a small private rental. It was overcrowded, and the family bonds suffered under the strain. “For a lot of kids on the margins, you grow up really quickly, right?” Aristea explained. “In some ways, you are like an adult in a kid’s body. It’s a very sensitive time, when you want the most amount of privacy, and I had none whatsoever.” Breathing room came in the form of not-for-profit Kids Under Cover, which works with young people at risk of homelessness. They built a free-standing spare bedroom in the backyard of the family’s public housing property. “When I got that space from my mum, our relationship improved a lot,” Aristea says today. “I’m not sure that we ever would have gotten to where we are now without the studio.” These studio spaces help to empower young people to break the cycle of poverty, while staying close to their families where possible. “We always came from a lower socio-economic background,” Aristea said, “and we’d had a lot of experiences with people not validating or believing our point of view at a time when we were struggling. So to have Kids Under Cover come in and meet us where we were at was really wonderful and affirming.” Kids Under Cover is making a real Hickory Way is an Avalon Housing apartment complex on the west side on Ann Arbor. It currently has 70 one-bedroom units (50 of which are project-based vouchers). difference, and like Habitat for Humanity, Anglicare and other Australian organizations making room for those in need, it benefits from the groundbreaking efforts of the Homes for FEBRUARY 6, 2026 Inside the Big Issue Australia's Homes for Homes Homes program. Now in its 10th year, Homes for Homes has been instrumental in funding life-changing projects that have provided homes for 400 people and counting. The idea came from California, where in the mid-2000s large-scale property developer Lennar Corporation began making voluntary contributions of 0.1 per cent from each of the units that they sold each year. That was around $1,000 (USD) per unit, and with tens of thousands of units sold each year, substantial sums were funnelled back into public and affordable housing. “If you’ve ever been to California, it’s hard to ignore the rough sleeping challenges they face over there,” Homes for Homes chief operating officer Tracy Longo pointed out. Inspired by the U.S. success story but setting its sights even higher, Homes for Homes was launched by The Big Issue Australia in September 2015, with the aim to inspire Aussie homeowners, construction companies, real estate agents and “anyone in the property sector” to help end the housing crisis in Australia. Under the scheme, homeowners register their property, pledging to donate 0.1 per cent of its eventual sale price to Homes for Homes. So, a $1 million sale equates to a $1,000 tax-deductible donation. This is added to a pool of funds that is used to finance social and affordable housing projects across Australia — like those built by Kids Under Cover. To date, the social enterprise has granted almost $3 million to 28 projects across the country. But Longo is just as interested in the ripple effect these projects generate. “The way I see it, it’s not just the life of the individual who’s been given a home that changes,” she said. “It’s see HOMES page 15  FEBRUARY 6, 2026 HISTORY GROUNDCOVER NEWS Remembering Bob Marley on his 81st birthday: Messenger of one love, one heart, peace and justice Robert Marley was born on February 6, 1945. If we do our math correctly, he would have been 81 years old now if he did not pass away on May 11, 1981. This year, the city of London has planned a big birthday party for Marley on February 6. Across the globe, including some college towns like Ann Arbor, there will be some form of get-together at house parties in remembrance of the great singer, philosopher and humanitarian. Robert Marley, who is known around the world as “Bob Marley,” is the first global super-star from the “third world.” He was born in a rural neighborhood known as Nine Miles in St. Ann Parish, Jamaica. His father, Norval Marley, was a white Englishman who was a supervisor of geographic agricultural lands in upland Jamaica. He was 50 when Bob Marley was born. Marley’s mom, Cedella Booker, was a black Jamaican teenager when Marley was born. In order to avoid local and international scandals, the couple quickly got married, but did not live together. Bob Marley was raised by his mother in a poor, rural village. Marley did not have much contact with his dad. At the age of 12, Marley and his Mom moved to Jamaica’s largest city and capital, Kingston. Life was tough for Marley and his mom at Kingston’s public housing known as “Trenchtown.” During his early teens, Marley learned to be a welder so he could help provide income for his family and help his mom. Marley got more interested in the music business. By the age of 16, he recorded his first song titled “Judge Not,” which was well received in Kingston. Marley met a young musician, Bunny Wailer, in 1962. Marley was about 17 years old and Wailer was a young adult who was friends with Marley's mom. Later that year, they asked another young musician, Peter Tosh, to join them in a new band they called “The Wailing Wailers.” Why did they call their band The WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 Wailing Wailers? The name was chosen because they said that they were all born crying as they grew up in the slums and ghettos of Jamaica, especially Kingston. Their song genre of preference was reggae. Their songs were a reflection of the poverty, deprivation, racism and injustice of 1960s Jamaica. The Wailing Wailers’ first song, “Simmer Down,” was a number one hit in 1963 in Jamaica. At the time, Jamaica’s dance music was fast frequency music called “scuff.” However, the Wailer’s reggae song slowed the beat. The original Wailers released many influential songs. Through his music, Marley and his band members tried to develop visions of peace and freedom. 1966 was a pivotal time for the Wailers and Marley. It was the year the Wailers fully joined the Rastafarian religion. It was the year that the Wailers began to grow their dreads. It was the year that Emperor Haile Selassie visited Jamaica. Selassie was regarded as the “Black King” who had been prophesied by “Jamaican Hero” Marcus Garvey. Some Jamaican historians and documentarians believe that Bob Marley and many other Jamaicans became convinced that Selassie was “Jesus Christ Reincarnated.” The Wailers and the Rasta elders believed that Jesus would return with a different name, and over time began to think that name was Haile Selassie. After Selassie went back to Ethiopia, the influence of Rasta spread exponentially and rapidly. 1966 was also the year that Bob Marley met a “Rasta woman” by the name of Rita. They got married the same year. Rita became one of the three female back-up singers of the Wailers. 1966 was also the year that Marley decided to migrate and join his mother in the United States. He was employed at a Chrysler Auto Plant in Delaware where his mom worked as an assembly plant union employee. He wanted to spend time with his mom and send earnings to new wife Rita, who still Bob Marley and The Wailers in the recording studio. Photo from Bob Katz and Fact Magazine. lived in Jamaica. After a few months, Marley left the job and the United States to continue his music and song-writing career in Jamaica. The Wailers felt exploited by the recording companies in Jamaica. Because Marley was an iconic and gifted performer with incredible stage presence, the musical group changed their name to “Bob Marley and the Wailers.” Luckily, in 1972 they were signed to a London-based recording company managed by Chris Blackwell, who was known in the European and United States music industry. “Catch a Fire” was their first album after signing the contract with Mr. Blackwell. Among the popular songs in “Catch a Fire,” which was released in 1973, were “Stir it Up” and “Concrete Jungle.” Bob Marley after the breakup In 1974, the band broke up. Each see MARLEY page 13  9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS People in the neighborhood: Rob Rob is a friendly man. Very easy to talk to and loves light and clever conversation. I’ve known Rob for a few years now. His health is challenged and is exacerbated by suffering through homelessness. Rob is a talented DJ, I see him on the bus and in the library with his mixing program on his laptop all the time. He is a capable man, even with his health struggles. “Where were you born?” I asked. “I am from Dearborn, Michigan,” Rob replied. “Did you go to high school?” I asked. “Yep, I graduated from Three Rivers High School in 1980,” Rob replied. “Did you go to college?” I asked. “No,” Rob said, “I went to a vocational school to be a sound engineer and a DJ.” “What got you into DJing?” I asked. “My mom. We were in the Grace Church choir for seven years. I got to help out on the sound board. I've been a DJ for 43 years now. I’ve done over a thousand weddings, and have been up and down the gentleman’s clubs on 8 Mile in Detroit,” he replied. “If you could go to college for free and study any subject, what would it be?” I asked. “I would go to Full Sail in Florida and get a certificate in sound engineering. Engineering jobs can start at up to $96k per year,” Rob said with emphasis. “Would it be easy to get a job after the courses?” I asked. “If I get a certificate, probably,” Rob replied. “It's a matter of having good ears. If you don't have good ears, you can still get a certificate. Those certificates pretty much just show you know the basics. A certificate means you have just enough skills to get a chance,” Rob continued. “What kind of places hire sound engineers?” I asked. “Usually touring bands. I might find a studio to work at but I kind of like to go out on the road. It would be fun to travel and get paid,” Rob mused. “But unfortunately there's no opportunities here. I need to go to Vegas but I don't want to leave because I like the guys here. But sometimes you have to make sacrifices to be where you want in life.” “What about starting your own DJ business?” I asked. “I've had a couple of those. I'd rather just find a place to work,” Rob replied. “What was life like for you before all that happened?” I asked. “It was OK,” Rob recalled. “I was working at a club doing what I do. Just living at the time, trying to make ends meet, you know, just one thing after the other. I had a four-year-old car, turbo with all wheel drive. I was living with my best friend. He was living his JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 life, I was living mine. We were working, driving, shopping and taking in what life has to offer.” Then it happened. Rob shared the moment his life fell apart. “You said your best friend passed away?” I asked. Rob replied, “We went to South Carolina and decided to get a house. So, you know, if we didn't find someone to marry, at least we could help each other pay the bills. He passed away and all of a sudden, all the bills were in my lap. I burned through my savings, then I crashed my brand new Chevy after being cut off in traffic. Then my sister passed away within three weeks after that. There's a whole bunch of other stuff that happened then next thing you know, I’m homeless.” “All right, so what's going on now? Tell me about the last two years of your life,” I asked. “It's been living in a tent and trying to make money by donating plasma. I’m surrounded by people with dangerous mental illnesses, I’ve had three surgeries and had to recover in my tent. I can't really do a lot of physically intense work. There’s not a lot out here for broken 60-year-old men,” he said. “Tell me about the last couple of days at your camp,” I asked. “I haven't been there. I've been going back to check on my tent, but somebody finally took it out. Somebody took my tent and took all my stuff out of it. All my clothes were actually in a bag ready to go do laundry, so they just picked them up and took them. You know, I'm 5'6", 170 pounds. The only [people] who wear my clothes are probably girls. You know, so whatever. I'm a little angry, but I'm over it.” The clothing Rob was referring to were things he had gotten for Christmas from a local hospitality house. “Where are you with housing? Are there agencies helping you?” I asked. “I asked PATH where I was on the list and they couldn’t give me an answer. Then I found out I was not on the list, so finally I had to fucking deal with it. They've got every little bit of useful ID and information they need, so I don't know. I guess with the kidney stones and bad back and everything else, I Rob is a career DJ who became homeless after the sudden death of a housemate and sibling. must not be a priority. But still. I'm not gonna let it keep me down. I've crawled out of the hole a few times. So, you know, this is just taking a little longer because I'm older. ” It is important to note that, like many others, Rob has been waiting on help from the government for months. He was acting responsibly when he was in South Carolina — working and paying bills — and then tragedy struck. Was it his fault his friend died? Was it his fault his car was wrecked? Was it his fault for having kidney stones? No, no, and no. So where is the state? This is what social welfare programs are for, so why are so many people waiting months for help? Here is some more information about people recovering from surgery while experiencing homelessness: Post-surgical mortality and homelessness: People experiencing homelessness (PEH) are more likely to experience surgical complications, with one study finding they have 1.42 times greater odds of complications compared to housed patients (American College of Surgeons). Homelessness is an independent risk factor for developing infections and complications within 90 days of surgery (U.S. National Library of Medicine). Reports have documented specific cases, such as a woman in a Canadian tent encampment who passed away after being denied necessary surgery because she had no safe place to recover (New Brunswick Media Co-op). about “You had surgery recently. Tell me that. What happened afterwards?” I asked. “They (Trinity Medical) just released me. I had to wait for a bus to take me back to my camp. No ride, no motel, nothing. They didn’t even let me spend the night.” “Are you recovering okay?” “I’m still bleeding,” Rob replied. FEBRUARY 6, 2026 FEBRUARY 6, 2026 COMMUNITY RESOURCES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers FEBRUARY 6, 2026 ACROSS 1. Candy, informal 5. In base 8 10. Worked the soil 14. On or to the left 15. Choice 16. A rounded knob or protuberance 17. Black cat, maybe 18. Consumed 19. Barbecue entree 20. Creative activity in front of an audience 23. "-zoic" things 24. Oolong, for one 25. Legislative assembly of Spain and formerly Portugal 28. A shore onto which a ship could be blown in foul weather 33. Came down 34. -myalgia, debilitating condition 35. ___ green 36. Device that performs operations, usually in binary notation 40. "The Three Faces of ___" 41. "Encore!" 42. "Scream" star Campbell 43. A system for broadcasting words on TV 45. Covered in slices of bacon 47. Amigo 48. Boat in "Jaws" 49. Descriptions of something as admirable 56. English spelling for the capitol of Shaanxi province 57. Exploits 58. ___ gin fizz 59. ___ brat 60. Harvard, Yale, Brown, etc. 61. Cork's country 62. ... 63. Like some goodbyes 64. Gets into DOWN 1. Hoof sound 2. Blood pigment 3. "Your turn" 4. Colored paper thrown at celebration 5. Met productions 6. Forces something into an insuffcient space 7. South American monkey 8. "Absolutely!" 9. Not shortsided 10. Cry of triumph 11. Bypass 12. Declines 13. Affairs 21. Bauxite, e.g. 22. "Belling the Cat" author 25. Citadel student 26. Antipasto morsel 27. Star in Orion 28. Allowed 29. Black, in poetry 30. ___ out (declined) 31. "The Canterbury Tales" pilgrim 32. Dog-___ 34. Cultivated for its linseed and textile fiber 37. Golden Horde member 38. "You must be at least 21 to drink alcohol" 39. Made without yeast 44. Namesake for a discovery 45. Tastelessly showy or loud 46. Appear 48. A boorish or aggresive person, especially an Australian man 49. Copter's forerunner 50. Dalai ___ 51. The Jackson52. Hip bones 53. Assortment 54. Norse goddess of fate 55. Attends 56. "Do the Right Thing" pizzeria owner PUZZLE SOLUTIONS January 23, 2026 edition FEBRUARY 6, 2026 TAX RESOURCES tax preparation RESOURCE CORNER Tax day is April 15! The IRS is already accepting and processing tax returns; don't wait until the last day! If your total income is less than $69,000 you likely have one or more cash benefits waiting and tax prep services are at no cost to you. Exact details vary based on the specific tax credit, your tax filing status and the number of people in your household. Some, but not all, tax credits require that you or your children have a Social Security Number. FINDING TAX FORMS Ann Arbor District Library branches offer physical copies of various federal tax forms beginning in late January. Librarians can print additional forms for no cost. Call (734) 327-4200 for more information. Ypsilanti District Library offers tax forms, while supplies last, at the Whittaker and Superior branches. Call the library for more information. Whittaker branch: (734) 482-4110, x2411  MARLEY from page 9 member pursued a solo career. Bunny Wailer went his own way and Peter Tosh went his own way. Marley performed with a new lineup still using the band name Bob Marley and the Wailers. Marley had his first international breakthrough in 1975, according to a Jamaican documentary. The collaboration with music executive Chris Blackwell meant that the reggae band from Jamaica had access to cutting-edge musical recording equipment. Bob Marley’s hit song “No Woman, No Cry” came out of the “Natty Dread” album. The next year, in 1976, he released “The Rastaman Vibration” album. Both albums bore themes of poverty, slums, oppression, inequality, injustice and resistance, which were commonplace in the third world. His messages include dreams, hopes, unity, peace, harmony, and above all, love. By 1976, there was no doubt that Bob Marley had become an international superstar. He was in demand for concerts in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, and several more countries. Many reggae music lovers were rediscovering his older songs. On December 28, 1976, there was an assasination attempt on Marley’s life. It happened in his house in Kingston, Jamaica. Marley, his wife Rita, and his manager were all shot. They survived; they were lucky. Marley moved to London at the end of 1976. Marley and his new Wailers band Superior branch: (734) 482-4110, x2431 Download necessary tax forms from the Michigan Department of Treasury website and check income tax refund status. www.michigan.gov/taxes FILING HELP The Housing Bureau for Seniors Offering FREE tax return preparation in partnership with AARP Foundation! Appointments are offered Wednesdays and Fridays from February 4 - April 10. Trained volunteers will be able to provide with a full federal and state return or complete the Michigan Property Tax Credits you qualify for. Past returns can be completed from 2022 onwards. Call Housing Bureau for Seniors to schedule your appointment at 734-998-9341! United Way Southeastern Michigan Tax preparation services are provided by IRS-certified non-profit partners, Accounting Aid Society and Wayne Metro Community Action Agency. Participation requirements include: make less members released a very influential album named “Exodus” in 1977. Its title song was written in response to the campaign slogan of Socialist Party leader Michael Manley, “We know where we’re going.” Exodus is partly vision and partly an anthem with a siren call to all the world to leave the wickedness of Babylon and return to the Holy Place of Ethiopia. “We know where we’re goin’, we know where we're from. We’re leavin’ Babylon, y’all, we’re goin’ to our Father’s Land,” he sings. In 1978, Marley visited Kingston. He brought the concept of reggae for peace and unity. The political disagreements and election campaigns got very violent in Jamaica. Marley wanted Jamaicans to see a symbolic show of peace and unity. What did he do? He gave a concert in a big arena which ended with Socialist Party leader Manley and Conservative Party leader Edward Siega (who both served as Prime Minister) lifting their arms and shaking hands while Marley was standing between the two. It was an important gesture for a peaceful democracy. Siega said the following about Bob Marley after Marley’s passing: “I myself was a minister in the government, responsible for art and culture … Bob Marley captured the popular imagination of the people. Marley internationalized Jamaican music. Bob Marley was successful because of his creative music. He captured public imagination. His songs had a message that transcended race, color and creed. It dealt with the protests of a large section of the world.” than $69,000/year, have a Driver's License or picture ID, have a Social Security Card or ITIN, live in Washtenaw County. Schedule your appointment at unitedwaysem.org/ resources/tax-preparation-assistance/ St. Francis of Assisi Parish Offers tax help to individuals with limited income ($57,000.00 or less) and simple tax returns. Call the parish office at (734) 821-2121 to make an appointment to drop off your return. Services offered February through April. Assistance also available in Spanish. ONLINE FILING MyFreeTaxes.com Free online service provided by United Way for preparing and filing your taxes brought to you by United Way. Must make $67,000 per year or less to use this service. Get started today at MyFreeTaxes.com GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13 Michael Manley commented that Bob Marley’s art was very significant. “He was one of the rare artists to come around in a generation. Bob Marley was able to internationalize his songs and message. Bob could sing about Zimbabwe and Trenchtown.” Robert Marley, according to Manley, was “one of the most articulate ‘troubadours’ of the ghetto.” His caring about social issues such as poverty, inequality and injustice was unshakable and uncompromising. Bob Marley’s final two albums were released in 1979 and 1980. “Survival” (1979) had popular songs such as “Zimbabwe” and “Africa Unite” and “Survival.” Marley’s last studio album, “Uprising,” showcased Marley’s belief that reggae music came out of Africa and people like Marley polished the music and made it famous. Reggae was indeed a reflection of the stories of oppressed people in Africa and the African diaspora. When the End is Near Music historians say that Marley’s last concert performance was at Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, Pa. on September 23, 1980. That was around the time he found out about his illness — cancer. The diagnosis showed that the cancer, which started on his foot, had probably spread to other parts of his body, and his managers cancelled the rest of his tours so he could get treatment. Because of his religious beliefs, Marley rejected the amputation which was recommended by his doctors. In the final stage of his life, from 1980 to 1981, he sought alternative medicine. It did not work. Treatment at a clinic in Germany did not stop the cancer from spreading rapidly. Marley prepared himself to die in his mansion in Kingston. But while trying to get back home, he passed on at a medical center in Florida, now known as the University of Miami Medical School. Marley’s dead body was flown to Jamaica where he received a state funeral fit for a national hero or a prime minister. They mourned and celebrated Bob Marley’s life and death all over Jamaica. His music, his song lyrics were sung from every corner of the world. There is no question that Marley’s funeral was a triumphant event, as mourners sang and danced to the melodies which brought hope and comfort to masses of downtrodden and poor people across the globe. There is a line from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “When beggars die there are no comets seen/ The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.” Bob Marley was a global Prince of “One Love,” which Prime Minister Edward Siega said meant “the vision of peace and unity” during his eulogy in 1981. Bob Marley’s musical accomplishments are staggering. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Marley’s 1977 album titled “Exodus” was designated album of the 20th Century by Time magazine in December 1999. Marley’s song “One Love” was designated Song of the Millennium by the BBC. Marley continues to be remembered all over the world.

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SPOTLIGHT Sugar Man and the origins of SK Rodriguez TOMMY SPAGHETTI Groundcover vendor No. 669 Everybody knows Sugar Man right? If you don't know Sugar Man then perhaps you missed the greatest Cinderella story of the 21st century: Artist/ musician makes a record. Record flops. Record company drops Artist from label. Artist lives in relative obscurity 30+ years. Through an internet connection, Artist discovers they have millions of fans overseas. Artist travels to foreign country and receives a hero's welcome. Artist makes triumphant return home. Artist lives happily ever after. What I just described to you was documented in the 2014 Academy Award winning movie "Searching For Sugar Man," directed by Malik Bendjelloul. I have to mention Malik's name because without him this whole comeback story might have been missed. It is easy to identify with the artist Sixto Rodriguez (aka Sugarman), especially if you're in the music business or if you just like it when the underdog wins. Maybe it was better that Sugarman's album flopped commercially in the United States because it preserved his body for future use. We all know the down-side of overnight stardom: drug and alcohol use/abuse; fast living; overconsumption of food; sex and an early demise. The road after success is littered with youthful corpses, i.e., Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, Belushi. Sugarman’s 1973 record album, Cold Facts, had music that was danceable but the lyrics were perhaps too honest for the average consumer. The song "I Wonder," while upbeat and danceable, pondered sex. Pondered Vietnam. Was written and composed in the early 70s vernacular. No wonder it didn’t sell well in the United States in the 1970s. The title track "Sugar Man" integrated marijuana, tolerated cocaine — two subjects the Motown Records subsidiary was not interested in promoting. Lets fast forward now to 2026 and we have Sandra Rodriguez carrying her father's legacy like an Olympic torch. The two imposters, Chance and Fate, lured us together. Necessity wrote the screenplay. I was looking for a band to hire for a variety show and after a brief phone conversation with Sandra Rodriguez, aka SK, it was clear that her experience was beyond my own. I gratefully relinquished my position and invited SK to produce our "In Loving Memory" show, a tribute concert to the late poet activist John Sinclair. (Wishing to avoid confusion I am calling Sugarman, "Rodriguez." And I am calling Sandra Rodriguez, "SK." That's how they are referred to locally by friends and family.) Collaborating with SK made me realize that I was in the presence of greatness and that I needed to conduct an interview with SK for Groundcover News in Ann Arbor, because Groundcover has a loyal readership. TS: How did you get the moniker SK? SK: The initials of my name Sandra Kennedy. Rodriguez first called me SK and I like it. TS: How did you get into singing as a career? SK: I wrote and copyrighted six songs. When Rodriguez learned about it he asked me to be his "ice breaker" and open his shows with my originals. My first performance was at Barclays Center in Brooklyn in front of 6000 people. TS: Wow! What year was that? SK: 2013. “Resurgent troubadour Rodriguez — the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary, "Searching for Sugar Man" — is performing at Barclays Center on Wednesday, October 9 at 8 p.m. The concert at Cushman & Wakefield Theater at Barclays Center continues one of the most remarkable musical comebacks in recent memory on Rodriguez’s wildly popular U.S. tour itinerary. Support acts for Rodriguez will be Sandra Rodriguez, Susan Coswill and John Sinclair.” — A press release at the time. TS: Were you the "ice breaker" for all those shows in South Africa and Australia? SK: Yes all the shows in Europe, Canada, the United States, Australia — I have yet to perform in ZA, I just announced a tour, trying to make it there. TS: ZA? SK: Republic of South Africa TS: You were already in ZA. I saw "Searching for Sugar Man" movie poster about Sixto Rodriguez. you in the movie "Searching for Sugar Man." Was that before Barclays Center? SK stands in front of Detroit mural of her father, Sixto Rodriguez. FEBRUARY 6, 2026 TS: Yes, and South Africa was before my dad knew I wrote and sang and played songs. And the other time he toured I stayed in the United States and sent my daughters. They have been there several times, bless that man! TS: Are you excited about going to ZA? SK: About the possibility, yes. TS: Seems like a difficult thing to pull off. I would be nervous but you've been there before. You played four sold out shows in Australia in 2025. How do you stay relaxed while traveling such great distances and performing for large audiences? SK: I see it as a privilege and a pleasure and an honor to be there, and doing music is even more incredible! TS: Sandra, I wanna call you Sugarmomma. How do you feel about that? SK: Not interested in being called that. My name is SK. Or Sandra. By this time in our relationship SK and I had become friends. Unwittingly I got stranded on the east side of Detroit. I could’ve taken a city bus back home (13 miles) but I've already walked five miles and I'm worn out. Knowing SK lives somewhere on the east side I give her a call and she answers. The angels seem to be on my side so I press my luck. "SK. I'm stuck at 8 mile and Gratiot. Can you swoop me?" In just a few minutes SK arrives in a squeaky clean new-looking SUV. After I buckle the seatbelt SK tells me, "I wanna show you something ..." Wasting no time SK drives to the Cass Corridor stopping at not one, not two but three gigantic murals painted in Sugarman’s likeness. Each mural depicting Rodriguez in a different guitar pose. This is a drive-by mural tour so it doesn't take long to observe the murals. SK steers her SUV down an alley. We stop and SK gets out of the car. Unlocks and opens a huge wooden gate. We are now in a fairytale existence. Looking at a huge stately home in Wayne State University’s Woodbridge neighborhood. Sweeping my head from side to side I gaze at the perfect concrete, the manicured grass, the stockade fence offering neighborly privacy and foliage. "Imagine the shows we could put on here," states SK. "This porch could be the stage." SK unlocks the door and we enter the unoccupied house. "Rodriguez bought this house for $100 in the 1970s. It was his lifelong project." SK is giving me 'the nickel tour' starting on the first floor. The walls look freshly drywalled. No art adorns them. Sanded hardwood floors perfectly level. No furniture at all until we reach the second story. In the living room rests a polished black grand piano. Lifting the key cover I sit down to play a tune while SK walks around making sure the balcony windows and doors are firmly locked. "My sisters want to sell the house. It's listed for $325,000. I want to buy them out." SK leads me into the basement. There on the floor against the bricked wall are tools. Hammers, sledges, crowbars, saws, levels, all neatly aligned, perfectly spaced, like it's an exhibit at Greenfield Village at The Henry Ford Museum. From this evidence it's clear that Sixto Rodriguez was a master craftsman. This house is symbolic of Rodriguez's music career. Impressive and enduring. The three Rodriguez murals are not hyperbole. Rodriguez is remembered and loved by everyone around here. FEBRUARY 6, 2026 COMMUNITY RESOURCES  YOUTUBE from page 4 testifying, and would not want the experience to be broadcast. Buddy 4 stated, “I don’t agree with that at all, I didn’t know that [they broadcast on YouTube]. It is public knowledge, the public has a right to know about criminals, but with that said it doesn’t mean I want to be on YouTube. It wasn’t meant to be the way people use it.” Buddy 5 said it’s the “age we live in, it's the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), it's the age of social media.” Buddy 6 said it “shows what kind of fraud they is, all the system is is money.” Buddy 7 said, “It’s the First Amendment and Fifth Amendment, its FOIA. I see it as content, but with that said I wouldn’t want to be on YouTube court. YouTube is how a lot of people get their news now. After they get a thousand subscribers they monetize it.” Buddy 8: “Zoom court has saved my life, but it shouldn’t be something that anybody can access and monetize, there should be oversight.” Buddy 9: “Typically I think it's horrible. This guy was having a horrible time and people were laughing, it's not funny. It speaks to the popularity of true crime. If I was in court and I wanted my support system to be there but couldn’t be there physically, it could have a function.” Buddy 10: “I think the court system  HOMES from page 8 generational change that impacts the outcomes for people around them, too. It’s incredibly powerful when you’re able to change the trajectory for someone’s life by simply giving them what they need at the time they need it most.” We know that housing ends homelessness, but the scale of the problem is daunting. More than 122,000 Australians are without a home each night, and another 1.26 million households are living in housing stress — spending more than 30 per cent of their income on rent or mortgage payments. And with a critical shortfall of social housing, there are 640,000 households on the waiting list for an affordable home. Longo believes that it will take the combined efforts of many motivated, connected movements to make a lasting impact, and Homes for Homes is taking the long view: seeking enduring rather than quick-fix solutions, and new brick-and-mortar sanctuaries rather than emergency triage options. Longo outlined the need for a “healthy ecosystem,” with housing options existing on a continuum. “You’ve got social housing, affordable housing, private rental and then private ownership,” she said. “It’s really critical should be abolished. I’m not comfortable with it [YouTube court]. I think they play to the camera.” Buddy 11: “Law teacher at school uses it. They show the live courtroom to the students to show how the court system works.” Buddy 12: “It’s f***ed-up, they [the police] profiled me off of that. ‘We know what you are in court for,’ because I got in trouble. It's supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, now it's guilty until proven guilty.” Buddy 13: “COVID brought it to light when everything went virtual … YouTube is broadly used in a way to embarrass people and I don’t like it. I don't like all the viral, stressful, emotional, hard on public display for entertainment ... different people have different comfortability … people have a right to view … using it as entertainment I am personally in disagreement with … there are sensitive issues, people are going through things ... using their plight for entertainment.” Buddy 14: “I don’t think you should be allowed to put a very private, intimate, life-altering experience out for display like reality TV … mental shame and anguish … people haven’t even been given due process. It robs them of a sense of justice that they can participate in justice fairly.” Buddy 15 clarified they didn’t know they were being broadcast. It’s “21st century modern times and everything that those sectors are in harmony, and that those most vulnerable are given an opportunity to move through the system when they’re financially positioned to do so.” The dream for Homes for Homes, as it ticks past its first decade, is to see the recipients of its projects grow into a position where they might give back themselves, signing up to pay 0.1 per cent forward — good housing karma incarnate! “In time, I would hope to see that,” Longo said. “In the next 10 years, I’d love for [Homes for Homes] to get to the point when it’s just understood to be part of the buying and selling process in Australia, in the same way we talk about safety measures like wearing a seatbelt or a helmet.” “With my background, I think from a very early age, I realized the power that advocacy actually has,” Aristea said. By the end of September, she will be admitted as a solicitor, working in criminal law — using the “talent for self-advocacy” that she discovered through securing her family that studio, and applying it for the benefit of others. Empowered by her own experience of finding the right housing at the right time, she can speak to the cracks that she’s seen in the system. so to some extent things are recorded. What I couldn't imagine in a million years is that it would be taken into a public domain so quickly and publicly. It’s a lucrative content-making opportunity off of parading people around like legal Jerry Springer, and unlike talk shows, real outcomes with real cases, real lives affected forever. The bottom line is there is money to be made from this content and as long as that’s the case we will keep seeing these types of exploitative practices. Like with everything, the internet could be used for good or bad. It streamlines bottlenecks that have long been there, but there is a cost to people’s safety and privacy.” Post-pandemic court COVID-19 launched a permanent shift to rely more heavily on internet access to court business. However, concerns remain about how current practices balance constitutional rights. At this time courts rely heavily on State Court Administrator Office’s 2020 guidelines and standards. While the guidelines explicitly state Zoom and YouTube are not the only acceptable platforms, the directions do explain how to utilize them. In 2023 the MJC recommended SCAO add updates to the standards and guidelines for live-streaming settings to decrease trauma. A recent review of Washtenaw “A lot of people who end up in front of the criminal justice system were victims first, who often didn’t have the adequate support that they needed when they were younger,” she reports, “and the rates of criminalization in people who have experienced domestic violence as youth are sky high.” Aristea said that her family’s humble Kids Under Cover studio felt way bigger on the inside, providing her with a place to study, decompress or escape — without actually having to leave the family and face an uncertain future alone. “It’s that step towards independence that’s actually prolonging childhood,” Aristea said of the young people who are granted their own studio spaces, “and it’s keeping them at home for longer.” Today, she is a fierce critic of governmental neglect of public housing. “The reality is that there’s no viable alternative. You’re converting a system that helps working-class families, that supports migrants and domestic violence victims, and a lot of those people who would be appropriately placed in public housing are going to end up homeless.” Longo feels the same, claiming that in a perfect world, her role at Homes for Homes would not exist. “But the reality is that there’s been under-investment GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15 County judges listed on the MiCOURT Virtual Courtroom directory suggests not all Washtenaw County courtrooms currently have a working YouTube link, nor do all judges with a working link have the 1000-subscriber threshold for monetization. The judges without a YouTube link and those with fewer subscribers appear to handle a larger load of cases relating to protected and vulnerable populations such as juveniles, families, personal protection orders and specialty courts. However, an inspection of the MiCOURT Virtual Courtroom Directory and washtenaw. org indicates that both state and county information about courtrooms and judges sometimes need updating. At this time, a FOIA request is in progress, with the goal of gaining clarification surrounding whether courtrooms have monetized livestreaming and how the revenue is being utilized. According to a Michigan Courts News Release from November 6, 2025, written by John Nevin, titled "A New Era for Michigan’s Trial Courts: Transformative Funding Model Proposed," efforts are underway to change court funding aiming to “eliminate financial conflicts of interest, ensure fair and stable funding, and expand equitable access to justice for all Michiganders.” In the release is a summary see YOUTUBE page 16  in social, affordable housing for multiple years, and it can’t be solved by one organization, one government. There has to be multiple levers and strategies, and Homes for Homes is one of those.” Ten years in, the scope and impact of Homes for Homes continues to evolve, with renters now involved in the process, too — donating 0.1 per cent of their monthly rent. So too, the sale or lease of offices, retail outlets and factories. With a number of projects in the works, one of the closest to Longo’s heart is The Cornelia Program, which gives at-risk women in Victoria the accommodation and specialized help to stay with their newborn babies. It sounds a million miles away from some kind soul selling their pile of bricks — but it’s not, Longo said. “We’re looking at how the entire community can be part of the solution, how we’re all able to link arms in support of this cause. “It’s allowing us to grant funds across a diverse variety of different organizations. We want to tackle long-term outcomes for people who need housing. It’s seamless and it’s simple, but it goes a long way to making a difference for people on the margins.” Courtesy of The Big Issue Australia / INSP.ngo

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Hot chocolate LUIZA DUARTE CAETANO Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 4 cups whole milk* 1/2 cup cocoa powder 1/2 cup sugar 8 oz dark chocolate, chopped finely Optional toppings: marshmallows, whipped cream Directions: Bring milk to a simmer on medium-low heat. Whisk in cocoa powder, sugar and chopped chocolate. Keep on low heat until chocolate melts completely and everything is fully combined. Add preferred toppings in each glass. Makes four servings. *Substitute a plant-based milk for a just-as-good dairy-free verison! Help vendors stay warm during this extra-cold winter by donating hand warmers, toe warmers and hot chocolate packets. It makes a big difference when working long hours outside! Drop off to our office anytime during our daily hours, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Coordinate a pick-up by calling 734-263-2098. Thank you! SAVON SALVADOR Groundcover vendor No. 273 This is our song: “Happy Scopes is here today. Read it, laugh and smile all day! Happy Scopes is here today!” Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 19): Your qualities and craftsmanship are spectacular — expect nothing but the best from the avenue of choice and chance. Aquarius (Jan 20- Feb 18): Those broken promises are mending. Don't let that temper ruin the peace around you. Maybe focus on what’s right in front of you. Pisces (Feb 19-Mar 22): Escape from your hardship and the past. Try to hunt the kinder heart you have. Stay in one lane and complete it; you will have better results. Aries (Mar 21- April 19): Wear loose clothes and you will slide into that new position. You have so much to look forward to. The new moon is going to energize your body, mind and soul, so don't miss out. Taurus (Apr 20-May 20): Don't be unsure, but gardening your responsible hands will for sure work. Try out a self-pamper day. The spa awaits you. Scoripo (Oct 23- Nov21): Insight about assessing research about what is aiding you. Dedicate and challenge yourself to overcome that which is superficial or small. Sagittarius (Nov 22-Dec 21): There are theories about what you may do new or what your new move might be, but keep it to yourself. They don’t need to know the results until the final product or decision. FEBRUARY 6, 2026 February Happyscopes Gemini (May 21- June 20): Yes, you learn quickly, however, learn to not chat with the wrong crowd. It’s time to write your own song and tune and let someone else listen to your creation. Cancer (Jun 21-July 22): A good meal in solitude will help open your mind. Taking a step back to recreate yourself is always important. Leo (July 23-Aug 22): Your heart is golden, but who is going to shine it when it’s dull or dusty? Gain and give at the same time — it is a cycle. Virgo (Aug 23- Sept 22): Become that animal within your finances and secure your future. Libra (Sept 23 - Oct 22): Don't be afraid to let your guard down, cool kid. Your bravery will be rewarded with true friendship.  YOUTUBE from page 15 USE THIS COUPON ANYTIME $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 3/30/2026 suggesting a framework for the future of internet court taken from India’s experiences, dated July 2025, written by L. Gupta, published in The Legal Youngster, and titled Judicial Transparency Vs Privacy: An Analysis of Live Streaming of Court Proceedings. In the article Gupta says a judiciary’s credibility relies on public confidence, which “hinges on transparency and accountability.” Seven safeguards and recommendations follow: 1) Selective streaming which only streams proceedings “involving constitutional interpretation, public interest litigation, and significant legal questions, with cases involving family, vulnerable populations or sexual offenses excluded;” 2) Anonymization and blurring measures to protect identities; 3) Content regulation where a time-delay may be utilized to filter inappropriate or confidential material; 4) Training and sensitization for judges, lawyers, and court staff to handle streamed proceedings with decorum and professionalism; 5) Technological infrastructure that includes secure and high quality audio-visual equipment for smooth streaming; 6) Legal framework that provides clear guidelines, data protection principles, and penalization of misusing content; 7) Archives and accessibility for recording storage on official judicial portals with metadata, categorization, and public access tools. Part of Gupta’s conclusion states livestreaming “has the potential to revolutionize public engagement with the legal system, enhance legal education, and promote institutional accountability. However, the enthusiasm for openness must be tempered with a cautious understanding of its repercussions.” Making improvements to the justice system is in progress, and it is possible for Michigan courts to improve access, maintain transparency, protect privacy — and even achieve MSC’s goal of making our justice system “a model for the nation.”

2 $ JANUARY 23, 2026 | VOLUME 17| ISSUE 3 KEN PARKS #490 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Vendor Appreciation Week is February 2-8, 2026! page 8 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN 6 MONTHS? 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Trump's Monroe Doctrine. page 7 Electeds wobble, residents double-down: “Drop Peeler’s charges” page 10 WASHTENAW RISES UP! Michiganders fight AI data centers. page 4 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 JANUARY 23, 2026 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. 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STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Gray Connor — intern Anabel Sicko ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Jud Branam Pedro Campos Marquetta "Q" Clements La Shawn Courtwright Annemarie Cuccia Cindy Gere Lauren Halperin Kimani Hamilton Mike Jones Ken Parks Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer Tommy Spaghetti The Confused Cloud PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett June Miller VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Stephanie Dong Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Jacob Fallman Robert Klingler Priya Kothari Harper Margolies Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Glenn Gates Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. 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Selling my game, selling my books, doing more investigative reporting. Thank God! — Felicia Wilbert, #234 I see myself as a personal fitness trainer! — Mike Jones, #113 In a crib, with a new car. And the whole family on the beach! — Savon Salvador, #273 In my own place, maintaining Groundcover and working another job. Also working on going back to school. — Brian Hargrove, #158 A little warmer selling the paper. — Tony Schohl, #9 In the middle of the American revolution. — Ken Parks, #490 Out at the cottage! — Shelley DeNeve, #22 I hope to me in the Master's program at EMU in Communications. — David Mitchell, #661 Still selling Groundcover, hopefully still alive. — Pony Bush, #305 Devoting more of my time to my art work. And exploring new forms of art. — Cindy Gere, #279 I love kids' shows I love PBS kids’ shows and Christian kids’ shows. I love kids' shows so much because they are so beautiful. Some are animated cartoons and some are not. When you watch a kids’ show, it's like you’re reading a book but you don’t have to read the book because you are watching it. Kids’ shows on Christian TV are soothing and make you feel so good even as an adult. They remind you that Jesus loves you, and makes you want are relaxing and I love the music to those, too. They teach kids and adults artwork and how to make things. They are so fun and relaxing to watch, and safe to watch no matter how old we are. I especially miss Mister DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 to live right and do right and love Jesus. The music is so great, too. Public TV kids’ shows Rogers. I like watching Daniel Tiger’s neighborhood. It is such an adorable show. He talks about things that are the facts of life and how to deal with them, and he knows how to have fun, too. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 When a laweless man makes the laws of the land, we are further away from the promised land TOMMY SPAGHETTI Groundcover vendor No. 669 I’m a conspiracy theorist for sure. Wondering why people are clamoring for Epstein Files but never uttered a word about the JFK Files or 9/11 Files? Or how about RFK files? Well the answer is: SEX SELLS. To this day, sex is the number one contributor to the population of children. Do you hate Trump? Are you frustrated about events happening on the other side of the world and don't know what to do about it? Are you upset about another endless war perpetrated by the oligarchs and billionaire oil corporations? Well, if you answered yes to any of the above questions, you might need a loving massage to keep you from going over the edge. Democracy is a myth. Since day number one, the horrible white race manifested its cancerous agenda on the free thinking people in North America. The founding fathers did not create equality among people in 1776; rather, it designated white male slave owners as the master race. They were an active part of the extermination of the people who had been living here for hundreds (if not thousands) of years. When Hitler was formulating his conquest of Europe he studied America’s wholesale slaughter of indigenous people circa 1800. It was his inspiration to slaughter six million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and Commies. Americans used guns, cannons, diseases and starvation to clear the West for capitalist doctrines. Germany used starvation, advanced weaponry, planes, tanks, U-boats and factories to murder millions of people. The eventual defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 merely sent the war machine back to the United States. 1950s — Iran for oil. 1960s — southeast Asia for rubber and opium. 1970s — Latin America for cocaine. 1980s — Palestine. 1990s — Afghanistan. 2000s — Iraq. Trump's rise to dictator mimics Hitler’s rise. If you ever wondered how the Nazis were capable of convincing an entire nation to follow their plan, just watch what is happening today. We all saw the endgame of the Third Reich. The murder of millions. Trump's endgame is the same. Millions of Black people are already in concentration camps: think PRISON. If you think Trump is gonna be voted out of office in 2026 you didn't watch Hitler close enough. Trump will abolish elections before that. Prepare yourself for Trump forever. The pig said to the chicken, “We should have breakfast together sometime.” “Okay,” said the chicken. “I’ll bring the eggs and you bring the bacon.” “Okay,” said the Pig. COVER PHOTOS, left to right: Participant at June 2025 Ann Arbor No Kings Rally, photo credit Jack Kenny. Hundreds gather in Liberty Plaza for a candlelight vigil for Renee Nicole Good on Friday, January 9, photo credit Lindsay Calka. Normal Park neighbors mobilize to Washtenaw Board of Commissioners meeting Jan. 7 to speak out, photo credit Emily Mills. Data center protest in downtown Saline, December 2025, photo submitted.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS DATA CENTERS Southeast Michiganders fight AI data centers Data centers are dedicated computing facilities housing infrastructure for vast amounts of data and they are being built all over America. Southeast Michigan is now in the cross-hairs and concerned residents are speaking out. One year ago no one was talking about or even heard about data centers. Now, it’s the talk of the town in many American states, cities and townships. Proposed data centers in Michigan are heavily concentrated in Southeast Michigan, particularly around the Ann Arbor area in Saline, Ypsilanti, York Township and Van Buren Township, with major projects by Oracle/OpenAI and other developers. Significant proposals also exist in Lyon Township and Frenchtown Township, as well as potential sites in Benton Harbor, all aiming to leverage Michigan's energy grid for AI and high-performance computing. The Upper Peninsula isn't immune, with smaller-scale interest and discussions, especially around potential for renewable energy integration, though specific large projects like those in Kalkaska and Lowell (West Michigan) aren't drawing a lot of attention yet. Potential areas to watch in the U.P. involve university towns like Marquette or sites near existing power infrastructure. Key proposed locations: Southeast Michigan (Washtenaw/ Wayne Counties): The biggest focus area. • Saline Township: Proposed home to the major Oracle/OpenAI "Stargate" project and another large development proposed by Sansone Group on former Toyota land. • Ypsilanti Township: Site of a University of Michigan/Los Alamos National Lab high-performance computing center. • Van Buren Township (near Belleville): A large 280-acre proposal from Panattoni near I-94/I-275. • York Township: Another potential site near Milan, discussed for a large development. Oakland County: • Lyon Township: A large Verrus/ Google-backed "Project Flex" site approved for development, focusing on large-scale facilities. Monroe County: • Frenchtown Township: A proposed "Cherry Blossom" AI data center near I-75. Southwest Michigan: • Benton Harbor/Benton Township: A large AI data center on Yore Avenue has been proposed, awaiting state approval. MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Key players and drivers Hyperscalers (massive cloud computing providers): Companies like Oracle, OpenAI, and Google (via affiliates) are driving massive AI-focused projects. Energy & Water: Proximity to high-capacity power (DTE Energy) and water for cooling are major factors. Economic Boost: Developers promise significant tax revenue, jobs and investment in local communities. Community response Projects often face pushback from residents concerned about energy use, noise, environmental impact, and suitability for the area, leading to moratoriums in some areas such as Pittsfield Township, according to MLive. Residents in Washtenaw County are expressing their concerns over the University of Michigan trying to force their plan to construct a $1.25 billion data center in Ypsilanti Township at Bridge Road and Textile Road. This project is partially paid for with our tax dollars and without our say! Residents are concerned about the energy usage. At 110 megawatts, it would use almost four times as much energy as all Ypsilanti Township households combined, according to residents opposed to the data center. The proposed site is 100 acres near the Huron River. Some residents concerned about the project’s impact on water resources have called for the project to be relocated to land near the former General Motors assembly plant at Willow Run. The project is a partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), most known for creating the atomic bomb. LANL will use 80-90% of the data center for classified research. The University says the project will create 200 permanent research and technical jobs, 30-50 positions tied to operating the data center and 300 construction jobs. The University in a statement says those construction jobs will be union labor. Communities that live near data centers are seeing utility bills increase by over 250%, according to an analysis by Bloomberg News. There are risks to water resources, food security, natural habitat and recreation areas and concerns are being echoed across communities nationwide. The Ypsilanti Township Board of Trustees has unanimously adopted Resolution 2025-23, formally opposing the data center, stating that they share the public’s concerns about the University of Michigan’s proposed project. “We are demanding that the University relocate the project to a more suitable site, one that does not pose risks to our residents, infrastructure or natural resources,” the Township resolution states. “We have recommended the American Center for Mobility (the former General Motors site) as a more appropriate alternative. We are also urging state and federal officials to support this effort.” The University is exempt from Township zoning laws. But Township officials said they will use “every available tool” to oppose the project at the current site. The board has also demanded that University officials meet with residents in a public forum. The Township has scheduled a public discussion of the project on Jan. 28 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Ypsilanti Township Civic Center at 7200 S. Huron Drive, Ypsilanti, MI 48197. Resident response David Sands, a schoolteacher who resides in Ypsilanti Township, opposes the building of a data center in his neighborhood. Sands became aware of the U-M data center project when he read the Groundcover News June 13, 2025, article titled “Ypsilanti residents are organizing to ‘Stop the Data Center.” The article inspired him to contact the UM Board of Regents and his state legislators, Senator Jeff Irwin and Representative Jimmie Wilson Jr. “As a local resident I am very concerned not just about the transparency issues around this, but the potential negative effects including pollution, higher energy rates, and destruction of the natural environment where I live,” Sands said. In a separate project, Texas-based Related Digital has proposed building a data center at the northwest side of US 12 between Case Road and Willow Road in Saline Township. The company is partnering with Oracle and OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. Unlike Ypsilanti Township, developers have the go-ahead to start building the Saline Township data center. The project is being built on 250 acres, with Data center protest in downtown Saline, December 2025. construction anticipated to start in early 2026, and developers claim it will create thousands of jobs and significant economic investment. This large hyperscale facility will power AI initiatives, and despite community concerns about rural impact, developers and officials promise that there will be benefits and environmental measures like water conservation. DTE said utility rates for existing customers will not be affected by the contracts to supply power to the Saline Township data center. But the Michigan Attorney General has demanded that the Public Service Commission have a new hearing on the Saline Township project. “The Commission imposed some conditions on DTE to supposedly hold ratepayers harmless, but these conditions and how they’ll be enforced remain unclear,” Nessel said in a statement. The United States has thousands of data centers, with recent estimates from late 2025 and early 2026 placing the number around 5,400 facilities according to C&C Wave-Tech, representing roughly 38-45% globally, leading the world by a large margin. This massive infrastructure supports the nation's tech sector, with a significant portion concentrated in states like Virginia, Texas and California, and continues to expand rapidly due to AI demand. Ready or not, AI data centers are moving to American neighborhoods swiftly. Get involved and to share your concerns: • For multiple resources/links: linktr.ee/stopthedata • Instagram: stopthedata • Join the Signal group chat: bit.ly/ SDCsignal • Check out the two Stop the Data Center events on page 5 • Contact your local and state politicians JANUARY 23, 2026 JANUARY 23, 2026 THINGS TO DO As I entered the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, I greeted a huge silver tree with the mind's eye of a child. I saw sparkling fairies dancing in the tree with a huge fairy door at the base of the tree. It was mesmerizing and captivating. The Hands-On Museum is a modern kaleidoscope of excitement and fun. It is a visual, tactile, sound and social learning location for young and old. I watched all ages taking part in a variety of activities. The very first activity is walking up to the first level; a wonderful happy sound emanates from each step you take on the stairs. With each step the sound of your own personal song is created by you. On the right side is a very fun interactive water world room called "H2Oh!" What fun with water! It consists of a series of pools with connecting channels that participants can interact with, though not immerse themselves in. This area shows the power of water in many ways — rushing rivers, tornado power and how water moves. Magnet fishing is all the rage for young kids. There are colorful balls that float on the water that are clearly the focus of activity in the huge mechanised water machine showing the power of water flow and movement. Kids use the mechanics to cause balls to flow from one area to the next. One spigot pushed the ball up into the waterpool and we watched the ball get sucked into the funnel down into a ladder to another location. It was very fun to watch. The next activity showed the power of light and solar power, with CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 fun buttons to push that showed how light exists in our world today. In this area there is a rock climbing wall for the brave. I walked back to the music stairs and saw huge human teeth to walk through. As I walked through the teeth, I reflected on the importance of teeth. When I was a young kid, the dentist used to have a pirate treasure box with small toys. I remember my dentist told me good teeth are good health. Looking at the display with the drinks, the sugar content is a real wake-up call — clean water is truly clean health. They go hand in hand. So next time you want that cola or party drink, hit the water. It goes with long life. As I walked around I discovered that the All About You room is a reflection of the human power, body, mind, soul. The strength, the visual, the hearing, the heart, the mind and mobility are all part of the human experience. I watched a child climb into the back part of an ambulance just as a real one drove by blaring its siren outside. What fun. Another fun room was the preschool gallery. This room captivated the very young kids with colorful community EVENTS POSTCARDS FOR PEACE Saturday, January 24, 1-3 p.m. Bloodroot Herb Shop, 208 W. Michigan Ave, Ypsilanti Make postcards urging decision makers to stop the Los Alamos data center. (see previous page) NAMI WASHTENAW X EMU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Saturday, January 24, 1 p.m. George Gervin GameAbove Center, 799 N Hewitt Rd, Ypsilanti An exciting afternoon of basketball as the EMU Women's team takes on Northern Illinois University! For each ticket sold, $3 will be donated directly to NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness Washtenaw County. $10. JULIA KEEFE and THE INDIGENOUS BIG BAND: RESILIENCE and BRILLIANCE in INDIGENOUS JAZZ Thursday, January 29, 5:30 p.m. Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St. Free and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Part of the U-M Penny Stamps Speaker Series. The band focuses on reimagined traditional melodies made famous by Indigenous jazz musicians from the past. STOP THE DATA CENTER ASSEMBLY Saturday, January 31, 2 p.m. food and information, 3 p.m. working groups. Ypsilanti Farmers MarketPlace Hall (16 S. Washington St). This is a space for brainstorming, connecting and taking action! ANN ARBOR HAPPY HOUR GROUNDCOVER FUNDRAISER Friday, February 6, 6:30-9 p.m. LIVE Nightclub, 102 S. First Street, Ann Arbor. Close out Vendor Appreciation Week with the Groundcover crew! Live music by Corndaddy and The Medicine Men. Groundcover merchandise for sale. Free. Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com round balls. It was so much fun watching them run after the balls on the conveyor belt equipped with air. All I heard was squeals of delight and there were happy faces as they collected the balls with buckets. My personal favorite fun was the magnetic black goo. Watching the power of magnetic connection on the black goo as it was mopped and connected to the magnet. It was so strange to see kids here discover the real outside world, but by way of interactivity in a very controlled environment. Each activity built more understanding of the greater world, and kids can discover the hows and whys in such a totally empowering education all in one place. The gift store is right next to the ticket desk and the amount of happy kids’ gifts is huge fun. It’s a great location to buy kids birthday and other holiday gifts. If you are into miniatures like me, I found a very small panda that I can keep in my pocket for a good luck charm. Another fun thing is my love for stuffed animals, and the selection is huge. By the time you walk out, you will have likely discovered one more thing you did not know before — such as the black goo that I had no idea was magnetic. So bring your friends, your family and your next door neighbor with you to the museum next time, for the best fun in Ann Arbor, Michigan. AAHOM offers discounted admission to individuals and families with an EBT card. The cost of discounted admission is $3 per adult or per child aged 2+. The discounted price can apply to up to 6 people per visit. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Fun fun fun at the Hands-On Museum What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Visit any of our five locations across town to browse books, magazines, newspapers, and more. Check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, or even home tools—you name it! Enjoy fast and free WiFi, study and meeting rooms, and plenty of comfortable spaces to relax or hang out. Unusual Stuff to Borrow There’s more to borrow at AADL than books, music, and movies. To name a few, there are games, telescopes, stories-to-go kits, and home tools. Check out these unusual yet handy items during your next library visit. Washtenaw Library for the Blind & Print Disabled at AADL This free service loans books, magazines, & videos in alternative formats (audiobooks, large print, braille books & magazines, and descriptive video) to individuals who are unable to read or use standard printed materials. Visit aadl.org/wlbpd/apply to apply. FEATURED EVENT 5 Sunday, February 8 • 10 AM–5 PM • Downtown Library The Ann Arbor Fiber Arts Expo is a fiber-filled day with a full slate of hands-on programs, demos, and a lobby full of local vendors! Learn about knitting, crocheting, weaving, and spinning. Try your hand at macrame, embroidery, and more! Explore aadl.org/aafax for a full schedule of events.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MLK DAY Civil rights struggles never end: When Dr. King accepted Albert Raby's invitation to join the Chicago Freedom Movement Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was closely involved in many noteworthy civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s. Among the significant contributions were the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 to 1956; The “I Have a Dream Rally” of August 28, 1963; The Civil Rights Act of 1964; the March From Selma to Montgomery of March 1965; and obviously, the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After the two successful national civil rights policy achievements of 1964 and 1965, Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Council turned their attention to the struggles of school segregation, housing discrimination and employment discrimination which were pervasive in northern cities of the country. Chicago had long suffered from the indignity of racism and discrimination which got worse during and after the Great Black Migration. It is notable that a large white migration from the South to the North followed the Black migration. There was tension in south and west Chicago. In June 1965, the primary Chicago civil rights organization known as Coordinating Coalition of Community Organizations (CCCO), led by Albert Raby, peacefully demonstrated against housing discrimination and school segregation in Chicago’s South Side. Members of CCCO were beaten up, arrested and mistreated. Mr. Raby wanted a major civil rights intervention. CCCO invited Dr. King to come to Chicago and help the community solve their entrenched problems in these areas. In fact, Dr. King was invited to Chicago to help the people “make real the promises of American Democracy.” In July 1965, Dr. King and other representatives of SCLC went to Chicago to investigate the issues and see if their organization could help. They spent about three days of community mobilization in Chicago and debriefed about their findings. It was reported by some Chicago news outlets that Dr. King worked closely with Albert Raby from 1965 to 1967. King and members of SCLC returned to Chicago in January 1966 for a civil rights demonstration. One “Ebony Magazine” reporter asked King why he had chosen to come to Chicago. His answer was that he came to the city “mainly because of Al Raby. I had been watching for some time and I must have become enormously impressed WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 JANUARY 23, 2026 with his work and the sincerity of his commitment.” Chicago Freedom Movement Dr. King and his SCLC associates moved into Chicago on January 7, 1966. On January 26 of that year, King and his wife, Mrs. Corretta Scott King, rented an apartment in a West Side Chicago building which had substandard conditions. It was described by the residents as a slum building. After King settled down in Chicago, he and Albert Raby were named co-chairs of a new organization known as “The Chicago Freedom Movement.” According to Stanford University’s King Research and Education Institute, the Chicago Freedom Movement was a coalition of CCCO, SCLC and other Chicago civil rights organizations. For the whole year, 1966, “King and Raby collaborated on countless demonstrations, community gatherings and meetings with city officials while attempting to end racist education, housing and employment practices.” Some historians have noted that Raby was with King in the demonstration at Chicago’s Lawn and Gage Park when violent counter-demonstrators who were described by neighborhood residents as “segregationists” threw rocks at the peaceful civil rights marchers. Some of the rocks hit Dr. King’s face, causing blood to drip from his forehead. Online journal casamariatucson.org reported that after Dr. King was hit by a rock and knocked to the ground during a demonstration in Marquette Park on the Southwest side, he said, “I have never seen, even in Mississippi and Alabama, mobs as hateful as I’ve seen here in Chicago.” After about one year of demonstrations and perseverance, the Chicago Freedom Movement coalition had some of their key demands met by Left: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. civil rights leader and co-chair of the Chicago Freedom Movement. He is pictured above delivering his speech at Solider Field. Right: Co-founder of Chicago's Coordinating Coalition for Community Organizations and co-chair of the Chicago Freedom Movement, Albert Raby. Mayor Richard Daley Sr. and the real estate businessmen. The summit between movement leaders and the city leaders led to the Chicago Housing Authority building public housing in white middle-class neighborhoods. The Mortgage Bankers Association agreed to end the unfair lending practices and stop the scourge of redlining and disinvestment patterns in Black neighborhoods. The Chicago Freedom Movement led to additional civil rights legislation after Dr. King’s assassination — the Non-Discriminatory Fair Housing Act of 1968. Less than a decade later, Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 making it easier for neglected poor neighborhoods in Chicago and across the nation which had suffered redlining and disinvestment to have access to home improvement loans and affordable mortgages. Today, houses with slum conditions are fewer in Chicago, and South Shore Bank is a major local community lender. Lessons, legacy and consequences Journalist Tanya Nunez wrote in casamariatuscon.org of January 12, 2022, that a key lesson from Dr. King’s civil rights movement, including the Chicago Freedom Movement, is that a lot of the issues of the 1960s exist today. Those issues include “poor housing conditions, slumlords, unfair lending practices and lack of affordable housing.” However, substantial progress was made in the city of Chicago. Stanford University’s King Research and Education Institute reported that the August 1966 summit agreement between the Chicago Freedom Movement and Mayor Daley, along with the real estate businessmen, led to several concessions in the area of housing. However, “the agreement fell short of achieving city-wide desegregation.” Dr. King and Raby continued to work collaboratively until 1967, when SCLC “shifted their priorities away from Chicago, leaving behind its Operation Breadbasket program under the leadership of Jesse Jackson.” Today, there is a large modern apartment building complex known as “Dr. King’s Legacy Building.” It is located on Chicago’s South Side, not too far away is the location of Barack Obama’s Presidential Center and Library. It is noteworthy that before Barack Obama attended Harvard Law School in 1988, he came to South Side Chicago in order to learn about grassroots community organizing and mobilization. He was also inspired by former Democratic Presidential Candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson’s concept of a “Rainbow Coalition” and the above-mentioned Al Raby’s Coordinating Coalition for Community Organizations. The Chicago Freedom Movement created a strong political coalition which helped Harold Washington from Chicago’s see MLK next page  JANUARY 23, 2026 IMPERIALISM Trump's Monroe Doctrine KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 The original Monroe Doctrine, which stated that all of the Americas was a U.S. sphere of influence, was declared in an address to Congress in 1823. This was still during the Colonial era and all major world powers were expanding. United States expansion was replacing European expansion and in conflict with multiple forces, especially with Spain and France in the Caribbean. Alaska was Russian and Czarist Russia was going down the Pacific coast. Jefferson had already stated that Cuba would fall to the United States when the time was right. The Monroe Doctrine laid the foundation for Manifest Destiny, which became essential to the U.S. view of itself. The Haitian Revolution defeated the French, then a 20,000-man British expedition, as they ended slavery. Haiti had the best military in the Americas and U.S. plantation owners feared a Haitian invasion. Haiti declared they had no intention of invading the states; for one, they had no navy. Their leader, Toussaint Louverture, was kidnapped from the negotiating table and died in prison. Haiti agreed to pay the French 150 million francs to secure their independence. The Monroe Doctrine was intended to establish the Americas as a U.S. sphere of influence and any European interventions would be viewed as a hostile act. The colonial era lasted throughout the 19th century as capitalism exploited the working class of all countries to amass wealth. It included the robber barons mentioned in some textbooks. The Mexican War, Indian wars and the Spanish American War brought many territories into the states. Neither Cuba, the Philippines nor Puerto Rico became states. The Cuban Revolution of 1959 established Cuban sovereignty decisively and has never been forgiven by the ruling class of the United States. France and the United States collaborated to keep Haiti a poor third world investment opportunity. Anyone my age remembers Papa Doc and Baby Doc, two of the most ruthless U.S. supported dictators in that long list. (Baseballs are big business in Haiti; most of the baseballs in the United States come from Haiti.) Study Jean Bertrand Aristide to get a better picture of Haiti and U.S. policy. He was the first democratically elected president who was quickly overthrown in a coup, reinstated and later reelected despite imperialist opposition. He was kidnapped and got a U.S. Marine escort to a CIA spot in Africa. Congresswoman Maxine Waters led the successful search and free campaign in 2004. The colonial era evolved into imperialism as industrial capital and financial capital merged into a new expression of supremacism and the right to rule the world. World War I was the first imperialist war. Vladimir Illich Lenin wrote the definitive analysis, “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.” As financial capital grew and learned to dominate industrial capital it became what is now called neoliberal imperialism. This phase took a sharp turn as Reaganomics, which Bush the First called voodoo economics, became the new model. Reagan’s vow to end the Vietnam syndrome led to the invasion of Grenada, one of the smallest countries in the world. The claim of rescuing medical students was exposed when those students told of taking shelter in bathtubs because so many bullets were coming through the walls. Leveraging debt into new forms of investments was the context of the 2007-08 financial crisis. The financialization of everything views your time as their commodity in the free market system. The system feels entitled to measure you in dollars. Financial supremacy is ready to destroy everything in its quest to control reality. The belief that reality can be controlled is the grand illusion of  MLK from last page South Side win the city’s mayoral election of 1983. He became the first Black mayor of Chicago. Attorney Carol Mosley Braun, who graduated from the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago Law School, won the Illinois 1992 senatorial election. She became the first Black woman Senator of the United States of America. In 2008, Barack Obama was elected the first Black President of the United States. First Lady Michelle Obama grew up on the South Side. In the year 2026, when we reflect on the nation’s 250-year anniversary, let us be mindful of the social changes that have taken place due to peaceful non-violent direct actions. We must be grateful to the “Radical Republicans” who brought us the reconstructions of the 1860s and beyond. We must be grateful to everyone involved in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Hundreds gather in Liberty Plaza for a candlelight vigil for Renee Nicole Good on Friday, January 9. neoliberal imperialism. Trumpism, in its idolatry of wealth and power, fosters a narcissism that wants no border on its right to act in its belief of their supremacy. The bombing of Venezuela and kidnapping of Maduro abroad and the murder of Renee Nicole Good are an expression of this reckless will to power. Multiple demonstrations are taking place, especially to honor Renee and protest the extreme violence that is condoned by the Trump administration. The United States is looking ugly to the world. It ramps up the targeting of China as the excuse to use sanctions, tariffs and interventions to support the MAGA agenda. You could say MAGA is short for the maggots that are feeding on the carcass of a dying empire. I accepted an invitation to the State Theater for the screening of “The Earth’s Greatest Enemy.” The damage caused by the U.S. military includes their own personnel on polluted bases that have so many stillborn babies that the cemetery has a Baby Heaven section. Please look at that documentary. The building of new bases and alliances, including provocative military maneuvers, is in the plan as they prepare for war with China. The Pentagon is full of planners whose job is to prepare for Venezuelan rule and prepare to take down Cuba to teach everyone a lesson in abuse of power and their right to do this. Supremacism has wealthy supporters who flood their forces with money. I hear that Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot Renee in the face, has a lucrative Some historians have described the 1960s as America’s “Second Reconstruction.” Dr. King wants us to remember him as “A Drum-Maker for Social Justice.” Albert Raby, who was a graduate of the University of Chicago, is remembered for social justice and community empowerment in Chicago and across the world. Raby was selected by President Jimmy Carter to become the Peace Corps Director in Ghana. The hope of American people still GoFundMe site. There are signs that the people are waking up. The memorial vigil for Renee at Liberty Plaza on the Friday after her murder was a large assembly with a powerful energy field. Many thanks to those who organized it and the hundreds of people who came out. When we bring democracy into the workplace we will begin preparing for a general strike. This could be the time and space for people’s assemblies to organize the completion of the American revolution. Keep your eyes open for a workshop on Revolutionary Food as we learn to prepare health-promoting food for ourselves and have the energy to engage in the work that benefits all beings without exception. We will rid ourselves of biological and social parasites and train our minds to discover who we are and experience the sacred nature of this moment, with past, present and future in harmony with timeless time. Self and other dissolve in the All Good Expanse of Primordial Purity. Now is a good time to be alive! An important intellectual worker of the 20th century is Hannah Arendt who covered the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem and wrote landmark books like “The Banality of Evil” and “The Origins of Totalitarianism.” If Groundcover could work with the students who did the Venezuela teach-in at Mason Hall, maybe we could do a workshop on supremacy and totalitarian government. Maybe the Revolutionary Food group could provide food. The revolution needs us. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 lives and the dream shall never die. HAPPY 97TH BIRTHDAY TO DR. KING! Author's note: On January 13, 2026, Civil Rights Pioneer Claudette Clovin passed away at the age of 86. She was the fifteen-year-old student who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery before the Rosa Parks incident in 1955. May her soul rest in peace.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR WEEK WEDNESDAY 2/4 ALL WEEK JANUARY 23, 2026 february 2-8, 2026 VENDOR APPRECIATION WEEK MONDAY 2/2 10 a.m.: Radio interview about Groundcover News on the Lucy Ann Lance Show. Listen at 1290 WLBY or online at www.1290wlby.com/ 7 p.m.: Ann Arbor City Council Declaration of Vendor Appreciation Week 2026 TUESDAY 2/3 celebrity selling Some familiar faces will be selling with Groundcover vendors around downtown A2 during the morning and afternoon! • People's Food Co-op • Main and Liberty • North U and State Street • 4th Ave and Liberty Street • Argus Farm Stop • YMCA 10 a.m.: Vendors speak on U-M campus 11:30 a.m.: Catered lunch at Groundcover office 1 p.m.: Vendors speak on U-M campus THURSDAY 2/5 Massages for vendors at the office 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. provided by Julia from Eclipse Massage FRIDAY 2/6 10 a.m. Special breakfast and Vendor Meeting, new paper delivery. 6:30 p.m.: LIVE dance party (see right) all proceeds go to Groundcover! If you would like to sell the paper with a Groundcover vendor on Tuesday (you don't have to be a celebrity!) or support any of the Vendor Appreciation Week activities, email lindsay@groundcovernews.com. Read more about what this experience entails below. Follow along on social media for updates! Customers are invited to: post about Groundcover on social media; talk to friends, family and coworkers about the paper; tip your vendor; bring your vendor coffee/hot chocolate and hand warmers, and MORE! GROUNDCOVER NEWS HAPPY HOUR DANCE PARTY @ LIVE, 6:30-9PM Vendor Week lesson: "It was very cold out" LAUREN HALPERIN Groundcover contributor International Street Paper Vendor Week was February 4-10 [2014]. The Groundcover student group decided that to celebrate this time of the year, each student would shadow a vendor for a day to help him or her sell, get them coffee, and really just give them some company. I had the pleasure of working with Michael, vendor #163. I met Michael in front of the Groundcover office. We started our journey on Main Street near Starbucks, went in to get some hot coffee, and then walked a couple blocks after a small altercation over territory with another vendor. Once we ventured those couple of blocks, we stopped where the sunlight could still reach us between the buildings. Sun was a very sought-after commodity on this cold February afternoon. The cold weather presents myriad issues for vendors. People will walk out of an establishment, put their hood on, earphones in, and scarf up to their eyes, determined to get to their next destination as quickly and warmly as possible. This leaves no time to stop and inquire about a $1 donation for a newspaper for which this person is then going to have to sacrifice a hand out of their pocket to hold on the way home. However, Michael was determined. With a smile on his face, he inquired of every person walking by, “Have you read the new issue of Groundcover?” He was informed about the stories inside, which enabled him to use that as a selling point to potential customers. He would even playfully use me as a way to gain the attention of passing crowds saying, “She writes for them! She’s a great writer!” A smart move, if I do say so myself. Going into Vendor Week, I was expecting to write about the trials of a Groundcover vendor, the harsh winters and even harsher rejections. After selling with Michael that day, however, I realized a lesson that I truly have tried to apply to my own stresses and hardships: it’s all about the attitude. The faces you see selling Groundcover newspapers are happy to be out there; they understand that when they hear a “No, thank you,” that person may have somewhere else to be and would love to stop but simply does not have the time. As Michael pointed out to me after standing out in the cold for hours with 30 newspapers under his arm and not going home until he had sold all of them, “Not everyone has time to stop and chat, and it IS very cold out today.” Originally published in the May 2014 edition of Groundcover News. JANUARY 23, 2026 VENDOR WEEK dear GROUNDCOVER VENDORS, To all vendors: Carry on! You inform, add to, engage, enliven, the communities in which you work — from the ground up. Namaste, Ken :) Thank you for all the ways you remind me to carry hope in my heart and to live with gratitude. I learn something new every time I talk to you. Felicia, your abundant creativity is impressive and your love and work ethic shine in your many endeavors! presence is a pleasure to see at the office on Mondays. Wayne, you remind us to think about the bigger picture and ask more questions. Cindy, thank you for sharing your creative gifts and great conversations with me. Brian, thank you for taking the time to let the people around you know how much you appreciate them. Denise, you're a good listener. I love to hear you laugh. Stephanie (Dent), it is always a joy to cross paths with your sweet self! I'm not surprised you have found success selling Groundcover. The weekends are better because Lonnie is selling Groundcover! My favorite time of day is running into you in town — on the street or in a store — it's always nice to see Pony. Schillington, I appreciate your generosity. B-Man, my favorite t-shirt of all time has your face on it lol! Terri, I am always glad to see you when you are around the office and I am consistently impressed by your determination and commitment. We can't wait for summer karaoke! Jim, thank you for writing your "People In the Neighborhood" articles and feature people in our community we all should get to know better. La Shawn, you are always close to my heart. Shelley, we appreciate your willingness to take on new roles at Groundcover. Hailu, you're the wind beneath our wings! You keep us centered on our paper's purpose. Your articles are getting richer and more interesting all the time, Mike. Welcome back to selling with Groundcover, Peggy! I admire your confidence on stage, Amanda — whenever I hear you sing I can see your joy. Stephanie (Duncan), your calming Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not Marius, I admire your positive outlook and motivation to "find or try something new" when making a plan. Shawn (Swoffer), the hard work you've put in to become the vendor you are today shows. I see you showing up and making it work — keep going! Larzell, I hope you're achieving what you're reaching for — you got this! Pedro, I hope you get a book deal someday soon. You are an impressive writer and poet! love, YOUR CUSTOMERS sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. Joe, you have a good heart and sense of humor. Glen, you're one of my favorite people to reminisce about past pop culture with. Great TV and music recommendations too! Will, thank you for sharing both your impressive written and spoken voice with the community through Groundcover. I'm grateful to benefit from your wisdom and your friendship. Wayne, you're a guy I'm happy to call my friend. Your generous heart and the way you keep focused on making things better for the future are admirable. Tony, we are so happy you're up and at 'em again! You were missed at Old Town and in the office. David — youre positive attitude and warm spirit always brighten the room! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS YPSILANTI Electeds wobble, residents double-down: “Drop Peeler’s charges” LINDSAY CALKA Publisher JUD BRANAM Groundcover contributor Two weeks after the Jan. 4 standoff in Ypsilanti that left a mentally unstable resident in the hospital, facing felony charges, and with his home rendered unlivable by the tactics used to extract him, little is known. Ruben Peeler, 53, is still hospitalized and in custody two weeks after he brandished a sword during a mental health episode and refused to leave his home, not responding to demands from area law enforcement. During more than 30 hours of a military-style standoff, the front porch was ripped from the house, a hole knocked in the upstairs and the interior flooded with a fire hose. The multiunit rental house was rendered unlivable and sits boarded up at W. Cross Street. Peeler faces eight felony charges from the incident. On January 7 the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners published a statement urging law enforcement officials to drop the charges in favor of rehabilitation and counseling for Peeler. The county commissioners’ letter stated, "People in mental health crisis should be met first and foremost with care, de-escalation and compassion. Instead, this individual was met with tactics that escalated fear and exacerbated an already fragile situation." What the charges are for is still unknown. Peeler’s arraignment scheduled for Saturday, January 10, was rescheduled to Sunday January 11, and then indefinitely delayed due to his declining health. The lack of information about Peeler’s charges contributed to Ypsilanti City Council refusing to move on Resolution 2026-18 “A resolution condemning the militarized police siege on West Cross Street, calling for all charges to be dropped, and demanding immediate systemic reform,” introduced by Councilmember Amber Fellows (Ward 3). On Tuesday, January 20, more than 20 Ypsilanti community members spoke in support of the resolution in public comment. Some speakers also demanded more than what the resolution put forward — more accountability, transparency — and questioned why Council was not taking responsibility for the actions of the [police] department they determine the budget for. Others connected this incident to the lack of resources for emergency shelter, unarmed crisis response, eviction prevention and mental health support. Council did not vote on the resolution, citing the potential City liability in the face of unknown charges and lack of information about the incident. Ypsi changes rules for public comment, BOC create ICE-free zones GROUNDCOVER STAFF Tuesday, January 20, Ypsilanti City Council unanimously passed a resolution changing the rules for public comment. The changes extend the public commenting period from 45 to 60 minutes; speakers will also alternate between in-person and zoom attendees in 10-speaker increments. Those who sign-up to speak and do not get a turn are the only commenters allowed to speak at the end of the meeting during the second comment period. These adjustments are intended to expand democratic participation and make commenting more equitable to residents who need to attend online. Wednesday, January 21 Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution moving that “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers shall not be permitted to enter, remain in, or conduct civil immigration enforcement activities within any Washtenaw County– owned, leased, or operated building, facility, or property (including parking - Sign held up at January 20 Ypsilanti City Council. Fellows then moved to have the City Manager FOIA documents and body camera footage from the Ypsilanti Police lethal shooting of an unarmed man on January 6. This motion failed. Many agencies have put out official statements since January 5. Washtenaw County Metro Dispatch defended protocol. Washtenaw County Community Mental Health shared, and encouraged the use of, their resources. The Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office stated they need more time to provide details of the incident. While County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer has acknowledged that the end result of the situation was not ideal, she pointed out that keeping Peeler alive was a top concern that was achieved. "Once it reaches a point where someone is confronting people with a sword, trying to stab police officers, the options become very limited. The number one concern at that point is making sure this person survives. It shouldn't get to that point, so we have to collectively do better on the front end," Dyer told CBS News Detroit. Ypsilanti Police Chief Tim Anderson acknowledged the widespread concern over the response, but said that the situation — a resident brandishing a weapon — dictated a strong response from police. “Based on the information, I think that that was pretty much a textbook in terms of law enforcement callout,” Anderson told WEMU radio. “He was armed with a sword. And information received, I think officers were acting in good faith.” Washtenaw County and the City of Ypsilanti have both begun an independent investigation of the incident. A pair of online fundraisers have raised more than $9,000 to support Peeler’s legal fees and other costs of rebuilding his life. Find your Commissioner and contact information at www.washtenaw. org/202/Board-of-Commissioners Contact Ypsilanti City Councilmembers at cityofypsilanti.com/323/ Elected-Officials Contact Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office sheriffinfo@washtenaw.org, 734-971-8400 JANUARY 23, 2026 areas) unless required by law or pursuant to a valid judicial warrant or court order” and that County employees shall not cooperate with ICE. Further, the resolution urges other institutions to do the same. JANUARY 23, 2026 MENTAL HEALTH Deinstitutionalization of insane asylums: good or bad? THE CONFUSED CLOUD Groundcover contributor Let me begin this article by saying I’m biased. Having lived with a severe mental illness most of my adult life I am very grateful for the deinstitutionalization of insane asylums and/or long-term mental hospitals. I have never been confined to a hospital for more than three weeks. Only once do I remember being continually hungry. The place I was at had three meals a day but they were small meals and I was twenty-three years old. I was only at that place for less than a week. Every other hospital I have had, had very good meals and some places had 24-hour access to food. I always had access to a bathroom and shower. I never felt too hot or too cold. I always had either clean hospital clothes or my own clothes. I always had a bed and never had more than one roommate. I have never been hit, much less beaten, by staff. The medications can have bad side effects and can be difficult to get used to. But overall they have been very helpful and much less tortuous than classic treatments. I have never been forced into a chair and spun until I threw up or passed out (Rotational therapy). I have never been forced into an ice bath for several hours to the point of hypothermia (Hydro-therapy). I have not been castrated. I have never had a great deal of my blood drained (Bloodletting). I have never been forced to take insulin until I went into a coma on a daily basis (Insulin Coma Therapy). And I have not had an icepick shoved into my eye socket and swished around to scramble my brain. (About 50,000 lobotomies were performed in the US, 10,000 of which were icepick lobotomies.) I am kind of leaving out electroshock therapy on this list because it is still infrequently performed. Unlike the past, now it is used as a last resort, with the addition of muscle relaxants and anesthesia, and only with the patient's or their guardian’s consent. It wasn't just the stopping of these barbaric treatments that made me in favor of deinstitutionalization. Medications, beginning with thorazine, rapidly started to replace them in the 1950s. The asylums and long term mental hospitals were terrible nightmares for their patients/victims. The hospitals were overcrowded. There was nowhere near enough toilets, beds, or places to bathe. Patients slept on cold floors sometimes in bedless rooms, and were often covered in filth. Poor hygiene led to disease outbreaks. Then, there was the food. Nellie Bly, an investigative journalist who went undercover in 1887 for ten days in Blackwells Island, a lunatic asylum in New York City, said the food was rotten meat and bread so hard it would chip your teeth. She also said patients who complained were beaten. Many victims starved to death in the old long-term hospitals. Because of all these factors I was shocked to hear that there are people against deinstitutionalization. When I search for it on Google or YouTube, it is usually referred to as a failure. The primary reason is that many severely mentally ill people cycle in and out of jails and prisons while others swell the ranks of chronically homeless. My gratitude comes from a positive experience with the community mental health system and the fact that I have been housed for over twenty-three years. I am not an anomaly. I know many people, some who I am very close to, that are in the CMH system and have been housed for years in the same place. They have also either never been to jail or prison or haven't been there for years. I know CMH clients who work part time. I also know people who graduated from the CMH system. Several work as peer supports for CMH. When long term mental health hospitals were open there were whistleblowers and several attempts at reform. Besides Nellie Bly who I mentioned there was Dorthea Dix, Albert Deutsch, Mary Jane Ward and several others. I consider all the whistleblowers and reformers personal heroes. I owe them and every victim of the old hospitals my freedom. To all the victims of Danvers Lunatic Asylum, Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, and every victim of the old asylums and long-term hospitals who, often covered in filth, screamed endlessly — I wish I could tell you that your screams weren't in vain. I am free today because of their suffering. I can go to the movies, drink soda, visit friends and family, walk in the park, read any book I want in the library, sleep in my own bed, shower daily, write for and read Groundcover, and many more things the victims of the old asylums could only dream of. To people who want to lock us up again long-term, without due process, including President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, my question is: Why? Do you really want to help us or do we make you feel uncomfortable in public? Do you want us out of sight out of mind? To do this would probably require overturning court decisions. On June 26, 1975, the Supreme Court ruled in O’Connor vs Donaldson that keeping people committed requires that they are a danger to themselves and/or others. Before this case people could be committed involuntarily for a variety of reasons by a doctor and a family or community member, such as acting weird or having weird beliefs or being socially eccentric. If we got rid of the precedent that in order to commit someone they must be a danger to themselves or others, from what I can see, it puts anyone seeking mental health help in danger of being committed, possibly long-term. In my opinion we could reinstate a phase where it’s dangerous to complain of mental health symptoms. I want to, in a crisis, be able to go to a psych ER for help, and not be in danger of losing my freedom for years or the rest of my life. People advocating for more long term facilities say this time will be better. I’m thinking of a video by Micah Caldwell on the You-Tube channel that he shares with his wife called "Neuro Transmission.” It’s titled “Bring Back Asylums … But Better.” Here’s the thing. After President John F. Kennedy signed the CMH Act in 1963, only half of the promised CMH centers were built. With heroin and cocaine in the 1970s. Then crack, meth and the opioid epidemic in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s took their toll and our country's mental health became much worse. Continued wars, economic changes contribute to this. With the shrinking middle class, September 11 terrorist attacks, the COVID-19 pandemic and the polarization of social media isolating us, statistics show our country's mental health has become worse than ever since the CMH act was signed. President Ronald Reagan and more recently President Trump with “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act” in 2025 have made more cuts to mental health funding. Also, there are many other reasons for the increased incarceration rate and homelessness in the United States. So, if we can't fund the current community mental health system, why would the government be able to fund much more expensive long term care hospitals without bringing back the over crowded horrible nightmares of the past? When the old insane asylums were GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 "If we can't fund the current community mental health system as is, why would the government be able to fund much more expensive long term care hospitals without bringing back the over crowded horrible nightmares of the past?" open, every attempt at reform was short lived. So for people who say, “Let’s try again to commit many people long term” and who really believe this time it will be done "right" and "really help" us mentally ill. I’d like to remind you of a classic definition of sanity — insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS INSP JANUARY 23, 2026 Working, homeless and hidden: a conversation with Brian Goldstone ANNEMARIE CUCCIA Street Sense Media Thousands of Americans have fulltime jobs and still can’t pay rent. They live in shelters, with their families, and in extended stay hotels that profit from their instability. Many are not included in the count of people experiencing homelessness because they do not fit the official definition. But they are a significant and revealing part of America’s homelessness crisis, argues journalist Brian Goldstone in his new book, "There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America." Goldstone follows five Atlanta families, detailing their journeys through housing instability. Through intimate portraits, he argues homelessness is not a personal failing or the result of joblessness, but of high housing prices, widespread gentrification, and an unwillingness to face the reality of the “hidden homeless.” He told Street Sense more. Street Sense: Your book focuses on a form of homelessness that we often don't see in our daily lives. Tell us about how you came to see this hidden homelessness and why you decided to write a book about it. Brian Goldstone: I came to this project through my wife. She was working at a community health center in Atlanta. She started telling me about this trend where one patient after another was working at an Amazon warehouse, driving for Uber and Lyft, or working as daycare workers or home health aides. When they finished work, they weren’t going home. They were going to a shelter, if there were any shelter beds available. They were crowding into apartments with others. They were sleeping in their cars with their kids, or increasingly, they were going to these extended stay hotels. I was shocked. I had never heard about this hidden universe of homelessness she was describing, where it was largely not on the street. That was the initial spark of curiosity for me. I was stunned to discover, as I then began to report, not only that the patients my wife was seeing were not some bizarre anomaly, but that they were representative of a staggering trend across the country. Anywhere I went, it was the same: people who were working not just one job, but sometimes multiple jobs, working and working and working some more, and it wasn’t enough to secure this most basic necessity. To pour salt on the wound, they were also invisible. Not just invisible in the sense that they didn't necessarily want people to know that they were experiencing homelessness, but they were rendered invisible. They were actively written out of the story that we as a nation have told ourselves about homelessness, about who becomes homeless and why. They were also locked out of crucial housing assistance because the way that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines “literally homeless” is either those who are in a shelter or on the street. They didn’t fit that definition. So they were triply invisible, and I began to see that this was not accidental. This was not just some oversight; it was a kind of engineered neglect. When you narrow the lens on homelessness so that it’s only getting a tiny little slice of the total population, you can tell yourself this comforting narrative about homelessness, that it’s about addiction, mental health issues. But when you widen the lens, then homelessness begins to look very different. Work also begins to look very different. America begins to look very different. You follow five families in the book. Can you walk us through the story of one of them, so that we can understand some of both the structural issues and the personal issues that these people are facing? I think Celeste captures a key argument in the book, which is that many of us will sometimes say, “Oh, so and so fell into homelessness,” and a big argument in the book is that people are not falling into homelessness; they’re being pushed. For Celeste, it begins in a really traumatic way when she’s driving home from her warehouse job, and her neighbor calls and says that her rental home is on fire. By the time she gets there, her house has been completely destroyed, and the only possessions that she and her kids have are a few loads of dirty laundry that she threw in the car that morning. She thought that she would have this relatively quick housing search. But the ground had shifted under her feet in the time she was renting, and neighborhoods in Atlanta that were once affordable had become unaffordable. So it turned into this protracted nightmare of a housing search, and she was sleeping with her kids in her car. And those nights were awful for her, because not only was she having to sleep in this Walmart parking lot and get her kids ready for school in the bathroom, but she was also terrified that the police would knock on her window, because in Georgia, over a quarter of kids put into the foster system are the direct result of what is categorized as inadequate housing. Finally, finally, she found a landlord. She applied. She prayed with the leasing agent. Then a few days later, she got a call. The leasing agent was no longer friendly. They were like, “Why didn’t you tell me about the eviction on your record?” And she’s like, “What are you talking about? There is no eviction.” Come to find out, when her house burned down, the landlord’s representative said to break the lease, you will have to pay not only the current month’s rent, but an additional month, and you will lose your security deposit. Celeste hung up in disgust. She thought that was the end of it. They filed an eviction against her, which she didn’t find out about until that call with the leasing agent. When Celeste drove to that house months later, in the mailbox, she found an eviction notice. She drove to the courthouse and found out that in her absence, a default judgment had been handed down, and her credit score had been tanked. And at that point, Celeste did what countless other families in her situation are doing, especially in places where there are no family shelters. She went to an extended stay hotel where she ended up in this tiny little room, paying more than double what she had been paying for her two-bedroom rental home, and she thus became imprisoned in what people call the hotel trap. All the families end up at some point staying in these extended stay hotels, where they’re paying far more than they would if they were paying monthly rent somewhere. Talk a little bit about that industry. Before I started this, I heard “extended stay hotel” and I would imagine places where business travelers might stay. The kind of extended stay hotels we’re talking about are at the very, very bottom end of the hotel spectrum. These are what I’ve come to refer to as extremely profitable homeless shelters with slum conditions. These hotels, they’re not cheap. They’re double, sometimes triple, what an apartment would cost. But they are filled with families, with working families, who have been pushed out of the formal housing market because they belong to this credit underclass from which it’s virtually impossible to climb out. I was stunned to discover that the same Wall Street investors, the same private equity firms that are buying up growing swaths of America’s rental housing, are also buying up the very places where people go once they lose their housing. It’s sort of flipping the James Baldwin line on its head about how, in America, it’s extremely expensive to be poor. Their stories demonstrate the flip side, which is how extremely lucrative all this insecurity has become for some. Homelessness has become big business. Can you talk about the process of getting to know the families? A lot of people have these ideas about what it means for someone to be homeless. How did you ensure that the portrayals of the people you were talking to were honest, without playing into those stereotypes? My goal was to immerse myself as much as humanly possible in the dayto-day lives of the people I was writing about, instead of approaching them like, “I’m doing a story about homelessness, and I’m wondering if I can talk to you.” It was this very long process. Consent was really important, because they had never worked with a journalist before. I checked in with see WORKING page 16  JANUARY 23, 2026 COMMUNITY RESOURCES healthcare RESOURCE CORNER MEDICAID (HEALTHY MICHIGAN PLAN) Apply online: newmibridges.michigan.gov/ or go to 555 Towner Street, Ypsilanti / or call 734-5443030 for assistance. Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. HEALTH CLINICS Packard Health https://packardhealth.org/ Primary care for the whole family, including women’s health, prenatal care, chronic disease management, and nutritional therapy. Behavioral health, addiction treatment services. Insurance enrollment assistance. Food, medication, transportation services. Offering language and telehealth services. Packard Health Main 2650 Carpenter Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48108 734-971-1073 Mon- Fri: 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sat: 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. Sun: Closed. Bus AATA: Route 5A, 5B Packard Health West 1915 Pauline Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48103 734-926-4900 Packard Health Ypsilanti 200 Arnet St., Ypsilanti, MI 48198 / 734-985-7200 Hope Clinic 518 Harriet St. , Ypsilanti, MI 48197 Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., Saturday 8:30 a.m.– 12 p.m. New patients, call 734-481-0111 Free primary care, even if you are uninsured or under-insured. We will work with you to get access to public insurance, if you are eligible. Appointment times available: Tuesday and Thursday 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Wednesday 12:30-4 p.m. Family Life Services 840 Maus Ave.,Ypsilanti MI 48198 / 734-434-3088 Monday, Wednesday-Friday: 12:30-4 p.m., Tuesday 3:30-7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday: Closed —Pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, abortion/adoption information, prenatal vitamins —Community service referrals —Educational programs —Infant/maternity clothing, diapers, wipes and formula (when available) —For families, expecting mothers, mothers/fathers with children aged 0-4 Corner Health Center (ages 12-25 only) 47 N. Huron St., Ypsilanti, MI 48197 / 734-484-3600 APPOINTMENT ONLY Monday, Thursday, Friday: 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday 9 a.m.-6 p.m.,Wednesday 1-5 p.m. Provides health care, including physicals, immunizations, TB testing, short/long-term health problem coverage; sexual health care: birth control options, STI testing and treatment, HIV testing and counseling, pregnancy tests and mental health services. There is a pantry store (clients earn points for coming to their appointments that they can spend there), including items like food, hygiene, books, clothes, baby supplies, etc. Corner Health Center accepts some private insurance and uses a sliding scale fee for those without insurance; they will assist with applying for Medicaid. Young individuals can receive food from the pantry once per day. DENTAL CARE Community Dental Center 406 N.Ashley, Ann Arbor, MI 48103 / 734-998-9640 Full service dental office provides services to children and adults who live in Washtenaw County. www.dent.umich.edu/cdc/ Hope Dental Clinic 518 Harriet St., Ypsilanti MI 48198 / 734-480 -9575 www.thehopeclinic.org/dentalclinic Monday-Thursday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Must be uninsured, have an income that is at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, and fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Proof of income, photo ID and your COVID-19 vaccination card will be required prior to scheduling an appointment. Unfortunately, we are unable to see you in the dental clinic if you have any form of dental insurance. University of Michigan School of Dentistry 1011 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 734-763-6933 Dental work done by students who are closely supervised by faculty members. www.dent.umich.edu/patients GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES WHAT'S THE DEAL? by Peter Collins JANUARY 23, 2026 ACROSS 1. Toddler's safety item 8. Science workshop 11. Hazardly start? 14. Tennis period since 1968 15. Wrath 16. Handy way to communicate, for short? 17. Legendary racehorse 18. Earl Grey product 19. Code-cracking org. 20. Accusation from Caesar 21. Prohibition hooch 24. Eighth Greek letter 26. Cry of delight 27. Theater section 28. Pink Floyd founder Barrett 29. Calif. school near the Mexican border 32. Check line 34. Barbarian 36. Stable diet? 37. Valentine sweets 39. Rum mixer 40. Twilled fabrics 41. N.Y.C. financial hub 43. When two hands meet 44. Angle or cycle starter 47. Singer Guthrie 48. 12/24 or 12/31 50. Constellation with a belt 52. Castle access 56. Yankee with more than 3,000 hits, familiarly 57. French ___ 58. Verb that sounds like its middle letter 59. Final stage of a chess match (and a hint as to what's found in the answers to 17-, 21-, 37-, or 52-Across) 61. "___ Miserables" 62. Word before or after "down" 63. Entered front-first 64. "... ___ he drove out of sight..." 65. Doubtfire title 66. Springsteen's ___ Band DOWN 1. Streakers in the dark? 2. Lack of interest 3. Paid a flat fee? 4. Pig's nose 5. "Gross!" 6. Part of U.A.E. 7. "Gone With the Wind" estate 8. Many an art print, for short 9. "Queen of Soul" Franklin 10. Lover boy 11. Favorite social spots 12. Gives, as homework 13. Mars or Venus 22. Made more strict 23. Puffs up 25. Yoga postures 30. VCR tape successor 31. States 33. Rita who won an Oscar for "West Side Story" 34. Unhealthily yellow 35. Architect Saarinen 37. Fall apart 38. Before now 39. Delta, for one 41. Walk like a penguin 42. Extreme fear 44. Diatribe 45. Dorm-mate 46. Set right? 49. Looks at 51. Wild party 53. Soothing stuff 54. Hereditary carrier 55. Adam's grandson 60. Summer clock setting: Abbr. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS January 9, 2025 edition JANUARY 23, 2026 POETRY Before Love Learned Its Name Before love had a face it was temperature. A quiet warmth deciding atoms should stay together. It didn’t ask permission. It didn’t explain itself. It leaned — and the universe leaned back. We learned fear faster than love. Fear came with instructions. Love came naked. So we built words around it like fences around wind, and then wondered why it kept escaping. We tried to own it. Put it on trial. Measure it in promises, in rings, in days that didn’t last. But love never signed the contract. It just showed up as breath in another chest, as the unbearable urge to protect what can break. Love is what your body remembers before your mind interrupts. It lives in the pause between two heartbeats, in the moment your eyes close and something inside you says: yes … this. You don’t find love. You stop resisting it. You don’t give love. You allow it to pass through you like light through glass that forgets it’s solid. One day humanity will stop asking what love is for, stop demanding proof, stop mistaking intensity for truth. And then — quietly — without ceremonies or conclusions, everything we broke will remember how to return. Because love was never the lesson. Love was the origin. Love was the path. Love is the ending that keeps beginning. LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover writer Seems like I had looked to see The end of a year The end of former things Don't git it twisted at all My friends, family and all Does not postpone life Yet for some New, better beginnings Fresh starts simply A fart, a farce both escaped me Yet here I am A fresh start The end of old former things May this year offer, as well as grant me, and all a new and refreshed journey!!! PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 Another Part of Me , Another Start Too! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15 Free the chain gang #Flint MARQUETTA "Q" CLEMENTS Groundcover contributor This shit ain't normal Free Palestine It's hard to stay sane Got me feeling outta place Been hurt plenty times Just tryna numb the pain The drugs feel safeeeeee The drugs feel safe Eyes behind my head They tryna get me out the way My talent seems to rise The love tend to fade F* that fake shii I'll empty out this chamber I don't care for cops Holocaust detain us Free Palestine Trail of tears it get dangerous America we fallen Airborne rangers A song from a vet Green berets let em shoot Duck, duck, goose x2 I wear that Army Green Let's show em who we is We the biggest bullies Bully bullies let it r.i.p. Biggest gang get big Faith KIMANI HAMILTON Groundcover vendor No. 518 Will my faith get Me strength get me Far will my faith leave Me breathless. Will My faith leave me hopeless Or will my faith get Me further. In life Or will my faith leave Me to riches. All I know is my faith Keeps me focused. Choices KIMANI HAMILTON Why do I make the Choices I make Is it to please others Are my choices pleasing To my father in heaven Are my choices pleasing To my family Are my choices favorable To myself will my choices impact my future Will my choices leave Me hopeless all I know Is my choices won't get Me far

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Almond and jam scones LINDSAY CALKA Publisher Ingredients: 2 cups flour 3 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 5 tsp butter, cold 1 cup heavy cream 2/3 cup almond paste Fruit jam, any flavor Directions: Preheat the oven to 400°F. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, salt together in a medium sized bowl. Cut cold butter into 1/4 inch cubes. Pinch butter cubes with your fingers into the bowl of dry ingredients. When no butter pieces are larger than a pea, mix in heavy cream and incorporate fully into the loose dough. Rest dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes as you roll out the almond paste. Divide almond paste in two. Roll out one half to a 4×10" rectangle and  WORKING from page 12 them constantly, reminding them, “This is going to be read one day.” I told them from the beginning that at the end of this, we’re going to sit down and go through whatever I end up writing, and you’re going to tell me if you’re comfortable with this. And we did that at the end, and there were a lot of tears. It was heart-wrenching. I became convinced that it is just as cut length-wise into two equal pieces. Repeat with second portion of almond paste. Roll out the scone dough on a floured surface to about a 4×10" rectangle. Place a square of paste on the scone dough, flush with the bottom edge. Spread a thin layer of jam over the almond. Fold the dough over the almond and jam. Roll dough out to a 4×10" rectangle again and repeat with the remaining three squares of almond paste and jam. Cut dough into triangle shapes — they don't have to be perfect. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool and enjoy with tea or coffee! dehumanizing to people to present them as these angelic, flawless creatures who can do no wrong, who are just getting up in the morning and going to work, and they have grit. Like, it can be just as dehumanizing to do that as it is to pathologize people and blame them. It felt really important to show people in the fullness of who they are, stepping back and saying, here’s the larger system or whatever force that is giving this person the choice in front of them to begin with. These are systemic problems. You write a lot about gentrification and housing affordability. How do we create a system where people like Celeste can rent an apartment again? There are all kinds of immediate solutions, such as keeping people in the homes they already have. Policy, you know, what’s sometimes called ‘just cause’ eviction laws, that say you JANUARY 23, 2026 can’t lose your apartment just because your landlord decided that it’s the perfect time to sell. And then, of course, getting people into homes that they don’t yet have; building new, truly affordable housing that is safe and dignified and permanently affordable. But the foundation upon which any real way of tackling this crisis has to be built is to understand in our society, in the richest nation on the planet, how the hell has this happened? How have we allowed this essential thing that people need, like food, like medicine, just to be auctioned off to the highest bidder? We have millions and millions of people in this country who are extremely low-income, who are part of the labor force, and who are at imminent risk of homelessness. And we’ve flung all those people into what a case manager in the book refers to as the housing Hunger Games. Housing has become this thing that is so unattainable for so many and where so much money is being made, and people don't even have a home to go back to at the end of the night with their kids, and that is the shock that I’m hoping this book will initiate. Courtesy of Street Sense Media / INSP.ngo $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 11/13/2025 02/19/26

2 $ JANUARY 9, 2026 | VOLUME 17 | ISSUE 2 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Police torture Ypsilanti resident and demolish home in 30 hour siege. page 8 MEET YOUR VENDOR: DAVID MITCHELL PAGE 3 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Is the Fare Deal, fair? page 4 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 JANUARY 9, 2026 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF VOLUNTEERS Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Gray Connor — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman La Shawn Courtwright Adriane Dietrich augustine jay Mike Jones Ken Parks Savon Salvador Will Shakespeare What's Left Ypsi Felicia Wilbert Greg Woodring Orian Zakai PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett June Miller Anabel Sicko Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Stephanie Dong Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Ben Foster Glenn Gates Robert Klingler Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropriate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JANUARY 9, 2026 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR David Mitchell vendor No. 661 The spark in your heart When you notice your own In one sentence, who are you? I am a proud member of the homeless community in Washtenaw County. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? You will find me in downtown Ann Arbor, either by the Michigan Union or Fleetwood Diner. Why did you start selling Groundcover? I came to Groundcover to publish my thoughts about life as a homeless person. I also enjoy the ability to earn income through sales. What is one place that feels like your own personal sanctuary? Ann Arbor downtown library. What is your comfort food? Pizza House pizza. What is your life motto? Always believe in yourself. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring three things, what would they be? 1. A radio 2. A cell phone 3. Sleeping bag If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?Austin, Texas. If there was a theme song for your life, what would it be? "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor. What is the weirdest food combo you swear by? Meatloaf and mashed potatoes. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? The development of more homeless shelters. What is one question you wish you were asked more? Simply, "Would you like to meet up for coffee and conversation?" LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 suffering, remember that everyone experiences that same suffering, and extend compassion to self and other inseparably. Then the spark in your heart is active in a good way. When 5,000 military veterans showed up at the Standing Rock indigenous nation just after Thanksgiving 2016, they looked at the 500 mercenaries and police who were protecting the construction of the Keystone pipeline on the Cannonball River. The pipeline investors changed the route to bypass Bismarck (after Bismarck’s Not In My Neighborhood protests), and moved the pipeline route to Standing Rock, which was unceded territory of the Standing Rock nation. The military veterans began to talk about taking down the police /mercenary unit near the construction site. The Grandmothers of Standing Rock quickly intervened and said to the veterans, “Listen to us, we have been in this struggle for 500 years. You need to consider what they have been through in order for them to feel okay with what they are doing.” The perpetrators of violence have been socialized into violence as the definitive norm of every supremacist society. Supremacism has a long history with roots in the experience of self and other. When reality is experienced with this dualism, which splits the KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 whole into two parts, the other is viewed as ‘not self’ and becomes an object to be controlled. This cannot be done and the supremacism that arises to control reality always backfires with unintended consequences. Wars never succeed in establishing peace. When you learn that the illusion of a separate permanent self is a fixation of ego OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), you may turn to dharma, a Sanskrit word for reality and the path to awakening. The spark in your heart can become a warm glow that is, in fact, unconditional love, and will benefit all beings without exception. As you cultivate this awakening to your true nature it will grow until you discover you are a Buddha. You do not create anything, but now see things as they are. How simple and challenging! Dropping the need to determine an outcome can be done in one lifetime, but may take more than one. Who can mentor you on this path? Look for those who are naturally and spontaneously compassionate. They are here Car repair fundraiser Hello everyone. I want to let you all know that I am grateful for the $250 that four generous donors contributed. Thank you all so much. However, I have raised some money on my own and am still in need of $3,300 to fulfill my obligation. Once again, I am reaching out to all Groundcover News customers and donors to feel free to continue to offer a monetary contribution to my cause. This is a necessity for me and my minor child. You may donate by my personal Venmo, CashApp or P.O Box. I can also accept personal checks made out to me, La Shawn Courtwright. Venmo: @LaShawn-Courtwright CashApp: $LaShawnCourtwright P.O. Box: 8126 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48107 Phone: 734-686-9383. Any donation will be gratefully received and utilized to complete my goal. Have a great day! for those who sincerely aspire to discover the sacred nature of this precious human life. Karuna Buddhist Center and Triple Crane Retreat Center have a good collaboration to help bring body, speech and mind to the seamless whole that is Buddha's nature. I believe that peace and justice will flourish when we live as awakened beings and respect our activity, and in particular, our labor. We must organize so that we produce and share with the ethic, “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need” — a quote with biblical origins that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels developed. Honor and grow the spark in your heart until we reach this fruition. If you want to celebrate new beginnings, consider Losar, which is the Tibetan New Year. Come to the Karuna Buddhist Center at Bethlehem United Church of Christ at 423 S. Fourth Ave. on Feb. 21. May all beings benefit. Thieves and saints both have a place in our life. Impermanence is at play. When my tricycle was stolen I had to relearn walking and pulling a cart. The saints quickly appeared, Kori Kanayama and Lindsay Calka in particular, and a replacement tricycle is here. Winter is temporary and the days are getting longer. Thank you sun, the spark of life in our solar system! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS TRANSIT Is the Fare Deal, fair? Increasing non-car transportation is a priority of the City of Ann Arbor. (Strategy 4 of A2ZERO focuses on reducing the vehicle miles we travel by at least 50%.) It has abundant positive outcomes, from helping achieve carbon neutrality to reducing traffic congestion. A group of shelter volunteers, staff and community members have identified that a key group of potential bus riders are being left behind in the bus system's recent investments and expansions: people experiencing homelessness in urban Washtenaw County. This group is attempting to negotiate free bus fare for guests of daytime and overnight warming centers. With the stated goal of making “the bus more accessible for folks who frequent the warming centers and beyond,” the group has sent email correspondence to TheRide and attended both the Ann Arbor Transit Authority's and the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority's meetings. The group’s ask from them is simple: free bus rides in the winter for anyone who needs transportation in the cold. In an email to TheRide, they articulated the situation as such: “Between the two Daytime Warming Centers, there are roughly 150-200 people who visit on any given day. Every day we are able to allocate just 20 tokens (10 at each location) to give out, but most days we give out 20-60 tokens, relying on unpredictable donations. We buy the 20 from donated funds, and any extra is from community members who buy tokens on their own accord, or warming center staff who buy tokens from their own paychecks. “For context, the warming centers' day to day expenses rely solely on donations. The Shelter Association pays staffing costs. This year, we have budgeted for $5,000 in donations; this is for tokens as well as any supplies we need to buy or unforeseen expenses. If 100 people needed a token per day, this would cost $150 per day. This is $750 per week, $3000 per month or $15,000 from November through March. As it stands, even with just 20 tokens per day, over half of our operating costs go towards bus tokens. Evidently, even with popular community support for the warming centers to exist, we simply cannot afford the transportation costs. “That we can only afford 20 tokens per day creates a daily situation in which warming center guests struggle to make it to their next location. The inconsistency is really difficult for our guests and even being able to consistently give out a baseline of 40 tokens a day instead of 20 would dramatically and has just stuck to the resources accessible on foot in Ypsilanti. Still, even when people can overLINDSAY CALKA Publisher improve guests' ability to get out of the cold and maintain the daily functions of living. Cost aside, we also find that the AAATA is often in short supply of tokens when we are able to go and buy them; this means warming center staff and volunteers are making very frequent (multiple times a week) trips to buy tokens. When we are out of tokens, staff and volunteers may drive guests to their next location, but the need for transportation is something we are not able to meet in a sustainable way.” If TheRide cannot fufill their request, the group requested alternative supports until TheRide can secure a longer term, fare-free program in Washtenaw: 100 free tokens per week from the AAATA, 50% off tokens if they purchase in bulk, and free rides on bus routes that the warming centers operate on. Existing reduced fare programs are not accessible The Ride already offers many programs that make riding the bus lowcost, depending on age, income and disability. GoldRide is a service for seniors aged 65 or older that allows them to travel for free on fixed route buses with a GoldRide I.D. card. Most prominent in the homeless community is TheRide's Fare Deal Card program where individuals who qualify and have the corresponding AAATA I.D. can ride at half the cost. In order to obtain a card one must drop off an application and other eligibility documents at the AAATA's main office on Industrial Hwy. — not the downtown transit centers. The four warming center guests I interviewed while writing this article are all eligible for either the Fare Deal or A-Ride program, but none have been able to acquire the AAATA I.D. needed to access the discounted fare. For Jay, he needs a doctor to sign off paperwork verifying his disabilities. "That requires getting the paperwork together, making an appointment with a doctor and then getting to the AAATA office," he clarified. Ray is unfamiliar with Ann Arbor come the barriers of "providing proof," half-fare ($0.75/ride or $3.00 day pass) is unaffordable to many people experiencing homelessness in Washtenaw County. The Daytime Warming Center's practice of distributing bus fare to guests is not unique. Local agencies, nonprofits, community organizations and generous individuals are barely able to fill this transportation gap. What other local agencies provide MISSION's Weather Amnesty program at Purple House provides one full-fare token to each guest per day. This ensures they are able to safely leave the shelter in the morning, which is located on the east side of Ann Arbor. MISSION reported being on pace to spend $1,500 during the 2025-26 winter season. Groundcover News offers Go!Passes to vendors who sell 75 or more copies of each issue, as they are downtown workers — no different than those who the program was designed for. Groundcover vendors report being able to irregularly access bus fare at the Delonis Center and Community Mental Health Annex on 4th Avenue. The Ypsilanti District Library provides bus tokens and passes through their Library Care Coordination program. From June 2 to Dec. 9, at least 1,175 bus tokens and passes were requested by patrons and distributed. Library Social Worker Kay Layton has taken strides to overcome patrons' barriers to access reduced fare programs by training YDL librarians so more people can authorize AAATA eligibility paperwork. What other cities do Monroe County (Rochester, N.Y.): The RTS Code Blue program in Monroe County, New York provides transportation to warming centers for unhoused individuals during extreme cold weather, specifically when temperatures drop below 32 degrees. During "Code Blue months," individuals can request free transportation via RTS to a warming shelter in Rochester at any bus stop. If the nearest shelter is on a bus route, the bus will transport them directly there; if not, they will be taken to the RTS Transit Center, where an employee will assist them to the appropriate shelter. This program aims to ensure that no one is left out in the cold during harsh winter conditions. "Each year, our focus is simple; no one should be left out in the cold,” said Monroe County Department of Human Services Commissioner Thalia Wright. “Since July, our DHS team has worked tirelessly with government and community partners, meeting biweekly with a dedicated planning team, including the City of Rochester, Partners Ending Homelessness, health systems, outreach programs and homeless service providers to prepare for this Code Blue season. These continued collaborations, including our partnership with RTS to offer free transportation to warming shelters, reflect the compassion and coordination of our community response.” More information about this initiative here: www.monroecounty.gov/ news-2025-11-19-blue Eugene, Ore. (Lane Transit District) offers free rides when the temperature drops under 30 degrees. Free rides are available for people going to and from a warming center, only during days and times that the warming center is open. In Tacoma, Wash. "Free round trips are available throughout the day and evening for passengers who tell the driver they are traveling to or from a warming center or shelter," said Rebecca Japhet, Communications Manager for Pierce Transit. More than just a warm ride I asked what warming center guests what they would do if they had free bus transportation around Ann Arbor and Ypsi. The responses suggest free fare would be life-saving beyond just the winter months. Jay: "Get around to apply for jobs, and get there on time." Fred: "Work." D: "Seek a job." Ray: "Get to and from my many medical appointments." Take action The group invites Groundcover readers to join them Tuesday, January 27, 5-7 p.m. at Detroit Street Filling Station for GetDowntown, TheRide, DDA and the City of Ann Arbor's "Conquer the Cold Challenge Midpoint Mixer" to share support for these proposals. Experiencing homelessness poses more barriers than just being low-income, aging or living with a disability. Urge decision-making parties to include people experiencing homelessness in the conversation on accessible local transportation. JANUARY 9, 2026 JANUARY 9, 2026 COMMUNITY EVENTS community EVENTS A2 CIVIC THEATER'S "THE HUMANS" Jan 9–11 and 16–18, show times vary. Ann Arbor Civic Theater, 322 W. Ann Street, Ann Arbor. A moving portrait of an American family grappling with love, loss and life in the 21st century. By Stephen Karam. Directed by Cassie Mann. Purchase tickets at a2ct.org FREE MOVIES AT THE MICHIGAN THEATER Michigan Theater, 603 E Liberty Street, Ann Arbor. Free and open to the public! Please reserve tickets in advance for an accurate attendance. Friday, January 9, 11 a.m. "Lilo and Stitch" Thursday, January 22, 7 p.m. "Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes" INDOOR WINTER FARMERS MARKET Saturday, January 10, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Growing Hope Farmers Marketplace, 16 S. Washington St. Ypsi. Here you’ll find fresh local produce, handcrafted goods, hot food and the kind of neighborly energy that makes the cold months feel a little softer. DEXTER ICE FEST Saturday, January 17, 10 a.m. Downtown Dexter, 7665 Ann Arbor St. Ice Fest will have over 80 ice sculptures, live ice demos, a downtown coco crawl and more! ARAB EXPRESSIONS Saturday, January 17, 7 p.m. Michigan Theater An Arab cultural show to showcase the Arab community on campus and represent their heritage and culture. Purchase tickets at marquee-arts.org/ AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE PEACE HOUSE BRUNCH Sunday, January 18, 11 a.m. -1 p.m. Growing Hope Farmers Marketplace, 16 S. Washington St. Ypsilanti. Monthly free brunch and community-building event. Free to everyone — omni, vegan and gluten-free options always available. A free clothing swap will follow in the same location. ANN ARBOR RESTAURANT WEEK Sunday, January 18 - Friday, January 23. Downtown Ann Arbor participating restaurants. An annual event that celebrates the city’s vibrant culinary scene by offering diners the opportunity to enjoy special menus and deals at downtown restaurants. During this event, participating restaurants provide fixed-price menus, allowing patrons to experience a variety of dishes at a set price. See menus at www.annarborrestaurantweek.com/ UNBOWED AND UNBROKEN: THE ENDURING STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE Monday, January 19, 10 a.m. -11:30 a.m. Hill Auditorium, 825 N University Ave. Ann Arbor 40th Annual Keynote Memorial Lecture of the University of Michigan's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium, featuring Donzaleigh Abernathy and Derrick Johnson. MLK AND MILITARISM TODAY Monday, January 19, 6-7:30 p.m. AADL downtown, 4th Floor Program Room. Martin Luther King Jr. found militarism to be one of the three fundamental evils to equality in American Culture. How he defined this issue in the sixties to some extent remains the same, but things regarding his viewpoint have changed over the past 60+ years. Presented by Veterans For Peace local Chapter 93, this program will examine MLK’s original view and inquire into how the implications of militarism appear today. ANN ARBOR HAPPY HOUR GROUNDCOVER FUNDRAISER Friday, February 6, 6:30-9 p.m. LIVE Nightclub, 102 S. First Street, Ann Arbor. Close out Vendor Appreciation Week with the Groundcover crew! Live music by Corndaddy and The Medicine Men. Groundcover merchandise for sale. Free. Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com • When selling Groundcover, I will Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUBLIC HEALTH JANUARY 9, 2026 Left to right: Dr. Graham Smith,Clinical Assistant Professor in the U-M Department of Emergency Medicine. Jimena Loveluck, Health Officer at Washtenaw County Health Department. Kristen Schweighoefer, Environmental Health Director at Washtenaw Health Department. Dr. Juan Marquez, Medical Director, Washtenaw and Livingston County Health Departments. Connection of Washtenaw Health Department to Healthy People 2000 Initiatives (part two) In the last edition of Groundcover, I wrote an article about the Healthy Peoples Initiatives, which started as a policy of the Department of Health and Human Services in 1990 (Healthy People 2000) and were renewed every ten years. I want to establish some of the background of these policies. Healthcare policy debates During the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon issued several proposals for a National Healthcare solution in order to reduce the cost of healthcare and expand universal access. Those policy debates led to the 1973 Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) Act of 1973. That particular legislation sparked a lot of debates. There were people in the government and businesses who claimed that the 1973 act seemed to resemble the British National Health Service, which was not very popular among conservatives. In the 1980s, the health policy debates continued with the focus on cost, universal access, elderly healthcare and healthcare for poor children. With the election of President Bill Clinton in 1992, the health policy debates started again with more momentum. Hillary Clinton was asked to be the leader of the Clinton administration’s push for a universal healthcare act. The health policy debates of the 1990s were very acrimonious. However, during the end of President Clinton’s presidency, Congress passed three bills which propelled the Healthy People’s Initiatives designed and implemented by the office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Key Healthy People 2000 legislation included the Children’s Health Act of WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 which they prepare for the County government. Black children are six times more 2000; the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act of 2000; and the Public Health Improvement Act of 2000. These helped to fulfill the administrative goals of the Healthy People Initiatives. Washtenaw County Health Department responses To move these policies forward, the Washtenaw County Health Department initiated partnerships with University of Michigan, Livingston County, Trinity Health, and Chelsea Hospitals. A new partnership started in 2025 between the University of Michigan School of Public Health and the Washtenaw County Health Department; it is intended to help develop a professional practice for the students to work with staff members and also with the members of the Washtenaw County community. Students from the School of Public Health get their practical community health experience by working on the Washtenaw County Health Department’s priorities in the community. The health department’s priorities are based on their annual reports, likely — and Hispanic children nearly three times more likely — to grow up in poverty than their white peers, according to the Washtenaw County press release of 2018 authorized by Susan Cerniglia, Health Department Communication Manager. The press release continued, “The Washtenaw County opportunity index shows that there is a nine-year difference in life expectancy between Ann Arbor’s 48104 zip code and Ypsilanti’s 48198 zip code.” The bad news about the County’s health in 2018 continued with the following recommendations made: “In order to end these health inequities, we must focus on more than just individual health care and behaviors. One in seven Washtenaw County residents are food-insecure, according to the rankings. The County was ranked at the bottom for air pollution and violent crimes; these are issues that must be fixed systematically." During the COVID-19 epidemic, many Washtenaw County families and individuals faced serious mental health issues. After the pandemic, it was noted that the County continued to have greater mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression and social anti-stigma and peer support events; and jail programming where the Justice Project Outreach Team provides mental health services and substance abuse support. The Washtenaw County Health Department has been following all the health policies debates since the 1990s with healthcare assessments. In 2023, they added a focus on eliminating disparities in healthcare access and improvements in food security, including emphasis on providing housing for the homeless, to their ongoing focus on mental healthcare. Just like the Healthy People Initiatives, the WCHD has moved to emphasizing social determinants of health. One of these is the number of people who died from gun violence. Graduates of the University of Michigan Medical Sociology program, such as Dr. David Williams of Harvard University’s School of Public Health and Dr. Thomas LaVesit, Dean of Tulane University School of Public Health, have been national leaders in this area. On Oct.29, 2025, mlive.com pubisolation. The County’s key mental health issues, which WCHD is continuing to address, include: anxiety and depression, youth mental health, suicide and service gaps. The key Community Mental Health initiatives include: #WishYouKnew Campaign, whereby CMH promotes dialog and connects families to resources; parent workshops; schoolbased programs providing support for lished an online article titled “Where are the healthiest places to live in Michigan?” which noted, “Life is generally healthiest in Northwest Michigan and outside Detroit in Livingston, Washtenaw and Oakland Counties according to a new data-heavy analysis by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.” The 2023 rankings showed that Washtenaw County ranked among the top tier for “factors like health outcomes and social determinants of health.” (The most recent is the 2024 report.) The County continued to be challenged by the issues of health see PUBLIC HEALTH page 15  JANUARY 9, 2026 COMMUNITY RESOURCES healthcare RESOURCE CORNER MEDICAID (HEALTHY MICHIGAN PLAN) Apply online: newmibridges.michigan.gov/ or go to 555 Towner Street, Ypsilanti / or call 734-5443030 for assistance. Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. HEALTH CLINICS Packard Health https://packardhealth.org/ Primary care for the whole family, including women’s health, prenatal care, chronic disease management, and nutritional therapy. Behavioral health, addiction treatment services. Insurance enrollment assistance. Food, medication, transportation services. Offering language and telehealth services. Packard Health Main 2650 Carpenter Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48108 734-971-1073 Mon- Fri: 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sat: 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. Sun: Closed. Bus AATA: Route 5A, 5B Packard Health West 1915 Pauline Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48103 734-926-4900 Packard Health Ypsilanti 200 Arnet St., Ypsilanti, MI 48198 / 734-985-7200 Hope Clinic 518 Harriet St. , Ypsilanti, MI 48197 Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., Saturday 8:30 a.m.– 12 p.m. New patients, call 734-481-0111 Free primary care, even if you are uninsured or under-insured. We will work with you to get access to public insurance, if you are eligible. Appointment times available: Tuesday and Thursday 9 a.m.–4 p.m., Wednesday 12:30-4 p.m. Family Life Services 840 Maus Ave.,Ypsilanti MI 48198 / 734-434-3088 Monday, Wednesday-Friday: 12:30-4 p.m., Tuesday 3:30-7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday: Closed —Pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, abortion/adoption information, prenatal vitamins —Community service referrals —Educational programs —Infant/maternity clothing, diapers, wipes and formula (when available) —For families, expecting mothers, mothers/fathers with children aged 0-4 Corner Health Center (ages 12-25 only) 47 N. Huron St., Ypsilanti, MI 48197 / 734-484-3600 APPOINTMENT ONLY Monday, Thursday, Friday: 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday 9 a.m.-6 p.m.,Wednesday 1-5 p.m. Provides health care, including physicals, immunizations, TB testing, short/long-term health problem coverage; sexual health care: birth control options, STI testing and treatment, HIV testing and counseling, pregnancy tests and mental health services. There is a pantry store (clients earn points for coming to their appointments that they can spend there), including items like food, hygiene, books, clothes, baby supplies, etc. Corner Health Center accepts some private insurance and uses a sliding scale fee for those without insurance; they will assist with applying for Medicaid. Young individuals can receive food from the pantry once per day. DENTAL CARE Community Dental Center 406 N.Ashley, Ann Arbor, MI 48103 / 734-998-9640 Full service dental office provides services to children and adults who live in Washtenaw County. www.dent.umich.edu/cdc/ Hope Dental Clinic 518 Harriet St., Ypsilanti MI 48198 / 734-480 -9575 www.thehopeclinic.org/dentalclinic Monday-Thursday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Must be uninsured, have an income that is at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, and fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Proof of income, photo ID and your COVID-19 vaccination card will be required prior to scheduling an appointment. Unfortunately, we are unable to see you in the dental clinic if you have any form of dental insurance. University of Michigan School of Dentistry 1011 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 734-763-6933 Dental work done by students who are closely supervised by faculty members. www.dent.umich.edu/patients GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POLICE GREG WOODRING Groundcover contributor The combined forces of Ypsilanti Police, Eastern Michigan University Police, Ann Arbor Police, Washtenaw County Police, Livingston County Police, Plymouth Police, Howell Police, Hamburg Township Police, Shiawassee County Police, State Police and Washtenaw County SWAT laid siege against an Ypsilanti man experiencing a mental health crisis armed only with a sword. Over the course of 30 hours spanning Sunday, January 4 and Monday, January 5, police used tear gas, flashbangs, an LRAD (a sonic weapon meant to disperse crowds through extremely loud and disorienting sounds), a fire hose, and demolition equipment to try to force the man from his home. The confrontation began on January 4 at 12:30 p.m. following a wellness check called by the downstairs neighbor. The neighbor had complained of harassment including banging on doors, floors, shouting and loud music. When police arrived the man allegedly answered the door with a sword and police made the decision to retreat and create a perimeter surrounding the building. At roughly 4 p.m. Washtenaw County SWAT arrived. They proceeded to break both upstairs windows, cut electricity and gas to the house, and begin launching tear gas grenades and flashbangs into the residence. The confrontation lasted through the night and into the next day. Police presence continued to grow. A mobile command unit, armored vehicle, several police cruisers, fire trucks, ambulances and a crane were deployed to the scene. Snipers also occupied the church across the street, displacing Meals of Wheels services. Neighbors and community members had gathered in protest throughout the day. Around 3 p.m. Monday police confronted them, tackling several and arresting two. At approximately 5 p.m. the Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer arrived and answered questions from concerned residents. The sheriff maintained that the police were attempting to de-escalate the situation, but could not answer why that level of police presence was required for one man alone with a sword. At approximately 6 p.m. police, while elevated behind a specialized shield attached to a crane, began using a firehose to spray the inside of the building. The police continued to intermittently use the hose to spray the building for several hours. At approximately 8:30 p.m. the police began to demolish the front and inside of the building using a crane. The police then proceeded to spray the fire hose into the building through the hole that was opened up. On the loud speaker negotiators played music and demanded that he exit the building, claiming they would continue until the building was totally exposed. Finally at approximately 11 p.m. folJANUARY 9, 2026 Police torture Ypsilanti resident and demolish home in 30 hour siege lowing two flash bangs, three tear gas grenades and the sound of what seemed to be gunshots police entered the building and pulled the man out in what seemed to be some dark tarp. The confrontation ended with police apprehending a man who had withstood nearly 36 hours of constant tear gas, flash bangs, sonic weapons and freezing cold temperatures exacerbated by thousands of gallons of water unloaded into his home by a fire hose and demolition equipment tearing the walls out of his apartment. Sheriff Dyer has reported that the man is now alive and in custody. On Jan. 7 YDP submitted eight felony charges against the resident in crisis. The City of Ypsilanti published a statement Jan. 7 via Facebook. "Per protocol, YPD requested aid from the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office Crisis Response Team who then arrived on scene, and were unfortunately unsuccessful in reaching the individual. Following the unsuccessful attempts, on directive of the Crisis Response Team Metro SWAT was contacted for assistance by YPD per protocol, due to their specialized training and resources. Upon the arrival of Metro SWAT, the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office assumed full control of the scene ..." WCSO has not released a statement as of the time of printing. Regardless of how the decisions were made, it’s abundantly clear that excessive and unnecessary force were used against a single man who was posing no immediate threat to anyone. For roughly 36 hours, three residential blocks were blockaded, residents were displaced from homes, and neighbors were subjected to tear gas, the sounds of flash bangs and sound weapons, and extreme militarized police presence. The three-unit apartment building is completely unlivable, displacing the downstairs resident who originally called in the police for help. Several questions remain to be answered surrounding the event. Residents have speculated that police used this crisis as an opportunity to train on the militarized equipment they rarely get to use. Many of them claim that this is the reason for so many far flung police departments to be involved in this mental health crisis turned domestic military action. Local, county and state police certainly haven’t given any reason that seems satisfactory to justify this level of force. If this is the case, one does have to wonder if the police having this equipment is actually making anyone safer, or if instead it’s simply tempting the officers to escalate situations that could have otherwise been handled without violence. Above: Snipers staged inside First Baptist Church, across from resident's home. Below: SWAT fires tear gas and flash bangs into the house alongside amored vehicle. Above: Crowd surrounds police as they arrest concerned, protesting neighbor. Below: After the removal of the resident through siege, the house is unlivable. JANUARY 9, 2026 TRANSIT GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POLICE Sword vs. SWAT WHAT'S LEFT YPSI It’s 3 p.m. on a winter afternoon — Jan. 5, 2026. The Ypsilanti sky shines behind rolling clouds and a battalion occupies the streets a few blocks away. Walking through Normal Park on Wallace toward Cross: police tape, flashing lights, a giant surveillance tower and 50 police cars — Eastern Michigan University Police Department, Livingston County Sheriff, Ypsilanti PD, Shiawassee County Sheriff, Plymouth PD, Howell PD, Michigan State Police, Livingston County SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics), Washtenaw County Sheriff, Washtenaw County SWAT, and a gigantic vehicle the size of a mobile home which features six cameras and a TV tuned to one block away. A neighbor is walking their dog diagonally through the gross display. Smiling soldiers toy with their shiny devices, and tall bureaucrats linger in long coats and big frowns. Three men with machine guns walk past you. Barricade. Smells of sulfur and gasoline. What can you do? There are no answers here. Around the corner is a small tank — “Armored Critical Incident Vehicle.” There is a crane. There is a “hydraulic breaching ram.” There is at least one firetruck with a gigantic hose attachment strong enough to peel drywall. There are men with “riot control” weapons at their fingertips who haven’t slept all night. There are two residents being tackled and detained by some of these men. And there is one person with a katana sword whose domicile is being torn apart piece by piece who is having a very, very bad day. In a 32-hour event ending late the evening of Jan. 5, a phonebook of police jurisdictions took part in a violent and humiliating removal of an Ypsilanti man from his upstairs living space in a house on W. Cross St. After multiple wellness checks by police and mental health professionals in the week leading up to this event, police were called to the scene of a man banging on a neighbor’s door with an object. When they arrived, the man was back in his apartment. He is accused of charging the police with a sword after they knocked on his door. Throughout the night of Jan. 4 and into the next day, SWAT and police used dozens of teargas bombs, flashbangs, an LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) noise weapon, a hydraulic battering ram attached to a crane, and a firehose to try and remove the man from his residence, creating a vivid scene of psychological brutality against one person—and the whole blockaded neighborhood, the whole city, the whole county paid for it. Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels was forced to halt programming that day; the church they work out of housed snipers instead. 250 families didn’t get meals that day. Normal Park residents were stopped from normal life, some blocked from returning home, others prevented from using their cars and accessing clean and quiet air. All while forced to bear witness to a public annihilation of their neighbor—the county residents got to see what their money funds. Washtenaw County, our incredible home: willing and capable of great destruction. How did this happen? Why do we have this arsenal of weaponry and mercenaries but no homeless shelter in Ypsi open year round? Next to no park bathrooms, public transit, or recreation centers? How did we get here, how did our neighbor get here, and how did banging on the downstairs ceiling transform into this fantastic spectacle of brutality? What would have happened if skilled unarmed de-escalation professionals had worked on this until they had a solution? Questions abound. Of course, the common person is not supported at all in this country. What happened earlier this week is a caricature of what has happened and will happen to many of us: state-sanctioned removal when we finally break. Because as it turns out, this all started with an inability to pay rent. Local pastor, director of FedUp Ministries, and community organizer Anna Taylor-McCants has familiarity with these events and people closest to the situation, and What’s Left asked her to help us understand what had happened: What’s Left: Thanks for talking with us, Anna. What do you know about the lead up to this incident? Rev. Anna Taylor-McCants: It seems like the tenant was down on his luck which took a toll on his mental health, dating back to the summer. The people who knew him seemed really sad about his declining mental health, and they wanted to be sure he was safe when he stopped returning text messages. He was facing eviction, and after he missed his court date someone close to him called for a mental health check. WL: What do you know about the incident itself? ATM: I know what I saw from observing on-scene for multiple hours. The excessive reaction to this man’s mental health crisis resulted in trauma for so many people. Military gear on civilian streets, expanding barricades, a standoff for 30 hours — it was all too much. JANUARY 9, 2026 Above: Crisis negotiator wears uniform hat with sword emblem. Below: Normal Park neighbors mobilize to Washtenaw Board of Commissioners Jan. 7 meeting to speak out. Photos by Emily Mills. I am so so grateful that our neighbor did not lose his life. But he deserved better and so did our community. WL: How do you think things could have gone differently? ATM: Oof, this is a hard question to answer. Certain things should have never occurred on the scene, period. The use of military equipment and people with guns on people who are in a mental health crisis is horrific and should not happen. Things could also have gone differently if the gentlemen in crisis had received mental health services for the months leading up to the incident. He was on a decline; he had people who cared. My only thought is that resources weren’t as available/accessible as we’d like to think they are. WL: What do you want to see come out of this? ATM: I’d like to see our leaders — all elected officials across municipalities and agencies — begin to work together instead of placing blame on each other. Coming together to truly address needs like mental health, eviction, housing, homelessness, and more is one of the ways we will grow stronger together. WL: Have you ever witnessed a mil- itarized response to a mental health issue on this level? ATM: I was in seminary when clergy were called to bear witness in Charlottesville. I drove for hours during my summer Greek class to hold vigil with those present. Other than that, never. WL: What is one thing neighbors can do to practice community care in the wake of this incident? ATM: To care for ourselves: Have a list of resources ready if and when you ever need it. The list may be for a close friend, but we’re all only a couple of steps away from needing help ourselves. Know who to call when you need extra support, and practice reaching out before things get hard. To care for each other — continue checking in on those you love. Ask hard questions. Notice when your people are struggling and don’t be afraid to take off your shoes and sit in the pew alongside them. Sometimes all we need is a witness (and sometimes we need more). One thing I know: isolation kills. WL: Anything else that's been on your mind regarding this? ATM: I believe our Community Mental Health office needs to review its database of calls. In my experience as a pastor, every time I’ve called CMH in Ypsilanti the police show up alongside the CMH workers. When I pastored in Ann Arbor, the police never showed up for a single call I made to CMH. Do our helping agencies view people in crisis in Ypsilanti as more dangerous than Ann Arbor? We need to take a hard look at patterns in our community mental health services and learn where we are failing and need to do things differently. Published in partnership with What's Left Ypsilanti. JANUARY 9, 2026 DIGITAL LITERACY GROUNDCOVER NEWS On the road with the LogInBus: combating social exclusion in Germany ADRIANE DIETRICH Trott-War On Sept. 14, 2025, as the fourth edition of the StreetCamp festival brings together many people affected by poverty on Stuttgart’s Leonhardsplatz to mark World Homelessness Day, the LogInBus is in exactly the right place. Some guests still ask, a little shyly, what the “Baby Bus” actually is. But a glance inside quickly reveals the answer: the van’s seats have been replaced by four mobile PC workstations. In principle, it is a small internet café on wheels, but one that focuses on people who have little or no conventional access to the internet and digital technology for either financial or age-related reasons. For example, there is a man present who wants to switch from his old mobile phone to a smartphone and needs assistance to do so. In principle, anyone can use the service; the only condition is that they comply with the conditions of use. These set out how to use the equipment, but also how to interact with other users in the real and digital world. Project employee Oliver Ludwig is on hand to teach digital skills. He is also responsible for converting the van: the four laptops are each mounted on a small, customised table on wheels. Everything is designed so that nothing can slip while the bus is on the move. Of course, a power supply is needed for the PCs and also for the printer, and Ludwig has integrated charging stations for smartphones. Anyone wishing to take documents away with them is given a free USB stick. Ludwig cares deeply about the project and the people involved. On hot days, he provides bottles of water and muesli bars, kept in a small stash for emergencies. “In summer, our bus actually provides protection from the heat,” he says, smiling. If users need additional provisions, such as clothing, he refers them to relevant drop-in centres. The LogInBus team also consists of two other employees: Jana Tepper, project manager, and Hannah Gröner, project manager at the Street University, with which the LogInBus is affiliated. With its inclusive educational programme, open to all, the Street University sees itself as a bridge builder and knowledge mediator between people living in precarious circumstances and interested members of the public. The LoginBus not only acts as a mobile internet hotspot on certain days and at certain locations; the team also offers internet and digital technology events and courses through the Street University. There they teach the basics: How do I use the internet? How do I protect my data online? The aim is not only to provide immediate assistance, but also to make people more digitally literate and, where possible, more independent. However, the main focus is on the basic idea behind the bus: to offer a mobile outreach service, because it is often not possible for people living in poverty or disabled people to get to fixed locations if they cannot afford the fare or are unable to travel to a remote site. For this reason, the current LogInBus stops have been chosen deliberately so that they are easily accessible to the target group: central and public meeting points such as the St. Paul’s church in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, where there is also a food sharing point from which a hot meal is provided every Monday. The bus also makes regular stops at St Mary’s Church in Stuttgart. Harry’s Bude and other services for marginalised people, not far from the Paulinen bridge, reach people experiencing homelessness and addiction. The 21 Brückenstraße stop in Stuttgart-Bad-Cannstatt is home to a Caritas community psychiatric centre, the Femmetastisch day centre looks after women dealing with difficult life situations, and the Ostheim residential café is a multi-generational project. The project idea for a low-threshold digital participation programme came about as a result of increased enquiries from Street University clients: “During the project’s development, we worked closely with visitors to the Street University and the Vesper Church to find out what issues they are concerned with in the digital world,” Tepper said. The skill gaps that they help to address include internet research, writing emails and printing out a document. Staff also visited other institutions and drop-in centres to get the target group on board in advance and analyse their needs. They were also involved in the naming process. The project will supplement existing facilities, such as the Evangelical Society’s “Eva’s media room,” with whom the LogInBus team collaborates on a regular basis. As the overarching and long-term goal is to train and educate more people in digital skills, Neue Arbeit is dependent on volunteer support. There are also plans to offer one-toone learning tandems and possibly to Oliver Ludwig in front of the LogInBus. Photo by Adriane Dietrich expand the weekly programme. Volunteers do not need to be IT experts to impart basic knowledge and answer visitors’ most pressing questions; basic familiarity with digital technology is enough. The growing success of the LogInBus may also secure further funding for the project beyond January 2027, when the current funding from the Vector Foundation comes to an end. Translated from German via Translators Without Borders Courtesy of Trott-war / INSP.ngo 11 Did you know Washtenaw Literacy offers digital literacy tutoring every other week at the Groundcover News office? Sessions occur Mondays 10 a.m. - 12 p.m., the next two sessions are on January 12 and January 26.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers JANUARY 9, 2026 ACROSS 1. Harder to understand 10. Tall fur hat 15. Greek school of wrestling 16. Bone cavities 17. Shield bearing a coat of arms (Var.) 18. River of Deutschland 19. Barely get by, with "out" 20. Earl Grey and others 21. Changing color 22. Microsoft product 23. The study of plants 24. Places to say "I do" 27. Barbaric 28. Aussie smoker's request 29. Loan for a start-up 33. Bit 34. Key ingredient of many smoothies 35. How one finds Easter eggs 36. Brand of Irish whiskey 38. Eyelashes 39. Primitive locking mechanism, as for a gate 40. African grasslands 41. Shoe for a tiny foot 43. "___ Poppins" 44. Educational programming language 45. Scottish clothing chest 46. Battering device 49. Pathetic one (Brit.) 50. Inhumane caning of feet as punishment 52. Clean one's feathers 53. [Intentionally left blank] 54. Mails 55. Plot DOWN 1. Church area 2. Endorse 3. Pivot 4. Sylvester, to Tweety 5. Parsonage 6. They direct you to your seat 7. Lieu 8. Greek god of love 9. Bled, as colors 10. Minerals used in paint (Var.) 11. In a harmful way 12. Draft holder 13. Salty, as seawater 14. Yin counterpart 21. Question the truth of 22. Passionate 23. Spread widely, as a rumor 24. Jewish month 25. Old stringed instrument 26. Put one's foot down? 27. Romantic infatuation 29. Dinner prayer 30. "___ Lang Syne" 31. Do needlework 32. Flight data, briefly 34. Malodorous 37. Provisions 38. Notarized 40. More immense 41. Trumpet 42. Humorist Nash 43. Botch 44. Dangerous biters 45. German philosopher known for the Categorical Imperative 46. Indian princess 47. Gulf of ___, off the coast of Yemen 48. Mean, medium, and ____ 50. Greyhound, e.g. 51. Zilch PUZZLE SOLUTIONS December 26, 2025 edition JANUARY 9, 2026 CREATIVE Truth or Lies: The Box Nevia and her husband Nipsi looked forward to the holiday season. The week before Christmas, the family tradition of decorating the Christmas tree was in full swing. They would select a real tree from Fannie’s Orchard every year. Nipsi would place it in front of the window in the living room. Their two children Shasha and Stephiney would help decorate the tree with ornaments, sometimes with their colors of choice. This year's colors were baby blue and royal blue with a sizzle of silver and white to tie the colors together making the tree look royal. Mom and Dad would wrap the gifts; the children would place the bows and name tags. The family would dress in pamajams matching each other and take pictures to upload on the ‘net to show family and friends. On Christmas Eve, Nipsi waited until the children were tucked in bed to place the gifts under the tree for family and friends. Nivia would give the best lavish gifts, even electronics. Nivia made fresh sugar cookies and placed them next to a glass of milk. But of course, Nipsi was Santa! He would always eat the delicious cookies with that fresh milk. Nipsi placed the gifts under the tree and held Nevia in his arms with satisfaction. They waited for the family to arrive for their Christmas Eve celebration, sitting by the fireplace admiring their tree. The relatives were all chattering about what Nivia could possibly give this year. Nivia and Nipsi would give came from. Maybe someone left it for you and forgot with all the excitement. Just put it back under the tree,” Nivia said. “We will wait and see if anyone left it for me or you” Four days later, Nivia had called FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 the best gifts. Everyone enjoyed visiting and swapping gifts at their house each year. Nivia and Nipsi would wrap 50 gifts or more, making sure everyone got a gift. The dinner party was a success. Everyone swapped gifts and talked, making the night special. The next day the children were excited, jumping for joy, repeating themselves over and over again, “Christmas is here, Christmas is here!” They ran over to the tree, grabbing the boxes and packages with their name on it. Everyone received their gifts, but there sat one box left. It was wrapped in shimmering red paper with a big red bow on it. Shasha grabbed it, handing it to her dad. He asked, “What is this? A gift for me?” Shasha replied, “It does not have a name tag on it.” “Oh maybe it’s for your mom.” They took the red shimmering box to Nivia. Before they could speak, she said, “Oh is this mine?” Nipsi said, “You did not leave this for me or anyone, did you?” “No, I don't know where this box New year Happyscopes SAVON SALVADOR Groundcover vendor No. 273 This is our song: "HappyScopes is here today. Read it, laugh and smile all day! HappyScopes is here today!" Capricorn: Dec.22-Jan.19 Your horns are pointed in the right direction. Ambition and discipline will come easy this year. Aquarius: Jan.20-Feb.18 Yes, you can see the future of success. Bearing love and determination will thrust you into your vision. Pisces: Feb.19- Mar.20 You will swim into romance whether spiritual or artistic. Musically, have no fear to launch your emotions to lead you into greatness. Aries: Mar.21-Apr.19 Let's March on leading the way! Expelling that contagious confident and talented personality. Taurus: Apr.20-May 20 Jump for joy! Harvest your fruits. Devote yourself to cooking, your work and ideals; be patient. Gemini: May 21-June 20 Harness yourself! Light up your desires and affections. Represent your expressive movement and connect all aspects of your personality. Cancer: June 21-July 21 Don't be crabby! Take your career to the next level. Believe in yourself and be loyal and believe in your abilities blending to manifest your power. Leo: July 23-Aug.22 Stop roaring!! Warm up your heart to passionate leaders. Harness your creative nature to reveal strengths. Virgo: Aug.23-Sept.22 Hey happy one! Pay attention to all your work. Others see it as staying confident. Love is at your door – open it and let it in! Grow, Grow, Grow! Sagittarius: Nov.22-Dec.21 Don’t be clingy! Laugh and let go! Release your generous great love of humor! your Libra: Sept.23-Oct.22 Don’t tip the scale!! Balance your peace and love by giving and sharing! Scorpio: Oct.23-Nov.21 You can be brave now. Your power is in your resourceful nature. Regenerate yourself and transform your mysterious beliefs. everyone who attended the party; however, no one knew of or saw the shimmering red box. Nipsi decided they would open the box after dinner. The family was excited to see what it contained. Finally the moment had arrived! Stephiney and Shasha started peeling off the paper. The box was 4x6 and very light. Once they peeled off the wrappings and opened the box, it was empty! “What, an empty box?!” said Stephiny. “What’s that all about?” They looked at each other, then the box. It had red hearts decorating the whole box. Shasha said, “I know the meaning! Look at it — the emptiness represents how your life could be without love. No gift can replace love.” Happy New Year! Thanks for supporting the my holiday epecial edition of the game. GROUNDCOVER NEWS untitled 3 AUGUSTINE JAY Groundcover vendor No. 678 directing devotion dissecting emotion spiritually unfolding astrally exploding most of us are gnashing weeping from our lashings screaming at our judges while dreaming up new drudges blisters from the toil sinisterly soiled cynical delusion sin you call confusion i surrender 13

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS WARMING CENTERS Once again winter is upon us and the Daytime Warming Center is in full swing, serving the unhoused in Washtenaw County. As we all know, this winter made its presence known starting on Thanksgiving Day with frigid temperatures and it has been that way ever since, cold! At the end of the 2024-25 Daytime Warming Center, I wrote an article in the April 4, 2025 edition reflecting on my first year as a DWC staff member. Now, I want to invite Groundcover News readers to come visit the DWC. Before I explain why, I want to start by saying thank you to Zion Lutheran Church, Ann Arbor Friends Meeting House, First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor, Lord of Light Lutheran Church, St. Mary’s Student Parish, First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor, First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor and the Freighthouse in Ypsilanti for hosting the 2025-26 Daytime Warming Center. A brief history of the DWC In 2012, Peggy Lynch of Mercy House in Ann Arbor and Sheri Wander of Peace House in Ypsilanti were distraught seeing unhoused people with nowhere to go during significant portions of the day, especially in the winter. At that time the Delonis Center was a "high barrier" shelter. Folks had to breathalyze and drop a negative drug test to stay. A group of folks had been pushing the Ann Arbor City council to open a day shelter in one of the abandoned buildings but were not having any luck. Peggy and Sheri met with Father Dan Ream (who at the time was a priest at St. Mary's Student Parish) and asked if they could make use of the basement for a few weeks so folks could stay warm during the day. He said yes and the DWC was born. The first year it was run 100% by volunteers. Peggy noted that the philosophy of the DWC derived from the running of Camp Take Notice, a physical “tent-city” type camp on the outskirts of Ann Arbor, which closed in 2012. At CTN, the residents played the largest role in running and managing the camp. “When we started hearing about ‘polar vortexes,’ people experiencing homelessness — in community conversations — said we had to establish a place for people to be inside, out of the elements and in community,” Peggy said. The initial churches were mostly those who had a previous relationship with CTN, though staunch DWC supporter First Baptist Church was an exception. At the end of the season Father Dan agreed to encourage other churches to MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 work with the nonprofit MISSION to host a day shetler but encouraged MISSION to hire a staff person to act as a communication link with the faith communities and help with de-escalation and conflict intervention The DWC ran in Ann Arbor for many years before there was an Ypsilanti location. Sheri had always advocated for a second space in Ypsi and became even more aware of the need when she moved from Mercy House to start Peace House. In 2019, CJ (an employee at the Delonis Center at the time) worked with the City of Ypsilanti and organized a day shelter at the Freighthouse run by the Shelter Association. After the first two years it was open in Ypsi, the DWC collective and MISSION took over the day-to-day running of the Freighthouse day shelter. In the years before the opening of the Daytime Warming Center, times were tough for the unhoused of Wash-tenaw County. A lot of homeless people lost their lives to the elements. In the late 2000s, a lot of homeless people committed suicide by jumping off the many Ann Arbor parking structures. After so many deaths, they started putting the chronically homeless in hotels and putting up fencing on all the parking structures, and offering day and overnight warming centers if temperatures (with wind chill) were below 10 degrees fahrenheit. How the DWC and its volunteers make a difference A person like me doesn't have to look at the numbers to tell you that homelessness has been increasing, and social and economic segregation has forced those unhoused to utilize the warming center services more, because places like Starbucks no longer allow people into their place of business if they don’t purchase anything. At the Daytime Warming Center all are welcome. People from all walks of life stop by to volunteer, donate or just to say hey, and communicate with the community as a whole. Local Left: Daytime Warming Center volunteers Phil, Ken and Mike help start the day with friendly smiles. Right: Susan, a Daytime Warming Center volunteer and member of St. Mary's Student Parish, serves lunch. businesses — such as Maiz Mexican Cantina, Mama Pizza and FedUp Ministries — donate food, and we at the Daytime Warming Center say thank you to all persons and businesses that help us to help our community. I ran into Lisa who has been volunteering at the DWC for four years. I asked her what made her want to volunteer at the DWC; her response was truly amazing. She said, “I applied for a job to be a staff member and was not hired.” That was not going to keep her from doing what she loves doing, helping others. So she became a volunteer. Lisa informed me that she is a psychiatric and drug abuse nurse, so being in an environment like a warming center is a comfortable space for her. I also met a volunteer named Diane who is a member of First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor. The Church asked her to coordinate the food because of her expertise (before she retired she worked in food service). This is the first time First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor has hosted the DWC and I asked her how she likes volunteering so far. She said, “It is really nice and I have met some really nice people.” She continued to express that she, and her fellow church volunteers, are honored to serve the unhoused community. Phil Huhn, who attends St. Mary’s Student Parish, has been volunteering at the DWC since January 2019. Huhn has been a dedicated volunteer who has contributed to the success of the DWC. I asked him what made him start doing volunteer work. He said, “I retired and found a need for my service at the DWC and stuck with it.” During our conversation he explained his enjoyment with communicating and helping those in need. The last question I asked him was, “Would you encourage others to volunteer at the DWC?” He said, “Yes, not just at the DWC, but to volunteer where you feel comfortable and needed.” I got a chance to talk to Sheri Wander who helped start the DWC and has been instrumental in helping to keep it running since then. I asked how she was enjoying her first year not being a staff member at the DWC. She said, “It's really hard; I miss it.” She expressed her confidence in the DWC staff members and their ability to keep things running smoothly through community engagement, communicating with guests and staff members to mitigate and solve problems, and making friendships while providing a place for people to feel and be safe. Peat, a long-time DWC staff member and now DWC Fundraising Coordinator, wanted to be sure to let Groundcover readers know that to volunteer you don’t have to sign up, you can come by anytime and volunteer and/ or bring clothes, food "and your sparkling personality!" To find out more, visit daytimewarmingcenter.org The overall message from those who work and volunteer at the DWC is that they enjoy it — and encourage people to do the same. I myself believe serving and doing for others is good for the soul. It’s always nice to see people taking care of one another. Shoutout to all the staff members and volunteers at the DWC, and shoutout to Pastor Taylor of St. Luke’s Episopal Church who hosts the Ypsilanti offsite overnight shelter. Thank you for all that you do! JANUARY 9, 2026 Volunteers wanted! Daytime Warming Center 2026 JANUARY 9, 2026 LIVING ARCHIVE GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15 Winter tragedies could be avoided with a warming center for homeless ORIAN ZAKAI Guest contributor Winter is here. Deadly low temperatures will torture hundreds of Washtenaw County inhabitants who will not be able to find shelter. The Delonis Center has diminished the capacity of its [overnight, emergency] warming spaces this year, from 75 to 25. Even with additional 75 spaces at the Delonis residential program and the 25 spaces at the rotating church shelter, this is not enough. We know for a fact that dozens of people were sleeping outside, under bridges, on sidewalks, on the footsteps of churches, gas stations and so on, in previous winters. The recent foreclosures, layoffs and pension cuts mean that more people are looking for shelter rather than fewer. In addition, Ann Arbor has been lacking a daytime warming center for awhile now, and thus, numerous people must wander around town during the cold days in search of warmth at the public library, university buildings, local businesses and the like. “This winter’s record low temperatures will not only be unbearable and cruel to some, but will also be very painful and even fatal to others. In a civil society like our own, most of us would agree that it would be equally as cold and just as cruel if we chose to ignore the dilemma some of our citizens face this Christmas and New Year holiday season,” stated David Coleman, one of the founding members of the “Imagine Warming Centers” group, in the last city council meeting. Imagine Warming Centers, a task force consisting of students and community members, envisions a 24-hour warming center democratically run by homed and homeless volunteers. This would be a place of community building, where homeless and homed individuals combine their skills, explore their creativity, support and empower each other. Over 25 volunteers are committed to work at the warming center this winter, and more and more people are constantly asking to get involved. The biggest concern right now is locating a site that could be ready and available to the public as soon as possible. The group has been looking at  PUBLIC HEALTH from page 10 disparities and other behaviors revealed in health risk factor surveys. Both the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation Report and the M-Live.com publication of 2023 noted the following: • Washtenaw is consistently ranked high for positive health factors and outcomes and it is among the top ten Michigan counties. • Washtenaw County “had the lowest COVID-19 death rate in Michigan, attributed to strong health efforts. Life expectancy is also above the state average, according to one report.” • For areas needing improvement, the report noted, “Despite overall health rankings, the County has health disparities, such as significantly higher low-birth-weight rates for Black babies compared to white babies. It also has a lower ranking in social determinants of health. Some reports show a higher rate of depression among the Medicare population compared to state and national averages.” • When it comes to influencing factors, “the County’s strong rankings are often linked to factors like access to education, living wage jobs, access to health care, as well as challenges like food insecurity and pollution.” Conclusion Since 1995, the Healthy People Initiatives have contributed significantly to the health policy debate and conversation in America. Many county health departments benefited from the debates and initiatives, and Washtenaw County is a good example of self-assessment in response to the initiatives. The residents of Washtenaw have benefited from the focus on health, as have many counties across the nation. Although the Nixon administration started a serious policy discussion about universal health care in the 1970s, the Clinton Administration of the 1990s magnified the intensity of that health policy debate at the national, state and local levels. What were the main issues of the health policy debate? They were rising costs and lack of healthcare coverage. These are still the policy and political issues of the generation. Deceased Michigan Congressional Representative John Dingell led the Michigan congressional delegation on all the healthcare debates including questions of reform. His wife, Congressional Representative Debbie Dingell, has continued the fight to lower the costs of healthcare for Washtenaw County and Michigan families (as well as families across the nation). A regional structure now exists for more partnerships and more cooperation on health matters, transportation connectivity, affordable housing and income/employment opportunities, led by an organization called SEMCOG (Southeast Michigan Council of Governments). It is hereby proposed that the positive regional partnership between WCHD and Livingston County Health Department explore the feasibility of more regional partnerships with other counties such as Wayne, Macomb and Oakland. Identifying factors associated with the concept of social determinants of health could be a beneficial outcome of collaboration. vacant commercial spaces and buildings due for demolition, and has asked for the city’s support in locating a space that could be leased or donated to the warming center. “We approached a few property owners and they have not been cooperative with us,” said activist Alexandra Hoffman in her address to the City Council. “The winter is here, the volunteers are waiting, and we need a space! My friend mentioned 415 Washington Street; there is also the Georgetown Mall and the former Borders. These spaces can be used while the redevelopment projects are being pursued. We could use these spaces right now,” Hoffman added. So far, however, the City of Ann Arbor has been slow in offering assistance or even advice. The group has also sought professional help from the Washtenaw Housing Alliance, but the position of WHA is that resources should be invested in establishing affordable housing rather than a temporary shelter. Members of the Imagine Warming Centers group agree that housing is the ultimate goal, but contend that the current need for a public warm space should still be met in the short term. “While we certainly intend to work toward the building of affordable housing in Ann Arbor,” said one member of the group, “we also need to let people in out of the cold right now, so that we do not look back in anger and sorrow come April and know that we could have prevented people’s deaths, and didn’t.” Originally published in the January 2012 edition of Groundcover News.

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Chicken chili ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil 3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves 1 large onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 5 cups chicken broth 3 (15 ounce) cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained 2 (4 ounce) cans chopped green chiles 1 tablespoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon ground cumin Dash of cayenne pepper ¼ cup chopped fresh herbs (cilantro, chives or parsley), to taste ⅔ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese Directions: Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven or large stock pot over medium heat. Cook the chicken, onion, and garlic in hot oil until chicken is browned on both sides, about 5 minutes. Transfer chicken to a cutting board; cut into 1-inch pieces and return chicken pieces to the Dutch oven. Add chicken broth, cannellini beans, green chiles, oregano, cumin, and cayenne pepper. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook until the chicken is cooked through, 30 to 40 minutes. Divide your choice of fresh herbs among four bowls. Ladle chili over herb and top with cheese. Season with salt to serve. JANUARY 9, 2026 $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP HOPE IS HERECALL FOR 24/7 mental health and substance use support support 734-544-3050 LEADD SUPPORT TEAM: WILLIE STURDIVANT, JR., HAILEY RICHARDS, SARAH REISS, JACQULEYN CAMPBELL LEARN MORE about programs funded by the community mental health and public safety preservation millage. ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 11/13/2025 2/05/26

2 $ DECEMBER 26, 2025 | VOLUME 17| ISSUE 1 ROSE YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Shared Housing: 40 years in the making. page 4 STRICKLAND #25 HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A JOYFUL NEW YEAR! 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. What the community thinks of university police. page 8 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 DECEMBER 26, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Gray Connor — intern Susan Beckett June Miller Anabel Sicko ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Pedro Campos Jim Clark Monique Caldwell La Shawn Courtwright Angela Jennings Mike Jones Marie David Mitchell Sandra Sabatini Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer Tommy Spaghetti Steven Wayne S. 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PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons DECEMBER 26, 2025 ON MY CORNER Trust in the New Year LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 This Year have been full of setbacks, mental anguish almost to the point of despair Yet, so far by grace I have been able to bear I've learned a whole lot Most of it I wish not to share Cause there's a whole lot of ugliness My eyes are open Oh yes, I'm aware of things about a lot of people I'm especially being careful to avoid their ill intentions and snares So please leave me alone!! With this in mind It inspires me to know, that with constant faith, I trust that I will have a bright, Happy New Year!!!!!!! The Last Holiday this life. It reminds us that we all have to go to our eternal life sometime or another. The movie’s story is DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 Even though I have seen it countless times, I love the movie “The Last Holiday” with Queen Latifah and LL Cool J. It is a very beautiful movie for any time of the year and for any day of the week. I think what the movie is really about is letting all people know that life is precious and short and to live it the best way you can while you are here in good because Queen Latifah’s character went to a dream hotel and had the best time of her life. She made lots of friends and enjoyed good food and good activities. The whole movie was beautiful; all her dreams came true and she helped other people in the movie too. The movie was also adventurous; she went snow skiing and on parachute balloon trips — that’s something I don’t think I’ll ever have the guts to do. She made friends with the hotel staff, especially the cook, and they cooked together and made delicious food. Operation rescue Washtenaw County is one of the most beautiful places to live, work and play. Home of the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University and Washtenaw Community College, this great place draws some of the brightest and best minds from all around the world. The brain power of this county's residents makes Washtenaw a destination for many of us, including me. Despite our lovely parks, flowing rivers and incredible trees, there lies a problem that can no longer be ignored: the growing number of homeless individuals residing in Washtenaw County. On any given day the average resident is just one decision of fate away from joining the homeless community here. The government shutdown resulted in countless calls for action by all of us to rise up and join the fight to end homelessness in Washtenaw County. My solution is to launch a county wide initiative titled FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6TH 102 S. First Ave 6:30-9:00PM NO COVER Groundcover merchandise for purchase ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SUPPORTING GROUNDCOVER NEWS “Operation Rescue.” This very simple yet strategic plan mobilizes every resident to raise their consciousness, their cell phones and their voice to speak out on the growing humanitarian crisis taking place right here in our county. Operation nity said that, too. So my fellow friends in DAVID MITCHELL Groundcover vendor No. 661 Washtenaw County, join me in an effort to raise awareness which is the true beginning of any meaningful movement that has ever brought about positive change. My commitment to this cause is great, and believe me when I say that I personally have more skin in the game to take the lead in growing this simple concept. If turned into a Rescue could be the launch pad for a super-sized community initiative like no place else in this country. Operation Rescue does not require an entrance fee, any type of formal education or training, only a heart and mind that are willing to move off of the sidelines and into the game to achieve victory over homelessness. All you have to do is open your eyes and witness the many men, women and children who have been forced out of their homes, apartments and dorms to the bitterness of living on the streets of Washtenaw County. You might say, "This will never happen to me, and this is not my problem." You may be right, but then again, all of us who are now proud members of this growing homeless commucountywide call to action, this initiative has the potential to change the world, one man at a time, one woman at a time, one child at a time, and literally save one life at a time. Now don’t be surprised when you see me walking next to you wearing an Operation Rescue t-shirt. Don’t be surprised when you see me kneel down to offer a small child a McDonald’s gift certificate as an act of kindness to make sure the child has something to eat for that day. Don’t be surprised when you see me walk a new friend into a restaurant to share a warm meal and a friendly conversation to gently ease the pain of hunger, and loneliness, that come with being a member of our community, the homeless community of Washtenaw County. She got her restaurant and her husband at the end of the movie. I would tell anyone that this is a good movie to see. “The Last Holiday” is a very beautiful movie. You can stream "The Last Holiday" for free online on Pluto TV! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 3rd ANNUAL HAPPY HOUR FUNDRAISER @ LIVE MUSIC BY Corndaddy and the Medicine Men!

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SENIOR RESOURCES Shared Housing: 40 years in the making WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 ANGELINE TRAN Groundcover contributor It is a subject whose time has finally come. We interviewed Danielle Bryant of Washtenaw Housing Alliance (a coalition of over 30 non-profit and government entities committed to ending homelessness), who is the coordinator of WHA’s Shared Housing Project. To introduce Danielle: she came to Ann Arbor a little over 13 years ago while experiencing homelessness and has been connected to this community ever since. Her lived experience is what led her into social work, and she earned her degree from Eastern Michigan University. Danielle spent over five years with Avalon Housing, where she helped pilot and expand their harm reduction programs and supported the development of a community program at the Hickory Way Apartments. She is now with the WHA and is very excited about the relaunch of the Shared Housing Program and its anticipated impact on our community. As introductions were given, Angeline and I were very impressed with Danielle’s resume and found her to be a wealth of information on this subject. Wayne: Can you tell us a little bit about this program? Danielle: Sure, Wayne, it is called Shared Housing, and it is intended to match home seekers in need of affordable housing who have specific needs with the right home providers who have extra space in their homes. Participants must be at least 18 years old, and at least one of the participants must be 55 years old or older. There will be a lot of other prerequisites that we could write a whole notebook on with plenty of safeguards to put in place, but ultimately, it will be up to the home provider’s discretion. Shared housing is not emergency housing. We are trying to create an affordable housing option with existing under-utilized housing stock in the community, Wayne: Can you talk about why the program shut down after 40 years? Danielle: The previous program, known as HomeShare, run by the Housing Bureau for Seniors, was shut down because of COVID. WHA is trying to revive the program, which is now called Shared Housing. Wayne: What piqued WHA’s interest in reviving the program? Danielle: After going over it, I find it to be completely doable and something WHA should be playing a more active role in. Wayne: This sounds like you’re sold on this program! Danielle: Yes, Wayne, you’re right about that! After taking a close look at this program, I find it to be challenging, but with the right people who I am in the process of putting together, it could be a real winner in our community. I realize that there are a thousand paths to achieve the same goal of ending homelessness. Wayne: Well Danielle, Angeline and I are honored to be the ones to introduce you and your project, Shared Housing, to our readers. My main goal in this article was to do just that. We were happy to interview Danielle concerning the progress of the Shared Housing program. They are in the process of coming up with a plan. From what we’ve heard, it is innovative and progressive. Thank you very much for your time and information, Danielle! So, if you, the reader, find yourself really interested, you can go to whalliance.org/sharedhousing. This website explains this program and the people involved much better than I could, and will continue to reflect progress. DECEMBER 26, 2025 Danielle Bryant, Washtenaw Housing Alliance's Shared Housing Project Coordinator. DECEMBER 26, 2025 PUBLIC HEALTH Healthy People 2000: A comprehensive health policy initiative (part one) The Healthy People 2000 initiative was a strategy of the federal Department of Health and Human Services to improve the health of Americans by the end of the century, released in September 1990. It contained 319 policy recommendations in 22 priority areas. Although there was no single legislation passed in the 2000s titled, “Healthy People 2000 Act," a few key pieces of legislation passed around that time that were related to the goals and objectives of the “Healthy People 2000 Initiative.” Included in the legislation passed around that period are the Children’s Health Act of 2000; Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act of 2000; and the Public Health Improvement Act of 2000. What is the Healthy People Initiative? The initiative started in 1979 when President Jimmy Carter’s Surgeon General issued a major report entitled, “Healthy People: the Surgeon General’s Report on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.” Shortly after, in 1980, another report was released entitled, “Healthy People 1990,” the first set of measurable ten-year objectives for improving health and well-being nationwide. This initiative was followed every ten years to set objectives for a healthy population — in 1990 for 2000, 2000 for 2010, 2010 for 2020, and currently, a report issued in 2020 which aims to improve public health in 2030. Healthy People 2000 was designed to help achieve the following three goals: to increase the span of healthy life; to reduce health disparities; and to achieve access to preventive services. Although we’ve made a lot of progress, the United States still faces many challenges. Healthy People 2030 currently provides a framework for addressing emerging health issues like COVID-19, the opioid epidemic and e-cigarette use — along with ongoing issues like heart disease, cancer and obesity. In order to achieve Healthy People 2000 Initiative’s goals and objectives, the policy architects of the Healthy People 2000 wanted good data for patient education and Human Services. Funding was made available to the State Department and the Defense Department for risk factor surveys of American government workers overseas and in different time zones. The federal government’s Department of Health and Human WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 Servies, a better system for tracking progress at state and local levels, such as Michigan and Washtenaw County. The program designers also wanted to improve prevention effectiveness through better implementation guidelines and assistance. Subsequent technical rollouts of the Healthy People Initiatives in 2000, 2010 and 2020 called for the elimination of disparities, not just reducing disparities. The concept of “Social Determinants of Health” was included as a key measurement tool. All four iterations of Healthy People focused on the promotion of community health and prevention. The 2010 Healthy People Initiative engendered policy debates which influenced Affordable Care Act legislation. The 2020 Healthy People Initiative was equally ambitious in innovative technology in data collection, processing, analysis and reporting. A key focus of the 2030 Healthy People Initiative is the elimination of disparities, and the increased use of social factors to do so. Like 2020, the 2030 initiative called for a broader use of factors such as transportation, environment and neighborhoods in health policy debates. Because of the acrimony and contention which followed the Clinton Administration’s proposal called “The American Health Rescue Plan” of the 1990s, Congress was reticent about passing major health care legislation. Congress did not intend to pass legislation called “Healthy People Act of 2000.” However, it was interested in the goals and objectives outlined by the Healthy People 2000 initiative. Congress provided adequate funding to the state and local government as well as the federal Department of Health and National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and the National Center for Health Statistics were encouraged to use the best methods and methodology to provide information on the health of American people. This information is intended to help policy decisionmakers at all levels of government make informed decisions. Some notable policy planners like Robert Dahl have warned us about “making decisions under the veil of ignorance.” Wolfanger Stolper of U-M warned about making policy planning without adequate facts. In 2023 Washtenaw County ranked as one of the healthiest counties in Michigan. This ranking shows the county does well in areas like education, jobs, and access to health care. Reports from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and MLive also found that people in the county live longer and that it had the lowest COVID-19 death rate in the state. This suggests that public health efforts are working well. Even with these strengths, the county still faces serious challenges. Black babies are more likely to be born at a low birth weight than white babies. Many health problems are also linked to issues like housing, income and access to resources. In addition, higher rates of depression among people on Medicare show that mental health support is still needed. Above all, literacy stands out as a key goal of understanding community health. Groundcover News' role as a community newspaper will help maximize the health literacy of Washtenaw County and other nearby counties. Health literacy at the individual level and the organizational level is highly encouraged. It is up to us and society to do our best to improve our rankings among the healthiest communities in Michigan. HAPPY NEW YEAR! GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Visit any of our five locations across town to browse books, magazines, newspapers, and more. Check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, or even home tools—you name it! Enjoy fast and free WiFi, study and meeting rooms, and plenty of comfortable spaces to relax or hang out. Byte Club An exclusive club for AADL SUPER FANS and library people like you! Byte Club will help you connect deeper with the Library you know and love, and share special sneak peeks of new things coming soon. The first rule of Byte Club is that you tell everyone about Byte Club! Ready to join? Visit aadl.org/ byteclub to get started. Public Computers The AADL has public-access Internet computers available for use by both cardholders and noncardholders at all five locations. Each station has USB ports, headphone jacks, and some of the fastest wifi speeds in town! FEATURED EVENT 5 Saturday, January 25 • 1–4 PM • Downtown Library AADL’s annual Preschool Expo brings reps from area preschools to one location on one date! Connect with schools in Washtenaw County and explore the best options for your family. Find a list of participating schools at aadl.org/preschoolexpo.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS People in the Neighborhood: Lakira People in the Neighborhood is a Groundcover News column that focuses on the unhoused community in Washtenaw County. The first thing I thought when I met Lakira was that she was a unique individual. Her manner of dress reminded me of a fortune teller. Her eyes were a striking blue that seemed otherworldly. Her manner suggested regency. Lakira told me she was a Pisces. If you follow astrology — it fits. “Where did you grow up?” I asked. Lakira replied, “South England. I was born in Tennessee, but was raised in England. My parents were aristocrats. I was born into something that's not normal, that I'm [just now] learning. It was strange, I lived with relatives, my mom and I had this peculiar relationship. She was just like a presence. You know? I only knew of my dad; never had a relationship with him. I'm just accustomed to traditions that are not normal. And I'm trying to break that cycle. Because I broke free and I'm a genie out of the bottle and I'm never going back in.” I was a little astounded. I followed up asking, “All right, so would it be helpful to talk about some of those things? They sound kind of personal, but if you're willing to share, that’s great.” She replied, “In short, I come from a world where I had no say in anything, literally anything. Little gestures and phrases would dictate my behavior and responses. I didn't tie my own shoes until I was 21, and I didn't dress myself alone until I was, like, 24. That should give you a perspective on how much control they had over me. That was only a decade ago.” Shocked, I asked her how that impacted her as an adult. She replied, “I'm vulnerable to a lot of things. I don't know. Like, I'm coming from a world where I'm not accustomed to having any outright emotional or physical contact without being told who or what I could connect with. It's intoxicating [the connections]. So once you have something, you don't want to let it go. So, I guess I'm not clingy, but at the same time, once I have a connection, I'm doing everything possible to keep it. I'm loyal to a fault, and it's a problem. “People take that to the extreme, and use it, and abuse it, and then somehow I'm wrong for being loyal. It doesn't make sense to me, but fuck me for caring right? And then how can you care and say you love me, and ‘you're such a keeper’ to me and at the same time [abuse me]? That is true sin in a way I cannot comprehend. And I don't know if I'll ever forget it. Forgiving it is JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 a whole other level. You know? Because I don't hold grudges, and I'm not vindictive, but at the same time, fuck that noise. I see you now. Thank you for showing me, and I'm good on that. You know?” “Who are you being loyal to?” I asked. “Everyone who probably is unworthy of my graces,” she informed me. “Let's pivot,” I said, “you're homeless now. How long have you been homeless?” “This is my fourth winter being homeless,” she added for emphasis. “What's in the works for you?” I asked. “Is the county helping? Are you on a list of some kind?” She replied, “I'm on many lists, but it's tiresome, it's kind of tedious now, and annoying. “I met the mayor and a city councilman in person,” Lakira continued. “I said to them, ‘You know me. You know what's going on. You had to accommodate me for an extended period of time because you destroyed all my shit. You were fully aware of me and my situation and yet, here we are.’” During her second winter of homelessness, the Ypsilanti City Council threatened to evict Lakira from her campsite near the downtown area. The temperatures were typical for February in Michigan — single digits and teens. After much protest from activists and good samaritans, the City provided a storage cube for Lakira’s property while she sought another place to sleep. Cell phones are easily lost during homelessness. Lakira lost hers and was unable to stay in contact with the City regarding her things. The cube was removed. Lakira’s property is now in the wind. “I went to Detroit for a minute,” she recalled. “There was some other program out there, and it seemed safe.” “You went out there to get help that you couldn't get here?” I asked, to clarify. “Yes, but it didn’t work out,” she replied, “I had switched my things over only for them to withhold my stuff to the point where all my food benefits were cut. Because they refused to just sign off and just say, I was no longer there. I was only there for like five days, six days. Then I get out there, and I'm left in my post-situational vehicle, being like, detained from me, it was weird.” Lakira lost her car while in Detroit. “Where's your vehicle?” I asked. “It's gone now,” she replied. “How did you lose it?” I asked. She answered, “Someone hit it and the engine came off.” “You weren’t able to fix it?” I asked. “No,” she answered. “It went to the junkyard. I was like, fuck it, I don't want it.” “You weren’t able to get another vehicle?” I questioned. “No, because my credentials kept getting stolen from that point on. My driver's license, my credit cards, every month, continually lost or stolen for the past two years. Every time I get caught up, something happens and all of a sudden my tablet's broken or it's missing. My phone, my wallet just falls into the abyss, even though I just left for 30 seconds. I know I just had it, I'm not crazy. I can't lose something I'm constantly touching! I've been traumatized by it!” she said excitedly. I strongly related to her predicament. During my homelessness episode I repeatedly lost keys, wallets and cell phones like they were travel mugs. “And then,” she went on, “I know for a fact that people are being hired to harass me. And I have had people confess to such things. Like, they're actively seeking to sabotage me, hurt me, or worse, you know? I know this for a fact. It's something I'm not making up. I have people literally just truly flat-out tell me ‘Hey, this is what I'm supposed to do.’” “What do you need to be in a better place?” I asked. She replied, “I need my proper credentials back, first. That’s the foundation. I need a safe place to stay for three to six months—somewhere stable, without a constant time limit hanging over my head. I just need a place where I can exist and regroup, not be out here in a tent or constantly moving.” “What kind of work can you do?” I asked. “I’m mostly exempt from traditional work right now, but I do have skills,” she replied. “I teach mostly human anatomy and portrait art. That’s what I’m good at. I just haven’t had the chance to do it because I can’t focus while I’m dealing with all this. I need a foundation first. Once that’s in place, I can move forward from there.” “Last question: if you could go to college for free and study anything you wanted, what would it be?” I asked. “A kind of a cross between human psychology and archaeology,” she replied. “Interesting,” I responded. “Okay, why archaeology?” “Because I'm a history buff,” she said. “I’ve always had an urge to chronicle. To keep records. I come from a world where I'm surrounded by history, so it's just ingrained. I have a long history of family records stretching far back and I've been here before multiple times.” “Hopefully this life works out better,” I added. Lakira replied, “Indeed.” DECEMBER 26, 2025 DECEMBER 26, 2025 HOMELESSNESS decided to bring that day. Depending on the forecast, he CARSON WURSTER U-M student contributor Author's note: The man who I am writing this about wanted to remain anonymous, so he is just referred to by his pronouns in this essay. His smile was the first thing noticed; his tired eyes were the second. His face showed exhaustion, but he still greeted everyone with warmth and an inviting smile. As a dishwasher at the restaurant where we worked together, he cleared mountains of dishes each shift with the kind of effort most people bring to their dream job. But washing dishes wasn’t all he did. He bussed tables when servers fell behind and jumped in to help deliver meals or refill drinks without being asked. He even chatted with guests when he got the chance, not for tips or praise, but simply to feel seen. For two months, I honestly just thought he liked to stay up late or had another job to get to after ours ended. I never imagined he was homeless. I assumed he went home after his shifts, like the rest of us. I had no idea “home” meant wherever he could remain safe from whatever weather Michigan walked between 25 and 45 minutes to the restaurant every day, rain or shine, snow or humidity. He left early to make sure he was always on time. And he didn’t just work one shift. After finishing a 12-hour day in the back of house, he would sometimes stay overnight for maintenance, cleaning the entire restaurant or fixing equipment, not for ambition or overtime, but because staying at work meant protection. The restaurant was comfortable. Outside wasn’t. He was homeless the entire time, and so many others, like myself, didn’t know for months. He never asked for pity. He never acted like a victim. He treated everyone around him with respect and kindness, even while carrying a burden none of us could see at a glance. That realization hit me the hardest. He was struggling to survive, yet still made sure others felt supported. One night when I was annoyed with a difficult customer, I complained to him about it. He didn’t roll his eyes or feed into my frustration. Instead, he politely told me, “You never know someone’s story. Treat others the way you want to be treated.” I brushed it off then, but now I understand. He said that because outside of work, he was treated as if he were invisible simply because he had no roof over his head. And yet he was doing everything society tells us to do: get a job and work. In his case, he was doing the work of two or even three jobs all within one workplace. His life was proof that hard work doesn’t always secure stability. There’s a belief many people hold: if you work hard, you’ll be fine. Hard work guarantees a home, a bed, air conditioning, heat, clean water and safety. But he worked harder than anyone I knew, and he still spent nights solely trying to survive. His determination within the workplace revealed the uncomfortable truth we all need to come to terms with: hard work does not guarantee housing. National estimates show that 25-40% percent of people experiencing homelessness are employed at any given time. Many hold demanding service jobs while earning too little to cover rent, transportation and food. In Michigan today, a full-time minimum-wage worker cannot realistically afford a typical apartment without working far beyond standard full-time hours. A paycheck doesn’t always equal a pillow or a nice bubble bath. His story proves that. He was doing GROUNDCOVER NEWS My favorite conspiracy theory: working hard = success 7 everything right, and it still wasn’t enough. That changed how I see the world. It taught me that compassion cannot be conditional. You never know who is fighting a silent battle just to get through the day. You never know who is walking for nearly an hour in freezing snow or blistering heat just to reach their shift. You never know whose hands are numb, not from dishwater, but from sleeping outside the night before. We like linear stories: the hardworking succeed, the lazy do not. His life told a much different story, one far more honest, especially within the economy we all live in now. When his shift ended, he didn’t drive home. He didn’t step into a cutely decorated living room or crawl under comfy blankets. He walked back into the unpredictable elements of Michigan’s night, hoping he could find enough hope to make it to the next day. Hard work doesn’t guarantee shelter. Only humanity does. So the next time someone says people experiencing homelessness just need to “work harder,” think of a man who did and still had nowhere to go.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POLICING DECEMBER 26, 2025 What the community thinks of university police MARIE Groundcover contributor This article focuses on the history, evolution and current climate of policing at Michigan’s two oldest Universities, the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. Community members’ voices presented in this article may call Washtenaw County home. This article brings perspectives from as far as the Atlantic coast, the Pacific, Lake Superior, the Caribbean, and citizens of other countries. The people interviewed for this article were all adults, varying in age from freshman in college to late adulthood. Interviews and data collection occurred from Nov. to Dec. 17, 2025. The voices presented here vary in indentity, encompass a variety of university stakeholders, and do not all have the same economic circumstances. To protect anonymity, all community members will be referred to as "Buddy." The early years of local university policing and public safety According to a 2021 written summary available through University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library Division of Public Safety & Security (DPSS) records, U-M officially created a public safety and law enforcement unit in 1970. The first university watchman is reported to have been hired in 1898 to “maintain its rules and regulations as well as safeguard its property from damage.” In 1946, the university began subsidizing the City of Ann Arbor police to patrol its parking lots. In 1959 U-M utilized the services of Sanford Security Service to "safeguard the campus.” According to the library summary, U-M established its own safety and law enforcement unit due to problems addressing oversight issues between clashing personnel and student protestors during the late 1960s. DPSS had its first two deputized officers with arresting power beginning in 1988. The following summary of how EMU’s Department of Public Safety (DPS) was established is taken from a paper written in 2010 by Michael E. Marotta, titled “The Early History of the Eastern Michigan University Police Department.” In 1961 an Ypsilanti police officer, John Hayes, was assigned to EMU, where he worked with a nightwatchman. In 1962, Hayes was “tasked with building a police department dedicated to EMU.” In 1967 the “EMU Board of Regents defined the powers of the campus police department and authorized the hiring of more officers.” While EMUPD started with an Ypsilanti Police Department (YPD) officer with the power to arrest, its oversight oscillated between the YPD and the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department. What seems to set early EMU DPS apart from U-M DPSS was its use of student officers and its overall approach. Student officers were required to have been attending the university for at least two years. The founding approach of the department included an attitude of “better outcomes for all” and “these are our leaders of tomorrow.” Early leadership was dedicated to serving as mentors, counselors and peacekeepers. Early approaches included parking enforcement and pedestrian safety as well as addressing crime such as larceny, car theft and sexual assault on campus. Student sentencing for minor offenses was intended to instill a better sense of community through support from the 14th District Court and employed on campus. 1990s university policing changes with the passage of Act 120 University policing in Michigan entered a new era in the 90s with the passage of [Michigan] Public Safety Officers Act 120. According to the Michigan Legislature website, Act 120 of 1990 is “An act to empower the governing boards of control of public fouryear institutions of higher education to grant certain powers and authority to their public safety officers; to require those public safety officers to meet certain standards; and to require institutions of higher education to make certain crime reports.” being Act 120 has four sections, the first of which explains officers’ power and authority. Power and authority include enforcing state laws, ordinances and regulations of the institution, and requires a public safety department oversight committee to address complaints against officers or the institution’s public safety department. Section 2 outlines jurisdictional boundaries; section 3 requires minimum employment standards, and section 4 requires monthly crime reporting to the state. UMPD does not have an accessible jurisdiction map; however, the U-M website explains UMPD “patrol all campus buildings and grounds, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. UMPD officers have authority to investigate, search, arrest and use reasonable force as necessary to protect persons and property and to enforce the laws of the State of Michigan and the Ordinance of the Regents of the University of Michigan.” U-M Regents have a printable manual called “An Ordinance to Regulate Parking and Traffic and to Regulate the Use and Protection of the Building and Property” which specifies jurisdiction as “all property owned, leased or otherwise controlled by the Regents of the University of Michigan.” A PDF of EMU’s police jurisdiction map may be obtained via internet search; however, during a visit to EMUPD a Buddy easily explained jurisdiction as the main campus, west campus, Loesell Field Labs, Clark Radio Tower and Eagle Crest. The internet map of jurisdiction essentially connects EMU property, and encompasses buildings where students live off campus. Community feedback on university policing Buddy 1 went to University High School, U-M and EMU, and retired from a safety position in Ann Arbor. “The purpose of university public safety is to have a helpful dedicated force within campus. Schools are their own little worlds, responding to issues specific to campus. Students can be a challenge, may come with an attitude of entitlement or think they know better. They may come from out of town and disrespect property and community. A lot of problems are encountered with underage youth drinking, using drugs and not being responsible under the influence. Problems are increased by the influence they are under. “People prey on the vulnerable. My friend went out with John Norman Collins [the serial killer who preyed on U-M and EMU female students in the late 1960s], but thankfully didn’t have pierced ears. [To quote an article about Collins by Kevin Lamb “Similar to Ted Bundy, most of his victims were young co-eds with long-brown hair and pierced ears.”] Sheriff Harvey didn’t really increase patrols as a result of the Collins killings. In school our math teacher who was also a Wash-tenaw Sheriff's deputy, kept an eye out for us, and also patrolled the school. “In the 60s and 70s people came and hung out all over campus, but they weren’t part of the U. A lot of the disturbances were brought in from the outside, and some people wanted things to get violent. Peaceful protesting people express opinions; however, things can get emotional, which can become volatile. AAPD just couldn’t handle the riots and were overwhelmed so the National Guard came in. “Additional training is needed for dealing with college age and types. People in authority need to be careful who they hire. Do they have a good sense of keeping themselves under control or are they easily pushed to violence? When emotions and tension is high things are very volatile. A police force can easily draw characters trying to prove how macho and tough they are.” Buddy 2 is a current student, with a first UMPD experience of “being concerned about identity theft when trying to register to vote via one of the people on campus offering help to complete the form. They gave me some information about how to address the issue, but not much else. It was resolved when I was able to vote. They see POLICE page 13  DECEMBER 26, 2025 GROUNDCOVER Journalism mentorship program The Journalism Mentorship Program for Groundcover News freelance writers is a program that will help make better news reporters through mentorship and workshops. We live in a time where there is a unique distinction between corporate media and independent media sources. We also live in a time where anyone at any given time could be involved in journalism by using their cell phone to capture something newsworthy, simply by recording a video. Most videos you see on news networks are videos sent in by ordinary everyday people. From January to May 2026, former local journalists Jud Branam, Laurie Lounsbury, Laurie Mayers, Linda Odette, Joe White and Dave Wilkins from The Ann Arbor News, Wall Street Journal, Ypsi Press, etc. will pair with Groundcover News freelance writers. Each mentor will teach a set of concepts through an assessment of work published to date and collaboration on new stories. Mentors will give feedback and suggestions on improving leads, adding voices and sources, writing tighter and more story-focused content. Each freelance writer will collaborate with a mentor on at least two story submissions to be published in Groundcover News. these application questions: I'm interested in the Journalism Mentorship Program because I would like to learn more about overall journalism, especially from experienced newspaper journalists. From this mentorship I want to learn MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 There will be four main workshop meetings once each month, Jan. to May: Basic interview workshop in January, AP stylebook workshop in February, Story construction workshop in March, Research workshop in April, and in May, a final meeting and celebration! The freelance writers who want to be involved in the mentorship program must apply by answering three basic questions: 1. Why are you interested in participating in this program? 2. What specific skills do you hope to build on throughout the four-month program? 3. What is one barrier you predict to experience (yourself) while participating and how can we help you overcome it? I would like to share my answers to about investigative reporting and how to better conduct news interviews and transcribe the words of the interviewee. I love to write and report news stories and at the moment I can't say what barriers I might face, but I'm sure there will be some and I will face those barriers with the Journalism Mentorship Program to become a journalist. My overall thought on the Journalism Mentorship Program is that it will help Groundcover News freelance writers become better news reporters, and as a result, readers of Groundcover will be more informed on social and political issues that are not covered by other news publications, especially on a local level. better GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 SUPPORT CALL FOR and understanding 24/7 mental health and substance use support 734-544-3050 LEARN MORE about programs funded by the community mental health and public safety preservation millage. PEER SUPPORT: Artie Tomlin, Valerie Bass, and Marti Schneider

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LIVING ARCHIVE DECEMBER 26, 2025 Resolutions, recovery and growth As I’ve progressed in life, my annual goal or New Year’s resolution always seems to get harder and harder to accomplish. The first New Year’s resolution I ever remember doing was three years ago, and that was that I could stay sober throughout the coming year (2016). That was hard at first, but I did it. On Jan. 5, 2017, I celebrated my first year sober with a oneyear coin from Alcoholics Anonymous. My New Year’s resolution to start 2017 was about as much as I could handle at the time — that I could maintain the sobriety I had achieved for that first year. I added that I could start working out and overall paying better attention to my physical health and eating habits. And so it happened. I celebrated the coming of 2018 with two years clean and sober, and the workout routine and better dieting had started happening. I felt I had to challenge myself harder the following year. So my resolution then was that I would start helping others with the same struggles I had experienced before getting sober. That’s supposed to be really helpful to someone new to recovery. A person new to recovery is usually overwhelmed by all sorts of problems, like losing their driver’s license from a DUI, losing their jobs or housing, Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed volunteered at a few different places that focus on people trying to better their lives. And I even gave a few big donations to some charities, fundraisers and the homeless shelter. I was homeless too at some point SANDRA SABATINI Groundcover vendor No. 233 losing custody of their kids and other legal issues. So, helping someone new to recovery is really good for them because they get to better focus on putting the drink or dope down. At the moment, it can seem insurmountable for them. If they don’t have the smaller battles to fight or worry about, they can better focus on what recovery is or looks like. They feel cared for and next thing you know, you see them caring for themselves too, at least enough to stay sober for another 24 hours. I feel I did pretty good throughout 2018 doing that. I helped many people newly in recovery, giving them rides to meetings, fellowshipping with them, meeting with them for coffee and talking with them. I even temporarily sponsored a few individuals for a few months. I showed them the recovery literature and the 12 Steps. I also for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not before getting sober, so I know what it is to be out there in the cold. So, it meant a lot to me to be able to give forward to others what at some point had been given to me by strangers. I have helped a lot and it worked both ways. It helped me get out of myself, and overall, out of the thoughts that linger in my mind to the point they drive me nuts sometimes. I was able to worry less in my everyday concerns by showing up for others and their worries. However, to start 2019 on the right foot, I want to focus more on me now for my annual goal. I want to experience growth. I wasted so many years of my life. I wasted a third of my life, honestly. I thought I was getting or trying to get a career at some point, but all I did after all was become a loser. I lost everything. What didn’t I lose? I could go on and on about what it was that I lost, but now I want to focus on the opposite. I want to gain. I want to gain experience. I want to gain faith. I want to gain friends and fellowship. I want to gain a caring and honest heart. Mostly, I want to gain confidence, and the ability to be good at something for sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under - the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private propthe first time. So, I have a few projects in mind that I want to put my focus and attention on this coming year. But I can’t share those details now because “it’ll make them unachievable,” or so my mind tells me. Maybe in my next article I’ll write about one of them, at least. And maybe right now I’ll just say what that is about. It is about my wanting to get more involved with Groundcover News, mostly publishing many articles. Anyways, I wish all the Groundcover readers a happy new year. Thanks for your support, and I hope you, too, achieved your 2018 annual goals and that you have set a realistic 2019 goal to accomplish. Originally published in the January 2019 edition of Groundcover News. erty when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. DECEMBER 26, 2025 HOLIDAY SEASON GROUNDCOVER NEWS Do we really rest during the holidays? Rethinking what “taking a break” actually means ANGELA JENNINGS Toledo Streets During the holiday season there is a widespread assumption that people naturally slow down, relax and recharge. In theory, this period is meant to offer a break from routine responsibilities, an opportunity to reconnect with others and a moment to simply breathe. However, the lived reality of the holidays often diverges significantly from this ideal. The purpose of this article is to examine why rest can feel increasingly difficult during a season that is traditionally associated with ease and comfort. All of this to ask: do the holidays genuinely give people space to rest, or have they become another source of pressure and expectation? To begin, it is important to consider where our ideas about holiday rest originate. Popular media tends to portray the season as inherently peaceful — complete with quiet mornings, warm drinks and uninterrupted time away from obligations. Yet many people report the opposite experience. Travel preparations, financial strain, extensive social obligations and the emotional weight of family dynamics all play a role in reducing the chance for genuine rest. In other words, the holidays may promise rest culturally, but they do not consistently provide it practically. Next, it is necessary to acknowledge the role of emotional labor during this time of year. For many, the holiday season comes with the expectation to be cheerful, grateful and energetic, regardless of personal circumstances. This creates a kind of performance-based joy — something that people feel obligated to maintain rather than something that they naturally experience. Social media contributes to this phenomenon as well, as people compare their celebrations to curated depictions of perfection. Ultimately, when joy becomes performative, rest becomes secondary. The question of rest is also tied closely to emotional energy. Being surrounded by family or friends, even when those relationships are positive, can be mentally demanding. Reconnecting with people one sees infrequently, More lies from hell TOMMY SPAGHETTI Groundcover vendor No. 668 Glossary: Hell=Detroit, lies=stories, Mboob=girlfriend, bucket=mini-van, popo=Police, cray cray=Crazy, Lie-Downs=Detroit Lions, drips=hours Mboob kicks me out at 3 a.m. It’s the night after Turkey Day. You know, Turkey Day, the day when all anyone cares about is eating gross meat and watching the Lie-Downs lose another football game. I know, I know, it’s really Thanksgiving but it’s really a faux exercise of gratitude toward an extinct population. Remember the “Indians?” Remember the Pilgrims? What a horrible lie we commemorate, but I digress. The only reason I mention Turkey Day is because it’s the day I was cast back into the streets by Mboob. Yet another foray into the mean streets of Hell. Yet another attempt at surviving the cold winter without adequate shelter. This time I leave with just the clothes on my back. No phone, no blanket, no backpack but I do have scrilla in my pocket and a BUCKET! Goatboy left Michigan for warmer temperatures. Not sure how it happened that he had two buckets in his possession but I ended up with the least desirable one. Erick: “Tommy Biscotti, can you get my van from the mechanic’s and park it in Mboob’s driveway?” I am sponging Mboob’s house, heat, phone, fridge and Goatboy wants to impose his van on her driveway. Calling the mechanic: “Hello Chris?” “Yes.” “I’m calling about Goatboy’s bucket.” “Yeah Tom, it can’t stay here or it will get towed. You better come and get it.” 24 drips later … bicycling to the mechanic’s house I notice the weather has changed from bearable to cray cray cold. Loading the bicycle into the van, stabbing the key into the steering wheel column VROOM!!!! This bucket has a strong engine. Of course the gas gauge says empty. Putting the bucket onto Mboob’s driveway triggers DOOM N’ GLOOM from her. “It’s gonna leak fluid onto the driveway, the neighbors are going to complain blah blah blah!” The siren breaks the silent night. Five minutes later I’m out of the house, leaving with curses lashed at my back. Driving this gifted bucket, it’s more like a magic carpet made of steel with wheels. 3 a.m. and I'm steering towards a 24 hour gas station in Hell, my favorite managing group conversations, and balancing different personalities require sustained effort. For some, this can be fulfilling; for others, it can be exhausting. Rest, therefore, is not only about time away from work but also about mental clarity and emotional space — two things that the holidays do not always guarantee. In analyzing holiday burnout, one common factor emerges: a lack of boundaries. Many people feel obligated to attend every event, fulfill every tradition, or assume the majority of hosting responsibilities. Yet rest is rarely possible without intentional limits. Those who report feeling genuinely restored after the holidays often set clear expectations ahead of time — saying no when necessary, dividing tasks among family members or opting for simpler gatherings. Establishing boundaries may appear counterintuitive in a season centered around togetherness, but it can actually enhance the quality of connection rather than diminish it. Recently, there has been a noticeable shift toward embracing a more simplified holiday season. Some people are petrol station because there’s always a drug deal happening in the candy aisle and a blunt getting puffed in the doorway. Not wanting to reveal its true location out of deference to its proprietor, I call it 1313 Mockingbird Lane. $60 worth of E-85 and I’m off. Being homeless is different in a bucket. Doesn’t seem as drastic or severe. Like, if the scenery looks grim, just press the pedal and steer to another location. At the witching hour I’m cruising through Hell. Hardly any other buckets competing for time and space. Darkness permeates these lies. Dark van, dark road, dark sky. Only neon lights on closed businesses pierce this noir theme. My heart is black, my future is bleak but for some strange reason my mouth is singing an Irish ditty that I created 25 years ago. Over the past 19 years Mboob and I have had numerous conflicts. At one time I worshipped her feet with broken toes and felt like we were perfect mates. Mboob has much to love and appreciate. But after two decades that love has pickled. Nuptial conflict always feels like adolescent behavior. Homeless, NOT car-less. Little house on the highway. This bucket lacks legal representation from the Legal Cult. Never saw a title, registration or proof. Pretty sure if the Popo pulls me over, they’re hooking it. choosing smaller gatherings, reducing gift exchanges or eliminating high-pressure traditions altogether. This movement, sometimes referred to informally as a “rest-focused holiday,” reflects a growing desire to reclaim the season as a time of genuine restoration rather than obligation. Prioritizing meaningful moments over elaborate plans allows people to participate in the holiday experience without sacrificing their wellbeing. While the holiday season is traditionally associated with relaxation, it does not always function that way in practice. The combination of social expectations, emotional labor and blurred boundaries can make rest difficult to achieve. However, by approaching the season with intentionality — simplifying where possible, setting personal limits and reducing performance-based pressure — people may experience a holiday that aligns more closely with the restful ideal. Rest, ultimately, is not inherent to the season; it is something cultivated through conscious choice. Courtesy of Toledo Streets / INSP.ngo Goatboy wants to sell this bucket to me for $1000 but after driving it a few miles I feel like he should pay me $2000 to take it off his hooves. I just hate this capitalist orgy, the car thing. Driving this bucket around instead of walking, bicycling or busing only proves my own hypocrisy. The only saving grace to my reputation is that this bucket drinks Ethanol. The internal combustion engine originally ran on ethanol. Distillation of crude oil proved to be more profitable for the oil and chemical companies. 100 years of smog laden cities, bribe coated politicians’ oil wars and there seems to be no turning back. This E-85 bucket also has a large solar panel covering the entire roof. Totally awesome! I end up at Train Wreck Dave's house and he is not home. The lonely cat welcomes me inside where I sleep until I don't know when. No phone, no clock. A cold house only makes the blankets more comfortable. Sleeping and dreaming until the sun peeks into the bedroom. Stabbing the key into the steering column again and VROOM! This bucket moves to Flappergirl’s condo. She is not home either so I goldilocks another bed. Love the stocked houses with the unlocked doors. This homeless but not bucket-less existence is proving to be something I can get used to. 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS TRAVELS WITH DREAMER Rainbows and Dreamer STEVEN Groundcover vendor No. 668 It was my friend JR who turned me on to Rainbow Gatherings. He laid it out as something like, it’s a large gathering, lots of different people go, but it’s basically a big hippie thing. Money was not allowed. If you wanted to sell something it was a barter system. Drinking at the Gathering was not allowed, though you could drink in the parking lot. The parking lot is usually a solid walk from the main Gathering. It was in this case, but I still checked it out. I wasn’t as crazy a drinker then but I liked the edgy vibe and people were generous with the booze. All that really mattered was I was going to see my brother from another mother (JR) and we were going to camp. I was sold on that alone and after I had done some digging and figured out more of what it was, I was stoked for the Gathering as well. This was pre-ubiquitous-or-useful internet. I think you may have had the dancing baby, whatever else, but for someone with my skill set it was just for email really. I didn't get into all the news groups and chats and what not so what I learned about the Rainbow Family was from word of mouth and newsprint pamphlet kind-of-things. Different people had different nuggets of information that may or may not have been accurate. There was a little bad-mouthing but nothing that seemed like I would care about, or that seemed likely to be true. I thought it was going to be pretty cool and I was not disappointed. It was awesome. I knew there would be hippies; it was definitely a hippie thing. It had been around for many years by the time I went in the nineties and it had evolved beyond the basic hippie, free-love, no-war shtick. It very much was a real time example of a way of life that was sustainable, viable and worked on a macro scale. There were tens of thousands of people there, as it was a national Gathering. I’m curious what form it takes now. Everybody pretty well knew the FBI had it in for the Rainbow Family as it was called, and since it was the 90s, the word ‘cult’ was thrown around liberally. I was blown away by my experience in Shawnee National Forest. It was a profound and formative experience made especially special with the presence of JR and the new friends, aka family members, I made, including my soon-to-be very good friend and partner in exploits, Dreamer. I had gotten a sweet ride from the truck stop just south of Chicago. It was a long ride-less hitch, as in no rides, from the southern El stop to this truck stop. I went around asking truckers for rides south and was shot down often. I didn’t know at the time and was a bit salty over the lack of cool truck drivers. I had always figured truckers were cool with giving rides and hitchhikers and I think many are, but it’s a big no-no with their insurance and with the companies that hire the employed ones. An old guy (he was probably younger than I am now at 50) said “hop in” after quickly sizing me up and guessing correctly that the tall gangly teenager in front of him wasn’t going to be a threat. It was late and he was driving through the night and figured on some company. We bullshitted and talked music. He talked about the life of a trucker in non-glowing terms. I still think I’d like to be a trucker, only I drink too much. He told me some stuff about CB talk. I knew a tiny bit; my Grandfather had had a CB in his car. This guy was laying on the real shit. Smokey was in fact a handle for cops, like the movies. The one that really sticks out to me was the chicken coops. The chicken coops were the weigh stations. If you’ve driven on very many of the big freeways you will have seen them. Lines of trucks on a pull-off and a small building. This was not explained to me in detail but I gathered the gist of it was weight allowances on different stretches of freeways and maybe some sort of potential anti-smuggling cop-type stuff? Like if your manifest says you’re hauling this weight of feathers but in fact you’re hauling a heavier load of Stretch Armstrong dolls, you get nailed. The part that mattered to us was if the people at the chicken coops would know whether or not a truck was supposed to have two people in the cab and would cause problems for a trucker with an extra person. He had warned this might be a thing and long before the coop was in sight the word over the CB was the one coming up was open. He asked me to hop in the back of the cab, not the trailer. I jumped back lickety-split. I had never seen the inside of a sleeper semi before. I thought it was awesome. Just a small bed, a few shelves, a TV, etc. Yes, please! We went through the coop no problem and bullshitted our way to the Carbondale off ramp. We parted ways as if we were maritime men of old. “I’ll probably never see you again but if I do I’ll fight you over who buys the drinks” kind-of-thing. I consulted my worn road map with a smoke. I had to get from Carbondale, Ill., over to the Shawnee National Forest. This ended up being easy enough. There was a lot of traffic headed out that way. Lots of cars and lots of hitchers. I was quickly picked up to fill the last seat of a car on its way there. We were close enough that the driver didn’t sweat any kind of gas money or whatever, plus he was an old hat at the Family vibe and was in a no-money frame of mind. Only two of the five people in the car were original. One guy had been picked up hundreds of miles previous, then me just at the final stretch. As we drove past dozens of other hitchers and hikers on the bumperto-bumper side streets, the driver, a veteran of the Gatherings, was laying it out for us new guys. A lot of what he said confirmed what like a restaurant. The guy who nominally ran the kitchen I ended up going to most was named Tree, he swore it was his given name and he had been traveling with and working in this kitchen for years. I think he hauled a lot of the supplies and certainly was key to the kitchen working. He ran it by example and gentle suggestions. Shawnee National Forest is, well, a I’d already gleaned in my research. Lots of hippies chillin’, playing drums, getting high. The no-money thing was very serious as was the no-drinking-pastthe-parking-lot. Of course violence was right out; even in the parking lot it was like ”bro whats your problem?” As he's talking, he is falling into old remembered types of speech. Everyone is his Brother or Sister, he’s hoping certain kitchens will be represented at this Gathering. Self-govern yourself, he says. That tracked with what I’d read but the way he put it hit harder. Everyone is responsible for their own behavior and like any family helps each other to avoid problems. There is no central leadership, there are old-school people who have lived this traveling the country for years and are skilled at conflict resolution and deescalation. If someone tries to help you, they probably aren’t trying to scam you. He even mentioned consent, more for the one guy I think who was very dialed into the idea of a bunch of hippie chicks walking around naked and what that might mean for him. There were a lot of cute hippie chicks in all degrees of dress and undress and I, of course, failed to pick up on the ones who were flirting with me. Food was provided at one of the many kitchens which were bush kitchens and, I would realize years later, all run with food safety at the forefront. They had cool names and different specialties. I think all of them were vegetarian? I can’t remember, certainly almost all of them. I think if you wanted meat you cooked it at your camp. Nobody went hungry, nobody was asked to do anything to get food. Help was always accepted and appreciated. I washed a lot of dishes in a triple-bucket (triple-sink) set up. Wash, rinse and sanitize, just national forest. It’s vast; everyone and anyone has the run of it. I had kind of meekly asked around,where should I camp? Or is it true I can just camp anywhere? The old-timers just kind of smirked behind their beards and assured me anywhere was fine unless I was being weird and camping right up next to someone who hadn’t invited me to do so. I was intrigued. Anywhere huh? I had a hammock and thought I had figured out the ultimate camping hack. I hadn’t. Sure, I could put it wherever and easily move it around but I didn’t know at the time that hammocks aren't warm. All that open October air between me and the ground was no kind of insulation. After my first cold night I knew I needed a change of plans. I didn’t have a sleeping bag, those things are big and bulky and it was warm when I had set out to my friend's place in Chicago. I had put a lot of stock in the hammock idea. I spent the next day scouting around for some sort of shelter or a good place to set up a lean-to. I thought I had hit the jackpot when I found a dry waterfall cave I could post up in. I learned ancient stone and modern concrete have heat leaching in common. It was still as cold as the hammock but I could make a fire. I would stoke up my fire, fall asleep on the pointless brush I had piled up until the fire went down and the chill woke me then re-stoke the fire, repeat. Could I have found a warmer spot not on life-sucking cold stone? Well yeah, but this was a cave, I was sleeping in a cave so, that part. I found Dreamer at what he called a camp that day and dragged him back to my cave. The cave wasn’t really much better than what either of us had already but, and I can’t stress this enough, it was a cave! I was 19 and already had my own cave. Dreamer and I became fast friends fast — we clicked, we smoked so much weed, we played in the drum circles. I often would hand off my drum and dance ecstatically. We hatched schemes and plans and before we knew it we were set to go to New Orleans any way we could. DECEMBER 26, 2025 DECEMBER 26, 2025 POLICING  POLICE from page 8 gave me a free bike lock when I registered my bike, but did nothing when my friend’s bike was stolen. I registered my electronics, but I don’t really expect them to help if they are taken. A lot is about ego and control, not protect and serve. My grandfather was a cop and goodhearted; the good-hearted often get other jobs. Those who become police ‘maim’ other people. Even the nicest, with the culture, can get sucked in, a lot do fit negative stereotypes of racism, prejudice and violence. I don’t like ‘All Cops Are Bastards,’ but we need a measured response and nuance.” Buddy 3: “I don’t really go to Ann Arbor, Eastern, they’re full of shit. They like harassing people from Deja Vu to the beer cooler. They trespassed me from the downtown library through EMUPD.” Buddy 4: “U-M: if you go on their property they have jurisdiction. Went to the hospital and I looked homeless. I had my stuff and my bag. I went there for a headache, and asked security for help with directions. Went to the bathroom and was confronted in the bathroom by three, one security and two police. They asked if I needed a psychiatrist, overly focused on psychiatry. I was treated like a violent criminal threat, [because I’m] homeless and a poor vagrant.” Buddy 5 is a current graduate student in Washtenaw County, and an EMU alum. "EMU police — their ability to get someplace lacks, they are a little late to things, late to emergencies and not as helpful to college students. When they have to take up Title IX things [sexual assault], they don’t find the person who did it. They say, ‘We’ll let you know if they find them,’ and they don’t follow through. When things happen on campus they don’t patrol or protect the community enough. [Campus police] have cars that sit by buildings during the day and night and that is a step forward in protecting the community, and some that walk around, right on campus. That is good, definitely have a presence on campus. In Greek life they come to our parties when they get calls because someone complained and they ask us to turn down the music. They sometimes enjoy a hot dog, chill, enjoy the party, and after multiple calls they would flash a light and were dicks. Parents taught me to not trigger them but sometimes they have other things going on and you don’t have a lot of control.” Buddy 6 has been local seven years, and is currently a U-M graduate student. “I haven’t gotten charges. I’m strongly against the existence of cops, experience has been entirely negative. When they respond to protests and direct actions, they are looking for reasons to brutalize protesters and students. They will beat and assault protesters and tell you they are concerned about your safety while they are beating you up and assaulting you. You are blocking the sidewalk so we’re going to stomp you into the ground. I don’t think they should exist but we should have groups that don’t just plaster the word safety and actually care about the community and are willing to work towards safety collaboratively and not carcerally.” Buddy 7 is an international EMU alum and was enrolled to begin graduate school Fall 2025, until a trespass impacted the start date of the program. “The purpose of DPS should be for students to feel safe and heard, and to take care of students and their neighborhoods. They should be able to go to them, feel heard, not worry, feel safe, and they should help them out as much as they can. I don’t know if it was my situation or case, but I didn’t feel I was heard. I asked them to check the cameras, but they didn’t use their tools. Others have had similar situations and they [EMU] have done due diligence. Court has impacted my social circle, taken an emotional toll, cost me for a lawyer, and I’m continuously stressed out.” Buddy 8 “was trespassed for a year from Shapiro Library, about five years ago, for having too much fun. They don’t have the same tolerance for homeless people that Ann Arbor police have. You have to watch out and keep your head on a swivel when you are in the library.” Buddy 9: “I like [U-M], but in my last car accident I didn’t have updated insurance, and they let me update my insurance, let me go with addressing it within 24 hours. I was at work at the hospital in security which works with the police. U-M is not like Eastern, EMU are bullies in the community, they do stop and frisks. U-M doesn’t do stop and frisk and they probably get over twice as many cases. [EMU police] hang with the local city and state police, which gives them another level of racism and racial profiling. Nobody’s really 10 years in and they act like it’s the 80s. 'I’m legit' and they harass us at the gas station. A lot of people don’t know their rights, more harassing than problem-solving. They aren’t part of the community, don’t want to be a community member or a community officer, they are against the community, not even of a mindset to be a part of it. U-M doesn’t really go out of the way, but they are more optimistic and sympathetic about who they talk to.” In closing, there were many similar experiences, concerns and overall impressions among those interviewed. The community expressed contrasting attitudes for the future of university policing ranging from complete abolishment to feeling they have purpose but need reform. Since the introduction of local university policing around the time of the civil rights movement, the climate around the campuses remains similar especially as it pertains to concerns around free speech, violence, and civil rights. Both universities claim to be committed to highly-trained and qualified personnel, yet the reality for most community members is the police escalate situations and lack the ability to connect meaningfully with the community. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13 PRISON BREAK MARQUETTA "Q" CLEMENTS Groundcover contributor Prowling through the Jungle Gorillas taught me fight or get killed Weakened but ambitious Became Tarzan with the blood and tears that I’ve spilled Paranoid and mistaken Still I Rise, unshaken Born broken, you can’t break me Nothing to lose The world is mine for takin’, who lost? Felt hopeless, now it’s clear My angels led me here to bring war Everything shall burn, so the phoenix can soar Ahold of us he grips Media censorship The poor raised in pits No glory, no grit Protect this land of Holiness Pharoah clutched his hands on his sword A Patriot I boast Lead me like Moses my lord Walk by faith my sight unfolds “Let my people Go” War before defeat Land of the brave, the free, the dream Have we lost our way? Like the Boston Tea Party Strike back Free meals for prisons vs children school lunches taxed I’m furious, attack It’s time for a prison break Break every chain

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES HO, HO, HO! by Victor Schmitt DECEMBER 26, 2025 ACROSS 1. With 71-Across, holiday figure suggested by the santa shaded 6. Big name in peanut butter 9. Places to get pampered 13. Jerry's friend, on "Seinfeld" 15. Singer DiFranco 16. Ireland, to the Irish 17. Heartless character in "The Wizard of Oz"? 18. Bud 19. Word with flat or fixed 20. Home of Agra 22. Countdown starter 24. Stay home, slangily 28. Queer identity, in brief 29. Year, in Yucatán 30. Comic's trait 31. Phillipa who plays Eliza in "Hamilton" 32. Wall street action 34. Guy on TV? 36. "Sacred" weapon used in a Monty Python movie 43. Mathematician known for the constant "e" 44. Tournament ranking 45. "Blue Bloods" network 48. Published, as a newspaper article 49. Droop 52. Like a nonagenarian 53. Song with the lyric "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave" 57. Ukrainian city 58. Fortnite item shop purchase, maybe 59. Doesn't sow 60. Biological "messenger" 62. "Hoo wee!" 66. Like some truths 67. Face card's value, in blackjack 68. Shirt-coloring technique 69. Backtalk 70. Dawn goddess 71. See 1-Across DOWN 1. "Game, ___, match!" 2. "Thrilla in Manilla" boxer 3. Mum's mum 4. Shy 5. Key disciple of Buddha 6. Country whose flag symbolizes a rising sun 7. "___ nutshell..." 8. More dirty 9. Flourish on a typeface 10. Yamaha products 11. Conductor Toscanini 12. Handles 14. Finish with 21. ___ Jima 23. Unit of length across the pond 24. Jumbled mess 25. Black and white Nabisco cookie 26. Hang out 27. Bit of kindling 33. Caustic chemical 34. New Deal prez 35. Connections 37. Chucks 38. Ordering option at some restaurants 39. "99 Luftballons" singer 40. Long, long time 41. Sandwich shop 42. Icelandic literary saga 45. Repeated song part 46. Neighborhood grocery store 47. Amazing deals 49. Character in a popular video game franchise 50. Underway 51. European architectural style 54. Annual athletic award 55. Depends (on) 56. Defiant sort 61. "The Matrix" hero 63. Computing pioneer Lovelace 64. The Cougars of the N.C.A.A. 65. "Can I help you?" PUZZLE SOLUTIONS December 12, 2025 edition A B S T R U S E R B U S B Y P A L A E S T R A A N T R A S C U T C H E O N R H E I N E K E A L T A R S C R U E L D U R R Y G R U B S T A K E A T O M F R U I T H U N T R E D B R E A S T C I L I A L A T C H V E L D T S B O O T I E M A R Y A L G O I D K I S T R A M S A D D O B A S T I N A D O P R E E N U N D E F I N E D S E N D S S T O R Y L I N E T E A S D Y E I N G W O R D B O T A N Y DECEMBER 26, 2025 POETRY A Love Worth Becoming MONIQUE CALDWELL Groundcover contributor Choose Love I see hate I answer with love When they divide, I unite When they quit, I believe When they hoard, I share I’m like this Not better Just human I feel cold I get hungry I sweat I break That’s how you know I’m real We did not begin in youth, but in the quiet strength of adulthood, where friendship steadied us, and trust became the soil of something rare. Love revealed itself gently— not rushed, not careless— but tender, deliberate, a flame worth tending, a devotion worth showing up for. With you, I have seen sides no one else has ever touched: the softness behind your strength, the gentleness that steadies my storms, the courage to be vulnerable and let me see you fully. In those moments I became more— a better version of myself, believing in my worth again, learning that love restores what doubt and others once tried to take away. Each year, we learn more, not through grand gestures, but through quiet acts of care— listening, protecting, nurturing. Friendship remains our foundation, yet our love has grown taller, made strong enough to stand against trials, resilient enough to bloom again. What we share is rare: a bond that trusts, a love that endures, a companionship that reveals the hidden corners of our souls. And when I look at you now, I see not only the one I love, but the one who shows me that great love grows deeper with each year. I follow rules while others break them freely They drink, fight, curse, steal, smoke everything, everywhere I don’t I don’t drink I don’t fight Weed is my medicine legal in places you call civilized. So why am I the problem? Why am I pushed outside Into the cold, the dark, the gutter? What is it about me that bothers you? Is it my joy? My health? My freedom? The fact that I shine and stay humble? I’m not a saint I know my flaws I face them I look different because I am I sound funny but I speak truth I think I reason I’m not the same But I’m not an alien My blood is red If you hurt me, I bleed I want no revenge I can only pray I ask for basics: shelter, food, work, love A home A family Dreams For me For us I want safety I want to belong It’s hard enough being alone Why make it cruel? Why rules only for me? Why push me into danger? I’m clean Quiet Harmless So why test me? Why try to break me? I’m not here to take Not here to hate I’m here to give To grow To open doors To show another way This is my calling My purpose My will is strong I spread my vibe And I know what I’m doing No race No religion No flag I’m a cosmonaut Like all of us Riding the same fragile wonderful world. What makes anyone think they’re above another? That belief— that’s the real violence The threat you expect from me lives inside you PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Bean dip ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 16 ounces canned refried beans 4 ounces cream cheese softened ½ cup sour cream 1 Tbsp. taco seasoning ¼ cup diced jalapeño (or more if you like it hot!) 4 ounces mild green chilies, drained 2 green onions, divided 2 ½ to 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided Directions: Preheat the oven to 375°F. Thinly slice the green onions and separate the white and green portions. Set the green part aside. In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese, refried beans, sour cream and taco seasoning with a hand mixer until fluffy. Gently fold in the whites of the onions, jalapenos, chiles and 2 cups of cheddar cheese. Spread into a 2 quart (or 8x8) baking dish. Top with remaining cheese and bake for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted. Sprinkle remaining green onions on top as garnish. Serve with tortilla chips. An easy dip to make and perfect to serve at a casual party. White bean dip ELIZABETH BAUMAN Ingredients: 2, 15.5 ounce cans white kidney beans 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped 2 Tbsp. minced fresh shallot ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil 3 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice ½ tsp. fine sea salt ¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper 1 tsp. fresh rosemary needles picked from their stems 1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves picked from their stems Directions: Drain the beans in a colander, rinse well and shake off any excess water. Place all of the ingredients into the bowl of a standard food processor fitted with the blade. Process dip until perfectly smooth. You can let the machine run for a full minute or two, scrap the sides if needed. Transfer to a small bowl to serve with fresh vegetables for dipping. A healthy snack to have on hand. You can store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for one week. $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 11/13/2025 01/22/26 Perfect snacks for New Year's gatherings! DECEMBER 26, 2025

2 $ DECEMBER 12, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 26 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. From the archives: The legend lives on at Downtown Home and Garden. page 14 MEET YOUR VENDOR: DENISE SHEARER PAGE 3 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Memories of the deep north. page 6 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 DECEMBER 12, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Gray Connor — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Teresa Basham Susan Beckett La Shawn Courtwright Marquetta "Q" Clements Erick the Dream Giver Amanda Gale Cindy Gere augustine jay Mike Jones Rachel Ken Parks Denise Shearer Steven Lynn Stuftin Shawn Swoffer Felicia Wilbert PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett June Miller Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Stephanie Dong Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Robert Klingler Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropriate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons DECEMBER 12, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Denise Shearer, vendor No. 485 In one sentence, who are you? I love myself and my friends and family. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? Each time I sell I pick a spot on Liberty Street in downtown Ann Arbor. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? I started selling in 2019 because I wanted to help and support myself, and make new friends. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? I would go to Frankenmuth! If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? I would eat BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs with plain iced black tea. What is your superpower? Seeing the good in everybody. What was your first job? A shampoo lady at a beauty shop in Ferndale. I think I was 24 years old. What are your hobbies? How did you get into them? My hobby is making artwork. I have been doing it since I was a kid and still like doing it. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? That low-income and poor people get treated better. And! People with special needs are treated better too. What would be the first thing you’d do if you won the lottery? I would buy a house. It would be a tiny dream home. Good wintertime foods on a budget There are a lot of delicious What would YOU ask? If you have a question or issue you would like Groundcover vendors to discuss, email us at contact@groundcovernews.com We will be featuring vendor responses in future issues. wintertime foods that soothe and comfort and do your body good in the winter. I’m going to talk about three casseroles that are delicious. One is tuna noodle casserole made of cream of mushroom soup, tuna, cooked macaroni, a little bit of salt and pepper (if you want it), and cheese from the macaroni package, mixed together. It’s called a tuna noodle macaroni and cheese casserole. You can eat it hot or cold. It is so comforting and soothing to eat. Another is a ham salad noodle it is very delicious! It is also soothing and comforting to your body. Another delicious comfortDENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 casserole. Combine ham, cooked macaroni noodles, mustard, mayonnaise, salt and pepper (if you want it), and pickle relish. Eat it hot or cold, ing casserole is turkey, stuffing, gravy and ham together. Mix stuffing, cream of mushroom soup, gravy, turkey and ham. You can eat it cold or warmed up. It is delicious and comforting to your body and it makes you feel warm and good. Those are the three comforting casseroles that are really good in the winter. Public debate?! Speakers Corner in Hyde Park in London, England, is a famous public debate space and the world’s oldest free speech platform. And I love it! I watch it every so often on Youtube. There is a saying I’ve heard: one must be under the hypnosis (that is, believe wholeheartedly in hypnosis) in order to hypnotize others. It makes me smile to see people who feel so passionate about their beliefs. The origins of Speakers Corner can be traced back to the Reform League riots of 1866 or the last speeches of the condemned at the Tyburn gallows. The space was originally a public place for executions, including the notorious Tyburn hanging tree. In 1872, the Royal and Garden Regulation Act was passed, allowing people to speak freely MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 make it so unique. American society is missing this element in its character. I feel we need to use our voices and be more passionate when expressing the way we feel. In the UK there is a religious and racial divide; whereas people in the United States are also racially divided, but we are more likely to want to debate about politics. I would like to see more debate spaces in our in a designated area of Hyde Park without police permission. The Reform League played a big part in passing this act. Historic figures such as Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, William Morris and George Orwell spoke at Speakers Corner, and Orwell described it as “one of the minor wonders of the world.” Speakers Corner is known for its tense face-to-face cultural and religious arguments that society where people can voice their opinions and differences without violence. Speakers Corner has a gang of notables like a Muslim woman turned Christian, Hatun Tash, and a funny Christian man named Orlando who is my favorite. In summary, Muslims and Christians have at it! Public debate style. Let's talk about it! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER DECEMBER 12, 2025 Left to right: Marius Johnson, Felicia Wilbert, Cindy Gere and David Putman. Groundcover annual open mic extravaganza STEVEN Groundcover vendor No. 668 I was inspired to write this story while I was in the glow of having just ended emceeing the Fourth Annual Groundcover Open Mic. I’ve never emceed anything. I had no idea how to emcee but in the moment it struck me as a fun idea. Soon after getting the enthusiastic approval of “people” about this thing, I panicked. I guess I was in. It was fun. It was epic and I’m proud to have been part of it. I’m over here watching videos about emceeing, figuring out how one might write about a cool thing like this. I panicked. Did I mention I panicked? I wished dearly I could tell the boss I had changed my mind. I could have. 100% I could have. But not and still be cool with myself, a stretch on the best days. The boss would have for sure let me off the hook. I don’t like being that guy. I have been and will be a guy who ducks out, but not this time. I followed through. Bang howdy I’m glad I did it. I suspect this event would be better served by a better event reporter, but I was there. I was engaged in a way different than usual. I’m glad I leaned into this because this is the Beat Generation I was looking for. Here’s the list of performers: Panda, Wayne, Ken, Marius, Amanda, Ty, David, Joshua, Victor, Dylan The Autistic Spitfire, Ameera and Anna. Okay, my journalism part is fulfilled. Here’s my take: Holy shit we need more of all of this. As a species, as a culture, storytelling and listening are intrinsic to us but it’s satiated by screens. I love screens, this isn’t hate, it’s love for interpersonal events. Every. Single. Person. Who got on that mic crushed it. I’ve been to open mics. Usually there are people who I might have preferred if they hadn’t got up. Not this night. The worst thing I can say is the emcee was underprepared, and awkward, but had a certain charm. The people who ponied up and put themselves out there crushed it. The show ran the gamut. We had fantastic indigenous folk music, original songs, well-written, and professionally-performed. We had a standup comic who had my and others’ asses rolling in the aisles. We had interpretive readings, we had interpretive dance, we had spirituals, we had pop-art, we had (a highlight for me) “an old guy saying stuff.” We, as a culture, need more of that. There were people who I suspect saw open mic and went for it, and got it. This one guy sang and played at a professional level like Elliot Smith. A beautiful, great, encouraging crowd. There are a few of us who thought we must have shat the bed, but on every account from everyone who wasn’t them, they didn't. I rediscovered my love of the ukulele, manic ramblings, and the disjointed truth of people. At its heart, and this event was very much bolstered by heart (thank you boss), this was a space for creative expression. This space very easily could have been a coffee shop in The Village of 50s New York. It was safe and public. A space where our underserved, underrepresented, the groundside, could just be, and mingle with the square public and both have good things to get from it. Panda and Amanda bookended the evening with beautiful songs, to set the beginning tone, and bring us home at the end. Several people were funny, but The Autistic Spitfire was side-splitting and not kitch, just funny. Politics were espoused, social commentary, creative game design were all to be had. If any mainstream media tried to do this it would have been lost in the filth that is modern media. There were no pop-up ads. Well there was one. I as the emcee did, in fact, clumsily point out the whole idea of this thing was to give voice to and call attention to the unhoused and the hungry, in recognition of Homelessness and Hunger Awareness Week. I’m very grateful to Groundcover News, its publisher Lindsay Calka (she’ll hate this, heh heh), the people who keep it going by buying the papers, the maniac contributors, the wonderful art gallery event space, Makeshift Gallery (407 E Liberty St in Ann Arbor) and the people who braved the fear of putting themselves “out there.” The people who showed up, money spent or not. This was the fourth year of the Groundcover open mic and I hope it continues for years beyond our great time and space. Peace. Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. DECEMBER 12, 2025 COMMUNITY letter to the EDITOR My name is Grace and I’m a resident in Ann Arbor. I just wanted to write to say that I really enjoyed Ken Parks’ (Groundcover vendor no. 490) article titled “Gratitude” in the latest edition of Groundcover. I thought his insight was thought-provoking and his prose was beautiful. The way he tied together the meaning of life to optimism and community was deeply inspiring given today’s world. I hope you will pass along my message to the author — I have “gratitude” for him sharing his profound writing and perspective! Thank you and happy Thanksgiving, Grace community EVENTS CHIME CONCERT: KERRYTOWN MARKET & SHOPS Friday and Saturday, December 12-13, 12-12:30 p.m. (Fri), 10:30-11 a.m. (Sat), Kerrytown. All are invited to play one of 200 songs, with melodies transcribed in numbers, on the 17-bell chime’s numbered keys. TINY EXPO INDIE ART & CRAFT FAIR Saturday, December 13, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. AADL downtown, 343 S 5th Ave, Ann Arbor. Annual Tiny Expo features over 75 artists and crafters selling handmade wares. Support your community and find unique gifts for the holiday season! Drop-in crafting from 1-4 p.m. in the lower level of the library to make a card or bookmark. SCIO FARMS CHRISTMAS MARKET Saturday and Sunday, December 13-14, 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. Scio Farms Clubhouse, 6655 Jackson Rd. Holiday Market with local artisan goods! CHRISTMAS MOVIES AT THE MICHIGAN THEATER December Sundays at 1:30 p.m. Michigan Theater, 603 E Liberty Street, Ann Arbor. Free and open to the public! Please reserve tickets in advance for an accurate attendance. Sunday, December 14: "Home Alone" Sunday, December 21: "The Polar Express" WINTER ECOLOGY AT THE RIVER Sunday, December 14, 2 p.m. Leslee Niethammer Saline River Preserve, 9000 S Maple Rd. Saline. Join Josh and Amy for a guided hike through the preserve to learn about winter by the river. Dress for the weather. Free, all ages welcome! COMEDY SHOW Monday, December 15, 8-9:30 p.m. The Blind Pig, 208 S. First St. Performances from up to 15 aspiring stand-up comics from around the state. Local comics emcee. Age 21 & up only. Free candy! “SAY WHAT?” COMEDY OPEN MIC December 18, 8-10 p.m. hear.say Brewing + Theater, 2350 W. Liberty St. Ann Arbor. Stand-up comedy open mic hosted by local comics Ned Rice and Jeff Teed. All ages 18 & up welcome to listen or sign up for a 6-minute set starting at 7:30 p.m., 8–10 p.m. Preregistration advised at heardotsay. com/events. AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE PEACE HOUSE BRUNCH: COOKIE SWAP! Sunday, December 21, 11 a.m. -1 p.m. Growing Hope Farmers Marketplace, 16 S. Washington St. Ypsilanti. Monthly free brunch and community building event. Free to everyone — we always have omni, vegan and gluten-free options. A hot chocolate bar, cookie exchange, plus all your favorite brunch eats. MAGIC SHOW WITH JEFF WAWRZASZEK Saturday, December 23, 1-1:45 p.m. AADL downtown. Target age group (5th Graders) be damned. Be dazzled and amazed at an exciting magic show performance by local entertainer Jeff Wawrzaszek! DRAG BINGO WITH JADEIN BLACK Sunday, December 28, 2-3 p.m. AADL downtown, 4th floor program room. Join Drag Queen extraordinaire Jadein Black for a fantastic session of BINGO with music, prizes, and lots of fun! All are welcome. Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 Truth or Lies reading game out now! FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 Happy Holidays to all. Hopefully, you receive that special gift of reading this year. Check out my new and exciting reading game! The game offers exciting, engaging reading challenges where players must decipher whether the stories are true or false. If you’ve been following my column this year, you might already be familiar with how it works. My game is designed for everyone, suitable for all ages: children, family and friends. Improve your reading skills effortlessly. You can purchase it on 4th Ave and Liberty Street from me, the author, Felicia Wilbert. It is $40. Don’t miss this Special Edition of Truth Or Lies Mystery Lane!

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOLIDAY REFLECTIONS Memories of the deep north As I reflect on my younger years in the ever changing deep woods in the village of Good Hope Lake where my tribe is, the massive hills and mountains fill my memories with high trees of spruce and cedar. The wind was constantly whipping the high branches, making a whooshing noise. I remember the smells of smoked meat from the family smoke house filled with moose and salmon meat. Grandpa would sit and tell stories of moose and bear hunts long past in the deep woods. The days would go by but no one cared about the time. It was a lazy, soft atmosphere. Everyone cared only that spring would arrive and Canadian geese would fly over the village. There’s no other place in the United States like the North, including Northern Michigan. The North, in all parts, be it Michigan or Alaska, all have very similar ways, such as planning for that extra 30 minutes to put on and take off extra layers to keep one warm and CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 toasty. Time seems to slow down on dark winter days. Northern activities have become normalized, such as the winter games from Alaska or from Detroit — ice hockey and ice skating and skiing across the mountains of Northern Michigan. Here in Michigan, as well as other locations in the North, ice carving competitions pop up. There is a language among the northerners for what we call clothes. In the far north of Alaska, we wear mukluks with seal Prosperity and gratitude The focus of the holidays is sharing in the abundance of our labor and the harvest that mother nature provides. Many so-called weeds are tasty nutritional foods. The best bonus I ever received in appreciation for my work was a bottle of homemade dandelion wine. It was delicious. If you know my writing, you know I play with the basics of life from many perspectives and adventures. Distributing Groundcover from the Argus Farm Stop at 325 West Liberty is an adventure of interesting conversations — as well as learning that NO is an okay response from the many who cannot be distracted from their mission of coffee and groceries. Some conversations are so profound that I regularly think that freedom is growing rapidly. Will many of us bond and live in freedom at the next level? "Woke Up This Morning” (with my mind fixed on freedom) is a song from the 60s and 70s that played in my mind the week before the Groundcover open mic at the Makeshift Art Gallery on November 21. Those who attended saw me freeze with nothing of that song coming out. My Google search had one word wrong and took me to the ozone. I also blanked out at my first backup song that I sang at the 2024 open mic. No one remembered the name and I went back to the basics of the 60s with “Blesst Be the Tie That Binds,” using the Old English colloquial for Blessed. KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 Back to the basics is something I reflect on and practice everyday. It is easy to learn that compassion and unconditional love is the best intention to live by. You also know that not everyone learns that, and those who do are easily distracted from that lofty goal by a host of obstacles. You can wake up with freedom on your mind and quickly get lost in compliance culture and the penalties that appear if you are not in compliance. Foreclosure for back taxes on my house in Detroit was a ten-year struggle that kept me from my Cuban family until I resolved it. That’s another story. Even if we have accepted the intention to benefit all beings without exception, of course we regularly forget. We need a community of likeminded persons and regular practice for this spiritual marathon. The gratitude shared by those on the path of liberation opens the gates of creativity and abundance. We all have something to share and the best gift of all is your presence. From that felt presence, whatever needs to be done gets done as we celebrate the sacred reality that surrounds us. The assumption that reality is sacred is unearthed by reflection and analysis. If you are a dedicated, secular humanist, you may come to another assumption. All assumptions need analysis and reflection. It should become clear related in the context of the whole, and only mindful awareness can give us the clues to make sense of the mystery before us. I found a University of Michigan T-shirt that said “Mindful Leader” on the back. I gave it to Khenpo Choephel in honor of his mindfulness teaching and practice at Karuna Buddhist Center which you can experience in the Upper Room of Bethlehem United Church of Christ, 423 S.Fourth Ave, on Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. The most excellent result from my Argus conversations came when Kori Kanayama contacted Groundcover to find me. Kori is a Japanese heritage chef who does cooking workshops. I was quickly invited to one in Chelsea at Agricole. I rode the WAVE that goes to Chelsea from the Meijer store on Jackson Rd. It was a fully participatory cooking workshop where I was worked into the cookie-making and into the Miso Soup pot. And then we ate together; the work and the eating both were a community celebration. When I learned that Kori’s daughter that everything is Mai was singinging in a “Messiah” concert, I asked where, and was invited to the concert at St. Mary’s in Royal Oak. “The Messiah,” by George Frideric Handel, is the most famous oratorio of Western music and my parents used to break into it when I was young. It is performed often by music lovers who have practiced the art well. The best of Western civilization is presented as we consider what the West has to offer the world. The human voice is intimately explored in this oratorio and it is an honor to hear those who have mastered this tradition, especially sopranos and tenors who were the standouts in the concert. As we explore our voices and learn from those who have mastered this creative expression, we will grow in the unity of body, speech and mind. If you learn mantra practice you will connect with your sacred nature. I was given a copy of “Psycho-cybernetics” in the 60s, an important book on OM MANI PEME HUNG, the universal mantra that awakens your primordial capacity to be an awakened being, from mindful posture to mindful breathing and mindful awareness of stillness in motion. Explore your curiosity and become a Buddha! bottoms in the deep snow to keep the feet extra warm, but in my village we used snug snugs called socks for the feet. And across Canada many put tuques on their heads for winter along with their bear paw gloves. We northerners are what we love to do and how we choose to live in the North, such as driving skidoos and hunkering down in our ice fishing shacks to try and catch fish, and we call this fun. As I used to say “You know you're a lover of the North when …” (for example, when you love to ski or catch fish through a hole in the ice). Michigan is no different; only the truly hardy stay and show just how strong they truly are. The hardest thing is truly the ice. When I was in Alaska, I met a Yupik named Dam Lum who showed me on a river how to walk on ice; it was really the hardest thing I learned living in Alaska. You put your foot down and slide at a right angle to stop and do it all over again, step by step. I fell more times than I walked. He would walk Cindy's mukluks. right by me and laugh at me and my attempts at Yupik ice walking. He told me it was the first thing they learned as kids. The North is one big mystery of fun and excitement, so get off your chair and take a walk in the snow! Look at the trees on a night walk with a full moon and see the crystals of snow flicker and dance on the ground with each step you take. This is mother earth’s renewal time of deep self-reflection in the approach to the new year, 2026. DECEMBER 12, 2025 DECEMBER 12, 2025 HOLIDAY REFLECTIONS Am I an antique? Sometimes, when I watch “Little House on the Prairie” or “The Waltons,” I feel my generation is robbed of all the types of ‘old-fashioned’ items from the eras depicted in those shows, and the creative inventiveness that surrounded these times. The year is 1978. The Gonella’s Italian Family Deli calendar on my Nana’s kitchen closet wall that faces you when you go into her home’s side door, assures me of this. I am seven years old, glancing appreciatively at its familiar block squares, its fall and winter decor, and its listing of Federal holidays and President’s birthdays. (The President’s depictions in cartoon form are kind of cute – even if they appear QUITE stilted and stuffy as people.) At least this calendar and some of my Nana’s household belongings seem kind-of more oldworld feel – because my Home with Granny and Grandpa and Mom is just so boringly ‘modern.’ Back at our Home — Granny just now pulled this month’s Detroit Edison (electric power) and MI Bell (landline telephone) bills from our mailbox. I am FULL of WONDER and EAGER for ALL that LIFE CELEBRATES — including the Thanksgiving and CHRISTmas Holidays. These are fast approaching. I am on Thanksgiving break from school; tomorrow Granny and I will prep our Family’s risotto recipe, as our Family has made for this Holiday for years! We will use our ‘by-hand’ meat and veg grinder to prep its ingredients; that’s some of the FUNNEST part! (In a few years Granny will sometimes ask me, “Should we use the electric grinder?” that we had also — and I ALWAYS ASSURE GRANNY, “No! Granny It just wouldn’t be THE SAME.”) It has that ‘old-world’ FEEL to it, however … this also is actually Nana’s (though in two to three years she’ll tell us to just keep it at our Home), and each year we bring it over to prep our Risotto. I walk over to our rotary-dial landline phone in our kitchen; no-one is using it now, so I can call my grade school friend Melinda from school. She and her family are going out of town to be with other family for the holidays, so it’s NICE to get to chat with her a bit because we won’t get to ‘hang out’ until school starts again. It’s so NICE using our home phone instead of those public phone booths that even the “Carol Burnett Show” that Granny always watches poked fun at. My friend Melinda’s family is also a lot of FUN! With five children including her, a solid Catholic faith, and two REALLY FUN parents, I enjoy not only the games and antics and explorations we kids come up with when I go there — but also ESPECIALLY the family meal times, when her parents lead all their kids and any guests in REALLY FUN 'around the table’ games, like historical trivia or AMANDA GALE Groundcover vendor No. 573 guessing an object or activity or each person just responding to a creative ‘getto-know you’ question. These parents really love their kids, and are ALWAYS SO! WELCOMING for each guest at their table. They bring out EVERYTHING INTERESTING IN EVERY ONE. They always have warm smiles and OPEN HEARTS ready to receive all that is INTERESTING from their guests. This holiday season they’re focusing on one of Melinda's grandparents though, because one of them had gotten ill. So it will likely be after the Holidays for my visits there to resume; I might get to visit Melinda and her parents and brother sometime during the longer, CHRISTmas vacation though. Melinda and I often play FUN board games or act out plays or stories that we invent. Melinda's little brother sometimes HELPS us. Sometimes her Mom plays along with our pretendings. Melinda’s mom is friends with my Granny and they volunteer for our school activities and are regulars for ‘PTA’ meetings. (Granny brings me to these sometimes; and I was always sure to ask a question to draw out a little laughter from its otherwise somber tone.) Oh well. In our living room I walk on our earthtone shag rug, past the unique, stone comprised gold-colored water fountain with a draped female figure and lamp at the top of it. Granny purchased this as a special token of her earnings via Ford Motor Company Kitchen for herself and our home. I observe the gaudy gold and black wallpaper that looks like its shapes are monsters, and am amazed that that’s really in style! It’s not as bad as that big, ugly medium-blue hanging lamp that Mom has in her room though; with its large carved-out, dark-shaped holes that appear just plain creepy — ESPECIALLY at night. That also is REALLY in style, though. (If only it was a FUN ‘creepy,’ like that pretend ghost-rifle that I got for Halloween that you look through a viewfinder and shoot the pretend villain — ghosts who make Casper ashamed. Nor like the small, black, square-box, green hand coin bank that also found me at Halloween). I walk over to our TV console, and open the top part that has the radio-stereo in it. As I turn the knob to hear the radio, I must put my Leprechaun Pet Rock or a book on it, to prevent the sound going out or static. Like so many U.S. American households, whenever our family tunes in to Channel 2 (the most awaited part is when Walter Cronkite once again assures us, “And that’s the way it is …”) each night, we must often turn that big, clunky button dial that sits atop the TV console, to get that large outdoor antenna that looks like an 1800s lightning rod or an overdone farmhouse weather-vane — to turn to just the right spot, to get a clear picture of Walter on our TV. The songs that reach through the radio include such artists as Barbra Streisand, Peter Paul and Mary, Helen Reddy (“Keep On Singing!”) and the ill-fated Karen Carpenter (John Denver also brings us Home on Country Roads). “Mariah,” I perceive, is a song (not a singer) about a great storm tragedy. The Singer sewing machine we have in our basement, however, is what Granny sometimes uses when some of our clothes need a ‘touch-up.’ Mom uses it to actually make some of our clothes — including, each year, my Halloween costume. Epstein is a character on the show “Welcome Back Kotter” — but that’s another matter. Then there’s Mom’s typewriter in our basement, most often atop our sewing machine when it’s closed like a desk. Although this is also so boringly modern, I feel a little more grown-up and ready for “BIG things” because this year I learned from my Mom the “home row” for typing. Mom has some nice, in-style clothing and effects. My favorite “pop-thing” she has is a mood ring that turns colors, somehow, according to how the wearer is FEELING. Mom also does some ‘nail-into-boards’ art and velvet backdrop painting art. She has turquoise jewelry, a macrame purse and belt, and bell-bottom jeans. Mom’s hair-style is ‘puffy’ in the center, with side-hair curlets surrounding the bottom of her ears. Granny always wears her hair completely puffy bee-hive style, and Grandpa has sideburns and a baseball cap. People don’t look like this on “The Waltons” and “Little House on the Prairie.” Sometimes as a family we watch the old silent black and white film reels that have to be attached to a film projector and the machine with the reel feeding through. It aimed at a blank screen or a sheet. Through these, I get to meet my Nono in his middle-aged years. He had severe memory loss during his presence in my mom’s preteen years and my youth to 4th grade when he passed from this life. Through the films I got to see him dancing around for an Italian neighborhood gathering, and they were all dancing either the “Tarantella” or “The Hokie Pokey” or maybe some combination. Nono looked right into the camera and his crisp, clear eyes that I know were blue — just twinkled as he smiled. These were the same type of film reels that we’d watch — children’s movies and children’s stories made into movies — at school, often around the holidays, each grade school class would observe several. However, we now even have the even more really modern film reels that are in-color for our new family moving pictures. Our still family photos are all in color also, these also contrast with the old black and white family photo albums from Granny’s childhood, and from when she and Grandpa had courted and then gotten married. In this year that I will turn eight years old, my mom and I would never even imagine that years later we’ll lose all our family photos to an ‘eviction.’ The thought would have been HEARTWRENCHING as it was when it occurred. If we had known — would we have continued taking photos? The cameras we use are Kodak and Polaroid. Film is brought to a store for developing, while single photos from Polaroid are pulled out and developed in 1-2 minutes. This is just so modern. Other aspects that are modern include drive-in theatres, dishwashers, most clocks, and watches displaying Arabic (not Roman) numerals and lighting that is two development steps out from Edison's incandescent bulb. A&W food brought out on a tray to your vehicle is a reminder of at least the 1950s; however, there’s now more and more drive-through fast food. The Bob Jo's Frozen Custard stand in Southgate, Mich. reminds Grandpa of the local frozen custard craze of the 1940s; I just like its really different “Blue Moon” ice cream. However, a Baskin Robbins that amazingly has 31 flavors (not just the standard strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla) has recently opened up, and it will become a favorite for me and some of my summer softball team members. Grandpa’s WWII navy hat, that he allows me to playfully engulf all of my face in, is maybe a little less modern. Grandpa talks with me about our dogs, my schooling and his job at the steel mill. Once for my birthday and once for Christmas he made me special-designed cakes! His listening to Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby records are a bit nostalgic. Granny brings me with her on shopping errands when I’m on school vacations. When I was younger a few years ago, Granny would bring me along see ANTIQUE page 11  GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS The state of affordable housing in Washtenaw RACHEL Groundcover contributor Last month I had a chance to attend the 2025 State of Homelessness and Affordable Housing conference at Washtenaw Community College. Hosted during National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, coincided with Washtenaw Housing Alliance's 25th anniversary and the 5th anniversary of the Ann Arbor Affordable Housing millage. The breakfast conference had a three-part focus: food, health and housing. There were guest speakers, panel discussions, a preview of a housing documentary called "The Road Home," and a forecast that was bleak. The H.R.1 bill passed in late July recently froze federal funding to essential survival programs like the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Medicaid. "This bill will cause people to die," said Dr. Jeremy Lapedis of the Washtenaw Health Project. The restructures are expanding work requirements for food aid; shifting hundreds of millions in SNAP administrative costs onto states; halving USDA shipments to food banks like Food Gatherers; requiring Medicaid eligibility renewals twice a year; and continuing to sweep homeless encampments out of sight without addressing their roots. In other words, being poor in the United States is more of a crime than ever before. Dr. Ravi Vadlamudi from Packard Health talked about the challenges of healthcare without housing. Pneumonia and wound care are manageable, but chronic medical problems like diabetes or kidney disease are virtually untreatable under the circumstances of homelessness. Hospitals will not even schedule major procedures for unhoused patients, like colonoscopies. “You can imagine someone in a tent trying to drink a gallon of GoLYTELY.” His takeaway: people can only think about long term goals when they are not in survival mode. “Housing is health,” said Dr. Chiquita Berg, Trinity vice president of community health and well-being. The figures are not healthy. Last year it took an average of 202 days to get into housing, and at least 704 people experienced homelessness in Washtenaw County this year. Alpha House has a waitlist of 120-130 families and the Delonis Center's residential waitlist can be 50-60 people long. Hundreds of families will lose their rental assistance under HUD restructuring and the state housing voucher pause, 12,000 to 18,000 Washtenaw County Panel on health and hunger relief (left to right): County Commissioner Katie Scott, Dr. Ravi Vadlamudi, Markell Miller, Dr. Chiquita Berg and Jeremy Lapedis. residents could lose Marketplace and Medicaid eligibility soon, and food insecurity will be at an all-time high. Statistics and numbers were the framework of the conference, but its emotional heart was people. Dr. Ravi shared his experience doing home care for a terminally ill patient. As her cancer progressed and she lost more and more weight, she was steadfast in wanting to remain in the apartment where she finally had her own bed, kitchen, and the comfort she never knew when she was unhoused. Washtenaw Health Project told us about a woman discharged from the ER with 48 hours of medication she could not afford to refill. WHP fixed a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services error, found out she was eligible for Medicaid right away, and connected her to Community Mental Health treatment so she could go back to work with peace of mind. The brightest forecast at the conference was affordable housing. Jennifer Hall, executive director of the Ann Arbor Housing Commission (AAHC), shared pictures of seven new developments breaking ground in the city and talked about the public-private partnerships that make them possible. Forprofit developers are the biggest creators of affordable homes, which cost the same to build as market-rate housing. In 2020, a City millage passed with 73% support that puts $7 million a year toward low-income housing. AAHC has 2345 housing vouchers for Washtenaw and Monroe counties, 20 properties in Ann Arbor, and 1,071 units underway, offering opportunities for thousands of people who work in Ann Arbor but cannot afford to live there. Eating croissants and fresh fruit with well-dressed office workers, it was not lost on me that everyone in the room represented organizations with overhead costs and salaries higher than the lifetime savings of the people they helped. The caterers refilling the hot trays made a fraction of the income of the city planners there, and the houseshaped stress balls with WHA logos at every seat could have sponsored 200 bus tokens instead. Some of the groups only rely on student interns, barebones staff and unpaid boards to fulfill their mission, but others have executives with six figure compensation. Mutual aid organizations have a term for charities that prop up social inequalities and top-down hierarchies like this: the nonprofit industrial complex. "Dysfunction is part of the plan," says Shihab Jackson, a longtime community volunteer. "It keeps a small army of well-paid administrators gainfully employed in a system they are supposedly tasked to disrupt." If the coalitions working to end homelessness in Washtenaw County truly reached their goals, he points out, their careers would end. Two-time Emmy winning director Kameron Donald offered a more hopeful analysis on the conference stage. "There's no fame in this, no getting see WHA page 10  it DECEMBER 12, 2025 DECEMBER 12, 2025 HOMELESSNESS GROUNDCOVER NEWS 12/21 Walk for the Homeless: End the criminalization of survival on the longest night On December 21, the Winter Solstice—the longest, coldest night of the year—I will once again organize our annual protest, the 12/21 Walk for the Homeless. We march to honor Homeless Remembrance Day and to protest the constant, unjust criminalization of poverty and survival. For over a decade, this walk has been a national call to action, launched by Eric the Dream Giver and supported by a network of advocates, including Groundcover News here in Ann Arbor and Real Change in Seattle. Our core message remains: Poverty is not a crime. Yet, Michigan and most communities nationwide continue to implement policies designed to punish the poor and strip rights from all but the wealthiest. The roots of homelessness are not individual failures, but catastrophic economic forces that have engineered a universal threat. These include increasing financial instability, the attack on housing security where rising property taxes and other factors result in vulnerability for even those whose housing seemed totally secure, and capitalism failing to provide basic ERICK THE DREAM GIVER Groundcover vendor No. 617 living in their vehicles. When cities pass ordinances that ban RVs or heavily restrict where they can be parked, instead of solving a housing crisis, they are criminalizing a legitimate lifestyle and removing the last line of defense against absolute homelessness. Our demand is the immediate repeal of this and all other discriminatory ordinances that unjustly criminalize people experiencing homelessness. The economic system has made the human needs and creating an economy where survival is a privilege, not a right. A significant portion of our unhoused neighbors struggle with mental health conditions. We demand that cities across Michigan and the nation shift resources from punitive policing to dedicated mental health crisis teams that offer support, shelter and longterm care. Another example of how the homeless are discriminated against even if they’re not on the streets is the discriminatory enforcement of zoning and parking laws that target people bottom 99% vulnerable to falling into poverty and becoming criminalized. This failure is creating a universal police state designed to manage and punish the poor, ultimately stripping rights away from everybody. The 12/21 Walk for the Homeless is a vital part of a national movement demanding justice. Our demands are clear: End the laws that punish people for poverty and support laws that protect them, like the Michigan Homeless Bill of Rights (HB 4919). Moving forward, the work requires more than just walking. We must take direct political action. Contact your lawmakers and in Michigan ask your representatives to support bills like HB 4919. People who are so inclined can also run for public office, challenging the status quo. It is time for Michigan to stop passing "stumbling blocks" and start building pathways to housing. Join us in demanding that our tax dollars fund housing and healthcare, not arrests and incarceration. Support the Movement: Join the 12/21 Walk! The 12/21 Walk for the Homeless is an annual, decentralized demonstration. The action starts on December 21 at sunset, 5:05 p.m. at Detroit City Hall. People are meeting in downtown areas across the country; I encourage readers in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti to organize their own walks. City Halls are a good place to start. I invite everybody to walk — pick up a sign, join hands, and walk with candles in your local downtown area; post your walk on social media (use the hashtag #1221WalkForTheHomeless); and share the message for people to join us. If you want to walk with me and follow my ongoing advocacy, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, Eric the Dream Giver. 9 CALL FOR SUPPORT WE’RE HERE FOR YOU & YOUR FAMILY 24/7 mental health and substance use support 734-544-3050 YOUTH & FAMILY SERVICES: ELIZABETH SPRING-NICHOLS AND ALYSSA NEWSOME LEARN MORE about programs funded by the community mental health and public safety preservation millage.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS RECOVERY DECEMBER 12, 2025 MDHHS to invest $37.5 million in opioid settlement funds to further expand recovery housing across MI LYNN STUFTIN Michigan Department of Health and Human Services As part of a statewide strategy designed to save lives and reduce overdose deaths, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) plans to invest $37.5 million into stable housing to help Michigan residents recover from substance use disorder (SUD). This funding is part of the FY 2026 state budget that includes $131.75 million for SUD prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery services. "Ensuring someone has a safe place to live is one of the most powerful resources we can provide to prevent setbacks in recovery,” said Elizabeth Hertel, MDHHS director. “These investments provide people in recovery with the security, structure and dignity they need to thrive. By directing opioid settlement funds to stable housing, we are creating meaningful, lasting change in communities across the state.” A recent analysis by MDHHS found that more than 7,500 discharges from publicly funded SUD treatment annually resulted in people leaving treatment without stable housing. To address this gap, the department has set a goal to create 3,467 new recovery housing beds by 2028, an increase of 40%. Michigan is slated to receive more than $1.8 billion from national opioid settlements by 2040, with half being distributed to the State of Michigan Opioid Healing and Recovery Fund and the other half being distributed directly to county, city and township governments. Over the last several years, MDHHS has distributed settlement funds in support of the state strategy addressing prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery. This allowed the state to expand recovery housing by more than 200 beds in the last two years through $8 million in investments. “We know that the transition out of treatment is one of the most critical times for individuals with substance use disorder,” said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, chief medical executive and Michigan Opioids Task Force co-chair. “It’s a time when individuals face an increased risk of returning to substance use. Without safe and stable housing, the risk of overdose increases dramatically. Recovery housing is a medically informed, evidence-based solution that offers individuals the stability and support needed to maintain their recovery and rebuild their lives.” According to a Michigan Association of Recovery Residences (MARR) survey, recovery housing assists individuals in successfully obtaining and maintaining employment. Upon entering a MARR-certified recovery house, about 17% of individuals indicated needing employment assistance. This statistic decreases during their stay to about 8% at the 90-day mark. Recent recovery housing investments include: $1.5 million to support a new recovery housing project by Wellspring in Southfield in partnership with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and Oakland County government. Construction will soon begin on 60 new recovery housing units. $3 million for The McDaniel Apartments at Andy’s Place in Jackson, 26 affordable apartments and vital recovery services designed to serve expectant families overcoming opioid addiction. $3.8 million through the Recovery Housing Investment Program to purchase or lease homes across the state dedicated to supporting individuals in recovery, adding more than 110 new beds to the state’s total capacity. “This is a matter of both equity and urgency,” said MDHHS senior advisor Tommy Stallworth. “Black and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by housing instability and the heightened risk of overdose. Our investment in recovery housing reflects a strategic, data-informed commitment to ensuring every -  WHA from page 8 rich," he said, noting that it was rare to find himself in a room so full of people who found their purpose in life. "You really have a heart of helping." He was there to preview his upcoming documentary "The Road Home," an artistic partnership with AAHC about the housing crisis. His film about Ann Arbor’s historically Black neighborhoods, "A Letter to the West Side," sold out its debut in February. "The Road Home" premieres at the Michigan Theater in March. We ended the morning with a call and response led by Hall and surprise guest Morice Norris from the Detroit Lions: “Yes, we can! BUILD AFFORDABLE HOUSING!” The critical state of homelessness in Washtenaw County shows that we need to. Michigan resident has a real opportunity for sustained recovery. Additionally, these projects demonstrate how state and local governments can work together to advance Governor Whitmer’s goal of expanding access to affordable housing.” For more information about SUD resources, visit Michigan.gov/SUD. Additional information regarding proposed programming under Michigan’s Opioid Healing and Recovery Fund is provided on the opioids settlement website. DECEMBER 12, 2025 HOLIDAY REFLECTIONS  ANTIQUE from page 7 to a pond of ducks by Ford Motor where she worked, and we’d invest a Sunday afternoon feeding them (we didn’t know we should’ve brought seeds instead of bread that was not the best for them). This would often be after a trip to the “Lighting Candle Church” as I like to call St. Henry’s in Lincoln Park. It was always so fun because we’d light some candles as part of our prayings. Once when I had a bad cold for a week, Granny brought a fun water jug in my room to make drinking lots of water fun! She also bought these two little curious motorcycles that she or I would hide somewhere in my room for the seeking person to find, as I was getting better. Granny and I often play card games like Crazy Eights, Old Maid, Go Fish, and Memory Game. Granny is also who taught me how to read and when I was five, I was reading to her and writing my own stories like “The Flower that Stamped Its Stem”, “The Truth Fairy,” and a Pecos Bill style cowboy story. In just a few days, just before my birthday in December, I’ll need to be pushed to the old Oakwood hospital where I was born to have my appendix removed, though none of my family know this yet. My second grade teacher will stop by my four-day hospital stay to tell me how glad she is that I survived, to give me some birthday and Christmas cards from my class members, and to help me ‘catch-up’ on my homework. I’m glad there’s TV in the hospital because I get to watch two of my FAVORITE shows “Happy Days” and “Laverne and Shirley.” Fonzie is a good, all-American guy, “cool-type” of person. He’s a hardworker in his mechanic shop, and he’s always a good and helpful friend. His character is “breaking ground,” allowing a cool, tough guy to also share a softer side. The TV guide for this evening says we’ll meet up with his more tame counterpart, a high school kid named Richie Cunningham, and his friends and family at Arnold’s Diner. Mr. Defazio, the Italian waiter, will chat with them and serve them; there will be laughter and fun. A young couple, Joanie and Chachi, will also stop by, as will a “hot” woman named Leather. Mrs. C is always supportive and has good practical life wisdom, and Fonzie has a lot of sharp sense. This Christmas episode will find mutual encouragement by making sure to invite Fonzie to be a part of it. Meanwhile, Lavene and Shirley who work for Shotz Brewery will go singing at an elderly home. These two shows are really popular — especially Happy Days. The year I was born, TV had only been around for about 20 years; it’s amazing it’s now in color and not black and white as it was then. In 1978, we have no VCRs, video games, iPods and of course we were just at the brink of a beginning for computers. Our culture “at large” could not completely have imagined these just yet; though the concept for these items was beginning to take shape. There is a lot more reading of books, and more direct communication with people. Oddly though, most high school seniors often look like they’re in their 30s. There seems to be a great deal of pressure for “maturity” and upward mobility and being ready for new technology. When I return home, besides my catching up with homework, Mom will play Barbies and dollhouse with me as I recuperate; and actually, Mom so beautifully and capably put together the dollhouse kit that crafted it. I will be sure to get to Nana’s soon for our regular visits! I’m glad there’s more of a traditional, previous world feel for a little girl to explore at Nana’s. Nana brings out the Italian chocolate boxes that have long instead been the just right home for her heirloom jewelry. She carefully picks up each piece like a show and tell item, telling me special memories and meaning of each one. There are the two necklaces (“kadanga”) that had belonged to Nana’s mom, and that she gave to her, and the two or three rings from Nana’s mom and a sister. There’s the “gold 13” pendant that Nana’s mom gave her for “Good Blessing” travel to America, and good fortune here. Thirteen has long been a “lucky” number in Italy, and this 24k gold was made in honor of Pope Leo XIII, a champion of the working people’s rights. There are several crosses, including the two that are “look-through,” kind of like my toy view-master — one displays the Lord’s Prayer, and the other a depiction of Jesus on the cross. (Nana will give to me the blue cross with red flowers; it was hers for a long time, and she wants me to have it. This, so sadly like our family photos, will one day be lost to an eviction.) There are many cameos, brooches, earrings, and other various pendants and necklaces, each with their own story of who gave it and why. Special occasions and “close-to-heart” people were remembered. There are two pocket watches that Nana’s dad gave her to bring to America, also for good fortune and to forever remember him, now that a whole ocean and another brewing war would separate them, but for one last visit, three years later, then forever. The smaller pocket watch that is gold colored somehow has the “modern” Arabic numbers, and a depiction of a steam train, rolling right out at you. It also has a “fob” with it. The silver-colored, quite large pocket watch that might have been slightly larger than Nana’s Dad’s hands — has the beautiful old, Roman numerals though; and just a touch of some green foliage and red formal decor on its face. It has decorative, fancy shapes all around on it; there is no ‘fob’ to it. Nana says that its exaggerated size was the style back when that one was made. Nana carefully keeps also and frequently shows me - Nono’s war medal from when he’d served in WWI in the Italian Army; and also a cute, little white chapel-like frame that a photo of her and Nono just after their marriage and just right before their move to America is set in. Nana often cries as she shows me these special items, and tells me the story of each one. Now that Nono is gone from her with his memory loss, the observable contrast of her and Nono’s juvenile, smiling, eager innocence in that photo — is just brutal. It’s part of our family’s story though, and Nono has always been Nana’s man; and we must never lose that; and we won’t. Nana shows me her wedding ring on her finger; she tells me it's been there since Nono placed it on her hand when they married, and she will never remove it. Around Nana’s house there are some items that handyman Uncle Mario, Nana’s brother, made, such as the green “skanette” — a versatile, wooden piece that can be used as a stepstool or a quick sit, but that Nana will use mostly as rest for her swollen legs in her later years. Somehow Uncle Mario also crafted a green comfy cushion for it, and it has a handle-part that he built into the middle of it. There’s the precious violin that he carved out and then installed the strings; he also crafted its bow. There are two knives at Nana’s house and our own, that Uncle Mario fashioned the steel blades and the wood handles for; these are really good cutting knives, and the handles are really solid. In Nana’s basement there’s that long, dark-brown, glossy dining table that we find useful not only for holiday dining and as a holiday meal prep table, though also Granny insists it will save our lives also with couch pillows over us with the table over us when tornado season occurs — usually in late spring, though in July 1980 a horrible one will rip through, affecting many. And under that table, we will go! We were preserved by God’s hand. Also in Nana’s basement, there’s her 1930s, white-with-black-burners stove and over that each Christmas and Easter we prepare our family Ravioli recipe. And in another section there’s Nana and Nono’s old phonograph — the type that can play only the oldest of records ever made — the old, really thick type that smash and break if you drop them just once. Our family enjoys learning the Greats from the 1920s and the 1930s again on that old phonograph. My favorite is Mario Lanza and sometimes I segue just myself to go downstairs and listen to his singing. Nana is always GLAD the records are getting use and keeping our GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 family traditions ALIVE! Mario Lanza’s music was formative for the so ‘modern’ rockstar Elvis, whose music we all love and who died tragically just the year before. However, concert specials from when he was alive are often featured year-round, and also some of his Christmas concerts in December. Dad follows the concert sometimes by playing an interview with Elvis from when he was alive. Maybe not everything ‘modern’ is ‘so bad;’ Baptist preachers are always warning us of all the dangers of that even more modern rock group, KISS, though. In Nana’s garage there are two old cars, one from the 1930s, the other possibly 1925. These Nana keeps in museum condition for the sentiment that Nono had for them. It was also a part of his upward rise, becoming fully US-American though his family in Italy had been a part of the upper class there. Also, in Nana's garage, a fun, wooden wine press which with Nono had sometimes made his own “vino” the good old fashioned way. In Nana’s larger cellar in the basement (there are two), there is a box of brushes and a hoof pick that Nono used to groom his army captain’s horse. Those were dear to his heart and in a few years when I become the owner of a horse at a boarding stable, Nono will allow me to use the two of these I ask for to groom my own horse. There’s also a keychain with a plastic green horse shoe and a wheat penny in the middle of it that was Nono’s. On many days that we are not using Nana’s basement to prep our family recipes, Nana has two clothesline ropes running all along the basement length, on one side of it. Though Nana has a clothes dryer, she still sometimes likes to dry her laundry as when she was in Italy. Then we arrive at another curious, very special memento. The trunk that Nana and Nono used to bring all of whatever they were bringing to America with them. It became a sacred resting place for our family’s oldest photos and portrait paintings, ones of my great, great grandparents, who were Nana and Nono’s parents. And Nana would show these to me frequently and tell me the stories of her childhood — of her family, our family. She would cry and remember and it would be good and necessary to feel happy again that we were keeping them alive — always in our hearts and also me being the next generation. Nana kept her wedding dress in there and there were other special family mementos and linens in that good old trunk. I’m ashamed that before the very first time that Nana opened its contents and her heart to share spilled out with it with me; I had thought it must be that there’s some million dollar value that our family is keeping secretly in there, see ANTIQUE page 13 

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers DECEMBER 12, 2025 ACROSS 1. Harder to understand 10. Tall fur hat 15. Greek school of wrestling 16. Bone cavities 17. Shield bearing a coat of arms (Var.) 18. River of Deutschland 19. Barely get by, with "out" 20. Earl Grey and others 21. Changing color 22. Microsoft product 23. The study of plants 24. Places to say "I do" 27. Barbaric 28. Aussie smoker's request 29. Loan for a start-up 33. Bit 34. Key ingredient of many smoothies 35. How one finds Easter eggs 36. Brand of Irish whiskey 38. Eyelashes 39. Primitive locking mechanism, as for a gate 40. African grasslands 41. Shoe for a tiny foot 43. "___ Poppins" 44. Educational programming language 45. Scottish clothing chest 46. Battering device 49. Pathetic one (Brit.) 50. Inhumane caning of feet as punishment 52. Clean one's feathers 53. [Intentionally left blank] 54. Mails 55. Plot DOWN 1. Church area 2. Endorse 3. Pivot 4. Sylvester, to Tweety 5. Parsonage 6. They direct you to your seat 7. Lieu 8. Greek god of love 9. Bled, as colors 10. Minerals used in paint (Var.) 11. In a harmful way 12. Draft holder 13. Salty, as seawater 14. Yin counterpart 21. Question the truth of 22. Passionate 23. Spread widely, as a rumor 24. Jewish month 25. Old stringed instrument 26. Put one's foot down? 27. Romantic infatuation 29. Dinner prayer 30. "___ Lang Syne" 31. Do needlework 32. Flight data, briefly 34. Malodorous 37. Provisions 38. Notarized 40. More immense 41. Trumpet 42. Humorist Nash 43. Botch 44. Dangerous biters 45. German philosopher known for the Categorical Imperative 46. Indian princess 47. Gulf of ___, off the coast of Yemen 48. Mean, medium, and ____ 50. Greyhound, e.g. 51. Zilch PUZZLE SOLUTIONS November 28, 2025 edition DECEMBER 12, 2025 POETRY untitled 1 AUGUSTINE JAY Groundcover vendor No. 678 breakfast church, sleep and later on i'll catch a show gonna buy some merch to keep hopefully a patch to sew you know i'd like to hear from you somewhere in the time between tell me what you're gonna do about your day and how you're feeling write to me and i'll respond perpetuating our new bond send a picture i can keep because i really love your face when i see you my heart leaps up past the clouds to outer space ...like a rocket GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13 Til I See You Again December Time TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 571 To All My Family & Friendz Who Passed A Way Only God knowz, Where you’re at, Who you wit, What you’re doin now, You’re having thee best time, I know you’re talkin to everyone that You’ve missed so much, Only God knowz, How much I miss, I know you’re at bliss, I know you’re up in heaven sayin wow, I never wanted you ta go, I know you’re in a better place, You’ll be in my heart, soul, & mind, I’ll alwayz miss you, Til I see you again, For you itz just a new beginning, I’ll just have to wait & then, I’ll see you again, I miss & love you so. Happy Sweet Sixteen LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 "Happy Sweet Sixteen to You, my awesome, beautiful Daughter"!! I Love You soooooo much!! Telling You that, letting You know that is definitely in order I want this day to be extraordinary for and to You You are strong and a success in anything You put Your mind to I don't want to get melancholy because this is Your Special Day!! All about You!! "So, Happy Sweet Sixteen Young Lady!!" Never forget that You are exceptionally outstanding!! And that I've always loved You and always will!! So enjoy this beautiful day doing You!! Love Always, Your Mom SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 Jingle bells Sugar cookie smells Singing carols joyful hearts Bringing the spirit The lights burning bright Elves and santa ride by Merry and bright No Scrooges Bright glow bright feelings Merry Christmas to all and goodnight! Snow (ICE QUEEN) MARQUETTA "Q" CLEMENTS Groundcover contributor Beautiful and Deadly Merciless and Heavenly Pure but intoxicating Like a woman dancing Can’t resist the devil operating One touch can freeze you, give you joy, or have you contemplating The homeless die Beauty turns to occupation Struggling for heat Staring at death, devastated You lay weak and tired Or conquer defeat You give in to the winter Or you ride it to spring I became the Ice Queen!  ANTIQUE from page 11 and that that is why Nana wouldn’t yet open it to me. i.e. like maybe she thought I couldn’t keep it secret! I could hardly bear the shame I realized when I was at last deemed old enough to appreciate its contents and cry with Nana about it. Though always being strong enough for her that instead it had been a treasure so far greater than ever I could have imagined, our memories and ties with each other. Within the last year or so is when Nana started to share it with me. These are such meaningful times, discussing our family story and journey. So in 1978, as I think about all the really “modern” stuff around my household, and find some greater wonderment in the family history and ties to previous eras, I have also a great wondering. Now as we continue getting so “modern” I just wonder in the future, will this make me an antique? Will we humans reject the Alexandrian lie of “No more to conquer,” and always hold onto what matters most? Will we prize our people, and work hard at our relationships? Will we value our Creator and His values to guide us? Will we walk in His love?

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LIVING ARCHIVES DECEMBER 12, 2025 The legend lives on at Downtown Home and Garden SUSAN BECKETT Publisher emeritus Paying attention to detail is rewarded when ambling around Downtown Home and Garden. Among the treasures are virgin maple, Bay City milled flooring, the original Fleetwood Diner sign, and an old grain elevator that once dispensed mixed seeds for feeding farmyard birds. Rumor has it that vestiges of those old seeds are still in the chute. A tour of the basement reveals the last horse stalls in downtown Ann Arbor. The building has been in continuous use supplying farmers and gardeners since circa 1906 and the persistence of the building and business model earned the admiration of owner Mark Hodesh. He originally acquired them back in 1975 from Emma, Herman and Gotleib Hertler. The store was being run then by 89-year old Emma and her nephew, George. Michigan was suffering from factory closings in the early 70s and downtown Ann Arbor was more populated by blowing newspapers and vagrants than active shoppers and diners; families did not venture there. Briarwood was new and shopping malls reigned. With more than 11 vacancies on Main St., property prices were low enough for young guys to buy in. Hodesh's first downtown business was the Fleetwood Diner which he founded when he was 26, after apprenticing at Red's Rite Spot, a 13-seat diner run by Red Shelton and eventually displaced by the Tower Inn. Back then you could get a quality breakfast at the Fleetwood for less than a dollar. Even then, Hodesh believed in quality ingredients and buying locally. “The eggs were from Bilby's Farm, the toast bread came from the Modern Bakery in Detroit — best bread you could get back then, and the jam came from Smuckers, and none of that mixed fruit, either,” Hodesh said. Emma Hertler must have recognized his appreciation of quality and history, because according to Hodesh, she bestowed the company on him. “Sell it to him, Georgie; he's a good boy. He gets up early,” she reputedly commanded her nephew. Hodesh kept the Downtown Home and Garden will close on December 24, 2025 after 119 years in Ann Arbor. name Hertler Brothers and made money his first year. He shrewdly purchased the lot next door and made it into the store parking lot. Business grew 500 percent in five years. Hodesh and his wife, artist Margaret Parker, found another business opportunity in the Castine Inn in Maine at a time they were ready for a change. They sold the Hertler Brothers name and business and moved to the Inn located on Penobscot Bay, north of Bar Harbor. Parker appreciated the light in Maine where the blues were bluer and it sparkled like Greece. She created large pieces of art for the Inn and Castine School while they were there. Hertler Brothers faltered in the late 1990's, and faced with the prospect of an abandoned building on the property they still owned, Hodesh and Parker elected to return to Ann Arbor in 1997 and restore the business, though they no longer had rights to the name. The renamed Downtown Home and Garden again prospered under their ownership. Like today, it was a time of gardening resurgence with an emphasis on organic gardening. Parker redesigned the parking lot, transforming it into a popular location for weddings and parties when the store is closed. She also does advertising covers, including those for their store, and is a member of the Commission on Art and Public Places. She was recently honored at the Grand Rapids Art Prize competition for her entry “C'ood,” a piece 10 feet high and 24 feet in diameter. It was constructed with help from volunteers and made from donated t-shirts — very fitting for a work whose name is a contraction of “Common Good.” A great interactive piece, it is looking for a home, either indoors or out, for as long as it lasts. She may be doing some more design work this summer since Hodesh recently purchased the lot on the northwest corner of his building that once sported a parking structure exit ramp. Look for more on this project in an upcoming issue of Groundcover. Hodesh is not sentimental about the business but likes being part of downtown Ann Arbor. The grittiness is part of the appeal, as is the sturdiness of the building. The store is a small infrastructure project with heating and hot water systems sized for a house. In the winter, they wear more sweaters. In the summer, an awning protects the store from direct sun. Through good times and bad, the store's foundation proved solid: Plant a seed, grow a plant, harvest, cook and can it. The products carried today are similar to those stocked for the last 100 years. The town has changed and today's patrons are more urban gardener than farmer, but just like his earlier Hertler Brothers and Fleetwood customers, they have their eyes wide open and are ready to appreciate something good. Originally published in the December 2010 - January 2011 edition of Groundcover News. DECEMBER 12, 2025 COMMUNITY RESOURCES transit RESOURCE CORNER AATA’S “THE RIDE” 734-996-0400 Serves the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti Area. Regular bus routes operated via a pay-per-ride system ($1.50 fare). Offers discounts for seniors (free), youth, as well as low-income (half-fare) and disabled people (see A-Ride). Downtown workers, ask your employers about Go!Pass. Eastern Michigan University: Students, faculty and staff members can visit Service EMU in the Student Center to purchase 30-day unlimited rides at a discount offered by EMU. You must present your student or employee I.D. card when you purchase your pass. University of Michigan: Active students, faculty and staff at U-M and Michigan Medicine have unlimited access to TheRide's fixed-route bus service with a valid yellow Mcard. To take advantage of your sponsored ride, swipe your valid yellow Mcard when you board the bus. Your valid yellow Mcard will serve as your bus pass. Visit the AATA Office at 2700 S. Industrial Hwy, Ann Arbor to enroll for reduced fares. Visit their website at theride.org for more information. AATA’S “A-RIDE” 734-996-0400 Serves the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti Area. Offers door-to-door transportation for people with disabilities who struggle to use the fixed route system. Rides must be reserved in advance. An application is required and can be found at www.theride.org/services/ride-eligibility and mailed or delivered in-person to the AATA office. PEOPLE’S EXPRESS 877-214-6073 Within Washtenaw County, People’s Express serves the residents of Northfield Township and Saline. Offers a Michigan Medicine commuter route. Fare is determined by time of day, starting point and destination. Call between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday-Friday, to reserve a ride. More information can be found at peoplesexpress.org MICHIGAN FLYER 517-333-0400 Stops in East Lansing, Whitmore Lake, Ann Arbor and Detroit Metro Airport. Ann Arbor stop is at Blake Transit Center. Tickets can be purchased online at michiganflyer.com Tickets must be purchased in advance. D2A2 D2A2 is an express bus service connecting Detroit and Ann Arbor. The service provides hourly trips between the two communities for 16 hours a day during the week (6 a.m.11 p.m.) and limited service on Saturday and Sunday. Fare purchased at the bus (passengers 2-64 yrs): $8 one way. Online booking discount (passengers 2-64 yrs): $6. Eligible senior/disability fare: $4. Infants 24 months and younger ride free. Tickets are non-refundable. Two free changes are allowed up to five minutes prior to your scheduled departure. Make reservation at d2a2.com RIDE THE WAVE 734-475-9494 Call Center: Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Door-to-door throughout Western Washtenaw to anywhere in Washtenaw County, Chelsea— Dexter—Ann Arbor fixed route Connectors, Downtown Chelsea free shuttle, Discounts for older people, people with disabilities, low income, and children through 12th grade. ridethewavebus.org GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Parmesan chickpea soup Happyscopes ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil ½ sweet onion, diced 3 garlic cloves, minced Kosher salt and pepper Dash of crushed red pepper flakes 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 1 parmesan rind 4 cups vegetable stock ¾ cup tiny-cut pasta, ditalini 8 ounces fresh spinach Parmesan cheese, for topping Lemon wedges, for spritzing Directions: Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-low heat. Stir in the onion and garlic with a big pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes, until translucent. Stir in the crushed red pepper flakes. Add the chickpeas, parmesan rind and stock. Bring the mixture to a boil. Taurus: Apr.20 - May 20 Hello, let those hands and feet loose. Love has been poking at you! Decorate in your favorite color and embrace the love you desire. Accept the love given. Don’t hide, you can hold on to it forever. FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 Our song: "Happyscopes are here today. Read it laugh and smile all day! Happyscopes are here today!" Once boiling, add in your pasta. Cook until the pasta is al dente. Once the pasta is cooked, stir in the spinach. Taste and season with extra salt and pepper. Top with plenty of parmesan cheese. Ladle into bowls and squeeze a little lemon juice in each bowl. Sagittarius: Nov.22 - Dec.-21 You are great at shooting your love, now reel it in and hold on to it. Ring the Christmas bells, shake love and harmony in your life. Capricorn: Dec.22 - Jan.19 Don’t eat or work like a goat the rest of the year. You deserve relaxation time! Let the lights and joyous harmony of music satisfy that urge to work. Aquarius: Jan.20 - Feb.18 Put the load down just for a moment. Put up those lights, hang joy and prosperity. Let your love and creative side shine, shine, shine! Pisces: Feb.19 - Mar.20 Yes, that wreath would look good. Hang green and the money will come! Happiness is yours ... accept it. Aries: Mar.21 - Apr.19 Stop cramming. The holidays are here! Your turn, time to release your decorative energy. The love you give will be given back. Gemini: May 21 - Jun.21 Give a little, save a lot! Twins stand still, take time to cook and enjoy your decorations. We know you are two times the fun and excitement. Cancer: Jun.22 - Jul.22 Stand up for truth and love; be a good example lighting the way up for others. The truth is light, and life will be in harmony. Hold up the mistletoe and give that kiss. Leo: Jul.23 - Aug.22 We all know that Peter did not build it! You did, creative one. It’a time for the party to start, don’t be shy. Your love maybe staring you in your eye. Virgo: Aug.23 - Sept.22 It’s your favorite creative season. Now take time to show off some of that work. Love is behind all that work; time waits for no one. Libra: Sept.23 - Oct.23 You won’t be hanging on a string this year. String up those lights, balancing with a pop of color, let the joy glow. Scorpio: Oct.24 - Nov.21 Put that stinger away, only kisses and hugs are allowed. Reach out giving someone else joy. Joy, peace and harmony will be yours. DECEMBER 12, 2025 Delicious food for everyone. Fresh ingredients for holiday comfort meals. $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 12/31/2025

2 $ NOVEMBER 28, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 25 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Ann Arbor for Public Power ballot initiative: Public power for all! page 6 LASHAWN COURTWRIGHT #56 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE HOLIDAY TREAT? 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Effects of mass deportation on community. page 9 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator Photo by Emily Mills • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 NOVEMBER 28, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Gray Connor — intern Lila Kelly— intern June Miller Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Hannah Blyveis Rev. Martha Brunell Jocelin Boyd Monique Caldwell Pedro Campos Jim Clark La Shawn Courtwright Julia Herzog Mike Jones David Mitchell Ken Parks Denise Shearer Shawn Swoffer Tony PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Jessi Averill Jane Atkins Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Stephanie Dong Glenn Gates Robert Klingler Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropiate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons NOVEMBER 28, 2025 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What is your favorite holiday treat? Birthday cake. — Lashawn Courtwright, #56 Date pudding. Its so good with ice cream! — Ken Parks #490 Rum balls. — Cindy Gere, #279 The people and the environment. — Glen Page, #407 Chocolate. — Stephanie Dent, #84 Homemade fudge. — Andrew White, #560 Cut-out sugar cookies. — Shelley DeNeve, #22 During Thanksgiving, my favorite pie is pecan pie. But it is loaded with sugar ... see my article on page 15. — Will Shakespeare, #258 Sweet potato pie with butter pecan ice cream on top. — Joe Woods, #103 Peppermint patties. — Denise Shearer, #485 Peach cobbler. — Larzell Washington, #128 Gratitude When we ponder reality, we may discover that we have choices. What is the best way to become reality focused? Cynicism is a common choice but not a happy one. Nihilism is the mother of cynicism and all forms of “nothing matters.” The realization that all actions have results introduces us to the truth of karma. Books have been written on this and Google can be helpful. What attitude gives us the best approach to experience the fullness of reality? If you have tried different approaches you may have already discovered that gratitude is the best attitude to open the vastness of reality and participate creatively in all the choices available. If you have learned anything in your studies so far, you know that life is a huge classroom and surprises arise. The best teachers of humanity include Buddha, Jesus, Marx, Einstein and others on a long list of brilliant realized beings. When things don’t turn out as planned, you have to look at your assumptions and even change them for new ones. I think every authentic tradition begins with appreciation for this precious human birth. What is the best way to use this opportunity? To fully realize your potential is a quest of a lifetime. What if you choose to be a fully awakened being with unconditional love for all beings without KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 exception? Buddha and Jesus were in agreement that this is the most worthy choice of all. If your gratitude for this precious human birth is genuinely heartfelt, you will naturally find the teachers who are lineage holders of enlightened traditions. I had the honor of attending the presentation of James Vukelich during Indigenous Heritage month. His well-prepared presentation with great graphics was on the Seventh Generation and the Seven Teachings of the Grandfathers. Thanksgiving of 2016 at Standing Rock was an expression of the Seventh Generation rising up to stop the Keystone Pipeline going under the Missouri River on unceded land of the Standing Rock nation. There are many offers of programs that promise to take you to success and prosperity. The marketplace is full. Sincere students of reality will learn that all appearances are impermanent, that change is always happening. You do not have to be perfect to appreciate these basic truths but serious students will soon learn that all actions have results and the karmic accumulation we all carry is a mix of good and bad that goes back to beginningless time. Attachment to anything will burn us out and even backfire as our efforts to determine the results we want run into endless obstacles. There may be times we get in the flow and our work is fruitful. However, you may have noticed we are not able to cure all the suffering of this world. We may have the intention to cure suffering but not the skillful means. It is good to keep your intention pure and simultaneously notice how habitual patterns sabotage your intention. It becomes apparent that the compliance culture and its bureaucracy continue the genocide that is endemic in global relations. Taxes and waste grow a war system that is out of control. We need to take another look at our everyday life. Who benefits from our labor? If you read the article from Hamburg, Germany in the October 31 Groundcover you will learn much about the wealth gap and the need to tax the rich. Quite a good article. I want us to look at wealth as it is being created and begin sharing the wealth there. Gratitude for our creative labor of body, speech and mind is a great asset. An analysis of who contributed is necessary to begin equitable distribution. Some priority would go to those who were most essential in the creation process. The work of people who produce and care for children would get the first share. Workers of the future need to be nurtured so education would be at the head of the line. We need lots of discussion because we are not used to thinking about proper distribution of wealth. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote extensively on this theme and we should pick up from that lineage. They are the source of “From each according to their ability, to each according to their contribution” which evolved to “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.” It will be interesting to pursue this in our everyday life. Contract negotiations take on a new dimension. General strikes will make the point about the importance of labor. We have much to learn about participatory life. We are fortunate to be in the era of history when it is possible to look at freedom in the context of liberated labor. Our gratitude for the creativity we embody will bring “liberty and justice for all.” We know these words and have used them smugly as if we have arrived when the journey is just beginning. Take another breath and start fresh. DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 November and December are very beautiful and colorful months. In November the color of the trees is so pretty. In November and December people’s houses and offices are decorated so colorful and pretty. These two months are beautiful and colorful when you’re inside and when you’re outside. Everywhere reminds me of Las Vegas with the colors and lights. It is a beautiful time to be with people you love, your friends and family. It is also a good time to window shop and just take walks and look at things even if you can’t afford to buy them. It’s also a good time to GROUNDCOVER NEWS Colorful and festive times go to art museums and libraries and cook delicious meals on a budget. One good meal I can think of is rice pudding. Another good meal is Chex Mix. You can also make spaghetti that tastes like pizza. Those are a few delicious meals on a budget. It’s fun to do artwork in December and November, even though I do it all year round. DS: What do you like about the months of November and December? Jessi Averill, Groundcover volunteer and board member: I like that it feels like most people are slowing down and taking more time to be with family and close friends. DS: What do you think about Christmas and fall decorations? JA: I like the special colorful lights that people will hang up on the outside of their homes. Inside my home I put together an altar with family and friends who have passed on who I want to remember during this time of year. This is a type of memorial I set up that looks festive like a decoration. 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PANHANDLERS Panhandlers vs. street vendors There are many hustles in the streets of America when it comes to low-income and unhoused people. In the streets of Washtenaw County, you might see the unhoused panhandling or selling Groundcover News to make money. People might think panhandling and selling street newspapers are the same thing, but they are not. There are a lot of differences between the two street hustles. I thought the same way when I first started selling Groundcover News, but soon I became educated by reading the publication. I learned quickly that I was involved in something much more than making a few bucks. I read an article written by Groundcover writer and vendor William Shakespeare on Ida B. Wells, titled, “Anti-Lynch Crusader.” Then I came to learn about Frederick Douglass, an American Abolitionist, and how they both used publications like street newspapers to bring awareness and to make change during turbulent times in American history. A panhandler is like a rebel without a cause, whereas a street newspaper vendor is representing a cause whether he or she knows it. The main purpose of a street newspaper is to provide employment for the homeless and low-income individuals, and to bring awareness to homelessness, poverty and social justice. Most panhandlers panhandle for their immediate wants and needs. Some panhandlers plead in the name of food, knowing damn well they’re going to get some crack (drugs). Don’t get me wrong, this is not always the case, because some panhandlers have good intentions and mean well. MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Unlike the street newspaper vendor, the panhandler doesn’t have to put money into making money. A newspaper vendor has to pay for the newspapers he or she sells. At Groundcover News the vendor pays fifty cents per newspaper and then resells the newspaper for two dollars, making a $1.50 profit. Another difference is accountability. The street panhandler has nothing and no one to account to. Whereas the newspaper vendor has not only the street newspaper as an organization to account to but also his fellow vendors. What most people don’t know is that newspaper street vendors are independent contractors who provide valuable information to the community by being a part of production (writings and photos) and newspaper sales. Groundcover provides the unhoused and those in poverty a platform for their voices and support in Washtenaw County through the publication itself and through social and civil engagements, where vendors can voice their opinion and concerns in civil and public matters that concern the unhoused / low-income community. Before Groundcover News, when I was unhoused and addicted to drugs and alcohol, I used to panhandle to get what I felt I needed, like food, alcohol and drugs. As I grew as a man, I got off drugs and alcohol and got a job. I began to regain my sense of pride. I didn’t want to have to ask others for food, clothing and shelter. It's in our nature to be independent. As parents we have watched many times our children seek their independence — they don’t want to hold your hand when crossing the street, or they want to zip up their own coat. It's normal to seek independence! There are a lot of unhoused individuals who suffer and have been diagnosed with mental illnesses. Some unhoused mentally ill individuals are on drugs, furthering the problem of mental illness and their unhoused status. I have been asked several times while selling Groundcover News by customers: “How do I know who to give money to because I don’t want to give money to someone who is going to buy drugs with that money?” I always tell them to seek conversation with the unhoused and learn their story. A lot of the unhoused and those with mental illness have few friends, so friendship goes a long way in the unhoused community. Make a friend and assess their needs, and offer aid and assistance where you see fit. I myself give to people regularly because I know their story. I have been involved in the unhoused community for over 20 years and I learned that by communicating, one can gain a better picture of the unhoused community, and the individual whom you met. Support street newspaper vendors and the unhoused community! Happy Holidays!!! NOVEMBER 28, 2025 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. NOVEMBER 28, 2025 COMMUNITY EVENTS community EVENTS YPSI ARTISANS HOLIDAY MARKET Saturday and Sunday, November 29-30, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Ypsilanti Freighthouse, 100 Market Pl. Showcasing over 40 Ypsilanti-based small businesses, talented crafters and nonprofit organizations. Discover unique, handcrafted goods and support local artistry while enjoying live entertainment throughout the event. Occuring again Dec. 20-21. "A CHRISTMAS STORY" AT THE MICHIGAN THEATER Sunday, November 30, 1:30 p.m., Michigan Theater, 603 E Liberty St. Delightful, affectionate, and funny memoir of a 1940s childhood and the quest for a BB gun. FREE with reservation at marquee-arts.org. FILM SCREENING | DID YOU GUYS EAT?/¿YA COMIERON? Monday, December 1, 6:30- 7:45 p.m., AADL downtown, Lower Level Program Room "Did You Guys Eat?/¿Ya comieron? Stories of Michigan Agriculture" is a journey into the heart of Mid-Michigan's agricultural landscape — one of the most diverse in the nation. Second only to California in crop variety, Michigan's farms are as varied as the people who work them. This documentary follows the rhythm of the growing season, focusing on the individuals whose labor brings food to our tables: small family farmers, organic growers, and the often-overlooked seasonal migrant workers. Filmmaker Stephany Slaughter will be in attendance. RADICAL UNLEARNING: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF CREATING CHANGE FROM WITHIN Wednesday, December 3, 6:30 p.m. Literati Bookstore, 124 E. Washington St. Ann Arbor North Carolina–based journalist and transgender activist Lewis Raven Wallace discusses his new book about how to challenge deeply held beliefs and ideologies. Free. PRISON CREATIVE ARTS PROJECT ONLINE ART AUCTION Thursday, December 4 to Friday December 5, online The Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP) brings those impacted by the justice system together with the University of Michigan community for artistic collaboration, mutual learning and growth. The Art Auction Online will raise money for the 30th Annual Exhibition of Artists in Michigan Prisons, the largest and longest-running art show of its kind in the US, featuring hundreds of original, handmade works by incarcerated artists in Michigan. Online bidding link will be posted here at 9 a.m. on December 4: http://myumi.ch/z9x3R. The auction opens at 9 a.m. on December 4th and closes at 11:59 p.m. on December 5th. Artwork may be picked up at the PCAP studio or shipped. MIDNIGHT MADNESS Friday, December 5, from 5 p.m. - 12 a.m. Main Street, State Street and Kerrytown Ann Arbor's beloved downtown holiday shopping event is bigger and better than ever! Midnight Madness returns in all three iconic downtown districts. KindleFest in Kerrytown: This German inspired holiday market features artisans and vendors selling holiday wares, plus live music and kids events. Local food options are available for purchase under the glow of holiday lights. ARTISTS & THEIR TEACHERS: THE POWER OF MENTORSHIP AND THE TRANSFER OF IDEAS Friday, December 5, from 6 - 9 p.m. CultureVerse Gallery, 309 S. Main St., Ann Arbor Artists & Their Teachers: The Power of Mentorship in the Transfer of Ideas will feature seven Artist-Teacher combinations that describe the demonstrable impact of the teaching & learning process. Join A2 Jazz Fest for an opening reception.This event will feature an expansive variety of artistic media, from painting and sculpture to furniture and fashion design. FIRST FRIDAYS YPSI Friday, December 5, from 5 p.m. - 12 a.m. Downtown Ypsi, Depot Town Explore area businesses to shop exclusive discounts, attend pop-up events and galleries featuring Ypsilanti area artists and performers, and experience the Ypsi arts scene in all its forms. This is the last First Friday until April 2026. YPSI FINE ARTS CLUB Wednesday, December 10, 5-8 p.m. Riverside Arts Center, 64 N. Huron St. Ypsilanti Artists, art lovers, collectors, curators — everyone is welcome from Ypsi and beyond! Attendees are not required to present. Anyone is welcome to simply gather with our community and enjoy the incredible artwork. Occurs every two Wednesdays. LIGHT UP THE HOLIDAYS WITH SONG Thursday, December 11, 7:30-9:30 p.m. Morris Lawrence Building Towsley Auditorium at Washtenaw Community College, 4800 E Huron River Dr, Ann Arbor The Ypsilanti Community Choir presents: Light Up the Holidays with Song. Ariel Toews Ricotta will direct selections including The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth, We Need A Little Christmas, Sweet Silent Night, and Deck the Halls. ANN ARBOR CIVIC CHORUS' COMMUNITY HOLIDAY SING Saturday, December 13, 4:30-5:15 p.m. Kerrytown Farmers Market, 315 Detroit St. Ann Arbor All are welcome, music and lyrics provided! Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Visit any of our five locations across town to browse books, magazines, newspapers, and more. Check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, or even home tools—you name it! Enjoy fast and free WiFi, study and meeting rooms, and plenty of comfortable spaces to relax or hang out. Fifth Ave Press AADL founded Fifth Avenue Press in 2017 to support the local writing community and promote the creation of original content. The imprint publishes works by authors who live in Washtenaw County. Consider submitting your finished manuscript to Fifth Avenue Press today at fifthave.aadl.org. Unusual Stuff to Borrow There’s more to borrow at AADL than books, music, and movies. To name a few, there are games, telescopes, stories-to-go kits, and home tools. Check out these unusual yet handy items during your next library visit. FEATURED EVENT 5 Saturday, December 13 • 11 AM–6 PM • Downtown Library Tiny Expo features over 75 artists & crafters selling handmade wares in the lobby of the Downtown Library! Our annual show is a great way to support your community and find unique gifts. Learn more at aadl.org/tinyexpo.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ANN ARBOR NOVEMBER 28, 2025 Ann Arbor for Public Power ballot initiative: all power to the people! Some people would say Detroit Edison — DTE — is unclean, unreliable and unaffordable. The members of A2P2, Ann Arbor for Public Power, share that sentiment. Ann Arbor for Public Power is a group of neighbors who decided they were fed up with the abuse of Big Power on the environment and the community. In November 2026, A2P2 plans to take the first step in taking the power back from DTE and put control of energy in the hands of the people who depend on it. I interviewed Brian Geiringer, the Executive Director of A2P2, to learn more about the organization and their ballot initiative. If passed, the initiative will establish a board of directors that will begin the process of taking over the management of Ann Arbor’s electricity supply. “Tell me about A2P2,” I asked. “Ann Arbor for Public Power is an org that started in 2020 with the purpose of getting rid of DTE entirely,” Brian stated. “The first thing the organizers looked at was the city of Ann Arbor's A2ZERO Plan for Sustainability, which is a 10-year plan to produce net zero emissions from electricity by 2030. What they found is that most of the electricity emissions, and most of Ann Arbor's electricity, is from Detroit Edison. So in order for Ann Arbor to be net zero on electricity, we have to be free from DTE.” Brian went on to say that the organizers decided to exercise the rights given in the state constitution to take ownership of the electricity. Notable members and supporters of A2P2, such as Jeff Irwin, Yousef Rabhi and Michelle Deatrick, agree that having Ann Arbor run its own electricity, the same way it runs its own water, can help achieve 100% renewable energy. “I did a little bit of research on how power is generated,” I stated. “What I'm not clear on, though, is doesn't DTE own all the infrastructure, like the machines that make the electricity and the wires that transport it?” “Good question,” Brian replied, “it's very weird. DTE does energy generation, mostly on the east side of the state, and then also does distribution; those are two separate entities. There's also actually a go-between, The Midcontinent Independent System Operator. This is what we call “the grid.” MISO is a non-profit that manages electricity transmission across large regions.” Then I wanted to know, “What if somebody bought a farm and put windmills on it for the purpose of generating electricity for a small town like in substations and that sort of thing. So I assume they would coordinate. And I should say it could also be coordinated at a statewide level or at a national level.” “It sounds like you're talking about rendering DTE obsolete by creating power on a neighborhood-by-neighJIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 Dexter or Chelsea?” Brian answered, “Well, if they did it for Dexter, they'd have to sell it to DTE, and then DTE would sell it back to them because of the infrastructure. Or they can create their own internal city-generated electricity like Ann Arbor did with the Sustainable Energy Utility which allows residents to produce and consume energy generated by solar panels and battery storage systems within the city.” (If it was done in Chelsea, it would be a different situation because Chelsea actually has a municipal electrical utility.) “Couldn’t the Dexter solar/wind farm install their own poles and wires?” I asked. “Yes, the city [would allow the farm to have] that power,” Brian replied. “It is prohibitively expensive but the city can force DTE to sell their poles and wires. That is in the state constitution.” “How would they do that?” I asked Brian answered, “It requires a 60% vote. The city would take out basically a giant loan in the form of a bond. They would buy all the poles and wires. Then that big loan would be paid back through people's actual electric bills over 30 years.” Brian expanded on the larger vision of community-supplied electricity. “There's also a huge benefit in decentralization of energy generation. If the whole Southeast Michigan region relies on five major power plants, then big chunks of it or the whole thing can go down if only a few key places fail. But if every neighborhood has a solar array and a mini-windmill, then if your neighborhood goes out, you can come to my house. If mine goes out, I can go to your house, because they're independent of each other. And properly networked, you could have half of it go out, but be able to share electricity from other active sources.” Brian continued, “I think that the different municipalities could coordinate. There are some things about electricity that benefit from greater coordination, for sure. Like how to put borhood basis,” I asked. “Yes,” Brian said with emphasis. “Is that what the ballot initiative is about?” “Yes,” Brian answered, “in 2026, A2P2 is running a ballot initiative that will be voted on in the November election. “It will create the democratic hybrid board of the future public electric utility. We want to make sure that the future public power is run with at least some democratic control. So in 2026, if we're successful in passing the ballot initiative, the city will begin the process of creating that board. Then in 2028, every ward will elect one person to the public electric board and the city council would appoint four people. Finally a nine-person public power board would be created in 2028 that would gear up the city to actually take over [electricity production]. So it's going to be exciting; it's going to be very exciting.” “We talk about housing, and how housing should be free, but I mean, housing isn't much without power, so shouldn't power be free?” I asked. “I told someone one time that I thought electricity was a human right,” Brian agreed. Then I said, “As an environmentalist I reconciled the need for electricity a long time ago, because a basic human need is heat. If you're in temperatures that cause hypothermia, you can only go three hours without proper heat. So, in the wintertime, you have to have a fuel source. We used to burn wood, but with modern technology we can harness heat from the sun and spit it out through a space heater. Electricity keeps our hot food hot and cold food cold.” Brian added, “Not having AC can be life-threatening in Phoenix. Not to mention, there's tons of people who rely on electricity to stay alive through health-aid machines.” According to reporting by Crain’s Detroit Business, DTE and Consumers Energy faced heightened scrutiny after widespread outages in 2023. This is no surprise as DTE is a publicly-traded for-profit corporation. Substandard response in a crisis is probably due to preserving the bottom line. Paying employees overtime is an expense capitalists try to avoid. “Do you remember in 2021,” Brian began, “this big winter storm hit Texas and a bunch of people died? It was the worst winter storm they’d ever had. The grid had been neglected in favor of corporate profits enjoyed by the Texas energy moguls. The grid failed. People died. I'm scared of that happening here.” Brian continued exposing the profit motive of the corporation. “DTE is sending 15% of every one of your bills straight to Wall Street, straight to shareholders. And more of it is spent on executive salaries, more of it is spent on advertising, even though they have a monopoly, and a bunch of it is spent on lobbying against climate-positive legislation as far away as California.” At the time of writing, November 20, one share of DTE stock was worth $135. Meanwhile, a growing number of Michigan residents are unable to pay their electric bills. The risk is rising due to a recent halt in LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) funding. LIHEAP normally helps more than 400,000 Michigan households cover utility costs, and without it many families have been pushed closer to disconnection. If the ballot initiative passes, Ann Arbor residents can expect fewer and shorter outages, eventual lower prices, and net zero emissions. The money collected from bills goes directly to keep the system up-to-date and pay the people doing the work to keep it running. “How can people help with the ballot initiative?” I asked. Brian replied, “A2P2 is going to be collecting signatures to get on the ballot, as early as January. And then there will be months of signature collection. And then it'll turn into a campaign to make sure everyone votes yes to create the public power board. So people should go to the website and volunteer to help get rid of DTE.” I offered Brian a challenge. “Let's say that you're out in front of Meijer, you're standing out there and you're collecting signatures, and you've got five seconds to say what you're about to somebody to get their signature. Go.” Brian launches his pitch. “Okay, so we want to get rid of DTE. We can generate our own electricity that is cheaper, more reliable, and with more renewable energy. So sign on today to make that happen!” Connect more with Ann Arbor for Public Power by visiting their website annarborpublicpower.org/ NOVEMBER 28, 2025 YPSILANTI GROUNDCOVER NEWS Pregnant residents and parents of newborns in Ypsilanti can apply for temporary Unqualified Basic Income December 1st TONY Groundcover contributor Starting at 9 a.m. December 1, 2025, pregnant residents of Ypsilanti, and those with newborns born on or after December 1 can apply for RxKids (rxkids.org); an unqualified basic income program. The program provides $1,500 during pregnancy, and $500 per month for six to 12 months of a newborn’s new life. Unqualified basic income is undeniably effective at increasing quality of life and addressing the immediate needs of those in poverty. Giving people basic income benefits entire communities far more than what it costs. The RxKids program has been operating elsewhere in the state of Michigan and evidence shows improvements for the entire community, such as lower rates of postpartum depression and lower rates of eviction. New and/or expecting parents who receive this income will lift the economy of Ypsilanti, both in the true measure of the purchasing power of the people, and the more common false measure of how much capital is being passed between wealthy parties. In its $81 billion 2025 budget, the state of Michigan granted $270 million to the program. The Senate Fiscal Analysis Agency estimates funding maximum payouts statewide would cost $750 million. Private funding is currently baked into the program. "Each community where Rx Kids operates must contribute philanthropic money," Sneha Dhandapani reported on her interview with co-director Luke Shaefer in “Michigan Public.” (www.michiganpublic.org/ health/2025-10-08rx-kids-gets- 270-million-in-new-state-budget) RxKids, though brief and insufficient, is a limited implementation of a universal basic income (UBI). (The current program is called unqualified basic income because it is not universal.) UBI is likely to play a major role in all our lives going forward. Giving people money is a direct solve to poverty, it is the most effective medicine for the symptom, though we dare not neglect the underlying disease. If we don't address the root causes of poverty, this and other UBI programs will: continue to be underfunded public-private partnerships, become means-tested, be bound within layers of unnecessary hierarchy and bureaucracy, and eventually be eliminated. Many social safety nets have already suffered this fate and the remainder are sliding down this pipeline. When the Black Panthers fed school children for free, they were shut down and replaced with the far inferior product of "free and reduced school lunches" where people in poverty are forced to prove how poor they are before the state will let their kids eat. If we all agreed that everyone deserves to eat, there would be no crisis when the federal government cuts food funding. We would not worry if benefits are cut off because the children would be fed as a certainty, regardless of politicians and billionaires. Our need for social safety nets is increasing. Poverty is increasing. Our hamstrung social safety nets that require means-testing, with complex applications and byzantine mazes of hoops to jump through on dysfunctional websites and in soul-sucking waiting rooms, are not enough. UBI is giving people a life without demanding they earn it. It's as obvious and evident that UBI eliminates poverty as it is that abolishing rent solves homelessness. If you don’t want people to be poor, pay them. If you don’t want people to be homeless, let them have homes. UBI improves people's material conditions and enables people to survive the growing automation of work. However the so-called philanthropists funding UBI research and the political system driving UBI policy are the root cause of poverty. Every Ypsilantian who gets this money is getting a fraction of what they're owed in stolen labor value and unjust rent. As someone who wants to see as much wealth redistributed into as many hands as possible for the sake of all our survival, I have a few concerns about the future of this project. "RxKids is a program of Michigan State Public Health Initiative, in collaboration with Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan and administered by GiveDirectly." - rxkids.org My minor concern is that this is a research project. Researchers want data. The methodology of researchers creating a usable dataset, and the methodology of social workers trying to deliver the maximum assistance to the maximum number of people, are not the same. What is in the best interest of the people and what produces Photo courtesy of the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation. 7 the most valuable dataset are not always going to be the same. This contradiction in interest is something to keep an eye on. RxKids’ published data appears to be gathered at the community level, with local statistics before and after the program is run and compared to communities that didn’t get the income. There is a risk of well-meaning scientists standing in the way of humanitarian support that people desperately need, to improve their dataset, and other malpractices for the sake of the publishing motive. The data, as you may expect, show UBI creates a wealth of material benefits for communities from reduced poverty to healthier people. You can find the project’s published papers on their website, rxkids.org/impact/ research/rx-kids-publications/ I cannot stress enough how beneficial it is to Ypsilanti for every eligible new parent and pregnant Ypsilantian to apply for this income on December 1! My major concern is philanthropy capitalism. Billionaires do not have good intentions toward people. Reducing poverty is contrary to their agenda. Poverty exists as a result of their wealth extraction. Poverty is the void left by their thievery. Philanthropist billionaires who stole and sold your data, who extract billions from underpaid workers, and those who continue to do so see UBI as a replacement for traditional social safety nets like SNAP and Social Security. They know UBI is a tool we need to survive in the automation paradigm they are creating, that they've dragged us all into, and they want to control it. They want to own it long enough to eliminate our existing social safety nets, then eliminate it. Similar to how Microsoft will "Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish" social software standards, the wealthy embrace, undermine and extinguish social safety nets. The easiest way for capitalist greed to corrupt social safety nets into profit extractors is with public-private partnerships. Public-private partnerships — from Section 8 housing to localized monopolies — bandage over fallout from the ever-widening wealth gap while exacerbating the root cause. Billionaires exist only because of labor value stolen from underpaid workers, and the property taxes in politician's budgets are paid for with ever-ratcheting unjust rents. Of all the money missing from your paycheck, and all the money you lose to the landlord, they're willing to give a tiny fraction back; it gives them clout at parties and makes them all richer in the long run. There’s mud in the pie, but it’s not a mud pie. RxKids is a research project feeding tech billionaires data they use to take more control over our social safety nets. RxKids is a public-private partnership between the state and the wealthy creators of poverty. RxKids will help people. The program already is helping people. I want to see it expanded, owned and led by the people, and I want to see it signed into law that forever going forward Michigan will pay universal basic income to all newborns, not for six-totwelve months, but for their entire lives. The billionaires can afford it, they owe it to us, and it’s the state’s most basic responsibility to seize their blood money and return it to us in full. We won’t let them starve, we aren’t them. In the meantime, if you are eligible apply December 1!

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VETERANS Sgt. Shannon continues to serve by filling veteran service gaps Many Ann Arbor residents identify with the wonderful lyrics of the historic fight song for the University of Michigan and think of our community as "The Victors!" Yes, we are the home of many great achievements and the home for many of the best schools, public safety and social services available in this entire country. Despite all of the reasons for raising our fists and pounding our chest with pride, the question still remains, “Is our VA Hospital failing our victors?” Hidden behind all of the beauty, power and pride that surrounds our county, Washtenaw is home to a Veterans Administration Hospital (VA) serving over 70,000 veterans living in Southeast Michigan. One would think that in a world-class country, and a world-class county, our veterans would receive world-class service. Unfortunately this is not the case. Despite what seems to be overwhelming need, our VA Hospital only has 102 acute care and inpatient beds. To add fuel to the fire, our VA Healthcare System only offers a 40-bed community living center and a clinical building for outpatient, diagnostic and surgical services. This paints a dark picture of our country and our county. The unacceptably low amount of resources that are made available for the countless brave men and women who have devoted and dedicated their lives for this great country fall far beneath our nation’s mission, vision and promise. Now in every dark painting there shines a light, and this light is found in the life, love and lessons taught by Sergeant Stephanie J. Shannon of the DAVID MITCHELL Groundcover vendor No. 661 NOVEMBER 28, 2025 United States Army. Sgt. Shannon served and continues to serve this country with great honor, commitment and sacrifice. As the founder of Michigan Women Veterans Empowerment (MIWVE), Sgt. Shannon is on the tip of the spear in the daily battle against homelessness, food insecurity and the abandonment of our youth. MIWVE's mission is “to identify, connect, educate, advocate, support and empower all military veterans, service members, their families and the youth in the 8 dimensions of wellness (emotional, financial, environmental, intellectual, occupational, physical, social and spiritual).” As a true visionary leader, Sgt. Shannon knows what needs to be done and leads from her heart as she is led by the Spirit of Almighty God to achieve what might seem impossible. This battle-hardened wounded warrior has returned to civilian life with her boots on the ground. Sgt. Shannon is a proud graduate of Grand Valley State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology. With the powerful combination of her battlefield training and her creative brain power, Sgt. Shannon deploys her knowledge of proven strategic tactics to address the major problems facing our country today. The MIWVE program is just one of a number of groundbreaking initiatives that have made Sgt. Shannon a sought-after keynote speaker for organizations and institutions throughout Washtenaw County and across the United States. Her message is clear: let's not just talk about our problems, but let's do something about them at the same time. No matter who you are or where you live in this country, as long as there is breath in your body and blood flowing through your veins it is never too late to get into the fight. I encourage you to join the fight by partnering with Sgt. Shannon and sharing your time and energy to stand side by side with a warrior whose words work. Sgt. Shannon is a published author of two books, and she is working on a third as a part of a national book tour in 2026. You can find out more about joining the fight against veteran homelessness by raising your right hand and signing up to serve as a volunteer with this great organization that makes a daily difference in the lives of people, including young people, from all walks of life. We are influenced each day by news reports of our government shutting down the very services that built this great country. Now, you have the opportunity to stand up and share your voice in support of the issues and programs that are being taken away by our current leadership in Washington, DC. If you are tired of sitting back and watching the dismantling of our jobs, services and possibly our very freedom as Americans, join Sgt. Shannon and speak out and fight the good fight of faith. You can find Sgt. Shannon via her website (empowermiwomenvets. com/) and schedule a personal consultation to learn how you can join in the fight against veteran homelessness. Through activities like an honor guard and drill team, Sgt. Shannon leads our youth with great honor and discipline. Through her great sacrifice Sgt. Shannon serves on the front lines of youth leadership development in our county and around the country. You might think that you are too old to be a part of this solution, but you are never too old to join the fight, even if that means rolling up your sleeves and writing a hefty check in support of the great work being done on the front lines by Sgt. Shannon. Your donation to this world-class nonprofit organization will literally change and sustain lives. During a time in which our wounded warriors are often pushed by the wayside and shunned, you can join Sgt. Shannon as she speaks out against many of the key issues that plague our community, our county and our entire country — sharing her battle-tested reflections from the heart of a wounded warrior. Your generous donations will allow you to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Sgt. Shannon. In addition to your financial support, you may also choose to join by serving as a volunteer. I invite you to join forces with Sgt. Shannon to become a part of an unbeatable team. Contact Sgt. Shannon today and donate your time to bring an end to veteran homelessness, while helping to develop our young people, the future leaders of the world. NOVEMBER 28, 2025 DEPORTATIONS Effects of mass deportation on community HANNAH BLYVEIS U-M student contributor The University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions Speaker Series is open to the public and engages with critical issues related to poverty. On Friday, Oct. 17, I attended a talk by Dr. William Lopez discussing mass deportation and its effects on communities. Dr. Lopez, Clinical Associate Professor of Public Health and Faculty Associate in Latina/o Studies at the University of Michigan, is an accomplished author. One thing that makes him stand out is his emphasis on truly connecting with the communities he works with. Because of these connections, he is able to hear and record compelling firsthand accounts that illustrate the consequences of deportation in a raw, genuine way. He earned degrees in psychology, public health and health behavior/ education from Notre Dame, University of Texas Health Science Center, and U-M. His research centers on how immigration enforcement and structural racism affect health. Dr. Lopez largely drew from his research on immigration and deportation resistance for his two books, “Separated: Family and Community in the Aftermath of an Immigration Raid" and "Raiding the Heartland: An American Story of Deportation and Resistance.” These personal stories formed the core of both his writing and presentation. At the beginning of his talk, Dr. Lopez described the effects of mass deportation, using examples from worksite raids — contrasting the common language and conception of deportation. The biggest emphasis was “community members do not stand by idly when their neighbors are deported, instead communities resist.” This quote captured the heart of his research and set the tone for the rest of his lecture, emphasizing collective strength in the face of fear. One way this resistance appeared was local faith-based and other organizations coming together to support affected families. Dr. Lopez also spoke about how schools and teachers struggled to help students after raids. He shared the story of a teacher named Leah. “It’s weird, it’s one of those defining moments. It was like, I remember what happened when 9-11 happened. I remember stuff like when the Challenger blew up, the space shuttle. This is one of those things,” Leah said. She was describing the weight on teachers that comes from feelings of responsibility for students' well-being. Some children continued attending school daily, while others missed significant time after losing parents or facing trauma. These absences created learning gaps that teachers were left to bridge. Dr. Lopez’s statistics help humanize those affected. For example, one in 20 people in the United States live in mixed status households, and about two-thirds of undocumented immigrants have lived here for over 10 years. These numbers show how deportation uproots people who have already built deep roots and relationships and are entrenched in their communities. Regardless of political stance, these stories humanize those impacted. His talk critically examined the nature and tactics of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency while highlighting the unity and resistance within communities under threat. One example from his research was in Bean Station, Tennessee, a small city of about 3,000 people with a small but significant Hispanic population. These people make up a chunk of the store owners and customers, as they have deep roots here. When a worksite raid occurred there, 97 people were detained. While not all were deported, the lives and families of these individuals were deeply affected. He highlighted that in the days after the raid, local teachers reported student absences jumping from around 75 on a typical day to over 530. This spike showed how much fear and disruption the raid created, especially for Hispanic students whose grades and health suffered. Dr. Lopez shared several powerful examples of community resilience. Churches, food banks and local groups mobilized to provide childcare, meals and emotional support for those left behind. He also described the grievances regarding the tactics used by immigration authorities: the suddenness of arrests, the lack of clear information, and the inadequate conditions in detention centers. These details revealed how structural systems disrupted people’s daily lives beyond the statistics. He also touched on mass deportation rather than deportation in general. He briefly acknowledged how the Trump administration carried out around 1.5 million deportations so far, compared to nearly five million during Obama’s presidency and just over four million under Biden. Dr. Lopez, however, was less highlighting the numbers themselves and more on the aggressiveness of current enforcement tactics and their lasting emotional impact on families. Overall, this was a valuable GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Dr. Bill Lopez, U-M Professor of Public Health and Poverty Solutions advisor has written two books on the impact of deportations on community. opportunity. It was a welcoming environment for diverse viewpoints, but still grounded in empathy and evidence. Dr. Lopez’s research revealed not just the suffering caused by deportation, but also the resilience and solidarity that arise in response. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to listen to his speech; it had eye-opening and very humanizing aspects that brought this issue to light.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LIVING ARCHIVE NOVEMBER 28, 2025 Reflecting on the first snow When the snow falls REV. MARTHA BRUNELL Groundcover contributor The first snow falls, not so silently. Large, wet flakes crackle through withered leaves clinging to the linden’s branches. They encase hollow milkweed pods below. Or they fall with little ceremony or grace in splotches on the empty deck. When the splotches blur into one another, they provide evidence of where I have walked out to greet this snow’s appearance. The first snow tends to surprise even if the weather reporter proclaimed with certainty it was coming. It rarely arrives on the day appointed for winter’s beginning, exhibiting little need to honor the calendar’s numbering of days. Snow accumulates, and I mount a search for my mitten’s missing mate. The shortening of daylight is evident. Time marches on, past those who dread the dawning season and those who welcome it. A fresh start is thrilling. This one, however, harbors the creeping fear of unknown days and nights ahead that may have to be crossed on wet roads quickly turned into slippery ice by the bite of a prairie wind. When I was young and very resilient in the winter, I worked with elders in Boston for whom the first snow signaled the long season inside when they were held virtually captive in their small living spaces, unable to navigate the sidewalks their absentee landlords rarely cleared of snow. We labor in the winter from inside to outside and back in again as we don and shed all those layers. Winter’s weeks harbor memories of a successful neighborhood effort to engineer a childhood igloo and fast sled rides down any number of hills. Snow shrouding the nighttime streets of cities I have lived in has often softened sharp urban edges, suggesting an aesthetic unity in marked contrast to the conflicts of the day. In the early weeks of winter decades ago, I waited for the birth of both my daughters. I relive the joy of that waiting to this day. Now my older daughter is married to Carmelo, whose first country was Nicaragua. He is still in disbelief that winter is necessary. Where I currently live, winter’s frozen fog ushers in a magical land that sparkles and shimmers. Winter draws from us ambivalence. There are the comforting smells of homemade soup, balsam and baking spices alongside the persistence of inadequate shelter for those who are without. There can be a stillness that counterbalances our hurried lives and an unrelenting grayness that starves our spirits. Some neighbors have the means to escape winter’s reign if they choose; others hunker in to survive its duration. Winter reminds us of limits we are wise to honor. We both struggle with and rejoice in the cancellations it brings. Winter is crossing the year’s threshold again, ready or not. It invites us to be more aware of the struggles of those whose vulnerability increases in the dark and cold and of how we might respond effectively with compassion. This season urges us not to forget that growth is going on, even far beneath the surface where all appears dead and gone. Perhaps, this year, together, we can increase our capacity to thrive through the challenges hinted at once more with the first snow falling. Rev. Martha Brunell was the pastor at Bethlehem United Church of Christ during the early years of Groundcover News. She was a community advocate for the paper and frequent, beloved contributor of essays. LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 Chills of wonder spread all over me I mean the idea of sliding down a hill on my sled A ride on my ATV, snow board, or my snowmobile Maybe even build a snow woman or snowman that looks and dresses like me Or have a snowball battle with my frenemies When the snow falls I wanna get out my snow blower So I can move the snow over from in front of my garage and house entry and exit doors I've got to clear the sidewalks too So that my children can make it to the bus stop for school When the snow falls It's cool to just look out of my window and watch it come down at whatever rate it may fall When the snow falls A warm snuggle will definitely do!! Most of all When the snow falls I just want to be with you!! - Originally published in the December 2017 edition of Groundcover News. NOVEMBER 28, 2025 MENTAL ILLNESS JULIA HERZOG Apropos Apropos is a street newspaper in Salzburg, Austria. Translated from German via Translators Without Borders. Courtesy of Apropos / INSP.ngo On a large table in the parish hall in Zell am See are eight plates, plus bright red and green cups. In the middle, there is a blue flask with hot water and a breadbasket of fresh pastries, butter, jam and a jar of Nutella. At the lovingly prepared table, peer workers Elke Hollaus and Hannes Motal wait every first and third Monday of the month for the participants of a conversation group for people with mental illness. The offer of conversation in the morning helps to give the day a structure. At breakfast together, people talk and feel that they are welcome. “The conversation groups are for people who suffer from a mental illness or are currently in a life crisis,” explained Motal, chair of the association. Around 15 people gather here in the parish hall in Zell am See twice per month. Hollaus looks after the group together with a colleague from Salzburg. The conversation groups are primarily about states of mind, about feelings. “I ask people what they have done this week, how they feel in everyday life, and sometimes I can also offer something from my experience.” Motal suffered a severe burn-out in 2018. At that time, he worked between 12 and 16 hours a day as a self-employed sound engineer at major events throughout Europe. “My last job was for Swarovski. When I got home, I fell over, and that was it. I was completely empty.” That was on New Year’s Eve. He was admitted to hospital for 10 days. “I couldn’t walk anymore and was shaking all over. I thought I would never be able to walk again. I used a walker for 10 days. At 56.” For some, his stories about the severe physical complaints that mental illness can trigger are difficult to imagine. “You have to imagine that you can no longer walk because your head no longer cooperates. That's the bad thing about it, that your head becomes your biggest enemy.” Reading a book or listening to music became an impossible effort for Motal, all external stimulus overwhelming. “I got panic attacks. It was all too loud, too much.” Hannes Motal is not going back to his former profession. During rehab in St. Veit, the Viennese native fell in love with Salzburg and stayed. What Motal did not suspect at the time was that his ordeal would later qualify him to support people experiencing similar mental crises face-to-face. This is because all Peer Center employees have experienced mental illness themselves. This makes the nine volunteers first-hand experts. “Before you lead a group, you take part in a conversation group six times. After that, you lead the group three times together with an assessor,” said Motal. The group leader moderates and creates a good atmosphere for conversation. During our conversation, seven people have gathered around the breakfast table in the Zell vicarage. Motal places a pack of cards on the table. “Mood Cards” is written on the packaging in bold letters. “Would someone like to draw a card and talk to us a bit?” A participant raises his hand and leafs through the deck. Each card depicts a face showing an emotion such as fear, joy or anger. After a short search, the man finds what he is looking for and places a card on the table in front of him. He begins to talk and shares with the group how he feels today. “The mood cards help to interpret one’s own feelings. You draw a card for the mood you are currently in. Then you choose a card with the mood you might prefer. It’s an aid for positive feelings,” Motal explained. While the participant speaks, the others also get involved and talk about themselves. A conversation quickly ensues — a togetherness in which experiences are shared and topics are discussed together. “Basically, the groups are always about the aggregate states of being human that everyone knows,” explained Motal. The peer colleague moderates the groups. Openness is the basis for work in the Peer Center. “Our task is to provide a listening ear. We throw questions into the circle that result in a conversation. People can take something away information.” It is important to the Peer Center to distinguish it from group therapy or psychotherapeutic help. “We don’t provide therapy; we listen and moderate the conversation,” Motal said. Peer colleagues are subject to the strictest duty of confidentiality. The atmosphere of the Peer Center in the city of Salzburg also brightens the mood. The group room is friendly; the walls are sunny yellow. They are spaces that hold you and enable a safe arrival. “Before people take part in a group for the first time, they sometimes come to us for a one-on-one conversation. They look at the rooms and ask questions.” Courtesy of Peer Centre Salzburg Those who turn to the Peer Center have often already had a long ordeal behind them. During the first contact, colleagues make them feel that they are meeting as equals, talking with someone who has also experienced illness and knows the suffering of a mental crisis. “In the city, the conversation groups with breakfast take place on Wednesdays and Fridays, and every Thursday there is a conversation group with creativity. Individual conversations are also possible by telephone arrangement,” says Motal. In addition to the conversation groups, the Peer Center also has space for activities — such as sharing coffee and biscuits for people who are alone at Christmas. Last year, for example, employees and participants took part in a winter hike and carriage ride in Lungötz, a guided tour of the Salzburg Festival Halls and a joint hike to the Zwölferhorn in St. Gilgen. “Seeing people having fun together, taking part in mindfulness exercises and creating new friendships, never ceases to amaze our team. The project days are something very special,” said Motal. The Peer Center is supported by the from this pool of state and city of Salzburg. The entire range of conversation groups via individual conversations and excursions can be used without registration, free of charge and anonymously. On request, a social worker also accompanies those affected to offices. Once per month, Motal travels to the Kardinal-Schwarzenberg-Klinikum to present the work of the Peer Center in Pongau as well. “It is important to me to make our work visible and to reach as many people as possible who could benefit from it,” he said. Networking and exchange also take place in the form of trialogues. These are open conversation circles for those affected by mental illnesses, relatives and experts from the psychiatric field. The trialogues in the province of Salzburg are coordinated by the AHA (Relatives Help Relatives) and take place regularly, covering different topics such as shame, loneliness or mourning. When Hannes Motal talks about the activities of the Peer Center, it becomes clear that in addition to providing support in everyday life, the association is also concerned with raising awareness of mental health. Seeking help is the biggest hurdle for many people facing mental crises. This is where the Peer Center wants to start, to help to remove taboos from topics related to mental illness. As far as society’s handling of mental illness is concerned, Motal would like to see more awareness. “My illness resulted in a whole host of problems. I couldn’t work anymore and had a hard time getting out of bed. And, of course, it would be nice if there was more understanding and support from the those around us.” For Motal himself, it was important to be as open as possible about his illness. “I would never have believed myself to be mentally ill. I always liked to work a lot until it wasn’t possible anymore.” Today, he stands by his experience of mental illness: “That was an important part of my recovery — admitting that I had an illness.” One story that Motal likes to tell in the conversation groups is about the small steps that he has taken on his personal path to recovery. After his 10-day hospital stay in 2018, he couldn’t leave his apartment for two months. His sense of being overwhelmed and his fear of the outside world were too great. Every day, he sat on his balcony and watched the birds in the garden. “In a bush there was a nest with small birds. One chick always hopped out, looked around and hopped back in. I watched for a week as it went a little further from its nest every day. One day, it finally flew off, and I thought to myself: I can do that too.” Motal left his apartment and sat down on the stairs in front of his house. “The first two days, I went straight back see PEER CENTER page 16  GROUNDCOVER NEWS My head, the enemy: Peer Center provides support 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CREATIVE Silent virtue: being good is a good in itself In “The Republic,” Plato, through the voice of Socrates, builds one of the most profound defenses of the just and virtuous life. The dialogue centers on the question of what justice is, and whether the just man is happier than the unjust one. Faced with the provocations of Thrasymachus and Glaucon, who argue that injustice can be more advantageous when it goes undiscovered, Socrates maintains the opposite: that being good is a good in itself, not a means to reputation, power or pleasure. Virtue does not need applause; it only needs to exist. For Socrates, the human soul has three parts — reason, spirit and desire — and justice consists in the harmony among them. To be just is to live in inner balance, with each part fulfilling its function under the guidance of reason. Just as a city is well-ordered when each group performs its role without encroaching on the others, a person is good when they master themselves and act according to the good as known by the mind. The unjust man, though he may appear to PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 wisdom, and that vice is born of ignorance. The fool seeks to appear good; the wise seek only to be good. Socrates teaches that integrity is silent and coherence is the highest form of intelligence: to act according to reason, uncorrupted by pride, desire or vanity. Socratic humility is not submission triumph, lives in inner disorder, enslaved by passions and fears. His soul is a city at war. The good life, therefore, is one in which a person is self-sufficient. Socrates shows, through his conduct and his words, that true happiness lies in needing little and in living with coherence between thought, speech and action. He sleeps wherever necessity finds him, dresses simply, seeks neither wealth nor honors, but uprightness of character. His greatness lies not in what he has, but in what he is. As Alcibiades says in “The Symposium,” Socrates “slept anywhere, ate whatever was available, and feared neither cold nor heat;” he was a free man because he lacked nothing. To be good without displaying it is the pinnacle of virtue. The truly just person does not need others’ approval to act rightly. He understands that goodness is a form of A woman's worth JOCELIN BOYD Groundcover vendor No. 85 A woman's worth is valuable like diamonds and gold. Her soul is pure beauty. She's the queen of her castle. Her words are compassionate and loving. She draws boundaries without guilt. A woman can embrace her strength. A woman's worth is endless. but inner strength. It arises from awareness of one’s own limits — the famous “I know that I know nothing” — and leads to self-mastery and tolerance. One who understands his ignorance does not seek to dominate but to understand, does not judge but dialogues, does not impose but questions. It is through this constant exercise of self-examination and moderation that a person draws near to true freedom. In “The Republic,” Socrates proposes that if the just and the unjust were subjected to the same trials, the former would remain at peace with himself, while the latter would be consumed inwardly. Justice is, therefore, a form of the soul’s health. Just as a sick body suffers even without visible wounds, the unjust soul decays even under the appearance of success. The just man, on the other hand, possesses serenity, balance and contentment — and is happy even in poverty, obscurity or adversity. The Socratic thesis is radical and at the same time liberating: a person’s worth is not measured by others’ gaze, but by the inner harmony between what one thinks, says and does. Glory and fame are shadows; virtue is substance. The true triumph is to be good in silence, just without witnesses and honest without reward. In a world that values appearances, The earth SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 The sun shines and brightens up the earth. The earth’s so vast and so pure. The sky blankets the earth. Waves crashing out onto the sand. The grass and the prairies so beautiful. Prairie dogs peeking out from under the earth. Eagles flying across the cannons and mountain tops. Wolves coming out from the caves. The earth, so beautiful, so unique, so original. NOVEMBER 28, 2025 12/31/2025 Socrates’ lesson remains as current and necessary as ever. To be just, wise and moderate is to resist the tyranny of the ego. It is to choose to live for the common good, not for applause. It is, finally, to understand that a virtuous soul is the only treasure that neither time, nor power, nor death can corrupt. Follow @pedrocamposbrazil on Instagram NOVEMBER 28, 2025 TRANSIT transit RESOURCE CORNER AATA’S “THE RIDE” 734-996-0400 Serves the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti Area. Regular bus routes operated via a pay-per-ride system ($1.50 fare). Offers discounts for seniors (free), youth, as well as low-income (half-fare) and disabled people (see A-Ride). Downtown workers, ask your employers about Go!Pass. Eastern Michigan University: Students, faculty and staff members can visit Service EMU in the Student Center to purchase 30-day unlimited rides at a discount offered by EMU. You must present your student or employee I.D. card when you purchase your pass. University of Michigan: Active students, faculty and staff at U-M and Michigan Medicine have unlimited access to TheRide's fixed-route bus service with a valid yellow Mcard. To take advantage of your sponsored ride, swipe your valid yellow Mcard when you board the bus. Your valid yellow Mcard will serve as your bus pass. Visit the AATA Office at 2700 S. Industrial Hwy, Ann Arbor to enroll for reduced fares. Visit their website at theride.org for more information. AATA’S “A-RIDE” 734-996-0400 Serves the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti Area. Offers door-to-door transportation for people with disabilities who struggle to use the fixed route system. Rides must be reserved in advance. An application is required and can be found at www.theride.org/services/ride-eligibility and mailed or delivered in-person to the AATA office. PEOPLE’S EXPRESS 877-214-6073 Within Washtenaw County, People’s Express serves the residents of Northfield Township and Saline. Offers a Michigan Medicine commuter route. Fare is determined by time of day, starting point and destination. Call between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday-Friday, to reserve a ride. More information can be found at peoplesexpress.org MICHIGAN FLYER 517-333-0400 Stops in East Lansing, Whitmore Lake, Ann Arbor and Detroit Metro Airport. Ann Arbor stop is at Blake Transit Center. Tickets can be purchased online at michiganflyer.com Tickets must be purchased in advance. D2A2 D2A2 is an express bus service connecting Detroit and Ann Arbor. The service provides hourly trips between the two communities for 16 hours a day during the week (6 a.m.11 p.m.) and limited service on Saturday and Sunday. Fare purchased at the bus (passengers 2-64 yrs): $8 one way. Online booking discount (passengers 2-64 yrs): $6. Eligible senior/disability fare: $4. Infants 24 months and younger ride free. Tickets are non-refundable. Two free changes are allowed up to five minutes prior to your scheduled departure. Make reservation at d2a2.com/ RIDE THE WAVE 734-475-9494 Call Center: Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Door-to-door throughout Western Washtenaw to anywhere in Washtenaw County, Chelsea— Dexter—Ann Arbor fixed route Connectors, Downtown Chelsea free shuttle, Discounts for older people, people with disabilities, low income, and children through 12th grade. ridethewavebus.org GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers by Tommy Spaghetti NOVEMBER 28, 2025 ACROSS 1. Candy, informal 5. In base 8 10. Worked the soil 14. On or to the left 15. Choice 16. A rounded knob or protuberance 17. Black cat, maybe 18. Consumed 19. Barbecue entree 20. Creative activity in front of an audience 23. "-zoic" things 24. Oolong, for one 25. Legislative assembly of Spain and formerly Portugal 28. A shore onto which a ship could be blown in foul weather 33. Came down 34. -myalgia, debilitating condition 35. ___ green 36. Device that performs operations, usually in binary notation 40. "The Three Faces of ___" 41. "Encore!" 42. "Scream" star Campbell 43. A system for broadcasting words on TV 45. Covered in slices of bacon 47. Amigo 48. Boat in "Jaws" 49. Descriptions of something as admirable 56. English spelling for the capitol of Shaanxi province 57. Exploits 58. ___ gin fizz 59. ___ brat 60. Harvard, Yale, Brown, etc. 61. Cork's country 62. ... 63. Like some goodbyes 64. Gets into DOWN 1. Hoof sound 2. Blood pigment 3. "Your turn" 4. Colored paper thrown at celebration 5. Met productions 6. Forces something into an insuffcient space 7. South American monkey 8. "Absolutely!" 9. Not shortsided 10. Cry of triumph 11. Bypass 12. Declines 13. Affairs 21. Bauxite, e.g. 22. "Belling the Cat" author 25. Citadel student 26. Antipasto morsel 27. Star in Orion 28. Allowed 29. Black, in poetry 30. ___ out (declined) 31. "The Canterbury Tales" pilgrim 32. Dog-___ 34. Cultivated for its linseed and textile fiber 37. Golden Horde member 38. "You must be at least 21 to drink alcohol" 39. Made without yeast 44. Namesake for a discovery 45. Tastelessly showy or loud 46. Appear 48. Boorish or aggresive person, especially an Australian man 49. Copter's forerunner 50. Dalai ___ 51. The Jackson52. Hip bones 53. Assortment 54. Norse goddess of fate 55. Attends 56. "Do the Right Thing" pizzeria owner PUZZLE SOLUTIONS November 14, 2025 edition NOVEMBER 28, 2025 HEALTH November is diabetes awareness month Before 1982, Diabetes Awareness Month had been broadcast and promoted in the month of October. However, in 1982, President Ronald Reagan designated November as a national Diabetes Awareness Month. Diabetes is a serious medical issue, and about 34.8 million Americans are currently diagnosed with it. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute for Health (NIH) have reported that one out of three Americans are at risk of developing diabetes. They also reported that about three percent of American teenagers have the risk of being diagnosed as pre-diabetic. What is pre-diabetes? According to the National Institute of Health website: “Prediabetes is a precursor before the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. Adults with prediabetes often show no signs or symptoms of diabetes but will have blood sugar levels higher than normal. The normal blood glucose level is between 70 mg/dL to 99 mg/ dL. In patients with prediabetes, you can expect to see blood glucose levels elevated between 110 mg/dL to 125 mg/dL.” We do want to focus on the definition and explanations for diabetes 1 and 2. According to the NIH and CDC: “Type 1 diabetes is a chronically progressive autoimmune disease that affects approximately 1% of the population in the developed world. This adverse immune response is induced and promoted by the interaction of both genetic and environmental factors. In contrast, in type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance coupled with reduced insulin output is the primary cause of hyperglycaemia (affecting approximately 8.5% of the adult population).” What are CDC experts saying about prevalence and prevention of diabetes? Prevalence: In the United States, 15.8% of adults have diabetes (11.3% diagnosed and 4.5% undiagnosed). About 1 in 3 American adults (97.6 million) have prediabetes. Prevalence increases with age, among men more than women, and among those who are overweight or have a family history of the disease. Prevalence is higher among certain racial and ethnic groups, such as American Indian and Alaska Native adults (13.6%), non-Hispanic Black adults (12.1%), and Hispanic adults (11.7%). Prevention: Type 2 diabetes can often be prevented or delayed through lifestyle changes. Losing even a small amount of weight if you are overweight can make a significant difference. Focus on whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Limiting WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 sugar-sweetened beverages is also beneficial. Aim for regular physical activity. The causes of type 1 diabetes are not fully understood, and there is currently no known way to prevent it. A Stanford University Pediatrician, Alok Patel, recently appeared on ABC News Program which discussed the challenge of diabetes during the Diabetes National Month of Awareness. He noted that 34.8 million Americans are currently suffering from diabetes and every year, 1.2 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes. He also suggested solutions for combatting the issues of diabetes this holiday season. His prescriptions include being careful about our nutrition and to keep moving. See attached link: abcnews.go.com/Health/video/ simple-steps-lower-risk-diabetes-127353807 Links between obesity and diabetes There have been a lot of concerns about childhood obesity linking to type 2 diabetes. We would like to share the CDC and NIH reports on that topic. The prevalence of diabetes increases as a person's BMI goes up (30=obese), making obesity a significant risk factor. Obesity is a leading cause of type 2 diabetes, contributing to nearly 60% of cases. Obesity can lead to a condition called insulin resistance.High levels of free fatty acids, often found in people with obesity, can negatively affect the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. The CDC and NIH emphasize that lifestyle changes, such as losing weight and increasing physical activity, can prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes. Research and public health efforts: • The CDC identifies obesity as a key modifiable risk factor for type 2 diabetes and promotes healthy eating and physical activity to reduce risk. • The NIH conducts extensive research into the relationship between obesity and diabetes, including studies on the underlying physiology, the development of new treatments, and the impact of weight loss on related conditions like fatty liver disease. • The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has a specific office dedicated to obesity research. If you have a BMI of 25 or higher, especially with other risk factors like a family history of diabetes, it is recommended to talk to a healthcare provider about diabetes screening. Weight management through healthy eating and physical activity is a crucial step in reducing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Local expert weighs in I talked to retired University of Michigan medical doctor and research scientist, Dr. “Mad” Max. He is one of the volunteers at Groundcover News along with his wife, Mary. We did an interview at the Groundcover News Office on November 20, 2025. WS: What do you think about November as the National Diabetes Awareness Month? Dr. Max: Seasonal differences are of no use. Making it seasonal is not a value to the population, in terms of diabetes. Secondly, the value of awareness of the two types of diabetes is vastly different. [Why?] Awareness of type 1 is a medical condition for which family history is most important. Awareness of type 2 diabetes has social and economic value to the population because of the importance of obesity to its cause. WS: What is the definition of diabetes? Dr. Max: Type 1 is a disease of insufficient production of the hormone insulin, which enables sugar to be metabolized. It’s really glucose. However, people can refer to it as “sugar.” Type 2 is the block of the effect of insulin to metabolize sugar. The point is that they are two different diseases. And one is specifically treated with insulin, with predictions of success of the treatment. Type 2’s cause is not sufficiently known for a treatment to be predictably successful. The discovery of the hormone insulin and its use in treatment of a younger person with insulin deficiency type 1 was successful — that is, it saved his life. That has become the basis of life-saving treatment of type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes cannot now be prevented. The emphasis now on research is to obtain the treatments which could prevent type 1 diabetes. In type 1 now, the treatment will be insulin. The goals of research is to obtain treatment which could prevent type 1 diabetes, to prevent failure of the pancreas gland to produce insulin. WS: As we celebrate the national holidays in November, December and January, what should we do to prevent any forms of diabetes? Dr. Max: Focus on whether one has type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Limit the intake of calories to prevent weight gain. Limit what you eat. Watch the calories you eat so that you do not gain weight. The health team from WRAL News talked to Harvard experts about the best way to avoid Type 2 Diabetes. The doctors said, “Type 2 Diabetes can be avoided by eating better.” This expert advice was published by WRAL News (Raleigh, N.C.) on March 1, 2016. The doctors also said what our local expert Dr. “Mad” Max proclaimed, "Many people are at risk of Type 2 diabetes, but they might not know it.” Prudent medical advice is to watch diets and eat better. The doctors recommended some foods and drinks to avoid in order to minimize the risk of type 2 diabetes. Our readers who want to see the specific recommendations should google “Harvard Experts: To Avoid Type 2 Diabetes, Watch Diets.” It is important for our readers to know that there is a close link between diabetes and cardiovascular diseases such as heart problems. Experts from the scientific journal “Seconds Count” offered the following viewpoints, “The relationship between diabetes and CVD is clear, but the causes are complex. High blood glucose levels see DIABETES page 16  GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 medium butternut squash (4 to 5 pounds total) 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 1/3 cup light brown sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt ½ teaspoon ground black pepper Directions: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cut off the ends of each butternut squash and then peel the squash. Cut in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Cut the squash into 1 1/4 to 1 1/2-inch cubes. In a large bowl mix the melted butter, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Place the cubed squash in a bowl and toss all the  DIABETES from page 15 don’t fully explain the relationship between diabetes and CVD. People with diabetes also tend to have lowlevel inflammation of the lining of the arteries, which can interfere with proper function of the blood vessels and make them more susceptible to developing atherosclerotic plaque, where cholesterol and other substances build up in the arteries, limiting the flow of blood to the heart.” The experts continue, “With diabetes, there’s also a greater tendency for  PEER CENTER from page 11 in.” But, bit by bit, he made it further out, until he sat in the park shortly before the start of his rehab. “My mental crisis was a process. I wanted to be able to leave my apartment and go into the city, but that didn’t work. It took tiny little steps.” Always being mindful and taking ingredients together then spread in a single layer on the baking sheet. Roast for 45 to 55 minutes, until the squash is tender and the glaze begins to caramelize. While roasting, turn the squash a few times. Serve warm. NOVEMBER 28, 2025 Roasted butternut squash My Forever Reason MONIQUE CALDWELL Groundcover contributor You are special to me in ways that light cannot measure. You make me happy like the sunrise, soft gold spilling across the horizon, reminding me that each day begins with hope. You steady me like roots beneath the earth, holding me firm when storms rage loud. blood cells to clump together to form clots within the blood vessels. A blood clot that blocks the arteries supplying blood to the heart causes a heart attack, while a blood clot that blocks an artery supplying blood to the brain causes a stroke.” Furthermore, the research work of U-M Sociology alumni and distinguished Public Health Professor Dr. David Williams has shown how social factors like stress, racism and socio-economic status contribute to diabetes and heart diseases. Happy Holidays! Celebrate wisely!! good care of his resources is something that he still has to work on today. “I have my strategies and take good care of myself. If I notice that something is getting too much for me, I back off.” Once, after a conversation group, a participant gave him a small porcelain bird — a symbol of taking things step by step. You are laughter that dances through silence, a melody that turns ordinary hours into joy. You are comfort like a blanket in winter, wrapping me in warmth when the world feels cold. You are the reason I believe in love’s resilience, the proof that devotion can be both gentle and strong. You are the spark that makes my heart glow, the reminder that love is not fleeting, but chosen. Because I love you, I see beauty in places I once overlooked, I find courage in moments I thought I’d falter, and I carry gratitude for every breath we share. You are my sunrise, my anchor, my forever reason why— the one who makes life not just bearable, but breathtaking. Delicious food for everyone. Fresh ingredients for holiday comfort meals. $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 12/31/2025

2 $ NOVEMBER 14, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 24 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Downtown Ann Arbor is changing — who is to blame? page 6 MEET YOUR VENDOR: BAKARI BOMANI PAGE 3 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. b i c S Tokens granted by the Ypsilanti Farmers Market that SNAP recipients can redeem for fresh produce. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor # g P c C g g h a a p o i l a g l p . p f . . m l o O e n r r i w i o n T h t m m : r e d r m r r d u i a o n s h g n l i h a h y o o t n r o t f o e o o s N W e g t o C r r n C e a e e 4 e 1 P e y a p a 1 M i 1 0

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 NOVEMBER 14, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Lila Kelly — intern Gray Connor — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Tabitha Almond Bakari Bomani Teresa Basham Confused Cloud La Shawn Courtwright Jim Clark Marquetta "Q" Clements Amanda Gale David Pentland David L. Putman Wayne S. Will Shakespeare Tommy Spaghetti Steven Rose Strickland PROOFREADERS Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Susan Beckett June Miller Steve Ross Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Stephanie Dong Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Robert Klingler Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropriate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons NOVEMBER 14, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Bakari Bomani, vendor No. 685 In one sentence, who are you? I’m someone who cares about social justice and exposing and removing corruption. Where do you usually sell GCN? South Main St. and East Liberty St. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? Mike Jones introduced me to Groundcover a couple weeks ago. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Research at the library. What is your favorite spot in Ann Arbor? Groundcover headquarters. What words do you live by? You’ve got to earn respect to get respect. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn’t know? I love mixed martial arts. What’s the best thing about selling Groundcover? Interacting with the diverse and dynamic individuals. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Spend time with loved ones and friends. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? A nice smoothie with fish and fries. What is your superpower? Reading energy. If you had a warning label, what would yours say? Proceed with caution: If you come to me with love, you’re going to get love. If you come with hate, I might reflect the same hate to you. What was your first job? McDonald's. What are your hobbies? Meditation and working out. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? I would like people to look and see each other as human beings instead of all these different categories. What would be the first thing you’d do if you won the lottery? Move into a nice house and buy myself a nice suit. What is one song you have memorized? "Me Against the World" by Tupac What is the most impressive thing you know how to do? Critical thinking. What is your pet peeve? Individuals that feed off corruption and are full of greed. GROUNDCOVER NEWS The greatest sage to ever walk on the Earth’s crust TOMMY SPAGHETTI Groundcover vendor No. 669 The edges of my vision are blurry but the middle is clear. I am on a tree-lined street walking towards Alan Haber’s (and Odile’s) house. It has been far too long since I have seen them, so I step forward with determination. The colors abound in their autumnal splendor. Normally the U.S. Treasury reserves their money for the likenesses of war criminals and Indian killers i.e. Lincoln, Jackson, Eisenhower etc., so imagine my surprise when I spot a dancer on the reverse side of a commemorative quarter. Dancer? Upon closer scrutiny I see that it is a rendering of Maya Angelou, the poet laureate of the 1990s. In 2006 I was an hourly wage worker at Oakland University’s food court. It was evening when I heard a loud voice introduce Maya Angelou. Maya, apparently, was invited by the college to speak to the student body. The convocation center was adjacent to the food court. Blocked by walls and large refrigerators I could not see but hear. This is what she said. “When I was a child I was sexually abused by a family member. When I told on him he was murdered. I didn’t speak for five years because I believed my words had power. During my education I excelled at learning foreign languages … “As an unwed pregnant mother standing in NYC watching the United Nations being constructed, I did not know that 20 years later I would be working there as a foreign language interpreter … I am not telling you this in order to brag about myself. I am relaying to you stories from my life.” Almost as if to complete my previous night’s dream (italics above), I am inside Alan’s house. After he hugs me, I reach into my pocket. Grabbing the Maya Angelou quarter, I present it to Alan. “Can you tell who that is?” Alan peers at it intensely. “It’s Maya Angelou,” I tell him, relieving him of further study. Alan’s reply: "I met Maya Angelou. It was the fall of 1960 or the spring of 1961 in NYC. SDS had two groups meeting. Beyer Russ of the Socialist Democrats and Tom Kahn of the Youth Progressive Socialist Maya Angelou League invited me up to an apartment and Maya Angelou was there and the guy who sang the Banana Boat Song ... Harry Belafonte Jr." PERSONAL NOTES: 1. Don’t despair. He gained his power using Diamonds and Clubs but we’re gonna trump Trump by using Hearts and Spades. 2. If Stormy Daniels kept her mouth shut (regarding DT’s sexploits) she would have been attorney general today instead of Pam Bondi. 3. “Hunger” by Knut Hamsen was a best-selling book in the 20th century. It was so profound that it changed the way nations regarded food. Governments supply free food vouchers to their citizens because it reduces crime. Take away the bridge cards and watch the windows break. Silent bullying on the bus WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 Well looky here, Wayne S. has a new term to introduce to a certain segment of the bus riding public: Silent bullying! What’s this you ask? It’s the look that someone gives you when they're taking up two seats while you have none. Let’s take a look at what’s happening here. Okay, you pay your fare. You’re entitled to a seat right? So you’re looking around for a seat you just paid for. This is where the silent bullying starts. The first move is to sit on the aisle seat and keep your eyes on the floor hoping no one notices you. These people will usually grudgingly give up the seat they are not entitled to. Next we have the ones who are trying to play the victim by bringing their canes and walker and filling up the seat next to them, which they are also not entitled to! Why? They did not pay for two seats and a person who was forced to stand did pay for a seat. Here is the dilemma: just what are we going to do about it? Answer, answers, and more answers. Yes? Let’s have some back and forth here. I want to hear from you folks! We all are aware of a real need to accommodate people who require assistive devices, and we as a society are responsible for their safety and we are aware of their needs and have no problem meeting these needs! I’m also aware that some of these handicapped people find an easier way to scam and I repeat that this is only done by a minority of people. But even this causes ripples in the system. So let’s start a conversation. I’ve been doing an informal survey with people on the bus about how they feel about this — if they have noticed it and what they think we should do about it. I also have been asking bus drivers if they find it to be a problem and what they would like done about it. We will continue to be a service to the public and to the bus drivers to come to some resolution. I would love to hear from you! Please send your thoughts to submissions@groundcovernews.com. 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS IN MEMORIAM In memory of Travis Bogan JULY 5, 1989 - OCTOBER 25, 2025 Travis playing guitar and singing – that’s the way many remember the wellloved community member who died way too young on October 25. Whether it was 1990s grunge or tunes of his own creation, Travis Bogan, who sometimes went by Travis John, Travis Stoltz, Tee Thunder among others, could be found expressing his deep feelings through music anywhere from Graffiti Alley to the steps of the library to Purple House. Holding an even higher place in his heart than his music was his daughter Gisele, 9. He would talk about her to anyone he got to know, and remained friends with her mother Lisa so they could participate together in raising her. He thought Gisele was the best thing in the world. Travis, born July 5, 1989, to Jeff and Ronda (now Darish) Bogan, grew up in Linden, Mich., a small town near Flint. He attended Dexter High School for a year before being injured and returning to Linden. He then moved to Ann Arbor when he was in his early twenties and has remained active and popular in the homeless community for his musical gifts and playful sense of humor, as well as for lending a hand to others when he could. He was in Permanent Supportive Housing at the time of his death. In what has to be one of the most painful scenarios imaginable, two of Travis‘s three brothers also died in the past 3 1/2 years, Justin only a week before Travis himself. He was still having trouble processing his brother Chase’s 2022 death at the age of 28 when he was hit with the passing of Justin. He is survived by three sisters, his mom and dad, and grandmother called Nana as well as many extended family members. A memorial service for Travis was held at Mercy House on November 8. People spoke of how Travis touched their lives and many cried. Afterwards, a group went over to Graffiti Alley and spray painted or markered their love for Travis. Mom Ronda Darish remembers his childhood fondly and says, “Travis was an awesome kid. He had snow white hair; it almost glowed. He was always just beautiful, and he has always had a very kind heart. He always was a nice dresser, loved looking his best. All the girls loved him.” "Travis. You are the new Shakey Jake. Much love man." — Brian Durrance "Travis has been a bright light in the A2 area since he arrived. He has shared his music and his positive spirit freely. He was always generous with a smile and helped me more than once when I needed it. He will be missed." — Dan “Guided by music, fueled by life, this beautiful misunderstood Rockstar's light will never die." — Alana Call for winter donations from WCO Hi there! My names is Rose and I am a member of Washtenaw Camp Outreach. Washtenaw Camp Outreach is a group made up of friends who help people experiencing homelessness survive. We help keep campsites clean, put on a biweekly BBQ for the community and fight back against injustices. We spend time organizing ourselves and improving our leadership characteristics. Recently I had to move out of my place due to circumstances beyond my control. WCO set me up with a tent, sleeping bag, heater and propane, but most importantly, they kept in touch with me. In fact, what makes WCO different from other groups is that help the homeless is that they genuinely try to make people feel cared for, and that the people who benefit from the survival program are able to join in, like me. We don’t just drop off equipment or keep a counter between us and the ones we serve, like a soup kitchen. No, the homeless experiencing homelessness don’t need hand-outs, they need friends. If you need a reason to help, it’s because someone needs you to show them they are cared about. We are in desperate need of winter ROSE STRICKLAND Groundcover vendor No. 25 supplies and would appreciate it if the community could help our loved ones out by donating things such as blankets and quilts, below-freezing sleeping bags, propane tanks (1-lb green and 20-lb tanks), tents, tarps and become our family, and we become theirs. To be unsheltered means you don’t know where you are going to sleep next. Being homeless means that you have no one looking out for you and have nowhere to belong. Why should you help? Some people experiencing homelessness might be able to help themselves if they wanted, but most people enter homelessness through tragedy and loss of communal support. People other camping equipment, as well as winter jackets and clothing, thick wool/winter socks, hats, gloves and thermal underwear. And of course, cash donations. Remember that even if you can’t make a material donation, we appreciate volunteers and are always open to new members. Many benefits that help the homeless survive and exit poverty are being cut. The cost of living is rising while wages and jobs people can live off of are shrinking. Hard-working people are being driven from their homes because some landlords raise rents Buddy Heaters save lives! too high for them to pay. Yet many people continue to work or find work even after losing their homes. It isn’t fair — the system isn’t working. Now more than ever, we need to re-examine our preconceived ideas about who the homeless are, how they got there, or what they are doing to help themselves. They need our support now — it’s already too cold. If you are able to help in any capacity, please reach out to Washtenaw Camp Outreach at 734-238-3639, email us at washtenawcampoutreach@ gmail.com, or visit our Facebook page: facebook.com/washcampoutreach/ Digital donations can be sent via Venmo at: @washtenawcampoutreach Card signed by the community at Travis' memorial November 8 NOVEMBER 14, 2025 Travis and his daughter Gisele NOVEMBER 14, 2025 COMMUNITY EVENTS community EVENTS SUNDAYS AT MAKESHIFT Sunday, November 16, 12-2 p.m., MakeShift Gallery, 407 E Liberty St. Ann Arbor Performances of song and poetry from Marilyn Church, Lila Hudgins, Jane Bridges, Sonya Lewis, Margaret Weiss, Joe Lange and Val Jaskiewicz. Coffee, tea and croissants served. YPSI NIGHTTIME SHELTER VOLUNTEER INFO + TRAINING* Info session: Tuesday, November 18, 6:30-8 p.m., Training session: Sunday, November 23, 1-5:30 p.m. Location for both: Care-Based Safety is recruiting volunteers to help support the night-time warming shelter at St. Luke's Episcopal Church this fall and winter season. At the info session, learn about what St. Luke's volunteers do; at the training learn de-escalation, harm reduction and conflict resolution. A2ZERO SPECIAL HOLIDAY GIFT SWAP Thursday, November 20, 4-7 p.m., Ann Arbor City Hall, Council Chambers This event will be taking place in Council Chambers on the 2nd floor of Ann Arbor City Hall. Unlike our regular monthly swaps, the November swap is not limited to clothing. Bring up to five items in good gift-giving condition (no broken, dirty, or items with missing parts!). You can take items without bringing anything. We will not be accepting any items that are broken, dirty, toxic, containing food, or too heavy/large to easily carry. This event is completely free. To RSVP and learn more, visit luma.com/io40u6q3 To stay up to date on A2ZERO swaps, see our calendar here: luma.com/a2zeroclothingswaps COMEDY FOR A CAUSE* Thursday, November 20, 6:15 p.m., Ann Arbor Comedy Club, 212 S. 4th Ave, Ann Arbor It’s the funniest FUNdraiser in town! Open to the public, it's a perfect night out with friends and family. Enjoy the show knowing that your attendance helps provide vital services to those experiencing homelessness. Join the Shelter Association for a night of laughter and community, and make a difference while having a great time! Come see Emo Phillips and Tim Cavanaugh! Get tickets at the door or online at www.aacomedy.com SHELTER ASSOCIATION’S STATE OF HOMELESSNESS AND HOUSING* Friday, November 21, 8-10:30 a.m., Washtenaw Community College Morris Laurence Building, 4800 East Huron River Drive, Ann Arbor Join the Washtenaw Housing Alliance for breakfast and a morning of community conversations and networking critical to our collective movement to end homelessness. We will be joined by speakers from several organizations who are integral in providing food and healthcare access to those in Washtenaw County. They will share how they are responding to the current challenges caused by federal cuts to their programs and the impact their services have on housing security for many in the county. Register online at www.eventbrite.com/e/ the-state-of-homelessness-and-affordable-housing-registration GROUNDCOVER NEWS OPEN MIC EXTRAVAGANZA* Friday, November 21, 6-8 p.m., Makeshift Gallery, 407 E Liberty St., Ann Arbor Come listen to Groundcover vendors, writers and community members share writing, poetry, and stories from the street. This is a FREE event. Everyone is welcome. Sign up to speak or perform the night of (max 5 min each). RIVERSIDE ARTS CENTER’S HOLIDAY ART FAIR Saturday, November 22 (11-6 p.m.), Sunday, November 23 (11-4 p.m), Riverside Arts Center, 76 N. Huron Street, Ypsilanti GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 12/31/2025 This fair focuses on handmade art, vintage goods, and self-care products. Get a head start on your holiday shopping, stock up on upcoming birthday gifts, or treat yourself! Entry Fee: $1 suggested donation *Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week Events Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS DOWNTOWN A2 On September 23, MLive published an article with the headline “Real Seafood weighs leaving Ann Arbor amid aggressive panhandling, rising taxes.” I saw it shared across my Facebook and Nextdoor feeds, with sentiments asking “Who’s next?” — will Real Seafood Co. be the next Downtown Home and Garden, Kilwin’s, Red Hawk, and Ten Thousand Villages? When Ann Arbor businesses announce their closure, local media reports on it as connected to the larger trend. This article by Ryan Stanton was a little different. In the article, Kevin Gudejko, CEO of Mainstreet Ventures, said several problems in downtown Ann Arbor have him considering whether to continue the 50-year run of Real Seafood restaurant on Main Street. Gudejko told the City Council that along with rising property taxes due to the company’s ownership changing, downtown is less attractive due to widespread panhandling and plans to redevelop surface parking areas into high-rise housing. Downtown Ann Arbor is changing. Are panhandlers really to blame? Downtown leaders weigh in Oct. 15 the Ann Arbor / Ypsilanti Regional Chamber of Commerce held a panel event on “Downtown Ann LINDSAY CALKA Publisher Headlines matter — especially in an age of clickbait profit structures and a pay-per-view news ecosystem. We know that for digital news stories behind a paywall, a considerable majority of viewers only see headlines. And this headline places primary blame on panhandlers for a beloved downtown business potentially leaving the city, and cites rising taxes second. Arbor in Transition.” Grace Singleton from Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, Ann Arbor’s Economic Development Director Joe Giant, and Dylan Goings from Atomic Object spoke to the strengths of downtown Ann Arbor (vibrancy, walkability, restaurants, cafes), the lingering impacts of the pandemic, and the University of Michigan’s sway over the economy. Panhandlers — or homelessness — didn’t come up in the conversation. Parking, traffic and transportation did, as well as the extreme cost of living. Singleton urged the prioritization of Ann Arbor-based developers, who will pour profits back into the local economy instead of draining them out. Giant notably commented on the need for the City to invest in infrastructure for the “people who make a city, a city.” Which made me think, I hadn’t been to a city in the United States that didn’t have any panhandling. I haven’t been to a city that didn’t have visible poverty, inequality and homelessness. Panhandling problems and solutions It would be remiss to just disregard the concerns of people who spend time downtown, whether they come there every day for work or come to Ann Arbor once a year for a special meal. In the past year, Groundcover vendors have also reported increased conflict with panhandlers in the downtown core and Kerrytown neighborhood. In 2010, the Ann Arbor Police Department named panhandling the number one crime in the city; the same year Groundcover News was founded as an intervention to the panhandling problem. For some vendors, selling NOVEMBER 14, 2025 Downtown Ann Arbor is changing — who is to blame? Groundcover is an alternative to panhandling, a more dignified way to earn income. Others have never, and will never, panhandle — these are the vendors who insist customers take the paper once they've paid for it. Ann Arbor has a pretty complicated soliciting ordinance. What we call “panhandling” is not completely banned (it is protected legally as free speech), but Chapter 108 of the City Ordinance specifies locations and behaviors that are not permitted. It is very similar to the specifications of the Groundcover vending license and our Vendor Code of Conduct (see below). Nevertheless, Groundcover vendors have to contend with panhandlers out on the street, and have developed opinions on the problem and solutions. I would encourage City leaders to discuss this increase in aggressive panhandling with Groundcover News vendors, and the panhandlers themselves. As the Chamber panel indicated, cities are dynamic; there is not one reason why downtown Ann Arbor is changing. But if you get behind the paywall of Stanton’s article, you’ll see one dominant force is the rising rents of downtown businesses. This Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, I invite Groundcover readers to actively challenge narratives that scapegoat poor and homeless people. Narratives like the one perpetuated by this article have the potential to increase hatred and violence against homeless people, especially with a President that sets that behavior as a standard. Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. NOVEMBER 14, 2025 GOVERNMENT GROUNDCOVER NEWS The U.S. government shutdown and the conditions low-income Americans face During the first several months of Donald J. Trump’s presidency, the U.S government deployed the National Guard to five U.S cities: Los Angeles, Chicago, Memphis, Portland, and Washington D.C. The Trump Administration wants to proceed with paying military members but not paying the roughly 700,000 federal workers who have been furloughed or working without pay. Things the National Guard has done to regular civilians are devastating, like launching tear gas at protesters and asking for identification cards as if military troops were the modern day slave patrol gathering unidentified slaves with no freedom papers. Oregon accused Donald Trump of violating the Constitution by federalizing the Portland National Guard. I believe the Trump administration is using the National Guard to mistreat anti-ICE protesters with intimidating tactics. Senate Democrats effectively filibustered Congressional Republicans who still prefer the government shutdown to keeping health insurance subsidies at or near current levels, even after Trump has called to end it — which makes it a stalemate. Trump says it is now time for the Republicans to make their move, to further weaken the filibuster, in what is called the “nuclear option.” The Republicans couldn't get their heads together and come up with a sound solution, so it made it a draw. Also, the Trump Administration has proposed to cut rental assistance after two years, which would put roughly three million recipients in danger of being homeless. This means a lot of and warehouse operators, and 14,000 were management. Amazon laid off around 30,000 and Target also laid off 1,000 workers. In addition, this month the governBAKARI BOMANI Groundcover vendor No. 685 families with children and individuals with disabilities would be out in the street. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) at this time does not have the authority to set budget levels or appropriate money without Congressional consent. So the administration doesn’t just get to do what it wants, it has to go through Congress. Then we have Walmart CEO Doug McMillons who just froze hiring for the company’s headcount at 2.1 million employees for the next 3 years. Mr. ‘McMillions’ says AI is set to hit every job across the corporation. Not to cause panic or fear, but it’s a possibility AI will gradually take the place of most individuals’ jobs. Just imagine that instead of competing with other human beings, your competition would be robots who are highly intelligent, don't get tired, don't complain or need vacation time off, need a promotion or draw a paycheck. I believe the robots will keep their jobs. The United Postal Service recently cut 48,000 jobs; 34,000 were drivers ment threatened not to pay out on a government food assistance program, which would have affected the lives of millions of dependents receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. But federal judges ruled it unconstitutional not to use emergency funds for SNAP, and it was reinstated. Then the Supreme Court ordered a stay on the order to resume payments and all SNAP payments were stopped again. Approximately 42 million people in the country and 1.4 million in Michigan are affected. This is an unbearable position to be in at this time of year. In my opinion, this is a call for Americans to come together in these uncertain times, pull our resources together and build a better society. We should look at each other as brothers and sisters instead of as upper class and lower class; as a collection of God-fearing Americans instead of as Christians vs. Muslims vs. Buddhists vs. whatever. We have differences like skin complexion and different cultures and traditions, but when it all boils down, we are all the children of the Creator. We need to stop focusing on our petty differences and start to work together in solidarity. In the words of the divine teacher Jesus, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:1-2) Editor's note: The government shutdown ended on Thursday, November 13, after 42 days. This was the longest shutdown in the United States' history. 7 $10M treatment to the local homeless dilemna If I were given $10 million, presumably from the government or a philanthropic organization, to address homelessness in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, I think I could make a serious difference for a lot of good people. Many of the homeless people you might see every day could benefit immensely from that kind of money. I’d start by taking an office building and staffing it with University of Michigan students — they’re gonna be here and they’re always looking for jobs anyway — to purchase and distribute vouchers, arrange transportation and purchase land, splitting the money between building new homes and housing the currently homeless while providing such things as furniDAVID PUTMAN Groundcover vendor No. 679 transport homeless people to quality homes in the community. Organizations like The Delonis Center, Community Mental Health, local churches and landlords could provide locations and manpower to house many people who are for a number of reasons looking for another chance. Co-ops and Group Homes would allow people with connections surviving on the streets to collectively cohabitate ture, water, heat and utilities. Money left over could go for clean, warm clothes, temporary sleeping bags and tents, free smart phones, bus tokens and organizing people to under the same roof, continuing to forge connections they established surviving together on the streets. Ideally, with $10 million to contribute to the homeless debacle, there would also be money to contribute to the health and healing of people who may be facing homelessness in part for medical reasons or other things covered by insurance. Whether it’s mental illness, high medical bills, addiction, job scarcity, criminal backgrounds or military affiliation, I don’t believe that anyone should have to be homeless. Our society has the resources and programs to find a decent place to live for all our fellow human beings. Job training and public education make for meaningful gainful activities and constantly extend an opportunity to learn, grow, work, expand your mind, body, spirit and soul. We all can always do more for each other, every day. God Bless.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD ACCESS NOVEMBER 14, 2025 When SNAP benefits paused, Washtenaw County businesses and organizations offer aid GRAY CONNOR Journalism intern Amidst the federal government shutdown, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits have remained partially paused throughout the month of November. As of Nov. 12, 2025, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of an extension on the pause of SNAP, freezing a federal judge’s prior decision to force the Trump Administration to provide the funds necessary for those who receive SNAP benefits a percentage of the amount they typically receive each month. Between these two rulings, some Michiganders reported receiving full benefits. The ruling means that the federal government will not have to provide the $4 billion previously requested. With small grocery stores reporting that they have already felt the impact of SNAP being paused, resources across Ann Arbor and the greater Washtenaw County area have expanded what they offer to help bridge the gap between residents and food assistance. Food Gatherers Food Gatherers, founded in 1988 as Michigan’s first official food rescue program, supplies statewide food pantries and other food stability resources with the materials needed to operate. Serving 140 different community partners, the organization has purchased additional food to help offset the loss of SNAP benefits for those who qualify. Information on which food pantries receive aid from Food Gatherers, as well as their locations and operation hours, can found on their website at foodgatherers.org. Above left: Tokens granted by the Ypsilanti Farmers Market that SNAP recipients can redeem for fresh produce. Above middle: Free farm stand at Growing Hope's Michigan Avenue location. Above right: Argus Farm Stop flyered information around downtown with resources about their expanded Double Up Food Bucks and voucher program. has vowed to offer two free slices to Double Up Food Bucks When using a Bridge Card to make purchases at select grocery stores and farmers markets in the state of Michigan, Double Up Food Bucks match the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables purchased for free, meaning that shoppers receive double the amount for the same price. Prior to the federal government’s shutdown, the cap for this sat at $20 per shopper. With SNAP benefits paused, Double Up is temporarily lifting its cap on how many matches can be made on products grown in Michigan for those who receive SNAP benefits. The money that people have earned while using Double Up prior to the pause will remain unaffected. To find out what grocery stores and farmers markets are participating in Double Up Food bucks, view the full list and map on the group’s website at doubleupfoodbucks.org. Growing Hope Urban Farm Growing Hope has launched the Ypsi Market SNAP Gap, an emergency program to aid those who qualify for SNAP benefits and have not received their payments. Until the federal shutdown ends, shoppers who present their EBT or Bridge cards at the Indoor Ypsilanti Farmers Market will receive $40 in SNAP Gap tokens per week, valid only at Ypsilanti Farmers Markets until March 2026. “When the systems built to care for people fail, our community steps forward to weave that net ourselves," Julius Buzzard, the Executive Director of Growing Hope, said in a press release. For more on the resources offered by Growing Hope, visit the organization’s website at growinghope.net. Food pantries and farms aren’t the only resources in the community offering aid. Mama Pizza, a curry fusion pizza restaurant based in Ypsilanti, MORE MICHIGAN FOOD RESOURCES SNAP recipients are encouraged to reach out to their local MDHHS office with any questions regarding SNAP benefits or can check MI Bridges for updates. Dial 2-1-1 or visit www.mi211.org for free, confidential assistance and referrals to local food programs and support services. Visit the Food Bank Council of Michigan [www.fbcmich.org/] to locate nearby food banks and learn about additional hunger relief efforts. Call the Double Up Food Bucks program hotline at 866-586-2796, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. those who have EBT cards. “I want to help people who don’t have the money right now,” said Sam Motheram, owner of Mama Pizza. Three times a week, the restaurant also gives out free pizzas to children in the community who are without housing and the Ypsi Daytime Warming Center on a weekly basis. While SNAP benefits have officialy remained paused through the month of November, the federal government is expected to vote on Nov. 12, 2025 to unfreeze all operations, with full funding for SNAP benefits reinstated. This is an ongoing story. Readers can visit whitehouse.gov for updates on the federal government shutdown and SNAP benefits. NOVEMBER 14, 2025 HOMELESSNESS My love of movies CONFUSED CLOUD Groundcover contributor “Just be yourself, Sir, whatever happens they can’t take that away from you,” said Coleman the butler encouraging Billy Ray Valentine right before his first day working for the Duke & Duke Trading House in the classic movie “Trading Places.” This is one of my favorite movie They have quotes! I love movies. helped me through some of the darkest times of my life. It hurts me to hear that Hollywood and the movie business is struggling. I really hope it survives its current challenges. My name is "The Confused Cloud.” I compare myself to clouds because on a nice day they are very peaceful, but peaceful times, like clouds, are always temporary, at least for me. Stressful difficult times, like dark storm clouds, are always ahead. The confused part is that while I love to write, it is scary. I don’t know if writing my thoughts and opinions on things is appropriate. Basically I am weird. I used to fight this but now I just own it. So, about my love for the movies. They have provided me with escapism in my darkest moments. And unlike alcohol there was no hangover. I guess the hardest part is walking out of the theater and feeling my problems return. I have gone to the movies drunk many times. After awhile, even deep into my alcoholism, I found it pointless to do that. I would see the movies again during a dry time and realize that I missed the whole movie. I have gone with friends and enjoy that but I really like to go alone. I got over the bit of self consciousness from being alone after the first couple of times. I like all kinds of movies including science fiction, horror, action movies, comic-book-based movies, dramas, romantic comedies and regular comedies. I like both big budget and independent movies. I saw “Titanic” about five times and felt like I was in the time period. I felt like I was on a doomed cruise which fit my life at the time because I was drinking and had untreated mental illness so if I didn't change I was doomed. I saw the remake extension of The Karate Kid with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith and felt I had taken a trip to China for about a month. If three hours of escapism isn’t enough I buy a ticket to another movie. Of course there’s the argument that I could just stream movies and watch them on cable. I like the feeling of being in a big theater. Also I have lived in several chaotic living situations and going to the movies helped me get away for a bit. Plus, of course, when I was homeless, streaming wasn’t an option. The last time I was homeless was in 2000. This was before the Delonis Center opened. I was staying in the men’s shelter about a block away from the Delonis Center. Back then there were several options for movie theaters including The Fox Village, Briarwood Mall and the Quality 16. Quite a few of us residents would catch movies to get a break from homeless life. Now on the bus line there’s just The State Theater, The Michigan Theater, and Cinemark Rave on Carpenter Road. To get to Cinemark I take AATA Route 6 past Platt and the freeway bridge on Ellsworth and get off at the driveway right before Carpenter. It is just a short walk from there. They have matinee pricing every day between $5 and $6.50 depending on the movie format. (IMAX is more expensive.) They also have discount Tuesday when tickets are between $5 and $6.25 all day except for new releases and special events. They have discounts for seniors, students and active military. The senior discount is greater on Monday after 6 p.m. Their phone GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Cartoon by Libby Chambers number is (734) 973-8424. I just joined the reward program where I get a point for every dollar I spend which can be used for concessions and free tickets. They have assigned seating and the seats are very comfortable. I also like the State Theatre. They also have student, military and senior discounts and matinees. I like Diet Coke and it was only $5 for a large which included free refills. I saw “The Smashing Machine” Friday night and it felt good to get away from the Friday night crowd. My full fare admission was $10.50. They also have assigned seating but they have the old-fashioned seats, not the more comfortable ones. Also they are not open as often as the Cinemark Rave. They also have alcoholic beverages if that interests you. I have only been to The Michigan Theater one time and it was for a special event so I don’t remember much about it. I like Emagine in Saline which has a bar and a refillable soda machine but it pretty much requires a car. Unlike the escapism I experienced with alcohol, movies actually help me clear my head. The solutions I come up with coping with movies are much more effective than the “inspirations” I used to get while drunk. A lot of those inspirations blew up in my face. Plus, like the quote at the beginning of my article, some movies do inspire and change my view of the world. This topic will hopefully be a different article but I personally believe my higher power who I call God, inspires me in many ways, not just in Holy Books like the Bible. Yes, I love the movies.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY SERVICE NOVEMBER 14, 2025 Michigan Community Scholars Program: Making positive impacts on U-M, homeless community November is a month when we try to highlight the issues and challenges facing the homeless community of Washtenaw County. November 16-22 is Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. I would like to present the positive impacts which the University of Michigan Community Scholars Program has had in the homeless community and the University of Michigan Campus. The Michigan Community Scholars Program is a social justice-oriented residential learning community made up of undergraduate students, faculty and staff from varied backgrounds and identities. The community helps students navigate their transition to college, develops their intercultural competence, supports their wellbeing, connects them with meaningful community engagement opportunities and equips them for lives of service to the common good in a diverse democracy. (See lsa/umich.edu/mcsp) “The Michigan Community Scholars Program opened its doors to students in fall 1999 under the sponsorship of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts and University Housing. LSA Interim Dean Patricia Gurin met with students during the prior winter semester and responded to requests that a living-learning program be established with an emphasis on community. David Schoem, Faculty Director, and Penny A. Pasque, Program Director, were the founding directors of MCSP, together with Rosa Maria Cabello, Administrative Assistant.” (See lsa.umich.edu/mcsp/about-us/ mission-history-goals-highlights) The program has been recognized by the U-M Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Service Learning as the Outstanding Program of the Year. Nationally, MCSP and its faculty and WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 students have been recognized by CNN, Newsweek and in many scholarly and public newspapers. MCSP has been highlighted at numerous academic conferences with presentations by faculty, staff and students alike. MCSP faculty, staff, students, community partners and national colleagues participated together in authoring the book, “Engaging the Whole of Service-Learning, Diversity, and Learning Communities,” edited by Joseph Galura, Penny A. Pasque, David Schoem, and Jeffrey Howard, published by OCSL Press. Why U-M students demanded MCSP On the steps of the Michigan Union, Democratic Presidential Candidate John F. Kennedy announced that if elected in the 1960 election, he would establish a national peace corps program. American college graduates would be selected to live in poor communities around the world, serve the people, learn about these communities, and bring home the knowledge gained in order to enrich American society and public policy. Kennedy’s successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, spoke at the University of Michigan’s 1964 Michigan Community Scholars volunteering at D-Town Farm. commencement on a topic described as “The Society Programs” or “The War on Poverty.” Johnson also created VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America). A U-M social work professor, who was the founding director of the Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Service Learning, worked in the Clinton Administration of the 1990s to reorganize the concepts of VISTA. Some of the program fragments included modern programs such as Americorps and Americare. U-M’s official version of the MCSP’s founding history is that the students wanted it. However, the origin story likely points to that want stemming from the Black Action Movement. Protests organized by BAM occurred in 1970, 1975 and 1987. The campus climate in the 1980s and 1990s was not ideal or comforting for everyone. Many students of color did not feel a sense of belonging, welcoming, and community after they arrived on campus. Former College of Engineering Dean, Provost, and University President, Dr. James Duderstadt, commissioned a study in 1987. The commission's report came out in 1988 with the title “The Michigan Mandate for a Multicultural University: Achieving Excellence with Diversity.” The Michigan Mandate report has served as a “lighthouse” which has helped the campus and the community heal and navigate the cross-currents of divisive issues such as racism, pluralism, difference and conflict. - MCSP impacts on U-M campus Within the past ten or more years, I MCSP students attended Groundcover's 15th anniversary party on September 4, 2025. have spoken to professionals who were students on U-M campus in the 1980s and 1990s. Some of them are now faculty members and staff of the university. Some of them are professionals in Washtenaw County and Metro Detroit. There is a near consensus that the campus climate has dramatically improved. During the 2019 dedication of the William Monroe Trotter Multicultural Center on State Street, most of the students, faculty members and alumni said that change had come to the U-M campus and most students do feel welcomed. They feel a sense of belonging and a sense of community. MCSP, Program on Intergroup Relations and Conflict, and the establishment of centers such as Ella Baker/ Mendels Center have gone a long way to inculcating the student body with the concept that difference is good, that “different is beautiful.” In the early 21st century, the U-M Law School successfully made a case for diversity by the assemblage of a “critical mass” of intelligent students who bring to their classroom diverse perspectives, outlooks and innovative thinking which would enrich the law school community. It is against these backgrounds that the MCSP shines. The students communicate with each other with respect, cooperation and an attitude of empathy. There seems to be no tension in their voices and the way they gravitate to one another. This is tantamount to the ideas of pluralism and democracy. Community engagement is the pillar and fulcrum of MCSP connections to Washtenaw and Wayne County. When asked about his experiences with MCSP, Micah Johnson stated, "Outside of service, MCSP has proven to be one of the most close-knit communities on U-M's campus and it is consistently growing; it is known for the many friend groups it makes from people doing service together, taking classes together, and living together." Since 2017, MCSP Coordinator William Alt has arranged for his students to visit Mercy House and volunteer. The student volunteers talked with see MCSP page 14  NOVEMBER 14, 2025 PEOPLE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD People in the Neighborhood: Terry People in the Neighborhood is a Groundcover News column that focuses on the unhoused neighbors of the street community of Washtenaw County. This is Terry’s story. I met Terry at the Washtenaw Camp Outreach BBQ and he said he had just gotten out of prison but was not offered any housing, so I wanted to know more. Terry begins “I'm 57 years old. I was born in Arkansas but grew up in California. My mom's still there. I have 11 sisters, 42 nephews and nieces, five great-nephews and nieces, and five uncles and aunties that still live in Northern California.” “So, half of California,” I teased. “Pretty much,” he agreed. “Do you have kids?” I asked. “I have no children. I was locked up for a number of years so I didn't get that opportunity. I'm probably still going to produce one or two. I've got to get financially stable first,” he said. “Yeah, I don't have any kids either, but I'm pretty sure that's due to my personality,” I added with resignation. “Did you go to high school?” I asked. “Yes,” he declared, “I went to Gisborne Senior High and graduated in 1986.” “Did you go to college?” I inquired. “I went to college in prison,” he said. “I could pick up ten credit hours a semester. I only went to class four times a month but I got a lot of homework. I earned an Associate's degree in General Studies and a Bachelor's degree in Sociology. I want to further my education so I just applied at Washtenaw Community College to study Culinary Arts.” “You said you're homeless?” I asked. “I'm the new face of it,” he informed me. “How did you get there?” I asked. “I got out of prison, and that's when I got my way into it,” he explained. “The prison system didn’t give you a voucher or set you up with a job and a place to stay?” “No. Because I'm not connected to the system; you have to be on probation or be enrolled in order to get some help from the system. There has to be a link, and so by me not having a link, my assets are not there for me. I'm still an ex-convict. I can't receive any of the stuff that current ex-convicts do on probation. If I get in some trouble, they're going to run my name, and they're going to say, ‘Oh, you're an ex-convict.’ So, my conviction doesn't disappear. So why shouldn't I be able to get some assistance so I don't have JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 to repeat the cycle?” Terry’s punishment continues beyond prison by having a criminal record that follows him everywhere. Now he can't get a job. He can't get housing and he faces harassment by the police due to stigma. The system sets him up to fail by not providing a way to get the things he needs to survive. Without those, any human being may compromise morality. It’s as if the system wants him to fail. “I also think that, you know, our incarceration system, I mean, it's like if we took care of everything at home and in the community, we wouldn't need it,” he said. “Just like the police, for instance. I personally believe that, again, if we see the police, and we have a certain fear of them, whatever it may be, and we're still, at the end of the day, respecting them. But they need to be more committed to their stuff. Personally, I think that they should go into the neighborhoods on foot. I think that they should go into those small clubs, talk to people, walk around, chat with people, do different stuff. It may take some time, but if you build that relationship, I guarantee you that it will get better.” “What's the connection you have with Washtenaw County? ” I asked. “I have a connection with the Department of Community Corrections. Many people experiencing homelessness after incarceration come through here and are met by groups like A Brighter Way, Home of New Vision and Supreme Felons. They are people that do stuff like you do [mutual aid work]. They do reentry to help you with housing, Section 8, and get people out of jail. They also try to do some preventative work. This is the type of stuff they do. Homeless people come through there every day. And they all have little rooms that they go into. We all hang out there and talk to each other, strategize what we're going to do for the weekend, what's coming up, what's going to happen.” “Do you have family here that can help?” I asked. “I have family here, but I barely know them at all. There's no ‘hey, come over here to get a hug and make GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Terry is working towards stability and a life of service despite challenges from the carceral system. a sandwich.’ Which is unfortunate,” he said regretfully. “Where's life taking you now? What are you working on to get out of that tent?” I wanted to know. “I work with a lady at Community Corrections named Keila Irwin. She told me they get Section 8 vouchers and selection is based on your circumstances. If you qualify, within a week or two you get housing,” he answered. “I already talked to this other lady who told me once I get an apartment she would introduce me to some people that will furnish it.” Terry continued, “The number one thing I need is a job and I have a lead on one.” “What's the job?” I asked. “Kroger,” Terry replied. “The manager told me they were full right now but there's a turnover that starts when it gets cold. He said most of the time they always need a third shift worker. He said a lot of people don't like it. I said, yeah, I have no problem with the third shift. I need work.” Terry believes in giving back so he spends a lot of time helping out around the LEAF harm reduction facility. “And I like it,” he remarked. “I really like talking to people. I really like living the struggle. I like being in the struggle. Because as I come up, I know exactly what's needed. I know exactly how to apply what I know because I'm right here. I’ve lived it.” Terry’s desire to give back to the homelessness advocate network is common among survivors of homelessness. A “foxhole camaraderie" forms among homelessness survivors. People begin to accept each other unconditionally, to go to great lengths to help people overcome challenges presented by the system, and to be present for people they may have ignored before their own tragedy occurred. “Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?” I asked. “I have been a member of the organization called the Moorish Science Temple for a very long time. I’ve been with them for about 29 years. It's a wonderful organization, it really is.” “I’ve never heard of them,” I said. Terry brought me up to speed: “Because they were very discreet, very quiet, so most people didn't hear about them. The first time you heard about it was in prison. It was a powerful religious organization in prison for decades.” The Moorish Science Temple of America was established in 1929 by Noble Drew Ali. Ali created the temple to help the African-American community restore their identity, which to Ali meant reclaiming Islam and the heritage of the Moabites. The Temple also promotes self-reliance, positive identity, civic pride and self-transformation. Terry told me he doesn’t want to get into some of the branches of the MSTA. He was referring to the “Moorish Sovereign Citizens,” a splinter group considered to be anti-government extremists. “The MSTA has leaders all over the United States. They have elections once a year, every September. There's one Grand Chief, one Assistant Grand Chief, one Secretary, one Secretary of Defense. They're going to try to spread out a little bit more to some branches. They're going to end up in Macomb and the eastside of Detroit. There's a couple people trying to do stuff now.”

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES COMMUNITY EATS! Hunger + Homeless Awareness Crossword by Regina Duerst NOVEMBER 14, 2025 ACROSS 1. Type of carpet or hairstyle 5. ___ familias, Roman head of household 10. Tree-like creatures 14. Buche de ___, Yule log cake 15. Entertain 16. Calf meat 17. Poor way for plans to go 18. Medicare sect. 19. With the bow, musically 20. Ann Arbor grocer with a "Change for our Community" program 23. Vert.'s opposite 24. Class of antidepressants 25. Ambulance letters 28. Maple syrup ingredient 30. ___ Up Food Bucks, fruits- and vegetables-promo program 35. Second half of the group at 1 Carrot Way 39. Film or thread holder 40. ___ d'Italia, cycling event 41. "Taste this" 43. Measure using square units 44. ___ House, Washtenaw County youth shelter 46. Where to find 20-Across 48. Like the lion killed by Hercules 50. Look 51. Stark patriarch in Game of Thrones 52. Lead-in to cop or call 55. Letters inside an ambulance 57. Faith and food justice org with a food truck 65. Way out 66. "Would you like to see ___?" 67. 90s cartoon nickname 68. Benzoyl peroxide target 69. Loathe 70. Turing of computer science fame 71. Title-starting words 72. Adjective used to describe Marie Antoinette 73. Kermit drinking tea or bone apple teeth DOWN 1. USDA prog. facing freeze 2. The Red Wings' "Mr. Hockey" 3. Relating to aviation 4. Pictograph 5. Origami or cut-out snowflakes 6. ___ de casa, Spanish housewives 7. Grounds 8. These, in Oaxaca 9. Surveil 10. Escape plan, in brief 11. Successor of Claudius 12. Many a Tuesday dish 13. Farm meal 21. Misplace 22. "¡Ay, ___ mío!" 25. Goad 26. Color named for a domesticated grass 27. Longtime South Carolina senator Thurmond 29. Plus 31. ___ the crack of dawn 32. Its atomic number is 5 33. German lion, or a Spanish luxury brand 34. African antelope 36. Perfect, as a skill 37. Deli option 38. Elton John and Paul McCartney 42. It may be found in a chest 45. Law enforcer of the Wild West 47. Throw, in 2010s slang 49. Polite negative response 53. Baked goods corporation with a bear cub mascot 54. Difference between EST and CST 56. Hope 57. Accomplishment 58. NYSE pt. 59. Eat well 60. Neighbors of the Navajo 61. When a tie should be resolved 62. Sit still 63. Dutch cheese 64. Auld Lang ___ PUZZLE SOLUTIONS October 31, 2025 edition NOVEMBER 14, 2025 POETRY Better Days MARQUETTA "Q" CLEMENTS Groundcover contributor I search for peace but surrounded by pain I lost my dawg to the streets I know these mamas ain’t sane Suppose to be our brothers’ keepers; why let the cycle sustain? What beef is worth our life? What beef is worth our time? Why leave the kids behind? Am I scary or am I tired? New music ain’t inspiring? F*** drugs and gun violence It’s time to stand up, let’s fight They killing us genocide We killing us suicide Right now, it’s do or die Right now, let’s get it right We gotta survive They trap us in cages called the ghetto They tell us it’s no place to go; we gotta sell dope They poisoned our music Would they let us make a song about killing a white man but black on black crimes let’s make it hit Dave Chappelle couldn’t say honky or faggot But let’s say the word nigger now everyone’s laughing Government assistance and liquor stores, it’s long-lasting Don’t put it on the news They turn a blind eye They hate us and still cry ALL LIVES MATTER Explaining to our babies why they hate us The fear on their face should raise our anger It’s time to escape these gates because regardless of the location we aren’t safe Let’s bring back Black Wall Street, let’s get elevated If they try to tear us down, it’s gon escalate Cause ill be damned to go out like the Native American race It’s like I want peace, but hate peace until our youth’s mind is saved You need more than Quit plays and fame You need more than talents use the use of your brain Come on; let’s pave these roads for the better days… The better days Another birthday LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 Another birthday on the horizon My life I'm thankful for Even though there are joys and struggles I'm still alive Only with the faith I deeply believe and live by As amazing as it is It is not surprising! The treasured day of November 26th The day that I arrived here On this earth of many hemispheres I choose to grow older gracefully As I experience wisdom from my life's knowledge Not the kind you learn at any college I just wanna take this opportunity to say And wish myself a very happy birthday NowYourRole STEVEN Groundcover vendor No. 668 Sometimes standing too fast, Sometimes heads swoon On the heels of effort. Sometimes falling Beyond ourselves. Bloody intent Pooling to our feet. Unfiled in our brains’ Libraries’ shelves. The Dream, Could have been the Great American Novel? The girl’s Number you didn’t get. Slow your roll, Take notes, Find your fidget. Regain control, semblance thereof Then, Then Get them Girls’ digits. Dark TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 571 You’re ominous & dangerous, I’m fallin in, We light a smoke, A shred of hope, Don’t break this lil heart, This izz a mystery, Will it be thee death of me, What can I do, I’m alwayz takin that risk, I just can’t resist, I alwayz bite my lipz, I feel thee heat, You’re my only desire, What can I do, To be close to you, I feel the rush in my bones, When we are alwayz alone, When you pull me in close, I’m alwayz losing control, My heartz alwayz on fire, I fell so deep, You pull me into thee dark. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS INSP Handle with care: the risks involved with lived experience While the intentions behind this DAVID PENTLAND INSP Changing the Narrative Academy The following article is part of INSP’s Changing the Narrative series. It has been written as the result of the new journalism training academy, established in 2025 by INSP to provide people with direct experience of homelessness and poverty the opportunity to learn about journalism and the media, and to enhance their storytelling and written abilities. The training academy has two ambitions: to challenge media and public misconceptions about homelessness; and to tackle the lack of representation and diversity in newsrooms. The training academy was last held in September 2025 in INSP’s hometown of Glasgow, Scotland. Real life stories are flavor of the month. In fact, in recent times, the integration of “lived experience” into homelessness services has gained considerable traction, lauded for its potential to offer authentic insights and empower people with a homelessness story. movement are undeniably noble, a critical examination reveals a complex array of dangers and ethical dilemmas that, if unaddressed, can undermine the very services that they aim to improve. There are significant risks associated with an uncritical embrace of lived experience, including the potential for tokenism, the burden of emotional labor, the challenge of maintaining professional boundaries, the risk of generalizing individual narratives, and the imperative to balance lived experience with professional expertise. The people most at risk in this space are the people whose developmental years were overshadowed by trauma and adversity. They are often marched out onto the frontline, with little training or education and expected to fulfil a role in a space that was once reserved for degree-educated multidisciplinary workers. The near certainty of vicarious trauma and the impact on people (who only a few short years ago were the client) is massive. As they connect with other people’s trauma on multiple levels, the science says that they are releasing toxins into their own bodies that will dramatically shorten their lifespan. Holiday support needed Hello Groundcover readers. It is quickly reaching the holiday season and I desperately need help with gifts for my children. It's so amazing watching them grow and learn and they really deserve to have a great Christmas. The holidays are just a really hard time for me because I don't have extra money to get them special things. My main focus every month is just keeping a roof over their TABITHA ALMOND Groundcover vendor No. 360 head and utilities paid for. I just recently had to cut off our internet because we just don't have the extra money for it. I am currently in the process of trying to get SSI so hopefully I won't need the extra help next year for Christmas. But I greatly appreciate you reading this and if you're able to help here are a few different ways you can help out: Visa or Amazon gift cards sent to my email: tabbysean99@gmail.com Venmo account: @groundcovernews — My badge number is 360 just put “Merry Christmas #360” Cash App: $Streetpapers If none of those ways work for you, you can send me an email at tabbysean99@gmail.com and put Merry Christmas in the subject line please. Thank you everyone, have a great holiday season. Maintaining professional boundaries presents another significant challenge. People with lived experience, particularly in peer support or outreach roles, may find it difficult to navigate the complexities of professional relationships while simultaneously drawing on deeply personal narratives. The inherent vulnerability in sharing one’s own story can make it challenging to establish and maintain a professional distance, potentially leading to over-identification with service users, blurred lines in advice-giving, or an inability to enforce necessary rules and regulations. While empathy is crucial in homelessness services, shared experience without professional frameworks can lead to a lack of objectivity, making it difficult to make impartial decisions or set appropriate boundaries for service users, which could ultimately hinder their progress towards stability. The danger of focussing on individual narratives is a pervasive risk. While personal stories offer invaluable qualitative insights, they are by their very nature subjective and specific to an individual’s unique circumstances. The lived experience of one person, however compelling, cannot be  MCSP from page 10 members of the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti homeless community who come to Mercy House for a community breakfast. Other students could be seen washing dishes, cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping hallways, cooking pancakes and eggs, and also putting together to-go plates which could be delivered to homeless shelters and poor people’s homes. It is noteworthy that the MCSP student volunteers perform their assignments gladly, with smiles on their faces, and a sense of gratitude for and solidarity with the homeless community of Mercy House. They also work in poor communities in Detroit. MCSP student Jasmeher Singh commented, "Through volunteering at Mercy House, students are able to learn more about the different reasons why people experience homelessness and the particular role Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan has in this issue. It's essential for students within MCSP to learn the idea of dignity and to carry it out in the world. Not having judgements based on what people's appearances are can be easy to say but hard to do for many." Any reasonable observer who sees the students at work would conclude that they are making a positive impact. They are humble in the tradition of such volunteers as the Crown Prince of UK (Prince William) who was caught by the British Press cleaning and doing menial job assignments as a student NOVEMBER 14, 2025 universally applied to the diverse and multifaceted homeless population. Factors such as gender, ethnicity, mental health status, addiction and the specific circumstances leading to homelessness create vastly different journeys and needs. Over-emphasising individual narratives without a broader understanding of sociological, economic and systemic factors can lead to misinformed policy decisions and service designs that fail to address the root causes of homelessness for a wider demographic. It risks creating a “one size fits all” approach based on anecdotal evidence rather than robust research and data. We must move beyond symbolic gestures, provide robust support systems, establish clear professional frameworks, embrace a nuanced understanding of diverse experiences, and, critically, ensure that lived experience works in concert with, rather than in place of, vital professional expertise. Only then can the invaluable contributions of people with lived experience genuinely enhance and transform homelessness services for the better. Courtesy of INSP.ngo volunteer in a remote part of Chile. Since 2016, this writer has had several conversations with the MCSP students and their program coordinator, William Alt. Groundcover has also worked with English Professor John Buckley and his students from English 126 Community-Engaged Writing. They partner with Groundcover News to think seriously about and engage with people experiencing homelessness. In our interactions with the students, their faculty and their coordinator, it is fair to conclude that there is a sense of mutual academic benefit and community engagement/service learning for both sides. Dr. Martin Luther King was 17 years old in 1947 when he wrote an article in his Moorhouse College Newspaper. The title was, “The Function of Education.” Related to the purpose of MCSP, Dr. King said that “the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and critically.” He also said that the goal of a true education is intelligence plus character, not just intellectual ability, as he cautioned, “efficiency without morals can be dangerous …” King continued, “We must remember that intelligence is not enough … The complete education gives one not only power of concentration but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.” The University of Michigan's MCSP is fulfilling Dr. King’s vision of a true education. NOVEMBER 14, 2025 COMMUNITY RESOURCES hot meal RESOURCE CORNER DAILY Breakfast: Breakfast Program at St. Andrew's, 7:30-8:30 a.m., 306 N. Division Street, Ann Arbor. Also distributes lunches to-go during breakfast. Lunch (only Monday-Friday): Delonis Center, 12-1 p.m., 312 W. Huron Street, Ann Arbor Lunch (only Monday-Friday): Daytime Warming Centers, 12-1 p.m., Ann Arbor (location rotates) and the Ypsilanti Frieghthouse, 100 Market Place. Freighthouse not open on Fridays. Dinner (only Monday-Friday): Delonis Center, 5:30-6:30 p.m., 312 W. Huron Street, Ann Arbor Dinner (not served on Wednesdays): Hope Clinic, 5-6 p.m., 518 Harriet Street, Ypsilanti. Meals only served to-go. MONDAYS Dinner: Vegan Food Distro, 5-7 p.m., Ypsilanti Frieghthouse, 100 Market Place WEDNESDAYS Dinner: Mercy House Open Hours, 6-8 p.m., 805 W Huron Street, Ann Arbor. Dinner: FedUp Food Truck, 5-7 p.m., Growing Hope, 16 S. Washington Street, Ypsilanti THURSDAYS Dinner: Hospitality House, 5-7 p.m., 169 N. Washington Street, Ypsilanti FRIDAYS Dinner: Pizza in the Park, 7-8 p.m., Liberty Plaza, 310 S. Division Street, Ann Arbor SATURDAYS Breakfast: Mercy House, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., 805 W Huron Street, Ann Arbor Lunch/dinner: Delonis Center, 3-4 p.m., 312 W. Huron Street, Ann Arbor SUNDAYS Lunch/dinner: Delonis Center, 3-4 p.m., 312 W. Huron Street, Ann Arbor Lunch/dinner: Washtenaw Camp Outreach BBQ, every other Sunday, 3-4:30 p.m., 211 E Michigan Ave, Ypsilanti Lunch/dinner: MISSION BBQ, every other Sunday, 3-4:30 p.m., 3501 Stone School Road Ann Arbor. Alternates with WCO BBQ. MONTHLY Breakfast: Around the Kitchen Table Peace House Brunch, 3rd Sundays, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., 16 S. Washington Street, Ypsilanti Lunch: Pull Over Prevention, 2nd Sundays, 10 a.m - 1 p.m., locations vary check www.facebook.com/PullOverPrevention/ Dinner: Fed-Up Food Truck 1st and 4th Tuesdays, 5 - 6:30 p.m. at the Peace Hub,1515 South Harris Road. Food pantry information and hot meal schedules for Washenaw County change frequently. For an up-to-date schedule visit Food Gatherer's food map and list at: foodgatherers.org/foodresources GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD My Granny Adelina’s Risotto AMANDA GALE Ingredients: ½ chicken for broth 1 bag of carrots, ground 2 bags of celery, ground 2 lg onions, ground 1 lb rice 3 small containers saffron 2 lg bags of spinach, ground 1 lb of sausage, ground 1-2 packages of giblets, ground (Please note: if giblets are not desired, you can substitute either another package of ground mushrooms or pre-cooked ground beef) 1 package of mushrooms, ground 1 cup ground garlic 2 containers parmesan cheese Directions: *Either grind the ingredients that need to be ground, or have these ingredients already ground. In a large, deep cooking pot, make chicken broth. Put the half chicken, ground onion, 1 bag ground celery, 1 bag ground carrots and water and boil about 1.5 hours until chicken broth is made. Chicken and/or beef bouillon can be used as a substitute. Remove chicken (and use in other recipes, such as stuffing)! Drop all the rice and the saffron into the broth, having mixed together the other ground ingredients by hand or a large spoon. Drop this mixture (i.e. of 2 ground onions, 1 cup ground garlic, 2 large bags ground spinach, 2 packages ground giblets, 1 lb ground sausage, 2 packages ground mushrooms and possibly 1 lb pre-cooked of ground turkey NOVEMBER 14, 2025 Amanda & her mom Becky’s simply delicious AMANDA GALE Groundcover vendor No. 573 The image above is of a by-hand grinder of the same type that my Granny used and I used and styled the same way. In my young adult years, Granny would ask me "Do you want to just use the electric food grinder instead?" I always responded, "No, Granny, we can't do that!" beef if substituting for giblets) into the soup. Keep stirring every now and then, and keep cooking until done. Each time stirring, add some parmesan cheese into the mixture. Use one whole standard-sized container of parmesan cheese during cooking. Keep a whole container of parmesan cheese to sprinkle on the top layer of each dish proportionately once dished out onto each dish and also to place on table for people to add more as they like if they want to. Estimated 2+ hours cook time proportions listed here. Takes 4-6 hrs for larger proportions. Ingredients: 1 typical turkey, we recommend the Butterball brand 2 large bricks of butter (room temperature) Salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and chives Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil Optional: ground oregano, parsley, ground celery Directions: First be sure to follow the directions on the package for thawing the turkey. (Typically a whole turkey needs to thaw for one to four days in the refrigerator; the bigger the turkey, the longer the thaw time.) Once turkey is thawed, very thoroughly pat dry all of the turkey with a clean, dry cloth suitable for use directly on food and typically thrown away after. Place turkey on a large plate or other suitable clean, dry surface. Mix ¼ cup or less each of salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and/or chives (and your choice of optional herbs) Cut small holes all over the turkey, then fill each with about ¼ to one inch of the mixture. Rub one large whole brick of butter all over the whole turkey and cover it, thickly. Then season all over the whole turkey’s outside with a light-dusting of the same mixture. Use a deep-dish baking pan large enough for the turkey, fill about ¼ of the pan with Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Put the turkey in the pan and cover top of turkey with baking pan lid or aluminum foil to avoid burning. Follow the directions on the package for baking (changes typically per lb). Check turkey about every halfhour, basting turkey with a squeezepump turkey baster or with a brush-baster to keep turkey soft and moist while baking and seal in flavoring and juices. (Turkey could also be flipped at the halfway baked point to prevent burning.) The details from this recipe can also be used to combine with your other favorite turkey recipe! Bon Appetit! Delicious food for everyone. Fresh ingredients for holiday comfort meals. $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 12/31/2025 Washtenaw County’s street paper presents: OPEN MIC to share songs, ideas, music, poetry, stories and more. FREE + open to all! Friday, November 21, 6-8pm 407 E Liberty Street

2 $ OCTOBER 31, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 23 STEPHANIE DENT #84 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Invest in MI Kids: ballot initiative to fund public schools. page 6 ASK YOUR VENDOR: HOW DO FOOD STAMPS IMPACT YOUR LIFE? 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Food stamps will not be distributed in November — Mich. legislators might cover the cost. page 8 Journey for Justice tour brings awareness, hope. page 4 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 OCTOBER 31, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Gray Connor — intern Lila Kelly— intern June Miller Megha Uberoi ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Tabitha Almond Elizabeth Bauman Monique Caldwell Pedro Campos La Shawn Courtwright Christopher Ellis Ulrich Jonas Mike Jones David Mitchell Ken Parks David L. Putman Denise Shearer Steven Scoop Stevens PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Steve Ross VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Jane Atkins Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Stephanie Dong Glenn Gates Robert Klingler Margaret Patston Ari Ruczynski Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropiate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons OCTOBER 31, 2025 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR How do food stamps impact your life? Food stamps will not be distributed in November due to government shutdown and the Trump administration's refusal to mobilize SNAP-specific contingency funds appropriated by Congress for this very purpose. Read more on page 8. Its a major part of my budget for food. I don't have much of a budget without the Bridge Card. We count on it to eat. My UnitedHealthcare food bonus is helpful, too. — Ken Parks #490 It doesn’t really affect me. I only ever had them right after I was homeless. I have noticed that locations to access to free food have disappeared over the years, though. — Cindy Gere, #279 I don't get them, so not at all. I don't qualify and that doesn't make sense to me. — Wayne S., #615 Greatly. It helps feed my daughter and grandkids. — Glen Page, #407 It makes me scared for society. People do things when they are hungry that they wouldn't do otherwise. I'll definitely be selling more papers this month. — Stephanie Duncan, #66 Majorly. Buy food or pay rent? — Mike Jones, #113 I don't get them, but I wish I did. They make it easier to purchase food. — Felicia Wilbert, #234 They make healthy food accessible. Cheap food isn't food. — Jim Clark, #139 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed October 31st October 31st is a special day of the year. Not because of spooky and scary things, but because of pleasant things. It’s harvest time and a time to praise God and Jesus. It’s a time for treats, your favorite meals and fun times. You can look however you want to look and be whoever you want to be on that special day. It's also very pretty and, most of the time, not too hot. October 31st is a good day for people of all ages — babies, children, DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 teenagers, adults and senior citizens. It's also a good time to decorate buildings and homes. It’s a good time for movie days and movie nights, too. It's also a good time for silly artwork, silly music and other comical things to make you laugh. I like to share candy, popcorn and all types of snacks with my friends and family. It would be nice to have a party at Groundcover on October 31 so friends can get together at Groundcover, too. Those are some good things about October 31st. It's a very beautiful day. Denise: What do you like most about the month of October? Lindsay Calka, Groundcover publisher: The fall leaves, the cool weather and the excuse to eat lots of soup! Denise: How do you celebrate Halloween? Lindsay: I always dress up as a “French press” coffee for Halloween. I wear a beret and a T-Shirt from France, along with my Groundcover News press pass. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Shutdown hurts families like mine I think it's absolutely crazy that just because the government is shut down, the families that count on their food stamps every month to feed their children and themselves are just out of luck. I have no idea what I'm going to do about feeding my babies. I think this government shutdown needs to end so me and thousands of other people don't have to stress about how their children will get their next meal. They already cut my food stamps for no reason months ago; I only get $650 to feed my off, my 2-year-old is the world's pickiest eater ever. I am truly scared about what TABITHA ALMOND Groundcover vendor No. 360 family of four and let me tell you that is not easy. Just one person usually gets almost $300, but me and my family struggle every month with food, and to top it will happen if the government don't open back up soon. I just need everyone to pray that the government gets it together. Hopefully by the time this article makes it into Groundcover the government will be back open and everyone was able to get their food stamps, since there are families like mine that don't have other ways to get food. Thanks for listening to me complain Everyone have a great day! for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS INCARCERATION LILY PASTORA MONTEROSSO U-M student contributor Shock. Fear. Hope. Those were the emotions that many people faced when the Journey to Justice bus tour arrived at the Michigan League (University of Michigan student union) on Friday, Oct. 17. Run by the Unlock the Box campaign and Look 2 Justice, alongside local partners such as Open MI Door, a bus-turned-art-exhibition is traveling around the nation to show the injustices people face in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is a form of punishment where a person in jail or prison is placed in a locked room for as long as 22 hours or more a day. Many people who are in solitary confinement are denied access to family visits, recreational activities and prison programming, leaving them alone in a jail cell that resembles an empty cage. Organizations like Unlock the Box try to raise awareness on how solitary confinement is harmful to those forced into it while working with governments to try to alleviate the issue through legislation or policy. The first part of the event focused on the decorated school bus next to the Michigan League, which was transformed into a portable museum that showcased people who faced solitary confinement and their testimonies. When I walked into the bus, the first thing I noticed was the bare bunk beds, each one cramped and featuring a thin blanket and pillow as the only means of comfort. People were able to lie in the beds while listening to an inmate's experience through a prison phone, allowing them to be immersed in the experience of someone in solitary confinement. Meanwhile, there were lockers at the back of the bus, each one showcasing a person who went through solitary confinement and giving their stories while their personal belongings were scattered around the locker itself. As I was listening to the stories, I could hear the fear from their tone in the stories — the screams of help from the inmates, the crude conditions that people faced and the dwindling morale that made people feel less and less human. These exhibits allowed participants, including myself, to understand how solitary confinement can be dehumanizing and used wrongfully in the incarceration system. While exploring the bus, I met with Hakim Crampton, the Government Relations Liaison for Citizens for Prison Reform and a survivor of solitary confinement. After being wrongfully convicted for a murder at the age of 18, Crampton spent 15 years in prison, witnessing firsthand how solitary confinement harmed him and his community EVENTS ALL HALLOWS ILLUMINATION Saturday, November 1, from 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. Frog Island Park, Ypsi All Hallows Illumination is a beloved Ypsi tradition where thousands of jack-o'-lanterns create a glowing, magical trail. Bring your creation to Frog Island. Ypsi provides the LED lights for a safe, glowing display — no candles needed! A thrilling performance by the incredible Ypsilanti Youth Choir, spooky DJ tunes, local arts mini marketplace and pet costume parade! Sign up to volunteer and lend a hand today: firstfridaysypsi.com/all-hallows AFRICAN WOMEN FILM FESTIVAL 2025 Wednesday - Friday, November 5-7, select times Michigan League, State Theater, Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor A three-day celebration of the creativity, resilience and global impact of African women in cinema.This year’s festival centers on the theme “Voices of Resilience: The Power of Storytelling in African Cinema."The event features award-winning filmmakers from across the continent alongside University of Michigan faculty experts for film screenings, Q&A sessions, and panel discussions. Full schedule available at ii.umich.edu/asc/news-events/ events/awff2025.html FIRST FRIDAYS YPSI Friday, November 7, 5-11 p.m. Downtown and Depot Town First Friday food court and normal festivities — explore businesses to shop exclusive discounts, attend pop-up events and galleries featuring Ypsilanti area artists and performers. YPSI PULL OVER PREVENTION Saturday, November 8, 10 a.m.- 12 p.m. Masjid Ibrahim, 315 S. Ford Blvd, Ypsilanti Provides free car repairs of lights, tire pressure and fluids to prevent unecessary interactions with law enforcement. Free food, pet food and supplies, A2 COMMUNITY BOOKFEST Sunday, November 9, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. AADL downtown, 343 S. 5th Ave. Booksellers, publishers, authors, and more will be tabling and various activities for all ages, such as keynote author talks, hands-on crafts for kids and adults, storytimes, and discussion groups, will take place throughout the day. Additionally, from 1 -2 p.m., the Fifth Avenue Press annual author reception will celebrate books published by the Library in the prior year. CONCERT FOR PEACE Tuesday, November 11,7 p.m. The Ark, 316 S Main St. Ann Arbor This annual concert benefits the Veterans for Peace Chapter 93 Peace Scholarship Fund. Proceeds will go to scholarships for college students enrolled in an accredited peace studies program and for programs to assist combat veterans suffering from serious trauma. This year’s lineup includes community resources and more. Laith Al-Saadi, Judy Banker, Al Bettis, Dave Boutette and Kristi Davis, Chris Buhalis, Annie & Rod Capps, Rochelle Clark, Lauren Crane, Dave Keeney & Sophie Hanifi, Shari Kane & Dave Steele, Billy King, Pontiac Trailblazers, Maddy Ringo, Michael Smith, Rollie Tussing and Matt Watroba. INTERFAITH COUNCIL FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE CONNECT AND ACT Saturday, November 22, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 120 S. State St., Ann Arbor Join to learn ways that you can get involved in a community that is ready to "Circle Up" and get to work! Build skills together, plan together and act together! Register to attend in-person or online: givebutter.com/CircleUp2025 Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com peers. He said that while he had support from his family during his time in prison, many others who face the same situation do not. “When you don’t have anyone to turn to, there’s no support, then mental illness could even increase tenfold,” Crampton said. He now shares his experience around the state in order to educate the public about the abuses that happen with solitary confinement, while encouraging them to take action in the community and with the government. After the bus tour, the second part of the event was a discussion at the Michigan League. After watching some documentaries about how solitary confinement is impacting people in Michigan, there was a panel discussion with Joel Carter, who faced solitary confinement while being incarcerated; Margo Schlanger, a professor at the University of Michigan who focuses on civil rights with criminal detention; and Barbara Oppewall, whose son Ben passed away due to severe conditions while being in solitary confinement. Each one gave their own perspectives and opinions, and the various ways in which the issue can be tackled through local organizations and the government. This event allowed me to learn more about this staggering issue and understand how it can affect not only the person in solitary confinement, but Inside the tour bus OCTOBER 31, 2025 Journey to Justice Tour brings awareness, hope also the families and friends of the individual. Incarceration is one of the main contributors to homelessness, and when someone is forcefully put into an environment that strips away their individuality, they can develop mental health issues that can lead to poor choices, continuing the cycle of incarceration. Event organizers stressed talking about this issue with others to raise awareness while also contacting representatives to inform them to work on bills that end solitary confinement in Michigan. For survivors like Hakim, grace is a crucial thing for people to give. He concluded, “There’s different times in our lives that we make mistakes. And should those mistakes be backbreaking, life-ending mistakes? You know, I don’t think so. I think that we need to have some grace, you know, forgiveness for people.” OCTOBER 31, 2025 IN MEMORIAM In memory of James Heed JUNE 21, 1953 - OCTOBER 17, 2025 James “Jimmy” Heed was born in 1953 at St. Vincent Deaconess hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. He came to Mercy House (Ann Arbor house of hospitality) for the first time for a community breakfast sometime in the winter of 2016. He told Peggy, who runs the house, that he was staying at the Delonis Center and when they wouldn’t accept his cat to live at the shelter with him, he arranged to take the cat to the animal hospital where he had to pay a monthly fee. Peggy and Sheri Wander invited Jimmy to the Ann Arbor ecumenical event on homelessness and poverty at Vineyard Church, and he went. After the event, Peggy invited him to stay at Mercy House. Jimmy immediately found a contract job at the University of Michigan hospital; he worked as a valet during the night shift from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., even throughout the coldest months of the year. Jimmy confided in Peggy his medical information after he moved in. He did not share that information with other residents at Mercy House. However, during the pandemic, we noticed he visited the hospital several times, and would spend more than a week or two at the ICU. When he came out of the hospital he revealed he had cancer. Jimmy was the kind of person that kept to himself and didn’t talk very much. He was a very intelligent man and some of the Mercy House residents teased him about how much he remembered from his high school days in Cleveland. He was living in Cleveland during the 1969 chemical fire which sparked the environmental movement. People thought highly of Jimmy because of his generosity and kindness. During Christmas 2024, he bought about a dozen $20 gift cards, which he gave away to his friends and some homeless guests at the Mercy House Christmas party. Jimmy’s death is a significant loss to the homeless community. We will continue to pray for his soul to rest in peace. — Will Shakespeare, Groundcover vendor No. 258 Words from his family, shared at the October 25 memorial at Mercy House He loved beanies and flannels so we all wore them to the memorial. — Cyndey Heed, niece He once shared a one bedroom apartment with 49 cats. He was the pogo stick champ of our family. — Nancy Heed, sister He liked the Bee Gees, Vanity Fair, Lobo and Mary Hopkins. — John Heed Jim fed cats and took care of his mother. He was kind and funny. And gentle. He drove for a career as a cab driver and airport shuttle! Still, he would drive for fun. — Tom Heed He was kind, dependable and honest. He was never afraid to speak his mind or ask questions. He loved cats, both his own and others. — Alex Heed GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Visit any of our five locations across town to browse books, magazines, newspapers, and more. Check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, or even home tools—you name it! Enjoy fast and free WiFi, study and meeting rooms, and plenty of comfortable spaces to relax or hang out. The Big Three As the seasons shift from spring and summer into fall and winter, so do the conditions shift for us who are a part of the homeless community in Washtenaw County. Just last week while enjoying a free breakfast at St. Andrew’s Church on Division Street in Ann Arbor, my friend and I realized the warm summer weather was quickly turning into cool breezes and even colder nights. Surviving a life of homelessness means just that — you don’t have a home. This literally means that there is no roof over your head, nor a warm bed to crawl into at bed time. The elements become very real during the cooler months of November, December and January. I affectionately refer to them as "The Big Three." These three months are also known as our beloved holiday season. During this time, those who can adorn their homes with lights and all types of festive attractions to vendor who you see faithfully outside selling our Groundcover Newspaper. For the small price of the paper plus a little gift of a tip, you can literally change and sustain the life of one of Washtenaw County's finest citizens. Today as I write this article I am DAVID MITCHELL Groundcover vendor No. 661 celebrate love for family and friends. Many of us go one step further and look for those who are not so loved among us whom we can shower with love. The expressions of love appear in the form of a warm sweater given to a cold woman on the street, to a sleeping bag offered to the man we often see sleeping under the bridge near the Delonis Center. An even greater way to share your love during the holiday is to adopt your favorite moved to tears. You see, there is a roof over my head tonight, and hot food cooking on the stove in the kitchen of a friend who has graciously offered me room and board. Hat’s off to the holiday season, the very season of giving that is making it possible for me to live again. By living I mean eating and sleeping inside the comfort of a home. Now may your family be richly blessed this year, and may you rejoice in the abundance of peace and prosperity that is found throughout Washtenaw County and beyond. Saturday, November 8 • 11 AM–5 PM • Downtown Library Print Fest celebrates all forms of printmaking, including a vendor fair featuring letterpress and hand-printed goods. Join us for talks by local printmakers and drop in for printing demos! Learn more at aadl.org/printfest. Book Clubs To Go Book Clubs To Go is a service available at each AADL location that provides the convenience of complete kits for book discussions. Inside you’ll find 10 copies of the featured book, one movie on DVD and a resource folder. Request a kit online or call (734)-327-4200. Byte Club An exclusive club for AADL SUPER FANS and library people like you! Byte Club will help you connect deeper with the Library you know and love, and share special sneak peeks of new things coming soon. The first rule of Byte Club is that you tell everyone about Byte Club! Ready to join? Visit aadl.org/ byteclub to get started. FEATURED EVENT 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MAKING CHANGE STEVEN Groundcover vendor No. 668 Invest in MI Kids is a statewide ballot initiative aimed at amending the State’s Constitution beginning in 2027. This amendment will place a 5% income tax surcharge on people making up 1% of Michigan’s population. That revenue will be invested into children in Michigan's public schools: reducing class sizes, expanding career and technical education and also recruiting and retaining high quality educators. The 1% of the population that would be impacted are single tax filers with an annual incomes over $500,000, or joint filers making over $1 million in taxable income. It only applies to income over these sums. For example, a single filer’s surcharge if they made $500,001 in one year would be 5 cents. They would only pay tax on the one dollar over $500,000. Invest in MI Kids needs to collect 700,000 signatures over the course of 180 days to get on the ballot. This is ongoing as of this current edition of Groundcover News. Once that is accomplished, 2.8 million Michigan citizens voting YES in the November 2026 mid-term will place $1.8 billion into our public school system yearly: into the State School Aid Fund to be used for specific purposes with yearly audits, all clearly defined in the proposed amendment to the State’s Constitution. I was able to speak with John Weiss, a volunteer who was raising awareness and seeking signatures with other volunteers at Ypsilanti’s annual Holy Bones Festival and Artisan Market (which was awesome — 10/10, will go again). He pointed out to me that a change to the constitution as a ballot measure is much more difficult for the legislature to reverse than a typical amendment would be. He went on to say that, anecdotally, even some those who fall among that 1% are behind this measure and have signed it. Michigan ranks 44th in reading and 44th in graduation attainment rate in the United States. We’ve also been ranked 49th in school funding growth since 1995. Our state is dead last, 50th, in terms of teacher recruitment. Let that sink in. All other states are ahead of us on this important issue. Yes, even that one. The Michigan State School Board voted 5-2 to endorse the amendment. The Detroit Federation of Teachers, the Michigan PTA and dozens more, too many to list in the scope of this article (investinmikids.org/endorsements) have endorsed this amendment. Small business owners find it equitable as well. The average income of a small business owner in Michigan is $52,000 a year. The Fair Share Surcharge starts at $500,000 a year, focusing on a tiny slice of our population. The benefits of forcing the wealthiest in our communities to pay their fair share should be obvious, but since we have to create a ballot amendment to get these people to help our children, it seems to not be so obvious to them. I can’t imagine many of the wealthiest 1% send their kids to public schools so, why would they care? Still, they are a part of our communities, so let's vote to make them pay their fair share. The top 1% currently pay 5.7% in total taxes of family income with everyone else paying between 7.1% and 9.7%. Let's pay our teachers more. I have OCTOBER 31, 2025 Invest in MI Kids: ballot initiative to fund public schools never heard anyone suggest teachers make enough money, ever. Let's reduce class sizes, giving our students more focused attention from high-quality, long-term educators who don’t have to work second jobs. Let’s stop canceling art and band classes. Let's get our state back to work. Michigan is the fourth highest in unemployment. Let’s give our kids a chance to compete with the kids of the ultrawealthy and make their parents pay for some of it. You must be registered to vote in Michigan to sign this peition. Register to vote online at mvic.sos.state.mi.us/ RegisterVoter Peace be with you KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 Once upon a time, Father John Nolan, who was the worker priest at St. Hilary Catholic Church in the western Detroit suburbs, offered me a room in the parish house. From 2000 to 2005, I lived there and went to Mass occasionally. Mass ended with community greetings of a kiss and the expression “PEACE BE WITH YOU.” I had been raised in the pietistic anabaptist tradition, which was still suspicious of Catholics because of historical memory rooted in the Inquisition. How many were burned at the stake? Father Nolan and my father the Rev. James K. Parks became friends in the peace and justice movement. As I moved into Cuba solidarity work in 1990, Father Nolan became an important friend and supporter. His timely invitation to live in community was an auspicious opportunity. It was a delight to be in a community which believed in the peace that Jesus taught with a kiss and the words PEACE BE WITH YOU. This conclusion to Mass helps to erase memories of the Inquisition which still live in the bones of Western Civilization. The genocide in Palestine is the latest example of the Inquisition mentality. I joined the Palestine solidarity vigil which gathers at the post office by Fifth and Liberty on Thursdays at 5 p.m. I chose a sign that said “ISRAEL KILLS A CLASSROOM FULL OF CHILDREN EVERY SINGLE DAY.” American exceptionalism, the ideology of American supremacism, continues a kind of Inquisition: it thrived in the neoliberal form that Ronald Reagan advanced, Bill Clinton perfected and Obama represented with his great oratory on American exceptionalism. The U.S.-based war machine has supplied Israeli Zionism from its beginning as a forward military base in the Middle East. In the days of apartheid, Israel and South Africa were encouraged to become nuclear powers. The war machine is global and NATO has been a major player, especially after the reunification of Germany. Alan Haber has one of the best leaflets on this topic titled “End the Whole War System. He is in his 90th year and you can meet him Friday at 6 p.m. at the weekly peace vigil by the Ann Arbor Post Office on Fifth and Liberty Streets. If you read the October 3 Groundcover News, you may have seen the “Make Peace With Yourself” piece. It is an introduction to the struggle for peace and justice in this phase of the American Revolution. Many of us are learning PEACE BE WITH YOU as the greeting and parting phrase of our time. The 400 million Arabic speakers in the world use the phrase “assalamu alykum,” many of them daily. Practice that with Arabic speakers until it flows. For veterans of Standing Rock and similar indigenous-centered awareness campaigns, that phrase is amended with “and all our relations.” If you can say those words to your MAGA fellow citizens, you are practicing Revolutionary Love, which is another article of mine in the Groundcover archives. As we learn to breathe the love that heals, we become mindful revolutionaries eager to do the work that is before us. Daily practice is strengthened by group practice, such as the one led by Khenpo Choephel at Karuna Buddhist Center at 423 S. Fourth Ave. on Parks with Bob and Linda Wan at the Trotter Multicultural Center. Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. May we come together and share in the work that connects. I hope to see you at the Veterans for Peace "Concert for Peace" at the Ark, Tuesday, November 11 (see event details page 4). PEACE BE WITH YOU AND ALL OUR RELATIONS. OCTOBER 31, 2025 TAXES GROUNDCOVER NEWS Martyna Linartas on inheritance tax: “We need to make the rich pay more” ULRICH JONAS Hinz&Kunzt Hinz&Kunzt is a street newspaper in Hamburg, Germany. Translated by Lisa Luginbuhl, Courtesy of INSP.ngo In her new book, political scientist Martyna Linartas explains why the gap between rich and poor in Germany is widening — and what we can do about it. Hinz&Kunzt: You claim that, contrary to popular belief, Germany is not a meritocracy but a society based on inheritance. What does that mean? Martyna Linartas: That’s not just an opinion; it’s a description of the facts. More than half of all wealth in this country now consists of inheritances and gifts, so how rich or poor I become doesn't depend on what I earn during my life; it depends on whether I inherit anything from my parents or grandparents. You are calling for higher inheritance tax for the rich to make society more equitable. Why hasn’t this been implemented already? There is a lobby of big money working to maintain the status quo. Take the Family Business Foundation, for example: it invests millions in campaigns, communication strategies and political meetings — because billions are at stake. We have had three inheritance tax reforms since the mid1990s. It is regrettable that parts of the legislation correspond exactly to what the foundation wanted. Because of the many exemptions, the tax system is now more full of holes than Swiss cheese. Would reintroducing the wealth tax, which was suspended in 1997 by the then black-yellow [conservative CDU/CSU and liberal FDP coalition] federal government, be an alternative? The wealth tax is not an alternative to inheritance tax; we need both. But it is also important. We need to straighten out the entire tax system according to the principle that strong shoulders should bear more than weak ones. The wealth tax is fundamental because, on the one hand, we have more and more people living in poverty and, on the other hand, more and more who are rich. Every year, the wealth of millionaires and billionaires grows. If we want to tax these people fairly, we need the wealth tax because the income that very rich people earn consists of returns on their assets without them having to work for it. The rich pay more income tax. That is true for 99% of them. But when it comes to the top1%, things get interesting: for three decades, our tax system has heavily favoured income that does not come from work. While a middle-class family pays 43% in taxes and duties on their income, multimillionaires pay an average of 29% and billionaires 26%. Looking at the political debates, one could still get the impression that strengthening inheritance tax and reintroducing wealth tax would hit the middle class harder than the rich. This is a narrative often cited by the economic elite. It makes people afraid: “Oh my God, if inheritance tax is increased, Grandma’s little house will be gone, and my job will be at risk!” That’s nonsense. We had a wealth tax and a higher inheritance tax for decades, and Germany did well. Besides, the rich are not going to leave the country and set up their businesses elsewhere because of a few percentage points of tax. There are many studies on this. In your opinion, is there a model for fairer taxation? Germany. But not today, rather at the beginning of the Weimar Republic. In 1919, we had an inheritance tax of up to 90%. We had a wealth tax, the so-called Reichsnotopfer. And we had higher income taxes. We had all of that after the Second World War, too. You could say that in times of crisis, a so-called window of opportunity arises because people realize that they need to show solidarity with one another as a society. Then they also have more courage to tackle big issues instead of just maintaining the status quo. In the 1970s, we had another phase in which people said, “We must ask the wealthy to pay more, rather than just kindly requesting that they donate more.” Many wealthy people have established charitable foundations. Is that a positive thing? Donations are never as large as the potential revenue from wealth-related taxes. And with donations, the decision-making power over how the money is used remains in the hands of the wealthy. But we cannot believe and expect that they have all the problems in view. We need our democracy, in which the politicians we elect decide what happens to our tax money, 7 Photo by Ashwin Vaswani and invest money in areas that are not trendy. No wealthy entrepreneur would donate money to send a bus to remote villages. Only a state that takes the weaker members of society into account would do such a thing. You are also campaigning for a basic inheritance: all young adults should receive a certain amount of money from the state. Why? In more than 100 years of democracy, the poorer half of the population has not managed to accumulate any significant wealth. Studies also show that taxing the rich in the form of wealth and inheritance tax would not be enough to significantly reduce inequality. The question is: what would be fair? We should also think in a different direction: that not only the top 30% receive inheritances and gifts, but everyone. With basic inheritance, young adults would receive a small fortune at a crucial moment in their lives. There are different ideas about the amount, ranging from €20,000 to €190,000. Which model would you choose? €190,000. Who is going to pay for this? If we make the tax system fair, we can generate additional revenue of over €200 billion. Even with a basic inheritance of €190,000 for everyone, there would still be money left over. What is important to me is that we still need a basic child allowance that is poverty-proof, higher wages and better infrastructure. Because basic inheritance is not a panacea. I see it more as an expression of a new understanding of wealth, namely that it is always built up collectively in a society. A company, for example, needs good employees to be successful. However, business assets usually belong to only a few — even though many have worked to build them up. How do you envisage introducing basic inheritance? We need to introduce children and young people to the topic over many years. I can say from my own experience that when you grow up in poverty, you learn to save, but not to invest sustainably. So we need to talk about it: if you receive such a sum of money, what can you do with it? Do you want to realize a housing project? Start your own business? Or finance a degree abroad? Aren’t you afraid of 18-year-olds buying sports cars with it? There will be some. But I am against general suspicion. If we allow young people to vote, be elected and go to war, they should also be allowed to decide how to spend their money. When you see how we all live beyond our means in Germany, how we far too rarely consider consumption and climate change together; inheritance is also a wonderful opportunity to talk in schools about a more sustainable approach to money — especially since it is often the rich who leave the largest carbon footprint. There are no political majorities in sight for your ideas. Who should bring about change? In a democracy, something like this has to be implemented by politicians. We have two options: either we continue as before and watch the gap between rich and poor widen further and further, or we bring about change. Some countries are cautiously leading the way, such as Spain and Norway, which have introduced or increased a wealth tax. In the United States, billionaires are undermining the pillars of democracy, increasing their wealth and pushing through crude ideas. What gives you hope that things will be different here? We have a different party system. In see TAXES page 14 

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SHUTDOWN Food stamps will not be distributed in November — Michigan legislators might cover the cost LINDSAY CALKA Publisher The federal government has been shut down since October 1. Annually, Congress must pass legislation that decides the funding for government programs, services and departments. If the Democrat and Republican legislators and the President cannot negotiate and agree upon the budget, the result is a stalemate and consequential “shutdown:” federal workers do not get their paychecks, nonessential government work doesn’t happen and major delays occur in administrative services. Social Security and Medicare checks will still go out, but funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — called SNAP, food stamps, EBT or Bridge Card — is impacted by the federal freeze. On Oct. 23 the U.S. Department of Agriculture ordered the State Departments of Health and Human Services to pause payments in November. As long as the government is shut down, the payments will be too. 42 million Americans will be at risk of losing these food benefits. Nearly 13% of Michigan households, approximately 1.4 million people, receive SNAP benefits. 43% are families with children; 492,225 children benefit from SNAP; 38,513 veterans participate in SNAP; 36% SNAP households have older adults; 51% of households have a person with a disability; 78% of SNAP households include someone with earned income. Earlier this year, the Trump administration's Big Beautiful Bill slashed the SNAP budget by $265 billion (over ten years), increased work requirements and barred immigrants and refugees from receiving assistance. The federal government’s delay of SNAP benefits will place Michiganders at further risk of food insecurity and poverty. SNAP, a critical program for families and individuals across Michigan to access food, is the nation’s largest food assistance program and one of the most effective tools to reduce food insecurity. Michigan House of Representative Democrats, led by Rep. Tonya Myers Phillips, put forward a package of bills on Thursday, October 30 that would put $900 million of state emergency funds into keeping SNAP benefits running throughout the month. Colin Jackson from Michigan Public Radio predicted, “The bills could have an uphill journey in the Republican-led state House of Representatives.” State Attorneys General including Michigan's Dana Nessel are suing the Trump Administration, legislators are putting out formal messages in opposition and community members are organizing to prepare for this attack on food access. In the next edition we will follow up on this story and report on the creative ways Washtenaw County is responding. We invite readers to contribute by emailing submissions@groundcovernews. com OCTOBER 31, 2025 OCTOBER 31, 2025 FREE HOT MEALS hot meal RESOURCE CORNER DAILY Breakfast: Breakfast Program at St. Andrew's, 7:30-8:30 a.m., 306 N. Division Street, Ann Arbor. Also distributes lunches to-go during breakfast. Lunch (only Monday-Friday): Delonis Center, 12-1 p.m., 312 W. Huron Street, Ann Arbor Lunch (only Monday-Friday): Starting Nov. 10, Daytime Warming Centers, 12-1 p.m., Ann Arbor (location rotates) and the Ypsilanti Frieghthouse, 100 Market Place. Freighthouse not open on Fridays. Dinner (only Monday-Friday): Delonis Center, 5:30-6:30 p.m., 312 W. Huron Street, Ann Arbor Dinner (not served on Wednesdays): Hope Clinic, 5-6 p.m., 518 Harriet Street, Ypsilanti. Meals only served to-go. TUESDAYS Lunch: Fed-Up Food truck, 1:30-2:30 p.m., Ypsilanti District Library Michigan Ave. branch WEDNESDAYS Lunch: Fed-Up Food truck, 1-2 p.m., Liberty Plaza, 310 S. Division Street, Ann Arbor. Ends Nov. 10. Dinner: Mercy House Open Hours, 6-8 p.m., 805 W Huron Street, Ann Arbor. Dinner: FedUp Food Truck, 5-7 p.m., Growing Hope, 16 S. Washington Street, Ypsilanti THURSDAYS Dinner: Hospitality House, 5-7 p.m., 169 N. Washington Street Ypsilanti FRIDAYS Dinner: Pizza in the Park, 7-8 p.m., Liberty Plaza, 310 S. Division Street Ann Arbor SATURDAYS Breakfast: Mercy House, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., 805 W Huron Street, Ann Arbor Delonis Center, 3-4 p.m., 312 W. Huron Street Ann Arbor. SUNDAYS Lunch/dinner: Delonis Center, 3-4 p.m., 312 W. Huron Street Ann Arbor Lunch/dinner: Washtenaw Camp Outreach BBQ, every other Sunday, 3-4:30 p.m., 211 E Michigan Ave Ypsilanti Lunch/dinner: MISSION BBQ, every other Sunday, 3-4:30 p.m., 3501 Stone School Road Ann Arbor. Alternates with WCO BBQ. MONTHLY Breakfast: Around the Kitchen Table Peace House Brunch, 3rd Sundays, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., 16 S. Washington Street Ypsilanti. Lunch: Pull Over Prevention, 2nd Sundays, 10 a.m - 1 p.m., locations vary check www.facebook.com/PullOverPrevention/ Lunch: Fed-Up Food Truck 1st and 4th Tuesdays, 5 - 6:30 p.m. at the Peace Hub,1515 South Harris Road. Food pantry information and hot meal schedules for Washenaw County update frequently. For an up-to-date schedule for the following locations visit Food Gatherer's food map and list at: foodgatherers.org/foodresources GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LIVING ARCHIVE OCTOBER 31, 2025 Housed, unhoused or homeless? What is “domicile,” and how can we begin to look at that word to see different notions that could describe how we define classes of people? Communities are people, and where people come together, there begins the hard stuff of life, from the ugly, brutal and profane to the seemingly sublime. However, sometimes we seem to get lost along our way when we come together and organize our spaces. Possibly, it’s just our nature as primal beings that our world shows extreme signs of the need to stigmatize, place and categorize to the point of degradation of others in our systems. Homelessness, or as I prefer to call it, “Houselessness,” might in my view, be the frontier ground to see how we are really living our lives in society. It is not hard to identify a homeless person, but it could be, when it comes to seeing that same person as inclusive in our communities, and not as one to just be “humanely” tolerated. The houseless person isn’t dwelling in the shadows, but is living in plain view. They are not hiding in the attic of our collective house peering into dim light on the larger groups of people. Homelessness isn't a non-organic monster haphazardly created out of nefarious thin air; instead, I see it as organic human blood. It could be determined that it is a working residual coming out of an otherwise functioning society; however, I see it as indeed the actual state of the whole collective. A residual could be discarded as CHRISTOPHER ELLIS Groundcover writer lightly as a paper cup, or more massively as a landfill or incinerator. However, houselessness can’t be easily discarded or maintained as a landfill. To me, homelessness is generic to a system that has otherwise well-bodied, intelligent and talented people living in destitution being dehumanized. Homelessness can only be “maintained” if it is not seen as part of the whole. If it is a dreg it might be seen as “normal” while at the same time we see that dreg as shameful, a shame that is useful for us. We can separate in a moral sense the useful need while seeing it as a deplorable. It is deplorable in its actual state, and as we see it, but do we as a society need it? Every individual in our communities is essential in our civic space; he or she is to be valued not as a category or as a species in the system. For a person to be in a category or class implies a situation to be controlled and placed. When I say that a homeless person is generic I mean that their houselessness, being without a house is common. Not that it is common to be without a house, but is the housed person distant from the houseless in that they are not snared in the machinery of political and government control to the ultimate detriment of liberty, health and happiness? How do you define native to the land, air and soil, and how does it come to be that the majority peoples of the world live in utter poverty, filth and degradation? How do you define freedom if it is not to breathe clean air, to live on uncontaminated soil, and to consume healthy and organic foods? Domicile is not to have become a human commodity and cash crop. To maintain a habitation (or to be maintained within a house) isn’t to have become a resource to be commercially recycled from generation to generation. Domicile, as I choose to see it, appears to sound like “docile” when we are willing to live comfortable and convenient where mindless, cruel and human suffering is lived, in a real sense, from person to person. Most of us are not radical, nor harbor desires to disturb the status quo, or even feel a rational need to question the housing or other parameters of our lives. However, we are not given the luxury to be comfortable in silence while the world around us seems to be collapsing. It is a good thing to be civilly good, hopeful and positive in place, habitat and property, but when that comfort and content does not give thoughtful, intent consideration spaces around us, where there is abject poverty and suffering, we have become people that are sterile, placed and ineffectual for the common good. When we begin to see that housed or unhoused can have implications that can better describe the frontier to be innovative, see impoverished circumstances in a new and more productive light, we might at the first begin to be uneasy, timid, perplexed or even frightened; however, if we are diligent we will begin to breakdown iron barriers that categorize. I had a wonderful brother, now deceased, who was also a pastor in the city of Auburn Hills, and later in Rochester Hills. I was not officially homeless at the time, however, while riding see UNHOUSED page 13  to places and Labels matter! Unhoused individuals and families "Homeless population" — such an endearing term, don’t you think? But hey, what’s in a name, right? These times, they are a changin’! WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 “Homeless population” sounds so permanent that it’s depressing. Like we’ve just come to accept it as a natural part of our existence. Well, it’s not! Don't tell me I’m part of a homeless population. You might like the statistical value of it, but I find it offensive and demeaning. So, where do we go from here? Well, folks, it is time for us to label ourselves! I’ve decided that I like “unhoused - individuals and families.” It sounds less permanent, more descriptive, less offensive and a kinder way to be addressed. And really, any acts of kindness and terms less demeaning than “homeless population” make a difference. Just like going about your business in town, you try to dress for the location and the occasion. Sometimes what you look like and sound like is as important as what you're labeled as. So folks, let’s take a pause. Let’s really take a good look around us, and decide for ourselves who we want to be identified as. How do we wish to be labeled? Let’s take a minute and decide whether or not we wish to tackle this weighty issue. OCTOBER 31, 2025 EVENTS GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Ahead of time PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 Waiting for you… I have no time for this. But what is time to have? I time everything I have. This body of mine, forty-eight years young. Today is just a hole in the future, through which the past begins to flow. Once you realize how strong our will is. Why follow the drill? We must draw the line. Wide open your eyes. This is all happening, right before yourself. Think through. Commit to the plan. You stand a chance. In this brief time-lapse we persistently call present, every moment is a gift. Sit back, and enjoy the ride. Time goes on nonstop… stay still, it will run you over. It never waits. So be on time. It isn’t going anywhere. Maybe you are. Crossing time. to the point of no return. Any past is long gone. No sci-fi time machine, only fading memories, pictures in the back of your head. There’s no holding back. I’ll start tomorrow… But there’s no tomorrow. Not yet, nor will there ever be. I’m gonna kick tomorrow so far ahead of the future, it’ll be untraceable, that forever unreachable moment. Don’t you dare kill time! Or it may finish you. Respect deadlines. Stand up. Fight! Well, that’s a start. My feet are rooted, deep in the ground; head above the clouds, flying in the sky. My mind travels outer space. Eyes projected forward, moving beyond we go. The future, a feature of imagination, somewhen yet to be built by you and me, all of us, rational creativity. Keep your speed. Rise up, now. ‘Cause learning takes time, and I’m doing my best. If I can’t stretch mine, I’ll cut it, sliced, divided into smaller pieces, tiny fragments where I can stay, as long as I hold my breath. But hold this thought: as years go by, you tend to intensify processes, always managing to keep your lane, pacing through life. My voice already moves faster than sound. Ideas reach light-years away. The universe sings a song. For copilot, an AI, I feel no boundaries. ultimately ubiquitous. I’m a satellite. I ought to be, ahead of time. Here I am, and already there, moving along, watching over. I've Gotta rake these leaves that are all over my grass Just like the mess that people keep on bringing up From my now, very distant past I've Gotta rake these leaves of my present Cause people are doing way too much, too fast And some erase my worth by compensating my work As if I'm non-existent, just like my past I've Gotta rake these leaves off of my path Cause some piles of leaves have trash in the pile It's not my job to sort it out I've Gotta rake these leaves away They've fallen from their trees The shade they provided, just like them was temporary I've Gotta rake these leaves Sooner or later New ones will be expected to grow I've Gotta rake these leaves and get 'em off my grass fa sho!! These old leaves have just Gotta go You know what I mean You can relate I know I've Gotta rake these leaves Get 'em gone! I've Gotta rake these leaves!! I've Gotta Rake These Leaves We shall meet again. Take all shortcuts. Try teleportation. Until asteroids realign in perfect entanglement a sacred synchronic symphony. OCTOBER 31, 2025 LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 OCTOBER 31, 2025 POETRY What we built MONIQUE CALDWELL Groundcover contributor For Sean, I Love You We built this love like a lighthouse— steady, bright, and meant to guide. Through storms, through silence, we held each other like anchors refusing to drift. We didn’t know love would find us— two hearts worn thin, still hoping. But we built something rare: a friendship that bloomed into firelight, a love that held us steady when the world shook. We were never promised forever, but we gave each other everything true. Now, the road bends— not away from love, but into different skies. We’re not breaking. We’re choosing to protect what we made. To walk apart so the bond stays whole. You’ll always be my lighthouse, my once-in-a-lifetime calm. And I’ll carry us like a sacred song— not ended, just echoing in a different key.  UNHOUSED from page 10 with him through the city of Pontiac near a homeless shelter downtown, we saw homeless people wandering, even as they crossed our windshield at a traffic light. My brother mentioned to me that his experience has been that the plight of most of the homeless in his acquaintance was due to some character maleficence, or attitude problem. To me this was too broad a brush and probably was the quiet opinion of the majority. I have always seen the best in every person, and no one is without good traits. I could never position people within narrow categories even when there was glaring evidence that could support that view. I have not spoken much about my own experience with homelessness, but I want to mention my first night on the street, with the hope to say something about the nature of mother earth, human goodness and the will and power to survive. It was Christmas Eve. Hopefully, in the future I can reveal those circumstances that brought me there that GROUNDCOVER NEWS Sci-fi mentality? Our future Without prejudice, legal term, court costs Court profit rates, local, state, federal, international Social security growth rates over time. Job opportunities, community outreach, Places of worship, uniform practices of Worship doctrines Medicine Medical costs, profit rates same progression as courts, fair taxation, free lawyers, free Govt. Insurance, Insurance rates by corporate interests Daily time management Fair equality between men and women Organization mentality Organizational charity rates and regions or influence same progression as courts Respect, public image and sufficient work for survival of families, for lifetimes over time Consequences of war De-escalation of nuclear practices Environmental impact of the industrial revolution A peaceful environmental revolution Financial support between NASA and and the departments of local housing regions Stabilizing the economy in times of technological and medicinal advancement Military organizational practices for common citizens and those with abnormally high IQ rates, and discrepancies between IQ progressions over time, Which of our world leaders need more help, where and when? Which occupations do the most good, vs money made over time. Taxing the 1% and American corporations, and impact of non-governmental cooperation The future of international victories, treaties, and potential government shutdowns. Servers, security on and offline, and hackers vs the system, are they breaking their own governments? Whose servers are powerful enough to correlate population expansion rates and repercussions internationally? NASA and whom? How do we abolish outdated practices lawfully and legally? Are our world leaders being ethical, and do they have a common language to communicate peace today? The answer is “yes." DAVID PUTMAN Groundcover vendor No. 679 13 cold wintry night. I was aware that night was coming on, but there is something about the will to survive, self dignity and hope that wouldn't allow me to see the dire situation. For sure, I was scared as I wandered around in the cold, maybe I was naive, I was in a foreign city. As the night grew closer I grew more frightened and apprehensive. Christmas lights lit the trees in a beautiful array, and the rushing cars and people got fewer and fewer. I was surprised at how my survival instincts started to kick in. Thoughts of “Where am I going to sleep”, “Where is a safe place to sleep?” “It's too cold”ran through my head. I began to wonder about personal safety, “Will I be attacked or mugged, killed?” As the night came, I hid in places, any place unsuspicious, or that could conceal me for the night. I thought of trees, bushes, walls — anything. I sat on a grassy area with trees, strangely I felt peaceful, I felt one with the night sky, the cold air and trees. The moon and stars seemed to welcome me as a long lost native son. The universe seemed to say, “What are you afraid of? Where have you been? You are safe here.” I said, “What about thieves, murderers?” Mother Earth seemed to say “All is well.” I suddenly realized humanity is good, and that no one is seeking to do me harm, no bogeyman, no monsters in the grass, no fear. The cold even began to be mild — No really, mild! I felt like some brave mountain man, better like the first man on earth. You might say, “naive” or “stupid,” but I only mean to state that the earth is not, empirically, a dangerous place, and that it is our first house, place and home. We can actually live on and with the earth, have no fear. We are not hopeless chattel to be manipulated against our own true selves. LONG LIVE THE HUMAN SPIRIT!! 12/31/2025

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES HEAD of FRANCE? by Victor Schmitt OCTOBER 31, 2025 ACROSS 1. Musical conclusions 6. Worked over 15. Path left behind by a lawn mower 16. "Flashdance ... What a Feeling" singer 17. Line at a crowded theater? 19. Vote into office 20. Quarterback Manning 21. "Journeys" from those drunk with authority 26. Spanish liqueur 29. "Right away, boss!" 30. ESPN sportscaster Dick 32. Video game franchise with settings in Vice City and Los Santos, for short 33. Head of France? 34."This ___ well" 35. Fort Collins sch. 36. Texter's "I can't even..." 37. Kwik-E-Mart employee in "The Simpsons" 39. Head-dropping wrestling move 40. Ad ___ 41. Concealed oneself 42. Foamy coffee order 44. Reason to keep trying 45. World Cup cry 46. Steps (on) 48. Big name in laptops 49. Radio host John 51. Upbringings 53. No. on a business card 55. Influencer with an edgy aesthetic, informally 56. Highly desirable property 63. In one's birthday suit 64. Gunpowder ingredient 65. Convention V.I.P.'s 66. Adolescents DOWN 1. CBS forensic drama 2. Pained expressions 3. Fateful encounter 4. Olympian, e.g. 5. More timid 6. Allotted 7. Rage 8. "Breaking Bad" org. 9. Word with army or bullet 10. Ballet jump 11. Central Florida city 12. Ingredient in lava cake 13. Part of a rock band? 14. Grammy 18. Bygone Canadian comedy show 21. Cheap criticism 22. Length of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 23. "Who am ___ judge!" 24. Stereotypical asylum destinations 25. Go downhill fast? 27. "Come in!" 28. U.F.O. shapes, often 31. Winter hrs. in Ann Arbor 37. Spacebar neighbor 38. Trim 43. Sigma follower 44. Scrunchie, e.g. 47. Wise one 50. Shouter of "I have the power!" 52. Dated denial 54. Jared of "Tron: Ares" 56. Neighbor of India: Abbr. 57. Regret 58. Bad place to get stuck in 59. Before, poetically 60. ___ Lingus 61. Bill with Alexander Hamilton 62. Hosp. areas PUZZLE SOLUTIONS October 3, 2025 edition OCTOBER 31, 2025 PROTEST Gen Z protests! The Gen Z revolution is underway. Throughout 2025, Generation Z, those born from 1997 to 2012, have led worldwide protests that have erupted across multiple countries, particularly in Africa, Asia and South America. Using social media platforms for coordination, young people are voicing outrage over economic inequality, corruption and failing public services. In some cases, these protests have led to the overthrow of governments (see below). The so-called TikTok Generation is leading the way for global political and social change. Key characteristics of Gen Z activism Digital organization: Young activists use social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, as well as gaming applications like Discord, to organize and share information. Transnational solidarity: Although protests are often local, Gen Z activists leverage digital tools and shared symbols, like the pirate flag from One Piece, to create a sense of global solidarity. Online and offline action: Gen Z activism operates on a spectrum, from "slacktivism" (using social media and online petitions only, meaning very little effort is expended) to traditional, on-the-ground protesting. Varied political engagement: Recent election results in the United States have shown a more complex political landscape for Gen Z than previously thought. In the 2024 U.S. election there was a notable shift to the right, particularly among young men. Intersectional concerns: While key Recent Gen Z protest hotspots Madagascar: A youth-led uprising over extended electricity and water cuts led to the ousting of President Andry Rajoelina in October 2025. The protests, which also targeted government corruption, were inspired by international movements and used the "One Piece" anime flag as a symbol of resistance (see below). collectives called ‘GenZ 212.’ Protesters are demanding significant improvements to public education and healthcare, frustrated by government spending on international sporting events like the 2030 FIFA World Cup instead of public services. Nepal: In September 2025, largeMIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 issues like economic hardship and climate change drive many protests, broader concerns about racial equity, mental health and social justice are also at play. scale anti-corruption protests, initially sparked by a ban on social media platforms, spread across the country. Frustration over corruption and government mismanagement of public funds contributed to the movement, which led to the resignation of the prime minister. Peru: In late September 2025, Gen Z protesters clashed with police over a new bill that would force young people to pay into a private pension fund. The protests reflect broader frustration with government corruption. Other youth-led protests have taken place in Indonesia, the Philippines and Timor-Leste. Underlying concerns fueling the protests Economic injustice and elite privilege: Flashy social media posts flaunting elite wealth have fueled anger among young people who face limited job prospects and widening economic inequality. Corruption and authoritarianism: Protesters frequently cite systemic political corruption, democratic backsliding, and authoritarian tendencies as central grievances. Decline in living standards: A genMorocco: A series of ongoing demonstrations began in late September 2025, organized by anonymous eral decline in the quality of public services and rising costs of living have prompted many young people to take  TAXES from page 7 the United States, people had to choose between the plague and cholera. Here, we have many parties, including smaller ones, that have to work together. And we have a growing civil society, alliances and clever minds who can explain the connection between democracy, inheritance tax and inequality. But don’t the super-rich ultimately have the upper hand because of their vast wealth and the resulting influence that they can exert on politicians and social debates? They have very strong cards, but they no longer play alone at the table. We are now demanding our place and saying, “This is not how democracy works.” We must engage in dialogue with one another. What is the first step towards a more equitable society? Becoming informed. If the population is not even aware of how extreme the inequality is, why should people rebel against it? Why should they say, “We want a different policy” if they do not realize that Germany is one of the most unequal democracies in the world? We have the fourth highest number of billionaires and the third highest number of millionaires. We need to spread the word that something is seriously wrong here. When you realise, “Wow, two families own more wealth than the poorer half, more than 40 million people in Germany,” you start to think, “Oh, maybe the problem isn’t with migrants or people on welfare, but with policies that favour the richest.” to the streets. Lack of public accountability: Demonstrators are frustrated by the lack of government accountability for failing public services, mismanagement of funds, and abuse of power. Climate change: Gen Z continues to be highly concerned about the climate crisis. Activists are holding politicians and corporations accountable for their actions. Youth-focused initiatives, such as the Global Youth Climate Summit 2025, are being organized to empower and mobilize young leaders in climate action. The role of social media and independent news media outlets As indicated previously, social media platforms are a crucial tool for these protests, enabling decentralized coordination and communication among activists. Online movements help amplify calls for change, even when governments attempt to censor or block platforms. Independent and non-profit news media outlets like Status Coup, Democracy Now, Al Jazeera, Groundcover News and many other independent news media outlets are alternative news sources utilized because of the lack of corporate media coverage on these protests, and the need for reliable information. Gen Z's’ global protests in an ever changing world are redefining the methodology of dissent with their willingness to challenge old systematic authorities and ideology. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Delicious apple bread ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: ½ cup brown sugar 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon Dash of nutmeg 2 large eggs at room temperature ½ cup granulated sugar ½ cup butter melted 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 ½ cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda 2 large peeled and chopped apples (Any type apples that are good for baking) Directions: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour an 8 x 5 in loaf pan or line with parchment paper. In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar and cinnamon and set aside. Whisk eggs and granulated sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Add the melted butter and vanilla extract and mix until thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt just until combined. Add these dry ingredients to wet ingredients and fold in the chopped apples. Put half of the batter in the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle about three quarters of the brown sugar mixture on top of the batter. Spread the remaining batter carefully on top of the brown sugar mixture. Sprinkle remaining brown sugar mixture on top and use a knife or spoon to gently swirl it into the top layer. OCTOBER 31, 2025 Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until lightly golden on top and an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs. Allow to cool before slicing. This is a new fall favorite! $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP CALL FOR SUPPORT WE’RE HERE FOR YOU & YOUR FAMILY 24/7 mental health and substance use support 734-544-3050 YOUTH & FAMILY SERVICES: ELIZABETH SPRING-NICHOLS AND ALYSSA NEWSOME LEARN MORE about programs funded by the community mental health and public safety preservation millage. ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 8/22/2025 11/28/25

2 $ OCTOBER 17, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 22 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Creating more safe spaces for survivors. page 4 MEET YOUR VENDOR: SHAWN SWOFFER PAGE 3 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Megan Morse accepts award from the Fair Housing Center Board of Directors at their Oct. 16 annual breakfast. In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, landlord agrees to accept tenants with housing vouchers. page 8 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 OCTOBER 17, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Steve Ross Anabel Sicko Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Lila Kelly — intern Gray Connor — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Tabitha Almond La Shawn Courtwright Jim Clark Cindy Gere Ben Foster Mike Jones Poverty Solutions J. Scheier Will Shakespeare Tommy Spaghetti Street Sense Media Michael J. Steinberg Felicia Wilbert PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett June Miller VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Stephanie Dong Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Robert Klingler Margaret Patston Ari Ruczynski Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropiate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons OCTOBER 17, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Shawn Swoffer, vendor No. 574 In one sentence, who are you? Crazy. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? Kerrytown (everywhere!) and the corner of Main and Liberty. Why did you start selling Groundcover? I was getting calls to the police for panhandling; selling Groundcover is legal. What words do you live by? Be your best, have fun, give everything your all. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Skydiving. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Seafood. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn't know? I love metal music. What do you wish you knew more about? Creatures of the sea and psychology. What's a small thing that makes your day better? Being with who I love. What was your first job? Maid. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? Better bus transportation for myself — it needs another stop for me to catch. What's your pet peeve? Bad parenting. What's your superpower? I'm determined. What are your hobbies? Art and music. Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not GROUNDCOVER NEWS Undercover art intel: Twisted Things Boutique Twisted Things Boutique is a wonderful curiosity shop. This amazing art and fun shop has 130 local artists showing their talents from painting to jewelry to mixed media. The store is on 40 North Huron St. in Ypsilanti and was the first of its kind in this area. The store opened October 13, 2016. Twisted Things features many amazing artworks made from nature and found objects, as well as organic, Magazine and the Marquis Who’s Who in America Publications Board for 2023-2024. Twisted Things has amazCINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 recycled objects. Much of the artwork from the great outdoors are butterfly wings, bones, deer antlers and animal skulls. There are carvings and ceramics as well as paintings and leather works. There is Native American artwork such as dream catchers and medicine bags with single chokers and baby moccasins with paintings. There is a huge apothecary with every plant one needs for tinctures, incense burning or an herbal bath. The apothecary has many herbs and traditional earth medicines as well as spices, berries and floral essences. They have herbs such as mugwort, mullen, sage and devil’s claw. There is an artist that only works in animal parts and has bone artworks with taxidermy animal images and deer antlers. My favorite is the baby chicks; they look so cute and fun. There are snake parts and many kinds of bones sold individually. There is a huge sticker section to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially full of many popular images such as rainbows and figures, fairies and animals — fun fun fun. Each artist has a designated area for their artwork, but they can also display pieces scattered throughout the shop. Twisted Things is also a shop for activities such as art classes, herbal round table and homesteading informative classes and the ever-popular prepping classes including canning. The shop is unique in that Morgana Grimm is not only the owner, but one of the artists as well. She manages the store, and all the works of art support the store as well as the artists themselves. Morgana told me, “I’m just like you. I manage the store only — I take no profit other than selling my own artwork. I want to see you all succeed. All the money goes back into keeping the doors open.” I was absolutely amazed by this statement. This is truly an artist collective shop run by one amazing woman. She has won several awards from the Current vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from ing jewelry made of bones, feather and bugs as well as bat wings and beads. Halloween is present throughout the store in different ways such as popular scary movie characters (think Chuckie, Jason), paintings, earrings and clothes. There is a huge candle area of animals and rainbow colors. There are many esoteric supplies such as leather books, wonderful wands and peacock feathers and useful handcarved knives. There is a gothic teen clothing section as well with a fun black skirt and wild tees for every age. If you love Japan as I do, there are kimonos with floral images woven in. There are also common house plants and kitchen items as well as fresh eggs from Morgana’s own farm. My personal favorite is the painting on the walls throughout the shop and on the shelves. Artists from across Washtenaw show off their best fun works on a variety of images from mixed media to prints and acrylics; much of the work reflects the store decor. So, come bring the family and experience something new and fun for all! 3 selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE OCTOBER 17, 2025 October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Creating more safe spaces for victims and survivors October is domestic violence awareness month. This pervasive issue has been a major topic of local and national discussion for a very long time. As our nation makes some progress on women’s rights and the protection of women’s dignity, it has been very important that we raise our level of awareness to the magnitude of violence and abuse against women and domestic partners, and the legal and public policy means of ensuring safe spaces for victims. Defining domestic violence We have looked at several definitions of domestic violence. However, Henry Ford College in Dearborn, provides us with the most concise and clear definition of domestic violence. “Also known as domestic abuse, relationship abuse, or intimate partner violence, domestic violence is committed by at least one of the people in an intimate relationship against the other. In a broader sense, the term can also refer to violence against one’s immediate family members, such as children, siblings or parents. "Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic or psychological actions or threats of actions that negatively influence another person. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame or injure a person in order to maintain power and control over them. Domestic violence also includes behaviors that prevent a partner from doing what they want or force them to behave in ways they do not want. "One of the most important factors in domestic violence is the belief that abuse, regardless of its form, is acceptable. Domestic abuse can happen to anyone of any race, age, sexual orientation, religion or gender. It can occur within a range of relationships including couples who are married, living together or dating. It can happen to anyone at any point in a relationship. It affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels. Incidents are rarely isolated and often escalate in frequency and severity. The violence may culminate in serious injury, hospitalization or death.” Southeast Michigan experiences Is domestic violence rising or declining in our communities? On Sept. 9, 2025, Channel 4 News of Detroit Wash-tenaw County voters in 1992 approved a millage which would finance a new accessible and secure building. Christine Watson is the Executive WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 reported a newsworthy headline which read, “Domestic violence cases rising — Three Metro Detroit women shot, killed at the end of August.” The station continued, “It’s estimated that one in four people in the United States has experienced domestic abuse.” The report looked at four troubling cases and what can be done to keep people safe.The cases include: • Latricia Green Brown was shot and killed at Henry Ford Hospital where she worked. Her ex-husband was arrested. • A mother and her baby were shot and killed in their car in Pontiac. Her boyfriend was arrested, but released on a low bond. • Briana Frames was shot and killed in front of family members, including her 10-month-old baby. Her ex turned the gun on himself. • Sarah Carroll was shot and killed in her apartment. Her ex-boyfriend, who had been accused of stalking, turned the gun on himself. Channel 4 also reported that “while domestic violence is underreported, it still makes up two-thirds of police calls.” Local 4’s Crime and Safety expert Darnell Blackburn is quoted saying, “It’s one of the most dangerous things for a police officer to encounter a domestic violence call, because it can turn on a dime.” The good news is that overall, crimes — including domestic violence crimes — are declining in Washtenaw County. However, there is still the challenge of underreported crimes due to the stigma and severity of trauma associated with domestic violence and abuse. Many survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault believe that the issues are still of paramount importance in their community. They need more safe places. They need more police and protection. They need more community support. Safehouse to the rescue Safehouse Center was established in Washtenaw County in 1978. Director of Safehouse Center of Washtenaw County. Her tenure started in 2022; she previously worked as a legal advocate. She also supervised the response team and the legal advocacy program since 2006. She is the right leader for the Safehouse community organization. She works with a team of dedicated staff and volunteers. On May 22, 2023, Christine Watson appeared on WEMU radio with David Fair. The interview was informative. In his last question to Christine Watson during the show, David Fair asked, “So obviously, with all of the challenges that lay before you, there are some real immediate concerns. What do you hope to address over the coming year to be of even greater service?” Christine Watson responded, “Well, we're going to continue moving forward. We're going to continue moving forward in ways in which we can listen to our community, try to get our staffing stabilized, make sure that we're able to at least try to meet the demands that we're seeing. Last month, we received in excess of 200 requests for shelter. Even if we are fully staffed and able to open up all of our rooms, that is a demand that we're not going to be able to meet on our own. So, I think, again, this is where there has to be a coordinated community response, not just to survivors, but to our community in general. We have to work together to figure out the best way. In which to support the needs that we see on a daily basis. That's going to continue to be our focus.” The Washtenaw Country District Court has provided one Assistant District Attorney and one Legal Advocate for domestic violence to the Safehouse Center. Participate in Domestic Violence Awareness Month 2025 Domestic Violence Awareness Month is a time to educate communities about the signs of domestic and dating violence, support survivors and prevent violence. In 1981, the first "Day of Unity" was held in October by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence to connect those working to end violence against women and their children. The first Christine Watson, Executive Director of Safehouse Center Domestic Violence Awareness Month was officially observed in 1987. Two years later, Congress officially designated October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month in 1989. Awareness campaigns emphasize that domestic violence includes more than just physical abuse and can involve emotional, verbal and psychological abuse, as well as stalking. How to participate awareness: • Wear purple: Purple is the nationally recognized color for DVAM. On specific days, like #PurpleThursday, people wear purple to show support and raise awareness. Many also participate by displaying purple lights at their homes or businesses during the month. • Share online: Use social media to share posts and videos using hashtags like #DomesticViolenceAwareness or #DVAM2025. • Participate in events: Many universities and local organizations host events like "Turn the Campus Purple," clothesline projects, and educational panels. • Support organizations: Donate to or volunteer with local and national organizations that support survivors. • Learn and share: Educate yourself and others about the signs of abuse and the resources available for those in need. On October 3, Groundcover News published an article with the title, “Ways that domestic and other abuses can impact you.” The writer, D.A., talked about her personal experience. Many people within the homeless community can relate to that. Some see DOMESTIC next page  and raise OCTOBER 17, 2025 FROM THE ARCHIVES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 Remembering my sister, Crystal Marie Ludwig I don’t really know how to start and this is hard for me to write. So first let me say R.I.P. sissy — you will forever be missed but never forgotten, I promise you that. Crystal lived a very hard life. From the day she was born she was fighting for her life because our mom had her over three months early. She was so little she had to wear baby doll clothes. Then, at the age of two-and-a-half, she became a big sister to me. When she was just five years old she was already raising me due to our parents’ drug and alcohol addictions. One day she almost burnt down the house (at the age of five) because she was trying to cook for me. I was crying because I was hungry and she couldn’t get nobody up to feed me, so she decided to do it herself. It was me and my sister against the world from that day forward. She was the one I always looked up to, and as long as she was around I always knew I would be taken care of and safe. No matter what happened in life I always had my sister. When we became a little older and she started hanging out with her friends, I would tag along with her. Even though she didn’t always want her little sister there, she would always give in and end up letting me go with her. I always went everywhere with her, so when she would move in with our mom I was right there with her, moving in also. And when she would go back to our grandma’s house, I was once again with her. I always knew that I was safe if I was with my sister because she would never ever let anything happen  DOMESTIC from last page people who live in temporary, transitional houses have experienced repeated acts of violence and abuse. The violence and abuse, in addition to the hostility and aggressiveness, beg for a legal and community intervention. This writer has learned a lot about domestic violence and abuse from survivors. They have educated me TABITHA ALMOND Groundcover vendor No. 360 to me. I grew up my whole life being known as, “Oh, you’re Crystal’s sister.” Yes, we was sisters and we did act like sisters, so we didn’t always get along. We did have our fights and arguments and, yes, we did do messed-up stuff to each other, but at the end of the day she was my blood and my big sister. She was way more to me than just my sister. She was — and still is — my best friend, my mom, my protector, my heart and so much more to me. Crystal was an amazing woman. She was a sister, a daughter, a granddaughter, a niece, a friend, a fiancée, and most importantly she was a mother to five beautiful children who she loved more than anything. The hardest thing that I have ever had to do is say goodbye to my sister. I never would have thought in a million years that I would have to go through something like this at such a young age. We was supposed to get through all this together and fight this demon together. When I say me and my sister did everything together, I mean we did everything together. I mean we even about topics such as the Violence Against Women Act, mental cruelty, the battered women syndrome and many other issues including sexual assault awareness. It should be noted that April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. It is incumbent on all of us to be involved in programs for all events which attempt to prevent and end domestic violence and abuse. did jail time together. We also had our first child in the same year. She had her daughter in the beginning of the year and I had my son at the end of the year, but they was still born in the same year. When I came out to the street life back in 2016, my sister was in jail and my dad told her what I was doing. She wrote me a letter begging me to stop and not go down that path, but I didn’t listen to her. All I did was cry and then fold it up and put it in the backseat of my car. Not too long after that I ended up getting into a relationship with — come to find out — one of my sister’s exes. But I went to go and visit her and told her who I was with and gave her a phone number so she could get a hold of me. When she got out of jail, instead of staying on the road to recovery she came back to the streets to protect me. She said that she wouldn’t be able to live with herself knowing that I was in the streets without her. So, she came back out here and made it known to everyone that crossed our path that I was her sister and if they messed with me then they had to deal with her. Me and Crystal have been through a lot together, from childhood to adulthood. We have had our ups and downs, but I can say that no matter what, when I needed her she was always there. All I had to do was say, sissy I need you, and she was there. I also want to make it very clear to everyone that she was clean. There was NO DRUGS found in her system when she was killed. I know how hard it was Crystal Ludwig (above) cared for and protected her sister Tabitha until passing away. for her but she was fighting every day. I will never forget the last day that I seen her. She was fighting so hard to stay clean and it makes me feel so good to know that she pushed through the cravings she was having that day. I am very proud of my sister. That’s the reason why I’m going to continue my fight on the road of recovery: to make her proud of me the way I am proud of her. My sister is the strongest woman I will ever know. Life is going to be hard without her, I already know that, but I also know that she wouldn’t want me to ever give up. She would want me to move forward and keep fighting so that’s what I am going to do. Originally published in Groundcover News August 2018.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FUN Happyscopes for the holidays Hi readers, hope you enjoy your Happyscope! Libra: Sept 23-Oct 23 Decorating for the holidays is not a debate! Let go and show your skills. It's ok. Balance career and personal time to allow for the joy and money to flow. Scorpio: Oct 24-Nov 21 Let’s take time to relax and allow that passionate side to emerge. Decorate this year with others, designing lots of joy and peace. Sagittarius: Nov 22-Dec 21 Yes, it’s adventure time. The holidays will propel you into joy and peace. Pick vibrant colors this season that ring in happiness. Capricorn: Dec 22-Jan 19 Freeze the boss in you! Allow others to help you FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 on you. Giving part of yourself will bring out the peace within. Flowing waters come from smiles that are shared. Pisces: Feb 19-Mar 20 Swimming in a straight line is better than swimming in a circle. Your imagination shall create a joyous blow hole. Aries: Mar 21-Apr 19 Yes, you always this season. Dancing with a friend or family member is a step to prosperity and peace. Aquarius: Jan 20-Feb 18 Hello independent one, don’t forget others count get the job done. You’re a bold and courageous one! Hugging is not a crime. Love is knocking at your door, don’t run. Taurus: April 20-May 20 Stepping slowly is the same as stomping your feet. Learn to glide, freeing up your love. Gemini: May 21-Jun 21 Trusting yourself to make decisions makes you hit the bullseye. Love has been looking for you, open the door and allow love to enter. Cancer: June 22-Jul 22 You are spot on when it comes to knowing your business. Reach out and aid others in decorating. Spin the truth of trust and hope to others. Leo: Jul 23-Aug 22 Hold up. Don’t roar at others, we know you got it all together! Allow someone else to take charge! Hunt for the intangible things in life. Virgo: Aug 23-Sept 22 It’s creativity time — let’s shine and embrace that decorative side. Projects can create prosperity during the holidays. OCTOBER 17, 2025 Lies in paradise TOMMY SPAGHETTI Groundcover vendor No. 669 Glossary of terms: Hell = Detroit, Paradise = A2, Devil's Weed = marijuana, Oracle = Groundcover News, Oasis = AADL, Craycray = insane, Lies = story, Mboob = girl friend, Scrilla = U.S. currency, Poison = coffee, Drip = time Why would anyone want to be homeless? The answer to me is twofold. 1) To experience something different from a normal experience. 2) To create a written article compelling enough to be published in the great Groundcover News. I have submitted several articles, but the only article published recently was an article about home demolition in Hell and a housing activist. Thus my personal foray into the homeless subculture is predicated on the simple idea that I can be inspired by Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickled and Dimed,” a book depicting the economic prospects of 9-5 living. Barbara adopted a fictitious name and attempted to earn a living in three different cities for a month at a time. A living based on a 40-hour work week. One month as a waitress; one month as a maid; one month at Walmart. The parameter of this current journalistic endeavor is not as formulated as “Nickled and Dimed.” My intentions are more personally motivated. Barbara’s "Nickled and Dimed" has a much broader extrapolation. Her truth implicates a minimum wage capitalistic society built on trickle-down economics within the scope of high consumerism. My writing aspires to merely entertain the literate plebiscite of Washtenaw County. This is how it started: A domestic argument quickly transmutes into name-calling, which prompts me to leave my house on foot. Heel toe to the Shame Train 3 km gives me ample drips to review our situation. Normally, I vacate M-boob’s house in the summer, finding it easier to flop elsewhere in warm temperatures. This past summer I decided to stay and tough it out, believing that a good relationship is worth fighting for. September 25, 2025, I left M-boob and the comfortable living arrangement (long overdue for failure). Heel toeing to the Shame Train on Woodward, I board the #46 surreptitiously running into cray cray, a local yokel. She is expert at foraging the woods for edible plants. “Do you have an ink pen I can borrow?” I ask her. “No I don’t,” the woman said. “I would like to interview you for the Oracle,” I said. “Sure,” she replied. A few more questions garner only vague answers, so I give up. Thankfully our Shame Train enters the Hargrove transit center on State Fair. Rivka: “I’m going shopping.” “I’m going downtown,” I said, where a flurry of activity awaits. As the Shame Train edges into Grand Circus Park, it becomes evident that there are two sporting events taking place in Hell. A sports fanatic wearing a Lions Jersey informs me that season tickets cost $3,700, proving my theory of NFL Billionaires hiring millionaires to play for thousandaires — that’s trickle up economics. As a writer I know that readers like excitement in their lives, so I can tell you as soon as I got downtown, I purchased a can of Liquid Death, in stark opposition to bottles of H2O. I approach a plastic cab driver, “Do you have an ink pen I can borrow?” “No, but in a few hours you can find one on the ground.” We both dart our eyes to the curb. Crossing Woodward on foot, “Do you have an ink pen I can borrow?” “No, sorry.” I ask a cop, a Jehovah's witness, no and no. The ink pen came from a musician named man. I spied the horn player. “Can I borrow an ink pen?” I asked. “Maybe, if I have one,” he said. Rifling through his backpack, he produces an inkpen. “I don’t know if it works,” he said. “Thanks, man!” I take three steps back from man, then stop and turn around. Rifling through my pocket, I produce three crumpled up dollars. "Here man, this is to prime your tip basket,” I said. Man accepted the donation, citing, “My name is Lawrence.” With this ink pen, I could start this journalistic endeavor to become homeless in paradise. Day 1: Prompted by the often piqued question, "Where did you sleep last night?" The query speaks loud and clear to me as I traipse through my day. I don’t think about WWs, but rather, “What will I eat now?” With an uncounted fist full of scrilla, I heeltoe to the Shame Train in Hell. On to paradise then Ypsilanti where I witnessed part of the Bread and Puppet theater in Riverside Park at Totally Awesome Fest. I arrive just in time for the performance but a compromised seating reveals only a partial performance. If I am going to be successful at this homeless thing, or unsuccessful at living, I am going to need to become better at managing skills. It has never been my strong suit. I loved math as a child but the discovery of devil’s weed prevented me from seeing the benefits of advanced math. I stayed high throughout junior high and high school. Being homeless only requires addition and subtraction. Culling the scrilla from my pocket, I methodically added up the total (in real time) — $5.50. Before I run out of drips I’d like to ink yesterday’s lies in my journal. At the 24 hour diner (Stickerhaven) I sit down to scribble away. “Poison,” the craycray waitress asks. “Do you have decaf?” “No sorry.” I acquiesce. For the purpose of obfuscating the facts and protecting the guilty I have a glossary of terms. Day 2: Totally disastrous attempt. Lack of sleep and poison I drank combined to make me concerned about my mental and physical health. I feel like death is nearby. Lack of sleep always induces suicidal thoughts. Just seven days in Paradise. I can easily go back to Hell. The Shame Train is just $4. Travelling back to hell will allow me to get my bicycle perhaps and window washing equipment maybe. Also, there is a looming ticket/citation that needs to be paid by the first of the month. My punishment for running a red light on a motorcycle. Before I left Paradise I spent a couple of days studying Chinese folktales. FAILURE IS A TEACHER STERN, TELLING YOU THERE'S MUCH TO LEARN. Once upon a time there were three fishes who shared a pond: Plan Ahead, Wait and See and Think Fast. One morning they hear the owner of the property making plans to drain the pond. Immediately Plan Ahead swam to the other side, found an inlet and went to another lake. Early the next morning a big machine came to drain the swamp. Think Fast quickly swam away to the other lake. Wait and See was not so fortunate. Whether I am Think Fast or Wait and See remains to be seen. OCTOBER 17, 2025 HALLOWEEN community EVENTS HALLOWEEN COSTUME SWAP Sunday, October 19, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Ann Arbor District Library, downtown branch Come pick out a new-to-you costume for this year! This is a wonderful chance to save money, clear your closet, and pick out something snazzy for this year from the gently used and clean costumes dropped off at any Library location. HOLY BONES ARTISAN MARKET Sunday, October 19, 1-9 p.m. Ypsi Freighthouse, 100 Market Place, Ypsilanti They’ve hand-picked some favorite artists to bring you a curated collection of dark, spooky and beautifully unique goods. It’s the perfect time to find new art for your space and connect with the makers behind it all. Admission is free and open to the public. PILAR’S FOUNDATION FALL INTO ACTION Sunday, October 19, 4-6:30 p.m. Zion Lutheran Church, 1501 W Liberty St. Ann Arbor Fundraising open house with food, live music and silent auction. Uniting our community to benefit immigrant families in need of assistance. Donation ticket prices: Adults ($50), teens and students with IDs ($35), children under six ($20) Purchase tickets online at pilarsfoundation.org or in person at Pilar’s Tamales, 2261 W Liberty St. Ann Arbor. SPOOKY MARKET AND COMMUNITY HARVEST PARTY Saturday, October 25, 10 a.m.-1p.m. Farmers Marketplace, 16 S Washington, Ypsilanti Come dressed in your costume, enjoy plenty of candy, pumpkin painting, kids games! Directly after the market will be a Community Harvest Party (1-4.p.m). Enjoy music, pumpkin carving, a donut eating contest, and face painting. Bring a dish to share! YPSIWRITES OPEN MIC NIGHT Monday, October 20, 7-9 p.m. Corner Brewery, 720 Norris St. Ypsi Writers are invited to share their work, in whatever stage it is in currently, with supportive YpsiWrites and Ypsi Pride communities. PUBLIC WORKS AND SOLID WASTE OPEN HOUSE Sat., October 25, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Public Works Unit, 4251 Stone School Road, Ann Arbor A free, family-friendly event exploring the world of public works and solid waste. Enjoy hands-on activities to learn about utility infrastructure, city forestry, street maintenance, solid waste, recyling and compost programs; such as touching City trucks, fixing a water main break, painting a plow, and more! ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW Saturday, October 25, 9:30 p.m. Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St. Ann Arbor Film screening featuring a live shadowcast by The Leather Medusas! HAUNTED HISTORIES Wed, Oct 29, 2025 6:30 - 9 p.m. William L. Clements Library, 909 South University Avenue, Ann Arbor, Join the Clements Library for a spooktacular open-house event. Throughout the evening, immerse yourself in a 19th-century masquerade party to try to solve a murder mystery while enjoying a variety of activities from the 1800s. Earn prizes for costumes and for solving the mystery. At 6:30, 7:30, and 8:30, SMTD student Sarah Hartmus will perform a dramatic reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat.” There is limited space for the performance, so register now to reserve your spot at LP.CONSTANTCONTACTPAGES.COM/EV/REG/ QC3JSGZ GROUNDCOVER NEWS ANNUAL OPEN MIC Friday, November 21, 6-8 p.m. Makeshift Gallery, 407 E. Liberty St. Ann Arbor Join us this November in honoring Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week our annual open mic event! Come listen to community members share writing, poetry and stories from the street. Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews.com GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Beware of greedy goblins LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover writer Beware of greedy goblins They will rob you for your goods They are worse than thugs and hoods Beware of greedy goblins They are always up to no good Beware of greedy goblins They smile at you While never having intentions to do good Beware of greedy goblins They will snatch your bag every chance they get But don't worry about the greedy goblins At the end they will get what they have coming Beware of greedy goblins They will leave hummin’ and bummin’

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FAIR HOUSING In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, landlord agrees to accept tenants with housing vouchers MICHAEL J. STEINBERG Civil Rights Litigation Initiative On Oct. 16 the Fair Housing Center presented Megan Morse an award for winning the first lawsuit to enforce the Ann Arbor ordinance barring sourceof-income discrimination in housing. In April, a Washtenaw County judge approved a settlement agreement in Ms. Morse’s lawsuit alleging that an Ann Arbor landlord refused to rent to people who used government housing vouchers. Ms. Morse was represented by the Civil Rights Litigation Initiative at the University of Michigan Law School. “I was born in Ann Arbor and I love the city, but my epilepsy and other disabilities make it impossible for me to earn enough money to pay Ann Arbor rent. I was heartbroken and humiliated when a landlord refused to honor my housing voucher and rejected me,” said Ms. Morse. “This lawsuit wasn't just for me, it was for everyone in the community. Living with a disability shouldn’t stop people from having a home in Ann Arbor.” Morse has several disabilities and relies on Social Security and Housing Choice Vouchers to pay rent. Three years ago, she wanted to move back to Ann Arbor to be close to her daughter and the University of Michigan Hospital, where she participates in studies to develop treatments for epilepsy. When the Ann Arbor Housing Commission granted Morse a housing voucher to pay rent in Ann Arbor, she inquired about renting at several Ann Arbor apartment communities, which are owned and managed by the Wilson White Company. A Wilson White representative told both Morse and a tester from the Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan that the company did not accept housing choice vouchers because they required the landlord to contract with thirdparty vendors. Ann Arbor’s Non-Discrimination Ordinance makes it illegal to discriminate against tenants based on the source of their income and requires landlords to accept housing choice vouchers as proof of income in their tenant screening process. Because housing choice vouchers are paid directly to landlords by the Ann Arbor Housing Commission, there is little risk of tenants failing to pay their rent. In December 2024, the Michigan legislature passed a statewide law that is similar to the Ann Arbor ordinance. In the litigation, Wilson White argued that it did not have to accept vouchers because it did not want to enter into a contract with the government, which would require additional inspections of the apartment. “Housing choice vouchers are meant to level the playing field for low-income families,” said Pam Kisch, Director of the Fair Housing Center. “Ann Arbor can be a great place to live with excellent schools, job opportunities, public transportation, parks and cultural opportunities. It’s also very expensive and we shouldn’t add more barriers to living here than already exist.” Under the order signed by the court, Wilson White will: • Accept Housing Choice Vouchers as a valid source of income for rental applicants, • Provide training to its staff on the rights of prospective and current tenants who use Housing Choice Vouchers, and • Clarify its rental applications to explicitly state its acceptance of vouchers as a source of other income. Attorneys’ fees and damages were agreed to in an out-of-court settlement, which is confidential. "This groundbreaking settlement is a step toward ensuring all low-income people have equal access to Ann Arbor housing, regardless of their source of income," said Alex Jackman, a student attorney with the Civil Rights Litigation Initiative. "Discrimination against housing voucher holders is not only illegal, but it has consequences." On Oct. 16, Morse received the Mark Mitshkun Board of Directors Award at the Fair Housing Center’s Annual Breakfast. If you think you have experienced housing discrimination, call 1-877979-FAIR to discuss your situation and/ or file a complaint. Information provided about allegations or complaints of housing discrimination will be kept confidential. The Fair Housing Center will not report undocumented immigrants to law enforcement. OCTOBER 17, 2025 HOPE IS HERECALL FOR 24/7 mental health and substance use support support 734-544-3050 LEADD SUPPORT TEAM: WILLIE STURDIVANT, JR., HAILEY RICHARDS, SARAH REISS, JACQULEYN CAMPBELL LEARN MORE about programs funded by the community mental health and public safety preservation millage. OCTOBER 17, 2025 CASH ASSISTANCE GROUNDCOVER NEWS New research shows cash for moms and babies improves health, stabilizes families, and saves millions U-M POVERTY SOLUTIONS Two new studies reveal that Rx Kids — America’s first community-wide prenatal and infant cash program — is transforming health and economic outcomes for families. The findings, published in the American Journal of Public Health and released by the Social Science Research Network, offer compelling evidence of the impact of unconditional cash support for families during pregnancy and infancy — a critical window for child development and maternal and infant health. Significant improvements in birth outcomes In new research preprinted in SSRN, researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan analyzed over 450,000 births across the state and found that Rx Kids led to healthier babies with dramatic improvements in birth outcomes in Flint, a city where 59% of children live in poverty — more than triple the national average. The population-wide study revealed that following the launch of Rx Kids in 2024, Flint saw an 18% drop in preterm births and a 27% reduction in low birthweight, when compared to the previous year and similar Michigan cities. These improvements resulted in approximately 29% reduction in NICU admissions, preventing nearly 60 costly hospitalizations annually and generating an estimated $6.2 million in healthcare savings. These healthier outcomes were linked to behavioral changes during pregnancy, including reduced smoking and increased prenatal care. Families gain financial stability, improve mental health A second study published in the American Journal of Public Health, analyzing survey data from more than 1,000 mothers from Flint and surrounding areas, shows that Rx Kids nearly eliminated evictions with a 91% decrease, reduced rent and mortgage debt by over $1,000 on average, and improved nutritional access. Mental health outcomes also improved, with postpartum depression screenings dropping by 14 percentage points. Mothers reported feeling more loved, respected, and hopeful — indicators of enhanced wellbeing. Trust in healthcare institutions rose by 10 percentage points, and trust in government increased as well, suggesting that Rx Kids is helping to rebuild the social contract for families. A proven model for supporting families “These are not just numbers. These are babies who didn’t need intensive care. These are moms who did not suffer from postpartum depression,” said Dr. Mona Hanna, director of Rx Kids and associate dean of public health at Michigan State University 9 Rx Kids recipients in Flint celebrating their child's first birthday. College of Human Medicine. “We’ve long known that poverty is a public health crisis. This research proves that Rx Kids is a powerful prescription.” The findings indicate that the implementation of Rx Kids has been successful in improving maternal and infant health, strengthening family financial security and improving maternal mental health and wellbeing. “This isn’t a pilot. It’s a blueprint,” said Luke Shaefer, Rx Kids co-director, professor of public policy, and director of Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan, “We’re showing that communities can scale unconditional support, reach nearly every family, and deliver measurable results — healthier babies, stronger mental health and economic stability.” Rx Kids was designed to address the economic shock that accompanies childbirth—when income often drops and expenses surge. At the same time, this period marks a critical window for child development, with conditions in utero and early infancy shaping lifelong health and productivity. The program provides universal and unconditional support of $1,500 during pregnancy and $500 per month for babies for 6-12 months. Launched in Flint, Michigan in January 2024, the program has expanded to eleven communities across Michigan, reaching over 3,400 families with more than $14.5 million in cash prescriptions. Rx Kids is a program of the Michigan State University Pediatric Public Health Initiative, in collaboration with Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan, administered by GiveDirectly.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY SERVICE OCTOBER 17, 2025 Fed-Up Ministries Director appears on the Kelly Clarkson Show and wins major grant Everybody has seen the Fed-Up Ministries food truck around town at some point, and if not, you will soon. FedUp Ministries, a Southeast Michigan-based organization focused on addressing food insecurity and homelessness, has been feeding low-income and homeless people from Ypsilanti to Ann Arbor for years. They not only provide food to sustain life but also food for thought and spiritual growth while providing employment and volunteering opportunities in our community. The ministry has already provided over 75,000 meals and 10,000 hygiene services (shower and laundry) to clients, demonstrating their profound community impact and commitment to serving those in need. FedUp Ministries was featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show, a daytime variety talk show, on June 4, 2025. The show surprised the ministry's director, Pastor Anna Taylor-McCants, with a $100,000 Pilot Pen G2 Overachievers Grant. The grant recognizes individuals who go above and beyond to make a positive impact in their community. The grant will help FedUp Ministries build a permanent hub with a commercial kitchen to expand their work providing meals and services to those in need. I asked Pastor Anna how her organization got on the show and won the grand prize of $100,000. Last summer Fed-Up Ministries’ board president Sarah Tears texted Pastor Anna and fellow board member Tosha Lee about MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 the overachiever award on the Kelly Clarkson Show and suggested nominating Pastor Anna. Lee and Pastor Anna's daughter Laynee started documenting why Pastor Anna should win the award. The proposal had to be handwritten, so they decided to let Laynee write from her perspective and in her own hand why her mother should be awarded this grand prize. Pastor Anna appeared on the show as a finalist, not knowing she had won. Clarkson greeted her by calling her “a rad human — you’re so incredible.” During the segment, Pastor Anna describes what FedUp has done, and what it hopes to do with the award. When the Pilot Pen G2 vice president and Clarkson informed her she was the winner and handd her the symbolic large check, the indescribable look on Pastor Anna’s face said it all. Fed-Up is currently serving in a mobile capacity, providing prepared hot meals, showers, laundry services and more. But the grant will enable Pilot Pen G2 Vice President, Pastor Anna and Kelly Clarkson pictured left to right. them to explore a land purchase and construction of a dedicated facility to meet the needs of the ministry and the communities they serve. Fed-Up Ministries’ schedule of program services Tuesdays: Food truck at the Ypsilanti District Library at 1:30-2:30 pm. Food Truck also 1st and 4th Tuesdays 5 - 6:30 p.m. at the Peace Hub,1515 South Harris Road. Wednesdays: Food truck 12-1 p.m. at Liberty Plaza in downtown Ann Arbor. Note: During the winter months the Wednesday meals will be served at the Daytime Warming Centers in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Worship service and food truck from 5-7 p.m. at Growing Hope in downtown Ypsilanti. Showers from 4-7 p.m. on Wednesdays at LEAF, 411 E. Michigan Ave., Ypsilanti. Note: showers will not be available during the month of November due to winterization. Note: Care Based Safety crisis response services are also available at all these times and locations. Like what you read and want to get involved with helping the unhoused in Washtenaw County? There are employment and volunteer opportunities available! Visit their website: fedupminitries.org Where two rivers converge J. SCHEIER Groundcover contributor Recently while eating lunch outside, I was privy to a conversation between a Groundcover vendor and a nearby encouraging person, telling them they were doing a great job. The vendor seemed unsure, but continued to greet persons with a friendly demeanor and sold one or two papers while I finished lunch. Though several people bought the paper, other pedestrians returned the greeting with a slight and sideways glance, as eye contact seemed too risky or otherwise unwarranted, and maybe a “no thanks” or a smile. Others, no response at all. The contrast of the pedestrians to the vendor and the encouraging comrade reminds me of the disparity between persons. Is it what is on the outside that separates us from one another? Is it the clothing? The jaunt in step, with quick errands to complete? The conversations with each other? Or if the wheelchair dependent, sitting mostly alone, questioning their own confidence and abilities, was too different? Are we not all like that, at least a bit on the inside? A bit unsure but continuing on? Risking both connection or disregard, can we not relate? Do we not know of the basic human need to be honored simply because we are human? Over the weekend, I used the phrase “there but the Grace of God go I” and my 20-something son didn’t understand the phrase. So I explained. All my life I have been given family, friends, opportunities, support, mental and physical health, no addictions, no physical ailments. I was born at the right time, in the right place with the right people in order to succeed. This is not something I earned, it was a gift. Hence, on occasion I remind myself to abstain from assumptions. - judgement and The us and the thems. (A best case scenario rather than the “us vs them”). I wonder, why are we so unable to speak with people with different appearances, different lives, differentyou name it? And each day, I ponder my impact and what can I do. How do I not sink into the rabbit hole of despair? Do I simply live with blinders on and pretend to not see the discord? Not an option I recommend. Today I read an excerpt from Richard Rohr (a writer and a priest known for his all-inclusive activities — feel free to Google his name) and I paraphrase: we all have tasks and jobs but in the end it is all the same. We are here to “uniquely be divine love in a way that no one else can or will.” As a patron of Groundcover News and a former contributor to Streetwise in Chicago, I bought my paper from the vendor. I received an expression of thanks and as usual, I received the vendor's blessing for today’s goodness. I am not sure, but it seems that I was given the greater gift that day. I was treated as a full person with eye contact, a smile and a blessing. May we remember the translation of the Ubuntu proverb, “I am because we are.” Thank you for listening. OCTOBER 17, 2025 COMMUNITY SERVICE GROUNDCOVER NEWS Groundcover all-stars celebrate Ginsberg Center grand opening It was September 26, 2025, and I was standing in the yard of 1024 Hill St. in Ann Arbor, which is the home of the newly remodeled building called the Edward Ginsberg Center. I was there for the Center's grand reopening, with Groundcover News all-stars Glen Page, Mama Rose Strickland and Big Mike Jones. It was a warm fall afternoon on U-M’s campus. The frat house next door was pumping deep, throbbing house music in the background (“Dance” by Chris Stussy). The yard was abuzz with conversation between college students, professors, university big shots and community members. Groundcover News was located in the “community partners” section side by side with Washtenaw Housing Alliance and Avalon Housing. United Way was there too, along with two community support organizations from Detroit. We were all talking excitedly about our causes and projects, and the atmosphere was hopeful and confident. It was my first time at the Ginsberg Center so I asked Jessica Kane, the Academic Partnerships Manager, to educate me about it. She explained, “It connects U-M students with JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 organizations outside of the university. It is a community networking system that U-M supplies or sponsors, allowing students to get out into the real world and do real-life things.” Kane said. “The university is so big and so powerful that individuals get overlooked. So the Ginsberg Center also mediates between U-M and the general community.” “Who is Edward Ginsberg?” I asked. Jessica replied, “Phil and Inger Ginsberg are our donors, but they didn’t want to name the building after themselves. So they named it the Edward Ginsberg Center to honor Phil’s father, who was a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. "The Ginsbergs came to the university looking to endow a scholarship. While they were on campus, a faculty member suggested that they talk to some students about the Center for Community Service and Learning. The students had been participants in projects such as community peer facilitation, alternative support groups and leadership projects. The center got 600 students to spend spring break doing service work instead of going to the beach. "Phil and Inger decided that it was in line with the values their family had grown up with and continued to find value in. So when we say that they’re philanthropists, that was their act of philanthropy — this center. And that’s because they saw the value of community engagement and getting students out to have real-world experiences. When they want to change the world, we show them the steps to do that.” Amanda Healy is the Assistant Director for Community Partnerships. “What do you do?” I asked Amanda. 12/31/2025 “My role is to help oversee our relationships with our network of community partners,” she replied. “U-M is a really big place, and often community partners might have a great connection to one faculty member or one program, but if that program ends or the faculty member moves on, it’s hard to 11 Jim Clark, Rose Strickland, "Big Mike" Jones and Glen Page rep Groundcover at the newly renovated Ginsberg Center. get reconnected to the university. “We’re hyper-local in focus. We find folks at U-M who are eager to put their research and knowledge to use in the community. We want to be a central doorway to social sector organizations in Southeast Michigan, especially Washtenaw County. So if you’re looking for help recruiting students, help with evaluation or assessment, or a partner on research, we can help you find folks on campus who are interested in that. Also, we pair students with community partners they want to learn from,” Healy said. The Ginsberg family endowed the center as a way to commemorate Edward’s commitment to service. Two years ago, a $10 million gift was made to build the new building. They moved in a month ago. “We are really excited about it,” Healy said. “We’ll be hosting a documentary screening of 'A Letter from the West Side,' a documentary that was made about the history of housing in Ann Arbor. We also put out postcards asking the community what they would like to see happen here.” The Edward Ginsberg Center is an asset to the community because it puts the massive resources of U-M in the hands of people who are on the ground doing front-line work. Ann Arbor has been a mecca for social justice activists for generations. The Ginsbergs’ gift will ensure their work goes on to make an impact. As the grand opening event wound down, I reflected on the value of the Ginsberg Center to the local community. For Groundcover News, the Center is a doorway to expanding our engagement with the U-M campus. Amanda shared that the Center advertises Groundcover News in a newsletter that goes out to the students. The Groundcover all-star team as well as several other vendors have been vying for spots around campus. Given the mission of the Ginsberg Center, Groundcover News can be a huge connection between the student body and the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti community.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers OCTOBER 17, 2025 SPOOKY WORD SEARCH by Emeri Jade Bey ACROSS 1. MRI or PET 5. Lion's pride 9. PayPal funds 14. Gas station name 15. "Ah, me!" 16. Nearly eradicated disease, thanks to a vaccine 17. Bearing 18. "Buona ___" (Italian greeting) 19. Marsh 20. Person in possession of their place of residence 23. Clogs or mocs 24. Dad, slangily 27. "Gimme ___!" (start of an Iowa State cheer) 28. Narc's find, perhaps 30. Drone, e.g. 31. Grumble 34. Artillerymen 37. Tamil director and activist ___ Sultan 39. Amniotic ___ 40. Divided 41. Medium on which libraries preserve old documents 44. Brews 45. Tokyo, formerly 46. Good, long bath 47. "___ rang?" 49. Info-gathering reporter 51. Contemplate 55. Like some winds 58. Kind of dog 60. BBs, e.g. 61. Excursion 62. Large-headed match 63. One of several on a fancy wedding cake 64. Dial ___ 65. Game of strategy 66. Sea eagle 67. Units of work DOWN 1. Tropical palms 2. Pub ___ 3. Grape seeds 4. It's often ruled 5. ___ lodge 6. "Smart" ones 7. Bust maker 8. Biblical birthright seller 9. Frat house letters 10. Intimidated 11. Danger warning 12. ___ card (cell phone necessity) 13. Bounce 21. Howard of "Happy Days" 22. Game on horseback 25. Cliffside dwelling 26. Crows' homes 28. Natural talent 29. Foot part 31. Beast of burden 32. Chemical compound 33. Identify 35. ___ Minor 36. Shoulder decoration 38. Prayer beads 42. Source 43. Blight 48. Frequently, poetically 50. Double agents 51. Japanese noodle dish 52. Trial's partner 53. Static ___ 54. Varieties 56. Detest 57. Turkish title 58. Ozone enemy (Abbr.) 59. "Come again?" PUZZLE SOLUTIONS October 3, 2025 edition OCTOBER 17, 2025 FOOD RESOURCES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS INSP OCTOBER 17, 2025 Many still street homeless in DC following federal and local encampment closures ANNEMARIE CUCCIA, MADI KOESLER, FRANZISKA WILD, MACKENZIE KONJOYAN AND KATHERINE WILKISON Street Sense Media Three weeks into the U.S. federal government’s crackdown on visible homelessness and crime in DC, an impromptu count of people experiencing homelessness found that hundreds of people are still living outside in the District. Combined local and federal efforts claimed to have closed at least 50 encampments in August, according to the White House, although Street Sense has only confirmed 24 closures since the surge began on August 11. The White House has not provided a list of closed encampments responded to questions about why it could not provide such a list. But even as President Donald Trump claimed victory for his efforts, a census of people sleeping outside conducted by the DC Department of Human Services (DHS) suggests that unsheltered homelessness in the city did not meaningfully decrease due to the encampment closures, which advocates argue do more to move people around than to move them into housing. The federal crackdown decreased the number of visible encampments in the District. The count found 54 tents across the city, compared to 107 at the end of July. The human impact has also been clear. People living both at encampments closed by law enforcement and the city’s encampment team have scattered, often losing possessions and community in the process. Some rough sleepers (people who sleep outside but not in a tent) have made it a point to avoid law enforcement. But it is harder to tell if the crackdown has impacted the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness overall. While about 80 new people went into shelter in August, according to the city, at least 764 were still sleeping outside each night, according to the census. This is just 30 people fewer than the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) Count found were sleeping outside in January, although the city cautions against directly comparing the two numbers due to differing methodologies. These numbers do not include people who are homeless but sleeping in shelters; the January PIT Count recorded a total of over 5,100 people experiencing homelessness in the District. Meanwhile, the city has scheduled including at encampseveral encampment closures through September, ments that have not been closed recently. The city has closed at least 16 encampments in the last two weeks. While this is an uptick in local encampment closures compared to the summer, it is not unprecedented, as the city averaged three to four encampment closures a week as recently as this spring. “We have a relatively small encampment problem in DC,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a August 27 update on the federal crackdown. “However, it is highly visible.” The new state of homelessness in DC or Shelters, across state lines, friends’ couches — where have people gone since Trump threatened the widespread removal of people experiencing homelessness in the district? Surveys by Street Sense confirmed that while some people impacted by encampment closures are considering shelter, most stayed outside, either in new spots or without tents. A few crossed state lines into Virginia or Maryland. With the help of mutual aid groups, some residents in special circumstances temporarily moved into hotel rooms. But the question of where people are going is still heavy on the shoulders of DC’s unhoused population and outreach workers. “There has been a significant disruption in the lives of people who live unsheltered,” Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Wayne Turnage said ahead of the unsheltered count. When encampments are closed, people move, and if they do not have reliable phone service or lose their phone in the closure, they can lose touch with outreach workers. Andy Wassenich, director of policy at local outreach and housing nonprofit Miriam’s Kitchen, said that his team has lost contact with at least 25 people since the takeover began. Christine Hong, chief of services to end and prevent homelessness at the Department of Human Services in Montgomery County, Maryland, said that the county has been monitoring closely the data that it receives from street outreach and emergency shelters since the White House announced the federal surge. So far, the county has not seen a significant influx of new people, Hong said. But anecdotally, outreach workers and county residents are seeing “new faces,” including Surveys by Street Sense confirmed that while some people impacted by encampment closures are considering shelter, most stayed outside, either in new spots or without tents. Photo credit: Madi Koesler people who will not share their names or where they are from, which could indicate that they have recently moved from the District. “Whenever you clear encampments and the residents do not accept the offer of shelter that you make, they will tend to scatter, so that creates difficulty for our outreach team to relocate and continue the offer of homeless services,” Turnage said, explaining that the homeless census was conducted to ensure that the city could better provide outreach services to people experiencing homelessness. The census somewhat mirrored the annual PIT Count, conducted every January, and attempted to determine where people were sleeping outside the night of August 28, following the mass clearings. During the census, DHS volunteers and outreach providers walked every block of the city between roughly 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. to count people whom they assumed to be experiencing homelessness. Counters did not individually survey people, meaning there is no confirmation that everyone counted is experiencing homelessness. Instead, volunteers cross-referenced recent data from outreach workers about where people often slept. Because of the difference in methodology, the city cautioned against comparing this census to PIT Count data, although it is the most recent public data on unsheltered homelessness in the city. The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness’ PIT Count data reported 798 people sleeping outside in 2025, 900 in 2024, and 825 in 2023, just slightly above the 764 people found in August. The PIT itself is largely understood to be an undercount. The census was the city’s idea, according to Turnage, and as of the night of the count, there had been no discussion of sharing results with the federal government. As winter approaches, the city plans to use data from this count to increase shelter beds, officials said. The city opened 100 new low-barrier shelter beds in early August. DC is working actively to increase homelessness services capacity by at least 300 more beds, Bowser announced in a press conference the same week of the census. This includes 190 beds at the new noncongregate facility on E Street set to open in September. “We don’t expect that we’re going to have homeless encampments, and we are going to work to make sure people can come into shelter,” Bowser said at the conference on August 27, ahead of the count. More beds might sound like an ideal solution to move people inside, but many unsheltered people in DC prefer their encampments to the city’s shelters. Encampment residents feel that they have more privacy and autonomy when living outside or in tents than in shelters. Many shelters in the District have curfews, bag limits, and security checks. They also prohibit pets and see STREETS next page  OCTOBER 17, 2025 INSP  STREETS from last page are, for the most part, single gender, meaning that couples and adult families may have to split up. People living outside emphasize that shelters are not a home. Encampments can provide a sense of community and more freedom than shelters. Having a space that is all their own, even though it is outside, provides a sense of privacy and ownership that the communal style of shelter living can strip away, even as it offers more protection from the elements. “You have to cure the problem, not put a band-aid on the problem,” said one person experiencing homelessness, who asked to remain anonymous to protect their safety while living outside. City-driven encampment closures Encampment closures during the first week of the crackdown were mired in confusion, as law enforcement led many closures, and it seemed that the city’s social service agencies and encampment team were not always aware of closures beforehand. “When we first got started, it was a little difficult to try to figure out how it would work,” Turnage said on the night of the count. But now, he said, the federal and local teams have worked out a protocol. The federal government can inform DC about sites that it finds and ask to get a team there to close the site. According to a White House official, MPD patrol units are also working to locate and close encampments. The White House is reporting a much higher number of encampments closed than the city, suggesting that there have been several closures the city did not attend, or still does not have information about. “President Trump is cleaning up DC to make it safe for all residents and visitors while ensuring homeless individuals aren’t out on the streets putting themselves at risk or posing a risk to others. Homeless people will have the opportunity to be taken to a homeless shelter or receive addiction and mental health services,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, wrote in response to questions about encampment closures. Street Sense followed up, asking how the White House is able to ensure that people are offered shelter or treatment if the relevant DC agencies are not aware of a closure, and requested a list of sites closed by law enforcement at the behest of the White House without involvement from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (DMHHS). White House officials did not provide specific responses to either question. Ahead of an encampment closure on September 3, Coco packed up her cart and moved from outside the Columbia Road Truist to a small park a couple of blocks away. Before DMHHS threw away her unwanted belongings, outreach workers repeatedly offered Coco bridge housing at the Aston. Over the two years in which Coco lived outside in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, they said that she had tried shelters and bridge housing but felt that they took away her freedom. As a voucher holder, Coco is holding out for a space she can feel is her own without a curfew or roommates. “I feel like I’m outside unjustly,” she said. “People like me [that] have a voucher – get me housed!” Uncertainty around arrests So far, Street Sense has not been able to confirm any arrests of people experiencing homelessness using the two statutes that the White House has said that MPD would potentially enforce to fine or jail people for camping or sleeping outside. These laws include DC Code 22-1307, which makes it illegal to block a sidewalk and could, in theory, be used to arrest someone for sleeping outside, as well as DC Municipal Regulation 24-100, which bans camping in D.C. Throughout the takeover, two people have been arrested at encampment clearings, but on the charge of assaulting an officer, according to a White House official. The city encampment team was not present for either arrest. The White House did not provide Street Sense with any specifics about GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15 the arrests, meaning that reporters could not independently verify their circumstances. But a number of people experiencing homelessness have been arrested, mostly on minor charges such as having open containers of alcohol and fare evasion. These arrests can be disruptive and traumatizing for people. They have also been upsetting for surrounding community members. A recent widely shared video depicts the arrest of an elderly woman experiencing homelessness. In the video, as nearly a dozen federal agents and local officers walk the handcuffed woman to a police cruiser, neighbors can be heard screaming expletives in anger at the officers. “Yes, we know her, she sits here for years,” one bystander yells, her voice rising in anger. “The f—ing FBI is here.” Miguel Trindade Deramo, an Advisory Neighborhood commissioner from a nearby neighborhood, took a video and posted it on social media platform X. He described the experience as upsetting. “It’s so disproportionate, it really made me wonder what was the precipitating event,” he told Street Sense. “It’s one thing for MPD to do it, another thing for federal agents.” Using the time and location of the arrest, Street Sense confirmed via arrest reports that the woman was arrested for having an open container of alcohol while she sat on a nearby see STREETS page 16 

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Buttermilk biscuits BEN FOSTER Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 cups flour 2 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 7 Tbsp unsalted butter* ¾ cup buttermilk* Little bit of extra buttermilk for brushing tops of biscuits *Needs to sit in the freezer for 30 minutes. Directions: Preheat the oven to 425°F. Cut the butter into thin slices and place them and the buttermilk in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. Use a box grater for easy butter slicing! Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter into the dry mix, breaking it apart into little bits with your fingers until you have a crumbly texture. Make a well in the center of the mix and add buttermilk. Stir briefly until combined, don’t over mix. You won’t have a dough yet so don’t worry about the consistency being too crumbly. Turn the mixture onto a floured surface. Use your hands to form a rectangle out of the mixture. Fold into thirds and press back into a rectangle a little less than an inch thick. Each time, incorporate the stray crumbs back into the dough before folding over. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to about ½ inch thick. Use a biscuit cutter or jar lid to cut out biscuits (with about a two inch diameter) out of the dough. Combine and roll out the scraps and continue cutting out biscuits. Put biscuits on a greased baking sheet, indent each in the center with your thumb, and brush with the extra buttermilk. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.  STREETS from page 15 stoop. Though the official police takeover expires on September 10, Bowser signed an executive order requiring indefinite cooperation between the city and federal law enforcement. Outreach workers and people experiencing homelessness are still waiting to see the long-term impacts of the crackdown. One man, who used to live in Washington Circle until he was displaced during the first set of encampment clearings carried out by law OCTOBER 17, 2025 enforcement, said that he wanted people to know that homelessness does not make someone a criminal. “Just ‘cause you’re homeless, doesn’t mean you’re a drug addict,” the man, who declined to give his name, said. He added that he has a job, pays child support, and makes too much to qualify for food stamps, but does not make enough to pay rent. “We got people out here actually trying to do better for themselves.” Courtesy of Street Sense Media / INSP. ngo $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 8/22/2025 11/13/25

2 $ OCTOBER 3, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 21 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Mental illness among the homeless: the consequence not the cause. page 10 STEPHANIE DUNCAN #66 ASK YOUR VENDOR: HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR EGGS? 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Women on the Move protested on Sept. 9 at Ypsilanti City Hall in response to the treatment of the woman at the Beer Cooler. Beer Cooler employees assault Black woman. page 4 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 OCTOBER 3, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Gray Connor — intern Lila Kelly— intern Steve Ross June Miller ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS D.A. Jud Branam Monique Caldwell Ben Foster Mike Jones Ron Pagereski Ken Parks David L. Putman Will Shakespeare Sandra S. Denise Shearer Tommy Spaghetti Florian Stegmaier Felicia Wilbert YpsiWrites PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Jane Atkins Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Stephanie Dong Glenn Gates Robert Klingler Margaret Patston Ari Ruczynski Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropiate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons OCTOBER 3, 2025 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR How do you like your eggs? Poached. — Cindy Gere, #279 Boiled, deviled eggs. — Denise Shearer, #485 Scrambled. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 I'm not picky. I'm an easy guy! — Frantz Francois, #601 Scrambled with small minced onions, a little garlic powder, a little black pepper and sometimes with cheese. And well done. — Felicia Wilbert, #234 In the past I used to like omelettes. Nowadays, a hard boiled egg is much better. — Will Shakespeare, #258 Scrambled with sugar. — Joe Woods, #103 Hard-boiled. — B-Man, #172 Scrambled. — Mike Jones, #113 I just like the fact that they are so versatile. —Wayne Sparks, #615 Extra greasy (over easy). — Jim Clark, #139 Love like the seasons MONIQUE CALDWELL Groundcover contributor Through winter’s hush and summer’s blaze, Our love endures the shifting days. Born of laughter, rooted deep, In friendship’s soil, its promise keeps. When storms arrive and tempests roar, We hold the line, we mend, restore. Not fleeting like a springtime bloom, But steady as the autumn moon. We bend like trees in April rain, Yet rise again, despite the strain. In every season, joy or pain, We find the sun, we start again. No frost can freeze what we have grown, No drought can crack this love we've known. For hearts that first were friends, then more — Are built to last, through every war. TOMMY SPAGHETTI Groundcover vendor No. 669 An open letter to Governor Spencer Cox of Utah regarding Charlie Kirk's assasin: Dear Spencer, I watched your press conference at the University of Utah September 12. The speech was titled "Moral Clarity" on YouTube (published by The Washington Post). In that speech you expressed unprecedented anger that you experienced post Charlie Kirk's murder but you were pulled back by Charlie's own words. "The weak can never forgive; forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive. Welcome without judgment, love without condition and forgive without limit. Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much." Spencer, if you truly wish to GROUNDCOVER NEWS Open letter to Gov. Spencer Cox quell the rising tide of political violence and put into action the words you speak, then it is incumbent upon you to commute Tyler Robinson's punishment to life imprisonment and do not seek the death penalty. Please demonstrate the courage to "forgive without limit." Sincerely, Tommy Spaghetti Groundcover News 3 Beautiful October October is a beautiful, festive, colorful month. I like Polish Polka music; it's soothing and it sounds good no matter what you are doing. I’ve seen Octoberfest on television but I’ve never done one in real life. Good Polish sausage is one of the foods I like. I would like to try pierogi, the beef and mushroom kinds. October is a month to enjoy all types of goodies because of harvest time. Halloween is a good holiday, but not for the spookiness. I like the festivities of being with friends and DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 enjoying goodies and harvest time. Another thing about Halloween is you get to dress like you want to, and be whatever or whoever you want to be! You get to watch the babies and children joyfully celebrate Halloween by trick or treating. The fall leaves are so pretty in October, too. It’s also a good time to go to farmers markets and apple orchards. It’s also a good time to go to petting zoos. It’s also a good time for artists because there's so much scenery to paint or take a picture of. October is a good, cool month. Chats with AI: Releasing radiopharmaceuticals and containing nuclear waste DAVID PUTMAN Groundcover vendor No. 679 In a recent conversation with Google AI, I uncovered the following fascinating facts: 1. Radiopharmaceuticals combined with THC and CBD may be a more effective cancer treatment than current medicines. However, to the best of my knowledge, no research has been completed on combining THC and CBD with radiopharmaceuticals. 2. In principle, the materials used in 55 gallon borated polyethylene lead-lined containers could safely hold 22 quarts of radioactive materials. Right now, 55 gallon drums are being used to hold significantly more than 22 quarts of toxic waste. The problems this potentially poses are environmental, emotional and personal. If you or a loved one develops cancer, you want the best of medicines, and without properly designed density to quantity ratios, the radiation could eventually get out. We don’t want our fellow men and women exposed to harmful radiation, and especially not the land, dirt, soil or groundwater either. I uncovered this all without a degree in chemistry. All I had to do was be persistent and ask the right questions. Google AI is young, and can only answer to the best of its knowledge. Persistence and proper phrasing is the key to completing your own education at home. No longer do our sprawling schools need to be a place of fear, intimidation and dangerous violence. The current generation can get answers online. You just have to ask the right questions.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS YPSILANTI Beer Cooler employees assault Black woman An Ypsilanti convenience store was closed following an Aug. 31 altercation involving a fight inside the store which was recorded on video. The video of the fight between two employees and a female customer spread on social media and caused concern about violence against the unhoused and mentally ill. The resulting uproar caused the Beer Cooler at 22 S. Washington St. in downtown Ypsilanti to close pending investigation. Online records showed that police were investigating a report of vandalism and simple assault at the shop’s location. Ypsilanti Police Chief Timothy Anderson declined to comment on the incident, citing the investigation as still open and ongoing. “Every member of our community deserves to feel safe, valued and treated with dignity, regardless of the circumstances,” Ypsilanti Mayor Nicole Brown wrote on Facebook. “The video of this incident has been circulated broadly, and the visual is disturbing. Please be mindful of what you are watching and take care of yourself.” Brown said she had been in contact with the store owner and they discussed accountability and taking steps toward repairing the community. The City of Ypsilanti released a statement about the incident as well, asking for the public to be patient while police investigate the incident. In the video circulating online, which lasts less than a minute, a woman is seen throwing items in the store while cursing. Moments later a male employee grabs the woman. The two employees, both men, and the woman are then seen in the video wildly flailing at each other before she is thrown to the ground. One employee is recorded dragging her out of the store while another picks up a wooden stick and briefly holds it up like he is about to swing. He lowers the stick after making eye contact with the camera recording him. The woman is dragged out of the store as she continues to kick at the employees and call them bitches. Someone is heard calling 911 in the background as the woman is dragged out. The video ends with the woman on the sidewalk outside the shop, appearing to spit at the employees. Someone is also heard laughing during the ordeal. Community organizers have been vocalizing their concerns about the incident. “Let me say this loud and clear. What happened at the Beer Cooler is a reflection of the unsafe environment we have for black women around here,” Trische’ Duckworth, executive MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 director of Survivors Speak, wrote on Facebook. “As a black woman, I don’t feel like my safety is important to the men of our community. Heck, my biggest bullies in this work have been men in this county. Not all, but many. Seeing this woman get beat like that, followed by all the dumb comments, makes me feel even less safe.” Several social media posts circulated stating there would be a protest at the Sept. 9 Ypsilanti City Council meeting regarding the incident at the store. Glen Page, Groundcover vendor No. 407, who grew up in Washtenaw County like myself, told me about the incident. I went to downtown Ypsilanti to sell papers at 4 p.m. when I ran into Glen. He said I just missed a protest at the Beer Cooler. He explained what happened and we both expressed our feelings on the situation. Two days after the assault, Sept. 2, I drove by the Beer Cooler to see if the store was open. A crowd of people was outside of the storefront with cellphone cameras in hand, along with the owner of the Beer Cooler. I parked my car and got out to get pictures when I ran into someone I knew who shared the video with me. The very next morning, I ran into the victim of the assault in downtown Ann Arbor. I told her I was from Groundcover News and I asked her for an interview. After she got done lighting her cigarette, she politely declined my request. I noticed she had visual face swelling as I wished her well. I also asked the Beer Cooler store owner for an interview or statement, but he declined. Tuesday, September 9, “Women on the Move,” led by local business owner Mrs. Chapman, held a protest in front of City Hall before the scheduled Ypsilanti City Council meeting where protesters held up signs saying “Enough is Enough." Mrs. Chapman and “Women on the Move" attended the City Council meeting and voiced their concerns, and asked for a resolution to be brought before council to protect Black women, the unhoused and the mentally ill. No resolution has since been enacted. On Sept. 10, two employees at the OCTOBER 3, 2025 Women on the Move protested on Sept. 9 at Ypsilanti City Hall in response to the treatment of the woman at the Beer Cooler. Ypsilanti Beer Cooler were charged by the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office in connection with the physical altercation that occurred on August 31, 2025. The Ypsilanti Police Department investigated the case, with the results of the investigation leading to the charges against the two employees. Two weeks after the incident, the store reopened. OCTOBER 3, 2025 ABUSE D.A. Groundcover writer October is the month that recognizes Domestic Violence. I want to include other forms of abuse, too. I am a domestic violence survivor, and I have recently been the victim of other forms of abuse as well. I was in two abusive relationships; one in my early twenties, and again in my late thirties. First, I'll speak to the relationship that occurred in my twenties. The man was 23 years older than me. He was very kind and generous at the beginning. I was having some family struggles, and he seemed to be the kind of man that I could share a lifetime with despite the age difference. Well, I was sadly mistaken. Once I became pregnant by him, he began to openly see other women. When I questioned him about it, he slapped me so hard that that was the end of that conversation for that day. He apologized and promised to never do it again. Then he took me shopping and gave me some money, and for a long time he did not do it — until after I gave birth to our daughter, who is in her 30s now. After I gave birth, he was back to his cheating ways. Once again, I asked him about it, and he slapped me and hit me several times and busted my lip. Then he told me to shut up and cook him some dinner. I cooked the dinner and sucked it up. At that point, I Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for wanted to make it work for the sake of our daughter so that she’d have a father, since my father was not in my life after a certain age, and is not to this day. After two years of being abused about every four or five months, and once where I had almost killed him in self-defense, I left. I have permanent black eyes from him giving me a total of three black eyes. I did not indulge in a relationship for four years after that. I will not be in an abusive relationship ever again. I have a daughter who is now 15 years old. I left her dad when she was seven months old. I later gave him custody due to losing my babysitting job when the baby I watched turned about three and a half and started preschool. I lost my ability to pay rent and work because her dad told me that he would not care for our daughter unless I paid him. He also got her put into foster care, thinking that lying about me would make the court give him custody. That backfired on him and she went to foster care for 16 months, so I gave him custody to get her out of foster care. This worked until she turned ten years old. I gave birth to her at 41 years of age. Before she was born, I confided in him about some terrible and life changing experiences that happened to me. He has used that and done everything he can to hurt me using our daughter. He moved and isolated her from me customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a since she turned ten. This is not just cruel to me, but a very horrible thing to do to a child as well. I am currently taking care of that through the courts. There were some mailing errors and other aspects of this situation that have prolonged this process. I have also been subject to being illegally taken and injected with drugs that I wasn't supposed to have been by medical professionals at hospitals that I won't name for my own future safety and well-being. I have PTSD from the numerous traumas in my life. I am not court-ordered to take any psychotropic drugs. This caused me to have mental episodes as a result of being illegally restrained and injected with drugs I won't name. This mostly occurred when I became homeless, and after I suffered some injuries from being hit by a car on my bike some years ago. I am much better now and not homeless. I had to contact medical records and have and am still taking steps to correct my medical records. Even before all of this, I had been abused physically and had a lot of false and extraneous charges put on me by the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti police. I did not have a criminal history until I moved to Washtenaw County. I have reported these abuses to the superior officers and Community Mental Health at the jail when I came in with my arms swollen from my elbows all the way down to my hands, and nothing was done. contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 Ways that domestic and other abuses can impact you I have been assaulted five times and the individuals were never charged. Three of the assaults took place at the shelter here in Ann Arbor. Not one of the five assailants faced any consequences. When you are wrongfully incarcerated for charges and can not bond yourself out, you are at risk of losing everything you have without even being convicted of a crime. So, for a lot of the charges, I took plea deals to get out of jail. This criminalizes you, changes the whole perspective of your true person and character in the eyes of the Department of Justice. It also affects your ability to obtain some housing and a career that earns a livable wage. So now, I have very little, if any, trust in the police, courts and CMH organizations. Not all individuals are untrustworthy, but a lot of illegal paperwork and practices are facilitated by and through these people. Especially when you are not economically well off. As far as relationships: they are not as important as they used to seem to me. I will in the present and future choose to date only a holy man, and try not to indulge in sexual relationships until I marry someone, if it happens. That is my choice. 12/31/2025

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY LAND TRUST OCTOBER 3, 2025 Ann Arbor Community Land Trust breaks ground on permanently affordable housing for critical workers and families A community land trust is a nonprofit corporation that owns land and leases it to individuals, nonprofit corporations, and/or government entities, to live upon (in pre-existing housing), to build upon or put to best use. In other words, only housing and improvements to the land are sold to purchasers, and future re-sale of the housing and land improvements is restricted in unique ways determined by each CLT. In event of the future sale of the land improvements, the CLT reserves the right to purchase them back. This is due to the fact that community land trusts are characteristically defined by their commitment to permanent affordability, permanent responsibility and expansion. This is informed by the progressive understanding that land should not be a commodity, but instead community owned and operated. The community land trust model challenges the American conceptualization of property rights. The Ann Arbor Community Land Trust was established in 2024 by the Equitable Ann Arbor Land Trust to serve as a nonprofit developer and community-led steward of the homes under its care. A2CLT is a Michigan 501(c)3 nonprofit and a member of the national Grounded Solutions Network of community land trusts, as well as the Michigan CLT Coalition. A2CLT thus far is focused on building new affordable housing, although they do advertise the opportunity on their website to donate or sell Ann Arbor properties to the CLT. On September 20, A2CLT broke ground on “Townie Homes,” an initiative that aims to keep Ann Arbor accessible to teachers, hospital staff, university employees and families. With median home prices now exceeding $550,000, A2CLT’s permanently affordable homes priced between $125,000 and $325,000 will offer long-term stability, equity and belonging for residents otherwise priced out of the community. “This groundbreaking represents not just a construction milestone, but a public commitment to equity and sustainability,” said Executive Director Sarah Lorenz. “Our homes ensure permanent affordability through deed restrictions and ground leases while supporting Ann Arbor’s climate goals by reducing long commutes. With lower housing and transportation costs, people will have more money, LINDSAY CALKA Publisher more time and a better quality of life. We hope that A2CLT will be a new anchor institution for an affordable Ann Arbor with stronger social ties.” A2CLT shared in a September press release that 500 households expressed interest in Townie Homes. But who was eligible to purchase? A2CLT'S focus is creating local homeownership opportunities for critical workers. Eligible buyers for the lottery must: 1. Have at least one household member who has worked full time in person for the previous 12 months as an employee of one of the following anchor institutions: City, County, State or Federal Agencies; University of Michigan; Michigan Medicine; VA Hospital; Ann Arbor Public Schools; Ann Arbor District Library; Ann Arbor Police Department; Ann Arbor Fire Department; Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority; U.S. Postal Service; Early Childhood/Child Care Workers 2. Have household income 30-120% of the area median income (see Zillow listings for income brackets for each home) 3. Qualify for a home loan Buyers will be selected by lottery. The first round will be for eligible buyers whose workplace is within two miles of the home location. Homes near work offer the benefits of lower commuting costs, walking, biking, or busing to work, lower carbon emissions, more free time, and stronger social ties. Prospective homeowners anonymously shared what A2CLT’s Townie Homes would mean for them: “As a full-time U-M staff member, nearly half my income goes to rent — about $2,000 each month — just to live close enough to campus for my job. A CLT home would let me stay in the community I serve, instead of being forced out by rising costs.” “I am a single parent with two children who love their school and friends here in Ann Arbor. Without affordable housing, I may be forced to move them far away. A CLT home would give us roots, stability, and the ability to keep our family strong.” “I was born and raised in Ann Arbor. Homeownership has always felt out of reach for me and my family. A CLT home would make me a first-generation homeowner in the town I love and work in.” “I chose a career in social work because I wanted to serve this community. But I can’t afford to live here. A CLT home would let me plant roots and give back for a lifetime — because Ann Arbor is my home.” “My current commute is 45 minutes each way. A CLT home in Ann Arbor would save me hours every day, reduce my carbon footprint, and let me spend more time with my children instead of on the road.” The lottery for the first group of Townie Homes closed as of March 31, 2025. Other prospective buyers are encouraged to fill out the A2CLT Buyer List form located at www.a2clt.org/ buy so they are on the email list for new housing opportunities, which are coming soon. Can A2CLT keep up with demand? In a 2018 report “W(h)ither the community in community land trusts?” James Defllipis, Brian Stromberg and Olivia Williams examined the history of the CLT movement and studied contemporary CLTs to determine if the CLT model has maintained the characteristics defined in the second paragraph: commitment to permanent affordability, permanent responsibility and expansion. They concluded that there is strong movement away from the original values and priorities of community land trusts and movement “toward the more technically practical (and less politically challenging or transformative) aspects of the model itself.” Primarily playing the role as housing developer, A2CLT does not deviate from this conclusion. To build its housing, A2CLT is relying on local investors, is seeking MSHDA funding, and for the case of the Townie Homes project, will use construction loans for the applicants who are selected through the lottery process. In 2023, Michigan House Bill 4375 was signed into law, allowing Michigan cities with at least 50,000 residents (in counties not currently home to a land bank authority) to establish a local one. This enables Ann Arbor to establish a land bank, as the Washtenaw County Land Bank filed bankruptcy in 2010. Land banks have a bottomline goal of encouraging productive use of vacant or delinquent land. Without them, land is often sold to speculators and developers at below market prices. Reinitiating the Washtenaw County Land Bank, or starting one for the City of Ann Arbor, could interrupt gentrifying forces and direct property to productive use with this newly established community land trust. Additional, alternative methods to development include partnering with cooperative ownership models and redirecting benefits of private development through the use of inclusionary zoning. OCTOBER 3, 2025 EVENTS community EVENTS FIRST FRIDAYS YPSI Friday, October 3, 5-11 p.m. Downtown and Depot Town First Friday food court, Freak Fest, and normal festivities — explore businesses to shop exclusive discounts, attend pop-up events and galleries featuring Ypsilanti area artists and performers. CLUSTER MUSEUM OPENING Friday, October 3, 6-9 p.m. 307 North Main Street, Ann Arbor CLUSTER’s inaugural opening reception of The Dam Broke: A Portrait on Tyranny, an exhibition featuring 10 artists from Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. With work ranging from robotics, drawing, textiles, art books and more, this show draws on concepts from scholar Timothy Snyder’s book, On Tyranny: 20 Lessons from the 20th Century. Artists include Sally Clegg, Kim Debord, Thea Eck, Heidi Kumao, Rubini Naidu, Abhishek Narula, Paloma Nunez-Regueiro, Marienetta Porter, Jessica Tenbusch and Chien-An Yuan. TRASH TALK TOUR October 3-5, various times Various locations, including Kiwanis Thrift Sale, the Big House, and Recycle Ann Arbor Put on by Washtenaw Zero Waste Coalition and ZeroWaste.org. Learn about zero-waste in Ann Arbor at these free, family friendly events! Sign-up at TrashTalkTour.org WIARD'S ORCHARDS AND COUNTY FAIR Saturdays and Sundays until October 26, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. 5565 Merritt Rd, Ypsilanti The "Family Fun" destination for your fall season! One location, many options: Fresh Cider and Donuts, apple and pumpkin picking, Country Store, corn maze, Old West Wagon rides, mini golf, giant inflates, petting farm, giant slides, paintball, and several play areas. DAY OF CHE Wednesday, October 8, 8:30-11 a.m. Argus Farm Stop Liberty Cafe Join Groundcover vendor Ken Parks at his "corner" at Argus Farm Stop (Liberty Cafe) to celebrate his 82nd birthday and Alan Haber's belated 90th birthday, as well as honor the Day of Che Guevara. Expect cake, coffee, community and conversation! ECOSTORYLAB Wednesday, October 8 and October 15, 5-6 p.m. — Online The Ecology Center's second interactive, virtual writing workshop designed for activists, creatives, nonprofit professionals and students who believe in the power of stories to inspire action and imagine new futures. Gather for guided prompts, collective reflection, and shared creativity — exploring how storytelling fuels movements and strengthens resilience. Together, we’ll build community, cultivate joy and harness the power of words to shape a more just climate future. Register at ecocenter.salsalabs.org/ EcoStoryLabpart2 YPSI PULL OVER PREVENTION Saturday, October 11, 10 a.m.- 12 p.m. Masjid Ibrahim, 315 S. Ford Blvd, Ypsilanti Provides free car repairs of lights, tire pressure and fluids to prevent unecessary interactions with law enforcement. Free food, pet food and supplies, community resources and more. YPSIWRITES 6TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION Saturday, October 11, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. YDL-Whittaker, 5577 Whittaker Road, Ypsilanti Kick off this year's "Writing Together" theme, and meet the newest cohort of Writers of Ypsilanti (read more on page 13). Expect writing activities, great conversation, and cake! All community members are welcome. RSVP here: tinyurl.com/YW101125 A2 ARTOBERFEST Oct. 11-12, Saturday: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Sunday: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Ann Street and North Fourth Ave. from Huron into Kerrytown This intimate and rich celebration of the arts will feature 90 jury-selected artists, live entertainment, food vendors and art activities. Sip, shop, and savor the beautiful fall weather, talented artisans, and wonderful tunes. Get creative with several local partners bringing you hands-on, art-making activities in The Gutman Gallery, with Doodles Academy, the Hands-on Museum and more! PROBILITY ANN ARBOR MARATHON Sunday, October 12, 10 a.m.- 12 p.m. Downtown Ann Arbor, U-M campus area, Huron River to Gallup park Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com 26.2 • 13.1 • 10K • 5K • Relay • 13.1 — Supporting local mental health charities, participants run through the vibrant streets of downtown Ann Arbor, then wind their way through the panoramic University of Michigan campus. PILAR’S FOUNDATION FALL INTO ACTION Sunday, October 19, 4-6:30 p.m. Zion Lutheran Church, 1501 W Liberty St. Ann Arbor Fundraising open house with food, live music and silent auction. Uniting our community to benefit immigrant families in need of assistance. Donation ticket prices: Adults ($50), teens and students with IDs ($35), children under six ($20) Purchase tickets online at pilarsfoundation.org or in person at Pilar’s Tamales, 2261 W Liberty St. Ann Arbor. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Visit any of our five locations across town to browse books, magazines, newspapers, and more. Check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, or even home tools—you name it! Enjoy fast and free WiFi, study and meeting rooms, and plenty of comfortable spaces to relax or hang out. FALL into ACTION: Uniting our community to benefit immigrant families in need of assistance SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2025 4-6:30 pm ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH 1501 West Liberty St, Ann Arbor fundraising open house with food, live music and silent auction thank you for hosting! DONATION TICKET PRICES: adults: $50, teens & students w/IDs: $35, children under 6: $20 PURCHASE TICKETS: in-person: Pilar's Tamales, 2261 West Liberty St, Ann Arbor @pilarsfound online: www.pilarsfoundation.org/ PUBLIC WORKS AND SOLID WASTE OPEN HOUSE Saturday, October 25, 10 a.m. -1 p.m. Public Works Unit, 4251 Stone School Road, Ann Arbor A free, family-friendly event exploring the world of public works and solid waste. Enjoy hands-on activities to learn about utility infrastructure, city forestry, street maintenance, solid waste, recycling and compost programs; such as touching City trucks, fixing a water main break, painting a plow, and more! Public Computers The AADL has public-access Internet computers available for use by both cardholders and noncardholders at all five locations. Each station has USB ports, headphone jacks, and some of the fastest WiFi speeds in town! Preschool Storytimes & Baby Playgroups Join our storytellers on weekdays inside the library for fun songs, stories, puppets, and movement! Visit aadl.org/storytimes to view a list of upcoming in-person storytimes and playgroups. You can also stream and download our recorded storytimes online at AADL.TV. FEATURED EVENT 7 Sunday, October 12 • 11 AM–3 PM • Downtown Library Dead Media Day is a celebration of bygone forms of media, entertainment, & ephemera. Join us for a day of vendors selling vintage & rare pieces of media, exhibits, hands-on demos & crafts, and informative talks! Visit aadl. org/deadmediaday for details.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THINK ABOUT IT Make peace with yourself Human beings generally struggle with authenticity. We naturally have great respect for those among us who are at ease with themselves and radiate some primordial quality of love and joy with the confidence that we are on the path of awakening. When we feel our survival is at risk, we may relapse into habitual ego patterns of self and other, and thereby lose our own authenticity. This common egocentric division of reality into two parts is the ignorance that creates worlds of suffering and the confusion that follows. Among our ancestors and the teachers that we discover in this life, we will find the teacher who will help us recognize the stage of the path we are in now, and how to mature into a more complete awareness of reality. If you follow Einstein’s advice on the importance of curiosity and imagination, you will experience reality with the embrace of solidarity that surrounds us. Life embraces life. I say this with some confidence after nearly 83 years of stumbling in and out of miracles. As my doubt returns, I make poor choices until pain awakens me and I remember that Love Is The Law. Dion Fortune, a creative writer from the British esoteric spiritual tradition, introduced those words to me. Before macular degeneration hit me, I read widely and often. The challenge of declining vision is tough. It took a year before I went for help from a neighbor and the Groundcover community to open and access a post from my nephew about functional medicine and the work of Dr. George Razakis. I listened to his podcast and believe it is more advanced science than the standard operating model in ophthalmology. When corporations KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 and profits take over the bureaucracies that oversee public health, it appears that health is forsaken for procedures that have become entrenched due to the wealth that is extracted in the patient care mandated by insurance companies and investors. Of course, I am out on a limb as I struggle to bring Kellogg vision care into a collaboration with the functional medicine of Dr. George Razakis. Dr. Ravi Vadlamudi, the wellknown “bicycle doctor” who goes from patient to patient on a bike, is giving me a referral. Will United Health Care recognize that referral? What is my responsibility for my declining vision? My basic dilemma is about writing my memoirs. Will I finish them before I die? Groundcover is helping me write articles with print and keyboard for the visually challenged. I want the same setup to do my memoirs. Of course there is money involved. Will the system pay for functional medicine? Will I be able to find support to get a computer, monitor and keyboard as an expression of unity in the community? In order to finish anything, especially to do it well, love for what you are doing is the main ingredient. Labors of love build unity in the community. That was the intended point of my Labor Power article in the Aug. 22, Groundcover News. Our labor power is awesome, especially when we collaborate with good intentions. How do we benefit all beings without leaving anyone behind? That intention, when practiced with mindful awareness, will bring your own peace of mind to the next step of maturity. The ability to benefit others and share peace in the world grows from this intention. The discipline needed to make peace with yourself is developed by paying attention to what you are doing again and again until it becomes the natural flow we call “in the zone.” In 1967, when I met Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk who came from Vietnam to the United States at the invitation of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, I was witness to a man at peace with himself who could look at us and the war with great equanimity. His appeal was simple, “Whatever you can do to end the war.” Mix that with Martin Luther King’s "Breaking the Silence,” and I naturally became a draft resister. Eventually the need to resist evil evolved into projects to do something good. The peak of this for me was on The Pastors for Peace caravans to Cuba. The solidarity we expressed was greeted with great passion as the Cuban state and people enthusiastically greeted us as heroes. It is still important to resist evil, and the best resistance is to do something good. I believe that you can start on your cushion and meditate on mindfulness of breath, then mindfulness of mind as a first step to the awareness that allows you to do good. Karuna Buddhist Center comes to mind as a good place to learn mindfulness with the goal to benefit all beings, with not one left behind. Liberation begins and ends with paying attention. Making peace with yourself begins with a natural breath and finds completion in the Clear Light of the Void, the all good expanse of primordial purity (as explained in the Tibetan Book of the Dead). Stillness in motion becomes a lifestyle and the flow becomes your home! As an expression of peace, you encourage others to experience their own authenticity. I look forward to the day when I really practice what I preach and fully embody the spirit-filled life. OCTOBER 3, 2025 OCTOBER 3, 2025 INSP GROUNDCOVER NEWS Obituary for Pope Francis: advocate of the marginalized, uncomfortable admonisher and unfinished reformer FLORIAN STEGMAIER Trott-War With the death of Pope Francis, the world has lost one of its most powerful moral voices. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, an Argentinian Jesuit and child of Italian immigrants, was more than a bridge-builder between continents. He was a Pope who stood alongside the marginalized. Even his choice of name was programmatic: St. Francis of Assisi, who dedicated himself to the poor and the outcast, became his model. Francis remained true to his calling. No sooner than he was elected, he renounced red shoes, ostentatious regalia and palaces. He lived in a simple guest house, spoke of a “church which is poor and for the poor” — and meant it literally. No Pope before him has been so often in places that others ignore: in refugee camps, prisons and with indigenous groups in the Amazon region or with street children in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. He set up a hair and beard cutting service, showers and a medical contact point for people experiencing homelessness under the colonnades of St. Peter’s Square. He expressed his solidarity with street paper vendors. He had sleeping bags distributed and invited people in need to eat — sometimes over 1,000 people at a time. “Hunger is an insult to God,” Francis was convinced. Francis was familiar with the wounds of the world. Even as a young priest, he roamed the slums of Buenos Aires, celebrated mass in backyards and accompanied the sick, addicted and dying. As Pope, he did not lose this connection. Time and time again he broke the protocol, talked to people experiencing homelessness, kissed wounds and listened. He wanted a Church that was “dusty” from going out to the people — not one that lost itself in sacred splendour. He felt connected to all those whom society casts out. “Migrants are not a security problem, but people with hope,” he once said. He called for “bridges instead of walls” to be built and denounced the “globalization of indifference.” He demanded tirelessly that the Mediterranean should not be a cemetery — and set an example: through his trip to Lampedusa, through his embrace of African refugees and by welcoming Muslim refugees to the Vatican. At a time when isolationism and nationalism were regaining strength, Francis was an uncomfortable antithesis — an admonisher for humanity. Critic of the system with biblical fervour Francis was not a politician, but he thought politically. His criticism of the global economic order was clearer than is typically the case with a Pope. In “Evangelii Gaudium,” his first written proclamation, he called a social system that “excludes and kills people” immoral. Unchecked capitalism, Francis said, does not lead to justice, but to the rule of greed. He criticised financial speculation, land grabbing and a lifestyle that is at the expense of others — especially at the expense of the people of the Global South. For many in Africa, Asia and Latin America, he was a prophetic intercessor. His criticism was based on the Biblical esteem of the poor. When Francis castigated the excesses of neoliberal markets, he did so as a pastor, not as an economist. He wanted an economy that served life — not the other way around. Unfinished reforms and disappointed hopes Francis brought together what had long been separated: environmental protection and social justice. In his encyclical “Laudato si’” (2015), he outlined an ecological theology that understands the planet as the “common home” of all people. Climate change is “a question of social justice,” he wrote, because it is mainly the poor who suffer from floods, droughts and hunger, although they hardly contribute to the causes. With this letter, Francis not only changed the Church’s environmental ethics, he also brought global attention to the concerns of indigenous peoples and the Fridays for Future* generation. Still, there were many things that remained unfinished. Within the Church, there was a lack of concrete climate targets, and the conversion of Church properties into ecologically sustainable spaces proceeded hesitantly. Critics accused him of not taking decisive enough action against environmentally Photo by Ashwin Vaswani destructive structures within the Church. The vision of a synodal Church ready for dialogue remained one of the guiding principles of Francis’ pontificate. He wanted to decentralize power in the Church, and give more responsibility to lay people and increase participation by women. In reality, many structures remain unchanged. Despite clear majorities at synods of bishops, he refused to allow priests to marry or the ordination of women deacons. Progress in addressing sexual violence was also slow. Although Francis condemned the “culture of cover-up,” dismissed individual perpetrators and spoke to those affected, the systemic consequences remained half-hearted. Too often, institutional responsibility has been individualized without any fundamental reform of clericalism following. Contradiction and dignity Francis was a Pope of contradictions — one who found radical words, but often hesitated within his own ranks. One who appeared humble, and yet, did not really change power structures. However, it was precisely his imperfection that made him so approachable to many. He was not a hero of progress, but a man who struggled, searched, asked questions — and sometimes failed. He remained on the side of those who are otherwise overlooked. While authoritarian voices in politics and religion grew stronger, Francis was a voice of conscience. He spoke in a language that was understood — in slums and at climate summits. His theology was not aloof, but grounded in the fates of real people: the refuse collectors of Buenos Aires, the fishermen in Bangladesh and the refugees drowned in the Mediterranean. His attention was focused on them; he wanted to give them back the dignity that the world denied them. The death of Pope Francis marks the end of an era of listening, of reaching out and of serving. His pontificate did not fulfill all expectations, but it did set standards: for a Church that does not rise above the people, but is with them; for a global community that faces up to its responsibility for the weakest. Francis will be remembered as the Pope of the marginalized — as a shepherd who sought the lost sheep before thinking of dogmas. As a voice who didn’t give ready-made answers, but asked the right questions. As a person who testified with his entire existence that dignity begins wherever someone looks — even and especially when others look away. *Fridays for Future is a youth-led and youth-organized global climate strike movement that started in August 2018, when 15-year-old Greta Thunberg began a school strike for climate. Translated from German via Translators Without Borders Courtesy of Trott-war / INSP.ngo 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LIVING ARCHIVE OCTOBER 3, 2025 Mental illness amongst the homeless: the consequence not the cause In last month’s article,* I talked about how trauma can have symptoms of depression. I insisted that homelessness deserves to be treated as a real form of trauma. So, this month I will talk a little more in depth about depression. Depression is also common among the homeless community. Symptoms of depression are quite common in someone dealing with issues around housing. Signs of depression include: depressed mood, feelings of sadness or emptiness, loss of interest or pleasure in previously enjoyed activities, significant weight changes, restlessness or slowing of activities, persistent fatigue or loss of energy, excessive feelings of guilt or worthlessness, persistent difficulty with concentration or decision-making, sleeping pattern changes, and suicidal behaviors or recurrent thoughts of suicide. Can you picture a homeless guy feeling unworthy of deserving housing after being unsuccessful finding a place to live? Or maybe a homeless person changing their weight and sleeping patterns pretty drastically due to the fact that they don't have a place to cook a healthy meal and a bed to rest in at night? In the hectic tragedy they are living, they are in a constant state of tiredness — so, how will they be able to focus enough to make wise decisions or engage in activities where they can break free from this chaos they are living in? This is what reality really looks like for them! If you can’t imagine it because you haven’t lived through the struggle, I am trying to give you a snapshot here. More likely than not, a homeless person might need treatment for depression. There are many forms of treatment available. Depression treatment often involves medications that are called antidepressants. They increase the availability of certain brain neuro transmitters, such as serotonin and dopamine. Another way to treat depression involves resetting the body’s circadian clock by spending a night of sleep SANDRA S. Groundcover vendor No. 233 deprivation followed by a night of sleep recovery with an outcome of improving depressive symptoms. Other therapies that treat depression and are more widely accepted include behavioral activation therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. These therapeutic approaches seek to help a patient identify problem behaviors and to learn how to substitute them with new skills that not only help them cope with their depression, but also end up becoming a part of a healthier lifestyle. But the commonly known type of depression (major depression) isn’t the only one that exists. There’s also a diagnosis in the DSM-5 called bipolar disorder, formerly called manic-depression. The difference between major depression and bipolar disorder is that, with bipolar, typical symptoms are exaggerated: alongside episodes of deep depression can come episodes of grandiosity or extreme self-importance, decreased need for sleep or feeling rested after minimal sleep, racing thoughts or frequent change of topics or ideas, distractibility that may involve attention to unimportant environmental stimuli, increased social, sexual or work-related activity and physical restlessness leading to impulsive involvement in activities like excessive spending or gambling. Treatment for bipolar focuses on targeting the individual’s main symptoms. This often involves a combination of medications (called mood stabilizers), psychotherapy and educating the patients and family members or people who support them. Such patients must learn the importance of taking their prescribed medications and getting into the habit of practicing their mood-regulation strategies learned in therapy. Unfortunately, it is common that patients with bipolar disorder report discontinuing their medication because the side effects seem to them worse than the symptoms being treated. If you identify with any of what I wrote here, whether you are or have been homeless or not, I urge you to seek help. There are several clinics in the area offering financial assistance for the treatment of these diagnoses, such as Corner Health for young people aged 12-25, the Women’s Center of Southeast Michigan in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County Community Mental Health (734-544- 3050). The sooner you treat it, the sooner you will find relief and be back in charge of your own life. *Read Sandra's preceding essay "Is it traumatic to be homeless? Picture the treatment options" in the October 2019 edition, page 3, available on our website under: Street News: Archives. No Smile Anywhere RON PAGERESKI Groundcover contributor The wind plays in her hair But seems she doesn't care Her lover is gone somewhere He left her so unfair All she does is sit and stare At her loved one’s empty chair But he went she knows not where A frown shall be the mask she’ll wear They had been a lovely pair The pain of loss she'll have to bear To live alone is quite a scare A lonely bed will be her lair Smiles from her will be quite rare Seems she has not one to spare Her tears fall everywhere But it seems she doesn't care. - Originally published in the November 2019 edition of Groundcover News. OCTOBER 3, 2025 MAKING CHANGE GROUNDCOVER NEWS Michigan Movement students use Project Connect to serve homeless people in Ann Arbor On Saturday, Sept. 20, a group from the student organization known as Michigan Movement came to Mercy House, a house of hospitality inspired by Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Movement, which provides for the homeless community. As they have in the past, Michigan Movement used the concept of “Project Connect” to distribute clothing, food and essential care packages to homeless people. Michigan Movement works with other student organizations to host Project Connect where the homeless can pick up clothes, food, and “MIM Kits” with essentials such as toothbrushes, hats, gloves, and Narcan. The Mercy House 2025 visit was successful, with both students and the homeless happy with the interaction. In 2016, two bright-eyed 18 year-old freshmen participated at the Poverty Solutions Workshops held by the School of Public Policy and School of Business. They engaged in more conversations with other attendees, and made a prudent decision. They created a student organization and said that the mission for their prospective project would be to help improve the lives of the poor and the homeless of Ann Arbor. Those college freshmen were Payton Watt of Ann Arbor and Hussain Ali of Milwaukee. My chance meeting with them during the 2015-2016 academic year has become a gift that keeps on giving. The students’ eagerness and curiosity resulted in their introduction to Mercy House, Robert J. Delonis Center, Groundcover News office and Purple House homeless community center. What is Project Connect? In 2019, Michigan Movement decided to use a program introduced WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 in the early 1990s in Toledo, Ohio, as a model. They liked the integrated and collaborative idea very much. Below is a summary of the program provided by the co-founders: “Michigan Movement (MIM) is a student-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded and based at the University of Michigan. We were born out of urgency; as students living in Ann Arbor — America’s most educated yet eighth most economically segregated city — MIM began as our means of redressing the disproportionate rates of chronic homelessness in our community. Our mission is to aid individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Washtenaw County, promoting dignity, health and catalyze community engagement along the way. “To realize this mission, we apply a holistic approach that includes providing basic necessities, education and employment services, and social advocacy and community engagement. Our most significant event each year is Project Connect, during which students create and distribute 150 MIM kits (care packages) consisting of food, clothing and hygiene supplies. With a focus on collaboration and innovation, we have expanded our Project Connect resources to include medical services like vaccines, blood pressure and 11 Michigan Movement brought Project Connect to Mercy House's weekly pancake breakfast. Photo submitted. cholesterol screenings, vital document accessibility, as well as preventative dental exams and haircuts. “To achieve this, we have enlisted the help of our local core partner organizations such as Mercy House and the Delonis Center. We have also forged new relationships across the public and private sectors, with partners ranging from Infinity Salon to the University’s Dental School. Through the addition of music and a free meal, Project Connect brings in a larger population of the community and fosters relationships where students and members of the community can interact. The strong relationships we develop will… allow us to better understand the needs of our community, and work to end stigmas and stereotypes associated with homelessness.” Toledo’s Tent City homeless connection Toledo is an industrial and auto The Sun Bundle, another U-M student organization, redistributes athletic shoes to people experiencing homelessness. The Sun Bundle partnered with MIM during Project Connect. manufacturing town. It is also an educational and healthcare center. In December 1991, the economic base was still facing the ravages of the economic crisis and community abandonment of the 1980s. A group of about 50 homeless individuals and family members decided to build a homeless encampment in an abandoned downtown mall. It was called the Portside Marketplace Encampment. Initially, the city government wanted to remove the homeless from the underground tunnel and walkways of the abandoned mall. However, after a homeless woman was struck by a city-owned salt truck, the city changed its mind. The tragic death of that homeless woman near the mall made newsworthy headlines in Ohio and across the nation. The idea of a “Tent City" which connects homeless people with services and programs came into fruition. When homelessness became a bigger problem in subsequent years, communities that want to do a better job of helping the homeless adopted the model. Ken Leslie, a former homeless man and founder of 1Matters, helped to shape the concept of this homeless solution. It is an innovative and comprehensive approach. Services delivered include the following: • Medical, dental and vision services • Food, clothing and hygiene products • Assistance in obtaining official documents such as birth certificates and state IDs • Job assistance and other services to help people transition out of homelessness. The spring of 2026 will mark the 10th anniversary of Michigan Movement’s founding. For Mercy House, Project Connect and other services from Michigan Movement have meant that the relationship has been great. The current co-presidents, Raffael and Sophia, do not see their time commitment as a sacrifice. Co-vice president and future president Sophie said, “We love coming here to help the community and see the smiles on the faces of people who receive care packages.” The U-M Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning should be pleased by the fine work of the Michigan Movement accomplishments. Former MIM president Lindsay Calka is now the publisher and managing director of Groundcover News. Over a dozen of the MIM students have gone on to medical schools; one of see CONNECT page 12 

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LOCAL NEWS AADL buys Observer JUD BRANAM Groundcover contributor In a move aimed at preserving local news coverage amid a fragmenting media environment, the Ann Arbor District Library announced plans September 29 to purchase the Ann Arbor Observer news monthly. The move is part of a leadership succession at the Observer, with Publisher Patricia Garcia and Editor John Hilton both retiring after almost 40 years of running the magazine. Media Director Danielle Jones is taking over as publisher, and Deputy Editor Brooke Black is assuming the top editor’s spot. The library has been digitizing and archiving back issues of the 49-yearold Observer, and it was during preparation for a 2024 Observer exhibit at the library that the topic of the publication’s future first came up, Hilton said. While plans were in place to hand the reins to Jones and Black, the finances were tougher. “It’s not a good time to ask somebody to take on a bunch of debt on a print product,” Hilton said. Instead, the library has gone beyond preserving the publication’s past to providing a backbone for its future. The library is clearly in good financial health, with 1.8 mills of permanent property tax support from a rapidly growing tax base. AADL showed a surplus of more than $3 million in its $22.4 million budget for 2024-25, with property tax revenues projected to increase by $1 million this year. The terms of the sale have not been announced, but Hilton told WLBY radio host Lucy Ann Lance Tuesday that the library will be paying “a similar amount” to the $625,000 that he and Garcia paid for the business in 1986. The library’s Board of Trustees is expected to vote on the final terms of the deal in December. AADL Board Vice President Aidan Sova said in a statement the Observer is another element in the library’s suite of community-based information services, adding that the partnership is “a perfect fit, aligning local journalism with the library’s mission to foster an informed public.” In August, voters approved plans for the library to purchase property adjacent to its downtown location for an expansion. Library Director Eli Neiburger said there are no plans for the Observer to move into library space, adding that decisions about real estate will be made by the publication’s management. Hilton said the Observer has returned to profitability since the pandemic, and Neiburger said remaining in the black will be the paper’s responsibility. “The plan is not for the Library to subsidize the Observer’s bills,” Neiburger told Lucy Ann Lance. Neither, he said, will library officials steer the publication’s coverage or editorial direction. “We will become the owners of the Observer — not the editors of the Observer.” OCTOBER 3, 2025  CONNECT from page 12 them, Sloane Lynch, MD, recently graduated from Tufts Medical School and is now doing her residency at a local hospital. Co-founder Payton Watt, finished her Bachelor’s degree with a major in Public Health and Biology, and a minor in Community Action for Social Change. She went on to receive a Master’s degree at U-M and is now a healthcare management consultant. Co-founder Hussain Ali, finished his undergraduate with a major in dental public health and master’s in business management and most recently a doctorate in dental surgery. Michigan Movement's story is one of great kindness, community service and service learning. On November 15, the Michigan Movement students will hold another Project Connect for the homeless at Mercy House. We invite members of the community and other service providers to show up. We especially would like to invite the new executive director of the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County — Ms. Nicole Adelman — to visit and chat with the students and the homeless individuals, and our community leader, Ms. Peggy Lynch. To contact or volunteer with Michigan Movement, visit linktr.ee/mimovement or email mimovement@umich.edu OCTOBER 3, 2025 CREATIVE WRITING YpsiWrites 2025-2026 Writers of Ypsilanti YpsiWrites, a writing-based nonprofit that believes everyone is a writer, is excited to introduce the 2025 Writers of Ypsilanti. YpsiWrites’ theme for the coming year is Writing Together, and all nine of this year’s writers embody that theme. Celebrate the writers at this year’s YpsiWrites Birthday Party on Saturday, Oct. 11, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Whittaker Road branch of the Ypsilanti District Library. RSVP at tinyurl. com/YW101125. Below is more information on each of this year’s Writers of Ypsilanti. Alexandra Pryplesh (she/her) is a writer who attends high school in Ypsilanti and writes philosophy papers, essays and poetry. She believes that writing is essential for human connection and understanding. Brandi Wentworth (she/her) just graduated with her Bachelor’s in General Studies from Eastern Michigan University’s College in Prison program at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility. Brandi is co-editor of “Behind the Wire,” the first college-in-prison newsletter in the state of Michigan. She writes short stories and poetry and finds writing daily in a journal to be very therapeutic. Brandi considers revision key to her writing process and loves watching her writing change as she rewrites, by hand, her drafts. Jared M. Bentley (he/him) lives in Ypsilanti and is an Eastern Michigan University alum. He writes long-form fiction and short stories, including his book called "Robots, Please," a collection that humorously absurdity. Jihyun Ko (she/her) lives in Ypsilanti and writes poetry and journalistic investigative pieces about the community. She values how deeply personal moments in fiction and poetry can also become collective experiences. Jim Clark (he/him) is an Eastern Michigan University alum who lives in Ypsilanti. He writes op-eds, informative journalistic pieces and interviews. You can catch his writing in Groundcover News, and he enjoys both the historical importance of writing as well as its entertainment value. John Allen Taylor (he/him) lives in Ypsilanti and believes there is something uniquely special about the city. Poetry is his genre because it lights up the “dusty, tangled parts” of his brain like nothing else. Lee Van Roth (she/they/he) is an explores Eastern Michigan University alum and local journalist whose work covers Ypsilanti organizations through a solutions-based lens. They love the sense of community in Ypsilanti and how everyone here wants to see everyone else succeed in whatever capacity they can. Stephanie Heit (she/her) lives in Ypsilanti and codirects Turtle Disco, a somatic writing space grounded in Truth or Lies: A found friend “Hey, did you hear Mom talking to Auntie Naomi? She was telling her that we’re going to camp for two weeks. Then they started laughing,” said Jizzi-B. “What is a camp?” asked Cassey. Jizzi-B said, “I don’t know what a camp is, however Mom paid her money.” “I’m scared,” said Cassey. “We will be a nine and ten year old lost at camp. Is camp outside? Do we sleep on the ground?” “Calm your imagination down; Mom won’t let us go somewhere to be lost,” said Jizzi-B. “Besides, you have me and I have you. Don’t worry, I heard it’s lots of fun. I think it’s swimming, games and arts. That's what Mom told Auntie. We leave for camp this weekend.” The alarm blared at 4 a.m. “Get up, time to rise and shine!” said Mom. “Time to get ready for camp, aren’t you excited?” Mom asked. “Yes,” said Jizzi-B. “No,” said Cassey. “Don’t worry, it’s gonna be fun,” Mom said. “If you hurry I will take y'all to Coney Island for breakfast.” The girls looked at each other saying harmoniously, “Coney Island.” “Boy, Mom sure has strange places planned today,” said Cassey. “Just hurry, I want to see this place,” said Jizzi-B. It was a special day; toast with egg and cheese with orange juice from a restaurant named Coney Island. Mom pulled into a parking space on the other side of the buses. We were at the Olympia Stadium, where all the parents were dropping off their children. “Are we going camping in that big building?” asked Cassey. “No. Now, get your suitcases and follow me.” Mom walked them to the bus, hugged and kissed them. “See you in two weeks,” Mom said. Cassey and Jizzi-B got on the bus and took their seats. All of a sudden Cassey started crying. “I don’t want to go! I am scared I want my mommy!” “Hush, crybaby! I’m here with you,” Jizzi-B said, grabbing her sister's hand. “You're scared to have fun. Come on sis, look out the window. We will be there soon.” Camp Tecumsen. The bus driver instructed everyone to get off and line up alongside the bus. “Hello, welcome to Camp Tecumsen little campers. For the next two weeks The bus pulled up at FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 you are little Tecumsen campers. Everyone group up into fours, let's go. Until you leave these are your partners. Never leave a teammate behind,” said the director. Jizzi-B, Cassey and one other little girl were the only ones not chosen. Cassey looked at the other little girl and asked her, “What is that stick you have?” Jizzi-B tapped her sister and said, “Don’t be rude.” Cassey explained that she wasn't rude. “I don’t understand why she has a stick with red paint at the bottom,” said Cassey. “Hi, my name is Jizzi-B and that's Cassey asking about your stick. Please forgive her, she doesn't know that you are blind.” “What?” Cassey’s mouth dropped. “I am sorry, please forgive me,” said Cassey. “No worries, I am Savianni, and that happens a lot. People don’t pick me because I am blind.” Jizzi-B replied, "Well, today none of us got picked. However we are a team now; lets beat them at all the games by working together. Just because you’re blind does not mean you can’t win.” Jizzi-B and Cassey helped Savianni for the next two weeks. During paint tag they hid Savianni behind a big rock, allowing her to tag anyone who passed by. Even though she could not see to paint, the girls helped her finger paint. They even held her hands, allowing her to go swimming. The girls had so much fun helping and playing with Savianni. When the time came for them to go home, no one wanted to leave. The girls exchanged phone numbers hoping to keep in contact. However over time they lost touch. Time passed and Jizzi-B was 17 visiting her Auntie Naomi for the weekend. Auntie Naomi told Jizzi-B to run a store errand. Jizzi-B was walking down the street of Newport approaching the Harper Street Bridge, when she saw a lady cutting tulips from her yard for a bouquet. She knew the lady was blind because she had the stick with the red at the bottom. Jizzi-B asked her if she needed any help. “No, but thanks anyway,” the lady said. She continued on to the store. However, on the way back, Jizzi-B spoke to the lady once again. “You know I once helped a little girl at camp who was blind. I don’t remember her name, it was an odd name. All I remember is we were all scared and leaned on each other. It was her, me, and my little sister Cassey.” The lady asked, "Is your name Jizzi-B?” Thanks Groundcover News readers! I hope you guessed the right answer ... "Truth or Lies: The Invader," published August 8, 2025, was TRUE. Look out soon for the Mystery Lane Reading Game online. disability culture. She engages in poetry, essays and movement as forms of writing. Stephanie believes writing is “an act of imagination that can document the past, amplify the present, speculate the future, and create mediums with which to engage the world.” Tree Hammons (they/them) lives and works in Ypsilanti. They write poetry, creative nonfiction, grants and short stories. Tree loves the experimental and playful aspects of writing poetry, such as alliteration or determining where to put a line break. To them, writing is important because it necessitates thinking, and it helps put words to feelings. Learn more about the Writers of Ypsilanti at ypsiwrites.com/ writers-of-ypsilanti-2025/ GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers OCTOBER 3, 2025 by Anthony Smith ACROSS 1. Favorite American soda 9. Begin 14. Put on top of 15. Eye 16. Coached 17. Egg on 18. Ace 19. "Absolutely!" 20. Those who swim 21. ___ Spumante 23. Dutch sights 25. Romaine 26. Smelled bad yesterday 28. Straightened 31. Toxic condition 33. Surrounding glows 34. Director Seymour Hoffman 36. Angel 39. Add up 41. Narrow channel 43. "The Social Contract" philosopher 46. "Siddhartha" author 47. Bon ___ 48. Awfully 50. Level, in London 51. Of the Canadian capital city 54. Feline 56. Kipling's "Gunga ___" 57. Emphatic, in a way 58. Forceful 60. Alter 61. Some chores 62. Related maternally 63. Gravitational floating of the Earth's crust DOWN 1. Direction teller 2. Go too far 3. Monument to someone buried elsewhere 4. Illustration 5. Sicken with excess 6. Propelled a boat 7. ___ wait (prepares an ambush) 8. Make sense, with "up" 9. Mailed 10. "Rambling Wreck From Georgia ___" 11. Each 12. Stroll again 13. Lock of hair 15. Middle Eastern coins 20. Boyfriends 22. Undisturbed 24. Mauna ___ 27. Metric measures 29. Our "mother" 30. Closer 32. Relaxes 35. Song of joy 37. Rose Bowl site 38. Snake sounds 40. Boy 42. Wee (Var.) 43. No good 44. Pontiac, e.g. 45. Stomach maladies 47. Wavelike design 49. "Hurray!" 52. "Thanks ___!" 53. Hidden mike 55. Addition column 58. Seven on some clocks 59. Cambridge sch. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS September 19, 2025 edition OCTOBER 3, 2025 FOOD RESOURCES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Sausage gravy BEN FOSTER Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 pound of ground breakfast sausage 1/2 cup of flour 3 1/2 cups of whole milk Salt, pepper and cayenne to taste Directions: Brown sausage in a medium sized pot over medium heat until fully cooked. Sprinkle flour over the sausage and stir to combine. Cook for a minute or two, stirring often to keep things from burning. Slowly add the milk (about a half cup at a time) while stirring or whisking the mixture. You want that fat and flour mixture to absorb the milk and combine to form the gravy. Keep adding milk and whisking until you've reached your desired consistency. Season with salt, black pepper, and cayenne to taste. Simmer for a few minutes or longer if the gravy looks too thin. Serve over homemade biscuits (see next issue for recipe). This is a favorite dish served at the biweekly Groundcover vendor meeting and new paper delivery. OCTOBER 3, 2025 $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP SUPPORT CALL FOR and understanding 24/7 mental health and substance use support 734-544-3050 LEARN MORE about programs funded by the community mental health and public safety preservation millage. PEER SUPPORT: Artie Tomlin, Valerie Bass, and Marti Schneider ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 8/22/2025 10/31/25

2 $ SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 20 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Raise your flag: What makes a real American? page 15 MEET YOUR VENDOR: GLEN PAGE PAGE 3 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Representatives from Groundcover News, Curbside Chronicle, The Contributor, Streetwise, Cleveland Street Chronicle, Denver VOICE, INSP and Invisible People gathered in Denver Sept. 12-13. Photo by Alex Santil Recap from the INSP North American Summit in Denver, Colo. page 12 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Lila Kelly — intern Gray Connor — intern PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Steve Ross Anabel Sicko ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Emeri Jade Bey Pedro Campos Jason Michael Church La Shawn Courtwright Jim Clark Giles Classen Shelley DeNeve Lit Kurtz Mike Jones Mae Nausser Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer Steven Felicia Wilbert Joe Woods VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Stephanie Dong Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Robert Klingler Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropiate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Glen Page, vendor No. 407 In one sentence, who are you? The world's first fully functional Black superhero — at your service. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? My main spot is at Fleet Feet, the corner of 4th and Liberty. Why did you start selling Groundcover? 'Cause I was broke and I was bored! What's your life motto? Treat others as you want to be treated. What advice would you give to your younger self? Keep your head up, and stay smiling. What is your comfort food? Fried potatoes and onions. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring three things, what would they be? A boat, Trump's bank account and a satellite. If there was a theme song for your life, what would it be? "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? Hawaii or Japan. What is the weirdest food combo you swear by? Garlic and bologna sandwich. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? That the whole function goes back to the way it was in the 70s. What's one question you wish you were asked more? What's your phone number? Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Songs that make you smile, relax and work better I love to listen to different kinds of relaxing, soothing, happy music. It helps me with my mental and physical health. It helps calm my anxiety. I like mostly folk music and country music, but I enjoy spiritual music as well. I like to do artwork and write sometimes while I’m listening to music. I like instrumental music that's soft, that helps me concentrate when I am writing or doing work that's not physical. It helps me concentrate when doing Some of my favorites are the Christmas songs “Joy To DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 The World,” “Silver Bells” and “Santa Baby.” “What A Friend We Have In Jesus” is another song I enjoy and “What The World Needs Now Is Love, Sweet Love” too. “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “True Colors” by Cindy Lauper are also good ones. Those are a few songs that are my favorphysical work, too. I like to cook and clean when I am listening to good, soothing music. ites and they are happy, soothing songs. Help to get back on the road LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover writer Hello all. I was injured not too long ago, and am still slowly recovering. I have physical issues that really limit my ability to be fully productive. Although I am grateful for public transportation, it is time consuming to take the bus to complete some daily tasks. My vehicle has some damage that I need help to get the repairs made so that I can get back on track. I was forced to wear a device against medical advice by the court. With this information along with photographs that had been made available to my assigned public defender at that time (that obviously supported to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially the physical torture that I was forced to endure) could have created a potential life threatening blood clot. Having this knowledge, by providing once again the physical pain and torture that I endured by the lack of this particular assistant prosecutor, I was further subjected to wearing a device that, even upon seeking emergency medical treatment, that would have relieved my body of the physical malady that had been caused, even medical doctors refused to remove this device from my body while being evidenced could result in potential death. I was denied necessary relief because according the medical professionals choice to allow me to be subject to a life threatening abuse because the vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from medical staff did not attempt to contact the actors and enforcers of such conditions put upon me simply based on allegations or otherwise charges of a crime. After going to two urgent facilities, I was denied medically necessary relief because the medical staff stated that they could not and will not cut the device off of my body. I was already on medication regime to improve my body’ s ability to absorb the nutrients that was actively treating me to address this issue of circulatory malady. As a result, I suffered a severe cramping episode of both of my legs as I was driving my vehicle that resulted in me being in an accident. Thankfully no one was see HELP page 7  selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SHELTER Nicole Adelman on new E.D. role JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 On Monday, Sept. 8, Nicole Adelman took over for Dan Kelly as Executive Director of the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, located in the Robert J Delonis Center, the county’s homeless shelter. I interviewed her on her third day. A “transplant townie,” Nicole was born in Philadelphia and moved to Ann Arbor at the age of 12. Nicole says this about her younger years: “I graduated from Ann Arbor Huron High School in 1988 and went to undergrad and grad school at the University of Michigan. I grew up wanting to serve people who are underrepresented in our system. So I got my master's in public health and behavioral health education and have been here ever since.” Since graduating from U-M in 1995, Nicole has worked for the Corner Health Center as a health educator and director and was the director of Alpha House for several years. “My work in HIV was at an agency then called The HIV/AIDS Resource Center,” she said. She spent the last seven years working on substance use policy and funding. “You're highly motivated to do human service work,” I said. “What is driving that?” Nicole answered, “My desire is to make sure that everybody has access to a healthy life and supportive communities. Serving the people who need it the most is the essence of who I am. My core values are that we are all equal and all deserve basic human rights and our needs, including housing, to be met. Just as a human being, I believe this is the right thing to do.” “What drew you to becoming the executive director of the Delonis Center?” I asked. Nicole answered, “Every job I've had comes back to housing and homelessness. If we don't have a healthy community, we can't have healthy people. And our towns can't exist in a healthy way if people are not able to have reliable housing.” “What is your main goal coming in as a new director?” I asked She answered, “To make sure that we have the capacity to meet people’s immediate needs, not just at Delonis and the rotating shelters, but across the whole county. I think the community plays a huge role in housing. I don't think that's the only answer, there has to be other systems in place, but we absolutely can't do it without the community. “Reconnecting with my partners is very important. I’ve worked with the County Commissioners. I’ve known Sheri Wander and Peggy Lynch from MISSION for a long time. And I worked with the community of faith when I was at Alpha House. Building capacity means reengaging everybody. We still have that connection with each other; it just needs to build its strength back up.” Nicole continued, “We also need to expand into Ypsilanti. There needs to be a presence in Ypsi where it doesn't exist. It never has, with the exception of the past couple years where I think it's been building. I feel like people look to the Shelter Association as a leader in this cause.” Nicole mentioned that she wants to include grassroots groups such as Washtenaw Camp Outreach, and social justice and housing activists, such as Shelter Now, in the conversation about building capacity. Nicole mentioned law enforcement may have a role as a community partner. I asked her if she knew Alyshia Dyer, the Washtenaw County Sheriff. She did not but did have this to say: “Alyshia ran on a great platform and I think she seems to really care. So I look forward to meeting with her. I haven't interacted with her at all but I don't think she wants our county to be a police state. I think she is invested in the social service model and supporting people. Whether that's coming to fruition or not, I don't know. I haven't spoken to her at all, so I can't really speak to that.” Winter is a busy time for the network of people that help the homeless. Being stuck outside in the brutal cold during the day is dangerous, sleeping outside can be deadly. There was a cold-related death in Detroit earlier in 2025 and a Washtenaw County medical official connected eight deaths to the cold since 2022. The activist community in the area is beginning to gear up. “How are you preparing the shelter for winter?” I asked. “I have to go back to the day-three disclaimer,” she said. “I don't mean it to be an excuse,” she continued, “but I am just now meeting all the staff and doing the on-boarding paperwork. However, I just told Dan Kelly, the former director, that I'm really looking forward to getting involved in the conversations that haven't happened yet with me. So planning for the winter - that's to come, and very soon. Planning for the shelter started a while ago, and should be happening all year.” Nicole Adelman: a natural fit for Executive Director of the Shelter Association. I wanted to know Nicole’s opinion on capitalism so I asked her to comment on this statement: “Once in poverty, getting out is nearly impossible. Income disparity is responsible for a lot of homelessness. What is often overlooked is that because we live in an economic system that relies on competition, there have to be losers. The losers can’t make rent and so the losers become homeless.” Here is Nicole's reaction: “People are the responsibility of the community no matter what economic model is being followed. But unfortunately the way our system is set up, it has allowed the government to pass off responsibility to the nonprofits. Not locally though. Washtenaw County does a great job addressing its population in need, but in general it feels like the government has given up on social services. The attitude seems to be we’ll help here and there but it isn’t our problem. Some people have even criminalized homelessness, but the people experiencing it are suffering because the system isn’t working. The homeless are not criminals, they are our neighbors.” For Denver VOICE vendor Halvin Jones, survival means walking all night GILES CLASSEN Denver VOICE Each night, as most of Denver sleeps, Halvin Jones wanders the streets, always moving. “I just walk the streets,” he said. “It’s dangerous to close your eyes out here.” Jones, a Denver VOICE vendor, has been experiencing unsheltered homelessness since losing his Section 8 housing voucher. “They terminated my apartment because my paperwork wasn’t completed correctly,” he said. “I thought I had it right. My caseworker helped me. We completed it multiple times. But they still said it was incomplete.” Jones gets Supplemental Social Security Income due to a developmental disability. He said that doing paperwork is difficult, and he asked for help, but instead, he lost his housing. “I’ve been special ed my whole life,” he said. “I’ve never had a license. I won’t give up; I just keep trying. But it isn’t easy, and no one wants to give you a break.” Since then, Jones has been caught in the draining cycle that traps many experiencing homelessness: too exhausted to function during the day, but too afraid to sleep at night. “You’re always on edge,” he said. “I don’t sleep much at night when I try. You have to sleep with one eye open; you always feel on alert. So, I often sleep during the day when it can be a little safer and walk all night.” Some nights, Jones tries to grab a few hours of sleep on a city bus or in tucked-away corners. But even that comes with risk. “I got robbed in my sleep one night,” he said. “I woke up with nothing but my pants.” Shelters haven’t been a viable alternative for Jones. He traverses the see WALKING next page  SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 YPSILANTI Ending the blockade on Cuba Blockade, sanctions or embargo? Blockade according to Google is an act or means of sealing off places to prevent goods or people from entering or leaving. Blockade, sanctions, embargos are all the same — measures put in place to penalize a country or nation, from a more powerful country or nation. These words we hear quite often on the news, but do we really know the effects of these actions designed to ultimately cause despair? The question is, why do powerful nations like the United States impose blockades? It’s simple: to impose their will. The United States currently has Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria under blockade. Over the last 75 years, the nation of Israel has had a blockade that has worsened throughout the decades on the Palestinian people in Gaza. Russia’s Black Sea port blockade on Ukraine is an attempt to hurt Ukraine’s trade and economy. Global food shortage is an example of the unintended outcomes of blockades. These blockades hurt bystander countries/nations who trade or do business with these countries. Russia backed off some of the Ukraine blockade when there was an outcry from developing nations who depend on Ukraine’s wheat to stave off famine. Less than 100 miles south of the U.S. mainland, Cuba officially became a socialist communist state on April 19, 1961. Fidel Castro declared revolutionary socialism, following the defeat of the Bay of Pigs invasion. The blockade on Cuba caught my attention, because of the devastating results to a people and nation that most people don’t hear or talk about. The people of Cuba have been under this blockade since 1959. In 2009 President Barack Obama lifted the travel ban, and in 2014 announced the United States would resume relations with Cuba, thereby removing Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list. When  WALKING from last page city, looking for the best places to sell Denver VOICE, but trying to make shelter curfews can hinder his ability to work. “Shelters, they stop taking people in at 8, and shelters are dirty,” he said. “I’ve gotten sick in shelters. They don’t feel safer than the street.” Even when he’s made the effort to get in, shelter space isn’t guaranteed. “Sometimes, I wait in line and don’t get in,” he said. “Sometimes I get sent to Holly Street, but if I miss the bus or have trouble with transportation, I limit financial transactions between the United States and Cuba, including restrictions on remittances and "U-Turn" transactions. Restrictions on Cuban Companies: The United States restricts transactions with Cuban companies, particularly those managed by the armed forces. Human Rights Sanctions: The United MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Donald Trump assumed office in 2017, he overturned the progressive actions of the Obama administration, and eventually reinstated stringent sanctions. During the final days of his term, President Joe Biden initiated the process to remove Cuba from the SSOT list, but again Trump reversed the process immediately upon taking office for his second term in January 2025. The United States maintains comprehensive economic sanctions against Cuba, including restrictions on trade, travel and financial transactions. These sanctions, which have been in place for decades, aim to influence political and economic changes in Cuba. While some exceptions exist for humanitarian purposes and other specific activities, the overall effect is a significant limitation on economic engagement between the two countries. Key aspects of the sanctions Trade Embargo: The United States maintains a broad trade embargo against Cuba, restricting most forms of trade and commercial activity between the two countries. Travel Restrictions: Travel to Cuba citizens and residents by U.S. is restricted, with limited exceptions for family visits, official business, journalistic activities and other specific purposes. Financial Restrictions: Sanctions don’t get in, and I get stuck out there. It can take half of the day to try to get into a shelter, and there are no promises.” Walking the streets also leads to another problem: hunger. Jones says that he walks so much that he is always looking for food. But surviving the streets has taken a toll. “I feel like every week out here ages you a year,” he said. The hardest part, he says, is the relentless toil of it all; the way each day is consumed with just preparing for the night. “I either try to find a place that is safe, and I can hide through the Local efforts to end the blockade At the Ypsilanti Human Relations Commission (HRC) Meeting on night, or I try to prepare myself to be awake all night. Neither is any good, and it wears on you.” Sometimes, when the exhaustion is too much, Jones turns to alcohol to force sleep. He doesn’t like turning to alcohol, and he avoids harder drugs, but without access to safe housing and medical care, he doesn’t have other options. “Sometimes, you feel so sick from not sleeping, you have no choice. You go to the liquor store so you can pass out all night. But that ain’t any good either,” he said. “That ain’t any kind of sleep.” From time to time, Jones saves enough money to spend a night or two at a motel, but as Denver changes, there are fewer and fewer low-cost hotels that he can turn to. Still, each day, Jones shows up. He continues selling papers. “I just keep trying, and I’m not going to quit. I hope if I work hard enough, something will break my way.” Courtesy of Denver VOICE / INSP. ngo States has imposed sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for human rights abuses in Cuba. IThe sanctions have had a significant impact on the Cuban economy and quality of life, limiting access to goods, services and financial resources. Cuban citizens have faced challenges in accessing essential goods, including medicines and medical supplies, due to the restrictions on trade. The sanctions have also impacted the Cuban government's ability to engage in international commerce and development. There is ongoing debate about the effectiveness and humanitarian consequences of the sanctions. Cuba relief efforts involve both international and national organizations providing aid in the form of food, water, medical supplies, and shelter, particularly following natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. Key actors include United Nations agencies like UNICEF, international NGOs such as Catholic Relief Services and Handicap International, and religious groups like Send Relief and the International Republican Institute. These efforts focus on disaster response, health, sanitation and strengthening local capacity to respond to future crises. People in Michigan are working on relief efforts for our brothers and sisters in Cuba. August 21, 2025, the Michigan Action for Cuba Committee presented their case to end the blockade, to have Cuba removed from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List, and to return Guantanamo Bay to Cuba. HRC passed a reccomendation to have the resolution put on Ypsi City Council's agenda. The intended resolution, if passed, will hopefully move through the Michigan State legislators to the U.S. Congress and finally the Oval Office for the President’s signature. The City Clerk Tracey Boudreau failed to put the resolution on the agenda for the September 9, 2025 Ypsilanti City Council meeting. Tuesday September 23, is the next City council meeting, and we will see whether or not the Cube resolution has been put on the agenda. Michigan Action for Cuba Committee is a part of The National Network On Cuba which is a U.S.-based umbrella organization composed of more than 60 organizations advocating for an end to Washington’s hostility towards Cuba, especially the inhumane U.S. economic blockade against Cuba. There is a precedence of similar legislation in Michigan. Resolutions have been passed by the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners, Wayne County Board of Commissioners, Detroit City Council, Meridian Township and the State of Michigan Senate. This blockade has been in place for over six decades. The Michigan Action For Cuba Committee and National Network On Cuba continue to advocate the end of this blockade, so Cuba, the United States, and other nations can benefit from one another's goods and innovations. Join MACC at Ypsi City Council Tuesday, September 23 at 7 p.m.! 1 South Huron, Ypsilanti. End the blockade! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THINGS TO DO Visit a new realm in the Renaissance Fair September in Michigan is full of fun activities to do with family and friends, such as visiting an apple orchard, coffee/lunch in the park and late-night shows. But the event that stands out to me the most this year is the Michigan Renaissance Festival in Holly, Michigan. I remember that the schools I went to would book field trips there. I, unfortunately, have never had a chance to experience it but find myself even more excited about it as an adult. The Michigan Renaissance Festival is the opportunity to experience an entirely different realm of time from today; a break from the mundane dayto-day routine. A chance to get dressed up and indulge in an inner character lying dormant within. The Renaissance Festival is it! You can take part in this exciting event each Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. until September 28, 2025, with an additional special ‘Festival Fridays’ date on September 26. The location? 12600 Dixie Hwy, Holly, Mi. My advice is to experience this year, so grab your tickets today! ADVANCE ADMISSION (plus fees): Adult: $24.95 Child: (5-12): $15.95 Senior: $22.95 Children four and under are free! Visit the website MichRenFest.com EMERI JADE BEY Groundcover vendor No. 660 to see the many deals and discounts offered and to purchase your tickets. There are discount opportunities like everything you can while in attendance. Try the food during a culinary adventure at the Feast of Fantasy, sip on medieval ale during a pub crawl, unleash your inner birdwatcher at the Birds of Prey show, shop for new trinkets and clothing at the artisan market, and watch as the talented entertainers dazzle you with jolly good shows during the weekend’s themed daily entertainment schedule. It seems there are so many magical and unforgettable opportunities to experience at the Renaissance Festival bringing your report card showing A’s and B’s and be granted free admission, awesome military and first responder discounts, as well as many more discount opportunities worth viewing. Also, if you would like to get more involved in the celebration, see the festival's website for: donating/becoming a sponsor, the many employment opportunities, becoming a festival vendor, booking a class field trip and even auditioning to take part in next year's show! So go forth and embark on a thrilling renaissance quest full of adventure and merriment! I’m sure you won’t regret it! SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 Groundcover contributor Robbie February was called on stage to help with a show at the 2024 Ren Fest. Detroit Zoo: A great time for outdoor recreation! We have had a very hot summer this year. I have been enjoying every bit of it. However, there have been some days that were too hot to do anything other than just sit somewhere cool and keep hydrated. September is still hot, but temperatures begin to lower. I can't think of a better way to take advantage of the opportunity of a nice, warm, September day than to spend it at the Detroit Zoo. Especially living in the city where you mostly see the elements of what I call a concrete jungle, taking time out to experience recreation through the zoological society's lens at the Detroit Zoo is exactly what we need. You can escape to this safe place to explore the creatures of a real jungle for a day, or as often as you choose, because the Detroit Zoo is only closed three days out of the year. I like the idea of making memories at the Detroit Zoo because all ages are welcome. There is fun for everyone. One of the things that I love is the train ride. It's like taking a ride through the jungle where you get to see the animals in a habitat like their natural home. There is the carousel that many find fun. I have seen some that are a little reluctant, usually toddlers and young elementary school aged children. Some even cry. We don't want that, but LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover writer day. There are plenty of choices to make for food. The ticket prices range from $24 to $27, but are $3 lower when purchased online. There may be additional discounts on special offers and/or promotions offered at times by the Zoo only. So have a wonderful time and make some great memories! The Detroit Zoo is located at 8450 W. 10 Mile Rd., Royal Oak, Michigan 48067. Their phone number is (248) 541-5717. new things can be a bit intimidating for some. There is the dragon trail for the more adventurous spectators. The dragon trail displays mythical creatures, robots and dinosaurs. Of course they are not real creatures. These are for us to use our imaginations and get a glimpse of how the prehistoric dinosaurs would have looked. Be ready to be awed. There are water bottle refill stations throughout the whole Zoo. So, remember to bring your water containers so that you can keep hydrated. You will be doing plenty of walking. Even if you are using a mobility device such as a cane, walker or wheelchair, you will get thirsty. Oh yeah! We did not forget about the energy that you will be using while exploring all of the amusement for the Pictured right: Detroit Zoo Water Tower 2025 rebrand. SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 COMMUNITY EVENTS community EVENTS GREEN FAIR: CIRCULARITY STREET AND CLOTHING SWAP FESTIVAL Friday, Sept. 19, 5- 8 p.m. Main Street, downtown Ann Arbor An annual street fair celebrating sustainability, community and climate action! Swap participants can take clothing without bringing anything or bring clothing without taking anything. Bring up to five items of clothing if you are donating at Green Fair — or donate at our pre-event drop off on September 17 for a chance to receive a prize. Please only bring clean clothing in good to great wearable condition. This is a completely free event. Accessories welcome! RSVP: https://lu.ma/sfte5x8t For more information about Green Fair, visit a2gov.org/greenfair POETRY + JAZZ AT MAKESHIFT GALLERY Sunday, September 21, 12 - 1 p.m. Makeshift Gallery, 407 E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor Event featuring artists: Karen Holman, Sara Hughes, Brian Jacobs and Elvin Sharp Quartet. Coffee, tea and croissants served. INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE Sunday, September 21, 9 a.m. to sunset Library Lane, Ann Arbor Annual gathering of music, talks, conversation with the peace community. Set up, smudging 9-11 a.m. Mix of presentations, open mic and music which goes til dancers and musicians wear out as the sun sets. Performances from Mary and Huz Band, Shekinah Errington, Steve Somers and Band, Deisha Myles, Megan Sims, Michael Joseph and Randy Tessier.  HELP from page 3 injured and no other vehicles were struck. I am left with the repair costs. I am trying to raise $4,500.00 additional dollars to get my car on the road before the extreme cold comes. One of those expenses being the replacement of the driver's seatbelt. There was no need for the police officer to cut my seatbelt. I did not disengage my seatbelt for fear of my life because after the door was opened by one police officer the other officer had gloves on and presented a posture to openly fire his arm/gun. I insisted that the AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE WITH PEACE HOUSE Sun., September 21, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Marketplace Hall, 16 S. Washington St. Ypsilanti Monthly free brunch and community building event. Free to everyone — we always have omni, vegan and gluten-free options. TOTALLY AWESOME FEST XXI September 25-28 Dreamland Theater, 26 N Washington St. Free event, open to all ages and all species. All music genres, workshops, theater, DIY. A2 JAZZFEST Saturday and Sunday September 27 and 28, 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor, 608 E William St. until 8:30 p.m., Ravens Club after 8 p.m. Weekend-long jazz music festival featuring live performances and student workshops. FREE! BREAD AND PUPPET 2025 CIRCUS TOUR Sunday, September 28, 6 p.m. Riverside Park, 2 East Cross Street, Ypsilanti Our domestic resurrection, Revolution in progress, Circus! $20 suggested donation: No one turned away for lack of funds. No ticket needed. breadandpuppet.org/tour "RAIDING THE HEARTLAND" BOOK DISCUSSION Thursday October 2, 6:30 p.m. Literati Bookstore, 124 E. Washington St. Ann Arbor Literati is thrilled to welcome William D. Lopez to celebrate the other officer release my seatbelt in fear that had I made the effort to release it myself that I would have been mortally wounded. There was no need to cut my seatbelt in order for me to safely exit my car. That is going to cost $400.00 to have reinstalled not including labor costs. I was in initial shock and believed that my car was about to blow up because of the heat sensation that I felt when my car ended up at the crash site. I do not want to list the other repairs in detail in this article, but am willing to present the legal and true documentation that affirm my claim and ask for help with release of Raiding the Heartland: An American Story of Deportation and Resistance. He'll be joined in conversation by Ashley Cureton. The book chronicles the devastating impacts of immigration raids — and the enduring resistance of immigrant communities in the aftermath PILAR’S FOUNDATION FALL INTO ACTION Sunday, October 19, 4-6:30 p.m. Zion Lutheran Church, 1501 W Liberty St. Ann Arbor Fundraising open house with food, live music and silent auction. Uniting our community to benefit immigrant families in need of assistance. Donation ticket prices: Adults ($50), teens and students with IDs ($35), children under six ($20) Purchase tickets online at pilarsfoundation.org or in person at Pilar’s Tamales, 2261 W Liberty St. Ann Arbor. PUBLIC WORKS AND SOLID WASTE OPEN HOUSE Sat., October 25, 10 a.m. -1 p.m. Public Works Unit, 4251 Stone School Road, Ann Arbor A free, family-friendly event exploring the world of public works and solid waste. Enjoy hands-on activities to learn about utility infrastructure, city forestry, street maintenance, solid waste, recyling and compost programs; such as touching City trucks, fixing a water main break, painting a plow, and more! Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com donations. I am also the mother of a minor child who needs rides to and from school everyday that ensure their safe arrival and departure from school. Thank you! If you want to make a donation towards my cause you may contact me at (734) 686-9383 or do so through my personal Venmo account: @LaShawn-Courtwright not through the Venmo code on the front of this Groundcover newspaper. They are separate. Feel free to donate a check, cash, or a money order made out to me to P.O. Box 8126 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48107. Thank you! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS TRAVELS WITH DREAMER STEVEN Groundcover vendor No. 668 Located at 800 Decatur St., New Orleans, LA, since 1862 (originally a coffee stand long since brick and mortar), offering dark roasted Coffee and Chicory, served black or Au lait, fresh-squeezed orange juice, white and chocolate milk, and Beignets, Cafe du Monde reigns over its section of the Mississippi and its piece of the French Quarter. It is an incredible place with old-timey charm. A building that would be at home in Paris. An Au Lait is coffee and chicory mixed half and half with hot milk. The coffee and chicory is crazy good, and as Guinness is to beer for me, the coffee and chicory is to coffee, sparking a lifelong obsession with coffee. I didn’t like beer before my first draught Guinness, and didn’t care so much for coffee before Cafe du Monde. than a polite nod. It's like the green room for Bourbon St. It was the green room for so much more than that. Calling beignets doughnuts is akin to calling the Mississippi River a drainage ditch. I can still taste them. Experience them is a better word. As a cook, I wonder if they change the oil after every batch? (Of course not.) The powdered sugar was so heavy as to become layers of mouth mirth. You get a good tooth feel with the deep-fried golden outer crust just below the now crunchy sugar. Then your tooth feel would get lost in an airy lack of feel yet somehow still decadent and sweet as if your teeth had taste buds. These things for sure are more air than dough when they get to you. Air of the kind of value an astronaut might get behind. But wait, slow down. There is the Cafe Au Lait and benignet. Photo credits: Jeff Parness New Orleans is a special kind of place, a place of countless firsts. The hero of the menu is unquestionably the Beignets. Described on their website, in a bottomless understatement, as “square French-style doughnuts lavishly covered with powdered sugar.” Yeah doughnuts. I mean, I did already like doughnuts, but I liked doughnuts, not these generational love letters. Served hot, fresh out of the fryer, paired perfectly with the coffee and chicory, they are a singular way to while away some time out of the frequent Gulf Coast rain. Sitting in the ambiance of this cafe is a call back to the turn-of-the-century literary cafe scene in Paris. You almost expect to see James Joyce stumble in and call a table of friends “arse faces," shoot an espresso, then careen back out into the exquisite chaos of The French Quarter. Is that blond guy over there, Lestat? Oh shit though, really is that Ann Rice? If it were them, the chillness of this hip spot would preclude anything more tooth feel with the powdered sugar, the sneaky powdered sugar. The b’s are hot when they dump a Tony Montana amount of sugar on them, so the first layer of sugar caramelizes on the hot, clean, oily dough. As you go in for a bite, hold your breath, the top layer of sugar will either go into your unprepared face or onto your friend if you don’t breathe just right. The Girl in the Shiny Green Dress got me good in our first round. She breathed out as she took a bite and blasted me in the face a little, then guffawed a huge blast right after. I blinked and looked super cool, wiping white powder from my face. Below that top sneaky trifling powdered layer is the glory that is melted powdered sugar, like a frosting all its own, then the pastry, more air than dough, then the smug satisfaction you made a good decision buying these. Now the bit before the climax. You sit back, very pleased with yourself on your choice of snacks, and have a sip of coffee to wash it down. That was it, that was the climax. Sweet satisfaction and good coffee with friends. It doesn’t get much better. I’ve done hallucinogens in my time before, since and while in N.O. but my mind was most blown by the combo of historic pastry, sugar, caramelized sugar, strong coffee, ambiance and company. I speak with authority on mind-blowingness. It helped shape me as a chef and just a good dude. Dreamer, who I’d come here with through trials and tribulations, couldn't give a shit. The Girl in the Shiny Green Dress was usually with me, she loved them too. I liked them so much that if we didn’t have enough cash between the two of us I’d go without her and she would understand because, beignets. “Meh, expensive doughnuts, whatever man,” Dreamer would say. Meanwhile, we’re panhandling to get our hands on some. If ever we had 5 or 10 bucks after getting my nicotine and a couple of deuce deuces or a few drinks in me, I’d have to get an order. Yes, ”I’d,” I said, I was selfish about these things. The trio of these fluffy, airy dream pastries would seem to whisper to me down the tunnels of antiquity out of Titania’s whimsies, Puck’s hijinks, and King Solaman’s wisdom. From their possible origin within the boiling vats of animal fat in The iconic Cafe Du Monde on Decatur Street. SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 Travels with Dreamer: It's not a donut, dude that speaks to Dreamer being alright in my book. He was a cretin, but a cretin who liked good pastries. TGITSGD was not a cretin. We all laughed and joked, and told tall tales. After a few coffees, we outlined our dissertations on the fundamentals of the cosmos and how it relates to being really cool you know, and how if we all just did mushrooms, everything would be like way better. Still waiting to hear from the Universee DREAMER page 12  ancient Rome, north to the kitchens of French cooks who evolved them into fritters à la Beignets. Then in 18th century colonial Louisiana, where the Creole further developed them using ingredients at hand with the culinary traditions of the New World. If you’ve kept up with Dreamer’s adventures from earlier stories, you may have picked up on Dreamer’s charming lack of depth. Were I to tell him, the least bit convincingly, they sometimes sneak a psilocybin in a French fritter new world upgrade, I could get him to take a bite, then he’d be pissed and I’d feel like a shit heel bully. No, no. Funny joke for my inside voice. Good enough. This was for The Girl and me. Also, just me. These things, this experience got into the folds of my gray matter as nothing before. Dreamer wasn’t opposed to the Bs per se. We did snack on them together a few times. I got to know Ol’ Dreamer a bit more in this time. We weren't in survival mode, we were in late 19th-century parlor games mode with an accidental eye toward salon hangouts. The old-timey trendy exercise of sitting around having a snack, and being smart and witty. I tease Dreamer in these stories, and he could be truly maddening, as could I, but he was a hell of a guy and was a blast to hang out with. The Girl was very shy but open and fun with him and me, and October 5th Learn about zero waste in Ann Arbor at these free, family-friendly events! Zero Waste Fall Festival Tour Recycle Ann Arbor 12:00-3:00pm 9:30am & 11:00am See how your recycling gets a second life and get answers to all your questions Michigan Stadium Tour 8:30-9:30am Get a behind-the-scenes look at Big House zero waste operations Bike Tour 7:45am-1:00pm Ride from Common Cycle to Recycle Ann Arbor and back with stops along the way Learn More and Sign Up: TrashTalkTour.Org Made Possible By: Games, doughnuts, prizes, shopping, and live music at Kiwanis Thrift Sale SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 ADVERTISEMENT GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES BY DEFINITION by Peter Collins SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 WORD SEARCH by Emeri Jade Bey ACROSS 1. Broccoli ___ 5. Applicant's goal 8. Provolone alternative 13. "___ for All Seasons" 14. "As I see it," in texts 15. Start of a typical workday 17. MARS 19. City 235 miles north of Ann Arbor 20. Murphy of "You People" 21. MARS 23. Airport near Puget Sound 25. Family member 26. Shock with a stun gun 27. Annoy 28. ___-mo replay 30. Caribbean island 32. River of France and Belgium 34. Yoko ___ 36. Suffix for some sugars 37. MARS 41. New England cape 42. Enthusiastic affirmative 43. Advice from a pro 46. Baseball bat application 50. Internet 52. Drink like a cat 53. Take ___ (rest) 54. Catch 56. City ten miles south of Ann Arbor 58. MARS 61. Burglary, for short 62. Republic of China capital 63. MARS 65. Televangelist Joel 66. Historic period 67. Common Market money 68. Good start? 69. The Rangers, on a scoreboard 70. Relaxing spots DOWN 1. Passes quickly 2. 1984 Mozart-themed Best Picture winner 3. First aid kit supply 4. Advice to a friend in a bad relationship 5. Triangular sail 6. Epps of TV's "House" 7. Bad conversationalists 8. Some short-lived online sliceof-life postings 9. Dead giveaway? 10. Kind of hospital treatment 11. Observed attending 12. Most rational 16. Ends a chess match 18. Thumbs-ups 22. Defame 24. Cutting the rug in heavysoled shoes 29. See 38-Down 31. The Wildcats of the N.C.A.A. 33. Delicate spring roll wrapping 35. Chicago airport code 38. With 29-Down, none 39. What's often taken after a performance 40. Preparing for a bodybuilding competition, in a way 44. Box opener of myth 45. Racer's swimwear 46. Meal, in Italy 47.Way to pay 48. Tokyo airport 49. Stadium cheer 51. Rum-soaked cake 55. Military headgear 57. Strike sites? 59. Prepared to drive 60. In a bad mood 64. Upper limit PUZZLE SOLUTIONS September 5, 2025 edition D E C A F A L B O P E R A P A S T O R G A M E T E S M O N K S O P C O S T A A B H O R R O O S T S U R A H T O O E R A S E G E N E R A L L Y W E F T S S E T A E L D E R S T A T E S M A N G E O D E T I N Y S N A R L U P T R E F A B O A R D I N G S C H O O L S M O O T H S O P H S R E S P O L O C U S P I D E A L O G U E E L M O I L E R P R I S M L A I C S A F E S I R E SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 RESOURCES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS INSP CONFERENCE Recap from INSP North American Summit in Denver, Colo. FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 SHELLEY DENEVE Groundcover vendor No. 22 Two vendors on a mission, learning and meeting other street papers. This can only happen at the INSP (International Network of Street Papers) Summit, which we (Shelley and Felicia) were fortunate enough to attend the weekend of September 12-14. We had a great time learning the different aspects of street papers. A few things we better grasped this weekend: fundraising, street paper journalism, street paper branding, and vendor engagement. We then participated in an open forum among the different street news representatives. Felicia’s birthday was on the Saturday of the conference. The warm wishes, and the chocolate birthday cake made an ideal celebration! We would not trade this time for nothing. Street newspapers often struggle due to the lack of readers. Please don’t forget to “keep the paper alive!” Pick one up today from a friendly local vendor. Above: Shelley DeNeve, Felicia Wilbert, Shawn Lesley and Linda Bailey from "The Contributor" (Nashville, Tenn. street paper) during the vendor engagement panel. Photo by Alex Santil. 12/31/2025 Left: DeNeve and Wilbert exploring Broadway Street in Denver. SEPTEMBER 19, 2025  DREAMER from page 8 sity on this. Of all the buzzes I grabbed in my baby The Big Easy, this one is my favorite. Me, Dreamer and the Girl, high on sugar, caffeine, and stupid, glorious, goofy youth. Laughing till our sides hurt, making a scene we didn’t notice. Hugging and laughing some more, over that, we were just laughing. Catching our breaths, almost, but then catching eyes and losing it all over again. Dreamer, embarrassed, would mutter something about they’re just doughnuts and leave, crimson around his collar. Saying see ya later was way too much for us to get out before we fell all over ourselves and each other in gales of ridiculous mirth. Best coffee date ever. Until it wasn’t. We were lucky in that I had dragged my verdant-clad friend along with me to get some fancy donuts. Cafe du Monde, being as it is in the deep south, has a very large covered outdoor section. We were at one of those tables when the fracas occurred. It's been over 30 years, but it's safe to assume she was laughing at some charming witticism I had just made when the pandemonium assailed us. So what, it's a big city? The sounds came from like, right over there at the stairs. The stairs we always hang out at, so we were curious. We could see from our table that there was a man, a cowboy type man, dressed head to toe in black, and I call him cowboy because he was dressed head to toe as a cowboy. If you can picture a poorly rendered old school black hat western villain, you’re close to this guy. This man got out of a car in front of the stairs. The stairs, full of street kids and buskers, in broad daylight, and he began an eerily calm yet maniacal rant. He ranted with diction and good vocabulary, but the subject of his rant was unhinged. He was in fact challenging all comers to a fight. This guy dressed like a Disney cowboy villain rolled up in front of the steps, got out of a car, and called everyone who wouldn't fight him there on the spot a pussy. Well, nobody did shit for a good while. What was to be done? Beat up a crazy guy. This guy raged on. The Girl and I, doing our fancy pants sounds of coffee and doughnuts thing, didn't register this until the kids on the steps did. For a good minute, he was straight ignored as the maniac douche he was, but at some point, one of the older guys on the stairs, a guy you wouldn't call a street kid, but a scuzzy young homeless dude, rose to the asinine challenge. He raged up and was immediately firmly and politely assaulted by young friends, grabbing on to him to keep him out of it. We hear our friends absolutely losing their shit. So hey, it's New Orleans, right? Crazy shit happens all the time. This was different. It was weird, and it ended as soon as it started. He got in the car and left. Weird right? It's a little weirder if you consider a few hours earlier, some guy being chill and cool and coming around giving out free acid, LSD. He was honest in saying this was a new batch and the chemist wanted it tested. Sooo consider the preceding, but now suss that everyone was tripping absolute balls, the girl and I included. We finished our snacks, retook our place on the stairs with the rest, and went about our day. Well, no, not really, we were tripping balls. Best coffee date ever. SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 FROM THE ARCHIVES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13 Groundcover visits Toledo Streets Groundcover News had the opportunity to take a road trip and have a workshop with Toledo Streets, another nonprofit street paper, in Toledo, Ohio. I was one of the vendors who attended this workshop along with Jay, Derek, Justen, Lit, Ken, Hal and Snap. The trip was great; the fact that we were able to work fresh territory and in a different environment really really motivated all of us. As soon as we got there they welcomed us with open arms. The vendors and the staff were very heart-warming with the greetings. It was really cool because normally when you travel like this and go visit another organization, people are standoffish, but not in Toledo. At Toledo Streets as soon as we walked in, people greeted us. They rolled out the red carpet for us. The lunch was awesome — something that none of us had ever had before called a “walking taco.” It’s a taco inside of a bag of chips; add everything you want to it, mix it up and eat it either with a fork or with your hands. It was JOE WOODS Groundcover vendor No. 103 really, really cool. During lunch we talked about the organizations and they asked us questions — it was a beautiful thing. We got a chance to meet some top sales people, learn some different sales techniques. One vendor from Toledo, whose name was also Joe, made a “pitch-poem.” When he would make a sale, he would rhyme or rap what he was saying to engage customers. Another vendor would hold a Toledo Streets sign and clip all his papers to the back, flipping in between the sign and the papers. We also learned the different products that they sell; similar to how Groundcover News vendors sell $10 special editions (something they picked up from Groundcover News a while back). Toledo Street vendors sell $10 calendars. The photos in the calendar were actually taken by the vendors themselves. They also have an auction for the artwork and portraits that they make. So, Ann Arbor, don’t be surprised if vendors start selling Groundcover News calendars ... but ours are going to be $20 if I have anything to say about it. Believe it or not, Toledo Streets allowed us to sell their product there. The executive director and the whole staff was awesome; they gave Groundcover vendors free calendars to sell. So you know what? We did. Derek sold five or six, I sold about four, Jay and Justen capitalized on donations which was a beautiful thing. Then they messed around and found out that the buses were free. Anybody who knows me knows I love to shop ... so we caught the bus to the mall and I bought shoes. I want to thank Lindsay, our executive director, Ben, the vendor manager of Toledo Streets, and everybody involved that helped get this going. And, of course the customers, because without you, the customer, we wouldn’t be in existence. Looking forward to more road trips to Seattle, Chicago, Portland and the International Street Paper Summit in Milan, Italy in September. I just want to say first, thank God for opportunities, “new cheese,” and you the customers — because without you there’s no me. Originally published in the April 1, 2022 edition of Groundcover News. Street newspaper conference benefits vendors, volunteers SHELLEY DENEVE Groundcover vendor No. 22 Five representatives from Groundcover attended the 2011 North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) conference held in Nashville, Tenn. October 13-16. NASNA is an organization that supports and cultivates effective self-sustaining street newspapers which promote power and opportunity for people living in poverty. NASNA is strongly committed to empowering local street newspapers to develop leadership among poor people, while cultivating journalistic integrity and sustainable street papers. NASNA’s annual conference was hosted by Nashville’s own street newspaper, The Contributor. Have you heard of that street newspaper before? Or maybe you heard of StreetWise from Chicago or Real Change from Seattle. There were approximately 60 registrants and a total of 14 street newspapers from around the United States and Canada attending the conference. There were also two newly established papers and four prospective new newspapers. The conference started with the attendees having the pleasure of meeting and greeting noted journalist, writer and political figure John Seigenthaler for whom the conference location, the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, is named. He is known as a prominent defender of freedom of expression. He also wrote for The Tennessean and was the founding editorial director of USA Today. The conference consisted of three workshop tracks. Each person chose one of the following tracks per session: • Vendor Track (Vendor Behavior, Vendor Forum) • Editorial Track (Editorial Collaboration, Editorial Basics) • Fundraising Track (Surviving and Thriving in a Small Shop, Finding the Money) Each day there were two to three workshops for each track. Friday evening, conference attendees were invited to the Street Newspaper Awards dinner held at an old bank in downtown Nashville that was converted into a home owned by a fellow named Wan Choi. Speakers included Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, and keynote speaker Lee Stringer. Stringer is the author of two books — "Sleepaway" and "Grand Central Winter" — based on the 12 years he lived homeless and addicted under New York City’s Grand Central Station. Mr. Stringer was a former editor and columnist for the New York street newspaper, Street News. He also has written essays that have appeared in various notable publications such as The Nation, The New York Times and Newsday. After the workshops on Saturday, attendees road a bus to downtown Nashville to tour The Contributor office, housed in a Presbyterian church. At the end of the tour, the annual meeting was held in the sanctuary of the church to elect four new board members. Afterward, attendees were able to go check out the sights and sounds of Nashville. Luckily, the Americana Music Festival was going on and top-flight entertainment of all types was available through the night at different establishments. Originially published in the November 2011 edition of Groundcover.

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15TH ANNIVERSARY On September 4, Groundcover News celebrated its 15th anniversary. It was moving to hear from founder Susan Beckett, current director Lindsay Calka, and longtime vendor Joe Woods. As someone who has been a vendor for 12 years, I felt pride in our shared history — but also disappointment. Over the years, vendors have made LIT KURTZ Groundcover vendor No. 159 remarkable accomplishments that were not mentioned that evening. Both Jim Clark and I earned placements at the International Street Paper Conference competition, recognition on a global stage. Other vendors have authored books, founded organizations, and built programs to support those experiencing housing insecurity. These achievements are part of Groundcover’s true legacy. When plaques were given for longevity, I chose not to accept mine. Not because I didn’t care, but because our real accomplishments — and those of many others — go beyond years of service. They deserve to be recognized in a fuller way. Today, I am building a digital magazine entitled "The Fringe" — work SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 Groundcover legacy deserves fuller recognition made possible only because of the foundation Groundcover News gave me. As "The Fringe" takes shape, I carry with me the lessons of resilience and creativity nurtured through Groundcover. This is not just my story — it is our collective voice, continuing to push boundaries and reimagine what is possible. Groundcover vendors are not just survivors; we are creators and innovators, and our voices belong at the center — at the heart of every telling and celebration of its legacy. Community conversation and education for a sustainable homeless solution On September 4, Groundcover News held a 15 year anniversary celebration at the First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor. It was a huge celebration which attracted many members of the Washtenaw County community and the University of Michigan campus. There were many speeches and presentations. However, the speech which caught my attention the most was given by the Groundcover News Board President, Anna Gersh. In addition to the praiseworthy comments she offered about the current Groundcover publisher and managing director and the founding publisher, she said that this newspaper has become a platform for encouraging more community conversations and dialogues on homelessness and a broad range of topics. She also observed that the paper has become a source of news, information and education where community members and Groundcover writers can offer their opinions on matters of local, regional and national interest. The month of November is our “Homelessness Awareness Month.” However, in my interactions with many of our customers — students and non-students — it has become important to share knowledge and encourage formal and informal conversations on the topic of homelessness year-round. For example: What are the local, state and federal governments strategies for solving homelessness? Does Washtenaw have an integrated strategy for ending homelessness? What are the innovative homeless solution strategies in the county and across the nation? Articles on History.com have shown that homelessness occurred in periods of economic crisis, high WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 unemployment, high inequality, adverse government policies on affordable housing, high healthcare costs and, generally, job loss. Understanding the causes and consequences of homelessness helps frame the discussion. Causes of homelessness Economic factors: Poverty, lack of income, high housing costs, unemployment, and unexpected financial crises like job loss or medical bills contribute to homelessness. Lack of affordable housing: A significant shortage of low-cost housing options means that many people, especially those on low incomes, cannot afford rent. Health issues: Mental illnesses, substance use disorders, and chronic physical health problems can make it difficult to maintain housing and stable employment. Domestic violence and trauma: Violence in the home, particularly intimate partner violence, is a major cause of homelessness for many individuals and families. Social and systemic factors: Inadequate social support systems, lack of social safety nets, and historical oppression contribute to disproportionate rates of homelessness among certain groups. Acute stressors: Life events such as the death of a loved one, a relationship breakdown, or being in the justice system can be triggering events. Consequences of homelessness Poor physical health: Homeless individuals have increased risks for infectious diseases like Hepatitis, Tuberculosis, and HIV, as well as other chronic conditions like diabetes. Worsening mental health: The constant stress of living without stable housing can exacerbate existing mental health issues and lead to new ones, such as chronic stress, anxiety and depression. Impact on children: Homeless children face developmental delays, emotional and behavioral problems, increased risk of hunger, and difficulties with social and cognitive growth. Increased substance abuse: Some individuals use alcohol or drugs to "self-medicate" because of the stress and trauma of homelessness, potentially worsening their substance use disorders. Social stigma and isolation: Homelessness carries a significant social stigma, and people may experience social isolation, leading to feelings of low self-esteem. Community strain: Homelessness creates challenges for communities, including increased demand on social services and healthcare resources. Recent history History.com informs that “the Great Society” was an ambitious series of policy initiatives, legislation and Dr. Anna Gersh, Board President, addresses attendees at Groundcover's 15th anniversary celebration, endorsing the paper as a pillar of vital community dialogue. Photo credit: Matthew Orwig programs spearheaded by President Lyndon B. Johnson with the main goals of ending poverty, reducing crimes, abolishing inequality and improving the environment. Waging a war on poverty was the central focus of the Great Society program which was announced on the University of Michigan campus during the spring graduation commencement speech in 1964. Gradual progress was achieved in the late 1960s and the decade of the 1970s. The federal government was in the business of building affordable low-income housing in urban counties across the nation. Homelessness at a large scale was almost non-existent during those periods. The economic crisis of the 1980s, along with the severe budget cuts of anti-poverty programs made the Great Society key goals somewhat elusive. The “Great Recession” of 2008 to 2010 see DIALOGUE next page  SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 VENDOR VOICES Is a “real American” simply someone born on American soil? Or is it about holding a green card, having citizenship papers, or speaking English fluently? These are the surface-level answers often given, but the truth is far more complex. Being a real American goes well beyond legal status or geography — it’s a profound engagement with history, society, culture, politics and shared responsibility. The United States is, at its core, a nation of immigrants. From the Statue of Liberty — a gift from France welcoming those “yearning to breathe free”— to the diverse faces in every city and town, America’s identity is shaped by waves of people bringing different languages, cultures and dreams to our shores. But being American isn’t just about who arrives here or when. It’s about understanding the struggles, the triumphs, and the ongoing challenges that have defined the country’s evolution. This means grappling with the legacies of colonialism, slavery, warfare, the Cold War and economic upheavals, all the way through to today’s new “wars” around technology and artificial intelligence. Throughout history, competition has driven innovation and survival. Yet as the philosopher Peter Kropotkin wisely said, “Competition is the law of the jungle, but cooperation is the law of civilization.” If America wants to continue advancing, it must champion cooperation — not only internally but on the global stage. Citizenship: more than rights, a covenant of duties Too often, the conversation around citizenship focuses solely on rights: freedom of speech, the right to vote, protection under the law. These are essential, but equally critical are the duties that citizenship entails. Paying taxes, following laws, contributing to public health, engaging in community life, and showing respect for others are the glue that holds society together. Respecting the law is not merely One of America’s defining features is its astonishing diversity. This diversity goes beyond ethnicity and nationality. It includes religion, language, culture, socioeconomic status, gender identity, sexual orientation, and even favorite sports teams or lifestyles. From Irish and Polish immigrants to Japanese, Chinese, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Native Americans, this melting pot has created something uniquely beautiful and complex. The religious landscape — from Catholics and Protestants to Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and atheists — reflects a broader American ideal: coexistence amid difference. As we move into the future, the old idea of nationality itself becomes less relevant. Borders blur in a globalized world governed by international declarations like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. True citizenship transcends mere paperwork — it demands an active, informed and empathetic participation in both national and global communities. American politics today is deeply PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 obedience; it is respect for your fellow human beings and, ultimately, for yourself. Citizenship is a two-way street: the privileges come hand-inhand with responsibilities. Without this balance, democracy weakens and social cohesion frays. Our republic is a res publica — a public thing that belongs to everyone. Its wealth, power and wellbeing must be shared, not hoarded. This demands political engagement from citizens, whether by voting, participating in referendums, writing petitions or running for office. Fabric of diversity: America’s strength and challenge polarized, often simplified as a tug-ofwar between Republicans, who prioritize liberty (especially property rights), and Democrats, who emphasize equality. Both values are essential to a functioning society, and neither should dominate unchecked. Liberty without equality risks creating a society of haves and have-nots. Equality without liberty can slip into authoritarianism. The challenge — and the opportunity — for America is to strike a delicate balance, ensuring everyone has the freedom to thrive while guaranteeing fair treatment and opportunity for all. America’s global role: empire or partner? America is more than a nation; it is a project with international reach through organizations such as the United Nations, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization. This role demands diplomacy based on respect for other countries’ sovereignty, honest agreements and cultural exchange. It’s important to honestly recognize America’s imperialist tendencies. Every major power exerts influence, sometimes aggressively, on the world stage. America’s vast wealth and consumption come, in part, from resources and labor acquired abroad. This raises ethical questions about fairness and responsibility. Acknowledging these truths is not a sign of weakness but of maturity. The future lies in fairer economic relationships, cooperation and shared stewardship of the planet’s resources. Despite its ideals, America today functions more like an aristocracy marked by corporatism and plutocracy. Savage capitalism enriches a few while many struggle. Waste and inequality are rampant. Millions go GROUNDCOVER NEWS Raise your flag: What makes a real American? hungry while tons of food are discarded. This reality is a stark contrast to the founding ideals of democracy and justice. Americans must confront this gap honestly and work toward an economy and society that serve everyone’s wellbeing. Traditions, change and the path ahead Preserving tradition is vital — but it must be dynamic, open to change. No empire can justify endless greed. The old saying holds true: “The greater the empire, the harder the fall.” America must respect other nations’ sovereignty, promote peace and engage in honest, equitable partnerships. Intermixing cultures, ideas, values, and even bloodlines — without theft, violence, or racism — enriches all of us. True power lies not in domination but in cooperation and mutual respect. Finally, the most crucial point is this: to be a real American means to be human. Some Americans wrongly see foreigners as “second-class” or assume their own citizenship grants them superiority. This arrogance betrays ignorance of America’s history and what citizenship and America truly mean. Citizenship is about embracing a shared destiny, respecting all people equally, fulfilling both rights and duties and committing to the common good. America’s true strength lies in its willingness to be humble, to learn from its mistakes, to cooperate rather than compete destructively, and to uphold the universal values that connect us all as human beings. Only by embracing these truths can America live up to its highest ideals and serve as a beacon of democracy and humanity in an ever-changing world. Equality and liberty are foundational and cannot persist without one another. Still there's something missing. We learn fraternity from the French revolutionary flag as well as from the words of Jesus and John Lennon: we need Love. 15  DIALOGUE from last page also devastated the economic fortunes of most metropolitan cities, including Detroit. Soup kitchens helped feed the recently unemployed and members of their families. For southeastern Michigan counties, including Washtenaw County, a new challenge had emerged: how to shelter and feed the homeless in their communities. SAWC, the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, was created in 1984 to deal with the challenges. They succeeded in raising funds to build an integrated full service center called the Robert J. Delonis Center. Public and private partnerships made it possible. What do you think? Let the community conversations begin. Feel free to access YouTube videos on homelessness on the streets of America and Canada. The image of homeless people stricken with drugs and substance abuse falling over the streets, and other homeless individuals engaged in traumatic face-to-face confrontations on the streets could be upsetting. What should a community do? Should a community show more empathy, sympathy and compassion? Should community members contact the county's Community Mental Health to come to the rescue? Should treatment agencies do a wrap-around survival program which would provide shelter, food and clinical services for the homeless community? Should society do a better job of providing job opportunities for job-seekers and housing insecure members of the community? Let's discuss!

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Cheese and garlic roasted cauliflower ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 medium head cauliflower (8 cups) , cut evenly into florets 4 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil 1 1/2 tsp. paprika 3/4 tsp. kosher salt 1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper 3 garlic cloves, minced 3 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese Juice of 1/2 lemon 2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh parsley Directions: Place a large rimmed baking sheet on the center rack of the oven; preheat the oven to 450F. Cut the cauliflower into small florets and add to a large bowl. Toss with olive oil, paprika, salt and black pepper. Empty cauliflower out onto the preheated baking sheet. Arrange florets in a single layer, avoiding overcrowding. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, tossing once midway through, until lightly charred and tender. Sprinkle parmesan cheese and garlic over cauliflower and place back in the oven for five more minutes. Spritz lemon juice over the top and garnish with fresh parsley; toss and serve. Strange MAE NAUSSER Groundcover contributor I feel it wash over me Mania confusion weight Riding me with a spur I want to forget where and when it started Strange dayz Myself totally take A little remote viewing to locate to california A couple imagined cars A couple stills witnessed I don't forget SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 Wax JASON MICHAEL CHURCH Groundcover contributor Not only is it legal, It is really cheap people. So thank Jesus Christ and put it in your life. Get off the crack. Stay cool, calm, relaxed By smoking the marijuana wax 10/02/25

2 $ SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 19 PONY BUSH #305 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Cities for people not profit: municipalities fight against AirBnB. page 13 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHO IS YOUR CELEBRITY LOOK-ALIKE? 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. • Sad but true. page 3 • Harm reduction and crisis response in Washtenaw. page 4 • People in the neighborhood: Vanessa. page 8 • Reimagining Walden, part 3: not all ponds are created equal. page 10 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Steve Ross June Miller ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Monique Caldwell Jim Clark La Shawn Courtwright Shelley DeNeve Cindy Gere Beth Hamilton Mike Jones Chad Naugle Ken Parks Noemi Pohl Anthony Smith Scoop Stevens Rose Strickland Shawn Swoffer Joe Woods PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Jane Atkins Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Stephanie Dong Glenn Gates Robert Klingler Margaret Patston Angeline Tran Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropiate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR Who is your celebrity look-alike? No idea. — Pony Bush, #305 George Carlin. — Ken Parks, #490 (see photo page 11) Tone Loc or LL Cool J. — Mike Jones, #113 (see photo page 4) Ben Kingsley. — Jim Clark, #139 (see photo page 8) Sissy Spacek. — Rose Strickland, #25 (see photo below) Bette Midler. — Terri Demar, #322 Have you ever wondered why you don't see name brand products at food banks? I have wondered that myself. Let me tell you about some facts that I've come across. Some of the reasons I found were (let me put it this way) the companies are too cheap to donate food. They have much more control over their supply chain, meaning fewer leftovers to donate. Another reason is that retailers don't want to undercut their own brands. Retailers are often selective about donations and they don't want excess product showing up in food banks regularly. Retailers see that this can devalue their brand or lead to perceptions of being cheap and low end. You may see a name brand or a private label (Kirkland, Great Value) in food banks occasionally. That’s because retailers and manufacturers donate surplus, overstocked or near expiration items. Food Banks try to stretch Tupac. — Joe Woods, #103 every dollar when it comes to purchasing food. They tend to be very cost efficient. They often purchase food in bulk from wholesalers or food bank networks like Feeding America. This is where the generic or unbranded products are significantly cheaper to buy than brand names. Many food banks Sad but true Hi, I’m Rose, Groundcover News vendor No. 25! That means I was the 25th person to become a Groundcover News vendor in 2010 when Groundcover News was born! Happy 15th anniversary! My life sucks and it shows, but as a matter of grace and dignity I always dress nice no matter if I’m homeless or not (which I really am — sad but true). My heart hurts and I am sick of being manipulated. I feel the anger of the Mama Bear! I’m already tired of life. Sad but true. Some of us will die alone, but are we ever alone? I don’t believe that we are. I believe it so much even though I have lived a hard life. I have never stopped talking and having friendships with everyone in my life I loved to love. I have three baby daddies of my six beautiful children and three grandbabies. Except for one child who I lost after taking the COVID vaccine, I gave ROSE STRICKLAND Groundcover vendor No. 25 birth to them all naturally. All thanks to God. He is the best of us! I hurt because of things men have done to destroy the love in me. Somehow they never leave me, but I still get left by every one of them. They start making my life hard for amusement. They gang up on lil’ ole me everyday in one shape or form. They all become one and crap on me a lot, too much for my heart. They kicked me out when they chose and took me back knowing I had no choice except the street life. They used me for sexual favors while they still had my babies because I’m the mother on the streets that's on SSI and can't afford a life. Sad but true. There was one who loved me more than the rest but hurt me more than most. A soulmate is something special that some folks just can’t find in life or it takes them a lifetime to find. Sad but true. I know I am a fool, a stupid fool in love with my soulmate. Why, oh why, does my soul and my heart crave him? It feels like a big part of me has gone away, vanished. Why does he always run around in my mind? I don’t want to think about him anymore. My heart has forgiven the worst parts of him! How magical God works: I praise Him for my strength and peace of mind, but, oh, how my heart hurts. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Brand names at food banks? product that is a staple with food banks is oats. It’s off SHELLEY DENEVE Groundcover vendor No. 22 brand, but I haven't had a problem with taste. This past Wednesday I went to a food bank. I got a name brand item, Hostess cupcakes. They were the strawberry kind. I’m judging that they were amongst other products because they were near their expiration date. Plus I think the strawget products from USDA programs like The Emergency Food Assistance Program and bulk surplus from food distributors. The items purchased are beans, rice, pasta and canned goods that are not tied to consumer branding. On occasion you may catch a name brand product because of packaging redesign (old packaging must go), limited time promotions and product recalls (non-safety-related like labeling errors). I have experienced this going to different food banks. One particular product I can recall receiving is cereal. There are Rice Krispy and Corn Flakes off-brands that are not very good. They significantly don't have the same taste as the name brands. I would get them at first, but after trying them and then wasting the product I would simply just choose not to get any cereal. Another berry cupcakes sell less than the chocolate cupcakes. They did seem kind of stale. However I did not check the expiration date on the box they came in. So, why don't you see name brand products in food banks? I feel that this information has satisfied my curiosity. I hope this article has helped others who have had the same question come to mind. 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HARM REDUCTION Harm reduction refers to policies, programs and practices that aim to minimize the negative health, social and legal impacts associated with drug use, drug policies and drug laws. Harm reduction is grounded in social justice and human rights. Crisis response refers to the immediate actions and strategies implemented to address and mitigate the impacts of a critical event or emergency. It involves planning, mobilizing resources, providing assistance and communicating effectively to minimize harm and facilitate recovery. Before I go further, I would like to highlight a few things in the executive order signed by President Donald J. Trump called “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.” The order says (paraphrasing): the unhoused have made the streets unsafe and that most are on drugs or mentally ill or both; mandates shift unhoused individuals to long-term institutions for humane (but involuntary) treatment including ails, mental institutions and so-called drug treatment programs. The executive order also goes on to say: "Do not fund programs that fail to achieve adequate outcomes, including so-called 'harm reduction' or 'safe consumption' efforts.” As a direct result, harm reduction and crisis response organizations nationwide are facing major federal grant funding cuts. Here in Washtenaw County are two harm reduction and crisis response organizations that work together to keep the unhoused community safe. LEAF and Care Based Safety are nonprofit organizations that provide free services for the unhoused in our community. LEAF — Liberation Empathy Advocacy for the Future LEAF harm reduction is dedicated to enhancing public health and safety through comprehensive harm reduction programs including drug checking services and community engagement efforts. By reducing infections, preventing overdoses, and providing critical health education, they strive to create a healthier, safer community for all. Through a compassionate and innovative approach, LEAF not only supports individuals who use drugs but also fosters a more informed and engaged community by improving quality of life through dignity, autonomy, and compassion. It’s the missing link that can be applied to all levels of care. I recently talked to Corn Williams, the lead organizer at LEAF, who gave Care-Based Safety crisis response Care Based Safety is an unarmed response community established in September, 2023 in Ypsilanti. Their main objective and purpose is to keep safe people of color, Indigenous, undocumented, unhoused and LGBTQIA+ individuals using drugs, and/or experiencing mental health struggles through means of: • Conflict resolution (of arguments, dsagreements) • Basic first aid (wound care, wellness checks) • Overdose prevention, reversal and aftercare • Noise complaints and neighbor MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 me a tour of the new location on 211 East Michigan Ave. LEAF has been a non-profit organization since April 2024 and was first located in the downtown Ypsi-area on Pearl Street in Centennial Plaza. Corn let me know how he got into harm reduction. He is an ex-addict who overdosed several times and got into legal trouble. During his legal troubles he realized jails and treatment programs didn’t offer a true path to recovery for him. Corn came to learn about a new form of recovery called “Harm Reduction.” From this realization he started to give back to the community and to push back on a penal system that punishes people who use drugs by advocating for harm reduction and informing others of its benefits. Now he is a full-time harm reductionist serving the unhoused community by providing life saving drug checking technologies such as FTIR which enable users to know whether or not fentanyl is present in drugs they are about to use. FTIR, which stands for Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, is a powerful analytical technique used to identify and quantify materials by analyzing how they absorb infrared light. It's widely used in various industries and academic research for applications like material characterization, quality control and chemical analysis. SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 Harm reduction and crisis response in Washtenaw Wander and Williams co-leading an overdose reversal workshop in Ypsi. concerns • Distress related to mental health and other stressors Care Based Safety is building a community response program that brings loving, unarmed support to people directly impacted by structural violence. From June to September 2024, CBS hosted a pilot space at the Growing Hope location in downtown Ypsilanti for games, activities, connection and care two nights a week. During that time, they successfully: planned/delivered wellness and community building activities that averaged around 28 participants per event over eight weeks; distributed resources and supplies; and provided rapid response crisis management including court and jail support, shelter need support, conflict de-escalation and mental health support. Winter 2025 CBS transitioned this place-based pilot to a new location and expanded it to include an on-call component. Sheri Wander from Care Based Safety let me know that CBS is in a challenging space due to the lack of funding but is moving in a capacity of trust in the unhoused community. She said, “We know that we want a phone number 24/7 to respond to the unhoused community without the police, without guns and without fear of being punished. We were limited in the last couple of years because we didn’t want to put a phone number out to the public and two months later the phone number gets cut off because of the lack of funds. All that said, CBS partners with other organizations like LEAF, Fed-Up Ministries and Growing Hope to engage effectively to meet the needs of those in our community. But now CBS has a non-emergency phone number where people can leave a voicemail or text message. Someone will return your phone call within 48 hours. Call 734-219-2318 for court, medical support, and to navigate resources.” Why harm reduction and crisis response? Kat Layton is a community organizer, social worker at the Ypsilanti District Library, harm reductionist and licensed clinical social worker. I talked to Kat, and I had one question for her: why is harm reduction and crisis response needed? She showed me a chart explaining Maslow's hierarchy of needs. It is a psychological theory proposing that humans are motivated by a series of needs arranged in a pyramid, from basic physiological needs like food and shelter to higher-level needs like self-esteem and self-actualization. The theory suggests that individuals must satisfy lower-level needs before focusing on higher-level ones. Key Components of Maslow's Hierarchy: 1. Physiological Needs: These are the most basic needs for survival, including food, water, sleep and shelter. 2. Safety Needs: Once physiological needs are met, individuals seek safety and security, including personal security, financial security and health. 3. Love and Belonging Needs: These involve feeling connected to others, including having friendships, family relationships and a sense of belonging. 4. Esteem Needs: This level includes the need for self-esteem, confidence, achievement and respect from others. 5. Self-Actualization Needs: This is the highest level, representing the desire to reach one's full potential and become the best version of oneself. She continued to say that the first two of the five steps in the pyramid are the most important because if these essential needs are not met — like food, water, shelter and personal security — that individual is in crisis and in need of immediate help. Homelessness is a national crisis. LEAF, Care Based Safety and people like Kat try to meet the needs of those see CRISIS next page  SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 HARM REDUCTION GROUNDCOVER NEWS Washtenaw County awards opioid settlement funding to community-based programs BETH HAMILTON Washtenaw County The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners has approved funding awards for multiple community organizations to address harm from the opioid crisis using County opioid settlement funds. Funding awards are for a three-year grant period from October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2028. “We are thrilled to see these critical dollars getting out the door and into the hands of the organizations doing lifesaving work every day in our community,” said Katie Scott, Chair of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners and Commissioner for District 9. "These funds represent Washtenaw County’s commitment to healing, to prevention, and to creating pathways to recovery for those most impacted by the opioid crisis," Scott said. "I’m proud of the collaborative and equity-driven process that brought us to this moment, and I look forward to the real and lasting impact this funding will have across Washtenaw County.” The Health Department is leading Washtenaw County’s planning to leverage local opioid settlement funds. The County will receive more than $16 million total over the next 18 years to  CRISIS from last page in crisis. “There are a lot of low-income and unhoused people that utilize the library, and some who are in need of harm reduction and crisis response services. I refer and partner with LEAF and CBS along with other partners like Wolverine Street Medicine (U-M medical students) and Fed-Up Ministries (food truck, showers and laundry) to attempt to meet the needs of individuals in crisis. These services fill in the gaps in the low-income and unhoused community of Washtenaw County. We need more funding for services like these instead of police and jails, which have become institutions of choice for those with mental illness.” Note: now that local, state and federal law enforcement agencies have been assigned to remove the homeless involuntarily without care and compassion there is a pressing need for these services in our community. Harm reduction and crisis response is all about community. Ordinary, everyday people come together to help and render aid to those who are unhoused, address harm from the ongoing opioid crisis. “Increasing access to harm reduction tools, treatment and recovery support saves lives here in Washtenaw County,” said Jimena Loveluck, MSW, health officer with the Washtenaw County Health Department. “We are grateful to our local partners who lead this critical work and we look forward to seeing how these opioid settlement funds build on the encouraging progress that has been made so far.” A committee facilitated by the Health Department reviewed and scored the funding proposals. The committee evaluated submissions based on responsiveness, qualifications, relevance of experience and alignment with the 2024 Community Assessment Report and the Washtenaw County Opioid Settlement Steering Committee’s identified funding categories. The Washtenaw County Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee will provide ongoing oversight, ensure transparency, and monitor use of settlement funds. “The Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee will be essential in ensuring our opioid settlement dollars are having a real impact in those with mental illness, emotional issues and those who struggle with drug addiction. These non-profit support organizations are priceless resources for the unhoused community in Washtenaw County because they meet the unhoused where they are in their current situations and in their stages of recovery by building essential support relationships. Law agencies have been assigned to remove the homeless to full, unsafe, and under-staffed shelters, and then ticket and fine them for sleeping outside.The unhoused don’t have money to pay tickets and fines, so the unhoused end up going to jail because they often cannot pay these tickets - furthering the problem of homelessness. The unhoused are victims of displacement and forced into an unfortunate situation by a money-based capitalist system and then further victimized; punished for having nowhere to go. There are few effective mental health services in America. The mentally ill suffer on the streets or in the penal system. And the so-called drug treatment programs the ‘system’ wants to put people into aren’t for everyone. In my opinion, the 12 step system of substance abuse recovery is a good place to start but 12 steps are only the beginning of the journey to recovery. Individuals must imagine their own recovery (life without drugs or alcohol) and pursue the intimate details of that vision to make it a reality. I’m a lifetime resident of Washtenaw County and have been involved with the unhoused community for more than 20 years. I'm a believer in this methodology of recovery and response because I was once addicted to drugs and alcohol and unhoused in need of care. I see the care and compassion these organizations provide. I say: thank you to these wonderful people who go that extra mile to help their fellow humans. Shout out to LEAF, Care Based Safety, Fed-up Ministries, Wolverine Street Medicine, Growing Hope and the Mercy, Peace and Hospitality Houses. Want to be involved with helping the unhoused community? Be on the lookout for harm reduction and crisis response workshops put on by LEAF and Care Based Safety! LEAF's new office at 211 E Michigan Ave our community,” said Loveluck. “Community members with lived experience and local substance use, health, public safety, and academic professionals are encouraged to apply.” This committee will meet virtually Summary of FY2026-28 Funding for 1 to 2 hours every other month with additional meetings scheduled as needed. See the full resolution from the Board of Commissioners for additional details. 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY ARTS One of my favorite galleries is Luna because of the many transformations it has gone through and the fact it's owned by an amazing woman named Luna. Over the past five years Ypsilanti has gone through a massive transformation in the arts from festivals and gatherings to art galleries and new art stores opening. This has changed the atmosphere of the city and brought in new buyers from around Washtenaw County. Many businesses that opened in the early 2010s and up through 2020 subsequently closed due to the massive lock down and unintended consequences of COVID-19 that utterly destroyed the economy and real estate. COVID-19 was a huge hit to these struggling business owners and landed many in massive debt. Luna took on the daunting task of creating a new gallery business in the aftermath of COVID-19. Luna has created a gallery where is multi-cultural, much of the art Lifetime SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 As I look into your eyes I feel all the love that Could last me a lifetime And all the love I would Give you for a lifetime of incense sticks, cones and ropes to bath products including bath balls, scented soups, aromatherapy salt crystals and many varieties of scented candles. Luna has an extensive jewelry secCINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 spiritual and metaphysical. She has created a space for independent artists like me from around Washtenaw County to show our works to the public. I personally am a creator of art but selling is very hard for me. I am like the many artists who would rather focus on making art and avoid the commercial side. She also has international artworks from many different nations. On her walls Luna also has many metaphysical offerings — from smudge bundles Galaxies between us MONIQUE CALDWELL Groundcover contributor You and I, we’re stardust-bound, Whispers of light where love is found. The moon takes notes from how you smile And time slows down for us awhile. Each kiss—a comet in the night, Each touch—a flare, a burst of light. I chose you not by chance or fate, But by the stars I helped create. Our souls entwined, a cosmic thread, A tapestry where dreams are spread. You’re my orbit, calm and true, A universe in shades of you. So hold me close, and we’ll explore— Infinity, forevermore. A Nation of Workers Not Thinkers SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover vendor No. 638 LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover writer It's time to go back to school So for all of the sleepy heads Be prepared to rise early from bed Get to your classes before the bell rings Try your best not to be tardy Now you students job is to get all of your assignments in on time Even if you don't make the honor roll Keep pursuing your educational goals Never give up! You're on the right road! It sometimes doesn't feel like it Believe me, I've been there Yet, knowledge is a great treasure With a willing and informed mind You can go beyond the measure!! Once upon a time there was a man named Rockefeller. He wanted a nation of workers not thinkers. He had a friend named Dewey. Dewey was an education philosopher with a below average intellect. His theories on educating children didn’t make any sense. Rockefeller established an education fund to influence public education in America. He made Dewey his education advisor. When teachers in America’s state supervised school systems began teaching children how to read using Dewey’s teaching methods, there was a spike in cases of children reported to have had dyslexia. Rockefeller got what he wanted, a nation of workers not thinkers. tion with many different kinds of jewelry: precise stones like rose quartz to amethyst and amber, necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Luna also has key chain stickers and small knickknacks for happy fun. On Saturdays Luna even has a space for an independent local tarot card reader. Last but not least, Luna also offers Native American artwork and smudge bundles and sage for expelling negative energies and clearing one’s space with new positive intentions. For the new fall scenes and experiences, come one, come all to this amazing and illuminating gallery at 50 N Huron Street in Ypsilanti, Michigan. SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 Undercover art intel: Illuminating Luna Gallery School Time Treasure SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 EVENTS community EVENTS "OUR STREETS" GALLERY OPENING Friday, Sept. 5, 6-9 p.m. Dzanc House, 402 S Huron, Ypsi Exhibit of photography from Emily Mills. This show will feature decades worth of photography documenting protests in Southeast Michigan. Gallery hours are Saturdays September 6, 13 and 20, 4-6 p.m. Closing reception Friday, September 26, 6-9 p.m. Emily Mills is also a Groundcover News volunteer photographer! BROADWAY PARK WEST OPENING WEEKEND Saturday, Sept. 11, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. 841 Broadway St., Ann Arbor Join for a full weekend of joy and celebration as they officially open Broadway Park West — Ann Arbor’s newest riverfront destination in Lower Town! The project comprises seven acres of land formerly owned by Michigan Consolidated Gas Company and operated as a coal gasification facility in the early 20th Century. STORIES OF HOME WITH YPSIWRITES Wednesday, Sept. 17, 6:30-8 p.m. YDL-Superior, 1900 N Harris Road, Ypsilanti Join us in person to reflect on what makes your neighborhood and community special. We're so excited to write with you! Sign up at tinyurl.com/YW091725 ANN ARBOR GALLERY NIGHTS IN KERRYTOWN Thursday, Sept. 18, 5-8 p.m. Kerrytown, Ann Arbor Six galleries and gallery spaces in Kerrytown District, Ann Arbor, welcome the public for special activities on the third Thursday of the month from May 15 - September 18, 2025. All participants are within walking distance of each other. On Gallery Nights, each participant will host a rotating roster of artist talks, demonstrations, artist pop-ups and special appearances, welcoming the public to celebrate Ann Arbor’s vibrant art scene. Chris Nordin Studios Gallery: 117 E Ann Street Gutman Gallery: 118 N 4th Avenue Kerrytown Concert House: 415 N 4th Avenue TeaHaus: 204 N 4th Avenue Thistle & Bess: 222 N 4th Avenue WSG Gallery: 111 E Ann Street GREEN FAIR: CIRCULARITY STREET AND CLOTHING SWAP FESTIVAL Friday, Sept. 19, 5- 8 p.m. Main Street, downtown Ann Arbor Join us for Ann Arbor's annual street fair celebrating sustainability, community, and climate action! Visit our five theme areas to explore how you can be part of a cleaner, greener, and more resilient future in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County. This year at Green Fair, we will be hosting a Clothing Swap Festival! Swap participants can take clothing without bringing anything or bring clothing without taking anything. Bring up to five items of clothing if you are donating at Green Fair — or donate at our pre-event drop off on September 17 for a chance to receive a prize. Please only bring clean clothing in good to great wearable condition. This is a completely free event. Accessories welcome! RSVP: https://lu.ma/sfte5x8t For more information about Green Fair, visit a2gov.org/greenfair INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE Sunday, September 21, all day Library Lane, downtown Ann Arbor Annual gathering of music, talks, conversation with the peace community. More detailed schedule to be announced. A2 JAZZFEST Saturday and Sunday September 27 and 28, 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor, 608 E William St. until 8:30 p.m., Ravens Club after 8 p.m. Weekend-long jazz music festival featuring live performances and student workshops. FREE! Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out Unusual Stuff to Borrow There’s more to borrow at AADL than books, music, and movies. To name a few, there are games, telescopes, stories-to-go kits, and home tools. Check out these unusual yet handy items during your next library visit. Exhibitions at AADL AADL’s exhibition program features local, regional, and national artists as well as traveling exhibitions. Potential exhibitors can submit an exhibit application to be considered for review, which will be examined by the Library Exhibits Committee. A beacon in the quiet hours CHAD NAUGLE Groundcover contributor In the quiet hours when the world slows to a hush, there lies a space inside you where possibility gathers like starlight. It is small, often unassuming, but it is unyielding in its glow — a stubborn ember that refuses to be extinguished by doubt or fatigue. Remember: you are not the sum of your failures, but the convergence of your choices to rise again. Remember: every breath you take is a tiny rebellion against the ordinary, a vote for becoming more than you were yesterday. Remember: even the longest night is only a moment when held against the dawn. There is no grand map that guarantees safety or certainty, only a path that you carve with each courageous step. The soul does not demand flawless leaps; it asks for consistent, honest movement toward what you care about most. In that movement, you shape meaning not just for yourself, but for the world you touch — even in small, almost invisible ways. Let your curiosity be the compass and your compassion the fuel. When you stumble, tend to your wounds with patience; when you rise, reach back to lift another. Growth isn’t a sprint but a river: it flows around obstacles, wearing them down until they become part of the landscape you’ve become. Small acts of courage compound into unshakeable resolve. Persistent hope softens rough seas into navigable routes. Authentic care transforms lonely hours into shared moments of grace. You carry a history you didn't choose and a future you can still craft. The present moment is a doorway; step through it with deliberate intention. You are larger than your fears, deeper than your doubts, and brighter than your worst critics imagine. If you listen closely, you can hear the quiet insistence of your better self: I will endure. I will grow. I will choose love — again and again. And that is enough to begin a new chapter that only you could author. May your days be brave, your nights be hopeful, and your heart be unbreakable. Saturday, October 11 • 11 AM - 5 PM • Downtown Library Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival (A2CAF): Small + Indie Press is a one-day venture into the world of small press comics publishing. Presented in partnership with Athenaeum Comic Art, this event gives attendees the chance to meet comic artists and learn about the art of creating comics outside of a traditional publisher. Visit aadl. org/a2cafsip for more! FEATURED EVENT 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PEOPLE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD People in the neighborhood: Vanessa This is Vanessa’s story. Glencoe Hills is a large apartment complex located in Pittsfield Township, Michigan. The complex sits on 65 acres. About 1/4 of the property is undeveloped due to three ponds. The shore of one of those ponds backs up to a strip mall. On that property-line-isthmus is a tent sheltering a woman and her daughter. Vanessa is a middle-aged woman. Her daughter Miracle is a high school student at Ypsilanti Community Schools. Vanessa came to Washtenaw County from Detroit in January 2025 and has been living in the tent since February. Vanessa was living with an older daughter when she was asked to leave in mid January. She introduces herself: “My name is Vanessa King. I'm a single mother with a special needs teenager and I'm homeless.” “What have you been doing to get housing for you and Miracle?” I asked. Vanessa replied, “I have tried with PATH, I have tried with Avalon and HAWC (Housing Access for Washtenaw County). I tried with Alpha House, I did their lottery, but nothing came of it. I don't know who to talk to or who to bypass. I don't know how to get a case manager to get these things I need. I'm not on any wait list, but I have been calling PATH for the whole month of July, and they have not I found a black and white card from Pittsfield Township police officer, Jessica Welker. Written on the card, it says, “Can't camp here. Private Property of Glencoe.” Shockingly neutral and indifferent. JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 Vanessa has been earnestly asking the system for help, instead she gets the bum rush to nowhere. “So, how are you feeling right now?” I wanted to know. Vanessa responded, “I'm a little gotten back to me. I left them voice messages. I gave them my cell phone number. I told them where I live. I don't know if they have Section 8 available since I hear they're cutting back on it. So now I'm back to, what, square one. I’m literally busted with no help up, you hear me? No help!” Vanessa’s complaint is a common one. Many of the people experiencing homelessness in Washtenaw County are desperately trying to improve their situation. There are many resources, however they are all at capacity. There is more homelessness than the system can handle. So even if someone is doing everything possible to get help, there just isn’t any help available. And then on August 3rd, Vanessa found a message on her tent. It was a business card. Vanessa recalled, “It was a Sunday, worried. I just don't want them to, you know, damage the tent and throw all my belongings in the dumpster. That's happened before, in Pittsfield Township. I don't want that to happen. So, yeah, I feel kind of worried.” When Vanessa set camp behind the strip mall, the grounds were covered in trash. In the spring she and a friend spent hours cleaning the litter. She had this to say about the clean up, “They [Glencoe] did not take care of this property. They didn't even care about it enough to put up private property signs. We took care of it. There was poison ivy down in the bushes and stuff, my friend cut all that down. You could say that since we moved in, we have improved its value. They probably did see me coming back and forth during the cold, but they didn't call the police then. So why see VANESSA page 11  October 5th Learn about zero waste in Ann Arbor at these free, family-friendly events! Zero Waste Fall Festival Tour Recycle Ann Arbor 12:00-3:00pm 9:30am & 11:00am See how your recycling gets a second life and get answers to all your questions Michigan Stadium Tour 8:30-9:30am Get a behind-the-scenes look at Big House zero waste operations Bike Tour 7:45am-1:00pm Ride from Common Cycle to Recycle Ann Arbor and back with stops along the way Learn More and Sign Up: TrashTalkTour.Org Made Possible By: Games, doughnuts, prizes, shopping, and live music at Kiwanis Thrift Sale SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 Thank you to all who came to our 15th anniversary celebration, donated to the organization and participated in the festivities! We are commemorating this milestone all year long — continue to read the paper and follow us on social media to see what we have planned next. We look forward to the next 15 years, and the 15 after that, and hope you will be a part of it! SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 ADVERTISEMENTS GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS STORIES FROM BEFORE SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 Reimagining Walden, part three: not all ponds are created equal Continued from “Reimagining Walden Part 2, This Time It’s Personal,” Groundcover Aug. 8, 2025 In Hartland there is a lovely place named Waldenwoods. I would pass it on my way deliberately that summer. I had special knowledge. I knew the special places where the creeks flowed fast enough to have a sandy bottom; there I would take my “bird baths” and beat the hottest parts of the day. Many of the special places I once knew as a child had fallen victim to progress and yuppy cul-de-sacs. There were still some wild places with hidden rings of stone where I would build fires to cook various meats on large roasting forks bought at my favorite store at that time, The Rural King. On other days I would cheat the raccoons out of the freshest hot and ready pizzas the local Little Caesars had to offer. With a stack of those five dollar pizzas I would make my way down the backroads towards “my office” at the Cromaine Library to try to find the next thing. The library in Hartland is reasonably attractive and situated on the woody edge of the old downtown — as a kid it always seemed like the frontier edge of the wilderness. I would go there frequently to research employment and recharge my devices. In some ways it was different than the downtown library in Ann Arbor from my perspective. I like NEVER having someone follow me into the restroom at times; personally it was uncomfortable. There was a much different user base than I was used to at this library. One could step out for a smoke and not have to worry about anything walking away. There were no halfhour-long impassioned pleas broadcast to all in the proximity of the computer stations; patrons there were much more discreet. When it comes to the types of difficult people one might encounter, there is a difference between the urban and the rural possibilities which may include sometimes an angry skunk or other enraged rogue beast. Mosquitos? A short distance on the highway changed things. The ancient cemetery across the street was a fine place to stretch my legs in between drafts of my work. Ever mindful of my finitude and the death that awaits us all, on those halcyon days I'd contemplate “authentic Dasein” and “the fallen” over beer, pizza and fatty dank. On Clyde Road, Hartland Road, to pop back over for a visit. I grabbed some beers and a hunk of meat and headed on over. The next day was supposed to be ANTHONY SMITH Groundcover contributor Bullard Road, and U.S. 23, I knew afternoons of cool tree leaf tunnels and golden bucolic splendor. Bordered by a great orchard, some of the area had fresh apples. I have enjoyed them many times over the years. I knew the frogs peeping from the shaded streams along the way, the scream of blue jays, and the agitation of fat stupid red squirrels. I would the squirrel warning calls signaled from some tree in sight of the road at times, and then not much else on a walk that could be expanded greatly depending on the challenge level desired. My mostly loud-ish muffler would be the ultimate issue for my jeep. I was bound to get caught sometimes with all the curvy turns around there. I could pay a muffler ticket or some shit, but getting the vehicle taken for lack of insurance meant automatic towing and associated yard fees, C.O.D. mostly. This sucked because in order to keep a place to live, I had to stay lucky in the trap or elsewhere. I wouldn't get the eviction moratorium that others got during the pandemic. I had to pay to play or get off the pot. Robert E. Howard imagined a world where one might “eat quickly, sleep lightly, and linger not over anything — those are the first rules of the wild, and his life is not long who fails to observe them” (Howard, “Almuric” page 13, 1939) — or die in the jungle baby, yeah! It was the most beautiful time of the year, the timeless bucolic cornucopia season was at hand. Even now I can hear the peeps and croaks from my amphibian friends from along the way. Peaceful contemplation, unhurried, I remember not thinking about time and simply doing all things I enjoy very much. I had no master save for the rain and my belly. I was blessed with a part time job cleaning pots for one of the good old boys and so I was in several weeks of serious scissoring. About this time the old Indian hollered at me and wanted me to move a few of my things around so he could do some work. I was glad sweet because I was just around the corner from the pot gig; sadly I would not make it far. Just as I turned out of the neighborhood I was pulled over by a cop because of my dang loud muffler. This wouldn't be a big deal except I had no insurance and no registration. I had worked ALL summer and had nothing to pay the pigs. I used the Jedi mind trick, but I wasn't able to save the jeep. And so they took my ride to jail. I was in the space where the coercive violence of the state is used to compel individuals to engage in commerce with insurance companies and their ilk. What choice did I have? I tried to be polite about not having any money. What choice I had in the matter was to carry off what I could. This was during the eviction moratorium. I was too poor for that nationwide bailout and so I was robbed at gun point by a wellfed instrument of state oppression. I set off with a few things and found a folding chair along a nearby dirt road. A concrete park outhouse would be my headquarters for a brief period. In the evening I'd lock myself in there till the next day when I'd split. It was kind of gross and I kept getting woken by frustrated sexual degenerates in the middle of the night. I would silently chuckle as their nights were ruined, “Why is the door always locked?!” When the sun came up I'd mosey on down to the now-defunct Ericson ranch and cut the grass. Once it had been a working horse ranch. I had stayed there for a summer back in 2000. That summer I learned the kind of lesson only a mighty stallion can teach a young man. It was an afternoon when I was there all alone. A powerful racing stallion kicked open a weak gate and was chewing on the better grass of the yard. He was a $25,000 racing horse. There and then I knew I had to put a rope on him and set things right. On the way out the door I grabbed a nice length of rope and fashioned a quick slip knot. With absolutely zero fear I closed on the great beast slowly. With one fluid motion I raised the lasso and in the next moment I'd caught him and led him to a more secure corral. A few weeks of cleaning weed there was a walk down memory lane and helped me get the resources I needed to head to Hartland where I would go to live deliberately in nature for a while. - Ironically, there was the aforementioned place called Waldenwoods towards the direction I was heading. It was in honor of Thoreau, I assume. Unlike the book it has a complement of modern things like golf courses, a rustic and attractive main building (a place I've been for Xmas party stuff) and RVs to party in beside a bit of a lake. Going east into town, one moves away from the idyllic Americana and into the semi-dystopian postmodern American dream. There had been a great truckstop there east of US-23. No one could tell now that it had been demolished and the land reused for new buildings. It had been a place that reminded me of in real life Smokey and the Bandit subversive weird stuff. There were "lot lizards," and the infamous Oklahoma City bomber had eaten there or something? I had been around the area growing up as a kid and when I had a few bucks from working during summer vacation, my buddies and I used to head up there late at night because “The Oasis” was 24 hours! It was maybe a 25 minute walk from where I grew up. This was a place that I knew well. Behind the old pharmacy, a place once called "Buckey's” was the place I felt I'd find a good spot. It was remote enough and yet still close to electricity and a few stores like my favorite, The Rural King. There were none of the pristine ponds of Thoreau's Walden; these ponds had decades-old shopping carts partially submerged along their mucky banks. The brown of those waters could keep a secret — it wasn't hard to imagine just what or who could be hidden in those gross things. Guns, old lot lizards, unlucky drifters? I saw milk-carton people. It was grim. In the trees along the trails there were the severed limbs, torsos and mutilated heads of many dolls, their eyes cruelly plucked from their sockets or alternately painted black. These would move about if there was a breeze. I would want to steer clear of these sinister doll people. I found a large tree that had fallen and would hide my approach as I walked up its trunk. The spot was nearly invisible before I camouflaged it, afterward it was even more invisible. I would stay at this site till the 26th of December when I would head to our nation's capital after being promised a job selling weed. On that day, by Zeus, I would neatly pack up my tent and other things. TO BE CONTINUED ... SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 MAKING CHANGE Work for peace My last article on labor power is the mother of this article. Working for peace is the most important job before us. Once we understand the responsibility we share in the use of our labor power we can begin the shift from compliance to love. Compliance is based on a social norm we have inherited as a treasure of sins and blessings, as my article “The Healing of our ancestors” attempts to clarify. Our heritage needs the awareness of mindfulness in all its forms as we honor the blessings and atone for our sins. The main sin of the colonial and now imperialist epoch is supremacism. The belief in sex or race as markers for supremacism has morphed into fascism. We now see power and wealth as the final phase of supremacism. It is expressed in the corporate state as the exclusive tool of wealth and power and its innate right to concentrate wealth and power into an ever smaller minority. The dominant ideology presents the ruling class as the most important  VANESSA from page 11 are they calling the police now? How does that make sense? It’s like why can't you just look the other way? I'm not barbecuing you know? I'm not making a scene.” I questioned Vanessa about finding employment. She told me “I'm working with Corn Williams and Kat Layton at the LEAF (Liberation Empathy Advocacy for the Future) headquarters. I help a team make sure that the homeless in the area have support. They come in looking for something to eat or someone to talk to. I sit with them and keep them company or maybe help people find clothing or other things.” “So are they employing you?” I queried. “Well, they're not giving me money." She replied. “It’s mutual aid. You help take care of people, they help take care of you. When you're doing your part in the community; when you're helping take care of everybody, that’s work. “But it doesn’t stop there,” Vanessa added, "Motherhood is work too, with Miracle, it's a full-time job.” Finding work when you’re already homeless is challenging. No address to put on paperwork, no shower or laundry to be presentable during an interview, the unstable environment of being transient makes it hard to schedule appointments or find transportation. Vanessa’s barrier to employment also includes finding affordable childcare. Being expected to get back at the Gutenberg Project for the best written translations of this oral work. The Great Law of Peace, an agreeKEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 player which also presents wage slavery and debt slavery as inevitable. It will take study and meditation to understand who we are in our quest for freedom and take the next step in the right direction. This is the work of peace. Homo sapiens have used violence to bolster the different kinds of supremacism from the time of written history. Preliterate violence existed but at a much smaller scale. The book “Tales of the Mabinogian” tells stories of this shift from the Welsh perspective. Look on your feet by “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” while taking care of a child is insane. Vanessa is trying to support the community that is helping her, but the community where she keeps her tent, that she also helps take care of, is telling her to move on down the road. What if instead of writing on the card “can’t camp here, private property” the card said “call us, we have a job and an apartment for you.” Pittsfield Township could hire Vanessa to work in park maintenance. Glencoe could offer her a job and provide an apartment. These agencies are so close to doing the right thing, but all they can come up with is “can’t camp here, private property”. Not even enough decency to write in complete sentences. Last question: “If you could get a free ride to Eastern Michigan University, what would you study?” “I would study criminal justice,” she replied without hesitating. “Why's that?” I inquired. “Man," she said with emphasis, “to lock up all the politicians.” “And why is that?” I pressed. Vanessa opened up, “I just feel like they are being corrupt, the damn city of Ypsilanti is being corrupt, It's like they only give certain people Section 8. Like they are doing favoritism with housing. And it needs to be cleaned up, just like the city of Detroit. I see them, but do they see me? We'll see if anyone is gonna help.” ment to end warfare and begin the Iroquois confederacy, gives us a sense of preliterate homo sapiens. We can choose what kind of humans we want to be. This is a lifelong journey that begins with intention. Are you ready for the whole truth or just enough to feel special? The temptation of American exceptionalism is strong as people want an undisturbed comfort zone. Impermanence inevitably breaks through and new forms of suffering arise. We all know love is the answer but are watching a genocide in progress. There is sociological research that indicates 3.5 percent awareness on any issue results in a tipping point of social change. “The Emperor has no clothes” moment is coming. The show cannot go on. The stage will open for the era of peace on a broader scale than we could have imagined during the age of genocide which is still playing out. The shift to peace was present at the Makeshift Gallery Art Gallery on 407 Liberty on Sunday, August 24, 2025. The Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice is coming alive at a new level. Some of us went to the Labor Day march in Detroit on September 1. If you went you probably got a flyer on the call for a national anti-fascist conference. Every Friday there is a peace vigil by the post office at Fifth and Liberty from 6 to 7 p.m. On Thursday there is a Palestine vigil. International Day of Peace is September 21. Ann Arbor Community Commons is active with that “Dancing in the Street” celebration. Veterans for Peace annual celebration at the Ark is on Veterans Day, November 11, 2025. Keep your eyes and mind open and help the shift to peace as a way of life. Breathe with the all good expanse of primordial purity and come more fully alive. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 One day after returning home to camp, King found a Pittsfield Police business card on her tent. It said, "Can't camp here. Private Property of Glencoe.”

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LIVING ARCHIVES SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 From homelessness in Ann Arbor to the Homeless World Cup in Brazil GREG HOFFMAN Groundcover board member Playing on the U.S. national team for the Homeless World Cup left David Altherr with some special memories and a mission. His journey began in Washtenaw County through the Project Outreach Team (PORT) and its street soccer program (SSPORT). He first heard about the local SSPORT soccer team nearly three years ago at the PORT offices in Ann Arbor. Before his first practice, David, now in his fifties, had never played organized soccer. He gave it a try after continued encouragement from the sport coaches. Since then, David says he hasn't missed more than three or four practices. As a younger man, David was an avid baseball player, and he says that soccer really helped to fill the void created when he stopped playing baseball. Not only has it provided a means of promoting physical health through the exercise of playing, but has also been a driving force and helping David stay sober and turn his life around. The weekly practices give David something to look forward to each week and encourages others to share in the mental and physical benefits soccer provides. “There's no pressure. It's lots of fun. Just come out and join us,” David tells them. To be eligible to travel to tournaments with the SSPORT team, players must first commit to sobriety for at least thirty days. David's first travel opportunity with the sport team came in the summer of 2010, when he and the team traveled to Washington, D.C. to compete for the USA Homeless Cup. David says that this first experience felt like being a superstar. Participants in the tournament were outfitted with special tournament clothing equipment and new shoes. Although the SSPORT team did not win the 2010 Street Soccer USA Cup, the team was awarded the tournament's Fair Play Award for demonstrating sportsmanship and positive attitudes on and off the field. While in D.C., David was interviewed by representatives from street soccer USA about what soccer meant to him but he had little idea at the time that he had been identified as a candidate for the U.S. Men's National Team. As the USA Cup came to a close, there was a parade and award ceremony, which culminated with the selection of the U.S. National Team, and David was chosen to represent the United States in the 2010 Homeless World Cup in Brazil. The Homeless World Cup trip began with the three-day stop in New York. While there, David began practicing with the other players who had been selected for the U.S. team. The highlight in New York was a four-on-four scrimmage with players from the Major League Soccer New York Red Bulls, the professional soccer team in New York. After New York, the team boarded a plane and headed for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 55 teams participated in the 2010 Homeless World Cup; 43 men's teams and 12 women's teams. In all, more than 40 countries are represented. The games were held on the edge of the white sand of the Copacabana Beach September 19-26. The U.S. Men's team performed admirably, finishing in 20th place, and the U.S. Women's team earned 11th place finish. David recollects two experiences that really stick out from the trip, aside from the action on the field. The first was the breathtaking views from the 100-foot-tall Christ the Redeemer statue that looks over the city of Rio. “You're up there in the foggy mists from the mountains, and you can see all the way down to the white sandy beaches,” David recalled. The other experience that had a lasting impression on David was the opportunity to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with other players, including members of the Swedish and Finnish National teams. The meeting was facilitated by translators and when it closed, the participants each said their closing prayers in their native languages. “It was really a joy to be able to experience something like that,” David said. According to David, when someone Netflix original movie "The Beautiful Game" is based on the true story of the Homless World Cup, which was founded by INSP members and is deeply connected with the global street paper movement. is selected to go to the Homeless World Cup they become an ambassador not only of the U.S. team, but also of the mission and goals of the Homeless Soccer efforts worldwide. He lives up to this charge through his daily efforts to share the benefits of soccer with everyone he meets. “It doesn't matter who wins, because we all win because we were on the same team. The whole idea is to fight homelessness,” David concluded. Originally published in the June 2012 edition of Groundcover News. At the time, Greg Hoffman was U-M Masters of Social Work intern. He is now the longest-serving board member. SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 INSP GROUNDCOVER NEWS Cities for people, not for profit: municipalities fight against Airbnb NOEMI POHL FiftyFifty It all began quite harmlessly: in 2008, two men from San Francisco rented out air mattresses in their flat in order to pay their rent. “Air Bed and Breakfast” was intended to provide travellers with affordable accommodation — a charming idea that quickly spread around the world thanks to the internet. Today, Airbnb offers accommodation in over 150,000 cities worldwide. But little remains of the original vision of sharing. Instead of occasionally sharing empty rooms, investors now buy up entire blocks of buildings, just to rent them out to tourists for profit. The result is a veritable “commodification” of housing: flats are being used less and less by permanent residents of the city; instead, every little room is being offered for short-term lets. As a result, Airbnb causes a removal of rental flats from the market and encourages property speculation, rents are driven ever higher, and locals pay the price. The figures are alarming: in Barcelona, for instance, rents have risen by a whopping 68 per cent in the last decade, and in Lisbon, they have tripled. These are prices that many residents simply cannot afford. People who used to live in the centre of the city are now being pushed into the outer suburbs. Elderly people who have lived on the same street for decades have no choice but to move out because they can no longer afford the rent. Families can no longer find affordable housing close to Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed school and work. Young people are finding themselves unable to move out in the first place, and have no choice but to live with their parents. But there’s more to it than just rising rents. Where once there was a neighbourhood, there is now the rattling of suitcases being wheeled. Where a small bakery once stood, there is now a souvenir shop. Bookshops and greengrocers are disappearing because their customers are staying away and rents are exploding – all that remains are large chains. Residents complain about constant noise and a revolving door of neighbours with no sense of responsibility. The city becomes a mere backdrop, while real life is pushed to the margins. People in precarious situations are particularly affected: older people, low-income families and people with a migratory background hardly stand a chance on the overheated housing market. The risk of homelessness is rising. Housing displacement can also have a major impact on the social fabric of the city. When locals are forced to leave their neighbourhood because they can no longer afford rent, people of varying incomes and social backgrounds come into less contact with each other. Increasing isolation increases social tensions and jeopardises social cohesion. The consequences have long since become part of everyday life, and many people are fed up. Thousands regularly demonstrate in affected cities. Most recently, activists in Barcelona tried to draw attention to the consequences of mass tourism by spraying for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not Photo courtesy of INFOE Studio tourists with water pistols. Some local authorities are reacting: Munich and Paris are taking legal action against the corporation and demanding transparency regarding rental data. Amsterdam limits rentals to a maximum of 30 days per year. Barcelona is going to go one step further: by the end of 2028, there is going to be a complete ban on renting out holiday flats throughout the city, and existing licences will not be renewed. But Airbnb now relies on aggressive lobbying and attempts to undermine all regulatory approaches. With its enormous market and capital power, the company has privileged access and exerts influence with other players in the tourism sector. This shows that the existing rules and potential sanctions are not sufficient. Tough measures, consistent bans on sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private propmisappropriation and platform responsibility are needed. It is crucial to pool legal powers at the local and EU level in order to be able to cope with the multi-billion corporation. The debate about housing displacement by corporations such as Airbnb is part of a larger struggle over the right to the city; should urban spaces serve the thirst for profit of a few investors or the needs of the many residents? Perhaps it begins with a simple question: Who owns the city? And perhaps it ends with a demand that has long been written on many a building wall: “A city for people, not for profit.” Translated from German via Translators Without Borders Courtesy of FiftyFifty / INSP.ngo 13 erty when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website.

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers 1 14 17 20 23 26 27 28 29 32 34 41 43 44 48 50 58 61 64 51 52 49 53 59 62 65 60 63 66 54 55 56 57 45 46 47 35 36 33 37 42 38 39 40 18 21 24 30 31 2 3 4 5 6 15 7 8 9 16 19 22 25 10 11 12 13 SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 by Kaleaf Warnya ACROSS 1. Coffee order 6. Priestly garb 9. Qur'an chapter 14. "La Bohème," e.g. 15. "___ bad!" 16. Clear, as a disk 17. As a rule 19. Cross threads 20. "La Scala di ___" (Rossini opera) 21. Flock member 22. Hotel amenities 23. Flock leader 25. Anger 26. Senior politician 32. Crystal-lined rock 33. Very small 34. Ova, e.g. 37. Traffic jam 41. Friar 42. Hungarian joke 43. Eton or Hogwarts 48. Absorb, with "up" 49. Peanut butter choice 50. ___ Rica 53. Game on horseback 54. Edge 58. Dislike, and then some 59. Theorist 61. Fowl place 62. Shade provider 63. Edmonton hockey player 64. Former frosh 65. Legal thing 66. Light refractor DOWN 1. Feet, slangily 2. Blunted blade 3. Penny 4. Length x width, for a rectangle 5. A ways away 6. Famous Etta James song 7. Nabokov novel 8. Refuses to shop at 9. Puts in stitches 10. Compound in fertilizer 11. Basket material 12. Back, to a sailor 13. "Siddhartha" author 18. "Ah, me!" 23. Ancient Roman magistrate (Var.) 24. Curb, with "in" 26. ___ roll 27. Grassland 28. ___ Perignon 29. Swelling 30. Grab 31. Biblical gift 35. Aims 36. More revealing 38. "Seinfeld" uncle 39. Amateur video subject, maybe 40. Amigo 43. Owie 44. Thrift store (Aus.) 45. Noggin 46. Robots in Jewish folklore 47. Greek portico 48. Traumatizes 51. Brit's "Baloney!" 52. Song and dance, e.g. 54. Coconut fiber 55. Wrinkly fruit 56. Petitions 57. Popular hairstyle in the 80s 60. Chop (off) PUZZLE SOLUTIONS August 22, 2025 edition SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 YOUTH + SENIORS youth RESOURCE CORNER OZONE WELCOME CENTER 1600 N. Huron River Dr, Ypsilanti Monday through Friday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Crisis line and service line: 734-6622222 Open 24/7; ages 10-17 If you are safe and in no immediate danger, the Welcome Center is a great place to receive emergency services or just hang out in a safe place. — Phone counseling and individual on-site intervention will be provided as needed — Text and chat services available Mon.-Thurs. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Fri 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. — Individual (10-14 years need guardian approval) and family counseling — 2-3 weeks of housing — Opportunity to go to school — Attempt at repairing the relationship between family and the youth — Paid internship program for homeless or at-risk youth — Families of these youth — Youth who wish to be there (voluntary entry) OZONE DROP-IN CENTER 102 N. Hamilton St.,Ypsilanti (one block from the Ypsilanti Transit Center) Monday - Thursday, 3-6 p.m. If you are 13-21 years old, you are welcome here if you want or need to: hang out at a safe place, eat a hot meal, meet people, talk to someone, get food from the pantry, do laundry, take a shower, use computers & phones, play games, get toiletries, get more info or help, talk to a job coach, just drop in when we’re open. PrideZone is a social and support group for LGBTQ youth. PrideZone meets every Wednesday from 6-8 p.m. at the drop-in center. NEUTRAL ZONE 310 E Washington St., Ann Arbor 734-214-9995 Monday - Friday 2:30 - 6:00 p.m. All teens are welcome to come in every day after school to hang out, grab a snack and connect with friends. Neutral Zone offers more than 20 programs for high school teens in the areas of visual and media arts, education, music technology, literary arts and community leadership. Drop-In opens on August 25 this year. Check out social media and event calendar for concerts, events, workshops, art shows and special projects. Stop by any program that looks interesting to check it out. CORNER HEALTH CENTER 47 N. Huron Street, Ypsilanti (two blocks from the bus station) There is a free two-hour parking lot next door to The Corner and meter parking on the street. Monday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Tuesday 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Wednesday, 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. Thursday - Friday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturday - Sunday: Closed The Corner only accepts patients 12-25 years old (and their children). If you're aged 12-25 years: • Call us at 734.484.3600. • Come speak with the Patient Service Representatives at the front desk. • Same day appointments may be available. Please call. • Walk-in urgent visits are based on availability. Please call. JIM TOY COMMUNITY CENTER 734-995-9867 560 S. Main St. Ann Arbor Information, education, social events, and advocacy by and for the Queer and Ally community in the Washtenaw County area. Check website for groups, meetings, and events www.jimtoycenter.org GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15 12/31/2025

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Sautéed blanched green beans ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: ½ pound green beans, trimmed 1 tsp salt 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 2 garlic cloves, finely minced 1/8 tsp salt 1 pinch black pepper Directions: Blanch beans: Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil with 1 teaspoon of salt. Add beans, cook for four minutes (they will turn bright green), drain, then rinse under cold tap water to cool. Shake off excess water. Sauté: Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add green beans and garlic. Toss (or stir) for two minutes until the garlic is golden and crispy. Add salt and pepper, then toss. Transfer beans to a serving dish. Serve warm. Variation: Drizzle with sesame oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds for a great side dish. SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 8/22/2025 10/03/25 HAVE A DAY FULL OF DISCOVERY AT THE ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM! ACCESS FOR ALL $3 ADMISSION PER PERSON WITH PROOF OF EBT/SNAP. *Up to 6 people per card. Ages 23 months & under are free. Show your EBT card in person —out-of-state cards accepted. (734) 995-5439 220 E Ann St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 LEARN MORE: bit.ly/visit-aahom

2 $ AUGUST 22, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 18 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Ozone House United is claiming a seat at the table. page 4 MEET YOUR VENDOR: SCHILLINGTON MORGAN PAGE 3 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Franklin Lee outside his Homeless residents react to Donald Trump's threats to clear encampments in D.C. page 6 tent before Trump's press conference announcing the federal takeover of local police. Photo by Madi Koesler THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 AUGUST 22, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Emeri Jade Bey Jonathan Glass Keagan Irrer Ken Parks Paolo Poquiz David L. Putman Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer Andy Steckel Scoop Stevens PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Steve Ross Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Jacob Fallman Ben Foster Glenn Gates Robert Klingler Bella Martinez Anthony McCormick Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates Mike Jones Hailu Shitaye GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropiate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons AUGUST 22, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Schillington Morgan, vendor No. 148 In one sentence, who are you? Me. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? Anywhere I can sell. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? To help. What is one place in A2 that feels like your personal sanctuary? Nowhere. What's your life motto? To make it to Heaven. What advice would you give to your younger self? Change what what you can change for the better. What is your comfort food? All veggies and most fruits. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring three things, what would they be? Water, shade and coolness. If there was a theme song for your life, what would it be? "Love Makes The World Go Round" by Deon Jackson. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? I don't have any special place. What is the weirdest food combo you swear by? Putting sugar and/or salt in foods that is not necessary. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? Not too many messed up people. What's one question you wish you were asked more? A question I wish I asked myself more: "Why didn't you do better?" Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially Cuisine on a budget My first recipe to share is spaghetti salad. It has cooked spaghetti noodles, of course, chopped tomatoes, chopped bell peppers, celery chopped and chopped cucumbers. Chop those vegetables as little as you can. Add your own favorite dressing to it and mix it up. I recommend Thousand Island or Italian dressing. If you want you can add salt and pepper, and whatever meat you like, too. I find that a delicious salad! My second pasta salad recipe to share is tuna macaroni salad. Mix cooked elbow macaroni, mayonnaise for this one. Add salt and pepper to taste. You can also make a deliDENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 cious snack mix with cereal, potato chips, corn chips and Doritos. You can mix any brand of rice crispy (plain) with barbeque and plain potato chips with Frito corn chips, plain Cheerios of any brand, with pretzels and Chex Mix. Just mix together canned tuna, chopped up celery as tiny as you can get it, chopped bell pepper as tiny as you can get it, chopped tomato as tiny as you can get it, and your favorite dressing — I recommend any crunchy, salty snacks, with crunchy, sweet snacks! When you thank God and Jesus for any meal you get, it makes it taste better. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 The new American public schools SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover vendor No. 638 In the mid-19th century, educators in Massachusetts implemented the Prussian model of public education. Within a few years all of the states were infected with Prussian public schools. In the late 20th century many Americans were dissatisfied with unAmerican public education and began sending their children to private schools or homeschooling them. A new paradigm for public education in America is needed. The new American public schools will teach children how to read using phonics (sounding out letters then words), the proven method of teaching children how to read. The new American public schools will manifest an enlightened freedom. The new American public schools will instill in children the love of truth. The new American public schools will teach children to think critically. The new American public schools will prepare children to be participants in democratic governance. The new American public schools will be bully free zones because there will be no compulsory attendance laws. The new public schools will teach the truth about American history. Thank you Groundcover News readers. The answer to "Truth or Lies: The Invader" published August 8, 2025 was TRUE. Look out for the Mystery Lane Reading Game online. — Felicia Wilbert, Groundcover vendor No. 234 vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LABOR POWER LINDSAY CALKA Publisher On July 11, Ozone Workers United went public with the Newspaper Guild of Detroit as TNG-CWA Local 34022, requesting voluntary recognition from Ozone House management. On July 18 they filed a petition for a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election, despite not having received a response from Ozone House at the time. Ozone House is the youth homeless shelter in Washtenaw County; the agency provides emergency shelter, housing and support for living independently to runaway, homeless and high-risk youth ages 10-20 and their families. They also operate a 24/7 youth crisis line that services the entire state. In their mission statement, Ozone Workers United declared, "Establishing a union allows us to maintain our dignity and worth as workers, better serve our clients, and ensure that Ozone House operates in a way that reflects our values and the values of our community… we envision a better version of our agency, one that is run democratically from the bottom up rather than from the top down.” The statement goes on to express that although Ozone House “is already an excellent workplace,” the union desires these conditions to be protected by a contract, especially as the Trump administration destabilizes nonprofit funding and the state increases violence against trans people and people of color. Xander Jackson is a Youth Specialist at Miller House (the Ozone House residential program), and works directly with the young people living there. He is also a facilitator for PrideZone, an LGBTQ+ support group. Jackson joined Ozone House United because he feels underrepresented by the Ozone board and administrative staff. “I want to have an opinion on the things that affect my job and I want a better work environment.” The day before our interview, Jackson had worked a 16 hour shift. “I believe that will make a better environment for the community I work for. All jobs and professions — whether steel workers or social workers — need better work environments.” He continued, “I like my job; the kids need people at Ozone who like their jobs and want to be there for them.” He understands the union drive to be a response to management Ozone House United at the Detroit Newspaper Guild office after filing their intent to unionize on July 11. “not listening to the employees as a collective and making company-wide decisions that mostly just affect us.” Jackson shared a recent example of this: Ozone announced it would be changing all of the wording for their mission and vision statements to make it more broad and less diverse sounding so they could continue to get federal funding. “If you take out the language that we serve a specific sub-population, how will that sub-population know that we still serve them? That simple change cuts off resources to the community.” Jackson felt he has not had the opportunity to share these thoughts with the board. “Recently, at our monthly all-staff meeting, the board planned a fishbowl discussion where staff could ask questions. But the board selected the questions the board was going to answer … it ended up just being a superficial meet and greet. The important things to us were disregarded. We just want to be listened to, and be heard.” The union found out less than one week in advance that all members had to re-sign union membership cards in order to move forward with the NLRB filing and election. One of the initial union organizers was a Housing Supervisor, a position that Ozone House management legally challenged to be excluded from the union using the National Labor Relations Act. Stevie Blanchard, the Administrative Officer from the Newspaper Guild, advised OHU to withdraw their proposal on August 1; they fully refiled with new cards by August 11. This was to ensure there were no potential challenges or contestations down the line. Ozone services are carried out by volunteers, interns, staff, supervisors and administrators. Moving forward, Ozone House United will only include full-time and part-time employees with no hiring, firing or discipline duties: youth specialists (staff who work in the residential programs), case workers, and the crisis line team. PrideZone staff and other outreach workers are being contested by Ozone House as well. Jackson thinks this is intentional to worsen their numbers. “As any company doesn't — I don’t think they want us to organize,” he said. However, there is opportunity during bargaining to re-include certain positions in their union. “We are a queer, youth shelter and always have been,” Jackson concluded. “Unionizing offers us a tool to build a workplace that is transparent, accountable, and antiracist so that we can better serve our community.” Ozone House has seven days to respond with a position statement, which either will lead to a hearing or election. The Newspaper Guild hopes for an election in mid-September. Follow @local34022 on X to read updates on the union’s progress. AUGUST 22, 2025 Ozone House United is claiming a seat at the table The Ballad of Benjamin L. Yates DAVID PUTMAN Groundcover vendor No. 679 Grew up in Ann Arbor My very best friend A whiz @ Math and into Video games man He took his life one day Or night I don’t know which Thought he was Bi Maybe he needed confidence Lived in a group home and he Loved piano I thought together we could make Rock and Roll I pitched the band He said “But they won’t let us” The day the music died Was in 2012, huh So don’t give up hope If you think it’s not enough R.I.P. 1979-2012 AUGUST 22, 2025 YOUTH + SENIORS youth RESOURCE CORNER OZONE WELCOME CENTER 1600 N. Huron River Dr, Ypsilanti Monday through Friday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Crisis line and service line: 734-6622222 Open 24/7; ages 10-17 If you are safe and in no immediate danger, the Welcome Center is a great place to receive emergency services or just hang out in a safe place. — Phone counseling and individual on-site intervention will be provided as needed — Text and chat services available Mon.-Thurs. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Fri 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. — Individual (10-14 years need guardian approval) and family counseling — 2-3 weeks of housing — Opportunity to go to school — Attempt at repairing the relationship between family and the youth — Paid internship program for homeless or at-risk youth — Families of these youth — Youth who wish to be there (voluntary entry) OZONE DROP-IN CENTER 102 N. Hamilton St.,Ypsilanti (one block from the Ypsilanti Transit Center) Monday - Thursday, 3-6 p.m. If you are 13-21 years old, you are welcome here if you want or need to: hang out at a safe place, eat a hot meal, meet people, talk to someone, get food from the pantry, do laundry, take a shower, use computers & phones, play games, get toiletries, get more info or help, talk to a job coach, just drop in when we’re open. PrideZone is a social and support group for LGBTQ youth. PrideZone meets every Wednesday from 6-8 p.m. at the drop-in center. NEUTRAL ZONE 310 E Washington St., Ann Arbor 734-214-9995 Monday - Friday 2:30 - 6:00 p.m. All teens are welcome to come in every day after school to hang out, grab a snack and connect with friends. Neutral Zone offers more than 20 programs for high school teens in the areas of visual and media arts, education, music technology, literary arts and community leadership. Drop-In opens on August 25 this year. Check out social media and event calendar for concerts, events, workshops, art shows and special projects. Stop by any program that looks interesting to check it out. CORNER HEALTH CENTER 47 N. Huron Street, Ypsilanti (two blocks from the bus station) There is a free two-hour parking lot next door to The Corner and meter parking on the street. Monday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Tuesday 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Wednesday, 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. Thursday - Friday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturday - Sunday: Closed The Corner only accepts patients 12-25 years old (and their children). If you're aged 12-25 years: • Call us at 734.484.3600. • Come speak with the Patient Service Representatives at the front desk. • Same day appointments may be available. Please call. • Walk-in urgent visits are based on availability. Please call. JIM TOY COMMUNITY CENTER 734-995-9867 560 S. Main St. Ann Arbor Information, education, social events, and advocacy by and for the Queer and Ally community in the Washtenaw County area. Check website for groups, meetings, and events www.jimtoycenter.org GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 12/31/2025

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CRIMINALIZATION AUGUST 22, 2025 Homeless residents react to Donald Trump’s threats to clear encampments in D.C. MADI KOESLER, FRANZI WILD Street Sense Media With D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) now under federal control and the National Guard coming to D.C., the fate of people living in encampments remains up in the air. During his press conference on Monday August 11, President Donald Trump said law enforcement has already begun to clear encampments, but Street Sense has been unable to confirm this, and has not seen any encampments removed as of Monday afternoon. Homelessness outreach providers and the Department of Human Services (DHS) visited encampments along I-66 before the Monday press conference to offer shelter and resources. DHS officials on-site told residents, “from our perspective, we just want to make sure people are staying safe.” This follows a Truth social post by Trump yesterday with photos of tents along the interstate and of one person on the steps of the American Institute of Pharmacy on his way to golf. Street Sense reporters spoke to residents who live in the encampments along I-66 about their reactions to Trump’s announcement and threat to remove encampments. “I ain’t ever bought no prostitutes. I ain’t never raped nobody. I ain’t never paid anybody off. None of that stuff,” said G, a resident from one of the photographed tents. “He’s much more of a criminal than I am.” G says the worst thing he does is drugs, and he would willingly go to jail if Trump went with him. He moved to the green along the interstate because it felt safer than his apartment building. He’s found a community in his encampment over the last two months, but plans to move on Monday because of the attention from Trump and media outlets. “They’ve been doing this to Black men since the dawn,” Franklin Lee said. “He don’t give a damn. He’s saying f*** the Constitution.” Franklin Lee has lived outside for 10 years all across D.C. He currently lives in a tent along I-66 outside the Kennedy Center. Over the decade, he’s developed a distrust for law enforcement and Trump — feeling let down by how the government treats people who aren’t “billionaires and trillionaires.” Lee doesn’t identify with either political party but says Trump is the first president he’s ever wanted to give the finger to. If he is forced to move his tent, he said he plans to give the government a piece of his mind. “I pray for America and the presidency on a daily basis. I pray for peace,” George Morgan said. “I believe there’s a lot that could be done.” Morgan also lives in one of the tents posted by Trump in the Truth social post along his commute to Trump’s National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. Morgan’s from D.C. and lived along the interstate for about two months with his dog Blue. He is interested in moving into shelter, but doesn’t want to leave Blue behind. As he stays at his encampment, Morgan is optimistic that Mayor Muriel Bowser might be able to come to an agreement with Trump. Bowser addressed the press just after 3 p.m. Monday, telling District residents the MPD will comply with the law but noted that D.C. has not experienced a crime spike since 2023. She confirmed she contacted Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was tapped by Trump to “take command” of MPD. The mayor also noted that all law enforcement must be identifiable by a “uniform, a badge, a jacket, so that people know that they are law enforcement.” This comes after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been seen across the nation wearing masks and unidentifiable clothing. When asked specifically about encampment clearings and if Chief Pamela Smith will comply if Bondi directs local law enforcement to arrest or move people experiencing homelessness out of D.C., Bowser replied, “Well, let me just say what MPD needs to be focused on, and it’s violent crime. We simply — like — our force, when the chief deploys, every day and every night, is focused on people who are committing crimes in the District.” Encampment updates Wednesday, Aug. 13, 12:35 p.m: Out of the nine clearly visible tents located at the encampment photographed by President Trump on his way to golf last week, seven have been tagged for clearing by the city at 10 a.m. Thursday. The stickers attached to the tents note they have been marked for: Scheduled Full Cleanup, Immediate Disposition and Encampment Site Closure. Wednesday, Aug. 13, 11:30 a.m: This morning, encampment clearings began. Two days after Trump’s initial press conference, the city’s scheduled encampment cleanup in Mt. Pleasant was rescheduled less than an hour before it was supposed to begin. Instead, the city began clearing an area along the highway in Foggy Bottom. Officials from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (DMHHS) and the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) were seen at 20th Street NW and E Street NW near the entrance to the E Street Expressway, telling residents to move their tents. The encampment being cleared was along the route from the White House to the Kennedy Center, which Trump is visiting today. Street Sense is working to confirm if the removal was an immediate disposition and how many tents will be removed today. Rachel Pierre, the interim head of D.C.’s Department of Human Services (DHS), said the move was a response to the executive order and that other sites, including nearby ones that the city officials are currently at, could be closed as early as tomorrow morning. Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a live community chat streamed on X the night before clearings began that visible tents are an issue for Trump. “This is his issue, seeing homeless encampments — it just triggers something in him,” she said. Trump signed two executive orders as part of his move to take over the city. The first places MPD under federal control for 30 days, and the second will deploy 800 National Guard troops to the District. Trump claims these actions will bring down crime in the city, but the violent crime rate has actually been decreasing over the last two years. “We’ll deploy officers across the District with an overwhelming presence,” Trump said at the press conference. Though homelessness is not mentioned in either executive order, Trump said part of his goal was to respond to the “drugged-out maniacs and homeless people” he says have taken over the city. The day before the announcement, Trump made a Truth Social Post with photos of tents along the interstate and of one person on the steps of the American Institute of Pharmacy on his way to golf. In the post, Trump called for the removal of people experiencing homelessness from the District, writing: “The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY.” In a press conference on Aug. 12, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said MPD will begin reinforcing laws against camping and people experiencing homelessness, “will be given the option to leave their encampment, to be taken to a homeless shelter, to be offered addiction or mental health services,” and if they refuse, could be fined or arrested. As of Aug. 7, the most recent day for which shelter occupancy data is available, there was only one vacant bed in the city’s low-barrier shelters. According to outreach workers, the city opened 70 additional shelter beds last week. Trump also said during the Monday, Aug. 11 press conference that law enforcement began removing encampments from the city’s parks and underpasses over the weekend, though Street Sense has not been able to confirm this. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum added that the Park Police have removed over 70 encampments since March, when Trump issued an executive order to “make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful,” and Leavitt said there are plans to remove two final encampments on federal land. “We’re moving the encampments away, trying to take care of people,” Trump said, adding there are “places they can go.” “We’re going to help them as much as you can help.” Bowser addressed the press later on Monday, telling District residents the MPD will comply with the law and confirmed she contacted Bondi, who was tapped by Trump to “take command” of MPD. On Monday morning, homelessness outreach providers and staff from the DHS visited encampments along I-66 to offer shelter and resources. A D.C. official familiar with the issue said as of Aug. 12, the city’s approach to encampments has not changed, and the government will keep supporting federal partners. Street Sense has reached out to the Deputy Mayor for DMHHS, the D.C. agency that normally handles encampment clearings and MPD, with specific questions about how the order will impact encampment closures in the coming days, and has not yet received a response. In an Aug. 7 email ahead of the federalization, the D.C. Attorney General’s office warned of a possible increase in involuntary commitments, or FD-12s, of people experiencing see THREATS next page  AUGUST 22, 2025 LABOR POWER Labor power creates unity in the community Argus Farm Stop on Liberty and Second St. is one of my regular spots. The cross-fertilization happens on many levels and if you read the current Groundcover magazine article “Food as Medicine,” you will understand good mental food as the place to start. Tim Wellman brought me the lamb’s quarters mentioned in that article. When we get greenhouse hostels set up, lamb’s quarters will be grown. There is evidence that it has anti-cancer properties. Belief in these properties is probably anecdotal, as funding for basic research is not done unless investors see profit coming. Our Grandmothers’ wisdom came from observation of intuitive pointers and the trial and error of many generations. What is edible is an ongoing experiment. How you feel throughout the digestive process is more important than the taste that ends when you swallow. If you get addicted to taste, maybe your gut biome has been colonized by a dangerous bacteria or other children of LUCA, Last Universal Common Ancestor/the first life form. LUCA cells are cells with no nucleus. The gut biome and the vagus nerve are sometimes referred to as “first mind.” Consider that matter is an expression of the mind.The mind from which thought emerges is a deeper awareness. Mindfulness of this mind is the challenge that Western Civilization is facing. The dialectics of thought that result in a higher synthesis are similar to unity in the community with threads that can be woven together to create something more useful. KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 Organized power can be more effective in the expression of “Revolutionary Love” and it is time to bring the many into one fold. The first opportunity to pull the threads together is the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice and their alternatives to violence program which began on August 15. International Day of Peace is in September. Veterans for Peace annual event at the Ark is now on Veterans Day, November 11, 2025. Ann Arbor Coalition Against War is every Friday at 6 p.m., now at Fifth and Liberty. Many good events occur in relative isolation from each other. For example the July 31, 2025, press conference at the University of Michigan to support the Chinese professors imprisoned arbitrarily was good but lacked the broader support of the peace and freedom movement. We are all busy and have not yet mastered simple and complete. We can begin by using the Groundcover News community calendar as a way to share and communicate. Labor Power Labor power is what unites the community and was best explained by Karl Marx in “Das Kapital.” Volume 3 became popular in the 1990s as neoliberal imperialism emerged with the Reagan campaign to privatize everything. Financialization with hedge funds that leveraged debt into new forms of debt slavery became the model of neoliberal imperialism. “Monthly Review” is an excellent forum for intellectual labor. They are developing the “environmental rift” that Marx mentioned as an essential feature as capitalism extracted the resources from nature and left an environmental rift — damage to both the environment and all the living beings in it which corporations leave as a public burden. The Ann Arbor District Library once had “Monthly Review” on the shelf in the magazine section on the third floor but someone vandalized them and they do not carry it now. I call it successful bookburning to eliminate scientific intellectual work. Fortunately, there is Monthly Review Online. Unity of body, speech and mind is the beginning of labor power, the ability to get the job done, no matter what, be it washing the dishes or visualizing a pure land. Take a step in the direction of freedom. A clean sink is a pure land! Once we understand labor power and our responsibility to use it creatively to end genocide and every form of supremacism, we will be revolutionary love and celebrate life. There will be “Dancing in the Street” as Martha Reeves and the Vandellas prophesied.The unity of theory and practice is the dance of life. Study is where the work begins. It ends in freedom! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7  THREATS from last page homelessness. As of Tuesday morning, no spike in FD-12s has been reported, according to the DC Hospital Association, which tracks this data. The White House has recently touted involuntary commitment as a solution to homelessness with an executive order that encouraged cities and states to use the practice more frequently. D.C. already regularly conducts encampment clearings throughout the city, clearing over 50 encampments so far in 2025. On federal land in the District, camping is also illegal, and U.S. Park Police have previously arrested people for camping. Before Trump’s press conference, these regularly scheduled clearings went as planned on Jul. 23 and Aug. 6. On July 23, one man’s belongings that he no longer wanted were removed by DMHHS. He called DMHHS himself, and said he had waited six months for DMHHS to come to clean the area. The 55-year-old man had been unhoused for at least two years, according to him, and declined shelter services offered by Miriam's Kitchen outreach workers. The belongings he wanted to keep were moved to a new location. On Aug. 6, DMHHS closed encampments under the bridge overpass on Queens Chapel Road NE, as well as an encampment up the road in the woods off Park Ave NE. By 10:30 a.m., the one resident present had packed up their belongings with the help of an outreach worker and moved to a new location. Once DMHHS was prepared to begin clearing the area, someone noticed a dog tied to a tree under the street overpass. Three MPD officers were called to extract the dog for the Animal Humane Society to come pick up afterwards. One of the officers approached the dog cautiously with a catch pole in hand and successfully removed the friendly dog from the encampment. The dog wagged its tail, jumped around hoping to play, and slurped up the water it was given. At the encampment off Park Ave NE, no residents were present, and DMHHS cleared the area of many black trash bags of items after removing the singular tent left behind. Mackenzie Konjoyan, Nina Claves, Jelina Liu, Donte Kirby, and Annemarie Cuccia contributed reporting. Courtesy of Street Sense Media / INSP.ngo

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SHELTER Shelter Association hires new executive director ALONDRA BURKE Shelter Association of Wastenaw County Shelter Association of Washtenaw County is proud to announce the appointment of its new Executive Director. Nicole Adelman has devoted her career to issues of public health, having served in leadership roles as Executive Director for Alpha House and The Corner Health Center. Most recently, Ms. Adelman was Director of Substance Use Services for the Community Mental Health Partnership of Southeast Michigan. Nicole has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan and a master’s in public health, also from the University of Michigan. Ms. Adelman has led teams providing public health services, including matters relating to housing and homelessness for families, children and individuals. She describes her new role at the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County as an important opportunity to give back in a critical way to her community. She is honored to lend her AUGUST 22, 2025 talents and leadership in Washtenaw County. Nicole will begin her role on September 8. “I look forward to serving the community and guests of the Shelter Association. The team and Board at SAWC are exceptional, and it will be a great honor to lead this team. I am proud to be a member of the network of housing-related organizations in Washtenaw County. Working collaboratively to address the needs of individuals experiencing homelessness and engaging with the community in Washtenaw County is a profound privilege,” said Adelman. “SAWC has been a critical resource for our community’s most vulnerable for more than 43 years. The role of Executive Director is incredibly important to our community and mission. We are thrilled to have Nicole Adelman joining us; her vast executive experience in public health advocacy and programming make her uniquely qualified for this very critical role,” said Barry Bateman, M.D., Board Chair. Editor's note: Groundcover was unable to reach the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County. We hope to publish an interview with Adelman in an upcoming edition of Groundcover. GROUNDCOVER 15 YEARS 15 OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2025 5:30-8 PM               AUGUST 22, 2025 ADVERTISEMENTS GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES SPECIAL DELIVERY! by Victor Schmitt AUGUST 22, 2025 ACROSS 1. Device made obsolete by streaming, for short 4. Samsung competitor 11. Greenlights 14. Part of I.P.A. 15. Spitter you wouldn’t want to be within spitting distance of 16. Actress Long 17. Tailor's tool 19. F1 neighbor 20. Like the 'proposal' made by Jonathan Swift 21. Comes (from) 23. "___ Mia!" 24. Dove call 26. ___ Cola 28. Green light 33. Lead-in to stop or stick 34. Like some microtransactions 35. Bowser, to Mario 36. Nightmare roommate, for many 37. Goes (for) 39. Angle stand-in, in trigonometry 42. Choir platform 44. "Revenge ___ dish best served cold" 47. Career killer for some actors 50. Begin to wake, maybe 51. Excellent service? 52. Former Taiwanese president ___ Ing-wen 53. Dutch painter Jan 55. Rise through incompetence, say 58. ___ Lingus 59. Ad addressees... or what you could call the collective starts of 17-, 28-, and 47-Across 63. Thai's neighbor 64. Gives it a go 65. Letters that can look like capital Ns or lowercase Vs 66. "On another note...", to a texter 67. "Ain't I a ___?!" (Bugs Bunny line) 68. College applicant's concern: Abbr. DOWN 1. Vessel in a winery 2. Ingredient in a Caesar 3. One doing take-backs? 4. Domesticated 5. World Cup cheers 6. Reacted to shocking news, perhaps 7. Owns 8. Hosp. area 9.Go on a pub-crawl 10. Far from land 11. 1965 Bob Marley hit 12. Jumbotron segment 13. Cul-de-___ 18. Cheese that's made backwards? 22. Manilla folders on a desktop, maybe 23. AOL competitor 24. Pen topper 25. Is anti 27. Olympian Raisman 29. Rice dish 30. Yoko who wrote "Grapefruit" 31. It's often sold in bolts 32. Prefix with active or fit 36. Mall tenant 38. Good thing to have in one's step 39. "Conan" channel 40. Spot for grilling? 41. Where to find extra legroom, often 43. Output of some refrigerators 44. Providing, as with official documents 45. Gets a lather going, say 46. Singer DiFranco 48. Some unofficial drawings 49. "___ cost ya!" 54. Ambulance crew, for short 55. Last name of Marvel's Kingpin 56. It may precede the big blind 57. Tyler, The Creator album named after a famous assistant 58. Clerical vestment 60. Part of a threequel's title, often 61. Male name hidden in "male name" 62. Airport security org. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS August 8, 2025 edition F A M E A T S E A U S E D S W I R L P O T S S M O G L A V A S H R I N K I N G V I O L E T E Y E T O O T H E N G I N E O N U S C L A R E T H A B I T H U L A T R Y K I L O S I M S A M E A M B A S S A D O R S H I P S R E E L R I O T F I R S D U L Y A U R O R A S E N T A P R E S S K I E V E R Y N O W A N D T H E N R E A M K E N D O O M E N Y A P S A R S E D P O P S T O N E S P O R T L Y AUGUST 22, 2025 CLIMATE CHANGE GROUNDCOVER NEWS Emergency preparedness for extreme weather, natural disasters On July 4, 2025, there were many headlines and a lot of news over the print, broadcast and social media. In my opinion, the most significant news of the day was the devastating Texas Hill Country floods which took the lives of 108 people in Kerr Country – 71 adults and 37 children. Most of the children who died in the flood were staying for the summer at Camp Mystic. The adults who lost their lives were parents, staff, vacationers and counselors. Some estimates show that overall, 137 residents of Central Texas died from that flood. Local ABC News affiliate, KSAT of San Antonio, shared the following viewpoints from Hill Country residents: “Residents, campers and vacationers along the Guadalupe River have said that they were caught off guard and had no warning when the rainfall began, eventually dropping around 12 inches of rain in the county. Kerr Country does not have a warning system along the river.” KSAT reporters continued, “Since July 4, KSAT has reported extensively on the floodwaters severity, often through data, graphics, maps and visualizations to help answer the question, Why was the Hill Country Flood so deadly?” Major natural disasters and record flooding in the US Google AI noted that “2025 has been marked by significant natural disasters with some events setting new records and highlighting the increasing impact of climate change.” The summer of 2025 has been described by the mass media as the “summer of flash flooding.” The National Weather Service (NWS) “has issued over 3,600 flash flood warnings in 2025, so far surpassing previous records for this period since 1986. This is likely to exceed the yearly average of around 4,000 warnings soon.” • New Mexico: “Extreme flooding in Ruidoso killed three people on July 8, exacerbated by burn scars from 2024 wildfires.” • New Jersey and New York: “Flash flooding on July 14 resulted in two deaths and numerous water rescues, disrupting transportation systems.” • West Virginia: “In June, major flooding on the Tug Fork and Bluestone Rivers caused evacuations, road damage, and at least three deaths. Google AI also suggested the following contributing factors to extreme weather events and flooding disasters: • Excessive water vapor and weaker WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 Graphic shared by KSAT News visualizing the flood growth over time. jet stream • Saturated soil: “Parts of the central and eastern US have received at least 50% more precipitation than normal from mid-April to mid-July, leading to saturated soils and increased runoff.” • Surface characteristics: “Steep slopes, urban areas and sparse vegetation contribute to rapid runoff and heightened flood risk.” • Many climate scientists have said that there is a climate change connection to the “increased intensity and frequency of flooding …” Many politicians disagree. Emergency preparedness for Washtenaw County and beyond KSAT in Texas noted that people in Hill Country and around the state are seeking answers to the question: “Why was the Hill Country flood so deadly?” This question is beyond the narrow confines of the Lone Star State and Central Texas. Some folks in Michigan and Washtenaw are asking if we are ready to prevent the worst consequences of severe weather events and natural disasters with our Emergency Preparedness Plans. We can do a better job of planning for the acts of God and Nature. We can prevent myopia at the watershed across the United States and globally by having a knowledge of the potential problems in a given area, and also improvements in the warning systems. We are lucky in the state of Michigan and in Washtenaw County. The most severe weather event in the state of Michigan which cost many lives and properties was the June 8, 1953 natural disaster in Flint. It was noted that 116 residents of Flint and suburban Beecher township died. Injuries were estimated to be 844 people, and property damage was in millions. In Washtenaw County, we have experienced a few tornadoes. However, they have not been very catastrophic. There were ice storms in 2021 and a major tornado in Dexter in 2023. The Washtenaw County Sheriff’s office is the main planner and coordinator of the county-wide emergency preparedness. It is high time this office started to have public hearings in order to maximize citizen participation and community input on the decisions to keep residents safe and secure during emergencies. They need to consider different scenarios regarding emergency response. Conclusion What happened in Kerr County, Texas on July 4 may not occur in Washtenaw County because of differences in topography, geography and history. Although recently there was major flash flooding in the midwest region, mostly in Wisconsin and Nebraska, and approximately four inches of rain poured down in the city of Milwaukee within one hour, the magnitude of the Texas case is not likely to be replicated in Washtenaw County. The extreme weather event which took place in the Hill Country was devastating not only to the people in Texas but also across the country. Parents who sent their children to camps were terrified by flash floods affecting where Camper's belongings sit on the ground following flooding on the Guadalupe River, at Camp Mystic, Hunt, Texas, July 7. REUTERS/Marco Bello Sheriff Alyshia Dyer. The Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office plans and coordinates countywide community preparedness. The flooded Guadalupe River destroyed many homes, roads and town infrastructure. their children were. Some parents in Washtenaw County have been asking, “Is my local government ready for this kind of extreme weather event?” Among the lessons learned from Katrina and from other hurricanes is that, according to people who are experts in this sort of disaster, their deadliness is preventable. This is where citizen input will make a difference — communication with the people and communication which involves early warning signs and systems are desperately needed. We also need to make use of recent technology to make it easy for people to act in advance of extreme weather. 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FROM THE ARCHIVE AUGUST 22, 2025 Schooled about being homeless at Groundcover KEAGEN IRRER Groundcover contributor I’ve never had to worry about where my next meal was coming from, or where I was going to sleep tomorrow night. I’ve always been well taken care of throughout my life, with a healthy, stable home environment and a free college education. But when I started working with Groundcover, I was suddenly surrounded by people who had none of these things. I heard stories about living under bridges, about being trapped outside in the rain, and being unable to sleep because of being swarmed by mosquitoes. People told me such things casually, as though they were completely normal and an expected part of life — and for them, they were. But for me, they were beyond imagining. I began to feel sheltered, guilty about my privileged status. For these people, just taking care of their basic needs required tremendous effort on their part, while for me it was virtually effortless. The physical and psychological toll was clearly immense; I saw firsthand the way homelessness conspired to break people’s minds, bodies and souls. I wanted to help them in any way I could. But I quickly learned that the first rule of helping the homeless is that you can only do so much. You can train them, give them a stack of papers, and tell them to go out and sell as many as they can, but it’s on them to actually do it, and to spend their income wisely. You can only help them to help themselves: a hand up, not a handout. I also learned how little difference there really was between myself and homeless people. After all, that guy on the corner begging for something to eat is a person too, but maybe he doesn’t have access to a shower and hasn’t been able to afford new clothes in a while. I learned that being born into the right family can matter a lot, or how you can be horribly punished for one or two bad decisions. Maybe you were unlucky enough to get a mental illness and now nobody will employ you because of it. Poor choices are a big factor in homelessness, but so is luck. One of the most difficult and disturbing things I learned was how much our society tries to sweep homelessness under the rug. We try to hide it away, make laws against panhandling and spending the night on the streets; we put homeless people in jail, or in the hospital, or in a temporary shelter. As long as we can’t see the problem, it’s not really there – out of sight, out of mind. But it is there, no matter how hard we try to hide it, and it’s an expensive problem. The chronically homeless people of the United States cost some $11 billion a year in public funds. According to one estimate, the cost to society per homeless individual is $41,000 a year. Jails, hospitals and outreach programs all cost a lot of money. Groundcover isn’t a perfect solution to the titanic problem of homelessness. It’s not going to clean up the streets of Ann Arbor, but it can help. It provides guaranteed employment to those who want it and are willing to abide by a basic code of conduct, and a community of sorts that homeless people can rally around. One of the best things about it that I’ve seen is the sense of pride, accomplishment and purpose that it gives to the people it employs, both vendors and volunteers. It’s a great stepping stone for A thank you to Vendor No. 322 PAOLO POQUIZ U-M student contributor When I wrapped up our interview, you mentioned something about how I didn’t say too much about myself, and that all that talking about yourself was making your voice tired. My apologies, I’m not perceptive like you are, but if you’re interested I’d like to say a bit about what I thought of our conversation, why I thought it was so fulfilling to spend the day with you beyond just asking some questions for an assignment, and what it all meant for me. The day I woke up and came to the Groundcover office to try to interview some people was one of those days where I couldn’t get out of bed in the mornings, one of those mornings that whatever hazy cloud that followed my head around decided to get heavy and press me firmly into place. I kind of forgot to tell you, but I recently found I have ADHD, as well. The psychs put me on a new cocktail of meds; you noticed I came into the building all scatterbrained and shaky. I didn’t have a solid plan for what I wanted or needed to do, just a silly question of “What’s your favorite music?” and the hope that I’d stumble into something I could write an article about. It was a great, miraculous accident that I ended up spending my day talking to you. I guess I would’ve felt silly and unprepared on or off the pills anyway, it was an awkward situation. I do think so far I like the meds though. Whatever’s happening in my brain right now, it feels a little calmer, like something in there is trying to help me out. I’m not used to that. I have to say it means a lot to me, that when I talked to you, you picked up on the crud and clutter that I was feeling at the moment when you were selling papers and saw when the blues I work so hard to paint over somehow peek through. Not a lot of people do that. And it means so much more that throughout our talk you tried to help me out and make me smile more. It feels like nobody does that, everyone’s too caught up in their problems, and I wouldn’t blame them. I fear I do that too. Doing a simple good like that comes from special people only, it seems. So few people can produce hope that goes strongly even through the darkest and worst of things, and as far as I’m concerned, you’re one of the greats. “Wear your heart on your sleeve.” I like that phrase, and I think you embody it. You said you’re worried about talking too much and driving someone away, but I think it’s amazing that you do it regardless. I think we would all do a little better if we were just a little more honest and up-front about our concerns, sorrows and complaints. Growing up I was taught to never show any sadness or pain because it made me weak, it made me a victim. Fear was okay though; that made me nice and obedient. I think that was the hesitancy in my voice you picked up on. If I ever tried to speak what’s on my mind, what I wanted or what I feared, things went wrong. I’ve spent my whole life being told things see VENDOR 322 next page  numerous homeless folks who want to improve their lives. My time at Groundcover has been instructive and rewarding. It’s difficult to see the problem of homelessness up close and firsthand, but we can’t hope to solve this problem unless we confront it, head-on, like Groundcover does. Originally published in the May 2013 edition of Groundcover News. AUGUST 22, 2025 VOLUNTEERS Andrea Lee Emma Kahle Amelia Brown Kelly Sharma Sara Goomar Nikki Aggarwal Alice Grant Paul Marble Kevin Johnson Matt Brown Dustin Grimm Casey Goode Patricia Hoskins Lymuel Cooper Vittorio Riley Lawrence Sobmon Alan Shoemaker Robin Willets William McGaughy Glenn Gates Tim Johnson Clarence Newman Sharon Williams Mario Davis Jeffery Lee Bill Davis Kurt Ziegler Mark Dobos William Lube Ron Gregg Lily Au Jeanne Hansknecht Josh Lee Laurie Lounsbury David Hembold Marquise Williams Donald Roberts Mary Wakefeld Charles Coleman Sarah Heidt Jeff Sabatini Sandy Schmoker Carmencita Princen Megan Walters Gwynne Osaki John Loring James Wilton Ruth Shabazz Kim Clugston Ellie Davidson Ed Davidson Miriam Shaw Lester Wyborny Carol Hafeli Michael Linkevitch Rachel Perazza Brian Nord Maggie Lad Martin Stolzenburg Elmo Morales Kristen Larcom Jan Burnham Alfred Wright Brett Hansen Meg Gower Phil Hannuksela Kate Dcamp Erica Blom Peter Sabbagh Martha Brunell Dan Reim Luanne Bullington Joseph Vetowuich Frank Shotwell Meaghan Hennesy Debbi Mourer Claire Schurr Lynda Howell Chris Gray Leonore Gerstein Al Hepperle Anna Furqua-Smith Angad Singh Francesca Lupia Luis Sfeir-Younis Annette Fisch Harvey Drouillard Nathan Stern Colleen Huysman Kathy Brindle Jesse Morgan Kyle Poplin Kathleen Harper Harleen Kaur Rasna Neelam Harnek Singh Greg Hoffman Jo Fone Gretchen Baldwin Barb Blom Hannah Moeller Elaine Nutt Jazelle Wilson Terry Jones Maria Foscarinis Paul Duke Stacey Duke Madeline Diehl Lexi Erwin Kyla Williams Nora Weber Alex Winnick Diane Sayer Steve Osborn Elliot Sorkin Robbin Lahmann Jess Salisbury Julia Henrikson Holly Watkins Lauren Halpern Sue Budin Jordan Morgan Samuel Hayes Kaitlin Schuler Don Hammond Eleyne Levitt Chuck Denton Miguel Martinez Max Wisgerhof Angelica Pilar Mike Vickers Ayden Riley Andre Vasher Luiza Duarte Caetano Navya Yagalla Logan Brown Margaret Patson Peter Beyer Shreya Chakravarthy Gerry Charbeneau THANK YOU to MANY of OUR VOLUNTEERS over the YEARS! For most of Groundcover's history, every contribution besides selling the paper was a volunteer effort. Hundreds of community members and vendors have volunteered their time to Groundcover over the past 15 years — as office staff, writers, board members, proofreaders and cooks. Each and every person has made an impact on the organization that we are appreciative of. Vicki Elmer Nicole Skylis Stephanie Bajema Veronica Sanitate Joan Hutchinson Brooke Sparling Ted Papes Lotus Yup Carolyn Lusch Rose Moon Marcus Betwany Braaksma Andrew Nixon Corliss Irrer Ashely Steilen Emily Bednar Jerry Mack Keagan Irrer Nick Mitchell Ken Uehara Gina Reed Eric Reed Shoshanna Mandel Patrick Morgan Della Pietro Lucy Miller Chad Bailey Amber Keyes Lyn Badalmenti Felicia Rutledge Nellie Kim Steve Cullen Brad Palchesko Noah Burns Bhajneet Kholi Svea Gray Jim Radke Stacey Balter Tommy Coleman Kelsey Shaw Jacob East Evans Koukios Val Jaskiewicz Lisa Sonnenburg Daniel Grill Sally Allen Teiara Massey Krystal Lewis Jennifer Crorey Evan McDaniel Courtney Alessandri Bob Webber Melissa Golden Geraurd Paschal Ian Mark Gianluca Genevieve Shapiro Marian Cohen Christy Derek Lindsay Calka Pastor Briggs Sheri Wander Ross Bernhaut Jevon Moore Donna Whitney Banen Al-Sheemary Rob Hughes Issac Weiss Deidre Andrea Zaghi Nolan Smith Jon MacDonagh-Dumler Robert Klinger John Althaus Jessi Averill Rainey Lamey Audrey Carey Eli Ganji Stephen Hilton Peter Wilson-Tobin Briana Jackson Laurie Wechter Brittany Bowman Alexis Smith Ben Giordias Amanda Liss Sandra Smith Jaz Brennan Angelica Avellaneda-Leiva Denali Drake Payton Watt GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13 Hussain Ali Tracy Bennett Jan Taylor Ian Dewey Yarden Katz Heidi Witucki Josie Graham Jaime Lee Mira Simonton-Chao Claude VanValkenburg Gray Kryscynski Barbara Tucker Desmond Bratton Elliot Cubit Alexandra Granberg Anabel Sicko Zachary Dortzbach Erin Trame Emily Yao Grace Sielinski Alex Tarbet Melanie Wenzel Holden Pizzolato Layla McMurtrie Ruben Mauricio Margaret Needham Emily Paras Jane Atkins Liem Swanson Simone Masing Jacob Fallman Sim Bose Anthony McCormick Stella Lansill Christopher May Jonathan Glass Emily Mills Steve Ross Alison Wei Bella Martinez Jack Weinberg Ari Ruczynski Matthew Rohlman Dillon Schweers Jud Branam Susan Beckett Cynthia Price Libby Chambers June Miller Emilie Ziebarth Grant King Michelle Lardie-Guzek Gabe Deedler Angeline Tran Lisa Dai  VENDOR 322 from last page are in my head, that whatever I was thinking was just wrong. Maybe some of that’s true, but that doesn’t change how I feel. It doesn’t change the fact that what I’m feeling makes up the world I live in; and my world deserves to be shared because it’s the only one I’ve got, same as anybody else. Hearing you be so open about your life and your thoughts to everyone made me realize how important it is that I accept that; who cares if others see that? Maybe we shouldn’t worry about that so much. You might not agree with whatever I’m saying, or maybe I’m not making any sense, but I think that’s fine by me. You showed me the importance of just putting my thoughts out there, “speaking my own story some more,” and all that. I do hope, though, that one thing I said while we talked or something I’m writing down here makes things a little brighter for you, the way your words made things brighter for me that day. I know you are sick, and you’re hurting, and people who can help you are ignoring you instead. I know a tiny bit about what that feels like, and if I could, I’d wipe that feeling off Earth. So here’s to the good days — the times when it feels like the haze finally clears for a bit. Here’s to those great things you kept on bringing up: when you get to cross one more thing off that ever-long list of everything in the world you want to get done, even if it’s just breathing in crisp air or having a little connection with the chubby squirrels looking into their beady black eyes. Here’s to the times when we get to enjoy what strange fun it is to be human. Here’s to those few times making everything — even all that crud that crowds up our time here — worth it. I believe in that power, that — “some things are just brighter” — and I hope you do too. You’re the one who reminded me about that, after all.

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS RECOVERY JOHNATHAN GLASS Home of New Vision Recovery Coach Ryan Sawicki began experimenting with marijuana and alcohol at about 14 years old. He said that for him it was mostly out of boredom with a little peer pressure mixed in. Reflecting on his first time drinking, Ryan recalled, “It was the first time I ever drank, and we were eating pizza, and I vomited all over my shirt. It was funny at the time, but that’s not normal. There was a problem from the first drink.” His substance use escalated when he was prescribed opioids after having his wisdom teeth removed. “Not good. I felt terrible, hopeless, depressed and frustrated,” he said. “The days of fun were short-lived. The suffering, however, lasted over 10 years.” Ryan says he was 16 when he realized opioids were going to be a serious part of his life. Ryan grew up in New Boston, Michigan. His parents divorced when he was young, and while both were involved, his mother carried most of the parenting responsibilities. “I don’t want to say I was raised by a single mom, but she was for a bit. I think she did a good job with being divorced.” Eventually, when opioids became too expensive and hard to get, Ryan began injecting heroin. “If opioids were more available, I’d have continued with using those,” he said. “But heroin was easier to get, and cheaper. It was stronger, yeah, but it was just a strong opioid.” He kept working in heating and cooling during active use. He had clothes and transportation, but soon became unhoused. “My car was my mobile home,” he said. “I needed to keep the car running so that I could buy heroin and have a safe place to use.” Ryan recalled a low point when he was arrested and couldn’t afford bail. “I had nobody in my corner throughout my active use. When I ended up in jail for a paraphernalia charge, I couldn’t afford the $100 for bail. That should have told me something. I didn’t have anything financially, and I had no one to rely on for help. At the time, I knew that my difficult situation was my own doing. I think it was the self-honesty that eventually got me sober. And yet, when I got out of jail, I kept using.” Ryan learned how substance use slowly separates people from their lives and their identities. “Friends, who were once close, go in one of two directions,” he said. “If a friend remains sober, they eventually grow tired of their friend’s disorder and withdraw. On the other hand, if an addict’s friends are using drugs too, they have their own issues. It’s a problem of being separated from everything you once loved, even your own personality.” He described the outcome plainly. have payoffs later. Lifting has trackable goals. Today I went five pounds heavier, that’s a goal I met. I’m generally logic oriented; my brain needs concrete numbers.” Ryan has been working in recovery “Drugs start with a party but lead to one of three places — jails, institutions or death. All three are places of complete aloneness.” When he finally decided to ask for help, Ryan’s parents were there. “When I decided I needed help, my parents took me in. I don’t take that for granted. That means so much to me. I wouldn’t have made it to where I am if they hadn’t helped me.” Ryan’s early recovery experience was unusual in that it came with a powerful realization. “Early recovery tends to be hard for people. I kind of had one of those epiphanies in treatment where I was just like – I’m done. There was no need to focus on one day at a time … One day at a time felt like I was leaving the door open to go back to misery.” That insight helped Ryan stay focused. He started putting his energy into rebuilding a life without drugs. “Successful recoverees have an antidrug. Since drugs tend to take over a person’s mind, a recoveree needs to put a life together that will crowd out the intrusive inner temptations.” For Ryan, that outlet became powerlifting. “I got really into fitness. I began competing in power lifting competitions.” His best lifts include a 285pound bench press, 400-pound squat, and 520-pound deadlift. “I have my own fitness business, where I give a discount to those in recovery.” He notes that the business is doing well and is nearly at full capacity. Ryan also began volunteering at Home of New Vision. Just nine months into recovery, he was hired as a certified peer recovery coach. “That pretty much locked me into my commitment towards sobriety. I couldn’t use if my job was to get others sober.” While the standard requirement to become a certified peer recovery coach is typically two years in recovery, Ryan’s determination and attitude earned him an early opportunity. Alongside his work and recovery routines, Ryan explored support groups like AA. “With my fitness commitment and serving others in recovery, I tried to get into AA, but it never really fit my vibe.” Instead, he attributes his long-term recovery to having concrete goals. “When I have goals that means I need to do stuff that’s maybe going to suck now but support for between eight and nine years. The work remains fulfilling, but not without challenges. “Seeing people make the same mistakes I probably would have made, or seeing people relapse chronically, both of those are a reminder of how long I’ve been sober. Sometimes my sobriety makes it difficult to relate. But all I have to do is think about what they’re saying for a second and I realize, yeah, I probably would have done that if I were in that situation. But today, the insanity of a use disorder doesn’t compute for me, I think I’ve grown past that.” Ryan says recovery has helped him grow into a more understanding and empathetic person. “I get that sometimes a person has to learn their lesson the hard way. I wish I could have seen my mistakes in someone else and avoided them entirely. But that wasn’t the path I walked.” His advice for others is simple and direct. “It’s not a cookie cutter thing. Do things that are fun, things you enjoy. No one needs to be bored in sobriety. Boredom was a major reason I found drugs in the first place. Find what works and stick to it.” He added, “Most people in recovery need to change their playmates and playgrounds. While a geographic change doesn’t guarantee sobriety, it doesn’t hurt to make a change with a purpose.” If you are interested in taking a lifelong journey to wellness and recovery, call Home of New Vision at 734-975-1602. Recovery coaches are available throughout the week, along Access clean-up request form at bit.ly/4gk21kW AUGUST 22, 2025 Finding what works: Ryan Sawicki's recovery story "Most people in recovery need to change their playmates and playgrounds. While a geographic change doesn’t guarantee sobriety, it doesn’t hurt to make a change with a purpose." — Ryan S. with licensed counselors. If inpatient treatment is something you’re considering, Home of New Vision offers a 28-day program, with the opportunity to transition into recovery housing afterward. Recovery is possible, and support is always available. AUGUST 22, 2025 COMMUNITY RESOURCES Food Gatherers is a food bank and food rescue program serving Washtenaw County; it exists to alleviate hunger and its causes in our community. Established in 1988 as Michigan’s first food rescue program, Food Gatherers was among the first six food rescue programs in the United States of America. Food Gatherers rescues local food and leverages state and national food resources for hunger relief. This fiscal year of 2025, Food Gatherers has distributed a record breaking 10.3 million pounds of food — enough to provide 8.5 million meals for neighbors experiencing hunger. However there is a difficult truth to realize which is that hunger is rising. Recent data from Feeding America and local partners show food insecurity in Washtenaw County has increased from 12.5% to 14% this year. Food Gatherers relies on charitable gifts from individuals, corporations and foundations to fund more than 87% of their annual budget. Each year 95% of donations they receive directly support Food Gatherers’ hunger relief efforts in places like Washtenaw County. Proudly contributing to the locations that work best for them. Some options include Eat and Play and Grab and Go, which you can learn more about by joining the Food Gatherers newsletter. With the recent rise in hunger, Zion EMERI JADE BEY Groundcover vendor No. 660 providing hunger relief to pantries and organizations such as S.O.S. Community Center, Robert J. Delonis Center and more, Food Gatherers is sustained mostly through the efforts of its volunteers, engaging the public in the fight against hunger. Food Gatherers also creates and sustains innovative new food programs in response to emerging needs. Food Gatherers recognizes that hunger will not be solved through the provision of food alone, so they advocate for policies and system changes to create an equitable food system. This summer, Food Gatherers has two additional program types and families can visit community EVENTS JOE DULIN DAY / PARKRIDGE SUMMERFEST Saturday, August 23, 12-6 p.m. Parkridge Park, 591 Armstrong Drive, Ypsilanti Resources, music, food, fun! PURSLANE COMMONS + AGRICOLE SEASONAL COOKING WORKSHOP: MID-SUMMER GRILL MADDNESS! Sunday, August 24, 1-4 p.m. Agricole Farm Stop, 118 N Main Street, Chelsea Delicious, wholesome, creative menus. Cook in small teams, fun for ages 9 and up. An authentic social experience. Grilled vegetable pasta sauces, corn on the cob, grilled peach. A2 LOCAL FOOD FESTIVAL Thursday, August 28, 2025, 5-8 p.m. Ann Arbor Farmers Market, 315 Detroit Street This free public festival showcases farms, food makers and local organizations focused on growing a strong and sustainable local food system. Festival-goers will learn about the benefits of local and sustainably grown food, eat delicious local food, participate in fun and educational activities, and enjoy music. GERMAN PARK PICNIC Saturday, August 30, 4-11 p.m. German Park, 5549 Pontiac Trail German Park Recreation Club hosts three picnics the last Saturday in June, July and August. Admission gate open 4-9 p.m.; Park closes at 11 p.m. Live music, authentic German food and live dance performances. 2025 LABOR DAY MARCH with AFL-CIO Monday, September 1, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. Starts at intersection of Michigan Ave and Trumbull Ave, ends at Michigan Center Station in Roosevelt Park GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15th ANNIVERSARY PARTY Thursday, September 4, 6-8 p.m. First Congregational Church of A2 For the first time, Groundcover is celebrating a major milestone. Join us for an evening of reunion, music, food and drink, and a gallery walk of Groundcover’s history. Be a part of celebrating where we started, where we are, and where we are going! Purchase tickets online at givebutter.com/gcn15. Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews.com Word search created by Emeri Jade Bey Groundcover writer and vendor No. 660 Well yoga studio has put together a fundraiser this summer to help continue to keep Food Gatherers’ programs up and running. This summer you can fight hunger by joining Zion Well yoga studio for yoga in County Farm Park on Fridays at 5:30 p.m.! Each session is donation-based and will directly benefit Food Gatherers to help feed neighbors facing hunger. This specific fundraiser ends on August 29 and is the perfect way to try yoga at a price you can afford before choosing to commit full time. Please register ahead of time and bring your own yoga mat/towel. Also if you would like to see all of Food Gatherers’ distribution locations please visit www.foodgatherers.org. Click the "find help" button at the top of the page, type in your address and the food map will show you all of the nearest pantry locations. If you would like, you may also contact Food Gatherers directly by calling 734-761-2796. Thank you Food Gatherers for all that you do for the community. You remind us that together we can! GROUNDCOVER NEWS FUNdraiser for Food Gatherers: Yoga in the park 15

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Roasted garlic salsa ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 large heads of garlic 3 T. olive oil 2 large tomatoes, chopped ½ cup chopped onions 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced 3 T. chopped fresh cilantro 1 t. salt Dash of Tabasco Sauce Directions: Remove most of the papery skins from garlic, slice off the tops, place in a shallow baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Roast in the oven at 300 degrees until soft (about 1 hour). Cool and then squeeze garlic cloves from skin and finely chop. Combine with the other ingredients and chill in a covered bowl. Great with nachos! AUGUST 22, 2025 $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 8/22/2025 09/18/25 HAVE A DAY FULL OF DISCOVERY AT THE ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM! ACCESS FOR ALL $3 ADMISSION PER PERSON WITH PROOF OF EBT/SNAP. *Up to 6 people per card. Ages 23 months & under are free. Show your EBT card in person —out-of-state cards accepted. (734) 995-5439 220 E Ann St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 LEARN MORE: bit.ly/visit-aahom

2 $ AUGUST 8, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 17 BRIAN HARGROVE #158 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Hear Me Out: Ann Arbor needs a real day center. page 9 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO START THE DAY? 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Federal cuts to housing vouchers could lead to more homelessness in Washtenaw County. page 4 Robert on the balcony of his subsidized apartment in Ann Arbor. He spoke with Groundcover News about being fed up with the system — the wars, federal spending and the ways it impacts his life. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 AUGUST 8, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. Groundcover's annual $15 special edition magazine hit the streets August 1, 2025. It is filled with vendor family recipes, restaurant reviews, essays and reports on all things FOOD! + a TeaHaus coupon! Pick one up from your local vendor today. Anabel Sicko STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Teresa Basham Elizabeth Bauman Monique Caldwell Pedro Campos Jim Clark Shelley DeNeve Cindy Gere Emeri Jade Bey Mike Jones Lit Kurtz Bastian Pütter Denise Shearer Anthony Smith Steven Felicia Wilbert PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Steve Ross VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Ben Foster Glenn Gates Grant King Robert Klingler Anthony McCormick Margaret Patston Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth BOARD of DIRECTORS Anna Gersh Greg Hoffman Jessi Averill Jacob Fallman Jack Edelstein Glenn Gates Mike Jones GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Hailu Shitaye Shelley DeNeve Steve Borgsdorf CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org WAYS TO SUPPORT 1. Buy the paper, read the paper. 2. Get the word out — We rely on grassroots marketing. Talk to people about Groundcover and share us with your network. 3. Volunteer — You'll learn a lot about our vendors, the newspaper and your community. Interested in volunteering regularly? Fill out the form on our website. 4. Advertise your company, organization, event or resource — see rates below. 5. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram — promote our posts and share your favorite articles and vendor interactions. 6. Donate items — A seasonally appropiate list of items most needed at our office and on the street is available on our website. Drop off anytime we're open. PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons AUGUST 8, 2025 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What's the best way to start the day? Pray and think positive thoughts for your day. — Brian Hargrove, #158 Get up and thank God first. Receive your check; what you receive on your check is your attitude. In order to cash it in, you need to be grateful and joyous! — Felicia Wilbert #234 Put your feet on the floor. — Ken Parks, #490 Coffee, water, yoga, meds. — Jim Clark, #139 Waking up with Folgers in your cup. — Rose Strickland, #25 Solitude. — Wayne Sparks, #615 Open your eyes and leap out of bed as if a bolt of lightning hit you! Yoga, Capoeira, breathing, a cigarette, breakfast, coffee, conversation. That's how I do it. — David Putman, #679 To let go of the past and forget about the future, because the present is always now. — Cindy Gere, #279 It was an unusually hot winter in Mississippi the year of 2012. The swimming season started early in April. The lake was crowded with small paddle boats and swimmers. Teressa and her family lived across Lake Wanna from her best friend Mariah. They would often swim together, meeting in the middle. They would race to the marker, the dock that was placed in the middle of the lake. Mariah was obsessed every summer trying to get tanned. You could find them sitting around the trees or laying out on the dock for hours talking and reading the latest “Glamour” magazine. The first weekend in May, Teressa’s family had a cookout at the lake. Her mom would always make fresh sushi; her dad would always fish from Lake Wanna. This year was no different. The lake offered fresh fish, shrimp and crab meat. Their families would cook out all summer long. Early Monday morning Teressa was feeling ill — her whole body ached, she could barely stand and walk. Her parents rushed her to St. Mary’s FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 GROUNDCOVER NEWS Truth or lies: The invader Mariah held Teressa’s hand, talking to her, anticipating her awakening. During the last week in June the doctors finally discovered what ailed Teressa. It was a bite from a lyme tick. Teressa had contracted it in the grass, maybe sitting by the trees. Her dad had the property exterminated immediately! Finally during the second week in July Teressa awakened. Hospital. After she arrived, her body started to convulse and she had a seizure. Teressa went into a coma. The doctor informed the family they did not find anything to warrant her illness. They charted every food Teressa ate and every activity she did during the weekend. There was nothing new. They ordered the fish at the lake to be tested. They found amoebas, small invading insects found in raw shellfish. However. Teressa never ate any raw shellfish, her mother explained to the doctor. June came and she was still in a coma. Her mother prayed all day everyday. Her dad felt helpless; however, he too prayed for a miracle. They spent hours at the hospital, and her best friend Mariah was there every day. She was weak and could not walk. The doctor ordered physical therapy, which would last eight weeks. Teressa realized she had been near death; she thanked God for her recovery. She thanked the doctors and everyone for their prayers. Teressa wrote a letter to the Mississippi press informing them of her situation. She wanted to warn everyone of the invasive ticks. Even after one year her body still aches and she still walks with a cane. However Teressa is grateful to be alive. Teressa often tells everyone about her experience, pleading with them to be careful,warning them to check their pets and themselves, and be aware of the invaders in the grass and amongst the trees. 3 The Scorpion and The Frog STEVEN Groundcover vendor No. 668 His enormous flayed toes knuckled the sand as he nictated his membranes at the foamy brown water. Just lazing away the day, distantly grateful he wasn’t being licked by some hominid. Someone was next to him. Someone somehow had snuck up on him. There that someone was though, just chillin’, looking at the water, his relaxed stinger a distant thought. “Sup?" asked the scorpion. “Sup,” answered the frog. They sat in silence for a long while watching the water. “Sup?" asked the scorpion. “Sup,” answered the frog. Loquaciously the scorpion made small talk at the frog then asked, “So, uh you gonna go across or what?” In answer the frog lazily blinked his huge eyelids. “No, but seriously I’m tryin’ to get across here,” said the scorpion to the silent frog, trying like hell to not sound like a scorpion. Image by Dark-Wayfarer More silence, then the frog belched loud and clear and spoke, “I mean, yeah, I’m gonna cross here at some point.” Scorpion nonchalantly responded, “Cool, cool.” In the same chill tone then asked, “So hey, no rush or anything or whatever but like when you do cross can I hitch a ride with you bro?” After several long slow blinks, the frog said, “Hitch a ride like on my back? What am I, new? You’ll sting me and eat me.” The scorpion, like he invented being offended, cried, "Whoa, whoa, whoa man, what like I’m gonna sting you while we’re out on the water? What am I, crazy? I’d drown too man.’” The frog, as ever slow to respond, sat a bit and said, “Yeah, okay, that makes sense. I’ll give you a lift.” “Great, fantastic. Thanks, frog!” Then they sat some more. Something roused the frog at some point and he was ready to move. “Alright bro, if we’re gonna do this, lets do this,” and he shifted his weight. Scorpion was like, “Cool, cool, let’s do this.” Now frog, you understand, is a hell of a swimmer. Top notch, but when the scorpion stung him in the back of the head midstream he faltered. He faltered hard. Even with that burning venom coursing through his simple little brain he still had the wherewithal to ask, “What did you stab me for bro? I thought we’re pals? I’m the one swimming here, like WTF?” The slick dying-ass scorpion said, "I’m a scorpion, you’re a frog bro.” This is a parable said to come out of Russian folklore in the early 20th century, though it may hearken back into Persian antiquity as The Scorpion and the Turtle.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS AUGUST 8, 2025 Federal cuts to housing vouchers could lead to more homelessness in Washtenaw County Everybody I know has, needs, or wants a housing voucher because rent is too damn high! Here in Washtenaw County, officials await the effects from the July bill that will cut funding to Federal Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8), jeopardizing those who have vouchers now, and leaving thousands unhoused in Washtenaw County. A 43% cut to voucher programs funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would equate to a more than a $12 million loss for the Ann Arbor Housing Commission, Jennifer Hall, the commission’s executive director told Washtenaw County officials during a Wednesday, July 2, working session, as reported by MLive.* The housing commission estimated it would have to terminate 916 vouchers. “I want to make sure you’re aware of that, because it will be a major increase in homelessness if that is what happens, and it is going to affect all of your jurisdictions, particularly the urban core, City of Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti city, Ypsilanti Township, Superior Township,” Hall is reported to have said. “And we’re only one housing agency in our county; there are others that have vouchers here,” she added. The housing commission expects to get direction from HUD now that the federal cuts for fiscal year 2026, also known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” have been signed into law by President Trump. When Hall was interviewed by the Ann Arbor News/MLive, she said she is monitoring news from various professional organizations on the subject. According to the Associated Press, more than 1 million low-income households — most of them working families with children — who depend on the nation’s public housing and Section 8 voucher programs could be at risk of losing their government-subsidized homes under the Trump administration’s proposal to impose a two-year time limit on rental assistance. (In other words, people receiving voucher-based assistance would only be allowed to stay in the housing for two years.) That over-one-million figure is according to new research from New York University, obtained exclusively by The Associated Press, which suggests the time restriction could affect as many as 1.4 million households. The NYU report also raises concerns about the largely untested policy, as most of the limited number of local housing authorities that have voluntarily tried the idea eventually abandoned the pilots. “If currently assisted MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 households are subject to a two-year limit, that would lead to enormous disruption and large administrative costs” for public housing authorities, the report said, adding that once the limit was up, housing authorities “would have to evict all of these households and identify new households to replace them.” Elderly and disabled people would be exempt, but there’s little guidance from the agency on how time-limited housing assistance would be implemented — how it would be enforced, when the clock starts and how the exemptions would be defined. There is also a wide range of classifications of competency within the category of “disabled.” Will this result in expensive and time-consuming efforts to prove acceptable levels of disability for housing assistance? There are eight million Americans who are one paycheck away from becoming homeless. Since 2020, Washtenaw County has seen an overall increase in homelessness of almost 20%. The Point-in-Time Count is a federally mandated accounting of homelessness organized by the Washtenaw Housing Alliance and the Office of Community and Economic Development. As discussed in previous articles in Groundcover News, the PIT count is a necessary, but incomplete attempt to understand the size of homelessness in a county. Literal counts of unsheltered and sheltered homelessness must be extrapolated to get a more realistic number. A 2023 review conducted by the Wash-tenaw County Continuum of Care indicated that 266 individuals were experiencing homelessness, a 15% rise since 2022. The 2024 Point in Time Count identified 330 people experiencing homelessness, a 24% increase from the previous year. In just the last year Michigan’s eviction rate has also risen nearly 5%. The Shelter Association of Washtenaw County was established in 1982, and is the primary provider of services and emergency shelter for over 1300 Washtenaw County individuals each year. SAWC operates out of the Robert J. Delonis Center in downtown Ann Arbor. SAWC works with a diverse range of people struggling with homelessness, including first-time homeless people, veterans, domestic violence survivors, and people battling substance abuse and/or mental health issues. Services are offered through their core programs: Residential, Non-Residential/Shelter Diversion, Pathways Program, Recuperative Care, Rotating Shelter, Housing Crisis Stabilization, and Winter Programs. At the Delonis Center, SAWC has an onsite kitchen run by Food Gatherers and a free medical clinic run by Packard Health. SAWC offers hope to those living on the street with a myriad of services designed to give people the dignity they deserve including showers, access to storage, laundry, and an address to receive mail. Their programs and services address immediate and long-term client needs through case management, community referrals, and on-site basic needs with the goal of sustainable housing. Their Residential Program offers beds to 58 individuals. Their Shelter Diversion program can assist an additional 100 individuals at a time. Their Recuperative Care program offers 12 beds at a time for individuals experiencing homelessness discharging from local hospitals with an ongoing medical need. In the cold months, the SAWC serves an additional 500 to 750 people in their cold-weather warming center and offers survival and warmth from the coldest winter months. The Delonis warming center clients, along with all the other clients, receive an array of support that helps them move into safe, permanent housing. The end goal is ending homelessness, one person at a time, and to work with the community to allocate the necessary resources to provide housing and support based on the Housing First Model. The Delonis Center will also, separately, be affected by federal funding cuts. They could lose $700,000 from their $4 million budget, potentially reducing much-needed services for the unhoused in Washtenaw County. As a cab driver in 2017, I was unhoused and received my Section 8 voucher. The reason I received a voucher is because I was court-ordered to pay child support and could not afford to pay rent and child support at the same time. Now, I and millions of other low-income tenants are wondering whether or not we are going to lose our housing voucher. And those who are on the waiting list for permanent housing from the federal housing program will be left chronically homeless. To be considered chronically homeless, one has to be unhoused for one year or more, but the truth is, it often takes several years to receive a federal housing voucher. The two year limitation on federal housing vouchers for rental assistance, in my opinion and experience with different housing agencies, will be an administrative disaster. These housing agencies are too small, under-staffed, and in some cases incompetent to handle a turnover every two years. When people suffer in poverty, they usually don’t escape poverty in as little time as two years. And the expense and disruption of relocating will further stress financial resources. The two year limitation could mean that those with Section 8 housing vouchers become unhoused again, thus increasing the number of unhoused people in Washtenaw County. *The budget that passed in the House of Representatives was more hopeful than the President's initial FY26 proposed budget, but still implements work requirements and large admin cuts. AUGUST 8, 2025 OPINION Let Freedom Ring “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” I made this pledge every morning in elementary school. The name of my school was “Little Britain" and it was located next to the military base I grew up on. I believed in that. I also grew up on Saturday morning cartoons — Superman, fighting for truth, justice and the American way. Captain America, whose theme song was: “When Captain America throws his mighty shield, all those who chose to oppose his shield must yield! If he’s led to a fight and a duel is due then the red and the white and the blue will come through when Captain America throws his mighty shield!” I believed in that, too. I was born on July 3rd. Every year, the celebration of the most important day in America’s history seared itself with explosions and flashes of light into my little nervous system. To me it was a celebration of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Again, I believed in that. The American flag was my symbol. I believed that America was in fact the land of the free and the home of the brave. I believed this land was your land and this land was my land. I believed my country was the sweet land of liberty. But then my American Dream ended. In college, I woke up. I learned about whose land this actually was, who this land was stolen from and how. I learned that the land of opportunity meant people had the opportunity to own slaves. I learned that America meant being a bully and making a buck at any cost. But I was raised to be a patriot. Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. It is the duty of the free people to crush a government when it becomes oppressive. That day is here. As a service worker for the homeless, I found myself one day in a situation that taught me something very important. My friends and I were cleaning up a site where a man had been camped on his own property. The property was taken from him by Pittsfield Township on a tax technicality. He was behind on his taxes. They seized his home and sold it to Habitat for Humanity. I’ll just leave that irony right there for you to savor. It gets worse. The man was African American, survivor of three strokes which left his mental capacity very compromised, and a veteran. He was supposed to be protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Department of Veteran Affairs and the Constitution. America, from sea to shining sea, abandoned a man who fought for his JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 country. In the rubble of his remaining property, there was an American flag. It was on the ground and covered in garbage. Some of my friends wanted to burn it. That last stitch of patriotism in me wanted to protect it. I told them my story of elementary school, and the military base, and the Saturday morning cartoons. But then my “paradigm was shifted” again. One of my friends was Palestinian. She told me what the flag meant to her. You see, our great nation has been attacking her country — her home — relentlessly — via the weapons America sells to Israel ($7.4 billion worth. Read about it in The Guardian, Feb. 7, 2025). To her the flag meant the death of her neighbors and their children, the decimation of her generational family home, and the horror of the extermination of her people. The American flag to her was the same as the Nazi flag to me — the symbol of an evil empire. When she told me her story, I swallowed hard. (The next paragraph is slightly fictionalized for sensitive reasons). Recently I saw a YouTube video of a delightful barbecue and bonfire in what seemed to be an average American backyard. There were American flags lining the bonfire pit. Flash back to the 80s when Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag to protest the policies of then-President Ronald Reagan. For many, Reagan was the Conservative’s president; his flag represented freedom and comfort. Back then I really didn’t understand the politics of the time so when I saw the flag burning, I thought he was a traitor. I saw the flag burning on the news in Middle Eastern countries and in my naivety couldn’t understand why they were so mad at us. Flash forward to a few days ago. The people in the video start burning the flags. I had a visceral reaction. What was happening to my patriotism? You see, I was one of the people in the video. At that moment I had to come to terms with something. The flag today means something different than the flag I grew up with. It doesn’t represent truth and justice like I thought it did. That notion was burned away. Then something weird happened. All of a sudden I wanted to be okay with it. I wanted to let go of my childhood innocence and nostalgia. I searched my heart and found something that did the trick. I am a middle aged white male. The flag has always served me and my demographic. Meanwhile, it has been the symbol of oppression for the rest of the world. I cannot support that. What I realized was that the American flag, the Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, represents my white male privilege. It represents capitalism, imperialism, white supremacy and white privilege. Most of all, the American flag has become a symbol of hate. Let it burn in the fires of revolution and reclamation. Let it burn, let it burn, let it burn. I still maintain my identity as an American. I believe that truth and justice, that the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, are FOR EVERYONE. I believe that We the People are mandated to overthrow oppressive regimes, just like we did in Nazi Germany. Just like we need to do now. There is one American icon I still believe in. She is the enigmatic symbol of the tension between oppressive nationalism and universal human rights. She is Lady Liberty. The Roman Goddess of freedom; her statue bears a poem that may serve as an epitaph for capitalism and nationalism. "A New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus 1849 - 1887 Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” 12/31/2025 GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 To the Ancient Land of the bourgeoisie and the ruling class — keep your racism, your oppression, your xenophobia, and your hate. Keep your “storied pomp.” I stand with the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. I stand with those you choose to rob and murder. I stand with Palestine. I stand with Ukraine and Cuba. I stand with your own children, the Street Community and the homeless. I stand with the Pride Community, the Native Community and the People of Color. I stand with the ones you betray; the women, the workers and even your own warriors. As a new nation rises under the collapse of the old, I will pledge my allegiance to the Goddess of Freedom. Bring your torch, my Lady, for our nation has failed. oppressive

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Undercover art intel: Poetry as art Shawn Swoffer was born in Detroit and moved to Washtenaw County at the age of one. Shawn told me she lived here till the age of six when her family moved to California. She lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. She told me she loved California. At the age of 14 she moved back to Ypsilanti. "Stars" by Shawn Swoffer As i look into the Darkness of night i look Into the stars as i do So i think to myself What a wonderful life. Shawn loved writing in junior high school because a group of four friends loved the music scene and came together to put a rock and roll band together. They dubbed Shawn the band writer of songs. She got right to work writing songs for this band, and this is where she discovered her writing talent. She told me “... words just CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 flowed out of me with no effort at all.” Feelings by Shawn Swoffer Feelings so strong and True but so bold My feelings for you Are like a tornado this Love is true its got You right where i want You true love you you Are like an angle from Heaven above She found another way to write: posting to online dating sites to show love with poems to love interests. She told me, “I love writing romantically with love poems. My partner, Big Bird, gives me the most inspiration and encourages me to continue writing. I love writing poetry. It's a wonderful way to express myself and feel good about myself to the world.” Groundcover News gives many people like Shawn the opportunity to show the world the kind of talent that is out there. Shawn told me in the next five years she hopes to make a small booklet like other artists have done and sell them to the public. She also said, ”My personal wisdom to new poets is don't give up, be determined to work hard at it and give peace of mind.” Love is the most powerful emotion that unites people and takes them from the brink of war to transcend time and space. Love mends broken hearts. It takes an artist like Shawn Swoffer to tell all of us love wins in the end. AUGUST 8, 2025 Something new MONIQUE CALDWELL Groundcover contributor The sun rose up on a quieter sky, No rush, no race, just clouds drifting by. A breath of morning, soft and wide— Love stirred gently, no need to hide. Celebrating all of life's good from Jesus DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 We'd both been weathered by yesterday's rain, Carried old stories, patches of pain. But this was different—your smile said so. Like spring deciding it's time to grow. Hand in hand, not chasing fate, We walked together, slow and straight. Each word we spoke was brave and true— A tender start. Just me and you. So here we are, the page so wide, A fresh beginning, side by side. Love that listens, love that stays— And welcomes all our better days. Keep it real The world needs more love and more appreciation and celebration of Jesus The world needs more and more food banks and shelters for people who don’t have much The world needs more and more love and the world needs more and more care Every day and every season and every holiday the world needs to celebrate Jesus and all people This poem is written with care to everyone TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 Stay true to you EMERI JADE BEY Groundcover vendor No. 660 E legant, like a ball gown gliding across the dancefloor. M E R I oorish American, balancing work and play. levation, to where I need to be. esilient when bad things come my way. ndividual, staying true to myself and progressing everyday. You don’t wanna see, What choo do ta me, You don’t care, How you make me feel, Thee strugglez I bear, I do it alone, You don’t wanna see, So I alwayz kneel, Keep it real, Lord knowz my heart, Wantin that unconditional love, I only find it in my father in heaven, People don’t care about, Anyone or anythang but themselvez. AUGUST 8, 2025 EVENTS community EVENTS YPSI FOOD FESTIVAL Saturday, August 9 |12:30 – 7:30 p.m. Downtown Ypsilanti, University Bank Commerce Center, 301 W Michigan Ave. A delicious day packed with: - Mouthwatering food from local vendors & food trucks — including vegan and vegetarian options! - DJ to keep the vibes high - Family-friendly games and activities for all ages - A joyful celebration of community, culture, and small business - Whether you’re craving BBQ, soul food or something plant-based and fresh — they’ve got your plate covered. FREE ENTRY. All ages welcome. Tons of fun guaranteed. A2 FOOD TRUCK RALLY AT THE MARKET! Wednesday, August 20, 5-8 p.m. Ann Arbor Farmers Market Your favorite food trucks, carts and pop-ups plus live music! A2ZERO MONTHLY CLOTHING SWAPS August 21, 4-7 p.m. Larcom City Hall, 301 E Huron St. These are a perfect way to give your gently used clothes a new home, and you might just find an item of clothing you have been looking for, without having to buy it new. Each person can bring up to five items of clothing in good condition. Accessories are also welcome. You can take clothing without bringing anything, or bring clothing without taking anything. Hosted by the Office of Sustainability and Innovations. ICPJ ALTERNATIVES to VIOLENCE PROJECT Basic Workshop Friday, August 15, 9 a.m. - 8 p.m. Nadine Hoover & Melaine Siaw facilitating. This barebones, basic workshop is focused on transforming our personal lives and interpersonal patterns; it fulfills the basic participation requirement for the advance workshop and can be done as a refresher or a first time basic. Advanced Workshop August 16 - 17, Saturday 9 a.m. - 8 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Nadine Hoover & Melaine Siaw lead facilitating, Maryam Ashraf & Jaye Starr apprenticing. Focuses on transforming our public lives and social patterns. REGISTRATION REQUIRED: email info@icpj.org for form. Co-sponsored by Ann Arbor Quaker Meeting Friends Peace & Justice Committee, the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, Friends Peace Teams, and AVP Michigan. A2 LOCAL FOOD FESTIVAL Thursday, August 28, 2025, 5-8 p.m. Ann Arbor Farmers Market, 315 Detroit Street This free public festival showcases farms, food makers and local organizations focused on growing a strong and sustainable local food system. Festival-goers will learn about the benefits of local and sustainably grown food, eat delicious local food, participate in fun and educational activities, and enjoy music. Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews. com What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Cindy Durrah: Rebel without a pause TOMMY SPAGHETTI Groundcover vendor No. 669 If you have lived in Detroit for any time you might know Cindy Durrah. If you work in the city you may have seen her as she gets around aplenty. She might be considered a thorn in the side of city council and bureaucrats. She is a housing activist who has attended more city council meetings than even the mayor. Rumor is: she holds the record. In the 1970s Cindy paddled across the Detroit River on a raft made from a door. A door that became available after Detroit demolished its first abandoned house. Cindy believes that home demolition is bad policy and I agree wholeheartedly. We all know the economic forces that created the problem in Detroit. WHITE FLIGHT is what it has been called. The official word denoting the evacuation of Detroit is: Mass. Over a million residents fled to the suburbs after the 1967 riots — riots that engulfed part of the city in flames. I was only five years old when it happened and was living in the sparsely populated suburban enclave called Livonia. I have no visual memory of the riots but I do recall my mother using the term “race-riot.” From 1968-2000, Detroit experienced the largest exodus in human history, perhaps. White people moving to the 'burbs.’ Fueled by fear, enticed by greedy realtors, the movement began in earnest, leaving a tax-depleted city center along with 250,000 abandoned homes. I digress. This article is about Cindy, who I adore because of who she is and what she represents. Cindy is a survivor. At 81 years of age she is still active and belongs on my list of Octogenerians Who Rock! Cindy was born in Wichita, Kansas Sunday, August 24 • 12-3 PM • Downtown Library Let’s take the Summer Game out with a bang with a building-wide puzzle, badge coloring, badge button making, face painting, and more! Use your remaining Summer Game points to bid for special items in our auction! Durrah's house in Detroit. She is pictured above. in 1941, and I forgot what she told me about her parents so I will ask her again. I’m hoping to keep this article going as a series. If you read this far and I kept your interest then perhaps you will purchase the upcoming editions of Groundcover. Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out Public Computers The AADL has public-access internet computers available for use by both cardholders and noncardholders at all five locations. Each station has USB ports, headphone jacks, and some of the fastest wifi speeds in town! Byte Club An exclusive club for AADL SUPER FANS and library people like you! Byte Club will help you connect deeper with the Library you know and love, and share special sneak peeks of new things coming soon. Ready to join? Visit aadl.org/ byteclub to get started. FEATURED EVENT GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOUSING AUGUST 8, 2025 Avalon Housing Ypsi complex breaks ground, community benefits will follow despite expiration LINDSAY CALKA Publisher There’s construction happening on Washington Street in Ypsilanti. It's been a long time coming, and it's expected to have a long-term benefit. On January 1, 2017, the 16-unit apartment building managed by Stewart Beal at 206 N. Washington caught fire. Not long after, the Wash-tenaw County Treasurer foreclosed the burned-out multi-unit structure following the owner’s nonpayment of taxes and failure to make an estimated $1.5 million in repairs. In July 2019, the City of Ypsilanti City Council voted 7 to 0 to approve purchasing 206 N. Washington from the County Treasurer with its “Right of First Refusal” for $101,977 — using a combination of $75,000 from Ypsi’s Affordable Housing Fund and $26,977 from Ypsi’s Dangerous Buildings Escrow Fund. In March 2020, eight months after the City’s purchase, the City Economic Development Director requested that the City release a Request for Proposals for affordable housing development. On September 15 of that year, Ypsilanti City Council approved the proposal from Avalon Housing. The only other proposal was from the Ypsilanti Housing Commission. On February 2, 2023, Avalon made a formal request for a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT): 4% of total shelter rents for the next 50 years. Working with the City Assessor, staff estimated the tax to be $55,615 per year without a PILOT, which makes the total value of the tax break incentive $2.38 million. Shelter rents proposed are $750 at 22 units for a total of $198,000, so the payment instead of taxes would be $7,920 annually. However, the City will collect a portion, not all, of this payment instead of taxes. Due to Ordinance No. 1325 (passed in 2018), when a developer is requesting public support in the form of a financial incentive — such as a tax break — or in the form of the sale or lease of city-owned land, the developer must offer substantial community benefits. Residents of Ypsilanti are nominated then appointed by City Council for an ad-hoc committee to discuss and negotiate potential community benefits. Over six months the Community Benefits Agreement Committee met four times in public meetings to produce the agreement below. It was put before a public hearing and approved by Ypsi City Council on December 5, 2023. 206 N Washington St.’s Community Benefits The approved Community Benefits Agreement requires Avalon to abide by the following ten agreements: 1. Avalon will affirmatively market the units at 206 N. Washington St. so that populations that often find it difficult to obtain affordable and supportive housing will have access to these units including seniors and others identified, in the Project’s Affirmative Fair Marketing Housing Plan. 2. Avalon will affirmatively market and prioritize supportive housing units at 206 N. Washington St. to previously incarcerated individuals, consistent with the local Coordinated Entry process. 3. Avalon will lose the PILOT on an individual unit for a year if the tenant has an income that exceeds 60% area median income. 4. Avalon will commit itself to continuing its mission throughout the duration. Avalon’s mission to build healthy, safe and inclusive supportive housing communities as a long-term solution to homelessness. 5. Avalon will collaborate with community partners to offer appropriate programs that are available to the wider community in the community room at 206 N. Washington St. 6. Avalon shall commit to Green Standards included in its County HOME agreement and in its MSHDA agreement, including Enterprise Green Communities and/or National Green Building Standards. 7. Should an excess of funding exist after the project is complete, then Avalon will use any additional funds to add renewable components to the building (solar, etc.). 8. Avalon agrees to assist its residents in acquiring a residential street parking pass, with proof of vehicle ownership. 9. Avalon will install a bench in the front of the property. 10. Avalon will maximize the use of the historic outbuildings for community benefit as space permits, subject to historic district restrictions, if any. The City of Ypsilanti is required to do the following: 1. Maintain the 4% PILOT on 206 N. Washington St. for the length of this agreement. 2. Amend Chapter 58 of the Human Relations Commission to further focus on housing affordability and accessibility; however, failure of the City to amend Chapter 58 shall not limit the 206 N Washington St. before demolition. Avalon Housing's development will provide 22 units of affordable housing and supportive services. Rendering provided by Avalon. project’s ability to receive a PILOT. 3. Readopt a Community Benefits Ordinance; however, failure of the City to readopt a Community Benefits Ordinance shall not limit the project’s ability to receive a PILOT. Yes, the 2018 Community Benefits Ordinance that made this whole process possible has expired. Working sessions are happening now to reinstate another CBO. Construction timeline In late June the construction began and by July the building was completely demolished. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2026 — when the CBA will officially go into effect. 206 N Washington St. will provide 22 units of affordable housing; all of the units are 1-bedroom units, and eight of the units are set aside for people exiting homelessness. Everyone living at 206 N. Washington will have access to support services such as case management, crisis support and medical care to help overcome any challenges they face in staying housed. Much of the CBO research for this article was compiled by Kat Layton, a member of the 206 N. Washington Community Benefits Committee. Agreement AUGUST 8, 2025 SHELTER Hear Me Out: Ann Arbor needs a real day center For years, people navigating housing instability in Ann Arbor have relied on what might best be described as a patchwork of “daytime” options — public libraries, coffee shops, transit centers and the occasional warming space. These are stopgaps, not solutions. While the library and other public spaces have tried to provide a refuge, none of them offer what a dedicated day center could: safety, stability and the resources needed to help people move forward. The library was never designed to be a solution for those navigating housing crises. At best people are shuffled in and out, often without a quiet place to rest, meet with a caseworker, or simply warm up in the winter or cool down in the summer. Staff are stretched thin, and tensions flare when patrons’ needs go beyond books and Wi-Fi. This isn’t necessarily the library’s fault, but rather the city’s failure to create a space where people can exist without being LIT KURTZ Groundcover vendor No. 159 like churches may open their doors for a few hours but can’t meet the sustained needs of people living without stable housing. These piecemeal measures leave hundreds of residents with no predictable place to go — forcing them to wander, endure extreme weather, or risk trespassing charges just for trying to rest. Ann Arbor prides itself on being treated as problems to be managed. A real day center would fill these gaps. It would offer showers, lockers, basic health services, job and housing navigation, and a stable place to connect with outreach workers. More importantly, it would acknowledge that people have the right to exist — even when they aren’t shopping, working or otherwise performing for the comfort of those around them. Instead, the city continues to rely on makeshift solutions. Temporary cooling centers open and close unpredictably. Community spaces progressive, but without a functioning day center, the city is failing its most vulnerable residents. As someone who has experienced this firsthand, I know how exhausting it is to be displaced hour by hour, day after day. The city must prioritize funding and partnerships for a permanent, year-round day center — not just as a charity gesture, but as a matter of public health and basic human dignity. Until then, the library and other public spaces will continue to bear the burden of a crisis they were never meant to solve. It’s time for Ann Arbor to step up. GROUNDCOVER NEWS JOIN US FOR A CELEBRATION OF FOOD & FARMING ANN ARBOR LOCAL FOOD FESTIVAL AUGUST 28 , 2025 | 5:00-8:00 PM TH ANN ARBOR FARMERS MARKET • FARM & FOOD VENDORS • LIVE MUSIC • CHEF DEMONSTRATIONS • SKILL SHARES • LOCAL FOOD SAMPLING • GIVEAWAYS & PRIZES • GAMES & FUN FOR ALL AGES PRESENTED BY: 9 FREE TO ATTEND FAMILY FRIENDLY LEARN MORE: Special election results GROUNDCOVER NEWS Both proposals regarding the development of the Library Lot passed with 58% approval in the City of Ann Arbor's August 5 special election. The election had a low 24% voter turnout. PROPOSAL A: Amendment to authorize the transfer of City owned property to the Ann Arbor District Library • Authorizes the City to sell the Library Lane Parking Structure, to the AADL for the purpose of building a mixed-use development that includes additional library services, housing, retail and programmable open public space. • Does not authorize new taxes. PROPOSAL B: Amendment to repeal Section 1.4 of the City Charter • Repeals the "Center of the City" section of the City Charter, which mandates that the city-owned land bounded by Fifth Ave., and William, Division and Liberty Streets be permanently retained in public ownership, and repeals the land designation as an urban park and civic center commons. A2GOV.ORG/LOCALFOODFEST

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES Continued from “Reimagining Walden, a loathing,” the June 27, 2025 edition of Groundcover News, p. 10 It was good advice the Indian gave me when he said “Watch Scotty.” In the most underhanded ways Scott showed his true colors while I was asleep after a long hard day's work. I had washed up and eaten and collapsed, and I'd only been asleep for a few hours when I was “a-baconed” (the experience of being woken up by police of some kind) by the Sheriff's Department. Scott had waited till I was out cold and then made up a story about how I said I was going to kill his dogs and invited the cops in with the story that everything in the house that was illegal was mine. The truth is that he had paid for everything even remotely lefthanded. I would learn that one cannot subpoena credit card records in Michigan, which is interesting. The sheriff and narcs of lawnet, who are low IQ scumbags, bungled the whole thing in conjunction with the shortbus riders of the Livingston County prosecutor's office; I wouldn't know anything about this for several more years to come. At the time of the incident I was just a poor guy sleeping on a couch working for a jerk who would try to put me away and not pay me for my work! ALL that was actually mine was just some clothes. I didn't have what is known in the fast-paced and competitive field of professional drug dealing as “Constructive possession." This refers to a drug possession case where one doesn't have physical possession of whatever substance is being traded in. It’s all about “Dominion and Control,” and so far as “the Oklahoma crack house statues,” they state one must “keep and maintain” a crack house in order to be in charge of a ANTHONY SMITH Groundcover contributor crack house. One could conceivably have a “crack jetski” or “crack yurt” so long as some kind of drug is for sale, mostly. And there was keeping and maintaining going on, but “i be’s in the trap lmfao.” I had turned a blind eye to many things and let it all go too long, because I thought Scott was a good guy at first. I trusted him, but it was all a scam. I'm not a sucker — I thought at one point I had an okay job, then my car messed up and I was stuck and I couldn't leave. Try telling that to a judge. I had no money and no transportation. None of the parasites who used to hang around were anywhere to be found when I needed a friend. At the time I was counting on a job. I wanted to learn plumbing and electric in more detail. I ended up driving a degenerate Satanist to do drug deals and get hookers, and the minute I wanted off the BS bus Scott set me up with the police. If the officers involved were in any way competent it would have been obvious I hadn’t done it. The War on Drugs doesn't care about people — it needs bodies to feed the beast. The whole shitshow in Livingston County — the damn county is essentially a dry county compared to Washtenaw. However, they do pass out Suboxone in jail as if junkies need to stay hooked. I fortunately did eat some in jail and got high off it lol. Drugs make jail suck less. Livingston damn County has NO dispensaries in sight, but keep the job security going with the Suboxone in medical! I know, let’s give meth to the trailer parks? I watched the medical recipients of Suboxone come in and out every single day. On the 18th of August, 2020, Raymond Scott Myers thought he could get me hauled off that night. The Sheriff's office in many places sucks less than the respective police departments do in Michigan, aka FEMA region 5. Sheriffs themselves are Constitutionally elected directly by the people, unlike the police departments. President Washington was correct in warning about standing armies, and the militarization of law enforcement that occured in the last century will be hard to undo. If things like COVID, the National Firearms Act, and the Hurricane Katrina door-to-door gun confiscation have taught us anything, it is that the enforcers of the Zionist Occupation Government will walk all over the rights of the American people if it means that they can keep their pensions, and they will do it using guns paid for by money stolen out of the paychecks of the hardworking taxpayers. In the surrounding FEMA region 5, Orwellian big brother stuff has already crept all across the nation. Many people don't know income tax was only supposed to be a temporary measure: it was intended to fund World War I, a war many Americans really really wanted to fight. Our tax dollars have funded incinerating children in Waco Texas, and they have lovingly dropped herbicides on toddlers in the third world whose only crime was being born into families of coca and marijuana farmers. I wasn’t born into it; it was Magic Mushrooms that drew me into my unfortunate stint with Scott. A life-changing sum of money will motivate most people. My employer, blind Scotty, ended up owing me about $5,000. The deputy that showed up couldn't get me paid — or wouldn't. However, he tried to get me to tell on myself and then proceeded to jump on my case. I wouldn't learn about this though till years later. In the meantime I was legally ripped off by a conman who used the cops as a way to cheat me out of my wages. Really, it was one of the worst expe- riences of my life. I've been ripped off so many times by predatory jerks. There are tons of corrupt, loophole-type laws that never seem to favor the poor and always seem to enable scumbags like Scott, and shady innkeepers at pay-by-the-week motels, or AUGUST 8, 2025 Reimagining Walden, part two: this time it's personal owners of the apartments with rents that were higher than the house payment a bank told me I couldn't afford. The next day, I availed myself of the “bacon bastards” (police) protection so I had this on my mind. I hadn’t seen it coming, but my Indian friend certainly had, telling me, “I told you big guy,” when I lamented my situation. In truth, Scotty literally did this to several people a year. The old Indian saved me next. He let me bring my clothes over, and I turned over some of the equipment. I was able to clear a few bucks from the tubs and stuff because they could potentially also be used for herpetology. My friend's son-in-law bred reptiles, so I stole them from the supplies I helped myself to and I limped my poor Jeep across the street. What happened was an extra sort of funny and if you wanted to see a worm squirm more vigorously you'd have to flip over a rock on a sunny day and then drop the slimy guy on an ant hill. Scott was angry and afraid that the old Indian was going to help me, so he told every one of their mutual friends that he had found a bag full of IDs and passports based on them and various names, like I was some kind of Jason Bourne Secret Agent Man. His ridiculous stories got nowhere and over the next few days the old Indian and I got my Jeep up on jack stands and made a plan to fix it. It turned out he'd been a jet mechanic in the Marines and would help me get my Jeep back on the road if I helped him move some fence sections around that he was painting. Still, it was a kind of 19th century barter for work and meals. One compares America today to the young land of liberty that Thoreau knew when he lived for a time at Walden and canoed up the nearby river; in his day, whisky, furs and lots of stuff, even old nails pried off of boards, traded hands. The issues faced by me in 2020 can be juxtaposed with what my great-grandfather faced. Herbert James Adams, of the line of John and John Quincy Adams, both early American presidents and important figures in the American Revolution, came of age in a much different America than I live in today. My paw paw, as I called him, was a barely literate Southern Illinois hillbilly. According to my great grandmother Inez Von Braden, my grandfather had a job in the auto industry. He moved from Marion, Ill., to sunny 54 West Hopkins in Pontiac, Mich., and got a lifelong job working for Fisher Body. When he was about 100 the UAW paper see WALDEN next page  AUGUST 8,2025 VENDOR VOICES Respect the hustle It’s hard to describe homelessness to someone who hasn’t lived it. People think it’s just about sleeping on the streets — but really, it’s about surviving without safety, privacy or dignity. It’s about feeling invisible in the middle of a crowd, and sometimes hunted when all you want is peace. I’ve lived this life in two cities: Ann Arbor, and New York City. What I share here isn’t policy analysis or academic research — it’s my truth. These are the cold nights I spent walking to the shelter — the hot subway cars where I dozed between stops, the meals I was thankful for, and the times I was robbed of both belongings and hope. These are also the moments of unexpected humanity, the volunteers who knew my name, the social workers who do believe, and the quiet strength I found in myself to stay clean and keep going. This is a comparative view—not just of cities — but of how we treat our most vulnerable. What works, what fails, and how each city’s spirit seeps into the lives of those with nowhere to go. Help That Matters Ann Arbor offered very little support — no help with getting cash assistance, some EBT Food Stamps help, and no consistent guidance. Churches and volunteers were the only ones who really seemed to care. In New York, I had a case manager from day one. I received EBT, a small cash benefit, and access to employment and housing specialists. For all the system’s flaws, I finally felt like someone had my back. Eating to Survive: In Ann Arbor, food came with dignity. The Delonis Center served hot homemade meals twice a day, and St. Andrew’s Church offered reliable, nourishing breakfasts. But outside those walls, food security vanished in my experience. Groceries are expensive, and restauPEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 rants rarely showed compassion. New York flipped that. Shelter food was often bland and insufficient; but out on the street, I could hustle up enough for a $1 slice of pizza or a smoothie from a bodega that accepted EBT. You learn to get creative fast when your next meal depends on it. There are also food trucks all over the city with all kinds of food for a reasonable price. Strings-attached shelter: Ann Arbor only had one main shelter. Many people sleep outside, even during Michigan’s brutal winters. I met people who had been homeless for over six years, still waiting for housing that will never come. The system feels random — monthly checks are made by housing staff to confirm your story, but there is little transparency and few results. In New York, things were more structured. After a two-month intake process, I was assigned a case manager and introduced to programs like Housing Connect, CityFHEPS, and 2010E, this last one for people with special needs. The waiting is still taking months, but there was at least a sense of progress. Yet both cities shared one tragic similarity: shelters are never truly safe. I can’t overstate the role drugs play in the lives of the unhoused — whether you use them or not. In both Ann Arbor and New York, alcohol, meth, crack and heroin are everywhere. Inside shelters, I saw people shoot up in bathrooms, trade pills like currency, and overdose more times than I can count. Sometimes it was the staff looking the other way — or worse, involved. For those trying to stay sober, it’s like walking through fire. Even if you don’t use, you still suffer: the fights, the thefts, the paranoia. Loud arguments in the middle of the night. Unwashed bodies packed into dorm rooms. The constant begging. You try to stay clean, keep a job, stay on track — but it wears you down. Even people who’ve never touched drugs are forced to live in environments shaped by addiction and untreated trauma. There’s no way to build a stable life when every day is a test of endurance. Healthcare: Medical care was solid in both cities — thanks to state Medicaid — but psychiatric care often felt like punishment. In Ann Arbor, mental health support was cold and oppressive. In New York, things have been impersonal, but the doctors are surely better prepared for the job and that is evident from their treatments. They are still abusive in my opinion, but as long as I’m psychiatrist-free, that doesn’t matter so much to me. The hustle: Jobs existed in both cities, but homelessness makes it hard to keep one. In Ann Arbor, you can beg for money and food, but vending on the street is banned without a license. Even bottle returns were limited — 10 cents per bottle, but only certain ones. In New York, the hustle is a way of life. Street vending, gig work, bottle collecting — even water bottles count here, though only 5 cents each. I do many things to make some money, mostly informal work, but it is work. And it made me feel human again. The Vibe: Ann Arbor still holds a special place in my heart. It’s quiet, surrounded by nature, and full of kind souls. People at Groundcover News gave me a voice. The University of Michigan is beautiful with its buildings all over town. Church basements turned into sanctuaries. I miss it — not just the place, but the sense of community. But it’s also a place where GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 being poor makes you invisible. It’s clean and cultured, but reserved. New York, by contrast, is blunt and impersonal. People move fast, speak fast, live fast. Everyone’s got somewhere to be. But in that rush, there’s room for survival. The city doesn’t nurture you — but it doesn’t ignore you either. There’s a kind of respect in the hustle. Mobility: Ann Arbor is built for cars. If you’re on foot, you’re mostly stuck downtown. Bikes help, but winter snow makes them unreliable. Ann Arbor uses trespassing aggressively to exclude the homeless. Private businesses, police and racism combine to restrict movement. New York City enforces trespassing less harshly. Police appear more trained, and residents more aware of civil rights. New York? It’s a machine that never sleeps. Trains, buses, ferries, bikes, rideshares — they all run constantly. Even if you’re broke, you can still get around. It’s like being plugged into the city’s bloodstream. The grid of Manhattan becomes second nature. I could wake up in the Bronx and be in Brooklyn before breakfast. I felt like I was everywhere at once — ubiquitous, mobile, alive. There’s something hauntingly beautiful about being in Manhattan. You’re never grounded, always moving yet surrounded by everything. Art, music, street life, energy, vibrating. One minute I’m watching a jazz duo in the park, the next I’m walking down Broadway. And that’s the paradox — you feel like part of it all, and completely alone. The city doesn’t stop, and neither can you. Other dimensions Racism & Immigration: Ann Arbor feels more overtly racist, especially from police. As a U.S. citizen raised abroad, I was seen as “other.” New York, while more diverse, still had pockets of quiet xenophobia. People would tell me to "go back to your see HUSTLE page 13   WALDEN from previous page did a story on him being the oldest living UAW member. He lived to be 104. In his day he could easily afford a decent house, a new car every few years, and my great-grandmother didn’t have to work when my grandfather and his brother were very young. It was a different America then, with more opportunities and a higher living standard for the working class. The old Indian didn’t grow up in the United States, he grew up in the jungles of Nicaragua and hunted iguanas many days to feed himself. His upbringing took a big turn in his teens when his aunt used her position as a cook at the Nicaraguan embassy to bring him to Washington D.C. to finish school. He loved America so much he found his way into the Marine Corps as a fighter jet mechanic. Thanks to him I got the shadiest of shade tree mechanic jobs done on my poor poor Jeep. With the aid of strong drink and profanities we were able to remove my front driveshaft and simply use channel locks to bend and crush a few of the brake lines that had been damaged also. I would never again take that Jeep over 50 mph. In the greasy struggle against immobility, innocence would be the first casualty. I was glad all around because I could get to most places around that area simply by taking unpaved backroads. I didn’t need the luxury of all four brakes to have a place to stretch out. I was able to store enough of my belongings for a time at my friend's place. We had fun doing the work, it was a brief period of reflection before time for the next thing. We shared some nice meals and I made sure we got the projects done that my friend wanted to do. Eventually I had to hit the road, so I bid my friend farewell and made my way towards the town I grew up in where I used to have a more stable life and a family home. It was the most glorious time of the year, just before the first hints of cold weather put on the war paint of Indian Summer. TO BE CONTINUED

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LIVING ARCHIVES AUGUST 8, 2025 Hey buddy, can you spare a dime? Or would you rather buy a paper? I want to voice my observations and concerns about the difference between Groundcover News vendors and panhandlers. Why is it so easy for the public just to hand a panhandler money, yet when a Groundcover vendor asks the general population to buy a paper, the same people say, “No thanks”? I want to point out something that happens all too often. As people are walking by, they suddenly are interrupted by a panhandler. While I stand there with papers and watch the people give them money, I think to myself, “Why not buy from me? We are offering news and information in exchange for a $1* donation.” Why are you giving to someone who wants a handout? What do they offer? I feel angry and frustrated when the public chooses them over me. I have talked to other vendors about this. Many of us feel it’s unfair and it defeats our purpose. Most initially feel hurt or angry when this happens. For some, it leads to feeling depressed. Others channel their reaction and conclude that the potential patron needs educating about the paper and its purpose, and set about trying to engage the person in conversation. I sell Groundcover for three reasons. Reason one: I need cash to buy everyday items my family needs, because the amount covered by food stamps isn’t enough and both my husband and I are The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly SHELLEY DENEVE Groundcover vendor No. 22 currently unemployed. Reason two: Groundcover is an essential part of our community in that it helps people understand what low-income and homeless people go through. Reason three: I like talking with people and I feel like I’m doing something important while I look for a job. For the record, Groundcover vendors are not panhandlers. This is a legitimate business! We may not sound as professional as a person with a regular job or higher education. We are just down-to-earth people trying to reestablish ourselves amidst a crisis in our lives. We also are serious about helping the public understand what Groundcover is all about. It’s about helping the community become informed about poverty and homelessness in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and other parts of Washtenaw County. It is also about helping people in a issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended homeless or housing-challenged situation by giving them an opportunity to sell Groundcover instead of asking for a handout. If I were the passerby, I would rather buy the paper from the vendor than just hand someone money. If I were rich, I would make a conscious effort to help both. It’s ultimately up to you, the public, how you would like to help. Of course, you are reading this article, so you chose to buy the paper — thank you! When you give a panhandler money, do you wonder where your money goes? We can only guess, right? When you buy Groundcover from the vendor, it goes to that specific vendor. The vendors buy papers from Groundcover at 25 cents per copy. Then the vendor sells the publication for a dollar. We have to organize, plan and coordinate our sales efforts. We are not just asking for a handout; we are asking for a hand up (with the $1.00 donation, of course!). Why do many people say “no thank you” to Groundcover vendors? Does the public think we are like panhandlers? I get that impression a lot! When I go out and sell Groundcover on the weekends, it is really difficult to sell. I don’t know if it’s the mindset of the crowd, or because some of the crowd are visitors and feel uncomfortable about buying it. Another crowd I find hard to reach is younger people, whether or not they are students. I or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. know they’re busy with school and other activities — but is it partly because they have an agenda to party all night? I just want to say we need more college-aged people buying Groundcover. You are our future, and this is something that needs your attention. I want to reiterate that Groundcover vendors are legitimate businesspeople. In conclusion, I appreciate your business and thoroughly enjoy talking with the public. Thank you for your generosity and thoughtful comments on how Groundcover and its vendors are conducting their business. And just to let you know, I can’t talk too long since I may miss an opportunity to open another passerby’s heart and mind! Originally published in the July 2011 edition of Groundcover News. *At the time of publication, Groundcover cost $0.25 to the vendor and was sold on the street for $1. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. AUGUST 8, 2025 INSP Is begging a safety issue? BASTIAN PÜTTER bodo bodo: As a sociologist at the University of Wuppertal researching in the field of civil protection, disaster relief and property security, it doesn’t strike me immediately that we should discuss begging and homelessness in city centers with you. Tim Lukas: (laughs) That’s true, but as a sociologist, my background is in the sociology of crime and criminology. This field doesn’t just deal with major emergencies as the terms “civil protection” and “disaster relief” might suggest; in the case of my research group we also focus on the issue of everyday crime, disorder and sense of security. bodo: To what extent do homeless or begging people affect safety? TL: First of all, safety is a basic human need. The actual risk of becoming a victim of crime is only very indirectly linked to the subjective feeling of safety. The latter is strongly characterized by personal experience, media and socio-political discourse. The subjectively perceived fears of criminal attacks and the objective threat posed by people experiencing homelessness are not generally in accordance with each other. bodo: In your research on dealing with marginalized social groups, you talk about securitization. What do you mean by this? TL: We are describing a process that reinterprets social problems as safety problems. Begging, including so-called aggressive begging, is first and foremost a symptom of social hardship, a culmination of extreme poverty, perhaps in conjunction with addiction or other problems. The classification of begging as a safety issue instead of an act to be met with compassion is indicative of the need for a change, shifting begging into the field of regulatory policy. bodo: The city of Dortmund [Germany] wants to regulate so-called “aggressive begging” more strictly and is modelling itself on Aachen’s concept, titled “Attractiveness and Safety.” This combines marketing ideas for the city with the securitization they  HUSTLE from page 11 people" — even though this is mine. Public Spaces & Culture: Ann Arbor has parks and libraries, but they can feel out of reach when you’re poor. New York, for all its chaos, has free concerts, open beaches, and library events that feel open to all. describe. What would be the alternative to fines and bans or larger-scale attempts to enforce begging bans? TL: Firstly, the best idea to reduce the number of people rough sleeping in public spaces is to provide housing. It really is time to transition experimental concepts such as Housing First from pilot phases to reality. We know from numerous evaluations that it is more efficient and much more promising to address the problems of those affected from within their own secure housing. Furthermore, in the context of the above question, this solution relieves the burden on public spaces. Besides, it is also important to take a closer look at city inhabitants’ tolerance thresholds. After all, the city has always been a place of unfamiliarity and part of that is difference, and perhaps even deviant behavior. Removing this would mean abolishing the fabric of the city as such. The public space was and is, among many other things, also a space for impositions, and some things we must simply put up with. bodo: You don’t win local elections by demanding tolerance, do you? TL: That is true. We have real crises in the centers of major cities, and, at the same time, we are seeing an increasing reluctance to accept such everyday irritations. The political response is then often actually the shift towards regulatory solutions as mentioned. But herein does lie opportunity. For city centers broadly speaking, the proposals that are put forward often from the conservative viewpoint are neither expedient nor sustainable. As a result of this attention, real thought is, however, being given to solutions. Dortmund has long focussed on suppression, and in essence, these approaches have only exacerbated the problems. Debates are now emerging about progressive concepts such as the Zurich model for addiction support or alternatives, such as specific areas for people experiencing homelessness and addiction. However, it must also be said that the displacement of vulnerable groups from public spaces is generally not applauded beyond the immediate neighborhood. Cleanliness: Ann Arbor is spotless. New York, not so much. Trash, rats and decay are just part of the background. But beauty shines through — sometimes literally in the form of art on a subway wall or a stranger offering a warm coat. Living homeless in America is not just about being without a home, it’s bodo: In Dortmund, this does exist, but great efforts are being made to move the drug consumption area out of the city centre. In addition, measures taken by the municipality against people experiencing homelessness and addiction have increased. TL: Yes, there is this coexistence. The morning wakeups for people sleeping rough in the city centre as well as ban procedures certainly represent this restrictive side, which is traditionally strong in Dortmund. On the other hand, innovative strides have been taken in the creation of a staff structure that is unique to Germany (as far as I know), which we are otherwise only familiar with from major events. The “Public Order and City Life” special task force brings together offices, authorities and social organisations as a structure enabling coordinated action and the integration of different perspectives. With regards to the demand for the relocation of support centers, this is certainly apparent in Dortmund, amongst other cities. Opponents of these facilities are active in their local areas as well as further afield at planned alternative locations. In Dortmund, we saw this in practice where a large demonstration took place at a proposed location for a drug consumption centre. bodo: Perhaps it is a question of power and not just location? One of the main drivers for restrictive measures against socially marginalised groups in Dortmund’s city centre is the retail industry. TL: Yes, this is something we also see in other cities. Commercial and retail interest groups act as “moral entrepreneurs,” as criminological research calls them. They use their networks in politics and the local media to publicize their demands and, in doing so, drive the shift in discourse towards securitization with the aim of minimizing the visibility of certain social problems. But I do also see a change in thinking here, as well as in city marketing. There is now a growing realization that social problems cannot be tackled by policing and regulation alone. Openness to concepts such as harm reduction are on the rise, as well as the realization about being without protection, structure, or even a future that feels possible. But each city gave me different tools to fight that. Ann Arbor gave me tenderness, introspection and a sense of community. New York gave me movement, opportunity and raw survival. Neither city is perfect. Both have that addiction cannot be combated by suppression alone. bodo: When talking about safety and public space, the focus of marginalized social groups is usually only as triggers and the object of regulatory measures. The tide is changing in terms of this perspective. TL: In two research projects in Düsseldorf and Cologne, we analyzed the fears of people experiencing homelessness and addiction. The results showed that criminalization and control create a high degree of instability among a demographic whose living conditions are already characterized by existential fears. As those affected are dependent on the infrastructure of city centers, their displacement from public spaces contradicts their often even greater need for protection. Safety is just as essential for those affected by homelessness and therefore meaningful discourse on safety must not only include the middle class of mainstream society. I was shocked by the extent of the humiliation, attacks and thefts reported to us by people experiencing homelessness. This perspective also shows the importance of alternative spaces created for rough sleepers. bodo: Critics would argue that it cannot be about making the city “homeless-friendly” on its own. TL: Creating such provisions is something that also helps city centers as a whole by means of improving quality of life, creating more greenery and more seating. Where city centre areas are widely and diversely used, visible poverty is just one aspect. A good illustration of this was during a Future workshop on the Wuppertal railway station area. Here, safety was mentioned as an important wish, and so we filled a flipchart with typical ideas for this: video surveillance, curfews, alcohol bans, more police, more regulation. The participants soon agreed that this would create a total dead zone, and from there, they developed ideas for diverse utilization, including the alternative spaces mentioned above. I think that’s a real model! Translated from German by Naomi Bruce. Courtesy of bodo / INSP.ngo deeply flawed systems, and in both, the burden of homelessness is carried by those least equipped to bear it. But each also holds lessons in humanity— some bitter, some beautiful. To anyone reading this: homelessness is not just a statistic. It’s a person. It’s me. @pedrocamposbrazil on Instagram GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers 1 14 17 20 22 24 25 26 31 34 37 40 43 45 46 47 52 54 57 55 58 53 56 59 48 41 44 49 50 51 35 38 42 by Roberto Isla Caballero, Groundcover vendor No. 347 32 36 39 27 33 23 28 29 30 18 21 2 3 4 5 15 19 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 16 AUGUST 8, 2025 ACROSS 1. Notability 5. Baffled 10. E.P.A. concern 14. Brought into play 15. Mix 16. ___ lamp 17. Small purple flower 20. Upper tooth of dog 21. Motor 22. ___ probandi 23. Cookers 24. Bordeaux product 27. Narc's find, perhaps 28. Actor Alastair 31. Addiction 32. ___ Bowl 33. "___ here" 34. Liason to another country 37. Casting need 38. Brawl 39. Subdues, with "down" 40. "Don't give up!" 41. First minus the t 42. Stout, begins with P 43. As expected 44. opposite of receive 45. Dawn goddess 48. Activiies after skiing 52. Intermittently 54. Enlarge, as a hole 55. Japanese martial art 56. Black cat, maybe 57. Blabs 58. bothered 59. Daddy-o DOWN 1. Combine 2. Far from ruddy 3. ___ mortals 4. preparation of publication 5. "Do you want to go on a date?" 6. Dweebs 7. harmonic math function 8. .0000001 joule 9. relating to lungs, small air sacs 10. Drudges 11. French Sudan, today 12. Beehive, e.g. 13. Box office take 18. group of nine items 19. "What's gotten ___ you?" 23. American worker 24. Mariner's aid 25. Worse, as excuses go 26. Munk community building 27. Acclaim 28. Peter, Paul or Mary 29. Drive 30. Chaotic 32. Covered with hair 33. Between the 2nd and 3rd base 35. Country; its capital is Colombo 36. Blotto 41. Wrath 42. French red wine 43. Student housing 44. Digger 45. Ethereal 46. Eye layer 47. Acquire 48. Barley beards 49. Jerk 50. Castle part 51. Getaway spots 53. "___ the fields we go" PUZZLE SOLUTIONS July 11, 2025 edition AUGUST 8,2025 COMMUNITY RESOURCES recovery RESOURCE CORNER FRIENDS OF LITTLE HOUSE RECOVERY CENTER 802 N River St., Ypsilanti 734-219-5051 Recovery meetings 7 days a week. Call for times IN THE ROOMS intherooms.com/livemeetings/list Online recovery meetings 24/7 AL-ANON 1475 Westfield Ave., Ann Arbor 734-995-4949 Meeting information: afgdistrict5.org/ meeting-calendar Meetings for family and friends of those with an addiction. Literature about working Al-Anons program and supportive readings ALANO CLUB 995 N Maple Rd., Ann Arbor, 734-668-8138 Recovery meetings seven days a week. 10 a.m.- 9 p.m. Commissary, pool table and TV NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS 1-800-230-4085 Call for meeting times. michigan-na.org/washtenaw-area/ meetings/ ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, HURON VALLEY AREA INTERGROUP 31 S. Huron, Ypsilanti MI 48197 734-482-0707 Office Hours: Tuesday - Friday, 1:00-6:00 p.m. Meeting Locator (Countywide and beyond) and Helpline Number 734-482- 5700. Website includes up to date meeting locator and other resources: hvai.org/ DAWN FARM 6633 Stony Creek Rd.,Ypsilanti 734-485-8725 — Long term residential: Farm location (located in Ypsilanti 36 beds) and Dawn Farm Downtown location (located in Ann Arbor 13 beds) — Up to 90 day residential — Public funding available for those who qualify — Transitional housing: Houses and apartments across Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti (160 beds total) — 12 step meetings daily — Outpatient services in Ann Arbor — Community Corrections Outreach HARM REDUCTION OVERDOSE REVERSAL TRAININGS & DEMONSTRATIONS Select Thursdays Hosted By Home of New Vision’s Harm Reduction Program. At The Former HNV Engagement Center 103 Arnet Ypsilanti, MI 48197 OR Upon Request Schedule your training today. Individuals and groups accepted. We can come to your school, business or meeting place! Participation certificates available. Contact Us For More Information Demonstrations are always available at outreach locations or during office hours. Presentation includes: Brief overview of HNV Harm Reduction. Causes and signs of an overdose. Steps to take if encountering an overdose situation. Hands-on Narcan (Naloxone) and CPR practice and demonstration. Free overdose reversal supplies. CONTACT US AT 734.417.5864 GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Summer caprese skewers ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 36 cherry tomatoes 18 mini mozzarella balls 36 basil leaves Olive oil Balsamic reduction, for drizzling Sea salt and ground black pepper 6 wood skewers Directions: Thread the tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil onto mini skewers, bracketing tomatoes with basil and separating each set with a mozzarella ball. (Six tomatoes with basil and three mozzarella balls per stick.) Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic reduction and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve as a side dish or appetizer. AUGUST 8, 2025 $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 8/22/2025

2 $ JULY 25, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 16 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Birthday freebies in Washtenaw County. page 5 MEET YOUR VENDOR: CINDY GERE PAGE 3 15 YEARS OF NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Groundcover News turns 15: Origin story, community impacts and future prospects. page 8 Left to right: Mike J. , Mike B., Pony, Shawn (front) Cindy, Brian, Ken (front), Augustine, and Tygar. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 JULY 25, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Vendors are the main contributors to the paper, and are compensated to write and report. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. GROUNDCOVER NEWS IS NOW 16 PAGES! Look forward to ... MORE money saving coupons! Community events section Writing from around the world — International Network of Street Papers news articles ROTATING TOPIC RESOURCE CORNER IN EVERY ISSUE! STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman La Shawn Courtwright Cindy Gere Jonathan Glass Ken Parks David L. 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PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons "FROM THE ARCHIVES," a column on Washtenaw County history, told through the Groundcover archives vendor drawings, cartoons + artwork Even more vendor writing JULY 25, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Cindy Gere, vendor No. 279 In one sentence, who are you? Happy Go Lucky Panda / Happy Hats Lady. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? Downtown Sweetwaters on Ashley and Washington from 7-11 a.m. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? I usually sell in the mornings when it's not rainy. I choose to sell for the people; many love the paper. What is one place in Ann Arbor that feels like your personal sanctuary? I love the library and the seating they have in front of the big bay windows — it’s a quiet location. What's your life motto? I do what I can where I can when I can to help who I can. What advice would you give to your younger self? Never give up or give in during the hard days. What is your comfort food? Authentic Japanese food. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring 3 things, what would they be? Military grade spy goggles, food for the trip and Harry Potter’s griffin to get off the island. If there was a theme song for your life, what would it be? Hakuna Matata (No Worries). If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? Get on the trusty horse and go west! :) What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? Working Family tiny house village. Based on long term sobriety! Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover vendor No. 638 When someone serves in America’s armed forces, they begin their military service by taking an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. After taking this oath there is no further instruction on the Constitution during a soldier’s active duty military service. If American generals were serious about their oath, they would make Constitution studies a part of a soldier’s military service requirements. After successfully completing a three-year enlistment, the American soldier would be honorably discharged with a military service Constitution studies certification. Those who were unable to complete the coursework during their enlistment would be given a general discharge and not be awarded the certification. Those who want to continue their military service education after completing their GROUNDCOVER NEWS Oath to defend the Constitution three-year enlistment and re-enlist would be awarded a master’s military service Constitution studies degree after successfully completing coursework and service requirements. Those who could not complete the coursework during their reenlistment would be honorably discharged without receiving the degree but would retain the college credits they earned and be able to use them to further their education. 3 Hear me out: Donald Trump should declare world peace DAVID L. PUTMAN Groundcover vendor No. 679 Our 45th and 47th President, Donald J. Trump is considered a moron, by whom? The man is a tactical genius in all ways but one; his surprise attack on Iran was unjust. I believe he’s uniquely situated to become the first world leader ever to declare World Peace at the next U.N. Summit. He can explain his position, and face the consequences. Let the citizens and people of the world follow. With all the propaganda and misinformation in the world it’s hard to tell when a news organization is telling the truth. Well, I am telling my truth. Donald Trump could declare world peace. If our supposedly beloved President is the great organizer he says he is, can he organize peace? Or is he just another warmonger? That’s what I want to know. Can he really do it? Since the invention of the nuclear bomb, nations have already agreed to nuclear disarmament treaties, but someone in the White House was quoted as saying the United States won’t follow, nor Russia and N. Korea. Can the White House legally refuse to follow disarmament, according to international law? Can any government, due to the Geneva convention? Disarmament needs to get organized, better and better, every day in every way. We need nuclear disarmament technical certifications, in every language. So we can turn those old bomb cores into power plants. And flying cars! The war against ISIS, is it still just for oil? Why did we go to war for oil? Were the old guard just too stupid to use diplomacy? Were the diplomats not bilingual enough? Multilingual? Peace takes time. And translation. And patience. And wisdom. And a truce is always possible. Truce, among nations, in our time. Good luck, Earth humans. And American citizens. to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LETTER TO THE EDITOR Ranked Choice Voting Dear Ms. Price, Please publish this as a letter to you, for sharing with your paper’s readers. The October 4, 2024 issue of Groundcover News ran an article on page 7, which article was submitted by me, and ran under the title, “Ranked Choice Voting — enhancing democracy.” You and your readers may be interested in the following updates on the state of affairs regarding the current efforts to get Ranked Choice Voting available to voters in Michigan, in the elections for candidates for Federal and State-wide offices: 1. On June 27, 2025, the Board of Canvassers for the State of Michigan approved the wording of a proposal to be put on the petitions to be presented to the public, to sign to get the issue of Ranked Choice Voting on the ballot to be used in the November 2026 election to amend the State Constitution. 2. Persons supporting the organization behind getting RCV in effect in Michigan, which organization is called “Rank MI Vote,” packed the public viewing area of the room where the June 27 meeting was held; more were seated in an “overflow” room. 3. Scuttlebutt has it that: a) penchant office holders and powerbrokers of both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, together with top 0.1% U.S. wealth-holders, are broadly united by their opposition to RCV; it threatens their power, and the peculiar interests they serve; and b) large amounts of “dark” money is flowing into Michigan, to fight the RCV movement. 4. In the interest of brevity, I will not here quote the draft of the proposal (limited to 100 words) which was approved by the Board of Canvassers. The draft can be had online. One site having it has the URL: www.fox2detroit.com/news/boardapproves-ranked-choice-voting-summary-residents-will-see petitions. The proposal is at the bottom of the site-page. 5. My article of October 4, 2024 was generally favorable to RCV, but I also expressed some concerns. I remain a little curious as to how well RCV will operate if enacted by the voters, but despite my residual reservations concerning RCV, I am largely convinced that if RCV is enacted, there will be a marked improvement in the general atmosphere in which campaign season plays out, that voters will be much more satisfied with the choices they had to make, the public will be much happier with the election results, and governance will be greatly improved. I will be supporting RCV in November 2026. If RCV as proposed is enacted and then found to need “tweaking,” Michiganders are well able to do it. I do not foresee any August 5, vote no on Prop B Last November the City reserved $1,000,000 from an unanticipated surplus for anticipated losses from Trump's restrictions on federal funds. At the time I proposed they use $40,000 of the $2.5 million surplus for their promised Request for Proposals for next steps on the commons development, which they declined to consider. Then, this April, they undertook to spend what the City Clerk estimated might be a cost of $250,000 for a special August election, a special unnecessary August election. Nothing is furthered by posing the Library expansion and housing project now, with no details, rather than in a year and a half when they might be able to present a beautiful picture of their state-of-the-art desire, which now they leave only to the imagination and promises of good intentions. I asked what is to be gained by an August off-year vote now, contrary to past City policy since 2017 of "never again" for August off-year elections? No answer. I asked again to the Library Board Chairperson, the Library Director and the City Council Member who voted for this as-soon-as-possible election. Again no answer ... because there is no good reason. In my view, this is a calculated political stratagem to blindside the voters who hardly know what has been going on in the Center of the City, after six and a half years of stalling the voter-directed commons development, and new six-month highrise of a spectacular 20 floor double lot new downtown library with housing on top, miraculously paid for itself with no new taxes. Pictures of the Commons proposal, which is to be suppressed, were never viewed by the Council of the Commons or the City Council, though they did get a good presentation in the local MLive paper. Pictures of the new Library-mixed use housing proposal do not exist. I argue that the vote itself is illegal because the City is spending time and money contrary to the City Charter to sell land for mixed use development that is designated in perpetuity as a central park and civic center commons, voted into the City Charter by 26,752 citizen voters, more than the City gets its lawyers to say; that's OK because proposal B repeals the proposed commons out of the Charter and A and B are cleverly linked together. And what if B doesn't pass? Then, all the money and time spent on the election was illegal. Does the City Administrator have liability for the quarter million dollar cost, or the Mayor or each Council Member out of their salaries, authorizing use of taxpayer money in violation of the City Charter? I proposed, so far without success, that a People's Lawyer volunteer to take this illegality to the Circuit Court to get an injunction to stop this Election in violation of the City Charter. The election is on. I wrote a little leaflet; please vote No on A and B on August 5. I hope people have enough opportunity to think about it, and vote to continue the commons commitment for an urban park and civic center, and vote no on B, to not-repeal the Center of the City 1.4 section of the City Charter. I do not want the Center of the City dominated by a maximum tall double lot building, either, whatever it is called. If "No on B" wins, and the City Charter is upheld, then A is moot, or any such sale. I still want a central park and civic center commons; I hope all those who did before, still do want the commons and will call your friends. Personal connections are our If this strength. Enlist your lists. overview can help educate, please use it ... and suggest improvements to greater clarity. Vote No on B. Alan Haber, Ann Arbor Voter major problems if RCV is enacted, and am ready to follow an old adage: RCV should not be compared to some elusive, theoretical ideal; it should be compared to the status-quo. With that approach, I find the status-quo to be seriously inadequate. 6. Rank MI Vote is now approaching the early stages of signature collection. The grassroots movement is gathering momentum; the reader who longs for an improved democracy is urged to pitch in and contribute to their efforts. Rank MI Vote has a website that can be accessed by an easy search on “Rank MI Vote.” It has a wealth of information about RCV and the effort afoot. I also receive regular emails from Rank MI Vote which keep me abreast of current events in the RCV movement. Best wishes, David KE Dodge Thank you Mike Jones Dear Groundcover, I’d like to take a moment to thank Mike Jones for his article called “Art on a Journey!” Not only did it highlight the artistic resources Ypsi/Ann Arbor provides, it highlighted the need to continue making artistic opportunities accessible for all people in our community. I was specifically appreciative of the paragraph that said, “Imagine on this journey you find yourself unhoused. Imagine trying to create when displaced, and constantly on the move. Imagine having all these artistic visions in your head but not being able to manifest them because you are too occupied with basic survival…” I am a teacher and artist in Ann Arbor. If there is any resource for me to get involved with local individuals working to make artistic experiences more accessible, could you please let me know? I also think I bought an issue of Groundcover from Mike this morning in front of the YMCA, so thanks to him for throwing in this additional issue from last week that allowed me to read about this topic that’s close to my heart. Take care, Kaiti McGinn JULY 25, 2025 JULY 25, 2025 COMMUNITY EVENTS community EVENTS AADL SUMMER GAME SPECTACULAR Saturday, August 26, 1 p.m. Veterans Memorial Park Join Summer Game players and community members for a spectacular celebration of all things Summer Game! Circus performances, lawn games, ice cream, game codes and more await at the annual summer celebration. RESILIENCE REVEALED: ANN ARBOR'S DISABILITY LEGACY Sunday, August 27, 6 p.m. AADL downtown branch, 1st floor The premiere of Resilience Revealed, a new documentary on the role Ann Arbor has played in the world of accessibility and disability activism. Filmmaker Zach Damon will introduce the film and take questions afterwards. GERMAN PARK PICNIC Saturday, August 26, 4-11 p.m. German Park, 5549 Pontiac Trail German Park Recreation Club hosts three picnics the last Saturday in June, July, and August. Admission gate open 4-9 p.m.; Park closes at 11 p.m. Live music, authentic German food and live dance performances. WALK WITH FRIENDS Saturdays through Sept. 27, 8:30 a.m. Start and finish at 105 Michigan Ave. Ypsilanti Walk With Friends is a community event; walk 2 miles through downtown and Riverside Park as a social group. All ages welcome. FIRST FRIDAYS YPSI Friday, August 1, 5 p.m. Downtown Ypsi and Depot Town Explore area businesses to shop exclusive discounts, attend pop-up events and galleries featuring Ypsilanti area artists and performers, and experience the Ypsi arts scene in all its forms. First Friday Food Court at Growing Hope (16 S. Washington), 5-8 p.m. — This vibrant event features a rotating lineup of local food entrepreneurs offering delicious, diverse, and affordable eats, including vegan and vegetarian options. by the Jim Toy Community Center. 200+ vendors, KidZone, food trucks, drag story hour, performances by Detox and Lucky Starzzz. A2ZERO MONTHLY CLOTHING SWAPS August 21, 4-7 p.m. Third Thursday of each month. Larcom City Hall, 301 E Huron St. These are a perfect way to give your gently used clothes a new home, and you might just find an item of clothing you have been looking for, without having to buy it new. How clothing swaps work: Each person can bring up to five items of clothing in good condition (no rips, holes, stains, or unwashed items please!). Accessories are also welcome. You can take clothing without bringing anything, or bring clothing without taking anything. Hosted by the Office of Sustainability and Innovations ANN ARBOR PRIDE August 2, 2025, 12-9 p.m. Main Street Ann Arbor Festival celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer identities, community, and allyship hosted GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15th ANNIVERSARY PARTY Thursday, September 4, 6-8 p.m. First Congregational Church of A2 For the first time, Groundcover is celebrating a major milestone. Join us for an evening of reunion, music, food and drink, and a gallery walk of Groundcover’s history. Be a part of celebrating where we started, where we are, and where we are going! Purchase tickets online at givebutter.com/gcn15 GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 12/31/2025 Submit an event to be featured in the next edition: submissions@groundcovernews.com Birthday freebies in Washtenaw County KAYLA WISEMAN U-M student contributor Most people don’t know about the almost-endless amount of free stuff one can receive just because they get a year older. Free things provide many people with joy and can be very beneficial. Furthermore, birthdays are a day to celebrate and a day to feel special about oneself. On the business side of doing business, birthday freebies are a way to thank customers and attract new ones. The possibilities for freebies are endless – from free food, drinks, clothes or discounts on clothes to movie theater discounts, etc. All the freebies should be added to your list of stops to make on your birthday. Not only do you get free stuff, but it's a way to make an adventure out of your birthday. To find freebies you need to search online. A simple search for “birthday discounts” or “birthday freebies” within one’s local area is the first step. Then search for local restaurants’ or food chains’ websites to find these deals. Next, search reward programs that give you freebies or discounts on your birthday. For food and drink there are endless possibilities for free stuff. At 7-Eleven you can get a free Slurpee. At Buffalo Wild Wings you can get seven free wings. Auntie Anne's offers a free soft pretzel. At Baskin Robbins you can get a free 2.5 ounce ice cream scoop. Chili’s will give a free dessert from their menu, as will Applebee’s with a minimum purchase. Another free birthday scoop at Cold Stone Creamery can be a great reward. Starbucks offers a free drink or food item through their rewards app. IHOP gives a free pancake stack for birthdays with a membership in their rewards program. Olive Garden offers a free dessert coupon. Local restaurants in Ann Arbor like Argus Farm Stop Cafe offer a free drink. TAQ or Afternoon Delight gifts a free dessert with purchase of a meal. Additionally, Zingerman’s offers many birthday discounts and freebies. Zingerman’s Bakehouse gives a free loaf of bread (with value up to $6.99) with any purchase. At Zingermans’ Deli, receive 15% off everything with a valid ID. Then, at Zingerman's Coffee Company you will receive 50% off any hot chocolate drink. To finish off, Zingerman’s Creamery will grant you one free gelato. Another restaurant that offers a free dessert with a meal is Cafe Zola/ Zola Bistro. They give out a free nutella banana crepe with a purchase. A big freebie is at Northside Grill which includes a free breakfast or lunch entree until 3 p.m. with ID. On the other hand, there are other free birthday gifts or discounts that don’t involve food or drink. The Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase allows you to bring three guests to attend a show for free in the month of your birthday. Planet Rock gives members a free day pass during their birthday month. AMC movie theatergoers receive a free large popcorn loaded onto their AMC stubs account. For clothes or shopping, the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop gives 25% off total purchase (up to $10) on your birthday with valid ID. The possibilities of freebies out there are endless! To check out more, a simple Google search in one area will provide a list, including if membership or ID is required. Finding birthday discounts and freebies is an adventure itself and it always feels good to get offers that save money. It shows that when a business supports the community, the community celebrates you! Therefore, on your birthday go check out some of these nice offers and get some free stuff!

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LIVING ARCHIVE JULY 25, 2025 Real Change is possible, starting small and thinking big “Real Change! Real Change!” exclaimed the man on the Seattle sidewalk as I passed through the supermarket doors. I was confused. Did he think I’d be giving him wooden nickels? Upon learning he was homeless and offering to sell me a newspaper, I eagerly traded my dollar for his paper and had an aha moment — this was a brilliant application of microenterprise here in the United States! Twenty years of working on solutions to global poverty familiarized me with microcredit projects of many forms. The Grameen bank became famous when it and Mohammed Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize, yet it was a Kenyan micro lender, Jamii Bora, that sprang to my mind. After a couple of years of lending money to the very poor so they could start their own small businesses, Jamii SUSAN BECKETT Publisher emeritus Bora experimented with offering beggars small items like ribbons they could sell instead of begging. It was immediately apparent that most people preferred selling to begging and many of them went on to become successful entrepreneurs. Joyce Wairimu eventually opened six businesses and now employs many of her former colleagues. Wilson Maina, once a thief, now owns four businesses. He scours the streets for boys like him and has convinced hundreds to get started in a business instead of stealing. In 1999 Jamii Bora started with loans to 50 beggars in one of the worst slums in Nairobi. By the end of 2007, they had 170,000 savers and 60,000 borrowers. Microcredit offers the poorest of the poor a chance at economic self-sufficiency. For many it is a path of redemption; an opportunity to overcome poor choices made or circumstances thrust upon them earlier in their lives. They have a saying at Jamii Bora: “We have fast climbers out of poverty and we have slow climbers, but everyone is a climber.” That’s my wish for this newspaper: that it provides an economic toe hold for our vendors to use in their climb, and the wisdom and awareness we as This year we're activating the archive If you’ve ever been to the Groundcover News office, you know that there is a treasure hidden on the back wall of our one room office: the 15-year-old print archive. Stacks of bundles of street newspapers so tall they nearly hit the ceiling. Annually we rearrange and reorganize, purging extras and making space for more papers to be added every two weeks. The first time I came to the basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ I was stunned by the magnitude of it. So many editions, filled with even more timeless stories, perspectives and ideas. I wanted to read them all! And that was in 2018. Seven years later, new people are still learning about Groundcover every day. This might be someone’s first purchase and read of Groundcover News … that’s a lot of catching up to do. Even back when the plan for celebrating the 15th anniversary of Groundcover was still just a private brainstorming document on my Print is important, and it has staying power. From July 25, 2025 to July 3, 2026, Groundcover News will be publishing 26 outstanding pieces from our LINDSAY CALKA Publisher computer, "activating the archive" was top on the list. Multiple times a week, if not every day, we dive into the archive at the Groundcover News office. It might be to build upon the reporting of a local issue or happening, sometimes it's to respond to or reference an idea, to check in on a date of something or someone. Vendors will often want copies of the past pieces they authored to share with new customers and friends. archive. “From the archive — 15 years of news and solutions from the ground up” aims to uplift pieces that tell the story of Groundcover News, tell the stories of our vendors and writers, and provide narrative on the past 15 years of the homeless and low-income community of Washtenaw County. What things have changed for the better? The worse? What can we learn, or learn again, from the folks who’ve “been saying it this whole time …” If you can’t wait to see what we come up with, the entire digital archive is already accessible on our website, under the “Street News” tab. Soon, there will also be a catalog of all pieces published in all 247 issues of Groundcover, searchable by title, author and topic. That will be accessible under the "Groundcover 15" tab. Reading, organizing, categorizing, preserving and activating has been a group effort. Special shoutout to the students of U-M’s English 221 Fall 2024 and Winter 2025 classes, who under the direction of Professor John Buckley and archivist Mira Simonton-Chao, prepared this digital archive catalogue. We will be able to compensate the authors of these reprints, and afford the extra printing cost of the page expansion it necessitated, thanks to a mini-grant from the University Michigan’s Year of Democracy project. Glenn Gates, with recent help from Libby Chambers, has been a longtime guardian of the print archive, repurposing food pantry boxes and old, curbed shelves as it has grown over the years. Bella Martinez has put in hours converting the digital PDFs to raw text documents that we can input into upcoming editions. see ARCHIVE next page  a community need to nurture their efforts. Originally published in the July/ first edition August 2010 edition of Groundcover News — the Groundcover. of JULY 25, 2025 GROUNDCOVER15 Happy 15th Anniversary Groundcover News! I want to say Happy 15th Anniversary to Groundcover News, Thank you for publishing all the things that you do. It has and is a vessel for people to express parts of their life stories, Also different opinions, perspectives, and points of views. Thanks for providing self-employment where we can work where we choose. Thank you, and Happy 15th Anniversary again, Groundcover News! LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 A few things you might not know about Groundcover News You might not know that Groundcover News has a podcast! “Groundcover Speaks” is a blind and print disabled accessible audio archive of Groundcover News. Groundcover Speaks is produced through a collaboration with 5th Avenue Studios, located at the Downtown Ann Arbor Library and Groundcover News to bring the voices of Groundcover News vendors to more community members, and can be heard on the Ann Arbor District Library’s website or on Spotify. To listen to your favorite vendor articles, go to “Groundcover Speaks.” Groundcover also has a newly updated website, groundcovernews. org, where you can learn more about Groundcover. You can keep up with upcoming Groundcover events, read past Groundcover issues in the archive section and more! Do you know that Groundcover is a part of a street newspaper syndicate called International Network of Street Papers? 92 street papers in 35 countries, published in 25 languages, make up their network. So,  ARCHIVE from last page We know we are best suited to act in the present and plan for the future if we understand our past. We hope this column serves to celebrate the many amazing voices, experiences, and ideas in our community and better preserves the diversity of thought and expression that has contributed to social change locally for 15 years. Start small, think big The first installment of this column begins with Susan Beckett’s first article, printed in the first edition of Groundcover News, the July / August 2010 edition. If you don’t • Groundcover News comes out with a new issue every other Friday. • Groundcover vendors pay fifty cents for every copy and resell the newspaper for two dollars making a minimum of $1.50 profit. • Groundcover vendors get paid MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 when traveling throughout the United States or abroad, be on the lookout for street newspapers. INSP facts: • 3.2 million readers worldwide; • 904 volunteers worldwide supporting our network; • Over 390,000 people in poverty have been supported since the first street paper was published in 1989; • 5,730 vendors sell street papers at any one time; • 13.15 million street papers were sold across the world in 2021; • 1,350 towns and cities had a street paper presence in 2021. Groundcover News facts: for published writings and photo submissions, and for reciting their article for the Groundcover Speaks podcast. • Those who have experienced homelessness can write and send photos to Groundcover, and if published, they also receive money for their work. • Individuals, organizations and businesses can advertise with Groundcover News • Groundcover hosts public events such as poetry and Open Mic live performances • Anyone can volunteer at Groundcover News • Groundcover News is celebrating 15 years of bringing awareness to homelessness, poverty and social justice issues, from 2010-2025. Celebrate with us, all year long! know already, Beckett is our founder and fierce publisher emeritus. Her essay recounts the street newspaper sale in Seattle that sparked the idea for Groundcover News; it explains the philosophy behind the unique economic model of the street newspaper: microentrepreneurship. (Little did we know, 15 years later, we would still be collaborating with our sister street paper, Real Change!) A hand-up, not a hand-out — an idea shared by the other members of the International Network of Street Newspapers and an idea that has always shaped our policies and practices. This foundational philosophy draws a line between Groundcover News and social service agencies. Although we have always partnered with these organizations in Washtenaw County, our mission is focused on economic opportunity and social change through written word and relationships. For Groundcover, this looks like pointing resources towards hosting workshops and trainings on financial literacy, street sales, starting a business or opening a bank account, rather than casework staff or expanding donation services. Even better when this support is facilitated by peers. When we invest in the newspaper, we do so to equip Groundcover vendors to be a part of that growth. Read more on page 8 about the origin story, and look out for "From the archives" in future editions. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER15 Groundcover News turns 15: Origin story, community impacts and a brighter future Happy Birthday Groundcover News! This year we celebrate the 15-year anniversary of Groundcover News. This is a significant milestone. Origin Story A famous Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, is credited with the ancient proverb which says, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” The journey of Groundcover News started when Susan Beckett, Groundcover founder and Publisher Emeritus, purchased a street newspaper from a homeless man in front of a Seattle coffee shop. When she came home to Ann Arbor after visiting her daughter in Seattle, it dawned on her that homeless individuals could be given a voice and empowerment while earning some income from streetpaper selling. It was a bright idea, which was needed in the Ann Arbor - Ypsilanti metropolitan area. The Great Recession of 2008 and 2009 damaged the auto industry in Detroit and Southeast Michigan counties. The autoparts plating and supplier businesses in Ypsilanti laid off many employees and many Detroiters who faced layoffs, evictions and uncertain futures came to Ann Arbor looking for income and employment opportunities. Beckett and other civic-minded community leaders were aware of the homeless situation. Research surveys done by the Washtenaw County government and the city of Ann Arbor showed exponential increases in homeless populations year to year. Groundcover News was one of the outcomes. A valuable article written on September 29, 2010, by Jan Schlain of Ann Arbor Observer shed some light on WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 Beckett’s creation of Groundcover News. The title of Ms. Schlain’s article was, “Planting Groundcover News: A homeless newspaper takes root.” From her interview with Beckett we learned a few specific details. Schlain wrote the following revealing paragraph: “Susan Beckett, a former software engineer and teacher, is the paper’s founder and chief volunteer. She was visiting her daughter in Seattle last summer when she bought a newspaper from a homeless person outside a coffee shop. When she returned home she discussed the idea of starting something similar here with members of several groups, including RESULTS, the social action committee at Temple Beth Emeth and Organizing for America - OFA.” The quote continues: “Beckett said, ‘One OFA leader, Tad Wysor, introduced me to a young man, Marquise Williams, who had expressed interest in helping those in poverty find their voice.’ Beckett continued, ‘Marquise and I visited various community meals, described the paper and asked people to give us their contact information if they were interested in participating in any way.’” Schlain also reported, “A friend introduced Beckett to Laurie JULY 25, 2025 Lounsbury, a former reporter and editor for papers in Petoskey and Charlevoix, who volunteered to become the paper’s editor. Beckett recalled, ‘Marquise, Laurie and I met to do some initial formulation, then I contacted everyone who had ever expressed interest, and we met at First Baptist Church.’ Beckett continued, ‘I organized the meeting with help from Ron Gregg, a parishioner at First Baptist who manages the interfaith outreach mailing list and organized the meeting to address the homeless situation.’ Beckett continued, ‘…they defined our core values, mission and operating principles.’" Schlain observed that the mission statement discussed by Beckett and others was included in the first issue of the paper. The mission was “to create opportunity and a voice for low-income people while taking action to end homelessness and poverty.” The group that met at First Baptist Church also discussed the choice of a name for the new paper. Lounsbury suggested the paper be named “Groundcover” because “It’s really local news that starts from the ground Groundcover News volunteer meeting in 2019, attended by Lindsay Calka, Susan Beckett, office staff, student volunteers and social work interns. up.” In 2010 there were more than 100 “street newspapers” around the world like Groundcover. Beckett remembered that the editor of the Toledo Streets newspaper offered her some advice, and a D.C. paper shared their computer files, training programs and tracking forms. These street papers in Toledo and Washington, D.C. are members of the International Network of Street Papers, which used to have a division called the North America Street Newspapers Association (NASNA). The Ann Arbor Observer also reported that a homeless action group called 1Matters donated $1000 to print the first issue of Groundcover News. In her conversation with the Ann Arbor Observer reporter, Beckett noted that after the first issue of Groundcover News was published, she attended a NASNA conference in Chicago. She collected samples of city street newspapers, including the ones from large cities such as Chicago and Seattle which had hundreds of vendors who sell them. Beckett did think that as the Groundcover Newspaper “expands into more of Washtenaw County, it will be able to accommodate more sales people.” That was prophetic. It is happening now! Since 2010, 681 vendors have sold Groundcover News. As of July 2025, there are 45 active vendors selling in Washtenaw County, mostly in the city of Ann Arbor. The idea of Groundcover News became an innovative solution to the plight of the homeless. It was eventually welcomed by the Main Street Business Association, The Downtown Development Authority, Ann Arbor City Council, Washtenaw Board of Commissioners, Interfaith Council of Ann Arbor, Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, Ann Arbor Civic Foundation and homeless advocates from the University of Michigan, to mention a few. Leadership transition, community impacts and vision for the future Groundcover News has been see HISTORY page 11  JULY 25, 2025 ADVERTISEMENTS GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 HOPE IS HERECALL FOR 24/7 mental health and substance use support support 734-544-3050 LEADD SUPPORT TEAM: WILLIE STURDIVANT, JR., HAILEY RICHARDS, SARAH REISS, JACQULEYN CAMPBELL LEARN MORE about programs funded by the community mental health and public safety preservation millage.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUZZLES CROSSWORD by Regina Durest JULY 25, 2025 ACROSS 1. Jeanne ___ 5. Critic, less formally 10. Something a toddler might throw 14. Battleship guess 15. Scrabble piece 16. Word before skirt or me 17. Moist 18. Lo-cal brews 19. “In that case…” 20. Washtenaw County’s street newspaper, colloquially 23. Pranks, as with a restroom necessity 24. Work, in Guadalajara 25. Online memo 27. Dadaist Max 30. Alternative to “free” on a roadside sign 33. Robin’s home 36. City circle 38. Blue hedgehog of video game fame 39. ___ Morales, former Bolivian president 40. “Get on that!” 42. With 50-down, sauce for fried fish 43. Like a character in “The Three Little Pigs” or “Little Red Riding Hood” 45. ____ lang syne 46. You, to Shakespeare (but not Will) 47. Went bad, as milk 49. Notoriously slow-moving animal 51. Fork prongs 53. Popular spot to buy or sell street papers in Ann Arbor 57. Nail polish brand 59. Once-per-year celebratory event 62. See 22-down 64. German identifiers 65. Bit of hair 66. Late-night host Jay 67. “And Still ___,” Maya Angelou poem 68. Singer Guthrie 69. Playground retort 70. Adjust, as a thermostat 71. Woohoos DOWN 1. Avoid 2. Cost ___ and a leg 3. Swab again 4. Juliet’s family name 5. Grasped tightly 6. Suffix with symptom 7. Jackson 5 member 8. Rise, to a ballerina 9. Begrudge 10. “Who ___ to judge?” 11. Amendment dealing with voting rights 12. Organization connecting more than 90 street papers in 25 countries 13. Uncles, in Cuba 21. Last half of Gilda, Tina or Jennifer’s last name 22. With 62-across, local coffee supplier and this paper’s first advertiser 26. Bout stopper, for short 28. Gazpacho or salmorejo 29. Tulle skirts 31. Set of Southeast Asian ethnic groups 32. Beige 33. With 35-down, “___ and ___ from the ground up” 34. Sautéing acronym 35. See 33-down 37. Unit of paper towel 40. One of Scar’s cronies in “The Lion King” 41. 1781 Mozart opera 44. TGIF wkdy 46. “Through here” 48. Menace of classic comics 50. See 42-across 52. Trap or drum 54. Nigerian currency 55. “R u 4 real?” 56. Keyboard mistakes 57. Irish name meaning “golden princess” 58. Potential creative submission to the paper 60. “Tag” response 61. With a badge, uniform for a street paper vendor 63. ___ Locks, Sault Ste. Marie, MI PUZZLE SOLUTIONS July 11, 2025 edition 15 YEARS! CELEBRATION JULY 25,2025 INSP Hobo News: the first street paper? OWEN CLAYTON International Network of Street Papers On 12 April 1923, 200 Chicagoans attended a public debate, chaired by the notorious sex-positive “clap doctor” Ben Reitman, between three university students and another trio who identified themselves as “hobos.” The question was whether Kansas ought to establish a court to mediate industrial disputes, with the university students arguing in favour and the hobos against. We know of this event thanks to an account by one of the debate’s three judges, the hobo-turned-sociologist Nels Anderson. According to Anderson, the students were long-winded and “presented their arguments in the usual conventional manner,” which left them “unable to get the ear of the audience.” Their main argument was that U.S. institutions could be trusted to adjudge industrial disputes fairly. The hobos, by contrast, spoke of their real-world experience of being in front of American judges. They spoke of going to prison for violating so-called “Tramp laws,” which criminalised poverty by making it an offence to cross State lines “without visible means of support.” For these men, judges were a class enemy who could not be trusted. Anderson describes the three hobo speakers as being logical, well prepared and “caustic,” especially a man called John Laughman, who “was humorous and terrible by turns.” Laughman in particular was used to public speaking, being a regular participant in open-air debates held at “Bughouse Square,” just in front of Chicago’s Newberry Library. The hobos won the debate, winning over two of the three judges, presumably (though he does not say so explicitly) including Anderson. This debate took place in Chicago’s “Hobo College,” which was one of many institutions run by the International Brotherhood Welfare Association (IBWA), an organization founded by the “Millionaire Hobo” James Eades How. These colleges provided accommodation and free education for transient workers, or, as the IBWA, called them, hobos. Though it predated the IBWA, Eades How’s organization aggressively campaigned to privilege the term “hobo” over alternatives, such as “tramp” or “bum.” They adopted Dr. Reitman’s distinction that “[t]he hobo works and wanders, the tramp dreams and wanders and the bum drinks and wanders.” One reason for making such a distinction was to avoid the legal consequences of being called a tramp. Another reason was because, in a context in which U.S. transients were demonised as, at best, lazy and feckless, and, at worst, dangerous to women and society more generally, the IBWA sought to reframe its members as hard-working Americans. It was hobos, the IBWA proudly asserted, who built up the American West following the closure of the frontier around 1900, working in lumber camps, mines, mills, railroads, harvest fields and other places. Key to this campaign was the “Hobo” News, which the IBWA launched several times but the most sustained publication run of which was between 1915 and 1924. The “Hobo” News is the world’s earliest known street newspaper. Like many subsequent papers, it provided subsistence by allowing vendors to keep a portion (in this case, half) of the proceeds. The hobo vendors did not just sell the paper: they also wrote for it. Around 80 different transient contributors wrote for the paper, providing news articles, short stories, poems, comic “society news” pieces, and even a parody version of an agony aunt. This allowed the “Hobo” News to brag that it was “OF THE HOBOES, BY THE HOBOES AND FOR THE HOBOES”. This pioneering model was hugely successful, with the paper selling 20,000 copies per month at its height. There were even international vendors selling the paper in Japan, Sweden, Scotland, Ireland, and England, and an (unsuccessful) attempt to establish a London version of the Hobo College. The material on the pages varied over time, and there were battles as to what kind of paper the “Hobo” News ought to be. Some favoured accounts of lived experience, while others sought to make the paper into a pro-Soviet propaganda organ. Though clearly written with a male audience in mind, its representation of women improved over time, not least when How appointed a female editor, Laura Clarke. Unfortunately, the paper lacks any representation from transients of color, and some articles display the dated racist humour of their day, though its pages also contain debates about how strong an anti-racist stance the IBWA ought to take. The paper advocated many GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 progressive policies, including a living wage and a universal eight-hour workday. Most importantly, though, it provided a platform for a widely despised group of unhoused people to demonstrate their writing talent, humor and intellectual ability. As the famous author Jack London put it, “Hurrah for the hobo newspaper! I wish there’d been something like that afloat when I was knocking around on the road.” But calling the “Hobo” News the first street paper may not be entirely accurate. Most papers of this kind from earlier periods have not survived, so it is difficult to know what we are missing. We do not even know when the “Hobo” News stopped publishing. The copies of the “Hobo” News that we do have survived through chance, being kept on open shelves in the St. Louis Public Library for decades without the library being aware of what they had. Other treasures might come to light in the future, changing how we view the history of street papers yet again. Courtesy of INSP.ngo  HISTORY from page 8 successful from its inception in 2010 to the present day. In May 2021, the torch of Groundcover leadership was passed from Beckett to Lindsay Calka, the present Managing Director and Publisher. Reflecting on this, Calka shared, "In 2021 Groundcover not only was recovering from the pandemic, but underwent a leadership transition from being directed by our founder, to a full-time managing director and publisher. As we've name a few." Calka commented that she sees the 15th anniversary campaign as Groundcover's chance to reminisce, reflect and celebrate the contributions of the many vendors, volunteers and supporters who have been with Groundcover since the beginning. She also sees it as a chance to communicate the organization's immense impact to the community — jump starting the next "15 years of news and solutions from the ground up." grown and changed to adapt to the demands of that change, so many wonderful, now foundational, aspects of our organization were innovated: increased publication frequency, the the freelance writing program and expanded arts and culture programming, just to Conclusion It started as a montly, one dollar paper. Vendors would purchase a paper for 25 cents and sell it for $1, keeping the balance of 75 cents as a profit. In March 2017, Groundcover News increased the selling price of each paper to $2. The vendor is expected to purchase a paper for 50 cents and sell it for $2. The vendor gets to keep a profit of $1.50 for each paper sold. Groundcover wants to help the vendors make more money and be able to pay their bills. Groundcover News is now published every two weeks, and Special Issues come out twice a year. Circulation has surpassed pre-pandemic rates, and vendor income is higher than ever. The visibility of and community engagement with Groundcover News are incredible. Many of the students and faculty members of U-M are aware of the paper. The businesses on Main Street, Fourth, Liberty and Washington streets are supportive of the newspaper’s mission. The County government and the City government are supportive, recently offering monetary support. The Ann Arbor and the Ypsilanti District Libraries have shown remarkable partnership and collaboration in projects which involve Groundcover News. In June of 2021, during the COVID19 global pandemic, we published an article entitled, “Groundcover News turns 11: Making a difference, addressing life’s most difficult challenges.” We are grateful that the newspaper survived the pandemic. It is now thriving, with signals pointing to an even brighter future. We look forward to celebrating future milestones.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES The healing of our ancestors The healing of our ancestors is our responsibility now as the mix of blessings and sins requires our attention and discriminating wisdom. “Water and the Spirit” by Malidoma Patrice Somé introduces us to this challenge and the revolutionary breakthrough that is coming as we work this field. I bought the book, read 11 transformative pages, showed it around and lost track of it. I have been a book person all my life and read voraciously until macular degeneration hit me a couple of years ago. My collection of unorganized books includes two that belong to the Ann Arbor Library — "Escape From Evil” by Ernest Becker and “The Vitamin Cure for Eyes” are books I want to find and get back to the library. I may have left them by the magnifying screen at the library. I habitually show books around hoping someone will master them and help me put them KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 into practice. I really need a new take on my aging challenges. Age-related is added to macular degeneration as if it’s one concept. The actual cause is vascular endothelial growth factor, called veg f in the lab; it is a kind of enzyme that damages the capillaries in the eyeball and causes damage. It comes from an imbalance in the gut biome. Allopathic medicine has come up with an expensive anti-veg f injection, but has no clues about a healthier gut biome. The struggle for good health is complex and intense. The wisdom of our ancestors is vast and can be brought into play as we blend allopathic with all branches of healing. I am looking for lamb’s quarters now. Our ancestors know this weed that is medicine. Honoring the past without getting lost in habitual patterns and narratives is rarely accomplished. Many are those who say forget the past. I think this is because trauma fixations perpetuate traumatic patterns and become obstacles to healing. Viewing the past with detachment is an important skill. Calm, clear and complete is possible as we view reality by skillful means. Full and complete awakening can happen all at once but usually comes in stages. I am in the struggle for the next stage but ego fixation is active in my life. Reality is always present and alive. Ego fixation wants to organize reality to some preconceived outcome. When I wrote “Food as Medicine” for the Groundcover News magazine, I began with the mental food that we process in the play of the mind. Mind training is a lifelong process of learning about a healthy mind. Find the teacher who cares and is experienced. Malidoma, the author of “Water and the Spirit" mentioned above, can help us. He once taught at the University of Michigan. The revolutionary potential for a collaboration between Groundcover News and the University of Michigan is waiting to be explored. We have feelers out and hope to update you with plans in the next issue. You can prepare by listening to the January 6, 2024 interview with the University of Michigan School of Public Health’s Dr. Vic Strecher, based on his book “Life With Purpose." JULY 25, 2025 For Two Homeless Kevins, One a Blackman, One a Whiteman PHILIP SPINK Groundcover vendor No. 630 There are so many gentle homeless people in the world — Kind people, loving people. They may not be people who fit in easily. They may be too emotionally sensitive For nine to five battlegrounds. But they are good. But they are hearts in full. But they are people who should not be forgotten, And left to lives of dust and sorrow Out on the hardened streets Of the American dream falling, Away, I fear, from true community, That shares hands and hopes and hearths and homes When cold winds blow and people hurt. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 As I look into your eyes I see endless amounts of time that we have together holding each other looking into each other's eyes loving each other and just being together wondering what our future will be like this is courageous love true love and true guessing no wishing I can visualize the love that we have inside that's so spiritual and so free and loving I never expected this but everybody gets a chance at love love cannot be found but love can be recognized this is the love story that I feel inside love has found me deep inside nowhere to run no where to hide love deep inside this is the love I recognize inside JULY 25, 2025 PRISON CORRESPONDENT Exile from State Street, part two: "M Block" In case you haven’t read Exile from State Street part one, I will summarize it for you. Firstly, I am currently in the state prison, after serving time at Washtenaw County jail, and part of my sentence is being banished from Washtenaw County after my release in late 2027. Secondly, I am very sorry for my crimes and I seek opportunities to make amends for my behavior which occurred between 2019 and 2023. Third, the most active part of Washtenaw County jail is called the ITR. The ITR stands for intake, transfer and release. Fourth, my friend Wild, who’s now with me here in prison but also spent time in the Washtenaw County jail, is an excellent person who will do well when he returns to society. Lastly, I am thankful for this time to rest, recuperate and rehabilitate. I was living in a way that I was a hazard to myself and others. People spending more than a long weekend in jail are moved to various jail units depending on the seriousness of their accused crimes. Those with misdemeanors are separated from those charged with felonies. This separation first occurs after an arraignment with the magistrate. I was charged with several felonies, but I also had some poor mental health symptoms. Therefore, I spent the first month in observation. Observation is a separate unit where there are constant checks on individuals life wasn’t in jeopardy. I also craved the serotonin spike of getting away with it. An inmate who would like to remain ROBBIE FEBRUARY Groundcover contributor detained there. There are video cameras constantly on the individuals and they are dressed in “turtle suits.“ Turtle suits are padded uniforms that are secured with long strips of Velcro. They are awkward and form a shell to protect the individual contained therein. I didn’t mind the turtle suit when it was my time to wear it. It felt like a weighted blanket attached by duct tape. I was eventually moved to “M Block” where many of the individuals facing felony charges are housed. There are multiple reasons I am spending the next two decades in exile from Washtenaw County. There are none that I am proud of. I have chosen not to crowd the article with a laundry list of crimes I committed during the winter of 2022. One of the crimes I feel most embarrassed about was breaking and entering a daycare. I did it because I was cold and hungry, but I wasn’t starving or facing frostbite. My anonymous — we’ll call him Steve — is spending some time in prison with me. He has good things to say about M Block. “It’s a privileged block,’ he says. “Four-man rooms, it’s the best block in the jail except for K Block. They have a movie room and a gym.’ I had forgotten about the movie room. Here at Cotton, the facility in Jackson where I am currently housed, we have eight-man cubes. The summers are hot and crowded. Sometimes arguments turn into physical altercations. It’s easy to get pulled into someone else’s problems when you live in such close quarters. I recently completed my required course “Thinking for a Change.” It was an advantage to get it done early in my sentence. I learned a lot about emotional regulation and the links between cognition and behavior. Steve is being held up by a class right now. He needs to complete it before he will be released. He expressed some frustration with the process. He said, “In Washtenaw County jail, I learned a lot from the Dawn Farms and GED courses. Washtenaw Literacy was my favorite one. We were allowed to research and write on a topic we were interested in.” I asked him what he learned during his year in county jail. He said, “I learned how to deal with isolation and how to cope with assholes.” I recall the food at Washtenaw County jail to be sparse, but serviceable. Steve had a differing opinion. He said, “The food was horrible. Breakfast was okay, but every other meal was worse than any other county.“ We eat from a regular calendar of meals here at Cotton. There are eight days a month where dinner is served between pieces of day-old bread. It’s not all gloom and doom though. Highlights from the menu are biscuits and gravy, chicken on the bone, and spaghetti. I often wonder what I will do and where I will fit in society when I am released. I asked my interviewee about his post-release plans and he said, “I have never been on parole before, but Washtenaw County has really good programs like A Brighter Way.” He continued, “I am going to get in contact with Alcoholics Anonymous, and get a sponsor.” A few days after the interview, he got into an altercation with his cubee, and was sent to “the hole” for punishment. He lost his spot in class and will be detained for a longer time because of it. I wish him the best but I will ensure that I don’t run into similar circumstances during the rest of my stay. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13 Creativity JALICIA HARRIS Groundcover vendor No. 484 Creativity is important to me. It’s important because it gives me a different way to look at things or a way to come up with something that is inspiring and different. I think that when you get used to seeing a certain thing the same way it can sometimes feel a bit dull. What makes you feel more creative? For me it's the sounds that change my vibration. Vibration is an essential concept in life because it is the fundamental building block of the universe. Every single thing in the universe is made up of energy, which is constantly vibrating. We can see that as we experience the world and all the things in it, from the air we breathe to the ground we walk on. And we can create ways to vibrate higher from being inspired by something in the world. Everything is vibrating at its own unique frequency. My creativity is something that makes me unique. I believe our vibrations connect at some level which gives us good, or sometimes bad, feelings. We should pay attention to giving off good vibrations (or energy) that are positive and create a flow around us. That creates good vibes for the world. I think that if you do that the universe gives it back to you. Our vibrations are created from our energy and I like creatively exploring things that are around me, trying to see from different perspectives each time I look at an object or person; or comparing things to see if I can view them in a new light, or create a new idea or thought depending on how I am inspired. Ancient Greeks believed that the world was made up of four elements: fire, air, earth and water. They believed these elements were in constant vibration and they interacted with each other and influenced the world around them. Everything in the universe is made up of atoms, which are constantly vibrating and emitting energy. This energy is responsible for the way we experience the world around us. So we are responsible for creating a good energy within ourselves to ensure we are giving good vibes to the universe. This also helps us to attract a good vibration from the universe, in my opinion. I enjoy trying to create a good vibration. It calls for good mental focus. Using my mind and controlling my thoughts or meditating. What’s your vibration? Have you ever spent time using your creativity? Creativity maybe hard to feel if you are experiencing a lack of inspiration. I suggest getting in tune with nature, by visiting a park or going on a gratitude walk or even listening to meditation music of different frequencies to help stimulate or unblock your creativity. Frequencies are the rate at which something occurs or is repeated over a particular period of time in a given sample, or the rate at which a vibration occurs that continues a wave, either in a material, as in sound waves, or in electromagnetic field, as in radio waves and light, usually measured per second. Listening to these frequencies will change your vibration over time, so listening to that frequency at different times may change the aspect from which you perceive, causing an inspiration that sparks some level of creativity. So take your time while exploring ways to increase creativity. Creativity makes the world a more colorful place. So get out there and create something with a positive vibe that will flow and create good energy around you! I’ve been working on using my creative mind to influence positive energy around me. I do this by, for example, feeding animals that come to my yard; or going on gratitude walks so that I can see different things that help me feel more positive; or hearing things such as a compliment from a person passing by, to help give off good energy and increase a positive vibe.

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS RECOVERY JULY 25, 2025 From hustle to healing: Leroy Pickett’s journey to long-term recovery JOHNATHAN GLASS Home of New Vision Recovery Coach Leroy Pickett was raised by his grandmother, whom he lovingly called "Mama." Born in 1919, Mama became the family’s anchor after Leroy’s mother passed away at the age of 21 from a rare blood clot. Leroy was only six. Though the loss was profound, his grandmother instilled in him a deep sense of resilience and faith. "She taught me how to keep going," Leroy shared. He recalls a pivotal moment on Mother’s Day years later, when grief finally caught up to him. Mama, finding him crying in her room, gently reminded him, "God loaned her to us, and in His wisdom, He took her back." That moment, Leroy says, gave him clarity: "In less than five minutes, Mama made sense of the human experience." As a young teen, Leroy fell into the company of older peers who introduced him to marijuana. Though Mama warned him, he continued down that path, drawn to the excitement and perceived freedom of the lifestyle. By the early 1980s, that path led him to crack cocaine and eventually into dealing. Leroy shared that it wasn’t about getting high at first — it was about fitting in, feeling wanted, and later, supporting a lifestyle that increasingly revolved around substance use. The hustle was constant. "There was never enough cash," he said. "I was always hustling." Eventually, that lifestyle led to legal consequences. He received his first arrest after borrowing a car in exchange for drugs—but when he returned it late, the owner reported it stolen. Leroy served six months in jail and was placed on probation, but did not comply. During a later court appearance, Leroy met a judge who saw more than his charges. The judge acknowledged Leroy’s academic history, the loss of his family, and the grief that had derailed him. "He asked what my grandmother would think of my choices," Leroy recalled. "That hit me hard." While Leroy wasn’t ready for change just yet, the judge planted a seed of accountability that would grow in time. Incarceration and the spark of change From 1995 to 2013, Leroy served time in prison. But it was behind bars where he began reclaiming his life. He started reading, tutoring other incarcerated individuals, and working as a library clerk. "I read the entire Harry Potter series," he said proudly. Near the end of his sentence, Leroy reached out to 12 colleges in search of a fresh start. Washtenaw Community College (WCC) responded with encouragement and even contacted the parole board to support his reentry. That affirmation made all the difference. He was released on August 6, 2013. Leroy earned a certified welding credential from WCC but soon returned to Detroit. Old environments and relationships pulled him back into old habits. Between 2015 and 2016, he found himself once again entangled in substance use. "I knew the path only led to three places: death, prison, or a mental institution." After four days without sleep and no insulin for his diabetes, Leroy entered Spera/Dawn Farm treatment in Washtenaw County. In his first group meeting, a counselor around his age asked him to look around and notice the absence of peers his age. "He said people with substance use disorder rarely make it to 50. That woke me up." Eight years strong and giving back Today, Leroy celebrates over eight years in long-term recovery. He works with Home of New Vision as a peer recovery coach through Project ASSERT, stationed at the University of Michigan Psychiatric Emergency Services. There, he supports individuals navigating mental health and substance use challenges. His favorite part of the work? "Seeing the light come on in someone else’s eyes. That’s when I know it’s working." He continues his education, working Thank you Groundcover News readers. The answer to "The Ocean Find" published May 30, 2025 was FALSE. The answer to "Sisterly Love" published July 11, 2025 was TRUE. Felicia Wilbert, Truth Or Lies Mystery Lane. "If there was hope for me, there's hope for anyone. People just need to know they're worth the work it takes to heal." — Leroy Pickett toward his CADC certification and MDHHS Peer Recovery Coach credential. His long-term goal is to become a licensed therapist specializing in addiction recovery. Leroy credits his faith as a guiding force. "I’m not trying to preach, but having a relationship with the Lord has been the greatest gift of all." Leroy is active in his recovery community, sponsors others, and plays a loving role in the lives of his daughter and grandchildren. Though he sometimes reflects on the years he lost, he embraces the wisdom and compassion that have emerged from his experience. "If there was hope for me, there’s hope for anyone. People just need to know they’re worth the work it takes to heal." Need Help? Recovery begins with one brave step. If you or someone you love is struggling: Home of New Vision: 3115 Professional Dr., Ann Arbor, MI 48104 | 734-975-1602 Dawn Farm/Spera: 502 W Huron St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104 | 734-669-8265 Recovery is possible. Help is available. And your story isn’t over yet. HARM REDUCTION VOLUNTEERS Are you compassionate, nonjudgmental, and committed to fostering safer environments and services for vulnerable populations? Volunteer Today! Volunteers will learn more about Harm Reduction and recovery services, the impact of substance use disorders on our communities and more. SIGN UP TODAY AVAILABLE ACTIVITIES : Outreach and Distribution Outreach Kit Preparation Community Clean Up Community Engagement INDIVIDUALS SHOULD BE COMFORTABLE INTERACTING WITH THOSE EXPERIENCING SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS. bit.ly/harmreductionvolunteer JULY 25,2025 COMMUNITY RESOURCES recovery RESOURCE CORNER FRIENDS OF LITTLE HOUSE RECOVERY CENTER 802 N River St., Ypsilanti 734-219-5051 Recovery meetings 7 days a week. Call for times IN THE ROOMS intherooms.com/livemeetings/list Online recovery meetings 24/7 AL-ANON 1475 Westfield Ave., Ann Arbor 734-995-4949 Meeting information: afgdistrict5. org/meeting-calendar Meetings for family and friends of those with an addiction. Literature about working Al-Anons program and supportive readings ALANO CLUB 995 N Maple Rd., Ann Arbor, 734-668-8138 Recovery meetings seven days a week. 10 a.m.- 9 p.m. Commissary, pool table and TV NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS 1-800-230-4085 Call for meeting times. michigan-na.org/washtenaw-area/ meetings/ ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, HURON VALLEY AREA INTERGROUP 31 S. Huron, Ypsilanti MI 48197 734-482-0707 Office Hours: Tuesday - Friday, 1:006:00 p.m. Meeting Locator (Countywide and beyond) and Helpline Number 734-482- 5700. Website includes up to date meeting locator and other resources: hvai.org/ DAWN FARM 6633 Stony Creek Rd.,Ypsilanti 734-485-8725 — Long term residential: Farm location (located in Ypsilanti 36 beds) and Dawn Farm Downtown location (located in Ann Arbor 13 beds) — Up to 90 day residential — Public funding available for those who qualify — Transitional housing: Houses and apartments across Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti (160 beds total) — 12 step meetings daily — Outpatient services in Ann Arbor — Community Corrections Outreach HARM REDUCTION Connect with Home of New Vision’s Ypsilanti Harm Reduction Program at our physical location or mobile sites. As our program grows, accessible hours may change. Confirm office and mobile sites by contacting us at 734-417-5864. Want to host a mobile site? Contact us today! Trainings and workshops also available. Office Location Schedule: OUR SERVICES ANONYMOUS AND CONFIDENTIAL Former Home of New Vision Engagement Center 103 Arnet Ypsilanti, MI 48197 TheRide: AAATA 2015/2035 (Route 44) 734-417-5864 Tuesdays - 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM Every Other Friday - 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM Every Other Saturday - 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM Mobile Locations Schedule: Syringe Disposal Amoco 505 South Huron St. Ypsilanti, MI 48197 Water St. Trail & Michigan Ave. Lot Opposite Heritage Bridge Ypsilanti, MI 48197 Frog Island Park 699 Rice St. Ypsilanti, MI 48197 Delonis Center 312 W Huron St. Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Mondays 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Referrals and Resources Wednesdays 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM Wednesdays 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM Mobile Outreach Every Other Friday 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM Hepatitis C Testing Safer Sex Education and Condom Distribution Safer Use Supplies and Education Overdose Prevention and Reversal - Education, Workshops and Trainings Naloxone Distribution GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15 homeofnewvision.org mcooper@homeofnewvision.org 734.417.5864

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Easy banana ice cream ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 4 cups frozen very ripe banana chunks ¼ cup coconut cream (or Greek yogurt) Directions: Add the frozen bananas to the bowl of a food processor. Seal and start grinding on LOW, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally, keep going until the banana is in small pieces that look like coarse sand. Add the cream. Continue grinding on LOW until the mixture starts to look creamy, then switch to HIGH to make a smooth and creamy banana ice cream. immediately. Serve $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 8/22/2025 JULY 25, 2025

2 $ JULY 11, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 15 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Undercover art intel: A chance for disabled artists. page 2 JOE WOODS #103 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT'S YOUR BEST ART FAIR TIP? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY EVENTS Undercover art intel: A chance for disabled artists Within Washtenaw County, there is a large disabled community made up of the working disabled who hold a job despite their disability challenges. Many U.S. military service members also have disabilities from many different diagnoses. There are non-working people with disabilities who also contribute through volunteering. Within these groups there is a small contingent of artists who work hard to create varying art pieces. It is sad that often much of this work is not seen, left in the closet or drawer of an individual artist, due to little access to large and small art galleries or art shows, not being able to access a ride or lack of computer knowledge. Many of the artists have anxiety and this can be a CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 set-back on showing art. It truly is the worry or fear of “I’m disabled, why would anyone want to see my art, let alone buy one of my pieces?” As a Native American artist with FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder), I know firsthand that this fear is real for many who have any disability. I'm proud to announce one of the first shows for individuals with disabilities. From Autism to Down Syndrome, a very small show with a lot of other activities will be held in front of the downtown Community Mental Health Annex building between Ann and Huron on Fourth Avenue. It's a big red brick building. This little event will be during the Ann Arbor Art Fair. Please come, show your support and pick up great art works! Yes, my art will be there as well! — Kung Fu Panda Friday, July 18, 12-4 p.m. 110 N 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Author's note: The cover of this edition was collectively splatter-painted by Groundcover vendors at our June 27 vendor meeting! JULY 11, 2025 letter to the EDITOR This is in regards to Jim Clark's anti-capitalism article in the June 27, 2025 issue of Groundcover. Anti-capitalism is incompatible with human nature — people are wired to build, invest, to strive and be productive, to advance their family's well being. Little people like me WANT the goods and services billionaires, millionaires and average capitalists produce. Competitive markets foster innovation. Can anyone reasonably argue this country is worse off compared to 150 years ago? Try imagining life without washing machines or chemotherapy. Free markets have made life better, healthier and prosperous for billions of people. Anti-capitalist systems have been tried in other countries — think Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Fidel Castro in Cuba. Both nationalized their food distribution systems in the interests of "equity" and "access." And the result? Poverty, rationing and hunger. Grocery store shelves were stripped bare, and citizens stood in lines for hours for a loaf of bread or a bag of rice, if there was any food left at all. Bureaucrats decided what the citizens ate, when they ate and where they got it. I hope the anti-capitalists of the United States reorient their thinking. Sincerely, Anonymous PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Jim Clark Lynn Gait-Bilodeau Cindy Gere Roberto Isla Caballero LaShawn Courtwright augustine jay Mike Jones Bryan Kiser Jr. Eric Kopchia Chad Naugle Denise Shearer Shawn Swoffer Kaleaf Warnya Felicia Wilbert GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS CONTACT US Susan Beckett June Miller Steve Ross Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Yumna Dagher Luiza Duarte Caetano Regina Duerst Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Bella Martinez Anthony McCormick Robert Klingler Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JULY 11, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR What's your best Ann Arbor Art Fair tip? Don't go overboard spending money. Put a budget on your spending! — Joe Woods, #103 Put on your most interesting face, and see what happens then. — Wayne Sparks, #615 Start on Main Street, go up Liberty, go down State Street up to North U, then come back down to the clock tower. — Cindy Gere #279 Make sure you know ahead of time where the bathrooms, free water and places to sit down are. — Felicia Wilbert #234 Keep hydrated and find shade. — Mike Jones, #113 Stay the heck away— if anything, go for a half day. It’s always gonna storm. — Snap, #205 Dress colorfully. — Shawn Swoffer, #574 Walk slow and don’t try to rush. — Denise Shearer, #485 July 1992 — it was the start of a great day. Cleo awoke at 7 a.m., anticipating a new hair client and making $400. Her client lived on the second floor of her building. Cleo was happy not having to travel that morning in the LA traffic. Cleo's client, Corey, requested having her hair braided; however, she had a two-month-old baby and was concerned about being in a salon all day getting her hair done. Fortunately for her, Cleo offered private services. Cleo went upstairs and knocked on Corey's door. She slouched to the door dragging her feet, finally opened the door and said good morning. Cleo looked at her hair and her clothing, thinking this young lady really needs a helping hand. Cleo clearly saw that Corey was depressed. Cleo said, "Good morning sweetheart, it's going to be a blessed day. Let's get moving.” However, Corey was still slow-dragging. As Cleo looked around her house, she noticed that the baby was not there. She also noticed that Corey didn't have any furniture. There was only a dining room table with four chairs, a full size bed and a baby bed. Cleo was relieved they didn't have to keep stopping to attend to the baby. She asked where the baby was at out of concern. Corey said, "With her grandmother, of course. I don't know how long it will take. I didn't want you to have to keep stopping.” Cleo asked Corey, “How about we do a makeover today?” Corey smiled and said, "What? Okay, do what you do. I will trust you!” Cleo said, “I'll be right back.” GROUNDCOVER NEWS Truth or Lies: Sisterly Love a sofa set please. That's my gift to the baby.” Corey was so amazed she was almost in tears. Cleo laughed and said, "Now don't start crying because you'll mess up your makeup.” Corey said, “I must take FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 She hurried to her apartment, walked over to her closet, selected three dresses, two pairs of matching sandals and retrieved her makeup kit. Cleo walked back to the apartment upstairs, made a makeshift station on the table and began to work. She quickly braided the young lady's hair in six hours, which normally takes longer. Corey said, “I never had my hair braided so fast and it's too beautiful. How did you make my hair feel so light? Before when I had my hair braided, my braids were very heavy. I would always take them out within two weeks.” Cleo styled Corey's hair in medium size, long individual braids. She got a $400 hairdo and a $250 makeover. After applying her makeup, Cleo gave Corey eyelashes and a pair of earrings. Corey selected a long dress with red, blue and yellow abstract flowers detailing the dress. When she got dressed and looked in the mirror, Corey was amazed. She said, "Wow, I look like I stepped out of a magazine! Thank you so much. Here is your money. How much more do I owe you?” Cleo said to her, “I'll just take $100; you keep the rest and buy you pictures.” "Yes," Cleo said, “so I can put it in my portfolio.” Corey wanted to go outside to walk and get some ice cream. Cleo told her, “Well, you better get ready for a new day because you're about to experience something you never have before.” As they approached Eighth and Alvarado Street in LA, a Spanish man on the sidewalk started whistling and shouting. “Beautiful señoritas! Beautiful señoritas!" He raised his hands, gesturing to others to move out the way, parting the sidewalk. Corey was so tickled she said to Cleo, "Wow, I've never had that kind of treatment before!" Cleo said, “That’s every day for me. It's all about the walk, the talk, and the way you dress. It's how you carry yourself, that's how men will treat you.” Corey was feeling so elated. She quickly snapped out of the depressive state of mind she was feeling earlier. She wanted to pay for the makeover and the clothing. Fortunately, Cleo said to her, “That's what sisters do for one another. When you're feeling sad, we’re supposed to cheer you up and that should cost you nothing.” “Can we go look at furniture?“ asked Corey. “If only everyone in the world felt that way, it would be a better place.” 3 Letting go of the past to save my future CHAD NAUGLE Groundcover contributor I’ve been doing a lot of thinking 12/31/2025 lately — about who I was, who I thought I’d be, and where I’m actually going. Somewhere along the line, I realized I’ve been dragging around old hopes and dreams like baggage I’m afraid to let go of. They used to be sources of motivation. Now, they’re holding me back. It’s hard to admit, but the version of my life I imagined years ago doesn’t fit the person I am today. I keep chasing goals that no longer reflect my values or reality, stuck in a loop of "what should’ve been" instead of embracing what could still be. And by clinging so tightly to the past, I’ve been sabotaging my future without even realizing it. Growth means being honest with yourself — even when it hurts. It means letting go of the dreams that no longer serve you so you can make room for the ones that do. I’m learning that release isn’t failure. It’s freedom. If you’re holding onto an outdated version of your life like I was, I hope this helps you see it’s okay to let go. You’re allowed to change. You’re allowed to start again. And your future deserves the real you, not a shadow of who you once hoped to be. Time to turn the page.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ART FOR EVERYONE Art on a Journey! Let's take a journey through the wonderful culture of art here in Washtenaw County. From Ypsilanti to Ann Arbor and beyond you can find art galleries, art supply stores and everything else to satisfy one’s artistic tastes and desires. Let us begin our journey in downtown Ypsilanti and the Riverside Arts Center located on 76 N. Huron St. The Riverside Arts Center offers, promotes and nurtures dynamic arts and cultural programs through arts education, performing arts and visual and fine arts activities primarily intended to serve and engage the Ypsilanti community and surrounding Washtenaw County area. The center offers diverse and high-quality arts programming that makes a positive contribution to the image, culture, education and economic development of the Ypsilanti community. It acts as a hub of artistic ventures, producing and hosting various fine and performing artist activities in an accessible facility that includes a theater, art galleries, dance studio, artist studios and classrooms. West of Ypsilanti in Ann Arbor, Gutman Gallery is an inclusive fine arts space located at 118 N. 4th Ave in downtown A2. Not only is the gallery home to rotating art exhibitions and a gallery shop, it also provides a creative space for the community to come together for workshops and events. Gutman Gallery is the gallery of The Guild of Artists and Artisans. The gallery is open to all regardless of gender, sexual orientation, religion, racial group, etc. With artists at the heart of everything that The Guild does, the Gutman Gallery exhibitions feature artwork from both Guild artist members as well as non-members and is curated through jury selection. The gallery shop is an opportunity for current Guild members to showcase and sell their work. It offers an exceptional MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 opportunity for artists as they have highly competitive commission rates, with artists receiving a large percentage of their sales. Recent renovations to the space were made possible with support from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council. Art is a journey we all experience through life itself. Moments are captured by those who choose to do so, through the means of their artistic expression. We all have artistic ways of expressing ourselves consciously or unconsciously. Those who are conscious of this expression seek to explore new ways to create something for others to appreciate. We are privileged to have a variety of resources in the Ann Arbor/Ypsi area to inspire and help us artists come up with something awesome. Places like Michaels, Ypsilanti Art Supply and SCRAP Creative Reuse are a few notable art supply stores in our neck of the woods that help us creators on our quest to create something to appreciate. In life's journey, as time takes hold and life's challenges weigh on us heavily at times, we all seek some form of therapy. A lot of artists I know express how being in a creative mode is so beneficial to their well-being because they are thinking about creating something beautiful instead of thinking about how to pay the bills, etc. (read: stress). It's all about making time and space to create. If one does not have the time and space, one cannot create a masterpiece because one is using up all his or her time to find space to exist here on planet earth. Imagine on this journey you find yourself unhoused. Imagine trying to create when displaced, and constantly on the move. Imagine having all these artistic visions in your head but not being able to manifest them because you are too occupied with basic survival.This often happens to people who find themselves unhoused: their artistic talents go unused, not allowing that individual to thrive, but only to survive. This is why Rose Marcum-Raugh started Art on a Journey back in 2019, and celebrated six years on this journey last April. Once homeless herself, but having artistic talents and knowing the difficulties involved with trying to create while on this insecure journey of homelessness, she committed to finding an artist space for those in the homeless community. Marcum-Raugh always dreamed of starting an art studio. She often saw housing-insecure and unhoused artists who could not afford to display their art in regular local art galleries. One day while volunteering at the Daytime Warming Center at the Journey of Faith, she was asked to do some clean-up work in the basement. Once she started working in the basement she thought to herself, this would be a good space for artists like myself to practice their craft. This space would eventually grow into Art on a Journey. Art on a Journey is no longer physically at the Journey of Faith Church (the building on Manchester Road has been demolished), but now serves as a mobile gallery and online platform. Go to artonajourney.gallery to see and purchase art. Phil Huhn joined Marcum-Raugh on JULY 11, 2025 Now that Art on a Journey no longer has a brick and mortar gallery, artists temporarily display works at different cafes, galleries and other gathering spaces. Rachel (left) and Phil Huhn (right) in front of Rachel's visiting gallery at Bridge Community Cafe. this journey in 2022 by displaying his art on the website and local art shows and also making connections with local businesses and organizations to display Art on a Journey artists and their work. Huhn has a background in dance, photography, and art administration, so Art on a Journey was a good fit for him. Just like Marcum-Raugh, Huhn was once homeless and now volunteers at the Daytime Warming Center. He is great at making connections with the unhoused community and getting their art displayed in public places. He convinced me to display some of my photographs at different showings in Washtenaw County. Art on a Journey would like to let readers know they are currently looking for space to create and display art from an unlikely source — the unhoused. So, if you have space and are willing to share or have any good ideas, connect with Marcum-Raugh or Huhn and have a talk. Cheers! Rachel's paintings Seth Best with landscape painting at Art on a Journey's April 25 art show/sale. JULY 11, 2025 COMMUNITY People in the neighborhood: Goochie legal action and Goochie was evicted. He tried to fight it but it came down to the police’s word over his. When I asked him how long he was homeless after the eviction he said “a few years.” “Can you talk about that?” I asked. Goochie replied, “Yeah, it was JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 This is Goochie’s story. Goochie’s full name is Terril Tamon Cotton II. He is a Southside Ypsilanti native whose purlieu is the streets of downtown Ypsilanti. I asked Goochie how he got his nickname. “My cousins gave it to me when I was little; they used to tickle me and be like goochie goochie goo!” he reminisced. Goochie was born with Spina Bifida which is a hole in his spinal cord. They told his mother he would not live past three years and the doctors said he was supposed to die a long time ago. “But,” he declared, “I'm still here.” He was born in 1983 at the University of Michigan hospital. Goochie attended West Middle School, Estabrook Elementary and graduated from Ypsilanti High School in 2001. I asked him if he went to college. He replied that he went to Wayne Community College for a few classes but had a hard time writing long papers. “I felt like it wasn’t for me,” he said. “They did give me a job in the office. I answered the phone. It was my first job ever.” I asked him if he could learn anything from college without having to write papers, what would it be? Goochie answered, “I would like to study business management. I want to open something like a nightclub around here, something fun.” He is not sure what he would name it yet. Goochie became homeless in 2009 living in Sycamore Meadows apartments. Goochie had guests come to his apartment that ended up triggering an eviction. The man was staying with his girlfriend off the record. He was not supposed to be on the property, but Goochie didn’t know this. The apartment management took hard for me ‘cause I'm in a wheelchair and then when the winter comes I can’t get through snow so I have to wait for people to come bring me stuff, take me places, yeah it was horrible. The hotel places don’t give no deals on extended stays so you gotta pay night after night. The Harmony House doesn't give you deals. No week-to-week or month-tomonth breaks, nothing.” Goochie's popularity in the downtown sector of Ypsilanti has earned him the nickname of “the unofficial mayor of Ypsilanti.” In fact, when you see him on the streets he is surrounded by people and surrounded by love. It seems like he knows everyone. I asked him if he ever considered actually running officially. He said with a smile, “They want me to run for office, but I don't know how to start. I told everybody just show me the way and I’ll do it.” Then I said, “Great, so campaign speech time! What would you do for us as Mayor of Ypsilanti?” Goochie responded, “To be honest, there is so much to do around here. Like we need a building, a permanent building for a homeless shelter. Certain roads never get fixed, certain sidewalks never get fixed. The corner of Washtenaw and Washington, it seems like those streets never get fixed. We also need to figure out a way the community and police can combine together without being at each other’s throats. We need to figure out something for people to do during the day.” We’re at 16 S. Washington while conducting the interview. There are people attending a service in the building and Goochie and a few others are at a table under the awning. I asked him to describe the event. He replied, “The main reason everybody is here is for the FedUp Wednesday meal. So Care Based Safety comes to help out in case people need wound care or medical supplies; we’re like the medical team.” From the Care-Based Safety website: “Care-Based Safety is dedicated to acting with principle and intention. We are taking careful steps in building a community response program that brings loving, unarmed support to people directly impacted by structural violence — without police. In our planning, response, and practice we center the needs of people who are Black, Indigenous, undocumented, unhoused, LGBTQIA+, using drugs, and/or experiencing mental health struggles.” Care-Based Safety’s summer program runs June-August 2025 on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at 16 S. Washington St., Ypsilanti. Goochie says that most of the community issues Care-Based Safety handles are due to drugs and alcohol. Arguing and fighting are common. He believes the answer is more community programming. After several interviews with people in the neighborhood, it became apparent that many of the area's homeless people are aware of these same problems. They admit that alcohol and drugs are a problem and that they could overcome them if they tried. But it is also known that the effort needed to get sober, get a job and get housing is tremendous and without community support, nearly hopeless. The street community is populated by adults who know what they need. The police do nothing to help. The city and county do nothing to help. The business owners, landlords, and “not-in-my-backyard” minded neighbors do absolutely nothing to help. People have been demanding a 24/7 low barrier shelter in Ypsilanti, but their voices are ignored. Meanwhile people congregate and do what they do. The business owners and landlords complain, saying they are ruining the “downtown experience.” The people who live in Ypsilanti but have no shelter are well aware of how their behavior affects things, but have no recourse. The street community would be more than happy to work with the city, the neighbors, the business owners and the cops if they would listen to what the community is asking for: to be heard, to be provided shelter, educational and recreational programming and to have police accountability. The people in the neighborhood live here too. They need a voice, they need a mayor, they need Goochie. People in the Neighborhood is a Groundcover News column that focuses on neighbors of the street community in Washtenaw County. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out Preschool Storytimes and Baby Playgroups Join our storytellers on weekdays inside the library for fun songs, stories, puppets, and movement! Visit aadl.org/storytimes to view a list of upcoming in-person storytimes and playgroups. You can also stream and download our recorded storytimes online at AADL.TV. Washtenaw Library for the Blind & Print Disabled at AADL This free service loans books, magazines, & videos in alternative formats (audiobooks, large print, braille books & magazines, and descriptive video) to individuals who are unable to read or use standard printed materials. Visit aadl.org/wlbpd/apply to apply. FEATURED EVENT 5 Saturday, July 26 • 1 PM • Veterans Memorial Park Join fellow Summer Game players and community members for a spectacular celebration of all things Summer Game! Circus performances, lawn games, ice cream, codes, and more await at our annual summer celebration.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PRINT GALLERY Kaleaf Warnya Miracle Davis JULY 11, 2025 JULY 11, 2025 PRINT GALLERY Roberto Isla Caballero Eric Kopchia GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Denise Shearer SUPPORT CALL FOR and understanding 24/7 mental health and substance use support 734-544-3050 LEARN MORE about programs funded by the community mental health and public safety preservation millage. PEER SUPPORT: Artie Tomlin, Valerie Bass, and Marti Schneider

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COLORING PAGE COLORING page Color in or out of the lines, get creative and add your own details! JULY 11, 2025 by Cindy Gere, Groundcover vendor No. 279 JULY 11, 2025 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. "Check this out!" 5. Another name for "cat" 10. Good source of protein 14. A chorus line 15. Carry away, in a way 16. ___ probandi 17. Euros replaced them 18. A person's sould in Hinduism 19. face zits; puberty 20. Someone who is lost 23. Flipper 24. Femin___ (three letters) 25. "Dear old" guy 26. Bank offering, for short 28. A rival 30. Alias 32. Boundaries 34. All excited 35. Womb 37. Bucket 38. Bits and pieces 41. A crew's living quarters on a ship 42. Laze 44. "Stupid me!"; Homer Simpson 45. British street car; verb 49. Ashes holder 50. "Iliad" warrior 52. Bleat 53. ___ Verde National Park 54. Collection of planets 59. Like Radio City Music Hall 61. Army outfit 64. Omniverous fish 65. Past tense of outride 66. cooked bread; verb 67. Bird cleaning its feathers, past tense DOWN 1. Amigo 2. Moveable glass door 3. Collection of string instruments 4. "Little piggies" 5. Compote fruit 6. Latin for ultimate 7. "___ here" 8. Normal; used as a model 9. "Fiddler on the Roof" role 10. Exactly 11. Occasionally 12. Event used to generate financial support 13. "It's no ___!" 21. Black gold 22. Cutting tool 23. J.F.K. overseer 27. "Is that ___?" 29. Auspices 31. Barbie's beau 33. "How ___ Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" (Kaavya Viswanathan novel in the news) 35. ___-friendly; technology 36. Doing nothing 39. Short order, for short 40. Pistol, slangily 41. Kind of approval; food 43. Genetic makeup 46. Overseas 47. More, in Madrid 48. Yellow fruit of passion flower 51. Bubbly drinks 53. Downing Street distance 55. Advanced 56. Advil target 57. Aspersion 58. "Soap" family name 59. Appropriate 60. "Flying Down to ___" 62. "___ to Billie Joe" 63. "20,000 Leagues" harpooner ___ Land

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Summer wonder LA SHAWN COURWRIGHT Groundcover writer Summertime is the greatest time for things to grow In particular the caterpillar The caterpillar munches out on a whole lot of leaves Spins a cocoon around itself Then it stays inside for a time When it comes out it is a new creature called a butterfly It remains on the branch until its wings dry After that it off on its first flight Its first fly What a summer wonder The wonderful, beautiful, majestic butterfly Be Yourself BRYAN KISER Groundcover vendor No. 670 Jumped in, the feeling never felt warming Closed my eyes and hoped for better days Mornings are hot and nights are cold Life is beautiful on the surface Underneath you see all that has expired or been lost Loss is a blessing, fuel to your fire Politics say my life is over, help is never a guarantee Sleep here, move there, many restless nights Seek and ye shall find, elders tell me I’ve searched and looked Exiled and lost Wronged and righted Laugh and cried with the pain and without it Break me down, strip away my pride Freedom, does it exist? Seeing that patience is the key My mind rambles the most Leaving my mouth untalkable My brothers and sisters suffer in silence Though our soul screams in sorrow Who can speak for the homeless when it’s misunderstood Wisdom JASON MICHAEL CHURCH Groundcover contributor Went and got benzos Thinking it was what’s needed Really just need Jesus Follow his teaching Practice what he be preaching Spread Love and Kindness. Seek help when ready Do not be afraid to change One day at a time We must all believe Recovery is possible Knowledge is power No need for the hate Let’s practice understanding Love one another Smarter JASON MICHAEL CHURCH They all throw singles Not us we are different We only throw change Now they all blame us For women getting smarter Gave them too much cents JULY 11, 2025 Summertime in Ann Arbor JOE WOODS Groundcover vendor No. 103 Summertime in Ann Arbor Michigan So many things to do 90° weather at the river cooling off as you barbecue Summertime in Ann Arbor Michigan So many things to do Sitting outside enjoying downtown Ann Arbor's vibe while eating your food Summertime in Ann Arbor Michigan So many things to do At Top of the Park enjoying live music or a movie while drinking a nice cold brew Summertime in Ann Arbor Michigan So many things to do Blistering heat during Art Fair Enjoying the festivities in the heat as you keep water on you to stay cool Summertime in Ann Arbor Michigan So many things to do People out walking their dogs getting ice cream and everybody's in a good mood Summertime in Ann Arbor Michigan So many things to do And always remember in the beautiful city of Ann Arbor our motto here is GO BLUE PUZZLE SOLUTIONS JULY 11, 2025 POETRY 'questions answered' if my debt has been paid then why am i still afraid? why do i feel betrayed? why is my color grey? have i gone blind? will i see what's to find? how long is the grind? i'm restless and tired exhausted and wired if i can't believe blind will God have me fired? or freed from this cage? i grow stronger with age but what good is wisdom in this day and age where the devil's a wizard and i'm just a mage? i wasn't taught love it's something i know like when a rain falls and our sun casts a glow reflecting white light in a prism rainbow like when a rose blooms and the warm winds blow like fragile sparkling sky flying Snow i want to be here not so long ago i want to live now i've had enough practice why would our god give us life to retract it? these are just some of the questions i have am i missing something? please try not to laugh i'm dying inside but i refuse to hide from the almighty truth about which satan lied AUGUSTINE JAY Groundcover vendor No. 678 for that i'm a stranger i'm a caged bird i smile and sing but no one hears my words no one but God the love we all need the one thing we starve for but nobody feeds the one thing that grows without soil or seed everything was is and always will be the one thing we dig for that nobody buried to love is to synchronize forever married throughout from within and around space and time love is the only god worth all these rhymes and as long as we have it we will never die GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Pride, Unfolding LYNN GAIT-BILODEAU Groundcover vendor No. 663 We are the colors after rain, the spectrum bold and unashamed— a thousand stories, woven threads of hope and hurt and love reclaimed. We are the laughter in the dark, the hands that reach across the room, the quiet courage, beating hearts that blossom riotously in bloom. We are the names they tried to hush, the truths that shimmer in the light, the chosen kin, the gentle hush of dawn that breaks a longer night. We are the questions, we are the song, the dance of genders, fierce and free, the right to love, to live, belong— the future we demand to see. So let us rise, and let us sing, with every voice and every hue. This pride is not a borrowed thing— it’s us, it’s real, it’s always true. Another peaceful day SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 As the morning dew is on the grass I open my eyes When the heat of the summer hits the day I stop to listen to the busy city Author's note: I’d like to encourage folks to check out Groundcover vendor No. 139 Jim Clark’s thoughts on “Radical Love.” You can find it online on the Groundcover website. Navigate to "Street News" and then "Digital Issues" and look for the March 21, 2025 edition; it’s on page 4! Thanks for reading and stay well friends! TTFN! When evenings comes into less sounds from the city's cars and trucks I meditate into the night I feel good and happy It's been a good day I think to myself When the night blankets us with darkness I sleep into an entire nighttime Maybe tomorrow I'll have another peaceful day Another morning will stop my way

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ART FAIR MAP Roasted asparagus ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 large bunch (about 1 pound) fresh asparagus 1 to 2 teaspoons olive oil Salt, to taste Freshly ground black pepper, to taste Directions: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Snap off the woody ends of the asparagus and discard. Wash the asparagus and place on the sheet. Drizzle with 1 to 2 teaspoons olive oil, just enough to lightly coat the asparagus. Sprinkle salt and pepper JULY 11, 2025 over the asparagus, and toss until the spears are lightly coated in oil. Arrange the spears in a single layer on the pan. Bake just until the base of the asparagus is easily pierced by a fork. Very thin asparagus will take as little as 9 to 12 minutes, thicker asparagus will need 15 to 20 minutes. Season with a small amount of grated parmesan cheese. $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 7/24/2025

2 $ JUNE 27, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 14 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Exile from State Street — part one. page 5 MEET YOUR VENDOR: JIM CLARK PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Non-English speakers in DC shelters suffer from lack of translation. page 4 Left to right: Kiara Meza, Davyd Abreu and J, outside a SMYAL facility. Photo by Madi Koesler THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor # @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER JUNE 27, 2025 Thank you Washtenaw County for funding through 2025 New Human Services Partnership On April 20 Groundcover News received official notification that this valued publication, which has been providing critical resources and entrepreneurial opportunities since 2010, was chosen to be one of ONLY eight organizations to receive Washtenaw County’s 2025-2026 New Human Services Partnership Mini-Grant. The goal of this grant program is to provide organizations like Groundcover — human services organizations that do not regularly have formal support from the government — with onetime funding to address the root causes of institutional inequity in Washtenaw County, specifically: Racism, Poverty and Trauma. Addressing the root causes of institutional inequity is at the core of Groundcover’s mission. We applied for operational funding to continue and grow our two main service programs: the Vendor Program, which provides opportunity for self-determined will be conducting an equity self-assessment, writing an equity action plan and pursuing other activities to better evaluate our impact. Receiving this grant is a huge deal for LINDSAY CALKA Publisher individuals to work in newspaper sales; and the Freelance Writing Program, which provides stipends and training for Vendors who are interested in writing for the paper (generating content). We also plan to use funds for mentorship and investment in equipment for Groundcover News vendors. Some of the requirements to receive these funds are designed to grow the capacity of our organization. With support from the U-M School of Social Work Program Evaluation Group we Groundcover. First, it is the largest grant we have received in our nearly 15 years of existence as a community-serving non-profit. The total award will be $40,000, to be distributed over two fiscal years. Second, it is a formal declaration of support from the leaders of this community in recognition of the impact we have made across Washtenaw County so far. It is also an investment in our future as a critical resource for all those facing the growing challenges of persistent poverty in this community. Grant applications were reviewed by a committee of vetted community volunteers with content expertise, community knowledge and/ or lived experiences of inequity. The other agencies awarded funding this year were Community Action Network, Laotian American Community of Michigan, Washtenaw Success by Six, Washtenaw Camp Placement, SOS Community Services, Michigan Medicine and The Women’s Center of Southeast Michigan. We congratulate these organizations for the important contributions they have made in our County and look forward to working with them in the learning community provided by the County to assure accountability and effective stewardship of these funds. Thank you to the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners for continuing this grant opportunity for the third year and your approval of this allocation to Groundcover. Things have just kicked off. We will continue to update readers and supporters throughout the coming year. PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Jim Clark Peter Collins Robbie February Roberto Isla Caballero Will Shakespeare Wayne Sparks Scoop Stevens Anthony Smith Franziska Wild PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett June Miller Steve Ross GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Yumna Dagher Gabe Deedler Luiza Duarte Caetano Regina Duerst Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Michelle Lardie-Guzek Bella Martinez Robert Klingler Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Grant Wright Emilie Ziebarth CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JUNE 27, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Jim Clark, vendor No. 139 In one sentence who are you? At first I thought I was no one going nowhere but it turns out I'm a force of nature. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? Wherever the truth needs to be told. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? Technically 2013 but really got into it in 2019. Why? Because the pen is mightier than the sword. What is one place in Ann Arbor that feels like your own personal sanctuary? Loaded question: My sanctuary is Hospitality House in Ypsilanti. What is your life's motto? Matthew 25:40 What advice would you give your younger self? At 23, you had it right. Eat, sleep and breathe anti-capitalism. Do not deviate from this path. What is your comfort food? Beets and cake. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring three things what would they be? A helicopter, enough fuel to reach the mainland and an instruction manual on how to fly the helicopter. If there was a theme song for your life what would it be? Stuck between "Running with the Devil" by Van Halen and "Wake Up" by Rage Against the Machine. Better to go with Rage for now. Park clean-up was a success! On a hot and humid, Saturday morning in June, the "gang of five" (pictured above) met up in West Park to complete the commitment we made to clean up our parks. We were able to make new friends and enjoy making a difference! We hope to have many more encounters with the community. Good people of Ann Arbor, know we are here to stay and here to help anyway we can! — Wayne S. Another history human? What is the reality of being The hidden power and the million-dollar fortune from slavery and foreign gangs. In a world without pain and human sacrifice. The continents were united but people put up walls and borders and ultimately divided our earth, the lone world and planet. A stupid person completed the translation of our earth without thinking and without reality took only divisions like the Caribbean waters. They put other seas on the same level as the planets in the universe. And with time, they only spend it making divisions with secret calls and maintaining the sacrifice of our ancestors but we gladly continue exercising our ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 sicknesses, we do not attempt cures. With unfamiliar legends it is not known whether or not they are true. Ancient mariners, however, believed in the mermaid and the story of the sea. En Espanol: Cual es la realidad del ser humano El oculto poder y millonaria fortuna de la esclavitud y vanderas estrangeras En un mundo sin dolor y sacrificio humano. Cuando se unieron los continentes y pusieron muros y fronteras y al final dividieron nuestra tierra y un solo mundo y un planeta. Un estupido llevo a cavo la traducción de nuestra tierra sin mente y sin realidad tomo solo divisiones como las aguas del caribes posioron otros mares al igual que los planetas en el universo Ya que con el tiempo solo se la pasan haciendo divisiones con llamadas ocoktus mantienen el sacrificio de nuestros antepasados pero con ganas seguimos trabajando herfermos no tratamos curas. Con leyendas desconocidas no se sabe si fue cierto o no la mujer sirena los marineros sí cleyerón la historia de mar. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? Markarian 231 — duh. What is the weirdest food combo you swear by? Mussels and vanilla pudding (without the mussels). What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? To be the first county in the United States to switch from capitalism to anarcho-syndicalism. What's one question you wish you were asked more often? Do you know you are welcome to join us? I Pledge Allegiance SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover contributor I pledge allegiance to the United States Constitution and the republican form of government that it instituted. One Nation under the Constitution. At one time America was a good nation, She fought a Civil War to end slavery. After the Civil War America’s Constitution was subverted by domestic enemies. The treasonous legislation was called the Power of the County Act. The post-Reconstruction Congress empowered the Ku Klux Klan. I pledge allegiance to the United States Constitution and the republican form of government that it instituted.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS JUNE 27, 2025 Non-English speakers in DC shelters suffer from lack of translation FRANZISKA WILD Street Sense DC Please note: This article includes descriptions of sexual assault. Kiara Meza, 24, a pregnant mother of two, crawled around on the floor in pain. She had tried to convince the staff at her city-funded youth housing program to call an ambulance, but they couldn’t understand her and didn’t find a way to translate, she said. Meza, a Peruvian native, primarily speaks Spanish. She enjoys music, dreams of being an esthetician, and is a devoted mother. Since she arrived in DC a year ago, she’s bounced from shelter to shelter. At most of them, she said, none of the staff spoke Spanish. The language barrier was often frustrating, but when she developed a severe kidney infection in January, it became dangerous. “She never called the ambulance,” Meza said of a staff member at the youth housing program that she was staying at, run by Covenant House, which is partially funded by the city. “I couldn’t even stand up myself.” During the event, Meza said that staff at Covenant House did not attempt to use the city’s Language Line to get a translator, even though city-funded services, including shelter and transitional housing programs, are mandated to be language accessible per the 2004 Language Access Act, and the city provides free access to translation through the Language Line. According to Angela Jones Hackley, Covenant House’s CEO, staff are trained on and instructed to use the Language Line as the “first and only mechanism”. But that wasn’t Meza’s experience. Eventually, Meza reached her bilingual caseworker at SMYAL, a youth homelessness service provider, who called an ambulance for her. But Meza’s story is not an isolated one. Language barriers in the DC shelter system have repeatedly caused harm to people experiencing homelessness, advocates and people with lived experience say, despite the existence of resources like Language Line. The consequences of language barriers can be grave: shelter seekers can be turned away, be taken advantage of, or experience abuse. “Language access is a problem within every facet of the homelessness system,” said Carmen Thorpe, a community navigator with District Bridges, a homelessness service provider. Thorpe, who is bilingual, works primarily with Latino and Spanish-speaking men who are experiencing homelessness in Mount Pleasant. “Even just meeting clients for the first time, they’re so excited that someone can speak Spanish. It’s an insurmountable barrier for a lot of them,” she said. In late April, Ruth Nivar, a former employee at the DC Department of Human Services (DHS), was sentenced to two years in federal prison for extorting non-English speakers applying for government assistance between 2018 and 2023, according to reporting from the Washington Post. But despite the flags that may have been raised by Nivar’s actions, extensive issues with language access persist across the homelessness services system, particularly in DHS-funded shelters, according to outreach workers who serve primarily non-English speaking clients. Thorpe, as well as Andrés Meza (no relation to Kiara) and Sierra Barnedo, who are both caseworkers at SMYAL and primarily serve Spanish-speaking youth, said that most shelter and program staff are not bilingual and oftentimes are unable to communicate with their non-English speaking clients, despite government requirements. Street Sense reporters conducted a language audit of low-barrier shelters that receive funding from DHS, mandating that they be language accessible. Journalists called the eight low-barrier shelters listed by DHS, as well as the shelter hotline. They identified themselves as journalists, in Spanish, before asking questions about language access. When reporters called the shelter hotline, which is how most people seeking shelter would reach out to find out about available beds or request transportation, staff used the Language Line, an over-the-telephone interpretation service, to communicate. But when reporters called individual shelters to understand how front desk staff at these facilities might respond to non-English speakers after they had been referred via the hotline or entered the facility, they found that Language Line use and bilingual staff were scarce. Only at one shelter — New York Avenue — did reporters reach a Spanish-speaking staff member, and only one shelter — Pat Handy — had a Spanish-speaking menu option. At several other low-barrier shelters, including Adams Place, Harriet Tubman, Emery, and 801 East, staff hung up on reporters either immediately or after briefly saying that they didn’t speak Spanish. When reporters asked about translation, staff did not attempt to call the Language Line or reach an interpreter. At one facility, staff indicated they would call back with a translator but never did. Reporters completed multiple rounds of calls at different times of day with consistent results. According to a spokesperson from DHS, which oversees the shelters, all service providers are supposed to follow DC’s language access laws, including training their staff on language access. The spokesperson did not respond to an extensive set of questions about language accessibility and Language Line use in shelters, but wrote, “DHS will continue to monitor providers’ Language Access compliance and work to support providers in serving our customers.” The results of Street Sense’s audit are consistent with Thorpe’s experience of helping her clients to navigate cityfunded low-barrier shelters and housing case management services. Out of Thorpe’s caseload of 40 clients, only three have a Spanish-speaking case manager, she said. “I always have to translate for them with DHS. Even though they have a language line, oftentimes the language line isn’t even effective,” Thorpe said. “The case managers that I’m working with, oftentimes they cannot speak Spanish, so it really puts the onus on me — without my facilitation, a lot of these folks would have fallen through the cracks.” Language barriers not only mean that non-English speakers reach housing or shelter more slowly, but they can also make navigating shelters and emergency housing unsafe. Between January and April, Davyd Abreu was living at SHINE, a transitional housing program funded by DHS and run by Covenant House that offers case management and trauma-informed services for LGBTQ+ youth. Abreu, who is from Venezuela, is learning English, but his proficiency is still quite limited. Abreu used a different name while at the SHINE program, but did not want to share that name publicly due to privacy concerns. Street Sense has verified his identity with extensive documentation, including text messages, police and incident reports, and photos. At SHINE, Abreu said that staff treated him differently for being unable to speak English, and he felt that he could not advocate for himself or lodge any complaints because of the language barrier. Even simple requests like wanting different food options were difficult to communicate because SHINE staff relied on Google Translate, he said. From his perspective, it was “as if they don’t have access” to the Language Line. “I was never able to make a demand for food because the truth is, I don’t know how to speak English, and it bothered them.” According to Jones Hackley, the Covenant House CEO, staff are trained to treat clients with “Our intent is to make sure that the youth that are able to access all the services we offer,” she said. “We just retrained the staff; we can overtrain the staff. Our stance is that the language access line is the proper use. Google Translate is not the proper use; we don’t use it as a mechanism as communicating with our youth.” But J, identified only by her first initial due to privacy concerns, had similar experiences to Abreu while at SHINE. She said that staff relied on Google Translate to communicate with see SPANISH page 10  respect, and instructed to use the approved interpretation services, including the Language Line. exp. 12/31/2025 JUNE 27, 2025 PRISON LETTERS Exile from State Street — part one I have lived in and around Washtenaw County since 1987. In 2022, I committed a series of crimes that led to my incarceration, first in jail and now prison, along with banishment from Washtenaw County until November 2042. During this time and for the rest of my life, I will make amends for my actions. I want to apologize to the victims of my crimes and to confirm I have recognized and modified my behavior. I was first arrested in 2003. I had just turned 21, and I was enlisted in the United States Air Force. I was initially charged with desertion, a crime that is punishable by up to and including death; I had left my post at Sheppard Air Force Base to run away with a traveling carnival. I was placed in the Wichita County Jail in Texas prior to my day in court. I remember long nights feeling I had thrown my life away. Thinking back on that period of incarceration, I would say I was scared straight. After my time in the Air Force, I was afraid of cops. I spent the next two decades without even getting a ticket for driving. I think my experience as a soldier led to me being a law-abiding citizen for a long time. I wasn’t aware of the machinery of criminal custody as I am today. I went through intake at another jail and was transferred to Wichita County to serve the rest of my sentence. I was released after 60 days and with a general, under honorable conditions, discharge. Washtenaw County has a similar system of intake, transfer and release, which is known as the ITR. The ITR is the first and final incarceration phase in most cases that go in front of the magistrate in Washtenaw County. An individual who is arrested in Washtenaw County can expect arraignment the following day, unless they are apprehended on a weekend. The holding cells in the ITR start to fill up on Friday afternoon and do not empty until Monday morning. This is the jail time that most people associate with minor crimes — the DUIs, domestic disturbances and shoplifting — alongside people who’ve committed more serious crimes. Meals are served at 7 a.m., noon and 5 p.m. every day. There is a phone in the unit, but most people don’t use it. A fellow inmate here in prison named Wild spent time in the Washtenaw County ITR on a few occasions. He offered some advice. “Always make that first call,” he said. “Many people are scared of the judgment of ROBBIE FEBRUARY Groundcover contributor loved ones, instead of judgment of the legal system.“ He remembered a few times where the officers on duty were very helpful in accommodating inmates. “The officers were very respectful. I was able to stay in street clothes and keep my earrings in,” Wild stated. “They even gave me Benadryl to reduce sinus pressure and help me sleep.“ Wild is a good person to know on the inside. He is always willing to share a story and a smile. His first stretch of time was in 2003 to 2004. He had received 45 days for contempt of court. He said, “I felt accused of driving under the influence by the prosecution. They said they smelled alcohol on my breath. The judge appeared persuaded by the arguments. I got mad and threw my boot at the judge. I literally had to go back to court and apologize for my behavior.“ Wild typically has an easy smile, but he related the story of his courtroom shenanigans with a level of sobriety. He’s truly sorry for his actions. A day after the incident, Wild was sent to K Block to complete the rest of his sentence. Back then, K block was for the general population. Nowadays, it is the trustees’ dorm. Trustees are individuals who have special privileges in jail. I was never a trustee and can’t write about the experience. Wild was not a trustee either. Trustees are mostly hand-picked inmates who serve food and clean up the floors and cells. They are typically people serving up to a year for non-violent misdemeanors. As felons, Wild and I were not chosen to be trustees. There are approximately 12 cells in the ITR. There is the larger cell used as the “drunk tank“ while people sober up. There are also several observation cells that are utilized when inmates are considered a danger to themselves or others. I spent a long weekend in one of these cells after I was picked up for making a public disturbance. This was a period of time during the winter of 2022 through 2023 when I was banned from both the Delonis Center and Purple House. When it was cold at night I kept moving. When I was arrested it was because I had nowhere else to go. When I was taken in I was placed in an observation cell. As a homeless veteran, I knew I could survive difficult situations. I was able to “embrace the suck.“ I did look forward to the warm meals and comfy mattresses during my first few times being arrested. It was better than I was experiencing on the outside. Eventually, both Wild and I made it out of the ITR. I pled to a handful of charges and was moved to M Block to serve the remainder of my time. M Block is part of the new expansion of the Washtenaw County jail. There are two rows of four-person cells. The floor is covered with four-person tables, and there is a recreation area with a basketball hoop at the end. The whole area can house around 64 inmates and can get pretty crowded. It was here that I spent the bulk of my time. I wrote letters to friends and family to pass the time. There was often a game of cards or chess to be had. Both Wild and myself have learned a lot during our time of incarceration and neither of us will return. Our time in Washtenaw County jail was important because it prevented either of us from doing more damage during reckless times in our lives. The more we talk, the more we get to know each other. It turned out that we had a lot of friends in common. It feels good to have a friend like Wild during my time in prison. Wild has great intentions when he gets out. “I look forward to enjoying my sober life and being a role model to my 33 nieces and nephews.“ I feel confident that he will do very well on his second chance at freedom. I too appreciate this time I’ve been given to make amends, and I will continue to utilize it to become a better person. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 Drawing by Robbie February

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SOCIAL MEDIA JUNE 27, 2025 Youth social media use causing increase in mental health crises Mental health crises is a topic of discussion across communities — urban and rural. For more than a generation, mental health professionals and health-care providers have been urging younger and older Americans to seek help for their mental health needs. Social critics in print and broadcast media warned the nation about the benefits and risks of technological innovations such as “smartphones.” In my conversations with two college-aged students, Adara and Vic, they noted that the iPhone founder, Steve Jobs, knew that his smartphones are addictive and would not let his children use them for fear of the mental health consequences. Google’s AI provides the following overview of social media use and mental health crisis: “Social media use among children and adolescents has dramatically evolved with a significant increase in both access and frequency of use, particularly with the rise of smartphones. While social media can offer benefits like staying connected, it also presents potential risks, including cyberbullying, privacy concerns and negative impacts on mental health.” Research findings During the Aspen Ideas Festival of 2024, a key session was organized called, “Teens and Screens: the Unabating Scourge of Social Media.” There were five speakers. The set up for the presentation was profound and shocking. It said, “American teenagers are facing a mental health crisis. 1 in 3 teen girls say they’ve considered suicide in the past year. Many young people, parents and mental health professionals point WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 to social media as a main culprit. What does science say and what actions are being taken on the legal and regulatory front? And how can you protect your kids’ emotional well-being?” On April 14, 2023, Pew Research Center released a report titled, “Teens and Social Media: Key findings from Pew Research Center Surveys.” The results were: • The majority of teens report using Youtube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. • TikTok use is more common among Black teens and teen girls. • The majority of teens use Youtube and TikTok every day and some report using these sites almost constantly. • More than half of teens say it would be difficult for them to give up social media. • Teens are more likely to say social media has had negative effects on others than themselves. • Teens are more likely to report positive than negative experiences in their social media use. • When it comes to abuse on social media platforms, many teens think criminal charges or permanent bans would help a lot. • Some teens — especially older girls — avoid posting certain things on social media because of fear of embarrassment or other reasons. • Many teens do not feel like they are in the driver’s seat when it comes to controlling what information social media companies collect about them. • Only around one in five teens think their parents are highly worried about their use of social media. • Nearly half of parents with teens (46%) are highly worried that their child could be exposed to explicit content on social media. Finally, the 2024 Pew Research Center Survey of Parents and Teens (13-17) show that 55% of parents were extremely or very concerned about the mental health of teens while 35% of teenagers say that they were extremely or very concerned about their own mental health. Conversely, 11% of parents and 23% of teens say that they were not too/not at all concerned about teen mental health. The percent of U.S. teens who say that social media had negative effects on people their age was 48%; the percentage who say social media had positive effects was 11%. We encourage our readers to view detailed information on this research report by Emily A. Vogel and Risa Gelles-Watnick of Pew Research Center. Also, the Annie E. Casey Foundation points to the scientific evidence revealed in the 2023 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report titled, “Social Media and Youth Mental Health Advisory.” The key takeaways from the report, according to the Casey Foundation are: • Teenagers’ use of social media is widespread and pervasive. • Social media use can benefit teens, but it can also be detrimental to a young user’s health, leading to tech addiction, sleep deficits, increased levels of stress and more. • Social norms and expectations, a fear of missing out, and a desire to connect with friends are some of the factors fueling social media among teens. • Families, tech companies, policy makers and others must work together to create a safer and healthier social media environment for young people. Proposed solutions Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy’s first advisory on loneliness and American mental health, see SOCIAL MEDIA page 11  JUNE 27, 2025 FAMILY SHELTER LINDSAY CALKA There are more than 100 parents and children on Washtenaw County's family shelter waiting list. On top of that, eight to ten families in Washtenaw lose housing each week. At the June 18 Continuum of Care meeting Shonaugh Taruza, executive director of Interfaith Hospitality Network at Alpha House, presented data and reflections from the 2024-2025 winter family sheltering programs. Surprisingly, she had an optimistic look to the upcoming season. This is because a new family shelter will be open on the east side of Washtenaw County by November of this year. The new shelter will be located on Trinity Health Ann Arbor’s main campus (located in Ypsilanti). The partially vacant building, which previously operated as a nursing home, will be converted into temporary housing for families. It offers 30 individual living units, each equipped with a private bathroom, which can accommodate up to four beds per unit. Groundcover News has been covering the need for more family shelter since the Staples Family Center closed in 2021. At that time, Interfaith Hospitality Network at Alpha House’s Jackson Road location only had capacity for six families. Other families, if able to access shelter, were being supported in hotel rooms funded by private dollars. In 2022 the Office of Community and Economic Development took on the family hotel program as a temporary band-aid to the homeless family crisis. This past winter IHN at Alpha House responded to the growing local need by increasing capacity to 14 rooms at their Jackson Road site and renovating their basement for overflow. The basement was utilized for an overnight weather amnesty program from November to April. At its peak this past winter, in addition to the 14 rooms occupied by families of varying size, 55 people were sheltering at Alpha House. Still, just like for single adults, different types of shelter spaces are necessary — there is no one-size-fits-all approach. “Family shelter” serves pregnant mothers, single parents or coupled parents with young children, multiple children, teenage children or children with disabilities. Last winter everybody had to be under one roof. Lessons from Taruza’s presentation to the COC clearly stated the need for more space. Alpha House at Trinity Health will primarily be for older and larger families, while the Jackson Road location will be prioritized for young and smaller families. To strengthen the services at the Jackson Road location, Alpha House has applied for a state earmark grant supported by Senator Jeff Irwin and Commissioner Annie Somerville. Taruza elaborated, "If we get it, it will enable us to provide more support to young parents (18-24 years old) helping them with postpartum support, life skills training, mentoring, job and interview training. Since January 1, 2023, IHN Alpha House has supported 18 young parents or pregnant young adults through our program. Unfortunately, this tends to be primarily young, Black girls who have histories of abuse and trauma, and now find themselves having to raise a baby with very little, if any, support or guidance. Young parents need developmentally appropriate supports to succeed, resources that are not typically included in traditional shelter programs. By investing in these young families now, we hope we can create better outcomes for two generations — helping parents build stable futures while ensuring their children get a healthy, supported start in life." The hospital will retain ownership of the building and land, while leasing the space for just $1 annually to Alpha House. The project was launched with a $1 million Legislative Enhancement Alpha House - Jackson Road. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Family shelter is coming to the east side of the county 7 Grant from the State of Michigan’s FY25 budget secured by Senator Jeff Irwin. Improvements to the building are estimated to be $2 million for upgrades to the plumbing and electrical systems, in addition to required roof, HVAC and elevator work. Taruza estimated IHN will need to hire at least ten additional staff members. Trinity Health Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County are currently working with Alpha House and other community partners to secure these additional funds needed to support the facility upgrades and ongoing operations. A Trinity Health press release stated that philanthropic support from community members is also welcome (Trinity Health Southeast Michigan see FAMILY page 8  SUPPORT CALL FOR and understanding 24/7 mental health and substance use support 734-544-3050 LEARN MORE about programs funded by the community mental health and public safety preservation millage. PEER SUPPORT: Artie Tomlin, Valerie Bass, and Marti Schneider

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES A guide to dismantling capitalism JIM CLARK We are entrenched. Entrenched in a system of economics that we have become completely dependent on and which is destroying us at the same time. Many people are now beginning to understand that this system, that relies on making a profit at any cost, is no longer sustainable and has been unhealthy for a long time. People are beginning to wake up and see that the powerful elite — the billionaires, the politicians, the military and the religious right — have control of our lives down to the most intimate levels. They control what we see, what we eat, how we live, what we believe is right and wrong, even how we love and express that love. People are beginning to understand that the powerful elite will not stop until they achieve global domination. Once upon a time, to utter the phrase “global domination” conjured images of an evil genius wringing his hands while laughing maniacally as he reveals his insane scientific gadget that will enslave the human race, or annihilate it completely. The idea of robots taking over the world has been the stuff of science fiction for as long as we can remember; that day is already here. At a time when the ability to keep up with the cost of living is becoming harder and harder, unskilled labor jobs are being eliminated and replaced by real live robots. The Lowebot “employed” by Lowe’s is replacing customer service representatives. Walmart is following suit and is upping the ante with actual robot security. If that doesn’t send chills down your spine, keep reading. Boston Dynamics has advanced robot technology to the point that science fiction will begin having a hard time keeping up with reality. The robotic warehouse assistant “Stretch” is capable of lifting 50 lbs off the floor and putting it on a shelf six feet above it. They boast a battery life that lasts two shifts. It is already capable of eliminating a tremendous population of the workforce. AI that is capable of writing programs that will improve the functionality of itself has already begun. AI is already changing the face of education and is predicted to begin replacing white collar jobs in the very near future. “Accounts receivable” will probably be the first to go. And yes, the military is developing both of these to become weapons. We saw their demonstration in the June 14th Flag Day Parade ordered by the President of the United States. Although the Working Class is fatally dependent on capitalism, so are the rich. We must understand that all their wealth and power, whether generational or not, was accumulated at the expense of workers. As hard as the unions tried to keep them at bay, the economic might of the rich has overpowered the average worker’s ability to fight back and keep the cost of living at a reasonable level. Food, rent and medicine prices continue rising faster than the minimum wage. In fact, working full time at the minimum wage with no benefits is not enough to meet the cost of living in most areas. As robotic and AI technologies continue to advance, this gap will widen faster and faster. The poor are already being slowly choked to death by increasing poverty. Even the tried and true American patriotic worker — who pays their bills and taxes on time, who goes to work and works hard, the one who believes in the system — will soon realize they have been lied to for a long time. Many workers are now employed by  FAMILY from page 7 Office of Philanthropy at 734-712-4040). “Our health system is built on a foundation of core values, which includes our strong support and service to those experiencing poverty, especially the most vulnerable,” said Alonzo Lewis, president of Trinity Health Ann Arbor, Livingston, Oakland and Livonia. “By converting available space on our campus, we aim to help break the cycle of poverty and make a significant impact on the broader Washtenaw County community.” Wealthy, land-owning institutions should take note of this government-nonprofit partnership and model across other areas of shelter need. corporations that produce products they cannot afford on the wages they are paid. Who will buy the products? The rich will sell them to their own. Quality is already a defining feature of what is affordable and what is not. Look at the ingredient labels of something as simple as frozen pizza. The harder it is to pronounce the names of the chemicals in the food, the less expensive and less nutritious it is. It’s bad enough that food is a commodity; it turns out that quality is also dependent on your income. The class war that people think is just left-wing extremist propaganda is becoming harder and harder to deny. Whatever we do as the lower middle class on down to prepare ourselves for this widening gap we need to do now. "A Guide to Dismantling Capitalism" will explore ways to begin exiting from the capitalist system. This article is an introduction — and a call to action. We must begin consciously and deliberately defying the system and status quo. It is as if our house has caught fire. The smoke is filling the living room and creeping up the stairs as we speak. While on the one hand, life goes on, the laundry needs to be done, the kids need to be fed, and so on, now is also the time to plan ahead for an economic collapse. One that the People will bring on by themselves. The guide I am in the processing of writing will illustrate ways we can remove ourselves from this self-destructive path we are on in ways that are achievable, manageable, reasonable and with little discomfort. We have had a taste of life-beyond-capitalism. In March 2020, the entire world turned off “the machine” for a few months. We only went to jobs that were deemed “essential.” These were jobs that provided for food and medical care, and first responders. Even teachers were still at work, in-person or virtually. Banks and landlords (most of them) were told to suspend eviction procedures. All of these actions and more can be taken to cut the system JUNE 27, 2025 Boston Dynamics "Stretch" now commercially available. off at its source. We can end capitalism. We lived without it for centuries before the industrial revolution. It has been said that “we will see the end of the world before we see the end of capitalism.” Whoever said that was most likely rich or hopelessly poor. The truth is we can learn from history, we can learn from our mistakes, and we can envision a new future. We can, in fact, end capitalism. Author's note: I am in the process of writing the guide and intend to publish more chapters in Groundcover News. JUNE 27, 2025 PUZZLES Woof! Peter A. Collins GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. Thank you! ACROSS 1. Feudal figure 5. Lures, with "in" 10. Old Testament book 14. Orchard unit 15. Curved piece of under-sink plumbing 16. Orderly 17. Like fine wine 18. Become one 19. Orderly 20. Chinese uprising around 1900 23. Graph lines 24. Like a burning candle 25. Appointed (to) 27. Investing options, briefly 30. Frank Sinatra classic 34. "The Art of Love" poet 35. Slow-motion exercise regimen 37. Chicken ___ king 38. Aykroyd of "The Blues Brothers" 39. Researcher's garb 40. London's Old ___ Theater 41. Fasten, in a way (but not loafers) 42. Loafers 43. "Little Women" sister 44. Bygone 46. Storm's center 47. Stupefy 48. ___ Moines, Iowa 50. Keister 51. "I'm So Excited" singers 58. Prepare laundry before washing 59. On the dot 60. Radar reading 61. Fairy tale start 62. It can be heavy or precious 63. Arm bone 64.With 66-Across, Iditarod big shots (and a hint to what 20-, 39-, and 51-Across all have) 65. Play segment 66. See 64-Across DOWN 1. Sudden, sharp pain 2. Consequently 3. Took another look at 4. Overnighted, perhaps 5. San Antonio hoopsters 6. ___ Reader: bimonthly alternative magazine 7. House, casually 8. "Kiss Me, ___" 9. Be in a bee 10. Being 11. Number that resembles its last letter 12. Desert rarity 13. $$$ dispenser, for short 21. Roulette bet 22. Put a cap on 25. Greet from afar, in a way 26. Be useful 27. The "C" in CNN 28. Precarious 29. Make a point? 31. Greets from afar, in a way 32. O'Connor's Supreme Court successor 33. Luxury craft 35. Tiny amount 36. Adele's "Rumour ___ It" 39. Sheets or pillowcases 43. Closest pal 45. Made a long story short, maybe? 47. Urban transportation 49. Plant parts 50. Duke, for one 51. Cornmeal creation 52. Black-and-white ocean predator 53. Company V.I.P. 54. Give stars 55. Car radio button 56. Saturn feature 57. Health clubs 58. Note between fa and la

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS STORIES Reimagining Walden, a loathing A few years back during COVID I had the unfortunate luck of getting what I thought was a good job doing plumbing and electric as a contractor in sunny Brighton, Michigan. I found the job on Craigslist after I had an issue at Lowe's because I couldn't furnish I-9 documents such as a social security card or a birth certificate. What I did have was a voter registration card and an ID; documents were being stored at a buddy's place who had headed for the hills in order to avoid new-worldorder checkpoints. However, it meant zero pay for me because the smooth brain jerks at Lowe's wouldn't take my registration card — but in order to vote one must be a citizen unless one happens to be an immigrant in places like New York or California. This was lost on nice people at Lowe's. Not to be deterred by mere tax-cattle BS, I got off my high horse and found a job on Craigslist. I lost my home in Hartland, ended up in jail a few times and needed a better place to stay. In my humble Jeep Liberty, my legs had developed severe blood clots nearly concealing my ankles; I risked my swollen legs because of the upright position I was sleeping in. Back then my life hadn’t been totally violated by a system — between lame jobs and my family, I still owned a few things. I was living high on the hog with my five or six pairs of pants and my other personal items in storage. The first few weeks of the electrical legs were healing and I had money left over for minor luxuries like dinner, gas and smokes. About two weeks into my job, my boss asked me what I was paying for my hotel room. “$100-120,” I said, “not much, but most of what I earn every day.” “You can sleep on my couch for a lot ANTHONY SMITH Groundcover contributor and plumbing job were great. I busted ass, my employer was full of praise and I was able to afford a room at the Hartland Best Western. My legs healed and I had a decent continental breakfast every day — it was pretty good for a one-horse town. A Smooth Operator can slide into these places during the morning peak rush hours and eat for free just so long as one looks the part of the clean, wellrested travelers. I've done this countless times as well as sleeping in U-Hauls which are seldom locked. Being homeless outside of the big city is way different from the risks of the urban environment. Living deliberately in nature is cool, but what does one do when the Windigo* comes calling? Don't respond? If a familiar voice calls your name, say nothing in response, especially if no one should know where you are deep in the woods. It happened to me once. The Best Western was $100 a night and more on the weekend. It didn't matter to me — I had ankles again, my less than that, you just gotta buy your own food and do some dishes,” he offered. This sounded great because I was saving most of what I earned for Best Western. I didn't have many options during that very weird time. I thought at the time that it was an experience, an opportunity and I was very optimistic. The huge statue of Baphomet (a Satanic symbol of the occult) in his backyard should have been a red flag. The first week or two were okay, then slowly things started to get funny. He would say how great we were doing. I was taken out to a 12-acre parcel of land in Cahopka there. I set up a modest marijuana grow operation of a little bit more than 100 plants; he promised me free reign on the property to grow whatever I wanted. It was not to be, however, and the fruits of all of my hard work were later taken from me. It was after about a month or so of living there that I became acquainted with the neighbor across the street. He was an old Indian who told me to be careful because he had seen Scott (boss) cheat people many times. The old Indian was a character in his own right. He lived alone with ill-tempered dogs and drank constantly in his home, had only electricity, no running water or gas. He got his drinking water with scavenged garden hoses deployed across the neighborhood, and the water with which he occasionally bathed and flushed the toilet was gathered with an elaborate system that caught rainwater and funneled it into a food safe barrel with a spigot on it. The inside of his home was adorned with many skulls and an assortment of swords, knives, axes and spears, like some kind of trailer park witch doctor. I spent many nights there after work drinking whiskey by the fire out back. Accompanied by an army of bats above and his two ill-tempered dogs below, during these times, he would tell me stories about contacting dark spirits with his ouija board and hunting iguanas as a kid in the jungle, and oh, that time he accidentally got kicked out of the Marine Corps for stealing a bomb. He would always say, “Be sure and watch Scotty.” I did, and some stuff began to get funny. It wasn’t enough to jump ship, and given the situation at the time, I couldn’t jump ship anyway. TO BE CONTINUED… *The Windigo (or Wendigo), associated with winter, is a cannibalistic monster that preys on the weak and socially disconnected, and is found in some indigenous American tales. JUNE 27, 2025  SPANISH from page 4 her, which meant that it was difficult for her to explain her unique needs as a transgender woman. Abreu was still at SHINE in February. That month, he had an accident and broke his leg. The evening that he was released from the hospital back to SHINE, another program member attempted to rape him. Abreu said that he tried to communicate what was happening to shelter staff, but according to him and Andrés Meza, staff refused to call MPD and made no attempt to use the Language Line. Instead, as photos Abreu took of a staff member’s phone and shared with Street Sense show, staff Google translated instructions, telling Abreu: “We just moved him from his room, you can go back,” referring to the alleged assailant. “I called Andrés. He usually never answers me at night because it is not during his work hours,” Abreu said. “But by the grace of god, he answered me, and I told him to call the police, to call me the ambulance.” Street Sense obtained a copy of the DHS unusual incident report filed by SHINE, which aligns with Abreu’s account of the attempted rape. It notes, “Due to some language barriers [DA] was on the phone with a case manager from SMYLE and that case manager unbeknown to CHDC called MPD and reported a sexual assault occurred at the Shine facility.” While Jones Hackley could not speak to the specific incident, she said that Covenant House is cooperating with the police. Andrés Meza said that Covenant House did not offer any “supportive services”, such as legal help or therapy, after the incident. Moving forward, Jones Hackley said, Covenant House would “make sure we go back and retrain and re-communicate with our staff as well as our values when serving youth.” “We want all young people to feel welcome when they walk through our doors, and we follow all District laws,” she said. Following the incident, Abreu began to take steps to exit the SHINE program. He now lives in SMYAL-provided housing, which has its own challenges — he doesn’t get along with some of the other young people he lives with — but, he said, at least he’s able to express himself. Currently, he is focused on healing from his accident to feel more settled and in control of his life. But he underscored his belief that the city needs to improve language access in homelessness services so that everyone can be understood. “There are a lot of people who are just trying to live life, and find resources, and oftentimes they can’t find any help because of the language barrier,” he said. Graham Krewinghaus and Cody Slutzky contributed reporting and translation. Quotes from Kiara Meza, J, and Davyd Abreu were translated from Spanish. Courtesy of Street Sense / INSP PUZZLE SOLUTIONS JUNE 27, 2025 SOCIAL MEDIA  SOCIAL MEDIA from page 6 which included youth mental health and social media, was published in 2021 (the second year of the COVID-19 global pandemic) before he took office. That report talked about the impact of the pandemic on social media and technology use and increased loneliness caused by the quarantine. People believe that the long-term effects of that isolation are still being felt today. His first advisory report as the U.S. Surgeon General was written in late 2024 and published in February 2025. The title is, “Social Media and Youth Mental Health.” Earlier this year, Dr. Murthy published a book titled “Togetherness.” In it, Murthy talks about loneliness, social isolation and mental health consequences such as anxiety and depression. In his recent appearance on the NBC Sunday show, “Meet the Press,” Murthy lamented what he observed in some colleges he visited. For instance, he visited the dining hall of a college and it was very quiet. He looked around and saw many people using their smartphones and only very few people engaging in direct face-to-face conversations. He also visited other college settings to talk to students in order to gain more understanding about the benefits and risks of social media use. Those college visits and discussions with various stakeholders led to the February 2025 advisory which highlighted the issues of mental health crisis among young Americans. We have looked at several proposed solutions to the social media and youth mental health crisis, including the recommendations published by the NIH Library of Medicine. A more compelling set of solutions than the NIH information is contained in Dr. Murthy’s advisory on social media and youth mental health of February 2025. It recommended “ways to act based on your role.” For example, it provided different sections on what children and adolescents, parents and caregivers, makers and researchers can do. What children and adolescents can do: 1. Reach out for help. If you or someone you know is being negatively affected by social media, reach out to a trusted friend or adult for help. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text 988 for immediate help. 2. Create boundaries to help balance online with offline activities. 3. Develop protective strategies and healthy practices for your own social media use. See “Tip Sheet on Social Media use and Mental Health” for healthy social media use created for and by young people. 4. Be selective about what you post and share online and with whom, as it is often public and can be stored permanently. 5. Protect yourself and others from technology companies, policycyberbullying or other forms of online harassment and abuse: a. If you or someone you know is the victim of cyberbullying or other forms of online harassment and abuse, don’t keep it secret. b. Protect others by not taking part in online harassment or abuse. Avoid forwarding or sharing mean messages or images, tell others to stop, and report offensive content. What parents and caregivers can do: 1. Create a family media plan to help establish healthy technology boundaries at home — including social media use. For information on creating a family media plan, visit www. healthychildren.org/English/Fmp/ Pages/MediaPlan 2. Create tech-free zones and encourage children and adolescents to foster in-person friendships. 3. Model responsible social media behavior. 4. Teach children and adolescents about technology and empower them to be responsible online participants at the appropriate age. 5. Report cyberbullying and online abuse and exploitation. 6. Work with other parents to help GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Dr. Vivek Murthy, Former U.S. Surgeon General establish shared norms and practices and to support programs and policies around healthy social media use. Above all, Dr. Murthy wants us to start a national conversation in our various communities. Here are some questions that could be included in such conversations: What have we learned about social media and youth mental health crisis in our local area? What are the specific mental issues? Loneliness? Anxiety? Depression? Suicidal ideation? What are the public school systems doing to make things better? What do the teenagers want? What can the community do to help make the youth happier?

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Creamy coconut-lime rice ELIZABETH BAUMAN U-M student contributor Ingredients: 1 cup uncooked jasmine rice, rinsed 1 (13-14 oz) can coconut milk 1(1½-inch) piece fresh ginger 2 large garlic cloves 2 limes 2/3 cup roasted and salted peanuts, finely chopped 2 T. peanut butter 1 t. granulated sugar 2 t. sambal oelek (a bit more is fine) 2 cups ripe cherry tomatoes, halved 1 cup roughly chopped cilantro Directions: Cook the rice according to the packaging instructions until tender, replacing 1¼ cups of the cooking water with 1¼ cups of the coconut milk. While the rice is cooking, add ¼ cup coconut milk to another bowl. Finely grate the ginger and garlic into the bowl, followed by the zest of 1 lime. Juice both limes into the bowl. Whisk in 1/3 cup of the peanuts, the peanut butter, sugar and sambal and season with salt. Fluff the cooked rice with a fork, transfer to a serving bowl and season with salt and pepper, allow to cool slightly. When ready to serve, add the tomatoes and ¾ cup of the herb to the bowl with the rice. Pour in the coconut dressing, toss well to coat, season with pepper and top with remaining 2/3 cup crushed peanuts and ¼ cup herbs. For the best flavor, serve at room temperature the day it’s made. JUNE 27, 2025 GROUNDCOVER CLASSIFIEDS PLEASE RETURN STOLEN BIKE ~ Orange and chrome, medium-sized, Mongoose Maxim bike. $20 purchased price, $300 + customized; DEARLY LOVED and MISSED, IRREPLACEABLE. NO questions asked. REWARD $20-$50 for it's return IF in GOOD condition. Please bring bike to Arborland Kroger (where MISSING from) or Chili's, or to Groundcover News office. Please arrange meeting time and details or leave bike with Chili's or Kroger management. Can call Bill via Chili's at (517) 219-5961 or Lindsay from Groundcover News at (734) 263-2098. For details of drop off-pick up, bike owner may be DIRECTLY REACHED via (734) 579-6554. Witnesses please call A2 police dept, Case #25-30222 BLESSINGS and PEACE from JESUS! CAREGIVER NEEDED ~ Job is for 5 days a week – 5 hours per day – Salary is $40 per hour. For more details about the position, email me (ricmondcole49@gmail.com). Are you done with your electronics? Don’t let your well-loved electronics end up in a landfill! Kiwanis will resell electronics in good working order for reuse in our community! kitchen appliances home appliances personal care tools lamps and lighting entertainment equipment TV’s & stereos ...and more! for information on how to donate, scan this code! Shopping Hours Friday 9am-1pm Saturday 9am-3pm Donation Hours Nov-Apr 9am-12pm May-Oct 9am-1:30pm $5 OFF call us at 734-665-0450 for FREE large item/large quantity local pick-up’s 100 N Staebler Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48103 NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 7/24/2025

2 $ JUNE 13, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 13 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Ypsilanti residents are organizing to "Stop the Data Center." page 10 MEET YOUR VENDOR: TYGAR MOORE PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Undercover art intel: Ypsi Art Supply, the best art store! page 3 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY EVENTS Join vendors for a clean-up at West Park Groundcover's Collaboration Crew, a vendor problem-solving committee, invites community members to join together and beautify the neighborhood. Along with enjoying a moment in nature, the gathering will include a park cleanup by Groundcover vendors and friends. “I’ve always seen Groundcover vendors as stewards of the Ann Arbor streets, and this activity is perfectly aligned with that,” said Publisher Lindsay Calka. “Whether it’s a friendly smile, an interesting conversation or a cleaner park.” Vendors, neighbors and volunteers are invited to gather on Saturday, June 21 at 10 a.m. at West Park (Chapin St. entrance). Park enjoyment activities like barbecuing and playing music are encouraged. — Wayne S., vendor No. 615 JUNE 13, 2025 Ypsi's first Frog Island community football game After a long winter of struggling to survive the cold, the summer heat is now upon us. With no physical center of community, people gather around the bus station, outside the library and on the street corners. Without support, many homeless folks resort to drugs and alcohol, which ultimately ends up attracting police attention. Chandra wants to do something about that. Chandra and her daughter Ney are organizing the first, and what intends to be an annual, community football game. It will be on Sunday, June 29 at 4 p.m. at Frog Island Park. This event is for the people in the downtown neighborhood who make up our street community. “This will be a sober event for people who are poor and/or unsheltered. Everyone is angry and stressed. People have nothing to do, so I want to bring something to make the community smile,” said Chandra. In fact, Chandra is the founder of “Make Ypsilanti Laugh Again” (MYLA) which is her community organizing project, intended to be a theater troupe. Chandra has expanded her vision to include creating fun events for people who ordinarily do not have the means or capacity to find engaging activity around town. There are plenty of things to do if you have money, but when you’re so broke you can’t even buy shelter, things can get pretty hopeless. And frustration is a common emotion on the street. An emotion with nowhere to go but aggression. A community football game will not only help people let off Chandra (left) and Ney (right), organizers of the community game some steam, it will bring structure and motivation to people who are desperately seeking it. How do you get involved? Ask at Hospitality House, 169 N. Washington St. or chat up Chandra and Ney when you see them out and about the downtown Ypsilanti area. — Jim Clark, vendor No. 139 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS John Brooks Jr. Jim Clark Cindy Gere Roberto Isla Caballero Mike Jones Bryan Kiser Jr. Ken Parks David L. Puttman Taryn Ryan Wayne S. Denise Shearer Steven Shawn Swoffer PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett June Miller Steve Ross Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Yumna Dagher Luiza Duarte Caetano Regina Duerst Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Bella Martinez Anthony McCormick Robert Klingler Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emilie Ziebarth GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JUNE 13, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS Undercover art intel: Ypsi Art Supply, the best art store! As I came into the wonderful Tygar Moore, vendor No. 664 In one sentence, who are you? Tygar Moore Where do you usually sell Groundcover? Where’s Waldo? When and why did you start selling Groundcover? Back in January; I had to get better with people skills. What is one place in Ann Arbor that feels like your own personal sanctuary? Anywhere I’m at peace, really. What’s your life motto? “I’ll do it myself” – Little Red Hen. What advice would you give to your younger self? Live life like a movie. What is your comfort food? Cheesecake. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring three things, what would they be? Fishing rod, scuba gear, skillet. If there was a theme song for your life, what would it be? “Harder Than You Think” by Public Enemy. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? Madagascar to see a Baobab tree. What is the weirdest food combo you swear by? Ramen noodle, hot sauce, pickle juice, ranch. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? Teamwork: we can’t win unless we all try. What’s one question you wish you were asked more often? Hey, do you need a lift? Ypsi Art Supply, I was so surprised at the warm atmosphere and the nice music playing in the background. The owner, Megan Foldenauer, is truly attentive to each customer, assisting them in their artistic endeavors. She gets into detail with each individual’s needs with the art projects and gives out good advice for the art supplies needed. Megan shared her story with me: “I first came up with this idea of an art supply store back in 2015. I just wrote out the idea. I was frustrated because all the best art stores were shutting down. For example, the university bookstore closed. This made me upset — so much lost and truly hard for the art students on campus. “Then we lost Art Attack, the EMU art store in 2013. Ulrich’s moved some time ago but when we lost Hollanders, I threw up my hands and declared, ‘I'm doing the art store." My great supporter and friend, Jen Estridge, had proudly announced I was the first artist in Stone and Spoons Gallery, but it was Jen who encouraged me to go for it. “I first started out in Riverside Art Center from April to December of 2023. After that I moved to the spot I am in now, 42 North Huron Street. What I love about this location is the storefront to show off all the art supplies people could buy. This is a huge deal for me.” Megan has a three year contract and her idea has become a dream • Speedball ink for printmaking • Japanese paper and pens • Liquitex acrylic and varnish • Gamblin paint supplies • Large paper and watercolor CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 realized into action that will benefit all the local artists of Washtenaw County. “I am now doing this full time and it’s a work in progress,” Megan told me. “My dream is to sell happy art supplies.” She continued, “My main job was as a multimedia specialist. I worked for 23 years at the University of Michigan. I am now a freelancer. One project I am hoping to do is to teach classical art classes in watercolor and natural arts as well as drawing and anatomy." Her store has many supplies: • Beam watercolor and acrylic paints • Watercolor paints • Handmade paints • Winsor & Newton ink and paints large paper • Additional paints • Paintbrushes • Oil pastels and chalk pastels • Mod Podge • Wood sets for carving • Markers • Posca pencil, paint and pastel markers • Professional markers and pens • Basic wood supplies • Air dry clay DAS • Kids Corner fabric markers • Crayola • Bookmaking supplies Megan added, “My motto is: I will order anything for anyone from anywhere — give me a website and we will work to help you. "All of my inventory is on my website ypsiartsupply.com/ Order ahead for pick up.” For more on Megan’s impressive credentials and background, visit the "Who We Are" section of the website. ypsiartsupply.com/about 3 The front door of Ypsi Art Supply is adorned with community flyers! Juneteenth is about being free I love Juneteenth. Juneteenth is a very special holiday for me; it is a very special holiday for a lot of other people in the world, too. Juneteenth is a holiday about celebrating being free. I think everybody needs someone to help them and take care of them sometimes, but being free is very important too. It is perfect that Juneteenth is in June. It is special because June is a summer month; it is a perfect time to have a special holiday. Juneteenth is very fun. Juneteenth is very colorful, too. Juneteenth is a day you can barpicnics; becue and have times with family and friends. Everybody can celebrate Juneteenth no matter how different they may look and act. Juneteenth is a very special holiday. Juneteenth is comfortable and colorful. I hope we all have a very good Juneteenth! DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 Juneteenth is a time you can just relax and have your favorite foods and enjoy friends. It is a time where you can play fun games and activities. It is a time to remember good

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS YPSILANTI People in the neighborhood: Casey This is Casey’s story. Casey was born in Ann Arbor in 1985. She grew up in the Village of Manchester and was raised by her Great Aunt Alta. Her fondest memory of childhood is her confirmation at the Emmanuel Church of Christ. She was asked to memorize a chapter from the Bible. She chose Ecclesiastes 3 from the Old Testament. Her church elders suggested she become a preacher because, they told her, she had what she called testimony before I had a “a testimony.” When I asked her about her childhood in Manchester she said she was bullied a lot in school. Jim: Why? Casey: Well, I guess I would say because I was the “ngr*” in town. Looking back, I was the only minority. What’s great is that it's illegal now, it’s a crime. That doesn’t change anything for me, but I’m glad that people are seeing that it’s bad for kids. [While racial bullying is not actually a hate crime, it is still traumatic and evidence of systemic racism. From an article by Cheryl Chapman, a licensed psychotherapist: “Bullying is a broad phenomenon and experience; however, racial bullying is very distinct and has unique outcomes for individuals of color — especially adolescents. What are the impacts of racial trauma? Racism, discrimination, microaggressions and other forms of hate (physical and non-physical) are linked to negative mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Additionally, these experiences may lead to feelings of isolation and invisibility for students of color.” The current administration is attempting to eradicate the discourse on systemic racism in the public school curriculum. See Executive Order 14190.] Jim: What was your family life like? Casey: My mom is alive but not well. She’s 60 and has cancer. She wants to make amends but won’t friend me on Facebook. I want to see her before she dies. Jim: What is keeping you from seeing her? Casey: Space (distance) and opportunity. Jim: Where does she live? Casey: She lives in West Virginia on the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. Jim: Do you have any other family? Casey: I have one younger sister who is happily married. I also have a brother, Shane, who goes by Shorty, and an older brother, Brandon, who eyes and retinal detachment. I have holes in my retinas so they zapped them in both eyes, it hurt like hell. [In addition to retinal detachment and Type 2 diabetes, Casey has several mental illness diagnoses. I asked if she would share about her illnesses.] Casey: Yes, I’ve been diagnosed with JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 goes by Loki. My daddy was Raymond Bishop, aka “Cadillac Ray.” I never knew him but I knew of him. I’ve never seen his face. All anyone could tell me was he played cards. My Auntie raised me, she was actually my great aunt. RIP, she was 92 when she died. [Casey feels an incredible amount of guilt about her great aunt and believes that becoming homeless is a price she is paying. “Because I ran away,” she said, “and because of how I made her feel everyday for no reason and why I take so much pain from this world is because I let her die alone. I was stupid but the wages of sin is death. I’m so ashamed because of how I made her feel. And it wasn't even her I ran away from, it was the Village Manchester.” Casey moved to Ypsilanti at 13 to stay with her mother in a trailer park on Michigan Ave. which is now an abandoned lot.] Casey: I had to get out of Manchester, but then things didn’t map out. Jim: What was your plan? Casey: That my mom would love me. [She did not say much more about her life since then. We talked about her current situation.] Jim: Are you homeless now? Casey: Correct. [Casey lives on the streets and in the parks in Ypsilanti. Sometimes she stays on a friend's couch, but most of the time in a tent which is frequently disrupted by what she calls “domestic situations.”] Casey: It’s like no matter who I’m with, white, black, male, female, it doesn’t matter which direction I go, I find myself in these domestic situations. This has been happening my whole life. Jim: Do you have a plan for finding housing? Casey: I’m trying to get into rapid rehousing. Here’s my plan: I have an eye appointment today, so once I get my eyesight restored, I’m thinking about gainful employment. I could do a minimum wage job, you know, like the coffee shop up the street, something like that. Jim: What’s going on with your eyesight? Casey: I had astigmatism in both bipolar type 2, borderline personality disorder, substance abuse disorder, PTSD and basically issues of trust, mom issues, dad issues, God issues. [She laughs out loud at the last part. While the eye surgery is in progress, her mental health care is not. Community Mental Health of Washtenaw County dropped her case after she missed three medication reviews in a row. She is in the process of appealing that decision.] Casey: Some people need their of medication, I’m one of them, 100%. Like I've got no control over my emotions at this point. The medication I take at night is all out of my system (by the morning) so in my situation I don't have a stable place where I can get back on my medication. I'm seriously considering the possibility of a “9th floor” stay at U-M because at least then I would have a safe place to be back on my medicine. I don’t know, it's just in the back of my mind. [The 9th floor at the University of Michigan hospital is the psych ward.] Jim: If you could go to college, what would you want to study? Casey: Law. I want to know my rights. To know your rights is to be able to defend your rights. I’m treated like I don't have any, but I also don't know them. Knowledge is power. I could use that to my advantage. Jim: Tell me something you enjoy about life. Casey: I pray for sunshine. It just does something for my soul. The sun shining always gives everybody a reason to go on. I pray for it, God does it. It’s the power of prayer and manifestation. “Go outside and look skyward,” God tells me all the time. That's enough for me. Like today, it was a cloudy sky until I prayed about it. [Casey has a calling. According to her and her relationship with God, she is a “Chosen One” destined for greatness on the order of Moses leading the Israelites through the desert or Noah building the Ark. An awakening, she calls it.] Casey: Yeah, it’s happening. I’m getting bits and pieces here and there. Casey points to a cloud and says, “You watch, that cloud is going to disappear.” Indeed, within moments, it did. People in the Neighborhood is a column about the unhoused community in Ypsilanti. 6/30/2025 JUNE 13, 2025 For her confirmation, Casey chose to memorize Ecclesiastes 3. Verse seven states, "a time to tear, and a time to mend; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.” Casey’s time is approaching. JUNE 13, 2025 MEDIA Reading between the lines The amount of information flooding our senses will drown you unless you sharpen the sword of discriminating awareness. This article was first inspired by a Reddit news flash on my iPhone. “500,000 Syrian refugees return home after the fall of Bashar alAssad.” The compliance narrative assumption is that they fled because Assad is a bad guy. Those who study history remember President George W. Bush and his “Mission Accomplished” speech in 2003. Plan for a New American Century was quickly formed. The list of countries to be targeted for regime change included Syria. As the war in Syria progressed it became a complex civil war with U.S.-supported ISIS creating many refugees. The masters of war blame others for the suffering they plan and execute. Divide and conquer has a long history and is a common modus operandi. So Assad is blamed for all the refugees that the war against him caused. Today the Cuban government is blamed by the standard narrative for all the refugees fleeing Cuba. You can name one country after the other, with Venezuela included on the list. Every country hit with U.S. sanctions will have a refugee situation. You might well believe the media unless you have learned to read between the lines! Mind training is available for developing the sword of spiritual awareness. Manjushri of the Buddhist tradition is a spiritual hero who wields this sword well. A sizable, local community of mind training practitioners is alive and open. You may already know Khenpo Choephel from the Karuna Buddhist Center at the Upper Room of Bethlehem United Church of Christ. Look around and marvel at the choices. Chuck Barbieri gave me a tour of White Lotus, a living village farm that is Buddhist-centered. I was amazed at the scope of that community. If you are a beginner at handling this sword you at least know that a natural breath is the beginning of your learning. Breathing with your core takes practice and instruction hand-in-hand. Those who are willing to take refuge in the reality we share to the deepest truth can go to the heart of the matter with Shakyamuni Buddha. (Shakya in his name refers to his clan heritage from indigenous times and muni is sage.) Foremost among the sages of this world, he was some 500 years before Jesus. KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 There are enough stories from yoga masters about “Jesus in India” that a documentary was made. It brings Jesus to life as a master of mind training and the unity of body, speech and mind. Life is school and advanced students can learn how to graduate from this life to more fully awakened awareness in Pure Lands, the allgood expanse of primordial purity! The words we use to understand reality bring us to the theater of the mind. We learn that reality is more than a word and that definitions do not define reality. Those who master words, even word artists, may not have a clue about the meanings of the words that flow so eloquently from their mouth or keyboard. The best story of this reality is found in the biography of Naropa who is a lineage holder in the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. To learn more, reading the book is best but Google is pretty good. If you only enter Naropa it will take you to the university in Boulder, Colo., which is named for him. Look for him as a lineage holder. The story of the old hag who confronts his mastery of words but not the meanings of the words is legendary. It is possible to learn discriminating awareness and wield that sword well. Once you begin to understand the meanings of the words, your ability to read between the lines will accelerate. Appearances are deceptive and we will learn that reality is more complete than the appearances of reality. Sunyata, usually translated as Emptiness, is the all-embracing nature of appearances. The Middle Path embraces Emptiness by avoiding the extremes of nihilism and eternalism. Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche spoke eloquently on this. Many books are written about Emptiness but the practice of mind training is the key to experiencing the truth of the matter. Both Marxists and Buddhists talk about dialectics and the unity of opposites. Every truth seeker will discover the resonance that concepts can play in pointing to the truth. The Zen saying “The finger that points at the moon is not the moon” illustrates how concepts are simply pointers and empty by their nature. When I was a science guy, having abandoned religion for science, I thought I was some kind of master of reality. If you study atoms and molecules you will learn about electron rings around the nucleus. Each ring has a valence, an energy charge that interacts with the electron rings of neighboring atoms as they interact to form molecules, which are collections of atoms. You may have some awareness that the gap between rings and between molecules is pure space, which you sense is the main characteristic of the universe. Empty space becomes profoundly interesting, even magical. The mystery deepens with quantum mechanics. When you understand Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle you will know that reality cannot be measured decisively and all matter is a vibration in an energy field of emptiness. If you discover the Clear Light of the Void (see my previous articles) you are near to fully-awakened awareness. Every truth seeker will discover the resonance that concepts can play in pointing to the truth. The mahamudra prayer points at this in one line. “Unwavering attention is the body of meditation, as is taught. To the meditator who observes the play of the mind without changing anything, grant your blessings that samsara and nirvana be realized inseparably.” This understanding of concepts and experience will be a great help in coming to full and complete awakening. Compassion and lovingkindness thrive here. We may discover that Jesus and Buddha are brothers and that Marx is some kind of prophet, as Martin Luther King taught us that the arc of history bends towards justice. We are preparing ourselves to engage in the struggle for freedom. Hasta la victoria siempre is commonly said in Cuba along with la lucha sigue! Always towards victory — and the struggle continues. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out Public Computers The AADL has public-access Internet computers available for use by both cardholders and noncardholders at all five locations. Each station has USB ports, headphone jacks, and some of the fastest wifi speeds in town! Byte Club An exclusive club for AADL SUPER FANS and library people like you! Byte Club will help you connect deeper with the Library you know and love, and share special sneak peeks of new things coming soon. The first rule of Byte Club is that you tell everyone about Byte Club! Ready to join? Visit aadl.org/ byteclub to get started. FEATURED EVENT 5 Saturday, June 21 • All day Around Ann Arbor Make Music Day is an annual, live music celebration that invites musicians to pour onto streets, parks, and plazas and share their music with friends, neighbors, and strangers. Look for free concerts all around town and enjoy music programming at the Downtown Library & Westgate Branch! "

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HEALTHCARE JUNE 13, 2025 Advocacy, empathy, equity, justice: Wolverine Street Medicine is filling healthcare gaps In my youth, I wanted to be a medical doctor because my grandmother used to work in the emergency room as a transporter, where she used to moved patients around the University of Michigan Hospital. Now that I have met some of the members of Wolverine Street Medicine, and have become aware of their practice I believe I would have made a good street medicine physician. Wolverine Street Medicine was founded in 2017 by medical students at the University of Michigan Medical School who were inspired by other local street medicine organizations and understood the health injustices faced by unhoused individuals in our community. Today, they are a student-run organization focused on caring for the health of those experiencing homelessness in Washtenaw County and Detroit. Their mission is to partner with individuals experiencing homelessness to meet their medical and social needs and to cultivate compassion and relevant knowledge in the future health professional workforce. They accomplish this mission through organizing street runs, foot care clinics and harm reduction events across Southeast Michigan.They also educate healthcare providers and trainees through our volunteer events, educational sessions, hands-on training and a rotation for senior medical students. They aim to conduct all of the activities in partnership with community organizations and people with lived experience in order to develop programs that clients desire and appreciate. These are their committments: 1. Unconditional positive regard 2. Continuous improvement and sustainability 3. Community-driven programs 4. Meet people where they are 5. Develop human connections Dr. Brent C. Williams MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Meet Brent C. Williams, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine Dr. Willliams, a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, has been on faculty at the University of Michigan Medical School since 1989, and is set to retire at the end of this month. In 2010, one of his jobs was to engage the Medical School with the community and to connect students to communities in Detroit, other parts of Michigan, low income communities and impoverished counties nationwide. Students would have to do projects in these communities. A doctor named Stephen T. Liechtenstein (then a student at U-M Medical School) went to Detroit on his own and got connected to the Wayne State Street Outreach Program. He started working in the Detroit area for a short period of time but soon faded out. In 2015, a group of medical students came to Dr. Williams and said they wanted to be involved with street medicine. He replied, “You guys don't know anything about street medicine and what do you guys want to do?” So, he asked them to do their homework and for the first two years they did their research, finding out what resources were already available, and where medical services were most needed. After the medical students did their research and assessments they came back to Dr. Williams with their findings.The students were convinced that they wanted to do the work and that there is a need; they believed they could fulfill that need. Then Dr. Williams told them that students come and go; we need to make sure that this endeavor is sustainable. He asked them to make a commitment to be in it for the long haul. Then he asked them how they were going to do that. So, the students went about building relationships in the community by connecting with Wayne State Street Outreach Program and Federal Qualified Health Centers in the Washtenaw County area and Detroit, and from there they started their program, Jim Bastian providing footcare, a common practice of Wolverine Street Medicine's outreach. Wolverine Street Medicine. The students set a system in place so when one group of students graduates another group of students will be ready and on board to take over; this is what Dr. Williams meant when using the word “sustainable.” This was truly a student-led initiative and year after year the students have been building this program with the backing and support of the U-M Medical School. Meet Jim Bastian, RN, Community Liaison Jim Bastian is a registered nurse, a graduate of Washtenaw Community College, and has nearly two decades of experience working with the homeless population in southeast Michigan. He helped found Wolverine Street Medicine, serving as an advisor and mentor to students and faculty. He recently retired from Washtenaw County Community Mental Health (PATH), where he led their street outreach efforts and helped community members experiencing homelessness find housing. Bastian has been with Wolverine Street Medicine since 2017. He told me that he wanted our readers to know the incredible work ethic of all the WSM students over the years. These students come from all different backgrounds, but they all share the passion to help and serve others. Meet Meera Bhagat, U-M Medical Student Meera Bhagat did her undergrad at University of California, Los Angeles, and now is a first year medical student at the U-M Medical School. She wanted to get involved with street medicine because being from the Los Angeles area, she sees the unhoused everywhere. In her medical career she Amanda Casetti wants to give back and she sees an immediate need in the unhoused community. While she attended UCLA,she joined a project called Mobile Clinc Project. Mobile Clinic Project is a student run medical group that is involved in street medicine in the Los Angeles area. Bhagat wants to go into Family Medicine as a Primary Care Physician and work for a Federal Qualified Health Center where she would work in the clinic and in street medicine. Meet Amanda Casetti, U-M Medical Student Amanda Casetti did their undergrad at the University of Michigan and is now in the U-M School of Medicine. This is their third year in medical school and they will do their residency to become an Emergency Room Doctor when they graduate. Casetti got into street medicine because they lived in the Detroit area during the pandemic and was doing a lot of volunteer work serving the unhoused, so when they came back to Ann Arbor to see MEDICINE page 11  JUNE 13, 2025 POETRY Go the distance BRYAN KISER JR. Groundcover vendor No. 670 Eyes will tell you everything is far away If you walk you'll never make it Fear says that it takes a long time to be successful yapping at the mouth, no need for complaining Society questions your inner identity How long before a person's strengths show The sun beams but clouds cover it Does that mean the sun’s still smiling even though We are born destined to fail That doesn't mean we have to Luck comes and it goes What will be on my side today Never try and you'll never know Life is a race you’re the only contestant The mind and body challenges, do you accept it Sprint … go the distance Heralds of Spring STEVEN Groundcover vendor No. 668 Elfen blue flowers harbingers of spring, Conjuring visions of Shakespeare's fancy. What will the summer bring? What's life have in store? What adventures will be transpiring for those with fools' whimsy? Elfen blue flowers exploding on winter's grave. Battling morning's frost as fierce as any brave. eyes SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 as I look into your eyes I get lost. – eyes. with every beat of your heart we are destined to be together forever. – eyes. my mind races with images of us being old and time together. – eyes. gray and aging your eyes are pools glistening. – eyes. our minds are One; our souls are together – eyes. in your eyes we are one the same; together we are complete. – eyes. I never want to have our eyes shut, always looking forever. – eyes stay wide awake not tearing eyes. In today’s world, People look down on the homeless community We walk day and night, Some mostly out of sight, Groundcover is a place Of peace, uniqueness and bliss. We are ones who shouldn’t be forgotten. The world should give us a kiss. To each his own if you don’t like, We keep moving and don’t put up a fight, One thing for sure, We gon be alright. JOHN BROOKS JR. Groundcover vendor No. 673 What will the summer bring? How many babies this spring? Where are the faeries of Titania going? Whose adventures will result of Oberon's doing? Elfen blue flowers, welcome and be merry. Rouse the bees from their torpor remind us there are Faeries. Universal Struggle DAVID L. PUTMAN Groundcover contributor You and I is us unites us Universal Struggle is U.S. United States we grow and change United States of mind which arranges Daily needs: Health, Security, Hygiene, Nutrition, and Love Even for the disenfranchised Whose security is public And “protected” But not actually Groundcover We’ve allowed our people To become publicly inconvenient And many of us are looking for a second chance How many chances do we get Jesus Christ loves us And we have a chance to go to Heaven Every night A third of our lives in wandering Rest, protected by angels who never falter and return if blessed God Bless the Homeless GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CARTOON JUNE 13, 2025 JUNE 13, 2025 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Area 7. Falling flakes 11. Software program, briefly 14. Irritate 15. Great Plains nation 17. Downright 18. Misers' sins 19. Deception 20. Breakup 22. Soft throw 23. Greek god of love 24. Campaigner, for short 25. Words on a Grecian urn 26. Romanian money 27. Saliva 31. Cunning 33. Circumference 34. Where all must go? 40. Dweeb 41. Marry a woman 43. Opposed toa 46. Put in stitches 49. "Geez!" 50. Baby seal 51. Creole vegetable 52. Appear 53. Some cosmetic surgeries 58. Agcy. 59. Kind of mapping 60. Pierre's boat 62. Oily fish in the Atlantic 63. Depth charge targets during WWII 64. Rotten 65. Chuck 66. Seal DOWN 1. Gulp 2. Regular 3. Delicate blue perennial 4. Victorian, for one 5. Lyrical poem 6. Whole 7. Picket line crossers 8. ___ Scotia 9. Arab League member 10. Charge 11. Honor 12. Carbolic acid 13. Mortar and ___ 16. Takeaway game 21. Former French coin 27. Editor's "It wasn't me!" 28. "Before," when before 29. "___ alive!" 30. Become friendlier 32. Abominable Snowman 33. Meas. of a country's economy 35. Plant bristle 36. Legal thing 37. Skill 38. Legume in many soups 39. Get out of 42. Hand over with confidence 43. Poise 44. Kind of hen or pig 45. Add 46. Hit the slopes 47. Greek god of darkness 48. Sushi condiment 51. "Good ___" (Pratchett and Gaiman novel) 54. Anglo-Saxon letter 55. Checked item 56. ___ list 57. Aces, sometimes 61. Deck (out)

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ENVIRONMENT JUNE 13, 2025 Ypsilanti residents are organizing to "Stop the Data Center" What do you think of when you think of “AI?” Five years ago most people would still have been imagining dystopian humanoid robot takeovers or self-driving cars. Nowadays some think of sending goofy prompts into ChatGPT, while others remember time saved when writing college finals or even grant applications. What we should think of instead is facial recognition surveillance, personal data algorithms and automated weapons — because it is these types of projects that provide the funding and political force behind the development of artificial intelligence. On December 5, 2024, Ann Arbor SPARK (local economic accelerator) and University of Michigan Research announced in similar releases that U-M and Los Alamos National Laboratory are co-developing a $1.2 billion AI research facility “focused on science, energy and national security.” Los Alamos National Laboratory is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is the creator of the atomic bomb. The partnering institutions call this data center “a catalyst for Southeast Michigan,” and “a significant investment in Ypsilanti Township,” as tech investments are all-too-often described. The facility will have two parts: one for collaborative research between U-M faculty, students and Los Alamos, and another for Los Alamos scientists and engineers to address “national security challenges using AI and high-performance computing.” When you look at computing power (in other words, the resources needed to run the data center), the first part of the project focused on education and training is only using 9%, while the second part that is exclusive to military County is not green, nor reliable. The water used to cool the plant needs to be dealt with one way or another — whether using closed loop cooling, natural evaporation, or neither, substantial resources are necessary to keep the machine running. In online forums, community memLINDSAY CALKA Publisher bers have stated other reasons for purposes takes 91%. The project is planned to be located on South Hydro Park in Ypsilanti Township (20-acre property at 10221 Textile Road), near the West Willow neighborhood. Residents in this area have read between the lines on this facility and are organizing to stop it before the ground breaks. Reasons to stop The facility will be all-electric, but substantial amounts of water are needed to cool down the machinery to prevent it from overheating or breaking down. According to research. umich.edu, “All water used by the facility will come from municipal water sources. The Ypsilanti Community Utility Authority has confirmed adequate water and wastewater capacity.” Although Ypsilanti Township is not experiencing a fresh water shortage at this moment, NPR’s Steven Starr reported May 20 that nearly one in four data centers are located in the Great Lakes states and warns that at the current large, but unknown rate of water usage in the Great Lakes region is charting towards unsustainable. Further, electricity in Washtenaw opposing the research facility, including surrendering large plots of land to non taxable entities, the pattern of gentrification in neighborhoods with U-M and/or tech investment, foreseeable noise pollution, lack of jobs for existing residents, and the purpose of the research itself. Local resistance In March 2025, seemingly overnight, stickers with the simple messages of “Stop the Data Center,” “Stop the Quantum War Machine” and “U-M out of Ypsi” covered downtown Ypsilanti street and park signs, light poles and walls. The guerilla information campaign was organized by Stop the Data Center, which can be followed on Instagram at @stopthedata. Although the data center was publicly announced last year, construction will not begin until 2026 and is projected to be fully completed by 2030. Stop the Data Center is organizing to stop it as early as possible — and a look at similar campaigns around the country support Stop the Data Center’s strategy. Data Center Watch (www.datacenterwatch.org/report) reports that across the United States alone “$18 billion worth of data center projects were blocked, and another $46 billion of projects were delayed over the last two years in the face of opposition from residents and activist groups.” Further, the study shows that data center opposition not only unites environmentalists, the anti war and anti gentrification movements, but also has bipartisan support. In April, activists began canvassing West Willow. In these initial conversations canvassers reported, “People in the neighborhoods surrounding the data center are deeply opposed to the data center! Of the 50 people who opened their door on our last Saturday out, 45 people gave us their contact information and were eager to get involved. People were just so grateful for the opportunity to fight against this project.” May 24, Stop the Data Center held their first assembly at North Hydro Park, which was attended by more than 80 people expressing anger and frustration over the project. The afternoon of May 29, 15 activists were forcibly removed from the #SciFM25: Scientific Discovery in the Age of AI conference at the Rackham Building. Of those 15, three were grabbed, detained and issued trespass citations and banned from University of Michigan property. Take action Are you willing to give up clean water and reliable energy for faster, more direct Google searches? What minor conveniences and natural resources are you willing to trade for prolonged wars globally and stronger surveillance locally? Stop the Data Center is Hosting monthly info sessions in North Hydro Park. The next one is Saturday July 14 at noon. Future dates will be announced on the instagram and via their email newsletter you can get at substack.com/@stopthedatacenter ?invite Stop the Data Center Campaign is calling on concerned Washtenaw County residents, particularly those in Ypsilanti Township, to attend the upcoming Ypsi Township Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday June 17, 5:30 p.m. located at 7200 S. Huron River Drive. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS JUNE 13, 2025 THINK ABOUT IT The unknown reality Q: When did Puerto Rico become a United States territory? A: 1952 Q: Does Spain permit U.S. military bases on its land? A: Yes, Spain allows the United States to use certain military installations. Through bilateral accords, they authorize U.S. presence in some Spanish military bases, like Morón de la Frontera and Rota. The U.S. utilizes these installations for military means and to provide logistical support, in other words, necessary resources to carry out an operation. Q: Why do the islands (Puerto Rico, Cuba) produce what the United States doesn’t have? A: In the United States, when the winter season arrives, or when there are storms and tornadoes, they don’t produce a lot of things. The islands like Puerto Rico and Cuba, then, produce a lot of what the United States cannot produce. Cuba for example has for years produced tobacco, coffee, sugar and enough livestock to provide for all of the United States. The blockade prevents it from coming here. Some of the soil in the United States is very dry due to so much snow and salt. Q: Where do such obscenities come from that people throw in the trash and say that it’s recycling? A: People throw away ugly things in the trash, but they don’t contaminate recycled products like that. Q: What is the difference between recycling and compost? A: Compost doesn’t contaminate food or the plants that are fertilized  MEDICINE from page 6 attend medical school, they decided to join WSM and do what they love to do, and also providing medical assistance for those who need it. Casetti expressed their passion for making connections and relationships in the unhoused community and wants to give a big thank you to Fleet Feet Running Shoe Store on the corner of Fourth and Library for helping WSM help the unhoused community by donating hundreds of pairs of shoes. When it comes to foot care, a comfortable pair of shoes that fit is half the battle. Many interviewees gave a shoutout to Molly Fessler, a Wolverine Street Medicine alumna, and current resident in psychiatry at Duke University for her concern and understanding of ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 with contaminated compost material. Q: Why do humans have so much depression? A: Because life is difficult. We work, pay, take care of homes, that sometimes turns into trauma. Other ponderings: Where do human beings stand if they don’t know what to do with so many astronauts, with so much conspiracy in our world, when we don’t have anything to eat and we do have millions of recycling and our ancestors taught us to work and to not speak nastily? What is each visit to the moon going to do, what are they looking for on the moon still? All of that money that they’re going to spend on going to the moon, why don’t they spend it here on earth, on ensuring that people have homes, and that everyone that sells Groundcover in the street has a real job? Why do people sell newspapers for so many years, yet people think they don’t work? Why are there so many bombs under the sea in the United States? It’s contamination, throwing so many bombs into the sea; one day there won’t be any fish to eat! They’ll die. They also throw trains that they don’t use anymore into the sea. So much contamination in the waters! Luis Gutiérrez used to protest against the United States because they commit such pure stupidities. Springs are what is produced by rivers and wells. Wells are like water that has been taken out of the ground, such as water from the sea, coconut water. [Where does coconut come from? Cocotera, or the coconut palm tree (Cocos nucifera), has an uncertain origin, but it is believed that it originated on the tropical coasts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, specifically in the south of Asia. The evidence suggests that it was dispersed to other tropical regions of the world, including Oceania, through human migration and the abilities of the coconuts to float in marine currents.] Why is coffee bitter? When you mix in sugar it is so sweet that you have to drink water! Why does it produce this astringent sensation in the mouth? Springs sprout through the earth like a flower to a woman without a mother. A flower that is planted breaks through the earth alone. There are women that cannot have children, so they adopt them from a foster house. Why are there so many questions and sometimes there are no answers? Like when a journalist from the press goes to pose a question to a president and the president doesn’t respond to them, like a person without schooling? Who knows more, the journalist or the president? If your country has millions and millions of things to export to other worlds, why is there so much poverty? The Bay of Pigs invasion was a the importance of foot care. Just like the military during war time, foot care is paramount because you are always on the move under harsh conditions and circumstances, this is true for those facing homelessness. We need to take care of our feet because our feet are the window into a lot of aspects of our bodily health overall. I would like to say thank you to all the U-M Medical Students past, present, and going into the future for your needed medical services in our community. Wolverine Street Medicine Clinic schedule Detroit: First and third Saturdays at Manna Meal Soup Kitchen (located at Saint Peter's Episcopal Church, 1950 Trumbull, Detroit). Washtenaw County: Ypsilanti District Library-downtown branch (229 W Michigan Ave, Ypsilanti): Mondays 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. Liberty Plaza (310 S. Division St., Ann Arbor): Mondays 4 p.m.- 5 p.m. St. Andrew’s Breakfast Program (306 N. Division St. Ann Arbor): Every other Friday 7:30 a.m-8 a.m. (foot care only) Phone: 734-436-1172, leave voicemail or text Wolverine Street Medicine relies on donations to provide the free services they offer to the unhoused community. Donations go directly to purchasing medications, supplies and necessities for their clients. If you would like to purchase something on their Amazon wishlist, donate online, directly by mail or discuss other ways to donate, please email at wolverinestreetmedicine@ gmail.com for more information. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 betrayal by the United States. Why in years past did humans not think the way they think now? Human beings in earlier times used to work the land, they lived in the fields without thinking about the light, they lived as shepherds. If they were thirsty, they drank from the river. They were more in step with nature. In what year did Facebook start? Why did they say that the world was going to end in 2000? Why are human beings so tired now? Because of the same depression? The same capitalism, the government, communism? When they give you a humanitarian stroke for exhaustion, traitorship doesn’t make sense. When the police nab someone for the number of infractions … It is an act of traitorship to work and not to have anything to eat afterwards. Why do the federal police use the state police and then make deportations? Why do the federal police order the state police to do things. They do it with a stroke of a pen and they betray us. This essay was originally written in Spanish and was translated by Regina Duerst and Luiza Duarte Caetano. Este ensayo fue escrito originalmente en español y traducido por Regina Duerst y Luiza Duarte Caetano. Para leer el ensayo original en español escanee el código QR a continuación. Casetti takes Mike Jones's blood pressure at the downtown Ann Arbor District Library.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Sweet strawberry mango popsicles TARYN RYAN U-M student contributor Ingredients: 1 cup of frozen strawberries 1 cup of frozen mangoes 1 cup of milk 1 Tablespoon of honey Optional: 1/2 cup Greek yogurt Directions: Add all ingredients into a blender. Optional: For thickness and flavor add greek yogurt as you see fit. Blend until smooth. Place in molds, then freeze. After 24-48 hours, pop out of the molds and enjoy! JUNE 13, 2025 Are you done with your electronics? Don’t let your well-loved electronics end up in a landfill! Kiwanis will resell electronics in good working order for reuse in our community! kitchen appliances home appliances personal care tools lamps and lighting entertainment equipment TV’s & stereos ...and more! for information on how to donate, scan this code! Shopping Hours Friday 9am-1pm Saturday 9am-3pm Donation Hours Nov-Apr 9am-12pm May-Oct 9am-1:30pm call us at 734-665-0450 for FREE large item/large quantity local pick-up’s 100 N Staebler Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48103 $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 6/26/2025

2 $ MAY 30, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 12 ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO #347 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Homeless community bands together, offers job services. page 3 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE RESTAURANT? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. 2025 Summer Events Calendar page 6 Thrift store roundup page 7 Summer construction updates page 4 Play the AADL Summer Game! page 5 Cooling centers page 8 Schillington Morgan, vendor No. 148, selling Groundcover News during the Ann Arbor Art Fair. @g, i @g, i 2 0 2 F 5 S E U M M R U N !

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER Board members discuss Groundcover's impact MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Since 2010, Groundcover News has provided those who are unhoused and those facing financial difficulties in the Washtenaw County area a sense of purpose. Groundcover News is a street newspaper produced, purchased and sold by the homeless and those facing poverty. These newspapers provide a source of income and platform to interact and build relationships in the community. Street newspapers mainly focus on topics concerning homelessness, poverty, social justice, local issues and events. Publications such as these provide communities with a unique perspective for readers to receive information on topics and issues of being unhoused and/or facing financial hardship. Street newspapers are non-profits; the community itself can be involved through volunteering their time and services. Students from various colleges and universities also do their internships at these publications. Like any other publication, street newspapers provide advertising opportunities for local businesses and organizations. These publications are a part of a street newspaper syndicate called International Network of Street Papers. 92 street papers, in 35 countries, published in 25 languages, make up their network. • 3.2 million readers worldwide. • 904 volunteers worldwide supporting our network • Over 390,000 people in poverty supported since the first street paper was published in 1989 • 5,730 vendors sell street papers at any one time • 13.15 million street papers were sold across the world in 2021 • 1,350 towns and cities had a street paper presence in 2021 Myself and other board members would like to share our thoughts and experiences with the organization. There is an old saying, “Life is what you make it.” This is true when working for a street paper. In the beginning, I was oblivious to the true meaning and purpose of a street newspaper, the possibilities this occupation would lead me to. It took me some time to find my voice as a street paper vendor, and after jumping in the water and getting my feet wet, I finally got my pitch down pat. Once you learn how to vibe and communicate with the public, one should have no problem making money and new friends. There are other financial opportunities within these publications' structures through means of: writings, recordings (Groundcover Speaks Podcast), workshops and through different public engagements. I find this very helpful in two ways: first, it helps make ends meet, and second, allows vendors to explore their creative inner self. — Mike Jones, Groundcover News vendor and writer, board member Groundcover News is an integral part of our richly diverse community, offering valuable benefits to our residents. Firstly, Groundcover provides its vendors, most of whom are economically marginalized, an opportunity to earn a legitimate income by selling the newspaper throughout Washtenaw County. Groundcover gives voice to viewpoints rarely encountered elsewhere, namely issues related to poverty, disenfranchisement and homelessness. — Jack Edelstein, Ph.D., Owner, JonesWoods Properties, board member I believe Groundcover News is an important part of our community because it offers a meeting point between people. It gives us all a reason to stay curious about who we are capable of meeting from our community in a day and the value of sharing space, even briefly. — Jessi Averill, Groundcover News volunteer, board Treasurer Groundcover News is a very important part of our community for multiple see IMPACT page 11  PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Ann Arbor District Library Brandon Bay Jud Branam Jim Clark La Shawn Courtwright Catalina Echavarria Cindy Gere Mike Jones Bryan Kiser Victor Schmitt Scoop Stevens Felicia Wilbert PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 June Miller Steve Ross Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Libby Chambers Yumna Dagher Luiza Duarte Caetano Regina Duerst Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Bella Martinez Robert Klingler Ari Ruczynski Jack Weinberg Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons MAY 30, 2025 MAY 30, 2025 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What is your favorite restaurant? Taco Bell. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 Just down the street from us ... Earthen Jar. It's fireworks in the mouth! — Cindy Gere, #279 I like breakfast places like Coney Island. — Terri Demar, #322 Taco Bell and Vito's Pizza are my top two. — Misti Davis, #625 Fleetwood Diner. — Wayne Sparks, #615 Achilles. — Jim Clark, #139 Motor City Soul Food. Out here, my favorite is Village Kitchen. — Pony Bush, #305 Old Town. — Tony Schohl, #9 Ruby Tuesday. — Lonnie Baker, #99 Missing Lil' Clarence LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 I miss you so much Lil' Clarence My precious baby boy I'm counting on finding you this year It's been more than a quarter of a century since you've been gone I need to find you So you can finally meet and see me again I just hope that they did not do to you what they did to your other biological sisters and brothers I miss you more and more every day I just can't wait to see you again My dear, precious, baby boy Lil' Clarence!! Rent-free living vouchers would tip the scales SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover contributor In general, rent is parasitical, it produces nothing — and could be the starting point to approach the rent-free living voucher as the solution for homelessness in America. The feudal “landlord” pilfered the produce of his subjects. He left them just enough to survive, but not thrive. Interesting that we use the word landlord in our commercial relations. After World War II, hubris replaced humility. Instead of accessible housing, we got rent. Government in the United States of America was instituted to protect the rights of individuals, not to build houses. All the non-government resources that went into putting a man on the moon could have been used towards putting people into affordable housing. All the technological advancements that were byproducts of the moon project supposedly make our life better. Nature’s bounty has already provided all that we need, if we are in balance with her. The rent-free living voucher would provide housing for the homeless. It would be funded by wealthy individuals who seek to justify their tax exempt status by providing a public good. The rentfree living voucher will tip the scale back to equity in housing and balance in life. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Homeless community bands together, offers job services BRYAN KISER Groundcover vendor No. 670 When facing homelessness or just dealing with an unlucky life, the world can seem very difficult. Imagine not only having mental health or physical health problems, but also financial. With the cost of everything on the rise it's hard to keep up with food and daily essentials. How does someone on the street pay for things, you might ask? One way is we (including myself) barter. It may be hard to believe but we have our own way of trading items with one another for common needs. This system allows those without money/jobs to be able to afford the things we need to survive. Does education really matter when hiring someone? Since I've been traveling to various places with heavy homeless populations, I noticed that a lot of homeless people are very educated. The most common field I hear about is science. You would be surprised at how many people know about physics, biology and medicine; the non-science of metaphysics is common too. The second most common field is construction. I also used to work in that field, doing general labor from cutting oil pipes to demolition. The great thing about talking to the homeless is that you can see and hear the intelligence in each and every person. Every one of them expresses themselves differently through their craft, words, 3 and even artwork in a creative way. Have you ever wondered, “What if homeless people were once great people and for some reason society decided it no longer needed them?” Does my background/record scare you even if I try to change? Should the labels prevent me from getting a job to take care of myself? Why do I get judged for past mistakes? These are the questions and doubts that hinder homeless minds and progress. We who attend the breakfasts at St. Andrew’s have come up with a solution for the employment problem. Every morning at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church (guided by Sue) there is a free breakfast for the homeless community. It’s an opportunity for others to find workers. Inside the church, we as a group made a job board where employers or people who have short-term jobs can check out candidates and their skills. Each candidate has a picture, list of skills they have, how to reach them and also a little bio. The goal is to bridge the gap between the homeless and work. Sometimes the help or change we need is right in front of us. If you would like to find workers or hire candidates feel free to visit Saint Andrew’s Church any morning between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SUMMER CONSTRUCTION Border-to-Border Trail link construction CATALINA ECHAVARRIA U-M student contributor Ann Arbor is almost always under construction with residents often not knowing why. One of the many construction projects currently happening is the Border-to-Border (B2B) Trail link. The City of Ann Arbor announced that work on the Barton-Bandemer Pedestrian Tunnel began the week of March 24, 2025. The goal is to construct a pedestrian tunnel beneath the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) railroad that is operated by Amtrak. Upon its completion, Bandemer Park and Barton Nature Area will be connected, providing a safe connection for bicyclists and pedestrians. As of right now it is illegal to cross the railroad tracks except where signage clearly indicates otherwise. This project is a partnership between the City of Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission and the nonprofit Huron Waterloo Pathways Initiative. Essentially, the project will connect the B2B Trail to the new segment of the trail previously completed in the summer of 2024, making it over 20 miles long, perfect for avid bikers. The current anticipated completion date is 2025 but as of right now it is a tentative date. This project brings about restrictions that are relevant to Ann Arbor residents. As expected, there will be no access permitted within the construction site. Outside of this area, the gravel parking lot off of Huron River Drive and the pedestrian bridge connecting Huron River Drive to Barton Nature Area will both be closed until the construction is completed. On June 3 and 4, the vehicle bridge into Bandemer Park from Barton Drive will be closed to through traffic. On this note, there will be a 48-hour railroad track outage on these days, so consider alternative long distance transportation options on those days, if relevant. This project isn’t limited to the Barton-Bandemer Pedestrian Tunnel as it also will include pathways connecting to the tunnel, renovations to the parking lot off of Huron River Drive and a new public art installation on the interior of the tunnel. This new art will add to the already lively art scene of Ann Arbor. The cost is divided up evenly amongst the three institutions named above, with the City’s portion coming from the Park Maintenance and Capital Improvement Millage, which funds updates and maintenance at city parks, capital projects, park forestry and the Natural Area Preservation. Ann Arbor residents voted to renew this millage for another 20 years in 2024. A portion of Washtenaw’s funding is the fouryear long road and trails millage which was also renewed by voters in 2024. As for the Huron Waterloo Pathways Initiative’s portion, it is in part funded by a grant from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation with the rest coming from donations from private donors. Updates on the project’s progress will be provided by the City on the City of Ann Arbor Facebook, NextDoor specifically for Ann Arbor residents, as well as on the project website engage. a2gov.org/barton-bandemer-pedestrian-tunnel. The website provides information on the project timeline: the Feasibility Study (2019-2021), Design (2022-2024), Phase 1 Construction (Summer 2024), Phase 2 Construction (began March 24, 2025), Warning! Roads closed ahead LINDSAY CALKA Publisher Ann Arborites joke that they know that winter is only really over when road repairs begin. Loud sounds, dust, unwieldy detours and traffic back-ups make many dread this fifth season in Ann Arbor: construction season. Pedestrians, bikers, riders and drivers alike — if you know what construction is happening, where it's happening and why it's happening, you might reduce your transit rage! Fifth Ave Closure Fifth Ave. is closed between William and Jefferson streets. Project includes water main replacement (Jefferson to Packard), street resurfacing, repairing identified storm drains, upgrading concrete ramps to meet current Americans with Disabilities Act Standards and the installation of the city's first contraflow bike lane. A contraflow bike lane allows cyclists to ride in the opposite direction of normal traffic flow on a one-way street. The road will be fully closed to users throughout the duration of the project. Navigation tips: Heading north? Take South Division. Heading south? Take 4th Ave. Groundcover office visitors, be prepared to leave the office the same way you came. Projected completion: July 2025. East Medical Center Drive Rehab and Widening The East Medical Center Drive Bridge over the Amtrak Michigan line was constructed in 1982 and is now being inspected every twelve months due to its deteriorating condition. It is the City's intent to rehabilitate the bridge in order to return it to a state of good repair and prolong its life span. University of Michigan is partnering on this project to widen the bridge in order to improve traffic flow into and out of the University Medical Center. Navigation tips: If you can, avoid the intersection of Fuller Rd, Maiden Lane and E. Medical Center Drive at all costs during rush hour. Remember you cannot take a left onto Fuller from Maiden Lane — if heading east, accessing Fuller Rd via Fuller Street is a better bet! Projected completion: July 2025. Miller Ave Improvements There have been points of conflict between cars, bikes and people at various points along Miller Ave. However, by providing dedicated infrastructure and reducing speeds, those conflicts become more manageable and safer. From Newport Road through Seventh Street, work will focus on replacing water main pipes, improving stormwater detention, realigning the intersection at Red Oak, and repaving the road. Miller Avenue will be closed on this section until July 7, 2025. The next phase of the project will close a different portion of Miller Ave. Navigation tips: Cyclists who normally use Miller Avenue are advised to travel to and from downtown Ann Arbor via Dexter Avenue, South Revena Boulevard and West Washington Street. Bus riders on Routes 32 and 61 can view detours on TheRide.org/ rider-alerts. Projected completion: The last stage of this project will begin Fall 2025. State Street Water Main and Resurfacing This is a continuation of projects along State Street. Stormwater runoff quality will be improved by constructing an infiltration trench to send water into the aquifer instead of directly to the Huron River which gives soil the opportunity to filter out pollutants. Two aging water mains maintained by the City of Ann Arbor and U-M will be consolidated into one. Protected bicycle lanes will be installed. Two raised mid-block crosswalks will enhance safety for people crossing the road. A northbound transit queue jump lane to improve bus headway times along the corridor will be constructed. A transit signal at the intersection of State Street and East William will allow buses to get ahead of other vehicles. On-street parking will be removed to make space for the transit and bicycle improvements. The city is reviewing adjacent locations for on-street parking. Navigation tips: To quickly move across downtown, rely on Huron St, 4th Ave or Packard St. From June 5 to August 31, other reliable downtown streets such as Main St. will be closed Thursday 4 p.m. to Sunday late for the A2 Summer Streets celebration. Projected completion: July 7, 2025. The second phase will begin July 21, after the Ann Arbor Art Fair concludes, and is projected to be completed in November 2025. Ann Arbor set a goal to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries resulting from traffic crashes by 2025, called “Moving Together Towards Vision Zero.” The City also has set a goal to transition to community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030, “A2Zero.” Many of these construction projects aim to make progress on these commitments. Follow updates on each of these projects and more at engage.a2gov.org MAY 30, 2025 Track Outage (anticipated date of June 3-4, 2025), and Project Completion (Fall 2025). The Barton-Bandemer Pedestrian Tunnel project represents a significant step forward in enhancing Ann Arbor’s outdoor recreation infrastructure. By safely linking Bandemer Park and Barton Nature Area, the project will promote sustainable transportation options as well as increasing the community’s access to nature and public art installations. As construction progresses, Ann Arbor residents are encouraged to stay informed and plan accordingly. Upon its completion, the project will be a valuable addition to both Ann Arbor and the surrounding communities that are a part of the Border-to-Border trail. MAY 30, 2025 LIBRARIES Play the AADL Summer Game! ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY Use your library this summer to find codes, solve puzzles, attend events and earn points towards awesome AADL prizes — courtesy of the Ann Arbor District Library and the Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library! You don't even need a Library card to play! Origins of the Summer Game The Ann Arbor Public Library promoted a summer reading program as far back as the 1930s, encouraging kids to continue reading over their summer break. In 1960 the theme was Highway to Alaska. In 1952 it was Flight to Mystery Island. Who could forget 1954’s Space Ship to the Moon? The modern Summer Game was born in 2011, combining the classic Summer Reading Game but adding much, much more for kids, teens and adults. Today's Summer Game is a puzzle-filled spectacular with codes, clues, scavenger hunts, badges and more! Three ways to play 1. The Summer Reading Game: Kids can complete the Summer Reading Game by reading or listening to 10 books. Finish 10 books to earn Summer Game points, a free book and a coupon for $1 off a book at any of the Friends shelves at any AADL location. Teens and adults can complete the Summer Reading Game by consuming 10 ANYTHINGS (books, podcasts, magazines, articles or pieces of content) to earn Summer Game points, a free book, and a coupon for $1 off a book at any of the Friends shelves at any AADL location. Pick up an Explorer Guide/Summer Game Reading Card at any AADL library, or download it from our website! 2. The Summer Game Explorer Codes: Explore parks, all five AADL locations and sites across the city, or attend in-person or online AADL events to find Summer Game codes. Redeem those codes for points, badges and prizes galore. 3. The Summer Game Online Codes: Hidden in the AADL’s online catalog and the internet at large are hundreds of Summer Game codes worth thousands of points. Every Friday, the AADL Summer Game team releases a new series of themed online puzzles, which can be solved with savvy searches of our catalog and the web. Discover these secret codes, unlock points for prizes and earn special badges throughout the summer. YOU KEEP MENTIONING PRIZES! Every code you enter, every badge you earn, and every puzzle you solve gives you Summer Game points. Those points can be used to get Summer Game prizes in the Summer Game shop, which opens in early July. Past prizes have included t-shirts, stuffed animals, vintage lunch boxes, pins, coffee from Roos Roast, tea from Arbor Teas, coffee mugs, notebooks, frisbees, beach blankets, tote bags, umbrellas and so much more! How to get started 1. Sign up for the Summer Game using your existing AADL account. If you don't have a Library card, you can still create a Summer Game account and play along. For parents: you can add kids and teens to your Summer Game profile as well! 2. You can also text NEWPLAYER to 734-327-4200 to create a profile and play via text (messaging and data rates may apply). 3. To play the Summer Reading Game, pick up a Summer Reading Game card at any AADL location, or download an editable Summer Reading Game card. 4. To earn points from online codes, tackle an easy puzzle first by solving a standard difficulty websearch badge. Decipher the clues and use AADL's catalog search to find game codes. Find all five and earn the badge! 5. To become a Summer Game Explorer, check out the main Summer Game page and look for where you might track down codes first. A good start is inside all five libraries. Don't forget to look for the Summer Game banners outside! 1,001 ways to earn Summer Game points 1. Find codes inside all AADL buildings, the sides of AAATA buses, in newspaper ads or at in-person and online AADL events. 2. Solve online puzzles by searching the AADL catalog and the internet for codes — and get bonus points for completing badge series! 3. Finish the Summer Reading Game! 4. Earn 50 points per day for reading, watching, or listening to stuff. Bonuses for the more days you log! 5. Review items in AADL's catalog. 6. Rate items in our catalog. 7. Points-O-Matic! Help the AADL Archives and our collection of Ann Arbor newspaper microfilm, or help the AADL collections team with its series data in the Points-O-Matic News Sprinter and Points-O-Matic Super Serializer. You can also earn points for reviewing reviews for items in our collection with the Points-O-Matic Review Reviewer. FAQs 1) Is the Summer Game just for kids? Heck no! Kids (and parents) have tons of fun participating in the Summer Reading Game but guess what? At least half of our players aren’t kids! Teens and adults love puzzles, scavenger hunts and getting points to use for free stuff too! Fun for all ages—and we're not just saying that! 2) How long does the Summer Game go? The Summer Game runs from June 11 through August 24, 2025. Players can sign up at any time during the summer and have plenty of days to earn points, win prizes, and have fun. 3) Can my kids play the Summer Game if they don’t have a Library card? Absolutely! Summer Game accounts can add extra players to their profiles and help young ones and family members enjoy the Summer Game as well. Codes can be entered separately for each player or texted through a single number to credit each account with the code. 4) Do I need an Ann Arbor District Library card to play the Summer Game? Nope! Anyone can play the Summer Game if they create an account on aadl.org. 5) Where can I find some easy codes to get started? If you're into exploring, a lot of players like to walk through each of AADL's five libraries, tracking down the 10 codes hidden inside each branch and 15 codes Downtown! There's also a big banner hanging on the outside of each library with a larger-than-life code as well. 6) When does the Summer Game Shop open? The Summer Game shop opens in July. We're sure to make a big announcement when we have the exact date. 8) When are new codes and badges added to the Summer Game? New badges drop every Friday during the Summer Game, plus a few surprise badge drops here and there. Check the main page at play.aadl.org to keep up on the latest drops. 9) I heard about Summer Game lawn and library codes. Are those coming back? AADL lawn and library codes will be back this year! Stay tuned for details on the play.aadl.org page. If you have any questions, or comments, or have trouble with any part of the Summer Game: Email askus@aadl.org, Text or call 734-327-4200 or visit the contact us page on AADL.org GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS EVENTS CALENDAR 2025 Summer Events Calendar TASTE OF ANN ARBOR Sunday, June 1, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Main and Liberty streets Dozens of area restaurants offer samples in the $1-$6 price range. Live music on Main Street from noon to 5. mainstreetannarbor.org/ taste-of-ann-arbor ANN ARBOR AFRICAN AMERICAN FESTIVAL Saturday, June 7, 9 a.m. - 8 p.m. N. 4th Ave and East Ann St. The 28th Annual African American Downtown Festival provides a platform for celebration of African-American community, heritage, and achievement. Jazz and R&B performances, market stalls and non-profit groups create a rich and unique vibe for all to enjoy. www.a2festival.org A2 SUMMER STREETS Thursday through Sunday, June 5 - Aug. 31 Weekend street closures downtown along Main, Liberty and Washington Streets to enable dining, strolling with refreshments, shopping, artistic and musical performances. Presented by Main Street Ann Arbor. www.mainstreetannarbor.org/ a2-summer-streets YPSI PRIDE "CELEBRATING OUR STORIES" Friday, June 6, 4 p.m. to 12 a.m. East Cross Street, Ypsilanti Join for full day and evening of LGBTQIA+ focused events, sales and performances. All ages welcome. 5TH ANNUAL YPSILANTI JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION June 20-22, 11 a.m. to late 301 W. Michigan Ave Expect local vendors and community organizations, live performances, and a weekend of community gathering. Headliners and special guests include: Lady Sunshine & Grammy Award Winning Gospel Artist Fred Hammond. SOUNDS AND SIGHTS Thursdays from June 5-July 31, 6:308:30 p.m. Downtown Chelsea Arts, entertainment, and musical acts are performed at 10 various and separate stages throughout historical downtown Chelsea. Every week brings something new, is family friendly, and free! Kids will enjoy acts like magicians, circus acts, jugglers, face painters, balloon artists, the 'How to Chalk' themed art stage and much more, while music enthusiasts will experience many genres of music all in one night. FOURTH OF JULY PARADE Friday, July 4, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. 35th annual Independence Day celebration, hosted by the Ann Arbor Jaycees. The parade route starts at E. William St. and N. University Ave, running north on State, West on Liberty, South on Main, East on William and ending south on Thompson. Line up will be down N. University Ave. A2ZERO WEEK June 1-7 A week-long celebration of climate action and community in observance of Ann Arbor’s carbon neutrality pledge and efforts. Broad range of events from natural fabric dyeing to all-electric home tours to green business networking events. And fun parties! www.a2gov.org/sustainability-innovations-home/newsletter-events/ a2zero-week SONIC LUNCH Thursdays at noon, June 5 - Aug. 28 Liberty Plaza park, Liberty/Division streets Free music series sponsored by Bank of Ann Arbor mixes local and touring acts. www.soniclunch.com/ TOP OF THE PARK June 13-29 U-M Campus near Bell Tower Presented by Ann Arbor Summer Festival An Ann Arbor summer staple for 40 years, Ann Arbor Summer Fest began as a high-brow theater and dance series but has evolved to mostly local live music, movies, fun activities and plenty of catching up with friends and neighbors at its Top of the Park series. Free shows on two stages Tuesday through Sunday nights, rotating family activities, sidewalk chalk art and free latenight movies under the stars! www.a2sf.org/calendar/ ANN ARBOR ART FAIRS July 17-19 Three massive street art fairs blend creativity and commerce, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. Fairs are spread across a 30-block swath of downtown, from Main Street to South University Avenue. Admission is free, while the art, retail and food offerings are decidedly not. www.theannarborartfair.com/ YPSILANTI JAZZ FESTIVAL Friday nights August 1-29 Ford Lake Park, Ypsi Township $20 parking fee Aug. 1: Randy Scott / Demetrius Nabors, Aug. 8: Marion Meadows, Aug. 15: John E. Lawrence / Yancyy / The Return of the WCC Jazz Orchestra, A Tribute to Dr. Morris J. Lawrence Jr., Aug. 22: Gerald Albright, Aug. 29: Jeff Lorber Fusion www.johnelawrencejazz.com/ Events compiled by Jud Branam MAY 30, 2025 MAY 30 2025 THRIFT SHOPPING Homelessness takes everything from you. In February 2019, between a divorce and a car crash I lost nearly all of my belongings including my clothing. After finding refuge at the homeless shelter, I found myself with a pair of pants, a sweater, a few t-shirts, three pairs of socks and underwear, hiking boots and my leather jacket. These were the only clothes I had in the middle of a Michigan winter. In Michigan, proper clothing is essential to one’s health, as the comfortable, non-lethal weather only lasts or a few months in the early spring and late summer. Some people in Washtenaw County cannot afford good quality clothing. There are a few “free stores” for clothing if you know where to look. (Bridge Cafe and Regal Beagle in Ypsilanti have them, for example.) Otherwise, the best way is to visit one of over a dozen thrift/resale shops in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti to dress for the weather — and to look and feel good because that’s important, too. Here’s a breakdown of some of the major thrift stores: GROUNDCOVER NEWS Hey, Groundcover, can we go thrift shopping? JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 given their proceeds to an incredible number of non-profit agencies and they have competitive grant programs which paid out $475,000 last year. AATS is run by its 326 volunteers. Among them is Mary-Lee W. who said, Ann Arbor PTO 2280 S. Industrial Hwy, Ann Arbor. Open Thurs.-Sun., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Located on bus route 6, the Ann Arbor PTO thrift shop fits the thrift shop template. Clothing starts at $3.25 with excellent color-tag-of-the-day discounts that can result in clothes as low as 50 cents; there is an equal mix of clothing and non-clothing items, including an excellent selection of crafts. Caitlyn Wackrow, assistant manager, says Ann Arbor PTO has a great customer-worker vibe. She says of a particular customer; “He commutes from Toledo to work in Ann Arbor, but stops in everyday, buys a little something and chit-chats with us. We love seeing him and all of our regulars who come in. They are a real bright spot in our day.” Ann Arbor PTO does not have a voucher program; however, all proceeds from sales go to aid the students of Ann Arbor Public Schools. Ann Arbor Thrift Shop 3500 Washtenaw Ave, Ann Arbor. Closed Sunday and Wednesday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday. Located on bus route 4, The Ann Arbor Thrift Shop is a community aid powerhouse. For 93 years they have “Our volunteers are all very dedicated to the community and the mission of our shop.” All proceeds go to organizations that provide emergency services such as housing, food and medical care. The list of organizations is stunning; it includes: A Brighter Way, Avalon Housing, Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw, Community Action Network, Corner Health Center, Dawn Farm, Food Gatherers, Friends in Deed, Home of New Vision, Alpha House, Jewish Family Services, Ozone House, Packard Health, Peace Neighborhood Center, Safe House Center, Shelter Association of Washtenaw, SOS Community Services and the St. Andrews Breakfast Program. They do take Washtenaw County vouchers and have their own “shopping card” program for the under- and unemployed. 7 Vendors Cindy Gere (left) and Wayne Sparks (right) display clothes at the Groundcover office free store. accepted donations of unwanted goods and then employed people to repair and prepare the items for sale. The profits of the sales became the wages for the employees. As they grew, they began focusing on people with disabilities, enabling people who had barriers to employment find meaningful work. Today, Goodwill offers many services that help a wide range of people who have different employment skills. For example, the micro-enterprise program “Art Works” provides studio space for artists and teaches them entrepreneurial skills. Other programs include: Youth Start which gives at-risk youth skills and support to carry into adulthood; vocational and employment training; literacy; industrial contracts which partner with organizations that will employ people with training under Goodwill; and other semi-skilled labor opportunities. “A hand up, not a hand out” is a phrase used to describe the mission of Goodwill. agencies. People present their ID and can sign up to visit the store once every three months and fill a shopping cart.” I personally used their service in 2019 where I found a painting of Saint Nicholas delivering a bag of toys and a cat for some lucky family. (Santa Claus is one of my heroes.) Kiwanis Thrift Sale 100 N Staebler, Ann Arbor. Open 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday; closed the rest of the week Proceeds raised by Kiwanis Thrift Sale fund other nonprofits, especially child-oriented organizations. According to their mission statement: Goodwill 3782 Carpenter Rd, Ypsilanti. Open from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sunday and 8 p.m. the rest of the week. Goodwill is located on bus routes 5B and 66. The first thing I noticed about the store was it surpassed all the others in organization. It reminded me of a regular retail clothing store, à la TJ Maxx or JCPenney. In fact, there were brand new socks and Crocs. And if neon colors light you up, Goodwill is a beacon of 80’s throwback fashion. The most impressive thing about Goodwill as a non-profit is that they are not about affordable used clothing. Secondhand retail is a vehicle for their true purpose. Around 1890, a Methodist minister, Edgar Helms, wanted to help the jobless population so he opened “Morgan Memorial Cooperative Industries and Stores, Inc.” which House by the Side of the Road 2051 S. State St, Ann Arbor. Closed Saturday and Sunday, open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. weekly Located on bus route 6 and established in 1970, House by the Side of the Road started as a partnership between Washtenaw County and local churches. They are a 501(c)3 non-profit that is all-volunteer-staffed. Although there are no qualification barriers to access, the outfit primarily serves the County's homeless and housing-insecure citizens. I asked volunteer Mary-Lee Woodworth about how it works. She said, “We don’t charge for anything. We are open to the public, but sometimes are referred by social service "Kiwanis International’s mission is to improve the world by empowering communities and making lasting differences in the lives of children.” In addition to goods for sale to the general public, social workers who attend a training program are able to bring homeless and income-insecure clients in for free items. Easily the biggest thrift shop in town, the place is like a labyrinth in a Harry Potter movie. The multi-room building sprawls over 123,000 sq ft, so make sure your kids, friends and spouses are securely tethered to you at all times. The most impressive thing about Kilwanis is its selection. It’s like the Meijer of secondhand goods. Kiwanis’s challenge is its accessibility. The only way to get there, if you have no vehicle, is an independent bus service with its own schedule (visit the Western-Washtenaw Area Value Express website for more information). Also, they are only open two days a week. see ROUND-UP page 10 

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS TRUTH OR LIES Truth or lies: The ocean find He posed, wearing his four medals while holding a sparkling, seashell trophy mounted to a golden set of fins, and decorated with smaller shells. “I am Layio, brother of two, warrior and captain of Hawaii’s most furious Lu’uais. As a deep diving prize winner of the Lu’uais, I was awarded champion of the two hundred meter dive. If anyone can challenge me, step forth. Win my title, challenge me!” He would recite this every weekend on the beach to anyone who would listen. Layio and his family moved from Hawaii to Laguna Terrace off the coast of California when he was sixteen years old. Picture this: To Layio at 21 the ocean is a great exploration trip. He lived underwater, practicing every day, exploring, searching the ocean floor. He dreamed of finding a big shipwreck one day. He felt that dream would not come true that season because the waters were getting choppier and colder by the day. The only things he ever found were a few coins and an old gold ring. He always wondered if those coins came from a ship. Maybe they were from the 1800s, after all. FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 On the evening of November 29,1986, he dove further than he ever did before, exhausting himself. He returned to the beach where his brothers were waiting for him, only to find his brothers were quite impatient to go home. Tervan and Bervet started teasing him, saying, “You’ll never find that ship. You’re too blind. You can’t see it!” Layio only wanted to be left alone, to enjoy his last day of the season on the beach. He walked away from his brothers in the direction of the twin caves. He was so tired that when he sat down he fell into a deep sleep. When he awoke, the moon was shining off the water. Looking at the water, he saw a light and a woman diving beneath the water. Layio wiped his eyes in disbelief. However, when he opened his eyes he saw the same thing. He asked himself, how could that be? She was beyond the swimming zone. Suddenly, the woman started calling for help! Layio grabbed his light and dove into the water. He swam over to where he last saw her. Layio then noticed a small boat. “Where is she? I hope she didn’t drown,” he thought. Suddenly, a glimmer of light caught his eye. Layio immediately dove beneath the water and quickly followed the light. Almost at the 200 meter mark, there she was floating, her gown hooked to a piece of wood. Layio saw that the woman could not free herself from a sunken ship. He untied the woman, grabbed her and went shooting for the surface. Once he reached the top, Layio placed her into the small boat. Swimming and tugging the boat as fast as he could, he raced for the beach. It was daylight now, and several people were on the beach. He hollered for help while approaching the shore. They grabbed the woman from the small boat, laying her on the beach. Upon giving her CPR trying to resuscitate her, Layio heard a lady scream, “That’s Natalie Wood!” referring to the famous actress. Everyone was amazed and whispered, ”That’s Natalie Wood!” Thank you Groundcover News readers for your patience and understanding. Yes it’s true, I’m writing part two of my murder love story mystery, “Billy Don’t Kill Us.” That’s why my stories have been absent. However, "The never forgotten love" published March 7, 2025 was FALSE. MAY 30, 2025 MAY 30, 2025 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS Pawsome Puzzle Victor Schmitt 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. Thank you! ACROSS 1. Mesh (with) 4. Wall St. debut 7.___ Jima 10. "Mr. Blue Sky" band, to fans 13. German gran 14. Bored with 16. Purple or candied spud 17. Backstabbing spy 19. Greek letter that rhymes with both of its neighbors 20. "Hey ___!" (Nickelodeon cartoon) 21. Mobster's piece 22. Ado 23. Word with spice or squat 24. Starting segments in most S.N.L. episodes 26. Abbr. on some speedometers 27. Dance when doubled 29. In a manner of speaking 30. Hypes up 32. Lil' ones 33. Healthy restaurant toppings 36. Campus program for future C.O.s 37. Rips 38. At the onset 41. U.F.O. passengers 42. Big name in pens and lighters 45. Microwave-safe dish 47. Some restaurants have a 'secret' one 48. Leggy wader 49. ___ Speedwagon 50. Panther and Lynx, for two 52. Start of many Californian city names 53. Dog hybrids, or what's found in 17-, 24-, 33-, and 45-Across' circled letters 55. Yoko who wrote "Grapefruit" 56. Print again, as a book 57. In the style of 58. "Family Feud" airer 59. Explosive letters 60. Service inits. 61. Tennis call that aptly rhymes with 'net' DOWN 1. Cut all lines of communications 2. Genre for XXXTentacion or Juice WRLD 3. 4-Across, e.g. 4. "___ pass" (comforting words during a thunderstorm) 5. ___ Piper 6. Singer Rita 7. Principles 8. Falls short 9. Frequently, poetically 10. Exams consisting of reading increasingly smaller letters 11. Some mujeres 12. Lead actor in "Lupin" 15. Frozen waffle brand 18. ___ Choy 22. Cuddles, maybe 24. Famed opponent of Caesar 25. Semiaquatic mammals 27. Tailbone 28. "Ben ___" (1959 best picture winner) 30. Deeds 31. Rank above cpl. 33. "Beloved" author Toni 34. Short Instagram video 35. Nosh 36. Wayfarers and Aviators, for two 38. Literary closing 39. Conan who "Needs a Friend" in his weekly podcast 40. Dead end indicator 42. "Stop kidding yourself!" 43. Going nowhere, as a car 44. Swear to 46. Afflictions 47. Comedian Martin 50. Border 51. Shape of a family, in charts 53. He played Clubber Lang in "Rocky III" 54. Broadband abbr.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THRIFT SHOPPING  ROUND-UP from page 7 by submitting documents, such as proof of income, to the Salvation Army office. They also have a “tag-color-ofthe-week” discount system that aids people who are income-insecure. Salvation Army is also the “sleeping bag capital of Ann Arbor.” Value World 1410 E Michigan Ave, Ypsilanti. Open Plato’s Closet 860 W Eisenhower Pkwy, Ann Arbor. Open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. daily Located on bus routes 25 and 67, Plato’s Closet is unique among the area thrift shops. Although they are a for-profit franchise chain, Plato’s Closet buys clothing. They have an automated system that determines the cash value for items based on brand, condition and other factors. This is very useful to people who are income-insecure and makes up for not having a voucher system. Pricing is fair, items are priced up to 70% off retail value, the quality of their items is like new, and they have excellent clearance sales. Another thing that makes Plato’s Closet stand out is they cater primarily to teens ranging from middle school to college age. Unlike other thrift shops, Plato’s Closet likes to keep up with trends young people find appealing. Gabby Cushman, general manager, pointed out, “The workforce is all teens to mid 20’s which helps Plato’s Closet Ann Arbor stay in touch with our young clientele by creating a hip and welcoming vibe." The ShareHouse 5161 Jackson Rd, Ann Arbor. Open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. the rest of the week, closed on Sunday. Located on bus route 30, The ShareHouse is a non-profit that serves the income-insecure population by offering massively discounted sales and a free shopping program around Christmas time. The store has the feel of a small-town antique store. Built from what may have been a livestock facility, there are ramps up and down to various sections throughout which make shopping adventurous. The clothing is limited proportionately to the rest of the things, while Americana knickknacks dominate the wares. The coolest thing about the place, though, is the shop cats, Jasper and Gypsy. Good luck telling them apart. Also, the largest collection of kneeboards I’ve ever seen. noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday and 10 a.m.-9 p.m. the rest of the week. Located on bus route 43, Value World is a family-owned store with 13 locations and has been in business for 68 years. Although they do not have a voucher system, their daily tag color discount system, 99-cent section and loyalty points program keeps prices accessible for the income-insecure. Value World prides itself on two things: doing business with non-profits and saving material from landfills. VW boasts that it buys all of its inventory from non-profits and municipal programs. “Ethical fashion” is how they frame their sustainability-consciousness, citing the fashion industry as the biggest contributor to landfills and pollution. The most remarkable thing I noticed about Value World is that, proportionally, they are only rivaled by the Salvation Army in the amount of clothing available. With the square footage of a Dollar Tree, the non-clothing items are pushed to the perimeter to make way for a massive clothing store. I estimate the clothing to non-clothing ratio for most places to be 60/40 whereas VW is closer to 90/10. But don’t get me wrong, they still have cool non-clothing things like iron skillets and adult coloring books. MAY 30, 2025 baby/toddler sized clothes and linens such as towels and blankets — and volunteers. 2. Wednesday Summer Sales are in effect! This means you can find men’s and women’s summer apparel for 50% off on Wednesdays! There are a few other sources of free or low-cost clothing to mention: Emmanuel Lutheran Church on River Street in Ypsilanti has a free clothing distribution on Wednesdays where you can get a shopping bag of clothes once a month. Dress For Success located on McCauley Ave in Ypsilanti. Their mission “is to empower women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.” Hospitality House Ypsi on N. Washington St. has a free store for browsing Thursdays 4-7 p.m. and Sundays 12-3 p.m. There is also Nu2u on Carpenter Rd in Ypsilanti. In Ann Arbor there are St. Vincent De Paul on Broadway, the Second Baptist Church on Red Oak, the Habitat Restore on April St. Finally, once a month at Growing Hope, 16 S Washington, there is a massive, community-organized free clothing swap. Come with clothes to trade or simply pick up some free clothes. If you want to know when the next swap is happening, email me at baldr4077@ gmail.com. Salvation Army 1621 State St. Ann Arbor. Open 9 a.m.-9 p.m. daily, closed on Sunday “Above all, Love,” 1st Peter 4:8 is the foundation of the service of the Salvation Army. Located on bus route 62, The Salvation Army rivals Value World in terms of clothing to non-clothing ratio of items and Kiwanis International in terms of popularity. Since 1865, The Salvation Army has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to help with eviction prevention, addiction issues, income insecurity, disaster relief and homelessness. The expansive store is an Ann Arbor icon. The warehouse-like store is filled with aisles of clothing and linens. There is a substantial non-clothing section including lots of linens, appliances, housewares and more. The store offers a voucher program that can be obtained through a social worker, or The Thrift Depot 19 E Cross St, Ypsilanti. Open 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. on Wednesday and 12-7 p.m. on Tuesday and Friday. Located on route 42 in the dreamy Depot Town area of Ypsilanti, this is a great spot for second hand aficionados as it borders an antique shop and a vintage clothing store! Once upon a time, they had vouchers. Due to the limited size, though, they had to stop. However, they have a mini food pantry, hygiene products, diapers and donation-matching. They describe themselves as “a small store doing the right things. We do what we can to support our disadvantaged neighbors.” I tend to agree. Ypsilanti Thrift Shop 14 S Washington St, Ypsilanti. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, and 1-4 p.m. on Monday and Friday weekly. Closed on Sunday. Located two blocks from the Ypsilanti Transit Center, the Ypsilanti Thrift Shop is part of a vibrant downtown community and street culture. Run entirely by volunteers, YTS has been in operation since 1942 and has donated more than $340,000 to local social service agencies. They have a voucher program and even refer you to the Hope Clinic where you can find a caseworker. Two important things to note: 1. They are currently short on exp. 06/31/2025 MAY 30, 2025 ART INTEL local hit group. It was such a good time back then, fond memories.” As he got older, different music GROUNDCOVER NEWS Undercover art intel: Music as art, the sounds of heavy metal Ann Arbor townie Ponyboy Kurtus Michael Damon grew up with dreams of becoming a heavy metal rock star. One truth is, he can sing with such soul. Watching him on video blew me away because he sings from the heart and from his memory. I used to sing in the choir in my dad’s church and singing from memory is hard. Without sheet music, it is next to impossible without the right training. People always say music is simple, but I always say no, it's not. The tempo must be right and so must the pitch. Without a real understanding of music, you may fail. Kurtus is truly one of the most upbeat individuals I've met in a long time. He takes the time to put you first. He told me that, as a child growing up, he would love to climb all over his family's home, going into cupboards to play hide and seek. He told me he did parkour before parkour became a thing. “I was an ADHD kid; my body went before my mind. I would jump off the refrigerator for fun. Nothing would stop me from getting into stuff and being all over the place. My mom bucked the doctors and teachers about my antics. She told them no one was going to put me on any kind of drugs to control me.” Kurtus’s mom put her foot down, refusing to put any of her kids on any drugs, because Kurtus is who he is. Kurtus told me, “My mom told me you're an amazing singer, you're going  IMPACT from page 2 reasons. First of all it employs people who are experiencing pitfalls that life can throw at you whether it's experiencing homelessness, going through substance abuse, having a record or just getting out of jail and looking for work, working to make ends meet or supplement your income or just wanting to be a part of something positive. — Joe Woods, Groundcover News Vendor, board member 2014 - 2022 Groundcover News stays a strong advocate of the community by reaching out and encouraging everyone to participate in the overall process. As each contribution enhances the learning activity, a community becomes richer in thought for it. — Glenn Gates, Groundcover News volunteer, board member CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 to be a rock star, just keep singing.” So that’s what Kurtus did. She helped him with the piano by sending him off to his grandmother’s to take music lessons, which led to more voice lessons. She taught him classical music and how to read sheet music, as well. “When I was very young, at the age of eight, me and my church did a Christian concert where I sang at the Schoolcraft College Auditorium,” said Kurtus. “I was so impressed with the huge size. This helped me see possibilities. I was the only child tenor. Singing there gave me more determination to sing to the public. And to follow my dreams.” Kurtus’s family supported his music ambitions by helping him create fun bands. As a kid, his first band was called “Kurtie and the Jammers;” classmates who had skills with drums and guitar would join in. When other kids played hide and seek or tag, he was in the back basement with his buddies forming a band. “We had two guitar players and a drummer. My kid sister was the go-go dancer. All the local neighbor kids loved watching us and drinking pop and eating popcorn. We became the Groundcover News is an essential and growing low-barrier entrepreneurial opportunity designed for individuals coping with the effects of poverty (usually long term) who are interested in making money. One of the things I love most about Groundcover is that it provides opportunity without strings attached. It also welcomes ALL who demonstrate interest and willingness to try selling local print newspapers to individuals, person to person. There is nothing else like Groundcover. It provides both opportunity AND a public service in the form of valuable local print journalism. Another thing I love about Groundcover is that you can see its impact on the individuals who have been with the program long term. They are dedicated salespeople and writers who are interested in being engaged with the community and lifting up others, regardless of where they start. I am so proud to be a board member with Groundcover News and I look forward to celebrating 15 years of Groundcover News serving Washtenaw County!! — Anna Gersh, PhD., Administrative Director A2 JAZZ FEST, Interim Director Creative Washtenaw, Groundcover News Board President. shaped his style. “Growing up, I listened to popular singers like Elvis Presley and Chicago, but as I heard more, I fell in love with Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Ted Nugent, ZZ Top, Iggy and the Stooges. The list could go on.” In his early teen years, small gigs would come up for cash, like Friday or Saturday nights at the local church. They also did small competitions with other kids and the best band would win the night, getting a small portion of the money for the events. “By then, I was around 14 or 15. We had little groupies who loved to follow us from school to school. And it was at this time we started to sing for different events, like parties. Backyard gigs and dances around Washtenaw County. I got hardcore into the band to make it more professional.” The band was called The Heat, but the band changed the name to CrossFire. The Heat made an album starting with six songs; it was a four track that became an eight track. “We were on top of the world. Growing and now traveling around the state to bigger and bigger events and competitions. At full strength, it was a year of being the best and I felt, at 16 to 17, that we had arrived. We played just about every weekend.” Kurtus would DJ between gigs and singing events. He built up a strong reputation in his smooth performance. As a talented DJ, he traveled around the nation singing and deejaying, 11 getting many jobs in well known establishments. Kurtus told me he would get gigs that pay well for some time in different places like New Orleans and Las Vegas. Kurtus returned to playing his own music when he joined two bands, Static Overdrive and Chrome Mollie, between 2008 and 2010. For so many artists the COVID-19 pandemic was the life-changing event that had tragic consequences for people’s lives. Performers and bands like Kurtus’s relied on performance events like plays and concerts that abruptly just stopped. So many artists lost opportunities and jobs. “And now I want to get back on that stage and sing and put my name in the lights,” Kurtus said. “Music is in my blood. I want to do one big song that puts me on the billboards, a real dream.” Many people now have disabilities — often ones that don't show. These silent disabilities can profoundly affect people in negative ways. Kurtus has ADHD but for him this "issue" became a powerful, positive thing, giving him more energy when performing and pushing him when most people would stop and slow down. Kurtus pushed through and kept the energy going all the way to the end of the performance — a true inspiration to the world to never give up, never give in. He goes beyond expectation and chooses to not live in disability but let it all go. We can all take a page from Kurtus — rising above is the only way to go!

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Protein-packed garbanzo bean stir-fry BRANDON BAY U-M student contributor Ingredients: 1 can garbanzo beans (or 1 cup cooked from dry) 1 carrot, thinly sliced 1 small onion, chopped 1 bell pepper, sliced 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp olive oil Optional: pinch of red pepper flakes, sesame seeds, chopped cilantro Directions: Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, cook until soft. Toss in carrots and bell pepper, cook for 5 minutes. Add garbanzo beans and soy sauce. Stir-fry for another 5–7 minutes. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes, sesame seeds or cilantro if using. Serve with rice. Double the batch and use leftovers in wraps or salads. MAY 30, 2025 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 6/26/2025

2 $ MAY 16, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 11 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. From prison to purpose: Adam Grant's journey. page 8 MEET YOUR VENDOR: MARIUS JOHNSON PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Ypsilanti Food Co-op celebrates 50 years serving the community. page 6 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER Groundcover acrostic poem winner Getting by is not good enough, Respecting ones who’ve got it rough Offers hope and dignity, Understanding, not pity. Not a charity, but a right — Damn right — a safe place at night, Compassion and support by day, Opportunity for work and pay. Veterans of the streets, may Each of you be returned, Renewed, to the rightful place you’ve earned. By Laszlo Slomovitz PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Pedro Campos Jim Clark Amanda Gale Jonathan Glass Mike Jones Didem Kochan Ken Parks Denise Shearer Steven Shawn Swoffer PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Zachary Dortzbach Steve Ross Anabel Sicko Allison Wei VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Yumna Dagher Luiza Duarte Caetano Regina Duerst Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Bella Martinez Robert Klingler Ari Ruczynski Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Melanie Wenzel CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons MAY 16, 2025 MAY 16, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Revolutionary love Spring has sprung and spring is the time of rebirth. Revolutionary love is born again. I recently clicked on the FaceMarius Johnson, vendor No. 672 In one sentence, who are you? Marius Johnson. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? Main Street and State Street. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? I started about six weeks ago and my friend suggested I try it out. What is one place in Ann Arbor that feels like your own personal sanctuary? The Northside of Ann Arbor. What’s your life motto? Do it big or don’t do it at all. What advice would you give to your younger self? Don’t get distracted. What is your comfort food? Italian and Chinese. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring 3 things, what would they be? Water, shelter, food. If there was a theme song for your life, what would it be? "Under Ground Kings" by Drake If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? Space. What is the weirdest food combo you swear by? Fries and milkshakes. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? More of people trying to help each other. book prompt, “What’s On Your Mind?” I posted, “Revolutionary love, let’s get in compliance with the heart of reality.” I chose the pretty symbol for the word heart. I tagged 50 people and so far got a few responses. The word compliance has a psychic burden. Maybe revolutionary love is not in compliance with the cultural framework that confuses love with romance and revolution with the past. On the other hand, advertising turns those two words into separate commodities. In the 60s and 70s many of us signed our writing Love/Struggle. Valerie Kaur has some TED talks on Revolutionary Love. Her children’s book “World of Wonder” is coming soon. She is on my list for continuing education. When her tour bus was at the Ann Arbor library, the public hall on the main floor was packed. The energy was clearlight radiant. I walked in as the program was beginning. I found a seat in the front row. I could hear Valerie Kaur tell the story of the Sikh tradition and the evolution of revolutionary love! Of course I gifted her a Groundcover News. We are at a tipping point for a more complete understanding of what it means to be a human being. The struggle for genuine freedom is entering a new phase. As Antonio Gramsci said, “We are in a time of monsters.” We will rise to the challenge when we are ready for the heart of reality. Appearances are holy in supremacism that is marching naked in the street. It does not care if it loses as long as it takes everything down with it. This nihilism and cynicism finds a home in many broken hearts. The cure is to heal ourselves KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 their impermanence but will break your heart if you attach to them. Obsessive compulsive disorders will be healed and control freaks will dissolve into the vast expanse of sunyata (the Buddhist concept of “emptiness”). Jack Kruse, neurosurgeon, quantum biologist and polymath, shows us that reality is not centralized and all our schemes to be masters of the machine blow back, with unintended consequences that destroy the beauty of natural law. Natural law is often invoked by bourgeois intellectuals as if it supports only their assumptions. Many of us learned to spell "assume" and then its perils: It makes an ASS of U and ME. Compliance often refers to the chain of command bureaucratic social/political/economic order. Rules are important and work best when there is consensus for their intention and the subsequent exceptions to the rule. When rules appear as an order from the chain of command, we will find increasing dysfunction. Challenging the status quo becomes even more important as the tide of chaos rises. Authoritarian thinking is based on a using the faith that we sing and pray about. A teacher is near. There are countless spiritual friends who help you grow your faith in the sacred nature that is dormant in so many hearts. Open your eyes and explore whatever appears. Discriminating awareness is a better approach than fixating compulsively on anything. I have written about natural breath many times and have to admit I am still a beginner. Khenpo Choephel at the Karuna Buddhist Center has pointed the way towards the next step on the stages of the path to liberation. The discipline to start the day with a focus that benefits self and others is a breakthrough of revolutionary love. Compassion and loving-kindness will become a habit as we mature. The Karuna Buddhist Center has upcoming events for Shayamuni Buddha and his expression of revolutionary love. DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN is an important slogan for the working class. The struggle to realize the seamless nature of body, speech and mind and experience the interrelatedness of everything is the freedom that both politics and religion refer to. I believe we can do this. Groundcover will help you discover Revolutionary Love. It’s beyond sexy! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 The new Snow White movie Me and my boyfriend, Richard, went to see Snow White — the new, live-action version — and it was a great movie. The movie was so beautiful. The story was just like the original animated “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” but it was better because it had all races and colors of people in it. The movie seemed more real. It had very pretty colors and animals and beautiful nature and fruits and vegetables in it. I like the seven dwarfs, too. They were funny and they helped Snow White and her friends a lot. The movie was about people working together in friendships cooking and they enjoyed each other’s company. It shows how there can be love and happiness even when a person of power is evil and in control. “Snow White” is a great story DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 about caring and being loyal to your friends no matter what; it shows that love overpowers evil. and family. It was about a community of people working together and caring about each other even though there was an evil queen in power. They had fun together

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY People in the neighborhood: Robinn This is Robinn’s story. Robinn was born in Detroit in 1990 and now resides in Ypsilanti. She did not say much about her upbringing or young adulthood except that she was sent to prison early on. In 11th grade, Robinn committed armed robbery and fled. She was found two years later, attempting to live a normal life, and spent the next two years in prison. Robinn: I did go back for my GED through a program they had and then I went to college at Wayne Community College. Then I was homeless again, and then I went to Washtenaw Community College. Jim: What did you study? Robinn: Social Work. Jim: What would you need to continue? Robinn: I was told that to go further, I would have to see a judge because of the felony. That’s what’s keeping me from going back to college; I got sent to prison for some things I did in my past. That and being homeless makes it hard. Jim: What’s keeping you homeless? Robinn: Really just trying to climb out of it you know. Between jobs and trying to keep myself stable, climbing out of that gets kind of hard. And then I get depressed so then it becomes a lack of me being responsible, you know, so after a while I just kind of give up. Jim: People who have never been homeless or housing-insecure seem to think people who are homeless because of substance abuse choose to do it, even though it’s ruining their life. What’s your take on this? Robinn: To be quite frank, most people out there don’t give a fuck anymore about what people think about their drinking and smoking cause they’re going to do what they’re going to do for right now and when they’re ready they’ll stop. I have those days myself where it's like “I’m gonna drink and that’s just that.” Not smart. We do have a choice. But here’s the of Groundcover News. Jim: What’s it like working while being unsheltered? Robinn: It’s hard when you’re sleepJIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 thing — when you’re out there, you can hope to get off the street, but the task is so daunting, it becomes easy to escape in a bottle. You may sweat having to pay your car insurance and phone bill in the same week, but when you don’t know where you’re going to sleep, or if it’s going to be safe, where you’re getting your food from, and feeling like no one gives a shit about you, the numbness of being high or drunk is very appealing. However, whether people know it or not, we talk about quitting. We actually help a lot of our friends, when we see them getting too incapacitated we take the drink and say to them “save it ‘til tomorrow, you’re not getting anymore.” Jim: What would you need now to get shelter and support? Robinn: I know Pathways and other community outreach programs around here have been helping me get back on track. And so just by me staying in contact with them and handling my part as far as making sure I get a job. Which I did; I start working for Pastor Anna tomorrow. Robinn is in a niche known as “the working homeless.”* She is referring to the FedUp food truck ministry run by Pastor Anna Taylor-McCants. FedUp serves free meals to the street community in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. Robinn works on the food truck. Learn more in "Warning: Homeless People at Work” in the January 24, 2025 edition ing outside. You wake up in the morning and are around people in the community, they kind of irritate you, you know. I mean, you try to give them a sandwich even though they tried to fight you yesterday. People living without reliable housing often congregate in public places. Having no other recourse, they go to the same community meals, bus stations, libraries and street corners. Being around the same people, struggling, day in and day out, can be draining. Robinn was one of many that spent time at the site of the downtown Ypsilanti farmer’s market (Growing Hope — 16 S. Washington). The summers of 2023 and 2024 saw a series of skirmishes between the city, the police, the unsheltered residents of the street and FedUp Ministries. I invited Robinn to talk about her experience. Robinn: Those were two of the hardest summers of my life. But it showed me that the homeless community will come together within ourselves and help each other get through it. We kept each other safe. It was a lot, there were situations I had to fight to save my life. Especially being a gay woman, it can be hard. People try to take advantage of you. Jim: If someone wanted to give you a free ride to college but wanted you to say why you deserve it, what would you say? Robinn: If we provide people with opportunities to heal and grow, that will improve our community’s economy. Instead of people walking around asking for money, they will spend money. If the citizens of Ypsilanti want a vibrant downtown community then Robinn wants to save the world and build better communities. they need to start funding people’s education, and provide them with programs to teach trade skills and then offer them jobs. Then they could pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Because to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you first need boots. Why do I deserve it? Because why not? I deserve it because I’m a human being. A good human being. If college helps a person further themselves in life, why can you not get it for free? It’s going to pay for itself. Eventually we will pay it back, in a sense. We’re going to spend money in the community. It’s going to come back, I mean isn’t that the whole idea? I could be the one trying to change the world and help build better communities. I’ve had so many experiences in my life personally and I can use it to bring to the people you can’t reach otherwise. Me learning social work for my community is going to help me as well. It would be a great success story and then more success stories would come from that. Groundcover acrostic honorable mentions Growing community one paper at a time Reading about the lives of avoided people Once known can never be unknown Uplifting our spirit Neighbors found and valued Discovering our lives in others Coming to know our connections Opening our hearts to each other Voice we learn to hear Enjoying the moment to interact Recovering the common ground we had lost. By Louise Gorenflo Growing Reaching Owning our past Using it to Name our nemeses Doing what it takes to Convert pain to gain Opening hands and hearts Valuing each other Every day Renewed and renewing By Susan Beckett God Reigns Our Umbrella New Day Creates Others Venues Everyone Rejoice By Tarya Simo MAY 16, 2025 MAY 16, 2025 ANN ARBOR Meet Joe Giant: Ann Arbor's new Economic Development Director March 17 was Joe Giant’s first day as Economic Development Director. Giant is the first person to hold this position in the City of Ann Arbor. Briefly describe your role as Economic Development Director. This is a new position for Ann Arbor, though similar roles exist in most other municipalities. The department works with businesses, residents and community stakeholders to pursue projects, programs and policies that support the City’s vision for sustainable growth. This can include anything from helping a new business navigate the permitting process, to negotiating major redevelopment projects, to collaborating with community partners on plans for evolving corridors and neighborhoods. What are your goals, aspirations for this position? My goal is to help implement the community’s shared vision for high-quality, sustainable and inclusive economic development. That might sound broad, but it’s grounded in real direction, particularly in the draft Comprehensive Plan, which is our community’s overall long-term vision for growth and development, and it reflects deep public engagement and consensus on how Ann Arbor should grow. In practice, that means supporting housing development at all income levels, growing the tax base through smart, well-designed projects, improving the City’s internal processes to make it easier to move good ideas forward, and helping connect businesses with the tools and resources they need to thrive. What excites you most about doing this work in Ann Arbor, Michigan? This position brings together my passions for planning, placemaking and development, making it a perfect fit — especially in a city I’ve long admired. As an urban planner, I often heard Ann Arbor held up as a model of innovation and creativity. When I moved back to my hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana, nearly a decade ago, I made a point to visit Ann Arbor — and I kept coming back. The city’s energy, its vibrant public spaces, and its strong sense of place really stuck with me. Eventually, I joked that I needed to stop visiting before I just packed up and moved here. And now, I’m thrilled to be raising my family in a community with such great schools, parks and LINDSAY CALKA Publisher neighborhoods. Economic growth more times than not means economic growth for the few, at the expense of the many. How will you champion economic development for all, particularly poor and working class people? I believe it’s essential to remember that Ann Arbor is a city, not an amenity for students or a ritzy suburb. Cities are complex systems that need balance in order to thrive. That means being inclusive, not exclusive. If someone wants to live in a city, they should be able to. When that’s possible, everyone benefits: people feel a greater sense of pride, belonging, and investment in their community. But when teachers, firefighters, caregivers, and other essential workers can’t afford to live here, or when promising businesses are priced out before they can grow, or when creatives and young professionals leave for more affordable places, we all lose something vital. We lose the diversity, dynamism and vibrancy that make cities truly special. As this office evolves, I’ll be focused on several key strategies. First, expanding the supply of housing at all income levels to help stabilize costs. Second, removing barriers that prevent new businesses from opening or scaling. And third, ensuring City government is accessible, efficient, and solutions-oriented— so that it becomes a partner in progress, not a barrier to it. Fortunately, I’ve already had the chance to meet with many people who are doing important work in these areas. By building on their efforts and addressing the challenges only local government is positioned to solve, we can work toward a more inclusive, resilient and high-performing economy. What are your thoughts on guaranteed income programs? I’m aware of these programs, but I haven’t yet had the opportunity to study them in enough detail to comment meaningfully. I look forward to learning more. How do you envision Ann Arbor protecting and supporting gig workers in our local economy? I spent nearly eight years after college as a gig worker myself, so I remember well how uncertain and exposed that work can feel. The term has broadened over time to cover many types of independent and flexible work, but the vulnerabilities remain. For my office to be effective, we need to respond to evolving economic realities, including changes in how people work. That means staying in close contact with the private sector and keeping an open feedback loop with businesses and workers alike. While some challenges facing gig workers — like healthcare access — are beyond the City’s control, we still have an important role to play. Gig workers contribute tremendously to the local economy and quality of life, yet they’re often disconnected from traditional support networks and may lack a unified voice. Recognizing their importance and making space for their needs in local policy and economic planning is essential to a truly inclusive economy. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out Unusual Stuff to Borrow There’s more to borrow at AADL than books, music, and movies. To name a few, there are games, telescopes, stories-to-go kits, and home tools. Check out these unusual yet handy items during your next library visit. Michigan Activity Pass With a valid library card from any Michigan public library, you can print a pass to participating organizations, including museums and state parks, through the Michigan Activity Pass website. Some partners offer complimentary or reducedprice admission; others, gift shop discounts and exclusive offers. FEATURED EVENT 5 6/30/2025 Wednesday, June 4 • 11am–4pm Downtown Library The 2025 VISIONS Vendor Fair features a variety of exhibitors demonstrating the latest products and services for the blind, visually impaired, and physically disabled, along with presentations on topics related to vision health, services, and assistive technology. Check out aadl.org/visions for more!

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS YPSILANTI MAY 16, 2025 Ypsilanti Food Co-op celebrates 50 years serving the community There is an old saying, you are what you eat. In other words, if you choose to eat healthy, more than likely you will be a healthier person. Since April 11, 1975, the Ypsilanti Food Co-op has been providing the community with fresh organic food and ingredients, leading to a healthy community. We who live in Washtenaw County are fortunate to have a variety of establishments to go to and purchase healthy food products in order to sustain life. And we who live in Ypsilanti are especially lucky to have the Ypsilanti Food Co-op. The thirteen hundred members and people who work and shop at Ypsilanti Food Co-op are mindful of a healthy community through the means of local food products and ingredients. I got a chance to sit and talk with Corinne Sikorski, the general manager of the Ypsi Food Co-op. She moved to Ypsilanti from Rochester Hills to attend Eastern Michigan University in 1974, and began volunteering and working at the Ypsilanti Food Co-op in 1975. She explained why she got into the food co-op business. In the 1970s there were few healthy food options. She was a vegetarian at MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 the time and interested in healthy eating. Food like that was not available in the dorms. She would eat salads and yogurt. She explained that the yogurt was really bad back then because it had gelatin and sugar in it. So, she went looking for other food options and she learned about the Ypsilanti Food Co-op. Shortly after, Corinne started volunteering at the food co-op. Every Sunday she would volunteer as a cashier because back then they had no paid staff; everybody volunteered and pooled their resources to make things work. According to Google, a cooperative (or co-op) is a business owned and controlled by its members, who collectively benefit from its services and profits. These businesses are democratically managed, with each member Corinne Sikorski, general manager of the Ypsilanti Food Co-op, started as a volunteer in 1975. having a vote in electing the board of directors. Cooperatives aim to meet the common economic, social and cultural needs of their members. Corinne told me how the people before her would work together to get healthy food for numerous years before opening a store. People would put in their orders and leave their money in a trash can chained to a pole outside someone's house. They would travel to Ann Arbor and the Eastern Market in Detroit to get food like cider, cheese and produce that were not readily available at that time in local grocery stores in the Ypsilanti area. These young, health-conscious entrepreneurs finally opened their own food co-op that had bulk food. It was located by the Ypsilanti water tower at 955 Sheridan. In February 1984, the Ypsilanti Food Co-op found a new home at 312 North River Street in Depot Town. This location is where this community based cooperative would make its mark in the Ypsilanti area by providing a variety of food choices like organic produce in Ypsi’s most cherished space. It is also Michigan’s only solar powered grocery store! According to Google, organic, in the JUNE 1–7, 2025 A2ZERO WEEK A week-long celebration of climate action and community with family-friendly events, prizes, resources, food, & more! context of food, means a product that is grown or raised using natural substances and practices, with a focus on soil health, biodiversity and ecological balance. Specifically, it involves avoiding synthetic pesticides and fertilizers for produce, and for animal products it means avoiding the use of growth hormones and antibiotics. Corinne went on to explain that in the 70s, food stores like Kroger, Farmers Jacks and Meijer didn’t have many fresh vegetables, they only carried canned or frozen vegetables. The only time one could get fresh vegetables was in the summertime at local farmers markets. One also couldn't buy brown rice in regular grocery stores, only in nutrition supplement stores; but now you can find these items in all grocery stores nationwide. I asked Corinne if the healthy organic See the full schedule at osi.a2gov.org/a2zeroweek food option took off quickly back in the 70s. She answered that it didn't because people were not that knowledgeable about organic food, and people looked at us as crazy hippie kids that didn’t know what they were talking about. Plus, there were no Whole Foods stores or Trader Joe’s at the time; these stores would ultimately popularize organic food products. see CO-OP page 11  MAY 16, 2025 IN REVIEW GROUNDCOVER NEWS A world of sharp angles and sharper opinions Book review: Flatland — A Romance of Many Dimensions geometric regularity. Triangles form the laboring class, with their sharp angles signifying their low status. Squares and Pentagons enjoy middle-class respectability, while the ruling elite consists of multi-sided Polygons who, through generations of refinement, gradually evolve into Circles, the highest class, divine beings of Flatland, the priests. This strict classification is upheld with absolute rigidity. Any deviation from ‘perfection’ of regularity, any irregularity in angles, is seen not as an individual characteristic but as a dangerous anomaly. Such individuals are not merely excluded, they are eradicated. Order must be preserved at all costs. Women in Flatland are paradoxically DIDEM KOCHAN Groundcover contributor Step right up and enter Flatland, a world where you do not need an elevator! Imagine living in a place where up and down do not exist, where all the inhabitants are geometric figures, your social status is determined by the number of sides you have, and where women are, well … sharp and dangerous. This bizarre, two-dimensional world was brought to life in Flatland, a novel by Edwin A. Abbott — and it is much more than a geometry lesson. At first glance, the book seems like a whimsical mathematical fairy tale, but soon you realize it is also a satire, a social commentary, and a mind-blowing exploration of what lies beyond the limits. It is a book that makes you laugh at its absurdities until you realize it is holding up a mirror to your own world and challenges your understanding of what is real. To fully appreciate Flatland, we must understand that the author lived in Britain during the Victorian era. It is a period where industrialization reshaped British society, but the class separations not only remained but deepened. This was an era of progress and inequality, reflected in events such as the Titanic disaster. Meanwhile, mathematics was undergoing its own revolution. The field of non-Euclidean geometry was gaining interest among mathematicians, challenging traditional approaches, just like Flatland does. The protagonist and narrator of this story is A. Square, an inhabitant of the two-dimensional world of Flatland. In Flatland, social hierarchy is not built upon wealth, wisdom or virtue but on both feared and ignored. As razor-thin straight lines, they are seen as physically dangerous yet intellectually inferior, too emotional and unfit for education. Their exclusion from intellectual life is not a matter of oversight but of deliberate design. Women cannot reason, learn and worst of all, they cannot evolve. Men in Flatland, on the other hand, are the rational ones, the philosophers. Male figures can pass on their sides to future generations, increasing their status over time, while women remain as single lines, never progressing in shape or standing. The Color Revolt, a brief but significant episode in Flatland’s history, underscores the anxieties of its society. When color was introduced, it initially promised individuality and progress, but its dangers soon became apparent. The issue arose when women could manipulate their appearance by shading their sharp edges, allowing them to imitate the esteemed Circles. This was intolerable, not just a threat to the ruling class, but a dangerous hint that women, given the chance, might get an education, learn politics or even seize power. In response, the ruling class quickly declared color to be a dangerous threat to social order and banned this brief experiment in individual expression. The world returned to its proper, boring and obedient state. After introducing us to Flatland and its social organization, our narrator, A. Square, shares his own journey of discovery. As a middle-class resident in Flatland, he considers himself a rational and enlightened thinker. When he visits Lineland, a one-dimensional world where inhabitants can only perceive forward and backward, he attempts to explain the wonders of two-dimensional existence. The poor Linelanders are incapable of comprehending his words. With no concept of left or right how could they possibly understand a second dimension? Their existence is so deeply limited to their singular way of perceiving reality that any alternative is considered as insanity. Our A. Square, observing their ignorance, views himself as superior to Linelanders. But here is a twist – he soon finds himself in an analogous situation when his grandson dares to suggest the possibility of a third dimension. Just as the Linelanders rejected his ideas, he rejects his grandson’s. They have forward and backward, left and right, but how about up and down? There is no evidence of such a thing, so it cannot exist. However, this belief has to change when our A. Square encounters a character from Spaceland, a three-dimensional realm. The Sphere attempts to reveal the existence of a higher dimension. At first, A. Square is in complete denial. His perception is limited to the two-dimensional plane, and he cannot conceive of a reality beyond it. But when the Sphere lifts him out of Flatland, he experiences a revelation. For the first time, he sees his world from above and perceives it in a way that was previously unimaginable. He now understands what he once thought impossible: the third dimension is real! Just when he is ready to embrace the idea of the third dimension, he makes a critical mistake and asks, “Could there be a fourth dimension?” Well, that is a big no. The Sphere, despite being regarded as superior in the Square’s eyes, reacts with the same dismissal that our Square once exhibited toward his grandson. The cycle repeats itself. Even the Sphere, supposedly enlightened, balks at the next step. Even those who consider themselves enlightened often fail to see beyond their own limitations. This realization shakes our Square to his core; now that he has tasted the truth, he cannot go back to being ignorant. He realizes how small Flatland really is, how much more there is to the universe that he once assumed was impossible. He begins to reflect on the nature of existence, the limits of their knowledge, and the possibility that reality is far greater than what is immediately perceivable. In the words of the Monarch of Spaceland, “the joy of thought, the joy of being.” What a revelation! Abbott’s novel, despite being written in 1884, feels as relevant today as ever. It is about us, about how our society resists change, how those in power cling to their authority and how new ideas are often neglected until they become undeniable. This book is not just a mathematical curiosity or a social critique, it is an intellectual adventure. In this adventure, we find an invitation to explore, to question, and to embrace the unknown. Much like episodes of TV show Black Mirror, Flatland forces us to expand our limits. It reminds us that the greatest barriers to understanding are often the ones we create for ourselves. As we turn the final pages, we are left with a challenge: just as the Flatlanders could not see beyond their two-dimensional existence, could we, trapped in three-dimensions, be blind to a reality beyond our comprehension? So, whether you love mathematics or philosophy or simply enjoy imaginative storytelling, dare to enter Flatland. Let your mind stretch beyond its familiar edges. You might just discover new dimensions, both in the book and within yourself. 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS RECOVERY From prison to purpose: Adam Grant's journey JONATHAN GLASS Home of New Vision “I don’t believe in exceptionalism,” said Adam Grant. “It’s a lot of hard work that gets the job done — and anyone can do it.” Today, Adam Grant serves as executive director of A Brighter Way, an Ypsilanti-based nonprofit helping people re-enter society after incarceration. His message is simple but powerful: anyone can change, given support and opportunity. A life transformed When Grant committed his first robbery at age 12, it wasn’t about money — it was about survival, identity and the limited options he saw in front of him. “I accepted that I didn’t have the opportunities that others were lucky to have, so I took the reins,” he said. His mother was just 15 when he was born, and though they have a strong relationship now, his childhood was filled with uncertainty. “I lovingly tell her she was the best big sister anyone could ever ask for.” Grant would go on to serve a 27 to 50-year sentence for robbery. But prison, while brutal, became the unlikely backdrop for transformation. “It wasn’t like goodness was rewarded,” he said, “but the resistance made me more determined.” Ten years into his sentence, Grant began to shift gears. “I realized I had nothing to lose by pursuing an honest life.” He became a peer leader, cell block representative, and advocate. He also joined Indian Nations United and the NAACP chapter behind bars. It was there that he discovered the power of his own voice. “I started to realize that if I really meant what I said, I could make good connections with people.” Grant’s turning point came in stages — quitting drinking in 1997 after a correctional officer discovered he was making prison hooch, and quitting drugs in 2003 after smoking a joint and realizing he no longer liked who he was. Then, one act of kindness changed everything. He befriended a fellow inmate whose life was in danger and, later, received a letter from a woman thanking him for helping her cousin. They began writing. Over time, their bond deepened. One year after Grant’s release in 2020, they were married. “She’s still my person,” he said with a smile. Reentry and leadership Prior to being released, Grant became a certified peer recovery coach. Released during the pandemic, Grant immediately put his recovery certification to work. He was hired as a peer recovery coach at Parkside Family Counseling in Adrian, then later at Home of New Vision in Jackson. That momentum led him to A Brighter Way, where he now leads a staff of eight — all of whom have lived experience with incarceration, totaling 144 years combined. The nonprofit focuses on individualized support for formerly incarcerated people trying to rebuild their lives. “Everybody’s reentry is different,” Grant said. “We meet people where they are.” With plans to expand into Ingham, Eaton, Clinton and Jackson counties, Grant envisions growing the staff to 25 over the next five years. “We’re expanding. The need is there.” Asked what advice he gives to those reentering society, Grant said, “The best time to begin planning your reentry is day one, but if you’ve been released, and don’t have a plan, give Brighter Way a call. We will help you come up with a plan. It might not be MAY 16, 2025 Adam Grant, director of A Brighter Way overnight, but if you put the work in, you’ll get a better quality of life.” His parting words? “Find your tribe. Do everything you can to be a productive member of your community. I’m a firm believer that nothing happens in this world without relationship.” That’s why A Brighter Way stands on the motto: “Reentry through Relationship.” Need support after incarceration? A Brighter Way is located 124 Pearl Street, Suite 304, Ypsilanti, MI 48197 734-905-7040, www.abrighterway.org MAY 16, 2025 PUZZLES 1 14 17 20 22 26 32 37 40 42 45 51 57 60 63 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. 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If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. 61 64 52 53 54 55 58 59 62 65 43 44 46 56 47 48 49 50 41 33 34 35 38 39 23 24 27 36 18 21 25 28 29 30 31 2 3 4 5 15 19 6 7 8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers 9 16 10 11 12 13 9 ACROSS 1. Fast-moving card game 5. Intensifies, with "up" 9. Deadly 14. One of the hyperbolic functions 15. "General Hospital," e.g. 16. Liturgical vestment 17. Technique for recording brain structure or activity 20. Ancient assembly area 21. Side effect for a stoner, with "the" 22. Reddish purple 25. "So ___ me!" 26. Sprites 28. Red ink amount 32. Limited, as hearing 36. Salk's conquest 37. Independent fertilization process used by some plants 40. Accustom 41. They're often mixed 42. Clash of heavyweights 43. Park place? 45. Dog holder 46. Snail or slug 51. Times for relaxation 56. Lid or lip application 57. Agency 60. Contents of a cabinet 61. "Pumping ___" 62. Above 63. Swelling 64. Golf rental 65. Penny DOWN 1. Cook, as clams 2. African blade akin to a machete 3. In disguise, slangily 4. When doubled, words of comfort 5. ___ Wednesday 6. Bygone bird 7. ___ Pilot 8. Partner 9. Madcap comedy 10. Asian nurse 11. Plains dwelling 12. Advil target 13. Meadows (Var.) 18. Wind instrument of one Greek god 19. Lions' prey 23. Novice (Brit.) 24. Figure skater's jump 27. Do-nothing 28. French novelist Pierre 29. Assortment 30. Noun suffix 31. Princes, e.g. 32. Egyptian fertility goddess 33. Children's ___ 34. Pudding fruit 35. Natural hairstyle 36. Kneecap 38. Mosque V.I.P. 39. Canceled 43. Expert 44. Low on iron 45. Anatomical sac 47. Light purple 48. Come together as one 49. Determined to do 50. Underground chamber 51. "___ finds a way": Dr. Ian Malcolm 52. "National Velvet" author Bagnold 53. Wight, for one 54. Part of a wineglass 55. "Que ___, ___" (Doris Day song) 58. Postal motto conjunction 59. Channel or explosive

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS TRAVELS WITH DREAMER Dreamer and I glanced at each other, "Well, hell yeah!" we said. If this seems sinister to you, you are STEVEN Groundcover vendor No. 668 Dreamer and I took the advice of the giggly judge and smart ass cop and we hitchhiked away from Panama City. I've not been back but I've since seen it on MTV for spring break shenanigans and it makes me wish I'd been arrested somewhere cooler. We got a ride almost right away. It was uncanny and set us up for disappointment later down the road. Hitchhiking is mostly hiking. Our first lift was our only creepy ride and while for sure creepy to us, it really wasn’t. I didn’t believe for a second we were in danger. He pulled over as soon as I asked. He was a guy shooting his shot with a couple young dudes, got shot down and was cool about it. As a couple of 90s kids with a constant barrage of anti-gay (especially with AIDS) upbringing, we were pretty cool about it, considering. Many young men (sigh) to this day aver how they would kick someone’s ass for coming on to them. Well, we didn't think like that, but being dumb kids, we wanted out and he let us out with no fuss. Still, we were a bit shaken so we just walked for quite a while. If you thought we'd learned any wariness from this cautionary tale … you'd be wrong. We were, I remind you, nineteen years old. As we were walking in the Florida heat, a beat-up blue work truck and an old (probably middle-aged) blond, hippy-looking dude asked if we needed a ride. We jumped in without hesitation. He made small talk as we rode a bit. "Where we headed?" "New Orleans." "Where you guys from?" "Michigan." Dreamer didn't say anything. I asked, "What do you do man?" "I'm a house painter." "Cool, cool." Like this, it progresses a bit then he hits us with the plan he came up with. You see, he was seeing if we were cool while we were trying to see if he was cool. Both parties seemed to land on yes. His plan was pretty straightforward. He had some shit to do so he would drop us off at this cool spot he knew at a nearby lake to wait for him for a little while, then he'd come scoop us up. We'd swing by his place and we'd wait in the truck while his ol' lady whipped us up some sandwiches, Then he'd take us a good clip down the road. Oh and here's a matchbox of "Jamaican" weed for while you wait. “Cool?” smarter than we were, but it wasn't sinister at all. The darkest moment in this whole thing was while we were sitting at this beautiful, scenic Florida lake spot checking out the crazy buds this guy had given us, thinking we had no way to smoke it. We're looking for pop cans (locally called soda or Coke) and whatnot. No dice. When we got to the spot it looked real nice, serene, shaded. He had given us what he called Jamaican buds. I still don't know what Jamaican weed looks like; I sure didn't then, but I can see it clearly in my mind's eye today. Stuffed in this matchbox were the stickiest, stinkiest, stankiest, dankest, greenest, purple haired, skunkiest, High Times article kind of buds I'd ever seen. As he drove off was when we realized we had no way to smoke this Cheech and Chong shit. Dejected, finding nothing to use to smoke, we sat at this fantastic little beach and sulked. Absently, knowing it wouldn't be there, but like when you're looking for something and you check the same places multiple times, I reached into my pocket and jumped up from the log ecstatically shouting at Dreamer and brandishing my brass and wood weed pipe. We did our little happy dances then went to Jamaica. It was a great afternoon, no alligators, and the guy made good. He came back around dusk and picked our high asses up with a smirk. The three of us swung by his place. We waited not very long til he jumped back into the truck with a paper bag he shoved at me and which I promptly stored away and off we went. The old hippy took us a good clip down the road and dropped us off where he thought might be a good place for us, then off he went with a "good luck" and a "I wish I could come" and a wave. We crushed those sandwiches before anything else and his ol' lady's sandwiches were the best I'd ever had (sorry Mom). We got a ride pretty quick from there and I learned no ride is better than any ride sometimes. The guy had said he was only going as far as X. We didn't know shit but were in the mindset to just get the ride so we were like "whatever man, cool." After he dropped us off we walked through the muggy Mississippi night seeing no cars for what seemed like hours. Dreamer and I ended up sleeping in a ditch for a while, got up while it was still dark and continued our trudge. We didn't feel like we were hikers now we felt like trudgers. We didn't see the adventure at this point. We felt like Hobbits in cursed swamps. This curse, we agreed with a look, culminated when a Sheriff pulled up and ordered us into the back of his car. We were young and so tired we didn't say anything, we just got in and rode in silence. An indeterminate time later he pulls over, orders us out and drives off. All he said to us was orders in and out. We stood bewildered and elated watching his taillights diminish in the black, swampy distance. Dreamer and I looked at each other under the light cast by the stars of the confederacy, shrugged, slung our bags and moved off. It was slow going; Dreamer's ankle was still jacked. He was a tough kid but he didn't have his crutches any more. It seems the police in Florida didn't think he needed them anymore I guess. Anyway they were gone. He insisted he was fine to carry his own kit so we walked on into the bayou's night. It gets a bit weird here. I'd never heard of what happened and I haven't heard of anything like it since. I've been called a liar to my face over this, more than once. It happened. We'd walked less than an hour when another Sheriff pulled up and ordered us into his cruiser. It was the same deal, everyone sitting in silence; he drove a good ways then kicked us out without a word other than get in get out. Weird, we thought, shrugged as he drove off then started trudging. It was the middle of the night at this point. This happens a third time! I'm beyond nonplussed and have to speak up. I ask politely, what the F is going on here? The Sheriff, obviously not feeling up for small talk but maybe realizing I might be the type to pester him on this sighed and said, "Nobody wants the headache of a truck fulla good ol’ boys finding you long hairs and disappearing your asses in them swamps, sure as spit." That was that. There were a couple more Sheriffs but they seemed to stop bothering when the sun came up. We were pretty close to New Orleans by then and got MAY 16, 2025 Travels with Dreamer part IV: Hitchhiker's guide to ... Florida a ride pretty quick with some guy. I don't remember the guy. Just kept to himself but I remember the ride. An amazing, magical heart-rending stretch of road I'll not forget if I Methuselah this world. I should remember him better, he was a good ride. Drove us a long ways without any hassle and dropped us right in Jackson Square, which was where we wanted to go but didn't know it. Here's the rub; approaching NOLA from the east is this crazy long, low (like on the water low) bridge, I think it may be famous for how long it is or something? I'm not sure, I'll just say, it's no Mackinac Bridge. It sits right flat on the water and goes on forever. We were crossing going west in the morning hours. The sun was up in all its southern glory at our backs so we could appreciate its light. Of course the calm still water was the lead tech for nature's light show, but as with the driver I barely remember it. What I do remember with sticking clarity are the butterflies. The mf-ing butterflies. Delicate little white butterflies flitting all around in the thousands, tens of thousands. They too caught the sun's light as they danced. In my head they were singing. The memory is slightly marred however because the dawn light wasn't the only thing these "poems made life" caught. They caught the front of this guy's truck as well, in multitudes. Don't think this guy’s truck was the only vehicle on the road either. It put a pallet on my reverie but also I think was good for my mindset as I careened into The Big Easy with no plan, no money, no connections, nowhere to go. This was New Orleans in the '90s. It was on the news not so much for its jazz and restaurant scenes but for its daily tally of murders. I'd have done well to remember that. I mean, I didn't, but I would have done well to. This wasn't Disneyland we were going to. - MAY 16, 2025 THINK ABOUT IT Dealing with intrusiveness We have much more information today about others than they may have about us. The information society promotes an expansion of information and knowledge-related values, and understanding this framework becomes a key element in many situations we face in our daily lives. This process is creating a public sphere where people can search for information as well as express their thinking and participate collaboratively in building theories, questioning their backgrounds, policies and decisions at the constitutional level. Even with efficient privacy rules, at some level we have less privacy today than we had before. The accumulation of available data and the evolution of statistical tools generate greater sociometric (statistics for social sciences) analyses with respect to citizenship, democracy, culture, education and income generation in the context of new information and communication technologies. We are heading toward a pervasive, privacy-intrusive future. When the intrusion is the same to anyone, that makes it fair and democratic. When everybody has equal and free access to of risks online and learn how to best protect themselves and their communities. Cases of privacy breach are lessons in technology and governance. People learn through mistakes. The media can play a huge role for the awareness of privacy issues. The Internet is now a ubiquitous (virPEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 all information, one looks after another's actions and together they play the watchdog function. Intrusiveness is the next privacy protection paradigm. There is no need for people to fear intrusiveness; the free flow of information is a good thing and this is what we shall protect. People must take care of their real and virtual actions because they are visible now to everyone. The best we can do is work constantly on our identity building projects (pluralistic perspective) because these icons become essentially who-where-what you are. New learning processes are needed and possible. The future looks bright. This is the moment for people to become aware tual + real) scenario, demanding new forms of standardization processes, legislation on Internet Service Providers to implement deep packet inspection (DPI) technology and to make it available to authorities when needed. Principles of responsibility should apply — social, environmental and cultural. Both developed and developing countries must bear the cost of DPI implementation in a global effort to curb cybercrime. It is mostly a matter of cultural and political choice if this policy would actually harm users’ privacy. The real technical experts and hackers and crackers have many ways to commit cybercrime. Intelligence teams already study these encryption techniques and public good should benefit from these initiatives. Brazil has invested a lot of money in security and privacy issues. The Brazilian Legislative and Justice Commission has initiated specific legislation to avoid cybercrime. There are 13 new laws including legislation to prevent racism and pedophile activity and to protect privacy. To help and facilitate police investigations, Internet Service Providers are now supposed to monitor all available information under their domain. If there is a suspicion of cybercrime, there must be a judicial authorization for the police to access someone’s private information. It is also clear that in this information technology era, there are no more secrets or privacy in the strict sense. As with many issues impacted by globalization, it is a hard thing to conciliate cultural differences. Every day we move one step forward to the universalization of human rights. In creating a global public sphere where people can search for information freely, human rights should guide us in this march towards the future. As Agnieszka Wrzesie, Diplo Fellow (www.diplomacy.edu) from Poland, said in one of the internet Governance Advanced Courses on Privacy Chat: “That’s why we should use all the channels possible to educate people. Empowerment is the key.” GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11  CO-OP from page 6 To become a member at the Ypsilanti Food Co-op there is an annual fee of $20 and then you become a member/owner. If you want, you can pay a one-time $200 fee and become a lifetime member. From this point, you are on your way to perceivably healthier living and the opportunity to work and volunteer in the community, which could add up to saving you 14% off groceries. And as a member/owner, if the co-op makes an annual profit you will receive a percentage. The seven principles of a co-op: 1. Voluntary and Open Membership: Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all people able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, regardless of gender, social, racial, political or religious affiliation. 2. Democratic Member Control: Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members - those who buy the goods or use the services of the cooperative — who actively participate in setting policies and making decisions. 3. Members’ Economic participation: Members contribute equally to, and democratically control, the capital of the cooperative. This benefits members in proportion to the business they conduct with the cooperative rather than on the capital invested. 4. Autonomy and Independence: Cooperatives are autonomous, selfhelp organizations controlled by their members. If the co-op enters into agreement with other organizations or raises capital from external sources, it is done so based on terms that ensure democratic control by the members and maintains the cooperative autonomy. 5. Education, Training, and Information: Cooperatives provide education and training for members, elected representatives, staff and employees so they can effectively participate in the organization. Member also inform the general public about the nature and benefits of cooperatives 6. Cooperation Among Cooperatives: Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperatives movement by working together local, national and international structures. 7. Concern for Community: Cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members. Explore Michigan co-ops! In the 1970s there were over twenty five food cooperatives in the state of Michigan, but now there are only eleven. • People’s Food Co-op (Ann Arbor). Use the Groundcover News coupon on page 12 when you visit! • Detroit People’s Food Co-op — the first Black-led food cooperative just opened its doors on May 1, 2024. • Grain Train Natural Foods Market (Petoskey and Boyne locations) • Green Tea Co-op Market (Mt Pleasant) • Keweenaw Co-op (Hancock) • Marquette Food Co-op • Oryana West (Traverse City) • Oryana Community Co-op (Traverse City) • PFC Natural Grocery & Deli (Kalamazoo) • Ypsilanti Food Co-op

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CREATIVE Healthy breakfast smoothie ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk or oat milk 1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt 1 cup baby spinach 1 medium banana, sliced and frozen ½ cup frozen or fresh pineapple chunks 2 teaspoon chia seeds (optional) Directions: Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. MAY 16, 2025 Drink this and a handful of almonds to start your day off right! thru the ... SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 thru the country hills thru the outspoken words thru the birds of the trees thru the controversy thru the sun shining thru the efforts of every person thru the tall grass & flowers thru the decesions of the people thru the people thru the environment thru the everything & thru everyone there is a white feather that stops me cold no matter what the feather can represent solid peacefulness as well as peaceful times by Amanda Gale PUZZLE SOLUTIONS S P I T A M P S T A N H S O A P M A G E N T A F A T A L A M I C E E N C E P H A L O G R A P H Y A G O R A M U N C H I E S S U E P I X I E S I M P A I R E D L O S S P O L I O S E L F P O L L I N A T I O N I N U R E E M O T I O N S S U M O G A R A G E B U N M O L L U S C L I N E R L E I S U R E S I N S T R U M E N T A L I T Y F I L E S I R O N A T O P E D E M A C A R T C E N T USE THIS COUPON ANYTIME $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 5/30/2025

2 $ MAY 2, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 10 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Building our solidarity economy: conference review. page 4 MEET YOUR VENDOR: PEDRO CAMPOS PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. GIG ECONOMY edition THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor # @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER from the joint desk of GROUNDCOVER + GIG A2 You have to hustle to live in Ann Arbor — especially if you’re in the service industry, working a low-wage job, or can’t do a traditional 9-to-5 because of your family situation, health issues or other circumstances. More and more people are turning to gig work, side hustles and entrepreneurship to try to make ends meet when traditional employment isn’t cutting it. This isn’t just an aphorism, but a reality in our community — backed by the qualitative and quantitative evidence presented in this themed edition on the gig economy. To afford Ann Arbor’s cost of living, an adult with one child would need to make about $41 an hour, or $85,900 a year, according to MIT’s living wage calculator. While Ann Arbor is one of the most affluent cities in Michigan, 23% of residents — almost 27,500 people — live in poverty. Traditional public assistance programs can help those with the greatest needs. But food stamps, housing vouchers, disability insurance and public health insurance come with complicated eligibility criteria and restrictions on how the assistance can be used. Often, recipients are threatened with “making too much;” making a few dollars over the eligibility threshold results in hundreds of assistance dollars lost. These harsh eligibility requirements serve to trap people in poverty, instead of lifting them out of it. Guaranteed income offers a different approach. Guaranteed income is growing in popularity, with pilot programs popping up across the United States to test this form of cash assistance as a supplement to traditional welfare programs. The idea of guaranteed income at its core suggests that income is a solution to poverty, that economic autonomy is a means to a better life. Because of this, Groundcover News and Guaranteed Income to Grow Ann Arbor have worked together since the start. Groundcover News is one of the few organizations locally that connects self-determined, low-income people to money. Yes, selling and writing for Groundcover News is a job — but when it comes to flexibility and instability, working for Groundcover News offers the same benefits and challenges as other gig work. We believe entrepreneurial work inspires creativity, purpose, pride, personal growth and empowerment. We believe gig workers make Ann Arbor a better place to live. The City of Ann Arbor is using this no-strings-attached form of cash assistance to support entrepreneurs, gig workers and self-employed workers with low incomes who live in the city. Ann Arbor’s guaranteed income pilot recognizes the ways the pandemic changed people’s relationship to work and the important ways that entrepreneurs and gig workers are already contributing to the local economy. Together, we’re exploring what difference guaranteed income makes for these entrepreneurs and whether the idea is worth expanding. This themed edition on the gig economy is an invitation to think about guaranteed income and gig workers and get access to local research in a accessible way. Talk with your vendor about the struggles and joys of gig work. Come to our community conversation on Thursday, May 8, 5:30 - 7 p.m. to share and learn more about what it might take to graduate this pilot into something bigger (more information on the graphic on page 3). Advocate if you want to see this program continued. Look out for the research pilot’s final findings in 2026. MAY 2, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Anonymous GIG A2 Participants Roberto Isla Caballero Pedro Campos Jim Clark Henry Mike Jones Marisol June Miller Ms. Artist Scoop Stevens Joe Woods COVER PHOTOS Barry Chatillion GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Steve Ross Anabel Sicko Allison Wei VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Bella Martinez Robert Klingler Ari Ruczynski Jack Weinberg Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Melanie Wenzel CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons MAY 2, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR I Have A Stigma SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover vendor No. 638 Pedro Campos, vendor No. 652 In one sentence, who are you? Human, druid, poet, journalist, chess player, social scientist and cosmonaut. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? The corner of State and Liberty, outside Starbucks. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? It's been eight months already. I identify myself with the people, the writing, the circumstance, struggling for housing as I am — the project as a whole. What is one place in Ann Arbor that feels like your own personal sanctuary? I like going to the U-M Law School. I like the way it looks, like Hogwarts. It’s quiet and I would like to go to classes there. What’s your life motto? Keep it real. What advice would you give to your younger self? Never hold back. What is your comfort food? Lasagna. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring three things, what would they be? Water, food, lighter. If there was a theme song for your life, what would it be? "The Great Gig in the Sky" by Pink Floyd. See page 14! If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? Outerspace. What is the weirdest food combo you swear by? Le Big Mac! What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? Housing first — for real! What’s one question you wished you were asked more often? How are you feeling? April showers bring may flowers ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 We don’t know what to sow in the fall. When the white spring storm with salty, wintery, low-temperatures comes, only the sun will protect us from the sun-flecked dark clouds. By the lake we eat fish; we don’t know what to sow in the soil affected by warm winters and dry rains. We have downpours but the trees are still thirsty. On dry mornings we keep working with parched thoughts — frustrated our work counts for so little to ICE and corrupt police officers. They sell themselves like fatherlands that have no mothers, only prostitutes. As with international laws, they don’t believe in oaths or promotions; they only believe in stupidity. With a third world war this world is lost. Only the powerful will survive. The helpless will look at love’s smile and the earth’s hope. The seas will open their doors, and rivers full of the fortunate will rejoice with their intimate forefathers. Only the angel and its creators will see the new day rise. No sabemos qué sembrar en otoño. Cuando vienen las blancas primaveras con invierno salados y con storms con bajas temperaturas, solo el sol nos cobija de las nubes negras con pintas soleadas. En lagos comemos pescado y en la tierra no sabemos qué sembrar con invierno acalorados y lluvias secas. Pero con árboles secos tenemos aguaceros, pero en mañanas secas y pensamientos frustrados seguimos trabajando, pero no tenemos cuenta, solo letras de ICE y policía corruptos. Y se venden como se vende pátrias que no tienen madre solo putas. Lo mismo que leyes internacionales, no creen en juramentos ni promociones, solo creen en estupideces. Con una tercera guerra mundial este mundo está perdido. Solo el poderoso sobrevivirá. Y el desamparado mirará la sonrisa del amor y la esperanza de la tierra y los mares abrirán sus puertas y ríos llenos de afortunados gozarán de sus íntimos antepasados. Solo el ángel y sus creadores mirarán el día de ver nacido. Anonymous: You have a stigma. I do? Anonymous: Once you are homeless you are always homeless. I have a home that I live in. Anonymous: You have a mental illness. I do? Anonymous: Once you are homeless you are always homeless; you have a stigma. I do not understand. Anonymous: Stop thinking for yourself, you have a substance abuse problem. I do? Anonymous: Once you are homeless you are always homeless. I have a home that I live in. Anonymous: You are in denial; once you are homeless you are always homeless; you have a stigma. What should I do? Anonymous: Work more, make more, consume more, conform more, stop thinking for yourself and pay rent. I do not have to pay rent. Anonymous: You are in denial; once you are homeless you are always homeless; you have a stigma. I have a stigma, you told me so. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LOCAL ECONOMY JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 CYNTHIA PRICE Editor On March 28, a conference was held at the University of Michigan Ginsberg Center titled “Building Our Solidarity Economy.” The conference was co-organized by the Ginsberg Center and the Michigan Chapter of Resource Generation. Resource Generation is a national membership organization that organizes economically privileged young people in support of wealth redistribution and economic justice. The conference was populated by people looking for answers. It is obvious to many that capitalism is failing. What is not obvious is what to replace it with. Anecdotally, a majority of people believe the only alternative to capitalism is socialism. This is not true; there are many ways to go about distributing resources. The Solidarity Economy conference was an exploration of what that might look like. A “solidarity economy” is one that prioritizes human development and environmental responsibility over the acquisition of profit and wealth. Instead of valuing competition, a solidarity economy values cooperation, mutualism, equity, participatory democracy, sustainability, and pluralism. Examples of solidarity economy practices include: • Worker-owned cooperatives: workers own the business, share in management and decision making responsibilities and share the profits • Community land trusts: organizations acquire property to keep it available for the community (as opposed to private ownership and real estate agents) • Timebanks: people use hours of labor and services as currency • Community lending practice: simply put, banks without interest • Participatory budgeting: citizens of a region decide how to spend it’s resources as opposed to a centralized service/private sector provider • Fair trade practices. The room was filled with everyone from wanted ecoterrorists to radicalized college students to members of the Ann Arbor / Ypsilanti communities. Jiji, an activist from Ypsilanti, had this to say: “The conference is about solidarity economies and how they show up for different communities. Different organizations came, mostly centered around the farming economy and practices. The conference also addressed how to uplift the solidarity economy by creating communal spaces for sharing resources such as DBCFSN is a citizens group that works on self-reliance and food justice issues by educating the public on healthy food production and processing, and creating policy. The first workshop was titled “Solidarity Economy and You," led by Prerna (pron. Prayer-na) Agarwall. It was an introduction to the solidarity economy model and its potential for an alternative to capitalism. Prerna is a facilitator, activist and educator. They have been organizing for nearly seven years, building power through fighting gentrification and expanding community food sovereignty with Cleveland Owns. They are fiercely committed to following in the Zapatista tradition of building a world where many worlds fit. is making sure our cooperatives are in alignment with global class struggles. Remember it's not just about sharing dry goods or sharing food, it is more about fighting against domination. This includes people who are most vulnerable and oftentimes don’t have the capacity to come and enter spaces like this.” Other workshops that were held included: Transformative Fundraising: How to build community and shift power while raising money; Navigating Conflict in Organizing and Coalition Building; and Solidarity Economy Here and Now: Practices from the Great Lakes Region. “Reclaiming and Resourcing our Collective Future” was the final session of food, skill shares, community events, even shelter.” Jiji also shared about the Community Food Forest located at Leslie Park in Ann Arbor. A community food forest is a miniature forest ecosystem that contains a variety of edible plants. Volunteers take care of the plants and the forest is open to the public for food sustenance and socializing. You can learn more about it on their website: www.trueearth.org/food-forest Jiji said there were different farmer cooperatives such as The D-town Farm run by the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network. The Conference activity. Prerna explained that for us to build outside of capitalism we must go beyond building cooperation and community and include pushing back against the structures of domination that we see imposed and escalated onto us. Expanding on this, Prerna explained, “The work I do involves the incubation and development of cooperatives. It's really important for me to remind people that although practices of collectivity and cooperation do feel radical, unless it is tied into material class struggle, there’s nothing that enables the end of capitalism. What that means MAY 2, 2025 Building Our Solidarity Economy: Conference review the day. The panel presentation accompanied an announcement that Resource Generation Michigan has adopted the organization MI Rent Is Too Damn High as their campaign partner. This will help Rent Is Too Damn High to reach tenants across the state. MI Rent Is Too Damn High describes itself as “a statewide coalition of tenant unions, housing justice groups, and allied organizations." Their inaugural event was the September 5, 2023, Rent Is Too Damn High demonstration, which brought out 350 tenants from across the state to the Capitol in Lansing. Their focus now has moved from legislative advocacy to fostering strength in existing tenant unions and localized tenant assemblies, and developing new unions and assemblies. The Coalition Coordinator, Will Lawrence, served on the panel and his presentation was incisive, with a clear and overarching view of the failings of a system that makes obtaining housing dependent on being able to pay for it. Lawrence said in an interview, “I thought the conference went very well. There were a lot of terrific presenters and panelists with a great diversity of projects, for example, land banks, ecovillages, farming and agriculture projects and a lot of mutual aid and community support organizations.” Lawrence commented about Resource Generation’s commitment to The Rent Is Too Damn High, “We’re very honored to have our work recognized, and we’re looking forward to organizing tenants around the state.” The remaining panelists were Jamila Martin of Movement Voter Project, which makes connections between funders and innovative projects through many initiatives, and Dr. Ashley Glassburn of the Miami Nation of Indiana Honor Fund. All three panelists talked about the “redistribution of wealth” inherent in wealthy funders willing to support initiatives that address issues in less mainstream ways. Dr. Glassburn added a lot of interesting items to the discussion during the question and answer period. For example, on the topic of homeless people she said, to applause, that it was counterintuitive to seek money to build a homeless shelter when instead it could be used for programs to prevent the need for shelter space. Dr. Glassburn also pointed out something unusual about the Black Panther Party chapters in Milwaukee and Chicago. In Milwaukee, they concentrated on distributing food and making sure people were getting fed. The Panthers in Chicago were armed see SOLIDARITY next page  MAY 2, 2025 LOCAL ECONOMY The role of local businesses in supporting community well-being KOBE CLARK U-M student contributor Local businesses are the backbone of Ann Arbor’s economy, accounting for nearly 50% of its economic activity and significantly contributing to the city’s cultural and financial stability. Whether it’s independent bookstores, small coffee shops or family-owned restaurants, these businesses provide jobs, support local causes and promote sustainability. Even as Ann Arbor continues to grow, small businesses remain a key part of the community. Local businesses in Ann Arbor are not only the drivers of economic growth, but also cultural anchors and environmental stewards that enhance community well-being in diverse and meaningful ways. Despite facing challenges such as rising costs and corporate competition, these businesses remain essential to the city’s success, making it crucial for residents to support them in order to preserve Ann Arbor’s unique character and economic resilience. Boosting the economy Unlike big corporations that send their profits elsewhere, small businesses help keep money within the community. These businesses employ thousands of Ann Arbor residents in different industries such as retail, restaurants, tech and healthcare. Many also offer internships and entry-level jobs that give young people a chance to gain work experience. Spending money at small businesses can also help fund important community programs, since local stores often give back through donations and sponsorships. A great example is Zingerman’s, which started as a small deli and grew into a well-known business. Even with its success, Zingerman’s remains locally owned and continues to buy ingredients from Michigan farms while supporting charities in the area. Another major contributor to small businesses is the University of Michigan community. With thousands of students, professors and visitors in town, these businesses benefit from all the local shopping, dining and entertainment. Bringing the community together Beyond money, small businesses help make Ann Arbor feel like home by supporting local events and causes. Many donate a portion of their profits to nonprofits or sponsor programs that fight hunger, homelessness, and education gaps. For example, Literati Bookstore is more than just a bookstore, it’s a place where people gather for author talks, poetry readings, and literacy programs. Businesses like this create a sense of belonging and make Ann Arbor feel like a true community, where people connect, share ideas and celebrate local culture. Local businesses also strengthen neighborhood connections by sponsoring festivals and partnering with community groups. The Downtown Ann Arbor Partnership works with businesses to organize events that bring people downtown and boost the local economy. Helping the environment and public health Many Ann Arbor businesses care about sustainability and public health. They focus on eco-friendly practices, like using local ingredients, cutting down on waste and offering environmentally friendly products. The Ann Arbor Green Business Challenge helps businesses reduce their carbon footprint while also saving money and promoting sustainability. Many restaurants in the Pony Bush at Sweetwaters Cafe. Vendors love to sell outside of local businesses! area also focus on organic and plantbased options, making it easier for residents to eat well. The challenges local businesses face Even though local businesses help Ann Arbor in so many ways, they also deal with major challenges. Large chain stores and online shopping make it harder for small businesses to compete, sometimes leading to closures. One of the biggest issues is the high cost of retail space in Ann Arbor, especially downtown and Kerrytown. Many small businesses struggle to afford their space, forcing some to move or shut down. Programs like Small Business Saturday encourage people to shop locally and support independent stores. The city also offers grants and tax breaks to help small businesses stay open. By choosing to shop at small businesses, residents can help keep Ann Arbor’s economy strong and its neighborhoods connected. As one business owner put it, "When you shop at a small business, you are not just buying a product. You are investing in your own community." Supporting local businesses isn’t just about convenience. It’s about making sure Ann Arbor stays a great place to live for years to come. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5  SOLIDARITY from last page militants and were concentrating on that aspect of the revolution. But the FBI had three times as many infiltration agents in Milwaukee as they did in Chicago. Apparently they considered the threat of organizing for community support more dangerous than organizing an armed conflict. After the panel, two people led the conference closing. One of the people asked for meditative silence then asked a few questions about being a giver or receiver. She encouraged people to close their eyes for a slow, meditative reflection, with a focus on envisioning land redistribution. Then the other person read a poem, which was a cross between traditional and Spoken Word poetry, concerning stolen lands and the attitudes of indigenous people toward land and non-ownership. sive and touching way to end the conference. It was an impres

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PARTICIPANT REFLECTION Guaranteed income means empowerment A GRATEFUL COMMUNITY MEMBER GIG A2 participant I have a disabled child who has complex support needs that have required my care for the majority of the last decade. The fulltime work I did prior to having children is no longer an option, as it does not afford me the flexibility I need. I pivoted to parttime gig work which fluctuates in frequency, resulting in an unpredictable source of income. We rely primarily on my partner’s income, which is still not enough for us to get by even though he works a full time job. When I first heard about earning a spot to participate in the GIGA2 pilot program, it honestly sounded too good to be true. I was worried it was a mean scam for the first few weeks. Everyone I interacted with was (and continues to be) so respectful, reassuring and transparent, and after I researched the program I gradually started to believe this was real. The more I learn about what the researchers of this project are seeking to do, the more I respect this endeavor and personally feel how positively impactful these no-strings-attached monthly stipends are for my family. A practice that is remarkably unique about the model of this pilot program is how empowering and affirming it feels to participate. Generally, it can feel embarrassing to ask for help or need support, but the researchers of this project exude respect and have designed this pilot in such a way that I, as a participant, feel my dignity is very much preserved. Another important piece I would like to highlight is that the money I am receiving through this program is genuinely helping in numerous ways. I remember reading in the GIGA2 literature that they believe recipients will know the best ways to spend the money they receive, and they even stipulated that using it for wellness and self-care purposes — or anything at all — is valid and legitimate. Here are some ways the money has been helpful for our family: covering the ever-rising cost of groceries, copays for specialist appointments for my child, new glasses, home organization, feeling okay to order easier meals from time to time. This money has given me more peace of mind and helps alleviate my stress in numerous ways including when my gig work is cancelled for reasons outside of my control. Receiving these monthly stipends over the course of the past year has helped me heal from my own burnout and improve my mental health. I recently applied and was admitted into a degree program and I am now on the path to earning a degree in which I will be able to advocate for people with mental health challenges and disabilities. It is difficult to put into words the relief and boost this GIGA2 project is having on me personally, and for my family. I would like to let potential funders or supporters of this and similar programs know that I am not taking this as a free handout. Rather, it is providing crucial scaffolding for me to get out of a difficult spot and onto more stable ground. I am using this financial support to cover essential bills, and also to build toward a new career that will allow me to better balance the needs of my child as well as serving and advocating for others in our greater community. I will continue to pay this forward, and I am beyond grateful. Stability for my family and me ANONYMOUS GIG A2 participant The guaranteed income program has been a lifeline for me. Without it, I am uncertain how I would have survived. As a single mother with a disability, I have faced significant challenges in finding stable, part-time work. Despite my best effort, the demands of caring for my children and managing my health have made it difficult to secure consistent employment. With no family in the area to rely on, the responsibility of caregiving rests solely on my shoulders. At one point, rising rental prices nearly forced us into homelessness, and it was only through the kindness of strangers that I was able to secure stable housing. The financial support provided by the guaranteed income program has been a crucial safety net, helping me weather the increasing cost of living and the economic uncertainty that has become all too common. The program has greatly reduced my financial stress by providing a steady month payment. Currently I work in various gig and project-based roles. These roles offer me the flexibility I need to care for my children and manage my disability. However, the nature of gig work means that it is often unreliable and inconsistent, making it a source of constant anxiety, especially as prices continue to rise and other social safety nets are being removed. Thanks to the guaranteed income, I have been able to pay all of my bills on time, which has alleviated a significant amount of worry. This financial security has also given me the time and space to search for more permanent employment opportunities. Despite my diverse skill set, I often struggle to get past the Applicant Tracking Systems used by many employers, which makes it harder to find stable work. Additionally, out of pocket medical and dental expenses have been a significant burden. One of my children required dental work that was not covered by insurance. The total cost was over $3,000, an amount that would have been impossible for us to cover without the help of the guaranteed income program. This is just one example of unexpected financial burdens that often arise, and having the support of guaranteed payments made it possible for me to manage such expenses. The stability provided by this program has not only been essential for me, but it has also benefited my children. Because I have been able to focus on providing quality parenting, they are emotionally stable, mature and reliable young people. My oldest daughter, in particular, is a caring and intelligent individual who is determined to make a difference in this world. She will be starting college in the fall, driven to succeed and help others, and I have no doubt that she will do great things. My younger child has also shown remarkable character. He volunteers at Food Gatherers, helps classmates with their homework at school, and even retired neighbors call him when they need some help with something they cannot physically do. Both of my children are already making a positive impact in their communities and have learned the important lesson of community and helping others. In light of these experiences, I believe that Ann Arbor should continue its guaranteed income pilot program. The financial support it provides has been crucial in helping people like me navigate the challenges of living with a disability, raising children on my own, and managing the instability of gig work. The benefits of guaranteed income far outweigh the potential drawbacks, and it is a step toward building a more secure and equitable future for individuals facing similar challenges. MAY 2, 2025 MAY 2, 2025 PARTICIPANT REFLECTION GROUNDCOVER NEWS How the Guaranteed Income to Grow Ann Arbor program has impacted my life HENRY GIG A2 participant The Guaranteed Income to Grow Ann Arbor program has been a great blessing in my life. I am most thankful for how it has relieved the stress from worrying about so many different money issues. This stress contributes to depression and the mindset of “what is the use of even trying?” Knowing help is coming every month has produced a new-found sense of hopefulness. When I first started receiving the income, I was a DoorDash driver trying to make ends meet. I used my first two payments to get some badly-needed brake work done on my car. Later I was able to use the income to buy some presentable clothing, and I was able to then secure additional income through a part-time temporary job that lasted almost a year. I had previously written three books which I sell on Amazon.com. I’ve been able to use some of the guaranteed income to advertise my books and also to send out review copies. As a result I have had an increase in book sales. I have also used the stipend to buy shipping supplies for my small eBay.com store. This helps me generate additional income. The greatest benefit has just been knowing I’ll have that money every month to cover food and housing expenses. The relief from the constant day-to-day thinking about “where is the money going to come from?” is hard to put into words. It frees up my mind for more creative thinking, and as a result I’ve been able to resume my daily blogging. I can blog to advertise my books, and I am hoping to see another increase in book sales as a result. I hope the University of Michigan is able to publicize far and wide the benefits of this program and that it inspires other similar initiatives. I have no doubt there are millions in America who could similarly benefit. If you are not a low income person, it might be hard to understand how an extra $500 per month can make such a huge difference. But imagine getting into your car every day for your delivery job and hoping your brakes hold out, or not having $150 to get a broken tooth pulled. Just imagine all the hours people all over the world spend worrying about monetary issues, time that could be put to more creative and beneficial uses. That’s what I am most thankful for thanks to the Guaranteed Income to Grow Ann Arbor program: peace of mind and freedom to engage in meaningful activities. I know there are some people in America who automatically resist any sort of program that helps poor people; they believe it “pampers and spoils” people, or makes them less likely to work. Nothing could be further from the truth. Easing financial pressure helped ease my stress and depression levels, giving me more motivation to continue my artistic projects and find extra work through a temp job. I don’t have a single negative thing to say about the program, and I hope it continues and expands. "Ms. Artist" appreciates validation and support MS. ARTIST GIG A2 participant I am a highly-educated professional who made the sacrifice to leave an academic career to go into the arts. Sickness that requires hospitalization taught me that life is too short not to go for what you really love. I had been on a career fast-track and many of my peers and classmates were all at the top of their game: doctors, professors at top universities, government officials, corporate and legal bigwigs, and a few people who are even household names. I could have been one of them as well, but it would not have been the same as doing what I had truly wanted to do since I was a little girl. If you are an artist or entrepreneur, you are driven by a deep, intrinsic motivation that says you can't do anything else. Leaving my very promising financial path was probably the hardest decision I ever made. When I woke up in the morning, I would feel frightened about my future, and yet somehow so free. There were no instruction manuals as to how to accomplish my dreams, and of course there was the question of steady income. I didn't know any other peers or classmates at that point who had taken such a bold move, and my parents had had very stable jobs. I myself craved that kind of job stability, but I knew that there was no other choice than to go into the arts after years of doing things and working in fields that were good and noble but so wrong for me. I had heard of people being able to make a living as artists in various places in Europe — for example, singers who are offered civil service contracts in Germany — and saw how there was the phenomenon of working artists in New York, since there were many opportunities and funding for all disciplines of the arts. I had expected my career path to be difficult due to the artistic challenges: figuring out how to express what is in your mind and heart and soul, spending endless hours on disciplined work (because you cannot wait for the muse to come; the work itself is the muse!), self-doubt, reworking things until you get it just right. That is indeed true, but the harder part is the business side of things. I had never expected the constant hustle, but that is what being an artist requires. I have learned that even if you do steady work, you do not receive steady income. You invest more in applications to showcase your work than you receive in pay. You invest more energy in doing your work and putting it out there than you get back. Worst of all, you have very little externally to show for all the effort and work you do. I'm lucky enough to get positive feedback from the uppermost echelons in my field, which motivates me and shows that I am on the right track. Sadly, that does not always translate to opportunities to show my work or get hired. This is why a program like GIG A2 is so vital, because a minimum of guaranteed income helps keep those of us in the arts or entrepreneurship going. We need stability, the assurance from the outside world that what we do is necessary, the validation that we are calculated risk-takers who are doing something unlike anyone else. The arts are not valued on a large scale in the United States and are generally relegated to the private sector and the wealthy. Arts organizations around the country are constantly seeking funds from donors, and that is exactly what also happens on a smaller scale for artists like me. As we all know, funding is sadly being slashed everywhere; that is why it is vital for local governments or regions to step in to help. One of the most common misconceptions people have about the arts is that it is hard because it is "subjective." However, I would argue that any workplace is subjective — even a vital IT worker can be dismissed if the boss doesn't like them. I would say this: there is a degree of subjectivity once you reach a certain threshold of mastery in your artistic field. That is, others may really appreciate your work and recognize your talents, but it is not the right fit for what they are seeking. As an artist or entrepreneur, you wait and work and hope for luck, because that is what you need once you have a certain level of talent and mastery. Another common misconception is that artists are "flaky," working whenever they feel like it, financially irresponsible, and just not putting their work out there. Anyone who is trying to make a career in the arts will tell you this is completely wrong. A wise artist needs to know where every last penny goes, how to manage money, and how to be strategic about the next steps. I urge the city of Ann Arbor, and other cities elsewhere, to continue these guaranteed income programs to assist us who are forging our own paths. There is so much uncertainty until we get the lucky breaks that we so deserve; knowing the city supports us gives us some reassurance of stability. Across the country, largely with the advent of the pandemic, cities have been running pilot programs for guaranteed income. I could cite data from a number of studies conducted around the world that show increases in many factors, leading to greater well-being: financial, mental, physical, etc. Naturally, with the state of our economy now, $528 a month is indeed a boon, but it doesn't offset living costs which are high in a city like Ann Arbor. This is no reason to discontinue the program, however, as I'm sure every recipient of the GIG A2 program would agree. What we truly need is structural economic justice to help everyone in society. I am grateful to the city of Ann Arbor and the researchers at the University of Michigan who have developed this pilot program, and I am grateful for the chance to share my experiences with you. 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS BASELINE REPORT What is Guaranteed Income to Grow Ann Arbor? Guaranteed Income to Grow Ann Arbor, known as GIG A2, is a pilot program that provides monthly guaranteed income payments of $528 to 100 entrepreneurs, gig workers, and self-employed workers with low incomes who live in Ann Arbor. The monthly payments began in January 2024 and will end in December 2025. GIG A2 is unique compared to other guaranteed income programs for its focus on entrepreneurs and gig workers, with the goal of seeing whether the monthly payments allow people to grow their businesses or take a step back from their side hustles and focus on other priorities. All GIG A2 participants take surveys throughout the pilot program and some participants also complete in-depth interviews about what difference the money makes for them and their overall well-being. This research will inform future discussions about expanding guaranteed income in Washtenaw County and across the country. GIG A2 is funded with $1.6 million of the City of Ann Arbor’s federal American Rescue Plan Act money plus additional funds from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation. Ann Arbor city council voted in June 2023 to move forward with the version of the pilot program proposed by Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan. U-M designed and implemented the program and is now evaluating its impact. Several partner organizations in the Ann Arbor area advised on the design and launch of GIG A2. Who is part of the guaranteed income pilot? One hundred people who met the eligibility criteria were randomly selected to receive the $528 monthly payments. Another 100 people who met the eligibility criteria were randomly selected to participate in the research study without receiving the guaranteed income payments. They receive small monthly stipends and play a critical role in making the research possible. What type of work do GIG A2 participants do? Entrepreneurship can mean many different things. GIG A2 includes people who have side hustles, are trying to start a business, who have a business going, or are gig workers. The charts above show the type of work GIG A2 participants do. How are people using the money so far? GIG A2 participants recently completed a survey about how they have used the guaranteed income payments in the first year of the pilot program. The U-M research team also has interviewed some participants to learn more about what difference the money makes for them and their overall well-being. This chart shows participants’ top needs and priorities for the guaranteed income payments at the start of the pilot program. Continued on page 10. MAY 2, 2025 Guaranteed income meets the Ann Arbor hustle The data include GIG A2 participants who are 25 and older in order to match how the Census reports the educational attainment of all Ann Arbor residents. MAY 2, 2025 TRANSIT GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 M I C H I G A N S T A T E S T A T E

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS BASELINE REPORT How are people using the money so far? Continued from pg. 8 The researchers’ interviews with participants show that the $528 a month has provided a helpful financial cushion, allowing participants to worry a little bit less about having the money for their monthly bills. However, many participants realized that the funds could be used to expand or grow their entrepreneurial work. “I'm thinking, yes, this money had to go for bills,” one participant shared. “But, I'm thinking, if I make this work in the right way, I won't have to worry about that.” Another participant described how the extra funding allowed her to practice money management and finance prioritization. “I'm really trying to use [the $528] towards my business. I'm trying to discipline myself,” the person said. “Like, no, we don't have this extra money just to go spend, it’s to spend on the entrepreneurial stuff that you want to do, your business.” One participant shared that she is now able to save up for the food truck she dreamed of. “I want a food truck. It's going to be called ‘Because Sandwiches,’” she shared enthusiastically. Prior to receiving the $528 a month, most of her money went to basic necessities. While that still happens on occasion, “having access to GIG A2 has allowed me to actually seek out ways to advance my business goal,” she told the interviewer. What’s next? The research team is analyzing data from the survey and in-depth interviews and will share those findings later this year. GIG A2 participants will complete a final survey when the pilot ends. The research team is trying to see whether the monthly guaranteed income payments: 1. Improve people’s health through increased housing, food and transportation security, improvements in physical and mental health and access to care, and improvements in access and quality of child care; 2. Help small businesses and entrepreneurs stabilize and/or grow their businesses; and 3. Allow entrepreneurs the time and resources to focus on their business. Only with the best possible research can people make a strong argument to policymakers about expanding guaranteed income in the future. GIG A2 is an important contribution to the broader guaranteed income movement. The GIG A2 team would like to thank the following partners and advisors for their support in developing and administering the pilot program: MAY 2 2025 EXPRESS YOUR YES FOUNDATION MAY 2, 2025 PARTICIPANT REFLECTION Entrepreneurship can be sweet MARISOL GIG A2 participant Mi nombre es Marisol y les voy a contar sobre mi emprendimiento en el mundo de la repostería. Todo comenzó con el apoyo del programa de ingreso garantizado en Ann Arbor. ¿Alguna vez has probado algo tan rico que quieres seguir comiendo y no parar? Bueno, eso es exactamente lo que encontrarás en mis postres como: pasteles, dulces shot y chocolates. Aquí todo es hecho a mano con mucho amor y una bonita energía. Hago unos deliciosos postres con ingredientes frescos y de alta calidad, los postres están decorados con hermosos colores, divertidos diseños y sabores que los enamoran. Los pasteles son hechos de diferentes sabores como vainilla, chocolate relleno de dulce de leche, tres leches, limón, red velvet, pay de limon, Cheesecake y otros sabores. También hago dulces shot, son pequeños postres individuales que se sirven en copas o vasos. Son ideales para fiestas y eventos, ya que permite disfrutar de postres sin necesidad de comer porciones grandes. Las opciones más populares son el pay de limón, mousse de parchita, tres leches y galleta oreo — sin olvidar los deliciosos chocolates y paletas de chocolate rellenas de sabores irresistibles, donde el sabor a dulce de leche, parchita, lico, leche condensada, coco y frutos rojos…. Son los protagonistas principales. También hago hermosos arreglos de flores y fresas cubiertas de chocolate, ideales para regalos. Definitivamente este ha sido un viaje al mundo de la repostería muy fascinante. Es importante resaltar que mi emprendimiento en la repostería en Ann Arbor ha sido un desafío en cuanto a la necesidad de adaptación, a la tendencias, a las culturas, competencia y precios ; sin embargo ha sido una forma de expresar mi cultura y un medio para preservar tradiciones y recetas familiares en medio de circunstancias difíciles. Pienso que Ann Arbor debería continuar con este programa piloto de ingresos garantizados, porque el emprendimiento desempeña un papel vital en el impulso del crecimiento económico y la creación de empleo. Es el motor que impulsa la innovación, genera nuevas empresas y aporta nuevos productos y servicios al mercado. Crear y dirigir una empresa puede ser todo un reto. Los emprendedores suelen tener dificultades para acceder a la financiación, sortear normativas complejas y adquirir las capacidades y los conocimientos necesarios; por tal motivo los ínsito a continuar con este maravilloso programa que me ha ayudado tanto en mi emprendimiento. Aprovecho la oportunidad para agradecerles por permitirme ser parte del Programa Piloto de Ingreso Garantizado, ustedes han sido el motor de mi emprendimiento, sin su ayuno no hubiese sido posible. Gracias, gracias y los felicito por tan hermosa labor, éxitos y bendiciones. English translation: My name is Marisol, and I'm going to tell you about my pastry venture. It all started with support from the Guaranteed Income to Grow Ann Arbor Program. Have you ever tasted something so delicious that you want to keep eating it? Well, that's exactly what you'll find in my desserts: cakes, shot candies and chocolates. At my candy shop, everything is handmade with lots of love and a beautiful energy. I make delicious desserts with fresh, high-quality ingredients. The desserts are decorated with beautiful colors, fun designs, and flavors that you'll fall in love with. The cakes come in different flavors such as vanilla, chocolate filled with dulce de leche, tres leches, lemon, red velvet, lemon pie, cheesecake and other flavors. I also make shot candies, which are small individual desserts served in glasses or cups. They are ideal for parties and events, as they allow you to enjoy desserts without having to eat large portions. The most popular options are lemon pie, passion fruit mousse, tres leches and Oreo cookies — not to mention the delicious chocolates and chocolate lollipops filled with irresistible flavors where dulce de leche, passion fruit, liqueur, condensed milk, coconut, and red berries are the stars. I also make beautiful flower arrangements and chocolate-covered strawberries, which are ideal for gifts. This has definitely been a fascinating journey into the world of baking. It's important to highlight that my baking venture in Ann Arbor has been a challenge in terms of adapting to trends, cultures, competition and prices; however, it has been a way to express my culture and a means to preserve my family traditions and recipes amidst difficult circumstances. I think Ann Arbor should continue this guaranteed income pilot program because entrepreneurship plays a vital role in driving economic growth and job creation. It's the engine that fuels innovation, creates new businesses and brings new products and services into the market. Starting and running a business can be challenging. Entrepreneurs often struggle with accessing financing, navigating complex regulations and acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge; that's why I urge them to continue this wonderful program that has helped me so much in my entrepreneurship. I take this opportunity to thank you for allowing me to be part of the Guaranteed Income Pilot Program. You have been the driving force behind my venture; without your support, it would not have been possible. Thank you, thank you, and I congratulate you on such wonderful work, success and blessings. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Guaranteed income improved my standard of living One year ago I was 1 of 100 people selected to participate in a pilot program called the Ann Arbor Guaranteed Income to Grow Ann Arbor. The program is geared to help low-income entrepreneurs and self-employed people in the city of Ann Arbor have a guaranteed income of $500 a month for two years, which can be used to generate revenue in the City of Ann Arbor by spending money in the community and helping low-income entrepreneurs and self-employed people make ends meet. We can use the money for whatever we want or save it and don't have to pay it back. Although up to this point I haven't been able to save any of the money, my standard of living has improved a bit. I've been able to pay my rent and bills without really having to stress about it; was able to have money to move into a bigger place without getting help from organizations; have ing out about money. This program allowed me to accomJOE WOODS Groundcover vendor No. 103 money to take my dog to the veterinarian for routine checkups, do more stuff with my fiance, shop, and be able to help my mom. For the first time as an adult I actually celebrated Christmas last year, buying and decorating a Christmas tree, decorating the house, and getting presents to put under the tree for my fiance, my dog and myself. It felt really good to have extra money around the holidays when most people are stressplish something I’m very proud of: I was able to surprise my mother on her birthday last April, go to California and be her birthday present and visit with her for a week. I had enough money to do and buy anything that she wanted while I was there. Most importantly, I wasn't worried about the bills when I got home. Saying all of that, I did not lose perspective on the main goal that I made for myself if I was selected. That was to be able to have residual capital and use it as an ace in the hole if opportunity arises and get product to sell. I may have the opportunity to rent retail space for my T-Shirt company Joe’s T-Shirts and having this monthly income is a great jump start. So I highly recommend and appreciate it if they're able to keep it going — keep my name on the list!

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS RESEARCH GROUNDCOVER NEWS Groundcover News asked the principal investigators of the project, Kristin Seefeldt, Rebeccah Sokol and William Lopez for a situation report. people with a stable, reliable income that doesn't have the stigma of "welfare" associated with it. Several foundations became interested in funding guaranteed income pilots, and all of a sudden pilots were cropping up around the country, in part driven by a coalition of mayors who wanted to bring guaranteed income pilots to their communities. Ann Arbor, like many cities and counties, received significant funding as part of the COVID-19 recovery, and the City decided to use some of those funds for a guaranteed income pilot. GCN: Why is it important to popularize these findings through Groundcover News and community events and what is the potential impact? KS: Groundcover News vendors are Kristin Seefeldt, lead researcher, is an Associate Professor at the U-M Schools of Social Work and Public Policy. GCN: What are you observing from the data thus far? What do you find surprising? Kristen Seefeldt: One notable finding is that the participants in the pilot have fairly high levels of education when compared to participants in guaranteed income pilots elsewhere in the country. This isn't surprising to me, since we are a college town with highly educated residents, but often researchers will talk about higher education as a pathway to achieving upward mobility. While that might be the case on average, people aren't “averages.” And in a place like Ann Arbor with a very high cost of living, having an Associate’s or Bachelor's degree may not help everyone be economically stable. GCN: Why are you studying this particular topic out of all the other potential programs focused on improving quality of life outcomes? KS: One thing that is really unique about guaranteed income programs is that recipients decide for themselves how they want to use the money. No one is saying that the money only can be used for rent, or for food, or any other specific purpose and nothing else. The flexibility, I think, acknowledges that people know best what they need and are fully able to make decisions about their lives. Additionally, there isn't any paperwork or requirements that people need to do in order to continue receiving the money during the pilot. This can improve people's quality of life through providing autonomy and eliminating the need to report to a public assistance system. GCN: Why do you think Ann Arbor is piloting this now? KS: There's been growing interest in guaranteed income as a way to provide entrepreneurs, just like the people who are in the GIG A2 pilot. It seemed logical to partner with Groundcover News to get the word out about how the program is going and raise awareness both with readers and vendors themselves! In terms of community events, in some cases, people may have concerns about guaranteed income. They might worry that people "waste" the money or make unwise spending choices. That's why in the U.S. we have so many programs that are "in-kind," meaning we won't provide cash directly but instead will give rental assistance or a debit card that can only be used for food. By having events, the community can hear directly from participants and see the data on how the money is being used. This might lead some people to re-think their assumptions. GCN: What stigma do you observe surrounding cash assistance? KS: The first thing I'll say is that there is so much stigma and resistance to providing cash assistance in the U.S. that we've all but eliminated the one federal program, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), that provides cash. Even with federal programs like food stamps, we see scrutiny of purchases, as evidenced by the discussions that are happening right now about not allowing food stamps to be used for soda or other items deemed "unhealthy." What this means is that we're using policy to micro-manage the decisions and limit the choices of people who have lower incomes, in a way that we do not do to those with higher incomes. This can just feed into harmful and untrue stereotypes of people with low incomes as not being trustworthy. GCN: How would you introduce yourself to our readers? Rebeccah Sokol: I work at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, where I teach and research how access to resources — including income, housing and social support MAY 2, 2025 A research perspective: Poverty Solutions on GIGA2 circumstances through things like education or improved housing. GCN: Are there key issues or takeaways you want Groundcover News readers to know? RS: Understanding if and how GIG Rebeccah Sokol is an Assistant Professor at the U-M School of Social Work. — influences the health and safety of families and communities. GCN: What brought you to social work and what is your background as an activist? RS: My training is in public health, and I now work in the School of Social Work. Blending these two disciplines has shaped my professional focus. A public health approach guides me to consider some of the largest threats to family and community safety, and how insufficient economic or social resources can cause these problems. But it is the social work perspective that encourages me to listen to and work alongside communities to identify and evaluate solutions that make our communities healthier and safer. GCN: What made this project stand out to you? RS: Guaranteed income programs offer an opportunity to address some of the fundamental causes of poor health. We have decades worth of research that shows us that poor Americans have worse health than wealthy Americans. Providing cash assistance to individuals with insufficient living wages is one strategy to provide people with the resources they need to attain their optimal health and well-being. An exciting thing about GIG A2, in particular, is how it celebrates the strengths of recipients. As entrepreneurs and gig workers, GIG A2 recipients are assets to Ann Arbor and the surrounding area. Investing in them means investing in our community. GCN: How do you see the pilot helping in the long run? RS: Guaranteed income and direct cash assistance programs are helping change the narrative around public assistance programs towards one that honors the dignity of all individuals and communities. GIG A2 is one of many pilot programs across the United States and the world. Across these programs, recipients are gaining the autonomy to use funds as they see fit, which they largely spend to meet basic needs, pay bills and better their William Lopez is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the U-M School of Public Health. A2 improves earnings, quality of life and safety is key to helping our elected officials make decisions about how and where to allocate finite resources. Our team is using a randomized controlled trial to help gain these answers, meaning that we are gathering data from both individuals who are receiving a monthly guaranteed income payment and individuals in a research group who are not receiving the payments. I want to extend my wholehearted appreciation to everyone who has completed these questionnaires. Through sharing their thoughts and experiences, we can learn so much from them to hopefully improve the health and well-being for our community and beyond. GCN: What are you observing from the data thus far? RS: Many of our baseline findings align with what other guaranteed income programs have found across the United States. We are now collecting data to learn how recipients have spent these funds during the first year of the program. GCN: Why do you think Ann Arbor is piloting this now? RS: In Ann Arbor, funding for the guaranteed income payments comes from the City of Ann Arbor’s American Rescue Plan Act funds and from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation. The City had polled residents in 2022 to identify how to use ARPA funds to best serve the community, and one of the projects endorsed by community members included a guaranteed income program. GCN: What are you observing from the data thus far? What do you find surprising? William Lopez: The data show people are using money to get see RESEARCH page 14  MAY 2, 2025 POETRY GROUNDCOVER NEWS Ancient Wisdom Tracy Bennett 13 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. Thank you! ACROSS 1. Restrain 5. Out of fashion 10. Bodhrán, in an Irish band 14. State that's home to the "Troll Hole Museum" 15. Artfully dodge 16. Luxurious lifestyle 17. Humdinger 18. Artifact of another time 19. Showed wear and tear 20. Moral: "Those who would mend others, should first mend themselves" 23. Longtime news inits. 24. Yellow-rinded muskmelon 28. Moral: "It is one thing to say that something should be done, but quite a different matter to do it" 32. Port-au-Prince's land 34. Sympathetic anagram of 35-Across 35. Hell's half ___ 36. Every bit 37. Helpful inserts for pointy shoes 40. The time of one's life, maybe 41. Eponymously massage 43. Bake sale array 44. Air force trainee 46. Moral: "Might makes right" 49. Pan's group, in myth 50. Tree that's a gateway to the Underworld, in Celtic lore 51. Source of this puzzle's morality tales 58. "What a relief!" 61. Wolf pack member of W.W. II 62. Mother's sister, e.g. 63. Guatemalan greeting 64. Creator of Winnie-the-Pooh (and Tigger too) 65. Zip 66. Go against 67. Medieval knight's "trusty" transport 68. Fairy ___ (magical sprinkles) DOWN 1. Stable youngster 2. "No way" 3. Poke to provoke, as a bear 4. Bunch caught at a reception 5. Get way off track 6. French "with" 7. What animals can do, in folk tales 8. Correct a narrative, say 9. Poured into cups 10. Salt lake bordering Jordan 11. Many a Scott Joplin tune 12. Application 13. Rx prescription 21. Illuminated from below 22. "What a relief ..." 25. Consent (to) 26. Ballet studio fixture 27. Really irked 28. Soldier's lodging 29. Make housebound by winter weather 30. Where necklace clasps rest 31. Wildebeest's main diet 32. Stags 33. Polynesian greeting 38. Pogo and others, in comics 39. Milan's opera house La ___ 42. "Peter Pan" song about taking off for Neverland 45. Item worn by a soccer team's captain 47. Wrath 48. Lifted, as a heavy weight 52. "In memoriam" piece 53. May festival fixture 54. Able to think clearly 55. Kalua Pua'a feast 56. Conclusions 57. Walks or runs, e.g. 58. Third degree, for some? 59. Home gardening tool 60. Magical creature of Celtic lore

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES The great gig of life PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 Doing gigs wasn’t new for me when I was 16 and started making some money. I'm the oldest of five, and I’ve always helped my parents raise the little ones — not just babysitting, but also teaching them. Especially math. I was always helping with their homework since both my parents worked. Soon enough, I was also helping their friends, sharing what I knew. I managed to keep my grades at school. When I was 18, I came to Michigan as an exchange student and landed in Fenton. As a citizen there, my first official job was at Taco Bell as a “stuffer” — that was in 1995. Later, I worked for a couple of weeks as a landscaper, still in Fenton, before going back to Brazil. Back in Brazil, I did all kinds of gigs. I taught a variety of subjects — math, physics, chemistry, drawing, Portuguese, English, even chess. I was only 20 when I started writing poems professionally, publishing them in a magazine in São Paulo. From there, I moved on to writing articles, and soon enough I was editing and correcting every piece that went into the magazine. I participated in marketing campaigns, translated from English and Spanish to Portuguese, and did tons of street-level data collection as a field researcher. That job carried me through college. I got into the University of São Paulo when I was 19. I passed the entrance exam and earned a full scholarship. Still, I didn’t know exactly what to study at first, so I started out in engineering for two years before deciding to switch to social sciences. That degree included anthropology, sociology and political science. I also took courses in statistics, economics, geography and history. One thing I learned from engineering is to be curious and proactive in my self-learning process — so I kept going, enrolling in psychology and philosophy classes too. I took full advantage of attending such a great school as USP, sitting in on classes across more than 30 departments, mixing undergrad and postgrad courses whenever I could. My first job after starting university was as a tech support assistant, helping people navigate university systems and access resources for their own businesses. After that, I had a gig conducting socio-economic surveys for the Ayrton Senna Project — an initiative to keep teens off the streets through sports and education. As a sociologist, I’ve had experience at all levels of scientific research — from data collection to analysis. I’ve had the privilege of participating in a few government studies, too. I also worked with a magazine called Revista Metropoli, which led us to create a nonprofit called Voice Institute (Ivoz). We worked directly with the community, using their cultural expressions — graffiti, rap, dance — to create visibility and sustainable businesses for them. It was about helping people make a living by doing what they love. Along the way, I’ve done restaurant work too — cooking, cleaning and serving tables by the beach and also in the city of São Paulo. I helped my dad with all sorts of odd jobs, doing some of his accounting, running little errands, but my favorites were anything involving carpentry or general construction work. Living on my own for many years taught me that there are no demeaning jobs. You do what you have to do. If you walk on the floor, you better sweep it. If you use the bathroom, same deal. If the washing machine breaks, you figure out how to fix it. I always say: “The bed you lie in is the one you made.” First, get the job done. Then, think about making a living. Once that’s handled, you can enjoy a little quality time — or maybe work on your next project. When you work for money, you're selling the most precious moments of your life. Work is a cycle. Whatever you're doing now probably needs doing again soon. I take it as a mature thing to recognize your place in society — you should be useful in some way, help your community, and not only do what you’re paid for. In this context, there are no demeaning jobs. You gotta do what you gotta do. The things you do not for direct profit show who you really are, what your intentions are and what you're capable of. Today, I keep looking for good gigs that will challenge me mentally and physically, as I do my work as a Groundcover News vendor and also as a writer. One of my favorite songs is “The Great Gig in the Sky” by Pink Floyd. That title says it all. Life’s one big gig — you just have to play in tune. "And I am not frightened of dying, you know Any time will do, I don't mind Why should I be frightened of dying? There's no reason for it You've gotta go sometime” — Pink Floyd, The Great Gig in the Sky exp. 06/31/2025 MAY 2, 2025  RESEARCH from page 12 businesses going. Some of them are barely getting by so it's great to see people have a little money to invest in their own business. There is a lot of love in Ann Arbor, it’s a beautiful place to live. I was pleasantly surprised that people talk about their city as much as they do in a study about income. GCN: Why do you research this topic out of all the potential programs to improve quality of life outcomes? WL: I think guaranteed income programs are great because they take away all of the bureaucracy and red tape and wasted time that applicants can find frustrating and dehumanizing. It allows you to spend money on what is best for you and that shows trust in the applicants. GCN: Why is it important to popularize these findings through Groundcover, events, etc.? What is the potential impact? WL: Because we want to share how powerful guaranteed income programs can be so that more people support them and more cities adopt them. GCN: What stigma do you observe surrounding cash assistance? WL: There is often a stigma that people don’t work very hard or put effort into finding jobs or use that cash assistance on things that are unhealthy. After taking a closer look at the research process, we learned how important autonomy and dignity are to the investigation team. The undertone seems to be “these people are adults and can solve their own problems if given the right support.” Some might say GIG A2 is just throwing money at a problem, but the team sees something else. They see the integrity and industry of the entrepreneurs of the gig economy. The team seems hopeful that a future with guaranteed income will have a positive impact on Ann Arbor. What will that look like? Fewer evictions? Less food insecurity? Will it truly give small business owners and gig workers an advantage? The project is still going on, so the jury is still out. The investigators seem confident there will be an improvement in the quality of life for the recipients. MAY 2, 2025 VENDOR VOICES Working food delivery service sucks! In 1995, the first restaurant delivery service started in the United States. “Worldwide Waiter” was the first delivery service and is still in operation today as Waiter.com. These days, the top three restaurant delivery services are DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats, which together account for 80% of the sector’s revenue. In the United States, DoorDash dominates the online food delivery market, earning the most revenue with a market share of 67% as of March 2024, followed by UberEats at 23%. Grubhub was a pioneer in the food delivery space, but its market share has been challenged by the competitors. Instacart, which primarily focuses on grocery delivery, is growing rapidly. During the COVID-19 pandemic, as people "sheltered in place," restaurant delivery services saw their sales reach new heights. The reality is that many people are too lazy to prepare their own food or shop for their own food, so although the number of individual sales have slowed down, spending remains higher than pre-pandemic levels. and a year later, I got myself a car and became a delivery driver. All these services have their own set MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Let’s focus on the gig workers: Instacart is often cited as having the best initial compensation, with drivers earning around $30 per hour; DoorDash average weekly payout is $240; Uber Eats is popular for its broad reach and flexible schedule but the weekly average payout is only $140. These food delivery services have millions of drivers across the country, with DoorDash having over seven million active drivers. Last year I decided to give food delivery a try to see if I could make some money. I purchased an electric bike and signed up with both DoorDash and Uber Eats as a bike delivery carrier, of rules, and one of DoorDash’s policies is to not decline more than a certain percentage of orders or you can be terminated from their platform. In contrast, on Uber Eats, one can decline as many orders as he or she pleases. DoorDash requires its drivers to schedule work time unless it's really busy, whereas with UberEats you can sign in and work at any time of the day or night. One of the many things I don’t like about DoorDash is that their app doesn't show the final destination for deliveries. Uber Eats, however, shows the cross-streets or neighborhood of the final food delivery destination. For example, I got an order from Barry’s Bagels on Stadium and I didn’t look at where it was being delivered to, which turned out to be Brighton. I wouldn’t have accepted it if I’d known. I did a few food deliveries for DoorDash, but decided to just use Uber Eats instead. Note: some drivers use DoorDash, UberEats, and Instacart all at the same time. And drivers on the UberEats platform can do rideshare with Uber Rideshare too. The significant downsides of restaurant food delivery services are: • The average pay is around $2-$10 per delivery plus tips; • Finding parking in the downtown area; • Gas prices; • The wear and tear on your car which goes uncompensated; • When the app offers you additional orders while on an active order; • Waiting in long drive-through lines for pickups; • When something goes wrong and you have to try to get in touch with support; • When the restaurant gets the order wrong; • Customers who don’t tip. Please take heed: corporate entities are out to make a profit, so we have to start looking out for one another. If you receive a good timely service from your delivery person, you should look out for your fellow man or woman because DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Instacart are not going to do it. Leave a tip!!! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Lemon garlic salad JUNE MILLER U-M student contributor Lemon garlic dressing*: ⅓ cup olive oil ⅓ cup water ⅓ cup lemon juice 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped) ¼ tsp. salt (to taste) ⅛ tsp. pepper 2 tsp. Italian Seasoning ½ tsp. ground sumac Salad ingredients: 1 bunch/head of leafy greens of your choice 2 large carrots 1 cucumber 1 bell pepper 2 handfuls sugar snap peas ½ cup nuts or seeds of your choice 1 rotisserie chicken or alternate meat Directions: Dump all of the dressing ingredients into your jar. Put the lid on, and shake vigorously. Chop your greens to a desirable size and toss them into your bowl. Chop the carrots, cucumber, bell pepper and sugar snap peas. Chopping each vegetable differently adds variation making the meal more enjoyable to make and eat. I often slice the carrots into strips, chop the cucumbers into triangles, and dice the pepper and pea pods. Add the vegetables and the nuts or seeds to the bowl of greens and toss. Pull apart the rotisserie chicken and add it too. None of the ingredients are essential to the recipe so if you can’t find an ingredient, hate one, or love a different one, replace it or leave it out and you’ll still get an exceptional salad. *The dressing is also great for drizzling over pizza and marinating meat. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS MAY 2, 2025 USE THIS COUPON ANYTIME $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 5/30/2025

2 $ APRIL 18, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 9 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Budget cuts cause Engagement Center closure. page 4 KEN PARKS #490 ASK YOUR VENDOR: HOW DO YOU REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Travels with Dreamer: Riding that train page 10 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator Matthew Zisi. Creative Commons • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER ASK YOUR VENDOR How do you reduce, reuse, recycle? Create no garbage. Compost and recycle everything. — Ken Parks, #490 Do it consistently. Muscle memory is a product of repetition. — Wayne Sparks, #615 Work together. No one can do it alone. — Pedro Campos, #652 I pick up litter whenever I can. — Stephanie Dent, #84 I collect and reuse Kroger bags! And I never litter. — Shawn Swoffer, #574 Spread love, wisdom and joy to my best ability. — Larzell Washington, #128 Eating healthy vegetables is good for the earth and me! — Monte Smith, #487 Don't be a litterbug! — Tony Schohl, #9 1. Dry mirrors without streaks 2. Protect your breakables 3. Make paper mache art/sculpture 4. Cover a table during art projects 5. Decorate with paper chains 6. Stuff in your shoes to accelerate drying APRIL 18, 2025 7. Collage 8. Wrap gifts 9. Kindle fires 10. Give to a friend! PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS John Brooks Jr. Robert Colley Cindy Gere Heather Hale Arhan Kaul June Miller Ken Parks Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer Tommy Spaghetti Wayne S. Steven GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Zach Dortzbach Steve Ross Anabel Sicko Allison Wei VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Sim Bose Jud Branam Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Bella Martinez Robert Klingler Ari Ruczynski Jack Weinberg Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Melanie Wenzel CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons EARTH DAY2025 can be reused in a variety of ways! APRIL 18, 2025 ON MY CORNER My view on the sports world Hello my fans, this is Wayne S. Sorry to be away for so long, but things happen. I hope that you have enjoyed the winter as much as I did. And if you believe that, I have some lakefront property on the Mojave Desert that I'd like to show you. Now that the cold winter season is almost over, I can’t wait to reconnect with everyone — so many of you started as customers and ended up becoming friends. I’ve really missed you all, and I hope you’ve missed me too! It’s going to be a long, hot summer, and I’m sure that I will have a lot to talk about. But first let’s get this March Madness stuff out of the way. Are you a fan? Or are you not? The jury is still out with me. It seems that so much is happening in a short period of time that things are getting by me. Do you feel the same? Right in the middle of March Madness, Wayne Gretzky’s record for scoring goals was broken! Alex Ovechkin broke the 894 goals record that had I love Easter DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 stood for 31 years. There’s so much I can say about this, but I won’t. We are saddened for (the other) Wayne, but records exist to be broken. So congratulations to Alex. This year we also saw one of the biggest contracts in the history of baseball be awarded — $500M contract over the next 14 years to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays. I'm wondering how long it will be before this record is broken and we have a new "biggest contract" in pro sports. Let’s get back to March Madness. For only the second time ever all four men’s teams to make the Final Four were #1 seeds, which made for a bunch of good basketball. By the time you read this article the outcome has been determined: the Florida Gators are the NCAA national champions. Next up is the UCONN women’s basketball team who have won their 12th national championship. How long do you think it will be before this record is broken? So much to think about in women’s sports these days. Ladies, you make people’s lives more interesting! I hope to one day see you get credit for being an overall asset to the sporting community as a whole and not be relegated to just making records that are superficial and taken for granted. Shout out to all the women athletes who train hard, who are dedicated, and who are an asset to the sporting world. Now let’s talk a little bit about the NBA. Most importantly, the Detroit Pistons who are up and coming and Sike Ward JOHN BROOKS JR. Groundcover vendor No. 672 getting ready to rule the NBA again. Is this going to be the “Bad Boys” 2.0? That was the team’s nickname in 1989 and 1990 when they won back-to-back championships. Or are they going to mismanage a team that could make a statement this season that the “Bad Boys” are back? Let’s hope that they don’t falter and make a fool out of me! Next, let’s talk about the Detroit Lions: Healthy, wealthy, wise and on their way to a championship season. I’m sure everyone agrees with me about this. If you don’t, then I just don’t know what to say to you. Go Lions! Last but not least, Michigan Football. Do we have the right guy? I think maybe, maybe not. We should have been a lot better than we were last year. But are we ready to take the next steps? Michigan Football is the love of my life; far be it from me to say or do anything that would make people think otherwise. The only thing I have left to say is, Go Blue! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Easter is beautiful And Easter is wonderful I love Easter because it's about celebrating Jesus who loves me and you and everybody else, too. I know this is true Because I read the Bible and the Bible is true. Easter is for me and Easter is for you God made Easter to celebrate for Everybody else, too! I love bunnies and pretty dresses and Easter candy I like to always keep plenty of it handy. Easter is lovely just like Christmas It is pretty and lovely, too. Going to Frankenmuth is one of my favorite outings to go and do Christmas and Easter are very lovely And for me that is very true. Trapped in the System, Not only physically but mentally, Unless you walked the path I walked, There's no possible way you feeling me, Loyalty above all, Guided by none trust few, Free Haley until they set her free I know she hear me, A2 got her too, Free Black, Free Ed Boii, Free Bronta Ypsi know I’m the DIAMOND Child Chi got lil durk — YPSI got me too. 6/30/2025 Habebe

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS RECOVERY On Tuesday, April 1, an email went out to all Home of New Vision staff stating that the Engagement Center would be closing immediately. It was no April Fool’s joke. A similar email was sent to Dawn Farm employees stating that the organization received "a ‘stop-work order’ to discontinue any American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funded programs immediately.” This directly impacted their Strong Roots family recovery program which provides housing and supportive services to families with parents in recovery. The Trump Administration federal Department of Health and Human Services sent out a memo that certain federal grants, including Block Grant funds allocated to states and LINDSAY CALKA Publisher communities, appropriated under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 (H.R. 1319), were purportedly being terminated immediately. This termination of funding purported to take effect the same day. The ARPA grants had been scheduled to continue through the fiscal year. Nintety-one percent of the Engagement Center’s budget was funded by ARPA. According to CEO Heather Williams, Home of New Vision does not have any unrestricted funding so the organization would need to raise over $300,000 in private donations to keep the center open in 2025, not to mention 2026 and beyond. A Facebook post created by a community member broke the news to the public. It stated, the “Engagement Center in Ypsilanti served as a crisis intervention facility, offering a supervised and supportive environment for individuals struggling with substance use and co-occurring disorders … especially those ready to enter substance use treatment but facing waitlists for an available bed. The Center APRIL 18, 2025 Budget cuts cause abrupt Engagement Center closure provided a crucial space where individuals could stay, receive support, and be connected to treatment facilities and recovery resources. “Now, without this ‘bridge,’ the gap in care becomes even wider. Patients seeking treatment often wait days, if not weeks, for an open bed. Without the Engagement Center, those who detox in the hospital will now be discharged home — or to the streets if they have no home — left to wait with little to no support. “This closure is more than just the loss of a facility; it’s the loss of a critical lifeline for some of the most vulnerable members of our community.” Gary Jackson, a former Engagement see ENGAGEMENT page 7  From overdose to opportunity: How Home of New Vision's ROOT team is saving lives ROBERT COLLEY Home of New Vision The Recovery Opioid Overdose Team (ROOT) at Home of New Vision plays a critical role in addressing opioid use disorders in Washtenaw County. The team focuses on overdose prevention, harm reduction and peer-based recovery support to individuals in crisis situations. ROOT team members perform various duties, including updating client files, preparing outreach bags, attending community events and responding to overdose alerts. A key responsibility is direct engagement with individuals who have experienced an overdose. When an alert indicates that Narcan has been administered, ROOT dispatches its Quick Response Team to connect with the individual, offering treatment resources and follow-up care for up to six months. The ROOT crisis phone is available 24/7 and provides immediate assistance to anyone experiencing or witnessing an overdose. ROOT’s services are delivered by Certified Peer Recovery Coaches, individuals with lived experience of substance use who are in sustained recovery. CPRCs must have at least two years of recovery and a demonstrated commitment to helping others. Their lived experience allows them to connect with clients on a level that enhances trust and relatability. ROOT works closely with the Washtenaw Recovery Advocacy Project (WRAP), sharing office space and collaborating on events such as Soberbowl and community college outreach. These events aim to raise awareness, reduce stigma and connect individuals with resources. ROOT and WRAP also direct outreach in urban areas, distributing backpacks containing Narcan, hygiene supplies and recovery literature. These efforts provide tangible support and open doors for conversation about treatment and recovery. Home of New Vision supports multiple recovery pathways, including SMART Recovery, Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Recovery Dharma, Recovery Yoga and Christian-based options like Celebrate Recovery. This approach ensures that individuals can choose the recovery model that resonates most with them. Impact and Michigan Overdose Trends Michigan continues to face the challenges of the opioid crisis, but recent data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) show signs of progress: • 2020: 2,738 overdose deaths • 2021: 3,096 overdose deaths (peak year) • 2022: 2,998 overdose deaths • 2023: 2,826 overdose deaths (provisional) • January–July 2024: 1,200 deaths (provisional) According to MDHHS, the overall Free Narcan Locations ROOT is committed to harm reduction practices, including the distribution of clean syringes, fentanyl/ xylazine/nitazene testing strips and Narcan. These initiatives are designed to reduce the spread of disease and prevent fatal overdoses. Harm reduction builds rapport and trust, especially with individuals who may not yet be ready for treatment. Free Narcan kits are available at overdose death rate dropped from 31.1 per 100,000 in 2021 to 28.2 in 2023 — a 5.7% reduction. This decline in Michigan is nearly five times greater than the national average over the same period. This progress is credited to statewide harm reduction efforts, including the Naloxone Direct Portal, which has distributed over 1 million naloxone kits and contributed to more than 21,000 documented overdose reversals. Other significant initiatives include the expansion of Medicaid Substance Use Disorder provider capacity, access to medications for opioid use disorder and transportation services for treatment access. Despite improvements, disparities remain. In 2023, the likelihood of dying from an overdose was 2.8 times greater for Black residents and 2.2 times greater for American Indian/Alaska Native than for white residents. MDHHS addresses these inequities through targeted interventions and community-based support services. multiple sites throughout Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and surrounding areas. Locations include libraries, community centers, health departments and pharmacies. The ROOT team stocks and maintains these resources which are accessible to the public — some even 24/7. To find a location near you or to learn more, scan the QR code on page 12. Moving Forward ROOT continues its mission of engaging individuals before and after overdose, promoting recovery and providing essential harm reduction tools. As Michigan leads the nation in opioid response strategies, local efforts like ROOT remain vital to ensuring recovery resources are accessible and equitable for all. If you or someone you know is seeking support for substance use, Home of New Vision can help. Services are available for individuals at any stage of recovery, including those not yet ready for treatment. 24/7 Crisis Line: 734-417-6363 Phone: 734-975-1602 Main Office: 3115 Professional Dr, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 Walk-ins: Mon.–Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Whether you are looking for treatment or peer support or want to learn more about recovery pathways, the Home of New Vision team is ready to support you. Learn more about our other programs online at: https://homeofnewvision.org/ APRIL 18, 2025 TRUMP Presidential action: "Ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling" HEATHER HALE U-M student contributor On January 29, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14190, titled "Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling," aiming to reshape the educational landscape by addressing concerns over certain instructional content in schools. This executive order is part of a broader policy agenda that includes additional executive actions school focused on expanding choice and regulating campus activism. The administration's policy framework, known as Agenda 47, introduces measures to reduce federal funding for programs that incorporate critical race theory and discussions on gender ideology, reinforcing a vision of education centered on “traditional” American values. Key provisions of Executive Order 14190 The executive order encompasses several significant directives: Prohibition of Specific Educational Content: Schools are barred from teaching materials deemed "anti-American" or "subversive," including critical race theory, discussions on systemic racism, gender identity, and any curriculum suggesting the United States has a fundamentally oppressive history. Historical events such as slavery and segregation may only be discussed within a "patriotic framework," emphasizing national progress rather than ongoing systemic issues. Law Enforcement Involvement: Educational institutions suspected of promoting prohibited content may face investigations conducted by federal oversight committees. Teachers facilitating discussions on gender identity, systemic racism or using students' preferred pronouns risk suspension, termination or even legal charges for violating the order. Funding Revocation: Schools that fail to comply with the order's provisions risk losing federal funding, including Title I funding, which supports low-income students. This measure is intended to enforce adherence to the policy and deter school districts from incorporating restricted content. Reinstatement of the 1776 Commission: The order revives the 1776 Commission, an initiative promoting "patriotic education." Originally established in 2020 during Trump’s first term, the commission aimed to counter what it described as a leftwing distortion of American history by emphasizing the nation's founding principles and achievements. It was disbanded by President Joe Biden in 2021, as critics argued that it presented a historically inaccurate and overly celebratory view of American history while downplaying issues like slavery and systemic racism. Schools receiving federal funds must now integrate materials from the commission into their history curricula, prioritizing narratives that highlight American exceptionalism. Impacts on educational institutions The implementation of this order has led to significant changes within educational organizations. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Learning Media removed LGBTQ+ educational resources and closed its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office. The Department of Education has undergone extensive restructuring, with significant cuts to research programs and financial aid services, raising concerns about access to higher education for underprivileged students. Ann Arbor, known for its progressive educational values, has been deeply affected by the executive order. Ann Arbor Public Schools has opposed the order, reaffirming its commitment to inclusivity while simultaneously grappling with potential federal funding losses. In response, the district has implemented protective measures, such as offering after-school discussion groups where students can engage in conversations on race and identity outside of federally regulated curricula. The district has also partnered with local advocacy organizations to provide legal resources for educators who face penalties under the new directives. At the University of Michigan, faculty and students have expressed strong opposition to the order. The university has joined national coalitions challenging the order’s restrictions on academic freedom, with student protests erupting on campus and faculty members releasing statements emphasizing the importance of diverse perspectives in education. Local educator’s experience One tangible example of the order's effects can be seen in the case of Olivia Martinez, a history teacher at Huron High School in Ann Arbor. Martinez was placed on administrative leave after assigning a reading on the impact of redlining and systemic racism in housing policy. Despite the reading being based on peer-reviewed historical research, it was flagged as "anti-American" under the executive order’s provisions. The incident has sparked outrage among students and parents, with petitions calling for her reinstatement and legal organizations stepping in to provide support. This executive order has sparked a wide range of reactions. Supporters argue that the order is essential for protecting children from exposure to controversial topics and reinforcing traditional values. On the other hand, critics contend that it suppresses free speech, marginalizes LGBTQ+ students, and limits discussions on race and identity. Legal challenges are anticipated, with several organizations asserting that the order is unconstitutional. As the nation continues to grapple with these changes, the future of educational policy remains a contested battleground. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out Washtenaw Library for the Blind & Print Disabled at AADL This free service loans books, magazines, & videos in alternative formats (audiobooks, large print, braille books & magazines, and descriptive video) to individuals who are unable to read or use standard printed materials. Visit aadl.org/wlbpd/apply to apply. Public Computers The AADL has public-access Internet computers available for use by both cardholders and noncardholders at all five locations. Each station has USB ports, headphone jacks, and some of the fastest wifi speeds in town! FEATURED EVENT Sunday, May 4 • 11am–4pm Downtown Library You don’t need to travel to a galaxy far, far away to celebrate May the Fourth. Come to the Downtown Library for themed photo ops, games, storytime, crafts, screenings, and music! Check out aadl.org/starwarsday for more!

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS EARTH DAY 2025 Ann Arbor pursues carbon neutrality goals ARHAN KAUL U-M student contributor Through its A2Zero Initiative, Ann Arbor has set an ambitious goal to go carbon-neutral by 2030. This plan is meant to reduce the City’s carbon footprint. Ann Arbor is choosing to focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency efforts and community engagement. According to the Ann Arbor City Council’s update on the plan, A2Zero provides a framework for this transition away from fossil fuels and promotes a new infrastructure to support reduced fossil fuel consumption. This initiative includes infrastructure investments in clean energy, sustainable transportation and other climate technologies. In particular, the A2Zero plan is designed to help the community by setting goals for Ann Arbor residents and leaders to pursue. The creators of A2Zero have set seven strategies that they hope will drive this change: 1. Reduce vehicle mileage by 50%. 2. Switch to renewable energy. 3. Improve energy efficiency. 4. Move to a circular economy. 5. Enhance local food systems. 6. Protect green spaces. 7. Foster more community education on green efforts. This comprehensive approach will ensure that Ann Arbor and its citizens have a smooth transition into a new age of energy use. While these goals and strategies may seem lofty, the city has been on track so far. In fact, A2Zero has made significant progress towards approaching its goal of 2030 carbon neutrality, City leaders say. The Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority (The Ride) has been actively transitioning its fleet toward low-emission vehicles. The Ride's 2045 plan emphasizes luring more people out of their cars and introducing low-emissions buses. Read more about the Ride 2045 in the December 27, 2024 edition of Groundcover News. To promote active transportation, Ann Arbor has invested in enhancing its bike lanes and pedestrian pathways. The Downtown Ann Arbor Curb Management Plan, published in October 2024, highlights the construction of new bike lanes and pedestrian spaces, supporting the City's goals for sustainable transportation options. Additionally, programs like Ann Arbor Solarize, a bulk buy solar program, bring together residents and solar installers to make bulk purchases of solar panels. This makes buying solar energy more affordable for residents. Another key aspect of A2Zero has been community engagement and education. Ann Arbor has been incorporating various programs to inform residents about the benefits of sustainability and how they can participate in green initiatives. The City has been hosting workshops, distributing educational materials and investing in green initiatives to speed up the transition to renewable energy. On February 28, the Circular Economy subgroup came to the Groundcover News office to survey vendors about their personal sustainability practices. To ensure long term sustainability, Ann Arbor has been trying to implement more policy changes to align with A2Zero objectives. Measures include updating building codes with more energy-efficient designs and providing incentives for businesses and consumers who participate in green energy efforts. These efforts also support Ann Arbor’s focus on educating citizens on sustainable thinking, encouraging long-term behavioral changes that promote energy conservation, waste reduction and the adoption of renewable technologies. Through community programs and policy initiatives, the City aims to create a culture of sustainability that extends beyond 2030, ensuring lasting environmental benefits for future generations. APRIL 18, 2025 Earth Day 2025: Celebrating youth leadership in environmental protection and action WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 Earth Day is the culmination of the 1960s environmental movement. Rachel Carson’s 1962 book “Silent Spring” about pesticide DDT and its resulting pollution had captured the public attention, as well as that of President John F. Kennedy. The massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, and the huge fire that flamed because of chemical dumps on the Cuyahoga river in Cleveland, Ohio, were viewed by millions of Americans in their living rooms on TV and in print media. The late 1960s was a period when many young Americans were described by the politicians and mass media as members of the counter-culture. It was also a period of civil rights struggles and the women’s liberation movement. There were protests by young people against the polluters in California and Ohio. Because there were no legal or regulatory mechanisms from the federal government to deal with hazardous waste dumping and dangerous chemical pollution, young Americans in colleges, high schools and other walks of life took to the streets to demonstrate. At Michigan, the students initiated a teach-in which was the model recommended by the founder of Earth Day, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. Senator Nelson called for a teach-in at all college campuses across the nation on April 22, 1970. On that day, about 20 million Americans demonstrated. They wanted to raise the level of awareness of the American people about the need to protect the environment with legislation and community actions. Many historians and journalists have concluded that the April 22 Earth Day event of 1970 was a huge success. The impacts are staggering. Congress passed the Clean Air Act in 1972. Subsequently, they passed the Clean Water Act. President Richard Nixon established a cabinet-level agency known as the Environmental Protection Agency. EPA’s mandate was the protection of the environment and public health. Later, in 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act), often known as the “Superfund Law.” It was amended and reauthorized in 1986 and again in 1999. Though climate the University of change was excluded from the EPA’s mandate, since that time it has become the most pressing issue in the environmental Environmental Action for Survival: The History and Legacies of U-M's 1970 Teach-In on the Environment (2020). Photo from U-M School of the Environment and Sustainabilty debate. The Earth’s temperature has risen to new and unbearable levels since the Earth Day of 1970. We have been using the concept of “climate change” to describe the trends and impacts of global warming which result in disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes, monsoons, tornadoes, flash flooding, drought and their impact on migration and wildlife. The year 2023, for a short while, was described as the hottest year since 1800 when weather forecasters started to measure global heat temperatures. It was 1.48 degrees Celsius. However, the temperature in 2024 was higher than the previous year. The temperature was recorded at 1.55 degrees Celsius, exceeding the threshold established by the 2015 Paris Accord on annual global temperatures. It is possible that the 2025 global temperature will surpass 2024 levels. As part of the Paris Agreement on climate change, it is recommended that the United Nations Conference on Climate Change do more to show success or failure towards the attainment see EARTH DAY page 11  APRIL 18, 2025 PRISON ART Art intel: Prison art reflections I attended a wonderful event at the University of Michigan Duderstadt Gallery. The event, called the Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners, is a result of U-M facilitation of the creation of art projects by many prisoners from Michigan — right at the prison. The Prison Creative Arts Project also allows the incarcerated to take classes in art. The resulting pieces of art, all on display at the gallery, range vastly from rococo painting and classical arts to abstractions and amazing sculptures, as well as crafts in paper arts and spray painting on fabrics. With the photos I took, what I tried to do as a former arts teacher was to show the extreme variety of the arts, including my favorites within the project. This show was from March 18 to April 1, and on the first night many artworks were sold, with the proceeds going to the prisoners. This helps them pay for basic needs as well as more paints and supplies for the next year's arts projects. The talent is absolutely amazing …  ENGAGEMENT from page 4 Center service-recipient, shared, “The Engagement Center can lead people to recovery. They let me stay there until I went to Dawn Farm. That was the beginning of my recovery; now I’ve been sober for close to three years. “It's like they don’t want people to seek help, they want us to stay sick.” Williams commented that Home of New Vision is working behind the scenes to get something in that space that is semi-similar in some capacity. The Engagement Center in Jackson, Mich. is still open and fully operational due to its divergent funding sources. CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 There were images where I was shocked about how much detail and true thought processes had gone into them. One work I found very powerful was the "See No, Hear No, Speak No Justice" art piece. This spoke to me hard. I felt the artist was talking about a truly universal issue when it comes to incarceration. This idea of not hearing the people at all with regards to being become a real issue in our society, to the point that the psychiatric institutions are now diagnosing being in long Other Home of New Vision programs impacted by the ARPA work-stopage include their Women's Speciality Program (51% ARPA funding), ROOT Quick Response Team (see article page 4), and harm reduction (13%). This has resulted in lay-offs and service reductions. Dawn Farm raised over $40,000 in three days which will prevent any immediate service disruptions for the Strong Roots families. term incarceration as a real mental illness. The long-term trauma of imprisonment can turn into PTSD and sadly, there may be suicide linked to it, which we don’t talk about at all. The trauma may also lead to reoffending, sometimes because of the idea that a person becomes totally dependent on the system — as in “I can't take living in society, I only know how to live in the prison system, I can only live in the prison system.” This diagnosis is slowly being recognized as a real disorder and some people are in fact on disability for it. We need to address these issues and rethink prisons. There is a very powerful system of institutionalized has now incarceration that is modelled after British Columbian native tribes in Canada where each person spends time finding ways in nature to show their apology to victims, family and community after living off the land and reconciliation to nature and one's self. At the end, the prisoner rediscovers oneself and gives back to the community and family they trangressed GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 See No, Speak No, Hear No Justice. Robert Tate, acrylic. 2025. against. To me, prison is putting people in cages, much like a zoo, and we humans are way better than that. I think it's time to completely gut the system and bring back a more direct approach of taking full responsibility, showing remorse, and giving restitution to the family or community directly.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CUBA Where is the revolution? KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 The revolution begins when you realize that reality is your home and it is ever-present. It’s easy to forget as the playfulness of the mind takes you on past reveries, irrelevant but brilliant distractions of the moment and a large range of future plans and possibilities. You may notice that you are not fully present. Every mistake or interruption is a reminder. If impatience arises, you have lost it. There are remedies to help you tune back in. Take a breath all the way to the bottom and relax. Seven breaths is a good marker. Allow a natural breath to flow. Breathe the rhythm of your work. Maybe the keypad is dancing to your flow or you hit the nail on the head and drive it home. Building a house becomes easy as we learn land sovereignty and tune in to the barnraising ethic of our ancestors. The Amish and Habitat for Humanity remember this heritage which is in our bones. If you use the above as a guide you will most likely discover that reality is revolutionary. Everything you need is at hand. Even a scam may mean “DIG IN” and get to the bottom of the mess and stand your ground with what you learned. That’s what Richard Werner did in his book “Princes of the Yen,” which is about money and power, and his podcast “The Deep State.” He tells us the simple truth about financial policy and the government/corporations. I follow him and Jack Kruse to show, as I would summarize it, that reality is decentralized in nature and that Mother Nature is our guide to this complexity. Mind training is essential so that we can rest in this natural state. There are many teachers. When you are ready, you will learn how to tune in. Study and experience will come together as you master how to do it yourself in the presence of a teacher. There are masters who can point the way regardless of where you are on the stages of the path. Groundcover News will help you stay tuned in. When I was preparing for a trip to Cuba, I focused on organizing basics such as shoes, seeds, supplements, herbs, solar panels, and greenhouse plastic — to be healthy and productive for the long term. When the American and Cuban revolutions meet, both countries will advance. Ann Arbor has a history of movement work that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. mentioned at the University of Michigan. You can see his quote on the first floor of the Michigan Union. “Students have a responsibility to participate in the movement.” Students for a Democratic Society did this and popularized “participatory democracy” as the slogan to embody. Unless you are an astronaut or in the Bardo (which usually refers to the gap between death and rebirth) looking at the vast open space, the earth is always under your feet. The Groundcover community is part of the global movement that is learning connection to reality. If the rhythm of the powwow (one was held at Skyline High School in March) is in your awareness, you are on the good road. I am back from Cuba now. I found several people who are earth-centered and promote what we learn from the moringa tree that food is medicine. It helped me heal from the bladder/prostate issues that intensified because I forgot the medicine prescribed by the urologist and was forced to use what was at hand. Turmeric helps; plants are our healing companions. The U.S. dollar is king in Cuba now. The community gardens have collapsed as healthy projects. That food is not going to the schools as in past years, but to export and government APRIL 18, 2025 Ken and his neighbor, Dunya, in Havana. stores which sell in U.S. currency. So many Cubans want to emigrate in order to survive. The global view is to be cultivated and every form of resistance will feed into a growing awareness of the debt slavery we all face. Can government workers collaborate with the people to move the money from warfare to human needs? People of the world, arise and throw off your chains. Start with a mindful breath and continue until the job is done. Remember Easter. You can kill the revolutionary but you can’t kill the Revolution. Stay strong, keep the faith. See you on April 20 at the Commons (all day)! annarborcommunitycommons.org. APRIL 18, 2025 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Pack (down) 5. Edmonton hockey player 10. Common request 14. Black cat, maybe 15. Danger signal 16. 2002 Winter Olympics locale 17. Greet the day 18. Plant life 19. Shakespeare, for one 20. Ineffectively 23. Jane ___, third wife of Henry VIII 24. At liberty 25. Morsel for a horse 26. Brother of Abel 28. Big Apple attraction, with "the" 31. Star of the Berlin Olympics 34. Merlin or Cassandra 35. Biological groupings 36. Device that expresses data in binary code 39. Earthenware pot 40. It may be proper 41. At attention 42. Handwoven Scandinavian rug 43. Any thing 44. Jail, slangily 45. ___ of the above 47. Spartan 51. Flag-carrying soldier 54. Animal house 55. Bouquet 56. Verve 57. "Green Gables" girl 58. Link 59. Records 60. Garden intruder 61. Bridge positions 62. Coastal raptor DOWN 1. Doughnut shape 2. Nitrogen compound 3. Chaotic 4. Pulmonary disease 5. Fabric remnant 6. More sick 7. Neighbor of Cambodia 8. Blows it 9. Assert again 10. 100 kopecks 11. Draw 12. Be different 13. High degree 21. Go downhill, maybe 22. Ashes holder 26. First part of the large intestine 27. "___ Flux" 29. Board member, for short 30. Bakery buy 31. Aroma 32. Cunning 33. Sweetbriar 34. ___ gin fizz 35. Record player 37. Come before 38. Porridge ingredient 43. B & B 44. Residents of Havana 46. Propelled a boat 47. Own up to 48. Glitch 49. Despot's duration 50. Jagged, as a leaf's edge 51. All there 52. Part of a score, maybe 53. Some deer 54. Bar topic

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CREATIVE Travels with Dreamer: Riding that train STEVEN Groundcover vendor No. 668 Editor’s Note: This article is a prequel to the “Travels With Dreamer” pieces in the March 7 and March 21 issues of Groundcover. I met Dreamer for the first time at a Rainbow Gathering. Dreamer, unbeknownst to me, would be instrumental as a wingman for me with The Girl in the Shiny Green Dress. We got to talking and smoked tons of weed (no booze in the gathering — only in the parking lot. One of the few rules. I liked the parking lot a lot, too). I knew I wanted to go to New Orleans; Dreamer knew he would find just the mushrooms he'd been looking for in New Orleans. If I'd known at the time that his main mission was mushrooms, I would have walked less than 100 yards in any direction and probably got him some ... Sigh. After a few awesome conversations with some older Road Dogs, we picked up enough know-how to hop trains, we thought. A couple nuggets I still remember: If you're trying to grab a moving train, don't if you can avoid it. If you really feel like you need to get on that train, look at the bolts on the wheels. If you can see individual bolts you might be okay. If you can't make out individual bolts, it's going too fast. It may seem to be going slow enough but if the bolts are a blur, it's going too fast. Whether true or not we took it as sage advice. The other useful tip I remember proved to be important. While walking the tracks, pick up a couple of railroad spikes to carry with you if you think you might climb into a boxcar. When riding in a boxcar, take one of those spikes and wedge it into the bottom of the door to jam it open. The idea is that if the train car jerks suddenly or stops, the door could slam shut. Some of those cars go months between uses and you'll be a skeleton when they find you. That was a good nugget, or at least not a bad one. Whatever other advice he gave us is lost to me except for the tip that was bad advice. He told us the rail Switchers don't care about hobos so you can ask them where the trains are going. If possible, you get on a train at a switchyard while it's not moving, and after you ask a Switcher where it goes. Cool, no sweat. We found a stopped train. I think it was grain. No inside available to climb into, nothing realistic to ride on top of. At the ends of the cars were platforms just big enough to sit on so we got on those. They were small platforms and we had to sit separately. It was nice just relaxing with my thoughts. Of course we had to wait until the train moved. We rode that way a while, into the night. I can’t say for sure how long we rode that way, but not really very long compared to the other rides we had. It stopped at a rail yard and we were able to just get off without any cowboy-type gymnastics. We quickly found a coal car and climbed up. Coal cars were open to the sky like big rectangular buckets. The coal stopped a bit before the top so we could hunker down out of the wind. We waited. The train started moving before dawn so we got to see the sun rise from the top of a raised moving platform. It was amazing. The sun turned the dew-laced tops of the verdantly crowned trees below us into dazzling sequin-gloved jazz hands as we came to a bridge over a lake. It was a long bridge and I felt privileged to be able to see the lake this way. I wasn’t privileged; I was breaking the law. Pfft semantics. Off to the left, below on the lake, were a couple of dudes fishing from a modest boat. I hollered down to them, knowing it's a fishing foul, “Hey guys, where are we?” They raised their breakfast beers together and shouted through laughter, “Virginia!” I responded, also laughing my ass off, “It's beautiful!” It was beautiful. The coal train stopped at an actual switching yard. What luck we figured. A bunch of stopped trains, lots of open cars. Holy shit, there’s even a switcher guy. We mosey on up, ask him about destinations and make some small talk, then bid him good day. I was 6’3” at the time with long, filthy red hair past my shoulders. I’m pretty filthy in general, at this point we both were. Ratty torn jeans patched with safety pins and random swathes of cloth and a sweet-as-hell tight red leather jacket that had been my uncle’s in the 70s. Oh, and of course Chuck Taylors on my feet, shoes known for their amazing support for all the walking I was doing. Dreamer was shortish, kind of built but not bulky. He had brown dreads past his ears with beads and whatnot affixed to them randomly in a few places. Jeans and a tie-dye shirt and a gray hoodie. Both with overstuffed backpacks, we looked like a couple of dirty hippies. We climbed on a train the old guy said was going to Panama City, then we waited hours. We did a lot of waiting for trains. In unmoving trains and trains yet to arrive. In my brilliance I figured if the train is going to South America it's going generally south west, so close enough to the direction of New Orleans. I wasn’t a big spring break scholar so I had no idea there was a Panama City, Florida. Dreamer put his complete faith in me — I’m not sure why. Out of the blue the giant metal began making tentative sounds, not little sounds, far too much iron and steel for little sounds. So long, Illinois. It became dark not long after the Pennsylvanian Behemoth began its slow creep to cruising speed. Dreamer and I were soon conked out. I slept the sleep of salvation. The noises — the clickety clacks, the chunk chunks, the banging lights of intersections, the steamy banshee wail at the will of the engineer, the whooshing wind, the constant drumming of my friend and the rhythmic rocking motions — the smells of timber and tar, the clear autumn sky giving up its stars, the wild fantastic whimsies of my goofy musings combined to form a singular momentous sleep. The morning's gloaming woke us early. The train was stopped; we were cold and hungry. We poked our heads about to see what's up. It's not a railyard per se, but I guess another switching station. Out we climbed, stretching our bones. Sleeping on the wood floor of a boxcar is less comfortable than it sounds even though the train's lullaby is so soothing. We clambered over the car connectors between the cars. Well, I clambered; Dreamer, with the grace of a percussionist, threw himself in some way at this hurdle. He crashed. Kind of bad. He sprained his ankle like it-may-aswell-be-broken sprained ... This effingguy. Come on man. Did I think of walking off and ditching his ass? I can't remember but it would have been on brand. I’m a living crutch now. We hobbled to the edge of the tracks and holy shit there's a walk-in clinic like, right over there. Its parking lot abuts the train company's private property, where we were. Were we lucky? I mean, no sprained ankle would have been better but okay, this works. I've had sprained ankles and all these years later I sympathize with him but at the time I wanted to slap the shit out of him. Not really of course but it was a hassle to crutch him and our gear over to the clinic. We left with his ankle wrapped up and actual crutches. I guess they thought one of us was going to pay them? The lady at the counter was not a fan of ours. After a short walk back to the train we were in decent spirits, all things considered. As we approached I noticed something. "Dude, Dreamer hang on man. - Dude this isn't our train.” "Whaddya mean man? This is where we left it isn't it?” "Well yeah man this is totally where we left it but look at it man, there's like no boxcar that we wedged open.” After he casts a slight glance around, I swear I heard a bell ring somewhere, Dreamer says, "Damn dude this isn't our f***ing train bro.” "That's what I'm saying man.” I let my frustration play on the nefarious train-swap and not all the crap that would hurt his feelings. "What are we gonna do?" "Well," I took off my hat and scratched my sweaty head, squinted my eyes thoughtfully for a minute then continued, "Well this train is pointed the same way, let's just jump on this one." It was in fact the same train. After waiting many hours it moved again. Really we were lucky we didn't wait much longer for any of the trains. We had spent a very long time at the clinic and we were tired and went to sleep in a boxcar. No wedged open door this time. We had been in thinking it was a different train, so we risked getting on the one with no spikes. We woke in shock and confusion to bright lights in our eyes. Emanating from the darkness was belligerent twangy shouting. It took very little time for me to realize this was the cops and we was getting busted. We were arrested in Panama City, dragged off the train, cuffed and taken to the station for processing. We were searched thoroughly and kept separate, of course. By the time I went in front of a judge via teleconferencing I’d been in jail three days. The older judge actually laughed when the charges were read, saying he hadn't heard these charges in a long time. He gave us three days time served and we were kicked loose. As the judge was asking what our plans were, with the very real hint they should include leaving town, I said we were headed to New Orleans. The arresting officer pokes his head into the camera view and tells us, also laughing, to hitch and stay away from the trains. Paying cash for LP Records, CDs, 45s, large and small collections. Also buying guitars, amplifiers. Call or Text: 734.476.3355 APRIL 18, 2025 APRIL 18, 2025 CREATIVE GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11  EARTH DAY from page 6 of climate goals, and the Conference of Parties schedule annual objectives and dialogues to discuss climate actions. The 2025 COP meeting will be in Brazil. It is noteworthy that the first COP meeting which the UNFCCC arranged took place in Berlin in 1995, an indication that the UN was taking climate change seriously early on. The UN acted to involve a lot of nations in what they regarded as a serious threat. Since then, young Americans and young people all over the world such as Greta Thunberg of Sweden led peaceful protests and demonstrations to save the Planet Earth. The Michigan Connection to Earth Day It is almost impossible to tell the story of Earth Day and the modern environmental movement without mentioning the local connection. It is fair to say that the founding fathers and founding mothers of Earth Day have their roots planted at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The U-M teach-in event in March 1970 was the precursor to the April Earth Day events. Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson, as well as Michigan’s Republican Governor William Milliken, attended. As we mark the 55th anniversary of Earth Day, let us take some time to remember those young students of 1970, now older adults, who as members of U-M’s Environmental Action for Survival mobilized their peers on campus to join them to raise awareness about saving our Planet Earth. They held that first teach-in for the environment in March 1970, before Gaylord Nelson called for a nationwide teach-in at US college campuses on April 22, 1970. On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability invited some of the students (four males and two females) to tell their stories about Earth Day and their participation in the movement — way back in 1970. The title of the public lecture was: “Environmental Action for Survival: The History and Legacies of U-M’s 1970 Teach-In on the Environment.” During the public lecture, they shared their story of activism and determination to raise the level of consciousness of the American public to the dangers and risks of inaction. They wanted public decision-makers to hear their voice and take actions to save lives, protect the environment and safeguard public health. A display at the 50th anniversary reunion in 2020 noted, “... Environmental Action for Survival (ENACT) organized a fourday environmental teach-in at the University of Michigan, the precursor of the national Earth Day event that drew 20 million people on April 22, 1970. (See photo on page 7 of ENACT members and the round poster which they displayed. The poster said, “GIVE EARTH A CHANCE.”) Conclusion Earth Day is a major event in many countries across the globe. There are always large crowds in cities and towns, especially college towns. At the University of Michigan campus there will be many events planned and scheduled. On March 25, 2024, the University First Earth Day in the Diag. International Institute for Sustainbility and Development Record magazine carried a front-page headline, “Earth Month puts focus on U-M sustainability efforts.” Sustainability communication writer Adam Fisher wrote, “U-M is marking late March and all of April with a series of events focused on sustainability and climate action, continuing a tradition that began with the first 'Teach-in on the environment' in 1970 — which grew into what is now known as Earth Day.” The events of 2024 included the following topics: Climate Vulnerability and Health Symposium; U.S. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland on Environmental Justice and Confronting Climate Crisis; Water at Michigan Symposium; and Leadership for Turning Climate Anxiety into Action. The spirit of bipartisanship and consensus about protecting the earth as reflected in the April 22, 1970, event seems to have been waning. Some branches of the federal government and state governments have been challenging the benefits of environmental protection. We must be vigilant. Let’s keep our planet safe. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Oatballs JUNE MILLER U-M student contributor Oatballs are a filling snack to give you a boost of energy between meals. Their long shelf life makes them a great snack to always have on hand. Ingredients: 5 cups whole oats 1 16 oz. jar of peanut butter or nut butter of your choice ¾ cup maple syrup ½ cup nuts Chocolate chips (measure with your heart) Directions: Put all of your ingredients into a bowl and mix! Scoop out a spoonful at a time and roll into a ball. Plop them into a container or plastic bag and store them in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks or in the freezer for 1-2 months. SPRINGcleaning? DON’T THROW AWAY! KIWANIS WILL REUSE IN SOME OTHER WAY! Large I tem/Quant i ty Donat ion FREE Pickup Upon Request ! 100 N STAEBLER RD, ANN ARBOR MI 48103 OFF JACKSON RD IN SCIO TOWNSHIP Building Bridges Fashion & Art Show Featuring upcycled fashion on and off the runway Art on a Journey presents : April 25, 5 - 7 p.m., 16 S Washington St. Ypsilanti Art on a Journey is raising money to provide art supplies for artists with lived experience. Dinner provided. 734-665-0450 on s i te donat ions accepted Saturdays 9am-12pm APRIL 18, 2025 USE THIS COUPON ANYTIME $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 5/30/2025

2 $ APRIL 4, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 8 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Reflection on the Daytime Warming Center. page 4 MEET YOUR VENDOR: TONY SCHOHL PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. PoetTreeTown participant Mouna Ammar reads a poem from her 2024 book "Zmagria." Featuring 22 poems from 16 unique Washtenaw County poets — POETRY EDITION THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor # @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor # 2025

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER G R O U N D C O V R acrostic poem CONTEST Start each line of the poem with the letters of GROUNDCOVER. Extra points if the poem is related to street newspapers! Best poem will be chosen by Groundcover vendors and the winner will receive a free Groundcover News hoodie. submitted by: contact info: letter to the EDITOR Dear Editor, I have read in this publication, and other Deadline: April 30 To submit, cut out and mail to: 423 S. 4th Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48104 Or email a photo to: contact@groundcovernews.com media, that "Housing is a right." Lindsey Culka [sic], sweetheart that she is, even wrote in an article some time ago, about a property owner in Ypsi Township (on Michigan Ave.) having evicted people from a camp there. "Housing is a right" is putting the cart before the horse. I think it would be a good idea to preach, motivate, and cajole the unhoused to put obligations to landlords first, then talk about rights. That might improve their "luck." OK, some people are mentally ill, handicapped physically or mentally, and don't have the resources to pay rent. Someone then has to do it on their behalf. Obligations still come before rights. By the way, this doesn't just apply to Ann Arbor's unhoused. This applies to literally every homeowner in Ann Arbor. Stop paying property taxes, your home goes to a tax sale; default on your mortgage, and the bank will foreclose on the property. Sincerely, Anonymous. APRIL 4, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Teresa Basham Pony Bush Pedro Campos Dezz Clark La Shawn Courtwright Roberto Isla Caballero Diana Fead Mike Jones Steve Leggett Marie Donna McGaughy Paolo Gabriel Poquiz Veronica Sanitate Sydney Schimmel Will Shakespeare GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Tommy Spaghetti Scoop Stevens EJ Wilson PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Steve Ross Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Sim Bose Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Bella Martinez Robert Klingler Ari Ruczynski Jack Weinberg Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Melanie Wenzel CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons APRIL 4, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS I like the drug plague because it doesn't respect borders ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 Tony Schohl, vendor No. 9 In one sentence, who are you? Salesman and a good guy. Where do you sell Groundcover? Old Town at Liberty and Ashley. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? In 2011. I like meeting people. What is one place in Ann Arbor that feels like your personal sanctuary? Home. What's your life motto? Don't worry. You can do it! What advice would you give your younger self? It gets better. What is your comfort food? Cheeseburger and a coke. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring three things, what would they be? Food, good women and suntan lotion. If there was a theme song for your life, what would it be? "We Are The World" by USA for Africa. If you could travel anywhere, where would it be? Sweden. What is the weirdest food combo you swear by? Peanut butter and jelly. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? Free ice cream. What's one question you wish you were asked more? I wish people would ask me what I think about sports more. En español País ejemplar del mundo que tiene el control de la tierra y la humanidad Con iglesias clandestinas e ilusiones perdidas, con sueños sin esperanzas y movimientos sin fotos, como buenos habitantes — sólo controlan la droga y deportaciones con risas. Y paradas como enredadas humanas cuando ponen esposas, no saben las luces como transmitentes con buenas letras de ICE y police. Ni como hombre Ni como mujeres Se guardan respeto Uno al otro solo Buscan la peste entre Ellos mismo Me gusta la peste Porque no respeta la ley El arcoiris de la Libertad De expresiones la Previsión de U.S.A. en El sueno americano. An exemplary country that has control of the earth and humanity With clandestine churches and lost illusions, with hopeless dreams and movements without photos, like good people of this world — they only control drugs and deportations with laughter. And they stop the migrants when they put handcuffs on, Who don’t know the lights that flash behind them with good letters of ICE and police. Not even as a man Not even as women They respect each other One to the other alone They look for the plague among Themselves I like the plague Because it does not respect the law The rainbow of the Freedom Of expressions the U.S.A. service in The American Dream. 3 WHATS THE HAPP DEZZ CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 643 WHAT’S THE happ the happ is every day of life what has changed ? WELL let me tell you money house gas bills food clothes cars bus stores everything has changed in the blink of an eye now everybody wants to know what’s the happs nothing much but a lot has happened we got a new president a new government new faces new everything but what's the happs is what's going on in this world our daily life live to live get in it to win it that's the happs It's Hash Bash time! John Sinclair was a founding member of the White Panther Party, manager of MC5, and publicist of the Ann Arbor Sun. Sinclair was arrested and sent to jail in 1969. He was sentenced for up to 10 years after he offered two undercover officers two joints. “10 for 2,” meaning 10 years for two joints, was the rallying cry to pull people together to fight for Sinclair’s release. He was freed from jail in 1972 by the Michigan Supreme Court when the possession of marijuana law was declared unconstitutional. This imprisonment and the movement to “Free John Sinclair” is what started Ann Arbor’s Hash Bash in the 1970’s. John Sinclair went on to speak at PONY BUSH Groundcover vendor No. 305 many bashes about legalization. Cheech and Chong did too. What I know about Hash Bash: • People speak about trying to legalize cannabis federally. • It is a celebration to smoke and relax and not have to worry about police harassment. • People make a lot of money selling edibles, cannabis, T-shirts, hoodies and other items. Times have changed; recreational marijuana has been legalized in Michigan. Different generations of people have participated in the Hash Bash — all kinds of people from all over. I see “old heads” still enjoying themselves at this event. It is a good time for everybody to come together and enjoy the outside with no harassment. Why should you go to Hash Bash? So you can see the people get high and enjoy themselves at this annual event, held on the first Saturday in April. Everybody knows what time it is when it is Hash Bash time! See you at noon on the Diag!

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS Reflection on the Daytime Warming Center MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 The Daytime Warming Center has been advocating for the homeless and saving lives in Washtenaw County for over a decade. I would like to share my thoughts on the Warming Center as someone who went from being unhoused and utilizing their services to becoming a part-time staff member. The years before the opening of the Warming Center were some tough times for the homeless. A lot of homeless people were losing their lives to the elements. Back then, there were no daytime or overnight warming centers. The homeless were forced to suffer harsh winters; people were dying. In 2012, Peggy Lynch of Mercy House and Sheri Wander of Peace House thought to do something necessary for the unhoused in Washtenaw County; they organized daytime warming centers during winter months at Ann Arbor churches. The City of Ann Arbor also started to try to put measures in place to stop people from dying from the elements. After so many deaths, they started putting the chronically homeless in hotels and offering day and overnight warming centers if weather conditions were less than 10 degrees Fahrenheit. The unhoused could go into the Delonis Center during night time hours to sit in chairs, but would not allowed to lay down and get proper rest needed. In 2020, Delonis opened a warming center in Ypsi at the Freighthouse, but it was unpopular. The next year, the Warming Center started operating it. I would like to give a shout-out to all the churches that graciously hosted the warming centers this year. A special thanks to First Baptist for being our go-to church, enabling us to operate this winter when no other venue would allow us to hold space. Also thanks to St. Mary’s Catholic Church, First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor and Ann Arbor Friends Meeting House. We as a community say thank you for all you do. I would like to talk about the social posture of incredible staff members, my colleagues at the Warming Center. The people who operate and run things are ordinary, down to earth human beings who stand with, and not above, those who come to receive services. If you visit the Warming Center, you will see the unhoused and staff members engaged in problem-solving conversations big and small. I noticed how we as staff help to provide necessary things like bus tokens, clothing and first aid. Staff often assist in handling disputes and grievances between the unhoused, and those who have been temporarily or permanently barred from the Robert J. Delonis Center. I must say it’s no easy task to maintain order. The pandemic was the worst as far as the uptick of mental health issues in the homeless community. But only one person has been cited for official trespass from the Warming Center in 13 years. WOW! (For comparison, at the time of writing, there are 72 people trespassed from the Delonis Center.) This low number is due to how the staff handle turbulent situations. These disputes happen all the time, at a moment's notice. It can be somewhat nerve-racking to say the least. I remember during the pandemic I could not spend too much time at the Warming Center because it was off the hook (chaotic). When these moments arise, we don’t call the police; we only kick people out as a last resort. Staff members do their best to stay calm, cool and collected. We have to be calm in chaotic situations. We take the oneon-one approach and try to be that voice of reason. The Warming Center community as a whole tries to manage issues and conflict with staff to de-escalate turbulent moments. When that doesn’t work we will ask those causing problems to leave. When doing so, we do it with compassion and awareness, and in many cases we offer them a gift card, so they can enter private establishments like Starbucks to get a cup of coffee or hot chocolate to give them time to calm down and gather their thoughts. And in most cases we will see that same individual later on that very day or the next day and it's all good. We don’t kick people out and bar them indefinitely with nowhere to go. A person like myself doesn't have to look at the numbers to tell you that homelessness has been on the increase. Year after year, I see more and more unhoused people in Washtenaw County. Social and economic segregation has forced those unhoused to utilize the Warning Center service even more, because places like Starbucks won’t allow people into their place of business if they don’t purchase anything. At the Warming Center all are welcome. I received my Section 8 housing voucher in 2017, but I would still visit the Warming Center all the time just to hang out. People from all walks of life stop by to volunteer, donate or just to say hey and communicate with the community as a whole. Local businesses in Ypsilanti donate food. We say thank you to all persons and businesses that help us to help our community. Shout out to Maiz Mexican Cantina on Cross Street for donating Sheri, Amal, John and David (left to right) playing board game Tapple at the Freighthouse. Photo credit: Shihab Jackson burritos every week and Mama Pizza for donating pizzas daily! As I continue to reflect, I realize that some of the people we serve at the Warming Center are my childhood friends. I’m proud to say my friends and all of the unhoused are treated well at the Warming Center, and we hope they find permanent housing soon. I had a chance to talk to a few of my co-workers and hear their reflections on the season. I first talked to Sheri Wander. She said, “This year was very busy and more people are struggling with their mental health. So, more people are self-medicating, but it's been a good and also a chaotic year compared to other years in the past.” Matt, who has been working at the Warming Center for two years and also works at the Delonis Center, said, “The struggle got me involved ... I was once homeless and utilized services here at the Warming Center.” Caelan, who has been a staff member since 2023, shared this work has been transformative for him; the people and stories he has heard over the years have all been amazing and brought him happiness. He says it is a rewarding feeling, when conversing in order to solve problems with people, many of whom have become his friends. Fio, Julia, Katy and myself are greenhorns — this is our first year working at the Warming Center. Fio said, “It has been eye-opening and super-valuable to be with people in the community in a new way and to get to know people I never had a chance to meet before.” Julia said, “It’s been a big learning experience on how the unhoused community operates and how people communicate and get along with one another or not get along with one another.” All the coworkers I talked to expressed their deep connections and friendships they made within this community. And, all of us greenhorns agreed, we enjoy working at the Warming Center and we all plan to come back next winter to work and serve in our community. On the last day of the Warming Center I visited both locations and asked a few unhoused participants about their plans now that the Warming Centers were closing for the season. Trey Coleman who has been coming to the Warming Center for eight years said he has been thinking about leaving town and finding somewhere else to live. And another guy, who didn’t want to be named, said, “It is what it is at this point.” Paul who has been a part of this community for several years said he has a landscaping job lined up for the spring/ summer season. It was a very cold winter, and I’m happy to know the unhoused had somewhere to go under such cold and harsh conditions. A place where they could come to feel welcome and have a cup of coffee. A place to receive resources and communicate with others who might be of some help. I personally was transformed in a positive way by becoming a staff member. After being unhoused, I feel privileged to be able to serve those — many of whom I’ve known for years — like myself who have to go through this unfortunate situation. I hope my presence as a human being and friend will offer hope because these tough moments are temporary. Well, there you have it folks, see you next winter at the Warming Center! Author's note: We need a cooling center! Do you know that more people die of heat than cold weather, and it is the number one cause of weather related deaths in the United States? We need a center for all four seasons for the unhoused not only because of the weather, but also because we are now living in a society of social and economic segregation. We need a place where all can come and feel welcome, whether a person is housed or unhoused, whether you have money or no money, where one can just be themself and not be judged. We need more places like this in our community and society, overall! APRIL 4, 2025 APRIL 4, 2025 HOMELESSNESS Impact of institutional intersections MARIE Groundcover contributor The experience of writing about the impacts of institutionalization was much more difficult than initially expected. The initial resultsfrom scholarly research I found were so depressing I immediately found myself reaching out to the homeless community for their perspectives. Even the process of gathering quotes from the homeless community was difficult, as most institutional interactions and the experience of homelessness at a minimum had a traumatic component. In the literature, the definition of “the institutionalized population” includes the homeless, and the common institutions identified in both the literature and by the homeless community included shelters, healthcare, carceral and psychiatric systems. One of the most emotionally taxing scholarly research publications to read was a 2018 article published in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine called “Lives without Roots: Institutionalized Homeless Women with Chronic Mental Illness.” According to the article there is gender bias when women become labeled mentally ill as they are “more likely to experience rejection, stigmatization, denial of care and poor access to appropriate healthcare.” According to the article, homeless women with a history of psychiatric illness have some of the poorest outcomes, which increases with length of homelessness and often includes forced long-term psychiatric hospitalization and recidivism. One buddy (“buddy” is the anonymized term for people I interviewed) shared her experience being institutionalized as a youth, explaining how medications caused permanent changes to thinking and problems with cysts. This buddy also shared they are no longer willing to take psychiatric medication as an adult because the lifelong side effects have been so traumatic and harmful. Another buddy shared she has found some helpful medications; however, the nature of being homeless makes navigating consistent medication management difficult due to barriers such as transportation, frequent moves and physically obtaining scripts. According to the community and the literature, the carceral system includes policing, jails and prisons. Altogether there is considerable literature about how the carceral system has negative consequences including increased likelihood of homelessness, depressed employment outcomes, poorer health outcomes, increased housing insecurity, material hardship and discrimination. A 2021 study published in Justice Q titled, “Does the Time of incarceration impact the timing and duration of homelessness?” concluded that timing of stressful events, such as homelessness and incarceration, does affect life outcomes. While both men and women who have experienced incarceration have poorer mental health and physical outcomes, these outcomes increase with length of incarceration and are reported as worse for women. Interestingly, all buddies to date with a history of incarceration have expressed how early institutionalization impacted social maturity and development, and nearly all report a negative impact on education. Formerly incarcerated buddies often describe their development as stalled at their age of incarceration. Closing shelters results in police exposure As the local cold-weather sheltering season is ending, meaning that the Daytime Warming Centers close and the number of opportunities for nighttime spaces declines, the issue of how policing impacts the homeless is particularly important. Policing impacts local homeless people, especially during the non-shelter season, as opportunities for safe spaces decline, and local policies encourage further criminalization of homelessness by deliberately targeting specific areas. For example, last year Ypsilanti deliberately began increased patrolling in the downtown district and were actively displacing people from targeted areas. The increased patrols prompted a “First Friday” protest organized by the homeless community where supporters gathered together and exercised their right to sit in public. Within the past month, police have increased the frequency of their presence both inside and in the area surrounding Ypsilanti’s Daytime Warming Center, which has increased the homeless community’s concerns about what to expect in the coming months. At the moment, the community is in the process of preparing for the sudden influx of urban camping by organizing supplies, finding sites and setting up camps. While sweeps do continue to occur in some municipalities, and therefore remain a constant threat, recent advocacy efforts to promote humane treatment for those sleeping outside have resulted in at least one example of deliberate relief for displaced individuals in Ypsilanti. While this recent support to urban campers is not the same as decriminalization, it does suggest a shift to recognizing that criminalizing camping will only exacerbate issues, especially when the community lacks adequate safe and affordable alternate options. According to a 2020 New York University Law Review article, "The Case Against Criminalizing Homelessness: Functional Barriers to Shelters and Homeless Individuals’ Lack of Choice," criminalizing homelessness has a significant overlap with the experience of LGBTQ community members. Their “status” impacts access to safe sheltering, medical and mental health treatment and has heightened risks associated with incarceration. An LGBTQ buddy shared a few specific examples related to “status.” As a transgender person they experienced heightened fears around violence in the shelter system, which make even sleeping and sitting less safe. This buddy also explained shelter policy bias is similar to bias seen in the medical system as it continues to perpetuate unequal treatment for those in committed relationships by not providing culturally supportive options. Another buddy who does not identify as LGBTQ said, “Places like Freighthouse (Daytime Warming Center that closed March 27), Ozone House and places for women with domestic violence histories are important because women and LGBTQ individuals do need specialized services and places that are safe.” Purple House is perhaps the only place in the community where all couples [without children] are welcome and able to co-sleep; however the Purple House Weather Amnesty program is only open during the sheltering season. While speaking with community members, one buddy helped summarize the experience of the homeless LGBTQ community with the following statement. “Traditional culture, values and gender norms have contributed to widening the gap in safety. Subgroups present unique issues that require an individualized program or plan, and institutions are dealing with high volumes so they often apply a cookie cutter approach as they lack the resources to offer more culturally sensitive options.” When speaking with the homeless community, a buddy spoke about his experience as a white male; he feels he has personally had fewer negative institutional experiences overall. However, he also shared he believes he can be stubborn about seeking medical services, despite having insurance, as his experience watching his parents and grandmother appear to see INSTITUTIONS page 9  GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Red skies at morning MICHELLE LARDIE-GUZEK Groundcover intern Can Love storm Such apparatuses of men That betray no guilt or recall For the brain-dead fashion They used and swore by? Such a lazy trudge through the shadows Fearful of what the light would reveal. Such Fear. Are you sure you would protect this Brother, you claimed you could never live without? Or would that imagined horizon rust? For as you hid behind that milky skin Wallowing in your fanciful aches and play deaths These children scream whispers, With whatever voice they can find In hopes of reaching the last of Compassion or Reason. Their desperate plea “Show us the love you claim to have” Just manages to portray a pain which is like A red sunrise on the raw and moaning sea. A mere warning of what is yet to come. Deep Time STEPHEN LEGGETT Groundcover contributor It is time which separates even more than space. Time is everywhere at once like an ocean and what we call the future is just leeward of that. It’s too early it’s too late we think we know what time it is. Our lives are compass needles spinning wildly on a vast ocean. What time is an ocean? APRIL 4, 2025 When Two Hummingbirds Meet STEPHEN LEGGETT A trumpet left in the rain valves askew the bell dented it probably croaks like a heron. Dreams may be abandoned but the notes are still there they remember they assemble ready to tumble out into the world in joyous release. A kind of humming those first notes those first coos and ahs in the cradle learning how the notes assemble and disperse. A Friend; A Human Instinct MICHELLE LARDIE-GUZEK A friend A person whom my mind can relax into its natural state around A person that I don’t need to constantly filter or translate all of my thoughts into Socially acceptable bite-sized pieces Pieces that can never seem to get across the exact extent of my thoughts or emotions So I am left stumbling over additional swallowable explanations and backstories A digression made necessary by the lack of understanding I perceive others will have of my very socially unacceptable problems Perceptions that are based in my belief that I am unacceptable Not capable of being understood by others Because I have little to no context for such a situation Context that I crave because to be understood is a sign of Connection that all humans desperately need to survive, and yet, in my case Are desperately and completely terrified of When two hummingbirds meet they pause suspended in air like hands over a piano uncertain of what notes to play. Their hearts beat like little drums. In the Year of the Dragon STEPHEN LEGGETT ‘So much trouble in the world’ Nothing is repeated exactly as it is repeated some people want a war any war will do so when a column of smoke rises from the trees we worry that our choices are dwindling wars sweep up history in a blaze of regret until everyone is wishing again for peace as if peace was ever more than a cloud passing as the sun begins to set and a red glow begins again spreading across the sky oh no we say that old mad dragon is loose again! APRIL 4, 2025 POETRY Life izz what you make it TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 To all my lil ones Everyday izz a great day, No matter thee way, It starts out, Ya can’t have no doubt, Gotta love life, Soon you’ll be somebodies wife, Or somebodies husband, Alwayz be yourself wit joy, Life izz what you make it, No matter who ya want ta say, Or who you walk away from, Be true to yourself, Even if you know they’re scum, You’ll alwayz learn so, Never let go, & alwayz know itz a great day. Tomorrowz sun TERESA BASHAM Thangz will go wrong, Life goz on, Lessons will alwayz teach you, If you let it, Sometimez it’ll be shit, Sometimez you’ll feel, Or even say, What can I do? Just keep it real, Alwayz be true To you yourself no matter what, You can alwayz lift yourself up, Gotta push through till tha next day, Thangz are just life, People will stab you, Your heart sometimez will feel like a knife, Itz all a lesson, But you can look at tha sun, And you’ll begin ta say, I made it through another night, And be thankful you’re still alive. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Soulmates, I say SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover vendor No. 638 We all live and die, The world never really changes, So what are we here for? Soulmates I say, Soulmates I say, Another body to incarnate in, To find the one my soul seeks, Marriage is not the answer, Only my soulmate is the one for me, Only my soulmate is the answer for me, Nuclear annihilation will never happen, Ecological catastrophe is not meant to be, Cause it is all about soulmates I say, It is all about soulmates I say, Israel, Iran, Russia, Ukraine will come to an end, New conflicts will arise that will take center stage, The world never really changes I say, Cause it is all about soulmates I say, It is all about soulmates I say. 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY APRIL 4, 2025 Everyone can be a poet: PoetTreeTown launch draws new crowd to Ypsi art space, Dzanc House LINDSAY CALKA Publisher PoetTree Town A2 isn’t just the collection of iconic teal and white posters hanging up in the windows of downtown businesses. It is a project fostering a diverse, literary community — a community that declares anyone can be a poet, and that poetry is everywhere. For three years PoetTree Town has published Washtenaw County-authored poetry, by printing and hanging poems in the windows of Ann Arbor — and now Ypsilanti — businesses during April. You might remember them from features in Groundcover's first and second annual poetry editions, or from our collaborative open mic last year at Argus Farm Stop. In 2024 PoetTree Town started a weekly poetry series, published online through the Ann Arbor Observer. Yearround they also promote local poetry events, book launches and projects. This year, on the first day of National Poetry Month 2025, PoetTree Town launched their annual poetry-in-public project with an evening celebration and open mic at Dzanc House. Located walking distance from the Ypsilanti Transit Center, downtown and Depot Town, Dzanc House has created a vibrant, inclusive space where writers, editors, artists and community builders come together to ignite creativity, foster collaboration and inspire one another. Their mission is “simple but profound: to nurture creativity at every stage of the artistic journey — whether through publishing opportunities, gallery showcases, or dynamic programs for youth, adults, and cultural creators alike.” The two mission-aligned organizations did exactly that with this event; community members of all ages gathered in the cozy living room of the house to share poetry during an open mic and party. Some shared poems from already published poetry collections, while others read poetry aloud for the first time. The space is operated by Ann Arborbased press Dzanc Books and offers gallery space, a literary/visual/cultural arts residency program, free and ticketed events, along with youth programs and classes. As the winter weather breaks, walk around this month and look for PoetTree Town’s posters or visit this new literary arts space in Ypsilanti. Visit www.dzanchouse.org to learn more. Follow @poettreetowna2 on Instagram and Facebook to keep up to date on events year-round. april poetry EVENTS ZELL VISITING WRITERS SERIES: ILYA KAMINSKY UMMA Stern Auditorium, 525 S. State Street Thursday, April 10, 5:30 p.m. (also virtual) Reading and Q&A with University of Michigan's distinguished poet in residence. Join on Zoom at tinyurl.com/ZellWriters24 YPSILANTI DISTRICT LIBRARY 229 W. Michigan Ave Poetry Month Writing Workshops Wednesdays in April, 6:30 p.m. Join in celebrating poetry month with weekly writing sessions to explore the different styles of poetry and writing. • Apr. 16: Black Out and Find poetry • Apr. 23: exploring poetry through creativity with Ypsilanti's 2024 Youth Poet Laureate Ruth Mella • Apr. 30: interconnectedness of language and culture in poetry Mosaic: Poetry in Pieces Sunday, April 26, 11 a.m. (Virtual) Join YpsiWrites to celebrate National Poetry month! This hands-on, virtual workshop will feature several prominent Ypsilanti-area poets leading mini-sessions on their favorite types of poetry. Participants will learn about and try several different styles of poetry. Poetry Month Awards Ceremony and Celebration Saturday, May 3, Awards Ceremony at 4 p.m.; Celebration at 6:30 p.m. Join for a celebration of creativity, expression, and the power of words at our Poetry Month Awards Ceremony! The evening will feature heartfelt poetry readings from finalists, followed by the exciting presentation of awards and prizes for all the outstanding poets. Whether a winner or finalist, each participant will be celebrated for their unique voice and contribution to the world of poetry. DZANC HOUSE 402 S. Huron St., Ypsilanti Read more about Dzanc House above. Book Launch and Reading: “True Believer” by Jeff Kass Friday, April 11, 2025, 7-8:30 p.m. Contact for more info: eyelev21@aol.com Discovering a New Ekphrasis: A Writing Workshop for Teachers Wednesday, April 9, 2025 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Join Pioneer High School teacher Jeff Kass for a workshop on leading writing experiences prompted by art and media. You’ll have a chance to explore your own writing and leave with lessons that you can bring right into your classroom to inspire your students as they explore how the media they interact with every day can prompt and deepen approaches to writing. Free, must register at: www.dzanchouse.org/all-events Contact eyelev21@aol.com for more information. Silent Sustained Reading Saturday April 12, 1-2 p.m. A coveted time to simply focus on reading! Bring your favorite book, snack, or drink, and we will have space to spread out and enjoy reading in the company of others who also love to read. All people and ages are welcome. Happens every second Saturday in 2025. Left: Front window of Dzanc House states, "You're in the right place." Right: Petra Kuppers reads a poem from her most recent poetry book "Diver Beneath the Street." APRIL 4, 2025 POETRY Night pace PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 Night softens Happening states Rough routine From the window, I see The haze in my mind As I go for a walk Kicking some rocks On the cadence of life Waves flow at the slope Only stars shadowing me The river, the current Our entropy The howl of wolves and wind Pulses in my chest Fine entropy A dark mystery The time spent On moonlight silent Infinite focus pocus Dancing candle’s flame Inventions magic In absolute focus The candle’s flame magic inventions Endure or wake How could I know The taste of being slave or king I can only recognize the hills I leaped The dust I raised Turns echoes into whispers Footsteps stretch longer The earth breathes wider Clocks slow the thought Night can be more than hush Holds what day lets slip away Rain all over Wet, I woke Time becomes thick It bends the air Thick for the things unsaid Hums on waking sleeping streets Within the first daylight My last words Rolling on my pillow She says: Come back From the slit, I glimpse her shadow I turn myself for a moment Her silhouette dances like a flame I enter with a smile Leaving everything in standby Wide-eyed PEDRO CAMPOS MIRELLA MARTIUS Those blade-cotton words of yours— at once striking deep wounds and softening my surrendered heart. I will turn your smile into art. Paint it, frame it, and hang it on every shard of my fractured heart. Your smile—when it stretches wide, when it turns wicked, when it becomes Mona Lisa. The void and the fullness overflow as my bewildered eyes behold the moon licking the waters of the sea. Springtime LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover writer Spring is in the air I wanna bask in the sun without a care Look over here and there And admire the tulips when they bloom Let the sun shine in my living room And when I go out it’s always a pleasure to see The robins, butterflies, and bees And the pink and white blossoms on the trees Oh how I love the springtime breeze I love the Lord Jesus Christ LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT I love the Lord Jesus Christ I want the gift of the Holy Spirit With all my will and might May I be granted it And be able to live a holy sanctified life  INSTITUTIONS page 5 get sicker instead of better as they “pump you full of medications and keep you sick with other problems.” Another buddy, who is a Black male, feels their primary care practice doesn’t do appropriate preventative testing. An experience of a female buddy has been that as a result of bias from a historical psychiatric diagnosis, side-effects from a medication used to treat asthma and allergies was missed. Instead of considering evidence of medical problems, doctors often prescribe heavy antipsychotics that are known to cause or worsen conditions including diabetes, sleep apnea and tardive dyskinesia. Overall, the experience for many homeless individuals includes a compounding effect of missed complications, under-diagnoses or under-treatment of chronic conditions, and untreated environmental exposures. It could be said homeless people are caught in a cycle of institutionalization and deinstitutionalization, as many have the experience of incarceration, hospitals, psychiatric wards, shelters, programming and unsheltered homelessness. Despite homeless people being included in scholarly definitions of institutionalized, not all homeless buddies who provided input for this article identify as ever being institutionalized. While the statistics suggest many who are homeless do have specialized needs, a scholarly challenge to current housing approaches asserts that the approaches are based in a medical model of assessment, promote spatial segregation, and perpetuate system cycling. A 2022 article in the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, called "The Modern Day Asylum," suggests current approaches to housing are focused on sickness rather than healing, and pathologizing homelessness has created retraumatizing structures that force people into a lifetime of vulnerability and dependency. Our Hands LORRAINE LAMEY Groundcover contributor When we wash our hands of it, we mean we pilot our attention away from what we have done, what we have failed to do. It is not just scrubbing out the dirt or blood ground-in to our hands, but the very deed itself. When we wash someone's feet, we mean we humble ourselves to serve another's needs, our hands close and tight with the grime of the travels and travails of their feet. As our hands are drenched in the sullied water, we look up to meet the face of the Beloved, beholding Love. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY People in the neighborhood: Josh's Story JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 People in the Neighborhood is a Groundcover News column that focuses on the unhoused neighbors of the street community in Washtenaw County. This is Josh’s story. I began the interview by asking Josh to describe himself for the readers. “I’m not a bad person,” Josh said, “I’m big, I'm imposing, some people may say I'm intimidating, but I’m not, I’m just a big teddy bear. I love my family, I love my friends.” Jim: Where did you grow up? Josh: I grew up in Flint, Michigan on the north side. It was a middle-class neighborhood; my dad worked for General Motors. We lived paycheck to paycheck. I didn’t have a lot, but we weren't poor either. Basically just a working-class family. Jim: When did you first move out of your parents’ house and start to become self-sufficient? Josh: When I was 14. I was living with my girlfriend at the time. I was working and paying bills. If I had been old enough, I would have had a lease. When I turned 18, that’s what I did. We were both on the lease. But we grew apart. It was just one of those momentary relationships where one of us was supposed to learn something from the other. I ended up getting my own place on the east side of Detroit. Jim: What happened that made you homeless? Josh: In 2020 I first became homeless. I had some physical health issues that made it so I couldn’t work at that time. I ended up losing my place. It’s been a roller coaster ever since. Recently I was subletting but I got evicted because it was an illegal sublet. So now I’m homeless again. Over the summer I was camping in the woods. Now it’s winter. The main shelters are crowded and the environment is hostile. Josh chooses not to stay at the Delonis Center because there’s too much violence and open drug use. Instead, he uses community resources like Purple House’s overnight shelter and Delonis’s off-site location. In 1993 Josh moved back into his mother’s home to help pay bills as his father had passed away. Shortly after, Josh’s knee was crushed in a car accident. He was trying to pick up his nephew and was clipped by a van. Jim: Is that what’s keeping you from working now? Josh: My knee started deteriorating, I think the bolt bent a little bit and started rubbing against a nerve. I am not able to stand up for long periods of time. He has titanium screws and bolts that have to be replaced every five to seven years. He is currently overdue. Without a stable place to recuperate, he keeps putting it off. Jim: So if you can’t work, how will you survive? Josh: I just got awarded my disability payments. Now I'm saving up for the first and last month's rent and such. Josh applied for disability two and a half years ago with an attorney. When I met up with Josh for the interview we were at a hospitality house in Ypsilanti. He was visibly upset about something. I asked if he wanted to share it. Josh: I’m blind in my left eye. I just found out Friday that I have a detached retina in my right eye. I have to have major surgery. I’m terrified about it, but I can’t lose my other eye. Jim: What can the local community do to support you? Josh became emotional. Josh: I’m not asking for a handout, but as of right now, just finding somewhere to recover from surgery would be amazing. Even just a couch. At the point he was interviewed, Josh was not sure if his housing would come through in time for the surgery. He needs to be able to recuperate. If he can’t get the housing before the surgery, he will have to put it off. Read that again — Josh is losing his vision and can barely walk. He is homeless and can’t work. Even with SSI, Josh may have to put off the surgery that will determine if he gets to keep his vision or not. Any adult with medical challenges knows that putting off major surgery can spell disaster. Jim: If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be? Josh would like to study Autism in order to be a better father. Photo credit: Emily Mills Josh: The fact that people judge you based on how you look and your situation. Contrary to popular belief, I have some college education. I get treated like a three-year-old because I’m homeless. I hate being judged because of my situation. For example, I was lost in downtown Ann Arbor one day. I tried stopping people to ask for directions, but they would just brush past me and stick their nose in the air. After thirty minutes of this, I lost my temper. It took me getting mad to get help. And then I found out my destination was just two blocks from where I was standing. That’s all it would have taken — just a few seconds and some kindness. Jim: If you could speak to the people who ghosted you, what would you say to them? Josh: I would remind them of what Matthew chapter seven says — “Do not judge or you too will be judged.” Jim: If you could have a free ride to college, what would you study? Josh: I have a special needs son. He’s six and non-verbal autistic. I would study autism and understand how to help my son. Author's note: At the end of March, Josh once again got his housing. APRIL 4, 2025 exp. 06/31/2025 APRIL 4, 2025 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS Short Films Peter A.Collins 11 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. Thank you! ACROSS 1. "Beat it!" 5. Flood 11. Baking meas. 14. Firm up 15. President two before Lincoln 16. AQI org. 17. 2003 film about Ararat? 19. Something glossed over 20. Changes gradually 21. "I'll take that as ___" 22. Spiced stew 23. Groom carefully 24. 1980 film about a farm animal put out to pasture? 26. Dancer's landing spot? 28. Have a lofty ambition 29. Long-running CBS drama 32. Tub 34. Stage direction 36. Big time 37. 1977 film about rival road-paving companies? 40. Morse code unit 41. 2020 U.S. Open winner 43. Half of 12? 44. Greek letter that rhymes with three others 45. "The Honeymooners" role 48. "Piece o' cake!" 50. 1954 film about the optimal time frame for harvesting corn? Rear Window 52. "Uncle!" 56. Three, auf Deutsch 57. Lucy of "Kill Bill" 58. Cairn components 59. Pitching stat 60. 1984 film about federal agents who go after homeowners who throw drug parties? 62. Debussy's " La ___" 63. Sticker words on election day 64. Gaelic 65. Things that might pop up 66. Dovetail pieces 67. Memphis record label DOWN 1. Tread heavily 2. Lilac or lavender 3.Giant wrestler 4. Hardens, as steel 5. Musical composition 6. "Delta of Venus" writer Anais 7. Label anew 8. Muse of astronomy 9. Progeny 10. Feathered layer? 11. Colorado film festival town 12. Blabbed 13. From the Vatican 18. [Gasp!] 22. Kimono sashes 24. Way off 25. Transcript figs. 27. Latin eggs 29. Paleo- opposite 30. Shared top billing 31. Behind on payments 33. Half of 12? 35. Pilot's prognostication 37. Approach the runway 38. From the beginning 39. Mens ___ (legal term) 42. Fuzzy fruit 44. Fertilized egg cells 46. Smitten 47. Stock ticker inventor 49. Doesn't play 50. Swelling 51. ___lunch 53. Immobile 54. It often follows vice 55. County in southeastern England 58. Head matter? 60. Top ten tune 61. Big ___

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Steal our breath SYDNEY SCHIMMEL Groundcover contributor I’m hardly qualified to talk about this. But I don’t wear sunglasses anymore So we shall begin. They want to steal our breath. They do so over time so when it happens, we do not know it was them. In a world so boundless and abundant we self-impose limitations on infinity Blind to the truth they walk around Seeing only half of the Light we radiate. Those that wear these sunglasses change their perception of what is real We don’t have to live this way. If we just learn to take them off we reveal Light beyond the clouds we were always meant to see We disguise this reality as “normal.” Suffering is normal. Disease and war are normal. This was never our true state Clever to keep truth hidden in plain sight We did not know it was missing. But once in a while . . . We break away and answer our Calling to return to source, unmistakably rooted in loving presence. We care for thinking far too much to accept ourselves into a world our bodies don’t understand We are heavenly in the middle of hell. I finally understand that preacher was right when he told me humanity was broken. Cast his words aside while I cleaned dirty lenses See when one sees the truth, Even a glimpse, it is ripped just as quickly Stardust made we cannot deny our heritage They cannot steal what we have For it can only be taken when we accept who we are. Eloise Hospital archives TOMMY SPAGHETTI Groundcover vendor No. 669 Larceny As spring lies dreaming in her tree top lair Sly summer steals the rosebuds from her hair As summer pins the blossoms to her gown Fall querulous fingers turn them brown As Autumn trails them crumbling in her train Mad winter sweeps them off in gusts of rain And as we watch this wanton swift display The thieving seasons steal our lives away. — S.A. Levitt, Pinky Corner News (1962) This poem was found in the wreckage of Eloise Psychiatric Hospital in the 1980s. It was part of a newsletter published by patients and faculty at Eloise. Not sure who S.A. Levitt was/is, but I memorized this poem 40 years ago. Fire and ice VERONICA SANITATE Groundcover contributor April snow explodes like drunken fireworks, drives at us, devours us in our night drive; claws through the dismal dark tunnel, singling us out, insisting upon existence. Here, in your face, Mr. Mesmer. (He couldn’t master this entrancement or enhance it.) Spellbound, we fall, victims into vortex. Titanic flakes dart at us, then disintegrate, the way sparks of fire consume themselves, dissipate. Flares of snow singe like ice that scalds our skin. Awareness is the thing that makes us gasp or takes the breath away — the way fire or ice can cleanse or exterminate. Sometimes you can decide. APRIL 4, 2025 Defined EJ WILSON Groundcover contributor Female Told what I am Told what I am not Told to smile Lied to Lied about Laid on Used Held back Held down Ignored Dismissed Denied Held hostage Starved Beaten Raped Broken Justified by their belief I am female Copyright 2023 APRIL 4, 2025 POETRY The Beautiful One DONNA MCGAUGHY Groundcover vendor No. 310 You are my beautiful one, and you’ll always be my special love. You have blessed me from the very start, and I love you with all of my heart. Most of all your life people picked on you, but you always managed to survive through it. You’re a sweet, harmless, kind person, that’s why you always manage to get your blessings. Somehow God sends a blessing to me, and that lets me know that He loves me. When the times seem that things ain't gonna never work out, I know in my heart to just have faith, Keep my head up high, because my Lord in the sky has never let me say goodbye! So with that my beautiful one, you’ll always be my one and only one! I love you, my beautiful one! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 13 Mister PAOLO GABRIEL POQUIZ U-M student contributor Mister, muppet, loaf, Lying belly up and arms twitching, snoring softly as you soak dwindling rays of sun Mister, guardian, oaf, Sitting proud upon my stomach, watchful eyes attuned to the kitchen’s piercing shouts Mister, my good friend, Remember when we drove miles through the hills to get you, When we sheared the knots in your hide, and Washed the tobacco stench clinging to your fur? Mister, gentleman, joy, Eager to play, or fight, with the neighbors' twin Dobermans, or your reflection in the window Mister, troublemaker, cowboy, Digging through the cabinet to find somewhere warm, safe from the lonely air Mister, my first brother, I remember Pa threw you across the bathroom, and Ma kept you in that kennel for years, till they let you on their bed All while I couldn’t find the strength to leave my room. Mister, rat, old man, Soldiering under the bed on late nights, squirming through shoeboxes and lost baseball gear Mister, buddy, biggest fan, Let out, lost by Them on rainy nights–I look for hours just to see you stand gleeful on the porch Mister, my heart and my warmth, Why do you patiently press your head firm Against the broken door in this blackened house, Till you return to my side, and let the light back in? I wish I was a song by you DIANA FEAD Groundcover contributor I wish I was a song by you Your lips would sing me all day through My words would capture your feelings in rhyme A melody lilting forever in time. I wish I was your fleeting dream Dancing across your mind’s sunny stream I’d paint your colors and shine your smile On clouds lifting us higher mile by mile. I wish I was your beating heart Our love ever flowing, never apart, In concert reminding us all our lives Our promise to keep our love always alive. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY APRIL 4, 2025 Big House 5K leverages the “Michigan Difference” for local partners LINDSAY CALKA Publisher Charity 5Ks happen almost every weekend in Washtenaw County, but only one day a year do 10,000 people run through downtown Ann Arbor. The morning of Sunday, April 13, over 10,000 people will participate in the University of Michigan Athletic Department’s Big House 5K. The race begins on State Street, courses through the University of Michigan’s central campus, then finishes on the 50-yard line of Michigan Stadium. For 12 years the goal has been simple: raise money and raise awareness for local nonprofits. Since the inception of the race, the U-M Athletic Department has raised over $1.4 million for charity beneficiaries. This year they are once again on track to accomplish their goal. Last year, the event completely sold out in 15 days. In response, this year, they added 2,500 additional spots — but registration still sold out, this time in 13 days. The Athletic Department would like to expand further, but there is just not enough space. Meghann Oblak, Director of Partnerships, elaborated, “There is a hard cap at 12,500. Nearly one third of all participants finish within the same 20 minutes, so any more than 12,500 will hurt the experience.” To continue to drive donations without growing past a safe and comfortable number of runners, the Big House 5K has added extra fundraising opportunities such as the Big House Brunch, a ticketed breakfast served at the end of the race, and set up optional direct donations to beneficiaries through RunSignUp, the registration platform. When asked how the Athletic Department selects the six nonprofits from many deserving applicants, Oblack shared they partner with the U-M Ginsberg Center to pick based on immediate needs in Washtenaw County. “Working with Ginsberg allows us to be responsive, flexible to create the highest impact possible. Only selecting six beneficiaries allows us to provide the organizations with a gift that really moves the needle.” Read more about this year’s six beneficiaries below. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeast Michigan Big Brothers Big Sisters creates and supports one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth. “Bigs” volunteer their time to provide one-on-one support and guidance to their “Littles.” Their matches build strong bonds through shared activities and experiences, such as playing sports, going to museums, or simply talking and hanging out. BBBS knows that after just one year of mentoring, the quality of classroom work is higher for Littles than their non-mentored peers. They are less likely to skip school, engage in misconduct, or use illegal substances, and they report feeling an increased sense of self-esteem and self-confidence. Mentoring relationships have a lasting impact on a child's life, helping them to overcome challenges, achieve goals, and reach their full potential. Community Family Life Center Community Family Life Center is a neighborhood-based, non-profit entity providing crucial services and support to economically disadvantaged families in the greater Ypsilanti area. CFLC’s Foundations Preschool Foundations Preschool of Washtenaw County is committed to Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley has been a catalyst for stabilizing see BIG HOUSE page 16  programs primarily focus on supporting the youth and addressing the root causes of institutional inequity including poverty, systemic racism and trauma. Their core programs include afterschool and summer programs supporting the youth, family focused mental health services, food distribution, and health and wellness programs. The Youth Enrichment After School Program provides support to children and their families with personalized math and reading tutors, STEMS program, energizing physical activities, nutritious meals and much more. The Corner Health Center The Corner Health Center is an integrated health and wellness clinic in Downtown Ypsilanti for anyone ages 12-25 (and their children). Their mission is to inspire young people to live and sustain healthy lives by providing them with judgment-free affordable health and wellness care and education. At The Corner they believe "No Insurance? No problem!" Goals are to enable young people to get exceptional health care, reduce risk-taking, understand the long-range implications of their behaviors and choices, and participate in and take responsibility for their own health and well-being. The Corner Health Center’s services include primary clinical care, maternal health, psychiatry, gynecology/reproductive health, gender-affirming care, fatherhood support, support groups, free local food pantry, and so much more! 2024 starting line. Photo submitted increasing accessibility to equitable, high-quality care and early education for underserved and historically marginalized families. The organization provides care that ensures accessibility for families, empowering them to work full-time with reliable, year-round childcare. To maximize the impact, Foundations offers tuition support, free meals and snacks, support in navigating family assistance programs, a supplemental food pantry, in-house translation services, and an in-house social worker. Foundations envisions a community where all families have their unique needs understood, valued and met. Girls Group For over 20 years, Girls Group has helped socioeconomically disadvantaged youth create the educational foundation and build the tools to graduate high school, become first generation college students, and mentor others that may be on the same journey. Programs span middle school through early adulthood, focusing on academic readiness, social-emotional life skills, financial education and community service. In the words of a Girls Group youth, “Girls Group has encouraged me to dream bigger and set ambitious goals. Girls Group provided the tools and mentors that gave me the necessary support to make college a realistic option for me.” Habitat for Humanity Huron Valley APRIL 4, 2025 HISTORY GROUNDCOVER NEWS 60th anniversary of the marches from Selma to Montgomery: How 1965 Voting Rights Act was won WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 What is known as the famous “March from Selma to Montgomery” actually refers to three major marches. The distance between Selma and Montgomery, two cities in Alabama, is 54 miles. A determined group of civil rights activists decided to march from Selma to the state capital in Montgomery. The day was March 7, 1965. Approximately 600 people joined in the march from Selma across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The march was led by John Lewis, President of the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee, and Reverend Hosea Williams, a civil rights leader from Southern Christian Leadership Council. That day is described by historians and journalists as “Bloody Sunday.” Why? According to the online magazine Scenic America, “The group of 600 marchers was brutally attacked and forced back. Activist John Lewis had his skull fractured, and was one of the 58 people admitted to the hospital for injuries sustained during the event. The violence was shown on television and drew many civil rights and religious leaders for the next attempt.” The “Bloody Sunday” of March 7, 1965, was not successful in reaching Montgomery from Selma, but it was successful in awakening the consciousness of many Americans to the Black struggle for voting rights and other civil rights which a majority of the American citizens enjoyed and took for granted. Later, on March 9, more than 2,000 marchers attempted to march from Selma, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, to Montgomery. At night, they were stopped by sheriff deputies and a group of segregationists. Scenic America Magazine said a young white male was beaten to death for his peaceful protest. Selma to Montgomery marches timeline USA Today republished a March 5, 2015 article written by historian Rick Harmon of The Montgomery Advertiser. It provided a brilliant timeline of the Selma to Montgomery marches. We know that the March 7 “Bloody Sunday” march did not make it beyond the Edmund Pettus Bridge because of violence and brutality. John Lewis and other protestors were met by Alabama State troopers, some on horseback, and Sheriff Jim Clark and his deputies. Those Alabama State troopers and the Dallas County law enforcement officials met the marchers at the bridge and insisted that they disperse. We know what happened to the peaceful protestors when they refused to disperse. They were severely beaten up! According to USA Today, “The national coverage of the event galvanized the country, and King called for volunteers from throughout the nation to come to Selma for another march on March 9.” The March 9 march was led by Rev./ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When the marchers came to Pettus Bridge, local KKK members attacked them. Writing about this march, at which Dr. King asked protesters to disperse at the Pettus Bridge, writer Rick Harmon said, “James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister who had come from Boston and marched in the protest earlier in the day, was beaten severely by KKK members. He died of head injuries two days later at the age of 38.” The March 9 event is described by historians as the “Turnaround Tuesday.” On March 15, President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress and showed his support for a Voting Rights Bill. He even quoted a popular civil rights mantra, “We Shall Overcome …” On March 8, 1965, the day after the “Bloody Sunday,” Attorney Fred Gray and SCLC filed a lawsuit titled, “Hosea Williams v George Wallace” before Judge Frank M. Johnson of the Montgomery U.S. District Court. The lawsuit was about the safety of marchers. On March 17, 1965, Judge Frank M. Johnson ruled in favor of the marchers’ rights. Judge Johnson’s favorable ruling took account of the U.S. Justice Department’s plan to protect peaceful protesters during the Selma-to-Montgomery march. On March 18, 1965, Wallace condemned Judge Johnson and said the State of Alabama would need federal government funding in order to provide security to the marchers. Subsequently, he sent a telegram to President Lyndon Johnson which asked for help with security for marchers. Writer Rick Harmon wrote, “March 20, 1965 — President Johnson issues an executive order authorizing the federal use of the Alabama National Guard to supply protection. He also sends 1,000 military policemen and 2,000 Army troops to escort the march from Selma.” He continued, “March 21, 1965 about 8,000 people assemble at Brown Chapel [in Selma] before starting the five-day march to Montgomery's capitol.” Dr. King had called for a third march on March 21 from Selma to Mongomery but only if marchers would be safe and protected. After District Judge Johnson’s ruling and President Johnson’s executive order, the movement and the march for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were back on track. The marchers were on the road again, walking 54 miles in five days. As documented by Rick Harmon in USA Today, on March 24, 1965, “Marchers rest[ed] at the city of St. Jude, a Catholic Church and School Complex on the outskirts of Montgomery, where Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Joan Baez, Sammy Davis Jr., Nina Simone, Frankie Laine and Peter, Paul, and Mary performed at a ‘Stars for Freedom’ rally.” Conclusion Stanford University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Educational Institute provides us with an excellent publication titled, “Selma to Montgomery March (March 21, 1965 to March 25, 1965).” It said that when thousands of non-violent demonstrators led by Martin Luther King arrived at the steps of the capitol in Montgomery, they were greeted by our nation’s Dreamerin-Chief: Dr. King. King gave an address which concluded the march from Selma to Montgomery. He said, “There never was a moment in American history more honorable and more inspiring than the pilgrimage of clergymen and laymen of every race and faith pouring into Selma to face danger at the side of its embattled Negroes.” Stanford Papers reported, “During the final rally, held on the steps of the capitol in Montgomery, King proclaimed: 'The end we seek is a society that can live with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man.’” The Stanford Papers also noted that the Alabama Governor rebuffed a petition which the marchers attempted to deliver to him. At the conclusion of the events in Montgomery, ferry boats started to carry marchers back to Selma at night. Sadly, Mrs. Viola Luzzo who was described as a housewife from Michigan, “who had come to Alabama to volunteer, was shot by four Ku Klux Klan. [Civil rights activist and Federal prosecutor John] Doar later prosecuted three Klansmen for conspiring to violate her civil rights.” President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law on August 6, 1965. Dr. King and several civil rights leaders were present in the White House during the ceremony. President Johnson talked about his outrage over the violence and brutality in Selma. He said that the right to vote is “the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.” A few days later, during Dr. King’s annual address to the Southern Christian Leadership Council in his capacity as the President, he made the following observations: “Montgomery led the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and 1960; Birmingham inspired the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Selma produced the Voting Rights Legislation of 1965.” The Supreme Court’s June 25, 2013 decision on Holder v. Shelby County noted that Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional. The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU said in 2013, that SCOTUS decision “swung open the door for states to enact restrictive voting laws, making it harder for people of color to vote.” Since 2023, millions of Americans have urged Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. What would this new legislation do? According to Wikipedia, “The bill would restore and strengthen parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, most notably, its requirement for states and jurisdictions with a history of voting rights violations to seek federal approval before enacting certain changes to their voting laws.” 15

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Sweet potatoes with maple syrup glaze ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 large sweet potatoes 5 tablespoons olive oil, divided 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons, plus 1 teaspoon maple syrup 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar Sea salt Black pepper Directions: Peel potatoes and dice into ¾ cubes. Place the sweet potatoes with two tablespoons of water and three tablespoons of olive oil in a large saute pan. Cover and cook over medium heat for six minutes. Remove the lid, add remaining oil, butter, 1 teaspoon kosher salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Lightly toss and spread in one layer in the pan. Saute uncovered over medium heat until tender (13-15 minutes), be sure to toss occasionally with a spatula. Turn off heat and drizzle potatoes with maple syrup and balsamic vinegar and toss well. Sprinkle potatoes with sea salt and serve hot. A delicious addition to many meals.  BIG HOUSE from page 14 homes, families and communities in Washtenaw County since 1989. Through its Home Ownership Program, Home Improvement Program, and Community Development program, Habitat works to create and sustain affordable homeownership for low- to mid-income families and individuals. Habitat utilizes donations and volunteers to build homes, secure futures, and strengthen communities. Every year, six energy-efficient homes are APRIL 4, 2025 built to provide affordable housing for qualified local families and individuals in need of decent, safe and affordable housing. Habitat also serves households of low- to mid-income with critical home repairs, weatherization and modification improvements to ensure health, safety and stability. Registration for the 2025 Big House 5K is closed, but volunteering opportunities are still open. Volunteers receive a gift and hot meal during their shift. Sign up online at mgoblue.com/ sports/2017/6/16/bighouse5k USE THIS COUPON ANYTIME $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 5/30/2025

2 $ MARCH 21, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 7 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Bipolar disorder and head injuries have made my life a disaster. page 5 MICHAEL BROWN #306 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHERE IS HOME FOR YOU? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. • "Beyond the Bridge: A Solution to Homelessness" comes to the Michigan Theater page 4 • Reflection on "Letter to the West Side" page 8 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Photo credit: Mike Jones • 63rd Ann Arbor Film Festival page 12 • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER Response to the library lot announcement ALAN HABER Ann Arbor Community Commons Initiating Committee While they brought it forward with smiles and promises of a new jewel in the Center of the City, this new Library Lot action is a bad deal and it should be reversed. First, it was a betrayal of the agreement made in 2023 between the City Council and the Council of the Commons, that the next stage in the implementation of the 2018 vote would be to issue a Request for Proposals seeking "consultants” to evaluate the work done so far by the Center of the City Task Force, the Council of the Commons, community groups and neighbors. Then they would suggest positive next steps forward in developing an urban central park and civic center commons. This RFP was not written because, we were told, City staff was so busy with bicentennial activities that it had to be delayed. But now, with the cause of the delay past, would not a good faith, honest government write and issue the RFP? The City Councilmember who arranged the deal between the City Council and Council of the Commons (involving disbanding the Council of the Commons because the question would be in professional hands) was absent when the matter was debated, and no other City Councilmember provided the answer, and my public comment was not heard. Good faith would reconsider their March 3 meeting action on the Library, and when those two tied-together proposals are back before the Council, one or more members familiar with the Commons development should move a vote to postpone consideration until at least after the consultants' report is requested, received and evaluated. The City promised $40,000 to join with $70,000 raised by the Library Green Conservancy from individual private donors. When last year the City was discussing what to do with unexpected excess money, I reminded them to include their existing commitment of $40,000 for the consultants' cost. Instead they set up a contingency fund for the possible effects of Trumpism. They said there was no money for development. This is untrue. The previous City Council provided a development fund from the revenue generated by surface parking until the parking is terminated. The current Administration refuses to account for or release this money. It could be more than $800,000 after maintenance overhead is deducted. Also, at the beginning there was no need for a lot of money. Those who were trying to activate the space raised what was needed, and improvised the stage and sound and lighting and tables and chairs and benches as best could be done — which was good enough, and getting better with every program. The actual programs have demonstrated the space is very good for open, casual use and also concerts, flea markets, free markets, food and food trucks, art and fun for kids. Worse than the false assertions of under-utilized and unfunded, the City disrespected the vote itself. “Let the people vote — but the government will do what it wants;” this is what I have called “totalitarian democracy.” They call the Library Lane Lot "an under-utilized site." The fact is the current City Administration has refused to allow any motion in the implementation of the People's Vote. They have refused to remove car parking to allow the casual, unprogrammed use of the central park. They have refused to call the neighbors together to activate community involvement, as the City Administrator was directed by the Center of the City Task Force and City see COMMONS page 11  MARCH 21, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Anonymous Elizabeth Bauman Dezz Clark Jim Clark La Shawn Courtwright Stephanie Duncan Alan Haber Jonathan Glass Mike Jones Denise Shearer Tommy Spaghetti Steven GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zach Dortzbach Matthew Rohlman Steve Ross Anabel Sicko Allison Wei VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Sim Bose Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Jonathan Glass Bella Martinez Robert Klingler Ari Ruczynski Jack Weinberg Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Melanie Wenzel CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons MARCH 21, 2025 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR Where is home for you? Norfolk, Virginia. — Michael Brown, #306 My home. In Ann Arbor, Michigan. — Shelley DeNeve, #22 Wherever I lay my head. — Tony Schohl, #9 Home is where I hang my hat. — Cindy Gere, #279 Wherever I don't feel negative vibes. It could be under a tree, in my own little world. — Terri Demar, #322 Home is a state of mind ... wherever I am comfortable in my mind is home to me. — Wayne Sparks, #615 My corner, Washington and Main St. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 Ann Arbor! — Mike Jones, #113 Ypsilanti and in the arms of my people — Jim Clark, #139 Home is where the heart is. — Eamonn Ofoighill, #531 Here, now. Home is a luxury to me these days. — Pedro Campos, #652 Happy St. Patrick's Day! St. Patrick’s Day is a very joyful holiday. One of the reasons St. Patrick’s Day is a good holiday is because green is one of my favorite colors. St. Patrick’s Day is also good because one of my favorite foods is corned beef sandwiches. I like to cook corned beef at home and make sandwiches with Thousand Island dressing. I also like corned beef sandwiches with mayonnaise or mustard. I remember going to a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Detroit. It was back in the 1990s. Me and a couple of friends went together. It was one My first day back TOMMY SPAGHETTI Groundcover vendor No. 669 Old Ann Arbor … Remember the old Cloverleaf? Fat Nic? The Cloverleaf was replaced by Dunkin, a national chain. Selling Groundcover from across the street (Federal Building), I see many familiar faces — but not Brian's, Nic's or George's. The Cloverleaf Restaurant moved to Saline with a new name and a completely different customer base. Nic (aka Fat Nic) passed almost ten years ago and George, Nic’s son, finally got out of downtown Ann Arbor. Brian, the Cloverleaf’s most reliable customer, owns a house around the corner on Fifth Avenue (or used to). Brian’s house was pretty close to the police station and served as a warm-up center for some of Ann Arbor’s indigent population. Brian would allow me to park in the driveway when I came to town. Free parking is like gold downtown. Brian could always be counted on for some poignant witticism.* I wonder where Brian spends his time now that the Cloverleaf has moved to Saline. “He walked into the restaurant and said, ‘George owns this?’ Then turned around and walked out. Hasn’t been back since.” Said George. New Ann Arbor has grown rapidly in the last eight years since I’ve been gone. New construction everywhere. Ann Arbor used to be a small town with a big university, now it's a big city with a big university. The streets are still lively during the day, I can tell by selling Groundcover. At night I don’t know because I’m in bed by nine or ten o'clock. Bed? I meant to say couch because I couch surfed last night at my friends’ house. Selling Groundover … It is truly amazing how supportive the local citizens are. I sold almost all of my copies in a relatively short amount of time. Most buyers gave me more than the cover price. I like to engage pedestrians with questions that might garner a sale, knowing that many pedestrians are just trying to walk from one place to another. Knowing that a percentage of customers are in a solipsistic** frame of mind. They don't want any interference from homeless newspaper salespeople. “Help me to be a winner today and buy my last paper.” The young woman turned around to fetch $2 out of her purse. She remarked, “I'm giving you this because I want all of us to be winners.” My reply, “Awesome! What's your name?” “I don't just give out my name.” “Then what's your number?” Ha Ha, a smile comes out. “I just hope you read the paper.” “Of course I'm going to read it.” “Well, some people buy this paper merely to support the vendor.” “Well, for me, it's both.” Gratitude equals attitude! I’m grateful to the young woman who made me a winner, grateful to Brenna and Ashley for allowing me to shower and sleep on a comfortable couch last night. Thank you to all for another day of breathing. Thank you for the sunshine. Thank you to Glenn for the conversation today. Thank you to whoever bought the coffee at Groundcover. Thank you thank you thank you. *Witticism = combination of witty and criticism **Solipsism = The philosophy theory that the self is the only thing that can be verified. DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 of the happiest times. It was very joyful, colorful and musical. We ate out at a restaurant in downtown Detroit and I had my favorite corned beef sandwich. Good things happen during St. Patrick’s Day, like the weather gets better. Another reason I like St. Patrick’s Day so much is because it is a Christian holiday. The truth about homelessness is that people go through things that other people don’t pay attention to. How did these people get to this point, where they have nowhere to go, no food to eat? THEIR FAMILY HAS LEFT THEM. Now they have nothing and no one to help them. But you see, we are not different from anyone else, just less fortunate. Once we fall, it’s hard to get back up; it takes work — lots of work. Being human, you understand that we have a job to do, but you have to put in the work to get the job done. I love life, I want better. I need to see if we put in the work to stop the problem of homelessness, GROUNDCOVER NEWS The real truth about homelessness to be able to receive good news. But you still try as you might to help those who do want the help, though they’ll never know. Why? It’s because it takes work to make sure that the ones you care about know that you care. They are the ones — the ones you DEZZ CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 643 we would have a better way of life. We need to go back to the old days where we taught our children how to live for themselves — to know how to live, how to feed their family, how to pay bills, to feed themselves, know need help because if they don't get it when they need it, when they finally do, it will be too late. We need to make a difference now. We can by giving a person a chance to work, to really have a chance to start a new life. People are not as crazy as we think they are. We need to sit down, talk with them, so we all know that we are family. 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SOLUTIONS MARCH 21, 2025 "Beyond the Bridge: A Solution to Homelessness" comes to the Michigan Theater On Tuesday March 11, I attended a viewing of a documentary called “Beyond the Bridge: A Solution to Homelessness.” The viewing was very well attended. There was a mix of genders and races, but a large part was composed of white, middle-aged women of apparent means, so mostly homogeneous. The documentary was directed and produced by Don Sawyer and filmed by Tim Hashko who both previously created a documentary titled “Under the Bridge: The Criminalization of Homelessness,” and who both attended the screening. The new documentary is about finding solutions to the problems discovered in the first movie. Sawyer and Hashko set out on a cross-country trip to visit various large cities in the United States to ascertain how they address their homelessness issues. Of the major cities they visited, two stood out as having the best approach to a solution: Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Houston, Texas. The two cities boast a significant reduction in homelessness from the street to permanent housing. These cities embraced the Housing First model. Housing First seeks to provide a person with an immediate and permanent place to live before addressing any other barriers such as criminal record, mental health or behavioral issues. Housing First has no mandatory programs or conditions a person must meet before being housed. Among the first few steps taken by these cities to reduce homelessness and institute Housing First, one was a change in the way law enforcement interacts with those experiencing homelessness and another was the creation of a low-barrier rental network. Amazingly, there are a number of landlords that charge truly affordable rents (comparable to a room in Ypsilanti for $500 a month) and do not charge application fees or conduct background and credit checks. Changes in police work involve officers behaving more like social workers and less like cops. This is especially significant when it comes to warrants. Their police officers who are practicing homelessness “harm reduction” tend to work more closely with county mental health workers, act as points of contact for housing agencies, and can delay or avoid acting on arrest warrants. To the Housing First model they added elements of Permanent Supportive Housing by offering services to help the recently-housed succeed, specifically, the element of supportive services. Additionally, it was clear that the JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 success of the programs depends on seeing the homeless as people who deserve compassion, kindness and respect. A very disturbing trend was emphasized by the film. There have always been stigmas about the homeless — mostly the idea that people experiencing homelessness are lazy and are living this way on purpose in order to milk the system. This sentiment is generally only expressed by people who have never been housing or food insecure, do not have debilitating health issues or simply the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. They have never had any real tragedy in their lives. These fortunate people have begun to feel okay with things like letting their children jeer and make fun of homeless people, throwing rocks and garbage at them, or the opposite — ghosting them entirely. Worst of all, there have been incidents where homeless people have been murdered; the movie even reported there was a serial killer targeting the homeless at one point. This is decidedly the opposite of compassion, kindness and respect. Overall, the documentary does a good job pointing out successful efforts by cities that have created movement in solving the homelessness epidemic through lower barriers to housing and services, acknowledging the homeless as people and neighbors deserving of dignity and respect, and most importantly, asking the homeless themselves what they need to exit their situation. A panel presented after the documentary was moderated by Beth Angell, Dean of the U-M School of Social Work and Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor. Panelists were Roshanak Mehdipanah, U-M Associate Professor of Public Health; Molly Smith, Director of Services at Avalon Housing; Jennifer Hall, Executive Director of the Ann Arbor Housing Commission; and film director Don Sawyer. While the Ann Arbor area has taken a number of steps to address the homelessness crisis through its housing Panelists L to R: Beth Angell, Don Sawyer, Roshanak Mehdipanah, Molly Smith, Jennifer Hall, Mayor Christopher Taylor. commission and organizations like Avalon Housing that provide Permanent Supportive Housing, Sawyer said deeper collaboration is needed between agencies and advocates in order to make a significant impact. To move from transactional interaction to transformative change, Sawyer said, “The first thing that needs to happen is everyone involved has to sit back and they first have to admit failure. The system is not set up to have success. "Changing that system to a housing and support orientation is key to that transformation," Sawyer said. In my local experience, cities, townships and county agencies do not communicate. One specific example in Washtenaw County is that Community Mental Health’s PATH program places unhoused people in encampments without notifying other units of government. This has resulted in PATH clients being swept by city or township police. Many other inefficiencies like this stand in the way of transformative cooperation locally. Jim’s takeaway: Housing First or radical love? During the entire event, the question “what causes homelessness in the first place?” was not explored in any depth. There were mentions of a “system that is broken” throughout the film, but that system was treated like a tertiary character in a soap opera. The wolf in sheep’s clothing of Housing First is that the “housing” being discussed is usually apartment complexes that often aren’t already built. Which means developers are part of the Housing First solution. Why is this a problem? Because developments, like any other capitalist venture, must make a profit. They must also conform to the desires of the municipalities, both of which add up to higher costs and higher rents. After the paychecks have been signed and the bonuses dispersed, affordable housing all of a sudden isn’t affordable anymore. Further, it’s not hard to imagine landlords in bed with developers. The relationship possibly looks like this: the developer builds the apartments and the previously homeless tenants move in with a year-long lease. In subsequent years, the landlords raise the rents beyond what the tenants can pay, the tenants become homeless, the social services systems cry out for “affordable Housing First” units and move all the evicted tenants into them once they are built. Everybody wins but the tenants, right? Moral of the story: you can provide all the rapid rehousing and wraparound support you want, but if the privileged want to raise the cost of your housing and drive you to the street again, they can and they will and there is nothing you can do about it. Something the documentary misses but shows society is getting close to understanding is that “support services” must go beyond municipal, clinical, “professional” programs. What needs to be explored is how the breakdown of communal bonds such as extended families and identifiable organized supportive communities not only cause homelessness, but keep it intact. At the end of the day what humans need in order to feel connected is the kind of familial love that cannot be provided by governments or institutions. What is missing is seen in the behavior of parents who let their kids be cruel to random human beings. What’s missing is seeing all of humanity as worthy of compassion and love. This is where the real solution lies: radical love. We must do more than change our social services policies — we must change the way we see one another and accept that we have a responsibility to our community. That responsibility goes beyond what support services and professional programs can provide. The responsibility is to establish and nurture a real connection between one another as best as our chemistry and vibe can allow. MARCH 21, 2025 MENTAL HEALTH Bipolar disorder and head injuries have made my life a disaster ANONYMOUS When did it start? Did the mental illness and trouble remembering begin when I fell down my parents’ basement steps and my forehead hit the brick wall giving me two black eyes at age six? Or did it begin when I fell off my bicycle at around age 13 and hit the back of my head on the curb which put a small crack in my skull? Or did it begin when I fainted in high school in the hallway and smashed my forehead and face into the cement floor giving me two black eyes again? Also, I once dove into a lake from what we called a jetty (a metal partition they put on the shores of the lake to help break up waves to stop flooding). Anyway when I dove into the water my head hit a rock, one of the many boulders put along the shore to also stop flooding. It was a miracle of God I came up out of the water with no visible injuries. I have heard of others breaking their necks doing the same thing and becoming paralyzed. All through grade school and high school I was a slow learner; it was embarrassing. I had trouble concentrating, paying attention, had trouble remembering and as a teenager started having angry outbursts. At around age 21 (I’m 76 now) I began to work in bars because it was an easy job where I didn’t have to use my brain much. After working in the bars a while I became extremely depressed. It was difficult for me to get motivated, which made me late for work most of the time. I lived in an apartment right next door to one of the bars and I was still at least ten minutes late every night. I was very sluggish and didn’t know why. Sometimes I laid in bed for weeks. I never smoked, was not a drinker of alcohol and not a user of drugs. I had so many things wrong with me that I didn’t want to make myself worse with substance abuse. However I was addicted to sugar which the Lord delivered me from at around age 35. Then came more head injuries. Driving home from work at night I fell asleep and hit a telephone pole. Fortunately I had been driving real slow and only shattered my nose and chipped my front tooth. Another accident I was in happened when trying to cross a very, very busy road from one driveway straight across the road into another driveway. This was just one of my thousands of destructive decisions. I was hit by a Volvo on my driver’s side. I woke up to the paramedics trying to get me out of my car. The whole top of my head was very sore for a while. I have heard of people dying or becoming paralyzed from less severe head injuries than all these. I believe God has saved my life numerous times. There is one head injury that happened to me at around age 50 that maybe did kill me but the Lord brought me back to life. Here is how it happened: a psychiatrist in South Carolina, who was a really good doctor, prescribed 5 mg of Abilify for me. Then I moved to Columbus, Ohio and went to a government funded medical clinic. The psychiatrist there asked me how I was doing at my check-up. I told him the truth — that I felt great on the 5 mg of Abilify. He then gave me prescriptions for three more pills. He increased the Abilify to 10 mg and added two more pills. I went back to my government H.U.D. housing, took the three pills and then my brain felt like it was shutting down. I passed out and fell forward and smashed my face on the hard wooden floor. I woke up on my back but it was obvious from my right cheekbone being so swollen that it was blocking my vision, and the fact that the right side of my face was bruised that I obviously fell forward. For about three months I kept asking the Lord how I ended up on my back. The impression I finally got from the Lord is that I fell forward and died but the Lord came down, turned me over and brought me back to life. I am ashamed and tormented by the fact that I have hurt so many people in my messed up, crazy life. I have over and over hurt my mother who I loved dearly. Mom was my idol but I would lash out at her and others that I loved. I could not control the anger, the hurtful words and doing and saying crazy things. I was like a big stone rolling over people, and was always moving from place to place. After moving the 30th time I lost count of how many times I moved. I’ve been in and out of homelessness most of my adult life and presently have been homeless almost nine years. I grieve, feel sorrow and deeply regret how I have hurt my mother, real father, and my dear sweet stepdad, my brothers (especially my favorite brother) and many others. Wish I could do my life over now that I’m much better and Jesus Christ has helped me to be a better person through His Word in the New Testament. After that doctor overdosed me, I didn’t trust psychiatrists anymore so I asked the Lord what I should do and the impression I got from Him was to stop eating sugar, eat only organic food, take antioxidants, eat an orange everyday, eat pycnogenol (which is rich in antioxidants) and rosemary herb (yuck) and walk 30 minutes every day. The Lord also told me not to eat in fast food restaurants and nothing with potentially toxic ingredients. My advice to anyone that has depression or any other mental illness is to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to help you and heal you and do not smoke or be in second-hand smoke, never use drugs, don’t drink alcohol and don’t eat sugar. There are so many toxins in foods and in the air that we must do our best to avoid as much poison as possible. Also if you should get sick or have a head injury you need to have a healthy brain and body so you can heal quickly. Please, people, take care of yourselves. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out Unusual Stuff to Borrow There’s more to borrow at AADL than books, music, and movies. To name a few, there are games, telescopes, stories-to-go kits, and home tools. Check out these unusual yet handy items during your next library visit. Fifth Avenue Press AADL founded Fifth Avenue Press in 2017 to support the local writing community and promote the creation of original content. The imprint publishes works by authors who live in Washtenaw County. Consider submitting your finished manuscript to Fifth Avenue Press today at fifthave. aadl.org. FEATURED EVENT 5 Saturday, April 12 • 11am–5pm Downtown Library Stop by the Downtown Library for a pop-up record fair with vendors selling used records and gear! We’ll have DJs spinning tunes while you check out the vendors and add a vinyl–or two–to your collection. Visit aadl.org/ recordstoreday for more!

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES Mental health, domestic violence, addiction and me heart filled with joy. I would like to make it known, to this day, every Christmas my daughter will cook extra, and make plates and drive around looking for someone to feed. A blessing from Groundcover News. I returned to Groundcover News in 2022 after suffering an unimaginable beating and three reconstructive surgeries. I returned to Groundcover, where I felt as though I mattered, and once again I was able to quickly get on my feet. Although I had spent three years getting reconstructive surgery, going to every court date, I was not STEPHANIE DUNCAN Groundcover vendor No. 66 In 2016 I was arrested for domestic violence and assault on a police officer. Because I had been repeatedly calling Community Mental Health, the suicide hotline and 911, I was only charged with a high misdemeanor instead of a felony. Family and friends rejected helping me. Needless to say, I was unable to return home. I was devastated. Me, homeless? No! Way!! I walked the streets looking for what to do; I needed a job. Looking and watching people panhandle, I didn't want to do that, but I thought that with my eighth grade education I couldn’t get a job. That’s when a man — a late, great man — Hal Klenk approached me and said “I can see you are struggling, is there something you are looking for? Maybe I can help you find something.” As I explained to him what was going on, he said, “This is Groundcover News, a street newspaper that I sell, would you like to read it?” I said yes and as we sat in Library Plaza and read a few articles. He then asked if I would like to try and sell them; it was the first time I felt a man not wanting something in return. I said yes so he took me to the Groundcover News office and I started selling; I quickly got the courage to talk and meet people who had no ulterior motive. I got the courage to apply at Subway and quickly got a job and moved to management. And that’s where I met Shelley DeNeve, Groundcover vendor No. 22. As we worked side by side I developed a great relationship with her as well. I was able to get a place within three months. I didn’t sell as much but between that and what I made at Subway I started to get on my feet; I focused on seeing my children. Fast forward to summer 2017, I had my first visit alone with my seven-yearold daughter. Not having much money and wanting her to have a good time, I went to the Groundcover office again and asked if there was any way I could take my daughter with me, because she was so determined to see what I do in my spare time. They quickly said yes and gave her her own badge (No. 66.5); we went and got matching Groundcover yellow t-shirts from Elmo’s and she smiled from ear to ear. (Something I wasn’t able to give her in a very long time.) Hal suggested selling at the State Theater where movies were extremely cheap. After making more than enough I asked her what she wanted to go and eat. She said, "Mom, this money is supposed to go to the homeless!” She wanted to pick a homeless person and give her money to them. So I explained what Groundcover was about and that the money was for us. After we went to the movies, she was ready to eat. She asked, "Where do you eat when you’re here?” I told her Subway when I’m working, and the Delonis Center when I’m not, and her curious mind wanted to know what the Delonis Center was. So I took her there for dinner. She was so excited to learn about the community and see that there are men, women, and even families there. At dinner she befriended a little baby and after asked the mom if he could play with her, so we invited the family to Pinball Pete’s and they agreed. It was such a blessing to see her and him being children and having so much fun — my allowed to speak and my assailant only received two years because he had a plea deal. I was so outraged! What is wrong with the SYSTEM?! This brought a lot of memories of my mother being abused and the system returning us to our father, so the abuse would continue, as long as he took parenting classes. My mother returned to save her children, or so she thought. Suffering from P.T.S.D. and not taking the medication I needed, I returned to alcohol, and my drug use really kicked in. After several attempts to end my life, time in jails and other institutions, I went back to Community Mental Health and started taking my medications and following through with my appointments. I finally took a stand and fired my doctor, and after that I was assigned a health care case manager who has fought for me harder than anyone ever has! And I have had a lot. I was also assigned the best psychiatrist I could imagine! In the summer of 2024, I was finally taking care of my medical conditions and I was diagnosed with cervical cancer — two cancer polyps and four precancerous polyps. I was scheduled for surgery in July but I caught COVID and was required to stay quarantined for 21 days. I couldn’t return to my residence because people worked directly in the healthcare industry. So I was blessed by the church and the hospital and was granted to stay in the McAuley MARCH 21, 2025 Inn for that time. Two days later I had my surgery and things did not go as planned. My one and a half hour surgery turned into six hours in which they accidentally clipped my colon, and had to give me a full hysterectomy. So that led to eight weeks of recovery. Three weeks later I caught an infection in the area where they had made their mistake, leading to more surgery to have it repaired. I was told I would have to follow up with a gastric specialist; I had Molina insurance at that time, but when I returned home from the hospital, they no longer existed, so the state automatically assigned HAP insurance. There I was, calling the state to get my insurance changed and they tell me I can’t but once a year. I explained my situation, called my caseworker, and had to file an emergency appeal. I’m still awaiting an answer so I can get the medical help I still need. It is extremely painful every moment of my days. Needless to say, I lost my place of residence and needed emergency money so I could put my things in storage. I returned to Groundcover knowing that I could and would be able to work when I felt okay enough, sit when I needed to, and not worry about getting fired. I recently got denied my third time for Social Security Disability after having been a mental health client for 26 years. "The System,” after all this, released my assailant and placed him directly across from where I resided. I contacted the parole board and they tod me it’s my obligation to follow up with them. I asked for my PPO to be reinstated. They told me I have to pay $250 to renew. What a System! I am currently residing at a residential treatment program in Ypsilanti, desperately working on my recovery program, waiting on THE SYSTEM. My mental health is being addressed but I’m still waiting on medical attention that is so desperately needed. Thank you Groundcover. And more importantly, thank you to our readers! MARCH 21, 2025 RECOVERY Monique Caldwell's pursuit of happiness JONATHAN GLASS Groundcover contributor Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are the rights allotted to all Americans in the Declaration of Independence. No matter how many times you’ve fallen down, you have the right to pursue happiness. It's never easy for any of us — if it was easy, it wouldn't make us happy. Monique Caldwell has had her share of difficulty in her pursuit of the American dream. Although she’s currently among the unhoused in Ann Arbor, she has chosen to go back to school between Jackson and Washtenaw Community Colleges to complete her higher education degree in addiction studies and mental health. She will be getting an associate of general studies along with advanced certification. Her life is difficult by any standard, but she is not giving up the fight. Her positivity concerning her difficulties is inspiring. With her small circle of allies, and her devoted husband Sean, Caldwell is taking life by the horns. The path to success isn’t a straight line for anyone; it's an up-and-down, loop-toloop roller coaster that slowly gets better over time. This is Caldwell’s recovery story. It was the beginning of the opioid epidemic and Caldwell had just given birth to her second child by C-section. She was in all respects middle class. Caldwell owned a home and a couple cars, she was working at Maxey Boys Training School as a nurse, money was in the bank and she had two beautiful children. For a moment in time, they had achieved happiness. Then life threw Caldwell a curveball. The C-section left her in tremendous pain. Doctors were a lot more relaxed about prescribing opioids in the early 2000s. She was over-prescribed opioids until they did nothing to stop the pain whatsoever. Her husband at the time had a hidden heroin habit. He offered her heroin to sniff and it took away the pain. That lasted for a little while. But when sniffing didn’t take care of the pain, she started injecting it. Caldwell’s story has been the story of thousands of hard-working men and women trapped in a cycle of opioid abuse. Their only crime was a bodily injury which led to a real “Sophie’s choice” — endure crippling pain or a life of addiction. Shortly after Caldwell started using heroin, her husband lost his job and they lost their home. Caldwell said, “ I still kick myself for letting that all happen. It’s not like I grew up in a bubble. I knew that heroin was a bad drug. But please don’t judge anyone for having a use disorder because you don’t know their story. I’m a very private person. I don’t necessarily want my story published in a newspaper. But addiction stigma has to go! I’m sharing my story to show that addiction doesn't care if you’re rich, poor or in the middle — it’s a monster that wants to kill as many people as it can. And if it got me, it can get anyone. I never thought for one second I would fall prey to heroin, not for a single moment." Shortly after losing their home, her husband began stealing copper and just about any metal that was worth money. He also robbed an employee he had worked with previously as she made the nightly deposit at the bank. He was sentenced to prison and left Caldwell alone with two kids and a horrible habit. In 2011, Caldwell ended up being able to stay with a relative. She did have an active warrant and her family called and turned her in. Later that same day her family had gone through her purse and found four bundles of heroin and called the police to turn it in. Caldwell ended up going in front of Judge Shelton and he wanted to send her to prison for manufacturing and delivery because of the way it was packaged. “I begged Judge Shelton not to do that because I needed help,” she recalled. “I had asked for help a couple years before but nobody in my family cared. I told him, 'I’m an addict, please send me to treatment.'” Judge Shelton ended up sentencing Monique to one year at Washtenaw County Jail with two years of felony probation. He basically said, "Sure, you can go to treatment from jail as soon as you pay fines and costs of $1,800." It was impossible to pay once she was in jail. Nobody in her family would help. "I was completely alone. Everyone turned their backs on me." What separates Caldwell from others is her work ethic, servant’s heart and brilliant knack for turning lemons into lemonade. She could have sat in the jail cell and stared at the wall, but she became a trustee, helping others on her block and the officers throughout the jail. Caldwell also took every group that the jail had to offer such as Moral Reconation Therapy and Dual Diagnosis. She started CMH and was diagnosed with bipolar, borderline personality disorder, Opiod Substance Use Disorder, extreme anxiety disorder and PTSD. "I finally got the help that I needed to start going through all the trauma I had suffered since I was a child. "I wrote Judge Shelton a five page letter first telling him how angry I was and thought he was a complete jerk, but then thanked him because he saved my life. I sent all my completed certificates, 12 in all, and told him all the things that I had started to learn about myself, and he ended up calling the jail personally and told them to release me that day, two months earlier than I was to be released." The first thing Caldwell did was get in contact with her children. She began visits with her son but they were few and far between. It was apparent that GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Caldwell needed to get a job and apartment to be able to get her kids back from relatives. Caldwell said, “The road to getting my kids back was full of obstacles, and to be honest, it’s still a sensitive subject. I can’t go into it.” In the end, Caldwell let her kids stay with the family members, not wanting to cause any more trauma to them. Her kids turned out extremely well. Her daughter graduated at 16 and then started college right away. Her son also is doing very well. They’re both in their early twenties now. In 2016, Caldwell lost her spot at Delonis, and she ended up buying what she thought was heroin but it turned out to be carfentanil and she overdosed, almost fatally. She said, “I hated myself, but I started methadone and therapy. Methadone wasn’t the answer so I switched to Suboxone and that has done the trick to keep me sober. Another chance.” She was in a new relationship and she realized she was pregnant with her now-husband Sean’s baby, their first and only baby together. Shortly thereafter, he was sentenced to prison, and they decided to give their daughter, Eve, up for adoption. Caldwell said, “It's the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but I did my research and found a beautiful couple in Ohio who couldn't have children of their own, and they adopted our daughter. They were the perfect candidates. Let me qualify that by saying I had nothing to offer her at the time. The most selfless act I could do was to give Eve to a couple of young professionals who could make her dreams come true. The mom was a teacher, the husband was an architect. I’m heartsick over it to this day. Sean and I still couldn’t even talk about her for a long time, but we do celebrate her birthday. It wasn’t done lightly." Caldwell mentioned that she hasn’t known love like the love of her husband Sean. “We’ve had more than our see MONIQUE page 11 

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LOCAL HISTORY Reflection on the "Letter to the West Side" MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 “A Letter to the West Side” had two showings, February 8 and February 26, 2025, at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, and at both showings there was a full house. I attended the second showing, and was very impressed by the production of the documentary. “A Letter to the West Side” is a personal visual account of the once-vibrant Black neighborhood located in Ann Arbor. I grew up on the westside. I wrote an article in Groundcover News November, 1, 2022 (Volume 13, Issue 21), titled “Gentrification of Ann Arbor, my hometown, through the eyes of Shanty Wobagege aka Mike Jones.” To read it, visit the Groundcover News website and go to the archive section. “A Letter to the West Side” is a glimpse into the history of Ann Arbor — history that people who live, work and play in this small town don’t know about. I often talk to Groundcover News customers and Ann Arbor residents who don’t know the history of the westside. Just like the United States, Ann Arbor is now home to people from all over the world. This documentary started at the roots. The Underground Railroad and the Great Migration where millions of Black people moved from the South to the North in search of a better life. My granddad, James Y. Jones, migrated from Jones County, Mississippi to Ann Arbor along with Ann Arbor notables Mr. Delong of Delong’s BBQ and Rosey of Rosey Barber Shop. This showing also explained the difference between segregation in the south which was implemented through law, and in the north where segregation was an unwritten law. One example of this was how white landowners would not sell homes to Blacks outside of the westside area in Ann Arbor. The documentary then moved into explaining the gentrification of this once thriving Black community. Gentrification in Ann Arbor took place 30 to 40 years ago. The movie conveyed how this gentrification actually took place. I was so happy to learn things I didn't know about in the neighborhood I grew up in. Like the history of the Dunbar Center that would become the Ann Arbor Community Center where I used to play along with my childhood friends as a young lad. Mainly, what I got out of this wonderful documentary is what I experienced as a child growing up in a loving and nurturing environment; visiting other Black families and businesses, MARCH 21, 2025 Jones in front of the mural on 4th and Catherine on the Westside. while also having friends of different backgrounds other than my own race who I consider family. A community where everybody knew one another and looked out for one another. The most meaningful time in my life was in that beautiful neighborhood called the westside. I was greatly surprised by the massive turnout to the showing, and I got to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a long time from the westside neighborhood. The audience was in full support of the experience, expression and the direction of this well-produced informative documentary by Breyko, in partnership with the Ann Arbor Housing Commission. Overall, I believe this documentary covered all the bases, and I myself was a student of my own history. It's a great feeling knowing I was a part of history with so much culture, pride and togetherness in a beautiful community and neighborhood in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I hope documentaries such as “A Letter to the West Side” will help bring awareness to prevent future neighborhoods being gentrified. I also hope we as the human race can learn to live together in peace without worry of what race, color or creed a person might be. We are all one race, the Human Race. We are One! MARCH 21, 2025 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Fishing boat used in the developing world 6. Apple variety 10. "Be quiet!" 13. Went to a restaurant 15. 100 dinars 16. Ring bearer, maybe 17. Nine-day prayer ritual 18. Seconds 20. Home with close neighbors 22. ___-Atlantic 23. 007, for one 24. Leaf opening 26. Fancy smoothie flavor 28. Icelandic epic 32. Face-to-face exam 33. Fattest 37. "Rocky ___" 38. Heart-lifting 41. African antelope 42. Pre-metallurgic era 43. All ___ 45. Kind of song 46. Surfing need 50. Banana oil, e.g. 52. Athletic supporter? 55. "Andy Capp" cartoonist Smythe 56. Material inside bodily organs 61. Lyrics projected at the opera 62. Flower commonly called candytuft 63. "Rocks" 64. Golden Triangle country 65. Blue-pencil 66. High degree 67. The Beatles' "___ Leaving Home" 68. Cherishes DOWN 1. Canal site 2. On the skin 3. Silver state 4. Attendee 5. Some wedding guests 6. Beam 7. "___ it the truth!" 8. Punishment for a sailor, maybe 9. Lower women 10. "Land of senses" 11. What trolls send 12. "48___" 14. Pack (down) 19. Ford, for one 21. It can be quizzical 25. "Aladdin" prince 27. "___ alive!" 29. 1957 #1 song 30. Pause in hostilities 31. ___ Minor 34. Bull markets 35. Bridle parts 36. Deck (out) 38. To the extent that 39. Raised 40. "What's ___?" 41. "Fancy that!" 44. The Amish, e.g. 47. Ancient debarkation point 48. "The Merchant of ___" 49. Gets rid of 51. Stirs 53. Arabic for "commander" 54. Fell off 57. Its motto is "Industry" 58. ___ gin fizz 59. Bungle, with "up" 60. Change 61. Bit of a draft

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CREATIVE Travels with Dreamer, part 2 STEVEN Groundcover vendor No. 668 Editor’s Note: This article is a continuation of “Travels with Dreamer: The Girl in the Shiny Green Dress,” Groundcover News, March 7, 2025, page 10. Where do you stay when you're a dumb kid with almost no money, new to New Orleans, around Halloween? Did I mention The Squat? I did crash at it a handful of times. The Squat was downright scary though. I only laid there when I lost track of time and partied too late. Where I mostly crashed was across the river in Algiers. Algiers is a different town than New Orleans as I understood it. It’s not a neighborhood. What did I know? There was a free ferry that didn't run super late, like 10 or 11. It was a different world. I don't remember exploring Algiers. It wasn't really remarkable to me other than that’s where they made the Mardi Gras floats. Just off the ferry just past the levy off to the right was a pretty dense clump (stand? grove? copse?) of trees. I was never bothered there and stashed my backpack there. Which worked great — 'till it didn't. That's where it all fell apart. I, in my inexperience, stashed my stuff, poorly. I traveled pretty light, not as light as some but lighter than most. I had just the one school book bag type bag, albeit a nice one. It had a bunch of pockets and was well-made. Traveling lightly meant the one bag was packed to the gills. Had I added a wafer thin mint it would have busted a seam. It was loaded with a wide range of things a 19-year-old dude thought important. The police in Florida unpacked it when they pulled Dreamer and me off the freight train, and they spread it all over the floor for my intake. Normal travel stuff. A Star Trek novel, about four cigarette lighters, some pairs of jockey shorts and socks, a few t-shirts, a pair of shorts (jams), a pair of pants, cool rocks from the railroad tracks, a half-dozen narrow-ruled lined paper notebooks. I was carrying rocks not geodes or crystals or fossils. Just rocks I thought looked neat. Priorities right? Not even good skippers. My bag all spread out over the whole lobby. I was so nervous I forgot I had a little-used metal weed pipe, which was not discovered, in the left inside breast pocket of my sick ass tight red leather 70s jacket until we were hitching down the road three days later. Kind of heavy and unwieldy, not the kind of load you want to lug up and down the dense biomass of Bourbon Street while the party is on. I stashed my bag. Like a fool I stashed it very, very poorly. There were people partying where I stashed it and I just shoved it under a bush and called it good. I popped across the river. I loved the ferry anyway, it's in my blood. My grandpa on my dad’s side skippered all sorts of craft on The Great Lakes over the years. Boat captain was a path I deeply considered then foolishly discarded. I think it was too much school or drug testing or whatever but I didn't go that way. Too bad. I don't remember what I was getting on this ferry trip but it doesn't matter, the bag was gone. Immediately I'm defeated. My entire adventure ended in that moment: a consequence of youth, well, let's call it immaturity. My propensity to quit something if it gets hard or even inconvenient rushed screaming to front and center. I can see the scene there in the trees: the Mighty Mississippi muttering along as it has for millennia. I might have cried, it would be totally on brand. I dragged my shuffling feet slowly back to the ferry and back to the Quarter. Not sure how the night went after that. I'm sure I was sad bastard style all night. I have no clear memory until the next day. I'm all about Jungian synchronicity, and it seems the way things played out would be a perfect example of it. I remember sitting on the lowest step being consoled by Dreamer and The Girl. I was beside-myself distraught. This was all my stuff. Stuff I wanted. Stuff I thought I needed. Hell I packed it and dragged it across Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, the Florida panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi into Louisiana. Out of nowhere a black van pulls up in front of us. We three stared slackjawed as this charismatic dude jumps out the side door leaving a handful of people inside. He addresses the lightly populated Stairs asking if anyone wants to help dumpster dive and sponge their way in the van to Michigan? Crazy, right? My world has just collapsed; I'm convinced just moments before my trip is over. I'm bemoaning what to do next and Bam! this ride all the way home or near enough falls into my lap. I mean, shit, WTF? Sure seems like synchronicity right? Like what kind of crazy coincidence is that? Without a second thought I piped up. "OK, grab what you need and let’s go," he says. My stupid stupid stooopid brain flipped a switch. I'm headed home. New Orleans, anything and everything to do with it are in my rear view before I even get in the van. I've done some shameful things over the years. I like to think no more than most people. You fold in the drinking, crazy drugs, crazier friends, mental illness, and a singular selfishness it’s fair to say I've gone beyond my allotment. All of which of course cause a profound shame within me. This one is in the top 10. A second ago I thought I was totally screwed, now I’m stoked. Now falling in my lap is the perfect solution, I thought. These guys were driving straight through to southern Michigan. They were clear that this trip would be of an indeterminate length as we would need to stop often to panhandle gas money and dumpster dive food. I'm like "Whatever man, let’s go.” I turn to The Girl glibly happy at my good fortune. Smiling like an idiot, absolutely clueless to any other part of the situation beyond "ride home good,” like I discovered fire. Well, of course she's crying. This surprises me. Immaturity, selfishness, cluelessness, stupidity and a touch of cruelty take the cake, frosted with (undiagnosed, untreated) bipolar with, I suspect, sprinkles of an occult element. Or even, and this isn't like me, a desire from without myself. Well she's sobbing, ugly crying before I knew to call it that. Beside herself. From what I’d heard, an ancient Greek would have thought her uterus was about to malfunction. But to her absolute credit The Girl kept it together — amazing. She's been completely blindsided by this. We were so deep into each other, into the scene, the whole thing was awesome. What the f*ck is going on? What the actual f*ck? I enveloped her in my long neanderthal arms, pulled her to me, held her tight for several beats, pulled back, looked into her face, kissed her tenderly and slowly, got on the van, the door closed. I never saw her again. MARCH 21, 2025 Transforming to Light LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover writer Fertile soil for the planting of an array of new seed Frozen-solid ground to purify the soil To get out all of the unclean elements in the soil as it survived, had endured the severe cold Now see the elegant, glorious plants, the flowers of Her fertile soil The transformation of the seeds to a glorious new creation Thank GOD Almighty!!!!!! - MARCH 21, 2025 CONTINUED  COMMONS from page 2 Council accepting those recommendations. They have refused to share storage space to help community events when they are programmed. They have certainly not volunteered any City park material, equipment or help in activation. And for the last year and more, they have refused to write a Request for Proposals to seek professional help, as agreed with the Council of the Commons. Now they spend City money and time to formulate a new plan, to annul the old vote and build a new library and many floors of market rate and affordable housing to pay for it without asking the people for taxes. The Library has been wanting a new building for a long time; they proposed a millage in 2012 to pay for it, but were defeated. They got a new idea of rebuilding themselves as a “mixed use” building in their existing space with another several floors of public library and on top of that 12 or 15 floors of housing, the equity value of which would pay for or facilitate financing of the new Library. I met with the AADL Director to explore how the new library could interface with a new Civic Center Building, envisioned over Library Lane and connecting with the Library. Rather than being kept in the loop on developments, which was the understanding I thought we had, eye to eye, the next thing I heard of was this donedeal going to the City Council to give the Library Lane Lot to the Library for housing development and Library expansion, and terminate the com MONIQUE from page 7 share of problems,” she said. “But we put the work in. He is my best friend, he’s been by my side and loves me, for me. He knows everything. For the past decade, Sean, Sheri and Bridget have been my support group.” Caldwell met Sheri Wander at the Daytime Warming Center when Sheri was unhoused. Since then, Sheri and her husband Pat have gotten themselves established with a home, Peace House, and Caldwell volunteered to help out. They’re still doing as much outreach in the community as they can. Caldwell said, “I volunteer as much as I can because service is one of the few things I can do to help the community that makes me feel good and useful.” In 2023, Caldwell’s doctors found a tumor during a mammogram. Caldwell recalled, “The radiologist was telling me results, but my ears were mons, and void the vote. Besides that there is no integrity in this deal: ignoring standing commitments, it is deceptive in its imagined benefits. When the commons was on the ballot, the “housing first" people argued, “Let the profiteers build their fancy housing, they will have to give a share of the benefit to the affordable housing fund.” So affordable housing was a benefit of the big build, though such housing would not be in the Center of the City. In this new deal, affordable housing gets little of the benefit, maybe a few units, but the vast bulk of the benefit is going to support financing needed for the new library. We have not been told the particulars of how this “no tax” plan works. Why has their mixed-use plan promoted in November expanded in February to take the whole surface? The Library did not say. One could conclude that the numbers for private housing over their current space did not yield enough equity to pay for the new library so they needed a larger footprint … so take the commons space too — which they never liked anyway — and promise the people a jewel of a new Library and housing complex with stores and programmable public space. Nowhere to be seen are the words "park" or "commons" or "user participation" in the development, or even "green." Last time the question came to a vote, the people chose to have a central park and green space and not a big, big building. I expect the people would choose so again. Their current proposal has no pictures, no numbers, no details, no ringing, like I couldn’t hear a word she said. When I walked out of the hospital and felt the fresh air, I passed out. A guy was like, ‘Are you OK?’ and I was like, ‘I think I’m going to die.’" As this article is being written, Caldwell is still following up on her tumor and is talking about how to go about removing them to see if chemotherapy is really necessary. Keep her in your prayers. Prior to finding the tumor in her breast, Caldwell’s husband Sean had encouraged her to go back to school at WCC. After paying all the school’s fines from back in 2007, she was making progress toward her degree. But the cocktail of school stress, working overnights, life stress and facing a deadly disease was more than a strong woman like Caldwell could bear. She said, “I was like f*** it! I’m getting high,” and went on a binge for a couple weeks before coming back to herself and getting sober again. In the meantime, she dropped her course load. oversight, only the gittering promise of a jewel with many imagined facets. This Library proposal should go back to the drawing boards for detailing. The Commons should continue to the consultants and last Monday's action should be called back, reconsidered and postponed until after the consultant's report, if then. It is sad when the AADL director speaks of the civic vision the community has been developing for decades and refuses to look at the actual planning and drawings that people have developed for looking forward. It would also show good faith, however belatedly, for the City Council to invite a presentation of the ideas people have developed on the Central Park development and Civic Center Building plan and commons process. The Ann Arbor Community Commons Initiating Committee could do this; it is recognized and empowered by the City Council to develop community participation in the Center of the City development. Beautiful ideas and pictures, welcoming to everyone, would be good to show. Beauty and good design is what will draw the private money and generosity of Ann Arbor to build what is envisioned. The negativity of the City Administration and the Library does not help, but it might draw forth a fairer assessment of the Commons development. Such an assessment is what the City Council should offer the public, not a sleight of hand, bait and switch, disappearance and cancellation of the Central Park, Civic Center Building and the community Commons good for everyone. Resist, Push Back. This was a bad Caldwell has seized another opportunity to return to college, this time a fresh start at Jackson Community College that offers on-site living for students, thereby offering her a place to call home. Caldwell remains optimistic, despite all that has happened. Her husband Sean is awaiting his day in court; he’s being held in jail in the meantime. Caldwell said, “I miss my best friend. That leaves me alone and sad. I cry a lot.” Caldwell’s journey has been a difficult one, but she is a living breathing work in progress who said, “I’m a survivor, not a victim.” Caldwell volunteers with Lindsay Calka, director of Groundcover News, at Weather Amnesty at Purple House on Sundays; volunteers at the warming centers in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor; and has run a women’s support group, all while being unhoused herself. Caldwell said, “Getting my mind off of me and my situation is the only way for me to remain sober. I have to be busy GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 6/30/2025 deal that the City Council passed. Just say No! Read more about the Ann Arbor Commons Initiating Committee at AnnArborCommunityCommons.org helping others.” Asked about the future, Caldwell said she’s looking forward to focusing on education, a career in social work, addiction and mental health, while reconnecting with her adult children and living her best life with Sean. “I don’t know what the future holds,” she said. “It may never be perfect, but I keep working to be the best version of myself. I wake up every day and choose to fight for my life by doing good and not letting a hard situation beat me. At the end of the day, I’m only responsible for my reaction, not the things that happened to me. Have I made mistakes? You bet. No one wins every hand. But I’ve learned so much from my mistakes! And when I become a social worker, I’m going to be so good at my job.”

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD White bean and greens soup ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 sweet onion, diced 1 cup diced carrots 1 cup diced celery 6 garlic cloves, minced Kosher salt and pepper 1 parmesan rind 3 (14 ounce) cans white beans, drained and rinsed 6 cups vegetable broth 1 bunch kale, wash and torn from the stems, coarsely chopped 6 ounces fresh baby spinach Parmesan cheese block (keep rind) Crushed red pepper Directions: Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, celery and garlic with a few big pinches of salt and pepper. Stir and cook, until the veggies soften (about six minutes). Add in the parmesan rind, two cans of the beans, and the broth. Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce it to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Coarsely mash the remaining can of beans. After 20 minutes, add in the mashed beans and stir in the kale and spinach; keep on the heat for a few more minutes. Taste and season with more salt and pepper. Remove the rind. Serve with parmesan on top and a bit of crushed red pepper. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS MARCH 21, 2025 SPRINGcleaning? DON’T THROW AWAY! KIWANIS WILL REUSE IN SOME OTHER WAY! Large I tem/Quant i ty Donat ion FREE Pickup Upon Request ! 100 N STAEBLER RD, ANN ARBOR MI 48103 OFF JACKSON RD IN SCIO TOWNSHIP $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 4/3/2025 734-665-0450 on s i te donat ions accepted Saturdays 9am-12pm

2 $ MARCH 7, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 6 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Travels with Dreamer: the girl in the shiny green dress. page 10 MEET YOUR VENDOR: DENISE SHEARER PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Ypsilanti District Library Michigan Ave branch has been closed since July 2023. Is there a light at the end of the YDL construction tunnel? page 6 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER community EVENTS INT'L WOMEN'S DAY SHOW at UNITY VIBRATION Saturday, March 8, 7-11 p.m. Unity Vibration, 93 Ecorse Rd. Ypsi Music from Michael Anne, Juniper Rachel with Yeddie & Blues Scholars, Michelle Mermaid and Doris Angel. Sliding scale donation to benefit WILPF. BEYOND the BRIDGE: a SOLUTION to HOMELESSNESS Tuesday, March 11, 6-8 p.m. Michigan Theater, 603 E Liberty St. Screening of Don Sawyer's powerful new documentary that examines the root causes of homelessness and explores comphrehensive solutions. Doors open at 5 p.m. Screening will be followed by a panel with local experts. Reserve a free ticket online at: bit.ly/BeyondTheBridgeA2 29th ANNUAL EXHIBITION of ARTISTS in MICHIGAN PRISONS Tuesday, March 18, 5-9 p.m. Duderstadt Center Gallery Opening night of the U-M Prison Creative Arts Project, the largest longest-running art show in the world featuring incarcerated artists! Reception begins at 6:30p.m.; program begins at 7p.m. ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL SCREENING: "BILLY" March 26, 9 p.m., Michigan Theater Filmmaker Lawrence Côté-Collins finds her attacker in jail. She wants to understand, forgive and support a suffering man. Billy is schizophrenic, and his worst attack left two people dead. Their epistolary prison friendship reveals the full truth about this undiagnosed and untreated mental illness. Together, they tell their stories and reconstruct themselves through intimate correspondence and unseen video archives. Groundcover is the community partner for the film. and 51st ANNUAL DANCE for MOTHER EARTH POWWOW Saturday-Sunday, March 22-23 Skyline High School, 2552 N. Maple Rd. Experience and honor Native American heritage and history. One of the largest student-run powwows in the country. MARCH 7, 2025 The oldest experimental and avant-garde film festival in North America. In person at the Michigan Theater, and other locations in downtown Ann Arbor. Everyone is welcome Bring friends. Bring family. Bring you. aafilmfest.org PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS D.A. Pedro Campos City of Ann Arbor Jim Clark Roberto Isla Caballero Mike Jones Marie Will Shakespeare Steven Felicia Wilbert PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Elliot Cubit Matthew Rohlman Steve Ross Dillon Schweers Anabel Sicko Allison Wei VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Sim Bose Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Bella Fernandez Robert Klingler Ari Ruczynski Jack Weinberg Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Melanie Wenzel CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons MARCH 7, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS Barack Obama versus Donald Trump The natural rights, life and the Denise Shearer, vendor No. 485 In one sentence, who are you? A person who loves to make friends and help myself and others. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? In front of the DVD/CD store on Main Street and in front of Ginger Deli. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? 2018 – I wanted to meet new people and make some money. What is one place in Ann Arbor that feels like your own personal sanctuary? The library … all of them. What’s your life motto? God is love. What advice would you give to your younger self? Stop worrying. God’s got this. What is your comfort food? Hot dogs and chicken noodle soup. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring 3 things, what would they be? A radio, snacks, and water. If there was a theme song for your life, what would it be? “Holiday” by Madonna. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? Frankenmuth. What is the weirdest food combo you swear by? Hot dogs and stuffing. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? People getting better treatment at doctors’ and dentists’ offices. exp. 06/31/2025 privacy of a human are violated when they are accosted by an ICE agent who, in a uniform like Hugo Chavez, does not understand sacrifices, and anti-fascist laws, and uses the KKK as an American symbol and wastes no time in applying imperialist Yankee laws. Barack Obama denied human rights with “castristas” laws and ICE deportations. Parents and grandparents pretend to clean the ashes of their ancestors and proudly say that there is no ICE, but with the letters ICE there lives the Nazi-Leninist ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 Yankee-imperialist pride. I love you, Agapito (the ICE agent). Los derechos de la naturaleza, de la vida y las privacidades de un ser humano cuando es tratado por un agente de ICE que, con un uniforme como Hugo Chavez, no entiende de sacrificios y leyes antifascistas y usa el KKK como símbolo americano y no pierde el tiempo en hacer leyes imperialistas Yankees. Barack Obama y derechos humanos con leyes castristas y deportaciones de ICE. Padres y abuelos, pretenden limpiar las cenizas de sus antepasados y orgullosamente dicen que no hay hielo, pero con las letras ICE viven el orgullo nazista-leninista yankee-imperialista. Te amo, Agapito (el agente de ICE). 3 Stupor For a moment I intend to maintain control PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 I plant my feet on the ground Watchful eyes around me Plan, project, progress Reflect It is important to review recent events Suddenly, for a moment If it is or is not intentional, I don't know I seek insanity at all costs Giving up on agreements Pre-established with myself And no one else And dive into wine And I get drunk And when I’m at the stupor point I hold on to it with all my strength And I hold for hours, days, weeks, seconds Inside I create my world Then everything passes soon And it turns out that Even before the hangover The voice inside me starts screaming again Ego, super-ego Yeah, id couldn't be alone Playful In these questions I find myself wondering Whether or not I should have control Because the sensations that invade my chest With the speed of a whirlwind They come and go, they explode These, friend, I've known for a long time Because I always carried them with me They don't respect my will Much less are predictable I'm their puppet, and I like it, and I live And I haven't even talked about love yet. Read more of Campos' work on his Instagram, @pedrocamposbrazil

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS INJUSTICE Dive into Sheriff's budget reveals predatory revenue streams MARIE Groundcover contributor This article focuses on an information session about a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by a Washtenaw County resident in March 2024. The documents in the FOIA request pertain to the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) 2024 Fiscal Year budget. Research from the FOIA request was presented the evening of Monday, February 24, to a full Farmers Marketplace in Ypsilanti. The title of the event was “A Deep Dive into the Sheriff’s Budget: a Civic Education and Strategy Session.” An RSVP through the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice (ICPJ) to the event promised: an informative summary of over 300 WCSO budget-related documents; brainstorming of community-based solutions to financial harms waged against incarcerated people, loved ones, and the community; and an exploration of current community-led initiatives like participatory budgeting committees driving the future of county spending. The event’s presentation operated like keys to unlock several issues, and opened the door to talking about them. During a pre-info session phone conference on Feb. 23, the event’s presenters Corn and Kat, along with this writer, clarified interests. Corn is a paid Michigan Justice Fund research fellow, hired in Fall 2024 by ICPJ to review FOIA documents pertaining to the FY2024 Sheriff’s budget. It should be noted this was the budget of Sheriff Clayton, not the newly elected Sheriff Dyer. Kat was brought on to the FOIA project as a research assistant, and brings previous employment experience as a social worker in the County jail. This writer is a forensic peer originally trained locally under the umbrella of a human trafficking specialty court pilot grant. (The session’s contents should not be confused with research paid for with funds directly from the Washtenaw County Public Safety and Mental Health Preservation Millage, which can be found at wastenaw.org/2806/Millage.) Corn and Kat summed the information session up as “a broad overview of what was found in the budget based on what was received … including clarification about some of the contracts.” This article weaves information presented during the education session with experiences from community members directly impacted by incarceration. Anonymized community members will be referred to as “buddy” in this article. During the Feb. 24 info session, the presenters described the documents received in the FOIA request as “not comprehensive,” because there were missing known details, lack of clarity in available documents and missing contracts. While the contents of this initial FOIA request includes Memoranda of Understanding, a lineitem-budget and other documents, some integral items are missing according to researchers. Among the documents provided, a profiteering pattern appears to have emerged. Profiteering is arguably evidenced by jails making money off of inmates, not promoting humane conditions, and conflicting law-enforcement contractual obligations. WCSO has multiple funding sources including the recently renewed millage, internal WCSO contracts and state and federal grants. During the presentation, the jail was reported as WCSO’s largest expense, notably with a jail funding shortage cited as impacting WCSO’s ability to provide quality healthcare and food to prisoners. Holes identified while researching the FOIA documents, combined with issues around current jail operations, suggest there are possible ways to address waste, improve accounting accuracy at many levels, and intentionally improve community wellness. Revenue through service contracts Among the more alarming examples of revenue identified during this FOIA research was commission-based or “for-profit incarceration” practices especially around food and telecommunication supports. Two WCSO contractual examples of “for-profit incarceration” in the presentation were reported as Securus and Canteen Services. WCSO appears to be operating like thousands of other law-enforcement agencies, as these contract holders have similar agreements with other carceral institutions. Securus Technologies LLC was presented during the info-session as the only method available for inmates to communicate with supporters. Contact between an inmate and their support network, including family members and attorneys, is currently made available via commission-based online visitation and phone calls. While some professionals may find direct access to inmates, contacts during incarceration are expected to occur via commissioned telecommunication methodology. The Securus portion of the info session included a table showing how WCSO profits through commissions of 20% when inmates communicate using Securus technology; the table showed the breakdown of additional fees that may change depending on the size of the purchased package, or at any time with 30 days notice. For comparison, 50 text messages have a package price of $5, from which WCSO receives a 20% commission. However, the full price for a 50 message package, after all additional fees becomes $9.75. A package with 400 texts has a base price of $32, from which WCSO receives a 20% commision, yet the full price to purchasers after applicable fees becomes $42.15. Securus reportedly made several contract amendments during the pandemic, many of which increased costs. In addition to the financial strain of utilizing Securus features, one buddy described a stressful experience of trying to answer a call while driving because they recognized the significance of an incoming call originating from the jail. A second buddy pointed to issues with see BUDGET page 7  MARCH 7, 2025 Who does the D.O.J. serve? D.A. Groundcover writer Who does the Department of Justice the D.O.J. serve? It surely isn’t me! How does it make me feel? There does not exist any word that could express that. I’m now sure of this, if there Was ever a reason to doubt, That there is clearly bias When you are charged with Allegations that a crime Or crimes have been put On me. The D.O.J. locks me up Immediately Most of the time without “Due Process” You see! I don’t stand a chance To save my hard earned money Let alone be able to invest In order to build wealth For me and my family. The D.O.J. taking every Dime I have Even destroy my life And recklessly destroy The hearts and minds Of my innocent children Devastation passed down. By way of the D.O.J. I’m locked up While they, The true criminals get away I’m not even convicted Of a crime and my Freedom once again Cancelled Under the color of law, by the Corrupted D.O.J. I reckon I’d be free Had I committed 30 or 40 felonies. Even perhaps brought an illegal gun into The White House with a couple of keys Not to the White House. A couple of keys or kilos of cocaine Then, I could get a pardon And simply erase all 30 or 40 felonies. I’m here locked down Although I’m innocent. Oh yeah! What happened to the D.O.J. When I did not even get a ticket, Citation, not even an incident report, Video, or one piece of discovery, At the immediate arraignment? What’s up with that D.O.J.? You know you wrong as can be! Like I said And I say it again Who does the D.O.J. serve? It surely isn’t me! MARCH 7, 2025 BLACK HISTORY 99th annual observance of Black American history and culture The year 2025 marks the 99th year of observance and celebration of Black American history and culture. Next year, 2026, will be the centennial anniversary of Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s vision of putting the African American experience at the center, not the margins, of the great American story. Who is Carter G. Woodson? Woodson is a famous Black American historian. He was the second Black man to earn a PhD at Harvard University. (The first Black person to earn such honors was W.E.B. DuBois, author of the classic book titled, “The Souls of Black Folks.” DuBois was prophetic when he wrote in the 1890s that “the problem of the 20th century will be the problem of the color-line.” The prophecy for the 21st century is anyone’s guess. He also introduced the psychological concept of “double consciousness.” While growing up in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, at the age of 12, DuBois experienced overt racism and prejudice which made him ask, “How does it feel to be seen as a problem?”) Like DuBois, Woodson experienced racism and marginalization during his youth and adulthood. Before Woodson called for the establishment of “Negro History Week” in the month of February, he founded the Journal of Negro History. February's significance Why observe and celebrate Black history and culture in the second half of the month of February? Woodson wanted to honor Abraham Lincoln’s birthday (February 12th) and Frederick Douglass’ birthday (February 14th). Our history books and documents teach us that Abraham Lincoln did more than any politician in America to bring the moral question of slavery to a national debate. Frederick Douglass’ oratory and eloquence inspired abolitionists and moderate Republicans of the northern states during the 1860s and 1870s to help end slavery and undertake post-civil war reconstruction efforts. Those moderate Republicans of the northern regions were called, “The Radical Republicans.” The post-civil war reconstruction efforts ended in 1876 after the presidential election that some historians considered controversial. The Union soldiers were withdrawn from the southern states. Consequently, the rights and privileges gained by former slaves and their families were put at risk. Oppressive and restrictive measures put in place by the southern KKK magnified, leading to the “separate but equal” Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. That decision was overturned by the Brown v. Board of Education case of May 17, 1954, ushering in a second reconstruction in the 1960s. It was important to Dr. Woodson that each year’s observance and celebration carry a banner which he called a theme. Last year’s theme was “A Celebration of Black Art.” The 2025 theme is a celebration of Black labor. In the 2024 election there were politicians who implied that immigrants were crossing the border to take away “Black jobs.” At the Black Journalist Association meeting in Chicago, a journalist asked the candidate what he meant by that. The response was that he meant all kinds of Black jobs, but many people took it to mean low-paid jobs. Black labor is diverse. It includes presidents, teachers, nurses, law-makers, governors. Conclusion Black history transitioned from a week of celebration and awareness to a month-long event. The National Archives noted that “on February 10, 1976, President Gerald R. Ford issued a message recognizing Black History Month, becoming the first President to do so.” The previous year, 1975, Ford signed a resolution recognizing Black Awareness week, “urging all Americans to recognize the important contribution made to our nation’s life and culture by Black citizens.” In 1975 Woodson’s organization, Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Carter G. Woodson, the father of Black History Month. urged Ford to sign a proclamation the next year, which would recognize a “Black History Month.” He did! Presidents of both parties have written messages to accompany their annual proclamations. President Ford’s message was indeed heartfelt. The National Archives said that President Ford called upon the public to "seize the opportunity to honor the too often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” Ford’s Presidential message of 1976 inspired the U.S. Congress of 1986 to pass the Public Law 99-224 which has ever since recognized February as our National Black History Month. We recommend to our readers to Google and find images of the U.S. Post Office display of African Americans of Historical Significance in honor of Black Heritage Month. There are hundreds of them. Those images show the diversity of Black labor, Black occupations and Black working life. Also, the post office has a listing of more than 1000 African-Amercans from all walks of life that have made significant contributions to the greatness of America. Recently, many journalists and historians say the nation is at a crossroads in terms of valuing the achievements of minority groups including the African-American community. Uncertainty abounds! However, we live in a highly optimistic society. No matter what challenges we face, we are inclined toward keeping hope alive, and clinging steadfastly to our dreams. WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LIBRARIES The Ypsilanti community has been missing its downtown library for a year and nine months. During summer 2023, a round of severe storms overwhelmed the roof drains and soaked the ceiling and walls, leaving the historic building with severe water damage. (The downtown library building was built in 1914 as a post office.) The water from the storms got into the building's old structure — the ceiling, all four walls and the floor. The library staff who worked the night of the storm swiftly moved materials away from the flooding, losing fewer than 100 books and some furnishings, officials said. The branch hasn’t been open to the public since that evening of July 1, 2023. Library Director Lisa Hoenig previously announced the branch would reopen in late 2023, but construction only began to repair and upgrade the library in March 2024. Hoening made announcements for a reopening many times over 2024, but supply chain issues have continue to cause an indefinite delay. C.A.N. Art Handworks, the specialty metal work artisan, did not follow through on promised completion dates and so the library and project completely redesigned youth area. The alterations are intended to offer more amenities to future patrons upon the reopening of the library. YDL librarian Aaron Smith said, MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 manager began to charge them daily fines for delaying the work in January of this year. Hoenig stated in an online update, “He is holding our library and our community hostage with his inaction … We are cautiously optimistic that this will move the work forward.” Instead, they ended up needing to switch contractors, and as of March 6, are working on a Plan B to finish the vestibule. Still, there is no formal announcement of an official reopening date. "The future is unclear, " said Hoenig. The need to address water damage prompted an interior upgrade that includes three new study rooms, a laptop counter with a view of the street, some new furnishings, and a “The front doors will be different; instead of two doors on both sides of the entrance, there will be one big door that makes it easy for handicap accessibility. The information front desk will be in the same area, but we have all new bookshelves and the arrangement of books will look different. The computer, sitting and reading areas are all new. "For those who visited the library before, one might remember on the very back wall where we had sci-fi and graphic novels, that whole area now has three new meeting rooms, so now we have three small meeting rooms that will accommodate three to four people and the big meeting room upstairs, and the big meeting room downstairs. Upstairs where the new books section used to be, that room is now a tech lab study area. “Overall, we have more space for people to do their thing. It is going to be great to reopen and I hope people appreciate it. We are also looking Read the “Michigan Ave. branch closure updates” page on the YDL website for future updates. MARCH 7, 2025 Is there light at the end of the YDL construction tunnel? forward to hearing feedback on the new amenities and upgrades.” Libraries offer more resources than just free books and media. They are warming and cooling centers, a place to access computers and wifi, bathrooms and water. Libraries offer free activities — and people can go there without buying anything first. Denise Shearer, Groundcover vendor No. 485, shared her thoughts about the closure. “I really miss the downtown library because it was one of my places I went to relax and hang out and have a good time. Sometimes I would go there just for some peace and enjoy the local scenery." City of Ann Arbor and AADL announce plans for the Center of the City affordable units and market rate units. • Provide multiple event spaces for CITY OF ANN ARBOR During the past several weeks, City of Ann Arbor staff, City Administrator Milton Dohoney Jr. and Ann Arbor District Library Director Eli Neiburger have been in discussions to develop a shared vision for the surface of the Library Lane Parking Structure (referred to as the Library Lane Parcel). These meetings resulted in a draft framework for the site. “I appreciate AADL Director Neiburger for rolling up his sleeves to imagine a shared vision for this underutilized site,” said Administrator Dohoney.“This vision takes a site that has been the source of community frustration for years and transforms it into a downtown jewel that could address several community needs. To unlock the full potential of emerging opportunities, we must prioritize strong collaboration between public institutions as a standard practice for progress and development.” In 2018, the Ann Arbor City Charter was amended by adding a new section 1.4 to Chapter 1. The amendment came about as a result of Ann Arbor City Proposal A for the city-owned public land — bounded by Fifth Avenue, and William, Division and Liberty streets — to be retained in public ownership in perpetuity and developed as an urban central park and civic center commons to be known as the "Center of the City." Moving the city- and AADL-shared vision for the Library Lane Parcel site forward will require several steps, including Ann Arbor voters voting to amend the Charter provision in an upcoming election, as well as the AADL Board and the Ann Arbor City Council supporting an agreement that would be drafted to contain the following elements: • This project will not require any new taxes. • The City of A2 would sell Library Lane Parcel air rights to AADL for $1. • AADL would build a new downtown branch location that would span the Library Lane Parcel and the library’s current site at 343 S. 5th Ave. • Above the new library, the project would provide a mixture of housing types, including artist spaces, condos, use by the city and the public. • Provide new outdoor public open space, improved programming, and be managed by AADL. • Provide small business development space at below market expense. • AADL would issue a public Request for Proposals and partner with a development team to develop both parcels as a single project. • AADL would conduct a community engagement process to solicit public input on the project. • The housing portion of the project would be new property on the City of Ann Arbor’s tax rolls. • The city would continue to own the parking garage until the debt is paid off in 2042. At that time, the AADL would purchase the structure from the city using an agreed-upon formula. “We’re so thrilled to have reached this point where there finally appears to be an answer for the future of the Downtown Library, and the Library Lane Parcel, that realizes the civic vision that the community has been developing for decades,” said Neiburger. “AADL is the organization best situated to develop this site into a beautiful, engaging and inspiring new asset for the people of Ann Arbor,” Neiburger added. “The library has demonstrated its capacity and commitment to professionally operate shared public spaces, sometimes in challenging environments, in a way that provides outstanding value to the entire community.” City staff recognize that some framework details could be modified once input is received from the AADL and City of Ann Arbor governing bodies. City Council is expected to consider an initial resolution at its March 3 meeting. The AADL will consider a resolution at its April 1 meeting. “This is an incredible opportunity for Ann Arbor,” said Mayor Taylor. “The prospect of a state-of-the art District Library downtown, thousands of square feet of public open space, hundreds of units of new, diverse housing, multiple event and gathering locations, all without raising taxes — is an absolute game changer. I am so excited to work with city staff, my colleagues on City Council, the AADL and the public to make this vision a reality.” We invite readers to submit their thoughts about this project to the Groundcover News editoral team at submissions@groundcovernews.com MARCH 7, 2025 INJUSTICE  BUDGET page 4 privacy as a reason for not utilizing jail telecommunication. The buddy's precautions proved justified as the info session section about telecommunication concluded with the example of Securus violating privacy laws and charging extra fees for location-based services. Concerns with privacy and inappropriate costs were cited as prompting a WCSO contract change in 2020. When discussing jail technology, another buddy said “it don’t work like it does in prison so it doesn’t really matter.” Food was a presentation focus on several slides; therefore the issue requires attention from multiple angles. The current food contract at the County jail, according to the researchers, is with Canteen Services LLC. Kat and Corn described food as a tool for managing inmate behavior and reducing liability. Food costs were reportedly referenced by the previous sheriff as a “significant factor in the jail’s budget deficit.” Presenters explained that the nature of the Canteen Services contract encourages a larger jail population by lowered per meal costs, and commissionable earnings potential of up to 45%. According to the presentation the 2024 FY budget report stated “rising food expenses have surpassed personnel savings.” While it may be true food costs are on the rise, there was a 2020 change reported in the contract. The current contract dictates that the larger the jail population the lower the price per meal, and the more inmates spend on commissary, the higher the WCSO commission revenues. According to the presentation, the lowered number of inmates during the beginning of the pandemic was costly as meal costs were very high, and commissionable opportunities were fewer. A buddy with food allergies shared that a medical professional suggested ordering commissary to address diet gaps. The same buddy was held on a $50 bond, never received funds to purchase commissary, could not make any phone calls, and has tested on the diabetic spectrum since being released. Regardless of who holds the food contract, a contractual challenge for the jail appears to be balancing staffing costs. Balancing staff costs is more complicated than Canteen, however the condition might be improved with a clearer understanding of all applicable WCSO contracts. A buddy summed the current status of jail technology as “not working like it's supposed to.” Revenues through criminalization A significant funding source mentioned during the info session included Kat Layton and Corn Williams present their research findings at an ICPJ civic education event on February 24. Photo submitted. state and federal grants. A 2024 contract highlighted during the presentation was a Justice Assistance Grant. This JAG grant was packaged as a state “road safety” grant, which incentivizes criminalization of driving tickets. The presenters explained many current practices tie local funding to increased ticketing. Aside from the additional cost burden to citizens, the problem with many incentivized contracts is that many prospective financial gains are consumed by operational costs including vehicle maintenance, fuel and employee wages. Grant contracts often expect a large amount of costly fund matching. Historical examples of cost sharing include absorbing bailiff salaries, tethers and/or drug testing. For those interested in combing through the FOIA request, reviewing the PowerPoint from the info session or further exploring participatory budgeting, you may contact Corn or Kat via ICPJ at info@icpj.org. Consider engaging the Public Safety expanded court hours, unpaid or underpaid peers, a lack of pay increases for employees, billing insurance companies, and out-ofpocket costs to former inmates for Millage Advisory Committee, which provides oversight on the WCSO millage revenues — and offer your insights and suggestions. In addition to other ideas, the session suggests a call for increased community participation, abolishment of for-profit incarceration, detailed transparency from the new Sheriff’s administration, and asks that funds be dedicated to addressing generational trauma from state violence. In short, better conditions are possible for all. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY People in the neighborhood: Moana This is Moana’s story. Jim: Moana, how would you describe yourself to people? Moana: I’m a good person with a bad need for a place to stay of my own. I’ve been homeless for four years. All the way from Detroit to Ann Arbor. Jim: Why are you homeless? Moana: Because most places want the first and last month's rent and a security deposit and they want you to make two times the rent in income. Some places want three. Jim: What are you doing to improve your situation? Her answer was unexpected. Moana: I struggle every day, sir. I cry every day. Every day! Because I don’t understand why I am in this situation. I don’t get it. I can’t help what I don’t make. I can’t squeeze juice out of a dry lemon. It’s hard and I don’t understand why they don’t make it affordable for people on disability. Moana is receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and social security adding up to $900 a month. It’s rare to find an apartment in Ypsilanti for under $1000 a month. She would have to save most of her government assistance money for the move-in cost of $2750. Even if she saved $450 a month, it would take her six months. Jim: Why are you getting SSI? Is it a medical disability? Moana: Well I had some things going on as a kid. I really don’t know what it’s for, I just get it. I had it at an early age. The last time I remember talking about it to a worker was when I was 26. Moana will be 50 in August. She has been on SSI since she was a teenager. Jim: What did you have going on as a kid? Moana: I had a baby girl in school. I then asked her what grade in high JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 school she achieved before dropping out. Moana actually missed the last semester of 8th grade. Moana: I was pregnant when I was 13. It was too young. I was just a baby. I had to quit school for a minute. We went back to talking about finding housing. Jim: So can you save the money? Moana: I have the money saved. The problem is they want my income to be double the rent. But even if it weren’t for that, I can’t afford the rent for most places. I asked her about other things that are known barriers to housing. Jim: How is your financial credit? Moana: My score is 525. I had someone in my life that took advantage of me and it ended up ruining my credit. Jim: Do you have a criminal background? Moana: I have two felonies. Jim: Have you ever defaulted on a lease? Moana: Once, in Detroit in 2018. Three strikes in most places. Read that again — she has the money. The other barriers are why she continues to sleep on the streets. Then she exposed one more barrier. Jim: What about sharing a space or renting just a room in a house? Moana: I would like to have my own place. I’m tired of living with people and paying them, and then having to deal with their attitudes. I’m tired of having to walk on eggshells around people who want to start fake arguments to get you to leave. And if you stay with a guy, you have to make it clear that you aren’t going to be doing anything. It’s like “I’m paying you rent man, I’m not living here for free. So if you’re looking for that, I’m not coming by.” Just because I’m a woman doesn’t give you as a man the right to ask for anything other than rent when it comes to me living there. People with privilege tend to miss situations where privilege matters. I asked a female friend for her perspective. Friend: If the only roommate a woman can find is a man then she has to decide whether to trust him or continue to sleep on the streets. There can be an assumption of sexual favors as Moana stated, and sometimes a risk of violence. According to a study (Kushel et al., 2003) cited by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, among homeless and marginally housed people, 32% of women, 27% of men, and 38% of transgender persons reported experiencing physical and/or sexual violence in the previous year. In the bigger picture, it can be financial privilege that drives the increasing cost of housing. The real estate belongs to the privileged, and they can do what they choose with it. Including leaving hundreds of thousands of human beings stranded. I asked her if she’s ever had to sleep in a car. Moana: A lady and her kids just died in Detroit in their car. Because it was cold. She had been asking for help since November. Nobody wants to help, nobody cares. Homeless people’s lives don't mean anything, but then when something like this happens, everybody wants to cry and say “oh that’s too bad,” and “oh oh oh,” but when she was asking for help, nobody did anything. So what did they think was going to happen? Even a dog can find somewhere to go. Somebody will help an animal before they will help a human being. I imagine myself leaving that way too. I can’t sleep in a car again. I got frostbite once before. If it happens again, they will amputate my foot. So I can’t get frostbitten any more, ever again in life. There was a long pause. Jim: If you could go to college for free, what would you study? Moana: Science — I like subjects that deal with the planet, water, marine animals; things like environmental science. I’m very intelligent. I went to an academy. I was supposed to go to Cass Tech, I know you’ve heard of that before. It’s for smart children. Jim: If you had a million dollars, what would you do? She didn’t hesitate: “I would bring my family together, get a house and not struggle.” People in the Neighborhood is a Groundcover News column that focuses on the unhoused neighbors of the street community of Washtenaw County. Moana MARCH 7, 2025 Moana's artwork. MARCH 7, 2025 PUZZLES 1 14 17 20 22 26 30 34 40 43 51 55 58 62 65 59 63 66 64 67 44 45 52 56 46 53 57 60 61 47 48 49 31 35 36 37 41 50 54 23 24 27 32 28 33 38 39 42 25 29 18 21 2 3 4 5 6 Victor Schmitt 8 7 15 9 GROUNDCOVER NEWS Closing Time 10 16 19 Victor Schm 11 12 13 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. Thank you! ACROSS 1. Chinese liquor 7. Dawn goddess 10. ___ facto 14. Agent of the French secret service? 15. Kwik-E-Mart manager in "The Simpsons" 16. Put-down 17. Keanu Reeve's costar in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" 19. Put down 20. More slimy 21. Word after tooth or tomato 22. Flag bearer, for short? 24. "The Queen of Disco" 26. Singer DiFranco 27. Prez before J.F.K. 28. "Duck Hunt" console, for short 29. Podcast interruptions 30. Barbie, e.g. 32. The Gem State 34. Episodes that may resolve a character arc, or a description of the ends of 17-, 24-, 51-, and 59-Across 40. See 46-Across 41. With 39-Down, common fixture above a doorway 43. NASCAR sponsor 46. With 40-Across, Silicon Valley city 47. "___ guy walks into a bar..." 50. Org. concerned with lies? 51. Was a scapegoat (for) 54. Tolkien creature 55. Place to see a turkey, perhaps 56. Held, as a baby 58. TALK LIKE THIS 59. Anti-government protests of the early 2010s 62. Worshipped one 63. Fashion line? 64. Comencement speaker, e.g. 65. Prying 66. Past-tense verb that sounds like a number 67. End of many university URLs DOWN 1. Lead-in to horse or monkey 2. Syst. in which one talks to the hand 3. Format for many a film project 4. ___'clock news 5. "That's peculiar" 6. Photographer's staff 7. All crumbs, as a meal 8. The "O" of M.O. 9. Prefix with face or name 10. Kosher : Judaism :: Halal : ___ 11. Certain state of matter 12. Fit 13. They might be barked 18. Half of this clue? 21. Rap's ___ T 22. "Way cool!" 23. Grandson of Adam enos 25. "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" dedicatee 31. Gamer's woe 32. Conditional coding statements 33. Fútbol cheer 35. Irked, in slang 36. Conversely, in a text 37. Public knowledge 38. Hurry along 39. See 41-Across 42. Bit of body ink, for short 43. Play hookie, say 44. Holy city? 45. "Breaking Bad" Fried Chicken Chain 'Los ___ Hermanos' 47. Jerry's car, on "Seinfeld" 48. Motherland, affectionately 49. N.F.L. standout 52. Clarkson with the 2011 hit "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" 53. Bowling division frame 57. The "E" of Q.E.D. 59. "Now I've got it!" 60. Low-effort acknowledgement 61 "Despicable" Steve Carell role

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CREATIVE STEVEN Groundcover contributor How did we meet? How does anyone meet? Chance, fate, destiny, Divine Providence? Where did we meet? Broadly speaking: Earth, North America, United States, Louisiana, New Orleans, The French Quarter. It was on The Stairs. The Stairs are "the spot" for street kids to hang out, meet up, do whatever. It's a public access to the Mississippi River for tourists or whoever I guess. Tourists often see The Stairs inhabited with gutter-punks in all their gutteriness, and choose an alternate access. Old, torn, heavily modified blood-, mud-, food-encrusted clothes festooned with safety pins, spikes, the metal tops of lighters, patches, random zippers, parts of stuffed animals, bits of leather, shoelaces, unemployed buttons, pins for punk bands, pins with smiley faces, maybe a pin for an insurance company, really whatever pin of the one inch variety. Leather jackets seem obvious but often were the sign of a suburban poser. New clean, unaltered leather? Probably a poser. You really didn't want to be a poser at The Stairs. A loosely organized pack of angry, belligerent, hungry, drunk kids is not a group you want to be on the wrong side of. Bonus Biscuit: I don't have first hand knowledge of this but the hard rule spoken with heart attack sincerity in hushed furtive voices is “don't mess with the clowns.” Not the name of a gang or a euphemism but the busker clowns. The word was they were a very dangerous lot to mess with, second only to the cops. Was it bullshit? Who knows, I didn't test it. The few of them I saw were cool as shit. There was kind of a lot you might be concerned about in the Big Easy if you don't "act right" or "come correct." If you don't know what it means it's pretty standard, be polite (unless you shouldn't), respectful (unless disrespected), generally mind your own business. Dreamer and I were chillin’ on The Stairs, him on his ever-present, ongoing quest to get his hands on "magic mushrooms" as he called them. We all called them that back then. Me on my ever-present, ongoing quest to win life by out-partying it. It still cracks me up, Dreamer's Dream. Dreamer called himself Dreamer; lots of street people choose or are given handles. I knew his real name but always called him Dreamer or some derivative thereof. I can't remember his given name. Old boy was from the Pacific Northwest, Washington or Oregon. It was generally understood in the 90s, correctly or incorrectly, that psilocybin mushrooms (the magic fellows) grew in abundance throughout the Pacific Northwest. I'd heard stories of shrooms growing in the cracks of sidewalks after a rain — no shit. People swore to it. Dreamer, clueless to that, hitchhiked to New Orleans to find them ... No shit. He was a super sweet, loyal kid (we were both kids at 19) who killed at percussion. I wanted to call him Drummer but he wouldn't go for it. Not the hottest pot on the stove but a good road dog. Well not really but I enjoyed his company. We're chillin’ and this absolutely stunning blond girl about my age in an old, dirty, shiny green, crushed velvet dress appears beside me, puts her hand in mine then just sits there looking around like it’s the most natural thing in the world. I rolled with it. Held her hand. What could go wrong? Lots. Lots could go wrong. Lots of shitty scammy stuff. I had no inkling that might be the case, however. For one, I'd seen her around and definitely noticed she was hot. Dirty street urchin hot. Yellow blond hair, dirty, tangled, left to hang loose past her shoulders. Adorable — almost cherubic — round face filled in, maybe a little plump. Bright, twinkly, crystal blue eyes that smiled even when she was sad. “Filled in” describes her figure as well. Buxom and firm sweeping curves. Smooth pale neck, heavy breasts framed by shapely soft arms. Delicate porcelain hands flanking her womanly hips and big ol’ round booty, thighs and tiny slippered feet. With that initial meeting we became inseparable. Dreamer would bop off on his own side missions and we'd meet back up. The Girl and I didn't leave each others' side except for water closet breaks (sometimes) and the rare (one) shower at the shelter. We would hold hands but mostly she wanted to hold on to my shirt in a way like she was my girl. No conversation, no heart to heart just we were together now. It seemed her main motivations were feeling safe and covering her minimum needs. Basically food. She liked the affection I showed her but I think that was just a bonus to her. I made her feel safe and that made me love her. Love her as only a 19-year-old dumbass loves a girl he doesn't know. She did enjoy drinking and was a chill drunk with the occasional outpouring of crap she had been caused to hold in over the years. Mostly we were just fun, goofy, drunk teens. We had a blast. We both thought Dreamer was hysterical. She was on team Drummer but Dreamer wouldn't budge from his chosen moniker. He was constantly drumming in some way. His hands or sticks or plastic ware, constantly. It wasn't annoying either. He was good. It was entertaining. They were halcyon days and nights. We were living the dream. The Girl — she did tell me her name but I've forgotten, much to my chagrin and shame. It feels cheap to give her a bullshit name. Thinking of her as The Girl in the Shiny Green Dress canonizes her for me. I don't feel heartbreak or heartache for her; maybe we finished our story. It may be different for her. I know in my bones she remembers me. The Girl did tell me a bit of her story. I never asked or pressed for more. My making her feel safe was deeply profound for her. In her young life feeling safe was the exception not the rule. A far too common story of abuse by loved ones and no protection. So she split from there. Just left with only her fancy Green Dress and a beat up pair of flats. The Green Dress was a totem for her. I'm not sure why but it was special to her. She didn't even own underwear and didn't want to. Oh and a busted out pair of flats. Three things. You may be thinking, "Oh how sweet two young lovers in love," but we weren't lovers. We kissed casually with love as long-time partners might. As naturally as can be. We cuddled as if we might melt into one being never to be separated. We never got naked together. We never made out, just smooch and cuddle. If we left it at that, it might be MARCH 7, 2025 Travels with Dreamer: The girl in the shiny green dress easy to dismiss our affair, but the intimacy we felt was of a type I've never felt since and likely never will. Now, in what is called middle age, I've stories of love and marriage. Passionate crazy marathons of debauchery. Very close intimate friends. A loving family. None will ever feel the same as what The Girl and I had. It was profoundly special and unique to that time and place for us. We were our actual first loves, not unrequited crushing on each other. It was our first taste of real love. It would be fair of you to think, "All right, bullshit. A 19-year-old hormone-fueled drunk dude was satisfied and happy with this"? That’s fair. It’s true that at first I was trying clumsily and obtusely to make minor moves. When she told me her story — the way she told me her story — and I realized that I was the only person in the world who knew her story who wasn't a predator, a switch flipped. She became a fragile, unique flower blossom. She was a blossom the universe handpicked for me to protect. I can say without bluster or reservation I felt I had been knighted to protect and nurture this girl. Then I ditched her. I know I said we had finished our story, and I guess we did, but looking back all these years later I can say my dumb-ass teenage self shit the bed. I threw it away on a panicked impulse — a selfish, cowardly whim. I ran away home. More to come. "Unpublished diaries" by Tommy Spaghetti MARCH 7, 2025 CREATIVE Truth or lies: The never forgotten love As a youngster going to the third grade I was very excited. I remember walking down the hall. There was my teacher, Mrs. Divison, standing at the door greeting everyone. After everyone settled in, I couldn’t help but notice the pretty young lady sitting next to me; her hair was silky black and braided with several bows attached to her braids. Her skin was a smooth caramel. Her teeth were so white when she smiled. Her pink lips spoke to me from the very first time I laid my eyes on her. I was captivated by her beauty. I was eager to attend school just to sit next to Citlalli and talk to her. Citlalli made me feel like I had butterflies in my stomach every day. I dreaded the last week of school, considering I didn’t know when I was going to see her again. Citlalli told me that her father was in the Air Force and that they would be moving. Citlalli did not know where. I was so sad, even though I never let on to her. I gave her my mother‘s phone number and asked her to keep in touch with me. A year quickly passed by without seeing her. I often wonder where she was; what she was doing. I graduated I blushed and said, “One event at a time, Mom!” My dad nodded his head agreeing with me, saying, “Let the boy live his life. He’s doing swell. There’s no rush.” Even though dad took up for me, I couldn’t help but to think, yeah, l do need a beautiful wife in my life. At graduation I was so nervous even FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 from high school and college and won a full scholarship to attend the Paris School of Architecture. This was a very prestigious opportunity. I studied hard, keeping my mind on my studies. I didn’t date that often. I wanted to make my parents very proud of me. However, I still wondered where Citlalli was and what she would look like as an adult woman. Two years of school passed by too swiftly. I was rushing to the airport to pick up my parents for my graduation tomorrow. The first thing my mother said to me was, “Where is your girlfriend? You know you have to get married and have some beautiful grandchildren.” though I have been planning this for years. I had the same butterflies in my stomach that I used to feel when I talked to Citlalli in third grade. The announcer had called just about everyone’s name and I knew my turn was coming soon. To my amazement (or was I dreaming because I missed her so much) I heard her name being called, Citlalli Waters. I could not see — everyone was standing and cheering. I rushed to the aisle to get a better view ... yes, it was her but how? She’s been here with me all this time?! She accepted her degree and quickly rushed off the stage. I knew my name was next, Jeffery Welsh. I broke through the crowd surrounding her. Citlalli was amazingly beautiful. She still had pretty hair but this time it was curled. She looked like she stepped out of a magazine. We were elated to see each other. We became inseparable. Every year for Valentine’s Day I bought two roses; then as our family expanded, I purchased a rose for each addition. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Shamrock shake LINDSAY CALKA Publisher Ingredients: Half gallon of vanilla ice cream 1 cup of milk 2 teaspoons peppermint extract Green food dye Optional toppings: Canned whipped cream Maraschino cherries Directions: Take ice cream out of freezer; let set 15 minutes. Blend ice cream, milk, peppermint extract and green food dye in blender until combined and smooth. Serve with toppings in a glass. MARCH 7, 2025 $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 4/3/2025

2 $ FEBRUARY 21, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 5 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Hear me out: Police precincts aren't shelter. page 4 LARZELL WASHINGTON #128 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHO WAS YOUR FIRST LOVE? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. All out war on information! page 6 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Mike Jones, Roberto Isla Caballero and Jim Clark looking at local print publications. @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER In loving memory of Paula Anderson "Paula loved ice cream and the bits of nature around the area where she lived. For a long while, when she could, she cared deeply for Fred." — Mary W. "I remember Paula for her attitude; she seemed April 12, 1957 - Feburary 7, 2025 Paula Anderson, Groundcover vendor No. 157, was one of the original members of the Groundcover family; she joined as a vendor in 2011. Small but mighty, she had a huge heart and feisty personality which contributed to her success as a street newspaper vendor. Ever since COVID-19, she would primarily sell at the end of Bethlehem United Church of Christ's Sunday services. Paula’s celebration of life is scheduled for early April. Contact Groundcover News and we will shared specific details when they are determined. "I’ll remember you always and love you always." — Fred A., Paula’s life partner. so strong. But as I know, when illnesses take over you are lucky to even go out to have a smoke and look at the squirrels. Paula loved animals as much as I did. We had competitions of who would feed the most squirrels and who the squirrels liked the best. Paula had a 'back-off' type of exterior personality, but once I saw her other side, she was funny, deeply caring, emotional and expressive like me. Even in her final days, she was so strong." — Terri D. "Paula was liked by many of her fellow vendors and office volunteers. All will be sad to hear of her passing. Her favorite spot to sell papers was in front of Running Fit. I would often see her there and will always remember that being her spot." — Glenn G. "Life was hard but you kept at it, Paula, doing your best." — Susan B. FEBRUARY 21, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS D.A. Elizabeth Bauman Jim Clark Elka Chamberlain Bob Day Jonathan Glass Alexandra Granberg Mike Jones Ken Parks Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Zach Dortzbach Matthew Rohlman Steve Ross Dillon Schweers Anabel Sicko Allison Wei VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Sim Bose Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Jonathan Glass Bella Fernandez Robert Klingler Ari Ruczynski Jack Weinberg Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Melanie Wenzel CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons FEBRUARY 21, 2025 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR Who was your first love? Her name was Clara. She has passed. May she rest in peace! — Larzell Washington, #128 I first fell in love with the universe, the planets. I watched them every night. — Juliano Sanchez, #174 My dog, Candy. I just loved that dog. We were both just pups. — David Mitchell, #661 Marta. In Cuba. When I was 13. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 Ceeny Ellen ... in kindergarten or first grade. We were freelance kids and had lots of fun together. — Ken Parks, #490 The last time I saw her was at the Heathrow airport (in London). She was studying nursing. We had great plans together, but they didn't work out. My first love was an innocent love. We eventually grew apart from physical and emotional distance, but I'll never forget this true love! — Will Shakespeare, #258 My first love broke my heart when I was 11 or 12. — Joe Woods, #103 A girl named Janice Stewart. It was puppy love; I was in grade school. — Lonnie Baker, #99 WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 On the lush, green, rural highlands of Jamaica’s St. Ann Parish, a prince of peace was born. Robert Nesta Marley was a gift from God. At the age of 12, he and his mother moved to Kingston’s poor neighborhood of Trench Town. At the age of 19, in 1963, he joined the reggae music group, “The Wailers.” They were hugely successful. Worldwide, the reggae band sold more than 75 million records. Marley became a global superstar adored by intergenerational fans and music lovers. Bob Marley and The Wailers composed dozens of popular hit songs. Many are GROUNDCOVER NEWS Happy 80th birthday to a global superstar, Bob Marley! sing-alongs. Do you remember these songs? They include • “No Woman No Cry” • “Get Up, Stand Up” • “Could You Be Loved” • “Is This Love” • “Sun Is Shining” • “Buffalo Soldier” • “Natural Mystic” • “Turn Your Lights Down Low” • “Waiting In Vain” • “Redemption Song” • “All in One” • “Positive Vibration” • “Lively Up Yourself” • “Trenchtown Rock” • “Stir It Up” • and of course, “One Love!” When people all over the world talk about the Greek concept of “AGAPE,” which means universal love, they also talk about Bob Marley’s most popular song, “ONE LOVE, ONE HEART … Let’s get together and it will be all right.” Bob Marley was born on February 6, 1945. He died from melanoma on May 11, 1981. He was only 36 years old! With hearts full of gratitude, love and songs, we remember Bob Nesta Marley this February and all the joy he brought to this world. Happy Valentines across the miles! February happiness and cakes. I like to go to the movies a lot. Disney cartoons are good for ValDENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 February is a loving month. In the month of February, we celebrate all kinds of love and we celebrate Black History Month. February is a very challenging month because it is in the winter time and my health doesn't do very good in the wintertime. I can’t get out and do things. But there are indoor activities like making cards and there are activities you can do like go to church and praise God. There are activities to do like make decorations with candy entine’s Day, too. There’s a romantic Disney movie called "Lady and the Tramp." I really like that cartoon a lot because it is cute and beautiful. I don’t know who St. Valentine is but I’d like to do more research to find out who he is, because I think he might have been a good person. February and Valentine’s Day are also very colorful. I like the colorful Cupid boys and girls, and the very pretty hearts. February is also National Heart Month. So February is the month of love and accepting everybody and having fun with your lover or friends or family. It’s also the month of my boyfriend Richard’s birthday (February 8th)! I really enjoy the month of February and will celebrate when I’m well enough. I pray to God that my health gets better so I can enjoy it. 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS voucher FEBRUARY 21, 2025 Intersection of formerly incarcerated and homeless people ELKA CHAMBERLAIN Groundcover contributor While considering the impact of the carceral system on homelessness, common, cyclical themes present themselves. Among them is the need for balancing speed — sometimes it’s important for things to be done quickly and sometimes they take a while — and the slower nature of these cycles. Particularly traumatic for formerly incarcerated people is the intersection of homelessness with aspects of the legal system. Regardless of which aspect of the legal system a person is processing through, "Jumping through hoops" the impact of being incarcerated, especially when considering other institutional gaps, results in particularly long periods of severe deprivation due to an overall decrease in “potential recovery capital” (the ability to find resources). Put more plainly, people who have been incarcerated are less likely to experience a single and brief homelessness experience and are more likely to experience a bad decade or decades. Sadly, many who earn enough to afford housing report frustration navigating intrusive rental applications, management company background checks, and credit histories. (For the purposes of this article, a person who I spoke with on this subject will be referred to as a “buddy.”) One buddy stated that you “... have to settle, and there should be a state or county fee for applications instead of paying individual fees, when you won’t qualify even with full cash in hand.” A buddy who is on a fixed income at the poverty line (in the form of Social Security) and has a Housing Choice Voucher fell victim to the following predatory application process. This buddy was told there was a $40 online application fee, only to be informed later of an additional $1.20 convenience charge for paying online, and then the final cost after the application was $46.20 — all lost when they did not get the apartment. The reason given for denial was a low credit score. Another rental company’s rental application figures do not even add up correctly. Even with vouchers, landlords may post signs that claim not to discriminate, then continue to discriminate based on not "liking to work" with specific management companies. For those able to handle the trials of the number games, experience shows that while it may be legal to represent oneself in a landlord-tenant case, judges overwhelmingly side with landlords, who appear with paid lawyers. While thus far much of the transition from homelessness has focused on renting, there are many people who have been incarcerated who have a dream of both home and business ownership. Yet part of the stepping stones still include renting while trying to build and/or rebuild. However, not everyone has the same opportunities. One formerly incarcerated buddy dreams of having a shared space to fill in community gaps. On a surface level, veterans appear to have more affordable opportunities. One buddy explained they have been struggling since being released on parole over a year ago. As a vet, they were able to claim one of the available contracted shelter beds, but they were later discharged from shelter programming for being "AWOL" from the shelter (a military term for Absent see HOUSING page 8  Hear me out: Police precincts aren't shelter BOB DAY Detroit Eviction Defense I watched some of Mayor Duggan’s press conference today on the two children who froze to death in a van yesterday [Monday, February 10] in Detroit. Duggan said that their mother, who had five children, had called the city for help on November 25. During that phone call she explained that she was homeless with five children. According to Duggan, the city took no action and did not offer her any help. The city did not consider it to be an emergency, and no one from the city ever followed up or did any checking back with her. The mother, homeless with five children, reached out for help, and the city refused to help her. Duggan and the City of Detroit government are criminals and are responsible for the deaths of these two children, ages nine and two-years-old. The mother, like many others, reached out for help to the city because she had no housing and got no assistance, got no help, got no shelter. Duggan claimed it should not have happened because there is shelter available. But people calling the city for help continue to report they are told there is no shelter available, that the shelters are full. The Housing Resource helpline, the place to call for emergency shelter, is 866-313-2520. And what was Duggan's big announcement, his big response to these children freezing to death in a van in the parking garage at the Greektown Casino? Duggan's advice for people without housing, for families without housing and in need of emergency shelter is to turn yourself into the police at a police precinct station. The police are not our friends and regularly accost and threaten people who are without housing. This is why Dan Gilbert and the Illitch family and Ford and GM and the rest brought Duggan in and continue to keep him around. Duggan's job was to beef up the police; attack and clear out Black people, poor people and the working class; and to make downtown Detroit open for rich folks and people from the suburbs to come to the arenas and sports teams. People who are homeless — people who are in crisis — do their best to avoid the police and for good reason. The police will tase you or arrest you or shoot you down. Ask the families who called 911 for help because a family member was having a mental health crisis, only to see the police arrive and open fire and kill a family member in crisis. See what the police did when the bailiff called for help to evict Sherman Butler from his apartment in Palmer Park. Sherman Butler had been in the hospital and did not know about any eviction order. He had his toes on one foot amputated while in the hospital and was trying to recover and manage to stand and get around again. The cops arrived, helped the bailiff bust in the door, and tased Sherman Butler while the 36th District Court bailiff shot him down and killed him. And the prosecutor said the murder of Sherman Butler was justified and filed no charges against the killer bailiffs or his cop accomplices. Turn yourself in to a police station? Why, so they can tase you or shoot you or arrest you? The city’s offer for help during this housing crisis — with thousands living in cars or on the streets or in vacant houses — is to turn yourself and your family in to the killer cops of Detroit. To hell with Duggan and Dan Gilbert and their damn police. We need emergency shelters for people and families without housing. The city needs to put them up in motels or open up the Coleman A. Young Center for emergency housing or open up the vacant, boarded-up units at Detroit Housing Commission complexes like Diggs or Brewster. Open up the The Renaissance Center; it's huge and mostly vacant. Children are dying, freezing to death in this city because Duggan and the City Council and the city government and the nonprofits they support are not doing their job, not doing their job at all. Children and people are dying, and all Duggan can propose is turn yourself in to the police. Do not allow this to continue. Duggan and the government are enemies of the working class and the Black community and poor people and our children. We need to take action and open up housing and emergency shelter for people who need it, now. FEBRUARY 21, 2025 RECOVERY Home of New Vision invests in youth JONATHAN GLASS Groundcover contributor Home of New Vision, serving Washtenaw and Jackson counties, is spearheading an initiative to create growth opportunities for Ypsilanti Township’s youth while reducing the risk of substance use. HNV is dedicated to empowering the next generation to embrace a brighter future. Robert Colley, Program Manager for the Washtenaw Recovery Advocacy Project, emphasized the program’s mission. “Our goal is to inspire and equip young people with the tools they need to lead healthy, successful lives. By fostering leadership, building life skills, and promoting community engagement, we aim to support the next generation in reaching their full potential,” Colley said. The youth initiative incorporates several key strategies, including weekly community outreach and monthly youth workshops. Colley described the workshops as crucial, stating, “These workshops provide a safe space for young people to grow, express themselves, and become active contributors to their communities.” HNV's outreach specialists regularly connect with residents in neighborhoods across the township. This outreach ensures that resources are accessible without making assumptions about who may need support, reducing the risk of overdoses and promoting overall community well-being. As part of the initiative, HNV will install Narcan distribution boxes in high-traffic areas, including the Holmes Road Community Network Center and the Tyler Road Community Resource Center. These boxes will offer 24/7 access to fentanyl testing strips and Narcan, giving community members essential tools to prevent overdoses. Geared toward Ypsilanti’s 10- to 18-year-old population, the monthly workshops will focus on skill building, leadership, resilience and substance use prevention. Each two-hour workshop will integrate art and music with multifaceted skill development. Workshop topics include public speaking, professional networking, self-advocacy with local leaders, professional mentorship and urban gardening. Colley commented, “We want to foster a lasting sense of trust and collaboration between Ypsilanti Township youth and local government, ensuring they feel empowered to engage, advocate and contribute to their community.” The workshops will provide a welcoming, nonjudgmental environment where creativity and self-expression are celebrated. Activities such as community quilts, vision boards, and advocacy through art will encourage critical thinking, teamwork and creativity. Additionally, workshops will address the underlying causes of substance use by teaching coping strategies and stress management techniques, empowering participants to make healthier choices. The workshops will also offer career exploration opportunities, helping participants envision and work toward future goals. Youth will learn skills such as resume writing, crafting professional cover letters, and interviewing techniques. By partnering with local organizations, HNV ensures access to career resources and mentorship opportunities. Colley elaborated on the program’s transformative impact. “Many participants may never have been exposed to the careers or opportunities we’re highlighting. By introducing them to these paths, we help them envision a future they might not have considered and equip them with the tools to pursue it,” he said. At the end of its first year, participants will leave the program with enhanced communication skills, leadership abilities, emotional resilience and a strong sense of self-advocacy. They will also learn to navigate community resources and establish support networks. Another key feature of the program is the involvement of local professionals who will share their experiences and provide guidance during workshops. “We believe that exposing youth to diverse opportunities and relatable success stories inspires them to envision their potential and take meaningful steps toward their goals,” Colley stated. The professionals participating will include local first responders, armed forces personnel, therapists, social workers, educators and representatives of local colleges and universities. Colley concluded, “This program is about more than equipping youth with practical skills—it’s about fostering a mindset of empowerment and responsibility. We want the next generation to feel confident engaging with local government, advocating for change, and actively participating in their community’s progress. By focusing on education, trust and engagement, we’re preparing young people to lead and ensuring a healthier, more connected Ypsilanti Township.” GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out Public Computers The AADL has public-access Internet computers available for use by both cardholders and noncardholders at all five locations. Each station has USB ports, headphone jacks, and some of the fastest wifi speeds in town! Preschool Storytimes and Baby Playgroups Join our storytellers on weekdays inside the library for fun songs, stories, puppets, and moement! Visit aadl.org/storytimes to view a list of upcoming in-person storytimes and playgroups. You can also stream and download our recorded storytimes online at AADL.TV. FEATURED EVENT 5 Sunday, March 9 • 11am–4pm Downtown Library We’re observing Mario Day with themed activities! Join us for Bingo, warp pipe bean bag toss, photo ops, crafts, MarioKart, and more. Costumes are welcome! For a full list of the day’s activities, visit aadl.org/marioday.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MEDIA All out war on information! It is now more important than ever to find a good news source because there is a war between lies and truth, fake news and real news. Mark Zuckerberg announced his alignment with President Donald J. Trump by ending a third party fact-checking program and moving to a community notes (user-based content moderation) on Facebook. Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly known as Twitter); Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the owner of the Washington Post; and Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta (Facebook), have aligned with President Trump along with other information tech giants. This tech oligarchy makes it damn near impossible for an average ordinary citizen to receive truthful and accurate information because they swamp their respective media outlets with propaganda. President Trump is now suing Meta, ABC, CBS and The Des Moines Register; the Federal Communications Commission is threatening to investigate PBS and NPR. This is a direct attack on the First Amendment by trying to intimidate media networks. At the core of journalism is truth (facts). Those who choose to be informed, such as myself, rely on accurate news to be able to make a good, conscious decision. By doing so, we have to learn to take a close look at what and where we receive information of MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 any sort. It is safe to say that X, The Washington Post, and Facebook won’t be consistently providing their users with truthful and accurate information. They will be providing users with information that benefits their agenda. All nations control what they want people to see and hear, some more than others. In the United States, media networks tend to lean to the left or right which can lead to division, deception and confusion. This is due to the fact that these media outlets are funded with advertising, and digitalization of news has caused financial incentives to produce “click bait.” Let's take a look at major media networks; I hate to say it, but it is almost as misleading as fake-news because you see and hear what they want you to see and hear. They put their own spin on the facts or hide certain facts, misleading their audience. Those in power and these networks do this without pause because they know Grateful for what I've learned not to be D.A. Groundcover writer I want to begin this article by wishing all a Happy New Year! Even those who may do things that cause negativity knowingly or unknowingly. I refuse to be part of problems. I choose to grow from my experiences, rather than tear myself down and/or be torn down. I will be the first to admit that I am far from perfect or even good all of the time. Most of what I’m grateful for and what I’ve learned not to be came primarily from examining myself and how I talk to, respond to, and treat others. At the end of the day, none of us are blameless. We all have a story no matter how we were raised or neglected. At some point we all must decide how we will pursue our lives. I’ve never had an issue with someone’s skin color, language, economic status or whatever it is that makes up the individual, as long as it does not interfere with the free will of another. If there is anyone that I’ve wronged or caused harm to in any way, please forgive me and I apologize. I am healing and transforming because I accept who I am. That is not to imply that I’m content to remain where I am. I just realize that life is a journey and a process. Had I not endured and gone through most of the things in my life experience, I could not have come this far. I am also grateful to know that Jesus Christ loves me and everyone equally. I will not force my beliefs upon another. People can choose to do and think as they please or how they understand. By having horrible acts exacted upon my person, it teaches me what I do not want to do to others. I only hope that I can be an encouragement or uplift others who may feel alone, worthless, or unworthy to be happy, healthy and to be themselves. FEBRUARY 21, 2025 Media Bias Chart from Ad Fontes Media. Where do you think Groundcover News would fall? most people don’t do their research and will believe whatever information is given. There are media outlets that cover the true facts like Groundcover News and other street newspapers; some of my favorite independent and nonprofit outlets are Democracy Now, Al Jazeera, and Status Coup. One must be informed and know where to receive truthful and accurate information. Independent or non-profit outlets are often the best source of information because they are not paid by the political-corporate media machine that produces watered-down information such as the networks in the bottom half of the pictured chart. In conclusion, I encourage you to take a deep look at where you receive your information. So, thank you to my friends and foes for ushering me to a higher love and awareness of myself as well as others around me. I realize that we all need each other in one way or another, and life to me is more satisfying in unity. I won’t use last names, but thank you mom, dad, sisters, brothers, friends Ron G., Susan B., Lindsay C., Jessi A., Sandy S., Glenn G., Elizabeth F., Laurie L., Willie C., Gregory P., Cindy C., Lenore, Dave, Double J, S.O.S, and many more. Live life, love, prosper. Even if that’s just waking up to greet another day and/or meet the next challenge. Believe me, this is a continuous process. Thank you Ronnie M., you’ve taught me the kind of parent to never be to any child. I hope that Jesus heals your sickness. I want my daughter E.M. to know that I love her, Happy belated Birthday, and I look forward to seeing you. FEBRUARY 21, 2025 EVENTS GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Explore actionable solutions to one of the most pressing issues of our time — homelessness —at a moment when our local community is reporting the fastest rising rate of homelessness in our history. This event features critically-acclaimed director Don Sawyer’s powerful new documentary, Beyond the Bridge: A Solution to Homelessness (asolutiontohomelessness.com), examines the root causes of homelessness and explores comprehensive solutions. Filmed over 40,000 miles, it captures insights from 12 cities and interviews with dozens of service providers and policymakers, all driven by one key question: “How can we solve homelessness in a comprehensive way?” TUESDAY, MARCH 11TH 6:00–9:00 PM (DOORS OPEN AT 5:00 PM) MICHIGAN THEATER, 603 E LIBERTY ST. A FREE and open to the public and University of Michigan community. Seating is limited! Register for your ticket today at bit.ly/BeyondTheBridgeA2 University of Michigan faculty research on poverty, homelessness, and related issues will be showcased in the lobby from 5-6 pm prior to the event. The screening will be followed by an engaging panel addressing the alarming rise in homelessness locally and nationally, highlighting innovative policy solutions that are being explored in our city and county. S Beth Angell School of Social Work Dean Christopher Taylor City of Ann Arbor Mayor Don Sawyer Film Director Roshanak Mehdipanah U-M School of Public Health Jennifer Hall Ann Arbor Housing Commission Molly Smith Avalon Housing M O D S O E R I T T R S P A N E L

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CUBA Who are the real terrorists? Cuba — the word brings many conflicting images to mind. The Bay of Pigs in 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 are in the historical mind of America. I think you must see Cuba yourself to get a feel for this jewel of the Caribbean. Jose Marti was the poet, journalist and revolutionary who called the United States "the Other America," the colossus to the north, in contrast to America as the name for the New World on the first map made by Amerigo Vespucci which focused on South America as the new world. The amount of gold extracted there is beyond imagination. Marti, the father of the Cuban revolution, is worthy of study due to his intellectual work and participation in the second Cuban revolution. He was killed in battle in 1895 before Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders claimed victory and declared Cuba as a U.S. territory. Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara are the most famous revolutionaries of the 1959 revolution. They are heroes to many but among the worst villains in history according to the imperialist narrative. The amount of  HOUSING from page 4 WithOut Leave). The vet stressed that this was a triggering designation. The shelter claimed the AWOL designation while the buddy was addressing a warrant as planned, to eliminate a barrier to housing. When the buddy returned to the shelter, they were already discharged due to being marked AWOL — despite their ongoing efforts to work to comply with shelter, parole and chain of command issues. All this was done while still navigating daily expenses and tasks required for their bare minimum existence. Addressing their previous warrant issue was necessary in order to pass background checks for housing and proceed with maximized VA case management opportunities. While they were trying to make themselves housing-ready, they were kicked out of the shelter. I don’t know a parent who doesn’t stress about making sure childrens’ school routines are consistent. Imagine having to navigate those stressors without a home. As a child from a family of firefighters, I’m sensitive to those displaced due to fire, which happens too often. Some buddies shared they have had to resort to having leases in another person’s name; others lack leases. Both of these situations can be stressful and have risks. One buddy KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 terrorism organized from Miami by Cuban-Americans has been documented, especially the bombing of Cubana de Aviacion Flight 455, which killed everyone on board including the Cuban fencing team. The Carnegie Council has published on this including recently released JFK files. The Miami counter-revolutionaries and mafia-CIA connection is still in play as Trump cultivates deeper relations with that trio. Cuba was last accused of terrorism because they helped end the civil war in Colombia by hosting negotiations between the FARC revolutionaries and the Colombian government which was armed and supported by the CIA. The described the current housing climate for the formerly incarcerated as “a different type of slavery. Slavery isn’t just about Black people anymore, it looks different; it’s poor wages, deep state is at work. I wrote on that in Groundcover June 28, 2024. Remember Richard Werner for his excellent podcast and Substack on the central planners of the deep state. The Cubans see the era of armed struggle as finished. The call for military action to free Guantanamo from U. S. occupation was stopped by Fidel who talked of the need for patience. Every revolution must work with the call for revenge against the old regime and its crimes. The mistakes of the revolution do not negate the great progress in education, healthcare and a culture of human dignity. The struggle is much bigger than the armed struggle and it is far from over. Opportunism is a temptation for every human being. I have been going to Cuba since 1994 with Pastors for Peace caravans and the U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange. I am going back this year on March 4. Thank you to those who helped me get a ticket; I will send reports from Cuba about Cuba today. Cuba needs computers and I will take what I can, hopefully some tablets and laptops. If you can help, please donate to Groundcover Venmo, vendor No. 490. La lucha sigue! The struggle continues! lack of opportunities. I feel like after not getting in trouble for 15 years I should have the same options and opportunities as other people.” One buddy reported becoming homeless again after getting assistance through Rapid Rehousing. This buddy explained there is now an eviction on their record after lacking adequate legal representation following multiple counts of hidden administrative fees, building issues, exploitive utility billing, and cost of rent increases. The same buddy also explained they were renting from one of the largest management properties in the community. Their voucher was revoked after police contact, and now they have to wait a year to be eligible for a voucher again. A 2024 University of Chicago study discusses the significance of what they call safety net utilization. This refers to the supports such as Medicaid, food assistance and subsidized housing which increase household resources. These benefits, according to the University of Chicago, are vital especially to the homeless, as they make the difference in if a person has resources to be housed, eat, and have access to care to keep them healthy. While published statistics, especially on the surface, should be viewed with some skepticism, a 2023 University of Chicago research brief about mortality reports non-elderly homeless have a 3.5 times higher overall mortality than their housed peers after accounting for protective factors. Some of the important protective factors present in previously published data sets and recent discussions with homeless people include: observed family connections, group demographics, income, continuing education, employment status and geography. One buddy expressed the strain surrounding the poverty lines. For a single person the monthly income limit for food assistance is $1,255, which is less than the market value of a local apartment. Also, during the eligibility evaluation process, homeless people are penalized for not having approved housing related expenses despite the fact things such as gas for heat and cooking fuel are critical for survival and should be accepted. A buddy who exited homelessness explained that being homeless was more expensive than anticipated as they were unable to store food easily, and a car still costs money. Additionally, they expected friends and family to be more supportive, which also made showering and other basics harder to access. While many do receive or may be eligible to FEBRUARY 21, 2025 6/30/2025 receive benefits, the truth remains that government agencies can’t be depended upon for timeliness, fairness or accuracy, and ultimately the most vulnerable are also most likely to fall prey to systemic flaws while doing everything in their ability to negotiate those systems. While there may be programming available through Continuums of Care (the federally-mandated county governing bodies for homeless issues) to address resource gaps, most programs are geared towards families, not single adults. Additionally, many individuals are interested in increasing income but fear losing current safety nets; or navigating systematic barriers are prohibitive. A HUD fact sheet suggests that most housing program staff lack sufficient specialized knowledge, thus potentially placing those who wish to work in a position where they fear losing stabilizing benefits. While some may struggle with benefits, some choose not to engage with governmental systems, and it is important to remember some people are excluded from benefits based on a variety of factors including legal status, income and systemic problems, even including data entry errors. FEBRUARY 21, 2025 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Netting 5. Beer quantity 9. Small part in a movie 14. Trade show 15. Killer whale 16. Eyeball benders 17. Appear 18. Back 19. Bullion unit 20. Suitability 23. Iranian coins 24. Floral necklace 25. "Peanuts" creator 28. Finely woven fabric used for sheets 32. Aussie "bear" 33. Sandler of "Big Daddy" 35. Escape 36. Policy favoring governmental interference in economic affairs 40. Six-sided game piece 41. Historic periods 42. Sheriff's gang 43. Unattractively thin 46. Adviser 47. Bleat 48. Cognizant 50. Style of coat with overlap at the front 56. Chip dip 57. Reclined 58. Fertilizer ingredient 59. Whines 60. On the open water 61. Grass stem 62. Embarrass 63. Geek 64. Shell competitor DOWN 1. ___ Verde National Park 2. Board member, for short 3. Blueprint detail, for short 4. Local self-government 5. Spanish conquistador 6. "He's ___ nowhere man" (Beatles lyric) 7. Picket line crossers 8. Nobleman 9. Word inventor 10. Experiencing a suspension of breathing 11. Periodicals, informally 12. Love god 13. His "4" was retired 21. Pertaining to hair 22. Fragrant resin 25. Tire marks 26. Shaped like a volcano 27. Bigot 28. Taps 29. Select group 30. Catch, in a way 31. Old Eurasian wheat with bearded ears 33. Ethereal, in poetry 34. Genetic material 37. Corrupt 38. "La Boheme," e.g. 39. Unrivaled 44. Violations 45. Ohio River tributary 46. Female follower of Bacchus 48. Belittle 49. Drier, as humor 50. Slap on 51. Spanish stewpot 52. Brio 53. Genuine 54. Congers 55. River barriers 56. Place to get a massage

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY People in the neighborhood: John Jackson John Jackson is in his mid 30s and is an unhoused resident of the City of Ypsilanti. Currently homeless for reasons he did not want to discuss, he frequents the Daytime Warming Center and Weather Amnesty (a community-led overnight sheltering program) where he sleeps most nights. He also takes refuge in an outbuilding on a kindly neighbor's farm near town. Finding work while homeless is not an easy feat. Not knowing where you are going to sleep at night means not having a place to shower, not having a place to keep nice clothes, not having enough rest or breakfast to perform well in an interview and you may have additional troubles with transportation and communication. John is looking for a job so we decided to use this column for a mock interview. I began with the common question: “What would you like to tell me about yourself?” John describes himself as an anomaly. “I’m evidence of a code working properly; a code of perfection!” John and I both laugh. “Haha, really I am just somebody trying to leave the world a better place than I found it.” JC: What would you say is your greatest weakness? JJ: My greatest weakness is the need for perfection. This sounds cliche for a job interview, but John clarifies, “No, it isn’t the keeps private. We talked about how things are with his daughter now. “It’s been a hard road, but we’ve JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 typical answer. I mean this need will really keep me from finishing something or even starting something. What makes that worse is that I also have a hard time asking for help.” John becomes even more vulnerable. By adding “... and people sometimes tell me I’m a little vain.” From this a pattern emerges which seems to be that John is expecting more from himself. The need for perfection says performance is important and finding it difficult to ask for help means he believes in autonomy and independence. Another way to say it is that John appreciates excellence and aspires to greater integrity. JC: What would you say has been your biggest life lesson so far? JJ: I learned what kind of man I am at 36. Unfortunately, I also learned what kind of father I’ve been to my kid. John has a 19-year-old daughter who has been estranged for reasons he made progress. We’re making plans to go out to dinner again soon. It’s just baby steps right now. She’s still pissed.” JC: But not too pissed to go out to dinner again. JJ: Right. JC: How do you handle stress? JJ: I have a few things that are not exactly healthy, but I am changing that. JC: How so? JJ: I started reading again. John produced a book titled “Lord of the Flies.” JC: Wow! What motivated that choice? JJ: This was my favorite book in high school, I’ve read it a million times. He spoke with affection. JC: What is the most stressful situation you’ve encountered at work? JJ: I was working for a hotel when a guest approached me making unreasonable demands. She got personal by calling me a name and referring to me as "you people." JC: What happened? JJ: I lost my cool, but I went right to the manager and let them handle it. JC: What would you have done differently? JJ: I was a little rude, so I would have said "I am so sorry this is happening to you ma’am, let me get my manager to assist you." JC: Good answer. JJ: I’m trying, man, I’m trying. It’s all a learning experience. JC: What’s keeping you homeless now? JJ: Myself. JC: Wow, that’s such an honest answer. JJ: Yeah, it’s just a lack of effort. I’m just kind of hanging out too much. JC: So what are you doing to change that? JJ: Well, here I am, giving an interview to try and find a job. JC: Oh good, so you’re being proactive now. What kind of work are you looking for? JJ: Honestly, I really like hospitality. Being a front desk clerk is a good fit and a good learning opportunity for me. JC: What would you do with a million dollars? JJ: I wouldn’t accept it. I am not always a character. I am sincerely working on living a humble and modest lifestyle. In other words — John is trying to leave the world in a better place than when he found it, as he said above. Given his self awareness, candidness and willingness to face his challenges head on, it seems the first corner of the world John Jackson is striving to make better is himself. FEBRUARY 21, 2025 FEBRUARY 21, 2025 EVENTS GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Michelle Mermaid Doris Angel

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Blueberry loaf ALEXANDRA GRANBERG Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 tablespoon lemon zest 3/4 cup milk (any type, including non-dairy) 1/2 cup neutral oil 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 and 1/2 cups blueberries, frozen or fresh Optional glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar 2 tablespoons lemon juice Directions: Preheat the oven to 355F. In a large bowl, whisk dry ingredients, including lemon zest. Mix in wet ingredients. Once fully combined, stir blueberries. Pour into greased loaf pan (or lined with parchment paper). Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, until inserted toothpick comes out clean. To create more of a dessert, whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice and evenly drizzle over warm loaf. in PUZZLE SOLUTIONS FEBRUARY 21, 2025 $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 3/6/2025

2 $ Surviving seven degrees. page 5 FEBRUARY 7, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 4 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. MEET YOUR VENDOR: SHELLEY DENEVE PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Where I slept last night. Marie's tent, which will be displaced by Ypsilanti's Water Street remeadiation project. Read more on page 4. Photo submitted. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER GROUNDCOVER STAFF On February 3, the first day of Groundcover’s annual Vendor Appreciation Week, vendors, staff, volunteers and board members gathered in Ann Arbor’s Council Chambers for the City Council meeting. The first item on the agenda was a special proclamation. Mayor Christopher Taylor called the Groundcover representatives to the podium and read the following message: “WHEREAS, Groundcover News is a street newspaper that provides quality news and features to the Ann Arbor community since July 2010; and WHEREAS, Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3), empowers and supports low-income community members to make the transition from homeless to housed and from jobless to employed; and WHEREAS, Groundcover News is a member of the International Network of Street Papers that believes everyone, everywhere deserves freedom, community, home, dignity, and hope; and WHEREAS, Groundcover News provides training and support for vendors to increase their skills and ability to navigate challenges; and WHEREAS, Groundcover News and vendors provide an invitation to build meaningful relationships in the community; and WHEREAS, stories in Groundcover News have been inspiring and transformational to vendors and community members who read the paper; and WHEREAS, Groundcover News and vendors add to the quality of life in the Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County community; and WHEREAS, the week of February 2, 2025, is observed as Groundcover News Vendor Appreciation Week. NOW, THEREFORE, I, Christopher Taylor, Mayor of Ann Arbor, Michigan, do hereby proclaim the week of February 2, 2025, as Groundcover Vendor Appreciation Week. I call upon Groundcover News, staff, volunteers, and the Ann Arbor community to join us in this celebration and to greet and support Groundcover Vendors!” After handshakes and remarks from vendors Joe Woods and Terri Demar, the Groundcover crew went on their way — some to continue paper sales downtown and others to get some rest to prepare for the festivities planned for the week. Thank you to Mayor Taylor and the Council for recognizing the vendors for their contributions to Ann Arbor and the Washtenaw County community. FEBRUARY 7, 2025 City of A2 proclaims Vendor Appreciation Week '25 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS D.A. Elizabeth Bauman Pedro Campos Jim Clark Amanda Gale Heather Feather Roberto Isla Caballero Ken Parks Scoop Stevens PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Zach Dortzbach Matthew Rohlman Steve Ross Dillon Schweers Anabel Sicko Allison Wei VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Sim Bose Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Jonathan Glass Bella Fernandez Robert Klingler Ari Ruczynski Harrison Slutzky Jack Weinberg Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Melanie Wenzel CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons FEBRUARY 7, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS The coyote charges you $10K to come to America The coyote charges you $10 thousand to come to America and later if you do something here, the police report you to ICE. The question is: what’s happening with the American Constitution? We Shelley DeNeve, vendor No. 22 In one sentence, who are you? Shelley Belly. I’m a compassionate, caring person. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? Churches: Trinity Lutheran, Zion Lutheran, Church of the Good Shepherd, Northside St. Aiden’s. Argus Farm Stop on Packard on Friday afternoons! When and why did you start selling Groundcover? September 2010. I’m vendor No. 22 out of 650+ vendors. (Only about 40-50 are active). I was recruited to sell by the late Rissa Haynes. What is one place in A2 that feels like your own personal sanctuary? Lily Park. Or the pools of Ann Arbor! What’s your life motto? Open your eyes and ears to what’s going on. What advice would you give to your younger self? Go with your gut feeling. What is your comfort food? Just about any pasta dish. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring 3 things, what would they be? Water, food, matches. If there was a theme song for your life, what would it be? “That’s the way love goes” If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? Hawaiian islands! What is the weirdest food combo you swear by? Peanut butter and onions or radishes. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? More affordable housing. have Latino representatives in the high institutions of United States government, like the Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and the members of Congress Bob Menendez, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Marion Diaz-Balart. What are these Latinos doing for the workers, the humble people, the poor people, who come to this country in search of the American dream? El coyote te cobra $10 mil por venir a Estados Unidos y luego si haces ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 algo aquí, la policía te denuncia ante ICE. Tenemos representantes latinos en las altas instituciones del gobierno de los Estados Unidos de América, como La Jueza Sonia Sotomayor, y los miembros del Congreso, Bob Menendez, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, y Mario Díaz-Balart. Que hacen Los Latinos con las personas trabajadoras, las personas humildes, las personas pobres, que vienen a ese país en búsqueda del sueño americano? 3 12 steps of love and commitment HEATHER FEATHER Groundcover vendor No. 45 1. We admit we are two hearts united in love. Together we recognize that our love is the foundation of our relationship, and we embrace each other’s imperfections as we build a shared life. 2. We come to believe that our love is a powerful force. We trust in the strength of our bond, knowing that together, we can overcome anything life brings our way. 3. We make a decision to commit fully to each other. With open hearts, we choose to cherish one another in all circumstances, making love our priority. 4. We make a searching and fearless love assessment. We reflect on our past, the moments we’ve shared, and the lessons we’ve learned, always striving to grow together. 5. We admit to each other the truths of our hearts. We vow to be open, honest and vulnerable with each other, sharing our deepest thoughts and feelings without fear. 6. We are entirely ready to let go of the past and begin anew. With full hearts, we release any lingering doubts or regrets, embracing this fresh chapter of our shared story. 7. We humbly ask each other to be our best selves. We encourage each other to grow, to evolve and to become the best versions of ourselves, individually and as partners. 8. We make a list of promises to keep to each other. We promise to support, honor, and love each other, through every joy and challenge, forever. 9. We make amends whenever we faltered. When we stumble, we will forgive each other and ourselves, knowing that love is stronger than any mistake. 10. We continue to nurture our love, day by day. We pledge to nurture our love, with patience, understanding and gratitude for every day we share. 11. We seek to deepen our connection with each other. Together, we will grow spiritually and emotionally, never taking for granted the beauty of the bond we share. 12. Having experienced the joy of true love, we will share our light with the world. As we walk this journey together, we will spread kindness, compassion and joy to others, knowing that our love is a light that can illuminate the world.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS FEBRUARY 7, 2025 City of Ypsilanti funds relocation of homeless residents displaced by Water Street remediation LINDSAY CALKA Publisher On January 17, Marie woke up with a letter taped to her car. The letter was from PATH (Washtenaw County's Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness) informing her that her tent was scheduled to be cleared from the Water Street property on Friday, January 31. In the letter PATH offered help moving her campsite if she wanted it. Does this sound familiar? In a January 26, 2024 article, Groundcover News reported on a threatened sweep of the same site, the same campers, for the same reason: remediation and redevelopment of Water Street in downtown Ypsilanti. Community response to this threatened sweep resulted in an indefinite delay. Council called off the scheduled work until a better approach could be formulated. A year passed with no intervention, and ironically the sweep was scheduled for the second time in the last week of January 2025 — the coldest week of the year. So the Tuesday after the letter was posted, January 21, 2025, concerned community members attended the Ypsilanti City Council meeting and participated in public comment to urge Council to call off the sweep, again. Councilmember Amber Fellows introduced a discussion regarding the “Water Street Fence Repair and Tree Removal.” In this discussion the City employees argued against further delays of the remediation work because of time-sensitive funding and potential ramifications from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Water Street property is mostly contaminated land that can not be formally occupied, developed or used until all the contaminated soil is removed and replaced. The first step to this process was removing trees and repairing fences, work that could not be scheduled until homeless residents were removed. Council decided to delay the work by two weeks and make an effort to problem-solve with Washtenaw Camp Outreach and the affected campers, get more information on the scheduled work, and research available City properties for relocation. What the public hears Three days later, on January 24, Ypsilanti’s communication department published a release titled, “The City of Ypsilanti is moving forward with the Water Street Redevelopment Area.” The press release outlined the funding source for this project, which is a combination of time-sensitive funds from MDEC and HUD’s Economic Development Initiative. The press release continued with a timeline for the work that would be done in 2025 and the funding sources for each of these steps. "This is a long-awaited project and one of the city's last pieces of undeveloped property. We are excited to leave it better than we found it, redevelop it, and return it to the city's tax rolls, making it profitable for the City of Ypsilanti and benefiting its residents," said Mayor Nicole Brown in the release. “This funding is crucial for the redevelopment of the Water Street project, as it provides us with the unprecedented opportunity to address the contamination on the property and prepare it for future development. By excavating and revitalizing this site, we are removing environmental hazards and paving the way for new opportunities,” said Andrew Hellenga, City Manager of the City of Ypsilanti. The press release contained no referto the potential ence delay or displacement, signalling the threat of the sweep was truly imminent. Negotiating compensation Friday, January 31, Councilmember Steve Wilcoxen, Councilmember Amber Fellows and City Manager Andrew Hellenga met with Washtenaw Camp Outreach members Jim Clark and Sheri Wander; Country who lives on Water Street; and KJ from Homelessness Solidarity Network. WCO presented demands from the campers — which, in sum, was compensation for the displacement from their homes. The City representatives claimed that they couldn’t do much themselves, but offered to reach out to PATH, Washtenaw County Commissioners and staff, and even donate personal items. After the close of the meeting Wander reflected, “They walked away with an acknowledgement that they need to take personal and institutional responsibility for the situation we’re in." Tuesday, February 4 — the scheduled follow-up discussion during the City Council meeting itself — arrived see WATER ST next page  "Where I Slept Last Night" by Kaleaf FEBRUARY 7, 2025 HOMELESSNESS Surviving seven degrees At the time of this writing, January 21, 2025, the outside temperature is seven degrees fahrenheit. People who have been sleeping outside are now seeking emergency shelter in the same way a drowning person would seek a life preserver. Sometimes that life preserver is a motel stay. Motels provide shelter for especially vulnerable people — elderly, differently-abled, ill, marginalized people or families. During seven degree weather, motels and overnight sheltering programs are critical to saving lives. Something people experience when unsheltered is being constantly in “fight or flight” mode because sleeping outside or in a homeless shelter is simply dangerous. Also the panic of not knowing where you’re going to sleep keeps you in a “highalert” state which can persist even after finding safe shelter. In order for “shelter” to be effective it must include safety and solitude so a person can enter “rest and digest” mode. Further, people experiencing homelessness who are using the sheltering system have very little solitude. This wears people down psychologically, making the collective homeless community environment stressful, hostile and physically unsafe. Spending money on alleviating the need for solitude translates to a higher survival rate beyond just shelter from the cold. In the coldest of winter months, members of Washtenaw Camp Outreach, the non-profit Mission, and other homeless solidarity organizations operate a program called Weather Amnesty, located in a house of hospitality in Ann Arbor. Because of the dangerously cold weather, people who had been sleeping in tents, in abandoned buildings or on the street started showing up in droves. Overcrowding in the county shelter, the Delonis Center, had been an issue for a few weeks now and the safety of the shelter system is failing. Furthermore, the Housing Access of Washtenaw County (HAWC) was Manager, who was able to secure ten more rooms for the next day. Hall said this about her role: “It is my JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 going to close on Tuesday the 21st and Wednesday the 22nd due to the extreme cold. HAWC is the organization that is charged with referring our unsheltered citizens to the agencies and information that can help. Vocal members of the Continuum of Care were able to overturn the decision and HAWC opened back up on Wednesday. Fortunately, amidst the weather emergency, a few people were in the right place, at the right time, and had the same idea. At about 3 p.m. on Monday Jan. 20, I was asked by the WCO team to reach out to Washtenaw County Commissioner Annie Sommerville to see if there was help available from the county. As she checked with her team, she mentioned that Dan Kelly, director of the Delonis Center, could help with sheltering as well. The Shelter Association did not have an option for immediate motel shelter, but Kelly was able to lift trespass notices so that people could access Delonis’s emergency overnight shelter services. (Clients at the Delonis Center who commit egregious violations of the rules are banned for a certain amount of time. Kelly temporarily exempted them from trespass in order to accommodate their survival.) Shortly after that, Commissioner Sommerville replied. With Washtenaw County funds, she secured ten motel rooms. She then put me in touch with Ashley Hall, the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners Operations and Communications responsibility to help with Commissioner properties, and the top priority for the Board of Commissioners is housing and homelessness. Commissioner Somerville believes it is critical that the most vulnerable members of our community have a safe, warm and secure place to stay throughout the year, but especially during weather emergencies. I am glad that I was able to work with you to help identify options for emergency sheltering.” In the late afternoon of the 20th, WCO and Weather Amnesty teams began picking people up from the daytime warming centers and from their tents and taking them to safety. To the county officials Commissioner Sommerville, Mr. Kelly and Manager Hall — thank you for stepping up! To the WCO/Weather Amnesty teams — make no mistake, you are heroes. Not just to me, but to all of us housed and unhoused members of our street community. Props to you all. Special thanks to KJ, Dax and CP for transportation support and food provision, to Sienna and Eric of Weather Amnesty who held down the fort at Purple House while we shuttled people to safety and to CL and AG for keeping track of it all! Also thank you to the staff at the Extended Stay America and Days Inn for their considerate and professional service. Barabara Laster-Bell, concierge at the Days Inn, mentioned that it was “heartening and encouraging to see a community of people come together to save their neighbors from the cold.” Finally a shout-out to the allied activist communities of Shelter Now and the Washtenaw General Defense Committee. Thank you for your continued work in housing and social justice and championing the mission to end homelessness at its source. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5  WATER ST from last page quickly. This time there was more community support; activists spoke and waited the long two hours through other items on the agenda. After disappointing repetition of the information shared at the January 21 and January 31 meetings, to the surprise of the attendees, Councilmember Patrick McClean moved to allocate $7,500 from unspent staff salaries for relocation assistance costs for the homeless residents of Water Street — and the motion unanimously passed after clarifying discussion. Funds will be spent at discretion of the City Manager, informed by the needs of the current residents of Water Street. Examples of possible relocation costs would be replacement camping supplies, hotel stays or storage fees. What remains unsettled can be summarized in the title of the previous Groundcover report on this story: “Go where?” It is illegal to camp without permission on private property, and it is illegal to sleep overnight in public parks and other public land. Especially during the spring, summer and fall seasons, when there are no shelter options in Ypsilanti — homeless residents have nowhere to go. The $7,500 is an emergency allocation. Considering the January 7 resolution towards establishing a permanent shelter in the City, and the February 4 motion tasking the planning commission to research public land for safe tenting, Council seems to be shifting its priorities towards housing and shelter and the well-being of its constituents.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS WHERE I SLEPT How did you sleep last night? When I was first homeless in Ann Arbor in 2018, I did not realize it because I had so many safe spots. I was a journeyman union painter in Ypsilanti, in the Ypsitucky world, from 1977 to 1981. I discovered the kagyu Tibetan Buddhist Center in January 1980 and quickly became a practitioner. The meditation on compassion became a life focus. The People’s Food Co-op in Ann Arbor was an important community from day one. I was still based in Detroit, sharing a home and helping raise four kids. I also shared a two bedroom in Ypsi with one of my painter friends. I soon had a room in the Buddhist Center so I had three homes at once. As I explored Ann Arbor in 2018, two garages and the YMCA quickly became kinds of homes. Mercy House, the Breakfast Church (St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church) and Delonis became backup spots. As Peggy at Mercy House put it, being homeless would not be so bad if you didn’t need to sleep.There is so much to do in Ann Arbor that homeless folk disappear during wakeful hours. If you need to sleep homeless you are in trouble; if you have no secure lodging your choice will be the park or the alley. You may search a wooded area for a spot. If you are handy you can put up a tent, build a lean-to or sleep in the open. Hopefully you have a sleeping bag or two. You learn to be a camper. In my experience, how well you sleep is more important than where you sleep. A good night’s sleep is a treasure of energy. The relationship of location and quality is complex. For over three years, I’ve had an “efficiency apartment” in a location where it’s difficult to make a home. Avalon Housing, who runs it, is lost in a bureaucratic quagmire and, in all honesty, I must say that I don’t get a great night’s sleep there. In my memory, the best sleep I experienced was in West Park and the KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 adjacent woods behind Miller and Fountain. I had a welcoming tree as a companion. Also excellent was most of the sleep on a futon in a garage loft on Third Street. It becomes obvious that housed or unhoused is not the decisive factor you might think. It's more like where are you at home in your body. Sleeping near the earth may be more important than a legal roof over your head. Sometimes homeless people sleep better than housed people. The best literature on this is an article by Christopher Ellis in the Nov. 15, 2022, Groundcover titled “Housed, unhoused or homeless?” Reality is never what you think it is, as most of us discover to our dismay when we realize that our expectations may have little to do with the outcomes of our actions. The socialization process creates many taboos and illusions that reside in our sub- and unconscious, as Freud and others have shown. I think Ernest Becker has done good anthropological science in looking at Homo sapiens' increasing propensity for evil and the cultural need to be or worship heroes who have defeated death in battle or mastered the key to eternal life. Shamans become priests as bureaucracy corrupts our natural power into opportunistic power. A culture which promotes belief in the seen world but ignores the unseen is not able to experience the completeness of reality. Data are helpful in the proper context, but without it they’re worthless. I recommend two of Becker’s books. “The Denial of Death” is a landmark book of the 1970s and his final book “Escape From Evil” is a great companion book to his search for a science of Homo sapiens. His quest to analyze and critique the large amount of anthropological and archaeological data is amazing. His intellectual work brings art and science together for a creative view of our evolution and history over the past estimated 300,000 years. Our awareness of death is largely repressed through cultural norms that feed on our desire to continue the experience of this body as if there is no end in sight. We are now struggling with the extremes of eternalism and nihilism; Buddhism proposes the Middle Path which avoids those extremes. The view of a permanent soul as a separate entity captures many Christians, Muslims and other theists. What is it separate from? If the answer is the highest and most powerful God, what does it mean to be a believer? If sin is separation, is this separate soul an illusion? Is there an all good expanse of primordial purity that is not separate but yet our true nature. These are the issues that mindfulness training may resolve. When you observe your breath you will come to the question: “Who is the observer?” When you observe your state of mind, what is the nature of the observer to the observed? We know from physics that Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle shows that the act of observation influences the experiment. Therefore you cannot know the precise location and velocity of a particle at the same time. You must choose one or the other. In meditation, resting at ease in the natural state is difficult largely due to our habit of self and other projections. Look for a teacher who is at ease with observing the observer and can help you reach a single-minded focus on the experience of a calm and clear mind. The karma kagyu Tibetan Buddhist meditation masters have been the most helpful for me. Christian believers like the Berrigan brothers,Thomas Merton and Martin Luther King are important examples of Jesus as a living presence and guide to a life of truth in love. As Dion Fortune from the Fraternity of Inner Light taught, “Love is the Law.” Facing reality is the task for every Homo sapien. Cultivate your inner confidence that we can do this together. You must do it yourself but you don’t do it alone. Tune in to earth, water and sky. You will sleep well surrounded by all the holy beings of your creative imagination which invites them into your dreams. FEBRUARY 7, 2025 FEBRUARY 7, 2025 WHERE I SLEPT Sleeping in the Lion's Den PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 It was past 11 p.m., on January 23, 2025, at the Delonis Center on 312 E. Huron in Ann Arbor. After playing jokes trying to humiliate me, in public, she said, “You’re free to go…” Go outside in the cold, she meant, 10 degrees Fahrenheit. This was the manager known to harass honest people, targeting those who question her evident incompetence. She banned me for going outside to smoke weed, a medicine according to state law. In a place where everyone smokes everything, everywhere, at any time — even methamphetamine and crack on a daily basis, in the bathrooms and smoking rooms, she decided to leave her little cell and pretend she cares. So she kicked me out to discipline me for my behavior, trespassing me for three days. Disoriented, I left with no money or place to go, without a jacket or a blanket. And as I rumbled up on Huron Street, I stopped at the Fire Station, where they have an emergency button that should work 24/7. Nobody answered. I can’t say that the Police of Ann Arbor are friendly to the homeless. They are not. I can’t even say it’s safe there. I have been harassed by a couple of criminal police officers there once, and they can get violent. Everyone knows. But when I saw a kid inside the little room in between the doors that access the building, the Ann Arbor City Hall Police Department, I knew it would be safer than the streets, and warmer. Living my life in Brazil, I have not developed survival skills for this cold Michigan winter. The "kid" inside the vestibule, apparently a homeless man, agreed to share his refuge with me. We didn’t talk much. I checked the floor, it was warm. I was so sad and tired. Thank God I was able to rest protected from the cold, and with the police cameras watching us. You gotta make the most of it. Streets can get violent, and when you take violence from shelter staff members who you should be able to rely on; get no assistance from the fire department; nor the police who watch everything, you find comfort and shelter from an unknown man, a poor homeless person like me, rich in the heart. There, in the vestibule, I could lay my bones, stretch my legs and warm my soul, not like a sardine in a can surrounded by all that disrespectful noise, violence GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Pedro sitting in the Police Department vestibule, where he slept the first night he was kicked out of the Delonis Center. and thievery, people dealing and using drugs, with nasty smells and bad attitudes. In the silence I planned my next steps; I even read my book. Even if God didn't bless me with that night's sleep, which I did deserve because I work hard, and even if I had to spend all night, again, walking around lost in the cold, avoiding tweakers and criminals, cops and ambulances, like many times I did — it would be totally worth it. Because the fire that comes from inside of me, will always burn strong enough to warm myself and others. I keep my dignity, and tired as I get, I just sleep anywhere. As my uncle Gustavo once said, “The rest of an honest man.” That’s what keeps me going, walking wherever I want, with my head up, able to look people in the eyes.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS TRUMP Trump's second term as President SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover vendor No. 638 Now that I have had time to process the fact that Americans have elected Donald J. Trump as President again and what this might mean for homelessness in the United States, the conclusion that I came to is that everything will go wrong for Trump and by the end of his presidency he will wish that he had never run for office again. The racist real estate developer Donald Trump will witness our nation being fundamentally transformed and none of this will be to his liking. Martin Luther King said that the arc of history leans towards justice. The national reconstruction project that began in 1865 will come to its fruition during Trump’s second term as President because, I believe, circumstances will dictate a downsizing of our empire. We’ll therefore get more towards the republican form of government that our founders intended. Then we’ll concentrate on our own national character. The national reconstruction project that began with the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments got off to a slow start. After 50 years, in 1915, President Woodrow Wilson was showing a Ku Klux Klan film (The Birth of a Nation) in the White House. The film is about white people in the North and the South having a conflict but now they are reunited in the cause of white supremacy. Reconstruction’s early setbacks led the nation to become involved in World War I which was a prelude to World War II. Then came the Cold War with Russia with no end in sight for America’s entanglement in wars that it really doesn’t need to be involved in. Did Reconstruction’s early failure really lead to the United States becoming involved in all these wars? I believe that it did because these were national amendments that were meant to reconstruct the Nation. When this didn’t happen it resulted in a gilded age with great inequalities of wealth and many evils including endless wars to protect the interests of the monied class. This in turn caused increased homelessness. The elderly homeless problem was supposed to be solved by the Social Security Act of 1935. I have discovered that not having to pay rent was the solution for my homelessness. I don’t make that much money but I do not need that much money because I do not have to pay rent. Would rent-free living be a solution for homelessness on a larger scale? I believe that it would because we really do not need a parasitical landlord class oppressing us. Now that I am old enough to collect Social Security, I choose not to because if I collect Social Security I will have to give up my rent free HUDVash (veterans program) housing voucher and pay rent. When white Americans finally come to the realization that their fate is tied into the well-being of their Black neighbors, the final stage of national reconstruction will have arrived. I believe this will happen during Trump’s second term as President. FEBRUARY 7, 2025 exp. 06/31/2025 FEBRUARY 7, 2025 PUZZLES Go Fish Peter A. Collins GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. Thank you! ACROSS 1. Request for permission 5. Batter's posture 11. Keg attachment 14. Big name in heating and cooling 15. Add to the payroll 16. Author Tarbell 17. A loose one might cause an under-the-hood rattle 19. Fireplace fuel 20. Doofus 21. Surgical locations: Abbr. 22. Italian volcano 23. Noted Georgia memorial 26. "Come to My Window" singer Etheridge 28. Atomizer sprays 29. Apple debut of 1998 30. With pluck 33. Autumn mo. 34. Bar request 36. Itsy bitsy 39. Name typed in to log on 40. Mineral (and an anagram of 29-Across) 41. Hawaiian "Tiny Bubbles" singer 43. Nero, for one 46. Best Actress winner for "Still Alice" 49. Pinnacle 50. Family member 51. Moose or mouse 54. Rain-___: bubble gum brand 55. 2003 Disney film (and an activity done by looking inside 17-, 23-, 34-, and 55-Across) 57. "The Fresh Prince of ___-Air" 58. Give the cold shoulder 59. ___ buco (Italian entree) 60. Dismiss abruptly 61. Chewed like a beaver 62. Go to the mall DOWN 1. G.I. fare 2. Family member 3. One from Zagreb, until 1991 4. Asinine 5. Glossy surfaces 6 "Tiny" Dickens boy 7. "___ With a View" 8. Prefix with science or surgery 9. Advertiser's target 10. Tolkien tree creature 11. Attack a la Don Quixote 12. Handsome god 13. Nonbeliever 18. Many charitable groups, briefly 22. Online market for handmade crafts 24. Enthusiastic 25. Egyptian flower? 26. Opposite of max 27. Broody music genre 31. Friend in France 32. Internet connection device 34. Employee safety agcy. 35. Vegas light, maybe 36. Screen component 37. ___ -friendly 38. Hear here! 39. Widely used operating system 40. Some sheep 41. Two-unit home 42. Repetitive World Cup chant 44. Lamented 45. '70s video game 46. "Star Wars" villain 47. Italian granny 48. Create, as a scholarship 52. Recess retort 53. Figure-skating move 55. Newton filler 56. Rage

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HEALTH Amanda's home remedies for a sore throat Recently encountering a sore throat SUFFERER while working on a project other than what became this article, gave me this idea. Why not share this information with as many people as possible via our Groundcover publication? So “Here Goes” ... “An apple a day keeps the doctor away …” Most of us in the United States have heard this old saying (let’s just hope it’s not the problem-bringing fruit Eve gave to Adam!) Obviously, the idea is that we can do something pro-active to stay healthy. Here we are, mid-winter according to our calendars, and we have sore throats — possibly from cold air exposure weakening our immunity, or perhaps more often from all the germs we likely encounter if we’re stuck indoors too long. So, what can we do? Are there natural remedies and obtainable over the counter items that ACTUALLY CAN PROVIDE RELIEF? Is it reasonable to think that just perhaps even some humble herbs or other simple ingestibles might have actual potency for health prevention and cures? Legend from North American Pioneers has it that boiled pine needles cure colds (and scurvy), while Romans paid taxes with anise and also made cough drops from it! Some cultures have indicated successful use of Duct Tape for wart removal; and old farmers were said to cure “sour humors” (and scorpion and spider bites — OUCH!) with oregano. While coconut oil is still useful for curing acne, not all herbal use requires the caution to not fall asleep under an Elderberry tree in mid-summer, if you wanted to avoid disrupting the fairies' travels to their Mid-Summer Feast and consequently have them carry-you-off with them — never to return!! And not all home remedies’ purposes must be as dramatic as warding-off vampires (and infections) with garlic, or as unusual as getting (the vitamins within) golden raisins drunk from juniper berries (used to make gin) to bring about the anti-inflammatory aspects that reduces swelling and eases pain for arthritis sufferers. Perhaps this journey for sore throat RELIEF might not be as entertaining; though ADVENTURE is yours FOR the FINDING! HOWEVER, I can and will herein seek to share what I have found, to be TRULY VERY! RELIEVING, for the pain of throat infection! Of course we realize that anything we can do to boost our overall immunity is excellent for preventing infection and disease for our whole body. Beyond just a healthy diet and any specifics per person for care for particular physical conditions one might have, our culture also has a general AMANDA GALE Groundcover vendor No. 573 Besides being a good preventive and curative against sore throats, elderberry also helps eliminate congestion and coughs and is helpful against infections in general. If you include vitamin C with elderberries, this is extra-helpful for health; just don’t allow those fairies to carry you off to their “place of no return!” Healthy foods: Eating foods that are awareness for getting sufficient rest and exercise, consuming appropriate vitamin intake and adequate daily light exposure per day. Beyond this however, what might we include to PREVENT sore throats and physical illnesses? What follows is my shared experience and awareness for prevention for throat infection. (I am placing a * by the ones I find MOST EFFECTIVE, RELIEVING or that I have used the most). BOOST IMMUNITY! Probiotics: kind of the opposite of antibiotics (which get your body to produce more of its defenses against the invading agent of illness, by introducing a little more of the inflicting agent — sometimes in another form). Probiotics are a gift to your body of a boost HEALTHY microorganisms. Unhealthy microorganisms don’t like to “hang around” the healthy ones; so this is a GOOD strategy. The higher the healthy microorganism count, the BETTER you are fortifying your body’s immunity. Billions and billions of healthy microorganisms are more helpful than even just millions! A barrier to probiotics can be the price; however, sometimes if you have a pre-existing medical condition, and you seek to coordinate with your healthcare provider, PERHAPS if a prescription is written for it, there might be a way to get it paid for other than out-of-pocket. Otherwise, some other ways to obtain at least some probiotic immune-boosting is via eating yogurt and drinking (usually herbal) teas that include probiotics. Of course even a lower-amount supplement of probiotics (which cost less) might be more helpful than not ever consuming any because of the prohibitive financial cost of the capsules that contain billions. *Elderberry, *echinacea and *green tea as brewed tea (or via supplement or other forms): These teas are used with success by everyday people with great success for boosting immunity, and herbalists concur these herbs have immune-boosting aspects. healthy in general is good; eating foods targeted to what each person needs to BUILD and KEEP their immunity, is BEST. *Walnuts: These are rich in Omega-3s and thus provide powerful antioxidant immune fortification. *Hibiscus tea, *beets, *baby spinach: Boost hemoglobin which helps iron, and thus red blood cells, to increase. Kale and *swiss chard and some particular mushrooms: Help increase platelet count. Green, leafy vegetables like romaine lettuce or celery: These are very HEALTHY and contain vitamins. *Powdered electrolyte mixes (to be added to water): Salts and sugars your body needs! When you feel your body feeling weaker, drinking this will energize you and improve your physical energy and how your body feels overall. This also can help relieve physical weakness and tiredness, and you will feel more hydrated and have more physical energy after consuming it. GARGLING Keeping your throat as clean as possible from infectious germs and other harmful agents is a great preventive measure. Though, as with other preventive measures, gargling is also a great curative for sore throats. • *Water or *saltwater: Water to rinse/cleanse throat and salt can help heal throat wounds and reduce swelling, though for sore throats it will be somewhat worse at first, but will bring RELIEF afterwards. • *Peroxide (three parts water, one part peroxide): Do NOT swallow the peroxide, and DON’T give this to young/unsupervised children. • *Listerine (or off brand): disinfects. Please note disinfecting agents shouldn’t be overused or can cause throat irritation. • Brushing teeth: Regular good oral hygiene rids the mouth of “bad stuff” that can infect. There are also even tongue scrapers available nowadays! • *Vinegar: This cleanses out germs and also changes PH (acid) in your throat, which aids against acid-consumption and/or acid reflux sore throats. Also, vinegar is a natural analgesic — i.e. it numbs pain! Caution: it does sting at first, however within seconds it brings RELIEF! • *Distilled water: In the microbiology lab, one learns distilled water is the PUREST water there is, being the ONLY water that can be included on a slide to not also view microorganisms that were simply within the water! Distilled water is SO GENTLE and REALLY FEELS SOOTHING for an IRRITATED THROAT; soup, bullion, Jello, and more can also be prepped with this water. (For drinking and/or gargling) • *Aloe Barbadensis juice prepared for consumption (NOT topical or other forms of aloe): This is another REALLY SOOTHING agent, for an irritated throat. (For drinking and/or gargling) CURATIVES TEAS: Any tea that is soothing for sore throat can be gargled and/or drunk warm (most preferably) or cold/ room temp, with great success to rinse the throat and also begin RELIEVING! sore throat symptoms. Though various herbal teas can qualify there is ONE PARTICULAR TEA I recommend: *Twinings (purple-box) black tea, grown in the altitude and climate of India’s Himalayas (its particular processing probably is what makes it particularly effective). I have not experienced any other tea — including ones specially formulated to ease sore throat — to be as effective! *STARCHY FOODS: Though a constant diet of only this probably ISN’T! healthy — i.e. lacking nutrients and being bad for diabetics! If you have a sore throat, starchy foods can be BEST tolerated by your throat, and also HELP TO RELIEVE symptoms and also helps to reduce acid: • Crackers with or without salt: Salt can help disinfect and begin to reduce swelling, though might not be tolerated by an extremely irritated sore throat. • Potatoes, bread, biscuits and pancakes: (Possibly without syrup if throat is REALLY IRRITATED; possibly butter use is OK.) • Pasta with butter only: This isn’t as soothing, however it isn’t irritating or acid-producing, either. • Chicken soup or bullion (with or without noodles): Chicken broth has an aspect that actually provides a light congealing function, which therefore coats your throat in a soothing way. Additionally, the warmth and nutrition from it also aids healing! • Tomato soup mix (added to water): Some of these can actually FEEL soothing for a sore throat. However, if the tomato aspect is TOO strong, it will burn instead of feeling relieving. see REMEDIES next page  FEBRUARY 7, 2025 FEBRUARY 7, 2025 POETRY Slavery is not dead! D.A. Groundcover writer These poetic verses were not written because I’m against any human being. That’s what we are to me, human beings. Not a collection of races or economic brackets. I am a humanist. Slavery is not dead It still exists for people’s lives who are impoverished Equal rights is just nonsense when it comes to them Slavery is not dead And has never ended Slavery is not dead It’s just more elusive in the many forms and ways that it presently exists Slavery is not dead It comes in the form of policing systems, laws, federal policies, health and human services, Taxes, government, education, employment practices, and so-called fair-housing policies Slavery is not dead Cause they still take our babies and send them off, by paying strangers Rather then their family members to do as they please Yeah!!!!! Slavery is not dead As we continue to experience their horrific dread Breaking up siblings Slavery is not dead Look at what’s goin down in the White House The former candidates for presidency Slavery is not dead Democracy is a “LIE” Slavery is not dead Had that been me I’d been locked up in prison for the rest of my natural life “YOU SEE” Slavery is not dead Poor folk are still punished, fined, penalized by laws reflective of “PEONAGE and VAGRANCY” Slavery is not dead Don’t believe it, use common sense Hence, hence Trump, Vance … and many others get away just like them … Because of generational wealth, privilege built off of the backs and hands of slaves Slavery is not dead No matter how you try to chalk it up or look at it “SLAVERY IS NOT DEAD” !!!!!!  REMEDIES from last page *Jello/gelatin NOT made into Jello: Simply with hot water added is VERY! coating and SOOTHING for sore throat. (I learned this years ago from a pharmacy-tech when working for a major drug store retailer!) Jello is fairly inexpensive, and the flavors to select from are YUMMY! Jello/gelatin with warm water can also be gargled. SORE THROAT SPRAY: Such as Chloraseptic or an off-brand. For $9.99 it has seven pre-prepped, helpful natural ingredients. These can really help RELIEVE throat and mouth pains. However, these need to be re-applied somewhat frequently. Can also be gargled. OTHER LOZENGES: • Sucrets: specially formulated for throat relief • Ricola: herbal, helpful, tasty and refreshing • Slippery Elm: soothes sore throat • Vitamin C drops and/or cherry or other flavored lozenges that DON’T have menthol (which greatly irritates throat) GOLDENSEAL HERB: In ANY form INSTANTLY relieves throat pain. Goldenseal can be taken directly from plants or a supplement, drunk as tea or can be gargled. If picked directly from “the wild” — be SURE you can somehow CORRECTLY IDENTIFY that it is this plant for sure. Goldenseal can be grown in your garden. *ICE CUBES: This might seem counterintuitive, however, many times COLD applied to sore throat, does actually RELIEVE the pain. Can also make aloe juice cubes, distilled water cubes, black tea cubes, melt Ricola lozenges and then freeze as cubes! GINGER: In tea or root form or crystallized drops. Ginger has anti-bacterial aspects and is a natural anti-inflammatory. Ginger RELIEVES ALL types of physical pains. However, it stings at first. Ginger in tea form can be gargled. *HEALING ENERGY VIBRATIONS/ PUZZLE SOLUTIONS SOUND FREQUENCIES: Such as 432 hz (a "general healing," relaxing one), 741 hz (which removes toxins from throat), or 192 hz (which offers almost INSTANT! RELIEF for sore throat). Additionally, some frequencies have been set to a pleasant background of classical music. Some also include "binaural beat" vibrations, and there are even some "spooky rife" frequencies — for those who might like to even SCARE! away their sore throats (HA HA!) This may seem weird, though it ACTUALLY WORKS! These can be found via YouTube and other places on the internet. All you have to do is LISTEN and these work to create conditions that create HEALTH and NOT ILLNESS for your throat. (There are other healing energy vibrations and GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 sound frequencies that WORK WELL for other prevention and curing for other maladies, also.) I believe this is part of “the future” of medicine. *PRAYER AND ANOINTING WITH OIL: The Book of James mentions this specifically (James 5.14-16). This is the TIMELESS, preventive and curative, for EVERYTHING sometimes GOD EXACTLY wants to bring our attention and approach, DIRECTLY to HIM for the HEALING. HOWEVER also, did you ever hear about the one guy who was praying to be RESCUED off an island, and he therefore refused a helicopter, a boat, and a long-rope to another island, saying, “I’m praying to GOD for HIS rescue of me,” and GOD answered back, “Son, then WHY!? did you REFUSE the helicopter, boat, and long-rope I sent you!” Not to worry GOD gives discernment to those who REALLY SEEK HIM! It is also HELPFUL to have a HEALING approach to our LIVES and for those around us. NSAIDS: I find *ALEVE (Naproxen Sodium) MOST HELPFUL for me, for MOST any type of physical pain — including sore throat. However, many people experience BEST RELIEF from Ibuprofen, Tylenol, willow bark (aspirin), Soledo and such. Some recent research suggests possible overuse of various NSAIDS can cause liver damage and other maladies; therefore use with caution and/or consult your medical provider. Returning to our “days of lore” from the introduction … Once there were some Vikings seeking to invade the Scots. The Vikings thought they’d outsmart the Scots by creeping-up on them barefoot, so as to be really quiet. However, the Vikings hadn’t counted-on the milk thistles that were growing in the fields surrounding the Scots, and one instantly SCREAMED! When he stepped-on one, thereby alerting the Scots, who immediately successfully fended-off the Vikings. We hope however, to NOT have to make a mistake such as the Vikings did. If none of these remedies help RELIEVE your sore throat and/or AREN’T ACCESSIBLE for you — perhaps you could be benefited from a NICE, SKILLFUL throat specialist. Surely, there are many around our Washtenaw County area. Those with persistent throat pains might wish for example to check for any possible other complications such as polyps or other cancers.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Valentine's peanut butter Kiss cookies ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 ¾ cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt ½ cup sugar ½ cup brown sugar ½ cup shortening ½ cup creamy peanut butter 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 Tablespoons milk 48 chocolate Hershey’s Kisses Directions: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl mix flour, baking soda and salt. Add remaining ingredients until well combined. Chill dough for one hour and then make into one inch balls. Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and place a chocolate Kiss in the middle of each cookie. Cool on a cooling rack and store in an airtight container. A perfect treat for your Valentine! FEBRUARY 7, 2025 $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 3/6/2025

2 $ JANUARY 24, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 3 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Warning: homeless people at work. page 6 FELICIA WILBERT #234 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHY DO YOU SELL THE PAPER? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. February 3-9, 2025 is Vendor Appreciation Week! THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Street photos by Barry Chattillion • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER Screen printing at the Groundcover office 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. I Bring a shirt or fabric item! Thank you Wolverine Street Medicine for free wellness services! THURSDAY 2/6 celebrity selling Some familiar faces will be selling with Groundcover vendors around downtown A2 during the morning and afternoon! • People's Food Co-op • Main and Liberty • North U and State Street • 4th Ave and Liberty Street • Argus Farm Stop GROUNDCOVER NEWS HAPPY HOUR DANCE PARTY @ LIVE, 6:30-9PM proceeds go to Groundcover! SUNDAY 2/9 Ypsi vendor meet + greet at Bridge Cafe 217 W Michigan Ave 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. If you would like to support any of the Vendor Appreciation Week activities, email lindsay@groundcovernews.com. Follow along on social media for updates! PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Jim Clark Elka Chamberlain Anna Gersh Jonathan Glass Mike Jones Ken Parks Denise Shearer Felicia Wilbert PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Zach Dortzbach Matthew Rohlman Steve Ross Dillon Schweers Anabel Sicko Allison Wei VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Sim Bose Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Jonathan Glass Bella Fernandez Robert Klingler Ari Ruczynski Harrison Slutzky Jack Weinberg Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Melanie Wenzel CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons Spa day FRIDAY 2/7 JANUARY 24, 2025 february 3-9, 2025 VENDOR APPRECIATION WEEK MONDAY 2/3 TUESDAY 2/4 SATURDAY 2/8 JANUARY 24, 2025 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR Why do you sell the paper? It’s a helping hand up. It’s a very lucrative job that allows you the freedom from the 9-5 routine. It also reminds readers how precious the newspaper can be. Groundcover encourages vendors to be creative! — Felicia Wilbert, #234 I love working with people. I love meeting students! — Juliano Sanchez, #174 I became a salesman at a young age and so I can sell any product ... and I especially love this product. I need money, too! — Joe Woods, #103 To have my own money in my pocket! — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 To pay bills and to socialize with others. — Mike Jones, #113 January is one of the most challenging months of the year, but January can also be enjoyable. In January you can do a lot of selfcare for yourself and can do a lot of care for others, too. You can buy something nice and good for your friends and family. You can also make snacks and goodies for your family. Similar to during the holidays, you can write loving cards to your friends, and you can do self-care like decorating and baking things for yourself and others. In the month of January, focus on other goals that you set for the New Year, even if it’s having a better attitude toward your life and people. I GROUNDCOVER NEWS Joyful in the month of January staycation at home with the ones you love or just yourself. I feel sorry for people who don’t DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 like to listen to old folk music and old music from the 50s, 60s and 70s. I like to be with friends and do staycations at home. I like to watch movies and be with people who I trust. It’s also good to have a have a place to be. I wish I could be someone’s friend who doesn’t have a place to be and share things with them, but the world is not that easy and trusting so I can't do that easily. I wish there was a way to comfort and be a friend to people who are down. I also like to be a good friend all year round, not just during the winter months. We would stick together and go out to movies and watch movies together. These are the joys of January I can think of right now, other than that January can be an early Valentine’s Day. dear GROUNDCOVER VENDORS, Mike Jones, your persistence in becoming an accomplished writer and generous human being inspire me! Shelley, thank you for your ongoing dedication and service to Groundcover News! Every other Friday I am excited to open up the issue and see what is inside. The paper is getting better and better and I love that I never know what to expect. What a gift Groundcover is to our city! Thank you to all the writers who have contirbuted and all the vendors who make it available to purchase. Joe — it has been amazing to watch you grow and flourish this past year. I'm proud to be your friend! Felicia, your infectious enthusiasm for Groundcover News, writing and your family make the world a happier place. Hailu, thank you for relentlessly promoting the Groundcover mission. Shoutout to Will Shakespeare — who I first met at Mercy House. Your ever friendly attitude and ever-moving mind never cease to amaze me! Thank you Wayne for encouraging me to get involved with Groundcover. I'm very happy to be here!! From Sim. To all vendors: Thank you for the work you do! I know that selling papers all day isn't easy but the conversations I've had with some of you have broadened my world and I'm always touched by the joy and heartbreak in your stories while reading the paper. Terri Demar might be the funniest vendor out there. #isaidwhatisaid 3 B-Man, your style is iconic! Jim, the effort and initiative you bring to improving yourself and Groundcover is truly remarkable and impressive. Thank you for ALL you do for this community. La Shawn helps me think more critically, be kinder, and in a lot of ways, know myself better. The world is a better place because Ken Parks is in it. love, YOUR CUSTOMERS I love Denise's writings and drawings! Dear Panda, I love what a go-getter you are. Along with your artwork, I’ve been happy to turn my money over to you to buy a Groundcover! And to benefit from your knowledge of Ann Arbor through your articles. When I lived in Ypsi, I would drive specially to Kerrytown to buy a paper from Schillington!

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES No way home Standing on the corner, I’m not invisible. I notice how you cross over to the other side to avoid me. Those of you brave enough to walk by me, as you approach, are expecting me to ask you for something. You see the situation before you, I am holding this smile and a newspaper. Don’t be a Snooby! (A person who looks down on others.) You assume the worst because you don’t know my story. However, along with being a hard worker, I have always been a generous, kind, loving and easy-going person. That’s why I was taken advantage of! I thrust myself into writing because it’s the only thing that can’t hurt or be taken from me. Growing up in Detroit, my mother always told me how my father was abusive to her. At the age of four I was told to go upstairs and hide. I was not the hiding type. I stood there and watched when my father broke into the house and was swinging a hammer at my mother’s lover. She was at the top of the stairs with me. I remember her tossing a gun to her lover. He caught the gun and correctly. I always felt a void, longing for a FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 emptied it on my father! That left me not knowing one side of my whole family. I blocked the memory; however, I often had a recurring dream about the house on Cadillac Street. She married Carl (the lover). He was very abusive to me and my two brothers. He knew my sister had a different father. My mother was quite the lying cheater as far as her marriage vows. Carl never abused my sister. I grew up believing what my mother declared to be the truth about my dad. As a child you believe in your parent or parents. You’re naïve, expecting to be guided close-knit family. At 21, I had a baby — the first grandchild in the family. I always told my mother we were supposed to be loving and good to each other, considering we have less than 100 family members. Trusting your mother is a risky thing these days. You would never expect your mother and sister to be part of a church cult. It’s painful for me to express. However, it must be told: raping and trafficking your own grandchild — even having him hypnotized, thinking he would never remember what happened to him. It probably would’ve worked if only she would have left him alone. Fortunately for us, a guilty conscience never rests. In 2014 my son was shot four times in his back with a .22 caliber gun. My mother and the church cult were hoping to silence him. I thank God he made it through. Relocating from Florida, where we lived, was my first experience of being homeless. My state of mind was fragile. I did not have anyone who I could talk to or trust. I was shattered and felt alone. This was my only child, fighting for his life. My family showed up at the hospital pretending to care. Only checking to see if he was going to pass. Who could I trust considering my mother had just called me on that Monday before my child was shot and warned me that my child would be shot?! I had to be strong for my child and my grandson, never letting them see me cry. Holding back all tears, squinting through all the fear! The final nails that were supposed to annihilate and destroy me and my family occurred in 2022. My sister invited us over for Fourth of July. They set us up, my only sister and her husband. Knowing that their nephew (my son) is transgender, and was still healing from the last episode in his life, they gender-bashed him, and threatened to kill him and his son (my grandson). Even our other relatives would not tell the police the truth. My sister pressed charges against my son for pulling his see NO WAY HOME next page  JANUARY 24, 2025 People in the neighborhood: Nate's story In an article titled “Engaging the homeless paranoid patient” on the National Library of Medicine website, it is reported that the estimated percentage of homelessness caused by mental illness, particularly schizoaffective paranoia, is around 23%. People with this disorder are distrusting of the medical community for their own reasons, but one common and very real reason they don’t like the healthcare system is because of forced medications. Nate is a 6’6” white male in his mid 40s. He was diagnosed with bipolar manic/depression and schizophrenia at the age of 15. Currently homeless, Nate has made a life of managing his mental health and surviving his condition. Nate started his story, “People think I’m intimidating, but I'm really a nice, gentle guy. I moved to Dexter, Michigan with my family in ‘86 from Austin, Texas, where I was born. My father was really abusive, so I moved to Ann Arbor to live with my mother at the age of 12.” Nate is the second oldest of two brothers and has two younger sisters. He has a dog Cash, whom he loves and who keeps him honest. I asked, “How did you become homeless?” Nate answered, “I’ve been on SSI since just out of high school and have been homeless off and on ever since. My mental illness makes it hard to stay in one place. I’m staying in shelters and day centers right now. The last time I became homeless was recently. I was calling the police about some issues I was having, but they said I was just being paranoid. As a result I was arrested and that's when the court decided Community Mental Health needed to intervene.” That intervention resulted in him losing his apartment. “How is your medication being managed?” I asked. Nate replied, “I’ve been on medications for the last fifteen years. Community Mental Health stripped me of the medications I was on and started over; which is just mind boggling.” I asked, “Was this court-ordered?” “Yes,” Nate said. “They took away medications that were working, which JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 only made my paranoia worse. Now they are trying to build me back up [on a new medication]. It’s been over a year now. I’ve been telling them for months that I have depression and need help. They just recently put me on Wellbutrin [an antidepressant] which was about a month ago. Meanwhile, all they had me on was an injection and a sleeping pill.” “Tell me about the injection,” I continued. “It was a medication they introduced to me and asked if I would take it. I can’t remember precisely if I was yea or nay, but it didn’t sound good. The CMH worker said I was mandated by the court to do what they say to do, so I was going to get the shot. I was pissed about it and rightfully so. I am the best advocate I can be with my other doctors; we had good medications and they took that away,” he replied. I asked Nate whether the injection was forced on him, and he said, “Yes.” I then asked, “What happened next?” “I asked the CMH worker to look up the Invega shot and she told me a lot of bad things about it, “ he said. “She said I might have to be hospitalized. There are permanent things that can happen if one is not taken off carefully. I’ve gained a lot of weight, more than forty pounds since they started injecting me. Nate outside Purple House. “The court won’t let me off of it, but I’m told I’m getting an apartment soon. So I’m hoping by showing them I’m paying bills and staying sober and not calling the police they will see I’m doing better and reconsider.” Finally, I asked, “If you were handed a golden opportunity, what would it be?” “To have better healthcare.” I added, “If you could have a free ride to college, what would you study?” Nate’s answer was: “I would like to get a degree in cyber security.” JANUARY 24, 2025 ANN ARBOR Ann Arbor put $1 million aside to brace for Trump's administration changes, but is it enough? MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 ANNA GERSH Board President On December 16, 2024, Ann Arbor City Council voted 9-1 to pass a contingency fund of $1 million to prepare for president-elect Donald J. Trump’s coming administration. On January 20, 2025 Donald J. Trump was sworn into office. Concerned citizens and those in local and state government are waiting to see what he will do concerning many issues. On January 21 we already started getting answers. He pardoned all those who were convicted in the January 6 insurrection. He has put a “freeze” on immigration and he has signed a collection of executive orders, some of which have already triggered legal push back. Americans and individuals around the world are worrying about these as well and other actions including pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement (again!) and the World Health Organization. Trump has been saying what he will and will not do all throughout his campaign. He pledged mass deportations of immigrants and steep cuts to education and other departments. He’s created a Department of Government Efficiency, a presidential advisory committee to help him select as many opportunities as possible to cut spending, although we believe he is still making plans to continue cutting taxes for the super wealthy and bloated corporations who have made record profits in recent years. Former President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders have warned of excessive concessions to the rich like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. They warn of a world where the super wealthy will have greater influence on government in the United States. This transparent new order was on full display at the inauguration where these billionaires stood on the dais with the incoming president and his family. As a result of uncertainty about federal funding for local human services, Ann Arbor City Council voted 9-1 to actively prepare for President Trump — but will that be enough? This $1M was set aside and taken from the $2.8M that was approved by council from general fund reserves. This $2.8M was to be used for many planned projects including strengthening our energy alternatives, public safety support, parking subsidies to city employees and improvements to the James L. Crawford Elks Lodge, one of the City’s bicentennial legacy projects. City Administrator Milton Dohoney said at the city council meeting that part of the reason for wanting this set-aside is that “we feel the need to be proactive in this instance; we’re talking about a coming uncertainty and we don’t know the speed with which it will come. Anything can happen.” Groundcover News reached out to the city administrator for an interview to discuss both the limitations and the goals of such an allocation. Mr. Dohoney responded personally but declined an interview, stating that without knowing what sorts of requests might be made on the funds, he wasn’t prepared to guess how this million dollars might actually be spent. Ann Arbor Mayor Chistopher Taylor, lacking details, said funds could be used in a multitude of ways like “immigration and city projects.” He also went on to say the city is seeing a surplus in their funds due to property taxes coming in above budgeted amounts and more money coming in from marijuana businesses. With extra money, the city has voted to invest in city projects and city employee pay and now this set-aside can help us address potential emergency funding. “We have put aside $1 million so that we are able to be responsive to the needs of our residents in the event that the directionality from the federal government changes quickly,” the mayor said. Ann Arbor Councilwoman Jen Eyer says the all-Democrat City Council is trying to be proactive and there’s no underlying political motive. We decided to hit the streets and see how the residents of Ann Arbor were feeling about the $1M reserve. We started at the heart of the city, 5th and Liberty, found a good spot out of the wind and asked passers by if they’d mind sharing their thoughts on this action with our readers. Here's what they said. Bradley: I voted for Trump this time; I think he was making a lot more sense. Am I nervous he’ll make a lot of cuts? If we voted him in, that’s the best we can do. John: That’s insane. A lot of people come here for help. Ann Arbor does a lot more than a lot of places, and I think the sentiment is great, but if there are real needs it won’t be enough. Sophia: I guess I don’t know enough about it to have an opinion. I want to know what the city plans to do with the money. Greg: It’s a great gesture, but it’s a drop in the bucket. Sunday, February 9 • 10am–5pm Downtown Library  NO WAY HOME from last page gun and holding it up in the air after her husband threatened to kill him and his son. She stated to the police that she wanted to help him. We have been scraping constantly, dodging all the crap thrown at us by the State: taking his Social Security away for two years without any explanation and constantly denying his appeal. We've had to move from state to state trying to find help. All with no family support. My cousins insult me, calling me dumb. Several have said to me, “Don’t worry — when you find out you're gonna kill them!” Now I know why; I was too blind to see what my mother and my sister were doing all along. I have always believed and said: time tells everything, so you better be good, because time will tell on you! Pray for us, it’s going to be a battle! Author's note: Thank you Truth Or Lies fans I apologize for the delay. I was writing my third book. A comedy mystery “The Ad-Dam Fam,” available on Amazon. Granna was a True story. Please help me and my family. We are homeless once again asking for your blessing. Vendor number 234. This fiber-filled day will have a full slate of demos and presentations, with a lobby full of local vendors. This year we’re focusing on the history and origin of fiber arts. Drop-in for a sampling of fiber arts projects and hands on quilting, spinning, and weaving activities! View the 2025 vendor list and more at aadl.org/aafax. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Unusual Stuff to Borrow There’s more to borrow at AADL than books, music, and movies. To name a few, there are games, telescopes, stories-to-go kits, and home tools. Check out these unusual yet handy items during your next library visit. Fifth Avenue Press AADL founded Fifth Avenue Press in 2017 to support the local writing community and promote the creation of original content. The imprint publishes works by authors who live in Washtenaw County. Consider submitting your finished manuscript to Fifth Avenue Press today at fifthave. aadl.org. FEATURED EVENT 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS EMPLOYMENT Warning: homeless people at work ELKA CHAMBERLAIN Groundcover contributor My January writing assignment was simply, “working while homeless.” The vagueness of this prompt was exacerbated by the fact that I immediately began bubbling ideas and angles reflective of my work and life experience with homelessness. As I began talking to people I quickly found myself feeling overwhelmed with all of the important intertwined issues needing to be covered. To develop the story, I reviewed published information about the intersectionality of homelessness and employment, spoke with dozens of people about their working-while-homeless experiences and then pounded the pavement to follow up on leads based on community members' input and federal guidelines in the literature. I found there is the need to address the stigma that homeless people are lazy, don’t want to work, or should try harder, as well as the need to dispel the myth that having enough income or resources automatically equates to housing stability and a better quality of life. To begin the process of contradicting the stereotype that homeless people are lazy, don’t work and need to try harder, I present three significant findings. First, according to a 2021 article published by the University of Chicago, 53% of the sheltered homeless surveyed had at least some form of formal employment within the year, and 40.4% of the unsheltered surveyed had formal income sources. The second statistic, found on a HUDstamped fact sheet about the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities ACT of 2014, states as many as 90% of homeless people want to work. Thirdly, everyone I spoke to this month either does have some sort of income, has had some sort of income over the past year or is working towards increasing income, with half deriving that income from paid employment. Part of my journey with researching this topic was recognizing that some of current research is based on biased, out-ofdate sources. Research, available for free from the University of Chicago, claims most homeless-related studies are heavily dependent on data that is local, outdated, self-reported and/or taken from government sources such as the U.S. Census, the Point-In-Time Count, and other safety-net statistics. When considering how to share the results of currently vulnerable community members’ experiences with working while homeless, I had to make difficult decisions related to how to retell their stories. After my pavement experience, which included traumatic interactions with the Veterans Administration, Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Social Security Administration, and Michigan Works, I found myself in tears buying $8 eggs, reading the contents of a fresh spinach box (bought at a Bridgecard discount), and pondering when silicone and natural flavoring became curry ingredients. I woke the next morning to a scattering of multiple unworking stoves, frozen water and a nonfunctional Buddy Heater. I decided to refer to my direct sources as “Buddy” in an effort to help honor anonymity requests. When struggling with how to organize community members’ feedback related to employment I considered the MDHHS Housing and Homeless Services link, which claims they work Arielle has worked at 7-Eleven since September 2024, while experiencing homelessness in Ann Arbor. Because of the insufficient pay, she has to seek a second job. to “make homelessness rare, brief, and one time … with the goal of moving them [individuals and families] into stable housing as quickly as possible and providing the supports needed to achieve permanent housing stability.” Despite the division’s goal, overall homelessness is increasing, available community supports are not sufficient, and the community’s overall housing stability is declining. One of the myths about homeless people is that they don’t have enough money and therefore they need more job skills. To dispel the myth that it is always true that people experiencing homelessness have a need to increase their job skills, consider that some Buddys who reported only one episode of homelessness reported that it was during a transitional phase to completing further education. While opportunity for education and skills training may be a great option for some, unfortunately, many employment programs are for specific groups such as youth, people with disabilities and veterans. A recent visit to the Michigan Works office was somewhat disappointing. When this writer asked the only worker visible about employment support for the homeless, the only result was a pile of flyers for jobs including the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, University of Michigan Health System, and Kroger — all of which are places many homeless people are already ineligible for because of mandatory background checks that reveal past invovlement with the carceral system. Despite the existence of employGeorge Clark serves lunch out of the Fed-Up Food Truck, where he works part-time. He struggles to cash, and therefore use, his paycheck without a bank account. Photo submitted. ment opportunities, several factors were described as barriers to obtaining employment. Many people described multiple forms of discrimination. One example of discrimination is based on sharing the same address known to be utilized by homeless people. One Buddy explained they knew they were being discriminated against because when they tried an alternate address they started getting call backs immediately. Transportation is another barrier, as it is often necessary to travel for both training programs and higher-paying employment. While there may be potential for support to address transportation needs; these processes often take longer than employers are willing to wait. A Buddy shared they are currently unable to repair their vehicle, which is impacting their training schedule. One Buddy shared an experience where they rented a car for work expecting the cost of the car would be offset by travel reimbursements, only to not earn enough money to cover anything; this led to an eviction. Another Buddy explained if they had had a vehicle they would easily be able to get a job in maintenance earning at least a living wage, but the need to travel beyond public transportation service areas and after hours is prohibitive for them. A major challenge shared by several people was lack of a telephone and/or internet to apply for jobs and communicate with prospective employers. Not having access to a consistent phone or internet service also makes navigation more difficult and time-consuming. While there is potential to obtain a government phone, that process presents such barriers as requiring access to technology, identification, proof of eligibility, a shipping address, or email — or a person has to be lucky enough to run into one of the people distributing phones out of their trunk. Another challenge is a lot of jobs won’t allow you to apply without government ID, or will insist on original copies of IDs before starting employment. One Buddy complained that they couldn’t cash checks easily because ID is required to start a bank account. It is a challenge that if you lose your ID or it gets damaged or stolen, there is a cost to get it replaced. see WORKING page 8  JANUARY 24, 2025 JANUARY 24, 2025 TRANSPORTATION GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES I hereby resolve ... When asked about my New Year’s Resolutions, I replied, “to finish what I started.” I’m not talking about the end of my life, though I am getting closer. There are projects I want to finish before I die, and finishing my autobiography is the big one. I got as far as the 6th grade and have 70-some years to go. Since my birthday is the Day of Che, October 8 is a double celebration. On my 80th, a good number of us watched “Finally Got The News” at the State Theater, and on my 82nd a smaller number watched “Salt Of The Earth” at the Friends Meeting House. For October 8, 2025, I hope to watch “The Motorcycle Diaries” with you as part of the celebration. In the words of Che, “We are realists, we dream the impossible,” and “At the risk of sounding ridiculous, it must be said that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.” I think you will love this film. Robert Redford affirmed the importance of the original language to get the feel of the story and good subtitles for the meaning of the spoken word. It’s an artistic treat. This will be another potluck social, probably the Sunday before or after October 8, and I hope to have good news on the progress of the autobiography, as well as a shared sound system so everyone can hear. Washtenaw Community College said they have no classes for that but do have systems available for students. They recommended I work with my hearing aid, smart phone and an app, KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 so it’s off to hearing aid technicians. Meanwhile, my life's work continues. Maybe we will have a “Greenhouse Hostel” as a model for tiny houses in the context of the Accessory Dwelling Units ordinance. City planning commission members were at the Groundcover office and we discussed the inclusion of permaculture design into the permit and inspection protocol. This process needs follow-through. If we learn composting to deal with all our waste, it will revolutionize waste water treament. Our base camp on Corrizo Comecrudo land in Texas used wood shavings as the first step in our bathroom bucket. It was odorless and the first step in composting human fecal waste. These are the changes that Mother Earth will welcome as we learn the lessons of climate chaos and create an interactive friendly environment for ourselves and all sentient beings. Taking responsibility for the results of our actions is the big challenge we face. If we engage in the struggle for freedom, the stages of the path will promote our creative labor to work on the transformation of our lives. We will learn to move the money from war to meeting human needs. Discovering who we are will be a grand learning experiment. The impermanence of our bodies will be welcomed as we learn to heal and prepare for a timely death when that time comes. Untimely death will be with us for some time, so ongoing prayer for those surprised by death will help us in this collective transition which of course has individual experience at its heart. To be fully present, you have to do it yourself, but you don’t do it alone. Those of us experiencing aging in its last stages will be welcomed as we learn to embrace life without the denial of death. It will be OK to die in celebration at this new kind of birthday party. When we experience life and death as a seamless whole, our awareness will be on the path to full and complete awakening. Writing about these matters steps beyond our ability to think. Our understanding of the nature of the mind is in a collective gridlock due to obstacles that are encouraged by a culture of control through a chain of command with which you must be in compliance or face the death penalty. I learned much from Mumia Abu Jamal. His book “Live from Death Row” is a classic of prison literature. Prison Radio will deepen your educational experience. Keep in tune with the Prisoner Creative Arts Project. The University of Michigan promotes this exhibit which I hope will feature art from Guantanamo and Israeli prisons. I had the great honor of giving my copy of Mumia’s most famous book to Assata Shakur (Black freedom fighter and auntie of Tupac) when the Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba met with her in the 1990s. Her presence is deeply empowering. I hope we all can share something about our resolutions for 2025. Many of us want peace with justice in our time. How are we doing? Health is the issue of our day. Physical and mental health run hand-inhand. When both do well, peace will be that much closer. Dr. Jack Kruse’s advice on sunlight and reducing bluelight stress is a good place to start. He has an excellent post at his own podcast, “Sun Education.” Learn about heteroplasmy, charge density and the light choices you make. It will improve mitochondrial function, that is, energy production. Let us tune in to the simple living that promotes health. Feed your mind the awareness that arises with a natural breath. Find the teachers who help you reach the next level of awakening. They are ready for you. One of them, Ernest Becker, wrote “The Denial of Death” and “Escape From Evil.” His intellectual honesty and clarity will open your mind to the possibility of science as a lifestyle. Facing reality and embracing our power will be a big change. The adventure is happening now! JANUARY 24, 2025  WORKING from page 6 Low-wages and under-employment are frequently cited as causes for homelessness. Shockingly, of the people I surveyed, not a single homeless person was working at a job earning minimum wage. Some examples of current or recent hourly wages were $15 on the lower end at Burger King; Shelter Association and FedUp employees reported earning approximately the local living wage at around $19; and hourly wages were reported as high as $23 at We the People Opportunity Farm. As of December 2, 2024, MSHDA’s Washtenaw County Payment Standard for a one bedroom is valued at $1,357 and a two bedroom at $1,618. An individual working fulltime at $23 an hour could find a one bedroom and qualify based on income and someone working full-time at $15 could share a two-bedroom or find a studio. Unfortunately, most with formal income reported not being offered enough work hours to be considered full-time. Another disappointing realization made during the process of talking with the Buddys was that many people who are eligible for SOAR (SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery) are not even fully linked to services. SOAR is a special expedited process to apply for social security benefits only available to those experiencing or at risk of homelessness who have a serious mental illness, medical impairment, and/or co-occurring substance use disorder. One Buddy shared that they had received benefits since the age of 12, yet they went to prison (for a crime they didn’t commit) and since being released have been without any financial means. At this time this person has recently started the process of getting linked to services through Community Mental Health. While not everyone with a substance use disorder and/or mental diagnosis qualifies for SOAR, some Buddys do attribute homelessness and lack of employment to not being supported during a time of crisis. Another Buddy who was recently approved for SSI/SSDI reported he hired a lawyer to help and it still took years. Some people who are employed fall under the category of gig workers. This category refers to those who may have some income, but they are likely working for cash or at least don’t get a taxable paycheck. In this category, some Buddys report sex work, selling drugs, mowing lawns, snow removal or hard labor. Some Buddys reported DoorDashing or using their trucks for odd hauling; however, both of the individuals do not have running vehicles at this moment for Uber or Lyft. One Buddy shared they donate plasma, explaining there are two companies in the community, Octapharma and Biolife, that have a twice-weekly donation schedule and earn about $60 each time they donate. The challenge with donating plasma is donation requires identification, an address which cannot be a homeless shelter, and it may cost up to $4 to access deposits at an ATM. I would like to thank the dozens of people I spoke with this month about their working while homeless experiences. I wish I had enough space to include more of the dialogue and will continue to carry the memories from our discussions. As a working homeless person, I would like to express my gratitude to my local support network, which allows me to wash laundry twice a week, shower daily, get propane to keep me warm and have options to cook allergy-friendly foods. Thanks also to the community of my alma mater, Eastern Michigan University, who helped me achieve my undergraduate dream of practicing social work from the comfort of my tent with a classic car parked near it. JANUARY 24, 2025 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Literally, "for this" 6. "Eh" 10. Mosque V.I.P. 14. Jungle climber 15. Figure skater's jump 16. "Buona ___" (Italian greeting) 17. Artist's stand 18. Try for a part 19. "Don't bet ___!" 20. One who doesn't go with the flow 23. Batman and Robin, e.g. 24. Dressing ingredient 25. Staple for every teenage boy's room 30. Deposit on teeth 34. Action film staple 35. Largest pelvic bone 37. Electron tube 38. Expert 40. Capital of Pas-de-Calais 42. Baby holder 43. Blow 45. Watch 47. Former French coin 48. Overlay 50. Idaho changed one of these from 420 to 419.9 to discourage theft 52. Sonata, e.g. 54. "Walking on Thin Ice" singer 55. Frosh, e.g. 61. Small ox 62. Leave port 63. Addition symbol 65. Bagpiper's wear 66. "Aeneid" figure 67. "Farewell, mon ami" 68. Bridge toll unit 69. Ashcroft's predecessor 70. Rush's drummer Neil DOWN 1. A pint, maybe 2. "Buenos ___" 3. "And ___ thou slain the Jabberwock?" 4. Iroquoian language 5. Kidney stones 6. Often stunning, colorful garment from the Indian subcontinent 7. Beasts of burden 8. Keisters 9. Behind the times 10. Related chemically 11. Children's ___ 12. Bone-dry 13. "Welcome" site 21. Aussie "bear" 22. "Good grief!" 25. Winter Olympian 26. Blue hue 27. Computer woe 28. An ICBM 29. Jewish festival 31. Bit of statuary 32. "Bye" 33. Disprove 36. O. Henry's "The Gift of the ___" 39. Current 41. Grain storage container 44. Binge drink 46. It gets taken off before a photo gets taken 49. Baby bottle 51. Hair ointment 53. Close call 55. Alternative to Windows 56. Former Steelers coach Chuck 57. Animal with a mane 58. "Not to mention ..." 59. "Mi chiamano Mimi," e.g. 60. At no time, poetically 61. Alias 64. "For shame!"

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS RECOVERY JONATHAN GLASS Groundcover contributor What do you get when you combine a single mom of two young children, nearly no resources, and a recently-beaten addiction? If your heart is in the right place, and you’re willing to do the work, you get anything you set your mind to! Glynis Anderson beat insurmountable odds to have the effect of a tidal wave — wiping out substance use disorders, mental illnesses and destigmatizing those who society has marginalized. This month Anderson is retiring from her CEO role at Home of New Vision, a multi-million-dollar non-profit agency she founded that services Washtenaw and Jackson counties. This is her story. When you tell the story of a woman like Glynis Anderson, it’s not just her story you tell — you tell the stories of the million people she helped. While helping a million people may seem like hyperbole, it’s probably a bit modest. A little of Glynis lives in every life she’s touched, directly or indirectly. The old Gaelic blessing, “May the devil not know you’re dead until 100 years after you die,” can be modified to, “May the devil never know you retired!” Glynis Anderson opened the gates of hell for countless souls and facilitated their releasing themselves from it. In doing so, she gave them the resources to succeed. With professional help and through the recoveree’s own self-efficacy, thousands upon thousands have removed the shackles of addiction and moved to a life of freedom. If it’s true that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere (MLK Jr.), then anyone who lightens the burden of another lightens the burden of the whole world. In measurable ways, Glynis Anderson has changed the world. The clinical director at Home of New Vision, Wendy Klinski, attributes her own success to Anderson’s help. Anderson helped Klinski open Monroe’s Engagement Center in 2018, which over the years has helped thousands of people. Engagement Centers are short term treatment centers, usually day-by-day, that get people off the street to take a hot shower, wash their clothes, sleep in a warm bed, and seek more permanent treatment options. Anderson pioneered the engagement center model that’s been adopted across Michigan. All freestanding engagement centers in Michigan have Anderson’s fingerprint upon them. Klinski said, “If it wasn’t for the innovative work that Glynis Anderson has pioneered in Ann Arbor, I wouldn’t have been successful in my career in Monroe.” If Glynis hadn’t chosen to advocate for those in need, it becomes the premise for the classic film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” where an angel shows George Bailey what the world would have been like without him. What if Glynis Anderson had decided to make lots and lots of money without working for the welfare of society? Those who went on to have families of their own, in sobriety, are grateful Anderson chose a magnanimous path. Some alumni from Home of New Vision became business owners, nurses, florists, personal trainers, you name it. One notable alumni is an advocacy director at the state level and a former director of Constituent Affairs at the U.S. Senate. Lives have been changed and destinies forever altered because of the efforts of one woman and a dedicated team of likeminded professionals. Today, Home of New Vision is 85% - 90% staffed by those in long-term recovery. Anderson dedicated her life to proving that with enough TLC and patience, anybody can recover if they want it enough! Anderson knows well not to despise small beginnings. Home of New Vision began with one female client in 1996. The agency hadn’t officially opened, but Anderson lost no time in welcoming the woman. According to operations director DaMira Anderson, “Glynis did not want to lose this woman or that woman’s chance for recovery, so she invited her to stay on our couch until HNV could officially open.” Friend and business partner Robbie Renkes joined Anderson in 2001. According to Renkes, “That was when Home of New Vision’s growth began to snowball into an avalanche. However, it wasn’t for several years that we hit the turning point financially. Before that there were times we were really struggling. We would sit around the table and decide who would get paid that week. If someone’s mortgage or car payment was due, they would get paid and the rest of us would wait another week. To this day, there are two payrolls at Home of New Vision, on alternating Fridays. Still, there was a therapist who practically worked for free for a long time named Barbara Nordman. I think she eventually got all her pay, but Glynis "We took anyone with a willingness to be helped" — Robbie Renkes, on the early days of running Home of New Vision with Glynis Anderson JANUARY 24, 2025 Celebrating the career of recovery visionary Glynis Anderson named a conference room after her in the Ann Arbor office. That was the secret to our success, dedicated, hard-working people.” Anderson and her dedicated team built Home of New Vision by hand, brick by brick. Reminiscing about the early days, Renkes said, “Glynis and I used to go to garage sales to find things to furnish the transitional homes with because we didn’t have the money to go and buy things at the store. That wasn’t in the budget.” Renkes laughed as she recalled an email she wrote out of frustration. She and Anderson had asked a favor and were disappointed with the refusal. Renkes wrote, “I can’t believe they’re not willing to do this. My God! You and I have moved so much furniture on our own that we should have 'Two Women and a Truck' tattooed on our asses!” Anderson and her team of recovery pioneers bore a great deal on their shoulders. As they opened recovery house after recovery house, there were several residents who couldn’t pay and had nowhere else to go. Renkes remembers, “But we took anyone with a willingness to be helped.” If the business was in the red that month, Anderson somehow got HNV through the financial trouble. Putting people ahead of profits is Anderson’s calling card. There are many competing programs that do not adhere to a “people first” policy according to Renkes. There used to be, and still are, some treatment programs that are abusive. Anderson didn’t want to be like those agencies and took an entirely different approach, one of honoring and respecting the individual and giving as many chances as they needed within reason. Renkes said, “These places would - frequently abandon people in their recovery because of a relapse. Sometimes, these agencies would put people out in the middle of the night. But Glynis didn’t see the sense in discharging people for relapsing; rather, Glynis would increase their level of service. A big part of Glynis’s legacy is meeting people where they’re at, engagement over time and creating a safe haven. She will always be there for people.” Anderson’s professional accomplishments include a broad range of academic accolades, prestigious awards, and speaking engagements. Recognizing the need for safe, structured, and nurturing environments tailored to unique needs, she was inspired to create a program that would provide women and their families the tools to heal and succeed. Despite being in early recovery and a single parent, Anderson pursued higher education with relentless determination, earning an Associate degree in Criminal Justice, a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resource Administration, a Master’s Degree in Social Work, and a Certified Addictions Counselor (CACII) license, and that was the foundation for a lifetime of service. Anderson was inspired by the words of former first lady Betty Ford, “Until we expand treatment opportunities for women and tailor programs to their specific needs, we will make little progress in helping addicted women recover from drug and alcohol dependency.” Anderson’s impact extends beyond Home of New Vision. She is a parttime lecturer at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Social Work and has been a guest lecturer at the University of Michigan’s Medical School. She is a board member for A Brighter Way, an advocacy group helping the formerly incarcerated reenter society and get work. Home of New Vision received the prestigious SAMHSA grant in 2008. The SAMHSA grant only goes to eight agencies in see GLYNIS next page  JANUARY 24, 2025 HISTORY  GLYNIS from last page the United States. This milestone solidified Anderson’s role as a national leader in behavioral health. Anderson has left the organization in good shape by working with her successor over the years, and Heather Williams has been named the next CEO for Home of New Vision. Renkes said, “I was glad she got the nod. She’s the perfect candidate. I think she’ll maintain the spirit Glynis infused into the agency.” Thank you Glynis for all your sacrifice and hard work. Anderson got clean in 1990, and it helps to realize that everything in this article, and many, many other stories that aren’t in this article, were done by one woman in recovery from a substance use disorder. Undoubtedly, there were dark days and nights between her sobriety date and her retirement that could have stopped her, but she kept going! Because of her tenaciousness and perseverance, Anderson’s career is one for the history books. If you’re reading this and you have a use disorder or mental health illness, and life’s become unmanageable, there is hope! You can recover too. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Coconut cluster pie ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 eggs ½ cup butter, cubed 1 cup sugar 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 3/4 cup milk (any type, or heavy cream) 1 cup + 3 tablespoons flaked coconut ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 1 frozen pie crust Whipped cream, for serving Add the milk and blend. Stir in 1 cup Directions: Preheat the oven to 350F. In a large bowl, beat the eggs lightly. Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the bowl along with the sugar. Set an electric mixer to medium speed and mix until blended. Add in the flour and blend again. coconut flakes and vanilla. Pour the coconut custard into the pie shell. Top with the remaining coconut flakes, you can toast if desired. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until firm. Let the pie cool for 1 hour before slicing and serving. Top with whipped cream. JANUARY 24, 2025 HAPPY HOUR + DANCE PARTY BENEFIT SHOW @ LIVE A2 FRIDAY, FEB. 7TH 6:30-9PM $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 2/6/2025

2 $ JANUAR Y 10, 2025 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 2 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. A Brighter Way shines for the marginalized in Ypsi. page 5 MEET YOUR VENDOR: EMERI JADE BEY PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Where is the art hiding in Ann Arbor? page 6 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER Hear me out: Give what is asked for SHERI WANDER Daytime Warming Center For many folks this season involves gift giving and certainly it is a season where many folks make donations to shelters and groups working with economic refugees from capitalism. So, here are some tips for donating ... If you have stuff that you want to donate, ask who needs it. Give what is asked for. If it wasn’t asked for, check first — otherwise your donation might not only go unused but also make more work for the folks you are trying to support. Remember that many grassroots nonprofits and mutual aid groups don’t have a lot of storage space. Be mindful that no matter how adorable that bikini is we don’t have a place to put it in December nor do we have room for that snow suit in August. If you are unsure, ask if groups have storage for off-season stuff. If you can fix zippers, sew on buttons or make other improvements, please do so before donating. If you think an item is not in good enough condition for you to wear it is probably not in condition for someone else to wear. The time between Thanksgiving, Christmas and the new year often creates awareness of needs, and it is so beautiful that folks donate stuff then. It is great to give to a grassroots group or mutual aid project a gift in someone’s name. The challenge is that the needs are still there the 11 other months of the year (and again, see the above notes on the challenge of storage). If your holidays include the tradition of gift giving, consider giving the gift of a pledge to donate goodies at some other time. A promise to bring needed items when you are doing spring cleaning, a portion of your garden’s harvest or a pledge to shop at a local food pantry or bring groceries in the summer months when donations tend to drop off. (And then mark it in your calendar and be sure to honor your commitment.) Remember that shelters are often crowded and loud and folks don't have lots of storage space. Loud or huge toys are often not practical and can unintentionally lead to conflict or tears when they need to be re-gifted or stored elsewhere Cash donations are great and can allow for an individual or group to make their own decisions about what is most needed. Most importantly remember RELATIONSHIPS MATTER! All the above are easier if you know the folks you are giving to! Give your time, get to know folks, be vulnerable with them, be in community! Thanks for reading this. Thanks for caring and wanting to give generously. With hard-nosed hope and fierce love! Requested items for donation at the Daytime Warming Center Things we almost always need: • Bus tokens and 1 day bus passes (ALWAYS!) • $5-$10 gift cards to coffee shops • Socks, hand warmers, gloves and mittens • Long johns/thermals (this is the only item we ask be new) • Hygiene items (especially razors, small things of q-tips, single packaged toothbrushes, lotion) • Winter boots in good condition Other useful things to check in about: • Winter clothing (men’s moreso than women’s … hoodies, sweatshirts, jeans, flannel shirts, sweatpants) • Belts • Winter coats (larger sizes needed) • Blankets • Hats and scarves The Ypsilanti site (the Freight House) is open Monday - Thursday 8 a.m. -6 p.m. but please bring donations by 5 p.m. The A2 site at St. Mary’s Student Parish on Thompson and Williams until January 31 (see more info page 4) is open Monday -Friday 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.; please bring donations before 3 p.m. JANUARY 10, 2025 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Emeri Jade Bey Jim Clark Cindy Gere Ramon Roberto Isla Caballero Natalie Mark Donna McGaughy Will Shakespeare Scoop Stevens Sheri Wander CONTACT US PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Steve Ross Anabel Sicko Allison Wei VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Jonathan Glass Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Anthony McCormick Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JANUARY 10, 2025 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover vendor No. 638 Most Americans are literate enough to work a job and make a living but not civically literate enough to participate in democratic governance. The vocational training mindset permeates our nation and like docile slaves, Americans always have to be doing something to please their master — the almighty dollar. In the 1930’s, social critic Albert Emeri Jade Bey, vendor No. 660 In one sentence who are you? I am a young Moorish-American woman. Supreme honors to the Prophet Noble Drew Ali. (PBUH) When and why did you start selling Groundcover newspapers? I began selling Groundcover newspapers to meet my neighbors, provide extra income for myself and to gain more sales and writing experience. What is your life motto? My life motto is: Wake up everyday and do your best! What is your comfort food? Salads and Halal tacos. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring three things, what would they be? My Man, a water filter, a cooking pot. If there was a theme song for your life, what would it be? “One Step at a Time” by Jordin Sparks. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? I would like to see more people happy and smiling like it used to be when I was growing up here. What is one question you wish you were asked more often? "Do I still plan to have a music career?!" Which I do. I am working on a new CD right now! My singer name is @maryjademusic (one word). So be on the lookout for that if you like new music. Nock wrote about the proliferation of diploma mills and it was his opinion that we should only confer a bachelor’s degree to those who were educated in the liberal arts. After World War II this was not possible because 12 million military veterans were promised the opportunity to “earn” a college degree. The standards were degraded to accommodate these veterans and they have continued to be degraded; now we have degrees in real estate, interior design, communications, you name it. Fortunately, the university is not the only institution fostering intellectual pursuits these days. Since July 2010, Groundcover News has provided Washtenaw County with news about homelessness but no real effective solutions. In my article “Groundcover News Evolution Path,” I presented a plan that could provide solutions. In my opinion, homelessness must be tied into something bigger for real solutions to be discovered. The New Testament writers were inventing a religion to replace Judaism. Matthew, Luke and John were not written until after the second Jewish-Roman war (132-35 CE): the aim of these books is the creation of Jesus as the Jewish-pagan god-man. Many of the myth types that were common in Greco-Roman mystery religions are in these books, such as GROUNDCOVER NEWS Groundcover solutions, continued a miraculous birth, dying and rising god, and a miracle worker persecuted by authorities. What fictional Jesus said about the poor is irrelevant, unless understood as mythology. The New Testament book of James (Jacob) does express much Jewish thought, so much so that the anti-semite Martin Luther didn’t think it belonged in the New Testament! James writes about God’s judgment on rich oppressors in the last days; we can only hope. Since the sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous who will be kind to the poor (Ecclesiastes 2 verse 26), what should Groundcover do to alleviate the suffering of the poor if it were empowered to do so? I think making a real investment in our writing program and turning Groundcover into more of an educational institution, besides being a news provider, would be the best solution for us. 3 Respect my flow EMERI JADE BEY Groundcover vendor No. 660 When you see me say “Hey!” I’m your siSTAR and peer. :) Living my life and always glad to be here. Respect my flow, 'cause I got it goin’ on. Pretty and smart, always keep a smile on. They tried to jock me, but I always hold it down. Above, above average; An Original sound. With a style so clean, Don’t be surprised if I’m on a magazine. Life is so special, that in a time so rare No pity parties, when life’s not fair. We’re strong. We innovate. No swerve on the team. We were made to ELEVATE. So let’s do the dam* thing. ;) If you don't know, now ya know! DONNA MCGAUGHY Groundcover vendor No. 310 I’m Donna & I have my sidekick Angel, We’re here to hang out With my family , the Groundcover sisters and brothers. If you don’t know anything about me, just ask my girl Panda and she will let you know more about me Groundcover has welcomed me & helped me a lot with financing. I appreciate everything they do for Angel & me. Just ask Panda about Angel & me Because if you don’t know, Now ya know.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LOCAL GOVERNMENT Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti City Councils pass legislation that protect the housing insecure LINDSAY CALKA Publisher Monday, January 6, Ann Arbor City Council unanimously passed ordinance 24-2106 — nicknamed the “junk fee ban” — that caps application fees at $50 and makes the fees refundable if applicants don’t receive an offer for the apartment. The resolution also bans all waitlist fees. Further, the ordinance bans all fees before move-in except the $50 application fee and the security deposit. It also lays out punishments of up to $1,000 for landlords who don’t follow the law. This ordinance, brought forth by Councilmembers Travis Radina and Cynthia Harrison, addressed many of the demands that the Ann Arbor Tenants Union laid out in their “Trash the Junk Fees” petition which was launched in April of this year. The petition can be read in full at: bit.ly/A2JunkFees. The AATU first presented its petition demands aimed at the Ann Arbor City Council and the Michigan State Legislature in April 2024 in response to local landlords charging enormous waitlist fees, some costing up to $6,745. “[Passage of this resolution] marks a huge step forward for tenants who simply cannot afford these outrageously expensive junk fees. We don’t believe a tenant should have to pay anything before moving in. However, capping refundable application fees at $50 per unit is a reasonable path forward. The AATU is happy to see this ordinance pass and we hope to see it followed by more robust tenant protections in Ann Arbor,” said AATU representative Nathan Kim. The next day, on the east side of the county, Ypsilanti City Council discussed two familiar topics: unarmed response and permanent shelter. Newly elected Ward 3 Councilmember Amber Fellows and incumbent Councilmember Desirae Simmons brought forward two resolutions, 2025-007 and 2025-008, that requested support and funding from the Washtenaw County government for a permanent shelter and non-police crisis response, respectively. Unlike the ordinance in Ann Arbor which enacts immediate protections for renters, resolutions 2025-007 and JANUARY 10, 2025 AATU members and Ann Arbor Councilmembers Radina and Harrison at City Council after the ordinance passed January 6. Photo submitted 2025-008 require movement from another government entity to realize their full impact. Still, the resolutions don’t simply push the ball into the County’s court — 007 includes a shelter development timeline, a community engagement plan, and a commitment to collaborate with local partners. 008 resolves to post a Request for Proposals for an Unarmed Crisis Program that will coordinate triage with EMS and police departments. These two resolutions also passed unanimously, to the excitement of the public attendees. One Ypsilanti resident even brought chocolate cake and tea for the Councilmembers in appreciation. Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti are listening to people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity and taking action! Advocacy is still needed to bring this change to the County level. JANUARY 10, 2025 SPOTLIGHT GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 A Brighter Way: Peer-to-peer navigation through post-incarceration life. Photo submitted A Brighter Way shines for the marginalized in Ypsilanti A Brighter Way is a community nonprofit with headquarters in downtown Ypsilanti. This peer mentoring organization specializes in guiding formerly incarcerated people through re-entry to society. Peer mentoring happens when people who have lived experience of a situation help those who are currently going through one. Alcoholics Anonymous is a classic example. The concept of staying sober by helping someone else stay sober crosses over to many areas of human life. Surviving cancer, grieving, and substance abuse issues all have programs to bring survivors together. A Brighter Way is such a program that helps people who have been incarcerated or “justice-impacted” by providing social support and service connections. Something unique about A Brighter Way is that they have over 130 years of combined lived experience, Laquan Hill was incarcerated for 16 years for a crime he admits to committing. He is affectionately known as “Q” because according to Laquan, “people have a tendency to butcher my name.” After successfully completing parole on April 8, 2024, Q now serves the community as the Deputy Director of A Brighter Way. What does the organization do? “A Brighter Way navigates,” stated Q. “We meet the person where they’re at and help them find their way to success as they see fit. We assist individuals that have had situations with the criminal punishment system. I call it that because it is a system designed to punish people for crimes against society. That is not justice, that is punishment. Justice is about restoration and rehabilitation. The Michigan Department of Corrections espouses rehabilitation, but is still punitive in nature. They are making strides, so I am JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 hopeful.” Q continued, “A person who has been incarcerated may not have any family or friends to support them when they get out. Often this means being homeless upon release. A Brighter Way helps that person find the necessary resources that can help them find a place that they can call home. People who have been incarcerated for a very long time may need help getting caught up due to a significant gap in knowledge of technology. Still others may have medical or psychiatric needs but not have the skills to meet them. These are just a few of the ways we provide support. A Brighter Way helps by connecting people to the resources they need while also being a guide throughout the process.” One of the things that makes A Brighter Way stand out from other peer support programs is that the workers take the time to fact-check and make sure all the resources they connect people with are active and up-to-date. Q said, “You have to vet your resources. What I mean by that is when someone has limited means, getting transportation, for example, is a big deal. The timing is important. If you spend all day lining up transportation to get to a food bank or to a county service, only to find out the hours were wrong or changed, that can have a serious impact on your emotional and situational reality. There have been times when I was on the edge of making a bad choice but a note on a flyer opened a door and gave me a different option. Had I got there to find the office closed, things might have gone differently. When resource information is false, it may appear like a simple inconvenience, but it also may have life-threatening consequences.” A Brighter Way is located at 124 Pearl St in Ypsilanti. This part of the downtown area has been a theater of a struggle between local business owners, the community of unhoused people living on the street, and the people who work to alleviate homelessness. A number of the people on the street who are affected by this struggle seek services from A Brighter Way. I asked Q how he thought the situation should be handled. “We need to collaborate. Everyone wants to see the systemic conditions solved. The answer, though, is not to simply kick the can down the road, or worse, sweep it under the rug [by ramping] up more police presence. The answer is to provide a place for the people to be and get the resources and wrap-around care they need. This is a community dilemma and we need a community resolution.” Many people who need the services of A Brighter Way are homeless or housing-insecure. A Brighter Way is a valuable resource which is vital to a safe, stable and supportive community.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LOCAL ART Mural inside Sweetwaters cafe on Washington Street. JANUARY 10, 2024 and see Ten Thousand Villages as they are celebrating their 20-year anniversary as of October. Makeshift Gallery The Makeshift Gallery was created Where is the art hiding in Ann Arbor? CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 2025 is all about being alive and exploring art in Ann Arbor. Sweetwaters on Washington St. I wandered into Sweetwaters where you are surrounded by amazing art works from the Huron Valley Art Collective, a wonderful art group that works with businesses to display their creations. There is art on just about every wall, many artists come from all over Michigan to show their art talents. The variety of art is very inviting. Each piece is for sale. The artists give a brief bio of their past and write about the kind of art they display, sometimes including QR codes to show more of what they have to offer. Many artists nowadays have full web pages and independent websites where they show their work and studio Crazy Wisdom My next stop was at one of my personal favorites: The one and only Crazy Wisdom. This shop holds many wonderful artworks from around the world, ranging from wall art to sculptures and jewelry. I was told they have sculptures from Spain and carvings from Indonesia. As a Native American, I love the dream catcher and wall hangings. Crazy Wisdom has many jewelry artists and much of the work is shown in display boxes around the front of the building. The artwork at Crazy Wisdom is spiritual in nature but also eye-catching. They reopened in 2023. Their annual magazine is a wonderful way to connect with like-minded people in a spiritual and holistic way. WSG Gallery My next stop was the intriguing WSG gallery on Ann Street that carries absolutely one of a kind art works from artists all over the state. Each artist contributes their time back into the gallery; this gallery is owned and operated by the artist collective. Much of this art is very inspiring and modern, as well as traditional. It’s a wonderful group effort in which artists bring back art to the city. This gallery closed for some time because of COVID-19, and now has reopened for the public, so do stop by and see great and inspiring art. Chris Nordin I took a hop, skip and jump into the shop of one-of-a-kind artist Chris Nordin, a glass blower, which is right near WSG. He does awe-inspiring pieces. He also brings from around the nation well-known artists to show their great works of art within his gallery. What I find so amazing about Nordin’s artwork is the mix of metal and glass hanging from ceilings in offices around the nation. Glass is a hard medium to work with and extremely fragile. This makes it far more valuable to show to the world, in my opinion. You add light to the works and you get beautiful art. You just need to go and experience this impressive form of art: Thursday and Friday 12 to 4 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Ten Thousand Villages My next stop was Ten Thousand Villages on Main Street. I walked in and immediately saw silk scarves that I fell in love with; each one was bright and colorful. This wonderful shop practices fair trade with artists on the other side of the world and brings in amazing artwork to you and me. Fair trade gives artists equal opportunity in their communities and helps them with a living wage. It’s an international partnership that has lasted for decades. The amazing principles of fair trade ensure the rights of artists in their home nations – sustainable development, environment friendly partnerships, paying promptly and fairly. As I walked through the gallery I saw many functional artworks, such as jewelry, kitchenware, wall hangings and scarves of many colors. Please come by a small group of local artists as a pop-up in 2022. This group expanded with other local artists to create a locals-only arts gallery for equal exposure and fair pay practices. Many highend galleries take advantage of artists with the amount of cut each gallery takes, often leaving the artist out in the cold. Makeshift and other co-op galleries are forcing real change for artist work. Honest work for honest pay. The Makeshift was created by Cheryl Dawdy and Jim Moran, but many artists are part of the gallery. This is the next gallery I hope to find my own works in sometime soon. The Makeshift Gallery is a one-of-a-kind art collective. The artists themselves come together and show their works to the world, but also take the time to do both behind-the-scenes work and help with the front desk during open hours. This gallery has shows with invited musicians and has amazing events with open mics and concerts on Friday nights. Their events bring in the public and show off the artists’ work. There is a featured artist wall and some not only talented but also popular artists as well. This wonderful location at 407 E Liberty St is not to be missed. The kinds of art available here are: fine art photography, paintings, mixed media, ceramics, jewelry and musical instruments. Come see this art from Wednesday through Saturday 1 to 7 and Sunday noon to 5. Ann Arbor Art Center A2AC The Ann Arbor Art Center — I popped in to see all the wonderful A2AC activities that blanket the see ART page 8  Cindy at the Makeshift Gallery in front of Andy Schiff (left) and Zeke Mallory's paintings, holding a cigarbox guitar made by Mike Mouradian. JANUARY 10, 2024 REMEMBRANCE In loving memory of Doug Redlin November 16, 1979 - January 2, 2025 Doug Redlin was born in the Detroit area. After some rough early times, he was adopted and spent his formative years in the Macomb and Oakland areas, including Hazel Park. Doug especially cared about his adoptive father and would reminisce about time spent with him and all that he learned from his dad. He spent his final years in Washtenaw County, and was well known in the community for his big heart, love of dogs, and supreme survival skills. He is survived by his fiancée Karlee Dixon and their baby, Phillip Doug Redlin, who is expected to be born in May. “Doug was the hardest person I've ever met to love. He was also the easiest. Doug's genuineness was his greatest asset. He believed in community and he believed in our community. He considered us family. He wanted camaraderie. He wanted brothers; he wanted his pack. Doug's temper was formidable. But he knew it. He was aware of his issues and was asking for help. We were ready for him, he would have stepped up if he was meant to go on. With his first child on the way, he knew it was time to man up. He would have made it, we would have made sure of it. Doug, you are loved.” — Jim Clark, Groundcover vendor No. 139 “Doug was a complicated man but he had a heart of gold.” — Josh Brooks Doug was well known in the community for his big heart, love of dogs, and supreme survival skills. He is pictured above left at Liberty Plaza, with his dog, Mr. Puzzles. Photo taken by SD Photography. On the right he is pictured with his fiancé Karlee Redlin. “Doug could be tough as a result of his struggles so not that many people got to know him well. But Doug was always cool with me, and I can attest there was a great deal of good in him. He was not only perceptive about individuals and about humans in general, he also was thoughtful and respectful when he felt you returned it. Many times his insights helped me a lot. He would give you presents, just little things that he thought you would like. Looking for stuff for Karlee, I ran across a video of him explaining to me about some funny color changing light bulbs he gave me. It absolutely breaks my heart that he gave out before he was able to reach his dream of being a father. But the joy those sonograms and doctors visits gave him was real. I’ll miss you, Doug.” — Cynthia Price, Groundcover Editor "One of the first times I met Doug must have been at Pizza in the Park. He charged across the plaza and approached me like we were already familiar, very confidently asking if I could give him a ride somewhere or whatever it was he needed. It was something I couldn't help with but there were no hard feelings, and he kept my attention by talking my ear off instead. As if he was set on leaving an imprint and making sure by the time we're done, I would remember him. I did then, and I will now." — Alexandra Granberg “Doug, myself, and Gracie drove around the city on a terribly cold evening to check on anyone we could find. Doug knew every nook and cranny and we were stocked with the blankets, hand warmers, and chili. He was so kind. And he sure loved dogs.” — Karen Jacobsen "Dougie. I’ve always respected your loyalty. You are genuine family man. I know you will find peace on the other side. Much love." — Brian Durrance “Like so many you were a complicated individual. I'll remember that you loved to cook for people and would use limited bridge card money to buy food to cook for warming center and weather amnesty guests. RIP Doug. May you find the peace that so alluded you in this realm. I know you are cooking up a feast, making art and smoking with Brian.” — Sheri Wander Doug's celebration of life will take place on Tuesday, January 14 at 11 a.m. at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse (100 Market Place). GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS WINTER Protect yourself — be "winter-wise" EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR With the risk of high snowfall and extreme low temperatures, the Executive Office of the Governor encourages Michiganders to make a plan for winter weather emergency preparedness. To learn more about how to prepare for winter weather emergencies, check out the MIREADY Winter Weather Preparedness online page at www.michigan.gov/miready/be-informed/winter-prep. Driving during bad winter weather recommended, but often is not unavoidable. If you have to drive in bad conditions, drive slowly, follow tips from the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning on how you can be safe on the roads, and stock your car with emergency supplies. The Michigan Public Service Commission also offers excellent tips on how we can all be proactive about conserving energy and being “winter-wise.” Some of these tips include: 1. Shut-Off Protection: Senior citizens, low-income customers, those with a medical emergency or in critical care, and military personnel may qualify for heat shut-off protection. Contact your utility company for more information. 2. Plan Ahead: Many utility companies have Budget Billing Plans that can spread out your peak winter heating bills, allowing for a more affordable monthly bill during the heating season. Contact your utility company for more information. 3. Use Energy Wisely: Reduce your energy use using the helpful tips: www. energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/10/ f37/Energy_Saver_Guide-2017-en.pdf. 4. Request Assistance: Qualifying seniors and low-income customers may be eligible for financial assistance. Call 2-1-1 or visit mi211.org to learn about agencies in your county that can help you with your utility bill. 5. Be Proactive: Contact your utility company as soon as you know you will be unable to pay your bill on time. Do not wait for a shut-off notice. 6. Be Helpful: Share this information with family and friends! If you are able, you can donate to organizations that provide energy assistance for families in need. Utility Assistance Programs Winter can become stressful with high utility costs. Low-income Michiganders may qualify for assistance through the Michigan Energy Assistance Program (MEAP). We are prepared to ensure everyone across the state stays warm this winter. • State Emergency Relief: State Emergency Relief is a crisis intervention program that provides assistance for energy-related expenses like heating, fuel, electricity and home repairs. Those who can demonstrate need are encouraged to apply online through MI Bridges. • MEAP: The Michigan Public Service Commission administers the MEAP. The purpose of the MEAP is to establish and administer statewide programs that provide energy assistance and self-sufficiency services to eligible low-income households. To seek help, contact 2-1-1 or your utility company to find programs in your area. • Weatherization Assistance Program: This program provides free home energy-conservation services to low-income Michigan homeowners and renters. These services can reduce energy use and lower utility bills. Some of the services include insulation, air leakage reduction, smoke detectors, and dryer venting. These services are conducted by local Community Action Agencies and non-profit organizations. You can visit www.michigan.gov/en/mdhhs/ assistance-programs/emergency-relief/ home-services/weatherization/ state-map-of-weatherization-operators to contact your local weatherization JANUARY 10, 2024 exp. 06/31/2025 operator process. to start the application  ART page 6 downtown area. With their public art projects, they paint on all the planters across the downtown area and the murals on the buildings and in the alleys. A2AC has memberships and drop-in art shows for the public. What I found amazing is that this gallery just about does it all as a very active space. You don't just get art but also classes for the public and many camps for teens to further art education. The classes help bring art into each home across Ann Arbor as well as new art ideas for artists. I always wanted to take their ceramics classes and the jewelry classes. There are adult classes such as ceramics, comics, printmaking, jewelry and 2D sculpture. Art classes show the public the time it takes to be an artist and the complexity. Artists, both local and national, are showcased within the gallery. A2AC also has ongoing social events for fundraising This gallery truly takes care of the artists in the gallery by giving them full public exposure, and also places art around Ann Arbor in offices and corporations. The Gutman Gallery The Guild of Artists and Artisans was created in 1973 with the mission of bringing artists to the public in an art fair. This small annual event became what is today the Ann Arbor Art Fair, helping hundreds of artists from across the nation earn a reasonable living from their art. Art fairs have popped up all over the United States. Many artists travel from fair to fair for months on end. The Guild also helps local fairs across Michigan, and through its affiliated Gutman Gallery helps local and international artists get shown. I’ve also been to their holiday events and many independent shows focused on themes such as masks or watercolors. U-M Art Spaces The Stamps Gallery located on Washington Street and South Division that shows many world renowned artists as well as work from University of Michigan art students. Last but not least, the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) shows many international works of art and national artists from many cultures such as native artists from the Ojibway nation, as well as classical art. JANUARY 10, 2024 PUZZLES 1 13 16 19 22 25 30 33 39 43 47 51 55 59 62 60 63 52 53 56 57 54 58 61 64 40 44 45 46 48 49 50 31 34 41 35 36 37 42 26 32 38 20 23 24 27 28 29 2 3 4 14 17 21 18 5 6 7 8 9 15 GROUNDCOVER NEWS The IE's Have It! Victor Schmitt 10 11 12 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@ groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. Thank you! ACROSS 1. "In their defense ..." to a texter 4. Reduplicative dance 10. __ Fring ("Breaking Bad" character) 13. Important echécs piece 14. From this point 15. Carnation container 16. Bygone I.S.P. 17. Nudge hall-of-fame QB Bob? 19. Crash lander? 21. "Maestro" subject Bernstein 22. Implied 23. S.N.L alum Kevin 25. Break down into ranks? 30. Basis of a screenplay 32. Sign above some doors 33. Played-out 34. Word with man or ma'am 35. Doofus 38. The Big Ten's Nittany Lions, for short 39. Mutilate 41. Default filename for most word processors 43. Starting to bend, in ballet? 47. Sign on some beaches 48. Great deal, informally 51. Phrase before wild ride 54. Prodigy 55. Lobe, maybe? 58. Letters on some passes 59. British bum 60. Cocktail served at a tiki bar 61. Summer in Strousbourg? 62. Bring home 63. Scattered (about) 64. 9-digit no. DOWN 1. Parcel of land 2. "In your face!" 3. Actor's IMDB entry 4. Weekly highlight, for a gym rat 5. Bad thing to have on earth 6. Wall St. trader 7. Sundar Pichai, e.g. 8. React, like a pooch to a police siren 9. San _____ (Texas city) 10. Greek earth goddess 11. Iron curtain letters 12. Bracketeer's ranking 15. "My Cousin" in a 1992 film 18. Word with square or cube 20. Good, in Guatemala 23. CBS police drama 24. Fair-hiring inits. 26. Suffix with vent or cult 27. Bleeped words 28. Leaven 29. Real catch 30. Few 31. Tribe 35. "Carry ____ you were" 36. Org. for Sinner or Alcatraz 37. Did, as Mad Libs 40. Danger to society 41. Trendy boot brand 42. Common noun suffix 44. Something to skip 45. "Jump on the bandwagon" and "miss the boat" 46. Like some milk 49. Show featuring Meghan Markle 50. Colorado ski town 51. Word with life or attention 52. Run out of gas 53. Musician's break 54. Chew (on) 56. Peace, in the 11-Down 57. Favor final?

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS U.S. HISTORY JANUARY 10, 2024 President Carter exemplified Dr. King's vision of a Beloved Community Hello 2025, farewell 2024! In the afternoon and evening of December 29, 2024, the major broadcast news and cable news outlets announced that former President Jimmy Carter had died. He was the 39th President of the United States. What else do we know about Jimmy Carter? He was born in 1924 in a rural southern Georgia town known as Plains. His father was a peanut farmer who owned a large farm. His mother was a registered nurse. Young Jimmy Carter grew up in a house with no plumbing and electricity. His community was mostly rural and poor. He spent time with poor white and Black kids in his rural farm community. His family members attended church services in Plains as Evangelical Christians. Jimmy Carter identified as a long-term member of the Southern Baptist Evangelical Christian Church. He was a man of faith who had accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior. After high school, Carter attended the U.S. Naval Academy and was trained as a nuclear engineer for a Navy submarine. He graduated in 1946 and came home to Georgia. He asked an adorable young woman, Rosalynn, for a date. They went to the theater to see a movie. Soon after he proposed to her, and subsequently they got married. His career as a Navy nuclear engineer was cut short when his father died. Carter returned to Plains in 1953 to continue his father’s peanut farming business. Southern Georgia was a bastion of racism and discrimination during the “Jim Crow” era of the 1950s and 1960s. Young Carter’s neighbors, who were members of a white supremacy group, incessantly tried to get him to join. He repeatedly said no, even when they offered to pay the membership dues of won the Democratic presidential nomination and defeated President Gerald Ford, the Republican nominee, in the November 1976 election. As president, WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 $5 for him. He was ridiculed by the racist group. They called him all kinds of derogatory names. Carter said that he was aware of the racism, discrimination and racial injustice in his home state. He wanted to bring opportunities in education, jobs and housing to the disadvantaged and the dispossessed. He served two terms as a state senator in Georgia during the 1960s. In the 1970s, he ran for Governor. He won! During his February inaugural speech, he got everyone’s attention when he declared, “I say to you, quite frankly, the time for racial discrimination is over …” Carter served as Governor of Georgia for one term which ended in 1975. In 1976, he ran for President of the United States. America, as a nation, was mired in melancholy and sadness over the “Watergate Break-in” crisis which resulted in the articles of impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon. He had resigned in 1974 and his replacement, Gerald R. Ford of Grand Rapids, Michigan, was immediately sworn in as the 38th President. After Carter declared his intention to run for President, a large cross-section of the American people kept asking, “Jimmy who?” Aware of his lack of name recognition, Carter, on the campaign trail of 1975 and 1976, would often say, “My name is Jimmy Carter, and I am running for President.” Carter Jimmy Carter appointed more women in key positions and federal courts than any of the previous presidents. He also appointed more Black people and other minorities to key positions than any of the previous presidents. President Carter was credited for improving the lives of “the safety net population” in the areas of public health, housing and other human service provisions. However, high food inflation, high interest rates, high gas prices and high unemployment doomed his chances for re-election against Ronald Reagan who repeatedly used the slogan, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” The Iran hostage crisis was a drag on his superlative foreign policy achievements, especially the Camp David Accords, which established a historic framework for peace between Israel and Egypt. Many historians say that President Carter’s four decades of service after he left the White House was a remarkable accomplishment. Carter and his wife Rosalynn traveled the world after they built the Carter Center at Emory University in Atlanta and another one in Plains. The Carter Center was a platform for the Carters to visit poor communities in developing nations to help address infectious diseases such as malaria, Guinea worms and HIV-AIDS. They also helped to feed the poor; house the homeless; provide safe drinking water; build roads, hospitals, and community centers; and helped with a team of trained observers to monitor presidential elections in Africa, Southeast Asia, Central AmerPresident Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, assisting with the construction of a "Habitat For Humanity" project. ica and South America. Domestically, President and Rosalynn Carter entered into a partnership with Habitat for Humanity which has lasted for more than 40 years. “Habitat for Humanity envisions a world where everyone has a decent place to live, and President Carter was truly one of the great lights illuminating our path to that goal,” says a tribute posted by the East Bay / Silicon Valley Chapter of Habitat for Humanity. This California chapter continues, “President Carter famously said, ‘I have one life and one chance to make it count for something … My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have, to try to make a difference.’” We are deeply grateful for his 100 years of "making it count" toward the building of a better tomorrow. Dr. King’s Vision of the Beloved Community On the topic of “The Beloved Community,” the King Center in Atlanta see CARTER next page  PUZZLE SOLUTIONS JANUARY 10, 2024 U.S. HISTORY American cultures Gratitude to the culture for the triROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 umph of the Cuban revolution that came to light in the 1960s. A crew without direction to conquer the fate of a merciless hand to Yankee imperialism as a good revolutionary took a step and a misfortune bribed by the U.S.A. I betray the passage of a navigator and with a letter of mourning without knowing the railway lines I shout, “Long Live Zapata.” The crying could not understand so much bitterness and from his lips bitter I endured the pain of a child of a mother with a black clover. I only look at the water where I can let loose the repentance and joy of a homeless person. En espanol: El agradecimiento a la cultura por el triunfo de la revolución cubana salieron a relucir en los años 1960. Una tripulación sin rumbo para conquistar el destino de una mano despiadada al imperialismo yanqui como un buen revolucionario dio un paso y una desgracia sobornada por los EE.UU. Traiciona a los pasos de navegante y con carta de luto sin conocer las líneas del ferrocarril grito, “Viva Zapata.” El llanto no pudo entender tanta amargura y desde sus labios amargo soporto el dolor de un niño una madre con un trébol negro sólo miro el agua donde puedo soltar el arrepentimiento y la alegría de un vagabundo. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11  CARTER from last page nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community. The aftermath of nonviolence is redemption. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation.” Dr. King gave a 1959 sermon which he dedicated to the lessons learned from Gandhi's philosophy and techniques of nonviolence. Once again, Dr. King said, “the aftermath of non-violence is the creation of the Beloved Community, so that when the battle’s over, a new relationship comes into being between the oppressed and the oppressor.” Some historians have also noted Dr King's Statue located close to the Lincoln Memorial at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. made it clear that the term was first coined by the 20th century philosopher-theologian Josiah Royce — founder of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Dr. King became a member of Fellowship of Reconciliation and later “popularized the term and invested it with deeper meaning which has captured the imagination of people of goodwill all over the world.” Dr. King did not believe that “The Beloved Community” was a lofty utopian goal. The King Center said that King envisioned the Beloved Community to be “a realistic, achievable goal that could be attained by a critical mass of people committed to and trained in the philosophy and methods of nonviolence.” Historians and civil rights scholars reveal that as early as 1956, when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Montgomery Bus Boycott organizers, thereby ending segregation of bus seats, Dr. King said that “the Beloved Community is the end goal of a nonviolent boycott.” In 1957 Dr. King read a sermon titled “The Birth of a New Nation” in which he said that “the aftermath of that Dr. King made a reference to the Beloved Community as the end result of nonviolence in his 1963 “Letters from the Birmingham Jail.” Many scholars from various disciplines such as sociology, political science and law have tried to share many perspectives on King’s vision of the Beloved Community. A more compelling summary and interpretation comes from the editors of the King Center in Atlanta. They wrote: “Dr. King’s Beloved Community is a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood. In the Beloved Community, international disputes will be resolved by peaceful conflict-resolution and reconciliation of adversaries, instead of military power. Love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred. Peace with justice will prevail over war and military conflict.” Conclusion Now, it is abundantly clear what Dr. King’s vision for the Beloved Community means. In his writings, sermons and speeches, Dr. King provides us with an expansive conception of the Beloved Community. The central messages are nonviolence and reconciliation, in addition to the panoply of social justice, economic justice, service, global vision, peaceful coexistence, equal rights, civil rights and human rights. On an interpersonal level, the Beloved Community vision requires mutual respect, mutual love, and a sense of dignity, empathy and sympathy for all God’s children. The Beloved Community vision has never been about tolerating discrimination, racism, hatred, tribalism or targeting and conspiring against certain individuals or communities who are considered “different" — as some culprits would say, “not one of us.” President Jimmy Carter’s life and legacy reflect Dr. King’s vision of Beloved Community. Both of them had a global vision about the solutions to poverty, inequality, hunger and homelessness and promoting democracy’s basic norms of free and fair elections. A recent Associated Press article noted that President Carter and Dr. King never met. However, they seemed to have lived parallel lives as they worked hard to end discrimination, racism, poverty, hunger and homelessness, to mention a few. We do know that Jimmy Carter reached out to Dr. King’s father, MLK Sr., and Dr. King’s widow, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, after Carter was sworn in as governor of Georgia in February, 1971. At Carter’s insistence, Dr. King’s birthplace and the old Ebenezer Baptist Church were designated historical preservation landmarks. As we pay homage to Carter’s legacy, let’s remember Dr. King’s admonition: “Darkness cannot drive away darkness, only light can do that; hatred cannot drive away hatred, only love can do that.” Finally, this Martin Luther King Jr. quote reflects the global perspective he shared with his Beloved Community volunteers, including President Jimmy Carter: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” — Dr. King’s letters from Birmingham, Alabama Jail, April 16, 1963.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Red pepper pasta NATALIE MARK U-M student contributor Ingredients: 2 red bell peppers 2 roma tomatoes 2 cloves of garlic ½ onion 1 tbsp of olive oil Salt and pepper to taste ½ avocado 1 lb of pasta, any shape Directions Toss red bell peppers, tomatoes, garlic, and onion in olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes at 400˚F. While the vegetables are roasting, boil a pot of water for the pasta. Blend avocado in a blender or food processor, then add roasted vegetables and blend them together. Heat mixture in a separate pan and bring to a simmer. Cook pasta in boiling water one minute less than box directions; finish cooking pasta for another minute in sauce. Top with parmesan cheese and enjoy! Felicia Brabec, MSW /psychologist and former State House Representative will be speaking at the Westgate branch of the Ann Arbor library from 1-3 p.m. on Monday February 10. Her topic will be “Ask the Expert: Advocating for Mental Health.” This program is free, no registration JANUARY 10, 2024 $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 2/6/2025

2 $ DECEMBER 27, 2024 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 1 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Improving our local Point In Time Count. page 4 TERRI DEMAR #322 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT'S YOUR NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. It's fun to play at the YMCA! page 8 Ken Parks, vendor No. 490, shooting hoops at the Ann Arbor YMCA. He also enjoys the sauna frequently! Photo credit: Wes Roberts THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER providing economic opportunities for self-determined individuals $290K ESTIMATED TOTAL INCOME IN VENDORS’ POCKETS 45,250 $2 NEWSPAPERS SOLD Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. impacted by poverty 42 new vendors trained 3,480 issues sold/month 2,785 magazines sold producing a street newspaper that uplifts marginalized voices in Washtenaw County 42 unique freelance writers 27 editions published 26 podcast episodes produced promoting an action that contributes to a just, caring and equal society 8 free public community events >60% 153 JOBS Vendors reported that Groundcover MEETS THEIR NEEDS for friendship, a support system, and a sense of purpose PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Jamie Cameron Pedro Campos La Shawn Courtwright Johnathan Glass Marie Natalie Mark Ken Parks Will Shakespeare Anthony Smith Sarah Tholen CONTACT US PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Steve Ross Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Johnathan Glass Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Anthony McCormick Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Melanie Wenzel GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org DECEMBER 27, 2024 2024 Impact Report PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons DECEMBER 27, 2024 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What's your New Year's resolution? Exercise, sell Groundcover, continue with drumming class, maintain my relationships, improve my health and stay well! —Terri Demar, #322 Making more music, doing more recording and get some Groundcover magnets for my car. — Mike Jones, #113 Keep managing the unmanageable. — Larzell Washington, #128 Work seven days a week — no days off! — Roberto Isla Cabellero, #347 Start a revolution. — Wayne Sparks, #615 To be able to be one level up from where I was last year. — Lynne Bilodeau, #663 Make sure my kids have housing. And me, too. — Felicia Wilbert, #234 Write in every paper about Washtenaw County sports. — David Mitchell, #661 To finish what I started. — Ken Parks, #3490 Carry on PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 Leave the bag, homeless man, But don’t lose it. Orbit it, circle it. You’ve carried the weight already, It’s heavy, I know. Drop it. Just watch it. Hold yourself together without the bag. You weren’t born with the bag. You don’t belong to it. The bag belongs to you. Organize the bag, Shape your thoughts. You can only carry so much. I know you care enough. You don’t need more room. You crave space. Fill your bag with dreams, Rations for the long road. Pack it with courage, For the journey ahead. Measure a man by his bag, But don’t judge him so quickly. Not all bags are chosen. Forget that big old baggage. All that you need is inside your bag. Take your papers, take your time. And from now on, like a Photon, travel light. So everyone can hear There are 48 million hearing-challenged people in the United States. The numbers vary depending on perspective and data approach. The number of serious hearing disabilities is estimated at 11 million. I am in that group. Those over 65 have an estimated 50% serious hearing loss. I was told in junior high school that my hearing was socially marginal; now at the age of 82 I am somewhat below that marker. I am hard of hearing in three languages and have survived by asking people to slow down, especially in Spanish, and please speak towards my good ear. The task before all of us is to become more engaged in our life. We need ideas that work and practical applications that promote communication KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 and the completion of projects. I regularly attend meetings where I may hear less than 10% of what is said. The best meetings for me were in Cuba. The sound system was excellent. We sat in rows along long desks that had enough microphones so that everyone GROUNDCOVER NEWS A New Year and New Mind LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover writer I'm so glad to have survived this eventful year of 2024 It's been full of the unforeseen Some of which brought me to tears Some of which made me happy and released some concerns and fears I've also grown wiser Lessons seared in my mind Stored tools for the upcoming year No matter what Through all of the ups and downs I'm grateful for simply still being here To witness the present and futuristic things As I look around and ponder the view of my surroundings and have a better understanding of other things Of me, of you, recognizing there's plenty of room for improvement As long as we all get back to God Almighty's original plan The 10 Commandments are our basic laws Our guidelines are all in the Holy Bible So let's all strive for holiness And this will be the ultimate New Year So welcome 2025 this way And our souls will be eternally alive and holy SAVE THE DATE: FEBRUARY 7, 2025 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HAPPY HOUR @ LIVE, 6:30-9PM with the SOUL PRACTIONERS was near one. If you raised your hand and got the floor, you would quickly have a mic in your hand. Everyone had a headset and a channel selector to pick the language of your choice from the menu. The sound quality was good with adequate volume settings. It is an amazing experience to be heard and to hear everything. We can do this in North America and I will be a coordinating worker to make this possible. I think the technology is available so that small groups as well as large can benefit with this enhanced communication. This is especially important as we age. As the Gray Panthers taught us, youth and age together is a recipe for success. We can learn to communicate, make decisions and carry them out successfully. I will research available systems and report back soon. Please contact me through Groundcover if you want to see this happen, especially if you are experienced in audio systems. Groundcover News is an important center for my life mission of peace with justice. There are many groups and individuals who share this intention. It is time to communicate among ourselves and build the convergence that is a shared vision among many of our species. Vandana Shiva is an important mentor in this convergence as she points out that civilization, corporate agriculture in particular, is a war on the earth. Her work in India is a glowing example of what can be done. 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS RECOVERY From addict to recovery advocate – Marcus Pollard’s redemption story JOHNATHAN GLASS Groundcover contributor Marcus Pollard is using his first-hand experience with substance use disorder to help people in his community recover from the ravages of addiction. Pollard spent four decades feeding his appetites for money and power in the drug game. Today, after a series of hardlearned life lessons, he fights addiction in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti community as a recovery coach with Home of New Vision, a mental health and substance use disorder clinic. While it’s common to stigmatize the addicted, the reality is that addiction is a disease, and drug use is one of its many symptoms. Many drug users are either predisposed to drug use genetically, or they self-medicate because of a chemical imbalance in the mind — often there is a problem in both departments. Those who suffer with a use-disorder tend to be brilliant, creative and lovable. Pollard is being treated for a chemical imbalance, and it was that imbalance that made getting off drugs so difficult for him. It’s a vicious cycle of struggling to survive for Pollard and many, many more like him. People who suffer from the disease of addiction, irrespective of the form it takes (food, drugs or sex), have been to hell and back. These people deserve love, understanding and prayer, not judgment. People who use drugs often have a spiritual nature and believe in God. Pollard believed in God from a young age. As a part of his beliefs, he believes in fate, essentially a pre-written existence where whatever will be will be. Pollard recalled, “I always had God in my life. My mother and grandmother prayed for me every day. I’m living proof of the power of prayer.” He went to church four times a week in his childhood. At an early age Pollard recalls playing Jesus Christ in a church play. He wore a crown of thorns, carried a cross on his back, complete with blood. This early memory was more than playacting for Pollard. For him, he had a spiritual, almost mystical connection to God from then on. According to Pollard, God saved him from every trap. Pollard stated, “I’ve been shot many times, and I’m still here. God kept me around for a reason.” Pollard acknowledges that his lifestyle was not one of a “normal” Christian. And yet, Pollard relates to the story of the Prodigal Son. The Prodigal Son was a young man who did everything wrong, spending the family fortune on loose living, but when he came home to his father, he was taken back into the family as if he had never left. The Prodigal Son is a story of redemption. Oftentimes, people who struggle with a use-disorder have no idea what they’re getting into. The cheese in the mousetrap is always free. But if a drug or alcohol user doesn’t end up in prison, an institution or the graveyard, and he asks for help, he can and will recover, if he is willing to work hard at it. Reflecting on his early days of “dope slinging,” Pollard said, “My crew and I were all like-minded guys. We operated with the tools at our disposal. Selling drugs was the norm in our community. I was a product of my environment.” The year was 1983, and Ronald Reagan was the president. The War on Drugs was beginning to gain traction in America, and Pollard began experimenting with cocaine and cannabis. First he took the drug for the buzz, and then he sold it. He said, “When I began drugging and thugging for real, I didn’t run out of steam for several decades. “You have to understand, we didn’t think about the illegality of what we were doing, that didn’t enter our mentality. Drugging and thugging was our lifestyle and it was what we did to see the next day. I liked it, though. The adrenaline from the power was better than the drugs we sold. I was untouchable for a really long time.” It was a trusted family member who introduced Pollard to cocaine and marijuana. At the time, Pollard lived with his grandparents, and the family owned a couple drycleaning businesses in town. Pollard was often sent to the business to help out and learn about making a living. Little did Pollard’s grandfather know, ‘Uncle Tony,’ who ran the family’s drycleaning business, had a hidden heroin addiction. Pollard’s uncle Tony not only turned Pollard on to drugs, but taught him how to flip drugs and to get ahead financially — even if starting out with $20, he showed Pollard how to make a small fortune. In an ironic twist, Pollard learned to make a living from his time with his uncle at the drycleaners, just not what his grandparents/guardians had in mind. A few years later, Pollard’s uncle fatally overdosed. When asked what Pollard would say to this family member today, if he were still living, he said, “Two words: thank you.” When asked why he would express gratitude for being introduced to a life of crime in his formative years, Pollard stated, “I had to go through addiction to get where I am today, and to do what I’m now able "The only way for me to keep my sobriety is to give it away to those still sick and suffering in my community." — Marcus Pollard to do. It was training for the life I now have.” Pollard’s life today is objectively better than ever; nevertheless, it was hell before heaven for Pollard. He said, “I had a lot to learn, and many of those lessons were painful.” When asked to use a single word to describe the dope game, Pollard said, “Destruction. It destroys your responsibility, it destroys your social values and peer relations, it destroys your dignity as a man or woman, and in the end, it destroys your very soul. The game loves nobody. Everyone who plays the dope game loses before it’s even over; it’s an unwinnable game. The prize is nothing but a figment of the imagination. The only lasting prize you’ll get is death, institutions or jail.” Pollard later stated that he regrets the lost time, lost relationships, lost friends and thousands of missed opportunities. He said, “I needed to catch up on life. And I’m busy playing catch up every day which is a consequence of my choices.” Pollard reflected that while he “got away” with a life of crime, having never been to prison, he did suffer the consequences in his spirit. He said, “I was drugging and thugging with the children, and grandchildren of the guys I started with in the 1980’s. That was a wakeup call to get my life together.” Another wakeup call for Pollard was when he was jailed for a charge in county lockup. When in jail, he got news of his beloved grandmother’s terminal illness. He said, “Because of my lifestyle, I couldn’t even bury my grandmother who had given me so much love. I really felt a certain kind of way about that.” When he got out of jail, he didn’t know what to do. Pollard reports that he went twice as hard in the dope game after his grandmother’s death because of the regret and grief. He said, “That was the darkest period of my life. I didn’t care anymore about anything or anybody. I stayed in that mode for about ten years.” Then there was a ray of hope. Pollard was court-mandated to attend a drug treatment program. He recalls resisting the process at the time, but chose to complete the program to avoid jail. About that he said, “That treatment program probably saved me.” He completed rehab and didn’t get his life together right away. Recovery isn’t linear. It’s a dance of two steps forward and one step back. But over time, Pollard’s experience with rehab planted the seed for getting clean for good. In 2022 Pollard had had his fill of the lifestyle that had defined his existence for nearly 40 years. He chose to get checked into Spera recovery in Ann Arbor, where he was treated for 30 days, and then he went into transitional housing for six months. It wasn’t all smooth sailing. The first six months were rough for Pollard. He said, “I was at the end of the earth, the point of no return, with a dark storm-cloud overhead every day. I was confused, not knowing if I was coming or going most days. But you never know when the moment of recovery will hit, because one morning I woke up and felt good. Just like a miracle my life was on a new trajectory. I was really curious to see if it was even possible for my life to turn around. I was in uncharted waters. And my life has been significantly better ever since. I’m 1,000,000 miles from where I was. I can’t believe I have a journalist writing my story in a presidential suite paid for by work. I never dreamed this would be possible!” Today, Pollard works as a licensed Peer Recovery Coach with the Home of New Vision, Ann Arbor. He said, “The only way for me to keep my sobriety is to give it away to those still sick and suffering in my community. I sold a lot of drugs in my community, and I have a strong desire to dismantle the monster I helped create.” Pollard loves doing community outreach with his work because he enjoys seeing the faces of those who used to do drugs with him, who see he’s turned his life around. He said, “I love showing my community that real change is possible.” Change is possible. If you or someone you know is struggling with a use disorder, help is out there. In Ann Arbor, there is Home of New Vision, Dawn Farm and others. A simple Google search can change your life. DECEMBER 27, 2024 DECEMBER 27, 2024 RECOVERY Substance abuse by the homeless, from the homeless In California, many homeless people have been arrested, and homeless camps and settlements towed and/or dismantled with homeless people’s belongings tossed in trash dumpsters. A primary reason is narcotics (pills, meth, heroin, cocaine, crack, fentanyl) used in public, not to mention the vast percentage of public alcohol use or abuse. I've seen this in Wayne County, Washtenaw County, and out here in Orange County (California) as well. Taking the public bus to work one day, I sat down in a seat for the disabled facing a homeless man obviously intoxicated, and muttering to himself, causing others on the bus to feel uncomfortable and wary of his behavior. At one stop, a man boarded with a backpack, surfboard and a skateboard. He sat down a seat or two away from the intoxicated man, close to the driver (who had been noticing the intoxicated man). The two obviously knew each other, as they started a banter with each other. The next stop a young Latino man boarded and sat a few seats away from me. homeless? Another reason is fires started carelessly at homeless encampments, perhaps by tossing lit cigarette butts near brush only to be carried elsewhere by the winds. But let’s get back to the drug use. The reality of being homeless is JAMIE CAMERON Groundcover vendor No. 612 The intoxicated man took a half full bottle of vodka out of his backpack and took a few shots. He then put the lid back on and put it in his backpack. He began an insult spree about Mexicans. The bus driver stopped the bus and told the intoxicated man to get off the bus and that police had been notified. The drunk homeless man grabbed his backpack and other belongings and deboarded the bus. He was likely to be arrested due to his demeanor and his possession of an open intoxicant. This is not the only story I have to tell on the topic, but my stories are not the reason for the article, are they? Why is the public eye on the Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling an issue more than 4 weeks old. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from traumatic and sucks … and ever increasing. Sometimes people get hooked on something for reasons other than homelessness too. But why in public? Well, they are homeless, and police are shutting down encampments that line the city streets, mainly tents. So, how do they afford the drugs? You really don’t want to know. Those who use alcohol and/or narcotics on public transportation are generally avoided and/or ignored. Those who use in public alleys, if seen by police, get arrested. Same with public restroom buildings. See the connection? Who is in charge of these public buildings? But on the other side, why do rehab centers cost an arm and a leg? This must change. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code or leave positive review of a Vendor experience please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form (QR code below) on our website. Thank you! Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Public Computers The AADL has public-access Internet computers available for use by both cardholders and noncardholders at all five locations. Each station has USB ports, headphone jacks, and some of the fastest wifi speeds in town! Byte Club An exclusive club for AADL SUPER FANS and library people like you! Byte Club will help you connect deeper with the Library you know and love, and share special sneak peeks of new things coming soon. The first rule of Byte Club is that you tell everyone about Byte Club! Ready to join? Visit aadl.org/ byteclub to get started. FEATURED EVENT 5 Sunday, January 26 • 1–4pm Downtown Library Looking for a preschool? The annual Preschool Expo brings representatives from area preschools to one location on one date. Connect with schools in Washtenaw County and explore your options to find the best preschool for your child! Visit aadl.org/preschoolexpo for a list of participating schools.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS Improving our local Point in Time Count MARIE Groundcover contributor The inspiration for this riveting exposé about the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Point-In-Time (PIT) Count occured at the May 23, 2024, Washtenaw County Continuum of Care (CoC) meeting. (The CoC is the official body whose responsibility is to “coordinate the community’s policies, strategies, and activities toward ending homelessness.”) At this meeting I discovered I literally didn’t count, as I was not found among the 13 unsheltered homeless nor among the 317 sheltered in government recognized overnight programming on a specific night in late January. The PIT Count, according to HUD’s 2014 PIT Count Methodology Guide, is a federally-mandated count, described as a one night census-like snapshot of all sheltered and unsheltered persons experiencing homelessness. Counts are conducted through local CoC’s; a yearly report generated from data collected from all CoC’s across the country is published on the HUD Exchange website and presented to Congress as part of the Annual Homeless Assessment Report. Washtenaw’s CoC is managed by the County’s Office of Community and Economic Development. OCED staff responsibilities include overseeing CoC business including CoC governance, as well as homeless and housing related data collection and statistical analysis. Reporting on the above was part of CoC’s November presentation. These responsibilities include decisions about housing developments, grant awards, systems planning, and deciding on housing-related resource allocation. While the PIT count is known to have pitfalls, the count is important as it impacts eligibility for current, future and prospective project funding at all levels. It was clear at the CoC unveiling of the 2025 PIT Count Methodology, that without immediate intervention, many homeless of Washtenaw County will again go uncounted, which will continue to perpetuate the current climate, the vicious cycle of homelessness and housing instability. The November 20th CoC meeting presented the methodology for the 2025 PIT count map looked more like a deer in the headlights than like three AAA batteries and a headlamp. In fact, even just counting the number of unsheltered homeless hit by cars and those found dead in the streets over the last year equates to a higher number than 13. While on the surface it appears our local PIT Count methodology may currently meet HUD’s minimum standards, OCED admitted they have not made any updates to the methodology in years, and there is room for improvement in the area of both sheltered and unsheltered counting efforts. To help readers with the basics of the PIT Count methodology, this article includes some important highlights gathered from the HUD Exchange website and local 2024 OCED presentations attended by this writer. Nationally, counts are required to take place in the last 10 days in January; Washtenaw coordinates its count with other Michigan CoC’s to take place on the last Wednesday in January. While HUD requires a yearly count of the unsheltered, CoC’s are only required to conduct unsheltered counts bi-yearly during odd years; locally, the unsheltered count is conducted yearly. According to this year’s OCED presentations, Washtenaw conducts a full-census count, where it attempts to collect data from all sheltered and unsheltered persons using a combination of “day of” and “post day” collection. Historically, data about the unsheltered count has come from the local Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), and data for persons who are unsheltered comes from surveys conducted by volunteers. According to our local OCED, sheltered persons who should be counted include persons who are living in supervised, publicly or privately owned shelters designed to provide temporary living arrangements — including shelters, transitional housing, hotel or motel paid for by charitable organizations or by federal, state or local government funders. Efforts are currently underway to address gaps in the sheltered count as not all local sheltering options are in the HMIS database. Data collection from non-HMIS sources will likely take the form of a paper or online survey. OCED describes eligible unsheltered people as persons with a primary nighttime residence that is not designated for human habitation which includes a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, campground or site. According to an OCED debrief this month, data about the unsheltered has historically relied on information collected via surveys collected by trained volunteers who canvass the county on predetermined paths via car and on foot the night of the count between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., with a post night effort that stopped due to COVID restrictions at a single church in Ann Arbor that serves breakfast. The local OCED describes people who should be excluded from the count as persons residing in a hotel or DECEMBER 27, 2024 Marie (left) and Cynthia Price (right) reviewing notes from the November Continuum of Care meeting. Photo credit: Eli O Hara Graph source: May 23, 2024 CoC All Membership Meeting at United Way Ann Arbor “Washtenaw County Point-In-Time Count Community Debriefing.” motel they paid for themselves, persons staying with friends or family, persons admitted to the hospital not including the emergency room, and people who do not explicitly meet the HUD definitions of sheltered or unsheltered. To improve the unsheltered count and data collection for the 2025 count, efforts are underway to minimally add sites to the post day count by adding the Ann Arbor Daytime Warming Center location, currently scheduled to be at St Mary’s Student Parish, adding the Ypsilanti Freighthouse Daytime Warming Center, and resuming data collection at St Andrews Church in Ann Arbor, referred to as the breakfast church by the homeless community. Additionally, efforts are underway to increase participation from people with lived experience with homelessness, especially as it pertains to improving culturally competent and trauma-informed data collection. For example, allowing people approached by volunteers on foot in the middle of the night to decide what information they want to divulge. The effort will also educate the community about the meaning, value, and methodology of the PIT Count. This article has hopefully helped inform the homeless community as well as those volunteers and professionals serving the homeless about PIT Count basics. While the PIT Count may not reach every person experiencing homelessness, the data gathered during yearly counts is a primary statistic being used in beneficial programs and a pilot program in six cities called "ALL INside," which is worth the better part of a billion dollars. The next PIT count is scheduled for January 29, 2025. Volunteers will meet at 9:45 p.m. on the night of January 28, and counts will continue into the morning of January 29, ending at 2 a.m. The post-day count will occur on the 29th at the sites listed above. Please look for a formal announcement in the upcoming January 10 edition of Groundcover News, which will have details about how and where to be to be counted if you are homeless and want to be included in the count. Incentives, especially for the unsheltered count, are expected and may include gift cards, winter gear and food. If you are interested in helping with the count or would like to contribute donations to be distributed during the night of the count or during the post-day count, please contact Andrew Kraemer with Washtenaw’s OCED at kraemera@washtenaw.org, call Groundcover News, visit one of Washtenaw’s Daytime warming center sites or look for finalized details about the PIT Count in the next edition of Groundcover. DECEMBER 27, 2024 TRANSIT Its time to hop on the "bus" train! SARAH THOLEN U-M student contributor In August 2024, the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority, or TheRide, rolled out a set of service improvements, launching Phase 1 of “TheRide 2045” plan. Though ambitious, TheRide’s vision for the future could ultimately reshape Ann Arbor — if we let it. TheRide 2045 plan is, at its simplest, a framework for expansion and, as AAATA’s Senior Transit Planner Ken Anderson calls it in our interview, a “wishlist” expected to be re-evaluated later. It was delicately crafted to cater to the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti communities’ needs and to welcome adjustments later on. The development process, lasting from 2019 through 2022, was designed to gather public feedback; an estimated 1400 people provided feedback during the development of TheRide 2045. AAATA offered many opportunities for people to come to them, whether through public meetings, a feedback form on their website, or the chance to join feedback groups like the Public Advisory Group. But they also went out to the community. Anderson described the biennial process of “on-board surveying,” where passengers on the bus are given a survey to fill out, including an opportunity to share what riders do and don’t use the bus for, among other questions. AAATA took feedback they received, like developing improvements not just for the “9-5 crowd, but for those who rely solely on public transportation, to heart.” They identified an overrepresentation of higher household income and Caucasian survey respondents and therefore collected in-person engagement feedback where they were able to speak with a higher proportion of Black citizens. To create a plan meant to reflect the needs of the community, and AAATA ensured as many voices as possible were heard. August’s service improvements were directly reflective of this public feedback. Phase 1 of TheRide 2045 plan is designed to get the most highly requested (as shown in the figure on page 11) and quickly implementable improvements done, so, as Anderson describes, AAATA can “show the community [they are] out there delivering on some of the promises that [they] made in the 2045 plan.” With the recent service update, most lines have increased frequency of buses, and now consistently run from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. during the week, with extended weekend hours, all highly ranked priorities of the public. These expansions were greatly desired, but they are all relatively predictable improvements for a bus system trying to expand. Holistically, AAATA’s TheRide 2045 plan feels progressive, not necessarily for what they’re doing, but for the attention to whom they’re helping. “We are focused on generating ridership, but there’s an equity component,” Anderson says. “Everything that we do can’t just be completely focused around getting more commuters out of their cars, because there are people that have to use the bus — that can only use the bus — so we have to do what benefits them.” It is TheRide’s commitment to inclusivity that appears in their promises to expand service locations and hours for low-income areas and low-wage workers. It again appears in the projected 97% of jobs being located within 0.7 miles of high-frequency transit. And again in the strides to improve transportation for seniors and those with disabilities or mobility issues with 100% accessible buses and alternative options (like A-Ride, a shared ride service for persons with disabilities). Again with the website and app reforms and help lines with translators to improve ease of scheduling for non-native English speakers and first time users. There is remarkable care devoted to a great breadth of populations. Perhaps the most revolutionary part of TheRide 2045 plan, though, is the vision of a future that it builds. AAATA is striving for sustainability beyond merely zero-emissions buses (which they are also working towards). TheRide wants the city of Ann Arbor to let go of cars above all. To reach that point, they are advocating for the intensification of urban development, new housing policies, reduced below-market and free parking prices, curbing road widening, transit priority (like bus lanes), and so much more. Long-term, TheRide 2045 seems to envision a very new landscape of Ann Arbor. They want a city that can rely on, even enjoy, dependable public transportation. TheRide is also looking to us to create this future. Anderson says getting even 10% of people to switch from cars to other means of transportation would decrease congestion significantly which greatly serves the bus system. Whether walking, biking or taking the bus, every little bit helps. “We just want people out of their cars basically,” he said. But is this vision for the future practical? Even with major public transportation GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Photo credit: Mike Jones expansion, will enough people of Ann Arbor lean into a car-free world? Though far too early to tell, ridership has increased since even the first improvements this August, giving Anderson hope for what’s to come. So what is your role in all this? First and foremost, take the bus! To expand service in such a way, increased ridership is crucial. If you live further out and must commute to Ann Arbor by car, AAATA offers a “Park and Ride" program in which you can park your car for free at designated lots, then commute via TheRide all around the city (this is often more cost-effective than parking structures). Secondly, make your voice heard! Anderson wants to hear from as many people as possible. He wants to know how you currently use transit service, and how you wish you could. You can join the Local Advisory Council, which is seeking new members to help advise the AAATA Board on services offered see BUS page 11 

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SPOTLIGHT Its' fun to play at the YMCA! ANTHONY SMITH Groundcover contributor On the tail end of Christmas is New Year's. This holiday has no mystic powers or claims to divinity. In America New Year's Eve is the official end of the year and subsequent beginning of a new one. This experience and change in symbols is supposed to have meaning. For some it truly does. These are the individuals who at the magic hour of midnight decide to proclaim unto the world wishes for improvement of some kind. “Resolutions” they call them. Every new year a plethora of resolutions are made, many about physical change, sometimes about a mental change. I urge you to make new year’s resolutions that involve the habituation of noble virtues. I think that with the proper amount of effort and intention one might achieve a great deal of personal growth. I certainly have. My resolution for 2024 was to get fit. And truth be told I took the easiest route. At the YMCA, I stayed by myself mostly and just did a few things. I’d hit the weights some times, I’d bake in the sauna. I keep it real casual. I learn as I go. I struggled for a time to use it. The YMCA stands for “Young Men's Christian Association.” There was also a similar version for women that incorporated a W instead of the M. People all over the world know the YMCA because of the disco song by the Village People. Who can doubt that wild bunch of guys could have fun staying anywhere? These days, you can’t stay at the Y, BUT YOU CAN DO A HECK OF A LOT ELSE!!! There are dance classes! The Y has tons of cool stuff, from foreign language classes to fencing! That’s right, they teach sword fighting! But you have to sign up fast — classes start on Jan. 6. As soon as you read this, get on it! They have an amount of classes that is just incredible. On the website you can look for dates and info to create a solid resolution. And if you happen to fall well below the poverty line, then you can get incredible deals on your membership. All you need to do is be homeless and get the right form on the second floor of the Delonis Center. That will allow you to get a membership at $30 for six months. My advice is get signed up for “SWORD FIGHTING”/ fencing ASAP. I bet this is one that fills up quickly. Imagine a town of swashbuckling badasses after the collapse. Forget about it. My name is Inigo Montoya… DECEMBER 27, 2024 Ann Arbor YMCA staff Nia (Y), Joey (M), Scott (C) and Dontrael (A) pictured left to right. And you killed my father! Just imagine … Society has collapsed. Every day the cruel sun pits man vs. nature vs. himself vs. man’s indifference to man vs. ghouls from the wasteland. The living envy the dead and the dead are soon cooked and eaten. I can see you now with your sword, cutting a deck of bad guys, dealing death like a riverboat gambler with an Ace of Spades up your sleeve. Maybe I’ll return to this later and take the class? There is also rowing at Bandemer. Rowing might sound weird, but if you had any taste you would already be doing it. Vikings rowed; get good at rowing, swords, hit the weights — PLUNDER LIKE IT’S 1999! This could be a real fun sport. And there are nice parties and much fun to be had on the river! Fun on the river can begin with a membership at the Y and $35 bucks for the rowing class! This stretch of the river is so lovely. For fun's sake! I was taken back to my younger days see YMCA next page  DECEMBER 27, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers 9  YMCA from last page when I saw the camps that are connected with the Ann Arbor Y. They look like the kind I would want to go to if I were still a kid. The Y even offers short-term child care while you work out or take classes. A series of swell camps for kids is huge! A day at the Ann Arbor Y will likely begin with a smile from Bill. Bill has worked at the Y for 12 years. Bill is a retired music teacher. Bill told me at first he loved to do nothing, but after a while something was missing. This lifelong educator “needed people again,” so he quit being retired. Not long after Bill gets you checked in you might run across Anthony/Tony, aka Coach Pone. Tony is a swell guy. He likes all kinds of sports and loves to work with people. Members sign up and Anthony will help them reach their fitness goals. If you come towards the middle of the day, Scott Powers will be calling the shots; he is the head guy and simply couldn't be more approachable. In the evening Taurus and Noah hold it down. Once again, I can’t stress how nice these dudes are. Taurus has a smile that could bring back dead puppies, and Noah has such a personable and easy going way one could swear they had known him forever. Either one of these guys is gonna be working in the evenings. I like them both very much. New Years is a time for resolutions, for myself, the Y seemed like a great way to fulfill them. When I asked a few questions relating to this piece I learned that the YMCA has been in town since 1858! This may be the second oldest YMCA in the state! I want to know how long they have been teaching fencing; to me sword fighting seems like the way to go. If you want to join the Y, I hope you do! Simply taking showers at the facility will make even more people think that you aren’t just some kind of stinky jerk. But seriously, this can change your life! Get cleaned up and get judged by the content of your character and not how far people might smell you coming. Maybe you smell great but you only speak English? Take Spanish. It’s fun and you will gain confidence by being able to make even more friends and tell them what to do. But most importantly, we’ll have a great time. See you there and Happy New Year's!!!!! ACROSS 1. Netting 5. Beer quantity 9. Small part in a movie 14. Trade show 15. Killer whale 16. Eyeball benders 17. Appear 18. Back 19. Bullion unit 20. Suitability 23. Iranian coins 24. Floral necklace 25. "Peanuts" creator 28. Finely woven fabric used for sheets 32. Aussie "bear" 33. Sandler of "Big Daddy" 35. Escape 36. Policy favoring governmental interference in economic affairs 40. Six-sided game piece 41. Historic periods 42. Sheriff's gang 43. Unattractively thin 46. Adviser 47. Bleat 48. Cognizant 50. Style of coat with overlap at the front 56. Chip dip 57. Reclined 58. Fertilizer ingredient 59. Whines 60. On the open water 61. Grass stem 62. Embarrass 63. Geek 64. Shell competitor DOWN 1. ___ Verde National Park 2. Board member, for short 3. Blueprint detail, for short 4. Local self-government 5. Spanish conquistador 6. "He's ___ nowhere man" (Beatles lyric) 7. Picket line crossers 8. Nobleman 9. Word inventor 10. Experiencing a suspension of breathing 11. Periodicals, informally 12. Love god 13. His "4" was retired 21. Pertaining to hair 22. Fragrant resin 25. Tire marks 26. Shaped like a volcano 27. Bigot 28. Taps 29. Select group 30. Catch, in a way 31. Old Eurasian wheat with bearded ears 33. Ethereal, in poetry 34. Genetic material 37. Corrupt 38. "La Boheme," e.g. 39. Unrivaled 44. Violations 45. Ohio River tributary 46. Female follower of Bacchus 48. Belittle 49. Drier, as humor 50. Slap on 51. Spanish stewpot 52. Brio 53. Genuine 54. Congers 55. River barriers 56. Place to get a massage

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HISTORY DECEMBER 27, 2024 History of the founding documents: the freedom, rights, liberty we cherish Abraham Lincoln once said, “No one deserves freedom and liberty unless they are willing to extend them to others.” For more than two hundred years, America became a place where oppressed people from around the world have run to in search of religious freedom and opportunity to make their lives and their family conditions better. The pilgrims came to Massachusetts Bay in 1620, fleeing from persecution in England. Unlike the pilgrims, the African slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia, around 1619 for the purpose of forced labor in perpetuity. They did not get their modicum of freedom and liberty until the 13th and 14th amendments of the 1860s. December has a special meaning to every American who cares about due process rights, equal protection guarantee, freedom and liberty. December 15 is the Bill of Rights Day! It is the day that we celebrate the ratification of the Bill of Rights in New York City at the Convention of the Second United States Congress of December 15, 1791. In observance of the Bill of Rights Day, visitors to the National Archive Building will be shown the original copies of the document. They can also see huge murals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution displayed in the rotunda of the National Archive which is located in Washington, DC. The online magazine “National Today” noted that the Bill of Rights display is “a reminder to all Americans of their constitutional freedom.” As we celebrate the anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, we can find some inspiration in President Ronald Wilson Reagan’s farewell message of January 11, 1989. Among other remarks, he said, “We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is about freedom — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile, it needs protection.” President Reagan continued, “But we’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion, but what is important — why the pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant … I’m warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in the erosion of the American spirit. Let’s start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic rituals.” How did President Reagan want us to teach history and civics? He said, WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 “Let me offer lesson number one about America: all great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night, in the kitchen, I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven’t been teaching you what it means to be an American, let ’em know and nail ’em on it. That would be a very American thing to do.” Reagan continued, “I’ve thought a bit of the ‘Shining City upon the Hill.’ The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we’d call a little wooden boat, and like the other pilgrims, he was looking for a home that could be free.” President Reagan offered one final remark about his vision of America, which he equated to the “shining city of the hill.” He observed, “And how stands the city on this winter? More prosperous, more secure and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that: After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true to the granite ridge, and her flow has held steady no matter what storm. And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places hurling through the darkness, toward home.” America’s founding documents According to the National Archive Museum, our nation's founding documents are: 1) the Declaration of Independence; 2) the Constitution; and 3) the Bill of Rights. With respect to the Declaration of Independence, we encourage our readers and members of our community to pay attention to the first and second paragraphs of the Preamble. The Declaration of Independence was signed by the Congress of the 13 original colonies inside the Independence Hall in, Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776. Constitutional Convention of 1787. Mural painting at the Rotunda of the National Archive Building. The founding fathers who worked on the document selected Thomas Jefferson to read the full text to the American people. The most popular and memorable preamble of the text are: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any one form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.” One year after the Declaration of Independence, the 13 original colonies signed the 1777 Articles of Confederacy, which established the Commonwealth of Independent States. A governor from Virginia was appointed president of the Confederacy, but he resigned because the central government was very weak and federal-state government relationships were problematic. In the spring of 1787, a Constitutional Convention was called. It was supposed to take place in Annapolis, Maryland. It was canceled because they did not have a quorum — not enough delegates showed up. The second constitutional convention was called for June to September 1787. They had a quorum and succeeded in designing the key institutions of government. The Preamble to the United States Constitution is: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a - more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.“ As of today, the Constitution has seven articles and 27 amendments. The key institutions of government: Congress/Legislative, Presidency/ Executive and Judiciary, are derived from Article I, Article II, and Article III, respectively. There are several sections in all the seven articles of the constitution. For example, Article I Section 1 says, “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” Article II Section 1 of the constitution states that, “The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows …” Article III Section 1 of the Constitution states that, “The Judicial power of the United States shall be vested in the Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall at stated times receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.” The national archives provide us with a brief history of the Bill of Rights. It also claims distinction as the home of America’s founding documents. One recent research report is titled, see RIGHTS next page  DECEMBER 27, 2024 HISTORY  from BUS page 7 to seniors and persons with disabilities. You are also encouraged to fill out a feedback form at www.theride.org/ about/contact-us. To many of us, a car represents an unparalleled freedom of movement. But perhaps with a more robust public transportation system and a community willing to embrace it, that freedom can be expanded by all. AAATA’s TheRide 2045 plan is standing at the forefront of the effort to ditch the cars and hop on the ‘bus’ train. Will you join them? Read TheRide 20245 Long-Range Plan Executive Summary online at t he r i de . o r g / abou t /p roje c t s / the-ride2045 GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Results from onboard surveying regarding desired improvements.  RIGHTS from last page “The Bill of Rights: How did it happen?” It is quite obvious that many Americans know a little bit about the Bill of Rights. Young Americans and older Americans can easily say what the First Amendment, Second Amendment, or Fifth Amendments stand for. They are rights, freedom and liberty clauses, which were explicated in the constitution so that no one government can take them away from the people. After the U. S. Constitution was drafted in September 1787, there was opposition to its ratification by some people in states like Virginia and Massachusetts. George Mason of Virginia was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and one of those who refused to sign the documents because it lacked a Bill of Rights. Initially, James Madison did not support a Bill of Rights set of amendments to the Constitution. He later led the movement to add a Bill of Rights to the Constitution as a safeguard. The amendment was introduced in the first Congress on June 8, 1789. A joint resolution passed by Congress contained 17 amendments proposed by James Madison and his allies such as Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. When the Senate received 17 amendments from the house, it reduced them to 12. A joint House and Senate conference agreed on 12 amendments which was sent to the President in September of 1789. The national archive reports stated, “On October 2, 1789, President Washington sent copies of the 12 amendments adopted by Congress to the states. By December 15, 1791, three-fourths of the states had ratified 10 of these, now known as the Bill of Rights. “National Today” published the history of the Bill of Rights Day. It said, “Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation that dedicated December 15 as Bill of Rights Day. This was made in honor of the Constitution and to celebrate the document’s 150th anniversary. The Bill of Rights Day took place just eight days after the Pearl Harbor attack and America’s entry into World War II.” In 1946, President Harry Truman issued another proclamation for the Bill of Rights Day. Congress sent a request to President Truman for the proclamation because World War II had ended. In 1952, President Dwight Eisenhower wanted the Bill of Rights Day to be proclaimed every year. “National Today” also noted that in 2019, President Donald Trump made a proclamation for the Bill of Rights Day. President Trump said, “During Human Rights Day, Bill of Rights Day, Human Rights Week, we celebrate the Bill of Rights for safeguarding our Godgiven rights and protecting us from abuse of government powers. I call upon the people of the United States to mark these observations with appropriate ceremonies and activities, including community conversations. Conclusion In poet W.B. Yeats’s world-famous poem “The Second Coming,” he presented words which remind us of James Madison‘s Federalist paper. The paper said, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.“ In “The Second Coming,“ Yeats stated it this way: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer; things fall apart; the center cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world ...” The last four years have been tough, the year 2024 has been the toughest! We survived the existential threat of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Knowledge of our founding documents will help us heal. Let’s have more conversations! It is possible that the second half of the 2020s will be rife with debates over individual first American rights, due process rights, citizenship rights, and of course, equal protection rights. The newspapers, broadcast news and social media will be trying to defend the constitutional provision known as the “freedom of the press.” Individuals and groups who gather to protest will claim their rights to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. People will try to emphasize all their constitutional rights. Historians, philosophers, research scientists know that the founding fathers contemplated that the nation would change and they designed a “living constitution.” America is based on an idea. Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer says that America is an experiment, one he feels is working despite pitfalls, and will continue to, he strongly believes. Let’s keep talking, to ensure that it does.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Hawaiian roll sliders NATALIE MARK U-M student contributor Ingredients: ½ lb of ground meat ½ tsp ground ginger ½ tsp ground garlic 1 tsp salt ½ tsp black pepper ½ cayenne pepper ¼ tsp dried oregano ½ onion and other vegetables if desired 5 Tbsp butter, separated 4 hawaiian rolls 4 slices of american cheese Tomato, sliced Directions: Combine spices and ground meat together in a bowl and let it marinate DECEMBER 27, 2024 for 15 minutes. Caramelize your onions or other vegetables by adding three Tbsp of butter to a hot pan and cooking onion on medium heat until dark golden brown. Remove veggies. Add remaining butter to a separate pan and melt it. Divide your meat into four patties and place in the pan. Cook for three minutes or until nicely browned. Assemble sandwiches. Serves four. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS Make it your way with the ingredients you love. Enjoy the savory flavors. $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 1/9/2025

2 $ A season of peace. page 3 DECEMBER 13, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 26 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. MEET YOUR VENDOR: ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Pictured left to right: Roberto, Luiza, Michael, Steve, Ken, Felicia, Cindy, Mike, Shelley, Lonnie. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER Hear me out: This holiday season, forgive ANTHONY SMITH Groundcover contributor I’ll be home for Christmas … if only in my dreams. ‘Tis the season and I’m feeling bad. I miss my family and I want to be home. Don’t get me wrong, sleeping on the sidewalk is cool but it's nowhere near as good as spending time with the ones you love. This time of year is tough for many people, I know. I’m not the only one who has ever hurt at Christmastime. I’d take all the holiday weirdness and bear it stoically for everyone if I could, and I might spare a gentler soul the hurt I’ve known. If I could give my readers one piece of advice it would be this: FORGIVE. Say you are sorry even if you know you aren't wrong. It's okay to eat crow now and again if it means you can mend relationships with your family or whomever you love. Being right is not near as good as being loved! I wish I could take my own advice but I don't think it would help my situation. I don't have a big family so there are only a few people I would want to be with anyway. I’ll probably spend the day alone; maybe I'll have a few drinks and if the nog hits me right, who knows? If I had a wish that I could make for Christmas magic it would be a chance to spend Christmas like I did four years ago. I’d kept the flame burning with a beach bunny, Jessica, from Daytona that I’d met in college. My mom had cancer and I was worried I might never see her again. Jessica came up from DC and we tried to see my mom. I almost had it, the two most important people to me in one place! We couldn't find her so we drove all through Frankenmuth and Bronner’s. Jessica is a southern girl so she didn’t do snow very well. I had to teach her a few things so we would not wreck. It wasn't a traditional Christmas I guess. Even so, I had one of the best Christmases and I almost nailed it. Now, four years later, I only wish I could have that nearly perfect day again. The important thing is that you take the love within you and share it with the ones you love the most. But I digress. If I can give you one piece of advice, it's this, FORGIVE! Forgive and forgive some more. Say that you are sorry or whatever you must and mend those relationships; sometimes people will surprise you and will be overwhelmed by your largesse. This year fools are advising people to cut off family members for stuff like politics. This is so dumb! Forgive, forgive — and just to be sure, forgive some more. Saying sorry for some things even if you may not actually have done anything wrong can sometimes work wonders. Pass this advice on: FORGIVE AND POTENTIALLY BE FORGIVEN. A friend or someone you know needs to hear this. There is someone, somewhere who should humble themselves and say “I’m sorry.” I might not get to spend Christmas with my family, but if my advice trickles down to the one that needs it the most then I’ve done my bit. Keep holy this time of year and spread this idea. Because as they say, “to err is human, to FORGIVE is divine” and this is what the best holiday is all about. For a brief time a great man walked the earth and because his blood was shed we can all have hope to save our souls in this the best of all possible worlds. If you want to get me anything this year for Christmas, spread this simple idea. They may deserve lumps of coal, but you will give them love and the light that shines from behind your eyes will kill them with kindness and those who may have doubted you will possibly question their doubting. I know you can do it! Spread forgiveness and have patience with those who are difficult because we are not guaranteed tomorrow and today might be as good as it gets. MERRY CHRISTMAS, I LOVE YOU ALL. Scan the QR code to listen to my favorite Christmas song. :) DECEMBER 13, 2024 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Jim Clark La Shawn Courtwright Amanda Gale Cindy Gere Ramon Roberto Isla Caballero Denise Shearer Lisa Sonnenburg James Manning Ken Parks Anthony Smith GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Steve Ross Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Johnathan Glass Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Anthony McCormick Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons DECEMBER 13, 2024 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR A season of peace Every year at Christmas time we Roberto Isla Caballero, vendor No. 347 In one sentence, who are you? I am a worker. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? The corner of Main and Washington Streets. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? 2016 – because people from the Breakfast Church asked what I was doing, and I said “nothing.” And then they asked if I wanted to sell. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Sell my papers. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? My work. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Drink my water. What was your first job? Helping my family in Cuba. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? Nothing. What is your superpower? Groundcover News. What’s the best way to start the day? Selling Groundcover. What is your pet peeve? When people take my things. What small thing makes your day better? Coming to the office. What song do you have completely memorized? Pitbull. What would be the first thing you’d do if you won the lottery? I don’t play games. To la vírgen ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 exp. 01/31/2025 De los dos solo hay una. Es nuestra madre María. De una flor salió un indígena y con su manto índio solo miró los pies de nuestros días y con su manto dorado solo miró unas estrellas doradas y un padre y un pio a un cardenal. Hijos santos, madre mía. hear refrains of “Peace on Earth.” There is some sense in our subconscious that peace is a natural state that we have lost. Is the Garden of Eden totally a myth or was there something before written history that was more cooperative and less warlike than what we call civilization? One important resource for my understanding is the work of Ernest Becker, particularly “The Denial of Death.” I just learned that his “Escape From Evil” is highly recommended so it is now on my reading list. Inequality first arose as those "fearless in battle,” be it with lions or human invaders, gained prestige and power in the community. Those who overcame their fear of death were idolized by many who believed in their heroes more than in themselves. Something like “let someone else take the risk and we will give them our power.” As you cede your power to others, a chain of command can arise that is at odds with natural law but test. Letting go of an illusory self is our job and will prompt a smile as we say goodbye to this world and enter the mystery of beyond. If you look at the first writings of KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 continues due to a mastery of violence and a willingness to perfect and use violence, as if it is just another tool. There can even be great celebration for the “spoils of war!" As the money pours in, all the glories of victory may vindicate a feeling of superiority for the victors. This is the beginning of a class-based society, what we naively call "civilization." Supremacism may appeal to some as if it is natural law but it fails the unity of opposites test. Self and other are not permanent states and death is the ultimate homo sapiens, you will see how the oral tradition spoke of a more natural society than what grew out of violence and male supremacy. Look at “Tales from the Mabinogion." The story of the Welsh language, as the bards of old were written down, spans the 6th to 13th centuries. This literature which grew from the oral tradition is still an inspiration to many who sense the creative authenticity of our ancestors. As deep as our genes is a culture of the mind that we can cultivate. When the student is ready the teacher will appear. Reality is here and you are in a game of cosmic tag. This is the season when we sing “Joy To The World.” Practice the breath of peace until it is natural. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 It's December LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 It’s December cool, crisp, fresh air Bring some Kleenex for your nose and eyes It’s December, and sometimes these need a wiping! It’s December sunlit snow dunes as if to be reflectors of December

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CHRISTMAS The goodies and pretties of Christmas fruits are plums and grapes. I also love getting together with friends and family at Christmas. Friends are equal to family I think. I think if you love and enjoy being with anyone, they are considered part of your family. I like doing artwork and decorating DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 Christmas is a time to love and share and sing praises to God and Jesus. There are a lot of beautiful sounds and colors of Christmas. I love looking at all the beautiful colors of Christmas lights and Christmas decorations. I really love those beautiful Christmas plants that are red and green. Christmas plants, trees and flowers are beautiful whether they are real or artificial. A good thing about artificial plants, trees and flowers is that they live forever. I love candy at Christmas, too. Candy canes and peppermint patties are good because they help my sinuses and colds. I also love chocolate covered cherries and hard candies. I love those taffy peppermints, too. My favorite for Christmas. I decorate my home with Christmas decorations all year round, just like they do in Frankenmuth. Frankenmuth is a place I always love to go, no matter what time of year it is. I dream of going there again sometime when I can get a ride there. I love to make my home as close to my dream of Frankenmuth as I can. Christmas has some beautiful songs — some of my favorite songs are “Joy To The World,” “Silver Bells” and "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful.” I like “Santa Baby”, too. I love watching Christmas cartoons like “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” One of my favorite parts is when Charlie finds a little tree that nobody wants, and they all make it a beautiful tree. Also when they sing. “Home Alone” is another good movie; I like both “Home Alone” I and II. Christmas is a time to enjoy yourself and enjoy your time with others. Merry Christmas! Please help this Christmas TABITHA ALMOND Groundcover vendor No. 360 Hello all Groundcover readers! I am in need of Christmas help this year. All of the Christmas helping programs application deadlines have already passed. I did not know that I would have to complete the application form for Christmas helping programs so early. Now I am in desperate need of help to make sure my children will be able to wake up Christmas morning with some gifts from Santa. There is a couple ways you could help, if you're able. The first one is Venmo — scan the QR code and put "Merry Christmas" on it. Another way is gift cards — Meijer, Target, Visa or Amazon gift cards sent to mine and my husband's email tabbysean99@gmail.com, but please in the subject line put MERRY CHRISTMAS so I know it is not a scam email just wanting me to click on something. Or, if you would like to help my family out in some other way, you could Almond family: Sean, Tabitha, Crystal (3) and Lena (1). also email me or my husband at the email address with how you would be able to help and one of us would email you back. My family and I really appreciate whatever help you can give. Thank you in advance, and happy holidays to everyone! DECEMBER 13, 2024 DECEMBER 13, 2024 UNARMED RESPONSE Ypsilanti considers Care-Based Safety On Tuesday November 26 at the Ypsilanti City Council meeting, two people, Liz Kennedy and Corn Williams, gave a presentation about a community program called CareBased Safety. According to the CBS website, “Care-Based Safety is dedicated to acting with principle and intention. We are taking careful steps in building a community response program that brings loving, unarmed support to people directly impacted by structural violence – without police. In our planning, response, and practice we center the needs of people who are Black, Indigenous, undocumented, unhoused, LGBTQIA+, using drugs and/or experiencing mental health struggles.” Liz, 29, shared how she got involved. “I’m a survivor of domestic and interpersonal violence and have had traumatizing experiences with the police. I got involved in CBS when I realized that I would have to learn some tools if I wanted to keep myself and my loved ones safe during a crisis.” As CBS began its pilot program in the summer of 2023, a group of people began sleeping under the awning of an abandoned bank building at 16 S. Washington. During that summer, CBS (as well as Fed Up Ministries and Growing Hope) had become associated with what the city called “an increased public safety risk in the downtown core.” Liz commented, “The area was already a safety risk. It’s why we came there in the first place. The city was looking the other way until we showed up. They tried to make us a scapegoat.” Liz recalled, “... This summer [2024] looked really different. Our presence made a big impact. Fed Up keeps an incident log. Anecdotally, this year we cut the number of incidents in half. When we wrapped up in September there was a noticeable uptick in 911 calls. This is how opponents justified saying there was a public safety risk. Realistically, the uptick is proof of concept for CBS’s pilot.” They also noticed something new in “We had a lot of returning folks but every shift there was a new person. I think people are missing the fact that the housing crisis is generating new homelessness (sic) victims constantly. That gave the impression that there was more disruption from the regulars than there actually was. We were helping so many people that no one noticed they were all new. The new people are unseen and the whole area is considered a safety risk when really it is a refugee camp.” Corn, 38, has lived experience of homelessness. Corn explains his JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 involvement. “I was into doing my own community work when I was approached by a member of CBS. She told me about some folks who had backgrounds in crisis response and de-escalation that were trying to bring this vision (CBS) to life. When some funding came in to hire employees they tapped me to apply so now I do advocacy for Care-Based Safety.” Corn shared during the presentation: “CBS would provide the city extreme cost savings by reducing the workload of the [Ypsilanti Police Department]. The largest part of the police budget is their operational costs. Even something as slight as a 15% reduction in operational demands would result in a $750,000 decrease in costs. On top of that, the reduction on gas, dispatch and other secondary expenses would add up to nearly a million dollars. “As part of my advocacy work, I attended the Ypsilanti Police Advisory committee meetings. Disgruntled police would come to the meeting and share how detrimental working at YPD was to their mental health. Constant exposure to traumatic incidents plus being overworked and over capacity made a serious impact on their mental health. Here I was, worried that a cop with a clean bill of mental health was gonna whoop my ass or shoot me! But instead YPD is overworking these guys and arming them, knowing they potentially have a diagnosis and throwing them into danger night after night. To me that represents a huge danger to the public.” I asked Council Member Patrick the summer of 2024. Liz continued, McLean what he thought of the CBS presentation. “I'm open to working with them and the concept of an alternative response. I want to hear that they have formal training,” he shared, “They gave a long list of things they do and don’t respond to, but I’m curious about how people get triaged. That is, when they receive a phone call how can they ensure they are determining the proper response?” In response to those questions, I asked Liz, “What would you do if you got to a situation and found out there was a gun or a fire?” “We would call 911 and escalate other emergency responders. We have relationships with the ambulance and fire department.” “Do you see a day when CBS could be called to put out a fire?” Corn laughed as he inserted: "We would need a sizable grant for a fire truck.” “What if it was a bucket brigade?” I countered. Liz chimed in, “I’m glad you brought that up. Modern paramedics came out of Black communities in Pittsburgh because of segregated medical care.” From the Team Rubicon USA website: “Founded in 1967, the Freedom House Ambulance Service was created largely to serve the predominantly Black community of Pittsburgh's Hill District.” I asked Liz, “If the city were to pass a resolution to adopt CareBased Safety, what would it say?” She replied, “We would like Ypsilanti to provide a memo of understanding that establishes a committed partnership between the city and Care-Based Safety. Also funding, obviously, and to reintroduce the RFP that Council member Dez Simmons put forth last year.” Corn concluded, “Mental health and public safety services are paid for through county millages. Last year, they told us they were going to immediately allocate millage funding for mental health programs. We want the county to follow through with this and we want that mental health program to be Care-Based Safety.” GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 Care-Based Safety would reduce police expenditures and save the City of Ypsilanti thousands of dollars.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOLIDAY RECIPES DECEMBER 13, 2024 Turn to the Groundcover News archives for your holiday meal planning needs I feel the need to present past recipes that delight the palate for all walks of life. Food is one thing that brings people together and I for one love a good satisfying meal. This holiday we are branching out to bring a new idea for all to enjoy — a small booklet to say come share in the holiday delights of Groundcover News. November 1, 2022: Kale apple salad CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 December 2018: Curried Coconut Butternut Squash Soup Ingredients: 2/3 cup pecans or walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped 8 ounces kale 4 medium radishes, thinly sliced 2/3 cup dried cranberries (or dried cherries) 1 medium Granny Smith apple 2 ounces soft goat cheese, chilled 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 1 tablespoon smooth Dijon mustard November 2014: Mama's Stroganoff 1 1/2 teaspoons maple syrup Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste Toast nuts in a preheated 350F degree oven for seven to 10 minutes. Pull kale leaves off the tough stems and discard the stems. Chop the kale into small, bite-sized pieces. Place kale in large bowl and sprinkle a small pinch of sea salt over it. Massage the leaves with your hands by lightly scrunching big handfuls at a time, until the leaves are darker in color and fragrant. Add radishes, pecans and cranberries to the bowl. Chop the apple into small, bite-sized pieces and add it to the bowl as well. Crumble the goat cheese over the top. In a small bowl, whisk the remaining ingredients together and pour the dressing over the salad. Toss until evenly coated. Let the salad marinate in the dressing for 10 to 20 minutes. By Elizabeth Bauman. Ingredients: 2 medium butternut squashes, cut length-wise into halves and seeds removed 4 teaspoons olive oil 1 teaspoon salt Pinch of black pepper 1 cup diced carrots 1 cup diced celery 1 teaspoon curry powder 6 gloves minced garlic 1 small onion, diced 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth 13 fluid ounces coconut milk 2 tablespoons fresh flatleaf parsley, chopped Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Place rack in the middle of oven. Place the butternut halves cut-side up on a baking sheet lined with foil. Rub two teaspoons of the oil on the squash. Sprinkle the squash with the salt and pepper. Roast until tender, 50-60 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes, use a spoon to scoop out the flesh (about four cups) and set aside. Heat the remaining two teaspoons of oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the carrots, celery, curry powder, garlic and onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent and the carrots are fork-tender (about five -10 minutes). Add the squash, coconut milk and broth to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for seven minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Doing a small batch at a time, puree the soup in a blender or food processor until smooth. Add dash of salt to taste. Serve warm, garnished with a little chopped parsley. Creamy and delicious soup, prepared dairy-free with coconut milk. So very delicious on a cool night! By Elizabeth Bauman. Ingredients: 2 tsp oil (more if necessary) 1 lb stewing beef 1 large or 2 small onions, chopped 4 fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or 14 oz can of diced tomatoes ¼ cup flour 1 ½ tsp salt 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce ¼ tsp black pepper 1 cup fresh small mushrooms, chopped 1 cup sour cream 1 package egg noodles Heat the oil in a deep skillet or any wide-bottom pan. Add the stewing beef and brown on all sides. Remove the beef and add the onions. Cook until soft. Return beef to pan and add flour to coat. Add tomatoes, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Cook until tender (2-3 hours for maximum taste, but can be cut in half). Add mushrooms and cook for another 10-15 minutes. While mushrooms are cooking, prepare egg noodles according to package directions. Add sour cream to beef and heat gently until cooked through. DO NOT BOIL! (Sour cream will curdle). Ladle stroganoff over noodles and enjoy! By Lisa Sonnenburg. Ingredients: 1 8-oz. bottle Catalina dressing 1 envelope dry onion soup mix 1 12-oz. jar apricot jam 8 skinless, boneless chicken breasts Mix the first three ingredients and blend well. Arrange the chicken in a shallow pan and pour all but one cup of the mixture over the top (make sure to cover all the chicken). Cover with a loose layer of aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes, basting occasionally. Uncover and add the last cup of mixture. Remove cover and continue baking for 15 more minutes. Serve with wild or cilantro-lime rice. By Elizabeth Bauman. December 2021: Apricot chicken DECEMBER 13, 2024 HOIDAY RECIPES December 15, 2023: Date pudding December 2015: Ethel's sugar cookies December 2016: Lemon bars GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Pudding ingredients: 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup flour 1 Tsp butter ½ cup milk 1 tsp baking soda 1 ½ cups pitted dates ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans Syrup ingredients: 1 cup brown sugar 1 ½ cup boiling water 1 Tbsp butter 1 Tbsp vanilla Mix thoroughly: ¾ cup shortening (I use a combination of shortening and soft butter) 1 cup sugar 2 eggs ½ tsp vanilla Mix together and stir in: 2 ½ cup flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt Chill for one hour. Preheat oven to Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Mix together all pudding ingredients except nutmeats and put into a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle nuts over the top. Mix syrup ingredients together. Pour the syrup over the batter and bake for 30 min. Serve with whipped cream. Raisins may be used instead of dates. By Ken Parks. 400F degrees. Roll dough out on floured surface (to about ⅛ to ¼ inch thick). Cut into desired shapes. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 6-8 minutes. Remove from baking sheet and allow to cool. Excellent with a frosting made with powdered sugar and milk. By Elizabeth Bauman. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Mix flour, butter and powdered sugar. Press in an ungreased square pan (8x8x2in or 9x9x2in), building up ½ inch edges. Bake for 20 minutes. Beat remaining ingredients Ingredients: 1 cup all-purpose flour ½ cup butter, softened ¼ cup powdered sugar 2 eggs 1 cup granulated sugar 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel 2 tablespoons lemon juice ½ teaspoon baking powder ¼ teaspoon salt until fluffy, about three minutes. Pour over hot crust and bake for another 20 minutes (until no indentation remains when touched lightly in the center). Cool. Cut in 1 ¼ inch squares. Sift light layer of powdered sugar over cooled bars. A favorite baked every year for our annual cookie exchange by my longtime friend, Lisa. One of my husband’s all time favorite holiday cookies. By Elizabeth Bauman.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CHRISTMAS Go to the Magi AMANDA GALE Groundcover vendor No. 573 Herod was “the King of the Jews” according to the Senate of the Roman Empire; well, at least he was Governor of Judea. The Senate and Citizenry did refer to herod, with that title that he SURELY revelled in. So when a delegation of oddly-dressed foreigners, who had travelled MANY WEARY MILES either afoot or via a transporting animal caravan, or maybe even via ship — suddenly arrived one day inquiring, “Where is HE WHO is born, KING OF THE JEWS?” that was perceived as an IMMINENT, IMMEDIATE THREAT to the Kingdom of Herod. herod wasn’t even fully Hebrew — and he was even from the line of Esau/ Edomites — who through the years, generation after generation just kept turning away from GOD; and also making it difficult to say the least — for actual SEEKERS of GOD and HIS Covenants. Thus also herod’s claim to power was EXPOSED as WEAK compared to One “born” — i.e. via full Hebrew lineage as “KING OF THE JEWS.” Besides that, herod’s Kingdom was all about Rome and this world’s system. It was STEEPED in “SEEK TO FEEL GOOD and HAVE WHAT You WANT" — by EXCLUSIVELY human INVENTION and SYSTEM — that was neither informed by GOD, nor CARED about HIM. Nor did that system SEEK GOD’S indications for human to human relationships, either. It was all glorying of self and humanity. Herod GLOATED over “the Temple” he had created — supposedly for a place for the Hebrew people with whom he was aligning and designated as having authority over — for worship of GOD. It was widely regarded as a magnificent structure, mystical enough to all the Gentiles whose repentance would NEVER be ACCEPTED for entry into the more inner regions within it by the religious leaders dominating through it — though there was obvious GREAT curiosity AMONGST the Gentiles, about what EXACTLY “the Temple” was, and ESPECIALLY about who the GOD it supposedly represented for — was like. However, the religious “leaders” there — presented a COMPLETELY EXCLUDING representation towards “the Gentiles,” INSTEAD OF the “LIGHT FOR THE GENTILES” that they were supposed to be WITNESSING about. Also, the supposed “Temple for the Hebrew GOD” had also ultimately devolved basically into functioning as a banking system that made alliance and protection between Hebrew people and the State of Rome. (No wonder adult-JESUS vehemently threw out the cashiers and the HELPLESS animals ENSLAVED to that system.) This was a shrewd maneuver from the religious elite; however, GOD always recognizes “the Lowly” as being closest in fellowship with HIS Heart, than those pursuing a "new" Babel. However, the money-lust wasn’t the only reason Rome and the Hebrew people dispersed to there were actually ENJOYING a GREAT ALLIANCE and PEACEFUL relationship that also included wide religious and cultural toleration for the Hebrew people. The Romans "now and then" since at least the last century of the BC era were dealing with Hasmonian Rebellions — starting with Mattathias Hasmon, just one of MANY by first century AD, and MANY afterwards also — including descendants of Hasmon who were self-proclaimed, military-styled supposed “Messiah’s” i.e. “Zionists” SEEKING the overthrow of Rome, and a self-devised, ethnically “purged” Hebrew Nation-State — CONTRARY to the focus and way that THE GOD OF THE HEBREWS had actually instructed. And Rome liked to “simplify” things, prevent “MESSY” situations and “BAD press” as it were — by such things as RIOTS; Rome also FEARED that TOO MUCH of such as RIOTS perhaps could even ultimately lead to an overthrow, an UNDOING OF Rome. “The Empire” and its emperor were viewed as “the Great Protector” from which all GOOD things for LIFE proceeded. Because of this valid fear of “the Zionists” by Rome because of ALL the CHAOS at very least that their RIOTINGS caused for Rome, it was therefore actually to Rome’s advantage to cater somewhat to the dispersed Hebrew people’s leaders — financially and politically. However, if these IMPURITIES of heart weren’t enough to link Rome and Judea, herod had also even built a Temple, directly to Caesar and Hebrew people were making "sacrifices" there for the Roman Emperor, and without the emperor even realizing that the original, actual Hebrew religious tradition intended sacrifices as an expression of contrition and a humble, prayerful SEEKING of FORGIVENESS from Sin from GOD. The “sacrifices” thus being made for the Roman Emperor, were thus much more akin with the pagan “appease the gods” type of sacrifices. (No wonder GOD Says, “I desire mercy, and not a sacrifice.") So when the delegation of these surely oddly-dressed foreigners — the Magi — arrived, SURELY herod was thinking, "WHAT!? DON’T these people KNOW!? HAVEN’T they Heard!? I AM THE GREAT HEROD, KING OF JUDEA, THE ONLY KING OF THE JEWS! HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE!? THE WHOLE EMPIRE KNOWS THAT I AM." So these people, the Magi — would've SEEMED REALLY other-worldly. Indeed, their style, approach, the INFO they did and didn’t have; EVERYTHING about them, was just REALLY “other-worldly” seeming. And herod “and all Jerusalem with him” — were “AFRAID!” There seems to be some historical suggestion that the Magi were even, “Parthians;” this group of people were intermittently warring with Rome, and most frequently it was the Parthians who were victorious over Rome in these ongoing battles. If so, the Magi would’ve also then been from an “enemy” people. Besides that, any idea that GOD would “go to” a “foreign” people instead of those descended from those written about and through in Moses and the Hebrew prophets and poets — seemed UTTERLY BLASPHEMOUS! Surely the Magi — along with most of the "Gentile” world by that time were WELL-AWARE of the prophecies of Daniel. The GREAT Curiosity that Gentiles had about the Hebrew GOD and Faith, had even resulted in the commissioning of the Hebrew Scriptures into common language for the Gentiles — and it was referred to as “the Septuagint.” The first Emperor of Rome had declared himself, “Prinkeps” — first Citizen of Rome; though he went beyond this to also be referred to overtly and hintingly as EXACTLY, “THE MESSIAH.” The political peace that was ushered in via Augustus after 100 years of civil war, was GREATLY APPRECIATED by “the People,” and that and the financial prosperity that many were ENJOYING via Rome was DESIRED TO NOT BE DISRUPTED by ANYTHING or ANYONE! Rome offered convenient and fast travel via its roads, and had “public” baths, and eventually even fast-food outlets and CRUEL “entertainment.” There was even a form of social service aid via “the Corn Dole” — that every financially poor Roman male citizen was bestowed, gratis. What more could people WANT or NEED? And who were these “crazy” Magi — divining from the Stars — information about a newborn “KING OF THE JEWS?” Why did GOD go to/through the Magi? A people outside of the Hebrews he’d started with; and a faith that could even seem as if at odds with — the traditional Hebrew Faith. The answer is simple. Many of the people in the people-group GOD was making a beginning with, had STOPPED listening to HIM — QUITE COMPLETELY! Whatever it was that was being SOUGHT — it WASN’T a relationship With GOD; and people relationships that HE gives and makes POSSIBLE. SO GOD HIMSELF went to and through — these “outsiders.” They are people who are available for GOD and we need to be avilable for them. However, all through HIS WORD, it’s ALWAYS “the outsiders” whose hearts REALLY are SEEKING HIM or are at least ready to receive HIM when HE reveals HIMSELF to them, and thus whom HE "goes to and through" anyway. The writer of the New Testament Book of Hebrews thus invites us (Hebrews 13:13) to join JESUS, “outside the (i.e. mainstream)” i.e. the “ACCEPTED APPROVED” mere religion that occurs supposedly in HIS Name. This is WHY we ourselves NEED to “Go to the Magi.” They will lead us AWAY from fallen-human devisings — right to JESUS, the GOD-Man, instead. They will lead us to something better than for our lives to exist in the EMPTINESS of supposed constant gain, hierarchies, prestige or using people. They will lead us to RECEIVING the FREE GIFT of GOD’S Grace — AND thus to relate with HIM and each other, in TRUE PEACE and HARMONY. They will lead us to the Promise of MESSIAH’S RESTORATIVE (Cf Acts) return, when also animals and The WHOLE Creation (Cf Romans 8) are finally FOREVER FREED from the effects of SUFFERINGS that resulted from our spiritual fallenness. But if we already thought the Magi were “weird” with their appearance, clothes and just showing up in a foreign court asking an uncouth and even ENDANGERING for themselves and others question — as we WATCH them once they find JESUS — it gets even, “WEIRDER!” This is what the Greek words used in the New Testament account, literally indicate. The Magi arrived at JESUS and HIS earthly family’s house. At the moment they observe HIM, they “fall down,” see MAGI page 11  DECEMBER 13, 2024 DECEMBER 13, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Young scout 4. Org. founded during Roosevelt's tenure 7. Nincompoop 10. Kind of farm 13. What 0! or 0^0 equals 14. Lead-in to many carriers 15. Hirsute Addams family member 16. Character who took the red pill 17. Word with bang or bank 18. Trawler trailer 19. *Catcalls? 21. *Handout at some sporting events 24. Timeline items 25. Frank whose diary letters are addressed to "Kitty" 26. Like some names 28. Conducting, as war 31. Spanish appetizer 35. Singer DiFranco 38. *Hold auditions, maybe 41. Real stud 43. Less tame 44. *Game with drawings 48. Mess 49. Sound made with ones finger and palm 50. Minted, as a new term 52. Altoid alternative 55. What you might hear straight from the horse's mouth? 59. Take on 62. *Abusive sort 65. Button appearing at the start of some YouTube videos ... or a hint to this puzzle's starred clues 67. Crypto org. 68. Bygone portable device 69. Next of ___ 70. Old Navy rival 71. Video game lead-in to City 72. Dawdle 73. Text letters 74. Unit in a history textbook, maybe 75. Precognition, for short 76. Pronoun in rebus puzzles DOWN 1. Hooded snake 2. The largest one is the National Education Association 3. Kicked off 4. Buffs 5. Keto or paleo 6. Goddess namesake for a N.A.S.A. program 7. Goal 8. 'Trusty' transport 9. Ward (off) 10. Common pen name 11. Young salamander 12. Throw out 20. Part of an H.M.O. 22. Morning moisture 23. Series of diatribes 27. Tennis' Swiatek 29. Lenovo rival 30. Attire 32. Does some calculating 33. Homer, for one 34. Gone ___ 35. Peaks featured in the Evian logo 36. High ___ (showdown time) 37. Caitlin Clark's alma mater 39. Word with song or dive 40. Word yelled upon hearing a surprise party's guest of honor approaching 42. Didn't dawdle 45. Play division 46. Display a spinning circle, as a computer 47. Prerogative 51. ___ Equis 53. PR agent's concern 54. Tennessee's tree 56. Creation of Jobs? 57. Calendar app tab 58. Mount, as a coup 59. Doesn't 59-Across 60. Hardly pore over 61. Transgressions 63. eBay Condition 64. Like an musty basement 66. Belgian town home to one of 7 racetracks in the inaugural Formula 1 season COMMERCIAL BREAKS Victor Schmitt

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS RESILIENCE DECEMBER 13, 2024 All inspirational stories about overcoming great adversities are not the same As creatures blessed with the gift of free will, we human beings are endowed with limitless potential that can take us to places only limited by our imagination. Right? I mean the countless examples of achieving the impossible through perseverance and determination we can draw from for inspiration leaves us with that implied possibility. Stories both modern and timeless, personally witnessed and renowned worldwide, affirm that anything is possible. The tale of a servant boy becoming the ruler of a kingdom; the stories about King Arthur; the historical account of Spartacus bringing his fellow enslaved together to rise against their Roman masters; and many others. Now there can be some benefit found in having such positivity for inspiration. That is the intention of these examples and stories, but at the end of the day they are simply that — examples and stories, perhaps well-intended, then again, perhaps not, and they’re just another manipulation to keep you duly laboring for an implied payoff that turns out to be at odds with reality. So I believe one must be careful to recognize these stories for what they are. They are indeed a tool to motivate you to aspire to a better life — but that's it. They're not manuals for success in life and unless one likes getting their hopes up, don't expect some miraculous blessing to follow you just JAMES MANNING Groundcover vendor No. 16 because you persevere through life. More often than not, a story, or movie that ends happily raises an ongoing challenge that works against your goals whatever they may be. I'm not trying to depress or discourage anyone or paint this world as some unforgiving hellscape. I'm just trying to underline my thought that it's important to be realistic. There are stories and examples of beating the odds out there that are true. But know that it's rare, very rare, and usually the combination with several advantages that are never mentioned, likely advantages a person may not have — like connections, good influential connections, that would vastly improve anyone's situation. So keep that in mind. By all means be inspired, be positive and persevere. But do so with the knowledge that life is not a run-on series of happy endings. Otherwise you're only setting yourself up for disappointment. People's views and ideologies are molded by life experiences and no matter how hard we try, words will never be enough to convey the factors that brought me to such a level of pessimism. I trust nothing, and regard everything we're told as fabrications and manipulations to maintain a status quo that has anything but good intentions for society's best interest. I've been lied to and exploited a lot — I mean a lot. Going all the way back to my earliest memories being referred to as “an accident” to today where I have been pleading for help from an indifferent society that makes more money available to people who actually are evil. We have more compassion towards dangerous murderers than I hope to ever get, and yes that is exactly what it sounds like. I have found myself in such a state of frustration and helplessness that I envy people sitting on death row. But there are some getting help and they are not the people like myself screaming for it over and over for years and years. So when I'm told not to give up and stay positive, I feel insulted and offended. Therefore, I'm wary of everything. People think all financially challenged and homeless people are liars getting what they deserve while television evangelists and politicians are the saints they claim to be. And given my experiences, that level of brainwashing strikes me as evil should there ever be an example of it. But I'm straying a bit off topic and wanted to just circle back to the point I want to make. That blindly believing everything you're told will never line up with reality. It's important to approach everything with a certain level of skepticism and or wariness. See things for what they are and take whatever inspiration is useful from the success stories, but be realistic. You don't have to write everything off and be suspicious of everything around you. Yet it doesn't hurt to have a questioning nature — at the very least it might spare you the negative experience of being exploited. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS - DECEMBER 13, 2024 CONTINUED  MAGI from page 8 “fall on their faces” before HIM. There are two Greek words used for this; one of these words can even mean, “as under condemnation,” and the other word can even mean, “to collapse” or “to die.” Both of these words are used of the Magi’s response to JESUS. Each of these words includes the idea of being like in awe and/or bestowing GREAT Honor to a DESERVING, “HIGHER UP.” It’s like they just “came UNDONE” in HIS presence. Was this not a premonition of HIS, SUBSTITUTIONAL, ATONING SUFFERINGS and DEATH? And in the sudden, spiritual OVERCOMING they EXPERIENCED were they not dying to themselves and believing-on THE TRUE ONE WHOM they’d come SO FAR SEARCHING FOR? The HOLY SCRIPTURE also indicates they “saw” HIM; more like seeing with “the mind’s eye” — not just visually looking. It’s like they could sense a spiritual perceiving of themselves — even from this Child, or at least in HIS presence. Then the Magi “worshiped;” a basic, most literal meaning is “to KISS.” Did they kiss the ground in reverence, as they were bowed before HIM? Or did they KISS HIS CUTE, CHUBBY, little boy face? They had been SEEKING HIM for about TWO WHOLE YEARS! Then they gave HIM — to this peasant little boy — some UNUSUAL GIFTS! They didn’t give him any play toy nor clothes. They gave HIM a financially VALUABLE gift; and TWO RARE and VALUABLE spices/fragrances. Perhaps the gifts reflected something of the livelihood of the givers? They SURELY GAVE their BEST of what they had to give. They WANTED to GIVE the BEST of what they had — to JESUS! Can you imagine such a spectacle — in modern day!? Strange foreigners showing up at a poor family’s humble dwelling, having a PURE though DEEP spiritual encounter with the Child of the family, and giving HIM COSTLY GIFTS!? And, the family ACCEPTED FOR ALL THAT to and WITH their Child!? Possibly what they gave would provide for JESUS’ whole family, during TOUGH financial times? They had had to make a trip to Egypt previously and Joseph perhaps was an older-man and VERY probably died before JESUS reached adulthood. The word used for “gold” could denote VALUABLE coins. The fragrances they gave suggested about JESUS royalty and HIS SUFFERINGS and DEATH. Frankincense is sweet when burned and suggests HOLINESS and RIGHTEOUSNESS; myrrh is also sweet when CRUSHED and burned, and the CRUSHING definitely connotes SUFFERINGS. These people were “on a mission.” They seem to have REALLY WANTED TO MEET JESUS, personally. It would seem like they also really believed they REALLY HAD TO get these gifts to JESUS; like they had to TESTIFY of HIM and like that GOD had called them to the privilege of PROVIDING for HIS NEEDS. But the coward, “herod — the Great” once again used his mere human means SEEKING to THWART what was the ACTUAL plan of GOD. This time however, the TRAGEDY was to all the male infants of the WHOLE AREA Of JUDEA, from TWO years OF AGE AND LESS — for they were ordered BRUTALLY KILLED via herod’s soldiers (perhaps typically via sword!?) This hearkens to the Hebrew children of Moses’ time, and satan ALWAYS does things in SICK, repeating patterns. This MERCILESS SLAUGHTER of these INNOCENT children was also prophesied as “Rachel weeping for her children.” There are 40+ other overt prophecies in Moses and the Canonical Hebrew poets and prophets that are QUITE OBSERVABLE as being parallel with the person of JESUS and events and aspects concerning HIM; and hundreds more prophecies in these same books that are perhaps slightly more obscure, though RECOGNIZABLE if one “goes a little deeper.” The religious leaders were QUITE familiar with these prophecies (Cf Matt). However, ASTONISHINGLY — they SHUNNED these, even arguably aided with trying to THWART these, while the Magi followed a star, and found — THE SAVIOR! Was the star a direct, in-person manifestation of THE HOLY SPIRIT? It was at least something brought about by THE HOLY SPIRIT — testifying of JESUS, and which testimony the Magi followed. GOD ALWAYS reaches-out to us in ways PERSONAL and UNDERSTANDABLE to EACH person who ACTUALLY WANTS HIM! HE gives us what we NEED to find and relate with — HIM! HE uses the means we can RECOGNIZE and NEED. However, the star as glorious as it was — was just “a Pointer” — to JESUS. A few years later in history, it will be EXACTLY HIS RIGHTFUL TITLE that will be the ironically TRUE accusation that is posted over HIS Cross. “THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” It is also prophesied, “HE will come to HIS Temple;" and this HE fulfilled in HIS first Advent and will yet fulfill in HIS second coming. Therefore, we NEED to “Go to the Magi.” We NEED their faith; they obviously TRUSTED GOD instead of FEARING herod and others. They walked right into a foreign, perhaps “enemy” court. They SURELY had to TRUST GOD over that LONG, two year journey. Were they all from one country? Or did GOD gather them together with each other, along the way? Were there two or 23, or more of them? We NEED their kind of people in our LIVES — courageous and DETERMINED with GOD’S leadings. We NEED to associate with the humble, TRUE-hearted worshipers of JESUS, NOT with the elite religious paralysis, QUENCHING THE HOLY SPIRIT. We NEED their mission and their insight. We are called to VALUE and AID and to ASSUME WHOLENESS and GOOD about, “The Least Of These …” among us. That was UNHEARD of by Rome. We are called to BLESS and PRAY for our enemies — though not to ANY MASOCHISTIC SEEKING of their ABUSINGS of us; this WASN’T even FULLY realized by Moses and the Hebrew prophets and poets. We NEED to REALIZE with the Magi — that JESUS can be perceived as a THREAT, because HE is the only true complete revolutionary who upends, UNDOES, and thus UPSETS — the ways of this world. JESUS changes LIVES and HEARTS. JESUS heals INFIRMITIES and RELATIONSHIPS. JESUS gives us PURPOSE and ULTIMATE GOOD DESTINATION. The SPIRIT OF JESUS spreads around GOD’S MERCIES — in the “Here and Now.” HOW will we LIVE our lives if we REALLY believe this? What are we SEEKING to give to JESUS, and others? We NEED to “Go to the Magi” to learn to RID ourselves of all the DISTRACTIONS of this LIFE and to LOVE and to WORSHIP JESUS and RECEIVE HIS HEALING LOVE for us. We NEED HIS LOVE mutually with each other to RELATE with people and LOVE as HE EMPOWERS us to. Have you heard this song? GROUNDCOVER NEWS "How Many Kings?" by Downhere Follow the star to a place unexpec ted Would you believe, after all we've projected A child in a manger? Lowly and small, the weakest of all Unlikeliest hero, wrapped in his mother's shawl Just a child Is this who we've waited for? Bringing our gifts for the newborn Savior All that we have, whether costly or meek Because we believe Gold for his honor, and frankincense for his pleasure And myrrh for the cross He will suffer Do you believe? Is this who we've waited for? ‘Cause How many kings step down from their thrones? How many lords have abandoned their homes? How many greats have become the least for me? And how many gods have poured out their hearts To romance a world that is torn all apart? How many fathers gave up their sons for me? Only one did that for me Oh, all for me, oh All for me, all for you Only one did that for me All for me, all for you MERRY CHRISTmas! Please see accompanying illustration on page 12. 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Candied sweet potatoes ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 6 medium sweet potatoes 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 Tablespoon water 1/4 cup pure maple syrup 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 2 teaspoons orange zest flaky sea salt (optional) Directions: Preheat the oven to 375°F. Peel then slice the sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch thick slices. Place in a greased 9×13inch dish and sprinkle salt on top and toss to coat. Combine the butter, water, maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir until the butter has melted. Stop stirring and bring to a gentle boil. Boil for two minutes without stirring. DECEMBER 13, 2024 Remove sauce from heat and stir in the vanilla extract and orange zest. Pour sauce over potatoes and toss to coat. Bake for 1 hour, stopping and stirring the sweet potatoes every 20 minutes. After the first 20 minutes, cover the dish with aluminum foil so the potatoes bake evenly. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with sea salt if desired and cool uncovered for 10 minutes before serving. The sauce is thin right out of the oven but thickens as it cools. Delicious as a holiday side dish to turkey. By Amanda Gale, vendor No. 573 Make it your way with the ingredients you love. Enjoy the savory flavors. $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 1/9/2025

2 $ NOVEMBER 29, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 25 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. AADL commemorates Ann Arbor's bicentennial. page 5 SCHILLINGTON MORGAN #148 ASK YOUR VENDOR: HOW HAVE YOU SEEN A2 CHANGE? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. People in the neighborhood. page 6 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator Chris and George. Photo credit: Emily Mills • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER community EVENTS DEPOT TOWN TREE LIGHTING CELEBRATION Sunday, December 1, 5:30 p.m. Ypsilanti Depot Town, 100 Market Place The tree, near various shops and restauarants, will light up for the holiday season. This year, meet Santa in the Ypsilanti Freighthouse, and visit with Santa's Reindeer. Plus, write letters to Santa and enjoy cookies. Unicorn rides, a petting farm, and more family fun starting at 5 p.m. ANN ARBOR 200 FILM SERIES Mondays in December, 6 p.m. AADL-Downtown Meet local filmmakers and view short films that are all about Ann Arbor! As part of Ann Arbor 200 (the library’s celebration of the city’s bicentennial year), AADL commissioned 20+ short documentary films that explore topics from Ann Arbor's history. Locations will vary within the building. MIDNIGHT MARKET Friday, December 6, 5 p.m. - 12 a.m. Downtown Ann Arbor A2's beloved downtown holiday shopping event is bigger and better than ever, with festivities in State Street, Kerrytown and Main Street. YPSIWRITES: WRITING as a GIFT Saturday, December 7, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Join for a hands-on virtual writing session to learn about and create different types of writing gifts for loved ones. Register at: www.ypsiwrites.com/events A2 ART CENTER AUTHOR SERIES: OUR LOVE WILL CHANGE the WORLD Thursday, December 5, 7 - 8:30 p.m. A2AC Gallery 117 W Liberty, Ann Arbor Author reading featuring Cal Freeman, Scott Beal, Brittany Rogers, Rebecca Biber, Kelly Hoppenjans and Monica Rico. Inspired by Doug Coombe's photo exhibit. PULL OVER PREVENTION and MUTUAL AID FAIR Saturday, December 14, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Masjid Ibrahim, 315 S Ford Blvd, Ypsilanti Free car repair, food, vaccines, pet supplies and more! A200 BICENTENNIAL CLOSING CEREMONY Sunday, December 14, 5:30 p.m. Skyline High School, 2552 N Maple Rd Read more details on page 5 NOVEMBER 29, 2024 Cartoon by Izzy Hedin- Urrutia PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Beverly Boss Jim Clark Cindy Gere Alexandra Granberg Mike Jones Dan Meisler Ken Parks Cynthia Price Scoop Stevens Wayne Sparks Shawn Swoffer Felicia Wilbert GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 CONTACT US PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Steve Ross Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Johnathan Glass Alexandra Granberg Emily Mills Robert Klingler Anthony McCormick Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Melanie Wenzel Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons NOVEMBER 29, 2024 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR How have you seen Ann Arbor change over the years? It went from "Tree Town" to "Building Town." — Schillington Morgan, #148 The radicals are going deeper and the liberals are getting more disconnected. — Ken Parks, #490 I’ve seen it change 100%. Before, people would try to help other people. The shelter and churches weren’t as overcrowded. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 I'm newer to the Ann Arbor area and I appreciate the people I interact with during Groundcover News sales. — Amanda Gale, #573 The word would be corporate-tocracy. — Cindy Gere, #279 A lot! People are less friendly. — Mike Jones, #113 There's more interaction and events for families, townies. —Terri Demar, #322 100% — I know that. Nowadays, they're always working on something, rebuilding things. I wish they'd build me a house! — Donna McGaughy, #310 A lot. People have moved on; businesses have changed. I'm glad some have stayed like Afternoon Delight. —Felicia Wilbert, #234 MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 The people in Ypsilanti, Michigan are awesome. Ypsi is a small city in the wilderness of North America where you can breathe the fresh air off the mighty Huron River and gaze into the sky and watch the bald eagle fly, and have the most interesting meaningful conversations with people. A year ago around this time, I decided to start selling Ypsi Awesome! Groundcover newspapers in the downtown Ypsilanti area. I also wrote an article about my transition from selling Groundcover newspapers in Ann Arbor to selling in Ypsilanti in the January 2024 edition. After a year of selling Groundcover in Ypsi and meeting and becoming friends with good people, I want to say thank you to all the businesses and people who help me keep a roof over me and my son's heads and food on the table. Right out the gate for gratitude: The people who work and shop at Ypsilanti Food Co-op are super awesome! Right across the street, the people who work and hang out at Vertex Coffee Roasters are awesome. Sweetwaters Cafe on Cross Street is awesome. A2Vintage in downtown Ypsilanti is awesome. Christmas past, Hanukkah present SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover vendor No. 638 Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple in 164 BCE. This was Israel’s second temple. The first temple, built by King Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonians on August 9, 586 BCE. Hanukkah begins at sunset on Christmas day this year. The Israelites returned to the land of Israel after being held captive in Babylon for 70 years because over a period of 490 years they did not obey the Sabbath year command to let the land rest and forgive debts during the seventh year (2 Chronicles 36 vs 21). The Jews rebuilt the Temple. The second temple wasn’t anywhere near the greatness of Solomon’s Temple. The second temple was destroyed by the Romans on August 9, 70 CE. Since God cannot be contained in a temple, it was never his will to have one built. He knew in advance that men would build one; he allowed it as a concession and made rules governing it. The Temple was the center of all religious, economic and political life for the Jews. Its destruction was devastating but the Jews fought on and continued to wait for their Messiah to come. Judaism was never a monolithic religion. It has adapted to times and circumstances but it has always been a religion about the law. The law has been revealed to us but the We need to talk about trafficking BEVERLY BOSS Groundcover vendor No. 583 Hi everyone. I want to talk about homeless women on the street — how we need homeless shelters for women and children. Sex traffickers prey on women with no family help, or who are homeless. Traffickers stalk them, get a group of people to watch them and put them on video. Some might use drugs and then try to use the women. Put them out there using fraud and coercion. It is hard to spot and goes unreported because abusers make women fear for their lives. A lot of people can’t get out of it; a lot of people need a fresh start to get out of this abuse. From what I’ve heard and seen inside, 100% of women in jail are persons that were sexually attacked or in fear of their lives. We as women need more support to spot this trafficking. I think the community needs to get more educated about this. I think it is so important to talk. Help with women’s shelters! We need more shelters than just SafeHouse; they are too picky-choosy on who they allow to stay because they do background checks. Often people have to engage in violence to protect themselves and they shouldn’t be punished for that. If you have domestic felonies, the SafeHouse does not let you stay. Kids do not need to be in this abuse, either — kids who are trafficked and kids of women who are being trafficked. Kids and women are more prone to abuse on the street. It seems like men get more help than women and kids. I see a lot of women out there struggling with addiction and abuse with nowhere to go. Women are more likely to be sexually assaulted in co-ed shelters like Delonis; as a result they choose to live on the abusive streets and then are more likely to go to jail. If you have felonies or drug problems you can’t be eligible for mental health courts. If you look for a place to live, you cannot have felonies. You have no place to live. I’ve seen a lot on the street; I feel no hope, no hope at all. I do wish you will all take trafficking and stalking homeless women as a real danger. I want to make it clear: we have a problem and we need to start speaking about it. Thank you. I hope to get you good news next time, peace! secret things belong to God (Deut. 29 vs 29). Before there was a king in Israel, there were tribal musters where each of the twelve tribes would gather. During times of national emergency the God of Israel raised up judges, and during the emergency their power was absolute. One of the judges was Deborah. “Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth was judging Israel" (Judges 4 vs 4). During this time of national emergency (Project 2025), we need a judge like Deborah, a prophetess and a Jew. Marianne Williamson, who helped popularize "A Course in Miracles" and emphasizes balance and love, might just be that person. Students, faculty and staff at Eastern Michigan University are awesome. Bellflower restaurant is awesome. Crawdaddy’s Creole is awesome. The good people who work at Bloom Cannabis in Ypsilanti, Bird Dog Baking and Depot Cats and Dogs are all awesome. And all the good people I meet who purchase Groundcover paper from me and other Groundcover vendors are awesome! Thank you for your support! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ANN ARBOR NOVEMBER 29, 2024 10 years after A2 police kill Aura Rosser: a liberal safe haven is not so safe ALEXANDRA GRANBERG Groundcover contributor On the evening of November 9, about 60 organizers, activists and community members gathered at Liberty Plaza to remember and honor the life of Aura Rain Rosser on the tenth anniversary of her murder. In the early hours of November 10, 2014, Ann Arbor police officer David Ried fatally shot Rosser in her home within seconds of his arrival. Rosser was holding a 4-inch paring knife in her hand when the police arrived. According to her sister, Rosser was cooking to calm herself after a dispute with her ex-boyfriend. Ried shot her after Mark Raab, the other officer present, had already tased her. “Why would officer Ried shoot Aura in the heart after they had already tased her and put her down on the floor?” reflected Shirley Beckley, lifelong Ann Arbor activist who has been organizing around Rosser’s case for a decade. The Michigan State Police conducted a hasty investigation into the murder. Neither of the involved officers were interviewed, and alleged threats to the officers were exaggerated in the report. Making claims of self-defense, Ried and Raab stated that Rosser “opened her eyes very wide” and “appeared to be in a deranged state.” They also described Rosser “walking” towards them. The report instead read “confronting,” and the press release stated Rosser “came at” the officers, which the Ann Arbor News then sensationalized into “charged.” The community posed three minimum demands: an apology from the city, compensation for Rosser’s funeral costs, and for Ried to be fired. None of the demands have been met in the decade since the murder. Instead, the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office exonerated Ried, who soon after was promoted to sergeant. Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor described the murder as “a tragedy of mental illness untreated.” After a sustained community campaign, the city eventually implemented an Independent Community Police Oversight Commission. However the commission has fallen short of fulfilling its purpose, with the city restricting its independence and access to information about complaints against police. The city of Ann Arbor has also rejected opportunities to build and fund non-police crisis response options which emphasize care instead of violence. Last December the city rejected a thorough proposal by Care Based Safety, the only third party to submit an application to the city’s open request for proposals. Photo credit: Emily Mills. Aura Rosser was an artist, daughter, sister and mother of three. At the vigil, Rosser’s sister Shae Ward spoke publicly for the first time since the murder, remembering her sister as a caring person. “She was my entire life and the state destroyed my life when they executed her. […] The state promised to care for us, the state taught us to respect and reverence their authority and we did.” Shirley Beckley expressed the insufficiency and lack of response from the city: “This was a brutal killing that has been ignored for ten years!” A zine detailing the flawed investigation, "People’s Retort to the Prosecutor’s Report," recognizes that Rosser’s killing and Ried’s exoneration “is part of a national pattern of disregard for Black lives” — a conservative estimate is that a Black person is killed every 28 hours. “The liberal haven of Ann Arbor is no safer for Black [people] than the rest of America,” the zine reads. Other speakers at the vigil echoed this sentiment when honoring the legacy of local activism and the continued fight for justice and dignity for all people. Among them was Donald Abdul Roberts, long-term organizer from Ann Arbor and former member of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM), an organization of Black workers formed in 1968 in Chrysler’s Dodge Main assembly plant in Detroit. Michigan Abolition and Prisoner Solidarity (MAPS), U-M Safety Not Cops, and GEO Abolition Caucus organized the vigil for Aura Rosser together with family and community members. The zine "People’s Retort to the Prosecutor’s Report" is available online at radicalwashtenaw.org. The Grove at Veridian — applications open now! DAN MEISLER Avalon Housing Avalon Housing is accepting applications for residents to live at the Grove at Veridian, the new affordable housing development on Platt Road in Ann Arbor. The homes have up to four bedrooms, making the project one of the few affordable housing opportunities for families in the area. The Grove at Veridian is part of the Veridian at County Farm Park development. The Grove will consist of 50 units, 30 of which will be filled through Washtenaw County’s Community Housing Prioritization system (housingaccess.net). The other 20 units will be available for individuals or families with income lower than 60 percent of the area median income. More information and applications for tenants are available at avalonhousing.org/apply. Printed copies of the application form are available at Avalon’s offices at 1327 Jones Drive in Ann Arbor. The deadline for applications is Dec. 17, 2024. “We’re very excited to have people start moving into this amazing new community,” said Aaron Cooper, Executive Director of Avalon Housing. “The Grove at Veridian is unique for a number of reasons — its location next to County Farm Park in the heart of Ann Arbor, its inclusion in the Veridian community that includes net-zero-energy, market-rate homes, and the family-friendly units that are often very hard to find at an affordable rate.” “We expect demand to far exceed the 20 units we have available,” he continued. “Unfortunately, it’s very difficult for the Ann Arbor community — even with all the support available — to keep up with the ever-increasing need for affordable housing.” The Grove, like all Avalon Housing properties, will provide support services that help those exiting homelessness stay in their homes, including medical clinics, a food pantry, and on-site support staff. Applicants meeting the income requirements will be selected via a lottery. The household income limits for units at The Grove at Veridian are: • 1-person household: $50,220 • 2-person household: $57,360 • 3-person household: $64,560 • 4-person household: $71,770 • 5-person household: $77,460 • 6-person household: $83,220 • 7-person household: $88,920 • 8-person household: $94,680 The rents of the available units will be: • 1-bedroom: $775/month (2 units available) • 2-bedroom: $875/month (5 units) • 3-bedroom:$975/month (11 units) • 4-bedroom: units) After eligible applicants fill out the application form at avalonhousing. $1,075/month (2 org/apply, they will be contacted by an Avalon staff person in January to obtain further information. The target move-in date is April-July, 2025. The project was funded using Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, County HOME funds, City of Ann Arbor Affordable Housing Millage Funds, a State Enhancement Grant, Federal Home Loan Bank Affordable Housing Program funds and private donations. The land was granted to Avalon by Washtenaw County as a condition of allowing development partner Thrive to undertake the Veridian project. Avalon Housing’s mission is to build healthy, safe and inclusive supportive housing communities as a long-term solution to homelessness. Avalon owns and manages 29 sites in Ann Arbor, Dexter and Chelsea, and has 175 units in the pipeline in new projects in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. avalonhousing.org NOVEMBER 29, 2024 ANN ARBOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s AADL commemorates bicentennial JASMEHER SINGH U-M student contributor As a newer resident of Ann Arbor, I couldn’t tell you the first thing about who we are as a city. I would describe Ann Arbor as a diverse place that gives small-town vibes with some hustle and bustle that bigger towns provide. I might talk about the small businesses, the University and the residents who live in neighborhoods across the city. But I would never have the full picture of what the city of Ann Arbor is and what it means for the people who have lived here. The Ann Arbor District Library is providing just that. People who love the city of Ann Arbor will get an insider look into what Ann Arbor is all about. The celebration of our bicentennial, 200 years since the city of Ann Arbor was founded, not only provides us with a timeline of this city, but also tells us about the people who lived here from 1824 through the present. Through the timeline exhibit about Ann Arbor located at the AADL-downtown branch, a digital content archive with over 200 media projects that tell us about the story of Ann Arbor, and walking tours that take us to hidden and popular places across the city, the AADL has done a tremendous job answering the question “Who Are We?” as a city. The exhibit, located on the AADL-downtown’s second floor, showcases a timeline of the history of Ann Arbor. According to the Ann Arbor Bicentennial, in 1824 the city of Ann Arbor was founded by John Allen and Elisha Rumsey and it soon became a town where pioneers could settle. The city grew more in 1837 when Michigan was admitted into the Union and the University of Michigan relocated from Detroit to Ann Arbor. In the late 1800s, many institutions such as medical schools, high schools, businesses and churches formed and flourished. The early 1900s saw the University of Michigan winning national championships in football. While other cities suffered during the Great Depression, Ann Arbor somewhat thrived. The late 1960s and 70s were dominated by student activism while the 80s and 90s had students emerging in a cultural era. In the 21st century, Ann Arbor grew even more with new markets and housing expanding across the city. Ann Arbor’s rich history tells us a bit of background about what kind of city Ann Arbor continues to be. Anyone can learn about the city of Ann Arbor by going online and looking through Ann Arbor 200, a digital content archive on the AADL's website [aadl.org/annarbor200] which explores different topics through podcasts, articles, documentaries, illustrations, music recordings, animations and more. There are interviews showcasing high school teachers, owners of small businesses such as Sweetwaters and The Ark, the manager at the Michigan Theater for the last 40 years, and the Rationals aka Ann Arbor’s Beatles. Other forms of media include posters, maps, cardboard cutouts of Ann Arbor buildings and more which showcase some of the amazing talents of artists across Ann Arbor. One piece of art on the website is a map detailing all the natural spots across Ann Arbor including trails along the Huron River and native species. People can look at the art online and buy it in print through the Ann Arbor 200 website or find it at the new exhibit that opened in early November. These forms of media tell us stories about how Ann Arbor came to be and the people within it. In addition to the history exhibit and the digital content archive, the AADL has also introduced A2 SmartTours which includes 177 tours spanning all of Ann Arbor. These locations all include a narrative that describes the significance of the place along with a picture of what it looks like. These walking tours can be downloaded as an app on your phone. People who have completed the tour checklist can go to City Hall and get recognized for this endeavor. Some popular touring spots in Ann Arbor are included on the Ann Arbor highlights tour which consists of the Big House, the Michigan Theater, the Arboretum, the Campus Diag, and the Ann Arbor District Library. The best part is that all these places are free to visit to learn more about! Through this celebration, residents of Ann Arbor and visitors can gain a full understanding of who we are as the city of Ann Arbor by looking at its rich history and the people who exist within it today. Bicentennial C losing Ceremony The City's final bicentennial celebration is on Saturday, December 14 at Skyline High School. The reception and art exhibit will begin at 6 p.m. with the formal program following at 8 p.m. The event will include refreshments, an art exhibit, commemorative pictures, Aerie oral history program, interactive Tree of Hopes and Dreams, a “The next 100 years” performance by area high school musicians, stage production of “Ann Arbor then, now, next," bicentennial poem by Aaron Dworkin and a showing of CTN's happy birthday Ann Arbor video. Tickets can be purchased online at a2bicentennial.org and are $10 per person. Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Preschool Storytimes and Baby Playgroups Join our storytellers on weekdays inside the library for fun songs, stories, puppets, and moement! Visit aadl.org/storytimes to view a list of upcoming in-person storytimes and playgroups. You can also stream and download our recorded storytimes online at AADL.TV. Fifth Avenue Press AADL founded Fifth Avenue Press in 2017 to support the local writing community and promote the creation of original content. The imprint publishes works by authors who live in Washtenaw County. Consider sibmitting your finished manuscript to Fifth Avenue Press today at fifthave. aadl.org. FEATURED EVENT 5 Sat, December 14 • 11am–6pm Downtown Library Tiny Expo is back! The annual indie art and craft show features over 80 artists and crafters selling unique, handmade creations. Check out aadl.org/tinyexpo to get a sneek peek at this year’s vendors, FAQ’s, and more.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS NOVEMBER 29, 2024 Chandra (left) dreams of opening a non-profit community theater. George and Chris (middle) would like to open a homeless shelter. Jen (right) wants to pay the debts she incurred while homeless. Photo credit: Emily Mills. People in the neighborhood Recently, the city of Ypsilanti tried to pass a resolution granting the city manager carte blanche to use whatever means necessary, including police presence, to “make the downtown core safe.” The “downtown core” includes the four blocks surrounding Michigan Ave and Washington St. in Ypsilanti. Many of the speakers in support of the resolution expressed a “not in my backyard” sentiment during public comment at City Council, also supporting incarceration for loitering. Some of them said, “those people could get off the street if they wanted to.” Yet many of the neighbors and business owners who spoke don't know anything about these people's situations, including what they are doing to help themselves. These are the stories of four people who spend time in this downtown core. Chandra Chandra is a 50-year-old woman who is a mother of four and a grandmother of five. She is currently sleeping outside. I asked her how she came to experience homelessness. Chandra replied, “I had an apartment but my boyfriend had a stroke and couldn't go to work so I was the only one in the family working. Eventually we lost our apartment. This was four years ago. Since then I’ve been staying with my daughter here and there, going back and forth from my friend's house — basically couch surfing. Last night I slept on the church steps. It's hard to be out here, I’m a mother and a grandmother. I don’t have anywhere to go.” She began to tear up. “And now the church says we've been there too long so now we had to leave. This is so stressful, at times I don't know if I'm coming or going. My mind is overwhelmed! I can’t get any JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 rest and have no place to unwind. Getting a job in this situation is challenging, let alone keeping one.” “What would help you get to a better place?” I asked. “I need help with inspiration. We tend to let people be where they are without pushing them to do more. I need some assistance. I need a mentor. I have no older women in my life to guide me. The desire for guidance is a natural human need. We need opportunities to grow and we need our elders and teachers to guide us to that growth and through that growth. Without opportunities to stretch ourselves, we can become complacent.” “What would you do with a million dollars?” “I have great ideas, but the one I would most like to start is a non-profit theater troupe called ‘Make Ypsilanti Laugh Again — MYLA!’ We all need to smile and enjoy things, even though we all are stressed!” Jen Jen is a 42-year-old woman. She is 4 1/2 months pregnant, sleeping in a tent, and surviving active domestic violence. I asked her the same question to begin, “How did you become homeless?” Jen shared, “I had an apartment last year, but I lost it because I couldn’t pay for it. It was a one bedroom apartment in Arbor One. My rent was $1,088 a month. So we had to leave. I moved to Indiana with my son to live with my cousin. But it was bad all the way around. My cousin kept threatening to throw us out. I think she was into my boyfriend and mad that she couldn’t have him. So there were arguments everyday. She finally kicked us out. I got my tax payout so we got a rental car and came back to Michigan. We were staying in it for two months but then Enterprise took the car away.” The repossession occurred April 10th. The trip to Indiana was in February, and the temperatures were in the 20s. Jen went on. “Since the car was gone I was sleeping in the port-a-potty in a local park. I didn’t have a place to keep my clothes so I hid them in the woods but someone stole them. I was left with my winter coat, shirt and shoes for two weeks. A friend took me to a hospitality house and I was able to get some clothes, a tent, a cot and a few other things. They helped me find a safe place to pitch my tent.” I asked her, “What is keeping you homeless?” “Keeping a job.” “Are you employed now?” “No, but I’m looking.” “How long ago since your last job?” “I quit that job about a month ago.” “Why did you quit?” “My boss and I had a falling out. I understand that we are employees and the boss expects certain things, but you can’t talk to people abusively. So even though I’m homeless, I have more self-respect than to stay in a hostile work environment or an abusive relationship.” “Another thing that can keep you homeless is your credit,” Jen offered, “if you have an issue with your credit they aren’t going to accept you. Even if you have the money. I even tried second chance places but they still denied me, so here I am. It’s not like I’m not trying.” I asked, “If you could have any job you want, college tuition paid, or on-the-job training, what would it be?” Jen answered, “If I had a car, I would use it to DoorDash while I put myself through school. I liked health occupations in high school. I’m curious about phlebotomy or being a medical assistant.” “Final question: what would you do with a million dollars?” Jen said, “I would like to pay off debts and travel.” George and Chris George, 34, and Chris, 44, are life partners. Chris is recovering from a heroin addiction; George takes care of him while working as a cook for Fed Up Ministries and volunteering. They met last winter at a homeless shelter. “So what happened? How did you become homeless?” I asked him. George replied, “I was working at Tower Inn and when they changed over to Basil Babe I was laid off. I was living in Schooner Cove when my lease ended. They raised the rent on my studio apartment to $845/mo. It was just too expensive. Nowhere else would approve me because the wages I made before I was laid off wasn’t enough to cover all the fees and security deposits. So my next stop was a tent. “ “What did you do after you were laid off?” “I found a job as a waiter at IHOP. I was still homeless. But I had to leave IHOP because there was an issue with my partner at the time. He was bringing drama to my place of work, so unfortunately they let me go but I was okay with that. Then I got a management position at Marco’s Pizza in Rawsonville. But I had to leave there as well, it was just too far.” see PEOPLE page 8  NOVEMBER 29, 2024 HOMELESSNESS Ozone House expansion will mean more shelter for young people CYNTHIA PRICE Groundcover contributor At an open house November 19, Ozone House took attendees on tours of their Huron River Drive location. On entering a large upstairs room, visitors were shown a blueprint of an expanded emergency shelter for 18 to 24-yearolds. The project got underway on November 22. The festive open house focused on Ozone’s current achievements as well as its strategic plans. “Working to prevent and end youth and young adult homelessness,“ Ozone was founded in 1969, established a transitional living center in the mid-1980s and runs a drop-in center on Hamilton Street in Ypsilanti. The organization moved to their current building in 2020; there they provide residential stays, case management, mental healthcare services, and education both for eventual job placement and in life skills, such as financial literacy. The young adults who reside there pay minimal rent and receive advice on how to afford it sustainably. They have a lot of autonomy, including decorating their own spaces, which Welcoming people in at the recent Ozone House open house are: (left to right) Board President Lee Meadows, Vice-President Liz Kolb, Executive Director Kellie Rutledge and Outreach Manager Jackson Greenstone. several residents showed off proudly at the open house. Every year, Ozone House assists about 2,160 people through their crisis line and 800 people with safe refuge, and provides over 4,000 hours of professional therapy and 20,800 hours of life skills training. They do over 10,600 bed nights annually, and 45 or more young people graduate from their workforce program. When completed, the emergency shelter will have about 20 beds. Funding was provided by a grant from Washtenaw County. Ozone House is still seeking funding for staffing and operations. But once up and running, it will expand the county’s capacity where it is sorely needed. The number for the Ozone House crisis line is 734-662-2222. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS  PEOPLE from page 6 George walked four and a half miles one way from Ypsilanti to Rawsonville, five days a week. He did this for two months. I continued, “Are you still living in a tent?” “Yup.” Through all of this, George takes time to help at community events, volunteer for the organizations that are helping him, and care for his partner, Chris. George remarked, “I never stopped working. I never sat on my ass. I never asked for a handout. Momma told me if life hands you lemons you make lemonade.” My final question for George: “If you could have any career, college or training fully funded, what would you do?” “I would run a 24-hour homeless shelter,” he replied. My first question for Chris was, “How did you become homeless?” “I was a rowdy kid. I got in some trouble and went to prison in 2005. When I got out, they had me on a tether. I was stuck at home except for 5-6 hours to work and take care of business.” But then Chris’s addiction started taking over. “Between 2005 and 2020 I went back and forth, in and out of prison,” he said. It was hard to get stable. I was hardheaded and undisciplined. It was mostly about drug use and failure to check in. I was either busted for using, or I flaked on my appointments. I didn’t follow the parole rules, you know, not taking it seriously, not doing what I was supposed to be doing. “In 2021 I finally got off the tether. I was homeless and unemployed. It was rough at first but I was able to buckle down and start picking up the pieces.” “What are you doing about the drugs? You said you had no support then, how are you managing now? What is keeping you in this situation?” I asked. Chris said, "I’ve been on methadone for about three years now. Basically not having a decent job keeps me here. No leads, no transportation, no news.” “There are lots of jobs — what’s keeping you from getting one?” I responded. “I struggle with back issues because of a car accident,” he replied. “It happened in 2008 just before I went to prison. An MRI showed I had a herniated disc. I’ve had four surgeries total since 2018. Every 5 years I get a tune up; I have to get four bolts tightened. I don’t want more down time from the surgery. That limits the amount of choices that you have.” Chris also struggles with treatment-resistant depression. “I get so down and out and depressed that sometimes I just don't care. It comes (the depression) and you’re like f–-- it!” People don't understand it and don't give you a chance to explain yourself. I have struggled with depression my whole life. It’s hard to push aside. It makes you tired even if you sleep a lot. Then you get anxious because you’re missing out on things and everything that comes along with it. Depression does not want me to succeed. “It’s pitiful what depression does to you,” he said. “So basically I push my self-esteem up when I can, I ask for help when I need it and go to any angle I can to get help on my journey.” Chris thinks he isn’t trying hard enough. He chides himself. “I’m intelligent, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make dumb choices,” he said as he laughed. “I asked him the same question as the others. “What would you do with a million dollars?” (George shoveled a huge spoonful of food in Chris’s mouth before he could answer.) “I would donate to places like Habitat for Humanity, and other organizations that make a difference.” I continued, “If you had a free ride to college or a training program, what would you want to do?” (George attempted to feed Chris again but was denied as Chris blocked the spoon. It is very clear how much they love each other.) NOVEMBER 29, 2024 “Underwater welding.” Chris replied, “I went to a welding class, so I know how to weld. But underwater welding is a whole other thing! It pays the most because it's a dangerous, deadly job. It's also an important job that needs to be done because bridges need to be built. I like jobs that have a little bit of twist and excitement to them and underwater welding is kind of an interesting niche as well. Having it be important is good too because it boosts your self esteem.” None of these people want to be homeless or in poverty. The deck is stacked against them. Each story is unique, yet common. Disaster happens. People have profound mental illnesses or debilitating injuries. People make mistakes. Some are waiting for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher waitlist to open, some are waiting for an opportunity to work, and still others are working but are not able to afford an apartment. They didn’t do it on purpose. They were living their lives just like you and me. It can happen to anyone, including the neighbors and business owners near the downtown core of Ypsilanti. Homelessness is a community problem. Fixing it involves seeing, defending and nurturing people who are in need and who are disadvantaged. People like Chandra, Jen, George and Chris. NOVEMBER 29, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Bakery attraction 6. Snitch 10. Pod dwellers 14. Observatory observations 15. Hip bones 16. With 1-Down and 27-Down, complain at length 17. ___ list 18. Go for 19. Sette follower 20. European country that's hard to spell 23. Fit of shivering 24. "___ is ___, of course, of course" 25. College treasurer 28. Jellied garnish 30. ___ Today 31. Disinclined 36. Invitation acronym 38. Charged particle 39. Zero, on a court 40. Niece's son 45. "Cool" amount 46. Rainbow ___ 47. Festival of lights 49. Denmark's second-largest city 52. Home of the Taj Mahal 53. Femme fatale's fatal footwear? 57. Hit the bottle 58. Amble 59. Band 62. Burden 63. "I had no ___!" 64. Part of a TV feed 65. Gym set 66. "___ of the Flies" 67. Church song DOWN 1. See 16-Across 2. ___ v. Wade 3. Ellipse 4. Fads 5. African spear 6. Specialty 7. "Thanks ___!" 8. Get up 9. Siestas 10. Set of rules 11. "Purple people ___" 12. Con men? 13. Peach pit 21. Hair piece 22. FedEx, say 25. Town 26. "Back in the ___" 27. See 16-Across 28. Take in 29. Hyperbolic function 32. Place 33. "Brave New World" drug 34. Malevolent 35. Kosher ___ 37. Untrodden 41. Exact 42. Frequently pierced place 43. Advantage 44. Bug 48. Tusked mammal 49. Fur trader John Jacob 50. Make amends 51. Shred 52. Winning 54. ___ list 55. Done 56. Fizzy drink 60. Black gold 61. Little dog, for short

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES There's enough room at the top My message to the top: move over, there’s plenty of room! There’s enough room for all of us. We are all in this together. The more we try to deny this, the more we are drawn towards a stark reality — we are a greedy, selfish and uncaring species. I admit it, I also see these characteristics in myself. I know, I know, what do we do about it Mr. Smart Guy? Am I just going to point out our faults while you're not even sure that it’s true? "Convince me," you say? Well that’s a big order my friends! Why should you listen to me? I realize that there are so many people that do things I could never do, so many people you should be listening to, so how can I compete with that? I think my biggest asset is that I'm a good listener. Well that’s a pretty modest asset you might say. Well, you’re wrong my friends! I listen to everything! Sometimes even to things I shouldn’t. I listen to the children who don’t like the way things are and they don’t know why. I listen to the privileged who complain and have no answers. I listen to politicians who are WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 there’s no do-overs. I believe that the elite of this only after power and wealth. I listen to the trophy wives and the mail order brides. I hear it in their voices — heaven forbid they are allowed to voice a thought. I hear ugliness every day. I recognize the tyrants of the world. They’re not hard to find. When are we going to say enough is enough? Well people you have spoken loud and clear. You’ve chosen hate over love, you’ve let a tyrant in our midst. You’ve turned the world upside down and I’m ashamed of all of you. You’ve sold your souls. When the ramifications of what you’ve done starts taking effect, you’ll realize there’s no going back … that’s right, nation caught on that there is enough room at the top; this scared the bejesus out of them. How wrong we were thinking that they felt the sting of sharing the wealth. How wrong we were that the essence of fair play had taken hold. Yes my fellow citizens, they rocked us to sleep — or did they? They exposed themselves to us and it was an ugly thing. Or was it? As we watch them slit each other’s throats and vie for greed and power, we will be watching and if history tells us anything it’s that we will be there to pick up the pieces just like we always do. So my fellow citizens, let’s keep the destruction they try and heap upon us to a minimum and know we are going to overcome. This madness we are entering into is only temporary. Good always conquers evil, love always trumps hate. We have nothing to fear folks, so lets just sit back and watch the show. If there’s one thing I know, it is that we know how to pick up the pieces. POWER TO THE PEOPLE! NOVEMBER 29, 2024 Undercover intel: Panda musings CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 Monday is mope day Tuesday is take off day Wednesday is whine day Thursday is thirsty — we are almost there day Friday is party freak day Saturday is fatterday Sunday is one more fun day Kick it back around day to a Monday… happy happy Hope PUZZLE SOLUTIONS SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 Let’s be positive Happy Encouraging And persevere Let’s look to the upcoming future Goals Achievements Let’s hope and pray Hope to help others out Hope for a brighter future for all My future I pray for Looks bright and shiny New and warm Fantastic and wonderful exp. 01/31/2025 As walls hit me pretty constantly I try and run sometimes I win Sometimes I don’t — I skin my knees And sometimes I’m blessed Times are hard and never improve But always hope for the best NOVEMBER 29, 2024 VENDOR VOICES Gratefulness For the past two months, Granna has been crying in her bed every night, facing an eviction that would split the family. Granna has had six jobs in the past six months, struggling to keep the rent and light bill paid. The light bill went from $700 to $200. However, the rent was still behind. She did not want to move out of her apartment and become homeless once again. Granna knew she could not afford an eviction. She talked to the landlord and made an agreement to move out, and pay later. Granna knew it would be hard on her grandson and dog. She prayed every day, “God please make a way for us to pay this rent;” however nothing ever materialized. Depression was trying to take a hold her dog to a veterinarian and updated her shots. They also neutered her, cut her dew-claws, and gave her a flea bath. Granna has 60 days to retrieve her friend. Aware of her limited time, she FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 of her mind, knowing that she had to separate from her grandson and dog. The shelter did not allow dogs, but on the upside, they placed her dog in a foster home. She is grateful for the organization, Safe Pet Program in Shelby County Alabama, which sent Mother Nature is calling We often say the words “mother nature is calling” when our bowels begin to move. My parents, in their quest to be educated and scientific, used the words bowel movement rather than vague or possibly offensive words. Polite society does not want to hear about bodily processes except for eating. Weather, sports, children, financial news and food— especially bargains — are the subjects to stay with. If you go out of bounds you may be quickly rebuffed or ignored. Basic beliefs about reality are often untouched except in circles sharing common assumptions. Believers or secular humanists have their distinct social circles. Beliefs are basic assumptions about reality, so everyone is a believer in their quest for the assumptions that work. We want to make sense of our experience. We soon discover that outcomes are often not what we planned and sometimes the opposite of expectations. Life is full of surprises and trauma can persist in habitual patterns with deadly consequences. Every day in the world, someone is hurt or killed by unexploded ordnance as cluster bombs are discovered in the course of play and work. Toxic sites are far too numerous. There is a lot of work remaining to clean up the messes of civilization. We have not faced this work properly and continue to create new disasters. Microplastics are getting into the cells of our body. The list of toxic chemicals we have ingested is a mental and physical shock. The rising rate of cancer among young people is in the data but the bureaucracy has its own cancer. Who can help us understand our dilemma? Einstein taught us that curiosity is the KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 most important quality of a scientist. If you explore whatever appears in your life, reality will manifest with clues to pursue. Everything becomes your teacher and those pursuing the clues with wisdom and intelligence appear. When you discover that everything is interrelated, science becomes even more meaningful. Context becomes central and the best context may require some study of the prevailing context. In my quest for the best teachers I have found Buddhist culture to have many highly awakened persons. I met Thich Nhat Hanh in 1967 and remember his words, “Whatever you can do to stop the war in VietNam!” When Martin Luther King gave his “Breaking the Silence” speech on April 4, 1967, the connection was so vivid I was impelled to be a draft resister. That was a great turn towards a radical lifestyle which we defined as going to the root of the war system. I remember the popular Shaker song, “Simple Gifts,” which is one to learn and share. Alison Krauss has a good version. Among scientists I have recently discovered is Dr. Jack Kruse, a neurosurgeon who is a quantum biologist and received the 2016 Nobel Prize in physics for his work. In summary, nature does not make mistakes. Evolution is decentralized, life unfolds as the completeness of reality comes together in a majestic concert. Empty space gives birth to infinite forms and probabilities that play out seamlessly in our creative wisdom mind. Compassion and lovingkindness mix with awareness just as rivers flow into the sea. Words cannot capture the Clear Light of the Void, but they can point towards it, just as the finger points to the moon. When dialectics embrace the unity of opposites we are in a deep harmonic. Stillness in motion creates revolutionary activity. As the Rev. Lucius Walker Jr. said, "We have the human right to take humanitarian aid to our brothers and sisters, especially the victims of U.S. foreign policy. We do not need a license.” Many peace and justice activists organized with Pastors for Peace to take caravans to Cuba which deepened the bond between the Cuban and American people. Revolutionary Love is the call of Valerie Kaur and is based on the solidarity that is our birthright as human beings. Breathe that power regularly until it is a habit. The struggle continues. An injury to one is an injury to all. We are all injured by a system so obsessed with commodification that human life is sacrificed to the arbitrary compliance of those who have advanced up the chain of command. Every bureaucracy can become cancerous. This malignancy can spread from financial bureaucracies into every nook and cranny of your life. Prevention is the key. Search “cancer as a metabolic disease” to get a view that makes better sense. Healthy bodies and a healthy society are evolving as we face our multidimensional dysfunction. When you meet the corporate state you may feel that they have all the power and that you have none. It’s true that their full spectrum warfare, especially in the theater of the mind, has had great success in promoting a war culture that is global. When sanctions confiscate whole nations’ bank accounts and prevent the export and import of essential goods and services, international law calls this an act of war. Google “FDR and sanctions on Japan.” The real story of Pearl Harbor is in the public domain. It could use some refining by sincere academics. The ongoing story of Japan, the United States, China and the USSR is a global mystery. The story of imperialist competition, the United States and Japan as well as Britain and Germany, was best explained by Lenin in “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.” He explains the integration of industrial and financial capital as the cause of World War I and the need for the working class to understand the dialectics of history. Today, as financial capital cannibalizes industrial capital, we begin to understand neoliberal imperialism. I think “Monthly Review” is a good resource here. The AADL had it on the periodical shelves but someone vandalized them and it has not been brought back. I have not gotten a complete response from the library but it is the modern form of book burning. “Monthly Review” is online. You can find John Bellamy Foster and others who address the current ”metabolic rift” that Marx noted as capitalism exploits nature and breaks the context of life on earth. Humans become see NATURE page 12  quickly got a job. Unfortunately, it’s still not enough money making $14 an hour, part time work. Fortunately, the hours are convenient for Granna to take her grandson to school and pick him up daily. Every dollar she makes on a job they take away from her Social Security, keeping her income under $1200/month. She has thought about all kinds of ways of how she can make money legally. Granna’s goal is to have a best seller and to make an animated movie out of "The AD-DAM FAM," her third book. This is how Granna continues to move forward. Regardless of the challenges Granna has to face and obstacles she has to overcome, God has kept her strong, and she continues to hope for the future. Everyone Granna meets she asks one question, “Do you know how to make animated films?” Thank you, Groundcover News readers and Truth Or Lies Fans. The Golden Halloween, published October 18, is FALSE. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Baked Italian cauliflower with mozzarella ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 8 cups water 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1 bay leaf 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 medium cauliflower head, stem removed 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce 4 large slices fresh mozzarella 2 tablespoons fresh basil salt and pepper to taste Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large pot, add the water, red pepper flakes, bay leaf, garlic, powder, salt and pepper. Stir and bring to a boil. Add the cauliflower to the pot and cook for about 15 minutes. NOVEMBER 29, 2024 dish, add the tomato sauce and slices of mozzarella on top. Remove cauliflower from the pot and place in the baking dish. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes (the last few minutes turn on the broiler to get a nice crust on the cauliflower). Remove from the oven and garnish In a small baking with fresh basil.  NATURE from page 11 alienated from reality. If you remember my article “Do Students Matter?” you will see the need for vanguard students in this front of the struggle for freedom. There is plenty of work. Move the Money Coalition has an important role in organizing a better design for the use of our resources. Basic needs of all species can be met with compassionate design. Mindfulness and awareness become essential skills as our creativity evolves. We have amazing resources for educating ourselves. Groundcover is an important player in the learning game. Exert your discipline and focus as we carry this to creation and completion. Let’s work together as we learn who we are and get practical. Help Groundcover become an organizing center along with the Commons and Ann Arbor Coalition Against the War. The American people have spoken; Trump is president elect because the people want a change. What kind of change is up for discussion. Start with an article from the Robert Malone group titled “What Kennedy Must Do To Avoid Regulatory Capture?” Since both Malone and Kennedy have been deplatformed many left, liberal and progressive minds will dismiss them out of hand. Reality is often hidden in the details and we need the kind of study that examines the details of the deplatformed which would also include the work of Kruse. Can we agree on one thing we all want to change? I think the science and art of health is the place to start. From a healthy body to a healthy society may be the next step of evolution as our awareness grows into mindful decision making. Revolutionary love will guide our thinking and practice of a life well lived. Breathe the power that hears Mother Nature’s call. Delicious food for everyone. Fresh ingredients for fall comfort meals. $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 12/12/2024

2 $ NOVEMBER 15, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 24 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. No place like homeless: the future of peer innovation page 7 MEET YOUR VENDOR: MIKE JONES PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Washtenaw Camp Outreach is modeling leadership and solidarity through community service. page 6 Packing the truck before the Washtenaw Camp Outreach BBQ. Photo submitted THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER hunger + homelessness awareness WEEK STATE of HOMELESSNESS and AFFORDABLE HOUSING Monday, November 18, 8 to 10:30 a.m. Washtenaw Community College — Morris Lawerence Building 4800 E. Huron River Drive Washtenaw Housing Alliance's annual breakfast and keynote program. Register at: SoHAH2024.eventbrite.com HEALTH and WELLNESS FAIR Monday, November 18, 2 -5 p.m. Delonis Center, 312 W. Huron Street Resource fair for clients and those in the community experiencing homelessness. Washtenaw Literacy, Humana and more will be present. Come here for blood pressure tests, employment resources and more! INTERFAITH COUNCIL for PEACE and JUSTICE HARVEST DINNER Monday, November 18, 5:30-7p.m. Ypsilanti Freighthouse, 100 Market Pl Honor community leaders who live the values of ICPJ and work toward a collective vision. The collective work of so many is what will lead toward radical, systemic change and bring about the racial, economic, social and environmental justice that all people deserve. RSVP online at: givebutter.com/ICPJ2024HarvestDinner OZONE HOUSE OPEN HOUSE Tuesday, November 19, 5-8 p.m. 1600 N. Huron River Dr., Ypsilanti November is HOPE (Homelessness, Outreach, Prevention, Education) month. Join Ozone to celebrate the work they're doing to support youth experiencing homelessness and to explore ways we can continue to prevent and address youth housing instability in our community. Free and open to the public; light refreshments will be provided. GROUNDCOVER LOVES YOU! ANNUAL OPEN MIC Friday, November 22, 6-8 p.m. Makeshift Gallery, 407 E Liberty St. Join Groundcover this November in honoring Hunger & Homelessness Awareness week at our fifth open mic event! Come listen to community members share writing, songs, poetry and stories from the street. This is a FREE event. All are welcome. See graphic on page 12. NOVEMBER 15, 2024 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR "I have just finished reading your issue of October 18th, and I thank you for the many interesting and helpful local news items. I was delighted to read 'Meet Your Vendor' focusing in that issue on Cindy Gere, whom I am happy to encounter very early in the mornings just outside Sweetwaters on West Washington St., where Cindy invariably greets me with a big smile. I also particularly appreciated Cindy's article on page 3: 'A2 downtown coffee shop extravaganza,' a topic I think many in the community are curious to know about. As an appreciative long-time reader of Groundcover News, I urge you to keep on informing us of current 'news and solutions from the ground up' in Washtenaw County." — Anna Ercoli Schnitzer, longtime Ann Arborite "There is international law about genocide and associated crimes. South Africa is familiar with that reality and was the voice for much of the world when they took Israel to the International Court of Justice. The US does not recognize the ICJ so there is no good legal response for cases brought before it. The US always claims immunity from prosecution for itself and its allies. Nevertheless the case for genocide against Palestine is impressive and world opinion supports an end to this war." — Ken Parks PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Tabitha Almond Elizabeth Bauman Pedro Campos La Shawn Courtwright Shelley DeNeve Jacob Fallman Mike Jones Marie Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer Ike Staple GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 CONTACT US PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Steve Ross Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Simone Masing Anthony McCormick Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons NOVEMBER 15, 2024 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Thank you for your presence. Thank you for kindness. Thank you for genuineness. Thank you for your help. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for being you. SHELLEY DENEVE Groundcover vendor No. 22 Mike Jones, vendor No. 113 In one sentence, who are you? That guy! Where do you usually sell Groundcover? Ypsi — find me on Cross by the Sweetwaters weekday mornings. I plan to sell more in A2. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? Lost my job after COVID as a cab driver. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Talk to people. What is your favorite spot in Ann Arbor? Island Park. What words do you live by? Mean nobody harm and be nobody's fool! What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn’t know? I really love dogs and children. What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover News? I plan to make social change through selling Groundcover newspapers. What was your first job? Selling newspapers for the Ann Arbor News. If you had a warning label, what would it say? Beware of fake news! "Forrest Gump:" a comedy, love story and heartwarming life lesson DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 JACOB FALLMAN Writing support “Forrest Gump” has left a lasting impression on audiences since its release, standing out as both a comedy and a love story that resonates deeply with viewers. Watching “Forrest Gump,” I’m reminded of the first time I [Denise] saw it in the theater with my late partner, Karen. The joy of sharing such a heartwarming story has made it even more meaningful with each viewing. It’s a movie that offers lessons for audiences at any age or stage in life. At its heart, this film explores the transformative power of love and the resilience of the human spirit. Watching Forrest overcome obstacles with unwavering optimism reminds us that our attitudes and willpower can shape our lives in surprising ways. One of the movie’s most enduring themes is parental love. Forrest’s mother, a figure of unconditional support, remains committed to helping him succeed despite the challenges he faces growing up. Her wisdom, captured in her line, “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get,” speaks to the film’s message of embracing the unknown. Forrest, who wore corrective braces and was often underestimated, rose above these perceptions to accomplish remarkable things, a testament to his mother's encouragement and love. In a similar way, the love between Forrest and Jenny serves as the emotional core of the film. From childhood, when Jenny was the only one who would sit with Forrest, their bond reflects a unique, judgment-free connection. Despite the paths they each take — Forrest into the military and Jenny on a journey of self-discovery and personal struggles — the two are always able to reconnect, finding in each other a source of strength and understanding. By the end, their relationship is one of acceptance and appreciation for each other’s inner goodness, a timeless story of love’s endurance. “Forrest Gump” is also filled with humor that brings light to the darker sides of life. Forrest’s ability to find happiness, even in difficult situations — like finding friendship with Bubba in the trenches or responding to Lt. Dan’s query about finding Jesus with a simple, “I didn’t know I was supposed to be looking for him” — offers a refreshing perspective. His innocence, which some might see as naivety, lets him enjoy life without overthinking, lifting the spirits of those around him. While some scenes may warrant parental guidance, “Forrest Gump” remains a feel-good, accessible classic that captures the beauty of a life well-lived, one step at a time. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Thankful for you being YOU! To all the patrons of Groundcover: I want to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for being so kind and supportive of Groundcover News. It is important to Groundcover that you keep on reading on and having an open mind and heart. From the bottom of my heart, Happy Thanksgiving. 3 Please help this Christmas TABITHA ALMOND Groundcover vendor No. 360 Hello all Groundcover readers! I am in need of Christmas help this year. All of the Christmas helping programs application deadlines have already passed. I did not know that I would have to complete the application form for Christmas helping programs so early. Now I am in desperate need of help to make sure my children will be able to wake up Christmas morning with some gifts from Santa. There is a couple ways you could help, if you're able. The first one is Venmo — my Venmo account is @Tabitha-Ludwig-1 — just put Merry Christmas on it. Another way is gift cards — Meijer, Target, Visa or Amazon gift cards sent to mine and my husband's email tabbysean99@gmail. com, but please in the subject line put MERRY CHRISTMAS so I know it is not a scam email just wanting me to click on something. Or, if you would like to help my family out in some other way, you could also email me or my husband at the email address with how you would be able to help and one of us would email you back. My family and I really appreciate whatever help you can give. Thank you in advance, and happy holidays to everyone! Almond family: Sean, Tabitha, Crystal (3) and Lena (1).

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SHELTER NOVEMBER 15, 2024 From Ann Arbor to New York City: Who protects the right to food, shelter? PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 Five years. That’s how long I had dreamed of New York City — the city that never sleeps, the place where so many lives seem to converge and collide, where ambition meets possibility. Growing up, I’d seen New York in movies, heard it in songs, and felt it in stories of all kinds. It was always larger-than-life, a place where anyone could be someone, where anything could happen. And yet, as I planned and saved, I never imagined I’d be arriving in New York City homeless. For most of my life, I’d managed to keep a roof over my head. I’d made sacrifices and hustled to make things work, and through all of life’s ups and downs, “homeless” was a label I never thought would apply to me. But life has a way of surprising us, especially when we think we know where we’re going. Originally, I had planned to pass through Detroit on my way to New York, but somehow, an unexpected turn brought me to Ann Arbor. It wasn’t on my original itinerary; it was more of a whispered suggestion, almost like an angel’s nudge: “Ann Arbor, University of Michigan.” Something in me said, “Why not?” And so I decided to stay for a while. I couldn’t have known then how much that detour would mean. on bikes, professors with armfuls of books, musicians, artists and people from all walks of life. It had a unique vibrancy, and something in that made me feel like I could breathe a little easier. The energy felt like something I could grow roots in. Within that first week, I was introduced to the harder side of homelessness. I found out quickly that not all parts of Ann Arbor were as welcoming as the sunny campus lawns and bustling cafes. While there were community spaces and meals at places like Saint Andrew’s Church, there were also many closed doors. Getting shelter was a challenge. I learned about the local shelters but felt, in a way, that I was invisible to the system. Other people had been offered intake at Delonis, but somehow, I was always told it wasn’t available for me. They never mentioned an option for a Michigan ID or access to EBT benefits. It was as if the system was set up for everyone but me. Yet, there were people who lifted me up in ways that words can hardly describe. When things felt hard, a ride on my bike would calm me down, remind me of the beauty of this unexpected home. And then there were the little spots around town where I found peace, like the river. Ann Arbor wasn’t always easy — it had its challenges, to say the least — but it also gave me roots. It was there, in my first week, that I met Michael, a man who would become my best friend and a kind of guide to life here in the United States. Born and raised in Brooklyn but with years in Ann Arbor, Mike became more than a friend; he became a brother, someone who looked out for me, helped me find work, and showed me ways to access the benefits I’d need to survive. Some afternoons, I’d find myself sitPedro (pictured left) and his friend and supporter Mike (pictured right) in NYC. The first thing that struck me about Ann Arbor was its warmth — not the weather, necessarily, but the people. There was a small-town friendliness mixed with the intellectual energy of the university community. Everywhere I turned, there were students ting by the water, watching the ripples and feeling like maybe everything was going to work out. Ann Arbor had this way of surprising you, and its kindness kept me there all through spring, summer, and even into fall. Part of me felt like I’d grown roots there, too, and when it was finally time to leave, I knew it wouldn’t be goodbye forever. I made a promise to myself that I’d come back in the spring. It was with those memories and experiences in my heart that I boarded the bus to New York. When the time finally came to move to New York, Mike came along. We rode together on a bus, both of us carrying dreams and burdens, sharing hopes and hardships on the road to the big city. It’s hard to describe the feeling of stepping off the bus in New York. You can imagine it a thousand times, but reality hits you like a wave. The noise, the lights, the people — it was all overwhelming and awe-inspiring all at once. I remember the words of a song by Brazilian poet Renato Russo that captured exactly what I felt: “He was amazed by the city, leaving the bus station, he saw the Christmas lights.” Even though it wasn’t the holiday season yet, the lights, the rush and the energy felt just as magical. Broadway was right there as I stepped out, and I couldn’t help but feel a little stunned. This was the New York I had dreamed of — glittering, chaotic, full of life. And yet, at that moment, I was without a permanent home, arriving with just what I had on my back and a few belongings in a bag. The excitement of the city was tempered by the reality of what I was facing: I was homeless in New York. Still, New York City is a place where dreams and struggles coexist. The first thing I noticed was that, unlike Ann Arbor, the shelter system here seemed prepared. Within days, I had an intake, a New York ID, and even a place to stay — a bed in a shelter on 30th Street and 1st Avenue. I’ll never forget my first night there. Over a thousand people were being sheltered under one roof, each with their own story, each facing their own challenges. And while the reality was sobering, there was also a strange sense of relief. In New York, everyone, whether an American citizen or not, has a right to shelter. It was something I hadn’t expected, but it was a relief all the same. Life in a New York City shelter is something you can’t really prepare for. The scale of it all was astonishing. Pedro's single dormitory where he was placed within days of arrival in New York. For the many months he was homeless in Ann Arbor, he never had access to indoor, overnight shelter. I remember standing in a long line that seemed to stretch forever, surrounded by people from every imaginable background — men, women, young people, the elderly, immigrants and locals. The sheer diversity of lives around me was a reminder that homelessness doesn’t have a single face or a single story. In a city like New York, everyone has a past and a reason for being there. After a week in the Manhattan shelter, I was transferred to an individual room in Brooklyn. It felt like a small victory, having a space to myself, even if it was temporary. In some ways, it made it easier to focus on my next steps. My intake was complete, I had my New York ID and I was already starting to learn how the see NEW YORK next page  Support an Alternative Business Model Local - Organic - Member-Owned Your Ypsilanti source for healthy, eco-friendly food and goods INVEST BY BECOMING A MEMBER! 7 principles of Co-ops Voluntary, Democratic, Equitable, Independent, Informative, Collaborative, Community We make it affordable: Frequent Sales/Use Your Bridge card/Ask us about Double Up Food Bucks Visit us for 312 N. River St. (734) 483-1520 www.ypsifoodcoop.org unique cards and local, handmade items too $2 OFF your purchase of $15 or more One coupon per transacton Must present coupon at time of purchase NOVEMBER 15, 2024 SHELTER WASHTENAW COUNTY WINTER SHELTER OPTIONS Daytime Warming Center Ypsilanti Ypsi Freighthouse, 100 Market Place November 13 - March 28 Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. Daytime Warming Center Ann Arbor Luther House Ed. Building, 1510 Hill Street November 19 - December 6 Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. First Baptist Church, 517 E Washington Street December 9 - January 3 Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. All Washtenaw County office building lobbies are available as warming centers during normal business hours.  NEW YORK from last page city’s resources worked. I had a social worker assigned to me, someone who would help me navigate the complexities of getting a job, finding educational opportunities and eventually securing a place of my own. But as Mike had warned me early on, New York is a city that will shelter you, but it won’t feed you. There were plenty of places to get affordable food, and with my EBT card, I could buy groceries and make do. But the experience taught me a new kind of self-reliance. I quickly learned to stretch what I had, to find meals where I could, and to be mindful of how I spent my money. Every dollar counts, and with the cost of things here like cigarettes and legal weed, you learn to prioritize. Every day in New York has a rhythm, and it’s unlike any place I’ve ever been. The people here are quick, sharp and constantly in motion. You’ll see people from every walk of life — business people in suits, artists with their easels, tourists craning their necks at the skyscrapers. New Yorkers don’t have time for small talk, but when they look at you, it’s direct, almost like they’re sizing you up. In a strange way, it’s refreshing. They expect you to be as quick and self-sufficient as they are, and the city demands a kind of independence that feels both challenging and exhilarating. The other side of the hustle and bustle is the silence of Central Park, which I discovered one afternoon while exploring Manhattan. It was like stepping into another world — the noise of the streets fading into the background, replaced by birdsong, trees and the occasional jogger. The park became a place I could return to when I needed a break from the city’s intensity. It was a reminder that even in the middle of all this chaos, there was room for peace. But New York has its downsides, too, Weekend Daytime Warming Center Delonis Center, 312 W Huron Street November 11 - April 13 (normal daytime hours) Overnight Warming Center Ann Arbor Delonis Center, 312 W Huron Street November 11 - April 13 Open every night at 7 p.m. Overnight Warming Center Ypsilanti St. Luke's Church, 120 N Huron Street Starting November 11 Monday - Friday 7 p.m. to 8 a.m Emmanuel Lutheran, 201 N River St. Starting November 11 Saturday and Sunday 7 p.m. to 8 a.m especially when you’re homeless. Basic things like public restrooms, drinking fountains and outlets are hard to come by. You become keenly aware of how small conveniences — like a bathroom or a place to charge your phone — are luxuries when you don’t have a stable place to call home. The city’s Wi-Fi is good but not great, and sometimes it feels like you’re spending half your time just trying to find a place to sit down for a few minutes without being asked to move. Then there’s the garbage. New York produces so much waste that sometimes the sidewalks are piled with it, especially near the shelters. Rats are everywhere, and the subways could use more attention. But despite all of that, there’s a strange resilience in the city’s imperfections. People accept it as part of the package, and you learn to do the same. Through all of this, I’ve kept my eyes on the future. My goal is clear: to find a job, go back to school and secure a home of my own. With the help of my social worker, I’m exploring college options, looking for opportunities that will let me move forward. I know it won’t happen overnight, but every step I take feels like progress. Being here in New York, as overwhelming as it can be, has given me a sense of purpose. This journey hasn’t been easy, but it’s also been more than I ever imagined. I’m realizing a dream, piece by piece, and even on the hardest days, I feel blessed to be here. The museums, the libraries, Broadway — all of it feels like it’s right there waiting for me, a city full of possibilities, if I can just keep going. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PEER LEADERSHIP NOVEMBER 15, 2024 Washtenaw Camp Outreach is modeling leadership and solidarity through community service On a Sunday in mid-August I visited a Washtenaw Camp Outreach cookout at Ypsilanti Waterworks Park for the first time. Washtenaw Camp Outreach is made up of individuals from various organizations, as well as unaffiliated individuals, many of whom have lived experiences of homelessness, poverty and other forms of economic hardship. Their day-to-day work involves visiting camps in person to connect with others in the struggle, share resources and supplies and assist others in living how they must to survive. This was an ordinary Sunday. I first attended the Groundcover News Visual Arts Contest celebration event at the MakeShift Art Gallery in downtown Ann Arbor where they display and sell local art. Then later that afternoon, I found myself at Waterworks Park where people were setting up for the WCO bi-weekly cookout. I parked the car and started helping to set up, when my friend and comrade Jim Clark asked me, “What do you think about leadership through community service?” I said, “I’m cool with that,” and then we had a brief conversation on the subject and proceeded to set up and have a great cookout. Later that evening at home, as I reflected on the day at the Groundcover News art event and hanging out at the WCO cookout, I began to ponder on leadership and community service. According to a quick Google search, “Leadership emcompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to ‘lead,’ influence, or guide other individuals, teams or entire organizations.” “Leadership” is a contested term, something that is argued over, questioned and disputed. Community service is work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and the betterment of the community, contributing to a noble cause without the intention of getting rewarded or compensated. These thoughts of leadership and community service and the awesome MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 camaraderie amongst those at the WCO cookout answered my question of what to do next in my life, in terms of reinventing myself. “Leadership through the means of community service.” There is an old saying, “lead by example.” From that Sunday forward I started thinking on how I want to give back to the community. I remembered in the "Ask Your Vendor" column of Groundcover where staff asked the vendors the question, “What would you bring to a BBQ?” My answer was cold water. So, from now on, I plan to be the water man and hand out bottles of water to individuals or at events such as WCO cookouts and meetings when I can afford to do so, and I also decided to volunteer with WCO in their frequent camp cleanups. I got to talk to Josh who is unhoused and has been involved in WCO since May of last year. He got involved with WCO camp cleanups because, “One of my unhoused camp buddies was a hoarder and I needed help cleaning up my campsite and the good people of WCO helped me clean up the campsite and it started from that moment.” Do you encourage or suggest to other unhoused people to get involved with camp cleanup? “Yes, I do. I believe in keeping our community clean and I encourage others in the unhoused community to do their part in keeping our camp area clean. People at WCO are genuinely good people, who truly care about the community they live in and serve, and deserve all the support they can get.” I also got a chance to talk with LK Washtenaw Camp Outreach Sunday BBQ has been a tradition of the group since it was established in 2020. who has been involved with WCO since the beginning. She shared, “WCO got started in 2020 during COVID and when the shelters were full, and most shelter options were deemed no longer available, thus leaving many with no safety net or preparation on how to protect themselves while out camping from the COVID-19 virus. That's when WCO started making sanitation kits and we also set up water stations at campsites for people to wash their hands and to have access to water. “Soon after COVID subsided, WCO transitioned to providing camping supplies for those who had no other choice but to be outdoors: sleeping bags, tents and other needed supplies. A lot of people tend to migrate to the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area to try to pull resources like affordable housing, which leaves many homeless, and most camp in the same areas, culminating in a lot of trash. “Donations are really helpful this time of the year because winter is around the corner: clothes, blankets and camping supplies. All donations can be dropped off at the Hospitality House at 169 N Washington St [around the corner from the Ypsilanti Transit Center] or message us on Facebook. We also accept monetary donations via Venmo @washtenawcampoutreach. Funds are used for hotel stays, propane and buddy heaters.” Finally, I asked if there was anything The ground of a campsite before (left) and after a WCO cleanup. else LK would like our readers to know about WCO. She replied, “WCO is not a government or funded entity; no one other than ourselves and those who donate provides goods and services to our community. We do this because there is a need. At WCO, we have weekly meetings and every-other-week cookouts and discuss ways to combat systemic oppression that leads to homelessness. We stand with those in our community by providing supplies, resources and advocating to protect the rights of the unhoused and those forced to live outdoors.” Washtenaw Camp Outreach meets every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at 169 N Washington St., alternating between meetings, reading group and outreach (visiting camps). Every other Sunday there is a community barbecue at 2 p.m. at the same location. NOVEMBER 15, 2024 PEER LEADERHSIP MARIE Groundcover contributor “Catch-it, check-it, change-it” is utilized in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services peer certification training as an approach to help navigate difficult situations. This article is a bridge to help readers understand the value of intentional peer support (defined as a supportive relationship between people who have lived experience in common, where the peer support specialist has undergone training) to the homeless, written by a chronically homeless peer. The Catch: Despite minimal published data about high quality studies specific to intentional peer support within the homeless or housing insecure populations, the effectiveness of formal peer support efforts to the homeless should be accepted (“treated”) as similar to evidence-based peer-led initiatives in mental health, substance abuse and veterans services. The Check: While the United States does not currently have established, published standards for peer support with the homeless, Canada’s Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness Society published a Peer Housing Support Program Toolkit in 2019 to help guide the development and implementation of evidenced-based peer programs specializing in housing. Change it: Efforts to implement intentional peer support related to housing issues has been underway here in Washtenaw County since 2022. Dedicated funding that allows for supervision and skill development for peer workers who are addressing poverty and institutional inequity would allow peer support programs to thrive in non-traditional sectors such as homelessness. At the end of the warming center season in 2022, two community members, Stefani Crouse and Sheri Wander, created Circling Back, a peer support group for people with lived experience with homelessness and housing insecurity. Through their participation in the support group and their personal and professional experience working in the area, a need and an opportunity arose to develop and create a trained and paid peer workforce able to reach those who fall through the gaps of services in Washtenaw County. That same year Circling Back was established; through a fiscal sponsor, they were selected to receive a $40,000 2023 grant disbursement through Washtenaw County’s New Human Services Partnership Mini-Grant, “in service of equity, and focused on addressing systemic racism, poverty and trauma.” It appears Circling Back collectively took an approach that is similar to the slogan, “nothing about us, without us,” in that they sought to create a new point of entry into the community support system based on issues related to housing stability, composed of people residing in the community they are serving. Circling Back recognized the need for people with lived experiences with homelessness to have opportunities to educate the community about homelessness, and to create new advancement opportunities for people who reflect the homeless populations' social identities and geographic locations. Ypsilanti is an area that the Office of Community and Economic Development (OCED) describes as an area with lowest access to opportunity. Ypsilanti is composed of a high number of residents who identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color, and this is where the majority of low-income housing options are available. Efforts during 2023 focused on identifying community members residing in Ypsilanti who were interested in beginning a journey towards becoming a trained peer support specialist, as well as those invested in changing how social work is done with the homeless community. By the beginning of 2024, Circling Back’s first group of paid peer workers, all of whom have lived experience with homelessness, were formally active in the community on a daily basis. To help with the 2024 grant, Circling Back recruited me, a Certified Peer and Masters Social Worker, to act as team lead. I've been a state-certified peer for a decade, newly returned to my community of birth, yet a newcomer to the team with only a one page document to guide me. It was not immediately clear how significant training a housing specific peer force was, nor how vital my certification training, professional experience and lived experience with homelessness could be. To clarify, it appears Circling Back founders worked to create a training program to address discriminatory practices and service gaps in both the training and employment of the peer workforce. Yet they also wanted to be sensitive to the values of inclusionary practices for people at various levels of the peer workforce experience. Current ma-informed culture that values experience, training and supervision seen in the more established applications of the peer models, as they help address professional stressors. For example, current state certification requirements for peers to be eligible for a state-sponsored training require (1) a primary diagnosis of a qualifying mental health or substance abuse diagnosis, (2) have participated in services through a qualifying agency such as the Veterans Administration or Community Mental Health, (3) have at least 1-2 years of acceptable recovery, and (4) be employed by an agency that provides community based behavioral health services or by a recognized contract provider. The current state certifications requirements appear to contradict a 2021 MDHHS bulletin describing peer support specialists, which specifies a peer specialist qualifier has lived experience with substantial life disruption, and then defines a substantial life disruption as “experiencing some as or all of the following: homelessness, mental health crisis, trauma, lack of employment, criminal justice involvement, discrimination, stigma/ prejudice intensified by mental health challenges, receiving public benefits due to poverty.” Around the same time the Circling literature encourages a trauBack team was commencing its first round of paid internship positions (summer 2024), a study was published in the Community Mental Health Journal called "Certified Peer Support in the Field of Homelessness: Stories Behind the Work." This study suggests a shift from, “if peer support to the homeless works,” to “what makes peer support to the homeless effective.” As of 2023, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported that 49 of the 50 states have programs to train and certify peer workers. However, Circling Back founders recognized the need to address a gap in opportunities for Washtenaw’s most marginalized communities, as there is not a state certification for people focused on lived experience with homelessness, and current state requirements present barriers. It is important to recognize that the barriers to training or growth in projects such as Circling Back’s, with its team members who were put together to reflect the Ypsilanti homeless and housing-insecure community (who are often disabled, experience mental illness, come from traditionally marginalized identities and have other challenges) mimic barriers to fair and equitable opportunities in historically marginalized areas overall. We need to design training and workforce support programs so that they eliminate these barriers, and are guided by those closest to the problem. We don’t want people “at the top” to continue to make those decisions that the community being served has traditionally GROUNDCOVER NEWS No place like homeless: the future of peer innovation 7 Circling Back Peer Support Nework was established in 2022 to create a paid and trained peer workforce to reach those who fall through the service gap in Washtenaw County. been excluded from. A lack of understanding about the value of a homeless peer force is exemplified by Washtenaw County Community Mental Health’s local Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) lacking peer workers. The challenge at this time is less about if a housing-specific peer workforce is possible, and more about addressing the system barriers created by linking homeless services to mental health and substance abuse treatment. While Washtenaw County is fortunate to have a PATH program, as there are only 20 PATH programs in Michigan, locally, their impact is minimal, and even traumatic in some cases. For example, late last fall, as reported in Groundcover News January 26, 2024, minutes before the first snowstorm of 2024 a PATH team made initial contact with people staying in tents, with both police and city officials in tow, attempting to clear people from one area. Fortunately, housing peers in the community rallied together and are advocating for more humane alternatives to addressing local encampments. Alternatives in the local community are more in line with 2024 United States Interagency Council on Homelessness’ 19 strategies about how to address encampments. The need to continue advocating for programs like Circling Back was evident in a 2018 survey conducted by MDHHS certified peers which focused on identifying community needs and priorities. According to the state survey, no peers are formally working in a housing or homeless specific setting, yet nearly half of the certified peers reported housing was a task they addressed most days of the week, and of those peers who engage in housing see PEER page 11 

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HISTORY NOVEMBER 15, 2024 Civil Rights Act of 1964 turns 60! Remembering events, heroes and movements that shaped history On July 2, 2024, the White House released a statement on behalf of President Joe Biden to remind the American people of the historic significance of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson. It was announced that President Biden would visit the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, to deliver some remarks to commemorate the 60th anniversary of this transformative legislation. As the Civil Rights Act of 1964 turns 60, the mass media and the American public have begun to discuss how far the nation has come in successfully implementing the goals and objectives of this momentous legislation. After the 1964 Act, Congress passed and the President signed the 1965 Civil Rights Act (Voting Rights Enforcement/Freedom to Vote law) and the 1968 Civil Rights Act (Non-Discrimination in Housing/Fair Housing/Creation of U.S. HUD). Although I have talked to several students and community members since the 50th anniversary of the legislation in 2014, I wanted to gauge how much progress we are making toward a full understanding of the history and the impacts. More recently, I talked to some University of Michigan students who volunteer to help poor and homeless people in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. They are members of student organizations interested in community engagement and service learning. Among the organizations are Michigan Movement, Redefined and Michigan Community Scholars Program. A college senior, Lauren, said that civil rights mean equality to her. Her colleague, Esther, said that she thinks of Title 9 when she thinks of civil rights. Other students mentioned words such as “discrimination,” “injustice” or “civility.” I believe some members of the older generation may be able to speak more passionately, having lived through the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. A Brief Overview of the Civil Rights Struggles award-winning book titled, Sociologist Aldon Morris wrote the “The Origin of the Civil Rights Movement.” He was a sociology professor at U-M, but is currently at Northwestern. Although his work was widely praised, a few historians and one law professor at the University of Minnesota wanted to see the book provide more WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 historical background. But even in the Library of Congress big poster displays, it’s suggested that the civil rights struggle started in 1950 and continued into the 1960s. Many people know the story about Linda Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. It was a case against segregation in public education and pernicious discrimination. NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall led the team that fought before the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 SCOTUS decision which ruled that “Separate But Equal” was the law of the land. Earl Warren’s Supreme Court deliberated and reached a unanimous landmark decision on May 17, 1954. The justices said the Court was wrong in 1896. The Warren Court decided that “Separate But Equal” was no longer the law of the land. In 1955, the Court met again to decide how their decision should be implemented. SCOTUS suggested that the government should use “all deliberate speed” to enforce it. The story of Emmett Till is a crushing tragedy in the struggle for civil rights in the southern region of the country. Emmett was a young, confident 14-year old boy from Chicago. His family left the south during the Great Black Migration because of Jim Crow laws, racism and KKK harassments. Emmett told his mom that he wanted to travel to Mississippi for a summer holiday. His mother was worried about his safety and gave him some tips on how to survive during his stay in Money, Mississippi. Emmett was targeted because of his character, his race and his Chicago confident gravitas. On a late summer afternoon, Emmett and his cousins went to a small neighborhood store to buy candies and soda pop. The cashier made what she later admitted to be false accusations. The woman’s husband and his bully cousin came into the house where Emmett was staying in the middle of the night. One person had a gun in one hand, and hurriedly took the boy away. They did not listen to the pleas from the homeowners. August 28, 1963, President John F. Kennedy met with civil rights leaders of the March on Washington at the White House. Emmett was beaten so badly with hard objects that his skull shattered, and bullets opened gaping holes across his head. His messed-up body was tied to a 70-pound abandoned industrial fan and dumped into the Tallahatchie river. Emmett Till was killed on August 28, 1955. Emmett’s mom, Mamie Till, fought to bring her son’s body to Chicago for burial. The body and the face were so brutalized that Mamie insisted on giving Emmett an open casket funeral. Mourners who came to the funeral in South-Side Chicago wept and demanded federal government laws to protect Black people in the southern regions. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act was finally signed into law in 2022. The Montgomery bus boycott started in December 1955 and lasted more than one year. Ms. Rosa Parks was asked by a bus driver to go to the back of the bus because only white people were allowed to sit near the front of the bus. She said she was tired and her feet were hurting, and she chose to sit in the front. She was kicked out of the bus. A young pastor who had just become the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, helped Rosa Parks and the local NAACP devise a plan on how to kick off the boycott, working with the Montgomery Improvement Union. The young Pastor’s name was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The strategy devised by Dr. King, Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Improvement Union was successful. After more than 500 days of the boycott, the bus company said they lost a lot of money and wanted to end their segregation policy. It is obvious to many scholars that the Montgomery bus boycott was a planned social change. Dr. King’s 1957 book, “A Stride to Freedom,” shared a story about the successful social movement. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was signed by President Dwight Eisenhower. It called for dismantling the Jim Crow laws which put punitive restrictions on Black people in the south who wanted to register and vote. It also aimed at removing segregation and discrimination in public facilities, including public education. President Eisenhower had to empower the federal National Guard to go to Little Rock, Arkansas, in order to help nine Black teens attend classes at Little Rock High School. The nine kids were nicknamed, “The Little Rock 9.” One of them died recently at the age of 83. The SCOTUS recommendation in 1955 to use all deliberate speed to ensure integration of public schools and other public facilities was a major challenge in the 1950s, 1960s and beyond. Black pastors and business leaders helped to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in order to work with several faith organizations and wage successful human rights and civil rights campaigns. Dr. King was named the first president of SCLC. Dr. King worked with the NAACP and other community leaders to get the federal government involved in the struggles to end discrimination and ensure freedom, equality and justice.The southern states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida were “Ground Zero” for racial tensions related to actual and perceived racial injustice. Dr. King traveled across the nation, giving speeches in Ann Arbor (November 5, 1962), Detroit (June 1963) and other cities. see CIVIL RIGHTS page 11  NOVEMBER 15, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. "Good kid, ___ city" (2012 Kendrick Lamar album) 5. Car company with an H.Q. in Munich 8. Entreprise rivaling Entreprise 12. Outdo 14. "___ you vera much!" (valentine for a horticulturist) 15. Yearn (for) 16. Fantastical ideals 18. Nicks or Knight, e.g. 19. Alt-rock genre 20. Own (up) 21. What boxers vie for 23. Dine and __ 25. Pamper, with "on" 27. Bank offerings 29. More cunning 31. Shapeshifting clown of literature 33. Hotel visits 35. Nonfiction flick 36. Court divider 37. Org. that dissaproves of boas 39. Assistant integrated with A.I. in IOS 18 42. One on a home screen 45. Unexplainable sexual repulsion, with "the" 47. "Brilliant!" 50. Crime often perpetrated through scam emails 54. Clay being in Jewish folklore 56. Make eye contact to an uncomfortable degree 57. Memo header 59. Establishment selling bagels and schmear 60. Jays and Rheas 62. Circle up in a monastery? 64. Director Brooks 65. Vibe 66. Dangerous snake ... or what 16-, 31-, and 50-Across share 69. Thin cut 70. "Woe is me!" 71. Important step before 'repeat' 72. Beg 73. Agent Smith's enemy, in "The Matrix" 74. Mull (over) DOWN 1. Some Vespas 2. Titular 14-Down characters, often animals 3. Delta, e.g. 4. Word with date and dilligence 5. Drunk, slangily 6. Cry from a younger sibling 7. "___ Side Story" 8. Judd who produced "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" 9. One stereotypically stealing candy from babies 10. Passionate, as a romance 11. Metric tracked by a webmaster, in short 13. File read by Adobe Acrobat: Abbr. 14. Famous fabulist 17. ___ 40 (dye found in Twizzlers) 22. Texter's sign of affection 24. Disorderly pile 26. Chimp trained for 1000+ hours to become the third homonid to ever orbit the earth 28. Tennis segment that may be ended by a 36-Across 30. Bread option 32. Longtime CBS police procedural 34. Kerfuffle 38. Berry in a bowl 40. Oriental or Persian, e.g. 41. Apple product officially discontinued in 2022 42. Reactions to a cute dog, maybe 43. Artist also known as "Mr. Worldwide" 44. Grassland 46. Chinese chicken dish 48. He or I, but not she 49. Word after press or work 51. Editor's finds 52. Added logs to, as a fire 53. Stops and rolls connector 55. Bathroom growth 58. Opposite of WSW 61. Button on a car's radio 63. [Don't touch my squeak toy!] 65. Nile biter 67. ___ Miss 68. Not her's CROSSWORD Victor Schmitt

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY What Family Means to Me? LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 My true family; The one I'm reborn into. Yes, We all have the same Father!! We all love each other as Our Father teaches, Commands us all to!! Yes, We do not always like or agree about or with some things. Nevertheless, We still love everyone Equally!! As Our Father loves both You and Me!!! The Window of Life IKE STAPLE Groundcover vendor No. 23 Through the window of life, everything looks clear. Realizing it was just a full length mirror. Four thousand times I once thought about life, then I dreamed I fell asleep, Through the window of life. After giving everyone applause, I finally congratulated myself, after awakening from the fall, Through the window of life, I landed on an encore and a standing round of applause. Through the window of life, The sound I didn't want to end at all. NOVEMBER 15, 2024 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS exp. 01/31/2025 - NOVEMBER 15, 2024 CONTINUED  CIVIL RIGHTS from page 8 In remembrance of Emmett Till, the “March on Washington” was scheduled for August 28, 1963 in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The National Park Service estimated that the crowd was over 250,000. There were many speakers including the late John Lewis, a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I HAVE A DREAM” speech. It was a profound and powerful speech. Dr. King was inspired by the poem of Langston Hughes titled, “Harlem: What Happens to a Dream Deferred?” Some historians had noted that Dr. King was urged by his favorite gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson, to say something about the dreams. He did! Dr. King’s oratory was also heard inside the White House and offices of the Nobel Prize Committee. King and his allies had made a persuasive case for civil rights in America. A few days after the March, President John F. Kennedy invited Dr. King and other Civil Rights leaders to the White House. Historians have said that when President Kennedy greeted the leaders, he jokingly said, “I have a dream!” At the White House, the host and guests discussed the 1963 Civil Rights Bill which President Kennedy sent to Congress for deliberation and passage. Sadly, in November 1963, Kennedy traveled to Dallas where he was killed by an assassin's bullet. The tragedy was very painful for the nation. Men, women and children wept openly on street corners, and in classrooms, churches, restaurants and workplaces. President Kennedy’s Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was, later in the day, sworn in as president. The nation was in mourning and tributes to the young leader, now dead, were pouring in. The new president made a passionate plea to Congress to pass Kennedy’s 1963 Civil Rights Act as one way to honor his legacy. In February 1964, the House passed it. The Senate passed the bill in June and President L.B. Johnson signed it into law on July 2, 1964. This law called for non-discrimination on the basis of race, age, gender, ethnicity and national origin. It has been amended a few times to include disability, sexual orientation and other minority identities. The 1964 Civil Rights Act created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate complaints about workplace discrimination, bias and harassment. There was a lot of resistance after the President Lyndon B. Johnson shaking the hand of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the southern states, there was rampant discrimination in hospital facilities, public education, restaurants, movie theaters and workplaces. In order to speed up compliance with the civil rights law, President L.B. Johnson signed Executive Order 11246 – The Affirmative Action Policy of 1965. The Federal government would not give funding to organizations noncompliant with the law against discrimination. Non-discrimination in voting was a key provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. However, southern Blacks were not given the freedom and opportunity to cast their votes. The march from Selma to Mongomery across the Pettus bridge was a march for voting rights enforcement and for freedom to vote. The Bloody Sunday in March 1965 showed peaceful protesters being beaten up with batons and threatened with guns by Sheriff deputies. The news media all over the world showed the brutality and injustice experienced by peaceful marchers. The images were stunning. The use of fire hoses to spray strong jets of water on young school children who were protesting, knocking them down, dealt a negative blow to the nation’s image abroad, and sickened many at home. Congress hurried and passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act, also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1965. President L. B. Johnson signed it into law and voiced a line from the old Negro Spiritual, “We shall overcome … some day.” Discrimination continued, especially in housing and residential neighborhoods. Dr. King joined local protesters in cities such as Chicago to call attention to redlining, disinvestment patterns and unfair discrimination in housing purchase and renting. In 1968, Congress was considering a non-discrimination fair housing bill which was sent by the Johnson administration. In March 1968, President Johnson received the reports from the Governor Otto Kerner Commission. After the 1967 Detroit Riot, the commission was created to answer three key questions. What happened? Why did it happen? What can we do to make sure it does not happen again? On April 4, 1968, another national tragedy shocked America and the world. Civil Rights leader and the November 1964 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize Dr. King was shot and killed in front of Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Once again, GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 President Johnson urged Congress to pass the Fair Housing Act / Civil Rights Act of 1968. It was passed quickly in April and he signed it into law. Conclusion Many journalists continue to say that the nation has come a long way. America in the 21st century is much better than the 20th century and the centuries before. The young people of today will be leaders of our tomorrow. They have demonstrated a sense of moral rectitude and a sense of racial justice during the 2020 brutal tragedy on the streets of Minneapolis. Many people in the mass media have said that there should be an intergenerational dialogue about the good chapters and the sad chapters of our history. It would not be prudent to point the blame on the young folks for the sins of the remote past. In their highly regarded book titled, “Long Memory,” Mary Frances Berry of the University of Pennsylvania and John Blasingame of Yale emphasized the correction of distortions in our history books and our civic literature. Let the conversations begin in classrooms, community centers, coffee shops, restaurants, ice cream parlors, farmers markets and outside the libraries. I do realize the experience of one individual may be different from another individual. We must be careful about the error of generalization. This is a reminder from Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise." You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise. ... You may shoot me down with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I’ll rise.  PEER from page 7 related tasks, housing was an area of weakness. Locally, the workflow available to help guide homeless or housing insecure individuals is published by the OCED, and only outlines the initial steps in the Housing Access of Washtenaw County process. Currently, the County lacks any type of resource that helps explain the flow of different resource options available to anyone interested in housing support. A recent discussion with OCED also revealed the need to improve the workflow for supporting people at all stages of their housing journey, which should address issues related to housing safety — such as sanitation, mold and repairs — as well as access to legal resources. For example, many people become unhoused because they lack legal representation or an understanding of their rights. On the other side, once people access housing — through public or private means — they are often cut off from the support network that assisted them up until that point. The concept of creating specialized programming utilizing peer workers brings both challenges and opportunities: at this time Canada, Australia, and the European Federation of National Organizations working with the homeless, have all published tools for applying peer support with the homeless and housing insecure. Peer curricula have historically been open to adapting peer training to the needs of the population served. The challenge, it appears, is that peer programs that prioritize housing require financial support mechanisms, which are lacking in the current system, as most peer programming is rooted in funding streams associated with substance abuse, mental health, or another qualifying medical diagnosis rather than actual homelessness. Recent literature published about peer programs in the United States suggests there is potential to explore future opportunities based on need and strengthened through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). At this time, efforts are underway through OCED to utilize Circling Back team members in this winter’s Point In Time (PIT) count to make it more accurate. The PIT count is funded by HUD to gauge homelessness in the United States, and helps guide how housing resources are disbursed. Also, to better serve the needs of its homeless and the housing unstable population, Circling Back hopes to improve towards a more trauma-conscious approach to the housing peer workforce, better equipped to improve quality of life for everyone.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Black bean and orange salsa ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingriedients: 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained 2 oranges, peeled and diced 1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro 1/4 cup chopped green onions 1 Tablespoon oil 1 teaspoon lemon juice 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cumin NOVEMBER 15, 2024 Directions: Combine all ingredients and chill. Serve over rice with some melted monterey jack cheese for a delicious vegetarian meal. Delicious food for everyone. Fresh ingredients for fall comfort meals. $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 12/12/2024

2 $ NOVEMBER 1, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 23 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. One commission towards a better police mission. page 8 JOE WOODS #103 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Tracy Bennett's puzzle journey: NYT Wordle Editor bids farewell to Groundcover. page 6 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator Photo credit: Allison Wei • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER NOVEMBER 1, 2024 Groundcover is a critical asset in Washtenaw County: we are seeking 1-2 new members for our board In 2010 Susan Beckett, a public school teacher, decided to create an opportunity for individuals in Washtenaw County, most of whom were living on the street, to earn income for themselves. She wasn’t trying to “solve” poverty — most teachers understand practical limitations — but as a teacher she understood that meaningful occupation is a critical first step toward responsible social participation. And from this simple idea Groundcover News was born. Groundcover News is a street paper. Street papers exist all over the world — they even have their own international organization, the International Network of Street Papers (www.insp.ngo/) which supports information sharing and best practices with a yearly conference. There is enormous variety across these papers but most of them share local news and events that typically provide topics most relevant to the individuals who sell the paper. Groundcover is unique among these street papers in so far as we: • Provide fair compensation for writers (who are typically vendors) • Offer employment skills training workshops • Provide an informal infrastructure ANNA GERSH, PhD Groundcover Board President of care that supports participating vendors • Provide referrals to other nonprofits and agencies • Hold and promote community-serving events • Invite guest writers from our community partners • Offer an opportunity for community feedback “For the poor will be with you always…” - Matthew 26:11 Since its inception, Groundcover News has provided low-barrier employment to over 650 individual vendors. Many of them are burdened with not only the effects of extreme poverty, including but not at all limited to homelessness, but also the frequently inescapable co-morbidities like mental illness and addiction. As an organization we have struggled with our image. The dance between facilitating personal autonomy with an income-generating opportunity and close personal management that anticipates the predictable challenges of hiring individuals who represent these demographics is a delicate one. In the last couple of years Groundcover News has grown. Last year we faced many challenges but in the face of these challenges, we have developed our leadership and our community partnerships to more effectively address problems when they occur. We have also expanded our reach throughout Washtenaw County; we have hired a publisher who is also a social worker; and we have deepened our partnerships with other community-serving entities including the Ann Arbor District Library, Washtenaw Literacy, MISSION and the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County. And there is SO MUCH potential in an established print journal that is already dedicated to local concerns. We want to develop Groundcover News to better serve Washtenaw Application to join the Groundcover Board of Directors County and we need new board members to support this visioning. If you have any interest in joining our board we invite you to fill out the short application (QR Code below this article). We are looking for new board members with an appreciation of the fact that whether you like it or not, the social fabric is complex and there are many creative ways to support Community. Thank you so much for your consideration. PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS D.A. Jessi Averill Elizabeth Bauman Jim Clark Amanda Gale Anna Gersh Mike Jones Ken Parks Eli Sri Rangarajan Sarah Tholen Allison Wei PROOFREADERS CONTACT US Kendall Artz Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Christopher May Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Sim Bose Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Jacob Fallman Robert Klingler Stella Lansill Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com NOVEMBER 1, 2024 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What are you thankful for? The ability to change how I think for the better. That changed my life. — Joe Woods, #103 I'm healthy, wealthy and wise. — Tony Schohl, #9 I'm grateful that a doctor finally listened to me and that I’m living. — Terri Demar, #322 Having my own apartment to live in and do what I want in. — Denise Shearer, #485 For spiritual friends. — Ken Parks, #490 That I'm with Groundcover, that I have friends and have money in my pocket everyday. I'm blessed! — Pony Bush, #305 Being healthy. — Juliano Sanchez, #174 That I have enough common sense that I don't end up in people's nonsense. — Wayne Sparks, #615 I'm thankful for the fact that every single day offers something new and exicting. I'm extremely thankful for the fact my life is low-key right now. — Cindy Gere, #279 For JESUS!; For Song! To Praise HIM With, For Nature To EXPERIENCE HIM Through; For The Christian Guy I'm asking HIM For; For my Mummy-Kins (Mom!) 'EEE' ; For Christian Fellowship, For FREEDOM; For Groundcover; For Miracles big and 'Small' ; For SAFETY and ESSENTIALS; For Apple Cobbler; For my BELOVED Pets, For Sunshine, and For Mashed-Potaoes W/butter, Gravy, and Sometimes W/ Chicken-broth! — Amanda Gale, #573 MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 The lines in the sand have been drawn in more ways than one. In this case it’s democracy or autocracy — or should I say, a so-called democracy, or a potential autocracy? Did you know 71% of the world’s population is ruled or governed by an autocracy? That means if this democracy fails here in the United States of America, and is turned into an autocracy, liberty’s light of freedom on earth would be rendered dim. Millions of voters in America are not too thrilled about the two candidates they have to choose from. A large percentage of voters consider themselves voting for the lesser evil and it shouldn’t have to be that way. When one casts a ballot, one wants to be in full support of the candidate's ideas and values. As we have it, neither candidate shares the values I believe in. Nevertheless, through my struggles in whether or not to participate in the 2024 election, I decided to do my duty and cast my ballot because I still believe in the ideals of democracy. Voters like myself must seize this opportunity. I am not voting for either candidate; I’m voting for my ideas of freedom, and what I think this country should be and what it shouldn’t be. I consider myself fortunate to have the opportunity to vote, and encourage all that can to do the same. We voters can’t be naive. No matter who wins the presidency, we will have a lot of work to do in order for liberty’s bell to ring and be heard throughout the world. But we must first keep liberty’s torch lit from the shores of the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Trump and Harris housing policies D.A. Groundcover contributor I interviewed someone for this article based on their views and outlook towards the Trump and Harris housing policies when it comes to the low-income and middle class United States citizens. This is a male who is in his sixties; let’s refer to him as Mr. Leon. First Mr. Leon stated that he will be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris because she has proposed expanding the financing options for affordable housing and promoting the conversion of empty office space into apartments. Mr. Leon is a middle-class retiree who still works to supplement his income and utilizes affordable housing supports. He is grateful for the supportive programs. As far as he is concerned when it comes to former President Donald Trump, he says he refuses to trust in someone who has been GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 named in lawsuits for fraud and other felonious activities. Mr. Leon trusts that V.P. Harris will do what is in the best interest of the low-income people and families of America. Affordable housing is essential to a lot of things. This allows us to have access to the basics that get us through the day and offers the necessary safe and habitable shelter for rest and preparing meals. It is hard to obtain and maintain employment without these things. They go hand in hand. Mr. Leon recalls that former President Donald Trump has denied employment to poor people and has been discriminatory in his housing practices. He does not believe that Trump will do anything for low-income housing or for aiding new homebuyers. He does not agree with how Trump is disrespectful and self-oriented. This isn’t all about him. Here is an example of how housing policy has generationally affected Black Americans throughout the U.S. Democrats have worked to implement programs that provide mortgage assistance and financial support for Black contractors and home building companies. The Harris administration will pump billions of dollars into our communities. Trump's plans are to give trillions in tax breaks to real estate moguls and wealthy entities to build expensive, exclusive projects — using public tax dollars to increase the wealth of billionaire class. The top 1% percent of the nation who already control 90% percent of the private wealth of the U.S citizenry. Last but not least, Mr. Leon just hopes that whoever is elected won’t result in the loss of more housing for the low-income and middle class population with growing rent rates and costs of homeownership. He wants to see America as Americans united for the good of the U.S. and not a divided country. PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons Keep the torch lit! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ELECTION DAY NOVEMBER 1, 2024 Beyond this election: FREEDOM ALL, FREEDOM BEST. Let's cast our vote for Harris-Walz! AMANDA GALE Groundcover vendor No. 573 This election season has not failed to top each of the recent 20-30 years’ national elections — for drama, intrigue and for what-all is at stake. "We the people …" of United States have a CLEAR, DISTINCTIVE pathway, we MUST FULFILL and OPT for–IF for a good majority yet from and for humanity, to yet ourselves SEEK for GOOD from and for ourselves, as a race of people — human. If we have done ourselves the great DISSERVICE of electing the campaign that ENSLAVES us — by abolishing the document that from ourselves first suggested we have EVERY RIGHT to be FREE, and that our persons INNATELY and INHERENTLY ARE FREE! — we will have simply EVIDENCED the HORROR OF OUR fallenness — by making it that MUCH MORE DIFFICULT for ourselves for SEEKING, "The GOOD." Of course, we might have opted to not know anymore what "the GOOD" is. A belief in RELATIVISM has been exchanged for a belief in some basic standard mores that once were ASSUMED and ACCEPTED — by those of us CONCEIVED and BORN under this WILD notion that we ARE and actually COULD BE / CAN BE — FREE! IF we have elected a mere "end justifies the means" INSTEAD OF A BEST DIRECTION AHEAD pathway; IF we will have SURRENDERED ourselves to the MAGA CULT OF THE MOST RECENT deceiving though seeming charismatic personality — who has PLAINLY told us he will STEAL AWAY / ERODE our FREEDOMS yet further, and under a GUISE of being a protector for us — we will begin experiencing the HORRORS of LOSING our FREEDOMS — beginning with "the Least of us" who are in NEED vocationally and financially, who have already been quite OVERLOOKED for our POTENTIALITIES and GIFTS by a larger, ELITE society; and we’ll have to work that MUCH HARDER! IF we have APPROVED for a direction that criminalizes "the Least of These" who are homeless and/or who reside atypically for modern times — and even do so under a GUISE of as if "PRO-LIFE" — UTTER SHAME! to us. If we have selected the candidate who has already at times at previous campaign rallies ordered, "arrest that person!" to some ACTUALLY PEACEFUL PROTESTORS who were MERELY SEEKING in that way to EXPOSE and RESCUE! Humanity from the WORST that could be from itself — TRUE HORROR! will be upon us. If we have selected an elitist modus operandi that SHAMES and BLAMES those recognized as being "NEEDY" among us; and also even mandates further DEPRIVATIONS for those who are deemed as if being the non-SUPERIORS among us — WOE! to us. WHAT!? are we INVITING onto Humanity — if we EXCLUDE and DEPRIVE those not deemed as being under our group of "the approved;" when we PREVENT/DENY their SKILLS and CAPABILITIES — though by which so DOING simply actually exposes/ reveals our own GROSS! and EXTREME NEEDS if we ourselves are the elitists? If while claiming we DEPLORE the IMPERIALISTIC IMPOSINGS and CONDEMNINGS that have occurred in South America, and on our own continent, and all throughout history in various places we vote for that which even BLATANTLY tells us its INTENTIONS are to do the SAME, here, now, and by starting with those who are simply The MOST VULNERABLE, and the least popular among us as a people and society — is that not APPROVAL of our own hypocrisies? Of course there are these people who we will begin with who are "heinous criminals" who have crossed-over the border and we use them as our beginning point for scapegoating and deportation — not allowing oursleves the REALIZATION that at some point, we’re NEXT! Is it "a GOOD Thing" for us to ANNIHILATE ourselves? How do we know if we even ACTUALLY EXIST — or even if there is actual GOOD, and WHAT IT IS? We NEED a STARTING POINT! As a Christian of course I realize THE BIBLE as GOD’S Objective LOVE-letter to the Human Race is inviting us to HIS Redemption and WHOLENESS. Outside of that, though, could there even yet be MERCIES and GRACES for humanity that ISN’T even Christian? What does that require? How can we “get there?" Will we ever REALLY, "arrive?” As a Christian I believe "arrival" by only mere finite, fallen means — is DOOMED! Nonetheless, I believe in a GOD who is SO! MERCIFUL that HE DOESN’T SEEK to ABANDON us to our own ultimately wicked ends; but WHO OFFERS us EACH and ALL the OPPORTUNITY to ourselves even OPT for at least what will be even if just in this LIFE a pathway of MORE PEACE and LESS SUFFERINGS — if we WILL. Have we now decided to be no special place of inspiration, to be no HARBOR for the WEARY and WANDERING, to UNDO our U.S. Constitutional Limitation of Powers — including and ESPECIALLY for our "Chief Executive?" Do we now NEED a self-proclaimed Martial Law "Protector" — to mete out to and upon us — the (supposed) freedoms for ourselves we are REFUSING? If SUBJUGATION and SUPPRESSION are the means by which we procure birth, what have we (*) wrought? And then blamed GOD for? And, WHY NOT? Follow after the dictates from other countries? Surely it’s "a better way," such as China mandates/IMPOSES — when and IF!? for family and children. Sure, you want Russia and "good ‘ole putin" to tell you, you MUST! be! and CAN ONLY be! a factory worker, a dentist, a kgb informant, et cetera. And you CANNOT! be the sculptor, the chef, the dentist, or factory worker that you! yourself! WANT to be! You CAN’T even have FREEDOM of press to even print Groundcover! If you’re a Christian, listen to Job's lament: "Oh that I had been aborted/miscarried — INSTEAD of birthed into MISERABLE SUFFERINGS!" If you’re not a Christian, please listen to even just the GLAD common sense of patriot Patrick Henry: "Give me liberty, or give me death." However perhaps we will have already instead decided to REJECT the bribe and supposed "justification" of trading our liberties? Let us Hope and Pray we will have already in a simplest way — our Vote — have decided for, the least egregiously consequential way for ourselves. Let us Hope and Pray we will have already DETERMINED that we WILL NOT! EVER! SURRENDER our Souls and liberties to anyone! for ANY! reason — NO MATTER WHAT! Are we already REALIZING that a surrenderee always sooner or later LOSES! that which is PRECIOUS and perhaps might NEVER!? be REGAINED? Do we LIKE it now already — when police OVERSTEP our FREEDOMS and our RIGHTS, and the boundaries — ethical and/or legal of the ENTRUSTMENT of their authority? And WHY!? Did Kwame Kilpatrick receive a jail term, while donald trump is pursuing a second term!? Have we CHOSEN the National Executive Team whose INTEGRITY and up-front indications can lead the way for ALL the BEST they are ASSURING for? Or have we settled for the supposed pair that merely as all dictators do, gives us only duping, changeable, INCONGRUITIES for FREEDOM and LIFE? Will we kowtow to the hitler-praising bloodbath threat or AFFIRM our potentialities and responsibilities FOR THE TRIUMPH of GOOD!? Of course we might not even know what? Or if "GOOD" — IS? Or if so; WHAT? IT IS? However, did it feel "REAL GOOD" to have to LIVE in FEAR of possible germ WARFARE on our own shores — via trump? Or, maybe you REALLY liked all those CLAMPING DOWN RESTRICTIONS like, we’re even AFRAID to breathe or cough or sneeze around each other, and we CAN’T even be around or near each other for concerts, or playgrounds, or LOVE. And say, HOW? did fauci (**) "know?" Of course we know that the people from totalitarian countries are JUST BEGGING! for an EXPANSION of the dictates OVER them, leaving NO ALTERNATIVE ANYWHERE! We know that they URGE us to ACCEPT! as BEST-human "whatever" whims a dictator and/or successor might RULE. Though maybe we have yet CHOSEN the TEAM who will lead only by the CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED who welcome ACCOUNTABILITY from "we the people …" instead of COMPLETE "IMMUNITY" for themselves! Is leadership for us that which we ELECT, ENTRUSTING us, EMPOWERING us? Or have we decided for a particular individual and/or oligarch to CANCEL OUT our WILL, and AT ANY time themselves instead Determining what we "NEED?" But IF you will promote BETRAYAL Of FREEDOMS even as the supposed means for "you and yours" by which to SAVE others and supposedly result in a "Utopia," that’s on you! For "you and yours." If however "you and yours" STRIP AWAY FREEDOM for "me and mine" — I ask you: is THAT WHAT you DESIRE, FROM me? Now if I am in any way DISSENTING, WHAT will you do with me? SURELY NOTHING LESS than the "mind-control" and TORTURE that typically occurs to expatriates SEEKING to EXPOSE and/or FREE us from "the Regime?" I may LOVE you in CHRIST, or even as a human being. However, I’ll NOT! OPT to even SAVE your unborn children — so that you ENSLAVE! me and mine! If we truly want to INSURE LIFE, this DOESN’T occur by MERELY MANDATING birth. So this election is NOT! merely a selection, but a REFERENDUM. Do "we the people …" value FREEEDOM and LIFE, or the MIRAGE of IMPOSTERS? Guess what? It’s NOT! TOO LATE!! (I learned while being an election inspector previously when resident in Canton, that even if you’ve already voted — like absentee, or even while at the polls — and you realize you have made a TERRIBLE ERROR, you have the right up until the close of the polls on election night to destroy that erring ballot and to cast as best possible for all the good and best that American seeks to be.) So, LET’S BE SURE TO VOTE! And to VOTE BEST! FOR our FREEDOMS! I am ASSURED even NONETHELESS that IF "we the people …" somehow FAIL ourselves for our chosen outcome for this election — that even the WORST IMMEDIATE and/or ULTIMATE SUFFERINGS and WRONG ways of going that might occur — WILL NOT! be what ULTIMATELY PREVAILS. I KNOW this because I KNOW JESUS. However, I even know this, because I know that the human spirit that HE Created–Innately MUST and WILL — ultimately also shine through for FREEDOM. NOVEMBER 1, 2024 FOOD JUSTICE GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 Find the Ypsi Vegan Food Distro outside of 169 N Washington St. on Monday evenings. Freegan Vegan: local food justice activists help two causes at once In the front yard of Hospitality House on North Washington St. in Ypsilanti there is a table, a rack and a sign that says “food only.” On the table and rack is a constant cornucopia of donated foods ranging from fresh produce to milk and eggs to boxed and canned foods. Recently a group of local food justice activists began adding prepared vegan dishes to the fare found on Monday evenings. Some of the food is prepared by a person who goes by Shanky who is a food justice activist and gardener. I asked Shanky how the vegan food distro got started. “[Some friends and fellow vegans] met up at the library and threw around some ideas. Then we thought, let’s drive around and find people on the street. Let’s just start making meals. "That week FedUp was closed, someone asked if we could do a small distribution; so we came up with 50 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Cliff Bars and juice boxes." FedUp Ministries serves meals to the street community. “Then we got permission to do it in front of Hospitality House. We put out flyers to the farmers market asking for leftover produce. A few other community members donated as well. We had a decent amount of produce to get out. We did some cooking and baking and threw it all together, then handed it out in mismatched containers.” Shanky is an Ypsilanti local who has been on nonprofit boards and helps run several community gardens while teaching people how to grow. She began baking vegan and gluten-free items for her friends with food allergies. On-again-off-again vegetarian, she does eat eggs and uses them in her baking. She also makes her own oat milk but does not JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 eat honey. Shanky said, “Honey bees are an invasive, non-native that kills other bees by dominating the food sources.” Instead of honey, Shanky recommended, “Use maple syrup. It works just as well.” Every Monday offers a chance to see different activists staffing the vegan food distro table. One person, who goes by Cinder, is also a food justice advocate and vegan. Cinder said, “I have been vegan for ten years now and in that time I haven't done as much activism as I would have liked. I have mostly volunteered at events and worked to share my ideas one-on-one. I have always done volunteering in one way or another, so that aspect has been a part of my life since early childhood. I was keeping my eye out for local opportunities to help the disenfranchised members of our community without compromising my beliefs. I saw a call for volunteers on a local Facebook group and got in contact with the group from there.” The group was the vegan food distribution team. Cinder went on to explain the program. “The food distribution we are doing has a focus on offering a hot vegan meal each week … We also offer ready-to-eat options, produce, baked goods, and hygiene products as they become available. The whole program right now is being run by volunteers and a small pool of weekly donations. We are, of course, trying to expand that donation pool. Anyone who wants to reach out about donating food, drinks, or any other vegan products for distribution can reach out in person or via our Facebook page: Vegan Food Distro Ypsilanti.” I asked Cinder what they thought of the relationship between food justice versus housing rights. She answered, “On one level, offering a delicious hot meal of any kind is a step in the right direction. We need to make sure everyone knows where their next meal is coming from as a start. On the level of why vegan specifically, there are a few notes to consider. Firstly, most vegan food lasts longer without refrigeration than traditional options. Secondly, the meals lean heavily on vegetables. The health and energy benefits to whole foods are undeniable. Regular consumption of whole foods is associated with fewer hospital stays, lower risk of cardiac disease and a diminished number of overall health problems. Helping unhoused folks stay as healthy as possible means helping alleviate the potential of large medical expenses over time. We try to offer a variety of fresh produce every week to the same end. Lastly, the environmental, nutritional and community benefits of veganism are truly impossible to ignore. We can help those in our community without adding to the existing issues associated with animal agriculture. So why wouldn't we? Whether homeless or struggling, everyone deserves to eat healthy, delicious food.”

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT NOVEMBER 1, 2024 Tracy Bennett's puzzle journey: NYT Wordle Editor bids farewell to Groundcover News ALLISON WEI Groundcover contributor You could say that Tracy Bennett was born a puzzle-lover. Before she could even talk, at 17 months, Bennett was doing jigsaw puzzles, according to her mom. As a young girl, Bennett’s appetite for puzzles couldn’t be stopped: she did her older sister’s jigsaw puzzles then moved on to crossword puzzles. At 17, she did her first New York Times crossword at a friend’s house and fell in love with it. But she couldn’t afford to get a New York Times subscription. “Growing up, we were very poor. I lived in a house with no running water and an outhouse,” said Bennett. To feed her love for puzzles, Bennett asked neighbors and friends for their NYT crosswords. Decades later, Bennett has gone from not being able to afford a NYT subscription to being the NYT’s first and only Wordle editor. As an associate puzzle editor, Bennett also edits crosswords and Strands. “It’s my dream job,” said Bennett. But for the longest time, puzzling was just a hobby. Never could she have imagined it would turn into a career. Originally from Maine, Bennett moved to Michigan to study English literature at the University of Michigan, joining her sister at U-M. She’s been in Ann Arbor ever since. It was here, in one of America’s most well-read cities, that Bennett discovered her love for words. “In my senior year, I became fascinated with how words worked,” said Bennett. Post-grad, she considered a masters in linguistics or publishing. She ended up choosing the latter, working as a copy editor for the journal Mathematical Reviews. Here, she further honed her love for language. “I loved editing. It was like working in two different languages: technical math language is a language in and of itself, but I was also working with a lot of non-native English speakers.” Working at Mathematical Reviews, Bennett was content. Life went on. She got married. Had a son. She continued pursuing puzzles, but only on the side. In 2010, at the urging of a friend, she entered a local puzzle solving contest and won. Afterward, she entered the American Crossword Tournament. “I didn’t do well as a competitor, but I met people who make puzzles for the first time. It was like a light turned on — I saw that people don’t just solve puzzles, but make them. That sounded so wonderful to me.” Bennett began learning how to construct puzzles under mentor Victor Fleming, who’s had his crosswords published in the New York Times and co-contributed crosswords to Groundcover. In 2013, Bennett had her first crossword published in the New York Times. In 2014, she got her first job offer as a puzzle constructor at Bust magazine. She started creating puzzles for Crosswords with Friends. All this came at a cost. “I was still working my day job, raising a child, and doing puzzles on top of all this. I was getting up at 5 a.m. or going to bed late exhausted just to get everything done,” said Bennett. Making puzzles is hard work. “It’s very time consuming to make a puzzle, it can take me three days to make a good one,” said Bennett. Beyond skill, it wasn’t easy breaking into the puzzle making scene. “The puzzle industry was primarily whitemale dominated,” said Bennett. “When I first started, there were these 16-20 year old Computer Science major phenoms being celebrated. As a 40 year old mom with a whole other career, I wasn’t really getting the same attention.” That’s part of why in her puzzle career, inclusivity has always been important to her. At Bust, Bennett created crosswords with feminist themes. In 2017, she co-founded the Inkubator: a magazine that trains women and non-binary folks how to create crosswords and pays them for their work. “I started to feel like I was really making puzzles for a living and my day job was just paying the bills. In 2020, when the job for associate puzzle editor at The New York Times opened up, I applied and got it,” said Bennett. “I was in my late 50s and made a major career change.” Bennett was hired at the same time as Wyna Liu, who edits Connections. “When I joined the Times, it was pretty much exclusively white male … but they were trying to expand that.” Since she joined NYT, Bennett has continued focusing on inclusivity. One way she does this is through mentorship — she’s mentored three people through the NYT’s Diverse Crossword Constructor Fellowship. "When you think of inclusivity, you always think of race and gender, but there’s also subtle ageism. It’s hard to be treated like you’re amazing when you’re older and starting a new hobby — that’s something I’m sensitive to Do you play the popular New York Times puzzle game, Wordle? The same person who picks the word of the day has been contributing puzzles to Groundcover News for five years. since I started making puzzles in my forties. One of my mentees was in her seventies.” Bennett also keeps in mind inclusivity when choosing the Wordle word of the day. “When you make a puzzle, who are you assuming is solving the puzzle? Who are you excluding when you say a word is obscure? “I wanted to expand the narrative of who’s solving the puzzle — to make more people feel seen and included in the story.” That hasn’t come without challenges. “I got complaints when I ran the word 'MANGA' and people didn’t know what it was. I got the same reaction for 'PENNE' (like the pasta). People thought I was trying to trick them with some weird foreign word but it’s not foreign — it’s English … so that’s a barrier I’m constantly pushing against.” Dealing with backlash is something Bennett has had to learn since joining the Times. “When I first started, I decided to do a few themed words. I ran 'FEAST' for Thanksgiving. There was so much furor over that word. Slate magazine ran an article titled 'The New Wordle Editor Is Ruining Wordle.' “The response to that — it was a wake up call,” said Bennett, a self-described introvert who’s most comfortable behind her computer. Despite the pressures of being in the limelight, it’s worth it. Some of Bennett’s favorite parts of being a Wordle editor are what she calls “moments of magical synchronicity” — when a word magically lines up with something happening in someone’s life. “I ran 'CAROL' one day. A woman wrote to me saying that that day was her mother’s memorial service — her mom's name was Carol and she was a lifelong Wordle lover.” A lot of intentionality goes behind choosing the five letter Wordle. Created by James Wardle in 2020, Wordle has a set bank of 2400 five letter words. “I set a random generator from 1 to 2400. If we haven’t run that word already, I’ll set that word up for the week. I do this until I have 7 picks and then order them in the order I think flows best.” Before moving forward, Bennett researches each word. “I look up the meaning in the dictionary and research the word’s secondary and tertiary meanings to make sure I’m not offending anyone.” Bennett is also careful about context. “If there’s something in the news like October 7th, I try to choose a bland word. We try to be sensitive about what we’re putting out there.” The words go to a dedicated team of puzzle solvers for testing before finally being approved. Bennett brings that same passion to her work at Groundcover. Since 2019, Bennett has been making some of the Groundcover crosswords, after being referred by Peter Collins, a fellow Ann Arborite who’s published 100+ crosswords in the New York Times, and many in Groundcover as well. Five years of puzzle making for Groundcover behind her, Bennett is see CROSSWORD next page  NOVEMBER 1, 2024 COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT It's the Great ... Brown Pumpkin, Charlie SARAH THOLEN Groundcover contributor Boldly as the acorns drop, the Fall imbeds itself. ‘Tis the season, once again, for candles on the shelf! Before we could prepare, In came the Autumn air, And with it, crafts for Halloween that you can “do yourself!” “I know that this will be the year I check off my whole list; I’ll bake a cake, and decorate, and even shop for gifts!” My problem is severe, For every single year, Not one, not two, but all my goals are regularly missed. Though the ghosts of those Fall hopes may seem to haunt me still, I have a trick to treat myself and keep moving uphill! Although I should refrain, With every task, I gain A chocolate-peanut-butter pumpkin Reese’s, freshly chilled. Its ratio of sweet to savory really should be studied, For when I eat one, it insists I must send down a buddy. It tastes so, so divine I truly fear a crime Where wolfing down this chocolate treat incites a fight quite bloody. Dare I say, this reward method truly won me over, Managing to keep me going all throughout October. But soon it will be time, When having passed its prime, The great brown pumpkin is replaced with trees by every grocer.  CROSSWORD from last page now bidding farewell. “I have too many projects going on outside of my day job, but I will still probably submit some when I have the time.” “It’s been really cool volunteering with Groundcover … I love being downtown and seeing someone selling Groundcover. I’ll always buy it and eagerly look at the back to see the puzzle.” At the end of the day, Bennett GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 says her mission is to create joy. “Puzzles are little problems you can solve rather than problems you can’t solve. Nobody making puzzles wants to trick you. They want you to solve it.” In an increasingly complex world where it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, those small wins matter. “Bringing joy and meaning to other people’s lives … that’s what puzzles are all about.”

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS RACIAL JUSTICE ELI SRI RANGARAJAN U-M student contributor On November 9, 2014, Aura Rosser was shot and killed in her own home by Ann Arbor police. In the following days, months and years, Ann Arbor’s community alongside the growing nationwide Black Lives Matter movement, took action and protested against racist policing and the lack of police accountability throughout the US. No matter how hard we fight, it can often feel like no change actually occurs. Political figures constantly leave us with empty promises rather than tangible solutions. But, even if it's hard to notice, there is change. In 2018, as a result of the mobilization of communities across our country in alliance with BLM, Ann Arbor’s Independent Community Police Oversight Commission (ICPOC) was formed. With a goal of not only reducing harmful policing but improving community police relations as a whole, every aspect of its creation was intertwined with community feedback. The Commission consists of 11 voting members, one of whom is a youth member, and most of whom are part of specific committees within ICPOC. Committees include the policy, training, outreach and information committees. The bulk of each Commission meeting consists of reports from these committees followed by discussion among Commission members on ways to handle the issues that arise. At the September 24 meeting I attended, for example, the policy committee presented a concern surrounding the legal requirement for police body cameras. A complaint had been received that a specific policeman had arbitrarily switched off his body camera while at a University of Michigan protest, despite the potential for escalation. As Commissioner Randy Milgrom argued, legislation surrounding these cameras is extremely ambiguous, especially when these cameras are vital in holding police accountable. What followed was an engaged discussion between the Commission and Ann Arbor Police Chief Andre Anderson who attends the meetings alongside colleagues. The result was not only an increased understanding on the issue from both sides, but an agreement that in the subsequent days AAPD would revise the policies and send them to the commission for reapproval. It was somewhat shocking. Police and the Commission actually seemed to be listening to each other. AAPD seemed to understand that this was an opportunity to improve, and the commission did as well. In an environment often rife with polarity, the space invited a mutual respect that was extremely refreshing. At the closure of the meeting, ICPOC Commissioner Bonnie Billups went out of his way to explicitly thank officers who had shown compassion in their work in a specific situation. It truly felt like both sides were fighting for our community. Distrust has defined our police-community relations in the past, and although ICPOC is nowhere close to an all-encompassing solution, this type of collaboration and communication is the first necessary step towards an environment where police and the community support and engage with each other rather than demonize and clash with each other. It is a symbol that the constant effort so many have dedicated to reducing racist and brutal policing might actually be paying off. ICPOC meetings occur once a month; the next one will be held Tuesday, November 26 from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. ICPOC’s public office hours (which allow other community It has been 10 years since Aura Rosser was murdered by the Ann Arbor police. members to be heard in the dialogue surrounding healthy policing) are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1 p.m. -5 p.m. and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. Any community member can attend these meetings. A police complaint form can be found on their website: https://www.a2gov.org/ dep ar tmen ts/cit y-c ler k/ Boards-and-Commissions/Pages/ Independent-Community-Police-Oversight-Commission.aspx NOVEMBER 1, 2024 One commission towards a better police mission NOVEMBER 1, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Bakery attraction 6. Snitch 10. Pod dwellers 14. Observatory observations 15. Hip bones 16. With 1-Down and 27-Down, complain at length 17. ___ list 18. Go for 19. Sette follower 20. European country that's hard to spell 23. Fit of shivering 24. "___ is ___, of course, of course" 25. College treasurer 28. Jellied garnish 30. ___ Today 31. Disinclined 36. Invitation acronym 38. Charged particle 39. Zero, on a court 40. Niece's son 45. "Cool" amount 46. Rainbow ___ 47. Festival of lights 49. Denmark's second-largest city 52. Home of the Taj Mahal 53. Femme fatale's fatal footwear? 57. Hit the bottle 58. Amble 59. Band 62. Burden 63. "I had no ___!" 64. Part of a TV feed 65. Gym set 66. "___ of the Flies" 67. Church song DOWN 1. See 16-Across 2. ___ v. Wade 3. Ellipse 4. Fads 5. African spear 6. Specialty 7. "Thanks ___!" 8. Get up 9. Siestas 10. Set of rules 11. "Purple people ___" 12. Con men? 13. Peach pit 21. Hair piece 22. FedEx, say 25. Town 26. "Back in the ___" 27. See 16-Across 28. Take in 29. Hyperbolic function 32. Place 33. "Brave New World" drug 34. Malevolent 35. Kosher ___ 37. Untrodden 41. Exact 42. Frequently pierced place 43. Advantage 44. Bug 48. Tusked mammal 49. Fur trader John Jacob 50. Make amends 51. Shred 52. Winning 54. ___ list 55. Done 56. Fizzy drink 60. Black gold 61. Little dog, for short

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES JESSI AVERILL Groundcover contributor Over several issues of Groundcover, Ramón Roberto Isla Caballero, vendor No. 347, has shared about his physical and mental health conditions while living unhoused. He has talked about the ongoing hip and chest pains he feels, as well as his routine to drink at night to help him sleep outside on the busy downtown street. Ramón turns 66 years old in December. Since returning to Ann Arbor during the pandemic he has only stayed inside overnight for a handful of days. Growing older while living unhoused makes it very hard for Ramón to keep good health. Fortunately, he is constantly checked on by Washtenaw County Community Mental Health’s street outreach team, PATH. They help him consistently schedule and travel to his doctor appointments. They also help him get the medicines his doctor prescribes. Early in October Ramón started experiencing more severe chest pains, mostly related to acid reflux. He started thinking the medicine he was taking was not working. He canceled an upcoming doctor's appointment and stressed to his CMH caseworker that he did not want to take the medicine anymore because he was not getting better. However, Ramón was continuing to drink alcohol somewhat heavily despite the doctor telling him it could worsen his acid reflux and affect the medicine that is supposed to help him with it. The caseworker asked Ramón if he would like to try staying at a local recovery center to see if it could help him with reducing his drinking. Both Groundcover and PATH staff helped prepare Ramón for moving into the center. He brought all his belongings to the Groundcover office, then PATH had an Uber pick him up to bring him to the center. Before entering the program he needed to take a COVID test. He tested positive. He had to wait at least 10 days before he could come back to try again. PATH made sure that Ramón was set up in a hotel to isolate and recover from COVID. He was now sleeping inside for the first time in a long, long time! At the hotel Ramón was able to shower, eat regularly and rest. He also was able to use a phone (his cell phone was stolen a while ago) which made it easier for his CMH caseworkers to stop by and check on him as well as Groundcover staff to plan meal dropoffs as part of his wellness care. Ramón started feeling much better and soon recovered from COVID. But the best news of all: Ramón was no longer drinking. To-date it has been over three weeks since he had a drink! During this time he has not been having acid reflux or chest pains. Other changes have been no more shaky hands or rapid breathing. Ramón has not returned yet to try the recovery center, but he is working with CMH to get placed in housing in Ann Arbor. This is huge news: Ramón was resistant to housing options in the past because he would say, "give it to someone else who needs it." CMH is also working on ordering him a mobile phone. While he waits for the new housing placement, Ramón has not been selling Groundcover New papers because he does not want to be far from the hotel phone in case his caseworkers need to reach him. He still stops by the Groundcover office to say hi, grab a cup of coffee and chat before taking off to go back to the hotel. The change in Ramón is obvious when he stops in to say hi — he is smiling, laughing and eager to talk about what he is watching on TV (usually something from the History Channel). On behalf of Ramón: Thank you to all the caseworkers who have been so helpful and caring to him and towards his recovery. And, most of all, thank you to Groundcover staff for their support over the last few weeks (and over the nine years since he became a vendor). NOVEMBER 1, 2024 Cancer survivor, and now COVID survivor, too! Support an Alternative Business Model Local - Organic - Member-Owned Your Ypsilanti source for healthy, eco-friendly food and goods INVEST BY BECOMING A MEMBER! 7 principles of Co-ops Voluntary, Democratic, Equitable, Independent, Informative, Collaborative, Community We make it affordable: Frequent Sales/Use Your Bridge card/Ask us about Double Up Food Bucks Visit us for 312 N. River St. (734) 483-1520 www.ypsifoodcoop.org unique cards and local, handmade items too $2 OFF your purchase of $15 or more One coupon per transacton Must present coupon at time of purchase exp. 01/31/2025 NOVEMBER 1, 2024 VENDOR VOICES GROUNDCOVER NEWS Look, look, my heart is an open book! Musings on land and healing That song spills out of my mouth occasionally. If you look you may see a heart of scars that are still healing. The stages of the path may require an even deeper level of healing. Some crises may reveal an underlying condition that is a big mystery. Spiritual friends may become the key to the clues you need. When my ophthalmologist told me that I have vascular endothelial growth factor, my mind went on full alert. When it shows up in the eyes it can cause what is called “age-related macular degeneration.” Matt Hoostal, who I know from Pizza in the Park, told me they call it “veg f” in his biology research lab. It appears to form in the gut microbiome, which Matt is studying. I am an eternal student and have discovered that some wounds and pathologies have a collective dynamic that must be addressed. The gut microbiome is the community of up to 100 trillion organisms that live in the intestinal tract. There are 37 trillion cells in our body so we have an even larger, very diverse community in our gut. Digestion, energy creation and the immune system are all expressions of the gut microbiome. If you have a gut feeling it is from your second brain so-to-speak. The vagus nerve connects the two brains. This is a field of study we need to honor. We live in a community of modern humans. Dr. Carl Jung and his adventures with and beyond Sigmund Freud have much to offer to intellectual workers who are trying to finish their job. Intellectual work that focuses on how to make sense of the mess we are in is very important. The difference between truth and fiction is that fiction must make sense. Homo sapiens sapiens is a subspecies of homo sapiens and the Latin word for wise is repeated twice to specify that modern humans are the only survivors of the species. Some of us may have Neanderthal genes but there are no remaining Neanderthal people. Neander is the name of a valley in Germany where remains were found. They evolved from homo sapiens and populated the Eurasian landmass until some 40,000 years ago. So when you look in the mirror who do you see? As you mature you will discover many times that you are not who you think you are. One thing is certain, we are sentient beings who are children of this earth. Water, air and sun have also brought us forth. We share Turtle Island with many relations, both plant and animal. My interdisciplinary studies are beyond my ability to fully master anything, so my eternal student is sometimes the “village idiot.” As Homo sapiens sapiens we learn to think at a young age. Rebirthers have discovered that we make deep decisions at the time of birth. We must be deciders before we are thinkers. Are you happy to be here or not? You may cry with your first breath. As you see, our community life is the context for our individual experience. You live your own life but you don’t do it alone. An understanding of natural law goes far beyond the law of gravity. Quantum mechanics and probabilities are the new paradigm. Making friends with our own mind is the essential task before us, in my humble opinion. As children of the Earth we will discover the sacred nature of Earth and realize that all earthly beings have a place here. So how could we have homelessness and underhoused populations? It’s time to examine social norms and create new ones in some cases. You can take a breath for a fresh start. Other times let the breath rest and observe the mind until you find a fresh mind. Khenpo Choephel from the Karuna Buddhist Center is a good teacher at this point. Many are those who want a more awakened mind. We can enter the Olympics of mind training in which everybody wins. Honor all who have some realization and are happy to share it. Private property is the main belief of what we once called middle class life. This belief is basic to the compliance culture which arose from the collapse of feudalism. The Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment evolved into the capitalism we know today. We are deeply entrenched in the belief that you must be a property owner in order to be a real human being. Therefore children must be trained to think they do not fully count as human beings unless they adopt the values of the ruling class ideology. Maybe that’s why NASA discovered that most five-year-olds are at creative genius level and that declines as they are socialized into compliance culture. Let’s practice open awareness and KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 imagine how we can use property so as to have a better relation with all the people. Ann Arbor has an ordinance on Accessory Dwelling Units. Jim Clark is helping me understand this ordinance. I believe it opens the door to build tiny homes in backyards or side lots that would be a simple living space. I am looking for folks who have used this ordinance and also those who are willing to explore the possibility. My vision is a small greenhouse, maybe 20'x14’ with a living space behind the plants. I have experience camping out in my house to beat foreclosure in Detroit, sustainable camping at Standing Rock and a base camp community on Carrizo Comecrudo land in Texas. I am ready to begin a discussion on accessory dwelling units and see if we can do a workable model of shared and simple living. We have a design challenge that could be fun as we design a simple house and then clarify the responsibilities of mutual respect and shared living. I propose we start with a council fire (a shared fire touches on our shared indigenous heritage) and focus awareness of body and earth on the land available. This process will be complete as land is returned to its indigenous caretakers who have an organic connection to the traditions of the first humans on this land. We can begin with the intention to design and build artistic accessory dwelling units until everyone has a safe place to sleep. Some may resemble a small bunkhouse or hostel for travelers. You can do a lot in a small space as nomadic peoples have demonstrated for countless centuries. Look around until you find indigenous connections. The Native American Student Association is important if you have any U-M relations. They are part of the Tahrir Coalition well known from the camp on the Diag that was in solidarity with the Palestinian people, which also merits your attention. Practice open awareness that creates the vision that Che referred to in his famous quote, “We are realists, we dream the impossible.” The first challenge is the permit and inspection process of the dwelling. I propose that permaculture design be brought into the ordinance. It looks like an obvious step but also may be out of sync with compliance culture. Peter Bane was once editor of the "Permaculture Activist" which was based in North Carolina. He now has a permaculture project in southwestern Michigan which we could visit. A central research issue is composting toilets. For simple, sustainable living it is probable that permaculture has a better design than the current waste disposal systems that regularly overflow with rainwater. Beaches are sometimes closed due to this inadequate design. Ann Arbor could be the vanguard by adopting compost as a basic tool of waste management. This approach would be a boon for a variety of ADUs and promote better use of the land. All this would best be done in consultation with indigenous traditions. We may develop a more complete form of land conservancy that focuses more on drainage basins rather than property lines that were created by settler communities who were caught in the land speculation of the 19th century in particular. Homesteading was a source of government income. The Northwest Ordinance laid out the process of populating territories so they could become states. The number of broken treaties and the current crisis of property speculation, and the poorly managed 2008 economic collapse in which billions were given to bankrupt billionaires by foreclosing on the people. We know from the work of Richard Werner that loans create money out of nothing. Interest is fraud and we need council fire with indigenous peoples to go back to the basics for a fresh start on the social commons, i.e., Mother Nature. Lee Sprague is important here. His presentation at the 50th Anniversary of the teach-in at U-M and his presentation to the Native American Student Association's and the School for Environment and Sustainability's conference just before COVID is precious history that I hope we can revisit. We need to focus on the next steps that came out of these two events and his presentations. He began with his quote; it is the essensce of his presentation. "We have seen the French, the British and now the Americans. We will still be here when you are gone.” 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Cranberry walnut bread ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups of warm water 1 teaspoon dry yeast 3 cups bread flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 cup dried cranberries Generous ½ cup chopped walnuts 2 Tablespoons honey Directions: Mix warm water with one teaspoon of active dry yeast. Set aside for 15 minutes. Mix everything, including yeast mixture, together into a sticky dough in a large bowl. Cover and let rise for 8-10 hours (until it has doubled in size). Remove dough from bowl and place on a floured surface, form into a ball. Cover and when it has risen one and a half its size, place on parchment paper. Preheat oven to 450 degrees with a Dutch oven inside of the oven. Place dough with the parchment paper in a Dutch oven and bake for 30 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid and bake for 15 to 20 minutes more. A longtime friend brought this to a girlfriends’ weekend away and it was enjoyed by all. It is fabulous toasted, with or without butter. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS NOVEMBER 1, 2024 Delicious food for everyone. Fresh ingredients for fall comfort meals. $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 11/15/2024

2 $ OCTOBER 18, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 22 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Community Mental Health and Public Safety Millage — what to know before November 5. page 4 MEET YOUR VENDOR: CINDY GERE PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Denise Shearer, vendor No. 485, at the Fleetwood Diner — winner of the Best Affordable Restaurant in Washtenaw County. • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER community EVENTS ANN ARBOR PROPOSALS A-D DISCUSSION Saturday, October 19, 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. Washtenaw County Admin Building - 200 N Main St. in the basement Ann Arbor voters will asked to vote on four proposals this November 5th. All proposals will amend the City Charter. Speakers will share their reasons for supporting or for not supporting these proposals. A2 PLANNING OPEN HOUSE Wednesday, October 23, 11 a.m.-7p.m., Presentations at 12:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. Ann Arbor District Library: Downtown (Multipurpose Room, lower level) Learn and give input on the A2 Comprehensive Plan, Downtown Area Circulation Study and the DDA Development Plan. HALLOWEEN DOWNTOWN Friday, October 25, 5:30-7p.m. Michigan Ave Library Plaza, Ypsilanti Celebrate the Ypsilanti District Library's annual Halloween event at the newly renovated downtown library branch! Trick-ortreat in the Library Plaza! Pick up sweets, win books, play putt-putt with Putt-RRound, and visit the "Boo"Mobile. MOVING our MONEY from WARFARE to HUMAN NEEDS Saturday, October 26, 3-5 p.m. 8200 W. Outer Dr., Southfield, Detroit Panel presentation on why cutting the bloated military budget and spending our tax money in the areas of jobs, healthcare, housing, climate control and education, would benefit ALL of us — no matter your political persuasion, gender, age or ethnicity. GROUNDCOVER NEWS ANNUAL OPEN MIC Friday, November 22, 6-8 p.m. Makeshift Gallery, 407 E Liberty St. Join us this November in honoring Hunger & Homelessness Awareness week at Groundcover News' fifth open mic event! Come listen to community members share writing, songs poetry and stories from the street. This is a FREE event. All are welcome. OCTOBER 18, 2024 letter to the EDITOR While I share the abhorrence of the death of innocent civilians occurring in Gaza and Lebanon, I take issue with calling it genocide, as many articles in Groundcover News have. The Oct. 4 article about the UN by Mike Jones is the most recent example. Genocide implies an extermination campaign. Israel warns the populace in advance of their major incursions, encouraging civilians to relocate. If their goal was eradicating all Palestinians, they would not do so. Israel has consistently targeted enemy leaders and their military infrastructure. Further, Mr. Jones blames the UN Security Council vetoes for the continued war in Gaza, never mentioning that Hamas has been unwilling to agree to any of the cease-fire agreements brokered by other nations. Israel has agreed to several. And let’s not forget that this war began when Hamas attacked Israel. They tortured, raped and killed thousands and took 250 hostages, many of whom are now dead or still being held. And that Hamas continues to intermingle its leaders and munitions with its population centers. Hamas is engaged in a war for public sympathy and Groundcover News writers are helping them win it. — Susan Beckett PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS VOLUNTEERS D.A. Elizabeth Bauman Jamie Cameron Pedro Campos Jim Clark La Shawn Courtwright Cindy Gere Amelia Isacksen Ginger Johnston Earl Pullen Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer Scoop Stevens Felicia Wilbert GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Jessi Averill Sim Bose Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Simone Masing Anthony McCormick Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof CONTACT US PROOFREADERS Kendall Artz Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons OCTOBER 18, 2024 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover vendor No. 638 Groundcover vendors are losing Cindy Gere, vendor No. 279 In one sentence, who are you? I am Dene Nation, Kaska Tribe, Native Canadian from the Wolf Clan Warrior. I fight for the least of us; that is my mission. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? Sweetwaters coffee shop on Ashley and Washington from 7-10 a.m. as much as possible. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? I am a humanitarian – and Christ told the world, be and do for the least of us! So I choose to work with and be part of the homeless as part of my mission-walk in life. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Go to all the free festivals and gatherings with my friends. What is your favorite spot in Ann Arbor? Pink is my favorite color so to calm down I go to the pink coffee shop with all the roses (House of Chimney Cakes). What words do you live by? I do what I can for who I can and when I can! What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn’t know? I have an operatic voice. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Hang out with real war veterans and teach them yoga/meditation. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Moose. What are your hobbies? Lifting weights and dancing. I go out every Friday to dance and party! What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? A homeless tent community for nondrug and sober working homeless people. the war against aggressive panhandlers in Ann Arbor. In the end, Groundcover will lose this war. Before this happens, Groundcover should change its primary mission from providing employment for low-income individuals to becoming a newspaper of enlightened justice. This can be accomplished by making improvements in our freelance writing program. African American sociologist, educator and author W.E.B. Dubois wanted Black people to agitate, agitate and agitate for justice. His nemesis, Booker T. Washington, sought an accommodation with whites through an emphasis on vocational training. Vocational training is for slaves. Traditional liberal arts (grammar, logic and rhetoric) are the subjects that free people study. Groundcover should continue its social justice mission but should also publish articles that teach traditional liberal arts. This will educate the public and nurture freedom. It will also prevent Groundcover from becoming just another vocational training, dead end for the vendors. As the overall quality of journalism improves in Groundcover’s newspaper, a more sophisticated reader base will develop that will become investors in Groundcover solutions. Having an article Jamie's Choice Awards Best Thai Food: No Thai (Kerrytown). Best Billiards: The 8 Ball Saloon (downstairs from Blind Pig or enter via alley). There may be a cover charge. Best Dancing: Depending on JAMIE CAMERON Groundcover vendor No. 612 day of the week, Necto, off Liberty. There may be a cover and coat check charge. It used to be called “The Nectarine Ballroom!” Best Cinnamon Buns: CinnaBon in Briarwood Mall near JC Penney. Best Cup of Coffee: Espresso Royale off Main near Liberty. Unfortunately, all locations are now closed. Best Seafood: The Black Pearl, on Main St. near Liberty. Best Book Shop for used buy or sell: The Dawn Treader, off Liberty in downtown. Happy consuming! Halloween is a real treat What Halloween means to me is fun and treats. Halloween means to me a time to love God and Jesus more. Halloween means to me the same as Thanksgiving — being thankful for all God blessed me with. I also like to have fun on Halloween but not with spooky things. I like to celebrate Halloween with beautiful, colorful things. I like to dress up as a butterfly or a cat. I love watching the Charlie Brown Peanuts “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” I like to joke that my boyfriend Richard don’t discuss politics, religion, and the Great Pumpkin with anybody. This is part reality, though! Halloween also reminds me of the movie “Cinderella,” where her carriage was a pumpkin. Halloween reminds me of “The Princess and the Frog” movie, too. Halloween reminds me of being DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 During Halloween time I also like to go to farmers markets because it’s the harvest time of the year. All the fruits and vegetables are so colorful and pretty; they are very delicious, too. Halloween reminds me of candy and hot dogs and candy apples. French fries, too. Halloween also reminds me of delicious popcorn — caramel popcorn and buttered popcorn. with my friends at Halloween parties. Halloween is not just for kids, it’s for anybody at any age who wants to have fun and enjoy treats and enjoy the holiday. It also reminds me of getting together with church groups and celebrating and getting treats. Halloween can be celebrated in many different ways; I enjoy them all except spooky things. I like to celebrate God and Jesus in every holiday, including Halloween. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Groundcover News evolution path published in Groundcover will become a literary achievement and many writers who submit articles will not have them published. In keeping with its non-profit corporation status, these articles will be evaluated and writers will be compensated according to merit. A culture of literacy that leads to more effective civic participation will grow out of the Groundcover freelance writing program. Sales will increase because of the content of the paper and the paper will, for the most part, sell itself. The vendor role will be diminished in importance but new opportunities will become available. 3 by Denise Shearer

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ELECTION DAY OCTOBER 18, 2024 Community Mental Health Public Safety Millage — what to know before November 5 Nothing is certain but death and taxes. The death part is obvious — if you’re a human being, you have an expiration date. But why are taxes certain? Because as long as you're alive and a human being, you or someone you know may need public services. Public services are provided by the people running the government through programs and departments. The Washtenaw County government coordinates important services like community mental health and public safety. As we live in a society driven by money, these services need to be funded to pay employees and obtain resources. Hence, taxes. The Community Mental Health and Public Safety Preservation Millage was voted on in 2017, commenced in 2019, and is set to expire in 2026. It is up for renewal in the upcoming general election in order to avoid running a special election next year. The millage is a 1 mill tax that generates $15 to $18 million a year for Washtenaw County. Five to six million dollars go to CMH, the rest goes to public safety/the Sheriff’s Office. The Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office provides services like animal, boating and food/restaurant safety; disaster response; and 911 dispatch. CMH provides services like prevention (early diagnosis and mental health awareness campaigns); crisis intervention (for people facing mental and/or emotional stability challenges); stabilization (programs that support the recovery of substance abuse and mental illness survivors and people with barriers to such services due to lack of resources or homelessness); and diversion (avoiding incarceration, ER visits and JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 rehab while providing extra mental health and substance abuse recovery services for people in jail). The impact of these services is measured in the number of people helped. There is no public impact report for the funds allocated towards the Sheriff’s Office. The impact of Washtenaw County Community Mental Health services in 2023 are as follows: • Substance abuse call line was answered approximately 250 times per month • The CARES team served 2.4 times more people that year than before the millage • The CMH crisis team visited 2,628 crisis calls in person • Served over 2,200 children and young adults • Provided over 300 hours of psychiatry • Created more than 10 programs for the Washtenaw Intermediate School District • Found emergency shelter for over 250 individuals • Provided over 800 people with support services such as therapy and case management • Created a co-response team with a mental health professional and a deputy who responded to over 540 emergency calls An additional service that the millage would have provided for is the Crisis Stabilization Center, which is not currently open. Advocates have long been calling for accountability both in terms of individual programs the millage funds, and particularly regarding the portion of the funds that go to public safety activities. Though there is reporting to involved agencies, the general public is often kept in the dark. Preceding the June 5 Board of Commissioners vote to restore and renew the millage on the November 5 general election ballot, the BOC passed an ordinance to create a Public Safety Millage Advisory Committee (MAC) that will provide oversight over the majority funds allocated to the Sheriff’s Office. More details regarding this ordinance can be reviewed in the May 17, 2024 edition of Groundcover News. Even with advisory committees, the public is unhappy with expenditure accountability. Kat Layton, LLMSW is a community-centric social worker and a former employee of Community Mental Health. When asked for the most important thing for voters to know about the millage renewal, she had this to say: “I was an employee at Washtenaw County Community Mental Health from February 2022 to December 2022. During my short time there, it became evident that the Crisis Stabilization Center at 750 Towner was no longer operational due to staffing issues, shortly after its opening in June 2020. I later noticed, reviewing meeting materials from the Millage Advisory Committee (MAC), that despite this, funds from the Public Safety and Mental Health Preservation Millage continued to be allocated to this center. “After noting this financial spending, it is concerning to see taxpayer money being allocated to a service that is no longer operational, especially when pressing needs within our community could benefit from these resources and the purposes of the millage funds are intended for these resources. I want to inquire why our millage funds have been directed to a crisis stabilization center over the last two years without providing that service. “During the 8/12/24 MAC meeting, CMH administrators acknowledged that the line item labeled ‘Crisis Stabilization Center’ visible on the bi-monthly and yearly financial reports was allocated to the renovation of the 750 Towner facility, which does not seem in alignment with the original appropriation of these funds and millage monies. CMH administrators stated this location was being ‘built up’ for transfer to another CMH department rather than being utilized for the Crisis Stabilization Center services as initially intended. This raises significant concerns, considering that millage funds, derived from taxpayer contributions, were allocated to support public safety and mental health services.” Questions about openness/ accountability are important, because if the millage is renewed, citizens should be able to monitor the associated expenditures. This includes whether funds are appropriated to re-establish the Crisis Stabilization Center which, in addition to an emergency shelter based in Ypsi, is a greatly needed resource. No matter who wins, don't forget the Americans! I wrote this article to draw out information from people who are economically challenged or poor. I interviewed five people about issues related to public policy and the election, and this is what they offered. Some said they are going to vote, and some said they will not, and some said that they are not yet 100% sure. They shared different perspectives on and about the current political climate in this year 2024. Overall it was agreed to by all five interviewees that the policies are far from resolved. If the individual presidential candidates, former president LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 Donald J. Trump or Vice President Kamala D. Harris, and the embodiment of the political parties that must agree, forget the purpose as they argue and finger-point at one another, they are forgetting about the American people. Many of these people are the backbone of major industries as the labor force, and the other veins and arteries that support the vast array of billionaires and those who possess generational wealth, while they are undervalued — not even human, just a poor person. As a result, the information gathered from the poor results in policies that cause even more harm and wrong-doing. Policy-makers imply that the wealthy could really, actually benefit by modeling and utilizing the data that they've collected. The only thing that's apparent is that these “benefits” always backfire on the poor. I'm going to refer to the commenters as Person A-E so that you don't know their real names. That should not matter. They want to just briefly comment on the issues and be open about their views and experience. Person A talks a little about how having monthly food stamp benefits see BENEFITS page 11  OCTOBER 18, 2024 ELECTION DAY Voting while homeless: accessible, yet unequal AMELIA ISACKSEN AND GINGER JOHNSTON U-M student contributors The 2024 presidential election is an extremely close race by all polling numbers, with the Silver Bulletin by data journalist Nate Silver predicting just a 2% lead for Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump. While the foundations of U.S. democracy include the right to vote as an important vehicle for citizens to self-govern, a tight election makes each vote all the more important. With every vote counting, the votes of people experiencing homelessness become even more critical. As of 2016, the voting rate of low-income individuals was 46%, compared with a rate of 67% for people with incomes above twice the poverty line, according to a study done by Columbia University. As of 2020, US News reports that only 1 in 10 people experiencing homelessness casts their vote. The Detroit Press writes that “many barriers to voting among those facing homelessness include misconceptions.” People who are experiencing homelessness as well as the general public may not know that people without a permanent address can legally vote, or what kind of identification is needed to cast their ballots. The voices, votes and opinions of low-income voters and those experiencing homelessness in Washtenaw County are more important than ever given the continuing reality of a lack of affordable housing; specifically the lack of political and public will to better fund low-income housing. The Washtenaw Housing Alliance found that “In Washtenaw County, the standard cost (Fair Market Rent or FMR) of a two-bedroom apartment can be $1,471/month, a monthly rate more expensive than 98% of the state.” When faced with issues such as these, voting empowers citizens to advocate for the change they want to see through political participation. The role of the Michigan Secretary of State is to ensure free and fair access to voting. Local election officials who manage the voting process are trying to educate people experiencing homelessness about voting and the voting process. Grace Bartley, a member of the Washtenaw Chapter of the League of Women Voters works to clear up these misconceptions. “It’s more about making sure that people are registered [to vote], and letting people know that registering is a thing they can do,” Bartley said. “The League of Women Voters also comes out with a Voting Guide of information which is pretty cool, we’re going to start distributing it.” Bartley is correct, as any citizen over the age of 18 not currently serving time for a felony conviction can vote in the state of Michigan, including those experiencing homelessness. People can register without a house or apartment address by using a street corner, shelter, or park as their place of residence. With a state ID, one can register online. Another option includes bringing a letter from a public assistance program or shelter to the township clerk’s office for proof of residence. Additionally, when prompted for an ID at the polls, individuals can request to fill out a statement that they do not have a photo ID. By casting their votes, those experiencing homelessness offer a valuable and often marginalized perspective on candidates and their platforms, from the local to the national level. Trudy Hughes, a League of Women Voters member, argues that a major barrier between homeless people and voting is feeling isolated and irrelevant to their government. “I think there is a lack of connection to the elected officials to feel that they are making a difference in their life,” Hughes said. “It’s that barrier of not feeling like their vote is going to make a difference.” Many similar organizations are working to spread information about available options for voters experiencing homelessness. For example, the Michigan Secretary of State's Office has partnered with the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness to educate voters and offer registration clinics. Locally, the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County here in Ann Arbor offers assistance with voter registration. On September 21 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., the SAWC hosted an event at the Delonis Center in which attendees could learn about their right to vote. On the first floor, there was lunch provided, along with representatives from Ambassadors from Voting Access for All Coalition to provide information on early voting, absentee voting, and more as a person experiencing homelessness. On the second floor, attendees had the opportunity to meet privately with a representative from the League of Women Voters to check their registration status. The SAWC is putting on another event in October to register clients to vote. However, regardless of how pure the intentions were going into the event, it was clear that voting was not high on unhoused people’s priority list. Most people in attendance buzzed past voting workers on their way to get lunch provided by the shelter, as they simply needed to eat. After witnessing what people experiencing homelessness go through on a day-to-day basis, it seemed silly to think that those who were struggling to find a place to sleep at night or their next meal would care about an election, especially since a lot of these people feel they have been excluded in the policies and agenda of our government. Also in attendance was Gail Summerhill, the founder of ‘Ypsi, Can I Share?,’ a program dedicated to equalizing information for those excluded by our government, that is specifically for people of color and impoverished individuals. Summerhill was disappointed in the event. She felt it was sick to expect homeless people to step up and vote while our government continually ignores their needs at the local and national level. “People who are at the lowest places in their life are not thinking about voting because their basic needs are not being met,” Summerhill said. “If you haven’t done anything but suppress these people what do you expect from them?” As we move forward as a democratic country it is crucial to equalize voting and to ensure accessibility to all citizens. Voting is the foundation of our country, and the heart of every citizen’s inherent voice in our democracy, so we must continue to break down the barriers for the marginalized voices of the people experiencing homelessness and work to equalize voting accessibility. As we look at this years’ close election, the mobilization of such a large voting block could very well make the difference between candidates. Still, while we must not expect the silenced to jump at the opportunity to vote, it is important that these communities know that they have an opportunity, and a choice, to exercise their democratic right. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CHOICE AWARDS Photo credit: Stella Lansill OCTOBER 18, 2024 A2 downtown coffee shop extravaganza! CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 In the past two years we have seen an explosion of coffee houses across Ann Arbor. What I find very intriguing is that each coffee shop does not just serve coffee but has its signature features — whether it be happy fairy doors or the connection to the L.G.B.T.Q community. Each coffee shop is not just a coffee shop; they are meetups, gatherings, social events and meeting locations. Coffee plays a huge role in the morning; the ritual of pulling oneself out of bed is like crossing the Grand Canyon each morning. But one thing most people can agree on is the very first tasty sip that brings one back to life. As I walked around town I realized that ten years ago coffee was but a ghost of its current self. Only a handful of coffeeshops existed then: Espresso Royale, Starbucks and Sweetwaters, not to mention Cloverleaf and the Fleetwood Diner. What we have now is amazing because you don’t need to get off your route to find a coffee shop. The coffee shop will pop up wherever you now walk. Yippy! What an amazing convenience. I will now list many of the coffee shops by what makes each most agreeable. Bitty & Beau’s was founded by the Wright family in honor of their two children Bitty and Beau who have Down Syndrome. It changes the way people see other people. Just opened, the Moka & Co. is a wonderful specialty Yemeni coffee shop. Yemeni owned and operated, this coffee shop came about through family tradition from Yemen. The grandparents wanted to bring to America the delightful full taste of sun-dried, no-pesticides, all-natural coffee with a touch of cardamon spice called smoky spice blend with a full homemade flavor. Cahoots has a wonderful, modern, quiet atmosphere with high ceilings and abstract paintings. It is an L.G.B.T.Q friendly and gender-neutral space. This coffee shop is a co-working space and has a great backroom area for large events like group meetings and gatherings. House of Chimney Cake is a very child-friendly atmosphere covered in the delightful color pink (my personal favorite) with wonderful pink roses and a happy photo of angel wings. These yummy ice cream delights and milkshakes and sherbet with no milk hit the spot everytime. Hyperion is a very strong customer interaction community. Here, many have become friends. In part because the shop is so small. Hyperion has a direct relationship with the farmers and ethically-sourced coffee. Right in your cup. At Roos Roast, the staff are super friendly and extremely helpful. The other point is the warm atmosphere and very agreeable location (close to Groundcover and the bus station). If you want to see good artwork on display, Roos Roast is the place to go. My personal fave is the Miss Pac-Man table. Sweetwaters is a long-established coffeehouse; they recently celebrated their 30 year anniversary. Kids come to Sweetwaters to see the fairy door display by Jonathan B. Wright at the Ashley and Washington location. There are still fairy doors around Ann Arbor to hunt and see. Place a token for the fairy who lives there and don't forget to make a wish every time. The artworks on the wall are for sale all year long. There is a wonderful meeting area in the back for business and groups. For the furry friends there are happy pup cups (whipped cream), yum yum! Le Bon Macaron is a wonderful French-inspired cafe that has a large variety of colorful tasty macarons — pina colada, violet and rose are on the menu. All syrups are made in-house with Italian and French sodas. Their white spring atmosphere with chandelier lighting is so quaint . At Cannelle, the outdoor seating area brings on a truly tropical sensation. You will feel total relaxation as you step inside. Supermodern soft music greets you for a quiet study area. Cannelle is known for its large variety of pastries and yum yum eclairs, and amazing smells. Vendor Cuba tells us it’s the best espresso coffee around. Mr. Cuba says it can't be beat! At Toastiques, live plants greet each customer in a warm modern atmosphere with a down-home feeling and happy smiles. This coffee is ethically sourced from Ethiopia and the chocolate is from Brazil. My fave is the health boosters shots which are great during the cold season, along with good soups and sandwiches. Cinnaholic — Make your own yum yum cinnamon bun creation with a large variety of toppings to choose from! The smells are to die for — come get a taste of happy today! Bakehouse48 has the largest variety of tasty cupcakes with seasonal ones as well. They are very kid friendly and they offer sandwiches, donuts, cookies and bagels, but by far the most fun are the tiny mouth-watering mini baby cupcakes that everyone loves. Shinola Cafe is very quiet with a calm atmosphere and a speakeasy vibe. With low light and a comfortable setting and wonderful work spaces for being on a laptop, they offer a single origin espresso with a large variety of music. The popular cafe Argus Farm Stop offers a one-stop shop for a seven-daya-week hyperlocal farmers market. The relaxed mood makes a great meetup location for family and friends. They are a consignment model (70% of the sale of goods and food go to the producer). Very down-home atmosphere. Downtown Home and Garden is the location for the truly cheapest coffee in town; it has a warm homey atmosphere and don't forget happy puppy treats! Dunkin’ is brand new to the scene on Liberty: tasty donuts with cute happy donut holes!! A second location is to open on the corner of William and State Street very soon. That concludes 16 shops for your delight. Take a tour of the shops and try out new tasty treats. You never know what you will find that will change your mind and become a new favorite … YUM YUM! OCTOBER 18, 2024 CHOICE AWARDS Best Affordable Restaurant: FLEETWOOD DINER GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Best Place to Hear Live Music: ZIGGY'S Best Nonprofit / Grassroots Org: GROUNDCOVER NEWS Best Dispensary: BLOOM CITY CLUB BEST MURAL: Mary Thiefels and Danijel Matanic Best Hot, Free Meal: PEGGY'S PANCAKE BREAKFAST* (see page 12) Best Cup of Coffee: GROUNDCOVER NEWS OFFICE! Best Public Park: FROG ISLAND Best Free Daytime Activity: BBQ IN THE PARK Most Supportive Faith Community: ST. ANDREW'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HERITAGE The theme for this year’s celebration of Hispanic and Latino heritage history month is “Pioneers of Change: Shaping the Future Together.” For a long time, Hispanic and Latino Americans have celebrated their cultural heritage and history in California, Texas and other regions of the country. In the late 1960s, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a federal law which initiated Hispanic Heritage Week. It became a national celebration which was observed in every state, city and town in America. In the 1980s, U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan signed legislation which changed the weeklong celebration to a month-long celebration (September 15 to October 15). In Washtenaw County, the Hispanic and Latinx Heritage month is celebrated in many public schools, colleges and universities. It is also celebrated in city halls, county buildings, churches and some workplaces. At the University of Michigan, the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs and the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives work with groups of students, staff and faculty to design programs and schedule events which capture the interest of the campus and off-campus communities. "The Michigan Daily" student newspaper publishes lists of events from September to October and beyond. At Eastern Michigan University, events which celebrate Hispanic and Latino heritage are posted in the University’s student newspaper, “The Eastern Echo.” Across the nation, there are celebrations in public institutions such as libraries and the Smithsonian Museums. They feature guest speakers and some motif of cultural expressions which include art, movies, music, salsa dancing, cultural foods and story-telling, to mention a few. More recently, Hollywood actors and comedians of Hispanic and Latino ancestry have started to challenge the younger population to learn more about their Latino history. They want the young folks to appreciate the sacrifices made by “the pioneers of change.” Actor and comedian John Leguizamo said that young Hispanic and Latino Americans should take pride in the ancient civilizations of the Mayans, the Aztecs, the Incas, Olmecs and other indigenous peoples of Meso-America. Young Hispanic and Latino Americans are also reminded that they will inherit the future, and that they have the responsibilility to work hard and use today’s technology to help shape the future of their community and their nation. They are challenged to make meaningful contributions to American society, just as their parents, their grandparents and WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 their great-grandparents have done over many generations. This is a presidential election year. Presidential candidates of the two major parties, Democrat and Republican, are campaigning for all ethnic votes, including the Latino vote. With rapid demographic transition, Americans of Hispanic and Latino ancestry have gained enormous political power. The U.S. census records show that in 1960, Americans who identified as Hispanic or Latino were 6.7 million and accounted for about 6.5% of the national population. Today, it is estimated that the population of Hispanic and Latino Americans is about 67.5 million and they account for about 19.7% of the national population. Approximately 66% of the Hispanic and Latino population in America are eligible to vote. Their votes can make a difference in presidential, congressional, gubernatorial and down-ballot elections in November. Recent poll data show a tight race between the Republican and Democratic nominees for president. The Latino vote will be vital in the battleground states, especially Arizona and Nevada. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. now has a National Museum of the American Latino. The museum curators want Americans to celebrate the achievements and contributions of Hispanic and Latino Americans in all fields of human endeavors. However, it is also important to embrace the civic knowledge and historiography of the Hispanic or Latino American experience. What are the costs and consequences of the Spanish colonization of Latin America and the Caribbean? What happened after the Spanish-American war? Why did Spanish Texas declare independence from Mexico and opt to join the Union? What caused the Mexican-American war? Why was the border changed in 1848? Who benefitted from the boundary change? Who lost territories and population? Educational Consultant E.D. Hirsch wrote the bestseller, “Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know.” He implores every American, including Latino Americans, to open up our minds and make a commitment to a lifetime of learning and reflection. When we learn, we can boldly and courageously engage in conversations, dialogues and debates on a wide range of topics. If we are able to answer the questions outlined before, we may begin to maximize our cultural literacy, harness our multicultural excellence and make members of our Latino community very proud. Gracias Amigo! Gracias Amiga! Finally, I asked six Latino Americans from Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti how they celebrate Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month. They started their answers with extra spicy Mexican or Caribbean food, some drinks, some music and some dancing. Most of them prefer house parties and two of them would like to celebrate at the Frita Batidos restaurant in downtown Ann Arbor. Right: Activist and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez worked with the famous Dolores Huerta to organize farm workers in California for fair wages and working conditions. Above: Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor is the first Latina American to become a member of SCOTUS. She grew up in a public housing neighborhood of New York City and graduated from Yale Law School. OCTOBER 18, 2024 Celebrating 2024 National Hispanic Heritage Month Left: Salma Hayek is a famous Oscar-nominated Mexican American actress in Hollywood. Her movie credits include "Bandidas," "Wild Wild West" and "Only Fools Rush In." She once said that Hispanic representation improved when she arrived in Hollywood. OCTOBER 18, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS COME FLY WITH ME Peter A. Collins 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Picket line defier 5.___-Lorraine (French region) 11. Proust's "Remembrance of Things ___” 15. Headlight? 16. Do over, as a backsplash 17. Shakespeare's river 18. Grand story 19. "The Eras Tour" star 21. Pulitzer-winning poet of 1987 23. Don't change a thing 24. "The Addams Family" cousin 25. Coffee, in slang 26. 65-Across that dines on stinging insects 28. Drop of water? 30. Animal's coat 31. Bridge bid, for short 32. Biting pest 33. Biblical giant 36. Queue after Q 37. "All I Wanna Do" singer 40. What makes fat fast? 43. Hinders 44. "Last one ___ a rotten egg!" 48. Noses, informally 50. Store window posting: Abbr. 51. It might get stuck in a corner 52. Starbucks staffers 54. Cry of disgust 56. Scotland's longest river 57. Triangular sail 58. 2009 inductee in the Skateboarding Hall of Fame 60. "Pirates of the Caribbean" hero 62. Jai ___ 63. Fit to be drafted 64. Big lizard 65. What can be found at the ends of 19-, 21-, 37-, 58-, and 60-Across bird 66. Fellow 67. More intense 68. Understands DOWN 1. Western hero 2. Lansing, for instance 3. Somewhat 4. ___ Raton, Florida 5. "Star Wars" droid, affectionately 6. Depart 7. Eye woe 8. Feel under the weather 9. It might be decided by a nose 10. Mysterious 11. Fruit with a reduplicative name 12. Earhart or Lindbergh 13. Starts to melt 14. Big bang letters 20. Prefix with -scope 22. Vinyl spinners 26. Intensifies 27. Go bad 29. ___ Cruces, New Mexico 30. Philadelphia icers 33. Ruby, for one 34. "Oliver!" setting 35. ___-80 (classic computer) 38. Angry cats' sounds 39. Comical quality 40. Decline 41. Shipping channel 42. Crusades combatant 45. Portman of "Black Swan" 46. "You don't have to tell me" 47. 2001 Antonio Banderas film 49. Red-wrapped candy bar 51. Bashful 53. Lukewarm 54. Legendary pioneer Daniel 55. Sadat of Egypt 58. Word with sand or speed 59. Montreal Canadiens' nickname 60. Go for a leisurely run 61. Feel awful about

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HALLOWEEN POETRY Tricks are not treats D.A Groundcover contributor There is no treat In being dehumanized The trick is to put It in whereas it is the equal of Wearing a disguise. I’m not spooked by it It’s so obvious Open your eyes Peek-a-boo!! Let’s all come to civil Agreements I’d like to say For this We’re more wise PUZZLE SOLUTIONS The Reaper EARL PULLEN Groundcover contributor As the reaper calls in the dead of the night All you can do is run in flight To catch your breath Or though it seems The reaper comes in your dreams And in the dead of the night You hear the screams Of witches and goblins Or so it seems In the dead of night You’ll hear their screams When you wake up It's only a dream. Mirror PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 OCTOBER 18, 2024 Veja O espelho Olha A cada um De um modo Look The mirror Glances at Each of us In a certain way - OCTOBER 18, 2024 HALLOWEEN Truth or Lies: The Golden Halloween It was October 30,1998; Martus was sitting around the bonfire. It was his first bonfire party at his grandparents’ estate; he had just inherited the estate earlier that year. He was sitting by the fire drinking wine with his neighbors and friends, reminiscing on all the stories his grandpa used to tell him. The main story on his mind was how they would light the lanterns the night before Halloween. It was to honor the men who worked in the mountains during the gold mine era. A crew of over 50 men were trapped during a sudden earthquake. Martus was proud that he had kept his grandfather’s tradition. After the party settled down, several people were asleep around the fire. When he woke up, the fire was still blazing, but the lanterns were out. He could not understand how they were not lit. He didn’t hesitate relighting them. However, the first one blew out as he lit the second one. He looked down the path at each lantern; they started flickering on and off. Martus thought someone had walked past him, feeling a warm breeze. He decided not to light the lanterns again. Walking away, Martus turned back and all the lanterns were lit. While entering the house, he noticed a pattern of lights without lanterns. He walked into the path of lights, looking around to see where the pattern of lights would lead him. FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 He stood in the hallway. The bathroom door opened up suddenly — he jumped nervously! It was his friend Fernando stumbling out of the bathroom. He was so relieved to see Fernando. Martus decided to return to the bonfire with his friends. Several people had awakened and they were again telling spooky stories of Halloween. After his guests had left, Martus cleaned up in the kitchen. Sweeping the floor he noticed a pattern of lights once again. This time the lights were moving back and forth. They were quarter size blinking lights. He stopped then walked over to them. The lights moved, he moved forward, they moved again, he moved again, then he stopped! The lights stopped blinking. Suddenly his grandpa’s picture fell off the wall in the living room. He went to see what it was. He picked up the picture and noticed lights all over it. He dropped the picture and the lights disappeared. Martus picked it up and hung it quickly. He sat down on the sofa, spooked. Did he really see the lights on his grandpa‘s picture? Martus’ throat got dry and his body started shaking. He felt someone tapping him on the back of his right shoulder. Martus turned around to see who had touched him. He only saw blinking lights on the floor, and heard footsteps! The lights moved. He jumped up and decided he was going to follow them again. This time he wouldn't give up. The thought of his friends laughing eased the tension in his neck. The footsteps started again; frightened, he continued to follow the lights. The light shone on the wall outside of his grandfather's bedroom. He heard a tapping sound on the wall down to the floor. He shouted, “You can come out now! The prank is over. The joke is on you!” A few minutes passed, no one came out. The sound got louder. His heart started beating faster. He walked over to the wall to see what the lights were shining on. Glancing up and down the wall, looking towards the floor. He noticed a sparkle and glimmer; peeking between the floor and the wall. It was a small hole that wasn’t noticeable the day before. The tapping got louder, the hole got bigger, the glare became brighter! He wanted to run but could not move. He was so afraid he passed out. Hours later, when he awakened, it was nighttime. He jumped up, thinking about how he was supposed to attend a Halloween party with his friends. Reaching to turn the lights on he dropped a gold coin from his hand. He looked down to see where he had dropped it. The coin rolled over into the hole on the floor. As Martus reached to retrieve it, the hole got even bigger. The glare was so bright he decided to get a hammer and chisel. Finally, he took the hammer to pound a bigger hole in the floor. The glare was so bright he forgot to cut the lights on. Skeptical, he put his hand in the hole grabbing at whatever he touched. He pulled his hand out of the hole. Looking into his hand, he saw small gold nuggets. He jumped up and cut the light on. There was gold everywhere in the hole. When he excavated the hole, he found a note from his grandpa that said, “My only grandchild, take this wealth and build houses. The gold is from 1829. My great grandpa left it for me — now it’s yours. Love you, Grandpa.” Author's note: Please forgive me for not showing up. I encountered family difficulties that couldn’t be avoided. Truth or Lies Mystery Lane: "Winter" published June 14, 2024 was true. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11  BENEFITS from page 4 eases the pull on your almost non-existent budget (earned incomes/ unearned/both). Then as you mature in your earned wages/income, the food stamp program snatches the rug right back from under you — then you are back at square one again or worse off than when you began. So this benefit is needed and necessary. Its weaning function is ultimately counterproductive. Person B said that what good is a higher minimum wage when as soon as wages increase, the prices of everything else does, too. It is like a hamster running fast in that big circle wheel. Moving quickly, constantly getting nowhere. It only then serves as an illusion of what progress should look like. Person B is self-employed and doesn’t tell anyone what they do. Person C’s observations on healthcare are this: There are major areas of healthcare that would lose considerable profits if the government were to focus on providing oral health care that’s affordable or free, or mandated dental practice coverage in health insurance policies. Chewing your food right is important to overall health. And a dentist can tell a lot about a person’s health by their oral examination. Great research on aging and disease has been done and proven. Prevention is the best and most effective medicine. The patient must be able to trust the provider. For instance, this person may be a smoker or not be a smoker. (If I can’t trust you then I won’t be honest with you.) If you prevent the ill, you don't or won't need the pill. This in itself would incept the beginning of eliminating expensive and unaffordable prescription costs for seniors, our children in the future, and for those who may now require it here and around the world. Person D says that everyone alive deserves to have a variety of nutritional dietary options. Why eat healthy when one small apple or orange is $1 apiece? That's about 200 pieces of fruit for 30 days utilizing food stamps for a family. Some people get less than that. Nutrition and rest are essential to overall function. Especially during the primary years of a child's life. It is right to help other children who are hungry to have food, but what about when your neighbor's child or your own child right here in the United States is starving? Where are the billions for them, for us? So I guess crime and hunger go hand in hand, Mr. Trump. No one in their right mind can believe that causing poverty won’t challenge basic survival. No one has your number and is awaiting your call or action. Person E: The child tax credit is a good thing if they can model and re-implement that program. You can barely earn enough while working long hard hours away from your child to simply provide nutritional meals. That doesn’t even begin to address who will offer safe, effective and essential components of child care that is also affordable. The consensus when it came to the tax and budget part of the issues: there were chuckles, giddy grins and smiles on the faces of the interviewees. This is their persnickety response — we don't have any income to report and we already know our budget — scrape by on what's left, barely nothing! exp. 01/31/2025

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Kale apple slaw ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingriedients: 2 Tbsp olive oil 1 ½ Tbsp apple cider vinegar 2 Tbsp minced shallot 1 tsp Dijon mustard 1 clove garlic, grated 1/2 tsp sea salt 1/4 tsp black pepper 4 loosely packed cups shredded kale (we like curly kale) 1 medium sweet, crisp apple (such as Honeycrisp), sliced into thin matchsticks 1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped Directions: In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, shallot, mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper. Add the kale, OCTOBER 18, 2024 apple, and parsley and toss to coat with the dressing. Taste and adjust, adding more salt to taste or olive oil for richness. Chill and serve. A great fall salad. From page 7, "Community Choice Awards": Peggy Lynch notes that Mercy House also holds a variety of MISSION-sponsored nonprofit meetings at the house on Saturdays. Delicious food for everyone. Fresh ingredients for fall comfort meals. $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 11/15/2024

2 $ How to live for a day. page 4 OCTOBER 4, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 21 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL? DONNA MCGAUGHY #310 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Outrage over resolution to increase downtown policing shuts down Ypsilanti City Council meeting. page 5 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Police block door to City Hall after it was prematurely adjourned. Photo credit: Emily Mills @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER GROUNDCOVER STAFF Get excited for the first-ever Groundcover Community Choice Awards! Throughout the month of September we complied the following categories and nominations from Groundcover News vendors. Over the next two weeks we will be polling in the community to determine the winners! Buy the next edition (October 18, 2024) of Groundcover News to see who the community chooses! Best Public Park • County Farm Park • Argo Nature Area • Waterworks Park (Ypsi) • West Park • Frog Island • Wheeler Park Best hot, free meal • St. Andrew’s Breakfast Church • Delonis Center • Fed-Up Ministries • Mercy House pancake breakfast • Bellflower Best affordable restaurant • Fleetwood Diner • New York Pizza Department • Mama’s Pizza • Pilar’s Tamales • Detroit Pizza Pub Best cup of coffee • Groundcover News office • Downtown Home and Garden • Argus Farm Stop • Bridge Community Cafe Best place to hear live music • Crazy Wisdom on Friday night • Sonic Lunch • Blue Llama • Ziggy’s • LIVE • Downtown A2 streets Best dispensary • Misty Mountain • Cross Street Shop • Jars • Bloom • House of Dank Best nonprofit / social service / homeless grassroots organization • Delonis Center • Groundcover News • Washtenaw Camp Outreach • Hospitality House Ypsi • Mercy House • Pizza in the Park OCTOBER 4, 2024 2024 Community Choice Awards coming soon! Best free daytime activity • Pizza in the Park • BBQ at the park • Go to the library Most supportive faith community • St. Andrew’s Church • St. Luke’s (Ypsilanti) • Trinity Lutheran Church • Karuna Buddhist Center • Bethlehem United Church of Christ Best mural • Pure Roots Alley • Bomber restaurant • Challenge everything. Create anything (Huron St.) • Flowers on Huron St. underpass • Geometric Rainbow on 432. Michigan Ave PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Ramón Roberto Isla Caballero Jamie Cameron Dezz Clark David KE Dodge Cindy Gere Mike Jones James Manning Ken Parks Denise Shearer Shawn Swoffer GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS CONTACT US Kendall Artz Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Christopher May Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Sim Bose Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Jacob Fallman Robert Klingler Stella Lansill Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com OCTOBER 4, 2024 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What was your favorite subject in school? Reading and writing. — Donna McGaughy, #310 History. — Ramón Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 Geography. — Wayne Sparks, #615 Physiology and anatomy. I enjoyed it so much my professor tried to convince me to switch majors to biology. — Ken Parks, #490 Smoking a cigarette in the hallway. — Shawn Swoffer, #574 History and civics. — Cindy Gere, #279 The girls. — Tony Schohl, #9 By the time I started liking school, it was math. I love numbers! — Lonnie Baker, #99 Probably should have been politics. — Terri Demar, #322 Physical education. — Pony Bush, #305 Doing the cars … body work! — Schillington Morgan, #148 English. — Stephanie Dent, #84 Home economics. — Tre McAlister, #519 History and social studies — and later I discovered sociology, knowing people, helping people. — Dezz Clark, #643 Lunch. But I excelled in math. — Jason Lozon, #212 Impromptu writing. — Will Shakespeare, #258 Math, as a student and a teacher. — Jim Clark, #139 History. — Mike Jones, #113 GROUNDCOVER NEWS The hidden truth about mental disorders People don’t understand the ones who have or know someone with a mental disability, that one in every eight people have to deal with. The people in this world think that they don’t have a problem but they don’t want the world to see the real you! Now people don’t know how widespread mental disability is. The funny thing is that people don't know that people who have a physical health disability are more likely to show it than that side of their mental disability because the physical is more visible. No one can see the mental pain that you know is there but can‘t do anything about it. The problem is people tend to hide their disorder. It becomes a factor in all of their life. Now as a person like myself who has PTSD, I DEZZ CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 643 have experienced a lot of unwanted looks and finger pointing because they have a disorder themselves. You also have those who know it is hard to hide the things we go through but we only wish for someone to help, to please just listen. Maybe one day people who feel that they are usually exempt from any connection person with a mental disability will recognize it’s not true. But maybe as a PERSON WHO HAS A MENTAL DISORDER, I need to come to to any type of 3 understand my own mental disability. I’m OK after a long stay in prison where I was subjected to a lot of abuse from the Michigan Department of Corrections, but this is about me, you or anyone that has been through the same thing. It is the person who has the mental disability who has to understand what brought this on. With my PTSD, I find myself speaking to others who have similar illnesses with different experiences and different disorders, feeling, thinking psychosis. The medical field comes with its own understanding. This results in people getting misdiagnosed and now you have people who don’t believe that they're suffering. Sometimes, especially in the case of misdiagnosis, people’s families try to hide their disabilities — the hidden truth. Undercover art intel: Luna gallery Low income and struggling artists took a huge hit when the pandemic raged through Michigan. All art galleries and art shops were closed. It only took three months to destroy the art communities in Ann Arbor. New art locations have now popped up across the Michigan landscape; one such location is the new Luna Gallery in downtown Ypsilanti. This location is a place for local artists to display and sell their beautiful creations and build a sense of community. Undercover Intel’s purpose is to bring people together, out and away from their computers and out of their shells, The pieces are from around a CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 and out into the community. Luna Gallery was first established in fall 2022 and the community totally received the gallery well. Luna is located at 50 North Huron Street, Ypsilanti. dozen local artists across southeast Michigan from all demographics, including LGBTQ artists. The kinds of art shown include paintings, ceramics, jewelry, mixed media and locally made soaps. There are also tarot readings with Madam Brule on the weekends! Luna Gallery hosts ongoing activities. The Michigan Pagan Gathering is going to be there on October 6 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. It will be located at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse at 100 Market Place in Depot Town. Come one, come all! Improvements for FlexRide I appreciate all public transportation because me and other people really need it. If we didn’t have public transportation, we all would be in bad shape. I especially appreciate the FlexRide that's part of our local transportation options, too. FlexRide is a shared shuttle service that helps riders connect to fixed-route bus stops and other hard-to-reach destinations. FlexRide provides on-demand, curbto-curb transportation in select locations of the greater Ann Arbor and Gold Card I.D. (Free). There are things I wish were different about the Flex. I wish the rides were easier to get for people with leg problems like I have. It’s too hard to climb up into the car. The step is too high. I wish that there were nicer drivDENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 and Ypsilanti area. A regular, oneway fare is $1 — unless you have a half-fare card ($0.50) or an A-Ride ers and dispatchers; I wish they would be nicer and more understanding to the riders. That’s the only thing I wish was different about the Flex. I wish they would pick people up when they say will, and be more compassionate.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS No smile, too much goofy On Thursday, September 12, Ramón Roberto Isla Caballero was sitting and selling his Groundcover papers on the corner of Washington and Main Streets. While selling he keeps his belongings under an archway to stay dry and off the sidewalk. A police officer driving by parked their car after they noticed Ramón and his things outside. They walked up to him and said he needed to move his belongings and find a new place to sleep by Monday, September 16 — just four days from then. The officer suggested Ramón talk with someone from the Washtenaw County’s Street Team (PATH) to get a tent and go camp in the woods behind the Kroger on Jackson and Stadium. If he stays downtown to sleep outside, then the officer said they will fine him $250, which he does not have. Ramón is most comfortable staying around downtown because it is where he feels safe knowing there are people around. It is where he sells his paper. This allows him to be close to the services he needs at the Groundcover office and the Street Team’s Annex office. Ramón has grown close to some of the downtown businesses and restaurants, whose staff look out for him in different ways, including helping him with food. This is important to him because he no longer goes to get breakfast at St. Andrew’s Church. There is too much fighting. He no longer goes to the Delonis Center for a meal because the last two or three times he It does not make sense to stress out Ramón about where he sleeps because he is already stressed about it, in addition to all that he has to do for his own health. En Español: El jueves 12 de septiembre RAMÓN ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 went, his belongings were stolen. He did not want to say much about it to the staff there because he did not want to get someone in trouble, or have someone then come find him outside to cause trouble for him later. Ramón is a cancer survivor. Now he has other health issues that he is taking care of. He sees doctors often who prescribe a lot of different types of medications to help him feel better and manage the pain on his hip. Staff in the Street Team help him get to all of his appointments so it is very important he is close to their offices for this, and also if there is any emergency, that he is close to the hospital. Leaving downtown to sleep elsewhere is not a better option for Ramón. Not to mention, the suggestion from the police assumes that he can just take the bus back and forth. After selling his papers he must use what he makes to get food. He says, “Who will give me money for bus tokens?” Ramón Roberto Isla Caballero estaba sentado vendiendo sus periódicos Groundcover en la esquina de las calles Washington y Main. Mientras vendía, mantenía sus pertenencias cerca debajo de un arco para mantenerse seco y alejado de la acera. Un oficial de policía que pasaba por allí estacionó su auto después de notar a Ramón y sus cosas afuera. Se acercaron a él y le dijeron que necesitaba mover sus pertenencias y encontrar un nuevo lugar para dormir antes del lunes 16, solo cuatro días después. El oficial sugirió a Ramón hablar con alguien del equipo de calle del condado de Washtenaw para conseguir una tienda de campaña e ir a acampar en el bosque detrás del Kroger en Jackson y Stadium. Si se queda en el centro a dormir afuera, el oficial dijo que le impondrán una multa de 250 dólares, cantidad que no tiene. Ramón se siente más cómodo quedándose cerca del centro porque es donde se siente seguro sabiendo que hay gente alrededor. Es donde vende su periódico. Eso le permite estar cerca de los servicios que necesita en la oficina de Groundcover y la oficina anexa de Street Team. Ramón se ha acercado a algunos de los negocios y restaurantes del centro que lo cuidan de diferentes maneras, incluso ayudándolo con la comida. Esto es importante para él porque ya no va a desayunar a la iglesia de San Andrés. Hay demasiadas peleas. Ya no va al Centro Delonis a comer porque las últimas dos o tres veces que fue le robaron sus pertenencias. No quería decirle mucho al personal porque no quería meter a alguien en problemas, o que luego vendrían a buscarlo afuera para causarle problemas. Ramón es un sobreviviente de cáncer. Ahora tiene otros problemas de salud de los que se está ocupando. A menudo visita médicos que le recetan muchos tipos diferentes de medicamentos para ayudarle a sentirse mejor y controlar el dolor de cadera. El personal del Street Team lo ayuda a llegar a todas sus citas, por lo que es muy importante que esté cerca de sus oficinas para esto y, si hay alguna emergencia, que esté cerca del hospital. Salir del centro para dormir en otro lugar no es la mejor opción para Ramón. Sin mencionar que esto supone que puede tomar el autobús de ida y vuelta. Después de vender sus periódicos debe utilizar lo que gana para conseguir comida. Él dice: "¿Quién me dará el dinero del token del autobús?" No tiene sentido estresar a Ramón por dónde duerme, porque él ya está estresado por eso y por todo lo que tiene que hacer por su propia salud. OCTOBER 4, 2024 How to live for a day How do those who are homeless live and what are their daily concerns? This article focuses mainly on those newly homeless, not chronically homeless. Our first need on Maslow's Pyramid focuses strictly on survival needs: food, safety and shelter. Food — Where to get food? Peggy's House (sometimes called Mercy House) offers free breakfast on Saturday mornings 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., dinner Monday and Wednesday evenings, and some lodging. Inquire within at 805 W Huron St. The nearby Delonis Center provides lunch and dinner. Groundcover News sometimes has food during office hours 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is a very early morning breakfast at St. Andrews Church (7:30 to 8:30 a.m.). Pizza in the Park is another option on Fridays at 7 p.m. at Liberty Plaza. FedUp feeds people in both Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti on Wednesdays at lunch, and Hospitality JAMIE CAMERON Groundcover vendor No. 612 House (169 N. Washington) has open hours Sunday 12-3 and Thursday 4-7. There is an outdoor barbecue at Wheeler Park at 3:30 every other week, and on the off weeks at the same time in Waterworks Park. Both of these places will change locations in the winter. Money — You can risk police contact or disturbing people by panhandling. Or you can charge for your talents, such as singing and playing guitar with an open guitar case as one example. Or, you can work for Groundcover News. We buy each paper for fifty cents, and go sell them at the cover price of two dollars, sometimes with tips. You can also earn income by participating in the freelance writing program (writing and editing articles). Inquire within (423 S 4th Ave.). As a new vendor, you get ten free papers and a badge to go sell. Safety — The best solution for safety is to be around other people, and sleep during the late day hours or around other people near churches. Tent encampments, the Delonis Center and Peggy's House have lodging potential. In a worst case, perhaps sleep in the ER of the University of Michigan Hospital, if you can be discreet. Clothing — Goodwill, House by the Side of the Road or the Salvation Army. Showers — If you have money, the Washtenaw County Recreation Center on Washtenaw Avenue has lockers and showers. The Delonis Center has laundry and showers. Inquire within for both. Social networking — Take free classes where offered, keep your eyes open as you walk down Main Street and Liberty Street. There are professional social networking shops. The YMCA off Huron or Washington is another option. Mental Health Resources — Community Mental Health is at the Annex on Fourth just north of Huron. This is where you can get help and get a caseworker to talk to. Transportation — The AATA has reduced fare for children, seniors and low income people. At the Blake Transit Center you can buy a weekly or monthly pass. Be safe and take care! OCTOBER 4, 2024 HOMELESSNESSS Outrage over resolution to increase downtown policing shuts down Ypsilanti City Council meeting By the start of Ypsilanti City Council’s October 1 meeting, the hall chambers were already standing room only. The increased attendance was due to an agenda item introducing Resolution No. 2024-229. It reads the following: “Whereas it is in the interest of the entire Ypsilanti community to have a safe and welcoming downtown for all Ypsilanti residents, business owners and visitors and; Whereas the downtown currently has areas where safety is a significant concern for many of Ypsilanti residents, visitors and business owners and; Whereas it is inappropriate to focus on the safety concerns of a subsection of the population without addressing the safety concerns of the entire downtown population and; Whereas the effort to concentrate services for a vulnerable population in the downtown core has had a significant negative collateral impacts including open air drug dealing violence and threats to public safety and health and; Whereas business owners and property owners have a right to expect the city to take measures to ensure the safety of all interest a promoting a safe and private vibrant downtown that serves the diverse clientele; now therefore be it Resolved that the city manager is hereby directed to use all appropriate resources including police resources and police presence to ensure a safe downtown for all residents, visitors and business owners; be it further Resolved that these resources shall be used in a manner consistent with respect for the civil rights of all residents, visitors and business owners.” Introduced by Ward 2 Council Member Patrick McClean, this resolution comes after a more than yearlong narrative battle over what safety means on Washington Street in downtown Ypsilanti. This stretch of the neighborhood includes the high-traffic Ypsilanti Transit Center, Growing Hope’s Marketplace Hall, newly reopened Deja Vu Strip Club, Beer Cooler liquor store, the Tap Room and Bobcat Bonnie's bar restaurants, in addition to small clothing, food and other service-based businesses. The Ypsilanti District Library downtown branch — usually providing free Ypsilanti residents waitling in line for public comment completely filled City Hall on Oct. 1. LINDSAY CALKA Publisher restrooms, air-conditioned/heated space to sit and relax, outlets, wifi and other supportive services — has been closed since July 2023. Fed-Up Ministries moved their headquarters to the Growing Hope Marketplace Hall in June of this year. Services including meals, showers, air conditioned indoor space, survival supplies and activities were accessible almost daily. Care-Based Safety also began their pilot placebased non-police response program at the same location this summer. Earlier this year CBS sought funding from the City of Ypsilanti, but on June 4, 2024, the expenditure for an unarmed alternative to police fell short by one vote. A wide variety of Ypsilanti residents spoke about Resolution 2024-229 during public comment on Oct. 1 — housing and shelter activists, renters, homeowners, business owners, people experiencing homelessness, addiction and recovery — and a vast majority of speakers spoke against the passage of the resolution. Many echoed the phrase, "Police do not make us safe" and referred to the resolution as "violent." The business owners who communicated support for more policing of Washington Street articulated that they didn't think the resolution would accomplish much. There was obvious outrage towards the council members, with many speakers purposefully ignoring the rules of public comment. When Mayor Nicole Brown pleaded for respect in the chambers, one speaker responded, “This resolution is disrespectful to us all.” This outrage was directed equally, if not more, towards Stewart Beal, a landlord present in the chambers who has been criticized by his tenants for poor housing conditions and high eviction rates. Beal has publicly pushed this safety narrative with frequent Facebook posts that led to the proposed resolution. When Council adjourned for 10 minutes after a different speaker continued speaking after the three minute allocation was up, the crowd erupted into chants protesting Beal, and Mayor Brown adjourned the meeting for the night. The protestors marched out of the chambers chanting "Shelter not police!" One activist remained in the chambers and was arrested. The protestors switched their chant to "Let them go!" and this collective pressure released them immediately. The vote on Resolution 2024-229 did not occur Tuesday night. Council is meeting again Oct. 4 at 7 a.m. but the resolution is not on the agenda. Formerly homeless activist Seth Best reflected at the end of the night, “Both sides think safety is the problem. Both sides want to spend money on the solution, but one side refuses any solution that involves vulnerable people getting something life-saving for free — and are willing to pay even more to ensure they don't.” GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Fifth Avenue Press AADL founded Fifth Avenue Press in 2017 to support the local writing community and promote the creation of original content. The imprint publishes works by authors who live in Washtenaw County. Consider submitting your finished manuscript to Fifth Avenue Press at fifthave.aadl.org. Preschool Storytimes and Baby Playgroups Join our storytellers on weekdays inside the library for fun songs, stories, puppets, and movement! Visit aadl.org/storytimes to view a list of upcoming in-person storytimes and playgroups. You can also stream and download our recorded storytimes online at AADL.TV. FEATURED EVENT AADL Halloween Costume Contest Sunday, October 27 • 12–3pm Downtown Library Do you have a creative, cool, cute, or spooky costume? Come in your flashiest, most beautiful, or most outrageous costume to AADL’s annual costume contest! To enter, you must be seen by the judges between 12 and 2 pm. The award ceremony will be held at 2:30 pm. We will have a photo booth in the Lobby to commemorate the day. Check out aadl.org/ costumecontest for details! 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS WAR 365 days of war: the good, the bad and the ugly Wars and rumors of war — we are now at war and one can only imagine the end results of this war. We did not ask to be in this war; no one asked for this war. Things like this happen every so often in human affairs. It’s like an old volcano that's bound to blow its top. I believe in non-violence, and I desire peace. Many like myself believe in non-violence and desire peace. But there comes a time when an adversarial force won’t allow peace, thus creating a negative pervasive force so great, we end up in a space where peace no longer exists until the aftermath. Let me start by saying: in this war no one is safe! I mean no one. As we now see daily, children and women being killed en masse should be an indication of the intent of such an adversarial force. A genocidal massacre is taking place in real time (right now) in Palestine — live and in living color in the twenty-first century. This is old school warfare, but the only difference is, we have front row seating as we watch things unfold. But measures were put in place after WWII ended on September 2, 1945 to prevent things of this magnitude from taking place in the 20th and 21st century. On October 24, 1945, in San Francisco, CA, the United Nations was founded. Then why does the United Nations have no real effect on what takes place on the battlefield in Gaza? All these discussions, but no cease-fire? Let's examine the UN and its inability to solve world conflicts. The answer is simple: Those nations who hold veto privileges in the UN assembly are the five permanent member states of the security council. Who might those be? The United States, the UK, China, France and Russia. With this privilege and power they rule. There is more, but in short, this is why war-crimes committed by the Israeli Defense Force on the Palestinians continue to happen to this very moment — because of the backing and support of three nations: the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Protests take place daily and weekly, but no cease-fire. The people of these nations want a cease-fire, but rulers and leaders of their nations do not. Three of the most powerful nations stand with Israel. And these three nations hold veto power. Even though these three nations are the minority amongst all the other nations, the privilege of the veto trumps in this arena. We also need to take a look into the contracts of nations and their affiliation with other nations. There are 193 UN Member States. Each Member State has one seat in the General Assembly. MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Remember, only five members in this assembly hold and have veto power. All other members (nations) have no real say on what truly happens on the battlefield. Surely, smaller nations try their best to align themselves with bigger nations who might benefit them in one way or another. At the end of the day these five nations call the shots. Is it rigged? If so, that might explain why there has been 365 days of war and non-stop bombing and total neglect of innocent Palestinian civilians. Hypocrisy from the highest level of authority will be the downfall of these bigger nations, especially so-called democratic nations. Those in power in these nations have plans for global domination. My personal observation: it looks like it’s coming down to Nationalism vs its civilian population. The reason is because the citizens and governments of these nations, or empires, are becoming more restless as time goes on, and the citizens of these empires are becoming willing to challenge systematic authority. The powerful in these nations continually respond in the typical violent manner in order to try to quell dissent. There are nearly eight billion people on planet Earth. 1% of the population retains a majority of the wealth of the planet. Something is not right with this picture. With the middle class virtually eliminated, look at the disproportionate wealth gap, mental illness, poverty, the new racial-class segregation and culture wars. This is what we are facing within these so-called democratic nations, a war from within. Whether it be foreign or domestic, we are at war, and the majority of the population doesn't realize it, nor the seriousness of the situation. This war will consist of different types of components, but in plain language this will be war between the haves and the have nots, landowners against those who have no land at all. This war won’t be just nations fighting other nations; major struggles and conflicts will take place within nations, where government infrastructure won’t be able to stand on its own, thus leading to change (revolution) within these nations. War is inevitable. Change is inevitable. The eruption of a volcano is inevitable. Hold on ladies and gentlemen, it can blow any moment now! I would like to focus now on a particular aspect of this war because most of the world’s population will be involved. When most people think of war, they think of guns, tanks, battleships and more, but one should know that war can impact everything under the sun. Most noticeable is the war on information and public opinions. All nations control what they want people to see and hear, some more than others. Good and accurate information comes with a cost. If one chooses to stand on good journalism ethics, by bringing forth the truth, one must know his or her life could be in danger. In this line of work, the players “play for keeps.” Information rules the nations. Those in power know this, so they seek to control the flow and consumption of information. Nationalism is identification with one’s own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations. Sovereignty means supreme power or authority. These are a few of the serious components we are dealing with. So, media networks are formed of a biased nature which leads to division, deception and confusion. The recent news and events is ugly personified, hypocrisy on the highest level. I would have never thought we would bear witness to a genocide in Palestine. However, things of this nature have happened before in recorded history. What happened to George Floyd isn't something new; it was just caught on video for the whole OCTOBER 4, 2024 Signs at a Pro-Palestine rally in Ann Arbor, October 2023. Photo credit: Mike Jones. world to see. We who live in the United States are living where once indigenous people lived. America is a product of genocide. Let’s take a look at the major media networks: ABC, NBC and FOX. We will say, ABC is somewhat neutral, and NBC is Democrat and FOX shares Republican views. Each of these networks put their own spin on the information released to their audience. So much so it’s obvious. I hate to say it, but it is almost fake news because you see and hear what they want you to see and hear. They put their own spin on the facts or hide certain facts, which misleads their audience. Those in power and these networks do this without pause because they know most people don’t do their research and will believe whatever information is given. At the core of journalism is truth (facts). Whether one likes it or not, the facts are the bottom line all the time. Those who choose to be informed, such as myself, rely on good, accurate news to be able to make a good conscious decision. By doing so, we have to learn to take a close look at what and where we receive information of any sort. Journalism and media outlets bear the burden of the good, the bad and the ugly — a constant pressure from all directions in the struggle for truth. The good lies in the hearts of those who have been charged with responsibility to resolve problems through the means of accurate and truthful information, and in the audience that receives that information and puts good use to what was given. OCTOBER 4, 2024 VOTING DAVID KE DODGE Groundcover contributor Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is a method by which voters in democracies cast ballots by ranking candidates according to their appeal and preference to each voter. Thus, if the ballot has five candidates running for one position in the office for which the candidates are running, a particular voter will place a number “1” beside the name of the candidate which the voter most favors, a number “2” beside the candidate whom the voter next most favors, and so on, with the candidate whom the voter least prefers receiving a number “5”. By a methodology which I will not try to explain here, the candidates are sequentially eliminated from the ballot according to their unpopularity, as evidenced by their having the fewest number of “1” votes. Each stage of the eliminations leaves each voter’s ballot changed by an elimination of the most unpopular candidate from their ballot, and a “moving up” in rank, by 1, of all the candidates who that voter liked less than the candidate who was eliminated in that stage. If, after a particular stage, a candidate has enough #1 votes to exceed 50% of the total votes cast, that candidate is declared the winner. Advantages to RCV There are a plethora of advantages of RCV to candidates and voters who love their nation: • During campaigns, a strategy of candidates to attack one of their opponents is not so appealing; the candidates realize that attacking one or more of the other candidates may alienate the voters who support those other candidates, so rank the offending candidate low on their ballot. The result is that candidates limit their campaigns to running on policies and positions on issues. • Because the candidates run on policies, the winners of the elections tend to disfavor gridlock, and thus serve terms of office promoting the public's authentic interests; legislative officers and administrators are more willing to reach across the aisle to garner support for proposed laws. As a result, more productive legislatures and administrators are elected. • Voters who don’t like either of the candidates of the two major political parties, and decide to vote for a third (or fourth or fifth…) party candidate, won’t necessarily be “throwing away” their vote. If enough voters share such sentiments, neither of the two main parties’ candidates will be elected. • Multiple interests will be reflected in the vote results — minority parties will be found in some elected offices. • Being a voting strategy which gives results similar to multiple runoff elections, the winner of an election will receive a majority of the vote, rather than the largest plurality; democracy will be more vital, and hence, government will enjoy greater trust and respect. • Parties and elections will be less subject to domination by small numbers of activists who are regimented to take control of local party processes for nominating candidates, and hence exercise power and influence far beyond what their small numbers can justify. • Participation rates in elections will likely be greater; surveys of voters leaving precinct stations after voting for the first time by RCV show a marked increase in the voters’ satisfaction with the experience. Challenges to RCV I’m yet in an early stage of taking a serious look at RCV; it’s appealing to me, but I anticipate there may be problems: • The means by which our leaders will be selected is more complex — it’s far easier to understand the details of how one of two candidates wins the election, by the most “X’s” beside his/ her name, than it is to understand the complexity of a computer repeatedly counting and eliminating candidates and ultimately declaring a winner who some bureaucrat on a silver screen announces to the public as the winner. In a nation which was once witness to a familiar, gradual, nationwide unfolding of state-by-state results until a candidate was declared the winner of the electoral college, there was a sheen of “legitimacy” to the process which has been increasingly automated, with increasing distrust in our electoral institutions; • The nation will have taken another step toward turning over the keys of our power-assignment institutions to technocrats, instead of precinct workers who have a love of democracy and have historically shown their work to be found accurate by recounts; some means of vetting the technocrats for devotion to democracy, perhaps by the administration of polygraph, is necessary. • RCV has a number of potential vulnerabilities to evasion of its intended performance. For example, there is a question of how names get on a ballot — if the process is not carefully thought-through, a ballot of five candidates might have two Democrats and three Republicans. The devil is in the details. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Ranked Choice Voting – enhancing democracy How it can happen here I’ve been aware of RCV for some time, and have recently learned of the existence of an organization in Michigan that is working to amend Michigan’s Constitution by an initiative to place RCV on the ballot in the 2026 election. That organization is named “Rank MI Vote.” RMV is very much a grassroots movement of private citizens. It is just starting to gain momentum in its efforts, and the people who join today will find themselves very involved in fundamental planning, conceptualization and decision-making. But an overall plan of action exists and was revealed in a Zoom meeting of its members on Tuesday, August 20, 2024. If you wish to fill yourself in on their overall plan-of-action, you can get RMV to send you a link to the Zoom meeting by submitting a request to: communications@rankmivote.org RCV is becoming increasingly used in cities, counties and states across the nation, including cities in Michigan. Once supported by many U.S. citizens of all political stripes, as RCV has been increasingly used in elections, it has accrued opponents as incompetent, extremist and/or corrupt politicians find themselves losing elections. Some such opponents are even participating in attempts to repeal the laws which provide for RCV. In addition to RMV’s Michigan presence, “Fair Vote” is promoting RCV nationwide. GET ACTIVE! Engage! Our self-determination is at stake. 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY For Ronnie, Robert and Old Joe Gone to Rest in Peace I write poems About great things. I write poems about wars and walls and towers, Starting and ending, rising and falling. I write poems about leaders, Some who are good people, And others who make themselves into volcanic moutains. I write poems about nations collapsing, And about hope of a better world dawning. But it is the poems I write about "small" people With large and loving spirits That are my heart-poems! Perhaps they are the poems I treasure most, Because I feel and believe That writing about such modest And often impoverished but ever noble souls, Is the closest I can come to describing reflections Of the likely struggling And gentle soul of God. OCTOBER 4, 2024 PHILIP SPINK Groundcover vendor No. 630 OCTOBER 4, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS ROCKING SIMILIESby Tracy Bennett 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Comedic pranks 5. Crisler Center, for one 10. Crumb-carrying insects 14. Supermodel Macpherson who had a role on "Friends" 15. Wanders all over 16. Bubble on the stove 17. Absolutely spotless 20. Marie Kondo's "life-changing" method for tidying up 21. Like many a professor with job security 22. Exclamations heard after a stubbed toe 23. Information 25. TV dad on "Black-ish" 26. In absolutely perfect health 31. Early anesthetic 34. Employ 35. Feel poorly 36. Greeting between old-time sailors 37. Way in 39. Radio band letters 40. Tool with teeth 41. Night light? 42. Stews 43. Absolutely leak-proof 47. Tic-tac-toe win 48. The "Y" in MYOB 49. Cardinals, on scoreboards 52. Artist's studio 56. Potato dumpling dish of northern Italy 58. What 17-, 26- and 43-Across might be, if they "band" together 60. Marriage rights activist Windsor 61. Dogg who was a torchbearer at the 2024 Paris Olympics 62. ___ the act (stop pretending) 63. Badminton dividers 64. Displays a form of sleepiness that's sometimes contagious 65. The : in (-: DOWN 1. Lizard with clingy toepads 2. Permit 3. Narrow valleys 4. Fashion line? 5. Where Noah's ark landed at last 6. Spanish-speaking Muppet on "Sesame Street" 7. Actress Longoria 8. Eye of ___ (part of a witch's brew) 9. Tennis great Arthur 10. Utterly ridiculous 11. Football powerhouse that last played (and lost to) the Wolverines in 2019 12. Mosaic piece 13. Go downhill fast, say 18. Lowest point opposite a zenith 19. Sundance film, typically 24. Pottery class project (back when every household allowed smoking) 26. Tina of "30 Rock" 27. Put on TV 28. Saute 29. Raise up 30. Stately shade trees 31. Toward the rising sun 32. Cuisine served at Tuptim on Washtenaw Avenue 33. "What's your life like these days?" 37. McNamara terminal approx. 38. Lil ___ X 39. One of two huggers 41. Keeping a stiff upper lip 42. Angry uproar 44. Sacred places, quaintly 45. "Oh, tell me more, please!" 46. Preceding periods, as to elections 49. Like many Halloween films 50. Sudden pang 51. Talks like Daffy or Sylvester 52. "So true!" 53. Sassy impudence, slangily 54. Popular online marketplace 55. Novelist Jaffe 57. Give up, as territory 59. "That smarts!"

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THINK ABOUT IT Fear is a survival mechanism for a reason Do you ever get the feeling that something is off? That what is taking place before you, indeed the world you live in, has an artificial presence you can't put your finger on? And you begin to wonder if you're being screwed with. No, you're not going crazy, and you’re not alone in the suspicions of seemingly scripted events for the purpose of manipulation. I have days when I wonder if I've been psychologically toyed with to an extent. I might as well start taking the whole Matrix simulation theory seriously. Now, I'm not the type who is adamant in his somewhat paranoid belief that we are the unwilling subjects kept firmly in check by a corrupt system that will stop at nothing to acquire and maintain power in order to ensure agendas that not only lack benefits for the common man, but completely dominate him and demand his subservience. To break our will so thoroughly nobody would dare question, much less challenge, our assigned place in the world. No, I'm not exactly a hardcore enthusiast of conspiracy theories of ill-intentioned government plotting a tyrannical New World Order establishing a slave/servant class composed of lower and impoverished classes and other undesirables. I want to be clear that I hold no rock solid belief or conviction in that kind of paranoia. Unfortunately, however, though I don't anticipate such a bleak outcome for humanity, I cannot with certainty discard the possibility that the system we grant custody of our rights and freedoms would harbor nefarious intentions for the world's less fortunate. Now there are a lot of variables and factors that would make the transition into such a despicable system of governance somewhat rocky at best. And despite the embarrassingly large number of people who wouldn't be bothered by such a display of hypocrisy (at least where America is concerned) there will be people who are. I really don't think these people would embrace the total omission of their already uncertain chances of a better life. It would be a scenario that runs a very good chance of igniting a civil war. And ironically it would essentially be over the same line of ethics that the last American Civil War was fought over – human rights and America's official stance on slavery. I can see where the wealthy just love and eat such a practice up. I also see how pathetically selfish and immature such an ideology would seem in today's world. Perfect for spoiled brats who want to have JAMES MANNING Groundcover vendor No. 16 their way while operating with the absence of any accountability. That's entirely possible and probable by simply dehumanizing the lower social classes and undesirables. I can definitely see how a certain degree or legal word play would be employed to justify reverting back to the practice of outright slavery. Sure, it will be called or labeled as something different. But at the end of the day it will be outright slavery. I truly wish it was paranoia and my own mind coming unhinged that was the reason behind me making these observations, that they are baseless, unrealistic and delusional. But these fears are and have been confirmed by the simple fact that these practices occur all around us. There's no shortage of programs and organizations that take advantage of people in unfortunate situations and have no moral dilemmas taking these people and using their desperation to entrap and exploit them. And if that isn't proof enough you can always look at the market of human trafficking. That doesn't really need any explanation to tell you what the hell this is all about. You have to wonder why our country has such a vague stance on it. We're supposedly against it but I fail to see any serious effort to do anything about it. Other than the occasional raid on — excuse the expression — whorehouses here and there, like something that just happens to fall in the lap of law enforcement, a matter of convenience. But nothing ever huge, no real campaign to eradicate it. So it's back to that standard American mindset of indifference that enables the continued existence of such a thing. Can we really say with certainty that we're not being psychologically conditioned to adopt the kind of mindset that will opt to look the other way to the benefit of sociopaths that profit from these atrocities? A mindset of “better them than me.” I'm sure it's a great comfort to these victims that we're doing all we can to pretend they don't exist. The thought that we are intentionally manipulated to turn our backs on — and if need be, to destroy — each other is a fear that troubles my thoughts every day. A constant nagging suspicion that we are all being herded down a path of ruin. As negative as all that sounds I still have to reflect on certain facts that are in contrast to such a sense of defeatism. For myself, the first and most important one being that nothing is over and lost yet. Second, that anything is possible and it's not a certainty we’ll all be serving cruel overlords in the coming years. Also the fact that we're talking about the oppression of a society in which the vast majority holds a firm ideal in the concept of freedom. And like myself, there are people willing to fight like hell for it. Especially when those ideals are being attacked. So if any B.S. is pulled there is no way it's going to go on unchallenged. But really, I wanted to write this article to address my own fears in one way, and to serve as a warning in another. Because God, does it bug me when I see the levels of outright vanity and hypocrisy on display. And it makes me think of how it is exactly what’s expected of a plan that doesn't hold the best intentions for everyone. Acknowledgment to a fear that we should fight for what we cherish while we still can. OCTOBER 4, 2024 exp. 01/31/2025 OCTOBER 4, 2024 PEACE Day of Che Che Guevara is among the best known revolutionaries of the 20th century. He is widely honored in Cuba. Originally from Argentina, Ernesto Guevara was “Che” in Cuba from Argentinian-Spanish slang for “pal” or “buddy.” He became a top Commandante with Fidel and was the brilliant military strategist at the Battle of Santa Clara, which sealed the defeat of the Batista dictatorship. I believe the armed struggle began after Batista canceled the election in which Fidel was a candidate. I’ve already written about the attack on the Moncada barracks, which like Harper’s Ferry, was a big defeat. Unlike John Brown, Fidel was sentenced to prison rather than execution. Upon his release he went into exile in Mexico. Che was in Guatemala when President Eisenhower, at the behest of United Fruit Co., authorized the coup against the popular President Arbenz. Che, as an Arbenz supporter, was forced to flee and went to Mexico where he met Fidel. The rest is well-documented history. Luisa Yanez wrote “On the Trail of Che Guevara,” a great read from the Miami Herald; learn about the mystery of Che’s bones. Every year, hundreds of thousands make a pilgrimage to Che’s tomb/memorial in Santa Clara. Alberto Korda took the legendary photo of Che that is everywhere. It captures the pathos, perseverance and passion of the revolution. On March 4, 1960, the French freighter La Coubre exploded in Havana Harbor, killing up to 100 people and injuring several hundred more. Che participated in the rescue operation. The following day, the Che photo was taken. Jack Kenny, our Ann Arbor photographer, traveled to Cuba in the 1990s, met with Korda and came back with a good part of his collection. Jack’s work may be found at the Makeshift Art Gallery on Liberty Street. October 8 is the Day of Che in Cuba. By significant coincidence it is also my birthday. My 75th in 2017 was a great party in Cuba. This year I will be 82. We are setting up an October 6 event (the Sunday before), at the Friends Meeting House from 4 to 8 p.m. It is a potluck party with a film screening of “Salt of the Earth” at 7 p.m. This film embodies the spirit of Che as much as “The Motorcycle Diaries,” which is also a great film. I got the book “Salt of the Earth: The Story of a Film” to get a better feel for freedom of speech and the struggle for the mind of Hollywood. The witch hunts of McCarthyism, also called the Second Red Scare, sent many people to prison and exile. If you knew a communist you may have been subpoenaed and father find water with a branch that pointed down at the right spot. Please review the “People’s Peace KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 threatened with the loss of your job. It was a replay of the Inquisition, a tragedy that plagued Europe for centuries. World War I was the context for the Russian Revolution. The first Red Scare in America came immediately after the Bolshevic Revolution took power in Russia. Violent incidents and rumors of violence were the excuse for many raids, arrests and deportations in the United States. Sacco and Venzetti were executed based on their anarchist beliefs more than any evidence of violence. The anti-communist fervor that is an undercurrent in American culture has a long history and anyone who declares themself to be a socialist, let alone a communist, cannot be surprised to find themselves under attack. The Korean War and the Vietnam war were anti-communst crusades. The prejudice that comes from othering human beings feeds on fear, scapegoating and the creation of enemies if none exist. Indigenous people become savages as supremacism goes on a rampage. I met a veteran who became an expert at kicking in doors and shooting anything that moved inside. He thought his training in Iraq would qualify him for a job with the police. The mercenaries that I saw during the Detroit newspaper strike, and again at Standing Rock, believe that peace and justice activists are the enemies and their addiction to violence motivates them to act against us. We see this same dynamic in Palestine today as children and the World Central Kitchen become targets of bombs while snipers pick off medical workers and journalists. Peace is needed. There is plenty of work to do as we begin the healing. Let us end the war on ourselves. Smile in the mirror as you see who you are in a judgment-free zone. Honest health care would get toxins out of our food and water. Food would be medicine as we tune in to the wisdom of the body. Applied kinesiology, commonly known as muscle testing, is an important skill. Water dowsing works in the context of tuning into the wisdom of the body and the wisdom of the earth. I have seen my Bank” Groundcover article (May 17) and “Move The Money” article (August 23). It’s time to put basic research about money into practice. The first law of thermodynamics will go into play – everything we need is at hand. Let’s talk and go to work as we share in simplifying our lives. Peace is the way. We will begin and end with some mindfulness practice that empowers peace of mind. A natural breath is a miracle of presence. I am looking forward to meeting you on October 6 at Ann Arbor Friends Meeting House. My writing is preparation for a discussion on money, sharing of resources and organizing the details. Jim Clark told me about auxiliary dwelling units which is an ordinance in Ann Arbor. It may be the basis for a series of tiny houses as first done in Seattle. When we love one another we live in a fresh world and can live visions of peace. "Yes" and "no" are powerful words. “How about this?” Is a phrase that introduces new options. The blessings of a fresh mind are bountiful. Remember the famous slogan, “think globally, act locally?” Try a thought experiment with your breath. The average breath has 2.5 X 10 to the 22nd power number of molecules, 22 zeros is a large number. Check Google for the probability that a goodly number of those molecules have been around the world and breathed by every plant and sentient being that ever existed. That’s just one breath. How many dinosaurs do we meet in our breath? This is an example of how intimately we are interrelated. Science is now theorizing that consciousness is connected to dimensions we cannot perceive. We need to explore mental consciousness and contemplate the Clear Light of the Void, also known as "the all-good expanse of primordial purity.” God, Allah and unconditional love are in this field of word play. As is taught, one moment of the clear light of the mind can erase eons of karmic obstacles and habitual patterns. We can forget about the need to prove anything and rest in the natural state of spontaneous activity, uncontrived and decisive. The earth invites us to be at ease and do good work. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Tofu-veggie stir fry ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 14 oz. package firm or extra firm tofu 3 cups chopped green beans 2 cup diced carrots 1 cup chopped red pepper 4 T. toasted sesame or coconut oil for sauteing Sauce: ½ cup soy sauce (low sodium) 2 T. fresh grated ginger (I use a little less) 3 T. brown sugar 2 T. maple syrup 2 T. cornstarch Directions: In a small mixing bowl, whisk together all of the sauce ingredients and set aside. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and begin drying your tofu. To drain, remove it from the package and place between two thick towels. Then place a plate or bowl on top of it. Let it dry for about 15 to 20 minutes, changing your towels if they get too wet. Once dry, chop tofu into 1-inch cubes or rectangles. Arrange tofu on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet to prevent sticking and bake for a total of Sunrise, sunset SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 OCTOBER 4, 2024 25-35 minutes, flipping once halfway through to ensure even cooking. This will dry out the tofu and help give it a more meat-like texture. Once it’s golden brown and a bit tough and firm, remove from the oven and set it out to dry a bit more while you prep your vegetables. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the sesame oil or coconut oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add veggies and toss to coat in oil. Cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring often. When the vegetables have some color and have softened a bit, add the sauce and stir. It should bubble and thicken. Then add the tofu and stir. Cook the mixture for 3-5 minutes, stirring often. When veggies are cooked to your preference, remove from heat. Serve immediately, as is or over rice for a more filling meal. $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 9/20/2024

2 $ It's called football! page 3 SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 20 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. MEET YOUR VENDOR: LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor # Victory Inn shutdown upends the most vulnerable. page 5

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 International Network of Street Papers gathers in Liverpool to celebrate 30th anniversary, share best practices and inspiration LINDSAY CALKA Publisher For four short but jam-packed days, 43 street papers convened in Liverpool, UK for the International Network of Street Papers 2024 Summit. Groundcover News is a proud member of INSP; year-round we participate by attending the monthly North American regional network meet-ups, by publishing content from other papers, and by sharing our own content across the globe for republication. Although this summit commemorated the past 30 years of INSP, one stated goal of the conference was to build a strategy for the future of the network. Since the 2022 gathering in Milan, INSP has experienced a drop in income and had to reduce staff at the Glasgow office — on top of the challenges individual street paper organizations are facing with funding, street sales and a global rise in attacks on human rights. In the first session of the summit, delegates were invited to reflect on what they need from INSP and our global network. There was clear consensus that all the street paper organizations see the priority being connection and regard INSP as the best tool to make that connection happen, calling for more support in between summits with information-sharing, translation, collaborative projects and simple directories of who does what and where. Each day, delegates shared best practices through panel discussions, breakout conversations, strategy sessions and keynote speakers. Groundcover News was invited to speak on the “Valuing Lived Experience” panel and INSP 2024 Summit delegates at the Walker Art Gallery on the opening night, Monday, September 12. Not all delegates are pictured. presented on our Freelance Writing Program, which pays homeless and low-income people to write for the newspaper. Others on the panel were Katie Langford from Arts and Homelessness International, Simon, a vendor from Hus Forbi in Denmark, and Andre Rostant, a vendor from the see INSP page 4  PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Pedro Campos Dezz Clark Jim Clark Concert Music Outreach Collective La Shawn Courtwright Cindy Gere Robbie February Anthony McCormick Denise Shearer Wayne Sparks Scoop Stevens Lynn Sutfin Maisie Weyheng GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 CONTACT US PROOFREADERS Kendall Artz Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Simone Masing Anthony McCormick Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 ON MY CORNER Kamala Harris for President SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover vendor No. 638 Now that an accomplished Black MEET YOUR VENDOR La Shawn Courtwright, vendor 56 Who is La Shawn Courtwright? I am the author of the book, "The Fold - A Collection of Poetry," not the author of the article "Justice InDeed is uncovering hidden histories of housing discrimination in Washtenaw County" or article with all Candor intended. What is Groundcover News to you? Groundcover News is not a "Homeless People's Newspaper," it's an instrument that prevents me from being destitute and/or homeless. What would you say to those who buy or those who choose not to buy our paper? Do not cast my work down because I choose to earn a living by uplifting, or simply allowing, others to have new thoughts because of my writing. I hope that it can create bridges were there are gaping gaps of communication. Who do you credit for what you've learned? All that have taught me things knowingly and unknowingly. What is strength to you? A dynamic or group of individuals that is able to build great things together without struggling about something that may be unusual to norms, and the greatness of the single or many gifts when used to empower, not dim, another's light. What do you want out of this life? To not be of it as I'm in it. I want to be Holy. Family DEZZ CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 643 Family. Do we understand what family is? From my understanding, the answer to that question is no. Family is not only blood, but also friendship, family affairs, smiles, mothers, fathers … because without you there wouldn't be me! FAMILY — THE WORLD NEEDS TO REMEMBER WHAT FAMILY IS! Kamala Harris, KAMALA HARRIS, she understands what family is. Now it’s time that we remember what family is all about. Family — we are one in this world. Family. IF GOD MADE A LOT OF MEN AT ONE TIME THEN WE WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT FAMILY IS because there would be too many fathers and we wouldn't understand who or what family is. WOMEN REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT FAMILY IS. But let’s not misunderstand that I am a man who understands what family is. Family is us. Family is the being of who we are because without it we would all be lost FAMILY. woman, Kamala Harris, is running for president, America can put behind her racist, sexist past and strive toward a non-racist future. Opposing this enlightened future is former president Donald Trump. Speaking at a convention of Black journalists, Trump said it was news to him that Kamala Harris is Black. Trump still wants to make America white again. Race is pseudoscience; it is a contrivance of man that is used to exploit human beings. American citizens should never vote for someone because of their race. Gender is a different matter because it can in certain instances be an important factor. Maybe the time has come to elect a female president since a woman may bring a different, more cooperative perspective. Taking a presidential candidate’s gender into consideration when voting can help determine who is best suited to be the 47th president of the United States. But is Kamala Harris qualified to be president? Many vice presidents have become presidents, therefore being vice president is her primary qualification to be president. In my opinion, since she has not made any big mistakes (such as those made by Vice President Spiro Agnew during the Nixon era), she is qualified to be president. A Harris administration will continue to do the work of the Biden administration, and in due time, will evolve into its own distinct entity. The divine feminine that has been oppressed by patriarchal domination will now be free to release her energy and heal a broken world. I imagine President Harris singing Helen Reddy’s song “I Am Woman” at her inauguration on January 20, 2025. It can happen. Vote for Kamala Harris for President. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 It's called football! The sky has opened. The sun will shine. It’s football season in Ann Arbor. College towns across America are transforming into the wild, wacky times of football season in America! Even if you don’t like football, come on, admit it: you love football season in a college town. Look around — signs up, flags flying, rooting for your home team, anticipating a winning season … the new slogans, the students, the townies who have grown up here and have Michigan Football in their DNA. The whole city transforming right in front of your eyes. The highs, the lows, oh what a time to be alive. We wake up Saturday morning just knowing that the universe is on our side. How could it not be? I’ve got my lucky jersey on and you know what that means! Yes, we always win when I wear my lucky jersey. Okay, so what happened when we played Texas? Ahh, I know someone WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 didn’t do their part. Oh my God! Someone didn’t do their part? How selfish can you be? Don’t you know we all have to do our part for this thing called football to work? I walked around the city after the game, taking it all in, analyzing the faces I saw. And you know what? I saw it all: disappointment, sadness, experiencing the hurt and dismay. Then the clouds parted and the sun shone down upon us. Because we are Michigan fans and that means we take the bad with the good. And no matter what, we get to wake up next Saturday morning and get to do it all over again. Yes, my friend, it’s Michigan Football in Ann Arbor again!

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MENTAL HEALTH First "988 Day" observed on September 8 LYNN SUTFIN Michigan Department of Health and Human Services The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) joined with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to observe the first 988 Day on Sunday, September 8. 988 Day is a national initiative dedicated to raising awareness about the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline through the overarching theme of “No Judgement. Just Help.” This inaugural observance, coinciding with National Suicide Prevention Month, underscores the critical importance of behavioral health awareness, fostering open communication and extending support to individuals in their moment of need. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, (previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline), is a 24/7 tollfree nationwide hotline consisting of a network of local call centers across the country that confidentially provide compassionate care for people with emotional distress or crisis related to life circumstances, anxiety, depression, suicide, mental health, substance use and more. This line offers immediate support to people when life gets to be too much, regardless of the reason for call. “Calls to Michigan’s 988 Lifeline are  INSP from page 2 Big Issue UK. Many panels took deep dives into the unique ways street papers across the world generate income for their vendors in addition to selling their newspaper or magazine. Just to name a few, at =Oslo, vendors can work at the =Kaffe making and serving coffee to the magazine’s customer-base and neighborhood. At the Big Issue UK, vendors can work for the “Big Issue Recruit” by connecting unemployed people to job vacancies across the UK. The Big Issue Japan started the “Nighttime Bakery” which hires vendors to pick up day-old bread and re-sell on the street during hours that bakeries are typically closed. And of course, there were presentations and displays on the variety of special edition products street newspapers produce: crossword editions, short story/fiction books, calendars, wrapping paper, children’s editions — examples of which can now be browsed at the Groundcover office! This year’s summit piloted an activity called “unconferencing” which gave delegates the chance to go deeper into the issues, opportunities and challenges not covered in the pre-set conference schedule. Street paper organizations across the network look quite different — some big, some small, some representing homelessness, others migrants, many languages and social issues. Topics chosen by the delegates included: reader engagement, cashless payments, data collection, rogue sellers, digitalization, social media and mental health for staff. The INSP Awards, a tradition of the summit, celebrates the successes and excellence of the movement. Although Groundcover News was not shortlisted this year for any award categories, we were proud to submit works in Best Photo, Best Vendor Contribution, Best Article/Journalism and Best Cover. You can see what we submitted in the graphic to the right. On the final night of the summit, INSP announced the location for the next summit: Portland, Oregon with host paper Street Roots! I am hopeful the upcoming conference based in the United States will allow for closer planning with Groundcover News, so we can organize much-needed programming and add focus on street paper vendors — the heart, soul, and reason for street organizations. Groundcover News application for INSP Awards 2024 newspaper answered by dedicated and welltrained staff who help connect those experiencing crisis with support and resources,” said Elizabeth Hertel, director. “Strengthening crisis care and mental health services continues to be a top priority for MDHHS. We encourage anyone experiencing a crisis, whether personally or through one of their family members, to use this resource whenever needed.” With rising levels of anxiety, emotional distress and overdose deaths, it is crucial people have somewhere to turn when they are in crisis. According to data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 40% of young Michiganders responding felt sad or hopeless during the 12 months before the survey and 16.9% had made a plan about how they would attempt suicide. For the state’s youth, 988 offers instant support through call, text or chat. Additionally, the 2022 State of Mental Health in America report showed more than 20% of Michigan adults were experiencing mental illness and more than 357,000 Michigan adults had serious thoughts of suicide. Further, the Washtenaw County Health Department's 2023 Firearm Death Report found these increases aligned locally as well. “When we compare 2014-2018 to 2019-2023, local firearm homicides have increased 113% and firearm suicides have increased 53%. Firearm deaths are preventable, and continued collective action is needed to save lives," said Juan Marquez, MD, MPH, Washtenaw County Health Department medical director. This report analyzed data from the Washtenaw County Medical Examiner Office. In 2023, most (66%) firearm deaths in Washtenaw County were suicides and 34% were classified as homicides. Resources The 988 Lifeline is a direct connection to immediate support and resources — the average time it takes for a call to be answered in Michigan is 14 seconds. People who are worried about a loved one who may need support can also call 988. There are specialized services available for veterans, LGBTQ+ youth and adults and other groups by selecting the corresponding option on the call menu. Crisis center calling services are available in English and Spanish, as well as a Language Line Solutions to provide translation services in more than 250 additional languages. Text and chat are currently available in English only. Suicide is preventable and help is available. Anyone in Washtenaw County can call Community Mental Health 24/7 with any mental health questions or concerns: 734-544-3050. Call 988, text 988, or visit 988lifeline. org/chat for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also text “HELLO” to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line. It’s important to know the warning signs for those at risk of suicide including: • Talking about wanting to die, feeling hopeless or having no purpose, feeling trapped or in unbearable pain, or being a burden to others. • Looking for or talking about ways to kill oneself. • Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs. • Sleeping too little or too much. • Withdrawing from activities or isolating from family and friends. • Visiting or calling people to say goodbye. • Giving away prized possessions. • Displaying feelings of depression, anxiety, loss of interest, irritability, humiliation or shame, agitation or anger, and/or relief or sudden improvement. It is especially concerning if any of these warning signs are related to a painful event, loss or change. If someone you know shows warning signs of suicide, assume you are the only one who will reach out. Take them seriously, talk to them in private, and ask directly about suicide calmly and without judgement. See more information at washtenaw.org/suicide. SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 BEST PHOTO Mike Jones (June 30, 2023) BEST COVER Street Mythology edition BEST JOURNALISM Alexandra Granberg, "Driver runs over homeless cyclist, cops take no action" (September 8, 2023) BEST VENDOR CONTRIBUTION Christopher Ellis, "Housed, unhoused or homeless?" (November 4, 2022) SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 SHELTER Victory Inn shutdown upends the most vulnerable On Sept. 3, the Victory Inn on Washtenaw Ave. was shut down for severe code and health violations. The City of Ann Arbor responded to a variety of recent complaints about the inexpensive hotel by demanding that the building be shut down. A posted sign from a Building Official said, "DANGER This Structure Is Declared Unsafe For Human Occupancy Or Use." The hotel has a history of problems, including traditional code violations, the death of an employee due to carbon monoxide poisoning in 2023 and accusations about human trafficking and drug overdose deaths which resultd in a suit to close the building permanently in 2018. Owned by Jimmy Garmo of Southfield-based U.S. 23 Lodge LLC, the Victory Inn motel is at the corner of Washtenaw and U.S. 23, one of the most high traffic areas in Ann Arbor. Due to further code violations and as a resolution to the 2018 suit, the motel building is scheduled to be replaced with a modern building and new branding — turning into the Staybridge Suites and Holiday Inn Express. Many homeless/housing-insecure people were impacted by the Sept. 3 condemnation. One of them I met at Bridge Community Cafe; her name is Brittany. Brittany is a 20-year-old woman who was living at the Victory Inn. The room was being paid for by a mentor. According to management, the building was also being shut down that week to begin the construction. No one told Brittney or Molly, her mentor. I asked Brittany for an interview. GCN: Tell me a little bit about your past, whatever you're comfortable with sharing. Brittany: I grew up in a toxic household where every day my mom and my dad was fighting. My mom even tried to kill herself in front of us. GCN: Sorry to hear that. That's rough. Brittany: My dad died when I was 11. I went into foster care when I was eight years old. Then I got out when I was 17. Recently, I was placed in jail for assault. That's pretty much about me, I'm just wild in some ways. GCN: Well, you're 20, of course you're going to be a little wild. Tell me about your stay at Victory Inn. Brittany: Monday afternoon, I went to Victory Inn, me and my mentor got the room for a few days, her name's Molly. GCN: Are you calling them mentor and then a job. Commissioner Sara HammerJIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 because they were assigned to you from an agency or is it just somebody that knows you that's helping you out? Brittany: She's happy to help out. GCN: So you and your mentor went to Victory Inn and what happened? Brittany: She paid for the room, it was all cool, nobody said anything about it being shut down. The next morning (Tuesday), I left to run some errands. I come back around 3, 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I walked in and immediately the worker said I had to go. I was like, why do I need to leave? They said the building's being shut down. GCN: They let you get your stuff but you said they didn’t offer your mentor a refund? Brittany indicated they did not. Molly was owed $380. GCN: Did they give you any reason why they were keeping your money? Brittany: No. GCN: So you said you were evicted that day? Brittany: Yes, Tuesday afternoon. GCN: What did you do that night? Brittany: I called Molly and she got me a room at Harmony House. GCN: So you haven't had to sleep on the street? Brittany: No. GCN: What's next? Brittany: I'm in a hotel room provided by Ozone House. I plan on getting an apartment through Ozone, schmidt said in an MLive article the building [Victory Inn motel] was "less than desirable." “The city took action in court in 2018 to try to shut it down, citing a history of prostitution, human trafficking and numerous police dispatches to the hotel, which the city deemed a public nuisance and threat to public safety. “The city agreed to drop its case in 2019 after getting cooperation from the hotel with efforts to decrease crime on the property, increasing daily rates, scrapping hourly renting, requiring identification at check-in and adding security measures. That led to a decrease in calls for police service and a decrease in severity of calls, the city attorney’s office said in 2019.” (MLive. com “Plans to raze, construct new hotel approved for Ann Arbor’s Victory Inn site” Jun. 26, 2024) It did lead to a reduction in the number and severity of calls, at least for a time, but at the expense of housing-insecure members of our community. What stood out was that increasing daily rates was a strategy in their crime reduction plan. This serves to also exclude individuals who aren’t using the space to commit survival crimes but need the low rate for survival. Independent sex workers are also impacted by increased rates and the elimination of hourly rates. However, sex traffickers might not be deterred by higher prices. The minimum need for human shelter is warmth/climate control, safety from imminent danger, privacy, access to showers, laundry and toilet, and reliability. Motels do all of that. Motels with low rates are an essential resource for shelter. But business is business, including pricing people out of the motel option by raising rates. On September 3, the Victory Inn was declared unsafe for human occupancy or use, displacing people relying on low rates for shelter. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SHELTER SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 Recuperative Care program for homeless attempts to fill healthcare gap ROBBIE FEBRUARY Groundcover contributor The Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, in partnership with Packard Health, has a program to help homeless people recover after leaving the hospital. It's called the Recuperative Care program, and it's a safe place where people can stay and get better. They get a temporary bed, medical care and help finding a permanent home, all without cost. It runs out of the Delonis Center in Ann Arbor, and there are currently 12 beds. While it is not a skilled nursing facility, the partnership with Packard Health (as well as participation and referrals from Michigan Medicine and Trinity Health) means there is contact with healthcare professionals who can spot problems and make referrals to health organizations. Patients see the well-loved Dr. Ravi Vadlamudi from Packard Health and receive holistic care including analysis of overall health. Megan Daniels serves as a fulltime nurse. The pilot for the program, which is managed by Recuperative and Crisis Care Coordinator Shannon Gilroy LLMSW, took place in 2019, and the program started up in 2021. To get in often requires a referral, and there are detailed instructions for qualified personnel on the SAWC website, www. annarborshelter.org, by searching for the Shelter Association’s Programs page. According to that website, Recuperative Care programs offer several key benefits: • Breaking the cycle of hospital readmissions: By providing a safe space for homeless individuals to recover after hospital discharge, these programs prevent unnecessary returns to the hospital. • Promoting overall health and well-being: Recuperative care allows individuals to fully heal from illness or injury, improving their long-term health outcomes. • Facilitating access to essential services: These programs connect individuals with primary care, behavioral health services and social services, addressing their comprehensive needs. • Supporting housing stability: By assisting individuals in finding permanent housing, recuperative care programs contribute to long-term stability and self-sufficiency. This program is important because some people who are homeless get stuck in a tough cycle. They leave the hospital but have nowhere to rest and heal, so they end up back in the hospital again or face a lot of avoidable pain and suffering. The SAWC program wants to break that cycle and help people get back on their feet and stop struggling against the rejection they often face. For example: see that person in the park with the dog? I've known him a bit. I have even Narcanned him. He was so blue before he started breathing again. He has worms for pets. I mean, his pets have worms. He also has worms. His worms should have been addressed by any of a handful of hospital stays. I attempted to reach members of HAWC and other avenues to help him out. Obviously, if he had had a recuperative care program to care for him intensively, many of his longer-term problems could have been avoided. This long-term unhoused individual, who wants to remain anonymous, has spent over four years on the street. He fares pretty well, takes care of his Recuperative and Crisis Care Coordinator Shannon Gilroy in front of the Packard Health Clinic located at the Delonis Center. Clinic hours are 8 a.m.-12 p.m. on Mondays and 1-6 p.m. onThursdays. immediate needs. He has recently cleaned up and looks pretty dapper. But since he and his pet dog have intestinal parasites, they are carriers for hookworm. Sarge, my friend with two decades of history on Washtenaw’s streets, notes about the health system, “The lack of care is keeping people on the streets.” He is critical of the program, saying it doesn’t work. However, the problem seems less that the program is not working than that not enough people know it exists. Recuperative Care has served 122 people in its short life. Gilroy commented, “It’s a very needed and valuable resource in the community. There are only four or five Recuperative Care Centers in the state so we get referrals from all over the place. But we concentrate on the Washtenaw area. We get referrals from our two health care systems in Washtenaw County. "It’s been just incredible to see the things that have happened here. We've had folks come through with stage 4 cancer and we’ve been able to heal them and see them go on to get housing. It's clear how much it’s needed so that people are not dying outside.” Gilroy admitted that fewer people than optimal know about it, including those who might make referrals. Gilroy feels strongly about helping individuals who might not have a referral, saying, “If they come to the clinics on the second floor here at Delonis or even just the front desk, I can help them see a medical professional. I can help them.” The clinics are held Monday morning 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and Thursdays 1:00-6:00 p.m. Gilroy would love to see the program expand and possibly get its own location. There is precedent for that. A similar program, L.A. Care Health Plan, teamed up with National Health Foundation to test out a new program that provides temporary housing and healthcare in a stand-alone facility for homeless folks who are fresh out of the hospital. It's like a halfway house. Gilroy acknowledged there are (hopefully temporary) problems and wants to address the space limitations that sometimes require turning people away, but understandably said, “I am very pleased with the way it’s going.” SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 SHELTER GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Left: Sean Chese of Forward Design, who is installing drywall, stands in front of the brand new roof at Purple House. Right: Diversified Roofing working on roof construction. Forward Design Build Remodel helps MISSION go green at Purple House ANTHONY MCCORMICK Groundcover contributor Forward Design Build Remodel, in partnership with other contractors, is catalyzing a transformative journey for Purple House, a vibrant house of hospitality. This timely collaboration aims to propel Purple House (aka Jimmy Hill Memorial House) into a new era of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, ensuring a warmer and more welcoming space. MISSIONa2, a nonprofit in Ann Arbor, provides a variety of services for people experiencing homelessness, at Purple House along with their other projects, which include Mercy House in Ann Arbor and Hospitality House in Ypsilanti. Amazingly, Forward Design is doing the work for this project at cost, using volunteers whenever possible. Included are: a new roof (already completed), renovation of two of the bathrooms, and an upgrade of the electrical systems. The company partnered with MISSION to host a successful fundraiser at the house in early July to pay for the project. “We set up a GoFundMe that helped us do more so we were able to add the roof to our original list of proposed projects,” said Carly Withers, Design Team Leader. “But the most important thing was addressing the water issues. That included the roof and over 16 leaks in the bathrooms. Since showers are a large part of what the Jimmy Hill House provides, we knew that [improving the bathrooms] would provide a service for everyone involved.” Forward Design also donated to another phase of going green: the installation of solar panels by Homeland Solar. Central to this endeavor is upgrading to a state-of-the-art electrical system. Skilled technicians will replace aging wiring, change over to modern electrical systems and introduce energy-efficient solutions, such as lighting and insulated window blinds. These will all significantly reduce the house’s energy consumption and create a more thermally efficient envelope for Purple House. The solar panels will provide all of the electricity used in the house, ensuring lower carbon emissions and greatly lowering operational costs. The project encompasses the installation of energy-efficient appliances throughout the facility, from refrigerators and freezers to dishwashers. These upgrades will not only contribute to Purple House's overall energy efficiency but also enhance the daily operations of the community center. The collaboration between Forward Design Company and the Homeland Solar electrical company is a testament to their shared commitment to environmental stewardship and community well-being. By combining their expertise, they are empowering Purple House to become a beacon of sustainability within the Ann Arbor community. The project aligns perfectly with Forward Design Company's mission of promoting innovative and sustainable design solutions. Other collaborators with Forward Design who contributed to the project include Chelsea Plumbing (labor and toilets), Ferguson (faucets and vanity), Jaco Electric (labor), Gross Electric (bath fans), Diversified Roofing (labor and materials), Dignified Dumpsters (a dumpster), Flooring Consultants of Michigan (labor and materials) and Star Painting (painting labor). Brian Durrance, who was the main project liaison on the MISSIONa2 board, said, “We are very grateful, especially to [Forward Design’s] Design Team leader Carly Withers. We are also very grateful to Project Manager Ryan Bieber who is doing a wonderful job of moving the project forward. They have already installed a new roof, they have upgraded our electrical service, and they are currently renovating two bathrooms so that we can better provide shower services to our guests. We are just very grateful in general. “And we’re very excited about their generous donation for the installation of the solar panels. These solar panels will make it possible to provide meals and laundry services at a fraction of the cost.” Withers responded in kind. “We know that the MISSION people are happy with us, and that makes us happy in return.” She added, “I think the people [on site] were touched by this more than they realized they would be.” Together, MISSIONa2 and Forward Design are empowering Purple House to make a positive impact on the environment, reduce its operating costs, and provide a more comfortable and welcoming space for the community, especially during the cold winter months when they will run their weather amnesty overnight shelter program. This transformative journey embodies the power of collaboration when forprofit companies embrace a justice ethic and work together to create a more sustainable future. exp. 01/31/2025

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES Humane Society helps people keep their "friends for life" programs to help people and pets stay together to avoid separation anxiety in circumstances such as loss of home or moving. They are specifically for low income families and individuals and support a large variety of animals. The provided help includes vet care, CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 Animals are for some people very sacred and a lifeline when it comes to personal issues — for example, seeing eye dogs or emotional support animals for people with special needs. Many service animals who are helping people with disabilities need extra care. The Bountiful Bowls Pet Food Assistance, Safe Harbor and Pet Care programs at the Human Society of Huron Valley help these people in low income groups with extra pet care. The programs provide food assistance based on food availability and pet care is on a case-by-case basis. Safe Harbor sheltering is for emergency help like natural disasters, house fires or medical emergencies. The Humane Society has created these food, neutering and other animal paraphernalia such as leads, cages, toys and more. This helps animals to stay off the streets and stay with owners for life. Each case is different based on the needs of the animal, whether dogs or cats or other pets. Some people have such a hard time even feeding animals. This program is available to help keep animals safe and provided for during hard times for families and individuals. Vet care is important for fleas, ticks and other illnesses that animals need help with that can cost so much now, and for medications for some animals who have conditions like allergies or illnesses. They need help as well and this program gives them real opportunities. If you need Friends for Life services from Humane Society of Huron Valley, call 734661-3550, visit hshv.org/friendsforlife/ or look at their advertisements in past issues of Groundcover News. DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 September is one of the best months of the year. It’s one of the last months with really good weather and one of the last months of hot weather. September is a great month to enjoy God's and Jesus’s great creations outdoors. It’s a colorful month too. September is a month to say goodbye to good weather by enjoying the outside. September is also the month my birthday falls on and that’s important. September is a good time to celebrate and thank God for what the month has to offer. SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 September, the good month SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Very, in music 6. Scoundrels 10. Atlantic fish 14. Navy ___ 15. Alliance 16. A non-American's unit of weight 17. Repeated behavior 18. Follower of the Pentagram 20. Protozoa 22. Papa's partner 23. "___ the season ..." 24. Branch of the United States Armed Forces 26. Australian runner 27. "Star Trek" rank: Abbr. 28. "___, humbug!" 29. Schematic drawing 31. Poison plant 33. Aardvark fare 34. What some might call a place without dissent 39. Oyster's favorite stitch? 40. Come to 41. Progress 45. Anger 46. Finish, with "up" 49. Born, in bios 50. Order including ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies 53. "To ___ is human ..." 54. Carbon compound 55. Have-not 56. They'll get your boat going in a jiffy, but don't ask for gas 59. Manicurist's or carpenter's concern 60. On the safe side, at sea 61. Exec's note 62. Clear, as a disk 63. "Check this out!" 64. Father of Balder 65. Force units DOWN 1. "That's ___!" ("Too bad!") 2. Deck figure 3. Light weapons? 4. Accused's need 5. City in the headlines for a crackdown on journalism 6. "60 Minutes" network 7. "Remember the ___!" 8. Geezer 9. Seafood dish 10. Schuss, e.g. 11. Water tanks 12. Final 13. Animals known for playing dead 19. Astronaut's insignia 21. Clothes lines 25. Crack, as lips 30. Acquire 31. Aria, e.g. 32. Aviary sound 34. Memorials 35. Solar system models 36. Drops from the sky 37. Canton neighbor 38. Intensified 39. Tree secretion 42. "Beg pardon ..." 43. Go-getter 44. Like salmon, often 46. Highway divider 47. End of a threat 48. Breaks down a sentence 51. Fragrant resin 52. Like some goodbyes 57. Rent 58. Howard of "Happy Days"

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CREATIVE The Awakening of Expansive Cosmovision cosmovisions. Human interaction becomes a path to expanding understanding and empathy. Then we navigate the ocean of PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 The journey begins transcendentally towards understanding our place in the universe. By exploring the five levels of cosmovision, we dive into an incessant quest for meaning, wisdom and connection with the cosmos in its myriad manifestations. First: the internal awakening, where introspection allows us to transform information into knowledge and acquire wisdom. Here, we become protagonists of our own existence, capable of catalyzing energies and acting for the common good. The second level invites us to look outward and recognize the world around us, understanding that each individual is a portal to a diversity of human knowledge, exploring ancestral teachings and the vast possibilities that unfold at every moment. Social networks and intercultural interaction are living sources of intellectual and spiritual enrichment. Next we go beyond the limits of planet Earth, to the vast observable cosmos. Using scientific and technological tools, we seek to understand the mysteries of the universe and our position within it, constantly expanding our horizons. Finally, in the fifth plane, we enter the spiritual dimension, where we explore holistic connection, transcendence and a full understanding of the meaning of the divine. The expansion of cosmovision is a journey of dual significance to the core of the primal and simultaneously expansive inner being, from the observable universe and beyond. Read, see and explore the Cosmonauts on Pedro Campos's Instagram: @pedrocamposbrasil PUZZLE SOLUTIONS Poem LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 It's apparent that the more they abuse the opportunity to cast me down on their invalid records that in their minds only referenced by those... Minimize my person!! They're not deep enough To meet me eye to eye!! - AN INVITATION FROM KEN PARKS: Come celebrate my 82nd birthday and the Day of Che! October 6 (the Sunday before my birthday) at the Ann Arbor Friends Meeting House, 1420 Hill Street, from 4-8 p.m. It is a potluck party with a screening of the 1954 film, "Salt of the Earth” at 7 p.m. SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 EVENTS FOR CHANGE Trash Talk: sustainable fashion and beauty Over the past few years, the climate advocacy movement and its teenage leaders have been at the forefront of the news. With a surprising sense of urgency, the younger generations joined this movement and expanded it beyond belief. The media has exploded with educational content, calls for action and tips on living a sustainable lifestyle. Sustainability is becoming more and more mainstream. But apart from the youth’s online excitement, how eager are teenagers actually about saving the planet? Well, in my experience, most teenagers in Ann Arbor have mixed feelings about it. For one, young people are welcoming the idea of being sustainable and making decisions that will have long lasting benefits … but only to an extent. Once staying sustainable begins to interfere with their ability to have fun or buy the products that make them feel best — from clothes to beauty products to food — it starts to take the backseat. For many people, making sustainable decisions can seem daunting or even impossible, especially when it comes to the world of fashion and beauty. There’s a perception that sustainable or “green” products are over twice as expensive as regular products and can be harder to find in stores. Even further, the idea that sustainability can only happen through more — more purchases, more practices, more green appliances — has become widespread. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Many sustainable practices can save you money: thrifting (like the To share local resources on how you MAISIE WEYHENG Groundcover contributor origin of its name) means you can purchase used clothing and household items at a fraction of the price of buying things new. Reducing the amount you buy has even bigger impacts on your wallet, and the climate. Everyday life is full of decisions — from deciding what soap to buy to buying a house. And those decisions, especially about what you buy, have huge consequences on the climate because nearly half of global emissions come from producing stuff and food. And with 2024 rounding out to be perhaps the hottest year on record, climate change and its ever-impending consequences are becoming increasingly apparent to consumers and companies alike. And if we want to slow this catastrophic warming, many, if not all, of our everyday life decisions will have to be made with sustainability in mind. In a Microsoft report, a whopping 88% of people globally make sustainable purchases when able. But that’s the catch — what if people aren’t able to make sustainable purchases? can be sustainable without breaking the bank, Her Horizon, a local initiative focused on making sustainable living accessible to all, is joining Trash Talk Tour 2024 and welcomes you to attend Sustainable Fashion & Beauty Element at this year’s Fall Festival at Kiwanis on September 29. This innovative element of the event advocates for sustainable fashion/ beauty practices and recognizes businesses and brands that fit under this umbrella. With vendors like BYOC (Bring Your Own Container) and Plato’s Closet attending, community members will have a chance to shop for sustainably sourced clothing and beauty products that are affordable. The Sustainable Fashion & Beauty Element will not only provide community members with easy access to sustainable fashion/beauty, but will also educate the community about the waste levels related to the fashion/beauty industry. The Ross Retail Club from the University of Michigan will be facilitating activities about the fashion/beauty industry and offering mentorship to community members. There will also be an interactive kids’ table with fun, fashion-centered activities and games to inspire youth to make sustainable decisions and rethink their closets. Throughout the course of the event, Her Horizon will be raising money for Menstrumate: a female-founded, India-based nonprofit that distributes sustainable menstrual products made from agricultural discards to rural communities. This past June, I had the GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Trash Talk Tour 2023 incredible opportunity to travel to Kochi, India and meet 100 other amazing teenage girls from the United States and South Asia. While attending this UN/U.S. State Department program, I met Anupriya, the CEO of Menstrumate. Meeting Anupriya and hearing her story was beyond inspiring and it truly encouraged me to delve deeper into gender-justice issues and their implications with the climate crisis. With this global tie-in, Her Horizon hopes to expand the education component of the event to show how the sustainable fashion/beauty industry takes shape in other areas of the world as well as supports other female advocates and entrepreneurs. To take part in this exciting event, on September 29 from 12-3 p.m. at Kiwanis (100 N Staebler Road), please RSVP at trashtalktour.org! Run for change with Concert Music Outreach Collective CONCERT MUSIC OUTREACH COLLECTIVE Concert Music Outreach Collective (CMOC), a pioneering non-profit bringing classical music performances to underserved communities in Michigan's prisons and homeless shelters, has announced that the organization will be one of the charity partners for the annual Ann Arbor Marathon on October 13. Founder and director Allyson Cohen will run the full 26.2 mile race to raise awareness and funds for CMOC’s mission to bridge the gap in classical music access. “I’m thrilled to take on the challenge of running the marathon in support of CMOC,” said Cohen. “The work we do aims to combat the disparities in access to classical music by bringing concerts to underserved communities. Every dollar raised from this marathon will directly support these efforts.” CMOC stands out by employing innovative engagement practices that break down barriers between performers and audiences. The organization’s concert series in Michigan’s prisons and shelters prioritizes contemporary works by underrepresented composers, fostering a deeper connection through post-performance discussions that engage and empower participants. The goal is to create a welcoming sanctuary for all, using music as a tool to foster inclusivity and dismantle the elitism traditionally associated with classical music. "Music is a powerful medium that transcends linguistic and cultural barriers. It unites people in their shared humanity," Cohen explained. "At CMOC, we believe in the transformative power of music, and we’re committed to making classical music accessible to everyone, no matter their circumstances." Beyond its regular concert series, CMOC has recently launched two new projects: 1. Field Trip Project: This initiative brings audiences from shelters and prisons to professional concert halls, providing them with the opportunity to experience world-class performances. 2. Commissioning Project: CMOC will premiere up to five compositions each year by BIPOC student composers. The compositions will be professionally recorded for the students’ portfolios, offering them invaluable support at the start of their careers. Cohen’s marathon run serves as a platform to raise both awareness and funds for CMOC's vital work. Donations — no matter the size — will directly benefit CMOC’s ongoing mission. “Even a $1 contribution can help make a meaningful impact," said Cohen. "Together, we can break down barriers and share the beauty of classical music with those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience it." To support Allyson Cohen's marathon run and the Concert Music Outreach Collective’s mission, donations can be made directly through CMOC’s website cmoutreachcollective.org or through the Ann Arbor Marathon charity platform.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Cowboy caviar JACOB FALLMAN Groundcover contributor Ingriedients: 3 Roma tomatoes, seeds removed, diced 2 avocados, diced ⅓ cup red onion, diced 15 oz canned black beans, rinsed and drained 15 oz canned black eyed peas, rinsed and drained 1 ½ cups frozen corn, thawed 1 bell pepper diced, any color 1 jalapeño, seeds removed, finely diced ⅓ cup chopped fresh cilantro Tortilla chips for serving Dressing: ⅓ cup olive oil 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (fresh preferred) 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 1 teaspoon granulated sugar ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon black pepper ¼ teaspoon garlic powder SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 Directions: Combine tomatoes, avocado, onion, black beans, black eyed peas, corn, pepper, jalapeño pepper, and cilantro in a large bowl. Toss/stir well so that ingredients are well-combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together olive oil, lime juice, red wine vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Pour dressing over other ingredients and stir/toss very well. Keep refrigerated. If not serving immediately, be sure to toss/stir well before serving. $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 9/20/2024

2 $ SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 19 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Six things every college student should know about Groundcover News. page 11 MEET YOUR VENDOR: STEPHANIE DENT PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. The game of . page 6 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Throne bathroom at Liberty Plaza. @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER in this ISSUE COC WINTER TASK FORCE PRESENTS PLAN FOCUSED on FAMILIES, EVICTION PREVENTION Lindsay Calka, page 4 UNDERCOVER ART INTEL: STEPHON PATE and HOW ART CAN CHANGE LIVES Cindy Gere, page 5 OUR WEDDING DAY Tabitha Almond, page 7 POETRY Wayne S. and Ramón Roberto Isla Caballero, page 8 TAKE BACK BIKES is REDEFINING "BIKE SHARE" Indira Sankaran, page 11 PUZZLES page 9 DO STUDENTS MATTER? Ken Parks, page 10 content CORRECTION On page six of the August 23, 2024 edition of Groundcover News, the article "Justice InDeed is uncovering the hidden histories of racial discrimination in Washtenaw County" was attributed to the wrong author. PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Michelle Lardie-Guzek — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Tabitha Almond Jane Atkins Ramón Roberto Isla Caballero Jim Clark Luiza Duarte Caetano Cindy Gere Ken Parks Indira Sankaran Denise Shearer Wayne Sparks Shawn Swoffer Felicia Wilbert GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Sim Bose Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Jacob Fallman Robert Klingler Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons exp. 01/31/2025 SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Bettering yourself Self reflecting is something as important as meditation. You should look in the mirror every day and say something nice to yourself when others put you down or say something against you. Once you get the hang of it most of your doubts about yourself melt away. You should have a mantra that Stephanie Dent, vendor No. 84 In one sentence, who are you? Nice. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? By the Co-op in Ann Arbor. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? I started again a couple of weeks ago. I started selling to do anything I can do to help the homeless community while I’m here. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? I like to go to my AA meetings and work for Groundcover News. It’s a good place to stay sober. What words do you live by? Easy does it. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn't know? I’m generous. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Chinese food. What are your hobbies? I like to draw. What was your first job? Subway at the Michigan Union. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? More services to help homeless people, especially in the summer. What song do you have compltely memorized? “7 Years” by Lukas Graham. What's the most impressive thing you know how to do? Ride a bike. What is your pet peeve? Liars. What would you do if you won the lottery? Start my own business and give to the poor. Hi Groundcover News readers, this is Felicia who writes the Truth or Lies Mystery Lane column. Check out my new hilarious comedy mystery: THE AD-DAM FAM. It has a fascinating cast of FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 Order The Ad-Dam Fam today! characters. Who is Wenbone the Parrot? What is Lester the Wallet Molester B.K.A. "the Butler" up to? Will Cruddexter the Foot tap out a message to save his family? Journey into an extraordinary comedy mystery by ordering my newest book off of Amazon today. Just search “Felicia Wilbert” in the search and my three publications, “Billy Don’t Kill Us,” “3333Mommy,” and “The Ad-Dam Fam” will come up! Come out and celebrate my new book and my birthday. Let’s have a reading good time! At Cinnaholic, 121 E Liberty Street, on September 12 and 13, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. you repeat in your head; you don't need to say it out loud to cause a scene, or end up in some kind of argument or physical confrontation. You are bettering yourself, not bettering others. It is on them if they can't see through it on their own. People can be real f***** up in their head, so they throw it on you. These are people who think they're better than you. These are people SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 and I do believe in blessings, and if they harm another person they should get nothing in return or it should backfire in their face. Just remember that you are a good soul and as long as you do the right things, it will come back to you. There's not a timetable nor is there a way to know how it will exactly come back. It is for people who are bouncing who stab you in your back. These are people you cannot trust. These are people who may have a hard time getting out of their own heads, people who this exercise and great lesson is for. Maybe someday they will get where you are but I do not believe so because I do believe in karma Dumbo and elephants I think “Dumbo” is an excellent movie. I like the cartoon version and the live action version. I think Dumbo is a beautiful, unique elephant. He makes a great pet for anybody. Dumbo has big, pretty ears that he can fly with and he is a very loving elephant to kids, adults and other animals. I think he does better in his natural life than the circus life. I think elephants and all living things do better when they’re not under pressure to do things. Elephants are beautiful animals when you treat them with care and love. I don’t think elephants or any other animals should be abused and under pressure to do things. DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 tail holders of elephants and elephant designs printed on T-shirts. I also like stuffed animals that are elephants. There are sculptures of elephants that are very beautiful. There are also wood carvings of elephants and furniture that is elephant-shaped. They make a room look very attractive. Baby toys made of elephants are Elephants are beautiful in artwork and movies like “Dumbo.” I like to see paintings and pictures of elephants. People make jewelry of elephant art, too, like earrings and necklaces and bracelets that are very beautiful. There are also pony fun. It's good to have elephants as service animals as long as you’re not abusing them and not putting pressure on them. They are very interesting animals and I would recommend both "Dumbo" movies for anyone to watch. back and getting situated again, but it really can help everyone. You get up in the morning and make it part of your routine that you say something positive about yourself in the mirror. Sometimes you could say something negative that should give you a chance to better yourself on things that you may feel are not your strong suit. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SHELTER CoC Winter Shelter Task Force presents plan focused on families, eviction prevention LINDSAY CALKA Publisher On September 4, Dan Kelly and Shonagh Taruza spoke before the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners with a plan and an ask for $1.3M. Dan Kelly is the Executive Director of the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County; Taruza is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Hospitality Network at Alpha House. Both are members of the Winter Shelter Task Force, a working group of the Washtenaw County Continuum of Care which formed after record levels of homelessness — particularly, family homelessness — during the winter of 2022-2023. Other members of the working group represent CoC agencies conducting or funding winter sheltering activities such as SOS Community Services and the Washtenaw County Office of Community and Economic Development. The purpose of the task force is to 1) help analyze existing data and programs for winter shelter, 2) research best practices for providing winter shelter in Michigan climate, 3) develop strategies and recommendations and 4) identify funding and support necessary to provide winter shelter for all populations. Since the formation of the task force, Washtenaw County has continued to track higher and higher levels of homelessness. Kelly and Taruza reported to the Commissioners that the winter sheltering season of 2023-2024 had increased mental health and substance abuse challenges, increased percentages of older adults and people reporting a disability, a record number of individuals served on a given night, and over 100 homeless families in need of shelter over the winter months. They presented a key structural challenge from 2023-2024: requests for additional funding and support for expanded programs were unavailable for most of last winter. “[The funding] just didn’t get out fast enough,” Kelly remarked. Kelly and Taruza presented specific recommendations for funding in areas of eviction prevention, diversion, hotel stays with supports, rapid rehousing for families, overflow family shelter, and expanded individual shelter. In an interview with Groundcover News, Kelly noted, “Over half of the money [$700K] is for eviction prevention and a large amount is flowing to families ... we're trying to be proactive so the shelters aren't inundated." Alpha House has renovated their basement space (which was formerly used for furniture storage for newly housed families) to accommodate the daytime and nighttime family shelter, adding three bathrooms and a washing machine. The $100,000 funding request is for staffing this 24/7 overflow space. Alpha House will continue to run their emergency shelter for families throughout the winter on nights with extreme weather, although no funding requests for this program were made. Struggle for sites The six sites across the County providing individual shelter include the Delonis Center, the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti Daytime Warming Centers, the men’s rotating overnight shelter, the Ypsilanti offsite overnight shelter, and the Recuperative Care program, all of which were open in the 20232024 season. Last year, all but two of these shelter options were hosted at local churches. “We still do not have the actual locations figured out ... How do we stop having a hamster cage experience every winter? Can't we have a site that's permanent?" Kelly asked during the interview. Next steps The Winter Shelter Task Force plan presented at the September 4 working group meeting was just that: a presentation. The presentation will be made again at the Continuum of Care Board Meeting on September 18, and then will be voted on by the Board of Commissioners later that night at 7 p.m. The task force will continue to meet and refine the plan for this winter in the coming months. “Our goal is to hit the ground running with everything we need on day one. We don’t want to miss a day of winter,” said Kelly. “There is still community support needed; advocacy never hurts,” Kelly emphasized. “We need to come up with a structural fix. We need a solid plan that isn’t a hodgepodge.” Taruza concluded, “We are trying to get ahead of some of the anticipated problems this winter. We are concerned given the termination of the Housing Choice Voucher waitlist ... What we really need is more housing, more supportive services, mental health care and increased wages. Given that we don’t have all of that yet, we are trying to figure out how we can triage for this winter, while continuing to work on long-term solutions.” CITY OF ANN ARBOR THRONE BATHROOM LOCATIONS SEE ARTICLE PAGE 6 1000 Canal 6 M 2150 Jackson 7 8 100 block 1 312 W. Huron E. Washington 2 Family Friendly ADA Accessible 4 310 S. Division F 215 Chapin 5 315 Detroit 3 SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 1. 100 block of East Washington Street (east of Main Street on the north side of the street) 2. Robert J. Delonis Center, 312 W. Huron Street 3. Ann Arbor Farmers Market, 315 Detroit Street 4. Liberty Plaza Park, 310 South Division Street 5. West Park, 215 Chapin Street 6. Riverside Park, 1000 Canal Street (near the Border-to-Border Trail) 7. and 8. Veterans Memorial Park, 2150 Jackson Avenue A N D A A L L C E O I P Y I I N T F Y A L M D R SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 DISABILITY JUSTICE Undercover art intel: Stephon Pate and how art can save lives Stephon David Pate: “Growing up in a military family is not simple. There were three things that really affected me. First was the constant moving from base to base. This led to insecurity issues. The second issue was the lack of family — the higher the rank the less time one sees family on a regular basis. And last but not least, the uncertainty of what the war will bring and how it would affect me and my family.” Pate’s family traveled around the world and within the United States, living on many bases and near the Pentagon. As a child he suffered from ADD and ADHD as well as other issues that have created many personal pains for years. The one thing that was a true help in all the frustrations was the creation and use of his artistic talents. “I discovered I had real talent at the very young age of four. It was my dad who saw my ability to draw. He sat me down one day and told me to draw for him. So I did and created an image that totally impressed him to support my artwork. As I got older he would always have pen and paper to help me to calm down because of my ADHD. He had the ability to see how art would give me time to think and slow down. I remember in highschool as a freshman this kid needed help drawing in art class, so I took him under my wing and by the time he graduated, he used what I showed him over many years to go on and become an architect in real life. “What I love about my artwork is the thrill of others when they see my talent. I am what people call a perfectionist when it comes to my artworks. I love the detailed work I do to create soft images of swans, trees, flowers as well as edging. Making stationary and postcards as well as being addressed — no oversight or regulation to check the truth on many disabled people's diagnoses. It is also my own personal reality. When I was homeless Pate told CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 magnets for fun helps me to slow down and think. Keeps me calm.” Mindfulness is a therapy for disabled people that has increased over the past ten years and Pate in his own way discovered how to do mindfulness with the use of art therapy. This can change lives and it did for Pate. I asked him how this helped him — he told me, “If it was not for drawing as a kid with my dad, I know I would have been more out of control. It was the use of art that helped me keep myself under control with rage and impulsivity. I'm discovering what it takes to calm down. This is a lifelong process that I deal with all the time.” Stephon is not under any drug influence and so he uses art as a real ongoing non-drug therapy. I fully believe in non-drug actions for disabled people. Too often in our society we go directly to the drug rather than see any kind of alternative for low income and disabled people. Disabilities are a revolving door for big pharma to make millions and the more disabled people that are labeled, or what I called stamped, the more they are pushed into taking drugs and then suffer from life threatening long term effects that are not watched, the more they die from the drugs rather than the disability. To me this is a real issue not me to check out the truth of the marriage of homelessness and disability with the drug pushers within the system. What I found was very sad. The doc asked me to take Lithium for my fetal alcohol syndrome. If I took such a hard drug this could have led me to suffer its side effects and maybe to take heroin or crack. This all happened back in 2014. The system has changed since then. But not by much. When people take control over their disabilities they find freedom and truth. Pate took charge of his own life with the use of art therapy, and he told me this is a lifelong process he will live with, but art changed his life. Most of the art he chooses to do is in fact given away as gifts. Every artist uses their art for many different reasons; some use it for profit and others for personal well-being, still others as gifts. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Unusual Stuff to Borrow There’s more to borrow at AADL than books, music, and movies. To name a few, there are games, telescopes, stories-to-go kits, and home tools. Check out these unusual yet handy items during your next library visit. Michigan Activity Pass With a valid library card from any Michigan public library, you can print a pass to participating organizations, including museums and state parks, through the Michigan Activity Pass website. Some partners offer complimentary or reduced-price admission; others, discounts in their gift shop or other exclusive offers. FEATURED EVENT 5 Saturday, October 5 • 10am–5pm Downtown Library Join us in October for A2CAF: Small + Indie Press, where you can explore the world of independent comic publishing. Meet artists, discover unique art, and get your favorite books signed by the creators themselves! This event is perfect for teens and adults who are passionate about comics. Pencil sketches by Stephon David Pate.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HUMAN RIGHTS The Game of Throne From the mire of the Dark Ages, the mold-injected, formaldehyde-infused, construction-worker-butt porta-johns comes the Renaissance of outdoor public toilets. Ann Arbor’s Parks and Recreation Department proudly brings us the “Throne.” The Throne is a “smart toilet” that sends a link to your phone to gain access and monitors how long you are in it. Like a knight in shining armor, the Throne monitors for cleanliness and preventative maintenance. The Throne can also summon management and law enforcement if you are in it too long. I used the Throne this summer at Sonic Lunch. The attendant, Rebecca, taught me how to get in. “Scan the QR code and the Throne will send you a link,” Rebecca instructed. “When it's your turn, click the link and the door will open. Do not click the link before the current occupant leaves and the ‘available’ sign comes on. Otherwise you will have to start over.” Rebecca continued, “The link sends an unlock code to the door; it's like getting buzzed in, so the timing has to be right.” Rebecca talked about working for Throne Labs, the makers of the Throne. “They’re a good company doing a good thing,” she said, referring to the company’s mission and vision to provide the public with clean, safe and accommodating commodes. “People are appreciative,” she added. Rebecca facilitates the guests of the facility and helps to keep it clean. Thrones are remotely monitored. A sensor tracks how long you take. There is a ten minute time limit with warnings. After fifteen minutes, the door opens a crack, then it gives another warning before it opens all the way. Then a notification goes to the Throne manager on duty. If they determine there is a safety issue, they may notify JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 first responders. I asked Scott Spooner, Deputy Manager for Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation, why the stall was installed in Liberty Plaza. “There were two reasons: one is that there are no public bathrooms in the area. Secondly, people who frequent the park use it [Liberty Park] as a bathroom which ends up being the city’s responsibility to clean it up.” Derek Delecourt is the Ann Arbor Community Service Administrator, who oversees Parks and Recreation. Delecourt is on a mission to provide better public services — especially bathroom facilities. I asked him how the Throne solves Ann Arbor's public potty problem. “The Throne is a oneyear pilot program, which began in June 2024. It was funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, the University of Michigan, and Ann Arbor’s Downtown Development Authority.” When asked about his role, he replied, “I was tasked with improving our public restroom system. At the time we were using regular port-a-johns. The toilets are too hard to maintain. Some companies quit doing business with Ann Arbor because of their misuse. We are considering permanent structures, but they are expensive and have their own problems. After doing some research, I discovered Throne Labs. Although Ramón Roberto Isla Caballero, vendor No. 347, smiles outside the Throne closest to his corner on Washington Street. Last summer Caballero received a ticket for urinating in public even though there were no nearby public restrooms available at the time of arrest. they are more expensive, the added features prevent the maintenance and safety problems presented by them.” But why worry about toilets at all? Delecourt says, “All citizens are entitled to a clean usable facility. It’s for the public good. I want to add that Ann Arbor works for better quality public services in general. This includes our homeless population.” Anthony M., Ann Arbor denizen and regular at Liberty Plaza, has been using toilets his entire life. I asked him about his experience with the Throne. GCN: Is it unlike any bathroom you’ve ever used? AM: Yeah, it is unlike any bathroom I've ever used. GCN: How so? AM: Because it is internet capable. He pointed out that the internet connection would make it easy to summon someone if there was a horrible mess. Anthony originally said “because it’s run by AI.” We agreed that would be giving it too much credit. And a little creepy. GCN: What was your favorite feature? AM: It is a port-a-potty that has running water and is always clean. GCN: Anything else? AM: It would be cool if it told people about any cool events happening in town. Anthony agrees with the mission of Throne Labs. He says, “Dignity is important to people and elimination is basically part of digestion, so shouldn't a clean safe toilet be as important as food and water?” There are eight Throne stalls installed in Ann Arbor — at Washington and Main Street, the Farmers Market, Liberty Plaza, the Delonis Center, West Park, Riverside Park, and two in Veterans Park. The Throne is wheelchair-accessible and you can get a pass card from City Hall or the Delonis Center if you do not have a smartphone. See page 11 for a map of all Ann Arbor Throne bathrooms. SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 VENDOR VOICES Our wedding day TABITHA ALMOND Groundcover vendor No. 360 I'm so happy to be able to say I am now Mrs. Sean Almond. Me and the love of my life got married August 11, 2024. Even though we did not have the money to have my dream wedding, it was still the most amazing day I could have asked for. We planned the entire thing in just three days and in the end it turned out perfect. There was nine people there besides me and my husband. I was lucky enough to find a beautiful dress for only three dollars and a veil for ten dollars. After getting married, we had a barbecue with some amazing food. I'm so blessed I'm clean and sober because my dad is back in my life. And I could have never imagined getting married without my dad there. My dad and my 16-year-old son walked me down the aisle. It was so special to me to have them give me away to the love of my life. We plan on having a big wedding on one of our anniversaries. I can also say God was on our side, because, literally, we was not able to find someone to do the ceremony until 30 minutes before the wedding. So we was very blessed about that. My husband's son was also able to come. And we are very thankful about that and it feels so good that my family actually likes my husband. I will never forget what my stepmom said to me right after the ceremony; she pulled me to the side and told me that I better treat him good because Sean is a good man and she knows a good man when she sees one. Me and Sean have been through a lot in our relationship and we are excited for this chapter together. I couldn't be happier. I finally found a man that truly loves me and wants to spend the rest of our lives together. It's both mine and his first and only marriage. He means everything to me. And it feels so good to be able to call Sean Almond, my husband. I'm so happy we made it. I wouldn't want to spend my life with anyone else. He truly is my soulmate. We had an amazing night. And I can't wait to see what the rest of our lives together have in store for us. TRASH TALK TOUR GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Above left: My dad (Lewis), me and my son (Thomas) walking me down the aisle. Above right: Mr. and Mrs. Almond. Below: "You may kiss the bride!" September 29th from 12-3 pm GAMES | PRIZES | LIVE MUSIC Free, Family-Friendly event KIWANIS THRIFT SALE (BEHIND THE SCENES TOURS!) 100 N STAEBLER RD SUITE C, ANN ARBOR, MI 48103 Made Possible By: SIGN UP FREE! TrashTalkTour.Org

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Where do we go from here? WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 It’s ending. Can’t you see what it’s done to me? That’s right — it’s ending you’ve had enough. You’ve seen all you want to see It’s over, you said so yourself, it’s ending I can still hear the words You think of me in a different light Yes that’s right I thought we were so much alike You were all I wanted then something happened I don’t know what? I don’t know when But it was ending and I couldn’t question why. I know it couldn’t be what you said it was. And so do you! Where do we go from here? No matter what no matter when I hope you’ll always be my friend I need that more than ever at this point in my life take the pain away that’s all I ask Where do we go from here? RAMON ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 Las santas escrituras escritas para ayudar, más la manifestación de la vida, y la destrucción del universo, las estrellas y los luceros no tienen el sueño ni el pensamiento para cambiar la humanidad. ¿Qué estás esperando para ayudar y cambiar la vida? Gracias. Poem of the Universe The holy scriptures were written to help foster the protests of life, against the destruction of the universe, the stars and moon have neither the vision nor the thought to change humanity. What are you waiting for to help and change life? Thank you. SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 El poema del universo SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS REGRETS Peter A. Collins 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1 Performed without a sound 6. Administrative aide: Abbr. 10. Open a little 14. Amtrak express train 15. Cash for Phoenix, for example 16. Adidas rival 17. Zipped past 18. XXX film 20. First part of a quip 22. Cease 23. Shipping lanes 24. That guy 26. Former AT&T rival 27. Places to store some winter gear 32. Frighten 35. "To Kill a Mockingbird" recluse 36. Choice for Hamlet 37. Quip, part 2 38. "The Magic Mountain" author Thomas 39. Yosemite landmark 41. "The Divine Comedy" poet 42. Segments of books 43. Cribbage board marker 44. Air-quality org. 45. Seafood fish 49. Questionnaire datum 52. End of the quip 55. As it were 57. City in Italy (and Michigan) 58. Henry VIII's wife Boleyn 59. Not prerecorded 60. Hole-___ (golf feat) 61. Still life subject, maybe 62. Pizazz 63. Heads of France? DOWN 1.Ballplayer who was the subject of the film "61*” 2. Start of Caesar's boast 3. Brainy bunch 4. Vigorous effort 5. Motel fee 6. "We Have The Meats" fast food chain 7. Concerto highlights 8. Urban blight 9. Concert souvenir 10. A year in the Yucatan 11. Nonsense 12. Similar (to) 13. Saxophonist's accessory 19. ___ Kelly of "Fire Walk With Me" 21. Deli choice 25. "Spy vs. Spy" publication 27. They can make a case for drinking? 28. Zen riddle 29. Extended family 30. Grand Rapids' county 31. Word in a New Year's Eve song 32. Put one's foot down? 33. Bubbly drink 34. Basic skills 35. Diminish 37. New York City nickname, with "the" 40. Half a 1960s quartet 41. Set the boundaries of 43. Chinese zodiac beast 45. Monopoly piece 46. Television series tryout 47. Vapid 48. Saint often depicted with a lamb 49. Right away, initially 50. Departed 51. Volcano in Sicily 53. Trompe l'___ (optical illusion) 54. Output from 51-Down 56. "Jingle Bells" contraction

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS STUDENTS Do students matter? There are many kinds of students. Learning begins in the womb and continues until we are fully enlightened. That is a bold statement which requires some study and experience. Even if it is possible to be fully enlightened in this lifetime, how many of us are prepared for that? Theory and practice, that dialectic becomes lifelong learning. To go from mindfulness of breath to mindfulness of mind, let alone to fully enlightened mindfulness, is a journey into timeless time. Consider the first law of thermodynamics. Matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed in any closed system but can change from one form to another. Is consciousness a unity of matter and energy? When evolutionary scientists look at intuition and its role in evolution many end up stuck on the brain as the origin of consciousness. They may not understand the laws of nature and the possibility of consciousness as inherent in nature, able to evolve from simple to complex life forms. Whatever you study you need a context that helps you work with the parts of the puzzle. This is particularly important when you see there are parts that don’t fit in the puzzle. The amount of data available can be overwhelming and the challenge to sift out relevant information is a test of mindful attention and understanding of priorities. The truth is what matters. Understanding of the truth changes as you explore the mystery of your life and begin to face reality. So which reality awaits you? If you hear the ticking of the doomsday clock you may notice our central planners with trillions to play with are preparing for high-tech nuclear war. NATO is placing nuclear weapons on the Russian border and turning a deaf ear to appeals for a treaty that respects every country’s security needs. Especially nuclear disarmament. We have the elephant in the room regardless of what you are studying. KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 Basic research about our fundamental assumptions and subsequent theories is always good. Quantum mechanics has yet to fully replace Newtonian assumptions about cause and effect, especially the machine view of reality. Quantum probability becomes the best context to discover the truth. I loaned out my copy of Niels Bohr's “The Limits of Human Knowledge.” “Copenhagen” is a brilliant play by Michael Frayn about a conversation between Bohr and Heisenberg in 1941 when Heisenberg, a student of Bohr, was in charge of Hitler’s atomic bomb project. Study Dr. Pierre Kory. He has been decertified due to his advocacy of ivermectin for Covid 19. Big pharma and compliance culture targeted him and others to give emergency approval and mandates for a vaccine that was not fully tested. The story behind the pandemic may be as difficult to unravel as the JFK assassination. Once again we come to our own conclusions based on the narratives and information that we embrace. The middle class inclines to believe the authority of official experts with the attitude of “go along to get along.” There are times when this is good advice. We need analytic mindfulness to question the experts who may be following orders and making too much money to tell the truth. I wrote “Spring Forwards, Feel Your Toes” a few months after I took the Johnson and Johnson vaccine and my right leg gave out. Every phenomena has more than one cause and I had prepared for the vaccine with extra doses of vitamin C and antioxidants. I met a nurse who broke into tears when I said Johnson and Johnson. “That’s the one that caused so many amputations.” she cried out. My leg healed but I now have more arthritis, which cleared up temporarily during my month in Cuba during May 2023. It was mango season and there’s a tree near my room. The family was a healing presence so I was in paradise. I still eat from the tree of knowledge so am afflicted with the common dualism and various forms of ignorance that arose with Paradise Lost. Remember Eve and the serpent. A book of essays about Ursula LeGuin has a quote that comes to mind, “Those who do not learn the language of dragons are doomed to live out the nightmares of politicians.” The fixation on a permanent separate self is the deep ignorance also called egocentricity. My favorite teacher of science now is Dr. Jack Kruse, a neurosurgeon who is a quantum biologist and was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 2016. Check him out. He is a proponent of decentralized medicine, has been deplatformed by centralized medicine but continues the work. His conversations with Dr. Andrew Huberman, the Stanford neuroscientist, and Rick Rubin, the music man, are masterpieces in the art and science of reality. Knowledge that leads to wisdom and compassionate activity is what matters; students who pursue the interrelatedness of their specialty in the context of nature and the laws of nature matter very much. Buddha and Jesus are among those who inspire us to have mercy for ourselves and others and step on the path of unconditional love. May you cross the finish line of this path, the great going beyond which leaves nothing behind. SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 Everything matters, especially you, but nothing is permanent. Enjoy this moment as a presence that cannot be measured but becomes an awareness that experiences past, present and future in the context of timeless time. Whitney Webb, who does Unlimited Hangout as a website and YouTube, shows her investigative journalism of artificial intelligence/ globalism and central planners in, “The End of the World As We Know It.” Also Richard Werner's writings on the Deep State. Become an engaged student and look for what matters. I hope we meet at the International Day of Peace celebration September 21. See the details below and search annarborcommunitycommons.org INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE Saturday, September 21 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. Ann Arbor Community Commons (Fifth Avenue and Library Lane) Music stage, songs, dance, open microphone, discussions of the wars of the world, paths to uncover the peace always ready. Bring Your Knowledge, All Questions on the Peace Table, the Commons and the Culture of Peace and the wars at home, in Native America and in our own town, work places, and often families. YOU ARE INVITED! contact: megiddo@umich.edu - SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 STUDENTS GROUNDCOVER NEWS Six things every college student should know about Groundcover News JANE ATKINS Groundcover contributor I heard about Groundcover News through an English class I had taken during my freshman year at University of Michigan, but I wasn’t really sure what the newspaper was about beyond its mission statement. Now, as a sophomore, Groundcover has been one of the most positive experiences of my freshman year, and I never knew back then how involved I would be now. If I could go back in time, here are five things I wish I knew about Groundcover News as a freshman: 1. Every Groundcover vendor is a person experiencing homelessness or poverty. Each vendor keeps the profits they earn from selling the newspaper, which means that the money you spend on a newspaper goes directly into the pockets of the vendor you bought it from! 2. It's easier than you think to find a vendor selling the paper. Many of them wear blue vests and they always have a Groundcover News badge on. You can find vendors all over Ann Arbor, and some even like to stay around the same area every day, which makes it very easy to buy the paper regularly. 3. Groundcover News is a nonprofit organization that is mostly run by volunteers, and they value their work greatly. Every day in the office is a fun one, and volunteers are what make the newspaper happen. Groundcover is always looking for people to volunteer who want to make a difference in the Ann Arbor community and care about housing justice. 4. You can buy the street paper with Venmo! I didn’t know this at first, but it makes it much easier to buy the paper since I don’t think most people carry cash around these days. Each issue has a Venmo QR code you can scan on the front cover, and in the comments you write the name and vendor number so you know the money is going directly to your vendor, all for a cost less than a cup of coffee. You can watch a "how-to" video on the Groundcover News Instagram page. Some vendors use their own Venmo accounts, too. 5. Groundcover is more than a street newspaper. They host fundraisers, art fairs, poetry slams — they even have their own audio version of the newspaper called Groundcover Speaks, which you can listen to on their website through the Ann Arbor District Library. They also host workshops for vendors to practice their writing skills, salesmanship and more. 6. Groundcover News publishes a variety of writers and voices. While they place an importance on stories written by their vendors, there are also stories written by volunteers (like the one you are reading now!) or U-M students who are in English classes partnering with Groundcover. It is a newspaper filled with diverse perspectives and topics. Like snowflakes, no issue is the same as the one before! I hope this article has been informative and calls you to volunteer, start reading the paper regularly, or at the core, makes you more aware of the community that exists around you. If you are interested in getting involved, visit groundcovernews.org and fill out the Volunteer Interest Form! 11 Take Back Bikes is redefining "bike share" INDIRA SANKARAN Take Back Bikes The story of Take Back Bikes begins not in Michigan, nor in the United States, but in Palestine — where there is an ongoing genocide and decadeslong occupation by the zionist entity. After months of pressure on the University of Michigan administration to divest the $6B tied up in companies that contribute to or profit off of the genocide, students, staff and community members of the Tahrir Coalition erected the Gaza Solidarity Encampment to escalate their demands. The encampment, which lasted a month before U-M Police Department violently raided it, was a space of freely shared ideas and food, the creation of communal art and music, and, above all, was a community insistent on taking radical action towards collective liberation. The encampment was also where upwards of 20 bikes were donated by community members eager to support the folks camping out; it was there the idea of Take Back Bikes was conceived. In Washtenaw County, many who rely on the bus know it's easy to get stranded if it's too late at night, too early in the morning, or too far from a bus route. The activists who started TBB hope to contribute to free transportation accessibility, while keeping the genocide in Gaza at the forefront of the visual landscape. "No one should be able to go about their day without the reminder that our tax dollars are going towards genocide, and basic services like transportation, healthcare, and housing remain neglected in our communities," said one TBB organizer. All bikes are decorated with themes of Palestinian liberation in mind. TBB has distributed four bikes in Ann Arbor, with another four soon to follow in Ypsilanti. These bikes were either recovered from the encampment or donated by the community. Each bike is repaired, tested, decorated and inspected for safety. To use a bike, find the code to the lock on the bike, ride where you need, and lock it back up in a heavily trafficked or downtown location. In its first few weeks TBB has received a warm and hopeful welcome from the community. A TBB organizer said, "The other day [a bike user] needed to get back to his camp with his bags before the rain hit. He found a TBB bike and was able to make it back home to his tent just in time before it started pouring." TBB has already begun experiencing repression from the police. In August, one bike was tagged by the Ann Arbor police with a notice saying the bike would be impounded if not removed within 48 hours. This appears to be selective enforcement of a city ordinance, as many bikes around the city PUZZLE SOLUTIONS are left on racks for months with no issue. Time and again, pro-Palestinian protestors have been repressed through arrests, charges, brutality and changes to law and policy. While a bike notice is insignificant in comparison to the felony charges that some activists are facing, it shows how the law flexes to specifically repress the Palestinian liberation movement at every level. What can you do to support TBB? The biggest request is to ride the bikes! If you are interested in getting more involved, you can attend the next TBB workday. Details will be posted on their instagram @takebackbikes. Take Back Bikes also needs money for parts, tools and decorations, which can be donated to givebutter.com/kb4qff. Questions can be emailed to takebackbikes@proton.me. By providing a free community service meant to challenge for-profit, exploitative business practices and oppressive university policies, TBB is one of the many ways people in our community strive to build healthy communities and work towards the world they wish to live in. Ride on and Free Palestine.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Fool-proof hummus LUIZA DUARTE CAETANO Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 - 16 oz cans of chickpeas, or 1 lb dry chickpeas, see below 1/2 cup tahini 1/2 cup lemon juice 3 garlic cloves, peeled 1/4 cup olive oil 2 tsp salt 2 tsp cumin 1/4 cup water Directions: Combine all ingredients except water in food processor or blender. Process for 2 minutes or until fully combined. Add water and process until desired consistency. Add additional salt to taste. If using dried chickpeas, boil for 45 minutes with 1 tsp of baking soda. Cool completely before processing with other ingredients. (You can use the water used to boil when thinning the hummus to add flavor and nutrients.) Run cold water over the cooked chickpeas to speed up this process. Serve hummus with vegetables, bread, or crackers for dipping. I like to add a dollop on top of meals for extra flavor, texture and protein! SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 9/20/2024

2 $ AUGUST 23, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 18 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. A book review: You are found guilty of all accounts, as charged. Page 5 SEAN + TABITHA ALMOND congrats to the newly-weds! ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE OUTDOOR ACTIVITY? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Justice InDeed is uncovering hidden histories of housing discrimination. page 6 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER AUGUST 23, 2024 A letter of appreciation to our home, Bethlehem United Church of Christ GROUNDCOVER NEWS To all at Bethlehem United Church of Christ, Groundcover News says thank you for being a gracious and honorable host. In 1833, German immigrants started Bethlehem Church in a log cabin, making it the longest standing church in Ann Arbor. On August 26, 1833, Pastor Schmid preached his first sermon to 33 families who gathered in the woods west of Ann Arbor. Thus began something great that would stand the test of time through worship and community service — 190 plus years of physical and spiritual endurance that would not only benefit its members but also the most vulnerable in our community, the unhoused and those facing financial hardship. In 2011, Bethlehem United Church of Christ opened its doors to Groundcover News. Groundcover is a street newspaper that is produced, purchased and resold by homeless people and those facing poverty. These newspapers provide a source of income and platform to interact and build relationships in the community. People from all walks of life have come through these church doors seeking physical, emotional and spiritual refuge: Bethlehem United Church of Christ has become a home away from home for hundreds who struggle in this community. We at Groundcover know holding space for those in unfortunate situations such as being unhoused presents its fair share of challenges, and we especially appreciate your spiritually-based compassion and understanding during turbulent moments with vendors and participants.Thanks to all who serve at Bethlehem United Church of Christ, past, present and going into the future.Thank you for sharing your space with us! Sincerely, Groundcover News PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Teresa Basham Pedro Campos Ramon Roberto Isla Caballero Dezz Clark Jim Clark David KE Dodge Markona Love Ken Parks Earl Pullen Wayne Sparks Buk'e Woyrm PROOFREADERS Kendall Artz Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Luiza Duarte Caetano Jacob Fallman Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Simone Masing Anthony McCormick Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES PACKAGE PRICING Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons AUGUST 23, 2024 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What's your favorite outdoor activity? I'm not a big outdoor person ... but if I had to pick I would say fishing and swimming. — Tabitha Almond, #360 Hiding under the blankets. — Sean Almond, #561 When I was little, it was climbing trees. It's been awhile since I've done that ... In my old age, my favorite thing is lying on the ground under a tree looking at the sky. — Ken Parks, #490 Horseback riding. — Cindy Gere, #279 Working. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 Watching Detroit Tigers baseball, or playing baseball and football! — Tony Schohl, #9 Playing softball. — Wayne Sparks, #615 Giving people useful information. — LaShawn Courtwright, #56 Barbecuing. — Stephanie Dent, #84 I love swimming and camping. I like serenity. — Terri Demar, #322 Go to a BBQ. — Denise Shearer, #485 Cycling. — James Manning, #16 Football and barbecuing. — Joe Woods, #103 Long walks in the park. — Mike Jones, #113 Are you listening? A new day is arising and it’s sending chills down through my body. It can’t be stopped, no way! I look around me and I know you feel it too. I walk the streets every day. I see it in your faces just like you see it in mine. Is it a glimmer of hope I see? Well, I hope you see it in me. I want a world where putting people down is not so funny. A new day is coming and I want to be part of it. The message is clear: reject the hate, stop blaming each other, let's just fix this mess. I have ideas, I hope you do too. Let's figure out what to do, yes me and you. Aren’t you tired of listening to the self-serving? Yes, you and I, that’s right, us, what a novel idea — we can actually think for ourselves! We know what’s wrong, we don’t need someone to tell us. We need someone who knows how to fix it. The answers are all around us if we just listen to each other. A new day is coming, I tell you louder. Are the birds singing a little? I hope so! I hope it’s not just me because that WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 means they feel it too. We need all the help we can get! There’s something going on. I can feel my ancestors looking down, and I’m trying to interpret their meaning. So far all I’m getting from them is to stop listening to clowns. It’s all about timing, they tell me. Do yours tell you the same thing? Don’t you think we should be listening? The time is now! Opportunities are opening! Let’s walk through them, I say. And not look back. Let’s not be afraid of the future and reject those who think we can’t ourselves. Either we resolve our differences and walk hand in hand and meet the think for future together: man woman and child, black-skinned white-skinned, brown and yellow-skinned too. Let’s take the word hate out of the English language. Let’s just have one race, the human race. Haven’t we had enough! What has the blame gotten us? What has picking sides gotten us? It’s the 21st century, folks, wow I never thought I’d make it but here I am just like the rest of you! The window is open and our chance is here. Let’s keep pushing on it. Let’s see what happens, let’s find the truth, we can’t go on like we have. It just won’t work — let’s bring in our future fearless and brave together as one. We can do it my friends, I know we can remember. I see it every day! Let’s take this opportunity — what I call a pause. If we reject this fear that engulfs us, we will find out that we now have the opportunity to reject hate, reject fear. And it’s time for us to govern ourselves too! Put this fear mongering in its place by going forward with love. Take the hate and destroy it! POWER TO THE PEOPLE! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Enough is enough! DEZZ CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 643 When the world says enough is enough, when the world says stop killing me, when politicians are killing the people’s dreams, stop; when trash in the sea is killing the fish, stop; when trees are being burnt up, stop — when the wildlife stop reproducing wildlife, stop; when the people of this world keep killing each other in the name of who, God? God didn’t say kill in my name, he said be fruitful, replenish the earth, keep your eyes on me, and all will be well. Stop the hunger, stop the hurt. ‘Cause if you keep on the earth will turn — on you, when she says stop, that hurt me. (‘Cause enough is enough!) We all have to play our part in this world. We have to do our part to come together as a people to live as a people ‘cause happiness is the way of life for our future children who have no idea what this world has for them! But that is our job as a people: to make sure we take care of our children ‘cause they are our future! Enough is enough!!!!! Buy the paper, read the paper! Discover more about the passage of life and the summary of life. There is nothing as objective as reading Groundcover. It’s like happiness in perfect conditions and positive thoughts. Let us analyze the conditions of the world, future, past, and present. Every time you read, you’re inspired to think — both positive and negative things. If you buy the paper, read the paper. Don’t put the paper in the trash! If you throw the paper out on the street, someone without a Groundcover badge might pick up the paper Descubra más sobre el repaso de la vida y el resúmen de la vida. No hay nada más objetivo que leer Groundcover. Es como la felicidad en condiRAMON ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 and try to sell it, and get themselves and me in trouble. ciones perfectas y los pensamientos positivos. Analicemos las condiciones del mundo, el futuro, el pasado, y el presente. Cada vez que lees, te inspiras a pensar — tanto en cosas positivas como negativas. Si compras el periódico, léelo. ¡No lo tires a la basura! Si tiras el periódico, alguien sin la credencial de Groundcover puede cogerlo e intentar venderlo. Eso puede meterlo en problemas, y también a mí.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POLITICS Move the Money “Money talks, bullshit walks” is a common expression in bars and on the street. It says something about the centrality of money in our life. It may be on your mind so much that you look forward to happy hour if you have a few bucks to spare. In the debates on the wording of the Declaration of Independence, “pursuit of wealth” was replaced by “pursuit of happiness” as the best expression. Happiness won the debate as capitalists knew the accumulation of wealth is happiness. Gold is god as the Spanish told indigenous peoples about their disease that only gold could cure. We see the rise of gold again as currencies explode in the war-based financialization and sanctions economy of the “rules based order,” also called the Washington consensus. Wall Street is the temple of global financial flows and “War Is A Racket” as Major General Smedley Butler taught us in 1935. When we realize that public money funds the war system at the expense of health care, education and infrastructure, the shock may be so great that we will be tempted by denial and scapegoating. Even the refugees at the border may not fully understand how their economies were destroyed, but they do know how to follow the money trail to the United States. Noam Chomsky and Michael Hudson teach us a lot about the global financialization in this epoch of neoliberal imperialism and the drive to turn conflicts into war. The money trail to war is astronomical. The waste is legendary. That is public money. What is our responsibility? If we succumb to fatalism we will face apocalypse together. I was fortunate to get a ride to the Hamtramck Library for the first meeting of the Move The Money Coalition. It began from conversations with Veterans For Peace, Michigan Peace Council and Peace Action. Some 30 persons responded to the invitation and committed to a new level of struggle. It’s time to stand up and organize for responsible use of public money. Imagine if the military budget was used to clean up the toxins that result from bases and operations. Many reparations have not been paid as the war plays out in other ways. Think of all the agent orange and more that was dumped on southeast Asia. The number of unexploded devices on the ground in all war zones is incalculable. Imagine if America began to clean up the mess. When we are ready to understand money and take responsibility for its creation and use, we will begin to Move the Money from war to peace. The Youtube channel “Untold KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 Histories” with historian Dr. Jeff Rich is a good summary of the Cold War and its aftermath. Diplomacy and negotiation are important skills. They begin with listening which may mean walking a mile in someone else's shoes. I listened to Lavrov’s presentation at the UN Security Council. It was an insightful look at how Russia understands the multilateral world as it emerges from Western hegemony and American exceptionalism. The NATOdriven war in Ukraine has the expressed purpose of regime change in Russia and the domination of the Eurasian landmass by Western investors. The CIA-backed Maidan coup in 2014 began the war that leapt forward in 2022 as Russia began military action to support the Russian-populated areas and its only naval base on the Black Sea. NATO covets this base in Crimea. So we have another forever war as the American military financial complex increases its declared full-spectrum dominance which begins with information control and the compliance narrative of good versus evil. We are now in the apocalyptic imagination which tempted President Reagan. His declaration of Star Wars was supported by many apocalyptic Christians, some of whom welcome nuclear war and the rapture of true believers into heaven. I wrote “People’s Peace Bank” in the May 17 issue of Groundcover. Political economy is the most obvious context of our lives. I focused on the work of Richard Werner who did the experiment showing how loans create money out of nothing. I also reccommend his video on the deep state. The main point is whether the loan promotes useful projects. There are many ways to waste money. The war system specializes in spectacular waste. “Vietnam War, The Last Secrets” is a YouTube video that chronicles the devastation of that war and the ongoing work to repair the damage. International Day of Peace will be commemorated on September 21 on the commons next to the downtown Ann Arbor library. “End the whole war system” is the theme which will focus on the move to peace. We support Move the Money Coalition, a new AUGUST 23, 2024 Cartoon by Izzy Hedin-Urrutia formation of existing peace groups and activists who feel the urgency of the world at risk. It is said that cockroaches will be the last survivors of nuclear war. “On The Beach” is a great movie about the last humans after a nuclear war. The belief that we can learn to take responsibility for our actions and change our behavior and to mature, faces the fatalism and habitual patterns of submission to the masters of violence. The power of the central planners and especially their bosses comes from the power we give them. If we use our power in more creative ways we can support a peaceful society. Our defense would be based in educated awareness of health and the mindful awareness of what needs to be done. In order to be reality-centered we need training in mindful mind and to give birth to calm and clear as our basic state of mind — the Olympic training to be who you really are. A happy inner child and mature inner adult mentor. Everyone is smiling. When the student is ready the teacher will appear. This belief that we can learn and change is the core of Move the Money Coalition. Veterans for Peace, Peace Action and Michigan Peace Council (part of the U.S. and World Peace Councils) are together in this new formation that you can join. The next meeting is Saturday August 24 at noon, at the Hamtramck Library. We will report on plans for a public event. International Day of Peace will have updates. The Ann Arbor Coalition Against War has been active since the Vietnam War. We do regular vigils at 5:30 p.m. on Fridays at Liberty and Fifth. We support International Day of Peace and Move the Money Coalition. We will work together for an October forum with candidates and movement leaders as we all learn to be fully engaged in living for peace. No more genocide. No more mass shootings. No more beating of honor students to teach them a lesson. Love can flow from our hearts as a habit for every situation. Righteous anger can be an expression of great love. It’s good to remember the peace sign which was created in 1958 using semaphore symbols for N and D, Nuclear Disarmament. South Africa and Israel were both provided assistance to develop nuclear weapons. One of the U.S. conditions for majority rule in South Africa was that they give up nuclear weapons. Everyone knows that Israel has nuclear weapons. Israel views Iran as their main enemy and wants to drag the United States into a war with Iran. The doomsday clock is seconds from midnight. Now is the time to BAN THE BOMB and MOVE THE MONEY to peace. Let’s create beautiful peace signs as an expression of a peace culture. Politicians and candidates will be invited for Peace Day. Prepare for a Question and Answer session as we move the discussion to ceasefire and negotiations. Visualize Peace. Ongoing education is available. Noam Chomsky's “The State and Corporate Complex, A Threat To Freedom and Survival,” a podcast with the Hart Institute, is excellent place to start. As we learn to share our resources, we can start with our situation among ourselves and extend it to the public pot, whether it be personal taxes or sharing the wealth of production. There is much to learn and do. Let’s take one step together and celebrate with another one. The all good expanse of primordial purity, you may say Allah or God, the Clear Light of the Void, these are like fingers pointing at the moon. Let’s breathe together for a life well lived. AUGUST 23, 2024 POLITICS A book review: You are found guilty of all counts, as charged DAVID KE DODGE Groundcover contributor Political Repression in Modern America: from 1870 to 1976 a graduate school thesis by Robert Justin Goldstein, PhD, Political Science, U of Chicago Pub. by University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago c. 1978, 2001 To the reader: “You are found guilty of all counts, as charged.” “What!?” you protest, affronted; “Of what charges? Based on what evidence? In what court?” Such questions merit answers. The crimes you committed, and currently are committing, are copious — they include complicity in: loitering; disturbing the peace; vagrancy; impeding pedestrian traffic; peddling without a license; being a public nuisance; solicitation; disorderly conduct ... And the evidence against you is manifest: clearly, it is a crime to possess a “street paper,” and clearly, you are in possession of one. “WHAT?” you say. “This is the United States! There’s such a thing as Freedom of the Press in this country. And since when is it illegal to possess a street paper? There’s not a court in this country that would entertain such bogus charges, much less enter a finding of ‘guilty.’ Good luck finding a District Attorney who would even touch such prosecution!” In response, I refer you to page 518 of Goldstein’s graduate school thesis. Goldstein recounts the plight of the workers and vendors of “underground” newspapers, starting at least as early as October, 1968. In at least 13 cities across the nation, local police raided underground newspaper offices, sometimes without a warrant, seized “evidence” necessary to the functioning of the papers and damaged the offices, leaving behind gratuitous destruction. The papers’ staffs and vendors were arrested on a potpourri of charges — the police would go shopping for a charge which the courts would buy. If a charge wasn’t deemed “legit” by a judge, the police would try something else: vagrancy, littering, obstructing the sidewalk, possession of pornographic material, obscenity, instigating a riot, possession of marijuana; peddling without a license, possession of a copy of an underground newspaper … You’re right; such arrests and prosecutions are unconstitutional. And, though the Supreme Court of the United States has a spotty record as ultimate defender of Constitutional Rights, it at least sometimes comes through. But the point is that these are the tools of political repression. As unjust and wrong as they may seem, these are the instruments The State may use to avoid change in the overall system. And before you persist in your lawless possession of an underground newspaper you might ask yourself some questions and come up with candid answers: “Is time behind bars, awaiting justice, daunting?” “Is a criminal record daunting?” “Are your pockets deep enough?” and perhaps most telling, “Are you feeling lucky?” (Justice is a fickle mistress.) Your answers to the last two questions are the most important, if you recognize the Truth that in the U.S. justice is a roulette wheel, and that the “house” has deep pockets, and is near-infinitely patient. This means that, when it comes to resistance to or deviance from the status quo, the “system” generally wins. The system, at worst, risks the draw of a court proceeding unfavorable to itself (oftentimes, a mere temporary inconvenience, with the precedent always being subject to eventual reversal). But win or lose at the wheel, the system — the house — will score a victory against you: you’ll think twice before you again let Groundcover News filter its way into your life. At a number of points in his book, Goldstein cites evidence that a mere atmosphere of endless harassment and litigation, however legally bogus, can decimate dissent among activists. The status quo will be a small bit safer. Over the years of innumerable such victories, the status quo (as I call it) has become near-infinitely secure. An overriding theme of Goldstein’s book is that U.S. institutions, long accustomed to legal, tax, regulatory, property, protection and subsidization contexts “friendly” to their customary operations, are quite zealous that those contexts remain unchallenged and unchanged, Any proposal for reform which might truncate those contexts, or expand their benevolence to new institutions or methods of operation deemed uncomfortable or inconvenient to those already legitimized, can expect severe resistance. A reality of life in the United States of America is that nearly everything about the Constitution makes the status quo difficult to change. Slavery was abolished; what made it possible is that the nation was at war, and abolition of slavery made the North’s task easier. Labor unions were legitimized when the choice posed to the already legitimized business community was that of life under Communism, or that of life with labor unions in their plants. The status quo can be changed, and in the past, when the status quo has been changed, I personally regard the outcomes to be a blessing. Thus, the emancipation of the slaves. Thus the Wagner Act and its legitimization of labor unions. The “legitimized” institutions can count on a veneer of due protection of the law not available to the “illegitimate” outsiders. The actual offense of Richard Nixon’s “plumbers” in entering the Democratic Party Headquarters during the Watergate scandal in the 1970s was one offense, and mild compared to a longstanding program of routine invasion and destruction of property and records in the Socialist Party Headquarters by the FBI. But Richard Nixon was guilty of something unthinkable, and unacceptable, even to his fellow Republicans — he had violated an unwritten code of what is right to do to an institution which has the blessings of being part of the status quo. Between page 10 and page 15 of PRMA, Goldstein gives proper names of six companies serving as profit mechanisms which used at least two of those three components to fight workers: Pullman; US Steel Corporation; Republic Steel; General Motors; Pinkerton Detective Agency (which does not belong in a list of proper names of companies which served as a profit mechanism, it was listed as a company which illustrated the magnitude of the private police phenomenon); Pittsburgh Coal Company; Pennsylvania Coal and Iron Police (again, a tool of tycoons, rather than a profit mechanism); and see REPRESSION page 11  GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS RACIAL JUSTICE AUGUST 23, 2024 Justice InDeed is uncovering the hidden histories of housing discrimination in Washtenaw County ANONYMOUS Justice InDeed is a collaborative project dedicated to exposing the deeds of thousands of homes in Washtenaw County which contain "racially restrictive covenants" — or provisions prohibiting Black people and other minorities from living there. As a group of researchers, students, residents and community activists, they are working to: • educate the community about the role these covenants and other racist housing policies played in causing segregation and economic inequality; • repeal the covenants; • and encourage the adoption of policies to repair the damage caused by systemic housing discrimination in Washtenaw County. Here are some frequently asked questions (from the Justice InDeed website): What are racially restrictive covenants? A racially restrictive covenant is part of a home's deed that prohibits people of certain races from buying and occupying property. Why were racially restrictive covenants written into deeds? Racially restrictive covenants were one of many racist tools used by white homeowners and developers to ensure that neighborhoods remained segregated. While racial covenants were written into deeds of homes in Washtenaw County as early as 1912, their use became particularly widespread both in Washtenaw County and nationally beginning in the 1920s. Institutions and individuals who wanted to enforce racial segregation saw racial covenants as an alternative to racially restrictive zoning, which the United States Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional in 1917. Unlike racially restrictive zoning ordinances, which were enacted by the government, covenants were seen as private agreements. Both the U.S. Supreme (1926) and the Michigan Supreme Court (1922 and 1947) initially held that private individuals could enforce racial covenants in court to prevent people of color from living in their neighborhoods. Are racially restrictive covenants legal? Not anymore. In 1948, the United States Supreme Court ruled that courts, as government bodies, could no longer enforce racially restrictive covenants — although the Court did not say they were illegal (Shelley v. Kraemer). Finally in 1968, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act, outlawing housing discrimination by private parties and making racially restrictive covenants patently illegal. Although racially restrictive covenants are now illegal, they still exist as part of the deeds to thousands of homes in Washtenaw County. Restrictive covenants "run with the land," remaining on the title in perpetuity absent legal, legislative or other action. In other words, a change in ownership of the land of property does not alter existing covenants for the property. If racially restrictive covenants are unenforceable and illegal, why should we care about them? Despite the fact that they are not enforceable today, racially restrictive covenants remain on home deeds as repugnant reminders of the blatant racism that characterizes American housing practices and continues into the present day. Justice InDeed believes that it is critical to take action to address racially restrictive covenants because: 1. The covenants cause real harm in now. Whenever homebuyers Wash-tenaw County read their closing packets, they read that people of color – and sometimes non-Christians — are unwelcome in the neighborhood. It can be jarring and cause stigmatized injury. One local real estate agent told us that she knew of one would-be homebuyer who was so offended by a covenant that, even though it was unenforceable, he refused to close and decided to buy elsewhere. We see these covenants as similar to a "White Christians Only" sign at the entrance to a subdivision today; while such a sign is unenforceable, it would be — and should be — distressing to all who see it. 2. Education about racism begins at home. Justice InDeed thinks that there is no better way to teach the residents of Washtenaw County of the pervasiveness of white supremacy than to show them the house they live in has a racially restrictive covenant. This knowledge would then serve as an entree to education about, for example, (a) how covenants denied people of color the opportunity to attain wealth through homeownership, (b) how they deprived people of color the opportunity to live in neighborhoods where their children would go to integrated schools, (c) the role of the federal, state and local government see INDEED next page  AUGUST 23, 2024 RACIAL JUSTICE  INDEED from last page played encouraging racially restrictive covenants and denying mortgages to individuals who lived in areas without the covenants, and (d) the many other racist housing policies that contributed to segregation in Washtenaw County. 3. Education about restrictive covenants should impact current housing policy debates. When setting housing policy today, it is critical to know the history of housing discrimination in Ann Arbor. For example, there are those in Ann Arbor who wish to (1) stop development of new housing projects, (2) maintain one-family housing zoning throughout large parts of the city, and (3) prevent a dedicated source of funding for affordable housing. Policymakers need to understand that racially restrictive covenants and other racist housing policies caused current segregation in the city and how some of these proposals would effectively freeze discrimination in place. What should be done about them? Currently, the process of repealing covenants on a home is complex, expensive and time-consuming. However, with guidance from our Advisory Board, Justice InDeed is in conversation with community partners about ways to repeal racially restrictive covenants through neighborhood/community organizing, litigation and/or legislation. Justice InDeed is committed to finding ways to amend the deed and repeal the racial covenants without erasing or "whitewashing" history. Would repealing the racially restrictive covenant in my neighborhood, or on my house erase or "whitewash" history? Absolutely not. Justice InDeed is strongly against erasing the history of discrimination. Under this project, Washtenaw County homeowners do not redact the racially restrictive covenants or physically remove the document from Register or Deeds files. Rather, we file a new amendment document that (1) explains the harm done by racially restrictive covenants, (2) repudiates and reveals the racist restriction, and (3) replaces it with a covenant prohibiting discrimination. So historians researching the chain of title on the property would both see the original language of the racial covenant and the amendment repealing the racially restrictive covenant. Plus, Justice InDeed is mapping all neighborhoods and homes in Washtenaw where racially restrictive covenants existed as a reminder of the pervasive and ugly history of housing discrimination in our county. Author's experience Now I want to add some personal views that involve rental properties that reflect racial and economic inequality and discrimination. The rule that a renter's income must be three times the rental rate is another way to say if you are not wealthy, then we don't want you to occupy our rental property. There are also a lot of landlords who won't consider low-income people at all who have Section 8 or a Housing Choice Voucher, and will not cooperate with this program. Then there are landlords who won't keep the rental properties up to standard knowing that most renters will tolerate substandard living conditions because they don't want to become homeless. A lot of the leasing managers are not honest about some of their billing policies or practices. For example, I live in housing that did not make it clear that the property owner divides the water bill from a fourunit rental property into what is supposed to be your water bill payment each month. There are eight other renters from two other building units who use the laundry room washer. Who pays for that water? They expect you to pay the utility in full the same GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 day they give you a bill that is simply a printout they make — not from an official utility company. This is surely illegal! The rental payment portal has no way to designate what your payments are for. If I don't pay the utility in full, they take the money and say I did not pay my rent. I feel inequities like this will always exist because money is more important than human life nowadays. Justice InDeed was featured on Centering Justice Webcast. Listen to the conversation and hear how you can make an impact in unearthing our racialized history. If interested, reach out to justiceindeed@futureroot.com. Join Justice InDeed on Monday, August 26, 7-8 p.m. for a virtual work session (on Zoom) to further document racially restrictive covenants on property deeds. Register on the Events page on their website, ceindeedmi.org justiMENTAL HEALTH IS health. TALK ABOUT YOURS TODAY! 24/7 mental health and substance use support 734-544-3050 LEARN MORE about programs funded by the community mental health and public safety preservation millage

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ENTREPRENEURSHIP Ypsi entrepreneur shines: Esthetician expands business to men’s cologne and candles AMARI HAYES Groundcover contributor A local businesswoman is making waves with her unique blend of skincare and fragrance products. Amari Hayes, a licensed esthetician, has been building a successful business for the past six years, offering not only topnotch skin and hair services but also a range of men’s cologne and candles. Amari’s journey began with a passion for skincare and a desire to help people feel their best. Her spa, Enchanted Radiance Spa, quickly gained a loyal clientele thanks to her expertise and personalized approach. However, Amari's entrepreneurial spirit didn’t stop there. Recognizing a growing market for high-quality men’s grooming products and elegant home fragrances, she expanded her business to include a line of men’s cologne and candles. Expanding horizons The decision to branch out into fragrance and candles was driven by Amari’s commitment to enhancing her clients’ overall experience. “I wanted to offer something that complements the spa experience,” she explained. “Men’s cologne and candles are not just products; they are part of a lifestyle that supports relaxation and self-care.” Amari’s cologne line is carefully curated to meet the diverse tastes of her male clients, while her candles are designed to create a soothing atmosphere at home. Her dual focus on esthetics and fragrance has proven successful, as her products are gaining popularity in Ypsilanti and beyond. Community and growth Local residents and visitors alike have embraced Amari's business. Her spa is known for its welcoming atmosphere and exceptional service, while her fragrance and candle products have become popular gifts and personal indulgences. “The products are a hit with everyone who values quality and craftsmanship,” said local customer Mike Smith. “Her colognes and candles make excellent gifts and add a touch of luxury to everyday life.” Over the years, Amari has navigated the challenges of expanding her business, from managing increased inventory to marketing her new product lines. However, her dedication and innovative approach have enabled her to thrive. Her success story is a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit of Ypsilanti and the power of combining passion with business acumen. As she looks to the future, Amari plans to continue growing her business and exploring new opportunities. “I’m excited about the possibilities ahead,” she said. “There’s always room for innovation and improvement, and I’m committed to delivering exceptional products and services to my clients.” For now, Amari continues to serve her community with her skills and products, proving that with creativity and determination, a successful business can be built on a foundation of passion and hard work. Advice for Groundcover vendors "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe AUGUST 23, 2024 Contact: For more information about Amari’s esthetician services or her range of men’s cologne and candles contact Enchanted Radiance Spa directly via phone, (810) 689-9849, email, enchantedradiancespa@gmail. com, or website enchantedradiancespa.com Spa location: 3850 2nd Street Wayne, MI 48174. AUGUST 23, 2024 PUZZLES 1 14 17 20 23 24 25 26 29 31 38 42 45 49 50 51 54 56 64 67 57 58 65 68 52 53 55 59 66 69 60 61 62 63 39 40 43 46 47 48 44 32 33 34 21 27 28 30 35 36 37 41 2 3 4 5 6 7 15 18 19 22 8 9 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LEGAL OBSERVATION Victor Fleming 10 11 12 13 16 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. 2005 World Series losers 7. Mil. plane used on short runways 11. Firms on the NYSE 14. "Not a ___ too soon" 15. Israel's Barak 16. Prone 17. See 23-Across 18. LAX arrival 20. Apply juice, as to a turkey 22. Affectionate attention 23. Start of a quotation by 17-/39-/59Across, Jr. 29. Item on a cowboy's belt 30. 20-volume ref. 31. Give off 32. Like some synchronistic experiences 35. Half a dance? 38. Vietnamese holiday 39. See 23-Across 41. "Frasier" character 42. Suffix for lemon or lime 43. "Don't get any funny ___!" 44. With 53-Down, "The Hustler" protagonist Felson 45. "Joyful Girl" singer DiFranco 46. Catchphrase 49. End of the quotation 54. "Free Willy" animal 55. Build an extension on 56. Maine city 59. See 23-Across 64. Bon Jovi's "Livin' ___ Prayer" 65. German car manufacturer 66. Computer messages 67. Autumn air quality 68. "Say Anything ..." actress Ione 69. "Oh ___!" (cry of surprise) DOWN 1. Start of a Latin trio 2. Costa del ___ 3. "I don't want to know any more!" 4. Accelerate sharply 5. Half of a quarter? 6. Attack from the air 7. "From ___ shining ..." 8. Stealing sort 9. Your and my 10. "Bad" cholesterol letters 11. Passage with locks 12. Musical drama 13. Scatter (about) 19. Added frosting to 21. Anxiety-free 23. Letter on fraternity row 24. Proceeded toward a target 25. "Who's Who" group 26. "Saving Private Ryan" craft: Abbr. 27. Drudgery 28. Pump part 33. Author LeShan 34. Ceased to 27-Down 35. Diet guru Jenny 36. Egypt's Mubarak 37. Cortez's victim 39. Skid row tippler 40. Work on, as a manuscript 44. "Alice" spin-off 45. Gray subj. 47. "Please stand for the national ___" 48. Pessimistic 49. "___ Pop" (Dr. Seuss classic) 50. Rice-___ 51. Dump 52. Exchange, as words 53. See 44-Across 57. "Leaving ___ Vegas" 58. Arctic bird 60. Fall back 61. "O Sole ___" 62. Chi-town trains 63. Librarian's directive

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Peace of mind Yes, I might not have A house A car Money Credit A bank account Shares A bridge card A bathroom An address A mirror Respect PEDRO CAMPOS Groundcover vendor No. 652 But I neither have A record A woman Children of mine Bills Rent Dues To fit Enemies To gamble Shames Pills to take A doctor To die or betray my beliefs A label Strings attached whatsoever A mistress Viciousness of any kind I never lie A dead line A manager superior to take shit from Arrows to run I don't have to I just do A shift To follow orders Or a company policy A bottle to keep me hanging My milk makes me strong Yes, I may have skipped dinner last week But I had Sonic Lunch Yes, I may not have My family around Got my feet on the ground Sure that they’re proud The way I get around The good people in this town Got my back Yes I might be homeless But I'll never be A bum A thief A coward A criminal I am honest to myself I have the church I don't have a provider I am my one and only provider God above me I have purpose Ideas, plenty Propositions I got a plan There is so little time And so much to do I need help We all do Try profiling me You’ll see that I hope I do have a home In my heart For my friends I keep my dignity All these rules make me feel free Freely, I think Wonders take me away To the river Spring water Yes, I might Have foreseen the future As I listened to the birds Filling my lungs with pure air Yes, I might say This town is so beautiful Almost heaven But sometimes I just wish I could see the stars Hugging the tree MARKONA LOVE Groundcover vendor No. 531 In the fading light of this coming night Darkness breaks for stars to pierce the void Sparkles shining truth to those who hid From a previous day’s sun. Now with the sun down, and the Moon up A glow shows a diminished Love needed To shine truth to the Light We of a true Love are assembling an army To guard our guiding light Shining for all Humanity, a message is brought By Our Conduit of Another Earthly Species … Kona Love Yet, as a simple man, but a complicated Human I experience Life at an immense intensity That abounds in my soul, a great Joy. Love and pain, like rain Are felt in union within a congregation of them And I. Now a radiant sun shining, Pours golden liquidity soaking my skin, Overflowing my grail With Love of Life’s Light Buds beneath my feet, spring from beneath My toes Burgeoning youth breaks thru a tucked nature Am I the facilitator of the Incubator My Heart layering blankets of A gifted Love, indiscriminately, Coddling friend and foe Only The Creator and Love of Life Cradle the knowledge of who was to be Conduit or Messenger Kona speaks directly to my majestic Heart Once gifted by an impatient Creator I stand in awe of under measured Love Flowing thru myself ... As I shimmer, Shine and suffer its glory. This at times becoming a tragic wrestling Between my heart and its imperfect Mind of good intent Within the weakness of a man’s egg Dark contrasts cut deep in hidden fathoms Whipping myself at my post Starry twinkles emanate my obligatory Chore until this Mortal coils. - Here though, in the tall grasses of paradise I hear flowers singing in a chorus of Daffodils led by towering sunflowers Finally, our Mother tree reconnects us Skin to her bark, feet to her roots See Kona then perch, reaching my gifted heart Her message flow from across the Cosmos As my heart gently weeps, seconds pound til my Earthly departure. AUGUST 23, 2024 AUGUST 23, 2024 POETRY Love BUK'E WYRM Sometimes the way things seem the truth we escalate happens to temperate this dismay refrain happens to occlude us as is so fits the format framing. The culture God is our surface to allow this generation some such decorations sort of happens these developments sort augment stasis quote, “wasting” and this has got to stations remove to replacing has God sent into place on love we creating? GROUNDCOVER NEWS Drowning heart (part 2) TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 Some such savings BUK'E WYRM These these breed heart stings growing our dreams. The same same much hac come of this lately has happened. Enough just to come of and can self-correct their mechanism subtle suggest our message fix this life lessons has happened as can happen. How this happens some such basic sanity soul contracting fractions above the reference so some happens just to give this back with you. All we ever do not to fit the promotion wanting the most Oceans motions has this pertains to what it is obvious these things happen of their own accord God works in mysterious ways to divine miracles to perform wonders we get our truth to happen to. Only if I knew, For sure that you, Were completely mine, Not only part time, You treat any other bitch, Better than me, Thatz just one more stitch, Ta my drownin heart, Only if you could see, How itz tearin me apart, Through thee last year, I’ve cried those tears. The way life goes EARL PULLEN Groundcover contributor No one knows the way Life goes when life is young And you are old thus I can Say on that very day I have lived life in a Special way wondering what a special Life holds when life is young And you are old when dreams Come true and all you can say I have lived my life in a Special way when day turns Night and night turns day I open my eyes and then I can Say oh how I lived life In a simple special way when Day turns night and Night turns day 11  REPRESSION from page 5 Tennessee Coal Mine Company. Each of these six companies were given as illustrative of a large number of events in U.S. labor history. It is inconceivable that, in view of the prevalence of private police, company towns, and deputization of private police, as well as reliance on state militias as strikebreakers, that my “composite,” as a literary device, is far off from actual events in U.S. history. In the other 573 pages of the main body of Goldstein, he describes in exquisite detail the “recent” history of political repression in the United States, from 1870 to 1976. Political repression in the United States has gone through a number of transformations since 1870. In many ways, U.S. political repression is now more “polite” — no longer, to my knowledge, do corporate tycoons (who own company towns) hire thugs to “keep order” in their towns, especially if threatened by the disorder of striking workers. And then, after the same thugs are safely implanted at the plant gates, no longer do the same tycoons enlist the aid of the County Sheriff by deputizing the thugs, thereby augmenting the thugs’ informally recognized power (to beat on the said workers’ heads with clubs, without provocation) and arrest the workers and turn them over to the formal justice system of The State, for “processing.” (See author's note.) Such processing as done in the past would probably now, in 2024, alarm all but the most rabid Cro-magnons of the Mitch McConnells of the United States. It doesn’t really matter; such processing has been supplanted by more polite — and therefore more dangerous (because less offensive to the sensitivities of the general public) — political repression. The Ann Arbor District Library has no copies of “PRMA”. The book remains in print, from University of Illinois Press, for $40.00. Online book sellers also offer both new and used copies. Buy it. Read it. Keep it. Your favorite local bricks-andmortar bookstore needs support. your Author's note: The scenario described in this paragraph, of what happened before repression became “polite,” as far as how tycoons exploited the status quo, is a composite of a number of events described by Goldstein. Here is a partial list of Goldstein’s terms: “company towns,” see page 10; “thugs” (private police), see page 11; “deputization,” see page 13. I briefly and unsuccessfully searched PRMA for a description of a specific event in which, explicitly, 1), private police 2) entered a company town and not only assaulted striking workers, but 3) used public police powers to arrest the same workers and turn them over to the community’s criminal justice system for prosecution. But in view of the plethora of occasions when at least two of the three elements of political repression were present in the response of corporations to union activism, the likelihood that there have been occasions when all three occurred seems great. exp. 01/31/2025

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Summer couscous salad ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingriedients: 1 c. Moroccan couscous 1 1/2 t. kosher salt, divided 1/4 cup, plus 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided 2 T. lemon juice 1 T. dijon mustard 1 garlic clove, finely chopped 1 pint multi-colored cherry tomatoes, halved (about 1 1/2 cups) 1 cucumber, sliced and quartered (about 1 1/2 cups) 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese 1/3 cup toasted, chopped walnuts 1/3 cup thinly sliced green onion 1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley 1 T. chopped fresh dill In a large bowl, whisk together the Directions: In a small pot, bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Stir in the couscous and 1 teaspoon of the salt. Remove from the heat, cover, and let sit for five minutes. Add 1 teaspoon of oil and fluff with a fork. Let this cool completely. remaining 1/4 cup of oil, lemon juice, mustard, garlic, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add the tomatoes, cucumber, feta, walnuts, green onion, and cooled couscous to the dressing and toss to coat. Stir in the parsley and dill. Serve chilled. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS A S T R O S M O M E N T AUGUST 23, 2024 S T O L C O S E H U D A P T O L I V E R A I R L I N E R B A S T E C A R E T H E L I F E O F T H E L A W H O L S T E R E M I T O E D E E R I E C H A T E T W E N D E L L R O Z A D E I D E A S A N I A D D T O F A S T T A G L I N E H A S N O T B E E N L O G I C O R C A P O R T L A N D H O L M E S O N A N I P A U D I E M A I L S S K Y E M Y G O S H

2 $ AUGUST 9, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 17 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. First Year of Care-Based Safety: workshops, community building and place-based response. page 6 MEET YOUR VENDOR: KEITH WILSON PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Section 86'd: Housing Choice Voucher waitlist closes in Michigan. page 5 Steve and Amy are living in their car as they wait for their Section 8 Voucher to be pulled. On July 1, the program announced they will not release any vouchers for the forseeable future. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER from the DIRECTOR'S DESK customer, that the vendor has been LINDSAY CALKA Managing director Did you know that the Vendor Code of Conduct is printed in every paper? (Check out page 9, beneath the puzzles.) Every Groundcover News vendor agrees to this Code of Conduct on their first day; it is a list of our rules, a reflection of our culture and also a framework of how to sell the paper successfully while upholding the reputation of the organization. One very important element of the Code is: I will wear and display my badge while selling the paper. The badge is the only uniform piece that we require vendors to wear. The badge signals to you, the through the New Vendor Orientation, has purchased their papers from the office, and is accountable to the other vendors and the organization. Perhaps most importantly, the badge contains a solicitation permit for the municipalities they sell in — a permit that makes the act of selling Groundcover legal. The sentence “Please only buy from badged vendors” is printed on the cover of every Groundcover newspaper and magazine. Recently we have had a handful of people who are not, or are no longer, affiliated with Groundcover News incessantly try to sell the newspaper. We stamp the newspapers with Vendor Numbers to ensure Venmo sales go to vendors, and to track where papers are moving once they leave the office. Consequently, this call to customers has become ever more important: Please only buy from badged vendors, and check whether the number stamped on the paper matches the badge. If not, you might not be buying from a Groundcover vendor. Please contact the office if this happens. PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Jamie Cameron Cindy Gere Robbie February Hosea Hill Mike Jones Will Shakespeare Tony Smith PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Jacob Fallman Robert Klingler Simone Masing Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com AUGUST 9, 2024 AUGUST 9, 2024 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS Undercover art intel: party time at the Ann Arbor Art Fair My journey through the Ann Keith Wilson, vendor No. 637 In one sentence, who are you? I am a father, coach, pipefitter, as well as a great guy. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? All over — but you can catch me on Ashley and Liberty. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? Earlier this year. I was broke. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Shoot pool. What words do you live by? Never forget what a person does for you or what a person does to you. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn't know? I'm a hopeless romantic. What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover? My brother James Woods. What is something you wish you knew more about? The stock market. Arbor Art Fair (July 18-20, 2024) was very exciting and much anticipated. Art is loved in this town and mural art has been exploited over the past five years. One cannot drive anywhere in Ann Arbor without seeing large art installations on buildings and underpasses. There are new flowers painted on the bridge and underpass near Delonis Center and on the nearby railroad bridge on Miller Ave. This was finished during the Art Fair this year. (See “The Art of Gentrification” in the July 12 Groundcover News.) This year, walking along the downtown Main Street Art Fair I saw many different kinds of art — two-dimensional, three-dimensional, personal favorite has always been animals from an artist named Mr. Faun who is always in the same location. He does wonderful images of so many different animals as well as flowers, including my faves: pandas, dragons and roses. As I walked up Liberty Street I saw so much color this year, from abstract paintings to colored blown glass and the vibrant illustrations of fantasy scenes. I was awestruck with the details in much of the work this year. Hours upon hours of love goes into some of the work and the price doesn't do it justice. What I find hard for artists is the level at which art is graded by price. jewelry and more. My As I walked down to William CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 What I feel is cheap art is by far priced out of a common person’s reach, and yet what is considered cheap art is so wonderful to look at and needs to be in a higher price range. The argument has always been over what art is truly worth and so artists struggle with this forever. Almost to the end of Liberty Street, I came upon the political and nonprofit organization section for social justice issues, religions and electoral politics. What I chose to get was the free candy they give out, fun fun yum yum! I walked up to State Street and turned right; this is where I found the African American art bead vendor. He remembered me from last year and so I got some wonderful beads. As a Native American, it's hard to come by beads now without paying a huge amount. Each vendor on State Street is fun to see, from discounted clothes to wonderful food. Street, I chose to look at the different precious gems and metal workers who create totally custom-made art — one of a kind. Every jeweler was unique: some were totally modern while others had a time period attached to them, such as the 1800s. I wandered up past the University of Michigan Law School and this one artist stuck out like no other. She was a Fimo artist (Fimo is a type of clay) with very vibrant colors, and being a colorist myself, I fell in love. She had just about everything someone could want, from magnets to pins and freestanding caricatures to sculptures that looked like they were right out of a Jim Henson Muppet movie — she had it all! This was for me the ultimate fun this year. Each artist touched me with their artwork and as I wandered down a lonely path on a side street, I found the hat that has eluded me for years. This vendor artist had wonderful vibrant colorful hats for sale. I chose to get a black one as others looked like Indiana Jones was ready to show up. It was fun to see the large variety of hats at this booth. My Art Fair was full of fun and colors and new ideas. I hope you had as much fun as I did this year. 2025 Art Fair here we come … 3 Dave Bing NBA Hall of Famer David (Dave) Bing played nine seasons for the Detroit Pistons, two seasons with the Washington Bullets and one season with the HOSEA HILL Groundcover vendor No. 532 (the inventor of basketball). “Everything that I’ve ever done, I Boston Celtics. According to hoophall.com, “Located in Springfield, Massachusetts, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is an independent non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting, preserving and celebrating the game of basketball at every level.” The Naismith basketball Hall of Fame is named after John Naismith have attacked it,” Bing said, according to the Detroit Free Press in November 2020. Leaders are readers and Dave Bing certainly read often on long road trips during his NBA career. In 1989, he became involved in politics and Detroit because the city announced plans to cancel all sports programs in public schools due to budget cutbacks. He launched a campaign that raised money to save the programs. He was elected to replace former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2009 and was reelected for a full term. He is an inspiration to all because he’s a good example of a person changing careers and being successful at both careers.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOUSING CBS Sunday Morning broadcast on April 14 told the story of Houston’s “Housing First” model. The story, narrated by reporter Martha Teichner, was titled “Inside Houston’s Successful Strategy to Reduce Homelessness.” Kelly Young, President of the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston–Harris County, said that the Housing First model which was implemented in Houston should be followed by other cities in the nation. She noted, “We were one of the worst in the nation to begin with, in 2011, 2012. Since then, homelessness is down 63% in the greater Houston area, and more than 30,000 people have been housed.” Teichner talked to many of the organizers and beneficiaries of Houston’s Housing First Program. How did they do it? Instead of having dozens of homeless advocacy groups work separately on the services or programs they provide to the homeless, the community chose to create an umbrella organization known as The Way Home. This new organization is collaborative and is now called The Coalition for the Homeless of Houston–Harris County. The coalition agreed to have one president and CEO, Kelly Young; one Project Communication and Strategy Director, Mandy Chapman; Mayor’s Special Assistant Marc Eichenbaum and a dedicated board. What is Housing First? Like the Y Foundation Housing First of metropolitan Helsinki, Finland, Houston’s The Way Home Umbrella totally embraced the concepts and applications of Housing First. The National Alliance to End Homelessness provided a clear concept and definition of Housing First in a publication dated March 20, 2022: “Housing First is a homeless assistance approach that prioritizes providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness, thus ending their homelessness and serving as a platform from which they can pursue personal goals and improve their quality of life. “This approach is guided by the belief that people need basic necessities like food and a place to live before attending to anything less critical, such as getting a job, budgeting properly, or tackling substance use issues. Additionally, Housing First is based on the understanding that client choice is valuable in housing selection and supportive service participation, and that exercising that choice is likely to make a client more successful in remaining housed and improving their life.” The publication observes the differences between Housing First and other approaches. It states, “Housing AUGUST 9, 2024 Houston has success with "Housing First" strategy WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 First does not require people experiencing homelessness to address … all of their problems including behavioral health problems, or to graduate through a series of services programs before they can access housing. Housing First does not mandate participation in services either before obtaining housing or in order to retain housing. The Housing First approach views housing as the foundation for life improvement and enables access to permanent housing.” The Housing First concept discussed above is a generic concept definition. The U.S. Housing and Urban Development department’s report titled “Housing First in Permanent Supportive Housing” attempted to provide a more concise definition of Housing First. HUD stated, “Housing First is an approach to quickly and successfully connect individuals and families experiencing homelessness to permanent housing without preconditions and barriers to entry, such as sobriety, treatment or service participation requirements. Supportive services are offered to maximize housing stability and prevent returns to homelessness as opposed to addressing treatment goals prior to permanent housing entry.” On July 14, 2022, writer Robert Davis of the online magazine “Invisible People” stated that Housing First was first pioneered in the U.S. in the 1990s. It was developed by a professor named Dr. Sam Tsemberis. Housing First is premised on the principles — (a) Homelessness is first and foremost a housing crisis and can be addressed through the provision of safe and affordable housing; (b) All people experiencing homelessness, regardless of their housing history and duration of homelessness, can achieve housing stability in permanent housing. Some may need very little support for a brief period of time, while others may need more intensive and longterm supports; Everyone is “housing ready.” Sobriety, compliance in treatment, or even non-criminal histories are not necessary to succeed in housing. Rather, homelessness programs and housing providers must be More than 100 nonprofit, grassroots and government organizations are assembled under The Way Home Umbrella. “consumer ready;” (c) Many people experience improvement in quality of life in the areas of health, mental health, substance use and employment as a result of obtaining housing; (d) People experiencing homelessness have the right to self-determination and should be treated with dignity and respect; (e) The exact configuration of housing and services depends upon the needs and preferences of the population. Houston’s Housing First Implementation Strategy As noted in the introductory paragraphs, Houston was able to convince service and treatment providers, nonprofit philanthropy groups, and other homeless advocacy centers in the community, to join a coalition known as the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County. Houston’s next strategic move was to go all in by adopting the key concepts and principles of Housing First. Teichner of CBS Morning News talked to the newly housed individuals and families. She talked to outreach coordinators at some homeless encampments who use tracking devices to locate individuals with various needs, including permanent housing. She also talked to Young and the Housing First “architect” for The Way Home community umbrella, Mandy Chapman. Teichner noted that Chapman “now advises other cities on how to replicate it, among them Dallas, New Orleans and Oklahoma City.” In her conversation with Teichner, Chapman observed, “Our natural instinct when we see homelessness increasing is to hire more outreach workers and to build more shelters, beds … The idea that if you have no permanent place to live, that you are also going to be able to transform and tackle complex mental health issues, addiction issues, complex financial issues? It’s just unrealistic.” Impacts and Lessons for Cities Community impacts of Houston-Harris County’s Housing First implementation are quite impressive: • 32,000 homeless people permanently housed since 2012 by the partners of The Way Home • 90% success rate for local housing programs. (People don’t return homelessness within two years.) • 22,300 unique people who accessed homeless assistance in 2022. • $179 million in public funding in 2023. • $50 million in HUD’s Continuum of Care awarded to partners of The Way Home in 2023. • Net-zero veteran homelessness in Harris County-Houston metro area. • Over $1.4 million awarded to The Way Home in 2024 for homeless youth. On February 15, 2024, Groundcover News published an article titled, “Homelessness is a national crisis in America: lessons from Finland’s ‘Housing First’ policies.” Finland native Alexandra Granberg shared her knowledge of Finland/Helinski’s Housing First model with our local readers. Many other cities have tried to see HOUSTON page 11  CBS Sunday Morning also reported that “Houston has dismantled 127 homeless encampments, but only after housing had been found for all the occupants. So far this year, The Way Home has already housed more than 750 people. It helps that the city, unlike many, has a supply of relatively affordable apartments, and that it was able to use roughly $100 million in COVID aid to help pay for rentals on top of its other homeless relief dollars. But Houston’s message is this: What’s really essential to success is committing to homes, not just managing homelessness.” AUGUST 9, 2024 HOUSING Section 86’d: Housing Choice Voucher waitlist closes in Michigan Last month, the waiting list for Section 8 housing vouchers closed statewide. No new applications will be taken and existing renewals will not happen. The waiting list will be dropped entirely. This leaves some people who have been anxiously waiting for their spot for years feeling frustrated. The multi-year process of checking-in, preparing paperwork, meeting case managers can be a daunting effort. Two friends of mine are going through the process, Steve and Amy. They’re navigating the challenging terrain of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority’s (MSHDA) Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program, commonly known as Section 8. This program is essential for providing affordable housing to low-income residents, but the process can be fraught with difficulties, especially with the complexities of the waiting list in Washtenaw County. The MSHDA Housing Choice Voucher Program operates on a waiting list system to manage the demand for affordable housing. In Washtenaw County, where the need is high, this waiting list can extend over several years. This lengthy wait often leads to considerable confusion and frustration for those seeking assistance. According to the County's website, there were over 2,400 vouchers administered in Washtenaw County in 2023, and 140 are reserved for homeless households. One major issue is that the waiting list is dynamic rather than static. Applicants are placed on the list based on their application date and need, but changes can occur, including additions or removals based on various criteria.This can make it difficult for applicants to understand their current standing and predict when they might receive assistance. Mercy House] and certain people at Delonis. It’s stupid. I owned a trailer and tried to apply for Section 8. It could have totally eliminated this process. I could have saved my place. “Seriously,” Amy continued. “I ROBBIE FEBRUARY Groundcover contributor Due to budget constraints, the HCV program will not release any new vouchers for the foreseeable future. During this time, MSHDA will close all HCV waitlists to new additions starting July 1, 2024, and waitlists will remain closed until the budget allows for new vouchers to be released. Budget shortfalls from the federal government coupled with rising housing costs have created a deficit in the program. Misunderstandings Complicating the process further are the project preferences that influence an applicant’s waiting list status. MSHDA administers the HCV Program with various housing projects and landlords, each with their own criteria for accepting tenants. Preferences may prioritize certain demographics, such as veterans or individuals with disabilities, which can affect an applicant’s placement on the waiting list. Steve shared his frustration with the lack of clarity in the process: “We were living at the Purple House for the winter a few days a week. That is when we got the first letter about being kicked off the list. I am not used to this craziness. I don’t know how any of this works.” Amy followed up, “We felt defeated. Like nobody cares, except people like Peggy [Lynch, founder of had 23 teeth taken out and had emergency surgery this month. Recovering in my car is hard. We are so thankful for the car, but I have neuropathy. Have you experienced waking up in the winter with burning hot feet? Like someone has a f***ing torch to your feet. But because of Peggy, no lie, this pain was significantly reduced. “ “Well, it’s shitty that someone has to recover from surgery sleeping on a floor or in a car seat,” I replied. “Duh,” Amy and Steve say in unison. Administrative challenges and communication barriers Administrative challenges within MSHDA itself further contribute to the difficulties. Bureaucratic processes can create barriers to effective communication and management of the waiting list. Many applicants, including Steve and Amy, report struggles with reaching MSHDA staff, receiving timely responses, or understanding the instructions provided. “I felt like we had no support from the County,” Steve noted. MSHDA’s website and online resources, while useful, might not always be up-to-date or comprehensive. Applicants often rely on these resources for guidance, but outdated information can lead to misunderstandings about the waiting list process.The people who help locally are Delonis Center and HAWC (Housing Access of Washtenaw County). Steve and Amy stayed in their car often last winter. They not only suffered from below freezing temperatures, they were also harassed by law enforcement. Steve said, “We were targeted by the police in November. Received multiple tickets on back to back days while caring for a friend sleeping in our car.” “Get one ticket that I can’t afford to pay, then I get a late fee. My tags are soon expired and I can’t get them updated until I catch up with the tickets. Even if we are homeless, we pay taxes. These $100 tickets have Robbie (right) interviewing Amy and Steve (left, middle). see HCV page 8  GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. The Summer Game If you’re reading this, the 2024 Summer Game is officially in full swing! Use your Library this summer to find codes, solve puzzles, attend events, and earn points toward awesome AADL prizes. Visit aadl.org/play to learn more and get started! Fifth Avenue Press AADL founded Fifth Avenue Press in 2017 to support the local writing community and promote the creation of original content. The imprint publishes works by authors who live in Washtenaw County. Consider submitting your finished manuscript to Fifth Avenue Press today at fifthave.aadl.org. FEATURED EVENT Summer Game SKATE Friday, August 23 • 6–8pm Yost Ice Arena Join AADL at Yost Ice Arena to celebrate the end of Summer Game 2024! There will be no charge for admission or skate rentals. Eli and his game code shirt will be in attendance. Please note: Skate at your own risk! 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CRISIS RESPONSE First year of Care-Based Safety: workshops, community building, place-based response On June 18, the Wayne Police Department murdered John Zook Jr. He called the police for help during a mental health crisis and they responded by shooting him six times. On July 6, the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department in Springfield, Ill. murdered Sonya Massey in her own kitchen after she called 911 to report a possible intruder in her home. We hear stories like this far too often when it comes to police and ordinary citizens in distress. “Care-Based Safety” is an unarmed response organization, established in September 2023. Their main objective and purpose is to keep people of color, Indigenous, undocumented, unhoused, LGBTQIA+, people using drugs, and/or those experiencing mental health struggles safe by addressing: • Conflict such as arguments, disagreements • Basic first aid (wound care, wellness checks) • Overdose prevention, reversal, and aftercare • Noise complaints and neighbor concerns • Distress related to mental health and other stressors Care-Based Safety is building a community response program that brings loving, unarmed support to people directly impacted by structural violence. The Ypsilanti Care-Based Response pilot program has been operating throughout the summer in the downtown area. They work out of 16 S. Washington St. in partnership with Growing Hope and FedUp Ministries to respond to conflicts and troubling issues that might occur in the downtown area. Care-Based Safety planned to serve the most vulnerable in the Ann Arbor area as well, but on Dec. 18, 2023, Ann Arbor voted to cancel their most recent Request for Proposals (RFP) for an unarmed response program. CareBased Safety was the only organization that submitted a proposal to this RFP, so Ann Arbor effectively rejected CBS when they canceled it. The Ann Arbor City Council received many negative comments from CBS supporters, but didn’t change its vote. Note that Care Based Safety is the first and only unarmed response organization in the state. I talked to Washtenaw County native Liz Kennedy, the director, who leads operations and culture work at CareBased Safety. “How do you like your job at CBS?” I asked. She said, “I love MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 it. It's an amazing opportunity to bring a purely non-police community-led program here in Ypsilanti. I grew up in Washtenaw County, and I lost a lot of loved ones to overdoses, violence and incarceration over the years. I myself am a survivor, so it is a really humbling experience to be able to support and bring a program like this to life because I feel we as a community need more options, more tools in the tool box, when it comes to getting crisis care and healing support.” I also asked her, “Why does this community need CBS?” She answered, “The community we serve asked for CBS. We are a very diverse group of community leaders who work, live and play in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, and in the wider Washtenaw County community. We are the representatives of people who are most impacted by police and all of state violence like people of color, trans and queer, and those suffering from mental health issues, and together we are developing a care-based system for all. Care-Based Safety is created by us and for us.” I also had a chance to talk to Community-Building Lead Sheri Wander, and she wanted our readers to know: “The pilot program is a place-based pilot, meaning we will be in the downtown area and if any crisis or conflict is brought to our attention, we will respond from there (not in response to a phone number). In part, this is a capacity issue, because we don’t have the people or funding to have an outward facing phone number that would allow us to respond to a large geographic area. But also, there is a particular need in this area. So many people hang out downtown, [people with] intersecting identities, people of color, poor, homeless, [with] alcohol and substance abuse — leaving many in our community vulnerable to over-policing and the penal system. “The pilot program is largely about community building. When we co-created Care-Based Safety through listening sessions and surveys, we heard over and over that 50% of the work AUGUST 9, 2024 Top: Music circle at the place-based pilot. Bottom: CBS staff members Amal Omer, Robert Ramaswamy, Sheri Wander and Marquise Williams. should be about community-building. Building trust and a safety net in our community is the only way for it to be successful. And that those who respond to whatever situations that might occur in our community should be from the community. “We plan to have days where we have fun: dance parties, karaoke, rap contests — and we have cornhole and a giant Jenga game. And also be on the lookout on really hot days for us to host a cooling center for those who need to escape the harsh summer heat. “We also hope people will give monetary donations, and/or their time and services so we can better help our community with resources needed. Visit our website to donate and for more information on how to get involved: carebasedsafety.org “For those who need these services, we will be at 16 S. Washington St, every Wednesday and Thursday from 5-9 p.m. throughout summer.” Note: Wellness Wednesdays include: Haircuts, foot care and more. Thursday’s Fundays includes: Music, dance, and games. Be safe, and have a great summer! AUGUST 9, 2024 AROUND TOWN Visual Arts Contest winners announced GROUNDCOVER STAFF On Sunday, August 4 we gathered at the Makeshift Gallery to celebrate the close of the 2024 Groundcover News Visual Arts Contest. We listened to music by Desmond Bratton, Randall McCaleb, Violin Monster and Amanda Gale. The community cast the last votes for their favorite submissions. The popular choice was decided by tallying the 21 online votes and 265 physical ballots. Our panel of judges — composed of Washtenaw County artists Barry Chattillion, T'onna Clemmons, Denali Gere and Ria Daugherty — selected the four juried winners through a consensus process. Thank you to all who engaged with this project over the summer — buying each of the summer issues featuring the submitted artwork, visiting and viewing the work at the downtown AADL or the Makeshift Gallery. Thank you to the donors who made this arts contest possible. And of course, thank you to all the artists who submitted work — it is your creations and talents that made this contest worth doing! If you have any feedback, ideas for next year, or would like to participate in planning the project, reach out to contact@ groundcovernews.com PHOTO PAINTING DRAWING OPEN/MIXED GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Juried choice: Hosea Hill Popular choice: Cindy Gere Juried choice: Robbie February Popular choice: Cindy Gere Juried choice: James Manning Popular choice: Philip Spink Juried choice: Robbie February Popular choice: Terri Demar

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES  HCV from page 5 kept Amy and I in a precarious situation for months. The stress of it has caused a few medical concerns. We have had four surgeries between the two of us in the last 30 days. This isn’t any way to heal and it will cause us years of recovery that could have and should have been prevented.” Amy reaches out for Steve's hand and we continue the interview. “I met Steve in first grade.” Amy added, “I was married for 15 years with two kids. My husband passed away in 2015 and my life has been a mess since. I was 35 when he died. We had no insurance, nothing. I had a trailer in Wixom. Steve and I stayed in touch and started traveling together in November 2022. We were in the same situation, we were f***ed and let’s just say we were still f***ed. We chose to find shelter together compared to two bad separate home situations.” Steve said “The first letter we got [from MSHDA] stated that it was determined that we were housed. I was like ‘When? And how the f*** did anyone determine we were housed?’ We followed up with them and I felt the community was turning on me. We were in a lot of contact with PATH. Or maybe sh*t got lost in the shuffle. Last year, PATH would come out and check on us. This year I feel like we have no support from the County." Addressing the confusion To address these issues in Washtenaw County, several measures could be considered: 1. Improve mail handling: Ensuring reliable mail delivery for shelters like the Delonis Center is crucial. MSHDA should work with these facilities to resolve mail issues and explore alternative communication methods, such as digital notifications or secure online portals. 2. Improve communication: The HCV program could improve its communication strategies by providing clear, updates about the waiting list process. Enhancing accessibility through multiple communication channels would also be beneficial. 3. Clarify project preferences: Offering transparent information about project preferences and criteria would help applicants understand how these factors affect their waiting list status. Clear guidelines can aid applicants in making more informed decisions. 4. Simplifying administrative procedures: This will improve efficiency and reduce delays. Investing in technology and staff training might enhance waiting list management and applicant experience. 5. Provide educational resources: Offering workshops or resources to educate applicants about the waiting detailed instructions and list process, their rights, and available options can empower them to navigate the system more effectively. By tackling these areas, MSHDA can better support applicants like Steve and Amy, reducing the stress and uncertainty associated with the waiting list and ultimately providing more effective and equitable affordable housing assistance. MSHDA will continue to provide rental assistance on behalf of current HCV participants as their program participation is not impacted by the shortfall. MSHDA may continue to assist families in these programs: Project-Based Voucher program, Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, and the Stability Voucher program. People who are seeking publicly funded housing should take heart. Many other states have suspended their waiting lists only to reopen them again. New York recently reopened a previously closed list. Over two hundred thousand people applied for less than three thousand vouchers, but there are other opportunities as well. Steve adds a personal note: “I can still beat up on some of those younger guys on the disc golf course. When I’m done, I’ll whip them up with a tasty dish of Stevey sauce served on my favorite disc.” His humor underscores the resilience and determination that keep him and Amy going despite the challenges they face. exp. 01/31/2025 AUGUST 9, 2024 AUGUST 9, 2024 PUZZLES 1 13 16 18 23 28 31 34 37 44 47 50 56 61 63 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Corner store 7. Cite as evidence 13. Made square 14. Congenial 16. Led 17. Ornamental purple flower 18. Make a mistake 19. Part of GPS (Abbr.) 21. ___ Havre, French seaport 22. Neck accessory 23. "Smart" one 25. Confined, with "up" 27. Defensive spray 28. Gossip, slang 29. 007 30. Cast a ballot 31. "La Scala di ___" (Rossini opera) 32. Not at home 33. ___ Rapids, Iowa 34. Viking weapon 37. Of dairy cows 39. What might come before the chicken 40. Barber's motion 44. "Don't bet ___!" 45. Part of TLC 46. Ditty 47. "What are the ____?" 48. Information unit 49. Swerves at sea 50. Something old, something ___ 51. Yes, in Spanish 52. Disliked, in a text (Abbr.) 55. After expenses 56. Upholster's heavy, floral friend 59. Scalawag 61. One working at a copy shop, maybe 62. Ace place? 63. "___ Roots" 64. Looked after, with "to" 57 51 58 48 52 53 59 62 64 DOWN 1. Decapitates 2. Cover 3. Honey 4. Armageddon 5. Orders to plow horses 6. Mark of "Game of Thrones" 7. Austrian river 8. Gave out, as cards 9. "Truth or ____" 10. "Born in the ___" 11. Choral composition 12. Siren 14. Shiny shoe material 15. Old-fashioned "you" 20. Shoot off one's mouth 24. White Burgundy wine 26. Bismarck st. 27. Demureness 29. The two of them 30. Annoy 33. Hamster's home 35. Division of a play 36. "Snowy" bird 37. Contemporary people 38. Lived inside, as a spirit 41. Multifaceted 42. Incorporate something into a fabric 43. Crushed into a powder 45. Famous baseball pitcher Young 47. "___ bitten, twice shy" 48. Pig out 51. Achy 53. At one time, at one time 54. Valley 57. Toni Morrison's "___ Baby" 58. Nothin' but ___! 60. Merkley or Wyden, e.g. (Abbr.) 54 60 38 45 35 39 24 29 32 36 40 46 49 55 41 42 43 33 19 20 25 26 30 2 4 5 6 7 8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD from the International Network of Street Papers 3 9 14 17 21 27 22 10 11 12 15 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS STREET MYTH A breakdown of Homer's The Iliad Not being a lover of Classical Literature, I found it hard to read The Iliad. My saving grace is that as a grandson of George Glenn Cameron, a former archaeologist and History teacher, I followed in his footsteps as a student of anthropology at Eastern Michigan University. My understanding of the Iliad is due to the writing style of Homer, and my being a student of Hermetic and Ceremonial Magic, and a lover of the mysteries of the gods/goddesses. And that Homer begins his book not as a dry run of the history of the Trojan War, but as dialogue between man and the divine. Homer's books “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” are required reading in many programs of Great Books, one of which, from beginning to end, "St. John's College, the Freshman level of Great Books," I am determined to finish in my spare time. All of us have at our disposal time to read ten pages a day of a particular book, in a form of self sacrifice of what else we may do with that amount of time on a daily basis. This tale covers the Trojan War in prose style of classical literature. Not being an avid fan of history but rather religion and the anthropology of religion no less, it is fortuitous that the story begins as a dialogue between Man and his Divine source. Great heroes of the time are included in this tale. The Trojans and the Achaeans are both covered in this battle. I must admit it took more than just the text in an English translation from Classical Greek, supplemented by Spark Notes and Cliffs Notes for me to comprehend the book. How does this relate to homelessness and economic struggles in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti? A fair question. It is because we all have inner battles and wars, sometimes spilling out into the physical realm — as within so without, as without, so within. In understanding a ship’s crew in waters unknown, seeking dry land on which to dock and pursue unknown treasure, we can find that literature is a great treasure, helping us to understand life and death itself. Is death always easier than life?If we think so we are sadly mistaken, as it (Death) is our greatest foe we all must face, and we can choose to enter into it in the role of Coward or Hero. This is not to say that Death is easy, nay, very much the opposite. The best we can do is to live a virtuous life and enter into the great unknown as a courageous hero, having fought our wars in life itself before meeting our ultimate end, seeking perhaps the very hand of Helen, Hera or the hand of Jove. Our next foe of life is that of ignorance. To this end I seek to aid you, my dear reader, with a condensed underJAMIE CAMERON Groundcover vendor No. 612 by the gods, and Agamemnon powerful himself as captain of the fleet and king of Mycenae. The Acheans (Greeks) sought to make war with the Trojans due to the lying spirit sent by Jove in the dream of Agamemnon. It was stated in the dream that they, the Acheans, would fight the Trojans and take the city of Troy. I am currently on the second book of The Iliad, so forgive my ignorance in writing this before finishing the book itself. A parallel to what is occurring in this standing of The Iliad. We can find in this story (and perhaps why Virgil and Shakespeare appear in my mind as I read this great tale) the Trickster God, or a god in his malicious role. In the form of a dream, the God Jove sent this lying spirit to the captain of the fleet. Many of us may view Jove, or Jupiter, as not only a father of gods and goddesses, but as the very source itself, both in roles of the trickster and a non-trickster. If we view life as a potential of a trickster as well as reality, a dream or in our waking up to reality from a world of dream, we may see a parallel, and that is what I seek to leave you with. We in this world may not be unarmed, but none of us can afford to stroll down the street armed with spears and swords and shields. Nay, this would immediately put us in bonds. So I implore you to consider the times in which this tale took place. We now have the benefit of entire libraries at our disposal, a benefit of our times, despite those who seek to burn or ban books. Ignorance is our greatest foe. May libraries become your — our — sanctuary, with a common theme as we seek to learn and understand, not just use it as a warming or cooling center as we go about our days and nights. Nay, make much use of these centers of learning. If the internet fails to work on a given day, there are still words on paper from which we can extract an education. With that, I invite you to join me in the quest to understand the point of The Iliad and its characters, and perhaps see in our modern times the parallels to being homeless. As you read this, we are seeing multiple wars across the globe, which in itself seek natural resources and people to exploit, and to seek treasures in the form of human and political power, money a bonus. Achilles is not just a Greek restaurant, but a great man of renown, a hero. In Book One of The Iliad, Homer presents a quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, with Achilles aided world is a competition between two parties seeking to take control of the United States, one as just another leader, while one wants to be not just a man but a king and God. You feel me on this point? If not, here is the spoiler — Harris and Trump. Where this intersects with the homeless is by which social programs or policies one or the other seeks to exploit, corrupt or completely take away. Let us view Troy as the United States, and the treasures sought as the money behind the social programs and domestic and foreign policies. Troy was set up to fall, aided by the gods, the hand of Helen as the prize to gain in a major war between the Acheans and the Trojans. Helen may very well be the voting process, our democracy, as opposed to a monarchy that one party seeks. This will affect each and every one of us, in high places and low. So who are the Acheans and who are the Trojans? And of what shall be the fate of Troy? What gods shall we appease with burnt offerings? Where is the hand of Jove or Zeus himself in all of this? This may be viewed on the global theater: in Venezuela a tied election for or against the people; Ukraine, if victorious, will prevent a dictator from taking other countries at will. Should Ukraine fail to be aided by the gods, let us hope the hand of Zeus and AUGUST 9, 2024 Hera be with us all. Let us set up altars for our household gods and goddesses, with regular offerings and praise. In the end, let us hope our democracy stays and stands through our Heroine, rather than the man who wants to be King and a God himself. Let the trickle-down effect be seen, heard and felt in favor of the common (wo)man of this city of Troy (the United States). Let the Olympics not be a distraction in all of this. Let Olympus’s gods and goddesses reign, and not man. Let the treasure (our election process) remain safe and guarded in the open, along with its trickle-down programs and policies. - AUGUST 9, 2024 AROUND TOWN Operation robin rescue: do's and dont's I was on my way to the library. I had some applications to follow up on and I was going to orate my article for the Groundcover Speaks podcast. I was just making my way as I usually do —shouting obscenities at passersby and generally being offensive — when I saw a baby bird on the ground. This little bird didn't look happy. I looked up and I saw the nest, which was WAY TOO HIGH!!! I couldn’t reach it. I was faced with a choice: I could give up my plans for the morning or say “that’s life in the big city” to the bird and keep moving. I picked up the little bird and I wondered what to do. I couldn't leave him to the ants, the life of a bird is short enough and they would get theirs soon enough. A man walked up to a pick-up truck nearby and I asked him if he would help. He said yes! But when we examined the area below the nest site his truck was not going to fit. “Oy vey,” he said with a sad look on his face. He wanted to help, but the planters by the tree were not gonna move. Those planters have to weigh tons! So I thanked the kind man and I figured maybe someone at the Groundcover office might help? They sure weren't expecting me to walk into the office at that time and definitely not with some kind of dang baby bird. But I did it anyway. I thought maybe there would be a step ladder or something we could get. Many people were apprehensive about the bird's fate. Many said, “You touched it, now the momma bird will reject it.” I explained if I didn't the poor bird was destined to be ant food, so I had to try. It turns out I did the right thing. I went outside the office and turned over rocks till I found a grub and two worms. I didn't go full on momma bird and chew them up, but I did smash them a bit. The bird bros had this to say: “If you find a baby bird, it likely does not need your help unless it is featherless or has its eyes closed. These birds are nestlings and aren’t ready to leave the nest yet. If you can locate the nest nearby, the How to Help a Grounded Baby Bird When you come upon a hatchling or TONY SMITH Groundcover contributor nestling on the ground, look for a nest in the area; it’s likely to be within a few yards. Then follow these steps: (1) Put on gloves (or, if you don’t have gloves, wash your hands). (2) Gently pick up the baby bird and place it back into the nest. Note: If the nest has been damaged best thing to do is simply place the nestling back in the nest. If you cannot locate the nest, leave the nestling where you found it or move it to a shaded area. The parents will come back. Don’t worry, your scent won’t deter the parents. “As birds get bigger, they outgrow the nest and need room to move around, flap their wings and learn to fly. These more developed birds are fledglings and they can easily be identified by their more developed feathers. They can hop and flutter on their own. Fledglings don’t need help — their parents are nearby and still caring for them. Be sure to give them plenty of space.” (US Fish and Wildlife) It's important to know the stages of a bird; when they first leave the nest it might be awkward. My guy seemed like late stage two to me. Baby birds go through three stages: Hatchling (usually 0-3 days old). It hasn’t yet opened its eyes, and may have wisps of down on its body. It’s not ready to leave the nest. Nestling (usually 3-13 days old). Its eyes are open, and its wing feathers may look like tubes because they’ve yet to break through their protective sheaths. It’s also not ready to leave the nest. Fledgling (13-14 days old or older). This bird is fully feathered. Its wings and tail may be short, and it may not be a great flyer, but it can walk, hop or flutter. It has left the nest, though its parents may be nearby, taking good care of it. or is too high to reach, you can place the bird in a woven basket from your local garden store and hang it on a low branch. A basket looks to birds like a natural nest and the weave design will allow rainwater to drain through it and prevent the baby bird from drowning. Watch from a distance to see if the parent comes back to the nest. This may take a few hours, so if you can’t stay, try to come back later that day to check. If the parent bird doesn’t return to the nest, or you can’t find the nest: 1. Using gloved or clean hands, place the bird in a container (e.g., a shoe box) lined with soft cloth. You can use paper towels, a baby blanket or a piece of clothing. 2. If you have a heating pad, place it on the lowest setting and put it under the soft bedding to keep the baby bird warm. A hot water bottle also works well. 3. Place the box with the baby bird in a dark, quiet place away from people and pets. 4. Don’t give the bird food or water. 5. Contact your local wildlife rehabilitation center to arrange for further care. I left the Groundcover office with the bird in a blue laundry container. I’d squished a few worms and a grub. I was this bird's mommy now — a mommy from Hell! I had a chair and one of the Groundcover reporters came with me in case I needed a hand. I was grateful for her because my plan involved balancing on a chair made during the Eisenhower administration. As luck would have it things would work out perfectly. When we arrived at the corner I soon found out that the chair was not going to cut it. So I had the idea of trying the library; the librarian was helpful but no one was available to help. So I returned to the scene. The little bird was chirping and its mother stood a distance away calmly watching the situation. Its little mouth opened wide and its eyes squinted hard so I gave it the last of the worms while I figured what to do. It was then birdy lightning struck. Across the street were two guys one with a ladder of just the right size and another with a pull cart. I yelled and gesticulated wildly as I ran across the street. The look on their faces was definitely one of trepidation. That all changed when I told them the situation. They gladly came to aid in my mission of mercy. We set up the ladder and got to business. During this time I learned that the pair worked for the city hanging banners on street lamps and putting up posters. Very likely you have passed their work many times. They may not paint the art for the pieces they hang, but if not for them and their coworkers the many beautiful pieces would not be hung so often and changed with good regularity. In an instant the heroes of this story turned from regular working guys into an elite bird rescue team. As a backup, I had the number of the nature rehab people on deck, but as you will see in the film [https://files. catbox.moe/5m22x3.mp4], everything worked out. A few days on everything looks fine, I’ve checked and no dead Birdy :). I did see their mother catching worms the next day, and heard the wee birds' near-ravenous peeping. As I was doing the final revising of this piece I had another interesting bird experience. This time with a fledgling (the last stage of baby birds). It landed on my back and proceeded to chirp in my ears for like ten minutes. In this stage of bird development the birds can fly, but they are still learning. A nice lady wanted to keep the bird because she thought it was lost. Enjoy and be kind to our feathered friends. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11  HOUSTON from page 4 implement the Housing First model with varying degrees of success and failure. Atlanta says that they succeeded in reducing their community’s homeless population by 40% by using the Housing First approach. Dallas and Salt Lake City saw some improvements. However, Los Angeles is still searching for a significant improvement after implementing the Housing First strategy. Grand Rapids/ Kent County’s coalition to end homelessness which includes more than 60 Continuum of Care partners recently plans to house 100 chronically homeless people within 100 days. Houston’s Housing First success story should resonate with local and state government leaders who are searching for durable solutions to their challenges with unhoused, unsheltered and growing street homelessness. Houston presents a good case study. National Alliance to End Homelessness research has shown that Housing First is more cost effective than traditional rapid rehousing programs. Washtenaw County is not as large an urban county as Harris County. However, Ann Arbor, the County Seat, lacks affordable housing. Rent inflation continues to be too high. Ypsilanti is somewhat more affordable, but the cost of housing is rising there, too. Local and state governments should implement Housing First policies but they will likely need economic support from the federal government to make substantial headway.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Mouth-watering meatballs ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef 1 pound Italian sausage 1 egg 1/2 cup finely chopped onion 1/4 cup chopped parsley (or a bit more) 1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese 4-ounce block of mozzarella cheese Directions: Mix the first 6 ingredients together in a large bowl. Form into balls a little larger than a golf ball. Stuff with centimeter-cubed piece of mozzarella cheese. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees. Do not allow the cheese to melt out of the meatball. Remove from cookie sheet and blot to remove grease. Transfer to a pot of your favorite marinara sauce and allow meatballs to simmer for an additional 30-40 minutes. Serve hot with spaghetti noodles. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS B O D E G A AUGUST 9, 2024 A D D U C E E V E N E D P L E A S A N T H E A D E D A M A R A N T H E R R S Y S T A L E C L E T I E P E N T M A C E D I S H B O N D V O T E S E T A O U T C E D A R B A T T L E A X E O D D S M I L C H E G G S N I P O N I T C A R E B Y T E N E W S I H T E D N E T C R E T O N N E R A S C A L E N L A R G E R S L E E V E S T R E E T T E N D E D T U N E Y A W S $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 8/23/2024

2 $ JULY 26, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 16 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. MARK GIGAX #620 Who will be the new sheriff in town? Page 6. ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT ISSUE BRINGS YOU TO THE POLLS? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. MICHIGAN PRIMARY IS AUGUST 6, 2024. voter information inside THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER voting INFORMATION NEXT ELECTION Tuesday, August 6: Primary election — Federal, state and local candidates, proposals Tuesday, November 5: General election VIEW PERSONALIZED VOTING INFORMATION www.vote411.org • See what's on your ballot • Check your voter registration • Find your polling place • Discover upcoming debates in your area EARLY VOTING INFORMATION Michigan voters now have the right to vote early in-person during nine (9) full days prior to every major election. To do so, voters must visit one of the Early Voting sites assigned to the city or township they live in. All sites are open from the second Saturday through the Sunday immediately prior to every major election, including on the weekends. Wondering where and when you can vote early? Look up your voter record and early voting site information at Michigan.gov/Vote WATCH CANDIDATE FORUMS League of Women Voters - Washtenaw County organized and recorded all-candidate forums for the August Primary races, including the Board of Commissioners. my.lwv.org/michigan/washtenaw-county SAFER COMMUNITIES START WITH SUPPORTING PEOPLE, NOT POLICING THEM. Kat Layton’s approach to public safety goes beyond traditional policing models. With 44% of jailed individuals reporting at least one mental health condition, and jails disproportionately affecting people of color, we need systems that don't criminalize people of color, the poor, unhoused, or mentally ill. By investing in community programs that address the root causes of crime, like mental health services, harm reduction, affordable housing, and education, we can create safer and more resilient communities without relying on police. ACTION ITEMS KAT INTENDS TO FULFILL Realign Millage Funding: Determine the true allocation of funds from the Mental Health & Public Safety Millage and redirect spending to support its original purpose, addressing underfunded programs focused on root issues. Work towards prioritizing support services over law enforcement funding. Unarmed & Non-Police Crisis Response: Leverage county funding for an data-driven, unarmed crisis response program without police involvement, while working towards providing pre-arrest diversion and deflection programs. 24/7 Shelter and Resource Center: Establish a year-round warming and cooling center for our unhoused neighbors in collaboration with the county and community organizations, with the long-term goal of developing an emergency overnight shelter. VOTE AUGUST 6 JULY 26, 2024 KAT LAYTON EQUITY-CENTERED DEMOCRAT FOR COUNTY COMMISSIONER PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Hanan Husein — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Jim Clark Ramon Roberto Isla Caballero Mike Jones Jane Reilly Ken Parks Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer Wayne Sparks Philip Spink Buk'e Woyrm GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 CONTACT US PROOFREADERS Kendall Artz Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Sim Bose Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Jacob Fallman Robert Klingler Simone Masing Anthony McCormick Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons exp. 01/31/2025 JULY 26, 2024 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What issue brings you to the polls? Affordable housing policy. — Mark Gigax, #620 Not issues but the elections themselves. Local elections — because local issues — are important to me. — Wayne Sparks, #615 Peace and freedom. — Ken Parks, #490 The border. — Tony Schohl, #9 People having good healthcare and housing and food and ending violence. — Denise Shearer, #485 Getting the first woman President! — Shawn Swoffer, #574 Defeating Donald Trump. — Cindy Gere, #279 Getting some sort of stability for people who have none. Not just people on the street, working families, everyone ...except the rich. — Michael Montagano, #640 While I don't think participating in America's governmental processes will yield any result that moves us towards a compassionate and evolved state, I will vote for my friends who are running because they are fighting the same fight just on a different front. — Jim Clark, #139 ICE is so racista RAMON ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 44 years ago, in the United States, a bastard in the state police in the state of Indiana in the county of Valparaíso used immigration control and an illegal immigrant lost all his rights when he signed a voluntary deportation. That immigrant was me. Since then, I spent many years working and now I don’t owe anything to anyone. Now I feel sick at 65 years, with no family, and the only thing I have is my job selling papers. I have no free time and own nothing; everything is given to me for free by the American government, thanks to the federal laws in this country. Still this is a racist country because of ICE. Now it’s even worse. I lost my Section 8 title because the waitlist closed and now have no more prospects for housing. If I was living in another state, and the police caught me sleeping outside, I would need to pay a $250 fine. Everyday, new, more discriminatory laws are passed. That’s why I don’t like this country anymore. Hace 44 años, en Estados Unidos, un desgraciado de la policía estatal en el estado de Indiana en el condado de Valparaíso usó el control de imigración y un ilegal perdió todos sus derechos al firmar una deportación voluntaria. Ese ilegal era yo. Después, he pasado muchos años trabajando y no tengo que darle cuenta a nadie. Ahora me siento enfermo con 65 años de edad, sin familia, y lo único que tengo es mi trabajo de vendedor de periódicos. No tengo un día libre y sin nada, todo me lo da grátis el gobierno americano. Gracias a las leyes federales de este país. Sin embargo, este es un país racista. Ahora es mucho peor. Ya no tengo mi vale de Sección 8 porque la lista de espera se cerró y así no tengo más vivienda. Si yo viviera en otro estado y la policía me atrapara durmiendo en la calle, tendría que pagar una multa de 250 dólares. A cada día, nueves leyes más discriminatorias son aprobadas. Por eso no me gusta más este país. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 I'll miss June and July June and July are two of my favorite months to celebrate holidays. In June, there’s Juneteenth celebrating how God and Jesus helped people be free. People also barbecue and have good food and get togethers for Juneteenth. I also like to celebrate Christmas any month I can, including the summer months. June and July are two good months to barbecue and have celebrations and have fun. I also like to send cards and get and give Christmas presents in June and July too. I like to go to places where my friends are, like Growing Hope and FedUp Ministries in Ypsilanti. I like to hang around downtown Ypsilanti and go to the church where my friends are. I like going to Bethlehem DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 United Church of Christ where Groundcover is and a lot of my friends are there, too. I like to celebrate the holidays by doing artwork for my friends, too. The Ann Arbor Art Fair is in July So long, Joe! WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 In this time of political turmoil, it is refreshing to see that there are still people around who will put their personal wants aside and will do what's best for the people! Yeah, remember us? Now with his example and heartfelt and every July I get happy and excited and try my best to make it there. The Art Fair has any type of artwork you want to see. I like the nonprofit booths where you can get things for free. I like to get food from the Art Fair and just walk around and look at the beautiful scenery and maybe see some of my friends, or maybe make some new friends if I can. One of my favorite things to do is get something cold to drink because most of the time it be so hot. The Art Fair is very fun and beautiful and relaxing. There’s a lot of interesting people and artwork. Those are the ways I like to celebrate June and July. decision we have a true patriot who showed us he didn't just talk the talk, but walked the walk. Now it is time for us to come together. We have a moment in time where we can change the narrative, where we can run political campaigns on our accomplishments, not on our opponents' failures. It's time for us to take a quick breath and take a good look at both candidates, not have them just attack one another. A time to find who has the integrity to have the light shine on them and not come up wanting. So we are saying goodbye to a person who has spent most of his adult life serving the people: Joe Biden. It would be so easy to take pot shots at both parties. I’ll follow the President of the United States — Joe Biden's — lead and see if this novel idea of doing what's best for the people resonates and catches on!

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VOTING I remember the first time I voted and became a part of the democratic process … but why? Black Men here in the United States of America, a lot of us feel our vote doesn't matter or won’t have no-real effect on our situation here in America; in short, we are totally detached and have no faith in the democratic process. But it is projected that there will be 34.4 million eligible Black voters by election time in November 2024. Black voter turnout rates are projected to be higher than Hispanics and Asians. The first time I voted was when Barack Obama first won the presidency in 2008. The reason I voted for him was simply because of his skin color. Not because he was a Democrat or his ideas and values were in line with my own; I never thought about what type of policies he might administer. How naive I was then. Now, seventeen years later, I am much wiser. Still, I have to mention his skin color caught my attention and put me in the game of the democratic process. During Barack Obama’s presidency I started becoming detached and decided not to participate in the 2012 election.Then Trump came along in 2016 and swept the nation by storm, with it at times. This upcoming election I will be casting my vote and hope others will do the same. I met a brother in the downtown Ann Arbor area named Todd Wilson, the Michigan lead organizer and consultant of Black Men Vote. As we talked, he let me know that MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 catching everybody's attention. He turned ordinary news stations into political entertainment narcotics; people became hooked on Trump news. Now, I must mention that Trump news got me back into the game of the process of democracy again. Both Obama and Trump caught the attention of the masses, including those people who would have never paid attention to politics. Sometimes it takes extreme figures and/or situations to get people's attention and to get them involved. Ever since 2016, I have been back in the game, being a part of the democratic process, even though I struggle Frank White, known as former President Barack Obama’s top fundraiser, started BMV in January 2024. BMV is currently partnered with “Shop Talk,” the flagship of the campaign currently operating in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. The goal is to get 55-60 barbershops, beauty salons and barber schools involved with helping to get Black Men registered and participating in the democratic process.” As he continued, he informed why he decided to get involved and engage in Black Men voter mobilization and voter registration. “Because I noticed a voter deficit, if we look at the polls, our voter turnout rate was the lowest nationally; only 12 percent of Black registered voters came out to vote in the last Michigan Primary election. Shop Talk is geared towards changing that trajectory, by mobilizing Black Men to get them engaged or reengaged into the JULY 26, 2024 Black Men Vote mobilizes voters in barber shops democratic process. As men, we are looked-up to in the household and in our communities. People watch us; therefore, we can lead by example, and we can change the trajectory, when it comes to our vote as a whole, in our community. Black Men being involved allows for Black Men to be more informed on issues, and allows us as Black Men to have a voice in the political arena on issues that matter to us.” Then I asked him about the types of responses that have been received since the start of BMV. He said, “Voter mobilization; people are really getting behind it and getting involved. We also look to partner with various organizations and with state and local governments soon; things have been going well.” I had one last question for Todd: How can people register to vote and get involved with BMV? He said, “If you want to get more information on Black Men Vote, you can go to our website blackmenvote.org and you can register to vote on our website and also get valuable information needed for the upcoming election.” So, there you have it folks, exercise your right and vote! Three City of Ypsilanti ballot initiatives to look for during November election LINDSAY CALKA Publisher Ypsilanti Ballot Initiative Group (Ypsi BIG) is a newly formed group of organizers in Ypsilanti that has nearly collected 900 signatures on three separate ballot petitions aimed at amending the Ypsilanti City Charter. The group includes members from Ypsilanti Tenants Union, What’s Left Ypsi, Eastern Michigan University, and former members of Defend Affordable Ypsi. Ypsi BIG began planning for the petitioning process early in 2024, drawing inspiration from an unsuccessful effort by Defend Affordable Ypsi in 2020, which attempted to instate rent control through a ballot petition process. Ypsi BIG surveyed a number of local grassroots organizations, considering over 10 possible charter amendments before deciding on three. A ballot initiative is a proposed law — in this case, a change to the City Charter — initiated by the electorate instead of by those in elected office. In order to get the proposed legislation on the ballot, a certain number of signatures must be collected and approved by a deadline. In addition to the standard tactic of door knocking and street canvassing at public events such as Ypsi Pride, First Fridays and Juneteenth, Ypsi BIG marketed the ballot initiatives on social media and directed interested signers to show up at a central location — Vertex Cafe, Sundays 1-4 p.m. — throughout June and July. Due to their efforts, close to 900 Ypsilanti residents have signed in favor of these changes and if the remainder of the signatures are collected and approved by the City Clerk by July 30, the measures will be up for general vote in the November 5 election. Read up on what each of the initiatives aim to do so you can make an informed decision on election day. 1. Public Control of Police Budget: Requires that any changes to the Ypsilanti Police Department budget be voted on as a stand-alone issue by the general public during a regular November election. 2. Non-partisan Local Elections: Would eliminate partisan voting for Mayor and City Council positions, Show up to Vertex Cafe Sunday, July 28 1-4 p.m. to sign and support the initiatives! which would mean that straight-ticket voting would not apply to those seats. This would also eliminate City Council and mayoral primary elections, which would effectively create more competitive races in November. 3. Tenant Rights: Would result in three big changes: 1) A ban on rental application fees, 2) A requirement for landlords to follow a Right of First Refusal law, and 3) A requirement for landlords to register all of their properties with the City on an accessible online database. There would be substantial financial penalties for landlords should they not follow this, and holding them accountable will be the job of City Council. Right of First Refusal mandates that landlords, if selling their rental properties, first offer to sell the property at market rate to the tenant(s) who live there. If you are interested in supporting the campaign for these initiatives, contact Ypsi BIG by visiting their website www.linktr.ee/ypsibig or messaging on Instagram @ypsi.big JULY 26, 2024 MAKING CHANGE Where is the revolution? KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 It is often said, “You can kill the revolutionary but you can’t kill the revolution.” On the 4th of July, independence is tainted with a military flavor that usually promotes the military-industrial-financial complex that Eisenhower warned us about. Freedom of expression is limited by the idolatry of flag worship. Fireworks are a magical display that distract from the bombs that are regularly falling on someone in the world. The aspiration for freedom is born with the first breath of every baby. The potential for love and creativity which we recognize in a newborn is the human heritage we all embody. The real question may be, “Where is your inner child?” NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) did a study on genius, creativity and imagination and discovered that nearly all fiveyear-olds scored high. The rate declined with age and was down to 2% for adults. Google can teach us a lot but it is up to us to work with what we have. This means recognizing the plight of our inner child and doing the healing so that inner child and adult learn to communicate. I proposed a workshop at Crazy Wisdom with Joya D’Cruz on this theme and hope to have an announcement soon. Joya was mentored by Eugene Gendlin who wrote “Focusing,” an important book on mental health. Facing reality is a revolutionary act and can inspire you to become an active participant in your life. The dialectic of theory and practice is a lively one as the rhythm of joy appears. Today, July 1, is the anniversary of the jazz standard “Take Five,” the 5/4 rhythm that brightens our life. Search that when you are ready for a treat! Maybe we will play it on October 8 as the theme of my 82nd birthday. I was born just before the baby boomers who once said “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” There is some form of youth rebellion with every generation and the Gray Panthers slogan “Youth and Age Together” is one to remember. We can empower each other to follow through until the job is done. We will know when peace and justice replace compliance with the chain of command. Martha Reeves and the Vandellas sang about it, “Dancing In The Street.” Another treat at your fingertips. We have a long history of victories that seem to crumble just as we want to rest on our laurels. After the war in Vietnam, the ruling class broke the so-called Vietnam Syndrome with Ken Parks at the Ann Arbor Coalition Against the War Art Fair Booth. war in Granada and then Panama. The School of the Americas became known as the School of the Assassins and renamed itself to continue the wars of counterinsurgency. Read soaw.org for updates as the popular struggles continue in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in particular. The most recent victory in the global struggle for freedom is the release of Julian Assange. The popular movement in Australia gained enough momentum that politicians took notice and acted to release him after five years of prison which came on the heels of his controversial arrest at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he was in asylum for seven years. The bravery and persistence of Assange and his family and the struggle for freedom of the press is now legendary. Let’s follow through and support the whistleblowers in our midst. Water protectors — from Standing Rock in North Dakota to the Carrizo Comecrudo tribe of Texas, the original people of the Rio Grande — are active in exposing the extractive war on the environment. As Juan B. Mancias says, “Water is meant to unite, not divide.” I ordered a t-shirt with a striking photo of him and that quote. You can get one at the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas website. I am guilty of being active in both religion and politics, the two taboos of bourgeois culture. This French origin word refers to the capitalist class and sometimes middle class as people adjust to the geopolitical order of our time in history. The French and American Revolutions consolidated the end of feudalism and the deepening of the capitalist revolution which is ripening for the next step towards freedom. This is the responsibility we share as we learn that reality is a seamless whole, that awareness is the next step in our evolution to genuine revolution. James Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs are legendary in Detroit and beyond for their life of theory and practice that you can visit in the book “Evolution and Revolution in the 20th Century.” When your life’s purpose becomes a shared purpose with others, the power that arises is formidable. If your intention is to benefit all beings without exception, countless world systems will arise. When inner space and outer space come together, infinity takes a dive into the Clear Light of the Void. This is the moment when masters of mindful awareness will be welcomed into your inner circle of significant beings. Suffering becomes a force to seek the cure. When we discover that reality is a workable situation, the revolution of unconditional love will erase all the conceptual prisons that have enslaved us from beginningless time. Unimpeded awareness becomes a victory celebration. Imagine that! I must mention that July 26 is celebrated in Cuba as the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. Although the attack on the Moncada barracks was a failure, it marked the beginning of open resistance to the Batista dictatorship. I regularly ask my Cuban family “Where is the revolution?” and the response is always “Where is it?” We have unfinished revolutions in many places. Awareness with dignity and confidence will help us weave many local fabrics into a beautiful global quilt. “The Invention of Wings” is a wonderful book on quilts and freedom. The historic friendship of a slavemaster’s daughter and a slave girl is the inspiration for this book by Sue Monk Kidd, who many know from “The Secret Life of Bees.” This world is an amazing place when your curiosity comes out of the closet. The revolution begins here. Since no one can do everything, it is good to tune in to whatever speaks to you and know that anything you do is interrelated and that everyday life is the main stage. Daily mindful awareness practice is my recommendation on where to start. Your inner child is ready to play the game of life. Just as the sun rises everyday, raise yourself to a daily practice of engaged living. The revolution lives in your heart. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AUGUST PRIMARY Who will be the new sheriff in town? JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 County Sheriff’s Departments are charged with the same things police officers are — investigating crimes and arresting criminals. Little regard is given by law enforcement for the circumstances under which crimes are committed or the state-of-life the “criminals” are in. Law is blind. So it doesn’t care if your parents abused you and now you perpetuate crimes of abuse. It doesn’t care if you fell to peer pressure and now are addicted to something. Law doesn’t care if you have mental illness or are simply a person built to live outside of norms. The point of the law does not seem to be to protect and serve as much as it is to arrest and punish. Washtenaw County is about to elect a new sheriff. This means almost nothing to abolitionists and anti-capitalists; however, it is worth paying attention to who will be holding this position of power. As a young activist, I was told that I could work within the system to change it from the inside. I have tried this and have seen others try it. It rarely works. Real change is not going to come from within this system; it will only come from complete deconstruction of the system. However, there is some sentiment within the ranks of law enforcement towards abolition. I interviewed each candidate to learn where they stand on abolition, reallocating public funds to mental health care, and on community-led actions to solve homelessness. Here are the takes from the candidates: What Interested You in Police Work? Alyshia Dyer: “I grew up extremely low-income in Ypsilanti, raised by a single parent, and had a lot of childhood trauma. I ran away from home a lot and at one point was falsely arrested and treated badly by the police. These experiences motivated me to get into law enforcement to be a more compassionate officer who really cared about people in our community. I also wanted to change things in law enforcement that I knew were harming people I cared about.” After completing her bachelor’s degree at Eastern Michigan University, Dyer earned advanced degrees from Gerald R. Ford School of Policy and the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan. She served as a road patrol deputy and a marine deputy at the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s office for nearly a decade. Derrick Jackson: “Originally I was JULY 26, 2024 Alyshia Dyer: Ypsilanti native who wants to end over-policing. just interested in systems work, like doing things in my neighborhood that could make the lives of people who were living in the community better. I left direct service social work because every day I would help a young person but there was always another family coming back who needed more help.” Jackson took on a job at the County Clerk's office where he met Jerry Clayton, Washtenaw County Sheriff. As Jackson tells the story, “I went into work at the Clerk's office where I met this guy [Jerry Clayton] who had this crazy idea about doing social work through a police agency. Honestly that's what pulled me into it. I didn't grow up wanting to be a police officer. It was literally this idea of doing social work and police work together.” Ken Magee: “I was a young and rambunctious person who had a good family but was running the neighborhood being mischievous, always pushing the envelope. I was never a bully. Instead, I stuck up for the kids who were getting bullied. In high school, my mentors encouraged me to channel my rambunctiousness into police work.” Two of Magee's mentors were Keith Hafner and Ed Sells, owners of Keith Hafner’s Karate in downtown Ann Arbor. There he met FBI agents. “This led to exploring a career in police work,” Ken recalled. “Numerous cops have the same story as me.” Magee graduated first in his police academy and was class president. Being very competitive, his chief challenger is always himself. He excels in all he does — martial arts, police work and writing. Magee has written four books about University of Michigan football. His law enforcement tenure includes involvement with the Drug Enforcement Administration and, as Magee puts it, “facing down some of the most dangerous criminals on the planet.” Derrick Jackson: Bringing social work to police work by restoring communities. On Abolition Dyer: “I’m never going to call myself an abolitionist because it’s hypocritical to do that and run for a position like sheriff. I will say I have read about this extensively, and what it means to me is recognizing that many of our systems were originally designed around harmful practices. Sheriffs, for example, historically were born out of slave patrols in the South and helped promote mass incarceration. Present-day, we try to push back on these roots, but there are still realities in the design of law enforcement that cause harm, even when the people working inside the system don’t intentionally mean to cause harm. I believe in reducing harm in this space as sheriff so that we are working towards new strategies to create safer communities. We also have to be more honest from a police administration standpoint about how over-policing has contributed to violence. I know so many young people who got zero support until they got into trouble. Then the support was very punitive. It didn’t help. “Abolitionists I know and have talked to, at the end of the day, believe in a Ken Magee: Former DEA agent who "thinks outside the badge." better world where everyday people aren’t being extorted, oppressed and harmed by systems that are supposed to protect us. Some of the principles, including investing more upstream and investing more in solutions for safety, hit home for me as someone who grew up in an area where opportunity is defined by zip code. My goal as sheriff is to make sure we are responding adequately to calls for service but also doing so in the least harmful way possible and ensuring we are doing our part to invest in root-cause solutions to better public safety. We need more deflection and diversion, and we need more restorative justice to offer healing for when victims of crime want to go a different route.” Jackson: “I think …” He paused and then started again. “Listen, we're all trying to work towards abolition. How do we actually get there? It would be great if we didn't have deaths or homicides or serious assaults, right? There's a lot of social ills out there. And I think as a social worker, I have these ideals of what we would be like as a society if kids weren't picking up guns and see SHERIFF next page  JULY 26, 2024 ARTS CONTEST GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Vote for your favorite mixed media piece and view submissions to the other three categories online at linktr.ee/groundcovernews Voting closes August 5! Terri Demar Scan to watch gif submission Norma Jean Cisneros Robbie February Hosea Hill  SHERIFF from last page shooting at each other. That's literally what I work for. I work so that those mothers don't have to wake up and hear me telling them that their son had been murdered. So I would love to see that stuff [abolition] in the future. I think it's just about how we get there.” Magee: “The prison system is not the responsibility of the sheriff, as the sheriff is in charge of the jail. I believe a jail and a prison both have their own respective purpose. However, any incarceration system can be improved to facilitate the ultimate goal of rehabilitation. Example, literacy, teaching the trades, advancing education, all part of the rehabilitation process. The abolition of the incarceration system is not something I believe in, but continually assessing the desired outcomes and what research and analysis presents.” On Alternatives to Policing Dyer: “Beyond policing, we need to address the root causes of crime and focus on creating safe, supportive and stable communities. We also have to admit the effect over-policing has had on our community, disproportionately affecting Black residents in Washtenaw County. We must tackle the high racial disparities in our legal system, particularly involving youth. Investments at the neighborhood level, providing better support for young people, and addressing social determinants of health are crucial for building safe communities in addition to minimizing the harm caused by our local legal system. Criminalizing low-level offenses by using heavy-handed traffic enforcement tactics only exacerbates problems, especially for young people, and we must adopt more supportive and restorative approaches. “We will do our job as law enforcement to tackle more serious crimes but what we won’t do is criminalize whole neighborhoods by stopping people for petty reasons that aren’t related to safety concerns. We also need to make more evidence-based investments at the neighborhood level to increase safety, especially to reduce traffic fatalities. This is why I also heavily support traffic calming infrastructure.” (Author's note: I’m including the second paragraph because while I believe in a non-police society, there will still be a need for people to pay attention to safety issues. Like kittens, humans are frequently guilty of petty stupidity. As a result, we will need fire departments when a candle gets knocked over by a cat, or air lifts for the hiker who slipped and fell down a hole. We don’t need police, but we all need a little help from time to time.) Jackson: “I think we're trying to eliminate social ills in unhealthy communities, in general. I think that's what social work is about, right? It's about helping people not just deal with the crisis, but help them move from crisis to self-sustainability, to live healthy and thriving lives. Any neighborhood that is safe, is also well. And so police and social work go together because you can't have safe communities unless you have well communities. So that's literally how I think these two things really go together. “But I also think, if we were serious, even abolitionists, if we were really serious, we would be investing in communities that have been disinvested in for generations. Where I grew up, where I raised my family, those communities intentionally have been disinvested from. So if we're serious about it, it isn't only about these policy tweaks to policing. We've got to invest in our communities in very different ways.” Magee: “Great question! Outside of policing [there are] literacy projects.” Magee explains there is a connection between criminal behavior and literacy. “Opportunities can be provided for people who are returning citizens, such as housing, and employment, but these are outside of [the sheriff’s] function. “What would it take to abolish the police and have a society that polices itself should have happened two centuries ago. I don't see it. I believe that there will always be predators. Individuals violate the law for their own benefit.” Magee's approach to improving policing is by “thinking outside the badge,” not the box. Magee says this means “maintaining your true values to law enforcement. To protect and serve. It’s not just about reducing crime, it’s about the police force voicing our concerns about what we feel would make us safe and protected.” On Community-led Emergency Shelter Dyer: “I am committed to being a strong advocate for self-led community emergency shelters. As sheriff, I will work to ensure these shelters are safe and that we prevent over-policing in these spaces. My experience as a deputy has shown me the harsh reality of people turning themselves in on old warrants during winter months just to stay warm. We must do better by supporting investments in shelter and providing the necessary resources to keep people safe and housed. We also need to do better in our jail so when see SHERIFF page 11 

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ACCEPTANCE An attitude, "only my life matters," is popular among bullies. In terms of behavior as opposed to legislation, equal rights means allowing others to live, believe and disagree, even if it is different from your personal or religious beliefs. Two people were fatally shot, including the shooter, two critically injured, and former president Donald Trump wounded July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pa. Police visually scrutinized every pedestrian crossing the University of Michigan Diag during the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, April 22-May 21. It wasn't harassment. It was to prevent violence against the Gaza and antiwar protestors. There were no mass shootings of protestors nationwide. Why would we ever consider these ideas, mass shootings and assassination attempts? As a country, what are we becoming? "It was very American to think that to be willing to use violence was to show seriousness and to be effective but that was not what I had learned in Vietnam," Daniel Ellsberg wrote in his book, "Secrets." Ellsberg, a former government official and Marine, helped end the Vietnam War by exposing the lies of five presidents. He gave the top-secret Pentagon Papers to the JANE REILLY Groundcover vendor No. 611 New York Times and 18 other newspapers. He was tried for espionage, the charges dismissed. Whether the gunman meant to kill or help, Donald Trump has the right to exist. The life of murdered bystander Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pa. mattered. (Information from Thomson Reuters News Service.) At a Groundcover News vendor meeting on July 2, a newcomer was met with hostility simply for existing. The vendor said they cannot tell their Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Queer friends they are homeless. They cannot tell their homeless friends they are nonbinary; nonbinary means someone who does not exclusively identify as male or female. "It can be easy to ask, 'Why are events like this important?’" Joe Halsch, Director of Ann Arbor Pride and President of the Jim Toy Community Center, wrote via email, "and I think the experience involving your coworker stresses the importance of building safe, inclusive, welcoming communities. "Pride is more than just a party," Halsch added. "Pride is a connection point to others in our community. Pride is a protest and a statement. Pride is still needed in 2024." The Jim Toy Community Center is presenting its 29th annual free Ann Arbor Pride celebration August 3 from noon to 9-10 p.m. at Liberty and Main Streets in downtown Ann Arbor. The Jim Toy Community Center is the LBGTQ support and advocacy group in Washtenaw County. Artists Gilbert Baker and Lynn Segerblom created the original rainbow Pride flag in 1978 at the request of Harvey Milk. Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California as San Francisco City Supervisor, was assassinated for writing a law banning discrimination in public accommodations, housing and employment based on sexual orientation. (Inforsee PRIDE page 11  JULY 26, 2024 A2 Pride reminds us that all lives have the right to exist Rainbow Groundcover News sign at Ypsi Pride, June 7. Each of the eight colors was assigned a specific meaning by artist Gilbert Baker: Hot pink: Sex; Red: Life; Orange: Healing; Yellow: Sunlight; Green: Nature; Turquoise: Magic and Art; Indigo: Serenity; Violet: Spirit. The brown and black are inspired by the Philadelphia Pride Flag of 2017 to honor queer People of Color. JULY 26, 2024 PUZZLES PLAY TIME Peter A. Collins GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. ___ pit (rock concert area) 5. Schooner feature 9. Roughly 13. Magazine filler? 14. French twist, for one 15. "Nonsense!" 16. Authoritative order 17. Long heroic tale 18. 2024 NCAA men's basketball champions 19. * "I really don't mind" 22. Pale 23. * "My deepest condolences" 27. Vast quantities 29. Singsong syllables 30. Makes a plea 33. Pickleball court divider 35. Spud 36. Actress Issa ___ 37. Lead-up to checkmate (and a hint to the last word in the answers to the starred clues) 40. Form 1040 no. 41. Catherine of "Schitt's Creek" 43. "Big Blue" on Wall Street 44. Cornhole delivery 45. Quartz or feldspar 48. Rectangle part 50. *1998 Pixar film 52. Ill-tempered 56. * "No idea" 58. 1836 battle site 61. Make an engraving 62. Witches 63. West Pointer 64. ___-do-well (rascal) 65. James Bond's school 66. First place? 67. The Aztecs of the Mountain West Conf. 68. Nevada casino city DOWN 1. Organized crime group 2. Leaves off 3. Sensation 4. Sex appeal 5. Bird feeder food 6. Notified 7. "Shoot the breeze," for instance 8. Part of a biblical plague 9. Noted Seminole chief 10. Letter after pi 11. Part of 67-Across 12. Possess 15. Throb 20. Binary digit 21. Manhattan, for one: Abbr. 24. Dustin's "Midnight Cowboy" role 25. Like May through August, letterwise 26. Long stories 28. ___ Arbor 30. Bakery output 31. Hindu title 32. "Matrix" star Reeves 34. ___ Friday's (restaurant chain) 37. Audible range 38. Attendance book notations 39. 2001 to Augustus 42. Systematic routine 44. One concerned with class struggles? 46. Chicken ___ king 47. Animates 49. Genetic code carrier 51. Celebrated 53. Bluish-gray color 54. Pull at 55. Kind of question with only two answers 57. By way of, for short 58. Blackjack half 59. Chap 60. Ending with Gator or orange

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY “Kidnapped from her West African home in 1762 and sold into slavery, Phillis Wheatley grew up to become the first popular African American poet. She was also the first African American and the first slave to publish a book of poems.” — Britannica Kids website The story of Phillis Wheatley is one which appeals to both the younger and the older generation. She was a trailblazer. When we talk about early Black literary achievements, her contributions and her excellence loom large. This is our fourth and last article about early Black writers and poets of America. The author plans to encourage more discussion and dialogues on this topic at some bookstores and coffee houses in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Stay tuned for some announcements and community invitations. Biography of Phillis Wheatley Historians do not have the exact birthday for Phillis Wheatley. Many have suggested that she was seven or eight when she was abducted and sold into slavery in 1761. She was a young girl when the slave ship brought her to the shores of Boston. A wealthy tailor, John Wheatley, purchased the little girl to be a servant to his wife, Suzanna. Soon, Suzanna and John noticed Phillis had reading and writing abilities. Suzanna and her young daughter, Mary, started to teach young Phillis English, grammar, religion, Greek, Latin and English literature. Within two years, Phillis could read and write clearly in English. She also demonstrated proficiency in Latin. She mastered the styles and techniques of popular poets by the time she turned 14. A Britannica Kids online article said that as a teenager of 14, Phillis had a poem published in the Newport Mercury Newspaper of Rhode Island. Later, other poems by Phillis appeared in Boston publications. Phillis’s poems were influenced by the words of poets John Milton, Thomas Gray and Alexander Pope. Britannica Kids observes that in 1770, her “An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of the Celebrated Divine … George Whitefield’ was published first in a locally-produced pamphlet and then in newspapers throughout British America and England.” Britannica kids continued, “...the poem’s wide distribution brought her recognition as the ‘extraordinary poetical genius of New England.’ Selina Hastings, countess of Huntingdon and a WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 friend of Whitefield, invited the young poet to England and sought a publisher for her works.” According to Poets.org, Phillis traveled to London, England, in 1771, accompanied by Nathaniel Wheatley, son of John and Suzanna Wheatley. She had put together a collection of her poems into a book, “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.” In London, she was well-received. The book of 39 poems was published in London and she dedicated it to Countess Selina Hastings. While in London, she met with some dignitaries, including William Legge, second earl of Dartmouth, the abolitionist Granville Sharpe and Benjamin Franklin. She was unable to meet the countess who invited her to England, because when Suzanna became ill in 1773, Phillis hurried back to Boston to help her recover. Poets.org noted: “In 1776, Wheatley wrote a letter and a poem in support of George Washington, who replied with an invitation to visit him ...” Phillis was freed from slavery before Suzanna’s death in 1774. After John Wheatley died, Phillis tried to support herself as a seamstress and a poet. Phillis married a free Black man known as John Peters in 1778. He was a grocer and a lawyer. The couple had three children. Mr. Peters abandoned Phillis and her children. To provide for her kids, Phillis became a maid in a boardinghouse. Two of her children died while she experienced poverty. Britannica kids noted, “On December 5, 1784, Wheatley and her third child died within hours of each other. They were buried together in an unmarked grave.” A very sad tragedy! Historians tell us that Phillis continued to write poems until her last day on earth. However, she was unable to find publishers for her books of poems. About 50 years after her death, in 1834, “Memoirs of Phillis Wheatley” was published. Another book, titled “Letters of Phillis Wheatley, the Negro-slave of Boston,” was published in 1864. Britannica Kids noted that abolitionists refer to Phillis Wheatley’s On Being Brought from Africa to America 'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Some view our sable race with scornful eye, "Their colour is a diabolic die." Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train. writing as a refutation of society’s claim in the 18th and 19th centuries that “African Americans were intellectually inferior to Whites.” Many legacies Wheatley left an impressive legacy of brave and thoughtful African American women writers. It took several decades in the 1800s before Frances Ellen Watkins Harper became the first African American woman to publish a short story. Harper was both an abolitionist and a suffragette. Other Black women writers and women rights activists displayed their talents in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Women writers who were inspired by Wheatley’s sense of empowerment and excellence include Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Zora Neale-Hurston, Shirley Graham DuBois, Lorraine Hansberry, Toni Morrison, Audrey Lorde, Angela Davis, Maya Angelou, Amanda Garman, Nikole Hannah Jones and Isabel Wilkerson, to mention a few. Harvard scholar and historian Henry Louis Gates paid tribute to Phillis Wheatley in his recent books, “The Black Box” and “The Trial of Phillis Wheatley.” In the latter book, Dr. Gates said, “In 1773, the slave Phillis Wheatley literally wrote her way to freedom. The first person of African descent to publish a book of poems in English, she was emancipated by her owners in recognition of her literary achievement. For a time, Wheatley was the most famous Black person in the West. But Thomas Jefferson, unlike his contemporaries Ben Franklin and George Washignton, refused to acknowledge her gift as a writer — a repudiation that eventually inspired generations of Black writers to build an extraordinary body of literature in their efforts to prove him wrong.” JULY 26, 2024 Phillis Wheately: a pioneer of Black literary excellence PUZZLE SOLUTIONS JULY 26, 2024 POETRY Of poets poor, of poets richer PHILIP SPINK Groundcover vendor No. 630 I like the poetry of the poor, Often the most. This is because the poor, Perhaps because having the most need to speak truth, Seem to speak truths the most; While more well heeled poets As if wanting to be as high and enigmatic as the Gods, Seem often interested in speaking in ways Full of mind powers and mazes Struggling to tower More than to speak. intent cares "a poem" BUK'E WYRM Groundcover contributor The Values we share are there . Must mean something To care . The relative, the states we make ourselves to be demonstrating. Behaviors in assertion to attain With how we value. With our value, One values to just pen this in the Space allotted we may become as We are with how we are. And a major phase of changing seems to allow meaning full experiential transactions of exchange of self with the other the referencing the the values we’re Embodying the vantage and this happens with our values. this is a way. "another poem" BUK'E WYRM True to how we sense with Self The same old same old same old day in and day out. still we seek to change with self for what it’s worth and all that works out for all we could achieve these themes still remembering the same self purpose has been writing the place these dreams on their own ways just to re turn with self again. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11  PRIDE from page 8 "It would take commitment and mation from Wikipedia.) Baker, who died in 2017, wrote on gilbertbaker.com that he chose the six rainbow colors for hope. The pink triangle was Adolf Hitler's way to mark the LGBTQ community. Hitler’s ideas still flourish today in the form of Hezbollah and Hamas, who murder LGBTQ and Jews for existing. Hitler’s ideas flourish today when non-conforming vendors have to hide from everyone at Groundcover. Or when there are mass shootings. courage and tenacity to end this [Vietnam] war, but not an imitation of the government’s own destructive tactics," wrote Ellsberg, who died in 2023. That is what will win the war against "only my life matters," too. On Dexter Ave. in Ann Arbor in June, there was an Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride flag planted in the lawn next to a Little Free Library box. An American flag flies from the house. "It's showing support of all different types of people," resident Bridget O'Connor-Ranta explained. "I want to give credit to the artist. It's flying at the Smithsonian." Designed in 2021 by Valentino Vecchietti, the Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride flag incorporates the elements of five other flags: the Intersex flag designed in 2013 by Morgan Carpenter; the Pride Progress flag created by queer, nonbinary artist Daniel Quasar in 2018; the Transgender Pride flag designed by Monica Helms in 1999; the Philadelphia Pride Flag of 2017 and the original rainbow Pride flag. On June 11, 2023, the Smithsonian Institution of Washington D.C. flew the Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride flag for the first time in history, according to cooperhewitt.org. James Smithson founded the Smithsonian in 1846 for "the increase and diffusion of knowledge," according to si.edu. Knowledge shows seriousness and effectiveness, not violence and bullying. Ann Arbor Pride is an opportunity for everyone to connect, learn and have fun. Editor's note: This essay reflects the opinion of the author.  SHERIFF from page 7 people do find themselves there, they are leaving with better support. This will reduce recidivism. “In addition to all this, as sheriff, I will work with local and statewide partners to support enacting rent control to keep rent affordable, and will support more housing investments especially for people leaving our jail. My whole platform can be found at Dyer2024.com.” Jackson: (was unavailable to answer) Magee: “Being homeless is not a crime. Law enforcement is asked to respond to the issues the unhoused are victimized by — such as getting mugged or committing crime / being victim of a crime due to mental health concerns. I cannot stress the importance of this enough. But the Sheriff's Office wouldn’t [oversee it], but if [a community-led shelter] would reduce police calls, victimization and actual crime, then I agree to that.” On Defunding Law Enforcement Dyer: “Yes, I believe that diverting some funding from policing to community mental health care is essential. The Sheriff's Office currently receives $6-7 million annually from the Community Mental Health and Public Safety Millage, in addition to their already large budget. They used some of this money to buy rifles and upgrade their infrastructure. My goal is to use flexible funding to prioritize investments in mental health services, substance use treatment, housing and preventive measures. As a therapist, licensed social worker, and former police officer, I understand the importance of increasing access to mental health treatment. Police officers are not equipped to handle mental health crises, and expanding community mental health support and alternative responder programs will better serve our community's needs. This also allows law enforcement to focus on emergency 911 calls for service that need immediate attention for safety reasons. It shouldn’t be the case that in Wash-tenaw County people can’t get preventative mental health support. These gaps have real consequences on families and our whole community.” Jackson: (was not available to reply) Ken: [Long pause] "I do not believe we should divert [police] funding to community mental health, but should provide training to officers to respond to mental health emergencies.” Magee believes that after taking away crime (that is caused by mental illness and acts of survival) there are still predators. “I believe we need a strong police presence to prevent crime,” Magee said. Magee is an advocate of restorative justice — with principles and limitations. He believes restorative justice should not apply to sex crimes and domestic violence.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Danish Pickles ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingriedients: 10-12 small pickling cucumbers 1 teaspoon kosher salt 3 Tablespoons sugar 1/3 cup white vinegar Directions: Peel and slice cucumbers (thin slices). Place in a bowl and sprinkle with salt and sugar. Pour the vinegar over the cucumbers and press slices with the back of a spoon until "juicy." Refrigerate and chill for at least 12 hours. So simple, yet so very good. JULY 26, 2024 $5 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 8/23/2024

2 $ JULY 12, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 15 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Extended Stay hotel gives eviction notice to long-term resident, twice. page 4 MEET YOUR VENDOR: PHILIP SPINK PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Huron Street overpass bridge before (right) and after (left) the Black Lives Matter mural was taken down. The art of gentrification. page 10 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS OPINION JULY 12, 2024 Hear Me Out: the SCOTUS Grants Pass v. Johnson decision is a declaration of war People experiencing homelessness survive by sleeping in tents and alleys and bushes. Sleep and safe shelter are second to food and water, which means homeless people are literally barely hanging on to their lives. And now the United States Supreme Court has said it is okay to further punish people for trying to survive homelessness. In the case City of Grants Pass, Ore. v. Johnson, the Supreme Court was asked to determine if punishing homeless people for trespassing is cruel and unusual, per the U.S. Constitution. This June, they decided it is not: the Constitution does not protect the homeless from arrest or financial penalties — even though our economic JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 and penal system put them there. Our lives as Americans are 100% built around and governed by our economic system. For those close to the bottom, the grind is getting some kind of job then entering an endless cycle of going to work and paying bills. The bills include some of the very things that support life — food and shelter specifically. Without these things, survival is impossible. The life-support things are commodified, so the only access you have to them is with money. Meaning if you don’t work in the system, you don’t get to live in the system. America is a pay-to-play country, and by play we mean survive. In America, you must be part of the economic system or you will die a slow death. Americans die every day from malnutrition, exposure to the elements, critical mental illnesses and from the violence of surviving on the street. And now, additionally, being homeless is a criminal act in America. The prevailing attitude towards people experiencing homelessness in our country is that it was their fault, due to some moral failing like “laziness,” and they could get out of their situation if they wanted to do so. The fact of the matter is, every homeless person I’ve met wants to get out of poverty. What people don’t realize is how hard that is in a capitalist system. In our system, one has to compete to survive. But the playing field is not even. To begin, most people need a cell phone and a car to get a job. Both cost money. You also need to be able to interview and prove you can make it to work. You also need to be clean see GRANTS PASS page 4  PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Hanan Husein — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Jim Clark Misti Davis Luiza Duarte Caetano Amanda Gale Cindy Gere Alexandra Granberg Robbie February Hosea Hill Jane Reilly Wayne Sparks PROOFREADERS CONTACT US Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Jacob Fallman Robert Klingler Simone Masing Emily Paras Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES PACKAGE PRICING Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JULY 12 2024 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS Students design new shoe HOSEA HILL Groundcover vendor No. 532 Philip Spink, vendor No. 630 In one sentence, who are you? A human being, I think. Where do you usually sell Groundcover? Packard Street and Carpenter Road. Why did you start selling Groundcover? To earn some extra money to help out a disabled friend. What are your hobbies? Doing artwork, writing, watching old movies. What is a small thing that makes your day better? My luck pebble. What is the most impressive thing you know how to do? Write in a grand tone or write in a small tone. What is your superpower? Anxiety. What is your favorite spot in Ann Arbor? My bed. What song do you have completely memorized? None, I've got a memory like a sieve. What is your pet peeve? Trump. What is the best way to start the day? With a coffee and a cigarette — but I quit smoking. A Poem About Myself I am a person for fun, For dancing in the rain And playing in the sun. Although what I write May make me seem to others a sober philosopher, I am far less a wannabe Socrates Than a man against hurts and hypocrisies. I am no intellectual Attila the Hun; Just a man inspired by being tired Of Babel and gun, And all the sorrows eating at the sun. Hearing many wounded cries I try to work to be helpful and wise; Yet what can any writer do shy and unknown But wear himself to the bone, Without help not to be a singer alone. What I long for most is the company of others, To live and to work as part of a rainbow Of sisters and brothers and all one anothers, Who believe in caring for one and all, And that the light is on down the hall. WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 Groundcover News wants to give a shoutout to our neighbors at Muehlig Funeral Chapel. They have extended their hand to their neighborhood by presenting their first ever Juneteenth celebration. While joining in the festivities, this reporter had the chance to talk with Funeral Director Kelsey Tingley. Kelsey was a wealth of knowledge for me, telling me facts about our neighbors that were quite impressive. For example, Muehlig Funeral Chapel is the longest running establishment of its kind in the state of Michigan. They are coming up on Muehlig Funeral Chapel joins the hood on Juneteenth their 150th year in business. When asked how this celebration came about, she said, “Well when the idea came up, the whole staff was excited about it and directed me to office manager Corey Leniear Sr.” So I sat down and had a chat with Corey. Corey was in charge and I found him to be a young man who was very excited about the festivities. He was going from place to place making sure things were running smoothly. He said he was glad to be working for an organization that was just as excited about this event as he was. Last but not least was the entertainment put together by an up-and-comer on the Ann Arbor entertainment scene, DJ Freeze, who entertained the crowd with his masterful performance at the turntable and mixer. Groundcover gives a shoutout to Corey and the rest of the Muehlig staff for putting together a wonderful event to spend the Juneteenth holiday. Thanks from the neighborhood to Kelsey, Corey and the whole staff of Muehlig Funeral Chapel. Students at the Akron-based “I Promise School” recently designed a basketball shoe for LeBron James. The LeBron James Foundation supports the I Promise public elementary school that is specifically geared to at-risk children and has a trauma-informed curriculum. The eighth-grade students were thrilled to come up with a vision and make new custom designs and play around with color choices for the new LeBron NXXT Gen shoe. They drew out these designs and used computer software at the Kaulig Media Lab in Ohio to create the shoe specifications. The I Promise School boys and girls basketball teams, step-team and cheer squad had the opportunity to team up with Nike designers to design the shoe. Portions of the profits will go to the LeBron James Family Foundation. The shoe is on sale at nike.com for about $100. 3 She's perfect When I look into your eyes I see an ounce of pain. To whoever gave you that … Thank you, for she’s made of gold, 1000% my gain, a treasure so fine and true. There’s many things I wish to do but one of them is loving you. I feel as if forever is still never enough time … for us! Every day I learn more and more about you but MISTI DAVIS Groundcover vendor No. 625 my soul feels as if I’ve known you my whole life … as if we met in a previous life and where I knew my sexy wife.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOUSING JUSTICE JULY 12, 2024 Extended Stay gives eviction notice to long-term resident, twice ALEXANDRA GRANBERG Groundcover contributor On May 24, Elizabeth “Lit” Kurtz, a long-term homeless guest at the Extended Stay America hotel in Ann Arbor, was handed an eviction notice for no reason. She had been paying her fees in full and on time. She never violated any guest rules or did anything else to break her contract with Extended Stay. It was after requesting her tax exemption — which she is legally owed and had received in the past — that the hotel decided to terminate Lit’s contract and ability to continue reservations. Without telling Lit why she was being kicked out and refusing to communicate further with her, the hotel management then called the police to physically remove her. The police instead suggested a seven-day eviction notice that the hotel staff posted on her door. The hotel’s site manager disabled Lit’s keys. She decided to stay in the room and mobilize community support via her social media followers and Washtenaw Camp Outreach (WCO) to put pressure on the hotel. Lit had three demands: that the management come to the table and give her answers, pay her legally owed tax rebate, and allow her to continue reservations at the same rate she had paid previously. Most importantly, she said, “I stayed to begin the discussion about human rights for everyone, not just me.” Over five days, community members put on a mass pressure campaign, making nearly 100 complaints through the hotel’s website and phone line. Finally WCO — in talks with Lit — hand-delivered a letter to the hotel on Friday June 7. In the letter WCO stated Lit’s demands and made an ultimatum: if the hotel management did not contact Lit to communicate in good faith by the following Monday morning, WCO and solidarity organizations would be hosting a press conference outside the hotel about the situation on that same afternoon. This final push to pressure the hotel was successful — initially. The next day, Saturday June 8, the hotel’s general manager Amber King called Lit; she agreed to all three of Lit’s demands and lifted the eviction. With the help of generous community contributions Lit was also able to pay for the days she hadn’t been able to leave the hotel to make money. This concession turned out to be short lived. In the next booking period, despite Amber King’s promise, the hotel charged Lit for the taxes — over $50 more than it would have been with the exemption. Lit refuses to pay her reservation fee until the hotel honors the tax rebate. On June 17 the front desk handed her another seven-day eviction notice. This time they did not disable her keys, so Lit is still able to leave her room. She has since not been able to contact Amber King, and King has not reached out to Lit. The only point of contact has been at the front desk, who is directly going against the word of the general manager. Lit is trying to take her case to the courts on a formal eviction basis. Michigan law does not make it clear when an extended stay hotel guest becomes a tenant, so a legal eviction case would likely be complicated and not necessarily fruitful. Lit Kurtz is facing eviction from Extended Stay. The law and its cruelty allows private establishments like Extended Stay and other hotels to bend contracts and kick people out without reason. However, both Lit and WCO recognize that this is a violation of human rights, starting with the seven-day notice. Seven days is not nearly enough time for anyone to find and make arrangements to move to another safe location after having established long-term residency. Some reviews on Extended Stay’s Facebook page reveal that this is not the first eviction to take place on their property. It will likely not be the last. The short pressure campaign with WCO led to a temporary but material win for Lit. But if this case is resolved, the real victory, in her own words, would be “for my human right to stay housed.” She says the fight is just getting started.  GRANTS PASS from page 2 and presentable when you go to work. Some people can pull themselves up, but it still doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen without a safe, reliable place to sleep. There is a stark parallel between being homeless and being displaced by war. In war, people are forced to leave their homes by a military system either because soldiers force them at gunpoint, or because their homes were destroyed by weapons of war. In America, people are forced to leave their homes by a capitalist system either by cops forcing them to leave at gunpoint, or just having their tents and belongings destroyed by a bulldozer. In war, people who are displaced are seen as an enemy, in America, the homeless are considered a nuisance, a word not as strong as “enemy” but equally dehumanizing. In war, refugees end up sleeping in tents; in America the homeless do as well, but now that can be disrupted at gunpoint. If you think “gunpoint” is too strong I must remind you, cops carry guns, are not afraid to use them, and have a license to kill. In other words, they are soldiers charged with “protecting and serving” capitalist interests. America has demonstrated a certain hatred towards the homeless. It is seen in other nations that practice genocide. One earmark of genocide is forcing people out of their homes and into the streets where their chances of dying increase. This is the exact same thing the U.S. Supreme Court just did! The reality is that punishing humans for trying to survive is a hate crime. Pay attention to anyone who supports such treatment. The hate is visceral. You can hear it, you can taste it. People who have never wanted for anything stand in judgment of the homeless, find them unworthy and deserving of being exterminated. This is what they mean when they say “the solution to homelessness is a bus ticket out of town.” Or jail. Or death. They don’t care, just get them out of their backyard. What this decision allows for is sinister. Any town, county, state or federal entity can declare homelessness a form of vagrancy and disorderly conduct. This means a person can be picked up for sitting on a bench too long. If you think that doesn’t happen, you’re deluded. It happens every day and now there is no defense you can make against it. If you happen to have a warrant, you can end up in prison, and guess what? Many states still allow chattel slavery. People are owned by the penal system and forced labor is not considered cruel and unusual. But it doesn’t stop with the homeless. The sayings “one paycheck away from losing housing” or “one car breakdown away from losing a job” describe real situations. The working poor (including myself when I had a job but nowhere to live) have never been so at risk from becoming refugees of war. If you lost that job because the car broke down and now you don’t have that check to pay rent, your chances of becoming homeless are near 100%. You may end up sleeping on the street; literally, this is how it happens. Then people can be fined for trespassing and punished by incarceration. This is business as usual in America. The Supreme Court of the United States has created an atmosphere so similar to genocidal nations that their decision could be taken as a declaration of war against the homeless. The poor must take it that way. Americans have kicked the last refuge out from under our feet. We must unite against this passive-aggressive attack. Wake up. The rich have always despised the poor, have always seen us as disposable cattle, and have always resented having to pay us to produce the wealth they enjoy. Technology replaces wage slaves everyday. Now they want to incarcerate us. And guess what? Prisons are so poorly managed that you may contract a disease or simply be killed by a fellow inmate. Homelessness can be a death sentence if it leads to prison. Since it is now illegal to be homeless anywhere, catching charges for trespassing on federal land can result in a felony punishable by prison according to our Constitution. The song “Talkin’ ‘bout a Revolution” by Tracy Chapman has a line that goes “poor people gonna rise up and get their share. Poor people gonna rise up and take what’s theirs.” It is time. JULY 12, 2024 SPORTS SAWC invites Darren McCarty to speak at annual fundraiser Darren McCarty, a former professional hockey player for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League, was the keynote speaker at "Almost Home," June 24 at Barton Hills Country Club in Ann Arbor. "Almost Home" is a Shelter Association of Washtenaw County fundraiser to support the homeless community. Cazzie Avery, a former shelter client now housed, also was a guest speaker as advertised on the SAWC website. A Groundcover News press credential request was turned down. McCarty did not respond to email. McCarty is best known for fighting Colorado Avalanche right wing Claude Lemieux, March 26, 1997, in retaliation for Lemieux's hit from behind on Kris Draper in the 1996 playoffs. In the real world, both Lemieux and McCarty would have been charged with assault. The illegal hit, which broke Draper's jaw, orbital bone, cheekbone and nose, and caused a concussion, was not fatal or career-ending but easily could have been. The Wings went on to win the Stanley Cup as the best team in the NHL, one of four for McCarty and Draper, best friends. McCarty was best man at Draper's wedding. Along the way, McCarty said he became addicted to gambling, alcohol, marijuana, Ecstasy and cocaine, as reported by Deadline Detroit. He lost $6.2 million and filed for bankruptcy according to ESPN. McCarty was put in the NHL substance abuse program four times. McCarty remained employed until four events in succession in 2007: he suffered a sports hernia injury, Calgary did not re-sign him, he failed an NHL drug screen resulting in a ban from the NHL until he was drug-free. Draper, still a Red Wing, was also part-owner of the Flint Generals of the International Hockey League, Draper signed his friend in January 2008 and paved his way to return to the Red Wings in March. In a 1995 interview, the late Steve Howe, 48, said many professional athletes use cocaine for energy because of the travel and physical demands. Howe, a left-handed relief pitcher for Major League Baseball and U-M, was banned for life from baseball in 1992 for drug use, including seven times for cocaine. He threw between 90-96 miles-per-hour. Unlike the general public, McCarty was never imprisoned for cocaine use, purchases or trafficking. Howe stayed overnight once awaiting JANE REILLY Groundcover vendor No. 611 believes medical marijuana saved his life and uses it for pain. He now earns a living through speaking engagements and selling marijuana. Still, elite employers avoid hiring candidates who choose these options, legal or not. Cannabis may have closed more doors for McCarty than it opened. "Darren is a wonderful example of arraignment in 1991, according to the Los Angeles Times wire service. A plea deal reducing the felony to a misdemeanor resulted in the MLB lifetime ban. Felony cocaine conviction means five years imprisonment in Montana where Howe moved and four in Michigan. Howe, from Clarkston, was reinstated in 1993 because of the MLB Players Association, possibly in an attempt to save his life. Individual teams, MLB and the NHL made money from the work of Howe and still do from McCarty. The Professional Women's Hockey League just finished its first season in history. It played 24 regular season games, with either three or four days between games. It also has specific checking rules to eliminate dangerous hits of stationary players and hits away from the puck. The same NHL rule is rarely enforced. The NHL players take multiple strides before checking. The NHL plays 82 regular season games, of which two a month are consecutive. The remainder have either two or three days in between. More rest between games and enforcing the checking rules means less exhaustion, fewer injuries, eliminates the need for cocaine and lessens the need for painkillers. It also means less money. McCarty now has his own cannabis brand, named after himself. He someone who has constantly reinvented himself," SAWC Development Director Sarah Paspal-Jasinski wrote via email. "Every time he gets knocked down, he gets back up. As a substance abuse survivor, Darren has explored many paths since he left hockey. He has boxed, golfed, become a public speaker, and an entrepreneur. This makes him relatable and an ideal guest speaker for our organization. He understands the experiences of those we serve who are experiencing homelessness and recognizes how circumstances and decisions in life can bring you down. However, Darren's journey exemplifies that you can always rise again and reinvent yourself." At "Almost Home," guests had the opportunity to: purchase $100 raffle tickets to gamble for a one in 52 chance to win $2,600, purchase as many $30 tickets as were available for wine pulls (choosing a mystery bottle of various prices), compete against each other in a silent auction and learn about becoming "a sophisticated stoner," as McCarty referred to himself in The Detroit Free Press. Encouraging gambling, drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, all legal addictive behaviors prohibited at the Delonis Center, ensures job security for Delonis staff. Like all the Delonis clients, McCarty is being helped by SAWC. It is keeping both itself and McCarty employed. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. The Summer Game If you’re reading this, the 2024 Summer Game is officially in full swing! Use your Library this summer to find codes, solve puzzles, attend events, and earn points toward awesome AADL prizes. Visit aadl.org/play to learn more and get started! Public Computers The AADL has public-access Internet computers available for use by both cardholders and noncardholders at all five locations. Each station has USB ports, headphone jacks, and some of the fastest wifi speeds in town! FEATURED EVENT Summer Game SPECTACULAR Saturday, July 27 • 1–4pm Veterans Memorial Park Come one, come all, to the annual splendiferously staggering, outdoor, earn-a-metric-ton-ofpoints, Summer Game Spectacular! We’ll be at the baseball fields near the parking lot off Maple for an outdoor extravaganza featuring the high-flying circus The Aviary, our amazing outdoor game collection, face painting, food trucks, and more! 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ARTS CONTEST Vote for your favorite drawing and view submissions to the other three media categories online at linktr.ee/ groundcovernews Voting closes August 5! JULY 12, 2024 Eric Kopchia Philip Spink Denise Shearer Rainbow Country Lovin Alexandra Salazar Paul Wertz James Manning JULY 12, 2024 STREET ART CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 I've always felt artists, in the past, were seen as a low class group of people working for kings, emperors and patrons. Sad but true, we still don't get the recognition or the status we merit. We are willing to do great works of art but still people look down on art; this is not new at all. It was well-known that if you wanted to become an artist, family would discourage it for lack of wage or stability. We still don't get the recognition of, say, a lawyer or doctor. Even if we create great works of art like we see from the Renaissance, family and bosses say that it's just artwork, as if it has no greater worth than a nice image. This stigma has been the artist's burden for centuries; yet in countries like Ireland and Cuba and France, art is valued so much that artists are given stipends for projects. This gives artist recognition across the nation. New projects are starting to pop up slowly, giving majority artists recognition in those countries. My personal goal is to bring more recognition to low income artists and new businesses that feature their art. Street music artists and street visual artists: it's about recognition, dignity and pride. I try to do my own small part to bring to the public an artist who otherwise would be overlooked, unnoticed and unseen. Each one carries with them the amazing talent and artistic work that help influence America today. Street artist James Manning James says: “My natural art talent was discovered in the fourth grade when a teacher asked the class to draw three dimensional images. The simple lines all connected on the chalkboard creating depth and perspective. That was when my art talent showed itself. “When I was a child many things influenced me such as anime, and the 1988 movie “Akira” which is very dystopic. As I got into my teenage years, new influences came into my world such as the rave dance craze and gatherings of like-minded people. With this kind of dance came music such as techno, steampunk, cyber punk and punk rock. “My cousin was a working tattoo artist. As a young person, I was very aware of the subculture of tattoos but had no idea it was going to influence me so much. It led to me discovering GROUNDCOVER NEWS Undercover art intel: street artist James Manning Manning selling art at the corner of 4th and Liberty Street. 7 tribal art. “Tribal art in the tattoo art world came from three large native groups — Pacific Rim islanders, the New Zealand Maori, Australian Aboriginals — as well the Canadian Inuit and Northwest coastal people, who all adorn both body and face with tattoos. For many tribal people, this form of tattoo is a right of passage into warrior society and man and womanhood rights. Shamans also tattoo the face to show one’s spirit animal and status. “Tribal tattoo art has become a new form of cultural expression, and it takes on a sense of sacredness. It truly is a bold statement when shown on the body. “What I did not know is how fast I would come to love this form of imaging. Tribal became my new obsession. What I love about it is the bold sweeping curves, and the many different kinds of images. No two are exactly the same. “I do commission work as well as see JAMES page 11 

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES AMANDA GALE Groundcover vendor No. 573 Warning! This article is kind of an open article for Christians — and whoever else wants to come along. In the ageless, timeless Book it is declared: “Let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.” (Gen 14.d-g, GNV) Like any widely observable and somewhat rare Heavenly phenomenon, the Great American Eclipse (April 8, 2024) came and went, and with it the typical doomsdayers and spin prognosticators seeking to capture it to their ends. If we consult The Maker of The Eclipse, however, we might just find HIS timeless, priceless message. It was widely advertised that the trajectory of the 2024 Eclipse that passed through North America included seven cities that are named Nineveh. There is also an eighth city of Ninevah that the Great American Eclipse passed through in Canada. Often in The Bible we find repeating names of people and places when GOD wants to emphasize certain indications and meanings from those names. Also, various Christian scholars throughout the ages (and in modern time, most notably D. James Kennedy, “The Gospel In The Stars”) have noted that stars, constellations and planetary signs are interspersed throughout The Bible. The scales of Libra make their appearance in The Book of Daniel (Daniel 5:27). WARNING! A Kingdom wanting for justice — will soon have it meted out. The Symbol of Libra also appears in Revelation with one of the four apocalyptic horsemen carrying it and crying out, “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny, and oil, and wine hurt [you] not,” (Rev 6:5), signifying economic hardship and/or famine. The Virgin of Virgo has an extra-special picture for us to wonder at; the Deliverer-Child birthed to Her, and the old cataclysmic battle from "The Dragon" against Her and This Child (Rev 12), enraged and doing all he can, however he can — to seek their demise (Rev 12:34, 6-7-17). Holy Scripture indicates eclipses as special attesting indications from GOD (Joshua 10.12, Isaiah 13.10, Acts 2.20) and we find a special eclipse or an eclipse-like effect occurring during the three hours CHRIST was atoning for our sins on HIS Cross (Luke 23:44-45). But it was to Jonah (Matt 12:39, 16:4) that CHRIST referred when people requested of HIM “a sign.” So what is the sign and message of Jonah? And what BLESSING is there if we receive its impact? Why will we not want to miss this special message, even after the Eclipse itself has come and gone? When Jonah was being RESCUED, he JULY 12, 2024 Jonah and the Great American Eclipse: are we yet missing it? declared, “They that wait upon lying vanities, forsake their own mercy”’ (Jonah 2:8, GNV). What if we observe Heavenly Signs and Earthly Wonders — and never really meet with and worship The GOD WHO made them? Why would we want to appreciate spectacular effects and not connect with the special, awesome PERSON from WHOM these proceed (see John 6:26 and Jeremiah 29:13)? Let’s step back in time; Jonah was one of GOD’s Prophets, though unlike most of the prophets, Jonah was sent to a “heathen” people — to Nineveh — to warn them that they might repent, turn to GOD and not face judgment. The Assyrian Kingdom that Nineveh was the capital of, and to which Jonah was sent, was expanding greatly. Meanwhile, Jeroboam II was a wicked King who was reigning over the Nation of Israel, with its capital Jerusalem. It’s like GOD was saying, “OK, the Nation of Israel through which I’ve been seeking to get my message of grace out to everyone in the whole earth isn’t cooperating; so, I’ll send SOMEONE (Isaiah 49:6-7, Luke 2:32) directly to these other people — starting at Nineveh.” Jonah didn’t want to obey GOD and tell this other group of people, this other nation, about GOD’s Mercy and Love they would experience if they would but turn to HIM (Jonah 4:2). Some of that seems to be nationalistic superiority; Jonah certainly was missing GOD’s plan and Heart (as in Luke 9:54-55). There also was likely understandable fear! “What will occur if that rival nation continues its expansion? Can GOD be trusted?” It would also be really embarrassing for Jonah and the Nation of Israel that GOD had been pleading to be HIS witness to everyone! In the whole earth, if Nineveh and not Jerusalem was repenting. However, even now the “religious Jerusalem” (See Rom 9:6 and Rev 21:2) isn’t repenting. Yet GOD will get HIS message of mercy to everyone somehow; and HE will not forsake his own nor any of HIS promises. We fallen and finite humans want “the Wrong Thing.” Instead of really caring about people and see JONAH page 11  JULY 12, 2024 PUZZLES 1 13 17 20 23 29 32 33 37 40 43 46 51 52 55 56 57 60 63 58 61 64 38 41 44 47 53 59 62 65 45 48 54 49 50 42 34 24 18 21 25 30 22 26 27 28 31 35 39 36 2 4 5 6 7 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD from the International Network of Street Papers 3 8 14 15 16 19 9 10 11 12 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Airport in AK 4. Kvetch 8. In base 8 13. 2016 Olympics host 14. Division signs 16. "Ta da!" 17. Proxima Centauri b, for one 19. English county 20. Unit of pressure 21. Needle holder 23. Salad green 25. Pixie 26. "A Nightmare on ___ Street" 29. Egyptian fertility goddess 30. Barbecue site 31. Chinese "way" 32. Fang contents 34. Do some modeling 35. "Mr. Holland's ___" 37. Zeal 38. Library stamp 39. Hang loose 40. Lug 41. Singles 42. Bleeding heart 43. Part of mpg 44. Bread at an Indian restaurant 45. Sound of resignation 46. Tokyo, formerly 47. Hall of Famer Mel 48. Givens 51. Not domestic 54. Spoiled brat 55. Give rise to 58. Praising 60. Gold unit 61. Collection 62. "It's no ___!" 63. Foreword, for short 64. Christmas season 65. In medias ___ DOWN 1. Mountain crest 2. Watergate figure 3. Organized 4. Maj.'s superior 5. Lessens 6. Ashcroft's predecessor 7. Diplomat 8. "Your turn" 9. Beautician 10. "___ the season ..." 11. A pint, maybe 12. Calif. airport 15. Lists (Brit.) 18. Captured enemy 22. More fitting 24. Vigor's partner 27. Celebratory circuit 28. Shed feathers (Var.) 32. Do a background check on 33. Run off to the chapel 34. Long cigar 36. Sneaky 38. Philanthropist 42. Half a dozen 45. Summer footwear 49. Code with dots and dashes 50. Eye sores 52. "I'm ___ you!" 53. Expert 55. Hit the slopes 56. Give a bad review 57. "A jealous mistress": Emerson 59. Affirmative vote

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS STREET ART The art of gentrification There are a few new murals going up at any given time in Ann Arbor. It’s one of the many things that make the city lively and fun. My friend Ben recently received a commission to do an amazing mural at Washtenaw Dairy. There was a 10 by 40 foot mural called “Best Boy Blue” of a staggering and under-recognized genius that went up in Graffiti Alley last month. Graffiti is a voice of underserved people that expresses concerns about society, remembers lost loved ones, or shows affection for bodily functions and components, to name a few. Originally seen as a form of vandalism, graffiti has evolved into a recognized art form that shapes the visual and cultural landscape of neighborhoods worldwide. This evolution challenges conventional perceptions and highlights graffiti's role in fostering creativity and community engagement. Beyond aesthetics, graffiti plays a crucial role in shaping neighborhood identity. It serves as a visual representation of cultural diversity, historical narratives, and community values, thereby fostering a collective memory among residents. This cultural richness distinguishes neighborhoods and enhances their appeal as vibrant, livable spaces. However, the increasing popularity of graffiti has also sparked debates about gentrification and urban development. Real estate developers and businesses sometimes appropriate graffiti to enhance property values or attract affluent residents, displacing long-time residents and erasing the authentic character of neighborhoods. In recent years, graffiti has become a prominent medium for social justice movements. Artists use walls as canvases to memorialize victims of racial injustice, challenge systemic racism, and advocate for social change. These murals serve as poignant reminders of ongoing struggles and rallying points for community solidarity. Anthony McCormick, a local housing justice advocate, said, “Destroying a mural is equivalent to silencing a community. These voices that once cried out for recognition now fade into the background.” Recognizing public art’s potential as a vehicle for education and community engagement, schools and organizations increasingly incorporate graffiti workshops and mural projects into their curricula. These initiatives not only teach artistic skills but also foster civic responsibility and cultural awareness among participants. By involving residents in the creation of public art, communities build social cohesion and strengthen bonds across ROBBIE FEBRUARY Groundcover contributor Huron Street bridge after BLM mural was taken down. JULY 12, 2024 diverse demographics. In neighborhoods with rich cultural histories, graffiti serves as a means of preserving traditions and memories. Artists draw inspiration from local folklore, ancestral practices, and community narratives to create murals that celebrate diversity and challenge stereotypes. Graffiti thus becomes a living archive that documents stories and experiences, ensuring that cultural heritage continues to resonate within contemporary urban settings. Despite its cultural value, graffiti faces regulatory challenges and legal scrutiny in many municipalities. Advocates argue for policies that recognize graffiti as a legitimate art form while addressing concerns about property damage. By fostering dialogue between artists, policymakers, and community members, cities can develop inclusive strategies that promote responsible graffiti practices and support artistic freedom. Ann Arbor shame One culturally significant piece has existed on the Huron Street railroad bridge — a hangout near the Delonis Center — for a few years. This piece of art recognized those that were killed by police, specifically people of color; it celebrated their lives and called for change. This art was significant and this art had meaning but it was removed. Replacing art of those killed in police action with “flower-washed” tissue box art disrespects the community whose collective struggle it represents. In May 2024, Ann Arbor unveiled a new mural adorning that same bridge, signaling a transformational moment for the city's downtown area. The mural's vibrant colors and flowery theme were intended to beautify the area and create a sense of pride and shared identity among local residents; but some feel differently. One local resident and artist stepped away from the excellent job they were doing managing FedUp Food Ministries to speak with me. Cortney Labbe said, “They intended to include Delonis Center residents in the project. I am not sure they did so. I’m surprised that covering up a significant Black Lives Matter mural didn’t raise any concerns during planning.” Ripping out and replacing significant art to meet upper middle class aesthetics will not create the future that Ann Arborites want. According to newspaper reports, the corporate artists and their supporters, “The Murals That Bridge,” raised over $150,000 for this and a similar amount for other overpass mural projects. That is more than 15% of the budget for The Shelter Association of Washtenaw County. SAWC claims to serve more than 1200 people annually. Therefore, this effort to turn the Huron Street Bridge BLM mural into a Kleenex advertisement is a waste of funds that could otherwise house, feed and support nearly 200 at-risk individuals in our community for a year. It demonstrates a lack of understanding of art, human kindness and fiscal responsibility. If we continue to feed the cultural racism masquerading as quasi-philanthropic acts, our community will continue to fracture around borders. socioeconomic JULY 12, 2024 CONTINUED  JAMES from page 7 drawing what moves me. If someone wants an image of tribal art, I'm willing to go for it. Many also use this for tattoos or just hang it on a wall. Believe it or not, I have two commissions I’m currently working on. I hope to get more as the summer progresses. “I'm looking at the possibility of going into art school and getting a bachelor's degree in graphic design and starting some computer graphics classes as well. "The art form I now practice is called abstract tribal art. Abstract is shapeless and formless, influenced by indigenous tribes across the world, along with the influence of lovecraft, steampunk, cyberpunk, bubblegum, pacific rim, Battle Angel and Dragon Ball Z.” Conclusion As a low income artist it can be hard to get art supplies and work. So I give a small shout to the world to help with James’ work. If you wish to show interest or even commission a piece of work from James, please contact Groundcover (page 2), or you can often find James near the downtown Ann Arbor library on the corner of Fifth Street and GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Liberty selling Groundcover News. You can also help James out by giving him any of the following: • mechanical pencils • fine point sharpies • sketchbooks (medium sized) • Prismacolor fine point pens • small sketchbook for ideas  JONAH from page 8 animals, we want esteem, trendy causes, right doctrine and liturgy, clubby, churchy culture. The message Jonah ultimately points us to however, is CHRIST’S Cross and HIS Resurrection. Here we find encouragement and hope for humanity. The Book of Jonah points to CHRIST via symbol-types; for example, prophetically prefiguring depictions that parallel HIS PERSON, sufferings, death, resurrection and redeeming mission. Just a few of these are; The "Word" (John 1:1) that comes to Jonah (Jonah 1:1) to The Assyrian King (Jonah 3:6) and The Word that is proclaimed (Jonah 3.4, 7-9). Jonah as the strange, out-of-realm “FOREIGNER,” and the “guilty” one who must be sacrificed for others’ absolution and freedom (Jonah 1.:, 11-12). The REDEEMER, the SUFFERING ONE; and one who is utterly forsaken (Jonah 2.4, Matt 27:46) all prefigure and point to CHRIST’S PERSON. Almost all of Jonah Chapter 2 is replete with descriptions paralleling CHRIST’S sufferings and death, and temporary banishment to Hell. From 2:3 for example, “Weeds were wrapped around my head” even specifically prefigures the horror of the Crown of Thorns CHRIST would receive. Jonah was spared death; however the language indicating death pangs and death following and along with grueling sufferings, are intertwined throughout Jonah Chapter 2. We find descriptors such as, “Out of the belly of hell,” (Jonah 2:2), and “The waters compassed me about unto the soul: the depth closed me round about …” (Jonah 2:5a-b) , and “For [you had] cast me into the bottom in the midst of the sea, and the floods compassed me about: all [YOUR] surges, and all [YOUR] waves passed over me.” (Jonah 2:3) for example. CHRIST’S RESURRECTION is vividly and poetically afore depicted as, “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me forever; yet [have YOU] brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my GOD” (Jonah 2:6) Also, other various allusions prophetically indicating CHRIST are presented via Jonah’s Redeeming Mission, a parallel/contrast of the Redeemer asleep in the bottom of a boat during a storm that has other passengers troubled, and casting of lots that occurs, just as it will/ did for CHRIST’S last garments. Each of these pointers thus, is towards CHRIST; just like the Voice present at HIS baptism that Calls Out; “This is MY BELOVED SON; HEAR HIM!” This message is therefore inviting us to believe on JESUS and be saved (Mark 1:15, John 14:6) transformed to be like JESUS (Rom 13:14) — and as much as we will (Matt 13:8). Also then, CHRIST’S people and church are supposed-to-be being “salt and light” on this Earth, bringing GOD’S mercies to as many people as possible who will receive HIM. We are also supposed-to-be not only GOD’s Voice calling people out from the ways of this fallen, sinful world, but also exactly to GOD’s Ways of LOVE and MERCY (Matt 12:7, John 13:34). This includes not only acknowledging the ONE, TRUE and LIVING GOD; but also exactly in HIS SPIRIT to minister to practical needs and empower to “a leg up” — just as the First Century Christians actually did! (Acts 2:44-47, Acts 4:34-35) It’s not enough to simply wish people good (Jas 2:16 a-c , I John 3:17) ; we must actively be bringing GOD’S mercies via meeting practical needs, and opening jobs and opportunities. We must do this for everyone. Including the outcasts, the non-in-crowd, those who for whatever reasons have practical needs for life openings and resources. Whatever blessings I have, I therefore have the responsibility to seek the blessing of others. At this time in Christian history, there has been much saying correct teachings about who CHRIST is, and the salvation from our sin HE offers — though astonishingly then not actually being as JESUS in this World— to have and lead the way for social conscience, to give gladly what we truly can to stop our arrogance of blame for practical needs and invite people to the level ground at the foot of CHRIST’S Cross. To humbly seek to live in and offer CHRIST’S transformational LOVE to a world in need! Exactly this includes offering job openings, life calling opportunities, providing resources and means, empowering shoulder to shoulder. This fallen, sinful world only has counterfeits! This is also why it’s so important that GOD’s conduit for modern-day — the actual, believing Christian Church — return to being “on-mission” with GOD and HIS mercies for people and animals and for this World that HE created and HIMSELF suffered and died for (John 3:16-17). It’s easier and more “culturally comfortable” to cognitively believe — as even demons do! (Jas 2:19) — all the right facts, doctrine. The actual, liberating Gospel of Jesus however, calls us to real heart transformation and life (II Cor 5:17). The Christian contemporary band Casting Crowns has a line in a song that says, “What if we put down our signs, crossed over the lines, and loved like [HE] did?” “Churchianity” calls us to counterfeit; THE HOLY SPIRIT calls us to really live the values of JESUS — to be HIS Hands and Feet (I John 4:17)— in all aspects of our lives. THE HOLY SPIRIT wants “a cup of cold water” (Matt 10.42) to be given in JESUS’ name. When CHRIST’S people don’t do this, others counterfeit. Jonah’s message includes the irony that if those of us who “believe-on-JESUS” are refusing our mission — GOD in HIS mercies will nonetheless one way or the other send out and offer HIS mercies. As GOD deals with people in The Book of Jonah, we find HE is completely trustworthy. HIS ways are goodness, truth, mercy. HE will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb 13:5). Following HIM leads us only to good for ourselves and others — though sometimes in this fallen, sinful world also with some sufferings and persecutions. There is a 1990s song by Christian singers FFH called “Big Fish” that certainly can be a fun reminder about Jonah and GOD’s Message to and through him, and thankfully over our own failings. A sad thing regarding Jonah is that after he was delivered and no longer in danger: 1) He allowed himself to forget the tender touch of GOD’S LOVE that he had experienced SO powerfully and particularly while he was being rescued (Jonah 2:6-10); 2) Jonah did not continue to defer to GOD when his own limited understandings were challenging what GOD exp. 01/31/2025 was actually telling him and CALLING him to do (Jonah 4:1-4). As we look forward, will we ourselves receive JESUS and truly share HIM with others? The gourd plant (also symbolizing CHRIST) that comforted Jonah and then was mercilessly eaten by a worm exposed Jonah’s return to hypocritical, non-care for people and animals (Jonah 4:2, 11). This observation helps us realize our own utter callousness to CHRIST, people, animals, and plants. In light of CHRIST’S horrible sufferings and death to atone for us, after GOD stretched out HIS arms on a cross — WHAT ARE WE DOING? Are we living HIS LOVE? Being HIS Hands and Feet? For shame! If we don’t seek our every breath and moment — given back in praise and gratitude to HIM. FATHER, help us look to YOU, and not miss the BLESSED sign of Jonah; to point us to CHRIST JESUS and the LOVE HE has for us EACH and ALL, and wants us to have for each other. AMEN.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Brazilian blender carrot cake LUIZA DUARTE CAETANO Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 3 medium carrots, washed (no need to peel!) ¾ cup of vegetable oil 3 eggs 2 cups sugar 1 pinch of salt 2 cups flower 2 tsp baking powder Optional: one can of sweetened condensed milk and two tbsp of cocoa powder for frosting! Directions: Preheat the oven to 350F and butter or oil your cake pan. Blend the carrots, oil, eggs and sugar until smooth. Add the flour and baking powder and blend again. Use a spoon PUZZLE SOLUTIONS A N C C A R P R I O O B E L I E X O P L A N E T I M P P I T JULY 12, 2024 O C T A L V O I L A E S S E X T O R R T O N E A R M E N D I V E I S I S E L M T A O V E N O M P O S E O P U S E L A N D A T E R L O L L T O T E O N E S P E R N A N S I G H E D O O T T F O R E I G N S N O T S P A W N L A U D A T O R Y K A R A T I N T R O A R R A Y U S E Y U L E R E S S O F T Y A X I O M S to mix if needed. Pour the cake batter onto the pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick or fork inserted in the center comes out clean. Drizzle mixture of sweetened condensed milk and cocoa over top (if desired) while still warm.

2 $ JUNE 28, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 14 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Should Americans celebrate Independence Day? Page 4 SHAWN SWOFFER #574 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE BODY OF WATER? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Sonic Lunch Summer Concerts open A2's free summer music scene page 10 Versatile guitarist Laith Al-Saadi and bass player David Stearns, (partially blocked). Drummer Mike Shea is in the background. Photo by Jane Reilly. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER free community EVENTS ANN ARBOR JAYCEES ANNUAL FOURTH OF JULY PARADE Thursday, July 4, 10 a.m. The parade route starts at E. William St. and S. State St., running north on State, west on Liberty, south on Main, east on William and ending south on Thompson. YPSILANTI FOURTH OF JULY PARADE Thursday, July 4, 11 a.m. The 94th Annual Fourth of July Parade will start at the corner of Oakwood and Cross Street and ends in Depot Town at Rice Street with a time capsule reveal at Riverside Park. ANN ARBOR ART FAIR July 18-20, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. State Street, Liberty Street, Main Street, North University The Ann Arbor Art Fair captivates nearly half a million visitors over a vibrant three-day extravaganza every July. Renowned as the largest juried art fair nationwide, it showcases the talents of nearly 1,000 artists, spanning an impressive 30-cityblock footprint throughout downtown Ann Arbor. CHELSEA SOUNDS & SIGHTS Thursdays through July 25, 6:30-8:30 p.m., downtown Chelsea GROUNDCOVER NEWS 2024 VISUAL ARTS CONTEST EXHIBIT • June 20-July 22, Ann Arbor District Library downtown branch (first floor lobby). • July 24-September 1, Makeshift Gallery, 407 E Liberty St. GROUNDCOVER PRESENTS: MUSIC and ART at MAKESHIFT GALLERY Sunday, July 28, 12-2 p.m., Makeshift Gallery, 407 E Liberty St. Join the Groundcover News community in launching the second exhibit at MakeShift gallery with coffee, snacks, music and words from the artists. JOHN E LAWRENCE SUMMER JAZZ SERIES Every Friday 7-9 p.m. July 5-August 23, Ford Lake Park, 9075 S Huron River Drive Bring your own chairs and enjoy some of the finest jazz in Michigan! YPSILANTI JAZZ FESTIVAL Saturday, July 27, 5-9 p.m. at Montibeller Park. Sean Dobbins, Dave Stryker and Jarod Gold, the Blu Reed band (a local student band) will be playing. SEE MORE MUSIC EVENTS ON PAGE 10 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Hanan Husein — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Teresa Basham Dezz Clark La Shawn Courtwright Brandy Finley Cindy Gere Hosea Hill Mike Jones Jane Reilly Ken Parks Denise Shearer Tony Smith GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Wayne Sparks Scoop Stevens PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Jacob Fallman Robert Klingler Simone Masing Emily Paras Caelan Saunders Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JUNE 28, 2024 exp. 01/31/2025 JUNE 28, 2024 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What's your favorite body of water? The Pacific Ocean. — Shawn Swoffer, #574 Silver Lake. — Wayne Sparks, #615 A swimming pool! — Cindy Gere, #279 Torch Lake ... where Kid Rock has his home. — Terri Demar, #322 I don't know the name of it, but it was a stream in Rey Springs, North Carolina. It was so clear and so cold. — Joe Woods, #103 The Gulf of Mexico. — Derek Allen, #177 Lake Michigan. — Jocelin Boyd, #85 The Potomac River. — Mary Vanover, #636 I like the river better than the sea because you can drink the water and it is cold. Better for swimming, too. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 The Pacific Ocean. — Jane Reilly, #611 The Mississippi River! — Ken Parks, #490 Chesapeake Bay. — Michael Brown, #306 Atlantic Ocean — its quite beautiful and relaxing. — Hosea Hill, #532 1969 — the summer of love! Dancing in the streets, rock bands galore, the summer of revolution. We all wanted in on it. In 1969, we called each other “brother” and meant it. There were free concerts, people traveling from one end of the country to the other, spreading the message “all we need is love.” Be free, be active, be involved – it was the rise of the hippies. Tiedyed T-shirts, bell bottom pants, these weren't fashion statements; this was how we recognized each other. And let’s not forget the hair: long glorious heads of hair. Every redneck in the nation fought to collect hair off of the hippies’ heads. That was the trophy of the day and they were serious about collecting every strand of it they could. Things were changing. There was Why am I still calling it the WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 an upheaval of all known things that can be changed. “Hey buddy leave that flag alone!” That saying is my symbol of the other side, the people that flew around the world of “justice and the American way” — whatever that was. We were experiencing that harrowing time of “the summer of love.” summer of love when it degenerated into so much hate invading the streets, race riots, protests against the war, good Americans turning bad?! Because of the message, man! War is bad, peace is good! Social injustice is bad, equality between the races is good, why is it so hard to get, people!? Looking back, I find Wall Street, the government and the average working person now trying to explain away and reinvent what really happened. I will take peace over war. I will take coming together rather than pulling apart. I want justice for the masses. I want too much, you say; I say you are wrong. So let’s make 2024 “1969 REVISITED.” All you need is love. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Boss Baby (2017) movie review The first time I saw “Boss Baby,” it was at the movie theater on Carpenter Rd. in Ypsilanti. I was with my boyfriend and we had a ton of fun. It was so good that we watched it together two more times at home. Even though this film came out a while ago, it still holds a special place in my heart. Boss Baby presents audiences with adorable characters and scenes for the whole family to enjoy. The story centers on a growing family, with mom and dad bringing home a new baby boy to meet his older brother, Tim (Miles Bakshi). But it is soon clear to Tim that his baby brother is more than the innocent newborn that he seems to be — he is a Boss Baby. the film takes place in Heaven, as all the babies prepare to join their new families down on Earth. In the background, one of my favorite songs plays — “Cheek to Cheek” — with all the babies singing about how excited they are to meet their new families. Fun for the whole family, “Boss DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 The Boss Baby himself (Alec Baldwin), adds plenty of humor throughout the film as he portrays his familiar role as a high-powered executive, but trapped in the adorable body of a newborn baby. My favorite scene in Baby” brings colorful, heartwarming characters to life with plenty of cute babies to enjoy along the way. A story of coming together as a family, the film shares important lessons about learning to share and how to accept new people into your space. This film is one of my all-time favorites and I hope it will be one of yours too. Check out “Boss Baby” for your next family movie night!

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS JULY 4TH SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover vendor No. 638 On July 4, 2024, Americans celebrate the 248th birthday of an exclusive political community founded on the principle of white supremacy. The Southern Confederacy sought to maintain this political community when they seceded in 1861 and started the American Civil War (1861-65). The founding of modern America as a just and inclusive nation doesn’t begin until after the military defeat of the Southern Confederacy, followed by the Reconstruction Amendments: 13th Amendment (1865), 14th Amendment (1868) and 15th Amendment (1870). The history of the United States is the history of being weaned off of Christianity. The Declaration of Independence declares that the new occupation of life is the pursuit of happiness, which replaces finding one’s place in Christendom. Since most of the immigrants coming to America were coming from Christendom and bringing their state religion with them, America’s founders gave us the First Amendment to keep them from establishing their religion. In the process of being weaned off of Christianity, the resources of the earth have been exhausted and humanity is on the brink of ecological catastrophe, but we are also on the verge of a new age of consciousness. In a speech that African American abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass gave, he asked rhetorically, what does the 4th of July mean to the “negro” in America? It means to always be an outsider, to never really be part of a political community that was instituted for the benefit of white people. All of this began to change after the Civil War because of the 13th Amendment which makes slavery illegal, the 14th Amendment which makes former slaves citizens and the 15th Amendment which empowers them to vote. Looking at history, the United States has become much more inclusive than other nations since that time. Roman crucifixion was the ultimate tool of propaganda, the fictional Gospel of Jesus Christ is proof of this. America’s answer was and is the Eighth Amendment which bans the federal government and by incorporation (14th Amendment — due process) the state governments from using “cruel and unusual punishment.” There is much to celebrate in America’s founding era 1775-91 but Independence Day is not really about the birth of a great nation. America didn’t become a great nation of justice and inclusion until after the Civil War and the Voting Rights act of 1965 which built upon the 14th and 15th amendments. Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, “Government of the people, by the people and for the people ... ” In light of this, “We the People” should change the national anthem from the anthem conceived in slavery, "The Star-Spangled Banner," to the anthem conceived while ending it, the Battle Hymn of the Republic where men die to set other men free. JUNE 28, 2024 Should Americans celebrate Independence Day? Protestors, not terrorists! The seven founding fathers: George Washington,Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison. Washington the strong soldier, Thomas Jefferson the political revolutionary, John Adams the philosopher, the inventor Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton the statesman, John Jay the forgotten founding father, and James Madison the father of the constitution. I wonder if these fine gentlemen are terrorists? Are these not the gentlemen who led protests which led to the Revolutionary War to gain independence from Britain? Let’s not forget to mention the founding mothers: Phillis Wheatley, Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and Elizabeth Schuyler, who contributed a lot in this time period of building a nation. MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Did they not teach us in elementary school about our right to free speech and our right to assemble and protest? I don’t want to sound like the Backstreet Boys, but "tell me why” the DeKalb County Prosecutor Sherry Boston charged 61 protesters with conspiracy and 42 protesters with domestic terrorism? “Stop Cop City” is a multi-faceted Imagine iconic Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks being called or labeled terrorists. That would sound ludicrous. But here in America at ground-zero of the civil-rights movement in Atlanta, Ga., government officials are now charging protesters with racketeering and domestic terrorism. movement in the struggle with the Atlanta Police, opposing the building of a Police Training Center. “Cop City” is a $90 million police and fire training facility to be built in Atlanta. This plan has embroiled the city in protest and demonstrations for two years. Protests like this have now taken hold on the global scale. On just about all seven continents there is some kind of protest or social demonstration taking place daily. Nations have their hands full trying to quell dissent.The free nations of this world must be doing something wrong. All these nations claim to be liberal free democratic bodies of governments, but the policies they support and back render mass protest and unrest. The positioning and actions of these nations contradict what these nations say they are all about. And now, through desperate means, they are willing to label and charge ordinary citizens as terrorists. The student-led Encampment for Gaza and the Divestment of Major Universities Funding to Israel has taken hold in America and Europe. These students are doing us all a favor by standing up for what is right! I say, thank you to all the students who were arrested and all who stand up for justice! The student-led protests and demonstrations stand on the foundation of principles of the constitution of America. These students are doing what they were taught to do, to stand and resist against what is wrong! JUNE 28, 2024 JULY 4TH The Deep State Is Trump targeted by the Deep State or is he part of it? The chain of command gets complex at the higher levels and none of them want to be identified. President Bush Jr. declared himself to be the Decider. We now know he was a spokesperson of Project for a New American Century (PNAC). It is at this level where we find the Deep State. As the Soviet Union imploded, the PNAC came out as the spokesperson for the sole super power.This is a subject of deep doo doo, the filthy lucre which is the flip side of lucrative. If you go to the top of the chain of command there are the central planners that plan what Bill Clinton called “market democracy” and the management of financial flows through Wall Street. They believe the world is their oyster. FOIA (Freedom of Information Act, which allows citizens to request documents from the government), does not apply to everything and releases are so redacted they are meaningless. There was a lawsuit in Detroit in the 1970s to release the Red Squad files which included surveillance of all peace and justice events. My mother got hers. There was a lot of black ink over the print. They did show that she attended events that I helped organize. You would never see the names of those spying on you. They were seen copying the license plates of all the cars in the parking lot.The Detroit Red Squad was part of Cointelpro, a cross-agency counter intelligence task force organized to infiltrate and destroy resistance from the working class and oppressed minorities with a focus on the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement and the Brown Berets. The ruling class has many resources to dominate the narrative you hear. I did not apply to get a copy of my file after I saw it would be mostly black ink. The Chicago police branch of Cointelpro shot Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in his bed and called a press conference to claim that the Panthers shot first. Chicago local media told the truth, the national media did not at the time. Europeans came to Turtle Island, now known as North America, and brought a supremacism based on the nation state and the Age of Enlightenment, which gave birth to capitalism and the first scientific revolution with Galileo, Copernicus and Isaac Newton in the forefront. I searched “leading thinkers” and Google popped up with “of the enlightenment” before I touched the next key. It is a thesis waiting to happen, a big turning point in history which is now KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 meeting and plans for the New World Order. The unity of Turtles and Teamsters, environment and labor, was such a threat that the Seattle police riot rivaled the Chicago police riot at the Democratic convention of 1968. The media blamed protestors as the cause of violence in the ongoing culture of “blame the victim.” This wave of activism died after 9/11 and the War on Terror. Endless war is wearing us out and the amazing show of solidarity with giving birth to the next age of awareness. Einstein, Niels Bohr, Heisenberg and Szilard began to deepen our understanding of science from the machine model to a more open reality, and they did the preliminary work which led to the Manhattan project. Please watch “Oppemheimer” to experience the strange story of the atomic bomb and the nuclear era. Awareness of a bigger reality than the machine model takes root. Neuroscience, quantum mechanics and mindfulness are coming together in the seamless interrelatedness that promotes a more complete understanding and experience of life and death. East meets west and Buddhist teachers in the west are in the vanguard promoting mindful awareness. Globalization is growing beyond the commodity fetish of neoliberal financialization. The 1990s saw a huge wave of Globalize Liberation. The Zapatista movement came out as the North American Free Trade Agreemant (NAFTA) went into effect. Subcomandante Marcos was prominent on the world stage as a liberation leader who made good sense. The Zapatistas were a big influence on Occupy Wall Street and the global movement against the World Trade Organization (WTO). There was an international conference in Cuba that numbered in the thousands. I remember Canadian activists who had shut down Ottawa and called for more direct action. We were in an assembly hall with a microphone at every seat and headphones to choose your preferred language. Translations and sound were excellent. I raised my hand and got to speak after the Canadians. I applauded the many kinds of direct action and made the case for a general strike as the kind of direct action that would be most effective. Even a general strike would be a step towards organizing our power to be self-governing. The 1990s ended with the Battle of Seattle where many thousands protested the World Trade Organization Palestine is a sign that people do not want to be organized around the war machine. You are welcome to the peace vigil every Friday, 5:30pm at Liberty and Fifth Ave. I hope some of us go to Washington D.C. on July 24th to protest Netanyahu’s invitation to speak to Congress. I will work on follow-up details in a July Groundcover. It is time to focus on what we want more than what we don’t want. Coalition building with the goal of a United Front for the Salvation of America (UFSA). Precious human birth and the reality of impermanence motivates growing numbers of people to dig into our essential nature. We are social beings and individuals. To bring that reality to creative fruition is the challenge of our day. When we learn that political economy is the context of our daily life, we face the gods of capitalism who consider themselves to be eternal and omnipotent. Wealth accumulation is the god to whom most of us submit when we realize that poverty is a death sentence which takes skill and work to avoid. Grassroots work may mean living under the concrete of the commodified world as you search for a crack which allows a few photons to enter the darkness and grow sprouts. Take heart from dandelions! The masters of wealth accumulation use their wealth to organize the masters of violence to be their favored servants. This alliance gives new meaning to our ancestors' understanding of the powers behind the throne. Voila, we have the Deep State. Who is at the top of the chain of command? The Bible has a verse which is relevant here, Corinthians 6:12, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” That was written during the Roman empire. We are so much more see STATE page 7  GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MEET MY PET PAL meet my pet pal: PAUL & BLUIE A column on why those experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity have pets and why it is important to support that. What rewards do you get from having a pet? My depression goes away — he gives me a good reason to be happy! What is a challenge of having a pet while experiencing homelessness/ poverty/economic exploitation? It’s a challenge to keep him cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Also to get food and proper equipment for him. He is a catahoula-leopard-pitbull mix. How did you get your pet? I adopted him from a troubled kid. Tell us a few things about Bluie: He loves to play in the water. He loves steak and beef. He is very loyal! What is something our readers should know about your pet if they see you both on the street? Do not rush up to us because he will think you are trying to attack us. If I leave my post with Bluie, please wait JUNE 28, 2024 Before the photo op, Paul was working on his artwork on Liberty Street and Bluie was dozing in the summer sun. close by or come back in five minutes. Bluie will start barking at anyone who is near our stuff. I don’t like hanging out with loud and stupid crowds; they make Bluie scared and he may bite. He loves steak, vanilla ice cream — no chocolate, no onions, no seedy veggies or fruits. You can give him some pizza, but not a lot! Free Marijuana Society TONY SMITH Groundcover contributor My favorite four letter word is FREE. If you feel the same way, then the free marijuana society might be for you. https://www.freemarijuanasociety. org/pages/Info In Ann Arbor we have a place where once a day anyone over 21 can come and get FREE pot, every day! One may choose from indica, sativa, wax, pressed hash, or kief. This is not just some gak-schwag organized-crime weed, it's “dank af.” All that Liz, the purveyor of this unique social experiment, asks is that you don't pay any money! Liz will not take one red cent from you — so don't even offer. Simply call the number below to find out when the office is open. I liked the hash a lot, but I also enjoyed everything else. Liz had numerous kinds of wax to try; I was impressed. Not much in the way of edibles; however there are snacks and tea and coffee just in case one gets the munchies or needs a little shot in the arm after smoking a bit too much. Liz has an interesting story. She helped make Ann Arbor history. I’m sure most of my readers have at least heard of the “HASH BASH.” They gave John Sinclair ten years for two joints and John Lennon made the rest rock and roll history (in his song “John Sinclair.”) At the proto-Hash Bash in 1971, Lennon gave a concert intended to help free Sinclair. The first actual Hash Bash in 1972 wasn’t even called “the Hash Bash,” the T-shirt guy biffed the shirts they had made and called it the “hash festival.” Bash just rolls off the tongue better and eventually the name stuck. Another interesting aspect of this story is the reasoning behind the first IRL “Hash Bash.” Michigan's marijuana prohibition law lapsed for three days and so on April 1, 1972, weed was totally legal! Liz and friends had pounds of hash to get rid of in a hurry, because that's what law-abiding hippies do, I guess? So they decided to continue the tradition of celebrating the dream of the decriminalization of marijuana. I highly recommend if you want some FREE WEED that you holler at Liz. The idea is a good one. Free weed for sick people and maybe a completely decriminalized situation in the future? Kick Uncle Sam and their system pigs completely out of the garden. The government isn't any good at winning the war on drugs anyway — just take one look at Hunter Biden or consider all that Iran Contra coke they flew into Arkansas, those “glow in the dark” shade balls eventually put in the hands of men like Freeway Ricky Ross. Just think of the hypocrisy and broken lives poisoned by addiction to hard drugs, just think of the gangs and the violence, just think of the money they wasted. Our government waged chemical warfare on the American people. Those guys at the CIA are such great Americans. And this is why weed must be completely free, if I understand Liz properly. I think every sane adult ought not to have to deal with cops or criminals for any drug at all. I’m not a fan of hard drugs, but I’m definitely not a supporter of the prison-industrial complex either — screw them, screw Bill Clinton, Oliver North, George Bush, and all the government operatives who flooded America’s cities with coke from South America and later heroin from Afghanistan. We must absolutely get our government out of the business of drugs. But I digress. Maybe I’ll see you over at the Free Marijuana Society sometime? Don't be a stranger! You can grab some pot and split or chillax for a few and hear wild stories about the good old days, or maybe Liz will bust out the harmonicas and WAIL. My father played the harmonica and let me tell you Liz does a good job. Don’t bring any money, just give this number a call and enjoy nature’s nicest plant. Phone: 734-590-0499. Address: 280 Collingwood (Ste A) Ann Arbor. Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon-Fri; 2 p.m.-8 p.m. weekends **Hours may vary, please call for more info.** JUNE 28, 2024 ARTS CONTEST GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Vote for your favorite painting and view submissions to the other three media categories online at linktr.ee/ groundcovernews Voting closes August 5! Eric Kopchia Cindy Gere Robbie February  STATE from page 5 Ritter are among the best analysts we have. sophisticated now. The new imperial plan aims for full spectrum domination. Both outer space and inner space become battlefields as plans to colonize the moon and Mars mesh with the digital design to use all your time to keep in compliance with the terms and conditions of central planners. The gods of capital pay their servants well. Tony Schwartz, the ghost writer for “The Art of the Deal” spent enough time with Donald Trump to know him well and publicly repent for the success of his writing. His interviews are eye-openers. Some of us have known of the Deep State for decades. John le Carré educated many of us with his best seller “The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.” I saw the movie first in West Berlin after returning from a day in East Berlin. It was dubbed in German which in 1967 made little difference to me as I was happily bilingual. I then read the book in the original English and reread it regularly; I saw the movie in English several times. Richard Burton is at his best in this movie. Today we have the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, whistleblowers from the national intelligence community who tell us the inside story of the Deep State. It was founded by Ray McGovern, who with Col. Larry Wilkerson and Scott The idea of American exceptionalism and the sole superpower is thoroughly deconstructed. Donald Trump attacked the Deep State as traitors to America who are bent on sabotaging him. I cannot keep up with all the rhetoric about America the great but I do believe when we learn to be authentic in the style of Buddha, Jesus with some study on who is the last prophet. Some say Mohammed; I think Martin Luther King Jr. I must mention Gandhi who was deeply influenced by Thoreau who learned of the Deep State that set up the Mexican American War. He refused to pay taxes for this consolidation of American supremacy, known as Manifest Destiny. Thoreau wrote the classic essay On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. As the war machine aims for omnipotence in the 21st century, we need to analyze and reflect on a Constitution that has been seized and interpreted by private property extremists dedicated to claiming the commons as fair game for investors who devastate public health, public education, transportation … Wealth disparity has become obscene. We can make a stand by connecting withannarborcommunitycommons. org, Ann Arbor for Public Power, AnnArbor CoalitionAgainstWar.org — combined with daily mindfulness training so as to tune in to daily life. That’s where the action is: Democracy at Work as Richard Wolf teaches in his podcasts. Mario Savio is an icon for many of us who remember the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. His landmark passionate speech “Bodies Upon The Gears” was given at UC Berkeley in December 1964. Free speech is still the heart of the popular liberation movement as we struggle to free ourselves from every form of supremacism, until egomania is composted into the dustbin of history. Mindfulness training of body, speech and mind and the necessary discipline to follow through until we experience “calm and clear” and make that state of mind the center for deeper progress on the path. Awareness of our fundamental qualities of compassion, loving kindness and discriminating wisdom will lead to the actions that purify our karma and lead to “liberty and justice for all.” All hands on deck as we embrace reality and share in the awakening that benefits all without exception. I take another breath to walk with you on the path. We will hit critical mass and countless awakened beings will arise. Let’s be among them!

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SPORTS HOSEA HILL Groundcover vendor No. 532 I was reading during the Michigan vs. Purdue baseball game on May 11 and learned that it was Little League Day at the ballpark (Ray Fisher Stadium at the Wilpon Complex in Ann Arbor). I had the opportunity to interview four Little League baseball players. Following is our conversation: Hosea Hill: Hey everybody, it's Hosea Hill here and thanks to Groundcover Newspaper, I'm a freelance writer with them. We're here today, May 11, the day before Mother's Day but we're celebrating a special day here at the Michigan baseball game vs Purdue. Michigan is tied up right now 5-5. I got some special guys with me, some young players, these are Little League players. Today is a special day, it's Little League appreiation day here at the game and hey we are going to introduce these kids here, we got four of them, hey what's your name buddy? TJ: Hi, I'm TJ and I play for Hawks Gold. HH: You play for the Hawks? Oh, that's a good team. What do you think about the game today? TJ: Hopefully Michigan wins, and Go Blue! HH: Sounds good. Where you from? TJ: South Lyon, Michigan. HH: What position do you play? TJ: I play catcher. HH: We got a young catcher here! Who's your friend next to you? TJ: This is Brenden. HH: Hey Brenden, what do you think about this game today? Brenden (B): I think it's going to be a good game and I hope that Michigan wins also. HH: Sounds good, Go Blue, right? B: Go Blue! HH: Yeah! You play with the Hawks too? B: Ummm-hummm. HH: What position are you playing? B: Outfield and everywhere. HH: You getting all in, you getting good experience out there, huh? B: Yeah. HH: Do you love baseball? B: Yeah. HH: Where are you from Brenden? B: I'm from Milford, Michigan. HH: Alright cool. We got another buddy right next to him, what's up kid? What's your name? Wesley (W): Wesley HH: It's good to meet you, Wesley. W: Good to meet you. HH: What position you playing Wesley? W: First base. HH: First base! Oh cool, what do you think about the game today? W: Good, I think Michigan will win. HH: Sounds good, let's Go Blue, right? Let me get a Go Blue from you. W: Go Blue! HH: Alright, hey buddy what's up? What's your name? Lincoln (L): Lincoln HH: Lincoln, we got a young Lincoln here hahahaha, hey Lincoln, what position you play? L: Third HH: Third base, right? L: Yep HH: How's that going? L: Good HH: Alright good, you play for the Hawks, too … What else can you tell me about the Hawks? L: They are a good team, they’re ranked sixth in the state and I got a lotta teammates. From left to right: Brenden,Wesley, TJ and Lincoln. HH: What do you think about the game today? L: I think it's good, it’s tied up right now. HH: Yeah, Go Blue right ... L: Yeah, Go Blue H: Yeah, I like that, hey hey thanks it was a pleasure meeting you all today and I wish you all the best luck — you guys are golden. Again, thanks to the kids that participated in this interview and their coach for giving me approval to talk with them. Michigan won the game too, Go Blue! JUNE 28, 2024 Interview with young fans at Michigan vs. Purdue JUNE 28, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS LET'S CELEBRATE Tracy Bennett and Victor Fleming 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. 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If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. It's a wrap! 6. Pleads 10. Drive-___ window 14. Mother, in Madrid 15. First name that's also a noble rank 16. Defeat and cause to retreat 17. Road-tripper's navigational aid, before GPS 18. Locality 19. ___ Major ("greater bear" constellation) 20. Tiny imperfection 21. Summer observance celebrated with red velvet cake and strawberry soda 23. Japanese theatre style 25. The real ___ (authentic) 26. Word with code or colony 29. Subject 33. Opponent in a battle 36. Overabundance 39. Aloe ___ 40. Summer observance celebrated with sparklers and fireworks 43. Underworld river of Greek myth 44. Focus of many a perfectionist 45. Geniuses have high ones, for short 46. Puccini opera about an opera singer 48. Playful river mammal 50. Gave the once-over 53. Use strongarm tactics on 57. Summer observance celebrated with rainbow flags and parades 62.The ___ minimum 63. Way out 64. Singles in a till 65. Ann Arbor high school that shares its name with a nearby river 66. ___ spumante 67. Stereotypical athletic dude 68. Twists to fit a biased narrative 69 Actor Astin 70. Rubs the wrong way 71. Passionate about math, maybe DOWN 1. Noisy kiss 2. Style of yoga 3. Wing it 4. Conclude, as filming 5. "___ Misérables" 6. Boyfriend 7. Accrue, as interest 8. Covetousness 9. Agenda 10. Bond between soul mates 11. Honker 12. Tin Man's worry 13. One of the Four Corners states 21. Brought bad luck to 22. "Dig in!" 24. "___ your chin up!" 27. Clearasil target 28. Culminated in 30. Start to cure? 31. Baghdad's nation 32. Islets 33. Black Power symbol 34. Not fooled by 35. "Slow Churned" ice cream brand 37. Catbird ___ (enviable spot) 38. One who'll rat you out 41. Migraine relief brand 42. Nile queen, familiarly 47. Nautical "affirmative!" 49. Admonish 51. Party hat face with a noisemaker, for one 52. Benefit attendee 54. More difficult to locate 55. Great body of people 56. Minuscule 57. Smartphone precursors, briefly 58. Stood, as in court 59. 56-Down amount 60. Make out 61. Clucks of disapproval 65. Sister channel of QVC

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SUMMER FUN Sonic Lunch Summer Concerts open A2’s free summer music scene Aint Afraid and SHAED, both twin and family bands, opened the 2024 Sonic Lunch Summer Concerts, June 6, at Ann Arbor's Liberty Plaza. Both bands focused on connection and hope. "It's one of the most important purposes that we have, as a group, as a band, as ‘Aint Afraid,’ connecting with you," twin sisters Sakinah and Zakiyyah Rahman of Ypsilanti said to the overflowing crowd at East Liberty and South Division Streets. "And one of the things that we hope for everyone to find is their own ‘Aint Afraid,’ their own unapologetic way of living." Sakinah, who goes by the nickname Inah and the stage name "Straingth," and Zakiyyah, who goes by the nickname Yahzi and the stage name "WiZdumb," are Black Muslims performing in hijabs, Muslim head scarves. Not noticeable is their former homelessness as girls growing up in Detroit, according to the Detroit Metro Times. Aint Afraid performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the "Artists Across America Video Series," in 2021. "This is one of the shows that typically won't show up in my Spotify," Ruby from Ann Arbor said about Aint Afraid's mix of pop, hip hop, soul, rhythm and blues. Presented by the Bank of Ann Arbor and hosted by radio station Ann Arbor's 107one WQKL FM, Sonic Lunch is every Thursday (except July 4) from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. through August 29. Sonic Lunch artists' music is played on the radio station. THS Audio provides the sound production. Ann Arbor's 107one also provided music quietly at the Ann Arbor YMCA's Fourth Annual Summer Block Party, June 15 at 400 West Washington Street through 3rd Street. The event was held in conjunction with the final day of A2ZERO Week from the City of Ann Arbor's Office of Sustainability and Innovations. The Washtenaw County Sheriff Office's bright pink Ford Police Interceptor Utility vehicle with the inscription, "Strength, Courage, Hope" and the pink breast cancer ribbon attracted much attention. The WCSO sells pink shoulder patches with proceeds being donated to the Shades of Pink Foundation in Washtenaw County. The donations from the Block Party go to the "Y" nonprofit annual campaign. Like others in Washtenaw County, Delonis Center clients use the "Y" for physical and mental health and physical rehabilitation. JANE REILLY Groundcover vendor No. 611 A relaxed, cheerful lunch crowd packed Liberty Plaza for Sonic Lunch, bringing their own stadium chairs, sitting on the cement barriers or standing on the steps to listen to live music, June 6. Ann Arbor musician Laith Al-Saadi has performed at 15 of the 16 Sonic Lunch concerts, the most of any band. "We need art," Al-Saadi explained to friends. "I don't separate between the arts. Arts in general. All art." Al-Saadi, on electric guitar, Ann Arbor bass guitar player David Stearns, who has been in Al-Saadi's blues, soul and rock band for 25 years and Plymouth drummer Mike Shea played an 11-song, 64-minute set, June 13. Al-Saadi promoted his 2024 album, "Don't Give Up on Me," which can be purchased directly at laithalsaadi.com instead of from a record label. Al-Saadi payed homage to blues, jazz, rock and heavy metal, sang “Ophelia,” in genuine tribute to Levon Helm, “How’s It Gonna Be,” written for Ellis Marsalis and a solo ballad, "Run to You," that is his Mom's favorite. Shea's Mom watched from her car parked in a spot on S. Division closest to the drum kit. Al-Saadi spent about another 50 minutes greeting fans that spanned ages and interests from a kindergarten graduate to a 91-year-old gentleman. He talked shop with musicians. Instead of the Ann Arbor Summer Streets Thursday night music series June 13, there was The Event on Main. The concerts are 7-9 p.m. Thursdays (except July 4) through August 29 on South Main St. between Liberty and William. Concerts are: II-V-I Orchestra July 11, August 22; Depot Town Big Band July 25, August 15; Harmolodics August 1, 29 and The Pherotones August 8. The Event on Main is the annual fundraiser since 2010 for the Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund for Little Victors at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. Both the Woodson Foundation and the "Y" accept donations all year. Woodson helped the University of Michigan football team win the co-national championship, earned the Heisman Trophy and won a National Football League Super Bowl. Only weather and the 2020 pandemic are capable of stopping the free outdoor concerts by Sonic Lunch and A2 Summer Summer Streets, started in 2022. Both cancel for rain. "Our ability to share our good fortune and give back to the community is very important," said Timothy G. Marshall, President and Chief Executive Officer of Arbor Bancorp Inc. and the Bank of Ann Arbor. "Particularly in times of need, it's our obligation to give back to the community." Music promoter Matthew Altruda, who has chosen the bands for 15 seasons, said Sonic Lunch was Marshall's idea. Altruda met Marshall at the first Sonic Lunch in 2008 and has managed the series since. Altruda also promotes the A2 Summer Streets concerts from the Main Street Area Association, works for Bank of Ann Arbor, hosts the radio show "Tree Town Sound" on Ann Arbor's 107one and is part owner of the Associated Football Club - Ann Arbor. This season there is a new restroom with QR code entry, food from EJ's Gourmet Street Cuisine and Ginger Deli with cash and credit payment, merchandise tables for artists and Sonic Lunch, a soap bubble machine and free Sonic Lunch stickers, bracelets, ear plugs and pins. On June 20, a misting fan was added, the product tables were moved to the north side of Liberty St., allowing more room for the crowd and Acai Bowls joined the food trucks. Perich Advertising & Design created the Sonic Lunch image for the merchandise and advertising. There was one city police officer — alert, professional, friendly. Chelsea Lee, lead singer of SHAED - of Washington D.C., sang "Rocket in the Sky," with children dancing at her feet and students from Ann Arbor Open Middle School in the audience. Her husband Spencer Ernst and his twin, Max are the electronic-pop, indie rock style band which first played Sonic Lunch in 2019. Jacob Sigman, a 2017 U-M graduate now in Los Angeles, said June 20, "This brings together my friends from Michigan and my friends from L.A." Sigman, high fidelity rhythm and blues, opened for Allen Stone from Seattle. He also invited Detroit vocalist Jade Nicole to Sonic Lunch after meeting at Ann Arbor Top of the Park, which concludes June 28-30. The Pherotones invited Tyler Duncan of Ann Arbor, alto saxophone, to join for three songs in the second set of their June 20 A2 Summer Streets show before playing their regular Thursday gig at The Last Word. The Pherotones, Ross Huff, trumpet, flugal horn, tambourine; Giancarlo Aversa, keyboard; Brennan Andes, bass guitar; Wes Fritzemeier, drums played a 40-minute first set. Tenor saxophonist Jon Lynn joined for the 60-minute second set. The Pherotones played jazz, Latin rock, mambo and Big Band. The upcoming Sonic Lunch concerts: July 11, Michigander with Young Ritual; July 25, The Accidentals with Joy Clark; August 1, Frontier Ruckus with Timothy Monger; August 8, May Erlewine with Kate Peterson; August 15, Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers with The Rebel Eves; August 22, Antwaun Stanley with Andrew Horowitz; August 29, The Crane Wives with Anna Ash. Other free summer concerts listed at annarborwithkids.com or its own website include: Ann Arbor Civic Band 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays June 29 in Chelsea, July 3, 10, 17 at Burns Park; Washtenaw Community Concert Band 7:30 p.m. July 18, German Park; Live from Tolan Square Milan Fridays 5:30-8 p.m. except July 5, August 30 and Sept. 20 and every third Thursday through Sept. 27; Dexter Summer Music Series at Monument Park 6:30 - 9 p.m. Fridays through August 30; Saline Salty Summer Sounds, Thursdays, 7-9 p.m. through Aug. 15 (West Henry Parking lot) and U-M School of Music Summer Carillon Concerts, Mondays 7 p.m. July 15-August 12 at Lurie or Burton Memorial Towers. JUNE 28, 2024 JUNE 28, 2024 POETRY Out of My Cascades LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 A numerous thing rings true I'm sure of this The evidence is in, true to the trier of facts This isn't science My life experiences Are a matter of fact Some people lie down, some people get down I've managed to get right back on track Slowly, Yet, surely Maybe not 100% Yet, it is a small, mighty, insect Yes I'm a living human being Not one should ever forget that Cascades out of cascades flow The farther you come The higher you may reach Just remember, I can only teach... Out of my Cascades TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 BOTTLE UP THE CHANGE DEZZ CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 643 CHANGE only come when you don’t expect it (change) PEOPLE only look for change sometimes when it’s forced on them (change) It’s a scary thing when you don’t look for it. But when you see it and feel it, then and only then do change come into play. Now we expect something to happen favorable to us when we put the work into making change. WAR is going on because somebody and I really do mean somebody, one person wanted a difference because he or she believed that something wasn’t right and needed to be fixed. Now here comes Mr. Nightmare and his homeboy fantasy, but please lets not forget Mr. Sandman himself aka Mr. Dreams So now reality sits in. So others ideology comes into play – who’s to say your ideals are not someone else's nightmares or fantasies. Someone thought about the same thing. So when you get to be part of change when it is needed Bottle it up fast Because you might never see change again I’m so glad you’re not like other men, You could care less about other females, You play ta win, Ta get that sell, Don’t care you who you hurt, You’re not a pervert, All you care about izz tha grind, Don’t care if she’s fine, You could care less being wit a female, You just care about your own detail, Don’t care if anyones fake, Azz long azz you can take, That one thing you love money, You don’t care about no honey. Self-love mantra BRANDY FINLEY Groundcover vendor No. 641 To heal the heart you must stand on your values. Hold who's accountable for their actions. Love yourself before loving someone. Stand on your feelings. No lowering your standards. Spend time with your emotions. Learn how to control them. Stop giving your all when it is not deserved. Learn how to be by yourself. Remember that being by yourself doesn't mean you're going to be yourself. Know that ain't nobody going to love you like you. Forgive anyone that was causing you pain. Give yourself so much love that all your hopes and dreams are wrapped up in you. Now you know no one can come in and destroy your hopes, your dreams, or your ambitions. Now that's what you call real self love. Tha birdz and tha beez GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Black bean and cauliflower tacos ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingriedients: 1 Tablespoon chili powder 1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 teaspoon garlic powder Scant 1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder 1 1/8 teaspoon cumin 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice 1 Tablespoon water 1 Tablespoon olive oil 1 can black beans (15 ounces), drained and rinsed 1 large head cauliflower, washed and cut in bite-size florets 1/2 large yellow onion, chopped 8 six-inch flour tortillas (whole-wheat work great!) 1 cup finely chopped red cabbage 8 ounces Queso fresco (Mexican cheese), crumbled Directions: In a large bowl whisk together the first 10 ingredients. Stir in the black beans, cauliflower and onion. Place on a greased baking sheet and roast for 30 to 35 minutes (until cauliflower is tender). Stir occasionally. Follow directions on the package to heat tortillas. Fill tortillas and then top with cabbage and cheese. Finish off with a small dollop of sour cream or your favorite crema. Keep it healthy and skip the cheese and sour cream and use a low-fat crema. Such an easy, delicious meal! JUNE 28, 2024

2 $ JUNE 14, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 13 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. A tale of two shelters. page 6 MEET YOUR VENDOR: DENISE SHEARER PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Association Football Club shows Ann Arbor that everyone belongs in “the beautiful game.” page 7 AFC-AA women's coach Kevin Taylor gives his team advice before the start of the second half in a 3-1 victory over the Cleveland Force, May 24. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER 2024 VISUAL ARTS CONTEST GROUNDCOVER NEWS STAFF This summer, Groundcover News is not limiting our arts activities to the weekend of the Ann Arbor Art Fair. The first ever Groundcover News Visual Arts Contest is officially live, and we need your help determining the popular winners! We accepted art submissions from homeless/low-income artists in four categories: photo, drawing, painting and mixed media. There will be two winners per category: a juried winner ($250 cash prize) and winner by popular vote ($200 cash prize). Photography submissions are featured in this issue of Groundcover, along with a QR code that leads to the online ballot. Our June 28, July 12 and July 26 issues will feature drawing, painting and mixed media, respectively. Readers can vote for all categories at the same time. Just look for the colorful frame insignia on the cover of the next three issues. For the next eight weeks, Groundcover readers are encouraged to follow along with the contest by buying consecutive issues of Groundcover News, visiting the gallery displays at the AADL and Makeshift Gallery, and voting for your favorite pieces — online or in-person. Popular vote will be calculated based on online votes and in-person gallery votes combined. One vote per individual. The panel of judges choosing the jury winners is composed of artists representing different facets of the Washtenaw County arts scene: T’onna Clemmons, Barry Chattillion, Denali Gere and Ria Daugherty. These judges were hand selected by the production committee because of their arts expertise and committment to community! Special thanks to the Ann Arbor Art Center, the Ann Arbor District Library, the Makeshift Gallery artists and donors for making this possible. TIMELINE OF EVENTS June 20 - July 22: All submitted artwork will be on display at the Ann Arbor District Library downtown branch. In-person voting open. July 24 - September 1: All submitted artwork will be on display at the Makeshift Gallery at 407 E Liberty St. in downtown Ann Arbor. In-person voting open. Sunday, July 28, 12-2 p.m: We will launch the Makeshift showcase with musical performances, coffee, snacks and words from the artists. August 5: Online and in-person voting closes. August 9: Winners announced. Follow @groundcovernews on Instagram and Facebook to follow arts contest programming throughout the summer! JUNE 14, 2024 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Hanan Husein — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Jim Clark La Shawn Courtwright Robbie February Hosea Hill Mike Jones Tabitha Ludwig James Manning Earl Pullen Jane Reilly Felicia Wilbert GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Simone Masing Emily Paras Caelan Saunders Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com JUNE 14, 2024 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Truth or lies: Winter A warm soul with a radiating Denise Shearer, vendor No. 485 Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? On Main Street in front of Your Media Exchange that sells DVDs, CDs and tapes and media stuff. When and why did you start selling Groundcover News? A couple of years ago I think. And I wanted to help myself and help the community and have my own money. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? I like to sell Groundcover, I like to go to Sonic Lunch and I like to look at artwork. What is the best thing about selling Groundcover? I help myself and the community at the same time. I get to earn my own money which is something that helps everybody. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Go to Frankenmuth. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Hot dogs and chicken noodle soup. What is your superpower? I like to walk. What are your hobbies? Writing and drawing and coloring. What changes would you like to see in Washtenaw County? People not being rude, and better customer service. What would be the first thing you’d do if you won the lottery? Buy some clothes. What song do you have completely memorized? Joy to the World, the Christmas song. smile. I would always see this young lady rolling in her chair down the street when my truck broke down and I started walking to get around. Every time I saw her in the street, she was either rolling in the same direction I was walking or rolling towards me. I often wondered, where did she live? How far did she travel going to Walmart? I would think inside of my head that she is a strong young lady. I know she can’t walk. Her chair is raised in the air, and her legs are stretched out. However, she never let her circumstances hold her down. You could see the resilience in her. Winter would always wave her hand and smile. One particular day I was getting off work and driving with my son in the car. I saw her sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. I pulled over and spoke to her because she was on my block. Now I could find out where she lives. My son asked her if she needed any help. Winter said her battery was dead. She just FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 needed to be pushed over one hump in the sidewalk. I parked my car. Me and my son got out to assist her. As we started pushing, her 16-year-old daughter came to help. Winter started telling us how she had five days to move. I asked her why and what happened. She said that her apartment was not handicap-equipped; how she cannot get up and down the stairs in her apartment. When she got a lawyer from legal aid, they informed her she had been served an eviction and had to move out in five days. I looked at her chair. The left tire was ripped almost into shreds. I wondered how the chair was rolling. I asked her if Medicaid would give her a new chair. Winter said she had gotten the chair when she was living in Kentucky. Here in Alabama, Medicaid would not replace her chair or fix it. Her daughter was pushing with my son. The chair hit the hump and she flipped over! With all the strength we could muster, the three of us picked her up and put her back on her chair. She was embarrassed, however I assured her there was no need to be embarrassed. I explained to her that we are all here to help one another. We continued pushing her home. The sidewalk was cracked up and missing pieces. There was only a makeshift kind of ramp covering the broken sidewalk so she could roll into the house — the house that is not handicap-equipped for her chair or her. After meeting Winter, I could only feel sorrow and shame. Is the world we live in so greedy and uncaring that people really have to live like this? GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Six years since my world was shattered TABITHA LUDWIG Groundcover vendor No. 360 How am I doing just six short/ long years after my sister's murder? I can honestly say I am handling it a lot better. But am I completely better? No, of course not. I know I will never be completely over it. I think about my sister every single day. I sit and find myself wondering, what would she be doing right now if she was still here? I completely believe her ghost is always with me. I still hate Carla Cole for taking my sister, my best friend, my mom, my protector, away from me. I hate that my sister is gone. But I have a necklace with her ashes inside of it, so I will always have a piece of her. I was able to go to her grave site and see her this year on her birthday. So even though the days are getting better (to be able to cope) that don't mean I don't think of my beautiful sister every day. I try my best not to dwell over what happened because she can't rest in peace if I'm constantly dwelling over what happend. I only listen to songs for her once in a while. And only allow myself to cry about it once in a while. I know I can't change what happened even though I would in a heartbeat if I could. I can't, so I do my best to let my big sister rest in peace. Even though I am technically older now, Crystal, you will always be my big sister. I wish I could see her just one more time. Talk to her again and hear her voice. But I can't. So here is a letter to my sister: To Crystal, I miss you so much, big sissy. I wish you was here. I want so bad to talk to you and hear your voice again. I really hope there is really a heaven. And that you are so happy up there with Grandpa and Grandma and Auntie and Katie B. And everyone else. Please keep dancing in the sky and don't ever stop. Keep an eye over me. Don't get mad at me when I make mistakes and know that I am always thinking of you. I would give anything just to spend another day with you. Know that I love you with all my heart. You was taken way too soon. But I Crystal and Tabitha know that you're not in pain anymore. And you're now able to look over all of us that you love and care about and be our angel. And I just know that is what you're doing. You was the best big sissy I could have ever asked for. I don't want to ever think of what I would have been without you. Thank you for always being there for me when I needed you the most. I love you and I miss you so much. I know you're looking down and very proud of me right now. You will forever be missed. Please rest in peace, I miss your whole face. Love, Your little sister, Tabitha.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY CARE Nonpolice rapid response On one of the chat apps there is a group called "Non-police Rapid Response.'' The 41 members of the chat are neighbors, community activists and radicals who attempt to respond to community emergencies in a manner somewhat reminiscent of a volunteer fire department. What the NPRR seeks to accomplish is to respond to 911-level crises for the street community. The crises could be violent conflicts, campers who are being evicted by police, or first aid and mental health emergencies. In its infancy, NPRR did not have the capacity to respond to emergencies until recently. Many of the members are involved in homelessness solidarity activism where there is a lot of need for camping assistance, propane, clothing and other basic life needs. These kinds of calls are routine. A call was made to Pastor Anna Taylor-McCants of FedUp Ministries on Saturday May 4 by a local business owner. Someone experiencing homelessness was on her doorstep threatening suicide. Here is the chat app conversation: Anna: Anyone available to rapid respond to a business owner in Ypsi who just called me with a suicidal man in her shop? I'm at least 15 minutes away. Blue*: where's the business? Anna: A2 Vintage, Michigan and Washington. Red: I'm available, feel free to DM. Orange: Same. Anna: How close are y'all? If you can go there, that would be amazing. Will DM. Yellow: I can be there in 15 minutes. Blue: I think I'm too far away at the moment, looking at the map. I'm also about 15 minutes away, and I have to wait here for a second. Orange: I could be there in the next 10. Anna: you're all so amazing! Red, please call for backup, and Orange or I will join you. Green: Wow, this is beautiful. Thank you to everyone who has volunteered. This is exactly what I hoped would happen with this group chat. Sending y'all and the person in question lots of warmth and good vibes. Anna: I'm on my way too. Was waiting for someone to pick up bikes at my house. Thanks for going, and for all y'all who are willing to go. Backstory on this particular business owner. They seem to be good people who care about those in our marginalized street community who they have a relationship with anyway. This was the first time someone from JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 the general community reached out to the NPRR chat to call in an emergency. The members represent community organizing groups like FedUp, Growing Hope and Care-Based Safety to name a few. The NPRR hopes to be an alternative for the community’s vulnerable population, calling for compassion and peer-based care instead of calling the police. Anna tells the group, “They [the local business owners] feel pretty abandoned by all the powers that be in the community. Pastorally, I hear that and feel it deeply with all the businesses. The City of Ypsi has failed so many people lately.” She adds that while we are aware that our folks on the street have issues and challenges, we also know that our community is better when everyone is thriving. “We're here to support everyone and reduce harm everywhere.” Here are the last communications on the chat: Anna: The owner just texted me that [Red] got there, and I'm so thankful. There will be so much more of this throughout the summer. So it's nice to know our team will have a place to turn when we need reinforcements. It's going to be a beautiful summer! Yellow: standing by in case another person would help. FYI. Red: Things are definitely under control. Thanks, y'all. Kelly Callison has been the proprietor of a2vintage for over 10 years. Earlier that Saturday a man came into the store and struck up a conversation with Kelly. They talked about music and culture for a few minutes then he said goodbye. A few minutes after he left, it started to rain. The man came back, Kelly assumed because of the rain. He approached her and asked if she knew of any mental health resources. He began tearing up and said he was contemplating suicide. Kelly offered him space to cry, vent, and process. She invited him into her sitting room and gave him water, company and reassurance. “I didn’t know what else to do at that point, so I called Pastor Anna of FedUp. A few minutes later a member of the chat showed up and together we JUNE 14, 2024 Posted on MPD150.com talked, laughed and played games,” said Kelly. “The man somehow came here from another city where all his personal possessions were being held by the police. Anna was able to take him to the places he needed to go to collect his things.” Kelly says she was happy to help. People come into her store all the time to talk and hang out. She stressed how important it is to watch out for each other in the neighborhood. “I am all about community, I do my part. I would like to see the other business owners step up.” Kelly said. A few days later another member of the chat was approached by a woman stranded in Ypsilanti. “Mary” was dropped off at St. Joseph's Hospital from Indiana, where she is from. She never explained how she got there, but her ride abandoned her. She was slightly disoriented and needed a bus ticket to get home. The problem was that she had no cash. The call went out on the NPRR chat at 10 a.m. By 4 p.m., an hour before the bus was due to depart, the members of the chat pooled $125, bought the ticket and sent Mary home. Local activists find that some members of the street community, people who are actively or formerly homelessness, have had negative interactions with the police. Some have been incarcerated or are currently in the legal system. Often people on probation or parole do not want to be around police simply because their presence is triggering. Even though these people are not doing anything wrong, their fear keeps them from calling the police for help. Situations escalate, neighbors or bystanders call the police, people on the street seen as the problem regardless of their involvement or motives. Someone who is defending themself from another individual experiencing a mental illness episode may get arrested for fighting. It is this breakdown in our community safety system the NPRR is trying to patch. The group is still trying to decide how organized they should be and what kinds of emergencies they can respond to. At the core though, they agree the police/carceral system is obsolete. The reality is police and prisons disrupt the synergy of a community by dividing it as opposed to organizing it. It’s time to stop the revolving door. Not just by replacing the door, but by tearing down the building to which it is attached. There are successful models of community-based safety collectives. One example is the MPD150. Don’t let the name fool you, the Minneapolis Police Department 150 is an activist group made up of a cross section of the demographics in Minneapolis. The primary purpose of the group is to push the police-free-communities discussion from reform to systemic change. The name of the group is based on a report titled “Enough is Enough: A 150-Year Performance Review of the Minneapolis Police Department." The group is not affiliated with the police department. Here are some suggestions they make about community-based safety: 1. An easy one: STOP calling the police when it’s clearly unnecessary. 2. Get trained in first aid, crisis de-escalation and restorative justice. 3. Build community all the time, not just in times of trouble. 4. If you DO need police, go to them instead of calling them to you. 5. With mental health crises, remember to center the person in crisis. 6. Make a list of local services/ hotlines you can call instead of the police. 7. Support organizations that really do keep our communities healthy. 8. Zoom in and find solutions where you are. 9. Engage in policy work that can prevent, rather than just punish, crime. 10. Dream bigger: there was a time see RESPONSE next page  JUNE 14, 2024 COMMUNITY CARE FedUp Ministries grand reopening From Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti, FedUp Ministries has been feeding low-income and homeless people, not only food to sustain life, but also food for thought and spiritual growth, while also providing employment and volunteering opportunities in our community. Servicing the Washtenaw Community for four years, FedUp has now opened their ministries of presence in the heart of downtown Ypsilanti. Their first day of operation was June 3. In the month of April, FedUp Ministries announced they had made an agreement with Growing Hope to rent the front space in the old bank at 16 S. Washington Street (now called Black Lives Matter Boulevard) which Growing Hope is using as a farmers’ market and incubator kitchen. The agreement is that FedUp Ministries will rent the building to provide services for those in need of food, clothing, showers, laundry, bathroom, and more. FedUp will rent space for the summer on a trial basis to see how things turn out. On June 3, 2024, FedUp Ministries opened its doors for free services that include (see schedule on next page): • Church service • Prepared hot meals: breakfast and lunch • Showers • Laundry • Bathrooms • Fun activities and more! I got to speak to my friend Pastor Anna, and I asked her how she feels about serving the community in the heart of downtown Ypsilanti. She said, ”It is exciting and there is a need for a ‘third space’ — your first space is your home, your second space is your work, and third is where you can come (without the expectation to have to pay money) in order to have a social space to https://fedupministries.org/give, please donate because these provided services are needed in our community." As I continued to mosey around, MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 belong; most people we serve can’t afford to patronize local restaurants and bars to socialize. We want to create a space where people can get their basic needs met and have a community environment where all people feel welcome to come and be social and find a sense of belonging, which they might struggle to find elsewhere.” I asked her, how do you feel, and plan to adjust to serving the community five days a week versus 2-3 times a week, basically going from a parttime to a full-time operation? “ We do usually work five to six day work weeks with our catering services, that helps with providing our free services to those in need, so we are used to working a full-time schedule, and I’m hoping this provides better scheduling structure for staff by having a base, and a daily routine, as we also continue to serve in a mobile capacity as well.” I wrapped up by asking: Is there anything else you would like the public to know? “I would like for people to know they can donate to our organization on our website: I ran into kitchen team lead Caelan Saunders and one of the cooks, Todd Crawley, at FedUp Ministries. I asked both of them how the first day has been so far. Saunders said “... exciting to see all the people come by and enjoy themselves and get the food they need because I believe these services should be happening year round, so I’m really happy to be a part of getting this all set up for a fun hot summer.” Crawley said, “This is the best job I ever had because I love to cook and serve the community.” I then asked Crawley, “What is your favorite dish to dish out?” “Chicken wings," he said; “they are better than Buffalo Wild Wings.” So, there you have it folks. Free food, showers, laundry, bathrooms, Sunday worship, and other services and activities right there in downtown Ypsi. FedUp Ministries Summer 2024 Schedule: Sunday: Church Service 10 a.m. and food truck 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Growing Hope location, portable showers and bathrooms available. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday: Breakfast from 9-11a.m. Lunch from 12-3 p.m. Portable showers and bathrooms available. Every Wednesday: food truck will serve free lunch at Liberty Plaza at 12 p.m. in Ann Arbor and at the Ypsilanti Transit Center at 1:30-2:30 p.m. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. The Summer Game If you’re reading this, the 2024 Summer Game has officially commenced! Use your Library this summer to find codes, solve puzzles, attend events, and earn points toward awesome AADL prizes. Visit aadl.org/play to learn more and get started! Michigan Activity Pass With a valid library card from any Michigan public library, you can print a pass to participating organizations, including museums and state parks, through the Michigan Activity Pass website. Some partners offer complimentary or reduced-price admission; others, discounts in their gift shop or other exclusive offers. FEATURED EVENT AADL AT  RESPONSE from last page before police, and there will be a time after. Community-based safety has been around in other forms: volunteer fire departments, neighborhood watch programs that include “safe zones” which are trusted neighbors whom kids can turn to for help. I remember being in the safety patrol in elementary school. Our primary goal was to make sure our peers were not hit by cars on the way home. We had structure, training, guidelines and leadership. Our purpose was simple and our method based on community response. Each volunteer was posted near their own home and would stand on the corner blocking students if there were cars in the intersection. We wore orange sashes to indicate our role. We had no authority, we were simply taking turns keeping each other safe. There are many community-based safety organizations popping up around the country. Hopefully, with them will come the shift in consciousness necessary to replace our current justice system with something that works better — a system based on compassion and care as opposed to policing, control and oppression. *Names have been changed. June 14–30 at Ann Arbor Summer Fest: Top of the Park AADL is thrilled to partner with the Ann Arbor Summer Festival to host a medley of performances and events for 2024, including family-friendly Kids Rock performances and Top of the Park editions of World Famous Trivia and Nerd Nite! Check out the full schedule of AADL events at A2SF at aadl.org/a2sf. 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LGBTQ+ A tale of two shelters ROBBIE FEBRUARY Groundcover contributor Imagine being in a situation where you have no home, no place to feel safe, and on top of that, you're facing challenges just because of who you are. This is the reality for many transgender couples experiencing homelessness. We’ll compare how two shelters, the Delonis Center in Ann Arbor and the Salvation Army Safety Dorms in Las Vegas, Nevada, support transgender couples. The Delonis Center: Ann Arbor The Delonis Center is like a big safety net for people without homes in Ann Arbor. It’s run by the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County and offers meals, medical care and help finding permanent housing. They do their best to welcome everyone, but let’s see how they handle the specific needs of transgender couples. Inclusivity and Sensitivity: The Delonis Center aims to be welcoming to all, but imagine being in a place where people don’t quite get your unique struggles. Transgender couples sometimes face discrimination or lack of understanding from staff and other residents. Housing Accommodations: Here’s the tricky part. The Delonis Center has separate sleeping areas for men and women. This can be a big problem for transgender couples because it might mean they have to sleep apart, which isn’t great for their emotional health. Privacy and Safety: Everyone needs to feel safe, especially those who might be more vulnerable to harassment. The Shelter Association tries to provide private rooms for families, but there aren’t always enough to go around. Support Services: While there are case management and medical care, transgender individuals might need more specific help — like counseling for gender dysphoria or hormone therapy. These services are often not available or in short supply. Salvation Army Safety Dorms: Las Vegas, Nevada Now, let’s travel to Las Vegas. The Salvation Army has set up special Safety Dorms for LGBTQ+ individuals, including transgender people. They’ve created a space specifically designed to be safe and supportive for this Lynnie and Sean community. Inclusivity and Sensitivity: The Safety Dorms are all about inclusivity. The staff here are trained to understand the unique challenges faced by transgender individuals and couples. This creates a much more welcoming environment. Housing Accommodations: Unlike the binary setup at the Delonis Center, the Safety Dorms offer flexible housing arrangements. This means transgender couples can stay together, which is super important for their well-being. Privacy and Safety: Privacy and safety are top priorities here. With private rooms and secure facilities, transgender residents can feel protected from harassment and violence. Support Services: The Safety Dorms go above and beyond with specialized support services. They offer medical care, counseling, and even legal assistance tailored to the needs of transindividuals. This kind of gender comprehensive support is crucial for helping them rebuild their lives. Lynnie and Sean: a transgender couple at the Delonis Center Meet Lynnie and Sean, a couple who found themselves at the Delonis Center in November 2023. Because of the gender-segregated sleeping areas, see SHELTER page 8  JUNE 14, 2024 Vote for your favorite photo and view submissions to the other three media categories online at linktr.ee/ groundcovernews Voting closes August 5! Mike Jones Cindy Gere Joe Woods Norma Jean Cisneros Hosea Hill JUNE 14, 2024 SPORTS GROUNDCOVER NEWS Association Football Club shows Ann Arbor that everyone belongs in "the beautiful game" Creating history is hard. Eliminating bigotry is difficult. The Association Football Club - Ann Arbor is proving both are possible, even exciting, wonderful and especially fun. Jamey Amrine, one of the AFC-AA founders, said it is a community-based soccer club, focused on equity, justice and anti-racism. The men's team started in 2014, the women's in 2018. Both teams play in the Great Lakes Division of the United Soccer League, a national pre-professional league. The women play in USL W and the men, USL League Two. The USL wants to increase gender equity and provide opportunities to play, coach, officiate and work in soccer in a safe, inclusive manner, according to its website. “As a white guy, I know about undue power and bias," Amrine said. "We try to challenge bias and figure out how to change things." Some changes are unusual, such as risking a league fine for not playing the National Anthem because Francis Scott Key was a slave owner, or allowing Claire Cahalan to wear the captain's "C" on her right pride sock instead of her arm. AFC-AA midfielder Thiago Dos Santos wears his pride stripe on his left arm and a USL fourth official wears his on the right cuff of his red jacket. Some innovations are major, like helping found the Anti-Racist Soccer Clubs Coalition in 2020 and Community Leadership Revolution Academy of Ypsilanti in 2021. Some changes are local, like partnering with Food Gatherers, the University of Michigan Adaptive Sports and Fitness Program and the Humane Society on Father's Day June 16 for the women's match vs. the Michiana JANE REILLY Groundcover vendor No. 611 7 Lions. Or hosting a food and household goods drive for SOS Community Services, June 30, at the women's final home game against Detroit City FC. United Way for Books will also participate. AFC-AA players and staff also are volunteering for cleanup and landscaping projects at all five of SOS Community Services' Ypsilanti locations, according to AFC-AA Facebook. Some promote thoughtfulness such as donating six trees to the City of Ann Arbor for each Mighty Oak goal this season in honor of Ann Arbor's bicentennial celebration May 25. AFC-AA also acknowledged the Anishinaabe people of the Three Fires Confederacy — the Ojibwe, Ottawa, Potawatomi and the Wyandot before the game and dressed in "Tree Canopy Kits," tree green uniforms. Some changes are about different styles of protest. In a chippy 0-0 tie on June 1 against Michiana, the referee gave a yellow card (a behavior warning) to the AFC-AA men's bench saying, "It's about respect." As the game progressed, the referee said to AFC-AA coach Rod Asllani, "I'm just trying to explain the logic of the rule, about why I made that call." Asllani replied, "I don't understand that logic." Top: Orion McHugh taking a corner kick in AFC-AA'S 1-0 victory over Oakland County FC. Bottom: (L-R) Ami Komori, Chiara Premoli (standing), Yuliana Herrera, Lina Berrah, Emily Eitzman, Holli Brown (GK), Sydney Osgood, Sandra Pedersen. Players from both AFC-AA teams meet with fans after every home game, weather permitting. Photo courtesy of the Eitzman Family. Both coaches spoke in calm, neutral tones until the 90th minute, when both teams were striving for the winning goal. The fourth official said, "Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet," also neutral and calm. There were no physical fights or tantrums and rarely cursing in a game that featured some dangerous play on a field slick with light rain. There were eight yellow cards, four per side, and one red card to AFC-AA. Surprisingly, it was the AFC-AA fans that cursed a call during the women's first loss, 1-0 to Midwest United, June 2. Through June 3, the men are 2-1-2 and the women 3-1-1. Some changes are financial, like free admission every game for 13-under and a $2 ticket discount at the gate for fans who donate to AFC-AA community partners. AFC-AA donates $2 for every ticket purchased online. Some changes are historic. AFC-AA right defensive back Emily Eitzman, the Outreach Coordinator for the U-M Adaptive Sports Student Group, was honored on Women and Girls in Sports and Community Day for starting the first amputee soccer program in Michigan in November 2023. The U-M Amputee Soccer team played a halftime exhibition at the AFC-AA Interest women's home opener, a 1-0 victory over Kalamazoo FC, May 19 at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School's Hollway Field. There was free admission for all who identify as women, girls and non-binary. The USL accepts transgender athletes. Midfielder/Forward Bridget Kopmeyer, 14, became the youngest player in Mighty Oak history to score a goal, May 29, a 3-1 victory over Michiana. Kopmeyer, a Pioneer sophomore in 2024-25, plays U-15 for Internationals Girls Soccer of Medina, OH, an Elite Clubs National League regional team. The previous youngest player was Eitzman, 17, in 2019. "She's been selected to a national pool for her age group," AFC-AA coach Kevin Taylor said about Kopmeyer, who is very fast. "She's willing to do whatever needs to be done to be part of the team. When you come to a team like this, when everyone's a top player, the goal is to just come together as a team as fast as possible." Taylor, Asllani and opposing coaches are available to fans after each game, win or lose. Jenna Trubiano, the U-M Women's Ice Hockey Club Coach, and see SOCCER page 11 

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LGBTQ+  SHELTER from page 6 they had to sleep apart. This separation added to their stress and made it harder for them to access the support they needed. Despite the center’s efforts, the lack of specialized services and understanding from some staff members made their stay challenging. Lynnie felt forced to misidentify to a gender that was not her own in order to stay with Sean. Safety was also an issue. Sean stated, “There were many times while staying at the Delonis Center where we felt unsafe. It felt that the staff were not listening to our concerns when we were often threatened by other guests.” Lynnie continued this thought by saying, “When we were staying there, we couldn’t sleep. We were unable to exist without harassment for who we were. I was physically assaulted many times before I felt forced to fight back. My assailants were not punished, but when we stood up for ourselves; we were banned from Delonis.” Lynnie and Sean took to the streets from there. They are very thankful for MISSION helping them with daily tasks, food, showers, etc. They are hoping that past projects like the “Lavender Project” return so that they can find temporary housing without social stigma and fear of violence. Now, let’s time-travel back to 2022 and meet Lynnie and Sean again at the Safety Dorms in Las Vegas. They found a welcoming and understanding environment where they could stay together. The flexible housing and specialized support services helped them feel safe and supported. With access to medical care, counseling, and legal assistance, they were able to start taking steps towards independence. Lynnie had some good experiences there. She felt comfortable expressing herself and was able to find community in the dorms. Sean stated, “I felt comfortable in the safety dorms. I felt the staff were looking out for us. I was able to get identification and get a job with their help.” Policy recommendations So, what can be done to improve shelter options for transgender individuals and couples? Here are a few ideas: Flexible Housing Arrangements: Shelters should adopt housing arrangements that respect the identities and relationships of transgender individuals. This means more private rooms and non-binary accommodations. Specialized Training for Staff: Staff should receive training to better understand and support transgender residents. This includes learning about gender identity and the unique challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community. Comprehensive Support Services: Shelters need to offer services tailored to the needs of transgender individuals. This includes medical care, counseling, and legal assistance. Inclusive Policies and Practices: Implementing inclusive policies can help create a safer and more supportive environment. This means having anti-discrimination policies and measures to prevent harassment and violence. Community Partnerships: Shelters should partner with local LGBTQ+ organizations to enhance their support services. These partnerships can provide valuable resources and expertise. The Delonis Center in Ann Arbor and the Salvation Army Safety Dorms in Las Vegas both aim to help people experiencing homelessness, but their approaches to supporting transgender JUNE 14, 2024 individuals and couples are quite different. The Safety Dorms’ focus on inclusivity, flexible housing, and specialized support services provides a more effective model. By learning from these examples, other shelters can improve their services for transgender individuals and couples. Flexible housing arrangements, specialized training for staff, comprehensive support services, inclusive policies, and community partnerships are key to creating a more supportive environment. Let’s work towards a future where all individuals, regardless of their gender identity, can find a safe and welcoming place. JUNE 14, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD from the International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Happening 6. Accommodate 11. Barbie's beau 14. Wilkes-___, Pa. 15. Biblical gift 16. Anger 17. To shorten a word 19. Adage 20. Correct, as text 21. Puddinglike dessert 23. Become attached 26. A type of gun dog 27. Arm ___ 28. Jump in 29. Choice food 30. Nonsensical 31. "___ lost!" 34. Enormous birds of myth 35. In a fitting way 36. ___ fruit 37. ___ Wednesday 38. Gray 39. Jack 40. Fancy trim 42. Hang around 43. "Joe ___" 45. Vacuum cleaners 46. Russian chess master 47. Cheese 48. Victorian, for one 49. Oil revenue 54. "___ alive!" 55. Dickens's ___ Heep 56. Convex molding 57. Born, in bios 58. ___ bear 59. Australian slang for "Yank" DOWN 1. "The ___ Daba Honeymoon" 2. Marvelous, in slang 3. Sun, e.g. 4. Solar system art 5. Pours metal 6. Nitrogen compound 7. Pair 8. "A jealous mistress": Emerson 9. Immediately 10. Husky voice 11. Keeps livestock in 12. Clear, as a disk 13. Supports a winding staircase 18. Docs for dachshunds 22. Commercial prefix with vision 23. African capital 24. Pandemonium 25. An advertising slogan 26. Disgrace 28. Used for securing mooring lines 30. Arguments 32. Young eel 33. Layers 35. Burn treatment 36. Another name for gastropod 38. To spoon ice cream 39. African antelope 41. Babysitter's handful 42. Forte 43. Coil of yarn 44. Bill of fare 45. Ado 47. Alum 50. Bolivian export 51. Chop (off) 52. Matterhorn, e.g. 53. "Winnie-the-Pooh" baby

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THINK ABOUT IT Human rights are not universally inherent Humanity and its history of attempted peaceful coexistence can be reasonably described as a series of epic failures. Our history, pockmarked with countless wars and conflicts, provides compelling evidence that getting along with each other is not a priority among us. So though we may view our present-day world as one that is civilized and considerate of all people, reality seems at odds with this optimistically polished self-assessment. There are many people out there whose lives are a living hell and very unlikely to improve despite whatever actions they take towards a better life. Unfortunately, all the talk we hear of equality and human rights can't even be called naive promises for the simple fact they are distant dreams. Many people truly believe and wish for a world where everybody gets a fair shot at a happy life, and there may come a time where that may be a possibility, but for the foreseeable future the systems we have in place not only undermine universal human rights, but actually reject them. That is unless you are born into privilege. If not, your public image can develop social stigmas that can truly make everything you set out to do devoid of any significant value based on the fact that you only can be whatever stereotype is assigned to such stigma. Furthermore, should you make any meaningful progress despite society's utter contempt, there certainly are people so invested in their intolerance for you that they would not stand by and allow such undeserved victories to ever be present in your life. Sadly, as I mentioned, what you're born into will probably play a substantial role in the direction your life takes and whether you receive support or face constant trials. Now some would argue the whole overcoming adversity and finding success in some rags to riches motivational story. I have my own brand of skepticism of such accounts. Especially when I suspect the reason there never seems to be any statistics attached to these accounts is because such occurrences are actually extremely rare, and the motivation of these stories is manipulation. Perhaps they keep you in line by distracting you from the odds you actually face, and therefore make you unlikely to take a more drastic approach towards your dream of happiness and contentment. That may sound extremely negative, pessimistic and —for lack of a better word — evil. But if you consider what humans are capable of doing to each more than just being handed all the money I could ever desire would award me happiness. All I want is that chance I was promised. But that time has passed and this JAMES MANNING Groundcover vendor No. 16 other along with our tragically flawed history — it goes from possible to predictable. Then there is the influence of my own life experiences which does nothing to help my outlook either. I was certainly not born into ideal circumstances, not to mention the damage and difficulty spawned by the associating psychological traumas and abuses! The reason I can easily call the very notion of human rights naive and immature is obvious: I lived a good deal of my life without them. This is thanks to that social stigma I mentioned. Thanks to the convenient stereotype that without doubt my situation is of my own design and definitely well deserved because the truth — well, screw the truth! — because the here and now views me as a second-class citizen, regardless of what happened, and I deserve every disadvantage and hardship I face. And if I got cheated out of the chance I was told everyone in our perfect world received? If I hit adulthood five years earlier than the standards applied to everybody? Well, the day my life went from suspecting betrayal to confirmed betrayal, I lost any rights as a person when I was discarded like trash by those who raised me. The moment I faced poverty completely alone, I was no longer an underage teen or worthy of investment. I was undesirable, only useful for exploitation. And I haven't mattered since. So I consider the notion of human rights laughable because if this is acceptable, then we as a species have a very long way to go before we have the right to even think about achieving equality. If you're an uncompassionate, “hang them-all and let God sort them” type wondering why I'm not suing people left and right, it's because at times going through hell can make a better person out of you, and contrary to popular belief, I don't care about petty revenge because that is not what I truly desire and it would serve no useful purpose to me. No world will never ever willingly see me granted one. Because the past and what was done doesn't change the worthless non-entity I am now perceived as. If I'm given any thought at all, the nature of my life story will be labeled a fabricated pity generator to justify doing stereotypical bum things. Unreflecting people seem to think my life situation is as a result of character flaws. So I don't have an abundance of hope for anything because my goals will be fought against every step of the way in a rigged system that will passively receive my organs but will award me no lenience in my unwelcome life. So back to the question: do human rights exist? In a broad and general sense, no they do not, and they won't for quite some time. I wish I could reassure those who are concerned about this assessment that I have some optimism, but then I would feel like I lied. I'm very familiar with the disappointment of putting stock into something as many people do in human rights, and would not wish it on others despite whatever is wished on me. I find it amusing in some sick-joke kind of way that one strategy that may work at escaping financial hardship is to adopt the acceptable character trait of normality that is never applied to the less fortunate. You have to be “wanted” in some way in order to get some of these privileges. Otherwise, people are happy to just consign you to oblivion. It would require dishonesty, deception and lying to create so much distance from the stigmatizing label that you become completely unrecognizable. So if one wanted any hope at some kind of life that doesn't end in a labor camp, they just have to be the kind of sell-out jerk you promised to never be, and somewhere in the back of your mind consider it one more insulting defeat. Additionally, there is no guarantee I am speaking for others in similar positions due to the diversity found among the homeless. Despite the generalized characteristics assumed for uncaring, simplistic sake. In my particular case, I find myself facing a messed-up dilemma made more complex by my unique view of things and the weird morality, born out of rebellion against my self-appointed overlords, - that I assign a good deal of importance to. Of course that grates against the only method I believe to be effective for my pursuit of better days. And so that about sums up my thoughts on the issue of human rights and their implementation or exclusion in America. Whatever you believe, and hopefully somebody finds this informative instead of depressing, because it's not my intent to promote defeatism but rather attempt to underscore the humanity of the world's abused and doubtless unwanted. The parting wisdom I wish to leave you is my suggestion that if you don't approve of the visible reminders of how inadequate and imperfect the system that blesses you actually is, then perhaps try approaching the issue more open-mindedly and create avenues of escape for these folks rather than entrap them in stagnating hopelessness that leans towards the solution of sterilization rather than healing. I mean how can anyone seriously expect somebody who spends every day fighting without end to just concede to a life of discontent as the system seems to want? Expecting people to do that is worthy of ridicule! JUNE 14, 2024 exp. 01/31/2025 JUNE 14, 2024 POETRY Finding Clarence LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 Lion's roar EARL PULLEN Groundcover contributor They said that they cared for Clarence but they don’t Haven’t seen my baby Since he was three days old Been trying to locate him for seven years now The date he was born 11-21-1998 He’s almost 26 years old They want me to pay to find my baby They gave away Social services are a messed up thing All they brought to my life was other disasters and continuous pain I just pray to God almighty to see My baby Clarence again As a lion roars He’s a majestic beast Does he get his roar From the west or the east? Some people wonder about this thing Called a beast He’s got his pride Or so it seems He has no plot And he has no scheme Just a magical dream Or so it seems. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11  SOCCER from page 7 International Football Association to environmental activist Isabel (Izzy) Sutton, a Pioneer junior in 2024-2025, were also honored before the women's home opener as Sports and Community Role Models. Sutton, who convinced AFC-AA to switch from single-use plastic, is nationally recognized for helping Ann Arbor nonprofits, including those for wildlife, education and the homeless, according to the Ann Arbor Public School District News and MLive. Eitzman, a 2024 U-M graduate in Neuroscience, wants the amputee soccer program to become an official club in the U-M ASF Program. ASF has four official club programs, adaptive track and field, wheelchair basketball, tennis and rugby. ASF also began the Adaptive Sports and Inclusive Recreation Initiative in 2021 which today has adaptive sports in all middle school grades in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, according to the ASIRI web site. Eastern Michigan University also has an adaptive sports club. The Ann Arbor YMCA integrates everyone into the same classes. Along with the Y, Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti Parks and Recreation offers swimming and other sports to athletes with disabilities. LaQuinta Haynes, a U-M Amputee Soccer player, and Eitzman were roommates when the United States Amputee Football Federation (USAFF) was invited by the Federation promote amputee soccer at the 2023 Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Eitzman is USAFF Director of Collegiate Development, Technical Director and on the Board of Directors. Haynes, a right defensive back for the United States National Amputee Women's Soccer team, will compete in the inaugural World Amputee Football Federation Women's Amputee Soccer World Cup, Nov. 2-11, 2024 in Barranquilla, Columbia. The U.S. National Amputee Women's Team is in its second year. "I didn't play sports," said Haynes, who lost her right leg from cancer. "It's about mastery. I kept doing everything. Now what can I master?" "If you really want to do something in this sport, U-M opens the door for you," William Mullen said, "but you have to want to do it." Mullen and Haynes, who played in the halftime exhibition, travel from Columbus, Ohio to work out with the ASF program. Both U-M Amputee Soccer and the ASF Program are open to everyone in the community including non-students and non-limb deficient athletes. U-M Amputee Soccer began five weeks of practice every Tuesday June 4-July 2 at Hubbard or Mitchell fields. Contact emily@amputeesoccer.com for more information. "We want to be inclusive," Eitzman and her friend Danae Moriarty agreed. "We don't want to close it off to anyone." Moriarty, born without her left arm, and Eitzman grew up together playing at the Saline Soccer Association for Coach Mackenzie Gilmore, who today is the President of the USAFF. The USAFF, founded in January 2023 according to its website, encompasses all ages and genders. It believes "through soccer all can be elevated, empowered and respected." "We're very forward thinking," said Nick Lacy, in charge of AFC-AA’s sponsorship and community outreach. "We love Ann Arbor and appreciate [its] support. We like to be a place where families can come out and have a great time watching some sports. We like to be a place where everyone can come together regardless of who they are. That's one of the things about ‘the beautiful game.’ It brings people together from all walks of life."

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Easy homemade pizza dough ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F) 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast 1 teaspoon white sugar 2 ½ cups bread flour 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon salt Directions: Add yeast and sugar to the warm water. Mix and let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Add flour, oil and salt to the yeast mixture and beat until smooth. You can do this by hand or use a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook to make it easier. Let it rest for five minutes. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a 12-inch circle. Transfer to a lightly greased pizza pan. Spread crust with sauce and toppings of your choice. Bake in the preheated oven at 450 degrees until golden brown (15 to 20 minutes). Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before serving. Topped with just cheese or some delicious fresh vegetables, this is delicious! PUZZLE SOLUTIONS JUNE 14, 2024

2 $ MAY 31, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 12 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Then and now — reflections on the Diag encampment. Page 4 TONY SCHOHL #9 ASK YOUR VENDOR: HOW DO YOU COOL OFF ON A HOT DAY? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Abolitionists and activists rally for moms in jail on Mother's Day. page 6 Activists, community supporters and families of inmates protest outside the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility on Mother's Day, May 14. Photo submitted. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER Why street newspapers? Street newspapers are produced, purchased, and sold by the homeless and those facing poverty. These newspapers provide a source of income and a platform to interact and build relationships in the community. Street newspapers mainly focus on topics concerning homelessness, poverty, local issues and events. Publications such as these provide communities with a unique perspective for readers on topics and issues of being unhoused and/or facing financial hardship. Street newspapers are non-profits; the community itself can be involved through volunteering their time and services. Students from various colleges and universities also do their internships at these publications. The homeless and the community at large provide the community with a wide perspective for the reader's enjoyment. Like any other publication, street newspapers provide advertising opportunities for local businesses and organizations. These publications are a part of a MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 street newspaper syndicate called International Network of Street Papers. INSP supports a network of 92 street papers, in 35 countries, published in 25 languages. • 3.2 million readers worldwide. • 904 volunteers worldwide supporting our network • Over 390,000 people in poverty supported since the first street paper was published in 1989 • 5,730 vendors sell street papers at any one time • 13.15 million street papers were sold across the world in 2021 • 1,350 towns and cities had a street paper presence in 2021 I would like to talk about my experience as a street newspaper vendor and writer. There is an old saying, "Life is what you make it.” This is true when working for a street paper. In the beginning, I was oblivious to the true meaning and purpose of a street newspaper, and the possibilities this occupation would lead me to. Before becoming a full time vendor at Groundcover News, I was a cab driver for over ten years in Ann Arbor. Being a driver and selling newspapers are a lot alike; you communicate with the public daily. That is what I like most about these two jobs. It took me some time to find my voice as a street paper vendor. After jumping in the water and getting my feet wet, I finally got my pitch down pat. Once you learn how to vibe and communicate with the public, one should have no problem making money and new friends. Just like any other job or occupation there are a lot of ups and downs. At times it can be like riding an emotional rollercoaster. Some days are great and others MAY 31, 2024 not so great; the same with cab driving. When things are good I go home and reflect on the good day. When things don't go so well, I make my way home to meditate and write. Bad weather doesn't help the cause of street newspaper vendors; the best time to sell is when the sun is shining and the weather is nice, at least tolerable. There are other financial opportunities within these publications structures through means of: writings, recordings, workshops, and through different public engagements. I find this very helpful in two ways: first, it helps make ends meet, and second allows vendors to explore their creative inner self. I like to write and street newspapers allow all voices to be heard; that’s one of the many special things about these publications. By becoming a street newspaper vendor and participant you won’t get rich anytime soon, but you will find yourself engaged in a way with your fellow vendors and community that surpasses any purchase, monetary donation or gift. By becoming a street paper vendor, I landed on the greatest ship that ever sailed: friendship! PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Hanan Husein — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Teresa Basham Roberto Isla Caballero Jim Clark Ian Earl Cindy Gere Hosea Hill Mike Jones Tabitha Ludwig Jane Reilly Ken Parks Wayne Sparks GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 CONTACT US PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Simone Masing Emily Paras Caelan Saunders Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons MAY 31, 2024 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR How do you cool off on a hot day? Sweet lemonade. — Tony Schohl, #9 Pour water over my head. — Jane Reilly, #611 Go swimming. — Derek Allen, #177 Go to sleep. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 Stay inside and take a cool shower. — Hosea Hill, #532 Suck on a popsicle. — Wayne Sparks, #615 I rest in the shade and drink water. — Ken Parks, #490 Go to a sink, turn the cold water on, run it over the inside of your wrists. Do that for 15 minutes and your body temperature will drop. Another option is to hold ice packs on the inside of your thighs. — Cindy Gere, #279 Chew ice cubes and drink hot coffee. — Jim Clark, #139 Go jump in the pool! — Mike Jones, #113 Wear my sun hat. — Juliano Sanchez, #174 Get in the shade! — Mary Vanover, #636 Stay in the A/C. — Mark Gigax, #620 Go to the Huron River, the pool, Lake Michigan — I need a vacation! — Terri Demar, #322 I keep a cool, wet towel around my neck and/or over my head. — Joe Woods, #103 Ice lemonade. — Keith Wilson, #637 The heat doesn't bother me. — Teresa Basham, #570 La vida del submarino When I was born, my mother gave me to my grandma. She took care of me. My grandma took me to see my father and my brothers. My father would not speak to me because of what my mother did. The first time I was married I was 13. My wife was 12. My grandma wrote a letter to my mother and she came to the marriage. Everyone said we were too young, including the judge. Many people do not know my real name is Ramón Roberto Isla Caballero. The “Isla” represents the island of Cuba. In the 1970s, the world did not ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 360 know the true depths of the sea. I saw a submarine in Cuba for the first time; it was from the Soviet Union. It was like the Titanic. En Español: En los años 1970 el mundo no conocía la verdadera historía del mar. Un hombre de la edad en avanzada como primer ministro de un barco como el Titani dego a vordo un niño sin escuela y le poso solamente el nombre Ramón al conocer un significado de la Isla no supo que aker con la madre sin cariño al cual avandono. Las abuelas no supierón que hacer solamente callarón y al miran un padre no comprendieron que solante miro y callo. TABITHA LUDWIG Groundcover vendor No. 360 HOSEA HILL Groundcover vendor No. 532 Michigan Women’s Tennis May 11, Michigan versus Miami, Michigan was victorious 4-0. Player highlight: Jaedan Brown and Kari Miller played women’s doubles and they won 6-1. May 17, Michigan versus Pepperdine, Michigan came up short and lost 1-4. Player highlight: Kari Miller played well to start but fell off and lost both sets. On the other hand, Miller will be participating in the GROUNDCOVER NEWS Michigan tennis update and Eastern Michigan baseball NCAA Singles Championship! Let’s wish her luck, go Kari Miller! Listen to Head Coach Ronni Bernstein here: mgoblue.com/ podcasts/conqu-ring-heroes133-ronni-bernstein/1204 Men’s Eastern Mich. Baseball May 10, I attended the EMU baseball game at Oestrike Stadium versus Bowling Green. Eastern won 10-9, Go Eagles! I noticed something in the outfield, some sort of memorial. Later, I found that it was dedicated to former player Michael Sacha. Eastern will never forget him and they pay tribute to him with this image. He was a player in 2007-08 and after graduating, he was Kid Rock’s personal assistant. He passed away in 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee due to an ATV accident. Let’s give a moment of silence to Michael … Thank you, Groundcover readers, and have a good day! Lena's first birthday My baby's first birthday is finally coming. I'm asking for everyone to please help my baby girl be able to have a birthday. I can accept donations at Groundcover’s Venmo account — just put in the note: "Happy Birthday Lena #360." Also sending money to the CashApp $flyhighsis is an option. Just put in the note: "Happy birthday Lena." I also have a wishlist on Amazon. My Amazon is Tabbyron99@gmail.com I would love to be able to do a “Sweet One” strawberry theme for her birthday. However, anything you can donate would be greatly appreciated, either Venmo or Cash App to be able to get the cake and food or even just Amazon to get a gift sent to my house. I would greatly appreciate it. Sincerely, Tabitha. EMU baseball field Michael Sacha 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GAZA U-M TAHRIR meets resistance to demands Days that live in infamy: Oct. 7, 2023, the Islamic Resistance Movement attacks Israel, the Israel-Hamas war begins; May 15, 1948, the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, known as the war of Independence in Israel and The Catastrophe ('nakba' in Arabic) in Palestine, begins; June 5, 1967 the Six-day War between Israel and the Arab states surrounding it leaving Israel in control of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Sinai Peninsula and Jeruslaem; Sept. 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda attacks America, starting the Global War on Terrorism. "Maybe we shouldn't have gone to war after Sept 11," said Avi Tachna-Fram, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, one of over 81 organizations that are part of the University of Michigan TAHRIR Coalition. TAHRIR, Arabic for liberation, was part of the U-M Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the Diag April 22-May 21 protesting the Israel-Hamas war. The acronym is Transparency, Accountability, Humanity, Reparations, Investment and Resistance. "A lot of Jewish people in America have come to the understanding that war and genocide anywhere, ultimately, is a crime against people everywhere," said Tachna-Fram, a 2022 U-M Bachelor of Science honors graduate in math and computer science. Tachna-Fram is a media liaison for JVP and TAHRIR. Palestinian and Israeli civilians want statehood and self-determination. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar says his daily. It also controls humanitarian aid into Gaza. The United Kingdom, America and the United Nations are providing aid by land, air and the Mediterranean Sea. "My family is not looking to ‘escape’," JANE REILLY Groundcover vendor No. 611 said Mariam Odeh, a fifth-year student at the U-M Ford School for Public Policy. Odeh's uncle, aunt, cousins and grandparents live in the West Bank. It is home. Odeh is also a TAHRIR spokesperson. TAHRIR said it protested outside the sole mission is to destroy Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vehemently rejects Palestine statehood, wants to destroy Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the United States and Israel but not by the United Nations Security Council. “Hamas protects us,” said a group of men singing “From the River to the Sea,” along S. University Ave. after May 21. Hamas gets its weapons from Iran, Russia, China, North Korea and Bulgaria. For America to be an ally, both Palestine and Israel need to choose separate democracies. Egypt's border is controlled by Hamas and one Egyptian government-controlled company. All other borders in the vicinity are closed. The company charges a fee to enter. The current rate is $5,000 per adult and $2,500 per child, plus documentation, passports and visas. Egypt is taking about $1.3 million University Board of Regents’ homes, May 15, because the Regents refuse to listen to its demands and meet. The Coalition posts on social media that it is being harassed by the police. TAHRIR posted a video of members peacefully protesting outside the U-M Museum of Art, May 3, while the state police peacefully rode bicycles. The next segment shows protesters with police bicycles. Then, the police handcuffed one protester, police pushed everyone else back with metal barriers, one protester pushed to the ground by the barrier and one police officer spraying chemicals on protesters. Volunteers at the Encampment said eight protesters were ticketed for trespassing. More than 40 protesters from the U-M Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) were cited for trespassing, Nov. 17, 2023, for being inside the Ruthven Administration Building MAY 31, 2024 Poster on display in the Diag during the encampent. after hours. Four are facing felony charges of allegedly assaulting or attempting to disarm the police. The University police are a daily presence all year. The Encampment was cited for fire hazards May 17. U-M President Santa Ono ordered evacuation by police at 5 a.m. May 21 for non-compliance. The protesters said the “hazard” was “blocking the Diag.” The protesters' demand for the divestment from Israel of U-M's $17.9 billion endowment has been turned down. The Regents say less than one tenth of see TAHRIR page 11  Then and now — reflections on Diag encampment WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 Life has a way to make you listen to lies, to believe those lies and act upon them. How, you say, is this possible!? Well folks, the way I see it, as we forge forward we tend to be blinded by a faulty memory. I remember, or no, it happened like this, or he remembers it like that. So is it just that we remember things differently or is it much more? I believe that it is much much more about where we met, how we met, what we were doing when we met. How could we get it so wrong? I want so much out of others so I start believing things that are not true just to be with them. Breaking down things that would not break, speaking about our leaders, their leaders and world opinion. It was 2014 and I had a menial job at the local car wash. Every morning on my way to work I would stop and have my coffee at our local gas station, one of the few places open at six in the morning, and have my morning coffee with Amir. We would talk, and this developed into a true friendship and one morning Amir asked if I would come work for him at the station. I was immediately accepted and from that moment on I felt like a true member of the family. His sister Malik made me feel like a family member which I so desperately needed at that point in my life. I remember being trusted and, yes, also loved. To be taken in made a profound impact on me. I watched my life begin to change — all because of my life with my new friends. Then came COVID which changed my life drastically but that’s a different story. That is just the background for my opinions today. Ann Arbor, the hub of liberalism, is the place where social change is in our DNA. And rising up in times of political upheaval is in our very existence. I see it on the streets everyday. But I also see other things as well. Our spirit is being crushed and manipulated by what I call the status quo, and I see a group of bad businessmen banding together and supporting it with vigor. Because we all see it. Now what does this have to do with the student protests in a world that is getting turned upside down? The homeless and the poor could identify with these young people. These visitors to the camp might not know the issue very well but they know big hearts when they see them — and let me tell you, they saw plenty of them. And knowing the people, they took time to try and know the issues. I wandered into the camp and I was taken back in time to my foray into political activisim on this very campus. The issues were different but the love and the fellowship was the same. I saw townies gravitate towards this place and the admiration I saw and heard was amazing. What I learned is that just like then (back in the day), love is the most powerful tool we have in our toolbag. And it also gave the townies a chance to get the protestors’ side of the story. So the most I can take away from this experience is that I had a chance to meet people who were kind and loving and who would be an asset to any community. I for one am glad I had the opportunity to learn that love is the answer to a lot of the world’s problems, and I found an abundance of it at camp at the University of Michigan with people who are heroes — not enemies. I found the people at the encampment to be a ray of sunshine in a world of turmoil. What’s going to happen next, I have no idea! I know with young people like this, the future is a little bit brighter. MAY 31, 2024 GAZA The war in Gaza comes to Ann Arbor Understanding Zionism is the key to understanding the war on Palestine today. The call for a homeland for Jews has roots in the 19th century European anti-semitism with its many pogroms over the centuries. Targeted as the murderers of Christ and blamed for the bubonic plague and whatever problems of the time, Jews were especially at risk “beyond the Pale,” the common phrase for beyond the ghetto. Zionism was more popular with European elites than among European Jews. Zionist Israel was promoted as the solution to the Jewish problem in Europe and the WWII Holocaust was the excuse to implement the Balfour Declarations of support for a Jewish state in Palestine. The first Balfour declaration is of WWI vintage as the British led the way in the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The British left Palestine in 1948 and set up Zionist Israel to take their place. It is another settler colonial project. South Africa knows a lot about apartheid settler colonialism. Look at their presentation to the International Criminal Court to understand the current genocide. Israel and its allies, especially the United States, dispute the court’s opinion. The United States does not want the court to look at its war crimes and is now putting sanctions on the court. The world is the final judge. Study Edward Said for a better understanding. The context of every war is financial and ideological. The ideology of supremacism is part of the imperialist era as it superseded the colonial model of supremacism. Imperialism’s financial sophistication organizes the cash flow to the ruling class which uses that wealth to buy political power, organize coup d'états, civil wars — anything to promote wealth supremacism. It has been very lucrative. The great gap of wealth and power concentration is built on endless war on the working class, especially in the Third World. Today Palestine is the front line of this war as all settler colonial states unite around Israel. Many young people see the writing on the wall and know that a better future requires organized participation which begins with divestment from genocide. The many actions around the world to support Palestine include numerous camps on U.S. college campuses. The Diag at the University Michigan became one of these liberated zones on Earth Day April 22, 2024. Our People’s Peace Bank meeting was postponed so we could all go to the camp. It was immediately clear that this was a well-planned and organized given to leave the camp which was immediately trashed. Did the prayer flags end up in the dumpster? The Nuremberg Code is not considered. The Israeli-Palestinian ConfederKEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 ation is planning sessions on questions such as “Is anti-Zionism anti-Semitic?” Since Arabs are Semites, I consider Zionism to be anti-Semitic. If you are Palestinian you know about Zionist supremacism and the deadly results. Liberal Ann Arbor tolerated the phenomenon. There were tents for everything —medics, literature, wonderful and plentiful food, educational presentations and meetings. Prayer was part of the camp. The Diag had become sacred space. More than once I sat down and was in communion with one or more people as we shared the struggle for freedom from our lived experience. I got some Tibetan prayer flags which were displayed at the volunteers tent. The global war machine is built on wealth supremacism and donors to politicians went on the offensive to demand that they shut down the camps on campuses. The chain of command responded with orders which were followed by campus, state and municipal police who hold the legal monopoly on violence. The war on Gaza came to the Diag early Tuesday morning, May 21. Orders were camp on the Diag for one month before the dogs of war were unleashed. People are recuperating and court dates are pending. Search TAHRIR Coalition to learn more. There are 81 U-M groups in the coalition. Follow up and follow through. I met a number of wonderful people whom I hope to meet again. Stay with the prayers that deepen our solidarity with primordial life. Breathe power. The struggle continues. The last weekend of May had a People’s Conference on Palestine in Detroit. Organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement, over 3,500 people registered for a high energy summit. Surround the White House on June 8 and demand an immediate ceasefire, an immediate end to the siege on Gaza, the freedom for all Palestinian prisoners, and an end to the occupation of Palestine. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 Michigan State Police and U-M Campus Police issued a 10 minute evacuation notice to the encampment at 5 a.m., May 21.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS INJUSTICE MAY 31, 2024 Activists, community supporters and families of inmates protest outside the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility on Mother's Day, May 14. Abolitionists and activisits rally for moms in jail on Mother's Day On a warm, spring afternoon at Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, there was a gathering of activists, neighbors and family members of inmates. About 100 people formed a demonstration line along Bemis Road across from the prison. It was Mother’s Day and Krystal Clark, a mother of four, is one of the inmates. I spoke to four individuals — Tyronda, Kat, Andrew and Lark — who represented a cross-section of people who are not caught up in the prison system, but who are greatly affected by it. Tyronda Clark I met Tyronda Clark with her eightmonth-old son Prince and three cousins. GCN: What brought you to the event? JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 TC: Today, they're having a Mother's Day rally for the women who are incarcerated, who are not receiving proper health care or proper treatment behind bars. One of the inmates that is in there, who has been speaking out, and that has been getting retaliated against, is my sister, Krystal Clark. Fourteen years ago, Krystal picked up a family member who had asked for a ride. What Krystal didn’t know was that the family member had committed a crime and was fleeing the scene. Krystal was arrested for being an accessory to the crime. She was pregnant at the time. Her child was born in prison. Tyronda and her family have been raising and caring for the child ever since. GCN: How much longer will Krystal be in prison? TC: Right now, I think it's still like three plus more years that she has to do. And honestly, the way her health has been declining, we don't know if she has that much time. Anytime she tells them that something is going on with her, they just totally disregard it. GCN: How did you get involved with the people who staged the event? TC: My sister reached out to me and told me that she has been receiving numerous supports from different people from all over the world and they were putting together an event and she wanted me to drive down from North Carolina to meet some of the people. I don't know much about them, but I know that they have to have a big heart to come and support someone they don't know. To hear her story and to hear what she's going through and then to take time away from their day, you know, away from their mother or away from their children and coming and supporting someone you don't know says a lot about you. That's powerful. GCN: What are they trying to accomplish? TC: I think personally the goal is for everyone to be treated as human beings, to be treated with dignity, to be treated with respect, regardless of what walk you have in life, regardless as to what mistakes that you make in life, to still be treated like a human. A lot of women there have not taken anyone's lives or anything. My sister didn't. My sister has been here for 14 years, and her health has steadily deteriorated. We get numerous calls. My sister doesn't even look like herself. My sister has mold growing out of her body, and nobody feels like that's important. They [the prison] get money from them [the prisoners] being there. We pay for them being there, you know, so give them the proper health care that they need. I asked if there was anything she wanted to add. Tyronda replied: “I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been supporting her and who continues to support her.” For more information on how to support Krystal Clark, see the February 9, 2024 edition of Groundcover News. see MOTHERS next page  Officer Grouchy Pants does NOT want you on his lawn! MAY 31, 2024 INJUSTICE  MOTHERS from last page Kat Layton Kat Layton, who is running for County Commissioner in District 6, said this about turning out for the rally. “Today, I am here in solidarity with the many parents, loved ones and mothers of people who are incarcerated in the Women's Huron Valley prison. I appreciate seeing people here today standing together and standing for what is right and what is just, and that is freeing people from these systems of harm and freeing these people from systems of oppression. “The conditions of the prison are historically not [good], and people are dying at disproportionate rates.” Layton believes it is time to use government funds for building healthy communities as opposed to maintaining a broken system." We were interrupted by people chanting: “End Mass Incarceration!” and “Free Krystal Clark!” “I did the Day of Empathy a few years ago, where we talked to different legislators about ending the practice of leaving people in shackles when giving birth and of having their child ripped away from their hands the moment that they do give birth. It's very traumatic,” Layton added. She speaks from authority as she graduated with a degree in Human Development. She continued, “Having a child born in prison is traumatic to the mother, the child and the community. It damages family connections and it damages community connections … It's all interrelated, it's all interconnected.” A common question people have about abolition is, “If we abolish prisons, what will we do with all the criminals?” Layton challenged the assumption. According to her, we don't often think of abolition as something we build as opposed to something we destroy. She believes it is imperative to think through what we can build that is new so that one day we can start relying less on those systems of oppression. Abolition doesn't happen overnight, but it starts with the basics — respite centers, housing, education opportunities, access to medical care. Layton concluded, “It's all of the things that are truly investing in the community. We will have less people perpetrating harm because there's no harm being perpetrated on them.” A sense of community also leads to crime prevention because to be part of a healthy community is to have Lark from Lansing General Defense Committee people who love and support you and also put you in check if you behave counter to cultural expectations, According to Layton: “Accountability is community.“ To learn more about Day of Empathy, visit https://dream.org/day-of-empathy/ see MOTHERS page 11  GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Pen to Paper The Copycat WAYNE S. WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 574 As I went to get pen and paper to write some profound thought, I got distracted by another. I’m trying to figure out why I do this, and I can’t remember it’s frustrating you see when you put pen to paper. I worry about the written word am I really describing what I see? Or am I living in one world by describing another? Is it easy to rhyme? It must be I hear it done better than me, all the time. Constantly thinking is what I do hoping no one does the same. Any better! I started my poem with Mary and Sue, who am I kidding it’s been done a thousand times before. It’s a copycat I am there’s no other way to put it. Mixing and mashing and using different spellings, it’s all been said before, I’m trying to figure a way to say what’s never been said in history. It’s a copycat I am let’s not forget it. I’m sure I’m not the only one – I imagine there’s copycats galore. So if these words sound familiar don’t be mad because I admit it. It’s a copycat I am for now and ever more. I know love izn’t eazy, I know you’ll alwayz be, My sweet baby, I’ll alwayz be your lady, I also know, I’m not sleazy, I don’t hustle for money, Nor do I hustle fo a man, Don’t need a hand out, Thatz without doubt, I’m not like thoze, Otherz you’re use to, I’m a different breed, That came from another seed. TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 Not MAY 31, 2024 MAY 31, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS BRIEF REPLIES Peter A. Collins 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. 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If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. "The Kiss" painter 6. Expresses disdain 10. "Shane" star Alan 14. Pet store purchase 15. Composer Satie erik 16. Small Chevrolet 17. Event promoted by Eunice Kennedy Shriver 20. One-time Edison employee 21. Piano parts 22. Equipment for emergency medical care 26. Mai ___ 27. Neighbor of Wash. 28. Rod's partner 29. Ripped 30. University in Chicago 34. Museum worker, at times 36. Founder of an eponymous coffee and doughnut chain 38. Afternoon shows 41. Rises 45. Greek god of war 46. Drops in a puddle? 48. Slippery swimmer 49. ISP choice 50. Pet store purchase 54. Kind of issues aggravated by gluten 56. Interoffice communications 57. Knee-jerk reaction (and a hint to each group of circled letters?) 62. Muffin pans 63. Without rocks 64. Big name in online financial services 65. Body-bending exercise 66. Succumbs to gravity 67. Schoolyard retort DOWN 1. Canadian hwy. distances 2. Pass on the track 3. Freezer container 4. Knight clubs? 5. Degree-of-difficulty enhancer 6. The Fresh Prince's TV home 7. Guadalajara gold 8. Address a squeak, maybe 9. Army chaplains 10. Friday's employer, for short? 11. Amelia Earhart, for one 12. Make known 13. Spies file 18. Like 19. Intersected 22. Chick-___-A 23. Altar response 24. Bank account addition 25. She played "I" in "The King and I" 29. Carrie Underwood might carry one 31. Elevator maker 32. "Hamilton" creator ___-Manuel Miranda 33. Yanks 35. Milk dispenser? 37. Cops 38. Wisconsin's capital, slangily 39. Hall of fame? 40. Indicative 42. "What do you say we give it a miss" 43. Director Spike or Ang 44. Camera type 47. S.F. Giants' foes, at times 50. Chiang ___-Shek 51. "___ Miserables" 52. Louvre pyramid architect 53. Saws and such 55. "___ Small World" 58. Bucolic expanse 59. Duster 60 ___ Paulo 61. Former Roxy Music member Brian

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ART INTEL Undercover art intel: Ypsilanti pottery creations On a crisp fall day, I walked into this small but quaint store filled with pre-made ceramic molds. I was fascinated with the many varieties and kinds of molds. There were plates, bowls and cups but also vases and Christmas ornaments. What made me go “wow!” were the animals — including my favorite, a peacock, and many mythical enchanted unicorns and fairies. As I walked around the store, Glaze Studio, I was looking at the molds, and I saw Christian and Jewish molds, as well as molds for other religions. Holidays were represented as well, such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter and Christmas. Hanukkah was also shown. It felt so inviting to see such a representation of what this nation truly is about. Two young women happened to show up and both picked out two items; one was a vase and the other a plate. I watched as they picked out the glaze colors for their items. One talked about doing Japanese spring cherry blossoms on her vase with pink and green. I myself picked out a small cute owl. I named him Hooty. As I painted him, I found the paint to be very thick. This was to make sure the glaze was going to truly stay on and shine. I gave the item back to Tobi, the owner of Glaze Studio, to fire it for many hours at 2,000 degrees and then let it cool for 14 hours and dry before pickup ten days later. The store appeals to people of all ages, though children have to clearly be accompanied and supervised by an adult. Another surprising thing is the variety of get togethers at Glaze, such as AA groups for sobriety, baby showers and women's groups. The space is for people across all spectrums to come and experience a new, but old, form of art. Each person picks out four to five paint colors. Glaze has sparkling colors with glass and plain colors as well, and other kinds with muted or plain colors. There are 50 available total. Tobi’s Glaze store is located at 54 N. Huron St. in downtown Ypsilanti. This was my first time getting to know Glaze as it is a fairly new business. What drew me here was very clear: all the white clay pre-slip molds that dry solid and ready for painting. How did this all start? Well, it began in the 1970s during the heyday of the hippy era and creating molds. Mainly artists had kilns in their backyards, and this was about free love and sharing art in large groups. What Tobi told me was people would just come together and do art in large exp. 01/31/2025 - CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 Glaze Studio has a ceramic creations for everyone and everything! groups and family events — it was a very different age! What I discovered was a whole past of pre-made molds created in the 1970s. This world started out with people who owned and operated kilns out of the love of the process and end result. Then they started getting family and friends together in parties and gatherings for the love of taking a solid item home that could be placed on one's mantle to show off to the world. Tobi loved collecting the molds made with plaster of paris. She realized this dying art form was yet another perfect opportunity. Tobi had an inspired vision to bring back old art into a new age of public consciousness. This all happened with the encouragement of her kids. They told her, “Think of it, mom, paint your own pottery shop for other kids like us!” Tobi transitioned from being in the corporate world of web design and computer graphics to open the Glaze store in January and February of 2023. ”When I first opened my doors,” Tobi told me, “The community support and outpouring was extreme.” There truly is an art community in Ypsilanti that rivals Ann Arbor. There are many ways to express art and, to me, with people who feel they have no talent in art this is the most open inviting and exploration in art there is. I myself plan on taking my own family to experience this wonderful shop. So take a small day trip to the Glaze shop and discover a wonderful new form of old art. My next endeavor will be a real dragon for the year of the dragon we are in. — Kung Fu Panda MAY 31, 2024 MAY 31, 2024 THINK ABOUT IT  MOTHERS page 7 Andrew A young father named Andrew was there with his wife and six-month-old son. When asked about his connection to the gathering, he replied that his wife was a member of the hosting organization, Michigan General Defense Committee. Andrew is a big fan of GDC’s advocacy and outreach to the homeless in our county. That work drew him to this event. I asked him how he felt about abolition. “It needs to be done,” he said, “it needs to be done immediately. The conditions that are in our prisons are inhumane to say the least. There’s got to be another way.” I asked, “How do you think we should go about abolishing prisons?” and Andrew replied, “It is going to take something big, some cataclysmic style of events, that turns public opinion against prisons. Because I think right now the general popular opinion is that prisons are something that can be reformed and changed and kind of shifted when in reality it’s the idea of prison that has to go.” Lark As I meandered through the crowd, I saw a sign that contained a piece of the abolition puzzle. Lark from Lansing General Defense Committee had a beautifully made cardboard sign. An artist who tried cardboard as canvas for the first time, Lark usually does collages and other styles of art for personal fulfillment. They are a member of GDC and came out to support the GDC abolitionist working group. According to abolitionists, prisons and incarceration are harmful to the community. If incarceration happens because there is a breakdown of community, then the alternative to incarceration is to build stronger communities. To end the prison system, humans must have a safe, stable and supportive environment where ALL of their needs are met. Basic needs of food and shelter are essential, but do not end there. Humans need opportunities to grow, to express themselves, to be heard, to be important to the community, and be accountable to their peers. Making sure those needs are met, the entire spectrum, may be the way to end the need for incarceration. To get a picture of the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility’s sign, I had to walk across Bemis Rd to get closer. As soon as my foot met the lawn, the guard challenged me. “Get off the property!” the guard yelled. It reminded me of when I was a kid; the angry old man next door shouting “Get off my lawn.” I asked if he would answer some questions. He said no. On my way home, I thought about my own mother. I imagined her getting arrested and sentenced to 14 plus years in prison. In 1972 I was five years old. My dad was in the Army and we had to move across the country. Even at five years I knew this meant never seeing my friends again. A five-yearold is capable of understanding that GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 their mother will be locked up such that they will never see her again. To a child, fourteen years isn’t just forever, it’s unfathomable. I remember wailing and sobbing for hours as we drove from Michigan to New York. I remember feeling homesick for my grandmother for weeks. What if the thing that was taken from me wasn’t just a childhood home but my mother? I would wail and sob. My development as a human being would suffer. It is well-known that physical contact between mother and child is essential for life. If my mother had been imprisoned, I would never know her touch or affection as a child. I would never have her soft body to soothe my wounds, her hugs and kisses to celebrate my successes, or her hand to show me tough love. Then I realized that is exactly what is happening to Krystal Clark’s children, and to every other son and daughter whose mother is incarcerated. I leave the task of drawing personal connections to the reader.  TAHRIR from page 4 one percent of the endowment is invested indirectly in Israeli companies. That is $17.9 million. Since 2017, Michigan is one of 38 states that have a law that is interpreted to forbid state contracts with anyone who supports divestment from Israel. The word “Israel” doesn’t appear in Act 526 of 2016 as published. However, according to the Brandeis Center, these measures condemn national origin discrimination by the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS). According to the Act, the provisions don't apply if the boycott is based on bona fide business or economic reasons, or to a boycott "against a public entity of a foreign state when the boycott is applied in a nondiscriminatory manner." According to the Act, the provisions don't apply if the boycott is based on bona fide business or economic reasons, or to a boycott "against a public entity of a foreign state when the boycott is applied in a nondiscriminatory manner." U-M has 501(c)(3) non-profit tax exempt status. U-M can turn down donations. In 1978, the Regents created a policy to create an ad hoc committee of the University Senate, students, administration and alumni when issues involving serious moral or ethical questions might require deviation from the normal investment policy. All Regents meetings include time for public comment. There are five Regents meetings remaining in 2024: June 20, July 18, Sept. 19 and Dec 5 in Ann Arbor and Oct. 17 in Flint. There is also an email option. Many students, faculty, employees and staff have asked for oversight of the endowment at least since 2014 as reported by the Detroit Free Press. The Encampment calls it "a people's audit.” U-M Finance posts a Consolidated Annual Report. There is no individual endowment investment listing. TAHRIR obtained part of the endowment investment listing through a Freedom of Information Act. An oversight of the Investment Advisory Committee was created because of the Free Press investigation. The Encampment also demands a boycott of Israeli academic institutions and abolishing campus policing. President Ono and the Regents have endorsed an unarmed, non-police emergency response. After May 15, the Regents said they would "not defund the police." Both can exist. TAHRIR adds: conduct a formal inquiry into anti-Palestinian, antiArab and Islamophobic racism and harassment and release a formal statement that clearly defines the massacre in Gaza as a genocidal ethnic cleansing campaign led by Israel and aided by the United States. “This struggle is not just solely and entirely a struggle to achieve something for Palestine, although it very much is,” Tachna-Fram said. “It is also a struggle that brings all of us together in Southeast Michigan and a much broader area in the globe that really care about justice.” PUZZLE SOLUTIONS K 1 14 17 M S 22 27 30 L 38 45 49 54 57 62 T 65 Y O M A D C I F I 2 L A P 23 I D O 39 A R S E N I 3 I C E 20 T R A Y 40 T E L L I N G Peter A Collins 4 M A C E S 31 O 36 T I S 50 55 I T S A K A I 5 T W I S T 32 L I N 18 A L A 33 A M E 46 R I 63 66 C A N S 37 H E A T 58 L E A 6 B 15 E L A I 28 R 7 O R O 24 D E 34 P O S I T 59 R A G 8 O I L 25 K E R R 47 N Y 56 M E T S 51 L E S 52 I 64 67 M P E I 53 T O O L S 9 10 S K Y 21 P I 41 L O T S L 16 19 M E T 35 C O W A P D 29 T U N E 11 A V I A 26 T O R 42 L 48 E T S N O T 12 D E C L A R E 43 L E E 60 S A O 13 D O S S I E R 44 S L R 61 E N O

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Spam fried rice IAN EARL U-M student contributor Ingriedients: 1 can of Spam Vegetable oil 3 eggs 1 cup diced carrots + peas, canned 1/2 cup green onions 5 cups cooked rice 4 tablespoons soy sauce Salt and pepper to taste Directions: Rinse off the green onions and chop them until you have dime-sized pieces. Set these aside. Dice your spam into penny-sized squares. Pour vegetable oil into a pan and coat it. Keep oil on medium heat until heat is felt when your hand is placed over the pan. Add Spam, and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook and stir until most sides are crusted. Add peas and carrots to pan. Stir. Cook until all vegetables are soft and warm. Crack the egg into the pan and whisk quickly. Cover the pan for a minute or so until the egg firms. Finely chop the egg with your spatula. Add rice to your pan with another helping of vegetable oil and leave the rice turns gold (around 5-8 minutes). Stir, adding in the soy sauce. Raise heat to medium for one minute, then turn off heat. Plate with green onions to taste. Enjoy! Using generic ingredients, recipe only costs $1.39 per serving. this MAY 31, 2024 A2ZERO Week Join us in celebrating the City of Ann Arbor’s A2ZERO Plan for achieving a just, equitable transition to community-wide carbon neutrality. June 9 – June 15 Fun, free events throughout the week! Find your climate action connection: a2gov.org/a2zeroweek

2 $ MAY 17, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 11 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. What's missing in the debate on housing? page 4 MEET YOUR VENDOR: PONY BUSH PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Washtenaw County ID for you and me page 6 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator Roberto Isla Caballero, Groundcover vendor No. 347 • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER a note of APPRECIATION GROUNDCOVER NEWS BOARD of DIRECTORS Groundcover has always thrived due to the contributions of volunteers. Every vendor and volunteer who has walked through our door in the basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ makes a unique impact on our organization. There is an infinite list of individuals and groups to thank, but every now and then we like to recognize those who go above and beyond. Veronica Sanitate In the beginning of this year, our last founding board member, Veronica Sanitate, stepped down from the Groundcover News Board of Directors. She had served in this role for 13 years — since the start of Groundcover News in 2010. She helped the organization through many major transitions over the years and always provided a thoughtful, caring perspective that centered the Groundcover News vendors through every change. She has contributed greatly to the newspaper itself both directly as a writer, and through her ongoing guidance as a board member with expertise in marketing and branding, holding multiple executive officer positions in her tenure with the organization. Thank you, Veronica. Groundcover would not have made it this far without you! Simone Masing Simone started as an undergraduate social work intern in the fall of 2023. Her original projects were related to building connections in the Ypsilanti area and strengthening vendor policies. She did that and more! Simone used her creative eye to revamp our insignia, design merchandise for our vendors and supporters, and fill our space with decorations and communications. Simone’s final deliverable was a Vendor Handbook that puts Veronica Sanitate everything you need to know as a Groundcover vendor in one, accessible, visually pleasing easy-to-carryaround booklet. Simone, although your internship is over, we are so glad you are sticking around to help with Vendor Meetings and Groundcover Speaks recording on Fridays! You both will always have a home with Groundcover News! Simone Masing MAY 17, 2024 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Jim Clark La Shawn Courtwright Robbie February Hosea Hill Tabitha Ludwig J. Paine Ken Parks Earl Pullen Will Shakespeare PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Zachary Dortzbach Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Simone Masing Emily Paras Caelin Saunders Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons MAY 17, 2024 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Sofina's birth story TABITHA LUDWIG Groundcover vendor No. 360 January 4, 2015, I was 37 weeks pregnant. I woke up, went to the bathroom and I was bleeding. It was also my daughter Angel's fourth birthday but since I was bleeding, I called my dad and told him it was time to go to the hospital. I was having contractions and it was just time to go. So my dad came and got me, my Pony Bush, vendor No. 305 Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? 4th Ave and Liberty Street. When and why did you start selling Groundcover News? In 2016. I needed money. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Sell Groundcover News and make money. What words do you live by? Don’t do something in 50 seconds that will get you 50 years. What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover News? The struggle. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Travel the world. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? A beef rib. What is your superpower? Dressing fresh. What was your first job? Groundcover. What are your hobbies? Biking. What changes would you like to see in Washtenaw County? More places for the homeless to stay at. More low-income housing. Put a shelter in Ypsi! What would be the first thing you’d do if you won the lottery? I’d build a place for the homeless. What is your pet peeve? When Groundcover vendors or panhandlers try to take my corner. Sports recap: Michigan Wolverines Women’s Tennis May 4 and 5 HOSEA HILL Groundcover vendor No. 532 I attended the free admission NCAA first and second rounds women’s tennis matches at Varsity Tennis Center. It was a joy to be in the relaxed environment of VTC and I loved watching these women compete on the courts. During my observation, I learned that Michigan produced a reasonably good team. The University of Michigan women’s tennis team had their highest NCAA tournament seed (No. 3 seed) in program history, and Michigan and Chicago State made history due to this being the first time they were meeting each other. Player Highlight: University of Michigan tennis player Kari Miller (senior) from Ann Arbor has tied the consecutive win matches (2) and the win she had versus Notre Dame on May 5 marked her 95th career victory which puts Miller in the top ten in Michigan program history. I will be attending the May 11 game versus Miami Hurricanes and I’ll do an update from that match. son and my children's dad and we went to the hospital. My dad kept my son and dropped me and their dad off at the hospital. We was there for a couple of hours. Then my contractions slowed down so they told me I’d most likely be having the baby that night, at the latest the next day and then sent me home. So my dad came and picked us up and took us home. My son went to my daughter's birthday party and I stayed home having contractions. The last thing I ate was jalapeno poppers and that night I was looking at old pics and the contractions kept getting worse. The baby's father got tired of me crying and screaming in pain because he was trying to watch a movie and told me to shut up or go back to the hospital. So I got up and went to the bathroom. I was crying; I was in so much pain. They was coming back-toback so I called my dad again to come and get me. By the time my dad came and got me, I could hardly move. My children's father got our son in the car and sat in the car while my dad helped me once I got down my stairs and made it to my dad's car. I had another contraction and my water broke. Yes, this was my third child. But the first and only time that my water ever broke on its own. So I got scared because my children before her came not long after my water broke. So my dad finally got me into the car. With me freaking out and not knowing what to do, and the first really bad snowstorm of the year, we made it about 10 minutes down the street. And my baby started to come out. I kept yelling saying she was coming out and my dad was already stressed. He kept yelling at me and telling me to just breathe because it is just a contraction and I have had kids before. I was scared because I had pants, underwear and a pad on so once I felt her head pop out, I did not know if she would be able to breathe. My dad was not believing me. So to protect my child, I pulled my pants and underwear down. My dad finally pulled over and my daughter was born in a parking lot at CVS on Michigan Ave in Ypsilanti. My dad actually cried when he realized I was not lying and she was being born. He called 911 and by the time they got to us, she was in my arms. Her father came into the back seat, seen her dangling out of me, got nervous and just pulled her out himself instead of letting me finish pushing her out. But problems started arising because the placenta had not been delivered. So once we all got to the hospital, the doctors all surrounded me instead of the baby and my 7-yearold son was very confused at why all the doctors was around me instead of his baby sister. She was born at six pounds. The doctors were finally able to get me to deliver the placenta. And everything was just fine afterwards. She was very beautiful. Mommy loves you Sofina! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Left: Sofina and Tabitha. Right: Sofina on her birth day. Hosea Hill and Kari Miller

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOUSING MAY 17, 2024 Ann Arbor Tenants Union and POTUS push back on junk fees Formed in 1968 to push back against unfair rental policy and practices, the Ann Arbor Tenants Union fought for tenants' rights such as fair and affordable rent, addressing code violations, and in general keeping landlords in check. After losing funding in 2004, the AATU faded. Recently though, the rental landscape in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti has gotten out of control. Now led by Julia Goode and Zackarian Farah, the revived AATU has returned to the battlefield. On April 27, The Ann Arbor Tenants Union put together a rally outside of Ann Arbor City Hall to protest the exorbitant fees landlords are charging Ann Arbor renters. These “junk fees” are riders that are charged along with the usual security deposit and rent. Usually these fees are charged after the lease is signed, but some of them are applied before there is even a guarantee a unit will be available. Navigating the fees makes apartment hunting a harrowing experience. Shopping is difficult because the high application and move-in costs limit the number of places a renter can apply. The fees are not generally disclosed before signing the lease, so the apartment you thought you could afford at the time of signing is now out of your range. For someone of modest means, this can spell eviction. JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 The AATU is not alone. In a press release from July of 2023, the Biden-Harris administration announced it is taking a stand on junk fees as well. The action stems from the fact that millions of families pay more than rent and utilities when leasing a dwelling. The most common is a non-refundable application fee. Background and credit check costs are also transferred to the potential renter, also non-refundable. As detailed in the National Consumer Law Center Report "TOO DAMN HIGH, How Junk Fees Add to Skyrocketing Rents," there is even something called a “January Fee” which is imposed during January, because it’s January. The most expensive junk fee is a place-holding fee. A place-holding fee is a charge to be put on a waitlist for a unit. Place-holding fees can be as high as $6,000, are also non-refundable, and do not always guarantee a spot. Biden’s plan to manage junk fees includes compelling rental platforms such as Zillow to be transparent about extra fees. Unfortunately, a Texas judge issued an injunction on May 10 blocking implementation of the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau's move to cap credit card fees at eight dollars per month. "Every month that the credit card late fee rule is blocked will cost Americans over $800 million," the White House said following the ruling. In the HUD publication “Policy & Practice,” aimed at municipalities, other strategies being rolled out are capping or eliminating application fees, allowing renters to provide their own screening reports, allowing a single application fee to cover multiple applications, limiting allowable fees on deposits at the time of move-in or lease signing, and clearly identifying bottom-line amounts that tenants will pay for move-in and monthly rent. Individual states are also making changes to rental policy. Rhode Island does not allow an application fee to cost more than a background and credit check, and that’s only if the prospective renter does not provide their own reports. Connecticut prohibits application fees and caps background checks at $50. The state also requires all fees and monthly rent on advertisements and the first page of a lease agreement, and prohibits move-in/move-out fees. As for Michigan, the Michigan Law Policy Program made, a presentation to the Michigan House Housing Subcommittee in February 2024. In the section titled “Possible Rental Housing Policy Responses,” these are listed as potential strategies: • protecting source of income • expunging or sealing eviction convictions • creating a standard rental application process • rethinking traditional housing policy such as allowing Accessory Dwelling Units • limiting or prohibiting junk fees. In a March article from CBS, Ann Arbor councilmember Erica Briggs said, “The Renters Commission is currently working on drafting legislation that would change our ordinances so that this (junk fees) would no longer be allowed in the city," The Ann Arbor Renters Commission was established by City Council to be an advisory board consisting of a demographic cross section of renters. What's missing in the debate on housing? J. PAINE Groundcover contributor It seems like common sense these days that the cost of housing is too high. Following on the heels of this observation is a chorus of problem solvers who, consulting “Basic Economics,” are quick to remind us that it is because “supply is too low.” The answer is therefore, simply, to “build more supply” (buildings). For the rest of us, the solution is to wait for this to happen, and hope that it solves the problem some amount of years or decades down the line. At the same time, these problem solvers leave so much unsaid: • Social housing such as that in Vienna, Austria, is cheaper and more desirable by residents than purely market-rate housing. • Co-op housing is cheaper for residents for the same type of housing, while it builds equity for those residents and offers more direct control over one’s home and community. • Monthly rental payments often cost more than mortgage payments would, while tenants are denied mortgage loans of the same amount they are already paying every month for rent! • Five million millionaires and 500+ new billionaires were created during the Covid19 pandemic, and existing billionaires got richer, just as corporate profits soared under the guise of “inflation” and a “labor shortage.” • Half a trillion dollars or more was injected into the banking system after the financial crash of 2008, given as corporate bailouts, and a similar plan was enacted during the Covid19 pandemic. Perhaps the predatory system of financial speculation and corporate irresponsibility has something to do with the high interest rates and “inflation” that have raised the cost of housing and everything else – though these problems are rarely mentioned as being a cause of the “housing crisis.” • According to Propublica, corporate real estate firms have been colluding and fixing prices, using proprietary software to jack up rents and costs for home-buyers. • Rent strikes, tenant unions, and more political actions have lowered housing costs for residents throughout history, and could do so again, without any change in the supply of housing. • Real estate developers and investors have an incentive to keep profits high, not reduce the cost of housing for everyone else. These incentives more than overwhelm the facile models of supply and demand that are supposed to bring down costs by increasing supply. • Finally, and ultimately to blame, is a system of housing as a system of investment, rather than a system geared around providing a basic human necessity. The cost of housing will hardly go down over time when it is good and economically-important for those who own current housing for the price to go up! It is a wonder why the proponents of basic economics and common sense are leaving out such critical analyses and range of solutions to the current crisis. Nevertheless, we need a new economics and new common sense for the housing crisis – one that looks at all the factors and parties responsible, and explores all available options. Ultimately, there must be a transfer of power of economic decision-making from the wealthy and large financial institutions — who approach housing as a commodity and an investment — to regular people who need homes for basic living. Only then can more significant changes be implemented that would meaningfully tackle the crisis for most of us. MAY 17, 2024 HOUSING Tenant Talk: Fool me twice, shame on monopoly landlords — still! AJ STANDISH Groundcover contributor Ypsilanti is a city where around 70% of the population rent a place to live. It’s also a city where the rental market has been monopolized by one rental company in particular that is notorious in the community for being exploitative and lazy about all maintenance and care. The company, which I won’t name here, buys older houses and buildings but refuses to maintain them, forcing tenants to put up with terrible conditions with little to no maintenance or response. I spoke to one tenant, who I’ll call Crawford, about their experiences with renting from this company. Crawford has lived in two of the company’s apartments. The first thing they noticed in their first apartment was that the walls were shaped very abnormally. “On the day that I moved in, [the walls] were probably bulging out from the wall about two inches at the max length, like, it was substantial, it was a huge breakage, it was probably six feet by four feet tall, and it was right up in the bedroom,” Crawford said. “And I made note of it, and I sent pictures to my landlord. And [it was] total radio silence, they didn't tell me if the service request had been even received.” Crawford’s apartment was directly above the building's laundry room. They said that mold was a huge concern along with the sagging walls, and that the entire unit, floor to ceiling, was wet to the touch. During their time there, they lived in fear that something would happen within the walls, a burst pipe, or the walls finally giving way to the bowing. Already overwhelmed with these concerns, Crawford started to notice scurrying and crawling noises. “I found out that there were mice all over the apartment. And there was actually a hole below the radiator that they had been coming in. And out of that was just a place that was missing a slot. And I had made note of it and sent in a service request and did not receive any communication back.” As the year went on, Crawford was having a really dark time. One ray of light for them was adopting a cat who lived outdoors with a cat colony, who they named Jane. Crawford says that Jane adopted them, not the other way around. Taking care of Jane and developing their bond was a distraction from the day to day stressors of living in their apartment. For example, when winter came, things got very cold. “December is about when I found out that my radiator didn't even turn on. It was there, it wouldn't work. And my bedroom had no heat source. It looked like there used to be a radiator, you could feel the stubs where they cut it and welded it off. But there was no heat source in my room,” Crawford said. I’m only scratching the surface of the issues Crawford faced in their first apartment in this article. Their next one, about a year and a new cat later, was managed by the same rental company. It contained a whole new variety of issues. First, their entire kitchen floor was covered in mold. It became a daily routine, scrubbing mold off the floor with bleach after working long hours everyday while trying to repair other things in the apartment. At the sane time, Crawford was taking care of a new sick cat and trying to look after the first one, who was getting sicker, having contracted an illness from the new cat. Despite their efforts keeping the two apart, and doing their best with the mold, Jane got very sick, to the point where Crawford was afraid she would need to be put down. These worries were intensified when, in response to a roach issue, the rental company put poison all over the floors. “She was especially fragile because she had gotten to a point where I almost had to euthanize her and I ended up having to spend $3,500 just to keep her. And the leasing company was aware, they were aware she was immunocompromised.” Crawford had sent an email to the company informing them of Jane’s condition, but they didn’t listen. “These little white tablets that I still find and it has been half of a year. These little white tablets that are roach poison, and these little roach traps. And I was talking to the people who live in a different apartment. And they're like, yeah, our dog ate some. And I found [my cats] playing with them. And this is the, you know, this is something, this is a poison, that it's toxic. Like it will make them sick.” Around the time their cat was very sick, Crawford decided to pursue veterinary medicine, stating this horrible experience as a “driving force.” “Actually it was part of what got me into veterinary medicine was her getting sick and being like, I respect the people that are saving my cat’s life right now.” Another glaring health hazard in the second apartment is the presence of several squirrels’ nests in the roof, right above Crawford’s bed. Every night they fall asleep to the echo of scurrying squirrels. “Squirrels live in that insulation, and they've been building nests over top of my bed and the slats there are shifting. And now there's a gap where squirrel feces and bedding is falling into my bed.” Finally, the rental company responded to Crawford and the slats were patched up with caulk in a way that was ineffective. The cherry on top of the squirrel horror story happened when one of the squirrels fell through the slats, and ended up stuck in the wall. Due to the lack of response from the rental company, Crawford was forced to listen to the squirrel struggle to climb back up for days and days, until it eventually died. As it decomposed in the wall, Crawford’s apartment smelled like rotting meat. Again, there was no response from the rental company. Crawford works 50+ hours a week as a vet tech, for only 16 dollars an hour. Both of these apartments cost them about $1,000 monthly, so they had to work constantly just to afford moldy, cold, poisonous, rodent-infested and broken living quarters. Trying to bring some brightness to the situation, Crawford planted several plants outside, all of which were weedwacked by the rental company. Crawford’s story is one of very, very many in the Ypsilanti area. This rental company is risking people’s lives, gambling with severe health concerns, dangerous maintenance negligence, and complete disregard for the health and safety of tenants who rent from them. People shouldn’t have to battle water damage, rodents, dying squirrels, and parts of squirrel nest in their bed. Nobody should have to contemplate euthanizing their cat, their best friend, because of health concerns created by the people in charge of their housing. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Unusual Stuff to Borrow There’s more to borrow at AADL than books, music, and movies. To name a few, there are games, telescopes, stories-to-go kits, and home tools. Check out these unusual yet handy items during your next library visit. Book Clubs To Go Book Clubs To Go is a service available at each AADL location that provides the convenience of complete kits for book discussions. Inside, you’ll find 10 copies of the featured book, one movie DVD, and a resource folder. Request a kit today through the online catalog or by calling (734) 327-4200. FEATURED EVENT Saturday, June 15 & Sunday, June 16 • 10am–6pm Downtown Library A2CAF (Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival) is a two-day extravaganza for comic lovers of all ages; featuring workshops, art activities, and one-on-one interactions between comics readers and makers. Join us at the Downtown Library to explore a packed artist alley, hear from renowned authors and illustrators, and get creative with quick drawing sessions, face painting, and so much more! Check out the full schedule of A2CAF events at aadl.org/a2caf. 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS WASHTENAW COUNTY MAY 17, 2024 Mental health advocates call for transparency, reduced funding for Washtenaw County Sheriff in Community Mental Health Public Safety Millage On Wednesday May 15, the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners held a first reading of the proposal to restore and renew the Mental Health and Public Safety Millage on the November 5, 2024 General Election Ballot. This proposal, originally scheduled for earlier in April, was pushed back a month after mental health advocates and others mobilized against its renewal. Advocacy throughout the months of April and May spurred the updating of an ordinance that governs the millage. The May 15 meeting also included a public hearing on the ordinance and first reading on the millage renewal. 2017 Community Mental Health and Public Safety Preservation Millage A millage is a tax levied against taxable property; it is a common way for municipalities to raise money to fund specific projects or address certain issues. In November 2017, Washtenaw County residents voted two-toone in favor of an eight-year millage that would generate $15 - $18 million per year for mental health and public safety. Per the ballot language, “38% [of the funding] shall be allocated to Washtenaw County’s Community Mental Health Department for mental health services, stabilization, and prevention and to meet mental health needs in an appropriate setting thus reducing the burden in the jail and improving care; 38% shall be allocated to the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office to ensure continued operations and increased collaboration with the mental health community; and 24% shall be allocated to jurisdictions in the County which maintain their own police force.” As written and implemented, the 38% allocated to CMH is guided by a Millage Advisory Committee. This 13-member advisory committee is a subcommittee of the Washtenaw County Community Mental Health Board and reports to the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners as required. Although they meet during the workday and have low public attendance, MAC meetings are open to the public and include a forum for public comments. Many Washtenaw residents are familiar with this millage from the local “It takes a millage” marketing a great need for mental health services, but call for two main alternatives: split or slow down. The call to “split” suggests that the LINDSAY CALKA Publisher campaign, which has highlighted services funded and expanded by the CMH Public Safety millage. A 2022 Impact Report issued by WCCMH displays financial, demographic and human-centered testimonials of the impact of the dollars — and can be readily viewed online with a quick Google search. Yet, the CMH spending is only a minority of the millage expenditures. Neither the 38% allocated to WCSO nor the 24% to municipal police forces — totalling 62% of the millage budget allocation — have advisory / oversight councils or impact reports. Information about the expenditures of the Sheriff’s budget in 2024 had to be ordered via private FOIA (which cost $938) and will not be received until June 7, two days after the proposed second reading and vote to put the millage on the ballot. (53% of the County’s general four-year budget is already allocated to the Sheriff.) Mental health advocates spark public debate In County Commissioner meetings throughout the months of March and April, mental health advocates — representing people receiving community mental health services, community mental health workers, activists and formerly incarcerated and homeless people — spoke for and against the current millage, greatly calling into question the future of the millage if sent to ballot for renewal “as-is.” Supporters of the renewal spoke in favor of the programs the millage funded in and out of the Sheriff's department — such as SURE Moms and Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion and Deflection (LEADD) — citing the great need for maintained funding for mental health services. Those who oppose moving forward “as-is” are in agreement that there is Commissioners scrap this millage and run two new millages on the November 5, 2024 ballot: one for mental health and one for public safety. Even if both of these millages fail, the Commissioners could place the renewal of the 2017 Mental Health and Public Safety Millage on a ballot in 2025. If passed, no programs or services would lapse in funding. (Since the eight year millage began collection in 2018, the funding is able to be spent through December 2026.) The call to “slow down” is one for increased transparency and public communications around the budgeting, governance and expenditures of the millage from 2017-present. More time would allow design and execution of community-based processes to gather and utilize public opinion on the millage, and even grant the flexibility to rewrite the millage or an ordinance that improves millage spending priorities and guidelines. Many times commenters called on the BOC to be creative and not rush through a decision that will cement policy until 2033. Ordinance adds oversight not budget changes The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners moved forward with a third option: ordinance guidance. The “Community Mental Health and Public Safety Preservation Millage Expenditure Policy Ordinance” was draft-updated to impose regulations on the “public safety” portion of the millage funds. One notable (draft) suggestion was writing in limitations on how the 38-38-24 breakdowns would be spent. The ordinance draft read, “50% of annual millage funding [allocated to the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office] will be used in a proactive manner to provide services to help individuals with needs related to: Mental and Behavioral Health Services (20%), Housing and Homelessness Support Services (15%) and Community Violence Interruption (15%).” The ordinance also establishes a Public Safety Millage Advisory Committee, which would be a 16-member body and under this ordinance three (3) of the seats will be occupied by members of the Board of Commissioners. After both public comment held at the beginning of the meeting, and a public hearing later in the May 15 meeting, where commenters generally disapproved of the ordinance for entrenching social service access in the carceral system, the Commissioners debated on whether or not to further limit the Sheriff’s allocation in any way. Only Commissioners Yousef Rabhi, Annie Somerville, and Katie Scott voted in favor of keeping these sub-percentage limits. The majority voted to scrap the 20-15-15% sub-breakdown. This May 15 vote served as a reminder that ordinances can be repealed or amended at any time, and that placing budget protections in such a fickle type of policy is not a viable solution to ensure funding for social services. Take action Advocacy mobilizations at the Board of Commissioners meetings in 2024 have been defined by Shelter Now, Community Mental Health workers’ contract bargaining and now this millage: all of which call for a County budget that is better reflective of the needs of the community. Community members, coalitions and grassroots organizations have spoken passionately about the life and death impacts of these policies. At the time of publication, the vote determining whether the millage renewal will appear on the November 5 ballot and how the updated ordinance will govern it will be held on June 5 — during the next Board of Commissioners meeting (220 N Main Street, Ann Arbor and on Zoom https://washtenaw.me/BOCZoom). Call or email your District’s elected Commissioner and let them know what mental health and public safety looks like to you. MAY 17, 2024 WASHTENAW COUNTY Washtenaw County ID for you and me In many ways, identification cards serve as gateways to various services and opportunities. Washtenaw County, nestled in the rusty heart of Michigan, recognizes the significance of accessible identification for its residents. The Washtenaw County ID program is not merely a piece of plastic; it embodies inclusivity, safety and community support. Let’s delve into the essential aspects of this initiative, focusing on its role in accessibility and safety. The Washtenaw County ID program was established to ensure that every resident, regardless of their background or circumstances, has access to a valid form of identification. This initiative is particularly beneficial for individuals who may face barriers in obtaining traditional forms of ID, such as driver's licenses or state IDs. These individuals are often the most vulnerable in our society and obtaining a valid ID can assist them in gaining the next steps toward independent lives. Accessibility lies at the core of the program. By providing an alternative to conventional identification methods, the County aims to reach marginalized communities, including undocumented immigrants, homeless individuals, and those experiencing financial hardship. The process of obtaining an ID is designed to be straightforward and accommodating, ensuring that everyone has the chance to obtain this vital document. I spoke to Ryan Heisler, the website developer for the Washtenaw County ID Project. He stated “We wanted to make the website available for any user. We followed the WCAG (web content accessible guidelines) to ensure that everyone, on any device could comfortably use the site.” Inclusivity goes beyond the act of issuing IDs; it encompasses the multiple avenues for obtaining and utilizing IDs. Mobile outreach initiatives may ROBBIE FEBRUARY Groundcover contributor recognition and validation of individuals' identities and circumstances. The Washtenaw County ID includes features that cater to diverse needs, such as an alert system indicating that the cardholder may have a medical condition. This alert serves as a safeguard, ensuring that relevant information is readily available in case of emergencies, and promoting a safer community for all residents. The inclusion of many residents in the Washtenaw County ID program reflects the county's commitment to fostering a sense of community and solidarity among its residents. It not only enhances individual safety but also strengthens the collective resilience of the community. The journey towards accessibility involves more than just providing a service; it requires a concerted effort to understand and address the diverse needs of the community. Ryan Heisler spoke to this as well. He said “It’s been such an important project for me. There are thousands of people in the community who struggle with the requirements of traditional state issued identification. Washtenaw ID provides a path for them to receive services locally.” The Washtenaw County ID program exemplifies this approach by offering bring ID services directly to communities, removing transportation barriers and reaching individuals who may face difficulties accessing traditional government offices. Additionally, partnerships with local organizations and service providers extend the reach of the program, ensuring that information and support are readily available to those in need. Furthermore, the Washtenaw County ID is accepted at various institutions and businesses within the County, affirming its validity and utility as a form of identification. From healthcare facilities to financial institutions, the ID opens doors to essential services and resources, empowering residents to fully participate in community life. In Washtenaw County, the ID card symbolizes inclusivity, safety and community solidarity. By serving as proof of identity and residency, the Washtenaw County ID program prioritizes accessibility and safety for all residents. As we navigate the complexities of the modern world, initiatives like the Washtenaw County ID remind us of the importance of removing barriers and fostering inclusivity. By working together to support and empower every member of the community, we can create a safer, more accessible environment where all individuals have the opportunity to thrive. Scan the QR code pictured right to visit the Washtenaw ID website, https://washtenaw. local-gov.id, where you can now report businesses that reject use of the ID and learn more about getting one yourself! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Woman LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 A day in the life of Earl EARL PULLEN Groundcover contributor A woman is a beautiful being A woman who is truthful and honest is an asset to us as well as our communities She cares about her duties towards those who on her lean To do otherwise is cruel and mean So be a truthful and honest woman One who builds, not destroys dreams Before one’s nature Can get in the way It’s how you live from day To day the dreams you have And the story is told it’s How you mind and how you Hold the memories you have And the story is told Only time can tell of The days of old. In the Days and nights of time Recollect — its all you can Do to get respect A night in the life of Earl EARL PULLEN Hither hither Thither thither A morning light Is neither neither What you say is nether Or light but all your dreams Come at night And the hither or the thither is never Right so the Story is told For a day and a night And a night MAY 17, 2024 MAY 17, 2024 PUZZLES 1 13 16 18 23 28 31 34 37 44 47 50 56 61 63 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Corner store 7. Cite as evidence 13. Made square 14. Congenial 16. Led 17. Ornamental purple flower 18. Make a mistake 19. Part of GPS (Abbr.) 21. ___ Havre, French seaport 22. Neck accessory 23. "Smart" one 25. Confined, with "up" 27. Defensive spray 28. Gossip, slang 29. 007 30. Cast a ballot 31. "La Scala di ___" (Rossini opera) 32. Not at home 33. ___ Rapids, Iowa 34. Viking weapon 37. Of dairy cows 39. What might come before the chicken 40. Barber's motion 44. "Don't bet ___!" 45. Part of TLC 46. Ditty 47. "What are the ____?" 48. Information unit 49. Swerves at sea 50. Something old, something ___ 51. Yes, in Spanish 52. Disliked, in a text (Abbr.) 55. After expenses 56. Upholster's heavy, floral friend 59. Scalawag 61. One working at a copy shop, maybe 62. Ace place? 63. "___ Roots" 64. Looked after, with "to" 57 51 58 48 52 53 59 62 64 DOWN 1. Decapitates 2. Cover 3. Honey 4. Armageddon 5. Orders to plow horses 6. Mark of "Game of Thrones" 7. Austrian river 8. Gave out, as cards 9. "Truth or ____" 10. "Born in the ___" 11. Choral composition 12. Siren 14. Shiny shoe material 15. Old-fashioned "you" 20. Shoot off one's mouth 24. White Burgundy wine 26. Bismarck st. 27. Demureness 29. The two of them 30. Annoy 33. Hamster's home 35. Division of a play 36. "Snowy" bird 37. Contemporary people 38. Lived inside, as a spirit 41. Multifaceted 42. Incorporate something into a fabric 43. Crushed into a powder 45. Famous baseball pitcher Young 47. "___ bitten, twice shy" 48. Pig out 51. Achy 53. At one time, at one time 54. Valley 57. Toni Morrison's "___ Baby" 58. Nothin' but ___! 60. Merkley or Wyden, e.g. (Abbr.) 54 60 38 45 35 39 24 29 32 36 40 46 49 55 41 42 43 33 19 20 25 26 30 3 4 5 6 7 8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD from the International Network of Street Papers 2 9 14 17 21 27 22 10 11 12 15 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LITERARY ARTS Rediscovering Zora Neale Hurston’s literary achievements The story of Zora Neale Hurston represents the third volume of our attempts to bring to our readers the narrative of early Black writers and artists who have left their monumental footprints on the “sands of time.” A few things are notable about Zora Neale Hurston, author of “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” First, Hurston and some of the other early Black writers and aritsts were once famous for their writing, and subsequently, they were forgotten. Second, Zora Neale Hurston’s work and contribution to the canon of Black literary tradition had to be rediscovered by newer generations of African American writers. Third, Hurston lived through poverty and died in a Florida welfare home for the elderly poor. There was no gravestone on her gravesite. In 1973, Writer Alice Walker traveled to Florida to see where she was buried. She discovered that she was put in an unmarked grave. Walker quickly arranged to have a stone marker installed. It said, “ZORA NEALE HURSTON: GENIUS OF THE SOUTH.” It is fair to single out Walker and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., as people who played significant roles in the rediscovery of Zora Neale Hurston. Many writers in the literary community credit Alice Walker for her 1975 article titled, “Where is Zora Neale Hurston?” This question got many answers, including a 1979 article by Henry Louis Gates Jr. which lauded Hurston’s literary and scholarly achievements. Professor Gates pointed out that her distinctive style of writing should not be condemned, but celebrated as a cultural and historical aesthetic. More recently, a went to a high school at Morgan College in Baltimore. Subsequently, she entered Howard University in Washington D.C., where she studied writing, Latin, Greek and public speaking. After two years, she received an Associate Degree. Barnard College offered her a scholWILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 2022 book titled, “Zora Neale Hurston: You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays” was edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Genevieve West. In one review of Hurston’s “Dust Tracks on a Road,” Gates said, “How was Hurston — the recipient of two Guggenheim fellowships and the author of four novels, a dozen short essays, two musicals, two books on Black mythology, dozens of essays and a prize-winning author biography — lost from all but her most loyal followers for two full decades?” Gates continued, “There is no easy answer to this question. It is clear however, that the enthusiastic responses that Hurston’s work engenders today were not shared by several of her black male contemporaries.” Does it go back to this thought? Zora Neale Hurston (18911960) Zora Neale Hurston was born in Alabama in January 1891. She died in January 1960. When she was three years old, her family moved to Florida. She was raised in a predominantly Black town in Florida called Eatonville. She arship to study anthropology at their New York City campus. She accepted. She had an opportunity to learn from the distinguished cultural anthropologist, Franz Boas, and the well-known anthropologist Margaret Mead was one of her classmates. Hurston received her B.A. in Anthropology in 1925 at the age of 28. She continued her education at Columbia University graduate school. Boas, her research adviser, helped her secure several research grants and fellowships. During her stay at Barnard College and Columbia University, Hurston lived in a Harlem apartment which became a meeting place for young poets and writers such as Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Bennett and Countee Cullen. They were able to get dozens of poems and stories published in “Fire” and “Opportunity” magazines during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. Zora Neale Hurston’s stories and Langston Hughes’s poems appeared in the iconic anthology book of Alain Locke titled, “The New Negro.” Hurston wrote four books and more than 50 stories. She traveled to Jamaica and Haiti to do folklore anthropological research. Many of her research materials are now being dug up and published posthumously. Hurston’s 1927 interview of Cudjo Lewis who was in the last ship that brought African slaves to the shores of Mobile, Alabama, was finally published posthumously in 2018. The highly acclaimed book is called, “The Barracoon” (more below). Of all the great books written by Zora Neale Hurston, the greatest is, “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Newer editions have been republished by the University of Illinois Press. The Illinois Press also published new editions of Robert Hemingway’s “Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography” and Jennifer L. Freeman’s “Ain’t I an Anthropologist?” - Conclusion Professor Gates called out the three main critics of Zora Neale Hurston’s body of work. They were Richard Wright, Sterling A. Brown and Ralph Ellison. Their reviews of Hurston’s writings during the 1930s through the 1950s were brutal. The attacks on Hurston’s writing style and literary perspectives were merciless. The harsh reviews probably forced Hurston to hide away. About the harsh criticism, Henry Louis Gates said, “In reviews of ‘Mules and Men’ (1935), ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ (1937) and ‘Moses: Man of the Mountain’ (1939), Sterling A. Brown, Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison condemned her work as “socially unconscious” and derided her “minstrel technique” in ‘Moses.’ Ellison concluded, ‘For Negro fiction, it did nothing.’” Gates continued, “Hurston’s mythic realism, lush and dense with a lyrical black idiom, was regarded as counter revolutionary by the proponents of social realism …” Hurston competed with her Black male contemporaries “for the right to determine the ideal fictional mode for representing Negro life.” Gates also made one final prophetic remark about the controversy. He said, “She lost the battle, but may yet win the war.” Alice Walker, who won the Pulitzer Prize for “The Color Purple,” helped to get Zora Neale Hurston’s unpublished manuscript published. The manuscript was based on a 1927 interview of the last surviving slave who was brought to the port of Mobile, Alabama in 1865. Hurston interviewed 87-year old Cudjo Lewis in Afrika Town, near Mobile, Alabama in 1927. Lewis answered Hurston’s questions in a unique Black Southern vernacular and folklore English language reminiscent of the 19th century style by Black Poet Paul Lawrence Dunber. It was and it is still called, “Black English.” The book, by Hurston titled, “Barracoon: The Story of the last Black Cargo” was published in 2018. It received great reviews from the New York Times, Time Magazine, PBS, etc. Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison said, “One of the greatest writers of our time.” Alice Walker said, “Zora Neale Hurston’s genius has once again produced a masterpiece.” Finally the world knows that Hurston has inspired many writers to use their inner courage to write and, of course, share their private feelings in public places. That is what poets and fiction/non-fiction writers do. Zora Neale Hurston’s legacy and impacts are staggering. Several award-winning writers including Walker, Morrison and Maya Angelou give effusive gratitude to Miss Hurston for their writing success, fame and recognition. MAY 17, 2024 MAY 17, 2024 ECONOMY The first meeting of the People’s Peace Bank on Earth Day this year was canceled so we could attend the rally and camp for Palestine on the Diag. Money and war are so fixed in the global political economy that the struggle for peace may be ready for a breakthrough in theory and practice. Using the word “people’s” does not mean public. The Bank of North Dakota is the only publicly-owned state bank in the United States. In my view they are one kind of people’s bank.The Michigan legislature is considering one. The People’s Peace Bank I propose would be local. The mission would be to invest in peace. Anything that promoted a simple and true lifestyle would be worthy of investment. From concerts to conferences, simplifying households, promoting local agriculture, to seeing that basic needs in education and health care are addressed. The financial context would be a balanced flow of energy open to anything but war. We will not contribute to genocide. Most of my Groundcover articles are full of references to “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” We need consensus on reality. For example, I reject the machine model of reality and embrace reality as a living organic presence which gives us guidance when we respect and study what is happening in the life of this world. Therefore the first meeting of PPB will look at the work of Richard Werner, the German economist who spent enough time in Japan to understand the role of central banks, then wrote a bestseller in Japanese. The English title is “Princes of the Yen.” It is also in podcast form. Basic science begins with the laws of thermodynamics. I want to focus on the conservation of energy. This law of thermodynamics states that mass-energy cannot be created or destroyed but changes form. It refers to a closed system. I assume that our KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 priority project. Using the resources we have at hand, let’s look at the different forms of money and how to use them. I think that Gerald Celente is helpful here. From fiat currency to gold and blockchain technologies, how do we best put our energy to work? What projects are worthy of support? I propose that we meet on May 25 universe is a closed system, so from the Big Bang until now we have the same energy mass in our universe that is in constant motion amid transformation. If you search for the number of universes the answer tends to infinity. I will skip the quantum mechanics and relativity variations on the theme and go to Richard Werner’s empirical experiment which showed that loans create money out of nothing. I believe that loans are an expression of existing reality as it changes form. The legal expression “ex nihilo” (out of nothing) would then refer to a new expression of existing mass-energy. For completeness in theory we will accept the reality that atoms and molecules are mostly empty space which is an energy field. A focused breath will help us foster a sane state of mind with the complexity of life. Simple and complex is the dialectic at work that can help us experience and create transformations; when you discover the unity of opposites you open the door to unconditional love. It is possible to miss the obvious because we are so distracted by thinking and miss the primordial awareness which is the source of thinking. I hope I am making enough sense that we can go to work. We can focus on the practical by looking at what needs to be done. Compost war and grow peace is a during the 200th anniversary of Ann Arbor celebration on the Ann Arbor community commons. Starting at 11 a.m. there will be discussion with Conscious Cafe on development and use of community resources. I recommend that you prepare by listening to Richard Werner’s presentation at the Dubai Capital Club on central bank digital currencies. This podcast could be shown at our first meeting. The VALHALLA Network is a decentralized autonomous organization to establish and own a global network of community banks. Let’s explore work with them and look at the time banking and local currencies that have been percolating in Ann Arbor for some decades. We may create a process for loans among ourselves that show promise of long term benefit. Bringing two households together to form one household could maximize best use of resources and create a surplus of healthy food and time for creative work. One household could save money and more easily repay the loan. This is an example of things that could be done. exp. 01/31/2025 Invest in peace and quality of life. No money for genocide. Of course I am triple booked that weekend and plan to do GROUNDCOVER NEWS People's Peace Bank is an idea whose time has come Friday night in Detroit at the Swords into Plowshares forum on Palestine, Saturday in Ann Arbor at the commons then back to Detroit on Sunday for the final day of the solidarity with Palestine and our global context. Monday is Memorial Day. Will Veterans For Peace do the Arlington Michigan cross display at Grand Circus Park? There is no shortage of things to do — pick one and carry on. 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Coconut macadamia nut bars ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 sticks butter 2/3 cup granulated sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 1 3/4 cups milk chocolate chips 2 cups shredded sweetened coconut 1 cup chopped roasted macadamia nuts Directions: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Prepare a 9 x 13 glass pan by buttering it or spraying well with non-stick spray. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Set aside. In an electric mixer on medium speed, combine the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Slow down the mixer and add the Where's Panda? DAVID WINEY Groundcover vendor No. 634 MAY 17, 2024 eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Gradually add the flour mixture to the batter just until combined. Spread half of the batter into the pan. Sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the top of the batter layer. Stir the coconut and macadamia nuts into the remaining batter, then spread it over the chocolate chips. Bake for 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown. The bars may still be slightly soft in the center, but they will set up as they cool. Allow the bars to cool completely, then cut into rectangles and serve. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS B O D E G A A D D U C E E V E N E D P L E A S A N T H E A D E D A M A R A N T H E R R S Y S T A L E C L E T I E P E N T M A C E D I S H B O N D V O T E S E T A O U T C E D A R B A T T L E A X E O D D S M I L C H E G G S N I P O N I T C A R E B Y T E N E W S I H T E D N E T C R E T O N N E R A S C A L E N L A R G E R S L E E V E S T R E E T T E N D E D T U N E Y A W S

2 $ MAY 3, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 10 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Is being homeless a criminal act? Supreme Court to decide. Page 6 JULIANO SANCHEZ #174 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT WOULD YOU BRING TO A COOKOUT? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. U-M Tahrir Coalition joins nationwide student movement for university divestment from Israel. page 4 "Popular University of Gaza" on the first day of the encampment, April 22. Photo by Mike Jones. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER MAY 3, 2024 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Jim Clark Christopher Ellis Cindy Gere Izzy Hedin-Urrutia Kaylie Karsch Ken Parks Elizabeth Reidy Scoop Stevens Erin Turn Wei Zhou PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Jane Atkins Zachary Dortzbach Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Emily Paras Holden Pizzolato Liem Swanson Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons MAY 3, 2024 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What would you bring to a cookout? Lentils, rice, hummus and organic garlic bread. — Juliano Sanchez, #174 Charcoal or a soccer ball. Or both. — Jim Clark, #139 Water. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 Ribs. — Shawn Swoffer, #574 Potato salad. — Wayne Sparks, #615 Probably some beef ribs and watermelon! — Pony Bush, #305 Barbecue ribs, mac 'n' cheese and corn. — Derek Allen, #177 An appetite! — Ken Parks, #490 Barbecue sauce — good for vegans, vegetarians and meat eaters! — Monte Smith, #487 Whatever is needed. Soda, chips, potato salad, hot dogs and buns are the classics. — Hosea' Hill, #532 Vienna sausages and crackers. — Denise Shearer, #485 Macaroni and cheese. — Joe Woods, #103 On a hot day? Cold water! — Mike Jones, #113 People. Me, myself and I. — Tony Schohl, #9 I love every year walking through the wonderful W.E. Upjohn Peony CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 Visit the Peony Gardens for some fun in the sun! Garden at the Nichols Arboretum (what I like to call Peonies Park)! I start in the woods on the Washington Heights entrance. With my love for dogs, I am often happy to run into many on their daily walks. As we make our way through the bushes, we come out onto a vista overlooking the rest of the Arboretum. As I wander through the woods, I come out onto the back end of the peony park where I often see wedding parties taking pictures of the brides walking down between the flowers in their big fluffy wedding dresses. Professional and amateur photographers are often there as well, taking many pictures. But what I find so much fun is the number of people who come to admire the peonies for the brief time they are in full bloom. So between April and May this is a fun event for friends and family — a day in the park and fun in the sun! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 People’s Food Co-op annual meeting discusses A2 development goals SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover contributor On April 16 the People's Food Co-op had its annual meeting at the Downtown Ann Arbor Public Library and it started with a 45-minute panel discussion. PFC Vice President Conner Levy started the discussion by stating that the primary objective of the PFC downtown development plan was food justice and food accessibility. Ann Arbor City officials who participated in the panel discussion were Lisa Disch (City Council member), Maura Thompson (Executive Director of the Downtown Development Authority) and Jane Dixon (City planning consultant). At the end of the discussion these officials were asked about their shopping credentials at PFC. All of them shopped extensively at PFC; Dixon mentioned that while she was a graduate student she didn't shop there because the prices were too high. Even though PFC is the only grocery store in downtown Ann Arbor, many people do not shop there because of those high prices. Right now, they are far from accomplishing food justice and food accessibility. Before the COVID-19 pandemic shocked the world into submission with its draconian lockdowns, mandatory mask wearing and social distancing reminders, there were already shopping and workplace changes happening. The pandemic only accelerated the pace of these new trends, like working from home at least part of the time and, as they stated in the panel discussion, social spaces outside of business establishments (mostly restaurants, I assumed). A PFC downtown development plan taking these trends into consideration could create a vibrant social life and new type of prosperity. This would make food tap into a different view of what makes for prosperity (that is, outside of the Gross National Product mindset) and possibly even bring down prices if it generated enough business of a social nature.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GAZA U-M Tarihr Coaltion joins nationwide student movement for university divestment from Israel There are tents on the Diag, but they are not occupied by people experiencing homelessness. The encampment is the “Popular University for Gaza at U-M,” and is composed of University of Michigan students, faculty, staff and community supporters of university divestment from Israel. On Monday, April 22, at 6 a.m., over 60 student members of the Tahrir Coalition joined the national call from Students for Justice in Palestine to “occupy college campuses and demand that their institutions end their complicity in the ongoing genocide in Palestine.” This Diag occupation began four days after Students for Justice in Palestine at Columbia University began occupation of the East Butler Lawn in New York City, escalating this nationwide student-led movement for divestment from Israel. Hundreds of student activists at Columbia have been arrested or suspended, but the repression has only led to more and more support. The U-M Tahrir Coalition was formed in November 2023 in response to Central Student Government ballot initiatives AR 13-025 and counter-initiative AR 13-026, calling on U-M to LINDSAY CALKA Publisher formal inquiry into anti-palestinian, anti-Arab, and islamophobic racism and harassment. 3. Support and reaffirm the faculty and staff members who are being vilified for their support of Palestine. 4. Release a formal statement that clearly defines the massacre in Gaza as a genocidal ethnic cleansing campaign led by Israel and aided by the United States.” The encampment intends to occupy condemn the state of Israel, and Hamas, respectively. The coalition is composed of more than 80 U-M student organizations that are “united for the liberation of Palestine at the University of Michigan.” To join the coalition, an individual or organization affiliated with U-M must sign on to the following demands to the University of Michigan President Santo Ono and the Board of Regents: “1. Divest from any and all companies that presently, or in the future, profit off of the human rights violations committed by Israel, and aid in the apartheid system maintained against Palestinians. 2. Conduct a the Diag — disrupting business as usual — until they achieve divestment from Israel at the U-M. Dozens of other universities across the country are organizing similar direct actions, with near-identical demands. What business does an academic institution have investing in another country, and what does “divest from Israel” really mean? The University of Michigan maintains an endowment of $17.9 billion that is invested in multiple companies in order to grow funds. There are staff persons that manage everyday decisions about the endowment, but at the end of the day, the University President and the statewide-elected Board of Regents make the final call about where funds are allocated. “Divestment from Israel” is a condensed phrase that draws the connections between large multinational companies that receive investments from the endowment that directly fund Israeli military activity in Gaza. The University has over $6 billion invested in funds that profit from Israeli companies or military contractors. This includes Hewlett-Packard, which supplies the electronic identification systems used to immobilize Palestinians at Israeli military checkpoints; Lockheed Martin, which has supplied Israel with billions of dollars worth of military equipment and training since 2001; and the Boeing Company, which expedited delivery of 1,000 bombs to aid Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. Other investments include drone manufacturer Skydio, military contractors Cobham and Ultra Electronics, Israeli spyware firm Oosto, and Israeli prisoner surveillance company Attenti. In a public letter, the Tahrir Coalition stated, “As long as U-M invests in these companies, we are paying tuition to a university that profits from apartheid, see TAHRIR page 7  MAY 3, 2024 Who's in charge? If you have been on a picket line or march for peace and justice, you likely heard the police asking, “Who’s in charge?” The usual response is “Everybody” or “No one.” I think a better response would be, “I am in charge of what I do, are you in charge of what you do, or do you have orders?” Chain of command thinking begins early. Two-year-olds have learned the word “NO” and use it often enough to have a reputation … THE TERRIBLE TWOS. As adults we are more likely to hear, ”You can’t do that here.” Your assembly may be declared illegal or more commonly, ”You can’t sleep here!” Camping on the commons, on any unused land, is usually a big “NO!” You can discreetly disappear into the bush but if you are discovered, you may lose all your possessions and be issued a ticket to appear in court where you will be fined and/or jailed. The hypocrisy of property rights becomes obvious as your body becomes the property of the state. We have yet to abolish slavery in prisons. Those who have eyes to see and a KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 heart that feels will be inspired to continue the struggle for freedom. “An injury to one is an injury to all” is a quote on the letterhead of some unions. It is a poignant expression of universal truth. Hillsdale College talks of transcendental truth and the constitution as if it is the domain of conservatives. We need some deep debate here. Nial Ferguson presents the conservative view in his “Treason of the Intellectuals.” As the Rev. James K. Parks said, “A little bit of truth is a dangerous thing.” How to be in charge of your life My 77 years of post-kindergarten graduate studies continue: life is an experiment, and I have discovered that I am a true son of Western civilization, that is Judaeo-Christian, Marxist and Einsteinian culture. It was the Vietnamese, then the Tibetans, who helped me weave all those Western threads into a workable fabric. Some Western threads need critical reflection, in particular the Enlightenment ideology and its bourgeois expressions of capitalism and rocket science. Relativity and quantum theory stand on the shoulders of Isaac Newton just as Marx stands on the shoulders of Hegel. The conceptual world of thinking and how we understand reality is a dialectical process that requires exploration of whatever limits, obstacles or insights arise. Rene Descartes, whose work became the Cartesian worldview, is author of the famous quote “I think, therefore I am.” This puts being in the context of thinking as understood by reason. The rational mind decides what is real. Any experience outside compliance with this model is dismissed as “illusion.” What if the appearances of the material world are so complex and interrelated that they only make sense in the light of a holistic view, before thinking imposes its prejudice of being the judge? If you observe your mind you will see that “Who is the thinker and who is the observer?” is the question we all face. Google gave me a wonderful essay on the difference between Descartes and Newton written by a philosophy student, Stephen Trochimchuk, actually a review of Thomas Kuhn’s “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.” I got lost trying to follow Descartes, largely because I disagree with his assumptions, in particular dualism as best illustrated by the mind/body split which plagues us to this day. Descartes can only be understood by accepting his assumption that the world is a machine. Isaac Newton focused on the mechanics of the machine and gave us rocket science. Are the thinker and observer aspects of one mind, or is this see CHARGE page 8  MAY 3, 2024 GAZA A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR MIGHT MUZE GAZA Where is the pogrom here, we were the real survivors, the ghetto were at our backs, not this small GALILEE; (WE DON’T COMPARE) Night trains stole away, against moonless dark skies our ghost-like shadowy forms, toward BUCHENWALD We were butchered in the heart, our children pierced in the streets, not this Delilah missile dropped on dusty sandled schoolboys at soccer: (WE DON’T COMPARE) THEN, a frenzied black-booted, dictator circled the terrified, barbwired the psyche in ovens, killed, and killed. not small fire pouring from Jehoavuh’s sky (WE DON’T COMPARE) We were skulls, bones, soulless skeletons, praying for our death, not the feeble wails of Galilee mothers, this: (WE DON’T COMPARE) Go down Moses, GO down there, can you see the sea is it red Moses is it red Moses IS IT CHRISTOPHER ELLIS Groundcover vendor No. 483 GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 RED. Author’s note: I trust that this poem will be received in the spirit, conscience and humanity in which it was composed. There is no attempt to ostracize any part of our collective humanness. It is solely an artistic endeavor to speak about our oneness, with a view toward unification and the betterment of all peoples and races. exp. 01/31/2025

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS Cartoon by Izzy Hedin-Urrutia Is being homeless a criminal act? SCOTUS to decide MAY 3, 2024 come in and say as to that, [you can], but as to that, you can't do that?” Kagan continued, “For a person who has no place to go, sleeping in public is kind of like breathing in public. Your statute says that a person cannot take himself and himself only and take a blanket and sleep some place without it being a crime. It just seems like you're criminalizing a status." "If every city, every village, every town lacks compassion and passes a law identical to this? Where are they supposed to sleep?" asked Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said it seems, "... both cruel and unusual to punish people for acts that constitute basic human needs. We're talking about sleeping. That is universal, that is a basic function." One of the striking things about the In Grants Pass, Ore., there is a conflict between the City Council and locals experiencing homelessness. The case Johnson v. Grants Pass began in 2018 with lower level courts and has escalated to become a U.S. Supreme Court case. The main argument is whether or not punishing people with fines and incarceration for sleeping outside violates the eighth amendment, which prohibits cruel or unusual punishment. The plaintiffs Gloria Johnson and John Logan are being represented by the Oregon Law Center. Both Johnson and Logan are residents of Grants Pass who lost their housing. They have been sleeping in their vehicles since and have been given many citations for sleeping in public. They are involuntarily homeless as are many of the 600 people who are currently experiencing homelessness in Grants Pass. The city has expensive housing and has no homeless shelter, so anyone who loses their housing may end up sleeping on the street but Grants Pass has made that illegal. There is absolutely no place for them to survive. The Grants Pass City Council does not want homeless people to sleep in public parks. The ordinance makes outdoor camping a criminal offense punishable by a $1,250 fine and up to 30 days in jail. The City Council president, Lily Morgan, said at a council meeting, “The point is to make it uncomfortable enough for them [the homeless] in our city so they will want to move on down the road.” On April 22, SCOTUS heard oral arguments for Grants Pass v. Johnson. “Grants Pass says civil and criminal punishments are necessary for enforcing laws banning homeless individuals from public spaces. Lawyers representing a class of homeless residents argue to address root causes of homelessness and only exacerbates the crisis.” Another advocate for the homeless JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 in Grants Pass is The National Homelessness Law Center, a team of human rights attorneys and advocates fighting to solve homelessness by challenging criminalization and protecting the rights of homeless people across the United States. The National Homeless Law Center penalizing people who have nowhere else to go constitutes cruel and unusual punishment — a violation of the Eighth Amendment,” Jeremiah Hayden reported in Portland, Ore. street newspaper “Street Roots.” An April 2023 press release by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition stated, “The court will soon decide whether localities that have failed to address the affordable housing and shelter needs of their community can issue fines or arrest people experiencing homelessness for sleeping outside even when there is no adequate housing or shelter.” An amicus brief is a court document submitted by someone not directly involved in a legal case; it provides information, expertise, or insight relevant to the case. These briefs aim to inform the court about the consequences of a ruling. One entity that submitted an amicus brief in the case was the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, “dedicated to achieving racially and socially equitable public policy that ensures people with the lowest incomes have quality homes that are accessible and affordable in communities of their choice.” The NLIHC brief argued that "criminalization fails recently entered the arena by delivering “over 42 friend of the court briefs in the landmark case. These [amicus] briefs reflect support from more than 1,100 groups and public figures who join us in calling for protection under the U.S. Constitution of the rights of over 260,000 Americans who sleep outside every night,” stated a newsletter from Jesse Rabinowitz, Campaign & Communications Director. During the two hour hearing on Monday, April 22, the justices made these comments: "How do we draw these difficult lines as to whether the Eighth Amendment would prohibit a municipality from punishing other acts like public urination if there are no facilities available or trespassing,” asked Justice Amy Coney Barrett. "Many people have mentioned this is a serious policy problem, and it's a policy problem because the solution of course is to build shelter, to provide shelter for those who are otherwise harmless," Justice John Roberts said. "But municipalities have competing priorities. What if there are lead pipes in the water? Which one do you prioritize?” Justice Elena Kagan asked Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler, "Where is the line where the city can say our legitimate municipal interests can case is that some of the judges don’t believe they should weigh in on the matter at all. The arguments were already heard by a district court and the 9th circuit court who determined the unconstitutionality of the ordinances. In 2020, the district court in Medford ruled that the city's ordinances regulating homelessness were unconstitutional. Grants Pass appealed that decision to the 9th Circuit Court, based in San Francisco, which upheld it in a three-judge decision. Arguments in favor of keeping the laws and ordinances come from the belief that state and local authorities are closer to the problem so have a better perspective on addressing it. Also, since the impact of homelessness and the solutions for it directly impact the community they are in, the local government should have the final say. Those who support the imposing of fines and penalties argue that these things are commonly used to address criminal activity and are not cruel or unusual. The case also brought a discussion about “where to draw the line.” For instance, is someone who lays out a blanket at night to watch the stars and ends up falling asleep guilty of camping in public? What if someone urinates in public because there are no public toilets? What is the difference between camping for survival and camping for recreation? Should they both be prohibited? As of the time of publication, the decision is waiting to be made. If the Supreme Court upholds the 9th circuit court’s decision, what will be the ramifications for people who are camping for survival? How would that impact Washtenaw County? If they decide to overturn the ruling, allowing municipalities to draft laws targeting the homeless, will Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and the rest of Washtenaw County adopt tougher laws and ordinances against their homeless citizens? MAY 3, 2024 DIVESTMENT  TAHRIR from page 4 genocide and mass ethnic cleansing.” According to an article published by the University Record on March 28, “The Board of Regents has announced it will not divest from companies linked to Israel, reaffirming its longstanding policy to shield the endowment from political pressures and base investment decisions on financial factors such as risk and return. ‘The Board of Regents has heard multiple calls for divestment from our endowment of companies linked to Israel. We have listened carefully,’ Regent Sarah Hubbard said at the board’s March 28 meeting. “We are not moving to make any divestment of any kind.’” The Regents nor President Santa Ono have made a public statement since the beginning of the encampment, although a University spokesperson issued a statement to the Michigan Daily that it supports the right to peaceful protest. Interviews from “It’s Hot in Here with Silver Lining” Students and community members have been giving updates and reports about the encampment through social media, messaging apps and freeform radio. WCBN DJ “Silver Lining” interviewed campers and played live interviews over the radio during their show on April 24. The first student they interviewed is Palestinian and has relatives who survived the 1948 Nakba. “There is a sense of urgency … I am grateful for that … we need to recenter ourselves and remember the reason we’re out here… is for Gaza and for the people who are facing the worst of it. "We get to use new tents that we set up with no threat of bombardment. While people are sleeping in makeshift tents, among the rubble, [with] multiple family members lost, missing and deceased … We are definitely privileged … we should be using that privilege any way we can to fight for them and to get the university to stop funding genocide.” They continued, “The University pushed us to this point. We didn’t just wake up and decide ‘Oh this is what we’re gonna do.’ We got to this point from the disruptive action policy proposal, where the University was trying to suppress student protestors through arrests of peaceful protest, refusal to meet with us, refusal to listen to what we have to say, ignoring it when we do say it. “We’re forcing the University to listen to our demands and listen to what we have to say.” A sign flies above the camp reading “Liberated Zone.” To another interviewee, this simply means that participants “have control over what is happening [at the camp].” This second camper said, “[The police] are aware this movement on campus is popular. They saw that when the [New York Police Department] arrested 150 students at Columbia, over 200 took their place. So, we hope that the administration knows they can’t successfully repress this movement … If the university tries to repress this encampment, the community will come out and will respond … What it will look like in the next few days, no one knows. We fully intend to grow; we anticipate having a lot of community support. We’re only growing stronger.” “It’s Hot in Here with Silver Lining” airs on WCBN (88.3 FM-Ann Arbor) Wednesdays at 2 p.m. You can also listen to the archived show on Spotify by searching “It’s Hot in Here with Silver Lining.” Legacy of student movements for divestment In the spring of 1977 the U-M Southern African Liberation Committee and the African Students’ Association began a campaign for divestment from South African apartheid. Through similar actions led by student organizers — protests at Regents meetings, campus pickets, building a “shanty” GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 on the Diag and occupying it 24/7 — divestment from South Africa was achieved. On April 14, 1983 the Board of Regents passed a historic “90% Resolution” that directed administration to divest “from all American corporations with operations in South Africa except for those with notable economic presence in Michigan.” Before that, from 1965-1972, the anti-Vietnam War movement led by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Students for a Democratic Society organized anti-war actions that disrupted the university’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Notably, the U-M Central Student Government originated from these student protests. A detailed history of these student movements can be found at michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu/ antiapartheid/ The Tahrir Coalition carries this torch. Activities at the Popular University for Gaza at U-M include rallies, teach-ins, movies, art builds, Passover ceremonies, traditional prayers and more — and are led and attended by the many, increasing encampment participants. Amidst it all, you can still find students working on finals and end-of-semester assignments. At the time of publication, the encampment stands: alive, well and growing. 6 24/7 mental health and substance use support 734-544-3050 LEARN MORE about programs funded by the community mental health and public safety preservation millage

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CONTINUED  CHARGE from page 4 dualism permanent? We can only resolve this dilemma by choosing the assumption that speaks to us and living it out. We tend toward dualism or holism based on our current understanding and stay with it because it works or change it because it is not working. Mindfulness training usually begins with mindfulness of the breath. Mindfulness can be used with all the senses and go from tranquility to insight meditation. A teacher will help you navigate the stages of the path and master them a step at a time. We are fortunate to have Khenpo Choephel at the Karuna Buddhist Center, located in Bethlehem United Church of Christ. Khenpo is an honorific for those who have taken Dharma vows and mastered years of study and practice. Dharma is a Sanskrit word meaning reality, particularly the sacred reality that is full and complete enlightenment, that is awakening to the buddha nature inherent in all sentient beings. Ignorance, with its many habitual patterns, becomes an addiction to illusion. Splitting reality into its constituent parts in search of something substantial becomes an obsession. Dualism becomes a habit as we look for the missing part. The most common dualism is self and other. This egocentric view is powerful and promotes a very competitive lifestyle. It makes some people rich and powerful. Wealth is a social marker of success in bourgeois society. The disparities in wealth and the destruction of nature by wealth extraction has brought us to the point where we must look at our assumptions and choose what works best. You may be a bit crazy as you leave bourgeois compliance culture and embrace the struggle for something more authentic. This choice is becoming more popular during my lifetime. Many aspire to a more cooperative and compassionate life and are beginning the shift. We are in a period when there is a growing sense that something is wrong, that our lives are out of control. We are not able to stop the war machine and its declared purpose of full spectrum domination which may lose one war after the other but continues vigorously in the financial and ideological fronts. These two fronts continue into space as the colonization of Mars is the next step towards the sole superpower of the universe which will storm the gates of heaven in its quest for dominance. "The Great Taking” by David Rogers Webb and “The Trading Game” by Gary Stephenson clarify our current situation of centralization of power. Lynette Zang is important in this analysis and I believe summarizes a growing collective view that the only solution to our growing crisis is to build community. We can start by growing our own food in community. Willow Run Acres and the Argus Farm Stop ethic that “The Future Is Local” will thrive when we come together as human beings who are children of the earth. Remember “The Earth Is My Witness” in the March 8, 2024 edition of Groundcover News. Our relationship to Earth Day and annarborcommunitycommons.org is an excellent opportunity to focus on a felt sense of the body and accept the wisdom of the body as the best advisor on the proper direction for the MAY 3, 2024 next step and inspire us to step onto and stay on Freedom Road. May Day celebrates the solidarity that keeps us together. May 27 is Memorial Day. Veterans For Peace celebrates this day with the Arlington Midwest display of crosses all day at Grand Circus Park in Detroit. It’s a collaboration of southwest Michigan veterans. They need a truck to move the many crosses in the display. I will use mindfulness of the breath as a step to mindfulness of the body — and eventually mindfulness of the mind as we mature on the stages of the path. The completion stage awaits us as our ego dissolves into the all good expanse of primordial purity. MAY 3, 2024 PUZZLES Either Way by Tracy Bennett and Victor Fleming 1234 5678 13 17 20 21 24 25 28 30 36 41 42 46 47 49 50 52 54 62 65 55 56 57 63 66 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. 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I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1 "Getting closer," in a guessing game 5 Soy-based broth 9 Inflict serious injury on 13 Vicinity 14 Take in or take on 16 Defeat, barely 17 "Mean Girls" song about being "hot" in silly Halloween costumes 18 Follower of an Afro-Jamaican religion 19 ___ as dishwater 20 Rubber duckie locale 22 It's cast at the polls 24 Start of a humorous quip about decision-making 28 "Yes, captain!" 29 Like thick fog, figuratively 30 Fang output 31 Deliver, as a pitch 32 Loafer or flip-flop 36 Abbr. after a comma 37 Part 2 of the quip 40 DuVernay who directed "Selma" 41 Actress Seehorn or Perlman 43 Cuts off, as branches 44 Toddler's booboos 46 "Another Saturday Night" singer Sam 48 ___ in motion (gracefulness) 49 End of the quip 52 Caught in a downpour, perhaps 53 Peril 54 "Beloved" author Morrison 55 Encourage persistently 58 Caught in a drizzle, perhaps 62 British prep school of note 63 Coffee break snack 64 Some are golden 65 19th-century Democrat opponent 66 "No ifs, ands or ___" 67 Baseball great Berra known for humorous quips like the one in this puzzle 51 53 58 59 60 61 64 67 DOWN 1 Existed 2 "Butterflies ___ Free" (1972 romcom) 3 Latin word for "king" 4 "It's possible" 5 Joan of Arc, for one 6 Pocatello's state 7 Distress signal 8 Get off the fence, say 9 Relatives of "mashups," in music 10 Former minor 11 Domed home 12 Become liquid 15 Side order at Haifa Falafel 21 Jungian principle 23 Band's sound booster 24 "Christina's World" artist Andrew 25 "It follows that ..." 26 Illegally seized 27 Party poppers 28 Declare 31 Pipe type 33 Port-au-Prince's land 34 Conspicuous 35 "No sweat" 38 Deluged 39 Alcoves 42 Loser to a pair of deuces 45 Timeslot for many soaps and talk shows 47 Assayer's material 48 Art supplies 49 Fang 50 Capital northeast of Bangkok 51 Fish in the Au Sable 52 All-in-one meal 56 Uncertain amount 57 African antelope 59 In times past 60 Oldest daughter in "Little Women" 61 Tire gauge reading: Abbr. 37 38 43 48 31 39 44 45 26 27 29 32 33 34 35 40 14 18 22 23 15 9 16 19 10 11 12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS STUDENT SOLUTIONS Street medicine: bridging the gap of accessibility ELIZABETH REIDY U-M student contributor I recently spent a Saturday morning serving potatoes and scrambled eggs at a house of hospitality in Ann Arbor. As I left the house, I noticed a group of volunteers standing on the back porch, clad in their Michigan merch, casually sipping on coffee from their thermoses. As I emerged from the crowded kitchen, carrying the scent of grease and charred potatoes with me, I wondered what these volunteers were doing relaxing on the back porch. I would’ve remained naively judgemental of them had they not been approached by a breakfast-goer at the house. I watched as they leaned over the man, intently examining his arm. It wasn’t until one of them pulled out a little red kit with a white cross on it that I realized what they were there for: it was the Wolverine Street Medicine group providing medical care. In hindsight, I felt very foolish for not realizing that sooner. This was my first time ever seeing medical services being provided at a gathering center. I was surprised to see that this was being provided, and even more surprised to find that there is a term for this type of medical care. “Street medicine” is the practice of providing medical care to unhoused populations. The street medicine movement was first established in 1992 by a Pittsburgh physician, Dr. Jim Withers, who later founded the Street Medicine Institute, a national nonprofit organization and membership community that promotes accessible healthcare for the homeless. According to the SMI, there are an estimated 50 independent street medicine programs operating across the United States today, and Wolverine is one of them. These organizations are funded in a variety of ways; some programs are run by students and volunteers, some are independent nonprofit organizations and some are facilitated by hospitals. Street medicine has been revolutionary in promoting accessible healthcare for low-income communities. Through organizations like SMI, healthcare is tailored to address the unique needs of those on the streets. Street medicine is even advancing towards becoming its own health care discipline. Despite its undeniable value, the existence of the street medicine movement in the United States is somewhat ironic. The United States is one of the richest nations in the world, and yet — according to a September 2023 report from the Census Bureau — 26 million people remain uninsured. In such an affluent country, how is it that 7.9% of the nation’s population are denied healthcare? MAY 3, 2024 Wolverine Street Medicine volunteers retrieve medical supplies from their van in downtown Detroit. Photo courtesy of Michigan Medicine. Street medicine is an invaluable service for many, but its existence indicates a glaring flaw in the current U.S. healthcare system. Rather than select hospitals, nonprofits, or even student organizations providing this service, accessible healthcare should be regulated across all healthcare providers. Accessible healthcare shouldn’t be a practice provided out of the kindness of one's heart. Healthcare is a right, but it is treated as a privilege in the United States. While it is daunting to consider the deeply-rooted, systemic issue of inaccessibility pertaining to healthcare in the United States, it is comforting to know that there are initiatives that prioritize marginalized communities. In Ann Arbor and across the world, street medicine is taking steps to provide assertive, coordinated and collaborative care management to those who need it most. Student organizations and initiatives striving to alleviate homelessness WEI ZHOU U-M student contributor One of the greatest challenges that homeless and low-income people face is the accessibility of free or lowcost goods and services within a community. This is especially true in Washtenaw County, home to the University of Michigan which prides itself as being one of the wealthiest school systems in the world. The University offers free and low-cost services (such as healthcare and food pantries) to those who are a part of the school system; to others, these services are locked behind the University of Michigan paywall. Recently, however, student organizations and other student-led initiatives have begun to take notice and strive for change, paving a path for addressing the needs of the homeless people in Washtenaw County. Michigan Health Aid is a student-run organization that focuses on providing health checkups and other related services for the homeless. They typically operate biweekly on the second floor of the Delonis Center on West Huron Street, where certified and trained volunteers take and interpret health metrics (such as blood pressure, blood sugar level) and provide insights on how to manage these health symptoms. Paul Silaghi, the president of MHA, describes MHA as “striving to provide basic health information to temperature andpeople who may not have the opportunity to know it otherwise.” He also describes MHA’s goals for expansion, which was guided by their surveying effort after collecting over 50+ responses on what resources the responders would need. They recently started pushing for an increased rate of checkups as well as funding from the University to provide over the counter medicines. After asking Paul if he thinks he - made a difference, he responded: “I hope so. We heard great things from the resource partners coordinator from the Delonis Center, who we have been working with very closely to implement this. We’ve had great testimonials from people who both had great things to say and also have offered some feedback on maybe where they would want certain tests they would want, or certain services that they want in addition to what we have, and we’ve been doing our best to implement those, especially if we see patterns in what people want that they may not have access to right see STUDENTS next page  MAY 3, 2024 STUDENT SOLUTIONS Meet and greet with Michigan Movement ERIN TURNER U-M student contributor You might sometimes wonder what the students at the University of Michigan care about. Here’s one of the thousands of answers to that question: homelessness. Students care about combating homelessness and they care about the people experiencing it. This is evident in the multiple organizations founded by students that work to address this very pressing issue. I did a deep dive on one of these clubs, Michigan Movement (MIM), to highlight the efforts of this specific club and bring awareness to those who want to get involved in the fight against homelessness. In order to get a better understanding of this club and its inner workings I interviewed one of its presidents, Liem Swanson. He explained to me some of their ongoing projects and what he hopes for the future of the club. Founded in 2015, Michigan Movement’s mission is to provide aid to those experiencing homelessness and poverty in Ann Arbor, increase community involvement and reduce the harmful stigma surrounding homelessness. They do this by providing basic necessities, promoting the idea of self-governance through education, health and wellness and having a passion for community engagement and activism. They have one focus: empower those struggling by working WITH them. It’s a great launching pad for those who want to get involved but are new to the scene. Right now, the club’s main efforts go towards clothing and food drives, group volunteering at the Delonis Center and Mercy House, and educational club meetings. One of their biggest projects, which occurs a few times over the school year, is Project Connect. This is a one-day event where students in MIM distribute care packages, known as MIM Kits, that contain food, masks, clothing, hygiene products and more, to people experiencing homelessness. They also provide testing strips for drug and overdose prevention, menstrual products, blankets, ponchos and whatever else is appropriate for the time of year. They get doctors, dentists and barbers involved so those stopping by can get vaccinated and screened, update their documentation, or get a dental exam, a fresh haircut or any of a broad list of benefits. Students also distribute a meal during the event as well as have music playing in the background. This event usually aids anywhere from 25 to 50 individuals. This is made possible by partnerships with Mercy House, the Delonis Center, the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and others. A club of 20 plus active members, MIM is intending to put their effort into new activities that will get more students involved, according to Swanson. He hopes that the club will continue to grow its numbers and expand its influence within the university and City of Ann Arbor. He told me that there is currently an idea of creating a club social media account GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Project Connect at Mercy House on April 13. Photo credit: Liem Swanson. that posts interviews of Groundcover News vendors for the general public to get to know the people and their stories. Another idea for the future is hosting homework help and resume workshops for people trying to find jobs or go back to school. The Michigan Movement is a great starting place to get involved in this noble cause. This club allows community-oriented students to make a difference and grow their own perspective. They make meaningful connections within the club and outside the university community. If you are a student and want to join the fight against homelessness, join the Michigan Movement! Project Connect at Liberty Plaza on October 29, 2023. Photo courtesy of Michigan Movement.  STUDENTS from last page now”. He concluded by saying: “It’s always our goal to do our best for the people we serve, and we have gotten a lot of great feedback and were always willing to improve as well.” Another service that the students provide is the returnable shelves initiative, which is part of the University-wide sustainability effort. Recently, the initiative started installing returnable shelves on trash cans around central campus in which passing people can deposit their “returnables.” Returnables, in this context, are bottles and cans that are recyclable and have a cash value (deposit value), which is paid once the returnable is brought back to the store that sold or carries it. Not all bottles and cans are returnables. Despite their cash value, these cans and bottles typically end up in landfills, so this initiative strives to not only prevent them from ending up in the landfills, but also benefit those in need with a small additional income. I recently had the opportunity to interview Josh Davis, who brainstormed this project idea after being inspired by similar shelves in Copenhagen where he studied abroad. I asked, what is the goal of the project? He responded, “The goal of this project aims to enhance recycling efforts and support community members in reclaiming bottle and can deposits. This not only promotes environmental sustainability, but also economic benefit through a simple yet accessible innovation.” He hopes that this initiative will provide a “tangible solution to the challenge of recycling public spaces” through offering a designated spot for people to leave their recyclable cans and bottles. He hopes it can help the homeless through “simplifying the process for those who collect these items for the 10-cent deposit return, reducing the need to search through the trash bins.” On campus, the overall attitude towards homelessness has been shifting, especially with the rise of student organizations that actively strive to create a solution to the homelessness problem within Washtenaw County. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS W A R M 1 13 17 A R E A S B 24 28 30 36 41 A V E R Y E S I R E N O M T C 37 A H E A 42 46 49 T 52 54 62 65 W H I G S O A K E D 55 T O N I T O N 63 E 56 57 E G G O N D O N U T B U T S 66 50 H 47 C O O K E E R O A D T 51 53 R 38 F 43 L O P S 48 P O E T R Y A K E I T I S K 58 64 67 59 60 61 D A M P A G E S Y O G I 31 25 W H E X Y 20 2 3 4 5 14 18 21 A R A S T A 22 T H E N Y O U 26 29 S O U P Y 32 H U R L O R K I N 39 44 45 O W I E S 33 A 34 35 S H O E 40 V A 27 C O M E T O B 23 A 6 M I A 7 8 9 S O D O P T 15 16 19 E D G E D U L L L L O T 10 M A 11 12 I M

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Chicken fajitas KAYLIE KARSCH Groundcover contributor Ingriedients: ¼ cup lime juice ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes ¼ cup (+1 tablespoons) neutral oil 2 teaspoons ground cumin 1 lb boneless chicken breast 2 large bell peppers 1 large yellow onion Tortillas Salt and pepper to taste Directions: In a large bowl, whisk together lime juice, red pepper flakes, ¼ of oil, and 1 teaspoon of cumin. Add salt and pepper seasoned chicken into bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. While marinating, chop vegetables and remove bell pepper seeds. When the chicken is finished, add the DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 MAY 3, 2024 remaining teaspoon of oil to a saucepan on medium heat, cooking until golden brown and fully cooked through, around 8 minutes per side). Remove from heat, let rest, then slice into strips. In the same saucepan, add bell peppers, onion, remaining cumin, and salt and pepper, sauteing until soft (around 7 minutes). Combine chicken and mix. Take off the heat and serve with tortillas.

2 $ APRIL 19, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 9 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. End of an era: rest in peace to my mentor, John Sinclair! page 3 MEET YOUR VENDOR: MICHAEL BROWN PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER SOLAR ECLIPSE NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. page 3 Groundcover vendors Joe Woods (pictured left) and Glen Page (pictured right) look up to view the solar eclipse on April 8. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS TALK TO THE EXPERTS EDITION This special edition magazine of Groundcover News aims to put expert perspectives on social issues in conversation: "citizen experts" and "expert citizens." In other words, on topics of the carceral system, addiction, housing policy, sheltering and food insecurity, we will be comparing the solutions and ideas of both people who have expertise through experience, and those who are traditional, “institutional” experts. Writers are encouraged to write creative, personal narratives about their experience with incarceration, addiction, housing policy, shelters, and food insecurity. How do these issues intersect with, and perpetuate, homelessness? What should be done to make these systems easier to navigate? What changes should be made in Washtenaw County to address these issues? Alternatively, writers can interview traditional experts and ask their thoughts on the same questions above. DEADLINE: MAY 3RD, 12PM EMAIL TO SUBMISSIONS@GROUNDCOVERNEWS.COM PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Roberto Isla Caballero Jim Clark La Shawn Courtwright Cindy Gere Mike Jones Loren Markona Love James Manning Eric Protein Mosely Denise Shearer Tony Smith Wayne Sparks GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 CONTACT US PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Zachary Dortzbach Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Emily Paras Liem Swanson Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons APRIL 19, 2024 APRIL 19, 2024 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS End of an era: rest in peace to my mentor, John Sinclair! Michael Brown, vendor No. 306 In one sentence, who are you? Michael Ray Brown. What is your favorite spot in Ann Arbor? The tennis shoe store. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Sell my papers. What words do you live by? The Truth. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn’t know? I am 62 years old. What motivates you to work selling Groundcover News? It’s a job! If you had a warning label, what would it say? Don’t be sorry. What are your hobbies? Football. What do you wish you knew more about? Cars. What was your first job? Cleaning up. What song do you have completely memorized? Sugarhill Rappers Delight. ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 Solar eclipse In 1970, in Havana, Cuba at the age of 10 or 11, I saw the solar eclipse for the first time in Cuban history. At that time, in order to see the solar eclipse, we all made glasses out of dark plastic trash bags because we did not have glasses. 55 years ago, my teacher in Cuba told me and the other students to use plastic bags to see the eclipse. Around the same time, I saw the Soviets put a man on the moon. I was able to see the solar eclipse again yesterday. It was glowing orange and later the shadow of the moon covered the entire street. While watching the eclipse, I began to think of many things across Cuban history. The conquistadors travelling across the sea, of nature, of marriage. I thought of the old man, and the boy and the mother of destruction with a cross between their hands. I thought of fathers and the nuns and those converted in the spirit. They say everything must come to an end. But with the end also comes a new beginning. As with people, ideas manifest themselves as good or evil. My first exposure to someone who could supply information to help me determine whether people and ideas are good or evil, and guide me through decision-making of this magnitude, came in my long conversations with John Sinclair starting when I was 14. Similarly, he was a mentor to a whole generation of confusing, finding-your-ownway, life-altering decisions that we could not do alone. Thank you begins. As we honor one, the search begins for another. We will be watching for him or her to appear — or maybe they're already here. I could tell the heroes I have WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 known. At the top John stands alone with his army of one. John Sinclair born October 2, 1941, in Flint Michigan. Spouse: Leni (from 1965-1977) Died April 2, 2024 in Detroit John for all you did while you were here — and what I know you'll do through your legacy. Another lost soldier, another downed hero, another search Receiving Hospital from congestive heart failure, following an illness. I know what John would say: “POWER TO THE PEOPLE AND KICK OUT THE JAMS!” 3 "The Princess and the Frog" can teach us about beauty I remember when "The Princess and the Frog" Disney movie came out at the theater. Me and my boyfriend Richard went to see it together. We went to see it at the Dollar Theater when they had it at Briarwood Mall. I would talk about how I miss dollar theaters … but that's a subject for another story. Anyway, I love the fact that the Princess and the Frog movie finally had a Black fairy princess. It's a good thing to talk about for Black history. "The Princess and the Frog" is not only a good moment in Black history but a beautiful movie. In "The Princess and the Frog," the depend on anyone else to do her hard work for her. Tiana has a good friend and her family helps her, too, with what she needs and wants. Tiana comes from a loving, DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 princess, Tiana, is a very hard worker. She is determined to get what she needs and wants out of life. She works hard and does not depend on, or try to hard-working family. She was raised on the fact that it takes hard work and faith to do anything and get anything in life. Her dad was a great chef and he made great gumbo. Her goal was to open up her own restaurant. When Tiana was a little girl she met her prince, the frog, in her window and kissed him. And even though she was a frog throughout the whole movie, she was beautiful, and it was a beautiful movie. I think frogs have their own beauty too. Frogs come in all colors and shapes. They can make a pond or yard beautiful. The Princess was not looking for her future prince to provide her with her restaurant and things. She ended up getting a restaurant by a lot of hard work and effort and creativity and faith in herself. Her and her prince ended up becoming human beings again and being happy in the moment. It was a very beautiful, colorful, interesting movie and I recommend it to anybody of any age.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS WASHTENAW COUNTY In conversation with Commissioner Labarre Washtenaw County Commissioner Andy Labarre (District 7) and I spoke for about a half an hour on March 20. We talked about money; we talked about barriers and red tape; we talked about sweeps and we talked about a community-run shelter. Most importantly, we talked about human lives. Labarre is acutely aware people are sleeping outside and informed enough to know the number of people fluctuates and is difficult to track. He said he vaguely understood what is meant by a “sweep,” which is a camp eviction carried out by the police. He did not know about the showdown at the downtown Farmers Market in Ypsi on August 27 of last year, when community activists defended a homeless encampment against law enforcement. This event gave rise to the Shelter Now Action Group (SNAG). Labarre explained the money part. Lots of different funds, lots of different acronyms, lots and lots of money. I asked him specifically about a unanimous vote of approval last April to open two vacant County buildings for two extra shelters and the approval of three million dollars over two years to get them running. He said that the allocated money was diverted into other programs when the American Rescue Plan Act brought federal emergency situations, or “putting out fires” as the saying goes. The concern is that there are no plans to get from the emergency state to a long-term viable housing situation. A County funding source Labarre told me about that may help in a very broad sense is the New Human JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 Services Partnership. From the Washtenaw County Office funding to Washtenaw County. In other words, it didn't actually go anywhere, it just got absorbed into the other programs. We stopped talking about it here. The plan for those vacant buildings was never mentioned again. However, Labarre did mention his idea for using the Learning Resource Center and parts of the Towner campus (home to Ypsilanti Community Mental Health) as places for day shelters. These are needed in addition to what ARPA offers to cover. In terms of short versus long-term solutions, Labarre said, “County response is not strategic, it’s play by play.” Labarre is concerned about the lack of options for solutions. He feels we spend a lot of time on “long-term solutions” which just means building more apartments, and short term of Community and Economic Development website: “The New Human Services Partnership Mini-Grant funding round will occur annually to award 10 grants of up to $40,000 for one year to human service organizations. The main goal of this funding round is to provide smaller organizations that are addressing poverty, racism and trauma as a root cause of institutional inequity in Washtenaw County an opportunity to receive funding. The total funding allocation is currently $407,707. Organizations with overall budgets of $1 million or less are eligible to apply. The goal for grantees is to have 60% with leaders with underrepresented identities.” This funding opportunity for 2024 has already passed. We talked about the community-run shelter that SNAG is advocating for, and what it would take to make it happen. Labarre is not sure how a community-run shelter would look. APRIL 19, 2024 Commissioner Andy Labarre represents the eastern half of Ann Arbor (District 7). His concerns are autonomy and self-regulation — would it be able to operate safely? Is the homeless community network equipped for this? Do they have the skills? Who will be accountable? The money is there, but the infrastructure for a community-run shelter is not. It seems to me that Labarre is sympathetic towards the homeless community and their advocates. His hands are tied by bureaucratic procedures, but at the end of the day, Andy Labarre is not turning a blind eye to the homeless in our community. Prioritizing homelessness: take action for change ERIC PROTEIN MOSELY Homeless activist With the rise of social media and the increasing accessibility of information, discussions about politics have become more prevalent. People are more engaged and interested in political matters than ever before, as the decisions made by politicians directly impact their lives. Political issues, policies and debates have infiltrated society, from social gatherings to workplace discussions. The polarization of political ideologies has further fueled the intensity of these conversations. As a result, politics has become a dominant and unavoidable subject in both personal and public spheres, shaping how we think, interact and make decisions — but not everyone agendas. agrees on the The main concerns on Michigan voters' minds In a recent set of reports tracking public opinion on the economy and Trump-era tax policy, voters in swing districts demonstrated a deep concern about the state of the economy, giving both Democrats and Republicans dismal ratings on their economic performance. In July 2023, progressive pollster Navigator Research conducted interviews with 1,500 likely voters in 61 battleground districts nationwide and released the results in an online briefing. Voters from Michigan's 3rd Congressional District (represented by Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Grand Rapids), 18th Congressional District (controlled by Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint), and 10th Congressional District (represented by Rep. John James, R-Shelby Twp.) were included in the polls. One of the reports stated that 40% of same voters across the battleground identified inflation as their top concern. What rounded out the top three priorities of Michigan voters varied depending on which party they represented. Homelessness was nowhere to be found within the top five of the majority of surveys conducted and not even mentioned in others as a concern from either party. Do politicians care about the unhoused? A politician is a public servant who is voted into office to fulfill the duties of those who elect them to do so. In reality, they most likely structure their campaign on what the people determine to be a problem and not so much on what is problematic. It is not their fault when the underlying problem stems from the lack of concern of the voters to make a particular situation more highlighted than others — in this situation we are talking about homelessness. see CHANGE page 11  APRIL 19, 2024 WASHTENAW COUNTY Undercover art intel: Gilbert Sam Struggling veterans on the street need help too. Gilbert Sam is a U.S. Army veteran who discovered that he had real art talent at the age of 23 when he met a homeless man who created macrame art. This man used very thin yarn and created intricate designs. When he learned this new art form, the man taught Gilbert a few ideas and how to make patterns. They had a lot of fun creating necklaces, bracelets, anklets and chokers. He then passed on the art form to Gilbert. Then, one day, he got up and told Gilbert, “Look buddy you got this now,” and with that he went on his way. This art form helped Gilbert out of a lot of bad spots. He used this macrame style for some time in the 2000s. Later he discovered paracord (the lines attached to parachutes) and he works in this style to this day — from dark black, to neon yellow and all colors in between. Traveling on his motorcycle all over the western United States, he visited many places in California and Nevada. Each year he would travel back to Ann Arbor for Hash Bash to sell the artwork he made during winter. As soon as the last Michigan football game took place, he would hit the road with his CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 100-pound backpack. He came back to Michigan more permanently in the late 1980s. Revenue from selling his art helped with basic needs such as shampoo, conditioner, clothes and other necessities. Considering the massive economic and wage difference in goods and services as well as food and snacks, Gilbert feels that art helps him get back on his feet at the end of the month. He sells around 10 items a day. This puts money directly in his hands so he can get extras that very day. Gilbert got into paracord for therapy. One day when Gilbert was out and about with his artwork, this gentleman surprised him by buying out all his items that very day. He made around $80 so he could chill for the rest of the day. Gilbert Sam's paracord bracelets. Gilbert makes kids’ bracelets as well, and kids love the bright colors. It makes them happy! So come get a paracord bracelet or keychain at his location next to the Knight's restaurant across from the Michigan Theater. He is usually there on Mondays and Fridays in the morning around eight or nine until 11. He loves talking to customers and passersby about his military service and riding his motorcycle across the nation. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library The Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library is a non-profit organization that sells gently used books and other items at low prices with proceeds going to support Ann Arbor District Library services and programs like the Summer Game! Anyone can become a member and receive a quarterly e-newsletter, an invitation to an appreciation luncheon, and more! Visit faadl.org for more details. Save the Date for the Friends Spring Bag Sale Saturday, May 18 • 10am–4pm Sunday, May 19 • 1pm–4pm Downtown Library The Friends will hold a huge bag sale in preparation for their upcoming move to Parkland Plaza! Fill a bag for $5! exp. 01/31/2025 Thousands of books in many subjects, including hundreds of kids’ books available. Come early for the best selection! 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS YPSILANTI APRIL 19, 2024 Left: Kat Layton, Pastor Anna, Monique Taylor-McCants and Justin Banks taking a break during the clean-up day on April 7. Right: Volunteers cleaning windows of the building upfront of the Growing Hope MarketPlace Hall, FedUp's new home base! “A ministry of presence:” With a new downtown location, FedUp continues to grow hope in Ypsi I want to start by giving a big shoutout to Growing Hope for sharing their Farmers Marketplace (16 S. Washington St.) with the community. I myself have visited FedUp church service and food truck several times this past year and have always enjoyed my time spent there. I say, thank you to Growing Hope! After some time looking around Ypsilanti for a building to provide needed services to the downtown Ypsi area, FedUp Ministries made an agreement with Growing Hope. They decided to rent the front space, the old bank on Washington Street (now called Black Lives Matter Boulevard). The agreement outlines that FedUp Ministries will rent the building to continue to provide services for those in need of food, clothing, showers, laundry, bathroom access and more. FedUp will rent space for the summer on a trial basis to see how things go. I got a chance to talk to the founder of FedUp Ministries, Rev. Anna Then I asked her when FedUp MinMIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 istries plans to officially open up for service in the new space. She said, “We will start our weekly Sunday church service in May. In June, we plan to have portable showers, laundry and bathrooms, and to serve breakfast and lunch two to three times a week because unlike Ann Arbor, the downtown area of Ypsi has limited bathrooms available due to the temporary downtown library closure. "Also, the Ypsilanti community does Taylor-McCants, after Sunday service April 7. The first question I asked her was, “How did the first day of clean-up go after church service Sunday?” She replied, “It was really good. We had a dozen or more people come out to support and volunteer. It was a beautiful thing, people from all around the community, people from different backgrounds came to help clean and now we are about to enter our painting phase.” not have a breakfast program, and if a person who can’t afford bus fare won’t be able to get to Ann Arbor for the St. Andrew’s breakfast program, [they won’t be able to access food early in the morning]. On the weekend the bus starts at 8 a.m., thus leaving the Ypsilanti community without the most important meal of the day. Ypsilanti mainly has dinner programs like the Hope Clinic that serves dinner every evening, and other churches also have less frequent dinner programs. We plan to fill the gap for our community. Our services will be just like we've been running our services, everybody can eat free, and if you can afford it you can donate.” I also interviewed Sheri Wander of Peace House, a supporter and friend of the FedUp Ministries community, about her thoughts on the new space for worship and survival services. She said, “I think it is great because a lot of people gravitate to that area, being right downtown, even though people and business owners had their grievances and some legitimate concerns about the area and the unhoused community. Last summer people from the neighborhood and local business owners had a problem with the unhoused community sleeping in that area and took action to remove the unhoused and attempted to put up a fence around the area…” “[In August 2023 there was] a mini-protest and confrontation between the unhoused and advocates vs. neighbors and local business. Since that time to this present moment, FedUp has continued their presence there and throughout the Washtenaw County area providing free meals and showers for those in need. “So now that there is no more daytime warming center and the Ypsilanti nighttime shelter program [has closed], FedUp’s presence will be needed for hot meals, clothing and showers throughout the week. “‘A ministry of presence’ Pastor Anna calls it. A lot got done [at the clean-up day] and a really diverse group of people came out in support and to help, like people from Growing Hope, people who are unhoused and formerly unhoused and people from all walks of life who made connections through volunteering working side by side. It was a beautiful day, we were playing Motown music, and everybody was working and having fun. “There will be food, drinks, showers, laundry, bathrooms, church service, other services and activities. Peace House will be in full support.” FedUp Ministries summertime schedule starting in May: Church service 10 a.m. and food truck 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at Growing Hope every Sunday. Showers and bathrooms available. Every Wednesday food truck will be at Liberty Plaza in Ann Arbor at noon and will be at the Ypsilanti Transit Center at 1:30-2:30 p.m. Starting in June: Breakfast, lunch, showers, laundry, bathrooms and other services to be continued multiple times a week throughout the summer. APRIL 19, 2024 ANN ARBOR TONY SMITH Groundcover contributor On April 3 there was an opportunity for residents of the Delonis Center to participate in what was called “a client advisory / action meeting” (a community meeting where a sample of residents were sought for input). The meeting was held on the third floor after lunch with special guest Dr. Barry Bateman. Bateman is a member of the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County Board of Directors and head of program development for the Delonis organization. Barry is a U-M graduate who spent most of his professional career as a primary care physician in New York City. When he retired from medicine he returned home and became involved in philanthropy. Accompanying him at the meeting were staff members and a ton of Girl Scout cookies. Bateman is a likable guy and after he discussed his background, he had us look at a list of themes for what I would describe as kind of a Delphi meeting (defined as “a structured communication technique or method, originally developed as a systematic, interactive forecasting method that relies on a panel of experts en .w ik ip e di a . or g /w ik i/ Delphi_method) The meeting proceeded this way: 1. Overwhelming general praise for services and staff 2. Case management and housing service issues 3. Clients who feel neglected 4. Concerns about client behavior 5.Concerns about residential programs 6. Concerns about staff behavior. Behavior is inconsistent. (My comment: This is an area I'm not sure about because it kind of depends on the individual's perception.) 7. A newsletter would be helpful addressing housing/shelter/jobs 8. Valued resources external to the Shelter Association and other services for the homeless. These points are typed as they appeared on the sheet that was given. Between bites of Girl Scout cookies we Board member Dr. Barry Bateman and Program Director Kate D'Alessio were among those listening to those sheltering at Delonis. attempted to make it down the list. The “clients” being served (Bateman views it as a service industry) had not been briefed very long before the meeting took place so it was not very organized. However it will likely lead to more focus groups in the coming weeks; reports are to be made to the board about possible improvements. I think that much of what I see that needs improvement is bad manners; impoliteness and jive turkeys with a chip on their shoulder. LOL. I absolutely hate listening to people yell at someone on the phone in the cafeteria or get into it with each other. A bit of discretion with heated personal matters would be nice. A bad attitude and a sense of entitlement are not helpful. Some had said they felt members of the staff might be racist. I think this is a load of bunk, I think everyone I’ve met see CLIENT page 10  GROUNDCOVER NEWS Reportback from Delonis' client advisory meeting 7 Tenant Talk: Loren's dryer testimonial LOREN Ann Arbor Tenants Union So, I have to admit that I don't feel like the issue I want to discuss today is the biggest issue facing renters, and I understand and know there are larger problems facing renters every day. That being said — why is the dryer always broken? Almost every month since I started renting my current apartment, one of the dryers, or a washer — sometimes both! — have been broken. Dryers running without heat, washers not running or filled with water, money being deducted but not starting — and it’s been this way for all three years. One of my earliest memories at my apartment was finding my clothes still wet in the dryer I used; when I discovered them one of my neighbors came in saw me in frustration, and then told me it’s always broken. He had, at the time, been renting there for a few years himself. When I spoke with McKinley Inc., my landlord, I was informed that they didn’t own the machines, so the request would have to go to the thirdparty company that owns them. Weeks went by, and at some point that dryer was finally fixed, but the other one had started acting up. My frustration grew over time, and I started taking the bus or a car service to the laundromat — spending more money and time on the issue because it was better than losing money to the machines. Eventually, I realized this was unsustainable, so I went back to using the machines. One day when I was so annoyed that both dryers were running without heat, I filed a complaint with the third-party company, and weeks later received a paper check for $7 to refund the money I lost. I haven’t requested a refund since; it just didn’t seem worth the time and postage. There seems to be this confusion with landlords about who is responsible for laundry machines. Even if they don't own them, I certainly don't own them, and it’s one of the amenities that they offer — one of the only ones I genuinely care about — so why am I unable to confidently go to the laundry room and complete this basic process from start to finish? The sharing aspect doesn’t really work when tenants have varying laundry needs — students, families with kids and newborns, overnight shifts, differently abled and elders — all using two washers and two dryers multiple days a week. Of course, they break often. Try being used by 20+ renters week in and week out. I wish I could afford a place with machines in the unit, but in this current rental market that simply isn’t a luxury I can afford. So, at least once a month, a chore that should take maybe a couple of hours can take five or six. Whole days lost doing laundry. Or worse, not doing laundry at all, only exacerbating the problem for next week. I feel so silly even complaining about this, but as you can see it takes up so much of my free time. And I think, simply put, for the amount we pay in rent we deserve so much better than having to strategize doing the laundry in 2024, as if it’s an impossible task. Tired of broken laundry machines? Join the Ann Arbor Tenants Union and demand better. You’re invited to our next general meeting: Sunday, May 19, 2-4 p.m. — ICC Education Center, 1522 Hill St.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MENTAL HEALTH The homeless carousel has a pricey ticket MARKONA LOVE Groundcover vendor No. 590 I’m sure that I miss my Ann Arborites more than they missed me. Maybe we could change that with a return to the page, with me writing about my new homeless adventures, re-starting our conversation. I bragged and boasted about the greatest little city on Earth as well as the most incredible homeless population … SHBs (Special Human Beings). Just a reminder about who Ann Arbor’s SHBs are: newspaper vendors, community volunteers and humanitarians lifting Ann Arbor from the bottom up. I am proud to say I was one. Ann Arbor was and always will be my home. I was born in Ann Arbor, lived in Scio, then Barton Hills, where my father was Man of the Year in Ann Arbor and in the Hall of Champions at Barton Hills Golf Club. Now I have taken my stories to the hard, conservative Boise, Idaho, … where being homeless is literally a crime. There are others in Boise who wish me to help start a street newspaper here. I came to Boise to visit my oldest son Anthony Martin (28) and my oldest daughter Asia Llana (30). Both spent a couple rounds in the pen, now out and trying to put their lives together — God willing. This is a whole other fight. I’m learning as I’m trying to teach. Father to son and daughter still with the stereotypical story, “Who knows best?” Through time and experience I have seen a hidden struggle of homeless people in Boise. SHBs here are in a mental health crisis in which they have been forced to choose between abusive, private behavioral health institutions or prison. I am now in the former and am witnessing these terrifying, heartbreaking stories of law-abiding, intelligent human beings being used to fuel a private and state mental industry to extract money from the federal government. This sickens me. I am in solidarity with our brothers and sisters, while the ACLU has filed their second federal lawsuit. I beg of our nation to step up their awareness, realize that this is a frontline to a national battle and please support and enlist in this national health crisis that has become a civil war. Are we all waiting for someone to be physically standing on our doormats? The Beatles said “HELP!” Why aren’t we? Why are we selling out our nation’s soul? Come on! Where is the love? Have we really emptied our hearts? Will we let the machine pound us all into a fine dust until we just finally blow away in a heated gust? Time to water the crops, not just the garden. Uncle Sam has forsaken its people; so enlist in our people’s revolution for our wellbeing. Why do we wait for this fight to endanger the next generation? “Love one another.” Please pay attention to how much profit is being made by private institutions to incarcerate citizens into a carousel that circulates homeless people from prisons to mental health facilities and back to the street … hoping to survive the ride. This horrifying carousel ride is making huge profits while suckling at society's very marrow — driving us into a final disrepair. One of these private behavioral health institutions is charging $3,000 per night, per person, to Medicare or Medicaid. These charges are paid with no therapy to the patients. I have witnessed this directly. I left one world to find another … left me pondering which one I truly belonged … one born, one loved. One step from beyond the abyss. We need a new world. All my Love in Solidarity to our special human beings. Please send comments or feedback to lovemarkona39@gmail.com APRIL 19, 2024 APRIL 19, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD from the International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. ___ one's hands in exasperation 8. Thatched 15. Narrow margin 16. On the fritz 17. Secret ___ 18. One from a high-altitude, landlocked African country 19. Chamber groups 20. Bone dry 22. "Eh" 23. Charged particles 24. Basket material 25. 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning play 26. Kind of pie made by children 27. Master of descending stairs 28. Characteristic carrier 29. Attempting 31. Cities with fortifications to keep outsiders away 32. Smooch an English person 33. Upper part of the earth's crust 35. Montezuma, e.g. 38. Shaped like a sword 42. "Buona ___" (Italian greeting) 43. Horrify 45. Born, in bios 46. Mary ___ Cosmetics 47. Jiffy 48. Full house, e.g. 49. "The Sound of Music" backdrop 51. "Darn it!" 52. Weighed the container of 53. Writes in the margins 55. Nocturnal rodent hunter on a farm 57. Fancy food 58. Circles of differently colored skin 59. Transfer of land ownership to "the man" upon death 60. A dutiful server's neverending task DOWN 1. 4:00, for some 2. Containing water 3. Refreshes the memory of 4. Hodgepodges 5. "Star ___" 6. Take advantage of 7. Wording 8. Yell 9. Chintzy 10. A Scandinavian weave 11. Barley beards 12. Man who survived his spouse 13. Destroying 14. Indicates 21. Cabal 24. Assortment 27. Harmony 28. Chasm 30. Fishing, perhaps 31. Get-out-of-jail money 33. Cineplex feature 34. "Cast Away" setting 35. Sideways 36. Devoted 37. Small intestine enzyme 38. "Beowulf," e.g. 39. Hot, in Vegas 40. It's often a euphemism for gentrification 41. Interferes 43. Acropolis figure 44. Arranged in advance 48. Vietnamese capital 50. Obi, e.g. 52. Not kosher 54. 20-20, e.g. 56. "___ we having fun yet?"

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THINK ABOUT IT Humanity did not happen to blink into existence yesterday. It wasn’t marooned on this planet by some childish god unwilling to shoulder the responsibility of creating us. Yes, we are a fledgling species that has existed for merely a blink compared to the fullness of time. However, the place we find ourselves in was reached by a lengthy road of trial and error, speculations and confirmations, wars and peace times. We have ventured from literally rubbing sticks together to manipulating atomic structures. We have learned and experienced a great deal. Ultimately we have reached a general consensus of what is right and what is wrong. So why then do we continue to be influenced by dark impulses that one knows better than to indulge in? Why do and how can we act so superior, yet embrace nihilism and its ultimate self destruction? Should our race cease to exist because of the actions of our worst representations? Well, yeah, definitely if we were to be labeled and stereotyped. These practices conveniently provide the excuse to wipe out the entire group for its offenders. I would love to believe that an external witness of humanity would have the impression that we are collectively a prospering and productive peace-loving species. Unfortunately I can’t say I confidently believe that is how we could be described. And if any such potential judges happen to be prone to the type of stereotyping and labeling that we employ, then we would have no justifiable right to hope for a positive outcome. Yet we continue to subject others to these methods we instinctively know are wrong. While we passively feign ignorance of such knowledge to satisfy some deep-seated dislike or hatred. This is anything but fair to its countless victims considering all one requires for such poor treatment is some false assumption backed by any kind of JAMES MANNING Groundcover vendor No. 16 existing statistic to affirm the attacker’s course of reception and at the extreme spectrum, action. Now what is truly tragic about this behavior is the fact the person who is judged happens to not be the mindless tool or trash you take them for and now are left with this experience, and it’s going to affect them in various ways, one way or another. And now with the practice of stereotyping, this unpleasant experience transcends from being an event to an element of their life and a withering assault. Not just that but I use the description withering because it’s a presumed assault on one’s character. So if you actually took the time to think about it, what do you suppose that would do to somebody? It’s no surprise that since this harmful trait is so common among people, everybody seems to be suffering from depression these days. Now going back to how this aspect of social behavior is indeed tragic, it should be obvious because it certainly does impact a person’s mental health and overall self-image and I imagine in cases severe enough would start to impact their actual life. This risks becoming a reality for them, as the consequences of assumptions develop into real events. For example, if you’re perceived as worthless (incorporating other people’s unwarranted opinions of you) then you may not be able to get a job. If a person’s treated as if they’re a bum, there’s the risk that could make  CLIENT from page 7 on the staff is very nice, mostly. I did run into a few in the past that I thought were misguided and they were probably pro-Black. Whoopdy dooo! The issue is, can someone differentiate between differences of opinion and institutional racism? (Reference trending conversations about “per capita” violence and criminal tendencies and specifically FBI statistics.) I'm not so sure some can — let's see if they can imagine not eating breakfast first. There may be people who are not capable of certain considerations. (There are some people who have aphantasia, in which people are unable to visualize from their imagination.) Another issue I had besides folks being loud or at times aggressive, is stinky people. I proposed a stink squad that might find stinky people and encourage them to bathe; deodorant is cheap! WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY!!! It may embarrass some people a bit. I think it's important, sheeeit some of the scurvy dogs got LICE!!!! I knew a few people that caught it. I think this will be reduced now that the warming center season is over. However, a stink squad could in the future help with this as it's a matter of public health, AND getting cleaned up can boost someone's self esteem. People who don't stink are not stigmatized and marginalized the same way stinky ones are. We didn't get to this too much at the - advisory meeting, but agenda item number seven (listed above) with the newsletter idea, seemed a bit redundant. Aren't I doing the newslettering now? LOL. Number eight on the other hand was interesting — lists whatever accusation, however untrue, a reality. But that’s not because they were what you assumed them to be, unremorsefully insisting that they belonged in such a punishing situation. Sticks and stones, people. You think this continues because people often choose the easiest, simplest route given any circumstance. And it’s always easier to label groups of people off some common trait and treat the whole accordingly. It’s wrong! You know it’s wrong! So why repeat the same shortcoming? Many would debate that it’s difficult to be compassionate. Yet it is as simple as asking yourself how you would feel if treated the same. No really, I’m not joking, that is the only question one needs to ask to avoid subjective ruin. Like I mentioned, how do you expect a person who looks down on a person to proceed? Well, luckily my money’s on the fact that any living race with a social system that continued such destructive habits wouldn’t last long enough to arrive at a point technology-wise to ever leave their solar system and contact other civilizations. How can we have faith in that when we do not have it in ourselves? Unfortunately APRIL 19, 2024 Humanity needs to reconsider its judgmentalism until we choose to discard such terrible and immature points of view and even worse approaches to them, we may well have no future compared to the bleak one we are trajected for. If we continue to behave this way, what will happen if we face catastrophe and our behaviors have separated us so we can’t form a united front to meet the challenge? So again, no magic answers, only my best realistic insight to a problem that plagues the masses. And I certainly implore you to take a half second of thought to consider the feelings of others likely to be affected by how you decide to treat them or at least consider that every cold shoulder, every insult and every condescending scowl for the supposed idiot before you can kill a little piece of them, yourself, and our collective race. There is no acceptable excuse for empathy to be considered a difficult behavior to employ. And you definitely should not dish out such judgment, knowing or rather not knowing the facts. All I’m really trying to say is we have a conscience for a reason and it would do some good if we listened to it more often. of resources are good, websites are cheap these days. Here is an interesting one: https://squattheplanet.com/ I look forward to many more of these client advisory meetings. Due to the nature of the “Delphi” meeting, I think the themes will evolve over time. If you the reader have any questions or concerns, bring them to my attention by emailing me at hirethisguy139@gmail. com. I’ll compile them on a list and bring them up at future meetings. APRIL 19, 2024 TRUTH OR LIES Truth or lies: Roary and the blind dog The nameless stray dog was born Beach. His in a cave on the island of Tasmania, Australia, on Cole's mother quickly abandoned him after five weeks. The red haired golden retriever grew up not knowing he was blind. He had a keen sense of smell and walked with such confidence you never would have known he was blind. Every evening after scrounging around for food he would always find his way back to his cove on the beach. Byron, who was 10 years old, and his brothers Noah (12) and Roary (13) were all at Cole's Beach building sand castles. Roary said to his brothers, “Please let’s go swimming now. It’s hot out here.” Roary was a natural-born swimmer, even though he could not see. His two brothers would often swim with him and guide him. This was his favorite thing to do, considering he loved the challenge. It made him feel as though he could see. Byron and Noah kept racing each other building sand castles. Noah said to Roary, “OK — in a minute. Soon as we finish, we’ll go take you swimming. Just wait a minute.” “Help! Help! (splash) Help, help (splash)! (splash) Help!” Roary was hollering. He had wandered into the water without his brothers. He was impatient and frustrated because of the heat. Roary figured if he swam before, he could do it again! But when the bottom went from under him, Roary panicked, realizing he did not know the direction of the shore. The unnamed dog was in the water cooling off. He sensed that Roary was in a panic, fighting the water. He swam over to Roary, barking. He then swooped under him, placing The boys explained what happened at the beach slowly. “Mom, can we keep him please?” “Are you all right, son? Do I need to take you to the doctor?” “I’m all right, no Mom,” said Roary. The dog was bumping into everyFELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 thing; he had never been in a house. Their mom turned around and looked at the dog running into everything. She said, “Looks like that dog can’t see.” “Yes, he can!” Roary hollered out. Roary on his back, still keeping his head above the water. Roary's two brothers were calling to the dog, “Here boy, here boy, over here boy!” and raced towards him. The unnamed dog was swimming towards the boys and the shore as though he could see. When they reached the shore, the brothers thanked the dog petting him, hugging him, loving all over him. Roary said, “It would be nice if we could keep him.” “Do you think Mom and Dad would let us keep him?” Byron asked. Noah said, “Well, let’s go see. Let’s take him home with us. We have to. He just saved your life! There’s no one else out here — so whose dog is it?” “He has no collar,” said Byron. They were so excited they forgot to scold their brother. Byron, Noah and Roary were so excited when they arrived home. Seeing their mom, they blurted everything out. “Roary went out into the water on his own! He almost drowned and the dog saved his life!” said Noah and Byron, talking at the same time. Mom said, “Wait a minute, what happened? Slow down!” Is "Roary and the bling dog" TRUTH or LIES? Samuel and Martha Waymeans, published March 8, was TRUE. “He saved me from drowning today. How could he find me in the water; and take me to the shore?” “I don’t know, but that dog surely can’t see, watch this! Here boy, come here boy,” she said to the dog. The dog moved in the direction of her voice. However, he still was bumping into things. She waved her hand in front of his eyes. She asked Noah to go get one of his small balls. Mom took the ball and waved it in front of the dog's eyes and his face. He did not respond. She took the ball again and repeated the same steps. Then she threw the ball. “Go get it boy.” He did not move or turn his head. Mom said, “He is blind. Don’t worry, we'll take him to the vet. Have him checked out and make sure he’s healthy. You can keep him. If he is blind, you have to be extra careful with him, like your brother. I’ll smooth the dog idea over with your dad. Right now we need to get him some food and give him a bath then he can stay.” The next day they took the dog to the vet. The veterinarian confirmed that the dog was blind. However, he was a healthy 10-month-old golden retriever. He also informed them that it would be difficult to train him, suggesting they send him to obedience school. The boys had a fuss with each other all evening, trying to decide the dog's name. They decided whoever the dog chose as his master should name him. He let the boys bathe him, however, he stuck under Roary. That evening at dinner, Roary decided to name him, announcing his name as Colander. As time passed, Roary and Colander became inseparable. He trusted his dog and his dog trusted him. Roary would tie a rope around Colander’s collar, then attach it to himself to swim with him. Even though Colander could not see, he was a great lead dog. He always knew how to return to the shore. Colander lived to be 21 years old, passing away on the 21st anniversary of their meeting. Roary never forgot how Colander had saved his life. He had a plaque made that said “My Superhero Colander.” GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11  CHANGE from page 4 Homeless statistics in Michigan Since the housing market has tightened and government aid programs have dried up, more people in Michigan are facing a crisis of the unhoused. According to the most recent report from Michigan's Campaign to End Homelessness, the number of homeless individuals in Michigan increased by 8% in 2022, from 30,113 to 32,589 persons. While other regions like West Michigan, mid-Michigan and the Detroit area also experienced double-digit increases, the western half of the Upper Peninsula witnessed a 47% increase — and Northern Michigan saw a 56% increase. In the meantime, the northeastern region of the state and southwest Michigan saw a population decline. Who is doing what? State Representative Emily Dievendorf (D-Lansing) reintroduced a "Bill of Rights for the Homeless" in July 2023. This bill would have protected homeless individuals from discrimination in the workplace due to their lack of a permanent address, ensure that they are treated equally by all government agencies, and allow them to vote and receive the documentation required to prove their identity. According to House Bill 4919, an individual's rights, privileges or access to public services cannot be taken away from them or restricted just because they are homeless or thought to be homeless. Homeless people in the state of Michigan are entitled to the same rights and benefits as any other citizen. But much more needs to be done. This bill is currently in limbo, as it was referred to the Committee on Economic Development and Small Business, but has not moved past introduction. Regarding the lack of concern about homelessness becoming a top priority for Michigan voters and those around the world, I have spearheaded a "Let us always remember that our true wealth lies not in the abundance of our possessions but in the compassion we show towards the poor and vulnerable." ~EPM worldwide campaign called Mandate Future Political Leaders to Prioritize Homelessness on Change.org to bring the issue to the forefront. And I hope that Republicans and Democrats alike come together and realize that homeless issues should become among the top concerns of the voters' minds along with the economy, abortion rights, immigration and more.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD + FUN Sweet potato and black bean chili ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 medium-large sweet potato, peeled and diced 1 medium onion, diced 4 cloves garlic, minced 5 teaspoons chili powder 4 teaspoons ground cumin Scant ½ teaspoon ground chipotle chile ¼ teaspoon salt 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed 1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes 4 teaspoons lime juice ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro Directions: Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add sweet potato and onion and cook, stirring often, until the onion is beginning to soften (about four to six minutes). Add garlic, chili APRIL 19, 2024 powder, cumin, chipotle and salt and cook, stirring constantly for 30 seconds. Add broth and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook until the sweet potato is tender, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes and lime juice; increase heat to high and return to a simmer, stirring often. Lower heat and simmer until slightly reduced, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro. Serve hot. This has become a new, healthy favorite. So perfect for a blustery day lunch or dinner. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS

2 $ APRIL 5, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 8 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Early Black literary movement: the poetry of Langston Hughes and Claude McKay. Page 10 ASHLEY POWELL #595 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT INSPIRES YOU? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Featuring 34 poems from 20 unique Washtenaw County poets — POETRY EDITION 2024 — now 16 pages! THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER national poetry month EVENTS YPSI WRITES POETRY OPEN MIC Thursday, April 18, 7-9 p.m. Corner Brewery, 20 Norris Street, Ypsilanti Join YpsiWrites in celebrating National Poetry Month by sharing your work at an open mic night at Corner Brewery. Writers are encouraged to share their work, in whatever stage it is currently in, with supportive members of the YpsiWrites community. All are welcome to come, read, listen and encourage the poets. POETRY at LITERATI: ALISON SWAN, FLEDA BROWN, and FRIENDS Friday, April 19, 6:30 p.m Literati Bookstore, 124 E Washington Street, Ann Arbor Michigan poets Fleda Brown, Teresa Scollon, Ellen Stone and Alison Swan read from and discuss their work. GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY OPEN MIC see details pictured right NIGHT of the LIVING WORD: EXPERIMENTAL POETRY Tuesday, April 30, 6 p.m. AADL Downtown Secret Lab, 343 S. 5th Avenue, Ann Arbor Poetry workshop with stations to create blackout poetry, Dadaist cutups, concrete poetry and other forms of experimental poetry. APRIL 5, 2024 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Teresa Basham Elizabeth Bauman Blue Moon Tailor Roberto Isla Caballero Jamie Cameron La Shawn Courtwright Sarah Darby-White Day Dreamer Eternity Believer Shelley DeNeve Diana Fead Robbie February Sasha Grindall Lorraine Lamey Markona Love Eva Moore Ken Parks Ron Pagereski Earl Pullen GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Julie Scheier Will Shakespeare Wayne Sparks Scoop Stevens Shawn Swoffer Karen Totten PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Jane Atkins Zachary Dortzbach Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Emily Paras Holden Pizzolato Liem Swanson Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons APRIL 5, 2024 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What inspires you? People doing great things and poeple who work hard to help others. — Ashley Powell, #595 For my cartoons, Super Raton (Mighty Mouse) from Havana, Cuba in the 1970s. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 Science fiction, anime, cyberpunk, steam punk — storytelling in fictional worlds overall. — James Manning, #16 Everything — music, animals, camping, swimming. I really do love life and I'm centered with creation! — Terri Demar, #322 Money! — Pony Bush, #305 A good smile. — Tony Schohl, #9 I think everything inspires me. — Glen Page, #407 GOD and HIS Word; the HOLY SPIRIT and singing praises in the HIGHEST to HIM WHO alone is WORTHY; other Christians through the ages who have REALLY walked with JESUS; The Nylons version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" — it reminds me of "my Place," and Of ALL Of GOD'S GOODNESS Even So, In a VERY! Fallen World; the land and its animals and plants remind me of the GOD WHO created them and us; and of the original perfection, and one day the surpassing of that; of CARE and RELIEF we MUST be part of, for "The Here and Now." — Amanda Gale, #573 You do. — Ken Parks, #490 Agape, justice and hope. And good stories! — Austin Cash, #627 People who don't waste their time. — Wayne Sparks, #615 WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 GROUNDCOVER NEWS The last dinner of Groundcover News The laboratory of ignorance needs love. They do not discriminate, love does not need perdition. Evil is reality. The injustice is the bane of America. Poverty and selflessness and wisdom is the mentality of the wealthy. The poor person is happier than the one who works the land. The social service workers are the future of America. 3 ToGetHer DAY DREAMER ETERNITY BELIEVER Groundcover contributor To one I’ve never met, but have known all along. For whom I have longed. Your old friend’s gentle, silver-lined reminder edging across the storm clouds of life. Yet none of it lived. The bellow of your souls echoed longing across both time and space. Innately embraced. I never knew the truth of both the perfect heights and unspeakable horrors of what was real. Your old is my new. You dreamed during the night, and I the day. Each of each other. In between, the nightmare called reality separated us. Forced by bitter men. Apparently we both never stopped searching for one another. What will be, will be. Yet what was forced became the reality. Separate here we are. If love is the highest standard, the strongest reason, and the purest hope then this consortium diablos ultimately failed the moment they challenged The Creator of such. I bet all on Yah. YAHWEH, the God of Romance. He reveals in His time. Be it merely a fool’s errand here or the very foundational essence of life itself interlaced and perpetuating throughout all of creation. I will have no shame. Without err, within the correct confines, I love you both. We three are what they fear. The thousands of miles I have traveled to the millions of minutes you have waited. Together, but not. When I stopped breathing When the door clanged shut I stopped breathing. When I walked through the gate And knew I wasn’t leaving I stopped breathing The day you left me I stopped breathing I walk through days wondering When I can take a breath again Trying to figure out why I stopped Breathing

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES Muz TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 We love you so, Glad you’re in our life, Never gonna do you wrong, We love you wit all of our heartz, We’re never gonna let you part, You’re our baby, We’ll never let anythang happen ta you, We’ll never let you go, You’ve waited for love too long, We’re not gonna let you go, You’re perfect in our eyez. Muz 2 TERESA BASHAM I love your way, Alwayz being so gentle wit me, You’re alwayz wit me every day, I’m so glad you can see, What you do, What you mean to me, & you know I love you, You have a good home, We let you do your own, Thang all thee time, You’re alwayz on our minds. SHELLEY DENEVE Groundcover vendor No. 22 First signs of spring APRIL 5, 2024 When the weather can't make up its mind Warm, Cold, Warm, Cold Then at night time I can hear baby frogs chirping Then the days and nights steadily get warmer And next thing ya know You're sweating at doing nothing Back in the days SHELLEY DENEVE In days of old, life was slow In days of new, life is fast Gloomy days If I don't find my way JAMIE CAMERON Groundcover vendor No. 612 Gloom and doom is all we hear, Trigger-happy dictators with nukes; Voting for one so dear became a fluke. One more solution, this current head; Only to sell us nothing and leave us for dead. Computer world JAMIE CAMERON The glee I had using ancient computers, nothing can compare; Times making reset buttons for PCI boards, computers I hoarded, a set so fair; Worthless they find and say, only to sell my set on EBay. JAMIE CAMERON Aside from friends and family, nothing to live for, Every day I contemplate my reasons for existence. “You’re loved” I hear from one percent, Yet non-existent to society’s rest, So what is my life for, why not cease to be? In days of new, life whizzes by I wish of old days And to know what I know now Streets to halls MARKONA LOVE Groundcover vendor No. 590 My feet once pounding the streets and sidewalks now my feet dragging only across plastic formica. Once previously writing homeless, from the streets now rambling from corrupt halls. Institutional profit over patient progress cosmic rays burst thru the dark of night. Healing Light of Love insists to fill me obliged me to spread to last accepting souls. May we all awake to the Light of Love shining from within and back to a morning sun. APRIL 5, 2024 POETRY He's gotta tell himself, whoa! She is so beautiful, from the swells of Her mind, to the valleys of Her depths. Her beauty will knock you off of your feet, and please believe me, you will be swept Just by the breadth of Her conversations, to the manner in which She performs Her duties, to ensure She is well kept She is rounded, His idea of a woman who's whole, and something marvelous to behold As He sees, takes a deeper look into Her, even now, hopefully forever more Anticipating the moment He may be able to experience Her touch His senses are pleasantly driven Outta control He just can't help himself Every time He sees Her He's gotta tell Himself, Whoa!! For women's history month GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 The smile on a clown EARL PULLEN Groundcover contributor To each his own of one of many sometimes we’re up sometimes we’re down but nothing can compare to the smile of a clown the love within a magical place it's all we can do to state our case. Shine in the night and glow with Grace and then you’ll know why the smile is on the clown’s face Riddle or rhyme EARL PULLEN To each his own I say one you Say two what do You think when I say I love you? Do you think it's A riddle or do you Think its a rhyme Or do you think I am a man out of Time? I’m not broke Down and I’m not From another time Earl Pullen and Roberto Isla Caballero wearing a clown nose. I’m just a man with Riddle and a rhyme Come to say I love You till the end Of time story of A man with a riddle And a rhyme Existence SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover contributor The rain is coming and this I fear; now I must go and buy beer Under the Wayne Road Bridge again; my homelessness never seems to end Lived on Mark Twain the first year of life; then my parents took part in White Flight Grew up in NIL the most racist town; if you were born black it meant you were a Clown Conformed to the religion of my youth; until I learned Jesus was not the truth Blasphemy! Blasphemy! It cannot be; but I knew Reason was the way for me A new age of consciousness is soon to begin; She will be President to usher US in

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS BLACK HISTORY Early Black literary movement: the poetry of Langston Hughes and Claude McKay It would be an error of omission if we talk about the early Black literary movement without making a reference of gratitude to writers and poets such as Phillis Wheatley, Fredrick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Countee Cullen, Gwendolyn Bennett, John Davis, Aaron Davis, James Weldon Johnson, W.E.B. Du Bois and Alain Locke. We also want to recognize the editor of “Fire” monthly magazine, John Wallace Thurman, and the editor of "Opportunity" monthly magazine, Charles Johnson. Their contributions are profound and enduring. All were active participants in the creation of a new African American literature, culture and artistic representation. In fact, they helped to build a tapestry of resistance against marginalization, stereotyping, racism, inequality and discrimination. Du Bois and Locke became the philosophical architects and inspiration for the literary movement known as the “Harlem Renaissance.” On March 19, 1968, about two weeks before his assassination, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said the Greeks may have Plato and Aristotle as great philosophers, but America has its own intellectual giants in W.E.B. Du Bois and Alaine Locke. Two literary giants and poets who have influenced new generations of African American writers since the early 20th century are presented in this article. They are Langston Hughes and Claude McKay. We will present a brief biography of the poets, along with their poetry. WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 and poetry from his older brother who was a teacher. He moved from Sunnyvale to Brown’s Town when he was 17. Eventually, he moved to the capital city of Kingston. He wrote that he experienced racism, discrimination and marginalization while in Kingston. The rampant bigotry he experienced in the capital city of Jamaica led him to write what Poets. org called “impressions of Black life in Jamaica in dialect.” Poets.org continued, “His publication of the work earned him a grant from the Jamaican Institute of Arts and Sciences.” McKay traveled to the United States and arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, in the late summer of 1912. He then enrolled at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. McKay moved from Tuskegee to Kansas State College, and he eventually arrived in New York City where he did several jobs, while trying to work in literary journals, including “Pearson’s Magazine" and the socialist magazine, “The Liberator.” In 1917, he published two sonnets: “The Harlem Dancer” and “Invocation” and later used the former to write about social and political concerns from his perspective as a Black man in the United States. In 1922, he published his third book collection titled, “Harlem Shadows.” The University of Illinois Press posthumously published, “The Passion of Claude McKay: Selected Poetry and Prose” in 2004. Langston Hughes (19011967) Langston Hughes was the most Claude McKay (1889-1948) The Academy of American Poets said in their summary of Poet Claude McKay that he was born Festus Claudius McKay in Sunnyvale, Jamaica on September 15, 1889. He died in Chicago, Illinois on May 25, 1948. He learned a lot about reading, writing prolific poet associated with the early Black literary movement and the Harlem Renaissance. He started writing poems and short stories when he was 17. James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1901 in Joplin, Missouri. He died on May 22, 1967, in New York City. The Academy of American Poets website stated that After graduating from high school, he spent a year in Mexico followed by a year at Columbia University. During this time, he worked as an assistant cook, a launderer and a busboy. He also traveled to Africa, working as a seaman. In November 1924, he moved to Washington, D.C. Hughes' first book of poetry, “The Weary Blues,” was published (by Alfred Knoff, 1926) with an introduction by Harlem Renaissance arts patron Carl Van Vechten. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. Hughes published his first novel, “Not Without Laughter” in 1930. When he was asked to name writers who had influenced his work, he cited Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman. Poets. org noted that Langston Hughes' “life and work were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the1920s. Unlike other notable poets of the period, such as Claude Mckay, Jean Toomer and Countee Cullen, Hughes refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of Black America. He wanted to tell the stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including their love of music, laughter and language, alongside their suffering.” Hughes was a giant in America’s literary circles. His first poem, written the summer after his high school graduation, was published by “Crisis” Magazine in 1921, entitled “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” "Fire" magazine said that he explored Harlem when he came to Columbia University, “forming a permanent attachment to what he called ‘The Great Dark City.’” There are some poems from Langston Hughes collections on the next page. Conclusion The common denominator for most African American poets and literary giants of the early 20th century is civil rights activism. By circumstance of birth and cultural inclination, Dr. King drew inspiration from the written words and voices of America’s literary giants, especially African American writers. He never stopped praising the work of Black creators who were also civil rights activists. One of the early Black literary movement pioneers who received universal praises from Blacks and whites was James Weldon Johnson (18711938). Johnson was a co-founder of the NAACP, a native of the Bahamas, a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, and publisher of “The Book of American Negro Poetry.” He was also a filmmaker, a diplomat, a theater playwright and a musician. Moreover, Johnson was the composer of a poem titled, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” This poem was written in the late 19th century, and James Weldon Johnson’s brother J. Rosamond Johnson converted the poem into an African American hymn which evoked the Biblical exodus from slavery to the freedom of the promised land. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is very popular and it’s now considered the Black National Anthem. Feel free to read and sing the poem below. Lift every voice and sing by James Weldon Johnson Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us. Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won. APRIL 5, 2024 APRIL 5, 2024 BLACK HISTORY Harlem LANGSTON HUGHES What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore — And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over — like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? Dreams LANGSTON HUGHES Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow. A machine out of gear, aye, tired, Yet forced to go on—for I’m hired. Just forced to go on through fear, For every day I must eat And find ugly clothes to wear, And bad shoes to hurt my feet And a shelter for work-drugged sleep! A mere drudge! but what can one do? A man that’s a man cannot weep! Suicide? A quitter? Oh, no! But a slave should never grow tired, Whom the masters have kindly hired. The Negro Speaks of Rivers LANGSTON HUGHES I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset. I’ve known rivers: Ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. But oh! for the woods, the flowers Of natural, sweet perfume, The heartening, summer showers And the smiling shrubs in bloom, Dust-free, dew-tinted at morn, The fresh and life-giving air, The billowing waves of corn And the birds’ notes rich and clear:— For a man-machine toil-tired May crave beauty too—though he’s hired. CLAUDE MCKAY There is joy in the woods just now, The leaves are whispers of song, And the birds make mirth on the bough And music the whole day long, And God! to dwell in the town In these springlike summer days, On my brow an unfading frown And hate in my heart always— GROUNDCOVER NEWS Joy in the woods 7 Poetry CLAUDE MCKAY If we must die CLAUDE MCKAY If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursèd lot. If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe! Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow! What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back! Sometimes I tremble like a storm-swept flower, And seek to hide my tortured soul from thee, Bowing my head in deep humility Before the silent thunder of thy power. Sometimes I flee before thy blazing light, As from the specter of pursuing death; Intimidated lest thy mighty breath, Windways, will sweep me into utter night. For oh, I fear they will be swallowed up— The loves which are to me of vital worth, My passion and my pleasure in the earth— And lost forever in thy magic cup! I fear, I fear my truly human heart Will perish on the altar-stone of art!

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AROUND TOWN A2P2 phase two public power progress The power is out again where I live. This happens many times throughout the year. Around town, for the last few months, a few signs have caught my attention. “Ann Arbor for Public Power” is brightly displayed upon them with a few notes about the current status of energy use in Ann Arbor. I investigated the organization (A2P2) and found it to be very enlightening. There is a struggle between corporate profits and renewable energy implementation in Michigan. There are consistent major power outages in our region and many corporate-owned power grids fall below municipal-owned power plants’ reliability averages. Currently, Ann Arbor is served by Detroit Edison (DTE), a corporate entity (although state-regulated) pursuing profits for investors instead of reliable renewable energy. A2P2 is advocating for a public-owned democratically-governed electric utility system called a Municipal Energy Utility or MEU, an idea that may be new to Ann Arbor but is the way many Michigan cities get their energy, including Lansing and Chelsea. One of the first things A2P2 did was to ask the City to conduct a phase one study to investigate municipal ownership. Ann Arbor complied, and the results came out in September 2023. One of that study’s recommendations was that the City ROBBIE FEBRUARY Groundcover contributor pursue a phase two study to support the MEU, intended to find out what it would cost to take over the local energy assets from DTE. A2P2, of course, strongly supported that second study but whether the City would approve it was uncertain. But A2P2 people were pleased when, on February 21, Ann Arbor Mayor Chris Taylor threw his support behind the study. As Mayor Taylor said at the time, “(A)n MEU … continues to intrigue, a chance to ensure that the utility is there for the people ... no shareholders or dividends, or campaign contributions. A utility run for the public good. To that end staff have identified the steps needed for us to continue to explore the cost and practicality of an MEU, and I support those steps.” Since that time, a line item for the study has appeared in the not-yetapproved budget. APRIL 5, 2024 I spoke to Greg Woodring, President of A2P2, about local benefits and the next steps for municipal power. He stated, “Public power utilities consistently outperform private utilities in terms of cost and reliability, because they are directly accountable to their customers, not shareholders.” There is a larger three-eyed fish to fry here. Power reliability is one thing, but protecting the environment is more important. Steps taken in green energy see A2P2 page 15  APRIL 5, 2024 AROUND TOWN “Putting poetry in places people don’t expect it” is the stated goal of Cameron Finch with their Poet Tree Town project. The goal is to take poems from the margins of people’s attention and surprise them into reading or listening to some so that the barriers – intimidation, suspicions that poetry is irrelevant — break down. Indeed, that relates very well to the goals of this issue of Groundcover News, so well in fact that Poet Tree Town and Groundcover will co-host an Open Mic on April 26 at Argus Farm Stop. As last year, the way Poet Tree Town will do this is to place a sheet of paper with the creator’s poem in the windows of many downtown and nearby businesses, as well as offer a QR code to hear the piece read in the poet’s own voice. The genres are diverse, the poems original. There are 87 poets represented this year and venues include Booksweet, both Argus Farm CYNTHIA PRICE Editor Stop locations, the Blake Transit Center, Found, Literati Bookstore, Teahaus (where Finch's own poem resides), Third Mind Books, West Side Book Shop, and many others. Poet Tree Town challenges people to make a trip to see all of the venues, which can be found at www.facebook.com/ PoetTreeTownA2/ These activities and many others spring from the designation of April as National Poetry Month. The creation of the Academy of American Poets, which also publishes “American Poets Magazine,” the celebration began in 1996. It is currently the largest literary celebration in existence, attracting tens of millions of readers and participants across the nation. For a list of 30 things you can do to celebrate National Poetry Month, visit poets.org/ national-poetry-month. Since last year, Finch has arranged for the “Ann Arbor Observer” to publish some of the original poems as a blog. These can be found at https:// annarborobserver.com/blog-title/ poet-tree-town/ They would love to partner with more people for more events, and are also looking for more volunteers, especially “at the leadership, production-side level,” they say. To contact Finch, email poettreetown@gmail.com Two poems are displayed in the window of Argus Farm Stop on Liberty — the venue for the joint Poet Tree Town/Groundcover Open Mic on April 26. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Again in 2024, project paints the town poetry 9 Crazy with the wisdom that matters KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 I once worked as a journeyman painter for Patton Painting, a union shop based in Ypsilanti. The core of the shop was Kentucky boys from the mountain country of eastern Kentucky. Among the first questions I was asked was, “Do you like country and western music?” I responded with, “Willie Nelson and Freddy Fender!” Willie and Waylon Jennings were outlaws in country music with such songs as “I’ve Always Been Crazy [but it’s kept me from going insane],” words that come naturally from my mouth. I was a natural to work with Aura Glaser to open Crazy Wisdom Bookstore in 1981. She found a location on Ann Street that needed a lot of plaster and paint work before they could open. Both of us had discovered Tibetan Buddhism as a door to a deeper experience of reality. The term “crazy wisdom” was in the air from the work of Choegyam Trungpa Rinpoche, one of the first Tibetan masters who came to Scotland with Akong Rinpoche, then settled in Boulder, Colorado. He founded Naropa University and what became Shambala publications. Zen Buddhism paved the way for Buddhism in the West, and there are many options now. Crazy Wisdom Bookstore in Ann Arbor has seen several incarnations and is once again alive. It is currently open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The upstairs is being remodeled. The tea room will not reopen but the event space will reopen in May. They have hosted many wonderful events over the years. Think of them for a workshop or presentation with the wide range of diverse and interesting events they are known for. The "Crazy Wisdom Community Journal" had an important article on the Community Farm of Ann Arbor in a back issue maybe one and half years ago. The role of biodynamic agriculture and the shift to new management could use an update as we shift from money-obsessed culture and go back to the basics. I hope we have an event on the second floor of the bookstore during the summer. I would like to see a collaboration between Willow Run Acres and the Community Farm of Ann Arbor as we build the networks of work that matters. I believe the Ann Arbor Community Commons is part of this work. Food not lawns is a good way to be with the earth. Crazy wisdom will point you to a more complete context. You will enjoy learning from those with whom you differ, in particular, your enemies. Eventually you will discover that ego-clinging is the main enemy. Everytime that ego distracts you can be a reminder to remember a fully present breath and tune in to a deeper felt sense. Focusing-oriented therapy does this and Joya d’Cruz, who was mentored by Eugene Gendlin, has helped me rediscover my inner child and play with the adult who protects and guides. We need each other. If you Google search her you will find she is fully booked now. I hope we can get her to do a presentation at the Crazy Wisdom Bookstore event room. That’s where I met her. It is revolutionary to see yourself in others. This does not mean that others should think like you think but rather that we can meet in common mind and give birth to the creativity that benefits all beings without exception. This assumption of one seamless reality of unconditional love works best for me. My mistakes can inspire me to remember that a natural breath paves the way to more authentic decision making. We can change direction at any time. I choose the holistic road despite the slips and falls that ordinary beings encounter every step on the path. Students and workers will matter when the unity of theory and practice comes together in the dialectical play that comes from the unity of opposites. When I graduated from college my informal graduate studies began. I declined an offer for a master’s in history and volunteered for Brethren Volunteer Service. I served two and a half years in Austria and Germany. I connected deeply with my European heritage as I was mentored by my Parks in front of Crazy Wisdom Bookstore, which reopened December 1, 2023. His shirt reads, "Water is mean to connect, not divide. — Juan B. Mancias" 6 supervisors, Horst Symanowski in particular, who was a veteran of the resistance to fascism during the Third Reich. I extended my service to do a six month seminar with him. I learned that better fascists than Hitler won World War II. If you read the autobiography of General Reinhard Gehlen you will learn how the best fascists were not prosecuted but were hired for Cold War One and to run the National Aeronautic and Space Administration. “Letter to the American Church” looks at the similarities see WISDOM page 14 

Ypsi recall election puts all eyes on Dez 10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POLITICS Ypsilanti City Council woman Desiraé Simmons faces a recall election. Ypsilanti Forward, as known as Love Ypsi, started a petition in Ypsilanti’s third ward to get enough signatures to have a recall election to have Council Member Desiraé Simmons removed from Ypsilanti City Council. The recall group got enough signatures to force a recall election, and Rod Johnson has filed to run for the Ward 3 council seat and attempt to unseat Council Member Simmons. Love Ypsi initially targeted three members of council; Mayor Nicole Brown, Council Member Jennifer Symanns of Ward 2 and Simmons because of their votes in November 2023 to approve the purchase of a $3.7 million industrial building to replace the old site for the Department of Public Services, among a list of other grievances. Brown has since had a change of mind on the approval of the purchase of the building, and during a re-vote on the purchase on December 5, 2023, voted against it. Simmons abstained. Jennifer Symmans had already announced her resignation. As a result, the recall group withdrew their campaign against Brown on Dec 6, leaving all eyes on Simmons. I got a chance to interview Council Member Desiraé Simmons and I had two questions: 1. What do you think is Ypsilanti Forward’s main misunderstanding with you? 2. Why should you be re-elected in the recall election? She responded, “I think their main misunderstanding of me is that they believe I do not consider a full picture, and an understanding of interest that includes them, too. In other words, they feel left out, and [feel] that I don’t consider their interests in my decision making. But I believe the decisions I make benefit them as well and my goal is for everybody to benefit as opposed to some people getting to benefit. I see them as part of everybody, and I don’t think they should be the only people able to benefit while other people don’t.” To the second question, she MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 responded, “There are two things I want to say. One, I want to make clear that the voters don’t have to re-elect me; they can just stop my removal. I’m still in office, they just have to say no to the recall to allow me to continue the term they elected in the first place. And why I should be allowed to continue is because my record and the roles I played on council speaks [sic] for itself. You can tune in to any meeting and see my involvement in the community; you can ask for a meeting one on one, or even call me. I am bringing forward the values I hold which are community engagement and collaborative leadership. I believe the government can be used to address real needs, like: housing, safety and thinking about the ways we are in public space together and how to make decisions. So, I have been able to make some progress around these areas and just getting started setting ground-work on these issues that APRIL 5, 2024 needs [sic] more time and attention than one year in office. And I believe that I will be able to continue to deliver for the residents of Ward 3 and for the fullness of Ypsilanti and the surrounding area.” Then I asked her if there was anything else she would like to add. She said, “Yes, I think local elections matter a lot. These local elections impact people's everyday lives. So, I encourage people who might not yet be registered to vote to know that Michigan’s laws allow you to register when you go to vote. That is, the day of the election at the City Clerk's office. If you care about issues like affordable housing and public safety get involved and vote for me on May 7.” The election will be held on Tuesday, May 7, and absentee ballots start in April; the winner will serve the remainder of the term through 2026. Rod Johnson declined an interview with Groundcover News. Ypsilanti Forward could not be reached for comment. APRIL 5, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Answers KAREN TOTTEN Groundcover contributor “My heart hurts,” you, age five say one morning before school, and place your hand on the left side of your body, as if to take an oath. Your frantic parents whisk you to E.R. where doctors and nurses tap and jab, looking for lurking blood clots or infection in the criss-cross vein map of your chest, only to find, with relief, the usual inhabitants of strong, beating muscles. What you really mean is that the nightly war body count on tv is too loud and you can hear it in your sleep. What you really feel is the blunt edge of your dad’s shotgun pressed up against the wood ledge of the front porch those nights of the neighborhood troubles. You want his protection but you have friends out there. What is really happening is that you don’t know yet that you are supposed to act as if heartbreak isn’t real—ignore the nerves of your body standing on end, all the tears in your throat threatening to spill like water from a broken pipe. Voices of the lonely, the sad and hurting, the war sirens, finding their way to your tender young life. How could you know the answers? No one does. Our bodies all bleed red. Our hearts all hurt. Originally published in the Spring Peninsula Poets edition 2023 Viola's visitor KAREN TOTTEN It was Jesus Christ of Nazareth at the kitchen door last Tuesday, or so my Grandmother Viola was asked to call a thin, long-haired man in coveralls who wandered around her side yard in the steady rain, knocked quietly after lunch, chose her door along that stretch of highway. Years back, Viola owned tourist cabins behind her house, lodging for tired pilgrims dusty from the muddy roads, travelers heading up north to the vacation lakes each summer or south to Miami out of winter’s spindly grasp. Was this man looking for shelter from the storm? Had he heard of her hospitality in years before, the home-cooked breads and chowders, the warm lilac-scented blankets on the beds? Or did he long for affirmation, a nod from someone who just might recognize his divine face? True story. Golden hour is cast over the Michigan fields ADRIANA ALCALA Groundcover contributor And though I haven’t seen it I don’t need eyes to know in my heart that the sun is shining down on a blanket of moss in the backyard of the trailer park I called home. Faux dewed fruits in braided baskets, dirt covered shed, cobblestone path; This place casts a spell over me. Shadow lines crossing the median Deer legs dancing ghosts along the highway. Sun setting, remembering those fields of pink passing all of my homes. Ward off the darkness forever. Drive on and never return My grandmother was very Catholic, crosses and paintings of holy figures in her home, lots of religious iconography. Devout. Enamored of John F. Kennedy. A note: the name Viola was invented by Shakespeare for his play Twelfth Night. APRIL 5, 2024 HOPE DIANA FEAD Groundcover contributor I awake in the sun's shadows. Listening, I hear no sounds. Searching for hope in the darkness, Did you leave or are you around? I'm alone, where do I go now, Searching for your burning flame? If you're not alive within me, Do you go by some other name? Can feelings surprise and ring true, Or a song speak just the right words? A memory stirs in my daydream, Your voice crying out to be heard. Shout my name, you say, come together, Trust me to give us a chance. Follow my voice, and I'll hear you Singing that hope's still alive. APRIL 5, 2024 POETRY estranged to your danger BLUE MOON TAILOR Groundcover contributor the year came the year that marked the year to increase stranger danger a lack of presence for that which was done impressions of steamy haunts ghosts formed of Catholic guilt sensations remained only a little less foggy than my amount of groggy roots buried under your weight a burden they'd be if I didn't pull them clean I'd never be clear a year past the year the year that came that marked my increased capacity for stranger danger this year from when we began your excitableness bursting at the seams fog self-inflicted this time our own means 404 error no memory computed dread bleeding the pit of my stomach bursting cysts of betrayal all settled there pit large as an underworld poisonous peach pit rare quicksand fear nothing could compare RaGE a naming of pain fingers pointed stiff denial on your end stiff as my backbone would be for years for years on my end I couldn't name stiff twice what I couldn't reconvene no "custody" battle joy for my whiskered critter nothing can erase the danger you estranged me from Is this all that I have left to give you? Just a facade of the person I was? I lie next to you as if we’re connecting, but truly my passions are gone. Hollow and damaged, that’s all that I know. This daily routine getting tired. I am running in circles attempting to hide it, my soul shrinking like it’s on fire. Wandering round, wandering til the end. There is no light at the end of my tunnel. People say they are there to help me if needed, but are deaf to my crying for comfort. Listen to the whispers that knock at my door, those cruel and continuous words. They speak ugly truths, but I caused them myself, I have damaged their viewing, their regard. Can I fix this? Am I able? Oh where to begin? Digging deeply into the depths. I am fragile, gritty, raw, and hardened. Craving for more than I expect. I continue, I move forward, this cycle goes on. I seek after what’s better, improved. I can not know what will come to me next, But I can face it head on, with my smile. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Untitled JULIE SCHEIER Groundcover contributor Today I will not hear your voice. Grief pounds my heart today. You held me to myself. Your Presence, far away And by my side Palpable, Breathing, Soft, Quiet Hearing your Beautiful Vision Inside me Part of me Fragmented EVA MOORE Groundcover contributor My rhythm for life is fading. My highlights are fewer it seems. The zest for life I used to have, is a crumbling manic machine. Since breaking me down I’ve grown louder. Just to drown out the noise in my head. I’m still listening to lies, I tell myself daily. Now the lies are all truths that I bled. Forever. I wrote this the day I learned my brother’s partner died. For Trish and Carl. 13 exp. 01/31/2025

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Confusion SARAH DARBY-WHITE Groundcover contributor Tell me, what’s normal? It’s time that I know. I must know what’s normal, Cuz, I’m weird and it shows. It’s really not funny, This odd kind of thing. I’m a hamster just spinning Getting nowhere it seems. Skipping stones SARAH DARBY-WHITE Thought these feelings would pass, But they’re stronger than ever. Despair that’s just there That I never can sever. Confusion, delusions Of what I could be. Confusion intrusions Won’t let me be free. I have mastered skipping stones Upon the stillness of the early morning lake. It takes perfected skill and a flick of the wrist. A glassy surface and the water breaks. The lake speaks. A massive heartbeat. Telling stories of a life within. Of lessons learned, but what has changed? What is to come? Where have I been? So many questions unanswered. Each skipping stone begins a new chapter In this life that deceives. This life that lies. I’m anticipating what comes after. The waters are turbulent now. Not Calm and tranquil with the rising sun. As evening approaches, I’m out of stones, Out of chapters; All but one. My last chance to make it right, To salvage all that I treasure. Whether I get it right or get it wrong Skipping stones has been a pleasure. RONALD PAGERESKI Standing all alone in the cold on my deck, lookin kinda hungry, lookin like a wreck. Kitty showed up looking for a friend, with me, it has become a trend. Homeless kitties, their future unclear they all know me well, far and near. They all come by to see a friendly soul, knowing the cat chow will overflow the bowl. Eating their fill, then off they go, they'll be back soon, next day or so. Looking for this soul, hopin' I will fill the bowl. So come to me kitty,I won't give a fright. But stay safe young kitties, alone in the night. Late night visitor Cloudy day RONALD PAGERESKI Groundcover contributor Dark clouds build above me. I need someone to love me. The one I had has gone away, made my world so dark and gray. What turned her so hard and mean? I'll always miss the Lady Marlene. I have to make my way alone, my heart is heavy, feels like stone. But, many folks are in the same boat, tears in the eyes, lump in the throat. We have to face the lonely night, all alone in our dismal plight. But, tomorrow brings a brand new day. Let's not let sorrow stand in our way. If we feel like we've been hit by a bus, remember many have it much worse than us.  WISDOM from page 9 If pursuit of the truth is your goal, between the German church of the 1930s and the American church today. At Easter we have another image of “you can kill the revolutionary but you can’t kill the revolution.” What reality do you believe in and what is the role of faith today? Visualize reality as a radiant diamond with infinite facets. Every appearance including you and me is in this view. To experience the interrelatedness of the facets in the context of the whole diamond is the breakthrough moment that the masters among our ancestors have taught us from beginningless time. Jesus, Buddha and a host of holy beings have taught that compassion, loving kindness and wisdom are the foundational truths of reality. If we surrender our ego fixations to this truth we can walk the path of freedom and learn to “Keep your eyes on the prize.” It’s the most worthy of goals. there are many ‘practical’ people who will consider you crazy for neglecting the most obvious rule of compliance culture, “The bottom line is the dollar sign,” and its corollary, “Follow the money.” It is true that if your financial life is in chaos you will find yourself too busy to do anything else. You may be overworked and have nothing to show for it. It can be so frustrating you may take your last dollar and go party. The distractions are everywhere, comfort food is a big one. The food industry is a pioneer in addictive engineering; feel good for a minute and be sick for life, similar to hard drugs but legal and a choice that is always in your face. Personal choice is an illusion for many as the need to survive this moment blocks the view of a long and happy life. It’s the trap of civilization and the hard struggle of decolonization. Remember “Peace of mind does not come from absence of struggle, it comes from absence of confusion and uncertainty.” If you look for what we share in common as human beings your discovery will likely look crazy to followers of compliance culture. We need the time and space to look at new approaches in our struggle for good health and a happy life. Let’s meet at Crazy Wisdom on Main between Washington and Huron. The Ann Arbor Community Commons is growing! Let us move forward with growing awareness until we are crazy with the wisdom that matters. Let’s meet on Earth Day, April 22, at - 4 p.m. at the Groundcover office (in the basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ at 423 S. 4th Ave) for a People's Peace Bank study and working group. We will view Werner's conversation at the Capital Club Dubai on Central Bank Digital Currencies and more. Earth Days celebrations are happening all weekend: April 20, 21 and 22. Go to annarborcommunitycommons.org for more details! POETRY GROUNDCOVER NEWS Home Grove LORRAINE LAMEY Groundcover contributor In the stand of pines the roots hold snugly to the eroding esker. The roots sing Hang in there! or Hang on! but mostly I’ve got you!, a weaving chorus of I got you!s. They crisscross each other like embroidery — tender, intricate, and whole. “Home Sweet Home” on a cliff edge. The trees are sewn together by and with each other defying gravity with their epic height praising to the sky We’ll grow and die together! You know it’s not true — the uniformity of action and experience, that is. But it sounds and feels right even as one by one they germinate, grow, disease, die, and decay in this one grove. Wind whisper, cardinal cheer, hunting hawk silence, gray squirrel scurry, breeze blown bole groan, Canada geese hronk overhead. I am stitched into this grove. A ladle of blood SASHA JADE Groundcover contributor A ladle of blood Sticky and thick, an iron taste to sear the tongue. It fills my throat, I want to scream but nothing comes. Nothing but a ladle of blood Gurgling and gagging, I heave with effort as I drown. It bubbles and pools as it drips to my chest, smothering me in crimson color. Painted in desire, viewed with desire, forced to desire. Forced to drink a ladle of blood Expected to drink a ladle of blood Just to create more ladles of blood Countless hearts. Endless hearts. All of them, just ladles of blood Perhaps one day, the gore will go down. Perhaps one day it will fill me with vigor and nothing but joy. Settle in my stomach and make my skin warm. Steal my perceived broken ladle. Be captured by one with ichor. But till that day comes, I’ll be here. Choking on ladles of blood 15  A2P2 from page 8 policy have not stemmed the environmental degradation which has continued for the last 30 years. Ann Arbor citizens and the city government itself have demonstrated a desire to move to 100% renewable energy for many years now. DTE has dragged their oil-stained feet all over the lush green carpet on these local renewable initiatives while continuing to invest in coal and gas energy sources. A2P2 offers a plan to provide 100% renewable energy by 2030, which would also lead to increased reliability. I, like many other members of my generation, spent many halcyon hours watching Saturday morning cartoons on my family's 16 inch television. We were empowered to reduce, reuse and recycle around four times per hour by singing raisins, Darkwing Duck, and the Crash Test Dummies. Many times, the children of the nineties were portrayed as the instructors for doddering fortyish parents in what trash goes where. Now I am the doddering fortyish parent and I am part of the problem. Steps taken by organizations like A2P2 are of critical importance if we are going to maintain a livable Earth for future generations. From the A2P2 website: “We believe a municipal utility is the only way Ann Arbor can reach its renewable energy goals. Municipal utilities across the country are almost always cheaper than investor-owned utilities (IOUs) and often more reliable. Additionally, a muni would create strong local union jobs and keep utility money within the community. Rather than relying on DTE and its shareholders to make decisions for us, the Ann Arbor community would have control over our power and create a pathway for other communities to break free from DTE as well.” An A2P2 press release continues, “The main objective of this phase two study should be to arrive at a technically sound and legally defensible valuation of DTE’s local distribution assets.” That is the next important step in the process. A2P2 continues to provide consumer education about their energy options at meetings and events throughout the city. On April 20 from 6-9 p.m., at Cobblestone Farms located at 2781 Packard Road, organizers will talk about the campaign to replace DTE with a municipal electric utility powered by 100% renewable energy for Ann Arbor. Bill McKibben, nationally-known environmental activist, author, and founder of 350.org will be providing the keynote via the Internet. Joining in person, Christy McGillivray, political and legislative director for the Sierra Club Michigan, will share her thoughts. Greg Woodring, A2P2 President, and advisory board members Yousef Rabhi, Mikal Goodman and Michelle Deatrick will also be present. Tickets cost $30 and a plant-based meal will be provided. Captain Planet is not scheduled at this time, but he would certainly approve.

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Crustless spinach, mushroom and cheese quiche ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingriedients: ¾ pound fresh spinach (stems removed), cooked in a skillet and all water removed 8 oz. mushrooms (I like to use Baby Bella) 1 clove garlic, minced 1/8 tsp salt 1 tbsp cooking oil, divided 3 oz. feta cheese 4 large eggs 1/4 cup grated parmesan 1/4 tsp pepper 1 cup milk 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese Directions: Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cook and squeeze water out of spinach. Clean mushrooms and slice thinly. Add the mushrooms, garlic, salt, and a ½ tablespoon cooking oil to a skillet. Sauté the mushrooms over medium heat until they have released all of their moisture and it has evaporated from the skillet. No water should remain in the skillet. Brush the other ½ tablespoon cooking oil inside a 9-inch pie plate. Layer the mushrooms, spinach, and crumbled feta into the pie plate. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, parmesan, pepper and milk. Pour the egg mixture into the pie plate. Top with the shredded cheddar cheese. Bake the quiche in the preheated 350ºF oven for about 50 minutes or until it is golden brown on top. This is so good for any meal during the day! PUZZLE SOLUTIONS Michigan's environment SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 The sky brightens up and the winter clouds slowly drift away the mist I see through it calls on all to celebrate it's rebirth of the season and calls on all who are called APRIL 5, 2024

2 $ MARCH 22, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 7 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Alpha House expands capacity by eight families. page 4 MEET YOUR VENDOR: LONNIE BAKER PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. VICTORY! Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners approves resolution to extend winter shelters until May 1. • County Commissioners are listening. page 6 • It feels like déjà vu. page 7 Shelter Now supporters rally outside of the Washtenaw County Administration building on March 20 before the Board of Commissioners meeting begins. Photo by Alexandra Granberg THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS OPINION community EVENTS THIS IS PARKDALE MOVIE SCREENING Saturday, March 23, 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. Growing Hope Marketplace Hall (16 S. Washington St., Ypsilanti) "This is Parkdale" is a short film documenting a successful rent strike organized in Toronto, Ontario. The documentary is 35 minutes long, and a discussion on the film will follow. Masks required. 50th ANNUAL DANCE for MOTHER EARTH POWWOW Details pictured right. 28th ANNUAL EXHIBITION of ARTISTS in MICHIGAN PRISONS March 19 - April 2, gallery times vary by day James and Anne Duderstadt Center Gallery (2281 Bonisteel Blvd, Ann Arbor) A project of the Prison Creative Arts Project at the University of Michigan that showcases the work of artists incarcerated in Michigan prisons. FOOLMOON 2024: FOOLBLOOM Friday, April 5, 8-10 p.m. Washtington St., in between Ashley and Main St. Downtown festival of light-filled art, creative experiences and Foolish fun! FESTIFOOLS PARADE Friday, April 7, 4-5 p.m. Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor MARCH 22, 2024 PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Austin Cash Jim Clark La Shawn Courtwright David KE Dodge Heather Feather Mike Jones Lit Kurtz Ahmad Sakallah Wayne Sparks Shawn Swoffer David Winey GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 CONTACT US PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Zachary Dortzbach Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Emily Paras Liem Swanson Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons MARCH 22, 2024 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS Obama Phones for low-income and unhoused people Barack Obama was elected Lonnie Baker, vendor No. 99 In one sentence, who are you? "A man of God." Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? 12 - 2 p.m. on Saturday at 4th and Catherine, and 9 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. on Sundays at Thompson and William. When and why did you start selling Groundcover News? In 2013 I had no job and no money. I was unemployed and broke. I needed food and shelter. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Meet and greet the community while selling Groundcover. What words do you live by? Do unto others as you want others to do unto you. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn’t know? I have a dog. She is a boxer and pit mixed Brindle; her name is "Eden." She will be five in June. What motivates you to work selling Groundcover News? The income that I receive from selling Groundcover News is needed to keep my household afloat. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Blessing people that needed to be blessed. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Chicken, baked potato, broccoli, corn, black eyed peas and cornbread! What’s the most interesting thing that has happened to you while selling Groundcover News? I have had a customer buy all of the papers that I had on me on more than one occasion. What was your first job? Selling "Ebony” magazine, Jet magazine, and the Michigan Chronicle newspaper, which was all one package. I was 12. What changes would you like to see in Washtenaw County? More affordable housing in Washtenaw County. I'm talking about housing affordable to a person working at McDonald's, Taco Bell, Meijer, Walmart or Groundcover. What would you do if you won the lottery? My first investment would be in my brand. My second investment would be a house. What song do you have completely memorized? I know the song "Amazing Grace" through and through. What’s the best way to start the day? I like to start my day in the spirit of Thanksgiving, giving thanks. What would you become famous for? My reparations project and empowering the native Black American who are the descendants of the slaves who built this country. President of the United States of America in January 2009 and served two terms as President until 2017. Nowadays more than 6.9 million Americans have an Obama phone, as free government phones are now often called. Many people don't know the first president to start the Lifeline Program for affordable phone service was Ronald Reagan. Lifeline Program is a Federal Communications Commission’s program, established in 1985, intended to make communications services more affordable for low-income consumers. Lifeline provides subscribers a discount on monthly telephone and broadband service purchased from participating providers in the marketplace. Safelink Wireless offered the first free cell phone service in Tennessee in 2008. That means that the first free government cell phone was distributed during the Bush administration. But still, two administrations after the presidency of Barack receive SNAP benefits and/or Medicaid, you qualify. For the last two years, I used MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Obama, they are still referred to as Obama phones. Low-income households qualify for free or low-cost cell phone service under the Lifeline program. Lifeline is offered by major carriers such as Assurance, Safelink, and Access Wireless. In addition to the free smartphone, Lifeline provides voice, text and monthly minutes. How do you see if an individual or head of household qualifies? You simply go on any of the major carriers' websites and fill out an application, or you might encounter individual contractors on street corners distributing free cell phones and tablets. It is an easy and short process. If you an Obama phone. I used the phone carrier Q-link Wireless, and service was good until around a year later when my phone service cut off. As a result, I went without phone service for about two months because I needed to reapply for a new phone service. Then I started getting emails from all the different phone carriers who provide Lifeline service. I came to the conclusion that Lifeline phone service is good if you have no means to pay for phone service. Phone service helps people communicate and move forward toward employment or other means to be able to afford a monthly phone bill. Lifeline phone carriers often give customers unreliable and poorly made devices. I would advise those with Obama phones who can afford it to upgrade to a paid monthly service if you want to avoid phone service interruption and to be able to use your phone to its greatest potential. 3 Elder I’m trying to say what’s never been said before. I’m not a mentor. Call me an elder if you must. I’ve a story to tell that’s not been told before. I know things that are hidden that I know are true and I want soon to share them with you. As time goes by as the end is near I must unlock my thoughts. I owe the world a story and maybe someday I’ll have a chance to tell it. I have to tell you the most hurtful things and things that WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 are full of joy; as the story goes on it’s about love and humanity. When I get to the end it's all I want to see. I won’t get a second chance to say it so gather round and let an elder tell his story full of joy and sorrow because there will be no tomorrow. These might be promises unfulfilled. But when I feel like I’m feeling now, I feel like I can rule the world. Be ready to hear my tale whenever it’s told.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FAMILY SHELTER I recently visited Alpha House, the family shelter located in Ann Arbor, and was welcomed like a family member attending a family reunion. I arrived with the intention to discover what Alpha House is all about and learn the details of their current expansion project, but first let me describe how it was founded. History of Alpha House Initially there were 12 religious congregations in Washtenaw County, mostly in Ann Arbor, that came together in 2001 to operate a weekly rotating shelter for homeless families. They later became the Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN). They found that these rotations were negatively impacting the school age children. Some children’s ability to get to and from school became problematic as was having to change schools in the middle of the school year, and/or prohibiting the freedom of desired choice. It was an unstable environment. The IHN needed a permanent location. St. Joseph’s Hospital had a rehab facility located at 4290 Jackson Rd. in Ann Arbor that was shut down, so they let IHN use it as a permanent shelter for only $1 a year rent. That is how it became IHN at Alpha House, better known as Alpha House. How about that for miracles? I reckon that the people of the IHN would probably just simply state that the Lord works in mysterious ways! Before I go any further, let me introduce four amazing members of the staff for IHN at Alpha House and an outstanding volunteer: Executive Director Shonagh Taruza, Director of Operations Brad White, Volunteer Coordinator Patty Page, Programs Director Denise Diggs-Taylor, and volunteer Greg Humbel. Words aren't enough to describe these beautiful souls, but further along in this article I will comment on their assets that I appreciate. Shelter experience I will now share some information and criteria for obtaining the services that Alpha House offers. Being homeless is number one and the city of origin doesn't matter, as long as potential clients are U.S. citizens or have a green card or legal rights to reside in the United States. If potential clients do not have proper required identifications, Alpha House staff are able to assist with obtaining these documents within legal parameters. Clients must also be pregnant, or have a child or children. If communication barriers present, someone on staff will reach out to interpreters. Upon arriving at Alpha House clients are immediately welcomed then assigned a case manager. The case manager conducts an assessment in order to better assist them with their needs while taking action with cooperation of the clients to make positive gainful progress possible. Clients can stay at the shelter for 60 days. I am not aware of policy for extensions at this time. Clients are provided with job assistance and encouraged to participate in their existing employment program entitled Career Scope. Within the vestibule of Alpha House is an area for pursuing job leads that includes a table, chairs, a phone, and a bulletin board that lists jobs and educational opportunities, as well as community events that may be partaken in. Yes, childcare is an essential priority to me! Alpha House volunteers and staff work closely with the Childcare Network to address any childcare needs. This broadens time availability for parents which increases employment opportunities. To add to that, the wonderful McKinney-Vento Hearth Act law requires all homeless school-age children residing in LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 shelters to be provided funded transportation for the benefit of being able to continue attending the school they are presently enrolled in, or the school of their choice within the Ann Arbor school district. For example, some children are bussed, cabbed or driven to school in unmarked vehicles with assigned staff members; this way no child is singled out for living in a shelter. The guardian of a child that has a personal vehicle is given a gas card for gas for the purpose of taking and picking the children up from school. It is tantamount that children receive all of the academic education that they can get in an ever-changing, technological society. There are volunteers who provide on-site childcare for non school-age children of their clients. This is another way the more fragile youths can remain in an environment that is safer healthwise; it decreases exposure to dangerous health hazards for a child who is not yet fully vaccinated. As most of us who have encountered toddlers know, they love to stick things in their mouths. We all pretty much know that credit scores can have a negative impact on our quality of life and the ability to apply for and/or obtain suitable housing or other things we may apply for. So this is why at Alpha House the clients are encouraged to obtain a credit score report for awareness and the opportunity to address any issues that may have lowered their score. Criminal background checks are performed to intently address any issues that would hinder or prevent clients from accessing gainful employment and suitable housing, but other barriers may exist or arrive because of MARCH 22, 2024 Alpha House expands capacity by eight families Shonagh Taruza, Alpha House Executive Director, Patty Page, Volunteer Coordinator, and Brad White, Director of Operations, pictured left to right. an unknown charge or warrant. So please do not be offended by this part of the process. Now let me describe what it is like inside of the Alpha House shelter, and report about the rooms being renovated for the expansion to serve more clients. As it operates now, Alpha House has six rooms that may accommodate six families ranging from one pregnant woman per room or a family of four that consists of at least one child. They have two congregate family rooms. One has two computers and printers, video games and a library; clients may keep books they like. There is a cafeteria area that has a view of the outside, and an adjoining patio for sitting or smoking. No drugs are allowed including medical or recreational marijuana. Clients may cook any food in the pantry, refrigerator or freezer, as long as it is made clear by staff that it's okay. The children have a large area in the basement stocked with all sorts of toys, games, crafts and play related activities, and a fully functioning playground that has a couple of bikes and scooters. The children are appropriately and safely monitored at all times. Increasing need inspires rennovation Last winter, because of higher rent rates, a lot of families became homeless and IHN at Alpha House wanted to do more. The IHN at Alpha House members and staff realized that a rotating shelter would be essential to see FAMILY next page  fully MARCH 22, 2024 FAMILY SHELTER  FAMILY from last page provide immediate shelter relief, however, injury to the childrens’ overall well-being could not be avoided in this way. It was discovered that the Ann Arbor City Council sold the Dental School on N. Ashley Street in Ann Arbor to the Ann Arbor Housing Commission for $1 with a plan to transform the property into affordable housing units. The groundbreaking for the affordable housing units wouldn't occur for two more years and the Ann Arbor Housing Commission did not want it to sit empty, so they asked Shonagh and Brad of Alpha House if they wanted to rent it and they did. There were not enough bathrooms so they opted to utilize the empty building for their offices, and renovate the now empty former offices at Alpha House into eight more rooms for families, another storage, and full bathroom. Two more washers and dryers will be added as well within the Alpha House facility during the renovations. The kitchen is being renovated, too. Volunteer Coordinator Patty Page shared that she was recently injured and it has totally impacted her abilities. She expressed how it made her feel like she couldn't be of any assistance. She had a spark of inspiration when asked to aid in the interior designing of the rooms being renovated. She refers to herself in a jocose manner as the interior design reference person. Patty has always put her decorative skills to use throughout Alpha House. Patty is very vocally energetic and full of enthusiasm. I couldn't tell that she was going through a setback. She wants the shelter to feel like a transitional home because she wants the clients to maintain the hope of having a home of their own to decorate as they please. I love the building trades, particularly carpentry, so meeting volunteer Greg Humbel who is renovating the kitchen at Alpha House was an added bonus. Greg stated that he loves what he is doing for Alpha House. He is also a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ann Arbor. We need lots more people of your integrity, Greg; keep being you. You build up more than buildings. Your work builds lives too! I enjoy talking to a person instead of an automated answering service; this is how I met Program Director Denise Diggs-Taylor. I needed to get a couple of answers about Alpha House and was unable to reach a live person earlier that day and left a message and my phone number. To my surprise, not even an hour later I received a call back from none other than Denise. I introduced myself again, asked my questions and got answers and the opportunity to talk briefly with Denise. She was very helpful, pleasant and patient with me. It takes me back to when I worked the switchboard and had a lot of pleasant, unique and brief talks with people for the first time. We have to keep live communications alive. We can now get to the highlight of this article: the renovation of the existing wing at Alpha House, that will provide more shelter for eight more families. The renovations began the second week of February and are expected to be complete by April 2. The Interfaith Hospitality Network at Alpha House invites everyone to drop by their open house to tour the new residential wing on Thursday, April 4, 2024 from 2-7 p.m. at 4290 Jackson Road, Ann Arbor. I personally am suggesting that you bring a donation if you can, but no worries if you can't. Do keep in mind that Alpha House only accepts brand new items. Conclusion I am very pleased and impressed by everyone I encountered there. I want to thank you all for receiving me with open arms and eyes. Brad is the kind of person that made me question one of my own fears. That is approaching people for any kind of interview. With him, being so willingly helpful to me, it erased that. It boosted my confidence level that day and made me smile inside. I was made aware that Brad considered a child client that needed help with homework and personally undertook the task of getting a tutor on board at Alpha House. The children are our future. Anyone who takes care of the babies is alright with me. I call all children under 18 babies, though I know they’re not. It is pretty difficult for me to put into such a few words the way that I felt when I met Shonagh. She made me feel like I was her sister and we'd talked many times before. I admire you for your faith and volition to empower, encourage, and help others. You are a take action person and I like that. Patty, if you aren't at 100% now, I can't wait until you are fully recovered. I was so filled with hope listening to how much you have to offer just being you. I thought of a project I can do to make something for Alpha House. Thank you all once again. Just a useful tidbit for anyone that I have experienced and witnessed, is that volunteering where you are or at other places can or may more likely result in landing a stable employment position where you are. The benefits are innumerable both personally and professionally. After all, there is nothing like hands-on experience! GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Unusual Stuff to Borrow There’s more to borrow at AADL than books, music, and movies. To name a few, there are games, telescopes, stories-to-go kits, and home tools. Check out these unusual yet handy items during your next library visit. Book Clubs To Go Book Clubs To Go is a service available at each AADL location that provides the convenience of complete kits for book discussions. Inside, you’ll find 10 copies of the featured book, one movie DVD, and a resource folder. Request a kit today through the online catalog or by calling (734) 327-4200. FEATURED EVENT AADL GAME CON 2024 exp. 01/31/2025 Saturday, April 13 • 11:00am–5pm Downtown Library Game Con is a free, super-charged gaming extravaganza featuring gaming sessions, presentations, and a Vendor Hall to find the perfect accessory for your next game night! Gaming sessions will run all day long, with a schedule of presentations on topics related to RPGs and game design for attendees to participate in. Check out aadl.org/gamecon for a list of gaming sessions and additional Game Con details. Outdoor family play area at Alpha House. 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS WINTER SHELTER County Commissioners are listening Late in the summer last year, a small group of people camping out under the awning at the Growing Hope farmers market in downtown Ypsilanti were evicted by the police. This incident on August 27, 2023 and the movement it sparked ignited a wave of action among homelessness advocates, peace and justice activists and radicals. Since then, we have been coming to the Washtenaw County and City of Ypsilanti meetings with three demands: 1) Create and fund a dignified 24/7 shelter in Ypsilanti before spring 2024 2) Open a temporary shelter immediately. Fund and do not interfere with unofficial and temporary shelter spaces. End street sweeps and camp sweeps. 3) Ensure that the houseless and housing-insecure communities have decision-making and veto power in all Ypsilanti shelter spaces, and in their creation. So far, none have been met. However, at the Washtenaw County Commissioners meeting on February 21, 2024, I heard in their bureaucratic chatter the words the homeless advocates have been shouting: stop the sweeps, acknowledge the weather is always a safety hazard, and provide wraparound care to support the homeless and the recently housed. My younger comrades are skeptical. They have heard this song and dance before. So have I — I've seen the dog and pony show, and the circus with all the monkeys. We won’t be convinced until we see action, and we won’t stop until we see change. But now the commissioners seem like they may be ready to make a difference. I interviewed Commissioner Annie Somerville (District 6, Ypsilanti) about the status of efforts to alleviate homelessness in our County. We spoke of would be safer. Each year the Delonis Center emerJIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 money, where it comes from, how it’s meant to be spent and how to get it. The American Rescue Plan Act distributed $2.5 million to help struggling Americans. Included in the local package was $150,000 for short-term emergency motel stays, $710,000 for eviction prevention and $250,000 to support shelters including the Delonis Center. The money is distributed through the Office of Economic and Community Development, which also oversees the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County. Interesting factoid, according to Somerville: The Delonis Center is underutilized. She says: “We have space at the shelter, it isn’t used because some people do not like congregate sleeping arrangements.” What she may not know is that people are avoiding Delonis because of the drugs, violence, theft and corruption of the staff. Last year, Mission’s Weather Amnesty (an overnight program sponsored by A2Mission.org to help people during lethal weather) took in people who were trespassed from Delonis for violating the shelter's safety rules. This year the program offers respite shelter to the general homeless population. The guests who stay there have almost all been to Delonis and have for the most part decided sleeping outside gency weather program and associated shelters (night and day shelters) close at the end of March. Anyone from Michigan knows that April and even parts of May are still capable of dangerous weather. There is talk of extending the overnight sheltering program to May 1. When I asked Somerville if there were any programs in place for the summer, she said there weren’t. Something Somerville wants the activists to understand is that the programs that have been shut down are not due to lack of funding, but to lack of staffing. “We don’t have the capacity for a second shelter,” says Somerville. “Without staffing and infrastructure, our hands are tied.” We didn’t talk about how much staff members get paid, but apparently not enough. Volunteers are even harder to get. In fact, the February issue of the “Eastern Echo” (the Eastern Michigan University paper) reports a decline in health and human services enrollment. From Philanthropy News Digest: “As demand for nonprofit services has increased, the number of Americans who volunteer has continued to decline, leaving many nonprofits across the country straining to provide services, the Washington Post reports.” Although Somerville and I did not talk about camp evictions or “sweeps,” the Sheriff’s Department did at the County Commission meeting Feb. 21. A sweep is when law enforcement uses force to remove people from encampments, often causing them to lose what little property they have. At the meeting, the Sheriff's Department claimed they do not conduct sweeps; however they do conduct a “civil standby” while private security companies do the eviction when an eviction is court ordered. Commissioner Caroline Sanders (District 4) spoke of “wraparound” care which is a commonly-used term for services such as mental health treatment, medical treatment, food and clothing assistance, and help accomplishing necessary tasks. These things would be provided by the County after a solution to the lack of shelter is found. The irony is that often the lack of wraparound care contributes to recidivist homelessness — especially when it comes to mental health crises. Moving into spring will make it more difficult for homelessness advocates. Warmer weather dulls the public's awareness of homelessness. Because it’s warmer, people tend to think the homeless need less support. The County Commissioners will soon be swamped with requests to fix potholes and boost tourism. Homelessness is a year-round phenomenon. For it to be alleviated, solutions must be found that go deeper than what casual observation might suggest: to just build more housing. What is needed is deep systemic change. To get to that, the County needs to listen to those experiencing homelessness. The demands at the beginning of the article were derived from the voices of unsheltered people in Ypsilanti. These demands are not all that is needed, but are a foundation that must be laid in order for any real changes to be made. Update: On Wednesday, March 20, the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners voted to approve "a resolution to extend winter sheltering activities through April 30, 2024," meeting another demand of Shelter Now. The Board waived the second reading which would have otherwise occured on April 3. MARCH 22, 2024 MARCH 22, 2024 WINTER SHELTER It feels like déjà vu To be frank, it felt like a serious case of déjà vu and in reality it was. Those were the words that I used when given an opportunity to address the Board of Commissioners during the Washtenaw County’s Board of Commissioners and Working Session Meeting held on March 6. Those who were gathered at the meeting expressed a variety of concerns during public input, but most centered around the lack of millage funding for critical needs facing both the unhoused and those who live with mental illness in the County. The intersection of the two was obvious and it became clear that there was a need for increased funding for both to reach the critical needs of the people they are designated to serve. Mental health advocates’ voices ranged from anger to disbelief that a majority of funds from the voter-funded Community Mental Health and Public Safety millage used by the County Sheriff’s office were crippling the efforts of those working on the levels of community engagement services. Those on the frontlines of the homeless crisis know that anything other than year round shelter is only a thin bandaid; they have been imploring the Washtenaw Commissioners for years to open up its coffers so that no one is vulnerable to the elements in any season. The seasonal timeline of the winter warming center dates are LIT KURTZ Groundcover vendor No. 159 meeting before the Commissioners walked away. An article that I penned that ran in the 2014 June issue of Groundcover News states, “…Our delegation listened in dismay as the commissioners closed the door on any further discussion, announcing that they were pleased with the current role that Delonis has played to provide shelter to the homeless community.” Undoubtedly, it was that abrupt dismissal of further communication ten artificial and do not reflect the frequent fluctuating temperatures in cold climates. But for some of us, March 6 was a replay of a similar meeting held a decade earlier on April 2, 2014, when what MLive referred to as a delegation representing the Delonis Center Warming Center approached the Board of Commissioners. During the meeting a decade earlier we requested that Warming Center hours not only be extended for another month from to the end of April, but that year round shelter be in place. So in 2014 after bickering and debating well past normal meeting hours, the Commissioners agreed to keep the shelter open that year by funding another 30 days. They also agreed to meet with our delegation throughout that year to develop a plan for year round shelter. There was only one years ago with those of us who were then experiencing this crisis that has allowed the problems at Delonis to fester and brings forth a new set of people grappling with the same fundamental issues of safety and year-round shelter. Nathan Bagget who is currently sheltering at the Delonis Warming Center gave insight into the conditions now. He said that since the Center removed drug testing, there has been a noticeable increase in crime. As has always been the case, shower access is limited and it is virtually impossible to do laundry based on the limited slots. The proverbial band-aid can no longer offer the solutions needed for those in need. Unless the commissioners commit to listening to those embroiled in this crisis, there will be no solutions. It is my hope that it will not take another decade to do so. APPROVED: A resolution extending winter sheltering activities through April 30, 2024 What does this mean? At the time of publication, logistics of what winter sheltering activities will be extended through April 30 have not been worked out or announced publicly. Many winter sheltering services utilize seasonal locations and employees that may not be available after March 31. Stay tuned on Groundcover News Facebook and Instagram for details on these service extensions. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS IN REVIEW A book report on "Healing Collective Trauma" DAVID KE DODGE Groundcover contributor I do not remember why, how or when I came into possession of “Healing Collective Trauma — a process for integrating our intergenerational and cultural wound” by spiritual teacher Thomas Hubl and ghostwriter Julie Jordan Avritt — but most likely I was prompted to purchase the book shortly after it was published, by an interview with the author which I viewed on Public Television. After I secured my copy, I set it aside to read after I finished a book I was then currently reading. But by the time I finished the then current book, other books had been purchased, and Hubl’s work had been relegated to a low place among my trove of books waiting to be even started. It was only after the events of October 7, 2023 and the following weeks in Israel, that I said to myself, “Those are two traumatized Peoples at each other’s throats. If only they could see that on their current course, only Satan stood to be the winner, like he was the winner of World War II; Hitler might conceivably be a loser of that war, but Satan won.” It was then that I recalled the existence of Hubl’s work, and decided it was overdue for a reading. I set aside the book I was then currently reading, and began reading Hubl. My feelings about Hubl’s work are mixed. Hubl is a self-described mystic, and I’ve always found the writings characteristic of mystics to be dense — incomprehensible. I often finished entire paragraphs without comprehending a word, and such paragraphs would sometimes merge into entire chapters. It may be that some other work on collective trauma would have been more beneficial to me, had I known of such a work, and procured and read it instead. But Hubl was worth reading. Among the “facts” I gleaned from it: • The impact of trauma on individual humans extends beyond the individual; when a group of people is traumatized, the entire culture is affected; the entire group of individuals express and reinforce the symptoms of their trauma to each other, to all other members of their society, and to members of other societies with which they have intercourse; • The impact of trauma on individual humans extends beyond the generation suffering the original blow of trauma; the impact is passed onto their children, and their children’s children, and so on. The impact is passed on by both of two processes: • By how the society of traumatized adults treat their immediate children and the children of their society in general, and • By a process which seems insidious to me, but which Hubl convinced me takes place; Hubl refers to the process as “epigenetics” — the change of the the common society’s individual’s genes, so the children and/or grandchildren of the originally traumatized are genetically predisposed to express maladjusted behavior, to their personal children, and the entire society’s children, the trauma of generations long ago passed. • There’s hope in all this: Hubl describes processes by which the cultural damage can be undone. I won’t attempt to describe the processes; that’s what Hubl’s work does. I will say that the processes involve group therapies, and that I have apprehension as to whether the therapies outlined and performed by Hubl and his colleagues are as effective as a group approach led by professionals certified by the state to do such work. One challenge faced by humanity is convincing the Peoples of the world who express historic trauma through their culture of their need for therapy. Another challenge is finding the leaders of such groups who are able to guide the participants toward an end both constructive, and intended. The harvest is great; the workers are few. Which is why I want to believe that Hubl and the folks who work alongside him know what they’re doing. From Hubl’s description, they do. In their current course, the Jews and Palestinians of Israel are simply planting the seeds, in each other’s children and in their own, of a plethora of future October sevenths. If a route to peace is ever to be followed by that country, it will not be forged by generals, Prime ministers, diplomats, or hack politicians. It will require the ministrations of capable humanitarians — psychotherapists. "Healing Collective Trauma" had a cover price of $25.99 when I purchased it. One copy is available from Ann Arbor District Library — downtown branch. Your favorite local brick and mortar bookstore needs your support. Buy it. Read it. Keep it. Healing Collective Trauma — a process for integrating our intergenerational and cultural wound” by Thomas Hubl C. 2020. Sounds True, publisher. MARCH 22, 2024 MARCH 22, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD from the International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Ancient Briton 5. Alpine transport 9. Platters 14. Trendy South American berry often thought of as a good source of antioxidants 15. Ashtabula's lake 16. English race place 17. "___ we forget" 18. The Sun acting out 20. Mariner's aid 22. Thoroughly cleanse 23. "Gladiator" setting 24. Crystalline compound found in urine 26. Seed 27. Carl Bernstein, e.g. 31. "The Da Vinci Code" author Brown 32. Court ploy 33. Small fish often living in fresh, running water 36. Involving more than one country 41. Antares, for one 42. ___-tac-toe 43. Bird's beak 45. An operation to remove all or parts of the uterus 50. Indian lentil dish 53. All alternative 54. Magical wish granter 55. Descriptive nickname 58. Link 59. Sealed cylinder lacking air, used in electronics 62. Wood sorrels 64. Cake topper 65. Barely managed, with "out" 66. Destiny 67. "Take your hands off me!" 68. 1990 World Series champs 69. Beat it DOWN 1. Amigo 2. Cold treats for a hot day 3. Kidney-shaped nut 4. Giants of myth 5. It may be oral or written 6. "My man!" 7. Afflict 8. You, right now 9. Batty 10. "Cast Away" setting 11. Line of cliffs 12. Literally, "dwarf dog" 13. Prepare, as tea 19. Enlarge, as a hole 21. 50 Cent piece 23. "Go on ..." 24. "Once ___ a time..." 25. Paid back 28. "Aladdin" prince 29. "Much ___ About Nothing" 30. Indian bread 34. Like some great literary works 35. Remove 37. "Well, ___-di-dah!" 38. "Don't give up!" 39. Radial, e.g. 40. Rocks 44. "Ciao!" 46. Restrain 47. Self-conscious laugh 48. How to make a human look like a monster 49. Irritate 50. Man with horns 51. Posthaste 52. Allowed 56. ___ oil, used in varnish 57. Justice Black 58. "Bill & ___ Excellent Adventure" 60. Arthur Godfrey played it 61. Four-poster, e.g. 63. "Comprende?"

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS The not-so-great American essay Hello, readers! First time writer, and fresh reader here. Having personally experienced homelessness from coast to coast in recent years, and never having been homeless before the coronavirus panic, I feel like I bring a fairly fresh perspective upon the matter. I learned various tricks-of-the-trade quickly from “veterans” of the street, some of whom have had 30+ years experience on the matter. Ironically, most of that knowledge became obsolete overnight during periods of the changing socioeconomic landscape of these last several years, (such as public bathrooms and water faucets being locked down). Also, I experienced for myself both tyrannical enforcement by security forces (anti-warmth patrols concerning very public private property such as wide outside places or immovable objects) and bureaucratic xenophobia by social services. Apparently, need is often an exclusive club for identity stereotypes. But the last time I checked, need can happen to anyone, anytime. It was often other homeless people who were more willing to help than the pachinko-machine-of-a-system that we call public and private subdivisions of the Department of State and Department of Health and Human Services. (Pachinko is a Japanese roulette gambling machine. The additional rationale for the metaphor is the fact that gambling businesses don’t gamble — they all operate on statistics.) Not to When not homeless myself, I would AUSTIN CASH Groundcover vendor No. 627 say there aren’t heroic figures who go above and beyond to do their jobs at times, because there are. But if given enough time to tweak the system’s settings, authorities may abuse the ability to bottleneck within such top-heavy bureaucracies, due to such motivations as ego or polarized herd mentality. I’ve noticed within my short time here in Ann Arbor that Groundcover News gives a perfect excuse for the local mainstream society to safely approach homeless people (when they actually know about the paper). I think a decent chunk of people across the country would like to help people in general, but either can’t or don’t trust the average homeless person’s situation — be it a potential drug use problem or an unstable personality, or the unobservable, largely ineffective system. Although they still may “blind dump/give” into it occasionally hoping it will work out for the best. work around this issue by almost never giving money away, but would rather, when I had a moment, physically go to a place and buy a tangible object to hand off to an individual. Yahweh, the creator, commanded us to give 10% of our blessings in life to the causes important to Him, which is called a tithe, and frankly even someone making a mere $1,000 a month would have $100 to give by that standard. Now imagine if everyone walking down the street right now suddenly had $100, monthly, to give for meals, clothing or even communal housing for the less fortunate (no matter who they are)! People talk about social change more and more; they’re even getting closer to the grassroots design started around two millennia ago by the early “Christian” congregations, but the solution has been staring us right in the face as a society all along. We’re often too “sophisticated” for it now, but human issues are quite cyclical — we just tend to forget. The sin of Sodom (sin being a distortion of the divine perfect), after all, was documented as abundance plus pride while not giving to the poor (Ezekiel 16:49). But it seems familiarity has bred contempt for us in our recent generations. Also, sometimes people are just downright ignorant from not being taught in this day and age of disassociated social media groups, streaming, and algorithmic-induced endorphin rushes (that, too, preceded by the TV and radio). I grew up as a latchkey kid raised by the public grade school and the TV within postmodern American suburbia in a nominally Christian family, with really nothing more than Sunday school under my belt from kindergarten, and was eventually systemically put on a self-destructive path right before puberty — not even going to high-school. I did obtain a G.E.D. while working retail on the weekends during my later teenage years. Yet during my first 15 years of life I knew little to nothing about the foundational faith which I would personally profess later, and mostly was supplemented growing up by ideas of the humanism, new age and futurism that hovered around the coming of the new millennium. A family friend is the one who taught me about Yahshua of Nazareth, the Messiah (who western society calls Jesus Christ) more in depth. She even bought me my first Bible and began to counter the situation of me not attending high school via personal tutoring. Later, having been put off by the very homogenized, corporate herd culture that is the “Christianese” culture located in and around the Bible Belt of America, I started to consider myself personally “a believer in The Way” and not specifically a Christian (John 14:6, John 6:29). That being said, I struggled see ESSAY next page  MARCH 22, 2024 Memes sourced from ImageFlip.com MARCH 22, 2024 OPINION "This is a music article" ANONYMOUS It’s not incredibly comfortable to face reality at times, but some people just won’t hear the facts until it’s the end — too late. The problem is society often takes too much time and effort to discern the truth before it is able to apply intervention on ugly realities. The realities have been pretty ugly in the Middle East. In Palestine, the oppression is often met with dismissive attitudes instead of reflection. In other words, perhaps, a more intricate look at the finances of Zionism would prepare society to adapt for a new ending. A better one. Perhaps we should examine corruption from a different lens through linking participation in the Zionist movement with the music business. If we understood the business practices of these players, then we would be better able to adapt before the negative outcomes occur, even today. In the early 20th Century the copyright laws were in their nascent stages, but it was the player piano — the piano playing off perforated scrolls — that caused a conflict within influence on society but what people may not know is that Pannonica was born to the family responsible for creating the problems in the Middle East today —the Rothschild Banking Family. Her influence on the music industry is significant because her family’s wealth was responsible for renaissance-level accomplishments and corruption — ranging from biological organisms bearing their family name (e.g. Ornithoptera rothschildi) to war profiteering to the music business formation of the 20th century. It was not until 1954 when Prestige Records signed Mr. Monk, but in those 40 years Pannonica had been alive, her family was busy destabilizing governments and musicians alike. In order to understand a problem, the creative world: who earned the coins off the piano? The saloon owner? The person who composed the sheet music that went into the piano? Thus the royalty rates were born through the Copyright Act of 1909 and the establishment of American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1914. The jazz era was beginning and the relationships that came about in this era give us a rare look at the finances of the vanguards Zionism. Kathleen Annie Pannonica Koenigwarter was born four years before her jazz counterpart Thelonious Monk. The two shared a mutually fond relationship that funded the Jazz Bebop movement — she was largely liked by jazz people like Monk and Charlie Parker. They were infants when Zionism was beginning its of thorough research should be done inside and outside the context of the problem and its historical circumstances. In other words, to address the corruption surrounding Palestine, let us examine the money trail of this family in and outside of Palestine. In 1917, the Balfour Declaration was made: A letter from British politician Arthur Balfour to Walter Rothschild Jr. was the seed to establishing a colonial Jewish state in Palestine. This was Pannonica’s Uncle Walter, Charles Rothschild’s brother. Her father (Charles), her uncle Walter, her brother Victor, and her recently-deceased nephew Jacob, at different times, represented the banking dynasty, holding the title of Baron de Rothschild. As of February 26, 2024, her great-nephew, Jacob’s son Nat, became the new baron. These people are the most significant players in the creation of modern Zionism. They built the Israeli legislative house, the Knesset, and streets in Israel are named after them, which should indicate their major influence on the state, even today. Now it’s important that we investigate their contributions to the music business. If you played a soccer match and GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Thelonius Monk and Baroness Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter. Image from American Roots Music you lost, that imprints a memory, yes? The following match against the same opponent, what occurs? The following match you will try to adapt to eliminate the reasons you lost. Reality is if we have to wait till the end to learn the lessons, there will be a weaker grasp than if the learning commenced at the beginning. Today we stand in a world dominated by a money trail that can be almost impossible to track; however, with this information we have now, could we delve into Pannonica and her positive influences? Did Pannonica represent the same ideology? Being tied into the direct financiers of the State of Israel would highly suggest this is the case. How does her family’s involvement affect the music business today? Well, it entails the understanding of why we went from mechanical publishing to streaming. The era of digital copyright opened the floodgates to piracy that made it difficult for the corporations to manage their revenue streams, but what the lawsuits revealed were the heads of the music business and their ties to Zionism are quite prominent. Charles Bronfman Jr,. the former CEO of Warner Music Group and Seagrams heir, was the founder of Birthright Israel, the Zionist colonist project. It demonstrates the fact that if Zionist money has been and still is indeed the same money controlling Israel and the higher echelons of the music business perhaps the practices in Gaza and Music come from a similar place. I scoffed at the recent ironic legislation that Rashida Tlaib introduced to implement a rate of 1 cent a stream for the artists. The original rate was two cents and it got moved up to 8.1 cents by 1977. Imagine a business where someone collects your money for you — all of the money, before you see it. So you don’t know how much money was even earned in the first place. Then someone gives you an envelope and says “Here’s your take, be happy with it.” This article refelcts the opinion of the author, not Groundcover News. Logo of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.  ESSAY from last page coming of age through worldly deceptions caused by blinding social pain (betrayals happening like falling dominoes, mixed with soul-destroying verbal abuse, from the ages of 18 to 23), and started to not live fully for Yahweh after having already committed myself to Him. This fact was brought to my attention via a very rude awakening in my early thirties, which led me for the first time in over a decade to crack open the word of the Creator which is in the book collection we call the Bible. Having run the gamut, so to speak, I can relate to those who have lived for nothing but themselves while being subjected to the flow of causality that is called the zeitgeist; to becoming one who has personally applied faith in Messiah Yahshua (often considered an anachronism now); to one who has known what it means to struggle, even the reconciling of oneself; from life just breaking down amidst such opposing foundational backgrounds. It is within that picture of struggle, even potential reconciliation if dared, that society seems to find itself currently crescendoing in regards to the topics of homelessness and charity (let alone many of the other serious, parallel issues happening across the board in our current cultural consciousness). So, wherever you come from, whoever you are, and whatever your experiences thus far in life, I hope to have conveyed here a synopsis of not only my own personal life experiences plus travels as a street homeless person, but also to encourage you all, the readers, to reflect upon your own selves and situations in relation to these matters, along with the rest of these troubling times that we all communally share.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD + FUN Russian comfort tonic HEATHER FEATHER Groundcover vendor No. 54 This Russian Comfort Tonic is a soothing and revitalizing drink that combines the calming properties of chamomile tea with antioxidant-rich cranberry juice and the warming spices of ginger and cinnamon. It's designed to promote a sense of safety and well-being while providing a boost of brainpower and mental clarity. Enjoy this healing elixir whenever you need a comforting embrace for both body and mind. Ingredients: 1 cup brewed chamomile tea, cooled 1/2 cup cranberry juice (unsweetened) 1/4 cup honey (adjust to taste) 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 teaspoon grated ginger A pinch of cinnamon A few sprigs of fresh mint, for garnish Ice cubes (optional) Directions: Brew chamomile tea and let it cool to room temperature. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS Where's Panda? DAVID WINEY Groundcover contributor MARCH 22, 2024 In a pitcher or large mixing bowl, combine the cooled chamomile tea, cranberry juice, honey, lemon juice, grated ginger and cinnamon. Stir until well combined. Taste the mixture and adjust sweetness or tartness by adding more honey or lemon juice if desired. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavors to meld. Once chilled, serve the Russian Comfort Tonic in glasses over ice cubes, if desired. Garnish each glass with a sprig of fresh mint for a refreshing touch. DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 offer expires 04/05/2024

2 $ MARCH 8, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 6 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. The path to addiction and recovery. Page 4 KEN PARKS #490 ASK YOUR VENDOR: HOW CAN YOU TELL IT'S SPRING? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Youth in action: Ypsilanti middle schoolers interview candidates for Washtenaw County Sheriff. page 6 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Ypsilanti middle schoolers who interviewed the Washtenaw County Sheriff candidates. Photo courtesy of Ken Magee. • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER wherever you go, WEAR GCN! Groundcover News is now offering three unique merchandise items so customers and supporters can express to the world how much they love GCN! WHAT (see images pictured right): • Cream canvas tote bags with "I Buy and Read Groundcover News" in black ink $15 • Black beanies with white, embroidered Groundcover logo $25 • Bright yellow hoodies with Groundcover logo and insignia in black ink $40 HOW: 1. Fill out the Google form linked below to indicate what you'd like to purchase 2. Submit payment online, by Venmo or by drop-off* 3. Come to the Groundcover office during office hours (Monday-Saturday 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.) to pick up your purchase! The Groundcover News office is located at 423 S. 4th Ave in the basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ. You can call 734-263-2098 if having trouble finding the office. *If paying cash please bring when picking up merchandise at the office. Special thanks to the Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor Foundation for making these items available to Groundcover vendors for free! Order online via Google Form, pick up at the Groundcover office! PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman D.A Roberto Isla Caballero Misti Davis Cindy Gere Hosea Hill James Manning Ken Parks Ashley Powell Earl Pullen Denise Shearer Scoop Stevens Felicia Wilbert GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Joe Woods PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Jane Atkins Zachary Dortzbach Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Emily Paras Holden Pizzolato Liem Swanson Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons MARCH 8, 2024 MARCH 8, 2024 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR How can you tell it's spring? When the red robin comes bob bob bobbing along. — Ken Parks, #490 Because of the birds chirping! — Mark Gigax, #620 When you're not freezing and you're not sweating. — Austin Cash, #627 I really don't know. Nowadays you think it's spring one day and then it blizzards the next day. — Joe Woods, #103 The spring flowers are out and so are the robins! — Cindy Gere, #279 I look at the ground; the grass comes, the flowers come. I can push a stick in the ground and it doesn't break. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 When the birds get up before me and the buds are on the trees. — Derek Allen, #177 You can tell it's spring to your back, love is in the air. — Shawn Swoffer, #574 CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 When the ground is WARMER and SOFT, and people's work commute is getting EASIER (and SAFER!). People and animals are playing outside. In Michigan it's not typically completely spring until May! :O — Amanda Gale, #573 It's cloudy! — Ashley Powell, #595 Because you have more daylight; it rains a lot and the temperature changes a lot. — Felicia Wilbert, #234 I’m really glad the new Barbie movie was made. Me and my boyfriend Richard went to see it and we both really enjoyed it. It was really colorful and musical. It was a very beautiful, playful movie. I really loved it because there were Barbies and Kens of all races, shapes and sizes. I loved the whole movie and it had some realistic parts that I loved. I loved all the playhouses and get-togethers and parties they had. I really loved at the end when the lady who made Barbie’s spirit was in the movie and we got a chance to see her. The only thing I didn’t like was the beginning when little girls GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 I love dolls and the new Barbie movie Dolls are very beautiful and cuddly. I really enjoy dolls of all kinds and books and magazines that show beautiful dolls. One of my favorite dolls is a DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 were tearing baby dolls up because I love dolls of all kinds. All my life, even as an adult, I’ve loved all kinds of dolls. I love Barbie dolls, baby dolls, stuffed animal dolls and cloth rag dolls. baby Chrissy doll. She looks real. I’ve watched documentaries where older adult women have dolls that they buy that look like real babies. That’s a great company keeper for someone who's lonesome, or just anybody. In a way, I’m a doll collector. But I will be careful not to be a hoarder. I share some of the dolls I collect with little girls and other people who like dolls because it's better to give than to hoard. Happy pet sitting! pets require noncommercial foods. Some pets even have refrigerated foods, as well. If you overfeed a pet they can get fat. Third is exercise. Some animals require going out for a walk or even a run to help keep their claws worn down and body healthy. Fourth is engagement. Animals are considered sacred when it comes to pets. There are many kinds, types and varieties of pets, from cats to dogs to snakes and birds. There are important protocols to consider before caring for any animal. When taking on another person’s pet there are five things that must be considered. The first is getting all the veterinarian paperwork that lists all illnesses and conditions, vaccination records, and special meds the pet must take. The second is diet. Many animals that are exotic do have special diets to consider. You need to know what to avoid with pets that have allergies and what they need to avoid so as not to get sick. Some Many animals want to play, but some animals want their alone time, such as for cats and older cats who are in pain. Remember, you are only keeping them until their owner wants them returned. Make sure you write up a contract for all care for the animal and the agreed-upon location and time you plan on helping that person. Considering all the time, energy and care you will shower on the pet, you want to make sure you get paid for your services. Pet sitting is a wonderful opportunity to make some cash and help very busy people who need the help when on vacations and business trips. Happy pet sitting! exp. 01/31/2025

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS STREET STORIES The path to addiction and recovery Growing up, I always felt as if I was a victim of circumstance, whether it was being parentless due to drug addiction or just being a pretty young girl. I have seen the world around me and how awful things can be for those who are affected by drug addiction. The families who love those who are suffering from addiction go through a lot because all they want to do is help that person. But some people don't know how to truly help someone suffering. Often the ones who are suffering from this disease are afraid to get help or are ashamed. I am one of those people who MISTI DAVIS Groundcover vendor No. 625 thought I would never be like that, especially with me having two parents who suffered from this disease, but not until I walked the same path as them did I understand the true struggle of addiction and the mental effect it has on you as well as physical. I was only 13 when I tried cocaine and it was fun at first because everybody else was doing it, but eventually it became not enough; I moved to crack cocaine which changed my whole life. I noticed I stopped caring about myself and about others. I became very selfish. It seems as if my days became harder. Without it I couldn't function and would do about anything just to get the crack cocaine; it took away everything and left me with demons that I couldn't face without crack cocaine. It made me homeless and shameless, as if I was not part of civilization, So if you know somebody who is suffering from a drug addiction, reach out and have a conversation with them. Maybe something you say might change their life; I know it did for me. I can now say I'm a proud recovering addict of nine years and it was not an easy road to become the woman I always wanted to be, a part of civilization and enjoying my life to the fullest. MARCH 8, 2024 Taking care of myself Back in 2014, I was unhoused in Washington state. I had health insurance and was able to set up an appointment with a doctor. I had my first colonoscopy. After the appointment, my doctor told me to come again in five years for a check-up. Unfortunately, I could not come back to this doctor because in 2019 I was no longer living in Washington. Since 2014 I have been moving around the country staying in Chicago, Arizona, Idaho and Michigan. Now that I am back in Michigan, I once again have health insurance through the help of my Community Mental Health case worker. I was able to schedule an appointment on February 28 to have my next colonoscopy. Because I needed My grandmother, my aunt and my ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 uncle all died from cancer. This is one reason why I need to see the doctor to make sure my health stays good, and so I can catch any issues early. I do my best to keep my personal hygiene clean because I know this helps with my health. I do have to watch my cholesterol but fortunately I am in good health overall. I think it is important to see the anesthesia and time to rest, my case worker got me a hotel for three days. Besides my colon, I also would like to have my chest checked out and hope to schedule an appointment for this soon. doctor and I am happy I have Medicaid so that I can. I am still unhoused, and I have to look out for myself. Author's note: My colonoscopy results came back and I have good news to share: I am a cancer survivor! In ten years I will return for another preventative test. Roberto and new vendor No. 631 Marc Robinson (pictured right) at the Groundcover office. Who are "the homeless?" SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover contributor It is not uncommon these days for someone to solicit me for money under the pretext of helping "the homeless." I will give them $2 if I can afford to; this will not alleviate their homeless condition but it will give them enough money for a 24 ounce beer at the Main Street Party Store. A common expression these days is: feeding the homeless. Wouldn't it be better to feed the hungry and house the homeless? A real zinger coming from Westland, Michigan where I experienced long term homelessness, was that I was told that I chose to be homeless. If this was true and I had some type of moral defect that made me choose to be homeless then I would have abandoned my public housing apartment (Miller Manor) in Ann Arbor Michigan and lived on the streets instead. The fact of the matter is I choose to spend most of my time at home because of the assurances of 4th Amendment of the U.S Constitution. There is a great deal of intellectual dishonesty concerning homelessness, everyone seems to have their schtick, including Groundcover. It has become a self-evident truth that our economic system causes a great deal of injustice including homelessness and we need a new economic paradigm. Eamonn Ofoighil MARCH 8, 2024 POWWOW The earth is my witness Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha around 528 BCE (before the Christian era) at the age of 35. Buddha, the fully enlightened one, was called Shakyamuni, the sage of the Shakya clan. Society was transitioning from tribes to republics in India, so he was born in the city of Lumbini, in the republic of Shakya as a prince. He left that life to be a truth seeker. When he came to full and complete enlightenment he was challenged by the hosts of illusion led by Mara. Google Search wanted help to explain Mara, who represents the world of appearances and its illusory nature for those who want a more complete understanding of reality. Appearances can distract anyone from their most profound experience because they seem so compelling. Mara said, “You cannot do this!” and “Who is your witness?” Buddha touched the earth and said, “The earth is my witness.” You may have seen the famous Buddha statue as he touches the earth. Showers of flowers and a chorus of voices came forth bearing witness to his “awakening.” The earth is always bearing witness and our lives depend on this witness and how we relate to it. As we tune into our bodies and our intimate relationship with the earth we can mature in a good way. This year is the 50th Dance for Mother Earth Powwow. It will be at Skyline High School on March 23 and 24. It is the weekend after the spring equinox and the weekend before Easter. It is an auspicious time to tune into our bodies as an expression of Mother Earth and feel the vast interrelatedness of water, earth, air and sun and the infinite number of sentient beings in countless world systems. Our interrelatedness is increasingly clear as technology plays with rats, mice and viruses to learn the secret of life. The feedback can be shocking and we will learn when we dare. There is good science beyond bureaucratic compliance culture; anything that helps us know and be at home in our bodies. Healthy, happy and holy is the goal. The coming powwow will be a great opportunity to tune into yourself and the community, to feel the rhythm of the drums and dance with Mother Earth. The Native American Student Association at the University of Michigan has been working diligently from the beginning of the school year to prepare for the 2024 powwow. We can prepare ourselves now to attend and learn the importance of an indigenous-centered life. Any human being who looks deep into their heart will KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 feel some connection to the original people of the earth under our feet. Look at the sign on Chapin Street in West Park: “Who Walked Here Before You.” I recommend “The Dawn of Everything” for its more complete view of archeological research that explores some of the many civilizations of “prehistory.” There is a Downstream podcast which summarizes “Everything We Think We Know About Early Human History Is Wrong.” Homo sapiens have been on this earth for 200-300 thousand years. There are still mysteries to be explored so let us honor all creation stories and celebrate that we are here. “Our Fires Still Burn” is a good documentary by Audrey Geyer about the survival and persistence of original peoples in North America. Peoples of European heritage have mostly lost their indigenous connection as they adopted the supremacism that is inherent in the civilization that grew out of the Enlightenment ideology with its belief in the supremacy of the rational mind and narrow individualism. The vision of progress that comes with this materialistic determinism continues to plague us with unintended consequences. Since 1990, neoliberal globalism is in its latest phase. Yanis Varoufakis calls out a new development, naming it “cloud capitalism” in his book “Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism.” Yanis was the Greek finance minister at the time of the country’s economic meltdown after 2008. He speaks of cloud capitalism as the high-tech imaginary realm which concentrates power into fewer hands and the info warfare insistence that there is no other choice. David Rogers Webb mastered the financial world, especially mergers and acquisitions, and offers us important observations in “The Great Taking.” This book and podcast educates us how “secured investors” can legally seize all property rights in a crisis. The struggle continues. Keep your eyes on the prize. The answer is under our feet. We have some 350 years of history to compost since the creation of capital and its deification, the sacrifice of life to this idol. This is a necessary process for those with open hearts and minds willing to engage in the struggle for deep freedom and discover who we are as human beings. I believe Groundcover News will have a table at the powwow where we can meet; there will be many tables and displays, including food. Let’s celebrate and dance! The awareness of freedom gets a lot of lip service on the Fourth of July. If we are honest with ourselves we will recognize that the great advances of dignity and freedom after the American revolution came from the abolitionist, labor, civil rights and peace movements. It may look like capitalism has won complete victory but the end of history will be at the end of time, and the challenge of our time is to understand the seamless nature of past, present and future in the context of timeless time. Only unconditional love can help us make sense of the chaos and suffering we experience. Composting all our garbage, including the sins of commission and omission is an important skill to study and master. Mindfulness training is good for this challenge. We must turn to our ancestors, the elders and lineage holders among us, and practice with spiritual friends towards a calm and clear social awareness that promotes creative struggle. There is plenty of work to do individually. Please come to the powwow and tune into the rhythm of Mother Earth. I have just discovered Willow Run Acres. T.C. Collins is a farmer, gardener, educator and organizer whose roots are deep in the African diaspora. His work is bringing earth and community together in Washtenaw County. I see a growing awareness that industrial food is a war on the earth and our bodies. We are approaching cancer as if it is as inevitable as the common cold. We have healing work to do. The earth is here for us. Let us bear witness together! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MAKING CHANGE MARCH 8, 2024 Youth in action: Ypsilanti middle schools interview candidates for Washtenaw County Sheriff On February 22 I had the pleasure of attending an event, invited by Dr. Anna Gersh (who I met when she joined the board of directors of Groundcover News when I was also a board member), to sell and represent Groundcover News. Being a salesman, at first my mindset approaching the event was just based on the selling, not really knowing what the event was about. After attending, I found out that it was the Youth Lead Community Forum on the Washtenaw County Sheriff. It was an idea Gersh had that she activated through her organization called the One Love Symposium, which co-creates and co-facilitates exciting and unique learning events for all. With an election coming up for a new sheriff in November, Dr. Gersh thought the forum was a good civic learning opportunity for young people. She pitched the idea to Keith Johnson, a math teacher at Ypsilanti Community Middle School, who had worked with her previously on another research project, and he thought that JOE WOODS Groundcover vendor No. 103 it was a great idea. Bringing the idea to the principal of the school, Charles Davis, and him liking the idea also got the students on board. From October through December 2023 they had pizza and met once a week in Mr. Johnson's classroom for an hour and a half. After December, they met twice a week and the students took a stronger interest because they started learning stuff about the program. After four months of meeting it was showtime. About 200 people attended, 150 free community meals were served, Ypsilanti middle schoolers who interviewed the Washtenaw County Sheriff candidates. Photo courtesy of Ken Magee. and 14 community partnerships were represented in the vendor corridor. The Ypsilanti Community Middle School choir performed. During the event the students asked the new candidates running for sheriff great questions about the community and voiced their opinions. Despite these being middle school students, they asked the candidates Alyshia Dyer, Derrick Jackson and Ken Magee thoughtful questions such as: • How are you going to engage the community to gain their trust because of issues crime? • How are you going to deal with people with mental illness? • What are you going to do to make the community feel safe with law enforcement? Joe Woods and Anna Gersh (pictured right), one of the organizers of the event. It was a great experience to see the community come together with the youth and more importantly, how these young adults asked intelligent questions and displayed their talents. going on within law enforcement? • What are you going to do about Hone your power of persuasion! ASHLYN VICTORIA and LAWRENCE MOEBS Huron Valley Toastmasters Have you ever had an excellent idea, but when you tried to bring it to the table, it was completely overlooked? If so, know that you are not alone! As many of us know, it can be frustrating not to be heard, especially if your issue is extremely important. What would you do if you could reduce (or avoid) the possibility of this happening? What if you could supercharge your ability to inspire action? Well, here is your opportunity. Huron Valley Toastmasters, a diverse, inclusive group dedicated to improving leadership and public speaking skills, is putting on a free series of online workshops (we call it a “Speechcraft”) that will allow future changemakers to hone their persuasion skills. Although there are many techniques for improving these skills, this Speechcraft will focus on a technique called Monroe’s Motivated Sequence, a persuasive structure to guide listeners into action. This Speechcraft will be broken into four hour-long online sessions: Session 1: Honing Your Power of Persuasion: An Overview of Monroe’s Motivated Sequence in 5 Steps Session 2: Monroe’s Motivated Sequence: Steps 1-3 in depth Session 3: Monroe’s Motivated Sequence: Steps 4-5 in depth Session 4: Review, Discussion, Application, and Ethics The sessions will take place every Sunday (except March 31) via Zoom from March 24 to April 21. Each session will be on Zoom, and will run for an hour, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. While beneficial, attending every session is not required. Each time you attend, you will have the opportunity to interact with a friendly, experienced Toastmaster (and hopefully a lively group of aspiring changemakers!) to build your persuasion skills and further your cause. No matter who you are, we at Huron Valley Toastmasters welcome you to sign up for this free Speechcraft! To do so, please scan the QR code to find our Linktree (or type the following link into a search engine: linktr.ee/huronvalleytoastmasters). There, you will be able to sign up for each of the four sessions individually. We look forward to meeting you! MARCH 8, 2024 VENDOR VOICES To sports and basketball fans and ALL people! Do y’all remember the Detroit Shock basketball team? If not, then I’ll refresh your memory. The Detroit Shock was a Women’s National Basketball Association team based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. They were the 2003, 2006 and 2008 WNBA champions! But, in 2009 the Shock were relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma and then in 2016 moved to Dallas, Texas where they were playing under their new name, the Dallas Wings. So, we all been missing the Shock the last 15 years in the Detroit area. However, I have exciting news! The Detroit Shock are BACK as part of the new Women’s Basketball League. Recently, I met up with their General Manager and coach, Coach Bill Schnorenberg. Here are the main points from our meeting: First, he talked about the many championship basketball teams he are “Defense and Run;” they will always be in attack mode! • The team goal, according to Coach Bill, is “To NOT lose a game but WIN a championship. • Watch in-person games in at the HOSEA HILL Groundcover vendor No. 532 Wayne State University Field House basketball arena in Detroit. So, we are excited and thrilled this season. Let’s go out to welcome back the Shock and support them. Thank you for supporting Groundhas coached. Yay, we can expect/ anticipate more championships in Detroit soon! • First game should be June 1 of this year. • The team will be incorporating a playing style similar to that of the Detroit Pistons Bad Boys team (known for their dominating defense play style in the NBA). • Coach said the team’s best skills cover News. I will be following the Shock team and updating everyone on their process in upcoming Groundcover issues. If you would like to listen to my interview/meeting with Coach Bill, then search YouTube for “Groundcover Detroit Shock” and enjoy! Also, I have some copies on CD, just request a CD from me (hosea.rap@yahoo.com) or Lindsay Calka and we will try to get that for you. Stay blessed! GROUNDCOVER NEWS The Motor City welcomes back the Detroit Shock 7 General manager and coach of Detroit Shock, Bill Schnorenburg (pictured right) and Hosea’ Hill at the Graduate Hotel in Ann Arbor. Questioning the role of social norms in fulfillment Regardless of whatever perceived role you play in the world, do you feel like you have fallen short of greatness you should have been destined for? Then you are one of many people occupying this world of silly and fantastical dreams that give the impression of some unidentified sense of competition, regardless of the nature of your character. This seems to be prevalent in most cultures, some more than others. Believe it or not, there are some tribes in Antarctica that value social unity versus the blatant one-upmanship found in Western culture. These are people with a very small population and they are quite isolated. The nature of their situation very likely requires cooperation for survival. It goes without saying that this is definitely not the case in our society. You could go so far as to say that this driven need of superiority over our peers could be viewed as a condition forced upon us, that regardless of our individual beliefs and ideologies the acquisition of wealth has been of the greatest importance in social norms. For people to be considered worthwhile in Western countries, monetary success is thought to be necessary. Generally we all desire happy productive lives, especially when one can acknowledge what a gift and blessing sentient life can be. Naturally, upon such a consideration you certainly wouldn't intend to squander it. Yet we find such privilege in a world that overlook: these imposed conditions and laws that seem to keep you on some predestined path are not laws of nature, nor a law of our observable universe. It's nothing more than the law established by the people who wield the largest measures of power. They are more or less JAMES MANNING Groundcover vendor No. 16 we're told has various conditions. You can be born into an assured paradise with endless possibilities, or the seemingly opposite side of the coin, the pure misery of a hell where you are condemned regardless of any actions you might take to mitigate the economic disadvantages dealt at birth. This can make life appear to be glaringly unfair and can psychologically condition people to experience limitless promise or inescapable despair. These experiences can further compound the belief that your life is rigged to follow some predestined path. Also these can be factors that would ultimately shape a person's outlook and even their personality. However this entire mind-warping mess can all be attributed to the type of world you find yourself living in. Especially if it is one that drills into your head that material gain is your only route to happiness. But this is not always the case with all people for a simple reason that we can easily play? People simply imitating actions that have proven beneficial to others? Is such behavior a major factor of the way things work? Or is it a small part in some complex design intended to manipulate a populace? It's something so perplexing and far-reaching dictators, whether pulling strings in obscurity or in your face 24/7. They're dictators and self-appointed gods of these warped values; sadly it's a very effective illusion. And so we navigate our lives in a way that can seem like a race to obtain greater wealth believing it will profit our existence. Yet what's funny is that many of us fundamentally know this is not always the case. Of course the achievement of wealth and power, while appealing to most, may not always play a vital role in an individual's desires. So why is it so damn prevalent? That's a question that utterly drives me up the wall. Is this perhaps some form of Darwinism at — and yet powerless over certain people, especially where a person's definition of value is concerned. Some people see value in rare metals and other representations of currency, while others stake worth in more crucial needs of life such as the air we breathe and food we consume. This article isn’t intended to provide any answers or life-changing insights. This is just an acknowledgment of the endless questioning and searching all of us share and of identifying what is truly important in the limited time we are given. I highlight the unending human inquisitiveness into the nature of existence. Life is what you make it. 6

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS EMPLOYMENT MARCH 8, 2024 The United States Agriculture Corps starting platform: Detroit, and other rural parts of Michigan The United States Agriculture Corps is a Michigan based non-profit that I founded. Our mission is to create a program that can be duplicated in other cities and states. There are food shortages occurring all across the nation. With our population increasing and natural resources being stressed, we wanted to create a program where people of all walks of life could have an opportunity to learn, grow and have a sustainable job. Most commonly, people with just a high school diploma are left out of the equation of higher learning. So our training program was created just for them. Most of our nation’s farmers do not have a high level degree. We have a mobile app rolling out August 15. We feel this avenue was necessary because nearly everyone has a smartphone and communication is key. We are six months from launching in Detroit. We are currently in the process of acquiring 100 vacant lots from the City of Detroit with the help of a loan from our local USDA Office. There are many people farming in the city but they are not doing it for four seasons and they are not problem in communities is interest in agriscience or agriculture as a whole, which is why I want the USAGC program to be “get paid to learn” and target everyone from ASHLEY POWELL Groundcover vendor No. 595 youth to the retired. The program was designed to be short and not as in depth as many long programs that require some higher education for comprehensive purposes. Detroit has improved greatly over monopolizing it. By now the City should be known for growing food and turning it into a salable food product. Doing this puts money in residents’ households and provides cash flow for the City. Our goal is to launch in six months, grow seven crops for three years and then diversify to over 20 by 2030. The Greening of Detroit has done a great job so far but gardens aren't enough to cover what's going on in blighted neighborhoods. The City has yet to attract major agriculture investment aside from Hantz Farms who I will be touching base with soon about possible partnership. A common the years. However, simply put, in some neighborhoods housing redevelopment is not possible. There's not enough income to support a mortgage so developers don't want to build. The average yearly income for a Detroit resident is $17,000. The eye sore is there. The lack of education is there. Most cities are known for something. Ours is the Motor City but nearly half of the residents don't qualify for working for Big Auto either. The threshold for getting trained has to be lowered to “can you remember basic information,” with graduates and veterans as managers. The Detroit Future City Project did an excellent job of outlining what Detroit is set to become. Detroit needs to take advantage of the situation where there is so much blight. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Truth be told, there is so much going on with our arable land that any city in any state is where ag investment is heading if not already there. Our population is growing at a devastating rate and there have been issues with production due to climate. There are over 2,000 Walmart locations and 5,000 McDonald's across the United States and many other retailers and outlets with food constantly readily available. Is Detroit ready? Is America ready? If Detroit does not take on what could be, big ag will take over and gentrification will be worse. We need to care about the poor in the City. We need to care about how the City looks and what the future holds for an ever-changing landscape in reference to survival. We know no housing is going to be developed, so what is there to do other than farm the land? Even if there is a house sitting next to a burned down or lesser see CORPS next page  MARCH 8, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: POETRY EDITION Write poetry? Read poetry? Know a poet? April is National Poetry Month, and Groundcover News is celebrating with a special poetry-focused edition! We're looking for original poems, or stories about poets that inspire you. Remember, "poetry" has multiple definitions, so feel free to think outside the box and get creative! Like all Groundcover News publications, everyone in Washtenaw County is invited to submit! The submissions deadline is Monday, March 25 at noon. Please email to: submissions@groundcovernews.com.  CORPS from last page valued property, it still serves its occupants. The United States Agriculture Corps will begin in Detroit, Michigan with the following job openings: Executive Director, President, Treasurer, City Director, State Director, Recruiting Manager, Marketing Manager, Farm Plot Managers and Greenhouse Workers. USAGC Members will wear the same uniform as the Air Force, but with our own custom patches. To request the United States Agriculture Corps in your state email: info@unitedstatesagcorps.org

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS BLACK CULTURE MARCH 8, 2024 Harlem renaissance: a revolution in Black cultural expression, art and aesthetics The Harlem Renaissance transformed American culture, art and aesthetics. In fact, the new cultural expression in 1920s Harlem (part of the Manhattan borough of New York City) laid the groundwork for better race relations and the genesis of a post-war civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. According to History.com, “The Harlem Renaissance was a golden age for African American artists, writers and musicians. It gave these artists pride in and control over how the Black experience was represented in American culture…” Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard says that by 1910, Harlem was home to upper class white New Yorkers. History.com says that “From 1910 to 1920, African American populations migrated in large numbers from the South to the North … By 1920, some 300,000 African Americans from the south had moved north, and Harlem was one of the most popular destinations for these families.” Black Scholars’ Perspectives on Harlem Renaissance In a short documentary produced by Henry Louis Gates and his colleagues, four scholars of the Harlem Renaissance shared their perspectives. They include Professor Gates, author/ journalist Isabel Wilkerson, and Columbia historians Farah Griffin and Brent Hayes Edwards. Their viewpoints are shown below: Henry Louis Gates: “The Harlem Renaissance is one of the most iconic cultural periods in African American history. Throughout the decade of the 1920s, Black writing, art and music flourished, ushering in a cultural revolution that rocked the United States … Amidst the fervor of the ‘Great Migration,’ bold, exciting forms of Black music evolved, along with venues to listen and dance to this music. Blues and jazz clubs became the central part of life in Harlem where artists such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, Bessie and Minnie Smith rose to prominence. The era also saw the burgeoning of literary work by and about African Americans, which the writer Alaine Locke compiled into an anthology. He called it ‘The New Negro,’ and its name came to define a movement.” Farah Griffin: “One of the most important factors that accounted for the rise of what we know as the Harlem Renaissance is the migration of Black peoples from the south to urban WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 centers like Harlem … Sometimes, in repressive times, we create the most extraordinary art ... The Harlem Renaissance is a facet of a larger movement that we think of when we say ‘Negro Movement,’ where you have a new generation of Black people, by this point two generations out of slavery, using the art as a way to help people gain broader civil and political rights.” Isabel Wilkerson: “The Jim Crow era began after Reconstruction, and every Southern African American had to think about what we should do. Should we go? Should we stay? For many of these people, it was a matter of life and death literally … The Harlem Renaissance is the flowering of creativity that had been suppressed for centuries. People had the sense that things were opening up, and finally, finally, finally, we can be the people that we imagine ourselves to be.” Brent Hayes Edwards: “Some of the framers of what became the Harlem Renaissance make the argument that the artistic work of the people has to be proven by the worth and literature that they produced, especially for a people that historically, over the centuries, have been defined as without culture, without history and without any record of achievement.” Conclusion — Impacts and Legacy The Harlem Renaissance changed America in more ways than one. Key figures who made a significant difference include Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Nelli Larson, Paul Robeson, Alaine Locke, Oscar Micheaux, Arturo Schomberg, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Josephine Baker, Countee Cullen, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Fats Waller, John Bubbles and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. The night life at the Cotton Club and the Savoy received tremendous cross-over appeal between white and Black patrons. Jazz and blues Left: Duke Ellington was one of the original Cotton Club orchestra leaders. Right: Author Zora Neale Hurston. The Cotton Club, Harlem, New York City, early 1930s. Photo credit: Science History Images, Encyclopædia Britannica. music became huge sources of entertainment. Black filmmakers such as Oscar Micheaux produced movies which depicted the lived experience of Black people in Harlem and the injustice of racism and the oppressive Jim Crow system. Some of the historians and scholars cited in this article believe that the Harlem Renaissance provided America’s white society the opportunity to interact with Black people in clubs, theaters, movies, literary forums, shared community spaces and, of course, through New York City’s large public transportation system. The commingling of the races in Northern urban centers such as Harlem meant that the 1896 Supreme Court “Separate but Equal doctrine” decided on Plessy v. Ferguson were negated in Northern cities. Plessy was ignored by revelers in Harlem and other places in the north. The generations after the Harlem Renaissance have encouraged more integration of the races, and more inclusivity of diverse ethnic communities. About 100 years later, the music, the - visual art, the performance art, the literature, the architecture and the aesthetics of the African American community are thriving in every corner of America’s society. According to the Pew Research Center, younger Americans such as the Millennials and Generation Z learned to value racial equality, racial justice, and of course, DEI — Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. That’s the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance came to an end in the mid-1930s. The reasons for the collapse, according to some historians, were the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. In addition, during the Works Progress Administration, the government encouraged people to look for jobs out west, and leave the cities like New York and Chicago. The Harlem area went through a demographic change. But well-known people such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones have given credit to the music of the Harlem Renaissance for rock’n’roll and other musical genres. The influence of the Harlem Renaissance continues on. MARCH 8, 2024 CREATIVE ARTS Truth or lies: Samuel and Waymeans In 1945 Samuel and Martha Waymeans were known for their famous peanut recipes. They lived in the city of Cridden, Georgia on a 400 acre farm with lots of peanut plants and fruit and nut trees. They made peanut butter, peanut sauce for any meat, peanut butter cookies, peanut brittle and peanut butter ice cream. The farm offered a variety of fruit preservatives and Spanish peanuts, walnuts, pecans and hazelnuts. Samuel and Martha were wise people who had a little country store on their farm. They would often give to the community. They reared five children on their farm and had 17 grandchildren. The couple did not support slavery, hiring anyone who was willing to work for an honest living. Everyone had come home to visit and help with the store and farm except their only daughter, Julie. She was the only child who moved out of state. She lived with her husband until he was called into the war. They had one son named Sam. After losing her husband to the war, she decided to work instead of returning home to Georgia and became a Ford employee. Her job at Willow Run was very demanding due to the war. Julie helped build the B-24 Liberator, according to her own account. The job made her feel very independent and important. Julie felt that FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 went to bed, he laid there thinking, “Wow, everything you can do with peanuts!” He never paid attention to peanuts. He only ate them living in the city. Sam had a very exciting summer playing with his cousins, learning the farm and learning how to cook with peanuts. He did not want to leave. However, he had to return to his home in Michigan for school. Before he left, his grandmother gave him her secret recipe and said, she was making a difference knowing that the work she did would make history one day. After the war was over she decided to go take her son to see his grandparents. Julie drove her son to her parents’ farm. She explained to him all about the farm on the ride there. When they got out of the car, Sam said, “What are these trees? It’s lots of trees! And what are those fields?” Julie laughed and said, “Nut and fruit trees, and peanut fields, son.” Her parents, brothers and cousins were very happy to see her and her son. Grandma and grandpa were taking turns, showing him the farm. Grandpa rode him on a tractor all around the land, explaining all the trees and peanuts. Grandma took him in the kitchen and showed him her secret peanut sauce recipe. Sam was so exhausted when he “I am trusting you with my recipe — keep it with you always. When you get married, share it with your wife.” Sam felt honored, knowing he had his grandmother‘s secret recipe. Each summer until he was grown they returned to the farm. He learned so much. Once he decided to get married, the recipe was sewed on a handkerchief. Samuel had it cleaned and wrapped in a red velvet box with a red bow. It was a present to his wife. Even though his grandparents had passed away, he was grateful for the times he spent learning about the peanuts, how to preserve fruit and the love they gave to him. Martha's peanut sauce Ingredients: 1/2 cup homemade peanut-butter 1/3 cup Soy Sauce 2 tbsp sesame oil 2 tbsp rice vinegar 2 tbsp chili paste Directions: Blend all the sauce ingredients together until smooth. To make one cup of peanut butter, crush and blend Spanish peanuts until smooth. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Thanks Groundcover News readers, Mr. Lover Lover was TRUE. What is spring D.A. Groundcover contributor Spring is a season I've just begun While a long time ago it seems I Sprung into action Spring is all sorts of things It's the renewing the present hour It's the beginning season of a Spring flower You can't always Spring forth warring against principalities and powers While people live in the streets during the Spring Night hours Condominiums sit at the very same corners as the homeless too, an upward Springing tower Not meant to house the one sitting down next to the Spring rain in the ditch I'm not Springing the idea that it's a negative thing to be rich I Spring out my door, head hung down Can't look up cause my woes Spring up and cast me down When is Spring gon’ come forth and let the sun in my heart shine? A day in the life of Earl EARL PULLEN Groundcover contributor U can’t forget What u never knew As you love Me Like I love You from Dreams Of old and Days of new The facts Of life Aren’t Red or blue Both are all of Love when I See you as You cry and all I can say Is I love You

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Spinach cheese lasagna ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingriedients: 1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained (squeeze excess water out)* 15 ounces ricotta cheese 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided in half 1 egg ¾ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon ground pepper 4 to 5 cups of your favorite spaghetti sauce 10 to 12 lasagna noodles, uncooked 8 to 12 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese 3/4 cup water *I like to use fresh spinach, ½ pound chopped (stems removed) Directions: Combine the spinach, ricotta, ½ cup Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix thoroughly, Spread ⅔ cup spaghetti sauce in a greased 12x8x2-inch pan. Arrange lasagna noodles side by side and one noodle crosswise to fill in the pan. Spoon half of the spinach-cheese mixture over noodles and MARCH 8, 2024 spread evenly. Sprinkle with half of the mozzarella cheese and 1 1⁄2 cups spaghetti sauce. Repeat layering ending with spaghetti sauce on top. Sprinkle the casserole with remaining Parmesan cheese. Run a knife around the edges of the casserole and carefully spoon water around the edges. Cover TIGHTLY with foil, crimping edges. Bake in the oven at 375 degrees for one hour 15 minutes or until noodles are tender. Allow to stand for 15 minutes and then cut into squares and serve hot. This is a family favorite, so good in the winter with fresh spinach. I use a very simple homemade spaghetti sauce but store bought jars also work! PUZZLE SOLUTIONS

2 $ FEBRUARY 23, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 5 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Geezers hook up for Groundcover. page 6 MEET YOUR VENDOR: TRE MCALISTER PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Parts of my history. page 11 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM La Shawn Courtwright at Union Station in Washington, D.C. during her trip for the Poor People's Campaign March on Washington in June 2022. • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS OPINION FEBRUARY 23, 2024 Hear Me Out: EBT should allow the purchase of hot, prepared meals Those stuck in poverty and homelessness suffer in all categories of life, but when it comes to food and proper nutrition, I feel like they suffer the most. Gas stations and convenience stores that accept EBT (governmental food purchasing assistance) play a part in this suffering because the lack of fresh food encourages the consumption of processed foods, which leads to health problems. People experiencing poverty and homelessness often live in places called “food deserts.” A food desert is an area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food. People who live in these areas have no other choice but to shop at the neighborhood gas stations and corner stores. Not only are the poor being under-served, but also overcharged for the products they purchase at these establishments. For Currently in Michigan, 710,500 MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 example, a bottle of water along with other items will cost twice as much at some gas station/corner store than it would at a major retailer like Walmart, Kroger or even Whole Foods. 41.2 million people in 21.6 million households received SNAP (which is the same as EBT) in America in 2022. households including more than 531,000 children receive SNAP. SNAP operates in all 50 states and is utilized frequently by individuals and families. I had a chance to interview individuals (who are the heads of their households) who receive SNAP benefits. I asked them two questions: Would you like to be able to purchase a hot prepared meal with your EBT card? And do you think you live in an area or neighborhood that provides affordable, nutritious food? I talked to an unhoused person who did not want his name to be disclosed and he said, “Yes, because when you're unhoused, you do not have anywhere to cook and to prepare the food.” For the second question he answered, “No, in the Ann Arbor downtown area, the gas stations and corner stores that accept EBT do not sell fresh food items such as fruits and vegetables.” Jim Dooley (aka Country), who lives in Ypsilanti Township said yes, he would like to be able to purchase a hot meal with his EBT card. And for the second question he answered “No, I am currently housed and disabled in a wheelchair with no transportation. The bus stop is half a mile away, so I have no other choice but to shop at these two stores in front of my apartment complex that both accept EBT cards. There is a corner store that prepares hot meals, and a gas station. I would like to purchase a hot meal at the corner store, but cannot purchase hot food with my EBT card.” Based on these responses, it seems clear that it would be beneficial if EBT allowed purchase of hot food. PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Teresa Basham Elizabeth Bauman Amy Burbury Jocelin Boyd La Shawn Courtwright Chris Ellis Cindy Gere Robbie February Mike Jones Will Shakespeare Wayne Sparks Shawn Swoffer GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Zachary Dortzbach Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Ruben Mauricio Emily Paras Liem Swanson Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons FEBRUARY 23, 2024 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Homeless Tre McAlister, vendor No. 519 In one sentence, who are you? Who am I not? I am a leader in the world and strive for all of our success. Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? I usually sell near the Blind Pig, People’s Food Co-op and Old Town. What’s the best way to start the day? Brush your teeth, facial cleanse and head to get coffee. What words do you live by? “Promise me you’ll be great” or “Bling Blow Wow.” What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn’t know? What my closet actually looks like and that I am vegetarian. What motivates you to work selling Groundcover News? I like getting feedback from our readers. That, plus when shoppers are just as excited for new papers as vendors are. What is the best and worst thing about selling Groundcover? Best: I get a break from the troubles of life. Worst: Just bad weather. What was your first job? McDonald’s and Hollister in high school. What are your hobbies? Photography, cooking, nature scene and gym. What’s the most impressive thing you know how to do? Rap or do 100+ reps on most exercises. What changes would you like to see in Washtenaw County? More work programs and college recruiting to go back to school. Being homeless, I’ve seen many new things, many people being there for one another, even treating each other as family. Those with money pretend like you don’t exist, like they are from another world completely – some act like they are simply better than us. I’ve seen churches helping but only to a certain extent. I’ve seen churches say on signs how they are open to all but aren’t. I've seen only men sleeping there get treated like kings and lez couples treated like they don’t count. My lez partener is my superman; stayed up past midnight a few nights just to protect us and keep from us getting robbed I’ve seen one guy in front of me SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 OD. I’ve witnessed so many things — one guy got his throat slashed because of an opinion. I’ve seen a couple guys get caught trying to rob us while we slept. We’ve stayed with lots of people and they always had a hidden agenda. We stayed at one place to wake up to find my shoes gone but once my partner got involved they mysteriously showed up. My grandkid’s present for her birthday disappeared too. How could anybody do a thing like that to a three-year-old? We had to sleep with a pedophile unknown to us. Try to survive under zero degree weather overnight! It rained on us for four hours or more. We trusted some people and they took a bite out of us many times but we still survived because we had each other. We endured everything because together we could conquer all. We were badass because we survived by ourselves. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 I'm ashamed of this world I'm ashamed of this world. So many prejudiced people have torn this world apart; I feel that this is not a good thing for the upbringing of our kids. We need to love one another and stop hating our skin color — my heart cries out for the unspoken and people who can’t cry out loud. They act as if you don't even exist. They're mean and hateful, but late at night if we cut ourselves, we all bleed the same. Couldn't we straighten it out and make it a better world where we could raise our kids to love one another more? There's people that are starving, then go to jail for stealing when they simply need some help with food. Sometimes it’s bills, house payments or child support. It is hard to get a job these days, sometimes because of your skin color. Although it’s easier than at some previous times in history, it still may not always work. It can still be hard sometimes to just be yourself, but at the end of the day we're all human beings. I feel that it's God who created this world, he created humanity and just What song do you have completely memorized? Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. Lol! What do you wish you knew more about? Animal/pet health and karma. because of their skin color, tell them it shouldn’t matter. Tell them that it’s okay and it's not like it's going to be the end of the world. But if we don't do anything about it, humanity is going to go down the drain, then what do we do? I’m of mixed race — actually I’m JOCELIN BOYD Groundcover vendor No. 85 because our skin may differ it shouldn’t matter. It is awesome too that some of us are doing our best to help with hatred. We need to understand each other and have open communication and be responsible for what we do if we see somebody that's prejudiced. If you can help, it’s important especially for being human because we're entitled to make mistakes and we're also entitled to have a second chance at life. Please, when you see someone having a hard day, talk to them and let them know that they're special and let them know that they're human and if they’re suffering because someone has hurt them Creole — and when I was selling Groundcover all by myself, I had a couple of white people approach me and call me the N-word. This happened twice. Can this really be the kind of world we want everyone to survive in? Of course not, that should have never happened in Kerrytown or anywhere else. My story that I tell you is real. I was beaten up, put in the hospital and some of the people in my situation never make it. This is not fair, why are people hurting people? I'm ashamed of this world. We need to come together and tell each other that we love each other and that we want the whole world to do the same. This world will be a better place if we all come together and beat the skin color war. PEOPLE’S PEACE BANK an invitation from Ken Parks, Groundcover vendor No. 490 Study and working group on the work of Richard Werner and the Valhalla Network, a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). Let’s meet on Earth Day, April 22, 2024 at 4 p.m. at the Groundcover office (in the basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ at 423 S. 4th Ave) to view Werner's conversation at the Capital Club Dubai on Central Bank Digital Currencies.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SHELTER FEBRUARY 23, 2024 Assault at Delonis Center challenges promise of safe overnight environment Naylor Dundee, 58, was sleeping at the Delonis overnight warming center when he was awakened with a punch to the face. It was 3 a.m., December 31, 2023. “I thought it was a dream, and that I was in a car accident. I had to open my eyes, or die. He used brass knuckles, hitting me two or three times. By the time one of the staff came over, I was already bloodied. “[Staff] called the ambulance. [Police] didn’t arrest him. He was taking a shower when I got in the ambulance. He stayed at the shelter that night, without trespass. “The police told me he was going to be arrested and then the police came to the hospital and talked to me. They tried to tell me that I didn’t want him arrested. “This same night, [AAPD] told me to wait to contact them again for two months. If they gave me a reason, I don’t remember. I didn’t do it, I waited to contact them again the next day. It felt like they wanted it to fall through the cracks. I know time is the enemy, especially when I wasn’t getting any help from the Delonis staff. “I asked one of my case workers, ‘Why hasn’t anyone representing the shelter said I’m sorry this happened to you?’ And when she told me that wouldn’t be happening, I filed a grievance. Nobody, still, has talked to me. “Delonis needs to be held accountable. They don’t want anyone to know about it. “I have a permanent stutter because of this. My face and body twitches. I need oral surgery. I don’t feel comfortable at all here [Ann Arbor]. Enough is enough.” Naylor struggles to speak in the interview. His balance is thrown off and he often falls simply standing up straight. I [Lindsay] observe bruises and lesions that Dundee attributes to recent falls post-assault. “This will affect every aspect of my life. And let’s be honest, it was already too much to handle. This has changed my life forever. I can’t play the piano anymore. I am a singer, and can’t do that anymore. Somebody has to pay for this. Something’s going on with my brain. “I only had known [the assailant] for three weeks. He’s never said anything to me. He never responded. I never thought he would do what he did. He could have killed me. “The Police Department was not LINDSAY CALKA Publisher responding either, so I had to take care of myself. I went to the courthouse and petitioned for them to get me a Personal Protective Order. By the time I called a lawyer, he said I had done everything I needed to do. “A safe environment is promised at the Delonis Center. It was not a safe environment.” When asked about the details of this assault, the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County could not speak to specific incidents involving clients due to confidentiality agreements. Groundcover News asked SAWC Executive Director Dan Kelly what efforts the shelter has made to reduce assaults and contribute to a safe environment for clients. He replied, “First off, we take all incidents of violence very seriously and restrict access for folks who commit violent behaviors — which often means trespassing them from the shelter. One of our top goals is to be a safe place, while still being low-barrier — regardless of [clients’] background, drug use … “We work very closely with local authorities [AAPD] and only want them in seriously violent situations. We have on-site security to help us respond. We have a proactive internal response system for health and safety — a health and safety coordinator and a mental health coordinator. To stop issues from happening in the future, all staff are trained on de-escalation, CPR, first aid, Narcan. “Another thing that we also take seriously is lifting restrictions. We use a community based model; we have a grievance committee of formerly homeless individuals and staff. “If the client has a grievance, they can file it, no matter what it is. Anonymously or not. Most of them are trespass lift requests. “The need is so high that we choose to not turn anyone away. We know Delonis Center is not big enough. There are too many people. We need space for more residential-style programs. “It's a balancing act. Having everything in one place sometimes can cause issues, and we see that in the winter. “We did plan for record numbers. We opened the off-site Ypsi location that is open seven days a week, and we are trying to add more, to have more space, more dignified space, more choice. I wish we had beds for everyone so we don’t need to have congregate shelter. “The men’s rotating program is a high barrier program. If we had more resources, we would have more sites that serve specialized groups — for recuperative care (only eight beds), women and people in recovery.” Nowadays, Naylor stays at the men’s overnight rotating shelter where he has found a more peaceful environment. This off-site shelter closes April 1. FEBRUARY 23, 2024 HOUSING GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Flats used for Housing First in Finland are built alongside other types of housing to build community spirit and make the transition into mainstream society an easier process. The setup also offers employment opportunities. Photo credit: Y-Foundation, the Big Issue UK Homelessness is a crisis in America: lessons from Finland’s housing policy More than 300 mayors arrived in Washington, D.C. on January 16, 2004 for five days of meetings as part of the 92nd annual United States Conference of Mayors. They talked to lawmakers, the Secretary of State, the National Security Advisor and the U.S. President about important issues which affect their cities. Among the issues on their agenda were the homelessness crisis, violent crimes and public safety, dangerous drugs across the southern border, severe mental illness, anti-semitism and Islamophobia. With regards to homelessness, the mayors who appeared on national TV broadcasts (ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC) said that they wanted to ask lawmakers and the President to provide more support to HUD — the United States Department for Housing and Urban Development. The mayors said that they want more affordable housing for low-income people and people experiencing homelessness. The reality today is that the American Rescue Plan which was designed to help Americans deal with the challenges of COVID-19 has expired. Most of the emergency assistance and protection for rent and shelter were not reauthorized. In early 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration launched the Housing Americans Initiative. The HUD program sent out 75,000 emergency Section 8 housing vouchers to local governments to be distributed to people experiencing homelessness in their jurisdictions. Mayors were asked to do more by working with private sector developers to increase the supply of low-income affordable housing. What is the key reason for our thousands of migrants to northern cities as if they are human cargo. Mayors of urban cities along with county commissioners, policy makers and homelessness advocates, have searched for good models for ending homelessness. WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 Alexandra’s Comments on Finland’s Housing First Policy affordable housing crisis and homelessness? Many housing policy experts blame the Faircloth Amendment of 1998. This amendment to the New Deal era 1937 National Housing Policy Act forbids HUD from building new low-income affordable housing which would have increased the supply of housing in cities where rent is high, eviction is high and housing demand pressure is exponential. Research evidence, including studies from HUD, shows that more than 582,000 residents of American cities are homeless. HUD’s “PointIn-Time” homeless data shows that hundreds of thousands of individuals and families are unsheltered and sleeping in street encampments and public recreational parks or under bridges. Some community observers say that a more troubling phenomenon now is the growing number of homeless families with infants and school-aged children. Another aggravating factor highlighted by the mayors is the busing of asylum-seeking migrants from Texas to northern cities such as New York, Chicago, Denver and Washington, D.C. The governor of Texas boasted that he had shipped more than 92,000 migrants to “blue cities” and plans to keep sending tens of Alexandra Granberg is a native of Finland. She has lived in the states for the past two and half years. She visited Finland last summer. Her testimony below is based on her eye-witness account and research on the topic of homelessness in Finland. “The policy that’s been implemented in Finland since 2008, called 'Housing First' is not unique to Finland. It has been tested in some other European countries as well. In my understanding, this means housing (as a constitutional guarantee) is provided directly to a person who is homeless. As the name implies, housing comes first and any other assistance or needed treatment follows after. Prevention and direct housing plus a support system with wraparound services are included in this model. Before this policy, housing was provided only after any underlying health condition like alcoholism or drug-addiction was treated. In other words, a person was required to “get their lives together” before they could obtain housing, apparently called the 'Staircase Model.' “With the housing first policy, the government converted some shelters into housing units, and see FINLAND page 8  Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Ann Arbor 200 2024 marks the 200th anniversary of Ann Arbor’s founding. To mark this occasion, AADL is undertaking a project called Ann Arbor 200. Throughout 2024, there will be 200 digital content releases exploring topics from Ann Arbor’s history. Visit aadl.org/ annarbor200 to learn more and check out the growing collection. Public Computers The AADL has public-access Internet computers available for use by both cardholders and noncardholders at all five locations. Each station has USB ports, headphone jacks, and some of the fastest wifi speeds in town! FEATURED EVENT 5 Mario Day Celebration Sunday, March 17 • 11:00am–4pm Downtown Library Celebrate Super Mario Day at the Library with a packed day of fun for fans of all ages. Compete in our Mario Kart tournament, conquer live-action balloon battles, and end the day with a screening of The Super Mario Bros. Movie ! Check out aadl.org/marioday for more.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER NEWS FEBRUARY 23, 2024 and futuristic textures that she is now known for. T’onna’s style focuses on conveying and capturing the emotions of the African American experience currently in America.” I first became familiar with her work with the Black Lives Matter murals outside of the Ann Arbor District Library and was excited to see what she would bring for the event.The first piece depicts an older couple celebrating in a bar. With excelLeft: Crowd dancing underneath the disco ball to Jive Colossus. Right: Groundcover vendors Joe Woods (pictured left) and Derek Allen (pictured right) outside the venue welcoming attendees. Geezers hook up for Groundcover ROBBIE FEBRUARY Groundcover contributor Romance and Aqua Velva were in the air in early February as two elder organizational scenesters embraced for a few fleeting hours at a fundraiser at LIVE nightclub at the corner of First and Huron. It was the Early Bird Special of club nights; with an art auction, two bands, and multiple speakers all wrapping up by 9 p.m. The event was a certified hit and would have made Ed Sullivan return to “The Toast of the Town” with his tail tucked. Groundcover issues, merchandise and art were snapped up en masse by the finely aged crowd. It made for a highly successful event which I was happy to participate in. The Venue LIVE Nightclub and its competent and charismatic staff were excellent hosts for the event. The ample dance floor was packed with both Groundcover supporters and a bevy of gyrating grandparents. When I first lived in Ann Arbor, the venue was called Live at PJ’s and had a separate bar called Goodnight Gracie in the basement. My first forays into the establishment in the early 2000s left a fair amount to be desired. It had a grimy 90s feel to it, the sound system was hanging in there with duct tape, and the aura was a shade past threatening. Twenty years later, I was impressed with improvements. The nightclub is owned and run by a handful of local businessmen who have found a lot of success in the last decade. This group, Watershed Hospitality, has some great things to say about their intentions. “The establishments we own and operate are as unique and eclectic as the customers we serve. But the unifying motivation for all the food and drinks we create, or spaces we design, is to make it memorable, make it lasting, maybe even historic. Hence, Watershed Hospitality Group: named both for the place we work — Huron River Watershed — and for the goal of creating moments that help define the social culture of our colleagues, town and community." LIVE nightclub is the shining cornerstone of a multiblock entertainment district and will continue to provide excellent experiences for Geezers and non-geezers alike for many years to come. The Geezers Born in the 1970s, the “Ann Arbor Happy Hour” traversed many venues before arriving at Live nightclub. It has been organized by Randy Tessier for the last twenty years. He is a larger than life English professor at the University of Michigan. His students think very highly of him. He currently has a 100% “would take again” rating on Rate My Professor dot com, a website that has been helping students pick classes from the dawn of the internet. One student left this review. “A very chill professor! He really likes to talk about world events and get a grasp of what our generation thinks of certain topics in the media. Really down to earth and wants to see you do well in his class.” His rise to academia was on a non-standard path and he is a really great role model for many people who are seeking opportunities to do what they love no matter where they currently are in life. The “Geezer Dance Party” hit a cultural zenith as Covid protocols started relaxing in early 2023. An article in the New York Times called it “the coolest rock show in Ann Arbor.” Many other groups took notice nationwide and the durable dance phenomenon is spreading. The Bands What is a wild blue-hair-filled dance party without music? It is like one hand clapping at a silent disco. Luckily, we had The Switchbacks and Jive Colossus to stave off our existential ennui. The Switchbacks bill themselves as “a Jive Colossus performing at LIVE nightclub. T'onna Clemmons' Groundcover News art piece was set up onstage with the band. character-filled six-piece musical ensemble hailing from the Ann Arbor area. We like to groove. We like to have fun.” A hard-rocking country and blues quintet fronted by vocalist Janet Benson, they commanded the dance floor with many funky hits. Hip replacements or not, the groove inspired gyrations that nine out of ten doctors would approve of. After a not-so-brief interlude where Groundcover Director Lindsay Calka spoke about the amazing work and opportunities Groundcover provides in the Ann Arbor region, Jive Colossus took the stage. The 11-piece, horndriven Afrobeat, Funk, R&B, Jazz & Caribbean band were a force to be reckoned with. As the dance floor vibrated with a beat so deep that some attendees harkened back to the 1975 sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, one couldn’t help but become wistful at the generational gap shrinking before our very eyes. The Art Two paintings were created to be auctioned off at the event. Local artist T’onna Clemons provided her unique style and viewpoints to the pieces. Her interview with “Canvas Rebel” states: “T’onna Clemons is an Ann Arborbased freelance painter/ muralist and originally a graphic designer. She has been traveling around the world for the past several years, gaining experience in mediums such as oil, gouache, acrylic, watercolor and welding. She has continued to use these skills to develop her own style of mixed media lent use of color and form, the spirit of “Geezer Happy Hour” is captured in a way that only T’onna could depict. The second piece speaks directly to Groundcover’s efforts to give voice to underserved populations in the Ann Arbor Area. The artist herself speaks to this in the aforementioned interview. “Being from Ann Arbor I have found it is extremely hard to be a success as an African American in any facet, especially art. I have been successful in other states in regards to my art but never in the state or town I was raised in. I want to be able to be a success and open doors so that people who look like me will not have to struggle or have as hard of a time as I do/did,” she stated. Both pieces sold well at the silent auction and contributed to an amazing event. The Summation Randy Tessier said it well during our interview. “We LIVE folks, and we are a kindly and caring contingent, were thrilled to be a part of something that speaks to the role of community responsibility toward all who make up our citizenry. When I was asked about LIVE playing a role in supporting Groundcover News, how could we not? We see any endeavor that promotes a way of self-determination for those of us who may be between jobs, without other means of material support, and looking for a home, as not our moral choice but our moral duty. Thanks for allowing LIVE to participate." Through their actions, the participants shone a light on the important work of Groundcover News and inspire others to join them in the fight for a more just and equitable society. As the night came to an end, the echoes of their voices lingered, reminding us all of the power of collective action to effect change. FEBRUARY 23, 2024 ART INTEL CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 Paul Wertz discovered his amazing art skill in grade school at around eight years old. He loved drawing and creating in-class projects, but he told me his favorite project was doing clay. In class he discovered Picasso's art and fell in love with the style. Paul's family recognized his love for the arts as well as his talents. “When I was young I needed a reference of some images or objects to draw but as time went by I found I could construct the idea from memory. This took me years to develop. Some artists have this talent already down: The ability to see an image in your mind and hold that one image in the mind's eye for a constant period of time, and even rotate the image to recreate the art in any form. Every artist comes to their talent in different ways, some people have it naturally from birth and others discover it at 50, and even 70. When art is found or rediscovered in one’s life, it really opens things up for personal change,” Paul said. Paul told me as a young artist he used to enjoy shows like Rick and Morty cartoons, as well as other cartoons. “For me, Rick and Morty along with Picasso truly transformed my personal style. I would say I have an eclectic form of art with a hidden art form as well. I create images and some of them stand out and others are in fact hidden in the image itself. It's fun to watch people look at my art and point out the different images hidden. I guess its a hidden cartoon style of art,” he said. The way I see it is that Paul is creating images that have unseen characters. He’ll rediscover that he created something in the art that he then brings out. He draws with a pencil and then a face, or an owl, or something will pop out. “My art form has been a real coping mechanism for me in dealing with homelessness and personal loss. It's become a form of escapism in dealing with what I am going through,” he said. “It literally helps me escape reality." He continued, “What I love doing is to find a public location and just start drawing. Soon I get people to see my art, I'll strike up a conversation and get new ideas and good comments from my work. I feel like sharing it with the world; this is one way to show my work. “My work is very versatile. No matter what direction you turn it, it is always right side up. I would love to have my work get registered at the Library of Congress and get a copyright for my work and have my style only be what GROUNDCOVER NEWS Undercover art intel: The amazing artist Paul Wertz 7 Above: 2D colored pencil pop art by Paul Wertz, who is pictured right. is made by me alone.” Paul added, “I also want to create an LLC and help out in the community with art and artists.” Paul's works are extremely vibrant with a use of colors and contrasts from dark to light. I was totally mesmerized by it. The image jumps out at you and the more you look at it the more you get out of it. Paul told me he has a hard time acquiring colored paints. He needs to continue his art form with drawing paper. So if anyone can help donate to Paul or bring any colored pencils, all items would be appreciated at this time. Bring them to the Groundcover office and I will get them to him. I see his art becoming public posters and being shown to the world. I do hope he can create more art for a show this summer.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOUSING  FINLAND from page 5 distributed public housing throughout the city in an effort to create areas with residents of mixed economic backgrounds. According to the Finnish government, the number of long-term homeless persons between 2008 and 2015 decreased by 35%. As of 2016, homelessness decreased for the first time to under 7,000 people (out of a population of 5.6 million people), and continued to decrease in the years after. (The Finnish government uses a definition of homelessness which includes living temporarily with family and friends.) The majority of homeless people live in Helsinki, Finland's largest city.” Granberg also referred to an article titled, “The End of Homelessness in Finland.” It was published in the Journal Cityscape in 2022. She said, “According to this paper, the number of shelter and hostel beds fell from 2,121 in 1985 to 52 in 2016. In the same time, supportive housing units grew from 127 to 1,309, and rental apartments for people formerly experiencing homelessness increased from 65 to 2,433.” In January 2024, representatives of Finland’s Y Foundation visited Ottawa, Canada. They were invited by the Ottawa Alliance to end homelessness. The Y Foundation CEO noted that street homelessness in Finland is almost non-existent, and that sheltered homeless people are less than 4,000. Conclusion Historians have informed us that America witnessed large-scale homelessness after the Civil War and the Reconstruction period of the 1870s. The promise of 40 acres and a mule was not available to all. Another period in our history when we witnessed large-scale homelessness was during the Great Depression. The current homelessness crisis touches every major city, and every region of the country. From 1937 to 1998, federal, state and local governments were partners in the construction and management of affordable housing. During the 1996 Presidential election campaigns, Senator Robert Dole, who was running against President Bill Clinton, condemned affordable housing construction as the “last bastion of socialism in America.” Earlier in the 1980s, the Reagan Administration called for tearing down high-rise low-income housing without providing HUD with the money for replacing the lost housing stock. The Faircloth Amendment of 1998 worsened the Federal government’s ability to end homelessness and supply adequate low-income housing. Both Finland and America are considered western democracies. Each nation has learned from the other in the past. Leaders of the Y Foundation in Finland said that housing first was tested by clinical psychologist Sam Tsembiri and his team in New York City during the 1980s. It was a success, and Finland copied that homeless solution. They implemented the housing first model and said goodbye to the Staircase Model. Finland has a national consensus on how to end homelessness and succeed in the war against poverty, the war against drug abuse and addiction, and how to provide the housing security necessary for durable mental health treatment. It is incumbent on the U.S. Conference of Mayors to embark on cross-national comparisons of homelessness solution models that are sound and effective. They can start with the miracle of Finland. When they then lobby the U.S. President and Congress, they would be in a better position to say, “We have examples of nations that have solved their homeless crisis. Let’s talk! Let’s take action!! Let’s make a change!!!” FEBRUARY 23, 2024 exp. 01/31/2025 FEBRUARY 23, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD from the International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Blood-typing system 4. Downer 8. Plant fungi 13. "___ a lender be" 14. ___ and aahed 16. Cliffside dwelling 17. "The Greatest" 18. Bat poo 19. Inexperienced 20. Starts eating 22. Always playing a similar role 24. Revised 25. On one's guard 26. List of food options 27. Sphere 29. "___ Loves You" (Beatles hit) 32. Kind of drive 34. Going to the dogs, e.g. 36. Text on tablets 41. Burger topper 42. Some tides 43. Cooking meas. 44. Lawman Earp 46. Attired 50. Brown ermine 52. Slips 54. Phonograph brand 57. Dutch cheese 58. It may be bid 59. Coach 61. Chit 62. Bristles 63. Nitrogen compound 64. Knight 65. Asian weight units 66. Knocked off, in a way 67. Absorbed, as a cost DOWN 1. Wreath for the head 2. Meteor that explodes in the atmosphere 3. Ancestry 4. Neglected calf 5. Type of bowling popular in cricket in the 1800s 6. "Bingo!" 7. Bodyguards of the British Monarch 8. Wiser 9. Compassion 10. Fertilizer compound 11. Associations 12. Mailed 15. Group's senior member 21. Building material 23. ___ green 28. Neighbor of Hung. 29. Wrath, e.g. 30. All the rage 31. Dash lengths 33. Family head 34. Babysitter's handful 35. Catch sight of 36. "Sesame Street" watcher 37. "Star Trek" rank: Abbr. 38. Nibble 39. After expenses 40. Longtime NBC show 44. Court 45. W.W. II conference site 47. Highfalutin' 48. Went to a restaurant 49. River in a Strauss waltz 50. Appropriate 51. Aligns 53. Extend, in a way 54. Gigantic 55. "I had no ___!" 56. Quote 60. Have a bug

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Mory WAYNE S. Groundcover vendor No. 615 I’m going to tell you a story. A story about Mory, Mory the Manitu. It's a sad story, I must say. If you get weepy and runny when you hear a sad story, you should turn away. But if you want to hear about Mory and his sad story I’ll begin my tale now. A grander mammal you won’t find, he makes children laugh to his delight. So he follows your boat and is a joy to see. Until he crosses the path of plastic in the sea. Plastic you say? No way! Yes, you see, the pollutants of the day find a way to put plastic in the sea, and the way is us — we’re to blame. Mory, you see, has no way to know his way of life is changing. Mory is just a big, loveable manitu with no PhD. It’s a sad story, I know, with a sad ending! I say no — we can save money and the rest if we make the world free of plastic. Do our best to fight this evil because it is created by people. Compacted in shivering sinews, nerves, and the fleshy white meat, her nature, her earthborn eyes question this world of violence; Dust, dirt muddied in blood, and sullied ivory horns hear the voice of injustice as this bull turns her head from side to side, turning in her silence as the world reels in a horrible poverty, seemly to a golden draped matador twirling his peculiar muleta around her head, Last words AMY BURBARY Groundcover contributor Slip and fall away, sweet pain Make your haste and leave I have but no time to weep And even less to grieve Pack your bags of what has been Then move where is no more You will not be made to stay As often times before I was never right for you And you weren't meant for me We are simply passing ships And that is all we'll be This is where we say goodbye For you and I are through Take no rest, shove off, depart So long, Farewell, Adieu Rage & hate TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 To my lil ones In the right time, There’s gonna be a way For you to have peace of mind You’ll find unconditional love A clear head, A warm heart, All you gotta do is find God, He’ll alwayz mend, Alwayz be right by your side You’ll learn ta think of, And you’ll have love, No matter how hard it is, Or how bad the storm seems, You’ll have that gleam, All your rage & hate, Will leave you and you’ll find, Your soulmate, And love the way you should of. WHIMPERING WHIMPERING WHIMPERING An estoque simulado sharp to the shoulders, blood sprays the arena raucous naive voices are heard, sophistry rules the dulled senses while the fierce bull is the brave creature who shoulders... BULL (bloodied) CHRISTOPHER ELLIS Groundcover contributor Luscious black fur, black Persian lamb surround her fierce massive head, her fierce hides a noble calm; resolute, strong, limbs stamp the noisy air, her rotund taut body the shape of the the United States, compass the whole universe; FEBRUARY 23, 2024 (humanity) PUZZLE SOLUTIONS FEBRUARY 23, 2024 BLACK HISTORY MONTH Parts of my history I want to share some parts of my history with you all, from when I was age three till now. I was a quiet and shy little girl. I was also a fast learner and very obedient to my parents and other adults. At age three, I learned to spell my full name, my mother’s and father’s name, my full address and phone number. My mom wanted me to know these things in case I ever got lost so I’d have a better chance of being reunited with my family. I learned that you could also get into trouble being obedient when I was four years old and in Head Start. I was at the crosswalk to the main entrance of the elementary school that I attended and innocently stated to Blair, the safety patrol boy that lived on the same street as I did, that I was not going to listen to him because my mother taught me how she wanted me to cross the street. He took me to the principal's office pulling me by the left shoulder part of my coat. I was made aware that that was called “insubordination.” I did not get a paddle for that because my cousin came to the office to intervene on my behalf, as she was my teacher and knew that I was just doing what I was taught. Thank God I didn’t get hit with that large piece of wood. Around age nine, me and my cousins would go together to pass out flyers for the United Auto Workers of Michigan. One of my family members was an active participant in the activities of the UAW Hall which was on Wyoming off of McNichols Road back then. She would monitor us from her vehicle as we would return to the car to get more flyers until they all had been distributed. I reckon that that fueled my passion for canvassing which I’ll speak to further into this article. Moving forward to my fifth grade year of elementary school, I played the leading role as Harriet Tubman, which I was very proud to play. I was also teased by some of my classmates. As we all know or learn, children can be very cruel to one another. I would cry about it at times because it made me sad and hurt my feelings, not understanding that it was really a compliment. I was in the spelling bee that year, too. Although I knew how to spell all of the words, I placed fifth in the spelling bee because when I was spelling one particular word, I looked into the audience for support and inspiration from my mom, then got nervous seeing all of those strange faces. I was glad to get off stage even though I said that I would win the spelling bee. Joining Junior Achievement of Southeastern Michigan Division at age 15 bolstered my confidence being in a leadership role. I was voted to be the telemarketing executive of our LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT Groundcover vendor No. 56 company. I believe that there were three other companies in our division. First step was for everyone in our company to sell our $1 stock certificates for a 10% profit share to our investors. I decided that selling pin buttons was a great idea and my company agreed. We raised the most money from our chosen selling item for our company and won. In June 2008 I began canvassing for Clean Water Action which protected the Great Lakes of Michigan. I was able to make my weekly quota in one day. I was so proud of myself and was awarded a scholarship to attend the canvassers conference in Paducah, Kentucky that year where I met many lobbyists that won against big industry companies. I took a lot of photos at the Canvassers Conference. The cottages we lodged in were beautiful. The one I was in had a floor to ceiling window that revealed the stunning view of a hillside where you could see the orange colored clay and the trees that grew from that orange clay. I’d never seen anything like that before. It was also the place I discovered disc golf. I hope to be able to attend another event as great as this again. A couple years later, I’d often see the vendors selling Groundcover News around the downtown area of Ann Arbor. I was not moved by the idea of selling the paper, but I was eager to become a writer for the paper. In June 2011, I decided to go to the Groundcover office to check it out and to see if I could become a writer for the paper. I was met by volunteer Sandy Schmoker and vendor Rissa Haynes and was told that I could most certainly write for Groundcover News. I acknowledged that I mainly wrote poetry and was told I could publish my poems in Groundcover as well. I recently ran into Sandy on February 13 in downtown Ann Arbor; it was a pleasure to see her again. I miss Rissa’s warm, welcoming smile. I keep her alive in my memories of her. My first published article ‘“No one will hear the silent voice” was published in the July 2011 issue of Groundcover. “No one will hear the silent voice” was written in 10 minutes on the bus. I had to be somewhere, then returned to the Groundcover office to submit my writing and my poem. I didn’t realize how much the article I wrote matched the Groundcover News mission. That confirmed my belief that being a writer for this paper was one of my callings. By this time, Susan Beckett was in the office, too. She told me, ”How nice to have you with our paper.” The first published poem I wrote in March 2004 called “Not helpless, or hopeless, just homeless” was in the July 2011 issue of Groundcover, as well. That was it for me — I’ve been publishing my works in Groundcover News since. I received a scholarship to attend the North American Street Newspaper Association Award ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee in October 2011. There I met Tasha French, the president of NASNA, and Lee Stringer, former street paper editor in New York and author of “Grand Central Winter: Stories from the Street.” I remember me and Mr. Stringer were sitting outside of the building where the ceremony was being held, talking. I asked him about publishing my book, and expressing my concerns about it being published. He told me to just keep the faith. I met John Seiganthaler who was the longtime editor of The Tennessean Newspaper and fought for freedom of speech and consequently founded the First Amendment Center. We lodged for four days and three nights at the Vanderbilt University dorms. That was a college experience while not being in college. The awards ceremony was held in a historical bank building. That was another experience in itself, too. I had taken pictures of the original blueprint of the building and a lot of the artwork exhibited throughout the building. Unfortunately, I lost the phone that the pictures were on and I wasn’t able to retrieve them when I purchased another device. The memories are stored in my mind, though. In November 2011, Vickie Elmer hosted a writers workshop for the Groundcover News writers. She used to write a column for the Washington Post. I thank her for the writing skills that she taught me. I was featured on Michigan Radio in “Stories of the Homeless Writers with Kyle Norris” in January 2012. It was very fun working with Kyle on this interview. I did another interview with her before she was no longer with WUOM. People have done things for Groundcover on my behalf like Patrick Morgan who assisted in writing the proposal for the technologies fund that was for computers and office supplies. Terri Jones from the Michigan State University Extension facilitated two anger management courses free of charge. I am proud that I impressed these people in a way that led to them offering their services to Groundcover News. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 My experience on the CTN television FYI 1002 segment with Dana Denha, Lindsay Calka and myself, La Shawn Courtwright, was a challenge, but I was very proud of the way that the interview turned out. I am glad that I was able to give a broader perspective on what it is to be homeless. I have also authored a book of poetry in November 2019 titled “The Fold-A Collection of Poetry.” It is sold at the Blackstone Bookstore located at 214 W. Michigan Avenue, Ypsilanti. You may also purchase it online on Barnes and Noble, E-books, Apple i-Tunes, Kindle Store, Kobo, Google Play Books, Amazon, RedShelf, Wild Rumpus, eBay, Grit City Books, iMusic.co, bookshop.org, Dymocks, Flipkart, Adlibris and elefant.md. This is an excellent read, so please get your copy as soon as possible. Thank you! Before my accident I was learning about audio/videography, at CTN of Ann Arbor with Jamie Chiu. I was featured on Soapbox on September 26, 2022. I look forward to returning to learn radio broadcasting, TV production and about Greenroom. Hopefully I will be back at it before this year is out. My most monumental embarkment was my plan to travel alone and to be the only female from Groundcover News to attend the Poor People's Campaign Moral March on Washington D.C. I began my trip by train June 18, 2022, because it would take me two days to get from Ann Arbor to Union Station. Of course you have to consider there to be delays, which there were two — one in Ohio and one in Philly. Check out the beautiful pic I took of the Appalachian Mountains through the Shenandoah Valley. I arrived at Union Station one hour before my family picked me up, and then went off to Baltimore, Md. I spent two days enjoying Curt and Star. I enjoyed going to the Inner Habor by the Mariner watching the boats go by. On the morning of the March, I took the train back to D.C. and walked to see the Capital and the Washington Monument. I called Joe Woods and found him amongst the crowd. We then located Jay Gordon and Derek Allen and enjoyed the day and the people taking pictures. My favorite was the one in front of the African American Museum where I stood in front of the building and the fountains which sprout their own ballet. After the exuberance and excitement of the day, what better way to spend the night than at the Garden Hill Hotel on M and Third Street? They had gorgeous rooms, a pool, washers and dryers and room service. I had to take a photo in front of the bell at Union Station! As I hope you learned by reading this article, I am a multidimensional person with diverse interests and abilities that I like to put to good use.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Wheat berry salad with apples and cranberries ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Salad: I cup whole wheat berries, dry* 1 large apple, chopped 1 orange, peeled, segmented and cut into bite size pieces ½ cup dried cranberries 2 stalks green onion, thinly sliced 1 cup baby kale leaves 1 cup toasted pecans, chopped Dressing: 3 tablespoons olive oil 3 tablespoons honey 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar 1 tablespoon lemon juice ⅛ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon ground pepper Combine dressing ingredients, whisking to combine well. In a heavy pot cover wheat berries with water (2 inches above the wheat berries). Boil for 45 to 60 minutes uncovered. Watch carefully. Cool and drain. In a large bowl combine all of the salad ingredients except the pecans. Toss with dressing. Sprinkle with the pecans just before serving. This is so wonderful to have during the winter months! *Wheat berries can be found in the bulk section of the People's Food Co-op Denise Shearer FEBRUARY 23, 2024

2 $ FEBRUARY 9, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 4 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Truth or Lies: Mr. Lover Lover. Page 10 MAURICE LEGGERT #618 ASK YOUR VENDOR: ROSES ARE RED, VIOLETS ARE BLUE ... GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Pull Over Prevention grows with community support. page 7 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Volunteer mechanic fixes car lightbulb. Photo courtesy of The Mutual Aid Network of Ypsilanti. • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER letter to the EDITOR "CONTINUING ON THE COMMONS" Following last issue's article by Ken Parks on "Sharing the Commons," I thought an update on the Ann Arbor Community Commons would be appropriate. Several years ago I wrote a Groundcover report on the "Campaign for the Commons," its victory at the polls in 2018 and a City Task Force making recommendations to advance the commons — which the City Council accepted. In December 2019 they encouraged acceleration of development; funding came out of the parking revenue, still being collected since 2018, when the parking lot was repurposed from "Public Land-Parking" to "Public Land-Park." Since then, the Mayor has continued to oppose the commons, and seems to have aligned the current City Council and administration to ignore, or very slow-walk, the directions mandated by the People's vote and the democratic process. A "Council of the Commons" was set up to advise the City on what to do, and they refused actually to look at plans and talk about ideas and help the commons development; instead, they said the City should hire professional consultants to advise us on what to do, and that the private funds raised for physical development should instead be used to pay the professional consultants. This "out-sourcing of creativity" also limited attention to the "central park" only — ignoring both the "civic center" and the "commons” overall as the cooperative mode of development. The commons means "everyone is invited to use it, and to be responsible for it and to respect one another." The "it" is what we can get together, beginning with the Public Land, for which we People voted and won, and other things people can donate or lend or buy. "Commonly pooled resources self-managed by the users" is a definition of the commons. Needs include a stage and sound system, lights and shade and tables and chairs and signs, wi-fi, toilets and water … with some of this the City could easily have helped, and still could. On the Library Lane surface lot, the first need is to get the cars off, so the people can easily begin to use the space. The Civic Center Building element of the commons development is a longerrange plan, waiting for more local creativity, and depending on the building plans of other neighbors and further designing inspiration for connecting the Liberty Plaza with the Library Lane and providing terraces over the Library Lane Ramps and building the Civic Center Building over Library Lane. The Civic Center is imagined in many ways, where you can go to see what's happening and new, and it is a place of last resort when you have a problem that can't be solved anywhere else … including a multi-use mix of a local food conscious cafe, special events performance space, peace place, housing and service counseling, art galleries, local history and climate PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Pony Bush D.A Roberto Isla Caballero Lara Dendel Cindy Gere Mike Jones James Manning Ken Parks Ashley Powell Denise Shearer Felicia Wilbert GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Jane Atkins Luiza Duarte Caetano Zachary Dortzbach Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Ruben Mauricio Emily Paras Holden Pizzolato Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons classes. Lots of beautiful four-season ideas have been suggested, many partnering with the library and other possible developments including a warming place and continuing the gardens. If you want to put on a program on the commons, or are interested in helping, please contact the Ann Arbor Community Commons Initiating Committee: www.AnnArborCommunityCommons.org — Alan Haber, Commons Initiating Committee FEBRUARY 9, 2024 FEBRUARY 9, 2024 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR Finish the sentence: Roses are red, violets are blue ... Everything feels better when I'm with you. — Maurice Leggert, #618 What about the white one? — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 If you don't think its true, go to the zoo! — Wayne Sparks, #615 I like a lot of money, how about you? — Joe Woods, #103 I buy and read Groundcover, and you should too! — Cindy Gere, #279 When it rains, I think of you — drip, drip, drip! — Shelley DeNeve, #22 I don't know ... I love you. — Mike Jones, #113 Honey is sweet, and so are you! — Ken Parks, #490 Health minute Most people lead busy schedules: work, family and just organizing life as a whole. The most important thing we must do is prioritize our health — mind, body and spirit. In this guide I will start with the body, and teach you the methods of living a long time, as well as having mental clarity and focus while doing it. I have to admit, I am someone who gets bored with the same old routine of going to the gym. So I have to mix up my fitness. I bike, jog, lift weights, go to the yoga studio and hit the erg (rowing machine). If you're trying to lose weight, losing the weight can add extra stress. Just the thought of doing something extra and extenuating adds pressure. The first thing you need to know is eating the right foods is the first step to a healthy body and fitness Third, eliminate sugar comASHLEY POWELL Groundcover vendor No. 595 routine. When you eat the right foods you not only feel better but you perform better whether that be in sports or on the job. If you're eating bad food and working out, it defeats the purpose. Secondly, getting up at 5 a.m might seem like a challenge but it's the best time to work out. Working out at this time can fit into anyone's busy schedule. pletely. Open your fridge and cabinets … throw out any fattening food and replace it with all whole food. Drink plenty of water throughout the day. Drinking water sends stress packing and removes toxins from your system. Water is also key in moving key nutrients as well as oxygen production. Sports drinks and other teas on the market contain added sugar. Anything over 13 grams of sugar is bad. Bread, once digested, becomes sugar. If you eat rice it should be brown rice. Many pastas and other grains become sugar. Let's say, you like pancakes. Gluten free or spelt pancakes taste just as good and are a healthy alternative. Some brands even offer a proteinpacked box. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Ruminating on the Lions — support your home team! Going into the NFC playoffs, like many Lions fans, these were my thoughts: “I hope the Detroit Lions do good like Michigan did. Michigan won the national championship. The Lions play this week on Sunday. I hope they win. If they win against Tampa Bay, I think they’ll go to the Superbowl. I guess I’m a Lions fan. I like them because they’re my home team. I’m from Detroit, and I was born and raised in Michigan. So I like the Red Wings and the Tigers and the Pistons. The Pistons fell out right now, but maybe they’ll recover one day. It was good back in the day when they were called The Bad Boys, a long time ago. No one remembers that, but you can look it up, it’s true. Anyway, the Lions haven’t won a championship since 1957. I think that if we do win, it would be a really amazing thing, everybody would be really surprised and happy. I’ve never seen them in person, exp. 01/31/2025 only on TV. I think it would cost a lot to see the game live. I actually like it better on TV because I can pause it, I can go to the bathroom, cook something, and I don’t have to pay a lot of money for refreshments or anything like that. When you’re at the game you gotta pay for parking PONY BUSH Groundcover vendor No. 305 and all that — it just costs more. I don’t know the names of many of the players right now, but my favorite is Jared Goff, the quarterback. He’s doing good so far. He’s the best quarterback that they’ve had in a long time for the Lions. He’s doing better than Matthew Stafford, even though Matthew Stafford got paid more. Stafford was the highest paid quarterback as of 2017. I have friends who don’t like the Lions, and I used to not like them myself. They were the worst team in the NFL! I couldn’t stand them. I had no faith in them. I started to like them more now because they’re winning. I’m not saying that you need to like a team just because it’s your home team, but you need to support them. I supported the Lions even if they weren’t my favorite because I’m from Detroit. Let’s hope that they keep winning so that I can like the team that I support!” After the game reflections: I feel that they could've done better. They were doing good at the beginning but the second half they just fell off. I don’t know if they got tired or what it was. But I feel like they came a long way. Even though we lost, we made it almost to the Super Bowl, and I’d never seen them do that before.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS Housing the unhoused in Washtenaw County My name is Michael Jones. I am a writer, photographer and vendor for Groundcover News in Ann Arbor. Groundcover News was founded in April 2010, as a means to empower low-income persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Street newspapers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless and combat the increase in poverty. Before I go any further, I would like to give a hardy thank you to the many who work tirelessly day and night to serve the unhoused and those in need: Peggy, Sheri, Lindsay, Ben and Brian from the Mercy, Peace, Hospitality and Purple Houses, respectively: I say thank you from the bottom of my heart. And we can’t forget the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County for all you guys do for the community. I say thank you to board members, staff and those who stand on the frontlines in this war on homelessness and poverty. Washtenaw County is facing a homelessness problem. During sub-zero temperatures in the middle of January, the Ypsilanti police threatened to evict unhoused people from their tent encampment along Michigan Avenue, leaving the homeless with nowhere to go. Facing imminent eviction, the people staying there chose to move on, and the county government helped with some hotel nights for them. You can read more about that in the January 26, 2024 edition. The Delonis Center, the Washtenaw County shelter, is over-capacity especially during the winter months. and what plans they have for this building, but I would like to use this structure as an example of what type of space is needed to house the unhoused in Washtenaw County. Not only would this be a place to MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 I was born and raised in Ann Arbor and like most people who grew up here, had to relocate to Ypsilanti due to the unaffordability of Ann Arbor. I was once homeless here in Washtenaw County. I was also a cab driver for over ten years and homeless or unhoused at the same time. The number of unhoused people in the United States dropped from 637,000 in 2010 to about 554,000 in 2017. But homelessness is spiking upward now, due to the high cost of living and to some degree the pandemic; and as a result, tens of thousands more people in the U.S. were unhoused in 2023 compared with 2022. On average 2,000-3,000 people in Washtenaw County are homeless each year; over half are children. I would like to share a small portion of my vision for a Washtenaw County Shelter for unhoused individuals and families. Located in Ypsi on Michigan Avenue between Hamilton and Adams Street is a beautiful building and structure; once upon a time it was part of the Eastern Michigan University Business School. I don’t know who owns that building Former site of Eastern Michigan University's College of Business, located at 300 W. Michigan Ave in Ypsilanti. house those in need, but could also be a refuge of resources within the campus area. Resources such as: mental health/ drug treatment clinics, job training and resource center, and programs to help those re-entering society from incarceration and young adults entering society from foster care. This facility will be community friendly and operated by professionals and volunteers who are passionate about helping and serving individuals and families in need. We who live in Washtenaw County are fortunate to have three fine educational institutions, the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University and Washtenaw Community College. I’m sure these institutions wouldn’t mind lending their expertise to help the homeless and provide internship opportunities for students to be involved in active work experience. This would be rewarding not only for the unhoused and those in need, but a life changing and consciousness upgrade for interns and volunteers, who are at such an impressionable age in their development as young adults. Institutions, organizations and people from all ages from various backgrounds would gather, and work for a great cause with the aim to enlighten and redeem. I would encourage Washtenaw County citizens to see if the County could purchase that site I mentioned, or consult a developer, and build a campus structure of this magnitude or greater to be able serve at the capacity needed. Editor's note: Michigan Innovation Headquarters has purchased the old EMU Business School. It will be rennovated to be a "life science and technology hub in downtown Ypsilanti, complete with medical offices, multiple dining options, and state-of-the-art wet lab spaces," according to Ann Arbor SPARK. FEBRUARY 9, 2024 Giveaways do no good Editor's note: This is an opinion piece. Before, two or three years ago, there weren’t as many homeless people in Ann Arbor. Today, there’s too many people staying outside. I heard that all these people are coming from Detroit. I have been here for nine years; I came with nothing. Now all these people want free things. This county has thousands of people out there waiting for housing. My caseworker tries to help me anytime, but if I don’t need help I tell her, “for now I’m OK.” But sometimes I don’t know what’s happening to me. Sometimes I think I might be losing my mind. All the time, I see people asking for retirement and disability income]. I don’t understand why they pay this much money a year. This is the question: why is the United States doing so many things for these crazy people? They need to have more mental health care and hospitals so that these people are not outside in the cold. I remember in Cuba, in the 70s, ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 something, asking, asking, trying to work, real work. Now, in 2024, the social security administration pays a trillion dollars a year [total of both social security Castro said: either you work, or you go to jail. In America you don’t have laws like that. Everything is free. People don’t want to go to work, they want to stay in the street. The American Constitution needs to change many things. Why do people still come to America to become drug dealers, gang members, and pimps? Sometimes people come to America to work. That’s okay. But too many people come here and they don’t have a green card, or social security, or anything. Lots of bosses accept people and pay them cash money under the table. Immigration and police need to change. The White House and the Capitol are not doing anything. What needs to be done is: take out the Statue of Liberty because it’s looking bad. They need to change the Constitution. In 2016, Barack Obama went to Cuba and made a law that opened up the border. He did not make sure that people coming from Cuba wouldn't be deported though. I want to say thank you to America. I am a Cuban refugee. Finito. FEBRUARY 9, 2024 BLACK HISTORY MONTH An old white man considers Black History Month JIM HUGHES Groundcover contributor Black History Month is an opportunity to discover more of the actual history of how people of color have been treated in the United States. The stories of enslaved people, indigenous Americans, indentured servants and immigrants are only recently getting told widely. The facts have always been there; the difference is that the facts are now being told in detail more and more by those descended from people of color. My own view is that more and more people have researched original documents, family stories and oral history so that 21st century Americans can (if we choose to) discover the whole story of our nation's history. For many years, school history books focused on the aspirational nature of the American experience as expressed in the founding documents. This gave an overview without the detail needed to listen and learn about the lived experience of people on the margins of society. Thankfully, this practice is changing from the platitudes I learned in high school. A closer look at how the United States carried out the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights reveals a series of hopes and dreams — both achieved and deferred. Perspective and context explains the arc of history for people in this country. The sad stories and hard lives of " STUDYING BLACK HISTORY? START AT GROUNDCOVERNEWS.ORG/ "Long and winding road toward Dr. King’s dream of ending hunger and poverty in America continues" by Will Shakespeare, January 2021 "The Black family in transition" by Will Shakespeare, February 2021 "Crossroads in STEM diversity, equity and inclusion: empowering underrepresented racial minorities" by Will Shakespeare, April 2021 "Juneteenth — a celebration of freedom" by Jaz Brennan, June 2021 "Don't take away my humanity! Remembering Anne Frank and George Floyd" by Will Shakespeare, July 2021 "Community town hall: Poverty, racism and trauma" by Ben Girodias, November 2021 "The tragedy of Aura Rosser: Police brutality, domestic violence and community policing reform" by Will Shakespeare, November 2021 "Black health and wellness before and after COVID-19" by Will Shakespeare, February 15, 2022 "Celebrating Black leadership in health equity and race disparities research" by Will Shakespeare, March 1, 2022 "The story of Ida B. Wells: Anti-lynching crusader, women's rights activitst" by Will Shapespeare, August 1, 2022 "Emmett Till's story — the horrific lynching of a 14-year-old boy in Mississippi" by Will Shakespeare, August 15, 2022 "Gentrification of Ann Arbor, my hometown, through the eyes of Shanty Wobagege" by Mike Jones, November 1, 2022 Celebrate Black History Month by competing in an online trivia contest for various prizes. marginalized folks have been obscured, causing widespread misunderstanding. What’s especially been missing from the common understanding of history has been any serious review of the myriad intentional policies, laws, cultural discrimination and economic policies that shut many Americans out of full participation in the benefits of society, politically and economically. The resulting ignorance of most Americans has infected public policy for years. As a result, we have experienced huge disparities in opportunity, wealth, home ownership, health outcomes, longevity and social capital across generations. The unfettered truth can be interesting and enlightening to those of us seeking to understand the deep divisions in our culture and society. Facing the pain and suffering of those who were once enslaved can be a liberating exercise. One important action we can take is to educate ourselves about history, to take a deeper look at the stories, culture and systems of people on the margins in America. This can be done by searching out and reading books and articles by Black authors and journalists, by visiting historic places and museums chronicling the Black experience in America, and by taking time to listen to those voices speaking out today in journalism, literature and the arts. Facts matter. Ignoring the facts and details about our history has caused repeated failure to address the disparities endemic to the American political and economic system. Despite these serious difficulties, I'm hopeful that the "Beloved Community" that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned can be realized. It will take constant effort. My own readings and explorations in recent years have caused me to believe that we white Americans should take the time to learn about and confront the sad realities of systematic, deliberate efforts to divide people since Europeans first arrived to colonize this land over 400 years ago. Sugarcoating this history has only served to maintain division, bigotry, hatred and white supremacy. I cannot change that history; however, I can learn about it and I can work to undo the disparities it has caused up to the present day in February, 2024. Honest reckoning with our past can lead to reconciliation, healing, justice and the dream Dr. King had for this nation. Jim Hughes is a Christian, influenced by the social gospel, the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Father John Kavanaugh and Dan Berrigan. Active in the Peace movement at St. Louis University, Hughes achieved conscientious objector status in 1970. He was drafted and worked with farmworkers and extended health care for his alternative service. Mr. Hughes has lived, worked and volunteered in Michigan nonprofits, churches, local and state government for many years, until retiring in 2015. GET TO KNOW YDL! WHERE TO FIND US: Online at ypsilibrary.org Call us at 734-482-4110. TO GET YOUR LIBRARY CARD: 1) Fill out the easy online form at ypsilibrary.org/library-cards. 2) Call 734-482-4110 3) Or stop by any YDL location! DON’T HAVE A DRIVER’S LICENSE? We can work with a variety of IDs to get you your card. TOOLS TO HELP Preschool and Kindergarten Resource Fair February 17 12-2pm YDL-Whittaker Chat with representatives of local schools and service organizations, enjoy school readiness hands-on activities, and take home a free book and tote bag. FEATURED EVENT Trivia Contests February 1-29 Virtual GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 Predict the winners for the 2024 Academy and Razzie Awards and win a movie prize pack. Details at ypsilibrary.org/events.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS RACIAL JUSTICE Support Krystal Clark LARA DENDEL Groundcover contributor Krystal Clark is incarcerated at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti. From the website freekrystal.com, “Krystal Clark is a 39-year-old mother of four, devoted friend and caring community member.” She has been incarcerated for the last 13 years, and is suffering severe health problems due to an allergy to mold which is present in the prison. Her health issues are so serious that she is slowly being killed by the conditions in the prison. Due to her speaking out about this injustice, she is being harassed by Michigan Department of Corrections and mocked by employees and other inmates. In addition, the prison has been messing with her mail. She has been seen by doctors within MDOC, but the diagnoses that the doctors give her do not make it into her medical file, and if a doctor says her issues are due to the mold, she never sees that doctor again. At the moment, she is in need of hearing aids, which she was told she would receive, but they are now delaying her getting them by claiming they need to run other tests first. Krystal is dealing with a large amount of pain every day, with no relief. In 2019 Krystal was among a group of women to file a two-count civil rights action against the MDOC, alleging the prison is full of dangerous conditions (leaky roofs, haphazard retrofitting, inoperable windows and more) which have made it a breeding ground for fungi and molds. Doctors within MDOC will not include mold as a cause of their health issues in their files, but when the women have been lucky enough to see an outside doctor, mold is clearly listed as the cause of their health ailments. This case was dismissed by the court because the judge said that there’s no established rights of prisoners to be free from mold. This means that even if a doctor finds that mold is the cause of their health ailments, the prison is not obligated to take any action. Since it is clear that the prison is not going to take action to fix the mold problem, this means that Krystal’s health will only continue to worsen. She was not given a death sentence, but serving the remainder of her sentence in these conditions could kill her. We’re calling for the compassionate release of Krystal Clark so she can access the life-saving medical care she needs and return to her family to heal. Please contact Governor Whitmer and tell her that Krystal is being killed in prison, which no one deserves. In Krystal’s own words: “Everyone incarcerated has somebody who cares about them. The Governor says all Michiganders matter. I can’t tell when she knows my situation and others. We’re still here sick and suffering and others are dying and she has yet to acknowledge this, let alone do anything about it. The Governor says we all matter, now we’re asking her to prove it. Myself and others have families out there who love and care about them who shouldn’t have to suffer or lose their lives in here. We know there is a lot going on in the world but, Michigan, we need help. We need y’all to support our prisoner advocates who are fighting for our lives and our rights.” Krystal has petitioned the Parole Board for a Pardon or Commutation of Sentence due to her health issues. Once it reviews her petition, the board will make a recommendation to the Governor. Please write to the Parole Board and the Governor, urging them to release Krystal Clark (#435064) so that she does not die in prison. FEBRUARY 9, 2024 Krystal Clark Additionally, please call the Director, Deputy Director and Healthcare Services Administrator of MDOC and demand that Krystal be given access to medical treatment for her mold allergy, and that MDOC must address the mold problem and fix the building conditions that are allowing its growth. Learn more about Krystal’s situation at freekrystal.com and listen to her on Prison Radio (prisonradio.org) Originally published in Fight to Win January 2024. FEBRUARY 9, 2024 RACIAL JUSTICE D.A Groundcover contributor The Pull Over Prevention program is a car repair clinic that started in southeast Michigan as a result of the murder of George Floyd and others during encounters with police officers. It began in August 2020, led by Natasha Abner of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Mutual Aid Network of Ypsilanti and other current volunteers. According to the Ypsilanti Mutual Aid Network, “Police and immigration officers use minor automotive issues as reasons to stop, search, fine and deport people. POP volunteers provide repair and advice for these issues, share repair skills and promote access to local resources.” Pull Over Prevention is a great endeavor that a lot of community organizations have got on board with in order to reduce unnecessary confrontations with law enforcement and bridge the gap for those experiencing financial difficulties, who are most likely unable to afford needed minor car repairs. Community organizations and the services and resources they offer include: • Bløm Meadworks donated part of their proceeds for the entire month of January 2024. They also sponsored a benefit fundraiser on January 21. I want to thank all who attended and supported this event. • Wee Wah Productions organized a big fundraiser in Ypsilanti, Michigan that raised over $1,000. • Masjid Ibrahim, a mosque in Ypsilanti, has hosted five to six POP events annually. • FedUp Ministries provides a freefood truck and lots of food assistance around Washtenaw County. • Pet Pals Mutual Aid provides free pet supplies. They do this because they realize that pets are family, too. • Car Seats of Michigan offers free car seat safety inspections and can sometimes provide free car seats. • Home of New Vision gives away harm reduction supplies like Narcan and they provide support for recovery from substance use disorders. • Packard Health dispenses free and low cost COVID and flu vaccines. • Peace House Ypsilanti is a house of hospitality that provides support for people experiencing homelessness and/or food insecurity. Also on hand are harm reduction supplies and hand warmers, foot warmers and tents for people living outside. • Ypsilanti Bike Co-op helps with free bike repairs in the spring and summer. • Washtenaw County Health Department provides free health supplies and information about local resources, and works with Packard Health to do free vaccines. • Legal Services of South Central provides Michigan free legal assistance. • Good Wolff provides free support and information for dog training. • Washtenaw Camp Outreach provides free street survival resources and camping supplies. • Mutual Aid Network of Ypsilanti is POP volunteers and participating organizations. a nonprofit that fiscally sponsors the events and also furnishes a free store which offers a variety of items such as household goods and clothing. • Michigan General Defense Committee, inspired by and with help from southeast Michigan POP, started another Pull Over Prevention that happens the first Sunday of the month in Lansing. • Huron Valley Democratic Socialists of America helps sponsor and support the POP events. I want to add that The Pull Over Prevention Program offers a booklet that lists some of your rights. I spoke briefly with Officer Bondy of the Ann Arbor Police Department and she told me that people can also be kinder to law enforcement agents. They have a very difficult job to do and they are also concerned for their safety, too. I hope to see more programs implemented by Prosecutor Eli Savit about safety when dealing with people with mental illness. I hope that we all can be treated with dignity, respect and fairness. If you’re a professional, hobbyist, curious or retired mechanic, you can help make POP Clinics and help requests possible. If you might know a mechanic, please let them know about POP. POP needs interpreters, too! Spanish and Arabic speakers often attend Pull Over Prevention. If you know someone who speaks a language other than English, either natively or fluently, please send them our way. The next Pull Over Prevention is Saturday, February 10, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at St. Luke's Episcopal Church Ypsilanti (120 N Huron St.). It occurs every second Saturday at rotating locations. Instagram: @ypsi_pop Facebook: @PullOverPrevention Email: pop@ypsimutualaid.org GROUNDCOVER NEWS Pull Over Prevention grows with community support 7 "The Color Purple" movie is awesome I really enjoyed the new “The Color Purple” movie written by Alice Walker. I really think the new “The Color Purple” movie is awesome. There’s also “The Color Purple” movie from back in the 80s, too. I like both versions. I love both versions. The new one is very colorful and musical. The new “The Color Purple” movie is also very detailed and very funny. The new “The Color Purple” movie has very sparkling, colorful and shiny clothing that the actors wear. I love all the pretty clothes they wore. I loved the music, too. I like the part where Celie tells Harpo to beat Sofia and Sofia confronts her about it. I thought it was so funny when she said, “You told Harpo to beat me!” and she responds “No!” and Sofia called “Push Da Button.” I liked the part where they go to church and I love gospel singing. Another part I love is when Celie DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 tells her she’s “A damn liar.” And then they start singing and dancing. I enjoyed the music because it was funny, too. There is a song called “Hell no!” The part where Celie and Shug Avery are singing and dancing is a song made all the colorful pants, and they were unique and different and Mister bought the one that no one was likely to buy. Another great part was when Celie reunited with her sister, kids and family. That was a very touching and happy-tears part that I really loved. I loved Shug Avery and Celie's friendship; Shug really brought happiness and joy to Celie. “The Color Purple” is a movie about friendship and love and family and Black culture and I will always love both versions of the story and movie. I recommend this movie for anyone to see.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMONS The financial commons as an expression of the primordial commons, unconditional love is more important than arithmetic, which of course has its place. Most of us play in money everyday and it's easy to get lost in what is a real priority and what you want. A natural breath will help you focus on your priorities. Loans, grants and donations are three significant manifestations of money play. When you purchase Groundcover, you may give an additional donation when you sense that the person has needs greater than $2. Some years ago, I was invited to a Thank you Common Cycle for a comfortable and safe method of transit! KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 “Sharing the Commons” in the January 12, 2024 edition of Groundcover News focused on unconditional love as the bedrock of all the commons we share. We are born into the life of this world with a Mother’s love that gives many of us an experience of unconditional love. From unconditional love to “money” is a big jump. The truth of our lives is obscured by the barrage of brilliant distractions that the digital world uses to commodify everything with its algorithms and data mastery. This full spectrum war to dominate our awareness is looking at artificial intelligence to help them in that mission. Richard Werner, the German economist, cut through the mountain of deception that hides the impermanence of money. He demonstrated empirically in an experiment with the Bank of England, that loans create money from nothing more than the social commons whose potential can be used productively, or to create debt in nonproductive activities such as war and other forms of corruption. My assumption is that natural intelligence is more profound and complete than artificial intelligence. Can artificial intelligence tell you what its assumptions are? I think AI designers are lost in the enlightenment ideology of rational thought and the belief that reality is a machine that the rational man can master. You can have the power of the gods at your command. So we have nuclear power with all its unexpected consequences. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists just updated the doomsday clock to 90 seconds from midnight. The rational mind cannot fathom unconditional love because it is wedded to the belief in its own supremacy, an individualism attempting to prove its permanence. Brothers and sisters, we cannot think our way into the complete experience of reality because the conceptual mind is a small player in the vastness of reality. Your therapy may have taught you that the subconscious and unconscious mind are full of habitual patterns that influence decisions and actions. Even our intestinal microbiome can be addicted to sugar and alcohol. When cravings become powerful, we need to interrogate them, listen to the deeper wisdom of the body and detach from immediate gratification. Of course we want to feel good so the struggle is complex. Taste is important but how you feel an hour or two later is the real test of your diet. Theory and practice need constant upgrading on the path to the truth that sets us free. Experience tells you the truth of your life. If you have some daily practice of mind training, even a few minutes can give you glimpses of the freedom you hoped for. Patience and perseverance are key. When the financial commons is seen Kwanzaa celebration at a national guard post in Hamtramck (see “A proud American revolutionary” or whatever in Groundcover News June 30, 2023). The focus was on cooperative (and community) economics, defined as “a commitment to the practice of shared social wealth and the work necessary to achieve it.” This is the practice of the financial commons. I believe the financial commons can be understood in a way that leads us to share and promote creative living as an expression of living democracy. I hope you remember Pastors For Peace and Veterans For Peace, two important organizations in the struggle for peace in the world. When we live in the shared commons there will be peace as described by Toni Morrison: “The peace I am thinking of is not just the absence of violence but the play of an open mind when it encounters an equally open mind.” Many of you know that my peace activism led to a core family in Cuba. The extended family has brought a young mother and son to center stage. We meditate together with our shared four year old son, Santiago Alberto, who enjoys our practice of breathing together. I held Daniela, the mother, in my hands shortly after her birth on August 21, 2000, at a ceremony in the cathedral. I committed to be padrino, i.e., protector, mentor and spiritual friend. A few years ago she expressed the desire to live with me to the end of my life. We have an application with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services which is in long delay and not likely to be approved if it is processed due to their terms and conditions. I have been sending most of my income to Cuba where Daniela administers it to several households. In past years we built two houses. If you are familiar with the geopolitics of U.S. policy, you know about the blockade with its sanctions and ongoing financial crisis in Cuba. Many are leaving to find jobs in another country. The Cuban diaspora is global and our core family now has an invitation to live in Brazil with extended family. The situation looks very positive with low FEBRUARY 9, 2024 rent and a job for Daniela. I won’t need to send so much to Cuba and she can help with the family still there. I am confident, largely because of our shared meditation practice, that we have a workable situation and I can write my autobiography “Born in 42, History, Mystery and You.” The few pages of my first efforts are calling for completion. The challenge to organize travel is complex. Many countries do not allow Cubans to enter from Cuba but they can enter from other countries. Mexico and Brazil are the two I know about. There is a refugee route from Cuba to Nicaragua then Mexico for those heading to the United States. I have a stepson on this route now. His wife is already in Florida. The route to Brazil is through Guyana, so Daniela and Santiago Alberto need two tickets each which may total $4,000. “What the market will bear,” one of the axioms of the “free market,” can make life very expensive. I am appealing to the financial commons as a visionary with the belief that we can organize ourselves to move forward with building a democratic commons that includes loans in particular. I am asking for a $4,800 community loan to help us get established in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I believe that we can pay it back and even contribute to a fund in the financial commons to be used for the common good. Of course grants and donations will be accepted but I am appealing for a loan because I feel we have some responsibility that our situation will promote a financial flow that will “Return to the Source,” which also the title of a great book featuring Amilcar Cabral from Guinea Bissou/Cape Verde Islands, which like Brazil was once a Portuguese colony. Even if I were to die before a loan was repaid I am confident that Daniela would complete the agreement. The relations that we build now may come to fruition in an amazing future. Of all the possible world systems, may we be reborn in a pure land and enjoy the commons of unconditional love. In the words of the Lord’s Prayer “On earth as it is in Heaven.” May this earth become a pure land. I have given up dualism for the all good expanse of primordial purity which is the seamless nature of reality in its completely natural state. It cannot be defined but can be experienced. Our ancestors point the way. I hope annarborcommunitycommons.org picks up on this work. I believe Groundcover News has a role to play. I was involved as a supporter of the World Social Forum which was in Detroit in 2010, which talked about the commons we all share. Let’s look at another forum as we see COMMONS next page  FEBRUARY 9, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website.  COMMONS from last page build on the ruins of the neoliberal edifice which is collapsing around us. Dollars are no foundation for humanity. Maybe we will meet in Brazil for another World Social Forum. Some of us will prepare by studying “The Fourth Alternative” by Alexander Dugin, the notorious Russian intellectual activist who is banned from some social media platforms but lives in translation by Michael Millerman, which points at deeper participation with the commons. There is a podcast. Explore your curiosity. May all beings benefit!

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VALENTINE'S DAY Truth or lies: Mr. Lover Lover Content warning: This article is intended for mature audiences. Alonzo was singing “Mr. Lover Lover, I hope the girls don’t discover that I’m a Playboy undercover, that’s why I have to use the rubber.” Alonzo often hummed this song on his way to his next date. Upon his arrival, he would pop his trunk, and retrieve his condoms that were hidden under his spare tire. Alonzo stood 6'2" tall, was buff with a six-pack, was well-groomed with his hair always smelling good. He dressed with a different swagger. Alonzo had three phones; “I am such a playboy,” he thought. Yeah two phones were for the ladies and the other phone was for family and business. He stored them in his trunk under the spare tire. He used them every free moment, before and after work, always competing to get the win. He would often find himself in competition with his bros. Yeah, such an arrogant attitude he just knew he would always win, being so handsome, smelling so good and being intelligent, too — he couldn’t lose. This past week alone he went on a date with five different women. He and his bros always wanted to smash. It was three days before Valentine’s FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 He never thought that any of the girls would meet with each other or that he would ever get caught. He was in college working a job at Winnie’s grocery store as a cashier and bag boy. It was the month of February, and all the bros were laughing and bragging they weren't getting no one anything for Valentine’s Day. However, even though he laughed with the guys, Alonzo always bought the ladies a gift. He knew that was the way to keep the peace and get what he wanted. He would secretly purchase every lady he was dating a Valentine’s Day gift. He had a plan to make it simple: Alonzo would purchase each one of them the same thing. He figured that way he would never forget what he got for each lady. Day. Finally, he scored a date with Keisha, one of his coworkers. Alonzo had been asking her out since he started working at the grocery store. Keisha would warn him, “You play too much. No you won’t play with my heart. You know I’ll hurt you if you play with my heart.” Alonzo would laugh while saying, “Girl you know I wouldn’t hurt you. I got you, come on, let me take you out and show you.” Keisha finally decided to go out with him after six months of him begging. He took her out to dinner and a movie. They both had a joyous time. Alonzo asked Keisha, “Could we go out again? And can I continue to call you?” Keisha agreed, thinking that he was serious. The next day, Keisha was off work and decided to go to the mall to buy a new outfit for her next date with Alonzo. While she was in line at the store, she heard this very loud lady shouting at the phone, “Alonzo you better pick up the phone and call me back you user!” She couldn’t help but pay attention, because how many Alonzos are there? “That’s a rare name,” Keisha was thinking. She didn’t even notice herself drifting over towards the lady to hear more of the conversation. She could not help herself, she asked the lady, “Your friend’s named is Alonzo? That’s quite a different name.” The lady looked at her and rolled her eyes and said, “What’s it to you?” Keisha immediately humbled herself and said, “Oh, I’m not trying to be in your business, I just was noticing what an odd name that was.” The lady replied, “Yeah great name, but awful person. He must think women can’t be without him.” That loud lady, Simone, was next in line. The cashier heard the whole conversation and asked, “What did he look like?” Simone replied to the cashier, “Oh, he’s good looking — tall, six pack and well groomed.” “Girl, you need to sneak up on him on his job! That’s all you need to do,” Keisha said. The cashier, whose name was Kelly, replied, “Yeah do you know where he works? Don’t let no man play you.” Simone answered, “Yeah at a grocery store on Main Street.” Keisha and Simone both looked at Kelly and said, “Seems like we are all dating the same man!” see MR. LOVER next page  FEBRUARY 9, 2024 FEBRUARY 9, 2024 MEDIA Could reality as we know it be broken? Throughout the course of my life the observable world has undergone many changes brought about by the discovery, creation and advancement of technology. When I was a kid I used to envy people with satellite TVs with seemingly endless channels and content to watch. We can certainly say that those days are long past and now all one needs to pay for is the internet and whatever specific streaming service. These days I often find myself watching anything I find interesting on YouTube. There's always something to watch on YouTube. Calling the content I stumbled across interesting would be an understatement – content that at times has had me question the nature of reality in my observable world. There is some weird stuff out there with countless theories and beliefs. Even though the majority of claims and corresponding videos are elaborate hoaxes, the sheer scale of these paranormal submissions begs that there is some amount of truth. I wanted to point out some theories I've come across that I found very interesting as well as difficult to dismiss — and it’s also just something downright fun to write about and speculate on. Thanks to modern technology many in developed countries possess smartphones with the means of taking pictures and videos. This obvious fact has been very impactful in documenting the realm of the unknown. I believe that paranormal JAMES MANNING Groundcover vendor No. 16 shown up in various philosophies throughout history. I struggle to really believe I'm living in a complex computer simulation, because it would render my existence pointless if I were just some random nonplayer character. However there is no way to know if that is really the case. And again, there are plenty of creepy glitch videos online. Now what interests me is the idea studies have exploded over the last decade and a half due to such access. I also believe it plays a part in milestone events such as governments around the world officially acknowledging the existence of UFOs and U.A.Ps (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena). These things just cannot be covered up as easily as they were decades ago. Of course it can always be argued that video evidence has been doctored with computer graphics and the like. However, that doesn't explain away the sheer number of submitted videos that are out there. Also not just anybody can utilize graphics alteration software, which definitely requires specific technical skills. Another interesting theory that has come along over the years and made popular thanks to the Matrix franchise concerns simulated reality and parallel universes. Note I mentioned “made popular.” These ideas are nothing new. These beliefs have of parallel and or multiple universes and the accompanying Mandela Effect associated with multiple-universe theory. The Mandela Effect is a memory you have that you would swear by that does not match up with reality. For example, remembering the Monopoly board game man wearing a monocle. A good one for me was remembering "The Berenstein Bears" but it's spelled Berenstain. This theory involves a belief that somewhere along the way the universes we reside in somehow got swapped out. There's even a belief that experiments involving particle accelerators such as those done at CERN in Switzerland to blame for screwing around with space and time. But whatever the case is, there's no shortage of content available through modern media, just YouTube alone has hundreds of thousands of channels and top 10 or 20 lists covering every topic you can think of, with a continuous inflow of content from the uploads of anyone carrying a smartphone. So when you're talking literally millions of daily uploads, damn near everything out of the ordinary is documented. Many incidents end up having multiple submissions from witnesses so now we have UFO sightings and other phenomenon with videos from different angles due to multiple people recording them. With all this material it is not all difficult to put together a show and the result is endless content to watch on television and online. Now with Smart TVs being so common I just see no point in having a basic cable, if that even exists anymore. I’m not sure. It certainly is obsolete in my opinion when I can just get on YouTube and look up what I feel like watching and always find something. So coming back to the paranormal angle — and that government organizations no longer flatly deny such things. There isn’t much out there that gets missed. So we’re living in a very different time from just a handful of decades prior. And things have to be viewed and approached differently by global governments. And they have made attempts to be more open, more transparent as a result of modern technology itself. The point I think I’m making here being is that the ease to document and share information has broad implications. Mostly I’m glad that it's been a while since I was able to complain that there is nothing to watch on TV and have that be true. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11  MR. LOVER from last page They looked at each other, then Keisha said, “Yeah we should get him back on Valentine’s Day. The nerve of that man, thinking he can get away with dating all of us.” “He probably even has other women too,” said Simone. Kelly said, “Hey, I’ll pretend that I’m going over to his place for a booty call, then we can get him. All three of us on Valentine’s Day.” They all laughed. Keisha returned to work the next day — the day before Valentine’s Day. She accepted her gift with a big smile. He never knew that she was aware of his playboy moves. She was eager to get off work and call the other ladies and make the plan to get back at him. Kelly made a date with him, pretending that they were going to have a wild date for Valentine’s Day. Alonzo was knocking at Kelly’s door at 8 p.m. with the same gift he had given Simone and Keisha. Kelly answered the door, dressed in a black sexy outfit, with a whip and handcuffs in her hand. Alonzo was shocked, but he was so turned on. Kelly grabbed him by his collar, gently yanking him into the house. When Alonzo attempted to speak, she put her hand over his mouth. Kelly said to him, “You must be quiet. I’m the boss here.” She directed him towards the chair she had planned for him. Alonzo smiled and complied, sitting in the chair. Kelly handcuffed and blindfolded Alonzo. Keisha and Simone entered the room. Simone started pouring syrup all over him. Keisha poured honey all over him. Kelly cut her pillow open and put feathers all over him. Alonzo was shocked. All three women were in the same room with him. Alonzo’s heart dropped and he got scared. All three women were shouting at him, “You think you slick! Oh, you a playboy!” Keisha said to him, “We are going to put this picture of you on Facebook.” The ladies laughed at him while he pleaded to be released. “The next time you want to play games you need to go to Toys ‘R’ Us warehouse! They have over 1,000 toys and games you can play with! Wouldn’t you rather be a Toys ‘R’ Us kid than a tarred and feathered one!" The ladies laughed and snapped a picture and uploaded it to the Internet. Happy Valentine’s Day, Mr. Lover Lover. Thank you Groundcover readers. I appreciate all the love, support and your patience. Happy New Year and Happy Valentine’s Day! Currently, I am working a job in Alabama struggling to keep a home. I would appreciate if all my Truth or Lies Mystery Lane fans please subscribe to Groundcover News under Felicia Wilbert vendor No. 234. Once again, thank you for your support and love. Stay blessed. — Felicia Wilbert

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Carmelized onion dip ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingriedients: 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil 2 onions, diced 1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves, coarsely chopped 1 1/4 cups sour cream 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper Potato chips, for serving Directions: Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are very soft and brown (about 20 minutes). Set aside to cool to room temperature. Meanwhile, stir together the sour cream, mayonnaise and Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper. Add the onion mixture and stir until well combined. Cover and chill overnight. The dip can be made up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated in an airtight container. Serve with potato chips. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS FEBRUARY 9, 2024

2 $ JANUARY 12, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 2 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King's visit to Ann Arbor and Detroit. Page 8 ASK YOUR VENDOR: EAMONN OFOIGHIL #531 WHAT DO YOU LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2024? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. We are football champions: Let's dance to the drum beat of victory. page 4 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator Photo by Mike Jones • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER JANUARY 12, 2024 save the date! two hyperlocal scenes together for one night only Groundcover Geezer Happy Hour Fundraiser @ Live Ann Arbor! FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2ND 102 S. First Ave 6:30-9:00PM NO COVER music by Jive Colossus Groundcover merchandise for purchase T’onna Clemmons Art for auction All proceeds go to Groundcover News RSVP, share, + invite your community PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Jane Atkins Elizabeth Bauman Suhita Chintalacharuvu Cindy Gere Mike Jones Elizabeth "Lit" Kurtz Joshua Lee Eamonn Ofoighil Ken Parks Ashley Powell Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer Scoop Stevens GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Jane Atkins Luiza Duarte Caetano Zachary Dortzbach Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Ruben Mauricio Emily Paras Holden Pizzolato Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JANUARY 12, 2024 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What do you look forward to in 2024? I'm looking forward to my music career. — Eamonn Ofoighil, #531 Keeping my hopes high and expectations low. — Wayne Sparks, #615 To be at home in my body. —Ken Parks, #490 To get a tricyle. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 To buying a mini van; I want to travel and sell street papers! — Mike Jones, #113 Move into my apartment, stop drinking, read more and go fishing more! I got some ambitions. — Mansel Williams, #96 Getting married before its too late and getting a nice car. — Juliano Sanchez, #174 The world not ending would be nice. — James Manning, #16 Mo' money, mo' money, mo' money. — Derek Allen #177 2024 Presidential Candidate Ashley Powell lives in and loves Michigan. She just turned legal age to run for office August 30 this past summer, but she has been registered to run with the Federal Election Commission since 2019. Ashley has several things she's hoping to rally support for in her campaign. A few include: • The United States Agriculture Corps: a national program created to bring jobs to rural areas and finally create food security. • The Homeless Tier ACT which classifies the six major reasons people are homeless. • Providing a designated area with shelter, police, fire and medical services. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Vote Powell for President in 2024 ASHLEY POWELL Groundcover vendor No. 595 • She started the Motor City Brick to Farmer Challenge: 50 Million Bricks, One Challenge. The goal of the Challenge is to sell 50 million Bricks and use the funds to build greenhouses in Metro Detroit. www.50millionbricks.com When Ashley is not working to 3 save the world she can be found reading, at the gym or listening to music! Take care of your dogs! Dealing with anxiety is important Dogs are considered family members. We go to extraordinary lengths to make sure they are comfortable and well adjusted to living in their homes, but for some dogs it takes time to feel safe. For some dogs, like pound puppies, it can take even longer because of kennel cough and the trauma of being in doggy jail for months. Here are some ways to help your dog deal with your time away from home. They will feel better as time goes by. 1. Call your dog on a Ring Doorbell or even on TV and do two-waytalk — he will love seeing you on the time for your dog. Even recording your voice can help them. 3. Take a night t-shirt and wear it CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 the screen. Doing this one hour before you get home will help them know you are on your way. 2. Leave a radio on to help pass to bed and place that shirt on their day bed in the morning. It will help them feel your presence and can help calm them down as they nap. 4. Getting an anxiety jacket can help them calm down when you are away. This is a new thing that operates on the principle that if you apply pressure to the dog’s torso, it has a calming effect. They’re available online. I do hope this can help with your pet this wonderful year 2024 and beyond. Peace! Eamonn Ofoighil View more of Eamonn's artwork on Instagram @dj_chirish734

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LOCAL NEWS JANUARY 12, 2024 Did the City of Ann Arbor renege on its affordable housing promise? In the 2020 general election, Ann Arbor passed Proposal C with nearly 73% of voters in favor of what was considered to be “the most significant expansion of affordable housing in the region in over 40 years,” according to the City of Ann Arbor website. Affordable housing has always been a touchy issue in Ann Arbor and many cities around the country. It certainly raises eyebrows when a former city attorney questions whether monies appropriated to supply more affordable housing to citizens who live below the median income are being used appropriately. Proposal C assured taxpayers that that monies generated from the 2020 millage would be used for building, maintaining and acquiring new affordable housing units which would be permanently affordable to low-income households making up to 60% of area median income, and providing social services, not to exceed 20% of the millage revenues over the entire term of the millage, for the residents of such housing. Yet, according to an MLive article which ran this past November, former city attorney Bruce Laidlaw filed a lawsuit against the City of Ann Arbor claiming that the city misappropriated the millage funds which were intended for affordable housing. In his lawsuit he accuses the city of playing “a political shell game” with taxpayer dollars. At a time when housing shortages LIT KURTZ Groundcover vendor No. 159 are at an all time high, especially for unhoused individuals who need to find permanent housing, one might question why any of the funds allocated for providing more space to those who are experiencing this crisis would not be used to their fullest. Yet, it appears as though the city has fallen short on its promise. This past September MLive ran an article announcing the city’s plans to renovate a new elections center and TV studio on Miller Rd. in order to ensure the integrity of elections. The decision was unanimous. $5.2 million of the overall project cost involving the former YMCA parking lot is coming from the affordable housing millage funds. Another $800,000 is coming from the sale of city property at 350 S. Fifth Avenue to the city’s Housing Commission. According to MLive, Laidlaw is questioning the legality of the city’s move to essentially sell the 350 Fifth Avenue property, formerly home to the YMCA, to the city housing commission, noting that the housing commission is part of the city government. (The empty parking lot has long been problematic, with the city failing to garner enough support for any of the proposed uses for it.) Housing Commission Executive Director Jennifer Hall made a convincing argument to the City for the commission to oversee the property, citing that over the past 20 years “ … the site has been at the center of legal battles with developers and political disagreements on council.” The city agreed and the eventual cost was set at $6.2 million with one million coming from stimulus funding. While this is underway, Hall revealed plans to progressively include other affordable housing units on the various other planned sites within the city over the next few years. There are nine properties owned by the City available for development including: 353 S. Main, 121 Catherine, 404 S. Ashley, 721 N. Main, 309 S. Ashley, 350 S. Fifth Ave., 415 W. Washington, 1510 E. Stadium, and 2000 South Industrial. While this sounds promising, it seems doubtful that in coming years the city government will use all of its available funding resources to implement this or other plans for affordable housing. If this past year is any indication, it seems that the future funding of affordable housing under the auspices of city government is destined to shrink as the city becomes infatuated with other projects and is further distracted from the housing crisis and the need for affordable housing. GROUNDCOVER NEW VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION Interested in volunteering with Groundcover News? Join us for a public volunteer meeting on January 19, 5:00 p.m. to learn more! As a volunteer, you can help contribute to the paper via writing or editing; attending and making food for article reviews; distributing papers to vendors; and more! We value our volunteers so much; come join our community! Friday, January 19, 2024, 5 p.m. Groundcover News office 423 S. 4th Avenue (basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ) We are football champions: Let's dance to the drum beat of victory! In the summer of 2023, I predicted the Michigan Wolverines, my favorite football team, would win the National College Football Championship. I was not the only person who made this prediction. Many other Michigan football fans hopeful like myself wished to see our Wolverines take it to another level. The Michigan Wolverines took it to the next level by defeating the Alabama Crimson Tide in the semi-final playoff game 27-20, and then played the Washington Huskies for the College Football Championship on January 8. WE DID IT!!!!! The Michigan Wolverines defeated the Washington Huskies 34-13, and are now NCAA College Football Champions. Go Blue!!! 10-7 Los Angeles Rams in the NFL Wild Card Game this Sunday at Ford Field. The Detroit Lions have made a comMIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 On a related topic, the Detroit Lions are back in the NFL Playoffs for the first time since 2016, and clinched the NFC North for the first time in team history. The Lions will host former quarterback Matthew Stafford and the plete turn around under the leadership of Dan Campbell since he assumed the role of head coach 2021. The 1991 season was the last time the Lions won a NFL Playoff game and that was the only time since 1957 in which the Lions won a playoff game. The Lions finish this year's season 12-5 after defeating the Minnesota Vikings 30-20. I am going to put it on the line, the Detroit Lions are going to take it to the next level and win the conference championship and make their first appearance in the Super Bowl. U-M football fans no longer have to party like its 1997 — they can party like its 2024! JANUARY 12, 2024 HOUSING HOUSED: On being your own advocate and the fight to find a place LINDSAY CALKA Publisher For this edition of HOUSED, Groundcover News talked with Glen Page, Groundcover vendor No. 407, and discussed the challenging process of finding an apartment after being pulled for a Housing Choice Voucher, often know as Section 8. LC: Tell us about your journey to housing. GP: I had to make myself marketable so I was “user-friendly” when I filled out an application. I found a couple of jobs and stayed into that. I had to stay busy and maintain my situation. I worked at FedUp Ministries and Groundcover News and did odd jobs running errands for people. There were Beal Properties, McKinley Properties and smaller landlords. They always told me “if you start doing ‘this,’ than we can do ‘that.’” They want you to make three times the rent, or have a cosigner. RPI [an agent for the Michigan State Housing Development Authority who manages Housing Choice Vouchers] is dysfunctional; they moved offices three times on my watch and I had to chase them down each time in order to get my voucher. Being pushy helped me out. There is a great lack of communication in the system. Delonis is dysfunctional, too. When my caseworker left Delonis, everything slowed down. He was the only one really honest with me. I didn’t really have any help after that. Besides a handful of people, there’s no one really qualified to advocate for us to find housing. You have to know your shit, and not many people do. [Delonis is] already short-staffed. People are leaving to work at Avalon Housing, or just straight up leaving. It’s spookier than it used to be. Really, it took three tries. My first opportunity was at Courtyard Square. The front desk manager at the time made my life hell. There was no way I was going to come off the streets and live under her. I wasn’t scared to keep looking though. I knew I was looking for my house. The second opportunity was Aspen Chase. The third was where I’m at now, Huron Heights. What was the biggest barrier that you faced in obtaining housing? Knowing that there wasn’t help. I had to be my own advocate and find my own place. It took me nine months. I had to fight for that. Housing is a human right. A lot of kids, and even grownups, don’t realize that. We don’t need cats coming in here [Delonis] just looking for a paycheck. What is an unexpected positive thing that most people don’t think about when becoming housed? Just relaxing again. I’m so used to getting up, running out the door, to get where I’m at now. To get a job, find a place. Also, personalizing everything in the place just like how I do my clothes. My room is set up like a dojo and I make little movie nights by the window with my backyard and projector. But I’m still making it really feel like home. What is an unexpected struggle GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 that most people don’t think about when becoming housed? Wrapping my mind around the fact that I’m actually in my place. I’m still waking up swinging. Additionally, I want to help my friends get on their feet but I don’t want to jeopardize losing my apartment. It’s really hard to just sit down and let this happen to other people. I have a lot of family down here, but growing up, I couldn’t ask for help from any of them, so I had to make my own way. Thankfully I ran into a lot of people like me. People who did want to help. What pieces of advice would you give to people who are experiencing homelessness? Don’t trust anybody, anything. Ask questions and when people seem like they are avoiding answers, ask for their boss. And try not to screw it up for other people. What’s next for you? I want to go to school, and keep up with selling Groundcover. I’ve been asked to be President of Circling Back Peer Support Network. That’s an affirmation of my work ethic. I landed in the right place, with the right people around me. Any place called home is enchanted Everybody who has a home has an enchanted cottage. It is a blessing to have a home. When you have a home it is good for your health. A home is a place you can totally be yourself in. When you have your own home, you can rest and work. When you have your own home you can play when you want and have fun when you want, too. You can decorate your home and have it look the way you want. A home is very beautiful, no matter what it is, no matter where it is. A home gives you shelter from bad DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 weather. A home gives you shelter from wild animals that could attack you. No matter if you live in a hotel room or a rooming house or an apartment or house of your own, it is always good to have somewhere to live. You can also have get-togethers with family and friends when you have a place to be. You can cook lunches and dinners for company when you have a place to be. You can watch things on TV and dream when you have a place to be. You can have a comfortable place to talk to Jesus when you have a place to be. You can make your enchanted cottage however you want it when you’re the only one who lives there. People who share a place, that’s an enchanted cottage too — it just takes more compromise and consideration when you share a place. Any place to be is an enchanted cottage. Any place someone calls a home is an enchanted cottage as long as comfortable. someone is

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS WINTER SAFETY JOSHUA LEE Groundcover contributor As winter's icy grip tightens, the looming threat of frostbite becomes an undeniable concern for those exposed to extreme cold. This cold-weather menace, where skin and underlying tissues freeze due to prolonged exposure to frigid temperatures, demands a keen awareness of its dangers and a proactive approach to prevention. Dangers of Frostbite: The repercussions of frostbite can be severe, ranging from tissue damage and infection risk to nerve damage and, in extreme cases, amputation. Extended exposure to cold triggers blood vessels to constrict, diminishing blood flow to extremities and causing harm to the skin, muscles, and even bones. Signs of Frostbite: Recognizing the early stages of frostbite mean that it can be caught in time for treatment to be effective. These early stages present with patches of reddish skin and burning pain, progressing to cold, numb, white or grayish skin that feels stiff or looks waxy. Expert Insights and Prevention Measures: Dr. Sarah Coleman, Chief Medical Officer at the Cold Weather Research Institute, highlights the gravity of frostbite's dangers and offers proactive prevention measures. From our exclusive interview, "Frostbite is dangerous due to its potential for irreversible damage to the skin and underlying tissues. Constricted blood vessels reduce blood flow and oxygen, leading to severe complications and, in extreme cases, amputation," warns Dr. Coleman. To preempt the risks, Dr. Coleman advises individuals to prioritize dressing in layers, ensuring thorough coverage of extremities. Opting for mittens over gloves and investing in insulated footwear are key to superior heat retention. Staying dry is crucial, as wet clothing elevates the risk of frostbite. Dr. Coleman also emphasizes taking breaks indoors to counteract exposure to extreme cold and wind, if possible. Addressing common misconceptions, Dr. Coleman dispels the notion that frostbite only occurs in extremely low temperatures. Wind chill, she emphasizes, plays a significant role, stripping away the body's protective heat layer and making it feel colder than the actual temperature. Early detection, Dr. Coleman stresses, is pivotal. Numbness, tingling and changes in skin color are early warning signs. Immediate action, such see FROSTBITE page 11  Stages of frostbite. Coyne Survival Schools. JANUARY 12, 2024 Battling the chill: navigating the perils of frostbite JANUARY 12, 2024 MAKING CHANGE Turning Houses2Homes SUHITA CHINTALACHARUVU U-M student contributor Six years ago, a small group of service-driven individuals and friends worked together to furnish a home for a single mother and her children. In 2017, they took that experience and turned it into a community-wide nonprofit organization. HouseN2Home is their name and furnishing homes for the homeless is their game. Their motto absolutely embodies what their mission is: “creating a space for people to thrive.” HouseN2Home operates mainly in the southeast Michigan region, with their office in Ypsilanti. Their workers are primarily volunteers, and they have grown in the past six years to over 100 volunteers. They have many community partners, such as United Way of Washtenaw County, Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation and Trinity Health. The organization targets people in the area who are moving out of homeless shelters and into rental housing. However, each homeless individual’s situation varies greatly, and the organization does their best to match everyone’s unique needs. Their process for furnishing homes is very in-depth and thorough. It begins when a caseworker from a local shelter finds a family that has housing and needs help with the move. HouseN2Home workers then meet with the family and assess their new home and their needs. They obtain all the necessary furniture and household goods, and remarkably, most of the items are donated. On the big move-in day, volunteers load up the furniture, move it to the new home, and arrange it to make the house feel like a home. Amazingly, with this process, they have completely furnished over 925 homes since 2017 for individuals and their families in Washtenaw County. Clearly, they have had a huge positive impact on the community! On their website, you can see the evidence of this impact in the last two years. In 2022, they performed 290 moves, which was a 30% increase from 2021, and they furnished over 500 moves in the past two years alone. Out of those clients, they served 199 children, crafting safe and stable home environments for these kids. In 2022, they contributed 16,000 volunteer hours, showing the importance and value of volunteers for this organization. They also added many new community partners, including the University of Michigan’s Office of Sustainability. A non-profit like HouseN2Home requires lots of support, and there are so many ways members of the community can get involved. The main way to participate is through volunteering. There are several different opportunities for volunteers such as refurbishing donations, cooking meals for clients or assisting on move-in days. HouseN2Home is an equal opportunity nonprofit organization, so any volunteer will feel welcomed and valued! Another great way to participate is by donating gently used furniture for the organization to use in the furnishing of new homes. Finally, contributors can also sponsor a move, which typically costs around $600, or also just donate to the organization to reduce the costs of each move. HouseN2Home provides such a great service to the community. They truly go above and beyond in their work, even providing families with items like toys, books and decorations to really make their clients’ new houses feel like homes. I would highly recommend checking out this amazing organization and helping them serve the community because it’s clear how much they value each of their clients and how big of a difference they have made in Michigan! Check out their website to coordinate donations and get involved: www.housen2home.org/ GROUNDCOVER NEWS Lansing’s “Fretail” Store is a good idea for Ann Arbor JANE ATKINS U-M student contributor Cardboard Prophets’ Fretail Store in the Lansing Mall looks just like a normal retail store: display racks, mannequin, and tags on each item. The twist? Everything is free. The “dignity tags” contain Cardboard Prophets’ phone number on the barcode and an inspirational message rather than a price. Cardboard Prophets is an outreach organization founded by Mike Karl, aiming to involve the community in real change for people who are homeless or at risk for homelessness in the Lansing area. The store is an innovative, direct response to the needs of homeless and low-income people in Lansing, and Ann Arbor should consider how its unique approach could benefit our community. The Fretail Store started as a diaper bank with no storefront. They were offered a space in the Lansing Mall to operate in, and Karl knew it could be used for more. It has grown exponentially since it opened in 2020. It has been a hub for thousands of Michigan families and individuals to shop with dignity and receive the items they need to maintain a good quality of life. The store has clothes, food, furniture and much more. In the past, the Fretail Store gave out 200,000 cans of formula to families all over Michigan during the formula shortage. Families from all over Michigan traveled to the Fretail store to get formula for their children. During Christmas time, the entire storefront transformed into a toy store, which helped 2,200 families get Christmas gifts. Karl said they are looking to double that this year as the holidays are approaching. The Fretail Store has had such a positive impact on the Lansing community that it comes as no surprise that people from across the state and the country are contacting Cardboard Prophets looking to replicate see FRETAIL page 11  7 CONTENT correction In the Dec. 15, 2023 edition of the Groundcover News, the words of a Jewish prayer were incorrect. The corrected version: "If the desire to honor the memory of your loved one impels you to do a mitzvah you otherwise would not have done, learn something you otherwise would not have learned or go higher and farther than ever before then the soul of the deceased lives on in you." Cultural appropriation was never intended. In the Oct. 20 GCN edition, Morgan Battle, one of the previous directors of The Breakfast at St. Andrew's, was omitted.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MLK DAY JANUARY 12, 2024 Remembering Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s. visit to Ann Arbor and Detroit Dr. King came to Ann Arbor in the fall of 1962. Brian A. Williams of the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library wrote that “King spoke on a cool fall day.” Williams also noted, “No recordings of King’s lectures are known to exist and newspaper coverage is scant at best.” In her January 16, 2023 article titled, “In Pictures: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Visits Ann Arbor,” Meredith Bruckner of the Ann Arbor News confirmed Williams’ assertion and added, “Although no copies of his speeches exist, according to school records, King told U-M students, ‘We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish as fools.’” It is fair to say that the coverage of Dr. King’s visit to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor was inadequate for a transformative national civil rights leader. Bentley Historical Library Archivist, Ms. Karen Lee Jania, told the Michigan Daily newspaper that “there was little press coverage of King’s visit and details about his lecture were sparse.” Perspectives on Dr. King’s Visit to U-M Campus As the U-M’s Office of the President continues to support the new campus-wide initiative known as “The Inclusive History Project,” there is public interest in learning more about important events which have shaped the Michigan experience. In 2014, Michigan Radio’s Mark Brush reported on, “Martin Luther King Jr.’s forgotten visit to the University of Michigan’s Campus.” He mentioned what former U-M President, James Duderstadt told one Michigan Daily reporter, Haley Goldberg, in 2012. Duderstadt said, “There apparently was a controversy because in his speech, King suggested the importance of civil disobedience, and I guess a couple of the University regents raised concern about that.” He continued, “It was almost 50 years ago, and it was a time when Martin Luther King was a pretty controversial person. The FBI was tracking him and so forth.” A few weeks before Dr. King arrived on the Ann Arbor Campus, University President Harlan Hatcher admonished the students to obey the law and avoid holding large-scale demonstrations and rallies outside the Michigan campus. As the Bentley Historical Library noted, “King was on campus as the leader of the SouthernChristian Leadership Conference and was advocating student civil disobedience — something that the leaders of the University at the time were likely weary of.” and Alan Haber were on the tentative program list. U-M President Harlan Hatcher and his three vice presidents were also on the tentative list to lunch with Dr. King. Student reporters for the Michigan WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 The University of Michigan Office of Religious Affairs invited King to their annual religious lecture on November 5, 1962. They also invited University of Chicago Theology professor Preston Roberts and Northwestern University Philosophy professor Paul Schllpp. The Office of Religious Affairs asked other groups on campus to co-sponsor King’s visit; the U-M Office of Special Projects became a co-sponsor. The Women’s International League, Challenge and Voice also supported the event. The Bentley Historical Library noted “that all three associated organizations were sympathetic to the causes espoused by King." The Voice campus political party was established in 1960 by Tom Hayden. The Voice also became a key chapter of the new campus organization known as Students for a Democratic Society. The Voice platform called for “eliminating inequality, especially economic, social and racial inequality.” Although the Voice supported the civil rights bill proposed by President Kennedy in 1962, they felt that it did not go far enough. The Voice also supported what John Lewis’ Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was trying to accomplish in the segregated South. The Challenge was a student organization established in 1960 in order to bring prominent national figures on campus to help discuss problems and issues of national importance. It originated at Yale University and spread to other campuses, including Michigan. The U-M student organizers who co-sponsored King’s visit were able to include the names of 23 faculty faculty sponsors. They included Robert C. Angell, Kenneth Boulding, Angus Campbell, William Haber, E. Lowell Kelly, Theodore Newcomb and Alan F. Smith. Planners of King’s visit wanted him to give a lecture in the morning, and another lecture in the evening. Invitations were made to 50 to 60 people, including student organizers, to join King for a luncheon at the Michigan Union. Voice Members Tom Hayden Daily — Majorie Brahms and Martha MacNeal — said that King framed his lecture and discussion by stating that every man is “heir to a legacy of dignity and worthiness,” and that man’s essential rights do not originate from the State, but rather are established by God. King touched upon integration and the immoral nature of racial discrimination. He expanded on that theme, pointing out that the American dream cannot be separated from the world dream of brotherhood. King told his audience at the Hill Auditorium that, “We must learn to live together as brothers or we will die together as fools.” The Bentley Historical Library mentioned that King condemned the concept which stated that one race is superior to another as outdated, and called for its abolition. The Historical Library also said the portion of King’s lecture which he directed specifically to students urged them to take action and join the growing student movement. Apparently, he had been briefed about the recent State of the University address given by President Hatcher in which Hatcher had encouraged students to limit their involvement in student movements and to restrict their activities to the campus. King sharply disagreed, telling students that they "have a responsibility to participate in the movement." He went on to tell them that to him, education meant "being true to studies yet devoting oneself to a significant cause like integration.” Dr. King inspired so many students who heard his lectures and/or talked with him on November 5, 1962. One such student became Dr. Larry Brilliant. In his 2013 commencement speech at the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Brilliant gave credit to Dr. King for “inspiring him to his life’s work, which included eradicating the world of smallpox and working for global sustainability.” Unfortunately, King did not agree to a second visit despite repeated attempts to bring him back to the Ann Arbor campus. We are grateful that he visited Ann Arbor during the heyday of the civil rights movement. He brought his perspectives on the concepts and techniques of citizen participation, humanity, moral compass, civil rights and of course, David Thoreau’s ideas of civil disobedience for peace and justice. Dr. King’s Visit to Detroit Detroit was a paradox in the early 1960s. It was the fourth largest city in the nation and the population was close to 2 million. There was extreme poverty alongside middle-class prosperity. Dr. King was invited by the Detroit Council for Human Right to participate in a civil rights march on the streets and a rally at Cobo Arena. What Dr. King called the “greatest demonstration for freedom” happened on June 23, 1963. More than 125,000 people walked down Woodward Avenue in Detroit as part of the Detroit Walk to Freedom. They also held a big rally inside and outside the Cobo Arena after the street March. They were marching in Detroit to promote civil rights. Writer Ken Coleman of the Michigan Advance newspaper noted that the idea behind the rally was “to highlight social inequities in the Motor City which included housing discrimination, poor police-community relations and lack of economic opportunities for Blacks and other people of color.” Participants who joined Dr. King in the street march and Cobo Arena rally were thousands of ordinary folks. Other influential people included Reverend C.L. Franklin, the father of famous singer, Aretha Franklin. Rev. Franklin was also the Pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church. There were other clergymen, such as Pastor Albert Cleage of Central Congregational Church; and Rev. Nicholas Hood, Pastor of Plymouth United Church of Christ. Former Michigan Governor John Swainson, Detroit Mayor James Cavanaugh, UAW President Walter Reuthers and many more community leaders participated in the march. Michigan Advance noted that during the June 23, 1963 event at Cobo Arena, King delivered a precursor to the “I Have A Dream” speech which he gave in frontof the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. In King’s Detroit speech, he said: “Almost hundred and one years ago, on September the 22, 1862, to be exact, a great and noble American, Abraham Lincoln, signed an executive order, which was to take effect on January the first, 1863. This executive order was called the Emancipation Proclamation and it served to free the Negro from the bondage of physical slavery. But one hundred years later, the Negro in the United States of America still isn’t free.” The Detroit Walk to Freedom and the Cobo Arena speech by Dr. King gave much needed impetus to the “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington D.C. Subsequently, the Detroit and see MLK VISITS next page  JANUARY 12, 2024 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website.  MLK VISITS from last page Washington D.C. events contributed to the passage of the civil rights legislation of 1964 and the voting rights legislation of 1965. Many observers think that Dr. King’s visit to Detroit energized and empowered poor Blacks to fight for their rights. From the perspectives of some journalists and community observers, Dr. King’s visit gave rise to the harnessing of Black excellence in music, entertainment, art, science and scholarship. For example, Motown Founder and CEO Berry Gordy recorded Dr. King’s Cobo Arena speech. It is titled, “The Greatest Demonstration for Freedom.” Gordy also recorded Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. In a January 17, 2011 article titled, “Martin Luther King and the Great March for Freedom in Detroit," Michigan in Pictures magazine included some of King’s speech in Detroit, described as Detroit’s version of “I Have a Dream Speech.” King spoke eloquently when he said, “I have a dream this afternoon that my four little children, that my four little children will not come up in the same young days I came up within, but they will be judged on the basis of the content of their characters, not the color of their skin … I have a dream this afternoon that one day right here in Detroit, Negroes will be able to buy a house or rent a house anywhere that their money will carry them and they will be able to get a job.” Conclusion Dr. King’s visit to the U-M campus in Ann Arbor and his visit to Detroit revealed a clear contrast in media coverage and important historical documents. Although many U-M students were thrilled to see Dr. King, some of university leaders saw him as too controversial to share his viewpoints with the campus community. King’s Detroit visit seemed like a huge celebration of common purpose and the prospects of gaining more freedom, more civil rights, equality and racial justice. Black insitutions and social movements were established in the years to come. However, they were not enough. “The more things change, the more they remain the same” is a popular saying of particular relevance to the poor, the homeless and the disadvantaged folks of both Ann Arbor and Detroit.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MLK DAY Roll me up and smoke me when I die This song from Willie Nelson has been in my mind since Christmas with my Michigan family when we watched the star-studded 90th birthday party for Willie. His love of music and mastery of the country genre has made him beloved for many people of America. It would take some time to listen to all the duets he has recorded with a wide range of talents. His album “Red Headed Stranger” was my best friend during a big heartbreak episode in my life. When I heard Willie and friends at his 90th year, I reflected on what I want to do before I die. “Seeds for Cuba” came to mind. It is the next step as I follow through on things I started in the 1990s. Villa Internacional is a bilingual proposal I made in Cuba for an ecovillage. We did build two houses where I have a room waiting for me whenever I am there. We also have an extended family at La Finca Esperanza, a small farm in our neighborhood. They have a moringa tree, one of the superfoods of our day. The war on Cuba includes stiff sanctions which create serious austerity; the government cannot support the free seeds they once did. I have a list of seeds that I want to share with the Ann Arbor Seed Company and see if they can supply for me. I will send or take KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 whatever seeds possible to Cuba. I plan to go back in March this year. We will probably build a small house with a greenhouse on the south side. There is talk of similar demonstration projects in southeast Michigan and Brazil where people and land may work together growing whatever is nutritious and healthy with a focus on making key plants available. I hope many of us learn to grow crops such as chia until they are commonly available for everyone. Delicious recipes will follow. We will learn to promote a healthy intestinal microbiome as the center of good health. If we are timely in this work we will benefit with healthy aging for whoever is ready. I hope we work together in 2024 and make progress as we learn more about who we are as human beings and tap into our potential. An understanding of the commons is helpful. Martin Luther King Day on January 15 at Liberty Plaza will be a good event to share our aspirations and practical work. Go to annarborcommunitycommons.org. I will be working with Alan Haber and join in the open mic at Liberty Plaza. May 2024 be a year of blessings as we work together for the common good. Our ancestors want to help us. May we honor all those who go up in smoke and join the ancestors, may they be reborn in a Pure Land. The struggle continues. JANUARY 12, 2024 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS JANUARY 12, 2024 THINK ABOUT IT Equal Rights Ammendment Revival SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover contributor In the 1970s, the Equal Rights Amendment was well on its way to being ratified by the states when self-appointed spokesman for women, Phyllis Schlafly, led a movement to derail ERA ratification. Some states already had a bias against the ERA and that reinforced their bias. By the artificial deadline imposed by Congress, 1982, only 34 states had ratified it, four short of the 38 needed. We are in a new era now and the time has come to get the ERA back on track. On December 15, 1791 the Bill of Rights was ratified by the states. Without the Bill of Rights the U.S. Constitution would have never become the “Law of the Land.” James Madison was tasked with making a Bill of Rights. Madison did not believe they were necessary, but as he was composing them, he reasoned that their purpose would be to instruct the American people about their government. As of now, 38 states have ratified the ERA, including four since the deadline passed. (Even imposing that deadline is open to legal challenge.) There is still uncertainty because some states have rescinded their ratifications. But in 2023, representatives started the Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment. They should follow through to make the ERA the 28th Amendment — the Law of the Land. In the American Civil War (1861-65) the Union Army conquered the Confederate States of America but the slaves did not become freemen until the 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865, abolishing slavery in the United States. In the same way, women have come a long way toward achieving equality with men but they will still be subordinate to men until the ERA becomes law. Then we can finally realize the truths of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  FROSTBITE from page 6 as moving to a warmer environment, removing wet clothing, and gradually warming the affected area, is crucial. Seeking medical attention promptly is imperative if symptoms progress. First-Aid Steps: When faced with frostbite, taking immediate first-aid steps can make a significant difference: 1. Check for Hypothermia: a. Look for signs such as intense shivering, drowsiness, confusion, fumbling hands and slurred speech. b. Seek emergency medical help if hypothermia is suspected. 2. Protect the Skin: a. Avoid thawing affected areas if there's a chance they might freeze again. b. If already thawed, wrap them to prevent refreezing. 3. Warm Frostbitten Areas: a. For hands, tuck them into armpits; for the face, nose or ears, cover with dry, gloved hands. b. Do not rub affected skin with snow or any other substance. c. Avoid walking on frostbitten feet or toes if possible. 4. Get Out of the Cold: a. Move to a warm space. b. Remove wet clothes and wrap up in a warm blanket. 5. Gently Rewarm Frostbitten Areas: a. Soak affected areas in warm (not hot) water (105 to 110 F or 40 to 43 C) for 20 to 30 minutes. b. Test water with an uninjured hand or elbow. c. Do not use direct heat sources like stoves, heat lamps, fireplaces or heating pads. 6. Stay Hydrated: a. Drink warm liquids like tea, coffee, hot chocolate or soup to help warm from the inside. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 b. Avoid alcohol. 7. Consider Pain Medicine: a. Over-the-counter pain relievers can be considered if in pain. 8. Expectations as Skin Thaws: a. Tingling and burning may occur as the skin warms and normal blood flow returns. b. Avoid breaking any blisters; seek medical help for more severe cases. As winter lingers, the insights from Dr. Coleman and practical guidance collectively provide a comprehensive approach for individuals to fortify themselves against the threat of frostbite. Incorporating these expert recommendations into winter routines enables people to enjoy the season while prioritizing their health and well-being, successfully navigating the perils of frostbite. In a poignant testament to the harsh realities of winter, Jake Thompson, a homeless resident of Ann Arbor, Michigan, shared his experience in an interview battling frostbite during the bitter cold nights. "Sometimes, the cold bites harder than life itself. I felt the burning pain and saw my fingers turning numb and white. It was like I was losing a part of myself out there on those freezing streets," Thompson recounted. His struggle with frostbite in the unforgiving cold of Ann Arbor mirrors the stark warnings provided by experts like Dr. Coleman. Thompson's story serves as a reminder that the impact of frostbite extends beyond the medical realm, reaching individuals facing homelessness who are particularly vulnerable during the winter months. As we heed the advice of experts to protect ourselves against frostbite's peril, let us also extend our awareness and compassion to those grappling with the bitter cold on the streets, where the battle against the chill is a daily struggle for survival.  FRETAIL from page 7 the Fretail model. Mike Karl embraces this. “We want other organizations to try and open something special like this,” Karl said in an interview with Groundcover. Implementing something like the Fretail Store in other places not only benefits those who need it but it also brings communities together by involving more citizens in community action. “People can get discouraged with non-profits because they cannot see where they are going to go, they cannot see how they help people, and they cannot see how they change lives,” says Karl, “When a community gets an opportunity to see a nonprofit put their money where their mouth is, that actually gives away your items, it’s beautiful to watch. It would be a blessing to any community to do this.” Bringing something like the Fretail Store to Ann Arbor could have very positive effects on the community. Being a college town, University of Michigan students make up a notable part of the Ann Arbor community. When the winter semester is over, thousands of students abandon items they do not want to take home in the basement of their dorm or out in the street. This could be a chance for University of Michigan students and make a real contribution to Ann Arbor by donating them instead. Having a Fretail store here could encourage more direct involvement overall, address the needs of our own homeless and low-income residents, and create a more connected Ann Arbor community.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Salted maple caramel sauce ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor You will need a candy thermometer! Ingriedients: 1 cup real maple syrup 2 tbsp butter 1/4 cup heavy cream 1/4 tsp sea salt Directions: Put the maple syrup into a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom. Fit the pan with a "clip on" candy thermometer. You'll need a pan tall enough to allow the maple syrup to foam up as it boils. The heavy bottom helps prevent scorching. Bring the syrup to a boil over high heat and boil until it reaches 225F230F, this is just under the softball stage. Remove from heat and add the butter, stirring until it melts. Add the cream and salt and mix in gently. Note: the mixture will be very hot. Do not stir too much, just enough to blend the butter and cream. Too much stirring can cause the mixture to crystallize. Pour into a heat safe jar and let cool before refrigerating. It will thicken as it cools, and will thicken further in the refrigerator. JANUARY 12, 2024

2 $ JANUARY 26, 2024 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 3 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. "Go where?" Camps evicted on private and public land during winter storm. page 4 MEET YOUR VENDOR: HOSEA HILL PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. VENDOR APPRECIATION WEEK February 2-9, 2024 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER GROUNDCOVER STAFF Selling Groundcover is legitimate work, but moreso it is a service to our community. Each day, Groundcover vendors work hard in all kinds of weather to deliver news and solutions from the ground up and maybe a smile or laugh along the way. This is why each year at the beginning of February we celebrate Vendor Appreciation Week to go out of our way to show our vendors how much they mean to us, and the community. There are many ways to get involved with this year's Vendor Appreciation Week festivities. 1. Kick off the week by having some fun with us at the Groundcover Live Happy Hour on Friday, February 2, from 6:30-9 p.m. More details listed on page 12. 2. Bring a treat, snack or hot beverages during office hours for vendors to enjoy while buying papers (Monday-Saturday 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.) 3. Bring your vendor a hot chocolate, cup of coffee or pack of hand warmers if you see them selling. It's cold out there! 4. Tip your vendor when buying a copy of Groundcover News. 5. Catch up on back issues from last year by listening to Groundcover Speaks during your commute, exercise or downtime. You'll hear the wise words of Groundcover writers, read in their own voices! 6. Purchase a copy of our Vendor Voices 2023 Magazine, where you can read the unique and powerful stories of 15 Groundcover vendors. 7. Take a photo with your vendor or your copy of Groundcover News and share on social media. Tag us! @ groundcovernews on Instagram and @ groundcover on Facebook. We will be reposting all week. 8. Tell your Groundcover vendor how much you appreciate them and their steady presence in the community. 9. Talk to your friends and family about how selling Groundcover is legitimate work that changes lives. And post about it to start important conversations on social media! 10. Publicly show support for Groundcover News vendors by buying and displaying a sign on your front lawn or in the window of your home or JANUARY 26, 2024 february 2-9, 2024 VENDOR APPRECIATION WEEK business! Signs are $30 and can be pre-ordered by making a $30 donation on the Groundcover News website via PayPal. Signs can be picked up at the Groundcover News office during office hours. They are yellow and black and come with a metal post. (See image pictured below.) THANK YOU GROUNDCOVER VENDORS! I BUY AND READ GROUNDCOVER NEWS. PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Teresa Basham Jocelin Boyd Roberto Isla Caballero Jim Clark Cindy Gere Mike Jones Elizabeth "Lit" Kurtz Glen Page Ken Parks Philip Spink Shawn Swoffer GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Ruben Mauricio Emily Paras Liem Swanson Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JANUARY 26, 2024 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Being a vendor Being a vendor selling GroundSHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 cover News can be easy sometimes and hard sometimes. It’s rewarding that you are making a difference in your life and the lives of others similar to yourself. It’s really teaching others what the homeless life is like, as well as giving people like me a way to earn income and someday not be homeless. Although there's no promise that being a vendor alone will end homelessness, through effort and hard work you can leave the streets. You can have regular customers who look for you and only buy from you. Also, it makes me proud to earn every dollar. I even came up with a selling speech. I work very hard, never staying on one corner or block. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Hosea Hill, Groundcover vendor No. 532 In one sentence, who are you? Productive and fun guy who has faith and walks with God’s plan. Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? Main and Liberty area in Ann Arbor or downtown and Depot Town in Ypsilanti. What is your favorite spot in Ann Arbor? Although I like going to football games at the Big House, eating at Detroit Pizza Pub, and shopping at Unique T-Shirt Shop, my favorite spot is my apartment. What words do you live by? Keep your nose clean. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn’t know? My shoe size is 9.5. What motivates you to work selling Groundcover News? The social side and of course the money! What is the best or worst thing about selling Groundcover? Worst is freezing weather. What was your first job? I remember being five years old, working for my Grandpa at his Subway in Detroit on the west side; but legally my first job was McDonald’s. What are your hobbies? These are growing and changing. For example, I want to go ice skating. But my go-to has always been playing some hoops! Just saying hi Hi, I’m Glen vendor number 407. I’m the quiet friendly guy on the corner in front of Fleet Feet and Cinnaholic, or sometimes in front of the Ypsi Food Coop. For the most part folks are quiet, constantly polite and neighborly to me everytime I show up. This is my way of saying “Hi” and "thanks" in a way that I can cover everyone at the same time. I’m letting my newspaper sell itself. Hey, y'all! What’s up!? It's very impolite to walk up and not say something or ignore someone who has greeted you. I can remember when that sort of thing was unheard of! Anyway, my point is this: I don't panhandle! I sell the Groundcover News newspaper and magazine. I’m not trying to give you, my customers, a bunch of lies and B.S. No magic tricks, no aggressive panhandling, no guilt trips. Whether I have that behavior in anyone else on or near or around my post anytime. You see, coming to work the way I do, I don’t support any of the lies or stories. I just be myself. No fronts, no masks, no smoke, no mirrors! I will never approach anyone with GLEN PAGE Groundcover vendor No. 407 my vest on or not, my job is to stand out for just saying “hi” and selling just Groundcover News. Always being polite, always smiling. So, hey, what’s up!? How you doing? It’s all organic, simple and plain remembering of the rules. I will never come to a post high or drunk. I will never behave loudly or rudely. I will never be seen or caught doing anything illegal or supporting aggressive body language, intimidation or any disrespectful tones of any kind, at any time. Service with a genuine smile, always. I promise. If I’m having a bad day I will quit for the day, rather than take people through my personal whatevers. And that right there is what I call the “Glen Page No B.S. Policy.” With that being said, I think we got the ground completely covered. Remember my name: Glen Page Groundcover vendor No. 407. And feel free to ask, “Hi, how are you, Glen” — or better yet, my nickname, “Mr. Grundy!” What do we do now? Vote for West! A vote is earned, not given! As of now, President Joe Biden has potentially lost millions of votes in the upcoming election in November. His support and backing of Israel leave millions of Americans with no other option but independent candidate Professor Cornel West. Who is Cornel West? Dr. Cornel West is running for truth and justice as President of the United States in 2024. Dr. West was born on June 2, 1953, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and grew up in Sacramento, Calif., where he graduated from John F. Kennedy High School. His mother, Irene Rayshell (Bias), was a teacher and principal. His father, Clilfton Louis West Jr., was a general contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense. “Democracy Matters” and his memoir, “Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud.” In the academic world, Dr. West is MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 West received his bachelor’s degree in Eastern Languages and Civilization from Harvard, then attended Princeton where he earned his Masters and Doctorate degrees in Philosophy. He is best known for his classic writings, “Race Matters,” and simply a rock star. Well-known for oratory skills, he is an outspoken voice in left-wing politics in the United States. He has held professorships at Harvard University, Yale University, Union Theological Seminary, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Pepperdine University and the University of Paris. Dr. West announced his presidential campaign on June 5, 2023 as a People’s Party candidate, via Twitter (X) where he called for “truth and justice” and pledged to use the presidency to accomplish that.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SHELTER JANUARY 26, 2024 Ann Arbor District Library shuts its doors on the unhoused prior to the MLK holiday Far from closing its doors during the first storm of the season, one would have expected the Ann Arbor District Library to offer a respite, a warming center for those at risk of being exposed to the elements during the threatening weather. Instead, it displayed glaring unconcern and seemed oblivious to the crisis of the unhoused. Closing its doors during this critical time serves as a statement shedding light on the library's stance and role in the homeless crisis. While the library is not the only location that could have opened its doors, it is significant because, like many libraries across the country, it serves as an unofficial day center for those without housing. Without a doubt, libraries are on the frontlines of the unhoused. How they respond to their role varies. American Library Association president Lessa Kananiopua Pelayo-Ozado reminds us, “… library services and facilities are for everyone, the housed and unhoused ...” Without question, the unhoused person has come to rely on the libraries to escape the elements during the day safely. Official or not, it is a day center. So when the Ann Arbor District Library announced that it would close its doors where he would wait out the impending storm. It bore an eerie juxtaposition to the enlarged snapshot of Dr. King’s image hanging inside a library stairwell. In the Lego-created image donated LIT KURTZ Groundcover vendor No. 159 early at 3 p.m. on the day of the season’s first storm, it felt like a hoax. The decision resulted in many unhoused people being left on the street searching for a place to be, walking through the thick drops of falling snow during the intervening hours before the night warming center would open its doors at 5:30 p.m. Most could not use restaurants; purchasing food requires money that most unhoused individuals lack. Some people sat inside Starbucks where the water was free. But perhaps the most jarring image was of a man sitting just outside the locked doors of Ann Arbor District Library, legs outstretched, back serenely resting on a library column to the library by Eastern Michigan University biology professor Aaron Liepman, Dr. King is forever frozen in time, arms interlocked with other justice warriors in a perpetual march towards justice and freedom. It offers library-goers hope and a glimpse of history as they climb the library stairs between the first and second floors. The library website says that Liepman used over 16,000 handpainted Lego bricks to create the 90 x 40 image, inspired by a photo of the Selma to Montgomery March. It reveals how quickly one crisis is supplanted with another and how the dynamic of racial injustice is far from being the only fight of our times. It shows the timeless nature of persistence and that the struggle for humanitarian rights is as present in this generation as ever. The symbolism is also a powerful reminder that the march for freedom is not stagnant and that the spirit of Dr. King's fight to ensure freedom for all is eternal. However, the library closing during the winter storm cast a shadow over the planned events for the holiday celebrating Dr. King's legacy. While the scheduled events for MLK Day still transpired, it was clear that the library was out of sync, even oblivious to the injustices facing the unhoused. There were two live streams at the library on that day. One, the retelling of the Selma to Montgomery march. Another was hosted by Veterans for Peace, where veterans considered what Dr. King’s view on militarism would be today. There were several suggested videos on Dr. King’s life. But the journey to freedom is much more than a set of perfectly planned events for a holiday. Nor can it be confined to one time period and certainly not one set of people. It continues throughout the decades, challenging and overcoming all the injustices that seek to bind the human spirit. The Ann Arbor District Library may not be in step with the injustices of the unhoused, but like the image in its stairwell, Dr. King’s march towards freedom includes all people and will forever be in motion. “Go where?” Camps evicted on private and public land during winter storm Monday, January 8, a notice was stuck to Mikey’s tent. It read: “Important Notice: Your Property Manager/Landlord/Mortgage Company requested and was granted an ‘Order of Eviction’ by the District Court listed on the attached official order of eviction. Be advised that you and your possessions can be evicted (removed) from the rented/mortgaged space 24 hours after this posting/service…” 24 hours. 24 hours to relocate five campers, three dogs and all their belongings in the middle of winter and at the front end of a 10-day polar vortex. The added threat of a bulldozer coming early in the morning made the situation that much worse. Christie and Mooch were less than seven days away from moving into their housing. Krystal is still recovering from being hit by a car while biking not even 200 feet from this campsite in Ypsilanti. Mikey relocated his camp to a new area, but that was also tagged Public land gives no graces Friday, January 12, at a different camp — this time one that is located on Ypsilanti City property — a “No Trespassing” sign was erected. Five people arrived at Marie's tent (not her real name) to inform her she needed to move. “Nobody formally identified themLINDSAY CALKA Publisher midway through the move. Their camp was taken to court by property and business owner Joe Sesi. No matter how morally wrong the situation might seem, the campers were not granted permission to be there, and so the courts ordered their removal. Property rules. The bulldozers still haven't come; the only urgency was that Sesi wanted them gone. The property has been sitting vacant for 11 years. selves. It could have been people playing dress-up. It could have been anyone. A group of people just showed up at my tent door telling me I had to move; hours before the snowstorm hit,” Marie said. Two PATH [Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness] workers, one cop, and two city employees were there just to put up the sign. This was the first in-person contact Marie had with PATH since the first time she called HAWC in the last week of November. “Where were they when I needed them?” she wondered. “They came and said I was on City property and I needed to move the tent and that other people [neighbors] were also being asked to move. They asked see EVICTED page 11  "No Trespassing" signed erected at an encampment in Ypsilanti by City staff on January 12. JANUARY 26, 2024 SHELTER 911! Weather Amnesty at Purple House needs volunteers There is a difference between being “unhoused” and “homeless.” Not having a house means not having a reliable, safe overnight place to sleep; it means that you are unsheltered. But the definition of “home” goes beyond “house.” Home is “a place where one is a member of a family or household.” In other words, a family of blood or bond. Ergo, to be homeless means that you have nowhere to belong; no one waiting for you to be there with them, no one wondering where you are. Homeless shelters and similar programs are able to meet the human need for food and overnight shelter, although unfortunately they do not always offer “safety.” They are also not able to, nor even designed to, provide a place where someone feels important to someone else. Having that need met, the need to love and be loved, is essential to survive and be healthy. The brain’s reliance on positive healthy relationships for proper functioning is an (emerging) neuroscientific fact. People need to have more than a house, they need a proper home environment in order to flourish, not just food and shelter. Weather Amnesty at Purple House strives to provide that home, even if it is for just one night. Weather Amnesty offers a safe, warm, loving place for up to ten individuals to sleep. The program runs from December 15 to the end of March. Guests who need the hospitality call in to reserve a cot and, JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 in general, may arrive between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Guests may take showers, share a meal, and use the washers and dryers before 10 p.m. Weather Amnesty needs volunteers! Food is available and guests and hosts (volunteer staff) are encouraged to share laughter, experience, hope and a culture of closeness. The experience comes from the volunteers who have helped Weather Amnesty prevent cold-exposure deaths for four years running now. Some of the volunteers have been homeless themselves and are able to offer their knowledge and support. There are no drugs or alcohol allowed on the property known as Jimmy Hill House, or colloquially, the Purple House. Both the Weather Amnesty program and the Purple House are owned and operated by the homelessness advocacy nonprofit known as MISSION (Michigan Itinerant Shelter System Interdependent Out of Necessity). The most important feature of Weather Amnesty is its management style, focused on forging relationships. There are strict rules, as are necessary in intense situations, but what ultimately keeps things calm and orderly is the relationship that the hosts have with the guests. Hosts and guests watch TV together, talk, play games and keep each other company. Volunteer hosts are trained in administering Narcan and using de-escalation techniques, and new volunteers are paired with experienced ones. Many hosts help the guests with other problems, almost like case-workers. Many become close friends (guests and hosts alike) and remain so after the season ends in April. Currently, Weather Amnesty operates four days a week. They would love to be open seven days, but are short on volunteers. (At the time of this writing, a polar vortex is approaching Michigan.) Weather Amnesty is at capacity the four nights they are open and the skeleton crew of hosts is at capacity for volunteering. Given the impending weather, the need for shelter has become higher (some folks who are tent dwellers may not be outfitted for extreme cold). There will also be a potential shortage of the staff that are available due to the snow and ice. If you can spare a night to help Weather Amnesty keep the lights on, please contact Rose Marcum Raugh @ 734-945-7825. Even just one night of volunteering could literally save people’s lives! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 Alexandra Granberg (volunteer) and Patty (guest) share a cup of tea and company at Purple House. The temperature was 6 degrees that night.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES My story and struggles on the street ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 I have too many things in my head. I need to start writing them down. About a month ago, at 1:30 a.m., somebody tried to assault me at the corner of Washington and Main Street. They looked white, maybe 6 feet tall, maybe about 200 pounds. I took out my knife and they ran like crazy. I waited; I stayed up all night and couldn’t sleep anymore because I thought they might come back. Later, two weeks ago, I had forgotten about them and I fell asleep. That night, I forgot to put my things in my shopping cart. Somebody walked by and they took my things. They stole my tablet, my phone and many of my important belongings. Later, a guy came and tried to sell me my tablet for $20. I told him, “This is my tablet, why are you trying to sell me my tablet?” So he asked if I had the code to unlock the screen, and I said yes. He asked for the code and I refused to give it to him, I said, “This is my tablet.” Leon, Groundcover vendor No. 500, found the bag where I kept all my cables and my portable charger. I asked him if he had seen my tablet and my phone and he said he looked for it, but couldn’t find it. My case worker gave me another phone, but I still don’t have my tablet. I used it to listen to music. If a person needs something, they can just ask. If someone asks me: “Cuba, amigo, do you have a cigarette?” I usually give it to them. Sometimes I say no because I need to sell papers to buy my cigarettes. But it’s different when someone asks. You don’t need to steal, just ask. Some people say “Cuba, why are you not looking for real work?” I will explain. I went to Detroit one time and they gave me my I94 identification [that displays my photo and alien number]. I walked all the way there, it took me five days. Before COVID, I went to Chicago. The police caught me there and took me to ICE. ICE took me to a detention center in Kankakee, Illinois. They took all my papers: my green card, my social security card, everything. The police work with ICE. I stayed there for four months, from October 2018 to February 2019. Later, they took me to downtown Chicago for two or three days and tried to blackmail me. They said, “You need to sign your deportation.” I said OK, but they didn’t send me back to Cuba; they just told me to go home. Except that they took all my documents and then they froze my retirement, so now I can’t retire. If I apply for retirement now, I lose everything that I have. The social security administration works with the police and with ICE, so I can’t go back to them because I signed the deportation back in Chicago. So I came back to Ann Arbor to sell Groundcover. Now I’m on the streets and Groundcover News is my job. I can’t have another job because I don’t have any papers and can’t get my papers back. I see so much shit everyday on my corner. I don’t discriminate against any types of people. But I see lots of “PDA” all around downtown Ann Arbor. Kissing, hugging, holding hands, around kids and families. I tell people, if you want to do all that, please do that in private. If you’re hot, take a shower! I came to America in 1980. At the time, Fidel Castro told Cubans that they had the freedom to leave the country if they wanted to, and U.S. president Jimmy Carter said “Welcome!” 125,000 Cubans came to the United States then. In May, I will have been here for 44 years. In this country, there’s so many people with drug addictions, and so many homeless people. I asked my friend Lindsay, “When you went to Cuba, did you see anyone like this?” She said, “No.” So why are there so many people like this here? When Susan Beckett interviewed me and took my picture in 2016 for the cover of Groundcover News, no matter the weather, I worked 10 hours a day selling the paper. I have no family now. I’m waiting for housing, but it’s a long wait. Luiza and Lindsay try to help me, but in this country I have no papers and so I have no rights. Now, I’m 65 and have no retirement. I’ve worked my whole life. I want people to know that the police work with ICE, and I want everybody to think about the humans they see everyday. Finito. JANUARY 26, 2024 Caballero wearing a pin that states, "Groundcover News, this is my job!" It could happen to you I couldn't believe I was homeless. One minute I was in a home, next minute I was on the streets. Me and my girlfriend was on the streets for two years without assistance from anyone — including agencies. Without anyone trying to help us, people had made fun of us. We got sick being on the streets. We even had people say that we're monkeys in a zoo cage. It was hard to move at all; we were walking around looking homeless. I was disabled, using a walker, and I would have to pack all my things up and put them on my walker and push it everyday, all through the day and night, no rest. We had places like 7-Eleven and people from the streets giving us money; it was embarrassing but we had no choice. We were grateful for having 7-Eleven feed us. We had actually had a lot of people who offered their homes, but they always had bad intentions. When we were sleeping at a church they were homophobic. The church claimed they were open to all but they really weren't. It was all just for show and nothing else. We JOCELIN BOYD Groundcover vendor No. 85 were the only gay couple there; they treated single men as kings compared to us. Also, racism is real, no matter if you're homeless or poor. Never say never because you don't know when it's going to happen to you. I pray over all my people who are homeless, that they can get housing. I see a lot of abandoned houses just sitting there, thinking they can use these houses for the homeless. And what's really bad about it is we have elders on the streets who are homeless who need help and it's so sad to see them homeless. We try to all stick together. What’s even crazier was the homeless stealing from the homeless. That was a real big issue to me and I thought I should share this. It has to stop. We have to help our community to help these people. I finally got my apartment after two years on the streets and I live in a really nice apartment. The craziest thing about it is I had assistance — no bad credit, my credit was excellent. I had no felonies. But I was still on the streets. All these good things about me did not stop me from being unhoused. We had to wait for two years before we got housing. People that work for Section 8 need to take time out and start putting some people in front of other people who don't have housing — the elders out here, dying on the streets, getting robbed on the streets. If it wasn't for me and my partner being together I wouldn't know what to do all by myself. Well I hope you guys know that next time you see someone homeless, please help them, communicate with them. Because one day, you never know, it could happen to you. JANUARY 26, 2024 VENDOR VOICES Undercover art intel: Rose Marcum Raugh Rose Marcum Raugh is one of the most influential homeless activists we have in Ann Arbor. When this powerhouse woman-warrior decides to do something she gets it done for everyone. The greatest teacher is personal experience, and Rose for many years was homeless as well. She came out of a military background with four years in the Navy. Military training sets many on a path to make a real difference for society. Being a vet helps out as well in helping other veterans get the connection to services and help they need. Rose discovered she had a real talent in art in an elective art class in high school. Art also became a therapy while she was going through homelessness. She told me it helped her focus on art instead of what she was dealing with at the time. I remember Rose sitting in the Delonis cafeteria and creating elaborate bead works for the public to buy. She told me, “I found rocks and wire, then I would wire wrap them to make jewelry. I would find rocks on the bank of the Huron River and in places like Crazy Wisdom. I used old telephone wire to create the art. It took days to make — that is why the price is so huge.” When Rose became housed, her art style changed and she started to make landscape paintings and landscape sculptures. My personal favorite is the fun gnome home she created with the relatively huge tree stump. Inside there is a small table, chair, bed and fireplace. She told me, “Miniatures are so fun to make. I get so many compliments on them.” Rose became homeless in 2011. She quickly saw many things that needed to change and set it upon herself to do so. She recounted, “It was in 2012 I started to get more involved with the Daytime Warming Center during the winter months. This gave me a foot in the door.” It was at the Journey of Faith Church CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 that Rose saw real potential as the church needed to do outreach work for the community. It all came together when the church asked Rose to do a six month internship in 2017 and 2018. Then in 2019 the Art on a Journey Gallery officially opened in April. The six participating artists all had different kinds of art forms to display: photographs to clay to paintings. Then the 2020 lockdown occurred and the Journey of Faith mission changed overnight from “come get a shower, clothes and meal” to “food pantry and donations bags for the public.” The new and improved Art on a Journey is going to be about the homeless community directly. The vision is about teaching art to homeless people and giving them real art space to make art for the public; opening it up for classes and providing a gallery in a public space for amazing shows and selling art to the public. There will even be an open cafe for the homeless and art gallery in the same space. This new idea is a place for quiet and a place to get off the street and feel safe. As an artist myself, I feel there is a hidden artist in each and every one of us wanting to break out and do art. Rose has come a long way from the first steps of homelessness to being the president of M.I.S.S.I.O.N. Rose became Vice President in 2020; this led her to being President today. She has been a true, fearless leader and activist for all GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Rose Marcum Raugh at her desk located in the Art on a Journey Gallery at Journey of Faith Church. of us to look up to. I say if one person can make such a huge difference in our small community so can each and every one of us. It only takes that one step and, like Rose, changes will happen. The art gallery is slowly becoming a new reality. I personally see this summer a new grand opening happening. As always, there is a limited amount of funding for large ideas. For the project Rose is making, she is writing grants proposals. Let’s all come together as the Ann Arbor community and lend support — if it be financial or donations of art supplies such as acrylics, oils, paint brushes, drawing paper, markers or pencils sets for artists. Canvases, tabletop vessels, brush holders, oil pastels, smoke tarps, glue, construction paper, old magazines, cartons, old bits of cloth, gesso paint and any other art supplies help, too. We are an artist community. From the Art Fair to the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow and U-M School of Art and Design, art is in Ann Arbor to stay. Let's not let 2020 rule us and shut us out and down. Let us break all the barriers and make our city even bigger, even better for each and every one of us here.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THINK ABOUT IT Sharing the commons How to discover the commons and share your findings is the quest of a lifetime. Fortunately we have many mentors and comrades in this struggle. Rev. Lucius Walker is one of mine, even after his death on Labor Day in 2010. As one of the ancestors, his presence can be felt by all those who have a relationship with him. He and Martin Luther King are in my pantheon of spiritual friends who point the way to the greatest of all commons, the unconditional love which we sing about in such songs as “Solidarity Forever.” Lucius founded “Pastors For Peace” from a hospital bed in Nicaragua as part of his healing from a bullet wound he got from the contra terrorists, who got weapons and money from the Reagan administration. “I know exactly who paid for that bullet,” said Lucius, who then founded PFP. Right now they are promoting a webinar on the case South Africa is bringing to the International Criminal Court of Justice which charges Israel with genocide in Palestine. Their first projects were caravans of humanitarian aid to victims of U.S. foreign policy, beginning with Nicaraugua, El Salvador, Guatemala, then Cuba and Chiapas, Mexico. KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 Martin and Lucius knew about each other but never met because they were busy working on different fronts of the same struggle for peace and freedom. On MLK Day in both 2023 and 2024, folks met at the Ann Arbor Commons to share our dreams of freedom, peace and justice. Due to the cold this year we met in the library which is always kin to the commons. We share in the transformation of our lives as we learn who we are in our everyday lives as citizens of a challenging experiment in democracy. When we discover our natural flow, we will participate in creating the democracy that is life-friendly. When we hold the truth to be self-evident we take the leap of faith that makes reality a workable situation. We can promote the truth of unconditional love with mindfulness training. After my 40 years in this process I regularly start over, as masters of the path point out something such as distinguishing attention from awareness as we work with the breath as an object of meditation. Groundcover is working with Karuna Buddhist Center to do a mindfulness workshop which I hope grows into a regular event as people develop some ability to experience authenticity in everyday life. “Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free” is the song now playing in my mind. Look at the open house for Karuna and dance party for Groundcover, details in this issue on page 6 and 12, respectively. The world can easily be experienced as chaotic and overwhelming. A simple breath can make a big difference and I use this method many times everyday. Got writer’s block? Take a breath and see what arises. Learn discriminating awareness for the appearances in the theater of your mind. Some are to be cultivated, others composted on the spot. Practice makes perfect as Tom Stephens demonstrates in his karate classes and street smarts at the peace vigils on Fridays, 5:30 p.m. at Liberty and Fifth. The convergence we are in is heading for a critical mass as we stay focused on simple discipline and persevere. If you are in the Michigan Union, look for the MLK quote in the first floor lobby. “Students have a responsibility to participate in the movement.” Intellectual work is important. Scholar Timothy Snyder has specialized on the Holocaust and mass killings with a focus on Eastern Europe. His book, ”The Road To Unfreedom,” is worthy of critical reflection as we bring past, present and future into our experience of the history we are making. “All the world’s a stage.” My own local and global activity has moved from Cuba to Brazil. The Cuban diaspora includes family connections in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and an invitation to live there with Daniela and Santiago Alberto is the latest episode of my life adventure. Everything is a step at a time and subject to change with the next step as the dance of authenticity plays on. We practice breathing together from earth to sky wherever we are. Michigan is in our heart with Cuba and now Brazil as we make our home on this earth. May all beings benefit. JANUARY 26, 2024 JANUARY 26, 2024 PUZZLES 1 14 17 20 23 25 32 36 40 43 44 47 50 56 59 62 51 52 57 60 63 58 61 64 45 48 49 53 54 55 37 41 46 26 27 33 34 38 42 39 28 21 3 4 5 6 7 8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD from the International Network of Street Papers 2 9 15 18 22 24 29 35 30 31 16 19 10 11 12 13 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Netting 5. Beer quantity 9. Small part in a movie 14. Trade show 15. Killer whale 16. Eyeball benders 17. Appear 18. Back 19. Bullion unit 20. Suitability 23. Iranian coins 24. Floral necklace 25. "Peanuts" creator 28. Finely woven fabric used for sheets 32. Aussie "bear" 33. Sandler of "Big Daddy" 35. Escape 36. Policy favoring governmental interference in economic affairs 40. Six-sided game piece 41. Historic periods 42. Sheriff's gang 43. Unattractively thin 46. Adviser 47. Bleat 48. Cognizant 50. Style of coat with overlap at the front 56. Chip dip 57. Reclined 58. Fertilizer ingredient 59. Whines 60. On the open water 61. Grass stem 62. Embarrass 63. Geek 64. Shell competitor DOWN 1. ___ Verde National Park 2. Board member, for short 3. Blueprint detail, for short 4. Local self-government 5. Spanish conquistador 6. "He's ___ nowhere man" (Beatles lyric) 7. Picket line crossers 8. Nobleman 9. Word inventor 10. Experiencing a suspension of breathing 11. Periodicals, informally 12. Love god 13. His "4" was retired 21. Pertaining to hair 22. Fragrant resin 25. Tire marks 26. Shaped like a volcano 27. Bigot 28. Taps 29. Select group 30. Catch, in a way 31. Old Eurasian wheat with bearded ears 33. Ethereal, in poetry 34. Genetic material 37. Corrupt 38. "La Boheme," e.g. 39. Unrivaled 44. Violations 45. Ohio River tributary 46. Female follower of Bacchus 48. Belittle 49. Drier, as humor 50. Slap on 51. Spanish stewpot 52. Brio 53. Genuine 54. Congers 55. River barriers 56. Place to get a massage

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR WEEK dear GROUNDCOVER VENDORS, Shoutout Gary Leverett, Mike Jones, and Joe Woods!! Appreciate your good energy and always so good seeing you on the street. Dear Shelley, your generosity and positivity, even when facing hardships and disease, are truly inspiring. You've got legions rooting for you! Love the artwork of James Manning. Big shoutout to Mike Jones! Always so good to see you walkin through the door at the Daytime Warming Center in between selling papers because I know we're going to have some great conversations. Much love to vendor No. 113. If I'm being completely honest, my favorite thing about the Old Town Tavern is the $5 cheap can and a well (I think it might be $6 now...). But my next favorite thing is getting a paper from Tony! Always good to see you and hear some wild stories from selling Groundcover. I love seeing Groundcover Vendors selling papers. I always look forward to the opportunity to talk with them. I'm grateful for the work that they do and I'm always better for having had the conversation. Keep up the good work! You guys are amazing and a valuable part of the Ann Arbor community!! It's always a pleasure to run into Teresa and her pup on my walks to class. She writes great poems, too! Terri — I’m rooting for you to get help with your health and continue to contribute to Groundcover! Ken Parks and Alexandra Granberg Amanda Gale - Wayne is the thespian we didn’t know we were missing at Groundcover! Thank you for being our spokesperson in front of the CTN camera! You have a great calming presence and shared from your heart — bravo! Hailu is a pillar to the Groundcover family. Your care PUZZLE SOLUTIONS M E S H C A S E C A M E O E X P O O R C A O P A R T S E E M R E A R I N G O T A C C E P T A B L E N E S S R I E L S L E I S C H U L Z K O A L A D I E A D A M S C R A W N Y B A A S A L S A P U L E S P E R C A L E L A M I N T E R V E N T I O N I S M E R A S P O S S E M E N T O R A W A R E D O U B L E B R E A S T E D L A I N U R E A A S E A C U L M A B A S H N E R D H E S S Lit, always hustling and sharing your endless insights, while making people feel included. Always happy when I get to see you! Best smile always goes to Derek! You warm up our hearts, especially in the bitter cold months. Gracias Roberto para compartir comida, regalos y tu creatividad con nosotros. Every time I talk with Denise she reminds me how hopeful and happy our outlook on life can be. Shout out to the time Amanda and Cindy sang for us all at Groundcover Speaks open mic. Appreciate how confident you both are! Ken, your wisdom as you conquer the problems presented by aging is an inspiration. Lit Kurtz and Joe Woods and attention to the paper and how you amplify it to the community is truly invaluable. Thank you for all your years of commitment and hard work. Glen, always grateful to have your honest perspective on things, in the office and paper. Knowing you’re getting more involved in peer support work outside of Groundcover is an affirmation of who you are. Like you say, you landed in the right place with the right people around you. Shout out to Shawn S. for finding your stride selling papers again. Your drive and patience to try out new sales spots is notable. Hang in there as you keep figuring it out. Glad to have you back! Appreciation to Tabitha & Sean. You both have come so far in the last couple of years. Excited for you to be raising your daughters together — the next generation of amazing kids in our community. Nichols Arcade wouldn’t be what it is if Juliano wasn’t selling there! Never stop sharing your philosophical insights with us. Miss you Hal. The office is quieter without your swoonful singing of oldies from the 50s and 60s. Miss you too Gary R. You had a bit of a jokester character about you — made me chuckle from time to time. What would Groundcover do if we didn’t have Will S. reminding us of the moments in history we should not forget. Your articles are informative and timely — thank you for always being a teacher to us. Pony, Pony, Pony! You’re one of the best-dressed sports fans there are! Appreciate all the times I’ve caught up with you outside the downtown library. Look forward to the next time we catch-up there! Pony Bush JANUARY 26, 2024 I appreciate how friendly and nice you all are. I have asked for the time or directions on occasion and you've gone beyond the call of duty to help me out. I also appreciate your pride in what you do and in what you write in your newspaper. Congratulations on doing something important for our community! love,YOUR CUSTOMERS! JANUARY 26, 2024 POETRY Thee one TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 You will alwayz be, My sweet love, You’ll alwayz have my heart, You’re thee perfect one for me, You’re thee one I think of, You’re thee one I depend on, I never want ta part, I know we’re not wrong, We belong together, My love for you, Izz so strong, I belong to you. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What many homeless people seem to know more than most others PHILIP SPINK Groundcover contributor If you want to be a spirit Of grace despite angers burning within, Of dignity despite attacks of oppressors Or slights of degredators; You should gather up Every seed, and blossom, and wingbeat of love That have ever given strength to your spirit, And with them turn yourself into a tower Of light above hate, To make hate small and withering. To rise kindly towards the true right Let your love become a power, But of a very gentle nature; By seeing no hater as your enemy, But rather hate itself. Thus you make the noble judgment, Contending against all horrors of profound violence, That if you in a fury take out an eye for any eye, This will never truly heal you, But rather cut out along with another’s hated eye Some gentle part of your own heart.  EVICTED from page 4 me if I knew where any other camps were — asking me to tattle on other camps. “PATH told me they would help me move; they gave me their number and told me they would call. The police officer told me it would eventually come to bulldozing. I appreciate them not giving me an official ticket; the sign is ridiculous, though. “PATH came again to my tent the next Tuesday morning; they offered to give me a ride somewhere else. I couldn’t go with them at the time; I was uncomfortable with the idea of moving. I didn’t want to ride in the car of someone I didn’t know. And where else would they put me?” Truly, it's a catch-22. When it comes to land for survival camping in Washtenaw County, everything is spoken for. It's all either private or public. Earlier that same day, another camp on Ypsilanti City property was issued a verbal warning of a looming sweep in a similar fashion. It is home to three people who had occupied the space since June 2023. Mark, a resident there, met the police at his tent door. “He asked me for an ID and who was in my tent. They told me I had until Monday to move. My first thought was, ‘Are you crazy? Go where?’ Our spot is low-key. We’re way off the road, we’ve never seen anyone pass us. They wait until it's below zero, and tell us we have to move our spot. We don’t have anywhere to go.” Mixed signals Tuesday January 16, affected campers and members of Washtenaw Camp Outreach attended Ypsilanti City Council to speak out against the recent winter sweeps. More activists went to the Washtenaw Board of Commissioners meeting Wednesday, January 17 to convey the same message. “Stop the sweeps. People need a safe place to have their camp set up that's not going to be threatened with eviction. City property should be that place people can go …The city has a responsibility to do something. For the police, for PATH, for the city to spend their time evicting someone is inhumane. The tents are iced to the ground,” said LK, WCO organizer, addressing Council. Marie reminded Council, “I’m doing everything I’m supposed to be doing to get rehoused. I’m working with all the agencies I can be.” The Ypsilanti Police Chief denied issuing these notices, and Ypsilanti City Council members claimed to not know anything about it. Washtenaw County Commissioner Annie Sommerville offered to mobilize funds to pay for hotel rooms for the displaced campers (and did). Marie recounted, “I talked to the Police Chief, I talked to Councilmembers, and they told me they weren’t going to sweep. It’s confusing ... I see flags, fences, tape everywhere. I don’t know what it means. “I dread the unknown. You just sit in your tent and wait for someone to come ... That’s traumatizing for me. Now I’m living in fear. “I think there is room for improvement in the way we interact. I don’t want to point fingers at anyone, I know there is tension. I think this is an opportunity to improve these interactions. I hope we can grow. That’s important to me.” More than just a warning The threat of a camp sweep still causes harm, even if not immediately enforced, as in the case of Marie, Mark and Mikey’s campsites. Unwelcome encounters with police or government officials can be traumatic, especially after experiencing homelessness for some time. “I’ve been attacked for no reason before. I’ve stayed in hotels, motels and lived in my car wrongfully attacked by law enforcement. In the last year and a half I’ve had so much law enforcement contact. Starting when I was ripped from my home. My stories aren’t that different from others. In fact, I’ve been fortunate,” said Marie. The campers affected by these sweeps choose not to enter into winter sheltering programs hosted by the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County for a variety of legitimate reasons. Campsite locations are chosen based on proximity to employment, resources, water and other survival needs, bus routes and more. Campsite set-up involves tents, tarps, supplies, often natural materials and are arranged with care and intention. Threats of eviction — even if they are misinformed or premature — displace people even further. They are as deeply harmful as an eviction from an apartment or house. LK from Washtenaw Camp Outreach reflected in an interview that camps are swept on both private property and on City of Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor [public] property throughout the year in this way. She recognizes that most campers do not want to fight back because it inevitably causes further exposure to police and the courts. The community fight for these campers’ right to shelter as they choose has been waged through survival programs, fundraising for emergency hotel stays and mutual aid efforts. The acute inhumanity of these recent sweeps during the January polar vortex motivated direct action from the community, ultimately winning their short term demand for the City of Ypsilanti to "Stop the sweeps." But the fight doesn't look like its stopping here. These campers understand their right to shelter and their right to housing. It's time for the County, the City and land owners to get on board. 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Shakshuka ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 5 teaspoons olive oil 1 medium onion, diced 1 red bell pepper, diced 4 finely minced garlic cloves 2 t. paprika (I like smoked) 1 t. cumin ¼ t. cayenne 1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes 6 large eggs Salt and pepper to taste ½ cup fresh chopped cilantro ½ cup fresh chopped parsley Crumbled feta cheese (optional) Directions: Heat olive oil in a large saute pan on medium heat. Add the chopped red pepper and onion and cook for six to seven minutes until the onion is translucent. Add garlic and spices and cook for an additional minute. Pour tomatoes with the juice into the JANUARY 26, 2024 pan and break down tomatoes with a large spoon. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Use the spoon to make wells in the sauce, crack one egg into each well. Cover the pan with lid and cook eggs for 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat and garnish with chopped cilantro and parsley. Serve warm. with crumbled feta cheese. This easy, delicious North African and Middle Eastern dish takes less than 30 minutes to make and is perfect for any meal. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2ND 102 S. First Ave 6:30-9:00PM NO COVER Groundcover merchandise for purchase and art up for auction ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SUPPORTING GROUNDCOVER NEWS FUNDRAISER @ LIVE MUSIC BY

2 $ DECEMBER 29, 2023 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 1 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Washtenaw County lends and ear to those with lived experience. page 6 MEET YOUR VENDOR: JIM CLARK PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Mixed media art pieces by T'onna Clemmons. • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor # FUN-RAISER @ LIVE A2 on Fri, February 2nd, 6:30-9p

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER from the DIRECTOR'S DESK LINDSAY CALKA Publisher We all know Ann Arbor is a pretty cool place. When the New York Times published “It’s the Coolest Rock Show in Ann Arbor. And Almost Everyone There Is Over 65.” on January 12, 2023, the rest of the world realized what we already knew. The New York Times story featured Live’s fondly nicknamed “Geezer Happy Hour,” which on any given Friday evening hosts over a hundred Ann Arbor townies, often 60 or older. You might remember the iconic photos shared on Facebook featuring fancy outfits and silver heads bobbing on a crowded dance floor. In February, for one night only, two of Ann Arbor’s hyper-local scenes are coming together for Groundcover News’ first fundraiser event since before the pandemic. Groundcover News is excited to co-host the Geezer Happy Hour — all thanks to bands Jive Colossus and The Sidemen who are donating their tips from the night to our organization, and event organizer Randy Tessier! There will be Groundcover merchandise available to purchase, two unique art pieces up for auction — created by local artist T'onna Clemmons— and of course all the live music and Groundcover News-fun that you can imagine. We have a handful of amazing programs in need of funding for the new year. You can see the impacts of these programs in 2023 on the back page of this issue. If your New Year’s resolution is to have more fun, dance more often and connect with community members, mark your calendar for Friday, February 2, 6:30-9 p.m. No cover. We look forward to seening you there! LIVE is located at 102 S First St in downtown Ann Arbor. More details leading up to the event will be posted on the Groundcover News Facebook page. RSVP there and feel free to invite rockers and readers alike! FEBRUARY 2, 2024 6:30-9p PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELFDETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Teresa Basham Jim Clark Cindy Gere Mike Jones Elizabeth "Lit" Kurtz Joshua Lee Ken Parks Ashley Powell Earl Pullen Phillip Spink Shawn Swoffer GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Harleen Kaur Robert Klingler Ruben Mauricio Margaret Needham Emily Paras Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons @ LIVE A2 DECEMBER 29, 2023 DECEMBER 29, 2023 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 New Year, new location, Ypsilanti is the destination. I decided to build a customer base in the city and township I live in. I will start by saying big thanks to good friend and former vendor manager Jim Clark for his vision and incredible guerilla marketing skills. This past year or more, we at Jim Clark,vendor No. 139 In one sentence, who are you? A person who is challenged by a question such as this. A unique individual. A counter-culture revolutionary. Damn your “one sentence” answers, I’m an artist … Where do you usually sell Groundcover News?At my alma mater, Eastern Michigan University — Go Hurons! When did you start selling Groundcover? 2013. What is your favorite thing to do in Ypsilanti? Organize grassroots anti-capitalist warriors. What’s the worst/best thing about selling Groundcover News? Worst: Rejection. I have Rejection Sensitivity Dyphoria. Best: Self-discovery; Groundcover News believes in me. What is something about you someone on the street wouldn't know? I'm polyamorous. :) If you could eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Anything from Speedy's Big Burger. What words do you live by? Matthew 25:40. “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover? I believe in the mission of Groundcover News, solidarity with my peers with lived experience, and I beleive in Lindsay Calka. What is a small thing that makes your day better? Smoking a pre-roll from Bloom! What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? 1) A 24/7365 shelter in Ypsilanti. 2) End to all camp sweeps. 3) Decision-making power for homeless people in shelter spaces. Groundcover News have been talking about gaining a bigger customer base in Ypsilanti, to inform people on the issues of homelessness and poverty. This vision will now be made a reality. This December, I started on my mission selling Groundcover News in Ypsi. And what a response! Just as planned, people were noticing the Groundcover News GROUNDCOVER NEWS Selling newspapers in Ypsilanti signs all around the Ypsilanti area. I was received with open arms because people want to know more about this news publication. After a few days of testing the waters, I’m convinced Groundcover News will do well in this great city of Ypsilanti, Michigan. When out and about in the downtown area, one can find other Groundcover vendors or me, Mike Jones, in Depot Town, Bobcat Bonnie’s, and Cross Street by the EMU campus. Other vendors and myself look forward to engaging in friendly conversation and making ends meet at the same time. We at Groundcover thank all in advance for supporting our publication. 3 Neaton Math ASHLEY POWELL Groundcover vendor No. 595 Math, where would we be without this subject? As challenging as it may be for some students, it's worth grasping. There are theories that some people who are left brained vs. right brained excel at Math. Many believe that to be good in mathematics you need to be left-brained, or a logical and analytical thinker. Whereas if you're right-brained, or creative and free-thinking, you are doomed to struggle with the subject. But did you know this notion has been scientifically proven false? Let's be real, learning math helps with decision making and improves cognitive skills. I know personally that some issues that people have with learning the subject involve a lack of understanding of the terms and definitions. For those who are struggling, there is new software available through Neaton Mathematics. Neaton Mathematics was developed by a longtime math teacher who saw a need to augment the traditional math curriculum with a more personalized approach that gave teachers additional tools to help students. Too often teachers aren’t able to judge performance until it is too late. The My Number DNA program allows teachers to evaluate students’ performance in realtime and better understand their needs. To learn more visit: mynumberdna.com. To bring Neaton Math to your school email: neatonmath@gmail.com. Finding art supplies with no money Art is made by all kinds of people around the world, from some of the poorest nations to the wealthiest. The biggest issue is finding supplies. For low income artists, it’s nearly impossible . I personally will give you all of my secrets to help you find art supplies. I first look at what do I need, then I break it up into what I most need to what I least need at that stage of producing the art. Then I break it up into most expensive to least expensive. such as cobalt aqua marine blue paint. Even beads are broken up into shiny diamond-like beads to seed beads. Much of what I just told you is now in my head when I go to CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 shows and stores to get what I’m needing. Now, on to the list of where to find supplies: • General garage and rummage sales; • Free bins and boxes that pop up alongside the roads in nice weather. • The store called Scrap Box on Washtenaw near Hogback Road is wonderful because it has so many useful things, nearly free. I generally pay just ten cents for most things. • Ann Arbor Thrift Store • Ann Arbor District Library Arts & Crafts supply exchange event which is coming on Sunday, February 24, 12 to 2 p.m. at Mallett’s Creek Library • Salvation Army • Goodwill Making art is about finding the art supplies as much as it is making the art, so remember it can be as much fun to find the parts as it is to make the art … keep it fun!

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 There are many highly intelligent people among the unhoused population of Washtenaw County. Some with degrees, even master's degrees. Some are gifted in ways not measured in academics, but have incredible talents, skills, perspectives, thoughts, ideas and so on. There are two prongs to this article. One is that among the homeless there are many gifted people who are unable to help themselves because of the toxic-stress effect of homelessness on their cognitive functions. Two, the lack of Executive Function (see definition below) training in the form of education can also contribute to homelessness. It seems counterintuitive to think that someone who is highly intelligent could wind up homeless, yet, anecdotally, there are a lot of people out there who fit the description. Crossing this descriptor with mental illness, we find many brilliant minds stifled by depression and anxiety or distorted due to mania or disassociation. A number of gifted people also suffer suppression due to medication — which motivates some to refuse it, hence making self-sufficiency difficult if not impossible. Executive functions are operations of our brains that help us traverse our world and realize our needs and desires. Stimulus is detected by our many senses, it is cognitively processed, and then a response is generated. The cognition and response frequently involve Executive Functions such as problem-solving, divergent thinking, planning, organizing, attention span and decision-making. It has been shown that during a homelessness episode these and other EFs become compromised because our nervous system is wired to revert to “fight or flight” survival mode. Living in this mode day after day can become toxic. According to firesteelwa.org, “Homelessness and poverty can have lasting consequences because they can create toxic stress. Toxic stress can alter how the brain and body respond to and process stress. Toxic stress can damage executive function, memory, learning, and social information processing.” Although it is not formally acknowledged, one of the effects an education has on a student is the practice and development of Executive Function skills. Our brains come with them “installed” but it is through education we are supposed to learn to use them fully. If you’ve dropped out of school, you missed this training. If you fall through the cracks into homelessness, you probably won’t have these skills to begin with, let alone have them compromised. It is intuitive to think that there is a negative relationship between homelessness and education. There is evidence that proves it. If a high school student is homeless, there is an 80% chance they will not graduate. It has been shown that high school students living in the inner city and attending underperforming schools also have a high probability of becoming homeless. (schoolhouseconnection.org/number) What if there was a way to restore Executive Functions to such a degree that those with compromised ability could undo the damage caused by toxic stress and take steps toward self-sufficiency? And what if those whose EFs are compromised due to lack of exposure to education could receive that training, thus enhancing DECEMBER 29, 2023 Toxic stress, executive function and remediation their EF to the point of also being able to navigate their way to self-sufficiency like their highly intelligent peers? As a training group, they could easily begin solving each other’s problems and create a synergy of interdependence, solidarity and community. They could run for office and make real changes due to their lived experience — not just for homeless people, but for all. They could join homelessness grassroots affiliates to bring insight and leadership. They could begin to solve not just their own problems and the problems of friends and strangers, but of the municipality and society at large. The new not-for-profit NeuroTraining Initiative seeks to set up just this type of group, initially focusing on the houseless community and their particular set of needs. After Jan. 1, there will be NTI sessions held at the Daytime Warming Centers (one in Ypsilanti at the Freighthouse, one in Ann Arbor at rotating church sites), promising to make strengthening life skills and the EFs fun and engaging. If you’re interested, please call 231-670-6059. Remembering Robert J. Delonis: a champion of compassion and community JOSHUA LEE Groundcover contributor In the quiet corners of Ann Arbor, a man's legacy echoes through the walls of a shelter, reminding the community of the indomitable spirit of compassion and dedication that can change lives. Robert J. Delonis, former chairman of Great Lakes National Bank (now part of TCF), left an enduring mark on the city through his instrumental role in the establishment of the shelter that now bears his name. The journey began in the late 1990s when Delonis, a respected figure in the business world, lent his administrative and financial expertise to the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County. As the chairman of the management oversight committee generated by the County's task force on homelessness, he dedicated himself to improving the agency's capacity to address the pressing issue of homelessness in the community. Ellen R. Schulmeister, the former founding and long-time executive director of the Shelter Association, fondly recalls Delonis's commitment to the cause. "He was dedicated to helping people who were homeless. He lent his administrative and financial background to the Shelter Association to help us improve our agencies," she said. The culmination of Delonis's efforts came to fruition in the form of a groundbreaking project — the construction of a shelter facility that would provide a haven for those in need. From 1998 to mid-2000, Delonis collaborated with the Washtenaw Housing Alliance, the County, the City of Ann Arbor, and an architectural firm to plan and design the building that would stand as a symbol of community unity. "Bob Delonis symbolized how the community came together on this issue," remarked County Administrator Robert E. Guenzel, who recognized Delonis's leadership role in chairing the oversight committee. "A person of his stature gave credibility to the project." Delonis's commitment to the project remained steadfast even in the face of personal challenges. Despite battling a kidney condition, he played a pivotal role in securing City approval and funding for the shelter. The Ann Arbor City Council's decision on June 19, 2000, marked a significant milestone, with Delonis's presence reflecting his unwavering dedication to the cause. Beyond his involvement in the shelter project, Delonis had a history of community engagement. His previous roles in organizations like Washtenaw United Way, National Kidney Foundation, Artrain, NEW Center, and Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw County showcased his broad commitment to social causes and nonprofit endeavors. The building that now proudly bears Robert Delonis's name stands as a testament to his vision and the collaborative spirit of the Ann Arbor community. Completed in October and operational since November 2003, the four-story facility provides separate men's and women's sleeping quarters with a total of 50 beds, a kitchen serving meals to 120 people on-site, and additional amenities such as a medical clinic and psychological evaluation services. As Ann Arbor residents walk past the Delonis Center, they are reminded not only of the man who dedicated his time and energy to a cause greater than himself but also of the profound impact that can be achieved when a community rallies together. Robert J. Delonis's legacy lives on in the compassionate spaces he helped create, serving as an enduring reminder that, indeed, "It takes a community." Delonis Center on W. Huron St. DECEMBER 29, 2023 CRISIS RESPONSE Ann Arbor cancels pilot unarmed response RFP; Care-Based Safety's single proposal dropped Groundcover News has been reporting on the City of Ann Arbor’s American Rescue Plan Act for two years, starting with its initial award of $24.1 million in March 2021 and community engagement in January 2022. Although the federal funding is time-limited — all dollars must be allocated by December 31, 2024 and spent by December 31, 2026 — the city attempted to do a somewhat thorough community engagement process to democratically spend the funds. (See February 1, 2022 issue of Groundcover News.) The results of the citywide community engagement produced new, interesting projects to fund. One was a Guaranteed Income Pilot (see September 22, 2023 issue of Groundcover News). Another was a City Unarmed Response Program, which would be the first of its kind in the state of Michigan. On April 5, 2021, “Resolution Directing the City Administrator to Develop an Unarmed Public Safety Response Program” was passed by Ann Arbor City Council. It ordered that the program would be launched through an RFP, or request for proposals. An RFP is a public posting — often from the government — announcing that bids from contractors are being sought to complete a project. The RFP also includes the guidelines for the project itself. Typically an RFP follows a standardized process including the public posting, application period, deadline, review period and final selection. $100,000 and over two years were spent on community engagement to inform the RFP draft. The language was unanimously approved by the City Council on June 20, 2023. As of the deadline of September 21, local crisis-response non-profit Care-Based Safety was the only applicant. (Read more about CareBased Safety and their work in Ypsilanti in the March 10, 2023 issue of Groundcover News.) October, which the RFP outlined as a tentative deadline for candidate interviews, came and went and Care-Based Safety still had received no contact from the City nor feedback about their proposal submitted on September 19. In a closed session meeting on December 18, Ann Arbor staff canceled the RFP and said that they will LINDSAY CALKA Publisher open a new RFP with an “updated scope” in 2024. A staff-level decision does not require a vote of the Ann Arbor City Council, and no such vote was taken. In this same meeting, the city hired its new police chief, Andre Anderson. “Bureaucracy is a tool of white supremacy,” Liz Kennedy of CareBased Safety stated at a community conference held online on December 22 in response to the cancellation. “The city did not follow their own process; they should be accountable to us.” Care-Based Safety was informed of the RFP cancellation via email, and they requested direct reasons on why their single application was dropped. Reasons given via email correspondence were: • “The scope of the RFP needs to be updated,” • CBS’s proposed timeline is not “fully operational,” • their services do not meet “clearly expressed” community needs and • that “experience and references did not meet usual expectations.” A press release was sent out by the City of Ann Arbor on December 27 entitled, “City of Ann Arbor Reaffirms Support for Unarmed Crisis Response Program.” The release reads, “City Administrator Milton Dohoney Jr. indicated that the city found it unacceptable that it would take at least five years for the unarmed crisis response program to fully ramp up under the approach submitted by CBS. In addition, the city found it unacceptable that calls for service would only be answered on limited days during limited hours leaving the city without a functioning unarmed crisis response after 11 p.m. and for much of the weekend.” CBS noted in a social media post uploaded on December 23 that the RFP never stated “fully operational,” nor do they define what that would look, or not look, like. CBS also challenges, “If fully operational means city-wide or 24/7 access, it would be unethical and a set-up for failure, to immediately provide 24/7, city-wide service for an untested program, immediately or even within two years. More importantly, the community deserves to be able to inform and shape that work and co-create its expansion.” Despite this setback, Care-Based Safety plans to seek other funding and continue their work through two main activities: community-building and care-based response. One attendee at the CBS December 22 press conference inquired about seeking funding from another source, such as through private donations or grants. Co-directors Kennedy and Luna NH agree that will be necessary, but expect it is unlikely enough to sustain the organization and its service at the scope of the RFP proposal. Regarding grants, Kennedy noted that very few grants are posted that fund this type of work locally. And when they are, community based groups are in competition with the Sheriff’s department. This year, the Sheriff’s department was awarded a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services for their Co-Response Unit, which dispatches armed police officers with unarmed community mental health workers. “The Sheriff’s department is expanding services by co-opting community based projects,” Kennedy said. This leaves peer-led and grassroots organizations under-resourced and unable to develop the capacity to access institutional funding. At the time of publication the City of Ann Arbor has not provided the updated scope nor timeline of the second RFP, but have stated to release such information in January. It is unclear whether there is enough time to conduct due process before the ARPA funding allocation period ends at the close of 2024. Archived issues of Groundcover News can be viewed at groundcovernews.org GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Fifth Avenue Press AADL founded Fifth Avenue Press in 2017 to support the local writing community and promote the creation of original content. The imprint publishes works by authors who live in Washtenaw County. Consider submitting your finished manuscript to Fifth Avenue Press today at fifthave.aadl.org. Book Clubs To Go Book Clubs To Go is a service available at each AADL location that provides the convenience of complete kits for book discussions. Inside, you’ll find 10 copies of the featured book, one movie DVD, and a resource folder. Request a kit today through the online catalog or by calling (734) 327-4200. FEATURED EVENT STEP IT UP! THE FRENCH DUKES A CELEBRATION, PERFORMANCE, AND READING Saturday, Jan. 20 • 2–3pm Downtown Library Join us for a celebration of the French Dukes! Author Debbie Taylor will kick things off with a reading of her picture book, Step It Up! The French Dukes! Set in 1960’s Ann Arbor, inspired by the reallife French Dukes Precision Drill Team. Members of the original team will talk with Debbie about their experience, followed by a short performance. 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOUSING EQUITY DECEMBER 29, 2023 Washtenaw County lends an ear to those with lived experience Within Washtenaw County there is a department dedicated to bringing equality to all of its citizens. Part of the Racial Equity Office’s mission statement reads, “We are … spearheading the charge of (racial equity) policy, addressing existing inequities in the county and ultimately making Washtenaw County a more equitable place to live and work.” Department Director Alize Asberry Payne says that her work on racial equity also encompasses those who are impacted by other inequities such as housing. In an effort to reach those who are unhoused, Payne formed a recent event giving special focus to those with lived experience. Also known as epistemic privilege, this line of thinking gives recognition to those who have lived through a crisis as being the experts in sharing their knowledge about it. Payne also prioritized compensating the panelists for their time and effort which is often overlooked. There were three participants on the panel entitled, Housing Equity: Co-Creating a vision for Housing Equity in Washtenaw County — Centering the Voices of Lived Experience. Each unhoused panelist shared their unique experiences on the homeless struggle LIT KURTZ Groundcover vendor No. 159 in front of an audience of social workers and commissioners who gathered to gain a more firsthand account of what it means to live unhoused in the county. The panel included Rebecca Bongo who spoke from the perspective of the working homeless living a van life. Another participant was Gia Powers, a mid-twenties individual who has been housing-insecure for about the past year. I was the third person on the panel, having lived a decade unhoused following a mass layoff of teachers in the school district where I had previously worked. The panelists’ lives outside of mainstream housing were diverse, each reflective of different lifestyles and demographics. Rebecca Bongo was the only panelist who holds down a full-time mainstream job, while sleeping in her van. She expressed that her Commissioner Justin Hodge moderated Housing Equity panel featuring speakers Gia Powers, Rebecca Bongo and Elizabeth "Lit" Kurtz. “world changed” in 2018 and that she has “criss-crossed” the country several times in what she calls her “rig,” trying to figure things out. Of the many questions posed by the moderator, an important one asked panelists which available resources in the county for the unhoused are most beneficial. Powers was quick to praise Solidarity House in Ypsilanti which she credits with “saving her life.” Each panelist agreed that Fed Up Ministries is taking steps in the right direction by providing a menu that is more like restaurant fare than food designed for “the homeless." The general consensus and praise was towards organizations who are providing a more humanizing for those who are unhoused rather than those who tend to treat unhoused people like numbers and statistics. The Delonis Center generated the least favorable response from panelists, with Bongo noting that many individuals are unable to cope with the cramped quarters and other restrictions of shelter life. Her sentiment may shed light in the feelings of many who are experiencing homelessness in a new 21st century world where people who are unhoused are still looked upon as drags on society and too often lack places to be in the daytime due to a lack of day shelters. Having lived a decade without see PANEL next page  DECEMBER 29, 2023 READER FEEDBACK What do you like to read? Weigh in on Groundcover content homelessness. It also provides opportunities and a voice for low-income people. Our newspaper relies on the community for support, feedback and participation. There are many ways that you can get ERICK BROWN Groundcover vendor No. 617 We have some exciting news to share with you! We are planning to introduce new and diverse content to our publication. Our goal is to provide more stories that are relevant, interesting and engaging to you and your community. As you may know, MLive, one of the major news networks in our area, moved their office out of Ann Arbor last year, leaving a gap in the local news coverage. We see this as an opportunity and a responsibility to fill that gap. We believe that our newspaper can be a source of information, inspiration and empowerment for the community. We are thinking about adding more stories on topics such as science and technology, health and wellness, education and learning, environment and sustainability, arts and literature, history and trivia, humor and satire and more. We will also continue to cover the issues of poverty and homelessness, as well as the local politics, events and culture that affect your lives. However, these changes are not going to happen overnight. We need your help to make them possible. We need more advertisers to support our newspaper financially. We need more people to send in stories that they want to share with the world. We need more feedback and suggestions from you, our loyal readers, to improve our content and serve you better. Groundcover is a community-run newspaper that covers local news, especially when related to poverty and involved and help out our newspaper, such as: • Filling out this short questionnaire and letting us know what kind of stories you want covered in our newspaper. Your feedback will help us improve our content and serve you better. • Advertising with our newspaper or sponsoring a story or a section. You can contact us by email, phone or social media for more details and rates. • Sending us your stories or ideas that you want to share with the world. You can email your stories to submissions@groundcovernews.com or pitch a story on our linktr.ee. • Volunteering to help with writing, editing, designing, distributing or fundraising. You can contact us by email, phone, or social media to find out more about our volunteer opportunities. • Donating to our newspaper. You can make a donation online through our website or in person at our office. Every donation counts and helps us keep our newspaper running. • Spreading the word about Groundcover and inviting others to join our community. You can share our stories and information on your social media, email or by word of mouth. You can also encourage your friends and family to read our newspaper and give us their feedback. Please take a few minutes to fill out the questionnaire on page 10, cut it out and give it to a vendor, or mail it / drop off to our office. You can also fill it out online at linktr.ee/groundcovernews. Your feedback will help us improve our content and serve you better. Thank you for your participation and support. We hope you enjoy our new and improved newspaper! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Shop at the Kiwanis Thrift Sale! Holiday Gifts, Decorations, Tree Sale November 3 - December 30 November 24 - December 30 Toy Sale { Fridays from 9 am - 1 pm and Saturdays from 9 am - 3 pm } Kiwanis Center in Scio Township 100 N Staebler Rd off Jackson Rd Kiwanis will be open for normal business hours through the 2023 holiday season  PANEL from last page mainstream housing, I expressed my frustration that the systemic issues of storage and available showers go unaddressed. I noted how this leads to more people who are unhoused not being able to move freely or be presentable for job interviews. Dan Kelly, who is the director of the Delonis Center in Ann Arbor, agreed with the need for better storage solutions and is making plans to address the problem in an upcoming meeting, which is a positive sign that listening to those with lived experience can be productive. When asked for suggestions for change, Powers talked about more direct giving and Bongo and I addressed the need for supervised, WiFi-equipped parking lots designed for people who are living in vehicles. While this panel was a significant step in the right direction and holds the promise of more inclusion for the unhoused community, it still feels symbolic — even experimental. Unfortunately, there are no plans in the near future for similar panels, and with the exception of some input for storage solutions for Delonis, none of us were invited to be a part of any major decision making going forward. Yet, for a government agency to hear our voices and provide compensation for our time seems to indicate there is real hope that more inclusion is on the horizon.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HEALTH The Doctor is In! Health Q&A This article was written in partnership with a group at the University of Michigan called Black and Pink at the School of Public Health. BPSPH works with incarcerated folks in Michigan who identify across the LGBTQ+ spectrum. As part of their work, BPSPH writes articles that answer people’s health questions and shares versions of those articles with Groundcover. If you have a health question you would like to see answered in a future issue of Groundcover, let the folks at the Groundcover offices know. Note: this health information is provided by medical students and other health trainees. If you have specific questions about your own health, please consult with a healthcare provider. How can I keep my feet healthy when I’m on them all day long? By: Amanda and Karelyn Walking or standing all day long can lead to so many aches and pains — but especially your feet! Knowing what types of pains are emergencies, not just annoyances, is important for your health. If your symptoms are severe or there is sudden trauma, go to the emergency room or talk to a doctor. Beyond emergencies, you’ll want to check your feet regularly. Whenever you shower, wash your feet with soap and water, including between the toes, to prevent infection. While you’re down there, look at every surface of your foot. Check for signs of something serious, like an infection or underlying medical condition. These can include: • Open wounds, drainage or bleeding • White/yellow moisture, significant odors • Swelling, rash, itchiness • Changes in skin color: redness (infection), darkened (dead tissue), blue-ish (poor blood flow) • Changes in feeling: numbness, burning or tingling (nerve damage) Other signs of infection are pain, fever or flu-like symptoms. Always talk to your doctor about any health concerns you have, even your feet. There are also podiatrists, who specialize in foot health. Now that we’ve addressed serious conditions, let’s talk about other aches and pains. Many folks, including myself, don’t learn proper nail-cutting techniques until later in life. To prevent ingrown toenails, cut straight across so the nail corner is visible. If you have a painful ingrown nail, you can put lotion on it and cover it with a bandaid. This softens the nail and can give some relief. Corns and calluses are common too; they’re thick parts of skin that are created when there is friction or pressure on your foot. You can remove these little by little with an emery board or pumice stone after showers, but if you have diabetes, poor circulation, or aren’t able to clean your feet with soap and water regularly, wait until a doctor can help you so you can avoid infection. Fungal infections usually cause thickening and/or discoloration of toenail — but you actually don’t have to treat these! If it’s bothering you, talk to your doctor about treatment options. (Each night immediately before going to bed, apply a dab of Vicks Vapor Rub to the affected toenail and cover with a sock. Eventually the toenail will clear.) Just a heads up, it can be really hard to get rid of these! Lastly, do your best to find shoes that fit well — wide enough, with some wiggle room for your toes. Being on your feet all day long is hard; rest when you can, and don’t be afraid to give yourself a foot massage! DECEMBER 29, 2023 DECEMBER 29, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD from the International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. 12-point type 5. Pregnant, Baby9. Bursae 13. Broadcasting 15. ___ Minor 16. ___ du jour 17. Foreword, for short 18. 1990 World Series champs 19. Arm bone 20. Combining different species 23. Victorian, for one 25. ___ grass 26. Cleared 27. Change the tend of events 31. Group of singers in the highest range 32. Residence of an ambassador 36. Island rings 37. Cozy 39. "How ___ Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" (Kaavya Viswanathan novel in the news) 41. Lug 43. A commotion 44. Equal but opposite charge of a neutron 47. Kind of apartment 51. Body part 52. "Ouch, I stubbed my..." 53. Understands incorrectly 57. Lying, maybe 58. "Mi chiamano Mimi," e.g. 59. Go over 62. "Dear" ones 63. Tablet 64. Adult insect 65. "And ___ thou slain the Jabberwock?" 66. Bridge site 67. High School dance DOWN 1. Hawaiian dish 2. Setting for TV's "Newhart" 3. Relief through expression of emotion 4. Breezy 5. Mineral consisting of barium sulfate 6. Brought into play 7. Calf-length skirt 8. Snubbed 9. Matter expectorated from the respiratory system 10. "___ well" 11. Birchbark 12. Bear 14. Computerized people 21. "Go team!" 22. Length x width, for a rectangle 23. And others, for short 24. Guidelines 28. Bite 29. Adagio and allegro 30. International Monetary Fund 33. Dirty coat 34. Eclipse, for one 35. "Hurray!" 37. A tomblike monument to someone buried elsewhere 38. Decide to leave, with "out" 40. Channel 42. Been in bed 43. Arm bones 45. Flamethrower fuel 46. "To ___ is human ..." 47. #1 song 48. Leg bone 49. ___ manual 50. Archaic second person singular past of do 54. Ashtabula's lake 55. Brook 56. Fill-in 60. "Give it ___!" 61. Little dog, for short

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY To my fiance, my soulmate SHAWN SWOFFER Groundcover vendor No. 574 Man of god EARL PULLEN Groundcover contributor As the coldness of winter sets in I feel like chill down my spine as I look over and see you holding my hand. I have never had such strong emotion such a deep connection to you I look into your eyes and see our future and as the sun sets above the snow I just know you are my soulmate I love you forever and ever. To the love of my life. You alwayz lie (I alwayz cry) TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 You’ll never understand, Thee way I feel, You alwayz lie, I alwayz cry, You’re alwayz breakin my heart, When I alwayz fight to keep, Even when I feel you creep, You tear me apart, You never keep your word, You alwayz put me, From 10th to 3rd, Everythang we ever had planned, We just don’t go, You alwayz say you love me, I can see, I really don’t know. What type of stories do you read and want to read more of in our newspaper? (Rate your interest in each type of story, where 1 means not interested at all and 10 means very interested) Testimonies from the people on the streets 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Local politics Local events Sports Self-help or advice Creative stories Health and wellness Environment and sustainability Arts and literature History and trivia Humor and satire Other (please specify) How long have you been reading our newspaper? Circle one. - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Do you have any suggestions or comments on how we can improve our newspaper? Open response answer. Less than a month 1-6 months 6-12 months More than a year Please return to any Groundcover vendor or to the Groundcover News office, 423 S. 4th Ave. A man of God For whosoever Shall forsake a man Who is scorned On bended knee May the wrath of God fall On his head And then God shall Deliver him from The eternal fire Which is sure to come Thus then will the Scorned man rise From the pit of Desolation to the Gates of Heaven Like a man Who is in the Desert and there Is no way out No water And no end in sight DECEMBER 29, 2023 Trying to be heard as a brother of those unheard PHILLIP SPINK Groundcover contributor I am discovering how difficult it is To be listened to by the mainstream, When trying to stay a brother of the unheard, By speaking first for the love of those Out ragged in the sun and winds and on dusty corners, And so of the too discounted root. It is natural to want to be of the mainstream, Yet in the silence of lower tributaries of status There are often people of higher waters Of true kindness, modesty and wisdom. DECEMBER 29, 2023 HOLIDAYS Happy Holy Daze I am the first born child of deeply religious parents. My father was a convert from sin to salvation. God was a better high than alcohol. I’m sure he once woke up with a hangover on January 1 as the holidays ended in a “holy daze.” He learned from my mother that Jesus was our friend of unconditional love. The belief in unconditional love led to marriage in the context of World War II. I was conceived a month after Pearl Harbor and was born the following October. The Battle of Stalingrad was raging and the American people were praying for a Red Army victory over the German Nazi “blitzkrieg.” It was the bloodiest battle in human history and the beginning of the end of Hitler’s Third Reich. The Canadian Broadcasting Company had a Big Battles series and was given access to both German and Russian archives to present an epic experience of “The Battle of Stalingrad.” Absolutely unforgettable! Our family celebrated Christmas with a deep belief that the birth of the Prince of Peace was a holy breakthrough. If we would follow the example of Jesus, we would experience peace and share it with the world. Our KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 tradition came from the revolutionary expression of the Reformation, called pietistic Anababtists; The Brethren, Mennonite and Amish churches come from this heritage. We are committed to a simple life of service. The military is not considered service and we are encouraged to do ‘alternative service.’ In my case, I was assigned to a German industrial mission boy’s home. Gossner Mission in West Germany was founded by Horst Symanowski, a veteran of the German resistance to fascism. It was so interesting that I extended my service for six months to participate in a seminar about the mission of the church under 1960s capitalism. We went to a socialist country, in our case Poland, and worked in the German peace movement to settle World War II and agreement to the boundary between the two countries. We also organized against German troops in Vietnam. Fascism is a belief in supremacism. There is a new book “Wealth Supremacy” by Marjorie Kelly which explains our current supremacism. Can you imagine my inner turmoil as I experience the commodification of Christmas and the simultaneous march of the war machine becoming the main context of our lives? The next war begins before the last one ends. Millions can aspire for peace in the face of our habitual addiction to self-destruction. We have not yet reached critical mass for peace. More love is the answer. As Thich Nhat Hanh taught, “Meditate on your worst enemy until you see yourself in them!” The illusion of a permanent separate self will dissolve into a more complete reality, the all good expanse of primordial purity; all holy beings are at ease here. This may sound impossible until you begin to experience that reality has no borders. Look for the best teachers who embody this truth and can point the way. When the student is ready the teacher will appear. A natural breath will open the door. Continue as long as necessary. You will come out of the holy daze and become pure holiness. This is my faith assumption. I choose this over the prevailing cynicism and nihilism, two words which mean “nothing matters.” The study of actions and their results is the way to knowledge and wisdom. When holidays become a holy daze we can come out of the trance by remembering our ancestors and all our relations. Find your center in this community! CONTENT correction Jenny Sehenuk died in a motorcycle accident, Oct. 1, 2010. Groundcover writer Jane Reilly regrets the error in the December 15, 2023 issue of Groundcover News. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Christmas super moist cornbread JOSHUA LEE Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 cups flour 1 cup cornmeal 1 cup sugar 1 ½ tablespoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup (16 tablespoons) melted butter ½ cup oil 1 ½ cups milk 3 large eggs Optional: Creative add-ins or honey and extra butter for serving Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×13 inch pan. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a medium bowl, mix melted butter, oil, milk and eggs. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until combined. Customize your Christmas cornbread experience with creative addins. From shredded cheddar cheese to candied jalapenos, green chilies, and even bacon — infuse your cornbread with the flavors of the season. Transfer batter to the prepared pan. Bake for 35-45 minutes until golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15-20 minutes before cutting into squares. Serve with butter and honey if desired. DECEMBER 29, 2023

2 $ SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 19 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Undercover art intel: Ann Arbor's art scene is wild! Page 3 MEET YOUR VENDOR: TERRI DEMAR PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Driver runs over homeless cyclist, cops take no action. page 7 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM The intersection of Grove St. and Michigan Ave. Photo credit: Alexandra Granberg @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER community EVENTS PULL OVER PREVENTION REPAIR CLINIC Saturday, September 9, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Masjid Ibrahim (315 S Ford Blvd, Ypsilanti) GROUNDCOVER's NEW VOLUNTEER MEETING Friday, September 15, 4 p.m. - 5 p.m. Groundcover News office (423 S. 4th Avenue, Ann Arbor) INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE Thursday, September 21, all day Ann Arbor Community Commons (319 5th Street, Ann Arbor) PEACE HOUSE's 5th BIRTHDAY PARTY Saturday, September 23, 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. Peace House Ypsi (706 Davis Street) A SEAT AT THE TABLE: ARGUS FOOD TALKS Monday, September 11, 6 p.m. (Packard Cafe) Growing Hope Monday, September 18, 6 p.m. (Liberty Cafe) FedUp Ministries Monday, September 25, 6 p.m. (Packard Cafe) We the People Opportunity Farm BEYOND WALLS: 5 FILMS for PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX ABOLITION Tuesday, September 26, 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Neutral Zone (310 E. Washington Street, Ann Arbor) see adjacent graphic for more details SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS D.A. Elizabeth Bauman Jim Clark Zachariah Farah Cindy Gere Alexandra Granberg Washtenaw Literacy Joshua Lee Ken Parks Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Harleen Kaur Robert Klingler Ruben Mauricio Alex Tarbet Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS Undercover art intel: Ann Arbor's art scene is wild! I took a small walk around the downtown area and observed several events. The events truly show just how popping downtown is and why everyone needs to take advantage of what is left of summer. Walking past Ten Thousand Terri Demar, vendor No. 322 In one sentence, who are you? A senior who grew up in Ann Arbor, went to Pioneer, kinda retired, but needs a little extra income. Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? Wherever I feel there is an opportunity. Why did you start selling Groundcover? I have health problems that stand in the way of a traditional job. What is your superpower? I have a great sixth sense about things; I'm intuitive and can read people usually. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Smoothies. What do you wish you knew more about? Science, quantum physics, anti-gravity, dark matter. What is the first thing you'd do if you won the lottery? See the world, buy a remote island, stocks, bring back open areas for animal life, plant more trees. What is your pet peeve? People that don’t take the time to understand you. I do not fit a certain mold. If you could do anything for day, what would it be? Spend time at the pool. If you had a warning label, what would it say? Wait and listen before you make a judgment. What's the best way to start the day? Taking an hour for yourself outdoors, take a walk, have a cup of coffee. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? I wish it was like it was in the 60s and 70s, when John Sinclair freed cannabis. More freedom and less judgment. DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 Soups are a good, calming and fancy meal to share. Giving someone soup is a way to show them you love and care about them. Soup is very healthy and nutritious, too. Soup is very easy to cook and a convenient meal. Soup is a good meal for celebrations and get-togethers. Soup is also a good holiday meal, especially for Christmas and Thanksgiving. I like to go to meals at churches and the food banks when they have my favorite chicken noodle soup or beef stew. Vegetable stew is also good. There are a lot of things that you can make soup out of, like meat and pasta or meat and vegetables, maybe some fruit mixed in, too. Spicy potato soup is also good. Collard greens, pepper and hot dog soup is also good. There are a lot of good soups to make and it's also a comfort food. It’s good to eat broth from vegetables or meats when you can’t have solid foods that you have to chew. It digests and gets in your system very easily. Growing up as a kid I loved chicken noodle soup Villages on Main Street I saw a large crowd of people gathered as if they were listening to slam poetry. The art expedition "Being Black in Ann Arbor (America)" by the artist Asha Jordan was being featured at CultureVerse gallery. I was drawn in by the amazing Africana dancer Imani Ma'at. She flowed across the floor to the rhythm of the music. Her beaded skirt matched the movements of her hips and fast turns. The formerly imprisoned Chairman of the Black Panthers, Baba Blair Anderson, exploded words of power and strength. I felt so CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 kicks and belly dancer moves. When the music ended I was invited inside to join in the fun bingo time. Believe it or not, I won a bag of yum yum cookies! Both events were about American culture and just how wonderfully inclusive we truly are. If you choose to live in segregation, you become an 1880 horse with blinders on. We must take responsibility for how we act, no matter how we feel about the honored to have heard raw truths cutting like a knife through the soul. This made me feel that Ann Arbor is truly back from the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. I doubled back and heard party songs and saw more dancing in the wild. It was Queer Bingo Time at the Avalon Bakery. I stood outside dancing to the fun club songs. This time the dancer wore a wild silver club dress and did high past. I choose to accept all people in a good way because that is who I am: Kaske Dene Wolf Clan Warrior. In nature tradition no one is left out, regardless of their choices. Peace must be honored. Join me for a wild night out in Ann Arbor with JaDEIn black of Boylesque drag troupe at Avalon Bakery, September 15 at 7 p.m. 3 I love soup! ART ON A JOURNEY When homeless artists create and sell their art they gain much needed financial support while making sense of the world and finding meaning and purpose in it — it’s a journey we’re all on. August 1 – September 14 at the Ann Arbor District Library, downtown branch. All artwork is for sale (cash only). Artists donate 10% of what they sell to Journey of Faith’s homeless ministry. a lot, and I still love it as an adult. I love chicken broth, too. I hope some of these soup ideas are helpful to others. I hope to enjoy some soup during the cold fall and winter months with my friends.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS ALEXANDRA GRANBERG Groundcover contributor August 9, at around 9 a.m., a car driver ran over and severely injured Gordie on the intersection of Michigan Avenue and South Grove Street in Ypsilanti. Gordie was on his bike, crossing Michigan Ave on the sidewalk. The driver was turning out of South Grove onto Michigan Ave. Jill, Gordie’s wife, who was right behind him, bent down under the car to find Gordie with one of the front tires pushed against his chest. She stood up and yelled at the driver to back up. The driver slowly backed away from Gordie, and got out of the car to see the damage. Without asking if the man he had just run over was okay, the driver then called an ambulance. Gordie got up and started walking around in circles, delirious from the pain and breathing weirdly, according to Jill and Mikey, a friend and witness I spoke to for this article. Soon after, one of his lungs collapsed. Still he was able to walk himself to the ambulance once it arrived. Police were the first to respond. They only took Gordie’s first name, then spoke to Jill. When the cops asked Jill for an address she told them they had none — she and Gordie are currently homeless and staying in a tent. Upon hearing this, the cops stopped taking notes. They handed Jill a business card and a case number without further questions for her or Gordie. Gordie does not know who the driver was, nor did he get the names of the cops. No pictures were taken at the scene. The ambulance driver told Jill she was not allowed to ride in the ambulance with her husband according to protocol. Hit and walk? When he hit Gordie, the driver was past the stop sign and on his phone, according to Mikey. Both Gordie and Mikey say they saw the cops talking to the driver before letting him go without so much as a ticket. Before leaving the scene, the cops informed Gordie that he had been in the wrong for biking against traffic on the sidewalk, and told him to get a lawyer. According to Michigan traffic law, cyclists can ride on sidewalks unless restricted by a local ordinance. And when using the sidewalk legally a cyclist has all the same rights as a pedestrian. Under an applicable Ypsilanti ordinance, sidewalk cycling is allowed in all city parts except “in any business district of the city.” Which areas are included in the “business district” is not defined in the text. Nor is it made clear after a surprising amount of research, including digging through city documents with the help of a former city planner. Steve Wilcoxen, Mayor Pro Tem and Council liaison to the Ypsilanti Non-Motorized Advisory Committee, seems just as confused by the wording. He tells me the term is not a zoning classification. However the area which makes up “the center” of Ypsilanti ends a block before Grove Street on Michigan Ave. Wilcoxen also said “police officers are fairly ignorant about bicycle laws,” and that “many people ride on the sidewalk SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 Driver runs over homeless cyclist, cops take no action there.” There is no bike lane on that stretch of Michigan Ave. Broken, breathing Gordie walked away with a broken collarbone, a number of fractures on his ribs and a punctured lung. He spent a week in the hospital. When I talked to him on the phone he sounded tired but under the circumstances upbeat: “I’m still breathing.” It was the first time he told the story to anyone beside his peers. Two weeks after the incident no authority had yet contacted Gordie or Jill. No law enforcement representative has asked for Gordie’s statement. Despite the physical and psychological trauma — the 43-year-old now has trouble sleeping and freezes at the sight of a car — Gordie said it could be worse: “It could have been a kid biking down that road.” Still, he said, “I feel this would be handled differently had it been someone of higher standing than myself.” Groundcover News will follow the development of this case. Delonis is deteriorating D.A. Groundcover contributor I'm writing this article believing that we are more than what is becoming of human services organizations. The principles of a thriving, productive transitional facility is to promote health, well-being and tend to individual goals for clients whose only commonality is the lack of sustainable housing. Those are people who are at risk of harm, scrutiny and dejection of the human spirit. I can believe that the clients may have similarities, yet bear varied needs. By grouping individuals as a whole, they are turning a blind eye to the fact that people may be beaten by self harm — whether it is intentional or not. They should not need to continue to experience hopelessness at a homeless persons' shelter. After not being able to utilize the services of a particular homeless persons' shelter, I am untrusting about any shelter now. I have no trust in what the Robert J. Delonis Center is now. I guess some call it a refuge. As a woman enduring a brain injury, I have been verbally assaulted by men on the premises of the "shelter." As a result of speaking up about my rights being openly violated, staff have blocked access to their facilities and protection. They've witnessed me being physically assaulted in front of the "shelter" in the middle of the night. Four staff members came down to the entrance door to the "shelter" and instructed me to leave the property. Not one of them asked if I was alright. Once again, promoting safety was not their priority. The employees should always keep in mind their positions as people who are employed as human services workers that have an ethic. They have an oath to uphold — that they will promote safety, humanity, and fairness — wherever they may be at the time of your encounter with them, all human beings on the property of the "shelter." Until recently, I had never slept in front of the shelter or on the street. It is the most dangerous, vulnerable place for a person of any gender to sleep. A so-called "female" staff member made me sleep outside in March in freezing weather because I have a brain injury and use a walker. She wrongfully demanded that I leave the women's (4th) floor at 7:30 a.m., whereas it is the rule and standard that everyone is expected to leave the 4th floor at 8 a.m. At 7:30 a.m, I gathered what I could, went to the first (main) floor to wash and dress. As I was washing myself, the male on duty, the first floor receptionist, kept busting into the bathroom without knocking or using any verbal alerts. As I stood half-naked trying to take care of my hygiene, he demanded that I hurry up and get out. No one can wash themselves, fully dress, and brush their teeth in ten minutes. Especially an individual who has a brain injury who requires an aide. I am going to level down. Because there are genuine, devoted staff members who exhibit a neutral character. Yet, some will not speak up about the fraternizing that goes on between some of the staff and clients. There is no modesty in some of the apparel that most of the female staff comes to work dressed in. I would realize as a human services employee that wearing coochie-cutter shorts to work is a distraction to some people and not professional attire. Whether it is a male or female, I believe that it would come to mind that you are not at home. You are at the "shelter" to reveal available community resources, not your personal goods. People need enlightenment, hope — not another false rollercoaster ride. When people know they have choices and the ability to overcome their issues, that is the most wonderful gift you can offer anyone. Landlords’ unreasonable requirements are a way to reject people that are low income. It is ridiculous and reckless to only rent to individuals whose income is higher than $6,000 a month. It is a form of concealing that they are discriminating against you for being poor. It is a method of accelerating gentrification and prolonging time spent in shelters or on the street. Why not care for others with righteous works? As you are lifting one up, you may also be lifting yourself up. Let your work be a true reflection of what you are supposed to do. It takes all of us to make things go right. Offer people literacy programs, mental health services, job-skills training and show people how to effectively fill out a job application and learn creative resume-writing skills. Make sure clients are being proactive in searching for housing prospects. When we ensure individual clients that they are empowered and they can believe in themselves, this is a start to building community and independence! SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 DIGITAL LITERACY TECH QUESTIONS + ANSWERS FROM WASHTENAW LITERACY Q: I change phone numbers a lot. Is there any way to transfer contacts, share my number, or reset associations with my old number when it happens? A: Changing phones or phone plans can be a huge hassle, especially when it means losing all your contacts and having to update everyone in your life about your new number. In addition to your contacts, switching phones can also involve losing apps, photos, videos and music that were stored on your old device. There are some ways for you to smooth the transition between phones or phone plans. However, the usefulness of those solutions will vary depending on your specific circumstances and the type of phone you are using. If you are choosing to get a new phone or phone plan, the easiest way to transfer all your old information to your new device is to ask your service provider to do it for you. Many phone service providers are willing to do this for free when you purchase a new phone from them or switch to their plan. Usually, all you need to do is bring your old device with you when you go to the store to purchase your new phone or phone plan. Sometimes, phone service providers can even help you keep your old phone number when you switch to a new phone or phone plan. Unfortunately, if you are switching numbers because your old phone is broken or lost, it is not always possible to recover your information. One way to avoid that situation is to use a cloud service to back up the data stored on your device. Doing so is often easier than it sounds, especially if you are an Android user with a Google (Gmail) account. Simply go to your phone’s settings, select “Accounts and Backup,” and tap on “Backup Data.” That should open a menu where you will be able to store your phone’s information, including contacts, on your Google Drive. When you set up a new Android phone you should be able to download all your old phone’s information. Of course, if you are mostly worried about hanging onto your old contacts, you can always take the low-tech route and find a place to write down all the phone numbers that are stored on your phone. Keeping phone numbers and other contact information written down on paper can be a more reliable way to ensure that you’ll still have them after changing phone numbers, although you’ll need to regularly update your contact list and take the time to manually enter the contacts into your new device. Q: I have a hard time reading and navigating my phone screen due to vision impairment. Are there settings or applications that could assist this? A: Cell phones can be incredibly useful tools — giving you access to calling, texting, the internet and countless apps — all through a device small enough to fit in your pocket and be carried anywhere. But the portability that makes owning a cell phone so convenient can also cause problems. How are you supposed to take advantage of all those great features when you’re struggling to make out what’s being displayed on that tiny screen? Difficulty reading and navigating computer screens is a common problem, especially for people using smaller devices like phones and tablets. Fortunately, cell phones, tablets, and computers are often equipped with settings options that can make them more accessible and easier to use. You can typically find these options in the settings menu under the label “Accessibility” or “Ease of Access.” Although accessibility features can differ from device to device, there are some options that are available on most phones and tablets. That includes accessibility options that make your device’s screen easier to read and use. One accessibility feature that is almost universal is the ability to change how your device displays text. Often, this setting will appear as a sliding scale, which allows you to choose the size of text on your screen. Changing text size will make phone menus, text messages, and call logs easier to see and navigate. On many devices it will also affect the size of text in certain applications, including web browsers and your email inbox. Some phones and tablets also have options which allow you to make all text bold, highlight buttons, or increase the contrast of your display. If you are having trouble seeing your phone’s display, don’t forget to check your brightness settings. Increasing your screen’s brightness visibility. can improve its Another useful feature for those with vision impairment is a screen reader. When turned on, screen readers will describe what’s on your phone screen or read selected text out loud. On Apple devices this feature is called VoiceOver and on most Android devices it is called TalkBack. Learning how to effectively use a screen reader can take some time, but it is an excellent tool for those who cannot read their screens. Android users should also know about the Android Accessibility Suite, a downloadable application available on the Google Play Store. If you have an Android with limited accessibility settings, downloading the Accessibility Suite can give you a greater number of options, including the TalkBack screen reader and voice commands. The accessibility options described above only scratch the surface of what many phones and tablets have to offer. Additional accessibility features exist that can help users with a wide range of challenges, including hearing loss and hand tremors. As is often the case, features designed to help folks with disabilities can be helpful for everyone. Familiarizing yourself with the accessibility features on your device is a good idea, regardless of whether or not you can easily read your screen. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS Growing hopeless Growing Hope is a food justice nonprofit in Ypsilanti that manages a Farmers Marketplace Hall where they also host an incubator kitchen. It is located at 16 Black Lives Matter Blvd (S. Washington St). The kitchen provides a space for small start-up businesses to use a licensed kitchen for an hourly or monthly rent. Recently some people have sought shelter under the awning in the parking lot of the Marketplace Hall. The people sleeping under the awning are homeless. The neighboring residents and business owners were disgusted by them, referring to their belongings as “litter,” and their presence as “an eyesore.” These words in quotes were actually used by a Ypsilanti city inspector who came with the threat of legal action. Initially, the inspector spoke with Bee Mayhew, the former manager of the Incubator Kitchen. Bee had shown up for work five minutes before the inspector arrived. The sudden arrival of the official caused a visceral reaction in Bee, who told him to speak to the Growing Hope board of directors. Bee has borne the brunt of the neighborhood complaints since the people began to sleep outside the kitchen. Angry phone calls and visits and the JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 frequent presence of the police were part of her daily encounters. Bee thought about taking matters into her own hands. She spoke of creating a positive, neighborly community vibe filled with people at picnic tables eating, making music and art, playing games, including other things for kids and young people to do. The goal for the parking lot would be to become a community hub where people are offered a supportive environment instead of being treated like trash. The response from Growing Hope? Instead of compassion, the police were dispatched on August 23 around 7 p.m. to evict the people under the awning. The board of directors of Growing Hope made the call. It appears that a landlord who owns Ypsilanti community members blocking the installation of a fence at the Growing Hope Marketplace Hall. several buildings downtown threatened a lawsuit against Growing Hope for violating their 501(c)3 mission. As a result, the board voted to have the people removed. In other words, “take out the trash.” The police were sympathetic yet carried out the eviction. A large group of angry community members appeared at the awning to protest the eviction. They were told that Community Mental Health would put the people up for a night at a motel and that Growing Hope would pay for four more days. This remains to be seen. Why won’t these landlords, business owners, and Growing Hope be good neighbors? Why won’t they do the right thing and advocate for a supportive shelter in Ypsilanti? That shelter would serve as that community hub Bee and the people want. They need a place to sleep safely and to receive support from the professional community. It would be a place to get help with addiction and mental illness and a place to get help finding employment. Most importantly it would be a place to belong and feel like human beings rather than trash. We can do better. Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing story and Groundcover News will be updating it in future issues. SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 Toliets before tickets: Anti-homeless law charges $250 fine, jail time or community service LINDSAY CALKA Publisher Who would have thought an alleyway in downtown Ann Arbor would be the most expensive bathroom in the city? For many months, Roberto Isla Caballero, Groundcover vendor No. 347, has slept rough on the corner of Main and Washington Streets, a place some might recognize as his Groundcover News sales corner. On June 28, around 8 p.m, Caballero was far from a bathroom and couldn’t wait. It’s a discomfort many have experienced before. But for Caballero, the wait to the next restroom was a matter of time not distance — and so he relieved himself in “public.” He was caught and received a ticket. Now he is facing the decision of paying $250, spending 90 days in jail, or working 40 hours of community service. The lack of public restrooms in downtown Ann Arbor and its disparate impact on the homeless community has always been a public health issue, but it was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the downtown library, Blake Transit Center and businesses closed bathrooms even to paying customers, individuals who had no shelter in which to "shelter in place," also had no reliable bathroom to use. The Office of Community Economic Development collaborated with the Parks and Recreation Department and installed a port-a-potty in Liberty Plaza for a couple weeks, then took it away after complaints of it inspiring dangerous activity. Homeless individuals and activists protested against this solution, and it was put back until COVID cases died down. Nowadays, bathrooms are not necessarily unavailable, per se, but are only accessible at key parts of the city, and during waking hours. The only free public restrooms are located at Blake Transit Center, Ypsilanti Transit Center, the Ann Arbor District Library, the Delonis Center, and maybe on infrequent occasions, a coffee shop will let people use their bathroom, which is oftentimes locked under code or key. And that is only when they are open. In Caballero’s case, the only bathroom that was open to him was the Blake Transit Center. This human need to urinate was criminalized because of the inhumane public spaces we have. If it was a few hours later, he would have had no option. The consequences of public urination have the possibility to be greatly misaligned to the scale of misconduct. Caballero got off “easy,” as he was not placed on the sex-offender list. Being on that list could bar him from accessing future jobs and housing, not to mention the social stigma. But that is not to say the consequences were light. Caballero’s bold response to the judge’s offer of 90 days of jail, paying a $250 fine, or 40 hours of community service reveals the sometimes dystopian reality of the homeless experience. “90 days in jail? That’s 90 days of three meals a day, 90 days with a bed and sleep, maybe TV.” And, I would add, 90 days of a 24/7 accessible restroom. Author’s note: During a follow-up court date after the completion of the article, Caballero’s charge was rightfully dismissed by Judge Miriam Perry. SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 HOUSING JUSTICE The rent is too damn high! Statewide action demands lift of rent control ban in Michigan ZACHARIAH FARAH Groundcover contributor On September 5, a crowd of several hundred renters from across the state of Michigan gathered on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing to make a simple proclamation: The Rent is Too Damn High! The crowd, carrying flowing red banners, buzzed with excitement and energy. This was the first rally in many years demanding better conditions for renters in many years and there was a real sense that change could be won. The four demands presented by the aptly named Rent is Too Damn High Coalition are simple and cogent: 1. Repeal the statewide ban on rent control so cities can implement rent stabilization measures. 2. Pass a renters bill of rights to greatly expand the legal protections shielding tenants from abusive landlords. 3. Invest $4 billion in social housing that is permanently affordable and publicly owned. 4. Allocate $1 billion to “housing first” programs designed to provide housing to people experiencing homelessness. The event began with emotional speeches delivered by tenants who had been mistreated by their landlords, struggled to make rent and faced eviction from their homes. Local renter and Huron Valley Democratic Socialists of America member, Justin Yuan, represented the McKinley Tenant Association which has been working to improve conditions at McKinley properties, one of the largest landlords in Washtenaw County. “Just as we fight the boss at work, we must fight the landlord at home!” declared Yuan, whose comments were met with loud applause. Despite the intense 90º heat, the vibrance of the crowd continued throughout the speeches. After the tenant testimonials, we split into two groups, each directed towards a different chamber of the legislature: the House or the Senate. Chambers are located in opposite wings of the capitol. To our disappointment, the legislators had unexpectedly given themselves an extra day of vacation and weren’t present on the chamber floors. We filed into the horseshoe-shaped galleries overlooking the debate floor and the many rows of empty legislators’ desks. Call and response chants boomed throughout the rooms and hallways. “The roof, the roof, the roof is falling in! We’re fighting for good housing and you bet we’re gonna win!” I was overwhelmed with the feeling that this previously silent room had been transformed into a living people’s house. We read our demands once again to our invisible legislators. A highly charged group of demonstrators chanted and aired their demands in the Senate chambers. Another group visited the House. “It looks like our legislators are hiding!” said one speaker, in reference to the absence of the representatives. That wasn’t true of all of our legislators, however. Sen. Carrie Rheingans, Rep. Emily Dievendorf, Rep. Jimmie Wilson Jr. and Rep. Jason Morgan all attended the rally and demonstrated genuine support for our cause. Rep. Morgan, who represents part of Ann Arbor, extended an invitation to the Ann Arbor-area delegation to discuss our concerns and demands in his office. The meeting was a great success and upon debriefing, our delegation agreed that it couldn’t have gone any better. “At least we have a real ally in our own district,” said one renter. After the exhausting day of demonstrating, our delegation boarded our charter bus and we began the stretch back home to Ann Arbor. Reflecting on our rally, a wave of hope came over me. This is the beginning of a powerful tenant movement in our state, a movement that will win better rights and lower rents for tenants across GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Justin Yuan from McKinley Tenants Association addresses the crowd. Photo credit: The Rent is Too Damn High Coalition. Michigan. The Rent is Too Damn High Coalition will continue the fight in Lansing with our support, but it’s up to us to get organized here in Ann Arbor. Public Toilets in A2 and Ypsi Please remember to use public toilets where available. The staff at Groundcover News has made this list of public toilets for its readers. If you know of more public toilets, please reach out to our staff at this email address: contact@ groundcovernews.com. “Thank you” from the staff! Delonis Center 312 W Huron St. Ann Arbor, MI 48103 mon – sun 24/7 Blake Transit Center 328 S Fifth Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48104 mon – fri 6a – 12a sat 7:15a – 11p sun 8a – 7:30p Ypsi Transit Center 220 Pearl St. Ypsilanti, MI 48197 mon – fri 6a – 12:30a sat 7:15a – 11p sun 8a – 7:45p AADL Downtown 343 S Fifth Ave. Ann Arbor, 48104 mon – sun 10a – 8p

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LABOR JOSHUA LEE Groundcover contributor On August 25, the University of Michigan and the Graduate Employees’ Organization reached a breakthrough agreement, ending a nearly five-month strike. This pivotal development won substantial pay raises for graduate student instructors and staff assistants, accompanied by a range of additional benefits. The labor strike, which began in late March, was a dispute that not only disrupted the U-M campus but also led to legal proceedings. Few strikes ever go through the full range of procedures. Representing approximately 2,300 graduate student instructors and staff assistants across U-M’s three campuses, GEO spearheaded this ongoing battle, championing improved compensation and benefits. Members of GEO deliberated during a mass meeting on August 21 and ultimately authorized their bargaining team to pursue a tentative agreement with the university. The union conducted a ratification vote on August 24 which had 97% approval. This accord spells the end of a highly charged strike, fostering a return to normalcy for both the U-M undergraduate community and the parties directly involved. The protracted strike led to a series of disruptions, including professors stepping in to undertake grading tasks typically handled by graduate students. Legally, the university sought a court order compelling striking workers back to their posts, a request that was ultimately denied. Union leaders voiced concerns about the university's handling of student grades during the strike, prompting an inquiry by the accrediting body, the Higher Learning Commission. Despite these challenges, the union's persistence and the university's engagement in negotiations have paved the way for this historic agreement. The university’s proposal, its "last, best and final offer," encompasses an eight percent raise in the first year of the contract, complemented by successive six percent raises in the second and third years. Targeting graduate student instructors and staff assistants stationed at U-M’s Ann Arbor campus, this proposition acknowledges the pivotal role these individuals play in the university's operations — ranging from grading assignments and exams to leading classes and contributing to diverse university initiatives. However, this journey through negotiations has not been without its challenges. GEO began its campaign with the fact that the skyrocketing inflation in the past years had put its members salaries 60% below the estimated cost of living for Ann Arbor. This is why the union initially advocated for a substantial 60 percent raise in the first year of the three-year contract. While the agreement does not meet this demand fully, a de facto 60 percent raise will be realized for many graduate workers due to a separate graduate funding plan, aka Rackham Plan, pushed forward by U-M this Spring as a union-breaking strategy. This plan, designed to ensure summer funding for Ph.D. students, is set to remain intact. The strategic combination of these initiatives, according to GEO spokesperson and doctoral political science candidate, Amir Fleischmann, yields a substantial raise for most Ph.D. students in the contract's initial year. SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 GEO wins historic contract after five month strike Fleischmann further suggests that incoming Ph.D. students could experience a remarkable 80 percent raise by the conclusion of the contract, compared to their earnings in the previous contract cycle. Beyond the salary, this resolution introduces essential safeguards for graduate student instructors and staff assistants. For example, the settlement includes a transitional funding program aimed at shielding workers from harassment and potential threats. This three-year pilot initiative will provide funding for up to a semester, allowing students to transition out of situations involving abusive or discriminatory relationships with their supervisors or colleagues. Furthermore, enhancements in mental and physical therapy copays, in conjunction with the expansion of gender-affirming benefits, underscore the university's commitment to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for all stakeholders. In a statement, GEO lead negotiator Evelyn Smith highlighted the historic see GEO page 11  Timeless time When I learned these two words I began to understand the seamless nature of past, present and future. I learned that the first Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu lineage, was called Düsum Khyenpa, translated as “knower of the three times” by virtue of his enlightenment experience in timeless time. This lineage is now held by the 17th Karmapa. Obstacles arrive at every stage of the path in life and it’s good to work with whoever is available and helpful for your current situation. This may be a lifetime teacher or one of many. Your intention to realize the truth of reality is decisive, and cultivating that intention into experience and abilities is the goal. There is always work to be done. Our ancestors point the way and all lineage holders carry that responsibility. Thrangu Rinpoche, who died in 2023, was an amazing teacher and writer. He was an important tutor to Ogyen Trinley Dorje who is a successor to the 16th Karmapa. Timeless time brings the three times into a seamless whole. I have been accused of being “stuck in the past” and have been told to forget the past. My first response is “detach from the past, honor and learn from the past.” I do not know how much I am submit to survival demands and forget to thrive, that is to live from the heart. We are surrounded by the bountiful fruit of the earth yet often live with a scarcity mentality. Every indigenous heritage focuses on the sacred nature and generosity of the earth. Gratitude and contentment follow. It is a common practice in all comKEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 munities with a heartfelt relationship to reality to call upon our ancestors to help live a balanced and engaged life. stuck in the past but I certainly do not have a stable realization of timeless time that brings the seamless nature of the three times into clarity, yet I dare to explore this truth as I understand it. I have mentioned awareness of the breath in many articles and still believe that one natural breath is more precious than all the words that could be written about awareness of this moment. Mindfulness can be a buzzword for compliance with social norms. Mindfulness and awareness have many levels. Gabor Mate has written “The Myth of Normal” to help us in our healing. Authenticity is precious and elusive because of habitual ego-clinging. Most of us forget who we really are as we “Cesar Chavez presente” was said three times in the many events that celebrated his contribution to our shared life. This exercise that some would say is kin to a seance put many of us in touch with the great commons, the all good expanse of primordial purity. If you focus on the present as a measurement, you will only find nano moments that disappear the present. Born from the past and immediately giving birth to the future, this moment is best experienced as the essence of the four times — past, present, future and timeless time — which are seamless in the unity of stillness and motion. The unity of opposites is the key to experience the play of reality and enter the game of life with some confidence. If you are in Santa Clara, Cuba, visit the memorial to Che Guevara and get a taste of the four times. Remember Fidel’s words that Che did not die, because they met in dreams and talked. The famous photo of Che by Korda is timeless. In my opinion any experience is worthy as we learn more about who we are, as individuals and as a people. I hope you meditated on “The People are the Power” in the previous edition of Groundcover. Any event is best understood with awareness of the four times. Take Labor Day as an example. We have yet to fully honor labor and get another chance as the number of strikes grows to a larger section of the working class. As a thought experiment, consider this year’s Labor Day with “timeless time” in mind. Contrast the long history that goes back to May Day as International Workers Day with the current focus on the Detroit Jazz Festival. Experience this historical moment deeply and tune in to the power of your labor and a fitting social connection to the emancipation of labor. May we become creatively productive and complete what needs to be done. The future begins now. The International Day of Peace is coming September 21. Meet you on the commons! Check out annarborcommunitycommons.org. SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 PUZZLES 1 14 17 20 23 28 29 34 37 42 44 51 55 59 64 67 60 61 62 65 68 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Hang loose 5. Pack away 9. Slight trace 14. Opera solo 15. Mysterious (Var.) 16. Pie cuts, essentially 17. Frost-covered 18. Eastern music 19. Be theatrical 20. Carnivorous plant native to the Carolinas 23. Bet's preceder 24. Carrier 28. "Acid" 29. Spanish pot 33. Ancient land on the Aegean 34. Control, symbolically 36. James ___ Jones 37. Tool used to mend socks 42. Get-up-and-go 43. African antelope 44. Ear doctor 47. Blunted blade 48. Appropriate 51. Really bad 53. Arctic diving bird 55. Sharecropper 59. Brace 62. In need of resupply, as shelves 63. Bundle of hay 64. Necklace item 65. 20-20, e.g. 66. Mine entrance 67. Anxious 68. Cleaning cabinet supplies 69. Accuse DOWN 1. Like caterpillars 2. Projecting windows 45 46 52 56 57 58 63 66 69 3. Described 4. What many a fast break ends in 5. Bondman 6. Blue hue 7. Bacchanal 8. Comedian Cenac formerly of "The Daily Show" 9. Christmas decoration 10. Hindered 11. Altar avowal 12. Hale 13. "A pox on you!" 21. Cut off 22. "Baloney!" 25. Canaanite deity 26. Farm measure 27. Come together 30. Floral necklace 31. Ancestry 32. Viewpoint 35. Become unhinged 37. Clobber 38. Breezy 39. Revels 40. WSW's opposite 41. Swelling 42. Bleat 45. Stinky 46. "The Joy Luck Club" author Amy 48. Fighting force 49. Early round 50. Slightly tapering 52. Categorize 54. Kind of sprawl or renewal 56. Blue shade 57. Family ___ 58. Sloughs 59. Health resort 60. Big ___ Conference 61. "Dig in!" 38 39 43 47 53 54 48 49 50 30 31 32 35 40 41 21 24 33 36 2 4 5 6 7 8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD from the International Network of Street Papers 3 9 15 18 22 25 26 27 16 19 10 11 12 13 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LOCAL HISTORY SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 When Robert Frost came to Michigan: a view of power and poetry in a democracy According to Poets.org, Robert Frost's life can be summarized as follows. Frost was born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco, where his father and mother had moved from Pennsylvania shortly after marrying. After the death of his father when Frost was eleven, he moved with his mother and sister to Lawrence, Mass. He became interested in reading and writing poetry during his high school years in Lawrence, enrolled at Dartmouth College in 1892 and, later, at Harvard University, though he never earned a formal degree. Frost drifted through a string of occupations after leaving school, working as a teacher, a cobbler and editor of the Lawrence Sentinel. His first published poem, "My Butterfly," appeared on November 8, 1894 in the New York newspaper, "The Independent.” Frost married his high school sweetheart, Elinor Miriam White, in 1895. It was said Elinor, who died in 1938, was a major inspiration for his poetry. Four years after her death, Frost proclaimed that he had “A lover’s quarrel with the world.” Frost said he went to England to write a novel and, perhaps, dramatic plays. There he was influenced by renowned European poets such as Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke, Robert Graves, John Keats, William Butler Yeats and Thomas Hardy, and Georgian Poets T.E. Hulme and Lasceless Abercrombie. In 1917, Frost signed a three-year teaching contract with Amherst College. He continued to be a prolific writer of poems. Many historians, including Poets.org, noted that by 1920, Frost was the most celebrated poet in America. He got more famous with every new publication of his books. Frost won a total of four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry, the only poet to do so. He served as a consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress 1957-1959. In 1960, Frost won the Congressional Gold Medal, signed by President Eisenhower, and presented by John F. Kennedy in 1962. Frost read his poem “The Gift Outright” at JFK's inauguration ceremony on January 20, 1961. After receiving an honorary Master’s Degree in Arts and Letters from the University of Michigan in 1921, Frost came back to receive an honorary doctorate in Law from U-M in 1962. Although Frost got honorary degrees from Dartmouth, Harvard and other prestigious schools, he told friends that he valued and cherished the honorary degrees from Michigan, the campus he loved very much. WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 Frost died in Boston in January 1963, a few months after his Spring 1962 commencement speech and poetry reading to an overflowing, joyous crowd at the Michigan Football Stadium. Frost Gets a Teaching Fellowship at U-M Robert Frost arrived at U-M in 1921, stayed until 1923, and then returned for a second fellowship 1925 to 1926. He was invited by U-M’s popular President, Rev./Dr. Marion Leroy Burton. Frost and Burton shared a vision about how poetry and the arts could transform the lives, thinking and reflections of young people across the nation. President Burton secured a $5,000 donation in 1921 to bring Frost to U-M. In his application for the grant, Burton said, “A real University should be a patron of arts, literature and creative activity. We ought to have on campus [creative artists] who are actually producing the results which influence the thought of a nation.” The above quote, by writer and scholar Paul Diamond, was in the article, “Frost and Burton at Michigan: 1921-1926,” published in ”The Michigan Quarterly Review” of July 14, 2023. In his acceptance letter, Frost thanked President Burton for his vision of “keeping the creative and the erudite together in education where they belong; and [where the creative can also] make its demand on young students.” Diamond noted that Frost made a big impact at Michigan. “He had led the monthly meetings at Professor Cowden’s home on Olivia Avenue for student writers of the literary magazine, Whimsies. Frost shared his poems, and the students shared theirs … and then Frost would encourage them to keep their poems around for a while and ‘deepen, deepen it.’” There was no doubt that having America’s most famous poet helping Michigan students to excel was very positive, but some professors in the Robert Frost reciting a poem at John F. Kennedy's inauguaration. Diamond, was a humorous challenge: English Department displayed hostile attitudes toward Frost due to his lacking formal academic degrees. Some of them described Frost as a college dropout who made as much money as full professors. Sadly, the student writers who appreciated Frost knew about the envy and resentment. They devoted the last issue of their 1923 publication to Frost as a token of gratitude. President Burton also felt triumphant and grateful. He wanted to make Frost’s residency permanent with $6,000 annually from the University fund. Frost agreed in principle but then Burton died suddenly of a heart attack. After Frost gave an emotional eulogy for his number one advocate, Frost decided to do just a final residency from 1925 to 1926. He continued his impressive work with student writers, who changed their magazine’s name to Outlanders. He lived with his family in a house on Pontiac Trail. The house has since been moved by the Ford Museum to Greenfield Village. Frost wrote dozens of poems at Michigan. His residency produced some of the most memorable of his poems, cited by laypeople and the powerful. They include, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” “Spring Pools” and “Fire and Ice.” His poetry collection titled “New Hampshire” was published in 1924. It was dedicated to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and it won the 1924 Pulitzer Prize for excellence in - poetry. During one of his frequent dinners at President Burton’s house, Burton claimed that Frost might even be more popular than the football coach, Fielding Yost, because of his civic engagement and national celebrity status. Frost's response, according to “Let’s put that to the test: schedule a reading for me at the same time as a home football game. More than 30,000 will be cheering at the Perry Field. The Hill Auditorium will be empty, since even I will be at the game.” The Intersection of Power and Poetry in a Democracy Robert Frost described himself as a “humanist.” Some critics called him a poet inspired by rural rusticity, landscapes, forests and pastoral disposition. He also wrote about the social and political challenges of his time, including wars, women’s rights and the crushing poverty of the Great Depression. Frost wanted his students and readers to do deep thinking. He was inclined to write in parables. Many people in positions of power loved his poetry collections. President John F. Kennedy invited him to read his poem in January 1961 at the Presidential Inauguration. He recited the poem “The Gift Outright,” very dear to folks from New England. After the poet passed away, Amherst College invited President Kennedy to give a speech at a ceremony to dedicate the Robert Frost Memorial Library. His speech was about the link between poetry and power. As quoted in HuffPost Entertainment of July 14, 2023, Kennedy said, “When power leads man to arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of men’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of this existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human see FROST next page  SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 LOCAL HISTORY  FROST from last page STOPPING BY THE WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.” Talking specifically about Frost in his 1963 remarks at Amherst, President Kennedy said, “Our national strength matters, but the spirit which informs and controls our strength matters just as much. This was the special significance of Frost. He brought an unsparing instinct for reality to bear on the platitudes and pieties of society. His sense of the human tragedy fortified him against self-deception and easy consolation. “‘I have been,’ he wrote, ‘one acquainted with the night.’ And because he knew the midnight as well as the high noon, because he understood the ordeal as well as the triumph of the human spirit, he gave his age strength with which to overcome despair. At the bottom, he held a deep faith in the spirit of man and it is hardly an accident that Frost coupled poetry and power, for he saw poetry as the means of saving power from itself.” We believe JFK is right in his assessment of Frost and artists in general. After his assassination the next month — November 1963 — JFK’s personal secretary found in the Oval Office some books of poetry by Frost as well as “Ulysses” by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Both “Ulysses” and many of Frost’s poems, but especially “Spring Pools,” written while he was at U-M, are about the need for thoughtful and slow deliberation and not rushing into important decisions. It is safe to say that JFK learned from reading Frost and embraced these values. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. SPRING POOLS These pools that, though in forests, still reflect The total sky almost without defect, And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver, Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone, And yet not out by any brook or river, But up by roots to bring dark foliage on. The trees that have it in their pent-up buds To darken nature and be summer woods — poetry by Robert Frost written during his time at U-M  GEO from page 8 significance of the agreement, noting that the achievements attained were a result of collective determination rather than unilateral generosity. The union's long-haul strike was the driving force behind these successes. According to U-M spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald, the agreement holds significant implications. It provides the university with the assurance that the fall term will proceed without disruptions, reaffirming the institution's dedication to its core educational mission. It's worth noting that the deal offers more favorable terms to U-M graduate students in Ann Arbor compared to those in Dearborn and Flint, despite the union’s consistent proposals for pay parity across campuses. While U-M-Dearborn graduate student workers will receive annual raises of 3.5 percent throughout the contract's three-year term, efforts are underway to align the minimum stipend on the Flint campus with the Dearborn standard. Additionally, graduate students across all three campuses are set to receive a $1,000 bonus. GEO’s treasurer, Prayag Chata, has started a solidarity fund to redistribute the bonus to members who lost their paycheck in April during the strike and to those who will not enjoy the full benefits of the new contract. Many members have pledged to donate their bonus, and anyone can make a contribution on givebutter.com/GEOStrikeFund. “We fought tooth-and-nail over ten months of bargaining and five months of strike action, forcing U-M to grant the largest salary increase in GEO history,” the union wrote early Friday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. The University of Michigan and its graduate student workers have voted to restore equilibrium to their academic ecosystem. The impending resolution serves as a testament to the power of negotiations, advocacy and collective action in driving Let them think twice before they use their powers To blot out and drink up and sweep away These flowery waters and these watery flowers From snow that melted only yesterday. transformative change. The settlement underscores the pivotal role that graduate student workers play in the functioning of higher education institutions. As the curtain falls on this chapter of the University of Michigan's history, the reverberations of these negotiations within the university community and the broader academic realm are inescapable. The lessons learned from this strike will undoubtedly shape future dialogues surrounding equitable compensation, conducive working conditions, and the unifying spirit that propels progress toward shared goals. Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Summer corn saute ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 4 tablespoons butter 4 ears sweet corn, kernels sliced from cobs (4 cups kernels) 3 green onions, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced Salt and pepper 8 medium-sized basil leaves, chopped Directions: Add butter to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once melted, add sweet corn kernels, green onions, and garlic then season with lots of salt and pepper and saute until kernels are crisp-tender, 4-5 minutes. Add chopped basil then stir to combine and serve. SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS L O L L A R I A S T O W W H I F F E E R Y R A D I I R I M Y R A G A L S D O L L A B R I O E M O T E V E N U S F L Y T R A P A L E P H R E I N S A U R I S T S T E E L P E A R L A N T S Y T O T E B A G T H R A C E E A R L D A R N I N G N E E D L E E L A N D E P E E A B Y S M A L A P T M U R R E T E N A N T F A R M E R B A R E B A L E E V E N A D I T L Y E S N A M E LUNCH OR DINNER WE’VE GOT YOU! Whether it’s $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 10/8/2023

2 $ AUGUST 25, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 18 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Antibiotic Catch-22: Terri Demar's struggle to access medical care battling cellulitis. Page 10 MIKE JONES #113 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT ORGANIZATION HAS HELPED YOU THE MOST? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. STREET MYTHOLOGY STREET THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Shakey Jake, Ann Arbor street legend, outside of Pinball Pete's in 1998. Photo credit: Ann Arbor District Library Archive from the Ann Arbor News. • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor # MYTHOLOGY

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER welcome to this issue on STREET MYTHOLOGY ALEX TARBET Groundcover volunteer People bring themselves to mythology in different ways. Imagine you and I pass one another on the street and — just this once — a strange force compels us two strangers to stop, sit together just for a moment and tell a myth. What’s the first one that comes to mind? We might share a famous one from thousands of years ago, but get locked in debate afterward about who’s the real ‘hero’ or the ‘monster.’ Say, why was Medusa’s hair turned into snakes? Did she deserve it for what she did? Would you have chopped her head off like Perseus? (For more on that, see Teresa B.’s article on page 7). We can rewrite an old story, or even throw it out entirely, discard old patterns and reimagine our existence the way we choose. But one thing mythology does for sure is provoke us to talk to one other. In that spirit, this edition of Groundcover is a collection of conversations around the streets of Ann Arbor on what myth is and why it matters. As you read, ask yourself whether you agree or disagree. Juliano argues on page 4 that myth has been an opiate for the masses, keeping lower classes down all the way back to ancient Rome. For Cindy on page 6, myths are forms of cultural survival that preserve communities enduring down the generations. For Teresa, they are indigenous traditions of storytelling stolen and corrupted by shallow American consumerism. For James on page 4, imagination and science fiction evolved as therapy for hard times along with other forms of contemplation. To one person, myths are make-believe for children or propaganda for governments; for another, they are timeless symbols that get at real truths and teach moral lessons. Which writers do you find persuasive? Everyone has something to say about myth. In 2023, each of us responds in our own way with shock and disgust, curiosity or wonder, resentment or anxiety, skepticism or laughter. One way or another, how you think about old stories (even rejecting them entirely in favor of new ones) reveals something about you. It shows your concept of heroes and monsters in the real world, where you think this universe came from, where we are going, and how we ought to treat one another along the way. Into mythology each of us brings a self, a reality and a past full of love and suffering, joy and loss, following all the history we have inherited down the generations. But we also bring contemporary concerns for the world now and where it’s headed. Each Groundcover writer has a thoughtful perspective drawn from lived experience on the streets. Their theories about how myth works are similar to what you might pick up as a student in any university from scholars who have written about myth in relation to class consciousness, dream interpretation, feminism and social inequality. Groundcover writers offer their own street theories as they challenge and debate different ideas by drawing on their own instincts and reflections from unique lived experiences. Mythology has much to do with poverty and homelessness. Myth has always been about outsiders, the wanderers, exiles, outcasts, monsters, or exotic and supposedly uncivilized strangers. Writers who have endured transience or poverty tend to have more empathy for the monsters and less tolerance for some of the heroes. One common trend is a healthy mistrust for the idea of “mythology” altogether as a sort of scam, since the American economy we live in is itself a fairy-tale controlled and dominated by rich people on top. see WELCOME page 9  AUGUST 25, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Mohammed Almustapha D.A. Teresa Basham Cindy Gere Mike Jones Elizabeth "Lit" Kurtz James Manning Ken Parks Earl Pullen Juliano Sanchez Scoop Stevens Alex Tarbet Kaden Watts GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 CONTACT US PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Ruben Mauricio Holden Pizzolato Alex Tarbet Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons AUGUST 25, 2023 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What organization has helped you the most (not including Groundcover News)? Peggy's house and MISSION. — Mike Jones, #113 Community Mental Health. — Gary Leverett, #554 None of them. Only Groundcover. — Joe Woods, #103 Purple House. — Teresa Basham, #570 Toss up between the Buddhist Center and Ann Arbor Coalition Against the War. — Ken Parks, #490 Washtenaw Camp Outreach and Weather Amnesty. — Jim Clark, #139 Community Mental Health and First Baptist in Ann Arbor. — Pony Bush, #305 Churches. Especially the breakfast church. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 GROUNDCOVER NEWS Groundcover News opens the door for a new publication Hi, My name is Elizabeth Kurtz, but I refer to myself as Lit, a name I gave myself shortly after losing my housing and landing on what we call “the streets.” “Lit” is short for Elizabeth because I found that outside of mainstream housing, there is little room for extra baggage — including one’s name. I was shocked during the 20112012 school year to be among 4000 teachers laid off and forced to reapply for our positions. Like many other teachers, I was not rehired, and in what seemed like in the blink of an eye I was living in my car. The adjustment was difficult and although I was reluctant to admit that I was “homeless” just like others who were scavenging in trash for cans and bottles or even selling the “homeless” paper, the reality set in. If I had any chance of survival after my savings and unemployment were depleted, I needed to have an income. The street paper concept, which started in New York during the 1980s and arrived in Ann Arbor in 2011 under the directorship of Susan Beckett, was a viable option, offering an opportunity to begin LIT KURTZ Groundcover vendor No. 159 of my own entitled, The Fringe. It offers an even more in-depth look at the lives of those who are unhoused. Groundcover and the street paper association have given many of those who are unhoused an ability to share our voices. They indeed offer a springboard and training ground for a publication such as mine. As an unhoused person, I know selling right away. I signed up and started selling and writing for it in 2013. By 2016, I was extremely honored that an article I wrote for Groundcover entitled “Living Out Here” placed as one of the top five finalists in the category of Best Vendor Contribution when the International Street Paper Conference (INSP) was held in Athens, Greece, making me the first Groundcover Vendor to receive that honor. Jim Clark received the same recognition in 2019. A decade following the first year that I sold for Groundcover, I am editing and publishing a magazine that it is necessary for a publication to exist that is seen through the lens of we who have experienced living through the crisis. The articles will be contributed by people who have experienced it as well. The first inaugural edition is dedicated to Earth Day because who knows more about the Earth than those who have been forced to live directly on its soil? This magazine will not only be in print but also online so that your friends and family from across the world can enjoy it. To find out more information about receiving a copy, please scan the QR included here. 3 The people are the power! In the 1960s and 70s “POWER TO THE PEOPLE” was a popular chant at rallies and marches. You could say it was a common mantra that carried the essence of the many movements for freedom. We need to consider power and how it works. What is its source? Meditar y analizar, as Fidel described his style, reflect and analyze. From science we know power as the ability to move an object. I propose we think of power as the ability to get things done. Labor is the basic power to work on whatever project until completion. Study Marx and Engels to understand alienated labor and what the emancipation of labor looks like. Erich Fromm is among the many thinkers who studied and wrote about alienation. My understanding is that when labor is a commodity in the market you lose agency of your labor power to those who buy your labor. If you agree to a written or unwritten contract, you lose any real ability to understand the results of your labor. Your power enters a maze of corporate KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 processing which investors use to promote the greatest profit, regardless of the waste or damage. Dumping waste into the environment is a common practice. Landfills are a huge industry. Nuclear waste will be in toxic sites beyond any time we can measure. To take responsibility for the results of our actions means to use our power with awareness and not allow anyone to use our power for their capital accumulation fetish. Both Buddhism and Marxism use dialectics to understand the play of opposites, Buddhism focuses on the Middle Path between the extremes of eternalism and nihilism. Marxism focuses on the analysis of data to understand the material world. Lenin studied Hegel to work from the assumption that dialectics begins with the unity of opposites. I believe this unity is also the Middle Path. Everything is interrelated and interactive. “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism” by V.I.Lenin is an important study of World War One dynamics. The Introduction to “Medicine Buddha” by Thrangu Rinpoche is a good introduction to Buddhist thinking on the play of reality. Our imagination is empowered by words such as these and reality becomes a workable situation. I propose that “THE PEOPLE ARE THE POWER” is the slogan that best points to our shared reality. Labor power in particular has its source in the working class; to use our power to serve the Golden Rule is the way to live happily ever after. We all want our life to be in our own hands. Compliance culture demands that you use your power for the designs of others; this puts us in constant gridlock with our own aspirations. The system uses compliance to channel everything to march to the beat of empire as dictated by “the deciders,” as one or both President Bush(s) put it. Our body/mind unity can be experienced more completely as human beings if we practice natural breathing; it is the best step to a natural mind. There are many teachers of mind training. Both Zen and Tibetan spiritual friends have helped me. The power of calm and clear points to the importance of using our power to do creative activity with the intention to benefit all beings without exception. If we free our minds, the rest will follow. Patti LaBelle sang that song. If we share our labor power for the common good we can work to stop the march to nuclear war. Compost war, grow peace. Visit vfpgoldenruleproject.org.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS STREET MYTH Roman gods in America Mythology has always been about two things: money and power. It’s the same today in America. We still live in ancient Rome, but it’s 2023. We have the “gods” up on top, or at least men who think they’re gods, billionaires whose families own and control everything. There are these few rich men on top living like emperors, and then there’s the rest of us on bottom. Just like Caesar thought he was immortal and compared himself to a god, these billionaires get into government and can do anything they want, and they always want more and more, so they become bored and psychopathic and chase fame or power or immortality. They have so much money they make up wars and conflicts to keep society distracted and divided. Myths about gods have always been about them. Billionaires today want to believe that they are the gods. They are the ones who own the news machine, the propaganda you hear on radio and television and social media. People buy all the myths they tell you and believe everything they say is the truth. They keep us working for them, to keep us at each other’s throats stuck in the trap believing that one day we might make it up to their level. But we never will — it’s just a myth. We keep believing what they tell us, like the American Dream. And they’ve had people believing since their ancestors back in Rome. These sorts of myths divide us against each other, and stop us from loving and respecting each JULIANO SANCHEZ Groundcover vendor No. 174 other as human beings. Racism is one of those myths. Society keeps pumping this into your head and embedding it in your mind through propaganda, that there are categories like Black and White. But skin color is just a story people in power have told to control the masses, so that we go on hating and fighting each other, distracted so that we never understand each other. People are always more complex than the myth. I appear Black to most people, but if you learned a little about my family history, you would know I’m a mix of African, indigenous Taino Cuban and white European ancestry from Europe. And everyone’s blood is the same color — red — anyway. People are so caught up in the myth they just look at someone and see Black or white, but that's too simple. That’s what they want you to believe. For people of color or minorities, mythology is a story of colonialism. I remember when growing up that my mother and grandmother in Cuba were so beautiful, with long, silky hair, and beautiful bronze skin. They were descended from Taíno, the indigenous peoples who first settled Cuba. But I grew up in New York and knew nothing about the Taíno; we grew up learning Spanish because the Taíno language was wiped out, along with their whole culture, which was killed off by Columbus and the Spanish when they enslaved them. Nobody talks about Taíno myths, but we all know about the Greek and Roman ones because American society developed out of that. We are built on Rome and Greece and a history of people’s heads being chopped off. When you talk about mythology, what you mean is slavery, injustice, imperialism — selfish, evil wrongdoing and the stuff that men in power have used to take over the world. Mythology is a history of control. Who’s got the power to make you believe? Rich people at the top live in their own world, maybe twenty rich families that own everything: the Rockefellers, the Du Ponts, the Gettys. All their ideas go back to Roman history and Julius Caesar. The emperors at the top, the billionaires, think they are immortal because they want their genetic line to keep hold of power over civilization, and they get their kicks by watching it like a chessboard. When you look at classical statues of Roman and Greek gods, it can be beautiful art, but it’s really just about control. Powerful men have always used gods and religions to trick the people and brainwash them with propaganda so they can control planet Earth. People on the bottom — the mortals — keep trying to work their way up from the gutter, and as long as they have some security — a house and a car and food to eat, they go on accepting how it is and believing that they can become “gods” someday too. But nobody ever reaches the top. The “gods” of capitalism are the ones who make us all sick trying to believe this myth that we need to become rich to be happy in the first place, and it just keeps us working for them and hating each other. We need to see the promise of capitalism for what it is — a myth. Billionaires are not happy; they are all miserable and psychopathic because they live in a fantasy world. I’m happier and healthier right down here on the street than all the gods. I’m down here with a simple life, with the trees and fresh air, and just the sun on my skin, my Cuban music, a simple diet, friends and conversations, life without owning anything or trying to chase after money or immortality or fame or power. Just love in the heart, that’s all you need. I’m happier without anything than they are with everything! We are all the same anyway; in the end we all go right back to dirt on this planet, no different than one another. You don’t need to believe any myths. All we need to do is find love in our hearts. All you need is right here in front of you. AUGUST 25, 2023 Medusa and the real monsters What does it mean to be seen as a monster? Ask any woman who’s been raped and then blamed for it. Think about Medusa. In the myth, she was once the most beautiful mortal woman in the world with the most gorgeous hair. Poseidon wanted her so much that he took her in a temple and raped her. The gods were jealous and angry, but they blamed her and punished her by turning her into a damn snake. She became so horrible that the sight turned others to stone and nobody could even approach her. Perseus finally came with his mirror shield and chopped her head off. Today, people still think Perseus was the hero of the story. But that’s not the way I look at it. I’m here to tell you the real way to think about it. Nobody understands Medusa. People never think about her perspective. It’s easier to just call someone a monster by looks like a monster — actually ended up in the situation they are in. Instead, society blames them for what happened and only sees what’s on the outside. How are there so many myths and legTERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 what you see on the outside. People refuse to try and understand and ask the question, how did she get that way? None of it was Medusa’s fault. It was those gods and men led around by their sexual desires and big egos, not by their brains or their hearts, that turned her into a monster to begin with. People never think about how somebody they see — who’s different than they are and ends around the world about women being evil? I can tell you: you’re reading things written by men! If a woman in our society gets raped, or if a boy gets molested by a priest, they have to deal with it for the rest of their lives, because society sees them — and they see themselves — as monsters, as no good, as evil and wicked. But the evil force was the person who did it to begin with and the society and the churches that protect them. Myth and legend come down to the government controlling what people believe. In the case of women, those who benefited from patriarchy created myths to reinforce the patriarchal structure. So when you read about Medusa, what you’re getting is what somebody wanted you to believe about women’s nature. Some people have no choice from the beginning about how they ended up where they are, on the street. Lots of us had jobs, homes, kids, families, everything, and it was taken away for some reason totally out of our control, like a medical bill, or an accident where someone gets hit by a car or truck. Some of us were put out on the street because someone took advantage of us, or we were laid off and lost our jobs, or something bad happened that’s not our fault. The way someone appears from a certain race can make it worse. For people who are Native Americans, for example, everything is harder because of the history of this country and what was done to us, and it’s much harder to get out of see MEDUSA page 10  AUGUST 25, 2023 LOCAL LEGENDS GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 GET TO KNOW YDL! WHERE TO FIND US: Online at ypsilibrary.org Call us at 734-482-4110. Shakey Jake playing on the streets of A2 in 1976. Photo credit: Ann Arbor District Library Archive from the Ann Arbor News. Old 'I brake for Jake' Ann Arbor T-shirts can be found on Ebay. Street legend Shakey Jake Shakey Jake Woods was allowed on stage at the Ann Arbor Jazz and Blues festival in 1973 by one of the main acts and performed live. Shakey Jake claimed the people of Ann Arbor would not let him leave town, so he decided to make Ann Arbor his home. Shakey Jake was born on August 14,1925, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was once proclaimed to be born on Halloween October 31 — one of the many myths of our old friend, legend and storyteller. Historical fun fact: Shakey Jake was born the same year as Malcolm X. He arrived in Ann Arbor in the summer of 1973, from Saginaw, Michigan. This summer of 2023 marks 50 years since Shakey Jake came to live and perform in our beloved city Ann Arbor, Michigan. “On the move” was Mr. Woods’ favorite and famous saying. People of Ann Arbor, including myself, would holla “Shakey!” His normal response was "I'm on the move.” I would say he was about 5 feet 8 inches tall, dark skinned guy wearing a suit, bow-tie, a big top hat and scarf; you would never ever see Shakey Jake a youtube referral — yeah, check out Shakey Jake Woods on youtube! From those who answered “yes” I MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 without his guitar in hand. Jake and his omnipresent threestring guitar were seen daily on Main St. most often in front of Peaceable Kingdom, as well as Main and Liberty St., and State near Nichols Arcade. Among locals, he was the best known person in Ann Arbor. Everybody loved “We Brake for Jake” T-shirts. After he passed away in 2007, Peaceable Kingdom kept his guitar in their window as a tribute to him. Last week, I asked over a hundred people in downtown Ann Arbor if they had heard of Shakey Jake. Around 50% never heard of the Ann Arbor legend. Those who answered “no” got a brief A2 history lesson and got to hear Shakey Jake stories. One guy who is a townie said Shakey danced with his wife and daughter in the 1980s. One lady was so happy to learn that I was writing about Shakey Jake because it reminds her of the old Ann Arbor. Another townie, Dan who used to be a cook at Del Rio Restaurant, said Shaky Jake used to come to the restaurant everyday and order a bowl of chili and a hamburger on the house and as a result they never had tip money stolen from the tip jar because everybody knew, including the street people, that Shakey Jake ate there regularly. Overall, I enjoyed having conversations about our old friend, educating new Ann Arborites and those just visiting. When Shakey Jake passed away, in honor of him, Ann Arborites gave him a going home parade through downtown Ann Arbor. Ann Arborites deserve a statue or a painted mural to remember Shakey Jake Woods 1925-2007. TO GET YOUR LIBRARY CARD: 1) Fill out the easy online form at ypsilibrary.org/library-cards. 2) Call 734-482-4110 3) Or stop by any YDL location! DON’T HAVE A DRIVER’S LICENSE? We can work with a variety of IDs to get you your card. FEATURED RESOURCE Get YDL info in your inbox! Want emails about all of YDL’s great resources and events? You can choose the categories you’re most interested in to make sure you don’t miss anything! Scan below to get started or visit ypsilibrary.org. FEATURED EVENT “A Colorful Dream” Exhibit September 1 - October 20 YDL-Whittaker Regular hours  WELCOME from page 2 Real wisdom and creativity come from the streets, not trickling down from expensive but hollow institutions. Grounded ideas and healthier imaginations thrive among people most often passed by, excluded and ignored or silenced. We can also debunk false “myths” as false notions people go on believing: for example, that money, a big house, an office job or a fancy degree alone will make you happy. Or the myth that people experience homelessness because of choice or laziness, drugs or addiction, or lack education or culture. Or the myth of the “American Dream” that we all can fairly attain, like a heaven we can earn our way into, if we only work hard enough to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps. For years, Groundcover writers have been debunking myths like these in creative work through essays, art and poetry. People have always narrated our journeys through life as heroes or victims in relation to other beings, whether animals, gods or monsters. Now in the 2020s, we are imagining ourselves in relation to tech and power, intelligence and AI, environment and migration, housing and work. What do we do with the old stories, and where do we go from here? Like an ancient mirror, mythology bends with reflections of living faces in a single fire-light of human experience. Imagine if we all stopped on the street just for a moment to gaze in and see what looks back at us. A family-friendly exhibition by contemporary fine art photographer Adrien Broom. Designed to evoke and capture a sense of childhood fantasy, Broom’s work is deeply rooted in fairy tales and mythology, taking the viewer on a journey through the entire spectrum of the rainbow. Visit ypsilibrary.org/exhibits to learn more.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS STREET MYTH Bear myths and cultural power For me, myths and legends are the glue that holds a culture together. Traditional myths are all about protection and self-preservation in the face of invasion and industrialism. I myself am Native American, a Kaska from the Northern boreal forests of British Columbia and the Yukon Territories. I have two traditional names: one is Gasakadani King Salmon, and the other is my warrior name, Kuleima Fire Woman. My father came from the Tahltan tribe, but I was adopted into a Presbyterian family. Later in life, I returned to my ancestral people and lived with them. So I am the perfect example of the effort to destroy an old tradition, to take a person out of her ancestral world and deposit her in a new one. But I’ve always preserved and reconnected with the old myths, honoring and following my cultural traditions. My grandfather Mike Johnny was one of the last great medicine shamans, a hunter and trapper who lived off the land his entire life, the same way my people lived for thousands of years. He worked as a mule-driver on barges on the river train up the Erie Canal, but he was also a famous bonesetter and healer. The honor for me has always been that he was a traditional shaman. During the invasion of Christians, the Catholic and Protestant churches CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 tried to wipe out all the Native shamans in cooperation with the Canadian government. People don’t understand how devastating that actually was. Many shamans like my grandfather subverted them. Grandpa Mike shook the hands of the priests and said he wanted to be a catechist, but would still practice medicine in secret. He set up runners between tribes who would send secret messages when someone got sick, so that he could sneak out and heal those who were ailing. The Catholic church controlled everything and used religion to manipulate people, but the old Native myths survived even in the face of extermination. When my grandmother was 11 years old she went through the Great Disease, also known as the Spanish flu. Two out of seven families in our tribe died out AUGUST 25, 2023 Bear and babe. In her art, Gere often incorporates bear imagery. completely. There were full tribes that were wiped out. Our chief was smart enough to tell everybody to go to their separate hunting lodges, and everybody split during the pandemic and did as he advised. Religion was always about control, but what people call mythology was about people surviving in the face of religion by keeping traditional knowledge and wisdom alive. Grandpa Mike was called a Bear Shaman, since it was his totem animal. There were many myths and legends about bears. Some of the Native myths about bears came out of the similarity between human and bear bodies. If you strip a bear of its fur and its head and lay it out, it looks like a human body. That’s why they call it Brother Bear: it’s like a human being. So there are all these stories about animals and their similarities to humans. We had our trickster stories. We had Wolverine Man, which was similar to Coyote Man in other tribes. These sacred animal stories were passed down in our families for thousands of years because they taught people wisdom. Myths held culture together see BEAR MYTHS page 11  Mental health is health—and we’re here to help. TRISH CORTES — DIRECTOR 24/7 CALL FOR MENTAL HEALTH OR SUBSTANCE USE SUPPORT 734-544-3050 Brought to you by the 2019 - 2026 Washtenaw County Public Safety and Mental Health Preservation Millage washtenaw.org/millage AUGUST 25, 2023 STREET MYTH We use myths to cope Drawn from conversations with JAMES MANNING Groundcover vendor No. 16 Mythology is totally necessary on the street. You have to deal with reality in this world whether you like to or not. You are here on this planet. You are in it. You are part of this thing one way or another, so deal with it. Here’s your bed, now you have to lie in it. But in order to handle reality, you also need to cultivate an imagination. Just like music or art, myth is a tool that humans evolved so that we can handle living in this world. Whether you are trying to score a cup of coffee from McDonald’s in 2023, or a peasant in Egypt in 10,000 BCE trying to get enough grain smashed to make a patty of bread, you are stuck in that situation and there’s your reality — deal with it. One way is to use your imagination and spend time thinking about what you could be. Myth has power for people who are in tough life situations, because they relate to it in an immediate way. We have this ability to have dreams and visions or make up fiction and stories, or ponder in whatever form that takes. You can talk about science fiction, other dimensions, auras, magic or ghosts and the paranormal — any of that. When we think about possibilities of those things beyond us, in that moment we are not having anxiety about where the next meal is coming from. As far as somebody on the street or in some position of vulnerability, mythology speaks for itself. In a lot of myths, there are situations where a common man rises up to become the hero of a nation, or an underdog character rises up to affect the society around him, and his life takes on a bigger meaning, and a profound story develops out of his life. You could say that indicates delusions of grandeur, but the power dynamic is what makes mythology popular. It appeals to the common person, the underdog, the blue collars, lower classes or people on the bottom of society. Myth empowers them to imagine their situation differently and think of how they could potentially escape or resist whatever situation they happen to be in. No matter how they’re treated on the street by others, the person feels like they are part of some bigger story. And then it provides relief and therapy because you have at least one moment where you are off in this other world and not faced with some of the harsh reality. Myth can be used like medicine: the imagination is like a drug that keeps us alive. Mythology is closely related to music and art because you get some relief out of it instantaneously. You feel the vibes enter and spawn so much energy and bring so much relaxation and harmony to your mind. In that moment, when you read a myth or listen to a song you love or draw or create something, or you ponder what’s out there in space or beyond time, where we came from as beings, how we should live our lives, gods or science or the paranormal or what have you — in those moments, you are not thinking about your bills or how you’re going to scrounge for something to eat. I use mythology to cope all the time, even subconsciously without my own knowledge. I just let my mind wander. Humans have to have mythology because it’s in our nature. We evolved the ability to have creative expression to keep our minds functioning at any level as we get through life. Imagination is an unbelievably powerful and underrated tool. Sometimes it’s the only way you can get away from whatever situation you are in on the street. There’s one thing every sentient living creature asks itself during life at some point, which is, who am I and what is my place in the Universe? Mythology conveniently shows up to give you a nonsensical character without a real purpose, but it actually does provide meaning because it speaks to that point and provides some kind of answer for that question, so of course you find it everywhere. It’s a totally natural response to being alive on this planet, especially to somebody who’s nobody among the billions of the people in the world, to reimagine ourselves as heroes and gods. Originally the myths were meant to explain mysterious things, like natural catastrophes, earthquakes, volcanoes, lightning and that sort of stuff. People explained stuff using stories about gods and whatnot. But they also want to exercise their imaginations and imagine the greatness and the possibility of things beyond. We have fabulous mechanisms for stealing our attention away. But we always drift in our thoughts, and we like to exercise our imaginations and ask what could possibly be out there, beyond what we know, beyond what’s right in front of us. I think mythology is just a natural evolved occurrence, since it’s human nature to come up with stories and narratives about greater and better things out there, just so we can cope with the fact that we’re down here living in this really chaotic world. Our modern day rat race after material wealth and power in the world is just so pointless. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Graphic by Adam Bowman, Bum Fabulous. You go after getting a bunch of stuff that you don’t need — you really don’t. You can appreciate the fact that you have sentience, that you are living, that you are here and awake. Just the sheer fact of consciousness is a blessing, not in a religious sense or anything, but just the ability to bear witness to reality. It’s an incredible gift that we have and we tend to squander because we get lost in these other things. The greatest lesson of the world is turning your back on temptations and riches for the sake of the greater good. Mythology has always been about that journey: turning away from desire and toward something better. That’s the basic journey of life and it’s what we are all struggling with, whether you are on the street or not. Everybody chases self-fulfillment, but you have to know where to draw the line and not just eat until you are sick. Spiritually, people on the street are more sensitive to the pain and the suffering and the reality in the world. I throw rich people a bone and forgive them, because in my mind they are all actually just stupid. Many rich people have never experienced pain; thanks to compartmentalized lives they live in an entirely different reality. There’s an alternate reality, but then people on the street who have actually suffered know things better, and yet we have to use our imaginations more just to stay healthy. We are living in a time of such convenience that there are people who are totally oblivious to what life could possibly hold beyond a Netflix subscription: their only encounter with the world is through some made-up television screen.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY An ode to Claresha D.A. Groundcover contributor August brings the memories of holding and cherishing Claresha. It was just my baby and me as far as the family. Such a warm bundle of joy. Even though she was 2 lbs. 6 ounces and 13 inches long. After one day on the ventilator, she was blessed and breathing on her own from there you see! She is still to this day a fighter for better things. Still strong and a raving beauty! Like the art she makes, the music on her guitar that she plays and sings. Happy Birthday to my beautiful child! And by the way, kiss my Grandbaby for me! A day in the life of Earl EARL PULLEN Groundcover contributor I say amen you say Let it be I say it again And my thoughts are of Thee And when you fall He’ll pick you back up and hold you near You say oh my god and the Words are clear A man is a man Thus I can say it will only Happen on judgment Day He’ll pick U up and Take U away Thus it will be on That very day Amen AUGUST 25, 2023 AUGUST 25, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. Lions need Kaepernick SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover contributor Autumn is near and another Detroit Lions football season is here. The Lions need two quality quarterbacks, not just one. The Lions should acquire Colin Kaepernick because he has Super Bowl experience. Even if the Lions were to have a great season and make it to the Super Bowl, they would probably lose. With Kaepernick on the team they are increasing their odds of winning. Kaepernick has been putting himself out there recently to attract offers from major league teams, but so far unsuccessfully. The likely reason for this is that in 2016 he “took a knee” during the National Anthem to protest police profiling and police brutality, which resulted in being blasted by the public, including presidential candidate Donald Trump. He was shunned by NFL owners after that. But times have changed since then. Trump is no longer in power, there has been a pandemic and reaction to it, and we are well into the World Economic Forum’s Reset 2.0 with its implications for human freedom and agency. (For more on this, see Robert Kennedy’s book “The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health.”) Wearing masks like subservient slaves became the new normal. The top 1% benefited greatly from people being homebound — think Jeff Bezos and Amazon. None of this would have been possible without the police state. For the first time white Americans have experienced something of what Black Americans have always experienced in America. The Antebellum slave patrols kept African-American slaves in their place; the postmodern police state keeps Americans under house arrest. It wasn’t legitimate back then and it isn’t legitimate now. Maybe there is a lesson for all of us in Kaeperick’s symbolic act of protest. And maybe the Detroit Lions could benefit from recognizing the legitimacy of that act. Time is running out for the Lions to win a Super Bowl. We are on the verge of a new-age consciousness; football will become obsolete. The Lions should sign a one year contract with Kaepernick and see what happens.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HEALTH AUGUST 25, 2023 Antibiotic catch-22: Terri Demar’s struggle accessing medical care battling cellulitis LINDSAY CALKA Publisher Cellulitis may look like dermatitis, but it is actually caused by staph and strep infection, often contracted by bacterial infection, encouraged by low immune systems and large pores. Terri Demar, Groundcover vendor No. 322, was diagnosed with cellulitis at St. Joe’s emergency room in 2014. Over these ten years, it has cost her jobs, relationships and even housing. After struggling to get a proper diagnosis as of late, she now resorts to taking expired antibiotics to keep the infection and its side effects at bay. As a result, the medical conditions that prompt doctors to take her illness seriously, are hidden. “Doctors blame me for self-medicating but they don’t provide me medication. It’s a big, vicious cycle. I’m just trying to stay out of the hospital.” Demar discussed incidents in the hospitals,  MEDUSA from page 4 poverty and live in a system built on all that. And then society turns around and calls us monsters because of what was done to us, and tells us it’s all our own fault. People who pass by say, “it’s your own fault that you are the way you are,” when all they see is the outside. But often somebody in power put us in this situation to begin with, just like Medusa. In European myths, women are monsters or dangerous creatures who need to be watched and controlled. But it's men who have always been the real monsters. If you walk down the street today, you’ll see a man looking at a woman, and he’s led by sexual appetite, not by his mind or heart. All many men care about is getting a woman in bed. You can see it every day, a man looking at a woman, and a young woman who’s been taught by society to dress up a certain way, since she’s trained at a young age to get them to look, without knowing any better. And often once he gets her, he’s gone. He might take her out for a couple of days, a couple of years, but after that he’s done, and nearly every time he’s been cheating on the side. It’s the men in the world who have dark hearts, who are the monsters. But in the myths and legends like Medusa, it's the victim who ends up responsible. European and American governments are full of just those kinds of men, who have dark hearts and only take what they want from people below them. Just like Poseidon, men who think they are gods run the economy and control everything and put all the people into bad situations and create monsters in the first place. A few rich men at the top take advantage of everyone else, and of course they have always had control of the mythology too. That goes all the way back past ancient Greece. Governments have always made people poor to begin with, and then they make up myths to make themselves out to be the heroes like Perseus and convince people that everything is their own fault. As if people could only pull themselves out of it, they would stop being monsters — but that’s the real myth people believe. Myths about females are different in different cultures. In some of them, people respect the earth and women. African and Native American cultures and some Asian ones have more respectful versions of female figures like Medusa; for example, in Chinese mythology the half-snake mother-goddess Nüwa is a positive version of a snake and not a monster. I’m descended from the Navajo, and my people see the world as completely interconnected, everything is our brother and sister, and women are the life-givers, creators, leaders and heroes of the stories. If people could break stories like Medusa down and look at it the right way, they would better understand how women are treated in our society compared to others. Even nowadays rich men can rape women and there’s nothing she can do about it. People will deny things and protect him and say she is a liar — especially if he’s among the white men who run the government. Governments have always given the legends, the myths, the ignorance and propaganda down to the people. Men make up myths and believe women are evil because it covers up what is happening all over the world right in front of us, as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. You see all these people who are homeless, and it’s the same everywhere from China to Russia to the Middle East. But people on the bottom are blamed for what happened to them by the people on the top. Up there they live by a myth that hides what’s really going on. I relate to Medusa more than any other story because I have seen things with my own two eyes. No matter which way you think the myth went, she’s the one who was condemned for it, but he gets away with it because he was this high god. Today in the real world it all boils down to the same thing: greed. Society wants to make up all these monsters, but at the end of the day it’s evil and good, plain and simple, and it all boils down to money and power one way or another. If it were a poor man who raped a woman like Medusa, he’d be sitting in prison. Think about it. Editor’s Note: The ancient version of Medusa was told by the Roman poet Ovid, who wrote the poem Metamorphoses in Latin. Ovid wrote myths about the woman’s perspective and was no friend of kings. He compared emperors and gods to rapists, and he was banished forever from Rome. Teresa and Ovid are on the same page and would have a great conversation! describing bad experiences of being traumatized and then being accused of misconduct and forced to leave or transfer hospitals and doctors. “When they don’t want to take the responsibility, they blame you. I got accused of talking to people in the lobby, for accidentally spilling water.” For the first five or six years, her first doctor prescribed her “non-stop antibiotics;” Demar was taking 20 antibiotics a day. But ever since that first doctor, she has struggled to receive medication and treatment that is aligned with her health problems. She was referred to the infectious diseases center at a local hospital but she claimed that her doctor never followed through by accurately conveying the severity to the infectious disease doctor — and consequently she has been denied the care she needed ever since. She explained that typical treatment for cellulitis is to get put on an IV and to take antibiotics. But that is disputed constantly for Demar. Yet she has never “met anyone with cellulitis as bad as [her].” Three or four months ago she was ordered a biopsy but she was still taking old antibiotics and it impacted the test results. Now, Demar describes her cellulitis as “systemic” in her body — but as of a month ago she is on her third doctor who doesn’t believe antibiotics should be a part of her treatment plan. Demar thinks her mental diagnosis of ADHD influences the medical gaslighting. “They’re saying I’m being delusional and that I don’t have cellulitis. People tell me the cellulitis is in my head.” “It is big, red, swollen — and I don’t rub on it — that’s an infection. If [my doctor] doesn't understand that, what is he a doctor for? I don’t want people hem-hawing around anymore. It’s gone on too long.” Medical gaslighting is a term to describe when medical practitioners in power dismiss health problems of patients, enforcing stereotypes that women are irrational and hysterical, or people with mental illness are delusional and have psychosomatic symptoms. “When it comes to physical illness, if you don’t get things in writing, your problems won’t be addressed. For mental illness, once you get labeled, you don’t get a chance to change it.” Demar has battled this cellulitis for a decade and knows what she needs. “I need a white blood cell count. I need to take seven days off my antibiotics so I can get a control pus test. But I’m being denied these things. I am scared to pause the antibiotics because I’ll go septic. And then I’ll die. Somebody’s dropping the ball. Demar hopes this article will motivate doctors to do their job. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS AUGUST 25, 2023 HEALTH GROUNDCOVER NEWS Navigating the path to healing: Tips to triumph over mental health challenges MOHAMMED ALMUSTAPHA Groundcover contributor I dedicate this article to all those who have had to endure, deal with, get well from, and take care of those who suffer from mental health issues, illnesses or syndromes — whatever they may be. The complexities of the world that we live in, this whole planet that revolves around the sun, all of the things that happen and go on around us as human beings can tend to overwhelm us and depress and stress and discombobulate our natural order of things — our mental and emotional homeostasis, I guess in a way. And it sucks, and it has to be dealt with. Some people are just genetically predisposed or predestined for mental illness. A great deal of others might acquire it through trauma — whether it be physical, mental or emotional. A great number of people will actually develop it from physical trauma (like car accidents). Heartbreak, betrayal, whatever drug addiction and negative experiences — all these things can lead to mental health issues, which range from narcissism and bipolar disorder, all the way to depression and psychosis. Now, I, as a human being who has suffered from depression and bipolar disorder, understand that in order for people like me to try to lead any semblance of a normal life, it takes a lot of effort, more than for the neurotypical person, because we wake up in the morning heavy and burdened. We don't just wake up happy, we have to force it willfully by doing certain activities, like exercising or listening to music or ingesting edibles, whatever it may be. This is what I’ve found to be healing for me: Number one has been exercise and going to the gym. That right there was 85-90% of getting well — getting moving, going to the gym, exercising, lifting weights, shedding my body of toxins, getting my circulation going, losing weight. It helps in many factors; the circulation alone gets hormones moving, toxins get kicked out. By exercising we're able to deliver happy hormones to ourselves faster, the weight loss leads to looking good in clothes, posture changes, muscles grow. The gym also takes up time; it's hard work, it's rewarding and you get endorphins. Number two is going to work; stay occupied working. If you're going through depression or mania, it's helpful to occupy a lot of your time with work, even if it’s a remedial task, like putting nuts on bolts, or lifting wheels, just make sure that you get a job and that you have a job to go to. Because when you have a job, you have to wake up in the morning and brush your teeth and brush your hair and take a shower and get dressed, to be presentable so that when you go out there, you end up making your money. Making money enables you to get the things you want. But that's not what we really gain from working. What we gain is that we're able to occupy our minds for eight hours or longer: for those eight hours we’re able to just be engrossed and focused on something (and that's eight hours of peace where we don't have to think about our demons). You know what I mean? So get a job after you work out. A third thing has to be practicing empathetic charity. When I say that, most people will misunderstand it. I don't mean charity as in financial giving and so forth. No, but as in giving people your time and sharing your experiences with people, even if it’s the knowledge of where good resources are. Initially, I used to help out those who are in a lesser circumstance than me, for the sake of making myself feel good by saying, ”Hey, look there's somebody that is in a worse situation than me.” But as I got older and developed, I realized, no, we don't do it for ourselves, we do it because: “Hey, this is a human being that's suffering. And if I were in his shoes, I would want somebody to come and help me to make me feel better.” Good humans still exist, and humanity is beautiful. So just trying to interconnect them to improve their lives and make people feel better, well, in turn, give extremely positive dividends. Actual realization and acceptance is just recognizing that you're human and you're here, and that the world will continue to go on and that whatever injustice or whatever maltreatment you faced did not end your world but only made you stronger. So once you get to accepting things, you can finally get to moving on and moving forward and being a better human being that contributes himself in society. So in conclusion just remember to know and avoid your triggers, both organic and inorganic, as in avoiding people who actively seek to destabilize our peace and mental health. “Striving to be a better man today than I was yesterday, and a better man tomorrow than I am today.” 11  BEAR MYTHS from page 6 because they were all about tabu: things you did and you never did. Stories tell us how we should behave or not behave. So, say winters were really harsh: there were myths told to warn people about being greedy and selfishly hoarding food. We had sacred stories told to children so they knew that it was customary when another tribe was starving during winter and came asking, you had to share with them. We had tripod caches set up in high places (to keep bears out), and a ladder, and the rule was that you only ate enough and never more than what you needed. But some of what we learned came from traditional animal stories that everybody knew carried some moral lessons about how to share with people and survive in a harsh environment. In some cases it’s 80 below zero and all you have is some wood and some fire. Myths came from pressures out of real natural environments. Bears are territorial animals and came to have personalities as legendary figures in Kaska myth, since each one could become old and famous in its own area. One of the stories about Grandpa Mike I love is the time he was about two inches from a bear’s face. He was cutting up a huge moose and slicing it up, and he had blood all the way up his arms. He looked up and a bear was right there - but his gun was on the other side of the moose! So my grandfather had to climb over the dead moose to reach the gun. But he still refused to shoot his own totem animal and just quietly walked away out of respect, even giving up his kill. This became a legend about him, but it tells us how we think about and treat animals and each other in the world. Sacred stories teach us how to live and survive in the world. There’s one famous Kaska legend about a woman’s encounter with a bear. The tribe was packing up to migrate for the season, and this herbalist was the last member of the tribe to leave, but it took her a while to get all her plants and medicine packed up. As she was going up the trail, everyone else had already left. Suddenly a massive Grizzly rose up behind her. The only thing she could think to do was grab her curved knife and as quick as she could, slice it all the way from the bottom up to the chest cavity. All its guts spilled out, and she grabbed her bags and ran down the trail to find the tribe. At first they couldn’t believe it, but they went back and found the body, tanned its hide and set out this huge bear rug. It made her famous, a well-known woman who rose into legend and then became a sort of mythical figure. It’s a really powerful story about a woman and her ability to survive on her own. Today, mythology is being wiped out and there’s this sort of social engineering to create a manipulated, controlled society using technology, without any mythology to tell us right and wrong. We must stand as one mind, body and soul, within a resistance of unity. We must come together as a human race and realize that each and every one of us is an individual who can say no, that we do not have to participate in the social experiment. Society will not survive, being bankrupt in emotions and community, if we have no stories to hold us together. So here’s a word I came up with for our modern society: illuminoligarcorpocracy. We are being strangled and yoked and controlled by big tech, powerful billionaires and governments in ways that nobody totally understands. The concept of mythology is a powerful people’s unification against the onslaught of a new ideology that has been thrust on to humanity. We must counter the reality of this new technological understanding of humans by not participating in the algorithm of insanity. Mythology is a way to get back to the roots and traditions of where we came from. Stories were a way of surviving in the face of the world, back to Greece, Babylon, Egypt, India, all of the world’s traditions. We as Americans have to decide what value the old traditions have for us, from our families and back to the ancestors we came from.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Oatmeal raisin cookies KADEN WATTS Wolverine pathways student Ingredients: ¾ cup butter, softened ¾ cup white sugar ¾ cup packed light brown sugar 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon ½ teaspoon salt 2 ¾ cups rolled oats 1 cup raisins Directions: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Beat butter, white sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Gradually beat AUGUST 25, 2023 into the butter mixture. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop teaspoonfuls of batter onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes, switching racks halfway through. Remove from the oven and let sit on the cookie sheets for 1 to 2 minutes before transferring cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. LUNCH OR DINNER WE’VE GOT YOU! Whether it’s $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 9/7/2023

2 $ AUGUST 11, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 17 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Michigan Homeless Bill of Rights offers hope for the unhoused. Page 4 MEET YOUR VENDOR: JOE WOODS PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement — DRUMbeat for change. page 8 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Donald Abdul Roberts, a prominent participant in DRUM, can often be found sharing wisdom with people on the street in downtown Ann Arbor. Photo credit: Mike Jones @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER from the DIRECTOR'S DESK LINDSAY CALKA Managing director It was Ken Parks’ turn to speak at the Groundcover News Article Review. Instead of sharing insightful reflections on one of the most recent articles, he shared that he had ran out of time to listen to an article from the issue. Yes, listen to an article. On Tuesdays, office volunteers would read a selection from the paper to him; he then would share a summation and reflection of that article during our biweekly article review meeting. This is a routine he had started when his macular degeneration, or “Mac-D” as he calls it, had gotten worse. It generally worked well for one piece every two weeks, but he was consistently missing out on large chunks of the Groundcover News $2 issues. Parks is not alone in the reality that the print size of Groundcover News is too small to read without a visual or auditory aid. A physical newspaper is more “accessible” when it comes to the digital divide — but it prevents zooming in, enlarging text size, and requires about a 5th grade reading level. The quest to solve this accessibility problem inspired an exciting partnership with the Ann Arbor District Library’s 5th Avenue Studios. We are excited to announce Groundcover Speaks, a blind and print-disabled accessible audio archive of Groundcover News. It’s not technically a Groundcover podcast, but it will exist on most podcasting platforms in a biweekly episode format. 5th Avenue Studios supports local podcasters, musicians and audio creators in the Ann Arbor area, and has helped bring Groundcover News’ accessibility one step closer to where it needs to be. The added benefit is that the Groundcover stories, news reports, poems and more will be spoken aloud by the authors themselves. Hearing the first draft of the June 29 Groundcover Speaks episode, I fully realized the gift it is for our customers to really hear the voices of Groundcover contributors. I know most writers quite well, and can hear their stories “in their voice,” so to speak. But I had never heard the actual sound — the emotion, the inflection. Spoiler alert: it is powerful, and moving. You can access Groundcover Speaks many different ways. Scan the QR code printed in the paper, which links to our linktr.ee, where you can choose which method works best for you: • Listen online on the AADL’s website • Listen online to the Groundcover News website under the tab “Groundcover Speaks” • Stream through Apple Podcasts or Spotify Right now, in the pilot phase of this project, we will be releasing the audio version of Groundcover News two weeks after print publication. To begin, we have the past three issues (June 29, July 14 and July 28) available as three separate episodes. The audio recording of this issue — and yes, this article — will be available for listening on August 25. There is a sound bite at the beginning of each episode that communicates an AUGUST 11, 2023 important message: “If you consistently enjoy ‘Groundcover Speaks,’ continuing to buy physical newspapers from Groundcover vendors ensures that we can sustain production. The physical paper and in-person interaction is at the heart of our work.” This couldn’t be more true. We have waited this long to digitize and expand our media footprint because it is important that we do not jeopardize the in-person sales of Groundcover vendors. This is a project that aims to enhance the physical paper, not to replace it. We hope to deepen, not change, the fulfillment of our mission with the production of Groundcover Speaks. Happy listening. CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Layla McMurtrie — deputy editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Susan Beckett John Buckley Jim Clark Izzy Hedin-Urrutia Dalon Eaton Mike Jones Lit Kurtz Joshua Lee Ken Parks Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer Scoop Stevens GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Logan Brown Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Harleen Kaur Robert Klingler Mira Simonton-Chao Alex Tarbet Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenburg Navya Yagalla Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons AUGUST 11, 2023 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR I like to listen to classic love songs from the 50s to the 80s. There’s something about old love songs that are soothing. The way I know about them is that they used to advertise it on TV commercials and the music sounded so good. The music sounded so good Joe Woods, vendor No. 103 What words do you live by? Everything happens for a reason, good or bad. When what you feel is bad, find the good. Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? Main and Liberty, 4th and Washington, 4th and Liberty. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn't know? I'm really not that outgoing. I stay to myself for the most part. What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover News? Everyday there is a new adventure selling Groundcover. What song do you have completely memorized? "Freaky Tales" by Too Short. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Collard greens, macaroni and cheese, fried chicken and Jimmy corn bread. What do you wish you knew more about? Technology What is a small thing that makes your day better? My dog. What is your pet peeve? People that litter and when you speak to someone and they ignore you. If you had a warning label, what would it say? Warning: can change moods in 0.0 seconds. What's the best way to start the day? I start my day always by thanking God for waking me up. that I would go to sleep while listening to them. One channel that was popular for playing 50s and 60s music was Public TV. It makes you calm, easing anxieties. It’s also comforting when you are lonely. You can clean your house to it, too. You can enjoy it with a friend or family member who likes this kind of music. But I don’t think I’ll find too many friends and family who like 50s music. Maybe the 70s and 80s— but not the 50s. The 50s music sounds so innocent and loving that sometimes it can be funny. The 70s and 80s is upbeat and happy music. It’s relaxing and upbeat at the same time. The GROUNDCOVER NEWS Classic love songs are nostalgic DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 “True Colors.” There are so many songs from the 80s I like that I can’t count them. The music reminds me of movie nights, hanging out in the park with family and friends. It also reminds me of going to the state fair when I was in Detroit and having fun at carnivals, riding carousels and looking at the pretty scenery. The music reminds me of 70s and 80s music make me think of being a kid and teenager, enjoying old times with my friends. It also reminds me of dancing by myself when nobody can see me; it reminds me of watching music videos on TV and looking at the pretty clothes they wore. 80s music reminds me of watching Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Boy George and the Culture Club. In the 80s, people dressed flashy — but they were pretty clothes. I really like a song I remember by Cindy Lauper: popcorn, cotton candy, ham sandwiches and hot dogs. The music reminds me of french fries, too. The music reminds me of loving people I knew in my past. I listen to the music with CDs and on YouTube. Scan this QR code to listen to some of my favorites on Spotify! 3 The Golden Rule The ideological struggle of Western civilizations centers on the Golden Rule, which in its original form is “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Most of us learned this as children. As we were socialized into the culture of capitalism and its political economy of capital accumulation, we learned perhaps a more cynical Golden Rule: “Those who have the gold, rule.” We live out the conflict that arises from these two views of the Golden Rule as we form an identity in the middle of this ideological struggle. It’s good to remember the Zen commentary on the Diamond and Heart Sutras, “Peace of Mind does not come from absence of struggle, it comes from absence of confusion and uncertainty.” You probably know that I am a beginner in the struggle, even though I have 80 plus years of life experience. Every breath is a new beginning as we move through this moment, the bridge from past to future. As the creation stage enters the completion stage we are best advised to follow the original Golden Rule, nurturing the intention to benefit all beings without exception. To describe the source of all the appearances we perceive, I like the expression “the all good expanse of primordial purity,” where some might say “Allah” or “God.” Reality as it is, with many names depending on your context. The completeness of reality is beyond words and definitions, but I believe it can be experienced with an open heart and mind. This experience is the mother of the original Golden Rule. Any experience of calm and clear, even a glimpse, points at the deepest part of our heart. Stabilizing this experience is a lifelong venture. Spiritual friends appear when the student is ready. We are a community of masters and seekers. Those who practice the original Golden Rule organize projects for the benefit of everyone. The Veterans for Peace KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 Golden Rule project is coming to Michigan August 13-17. On August 15 at 11 a.m. is the Water Ceremony in Detroit. This indigenous centered ceremony is an important step in building unity to respect mother earth and all her children. Go to vfpgoldenruleproject. org or see below for more complete information.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS On July 19, several news outlets announced the introduction of a Homeless Bill of Rights for the State of Michigan. The sponsor of House Bill 4919 is Rep. Emily Dievendorf of District 77, the north Lansing area. The Homeless Bill of Rights is part of a three-bill package that tackles housing discrimination issues and enhances tenants’ rights. The highest priorities of Dievendorf’s bill include secure access to public spaces, the right to vote without a permanent address, and the right to property and privacy. The bills would also allow an unhoused person to file a civil lawsuit if their rights were violated. If it passes, Michigan will become the fifth state in the nation to protect the rights of unhoused people. As of now, homelessness is still treated differently in every state. The first state to pass a Homeless Bill of Rights was Rhode Island, followed by Connecticut, Illinois and Puerto Rico. It is unfortunate that in the minds of the wary public the shelter system is the optimum solution to the “homeless” crisis when, in fact, it is often ELIZABETH "LIT" KURTZ Groundcover vendor No. 159 need of a place to be during the day. Besides Starbucks, most coffee shops require purchases out of the range of most unhoused individuals — and public libraries often prohibit sleeping. As of the latest count, there are 8,500 more of a debilitating trap. There is overwhelming evidence that the shelters nationwide are inadequate for serving the needs of those without housing. When facing long protracted waiting lists, people resort to public spaces for rest. In the few instances when a person is offered an immediate space in a shelter, she or he often has to deal with other problems. The ones cited most often include violence, lack of shower availability and storage, to name a few. In addition, the shelters only serve people overnight, so public spaces are often all that is available for a person in people in Michigan who are unhoused. While these are the numbers given, it is suspected that the actual numbers are higher as they often leave out those temporarily living with family members, friends, in cars and other locations. It becomes clear that the numbers of those experiencing life without housing far outweigh available resources and that the survival of unhoused individuals depends on passage of bills that decriminalize homeless living. So it is little wonder that Dievendorf prioritizes “secure access to public spaces” as one of her priorities. The human experiences still accepted in our nation under the name of homelessness are unthinkable for a civilized nation, and a Homeless Bill of Rights around the country and in Michigan is long overdue. While living on the streets is far from AUGUST 11, 2023 MI Homeless Bill of Rights offers hope for unhoused a permanent solution, it reminds us that public spaces should be designed for all. Not just the non-disabled or the securely housed individual. The ultimate solution is to design city infrastructures with everyone in mind. Far from placing dividers on benches, public spaces should include lockers, showers, and even cots independent of the shelter system so the transition back into permanent housing becomes a simpler, more straightforward process to replace the cumbersome, debilitating, Draconian experience that we witness on our streets presently. Many citizens, including those we count on to make the right decision, will more than likely have never been forced to experience life outside of four walls and may be inclined to feel less tolerant of those who seek refuge in public spaces. But everyone should recognize that passage of this bill would send the powerful message that public space belongs to all citizens, housed or unhoused. Only when we interact with our neighbors will we begin to heal the wounds of divisiveness that drain the energy we all need to survive. A growing threat: tick infestations in Michigan take a toll on homeless campers JOSHUA LEE Groundcover contributor Michigan faces a pressing challenge this summer as tick infestations surge, leading to an alarming increase in tickborne illnesses. Amidst the rising concerns over these blood-sucking pests, the plight of the homeless community becomes a critical and often unseen tragedy. While the impact of these tiny yet formidable adversaries is felt statewide, the vulnerable homeless population grapples with unique and daunting challenges when combating these relentless foes. Startling revelations from a recent study published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution sheds light on the urgency of the situation. Researchers analyzing 19 years of data from Michigan's Isle Royale National Park reveal a troubling trend: warmer summer temperatures accelerate tick egg development, resulting in higher survival rates along with a distressing surge in tick infestations among the moose population. As tens of thousands of ticks burrow into moose bodies causing fur loss and anemia, the ecological impact sends ripples through the state. However, beyond the implications for wildlife, Michigan's homeless community faces an insidious threat amid the escalating tick crisis. As Michigan confronts the multifaceted challenges of tick infestations and homelessness, it becomes essential to address the unique struggles faced by the homeless campers. Reports support that this year has been particularly challenging for those experiencing homelessness. Limited access to shelter and healthcare compounds the risks, leaving the homeless disproportionately susceptible to tick-borne illnesses and their related complications. Carrie Nielsen, secretary of the Michigan Lyme Disease Association, passionately stresses the significance of tick checks after outdoor activities. These relentless parasites can insidiously embed themselves anywhere, with a predilection for areas near the knees, waistline, ears, and hairline. Nielsen herself, a Lyme disease warrior of 26 years, has courageously shared her personal journey of hardship, shedding light on the profound impact of tick-related illnesses on one's health and well-being. For those unaware, Lyme disease is a menacing condition caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Its transmission occurs through the bite of infected black-legged ticks, also known as deer ticks. While exploring the woodlands and grassy terrains, it is paramount that we remain vigilant for the characteristic "bull's-eye" skin rash, fever, headache, and fatigue — all of which are early warning signs of Lyme Disease. Yet, if we neglect timely treatment, the consequences can escalate, detrimentally impacting our joints, heart and nervous system. Anaplasmosis is another perilous threat to be wary of during our outdoor escapades. This disease can be transmitted from the bite of various tick species, including black-legged ticks. Symptoms are flu-like such as fever, chills, muscle aches and fatigue. Anaplasmosis requires our utmost vigilance and preventive actions. Also in the realm of tick-borne dangers, Babesiosis deserves attention. Babesiosis, caused by microscopic parasites, infiltrates our red blood cells through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks. Its manifestations range from mild to severe, featuring symptoms such as fever, chills, fatigue, and anemia. Ehrlichiosis has similar symptoms. Carried by various bacteria, this disease finds its way to us through tick bites. It may manifest with fever, headache, muscle aches, and confusion. The severity of its outcomes, such as respiratory failure or bleeding disorders, underscores the imperative of early detection. While comparatively rare in Michithe Rocky Mountain Spotted gan, Fever (RMSF) should not be underestimated. It transmits through the bites of American dog ticks, Rocky Mountain wood ticks or brown dog ticks. RMSF is characterized by similar initial symptoms to Anaplasmosis and Babesiosis, with fever, headache, and rash. Beyond the initial symptoms, RMSF can escalate into serious complications affecting the heart, lungs, and kidneys if not promptly treated. Unfortunately, the struggles faced by see TICKS next page  AUGUST 11, 2023 HOMELESSNESS Washtenaw Homelessness Summit initiates grassroots coalition of peers JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 On Saturday, August 5, I attended the pilot meeting of what is on its way to becoming a coalition of grassroots peers of the homeless. In attendance were representatives from Washtenaw Camp Outreach, Peace House of Ypsilanti, Mercy House, the NeuroTraining Initiative, Care Based Safety, Circling Back, Women on the Move, Journey of Faith Church and A Servant's Heart which works in Ypsilanti’s West Willow. The conference went from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., during which members of each organization got to know each other, learned about what each organization does and how we can work together toward common goals. We discussed what that synergy might look like. We talked about how to structure the coalition, how it will benefit the community and further our individual organizations' goals. Part of the coalition’s function is to keep each other informed and apprised of each other's services and movements. Communication on this level is sorely needed among our grassroots community of care. Personally, as someone who has experienced homelessness, I can say easy-to-find resources would have helped get me out of homelessness faster than having to research and rediscover the steps to the services. Much of the information shared was based on an impressive survey of 50 unhoused and formerly unhoused persons in Washtenaw County. The purpose of the survey was to get an idea of what the strengths and gaps are in the care they receive. See the Unhoused Experiences in Washtenaw County report for more information. Currently, the coalition is loosely formed and doesn’t even have an official name yet. It will develop structure as it becomes necessary. We decided that as a coalition our priority should be emergency shelter. Future meetings will flesh out how the weight of this newly-found body can meet this need. This decision was spot on. A few times during my experience I feared for my life due to being trapped outside during a Michigan winter. Fortunately, I had a gym membership that was 24 hours and management didn’t care that I hung out there for 8 hours at a time. Another idea that surfaced was that of a “service hub,” a physical space where the organizations above (and potentially others) would offer resources in a community setting that promotes a sense of belonging. This one-stop-shopping approach — meeting a variety of needs from tents and sleeping bags to filling out forms to obtaining documents to strengthening mental health — would have been very welcome when I was experiencing homelessness. Overall, the day left me feeling like I was in the Hall of the Justice League of America. In fact, there were quite a few Wonder Women and Supermen. Given the caliber of the people forming the groups, their passion, compassion and devotion to the community, I am very excited to see where this coalition goes. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library  TICKS from last page homeless campers go beyond the physical effects of bites. Scarce resources hinder their ability to effectively address tick-related concerns, with preventative measures such as regular body checks and tick removal consistently overlooked amidst the daily battle for survival. In addition, the improvised shelters used by the homeless offer scant protection from these relentless pests, exacerbating their exposure and vulnerability. While this tick infestation is rampant, empowerment through education has emerged as a crucial tool, equipping people experiencing homelessness with knowledge on tick prevention and early recognition of tick-borne diseases. To avoid tick bites, it is essential to avoid tick-infested areas, such as grassy, brushy and wooded places. When possible, walking in the center of trails can help avoid contact with ticks at trail edges. Additionally, bathing or showering as soon as possible after coming indoors can help wash off ticks, and more easily find ones that might be crawling on the body in hard to reach places. If you cannot avoid tick-infested areas, repellent that contains permethrin is effective for not only ticks, but mosquitos and bed bugs. Protecting pets is also crucial, as dogs and cats can carry ticks indoors. Using EPA-registered repellents on exposed skin and treating clothes with permethrin can provide additional protection. Performing daily tick checks, thoroughly inspecting the body and removing attached ticks with tweezers on both pets and humans, is vital to prevent tick-borne diseases. From moose populations bravely battling the consequences of soaring temperatures to homeless campers weighed down by the burden of tick infestations, collective action becomes paramount. Together, we must unite to find solutions, safeguarding the well-being of all, thereby extending a protective embrace to those most vulnerable among us. All artwork is for sale (cash only). Artists donate 10% of what they sell to Journey of Faith’s homeless ministry. ART ON A JOURNEY When homeless artists create and sell their art they gain much needed financial support while making sense of the world and finding meaning and purpose in it — it’s a journey we’re all on. August 1 – September 14 at the Ann Arbor District Library, downtown branch. Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and science tools— you name it! Plus, we heard there are plenty of Summer Game codes hidden across all of our locations, exclusive to library visitors. Unusual Stuff to Borrow There’s more to borrow at AADL than books, music, and movies. To name a few, there are games, telescopes, stories-to-go kits, and home tools. Check out these unusual yet handy items during your next library visit. Michigan Activity Pass With a valid library card from any Michigan public library, you can print a pass to participating organizations, including museums and state parks, through the Michigan Activity Pass website. Some partners offer complimentary or reduced-price admission; others, discounts in their gift shop or other exclusive offers. FEATURED EVENT 5 Sunday, September 10 10am–5pm • Downtown Library Formerly the Kerrytown Bookfest, the A2 Community Bookfest is thrilled to return to downtown Ann Arbor for 2023! Booksellers, publishers, authors, and more will be on the vendor floor from 10am-5pm along with featured author talks, and various activities throughout the day for all ages. For details, visit AADL.org/bookfest

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS YPSILANTI AUGUST 11, 2023 Left: Attendees browsing a table of literature on Black liberation. Middle: Opening night of the conference at Growing Hope's Incubator Kitchen. Right: Seattle organizers from group Big Brick Energy at the Ypsi Freighthouse discussing lessons from the George Floyd Rebellion. “Down on the Ground:” Over 200 people attend General Defense Commitee’s Organizing Against Capitalism Conference in Ypsilanti IZZY HEDIN-URRUTIA Groundcover contributor July 28-30 the streets of Ypsilanti welcomed visitors for the first ever Organizing Against Capitalism conference, hosted by local anti-capitalist organization Michigan General Defense Committee. Solidarity Hall, Ypsilanti Freighthouse and Growing Hope’s Incubator Kitchen were all vibrant centers for conversation and collaboration of leftists and anti-capitalist organizations from around the midwest and across the country. Through panels and workshops that tackled a variety of subjects — including labor organizing, the role of political art, housing activism and eviction defense — conference attendees remained engaged and focused on building connections and sharing a wide range of revolutionary and anti-capitalist knowledge, perspectives and community work. “I was very impressed with the conference. I didn’t know what to expect,” says Xtan, an anti-fascist writer and organizer with the blog Three Way Fight. “I left the weekend saying, wow, this was really positive on so many levels. The amount of people wanting to talk, people being open to new ideas, new organizing projects, really impressed me.” During the conference, Xtan demonstrated the nuance anti-facist political analysis of the blog Three Way Fight. He connected that mission to on-theground organizing against anti-queer sentiment and legislation in the local city of Hamtramck, Michigan, which just last month passed an ordinance prohibiting the flying or displaying of the LGBTQ+ pride flag at Hamtramck City Hall. “The far right and the Republican party, as well as the street-based fascist movements, as well as broader reactionary authoritarian tendencies in society, are really focusing their ire and their attacks on trans and queer communities.” Xtan explained how that influenced the panel. “With the far right and the fascists focusing on trans and queer folks in our society right now, we need to have a much broader anti-fascist perspective that situates itself in working-class and queer communities.” Aeron, an organizer with the Michigan General Defense Committee, worked mostly with outreach and inter-organizational planning of the conference. He spoke about the goals of these large-scale political events. “It’s a sense of building the confidence in comrades to know that we can act collectively and independently of non-working class institutions.” Aeron maintains that one of the most rewarding experiences of the weekend was the constant flow of engagement among comrades, contributing to a welcoming and invigorating atmosphere. “The conference itself is to, of course, build relationships, exchange knowledge, and also inject something that you can’t do so much in the organizing effort, which is what I like to call a collective, active joy. It’s when people come together for common reasons. It’s a joy that I think is innate in human beings. Under capitalism, it’s never tapped into. I think we sometimes see glimpses of that stuff at concerts and things like that, but to do it politically really has a transformative effect on people.” Throughout the three-day event, coordinated and facilitated mostly by comrades with Michigan General Defense Committee, 200 attendees representing over 80 local and visiting political organizations attended panels and workshops and ate meals together, as well as taking a brief break together Saturday evening to enjoy socializing with live music, poetry and screenprinting in the greenspace of Solidarity Hall. Among formalized panel discussions and more casual interpersonal conversations, attendees emphasized that the atmosphere was consistently enthusiastic, inclusive and down-to-earth. “It wasn’t a bunch of academic stuff. It was people doing the work. It wasn't an abstract discussion.” Xtan notes. “I think non-sectarian in the sense of people coming together to figure out what commonalities are, and in a constructive and principled way, discuss what differences are…that’s non-sectarian. [...] I think people were open to talking about differences. I enjoyed that.” According to Aeron and other organizers, this “down on the ground” not "up in the clouds” approach for panel topics and discussion was no accident. “We really wanted to make this not an academic conference, not an NGO conference where professionals explain situations. Even the opening panel was a discussion. And I think this idea of horizontalizing the discussions really adds to a different way of organizing, a way that’s working class based.” The weekend ended with a communal breakfast and breakout groups, reviewing knowledge shared and revisiting discussions that were had throughout various spaces and moments Friday and Saturday. The main focus of these final conversations was to place the events of the weekend within a context of achieving broader goals of working class and leftist political struggle. “We need more education. That’s the old slogan: Educate, Agitate, Organize.” Xtan recited. “The last couple of years, whether it’s COVID or social media or people being tired and burnt out ... This conference was blending theory and action. We need more than ever, more education, more discussion, more debate. I think the conference was a good step in trying to get there.” Aeron emphasized that there are many important aspects of revolutionary movements that conferences like these can help cultivate. “The thing that can sustain us and the thing that has sustained me in my political organizing more than anything else, is a sense of being connected to a broader struggle. [...] It transforms somebody else’s struggle into our struggle. [...] It makes concrete what was before just intellectual.” For the next few weeks, Aeron, Xtan and other comrades who attended and coordinated the conference will continue the work the conference initiated. “What we said in the conference was, if you come to the conference un-organized, join an organization. If you came to the conference with an organization, learn how to collaborate. [...] The world is really in dire straits right now, and for us to have a little bit of a respite but also organize at the same time — I think it really helps people to endure the struggles ahead.” AUGUST 11, 2023 OPINION SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover contributor In 1913, the U.S. Congress renounced its responsibility to “coin money and regulate its value” with the Federal Reserve Act, which led to the USA becoming a warfare-welfare state. John F. Kennedy attempted to change this state of affairs by reestablishing lawful currency. Unfortunately he was assassinated for his efforts on this, among other issues. Now, the only way to restore American civilization is to follow the principles of economic justice found in Thomas Paine’s “Agrarian Justice.” In “Agrarian Justice,” Paine said the life of a Native American was a holiday compared to the poor in Europe. Christendom’s civilization had provided a good life for some and a wretched existence for others. What caused these disparities of wealth? The modern nation state came into existence after Western Christendom’s Civil War (1618-1648, also known as the Thirty Years War)) and the Peace of Westphalia. This new type of centralization of power and the exploitative economic system that grew out of it produced great disparities of wealth that still plague the world today. The way forward is to decentralize power and empower communities and individuals to have more control over their economic destiny. One of the causes of the Great Depression was workers not having the purchasing power to stimulate economic activity and keep the economy flowing. Therefore the key to having a healthy economy is to make sure that people have money to purchase goods and services. This can be done with a guaranteed consumer income that would benefit low income families and individuals. This will GROUNDCOVER NEWS Why we need guaranteed consumer income empower them to participate more in the economy as consumers and will ensure that there is enough economic activity in case the free market fails to provide it. The funding for a Guaranteed Consumer Income would come from the nonprofit sector. The Johnson Amendment (1954) instituted the nonprofit corporation as a tax shelter for the wealthy. To enjoy this tax exempt privilege a public good must be provided. A truly justice-oriented public good would be the Guaranteed Consumer Income. 7 Barometers of misery — disregarding poverty is perilous, not just callous The canaries in the coal mines of our society are economically disadvantaged people. Their afflictions often do not come from a direct economic catastrophe such as job loss. It’s more a function of living on the fringes, teetering on the edge of sufficiency, being vulnerable to change and distress. Whatever bad thing is coming, they suffer from it first. Left unaddressed, it works its way up the economic ladder. We see it in drug abuse. The crack addiction epidemics of the 1970s were left unchecked, especially in urban areas. They developed into wide-ranging cocaine addictions that plagued the entire country. The opioid addictions of pain-riddled manual laborers in the late 1990s were stoked by the pharmaceutical industries, abetted by doctors, and ignored by our heroin and opioid analgesics then expanded in the 2000s to the more affluent, starting with those who had been prescribed oxycodone following injuries or surgeries. We see it in the housing crisis. The SUSAN BECKETT Publisher emeritus heavily-lobbied and swayed government officials. Addiction treatment, methadone clinics and needle-exchange programs were largely rejected, leading to increased dysfunction and the spread of AIDS and hepatitis. Addiction to the opioid offshoots of shortage of affordable housing was felt first in the 1990s by those who lived in the decaying housing projects that were neither maintained nor replaced with other housing stock. It got worse as rust belt cities faltered and reduced services to the outlying areas inhabited by their less-affluent laborers. Without nearby jobs or public transportation, those who couldn’t move to a more advantageous area fell out of the workforce. Their underfunded schools, populated by students from stressed families, failed. Builders reveled in profits from building giant houses. Today, even well-established people with substantial salaries are struggling to pay rent or enter the housing market. Similar scenarios play out in the prevalence of mental health disorders, economic deterioration, and the societal impacts of privatization. We are seeing it unfold now as robots and artificial intelligence replace workers. It started in factories, is happening now in restaurants and grocery stores, and is encroaching on law, accounting and journalism. We would be wise to pay close attention to what is happening in our economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Compassion and prudence dictate intercession at the start of crises, developing effective ways to address them and curtailing the misery of all.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS BLACK HISTORY Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement — DRUMbeat for change The Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) was an organization of African-American workers formed in May, 1968, in the Chrysler Dodge Main assembly plant in Detroit, Michigan. Labor activist Martin Glaberman estimated the Hamtramck plant was 70% Black, while the union local (UAW Local 3), plant management, lower supervision and the Hamtramck city administration were predominantly run by older white Polish-Amercans. DRUM attempted to organize Black workers to obtain concessions of racial and economic justice, not only from the Chrysler management, but also from the United Auto Workers. On July 8, 1968, DRUM led a wildcat strike against conditions in the Hamtramck plant. Over 4,000 Black and white workers observed the strike; it lasted two and a half days and prevented the production of 3,000 cars. The Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement organization spread to other Detroit plants including FRUM (Ford Revolutionary Union Movement) at the Ford River Rouge Plant, and ELRUM (Eldon Avenue Revolutionary Union Movement) at the Chrysler Eldon Avenue Plant. These organizations were brought together through the League of Revolutionary Black Workers which formed in June 1969. General Gordon Baker Jr., a Detroit MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Ken Parks (left), Donald Abdul (right) and Mike Jones met in February to begin conversations that shaped this article. revolutionary Black nationalist, was at the core of the DRUM movement. Ken Parks and I got a chance to sit down with Donald Abdul who was a part of the second wildcat strike and talk about DRUM and General Baker. The first words out of his mouth were, “General Baker would do for others before he would do for himself.” Abdul went on to talk about the reason for the second strike. After the first strike, seven workers got fired — five white workers and two Black workers. Chrysler hired back the five white workers and did not hire back the two Black workers. General Baker, being one of the two fired, organized for the second strike and the continuation of the Black workers movement. On October 8, 2022, many of us from Groundcover went from Ken Parks’ 80th birthday party to the State Theater to see “Finally Got The News,” a documentary about the League of Black Revolutionary Workers, which included DRUM. There was a lively educational discussion after the film, including commentary from Donald Abdul and other prominent participants in that movement. There is a video of that discussion which is worthy of study. This was a time when anti-imperialism was a strong force on the world stage; the revolution was spreading. The seeds planted at that time were kept alive in large part by General Baker and those who continue with the General Baker Institute. General Baker influenced many, AUGUST 11, 2023 largely because he embodied the notion of being "centered to the core." He radiated a deep contentment with who he was as an intelligent human being who was focused on bringing people together in the struggle for freedom. When another local paper faced repression from its DRUM coverage, the League took over the student paper at Wayne State University — the South End — and made it a tribune of the revolution. Astrology aids communication DALON EATON Groundcover contributor Relating to people can be difficult. Communication is a skill, and like most skills, practice makes perfect. But have you ever noticed when talking to some people, not only do you not speak the same language, but it's almost as if you are from two different planets? Well, being familiar with astrology and knowing a person's birth chart can aid with making a better connection. Whether it be friendship, romantic partnership or a business relationship, communication is certainly key. I remember talking to a potential romantic prospect; we would have really good phone conversations, talking for long hours about everything under the sun — from hopes and fears to religion and politics (those talks tended to be on the louder side). But when it came time for creating a productive life together, we just could not seem to get on the same page. When someone asks you what your sign is (based on the birth chart), they are only scratching the surface of what astrology has to offer. Let's say for example someone asks you what your sign is and you say, "I'm a Gemini.'' Knowingly or unknowingly, they are asking about your sun sign. The sun has a physical and psychological effect on everyone walking around on the earth today. Imagine the planets giving off signals like satellites. I wish I had enough space in this article to explain this in detail, but for now just imagine the planets moving and acting the way we know see ASTROLOGY page 11  Example birth chart of someone born on August 4, 1970. Outcomes are affected by time and location of birth. Photo credit: AstroDienst AUGUST 11, 2023 PUZZLES 1 13 16 19 20 22 23 24 26 30 35 38 41 43 44 45 47 51 57 60 48 49 50 52 58 61 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Brit's "Baloney!" 5. "___ Like the Wind" ("Dirty Dancing" ballad) 9. Scoundrels 13. "I had no ___!" 14. "Catch!" 15. Police club used in India 16. ___ oil (skin care substance) 17. "___ of Eden" 18. Knight's "suit" 19. Tongue-tied 22. Composer Gustav 25. Hunk 26. Greek who measured the Earth's circumference 30. English county 31. Twisted 32. Busy one in Apr. 35. Soon, to a bard 36. How some things are remembered 37. Guard's target 38. Where the French might take a dip 39. Cliffside dwelling 40. Taste, e.g. 41. Oaks Park patron 43. Pattinson or Redford 46. Servant's uniform 47. Grumpiness 51. Jungle climber 52. Aerial maneuver 53. Indian dress 57. Carpenter's tool 58. Palindromic emperor 59. It might be oral or physical 60. Winter vehicle 61. Make up ground, with "on" 62. Fill-in 53 54 55 56 59 62 DOWN 1. Sn on the periodic table 2. Words of praise 3. "Comprende?" 4. Popular Broadway musical 5. Clippers 6. Try, as a case 7. At one time, at one time 8. Org. looking for aliens 9. Guitarist Santana 10. Hindu soul 11. Hindu loincloth 12. Begets 15. Acclaimed 20. Gas used in ads 21. Shrewd 22. Cross, maybe 23. "Gladiator" setting 24. Devastation 27. Spin 28. Dawg 29. Famous 18th-century Swiss mathematician 32. Short story 33. Tough question 34. Imitation 36. Atlanta-based airline 37. Portly 39. From the heart? 40. "Saturday Night Live" segment 41. Curbed, with "in" 42. Loafer, e.g. 43. Small streams 44. Bay window 45. Plucky 48. Place to post 49. Bit 50. Money of Lesotho 54. Can 55. Battering device 56. Mischievous one 39 42 46 36 40 27 28 29 31 37 32 33 34 2 4 5 6 7 8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD from the International Network of Street Papers 3 9 14 17 21 25 15 18 10 11 12 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS BLACK HISTORY In the summer of 1955 Emmett Till traveled to the town of Money, Mississippi, in order to spend time with his relatives. One hot Friday afternoon, after picking cotton in the fields, Emmett and his cousins borrowed Rev. Wright’s vehicle and drove to Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market. The cashier was 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, wife of the store owner. The cousins bought candies. Some of the cousins dared young Emmett to say something to get Carolyn’s attention. Eyewitnesses said that he did not utter a word, but he whistled. Carolyn was upset because Black males were not allowed to whistle at a white female. Carolyn Bryant Donham died of cancer on April 25, 2023. She was 88. Her accusations contributed to the abduction and murder of 14-year old Emmett Till of Chicago, Illinois. NPR reported that Bryant-Donham died in Westlake, Louisiana, at a hospice care. The Mississippi Today Newspaper carried a headline which read, “Woman at center of Till killing has died.” Writer Jerry Mitchell, author of the April 27, 2023 article, interviewed Devery Anderson, author of the book “Emmett Till: The Murder that Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement.” Anderson said, “Donham’s death marks the end of a chapter.” He noted that some people “have been clinging to hope that she could be prosecuted…She was the last remaining person who had any involvement … Now, that can’t happen.” Anderson continued, “For many, it’s going to be a wound, because justice was never done … Some others were clinging to hope she might still talk or tell the truth… Now it’s over.” A County Judge signed an arrest warrant for Carolyn Bryant in 1955. The Sheriff did not execute the warrant. It was found recently in a County Court basement. Mississippi Today Newspaper also interviewed Rev. Wheeler Parker who was sleeping in the same house the night Emmett Till was abducted and murdered. Rev. Parker said that he and his family send their sympathies to the Donham family, and “don’t have any ill will or animosity towards her.” Parker also told Mississippi Today that Emmett Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, “forgave her son’s killers.” On July 25, 2023, an article written by Kevin Liptak appeared on CNN with the title, “Biden honors Emmett Till and his mother amid debate over how to teach kids about painful parts of U.S. history.” A White House ceremony at the Old Executive Building featured President Joe Biden. Vice President Kamala Harris, some members of Emmett Till’s family and invited guests. At the ceremony, the President announced the naming of AUGUST 11, 2023 Why we remember Emmett Till’s lynching story WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 three new national monuments—one in Chicago at the site of the church that hosted Emmett Till’s open casket funeral. The second proposed monument will be located in front of the County Courthouse where the killers of Emmett Till were tried and acquitted. The third monument will be erected near the Tallahatchie river, a site where the tortured body of Till was dumped and later recovered. The monuments are intended to be symbols which honor Emmett Till and his mom, Mamie Till-Mobley, for their sacrifice, and for galvanizing the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ‘60s. President Biden made the following remarks at the podium: “In a time when there are those who seek to ban books, bury history, we’re making it clear, crystal, crystal clear: While darkness and denialism can hide much, they erase nothing. We can’t just choose to learn what we want to know,” Biden said from the Indian Treaty Room. “We have to learn what we should know. We should know about our country. We should know everything. The good, the bad, the truth. Who we are as a nation.” Vice President Harris echoed President Biden’s perspective when she remarked, ““Our history as a nation is born of tragedy and triumph. Of struggle and success. That is who we are. And as people who love our country, as patriots, we know that we must remember and teach our full history. Even when it is painful, especially when it is painful.” Emmett Till would have been 82 years old on July 25, 2023. The President recalled that he was 12 when Till was murdered. This is not ancient history. It happened within the lifetime of millions of Americans, and perhaps tens of millions of people across the globe today. His mom, Mamie, was right. Emmett did not die in vain. His brutal murder and Mamie’s decision to have an open casket funeral shocked the world and challenged America’s 14th Amendment principles of substantive due process rights, equal protection guarantees, and all the privileges and immunities of citizenship rights. We cherish our freedom, our liberty and our hope for equal justice! PUZZLE SOLUTIONS T O S H S H E S I D E A H E R E N E E M E A S T M A H L E R Left: Thousands of mourners in Chicago gathered for Till's funeral at the Roberts Temple. Right top: Emmett Till's corpse in an open casket. Right bottom: The memorial that marks the river site where Till's body was found has been vandalized many times since its establishment. C A D S L A T H I A R M O R I N A R T I C U L A T E A D O N I S E R A T O S T H E N E S D E V O N W O U N D C P A A N O N D I M L Y H O O P L A C A E R I E S E N S E R O B E R T R O L L E R S K A T E R L I V E R Y I R R I T A B I L I T Y L I A N A L O O P S A R I L E V E L O T T O E X A M S L E D G A I N T E M P - AUGUST 11, 2023 ASTROLOGY  ASTROLOGY from last page satellites to. The planet Mercury in a birth chart rules over how a person communicates and expresses their thoughts internally, externally, verbally and through body language. When I was talking to this romantic prospect, we would mostly communicate over the phone. The Mercury sign in my birth chart is Cancer. After some teeth-pulling research, I found out my friend had her Mercury sign in Sagittarius. The planet Mercury itself is a sign of Virgo and Gemini — one being an earth element and another being an air element. If you aren’t familiar with astrological terms, this might sound like a bunch of nonsense. Astrology is ruled by four different elements: fire, water, earth and air. Each of these elements have different modalities – cardinal, fixed and mutable. Cardinal means that these signs or planetary energies are forward moving, the pioneers of their elements. The cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Capricorn and Libra. Having your mercury sign in one of these placements would make your communication style more aggressive and conclusion driven. Having this placement makes a person want to initiate conversations, and be the first to say their ideas out loud. For example, my mercury is cancer. I would initiate all of the conversations with my romantic prospect on the phone … Come to think of it, I am always initiating most of the conversations among my friends. Next are the fixed signs, those signs are Leo, Aquarius, Taurus and Scorpio.If the cardinal signs initiate and speak up first then the fixed signs would be the people who may not say much – they would be the doers, those who put the plans and ideas into actions.Those people who don't really want to talk until the project is done and they would have something to present. Having one of these placements is going to make the person want to hone on their own ideas. Last, but not least, the mutable signs are Virgo, Gemini, Sagittarius and Pisces. These types can (when they want to) adapt to how other people communicate, but the trade off is that they may have a hard time saying what they want to say for the sake of not rocking the boat. My friend's Mercury was in a fire element (Sagittarius) and with mine being water (Cancer), the words that we shared were like dreams, seeing as how Cancer exalts Sagittarius’’s meaning and upholds the rule that planetary energy represents. It mixed well, but the rest of the placements did not align for the type of relationship we were pursuing. Based on our Mercury placements, our relationship never grew past the telephone phase. Mercury is the ruler of Gemini which is an air sign. My friend has her Mercury placement in Sagittarius, a fire sign and the opposite to Gemini. Fire signs deal with the more spiritual side of life. When that is met with the cold calculating side of Mercury, these two forces together will cause friction. In conclusion, to avoid problems like these, I encourage everyone to talk to an astrologer to get their birth charts interpreted. Read up on the planetary alignments and what they represent because it can help you become a better communicator and get to know yourself and your role in society. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Peanut butter noodles JOHN BUCKLEY Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2–3 tablespoons peanut butter 2–3 tablespoons chicken or vegetable broth 1 teaspoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon honey 1 teaspoon garlic paste 1 teaspoon ginger paste 1 teaspoon chili paste (sambal or sriracha) 1 lb pasta, ideally rice or soba noodles Directions: In a bowl, mix these ingredients to make a sauce: Mess around with the proportions of those as you will. Cook a pound of pasta according to the directions on its package. Toss the sauce with the pasta. Sprinkle with chopped green onions and/or chopped peanuts. The tears of love TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 The tears of love, So beautiful & true, Falls from thee eyes of someone who loves, As blood drips from my broken heart, So lonely & red, Thee tears of love, Still fades from my head, As time passes, My heart may mend, And thee tears of love, May fade to dust, I know deep in my heart, I’ll never love like this again. AUGUST 11, 2023 Take it eazy TERESA BASHAM Thangz can get crazy, Thangz can bring ya down, Ya can hold on, Or let it go, Thangz might go wrong, Let me tell ya baby, Only you know thee sound, Time will let ya know, Just take it eazy, Thangz will come around. Support an Alternative Business Model Local - Organic - Member-Owned Your Ypsilanti source for healthy, eco-friendly food and goods INVEST BY BECOMING A MEMBER! 7 principles of Co-ops Voluntary, Democratic, Equitable, Independent, Informative, Collaborative, Community We make it affordable: Frequent Sales/Use Your Bridge card/Ask us about Double Up Food Bucks Visit us for 312 N. River St. (734) 483-1520 www.ypsifoodcoop.org unique cards and local, handmade items too $2 OFF your purchase of $15 or more One coupon per transacton Must present coupon at time of purchase

2 $ DECEMBER 15, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 26 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Fuller Bridge sweep reiterates need for shelter space. Page 4 ASK YOUR VENDOR: SHAWN SWOFFER #574 WHAT'S THE BEST CHRISTMAS SONG? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER groundcover news GIFT GUIDE It's the gift-giving time of the year! The holiday season is the perfect time to get something unique and meaningful for the people you care about while also making a difference by supporting artists and makers in the community. Or, better yet, treat yourself to one of these awesome items! PALMS to POETRY Teresa Basham, Groundcover vendor No. 570, released her second collection of poetry "Palms to Poetry" was released in midDecember. Find her selling Groundcover News on Liberty St. and inquire about purchasing this new book or her first book "Poems to Poetry" — or both for a discounted rate! GROUNDCOVER NEWS BRACELETS and EARRINGS Roberto Isla Caballero, Groundcover vendor No. 347, handmakes jewerly so that customers can show the world how much they love Groundcover News! Find him on the corner of Washington and Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor to see his collection available for purchase. 2023 GROUNDCOVER MAGAZINES Groundcover News released two magazines this year with timeless content about people in our community — Exceptional Community Member Edition and Vendor Voices. THE FOLD: a COLLECTION of POETRY “The Fold” is a work of poetry written by Groundcover writer La Shawn Courtwright. It can be ordered onl ine at blackstonebookstore.com (web shop of Blackstone Ypsilanti Bookstore and Cultural Center). KUNG FU PANDA'S ARTWORK and JEWELERY Cindy is a happy-go-lucky creative artist and Groundcover vendor who sells at the Sweetwaters Cafe on Washington St. in downtown A2. You can purchase Cindy’s art by attending a showing at the Groundcover News of f ice. Email cont act@ groundcovernews.com if interested to schedule a date and time to shop in person. DECEMBER 15, 2023 Cartoon by Izzy Hedin-Urrutia PROVIDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DETERMINED INDIVIDUALS IMPACTED BY POVERTY, PRODUCING A STREET NEWSPAPER THAT GIVES A PLATFORM TO UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES IN WASHTENAW COUNTY, PROMOTING AN ACTION TO BUILD A JUST, CARING AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern Hunter Johnstone — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS D.A. Jamie Cameron Jim Clark Erick Brown Amanda Gale Cindy Gere Billy Hill Mike Jones Joshua Lee Jane Reilly Ken Parks Juliano Sanchez Denise Shearer Leah Slusky GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Phillip Spink Joe Woods PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko Sandra Smith VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Luiza Duarte Caetano Zachary Dortzbach Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Ruben Mauricio Holden Pizzolato Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons DECEMBER 15, 2023 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What's the best Christmas song? "Silent Night" by the Temptations. — Shawn Swoffer, #574 Hallelujah Requiem. — Cindy Gere, #279 "This Christmas" by the Whispers. — Pony Bush, #305 "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 Nutcracker soundtrack, if anything. I don't really listen to Christmas music but classical stuff is okay. — James Manning, #16 I have so many its difficult to select ... "Ain't that A-Rockin?" is a simple, beautiful depiction of Mary and her just-born Son. Their innocence contrasts the cruelty of this world. — Amanda Gale, #573 "This Christmas" by Donny Hathaway. — Mike Jones, #113 "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer." — Jim Clark, #139 For those who have lost loved ones, the holidays sometimes can be sad. Family holiday occasions, too, can sometimes be difficult and sad for everyone — homeless or not, especially for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer community. A solution? "Those of us, because we're at a University, we educate people," said Dr. Brenda Riemer, a professor of sports management at Eastern Michigan University. Riemer, who gave a lunchtime presentation for the College of Health and Human Services on Nov. 7 discussing transgender women in sports, was advocating for a future where everyone is able to participate. The mission statement of Groundcover News states, in part, "to promote action to build a just, caring and inclusive society in Washtenaw County." Riemer's quote is out of context, but the solution of teaching, caring and inclusiveness is part of each day at Groundcover — not just the holidays. There is a Jewish prayer that GROUNDCOVER NEWS Getting through the holidays 2010. Clever signs are posted annually around Ann Arbor and wherever there are Sehenuk friends. For example, "Jenny Sehenuk counted to infinity. Twice," and "If you spell Jenny Sehenuk in Scrabble, you win. Forever." Why is Jenny Sehenuk, proJANE REILLY Groundcover vendor No. 611 turns grieving into a proactive process. "If the desire to continue a relationship with the departed impels you to learn something you otherwise would not have learned, do a mitzvah [good deed] you otherwise would not have done or go higher and further than ever before, then that soul lives on in you." Becky Sehenuk Waite of Ann Arbor and the Sehenuk family are an example of this prayer in action. They created jennysehenuk.com and Jenny Sehenuk Day, Oct. 10, in remembrance of Becky's twin sister, Jenny, 29, of Santa Clarita Valley, California, who died in a motorcycle accident on Oct. 10, nounced see-hen-nook, important? Let's allow Sehenuk to answer for herself from jennysehenuk. com: "We're all the same in one way or another," Sehenuk said. Sehenuk Waite knows if you spell love in Scrabble you spell Jenny Sehenuk. Love wins. Forever. A holiday gift for the Sehenuk Family and all Groundcover readers: Paul McKenna has a free online video called "I Can Make You Happy," which is hypnotism with subliminal messages that make you more cheerful. Two other free internet companies, Vortex Success and 30 Minute Mindset, have scripts so you can read the offered subliminal messages. Spirit Tribe Awakening is free, peaceful and powerful music. Peace on Earth, Good Will to All. 3 From the desk of Panda: Loneliness epidemic and how to beat it When my child Denali told me there was a loneliness epidemic, it blew my mind away. What I do know is that the truth is elusive. The COVID epidemic could not have helped and I think it's part of the issue. It was well-documented in the 1950s into the 80s that isolation is detrimental to human health, mental stability and well-being. What the pandemic did was isolate and demoralize people, and led the human mind into self-sabotage. It put people into a state where their fear is paralyzing. One of the only groups that got mega-paid was psychiatric counselors and therapists. The result was more pills and more dizzy brains. There are states of control that amount to a psychological cycle of abuse. And for some people, they could not get out of it after the pandemic. They’re still in that “catatonic” state of feeling. We have to try and shake off loneliness and fear, and seek out people who are able to help us in letting go. 3. Help at the local dog shelter. 4. Help the homeless community by volunteering 5. List all the things you want to do and join an online group of people who share one of your interests. I always wanted to go ghost hunting or take a CPR class. 6. Join an event-planning group CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 What is the opposite of loneliness? Honest, wholesome human engagement and lots and lots and lots of hugs …. Some people choose to be alone but this is not loneliness per se. I am a rather solitary person myself but it's a personal choice. I have many buddies to call and hang out with. Here are my ways to combat loneliness: 1. Join a yoga class. 2. Contact an old, good buddy and hang out in person. such as the Fourth of July parade committee or the Ann Arbor powwow planning committee. Or any of the groups or activities listed in the Crazy Wisdom magazine 7. Environmental issues are huge. Create a clean-up group in areas around Ann Arbor that need help, such as bike paths, highways and under bridges. 8. Join a meditation group and/or karate class. 9. For me, getting outside is what helps eliminate loneliness. When I was in high school we used to have huge parties and just hug all our buddies. Start a hug fest. A good old hug can kick the blues away for the day!

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS In 2019 I experienced homelessness and was living in the Delonis Center where I met my friend Tom (not his real name). Tom was a homeless schizophrenic who was sleeping under the Fuller Bridge located by the University of Michigan hospital. I slept there a few times. The tent was set up on concrete with bricks to hold down the corners. We slept on air mattresses to protect ourselves from the hard ground. They were comfortable until they sprang leaks. The train's roar as it passed under the bridge was startling and deafening. We woke in the morning to the sounds of rush hour traffic and went to the nearby St. Andrews Church/soup kitchen for breakfast. Near the bridge are other encampments. Located in the trails and woods, the remnants of many generations of homeless citizens can be found. I once walked among the refuse. In it, I found things that were once important to someone: nice clothing, tons of personal hygiene items, bikes, camping gear and more, all in usable condition and simply left behind. Some things were deteriorated due to time. It was easy to see how long these places have been used out of desperate need for shelter. Campsites like these are located all over Washtenaw County. There are popular ones that many people know about and use frequently. The Washtenaw County agency PATH (Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness) places people in some of these sites. Still, most folks find them on their own, by word of mouth, or through community action groups like Washtenaw Camp Outreach. Sometimes they are on Department of Transportation property, sometimes on university property, and sometimes on private property. This is because there are no sanctioned and accessible places to camp or sleep when you have no permanent shelter. The Delonis Center is very limited in capacity, given the size of the homeless population. There are no other shelters open year-round for single adults. Sleeping in tents is the closest thing some people have to safe, habitable shelter. Habitable means safe from cold and environmental hazards like bugs and animals. However, in a tent that is at a known location, personal safety from crime and violence cannot be guaranteed. This means tents are not adequate shelter. After an encampment has been noticed by the police or other authorities, they may take action by forcing camp-dwellers to move in what is known as a “sweep.” Sweeps take away even the minimal safety of a tent. People are often forced to abandon their property, including their tents and DECEMBER 15, 2023 Fuller Bridge sweep reiterates need for shelter space JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 bedding, leaving them no shelter. Because they have nowhere to go, the campers regroup under different bridges or return to the same one after some time has passed. Eventually, the sweep comes around again. Sweeps at Fuller Bridge have happened many times over the years. The most recent time the Fuller Bridge camp was swept was November 7, 2023. This time the sweep was initiated by the Michigan Department of Transportation at the behest of Amtrak. According to the officials who conducted the sweep, the decision-makers for Amtrak were afraid for the safety of their passengers. The MDOT officials also had concerns for the safety of the trains and crews, about the fires campers lit for warmth, but also for the campers themselves. Consider the following quote from the April 2023 revision of the “Trespass & Suicide Prevention Tool Kit” (https:// trespasstoolkit.fra.dot.gov/eLib/) which outlines an action plan for relocating homeless individuals from train tracks to a safer location. However, the approach is flavored by forcible removals, surveillance, and a tone of “homeless people are a nuisance.” “... in California’s Santa Barbara County, a 2019 investigation found that a surge in rail-related deaths was tied to individuals living in encampments near the ROW. Twelve of 20 people killed over four years had been living in encampments, and more than half of these deaths were suicides. Encampments close to the tracks can also cause undue stress for train crew members who witnessed a previous train strike.” Groundcover News editor Cynthia Price was with the residents right before the November sweep, bringing them supplies. She shared with me what the residents said to her about it. “[They] sounded nonchalant and unthreatened, which seemed counterintuitive. They said MDOT bulldozed everything.” What the resident meant by that is they used a Bobcat to doze under all their stuff at the bridge. “But they let [a couple of us] take some of our stuff because we were there after we got the notice. They didn’t bulldoze our bikes,” said Demolished tent underneath Fuller Bridge after November 7 sweep. one of the residents. As this was happening the Ann Arbor police also came on the scene. The AAPD tends to be sympathetic toward the unsheltered people in Washtenaw County. They know where the encampments are and who sleeps in them, and they prefer not to disturb them unless duty calls. In this case, they let the residents know they would have not made them leave. They helped, and told the residents, “If it was up to us we wouldn’t do it, but we have to abide by MDOT.” The residents left the camp; they waited until later that night and went back. Price said, “It's always been my impression that sweeps were a lot less drastic than you would think. A lot of times people just go back right away. Also, some sweep notifications don’t get acted on. In my view, it makes a difference in terms of where the population is and where they are relocated. Personally, this sweep meant it was slightly more dire to make sure they were warm enough. They had fires, which is one of the things MDOT was concerned about. Washtenaw Camp Outreach brought them propane and heaters but there were still fires before and after. Cold is a lot more serious when your only option for shelter is in a tent outside.” People who are homeless seek shelter in tents, cars, abandoned buildings, parks and under bridges and awnings. These places will continuously be sought unless we make a place of respite for unsheltered people. If the citizens of Washtenaw County want to see homelessness reduced and eliminated, then we need to do more than observe the problems. We need solutions and plans to go with them. As reported in Groundcover News frequently this fall, Shelter Now is a community action group that has some ideas. Sparked by the sweep at 16 S. Washington this past summer, Shelter Now was born from a body of activists and neighbors who responded by blockading the sweep. Shelter Now’s goal is to have these demands met by the county or in other ways: 1) Create and fund a dignified 24/7 shelter in Ypsilanti before spring 2024; 2) Open a temporary shelter immediately. Fund and do not interfere with unofficial and temporary shelter spaces. End street sweeps and camp sweeps; 3) Ensure that the houseless and housing-insecure communities have decision-making and veto power in all Ypsilanti shelter spaces and their creation. Homelessness is not going away anytime soon. Neither is the winter weather, nor are the deaths by cold exposure. So neither are these demands. They will be made again and again until the county listens and responds affirmatively. No justice, no peace. www.ypsishelternow.com DECEMBER 15, 2023 HOMELESSNESS There are potential issues with Ann Arbor's public bathroom pilot Public bathrooms are crucial for everyone, but for those without a stable place to live, they can be a source of worry and stress. Imagine not having a bathroom to use whenever you need it — this is the reality for many homeless individuals. One big concern is just finding a bathroom that's open and nearby. Homeless people often struggle to locate clean and safe bathrooms and sometimes have to plan their day around finding a place to use the restroom. Cleanliness is a huge issue, too. all public bathrooms Not are well-maintained, and this can make homeless individuals worried about getting sick or catching infections. Sometimes, there's no soap, toilet paper or even running water, which makes staying clean difficult. Privacy is also important. Imagine using a bathroom with no proper locks or partitions. For homeless folks, this lack of privacy can make them feel exposed or uncomfortable. Feeling safe in a public bathroom is another worry. Sometimes these places can be dangerous because of JULIANO SANCHEZ Groundcover vendor No. 174 bathrooms will help alleviate some of the pressure placed on local businesses to provide publicly accessible restrooms to the homeless population. However, one concerning detail is that the restrooms are stated to be accessible by scanning a QR code or by using a mobile app — something that some people who are unhoused or sight- or mobility-challenged may not possess, or feel comfortable using. This will potentially limit the claim by the other people hanging around. There's a fear of being harassed or even attacked which adds stress to an already tough situation. So it's not just about convenience for homeless individuals. It's about finding a safe, clean and private place to take care of basic needs. Making sure there are better options for them could really make a difference in their lives. On November 6, 2023, Ann Arbor approved a public bathroom initiative that could potentially solve these issues. ( Visit a2gov.org/news/ pages/article.aspx?i=1010). The ability to access the Throne public City of Ann Arbor that these bathrooms can provide a “safe and dignified” option for all, regardless of housing status. It would be strange to limit one of the key demographics for this program in such a way, considering the program is likely driven by a desire to better serve that exact group of people. There will be another communication about the pilot program in May where the final accessibility details will be explained. Hopefully, we will get some clarity then on how everyone will or will not be able to take advantage of these new bathrooms in June. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 Join the 12.21 Walk for the Homeless ERICK BROWN Groundcover vendor No. 617 On December 21st, the first day of winter and the longest night of the year, people across the country and around the world will participate in Homeless Remembrance Day, a time to honor and support the people who are experiencing homelessness. In Ann Arbor, a local group of activists and volunteers will organize a walk for the homeless, starting and ending at the Bethlehem United Church of Christ, the home of the Groundcover News. The walk will begin at sundown, 5 p.m., and will last for about an hour, covering the shopping areas of downtown Main Street. The walk is part of a 20+ year tradition that the Rock Club Foundation and I have been organizing every year. I am a survivor of a traumatic brain injury and a passionate advocate for people who are different or marginalized. I'm also known for traveling across the country with my pet goat, Deer, and organizing events such as Bicycle Day and Earth Day. The walk aims to raise awareness and visibility for the rights and dignity of the homeless and to end discrimination against the poor. The organizers ask people to bring candles and a cup to give the candle a home, symbolizing the need for protection and warmth for everyone. They also ask people to bring signs or banners to speak up about the cause. Discrimination against the poor is a serious human rights issue that affects millions of people around the world. It manifests in various forms, such as denying access to education, health care, housing, social protection and justice. It also fuels stigma, prejudice and violence against people living in poverty. The organizers believe that poverty is not inevitable, but rather the result of unfair and unequal policies and practices that favor the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the poor and marginalized. They call for a just and inclusive economy that puts people and the planet at the center, and that respects the dignity and agency of everyone. The organizers invite everyone who wants to participate in this event, even if they are not able to join the walk in Ann Arbor. They encourage people to start or join a walk for the homeless in their cities, or to make posts on social media using the hashtag #1221 or #HomelessRemembranceDay. They also welcome donations and support for the Rock Club Foundation and Groundcover News, two organizations that work to empower and uplift the homeless community. The Walk for the Homeless is a noble and compassionate initiative that deserves more attention and support. It is a way to remember the people who have died while living on the streets or in shelters and to show solidarity and empathy for the people who are still struggling. It is also a way to celebrate the resilience and strength of the human spirit, and to hope for a better future for everyone. The organizers also want to share the meaning of 12/21, which is not only the date of the event but also a numerical pattern that can have different meanings depending on the context. For example, 12/21 is an hour mirror, a mathematical expression, and a spiritual sign. Some people believe that seeing 12/21 repeatedly is a message from the universe or the angels, indicating harmony, optimism, idealism and family. These are the values that the Walk for the Homeless strives to promote and uphold. If you are interested in joining or supporting the 1221 Walk for the Homeless, please contact the Rock Club Foundation on social media or visit their website.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS Graci, Maralita! wandering off to some relatives in another town, who oddly accepted her. Maralita was young and fair; yet she wondered, could she ever build a LIFE for herself, after this? With her own "City Shelter," Kathy Kallowicz AMANDA GALE Groundcover vendor No. 573 Warning: This article contains explicitly Christian content. If you prefer not to read such articles, don’t! The holiday season can be a time both of great charity and benevolence, though also great scorn and injustice. Or perhaps it is just that the observable divide is just that much greater because “The Holidays” are supposed to be an occasion for our consciences to be even more understanding and giving than we’re already supposed to be doing 365 days/year. The starkest contrast is when Christians are celebrating holidays with the themes of GOD’s great mercy, love and grace to humanity, exemplified by a GOD WHO HIMSELF became the evil within us (2 Corinthians 5:21), to suffer on our behalf the punishment we inherited and merited (Romans 5:12, Romans 3:23-24). The proclamation and model for responsibility and privilege to charity, peace, mercy and benevolence for each other is exemplified by this GOD WHO would make HIMSELF HOMELESS at our rejection of HIM, and then nonetheless allow HIMSELF to SUFFER an also CRUEL and PAINFUL physical torture and death — all to redeem us. However, how do “churchy” people live this out day to day — for the “least of these” (Matt 25.40) among us — the homeless, the unborn, children with cancer, people with diseases equivalent to the leprosy of JESUS’ time, for the marginalized, the behavior challenged, the hurting, the afraid and the just plain “worn out?” Maralita found herself a pregnant teenager one year during the holidays. What had she done? The “churchy” people around her gacked and glared; she knew the corner conversations she’d pass by were about her when the people quickly turned away. The ”churchy” people did NOTHING to find out her needs or come to her aid. Her situation got worse; her “boyfriend” dumped her — the child surely wasn’t his! Maralita then became homeless, traveling within her community, finally “church” community scorning her, and very little previous employment experience, how would she ever get a reference for a job? She was heartbroken for her guy and where was GOD in all this? She knew in her heart from HIM and from the traditional teachings of her community, that she MUST have this child. And soon the child inside her would become all she had. The church people could do something to help if they wanted to. Why didn't they? With no place to go, no job, no friends, no family and no means — Maralita found herself one night giving birth in a dirty, old shed that thankfully someone or some family had long ago abandoned — just like she’d been abandoned. It hurt. Was everyone around her so perfect? Why is there NO UNDERSTANDING, COMPASSION or AID, for a wayfaring young woman branded a transgressor because of The Gift she carried within her? Why is Maralita left to uncertainty for her and her child in the cold, “holiday” weather? Aren’t the churches the ones who are talking about warmth, love, joy, giving and forgiving? Where is it? Why don’t they ask, “What can we do that would be helpful?” Why is everywhere shut to those who most need it on “The Holidays” — the homeless and the alone? Where do they go for “The Holidays?” Maralita was quite fortunate for being from the strict culture that she came from. Her boyfriend did return to her, to take care of her and her child. Though she and her family never completely regained the respect of that rigid, rulesbased community, they were allowed to work and live in a fair amount of peace to themselves for years to come. What bothered Maralita and her family though, was realizing that there are so many homeless outcasts who experience shunning, rejection, no family and no means as she and her child had. Her child had to do something about that and grew up to be — among other things — a human rights advocate. And yet there's still need in this world. At this point we must ask: What if GOD did this — for us? What if GOD decided to suffer the scorn and ridicule and rejection that Maralita and her son did? What if GOD suffers with us, for us, and really CARES about us? Will that make a difference in how we approach LIFE and what we invest in it for and how we view others? Do we not see CHRIST and Mary in Maralita and her son? (Surely “Maralita'' is the name for Mary in some language.) If we realize that GOD loves us this much, how can we not actively SEEK how we can help others in the myriad of needs in our lost, fallen world. Are we “too good”? Do we care? Do we see CHRIST and Mary’s face, in the face of countless others around us — those in need whom we can help or those blessing our needs and talents? And when we realize ourselves as the stranded people whom GOD reached out to spare — dare we not have compassion on our fellow humans, and even animals? What if we each decided to be selfless as Mary and Joseph were, greet and accept the unplanned child, sacrifice for each other in love, not forsaking each other and like the Child who grew up to offer HIMSELF for our redemption — made sure to LIVE on mission with HIM, in gratitude to HIM and identifying care with our fellow humans? How could we do this? Receive HIM. Believe HIM. Always be on mission with HIM. Maybe exactly the real problem is that we regard ourselves as if we are not ourselves in need and outcasts (Revelation 3:17) before a HOLY GOD and in our relationships with others. We’re all too self-sufficient to be a part of JESUS’ group and doings. If we partook, it might just expose our self-reliance and towers of achievement. However, JESUS identifies it is also exactly HIM to whom we are empowering, refusing relating or rejecting. And dare we complain about all that is “wrong with” our world, while we do nothing that is actually bettering it? Is mercy and grace spreading everywhere we go? If not, what is? As long as we live on this Earth — it's NEVER TOO LATE to receive the grace we need, so that we can then give it to others (John 6:37). Really, we need fresh grace immersions daily for ourselves, so that our refreshing can then also bless others; we are and can only be as merciful to others to the extent we realize we are being shown mercy by a PERFECT GOD, WHO LOVES us, PERFECTLY. DECEMBER 15, 2023 Will more churches open up for “The Homeless” this winter? (Only a few in the WHOLE County have thus far; is this acceptable to JESUS?) Is there still no room for HIM at “The Inn” of our hearts and our churches and our country? Why aren’t more Christians actively involved for PRO-LIFE for EVERY LIFE in need of protection and mercy — from the womb to the tomb? Why are Christians not actively reaching out and being the connection — to a job (such as the gracious job wage giver in Matthew 10:1-15), a place of shelter, affordable housing, a warm cup of coffee with a friend, a caring, prayerful supportive network — to bring about victory at long last, from external oppositions or tough inner struggles. Meanwhile, real people are SUFFERING and DYING on the street corners in the most financially wealthy and most opportunity-blessed countries on this earth, while those with means and spiritual light content themselves by saying — “there's an agency for that!” One time when a woman was being scorned for anointing the adult JESUS with expensive perfume, (so seeking to preserve HIS body, after HIS crucifixion — possibly understanding HE would rise after HIS death and so to seek to preserve HIS body, for that) HE asked a very powerful question to her critics, “Do you see this woman”? As we observe the Holy Family and their sacrificial giving, their identification with human poverty, their investment for the greatest good, and especially Mary’s special surrender to a really difficult life of social rejection, scorn, being misunderstood, outcast and not believed — for her and her son and family — shall we not feel a tug within us? Graci, Maralita! For your great, humble acceptance to have your unplanned Child, who gave HIMSELF for us, and seeks to restore us and our world. And if Maralita with GOD’s help in her day could succeed for LIFE-GIVING in the midst of such great opposition and obstacles; will not we? DECEMBER 15, 2023 COMMUNITY It's the Christmas season, and when you think of Christmas time you think of movies like “A Miracle on 34th Street,” “Charlie Brown's Christmas,” “The Grinch,” “It's a Wonderful Life” or “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” — all movies where the forces of good nature win out, with demonstrations of kind-heartedness towards someone and spreading happiness in the atmosphere. When I think of Christmas, I think of the Christmas parties at the Mercy House on W. Huron St. down the street from the Delonis Center. They roll out the red carpet to spread Christmas cheer and genuine love to the homeless community. Mercy House is a project of M.I.S.S.I.O.N., which is a non-profit started by Caleb Poirier and others like Brian Durrance, who are still involved. Mercy House itself is a hospitality house started by owner Peggy Lynch and Sheri Wander. For people who don't know the background of Mercy House and/or M.I.S.S.I.O.N., they evolved from a project called Camp Take Notice which was a tent community governed by the homeless community who lived there. When Camp Take Notice was eliminated by the authorities, M.I.S.S.I.O.N. was formed to continue related work. Peggy bought the house on W. Huron St. about 10 years ago. They serve meals there on Monday and Wednesday evenings and have a wellknown Saturday breakfast. That breakfast all started from the spirit of Christmas. One of Mercy House’s other projects is to host a large Christmas party for the homeless and recently housed. Anyone really is welcome, and I'm only saying this based on my personal experience. Before founding Mercy House, Peggy Lynch visited Camp Take Notice (the tent community), invited by a friend. She simply fell in love with the community, the environment and just being among humans. After being engaged with the community for one year, she decided to have a Christmas party at her personal residence. For her, it was nothing out of the normal to host an event like this. It was a big Christmas party; everyone from the tent community was invited. She asked different friends of hers in different faith groups to help out and they were very excited to. At one of the Christmas parties before they had the house of hospitality, Peggy noticed a person named Steve going on the back deck crying. As a good party hostess, she wanted to know what was going on with Steve. He said he was completely GROUNDCOVER NEWS Mercy House is the place to be on Christmas Day JOE WOODS Groundcover vendor No. 103 overwhelmed at the thought that he and other people from the camp community would be welcomed to someone's house for a Christmas party. That response had a very big impact on her, being a mom and a grandma. When I interviewed Peggy, she said being a part of a community and making an impact in it was very powerful for her. She and her friend Sonya started having Sunday dinner at Camp Take Notice every single week, inviting people from the faith communities to join them. This still happens to this day with the every-other-week meals at M.I.S.S.I.O.N's Purple House or Wheeler Park, which alternate with Washtenaw Camp Outreach at Wheeler and in other locations during the winter. Living in a world where one thing leads to the next, Peggy said that when you're a part of a community like this, you see where there is a gap. It could be someone who passed away and needs a proper burial, birthday celebration, wedding, someone who has a child and needs some clothes, someone pregnant and about to deliver and needs a baby shower to get necessary supplies, or just providing a space to observe, celebrate and become a tighter community together by bringing people together. So with her genuine love for people, Peggy got more involved in helping what society considers the less fortunate or cast out, the homeless. Peggy is a lawyer by occupation and because her heart was with the homeless community, she involved the wider community, including the corporation she works for. Peggy understood what being poor felt like, growing up very poor herself, going through college and getting married. Just like a lot of people in that situation, she tried hard to get out of it and became a workaholic. Although she was very successful in law and started her own law firm, she spent decades clawing her way out of poverty. Then Peggy had an ‘aha’ moment where she felt she needed more in her life: she needed human relationships, she needed meaning. She started volunteering at numerous nonprofits. 7 Gracie Sheldon, David Williams, Peggy Lynch, Michael Clayvon, Walter Harris and Alonzo Young on the porch of Mercy House on W. Huron Street. Photo credit: Joe Woods. During this time, she met Gracie, a woman who was at the Delonis Center and shared Peggy’s passion. Gracie wanted to be a blessing to other people and help them. Experiencing abuse at the Delonis Center, she still found it in her heart to help people in need, even the people who hurt her. Housed now, Gracie is a large part of Mercy House despite whatever struggles she goes through in life — internal or external. The wider community within the homeless community is what helps people realize that no matter your background, we’re human and our job is to spread love and enjoy doing it. Talking to Cynthia Price, The editor of Groundcover News who has been involved with M.I.S.S.I.O.N. for a few years, I learned that Price has purchased small Christmas presents for the party for the last two years out of pocket — mostly because she always forgets to be reimbursed! It makes her feel happy to have direct contact with people and actually get in tune with people's needs so they can tell her what they really need rather than what someone else may think they need. I chose this article, this organization and these people to interview in order to let Groundcover readers know that although Christmas is only celebrated once a year, M.I.S.S.I.O.N consistently helps less fortunate people celebrate other holidays and just being in a community because of the love they have for people. At Christmastime, with the help of Peggy and those who help her turn it up 100 notches — there is delicious food, gifts large and small, music and fun — and they do it unselfishly without seeking approval from their peers or boasting for their own self-satisfaction. They generally do it in silence, but more and more people know via wordof-mouth about the party, which is attended by 400 people or so. As Peggy says, this is what we as a civilization should do more of — be a blessing to your fellow brother or sister, show love from the heart and don’t look at a person’s financial or social status as much as at their being a human who deserves happiness.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS SPORTS A basketball Christmas JOSHUA LEE Groundcover contributor As the NBA prepares to unwrap its 76th edition of Christmas Day games in the 2023-24 season, the hardwood spectacle transcends mere competition; it's a cherished tradition that showcases the best of basketball under the holiday lights. From humble beginnings in 1947, these Christmas Day matchups have evolved into a captivating saga, featuring iconic performances, intense rivalries and unforgettable moments. Christmas games were more regional affairs in the early years, reflecting the league's grassroots connection with communities. The Chicago Stags faced off against the Providence Steamrollers in 1947. Reflecting on those times, former NBA Commissioner David Stern reminisces, "It was a way for the league to connect with fans, bringing the joy of basketball into homes during the holiday festivities." The NBA's Christmas Day contests have become a showcase for greatness, featuring legendary players leaving an indelible mark on the holiday hardwood. Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain's historic 1961 performance stands just as tall as the athletic giant himself, scoring 59 points and grabbing 36 rebounds in a double-overtime battle against the New York Knicks. Wilt's dominance remains a Christmas record to this day, a testament to his unparalleled skills on the court. The 1984 matchup between the New York Knicks and the New Jersey Nets etched Bernard King into Christmas Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. Day lore. King's sensational 60-point performance, the highest ever on this festive occasion, illuminated the court even in a losing effort. His scoring spree joined the ranks of Chamberlain and Rick Barry, creating a trinity of 50-point Christmas Day legends. Rivalries have added a layer of intensity to the holiday matchups. The 1995 Christmas Day game marked a Finals rematch between the Orlando Magic and the Houston Rockets. Penny Hardaway's clutch shot secured a narrow 92-90 victory for the Magic, showcasing the competitive spirit between star centers Shaquille O’Neal and Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon. The 2004 Christmas clash between the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers brought the long-awaited faceoff between ex-superstar duo Shaquille O'Neal and the late Kobe Bryant. The game lived up to expectations, with the Heat securing a ruthless 104-102 victory in a forced overtime situation, extending their scorching hot win streak to 11 games. O'Neal and Bryant's duel added a dramatic chapter to the ongoing narrative of Christmas Day greatness. The 2016 matchup between the Lebron “King” James and the Kyrie “Uncle Drew” Irving-led Cleveland Cavaliers and the five all-star Kevin Durant Death lineup Golden State Warriors was more than a game; it was a Christmas Day thriller between two super team behemoths. Down 14 points in the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers rallied to a 109-108 victory, capped by Kyrie Irving's baseline drive into a fully contested spin move fadeaway for the game. Not to mention Uncle Drew’s assassin-like game-winner was fully contested by elite shooting guard Klay Thompson who is highly decorated with multiple first-team all-defense selections. The heated rivalry between these two legendary teams turned Christmas Day into an unforgettable stage for epic comebacks and high-leverage moments. In 2017, the Warriors and the Cavaliers continued their holiday rendezvous in a thrilling contest. The game featured a late-game surge by the Cavs, tying the score with an 11-2 run. However, Klay Thompson's clutch three-pointer with 1:33 left shifted the spotlight back to the Warriors, sealing their victory in another Christmas Day spectacle. Adding a touch of whimsy to the holiday spectacle, the NBA's iconic Christmas commercials have become an integral part of the tradition. The most famous commercial, featuring hoops adorned with bells with players synchronizing their shots to the tune of "Jingle Bells," has become a nostalgic symbol of the season. The melding of sport and holiday cheer in these Mariah Carey As most businesses and entertainment sources take Christmas off, the NBA's Christmas Day games have been solidified as a cornerstone of holiday sports entertainment. The rivalry-procured matchups continue to blend athletic prowess with the festive spirit, creating a unique and cherished tradition that resonates with basketball fans worldwide. As the 2023-24 season approaches, anticipation builds for the next chapter in the saga of NBA Christmas Day basketball, where the echoes of the past merge with the promise of new moments that will be etched into the annals of the sport's history. DECEMBER 15, 2023 commercials has resonated with fans, becoming a cherished component of the NBA's Christmas Day festivities. While the games on Christmas Day provide exhilarating moments on the court, they also serve as a canvas for off-court festivities. Since 2009, Christmas Day broadcasts have featured a musical interlude, with Mariah Carey's iconic renditions of holiday classics becoming synonymous with NBA Christmas celebrations. Michigan vs. Everybody In the summer of 2023, I predicted the Michigan Wolverines, my favorite football team, would win the national college football championship. I was not the only person who made this prediction. Many other Michigan football fans, hopeful like myself, wished to see our Wolverines take it to another level. We must, in order to win the college football playoff game against our nemesis, the SEC Champion Alabama Crimson Tide. Alabama is the next level. We beat Ohio State three years in a row, but we have yet to defeat the Crimson Tide in recent history. There is a saying: “To be the best you must first beat the best.” The last time the two teams met was in the 2020 Citrus Bowl when Alabama beat the Wolverines 35-16. MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 The 13-0, number one Michigan Wolverines will face off with the 12-1, number four Alabama Crimson Tide in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1. The Wolverines are a slim favorite to win the Rose Bowl. Head coach Jim Harbaugh, who recently served a three-game suspension at the end of the regular season for allegedly using video to steal other teams’ play signals, will lead the Wolverines into this epic battle: the College Football Playoffs. A four-team playoff system leaves the 13-0 number two Washington Huskies to meet up against the 12-1 number three Texas Longhorns in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1. The winners of those two games will face off against one another in Houston for the national title on January 8. Go Blue!!! Fun Facts: Michigan is ranked No.1 in the Associated Press college football poll for the first time since it won its last national championship in 1997. This Rose Bowl game will be the sixth meeting between Michigan and Alabama. Alabama leads the all-time series against Michigan, 3-2. Michigan and Alabama are the two winningest football programs in the nation. DECEMBER 15, 2023 'TIS THE SEASON I'm dreaming of a colorful Christmas the colorful clothes people wear. The kids' toys are colorful and the adult toys are colorful, too. I love colorful Christmas decorations and decorating the inside and outside of buildings with pretty colors. Christmas music is beautiful, too. DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 I love everything about the winter holidays except for winter, ice and snow. I love everything about the winter holidays except for the homeless and hungry people suffering. I love the winter holidays because it's a celebration of Jesus. I love to see adults and kids laughing and happy. It’s a time when people are nice and give each other presents. It’s also a time when good food is shared between friends and family. It’s a time when people who usually don’t get to see each other much spend time together. It’s a time for adults and children to get the presents they always wanted. It's a time when kids get toys for Christmas; adults like toys, too. My favorite colors are green, purple and yellow, and I think those are Christmas colors. I love It sounds so good, fun and relaxing. My favorite Christmas songs are “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas,” “Santa Baby” and both versions of “Joy to the World.” This is a sad but funny song — he says he’s getting nuttin' for Christmas because he’s been nothing but bad — I don’t know what the name is. I like the song “Silver Bells,” too. Another thing I like about the winter holidays is that churches have special things. Full Circle, Fresh Start and Groundcover do nice and special things for people, too. Peace House, Mercy House, Delonis and all the places people gather do special things for Christmas and winter holidays. The Christmas holidays are a time to celebrate God and Jesus, whether you get what you want or not. I think the winter Christmas holidays are all about love and Jesus' birthday. I think it is a joyful, loving time no matter what present you get. PHILLIP SPINK Groundcover contributor It is absurd callousness, A bleak ostracization, That there is not reliably at least a bed in a dormitory Closely available for every homeless person in our nation. We say we are kind, with some perhaps thinking that by denying people beds And at times leaving them in cold torment and peril We are only doing what we must To encourage all to look for work. But I think we are more deep-set on being punishers Than conscious thought admits, Of those seen as shiftless, Or daring to be different dancers. People can seldom be pained into working: Certainly not when they are touched by insanity, And still more not when they have chosen To be drifters in the wind, Whose fealty to dust, and sky, and wandering, Likely irks many souls more dully settled in place. We choose to believe that the homeless are spirits in dissolution, Yet it is likely to some extent jealousy— Discontent within our cages— That turns us meanly judgemental. Theorizing away compassion Our boards and committees building newfangled shelters, Often with a quite small number of beds for hundreds in need. Even those caring most can be drawn in, Turning their heads towards a temperate face of the same dark ignorance Which keeps people passing cups, and hats, and cardboard signs of Veterans, Without the drop of a dollar or dime, Or even a moment of time for kind pleasantries. Evolution of my Christmas Christian variety (gifts, goodwill, birth of Christ and the family Church Mass.) As an adult, my celebration JAMIE CAMERON Groundcover vendor No. 612 depended on how much money I had, buying gift cards as presents and getting together with family most of the time. As I'm growing older, and my disAs a child I was spoiled; Christmas was all about the Sears holiday catalog and a page-long wishlist. In my teens, it was about a few desired things, but more about family and the holiday dinner, taking part in food prepping and/or later doing dishes. Christmas has two varieties: the pagan, heathen variety (tree trimming, gifts and feasting), and the abilities are likewise growing and I have no income, it's more about love, family and what I can create — helping to trim the tree, assisting in wrapping presents, creating my gifts, dining and spending time with family. A few resolutions can't hurt, either. As I'm doing daily reading of the entire Bible, I'm keeping Christ in mind as my top priority. Merry Christmas and happy holidays! You matter, and thanks to all of our supporters! It sometimes seems as though through some strange reversal of reason, We feel we will be damned If we do not struggle to ignore and to keep Those not within some condoned and stamped parameter In misery. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Cold winds in America 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY What are the holidays? D.A. Groundcover contributor This is not intended to be offensive And I am not your critic Nor is this an attack on your beliefs I'm just trying to understand Why not visualize this perspective with me? On TV you see ads with people gathered around as a family, around what is called a holiday I never saw an ad that revealed what this "holiday" is like for those existing in "severe poverty" I do not mean to ruin the mood for those who celebrate "holidays” I only intend to state A "holiday" to some do not bear the same meaning to me as they do for you I'd be very much more impressed to see us celebrate life every day together Simply be one great big family in harmony This is what I await to see. DECEMBER 15, 2023 Life is good LEAH SLUSKY Groundcover vendor No. 619 When you dream Dream with ease. Place your hopes With all of your dreams. Place them deep Inside your heart And live your life A work of art. This poem is dedicated to my niece, Alexis, and nephew, Ethan. It is inspired by my first experience with Groundcover Newspaper at the Argus Farm Stop open-mic. - DECEMBER 15, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. The Houseplant (a profile) The Angel BILLY HILLUIOS A Picture Image of Self Recollection The Face from Billy Hilluios

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOLIDAY RECIPES Date pudding KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 This is a favorite of the Parks, enjoyed at all major family holidays and birthday celebrations! Pudding: 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup flour 1 tbsp butter ½ cup milk 1 tsp baking soda 1 ½ cups pitted dates ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans Syrup: 1 cup brown sugar 1 ½ cup boiling water 1 Tbsp butter 1 Tbsp vanilla Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together all pudding ingredients except nutmeats and put into a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle nuts over the top. Mix syrup ingredients together. Pour the syrup over the batter and bake for 30 min. Serve with whipped cream. Raisins may be used instead of dates. Potato candy ERICK BROWN Groundcover vendor No. 617 Sprinkle some powdered sugar on a Potato candy is a simple and delicious treat that my mom used to make when I was growing up. Ingredients: 1 small potato, peeled and cooked 4-5 cups of powdered sugar 1/4 cup of creamy peanut butter A pinch of salt A dash of vanilla extract (optional) Directions: Mash the potato in a large bowl until smooth and lump-free. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and PUZZLE SOLUTIONS mix well. The mixture will be sticky at this point. Add more powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until the mixture is thick and stiff, like cookie dough. large sheet of wax paper and transfer the dough onto it. Roll out the dough into a thin rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick. Spread the peanut butter evenly over leaving a small border the dough, around the edges. Starting from one of the long sides, roll up the dough tightly, using the wax paper to help you. Wrap the log in wax paper and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until firm. Cut into thin slices and enjoy! This recipe makes about three dozen pieces of potato candy. You can store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. I hope you like this recipe and have a sweet day! DECEMBER 15, 2023

2 $ DECEMBER 1, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 25 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Groundcover's third open mic showcases vendor talent, entrepreneurship. Page 6 MEET YOUR VENDOR: SHELLEY DENEVE PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Ignoring car camping as homelessness can be deadly. page 5 Erick Brown, Groundcover vendor No. 617, has been sleeping in his car since his RV broke down. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER from the DIRECTOR'S DESK Groundcover vendors were accepting cashless payments on their own independent accounts. Since the launch of the Groundcover LINDSAY CALKA Managing director In response to the pandemic — and the digitizing of life as we know it — people stopped carrying cash. To adapt to this change, in 2021, Groundcover News launched an organization-run Venmo account to extend the opportunity of cashless payment to all Groundcover vendors. There are many barriers to using these applications — such as having a smartphone, bank account and even government ID — but there are even more benefits for those who participate. Not many post-pandemic customers know that long before 2021, Venmo, I have gotten occasional reports from vendors that customers are resistant to paying for their Groundcover newspaper on personal Venmo, CashApp, Square or PayPal accounts. Every now and then I get questions from customers about whether it's okay to “bypass” the Groundcover Venmo and pay the vendor directly. I wanted to say it in print so there’s no question that — YES — it is not only okay to pay vendors on personal cashless accounts, it is encouraged. Here at Groundcover News, we celebrate the independence and entrepreneurial spirit of vendors who invest in the tools that make purchasing Groundcover News more accessible and safe. We recognize the extra effort it takes to manage digital income and appreciate vendors who take that burden on. All that being said, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note … cash is still king. DECEMBER 1, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern Hunter Johnstone — intern regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Teresa Basham Jamie Cameron Jim Clark Cindy Gere Elizabeth "Lit" Kurtz Peter Linebaugh Margaret Needham Glen Page Ken Parks Earl Pullen Jane Reilly Scoop Stevens Darek Zazur GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Harleen Kaur Robert Klingler Ruben Mauricio Margaret Needham Emily Paras Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons DECEMBER 1, 2023 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 From the desk of Panda: Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and how I deal with it Shelley DeNeve,vendor No. 22 In one sentence, who are you? Shelley Koch Mann DeNeve. Free spirit! Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? Churches: Trinity Lutheran, Zion Lutheran, St. Aiden’s Northside Presbyterian, Church of the Good Shepherd. When did you start selling Groundcover? September 2010. I’m vendor No. 22! What words do you live by? Live, love and laugh. Rollerskate through life. What’s the worst/best thing about selling Groundcover News? Worst: not knowing how much you’ll make. Best: getting someone to buy Groundcover. What is something about you someone on the street wouldn't know? That I’m a “townie.” What would be the first thing you’d do if you won the lottery? Buy a new car. Then drive to places to pay off debts in cash. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Spaghetti. What was your first job? A&W car hop. What's a small thing that makes your day better? Things going as planned. What is your pet peeve? People who lie. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Go to Mall of America or Shipshewana and have enough money to spend. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? More affordable housing — housing for people who are hard to house. Glen Page is a DIY guy GLEN PAGE Groundcover vendor No. 407 I don’t know about anyone else, but I have totally turned into a complete do-it-yourself guy on every level, at every turn and twist. I have always had fun with arts and crafts. My clothes, my food and my vehicle will reflect the same trademarks, as will everything I own, pretty much. Sometimes it’s about comfort and function when it comes to how I dress myself or redesign something. So if I ever make it to celebrity status and walk the red carpet, when they ask, ”Who are you wearing?” I’d be forced to say, “Glen.” You dig? Individuality and self-expression, is really it's all about me. I might look a little younger than my age, I don’t know. I was born in ‘66, and I grew up a TV baby so I’ve got a lot of different kinds of collages in my head to reflect on or to pull from. The thing is, it continues to grow with each thing I see that sparks my interest and strikes me the right way. I’ve got to feel it or otherwise it ain’t happening. At the end of the day, the journey always makes things a little more interesting for me to vibe to. A lot of what you will see me doing is strictly for convenience, comfort and function. These days I’ve been focused on hands-free ways of traveling. That seems to be working out pretty well but I think that maybe I have blurred the fashion lines a little. It's difficult to explain but you can best believe that I'm looking out for new toys to play with. I have prototypes I haven’t even started yet. The response I get from people on the streets is my reward for the most part, that and knowing that I can do it again. It’s another way for me to express myself — all good, clean fun! Be warned, the minute I see folks biting my style, I’m going to infest the area with a lot more to chew on. I’ve always had a small bunch of people who notice what I do and like it enough to try it for themselves — little trend-setting ideas more or less, the right place at the right time. So there it is: when you see Glen Page, vendor No. 407, if you’ve got an idea you think might be worth testing out, run it by me and I will see how I can work some magic. It all starts with an idea, a thought — write it down or just come kick with me we can give it a go. All you have to do is paint the picture with me. When you’re trying to rock a concert, crowd participation is everything, you dig? I do! So all suggestions are welcome! But try to have something explainable or understandable. Genius is usually very simple, very basic, in other words, easy to explain. This one disorder affects millions in the North. I used to get into a deep depression because of the lack of sunlight. Sun lamps are very intense beams of artificial full-spectrum light that positively affect the mood of a person. But such lamps can cost a lot of money. My alternative is a five-finger death punch to SAD using vitamins: • The first is magnesium which helps with muscles and tissues by opening up blood vessels. • The next is vitamin D3 which I call liquid sunlight. • The third is B complex: this one helps to uplift emotions in a positive light. • The fourth is vitamin C: an antioxidant known helping for emotional balance. • The last one is vitamin E: I take only 200 milligrams per day. This keeps me strong in the darkest part of the winter. Emotional health is extremely important to me, not just because of the fact I suffer from SAD but because of my disability of fetal alcohol syndrome (FASD) — which was totally CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 killing off tribal nations (and all land will go back to Big Brother). Psychiatry has also contributed imposed upon me as a result of governmental policies from the 1920s. Before that time, in the Native culture, women did not drink; it was utterly shamed and called taboo. You never engaged in those things. Native people lack two enzymes (ADH and ALDH) that allow us to process alcohol. Government policies allowed for people from outside to bring in gas stations or other businesses, and they allowed them to sell alcohol. My grandmother didn’t drink; but by my mother’s generation, she did. Once that barrier was broken, all bets were lost in every Native nation. The policies are in fact in a negative way to Native people’s self-esteem. Changes in the way the field labels people with mental illness have gone from very clear to now diluted. This keeps people confused — but confusion is good for a multi-billion dollar industry: the more drugs the more money. My own experience was having a mental health worker try and give me lithium for FASD. I took the scrip and then tossed it. Hardcore drugs for mild issues are not for me — ever. I just choose a different path with vitamins that for me keep my issues low. The change in what ADD is called is very disorienting for me; to me, this is covert psychology and shows that people don’t care about others. For me, not to be involved with the power of freedom in the mental health field matters. Without the freedom to choose we go right back to the controlled asylums.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MENTAL HEALTH work, It happened again last night. At I made a mistake and my coworker got mad at me. Some people may have snapped back and let it go. Or they may have completely ignored his behavior. For someone like me, it’s not that simple. After his comment, I felt the flush of shame most people feel when they make a mistake. Usually, it ends there. For me, it escalates. I became more and more upset and angry. I started to argue back. At one point I became so dysregulated I felt like running out of the building and never coming back. This is because I have a condition called Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria. In my adult life, I have had nearly 100 jobs. That’s a conservative estimate as I have been in the workforce since 1983. Each time I quit a job it was because a supervisor was too harsh or a coworker too difficult to get along with. I perceive everything a coworker says to me when correcting my performance as coming with disapproval. I end up taking it personally which sets off the RSD, leaving me fuming and ready to walk out or fight the coworker. All they were trying to do was help me do my job better. Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria is a new term emerging in the JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 someone with RSD delivers an overdose of stress hormones which cause emotional agony and physical discomfort. RSD brings the chemistry together to make rejection/criticism feel like a vicious personal attack. RSD resembles other process addictions where the key identifier is unmanageability. Those that have it can’t “suck it up” and control it. It can produce a nevneuro-psychology field. It is believed to be a disruption in the brain between the emotional center, the amygdala, and the reasoning area or neocortex. Although not an official diagnosis, medical experts use this phrase to describe it as a sub-condition of ADHD. Its symptoms include low self-esteem and self-doubt, bursts of anger and sadness, negative self-talk, finding it draining to engage in socializing, and/or suddenly becoming quiet and moody. The main characteristic of RSD is a severe negative reaction to rejection and criticism. For most people, rejection and criticism hurt. For someone with RSD, that little sting of shame feels like a red-hot iron. Living with RSD can feel like a constant sunburn. The brain of er-ending cycle of negative self-talk and self-sabotage. Once referred to as “feeling sorry for oneself” or “beating oneself up,” this particular disorder is a silent killer. As a person recovering from alcoholism and who has the symptoms of RSD, I can tell you there is a very clear link between RSD and homelessness. Like many people, for me, being housed is dependent on being employed. The likelihood of someone with RSD spontaneously quitting a job is high. As a result, rent becomes difficult if not impossible to pay. They fall behind and are either evicted or simply abandon the lease. This has happened to me countless times. For example, I graduated college in 2007 where I studied to be a high school math teacher. Very noble profession, a very gutsy subject to teach, and very dumb for someone with RSD. The students ate me alive. In 2013 I had a mental DECEMBER 1, 2023 Me and my RSD (Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria) breakdown which resulted in a relapse and three months of homelessness. Today I am aware of my condition. By practicing mindfulness, I can keep tabs on my emotional climate and keep myself focused. I look back on my life and see how much of it now makes sense in the light of this disorder. I am much gentler on myself and have learned to simply say thank you any time someone corrects me. I am among a few fortunate people who have been able to cultivate awareness of how my mental health affects the way I see reality. Mindfulness is a key element when struggling with any executive functioning issue. The conversation about homelessness and mental illness goes on. We have made the connection, now it’s time to solve the problem. What can the mentally ill do when their ability to navigate the “normal” world fails? People with mental illness simply need a break. Once we are diagnosed with a condition that may make employment difficult, we need some form of accommodation if we are to participate in society. Some mental illnesses are understood and can be treated, but many cannot. If employers could be prepared for this, many lives would be changed for the better. In loving memory of Cynthia Richards November 23, 1989 - November 20, 2023 Cynthia Richards, vendor No. 537, sold Groundcover during the summer of 2021. After moving to Florida that same year, she remained in contact, often calling the office and sharing updates about her and her children. Cynthia was a fierce protector of her family and sold the paper to make ends meet. We remember her quickly getting the hang of sales because of her friendly and hard-working nature. "When I think of Cynthia, I think of a person that was a fighter, go getter, and a person who loved her children — even though she was going through what she was going through in life. Believe it or not, she was working to be a better woman for them. Even though she had a lot of hurt in her heart, she was always a cheerful person, laughing, cracking jokes and just being a bundle of joy. She was a loyal person, even to people that weren't particularly loyal to her. I'm going to miss you even though you're not going to be forgotten. She left three children, a sister, a brother, her mother and multiple communities behind that truly loved her. She will be missed, but never forgotten. She's an angel in heaven now." — Joe Woods, Groundcover vendor No. 103. Cynthia, Joe Woods and Kelsey. DECEMBER 1, 2023 HOMELESSNESS Ignoring car camping as homelessness can be deadly When a person or family loses housing, the world suddenly changes. From drinking a glass of water to fixing a snack or taking an overnight trip to the bathroom, these are things that can no longer be taken for granted. Yet many have the dubious distinction of moving into their cars. These vehicles which have housed individuals and families for decades bring on a new set of challenges. The most obvious include keeping the vehicles cool in warm climates and the scorching hot days of summer in others. On the other end of the spectrum is finding enough warmth to make it through the often bitter-cold winter temperatures found in colder climates. Without question, there have been incidents where individuals have succumbed to the cold or heat while living in their vehicles. Most common are the grim statistics of people suffering heat stroke or those who froze to death. Each time this occurs, it leaves the general public shaking their heads questioning how it could have happened. There are innumerable opportunities for such tragedies to occur but one of the most obvious is the slow pace at which agencies and the government have approached the issues of the unhoused. While strides have been painfully slow in learning how to meet the needs of unhoused individuals, the progress has been further hampered by the stubborn misperceptions about this group of individuals that continue to persist. importantly, the return to housing of those individuals has more than doubled that of other cities with similar lots. Without the necessary support, LIT KURTZ Groundcover vendor No. 159 the stories of those losing vehicles due to breakdowns from lack of maintenance continue to mount. While many unhoused live successfully in tents, a car adds another level of support and as the San Diego case reveals, the return to housing is faster. Even without safe parking lots, Much of the assistance is based on the ideas that assume that those who lose housing are somehow flawed and undeserving of assistance in time of need. As a result, the needs of those who use their vehicles in place of a house are often overlooked. The resources that most agencies provide are food and clothing. Those who are in vehicles seldom receive adequate attention such as car maintenance, repairs and gasoline. Assistance is also often needed in meeting the cost of insurance and monthly payments. When attention is given to those who are living in their cars or other vehicles, the results have been incredibly promising. A news article that ran in a 2018 issue of “The Seattle Times” reveals how San Diego has outpaced other cities in its parking lot program. Not only are the families safer in the fenced-in parking areas designated for the unhoused, but it has also been more cost-effective. Most this housing-troubled decade has brought on increased numbers of people living in their cars. Success stories abound on social media sites and provide a network of support for those who have taken to living in their vehicles. If social media accounts are any indication, it is not hard to imagine more people abandoning buildings and taking to their cars. While the auto industry says it is reducing the number of sedans for safety reasons, one might surmise that it is ahead in the growing trend of vehicle living and maybe designing vehicles to accommodate the demand. But for now, the most important concern is for those who are living in vehicles in Michigan. If you know of someone who may be living in a vehicle or outdoors, it never hurts to ask whether they have a warm winter blanket or sleeping bag. One cold winter night without the necessary warmth may make the difference between someone surviving or not. A note on homelessness in California Recently in Los Angeles, under the overpass of Interstate Highway I-10, a huge fire erupted where homeless people had camped. The immediate conclusion jumped to was arson, with the mayor placing the fault on the shoulders of the homeless who were camping out under the overpass. Over 250 truckloads were hauled away, along with all remaining homeless possessions. The real concerns of the mayor were how much of the overpass may have been damaged, as well as repair time. Six weeks and minor repairs later, the mayor was recommending most traffic carpool or work from home nor a police detective, what I am at this time, is a homeless individual. The area I am staying at is not supportive of the homeless, only some areas are — San Francisco, San Diego and select areas of Los Angeles. Think about it … not in my backyard. While I am temporarily sheltered, I JAMIE CAMERON Groundcover vendor No. 612 due to the large daily volume of traffic using that highway. They had one suspect in mind, yet the volume of campers there was huge. While I am not a fire marshal am still one of the Homeless and refuse to have this burden placed on my shoulders. My bet may have been a stray cigarette butt or the like, yet they aren't banning anything except the Homeless. Thank you to our vendors, the paper staff, and especially our supporters! You matter. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LOCAL ARTS DECEMBER 1, 2023 Groundcover's third open mic showcases vendor talents, entrepreneurship MARGARET NEEDHAM U-M student contributor On November 17, Groundcover contributors, vendors and volunteers alike came together at Argus Farm Stop on Liberty Street to celebrate and honor the accomplishments vendors had brought to Groundcover in recent months. With delicious food provided by Pilar’s Tamales and surrounded by good company, vendors were able to share their opinions on various topics, perform songs, as well as speak some of their own inspirational stories and poems, which were both touching and motivating for the listeners in the audience. For me, the most entertaining part of the night was when Desmond, a returning musician and volunteer for Groundcover, played a beautiful piece of music on his cello called “Bridging the Gap.” Composed during the pandemic, this piece focused on the theme of creating human connection — “physical bridges first and then bridges of the sight.” Listening to this, the audience was able to rest and relax their minds before the rest of the speakers gave their testimonies. One special speaker who came up to the mic was Xavier Carbajal, who told stories about his life and meaningful experiences that he has learned from. “God kept me alive to keep fighting, and I don’t understand why,” said Xavier during his testimony. He said that every time he dies, Saint Peter is there waiting for him at the gates of Heaven, urging him to come forward. But, God continues to say to him, “Hold it. Hold it. You’re not done yet, I am sending you back.” Xavier is not sure why God has kept bringing him back, but he knows that he has to fight no matter what. Even though he has been through many hardships over the course of his life, Xavier kept on going and is very successful nowadays, showing everyone that night that it is possible to persevere in the face of hardships and trials. He recommends that everyone reads his books on Amazon, which you can find when you search his name on the website. Later in the night, Groundcover vendor No. 570 Teresa Basham came up to the microphone, despite her stage fright, and talked about her two poetry books. She is currently selling her first book for $40. Once her second book comes in from production in December, she will be selling the two together for $75. She shared one poem from her new book on Friday night, where she emphasized human desire and love. “I am a different breed, no other is made like me. I am a craving soul indeed,” said Teresa. She is extremely passionate about her poems, and she highly encourages everyone to check them out if they get the chance. Despite not being on the signup list to present, Brian was one of the last individuals to speak at Open Mic Night, as he felt a strong desire in his heart to do so. During his time onstage, he highlighted the cover story of one of the last Groundcover issues that was published, in which a man named Shihab Jackson was featured. He sympathized with Jackson’s story and urged the audience to read it, and take action. Going forward, Brian hopes that everyone “always reads Juliano Sanchez, vendor No. 174, orated his two most recent Groundcover articles on mythology. Both Teresa Basham (left) vendor No. 570 and Sandra Gomez (right) vendor No. 61 recited poetry. Groundcover because it’s one of the only places you can find what is happening in our community.” Reflecting upon what these vendors, supporters contributors and of Groundcover had to say at the microphone that night, each story and testimony was truly its own enlightening experience. Because this event does not happen every weekend, the community is encouraged to make it whenever its scheduled, even if they are only able to attend for thirty minutes. As the vendors and staff would say, come out and support Groundcover News if you are able — it would mean the world to them! DECEMBER 1, 2023 LOCAL ARTS Adore TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 My love I’ll never say goodbye, Thee sea may rise, Thee sky may fall, No matter my love will never die, I’ll go bravely on, I may cry, Through thee blackest night, My drownin heart, From all thee tears I cry, I know this love will never part, For I’ll think of forever more, My love will never die, I may weep forever more, You’ll alwayz be, Thee one I adore. A day in the life of Earl EARL PULLEN Groundcover contributor As the eye Of a lark the Sun will shine As the dew of night falls On the land You can never judge A man by what you see It's all in a riddle And all in a rhyme The steeper the hill The harder the climb I say to you In a little rhyme I love you To the end of time GROUNDCOVER NEWS A shout PETER LINEBAUGH Groundcover contributor Cop City — Gaza City Atlanta Forest — olive groves The promised land The mushaã 40 acres and a mule That was then. What now? A mite, a penny, a paycheck, wages All illness, illth illth Only health is wealth: wealth-health, health-wealth Compost filthy lucre billion trillion, trillion billion People the color of the earth Palestine Maya Creek Muskogee Reconstruction — Land Back Abolition — Jubilee Common once again from the river to the sea. Voices from the past: a closer look at UMMA's Hear Me Now Become immersed in the journey of resilience encapsulated in the 'Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina' exhibition at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. The exhibit is both a lament for lost voices and a celebration of creative spirit flourishing despite hardship; it is a collective testament to the African-American legacy forged in the Old South. The American South's contribution to the national arts scene is often overlooked, and UMMA set out to change that. Their staff and scholars carefully chose the exhibition to reveal an untold, significant chapter of American history. In this exhibition, history's challenging periods intersect with the potters' incredible resilience and creativity. Many significant works in the exhibition are by David Drake. Despite being an enslaved poet and potter, his surviving pieces boldly bear his signature, a defiant act at a time when South Carolina's laws prohibited such self-assertion from enslaved individuals. An echo of defiance resonates in his work's underlying themes, as his inscriptions daringly critique the unequal societal norms of his time. "Inscribed with poetic defiance, David's monumental pots refuse to be silenced, and they carry the power of unarticulated exhibition includes photographic representations of works such as "K.S" by Adebunmi Gbadebo and "Large Jug" by Simone Leigh. These pieces underscore the persistent influence of traditional art forms and historical narratives. Added to this dialogue are artifacts like DAREK ZARUR U-M student contributor voices," explains resident Jack Shanahan, reflecting his views on the exhibit. "These showcases serve to enhance community inclusivity; they are truly inspiring." The exhibition also showcases works created by unknown potters, highlighting the unsettling reality that these masterpieces originated from nameless slaves. In a moving tribute, UMMA leaves a blank space where the artist's name should be on these pieces. It serves as a stark reminder of the stolen labor of enslaved individuals, thereby challenging us to confront and fill in the painful voids of our history tied to slavery. Among the traditional works, the exhibit presents the work of current artists whose pieces are anchored in Edgefield's legacy and instinctively respond to the untold stories of enslaved artists. Bridging the past and present, the "Face Jug" and "Jug," serving as links to this powerful history. Each of these works provides a window into not just the skilled hands that crafted them but also the lives intertwined with their creation. The deep layers of every pot bear the imprint of the Old South and stand as a testament to not only the remarkable artistic prowess of the enslaved artisans but also their untold legacy. It's a legacy marked by resilience and creativity, blossoming amid staggering adversities, waiting to be fully acknowledged and appreciated. The 'Hear Me Now' exhibition stands as a tribute to the unsung contributions of African-American potters and as a testament to the triumphant human spirit soaring amid adversity. Let's not just walk past these extraordinary works. Let's stop, gaze and in doing so, remember those gifted and resilient souls who twisted clay into expressions of defiance. They were people whose names we don't know, yet their touch lives in every pot, jug and sculpture. Cop City — Gaza City Atlanta Forest — olive groves The promised land The mushaã 40 acres and a mule That was then. What now? Abolition jubilee Common once again from the river to the sea. 7 Top: Face jug by ____________ (Potter once known), attributed to Miles Mill Pottery. Bottom: Large jug by Simone Leigh.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THINK ABOUT IT Christian mythology SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover contributor The Gospel of Jesus Christ was created after the Jewish Temple was destroyed by the Roman army led by Titus Flavian in 70 CE. This ended the Jewish-Roman War (66-70 CE) and the Jewish nation. To prevent a possible rebellion in the Jewish diaspora, Roman elites invented a pacifist messiah to replace the militant one the Jewish people were anticipating. This is the origin of Christian mythology. There is no evidence to support the existence of Jesus. There are only people repeating rumors and rhetoric of his supposed existence. The essence of Christianity is that of a state religion and it must be guarded against. Christianity had always been a religion of the rabble and dangerous to civilization. Second-century pagan critic of Christianity Celsus and other Roman writers believed that Christians were dangerous because they put the advancement of their beliefs above the common good and welfare of the state. No doubt our constitutional order will be put to the test by the dangerous demagogue Donald Trump. He will exploit the ignorance of Christians in his quest to become president again. DECEMBER 1, 2023 DECEMBER 1, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD from the International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Coffee order 6. Priestly garb 9. Qur'an chapter 14. "La Bohème," e.g. 15. "___ bad!" 16. Clear, as a disk 17. As a rule 19. Cross threads 20. "La Scala di ___" (Rossini opera) 21. Flock member 22. Hotel amenities 23. Flock leader 25. Anger 26. Senior politician 32. Crystal-lined rock 33. Very small 34. Ova, e.g. 37. Traffic jam 41. Friar 42. Hungarian joke 43. Eton or Hogwarts 48. Absorb, with "up" 49. Peanut butter choice 50. ___ Rica 53. Game on horseback 54. Edge 58. Dislike, and then some 59. Theorist 61. Fowl place 62. Shade provider 63. Edmonton hockey player 64. Former frosh 65. Legal thing 66. Light refractor DOWN 1. Feet, slangily 2. Blunted blade 3. Penny 4. Length x width, for a rectangle 5. A ways away 6. Famous Etta James song 7. Nabokov novel 8. Refuses to shop at 9. Puts in stitches 10. Compound in fertilizer 11. Basket material 12. Back, to a sailor 13. "Siddhartha" author 18. "Ah, me!" 23. Ancient Roman magistrate (Var.) 24. Curb, with "in" 26. ___ roll 27. Grassland 28. ___ Perignon 29. Swelling 30. Grab 31. Biblical gift 35. Aims 36. More revealing 38. "Seinfeld" uncle 39. Amateur video subject, maybe 40. Amigo 43. Owie 44. Thrift store (Aus.) 45. Noggin 46. Robots in Jewish folklore 47. Greek portico 48. Traumatizes 51. Brit's "Baloney!" 52. Song and dance, e.g. 54. Coconut fiber 55. Wrinkly fruit 56. Petitions 57. Popular hairstyle in the 80s 60. Chop (off)

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD ACCESS DECEMBER 1, 2023 Left: Julius Buzzard, director of Growing Hope Urban Farm and Argus staff member Alexandra Granberg during Argus Food Talks. Middle: (pictured left to right) Laurin Wolfe, Director, Conner Levy, Vice President, Beverly Ruesink, Needle-Lane Farms, Susan Randall, President. Photo Credit: Patrick Zabawa, Treasurer. Right: Photo of Ruesink with son, Baszyl, 12, in the background on a video monitor. Ruesink also has a daughter, Stella, 6. Improve your health, support local business Would you rather spend money on medical bills or better food? Currently, an astounding 41.9% of American adults, 29.5% of adults over 65 and 19.7% of children at all income levels are obese, according to Trust for America’s Health and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Congressman David Schweikert, (R-AZ), co-chair of the Joint Economic Committee, details in the Republican section of the 2023 JEC's response to the 2023 Economic Report of the President how obesity and obesity-related diseases will contribute $5.6 trillion to the national deficit over the next decade. Obesity is one of the largest contributors to Medicare and Medicaid spending. The entire JEC Report is at: www.jec.senate.gov/ One of the things that the Federal government is considering is removing junk food, especially soda pop, from food stamp benefits. This is comparable to government efforts to shift U.S. culture away from smoking in the 1960s. According to Schweikert, this could enhance the health of Americans, reduce income inequality and help the Federal budget. "I don't think people wake up every day and say, "I'm only going to spend my SNAP Benefits on junk food," said Claire Austin, who co-manages the Ypsilanti Farmers Market with Vivi Nguyen. "The big issue is access. This is part of the reason why we have Farmers Markets. It definitely contributes to a healthy community." Obesity has been found to substantially reduce lifespan, with life JANE REILLY Groundcover vendor No. 611 Planning to grow, shop for and prepare food requires a commitment to a lifestyle change of budgeting both time and money. The price difference for apples between the national grocery chains and a regional chain is about 89 cents on sale and $2.20 not on sale. The difference between the national and regional "open the cafe in a lively manner on the weekends," said Connor Levy, PFC Vice-President and Chairman of the Community Engagement Committee. The PFC has reported net operating losses of $197,026 in the first half of 2023 and Ruesink expressed concern about the future of local farming. chains and Washtenaw expectancy decreasing as Body Mass Index increases. Obesity is a causal risk factor for many other diseases, including but not limited to diabetes, cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke, sleep apnea and cancer. One out of every three heart attack or stroke deaths and one in twelve cancer deaths are associated with being overweight. Obesity has also been linked to impaired mental health, according to the JEC report. "Much of the direct benefit of increased lifespan would go to women, as well as Black and low-income adults," states the JEC report. "Research by Zachary J. Ward et al. suggests that Class 3 obesity, the highest, will be the most common Body Mass Index category for these three demographic groups by 2030. Because reducing obesity carries with it employment, productivity, and income benefits, it might also contribute to reducing health. income inequality." Food is now an investment in our County stores that sell apples from local farms can be as much as $2.10$7.50. The quality of taste and freshness increase substantially with the price increase. Organically grown foods have an intense flavor. Vegetables have no saturated fat, cholesterol or added sugar. The United States Department of Agriculture announced on Nov. 14 that the Ann Arbor Fair Food Network received a grant of $8,438,060 to continue SNAP Double Up Bucks through 2025. It is estimated that in 2023 obesity will cause $5,155 in average excess medical costs per person per year based on research by JEC economists. Heart attack patients in Michigan paid $25,679 in 2019 according to Sidecar Health and $58,779 for bypass surgery. For uninsured patients, the median cost of hospital care following a heart attack was $53,384 in 2017, according to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. "We are what we eat," said Beverly - Ruesink, 45, owner of Needle-Lane Farms, 6376 Tipton Hwy, Tipton, MI. "It's really that easy." Ruesink spoke at "Meet Your Farmer," an event at the People's Food Co-op in Ann Arbor on Nov. 5, to "It's a struggle and it's real," Ruesink said. "The change in our society where we work at home and have things delivered has changed the game. There's no cheap, easy way. It's hard work and who wants to work hard?" Both Argus Farm Stop and the PFC hold community events to draw customers. There is an Annual Winter Artisan Market on Sat. Dec 2 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Argus Packard Cafe, which lists its weekly events for three locations on the website. The Ypsilanti Winter Indoor Farmers Market, at the Market Place Hall (behind the building with the Farmers Market marquee), featured live music on Nov. 18. A keyboardist was one of 20 vendors including farmers, bakers, prepared food and oracle readings. "We want to implement changes to try and reach a wider area of Ypsilanti," Austin said. "We want to bring in more community members. We want to feel more community owned and community grown." Ruesink is practical about the community's financial involvement and investment. "The problem is people have to go to work, then they have to take their see HEALTH next page  DECEMBER 1, 2023 THINK ABOUT IT 10 days that shook the world Looking at history as it spills into current events, one of the best observers and analysts was V. I. Lenin, whose writings and activities around WWI and the Bolshevik Revolution are legendary. He once commented, “There are decades when nothing happens and there are days when decades happen.” One of the best reporters of that time was John Reed, who went to Russia to report on the revolution as it was happening in 1917. He died in Russia in 1920 and is buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Phil Carroll, a lifelong peace activist from Ann Arbor, visited his grave in 1973 when he went to a World Peace Council meeting in Moscow. John Reed wrote “Ten Days That Shook The World,” a feet-on-theground, fully engaged report about the Bolshevik revolution, which began during World War One. When the war ended, the allies fought in the bloody civil war against the Bolsheviks who won in 1923 and socialism struggled to mature until the time of Gorbachev, when the experiment was changed by Yeltsin into the age of oligarchs and collusion with financial globalism. The commonwealth, including large gold reserves, disappeared in a privatization frenzy that caused great suffering for the people of the former Soviet Union. Putin is popular in part because he broke the chokehold the oligarchs violence that engulfs our world is the task before us. Breathe peace and move towards a peaceful convergence as we learn that “the struggle makes us human.” If we practice mind training we can begin preparing for a mass meditation sit-down strike. This could create the conditions for KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 had on the people. Humans often tolerate — and even promote dysfunctional illusions — for generations before reality erupts and a sane world arises. A new social body is born and struggles to mature. Some die prematurely but a memory may persist as in the Paris Commune, an inspiration from the heart and mind of the working class, which shook the world for 3 months in 1871. Our power of creativity is deep and real. Luiza Duarte Caetano, one of our Groundcover volunteers, is doing a thesis on a novel by Louise Michel which was born from her experience in the Paris Commune. Your engaged participation can make a difference as the American experiment in freedom faces a war machine of our own making. Taking responsibility for our collective actions and making good choices amid the a peace conference on composting the war machine. Eventually, the culture of war will go from “swords into plowshares” as we grow the inner and outer peace that so many of us want. Awaken to the love within you and let it flow. Groundcover News will help. The world may simmer for a while before it boils over and starts shaking. "The Silent Coup, How Corporations Rule the World” is the book that shows the level of struggle we are in today. Honduras is heroic now. Mark Kennard, one of the authors is with Chris Hedges in a podcast that will give you great insight into this world and the struggle for freedom. I hope to see some of you at the vigil every Friday at 5:30 p.m. on the corner of Liberty and Fifth. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 There are food hubs in Ann Arbor  HEALTH from last page kids to their activities and they don't have time," Ruesink said. "Then they run around trying to work their two jobs and their side hustle trying to make ends meet so they need that fast food or that convenience to just get through the day." Start small, such as walking or taking the bus to save on fuel and parking expenses. Use all the shopping options available to take advantage of sales and discounts at each location, stores, farmer's markets, food hubs and directly from farmers. Grow your food at a community garden. "Growing their own food would probably help even at a small scale,” Ruesink said, “ and I say that because of the joy and the peace and the mental health that it brings, from gardening and getting your hands in the dirt. There are so many good things in getting nutrient-dense local food into local people. I think there's a lot of people doing a lot of good things in a lot of little places." (Washtenaw Food Hub) and Ypsilanti (Growing Hope). There is also the Ann Arbor People's Food Co-op and the Ypsilanti Food Co-op. Many local farms sell directly to the public from their farms or at the Farmer's Markets, also in both cities. The Ypsilanti Winter Indoor Farmer's Market only runs until Dec. 16. Online is year-round with pickup on Tuesdays from 3-7 p.m. at the Farmer's Marketplace, 16 S. Washington. The Ann Arbor Farmers Market, 315 Detroit St., is open 7 a.m. - 3 p.m. Saturdays and Wednesdays through December and 8 a.m. - 3 p.m. on Saturdays from January to April. Shops such as Argus Farm Stop only sell local food, allowing farmers to price their products and receive 70% of the selling price. Argus Farm Stop in Ann Arbor, as well as the food co-ops and the Farmers Markets in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti are examples of food communities working together, albeit with fierce competition. Various prepared foods sold at Argus come from entrepreneurs who use the Growing Hope incubator kitchen and local farmers. Growing Hope, a non-profit, runs the Ypsilanti Farmers Market, and Tantré Farms runs the Washtenaw Food Hub. The Ann Arbor PFC advertises "Meet the locals," promoting Garden Works, Revolution Farms, Tantré Farms, Community Farm, Needle-Lane Farms and We The People Opportunity Farm. The Ypsilanti Winter Indoor Farmer's Market on Nov. 18 included farmers from Good Medicine Farms (Norris Stephens), Karpo Farms (Steve Karpo), Hobby Gardening (Alvaro Perez), Fungi Revival (Mel Havelka and Tonya Harris), Taylor Honey Farms (Neil and Deborah Taylor), SS Family Produce and Health Harvest Farm (Fred and Tina Peebles). There are many community gardens.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Ruth Beck's pecan sticky buns ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor From the program “One Batch of Dough” by Ruth Beck (1934-2021) of Buckingham Township, Iowa. Mrs. Beck taught a bread-making class beginning in 1969 at the YWCA of Waterloo, Iowa. Over the years, she presented the program hundreds of times at various venues, and countless people throughout the Midwest learned the joys of bread baking through her teaching. Yeast Roll Dough 1 package or one tablespoon of dry yeast, dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water. 1 cup milk ½ cup butter ½ cup sugar 1 Tbsp salt (this is not a typo!) 1 cup lukewarm water 6 cups flour, divided 1 egg Heat cup of milk to 180 degrees. Add butter, sugar, salt and lukewarm water. Cool the mixture to lukewarm, then beat in 2 cups of flour and egg. Add the yeast mixture and remaining 4 cups of flour to make a soft dough. Mix well. Knead lightly, cover with a clean dish towel, and let rise until doubled. While the dough is rising the first time, make the sticky bun topping and let it cool. Filling ½ cup softened butter ½ cup brown sugar 2 Tbsp cinnamon When the dough has doubled in size, Melt the butter over low heat, then stir in the brown sugar and maple syrup. This will make enough for a 9x13 pan and a loaf pan. Divide the sticky bun topping mixture between the pans. Sprinkle the nutmeats over the mixture. Place the dough slices on the cooled sticky bun topping. Cover the pans, and let the dough rise a second time. When doubled in size, place in a preheated 350-degree oven and bake for about 25 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes after removing from the oven, then loosen the sides with a knife or spatula, and invert the rolls on a heatproof platter. Serve warm if possible! PUZZLE SOLUTIONS DECEMBER 1, 2023 Shop at the Kiwanis Thrift Sale! Holiday Gifts, Decorations, Tree Sale November 3 - December 30 November 24 - December 30 Toy Sale { gently punch down and form it into a rectangle about 12 x 18 inches. Spread softened butter over the surface of the dough, then sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over the butter. Roll the long edges tightly, and cut into 1-inch slices. Sticky Bun Topping 1/2 cup butter 3/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup maple syrup 1 cup pecan halves or pieces Kiwanis Center in Scio Township 100 N Staebler Rd off Jackson Rd Kiwanis will be open for normal business hours through the 2023 holiday season Fridays from 9 am - 1 pm and Saturdays from 9 am - 3 pm }

2 $ NOVEMBER 3, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 23 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Shelters can help homeless people by providing quiet and privacy, not just a bunk and a meal. Page 5 MEET YOUR VENDOR: JANE REILLY PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. HUNGER and HOMELESSNESS AWARENESS WEEK EDITION Magnus the Entertainer addressing the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners during public comment. He was one of 21 speakers who addressed the lack of shelter in the County. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER hunger + homelessness awareness week CALENDAR SHELTER ASSOCIATION'S FILL THAT TRUCK! Friday, November 10, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Kroger (2647 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor) Help us fill a truck with items requested by the Robert J. Delonis Center. This event directly benefits Shelter Association clients as it gives them access to things like new winter coats or new socks! DELONIS CENTER HEALTH and WELLNESS FAIR Monday, November 13, 2-5 p.m. Delonis Center (312 W Huron Street, Ann Arbor) This free community event at the Delonis Center is designed to support clients and others by encouraging healthy lifestyles, preventing and managing disease, and connecting to community resources. Vendors will set up display tables, promote their brand and product, and show their passion for supporting vulnerable populations. This event is free to any member of the community. To become a vendor, please contact Alondra Burne at burnea@washtenaw.org. GROUNDCOVER SPEAKS OPEN MIC Friday, November 17, 6-8 p.m. Argus Liberty Cafe (325 W. Liberty St., Ann Arbor) Join us this November in honoring Hunger & Homelessness Awareness week at Groundcover News' third open mic event! Come listen to community members share writing, poetry and stories from the street. This is a FREE event. Everyone is welcome. NOVEMBER 3, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern Hunter Johnstone — deputy editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Beverly Boss John Buckley Jamie Cameron Natalie Florence Cindy Gere Alexandra Granberg Mike Jones Joshua Lee James Manning Ken Parks Jane Reilly Heather Ross Denise Shearer GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Scoop Stevens May Thet Naing PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Ruben Mauricio Margaret Needham Emily Paras Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons NOVEMBER 3 2023 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS More McDonald’s, Wendy’s and affordable restaurants should be in downtown Ann Arbor There are a lot of low-income Jane Reilly, vendor No. 611 In one sentence, who are you? Janie Reilly, Groundcover vendor No. 611, journalism busker and peace advocate. Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? At the corner of Wells and Packard (across from Argus Farm Stop) and at the Ann Arbor YMCA. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? August 31, 2023 as a part-time job while searching for a full-time job. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Sit under the trees by the U-M Diag and feed the squirrels. What words do you live by? Do what's right, anyway. Every day. All the time. No matter what everyone else is doing and especially when I don't want to. Obey the law. This is a mix of ideas from filmmaker and actor Spike Lee and Saint Teresa of Calcutta, also called Mother Teresa. What is your superpower? Kindness. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Have a career as an airline pilot. What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover? Trying to make the GCN mission statement of "promoting action to build a just, caring and inclusive society" a reality. What's the best thing about selling Groundcover? I am fully alive when upholding our rights of freedom of speech and of the press. What are you likely to become famous for? I've been infamous. Today, I prefer to live quietly. people in downtown Ann Arbor. I don’t think there are a lot of people who are rich that walk around downtown Ann Arbor. Especially people who try to help themselves and sell Groundcover. There are volunteers too who work downtown and they are not rich. People who work at daycares, schools and libraries are probably not rich either. My point is there should be some Wendy’s and McDonald’s in downtown Ann Arbor. There should be Kentucky Fried Chickens in downtown Ann Arbor too. And I think there should be places that have low-cost food and drinks because there are a lot of working people who do not have a lot of money. People who come downtown just to get out of their homes don’t have a lot of money and they need somewhere to hang out or too. I think there should be places that are low-cost like toy stores. I think it is very important to have DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 go shopping and they can’t buy anything because they don't have enough money. And when things are at a high price all the time, when people don’t have enough money to buy anything, it makes them sad and depressed and do things that they shouldn’t be doing and go to jail or prison. There should also be lowcost thrift stores and coffee shops, low-cost places in downtown Ann Arbor and I think there should be low-cost movies like Briarwood Mall used to have. They should bring back dollar theaters! I think that would give a lot of people hope and make them happier and enjoy themselves so they don’t feel the need to do things they shouldn’t be doing and getting arrested. I think if people could afford things better, that would give them hope and encouragement to do good things like help people in the community and help themselves. I think the community would look and be better and safer if we had more lowcost things for people to enjoy and meet their basic needs. The world would be much better. 3 Kid’s farm fun: Take a day-trip to Jenny’s Farm and Cider Mill! One of the largest and oldest local farms is in Dexter. It’s called Jenny's Farm Stand & Cider Mill on the outskirts of Dexter. This is one of the best and most fun farms for kids. They have a petting farm, pony rides and some of the best jams, salsas and pickled vegetables as well as baked goods. Jenny’s offers apple cider and happy donuts as you look at all the goodies they have to offer. The pony ride is one of the highlights, as kids get to ride a real horse. donkeys and draft horses; some animals are not pettable. As I recall, pies are freshly made. CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 Chickens and rabbits roam free. The farm has rabbits, goats, sheep, My favorite from Jenny's Farm is the amazing jams they make — raspberry, peach, strawberry and blueberry. What I truly love is raspberry jam on toast in the morning with a warm coffee and a hot slice of apple pie. The drive to Jenny’s is fun on the riverside along the Huron River. The colors are fun in the fall splendor. So come take a nice mini vacation for a day on Jenny’s Farm! Discrimination ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover vendor No. 347 Sometimes when you go to the store to use the bathroom you must buy something — if you don’t buy something, you can’t go inside. The other thing, while you go to the store you have to leave your backpack and other stuff outside. Sometimes those working in the store look at you with your backpack and they think you want to steal something from the store. When I need to go inside to ask for something, those at the store don’t ask if I speak English or Spanish, they just ask where I’m from. On Saturday, October 21 at 10:30 a.m. I went out to the Home and Garden to buy a folding shopping cart. I need the cart to put my stuff in and lock it. These people in the store say they don’t have a shopping cart. They look at me like I’m estupido. Maybe they think I don’t have the money to buy the shopping cart. I say thank you very much. I will put all this into the Groundcover.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS HOUSED: How housing changed John's life JOSHUA LEE Groundcover contributor Housing is more than just a roof over one’s head. It is a source of stability, security, dignity and hope. For many people who have experienced homelessness, getting housed is a life-changing event that opens up new possibilities and opportunities. For this article we interviewed John, who recently moved into permanent supportive housing (PSH) in Ann Arbor. PSH is a type of affordable housing that provides long-term rental assistance and supportive services to people who have disabilities and/or chronic homelessness. We asked John how housing has impacted his situation, and what are the things that eased or hurt the transition from the street. John’s story John, 54, was homeless for over 10 years. He used to sleep in a tent near the Huron River where he faced harsh weather, harassment and isolation. He suffers from bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, which made it hard for him to find and keep a job. He moved into his PSH apartment in February 2023, after being referred by the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County. He said that housing has given him a sense of peace and comfort. “I feel like I have a home now. I can sleep better, I can cook my own food, I can watch TV, I can relax. I don’t have to worry about where I’m going to sleep or what I’m going to eat. I don’t have to deal with the stress and danger of living on the street,” he says. Housing has also helped him improve his mental health and access other services. He receives case management, counseling, medication and transportation from Avalon Housing, the nonprofit organization that operates his PSH unit. He also attends a peer support group at Home of New Vision, where he meets other people who have experienced homelessness. He said the most helpful thing for him was having supportive staff who cared about him and his well-being. “They treat me like a human being, not like a number or a problem. They listen to me, they help me with my goals, they encourage me. They are like family to me,” he said. ment living. Still, it was hard to adjust to apart“It was hard to get used to having neighbors, rules and responsibilities. It was hard to trust people, to open up, to ask for help. It was hard to feel like I deserved this." One thing that changed for him was his friend group. He used to hang out with other homeless people who shared his struggles and interests. “We would talk about basketball, especially old school early 2000s basketball. Rip Hamilton was my favorite player from that time; he was a great shooter and defender who played for the Pistons from 2002 to 2011. We would watch highlights of his games on YouTube. We would admire his skills and compare his achievements to other all-time greats. We would also share tips on where to find food, shelter or other resources,” he recalled. After he moved into his apartment, he lost contact with most of his homeless friends. Some of them were happy for him, but others were jealous or resentful. “Some said I was lucky or privileged. Some of them said I was betraying them or forgetting them. Some of them said I was no longer one of them.” He still misses his homeless friends sometimes but he also made new friends at his PSH unit and his peer support group. They also share his passion for basketball. “We still talk about basketball. We still watch highlights of Rip Hamilton’s games. We still admire his skills and achievements. But we also talk about other things, like our health, our goals our challenges,” he says. Another thing that changed for him was his ability to follow his current favorite team. The “Lebron-James-led” LA Lakers. When he was homeless, he had a hard time following his team as a fan, due to lack of access to coverage. “It was frustrating not being able to watch their games live or catch up on their news and stats. I had to rely on word of mouth or public sources, which were often unreliable or outdated. I felt like I was missing out on a lot of excitement and joy,” he said. Now that he has a TV and an official address, he can watch his team play on his own screen and receive newspapers and magazines that cover their see HOUSED page 14  NOVEMBER 3, 2023 Factors of homelessness, part one For years, I was stewing about how people treated each other, particularly how people treated the poverty-stricken and the homeless. I didn’t want to see people suffering. But at the time I didn't want to be part of the solution, either. While stewing in disgust at the way humans treat other human beings, I posted a rant on Facebook. I then decided to jot down ideas on factors of homelessness, shelter issues and the money behind it all. Here is my initial list: Reasons for Homelessness 1. Job Loss/Low Wages, • Financial instability/job loss (Living wage vs minimum wage) • Insufficient federal/state aid • Lack of sustainable wages meeting cost of rent, 2. Abusive Relationships • Insufficient mental health care 3. Substance Use and Abuse • Drug promotion vs rehab and recovery • Lack of affordable one-year drug rehab centers for the poor 4. Parenting/Disabilities, JAMIE CAMERON Groundcover vendor No. 612 end homelessness 9. Selfishness • Human to human selfishness, 10. Where is the HUD money? • Private companies, organizations and shelter CEO profits I will save shelter issues and the money trail for later articles of this series. I selected three websites for background research: HomelessResourceNetwork.org, generated 17 points. HumanRightsCareers.com, • Relationships of an abusive nature • Abusive and neglectful parenting • Chronically homeless children of homeless parents 5. Incarceration • Institutional mindset • Incarceration and recidivism • Lack of public bathrooms leading to CSC violations and incarceration 6. Transportation/Car Issues, • Cost of repairs 7. Talent Development, • Lack of development of individual potential 8. Governance, • Politicians unfufilled promises to ArlingtonLifeShelter.org yielded ten factors each. People Housed First The first item is that of wages, job loss, not enough federal/state aid, unemployment/ underemployment, and a lack of sustainable wages such as a living county wage. A minimum wage is for children, not adults. Minimum wage combined with part-time hours will not meet the cost of living. We’ve had chronically unemployed people without personal or job development programs. Jobs are at will, and so workers are subject to job loss at any time, for any and reason. Poverty means being a lost paycheck away homelessness. Current Temporary Assistance for Needy Families combined with EBT/ Bridge card does not meet the needs of those at the poverty level. In fact, for a family of three, it barely covers one-third of the cost of living. The main problems with wages are threefold: low and stagnant wages, consumer price indexing and non-sustainable wages to meet an individual’s cost of living. At the same time in history as low and stagnant wages, we have an ever-widening canyon between wages and housing costs. Housing requires credit checks, income verification and deposit of up to three months rent. Rent-to-income ratios lead to housing discrimination. In every state, fair market rent combined with minimum wage equals no housing for many. As for those with disabilities, housing is often difficult to obtain and maintain, due to stagnant SSI or SSDI wages not being adjusted for the consumer price index. For many frontline workers, it’s not a game. Job loss due to see FACTORS page 15  NOVEMBER 3, 2023 HOMELESSNESS Shelters should help homeless people by providing quiet and privacy, not just a bunk and a meal NATALIE FLORENCE AND HEATHER ROSS The Conversation The City of Phoenix set heat records in the summer of 2023, with high temperatures that topped 110 degrees Fahrenheit for 31 consecutive days and at least 54 days in total. In such conditions, providing basic services — including cool spaces — for people experiencing homelessness is lifesaving. In 2022, 420 people — many of them unsheltered — died in Phoenix from heat-related causes. Estimates are not yet available for summer 2023, but given this year’s extreme conditions, the toll is expected to be higher. For the past two years, we have worked as researchers with the Human Services Campus, a 13-acre complex in Maricopa County, Arizona, where 16 nonprofit organizations work together to help people who are experiencing homelessness. The campus includes Central Arizona Shelter Services, Phoenix’s largest homeless emergency shelter, which assists 800 people experiencing homelessness on any given night. Our work includes talking with staff and clients to better understand their challenges and identify possible solutions that draw from our work in the fields of architecture, health and social innovation. Dormitories at CASS protect residents from extreme heat with a bunk to sleep in, day rooms for socializing, case management services, sanitary shower and restroom facilities. However, CASS struggles to provide dignified spaces that offer privacy, storage space and quiet environments. People need this kind of environmental support in order to battle recurring physical and mental health issues that often accompany homelessness and can hinder or prevent healing. Overflowing shelters As of 2022, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated that the U.S. had nearly 600,000 homeless people nationwide, with about 60% living in emergency shelters, safe havens or transitional housing. The other 40% lived outdoors or in places such as abandoned buildings and public transit stations. Homeless centers must conform to architectural standards for emergency shelter. These standards have historically been influenced by institutional building design, which prioritizes attaining minimum conditions needed to keep people alive. Today, many homeless shelters struggle to provide even that level of care. The Human Services Campus was originally constructed in 2003 to provide consolidated services and a coordinated entry plan for people experiencing homelessness. However, it was intended to be part of a larger system of shelters, not the sole service provider for Phoenix’s estimated 9,000 homeless people. The city’s homeless population has grown, in part because of unprecedented rent increases and a lack of affordable housing. During this summer’s heat wave, nearly 1,200 unsheltered homeless people lived on sidewalks surrounding the campus, many in tents, with limited access to bathrooms and sanitation facilities. Homelessness and mental health When asked about the causes of homelessness, policymakers and members of the public often point to mental illness and addiction, as well as a lack of affordable housing. They tend to pay less attention to the underlying impacts of past trauma other than noting that many women become homeless to escape domestic violence. In a 2005 study, an alarming 79% of homeless women seeking treatment for mental illness and substance abuse reported experiencing a past traumatic event such as physical or sexual abuse. More recently, a 2020 study showed that nearly two-thirds of homeless women and almost half of homeless men reported that they were homeless because of trauma. Shelter design can affect homeless people’s ability to recover from past trauma and to battle addiction and other mental health issues that perpetuate cycles of homelessness. For example, one woman who currently lives in CASS told us about trying to get a full night’s sleep while living in a day room where the lights were kept on around the clock and there was constant activity. Because she had several bags of personal items that were too big to store in the dormitory, she could not get a bed there. “When they don’t turn the lights down at night, I start to feel like my body is vibrating,” she said. “I start to see people walking around, and I’m see SHELTERS page 9  GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Unusual Stuff to Borrow There’s more to borrow at AADL than books, music, and movies. To name a few, there are games, telescopes, stories-to-go kits, and home tools. Check out these unusual yet handy items during your next library visit! Job Search Toolkit If you’re embarking on a job search, AADL’s virtual toolkit stands ready to assist! Packed with links to beneficial websites and resources, it’s a free guide that equips patrons with essential tools and knowledge to navigate the competitive job market. See all the toolkit has to offer at aadl.org/services. FEATURED EVENT 5 General view of a homeless encampment in downtown Phoenix as unhoused people receive medical care from Circle The City's mobile medical unit on the 14th day of temperatures rising to 110 degrees Fahrenheit in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., July 13, 2023. REUTERS, Liliana Salgado Sunday, November 19 • 2pm Downtown Library Winter is coming! Stop by to try on and pick up a new-to-you coat for the season. The Library will be accepting coats and jackets at all locations from September 8th–November 17th. We will not accept items on the day of the event.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MAKING CHANGE The public has spoken: "We need shelter now!" GROUNDCOVER NEWS It was standing room only at the Washtenaw County Municipal Building on Wednesday, October 18. Most attendees were wearing the same sticker on their chests: “I support more funding for winter…” When public comment began, there was no question what the increased attendance at the Board of Commissioners meeting was supporting. A banner painted with “Shelter Now” was raised for all Commissioners to read. If you’ve been following Groundcover News recently, you’ll recall two articles written by Jim Clark, vendor No. 139, about the grassroots campaign, entitled “Shelter Now,” organized around three demands to expand and improve sheltering services in Washtenaw County. 21 members of the homeless community addressed the Board of Commissioners during public comment. Read some of their comments below, advocating for shelter. CALEB POIRIER “Having talked with folks who keep track of the census of the people who are attempting to get into the shelter, there is a 140-person-long waiting list to get into the shelter. This was made real to me earlier this week with a young woman (...) who has two twins in her stomach, several months pregnant, [and is] currently living under an overhang. Some folks feel that it’s only appropriate to house folks once they have a child, but I think that while you’re pregnant is a very dangerous time to be unhoused, and she is one of those 140 people who is unhoused. Currently there’s a disparity between the amount of services provided between Washtenaw County’s two sister cities where a majority of the population lives, in both Ypsi and Ann Arbor. In Ypsilanti there is a rotating shelter that’s supposed to move from faith community to faith community like it does in Ann Arbor, and that rotating shelter does not rotate because there’s only one faith community that has signed up in Ypsilanti. There has been an ask made of a multitude of faith communities in Ypsilanti to participate with the shelter in accomplishing the rotating shelter there. So this is an ask to everyone who has friends in a faith community of any kind, or knows of buildings that are open, to consider reaching out to the shelter to make that happen.” COLLIN SPRY “I just came here to speak from the heart. I’ve been homeless since 2019 when my wife died in a car accident. She was the last family that I had, and without her, I’ve had nobody. I’ve been living on the streets of Ann Arbor basically because Ann Arbor is a special community. I’ve been all over the country via freight trains, and I’ve seen NOVEMBER 3, 2023 Magnus the Entertainer addressing the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners during public comment. He was one of 21 speakers who addressed the lack of shelter in the County. all different walks of life, and this place is an anomaly. There is what I would call an actual homeless community. There are people here that actually take care of each other. We’re like family. And then there is a community that takes care of our community. People like Peggy, Gracie, Cynthia, look out for us in ways that nobody else around the country I’ve ever seen see PUBLIC next page  NOVEMBER 3, 2023 MAKING CHANGE Churches are critical for winter sheltering TESS ROUSTER Groundcover contributor The Delonis Center, operated by the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, is the only fixed location shelter for individual adults in Washtenaw County, and it only operates as an emergency nighttime shelter during the winter months. The need for winter shelter is greater than what the Delonis Center can accommodate. Moreover, unsheltered homelessness is rising and predicted to continue rising due to lack of affordable housing and cessation of COVID-era government aid. Because there is not enough space at Delonis and because it is not open for daytime shelter, SAWC also offers a rotating nighttime shelter for men and a rotating daytime warming center through faith communities in Ann Arbor. As of October 6, the congregations hosting the nighttime rotating shelter include: St. Mary Student Parish, Genesis/St. Clare's/Temple Beth Emeth, First Congregational Church, Keystone Church, First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor Friends Meeting, St. Luke Lutheran, First Presbyterian — Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor Christian Reformed, Zion Lutheran, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and University Lutheran Chapel. Additionally, Journey of Faith, Zion Lutheran, First Baptist and St. Mary’s Student Parish are also hosting the rotating Daytime Warming Center. Ypsilanti has historically offered more affordable housing options than Ann Arbor. Simultaneously, there is a higher concentration of poverty and a lower concentration of resources and opportunities in Ypsi. As a result, long-term residents are getting hit especially hard by the dramatic rises in housing costs, and the resulting rise in homelessness. This past summer, there were 15-20 individuals using the awning outside of Growing Hope on S. Washington St. due to a lack of shelter options. There are currently only two locations offering emergency shelter in Ypsilanti this winter: St. Luke's Episcopal Church will provide nighttime and the Freight House will provide daytime shelter Monday through Thursday. Unless other community organizations step up to offer space, there will be no shelter options Friday-Saturday in Ypsilanti this winter. There is an urgent need for congregations and community organizations to step forward to support people experiencing housing crisis by filling the gap in winter shelter in Ypsilanti, and for funding to cover the additional staffing. SAWC will provide staff to anyone able to any organization able to provide a facility. You can help by asking your congregation or organization to host temporary shelter this winter. If your congregation or organization is interested, you can email Dan Kelly at kellyd@washtenaw.org. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7  PUBLIC from last page do. Unfortunately this has been a rough summer, though. There’s been a lot of bigotry. We’ve been pushed around, bullied, thrown out of every different place. We were at the Plaza. The police came in the middle of the night, threw us out, threw all our stuff in the trash, kicked some kid in the head. And then we all moved down under (...) Fuller bridge because we had no other options, where the bulldozers came and tried to bulldoze all of our stuff. And we stood there. We would not let them touch our things because that’s all that we have. (...) It’s been an unfortunate event to see this bigotry aimed at people who have nothing. (...) It continues to blow my mind. But, I still support this community, and I think it’s a very beautiful place. Very special. So really all I wanted to say today is that decisions that are made today, just know that, as hard as this summer has been, the winter is going to be even harder, and lives are really at stake here.” MAGNUS THE ENTERTAINER “What happens when you close your door at the end of your night? And where must the homeless and unhoused lay down to recharge for the next productive day? These are questions, right? (...) What do we think will help? These are some of the questions that I ask myself while going through these changes as a professional (...). Well, not one individual program can solve these issues, alright? Not one program. It has to be all of us together. (...) Number 1: Funding the rotating shelter. In 2020, I was in the rotating shelter myself, and I was also in the Delonis shelter at the same time. As someone who was building a career while in this position, there are a lot of things that could have happened that would probably stop a person. But because of the rotating shelter and Delonis working together, a lot was achieved on their part, and the community that they serve. Another thing, keeping people alive, right? So it’s not just about giving a person a place to live, it’s not just about giving a person something to get through the day, it’s about actually keeping people alive. Because that’s what these services are doing, ultimately, breaking into new permanent housing solutions. So a lot of times we think situations like this have many layers to it unfinished!" "COUNTRY" MIDDLESTADT “I’m going to tell you, our system’s been broke. It’s been broke for a while. And you know what? You’re not gonna fix it when you’re not (...) looking at the fact that most of the people that are homeless within our community either have mental health or drug or alcohol issues. If we don’t deal with these drug and alcohol issues and mental health issues, we’re not going to fix our community, okay? We’re just going to be lying to ourselves. We have a shelter. We call it Delonis. Well I’m going to tell you that Delonis is basically more so of a (...) release center and a drug den. It’s also used at times for human trafficking. We need to fix that issue, okay? And that’s coming from somebody that is homeless in your community and is currently (...) doing five years of probation and has a lifetime registry for trying to take drugs off of your streets. Now, do I think that we need another shelter? Yeah, we definitely need a 24 hour shelter. We need a safe place for mamas and babies. We need safe places for children. (...) We don’t have that. (...) If you’re homeless living on the street, and you’re living in a tent, well, hopefully one of the local officers don’t (...) see your tent because what are they going to do? They’re going to tag it ‘You’ve got 48 hours or we’re throwing your stuff away’. And by the way, it’s a $500 fine if you’re caught. Do you think your homeless individual can pay $500? (...) Why don’t we fix what’s broken and not try to create something new? Cause we don’t need to create something new. We need to fix what we got. Now, I’m surely not (...) happy with HAWC that hasn’t been operating on our housing that’s preventing these agencies from doing their job.” JOHN KERGESTAL "I live in a homeless camp in Washtenaw county. I just want to start off by saying I’m truly grateful for the Delonis Center. There’s been plenty of times that I would have froze to death if it wouldn’t have been for them, and for them feeding us. I also want to say that I’m grateful for the Sheriff’s department because there is a certain Sheriff, that I’m not going to mention names, that does welfare checks on our camp, and personally makes sure that we’re okay. (...) Although he gets on us about drinking and whatever once in a while. But he still cares, and he doesn’t want to arrest us. He doesn’t want to take us to jail or anything. He just wants to make sure everything’s okay. And I hope that the City and the County will continue to fund the Robert J. Delonis Center because somebody like me truly depends on it.” STEFANI CROUSE "Earlier today, I attended my, I think, fifth eviction hearing this year. Every month I’m able to figure it out. I’m lucky. I have some ability to do that. However, this has been going on all year because there is no relief, right? There’s no place to go to ask for help right now and be able to actually get it. So we’re just figuring it out. In fact, my situation wouldn’t even be considered an emergency because my late rent is in the month that we’re in. But it’s every month. So I’m paying $250 extra every month because I’m paying for late fees and attorney fees to show up in court to have it dismissed. I’m not the only one going through this. I live in an apartment complex that is geared towards low-income people. I have watched my neighbors move out in droves. There are empty, naked units all over in my complex … and I don’t understand what’s happening. I am currently paying about almost $1,600 a month in rent to continue to live there because I can’t pay it on time. There are so many of me out there, and I just wanted to voice that tonight. Because my biggest fear is that one of these months, I’m not going to be able to figure it out, and I will become one of those people waiting for a bed for four to six months. And I don’t think that’s okay. And I don’t believe that any of you do either. And you have an opportunity to do something about it. Especially for those of us who live in Ypsilanti. And I’m talking about the women. Because the things that happen to us when we go homeless are unspeakable. And we need you to step up for us. Please … do something."

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POVERTY NOVEMBER 3, 2023 Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America, in conversation with Luke Shaefer You might recognize the names Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin from the cover of “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America,” which in 2015 reframed conversations on family poverty in the United States, ultimately leading to the expansion of the Child Tax Credit in 2021. Shaefer, Edin and Timothy Nelson’s newest book, “Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America” now looks at poverty from the macro-perspective of place, instead of person. They developed an assessment method called the “Index of Deep Disadvantage,” which calculated the 100 most disadvantaged and advantaged places in the country. Through data-driven, historical and immersive research — conducted between 2019 and 2022 — they have come to important conclusions about the origins and solutions to inequality in the United States. Lindsay Calka: How does understanding — and addressing — the 100 most disadvantaged places improve well-being and poverty across the country? Luke Shaefer: The problems that we have didn’t appear out of thin air. I think we often proceed like that’s true, but often, the challenges we have are a decade, a century in the making. This book focuses on a set of communities — the most disadvantaged 100 and 200. I think the lesson is that, when you want to understand why things are the way they are, you really have to recognize the history is broader and can be used in many different communities. A second argument in the book is that when we think about poverty, we usually are problematizing the individuals experiencing it. In this book we really try to make the case that there’s a collective problem that things are the way they are not just because of the actions or the circumstances of the families at the bottom of the economic ladder, but those are tied to people in the community far up the economic ladder, really to society as a whole, so we should broaden the scope of what we’re looking at and who benefits from the way things are, to a much broader part of the population. LC: Your 2015 book “$2.00 A Day,” was critical for the expansion of the Child Tax Credit. Who needs to get Injustice of Place in their hands? What outcomes do you hope it supports? LS: The nice thing about the first book was that there was a simple solution: providing cash can be an effective LINDSAY CALKA Publisher similar. So, how can poverty be the result of some family in 2016, 2019, 2023, making the wrong decisions, if we’ve seen the same patterns for 150 years? I think the book tries to make the way to reduce poverty.When we think about the things we do for poor families, I think the litmus test is “will this benefit them more than just giving them the money that would be used to provide the service that we want to provide them.” In “The Injustice of Place,” we don’t have [just] a single policy solution. I’m a big believer in cash transfers. We saw the impact that can have during the COVID pandemic — the expanded child tax credit and the economic impact payments, the stimulus payments — were hugely successful. I’m a full believer in that, but I think this book really suggests many different avenues that we need to be thinking about, including local government corruption. The people who are running the communities that have the most need, how much are they looking out for the folks at the very bottom? Social infrastructure — how much are there opportunities in any given community for people to gather and to have cheap fun together where they can make connections and use those connections to build supports for finding jobs, and role models, and whatever it is? The book really calls us to try to reduce community violence, and makes the argument that by expanding economic opportunity, that’s going to be one of our best ways to impact community violence. The downside is that there’s a lot of avenues in, but the good side is that, I think, communities can really focus on the things that there’s the most energy and infrastructure for. LC: How do you see — or have you seen already — the conclusions of this book influencing popular understanding of poverty in the United States? In other words, what myths are you busting about poverty? LS: So many of the challenges we have can be traced back to a century ago, or a century-and-a-half ago. Early in the book, you see our map of deep disadvantage for the Deep South compared to a map of the concentration of slavery in 1860, and they’re pretty darn case that we have to look at ourselves as a society, and re-think where the change has to come from. And, I think we saw that with the safety-net stuff that we did during COVID. We gave people a lot of money through the child tax credit, and also through the economic impact payments, expanded unemployment insurance; lo and behold, the number of Americans with bad credit fell to an all time low. People used that money to pay off their debt; they used it for food; they used it for essential expenses; they used it for rent. That sort of flies in the face of all of our concerns about giving people money and, more broadly, trusting families and empowering them to make their own decisions. LC: We know stark inequality is a characteristic of Washtenaw County — but this community can hardly be considered one of the "forgotten places of America." How would you apply the findings of this book to our local policy landscape? LS: I think of Washtenaw County as a real microcosm of our economic and social changes. Ann Arbor has always had more money than Ypsilanti, but the divide was not as great half a century ago. Over that period of time, we’ve seen the decline of the industrial economy, and I think Ypsi has really been impacted by that. The increasing rewards of the top knowledge economy, Ann Arbor has really been a beneficiary of that. So, if you want to sort of understand inequality and poverty in the United States, I think Washtenaw County is a great place to do it because you have this, like, growing stratification between two places. I think understanding how our systems kind of leave out a place like Ypsilanti, too, is clear. So, it’s not a rural place, but when you look at philanthropy for example, there’s more philanthropic dollars going into organizations in Ann Arbor because that’s where the money is. People like to give to their community, and so less money goes to Ypsilanti, or folks who are struggling in more rural areas in Chelsea or Dexter. You really see this mis-match between the need and the resources. A lot of what’s playing out here is playing out across the nation. LC: If you were to study this community with the same methods conducted in the book, where would you start in Washtenaw County? LS: The thing I am most disappointed in about Ann Arbor is I think Ann Arbor as a community likes to think of itself as very progressive or liberal, but a lot of our actions suggest we’re not willing to do our part in addressing the inequality that we have — as a small community, and as a county. I think that can take the form of affordable housing and services for folks who have challenges. So, “What can we do to even out the work of really taking these challenges seriously with the resources we have?” is our question going forward. Is Ann Arbor really going to do its part? It’s not like Ann Arbor does nothing. It hosts the Delonis Center, and that’s great, but how much actual action have we seen as a community in Ann Arbor on making housing more affordable? I don’t think there’s really been any. And, if you plotted the agencies that help Washtenaw County, and those in our county who are really having challenges, how many of them would be located in Ypsi, would serve people in Ypsi? And how many would be in Ann Arbor? You know, how many would be in other parts, and is that reflective of everyone sort of coming together to address the challenges? I think not. Who should be paying for it? Where should things be located? You know, we want it to be as accessible to the people who need it as possible, but we also don’t want Ypsilanti to bear all of the challenges of that work. Ann Arbor should be an equal partner. Luke Shaefer, Ph.D. is a U-M Professor of Social Work and Public Policy and the inaugural director of Poverty Solutions, an interdisciplinary, presidential initiative that partners with communities and policymakers to find new ways to prevent and alleviate poverty. NOVEMBER 3, 2023 RESISTANCE Talking truth to power Those words ring a bell in many-aheart that aspire to freedom and justice. When I wrote “The People Are the Power,” I was referring to labor power which is put on the auction block and sold to investors in the bureaucratic chain of command. You get wages based on what the market can bear and investors are at the head of the trough in a feeding frenzy. There is a collective ruling class that is dedicated to maximizing return on investment. Anything goes if it makes the profit they feel entitled to. The supremacism of those who speculate on our labor power has a degree of arrogance that is threatening all life on the planet. I saw a bumper sticker recently that read: “EARTH FIRST, WE CAN DESTROY THE OTHER PLANETS LATER! Of course, the moon is a base on the way to Mars. If you look at the accumulation of power at the top of the chain of command it may look invincible, unless you remember that selling your labor makes you a wage slave. If your work serves other people’s projects in which you have no voice, you are being exploited and oppressed by the class warfare that defines capitalism. insecure are likely to be looking at and/or experiencing homelessness. “Home free” as they say in Seattle. Groundcover News is an important KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 Therefore, our collective work builds the war machine that plagues humanity. Divide and conquer is the war game. Tyrants and oligarchs are cultivated or destroyed depending on the commodity market and the profiteering obsessive-compulsive disorder. Is it a cancer or a vampire that uses our vital energy to pursue endless war? Life source energy gives birth to human beings and the ability to work,which is commonly known as labor power. I prefer the expression “the all good expanse of primordial purity” when referring to the source. Self-determination starts with taking responsibility for the results of your labor. Those of us who are financially voice from the street as we learn to tell the truth as we experience it and focus on the corruption of power as it goes up the chain of command to those seeking unlimited power. The gods of capital are impermanent. We know from science that everything is in motion and is interrelated in a way characterized as impermanent. Death is our constant companion, reminding us that all actions have results and a happy death comes from constant preparation to develop a courageous heart and wise compassion. Most of us are beginners and are fortunate to have access to a variety of spiritual friends. Choose them carefully and take them to heart. Nalandabodhi is a good place to tune in. Search that and explore. We have learned that peace of mind does not come from the absence of struggle, but from absence of confusion and uncertainty. We can develop engaged struggle as the path to peace and justice. Whatever arises is reality in this moment. Every crisis is an opportunity to look into the void as it stares back at you. If you become accustomed to the void while focusing on the breath and detaching from distractions, you may experience the clear light nature, at least some sense of the natural world at peace with itself. I am thinking out loud about things I have not mastered, but I hope the intention to experience the power of truth and benefit all life comes to fruition with abilities we can share as we learn about freedom and our innate power to benefit self and others. Practice makes perfect, so let’s start wherever we are and aim for complete enlightenment. “Ye shall know the truth and the truth will set you free,” as Jesus taught. Not all truth tellers are crucified but do not be surprised if the inquisition comes to your door. Remember Thich Nhat Hanh who said, “Meditate on your worst enemy until you see yourself in them.” Then you, too, can speak truth to power in a way that shows the power of the truth and the great going beyond that leaves nothing behind. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9  SHELTER from page 5 not sure if they are even really there.” Routinely sleeping less than seven hours per night can be harmful to health. It lowers immune function, increases chronic pain and raises the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and death. For homeless people battling mental health challenges, addiction and past trauma, rest and recovery are essential to getting back on their feet. CASS staff have tried to create healthier sleep spaces, such as dorms that remain dark, quiet and cool at all times. Priority access goes to people with jobs. These sections can house only about a third of CASS’s residents, leaving others to sleep in dorms where there is more noise and light. More supportive spaces Simply feeding people and providing them with places to sleep is a major challenge for shelters in cities where homelessness is rising. But some have found ways to think more broadly. In San Diego, Father Joe’s Villages, a nonprofit network with a central campus and scattered-site programs, houses more than 2,000 people nightly. San Diego’s more temperate climate makes it less urgent to maximize the number of people they shelter indoors, so staff at Father Joe’s can use its decentralized design to create shelters with private and quiet spaces. The Father Joe’s network includes multiple smaller-scale facilities where clean bathrooms are easily accessible and homeless people can use basic amenities like laundry and storage. One example is Mary’s Place, a collection of diverse shelters that provides emergency and long-term support in smaller facilities modeled after the simplicity and comfort of a home. People experience less stress and can more easily navigate the challenge of ending their own homelessness when they can get a restful night’s sleep in a quiet environment, with spaces that allow them some privacy. We are encouraged to see other U.S. shelters moving in this direction — but there’s a long way to go. Steps toward better design To address the lack of privacy at CASS, we have proposed subdividing the day room into more private spaces to accommodate activities like online telehealth appointments, counseling and job interviews. To tackle the longterm impacts of overcrowding, we also have recommended introducing sanitation amenities, such as laundry facilities, “hot boxes” to sanitize clothing and bedding, more bathroom facilities and reliable trash removal to reduce the spread of infection and pests such as bedbugs and lice. For new facilities, designers could consider small changes, such as increased storage and more diligent regulation of temperature, light and noise. Hospitals, nursing homes and retirement communities have found many ways in recent decades to use design to support patients’ health. Many of the same concepts can be applied to emergency shelters and help turn these facilities from institutional warehouses into spaces of health and opportunity. Natalie Florence is a Ph.D. candidate in humanitarian design and infrastructure studies at Arizona State University. Heather Ross is a clinical associate professor in nursing and clinical associate professor at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University. Courtesy of The Conversation / International Network of Street Papers

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POLITICS NOVEMBER 3, 2023 Palestine rally at Congresswoman Dingell's office calls for ceasefire, no more funds for Israel MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Monday October 23, a pro-Palestine rally — organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement, U-M Graduate Employees' Organization and Students Allied for Freedom and Equality — took place in front of Congresswoman Debbie Dingell’s Washtenaw County Office. The main message from the participants at the rally was a call for a ceasefire in Gaza and to denounce the United States' support and aid to Israel. The rally was peaceful and informative. It was one of the many rallies and protests that took place these last few weeks around the world following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. These protests showed support in solidarity with the people of Palestine and set the stage for a major protest and demonstration in Washington D.C on November 4. Heidi, a participant at the rally, said, “This is an obvious injustice, we all know that colonialism and ethnic cleansing are wrong, and yet our government sends money every year to aid and abet it and now we sit by and watch innocent people die en masse.” Another participant at the rally, Galen, said, “This term the Israeli called ‘mowing the lawn’ is a euphemism for murder and another iteration of what we have seen for decades now, the end game is the same innocent people dying, and I’m not for that.” Top image: Speaker from Yemeni Liberation Movement addressing crowd at rally. Bottom images: Protestors standing in solidarity, listening to speakers and preparing to shut down Washtenaw Avenue in nonviolent protest. by Izzy Hedin-Urrutia NOVEMBER 3, 2023 POLITICS Cartoons are a depiction of our actions There is no doubt that cartoons — from children’s books to political cartoons — bring valuable life lessons. With records indicating that more than 1.6 billion people live in inadequate housing worldwide, how is homelessness being represented through satirical cartoons? Titled “How America Solved the Homeless Crisis,” this cartoon by Pat Bagley depicts how many turn a blind eye to homeless people. It begins with stigmas around the homeless that MAY THET NAING U-M Student contributor GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Dick Wright, Cagle Cartoon, 2023 dreamt of spending our adult lives freezing in cold weather? This is the reality of homelessness. With people living on the streets being more vulnerable to fatal cases of frostbite, it is reported that 700 people experiencing homelessness yearly are killed from hypothermia in the United States. This does not include other deadly conditions homeless people experience, including unsanitary living conditions, stress, violence, inadequate food and limited access to health care. The Signe Wilkinson piece brings up Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune an important question: “Who does homelessness concern?” Though the obvious answer is everyone, all of us often get lost in shifting the blame onto others. As portrayed by the cartoon, the time spent figuring out whether Democratic or Republican states have the highest amount of homeless people residing there could also be used to see the bigger picture — how do we solve the problem of 582,000 people experiencing homelessness in all of the United States? Homelessness is everyone's concern because the issue is a vivid reflection of the state of our society. Significant reasons behind homelessness include lack of access to affordable housing due to ever-rising house prices, domestic abuse, limited employment opportunities, addiction and mental illness. The most extreme problems people face globally are all interconnected. Just as income disparity drives homelessness, homelessness drives poverty rates. Perhaps we should begin to see these effects of homelessness as a wake-up call — a call where we start to recognize that this is all of our problem. These cartoons are just the tip of the iceberg in displaying the difficulties of those without a home. Nevertheless, through satirical art we can come to acknowledge the true acts of ignorance and disregard many have toward homelessness. In many historical movements, art has done a beautiful job of drawing attention to social issues. But what should follow art? Collaborative long-term effective action! Signe Wilkinson, The Philadelphia Inquirer many people believe that homeless people are all lazy or violent criminals. The act of simply “drawing curtains” on the homeless, as indicated by the cartoon, can be interpreted as a reflection of policies that fail to address the root causes of homelessness. For instance, in Detroit, initiatives to deal with the issue led to the creation of a housing services helpline where people can call in to receive legal resources for evictions or report poor rental conditions. Since its launch, however, the service has been described as a “dehumanizing experience” as users highlight long phone wait times, insufficient operating hours, and frequently being informed that there was no local shelter they could be placed in. As children, we had dreams of pursuing any career we wished to, but who

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PSA Narcan saves lives! JANE REILLY Groundcover vendor No. 611 Fentanyl, an illegal opioid drug, looks like aspirin, sidewalk chalk, and candy like Skittles or M&Ms. Opioids can also be prescription drugs such as Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin, methadone and other legal drugs that reduce pain and promote feelings of pleasure and relaxation. High school, college, professional and weekend athletes often take prescription painkillers as well as people with muscle, back and joint pain. These legal opioids also are addictive and fatal. Being a first responder does NOT mean condoning drug use. A first responder saves lives and prevents suicide, murder and accidental death. Dr. Gina Dahlem, a Clinical Associate Professor of Nursing at the University of Michigan and a family nurse practitioner, ran a Naloxone Training session on Saturday, Oct. 7 at Mercy House in Ann Arbor. Dahlem serves as Nurse Practitioner at Packard Health/Shelter Association of Washtenaw County. Dahlem teaches opioid overdose prevention regionally and nationally. Narcan, the brand name for Naloxone, reverses opioid overdoses. Narcan works on dogs, too. If you suspect an overdose or find someone unconscious: 1. Arouse: Shout their name, shake shoulders vigorously and perform a sternal rub; 2. Check for signs of overdose: Slowed or no breathing, blue lips and/ or fingernails, unresponsive to pain (the sternal rub is uncomfortable); 3. Call 9-1-1; 4. Give Narcan by placing the nozzle in a nostril and pushing the plunger; 5. Provide oxygen by giving rescue breaths, two breaths initially then one breath every five or six seconds; give CardioPulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) or follow dispatch instructions from 9-1-1 on speaker phone; 6. Narcan again if they are still unresponsive after two to three minutes. Repeat Narcan in two to three minutes if the person does not resume breathing. If you must leave the person unattended or if the person vomits, place the person in a recovery position, lying on his or her side. Stay with the person, if it is safe to do so, until help arrives. Dahlem explained that opioids adhere to nerve receptors in your brain. Opioids inhibit and then stop you from breathing. Narcan replaces the opioid on the brain receptor and prevents more opioids from NOVEMBER 3, 2023 Photo sourced from News Nation Now. attaching. "The effect of the opioid is that it slows down the drive to breathe," Dahlem said. "Every second counts." Dahlem said fentanyl is a synthetic man-made opioid that can be manufactured in any laboratory. Fentanyl is so strong the effect can last up to three hours. The effect of Narcan only lasts 30-120 minutes. It is important to call 9-1-1. Narcan only works on opioids. "If it's used on an unconscious individual with no opioids in their system, then it's like squirting water up their nose," she said. Dahlem said the police are trained responders and they look at the event "not as a criminal investigation but as a medical emergency." The Michigan Good Samaritan Law was changed in 2014 to include Narcan. "You are protected under the law for helping," Dahlem said. "No matter what happens, you did the right thing because you responded." Dahlem passed out free Narcan kits which included naloxone nasal spray, gloves, a face shield and an instruction pamphlet. Narcan kits are $45 over the counter at drug stores — but Groundcover News suggests accessing Narcan for free at the Ann Arbor District Library Downtown branch. Free kits and free web-based and in-person training are available at www.overdoseACTION.org. Free web-based CPR training is at: www.learncpronline.net The website for opioid overdose and naloxone training and resources was developed collaboratively by the University of Michigan School of Nursing, Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office and Home of New Vision. NOVEMBER 3, 2023 PUZZLES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD from the International Network of Street Papers 1 9 12 14 16 19 24 27 30 32 39 42 45 48 53 54 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Instrument that registers movements of the heart 12. Governments run by many individual experts in their own fields 14. "Let them eat cake" is misattributed to her 16. "Gladiator" setting 17. "What's the ___?" 18. Victorian, for one 19. Alone 20. Kidney deposit 23. "-zoic" things 24. "Do the Right Thing" pizzeria owner 25. For all to hear 26. High up 27. "Star Trek" rank (Abbr.) 28. Stallion, once 29. Puts down 30. Official who investigations complaints against the government 32. Islamic ruler's decrees 35. Auditory 36. Dash lengths 39. 18-wheelers 40. Cousin of a raccoon 41. Police, with "the" 42. Not "fer" 43. Wed 44. Federal law applied against the Mafia 45. ___ Khan 46. Title for some monks 47. Rocket fuel ingredient, for short 48. Cord cutters forgo this to save money 53. Complexity 54. Recklessly wasteful DOWN 1. Breakfast choices 2. Breezing through 3. Perlman of "Cheers" 4. Letters from your parents? 5. Charged particle 6. Columbus Day mo. 7. Pulverized 8. Bring up 9. Pimples 10. Type of graph or dessert 11. They're straight, slangily 12. Clan plaid 13. Attack by plane 14. Expert pool shot 15. Bridge positions 20. People with poor hygiene 21. Fragrant tree resin 22. In the open air 23. Brio 25. High points 26. Old-timey counters 29. Accord 30. Father of Balder 31. Polaris, for one 32. Sir ___ Newton 33. Jamaican music genre 34. Friendly 36. Snob 37. Computer shortcuts 38. Faint 40. Photo capture device 43. Engine 44. Like dough that's ready to be baked 46. Balance sheet item 47. "A Postcard to ___" (Jens Lekman song) 49. Calif. airport 50. Head, for short 51. Info available at 49-Down 52. Relax 49 46 50 51 52 43 47 33 34 40 44 35 25 28 31 36 41 37 38 29 20 21 22 26 17 23 18 10 11 13 15 13

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS INJUSTICE Discrimination is a common practice Every day we make assumptions about the world around us, and the people in it who we inevitably cross paths with. We assume our assessments to be completely accurate no matter how different the reality may actually be. We may even become angry at any attempt made to point out we are not as infallible as we would like to think. This is definitely a shortcoming a majority of people share, and yet, we parade around this notion that we have abolished discrimination and embraced true equality. We have become quite adept at lying to ourselves that we’ve obtained a fair and just world. This article covers only one small wave in the ocean of discrimination that is still in practice. You have heard the saying “all walks of life,” and I believe that the walk of life you’re in plays a significant part in how prevalent discrimination is in one's life experience. In a world that holds wealth as the all-important factor in life, then the perceived measure of success you have will play a role in how much discrimination you will  HOUSED from page 4 performance. “It’s amazing to see them in action and cheer for them. I can also read about their stories and insights in the sports columns and magazines. I feel more connected and informed as a fan. I feel more alive and happy as a person.” He continued, "Basketball is more than just a game for me. It’s a source of motivation and entertainment. It’s a part of who I am and what I love. It's the most important thing … it is a source of hope during the calm and storms of life,” he says. Another thing that changed for him was his diet and hygiene. When he was homeless, he used to cook and eat exclusively processed foods, which were cheap and convenient, but unhealthy. “I didn’t have much choice or control over what I ate. I ate whatever I could find or afford, which was mostly canned, frozen, or packaged foods. They were high in salt, sugar, fat, and preservatives. They made me feel sick and sluggish,” he said. Now that he has his own kitchen, he has encouraged himself to learn how to cook with natural unprocessed foods, which are fresh and nutritious, but more expensive. “I have more choice and control over what I eat. I can buy fruits, vegetables, grains, meats and dairy products from the grocery store or the farmers market. They make me feel healthy and energetic,” he says. or use a homeless shelter for their address. Understandably there is a risk of contracting a serious disease in these environments, but it’s an extremely small and unlikely one. This is simply another act of discrimination towards the income-challenged. Since we live in a society that worJAMES MANNING Groundcover vendor No. 16 face. If you’re wealthy, you face little if any discrimination and daily challenges. But if you are poor, discrimination and the challenges it brings will be a constant element in your life. You can also find it in just about everything you do. This even includes donating plasma for a little extra income. Plasma clinics are one way for people who are financially challenged to supplement their income. However, for “health and safety reasons,” they often have policies barring people who have recently been incarcerated and/ He is glad that he has found a way to improve his diet and health. “Eating well is more than just a habit for me. It’s a source of wellness, satisfaction and enjoyment. It’s a part of how I take care of myself and what I value." Another thing that changed for him was his access to a shower. When he was homeless, he had to rely on the YMCA hours and YMCA voucher from Delonis Center, which were limited and inconvenient. “I didn’t have much privacy or comfort when I showered. I had to wait in line or rush. I had to use whatever soap or shampoo they provided, which were often low quality or harsh on my skin and hair. They made me feel dirty and uncomfortable,” he says. Now that he has his own shower, he can shower whenever he wants and however he likes, which is flexible, convenient and without luxury cost. He is glad he has found a way to enhance his hygiene and self-esteem. “Showering well is more than just a routine for me. It’s a source of cleanliness, relaxation and confidence. It’s a part of how I present myself and what I respect,” he said. Another thing that changed for him was his ability to cope with the summer heat and the bugs and malicious free agents (both homeless and housed) who were in full swing during the warm season. When he was homeless, he had to endure the high temperatures and the insects that bothered him constantly. He also dealt with threats of violence or theft from other ships money it's only natural we deem wealth as a virtuous, good and pure thing. And sadly society deems that those without it are immoral and unhealthy. And nothing screams poverty louder than being or having an association with homelessness. Hence, plasma clinics will deny the opportunity to make a little extra money to those who could use it the most. Until money and the entire concept of wealth itself are totally abolished, discrimination will be a prevalent factor in how our society operates. Injustices will continue to be doled out to the less fortunate, further diminishing their chances of having a prosperous life. The fact that poverty is viewed as a negative element and those who are afflicted with it are getting what they deserve, is people who wanted to take advantage of him or harm him. "It was miserable living on the street during the summer. It was hot and sticky. There were mosquitoes, flies, ants, spiders and other bugs everywhere. They would bite me, sting me, crawl on me or get into my food. There were also people who would harass me, rob me, beat me up or worse. They would target me because I was vulnerable and alone. They made me feel scared and helpless," he said. “It’s wonderful living in my home during the summer. It’s cool, dry and comfortable. There are no bugs inside my home. There are also no people who can bother me or hurt me inside my home. If there are any outside, I can lock my door or call the police for help. They can’t touch me because I have rights and security,” he said. a point of view that should be absent from human conscience and morality. Many of us grow tired of this hypocritical behavior that serves to broaden the divide of classes. We grow tired of the knowledge that it will take our collective race the loss of nearly everything to achieve the kind of unity required to identify what is truly important and work towards a better world and future for society as a whole. Unfortunately, this kind of phoenix rising from the ashes scenario is unlikely to happen and plasma clinics will continue to employ their defective policies towards the homeless. Sadly, the discrimination people face is a common and daily occurrence in our lives. It has been and will be a tool for the affluent to project their intolerances. It will always remain a barrier to those on the receiving end of prejudice. This is the way things are and they are unlikely to change, but so long as people are fighting for a fair and better world, that particular dream will never fade. So don’t ever give in to despair and give up on a better world. He is glad that he has found a way to survive the summer with ease and safety. “Staying cool and bug-free is more than just a luxury for me. It’s a source of relief, comfort and peace of mind. It’s a part of how I enjoy myself and what I appreciate,” he said. He is still working on overcoming his fears and doubts, but he is hopeful for the future. “I want to be more independent, more productive, more happy. I want to give back to the community, to help others who are in need. I want to live a normal life,” he said. John’s story is one of many examples of how housing can change lives for the better. He is grateful for the opportunity he has been given, and he hopes that more people who are homeless can find their way to a home. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS C A R D I O G R A P H T E C H N O C R A C I E S M A R I E A N T O I N E T T E A R E N A U S E S T A G S T O N E S A L E N S C O L T E R A E R A S A L O U D A L O F T A B A S E S O M B U D S M A N I R A D E S O T I C E M S S E M I S C O A T I L A W A G I N M A R R Y R I C O A G A D O M C A B L E T E L E V I S I O N E L A B O R A T E N E S S E X T R A V A G A N T N I T R O NOVEMBER 3, 2023 NOVEMBER 3, 2023 JAIL CORRESPONDENT Let’s talk about jail in Washtenaw County Hi, this is vendor #583, and I want to talk about jail in Washtenaw County. We’re locked down here pretty much all the time. We have two times we get out. For 18 hours we’re locked down. That’s a long time. I’ve been working on a class, that helps me to get out more — if we’re not on complete lockdown like I was a few weeks ago. It’s harder to be a woman in jail because we get work cards and still have a lockdown. Guys get to work and they clean the whole jail and they get to go outside. Girls have a harder time. We have mental health services here which we do not have much access to. There are no one-on-ones. Court helps get us to rehab. You have to use this “kiting” [an informal request or complaint system] on everything. Say you want to talk to someone like the chaplain, or the mental health workers. They give you this “kite” and you fill out your first name, last name, what block you’re from. Mine is G. You get a pen, and you have kite paper, and then mental health sends you some coloring pages or crossword. Keeps you busy. The kite system is our way to complain on any issue. You send the kite, and it goes in the care of the officers; they don’t have to accept your kites. Then medical has their own kiting system to see the doctors and to get meds or see the dentist. Doctor visits are now $10 and dentists $10. We have a dayroom TV. As I was saying, there are two times you get out. There are two levels. Level time. We can buy coffee, pop, clothes, underwear, socks, boxers, shampoo, or body wash in jail, lol. We wear all white to go to bed in, white T-shirts, socks and our long johns. It’s a very cold and hard place to be in. Once you’re locked down it’s very BEVERLY BOSS Groundcover vendor No. 583 1 gets out in the morning, and the second level gets out in the afternoon, and then we’re all locked down after that. Today I got out from 1-3:30 p.m. Back out 8-11:30. That is our long day. Short days are 8:30 a.m. till 11 a.m., 4:30-7 p.m. And if you’re lucky you get classes while you’re locked down :) We have to wear shower shoes and uniforms and only get to wash clothes once a week. Back to the work card mentioned in the first paragraph: if you work, the hours add up and you could earn early release. But it's still up to the judge. We can have a tablet that you can use as a phone and watch videos or podcasts, but we have to order them from the store with money. Say your family wants to put money on your account. Your family puts money on the commissary (it’s new, now, so it’s called eXpressAccount.com). You take the money, buy a movie or something else, and put money towards your store where you can add it to your phone hard. Some don’t have family or friends, and you feel like you’re forgotten about. Lots of girls and guys have mental health problems and nowhere to go. It's a very sad, hard, cold place to look at yourself. You look forward to mail from outside, you look forward to being visited and a little money on commissary. It’s all every jailmate looks forward to, a phone call. The struggle in some jails is needing a phone call and having no kite, no one to help you out, and so you beg other jailmates to help with phone calls. It took me three weeks to get a hold of my dad. The jail up north [in Standish, Michigan] is very cold and very hard and you feel no hope and it feels like you’re forgotten. Thank God I have Groundcover News. I would never have had anyone to reach out to in isolation but for Lindsay at Groundcover News. It has been a big blessing to me. Like a sister, she never left my side and has gone above and beyond to help me out. Washtenaw Camp Outreach has been amazing. The help and support I have been getting has been so much appreciated. I could never really show how much it means to me. I have been blessed to be a Groundcover vendor. I have family I never had before and a job that helps me to grow, with life’s ups and downs. I also want to thank the readers and customers for their support. You guys are amazing to me. That's it on jail. I’m going to say bye “till next time.” It takes a village to raise a baby and I think it takes a village to help people with mental health issues. People outside jail [on the street] need a hand. Our push, our kind word or hug, our prayer, our ear, someone to listen to you, compassion. We need to lift people up, and some have more than others. Start helping someone you see on the street; people need people. I don’t want to be forgotten in a cold place. I feel love and worth now. I am working on me, and I have family and friends and support. This is my “kite” to my readers, my hope. I started at Groundcover News and you let me have a voice. I once did not have one. I am nothing without you and Groundcover. I want more mental health and help for “the veterans,” and more love and joy to spread. So if you see someone down outside, just a kind word can go a long way — letting street veterans know they are cared about and not forgotten. It’s not all about money — it’s thought, companionship, fellowship, that people need. Over and out. Groundcover News salutation, vendor No. 583. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15  FACTORS from page 4 discrimination and housing discrimination hurt many, leaving them homeless. Perhaps a possible solution for the current chaotic state of affairs could be a rise in open co-op housing, similar to that for university students. There are two types of underemployment: visible and invisible. Visible underemployment is underemployment in which an individual works fewer than full-time hours in their chosen field. Invisible underemployment refers to the employment situation in which an individual is unable to find a job in their chosen field, and is paid much lower than their customary wages. “Not in the Labor Force” is actually a third type of underemployment in which individuals cannot find suitable work and quit the labor force altogether. In 2020, the underemployment rate skyrocketed after the market crash. The combination of underemployment, stagnant wages and job layoffs contribute to homelessness. Mind Your Own Mental Health It is estimated that up to six percent of all American adults suffer from some type of mental health issue. Among the homeless, this rate rises to 20-25%. Although Washtenaw County has remarkable mental health services, many individuals go untreated, sometimes in combination with substance use. Mental illness sometimes is just the way the brain is wired, and is biochemical in nature. Thus, mental illness is not the individual’s fault. Soldiers returning from World War I, WWII, Korea and Vietnam had mental issues termed as Shell-Shock, now known as post traumatic stress disorder. This contributed to homelessness, and was sometimes tied to domestic abuse and job loss, leaving Know When to Quit, it’s Not Legit A common stereotype of the homeless is that they are all addicted to alcohol and/or drugs, which is false. However, it is true that among the homeless population the rate of substance use is disproportionately high. In 2017, the National Coalition for the Homeless found that 38% of homeless people were dependent on alcohol, while 26% used it alone or in combination with other substances. In some cases, homeless people have even turned to using crack, meth or heroin in order to obtain Social Security Disability payments. While this is a fraud, it is because that may be the last option for obtaining housing. Now that Fentanyl and other synthetic drugs are on the street market, the rates of addiction and death are poverty and some individuals or families homeless. As many as 200,000 veterans are living on the streets today. on the rise. I feel that random drug testing at the shelter should be mandatory, and a program like Celebrate Recovery should have meetings at the Delonis Center and/or the Commuinty Mental Health Annex. This can help individuals break their addiction. This is the end of my first article on the ten categories and 17 factors. Still to come is discussion of shelter issues and the money trail from HUD (federal Housing and Urban Development) down to local authority. Stay optimistic, keep your chin up, you matter. You are loved. Thank you to my supporters! To be continued …

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Quick shrimp curry JOHN BUCKLEY Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 frozen package of those little dinky shrimp (cooked) 1 onion, chopped 1 can cream-of-whatever soup (shrimp, chicken, mushroom, celery) 1 or more teaspoons of curry powder Directions: Sauté the chopped onion in butter or oil for a few minutes until it starts getting translucent. Stir the curry powder together with the concentrated soup. Dump the soup-curry mixture and the shrimp into the pan with the onions. Stir it all together until the shrimp is heated through. NOVEMBER 3, 2023 Let’s use West Park bandshell for democracy SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover contributor The West Park bandshell was built during the Great Depression and received funding from the Works Project Administration. It became part of the park in 1938 and has served as a focal point for community and charitable events. Now it needs to be converted into a political assembly platform and West Park needs to be renamed Democracy Park. America’s founding fathers established a constitutional plutocracy that gave “we the people” just enough democracy not to revolt. We are in a new age now that requires citizen participation. Converting the bandshell into a political assembly platform where people would learn how to be responsible citizens by hearing speeches, debates and discussions on public affairs would foster a democratic movement. People would be participants in democracy by exercising their First Amendment right to assemble peaceably and this would lead to genuine community development. The 1960s was a revolutionary era. There was a vibrant civil rights movement and a passionate anti-war movement. During this time many bands played at the bandshell including the Grateful Dead. These were the good old days for many, but we must stay up with the times by using the bandshell to help create a democratic movement. For more information about the city’s planning process for the West Park bandshell, visit www.a2gov.org/ departments/Parks-Recreation/ administrative/Pages/WestParkBandshell.aspx FOCUSED ON LOCAL! People’s Food Co-op is committed to increasing access to local foods and products! Through a variety of new and extended partnerships, we offer more opportunities to Ann Arbor. $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 12/3/2023

2 $ OCTOBER 20, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 22 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. PAULA Ypsilanti Police Chief responds that Gordie's case "wasn't handled correctly." Page 7 ANDERSON #157 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COMFORT FOOD? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. 41-year-old St. Andrew’s Breakfast Program models nonviolent crisis response. page 4 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator Breakfast program volunteer serves Halloween donuts to a guest in the basement of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER handmade GROUNDCOVER JEWELERY OCTOBER 20, 2023 Roberto Isla Caballero, vendor No. 347, is a dedicated seller of Groundcover News. You have undoubtedly seen him selling on the corner of Washington and Main Streets, but many people are just finding out that he is also a seller of his own handmade jewelry. Each bracelet or earring he creates helps promote the paper! Bracelets are colorful beads with wooden block letters spelling “Groundcover News” and the dangling earrings are made with smaller beads great to give someone who “hearts” GCN. Whenever you see and talk to Roberto, ask to check out his bracelets and earrings for sale or call him at 734-686-0518. CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern Hunter Johnstone — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bauman Teresa Basham Beverly Boss Jamie Cameron Jim Clark Cindy Gere Alexandra Granberg Shannon French Tabitha Ludwig Ken Parks Earl Pullen Jane Reilly GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit James Evans Anabel Sicko Sandra Smith VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Luiza Duarte Caetano Zachary Dortzbach Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Ruben Mauricio Holden Pizzolato Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons OCTOBER 20, 2023 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What is your favorite comfort food? Spaghetti. — Paula Anderson, #157 Goat’s milk and goat cheese. — Ken Parks, #490 Reese's Cup ice cream, microwaved for 30 seconds. — James Manning, #16 A big, barbecue rib. — Pony Bush, #305 I call it “Almost Egg Foo Young.” Seven poached eggs with fried rice, onions, peppers, garlic and brown gravy. — Glen Page, #407 Warm milk. — Jane Reilly, #611 Mexican food. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 Actually, I never eat for comfort, I usually just have a cigarette. — Teresa Basham, #570 Garlic salads. Lentil soup, pinto soup. — Juliano Sanchez, #174 Calder's chocolate milk. I could live off it. — Terri Demar, #322 Chili and cornbread. My favorite, favorite though is Ben and Jerry's Half Baked ice cream. — Jamie Cameron, #612 Asking a chef what he likes to eat ... tough call ... but crab legs and butter. — Justen White, #543 Twizzlers. — Joe Woods, #103 Cookies and milk. — Mike Jones, #113 Hot dogs. — Denise Shearer, #485 Apple cider with apple pie. — Cindy Gere, #279 Ceaser salad. — Derek Allen, #177 BEVERLY BOSS Groundcover vendor No. 583 Groundcover News has been there for me since I’ve been homeless — to hold my head high, to feel These are some of the songs that I love to listen to because they soothe me. I like the song “Make Someone Happy” by Della Reese because it is a true song — when we make someone else happy, we are happy, too. And it feels good to be a blessing to someone else. Another song I like is “Mystery Lady” by Billy Ocean. It’s a fun song and it has a good sound to it and he tells her she's a mystery but a good woman at the same time. I also like the song “Lady You Are” by One Way because he tells her he appreciates the lady she is and all the good things about her. I like the song “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” by Belinda Carlisle, too. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Music that is soothing to me I also like the song “What the World Needs Now Is Love” by Jackie DeShannon because it is a true song no matter what year we’re in. I like “I Like To Live The Love” by CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 B.B. King because its a fun and good song. I like the song “Baby Face” by Little Richard because it's a fun, loving, cute song. I like the Christmas song called I like it because it is good to imagine heaven right here on earth. I like both versions of “Joy to the World” — the Christmas version and the “Joy to the World” that is a rock song because they both talk about happiness and good times. “Santa Baby” because I like to imagine getting everything I want all year-round from Santa and Secret Santa parties. I like the song “It’s A Miracle” by Culture Club because I like it when miracles happen. 3 Why I love Groundcover better about myself, to be able to provide food and help with the costs to just live. I was struggling and I still struggle. While homeless it feels good to work and make money — not begging others for food. Groundcover has given me a job to support myself. I don’t have to steal and I can pick my hours to work. Groundcover helps veterans, who I love. They need our support the most. They fought for us. Groundcover has not given up on any of us, no matter our background. Groundcover has taught us to be consistent and it gives us hope back into our lives. Groundcover gives us a way and place to warm up, help others, get new friends and work on helping others who feel helpless. We make a way to eat and put a roof over our heads! I appreciate my customers; people need people! We reach out and they reach out which is awesome. Reaching out is a beautiful thing! Lindsay, Ben and others are truly angels. That’s why vendor 583 is happy to be a Groundcover vendor! Love, Beverly Boss From the desk of Panda: Let the peace flow When I was a little girl back in the 1970s, war was still raging. I remember hearing “war is war,” and asking adults at the time, “What is war?” Being so young I did not understand. I looked around me; there was no war going on. The person told me war is fighting from two separate sides and when lots of people die. Right then, I chose to seek peace forever. I decided to find a way to be peaceful, whether it was doing karate or walking in the Arboretum, following a butterfly. Drawing nature CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 images. Meditation. Or dancing to my favorite song. I decided to create peace, wherever I went, to now, today. What I discerned about life is: that peace is a way of the mind, heart and soul. Peace is a state of mind. One must choose to be at peace and nothing else. In this, you create peace in the soul. You won’t even want to let go. Peace becomes a true way of life. One human at a time, we let go of hate, rage and anger. Let the peace flow to help end all wars, for it truly starts with one person at a time.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CRISIS RESPONSE OCTOBER 20, 2023 41-year-old St. Andrew’s Breakfast Program models nonviolent crisis response There is a commotion outside the Breakfast at St. Andrew’s. It's 7:15 a.m. on Reverend Paul Frolick's first day as the new Rector for historic St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 306 N. Division St., in Ann Arbor. Frolick goes outside and immediately starts shaking hands with everyone. It's nine a.m. Someone is waiting at the locked front door of the dining room. The kitchen is closed. The volunteers and guests have left. The new program director, Sue Nishi, goes back inside to pack a double-sized "to-go bag," putting in two meals instead of one, just in case. "We like to meet people where they are," said Nishi, who started September 15 after training for two weeks with former Breakfast Program Director Shannon Floyd and volunteering since February. Frolick's first day was September 5. He took over from Interim Rector E. JANE REILLY Groundcover vendor No. 611 Breakfast Program, a six-year member of the St. Andrew's Board of Directors and was instrumental in the hiring process for Nishi. "They're both coming in with this wonderful injection of energy," Halloran said. "We're so impressed by both of them. Everybody is." With 195 years of operations, includWayne Rollins and retired Rector Alan Gibson. There are other newcomers but it is Nishi and Frolick who work directly with the homeless community. "He comes around," said Colby Halloran about Frolick. "You see him, don't you? That's never happened since I've been here. He's very keen on this program." Halloran is a volunteer for the ing 41 years with the Breakfast Program, St. Andrew's ministries may be the longest-enduring social justice, community outreach organization in the County. St. Andrew's and the Interfaith Council of Congregations contributing in forming the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County in 1982, the same year as the start of the Breakfast Program. Various social justice groups in Washtenaw County, including Groundcover News, Community Mental Health, the Sheriff's Department, along with the City of Ann Arbor and its police force, are working for more community building and proactive crisis response instead of the current nationwide reactive police response. But St. Andrew's has already been modeling this for a while. While there are occasional disruptions by guests and even staff at the breakfast program, it's never daily and violence is rare. Nishi said problems are dealt with on "a case-to-case basis." "I am so grateful for the St. Andrew's Breakfast Program, which has been providing nutrition, structure and togetherness for community members for decades," wrote Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor via email. Ann Arbor Municipal Safety Officer Dave Monroe, a 35-year retired veteran of the police force, said while he couldn't speak on behalf of the entire police department, he thinks "the see BREAKFAST page 9  Beyond Walls screening and panel discussion calls for community connection On the evening of September 26, the Neutral Zone hosted a Beyond Walls event. Beyond Walls is an organizing initiative featuring documentary films that define and amplify what prison industrial complex abolition means, while inspiring people to imagine and take action toward a world without policing. The first film, “What These Walls Cannot Hold” was about the COVID-19 crisis in San Quentin State Prison in California and how the harsh, dehumanizing measures put in place due to the crisis are still active. The second film, "Defund the Police,” was a primer on how policing is shaped by race, gender, class and the dominant culture. The panel included Alejo Stark (GEO Abolition Caucus); Liz Kennedy and Luna NH (Care Based Safety); and Lindsay Calka (Groundcover News). The Graduate Employees’ Organization Local 3550 is a union of graduate students at the University of Michigan. The Abolition Caucus has a specific goal to defund and demilitarize campus police and cut university ties with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Care Based Safety is a grassroots organization that tasks itself with responding to conflict and crisis with life-affirming care, preventing destructive conflict and crisis through skill-building and social JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 • Often we're offered a flattened version that only portrays the negative when talking about abolition or defunding the police. But abolition is also about building and growing things. Could you share something that you've learned about the meaning of abolition?" The panelists' answers reflected their different perspectives but often centered around the role of Community Connection. In my time, both as a person who survived homelessness and as an activist and advocate, I have come across many support, collaborating with community partners in addressing the root causes of violence, crisis and neglect in Washtenaw County and building a culture and system of care-based safety for all. Groundcover News is the street newspaper you're reading — sold and written by those experiencing homelessness or who have experienced homelessness. The questions asked of the panel were: • For those of us questioning the idea that prisons and police keep us safe, or who want to build alternatives, what does building connections look like in your work? • The first film illustrated the importance of coalitions in abolitionist organizing. Can you talk about the role that coalition building plays in your work? people whose lives were made worse by policing and prison in a society where people are expected to take care of themselves. Many of these people are unable to get jobs due to their criminal records. People who have been incarcerated for a long time often struggle with housing and employment due to a lack of skills and the handicap that comes from being institutionalized. Some of them were arrested and jailed as a result of mental health breakdowns. Instead of being punished, they needed compassion and treatment. One individual I know was tased because he waved a spoon in “a threatening manner.” The person told me at the time of their illness they believed it was a magic wand. I was held in jail once. I had an apartment and a job that I found while trying to recover from homelessness at the Delonis Center. Fortunately, I was only held for the weekend, both of which were days I had off work. Had I missed work because of the detainment, I would have lost the job and probably, as a result, the apartment. This happens to people daily. Not only does this system work against people who are trying to live peacefully, it can destroy someone's livelihood and self-esteem. People do things for many reasons. They do harmful things because the system allows it or even propagates it rather than solving the underlying problem. The marginalization of both houseless people and the formerly incarcerated contributes to a cycle of crime and homelessness. Rather than abandoning them, the community should offer them a welcoming, healing and encouraging place. For every homelessness episode, there is a reason. For every crime, there is a reason. The reasons are often the same. Beyond Walls, the GEO Abolitionist Caucus, Care-Based Safety and Groundcover News all believe in a social system in which empowerment and relationships can take the place of control and imprisonment as a way to live together. OCOTBER 20, 2023 POETRY Pain SHANNON FRENCH Groundcover contributor My pain is my pain to share my pain is to share my brain So many windowless memories locked inside my brain, How can I explain the endless rain, you can’t contain what you can’t sustain Sooner or later you have to find a drain to let out the pouring rain, But every drain ain’t a good drain, some people use triggers to ease their pain While others use knifes to slice their veins, I wonder what they saw to make their life change, life is so complex that it’s beyond strange, Others use coke, X, and other amphetamines, I never wanted to hurt myself, I just wanted to forget the pain, So I chose drugs instead of triggers and veins, smokin’ weed and snorting cane I thought I was ahead of the game but it was all the same, I was still killin my brain, So now I use this pen to express my pain, this pain that is so heavy on my brain, If one sleeps the others are left to weep, but if we all sleep, nobody is left to weep, So many lives have been claimed from pain, so please brothers and sisters if you feel the same, find a better way to release your pain…. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 Love game TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 I alwayz told myself, I wouldn’t play this game, I never wanted ta open my heart, Now itz to late for myself, That love game, Called my name, Waitin for it, Ta tear me apart, Like it alwayz do, Callin out for me, Callin out for you, For now this will be, But will it last, Or izz it gonna pass, Only time will tell. Lord forgive me TABITHA LUDWIG Groundcover vendor No. 360 Lord forgive me For all the sins I've made Please Help me Take the Desire away Cause I don't want it No more I don't A day in the life of Earl EARL PULLEN Groundcover contributor It’s a phantom of a Dream who speaks now And then And it's love From above That tells you what to do And how to mend The dreams you have and The memories you hold Are all in one’s life To mend and mold It’s all in life And the story is told Of how you live life And how you hold And lord forgive me For all the mistakes I've made

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS DISABILITY JUSTICE My "un"-disability I was an epileptic at birth and still have grand mal seizures frequently. However, when it comes to disability, I’m deemed as “undisabled.” My disabilities are considered a “minor inconvenience” to those determining my Social Security Disability Insurance status, by those who do not know me at all. I take medication to prevent seizures and I have many mental illness diagnoses. I’m controlled, but by whom? Society expects — nay, demands — that I cannot be disabled. Despite being able to work 15 years in Information Technology and ten years in retail and food service in the past, I am now generalized anxiety disorder and degenerative disk disease. Yet, all these controlled conditions by medication does not mean I’m JAMIE CAMERON Groundcover vendor No. 612 disabled. My disabilities include epilepsy, schizotypal personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, major depressive disorder, social/ “cured,” it simply prevents episodes or seizures, and it does not mean that I am not disabled. At times the side effects worsen my disabilities. For example, Abilify causes tremors as a side effect. True, I am not by definition a paralyzed veteran (despite trying the major four military branches only to be denied due to epilepsy). I’m one of those who “slipped through the cracks.” In other words, because I am on medication, the government says I am okay. I am not okay. Now, when I mention schizotypal or schizoaffective, I only mean to say that occasionally I will hear male or female voices calling out my name, and see shadow beings full frontal or through peripheral vision. When I apply for a federal or professional job, there’s a list of disabilities to check off, some of which I can check. Having any one of these should qualify me to get SSDI. I take prescriptions, and I am still homeless, and have been since 2015. But, I am not determined to be eligible to get disability. OCTOBER 20, 2023 American disability rights movement: from public policy to advocacy The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is the cornerstone of the basic civil rights protection for individuals with physical and mental disabilities. The 2009 Amendment Act strengthened the non-discrimination component of the Disability Act. Some people had wondered why the Civil Rights Act of 1964 non-discrimination provisions did not include Americans with disabilities. One reason is that society for a long time took for granted the disability rights movement and their constant struggles for respect, acceptance and basic human dignity. A Brief History of the American Disability Rights Movement The disability rights movement has faced generations and centuries of struggle. They have won many court cases, they have triumphed over many obstacles and they have managed to get the support of U.S. Presidents such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. The movement has succeeded in getting several laws passed for the benefit of disabled Americans. But there is no legislative triumph bigger than the Americans with Disabilities Act. A more detailed explanation about the ADA comes from writer Jennifer Govan of Columbia University. She noted, “The Americans with Disabilities Act is a comprehensive civil rights law that was signed into law on July 26, 1990 by President George H.W. Bush. ADA covers a wide range of mental and physical medical conditions, including those that [are] not WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 necessarily severe or permanent in nature. ” As part of Columbia University’s celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Ms. Govan expanded the concept definition of ADA. She wrote, “It requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees, while imposing accessibility requirements in public areas, such as educational institutions, museums, stores, restaurants, governments and other service establishments. Prohibiting discrimination based on disability in a broad spectrum, the ADA was later amended, becoming the ADA Amendment Act, effective January 1, 2009.” We urge our readers who want to get more detailed information on the legislative history of the Americans with Disabilities Act to watch a video titled, “Who are the Heroes? A History of Disability Rights Movement,” presented by Barry Whaley of Burton Blatt Institute — a disability law policy center at Syracuse University Law School. The presentation was made at San Diego Law Library on Friday, July 22, 2022, to help celebrate the 32nd anniversary of the ADA. A lot of valuable information was shared with the audience, including a chronology of legislation and events that shaped the disability movement before and after the 1990 ADA. Mr. Whaley said that the first Vocational Rehabilitation Act was passed by Congress in 1917. It was designed for veterans who were returning from World War I. The Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1920 extended the benefits and privileges to civilians. Mr. Whaley noted that in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President with an obvious disability. It was widely assumed that FDR was elected President in 1932 to help end the “Great Depression.” However, disability rights advocates said that it was ironic that the disabled President excluded people with disabilities in the largest recovery program of the 1930s, known as the “Works Progress Administration.” Congress passed the Fair Labor Standard Act of 1938. It prohibited child labor and established minimum wage laws. It also established Section 14 (c) which allows employers to pay people with disabilities minimum wages. It also provides sub-minimum wage certificates to employers who choose to pay below the minimum wage. Sadly, Section 14, which still exists today, allows low wages which continue to keep disabled people in lives of poverty. In 1940, the American Federation of the Physically Handicapped was created. The American Mental Health Federation was created in 1946. Their organizing and mobilizing efforts led to the passage of the National Mental see DISABILITY page 8  OCTOBER 20, 2023 FOLLOW-UP GROUNDCOVER NEWS Ypsilanti Police Chief responds that Gordie’s case “wasn’t handled correctly” ALEXANDRA GRANBERG Groundcover contributor On September 8, Groundcover News reported that a driver in Ypsilanti — seemingly without legal consequences — ran over and severely injured Gordie, who is homeless and was on his bike. According to Gordie and another witness, the cops did not gather sufficient evidence at the scene or after. Groundcover has since watched the body camera footage supporting this. In the footage, the cops quickly conclude that Gordie is at fault, listing “no chain on the bike” and “biking on the sidewalk” as reasons, neither of which are expressly illegal — sidewalk biking is only prohibited in the downtown area between Huron and Hamilton. Gordie is sitting by the road with arms wrapped around his torso in pain while a cop, Justin Taite, talks to Gordie’s wife Jill. “Did you not see the car?” he asks. Taite asks Jill for Gordie’s personal and contact information. The driver seems unfazed as he stands by his car, a silver Sebring. “You say you didn't see him when you were coming up?” Taite asks him. “No, not at all,” he replies. Taite asks the driver whether his car has been damaged. Another cop separately confides in the driver that “he shouldn’t be on the sidewalk,” referring to Gordie. Toward the end, Taite walks up to three of his colleagues standing to the side. “Kinda sounds like they met at the same time. She was behind him, says he couldn't stop, she was coming down the sidewalk,” Taite summarizes. “The bike’s at fault,” one cop suggests. “Just asking for it,” a third cop, Scott Donley, says, failing to hide a grin. Taite is also smiling. “Issue has been addressed” The case report provides a less-than bare bones account of the incident, almost completely devoid of details. When Groundcover News spoke to the Police Department’s communication manager in August he said the case will be closed. But Police Chief Kirk Moore has later said the case was not properly investigated, that Justin Taite did not follow procedure and consequently has been written up. To Groundcover, Moore admits the case “was not handled correctly.” What does this mean for Taite? “I can’t elaborate on all the details at this point. The issue has been addressed formally with the employee.” What will happen with the case, and the driver and cyclist involved? “All I can say is it’s been handled and since corrected. The case will take its natural cause from there.” Justin Taite did not give a statement as per advice from his supervisor. Screenshots from police body camera footage, obtained via FOIA. Donley is pictured left; Taite is pictured right. 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES Hasta la victoria siempre! Spanish is a growing language in the United States. It may be your best choice to be bilingual and promote brain and mental health. The English for the title of this article is “towards victory always.” It is a basic slogan of the Cuban Revolution. Even setbacks and outright defeats can be turned towards victory. The July 26 Movement in Cuba was born from the defeat of the attempt to seize weapons from the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953. It is similar to the memory of John Brown and Harpers Ferry. Most of the revolutionaries were killed in battle or captured and murdered. Fidel was captured, but even as a prisoner, observed his situation closely and saw one of Batista’s officers was a man of some integrity. Fidel spoke to him and told him who he was. The officer then disobeyed his orders to take prisoners to an execution site and drove through town to the police station. It became known that Fidel was Nhat Hanh, whom King met, and Thomas Merton, the soul brother he did not meet in person, are the basis for a deeper revelation on what needs to be done to maximize the number of survivors of climate change and war. Above all, take notice of the plans for KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 still alive and the Batista dictatorship decided to put him on trial. Fidel got to speak and delivered the now famous “History Will Absolve Me” speech. We are in a different period of history now. The armed struggle is not the focus. The ideological struggle around which ideas work has become central. The impact of Martin Luther King on theory and practice and faith in reality has changed our understanding of who we are. His relationship with Thich nuclear war and the march of the war machine for first strike “shock and awe” by the end of this decade. OREPA, the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, has been organizing demonstrations and civil disobedience to stop nuclear weapons research. They have done vigils every Sunday for 22 years. The writing has been on the wall for decades and we are at the now or never moment. It is time for mind training as the first step as we learn to "compost war and grow peace." We are fortunate to have excellent meditation teachers in our midst. Khenpo Choephel is a new Tibetan meditation master who I met through the Karuna Buddhist Center. I am going back to the basics of following the breath as the gateway for taming the mind and developing some ability to benefit beings. Fortunately the vastness of the task before us begins with simple things. We can do it. When Sakyamuni Buddha was challenged that his awakening was not valid and he was harshly questioned, ”Who is your witness?” He responded by touching the earth. Mother Earth responded decisively. We have the famous statue of Buddha in the earth touching gesture, the inspiration for countless practitioners who are progressing on the path of enlightenment. Many of us begin the day with some focus on the holiness within. Search for the spiritual friends who can help you. Everyone you meet can be a teacher. Choose those who match your stage of development so we can move forward together. If you look you will find enough compañeros to move towards victory. Freedom is calling you! OCTOBER 20, 2023  DISABILITY from page 6 Disability Act of 1946, which was signed by President Harry Truman. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark legislation which was designed to protect racial minorities and women who were often victims of discrimination and prejudice. We have noted earlier that the 1964 law did not include Americans with disabilities. In 1972, two court cases regarding including people with disabilities in educational classrooms were addressed. They were Mill v. D.C. and Park v. Pennsylvania. Congress passed the 1973 Rehabilitation Act which prohibited discrimination based on disability for Federal government programs and any organization receiving monetary assistance from the Federal government. In 1975, Congress passed the “Education for All Children with Disability Act," originally known as "Education for All Handicapped Children Act." In 1978, the nation witnessed a widespread protest known as the “ADAPT Bus Crisis.” Protesters aimed to shut down bus transit services, especially in Denver, to bring attention to the issues of accessibility for the disabled community. In 1986, Congress passed the “Air Carrier Access Act” which would provide equal access and equality of opportunity for air travel. In 1988, major headline news in print and TV noted that Mr. I. King Jordan had been appointed the President of Gallaudet University for the hearing impaired. Gallaudet was founded in 1864, and it took more than 100 years for the school to find a leader who was deaf. In 1999, Title II of the ADA Act was tested in Olmstead v. L.C. The Supreme Court validated the primacy of the ADA. Mr. Whatley described Olmstead as “The most important disability rights case, perhaps, in our lifetime." The High Court has set the precedent for the enforcement of ADA. The most recent congressional action on ADA is the 2017 ADA Education and Reform Act. Helen Keller and Disability Rights Heroes PBS Learning Media presented an important story titled, “Advocacy for People with Disabilities — Becoming Helen Keller.” Keller was generally concerned about employment discrimination against people with disabilities, especially educated women. She also wanted to help address the issues of blindness in babies due to sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea. Helen Keller was blind and deaf but was educated. She became an advocate for job opportunities for women with disabilities who wanted to work in Massachusetts. With the help of friend Charlie Campbell, she appealed to the Massachusetts legislature to expand the civil rights of the blind and to help find employment for the blind. In Helen Keller’s time, more than 100 years ago, women were not allowed to talk about sex or venereal diseases (STDs). A cure was finally found for blindness in babies due to sexually transmitted diseases — a few drops of Silver Nitrate into the eyes of newlyborn babies. Keller was gratified when she visited the Children's Hospital in Boston’s Nursery Ward and found that there were very few babies in the crib who were considered blind. She said, “I think it was the happiest day of my life when I was told that the Day Nursery in Boston — once full — was then almost empty.” Keller and a few friends were invited by the highly circulated “Ladies Home Journal” to write articles about how the gonorrhea STD was unknowingly passed from the mom to the baby. Keller and friends were given very tough writing assignments because sex and STDs were considered taboo in 1903. The Massachusetts Association for the Blind and the Visually Impaired was formed by Helen Keller and Charlie Campbell. Keller expanded her work on disability issues and job opportunities for the blind. She lobbied steadfastly, and the Massachusetts legislature urged the necessity for employment of the blind. Helen Keller said, “It's terrible to be Blind and to be uneducated; but it's worse for the Blind who have finished their education to be idle.” The state legislature accepted Keller’s suggestion to form a commission to reduce blindness in babies. She was asked to be a member of the commission. There was no accommodation for Helen’s deafness while on the commission, so she brought in her own interpreters. She was not able to acquire all the relevant information she needed while serving in the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind. Predictably, she resigned. Conclusion Syracuse University legal scholarFranklin A. Carcamo wrote a March 2020 article in the Syracuse Law Review. The title is “The Past, Present, and Future: ADA and Thirty Years of Progress in Access, Inclusion and Opportunity.” There is no doubt about the challenges and successes of the disability rights movement. The people with disabilities and their advocates will be eternally vigilant. The victories are hard-won, and as battle-tested soldiers for freedom, justice and dignity. The movie documentary “Crip Camp” depicts a youth camp described by Barry Whaler as the “epicenter” of the disability rights movement in the 1960s. Find time to watch the documentary if you missed the screening at Groundcover News. There have been millions of heroes in the American Disability Movement. Barry Whaley of Syracuse BBI mentioned the School of Education Dean, Burton Blatt and a Disability Advocate Fred Kaplan. He also mentioned Ed Roberts of Berkeley, Marc Gold of alternative teaching modules, Fannie Lou Hamer, etc. There are plenty of stories of heroes in every community. OCTOBER 20, 2023 VENDOR VOICES Truth or lies: Amelia's birthday wish It was Amelia‘s 91st birthday. She was born in 1901 and reared in New York and New Jersey. She was the youngest of four children — two brothers and one sister. She was still residing at the family estate to be passed to her daughter, Maria. Her body often shook uncontrollably due to Parkinson’s disease. It had plagued her for the last 30 years. She was reminiscing on her 60th birthday when she last saw all her children alive and family together. Amelia had outlived two sons and three daughters. The only one left was her youngest daughter, Maria, who presented her mother with a birthday cake with flashing candles, a nine and a number one. They were special candles that did not require a fire. "Happy Birthday Mama, now make a wish." Amelia puckered her lips together to blow out the flashing candles. Amelia wished that she did not have Parkinson’s and could see her family again. Later that evening, while her daughter tucked her in bed, she said, “You know those candles were made at the flea market. The woman said ‘remember all wishes come true, and yours, can, too.’” Amelia smiled and nodded her head. The very next morning she woke up with no pain or shaking. She could move very gracefully and she could FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 her mind. It had been nearly a year. She still was feeling young. It was one month before her 92nd birthday — Amelia kept going to the flea market to try and find the candles. However, she never found the lady with the candles. She asked Maria to help her find the remember back to her childhood. Her sight and hearing improved also. She did not tell anyone about the change she felt the whole day, thinking that it would go away. Amelia quickly made plans to go to the museum the next day with her grandchildren. She was standing upright and walking as though she had never been sick. She stayed at the museum all day with the children until after six p.m. Her daughter was amazed and concerned that her mother was overdoing herself. After returning home with her daughter, Amelia waited to tell her before bed. Amelia explained to her daughter how great she felt. She felt like a 40-year-old woman. As the days and months passed, Amelia enjoyed her new health and youthful body. However, the thought of the return of the Parkinson’s was always on lady with the candles. Unfortunately, they never found her. During the last two weeks before her birthday, she started to feel a slow decline in her health. The last week before her birthday, she started seeing the children that preceded her. She never told Maria what was going on or what she was seeing. When Maria asked her what she wanted to do for her 92nd birthday, Amelia answered her saying she just wanted to love on her while she could. Three days before her 92nd birthday, the Parkinson’s symptoms returned. She asked her daughter Maria to make sure that everything was in order with her affairs. Maria did not want to accept the fact that her mother’s health had taken such a drastic turn. She went to the flea market one more time in hopes of finding the lady with the candles. No one at the flea market remembered the lady with the candles, or even heard of her. Maria felt desperate and that evening when she went to bed; she had a dream about the lady with the candles. The lady explained to her that you only have one wish per lifetime. The next morning when she awakened, she rushed to her mother's side and hugged her, letting her know how much she loved her and appreciated her. Amelia’s 92nd birthday was on a Sunday morning. At breakfast, Amelia explained to her daughter that she understood about the candles. Later that evening she was lying in her bed with all her children surrounding her, ushering her to the light. Amelia told Maria how grateful she was to see her children who were surrounding her bedside. She passed away that evening, happy and satisfied with the joy and love that she received in life. Is "Amelia's Birthday Wish" TRUTH or LIES? Go online at groundcovernews.org to cast your vote! The Quest, published September 22, was FALSE. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9  BREAKFAST from page 4 problems that arise there are the same that arise everywhere else. " In 2021, Ann Arbor City Council passed a resolution for an unarmed safety response program, possibly similar to the existing Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office pairing an officer with a community mental health expert. Currently, there are several ways the general public can positively engage with the Ann Arbor police and multiple programs for engagement with the Sheriff's Department. Some homeless guests now offer friendly greetings and introductions to those they recognize by sight and homeless group leaders discuss, offer and implement non-violent and first responder solutions among themselves, with social workers and even the police. The Breakfast Program is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt organization and separate from the Church, which enables Nishi to work with Food Gatherers and the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), a federal program that helps supplement the diets of people with low income by providing them with emergency food assistance at no cost. TEFAP is part of the United States Department of Agriculture which requires a separation of Church and State. Religion is never mentioned unless conversation is initiated by the guest or someone reads the biblical phrase, “Jesus said, ‘Come and have breakfast,’ - John 21:21,” painted on the wall over the kitchen. Ethics of various religions, the driving force behind the Breakfast Program, are shown through the behavior of Frolick, Nishi and the volunteers. "Our connection to the church is fragile but important," Halloran said. "I can't picture the Church or the Breakfast Program one without the other," Frolick added. The Parish Profile states, "We are well-positioned to take on new and expanded ministries and to reach out of our established zone. There are opportunities here that haven’t been dreamed of yet, and we hope to grow together as a community into realizing those new opportunities. " According to information from a congregational survey and small group meetings, the parishioners and 12-member Board of Directors want the Breakfast Program to improve. Not because it doesn't have a stellar reputation but because as a team, the parishioners believe in continuous improvement. In 2022, a donation allowed air scrubbers, machines to clean up to 99.99% of 0.3-micron-sized particles, mold and bacteria from the air and surrounding surfaces, to be added when indoor service resumed following COVID-19. The air scrubber information is courtesy of Hepacart. St. Andrew's did not miss a day of service during the pandemic. This is one reason why Nishi and Frolick take time to speak with each guest and Nishi has changed the menu to bring in more nutritious foods while minimizing food waste. Nishi added items to the menu such as different types and sizes of sausage (pork, chicken or turkey), cheese, meat sticks, yogurt, nuts, dried and seasonal fresh fruit, in addition to the staples of milk, eggs, cold cereal, grits, oatmeal, peanut butter, jelly, pastries, toast, different juices, coffee, tea and water. There is also a cart for guests to make their own "To Go Bag." Some items, like sugar-free apple sauce, are free through Food Gatherers while other normally expensive items like nutritional drinks are purchased wholesale. Nishi has a photo of her Mom, sister and herself in her car with 180 pounds of blueberries for the Breakfast Program. "Sue gets paid because the responsibilities have increased," Halloran said of the only part-time paid position. "It's a hard job." Nishi works with volunteer coordinator Susette Jaquette and about seven to ten volunteers at a time, easily over 100 for the year. The Breakfast is advertised as free daily for anyone in need, 365 days a year, from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in a room that fits up to 80 people with 14 tables and 55 chairs currently in use. Nishi is paid for five days a week, overseeing the program, planning the menu, budgeting, ordering food and fundraising. The expenses for 2020, according to Cause IQ, a website that provides information on non-profit see BREAKFAST page 11 

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THINK ABOUT IT MUSINGS buk’e wyrmouis Sometimes it seems so self-evident that there is much more to all of this than what gets in through the census. There are parts of self we create through volition. The dismal shady parts of us we keep to the side lines that seek re-cognition on account that there is so much more than surface tensions. The varied membrane of what we once clung to to fertilize what was set apart to colace, through an echo of timespace. There are things here in the soul of a sentient being which aspire to the eternal. Whilst the surface remains of how much we accumulate as citizens of our local areas THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SELF Sum Goi The tell tale signs of what has come at last to help our countenance relax into some casual time past. The removing of the debris of the day to another locale. The sense of acc-omplishment that comes with the satisf-action of performing good works of a day well done. To recollect the mind in ways that make sense still and cont-inue to do so(.) Many are the graces of life. Gratitude as a side-effect of who you are. collect psychic debris in the annals of history the dream life of beings tells another story… We seem to relate tales of purpose that goes beyond beyond words. The varied refracting spectrum of coloured shades of personality has allowed a diversity of expression that shapes the forms we make. There is some suchness as us. However potent. THE RATHER OPEN-ENDED FRIENDSHIP (HAIKU SPOTS) Tadd Weathers The all in all truth. We seek out for its own sake. Those designs with this. The purpose to life. Is the purpose of our life. the way these thing happen Thus spake the righteous. The ever-present logic. Comes back with the Thus. Therefore goes by God. The light of awares, we. So interesting. OCTOBER 20, 2023 CASUAL Mr. Chad Chealsea III, “a local writer” If’n i had an opportunity to give back with gratitude the resonating appeal with other being seems natural. The enthusiasm generating with joy for being a part of an higher truth what embodies the small details, to build up to a greater whole. To recognize the value we communicate allows the free flow of meaningfulness it’s full cycle by participating with this. There is much we share in everyday existing that allows the purposes inherent to grow from within the space we sow. There are ways to state the terms of things for these days. And so we make. OCOTBER 2O, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website.  BREAKFAST from page 9 organizations, were $153,764 or about $421 a day which includes rent, heat, electricity, maintenance and janitorial besides food. "I think we're very frugal, actually in the long run," Halloran said. Nishi said determining the proper amount of food used daily is a balancing act. A former lawyer who has volunteered at Food Gatherers, Nishi also has 13 years of volunteer experience cooking all the food for The Young People's Theater of Ann Arbor, which she described as "an eight-day marathon." "That's just Sue,” said Peggy Lynch, Mercy House owner and MISSION Board Member. "I think it's amazing that she made it part of her mission to be out networking. We have the opportunity to share resources and information. I'm grateful she reached out." Mercy House shared donated sleeping bags with the Breakfast Program. Many guests to the Breakfast Program have additional needs, physical, financial and emotional. Nishi is working on filling the clothing donation rack with necessary outdoor gear as well as dress clothes for employment. And, of course, continuing to speak with guests as often as wanted or needed. "I like to err on the side of giving chances," Nishi said. "I'm trying to treat every person as a human being, with respect and honoring their dignity. When you look around the room and see people who are having challenges and don't have resources or don't have shelter, I don't believe that is a direct result only of their personal choices. It is not. The playing field is not level. We don't all start in the same place, we don't all have the same privileges, we don't all have the same upbringing and adults who nurture us in the same way. You know that phrase, ‘There but for the grace of God, go I?’ You look at the blessings you have in your own life. We can't judge. We don't know why people are where they are and who they are. We need to meet them where they are, we need to call them by name and look them in the eye and say how are you this morning and welcome and I'm glad you came in. And I believe that deep in my soul."

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Applesauce ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 3 pounds cooking apples (about 9) 1 cup water 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon Directions: Peel, core, and quarter apples. In a large pot combine apples, water, sugar and cinnamon. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat. Cover and simmer for eight to ten minutes or until the apples are tender (add more water if necessary). Remove from heat and mash with a potato masher to the desired consistency. Serve warm or chilled. Be sure to stir before serving. I love the applesauce chilled and you can omit the cinnamon if desired. So perfect with fresh apples from the farmers' market. Makes eight servings. OCTOBER 20, 2023 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS FOCUSED ON LOCAL! People’s Food Co-op is committed to increasing access to local foods and products! Through a variety of new and extended partnerships, we offer more opportunities to Ann Arbor. $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 11/5/2023

2 $ OCTOBER 6, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 21 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Area leaders discuss what reparations might look like for Black residents. Page 10 MEET YOUR VENDOR: DENISE SHEARER PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Ypsilanti demands shelter and solutions. page 4 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM On the night of Wednesday September 22, signs were placed in front of empty commercial spaces across downtown Ypsilanti, highlighting their misuse. @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER letter to the EDITOR Hi Groundcover, I just want to express my appreciation and gratitude for your paper. Not only is it a practical and highly-visible way to help out the vendors (commendable!), it's also consistently class-conscious inside the paper. I love it. I started reading it a couple years back when I picked it up from Ken Parks over at Argus, and then began buying papers off vendors downtown. Today I picked up the Mythology-themed edition, and really really enjoyed Juliano Sanchez' thoughts on godhood, Rome and class war. Truly refreshing and ennobling to find a common consciousness with the vendors. It is very encouraging that Groundcover never lost sight of class issues in the wake of so much identity politics that flew around the last five years. My compliments to the editorial staff and the vendors. Keep up the good work!!! — Jeff Honeyman NOW SHOWING: CRIP CAMP Tuesday, October 17, 5:30 p.m. Movie starts at 6 p.m. Groundcover News office. Open to the public. September 26 marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the first civil rights legislation protecting disabled people from discrimination. Groundcover News will be honoring this milestone by screening "Crip Camp," a documentary about the disabilty justice revolution and the youth summer camp that started it all. OCTOBER 6, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes toward production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Mohammed Almustapha Terri Demar Jim Clark Cindy Gere Mike Jones Ken Parks Nathan Poppe Jane Reilly Will Shakespeare Scoop Stevens Felicia Wilbert GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith VOLUNTEERS Jane Atkins Jessi Averill Zachary Dortzbach Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Harleen Kaur Robert Klingler Ruben Mauricio Margaret Needham Emily Paras Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons OCTOBER 6, 2023 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS America could learn from Cuba: support artists! recognized for their part in the society. Artists do social projects and publicity and display their art on the street. In Cuba, artists are openly recognized for their value within the society. This is shown through a state income that Denise Shearer, vendor No. 485 In one sentence, who are you? I like to help myself and others. Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? On Liberty Street across from the Fleetwood Diner, near the Ann Arbor Art Center. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? I think I started about five years ago. I started because I wanted to help myself and contribute to the world. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Visit Kerrytown and the Ann Arbor downtown library. Also go to the Fleetwood Diner and see my boyfriend. And, go to Bethlehem Church. What words do you live by? Love God and people. If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? Hot dogs and chicken noodle soup. What are your hobbies? I like to draw. I am a doll collector. What is your superpower? My smile. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Go to the Michigan State Fair! What was your first job? Working as a shampoo lady in a hair salon. I was in my 20s. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? I wish people were more compassionate and caring at the doctor’s and dentist’s offices and hospitals where poor people go. 1. "Mr. Rogers. I feel like he tried to address educational and emotional needs of children through television ministry. I think some of his teaching methods are still relevant. I thought about this. For example, if I am angry, I can stop. He also spoke to Congress and got funding." — Alex, a new student at U-M. (Rogers successfully fought for funding for the Public Broadcasting System). 2. "It's a really hard question. Buddha, because of the peace and the yin and the yang." — Paul, peace advocate. 3. "The main inspiration for me is the ongoing need for compassion. Everywhere I look, there is someone who needs compassion and everyone deserves that." — Gracie, Mercy JANE REILLY Groundcover vendor No. 611 Who or what inspires local folks to change the world? House. 4. "My daughter. Because I want to make sure she lives in a better world than I do now," — Rammi. 5. "Politicians. The world would be a better place if the politicians did more." — Tim, a fair person who believes in respect. 6. "I do." — Tupac Shakur, Ypsilanti. 7. "All the guests who come in every day and the challenges they face. How they help one another and keep going." — Sue, a volunteer. 8. "Rosa Parks. She's a brave woman." — Declined name. 9. "My current inspiration is Elon Musk. He's the guy who owns SpaceX and Tesla. When I look at my dreams, he's someone who is actually doing things. Like he wants to go to Mars. He's set the bar so high for other people. He wakes them out of the bubble of their perceptions. He changes the perception of what is possible into reality. He's not perfect. He's divorced (and has other problems) but he's a role model because he's actually done it." — Jason Maples, Groundcover vendor. 10. Bono, lead singer for U2 says, "This is U2's family prayer: 'We want to be useful but we want to change the world. And we want to have some fun at the same time. What's wrong with that?’" — Janie Reilly. CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 Cuba as a nation has had a truly tumultuous relationship with the United States, with the West being intimately involved in the Cuban past from slavery, colonialism and gambling in Havana. The revolution changed Cuba in the new age of socialism. Artists have become more gives artists an opportunity like any other to do their work. Many artists sell art on the streets and in tourist shops. Other artists work on big projects, murals and venues for the state. The pandemic wiped out art galleries in the United States, forcing artists to the internet where income is one huge competition — and the popularity contest is real. If you don't do “this” or you don't do “that,” you can't sell. If you don’t sell, you don't eat. A supplemental income would truly help the low-income artist. 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS Ypsilanti demands shelters and solutions On August 23 at the Growing Hope Marketplace Hall, the Ypsilanti Police Department was dispatched to forcibly remove people experiencing homelessness who were seeking shelter under the awning at 16 S. Washington (aka Black Lives Matter Dr.) — as reported in the September 8, 2023 issue of Groundcover News. The people sleeping under the awning had been doing so for about two months before the sweep. The eviction was due to a disruptive drug culture that emerged at night, carried on by people not sleeping there. Business owners, homeowners and landlords all conspired to ask Growing Hope and the police to do something about the “eyesore” and “litter,” referring to the people and their property. At the Ypsilanti City Council meeting, the County Commissioners meeting and a meeting of the board of Avalon Housing, two things occurred to me. One, everyone, social justice activists and property owners alike, were demanding a solution. Two, no one had a solid plan. The ad hoc group “Shelter Now” has come up with solutions in the form of demands. This article lists those demands and provides a reasonable route to meet them. The demands are to: 1) Create and fund a dignified 24/7 shelter in Ypsilanti before spring 2024. 2) Open a temporary shelter immediately. Fund and do not interfere with unofficial and temporary shelter spaces. End street sweeps and camp sweeps. 3) Ensure that the houseless and housing-insecure communities have decision-making and veto power in all Ypsilanti shelter spaces, and in their creation. Here are some of my thoughts on how to meet those demands. Regarding the first demand: Open the Ypsilanti Freighthouse immediately. Staff can be pooled from governments, agencies and grassroots coalitions. These should be the guidelines for the use of the facility as an emergency shelter: 1) No intoxicated or threatening behavior will be tolerated. 2) First come first serve. If there is no space available, the Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) team of Community Mental Health will work with the guests to find a suitable camping site. 3) Personal property storage is not available. The facility would provide food, shelter, transportation, and social work planning from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. This planning could include reaching out to Continuum of Care organizations, setting goals for employment of the solution. Everyone has a voice, everyone has a vote. This section proposes a long-term JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 and self-sufficiency, and monitoring progress on their current situation. Regarding the second demand: The building at 10 S. Prospect, Ypsilanti, could be purchased by the county for approximately $300,000 (the current list price). This building would serve as a permanent emergency shelter. The building would be remodeled with sleeping areas, showers, toilets and a kitchenette. The facility can be staffed by county employees or be contracted out to Avalon Housing or the like. If Avalon were to staff it, they could use it to directly pipeline people into their system, thus cutting time on the waitlist. All of this would be done by the spring. The county also would purchase houses or rent them at a reduced rental fee. The houses would be run as Community-funded Hospitality Houses. Each house is capable of providing short-term to long-term housing for up to seven people. The houses would be large enough to expand into emergency shelters. Hospitality Houses would provide wrap-around care in the form of transportation to and from the daytime warming center, jobs, or care continuum sources and may also work with PATH and grassroots coalitions as local campsite supports (eg. tents, bags, propane). A short-term 90-day residency program would allow applicants to work with a peer support specialist to find rehabilitation resources, housing and employment. The county will be responsible for: • Procuring funding via public sourcing, taxes, reallocation and grants. • Sourcing labor and property management through professional, nonprofit, grassroots homelessness organizations, the faith community, neighborhood associations and community organizing groups such as the Washtenaw General Defense Committee. • Securing and managing property. • Incentivizing neighborhood cooperation in which the neighbors of a hospitality house may actively participate in the operations as volunteers and peer resources. The community at large, including business owners, would have an opportunity to be part solution in which cohorts may apply for permanent communal housing with other members. This is accomplished by establishing the house as an intentional community and allowing that community to purchase the house. The property would be held in a community land trust. Given the decision-making power available to the applicant cohort, this would satisfy demand number three. Why This Will Work: Hospitality Houses Fulfill Family and Growth Needs Psychologist Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs states that every human has “deficiency” and “growth” needs. The lack of meeting deficiency needs will cause a person to fatally deteriorate. Community-funded hospitality houses provide for all human needs such as water, toilets, showers, laundry, medicine and harm reduction supplies. They would be a means to acquire alternative shelter supplies and provide safe overnight shelter and safety. With the understanding that being given the opportunity to bond with others is as essential to survival as food and shelter, hospitality houses provide for the emotional needs of their guests. Housemates and guests are trained in conflict resolution, communal living norms, and co-counseling techniques. Growth needs are the natural pull humans have for learning and experiencing their empowerment. The need to grow and evolve is hardwired into us. We must be given opportunities to develop our skills, talents and curiosity in order to reach our full potential. Life skills and enhancement programs can be offered to residents that would include problem-solving, social skills and enhancement courses. Community-funded hospitality houses do that. Each facet of this proposal is connected to a program that exists in Washtenaw County. Putting them together under one umbrella program is an efficient way to deliver various individual services. The current system is constantly putting out fires and applying bandages and in general, wasting funding. Community-funded hospitality houses provide a base of operation for an economical, organized and effective system. To learn more about the group "Shelter Now" and support their demands, visit linktr.ee/shelternow OCTOBER 6, 2023 On the night of Wednesday September 22, signs were placed in front of empty commercial spaces across downtown Ypsilanti, highlighting their misuse. OCTOBER 6, 2023 HERITAGE National Hispanic Heritage Month: From progress to prosperity and power On September 12, 2023, President Joe Biden said, “In recognition of the achievement of the Hispanic community, the Congress, by Public Law 100-402, as amended, has authorized and requested the President to issue annually a proclamation designating September 15 through October 15 as National Hispanic Heritage Month.” In the preamble of President Biden’s Proclamation, he noted, “… we honor the diverse history of generations of Latinos, whose aspirations and achievements have shaped the soul of our nation.” History, Heritage and Progress In 19th century America and the first half of the 20th century, Hispanic Americans faced all kinds of setbacks and discrimination. It was not unusual to see big signs in Texas that said, “NO DOGS NO NEGROES NO MEXICANS.” The contemporary history of Hispanics or Latinos in America is complicated. The governments of the United States and Mexico signed a diplomatic agreement which allowed hundreds of thousands Mexican men to come to America as guest workers under a large-scale labor program known as “The Bracero Program.” States and local governments were issued certificates which authorized farm owners to hire laborers they needed at very low wages. While young American men and women were fighting in Europe as part of the Allied Forces in World War I, the Bracero laborers were working in agricultural fields in Texas, Florida, Arizona and California. Thousands of the Bracero laborers worked on the back-breaking jobs of laying the transcontinental railroads. The war ended and American troops returned home; Bracero laborers were asked to leave the country and return to Mexico. Most of them did. A few thousands stayed behind because, during the war, the agricultural food farmers of California, Texas and Florida expanded their agri-businesses and needed more farm laborers. But during the Great Depression of the 1930s, millions of unemployed Americans needed any kind of job. Consequently, the remaining Mexican Farm workers were displaced by poor and hungry Americans. The Second Bracero labor program was launched by the U.S. and Mexico in 1944 during World War II. It was WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 said, “There is no one term that everybody loves equally.” The second PBS guest was Mr. Hugo Chavez, Study Director at the PEW Research Center. He agreed with Christina Mora. He presented some survey statistics on identity. On the term, LatinX, the PEW surveys stated that 76% of Hispanics have not heard of it; 20% heard about, but do not use it; and only 3% of Hispanics use the term supposed to end in 1947 but it officially ended in 1964. The young veterans who returned home after the war chose plentiful jobs in manufacturing, transportation, construction and service industries. The GI Bill provided opportunity for free education and skills development. The low-wage jobs of picking apples, picking bananas, cutting sugar cane, planting lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, onions, corn and other vegetables and fruits did not appeal to many Americans of the post war era. The “Dust Bowl” phenomenon displaced millions of people in the lower Midwest after the war. The government encouraged them to move to California and replace the Bracero Program laborers. Many did, but left after complaining about the working conditions. Millions of Mexicans who labored as Bracero or guest workers were trailblazers. Hispanic/Latino Americans have come a long way. They were in the 1950s and 1960s invisible and highly marginalized. Cesar Chavez (19271993), head of the Farm Workers Union, and other Hispanic Americans, such as Joan Baez, joined Reverend/Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the August 28, 1963 March on Washington, D.C. Chavez shared Dr. King’s dreams of freedom, liberty, equality and justice. PBS Weekend edition invited two Hispanic/Latino scholars to help answer questions about identity. Why do some members of the community want to be called Hispanic? Why do some want to be called Latino or Latina? Why do some members of the community want to be called LatinX? Why do many Hispanics of Mexican descent want to be called Chicano or Chicana? Ms. Christina Mora of the University of California, Berkeley, author of “Making Hispanics” said that the terms Hispanic and Latino are used interchangeably based on geographic connection, generational connection or national origin connection. She “Latinx.” The Hispanic/Latino American population has reached more than 64 million people. They represent 19% of the U.S. population total; in 2022, Latinos accounted for 40% of California’s population. Economic Prosperity and Political Power It may come as a surprise to many people when they realize what the current data says about the economic power and the purchasing power of Hispanic/Latino Americans. On Wednesday, September 27, NBC News Cable Network published an article by Brandon Gomez titled, “U.S. Latino economic output grows to $3.2 trillion, according to a new study.” Mr. Gomez outlined the following key points: The U.S. Latino economy continues to grow reaching $3.2 trillion in 2021, up from $2.8 trillion the year prior, according to a new report by the Latino Donor Collaborative in partnership with Wells Fargo Bank. If Latinos were an independent country, their GDP would rank fifth in the world, ahead of the United Kingdom, India and France. Industry for Latinos remains steady in accommodation and food services, construction, administrative support, waste management and transportation. Mr. Sol Trujillo is the Chairman of Latino Donor Collaborative which commissioned the study of Latino economic power. During his appearance on CNBC, Mr. Trujillo said, “Latinos are the engine of growth in the U.S.” He noted that the economic impact of Latinos in California, Texas and Florida are staggering. The dollar impacts amount to $682 Billion for California; $465 Billion for Texas; and $240 Billion for Florida. The study suggests that because of the Latino community’s youthful and strong population share in the nation, coupled with high labor force participation, we should continue to see high levels of growth powered by see LATINX page 10  Thursday, November 2 • 7:30pm Lydia Mendelssohn Theater Reggie Watts is headed to Ann Arbor this November to share his memoir, Great Falls, MT, a candid reflection on his childhood growing up in Montana. This is a free event requiring advanced registration to attend. Find the link to register at aadl.org/reggiewatts. Brought to you in partnership with the Ann Arbor Summer Festival. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Homework Help Get homework help with Brainfuse, an online tutoring service available with your AADL login. Live expert tutors are available from 2-11 pm every day to assist in math, English, college application prep, resume writing, and more! Visit aadl.org/ homework for more. Fifth Avenue Press AADL founded Fifth Avenue Press in 2017 to support the local writing community and promote the creation of original content. The imprint publishes works by authors who live in Washtenaw County. Consider submitting your finished manuscript to Fifth Avenue Press today at fifthave.aadl.org. FEATURED EVENT 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POVERTY OCTOBER 6, 2023 American made: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Matthew Desmond on how society’s well off benefit from other people’s poverty NATHAN POPPE Editor, Curbside Chronicle Matthew Desmond has lived through or lived alongside poverty for much of his life. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author and sociology professor has made it his latest mission to focus not only on the lives of the poor in America but also how the rest of the country persistently benefits from them. His new book “Poverty, By America” lays out how many lives are made small to make room for others to grow, while making the case for ending poverty sooner rather than later. Think of it as a call for a healthier country — one where a car accident or a medical bill doesn’t lead to financial hardship. Desmond has been touring the country and leading discussions around his new book, which was released in March. On the road to a tour stop in Connecticut, Desmond spoke to The Curbside Chronicle about how he’s trying to spark a new kind of discussion around poverty. “I think that it’s to all of our interests to end poverty in America,” Desmond said. “I feel like so many of us are hungry for this conversation. I think audiences are interested in engaging this book even when it challenges them or pushes them. … I’m really trying to make this both a political project and a personal one, too.” The Curbside Chronicle: You’re no stranger to experiencing the trappings of poverty. How did it shape your upbringing? Matthew Desmond: Growing up, there were parts of my life where I didn’t really stop and think of myself as poor, right? I knew that when my family went out to eat at Denny’s, I was asked to order the least expensive thing on the menu. We’d get our gas shut off, so it turned into a little camping adventure where mom cooked over a fire. As I got older, I saw how poverty put pressure on my parents’ marriage. Losing our home when I was Matthew Desmond started studying housing, poverty and eviction in 2008, living and working alongside poor tenants and their landlords in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Illustration by Abbie Sears in college was a sobering reminder of how poverty builds up. At Arizona State University, I met people who had a level of economic security that nobody in my hometown did. Even the things other students talked about were different. I didn’t know sushi was something you could eat. I remember getting a scholarship and wanting to celebrate at a sushi place. My friend and I had no idea what we were doing, and we ate a big spoonful of wasabi and got headaches. What was it like losing your childhood home? Desmond: Our home wasn’t a shanty. It was a small ranch home on a two-acre plot in the country, but it was ours. There were parts of it that my family all loved and felt connected to. I didn’t have a car, so I asked a friend to drive me back home to help my parents move. I remember being embarrassed. Something I’ve seen during the eviction process is how people carry the weight of that experience on their own shoulders. I think my job as a sociologist is — I’ll quote C. Wright Mills — to turn personal problems into political ones, right? To help others see this problem isn’t just on us. "Poverty, By America" points to a lot of problems. What would you say is the biggest obstacle to ending poverty in our country? Desmond: The biggest myth about In his latest book, Matthew Desmond interviews a man named Julio who was balancing two jobs and almost no sleep before collapsing in a grocery store at the age of 24. Julio would later join protests against low wages and worked to successfully raise the minimum wage in his community. Illustration by Abbie Sears poverty today is that we have to abide by it and tolerate all this suffering, hunger and homelessness in our midst. But we don’t. I think that a big obstacle is having the political imagination and moral courage to envision an America without poverty. The next step is translating that into action. Not only big political action but also personal action as well. Early in your new book, you write, “If America’s poor founded a country, that country would have a bigger population than Australia or Venezuela.” When you encounter a statistic like that, how does it feel to weave that into your narrative? Desmond: I have a lot of friends and family members below the poverty line. I feel accountable to them when I write. A lot of the people I met in Milwaukee are still very much in my life and a lot of my friends back home. I feel like I have a responsibility when writing about these issues to make you feel it and to draw you emotionally into a problem. If I can’t do that as a writer, then I’ve failed in a way. What I’m trying to do on a page — even when the evidence is statistical studies, appendices from government reports or technical, even technocratic, boring stuff — I’m still trying to look for that point that has emotional power as much as a scientific or intellectual one. I’m thinking of my audience as including people who I love living below the line. That motivates me. One concept that really stuck out to me while reading "Poverty, By America" was how economic security leads people to make better choices for themselves. Has that concept always been obvious to you? Desmond: Not at first. I spent time with a woman named Lorraine who lived in a trailer park. One day, she blew her whole monthly allotment of food stamps on groceries for one anniversary meal. I remember when that happened. I thought to myself, “How am I gonna write about this? Are people going to use this to make see DESMOND page 10  OCTOBER 6, 2023 PUBLIC POWER Public power is climate action SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover contributor Whether or not our power is controlled by the public through democratic institutions is the existential crisis of the day. This was the gist of the Public Power is Climate Action meeting held at the University of Michigan SEAS Dana Building on September 17. The speakers were: Seth Berry (Pine Tree Power Campaign and Former State Rep., Maine), Michelle Deatrick (DNC Climate Crisis Council and Washtenaw County Climate Crisis Chair), Yousef Rabhi (Washtenaw County Commissioner and Former State Rep., Michigan) and Jeff Irwin (State Senator, Michigan). A century ago, DTE Energy was granted the privilege of supplying energy to the public in Michigan. It has now become inefficient, destructive of the environment and racist, said Commissioner Rabhi; therefore this privilege needs to be revoked. This will not be easy to do. The first step is to believe that it can be accomplished; this was emphasized by Sen. Irwin. Public ownership of power has now become a movement, with Ann Arbor being the focus point in Michigan. If this is enacted, the City of Ann Arbor will be purchasing the electrical energy infrastructure from DTE Energy. This past week, Ann Arbor released an initial study it had done on the feasibility of public power with the recommendation that an additional feasibility study must be done to determine how much it will cost to acquire what it needs from DTE. From there, the Ann Arbor City Council can choose to begin the process. but if it doesn't, there will probably be a ballot proposal, possibly in 2025 or 2026. Even if Seth Berry, Michelle Deatrick, Yousef Rabhi and Jeff Irwin, pictured left to right. Panel was moderated by Greg Woodring (not pictured). Photo credit: Lisa Querijero the council initiates the process, voters would still have to approve a referendum on the contract to acquire DTE assets. The advantages of public ownership of power are numerous; there will be a faster transition to renewable energy, more reliability, greater economic opportunity and, in the long run, lower utility costs. Panelists said that the next step towards the public ownership of power is to get the University of Michigan Board of Regents on board with the public power movement. Their influence could tip the scales in favor of public ownership of power and solving the climate change crisis. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 The struggle continues — free our energy! We once said “one struggle, many fronts.” The digital age has turned our lives into “one struggle, too many fronts.” We have lost our focus on the struggle for freedom in its many dimensions to a narrower focus on the endless work of compliance culture with its digital dimension and the promise of techno supremacy for some. This process uses up our time. Everyone is in a hurry because the next demand is calling us to stay busy, or at least look too busy to change course from wasting our time to using our time more creatively. So the United States is once again asking Saudi Arabia to raise oil production and help burn up all available oil as fast as possible. Investors love their monopoly on our energy supply. Can we break free and produce plentiful low-cost energy? The sun is laughing! Wind and water are also calling us forth. International Day of Peace on September 20 and 21 had important sessions on “public energy.” Let’s engage with AnnArborCommunityCommons.org and AnnArborCoalitionAgainsttheWar.org and free our energy supply from the oligarchs of energy wars. Ann Arbor for Public Power is worthy of our attention due to the need for publicly run renewable resources. The earth is smiling at us.That could inspire us to smile at ourselves, a good habit to promote positive struggle, as reality converges in a way that brings new worlds into view. that is happening now as we detach from our illusions and experience the natural flow of “Timeless Time.” Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, was also the deadline to submit to this October 6 edition of Groundcover News. Today is a good day to discover ourKEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 Nothing is what you think it is; the domination of conceptual thought usually separates that consciousness from a more complete awareness sometimes referred to as “the all good expanse of primordial purity and the Clear Light of the Void.” I first saw those words in Walter Evans-Wentz’s early translations from the Tibetan original teachings. There are more translations available now as Tibetan meditation masters gain a following worldwide. Our body, speech and mind complex can thrive in many contexts of the physical world in history. Look at the “Passage of Time” published by the Independent Media Institute’s Human Bridges project. The vastness of hominin prehistory is changing the story of who we are. Stone tool technology and the invention of writing took eons to evolve. Get ready for the awareness breakthrough selves anew and prepare for the climate change of our lifetime. “Tell the Truth'' as Extinction Rebellion declares. Your imagination wants more free play as the work before us becomes clear and we hear the call to do the necessary work and use our power responsibly. The struggle continues until the end of time — even the death of a universe may not be the end of the struggle to free all beings from attachment to ego-clinging. Persevere until the great going beyond that leaves nothing behind. October 8 I will celebrate my 81st birthday. I think on this day we should celebrate the Day of Che as the main focus and honor all 80-plus-year-olds. We can develop our visionary potential and put it to work. For example, Che’s quote, "We are realists, we dream the impossible.” We can be reborn anew!

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THINK ABOUT IT Editor’s Note: Many will remember the film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” which referred to the type of contact which includes some kind of animated entity. An encounter of the fifth kind “refers to human-initiated contact with extraterrestrial life forms or advanced interstellar civilizations, claiming direct communication between aliens and humans,” according to Wikipedia.) In 2021, I was coming home from work at Walmart on Michigan Avenue — going west — when I saw very high up in the sky twinkling lights in a V formation. I wondered to myself if it was a UFO. While I was thinking this, the UFO materialized about 100 feet in front of me, coming straight towards my car! I could not believe my eyes; I got so scared. I saw light shooting out with red lights going around it. The bottom of the craft was a dark, stone gray, like a rock formation. I floored it. I wasn't sure if they were going to initiate contact — good or bad — the bad is what worried me. I’m aware that biological entities like to take souls with help from insect creatures and entities like the Greys (look these up on YouTube for more information). They also want to harvest us for future evolution. The “galactic federation” wants to eventually make us a supreme race. The government has known about anti-gravity crafts since the Reagan era. The aliens use a force field around them to protect themselves, to get into higher speeds and use portals to pass through our non-advantageous, non-habitable environment. Light frequencies protect them from the magnetic pull into our atmosphere. With this shield or bubble they go out into different dimensions. I saw the same craft after I got home from Walmart. It was materializing out of a portal. They were visible, then they switched into some kind of invisible layer that they probably created to observe us. Portals can be made anywhere by these entities, using the higher control of the minds of some of these entities. So when I got home, I knew I was fairly safe. My car was extremely magnetized for about a week — electromagnetic frequencies were turning my radio on by itself. The last thing I saw were galactic TERRI DEMAR Groundcover vendor No. 322 symbols on my car, since all these episodes happened this past year. Impressed in the snow on the hood of my car and a trunk I saw triangles, squares, dots and a V in all directions. Some people are born with higher consciousness, usually these are people who had to trust their instincts at an early age to survive, for self-preservation with a family not always there for them. When that happens, you as a child become more aware. I’m in a higher chakra because I believe all are one, connected to this mighty universe. Even rocks have life! These children are so intelligent, foreseeing futures. Most are telepathic; they are artists a lot of times and are super intuitive. I don't know how sensitive they are, but they are definitely star seeds (people who were actually born on another planet). Since I've developed a higher self, I've had dreams come true. I can almost predict certain behavior types in humans. To avoid conflict at an early age, I have had to be very intuitive. I don't know if I am a star seed from OCTOBER 6, 2023 My UFO encounter of the fifth kind: Are they real? another galaxy. True, I have higher awareness which actually makes me misunderstood, but like all higher beings, I do better on my own, because we already know what to do next! If a person wants to achieve more awareness around them and connect to the universe, they need to meditate. Focus on breathing and being one with all, then use vibrational sound waves. I think 820 megahertz is accurate for the root chakra. I have to see it for myself — sound vibrations will develop me more, I'm sure. You have to do this every day to bring consciousness to a higher level. You can buy tuning forks and bowls made from India that have a glass bowl with a glass wand. Go to Amazon.com to see the different sound wave machines. I also have a UFO indicator machine; if there are strong magnetic waves around me, it will go off to tell me with a loud beeping sound. I have a laser light that draws them to my location. Most people go in groups out to the desert to bring biological entities to UFOs and to make observations. A shaman in the Amazon forest can help make contact through chanting meditations. Roots for mind-altering experiences still have the same effects; they will come to you if you believe in a higher power. OCTOBER 6, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS CROSSWORD from the International Network of Street Papers 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. "We're #1!," e.g. 6. Low-___ diet 10. Computer architecture acronym 14. Kind of ticket 15. ___-Altaic languages 16. "What's gotten ___ you?" 17. Pricker 18. Japanese soup 19. Hardly haute cuisine 20. Clerical drudges 23. "___ Flux" 24. Couch 25. Laborer who moves bricks (Brit.) 28. A Judd 30. "___ we having fun yet?" 31. Pristine 36. Drop, to an editor 38. Cow chow 39. French Sudan, today 40. Commiserator's words 45. Mother Teresa, for one 46. Whip 47. Fit as a ___ 49. Mark over a long vowel 52. Worse than fair 53. Sophomore, e.g. 57. Old European capital 58. ___ Bowl 59. Flooded 62. Coagulate 63. Carbon compound 64. Bar offering 65. Does some tailoring 66. Regard 67. Neuters DOWN 1. Short order, for short 2. "___ Baby Baby" (Linda Ronstadt hit) 3. Above 4. Current 5. Open rear seat in old cars 6. Spice in Indian cooking 7. Husk 8. Coarse file 9. Loose garment pulled in at the waist 10. Conservative doctrine 11. Arm of the sea 12. Cache 13. Small woods 21. N.Y. neighbor 22. 18-wheeler 25. Muslim pilgrimage 26. After-lunch sandwich 27. Kosher ___ 28. Civil rights org. 29. Chemical compound 32. "___'s the breaks!" 33. Full house, e.g. 34. Jewish month 35. Sup 37. Petitions 41. God with a hammer 42. Slouched over 43. Roswell sightings 44. Organic matter used for fuel 48. Draft 49. Soil enricher 50. Like an old woman 51. Kind of drive 52. Church song 54. "Clair de ___" 55. ___ vera 56. Houston acronym 60. Diffident 61. Towel stitching

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS RACIAL JUSTICE OCTOBER 6, 2023 Area leaders discuss what reparations might look like for Black residents On February 15, 2023, Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution which established the Advisory Council on Reparations. According to the Washtenaw County website, the purpose of the council is to outline the specific ways that county policies and practices have historically and continually harmed the lives of Black people and to develop recommendations for the Board of Commissioners in the form of a Washtenaw Reparations Plan. The plan will include recommendations around specific actions to address and redress the sectors of homeownership and access to other quality affordable housing, increasing business ownership and career opportunities, strategies to grow financial equity and generational wealth, closing the gaps in health care, education, employment and pay, neighborhood safety and fairness within criminal justice. In 2021, the Washtenaw County Racial Equity Office convened a committee of subject matter experts and industry leaders to explore the possibility of economic and social reparations to those in Washtenaw County who experience the on going, compounded, negative impact of the institution of American slavery. The establishment of the Council on Reparations is a continuation and deepening of Washtenaw County’s commitment to Targeted Universalism. To effectively create systems of equity, we must build systems of accountability that begin with committees, and be recommended through the Racial Equity Office with appointments confirmed by the Board of Commissioners. Ann Arbor officials heard calls for MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 acknowledging harm and then clear pathways for repair. This Council centers community voice and engagement, encouraging transparency and building community trust. The Chair of the Board of Commissioners shall recommend all appointments to the Advisory Council on Reparations, subject to approval by the full Board of Commissioners. Members of the Advisory Council on Reparations shall, at minimum, represent the following sectors: Housing and Real Estate, Education K-12, Education Post-Secondary, Workforce Development, Economic Development, Health, Art, Civil Rights Law, Criminal Legal System, Food Security, Transit, Faith-Based Community, Environmental Justice and Racial Equity Office. Individuals interested in serving on the Advisory Council on Reparations shall apply consistent with the appointment process utilized by similar boards, commissions and reparations from residents who spoke at their July 6 meeting, at which City Council approved a new law limiting police traffic stops to avoid racial profiling. Several residents expressed hopes the City would take more steps. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, who plans to run for Council against Eyer in 2024, called for “massive reparations,” saying white people in the United States owe Black people $97 trillion. “And you know why you owe them?” she asked the Council. “Because you extracted free labor from them, hundreds of years, and you piled it up, and you became the rich people that you are today. ... Start thinking about giving it back.” The $97 trillion figure some cite is based on estimates the U.S. benefited from over 222 million hours of forced labor between 1619 and the abolition of slavery in 1865. Ann Arbor officials acknowledge policies like exclusionary zoning, racially restrictive covenants and deed restrictions historically kept Black people out of various neighborhoods. As a result of systemic racism, Black families lagged in building generational wealth and officials acknowledge many Black people have been priced out of an increasingly expensive Ann Arbor. Lefiest Galimore, who applied to Lefiest Galimore, longtime Ann Arbor resident. serve on the Washtenaw County Advisory Council on Reparations but was not chosen, said he’s lived in Ann Arbor since 1971 and watched as neighborhoods where other Black families once lived have become gentrified and many Black people today can’t afford homes where they grew up. “That’s an injustice,” he said, agreeing reparations are needed across the U.S. for descendants of people who were enslaved and helped build the country and its wealth. I had a chance to talk and interview Mr. Galimore. He said, “County and City leaders should be more transparent with the Black community on the issue of reparations and to seek their input on reparations because one person might see reparations in one way and another person might see it another way, so the Black community should be informed and start having real discussions on the issues on how reparations would look like for Black residents in Washtenaw County.”  LATINX from page 5 Latinos. Latinos or Hispanic Americans now have enormous political power. About 17% of registered voters in Florida are Latino/Hispanic Americans. The Democratic and Republican parties compete for their votes. With each Census Bureau’s report of Hispanic/Latino population growth, the share of that community’s vote in the U.S. continues to grow. The PEW Research Center’s findings on the topic of “Hispanic/ Latino Voters” and the “Hispanics and the Future of America” manuscript published by the National Institute of Health National Library of Medicine especially the section titled, “Latino Civic and Political Participation” are great sources of information on the political power of Hispanic/Latino Americans. Conclusion Many universities, colleges and K-12 schools in Washtenaw County and across the nation are celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month with stories, lectures, conversations, dancing, music and of course, their ethnic foods. Civic leadership, cultural diversity and arts/entertainment representation are additional areas of progress. In his September 12 proclamation, President Biden noted that he valued the leadership of his four Latino Cabinet Members. There are several members of the House of Representatives who are Hispanic or Latino. The U.S. Senate has two Latino members from California and New Jersey. Within the past ten years singers and artists such as Selena Gomez, Bad Bunny, Cabello, Anitta, and other young Latino/Hispanics have made waves in - the music entertainment industry. The representation of young Latino musicians and young Hollywood/Broadway actors is much better than a generation ago. However, some actors who are among the six million Latino Americans who identify as “Afro Latinos” told BuzzFeed that “white Latinos or lighter skinned Latinos are often favored for roles, leaving “Afro Latinos with fewer opportunities to shine.” Many critics have condemned Hollywood’s lack of inclusivity. OCTOBER 6, 2023 ADDICTION Fentanyl, Fenta-not!!!! This article is an ode to the countless beautiful souls lost to the menacing grip of the fentanyl opioid epidemic that casts its shadow not only over our beloved city, wonderful state and great nation, but also around the globe. This includes the young child in New York who recently passed. Drug addiction, in its myriad colors and forms, plagues our society. However, within this piece, my focus rests on fentanyl — a formidable foe that has recently emerged to strike indiscriminately at lives from all walks of life. Let us start at the genesis — opioids derived from the poppy flower. These blossoms flourish in temperate regions such as Afghanistan, the Golden Triangle, Turkey, India, Mexico and parts of the Middle East. They serve both legitimate medical and illicit purposes, fueling the clandestine drug trade. Mexican opium transmutes into the infamous black tar heroin, while Afghan opium becomes Afghani heroin also known as tan, brown, cement or dog food, finding its way to the shores of the United States, where the concoctions receive their final touches through cutting agents. These agents augment the drug's weight and profitability for the dealers — akin to a risky financial investment known as "flipping." Amidst the illegal trade, the raw poppy flower is scored and sliced, to MOHAMMED ALMUSTAPHA Groundcover contributor produce a sap that is dried into a potent paste, later transformed into various opiate constituents like morphine, codeine, hydrocodone and heroin. This intoxicating brew is reminiscent of the opium dens frequented by Chinese migrants who built the railroads in days gone by. In the legitimate medical arena, the entire poppy flower is harvested, extracting other opiate alkaloids for medicinal purposes, akin to the opioid-laden medications that have controversially made headlines in recent times. You may wonder, why our bodies even harbor receptors for these active opioids. The answer lies within our own biological marvel — we produce our own opioids — endorphins — under times of stress. These endorphins, akin to the euphoria induced by hot food or intense exercise, act as natural pain suppressants. I can attest to the allure of euphoria that temporarily eradicated my pain, mental and emotional alike, through my emergency room visits. But let me be clear; this is no endorsement of such destructive paths. Drugs may offer a temporary escape, but true solace and growth come from healthier avenues. So, what drives the haunting spike in overdoses we witness today? Fentanyl, an opioid, not an opiate, lies at the epicenter of this crisis. Unlike opiates sourced from opium sap, opioids are synthetic creations developed in laboratories. Methadone, an iconic example, birthed by German Nazi scientists during World War II, aimed to replicate opiate-like pain relief. Suboxone, too, plays a pivotal role in treating substance addiction, sparing users the throes of severe withdrawal without inducing euphoria. Yet, it is fentanyl that commands our gravest concern. This man-made chemical possesses unthinkable potency, requiring minuscule quantities to deliver devastatingly lethal blows. A kilogram of fentanyl, a fraction of what one might expect, can extinguish half a million lives — echoing horrors of nuclear proportions. My heart aches for those ensnared in the desperate cycle of illegal drug use, gambling their lives against this formidable adversary. The route of fentanyl's arrival is a troubling tale of unscrupulous intentions. To gain insight into this phenomenon, let us revisit history — the opium wars. Centuries ago, when the British Empire reigned supreme, they sought vengeance on China for restricting their trading privileges. The response? A calculated campaign to cultivate poppies on Indian fields, saturating the Chinese market with opium — a painful chapter that mirrors today's fentanyl wars. In light of all this, I implore you to remember — life's beauty transcends the pursuit of momentary serenity through substances. Better ways to heal and grow exist. Yet, for those whose lives intertwine with drug users, I advocate for harm reduction. Obtain harm reduction kits, embracing clean needles, alcohol pads and needle filters, assuring safe usage and preventing further harm. Consider the path of methadone clinics or Suboxone for controlled maintenance, devoid of harmful highs, instead focusing on rebuilding life's splendor. I beseech all to appreciate the gravity of this matter. Fentanyl's wrath disregards the sanctity of life and family bonds. The ruthless drug dealer is blind to the lives shattered in his wake, fixated solely on his next fortune. In closing, I leave you with peace. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11  DESMOND from page 6 arguments to disparage people?” But you know, my job is to write about things honestly. Lorraine certainly didn’t apologize for what she did. And she paid for it. She was hitting up food pantries for the rest of the month. She was living so far below the poverty line that even if she had scrimped and saved a third of her income — which would be astounding — then she could maybe buy a bicycle at the end of the year. Even that would come at the cost of going without things like heat or medicine. Lorraine helped me see that folks like her are not in poverty because of the decisions they’ve made but rather the decisions they’ve made are conditioned and steered by their poverty. We see this in the research on raising the minimum wage. When we raise the minimum wage, you get all these benefits. People stop smoking and cases of child neglect go down. Babies are born healthier because the stress of poverty is relieved. The debates about minimum wage are often only focused on one macroeconomic question, “If we raise the minimum wage will it cost us jobs?” The book addresses that, but I also want us to ask another question, “If we don’t pay more, then what do we cost people?” The time you spent with Julio illustrates that cost. The moment when his younger brother offered to pay for an hour of his time just to play with him was heartbreaking. It’s hard to believe he balanced two fulltime jobs paying minimum wage. How did that impact him? Desmond: Julio told me he felt like a zombie. He could barely sleep, you know, and collapsed in the aisles of the grocery store when he was 24-yearsold. But he also got politically involved after that. When he went to his first rally in his McDonald’s uniform, he was really scared. He thought that he might lose his job. But he saw a lot of folks that looked like him. They were fighting for bigger wages, too. For him, it felt like church, and he was a deeply faithful person. He told me he believed in both God and politics. Joining that movement gave him not only a real, tangible victory but also gave him an identity and a community as well. Let’s end on the cost of making a huge dent in poverty and alleviating homelessness in America. You estimated a figure of $177 billion to really make a difference. What would you say to someone who reads that number and has sticker shock? Desmond: The reason I put that number in the book is to show us how incredibly attainable it is. If you look at this study published a few years ago, it shows that if the top 1% of Americans just pay the taxes they owe — not getting taxed higher, just stop evading them — then we could raise that $177 billion total. This is a thought exercise and a challenge for us. It’s a clear example of how we need to reject the scarcity mindset of, “We can’t afford to do more to fight poverty in America.” The answer is staring us right in the face. We could afford to do more if we stopped subsidizing the affluent so much and letting corporations and rich families get away with such tax evasion and avoidance. Courtesy of The Curbside Chronicle / International Network of Street Papers Cover of Desmond's book. “Poverty, By America” is available now on hardback, paperback, ebook and audiobook.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Baked macaroni and cheese KADEN WATTS Wolverine Pathways student contributor Ingredients: 1 lb dried elbow macaroni ½ cup salted butter ⅓ cup all-purpose flour 1 ½ cups whole milk 4 cups shredded medium sharp cheddar cheese 2 cups shredded Gruyère cheese ½ Tbsp. salt ½ tsp. black pepper ¼ tsp. paprika Directions: Preheat oven to 350F. Boil the pasta, then drain. Make the cheese sauce by combining a fat (butter) and starch (flour) and allowing it to brown and bubble for a minute or two, then slowly whisk in the milk in stages to avoid lumps. Cook the sauce until it’s nice and thick. Add in both kinds of shredded cheese, saving a handful of each kind for topping. Stir well. Combine cheese sauce with cooked pasta. Transfer half of the mac and cheese to a baking dish, sprinkle with shredded cheese. Top with the rest of the mac and cheese, top with remaining shredded cheese. Bake for 30-40 minutes and prepare to thoroughly enjoy! OCTOBER 6, 2023 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS Stay for the Community! By joining your membership supports Local Farmers, Local Producers, & the Local Economy Member Drive is Oct. 2nd to Oct. 15th. Special offer for those that join. $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 11/5/2023

2 $ SEPTEMBER 22, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 20 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. ARPA funds pilot guranteed income in Ann Arbor. Page 7 AMANDA GALE #573 ASK YOUR VENDOR: IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD YOU GO? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Happy anniversary to four 'MISSION' community houses — Jimmy Hill House, Mercy House, Peace House and Hospitality House. page 4 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER Reid "Kit" Warling May 21, 1995 - September 15, 2023 Reid Warling passed away on September 15, 2023 at the age of 28. Beloved son of Neal and Suzanne Warling. Dear brother of May, Jackson, Michael and Matthew. Loving nephew of aunt Denise and uncle David Ricketts, uncle Kenneth Warling, aunt Vicki Derry and aunt Ann Bugnon. Cherished uncle of Charles Feight. Caring cousin of Reese Ricketts. Reid is also survived by friends Jessie Cane and Kevin Jones. Reid, vendor No. 395, started selling Groundcover News in 2018 and sold the paper on and off over the years. Reid was a very talented poet and actor. If you were lucky enough to hear him singing you would be truly blown away by his voice. He had a passion for reading, spending some time being a part of a book club. Reid was known for his kind heart, gentle personality, love for animals, and his intelligence. Reid is loved deeply and will be missed fiercely. SEPTEMBER 22, 2023 Reid and Jessie Cane (right). CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Simone Masing — intern ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Mohammed Almustapha D.A. Luiza Duarte Caetano Cindy Gere Elizabeth "Lit" Kurtz Joshua Lee James Manning Ronald Pagereski Ken Parks Earl Pullen Jane Reilly Will Shakespeare Felicia Wilbert GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Luiza Duarte Caetano Zachary Dortzbach Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Ruben Mauricio Holden Pizzolato Alex Tarbet Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com SEPTEMBER 22, 2023 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? Anywhere that has a lot of people that are passionate about Jesus, and anywhere that has had a geninue Christian revival. But I am happy to stay right where I am, for now. — Amanda Gale, #573 Probably Hawaii or somewhere like that — tropical. — Glen Page, #407 Yukon, Canada. Go visit my tribe, hang out with the bears, run with the wolves, disappear forever. — Cindy Gere, #279 Amsterdam. Everything’s legal there. — Pony Bush, #305 Nowhere. I stay here. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 I want to hunt down the most poisonous things in the world: Australia, China, Africa. But China first! — Teresa Basham, #570 If I ever get out of here, I'm going to Katmandu! — Ken Parks, #490 Somewhere where a nuclear bomb won't hit me. I'd like to work with animals, maybe in Argentina or somehwere in South America. — Terri Demar, #322 My own private island. Or Malta. — Joe Woods, #103 First choice is Machu Picchu but the Amazon scares the hell out of me. The Black Forest in Germany is up there, too. — James Manning, #16 Toss up between Egypt and Japan. — Justen White, #543 Greece. — Derek Allen, #177 GROUNDCOVER NEWS Would you consider making nonviolence and kindness "cool?" JANE REILLY Groundcover vendor No.611 In 2020, Reverend Al Sharpton wrote in "Rise Up, Confronting a Country at the Crossroads," that he was lectured by both Shirley Chisholm and Coretta Scott King for his language. Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to Congress and ran for President, and King was an activist for civil rights, apartheid abolition, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer rights, and the wife of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King said, "Al, don't you realize words have power? You've got to learn to filter what you say for the long-term gain and not sell it for the short-term satisfaction of being theatrical or getting attention. Otherwise, you could win the crowd but lose the crown." Sharpton, the founder and President of the National Action Network and a civil rights and social justice activist, defended himself by saying, "I didn't mean anything by it; it was just the way we spoke on the streets." And, "I was just speaking in the rhythm and style of the times." Sharpton wrote that his friends who are rappers and singers say it is free speech to use the B-word and N-word in their songs. They also use the F- and MF-words, which both have violent sexual connotations. They use many slurs against all people. Sharpton's reply: "Do the record execs let you use that language on them? Then, why is it OK for us to denigrate our own community, our sisters? We're doing their work for them." Why is it OK to denigrate anyone? Today there is hatred towards everyone who is different than the status quo. It is tearing our country apart. The use of hate speech is helping divide our country. Some in the Black community have told me the N-word means, "family." I believe when bigots hear it, it encourages more hatred. Hate speech is more than being vulgar and rude. Hate speech turns words into weapons to harm others. In Watts v. United States (1969), the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment does not protect profanity spoken as part of a true threat, such as profane rants that cross the line into direct face-toface personal insults, according to the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee University. It is also a misdemeanor in the state of Michigan under penal code 750.167 section F for a disorderly person. When people hear the same negative words repeated constantly, their brains believe it is the truth. That's very dangerous. People with low self esteem — bullies — need to be macho and tough. It sometimes leads to violence. Adults don't need to be bullies to be "cool." Some rap is music for and by bullies because the music industry makes billions of dollars from hate speech. According to Sharpton, the rappers say they need the N-word, B-word and F-MFwords to show they have "street cred." We don't have to imitate it. Marc Morial, President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Urban League told CNN.com, "The N-word has never had a positive meaning.” The National Urban League is America's largest historic civil rights and urban advocacy organization. Singer Jose Feliciano played the National Anthem on acoustic guitar at the 1968 Major League Baseball World Series in a Latin style and Jimi Hendrix played a spectacular instrumental version of the Star Spangled Banner on his electric guitar at Woodstock in 1969. At the time, these were monumental acts of courage. Feliciano and Hendrix tried to use their creativity to bring people together. We, too, have the power to create change and bring people together. Together we can make kindness and non-violence "cool." 3 From the desk of Panda: Thank you to our supporters! Dear public, I feel the need to finally — from all of us at Groundcover, from each individual who has now worked on a daily basis and even the former vendors — tell you from our hearts and souls: One big thank you for all you have done to support and help the vendors and paper! Thank you to our patrons and regulars who consistently keep us going. If it was not for you, many of us would have hung up our hats long ago. You kept us going through the COVID-19 pandemic and even to this very day. Thank you to all the new buyers. Meeting new people willing to discover and read the paper helps us out more than you know. I always and booths who represent the paper. You are all invaluable gems that keep on shining bright to the world. Thanks to the University of MichCINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 find new buyers who want to know how the papers help us individually and what Groundcover is about. New people change the level of our sales. Thank you to the volunteers who take the time out to help at events igan students who give their study time to volunteer in the building daily; you keep us smiling on gloomy days and keep us happy going to work. Thanks to the board for having the courage to continue and change lives each and every day. Because the struggle is real on a case by case basis. We at Groundcover have our good days and bad days just like you. Just know deep down we thank you for all you have given each of us. God bless you!

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY SEPTEMBER 22, 2023 Happy anniversary to four 'MISSION' community houses — Jimmy Hill House, Mercy House, Peace House and Hospitality House WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 This month Washtenaw County community members can join us to wish Jimmy Hill House, Mercy House, Peace House and Hospitality House happy birthdays. The wise people of the world say, “Gratitude is a memory of the heart.” Thousands of people have received help or life-saving assistance at the four community houses under the umbrella known as MISSION (Michigan Itinerant Shelter System Interdependent Out of Necessity). Most human beings tend to remember the times and places where they received much needed help to survive and begin a fresh start. So, HAPPY BIRTHDAYS! JOYEUX ANNIVERSAIRE — in French!! Historical Antecedents In June 2010 the Michigan Department of Transportation evicted 78 homeless individuals from the organized encampment in Washtenaw County “Camp Take Notice.” CTN was informed that their homeless camp site belonged to MDOT and campers were forced to leave. After the eviction, some of the stranded campers received housing locally, some were accepted to stay temporarily at the Delonis Center and many found camping grounds in several locations in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Due to the eviction CTN lost its ability to hold Sunday dinner meetings sponsored by St. Mary’s Student Parish of Ann Arbor, other churches in Scio Township and Dexter. The leaders of CTN felt that their social movement had collapsed. A parishioner of St. Mary’s who actively supported CTN pre-eviction came to the rescue. Peggy Lynch wholeheartedly opened the doors of her Burns Park home to CTN members who wished to maintain the weekly Sunday dinner meetings. About six or seven homeless people were invited to stay in her house. It is fair to say that Ms. Peggy resurrected CTN from the dead, and gave it new life and new hope to carry on. It was at Peggy’s Burns Park home on White Street where CTN reconstituted its board membership and worked with Peggy and others to create a homeless community organization known as MISSION. Jimmy Hill House The first task of MISSION was to raise money in order to buy a three acre property on Stone School Road so that CTN residents who had scattered could have a permanent place for Sunday dinner meetings, board meetings, laundry, showers, picking donated clothing and receiving medical services. MISSION received a anonymous donation to purchase the property and their intention was to reestablish CTN on their own land. It is still the intention of the MISSION board to establish a tiny house community on this piece of property. The building was first nicknamed the “Purple House” due to its brightly painted exterior. It is now called Jimmy Hill House in honor of the now-deceased exemplary leader who helped guide CTN and served as MISSION Board President. Jimmy Hill House was acquired in the fall of 2012. Many people don't know this, but Jimmy Hill lived under the U.S. 23 bridge near Carpenter Road for five years before Caleb Poirier invited him into Camp Take Notice on Wagner Road. Jimmy Hill was a natural leader and instantly became one of the favorites at Camp Take Notice. Jimmy Hill led weekly camp meetings, he helped new residents learn the art of winter survival and provided residents with hours of entertainment, regaling them with stories about his colorful past. Jimmy Hill continued to show leadership, when MISSION acquired the Stone School Road property and even helped choose the distinctive color scheme which has become a trademark of MISSION. Jimmy Hill rose to be the first homeless president of MISSION and is still loved by many today. His slogan was so simple and yet so powerful, "It is what it is." Many Camp Take Notice friends had this slogan tattooed to their forearms after he passed. Nowadays Jimmy Hill House hosts the Weather Amnesty Survival Program which provides emergency shelter from November to April to individuals trespassed from other overnight warming shelters. Mercy House Mercy House of Ann Arbor was opened as a private home of Ms. Peggy in September 2013. She sold her Burns Park home and moved to a house in Ann Arbor’s West Side which is close Jimmy Hill Memorial House in 2012, before renovation. to the Robert J. Delonis Center. Peggy and Sheri Wander, a peace advocate and resident of CTN, wanted to provide social services modeled after Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker Movement, along with Jane Addam’s “Hull House” social work project for addressing the needs of the poor, the hungry and the destitute on Chicago’s West Side. The Mercy House location is still a private home that works in partnership with MISSION. This month, it is celebrating its ten-year anniversary. Many community members have been to Mercy House on Saturday for “Peggy’s pancakes” or their annual Christmas party. Peace House The Peace House of Ypsilanti was opened by Sheri Wander and her partner Patrick Jones in September 2018. This month, we celebrate their fifth anniversary. Peace House Ypsi is a house of hospitality in the tradition of Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin and the Catholic Worker movement. Their mission is simply to love. By providing hospitality, nonviolently resisting injustice and living in solidarity with those on the margins, their mission is to build the world they envision by living it! Peace House has supported the creation of grassroots community projects Pull Over Prevention and Pet Pals Mutual Aid. Hospitality House Ypsi The newest house created under the umbrella of MISSION is Hospitality House, located in downtown Ypsilanti. September marks the first year anniversary of Hospitality House. The house is blessed with three capable and energetic leaders: Lindsay, Ben and Lauren. The house offers temporary shelter and has open hours twice a week for laundry, showers, meals and social time and is the homebase for the work of Washtenaw Camp Outreach. We are delighted to celebrate the anniversaries of Jimmy Hill House, Mercy House, Peace House and Hospitality House. All four houses exist to help the homeless and housing-insecure community members. Wise people say, “Rome was not built in a day.” It has taken a lot of “sweat equity,” “talent equity” and the sacrifices of church volunteers, student volunteers and other members of the community to make lives better and hopeful for the homeless of Washtenaw County. Final words from Brian Durrance, MISSION board member The first part of our MISSION acronym describes our organization's purpose. The words, "Michigan Itinerant Shelter System," acknowledge the basic truth that it takes a village to house the homeless. Many live in tents, some in tent cities, many in public housing, hotels — and many live in houses which have been opened in love. Houses like the Jimmy Hill Memorial are now joined by Mercy House, Peace House and Hospitaltiy House thanks to the gracious efforts of activists like Peggy Lynch and Sheri Wander. The second part of our MISSION acronym is our slogan, "Interdependent out of Necessity." These words boldly declare that we are a family. Homeless people needing assistance with food, shelter, clothing meet in the middle with those who come to assist. We are drawn to each other in love, each fulfilling a powerful personal need. MISSION began as a small camp behind the Arborland Mall; now it is a family which has grown larger and stronger and has survived over 15 years. And we are powered by pure love! SEPTEMBER 22, 2023 POETRY This is the real D.A. Groundcover contributor I can not see how so many can limit themselves. What I mean is, I am an individual, yet, as I'm a singular being. I'm not divided by this life I've lived, nor by a fragmented society of people we call our world. I'd like to say this, so that perhaps, someone will hear me and understand. If you've never been broken, you can't be rebuilt. Maybe the Mason that laid your foundation, not the beginning. I still say it, and I say it again. I'm an individual who is, has been, broken... I'm now choosing to stand up again. I may not have the endings or endings ... That can all depend. Let me get back to what I mean, what I'm attempting to convey, as I stand here giving you a taste. When you use the other eye. Use your own imagination. Catch a glimpse of another mindset. It's not just me, we can all feel misled, misunderstood, even be misguided in the midst of our very own thinking. Autumn rain RONALD PAGERESKI Groundcover contributor Rain is falling sun is nowhere in sight. Autumn is calling we'll see, many a chilly night. On the street the poor will walk, disdain of them will be the talk. But many have met bad luck felt like run over by a truck. Reach out to them, some kindness share. At least show them that there are those who care. Rain is falling, taking a toll, rain is falling in someone's soul. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 A day in the life of Earl EARL PULLEN Groundcover contributor A mastermind never forsakes his self for fortune or fame but for the dignity honor and safety of his people as a whole Sinner or a saint EARL PULLEN Some say I’m a Sinner some say I’m a saint I am what I am and I am What I aint — My light shines Better than A fresh coat of paint This is the story of a Sinner or a saint

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ENVIRONMENT Discussions are an everyday occurrence in our lives covering every conceivable topic and our opinions therein. Being one of the billions of inhabitants of this world negatively affected by the power-hungry corporate tyrants who have no concern over consequences, I often find myself childishly complaining about such soulless people in conversation — people who intentionally stand in the way of a better civilization and the overall planet. So I find myself expressing my disgust for those whose desires can never be satisfied and how alien such an existence is to my own. What really shocks me is the fact that these few people who hold the entire world hostage are quite clearly outnumbered by their victims. Yeah, we seem unable or unwilling at times to get up and knock these jerks off their seats of power. Just to clarify, I don't speak of people who are simply affluent. I'm talking about real monsters who got us dependent on their energy sources. My belief is these people are those who can control the energy market — more specifically the corporate corruptors who run the fossil fuels industry. These are the true power holders of the earth, not the social elite, not politicians and not even Elon Musk. I shouldn't need to point out that when it comes to all the oil is gone — especially because the damage it's doing is very apparent. Worst of all, it may already be too late for anything we do to even matter. But man, it would be an underJAMES MANNING Groundcover vendor No. 16 clean alternative environmentally-blessing energy I think it's highly unlikely these guys are willing to embrace it. Today we have several means of renewable and clean energy and anyone with half a brain has asked the question, "Why the hell aren't we replacing the destructive burning of fossil fuels with it?" The first issue is that it can be very hard to just replace a current, tried-and-true, effective system for our energy needs, however finite it may be. I do feel that people who run this industry hold world-ending power though and I think they might be the type that if they go down they will take the whole damn planet with them. Also that level of power would probably require a planet-sized intervention to even challenge it. But we obviously can't just wait around until statement to say that a person who finds their own wealth and self-interest as more important than the world's and the human race’s interest “pisses me off.” I don't care how poor and unimportant people find me, being angry is one right I have that SEPTEMBER 22, 2023 The obvious uphill battle for a future with clean energy nobody can deprive me of and I know I'm in the right on this one. It's such a shame the situation is more complex than the solution being one big giant revolt descending on these people and dragging them down in the street. But sadly nothing is ever solved by such simplistic methods and certainly not when dealing with the corporate giants of any kind. And finally see ENERGY page 8  24/7 CALL FOR MENTAL HEALTH OR SUBSTANCE USE SUPPORT 734-544-3050 Brought to you by the 2019 - 2026 Washtenaw County Public Safety and Mental Health Preservation Millage washtenaw.org/millage SEPTEMBER 22, 2023 COMMUNITY INVESTMENT As part of the 2021 COVID-19 American Rescue Plan Act, Ann Arbor received $24 million. The City was given until the end of September 2026 to use the funds. An online survey and live question-and-answer session were conducted to gather a sense of how city residents wanted to see the funds spent. After hearing from several groups, the council made its decision this past April as to who would receive the funding. Although it is obvious that the pandemic increased the numbers of what is already a horrific humanitarian crisis known as homelessness, the bulk of the funding went to other projects. With the dire impact that was felt by those who were or became unhoused during the pandemic, it seems that it would have been the families on the streets who would have been most concerning to the city. For example, during the pandemic, the hotline for the shelter system failed and had to be retooled after getting backlogged with over 2,000 calls. Washtenaw District Judge Erane Washington lamented in a virtual presentation to the Washtenaw County Democratic Party that evictions were “piling up” due to the “astronomical” increases in rent. The judge noted that following her vacation she processed over 30 evictions, leaving families nowhere to go except the streets. These families added to the numbers of people who are “living in circumstances not fit for human habitation” as defined by the federal government. Yet, as it turned out, only around 25% of the funds were applied to a crisis that grew within this crisis. Not only did the numbers of people experiencing homelessness increase, but the conditions of those who were already unhoused became worse. GROUNDCOVER NEWS ARPA funds pilot guranteed income in Ann Arbor ELIZABETH "LIT" KURTZ Groundcover vendor No. 159 Despite disappointing funding for those who are essentially left in the elements, a promising initiative for those who are struggling through homelessness emerged, a guaranteed income pilot program. It will help not only the unhoused, but those who are living in extreme poverty or poverty. Although the council approved the University of Michigan Guaranteed Income for Ann Arbor or “Gig A2,” it was not without challenges which included having the $2,300,000 dollar allotment reduced to $1,600,000. Those who can apply for the no-strings-attached funding are those who are, according to MLive, “… self-employed people, owners of formal or informal small businesses, gig workers and people with side hustles who have low incomes.” From there, 200 applicants will be chosen as participants with half receiving the $528 monthly payments and the other half serving as a control group. Every participant will be paid $50 for completed questionnaires. Associate Director of the program, U-M Social Work Professor Kristin Seefeldt, stated that whether or not an individual is chosen for the monthly check, it is important that each group participate in order to get a true understanding of the effectiveness of the study. 7 One of the most passionate proponents of the program was Councilwoman Linh Song who is eager to see the pilot up and running and is hopeful that when the funding expires, the city will continue it in the future. The Michigan Daily reported Song as saying that she “… hopes it will demonstrate that folks who struggle, work very very hard and work multiple jobs, are the cornerstones of their communities.” Momentum for guaranteed income may be gaining as Los Angeles, California, conducted a similar pilot in 2022. The aptly named program, BREATHE, selected 1,000 participants to receive $1,000 per month for three years. It is the sentiment of many programs leaning towards “unconditional income” that poverty and extreme poverty do not allow people to, well, breathe. The GigA2 program in Ann Arbor along with BREATHE in LA may provide evidence of what many have known all along. Unconditional giving may be the best way to give after all. For those who are interested in the Guaranteed Income for Ann Arbor study, the details can be found by visiting its website: https://giga2.org. 6

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AGENCY SPOTLIGHT Financial empowerment center launches in Washtenaw County JOSHUA LEE Groundcover contributor In a significant move to enhance the financial well-being of Washtenaw County's residents, the Washtenaw County Office of Community and Economic Development, in partnership with the national Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, has announced the grand opening of the Washtenaw County Financial Empowerment Center. This initiative offers professional, one-on-one financial counseling and coaching as a free public service to local residents. The FEC model integrates financial counseling seamlessly into various social services, including but not limlimited to housing and foreclosure prevention, workforce development, prisoner reentry, benefits access, and domestic violence services. This holistic approach aims to create a comprehensive and sustainable program that uplifts the community towards greater economic stability. County Commissioner Justin Hodge, who represents District 5 and is Chair of the Board of Commissioners, emphasized the significance of this initiative, stating, “A Financial Empowerment Center is a transformative initiative that will help empower Washtenaw County residents with the tools and guidance needed to conquer their financial challenges and envision brighter futures for themselves and their families." The FECs are staffed with rigorously trained counselors who provide oneon-one support to individuals with low to moderate incomes. Their mission is to assist clients in managing finances, reducing debt, increasing savings, and establishing strong credit. By investing in financial counseling as a tool serving a critical public need, Washtenaw County is taking a proactive stance in bolstering the success of various social services, ultimately creating a more economically stable community. To cater to the diverse needs of the community, the Washtenaw County FEC offers both in-person and virtual appointments. Moreover, the Office of Community and Economic Development has joined forces with three community organizations, enabling clients to access services at four convenient locations: • The Washtenaw County Office of Community and Economic Development, 415 W. Michigan Ave., Ypsilanti. • Faith in Action, 7275 Joy Rd., Dexter. • Jewish Family Services, 2245 S. State St., Ann Arbor. • Eastern Michigan University, University Advising and Career Development Center, 878 Cross St., Ypsilanti, 200 McKenny Hall. Clients interested in making an appointment can do so via the Washtenaw County FEC website, washtenaw.org/FEC The Financial Empowerment Center is expected to become a cornerstone of accessible financial services in the Washtenaw community. It will not only complement existing programs offered by community partners but also enhance them. Faith in Action, one of the co-locations, shared their perspective on this development in a press release, emphasizing the significance of financial education in supporting households that struggle with money. “Being able to connect clients with individualized financial counseling and education is a great tool and is a part of creating more success financially for these households.” Partnering with community organizations is a key aspect of the FEC model. This collaboration streamlines access to financial services for vulnerable populations who are already utilizing services from partner organizations. It effectively creates a "one-stop-shop" for community members, removing barriers to access. The Financial Empowerment Center initiative extends its reach to the Eastern Michigan University community. Jessica “Decky” Alexander, Director of co-location Engage@EMU, highlighted the importance of this service for students. “We know that finances is one of the most consistent barriers to accessing and persisting through college, our hope is that the FEC will be a space and place to remove such barriers for years to come.” Similarly, Elina Zilberberg, Chief Operating Officer of co-location Jewish Family Services, emphasized the value of having this resource in their building. FEC counselors will be readily accessible to anyone needing help with personal finances, budgeting, and creating a solid financial plan. This service is expected to benefit both clients and members of the community as they seek wrap-around services from JFSWC. The FEC model has a proven track record of success across the United States. First piloted in New York City under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2008, FECs have collectively worked with almost 150,000 clients. These centers have helped individuals reduce individual debt by over $225 million and increase their families' savings by close to $45 million. An evaluation conducted by the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund demonstrated the effectiveness of the program, even for residents with very low incomes and other complex financial challenges. Washtenaw County joins several dozen local governments across the nation in launching or planning to launch their local FEC initiatives. The Washtenaw County FEC is made possible through support from the CFE Fund and American Rescue Plan Funds. SEPTEMBER 22, 2023  ENERGY from page 6 there's the fact that these are the largest players of financial might the world has ever seen. I sometimes like to believe that people with such unimaginable power and resources will possess more lofty ideas for future industries that would ensure continued prosperity for the collective human race. Yet while some do make good use of their position, a great many more just hoard useless crap to show off with, then assign it to obscure storage-bound junk. And this is some valuable stuff — art that's not looked at or appreciated, cars not driven, homes not lived in and so forth. So I sometimes wonder to myself if these people ever give a thought to or experience any concern for their future. I mean there are possible catastrophes of a large enough scale to render everything they have worthless. Just because nothing has happened yet doesn't make the possibility of such an event non-existent. But if I were to bet on anything that would guarantee unity amongst humankind … it would be an epic global tragedy. I'm never entirely sure if I'm truly happy to be alive and experience this particular stretch of time in humanity’s progress. Obviously I live pretty comfortably compared to countless lives spent during more chaotic and unforgiving times. But with myself being a fan of science fiction, I would have loved to know the capabilities we would be permitted to achieve if we continue advancing throughout the coming years. And I mean achievements of mankind alone — without any interventions be them alien or divine. I have to say though, however undecided I feel about that, I do feel pretty damn privileged. I feel this way because I'm a sci-fi geek at heart and I get to witness some pretty important milestones in the environment in the advancement of technology. This is all just one small part as well as a subject I have some interest in. I utilize this to maintain positivity in my life. I believe a crucial part of life for any sentient being capable of emotion is being able to live with oneself. It certainly helps knowing right from wrong and possessing a reasonable and healthy viewpoint — something entirely your own and not what the external World deems necessary. That is why I choose to share these environmental concerns that I'm thankfully not alone in: to highlight perhaps the world's greatest environmental offenders and the gross negligence they demonstrate for the sake of corporate gain. The fact is, we indeed do possess less destructive alternatives yet have an inability to challenge and ultimately supplant such tyrants. And now it seems too great a coincidence that such a threat thrives in the absence of global and social unity. That pitting the common people against each other to ensure we remain divided and consequently powerless is such an effective yet obvious strategy. I feel it important to generate awareness of such a grim topic for several reasons, but I think my favorite would be the David versus Goliath irony. If I, myself being such an impoverished and unimportant element, actually kick-started a movement that would culminate in global superpowers’ ruin ... I would continue to hope such dreams will someday manifest in reality. Regardless of whatever scornful prejudices are aimed at me, I can at least sleep at night. SEPTEMBER 22, 2023 HARMONY The bees are back A beautiful thing that I have been seeing lately is the abundance of buzzing activity in the flower beds during my walks. Sadly, summer is winding down, and I have been trying to enjoy it by maximizing my walks. As I battled with a lot of things in the past few years, for some reason I always managed to keep track of bee news, whether it be bee Colony Collapse Disease, large sectors of agriculture shutting down due to the loss of the prime pollinator, bee colonies being devastated by pesticides (thank you Monsanto) or suffering from mite attacks, loss of habitat and global warming. While walking through Gallup Park the other day, as I was prepping my medication, a 420-friendly bee came and landed right on my medical flower. He seemed cool; I tried to explain to him/her that this flower was already cured and didn't need pollination. He just smiled and calmly flew away — he might have caught a contact high, at least I hope so. I hope he got some respite from his pollinator activities. Then there was another bee that tried global bee population? Is the Colony Collapse Disorder still spreading havoc? Are the bees still suffering from loss of habitat and pesticides and mite attacks? To my awesome happy surprise, I got MOHAMMED ALMUSTAPHA Groundcover contributor to attack me while I was inhaling my medication and I ended up having to fumigate him with my own lungs. I am extremely ecstatic that the bee population in Michigan is becoming noticeably more noticeable. I hope that the population throughout the world rebounds so that agriculture can flourish. The more organic we are, the better we will be. Our state depends heavily on agriculture. As an avid lover of Michigan cherries, boy I am happy the bees are back. The increased buzzful activity led me to googling: What is the status of the to read that the efforts of beekeepers seeking to mitigate the loss and the decline of the bee population in the United States have been successful. These beautiful people have been putting intense effort into making sure that the bee colonies of this country stay thriving. Their efforts have paid great dividends. So, to all of you out there throughout the lands of this beautiful nation, thank you for making sure that our bees are surviving, thriving, and happily twerking away the day on our pretty native Michigan flowers. I hope we all get to see them every summer on and on. It really is a beautiful sight; if you ever walk by a flower bed or a bush and you hear buzzing activities, just stop and look — look at them work, not worrying about nothing, not worrying about all the urban warfare that is being perpetrated on them. No pesticides, no mites, no colony collapse disease, no fumigations have been able to put them down because they know what they must do when they are doing it and God bless them for it. I love your sweet honey; I love what you do for the flowers; and I love that you get to fly being productive all day. And I am happy to say that I have never been stung by a bee, which means me and the bees be homies. (But if I do get stung, I will not hold it against you bees.) I am simply happy that your population is thriving here, and I hope that it thrives globally. Amen. May you all go on to pollinate all throughout the world blessing us with non-GMO, non-pesticide, non-monetized, beautiful, organic, whole fruits and vegetables. And of course, most importantly, honey, which goes good as a snack with cream cheese spread over any flat bread of any kind. Amen. “Striving to be a better man today than I was yesterday, and a better man tomorrow than I am today.” GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 My 80th year times a day for 10 days. I chose the My 80th birthday, celebrated last October, was a benchmark event in my life. Friends Meeting House was the perfect location and my friends Luiza and Elliott did the preparation that made it natural and simple. It did not follow the proposed plan of open mic and dancing because the many smaller conversations were so much more vibrant and better than the original plan. I think everyone met someone new and experienced themselves as born again in a positive social context. The food was wonderful and plentiful, as is common with community based potlucks. Quakers, Mennonites and Brethren are the three historic peace churches and each has a place in my life. They prepared me to have a relationship with the civil and social rights movements of the 1960s. Meeting Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk who Martin Luther King nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, inspired me to be a draft resister on April 3,1968. King was assassinated the next day. His speeches are sacred relics of American history. Beyond Vietnam is required listening for those who want to know the essence of that time in history. What we face today is not a repeat of the past but it rhymes with all songs of freedom. The intensity of wealth KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 extraction from the global working class, including the corruption of public funds and the revolving door of the corporate state, is driving the people of poor third world countries to the first world, the core capitalist countries. Simultaneously, first world countries are turning into third world societies as supremacist elites invest in robots and artificial intelligence in order to maximize profits. Human beings become commodities in financial speculation. Pension funds become investors' toys. It can easily feel like one struggle, too many fronts, as we experience the results of our individual and collective actions. My 80th year is full of health challenges that shook me to the core, especially the acute chronic bladder retention that required an ER trip and a catheter for 10 days. I had to postpone a trip to Cuba. When the retention persisted. I was given the choice to do 10 more days or self catheterize three “hands on” option and was in the clear after several successful self-catheterizations. I was able to go to Cuba and deepen the core family of Daniela, the mother I have known since her birth, and Santiago Alberto, our shared son, who will be four years old on November 9 this year. Mother and son are both my “ahijados,” so I am a mentor, protector and spiritual friend. This is common in Cuban culture and promotes a deep and stable family. Daniela began meditating with me in 2006 when I was doing an Amitabha Buddhist retreat in Cuba. My niece Jayme, 23-years-old then, got a virus in her brain stem and went into a coma. I put her in the center of my meditation and Daniela sat with me and we went into profound meditative states, “at one with reality!” What a blessing. Our bond deepened when she announced that she wanted to live with me until I die. As I look at my 81st birthday, that offer is taking on new life as we live in the dialectic of change and what it means to “serve the people,” an important value that was widespread in the 60s and 70s and is reappearing today as we work in this world. I talked in 2017 about doing volunteer work at Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, the monastery in Woodstock, New York. Complex challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, changed everything. Daniela did express the intention to live with and care for me until I die, once telling me that when I die I will be reborn to her. We plan to live together and I have an account with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to promote her immigration to Ann Arbor. I do not have the income to qualify as a sponsor but do have support from a backup sponsor which should pass bureaucratic review. Emigration from Cuba is challenging because of visa policies and high ticket prices due to corporate gouging. If the United States would end the blockade, which is an act of war, travel would be easier and emigration less likely. The American people are pretty oblivious to the results of U.S. foreign policy. Haiti is the showcase example of what can happen if you resist colonial or imperialist rule. The election of Aristede in Haiti was not accepted by the “rulesbased order” of investor elites. You may recall that coup d’etat. I hope you read “The People Are The Power” in the August edition of Groundcover News. I believe that perspective will help us “serve the people” in the difficult times before us. I also hope that we look back on the International Day of Peace as we move into the era when we “Compost War and Grow Peace.” “The harvest is great and the laborers are few” as Jesus put it. Let’s take the breath that empowers us to connect and do something good. Let’s plan to celebrate my 81st birthday and the Day of Che on October 8th.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS TRUTH OR LIES Truth or lies: The Quest Throughout the history of humankind people have searched from mountain plateau to every forest floor looking for the fountain of youth. In 1722 King George I of Great Britain had a secret exploration commission. He hired his dear friend, Thomas Chatham, and wife, Sabrina. He gave Thomas the best ship he owned, along with a crew of 30 men and seven women. Thomas's job was to explore the world north, south, east and west for 10 years in search of the fountain of youth. King George I never understood how far they could travel, or if they could even go across the world. However, he tried to prepare them as best as he could. He gave them instruments and mapping charts, navigational tools and all the food supplies the ship could carry. He even supplied them with gold, rubies and diamonds for trade, and weapons to protect themselves. He sent his best archers and fighters as part of the crew, to protect the ship and his cargo. In hopes of not attracting pirates, he named the ship the Explorer. King George I trusted in Thomas, Thomas's adventure went well, until they were stranded on an uncharted island for six months. After repairing the ship, they left the island heading southwest. Time passed swiftly. After five years FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 who was really his third cousin by marriage. They grew up together; Thomas' mother was George's father’s servant. King George I knew he was ill. However, he never let anyone know how sick he really was. His confidence was in Thomas, and finding the fountain of youth, in order to heal himself. He had heard rumors of how the fountain would heal his body and restore his youth. Thomas and his crew left Great Britain in 1722 heading east. He documented and charted every island, mountain and body of water they traveled through. The first two years of he traveled to over 100 islands, still not finding the fountain of youth. After the seventh year, he finally landed in Canada. He was surprised to find out that King George had died two years earlier. One night while in Canada, his wife was sitting by the fire and had a vision. She saw the fountain of youth. It was a pool with words pouring out of it. The words were from God, explaining how to conduct your life in order to have eternal life. She rushed to her husband's side and requested his attention. Sitting down in their quarters she explained to him about her vision. She told him how she had seen the fountain of youth and how it was spewing out words. Her interpretation was that it is God’s plan for us to have eternal life with Him, and while we are here He preserves us. Thomas’s wife said, “Enough is enough, I’m tired of traveling, and you need to understand the word of God. The only fountain of youth is his preservation for us. Let’s not chase at the rumors and instead hold on to God’s word.” After contemplating his wife’s words, Thomas sold his ship and purchased land. They built a house for every family who was willing to stay. They settled in Canada and raised their family of three children until God came for them. Thank you Truth Or Lies readers, but you voted wrong! "Randy the Racer," published June 16, was LIES. Vote on whether or not "The Quest" is Truth or Lies at groundcovernews.org SEPTEMBER 22, 2023 - SEPTEMBER 22, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be a voluntary purchase. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD No-knead soda bread LUIZA DUARTE CAETANO Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour and some more for dusting ½ tsp baking soda ½ tsp salt ¾ cup buttermilk or yogurt Directions: Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl using a wooden spoon or spatula. Dust a flat surface with some flour and roll the dough onto it, shaping it into a ball. Place the bread on the baking sheet and make two cuts across it with a sharp knife. Bake for about 30 min or until the bread sounds hollow when you tap the bottom. Eat on the same day or freeze, sliced or whole. SEPTEMBER 22, 2023 LUNCH OR DINNER WE’VE GOT YOU! Whether it’s $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 10/8/2023

2 $ JULY 28, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 16 ASK YOUR YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. You've got NO mail: tips on receiving mail while homeless. Page 7 VENDOR: WHAT IS YOUR BEST NICKNAME? GARY LEVERETT #554 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. HOUSED: Gary Jackson, Alcoholics Anonymous and being responsible for oneself. page 4 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER letter to the EDITOR Last Wednesday during our regularly scheduled lunch at Liberty Plaza, one of our guests was arrested. We were finished serving food, yes, but our community was still present and FedUp staff did all they could to stop the arrest, without success. I immediately followed up with three AAPD staff — an officer, a detective and a sergeant — all of whom have a working relationship with FedUp and an understanding that when FedUp is serving and guests are receiving services, no investigations will occur out of respect for the community and our work. How can people safely come to have their needs met if they are afraid police will go fishing in a pond? I was given the contact information of the lieutenant who is in charge of scheduling the Wednesday day shifts, and he is not responding to my requests for a meeting. It’s been three business days and two weekend days since I’ve reached out. In our past experience, police activity breeds more police activity. I am still working behind the scenes to meet with AAPD leadership about this gross misuse of power, but we need your presence with us. I was told that the man who was arrested for petty theft would be taken to the station, fingerprinted and released if there was no other warrant — meaning these officers exerted power over a community member (a non-violent community member they weren’t planning on even incarcerating) while compromising the integrity of our program and the safety of the rest of our community who no longer feel fully comfortable accessing our services. What was the point of doing that while our community members were gathered to receive services? If you’re able to come out to our free meals these next couple of weeks to observe, to hold space, and to work for justice and peace in our community, we need you. Ann Arbor Police Department, I’m willing to meet with you any time to work out an agreement that keeps our community safe and cared for. — Rev. Anna Taylor-McCants Need a Free Meal? FEDUP MINISTRIES FedUp serves good, healthy, food truck style food with dignity to communities that are food insecure and economically exploited by unjust racial and economic systems in the United States. email: info@fedupministries.org https://fedupministries.org/ Catch the Food Truck! Every Tuesday Lunch: @ Zion Lutheran Church, A2 Every Wednesday Lunch: @ Liberty Plaza, A2 @ Ypsi Transit Center Every Thursday Breakfast: @ 16 S Washington St, Ypsi 12pm-1pm God & Grub 12pm -1pm 1:30pm - 2:30pm 10 -11 am LiftUp NO QUESTIONS ASKED! YOU ARE INVITED HERE. JULY 28, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Layla McMurtrie — deputy editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Mohammed Al Mustapha Elizabeth Bauman Annika Burman David KE Dodge Gino Garcia Washtenaw Literacy Markona Love Mike Jones Ken Parks Anna Taylor-McCants PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Loga Brown Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Harleen Kaur Robert Klingler Holden Pizzolato Alex Tarbet Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenberg Navya Yagalla Emily Yao GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons Give Here Learn More JULY 28, 2023 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What is your best nickname? G Junior. — Gary Leverett, #554 Big Mike. — Mike Jones, #113 T-Love. — Teresa Basham, #570 Joe Smoogums. — Joe Woods, #103 Halster. — Hal Klenk, #88 Tambito or Cuba. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 Ronahnonamacon. — Justen White, #543 Rubber Ducky. — Juliano Sanchez, #174 B-Man. — B-Man, #172 Chill (not Will). — Mansel Williams, #96 Pony is actually my nickname! — Pony Bush, #305 Kung Fu Panda. — Cindy Gere, #279 Fuzzy. — Ken Parks, #490 GROUNDCOVER NEWS War, peace, commodity fetish and compliance culture The goal of U.S. foreign policy is to keep and extend the United States dollar as an indispensable global financial tool. Money is created at will by those in command. The gods of wealth and power create the illusion of eternal supremacy through their human servants. Many are those who succumb to this illusion and keep their noses to the grindstone with no time or energy to look honestly at their lives. Even in this dark age of chaotic and confusing conflict, there are those who speak the truth and many who understand simple and clear when they encounter it. Both Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy warned us of the military industrial complex and the need for peace. The war machine has grown like a cancer in the commodity-fetish culture of the capitalist political economy. “The invisible hand” (market forces) control resources, labor, production and distribution in order to maximize profit. War profiteering becomes central to budget and policy decisions. Despite the worldwide desire for peace after World War II, the warmongers moved to force Hollywood to glorify war and prepare for the next one to combat communism, the eternal enemy. General Reinhardt Gehlen, Hitler’s chief of intelligence on the Eastern Front, was recruited for the Cold War. His contacts in Ukraine have received CIA support from the time the Office of Strategic Services was dissolved into the CIA (in order to focus on regime change in the USSR and stop the Chinese revolution). The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a key player in the Cold War, was created to encircle the USSR. France’s invitation included the commitment to help them regain control of Vietnam and Algeria if they joined NATO and help in this effort. The promise that NATO’s nation Join Ken Parks August 14 at the AADL! membership would not move east was part of German reunification. The fact that the promise was not put in writing is the U.S. rationale for NATO expansion and aggressive war games with nuclear weapons nearby. NATO war crimes in Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, and the de facto war in the Ukraine are now spreading to Asia as plans for war with China continue. KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 parts, usually self and other. Identity thinking can fixate on a separate self and intensify the separation from reality. This is a violation of natural law which clarifies the interrelatedness of everything. The basic step towards freedom is to recognize ignorance and give it up. The addiction to violence and war is born from a belief in dualism, the need to be a good person facing many “bad actors.” Facing reality is a challenge which is best countered when we The endless culture of war feeds an addiction to the adrenaline rush that violence gives to many. Those who glory in violence may be wellpaid in service of the empire. The supremacist ideology which promotes settler colonialism and subsequent imperialisms is deeply rooted in pathological ego formations. The struggle for peace and freedom begins with unconditional love, which is expressed through action. The accumulation of wealth and power by any means necessary is the religion of the global “commodity fetishism” culture, sometimes called the Washington Consensus of rules-based policy. War is the center for all decision-making as the corporate state revolving door for financial interests extends the “full spectrum domination strategy” into the digital age. Information control and the demand for your time is the front line in the war of full spectrum dominance. The demand to be in compliance with bureaucratic fiats based on terms and conditions that no one fully understands takes so much of our time that we easily forget to make our own life a priority. Preparations for nuclear war lie behind the mass shootings and the violence of everyday life, as democracy is replaced by autocracy at work and play becomes sensationalized consumerism. Our addiction to self-destruction is shocking. Scientists design food that is addictive with no real attention to nutrition. The data on this violence in food production and consumption points to sharp declines in mental and physical health. The many hormone-disrupting chemicals increase the health challenges we all face. The trauma of ignorance is wedded to a belief in dualism, the error of splitting reality into two pause for a breath with each obstacle and compost the energy of dualism into the energy of completion. Reality is complete by itself, all its parts are interrelated and united. To separate anything from reality is the error of dualism. The experience of this completeness is the simplest and most elusive of experiences because it has no cause and cannot be contrived. There are moments in history — such as the Awakening of Shakyamuni under a tree and Jesus on the cross — that instill awareness and gratitude for the completeness of reality. We have many ancestors. Indigenous-centered living opens the door to a grand display of our shared heritage. We share air, water and sun as well in the blessings of interrelatedness. We are at a crossroads of history now and clear choices can be made that help us discover our true nature. When compassion, loving kindness and wisdom arise, the struggle of humankind will change course from war culture to happiness culture. Our addictions to ignorance will be composted in the best way as we learn to benefit all beings without exception, self and others seamlessly. Please visit the following sites vfpgoldenruleproject.org, annarborcoalitionagainstthewar.org annarborcommunitycommons.org for more information. The Golden Rule sailboat team will be at the Ann Arbor downtown library August 14. We are planning Water Ceremony with Beatrice Menase Kwe Jackson, one of the indigenous elders of Michigan, and the Golden Rule on the Detroit River at Milliken State Park on August 15. See the flyer to the left for more details. Let’s keep in touch! 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOUSING JULY 28, 2023 HOUSED: Gary Jackson, Alcoholics Anonymous and being responsible for oneself Groundcover News: Tell us about your journey to housing. Gary Jackson: I was born in Detroit and raised in Belleville. I had an unmanageable life for a while. I was drinking and panhandling, being mean to people — generally just unhappy. I tore up cars. My alcoholism played a big part in my life. I worked steadily for most of my life — several different jobs — but the drinking made it unmanageable. The alcohol took a big toll. When my mother and father died in the 90s, I was lost. I’m the youngest of eleven siblings, but I couldn't rely on my brothers or sisters. We were grown; I had to fight it out on my own. I went back and forth between Detroit, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo — in and out of county jail, hospitals — thankfully never prison. I was homeless off and on last year. I stayed with my brother for some time but that didn’t work out. I had to get a foundation in my life. Most recently, I became homeless because of a bad relationship in Kalamazoo; it was not healthy for me. I’ve been in Washtenaw County since January 3 of this year. I am in my 60s and I knew I had to get it in my head that I have to quit this. I didn’t know where my life was going until I turned around and got into recovery. I started in the 80s, but I couldn't stick with it. If I had, I would have had 30 years of my life back. that. Thankfully I already had my social security card and ID because that would have added on more waiting time. I needed references and had to fill out a large application. And the whole time I had to save my money. You need to have your finances in check. I worked multiple jobs. All of that required motivation and LINDSAY CALKA Publisher I moved into Hospitality House Ypsi in January which helped me stay motivated. Hospitality House is a Catholic Worker house in Ypsilanti. It motivated me to want my own space; I wanted to be responsible for myself. I had to bite the bullet, humble myself, save my money, set goals to move on. I started to lead Alcoholics Anonymous meetings there in January, and have kept it up since. I want to show other people it works, even where I come from. I’m proud and I’m thanking God I’m staying focused. GCN: What was the biggest barrier that you faced in obtaining housing? GJ: I was afraid I would lose my life. How many chances would God give me? I used Section 8 — which required a lot of coordinating with the Robert J. Delonis Center and my caseworker. I had to have proof of my birth certificate — which I didn’t have — so I had to order a birth certificate and wait for follow through. GCN: What is an unexpected, positive thing that most people expect when transitioning into housing? GJ: First, comfort. I wasn’t out in the cold anymore, sleeping outside. That was painful for me. How much pain could I take? Being homeless was a blow to the head. Second, keeping myself clean and fresh. I don’t have to go days without washing anymore. That’s a big plus: keeping my hair combed, brushing my teeth, keeping my hygiene up. It feels good to open my closet and see clothes and shoes to choose from. GCN: What pieces of advice would you give to people who are experiencing homelessness? GJ: If it's alcohol or drugs — any addiction that’s hindering you — you’ve got to change. I’m not gonna tell you to stop, but you’ve got to change. You’ll be tired of living the way you are living. You will feel good about yourself and will be more open to help — and helping others. It’s not easy. But there is help out there. Pay for the roof over your head first. Jackson organizes the AA meetings at Solidarity Hall on Tuesdays and Fridays 6-7 p.m. Then light bills, food, whatever. But housing first. GCN: What’s next for you? GJ: Right now I’m working part time at Michigan Medicine and the Salvation Army. I’m saving my money and building my credit up. My hospital bills accumulated, but I’m working on clearing them. Also, I am working on getting a car. My goal is to keep working, saving, and move up. I can’t wait to make an even bigger step. It’s only up from here. A quick history of housing segregation in the U.S ANNIKA BURMAN Groundcover contributor Most of us grew up in segregated neighborhoods, in segregated schools, with heavily racialized life experiences. On the surface, it should not be like this since the Civil Rights Act, passed in 1964, prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or nationality. However, many of us have realized that in actuality, government policies have continued to incentivize segregation, and individual biases have made it even more difficult to create an integrated, equitable society. Many people are surprised to hear that the United States was less residentially segregated in the 1890s than it is currently. Although racism was rampant, Black people and white people were more likely to live together, interacting on a daily basis for the sake of their career and relationships. Everything changed after the Great Migration in the 1910s. Over the next six decades, six million Black Americans moved north or west in pursuit of better job prospects. These poor Black families funneled into northern cities like Chicago, New York City and Detroit en masse, scaring white families into moving out of diversifying neighborhoods. White families used multiple tactics to keep Black people from moving into their neighborhoods, such as threats of violence, actual violence and policies by newly-founded Neighborhood Improvement Associations. One of the methods Neighborhood Improvement Associations used to enforce segregation was restrictive covenants — contracts signed by homeowners promising not to sell their property to people of color; sometimes these contracts extended across multiple generations. They also would collectively buy out Black residents to force them to leave the neighborhood after already moving in, fight politically for single-family residential zoning as opposed to apartment complexes, and they would boycott real estate agents that sold to Black people in their neighborhoods. Some real estate agents also strategically profited off of “white flight” through a process called “blockbusting.” Since segregated Black neighborhoods were overcrowded, wealthier Black families were eager to move to the outer edge of these disadvantaged neighborhoods or into majority-white neighborhoods that would afford them more opportunities and safety. Blockbusters sold properties in white neighborhoods to Black families at increased prices, profiting off of their desperation to escape neighborhoods suffering from systemic disinvestment. The real estate agent would go doorto-door informing the white residents in the area that the neighborhood was about to turn over. He would point to the Black family that just moved in across the street or Black teenagers he paid to brawl publicly that morning, then make an offer to buy their house for less than it was worth. He played into racial stereotypes in every step of the process, and Black families were the ones to suffer the most from his actions. The blockbuster knew that see SEGREGATION page 10  JULY 28, 2023 DIGITAL LITERACY GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 GET TO KNOW YDL! WHERE TO FIND US: Online at ypsilibrary.org Call us at 734-482-4110. WASHTENAW LITERACY Q: How can I tell if information I find online is accurate? A: The internet is absolutely filled with information, with millions of websites, articles, posts, and forums providing details and opinions about every subject imaginable. Wading through the google search results for any topic can leave you feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes you might even find two different sources online that contradict each other. When trying to get reliable information from the internet, it is really important to be able to tell which sources are credible, and which sources shouldn’t be trusted. One easy trick to help tell if a website is a reliable source of information is to look at the domain name of the website. If the website’s address ends in “.gov” or “.edu” there is a very high likelihood that the information found there is truthful. For a website address to end in “.gov” it has to be affiliated with a branch of the U.S. government at the federal, state, or local level. For a website to end in “.edu” it must be affiliated with a higher education institution. Because of the restrictions on their use, websites with these addresses are much more likely to contain accurate information. Another strategy you can use when sifting through the results of an internet search is to pay attention to the publisher, the author, and any sources that are referenced. If you are not familiar with the organization or website that is posting information, you should be more careful about trusting it. If the author of an article or website is someone reputable, such as a credentialed scientist or journalist, that is a good sign. If an article or website links to other sources that can also be a positive indicator of its trustworthiness. Even in those cases, it can still be a good idea to verify what you find by looking at other websites and sources of information. Try using additional internet searches to find out more about the publisher, author and claims made by online sources. It's important to keep in mind that sources can contain accurate information and still be biased. All the information contained in an article or website can be true, but other important information could be left out. This is another reason why it can be helpful to do additional research about your sources themselves. Looking at multiple sources that cover the same topic is one of the best ways to get the full scope of available information. It may go without saying, but you should be especially careful about information found on websites that have a clear agenda or that want to sell you something. Be aware that online advertisers often dress up their content to look like news articles. The top few results under Google searches are often there because businesses have paid for them to show up. Thankfully, google labels these results as “sponsored”. Avoiding sponsored content can help you find more reliable sources of information. Q: I’ve received an email telling me that several people who I went to high school with are trying to get in touch with me. I’m not sure if this is a scam or not. How can I tell if the emails I get are legitimate? A: Spam and scam emails have been around since the early years of the internet, and they remain a huge problem for email users today. Although most email services provide some form of automatic filtering, directing suspicious emails away from your inbox and into a special “spam” folder, it is always possible that some unwanted and/or nefarious emails will get through. Falling for a scam email can lead to hacked accounts, stolen money, and identity theft. To avoid those disastrous outcomes, it's crucial to remain vigilant when going through your inbox. Let's consider the suspicious email that you received, which claimed that several people from your old high school were trying to contact you. Since you are not sure if it is a scam email or not, my first piece of advice would be to avoid opening it or clicking on any links that it contains. Scam emails can’t hurt you if you never open them. If you have any suspicion that something might be a scam, it's usually best to err on the side of caution. That being said, sometimes you want to be really sure. If your former highschool classmates really are trying to get in touch, you wouldn’t want to leave them hanging. A good first step is to think about why you’re suspicious that the email might be a scam email in the first place. Ask yourself if you did anything recently that would prompt your old classmates to reach out to you. Unexpected or unsolicited emails are more likely to be scams. If you recently signed up for a mailing list at a class reunion, there is a greater chance that the email is authentic. Otherwise, it's likely to be a scam. Checking an email’s sender can also help you determine if it's legitimate or a scam. It's a good idea to check the sender's exact email address in addition to the name that shows up in your inbox. Do you know who the sender is? Scam emails are almost always sent by unfamiliar email addresses. Pay special attention to what shows up after the @ sign in the sender’s email address. If it's something unusual that’s a red flag. Once you’ve seen the sender name and email address you can do a google search asking if they are a scam. Other people might have already fallen victim to the scam and posted about it online. Keep in mind that scammers will sometimes send emails that look like see DIG-IT page 11  TO GET YOUR LIBRARY CARD: 1) Fill out the easy online form at ypsilibrary.org/library-cards. 2) Call 734-482-4110 3) Or stop by any YDL location! DON’T HAVE A DRIVER’S LICENSE? We can work with a variety of IDs to get you your card. FEATURED RESOURCE Get YDL info in your inbox! Want emails about all of YDL’s great resources and events? You can choose the categories you’re most interested in to make sure you don’t miss anything! Scan below to get started or visit ypsilibrary.org. FEATURED EVENT Document Shredding Aug 26 10am-1pm YDL-Whittaker Bring up to four copy paper boxes or grocery bags of documents per person. Staples, paper clips, and rubber bands are OK. See ypsilibrary.org/events for full list of allowed materials. Limited to residents of the City of Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Township, and Superior Township. Funded in part by a Washtenaw County Waste Reduction Sponsorship.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS EMPLOYMENT Give it up for FedUp! question: What is your favorite thing about working or volunteering for Fed Up Ministries? And everybody had the same answer: the community they serve. I interviewed Kimberly Sells and MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Let’s give it up for FedUp Ministries: they’ve been putting in work throughout Washtenaw County. From Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti, they have been feeding low-income and homeless people, not only food to sustain life, but also food for thought and spiritual growth, while also providing employment and volunteering opportunities in our community. I want to give a shoutout to a few of the many wonderful people that make FedUp happen: Pastor of Zion Lutheran Church Rev. Anna Taylor-McCants, kitchen team leader Corey Fuller, volunteer Kimberly Sells, kitchen staff Todd Crawley, kitchen staff Brandy Hill, and volunteers Marissa Moore and Phil Huhn. I had a chance to talk to my friends at Liberty Plaza in downtown Ann Arbor, and I asked them all the same Marissa Moore who are college interns. Sells, who has volunteered for one year and now has finished up her internship and is a recent graduate, is moving out of state to further her career and continue to be involved in communities such as this one. Moore is now on her third week of volunteering and will be continuing for a year also. She said she enjoys interacting with the community and the environment Fed Up Ministries provides. As usual on Wednesdays, you can find the big food truck at Liberty Plaza in Ann Arbor at noon and the Ypsilanti Transit Center at 1:30pm. But now the community can also find the big food truck at the Ypsilanti Marketplace every Thursday morning at 10 a.m. for breakfast. Heads up — FedUp Ministries announced mobile showers and laundry units for those in need at the Ypsilanti Farmers Market location every Thursday morning. Come to any one of these three locations to enjoy the food, community and more. Top: Chandra takes the mic at FedUp's Thursday morning worship breakfast. Left: Two employees pull the food truck into the Ypsilanti Transit Center for Wednesday's lunch. Right: Pastor Anna (pictured right) and Shivana (pictured left) during lunch service at the YTC. JULY 28, 2023 JULY 28, 2023 HOMELESSNESS GROUNDCOVER NEWS You've got NO mail: tips on receiving mail while homeless Being able to receive mail is a blessing many take for granted. The first letter I remember writing was a handwritten one I wrote to my adoptive maternal uncle. He had immigrated to the United Arab Emirates from Sudan. I was excited to write my first letter, as it was being delivered by a traveling relative who was also going to the United Arab Emirates for work. I believe it was about my impending trip to California from Sudan. When I was a labor-seeking immigrant in Qatar, living in a workers' house populated by a multitude of African migrants with different life stories, one of those stories stuck with me and is related to this topic in a way. There was a retired Sudanese police officer working in Doha as a Public Relations Officer. He was building a house back in Sudan and supporting his kids through college. We were discussing the nostalgic feeling of receiving a letter from a loved one or family as an immigrant in a different country, before the time of emails, cell phones and text messages. Letters would only be delivered by traveling relatives or neighbors, so it was difficult; illiterate relatives would record their messages on cassette tapes. Hearing the voice of a relative was far sweeter than reading the handwritten messages. Mr. Ahmed Ali, the retired officer, talked about how important it was to receive those letters from his wife and family. He described how excited he would be to get some news, the wait for the relative to arrive, the awkward moments when he arrives from overseas but is tired and must rest, and it is rude to bombard him to unpack the letters and parcels, the care packages, the homecooked meals. The officer went on to detail how he would retrieve his letter and then, as a grown man, would climb to the roof of the house to read the letters in peace by the moonlight, so as not to be seen crying by the other housemates. I have received my fair share of letters in my life. I even thought about working for the post office; it is an awesome job, notwithstanding the nuisance of pet canines. As a homeless man, it gets very difficult to accomplish daily tasks of modern civilian life without the necessary tools. I am one of the lucky houseless people who had a valid form of ID when I became homeless, but many of my fellow houseless humans don't. Another one of these “necessary tools” is an address — required on all job applications, for deliveries of important documents and as a way to receive vital communications. As an experienced houseless individual who wishes to relate his experience to other fellow humans for the sake of convenience, I am going to detail the options available for receiving mail as a houseless individual: • For those of you who are homeless Group mailboxes at the Groundcover News office. Vendors are able to receive mail at Groundcover. Names blurred for privacy. or facing homelessness, you can utilize the address of the Delonis Center. You can sign up with the Delonis Center, and they will open a file for you there to receive mail. It is a free service, and you can check on your parcels every day. The reception staff are awesome human beings and will always accommodate your requests. Additionally, a multitude of service organizations, community and social centers, both humane and religious, will also allow you to utilize their address. • PO Box: You can sign up for one at the local post office. You will need two forms of ID, at least one with a photo. Prices vary, and you can check your mail anytime the post office is open. • General Delivery: Certain USPS offices will allow you to pick up your mail at the post office if you do not have a permanent address. • Virtual Address: These are virtual office addresses run by companies. You pay a monthly subscription or annual service fee to rent their address solely for receiving your mail. They will open and scan the contents of the mail and email them to you on a daily basis if you consent. Some of these companies like iPostal1.com and mailbox. com will charge a fee starting at 14.99 a month for 60 pieces of mail. Lastly, you can use the address of relatives or friends, but that may burden the address holder and put you in an awkward situation with your friends or family, especially if you don't want them to know that you are homeless. There are a multitude of services that houseless individuals cannot utilize due to the lack of a proper mailing address. It is part of civilian life to be able to receive, deliver and exchange ideas, information, and communication. It is disheartening that fully functioning humans miss out on opportunities because they lack an address to receive communication. In all cases, I pray for the day when we are all sheltered not only physically from the elements but also mentally and emotionally from the evils and sorrows of life. Amen. I wish that you all receive a nice piece of mail soon. Love, peace, happiness, and good karma are coming your way. I am happy that we are blessed once again. “Striving to be a better man today than I was yesterday, and a better man tomorrow than I am today.” MOHAMMED ALMUSTAPHA Groundcover contributor 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS IN REVIEW Read "Outsourcing Duty: the Moral Exploitation of the American Soldier" DAVID KE DODGE Groundcover contributor Over five years ago, I wrote a book review which was published in the May 2018 issue of Groundcover News. The book reviewed in that issue is titled "What Have We Done: The Moral Injury of Our Longest Wars" by David Wood. At the time that book was written in 2016, the concept of moral injury in veterans and service personnel who are racked with guilt over things they have done in combat was just starting to receive attention by the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. In his book, Mr. Wood comprehensively describes what is meant by “moral injury” and the state of the art of helping persons who suffer from moral injury. In "Outsourcing Duty," Robillard and Strawser redirect the issue of moral injury from its burden upon veterans and service personnel, to parties who, in a sense, obliviously carry guilt, which is, to my mind, greater and more shameful than that of combatants: the citizens of the nation which grooms, targets, selects, recruits, trains and sends especially vulnerable parties into combat in never-ending, gratuitous wars. The term “the one percent” has been around for some time, at least as early as the start of the Great Recession of 2008, referring to the one percent of the U.S. citizenry who control a vastly disproportionate amount of the nation’s wealth. “Outsourcing Duty” redirects its readers’ attention to another one percent: the portion of the U.S. citizenry who incur “dirty hands” on behalf of another portion who, in too large part, is indifferent to the nation’s eternal war-making. The maldistribution of the moral burdens of war creates a sense of injustice in our military personnel. This is succinctly characterized by the statement of an unknown service member who served in Iraq, which heads up chapter three of the book: “We were at war while America was at the mall.” Those of us who no longer wish to be obliviously complicit in our nation's war mongering will do well to read this book. "Outsourcing Duty" is available online at my favorite bookstore, Literati, for $38. Buy it, read it, keep it. JULY 28, 2023 JULY 28, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. Pitch a story Leave a comment Join our newsletter listserv Ask a question Fill out volunteer interest form Make a donation Visit our website ... all on the Groundcover News LinkTree!

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS EDUCATION The students America forgot GINO GARCIA Wolverine Pathways student contributor I currently attend an alternative high school in Ypsilanti. As only 1.6% of students attend an alternative school, I have a different experience than many. I used to think of alternative schools as where the worst possible students attend school – juvie. But this common preconceived notion I had was ultimately shattered. Further adding to my rare perspective is my identity as an Asian-American student; a demographic almost non-existent in the alternative education system. Enrolled, but without particular reason, I spend most of my time feeling like a fly on the wall, just an outsider looking in. Having been there for well over a year, it has gifted me my most cherished school-related memory. That memory is one of accomplishment and joy — but not of my own personal accomplishment and joy. It was one of my first days there as I sunk into a routine of plopping down on a chair, eyes fixated on a  SEGREGATION from page 4 other Black families would be trying to move into the comparatively prosperous neighborhood, so he would resell the properties to Black families for unreasonably high rates, knowing they were short on other options. Often, the real estate agent would also subdivide existing single-family homes into smaller units to make more of a net profit. The end result was merely an expansion of the poor, Black neighborhoods, with little improvement in living conditions. By the end of the 1940s, cities were incredibly segregated and racial tensions were high. World War II would be ending soon and the 16 million Americans who served in the war would be coming home. President Truman enacted a program through the Federal Housing Association to significantly subsidize the construction of suburban housing for veterans returning home — a plan that fully realized the American dream for millions of white families, increasing their generational wealth to this day. The FHA also offered a similar program that would insure home mortgages for “promising” neighborhoods. In order to determine where the new housing should be built for the best return on investment, the FHA would assign neighborhoods different colors: green and blue meant a good neighborhood, red meant bad. The catch? Neighborhoods with people of color computer screen, engrossed in schoolwork. But this was not a routine day. Commotion jolted me out of my trancelike state. I darted my eyes to find out what's happening; in front of me, a student excitedly spoke with a teacher. She proudly revealed she had just graduated, and the dozen people I shared the room with applauded her, celebrating the grand accomplishment. Joining in felt like clapping for someone I had known for a lifetime. But I didn’t know her. And I would imagine that those dozen people hadn't known her either. At the moment, we supported that student as a community despite our lack of familiarity with her, cheering for someone some of us didn't know before then — it’s why I treasure that moment still to this day. An alternative school’s provided sense of community and support could be treasurable factors to others as well. It remains an option for those going through excruciating life circumstances such as homelessness, teen parenthood and LGBTQ+ discrimination to further their education. But unfortunately, lots were almost automatically rated red and undesirable. So as white families’ real estate was being subsidized, Black families were left behind in the inner cities in divested neighborhoods. To make matters worse, the FHA’s neighborhood rankings were used by a wide range of industries, private and public, including real estate developers, real estate agents, business owners and banks, to determine whether a place was a good investment. Even wealthier Black families were less likely to be approved for mortgages, largely due to their zip code. After millions of white Americans moved to the suburbs, companies followed suit, thereby decreasing the job opportunities for Black Americans in the city. The resources they needed were leaving, but they were unable to follow. Black men could not find manufacturing jobs nearby, so many of them dropped out of the workforce. Black women started to work in the service industry to make up for the loss of income from manufacturing jobs in their communities. In many ways, this is a story of generational wealth and racial oppression. For centuries, Black families have been blocked from the same government services and funding on which white families have built their wealth. Efforts to create more affordable housing for Black families has been lackluster. Public housing, for example, was often built in isolated, undesirable neighborhoods that lacked nearby job of alternative schools across the country don't provide this type of community or safe environment. For many students, alternative schools are places they're sentenced to, not options. According to a 2017 ProPublica Survey, 29 out of the 39 State Education Departments stated that school districts retain the power to transfer students involuntarily to alternative programs due to disciplinary infractions. A staggering number of students are involuntarily sent to these schools for minor offenses and entirely fall off their educational track. Furthermore, this survey demonstrates that these transfers contribute to America’s decrease in graduation rates and academic performance. On top of that, a majority of these institutions lack the resources to offer adequate mental health support for the students sent their way. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 47% of traditional schools had at least one social worker, whereas, for alternative schools, that number is an abysmal 26%. In every school district opportunities or social connections with people who did not surveyed, students had experienced debilitating trauma such as homelessness, poverty, the death of a loved one or gang violence; such findings remain consistent with trauma research surrounding behavior and education. From staffing issues to low budgets, these institutions lack the capability to meet the students' psychological needs. Unfortunately, this is another case of the embarrassing lack of support for the most underserved and vulnerable populations in the United States. Lacking the necessary funds to make a widespread difference, these schools struggle in a climate where public education is already underfunded enough as it is. This experience has changed my perception and opened my eyes to the pitfalls of America's education system. My time there has imparted me with an experience I hold dear while fueling my desire to bring awareness to our system’s downfall. Thus, alternative schools require an extensive revamp, noticeably because the students attending them always end up forgotten. JULY 28, 2023 live in extreme poverty. Its infrastructure was also not maintained. Still today, middle-class, educated Black families live in fundamentally different neighborhoods from white middle-class families. Even the few Black neighborhoods that managed to thrive despite the countless obstacles they faced continued to be targeted by racist policies and development. In the 1950s, for example, highways, stadiums and luxury housing were purposefully built on majority-Black neighborhoods to displace them from desirable locations. The Black residents were not paid the full value of their property, were not given a choice to stay and were not provided with equal-value housing elsewhere in the city. Today, there continues to be a lack of affordable housing. This harms low-income people, who are disproportionately people of color, but other populations also bear the consequences of a lack of diversity and working class people in their city. Before we judge someone’s living or financial situation, we should remind ourselves of the near-insurmountable obstacles that have plagued people of color for hundreds of years. It is in all of our interests to fight for more affordable housing in Ann Arbor, and to provide services to help those that our current housing market has failed. We made decisions in the past that got us into this mess, and now we must consciously make decisions that lead us out of it. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS JULY 28, 2023 LOVE BY LOVE Love by Love: "Saving the Lost" At what point does a homeless person become completely disconnected? So disconnected that other people are only a temporary access to their necessary functionalities. They've become NUMB! Numb to dumb the blues of pain and sorrow. The glazed over look with no emotional energy, the air of surrender and for every action, it feels as if to go on is to draw energy from the very marrow of the bones holding them together — the feeling that one more confusion could break them. The view ahead may become dim and short-sighted … so much so that the near-sightedness is, “if it ain't within my grasp, then it's of no concern to me.” The will to push on is fading out of sight. Many assuredly would say I'm being far reaching on where I presume them to be — I could reply, "Have you been there?” I have been there, briefly, but enough to understand what I'm witnessing. I was one lucky SHB (special human being, pronounced “sheb”), in a cast that felt as if it was the size of a lotto draw, when an Angelic Light shined a new way for me. In the end, it was just luck that pulled me out … that a savior was there to help me: right place, right time. How do land brokers put it? Location, location, location. Then, how do the majority of 'the Lost and the Lonely' get back when they've apparently checked out? LOVE!!! We first talked about our SHBs in the article “What the Streets Took,” then continued the conversation in “Kona's Right Light” and finally started reaching deeper into questions for solutions in “Back in the Crack.” Meanwhile, the beat-down continues to disconnect the Lost. By beat-down, I refer to the summation of our previous discussions in my articles (and references), while the housing crisis and inflation are getting worse, stacking more on our SHBs. Who does or doesn't get the lucky paths? The same paths don't go the same way for everyone. Making the right choice is sometimes the wrong choice. Nobody can ever know what awaits us down that road. We are all One, the same with the exception of choices, or detours that lead us down alternate paths. Once the Lost are completely disconnected, they will start the spiral down the ‘rabbit hole.' Some never return to reality. So, the first step is to reach in and pull them out … that is all about Love and patience. They may then be able to reconnect through social services, BUT unless MARKONA LOVE Groundcover contributor the system adjusts to find a way to keep from losing them again, most of them will fall back out. Are you able to not take offense from their brash response? Can you be of no judgment, regardless of you not being able to understand their choices? Are you fully sincere? Let me forewarn you. This is a daunting and possibly dangerous task. Living on the street, you better be ready to defend yourself. The Lost are bound to be about nothing but defense. More or less, in a constant state of PTSD (fight or flight). Can you be there to support them in their new awareness? This would be a good follow-up question to how far you can go with them — this isn't just giving a peddler a dollar on the corner. This is a commitment. This is a sacrifice that Loves you back. Questions to oneself should be posed in advance of an approach of that manner. A hasty approach could merely scare somebody off and make them even more reluctant to connect. Sensitivity and patience must be the virtues when attempting to bond with someone who may feel completely broken, also probably justifiably guarded (not paranoid, necessarily). They may feel the need to feel you out, test your resolve a little, to know you’re for real. Don't take it personally. Just because you might not see light in their eyes, be assured, it's hiding in them, burning the fire to fight on. They only need a brave, compassionate hand to reach in and pull them out. That's a lot, though everything is measured in relativity. There have been many more anonymous, selfless, gifted humanitarians through history that lived and died in obscurity, than the few raised high. Real, compassionate human beings are what's needed to save our SHBs. The point being made is that, stop looking to anyone else other than you to take a pause in life to help start someone else's back up. "If you can't change the World, change yourself." [Matt Johnson] A column on compassion At what point after the 1960s did corporate America start regulating Love distribution, and when did the hippies stop giving Love — stopped saving LOVE? Oh, that's right, capitalism … "Love for Sale." Americans are programmed consumers looking to the billboards for a dictation on how they should look, feel and express themselves, followed by the rest of American society. "Conform or be cast out." Everybody is more concerned about how they appear to others than what they do to and for others. I wanna call out to our Disconnected, our Lost, but they can't hear us. They are not listening anymore. This is why I'm speaking out loud to my readers. Please my 'Loving Concerned' (what I call the ones following my message of Love and Acceptance) open your hearts and feel someone else's pain. That is Empathy. Feeling someone else's pain takes some of that person's burden. Real Love is sacrifice. Love is not used to sacrifice, it is created from within the act. This final call to action is to the ones that already live in the world of the Lost, our active SHBs can help others, help the Lost, by sharing knowledge of street and the Lost. Nobody knows more about how the Lost got lost than the homeless that are a step behind them — but hopefully getting a step forward. SHBs have already learned how to be humble, empathetic, compassionate and understanding and know better than to judge. Come on SHBs let’s bring the others back, they may end up being the one to have a hand for you when life turns. Anybody remember when there was some authenticating still to the statement “Love Thy Neighbor?” By this time in human history we shouldn't need that statement to be a Commandment — we should be in a place in our humanity where we would consider nothing less, than to know we all deserve that Love. Human beings want Love, to give Love. Giving Love is receiving Love. When you Love others, you Love yourself … So, Love the way in which you desire to be Loved. "Without a noise, without my pride, I reach out from the inside." [Peter Gabriel] This is the call to action: How do we urgently connect with these Lost/disparaged individuals that the system is aware of, but can't connect to using conventional protocol? The system's most recent solution, the Deja Vu nightmare ... "put 'em' in a Sanitarium." All the Grace to Our Lost, may they find their way back to us, more assuredly with our compassionate reach. We all should be so blessed. Sincerely, MarKona Love (with Kona) Author's Note: Kona opened my eyes on how to Love (choosing sacrifice) and how to truly witness and experience Life at its fullest, regardless of determent. She will always be the light that shines upon my path through this Cosmic Journey … and keeps me connected. I sincerely wish everyone to be so fortunate. For comments or suggestions for upcoming topics, please email me at konagod.love5@gmail.com GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11  DIG-IT from page 5 to a fake website. Thankfully, there are some ways they are from a legitimate service, like Netflix or Amazon. These emails, known as phishing emails, try to trick you into entering your login information on a fake version of the website that they claim to be from. A common phishing tactic is to tell you that your account has been canceled and that you need to login to reactivate it. If you receive an email like this, don’t click on the link in the email. Instead, use your web browser to navigate to the website in question just like you usually do. That will allow you to check if there are really any problems with your account, without being redirected that you can avoid receiving scam and spam emails in the first place. The best way to limit unwanted emails is to be really careful about where you enter your email address online. Only enter your email address on websites you totally trust. If you don't have to, try not to enter your email address at all. You can also set up a separate email account just to use when a website or service asks you for your email. Using a separate email to sign up for online accounts can help ensure that your primary email account will only receive legitimate correspondence.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Roasted garlic aioli ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 garlic bulb 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 6 oz jar artichoke hearts 3 Tablespoons of lemon juice 1 Tablespoon of Dijon mustard 1 cup mayonnaise Salt and pepper to taste Directions: Cut off the pointed end of the garlic bulb and place the bulb on a piece of tin foil. Drizzle with tablespoon of oil. Roast at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until soft. Remove from the oven and let cool; squeeze pulp from garlic cloves. Place in a blender with artichoke, lemon and mustard. Blend for a few seconds and JULY 28, 2023 then add mayonnaise. Blend well. Chill. Serve with fresh vegetables, blanching the veggies if needed. Support an Alternative Business Model Local - Organic - Member-Owned Your Ypsilanti source for healthy, eco-friendly food and goods INVEST BY BECOMING A MEMBER! 7 principles of Co-ops Voluntary, Democratic, Equitable, Independent, Informative, Collaborative, Community We make it affordable: Frequent Sales/Use Your Bridge card/Ask us about Double Up Food Bucks Visit us for 312 N. River St. (734) 483-1520 www.ypsifoodcoop.org unique cards and local, handmade items too $2 OFF your purchase of $15 or more One coupon per transacton Must present coupon at time of purchase IT’S SUMMER, LET’S GET GRILLIN’! $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 8/15/2023

2 $ JULY 14, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 15 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. New Yspi Cafe focuses on community, promotes local art, provides healthy meals Page 10 MEET YOUR VENDOR: SCHILLINGTON MORGAN PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Public art sculpture by Terra Incognita on display at Ingall's Mall during Ann Arbor Summer Festival. This installation was one of many elements of the series “Ann Arbor is Burning — a celebration of the radical queer imagination” organized by Express Your Yes Foundation. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER from the DIRECTOR's DESK Groundcover News’ third Community Arts Edition showcases works by Groundcover artists and creatives in the greater Washtenaw community. Through the pieces we publish we challenge the idea of what “art” is and is not. We aim to uplift art practices of all kinds — poetry, sculpture, painting, activism and more. This year, our Community Arts Edition unintentionally took up a theme: art spaces in Washtenaw County. On pages 10 and 11, we highlight Now Studios in Ann Arbor and The Deep End Cafe in Ypsilanti. Both art spaces are not only promoting marginalized artists, but also showing through practice what is possible in these environments. the meaning that is born out of knowing the people behind the product. Behind every piece of art is an artist! That is why we are hosting a LINDSAY CALKA Managing Director Groundcover News Community Art Market on the evening of Friday, July 21, 4-8 p.m. (weekend of the Ann Arbor Art Fair). If you’re heading downtown for the festival already, consider stopping by Bethlehem United Church of Christ, There are many homeless and low-income artists who do not have access to gallery spaces to sell their work, exception for limited sites on the internet where customers cannot meet the artist and connect to them as people. At Groundcover, we understand the importance of face-to-face interactions and meeting the artist vendors and purchasing their products. If you avoid the Ann Arbor Art Fair at all costs, consider making an exception and come downtown to hang with the Groundcover crew! Poster by Mira Simonton-Chao JULY 14, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Layla McMurtrie — deputy editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Mohammed Almustapha Teresa Basham Noah Bodie (Nobody) Luiza Duarte Caetano Christopher Ellis Cindy Gere Alexandra Granberg Mike Jones Eric Kopchia Layla McMurtrie Ron Pagereski Denise Shearer Laurie Wechter Joe Woods PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Sandy Smith Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Harleen Kaur Robert Klingler Holden Pizzolato Alex Tarbet Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Navya Yagalla Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon – Sat, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES PACKAGE PRICING Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JULY 14, 2023 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Butterfly art pleasant Art made of butterflies is very to see. Butterflies have beautiful, unique colors at times. There are all kinds of butterfly artwork. Sometimes it calms people to look at butterfly art and it is very comforting for me to look at butterfly art. You can use butterfly art in all seasons of the year. I like to wear clothing that Schillington Morgan, vendor No. 148 Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? Not all the same place – wherever there is an open spot. When did you start selling Groundcover? In 2012 or 2013. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Talk with righteous people. What is your favorite spot in Ann Arbor? The People’s Food Co-op. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn’t know? I am not phony. What's the worst thing about selling Groundcover News? When some people do not want the truth. What are you most likely to become famous for? Inventing things. What are your hobbies? Art. I just started doing it. What would you do if you won the lottery? Buy Big Momma’s House so good people could have a place to stay. What do you wish you knew more about? How to get and stay in HEAVEN! What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? Not to keep building and bringing in the fake, unrighteous people. What's the best way to start the day? Sing my prayers to our Lord. What's the most impressive thing you know how to do? Make things when I get good ideas. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Be with our Lord God forever. has butterfly art. And sometimes on Halloween, I like to use butterfly wings and be a fairy princess. Butterfly wings can be used for fairy princesses and even angels. There can also be such a thing as a Christmas butterfly — that’s going to be a different article from me sometime. Butterflies can be brown, orange, blue, yellow, a lot of different beautiful colors. It’s good to make butterfly pillows too. And you can make butterfly dolls or stuffed animals. I like to color and cut out butterflies and decorate my home with them. and comforters, butterfly pajamas and purses with butterflies on them and butterfly earrings. A song that I really enjoyed by Bob Carisle is called “Butterfly Kisses.” And Denise Williams made a song called DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 “Black Butterfly.” Butterflies are very beautiful beings that God made. We can enjoy them and imagine them in a lot of beautiful ways. For Pride month, there can also be rainbow butterflies of different colors. I’m going to buy some butterfly stickers and decorate my wheelchair and some of my personal belongings with them. You can also get butterfly dishes and maybe decorate your bathroom and bedroom with butterfly stickers and pictures, too. I went to the Detroit Zoo and saw a butterfly exhibit full of real butterflies. You can make animations of butterfly people, too. I like butterfly bedsheets GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 JOE T-Shirts JOE WOODS Groundcover vendor No. 103 Groundcover News was first founded as a street paper to help homeless people provide basic necessities for themselves while going through their transition to housing. Over the years, Groundcover has evolved in many different ways to address more than just basic necessities and a roof over your head. Groundcover News actually gives people the opportunity, resources and support to achieve dreams and goals on top of providing a decent, legal income for themselves. And I say that because of vendors within the organization — myself included — who utilize Groundcover to the fullest to start and or pursue different goals. I started a t-shirt company called JOE T-Shirts: Jesus Over Everything, LLC. I first thought of the concept because my initials are an acronym for “Jesus Over Everything,” but the main concept is Jesus, and my goal is that my T-shirts plant positive seeds all over the world as people read my messages on my shirts. Joe’s limited edition 2023 Hash Bash T-shirt design. So come by our Community Art Market at Bethlehem United Church of Christ on Friday, July 21, 4 – 8 p.m. and grab a shirt or two. You'll be getting a great product and also helping out a great cause within Groundcover News; it's people selling papers to provide the basics, to thrive in becoming entrepreneurs and actually being able to make a decent honest living to provide for themselves without any handouts or any assistance from the government for housing. I speak for myself on that part. I thank everybody that purchased the paper and who buys from me and other vendors. I thank everybody that deals with us on a daily basis — because we are human just like you are human. I want to give all praise to Jesus Christ for opportunities even when the situation may seem bad. In the long run, if you stick to your guns and stay persevering and do what you need to do, you can achieve goals that once looked impossible.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS OPINION Dreamcatchers: the good, the bad, the ugly Dreamcatchers are more than just a decorative and attractive accessory. They have roots in legend and folklore and are rich in revealing history. The legends and meetings associated with each dreamcatcher reveal how Native Americans relied on the Earth for their home. Modern day interpretations have altered the intentional significance of a dreamcatcher. The concept of the first dreamcatchers were created by Native American culture that believed the air at night was filled with good and bad dreams. Each creation was intentionally designed as a protective charm that was placed hanging above cradles of young children and beds of adults, the belief being the dreamcatcher would protect them from bad dreams. Dreamcatcher enthusiasts believed that their bad dreams were trapped in the web and destroyed by the light of day. TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 JULY 14, 2023 Dreamcatchers are more than just round hoops with feathers and beads. Each dreamcatcher is unique, with shapes and accessories having specific meanings to the Native American. Traditional, authentic dreamcatchers are made using only organic natural materials — from the wooden hoop, to the sinew webbing (animal intestines) and handmade beads. Can you spot the differences between these two dreamcatchers? The left is a tchotchke, decorative rather than functional, and the right is a traditional dreamcatcher. Art, it's so much more Art — what is art? I had to think deeply about this question. I wanted the answer to be genuine, not some copy-pasted Google jargon. So, after a cup of coffee and a few drags of the mango vape, here's what I came up with: Art, my dear reader, is the act of transmitting an idea or a thought from one mind to another, or to humanity in general. Humans are social beings, whose complexity includes an appreciation for beauty, vibrancy and color. As we go on living, we accumulate memories and experiences, both serene and chaotic, sweet and bitter. These experiences and memories become an inspiration for creativity. The beauty in art, for me, lies in the realization and understanding of the ideas or representations of the artist's thoughts by the consumer. Something magical happens when we read a poem, enjoy a nice portrait or hear a song that resonates with us. It makes us feel happy or leads us to reminisce about past times. In a sense, art allows us to feel collectively cohesive and socially connected. It lets us feel human and say, “Hey, the artistic human who wrote the song or painted the portrait or the singer who sang it did so with so much feeling. They must have experienced a similar situation or encounter to mine,” and this, in turn, connects us together. How much effort goes into sculpting or composing a song, painting a picture or cooking a meal? Art requires a MOHAMMED ALMUSTAPHA Groundcover contributor cherished memory during a wedding dance. Meanwhile, another song can be chanted by thousands at a concert. Art is the creation and appreciation great deal of energy — both mental and physical. The accuracy and focus of a painter's hands, the subtle flicks of a guitarist's fingers, the agony, pain and heartbreak a poet feels when writing that love song — it is not easy for humans to bring beauty into the world, yet it is so easily enjoyed. We experience art every day, whether it's the songs we listen to, the logos on our T-shirts, or our favorite piece of art that resonates with us. Art is also an expression of the collective progression and sophistication of our species. Look how far we have come from Neanderthals drawing on cave walls to Michelangelo, Picasso and Tupac. Art is healing. There is a reason why music therapy, pottery and drawing therapy work. The concentration and focus required in creating art can be calming. It is relaxing and makes one feel good, contributing to our overall well-being. A beautiful song can bring two souls together in love or create a of beauty. Art is respect in the sense that we understand the hard work and effort artists put into bringing joy into the world. Art is love in its many forms, whether romantic, familial or patriotic. Art is understanding. Art is compassion. Art is life. Art is color. Art is vibration. Art is the beautiful feeling you get when your favorite song comes on. Art is the smile that lights up your face when you see a pretty picture. Art is the intense happiness of the first bite of your favorite meal because food is art too. Culinary art, in my eyes, is the most intense because it takes the chef's precise mixing of ingredients at the right timing to create a masterpiece that one enjoys not only with the palate but also with the sense of smell and sight. We humans are the greatest work of art. I started to look at all my fellow humans as beautiful art pieces created by the greatest artist of all — not speaking in terms of physical beauty but in the sheer capacity to be generators of good, laughter, happiness, joy and love. Our capacity to do things for each other, to be empathetic, and to think about how our actions will make others feel is amazing. The variations in our culture, traditions, thinking, phenotype — it makes us truly amazing. If we could all start to look at each other as pieces of art, here is what I think would happen: if we looked at women as walking living art, there would be no more domestic violence, no more sexual violence, no more sex trafficking, and no more assaults. If we looked at children as art, there would be no more child abuse and child kidnapping. If we view each other as works of art, we raise the collective appreciation of each other and can progress into a better future. All I'm saying is this: take some time out, listen to a good song, go to a flower garden, attend a poetry slam or a museum. It will invigorate your state of mind. My favorite artwork is “Napoleon Crossing the Alps” by Jacques-Louis David. It shows Napoleon in his full military regalia crossing the Alps on his Arabian mare, Marengo. The portrait shows the determination of the short little Corsican to achieve his goal and objective. It motivates me every time I look at it. My favorite song is “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles; it picks up my spirit every time. I'm still looking for a favorite poem. “Striving to be a better man today than I was yesterday, and a better man tomorrow than I am today.” JULY 14, 2023 POETRY Sleeping in the rough NOAH BODIE (NOBODY) Groundcover contributor (days and nights of absolute despair and futility) Other people, those with a permanent and safe roof over their heads, can take that as well as much else easily for granted; however, most of them will never know or understand what it is like for those who have to try sleeping in the rough, outdoors, underneath the stars, in the rain or during other severe inclement conditions, even if and when they are fortunate enough to have a tent or some other type of temporary structure, until it is vandalized or removed; sometimes by municipal authorities and anyone else who simply wants to kick them down the road, as if the person were some useless empty can. Just ask anyone who has experienced such treatment for themselves; it is really agonizingly tough, which is an understatement to be certain; truly; it's downright dehumanizing, immoral and should be against the law; yet ironically, under the law, those living unhoused (aka homeless) have little, if any, actual protection as well as little, if any, justice. Yeah, justice is definitely blind, for sure. Who gave society the right to deprive an unhoused person of their civil and human rights, merely due to the fact that they do not have a permanent abode of their own to call home and sanctuary?! Explain that one, if at all possible. Though, on second thought, don't bother; because no one is probably even listening, nor obviously caring; not to mention about how, truth be told, neither am I; not unless and until each of us open both of our hearts as well as our minds to what else might be possible and have a meaningful dialogue together and, somewhere down the road, build a better as well as different future; where everyone can attempt to live in mutual peace and harmony. Imagine that, if you can. Cemetery morning RON PAGERESKI Groundcover contributor Mourners gather to pay respects Handful of dirt each collects To toss upon the box they brought His death an end he had not sought But came for him by and by Comes for all, time we cannot buy Survivors, sad and so depressed Focusing on the soul dispossessed Wealthy dead, no longer proud Coffin draped in satin shroud A soft silent tear mingling… With the morning mist GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and science tools— you name it! Plus, we heard there are plenty of Summer Game codes hidden across all of our locations, exclusive to library visitors. Exhibits at AADL In an effort to increase the visual education and artistic experience of all visitors, the Library’s exhibits feature local, regional, and national artists as well as traveling exhibits. The Downtown Library has multiple spaces throughout the building with regularly rotating exhibits. See what’s on display at AADL by visiting AADL.org/events-feed/ exhibits. Public Computers AADL has public computers available for use by cardholders and non-cardholders at all five libraries. Each station has USB ports, headphone jacks, and some of the fastest internet in town. All buildings also feature publicly accessible WiFi in buildings as well as extending to parking lots adjacent to the buildings. FEATURED EVENT THE ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY TINY FILM FESTIVAL July 8–August 6 The Ann Arbor District Library is once again hosting the Tiny Film Festival for movies one minute or less! Film and edit your movie and upload it from July 8 to August 6, 2023. Winners will be announced at the Summer Game Game Over Gala on August 27. 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PRINT GALLERY Christopher Ellis JULY 14, 2023 GROUNDCOVER GALLERY Eric Kopchia “The Village,” Multimedia sculpture “The Universe” “Semi galaxies” JULY 14, 2023 PRINT GALLERY Cindy Gere GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 “Unity,” Acrylic on canvas, 13 x 10" “Spirits,” Acrylic on canvas, 4 x 4' Laurie Wechter For every issue of Groundcover News, Gere decorates her newspapers with stickers, tape and gems. Her papers were used to design the Community Art Market poster. “Face Value” Multimedia on paper 14 x 18" “Internal Affairs: Chapter and Verse” Acrylic on paper, 9 x 11"

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PRISON ARTS Bask in the Light Art Show 2023 U-M SCHOOL OF PUBLICH HEALTH, BLACK AND PINK Bask in the Light is an art project that centers the work of people incarcerated in the state of Michigan who identify across the LGBTQ+ spectrum and/or are living with HIV/AIDS. The show opening was held on April 13, 2023 at the Michigan League on the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus. This event represents the culmination of a year of work by Black and Pink volunteers at the School of Public Health and Michigan Medicine, and many, many letters sent back and forth through prison walls. Through their work, ten participating artists express longing for community and connection, desire for healing and repair, and resistance to incarceration and heteronormativity. The title of the show, Bask in the Light, comes from the work of artist Ladi Dä, reflecting the strength and beauty of transgender, gender non-conforming and intersex individuals trapped in the prison industrial complex. This project was funded by a DEI Innovation Grant at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and the Carceral State Project at the University of Michigan. Ladi Dä I Am Ladi Dä. My survival depends solely upon my Activism. My art is inspired by the daily experiences of the transgender, gender nonconforming, and intersex individuals trapped in the Prison Industrial Complex. It is meant to keep us inspired and remind us that everyone knows: “WE ARE THE STRONGEST INDIVIDUALS IN THE WORLD.” Take it from someone who's spent over two decades incarcerated for a crime they did not commit. This piece was drawn on an MDOC grievance form with a segregation pen while housed in Solitary confinement where I currently reside. Love you, Ladi Dä. “Bask in the Light” JULY 14, 2023 “Won’t Explain” Painted coasters JULY 14, 2023 PRISON ARTS Transcend AARON Bask in the Light contributor Transcending the lines of a bar that was never set. How fundamental and emotional, can one person get? subliminal test broken cabinet in my chest I ache, and I crave To be unlonely If only… If only Whispers AARON Tears whisper unanswered questions. Silently shed from my eyes to the only things that seem to catch them, my shirt, or the floor. Why can’t the whispers leave me be. Artist statement: I write from my heart, and only about things as I understand them. I love myself, but do feel a lot of angst. I’m working on compiling a book of my poems entitled “Who can understand this pain I can’t seem to convey?” Thank you for reading my work. Love to all of you. They’re self reflecting and I hate that what I see is self loathing and every sin set on a reel so I may see that all the pain I’ve caused is real. DWIGHT Bask in the Light contributor Some men live for others and make their every act known Some live in seclusion, choosing to live life alone But of these men the group I’m in are the Men Behind the Wall They’ve forfeited their freedom, tossed away their rights By day they walk in darkness and sorrow fills their nights They’ve learned to hide their teardrops but still they fall At wee hours they cry and home seems gone for Men Behind the Wall Some have lost their family, most have lost their friend For them, today brings heartache that tomorrow cannot mend Where letters are not answered, when no one takes their call They cannot take the lost and what a cost it is for Men Behind the Wall Their past is forever in their future however far away Their story has been written with little left to say No one to stand beside them and catch them when they fall The debts they’ve made are never paid for Men Behind the Wall If there is one who’s righteous, then let them cast that stone And to be that has lived perfection, then let him die alone The ONE who was perfect was judged in Pilate’s mall He knows their debt and loves them despite them being Men Behind the Wall GROUNDCOVER NEWS Men Behind the Wall 9 Michael McCloud Dear Art Viewers, Hello, my name's Michael McCloud. I'm 33 years old. I'm from Jackson, Mich. I have turned to making, doing and creating art because it's peaceful to me and time distracting. Most of all I love my color schemes and how I make my colors pop off the paper, like they're just coming right at you. This piece you're looking at is called Kill COVID. I created this piece because, as the U.S.A. we have faced a tragic time as far as COVID. There's many messages in Kill COVID, it's just up to you, the art viewers, on how you look and judge my art piece. I hope you enjoyed my piece and look forward to seeing more from me. Thank you. “Kill COVID.” McCloud made an envelope out of DOC order forms to send in his artwork.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ART SPACE Ann Arbor is burning — arts and culture for whom? ALEXANDRA GRANBERG Groundcover contributor I met Petals Sandcastle (they/them) on the grass in the Diag-State-Hill triangle. It's familiar grounds for Petals, who studied at the University of Michigan. A stone's throw away is Now Studios, run by and homebase for the Express Your Yes Foundation. Petals is founder and guiding light. It's a 501(c)(3) creative nonprofit fusing activism with art. It's an underground art and performance venue, political playhouse and more, full of “creative disruptors and thought leaders.” It's also a safe space for people to be themselves, away from the heat of the neutral gaze — one that is “passively active, indifferent.” Last year the studio arranged over a hundred free events in the city. Most recent is an event series under the project Ann Arbor is Burning — a celebration of radical queer imagination, part of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival. Now Studios advocates for the city's abundant resources to go to the homeless, queer, Black, immigrant, disabled and other marginalized communities. “I keep coming back to this place [Ann Arbor] thinking, certainly it doesn’t want to be a soulless playground. But very few want to give money or leverage an inch of their privilege. It's a hard pill,” Sandcastle says. “This place does not want us.” Beyond art This year Ann Arbor was named the number one best place to live in the United States, based on a “10 expert list” search by StudyFinds.org. “Best for whom?” asks Petals, see STUDIOS next page  Sandcastle holding one of their paintings "Gerf" at Now Studios. JULY 14, 2023 A2 Artisan Market should be your Sunday destination about finding parking and admission is free as well. In 1991, artists and craftsmen from MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Ann Arbor's best kept secret is the Sunday Artisan Market. It is located in the Farmers Market pavilion from April until Christmas, from 11a.m. – 4 p.m. every Sunday. For those who don’t know, parking is free every Sunday in Ann Arbor, so you don’t have to worry the Farmer’s Market felt they needed another day when they could highlight their art because of the lack of good space at the Wednesday and Saturday Farmers Markets. Thus began the Artisan Market. This Sunday destination in the Kerrytown District is a wonderful place to bring the family to soak in the sunshine and to enjoy the many restaurants and places to shop. My friend TJ, who is a vendor at the Artisan Market (Kinetic Re-Design), has a booth that sells tie-dyed shirts and fabric. I purchased a shirt from my friend TJ and I love it. One can also find vendors that sell jewelry, wood crafts, photography and much more. Far left: Lloyd Holdwick and his display, Artistics in Wood. Left: TJ sells funky tie-dyed suits at his booth Kinetic Re-Design. Top: TJ and Mike Jones together as Jones models a Kinetic Re-Design original button-up shirt. Above: Jewelry display at the Sunday Artisan Market. JULY 14, 2023 ART SPACE GROUNDCOVER NEWS New Ypsi cafe focuses on community, promotes local art, provides healthy meals The Deep End Cafe & Gallery opened in Ypsilanti just three months ago, and owner Candace Cavazos hopes to use the space to benefit the community in multiple ways: to promote local artists, make healthy eating affordable and provide free meals to people in need in Washtenaw County. Being from Detroit, Cavazos never planned to open a store in Ypsilanti, but she found out about the space and thought it was a good fit for her vision. Cavazos was aided and inspired by the mission of The Squeeze Station in Detroit, making healthy eating accessible. “Their mission is to basically bring healthy eating to the community, especially in Detroit where there's a food desert,” Cavazos said. “We learned that this area in Ypsi has similar issues when it comes to getting access to affordable healthy foods.” So, The Squeeze Station helped Cavazos put together a food menu that includes a variety of breakfast items, wraps, salads, quesadillas, tacos and more. The cafe also offers coffee drinks, tea, smoothies and fresh pressed juice. Most recently, The Deep End has begun a program called “Each One Feed One” to help provide free meals to people in the community. Customers can purchase any beverage, meal or treat for someone in need and get 10% off of their order. The cafe will have a sign outside that states how many free LAYLA McMURTRIE Deputy Editor meals are currently available. Cavazos wants to do more than just provide meals and beverages though. As a poet herself, she hopes to promote other local artists. “My personal mission is to just make a space for underrepresented artists, make space for people that come from low-income backgrounds,” Cavazos said. “My goal is to just really provide a high-quality experience to people that come and engage with the underrepresented artists that come through here.” Cavazos features a new local artist each month and allows local creatives and organizations to host events in the space and sell locally created art prints, books and products inside the cafe. The name “The Deep End,” comes from the feeling throughout her own life of being in the deep end, and being successful in her creative pursuits anyway. She hopes to show other people with Founder of The Deep End, Candace Cavasos, behind the register at the cafe and gallery. Photo by Mike Jones. hardships that they can do so, too. “I come from a very low income background; my parents both struggle with addiction and it was hard for me to achieve college and achieve all these things that statistics said I was not going to achieve, so I feel like I was born under pressure,” Cavazos said. “If you feel like you have to break cycles in your family, then I think that the pressure of that can sometimes be crippling. But if you are encouraged and you're in a community where people can inspire you and encourage you and validate you, then you can become a diamond and that's kind of what the brand is for The Deep End — ‘Be where the pressure is and become a diamond under pressure and let's celebrate all the people that decide to keep fighting and keep swimming and not let the pressure fold them so that they can also become diamonds.’ ” To learn more about The Deep End Cafe & Gallery and stay up to date on specials and events, follow their Instagram @tdecafe, visit their website www.tdecafe.com, or go to the brick and mortar at 310 Perrin St. in Ypsilanti. 11  STUDIOS from last page invoking (at least for this writer) Lenin's question "Liberty for whom?" “Washtenaw is the worst county for upward mobility. This city thinks it’s liberal. It's a place for students and [property] owners.” “Others are just here to be paraded, tokenized and to tick boxes,” Petals says. “The cognitive dissonance of this place is crippling. There's a serious disconnect between the brochures and what plays out on the pavement.” During the Ann Arbor Art Fair, Now Studios activates “an entire militia” of artivists. It's an attempt to “un-Karen” hitherto ignorant people and put queerness in front of the masses. It's powerful, but also a tough process for those putting their bodies on the line, Petals says. Now Studios, in addition to hosting community arts events creates space for civic enagegment with City Council meeting watch parties, protests, Beating heart Of course there should be anger and rage, says Petals — without it, there's no push back to the status quo. “But love really is at the center of this,” they say, referring to the multiple free events the studio puts on to build community and understanding. In May, Now Studios converted Main Street into one big art and community space during the weekend’s closed streets. Crayons and big canvases, hula hoop rings and a silent disco drew families and friend groups alike. The street was packed with happy people enjoying themselves and each Selfie taken after storming the June 20 Ann Arbor City Council meeting. Individuals pictured were advocating for the passage of an ordinance that would restrict police from conducting traffic stops for minor violations. It was approved unanimously. political performance art, clubhouse mind-share and issue-based community organizing. “We don't fit into the cookie cutter box; we're human, with rotting teeth and rent and dreams, not just the town jester — put your hand on my heart, it beats.” other. It was joyous and fun, easy and free (of charge). The asphalt was covered in crayon messages of love. This writer, who was there, wonders if anyone ever stopped to ask: Who made this possible for me and why?

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MONEY SAVERS Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. JULY 14, 2023 JULY 14, 2023 PUZZLES 1 14 17 19 22 25 31 34 40 43 44 45 50 53 59 62 64 65 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS ACROSS Across 1. Area 7. Falling flakes 11. Software program, briefly 14. Irritate 15. Great Plains nation 17. Downright 18. Misers' sins 19. Deception 20. Breakup 22. Soft throw 23. Greek god of love 24. Campaigner, for short 25. Words on a Grecian urn 26. Romanian money 27. Saliva 31. Cunning 33. Circumference 34. Where all must go? 40. Dweeb 41. Marry a woman 43. Opposed to 46. Put in stitches 49. "Geez!" 50. Baby seal 51. Creole vegetable 52. Appear 53. Some cosmetic surgeries 58. Agcy. 59. Kind of mapping 60. Pierre's boat 62. Oily fish in the Atlantic 63. Depth charge targets during WWII 64. Rotten 65. Chuck 66. Seal 54 55 56 57 60 63 66 DOWN 1. Gulp 2. Regular 3. Delicate blue perennial 4. Victorian, for one 5. Lyrical poem 6. Whole 7. Picket line crossers 8. ___ Scotia 9. Arab League member 10. Charge 11. Honor 12. Carbolic acid 13. Mortar and ___ 16. Takeaway game 21. Former French coin 27. Editor's "It wasn't me!" 28. "Before," when before 29. "___ alive!" 30. Become friendlier 32. Abominable Snowman 33. Meas. of a country's economy 35. Plant bristle 36. Legal thing 37. Skill 38. Legume in many soups 39. Get out of 42. Hand over with confidence 43. Poise 44. Kind of hen or pig 45. Add 46. Hit the slopes 47. Greek god of darkness 48. Sushi condiment 51. "Good ___" (Pratchett and Gaiman novel) 54. Anglo-Saxon letter 55. Checked item 56. ___ list 57. Aces, sometimes 61. Deck (out) 61 51 46 47 48 32 35 36 37 41 49 52 58 20 23 26 33 38 39 42 27 28 29 30 21 24 2 3 4 5 7 9 GROUNDCOVER NEWS f CROSSWORD 8 10 15 18 16 13 rom the International Network of Street Papers 6 11 12 13 S P H E R E S N O W A P P W E A R O N C O M A N C H E A R R A N T A V A R I C E S L I E D I S B A N D M E N T L O B O D E E R O S W I L Y P O L L E U S P I T T L E G I R T H C L E A R A N C E S A L E T W E R P A G A I N S T P U P O K R A L I P E C T O M I E S O N E T O O N E W I V E S E W M A N A C T B U R B A T E A U M E N H A D E N U B O A T S B A D T O S S S I G N E T

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS INSP JULY 14, 2023 Shediart: The history, process and techniques of Shedia’s upcycling project TONY INGLIS International Network of Street Papers Editor When INSP visited Greek street paper Shedia in Athens, we visited the home of its various social projects, including its long in fruition, and now operating, upcycling project Shediart. Here, former vendors, and otherwise socially marginalised people involved at Shedia, were trained in reconstituting old, unsold Shedia magazines into beautiful, artistic, functional products. In the workshop, as items were being made, one of the people behind the idea, Katrin Kretschmer, explained how it came to be and what was going on. INSP: How was the Shediart concept born? Katrin Kretschmer: There were so many old magazines in storage and no one really knew what to do with them. If you bring them to a recycling plant, you get very little in return for them — maybe around 50 euros — and it is quite a job to transport them. So, while it's the ideal disposal method, it's difficult for us in terms of time and effort. And recycling — okay, it's better than burning them of course, but there's no real benefit for any person (other than the overall environmental aspect), which is what they were printed for in the first place. So we thought, is there an alternative? What else can we do? And I started to try different things, just experimenting using the paper — what could it do? Could you use a tool to turn the paper into a pulp and mold with it? Or perhaps weave it like a textile? I tried different techniques, making some jewellery, and I said, ok it’s possible to produce good and different things out of this paper we use. And when we had nailed down the techniques, we started to have workshops. We invited the Shedia vendors to come to upcycling workshops. They were open — anyone who was interested could come just to see if they took an interest in handicrafts and being creative. But we didn't say anything about creating jobs in the beginning, mainly because we wanted the people who were really interested, and not just those interested in money but also in the art form. No one was excluded. We had a lot of workshops to begin with. Some people said it was a bit difficult — maybe they weren't so dexterous, or their eyes weren't so good. And there were a few people who said they'd like to do it but just didn't find that they were particularly good at it. It’s not the simplest thing to do right away. But if you can do things with your hands, and you really like it, you can learn. Some needed a few months to improve and produce really beautiful things. And some others, from the start, just were talented at it and it was second nature to them. And as we work as a team, we learn from each other, come up with more ideas and learn how to make the techniques better, to make the whole process more efficient and make the end products more beautiful. So it's an ongoing process. INSP: When you make a specific kind of product, is there, for example, a checklist, a set process — how does each piece come together in a practical sense? KK: Our thought from the beginning was we didn't want to create useless stuff. I suppose jewellery could be called useless but people like to have it! But we didn’t initially want to produce art that is stationary, like a sculpture that just sits in your living room. Perhaps we will at some point. For now, our checklist is: Is it useful? Is it beautiful? Is it more or less practical to produce? And do we have someone who can produce it? Because we also have a few ideas, though nobody skilled in doing it yet, that would require proper sewing. There are many things that we could do if we had people who were really qualified. But we have already trained as much as we can at this point. And we need to create an income from the project so that we can bring more people on board. We really want to pay people for their work. We really want to have another work opportunity for those who were former vendors, if possible. It's not easy, and if you want to adopt this, to copy and paste it to other street papers, there may be fluctuations in the difficulty of doing that. We can't say ‘this is how it is,’ but we can show you how we do it, and maybe it will be a fit. If there are only two to four people in a street paper who might be interested or able after some lessons — and for us it really took about two years, we even had lessons about how to host a workshop — it was not that we said we know everything now. We asked for help — how to speak to different age groups, how to run things. We care that we do it properly. The training, for those involved, even for a short time, has such a big impact that it’s worth it. INSP: And in the workshops, how many of the techniques used were planned out and were trial and error? see SHEDIA next page  JULY 14, 2023 INSP  SHEDIA from last page KK: We started with the simplest things. With the easier techniques. You feel and you see if it’s working or not. Initially we used this technique where we roll the paper into straws. These need to be straight and rigid. For those who found that difficult, we tried other things. Some didn’t take to any of those, but fortunately the ones who did make it can do all of the techniques extremely well. Katrin then talked through some of the common techniques they use. Here we have some strips of the magazine paper, and we take wooden or metal sticks (like a cocktail or kebab stick) and you roll any size strip of paper around the stick. It has to be tight around the stick. Glue the end and it becomes a straw. Then you use these [firm but malleable] straws to weave. Another is we shred the paper and blend it into a pulp. We mix it in a bucket like a smoothie! Then we dry it [using essentially a large sieve] and drain it. Then, using molds of shapes, of whatever you like really, you can use it to create things. That’s how we make bowls, clocks and even lampshades. Sometimes we use the pre-pulped strips, from the shredder, to create products. On some products, we like to show a bit more of the magazines, so you can see where this beautiful product really came from. Inside the mold, we put in strips of paper, then the pulp. So, even though the final product looks very nice and intricate, it is simple. If you have decent use of your hands, it can be done. Exactly. If you have the knowledge, and some help from say a shredder or a mixer, then you can do it. It’s not a mystic thing! We teach this — we go to schools; we have companies come here to learn. INSP: Not only is Shediart becomin turn increasing its ing a success in terms of its products, sustainability, but those involved are also earning even more of an income — and, crucially, other skills and self-esteem building — when leading workshops and classes on how to make these products. At the moment, two women (over the age of 50, as is the case with the majority of individuals involved in Shedia social projects), Christiane and Vanessa, are employed at Shediart. Christiane, now 61, has experienced drug addiction, prison time and has been otherwise socially excluded or unable to find employment. Watching her work and talking to her at Shediart, it is clear that she is not only happy with the income she is now receiving (she used to sell the street paper) but absolutely loves the work. “No matter how difficult an item is to make, I come to the work with love,” she says. INSP was lucky enough to sit in on a workshop held by Vanessa and Christiane at the original Shediart workshop (located in a small unit in a city centre arcade that lets out shops to local social projects). The attendees were refugee children, who were brought along by charity Caritas. The joy on both their and Christiane and Vanessa’s faces was evident throughout. KK: We even have the kids work with the pulp at an early stage — they will make bowls, pins and badges, and keychains by working the pulp into ice cube trays, letting them dry and then painting and designing them. Our idea ties together many things. There’s the obvious benefit of the income generated for those who do the work. In Greece, there is a big trash and environmental problem. So there is a sustainability aspect. The thoughts and impetus behind that part of it, we also want to spread. It is still a problem here, even if it is getting better. It shows that not only is Shedia an organization with a social conscience in terms of the actual paper, but generally throughout our projects. People come to our workshops and ask ‘what kind of paper can and should we use?’. We say absolutely anything — even pizza delivery advertisements you get through your letterbox. That’s why any street paper could do it too. Just try and use it. INSP: How about in terms of start-up costs, and what is the sustainability of the project now? KK: There was not much of a cost in the beginning. I was taking the workshops just until we had those with the knowledge to take them themselves. In the beginning there was no money involved. We had some funding to pay our employees until we started selling. But now since the production, there is no need for this support. We originally trained eight people fully to do this, and two are currently employed, but we have high hopes this will increase. Demand for the products and the workshops is high, but it’s still the beginning. Courtesy of the International Network of Street Papers GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Homemade granola LUIZA DUARTE CAETANO Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 cups of oats 1 cup of nuts and/or seeds ½ cup fat (such as melted butter or vegetable oil) ¼ cup of sweetener (such as maple syrup, honey or sugar) 1 tsp of spices (cinnamon, cloves, allspice, etc.) 1 pinch of salt 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional) ½ cup of extra toppings (such as dried fruit or chocolate chips) Directions: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl, mix together the oats with the nuts and seeds, salt and spices. Add the vanilla (if using), melted fat and sweetener and mix thoroughly. JULY 14, 2023 Spread over the baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Take out, rearrange granola on the baking pan with a flipping motion. Bake another 25 min. Once the granola cools, add the extra toppings (if using) and store in an airtight container for up to four weeks. IT’S SUMMER, LET’S GET GRILLIN’! $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 8/15/2023

2 $ JUNE 30, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 14 ASK YOUR YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Being a nice human: a recipe in development. Page 4 VENDOR: WHAT IS THE BEST ICE CREAM FLAVOR? PONY BUSH #305 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Summer street scenes. page 7 Photography by Mike Jones THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER letter to the EDITOR Last week, I was walking in downtown Ann Arbor when a Groundcover News vendor (I'm not going to use his name out of respect for his privacy) asked me if I was interested in buying the latest issue. As is often the case, I was running late, but I love Groundcover News content and always enjoy meeting the vendors. So, we chatted for a minute while I paid for my copy of the special edition and then I kept it moving toward my destination. As I was walking away, I heard the vendor asking another person nearby if they were interested in buying a copy. When I didn't hear anyone respond, I decided to observe from across the street to see how it would play out. In the few minutes I stood observing across the street, I saw multiple people, some with young kids, walk past this vendor, either ignoring him entirely, acting as though they didn't hear him speaking to them, or demonstrating an unwillingness to talk with him through their dismissive body language. I know there are many other people who DO acknowledge or stop to speak with vendors or others when approached on the street, but I've seen the opposite happen enough times that it feels necessary to say something. If you feel such a sense of urgency to get to your destination that you choose not to acknowledge that someone is speaking to you, please take time to reflect on why you prioritize your own sense of urgency over respecting another human being's humanity. If you're not familiar with the work of Tema Okun, please take time to learn about White Supremacy Culture and how this behavior perpetuates it. (tinyurl.com/00001441) If you find it scary or uncomfortable to be approached by a stranger in public, please take time to unlearn the “stranger danger” myth and learn how to identify and respond to legitimate safety concerns rather than fearing all strangers and teaching your children to do the same. (tinyurl.com/14410000) Whether folks we encounter on the street are selling things like Groundcover News to make money, asking for money without having anything to sell, or just trying to be acknowledged and seen as fellow human beings, the very least we should do is acknowledge them with kindness and care. Our children are watching how we move through the world. We have a responsibility to move with kindness and care for everyone in our community, especially for the folks who are the most marginalized. If you've read this far and find yourself feeling defensive or like your individual experience isn't reflected, please try to recognize that a 700 word piece can't possibly capture all of the contextual factors that may impact each person's capacity for engagement with strangers. That said, we have to be mindful of the power dynamics inherent in our interactions with the people around us. Our individual traumas, mental illnesses and upbringings don't exist in a vacuum. To borrow from my own experience, I'm a therapist who specializes in treating trauma, in part because I have a history of complex PTSD. Because of my professional and personal privilege, I have access to the quality therapy and psychotropic medications that I need to help me function. Even so, I have struggled at times to be emotionally regulated enough to demonstrate kindness to folks who approach me on the street. If you're healing from trauma, caring for your mental health, dealing with the effects of prior street harassment, etc., and it prevents you from engaging with the folks who approach you on the street, I truly get it and empathize with how difficult that can be. And, I hope you receive the kindness and care we all deserve and you're able to pay it forward when strangers approach you for help or support. — Erica Johnson JUNE 30, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Layla McMurtrie — deputy editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Kevin Allgood Mohammed Al Mustapha Luiza Duarte Caetano Dalon Eaton Heather Feather Markona Love James Manning Erica Johnson Mike Jones Ken Parks PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Loga Brown Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Harleen Kaur Robert Klingler Holden Pizzolato Alex Tarbet Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claud VanValkenberg Navya Yagalla Emily Yao GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JUNE 30, 2023 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What's the best ice cream flavor? WAITING — Pony Bush, #305 Chocolate. — Denise Shearer, #485 Ben and Jerry’s “Everything But The…” — Mansel Williams, #96 Superman. — Todd Smith, #607 Depends on where I go. Lemon soft serve (at 6 mile and Wyoming), butter pecan (at home), soft serve chocolate and strawberry (at Dairy Queen) — Felicia Wilbert, #234 Vanilla. — Roberto Caballero, #347 Double chocolate marshmallow. — Tony Schohl, #9 Chocolate. — Ken Parks, #490 Butter Pecan. — Teresa Basham, #570 Butter Pecan. Then strawberry. — Joe Woods, #103 Neapolitan. — James Tennant, #174 Proud to be an American Revolutionary Back in my Detroit days, I was invited by Linda King, commander of a National Guard unit, to their Kwanzaa celebration in Highland Park. Linda and I met through Marge Bursie, the first African American to get a degree in social work from the University of Michigan. Marge founded the Youth Advocacy/Anti-Hunger program on the east side and had a large community of volunteers, supporters and graduates. Linda and I took her advice to meet and connect. The Kwanzaa theme of the day was community economics. Linda organized a circle of everyone in uniform, about 20 people, with me at the end. Each of us introduced ourselves and said whatever came to mind. The first person said “I am proud to be an American.” I immediately felt some inner resistance to those words. which entered my mindstream: “LUCHAR POR LA REVOLUCIÓN SOCIAL EN LA AMERICA, NO ES UNA UTOPIA POR LOS LOCOS Y FANÁTICOS, ES LUCHAR POR EL PRÓXIMO PASO EN LA AVANCE DE LA HISTORIA.” The English translation of this for KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 I had studied much and worked two and a half years in West Germany with German Christians who were active in the anti-fascist movement in the Third Reich and the Cold War. Gossner Mission was an industrial mission with roots in the working class and included a boys home. Living abroad is an eye opener and I learned even more about current affairs, especially civil rights and the war in Vietnam. I extended my service six months to be in a seminar of study, do factory work and take a trip to Poland. We learned that West Germany, with U.S. advice, had not settled WWII with Poland, so there was no treaty for boundary recognition, and that NATO was formed to target the USSR for destruction. Put that with the genocide of slavery and the Indian wars, and how could I be proud to be an American? Back in Highland Park, the next National Guard person began with “I’m proud to be an American.” By the time I heard that phrase the fourth time, I took a breath and entered a meditative state that took me to Cuba. In front of the University of Havana is a traffic circle with a small park and a monument to Julio Antonio Mella, a martyr for Cuban independence in the 1930s. There is a plaque with these words, Groundcover readers is: “STRUGGLE FOR THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION IN AMERICA, IT’S NOT A UTOPIA FOR LUNATICS AND FANATICS, IT’S A STRUGGLE FOR THE NEXT STEP IN THE ADVANCE OF HISTORY.” I had heard “I’m proud to be an American” some 20 times and now came my turn. I let my heart speak, “I’m proud to be an American, and the America of which I speak is not only from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but also from the Arctic to the Antarctic. That is North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean, which is the center of the first maps of the new world.” I learned this in Cuba where I also learned about community economics, the Kwanzaa theme of the day. My heart spoke, “There are two kinds of markets, one is the natural market, which exchanges goods and services for mutual benefit. The other is the commodity market which is ruled by profits." I’m learning to combine the American revolution of 1776 with the Bolivarian and Cuban revolutions. Now I can say, “I am proud to be an American Revolutionary,” doing something to advance freedom, peace, human dignity and solidarity. I study, communicate and go to work, “Detach from the Trance of Unworthiness” as Roshi Joan Halifax and Tara Brach discuss so beautifully. To tell the truth about your life is the beginning of the revolution; it continues as you share experience, analysis and make collective decisions on the next step. HEATHER FEATHER Groundcover vendor No. 45 When I was a child, I heard, “You get a headache; you get hooked! You might never stop or you might never come down.” That was my war on drugs. Today's war on drugs is that there is nothing left to try! If you do drugs today, you might never see tomorrow. Fentanyl has taken over. When various kinds of street pills were tested, 42% contained at least two milligrams of fentanyl. If you are wondering how fentanyl got here, it was first used in the 1960s as an intravenous anesthetic and then in a pain patch. Fentanyl is now popping up in marijuana! People trying marijuana for the first time might die from fentanyl. There really is nothing left to try. GROUNDCOVER NEWS There's nothing to try no more! There’s been a decrease in overdoses because of naloxone. If you are using drugs, carry a bottle of naloxone! It might save your life. Better yet, just don’t pick up the first drug. The fact is, it is here! And I am really concerned. I hope you're there when I get back to Ann Arbor. Love, your Heather Feather. 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS OPTIMISM Being a nice human: a recipe in development Greetings, dear reader! I start this article with a simple prayer: may love, serenity, peace, laughter, joy, happiness and financial stability be your constant companions in abundance, now and forever. Amen. A polite gentleman on the number 4 Ann Arbor Transportation Authority bus, wearing a shirt with the following sentence on it, “Be a nice human,” inspired me to write this article. I thank him, wherever he may be in life. While I am still working on figuring out what exactly makes us humans and what we are as humans, other than the fact that we are a collection of carbon-based cellular systems functioning on electricity, I have come to prize and appreciate the collective thought of the power of human goodness. Sometimes, when I feel down and gloomy, I open up YouTube and start watching videos with titles like “Faith in Humanity” and “Power of Goodness.” They always make me smile. So, I thought I would delve deeper into what it is that makes a good human. Below are some of the common recipes that are freely and readily available in the cupboards of our souls and shelves of our hearts. If mixed together in the right amounts at the right times, they can produce a very wholesome and deliciously good human. Feel free to mix these ingredients in the right amounts that may please and appease your palate. Ingredients: Kindness: Being considerate, generous and understanding of others, advancing benevolence to our fellow beings, comforting them in times of need, sharing a meal, sharing a nice meme or a funny picture, sharing a song, opening or holding a door, consoling and comforting. It just feels good. Kindness is readily available within you and is not expensive at all. It is an ingredient that never runs out. On the contrary, the more you distribute it, the more it self-replenishes. Be kind. Empathy: A good friend of mine trademarked the following sentence, “Sympathy devours, empathy empowers.” This is true. Being empathetic means putting your soul and being in your fellow human’s shoes or state of being and feeling what he or she is going through. In doing so, you realize what he is suffering from or persevering against, and you are better able to help him. Empathy almost always leads to understanding and to solutions that can resolve problems on an individual, societal or global scale. From fighting depression to hunger and disease, don’t be afraid to sprinkle on a generous amount of empathy. It also doesn’t run out and is readily available and self-replenishing. It MOHAMMED AL MUSTAPHA Groundcover contributor makes you a better human as it gives you the opportunity to feel others’ pain, and it might help you avoid the same predicaments. Respect: Respect, to me, means being considerate of others’ feelings and limiting negative actions. It’s understanding that we are all different and experience the world differently. This diversity of perspectives allows us to build our own thoughts, facts, opinions and more. Because we are a varied species, we naturally have differing opinions and points of view, and they are all valid to an extent. Each and every one of us should be proud of who we are and respect others for who they are. Life is tough, and the varying degrees of opinions are what make life a sweet smorgasbord. Being respectful of other people’s opinions, ideas, cultures, heritage, race, political affiliations, cuisines or whatever it may be, opens up the problem-solving mechanisms in our brains by exposing us to different methods or modes of critical thinking and problem resolution. If we had not been respectful and appreciative of others’ cultures or individuality, we would not have been exposed to the transmission of diverse knowledge and wisdom. Gratitude: This one I am still working on learning myself. Just being thankful for what we have, whether it’s a little or a lot, whether it’s new or old, whether it’s opaque or bold. Being thankful can be difficult at times, but if we make it a habit, it takes us a long way. Being appreciative of who we are and what we do have gives us pride in our efforts to obtain the feelings and possessions that we have. It reminds us that we are capable of obtaining greater things. Gratefulness is a positive loop mechanism. The more grateful we are, the more we realize what we have and what we did to obtain it, and the more we strengthen those positive attainment muscles. So be grateful no matter where you are in this life and at whatever stage you are. Gratitude is a cool attitude, my dude. Honesty: I used to be a liar. It just came naturally to me. Lies flowed off my tongue uncontrollably, whether it was to spare someone’s feelings or for personal gain. But you know something? I got tired of it, bro. I kept forgetting my lies. It happened so many damn times. I would tell a lie, weave a wide web, embellish it. My imagination would run wilder than a mustang on the prairies. I could tell a lie better than Picasso, Van Gogh and Michelangelo could paint. But you know what happened? I got tired of being embarrassed. Embarrassed about forgetting my lies. Have you ever had someone you told a lie to come back and ask you about it, and you stand there dumbfounded, like, “Dude, what are you talking about?” And they’re like, “Dude, that’s what you said last week.” And then you can’t remember anything because it was all lies flowing like a spring stream. I couldn’t do it anymore. My brain is not that complex. Honesty is best. When you tell the truth, you don’t lose, and you never forget the truth. Being honest is respectful because you are not belittling those around you by underestimating their mental capacities through assuming that your lies will entrap or fool them. Being honest is awesome. Just administer honesty in a polite way in situations that involve others’ feelings — you know what I’m saying, partner? Humility: Being humble does not mean belittling or downgrading yourself. On the contrary, it means that you are confident enough in yourself, solid enough to know your faults and limitations and work on them, while also recognizing your strengths and virtues. Being humble allows you to listen, to learn and to grow. It allows you to connect and enjoy. As an immigrant American myself, humility has allowed me to experience and enjoy cultures, cuisines and music from all over the world, which has made me into the unique individual that I am. An old Islamic saying goes as follows: “The more you humble yourself, the more God will uplift you.” Arrogance is abhorrent. Pride in oneself is okay, but arrogance will turn people away from you, and that is not good. Be humble and practice humility, and you shall unlock so many great experiences that will surely blow your mind. You never know where your next piece of happiness and joy is coming from. It might be the old lady at the library or the homeless man on the corner. Forgiveness: Now, this ingredient never goes bad, never expires, and you can never ever overuse it. On the contrary, the more of it you add, the sweeter it spices things up. Forgiveness is beautiful. Don’t hold negative emotions in your heart. Forgiveness rejuvenates the heart, invigorates the soul and makes it lighter. And I think one of the sweetest things in the world is when you see the smile on that individual’s face who might have wronged you but regretted it and came to ask for your forgiveness. I even go further and say forgive those who wrong you and don’t apologize or regret it; just leave it to the cosmic, galactic, karmic universe and it will surely return to you in many positive ways. I do say forgiveness is one of the sweetest joys in the world. Practice it wisely. Compassion: This is a key ingredient. It’s synonymous with empathy to an extent, but more proactive in the sense that you not only feel others’ pain or discomfort but also exert some energy into alleviating it. Compassion makes us more proactive in alleviating issues and solving others’ problems. Compassion is one of those ingredients that’s really good for the heart and soul. It makes both of them stronger, just like how the sun and vitamin D strengthen bones. Positivity: Be careful because this ingredient is fast-spreading, fast acting and almost contagious, and makes the whole recipe extremely tasty and delicious. It will leave you in delight. It is hard to bottle and contain, has no expiration date, and you can sense it before you see it or smell it. It is one that is hard to obtain at times, but once mastered, it can never be exhausted. You start off by adding small amounts of it to your recipe, and it exponentially grows by itself. I say start by obtaining small bits of it here and there, like enjoying the bright, shiny sun rays in the morning when you wake up, the wafting smell of flowers on your morning walk, a sweet sip of your latte or cappuccino or green tea in the morning, smiles of pretty girls walking by, sweet songs of the birds by the window, a beautiful song, whatever. Just make sure you stop and look for it. It is hidden in obvious plain sight all around you. Once you get into the habit of collecting and displaying it, it becomes a key ingredient that you can share with all the neighbors, and you will never run out of it. There are a lot more ingredients out there in the world that can make for a wonderful recipe for being a nice human. I myself have not yet obtained or mastered all of them, but I am working on it, and I hope that you do too, friend. As always, may we all enjoy joy when it comes, and may we be consoled and alleviated when needed. Amen. Thank you, Father Time. “Striving to be a better man today than I was yesterday, and a better man tomorrow than I am today.” JUNE 30, 2023 JUNE 30, 2023 GRATITUDE Markona's Angels MARKONA LOVE Groundcover contributor Because I am on the Spectrum, relationships can be difficult minefields to navigate. You might think I would have some difficulties working mainly with younger women, but not so — the sensitivity from my Asperger’s opens opportunities for me to form bonds with women. I have a friendly but productive working relationship with these women without any intergender complications. I’m pansexual and have spent the last 20 years celibate — not fully intentionally. My journey was that of many temptations that were all considered, but for various reasons rejected. I apparently preferred not to relinquish my Love to others. As I examine myself through deep introspection, I’ve concluded that I know I give myself fully (more than most people could conceive), and that I’m crushed when the same devotion and dedication does not meet mine. The women at Groundcover and Argus indirectly and unknowingly supported me and gave me the confidence to trust. These wonderful, educated women have shown their Love, Strength and Compassion in unselfish support of this poorly educated, broken, old man to help me reach for my destiny … my final words. Hopefully, a previously hidden message from the wisdom of extraordinary experiences of assorted lifetimes may result in a new birth of a possibly new humanity. Empathy, compassion and sensitivity are all abilities that I am gifted with and weigh heavily in the way I relate to others and the level of intensity of my emotional processing. I am able to bond extremely well with most women. Gifted (and cursed) with an intense level of empathy, I have been better able to relate to a more emotional way of processing. So, I’m not sure why I was surprised when all these wonderful, talented, strong, intelligent and beautiful — if I didn’t say all those, they might hurt me (kidding) — women, not just supported me, but raised me up. They were at first my editors and advisors, then friends; all of them are talented writers, editors and/or teachers. They were editing my articles and really encouraging me. Now, my Angels are my good friends. I’d do anything for them, even help them move or take them to the airport. Since I moved back home to Ann Arbor, Lindsay was and is my first friend, and she and Ken are my closest friends. Lindsay has been the anchor since the beginning. One look at that beautiful smile … so warm and bright, envelops me and inspires me to be a better person. I have been overwhelmed by all of my saving Angels. After Lindsay and Ken led my way, these other wonderful Angels joined to help carry me. The rest of Markona’s Angels: Luiza (Graduate Student Instructor) volunteers with Groundcover and was editing my articles, then began sharing her off time with me to help shape my talent/skills. Luiza gives me time she really doesn’t have, and has become a trusted friend. Alex (known as Sasja at Argus), is a young Finnish freelance writer and Groundcover volunteer who took a personal interest in me as a friend and started editing and sharing about my writing. Then when I lost my car and had to move into a tent near the railroad tracks, Alex and Gregg (her partner) bought me supports for broken knees, food and supplies … note, they don’t have money. I don’t forget that kind of shared Love. I will be forever grateful … friends for life. Lit (writer) and I started sharing writing projects which then progressed into a supportive relationship. Layla (editor/ graduated student/friend) is the Deputy Editor at Groundcover and does final edits on my Groundcover articles. Layla has been supportive of my work and me personally … another good friend now. I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart to the tips of Kona’s wings for giving me the release to fly the way Kona taught me. I know Kona would be/is very appreciative for the Love shared, to help me reach my destiny, as she has given her Life for me to achieve my destiny. All Our Grace to Raising My Supporting Angels. With all Admiration & Love, MarKona Love (with Kona) Author’s Note: Glenn Gates sketched this cartoon in his free time — which he has very little of — but still helps everyone. He is a mentor and Groundcover anchor for all of us. He is so special — I dare you to try and find somebody to say different. He gets all the Love I can give. Bless Groundcover. Almost all of my articles have some reflection of Ken Parks, for he is my mentor. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 Cartoon by Glenn Gates

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MOVIE REVIEW 'Mad God' is not for the faint of heart Like many people, I find myself thoroughly impressed whenever I reflect on the seemingly infinite capabilities humankind demonstrates through an endless list of accomplishments throughout the ages — from its inventions of necessity, observations of reality, mathematical truths and of course, the ability of conveying the imagination through artistic expression. Despite the fact that we’ve been at such practices for quite some time, it remains easy to be awed at what we have created in our world. Not very long ago, I was amazed to learn that the human imagination is so powerful, so complex, that figments of my dreams could actually be entities with their own independent sentience. This left me thinking I’m either crazy or that humankind hasn’t even begun to scratch the surface of understanding our untapped potential. Going back to our talent of bringing the imagination to life through the medium of artistic expression, there are some who have birthed words beyond our wildest dreams — and our nightmares. This article reviews a film I stumbled across where I anticipated something different, a film which is certainly nowhere near the usual shallow, JAMES MANNING Groundcover vendor No. 16 simplistic and generic cash grab Hollywood genre. At first glance one would think it occupied the realm of horror, but it held a deeper philosophical outlook that changed my ability to list it as any known genre of storytelling. In fact, saying it follows a cohesive and solid storyline is unnecessarily generous. Oh, there’s a structure, but it’s more like a marker for direction so you don’t get hopelessly lost. Nonetheless, this film blew me away. I especially enjoyed the fearlessness with which the movie was made — the total disregard for the judgements and comfort of the viewers. At least for myself, it is a very important part of creative expression. Set your mind and imagination free of the restraining chains of appropriateness and every other reasoning or excuse to limit the mind’s potential. So this film I’ve done my best to justify the existence — and even necessity — of is simply titled “Mad God.” One blaring, ironic thing about this movie I said was not intended as another Hollywood blockbuster is the fact that it is directed by Phil Tippett. It’s ironic that though he’s not exactly a household name, he was a special effects expert on some of Hollywood’s great films such as “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” and “Jurassic Park,” to name a few. So already the creation of this film has an interesting back-story. I won’t cover the entire story of how it came to be, but I can tell you this was an on and off project that was 30 years in the making. This was indeed partly because this film was made using stop-motion animation, which Tippett was working on for the “Jurassic Park” computer animation, and which was becoming good enough to begin replacing traditional special effects. This made Tippett, who had begun this independent side project, recognize that, inevitably, reliance on computer generated movies would make a stop-motion film obsolete. So he shelved the project and it sat JUNE 30, 2023 Mad God movie poster. in storage for years, until discovered by one of his colleagues. I’m not sure if stop-motion film never fully died due in part to the popularity of Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas” and other such films having enough of a fan base to keep the style in practice, see MAD GOD page 10  THANK YOU WASHTENAW COUNTY For providing peer SuppoRT VALERIE BASS, PEER SUPPORT SPECIALIST, WASHTENAW COUNTY COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH 24/7 CALL FOR MENTAL HEALTH OR SUBSTANCE USE SUPPORT 734-544-3050 Brought to you by the 2019 - 2026 Washtenaw County Public Safety and Mental Health Preservation Millage washtenaw.org/millage JUNE 30, 2023 PHOTO ESSAY Summer street scenes students to check out cameras and other equipment in order to pass the course if you don’t have your own camera and equipment. When I first held a Canon T7 Rebel camera in my hands and saw the images this thing could produce, I knew I had to have one, so I purchased my own. I realized photography and imaging MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 I found a new passion and purpose: photo-journalism and street photography. This passion and purpose could not have come at a better time period in my life because I am the type of person that gets bored easily and loses interest for whatever reason. For those who don’t know, I am attending Washtenaw Community College to pursue a liberal arts associate degree. This semester I am taking an English and a photography class at WCC. My photography class at WCC allows 1. A person I see everyday on my way to work. 2. Another day at Starbucks. 3. Ann Arbor recycling at its best. 4. A2's next top model. 5. Ann Arbor Saturday morning drummer. 6. Time for a phone break. 7. Guess who's coming to dinner! 8. Lets go for a ride on the wild side. 4 5 3 are important as a learning tool. I was a lazy reader in my youth. I did a lot of my learning through pictures in books and read as little as possible in order to comprehend. Photography is popular. My class is full of different people with a variety of photography goals in mind. Again, I am taking up photography to become a photo-journalist and street photographer. I’ve met other classmates that are into micro-photography and portrait and landscape photography. Here are a few photos I took while selling Groundcover News in our beautiful city Ann Arbor and around Washtenaw County. I hope you all enjoy peace! 1 GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 2 6 7 8

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS NUTRITION Dr. Sebi's diet really works! DALON EATON Groundcover contributor I grew up riding the fast food ferris wheel as a child. Growing up with a single mother in Detroit, TV pretty much raised me. Commercials, promos and giveaways were usually linked to my favorite TV shows. I remember one commercial in particular advertising a burger so good you could eat the paper when you were done; needless to say the paper was not edible (I tried). My grandmother was a cook, a lunch lady in fact, but by the time I came around she was wiser, tired and retired. My great grandmother, God rest her soul, didn’t know how to read, so starting a family restaurant was out of the question. Having to take the city bus when I was eight years old, I was reliant on fast food for survival. From french fries from clowns to onion rings wearing crowns and every red headed colonel selling chicken … I thought Popeye ate spinach. I was caught in a web — low income family barely making ends meet. Depression soon set in, and coming from where I’m from, comfort food was of course the go-to as the remedy for emotional pain. Nutrition was out of the question; there was simply no time. I mean how? With my mother working, no father, a retired grandmother and me going to school and learning life … (plus yo like I was eight). So, over the years I developed type two diabetes. At 17, I said enough was enough and I was going to take control of my eating habits. I decided to start eating salads and salmon and also jog. While this route definitely was a great start to my new lifestyle and covered the basics, it did not give me a full understanding of the effects certain foods caused on the body. I used to have to take Metformin and insulin even though I had worked myself off of them, as the damage to my pancreas had already been done. So, I was determined to get in the best shape of my life and started to research different types of fruits and vegetables. That’s what led me to Dr. Sebi’s diet. The point of the diet is to eat foods that reduce acid in the body and eliminate mucus build up. Acid and mucus carry disease. Diseases are bad, okay? “Alkaline” is a type of battery that charges all of the electronic devices that we use today. The body is no different than these devices — they need charge! If, God forbid, someone’s heart stops, they would hook that person up to a defibrillator and they would yell “clear” and send electrically-charged currents to jumpstart the heart. Alkaline is a type of battery where the electrolyte has a pH value above seven. Alkaline foods have this same pH threshold. Certain types of fruits and vegetables are genetically modified and do not have a high enough ph value to recharge your organs or reverse cell death. Dr. Sebi’s diet is a plant-based diet that prioritizes foods that have a pH value above seven. see SEBI page 10  JUNE 30, 2023 JUNE 30, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS f CROSSWORD 9 rom the International Network of Street Papers Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. ACROSS 1. Brit's "Baloney!" 5. "___ Like the Wind" ("Dirty Dancing" ballad) 9. Scoundrels 13. "I had no ___!" 14. "Catch!" 15. Police club used in India 16. ___ oil (skin care substance) 17. "___ of Eden" 18. Knight's "suit" 19. Tongue-tied 22. Composer Gustav 25. Hunk 26. Greek who measured the Earth's circumference 30. English county 31. Twisted 32. Busy one in Apr. 35. Soon, to a bard 36. How some things are remembered 37. Guard's target 38. Where the French might take a dip 39. Cliffside dwelling 40. Taste, e.g. 41. Oaks Park patron 43. Pattinson or Redford 46. Servant's uniform 47. Grumpiness 51. Jungle climber 52. Aerial maneuver 53. Indian dress 57. Carpenter's tool 58. Palindromic emperor 59. It might be oral or physical 60. Winter vehicle 61. Make up ground, with "on" 62. Fill-in DOWN 1. Sn on the periodic table 2. Words of praise 3. "Comprende?" 4. Popular Broadway musical 5. Clippers 6. Try, as a case 7. At one time, at one time 8. Org. looking for aliens 9. Guitarist Santana 10. Hindu soul 11. Hindu loincloth 12. Begets 15. Acclaimed 20. Gas used in ads 21. Shrewd 22. Cross, maybe 23. "Gladiator" setting 24. Devastation 27. Spin 28. Dawg 29. Famous 18th-century Swiss mathematician 32. Short story 33. Tough question 34. Imitation 36. Atlanta-based airline 37. Portly 39. From the heart? 40. "Saturday Night Live" segment 41. Curbed, with "in" 42. Loafer, e.g. 43. Small streams 44. Bay window 45. Plucky 48. Place to post 49. Bit 50. Money of Lesotho 54. Can 55. Battering device 56. Mischievous one

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THINK ABOUT IT Bent neck All my early life, I was taught that the glory of a male is how beautiful his mate is. For me, never having a true legal wife had seemed to make me walk with a bent neck, slumped over to a degree in defeat of this game they call Love. When I was a kid, my older brothers would pay me no mind unless I had pretty girlfriends hanging out with me. Soon, I learned my value was the beauty beheld in my female company. Having schizophrenia, I barely knew how to really connect with males, let alone females. It seems to me as I read the Bible that the glory of a woman is her hair, and I concluded from my upbringing the glory of a man is his wife and the glory of God is His son. Jesus may have never been married, no children, never having sexual intercourse, but I surmise His Glory is the Bride of Christ like KEVIN ALLGOOD Groundcover contributor social security and I may not be the mainstream voice at Groundcover. With that said, blessed is the organization that would have many lenses to see from, therefore to pick the best lens for that given day. Jesus rightfully said the only way to the glory of Christians is Jesus's glory. (It is written that greater are the works the Bride will do because Jesus cut His life so short in willingly laying down His life for the Bride, aka Christians.) So we as Christians should work to exceed the good works of Jesus, who died at 33.5 years old. I'm a Christian schizophrenic on the Father is by Me and our surpassing good works would not ever be obtainable without the sacrifice of the sinless Holy (and that means without blemish of the Holy Sheep Christ Jesus. My heart’s desire is that I'd one day fall in love and walk in a world with amazing love in Me, for it is written that Love always wins. To walk upright not slumped over as if the world had not beaten me in the game of Love. All things are possible to those who believe and I do believe that at 46-47 years old (I stopped counting birthdays when I realized no one was showing up on my birthdays) that life can start even at the age of 47. And I believe that my glory can walk into the room one day and my life will therefore begin. I do notice that people hold you in higher esteem when you have a beautiful wife or mate, and although through my upbringing I was taught my value was that of whom I was with, I don't think the Bible sees it that way, because when it comes down to it, Abba Father God wants Man to be the glory of His Son Jesus. JUNE 30, 2023  MAD GOD from page 6 but I’d love to ask Tippett about it. When “Mad God” was discovered, there was no doubt encouragement towards Tippett’s journey of pursuing the once-abandoned film to its completion Although I’m suggesting this movie, I would feel pretty cruel if I were to omit a stern warning to you. This is not, I repeat, is not a movie for the faint of heart! It depicts the darkest, grittiest, most horrible, awful, unrepentant soiler of all known things of sacred purity. It is full-on, rightto-the-edge of the worst possible horrors of not just humanity but any and all perceived existence. You cannot just call it dark and disturbed because it is so much beyond that, and so much more than any sad, sadistic offense. It’s a film that normal, goodnatured people should never witness. It leaves you feeling and knowing you are forever changed for the worse. However, anyone who can see beyond this will observe other underlying points and lessons, Unavoidable truths, such as the forever-unchanging cruelty that the cycle of time employs for the continued miracle of existence. Yes, this is a movie that is definitely not for everybody. However I more or less got the gist and I absolutely loved it, if only for its level of creative expression. And I’ve always been into all kinds of deep philosophical crap, so with that I highly recommend it to any like-minded persons and especially gore and horror fans. Saying that writing a descriptive review of this film is a challenge is an understatement. I wouldn’t know how to begin describing it, but a 90s TOOL music video comes to mind. So there you go, I tried my best informing you and I hope you find this assessment accurate if not totally enlightening, for those of you who choose to check this film out anyway. Being a fan of the darker corners of our imaginations, I thoroughly enjoyed this particular creation. I still wouldn’t call this a horror movie but I do recall it being attached to “Shudder,” which is a horror-themed streaming service. You can find it on there, or at the library on DVD. Just don’t hate me if you get nightmares! I did my best to warn you after all, but I hope you can understand the point I’m trying to make. This film is unique and interesting.  SEBI from page 8 Have you wondered why Hawaiian (pineapple and ham) pizza is always on the menu? You’re in luck, you just found a rest area for your wandering thoughts. The reason why is that pineapple is acidic and breaks down pork fat which is bad for the body. With the foods on Dr. Sebi’s Alkaline list, in theory, you could kill cancer cells. (Cancer is considered anything foreign to the body). Doctors sometimes treat cancer patients with chemo, which kills the cancer, in addition to hair follicles and more. With alkaline-charged foods, you can prevent cancerous cells from forming in the first place. You can recharge your internal organs and reverse-engineer dead cells. (Result may vary; consult your primary care doctor.) I’ve been doing this diet for six months. I am not a cancer patient but I will say that because of this diet my mood is better, I’m calmer, my gut is healthy and I feel great. If you want to know more about Doctor Sebi and the diet and witness this transformation for yourself, visit drsebiscellfood.com JUNE 30, 2023 LOVE BY LOVE It was Christmas week 1983 on the Island of Cyprus — situated between Greece to the north and Turkey to the east — in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is mostly known for the strong Greek presence, but half of the island is under Turkish control. The weather is beautiful, comparable to San Diego, maybe a little cooler. The mountains on the west side of the Island get cold and there is snow skiing. The rest of the island is about beaches and quaint but very functional villages. Assorted discos, party spots and family restaurants are supported by big tourism in the summer from northern Europeans. The island could be considered as a theoretical bridge to the Middle East (Asia). The Cypriots are very warm, friendly and honest people. The stage has been set for this romantic tale of a truly pure Love, here at this old castle-like hotel on a mountain of Western Cyprus. And now for the characters destined to be intertwined in a cosmic struggle over Love lost. A young American ‘scratch’ about 18 years old named Martin was 6' 1" with brown hair, hazel eyes and a deep, beach-living tan. He was considered a handsome young man by most, with a light in his eyes that shines right into your soul, complementing an infectious smile with a colorful relentless energy and a consistently inquisitive nature. Martin was staying the week of Christmas at this beautiful, hidden, old castle-like hotel in the mountains of Cyprus with most of his assembled family. A captivating young Cypriot ‘light’ at 18 years old, Florentia, like Martin, had a personality that consumed the attention of a room. She had long, dark, flowing hair and relentlessly deep dark eyes that could not be escaped. Her smile was so warm as to settle an entire village all on its own. Respectfully, she was a beautiful young woman in all regards. Florentia also was there with her family for Christmas week. Martin and his family were sharing a large dinner provided by the hotel in the large dining room, when Florentia approached Martin at his dinner table. With a deep-eyed warm smile, she asked him to dance. Wow, is all Martin could think, tongue tied and speechless … this was a first for Martin … Speechless is not a word you would ever consider in a description of Martin. Now, his family knew that dancing in public was his weakness. His older brothers started in, while sister-in-law Tammy said, “Go, don’t leave her hangin’, screw those guys.” Martin had previous experience dating older Swedish teenagers before other, they did. All the other holiday residents of the hotel nicknamed them, “FloMarty.” That was the combo of their family given nicknames, “Flo” and MARKONA LOVE Groundcover contributor he was in high school, so shyness was not the issue — it was dancing in public. He was very bashful about dancing in front of others. This young woman clearly already had a hold on him, and once something got Martin’s attention, then that was going to be the most engaging subject there could be … all attention, full speed ahead … “we don’t need no stinking brakes, or a rear view mirror.” From then on, for that week’s stay during Christmas — a very special Christmas — the two became inseparable and the item of entertainment for hotel residents, who appeared to Martin and Florentia as extras in their romantic flick. It felt as if everybody was part of their chemical concoction only … there to play supporting roles in their epic adventure. First, the two loitered and lounged in the hotel lobby with her Cypriot friends and Martin’s brother Ralph. They would all share and joke about their cultures and ways of living, leading to the Cypriots asking silly questions about America like, “Do you know Burt Renolds?” Martin couldn’t pass this opportunity to be ridiculous and said, “Sure he lives next door; yesterday he came over for coffee. Did you know he picks his nose — and eats it too?” Florentia called him out on it before he was even finished. Uh oh, Martin met his match, and so it was … From then on they were together every minute — alone on long storybook romantic walks on worn cobblestone roads, weaving through the quaint little Cypriot mountain village. Intense dialog, followed by enthusiastic questioning, each so enamored and fascinated with each other. As they turned around to start walking back, she faced him, then opened her hand next to his hand and gazed into his eyes, and Martin broke the stare that could have led to a kiss, but knew by living in the Middle East earlier that there could be serious consequences. Martin then grabbed her hand, almost abruptly, then they started walking back out of the village and up to the castle-like hotel. Throughout the whole week, everyday, as soon as they could get to each “Marty.” Martin didn’t mind being second, he preferred it … he liked seeing Florentia raised up high. Wherever you saw them, they were always in constant joyful conversation, even while walking. They just could not stop — don’t believe they even considered that possibility. Their presence together was like a treasured mascot pair of the hotel, sort of a Mickey and Minnie Mouse kind of thing. They would often be talking so much they would forget mealtimes with their families. The families only saw this as sweet and humorous. On the last day, they met early at the bottom of the large, old staircase that descends to the small enclave lobby, where they sat for the last time to say their goodbyes and cast their ships to sea. They felt as though these were the end of days. As they embraced, pulled away, and quickly embraced again, he noticed a change in her … a calm contentment grew upon her face as she seemed consoled. As she ascended the staircase, he watched his past future disappear into obscurity. Martin was shaken and stirred. For once, Martin didn’t know what to think … unfortunately, that was going to change. A distinguished Cypriot elder solemnly approached Martin, descending from the same staircase where Florentia had just ascended. Then this man, with warmth in his eyes, introduced himself to Martin as Florentia’s father Bahadir, and said “Martin, it is nice to speak with you.” “Yes, thank you … it is my honor,” replied Martin. They sat and Bahadir started with, “Martin, I must have a talk with you, there is something I must share with you.” Martin responded in a soft, reserved tone, “Yes, sir.” Her father said, “Florentia is a very strong, special girl.” Martin immediately responded, “Yes, sir.” “Florentia has a very serious illness,” her father drudged on, now having difficulty continuing. Martin’s face flushed with inquisitive pain. Moving on, Florentia’s father said, “She has enjoyed her time with you like no other in her life. She has been sick her whole life but is special like you and has touched so many and now you have touched her.” Martin was stunned, speechless again, for only the third time in his life, all related to her. Bahadir’s eyes welled with tears and said “Today is it … doctors say she will not make it through the GROUNDCOVER NEWS Love by Love: "Love is Stronger than Death" 11 A column on compassion day, but you gave her all she wanted before her final ascension — a romance.” What was Martin to say, but again, nothing, then eyes opening wide he demanded to be at her bed. The father said, “She doesn’t want you to see her all hooked up in bed, she wants you to remember her the way you were together.” Martin embraced the father and they held tight as the father clenched a handful of Martin’s shirt at his shoulders. They held the tight embrace as if long-known, close relatives at a passing. After their release, nothing was said, just a mournful glance and a knowing gaze as the father started back up that staircase. Floored, Martin could only watch Florentia’s father ascend to his daughter’s final words, and he was sure whatever beautiful wise words from beyond her limited years would comfort her father along with a warm passing smile. That was the beautiful light Florentia shone on this world. After, Martin started to realize he was in another world and snapped out quickly enough to load luggage in the car. Immediately after coaxing himself into back of the Suburban, he realized he never gave Florentia her last kiss and began to cry for the inadequacy he left. Nobody knew anything and they were not worthy of her essence. At first he mourned her loss — a great love that was never sealed with a kiss. Now, he values the purity of that Love and lesson. A Greatest Love without a kiss is but a memory of a Love to live in infamy. Can there have been a more pure and innocent Love? — at that time, no. The future was only for dreaming. Isn’t it beautiful when you see or hear of such a Love, then untainted? Why didn’t they kiss? Maybe they were already at their greatest bliss … what would maybe change if the spell would have been broken with a kiss, Martin thought. People ask, “What’s Love without sex?” ... Martin would then say — The most purely amazing experience and the opportunity to see Love and life in a new light. This is a story that should never be lost. "Love lost is like a window in your heart, Everybody sees you’re blown apart Everybody sees the wind blow" [By: Paul Simon] Author’s note: This is a true story. Martin was Markona’s given name at that time, but was called “Marty” by friends and relatives. Please send comments, feedback and topic ideas to the writer at konagod.love5@gmail.com

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Vegan peach cornmeal upside-down cake LUIZA DUARTE CAETANO Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 3 large fresh sliced peaches or 2 cans of drained sliced peaches 1 cup of flour 2 cups of cornmeal 1 ½ cups sugar 1 tbsp baking powder 1 ½ cups orange juice 1 cup vegetable oil 1 tsp fennel seeds or ground cinnamon (optional) Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 350F. 2. Coat a 9” round cake tin with a thin layer of oil. Spread your peach slices at the bottom. 3. In a mixing bowl, mix all of the other ingredients. Add the baking powder last. 4. Spread the cake batter carefully on top of the peaches and bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden. 5. When cool, flip the cake out of the pan onto a plate, so that the peaches are on the top. Or, just enjoy straight of the pan. You can substitute other fruit for the peaches, and use butter instead of vegetable oil for a non-vegan version of this cake! PUZZLE SOLUTIONS INTERNATIONAL COMFORT CUISINE! Available: Mon. - Fri. from 11-2 • Weekly menu at peoplesfood.coop PFC Kitchen proudly presents : $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 7/13/2023

2 $ JUNE 16, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 13 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Can you dig-it? Tech questions and answers from Washtenaw Literacy. Page 5 MEET YOUR VENDOR: ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. in Washtenaw County and across the nation. page 4 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Ypsilanti 2023 Juneteenth Festival graphic. @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER Undercover art intel: Panda’s art at Argus’ Artisan Market! Come one, come all! This summer, Argus Farm Stop will hold their Summer Artisan Market, presenting artists from around the greater Washtenaw area. This annual event will showcase many kinds of art, including, most importantly, cultural and local arts. Let us not forget that the COVID-19 pandemic shut down many of the local galleries and local art events, putting a full stop on artists’ work and sales across the nation. As a result, many artists were obligated to sell online. That puts a barrier between the artist and the buyer. It is vital for artists to show their work in person to the public. Selling one’s art is a very personal and intimate interaction with the world. Art is all about emotional connection. That can’t happen through a computer. Computer sales are a cold and empty interaction with the artist. I have always believed that the United CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 there showing my own works of art for not only my own patrons, but also the general public. This is my first official public event outside of the homeless low-income art gallery held by M.I.S.S.I.O.N. at Journey of Faith Church. This event is only six hours long, so mark your calendars and we will be happy to see you on June 24, 2023. Come one, come all! States is about freedom and liberty to not only travel to events, but to sell across the nation at locations like Argus, so I’m really happy that this event is taking place this year. The Summer Artisan Art Market will be at the Argus Farm Stop (Packard location), 1200 Packard St. The event starts at 10 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m. I am honored to say that I will be JUNE 16, 2023 CONTENT correction In the March 24 issue of Groundcover News, editing of "What the street took" by Markona Love resulted in an inadvertent change to the meaning of one of his paragraphs. His intention was to thank the following: the General Defense Committee, Washtenaw Camp Outreach, Solidarity House, Mercy House, Purple House, Peace House, Hamilton House, Freight House and the Hope Clinic (especially Heather). We apologize for the misunderstanding. CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Layla McMurtrie — deputy editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Mohammed Al Mustapha Kevin Allgood Luiza Duarte Caetano Amanda Gale Cindy Gere Markona Love Ken Parks Will Shakespeare Washtenaw Literacy Felicia Wilbert PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Logan Brown Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Harleen Kaur Robert Klingler Mira Simonton-Chao Alex Tarbet Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenburg Navya Yagalla Emily Yao GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JUNE 16, 2023 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS Baby resources still needed! The baby registry is in the name “Tabitha Ludwig.” Please help us as we have nothing for the baby yet; it would be a great blessing. If you want to send money instead, we have a Venmo account @solowyte83 and a CashApp account $flyhighsis. I did receive a little help from a wonderful TABITHA LUDWIG Groundcover vendor No. 360 Roberto Isla Caballero, vendor No. 347 My name is Tabitha. My fiance and I are In one sentence, who are you? From Cuba to Ann Arbor, 1980! Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? Corner of Washington and Main St. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? 2016. Somebody at St. Andrew’s Breakfast Church asked if I wanted to sell papers and then took me to the Groundcover office! What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Sell my papers. For now, this is my thing. What song do you have completely memorized? I like too much music. I dance every night. I like any kind of music – Mexican, American, Cuban. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn’t know? I don’t make complaints. I just stay on my corner. What was your first job? I helped my father make things. I started working in a school in Cuba. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Coffee. What's the best thing about selling Groundcover News? My money in my pocket! What are you most likely to become famous for? I'm already famous from being on the cover of Groundcover News in 2016 (pictured below). Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. having a baby in July and definitely need help with getting the things needed. If anyone would like to help out my family with this beautiful baby girl, I have a baby registry on Amazon and also at Target. couple and I would like to thank them for the things they helped my family with. But with that being said, me and my family are still desperately in need of help. The baby does have growth restrictions in the womb so my doctor is talking about inducing my labor, so there is a very high chance that she will be born a preemie. Thank you all so much and God bless! Let's welcome baby Lena Almond to the Groundcover family soon. 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS JUNETEENTH JUNE 16, 2023 Celebration of Juneteenth in Washtenaw County and across the nation On June 19, Americans will celebrate the second anniversary of “Juneteenth" being a national holiday. Juneteenth marks the end of chattel slavery in America. For the African American community, Juneteenth represents a celebration of freedom, liberty and equality. Ms. Opal Lee of Fort Worth, Texas, is described as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth.” In a YouTube interview which she gave on May 24, 2021 to Southern Living Magazine, 94-yearold Ms. Lee said the following: “It is in my DNA to help people. Juneteenth is actually the 19th day of June. It started when General Gordon Granger and 7,000 Black Troops made their way to Galveston to tell the 250,000 enslaved people there that they were free. He nailed that Order called ‘General Order No. 3’ to the door of the reading Chapel of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. And when those people came in from their work and somebody read that to them, they started celebrating, and we’ve been celebrating ever since. They gained so much. They gained the ability to name themselves, the ability to have children which cannot be taken away from them. They were able to dress, to own property, to vote, to pay taxes and all these things. It was freedom then, and we need freedom now, and I see Juneteenth being a unifier…” On June 18, 2021, about one month after Ms. Opal Lee gave her interview to Southern Living Magazine, she arrived at the East Wing of the White House for a Juneteenth signing ceremony. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed Ms. Lee, Harvard Professor Annette Gordon-Reed, Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson and other invited guests to celebrate the law which made June 19 a federal holiday. Vice President Kamala Harris said, “Throughout history, Juneteenth has been known by many names — Jubilee Day, Freedom Day, Liberation Day … and today, a national holiday. Today is a day of celebration. It is not only a day of pride, it’s also a day for us to reaffirm and rededicate ourselves to action.” Nevada Current Newspaper was among several news organizations which covered the White House event. It reported on Vice President Harris' remarks, including “the White House was built by enslaved people and the ceremony [took] place from where President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.” The Nevada Current also reported a quote from Congresswoman Jackson who WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 fought very hard and very long to make Juneteenth a national holiday. Congresswoman Jackson said, “It has been a long journey … It has not been an easy journey. When we stand here today, we should be reminded of the fact that there were people who continued to experience the whips of a whip for two more years, even as Abraham Lincoln stood in the shining sun in the aftermath of Gettysburg to unite the Union and proclaim the slaves freed in 1863.” The Public Law which President Biden signed was truly bipartisan legislation entitled “Juneteenth National Independence Day.” It sailed through the Senate, and only 14 Republicans voted against the Bill at the U.S. House of Representatives. Below is a brief remark by President Biden proclaiming Juneteenth a federal holiday and a day of observance: “On June 19, 1865 — nearly nine decades after our Nation’s founding, and more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation — enslaved Americans in Galveston, Texas, finally received word that they were free from bondage. As those who were formerly enslaved were recognized for the first time as citizens, Black Americans came to commemorate Junteenth with celebrations across the country, building new lives and a new tradition that we honor today. In its celebration of freedom, Juneteenth is a day that should be recognized by all Americans. And that is why I am proud to have consecrated Juneteenth as our newest national holiday.” Gratitude to Opal Lee, Annette Gordon-Reid and Sheila Jackson On May 30, Baptist News Global Writer Mallory Challis wrote an article titled, “Opal Lee may be ‘Grandmother of Juneteenth,’ but she’s not done working for justice yet.” Today, Ms. Lee is 96. Last year, on June 17, Opal Lee visited Harvard University’s Chan School of Public Health in order to tell U.S. President Joe Biden is applauded as he reaches for a pen to sign the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, as Opal Lee, a 94-year-old activist and retired educator in Fort Worth, Texas, reacts with Vice President Kamala Harris in the East Room of the White House. June 17, 2021. REUTERS/Carlos Barria stories of Juneteenth. Two notable viewpoints from Ms. Lee are: Juneteenth is not a celebration for one day and it was her candid wish that people across America will celebrate freedom and liberty from the 19th of June to the 4th of July Independence Day. Annette Gordon-Reed is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning author whose recent book is entitled “On Juneteenth.” She is also a distinguished professor of history and law at Harvard. On February 10, 2022, Virginia Commonwealth University invited her to deliver the “VCU Black History Month Lecture.” She came to VCU last year to talk about her book. Planners of the Juneteenth celebration at Harvard (June 14-17) invited Professor Gordon-Reed in order to learn more about her experience growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, about Texas history, and about the complexities of America’s past historiography and how we reflect on the experiences. News writer Brian McNell said that Annette Gordon-Reed is “the first African American recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for history and one of the authoritative voices on race and history in America.” The prize was awarded to her book project titled, “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.” The book, “On Juneteenth" has won several awards and recognition. The publisher told McNell that the book, “'On Juneteenth' provides a historian’s view of the country’s long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origin in Texas and the enormous hardships that African Americans have endured in the century since, from reconstruction through Jim Crow and beyond.” We wish to salute and thank Congresswoman Sheila Jackson and her colleagues in Congress. During a period of uncertainty and the nightmare of COVID-19 pandemic she and her co-sponsors in the House and Senate made it possible to secure a bi-partisan law which President Biden was very happy to sign. Conclusion On June 2, 2021, the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners issued a resolution proclaiming June 19 as county observance of Juneteenth. June 19 was already made a holiday in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor during the springtime of 2021 before it was made a federal holiday with President Biden’s signature. Street marches and rallies took place in Ann Arbor and on the U-M campus. The Ann Arbor branch of the NAACP organized several celebrations in city parks. Brown Chapel made several books on history available and held conversations on reimagining justice celebration at the Ypsilanti Church. Similar celebrations took place in 2022. For the 2023 Juneteenth celebration, community members are advised to search for events on Facebook for the cities of Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. Several events are planned for revelers and street vendors in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. Groundcover News will be represented on Saturday, June 17 in downtown Ypsilanti. Finally, Juneteenth can be a family celebration or a group celebration. It is also an occasion for civic knowledge and community education. We encourage intergenerational celebration. All the advocates who worked hard to make Juneteenth a federal holiday say that every American needs to know the story of Juneteenth, especially the young people in our communities. Reading, learning and in-depth conversations will give us hope for the future. HAPPY FREEDOM DAY! JUNE 16, 2023 DIGITAL LITERACY TECH QUESTIONS + ANSWERS FROM WASHTENAW LITERACY Q: I constantly need to reset my passwords. What is the best, safest way to keep track of passwords for different accounts? A: Making and remembering passwords can be one of the most frustrating aspects of living in our internet-dominated world. One of the main difficulties is that the more secure your passwords are the harder it can be to keep track of them. Passwords are more secure when they are unique, long and complex. But keeping multiple lengthy passwords straight in your head can feel impossible. Thankfully, there are several different tools and strategies you can use to prevent yourself from having to constantly reset your login credentials. One of the easiest ways to keep track of your passwords is to use a password manager. Password managers are applications or browser-based tools that store your passwords for you in an encrypted format, which means that they are resistant to being hacked. Although some password managers support biometric security (such as fingerprints), most password managers will still require you to remember one master password that will give you access to all of your other login details. If you use a password manager it is really important to make your master password as secure as possible. A less high-tech alternative to a password manager is to simply write down your passwords on paper and keep them together in a secure place. There are a few things you should consider if you decide that this option is for you. Make sure that you have somewhere really safe to store them, preferably somewhere away from your computer and where you won't lose them. It is a good idea to write passwords in an unlabeled notebook, to make them a bit harder to find. Another thing you might try is to write hints instead of the passwords themselves. For example, if your password is the name of your dream car with your mother’s birth date and an exclamation mark, you can write “car mom excited” instead of writing your actual password. Then, even if someone gets ahold of your list of passwords, they won’t necessarily be able to get into your accounts. Try to make your clues vague enough that others won’t be able to figure them out, but specific enough that you’ll remember what it means. One last tip is to think about which accounts are the most important for you to keep secure. For your most important, most sensitive accounts, such as online banking, telehealth, or email, it might be best to spend some time making sure that you can memorize the passwords, even if you keep your other passwords in a password manager or written in a notebook. Q: Is there any way to block spam calls? Or to prevent them? A: Spam calls are a serious problem, and one that is reportedly on the rise. Various sources report that, during the last three years, 30-60% of all calls placed in the United States were spam calls. The Federal Communications Commission, a government body charged with regulating radio, television, phone and internet communication in the United States, has stated that unwanted phone calls are their “top consumer complaint” and their “top consumer protection priority.” There is no single, foolproof way for you to completely prevent all unwanted calls. That being said, by taking a few precautions you should be able to greatly reduce the number of spam calls you receive. One of the first steps towards minimizing spam calls is to add your name to the Do Not Call Registry. The Do Not Call Registry is a list of phone numbers maintained by the FCC to help prevent unwanted telemarketing calls. You can add your phone number to the registry at www.donotcall.gov. Once your number is on the list, it is illegal for telemarketers to call you. Adding your number should help to cut down on the number of telemarketing calls you receive, and it will enable you to report unwanted calls to the FCC. Unfortunately, many spam callers don’t care about the legality of what they’re doing, so putting your number on the Do Not Call Registry will not totally eliminate unwanted phone calls. Most smartphones have several other options for limiting spam calls. iPhones and androids allow you to silence all calls coming from numbers that aren’t in your contacts. The calls will still show up in your call log, but your phone will not ring. You can also download a spam blocker application to help filter out unwanted calls. Popular spam blockers for androids and iPhones include Hiya, Robo Shield, Truecaller and Nomorobo. Some phone providers, such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, have additional call filtering and caller-ID features that can help you crack down on spam calls. One last important piece of advice about limiting unwanted calls is that you should try not to answer any calls from numbers you don’t recognize. When you answer a spam call, it lets the caller know that your phone number is active, which can lead to more calls in the future. Submit your technology-related questions to submissions@ groundcovernews.com and they might be published in the next issue of Groundcover News! If you struggle with technology, reading, writing, or math, you may be eligible for tutoring through Washtenaw Literacy. For more information, or to volunteer as a tutor, visit washtenawliteracy.org or call 734-337-3338. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and science tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Print Stuff at AADL Need to print forms, essential documents, applications, or homework? We can help! We can print up to 30 pages per person per week at no charge and have your items ready to pick up at the library of your choice the next weekday. For more information, visit: AADL.org/printing Bookable Meeting Rooms Book a meeting room with your AADL card. We have 10 available meeting rooms across the system that you can reserve for up to two hours per day, 12 times per calendar year. They’re also available on a first-come firstserved basis. To book a room, visit AADL.org/rooms FEATURED EVENT The Summer Game SPECTACULAR Saturday, July 29 1-4pm Veterans Memorial Park Join us at the annual splendiferously staggering, outdoor, earna-metric-ton-of-points, Summer Game Spectacular! Get outside and enjoy the summer with us in one of Ann Arbor’s greatest parks! Featuring the high-flying circus The Aviary, AADL’s amazing outdoor game collection, face painting, food trucks, and more, this slam-bang event will knock your socks off no matter your age! 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS TRAVEL REPORT JUNE 16, 2023 Left: Ken and Odalys with her daughter Daymara, and Daymara's son, Anthony. Middle: Ken, Daniela and her son Santiago Alberto, and Daniela's parents, Lazaro and Anita. Right: Daniela and Ken. All photos were taken in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba. Blessings from Cuba KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 I came back to Ann Arbor after a month in Cuba (May 5 to June 2). I hope you read “Cuba or Bust,” which helped me get there. The community financial support was essential, especially due to surprise expenses to confirm a flight and overweight baggage, not to mention it was a one way ticket. Generosity got me a return ticket. The blessings of Cuba are more than the blessings of the Revolution. African culture, particularly Yoruba, runs deep in Cuba, evident in the many parties and street celebrations with the rhythm of African music and dance. The African diasporic religion Santeria is everywhere. When I arrived on May 5, there was the sound of drums and song from Odalys’ (my first wife) house, one of the two houses our family has built in the last 20 years. The truth is when I married Odalys, I married Cuba with layers of extended family. The central family today centers on my three ahijadas (godchildren) and Jorge and Mayalin, who run the neighborhood farm. We are learning that the earth is our original family. My first trip to Cuba was in 1994 with the Pastors for Peace Caravan. We were welcomed like heroes for standing up in solidarity just like the many thousands of Cubans who volunteered to go to Angola to fight the South African invasion, especially after Fidel pointed out that “African blood flows in Cuban veins.” This is one of the historic lessons of the Cuban Revolution. Cubans, Angolans and Namibians united to defeat the South African Defense Force which was backed by the United States and had nuclear weapons. Nelson Mandela went to Cuba to express gratitude for this victory which led to his release from prison. Cuba today may look like a failed revolution as food shortages and high prices weigh heavily on everyday life. If you read my October 1, 2022 article “The Problems We Cause For Ourselves,” you are aware of the reality of obstacles arising at every stage of the path which are resolved by looking at the new context and the goal of freedom. Our ability to do this requires tender love and care. The central, dominating role of the U.S. dollar creates poverty in third world countries by trashing local currencies and promoting global commodity consumption. My month in Cuba was in this context. Cubans still get rations of rice, beans, eggs and more, but it is not enough. Fortunately, May is mango season. My family has a tree in the yard so I ate several mangos a day. I brought enough money and food to help when rations ran out. The shortages hurt enough people that many want to emigrate. My Groundcover article from January 27, “Welcome Refugees," tells that story. If you read “The Wisdom Of The Body,” published February 24, you may recall that my “core fell through the floor;” this was the background for a health crisis that delayed the trip. My serious arthritis cleared up quickly in Cuba. There is no explanation outside of the fact that it is a more natural environment. Reality is alive in earth, sky and human relations. The relaxation response becomes natural in a way that is hard to explain to North Americans. It is part of the popularity of Cuba as a tourist destination. It is unique among many countries that retain some precapitalist heritage. Cuba brings its revolutionary character into the third world and has a global reputation for genuine independence from the capitalist model. It is a nice surprise that Daniela (my lead ahijada) is a natural master of natural breath. She often says “tranquilo'' to me. She is the center of my article “Welcome Refugees” and will be part of the growing Cuban-American community in North America. Puentes de Amor (Bridges of Love) is a Cuban-American group that we want to work with and expand. I believe the indigenous people of Turtle Island and Cuban Americans will work together as we build a culture of peace. The next step for all peace-loving people is to welcome the Golden Rule sailboat, a project of Veterans for Peace. It will be in the Detroit area in mid August. Hasta la victoria siempre! Always towards victory, we look forward to the next step in that direction. JUNE 16, 2023 MEET MY PET PAL GROUNDCOVER NEWS meet my pet pal: TISH GIRL & AMANDA "feel our fairy dust" A column on why those experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity have pets and why it is important to support that. Mom, Becky; who also HOPES she will get to visit with me again now and then. I ENJOY that my Pet Girl Amanda is ALWAYS talking with me when she preps for the day and when she gets back to our wooded home. We feel nature around us together; and I “can tell” Amanda FEELS VERY SATISFIED! with my company. My Pet Girl relates with my really posiHi there! My name is “Tish-Girl” or “Tish” (well, at least that’s what my “Pet Girl” Amanda most often calls me). My full name is “Socraticia.” My “Pet Girl” gave me this name because there are times and ways I just “look so wise.” How did Pet and Pet-Human find each other? I was getting REALLY DESPERATE! I had been THROWN-OUT, tank and all, at a dumpster! My Pet Girl Amanda was walking by one day, and she saw me in my tank with pretty pink pebbles, blue sand, green plants, and just a bit of water. The trouble was she thought I was a small, ornate rock! How could I let this human who cared enough about animals to stop by my tank to investigate — know that I WASN’T a rock!? Besides, I was SCARED! What if my natural instinct was right, and I should be AFRAID of any! human? Still, I was DESPERATE! I decided to extend my head out of my shell, just a bit; and also to move a little. Suddenly, I realized that the human girl looking into my tank as I moved a bit, realized that I am a LIVING TURTLE! Right then, Amanda became my “Pet Girl;” She immediately picked-up my tank with me in it, and brought me into what was then her and her Mom’s apartment. The next day, she looked-up what type of turtle I am, and realizing I am a “Red-Eared-Slider,” she reset my whole tank to be especially for me, just how I need it. She also gave me my type of food. It was then that I knew, I am LOVED! She also talks with me (though I speak a language different from English) and somehow we UNDERSTAND each other. My Pet Girl Amanda also dotes upon me, looking at me fondly, and all these ways let me know that my Pet Girl Amanda ESPECIALLY VALUES and LOVES me. She DELIGHTS in me, and wants to visit with me; She recognizes and likes my yellow and brown splashes of just right, beautiful design. It’s now been 17 years since my Pet Girl Amanda found me; I was then only slightly smaller than a quarter, and I’m now as big as Amanda’s two hands! Many feeder worms, mini shrimp, spinach, pellets and lettuce later — we’ve been Pet and human companions all this time; and since my average life expectancy is 30 years, we’re doing great, and we’ve got some miles to go! Tell us a few things about yourself. I’m a KEEN OBSERVER, and always tell Amanda in my own way How HAPPY I am with her as my Pet human, for her company and for her CARE for me with each detail. Also, somehow I “just know things.” I can tell if my Pet Girl is rushed or tired sometimes, though I am GLAD that Amanda is always a happy person, and patient and CARING,NO MATTER WHAT. I communicate a lot through and with my eyes; I look directly, to notice and convey. I’m still VERY WISE. I get EXTRA relaxed or enthused when Amanda puts K-Love Christian radio on. I ENJOY Amanda’s visits; it’s fun being a pet when you’re LOVED. I’ve been wondering where Amanda’s BELOVED Mom is? She used to live with us and she and I also used to visit a lot — especially while Amanda was volunteering or at work. However, I’m now daily entertained by the sounds of other nearby animals, other sounds like tree leaves blowing in the wind. Sometimes I hear Amanda’s Mom’s voice through this small, strange, hand-held device, and I wonder and I wish I could visit again with Amanda’s Mom sometimes. Amanda and I PRAY for her BELOVED tive nature; we together find and focus on the GOOD; the beauty and purity around us; and the GOOD in other people. We desire to bless others with our “positive vibes,” and to even seek to somehow give back to Nature, at least a little of what it’s doing for us. So we breathe it, and RECEIVE IT; FULLY. We SEEK to KEEP a part of it with us, and let some others EXPERIENCE the “Fairy Dust” (Ha Ha!) from off of us, also. We just CARE! What is a challenge of having a pet while experiencing homelessness? If you tell the wrong people that you have a pet while you’re “homeless,” they might assume you shouldn’t have one! Some people don’t realize that exactly you and your pet are ESSENTIAL FOR EACH OTHER! You Are FAMILY, helping each other thrive! and advance in a big, big world of some who don’t care. If you have kids, just imagine them being taken away from you just because you’re not in some other people’s financial bracket, and then insisting that somehow you’re then best situated to enjoy life and advance financially, though your heart would be ripped apart from such excruciating loss! The really good thing is the way my Pet Girl Amanda takes care of us. We don’t know that we’re homeless, and thus, we really AREN’T! My Pet Girl Amanda, takes much better care of me and herself than if we were residing in a more traditional dwelling! Amanda cunningly improvises; I have a smaller tank right now (though probably my Pet Girl is going to buy me a larger one for summer). We will be taking walks in “our woods” soon on a leash, since my metabolism is getting more active now that spring is more fully here. There isn’t a stream here, so Amanda must bring water in a jug to me, but that is “AOK” with her, since it’s for me. Though my metabolism goes down to semi-dormant during coldest fall and winter, I MUST have at least three or four hand warmers that my Pet Girl tucks me in with, along with my blankies. Water also must be given only at certain times; I don’t need it as often; though water also must have a hand warmer under it, to keep it from freezing. My Pet Girl ALWAYS keeps us REALLY TOASTY WARM! My Pet Girl budgets extra carefully to make sure I ALWAYS! HAVE WHAT I NEED, and that I’m COMFORTABLE. Something really sad though, is, if you have a pet that CANNOT BE ADAPTED FOR, that pet might not have ANY good options for the cold season. Amanda’s pet toads now simply talk to us from afar somewhere. We hear them in the voices of non-pet toads and frogs in the woods around us. THANKFULLY, I, Tish-Girl, am MUCH Simpler to TAKE CARE of; Amanda and I just ENTRUST our departed amphibian friends to our OMNIPOTENT, ALL MERCIFUL GOD. We believe we will more than likely have them in our lives again someday, somewhere beyond this life, In Eternity. What is something our readers should know about you and Amanda if they see you both on the street? You won’t likely encounter Amanda and I out in public; I MUCH prefer the earthy ground under my feet, and the shade covering of leaves overhead and around us (and actually Amanda much prefers this environment in many ways, also! ) If we somehow do get to meet someday though, I’ll really look forward to it! I’m REALLY FRIENDLY and I know my Pet Girl Amanda will seek only nice humans to introduce me to; and if you’re interested in this Pet Pals article, you probably are one! 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES Love by Love: Let our Lindsay shine Start with her warm and kind face inviting your serenity. Looking into that face is like floating in a Sea of Tranquillity, with a smile that would squash an entire evil empire. Lindsay's laugh is awesome, precious at the least … lifts me to such great heights. She is as royalty to the streets. Ya, I guess I'm saying she's a Princess — Our Princess of the Disenfranchised, who is there for Us always with her warm and loving smile, illuminating the room — so warmly as if to swaddle us in … 'Princess Warrior Lindsay Of The Disenfranchised' She works so hard and takes on such a heavy stress load for Us. She cares so intently and always gives her sincere thought and effort to helping Us anyway she's able … often, above and beyond reasonable measure. She is intelligent, talented, even tempered, and with an always sunny, Sunshine demeanor — do not underestimate MARKONA LOVE Groundcover contributor that hidden strength that's there when we need it. With all these talents, she has many choices — and if you think she's in it for the money — what money? Lindsay’s beauty shines from within, and then upon us. Oh man, she never stops; her home is a rescue house for the homeless, she does homeless camp outreach on off time and has invested in several endeavors, always to support her community. She has been doing this while in Graduate A column on compassion School at the University of Michigan, then continuing after getting her Masters Degree. She could do anything, but what she seems to want to keep doing is giving and giving and giving. Bless her Giant heart, sometimes I believe we don't deserve her presence but she does it anyway and gifts Us with her glowing presence that refreshes and renews our strength to fight on. Her Love and Kindness are there for her vendors and writers with so many little helpings that are often above and beyond, that she manages to wedge into a hectic time schedule. She probably would say something so kind and humble, like, “Oh, I was going to do that anyway" (while she's up early or late cooking our dinner for the Writers Review Meeting). Somebody get that woman a peanut butter and chamomile smoothie. Bless her heart, that was a joke for her. I have to have a treat and a joke for that smile, and a laugh — now I'm ready to write “War And Peace.” Truth or lies: Randy the Racer “Zoom, zoom, rev, rev,” went the sounds of the motor headers as Randy raced down the street. Randy Welch, a three-time National Car Racing Association winner, raced down the street everyday. It did not matter if he was on the track or if he was going to the local store, he sped up every time he drove. Randy was 26 years old and had no children or wife. He was a bachelor with an arrogant disposition. Town folk would say he was quite full of himself and needed to stop speeding through the town. Randy would race against anyone who challenged him. He never wore a seat belt or considered any pedestrians. Randy had several race cars. His favorite was the red 1980 Maserati he won as a prize in the Spark racing competition. Every time he drove the Maserati, Randy would race on the streets boasting that no one could beat him. The Maserati was previously owned by Juan Hamman, a humble family man who crashed while racing in the national competition. Juan won seven national and 10 international races before he passed. “Zoom, zoom, rumble, rumble,” — the sounds of the Maserati idling at the corner of Seventh St. A black Camaro approached the intersection. Randy turned his head to the right and nodded at the driver of the Camaro. They looked at each other then took off — “zoom, zoom.” All of a sudden, Randy sees Juan Hamman FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 standing in the middle of the road. Juan was gesturing to him and shouting, “Slow down, children are playing.” Randy could not believe his eyes — Juan was standing in the road shouting at him! He could not swerve or veer, he had to keep driving straight ahead. Randy thought, “If it is Juan standing in the road, I will have to run his dead body over!” In an instant, Juan grabbed a little girl who was pedaling her bicycle in the street. He snatched her off her bike, thus saving her life. Randy did not expect her to be riding in the street! Finally stopping, he was relieved that the girl was safe and not injured because of his street racing. Randy stood, looking all around and everywhere for Juan. When he returned home later that evening, he wondered if he really saw Juan, questioning himself, wondering if the little girl was real or dead also. The next day he decided to return to Seventh St. to see if the little girl was real, and where Juan was. How could he return from the grave, he wondered? Randy was anxious and not paying attention to his speed. Once again he was speeding, and out of nowhere the little girl appeared riding her bicycle. Then Juan appeared, and Randy drove straight through Juan’s silhouette once again. Randy did not notice that he had traveled through time crossing through Juan’s silhouette. Randy found himself in a jail cell. He had been charged with vehicular manslaughter of a pedestrian. Randy stood grabbing the bars shouting “What have I done? How did I get here? Someone please help me! I am sorry! I promise never to speed down the streets again!” Randy started to cry thinking how he never got married or had children. He thought about the little girl. “Is that who I hit?” Her parents probably wanted to kill him or see him in jail for life. Randy shouted and swore out of his mouth that if he could turn back the hand of time, things would be different. He would not speed down the street, and only race on the track. Exhausted from crying and shouting, he laid down on the cot in the cell to rest. Randy fell asleep and dreamed. His lawyer was a man named Larry Cluable and the prosecutor was a lady named Shelly Smoores. She wanted to see him put away for life in prison! He had run over the little girl named Kylie Ight. The jury had more women than men. The judge was a lady named Judge Christy Evans. The trial was quick and the jury only deliberated for fifteen minutes. Judge Evans read the verdict then sentenced him to twenty years hard labor. When she slapped the gavel, he awoke, shaking and scared. He was sitting behind the wheel of the 1980 red Maserati. He threw his hands up and thanked Juan silently and slowly drove home. Grateful to Juan, he opened a training course for new drivers, teaching them the importance of not speeding and street racing. Groundcover needs a special Lindsay appreciation day, not just as a Publisher, Director, Editor or friend … somehow she's all of that and a plate of pomme frites. Lindsay has had patience with me through so much. I'm eager to know where she gets the foundation that gives her that strength ... it sure is noticed and greatly appreciated by moi. All Our Grace to Lindsay Calka. All The Grace to Our Loving Lindsay. Sincerely, Markona Love "LINDSAY DAY" (June 16) Author's Note: I wrote this from within a state of apology, currently in progress. I had the realization that I was adding more of the same stress to what Lindsay already had piled on her. I was being self-centered and selfish of her feelings, which I will forever regret. JUNE 16, 2023 Is "Randy the Racer" TRUTH or LIES? Go online at groundcovernews.org to cast your vote! You guessed right Groundcover readers, the Town of Junken, published May 19, was based on a TRUE story. JUNE 16, 2023 POETRY Temporarily homeless ANONYMOUS Sitting by the side of the road, Walking for miles and miles. Saving pop bottles to cash in. Wondering how you'll get your next meal. "Homelessness? Things happen. You're fine. Don’t spend money on drugs," they say. But they don’t know the half of it. And who said anything about anyone using drugs when maybe they're just down and out? Use, abuse, take take take. Is that how you find the way out of your situation? There’s a better approach called give and take, When both have something to offer. Trains, planes, buses, and cars... Who knew, all the fusses we make about affording fares and gasoline. But we all have to get somewhere, somehow and sometime. Why not just enjoy the idea of traveling? Life is so short, why all this suffering? Crying, hurting, starving, thirsting... And do you have it made when you have many things? Who knew material goods could mean so little when what you need is love and compassion? She's young, she's innocent, she's homeless, so let’s take advantage... You're old, you're unclean, you're mean, so she'll run the other direction. Who's in her corner fighting for her? Parents, family, friends, you just don’t see. I don’t need your kind of "saving." And they look out for me so I'm not as alone as I seem. Where oh where can I go to sleep tonight? All I need is a place to lay my head at night, a job and some money. Who knew life could be so hard, unemployed. It should be that I'm employed and well set. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THINK ABOUT IT Build your positivity muscle MOHAMMED AL MUSTAPHA Groundcover contributor I want to start this article by reminding you, the reader, that you are a resilient being capable of extraordinary feats which you can choose to exhibit at any time. This superb sense of resilience, which you embody, can at times be dulled by the many different circumstances in life, but it never diminishes. It will always be there for you in your time of need and can be generously extended to assist others around you as well. We human beings are very unique and peculiar creatures. I like to think of us as unique individual collections of memories. The way we interpret those memories can be positive or negative. Unfortunately, for many of us, the deficit in balance of bad versus good memories leads us to regress into a negative pattern of thinking. This negative digression cycle is very hard to break and can so consume a human being that they can lose sight of the beauty of who they are and what they have. They can become so overwhelmed that they completely lose track of the goodness within and become self-destructive through negative habits such as substance abuse and dependence, alcoholism or a host of the many negative coping mechanisms that we humans can detrimentally execute. Overcoming past traumas is not an easy thing. To deal with the intrusive and excessively negative thoughts that barrage my mind, I have learned a potentially helpful new trick that I want to share with you. You see, just like you, I have my fair share of negative and horrid past traumas and experiences. When these obtrusive negative thoughts started inundating my mind and obstructing my thinking, I didn't know how to deal with them, and they would cycle through my head in such a fashion that I didn't know how to stop them. I would seek substances that would alter my mind in the hope of easing it, but they would only compound and amplify the problem. The regression was so severe that I would lose track of whatever I was occupied with at the time and would end up making completely irrational decisions that would devastate my self-development progress. Being the hard-headed individual I am, I abhorred seeking mental health assistance, whether due to cultural stigma or just plain arrogance and hardheadedness. To deal with the insistent and obsessive negative thought cycle of self-victimization, and constantly asking myself the same questions like "why did this happen to me?" or "why is my life this way?" or "why did I have to go through this?" I just faced my mind and embraced the thoughts. By embracing my traumas and recognizing them as part of my being, my personality, and my character, I was able to overcome them. Whenever I would get negative thoughts of previous trauma, instead of allowing my mind to wander with the question of "why me" and "why so", I reminded myself that I am here, now, and alive. What was supposed to hurt me and destabilize me, I have endured and survived. What was supposed to make me weaker and destroy me has only made me stronger, has reinforced my resolve to be a better human, to not give in to evilness, to continuously strive to be a better, stronger person. Instead of wallowing in self-pity and embracing a victimized mindset, I reverse it. I am a survivor. I am stronger today than I was when whatever traumatic event happened. By constantly reminding myself that this is who I am today, I am in constant self-development and improvement of myself, my body, my mind, my family, my community and humanity in general. By embracing the trauma and realizing that it has happened, it is in the past, and it's a part of me, it has only made me stronger. I am free from see POSITIVITY next page  JUNE 16, 2023 Breaking the ice — doubts, faith, opportunity KEVIN ALLGOOD Groundcover contributor Some may say Groundcover is a scam; some of its writers at times may think their writing is subpar, but it's a way to make money writing and selling papers. Some may feel it's not their talent and think that they may never make it. The thing is, I'm a Christian, virgin, schizophrenic myself trying to navigate the spiritual world of the Most High God and Satan Our Adversary. I know not the mental health nor the total economic stance of all involved in Groundcover, therefore can only speak on my own behalf. I know many are hurting in today's economy and we could all seem to get in the Christmas spirit out of the season of goodwill and love for others. Saint Nikolas was a real man that would buy toys for the poor kids and was beloved for it. That Irishman I believe became Saint Nick, our Santa Claus. Now, if Santa was a real person, a Christian, then how could we get into His Spirit, His Holy Spirit — by selflessly loving others? We could also humbly pray that God would circumcise our hearts and His Holy Spirit would come into Our Temple that is our body. So no parent has to lie about Santa coming and leaving gifts cause if Dad is in His Holy Spirit, he truly is Saint Nick. When friends tell kids that Santa is not real and they finally believe it, they therefore subconsciously think the whole Jesus thing is a lie. Was Jesus real? Is his birthday just a scam to make money? I ask kids today what Christmas is about and many would think Santa gives gifts and there are elves and reindeer. Many kids nowadays do not even know that it is the day agreed on to celebrate the birthday of Christ and the gift of salvation. Looking at Groundcover’s 2023 Exceptional Community Member Edition, the photo of Juan Castro dressed as Santa surrounded by three beautiful women looks like an embarrassing amount of riches. Many think schizophrenic and think crazy; some may think of Rob Thomas’s “Unwell” (a favorite song of mine). But I see it not as some doctors do, as the subconscious talking to the conscious, but as an evil demon, and that sometimes you forget people are around and you get mad at it and yell or get teary-eyed and cry. Sometimes you get so stressed you forget to take a bath or brush your teeth. With Groundcover, I see an opportunity that God has put before me, and even if I don't profit from it, hopefully others will. Like a rock thrown into a pond, the ripples are what counts. I could foresee a doctor across the street from the State movie theater, having a coffee at Starbucks, (BTW is it legal in America to want to unionize? How could anyone get fired for wanting to help their coworkers to have better work conditions?) reading my story, keeping up on my entries, who might understand something, for me to have a breakthrough all because of Groundcover. In my faithwalk, it’s been lonely and I have been abused by Satan all my life and if it's God doing it, "love me less" (joking, Archangel Gabriel, I'm joking). My heart’s desire one day is to have a loving family, for me to be a family man. I have struggled with sexual sin thought across all areas on a spectrum, but trust I am a born again virgin of two decades. Like going to the gym, self-talk trying to stand up to dangerous sin thoughts is a must to get stronger. I realized that hiding from the Truth only makes you live in fear and to house Fear in My Temple was a horrible feeling I desired freedom from. The internet seems to have a skill - leading you into mental sin and seemingly encouraging you to lie from the very sin it sold you. From my experience, it seems some demons have something in your temple to physically hold on to when we lie and are afraid. The first step to freedom is to be willing to admit you fall short of the glory of God. And for those sins that test your honesty, confess it, if need be openly, and therefore do not fear the past, for the Bible says to confess your sins to one another and God is just to take away all unrighteousness from you. To beat fear is to be brave so many times that fear is tired and afraid of you so it doesn't even bother any more. To be on Social Security with free time, maybe Groundcover and I may be a good marriage after long courting seasons. If all things work for the good of those who love God and are called for His purpose, then hopefully He has a purpose for me at Groundcover! It's maybe not about winning a Pulitzer Prize, but to find rich loving relationships, and maybe even about others in the community hearing about a personal story and maybe changing their life. From a long lost friend to a daughter never known, a Father, an admirer, to a mentor, you never know what treasure you can get. Well this piece has more about the birth of Jesus then myself, but now I think maybe it’s about my birth at Groundcover and it’s all sound. really JUNE 16, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11  POSITIVITY from last page the negative thought cycle and mental distress and agony. It doesn't make sense to allow things that have transpired and expired in the past to affect us today. Let's make today and tomorrow better by becoming better versions of ourselves and beautifying our surroundings. Like a good friend of mine said, “Take a deep breath and do something good.” Start by realizing what's in the past is in the past. You have already gotten over it. It hurt when it happened, but you hold the key to not letting it hurt today. Realize that we humans are very variable and capable of both good and bad. Therefore, embrace the good and forgive the bad. Remember that we all face different circumstances that can dilute and dictate our judgment at times. By forgiving your traumatizers, you not only give yourself relief but also them. Start with small acts of kindness, such as smiling, stopping on the road to smell the flowers, enjoying the beauty of the sunshine and nature around you, getting a fresh haircut (in my case, it involves a nice head shave that leaves my bald head sparkling and shiny, making Mr. Clean jealous), putting on a nice outfit and just walking outside, complimenting your fellow man on the street, whether they are an acquaintance or just a pedestrian. Go for a bike ride, enjoy a nice meal, or just go to the ice cream parlor and ask for sample spoons of all the flavors. Just remember that negative thoughts are just thoughts. They do not stop you or define you. And that small acts of kindness and small acts of self-hedonism will work to accumulate a degree of happiness, which will uplift your mood and affect your disposition for the better. Seeking therapy and counseling is great, and I advise all those struggling with mental health issues to please utilize the knowledge and power of mental health professionals, whether through your health insurance or through the county-provided services such as Community Mental Health. I myself will be seeking therapy to make sure that I am on the right path. The gist of what I am trying to say is this: we all have our fair share of negative memories and traumatizing experiences that we carry inside of us. At any time, they can arise to destabilize our being and progress. But by facing them and embracing them, we take away their destructive and destabilizing power. If we start by executing small positive tasks, we build up progress to accomplish bigger and better things. In my experience, going to the gym to work out has been extremely helpful. It has given me mental clarity, improved my mental health, improved my physical appearance and my diet, which has had a wonderful effect on my personality and thought pattern as a whole. By doing a large number of small positive tasks, I am able to accumulate positive energy, which in turn gives me the courage and motivation to 10% OFF LUNCH JOIN US FOR 122 W. Liberty, Ann Arbor • oldtownaa.com • (734) 662-9291 Dine in only, offer good Mon - Sat 11:30 am - 4:00 pm, excludes alcohol. Expires 7/1/23 seek even greater positive challenges. One of those small positive tasks for me has been riding a bicycle. It feels great, gets me where I need to go faster, and improves my cardiovascular health. Also, seek a hobby. Find something that you enjoy doing. On the real, one of the best things that has happened to me has been writing. I never thought that I would have my articles published in a newspaper, let alone a full page. That's why I give a huge heartfelt shoutout to the Groundcover family, starting with the awesome Managing Director for doing such an amazing job, to all the editorial staff for making sure my writing makes sense, all the donors for making sure we have this outlet, and last but not least, the vendors for making sure that our works get into the hands of the readers. Whatever you do, just remember that what has happened in the past does not dictate your tomorrow, for it is a better day. Start with small positive acts and, trust me, they will accumulate into bigger and better things. And hey, wherever you are going, I pray that all the traffic lights on your way turn green. Amen.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Easiest chili in the world LUIZA DUARTE CAETANO Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 pound of ground beef 1 onion 4 cloves of garlic 1 can beans 1 can corn 1 can diced tomato, or 1 tbsp tomato paste 2 tsp chili powder About 32 ounces of boiling water. Salt and pepper to taste. Optional: shredded cheese. Directions: Prep your ingredients: Dice your onions and mince your garlic. Open the cans and drain them. Set some water to boil. Set a different pot on high heat. No oil needed. When the pot is hot, add the ground beef in and smash it with a wooden spoon, moving it so it browns, but doesn’t burn. Season the beef with the salt, pepper, and chili powder. Add your onions and garlic and cook them for about 3 minutes, or until they soften, mixing constantly. Add the corn, beans, and tomato, mix, and finally cover it all with the boiling water. Let it simmer over medium-low heat for another 10 minutes. Serve it hot with some shredded cheese and sour cream on top, or as is. JUNE 16, 2023 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS INTERNATIONAL COMFORT CUISINE! Available: Mon. - Fri. from 11-2 • Weekly menu at peoplesfood.coop PFC Kitchen proudly presents : $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 7/13/2023

2 $ JUNE 2, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 12 ASK YOUR YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. A local look at trans people in homeless shelters. Page 4 VENDOR: WHO DO YOU MOST ADMIRE? TERESA BASHAM, #570 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. trans rights respect asexuality healthcare gender expression shelter PRIDE ISSUE community transitions safety love Mural by Joey Salamon THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor # 2023

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER from the DIRECTOR's DESK this year, and you’re holding it!) On the day after its print release, I overheard a conversation about trans LINDSAY CALKA Managing Director In June 2022, Groundcover News published a special edition for Pride Month. This was the first of its kind for Groundcover. Although the publication had published LGBTQ+ articles and content before, never had the organization taken a concerted action intentionally marketed as such. Almost every piece was written by or centered LGBTQ+ people or issues in the local community. (Spoiler: we did it again people in the Groundcover office that, in an attempt to be humorous, was extremely hurtful. I stepped in to open up a conversation about the statement I heard, to inform those in the conversation how that might be understood as an offense, a slur or an invalidation of personhood. We talked about what the consequences are to sell this paper, and speak hate, even if out of ignorance, as a representative of Groundcover News. The intersection of homelessness experience and LGBTQ+ identity is an important one. LGBTQ+ — especially transgender — people have a higher risk of becoming homeless due to stereotypes, transphobia, hatred and systemic oppression. Navigating the system of welfare and survival as a trans person often includes lack of privacy, lack of belonging, physical violence, misgendering, trauma and re-traumatizing experiences. Yet, very few people in our workplace — a workplace for people experiencing homelessness — identify as LGBTQ+. It was a wake up call that the Groundcover News vendor base is not a perfect sample of the homeless experience as many members of our community assume. Certainly we have a diverse and unique group of vendors and writers who challenge stereotypes everyday out on the street and in their writing. Anyone with lived experience of homelessness and poverty can sell Groundcover News, but that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone with this experience does. Selling Groundcover means constantly being in the public eye, and being in a position to be ignored or embraced or even reviled, over and over again. I thought a lot about what it means for Groundcover News to publish another Pride Issue: to speak on behalf of, and to defend, an identity that most who work for Groundcover do not hold. Instead of avoiding this lack of representation by not publishing a Pride Issue this year, we chose to do it again, expanding the contributor base and owning the reality that we have an obligation as a street paper to cover these issues and spotlight the people, organizations and ideas that are making the community a better place for everyone. Because to understand the intersection of queerness and homelessness is to better understand homelessness. And to challenge stereotypes of being gay, trans or asexual is to challenge stereotypes of poverty. Our liberation is bound up with one another. JUNE 2, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Layla McMurtrie — deputy editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS D.A. Rachel Braun Ladi Dä Markona Love Chen Lyu Danielle Mack Layla McMurtrie Phoenix Oaks Mira Simonton-Chao PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Logan Brown Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Harleen Kaur Robert Klingler Holden Pizzolato Mira Simonton-Chao Alex Tarbet Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenburg Navya Yagalla Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES PACKAGE PRICING Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JUNE 2, 2023 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR Who in this world do you most admire? Billie Holiday. Despite all she went through, she still was able to do what she did, achieve what she achieved. My favorite song of hers is "Blue Moon." — Teresa Basham, #570 In my lifetime, MLK. Among the living , the 17th Karmapa. — Ken Parks, #490 Jesus. — Gary Robinson, #224 Dead: Jonas Salk, Living: Neil deGrasse Tyson. — Markona Love, #590 Jesus. — Tony Schohl, #9 I respect everyone. — Roberto Caballero, #347 Stevie Wonder. — Felicia Wilbert, #234 Susan Beckett, for what she did for Groundcover and her vision for the organization. Glenn Gates, for his hard work and dedication. — Joe Woods, #103 Lindsay. — James Tennant, #174 My dad, for all the sacrifices he made throughout the years. And Glenn! — Dan Wilcox, #592 DANIELLE MACK Groundcover vendor No. 5 Happy Pride Month to everyone! I hope you are enjoying what seems to be the end of spring and the beginning of summer. I have not written an article since I left Michigan to get married back in 2013 to another trans woman named Shelley. A lot has happened since Shelley and I were married in Massachusetts, and quickly moved to California, her favorite place to live. After a few years I got a job with TSA, and just as I was finishing up my training with TSA, Shelley passed away. We had made plans to move to Seattle at the end of that year, plans that I followed through with. I was born in Seattle so that area is home to me. Shelley had lived there before and liked it. With my federal job I could transfer anywhere in the country. I transferred to Seattle in 2017. I loved living in Seattle, but eventually my parents and I started talking again and I chose to move back to Michigan to try and speed up the reconnection. My dad’s side of the family has been in Michigan since 1865, and aside from kindergarten, all my schooling has been in Michigan; but after so much time on the west coast, I felt a lot of culture shock moving back to Michigan in 2018. I quickly realized my parents and I get along better with a thousand miles between us and I wanted to get back to Seattle. Unfortunately I ran into some bigotry and transphobia working at the Grand Rapids airport. I filed complaints and did everything I could but never heard anything back from headquarters. They tried to fire me at that airport, but thanks to some help from the union I was able to instead get forced into a transfer to a position and airport I didn’t really want. In 2019, I was transferred to Washington D.C., where I was eventually able to get things worked out to get back to working as an officer and start working my way back to Seattle. At the end of that year I was able to get a transfer to Denver. I loved Denver! I had my voice surgery to raise my pitch and trachea shave to reduce the size of my Adam's apple done in Denver. In 2021, I transferred to Las Vegas for six months, then back up to Seattle. I eventually left TSA shortly after moving back to Seattle and found a job using my degree to work for the public schools. I worked for Seattle Public Schools for about a year and a half as a special education teaching assistant, aka paraeducator. My first year on the job I had a great team that I loved working with, but at the end of the last school year GROUNDCOVER NEWS Transitions since Groundcover the teacher decided to try something else. We got a new teacher that did not seem to like me too much, and proceeded to make my work environment very stressful. I panicked a bit and instead of requesting a transfer to another school I just quit and decided to try working for the federal government again, for the United States Postal Service. I hated that job, decided it wasn’t for me very quickly and I just went back onto teaching. I left USPS before my probationary period ended and was jobless for about six weeks before I got hired by the same school district I started kindergarten in up near Everett, just north of Seattle. After all this time I know I want to live and work near Everett. Last fall I managed to acquire my dream car, a 1993 GMC Sierra K1500 halfton pickup truck, that I am still making payments on. I am working my dream job, and currently only casually looking for my dream house up near Everett. Unfortunately I am in a bit of a rough patch as I don’t get my first paycheck from this new job until the end of next month and I am already behind on quite a few bills and struggling to make it to that first paycheck. I am trying all sorts of things to help myself, but keep running into problems. There is an end to the stresses in sight. Now I just need to get there. 3 Back in the crack The light was only peeking out, but at least I could see it, in the distance — barely — from the pit, where Uncle Sam wants me/us. It’s getting crowded down here —- as the low-income, disenfranchised population increases daily. There isn’t even talk of any real solution, let alone any positive action. They can’t seem to even slow down the spread of disparity. 'The Crack' is the fissure that is What would YOU ask? If you have a question you would like Groundcover vendors to answer in this column, email us at contact@groundcovernews.com We will be featuring vendor responses in future issues. seemingly impossible for the lower class to step out of, and what the middle class is falling into … a never ending, bottomless pit of despair. More jobs have more expenses and complications. How many jobs does it take to afford to live in a tent by the railroad tracks? … four. Yep. How do you get out of a locked box?! Where's Houdini when you need him? With all the time and energy the government spends But what's the point in wasting MARKONA LOVE Groundcover vendor No. 590 creating those walls and locking your box then hiding the key, you would think that they would have just housed people instead. I could explain how each one of those walls were created and how they contained me, but it would be futile. I’m more interested in the ways of the ‘winds of change.’ Ya, I know, that’s vague ... any more breath on the details of how the system screws us? Let’s start acting as a compassionate community. Government is not going to save us, it's way too concerned with self-preservation. We need to come together, work together … for each other. We the people need to see ourselves as a whole, as One — and start from there. We need some love and understanding. We have to find a way to appreciate each other's boundaries. This is the most comfortable and in control I have felt in years — here, living in a tent in the woods, next to the railroad tracks. Here is where I experience the most disconnection from the binding system. I wonder why we can't get parcels see BACK page 11 

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PRIDE LAYLA MCMURTRIE Deputy Editor According to Health Care for the Homeless, one in five transgender people, and 41% of Black trans people, have experienced homelessness. There are very few shelters specifically for trans and gender non-conforming homeless people, and most of the resources available cater towards youth, leaving trans adults suffering. Shelters are no exception to the hate that the LGBTQ+ community is often subject to. At the Robert J. Delonis Center in Ann Arbor, where there are 56 residential beds, women are placed on the fourth floor and men on the third floor. Often trans people don’t feel right with either option, as many feel unsafe in men’s shelters due to a higher risk of sexual assault, but can also feel out of place with cisgender women. Local trans lesbian Sarah Dunn has spent time in the Washtenaw County homeless community since coming out in 2017 and said that she never felt comfortable at Delonis. “I didn't feel safe, even waiting outside, because I was catcalled. I had some guy trying to put his arm around me,” Dunn said. “I was glad that Washtenaw Camp Outreach was able to put me up at a motel that night and then I moved into Purple House the next day, but it was that traumatizing even just waiting out there knowing that I could be preyed on.” Dunn thinks that to prevent behavior like this, shelters should have a zero-tolerance policy for predatory behavior. While Delonis does have a non-discrimination policy and a way for residents to file complaints, it seldom results in aggressors being JUNE 2, 2023 A local look at trans people in homelesss shelters exited from the shelter, according to Housing Director Christina Johnson. When starting her job at Delonis in 2012, Johnson was glad to find out that their rule was already that a client will be placed on the floor matching their gender identity. But, the system is still far from perfect. Currently, the center has no specific protections for trans people, just a community agreement poster that emphasizes safety and respect. see SHELTER next page  A few notes on respect: How to ensure you're treating a trans person with dignity PHOENIX OAKS Street Roots vendor I've noticed that, unfortunately, staff and volunteers who run non-profits that serve poor and houseless folks are often unaware of how to treat transgender community members with basic respect. Some are outright unwilling to use trans people’s correct names or pronouns. That was my reason for putting together a presentation that the following tips were taken from. This lack of respect is especially unacceptable given that trans people make up a highly disproportionate percentage of houseless folks. We face very high rates of discrimination, violence, family and community rejection, harassment and suicide attempts because of transphobia. The last thing struggling trans folks need is to be mistreated in places like shelters, service centers, offices, medical clinics and places where they get food and use restrooms. I’ve experienced incessant misgendering and other forms of transphobia by a few people in some of these places. I’ve also seen trans people get harassed, discriminated against and misgendered by staff and other residents in shelters. I’ve been told by an employee at a shelter service that trans men can just go to the women’s shelter after I raised concerns about trans men and nonbinary people’s safety in shelters. As a trans man, I’d feel extremely uncomfortable and out of place going into a women’s shelter (especially since I pass as male and am legally male). At the same time, I’d unfortunately feel unsafe in a men’s shelter, too, given how high the risk of sexual assault would be there. Many people in this community first met me before I started transitioning. Don’t get me wrong — trans men and women should definitely be able to stay in men’s and women’s shelters respectively according to their correct genders, just as they should be able to use the correct restrooms. At the same time, given the current social climate, I believe that trans, nonbinary and gender nonconforming people need their own shelter or shelter beds that they can go to if they feel safer there. As things are now, the places that serve folks who are struggling the most are often not safe or welcoming to us. The importance of names and pronouns • Respect everyone’s right to self-identify and express however they wish at any time and in any situation. • Once known, use ONLY a person’s chosen name and pronouns, unless they explicitly want you to do otherwise. This can be the case when a person is still in the process of coming out. • Don’t justify deadnaming (using a person’s former name) or misgendering. Apologize and correct yourself if you slip. • Legal names and genders are often NOT preferred and are not to be considered people’s “real” names or genders. • Don’t out anyone without permission. Actions, questions and statements to avoid • Unequal, stigmatizing, dehumanizing or awkward treatment such as staring; ceasing communication; deliberate deadnaming or misgendering; sharing medical/anatomical info, old photos or birth name without the trans person’s consent; transphobic jokes or stereotyping; or using mocking or condescending tone with chosen name or pronouns. • Anything invasive or objectifying about body, presentation, old or new name or appearance, or transition process. • Pressure to do anything that feels unsafe or dysphoria-inducing such as calling police, going to a place that doesn’t feel welcoming, or presenting as assigned gender for school or a family gathering. • Invalidating trans kids’ or youths’ needs or identities by claiming that they’re too young to know, that trans pre-teens shouldn’t go on puberty blockers, or that trans teens shouldn’t have hormone therapy, etc. • Anything that treats trans men as if they’re not real men or trans women as if they’re not real women. For example, stereotyping trans men as being better than cis men as if they’re not real men and masculinity is inherently toxic; treating trans women like they’re men invading women’s spaces; “We welcome women and trans people” on signs; and surveys that have “male,” “female,” “trans male,” and “trans female” as distinct options instead of “cis male,” “cis female,” “trans male,” and “trans female.” • Regarding nonbinary genders as less real or unreal; refusing to use gender-neutral pronouns or the Mx. honorific; or saying that they/them for one person is grammatically incorrect. • Falsely claiming that being trans is a mental illness, a trend or a personal choice; falsely claiming that science supports transphobia; or saying that being trans is against one’s culture, religion, feminism or beliefs. • Performative allyship, tokenism A self-portrait of Phoenix Oaks, originally published in the Street Roots 2019 Holiday Zine. and inappropriate parading of trans identities. • Accusing trans people of being unreasonable or overly sensitive in response to their trauma, dysphoria, or unwillingness to take transphobia; blaming trans people’s unrelated issues on them transitioning; gaslighting; or saying “not all cis people” when they process their experiences. • Treating transphobia like a lower-priority problem to address or a less serious/real oppression. • Arguing that trans people shouldn’t be allowed in certain jobs, roles or places for their correct genders, for example, sports teams, restrooms, the military, teaching, raising kids, religious/spiritual leadership and political office; or that trans prisoners or poor people shouldn’t be able to have surgery. Courtesy of Street Roots / INSP.ngo JUNE 2, 2023 PRIDE Hidden struggles of asexuality As our society becomes increasingly aware of the prevalence of sexual harassment, one particularly vulnerable group’s experiences still remain in the shadows. Asexuality is defined as experiencing little to no sexual attraction to any gender. While being asexual is completely natural, the misconceptions surrounding the identity cause many people to view asexual people, or aces, as broken or less human. As an asexual person myself, I’ve witnessed this dehumanization countless times and am now striving to document asexual discrimination, which is called “aphobia.” In February 2022, I posted a form titled “A Collective Look on Aphobia” to my aromantic, asexual TikTok, where over 3,000 asexual and aromantic people reported experiencing various microaggressions. The most concerning result was that 15.3% of respondants reported experiencing sexual assault specifically due to their identity. I found this shocking and couldn't believe I hadn’t seen anyone discuss this massive issue. I decided to interview one of these individuals to get a better perspective on the sexual harassment that many aces face. Julia (she/they) began experiencing sexual abuse long before she learned that there is a word for her identity. She described her encounters with a family member who “took advantage of a lot of my naivety and my ‘not feeling very sexual' to try to educate me in ways that were not appropriate.” This experience of “educating on sexuality” isn’t uncommon for asexuals and is often used as a tactic for abusive partners to excuse their actions. Julia also shared her struggles in college, where men are notorious for sexual misconduct. “I've had men get really confused and upset when I’d be romantic with them but RACHEL BRAUN U-M student contributor not be sexual with them,” she explained. These issues only increased once Julia realized she’s asexual and started disclosing her identity. Many people claimed that asexuality isn’t real or that she must have a physical or mental disorder. Even partners who said they were willing to date an asexual person later tried to coerce her into sex or claimed they could “fix” her. “I was dealing with expressing boundaries and then having those boundaries ignored or invalidated,” she said. She also mentioned that this violation of boundaries was more painful than her previous experiences because it felt like a direct attack on her identity. Julia later shared an encounter with a man she met at a festival. Despite clarifying that she’s not comfortable with anything beyond kissing, she was physically overpowered by him. “He grabbed me and pulled me down to the couch and started trying to engage more sexually,” she explained. When she repeated that she’s asexual, he started shouting and accusing her of being a liar and leading him on. Julia was eventually able to push him away and escape, but many aces aren’t so lucky. In fact, “corrective rape” is one of the main forms of conversion therapy used to “treat” asexuality. I also asked Julia if she has trouble  SHELTER from last page “I'm sure it's still a flawed process,” Johnson said. “I would definitely say that the shelter is no exception to all of the harassment and bullying that trans folks have to experience.” Many trans people feel that the best option would be opening a shelter specifically for homeless people of the LGBTQ community. The reason there isn’t one currently is mostly because of lack of funding. “As far as trans and queer friendly shelters in the Southeast Michigan area, there's not very many options for us,” Dunn said. “We do face housing discrimination unfortunately, and even at the time that I was homeless, it was still legal to deny and evict someone just because of who they loved, or who they were. I really think that what I would like to see, though, is the grassroots organizations like the LGBTQ organizations working with the homeless.” Purple House, which currently offers shelter for homeless people in Washtenaw County during the coldweather months, had a short-term summer program in 2022 called the Lavender Project that offered finding support as a survivor of sexual abuse due to their asexuality. She explained that many people treat her differently from other survivors because they think her sexuality needs to be corrected. Furthermore, she isn’t able to utilize support systems provided by doctors, psychiatrists and therapists because they assume her sexuality is a result of her experiences. She explained, “A lot of my trauma does get written off as ‘you’re like this because you’re traumatized’ rather than ‘you’re traumatized because you’re like this.’” Julia’s experience with medical professionals is common within the asexual community. The pathologization of asexuality forces many people to lie or avoid doctors and therapists, furthering the lack of visibility for sexual abuse. Julia’s message for people who don’t believe asexuality is real is, “Everybody is having their own experience, and your experience is not universal. Leave people the space to live their own lives.” Julia’s experience is just one out of millions, but it gives significant insight into the struggles of asexuality. Between the sexual coercion, medicalization and lack of visibility, being asexual can be an isolating and terrifying experience. Julia and I agreed the best action that can be taken is improved education. By educating about asexuality, we can create a future with greater acceptance, visibility and safety. As Julia said in her closing remark, “Asexuals have always been here and have always been experiencing discrimination for who they are, and the only way we’re gonna make things better is if the queer community works together as a whole to educate and live our lives as brightly and vibrantly as we can.” GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 transition housing specifically for LGBTQ people and women. However, the program was only temporary, and most residents either transitioned to permanent housing, moved back to Delonis or elsewhere when the program ended September of that same year. Both Johnson and Dunn said that they would be happy to see more programs like this one in the area. “I was lucky when I was homeless that the Lavender Project was running,” Dunn said. “If they were to have something more permanent like that, that would be wonderful.”

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PRIDE Ypsilanti Pride's big return Ypsilanti Pride is kicking off Pride Month from 4-10 p.m. on June 2 in Depot Town, an event described by coordinator Kenneth Curtis as “a community celebration created with intention and for meaningful connection.” In 2022, organizers took a break — but the group has plans to make a big return this year and continue to grow moving forward. “Before this season of planning, a lot of the board members from previous years decided to leave the board … I was the only person that stayed on the board,” Curtis said. “I’m wearing a lot of hats right now.” Ypsilanti’s weekend of pride events will happen from Friday, June 2 through Sunday, June 4, with the big full day of events taking place on Saturday, featuring performances from LGBTQIA+ identifying regional artists such as DJ Myint, Baddie Brooks and Fearless Amaretto. Curtis is a teacher at EMU Bright Futures and believes that Pride is crucial to show local youth that they can be who they are. “It's so important because our youth is really just so vibrant and outspoken about their rights and what they want to see inside the schools,” Curtis said. “I think that [Pride] is the only way that we could foster that behavior and that mentality LAYLA MCMURTRIE Deputy editor of if you really want something, you have to go fight for it.” Baddie Brooks, a recent graduate of Eastern Michigan University and local trans femme vocalist and trumpeter, will be opening the stage with her original music. As they have utilized music as an avenue to express themselves, Brooks and other Pride performers are a prime example to show youth how important authenticity is. Apart from performers, local vendors at Ypsi Pride will include the Jim Toy Community Center, PFLAG Ann Arbor, Unicorn Feed & Supply, Best in Games, Gay Nerd Goods and Ypsi Art Supply. Other organizations present will consist of a multitude of local nonprofits, retail stores, food, arts and crafts and health and services. Ypsi Pride advertisement outside of Aubree's in Depot Town. Following the events on June 2, there will be after parties at local arcade Best in Games and speakeasy-style bar Mash. On June 3, Keystone Arcade and Bar will be hosting a Pride Afterglow Party. “Ypsi Pride represents authenticity by reaffirming queer culture and drawing thousands of folks each year out to express themselves is a unique Pride freely among friends and family,” Curtis said, urging the community to attend the event. “Ypsi Pride event and highlight!” JUNE 2, 2023 experience. It is authentic, intentional and locally supported. Don’t miss this annual Ypsilanti JUNE 2, 2023 PRIDE How Pastor Anna aligns queer advocacy with faith CHEN LYU Groundcover contributor I first met Pastor Anna Taylor-McCants near Liberty Plaza. There was a crowd of volunteers and other people who stopped for the meals her FedUp Food Truck provides. In a place that would otherwise feel desolate, they packed the sidewalk and the benches in the park, conversations and laughter permeating the air. For Pastor Anna, the first openly queer pastor at Zion Lutheran Church, FedUp was literally a vehicle to carry God's non-judgemental love to community members who might have felt alienated by conventional church practices. “I recognize that like this building that you came in for the first time, out there there are these huge steps, those are also barriers,” Anna said. “It is a home for so many people, but also a barrier for so many others who look at this space and think, ‘I don't matter or I'm wrong or I'm going to hell. I feel bad about myself because of what the church said.’ So they don't want to be in this space. And that to me is heartbreaking. “Part of my job is to go out and find those people and say, ‘I'm sorry that the church hurt you. I'm sorry that the church was wrong. God does love you, you are valuable and you are holy in your whole existence and all of your queerness.’” Originally from Tennessee, Anna navigated a relatively conservative Christianity landscape and didn’t come out until she was 26. She said she was fortunate to find the calling in queer theology and identify the denomination she was aligned with. However, she also related deeply with the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ members in the faith community, including her wife, Monique’s struggle to reconcile her gender orientation with her faith when they first met in Philadelphia. “God was releasing me from that harmful theology into something I was running to that was life-giving,” Anna said. “For [my wife], she just kind of rejected everything. And then it took her a long time, until she met me and found the Lutheran church, to realize maybe God is not who she was taught.” Zion Lutheran Church was adorned with rainbow heart stickers by Reconciliation in Christ, symbolizing its effort to transform into an all-inclusive church. This journey involves a queer theology teaching series that highlighted Bible stories that manifest God's unconditional love beyond binary. In Anna’s preaching — from the creation of earth to the Chronos time — nothing was ever binary. As a faith leader, Anna was instrumental in aiding the transformation to inclusiveness. However, another facet of inclusiveness is to reach the members who don’t welcome the change, albeit a minority in a progressive city. Even in Ann Arbor where residents are no stranger to rainbow flags flying over church buildings, attendees of Anna’s church still run the gamut of the political spectrum. While Anna was uncompromising in defending LGBTQ+ members, she told me she still needed Above: Faith leaders Sara Cogsil, Kristin McCarthy, Anna Taylor McCants and Julie Winklepeck (left to right). Below: Pastor Anna and her wife, Monique, serving salads from the FedUp Food Truck. to walk the tightrope occasionally to make her preaching palatable to those who might disagree with her views. “It's a balance of loving the people in our congregation who aren't necessarily ready to fully embrace every color of the pride flag all the time and at the same time, I have to also love people like me who need to hear that and need to hear it from the pulpit, you know, proclamations that they are holy and that God loves them,” Anna said. “I'm trying to care for everyone.” Outside her pastoral career, Anna is an active and extroverted community member who can be spotted in many public events. She is organizing a mobile showering facility and, further down the road, a brick and mortar cafe as a community “third place” where community members from all walks of life could come in and convene anytime of the day. “There are no third spaces other than libraries and parks, and even around here you pay money to go to some of the parks,” Anna said. “So we want to create a third space that is welcoming, because aside from a library, aside from a church building, which most of our buildings are not open 24/7, we want to create another space where people can have their needs met.” Pastor Anna and her wife Monique will both be attending Ypsi Pride on June 2 and Ann Arbor Pride in August. If you see them, say hello! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HEALTHCARE Take action to avoid losing Medicaid coverage! LINDSAY CALKA Publisher Starting in June, Michigan Medicaid beneficiaries will have to renew their coverage to comply with federal legislation. During the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, many changes were made to Medicaid’s eligibility to prevent Medicaid beneficiaries from losing healthcare coverage. Since 2020, there has been a 34.2% increase in Medicaid recipients. In Michigan, annual renewals will begin again in June 2023 and the first round of terminations of those ineligible will happen July 1. The renewal process will happen on a monthly basis; if you originally enrolled in Medicaid in October, no matter what year your coverage began, your renewal will still happen in October 2023. Passive renewals for the June cohort began in April of this year. Passive renewals are a mandated process in which the state of Michigan uses the information it already has on file — including income verifications from other programs such as SNAP — to attempt to renew Medicaid recipients without any action on their end. Recipients who were renewed will receive a letter in the mail stating such. Still, it is estimated that no more than 40% of current Medicaid recipients will be renewed during this phase. The State of Michigan has taken action to prepare for these changes in order to assist current Medicaid beneficiaries with the redetermination process, and information on the private insurance enrollment process, should they no longer qualify for Medicaid. One of these actions was an informational webinar held on Wednesday May 17; the Michigan Poverty Task Force facilitated a conversation between Kim Trent, key staffer to the Michigan Poverty Task Force, Zachary Dillinger with the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services and Nicole Hudson with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. There were three main takeaways from the presentation: 1. Update your information with the state. This can most easily be done through the MI Bridges portal; it is especially important for those who changed addresses or phone numbers during the pandemic. 2. Frequently check your mail and text messages. Notice of passive renewal or a renewal form will be sent through these avenues. 3. Complete the renewal form as soon as possible upon receipt. This can be done through mail, phone, in the MI Bridges portal or by dropping off the physical form at a DHHS office. If it is determined that you will lose Medicaid, or you presume you will lose coverage this year, taking action immediately will prevent a lapse of healthcare coverage. Marketplace coverage options can be found at HealthCare.gov. Dillinger emphasized researching if a plan covers your current service providers and calculating not just what your premium cost would be, but also co-pays for appointments and medication. If you find this process of enrolling for private coverage overwhelming, free local enrollment help can be accessed at LocalHelp.HealthCare. gov. If private options are not affordable for you, subsidies are available. Those ineligible for Medicaid might still be eligible for subsidies to reduce coverage payments to as low as $10/ month. Apply for a subsidy at michigan.gov/staycovered. Having health insurance is important, not just for when you are sick or hurt, but also to help you stay healthy and avoid big medical bills. It is important that you take action to get the coverage you need to protect yourself and your family. JUNE 2, 2023 JUNE 2, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS WORD SEARCH C O R N M I L L W A S T E P M F S I O V E N T W B K D M A A F I W L P D W P I D I A R P S T L T I F E R G U E L M K I E S K U H T U B E B T N C O L R B M V S K C A S E H A R D E N O I E C H E H L U R O A O O C L L A L T U B I N G E S I H O T L I F T B D N I R G H E C M S G E E I I D G T C C O G A P O T C K K E Y E D N E P L M U V A I S A G A F A L E W I S T U A K L L E F T X O O N I S E H F N U L A S A R C H U E R R F U S E M R G P N K D T Y R E Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. WORD BANK: Ace Amp Arch Axle Bolt Cam Caseharden Cog Computer Corn mill Cowl Dam Deuce Erg Fan Fit Flush Fuse Gear Gibs Hose Input Keyed Kibble Kiln Lewis Lift Lock Maser Nut Ohm Oil Pile Rack Ram Rope Sag Shop Silk mill Skid Slack Slag Sling Slue Smelt Stanchion Still Switch Tap Test Tew Tie Treadle Tube Tubing Tyre Unit Vane Vent Waste Wire 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Love in Doublethink LADI DÄ Groundcover contributor Politicians in positions to listen Twist in visions and stonewalling decisions Dean Spade, Marsha P., and Rivers Hold me down ten toes there in the mirror War paint on my face hide tears of terror Olay, Maybelline, and Mascara. Dominated and entangled in violence But they still feel I should suffer in silence Racist and anti-poor sentiment Operate institutional harassment Prisons, foster care, and public benefits Taking lives because they can’t pay rent. And yet that Ol’Sly fox still duping fools Sarcastic politics of hate and half-truths In the land of Lady Liberty Hegemonic Masculinity fears me Because I violate the norms of gender binary But this month they’ll celebrate me Love. I get this glow from that heart with a hollow hole I get this booty with a bump from the beat of a tortured soul There’s just one thing I want you to know They give my Love in Doublethink I can’t let go. About the author: I Am Ladi Dä (they/ them). My survival depends solely upon my Activism. My art is inspired by the daily experiences of the transgender, gender nonconforming, and intersex individuals trapped in the Prison Industrial Complex. It is meant to keep us inspired and remind us that everyone knows: "WE ARE THE STRONGEST INDIVIDUALS IN THE WORLD." Take it from someone who has spent over two decades incarcerated for a crime they did not commit. JUNE 2, 2023 Love by Love: "Superhuman" MARKONA LOVE Groundcover vendor No. 590 As I sat at Blake Transit Center, the #26 bus pulled up. I won't forget that bus #26, even though I don't ride it, because what stepped off that bus completely altered my perceptions of reality … my reality … everybody’s realities: A Caucasian man … maybe 20-30 years old, physically wasted, slight build, maybe 80 pounds, with alabaster skin, whose whole body looked as if it wanted to curl into a tight ball. His chest and lap were strapped into an electric wheelchair, head completely slumped over, chin to chest; right hand curled, awkward fist, left hand curled with left thumb loose to work the joystick controller for the chair. No other movement of his body or any apparent communication abilities. He was the most courageous person I have ever seen … every minute he's a real Superhuman. I saw my own reality and then thought, "I've had a situation of great isolation, but it was merely a sliver of the complete isolation our Superhuman is in himself.” So, in a nutshell, I'm just a big crybaby. How can anyone feel sorry for themself while special human beings like this man can't even complain? People surrounded the bus entrance waiting to board, then stood five feet back, not just to give my new Superhero space to exit, but they almost all purposely looked away, turning completely from him. "WOW!" my mind and soul gasped. All I could think is, "How could anyone possibly be more isolated from, not just human contact, but from the entire functionality of society?” I watched this Superhuman, who must assuredly be going home. Never had I seen anybody near his full level of apparent disability, without an assistant. As I continued watching him, expecting him to go home, he turned the block and headed up and into the Ann Arbor Library. This man had business to get done! Again, I pondered, "This incredible human being is in a world completely of his own making. The sheer power that his mind possesses to construct that world from a position of passivity could teach a lesson that might save humanity." And this is coming from a relatively minorly disabled person who gets it. Myself, I am isolated for different reasons, but worlds apart from his level of isolation. I'm not talking about sympathy, pity or some kind of condescension. This is about the tremendous courage, dexterity, awareness and wisdom to move on like that. This person navigates through maximum adversity, alone and isolated as A column on everyday acts of compassion if in an entirely different world. With intimate conversation, we might glean a better understanding from the residents of his world who might communicate wisdom attributed through the experiences of such a world of isolation. Navigating that complete isolation with absolute singularity is rare at best. No casual conversation here. Stop staring and start opening your hearts and minds. We have so much to learn from this incredibly gifted individual. It might possibly be the lesson that could save humanity; it’s possible that all our problems could be reasoned justly by finding humanity's best side. Personally, I go on getting worse, driving on through every kind of pain all at once. Nobody wants to know it all or go there, be there at that level. I am destined to die in this obscurity with all this hidden/ignored pain. Man, oh man, do I want to ramble on about this, but the truth is he's the one with the knowledge. So let's help him, and others going through that intense reality and awareness, share this knowledge … they could save us! So why don't we start by treating - them like our Superhumans because they are … Make all the concessions we can possibly make and give them the opportunity to teach us. I'll be looking here, there, and everywhere, to meet my/our Superhero. I want to know how the rest of us see him. Sincerely, All the love from MarKona Love (with Kona Love) Author’s Note: We all need to start sacrificing more, to start helping all these special human beings, so they can help us find a way to Peace, Love and Acceptance … FINALLY! The people that are looked down upon in society — the homeless, disabled, low income and our Elders — these are my special human beings, the ones who have felt, witnessed, and shared with others alike all about the disparagement in humanity. That's most likely where they get the empathy that drives them to donate when they have nothing, volunteer when weak, ill, and/or exhausted, be there for a fallen fellow human being and to show them how to become a "Special Human Being." Ken Parks, a mentor to me, made a point after strongly supporting my article “What the Street Took,” and took the position that the article should then be “What the Street gave Us (Special Human Beings) … Empathy and Compassion.” There you are Ken, my close friend, great writer for Groundcover, and a leader in activism for all in despair. Please learn of the many, many years of his dedication to the disenfranchised. He is our Superhuman, and Ann Arbor and Detroit should be raising him up high. JUNE 2, 2023 PRIDE Exist and let exist D.A. Groundcover contributor When I hear any language or terms that are negative and/or dehumanizing, I think to myself, there are things that we all have thought about and/or have even entertained in our own imaginations that we will never reveal. Some have even acted on them, if only once. It is not our job to judge anyone that is just being themselves. That includes anyone who chooses to identify as a person within the LGBTQ community in our world. I prefer to just simply say that although we are similar in many ways, we are all individuals. I do not agree that anyone or anything that a person or numerous people fear, disagree with, or simply just reject because they do not understand, should suffer or come under any form of attack or assault. The realm of the unknown consists of many reactions among people. It would be wise to respectfully and humbly ask about what you don’t understand. Listen to what they are saying as an individual. Not all biologically born females and males who identify as heterosexual are the same. What is good or said to be normal to one may feel offensive and excluding to another who identifies as LGBTQ. Hatred and violence should be replaced with love and guidance. I had a friend who identified as gay who used to get chased by some of the boys in my neighborhood. When they caught him, he would be carried to these big beige trash dumpsters and thrown in. I would run over and help him get out of the dumpster. They also called him offensive names while making insulting references as well. He would literally cry on my shoulders as I embraced him with a hug assuring him of my unconditional love for him. These attacks added to the hurt he was experiencing as his mother openly mistreated and rejected a close, loving relationship with him. I had just as much fun — maybe more — with this friend as any other when we spent time together. I was the one person that he could tell about the then secret relationship he was having. He'd be so happy to say things to me he could not say otherwise at that time in his life. His face just lit up as he'd be smiling and talking about his partner back then. We'd crack our sides laughing together about those embarrassing moments in relationships. I witnessed how he went through many struggles, suffering from emotional, mental and physical anguish. I know that many will come out after this article, and hopefully we will be at a place where LGBTQ persons will be able to express themselves without harm being actuated upon them. LGBTQ people require food, water, shelter to survive just like any other human being. People, let's stop putting our opinions before someone else's well-being. Being wicked and deceitful is not the answer either. I know of people who say that they are holy Christians, yet, openly curse LGBTQ individuals behind their backs. The Almighty God that I understand is a loving, forgiving, merciful God. He is the only one who can justly judge. So do me and a lot of others a favor and check out your own self before you point a finger. We all too will be judged by God Almighty. On that note, all I'm saying is if you are compelled by your faith and/or beliefs, it is better if you offer them what you believe and leave it up to that person to choose after that. We barely have what it takes to change the things about us that we want to change and work at. Not one thing hardly ever comes or manifests overnight or in a day. So let's begin to become people who will be examples of love and civility. I am very grateful for the relationship me and my friend had then. I have not seen my friend for many years now and miss him very much. The last time I saw him was on the bus in the city he and I lived in at that time. We had lost contact, then were reunited again that day. He had embraced his lifestyle and identified as femme by way of his garments and apparel. He also wore some facial cosmetics. He seemed to be at peace, not bothered by the past things. I felt relief for him. I will always love him unconditionally. Finally, remember we may reveal our dislike or distaste, or just our lack of understanding new and/or what is unfamiliar. Unless it causes any injury to yourself or others, all we can do is exist and let exist.  BACK from page 3 of sovereign land for community living. I can’t help but think that this would greatly reduce homelessness on the streets along with the crime, hunger, health issues, lack of safety, and law enforcement work that often come with that homelessness. It might lighten the burden that these problems lay on society. I imagine a land-sovereign world where we would be taking care of each other and our communities, as a community. There's lots of talk about this, there have been some small communes or even other larger experiments, but we've never been more in need of these sincere efforts. Nobody has yet to put this vision into practice on a large scale. We don't need one, no, we need many — a completely new sector in our society, a multi-economic-class coalition. The true necessity is in the design of the structure. We need a complete Multi-Economic Eco-Village. The “Michigan EcoVillage,” under development in Southeast Michigan, is a model of that vision. Their EcoVillage project has home models varying from $180,000 to $900,000+ and 50 affordable housing units. The village will be using only solar electricity and one-third of the property will be dedicated to food production. The development will be a certified “Living Building Challenge,” an international sustainable building standard that requires buildings to produce more energy than they are using. Since housing in our nation causes approximately 20% of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, the ecovillage’s developers and supporters hope that this project can serve as a blueprint for similar netzero communities around the country. It's time; the government has to see 10% OFF LUNCH JOIN US FOR excludes alcohol. Expires 7/1/23 122 W. Liberty, Ann Arbor • oldtownaa.com • (734) 662-9291 Dine in only, offer good Mon - Sat 11:30 am - 4:00 pm, the obvious solution. Appropriate workable land, old/seized farms, maybe land where the presence of residents would be beneficial to the local economy … I can go on and on about the opportunities. I could also go on and on about the specifics of how our government/political system is forcing us into a two class society. There is no saving the middle class from that system, so we create our own more sure and acceptable standard of living. We need to get back to a communal way of living, where we start to live and respect each other, as when villages functioned similar to a family. It could get us back to caring for and working with our neighbors — all our neighbors. I am also starting a non-profit called “Kona's Edge,” which will help repair personal vehicles owned by homeless people who utilize said vehicle as their primary source of income, and provide storage units, gas vouchers, registration, insurance and driver's license renewal for homeless people in transition. Another program I'd like to start with my friend and fellow Groundcover writer Ken Parks is “CoCar” Cooperative Car Sharing, in which small groups would share costs for using vehicles to make money with delivery jobs, etc. I'm so tired of alarmists sounding the bells. Socialism, Communism, Anarchy… it all sounds like bullshit to me. All are used as excuses to avoid the obvious benefits that communal housing provides to all of society. There is no true pure form of government; Social Security, Food Stamps, and Medicare are all socialist concepts, and all have had great benefits to society. But people of higher income don't understand what things would look like for them if those programs didn't exist. They need to see how changing the current society will benefit society as a whole. Communities have to come together because of the government’s ignorance. Their objectives are contrary to our solution. This is your call to action. We are way overdue for any real progress. Bring it together, people, and let’s start raising our voices and demanding that our government appropriate suitable property. This article only scratches the surface of what is and can be community living. If you would like more details about the local community housing project, you can visit “Michigan EcoVillage” online to get a full description of their version. To find more information on community living in general, look up CoHousing or Community Housing on the internet. We need support to persuade our government to appropriate land to support the building of these supportive communities. So, some of you already know the drill…Call your Congressman, Congresswoman, and state legislators. But beyond that, most of all this needs the local community support, and that means educating your local officials. Now (or really yesterday!) is the time for action — to start walking, to stop talking … we’ve talked, now let’s do! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Banana power muffins MIRA SIMONTON-CHAO Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2-3 very ripe bananas ⅓ cup melted butter ½ tsp baking soda A pinch of salt ½ cup white sugar 1 large egg, beaten 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour 1 tbsp chia seeds 1 tbsp ground flax seed ¼ cup chocolate chips ¼ cup peanut butter (optional) 1 tbsp maple syrup (optional) 1 tsp cinnamon Directions: 1. Preheat the often to 350°F and butter a muffin pan 2. Mash the bananas with a fork and add your ⅓ cup of butter. Mix until completely smooth. 3. Mix in the ½ tsp baking soda and pinch of salt then stir in the ½ cup white sugar, beaten egg, and vanilla extract followed by the 1 ½ cups flour. 4. Follow this by adding in your one power to the tbsp chia seeds, one tbsp ground flax seeds, ¼ cups chocolate chips, ¼ cup peanut butter, and, if you’re so inclined, one tbsp maple syrup and 1 tsp of cinnamon. 5. Bake the muffins! Spoon out your batter into the muffin tin then bake for 20-25 mins (make sure to start checking on the muffins at about the 15 mins mark!) You can test to see if your muffins are done by inserting a toothpick or wooden skewer in the center of a muffin. The muffins are done when the toothpick comes out dry! 6. Remove from oven and cool. Pop the muffins out and enjoy! peop Utilities owned by the public, rather than by corporate shareholders, have been providing reliable electricity to customers across America for decades. Michigan’s 40+ municipal utilities charge their customers less on average for service with fewer outages than what DTE provides. Let’s make the switch to public power! Sign up for our newsletter. JUNE 2, 2023 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS C O R N M I L L W A S T E P M F S I O V E N T W B K D M A A F I W L P D W P I D I A R P S T L T I F E R G U E L M K I E S K U H T U B E B T N C O L R B M V S K C A S E H A R D E N O I E C H E H L U R O A O O C L L A L T U B I N G E S I H O T L I F T B D N I R G H E C M S G E E I I D G T C C O G A P O T C K K E Y E D N E P L M U V A I S A G A F A L E W I S T U A K L L E F T X O O N I S E H F N U L A S A R C H U E R R F U S E M R G P N K D T Y R E

2 $ MAY 19, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 11 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Meet my Pet Pal: Jeremy and Baby Girl. Page 6 MEET YOUR VENDOR: MARKONA LOVE PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Fired organizer reinstated May 15 — What's next for Huron Valley Coalition of Starbucks Workers United? page 7. Hannah Whitbeck outside of Main and Liberty Starbucks the day she was illegally fired in April 2022. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER from the DIRECTOR's DESK housed and unhoused. Because of this and more, we typically have an uptick in new vendors during May and June. This year has been no exception. During the "Sales 101" portion of the LINDSAY CALKA Managing Director The defrosting of Washtenaw County signals change in the rest of the community. Obvious examples include the departure of college students, the weekend street closures and explosion of spring flowers and green leaves. The seasonal shift can be observed in the homeless community, too. Some folks leave the area once the winter shelters close. Many have no option but to camp for shelter. The warm spring weather signals an increase in street life — for both the New Vendor Orientaiton, we watch a video from the International Network of Street Papers that is filled with sales tips for new vendors. One of the most important lessons in it is "[selling street papers] is not a get-rich-quick thing." Successfully selling Groundcover News involves investing time into relationships that is a disadvantage to new vendors, no matter how excited they are to build up a clientele. Going out to sell for the first, second, third and fourth times isn't the easiest task — especially in a new spot. Look out for the new vendors pictured to the right when you're out and about in Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti. If you see them, stop, say hello and buy a paper if you can. It makes a difference every time, but especially when they're getting started! Frantz Fransois, Vendor #599 Dan Wilcox, Vendor #592 Shawn Sweeney, (returning) Vendor #193 Roberto Caballero, (returning) Vendor #347 MAY 19, 2023 Sarah Feltman, Vendor #596 Michelle Oliphant, Vendor #598 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Layla McMurtrie — deputy editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Mohammed Ahmed Elizabeth Bauman Susan Beckett Beverly Boss L. Carlisle Ian Dewey Cindy Gere Mike Jones Markona Love Ken Parks Denise Shearer GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Logan Brown Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Harleen Kaur Robert Klingler Mira Simonton-Chao Alex Tarbet Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenburg Navya Yagalla Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons MAY 19, 2023 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Recovery happens! My name is Beverly B. I am 44 Markona Love, vendor No. 590 In one sentence, who are you? A beautiful light about to be a Super Nova. Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? I am a fixture at Argus Farm Stop (coffee shop) at 1200 Packard, Ann Arbor. When and why did you start selling Groundcover ? To promote GCN and my writing. Started Feb or Mar? What words do you live by? Einstein: (paraphrased) “You can’t change the problems of today with the same way of thinking that got us here.” What's the best way to start the day? Birds singing. What do you wish you knew more about? EVERYTHING. What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover News? Giving the disparaged and the disenfranchised a voice. What was your first job? 9 yrs old. Construction plumber’s assistant. What is your superpower? Empathy and resilience. If you had a warning label, what would it be? If you don’t want the Markona Show, don’t turn me on. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Produce and write lyrics for a band (music). What's the best thing about selling Groundcover News? Meeting people, having thought-provoking conversations and spreading the awareness through the paper. What would be the first thing you do if you won the lottery? Buy property, and start a multi economic Eco Village. 10% OFF LUNCH JOIN US FOR 122 W. Liberty, Ann Arbor • oldtownaa.com • (734) 662-9291 Dine in only, offer good Mon - Sat 11:30 am - 4:00 pm, excludes alcohol. Expires 7/1/23 years old. I’m homeless because of my drinking. I lost everything — my home, my dignity and my job. I am living at a shelter as a woman, and made it to the 4th floor after two years living on the street. I am grateful for the shelter; there are not a lot of programs for women and children. The shelter is understaffed and what staff is there seems tired. I think they need more protection. And better food — by the time it gets there it is three days old. Like I said, I am very grateful to have a roof over my head. I started working at Groundcover less than a year ago. It has the best programs. I BEVERLY BOSS Groundcover vendor No. 583 have a safe place to eat, get coffee and food; there’s lots of learning, movie nights with popcorn, and Lindsay and Glenn are the best. I don’t know what I would do if Groundcover and the shelter weren’t here. I am working on getting a home. I can make money and get support through Groundcover to pay court fines and fees and the cost of food. The shelter is working with Groundcover and working on getting my voucher for a house. There is no hotel that I make enough money for. My self-esteem went up because I am making money, not relying on a man to help. The community is awesome and my life is getting better everyday. I am in rehab working on myself everyday. The staff has been awesome. I can’t wait to go back to Groundcover. Recovery happens! Love, Beverly. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Home spa There are many different ways to treat and pamper yourself. Treating and pampering yourself does not have to cost you money. You can treat and pamper yourself at home and enjoy yourself at home. Home is the easiest and most relaxing place to treat and pamper yourself. A home spa can be in the living room or the kitchen. I like to use my living room because it is the biggest room in my house. My living room has comfortable chairs and I like to turn on a bright light. When you get tired at home you can just rest and put on some soft relaxing music or whatever music you like. I like to put on classical or folk music on low volume. You can read a book at home and relax. You can also warm water using a bowl for my hands and a pan for my feet. I don’t like to paint my nails because the polish can chip so I just clean and clip my nails. I like to use cocoa butter lotion on my body. I love the chocolate-y smell. Another way you can enjoy DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 listen to a book at home and relax. You can fix your hair the way you want. You can wash and condition your hair. I like to braid my hair after I brush it. I use regular scrunches to make up my hair. You can also give yourself a manicure and a pedicure. I like to soak my hands and feet in yourself at home is lounging around in your favorite pajamas or clothing. You can watch your favorite TV shows or listen to them. When I myself at home, I know I am doing something special treat and pamper for myself. This is my self-care. Everybody should love and care for themselves because you are able to love and care for others if you love and care for yourself.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS Forgiveness, the greatest gift to give MOHAMMED ALMUSTAPHA Groundcover contributor "Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal." — Earl Nightingale I dedicate this article to all of mankind, to all humanity and to all living creatures on this beautiful planet, and those on other planets and galaxies we have yet to discover, including all plants, trees, their beautiful flowers and sweet-tasting fruits. I start this article by addressing all those humans who might have transgressed, hurt or pained me — you are forgiven. I no longer wish for you to carry the burden and remorse of past transgressions within your souls or mental faculties. I wish for you to find happiness, solitude and serenity in forgiveness, and I hope that you reach self-forgiveness so that your consciousness is cleared and rested. I used to say that I forgive my transgressors and oppressors for the sake and happiness of GOD, hoping that in return when I reach the pearly gates, He might reward me by letting me enter His eternal paradise. But that is no longer the case. As I learn and develop as a human, I have come to realize that it is more important for me to forgive others for their sake, to allow them to enjoy the glorious sweetness of life with no remorse or guilt on their consciousness, as it can be a burden upon one's soul, heart, and being. As I develop and grow, I have noticed that I am leaning more and more towards treating people as how I would like to be treated. For all our uniqueness and individuality, we are still bonded by the same common feelings of happiness, hunger, pain, love and laughter. As I continue down the path of this awkward journey we call life, which never ceases to amaze me both in negative and positive ways, I realize that it is my purpose to be a cycle breaker of hate, revenge and negativity. I only wish that we could all live happily, and while that is an unattainable goal, I shall dedicate my life not to accomplishing it, but to working on accomplishing it, hoping in turn that my attitude and behavior shall positively affect and motivate others to do the same along the way. By forgiving each other, we allow ourselves to be unburdened by a multitude of negative feelings, which in turn will enable us to be happy and be able to enjoy life. I realize that life is too short to be spent in mental agony and emotional distress. By forgiving, we open the doors to mental and emotional creativity, which in turn will increase the collective happiness of humanity. For a human like me who has endured so much pain and suffering, it is only through the power of forgiveness that I am able to proceed forward in life in happiness and joy. While I do have my days and moments of regression, I still hold steadfast to the fact that I am happy in forgiving but not forgetting the lessons. It is wise to practice forgiveness not with naivety but with a degree of understanding. The world is full of evil and treachery since mankind arose. If we continue to be vengeful and revengeful, we only perpetuate the cycle of hate and tyranny. Therefore, my friend, I take the initiative to forgive, to free my fellow humans from the agonizing chains and mental prison of remorse. By forgiving, we plant, cultivate and nurture the seeds of happiness, joy, freedom and peace. We humans are complex creatures, possessing and capable of executing an awesome potential for goodness and love. The greatest gift we can give is the gift of forgiveness, and in return, we receive the gift of that beautiful, honest, deep heartfelt smile of our transgressors as the burden of remorse and guilt is lifted from their souls. It is therefore, my dear reader, that I humbly implore you to open your heart to forgiveness and enjoy its sweet taste. Let us all strive for love, kindness, joy, happiness, friendship and peace. To all those who have harmed and wronged me, I forgive you and wish you happiness. I swear by the beauty of the sky that I harbor no hard feelings. I promise you that when I see you, I will smile in your face, and if you let me, I will hug you, too. And if you are ever short of money for food or medicine, please call me. I only yearn for the sweet smile upon your faces when you realize that you are no longer bound by the guilt or remorse of your transgressions upon me. And to all those beautiful souls whom I have wronged, I ask that you set me free from the burden of guilt and remorse so that I may continue to grow and develop. I love you all. Get awesome and stay awesome. God is good; oh boy, God is good. Remember to forgive not for the sake of God, for He is not in need of us, but for the sake of your fellow man and his relief from pain. Thank you for reading my humble words. MAY 19, 2023 Eras of the Robert J. Delonis Center L. CARLISLE Groundcover vendor No. 56 You must understand that this has been submitted as a true testament. It is in no way trying to bring harm or facilitate ill will. These words' only purpose is to take a sincere look at how we see and perceive. I have experienced and continue to experience both physical abuses and systemic abuses, because this system does not, has not and probably most likely never will acknowledge this, these and those that have failed me. Most people who don’t know me believe what is said about me and forced on me. You have no idea what it has taken to remain as I am. I could have chosen a life of crime, as some people who work in the community mental health profession make it seem on paper, but I have done positive work that those agencies are supposed to promote. I sit back at times and it amazes me how people who are not bankrupt are bankrupt of their ethics because they do not practice fully understanding people as whole. Without a firm foundation, not one thing can or will stand, not long anyways. Any individual that allows themselves in their minds to broach any position or stance must also realize the work, ethic and duty that it entails. You cannot, in other words, want to be in the position or pay grade of a CEO, but not want the responsibility; leadership is a very arduous position. Enough of my views. I am honored to hear directly from this powerful, sturdy, rigid staff and volunteers on what the Delonis Center is to and for them. I myself never want to fathom the doors of the Delonis Center closing. The Delonis Center changed my life in the greatest way. It saved my life from places where I was violated alone in my hometown. I care for everyone that is in the vicinity of the Delonis Center shelter. It provides a place for people to come out of the cold or rest or whatever may be at hand. It saved my life. I first came to the Delonis Center a decade or so ago when Barry Manlowitz was there. I got two jobs within two or three weeks, saved my money and I lived around four months at the Delonis Center. I obtained suitable affordable housing and maintained it for over five years until the place almost shut down. It was condemned about two to three years after I moved. The Delonis Center is not the end of the road. It is a place to begin again or make a fresh start. I don’t understand how institutions such as shelters and hospitals put signs up encouraging people to report abuse, but do nothing when it’s reported, especially when the abuse is done by police or staff. They then turn around and label the person reporting the abuse in an untrue way. All can benefit from completing the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) peer counseling. I have completed the primary meetings. I have found throughout my many years, people tend to deny, debase or label someone who may be as equally groomed and accomplished as them, if not more. I, in my journey, once worked directly with the public as part of the U.S. Census Bureau, and approached doors in order to acknowledge and educate my neighbors. I have also experienced torture from individuals in positions of power. After I‘d already blatantly described the tortures I’ve endured at the hands of some wicked police and perverse ambulance people who get a thrill out of tying you down as you scream to be freed, against my will they shoot me up with whatever to render me unconscious, while they take my clothes off without my permission. Then put me out under strong sedatives without a safe way to get home. Performing illegal search and seizure of my body and my personal possessions — this surely affirms systemic rape. Wrong! We should base our services more on what the strengths of the client are, instead of what a basic provisional practice is. Mary was the last facilitator for the storage on the third floor of the see VOICES next page  MAY 19, 2023 AROUND TOWN “It's got to be a community effort:” First Baptist looks for health and safety solutions with homeless guests LINDSAY CALKA Publisher On the morning of Tuesday, May 16, twelve people convened over breakfast and coffee to talk about some issues at First Baptist Church. Around the table were individuals experiencing homelessness, members of the First Baptist congregation, staff and community members who attended as housing advocates. First Baptist is not only a fixture of the Daytime Warming Center and men’s rotating shelter, but is widely known in the homeless community as a safe place to crash overnight. First Baptist and its neighbor, First United Methodist Church, are the only private, downtown properties where there is widespread permission for outside sleeping (on the lawns and porches of the church building). Additionally, these two are the only faith communities in Ann Arbor that offer this service to the homeless community. The issue at hand was behavior and debris that threatened the health and safety of visitors to the church — guests, church members, staff, students and more. The problems First Baptist is attempting to tackle are all-too-often solved with criminalization of homelessness, increased police presence or the simple and quick removal of important community resources. The goal of the meeting was stated by clearly the church administrator, Xan Morgan: “To keep this space working for everyone. We want to keep these [wifi, bathrooms, sleeping space] options open for everyone.” So what agreements came out of the community conversation? • First Baptist can be used as a bathroom anytime for a quick in-and-out • 10 a.m.-12 p.m. people are welcome to come inside the fellowship hall to seek weather amnesty, charge phones and use the wifi • 8 p.m.-8 a.m. should be respected as quiet time • Be mindful not to leave anything that is a safety or health risk or to block doorway while asleep • Tents and other outdoor sleeping gear are okay for sleeping use but must be packed and gone when individuals leave for the day • First Baptist is committed to solving problems without police intervention After these guidelines were established, a longer conversation on how to actually enforce them began. An anonymous attendee experiencing homelessness who frequents the church expressed concern that the people who were causing most of the issues, and needed to understand the consequences of their actions, weren’t even present to hear these new guidelines. He stated, “Nobody wants to listen. It’s either listen or leave, and I always end up having to leave.” Morgan responded, “We know signs don’t work, peer accountability works better, but still, we all need to partner to do this. It’s got to be a community effort.” Zachary Milton, another attendee experiencing homelessness, suggested the simple framing of “use it, don’t abuse it” when talking about these new guidelines with absentees. “Staying under the radar is in everyone’s best interest. It keeps away attention from the cops and residents of apartments across the street.” The breakfast ended with the commitment to meet again in one month to discuss improvement of the property’s health and safety and progress on community accountability tactics. Reach out to office@ fbca2.org to find the date and time of the next community conversation. Other options for weather amnesty, wifi, bathrooms and undisturbed sleeping space that can be accessed in other locations throughout the week: Circling Back Peer Support Group: Mondays at Solidarity Hall (169 N Washington St.) 11:30 a.m.2 p.m., Wednesdays at Zion Lutheran Church (1501 W. Liberty St.) 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Journey of Faith Church: (1900 Manchester Rd): Tuesdays and Thursdays 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.. Hospitality House: (169 N. Washington St., Ypsilanti): Thursdays 4-7 p.m., Sundays 12-3 p.m. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5  VOICES from last page Delonis Center when I was last there. I cannot identify the exact day or time. I know that she lied and called the Ann Arbor cops to come into the second floor cigarette smoking room after she did not address the tall 6’4’’ woman who got in my bed while I was asleep. I didn’t talk to her while I was naked from the waist down in the nighttime women’s warming center area. After that, the police that she called never served a trespass notice to me at the time, they just laid on me and tackled me for no reason and put me in handcuffs. They took my coat and all my property, illegally and against my will. They forced me to let them stick me with needles, to take my blood against my will. I did not call the crisis team and there was no cause for any action to subdue my person or any of my possessions. I have been the subject, object and victim of individuals acting against me under the “color of law” or “paper pushing” that go on unreported and ignored, as well as thwart any vigilance to investigate any of my truthful claims. Instead I am pounced upon with allegations without any weight. Absolute dominion, total dominance by overzealous entities, while others turn a blind eye to my suffering. I have been stripped of my humanity by the HVA ambulance employees as well as the University of Michigan Health Systems and affiliates of Washtenaw County Community Mental Health. I am beset upon by those who were never there to keep me and other vulnerable clients safe. This is a travesty. Now, in 2023, I see chaos at the Delonis Center, fraternization of staff and clients. I do not choose to go any further. I still hang on to a vision in mind of the Delonis Center how I know it can be restored.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MEET MY PET PAL overcast and drizzly, I can tell she's depressed. When it's sunny, she jumps around doing figure eights. It's like night and day. How did you get your pet? I have to plead the fifth on this one; long story short, I rescued her. Tell us a few things about Baby Girl. She is a blue-nosed pitbull and weighs as much as two coyotes. Speaking of, she is a hunter! She kills raccoons, coyotes and squirrels. But I’ve never seen her fight anything. She really is a service animal at heart. She likes other animals but just gets excited when she sees them. Baby Girl is young — only 33 months. But I’m only going by the look of her teeth. I’ve had so many dogs — ever since I was a kid. There’s only been a few months of my whole life that I haven’t had a pet. There is something special about Baby Girl — I would cry my eyes out if I ever lost her. We’ve been through a lot of stuff together. We survived the winter sleeping outside; we kept each other warm. Mutual body heat! A dog in cold conditions can intentionally increase its body heat, by literally three or four degrees. One time I had to kick her off because we were creating a whole weather system inside the tent! What rewards do you get from having a pet? I have had anxiety and depression for as long as I can remember. Having a pet fights those symptoms. Even when I’m alone, I’m not alone because I have Baby Girl. And it's mutual. She spent the first year of her life locked in a kennel. I think she has something similar to anxiety too, and we help each other out. Her emotions are very related to what the weather is doing. If it's What is challenging about having a pet while experiencing homelessness/ poverty/ economic exploitation? Here’s a perfect example. I had to walk to Meijer to get some food (a couple miles one way). I have her trained to get in the cart. When I get to the store, I take off my coat, put it in the bottom of the cart, and put her in the cart. I was at the deli, and the deli clerk got in my grill and said the animals are not allowed in the cart. I told her I take Baby into every store in the cart. The clerk insisted that she could be in the store, but not in the cart. That didn’t make sense to me, I wanted a real reason. I told her I was going to buy my meat somewhere else, and apologized to the other customers for taking up their time. I’ve also had a few problems with Baby getting on the bus. They ask you, “Is this your pet?” And if you do not respond “She’s a service animal!” they won’t let you on. I feel I shouldn’t have to say it at all. But I get questioned all the time. MAY 19, 2023 meet my pet pal: JEREMY & BABY GIRL A column on why those experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity have pets and why it is important to support that. In general, people tend to project human emotions onto animals. People have told me I shouldn’t have Baby Girl. An animal has no idea that it’s homeless. She had a quarter pound of beef jerky, just yesterday! That’s why I play music for a living – I can take my dog to work with me. What is something our readers should know about Baby Girl if they see you both on the street? She’s friendly! You’re always welcome to come say “Hi.” She’s my emotional service animal, but she can brighten anyone's day. I’m the guy with the hat and the dog. Come see us play music at State and North University! Kona's right light Earth Day is everyday for me. It was disgraceful that Allen & Odile Haber canceled ‘Earth Day’ because of the weather — how ironically absurd, but not the true reason or excuse. For any more info on that you would need to ask them. When you’re living in the elements, changes are evident in the direct effects on your living condition. As a homeless person, making a natural connection to the Earth is essential for survival. Wherever I might be camping, I am to be responsible for maintaining good stewardship of the Earth and its contained life that I’m treading on. I share a great respect for the Earth MARKONA LOVE Groundcover vendor No. 590 and all she does for us. Still, I load up on excessively packaged products, paper towels at the supermarket and straws at restaurants. So, I admittedly am a hypocrite, but I am aware and reaching for perfection. I share this with many other Homeless. As I live in the elements, changes are evident in the direct effects on my living conditions. To me, we are acting like "arrogant cosmic tourists" on this planet. Would you just throw trash on the floor of somebody else's house you're visiting? If I’m stationary, I’m looking for trash to pick up. I can’t help myself. It's a habit I encourage. I don’t look to judge someone else, I look to myself to do the right thing — there’s the trash, there’s the trash can. It feels irresponsible of me to not pick Kona, Quaker parrot. see KONA page 10  MAY 19, 2023 UNIONS GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Fired organizer reinstated May 15 — What's next for Huron Valley Coalition of Starbucks Workers United? In the “Washington Post” article published March 29, “Sanders grills former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in Senate hearing,” it said, “Howard Schultz denies being involved in unlawful acts to discourage employees from unionizing at Senate committee meetings.” According to the article, Bernie Sanders kept the pressure throughout the hearing. It was an exchange of accusation and denial between Sanders and Schultz, respectively. Schultz, now former CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company — who stepped down because he was forced to testify or be subpoenaed — described Starbucks as a liberal, forward-thinking company. However, the National Labor Relations Board has issued 83 legal complaints against the company in response to 513 complaints of unfair labor practices. The article concluded with Sanders' ideas of the company’s negative impact on Starbucks’ employees to unionize. Schultz and those in top positions at Starbucks don’t want employees to unionize because they assume it will hurt their bottom line. Even though Schultz denies unlawful behavior and wrongdoing, the NLRB and many on the committee constantly accused Starbucks of illegal and intimidating practices. Two of Starbucks' union members testified during the hearing on March 29. One was fired because he led a union drive in Atlanta, Ga. His testimony described their work conditions for the past 18 months and the conditions that led to the union drive in the first place. Starbucks employees report similar unfair labor practices in the local district. Hannah Whitbeck and Victoria Provencio, employees of downtown Starbucks locations here in Ann Arbor, are both card-holding members of Starbucks Workers United, whose local nickname is “A2SBWU.” Whitbeck was fired in April 2022 for reasons she can only attribute to organizing her union drive. The firing was deemed illegal in a court case against Starbucks on October 8, 2022. Starbucks was ordered to reinstate Whitbeck with back-pay, but it took a second injunction on February 18, 2023 to move past Starbucks' appeal. Whitbeck returned to Main and Liberty Starbucks on May 15 after more than a year of escalating pressure, long court hearings and Starbucks' red tape. Although Provencio was never removed as an employee, she experienced a different kind of union-busting once the State and Liberty store certiMIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 “What’s next for A2SBWU?” “There have been lots of management changes, at both the store and corporate level. So far, the new CEO has worked in stores alongside baristas to see what's going on. It's a good first step. Right now, we’re re-forming organizing committees to combat the high turnover of the store," said Provencio. "I'm excited to be back at my store, fied their union in June 2022. “Starbucks withheld benefits — relaxation of the uniform rules and wage raises — from the stores that had unionized; they acted like when we certified we immediately had a contract that was set in stone,” Provencio explained. “Starbucks was court-ordered to give back-pay from that summer when they discriminated against unionized stores, but we still haven’t received that money. It might take years to process.” Among all 298 unionized stories across the country, Starbucks has only had 85 bargaining talks with Workers United since October 2022. The talks have stalled over strong disagreements and technology controversy. In Ann Arbor, individual stores have only been able to get the company to meet them at the bargaining table once. “There was one bargaining session in October of last year. From Starbucks' end, they were concerned about video recordings. They didn’t want anyone joining on a video call because they were afraid of being recorded,” said Provencio. “Starbucks lawyers walked out in less than a minute.” Nationwide, stores went on strike over this issue on “Red Cup Day,” Starbucks’ annual holiday launch of seasonal flavors such as Toasted White Chocolate Mocha, Chestnut Praline and Peppermint Mocha. This historically top-grossing day in late November 2022 never happened for Main and Liberty Starbucks because of the workers’ strike; State and Liberty workers held a walk-out in the afternoon that same day. During winter of this year, the workers struck again in an attempt to get Starbucks corporate to the bargaining table. They called this nationwide three-day strike “Double Down Day.” “Again, the manager acted like nothing happened. We got no response from the corporate. No retaliation, either though,” recalled Provencio. Now, approaching summer and the one year anniversary of union certification, I asked Provencio and Whitbeck, and to actually get to sit at the bargainning table this time. We aren't asking for much. We want our rights acknowledged. When we start to negogiate, we expect them to bargain in good faith," added Whitbeck. Just because A2SBWU has not been active online doesn’t mean they aren’t active on the shop floor. Provencio suggests following @SBWorkersUnited on Twitter as a great way to get immediate updates on strikes and calls to action around the country. To support the union efforts in between local strikes and actions, Provencio asks customers to let management know that they support the union and champion union demands every chance they can — in their mobile order names, customer experience reviews and store reviews online. Amanda, an employee at Main and Liberty Starbucks, pictured with organizer Matthew Kain during the Red Cup Day strike last November.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES Is immigration worth the trip? in Ann Arbor at U-M hospital. Many native families in the north live in very CINDY "KUNG FU PANDA" GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 As an adopted naturalized citizen of the United States, I feel that immigration is well worth the trip no matter how you get to America. As a member of the Kaska Dena nation, my life for nine months back amongst my own people was both an adventure and a glimpse into the past of both modern and old ways. We had to chop our own wood, drink from wells and use an open air outhouse. All of our meat came from moose, Dall sheep, beaver, muskrat and grouse. Grouse are known as tree chickens because they rest in trees at night to get away from big predators. I was idealistic, headstrong and unrealistic to the real life of the bush. This new world was no walk in the park of Ann Arbor, Michigan. If anyone got hurt at any time, they had to be airlifted to the hospital in Whitehorse, Yukon territories; this is similar to the Life Flight here isolated communities that unfortunately can lead to depression and other tragedies such as suicide. We forget how lucky we really are in the United States. It's all fun and games to watch The Life most northerners will never have or live. America is a dream that millions will never have. I forget I am one of the millions of privileged people to have found myself here. The truth is immigration is not the answer. What is the answer is creating a sustainable modern life within each tribe in the north through new technologies such as geothermal heating and solar power projects. This would create jobs and bring a bit of the United States to each person around the world. I feel like immigration is an idealized reality. The real problem is the poverty across the world. If we can innovate what we already have created to these isolated areas such as tribes in the north (Alaska, Canada) and tribes in South American countries, we can bring a more sustainable, much more balanced world for all people to be happy within their perspective tribes, cities, towns and nations. MAY 19, 2023 MAY 19, 2023 TRUTH OR LIES The town of Junken FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 It's 8 a.m., school is out, and May is bored and upset. There's nothing in this town to do! May was fed up with the town of Junken. Being a 13-yearold with no summer plans was hard to face. May looked around her small town and declared that things had to change. She was tired of all the trash and dirt. May could not remember ever seeing green grass or flowers in her town; trees did not grow either. Early the next morning she visited the library to research Junken's history, only to be disappointed by not finding any information concerning the lack of greenery. She decided to ask the elderly people of her town, visiting the only convalescent home, where her grandmother resided. “Hi Granny! I am glad to see you,” said May. Granny Alpton replied saying, “What can I help you with today, my flower?” May smiled and asked her, “How come there are no flowers, grass or trees that grow?” Granny Alpton smiled and said, “My dear, people don’t realize how important it is to keep the town clean. Mother Nature is upset with the people of Junken; they destroyed the natural process of nature. They polluted and littered the town with trash and abandoned autos. Oil spills in the water and plastic trash also. Don't you see the trash in the lake? It's killing all the fish and wildlife who depend on that water! If only they would change their ways before the last tree dies. If the last tree dies the town will forever be barren.” May jumped up and thanked her granny, kissing her goodbye. She had to come up with a plan to save the last tree and grow the grass and plants back. May went home, excited, and explained to her mother and father about the last tree dying. She got her construction paper to design a flier inviting the whole town to clean and organize the town. May then designed a greenery plan for how to turn the soil and plant flowers and grass. She then organized a town meeting and refused to accept no from any adult. The event was to take place April 1-7, meeting at the water fountain in downtown Junken. She explained to the town’s folk how they killed the greenery and flowers. “Now it’s only one tree left,” she said. May pleaded with everyone to help remove the abandoned autos and trash from every street and house. Some people griped; however, everyone who could, participated. They were willing and wanted to see the town become Junken once again and not Junk-ville. Once the trash was removed she instructed everyone to plant grass and flower seeds, hoping they would grow. Two weeks passed. No flowers or grass grew and the tree was still dying. May cried with disappointment. How could this be? she wondered. She returned to her granny and told her what she had done, and how nothing grew. Her granny laughed and said, “You rushed out of here the last time you visited with me, not letting me explain to you what needs to be done.” May was curious and impatient wanting to know the solution, asking, “What is it, Granny?” Granny Alpton said to her, “You must apologize to Mother Nature and keep the town clean!” “How do you do that? Apologize how?” “I need you to go into your parents’ barn and find a green box. It's in the last cabinet. Once you find it, open the box. It has an old bird's nest in it, containing seeds that need to be planted at the edge of the forest. Once you plant the seeds you must say out loud, ‘Please forgive us for we did not understand the importance of your plan. Will you continue with your plan? We shall keep our covenant with you and keep the town clean. Please restore your beauty in our town.’” May thanked her grandmother and ran to find the box in the barn. Once she located the box she rushed to the edge of the forest to plant the seeds. May recited what Granny told her to say. May cried herself to sleep, hoping the flowers, grass and trees would be restored. It rained so much in April that May wondered how anything could grow. On Sunday, the 1st of May, she awoke to the sun shining and birds chirping. She looked out the window and saw flowers, green grass and green trees. May screamed, thanking Mother Nature. Sirenia the Artist, published May 5, was FALSE. GROUNDCOVER NEWS May horoscope to maintain a mindful and grounded approach. If you do too much or too little, then the opportunity will shrivel up and die. Gemini (May 21-June 20): IAN DEWEY Groundcover contributor Something seems to be pestering you, and although it has never been the most opportune moment to deal with it, nevertheless it has been draining. Now is the time to find a solution to this problem that plagues you. Cancer (June 21-July 22): FlucThe height of a fever pitch rings as a daydream does — first, the foray into some unknown enterprise, then the delirium catches on into a bittersweet image of lands one will never traverse (except as imagination); finally, the catapult back into reality. It was a dream — or was it? You are stuck in the desert of the real, just as all of us are. Read on to understand how to best navigate this domain. Capricorn (December 21 - January 20): The time for understanding has reached an impasse: that is, you are either headed towards a period of rest and relaxation, or a period of hardship and toil. You must choose wisely here, and assess your situation for whether it is best to take a break or not. Aquarius (January 20-February 18): Longevity eludes you in any capacity in regards to taking on projects. This can be a blessing in some ways, but a curse in others. Old skills and relationships will come to bloom in this period, whereas new ones will be hindered due to a lack of focus. Pisces (February 19-March 20): Just as a flower comes to fruition in the spring, so too will your love for life come to a peak. Beauty, and comprehension through beauty, is your primary attribute at this moment. Spending this time in creative pursuits is likely your best bet. Aries (March 21-April 19): When the steam of anger finally passes, pause and take a breath. You have likely mis-evaluated the situation, and have not considered all sides of the story. If there isn’t time to reconsider the situation, step away. This practice will yield great returns in the future. Taurus (April 20-May 20): You have likely come into some piece of good news, a new opportunity or have made a fruitful relationship in some capacity. Take advantage of this, but remember tuations in mood and temperament have made each rise feel like a gamble. Some days are exceptional, others awful, and some still mediocre. Instead of trying to force each day to be good, instead use each day as a lesson to understand your peculiar disposition. Leo (July 23-August 22): Strength is your primary attribute at this time. Whether it be physical prowess or mental resolve, you have the endurance and constitution now to take on demanding tasks. If you seize on this, it will yield good returns. Virgo: (August 23-September 22) Someone is trying to tell you something that you’ve ignored for far too long. Either it is due to some personal failing (which can certainly be remedied through introspection), or due to a lack of attention directed towards them. In any case, now is the time to stop talking and start listening. Libra (September 23-October 22): A new era seems to be dawning, but many haven’t wisened up to this fact. Luckily, you can take advantage of this circumstance. Right now, you are very in touch with the natural and physical world. Be sure to use this to your advantage. Scorpio (October 23-November 21): Your physical health needs paying attention to. This is the case with everyone through all times, but it is especially the case for you now. Some sort of habit or routine in your daily life is hindering your capacity to flourish and grow. Fix this, and this time period will be much better. Sagittarius (November 22-December 21): Common wisdom that you have disregarded in the past would be of great help in the current moment. Speaking with relatives, old acquaintances and old friends can do much to revive this “common sense” that you have neglected for far too long. 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THINK ABOUT IT Origins of supremacism Supremacism is in our face often, usually in relation to white supremacism as a major feature of American history that runs into the current culture. Things change but may shapeshift to continue in disguise and survive changes in how we experience our experiment in democracy. Not many will advocate for open racism but those few who do create hate groups and make it difficult to recognize more subtle but perhaps more dangerous forms of supremacism. Those who achieve prosperity can easily become addicted to wealth as a marker of their superior ability to manipulate the material world. The ego formations that arise from success can easily evolve into a middle-class or petit-bourgeois social and cultural expression, as well as in racialized tendencies. Ernest Becker wrote “The Denial of Death” to explore how divisions arise in our social evolution as the fearless ones rise and prosper. They become leaders who make decisions about the production and distribution of vital resources, including the spoils of war. Victors in battle become respected leaders in the community. Fearlessness and confidence are important qualities in any activity. Small differences can grow into a of being sense special. Special KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 interest groups arise to exploit the resources of the earth and organize human labor to create wealth. Wealth and power are very addictive. Once experienced, it is hard to go back to what is viewed as lesser status. As Henry Kissinger commented, “Power is the greatest aphrodisiac!” All ego formations build on the assumption of a separate self. The need to prove this separate, even eternal reality, becomes a full time job. It is an assumption that cannot be proven but is an article of faith among the ego-driven. Impermanence and interrelatedness constantly disrupt the illusion of a separate, eternal entity but the true believer becomes the egomaniac bent on proving the impossible. This can become a collective egomania as people grasp for anything that will give them an edge on survival and the right to thrive. The invention of the white race fed this dynamic. It came after Bacon’s rebellion in the 17th century as white indentured servants united with free Africans and slaves to acquire land, unfortunately by driving Native Americans out of Virginia. The unity of freedmen and slaves led to the Virginia slave code of 1705 and special legal rights with the invention of the white race. Divide and conquer is a common strategy to stop expressions of solidarity. My March 10, 2023 Groundcover article, “Does the system work?” pointed to “Salt of the Earth” as a movie that was the most excellent story of solidarity. The book portrayed the subversion of Hollywood to promote the Cold War after World War Two. Social engineering, using taxes in particular, is always at work to divide the commons to promote the middle class over the working class. “Sex, Race and Class” by Selma James is a good primer on how we are divided. We experience reality constantly and have insights which we hope are the clues to success. Our clues often help us achieve levels of success we had hoped for. Appearances arise and we are likely to be elated or disappointed as we sail through the “stormy seas of birth, old age, sickness and death,” an expression that comes from the Tibetan Buddhist dedication which concludes many meditation sessions. It encourages us to seek the Middle Path, which sails between the two extremes of nihilism and eternalism. Practicing a natural breath as our awareness arises promotes progress on this path. Finding a good spiritual friend who can point the way to genuine and complete awareness is a great event. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Seek out the best mentors. We are blessed in this age of ignorance to have access to awareness, as humankind begins to accept that colonized body, speech and mind is the context for the inevitable pain of alienation from nature. The cost of the environmental rift that Marx points out. Dualism — splitting reality into two parts, usually self and other — is the basic error of bourgeois culture. Our pain will grow as this error continues. The turn to peace and freedom continues in the long arc of history that Martin Luther King lived. We can choose the full and complete awakening that MLK, Thich Nhat Hanh and other spiritual heroes share with us. Discover your interrelatedness and move forward. The Earth welcomes you in this mission. MAY 19, 2023  KONA from page 6 the litter up, walk five feet to put it in the trash can or, if necessary, put it in my pocket to throw away later. If as many people picked up a piece of trash as threw a piece of trash, there would practically be no litter. This can be difficult when homeless — camping though — often having to load and store accumulated garbage, then transport it all for proper disposal. This is very difficult for someone of limited means, especially if homeless. When I was camping high in the mountains of Colorado, for example, I would be forced to go through extreme measures to load large amounts of garbage down to the town. I did consider the possibility of leaving garbage, because of the difficulty transporting it off the mountain. But if I left it there, I would never have been able to look Kona in the eye with any level of self respect. Kona (a Quaker Parrot) was my dearest companion and Progressive Service Animal for my disabilities (autism and physical disabilities). Kona had freedom of choice, making her own decisions naturally and free to fly inside or outside. From her free position she was able to support me and my disabilities in many ways, both physically and mentally. She was fiercely dedicated to preserving my well-being, and literally became part of my scientific/emotional way of processing. She flew freely and mostly had free will to make her own decisions naturally. From that position, she was able to support me in many ways, both physically and mentally. Anyway, this is a complicated process to be laid out in our (Markona and Kona’s) upcoming novel. Kona had a clear knowledge of most right/wrong situations. We both became very knowledgeable about health, how to attain it and keep healthy. Nature taught us a lot. Kona would chastise me if I started eating processed food. She had eaten some before and knew by experience how sick those foods can make you. By learning how Kona digested, processed nutrients and her physical responses (every 15 minutes), I became increasingly aware of other living beings' appropriate needs. She was also very aware of what belonged in nature and knew that just about anything human-made does not belong in nature. When garbage is left to nature, horrible injustices happen to the rightful residents of this Earth. I’ve heard responses that some garbage won’t hurt wildlife/nature — nothing unnatural belongs in nature, even plain paper without ink has been processed with chemicals. Fish and birds alike will eat plastic thinking it's food, filling their guts with indigestible plastic and dying horrible deaths from starvation. Those are only a couple of the countless ways perfect living beings are destroyed by humans' ignorance, selfishness and lack of compassion. If animals and plants survive the suffering, they will then pass those poisons or lack of nutrients to humans. Humans tend to believe we are - more special than the natural inhabitants of Earth. For starters; the elements needed for our existence came from Stardust from asteroids … we came much later in the forming of Earth's natural living kingdom. We need the Earth, the Earth does not need us. We have become nothing more than a parasite, an invasive species. It is our ‘stinking thinking’ that got us here and our arrogance that keeps us thinking that as long as we are comfortable, everything else will just take care of itself. No it isn't, it's going to take care of us. We're doing this to ourselves; Earth will come back just fine without us, and become a paradise again … that we do not deserve. Are we ever going to escape this slumber? Set your alarm to ‘Everyday - Earthday’ to WAKE UP! Take a deep breath and do something good for something living outside your comfort zone. I dedicate this article to Kona, who instilled in me the great value of every living entity, and gave her life to share this message with us … the value of all sentient beings. All the Grace to Our Mother Earth. Most Sincerely, Markona Love (with Kona Love) MAY 19, 2023 PUZZLES Tees Off by Tracy Bennett and Victor Fleming ACROSS 1 "Yes, ___" (polite affirmative) 5 Bit of baby talk 9 "___ looking at you, kid" ("Casablanca" line) 14 Alan who played Hawkeye Pierce 15 Unspoiled paradise 16 Mushroom 17 Skirt hemmed at the calf 18 Mushroom in ramen 19 Puts on the line, say 20 Peals and tolls, e.g.? 22 Cover with gold 23 Burdensome 24 ___ room (play space) 25 Propel, as a shell 26 Non-grenadine part of a Queen Mary cocktail? 31 Guitar gizmo 34 Sports replay effect, for short 36 "Under the ___" (song from "The Little Mermaid") 37 Stimulating smell 39 Chopper 40 Prone to complaining 42 Speed Wagon maker 43 Beauregard or Natchitoches, in Louisiana 46 Alleviate 47 Farmer's strategy for hay storage? 49 2022 US and French Open winner Swiatek 51 2023 Oscar winner Jamie ___ Curtis Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. 52 Marked, as with dirty fingers 56 High-quality coffee variety 58 One proposing a toast? 60 Some jeans 61 Be nomadic 62 Bring onto the payroll 63 Super silly 64 Worshipped celebrity 65 "Boola Boola" belters 66 Preppy pullovers 67 Ball brand 68 Lawyers' remuneration 14 17 20 23 25 31 32 33 37 42 47 48 51 56 57 60 63 66 58 59 61 64 67 62 65 68 © Tracy Bennett and Victor Fleming (published via Adobe Acrobat DC) DOWN 1 Cha-cha's kin 2 Iconic Sigourney Weaver film of 1979 3 Befuddle 4 Where sorters may sort 5 Eats up 6 "Ciao!" 7 Judge 8 "No ifs, ___ ... " 9 Living "fence" 10 Fortify 11 Stir up, as sediment 12 Scraped (out) 13 Sib who's not a bro 21 Breathtaking reptile 24 Sleep phase 26 Trap on all sides 27 Providers of cheese and wool 28 Atlas section 29 Monocle, e.g. 30 "Mommie Dearest" star Dunaway 31 Atkins diet no-no 32 Domain 33 Accumulate, as resources 35 Spencer who co-hosts "Good Morning America" 38 Pacifies 41 Kitchen commander 44 Brewpub specialty 45 Whom Bill Murray played in 2009's "Zombieland" 48 Pacific weather phenomenon 50 "To Die For" director Van Sant 52 Appreciate, as fine food 53 Artful deception 54 Like some synchronistic experiences 55 Word with cocktail or dinner 56 Casino game 57 Shaped like a watermelon 58 Beam 59 Comstock ___ (1850s mining find) 60 Backtalk LOGIC PUZZLES JAN GOMBART GROUNDCOVER CONTRIBUTOR 1.A newspaper writer in 1930 noted that a man’s age at death was one twenty-ninth of the year of his birth. How old was in in the year 1900? 2. Which natural numbers are sums of consecutive smaller natural numbers? For example, 30 = 9 + 10 + 11 and 31 = 15 + 16, but 8 has no such representation. 52 38 43 44 34 35 39 45 49 50 53 54 55 40 41 46 26 27 21 24 28 29 30 36 15 18 GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 1234 5678 9 16 19 22 10 11 12 13

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Rhubarb pie ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: Crust of choice 3 cups rhubarb stalks cut in ½ inch pieces (do not use leaves) 1 cup sugar ½ teaspoon grated orange peel 3 tablespoons flour Dash of salt 2 teaspoons butter Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Gently toss together everything except the butter. Prepare your favorite dough for a lattice pie. Fill with combined ingredients and dot with 2 teaspoons butter. Add lattice crust and flute the edges. Bake at 400 degrees for 45-50 minutes. MAY 19, 2023 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS M 1 14 A 17 20 M ID I B 23 O NE R O US 25 O 31 37 32 42 47 C A A R B 56 60 $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP 63 ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 6/15/2023 66 Puzzle solutions: 1. 44. He was born in 1856. 2. Any number that is not a power of 2. Any odd number can be written as n + n+1. And any multiple of an odd prime number works. For example, 3n = n-1 + n + n+2, and 5n = n-2 + n-1 + n + n+1 + n+2. L EV I S I P NA NE I 64 O L OS N 67 R OV E DO L ER F 33 P O R OM A 38 EO P 43 AL E 48 51 L EE 57 K O NA G 58 61 59 L A S SC U ER 62 65 68 F EES H E I RE L IS 44 A 34 S 35 39 L O W M O A R I SH 45 P L AN I 49 52 S 50 G A MU D G 53 54 55 E D XE W 40 41 H 46 E ASE AR B 26 27 E EL L B 21 2 A 3 4 A M 5 L DA E 15 18 V 6 7 8 9 D A D A DE N O OM S 24 R EC E RH A 28 36 S EA I NY 29 L 30 F 16 I ED D 19 22 E NO K I R I ES I LD 10 11 12 H E R E 13 S G

2 $ MAY 5, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 10 ASK YOUR YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. First things first: we need housing. Page 4 VENDOR: WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO FOR FUN? MANSEL WILLIAMS, #96 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Graduate Employees' Organization 3550 strikes through U-M graduation. page 11 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER in this ISSUE LAMA KARMA VISITS the DANCE for MOTHER EARTH POWWOW Markona Love, page 4 FIRST THINGS FIRST: WE NEED HOUSING Mike Jones, page 4 HOMELESSNESS = REBIRTH Mohammed Ahmed, page 5 GET to KNOW YPSILANTI DISTRICT LIBRARY page 5 WHY DTE FACES NO CONSEQUENCES for LENGTHY, WIDESPREAD POWER OUTAGES Susan Beckett, page 6 TRUTH or LIES: SERENIA the ARTIST Felicia Wilbert, page 8 A PLEA to the BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: STOP the WILLOW PROJECT Lila Harris, page 10 MAY 5, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Mohammed Ahmed Mia Barr Teresa Basham Susan Beckett Ree Drummond Cindy Gere Lila Harris Mike Jones Markona Love Felicia Wilbert Joe Woods PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Elliot Cubit Layla McMurturie Jesse Owen Anabel Sicko Melanie Wenzel VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Logan Brown Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Zachary Dortzbach Robert Klingler Grace Sielinski Mira Simonton-Chao Alex Tarbet Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenburg Navya Yagalla Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons MAY 5, 2023 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What do you like to do for fun? Not talking. — Roberto Caballero, #347 I used to motorcycle and I used to do a lot of different things for fun, but now I’m having fun exploring places and taking pictures. — Johnny Bean, #599 Me and Joe sit on the front porch and feed the squirrels. Chipmunks too. It’s all wild animals with me. — Teresa Basham, #570 Music, doing my own t-shirt designs, I do a lot of stuff. — Derek Allen, #177 Have a meal — Hal Klenk, #88 I’m a boring person, believe it or not. Nothing, I sit at home and drink cold beverages and watch TV. — Joe Woods, #103 I don't know what fun is. Is there such a thing? The honorable Robert Nesta Marley said, "No chains around my feet but I'm not free. I know I am bounded in captivity. I've never known what happiness is. Where is the love to be found in this concrete jungle?" — Snap, #205 Here is why we need to talk about love. We need it in the world. Love is powerful; just a little act of love makes a big ripple in the world. Especially with all the hurting going on in the world it's our duty as the human race to beat extinction by spreading love. Smiling at people is important because it brightens people's day whether you want to believe it or not. Seriously, smile! It's okay — it's a sign of strength not weakness. Smiling at someone shows the love within you. I'm talking from experience on both ends — receiving and giving. JOE WOODS Groundcover vendor No. 103 GROUNDCOVER NEWS Why we need to talk about love people don't want to realize is it's not all about material, money or anything we think is tangible. Just having Love in your heart shows the light shining within you no matter your condition. Period. Love is direct and shown with actions. Giving your time and/or money to show love to people who may not know what love is, is an amazing thing. In the beginning it may not be As a Groundcover vendor, I actually see the act of love in people, even the ones that can't or just don't buy papers from me. What easy for most because of how society brainwashed us. There's no color or ethnicity with love. Love sees nothing but what love consists of — being a blessing to people in any way possible. 3 The egg CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 A man’s only want is the egg of a good woman A man’s pure sacrifice is the egg A woman’s pure sanity is her egg A man’s Sacrifice Is love A woman’s Sanctity Is her sacrifice The band Of his sacrifice And her sanctity Is the bond To the egg For a lifetime Of humanity What would YOU ask? If you have a question you would like Groundcover vendors to answer in this column, email us at contact@groundcovernews.com We will be featuring vendor responses in future issues. 122 W. Liberty, Ann Arbor • oldtownaa.com • (734) 662-9291 Dine in only, offer good Mon - Sat 11:30 am - 4:00 pm, excludes alcohol. Expires 7/1/23 A broken egg leads only to A broken life! 10% OFF LUNCH JOIN US FOR Real love TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 I'm done fighting, I'm done trying, I need that real love, Not na fake love, Too old for this shit, I know this izz it, I'm so done wit it, So tired of sighing, Tired of crying, All tha time, All through tha night, Just need ta keep it real, Wit tha way I feel.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES Lama Karma visits the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow The last weekend in March Lama Karma Drodhul visited from Ann Arbor's Karma Thegsum Cholin (KTC) Center's parent monastery, Karma Triyana Dharmachakra in Tibet. Lama Karma was here teaching a lesson on “Compassion.” The following interview was raw — unguided and printed with limited injecture to allow Lama Karma's own words speak for themselves, including broken English. This was an intimate interview at the end of our private breakfast. So Lama Karma, we went to the powwow yesterday. What were your experiences with that? “You know, it was really beautiful. I didn’t expect how wonderful it was. When I got there, I saw all these indigenous people. They looked like one of my brothers, with long hair and a big build. When we got to the stage, we saw this little kid with long braided hair, running up and down. To me, I saw him as a little Tibetan boy running in the village,” said Lama Karma. “Markona and Ken [Parks] introduced me to everyone at the desk who was very friendly.” The Elder in charge shook Lama Karma’s hand, thanking him for his support. “The Native American Woman announcer was very busy but she came and greeted me,” said Lama Karma. “We were honored to meet William Shakespeare (Groundcover News writer and vendor No. 258) and Lindsay (Groundcover Publisher) and her boyfriend, Tom, and it was a very nice and touching experience,” recalled MARKONA LOVE Groundcover vendor No. 590 Lama Karma. Lama Karma and William Shakespeare got along famously. “So I think sometimes with the newspaper, you know, a lot of people have access to news with technology, but it’s so nice to see on [physical] paper. Unfortunately, so many people don’t have the opportunity to access [print news]. People need something to hold onto. Some nations began to lose those newspapers, so it’s good that those stories can be heard.” “All kinds of people were there, and everyone was supportive, and in the end we don’t really care how anyone looks, it’s about humanity. And it was such an honor for me. Even though I didn’t get to go to some parts because we were obligated to do a practice of compassion at the meditation center.” “I am very fond of the indigenous people where we reside at the monastery in Woodstock. It’s a very important place for Native American people. The monastery is situated on a mountain, a particular mountain that’s a very sacred place to Native Lama Karma, Will Shakespeare, Lindsay Calka, Tom McCormick and Ken Parks at the Groundcover booth during the powwow March 26. Americans. The mountain was shaped like a man on his back with Native headdress. The Monastery was on the Chest of Man [Mountain]. Many years ago indigenous people riding on horseback visited the monastery, because it’s a very holy place. I have always had a really close connection with them. “In Michigan there are many tribes, and I would like them to join us at the monastery and dance with us, and I would be very honored, and we could do some prayer at the gathering. I would pray that they are able to maintain their tradition. Their language and all their traditions, and rights are very precious and I pray that for next year, next visit will coincide with powwow.” Lama Karma was escorted by myself (Markona) and Ken through the display and sales tables. He browsed for an authentic Native American flute to play in Tibet with meditations. I showed him a rainstick. He enjoyed shopping and talking with the Native American merchants and purchased a lockbox. The purchase was a surprise. Even when going shopping for necessary items, he might not buy anything. He is a man of modest needs. Every three years he gives ALL of his belongings away. I didn’t ask, but I believe he purchased that lockbox not just for his wife, but for the benefit of the older merchant selling the box, who then asked for only $20 instead of $30 at final purchase. MAY 5, 2023 First things first: we need housing Instead of continuing to build condos and high-rise apartments for the wealthy, our community should be building affordable housing for low-income and homeless people. Housing is a right, not a privilege. Then why is homelessness increasing at a high rate throughout the United States? I notice more homeless people in the neighborhood and less resources. On all American minds right now is the growing inflation. Think about the low-income, houseless people who really feel the pinch. Gas prices went up, food and housing prices are through the roof. Homelessness is nothing new in America. Decades of failed policies stopped the United States from renters cannot get affordable housing, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Finding housing is like playing musical chairs. U.S. homelessness has grown 3% in the last three years, increasing three years in a row, and 60% of the homeless are men. Don Bosco, in the 19th century, MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 building enough affordable housing, experts say. With over half a million homeless, the U.S. poverty rate is at 12.8%: Black people having the highest poverty rate at 19.5%, people of color suffering the most. Seven million extremely low-income came up with the idea of “Housing First.” What is the housing first philosophy? Housing first is a homeless assistance approach that prioritizes providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness. By having a stable place to live, people can pursue personal goals and turn their attention to improving their quality of life. This concept inspired Dorothy Day and is the basis of her Catholic Worker Movement, founded in 1933, and their houses of hospitality. When a person has permanent housing, food and clothing they have time to make themselves a complete person. Without these three things one cannot become a complete person because they are too busy trying to survive. MAY 5, 2023 HOMELESSNESS Homelessness = Rebirth MOHAMMED AHMED Groundcover contributor "Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal" — Earl Nightingale As I was standing there on the smoking deck of the Delonis Center, having a cigarette, thinking about the tornadic downhill spiral that is my life, silent as I continued to delve deeper into my sadness about all that I lost, a beautiful Soul approached me and calmly said to me, “STOP CRYING OVER YOUR PAST LIFE SO THAT YOU CAN ENJOY THE NEW ONE WHICH YOU GET TO WRITE.” We are biological machines functioning on bio-organic matter as fuel, being propelled forward by thoughts interpreted through electricity running through our nervous system. Somewhere in there, there is a mind and a soul and a consciousness and a personality. This amalgamation we call a human being is sitting on top of a round rock (THE EARTH) that is circling around a huge burning ball of nuclear fire (THE SUN). And yet somehow we forget all of this and get hung up on small things like missing a bus, or not achieving a goal or an objective. Houselessness is somehow making me into a better human, man, husband, father, lover, protector, provider. I am amazed at the human spirit, because in the midst of the houselessness and despair and hunger and have-not, I was still touched by individuals who had less than me offering me what they have. GOD it feels good to be human. The things I have gained from houselessness are immense, but the most profound has been ridding myself of judgmentalism — of basing my opinion on people solely on my physical perception of their physical attributes or their attire. This happened in the most awesome of ways, as I was sitting there sipping a coffee in Starbucks, looking out of the window at the snow, wishing I could go outside and make a snow angel. A young Caucasian gentleman walked into the cafe; from his appearance and attire I automatically judged him to be a drug addict. We exchanged glances and I meanmugged him hard; he left and went outside. As I continued gazing at the snow, I saw the same individual I had just judged to be a vagrant drug addict shoveling the snow off of the sidewalk out of the goodness of his heart so that those using the sidewalk wouldn’t slip or fall. He did not care that they had homes or better lives than him, and even though he was struggling and homeless, he still wanted to help and be of value to society and humanity. This simple act of kindness on his part made me shrug with shame at having judged a fellow human being, and that sense of shame made me not want to ever again judge another human being based on my own perceptions of reality. To be honest, I grew up in a dysfunctional home. As an immigrant American, raised in a different country, different culture and different ethics, it has been extremely difficult to manage assimilation and understand who I am. For what it's worth, I am just happy to be a human experiencing humanism. “A Mind is a terrible thing to waste” — I did not care for that phrase until I experienced houselessness. After having to deal with houselessness and seeing how my mind reacted to ensure my survival, man, I am amazed. Without houselessness I would never have quit drugs. Being on the streets and having been assaulted while intoxicated has led me to value my sobriety and my consequent situational awareness and situational alertness. Losing out on so many opportunities due to simply being too stoned on indica edibles made me angry. I kept getting angry with myself for letting financial and life improvement opportunities just pass me by. Now I am no longer seeking mind-altering substances, but I will vouch for the therapeutic and medicinal and mood-enhancing and reflective effects of microdosing psilocybin mushrooms. While I won’t be missing any hard drugs, I am no longer so attached or dependent on marijuana. It was a crutch that served me well, and then negated my potential. I am: • valuing my family — seeking to be a better man, a better father, working hard and diligently and honestly to provide a better set of circumstances that will ensure that my children have a much better and more organized life than mine and what I have endured. • valuing hard work and cooperation, valuing people for who they are, seeing the good potential and the ability to do good even in those who have hurt me or caused me misfortune —doing God's work on earth and making sure the devil fails: • being thankful, being appreciative, being forgiving, leaving the door of mercy and forgiveness open to those who recognize their faults and are seeking to apologize and reconnect; • realizing my current value, and addressing the need to add skills to add value to my life; • realizing that I have lost nothing, because the life that I have now is what was meant for me and it is awesome. We humans are all awesome, the more we seek to differentiate ourselves from each other, the more we come to realize that we have so much in common. It is not us who determines the sweet variety of humanity, it is mother earth that does. The geography of our physical locality, its trees, fruits, flowers, and fauna determines the cultures and traditions we have, the cuisine, the music. It is why nations such as India, China and most Asian and African countries have vibrant, colorful tangible traditions and culture — because of the songs of the birds and the bees and the smells and so forth. The temples, the art works, the engravings, the museums, the history are because mother nature there provided a variety. It is for the same reason that the Arab Bedouin in the desert has a more intangible culture, and is more inclined towards immaterial intangible emotions such as brotherhood, respect, honor, poetry and storytelling. It is because his habitat is based on the sea, sun and sands of the desert. We humans are good at adapting, that is why we are the "primus inter pares non” species on this planet. Houselessness has allowed me to forget who I am, and rediscover who I want to be: Respecting myself for all that I have accomplished in the face of all the circumstances that I have faced. While I know that there are tougher individuals out here in the world than me, who have faced and defeated greater demons, that still does not take away from my story and battle. Having been through tough times, I know now how to prepare for them, and how to take them on: • Loving myself for who I am, and appreciating my story and its uniqueness; • Loving my fellow humans, understanding that we are all the same, we feel hunger, pain, yearn for love and laughter and acceptance, see REBIRTH page 11  GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MAKING CHANGE Why DTE faces no consequences for lengthy, widespread power outages People from around the state met with Michigan Representatives and Senators in Lansing on April 27 to discuss campaign finance reform as part of the SHOW MI THE MONEY Lobby Day. There was near unanimous agreement from the 70 offices visited that dark — or secret — money is a problem that is out of control. (Secret money is generally money that is originally donated to an organization and then makes its way to a Super PAC which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on issue advertising, with the original donors being anonymous. Although these ads can’t explicitly say to vote for or against a candidate, they can influence the way voters perceive candidates or ballot proposals.) The amount of money spent in campaigns, especially the amount coming from PACS was also deemed problematic. One example of the outsized power of PAC money mentioned by legislators is that DTE could not be called to account for the lengthy and widespread power outages a couple of months ago because they control enough campaign money to torpedo the re-election of any legislator from a topple incumbents in closely divided districts. He added, "Unchecked power is unacceptable - across the board. They may agree with me today and disagree tomorrow." Other frequently mentioned legislaSUSAN BECKETT Publisher emeritus competitive district who voted for penalties. Representative Carrie Rheingans (representing part of Ann Arbor and western Washtenaw County and southern Jackson County) said that she did not take money from DTE and Consumers Energy. She said the caucus did receive money from power companies that was spent on some races whose campaigns had refused such funds. Jason Morgan, another Ann Arbor/ Washtenaw Representative, said it is hard for some members to stand up against powerful interests in favor of constituents' interests because of the special interest Super PAC threats to tor concerns were so-called issue ads that are really smear campaigns with no discernable or responsible person behind them. Senator Ruth Johnson, the former Secretary of State, offered this hypothetical example: “Tell Representative Joe Shmo to stop torturing puppies.” That advertisement could be credited to and funded by a Super PAC with a name like Michiganders for Decency, but the names of the people, companies and organizations donating to Michiganders for Decency are likely untraceable. The sole donor could be the parent of Joe Shmo’s opponent; if the donation was originally made to another non-profit and then funneled from there to Michiganders for Decency, it would be mingled with other funds and not readily identifiable. Representative Denise Mentzer (Macomb County) said she hates having to make phone calls asking for checks. She is among those who would like to see public financing of elections. She thinks that with limited money to spend, candidates would focus their promotions on themselves and there would be considerably fewer attack ads. Corruption was another legislator concern. Most have Political Action Committees (PACs) to help them cover expenses, since they no longer have government resources to do so. Most use the PAC funds to cover job-related expenses such as tickets to community fundraisers and transportation costs to and from Lansing and around the district. Party leaders and the chairs of powerful committees often have PACs with vast amounts of money that they use to help with election campaigns for themselves and select other members of their party. As recent scandals illustrate, they sometimes also use them for inappropriate purchases, such as luxury automobiles and family vacations. Legislators were also frustrated that even on the rare occasions when see POWER next page  MAY 5, 2023 THANK YOU WASHTENAW COUNTY For providing peer SuppoRT VALERIE BASS, PEER SUPPORT SPECIALIST, WASHTENAW COUNTY COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH 24/7 CALL FOR MENTAL HEALTH OR SUBSTANCE USE SUPPORT 734-544-3050 Brought to you by the 2019 - 2026 Washtenaw County Public Safety and Mental Health Preservation Millage washtenaw.org/millage MAY 5, 2023 MAKING CHANGE GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7  POWER from last page "Team Elephant" meeting with Michigan Representative Wendzel and Jacob Rushlow in Lansing on April 27 to discuss campaign finance reform as part of the SHOW MI THE MONEY Lobby Day. serious infractions do come to light, consequences are rarely more than a token fine. It is a system that breeds a culture of corruption. Many legislators fear that that culture of corruption and the coercion of moneyed interests, especially the Super PAC bundlers (who move money from a variety of sources into the Super PACs and collect a 10% fee for doing so), will stymie the progress of transparency laws this session as has happened in previous sessions. Representative Mark Tisdel (Rochester) mentioned that he ran in 2020 for an open seat, which made it a target. Both candidates’ campaigns spent $1 million. He was sworn in in January and had his first major fundraiser in March. "It's a distraction from governing," he said. He also noted that good fundraising and campaigning skills do not necessarily translate into good governance. He asserted that the legislature needs to enact campaign finance reform “but there's a way around everything. They put in a PAC cap and leadership sets up multiple PACs. Sunlight and transparency are good things. On the other hand, attacks on donors are also a problem.” Representative Pauline Wendzel (W. Michigan) wants to eliminate secret money but has security concerns for donors who give to socially-charged issues. She stated that all Super PACs, including unions, should have donation limits, and also called for simplifying the rules around campaign financing. These are issues likely to be raised when the House Ethics and Elections Committee holds hearings on campaign finance reform later this year. Dianne Schwartz, one of the citizen advocates and a former East Lansing City Council member observed, “The money in politics is like sand from a huge, massive cloud. You lock your doors but it still finds its way in … and you’ve got to regularly sweep in out.” She called on the Democrat majority to make this a priority. Some of the citizens who came out to speak about campaign finance reform were shocked to learn that the measures in Proposal One, passed by voters last year, applied only to lawmakers’ personal asset disclosures, not those of their PAC and other accounts. A broad coalition of groups organized the SHOW MI THE MONEY Lobby Day. Quentin Turner Common Cause of Michigan started off the lunchtime press conference by calling on the legislature to: • Pass a budget that includes sufficient funding to increase implementation of existing transparency regulations and voter protections; • Pass a resolution of support for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that overturns the Citizens United decision so that Congress and the states may set reasonable campaign contribution limits and distinguish corporations from people; and • Implement clear and concise disclosure rules for election-related financial contributions. Sandra Sorini Elser, representing the Michigan chapter of the League of Women Voters, echoed those calls and added that Michigan is 48th out of the 50 states in anti-corruption measures. Hank Mayers, president of Michiganders for Fair and Transparent Elections, remarked on the geometric growth of the money spent on elections and the disproportionate increase in secret money. He stated that the money transfers from non-profits and foundations amounts to money laundering, which is illegal in every context but politics. To halt the secret money, Mayers plan calls for explicit separation of funds for electioneering and disclosure of the five largest donors to the election accounts, regardless of what kind of organization it is. He also insisted we need “a guard dog with teeth” that has investigatory powers and more serious consequences for individuals who violate campaign finance regulations. Former House Democratic Leader Christine Greig related an example from her time in the legislature. of Lobbyists provided paid vacations in Hawaii for 20 lawmakers to “educate” them about a bill on the brink of introduction that had already failed multiple times in previous sessions. The direct sponsor of the trip was a nonprofit. The legislators could not be identified and did not have to disclose the gift. If someone had not tipped off the media about the trip, Greig questioned whether we would ever have known about it. Prop 1 of 2022 is a good start. But underlying state laws for defining who can give gifts are flawed. Even under the Prop 1 disclosure requirements, those travelers to Hawaii would still not need to disclose the travel expenses because they were furnished by the non-profit. Former Ann Arbor City Council member Elizabeth Nelson shared her experiences with campaign financing. She raised $10,000 to run in 2018. She was targeted by secret money but managed to win anyway. She experienced a big change in 2020 when the cost of running for local offices tripled and quadrupled, depending on the ward. Ann Arbor City Council elections in 2020 and 2022 were flooded with over $30,000 in PAC money. Nelson raised $20,000 with no fundraisers and felt good about that. However, she was outspent 2-1 by her opponent whose campaign funds included $12,500 from sources outside the city. Nelson said that in Ann Arbor, a network of individuals max out their personal contribution limits, then have their spouse and other family members do the same. She knows of some who have collectively contributed over $20,000. “It happens where you live, and it matters. Because somebody like me who is just committed to public service and is thinking about it … the answer to how [to go about that] is not that that you’ll need about $10,000; in the City of Ann Arbor it is you’ll need about $40,000 ... that is huge barrier to entry and a huge obstacle to our democracy.” Other participating organizations included American Promise, Declaration for American Democracy, the League of Women Voters of Michigan, Michigan Voices, Public Citizen, Represent US, Reclaim Our American Democracy, and the People.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS TRUTH OR LIES Sirenia the artist It was 2 a.m. and the party was finally ending. Robert was driving home. He was thinking about his promotion, having just become a partner at the most prestigious law firm in Denver, Colorado. However, he could not forget how he was going home with no one to congratulate him. Opening the door at his condo, he looked around and thought, “I am tired of being a selfish bachelor. It’s time for me to purchase a home and find a wife.” He promised himself that he would take more time to date and find his future wife. He undressed and showered, going to bed excited about going hiking the next morning. Even though it was the weekend, Robert did not sleep in, out hiking by 11 a.m. However, he did not meet anyone before or during his hike. “What a day,” he thought. “No beautiful single lady was waiting to meet her beau.” When he returned home he decided he would not bring any woman to his bachelor pad, so he immediately started searching for a home. He made an appointment for the following weekend to view four houses. It took a while, but after seven months of searching he finally found a gem of a house. One Sunday morning Robert was at the grocery store and while in the commodities aisle, he helped a woman who could not reach the top shelf. He introduced himself hoping she was single. Rebeca was single, a petite brunette with a bright warm smile and personality. Robert quickly asked her if she was involved in a relationship. She smiled and answered that she was not dating anyone at the time. He then asked her would she be interested in going to the movies and out to dinner? Rebeca took out a pen from her purse, grabbed his hand and wrote her number in his hand. Robert laughed saying, “Okay, I will call you this evening and we can discuss where you want to go?” They parted ways. On the way home, Robert was feeling warm inside and excited. Returning home, he realized he did not have any furniture — no way she could see his house in this condition. After work the next day he stopped at Madison’s Furniture, an expensive store. He was admiring a leather sectional for his entertainment room while looking for living room furniture. A voice said, “Quite unique, don't you think?” The lady was referring to the picture that hung above the sectional. He turned around to see who was talking to him. She was a beautiful woman with a mysterious, cute look about herself. Robert was drawn to her green eyes and red hair. FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 “How are you?” he asked. “Oh, my. I did not mean to distract you, it’s just a pretty picture, I was talking aloud.” “Well, do you work here?” Robert asked. “Oh, no, I was just shopping for inspiration.” “What does that mean?” Robert asked. “I am an artist just looking for new colors and ideas. By the way, my name is Sirenia.” Robert introduced himself, then asked, “Can you paint me a picture for my entertainment room?” Sirenia replied, “Yes, why not? What are you looking for?” Robert said, something unique and different. He then asked if they could exchange numbers and said that he would be calling her on the weekend. He purchased the sectional. It was perfect. Once he got free that evening he called Rebeca. She answered the phone with a soft voice and they talked until it was his bedtime. Rebeca liked to hike and camp; they had several things in common. That weekend he called Sirenia and invited her over to see the house and the furniture he had purchased. When she arrived, Robert gave her a tour of his house. Sirenia was impressed and inspired, eager to paint the picture for his entertainment room. She decided to stay for dinner to learn more about Robert's desires. Sirenia promised his picture would be complete within two weeks. She was to paint the picture and he was a single, handsome man looking for a wife. Sirenia was thinking about how she had to go to her small condo, always waiting for her big break as an artist. That weekend Robert took Rebeca out to dinner and a movie. He enjoyed talking with her and how pleasant she was. The two weeks before the picture was done seemed forever to Robert. He wanted to impress Rebeca with it. Sirenia finally called on a Saturday morning inviting him to come to her studio to pick up his picture. Robert arrived early, eager for the reveal. Sirenia had several pictures that caught his eye, so he selected two of them. She was pointing to a large picture draped with a tarp. “Remove it already," said Robert. It was an odd picture of a swirling flat pool of water with a city scene in the background. Robert loved the oddness and the colors. “What a picture!” he complimented her. He then purchased it and the other two paintings. Sirenia was pleased and waited for him to ask her out. However, he could not stop talking about wanting to show the picture to Rebeca. When he left, Sirenia was fuming, wondering why he did not ask her out. She decided she was going to marry him no matter what! The next day she broke into his house and retrieved Rebeca’s phone number from his home phone. She returned home and cast a spell on a picture she painted of Robert talking on the phone. Sirenia dialed Rebeca’s number, put the phone on the picture and spoke to it. The picture sounded just like Robert; she invited Rebeca over for lunch, claiming to be in between cases. Rebeca accepted the invitation for lunch the following day. She arrived and she noticed that she did not see Robert's car. Sirenia was waiting for her, explaining she was his new maid. She stated that he would arrive soon, and he had said to come in and wait for him. Rebeca entered the house. The picture was now hanging in the foyer. Rebeca walked over to the picture, admiring it, reaching her hand out saying what a spectacular painting. All of a sudden the swirl of water moved and sucked Rebeca into it. Sirenia laughed while returning the picture to the entertainment room. She then gathered up her items and drove off, abandoning her car in the woods. Robert returned from work excited to call Rebeca over to see his new paintings. He did not get an answer. He left her several messages and continued to call and text her. He wondered why she did not return his calls or texts. It had been three weeks. Sirenia called and inquired about the paintings, asking if he needed any future paintings. Robert returned her call, unaware of her powers. Once he heard her voice, he forgot about Rebeca and thought he was dating Sirenia. He said to her, “Don’t be late for our dinner date tonight.” Sirenia quickly pounced upon him, and during dinner he asked her to marry him. Even though he did not have a ring, she accepted. During lunch the next day, Robert was at the jewelers selecting a ring for Sirenia. They were wed within one month and she had moved in. He thought he loved her, but it was because of the spell she cast. One year passed and he was asking for children. Sirenia knew she was barren and a witch, but she promised him soon they would start a family. Robert thought he was happy, still hiking and working. One weekend she decided it was time she rid herself of him — after all she only wanted the house and money. She cast a spell on the same picture that sucked Rebeca up. Sirenia complained that the house was dusty and she wanted to wipe everything down. Robert's happy, helpful self got a step ladder and approached the picture to dust it down. He reached over the top and disappeared into the picture. That night she waited until it was late, then she held the picture over his car and the car disappeared. Sirenia laughed; she waited 48 hours and reported him missing. The police came over to investigate her claim of him not returning home. During the investigation they found no foul play and could not find him or his auto. As time passed, Sirenia dated seven men whose wealth she stole and then they disappeared into a painting. The insurance investigator Mr. Tucker left Robert’s case dormant for nine years. During the tenth year, three months before the policy would pay, he decided to take a final look. Sirenia was annoyed with him and decided it was time for him to disappear. She was painting a picture of a policeman arresting a strange looking lady. Just as she was chanting over it, the detective walked up on her, never knocking at the door. She was startled, jumping while she turned to see who was in the room with her. Sirenia stumbled, reaching out to catch her balance and was sucked into the picture. Mr. Tucker was speechless and shocked, wondering what just happened right before his eyes. Thank you Truth Or Lies readers you voted right, "Benny the Bully Easter Bunny," published April 7, was based on a TRUE story. Names were changed to protect the privacy of the families MAY 5, 2023 MAY 5, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 WORD SEARCH: ANIMALS! S A C A U D A L J O I N T E D P M U N I V A L V E J R E Z Q I E V A G I L E D O E N P X G D T F A N G U I N E I T N U N E A S O S D G A R R F A V A M R B L U C N D O E N I O I A U Y O W U A I C L O R L R N C C C A I I S A H L V V R B I A I J I A E E A S A B A R P P N V C C N T D E R U S N I A A E A U N S B W T L D C I I R R I L A O C M A N R A A N D O O D V P I A B M A N T L E V U U A E P A L L I U M E E Q G S S L D R Z Y Q F R K D Y P E D A T E Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. Acaudal Alular WORD BANK: Canine Ametabolic Anguine Annelidan Anserine Araneidal Avian Batrachian Bivalved Carangid Caudated Colonial Filariid Jointed Mantle Oviparous Pallium Pedate Posterior Scaled Scaley Scaly Spidery Univalve Vagile Viviparous

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS TAKE ACTION A plea to the Biden administration: STOP the Willow Project On Monday, March 12, 2023, President Joe Biden approved a large oil drilling bill which will ultimately produce poison, destroying the environment and permanently damaging the climate of our planet (over a quarter of a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions). The Willow Project bill approved the drilling of 68,000 acres of Alaskan land. The Willow drill plan is deemed controversial due to not only its projected detrimental effects on the environment, but also by the ethical injustices the wildlife living in the area would face. Many Biden supporters feel betrayed as he has strayed from his anti-drilling on federal lands stance that he touted during his 2020 campaign. In fact, the Biden administration is defending the former Trump administration by green-lighting the project. This decision was exactly what many were voting against. In the current age of climate protests, environmental activism, global warming and a push for sustainable energy, it is maddening to see yet another plan approved that will LILA HARRIS U-M student contributor further destroy the place we call home. The space that is keeping us alive. The plan is to drill on the ConocoPhillips petroleum reserve, which happens to be close to the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area, in Alaska. Drilling oil for the Willow Project will release thousands of millions of metric tons of pure carbon emissions into the atmosphere, and would completely destroy the surrounding area of the reserve and the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area. The area is an essential home for wetland species, as well as a habitat for caribou and other wildlife that Native Conoco-Phillips drill site in the Western Arctic. Photo credit: EarthJustice How can it be considered morally or League, the Arctic climate of the area is essential for the breeding of important and endangered species, including caribou, waterfowl, loons, eiders, shorebirds, polar bears, wolves, musk ox, brown bears, foxes and more. The Willow Project would require “a new oil and gas processing facility, massive satellite drill pads with up to fifty wells on each pad, a spider web of roads, a new airstrip, pipelines, and two gravel mines within a protected river setback.” What does this mean? Displacement, if not death, for many vulnerable species, and complete destruction of these areas. ethically justifiable to destroy the habitats of endangered wildlife? It cannot be justified. The Willow Project capitalizes on the beautiful environment that we humans live in and completely take advantage of. What do we want our future to look like? What can we do to fight against the Willow Project? Protest! Sign a petition; you can find it at Change.org “Stop The Willow Project.” Visit stopwillow.org to learn how you can be a part of the fight to conserve and protect the Western Arctic. Retweet, repost and spread #StopWillow. Write to your senator or representative. Make your voice heard. Stop The Willow Project. communities rely on. According to the Alaska Wilderness MAY 5, 2023 MAY 5, 2023 LABOR POWER GEO 3550 strikes through U-M graduation On March 24 I was attending my morning English class as usual when we were interrupted with a rambunctious cacophony of noise in the third floor corridor of Mason Hall. Moments later and with an enthusiastic flourish a woman burst through the door, speaker in hand loudly playing rock music and shouted, “This is a strike! Come join us in the Diag, GET UP LET'S GO!” We could hear her echoed calls for protest trail and fade as she continued down the hall. Echoed in every class on the floor shouting the same message, beckoning others to join the movement. Her rebellious cries lingered in the air till the class ended. Why are they striking? As we are probably all brutally aware, the cost of living in Ann Arbor continues to skyrocket. The cost of living is moving at an alarming rate that monthly income is unable to adequately support, leaving many struggling to make ends meet. The graduate students have had enough of constantly reaching out to the University beckoning them to at least pay them a living Ann Arbor wage. So, the girl who busted into our class on that gloomy Wednesday morning was a member of the Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO), a labor union of Graduate Student Instructors and Graduate Student Staff Assistants. Together, these individuals are responsible for a large amount of teaching and grading work the University of Michigan. As of that very Wednesday at 10:24 a.m. GEO has been on strike, withholding their labor to pressure the University to take them seriously. Strikes are the embodiment of democracy, a means to stand up to employers and fight for better working conditions. Since the beginning of their triennial contract negotiations last Fall, GEO has been asking U-M's HR to offer its members a livable wage. This would mean a 60% raise for all GSIs and GSSAs. The university's highest offer, MIA BARR U-M student contributor however, has remained below inflation, effectively translating into a pay cut for its Graduate employees. The escalating costs of living lead individuals to purge more of their income on rent and leave little for anything else, such as food and other basic necessities. GEO is shining a spotlight on the growing wage disparities in Ann Arbor and the inability for not only GSIs and GSSAs, but all Ann Arborites, to live with dignity in this town and its surrounding areas. What else is on the table in GEO's bargaining platform? Beyond the most prevalent issue of wage, GEO is also fighting for programs that will benefit the entire Ann Arbor community, such as a non-police emergency response force. In April of 2021 the Ann Arbor City Council approved the formation of an Unarmed Public Safety Response Program that could be used for mental health crises, conflicts, public assistance and more. I had a chance to speak with Rianna Johnson-Levy a GSI at the University on this program and here is some of what she had to share on the topic. “Having grown up a block over from Aura Rosser, who was killed by the AAPD in 2014 after they were called to respond to a domestic altercation, I know how police presence can escalate to violence in moments of crisis in peoples' lives. I believe supporting non-armed crisis response on our campus will help to protect me as a worker and provide a benefit to black and brown people and people with disabilities who spend their days on our campus.” This program is already strongly supported by organizations across the University and Ann Arbor community and is meant to provide a resource for issues that can be solved without violence, with the goal of de-escalating situations. Back to the living wage. Is that really so much to ask for? The University of Michigan has a $17.4 billion dollar endowment and is set to make an excess of $91 million this fiscal school year alone according to research done by the Michigan Daily. Out-of-state students with no financial assistance pay more for one semester at the University of Michigan than GSI’s and GSSAs make in a year. It would cost the University $30 million (only 1/3 of this year's excess) to pay all GSIs and GSSAs a living wage. Nonetheless, the strike continues with no end in the foreseeable future. In fact, after speaking with a professor who is close to the subject matter, it appears that the University is pressuring faculty to try and keep things as normal as possible to keep donors happy: demanding that tenured faculty, who all have their own obligations, to grade hundreds of papers while maintaining their research with the University. A near impossible task if I have ever heard one. As the strike is nearing a month in length and the semester comes to an end, many students are unhappy with how the University has responded. This is now the longest strike in University history, topping the historic 2020 GEO strike that prevented U-M returning to in-person classes during the COVID pandemic. Strike update: Many GSIs and GSSAs will enter the month of May unable to pay rent, as U-M has withheld payment for all striking Graduate student employees. GEO's strike has receoved international attention and gathered support across the country, as expressed in GEO members and supporters on Mayard Street in downtown Ann Arbor marching to the courthouse on the morning of U-M's injunction hearing. various letters by U-M faculty, as well as fundraisers for GEO's strike fund, from, for example, University of California Santa Cruz. Many tenured faculty and lecturers have pledged to withhold grades in solidarity with GEO. The administration is threatening to give undergraduates illegitimate grades in response, undermining instructors' autonomy and further revealing how U-M prioritizes its own image and money over its mission of education, and its supposed commitment to equity and diversity. You can follow the latest news about the strike on GEO's social media and their website: www.geo3550.org GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11  REBIRTH from page 5 • Learning to be more stoic, focuswhile dealing with the circumstances of the world; • Appreciating laughter and joy and pain. You got to laugh at yourself sometimes — if you don't you might end up hurting yourself; • Loving the simple things in life — the rays of the sun in the morning, being up at 5:30 a.m. in the gym, taking a nice shower after a hard day's work, having a hard day's work; ing on what matters in life, letting the small things go, not getting bothered or frustrated; • Lending a helping hand — that is the best feeling in the world, I love it when people ask me for help. GOD is in assistance of those humans who seek to help and serve their fellow man; • Respecting pregnant women, women, the elderly, opening doors for people, walking down the stairs in front of pregnant women so that they feel comfortable, guiding, assisting, serving, helping, the smile on a fellow human when he has reached his purpose and goal is amazing, it’s fulfilling, it’s beautiful, it's contagious, it’s courageous. It makes you feel like a billionaire while not having a single penny in your pocket. I don't understand how houselessness is somehow making me into a refined gentleman. But it has been one hell of a journey. Organization is sophistication, early preparation leads to improved determination, which enhances the imagination and leads creations. Hey, whatever you're going through just remember, life is not that bad, and the code to the bathroom at Starbucks on State Street is 35724. Mohammed Al Mustapha (Pen Name — Boomer the Nile Crocodile aka Nubian Prince). to beautiful

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Spring pea salad REE DRUMMOND The Pioneer Woman Ingredients: 1/3 c. sour cream 1 tbsp. mayonnaise Salt and pepper 1 tbsp. white vinegar 4 c. frozen green peas, almost totally thawed 8 slices bacon, cooked until crisp and chopped 1/2 small red onion, halved and sliced very thin 6 oz. cheddar or American cheese, cut into small cubes 3 tbsp. minced fresh parsley Directions: Mix the sour cream, mayonnaise, salt, pepper and vinegar together to make the dressing. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Stir 2/3 of the dressing into the peas until the peas are coated. Gently stir in the bacon, onion, cheese and parsley until all combined. Taste and adjust seasonings. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 to 4 hours before serving. (Pop the extra dressing in the fridge, too.) Remove from the fridge and stir in the rest of the dressing to your liking. Sprinkle with more parsley before serving. Perfect for a Mother's Day celebration! • Make money on your first day • Choose your own schedule • Work for yourself • Join a supportive community • Get started this week for FREE NEW VENDOR ORIENTATIONS ARE EVERY TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, 10 AM @ THE GCN OFFICE. Trainings take 90 minutes. New vendors will get a temporary badge and 10 free papers to start. BLAKE TRANSIT Willam St. AADL MAY 5, 2023 BECOME A GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR The Groundcover office is located in the basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ (423 S 4th Ave, downtown Ann Arbor) PUZZLE SOLUTIONS S A C A U D A L J O I N T E D P M U N I V A L V E J R E Z Q I E V A G I L E D O E N P X G D T F A N G U I N E I T N U N E A S O S D G A R R F A V A M R B L U C N D O E N I O I A U Y O W U A I C L O R L R N C C C A I I S A H L V V R B I A I J I A E E A S A B A R P P N V C C N T D E R U S N I A A E A U N S B W T L D C I I R R I L A O C M A N R A A N D O O D V P I A B M A N T L E V U U A E P A L L I U M E E Q G S S L D R Z Y Q F R K D Y P E D A T E $2 OFF OUR HOT BAR IS BACK! Available: Mon. - Fri. from 11-2 • Weekly menu at peoplesfood.coop ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 5/23/2023 Packard St. Fifth St. Fourth Ave.

2 $ APRIL 21, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 9 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Water for life: a message from the Kogi. Page 4 MEET YOUR VENDOR: GLEN PAGE PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann EARTH DAY ISSUE: Climate change, sustainability and transportation justice THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER Conduit to the universe MARKONA LOVE Groundcover vendor No. 590 Now I See From Here To There Light Was There Now It's Here A Wing of Feathers Truth Flies In Awareness Arrives Void Undone New Day Rise Old Day Fade Open Space Knowledge Replace APRIL 21, 2023 content CORRECTION In last issue, there was a misprinted line in this poem. The poem should have been published as it is printed here. CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Gigi Bylinksy Robert Coulter Chris Fields Simone Fletcher Cindy Gere Markona Love Tabitha Ludwig Gregg Saldutti Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Gwynn Chio GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Layla McMurturie Jesse Owen Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith Samiha Rahman VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Logan Brown Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Zachary Dortzbach Robert Klingler Grace Sielinski Mira Simonton-Chao Alex Tarbet Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenburg Navya Yagalla Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons APRIL 21, 2023 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Baby resources needed My name is Tabitha. My fiance Sean and I are having a baby in July and definitely need help with getting the things needed. If anyone would like to help out my family with this beautiful baby girl, I have a baby registry on Amazon and also at Target. The baby registry is in the name “Tabitha Ludwig.” Please help us as we have nothGlen Page, vendor No. 407 In one sentence, who are you? Glen, the world’s first fully-functioning Black superhero, at your service. Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? Between Starbucks on State Street and the State Theater, and sometimes outside of Running Fit! What is your favorite spot in Washtenaw County? Home. What is your favorite thing to do in Washtenaw County? Movies and music. Why did you start selling Groundcover? To keep the paper functioning properly. What words do you live by? Think on your feet. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn't know? How serious I am about the paper and what my contribution to this noble cause will be. What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover News? The crowd. If you had a warning label, what would yours say? Nuclear. What is your superpower? My ability to see through B.S. and other things. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Fish. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Sell the paper. What's the worst thing about selling Groundcover News? Just standing there. Home pleasures for Earth Day Sometimes your home is as good as any vacation resort. You can do all kinds of things at home for free that you can at a vacation resort that cost money. You can relax, listen to music, have a party and prepare good snacks or dinners. You can prepare good lunches too. You can party either by yourself or with a friend that you choose to party with. When you're by yourself you can watch and listen to what you want to listen to or just have quiet time. You can do your hair and nails; I personally like to trim my nails and make them short and clean, both my fingernails and toenails. You can soak your feet in nice Epsom salt water and just relax while you're watching TV or listening to music. And you can earth like flowers, butterflies, frogs and rabbits. You can decorate your home DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 also dance while you're sitting in a chair or standing up to whatever music you wanna listen to. You can do arts and crafts of your choice. You can act like being at home is like being at camp and Earth Day and Earth Week is a perfect time for a home resort, too. You can do arts and crafts that have to do with the for Earth Day. You can buy artificial flowers and plants because they never die and they last forever. You can use cereal boxes and other cardboard things to recycle and do artwork with and make cards. And you can have healthy snacks for Earth Day like popcorn, corn, grapes and bananas to ensure your home is a resort. Earth Day is an important day for self care because us humans are a part of the earth and God made us to try to help take care of the earth. And take care of ourselves too. I hope everybody has a good time during Earth Day and Week! ing for the baby yet; it would be a great blessing. If you want to send money instead, we have a Venmo account @solowyte83 and a CashApp account $flyhighsis. There is also a GoFundMe camTABITHA LUDWIG Groundcover vendor No. 360 paign at gofund.me/7e62b7e4. Thank you all so much and God bless! Let's welcome baby Lena Almond to the Groundcover family soon. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Remembering Antoine Antoine passed on Christmas Eve of 2022 leaving many loved ones behind, many of whom are part of the Groundcover family. Antoine was my friend. He was constantly at work. He cherished his family and friends. I will miss having conversations with him. You, my friend Antoine, will truly be missed. Rest In Peace My Brother! — Mike Jones, Groundcover vendor No. 113 Antoine was my best friend. To this very moment I grieve his passing. He was the strongest man I ever knew. Antoine was a person who put others before himself. I miss you my Brother. — Donald Abdul Roberts

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS EARTH DAY Water for life: a message from the Kogi Years ago, back in 1999, I came across a powerful film, “From the Heart of the World, the Elder Brothers Warning, Kogi Message to Humanity. Big Brother talks to Little Brother,” that shook my world perspective to the core. As an Indian, forced modern through adoption, I have tried to come to terms with this modern hypocrisy around mass consumption — trying to divorce ourselves from our excesses while at the same time crying “Save the Planet, Save the Earth.” We play games with our mind once a year on Earth Day, as we give to this charity or that organization, and in the end we can say “I did my part.” Yet, all the while, the plastic island out in the ocean is becoming a new continent of insanity. Kogi Message To Humanity I now take out segments of this film with my own ideas and my own thoughts. The Kogi lived for thousands of years in Colombia — both the coastal regions and the high Sierra mountains. The Kogi Indians lived in a holistic balance with other nations known as the Tianu. These nations lived in peace and harmony. In the words of the Kogi: Little Brother once lived here, but was removed by Creator. Away to his own lands, far away across the Big Waters away from Big Brother. But you came back, and with this, all was destroyed. Within Native American natural worldview, we are the guardians of Mother Earth. We feel like the Kogi — so the Hopi, the Kaska and Havasapi, too. Across the Americas, our voice has never been heard, because of the harshness of the truth. The Sacred Message is: We all need water. Humans need water. They must have water to live. The Earth is the same, water is sacred, but now it's weak and diseased. The animals are dying, the trees are drying up, becoming ill; new illnesses will appear with absolutely no cures or medicines. For them the reason is Younger Brother’s modern humanity: Violations of fundamental principles, total drilling into the Earth. Mining extraction of petrol, minerals stripped away from within the world. This is in fact destroying all of the world, and damaging the Earth. “BBC, tell Younger Brother to open your eyes.” You, Younger Brother, you have returned — you have come back to our high mountain lands. We wish to be apart from you, like the beams of our bridge. Apart, away, but you have returned and now we must speak to you. The Last Kaska family emerged from the woods in 1970 CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 In 1970, the last Kaska Dene Nation family of Shamans emerged from out of the forest of the Yukon, surprising even the most seasoned Royal Canadian Mounted Police at that time. They became known as the Greenway family. They had lived high in the backcountry of the bush, on a plateau between two big mountains, living off the land and choosing to live a life of serenity and peace in contrast to modern ways. Hunting, fishing and trapping, with only 35 members of the family, ages one to 75. When the harsh abusive boarding schools were abolished, this family emerged out of the bush, choosing a new time with modern ways. The Kogi choose to stay modern, many tribes wish they had the same legacy of the Kogi nation. But the message is the same… I once had the privilege to drink pure crystal clear aquifer water, I never tasted anything so clean in my whole life. My Nahe mother gave it to me on our Tribal Lands. She showed me this cabin deep in the woods of the road. She told me "You, come here. You live here. The water is the best in this place." It was her old childhood home. I often dream of moving home, to that small strip of land. But like so many, it’s just a dream. Water is life The Kogi message is real. We are losing our water now faster than ever, and nobody understands more than the Kogi. We are now seeing what the Kogi were, in fact, talking about. The lands of the Kogi are drying up in their high Sierra mountains, where there were once glacial waters and vast snow plains. In the last five years, it has been truly challenging. To say we are in fact in a water crisis is putting it mildly. All last year, we watched as the Hoover Dam water line went lower than it has ever been in years. This has affected millions of people in five states. I feel that in the next five to 20 years, we will see real water shortages. This sacred planet has a finite amount of this resource. Yet we still use it with great disrespect. Water is running out and the Kogi tried to warn us in 1992 … yet we choose not to listen. When shall we listen to the warning? When no one can drink a drop of water? Let us see, water is truly sacred, the same way we see our religions. Perhaps then we could truly care as we do for God. APRIL 21, 2023 Awakening sound Years ago (in college), when I read of Thoreau putting his whole body on the ground — immersed deeply in the grass and bathing in the sun and sky and earth — I never dreamt that one day I would be living an adventure that would, in an unusual way, allow me to realize the gift of the earth. When I became "homeless" however, after 18-plus years of a difficult living situation, and two low-income rental situations that were beyond less than ideal, the beautiful, peaceful haven of the woods I now reside in received me. I have literally hugged and slept under trees; looked up to find stars and bats and birds already fondly or curiously noticing me; and have been cradled by higher ground and low-lying trees and bushes. Sure, I have not neglected to use the resources from my earnings to wisely create an all-weather-proof habitation to always have warmth in the cold and dry in the rain. Also, I do have life goals that likely eventually will bring my person and life back living in "my woods." It's a special, magical world of its own that deserves to be loved and respected. The air is even much lighter, healthier and easier to breathe. There, in "my" woods, I am not "homeless." I'm AMANDA GALE Groundcover vendor No. 573 to traditional "indoors." However, I am doing my best to imbue my every moment really living amidst and with nature. I feel God's presence and experience the joy and friendship of those trees, grass blades, bugs, chipmunks and squirrels. (My pet turtle Ticia is convinced that from her I must've realized the advantages of living in her natural environment.) There is an untouched beauty and peace and tranquility that is found experiencing God, being renewed, energizing and seeking the next fresh experiences and life adventures that I'm asking God to ultimately bring me to. I am so empowered, as I seek more paid work hours, continuing those I have now and my volunteering. Did I ever really hear before here? The enchanting sounds of amphibians barking out their own telegraphy; birds singing exotically, the chorus of the wind — fierce at times, gentle at other quiet moments. I pause seeking to being as best I can to receive these calls, to return to what these trees and stars and creatures are saying: praise to God and care deeply for these woods, animals and our fellow humans. After all, I've had the privilege of getting "up close and personal" with the awe and beauty of ice storms. Each day is revealing, inviting, full of wonder, grace and mystery. There is a mystical quality to the semi-hidden pathways, the very ground itself and the play of light or surround of dark. There is an aura — whether misty or clear. I am strengthened, healed, renewed, re-invigorated and recommissioned to bring what these woods are giving me, to others also. This conscience tempers my ecstatic discoveries with the desire to find ways to reach out and connect with others, giving and receiving to enrich our lives from and for each other, in ways that can't otherwise occur. Didn't Frost seek to persuade us, "We were the land's, before the land was ours"? The moon reaches her beams down at nightfall, assuring me I am hearing and heard. I just feel plain GRATEFUL! I just think; I would never have had the opportunity for this BLESSING if I hadn't been "homeless." APRIL 21, 2023 HASH BASH 50th annual Hash Bash 'protest' disappoints The Hash Bash, most recently held on April 1, 2023, is no April Fool’s joke — activists fought for our rights to marijuana. This started when John Sinclair was arrested for two joints and then sentenced to two years in prison. This was his fight first. Local activists immediately jumped in with support from around the country. The John Sinclair Freedom rally held in Crisler Arena on December 10, 1971, is one of the most memorable concerts in Ann Arbor history and one of the most significant in the history of Rock and Roll. This was due in large part to John Lennon's decision to appear in support of radical White Panther leader, John Sinclair, who was currently serving 8.5 to 10 years in prison for the possession of two marijuana joints. 15,000 people attended the rally, all blatantly smoking pot during the concert. Three days after the concert, the Michigan Supreme Court issued an order releasing Sinclair on bond, which had been denied by the lower courts; and on March 9, 1972 the court held the state’s marijuana laws were unconstitutional (cruel and unusual sentence; illegal entrapment; and misclassification of marijuana as a narcotic drug) and freed John Sinclair! The first Hash Bash, a continuation of the protest, was held at the Diag on April 1, 1972. For 22 days in 1972, marijuana was legal in the state of Michigan. It is 52 years since it became the first legalization of marijuana in the United States. You don't need specific directions to Hash Bash— just follow the natural smell of weed (flower) wafting from the activist festival. I would especially like to see a designated area just for the Older Pioneer Hippies. That's who I'm hoping to share this with … I want to see who didn't give up the fight — for "Peace, Love, and Understanding," said the Hippies that I loved as a child. Ann Arbor was incredible in the 1960s and 70s, in all the best ways. I wish I never had to leave when I was young. Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan (I was lost in Michigan Stadium at three years old in 1968 and they had to announce to me over game to find my parents, actually my sister), the state of Michigan, and yes “The Big D" (Detroit) — I still find a lot to be proud of in all of the above but, most of all, the people here, there and everywhere from Michigan. The special people of this state in over 20,000 years of proven use ... or ever. Now this actual, current Hash Bash, MARKONA LOVE Groundcover vendor No. 590 made it what it was — we've been through a lot lately but, there's always time. Even time doesn't really exist, it's only conceptual and that's exactly how we need to change … with a shared concept as to how we as a whole want it to be in Michigan. It will only work if we all compromise, and come to one common agreement. Let's be the first state to show how it's done. The full combination of the experienced (uneducated) and the educated to use their strengths together. So here is step one: Let’s start by getting the Marijuana Initiative taken completely off the Drug Schedule List for Michigan. This benefits everyone in the state. Why would we want such a contrary law conflicting with another old one that wasn't ever helpful? Anyways, fewer Michigan lives destroyed by unnecessary arrest, reduced prison populations, reduced load on enforcement agencies. And then it supports a consistent tax influx into our state system! People already know about all the physical and mental attributes of this natural flower. Yes, it can be abused, so can a box of donuts. But, no death by alcohol poisoning, or violence. There has never been any proof of a death solely attributed to marijuana I personally attended and was disappointed. Bash started briefly with a few talks at the beginning from U.S Representative Debbie Dingell, County Commissioner Youdef Rahbi, Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit, John Sinclair, Matthew Abel and other activists. That was followed by no activism — not even a party. All I saw was commercialization in all forms, including illegal sale. I didn't see any sign of actual intent to create change, or proclaim our rights. Even the Bash party was lame. On a good note: I did run into a popular activist/politician from Chicago, Maryann Loncar. She was here to support other activists, here and nationally. She is trying to help us pass bills that protect patients from medical marijuana corruption from corporations like Curaleaf (abusive corporate practices) that was the largest sponsor of this Hash Bash. I would fill you in on details from an incredible interview but, the video of the interview was mysteriously wiped, like the previous interview of Lama Karma from the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow. So all I have left to end with is that in Michigan marijuana is a schedule 2 narcotic even though it is legal for recreational use by adults, and under federal law (Washington D.C.) marijuana is still a schedule one narcotic — alongside heroin. There's a long way to go; illegally panhandling and the over-commercialization of Hash Bash is not helping. Maybe next year we could actually do some activism and make some change for good. Smoke On! Weed over Greed! PEACE! GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and science tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Print Stuff at AADL Need to print forms, essential documents, applications, or homework? We can help! We can print up to 30 pages per person per week at no charge and have your items ready to pick up at the library of your choice the next weekday. For more information, visit: AADL.org/printing Bookable Meeting Rooms Book a meeting room with your AADL card. We have 10 available meeting rooms across the system that you can reserve for up to two hours per day, 12 times per calendar year. They’re also available on a first-come firstserved basis. To book a room, visit AADL.org/rooms FEATURED EVENT 5 Sunday, May 21 11am–5pm • Downtown Library The Gardening & DIY Fest is back! It’s a daylong celebration of gardening, nature, and getting hands-on and active! AADL plans to feature an artisan market emphasizing handmade clothes, jewelry, bath products, fibers, art, flowers, and plants. Participants can also engage in learning sessions and hands-on opportunities! AADL.org/diyfest Vendors and shoppers on South University during Hash Bash.

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS TRANSPORTATION Walking isn't dangerous, cars are! GREGG SALDUTTI Groundcover contributor Caution, cars may not stop. It is not the kind of advice you want when crossing the road with a marked crosswalk, but it is the only advice offered at the crosswalks on Stadium Blvd. Local law requires drivers to stop for pedestrians at marked crosswalks in Ann Arbor. But should we really expect drivers to follow it? According to the City of Ann Arbor, no. This warning might strike some as just common sense in the interest of pedestrian safety. After all, the number of pedestrians being killed by drivers has been rising since 2019 — up 17% in Michigan since that year. Even through the pandemic, when fewer people were driving, more people on foot were dying. There are many factors at play, including more reckless driving; less traffic enforcement; larger, heavier cars; and more built-in distraction to newer cars. These statistics highlight the importance of doing more to ensure road safety. However, in the case of many crosswalks around the city, this doing more comes in the form of not actually doing anything, but rather, warning people on foot that they are not safe there. Importantly, these messages recognize the fact that it doesn’t matter if walkers are following the law or not — the roads were not designed to make them safe, and we are okay with that. The implied message could be read as: Hey, drivers won’t follow the law here, and we know that, so you are on your own. Motonormative Many would fall back on the "common sense" argument to pedestrian safety: wait for the road to clear. Following two incidents in March — one that involved a high school student — these usual sentiments were echoed in calls for pedestrians to be less distracted when walking, and that people need to be taught more "defensive" pedestrianism. The issue of distraction is surely at play as sources of distraction on the roads are rising — most notably in ever-larger infotainment screens on car dashboards. However, we never seem to hear any news about an epidemic of pedestrian-on-pedestrian crashes that distracted walking would surely spur. After all, being on the phone while walking carries zero risk to anyone else. But, what gets completely lost in this discussion about pedestrian "responsibility" is that both walkers were in a crosswalk when they were hit by a driver. Beyond the issue of blaming people for being hit in a crosswalk, there is another problem regarding the legal and moral double standards surrounding cars (a concept known as motonormativity). We would never give jaywalkers the same leeway to break the law as we grant cars with our crosswalk warnings. However, we would surely blame them if they were hit or killed while jaywalking. In fact, in Ann Arbor, the fine for jaywalking is virtually the same as the fine for drivers failing to yield to someone in a crosswalk. Arguments for enforcement of jaywalking routinely cite safety as a concern. While jaywalking laws are veiled in the notion of protecting pedestrians, in practice the enforcement of jaywalking laws seems to be more focused on harassing low-income communities and removing people from public space in the name of free-flowing traffic, a fact that is illustrated by the history of how jaywalking came to be. A jaywalk through history Urban roads used to be shared public spaces without priority given to any type of user. For example, the L.A. municipal code of 1925 explicitly acknowledged that all street users share equal priority when using public space. That changed around 100 years ago when auto lobbies began investing in campaigns to criminalize jaywalking and influence media coverage of events where pedestrians were killed or injured by drivers. This coverage often painted pedestrians as irresponsible and, implicitly, at fault. The auto lobbies also sponsored campaigns that presented police and hired actors to publicly shame jaywalkers, rather than simply issue tickets or warnings. In fact, the term "jay" used to be a derogatory term used for someone from the country — unaccustomed to the fast pace of city life. The end goal was to recast the shared public spaces of streets to the sole dominion of cars, and more importantly to open up urban spaces for unfettered car travel. But this came with costs. Like many social costs incurred by our social systems, it is often low income communities and communities of color that bear both physical and legal costs of our social prioritization of cars. These communities see disproportionate levels of people on foot being hit and killed by drivers. People from these same communities receive a disproportionate amount of jaywalking citations. If we think about how our metro systems are designed with cars as a priority, this outcome seems preordained. Places built for cars are inherently hostile to people on foot, and people that have no other means of transit must go on foot. Read it in the news Likewise, our moral double standards can still be seen today in discussions about "pedestrian responsibility" or other dehumanizing news headlines surrounding driver-related killings. In many cases, headlines use written cues to focus on the behavior of people on foot, implicitly blaming them while downplaying the agency and, therefore, responsibility of drivers, even when drivers are at fault. One egregious example comes from a recent ABC News article with a headline that read: "Dog walks itself home after visually impaired owner killed in hit-and-run, police say." Not only is the main focus of the headline on the dog, the person who was killed becomes the object of the sentence — the thing having something done to it — while the person responsible — the driver — is not even mentioned. This headline is qualitatively different than, "Driver kills visually impaired person and flees the scene." Good luck, and God bless Already this year, Ann Arbor has seen several people on foot seriously injured, including the death of a man who was killed by a driver plowing snow. It also isn't hard to imagine a visually impaired person being killed in one of our negligently designed It is often low income communities and communities of color that bear both physical and legal costs of our social prioritization of cars. "warning" crosswalks. Ironically, crosswalks often use voice prompts or other sounds to aid visually impaired people in navigating traffic. In our case, the voice feature is as useful to the visually impaired as a shrug of the shoulders. While roads are becoming more deadly for people on foot, years of evidence showing how dangerous our urban and suburban road design is, can we really say that a pedestrian being killed by a driver is an accident? The fact is, our public spaces only account for the safety of drivers in their design, which, unsurprisingly, means roads are less safe for the rest of us. Rather than designing less hostile spaces for pedestrians, we fall back on laws that leave far too much discretion for street level harassment and far too little effect on safety. In addition to criminalizing public space use, we continue to implicitly and explicitly defend drivers in how we talk about traffic safety. We continue to insist that people outside of cars be more responsible, and demand that everyone else be safe so that drivers don’t have to be. None of this changes the basic fact that walking isn’t dangerous — cars are. APRIL 21, 2023 " APRIL 21, 2023 TRANSPORTATION Trikes for seniors When I was battling foreclosure in Detroit, I let the car go and got a used Trailmate DeSoto tricycle. It was one of my essential tools for the final victory so that I could sell my house for the market value of $10,000. That is real estate 101 in America. That helped build two houses in Cuba and put me home-free in America. I had much advice to choose Ann Arbor as my home. Recently, I test rode a TerraTrike recumbent tricycle and decided it was worthy of follow up. Many seniors have arthritis issues, including pain while walking. I found the recumbent to be a good exercise and made cycling more fun. I went to the Common Cycle shop Sunday, March 12 and 19 to pursue the idea of getting free trikes to senior citizens. I have donated several bicycles over the years and was always number of Judy at Charity Bikes. Judy and I agreed to pursue Trikes KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 for Seniors, in part by meditating on a good relationship among ourselves as activists for the commons. We hope to set up a pipeline for donations of money and trikes. I have called Terra Trikes in Grand Rapids once and will follow through to see if they can do discounts for seniors — they make recumbent trikes. It seems like everyone wants to impressed by the love and cooperation shared among the volunteers and felt by anyone who came in. (The shared life is a good life as we experience when we are on the dance floor.) I’ve had several wonderful conversations at Common Cycle, two with Clark McCall, and the follow through is on the table now. He gave me the build a cooperative ecovillage. So let’s start with something simple such as transportation and start with Trikes for Seniors. This way, we can simplify our lives and have more time for the broader commons that includes land sovereignty in an indigenous centered way. I wrote "Standing Rock" in the December 2021 Groundcover if you want more on that theme. Ann Arbor is a center for many who are committed to the commons and the vision of sharing resources. We have the annarborcommunitycommons.org and commoncycle.com as two examples of this living aspiration in Ann Arbor. As we learn more about who we are as human beings and the struggle for the freedom to use our power in creative and beneficial ways, if we think globally and act locally we will do many good things. I will work with Ann Arbor Community Commons to set up a donation pipeline, to coordinate with Common Cycle and Charity Bikes as we move to put our feet on the pedals. I will shift between writing and organizing as interrelated activities necessary to bring anything to fruition. Let’s breathe for good transportation and start with getting trikes to senior citizens. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 "Housing and Transportation: what's the climate connection?" presentation recap On Wednesday February 22 at 6 p.m., what was supposed to be a hybrid City Council meeting turned virtual due to the weather. Volunteers from the Citizens Climate Lobby of Ann Arbor assembled a panel that introduced solutions for the City of Ann Arbor to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, and discussed considerations for designing low carbon, highly livable cities. The “Housing and Transportation: What’s the Climate Connection?” panel members included Jan Culburtson, Jonathan Levine, Christopher Laurent and Reid Ewing — all extremely knowledgeable experts from the fields of urban planning and development and sustainability. The program began with guest speaker Johnathan Levine, a professor at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. His presentation focused on transport and land use planning. Cities are useful in mitigating carbon emissions due to density and proximity. A study by the CoolClimate Network at UC Berkeley found that households in cities emit roughly half of the carbon emissions compared to households in remote suburbs. Levine supported this by citing Chicago, San Francisco, New York City and Ann Arbor as examples. However, these cities are still problematic. SIMONE FLETCHER U-M student contributor According to Levine, while cities are “low-(er) carbon zones” due to the increased use of public transit and non-automotive forms of transportation, it is not deserving of self-congratulation. “When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, what municipalities control directly is a drop in the bucket compared to the emissions associated with those who live, work and play in the cities.” Luckily, transportation and the heating and cooling of houses — two factors the city largely impacts — make up a large portion of carbon emissions, sitting at 42%. The next speaker was Reid Ewing, Harvard graduate in urban planning and transportation systems, and current professor at the University of Utah. His primary focus was on vehicles and their impact on the environment. He cited his book, “Growing Cooler: the Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change”, and described transportation carbon dioxide as a three-legged stool composed of vehicles and their efficiency, fuels and carbon content, and VMT (vehicle miles traveled). Ewing emphasizes that “You can’t sit on a stool without three legs, so all legs are important.” The most impactful of these three legs is VMT. The equation for reaching goal CO₂ levels (80% reduction by 2050) is: compact development, doubling transit services, double price of using an automobile with a carbon tax, and halving the amount of highway expansion. Jan Culbertson, Senior Principal Emeritus, A3C and Leadership Council Chair at Ann Arbor 2030 District, focused on buildings. She emphasized the need for a “15-minute city” — an area where necessities are within a 15-minute walking or biking distance. So, she stated, “... it’s not just about density, it’s about when and where we build.” Cities that are lower carbon zones, such as Ann Arbor, tend to push people into higher carbon zones with zoning and other regulatory rules, limiting the number of people who can benefit from the “healthier” environment. Organizations such as Cinnare Solutions find means to combat this. Christopher Laurent, President of Cinnaire Solutions, an organization with the mission of “We believe that all people deserve the opportunities provided by living in healthy communities,” added to the conversation the opportunities of using abandoned buildings as community centers and affordable housing through renovation. Levine had asserted that “there is no affordable housing problem in the U.S.,” but the affordable housing is far from what is needed to survive given the costs of obtaining necessities, including getting to work. So, transportation is a component of “affordable living.” Laurent and Cinnaire Solutions address this issue by creating affordable spaces in prime locations in cities. In creating affordable housing in non-food-desert locations, we can promote healthier living while making housing accessible. By accepting that the suburban-oriented template is not what is best for well-being or the environment, we can begin to make necessary changes to reach our goals of carbon reduction. And, maybe, we as a community, can soon take the necessary steps to change our goals from reduction to restoration. To watch the meeting in full, feel free to visit youtu.be/cvVsL6sdsMM or look up “Housing and Transportation: What’s the Climate Connection? Guest Host Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL)” on YouTube.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AROUND TOWN Earthen Jar — family restaurant targeted? Near the corner of 5th and Liberty lies a unique place — Earthen Jar, the family-owned Indian restaurant that has been operating since 1997 and offers a unique experience. Serving buffet-style food, its entire menu is kosher-certified and either vegetarian or vegan. In addition to an upcoming expansion into Ypsilanti along West Michigan Avenue, it also offers a variety of packaged meals that can be found at various markets throughout southeast Michigan. In the past few months, however, Earthen Jar has had to deal with an onslaught of incidents. In December 2022, a fire broke out in an apartment on the second floor of the building that houses Earthen Jar. Although no one was harmed, the fire caused $20,000 worth of damage to the building and the surrounding areas, and marked the start of the streak of bad luck for the restaurant. Two break-ins in rapid succession followed soon after the fire — the first on December 29, and then, the very next day there was another. This trend of multiple break-ins happening within a short time of one another continued on January 5 and January 8. ROBERT COULTER U-M student contributor Everything from clothes to cash to a television was stolen by the perpetrators; “Literally whatever they could take,” said Sim Sethi, a manager for the restaurant. Just 10 days later, on January 18, there was another break-in. On that very same day, a break-in was reported at a neighboring location — although, as it was uninhabited, the break-in likely occurred earlier. From the limited evidence that seems to exist — security photos and suspect descriptions — it appears that the break-ins have been committed by multiple people and aren’t connected to one another. According to the strategic communications manager for the Ann Arbor Police Department, Chris Page, there was “nothing new in the investigation that indicates the burglaries are connected” and the police department is unsure as to why there have been so many burglaries in such a short time. On February 13th, the building experienced its sixth break-in in fewer than two months. The restaurant’s management has expressed disappointment and frustration with the police department for its failure to make any inroads into catching suspects and putting an end to the break-ins. “I think this is the straw that broke the camel’s back. I don’t think we will stay here if this kept[sic] happening,” said Sethi, and with an upcoming expansion into Ypsilanti, there may be dwindling motivation to keep the Ann Arbor location open. Sethi stated that he feels they are being targeted — why? He does not know — and he is unsure if that may be a sign that Earthen Jar shouldn’t remain in Ann Arbor. A small, family-owned business that has been around for roughly 25 years is on the brink of leaving the city due to a nearly unimaginable string of Earthen Jar is located in the heart of downtown Ann Arbor. break-ins — what may this be suggesting about life in Ann Arbor? If nothing else, the direct targeting of such a business represents a disappointing direction for Ann Arbor. It should be universally condemned by the citizens, who should support Earthen Jar to help them after such struggles. APRIL 21, 2023 APRIL 21, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. ARE YOU A PHOTOGRAPHER? Join the Groundcover News crew of volunteer photographers! Opportunities are assignment-based images (for publication in the newspaper) or photography at Groundcover News events (for use on social media and Groundcover communications). If you have lived experience with homelessness there may be paid opportunities. Email contact@ groundcovernews.com to learn more and sign-up for our list-serv.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CLIMATE CHANGE APRIL 21, 2023 Extreme weather is tragic and destructive: What's the link to global warming? Extreme weather conditions and events in the United States are causing major concerns in every area of the country. Although many regions witnessed greater magnitudes of extreme weather events about a decade ago, today’s weather events are more deadly, more destructive and more devastating. Since this past winter and early spring of 2023, America faced destructive tornadoes in the Midwest and the mid-South. There were also massive and disastrous hurricanes in the Southeast, deadly wildfires and floods in the pacific West, mountains of cold snows in the Midwest and the North Central, severe drought in the southwest and the drying up of life-sustaining lakes in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, Sierra-Nevada and Southern California regions. The extreme weather events are unprecedented, not only in the United States, but across the globe. Since the 1960s, when the Club of Rome convened in Italy to warn us about global warming, global temperatures have continued climbing to dangerous levels. The 2015 Paris accord was able to have more than 130 countries become signatories to the U.N. Climate Action Agreement. There have been several proposals to make the environment safer and prevent future staggering environmental disasters like the ones we are experiencing today. Now is the time for more individual and policy implementation actions to save the planet — not more talk and unworkable piles of legislation. We urge our readers to read the new 2023 U.N. Climate Action Report. Extreme Weather in the U.S. Recent ABC News TV reports showed the tornado-devastated ruins of communities in the mid-south of the United States. ABC News Writer Julia Jacobo's April 4, 2023 article was titled, “Is Tornado Alley Shifting due to Climate Change? Scientists explain how warming climate affects tornado activity.” Ms. Jacobo wrote, “More violent and widespread tornado activity — like the line of severe storms in recent days that killed dozens of people—is expected in the future as global warming persists, experts told ABC News.” Ohio State University Associate Professor of Meteorology, Jana Houser told ABC News that the deadly/ destructive tornadoes in the midsouth this year “is a representation of what we might perhaps expect to WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 happen in a particularly active tornado season, as we move forward in a warming climate regime.” A recent PBS NewsHour discussed the topic, “Why the U.S. is leading the World in extreme catastrophes.” The April 2 science conversation started with a scientific statement: “The U.S. is Earth’s punching bag for nasty weather.” The PBS NewsHour said that we can find some explanations from the circumstances of the U.S. physical geography. How? The climate scientists say, “The U.S. is getting stronger, costlier, more varied and more frequent extreme weather than anywhere on the planet.” They continued, “Two oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Rocky Mountains, jutting peninsulas, clashing storm fronts and the jet stream combine to naturally brew the nastiest weather.” Several climate change experts who talked to the Associated Press said that “Nature dealt the United States a bad hand, but people have made it worse by what, where and how we build…” In addition, it is widely believed by many climate scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that climate change has influenced the extreme weather events across the U.S. Rick Spinrad is the head of NOAA. He cautioned, “Buckle up. More extreme events are expected.” As far back as March 15, 2016, the Weather Channel released a report which categorically stated, “Scientists found links between extreme weather events and climate change.” We were warned and admonished to watch out for extreme weather events in the future. The Scientists did say that “extreme weather events such as heat waves or drought are being worsened by man-made climate change…” Reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found a link between extreme weather and climate change due to man-made global warming. The 2023 United Nations Climate Change/Climate Action report is Above: Forest fire in California. Photo by Luis Sinco, BBC. Below: Fort Myers, Florida after Hurricane Ian. Giorgio Viera, Bloomberg. highly anticipated. It is the sixth assessment report of hundreds of scientists who are members of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This 2023 report represents the key scientific input to a global conference COP28 which expects countries meeting this year to review progress towards the Paris Agreement goals. The world wants an answer to a key evaluation question: how well are we reaching laid down goals and objectives of the 2015 Paris Climate Action Agreements? The 2023 U.N. Climate Change report mentioned that the 1.5 C global temperature limit is still achievable. The global community does not want to exceed the risky and precarious 2.0 C level. The report also outlined “critical actions required across sectors and by everyone at all levels.” While the 2023 report reminds everyone in the world that increments of global warming could “come with more extreme weather events,” it emphatically stated the following: The report reiterates that humans are responsible for all global heating over the past 200 years leading to a current temperature rise of 1.1 C, above pre-industrial levels, which has led to more frequent and hazardous weather events that have caused increasing destruction of people and the planet. - Conclusion In the April 2019 Groundcover News edition, I wrote an article titled, “Earth Day: Reflections on Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability.” I noted that scientists agree nearly unanimously that human activity is causing Earth’s atmosphere and oceans to warm up, which threatens rising sea levels and warmer weather atmospheres. They say we must drastically reduce the amount of carbon we’re adding to the atmosphere or suffer the consequences in coming decades. In May 2021, Groundcover News published another of my articles, “Climate Change, Environmental Concerns and Net-Zero Carbon Emissions: Think Globally, Act Locally.” We attempted to show our readers the concerns of thousands of students at U-M and many more at other local universities and public school systems. We also shared with our Washtenaw County community what the University of Michigan’s administrators, faculty, staff and students are doing to address the risks and challenges of climate change. We definitely shared local government efforts by Ann Arbor City Council, Ypsilanti City Council and Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners to set achievable goals for reaching net-zero carbon emission by 2030. Not all climate scientists accept the statistical link between extreme stormy disasters such as tornadoes see WEATHER next page  APRIL 21 2023 CLIMATE CHANGE As a current out-of-state freshman, when I told someone I would attend the University of Michigan, people often had the same recurring advice for me: "Get ready for the brutal Michigan winters.” These slightly ominous remarks caused me to anticipate far more intense winters than what I was used to in New York. I assumed Michigan winters would be endless blizzarding with unbearably frigid temperatures, perpetual iciness and bone-chilling winds. During the fall in Michigan, I mentally and physically prepared myself for the impending winter; I even went shopping for snow necessities like thick gloves, snow pants and snow boots. Anytime the temperature dropped below 40 or 30 degrees Fahrenheit, I would think the infamous Michigan winter had finally arrived and prepared myself for an onslaught of various severe weather characteristics. But my snow boots and snow pants have remained virtually untouched, collecting dust in my closet, only being worn a handful of times. With the cold season nearing its end, I would say it has been a surprisingly mild winter. I thought my experience with the Michigan winter was simply because it was not as bad as I expected, already having dealt with cold winters all my life. However, after talking to some of The firsthand accounts of Michigan GIGI BYLINKSY U-M student contributor my fellow students, I realized this strange phenomenon is not due to my own personal experience with winter but rather a reflection of the changing climate. Max Sharnas, class of ‘26, a life-long Michigan resident and current U-M student, agreed that “this year the winter has been milder. There is usually a long stretch in the winter where there is a lot of snow on the ground, for a month straight or more. Now, we’ve only had a few storms and the snow melts quickly.” When talking with Zach Elmouchi class of ‘26, also a life-long Michigan resident and current U-M student, he expressed his concern that this mild winter “has something to do with climate change, and it’s a pressing problem right now. If it continues on it could really affect the future generations and the world.” students about the changing winters align with the data provided by the state of Michigan. When reviewing decades of temperature data provided by the National Weather Service, meteorologists concluded that Michigan winters, on average, have grown warmer and less snowy. Climatologists at the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments predict that this weather trend will continue, with average winter temperatures rising and, instead of having the typical snowstorm, having rain or freezing rain. These weather assessments portray a scary uncertainty for the changing climate of Michigan and call attention to the immediate effects of climate change. It is estimated that the average yearly temperature in Michigan, since 1900, has risen by two to three degrees Fahrenheit. Although this may seem like a small number, famous Michigan ecosystems are seeing real-time changes due to global warming. Since the 1970s, the ice coverage in the Great Lakes has dropped by 63%. In January 2021, the Great Lakes reached a “new low ice cover record.” Moreover, the rising water temperatures will allow some fish like bass, that thrive in the warm water, to increase in population while decreasing the availability of trout in the Great Lakes. This GROUNDCOVER NEWS Will winter be an artifact for future generations? poses risk to the natural food chain. Climate change also poses numerous health risks; higher temperatures allow the formation of ground-level ozone, a type of pollutant that is known for perpetuating severe health and heart problems. Additionally, extremely high temperatures pose numerous health risks to individuals: dehydration, heat stroke and strain to cardiovascular and nervous systems. Not to mention long-frozen pathogens that are being released as the tundra thaws. Climate change has been typically portrayed as an issue that will have more drastic impacts on the future generation than us, which is true. But as exemplified by the changing Michigan climate, no living thing is exempt from the environmental impacts that are happening right now. It is hard to grapple with the reality that something as reliable and constant as the weather and the changing seasons may present themselves very differently from what we historically consider. However, being informed about these seasonal changes can provide an opportunity for the Michigan government and residents alike to take further action in response to the changing climate. Hopefully, future generations of Michiganders will be able to put their winter clothes to use. 11  WEATHER from last page and global change. Those naysayers among the scientific community may be cherry-picking. They accept the notion that high temperatures which mix with atmospheric moisture could lead to extreme and costly weather events. But they are still reluctant to state a definite link. Writing for the online magazine, GIZMODO, Angely Mercado brought us the viewpoints of some climate scientists on the link between tornadoes and climate change, including the views of meteorologist and Northern Illinois Professor, Walker Ashley. Ashley believes that “there is plenty of evidence that global warming fuels extreme weather…” However, he said that some climate scientists are unsure how climate change influences individual tornadoes. Why? Dr. Ashley said because tornadoes are considered small weather events. He continued, “They begin and end within a relatively short time.” On December 14, 2021, PBS NewsHour discussed deadly tornado outbreaks in the U.S. PBS reporter John Yang answered Judy Woodruff’s question about the link between climate change and tornadoes. “Judy, while scientists are confident that climate is driving an increase in some natural disasters, in the case of tornadoes, they say it’s a bit trickier," Yang said. The link is unclear. We must have a life-boat ethic on climate change/global warming issues. All hands must be on deck. All communities must be engaged. We are fighting to save our lives, sustain and preserve the planet for future generations, and do something to minimize the cost, severity and gravity of these scary and of course, deadly extreme weather events. Good luck to us in America! Good luck to the wider world!! PUZZLE SOLUTIONS 10% OFF LUNCH JOIN US FOR 122 W. Liberty, Ann Arbor • oldtownaa.com • (734) 662-9291 Dine in only, offer good Mon - Sat 11:30 am - 4:00 pm, excludes alcohol. Expires 7/1/23

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Silky smooth salted caramel sauce CHRIS FIELDS Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 cups white sugar* 10 tablespoons butter, cut into slices 1 cup heavy cream Sea salt to taste *DANGER: Sugar melts at around 320 degrees and starts caramelizing at 340 degrees. It is also very sticky. Coming into contact with molten sugar can result in severe burns if you’re not careful. This recipe is worth the risk, but caution is advised. Directions: Cut up butter into small slices and place on a plate in the fridge. Place sugar in a deep, heavy-bottomed saucepan set over medium heat. After a few minutes, begin stirring the sugar as it starts to melt. At first, it will just clump together. Keep stirring as it continues to melt and turn amber in color. As more of the sugar melts, you may think that something has gone terribly wrong. You will find that most of the sugar is molten but that there are lots of clumpy bits. Have faith. Keep stirring until all of the sugar has melted, and reduce the heat if you think it’s browning too quickly. Any clumpy bits will result in a grainy caramel sauce. Once your sugar is entirely molten, stop stirring and continue to cook over medium heat until it reaches your desired level of caramelization. While you wait, take the butter out of the fridge. The longer you cook the sugar, the • Make money on your first day • Choose your own schedule • Work for yourself • Join a supportive community • Get started this week for FREE darker it will become. Lighter shades of blonde will result in a sweeter caramel with less depth. Darker shades of amber will result in a less sweet caramel with a more complex and rich flavor. I like to cook mine until it is dark amber and just barely starting to give off wisps of smoke. Once your desired level of caramelization is achieved, turn off the heat and carefully whisk in the butter until combined. This will stop the cooking process and instantly brown all of the butter at the same time. Be careful! The mixture will bubble up and release lots of hot steam. Make sure you’re wearing an oven mitt or using a long whisk so that you don’t get burned! Slowly pour in the cream while continuously stirring until you have a rich luxurious silky smooth caramel sauce Stir in your desired amount of sea salt, tasting periodically to assess the saltiness. I suggest serving with vanilla ice cream, drizzling on top of cake, fruit or pretzels! NEW VENDOR ORIENTATIONS ARE EVERY TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, 10 AM @ THE GCN OFFICE. Trainings take 90 minutes. New vendors will get a temporary badge and 10 free papers to start. BLAKE TRANSIT Willam St. AADL APRIL 21, 2023 BECOME A GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR The Groundcover office is located in the basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ (423 S 4th Ave, downtown Ann Arbor) $2 OFF OUR HOT BAR IS BACK! Available: Mon. - Fri. from 11-2 • Weekly menu at peoplesfood.coop ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 5/23/2023 Packard St. Fifth St. Fourth Ave.

2 $ APRIL 7, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 8 ASK YOUR YOUR DONATION BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Poetry Month 2023 — read a poem in A2, write a poem in Ypsi. Page 6 VENDOR: WHAT IS POETRY TO YOU? TONY SCHOHL, #9 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. POETRY EDITION 2023 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Felicia Wilbert, Groundcover vendor No. 234, reading from her murder-love story-mystery novel, "Billy Don't Kill Us" at Groundcover News' Hear Me Out open mic on March 25 at Argus Farm Stop. Photo credit: Luiza Duarte Caetano. @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER from the DIRECTOR's DESK Michigan Arts and Culture Council — that funded the publication of this issue. Groundcover News received a LINDSAY CALKA Managing Director If you look below this article, you will notice some new logos at the bottom of our evergreen section. The first one is the new International Network of Street Papers logo, which we have been a part of for a while. The other two are organizations — the National Endowment for the Arts and grant at the end of 2022 to publish more content promoting and sustaining arts and culture in our community, specifically to publish themed issues that allow us to dive deeper into the arts and widen our pool of contributors. April is National Poetry Month — what better time to put together a collective issue of literary arts? And who better than Groundcover vendors to distribute this, connecting with folks in our community with every sale? Groundcover routinely publishes poetry from a variety of local poets, many of whom are Groundcover vendors. To kick off this month in a special way, we thought a poetry edition was in order to celebrate those contributions and encourage budding poets. At the Hear Me Out Open Mic on March 25, we heard from some poets on topics such as carceral justice, changing seasons, grief and love. It was a proof that anyone can be a poet, and many types of spoken/written word have the potential to evoke grand emotions. Further, it was a great reminder that we need more time and space to share art in a decommodified fashion. We certainly look forward to hosting another open mic soon, maybe outdoors this time! Whether the last time you read a poem was the poetry unit in fourth grade English class, or you had to put down a poetry book to read this newspaper, there is something in this issue for you. But don't worry, we didn't omit the meat and potatoes of Groundcover News. Turn to pages 9-12 for puzzles, Truth or Lies mystery column, a piece from Ken Parks, (lots of new) coupons and a recipe. Thanks to the NEA/MACC Project Support Grant, you can look forward to more arts-themed content this year. Our next special issue will be a magazine feauturing exceptional individuals in the community; it hits the street Wednesday, April 19. Thank you to the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Arts and Culture Council for funding arts and culture from the ground up! APRIL 7, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Teresa Basham Elizabeth Bauman La Shawn Carlisle Juan González Valdivieso Rainey Lamey Markona Love Monkey (Josh L.) Ron Pagereksi Ken Parks Ameera Salman Karen Totten Felicia Wilbert PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Gigi Bylinsky Carson Collins Rhea Punjabi Elliot Cubit Layla McMurturie Anabel Sicko Melanie Wenzel VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Logan Brown Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Zachary Dortzbach Robert Klingler Grace Sielinski Mira Simonton-Chao Alex Tarbet Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenburg Navya Yagalla Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES PACKAGE PRICING Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons APRIL 7, 2023 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What is poetry to you? Something from the heart. — Tony Schohl, #9 Poetry makes you feel good; it makes you think, too. — Gary Leverett, #554 It means ... expressing yourself about the life you're dealing with and life in general. Poetry is letting people know your inner self. — James Tennant, #174 Poetry means freedom of emotional expression. — Markona Love, #590 It's a mathematical way of arranging words beautifully. — Daniel Wilcox, #592 Poetry to me is capturing your inner creativity. — Joe Woods, #103 All kinds of statements, all kinds of expressions. However you can document emotions and paint a picture. That is poetry. — Glen Page, #407 Beautiful, rhetorical expression of art. — Mike Jones, #113 Something that rhymes ... or not. — Felicia Wilbert, #234 Winter/Spring ANONYMOUS Groundcover vendor Along comes March Every day is different Some cloudy, some sun Hopefully more sun. For now, after a winter storm, the sunshine and warmth The snow, melting – can you hear it? Where new little streams, the running of the water from the rooftops it's the melting of the snow you can hear. Like lots of little tiny streams running everywhere. It's kind of soothing because the sun is warmer and you can hear water trickling. Can you guess who wrote this? GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Conduit to the universe MARKONA LOVE Groundcover vendor No. 590 Now I See From Here To There Light Was There Now It's Here A Wing of Feathers Truth Flies In Awareness Arrives Void Undone New Day Rise Old Day Fade Open Space Knowledge Replace This Pig Flies Kona, Quaker Parrot. Fallen feather MARKONA LOVE Upon a Fallen Feather I Float Weightless from Loss Falling Forever Green to Grey Faded Light Darkness Set In the Sea, A Light Distant Bright But, with Great Might Memories Avail Warmth Prevails From my Fallen Feather What would YOU ask? If you have a question you would like Groundcover vendors to answer in this column, email us at contact@groundcovernews.com We will be featuring vendor responses in future issues. 122 W. Liberty, Ann Arbor • oldtownaa.com • (734) 662-9291 Dine in only, offer good Mon - Sat 11:30 am - 4:00 pm, excludes alcohol. Expires 7/1/23 10% OFF LUNCH JOIN US FOR

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LOVE Perfect love TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 One day you'll have a great catch, You'll have a perfect match, Unconditional love you'll be attached, You'll love their touch, Without sayin too much, You'll never be misunderstood, Even if you're from tha hood, Everythang will be, Just you and me, You'll be able to feel their pain, Sometimez you'll go insane, But thatz true love, Wit out a doubt, Ya know you'll alwayz be thankful of, There will be no chance, That you'd ever bounce, You'll never want it ta change, Alwayz wantin that perfect love, Ta stay tha same. APRIL 7, 2023 Love was a game to me AMEERA SALMAN Groundcover contributor Forever— And ever— And ever. Will i go, Will i search, For what i seek. I seek forever In pale gold lighting. A hand to a cheek. In silent prayer, Fingers caress down my spine, An easy defeat— If you’re mine. All for you TERESA BASHAM Sometimez I think about, Sometimez I doubt, I know I love you, Wit all my heart, I know I don't wanna be apart, But therez a possibility thangz don't stay, And one I will walk away, If we make it strong, I know it won't go wrong, My love izz everlasting and true, But it depends on you, I want this til my dyin day, My love will alwayz be, Believe you & me, I'm not goin anywhere, My love izz there, And itz all for you. I seek forever In the fallen snow— There is nothing but you, That i know. I push— Away, Away, From the cold— Into waiting arms. I seek forever In the summer heat— Drops of water and skin meet. A prayer— An answer. On a blanket Under stars, Skin touching skin. A prayer— An answer, I win. I seek forever— In a world I’ve never seen— Where grasshoppers fly And mountaintops glean. Not meant to be RON PAGERESKI Groundcover contributor She is only a dream to me, like forbidden fruit on a tree. For her I dare not reach, she even stops short my speech. I know it may sound silly, but near her my legs turn to jelly. Thoughts of her make me dizzy, make my whole world fizzy. She is a fantasy, heaven sent. Off limits to me, I lament. I wish she had never entered my sight, I am with her often in the dreams of night. Thoughts of her consume and spellbind me, like an intoxicating elixir numbs the senses, breaking down all my defenses. I am drunk on her charm, oh, just to have her on my arm and look into her pretty eyes and find all the stars that fill the skies. Near her my legs get weak, I can only stutter when I try to speak. I fear however I did discover, that she belongs to another. Forever And ever And ever, Will i go— Will i search— For what i seek. When what i seek, Is not meek. It is a forever, That looks like— I won. APRIL 7, 2023 POETRY Leaf Quidditch LORRAINE LAMEY Groundcover contributor The chlorophyll has left the leaves. A zephyr sets the branches waving farewell to their bright or brown denizens. The road ahead drops just right for the tilted pitch of a Seeker’s two-wheeler. My bicycle and I take flight coasting downhill at a hearty speed and with precarious leanings but not so precarious as in years past. We sail among the drifting leaves dancing like sunbeams in and out of my outstretched fingers. I am transfigured with each ascension though my pace and joints evoke the rickety-clickety clack of an early wooden roller coaster hauling a full load to its peak height. The ten minute ascent garners scarcely a two minute ride. Push off, pedal a bit, brakes ready for the all-stop intersection, clear? Then pedal furiously to make up for caution. During each descent, the leaves and wind stream by and slough off another decade from my heart and soul. Weight, worry, and weariness whip behind me. By the fourth ascent, I am ten-years-old again and playing leaf quidditch on my bicycle. In that moment of refulgent joy, a wee brightest yellow sugar maple leaf finds me. Beloved Sinner LORRAINE LAMEY Some days chock full of sin all I can feel is the sun shining clean through inside and back out again. O happy fault, Adam's fall from grace, when the world's made right wrong as it is. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 LA SHAWN CARLISLE Groundcover vendor Do not take this piece personal. I had no rehearsal, this is the first draft. I simply am doing what I've done For longer than many do not see or know I am very comfortable with this platform to write my poetry Some may feel or imagine, they are out of place Yet, I do this just because In this, In it, I've not any room for hassles I do not have to run anyone's race My place is right here in this poem I write That is the idea I must feel that I'm at "MY" top Not as a so-called status quo that's been established many days ago To think me as shallow of perceptions most having not one thing to do with "ME" Because they were just straddling "MY" surface It was and is a malfeasance to the deeper "ME" So much more than their own limited views Such limited absurdity This written voice is such a beautiful and true reflection of "MY" abilities with this pen and paper Yet, also inclusive a many testament to this world's tragedies I am also a reflection of true undying human resilience Not just the things done unto "ME" Greater is my life now for it I'm looking forward to the Greatest gift An everlasting life that nothing or anything from or of this world can give to "ME"

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY MONTH Poetry Month 2023 —read a poem in A2, write a poem in Ypsi CYNTHIA PRICE Editor Tree Town transforms into PoetTreeTown for the entire month of April in honor of National Poetry Month. Ann Arbor’s inaugural “community celebration event” matches up poets and local businesses to spread the love of poetry. Look closely in the windows of Ann Arbor businesses and enterprises to see a wide variety of poetic genres displayed on simple letter-size white sheets. Venues include 826michigan, Avalon Café and Bakery, Blake Transit Center, Bløm Meadworks, Blue Tractor, BonBonBon, Cherry Republic, Dawn Treader, Downtown Home and Garden, Found, Grizzly Peak, Jolly Pumpkin, the Downtown Library, Third Mind Books, Vault of Midnight and Vinology, but keep a sharp eye out and you will find many more. According to PoetTreeTown organizer Cameron Finch, a University of Michigan graduate who moved on to get her MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts, “For me this is a labor of love, but I’ve also seen so much community effort by the businesses and poets who’ve been involved.” Finch was inspired in part by VCFA’s home, Montpelier, VT. “There’s so much appreciation of arts and culture – such a spirit of celebrating the talent within the town and sharing it with others.” Viewing Ann Arbor as a similar milieu, she decided to help “increase the community’s free access to art” as well as to deepen her own familiarity with what is going on in the local poetry scene. “It was important to me to have many voices represented. The current poetry industry has so many gatekeepers,” she says. “I liked the idea of just coming around a corner and finding a poem.” Each installation includes a QR code which when scanned allows viewers to hear the poet read it. Poems are also featured on the group’s Facebook (www.facebook.com/ PoetTreeTownA2) and Instagram pages. There will also be a live event in celebration, coming up quickly. On April 8 at 8:00 p.m., Third Mind Books, purveyor of Beat Generation classics and rare first editions, will join PoetTreeTown for a free Open Mic. Not to be outdone, Ypsilanti will celebrate in a number of National Poetry Month events. Among them, the wonderful folks at Ypsi Writes want to help you become a poet yourself with two workshops. On April 15 see CELEBRATE page 8  Poet Tree Town Ann Arbor | April 2023 Subconsciousness / Consciousness In this auditorium And narrow Silence beside huge Shadows are frozen In a web on dust besides grotesque masks, props Hideousness on the Mirror reflects True form unclouded as uncave unburied alive Still light showing life real window curtains wide open see peer look the dancers are here ego the dancers are here! —Christopher Ellis View the PoetTreeTown Map PoetTreeTownA2@gmail.com IG: @poettreetown_a2 | #PoetTreeTown Look for Christopher Ellis's, Groundcover vendor No. 483, poem around A2! APRIL 7, 2023 Listen to the poem here! THANK YOU WASHTENAW COUNTY For supporting recovery Accessing substance use treatment should be quick and easy. Millage resources have helped simplify the process. LEMONT GORE FORMER STREET OUTREACH COORDINATOR UNIFIED HIV HEALTH AND BEYOND 24/7 CALL FOR MENTAL HEALTH OR SUBSTANCE USE SUPPORT 734-544-3050 Brought to you by the 2019 - 2026 Washtenaw County Public Safety and Mental Health Preservation Millage washtenaw.org/millage APRIL 7, 2023 POETRY This is a tree JUAN GONZALEZ VALDIVIESO Groundcover contributor This is a Tree Seed, Root, Leaf Weed, Wood, Beef Need, Love, Seen Lean, Full Pristine All it does is exist Yet They promptly insist On making it enlist It attempts to resist The struggle, a cyst Weaponized to lynch brothers and sisters Lethalized to make martyrs of victims Brutalized to make profits and pillage (and spew carbon emissions) Utilized to make authors of villains “Victimless” It dreams, though it witnesses It misses kids And innocence It listens in The whisperings A pilgrimage To peaceful bliss This is a Tree Shield, Shade, Life Wield blade, Knife Reap, Make, Fight Ally, Comrade Our Collective Might Hobo navigation MONKEY (JOSH L.) Groundcover contributor No home, Cold, Feeling free and bold, Weed as common as mold, Seeing egos at Delonis fold, going into fight or flight mode. If lost, Fred has advice worth more than gold; And always think twice before doing what is told For what may be sold, may be old. Fred is a famous worker at Delonis, who is known for going out of his way to help clients. 'Seeing egos at Delonis fold, going into fight and flight mode' is representative of the constant fighting over miniscule issues. I chose this topic because a lot of homeless people read the paper as it's sold by homeless and formerly homeless vendors. Most of them can closely relate to Fred's helpfulness, the constant fighting at Delonis, and other elements exclusive to the homeless experience and my poem. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Lady of the night RON PAGERESKI Groundcover contributor Into the arms of Morpheus I fall to meet the dark lady of my dreams. She walks without a sound as if on gilded butterfly wings. When her bonny eye lights on me I tremble to my knees. My tongue will not utter the words in my heart. My soul overwhelmed shudders in its passion. I reach but find her gone. Morning sun peaks through dismal curtains, another day flying solo.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY What the stars see KAREN L. TOTTEN Groundcover contributor What the stars know, What the North Star sees could take years to tell. They see the tops of our heads, sleep tossed hair, many different hats—scarves and ball caps, knit winter beanies, UM golf caps, a child’s tiara. They see flowers of umbrellas blooming at the first touch of rain, the chalky beams of yellow street lamps, lamp light reflections in inky pools of water and the hood of the bus hurrying, hurrying, late to dinner. They see the roof of the sky kissing late spring snowy hills, the passing hours of the innocent, wanderings of the lost. They see the river Huron like a vein pulsing across the skin of the Earth. Throat of the sun, moon’s bald pate, the surrounding broad kingdoms of trees, the arboretum, Gallup Park, full of mysteries, and faerie doors, and frogs. What the stars see of me is none of my business. I feel their gaze even in the heat of day. I am writing. I keep writing. I keep thinking we all find what we go looking for: shadows, halos. My friend Carolyn said, “This is a city of many people, trying.” I Have Not Given All I Can KAREN L. TOTTEN I have not given all I can to the effort of healing my heart.  CELEBRATE from page 6 Here it is the sixth decade of my life and still I am a babe who longs for mother, child looking for a home, woman walking alone, unable to save her parents from the inexorable climb life makes toward death. I am going about this wrong, I think. Forgiveness cannot be found in regret. Here is the world all around us every moment, if we only look. In my backyard the splendid willow tree bends to caress the wet face of the earth, the peonies unclench their tight fists to open their very colors. Life is sometimes a dark room where the light comes in only if we lift the blinds. from 1:00 to 2:15, beginners can learn from experienced Ypsilanti Poets David Boeving and Michelle Lietz how to make poetry out of their ideas in From Your Past to the Page: An Introductory Poetry Workshop over Zoom. To register, visit https://attend.ypsilibrary.org/event/7933444. Then on April 29, in Toward a Poetic Album: An Intermediate Poetry Workshop, the same writers will “introduce intermediate poetic devices and challenge writers to imagine a suite of poems they can write after the workshop.” Though the April 29 workshop is more advanced, people of all skill levels may attend. The registration can be found at https://attend.ypsilibrary.org/event/7895785. Combining National Poetry Month and Earth Day is probably not a unique idea but the Ypsilanti District Library Michigan Avenue Branch (229 W. Michigan) is hosting the only such event in our area on April 22 at 1:00 p.m. Performers. including Leslie McGraw and Desirae Simmons, will offer up their work followed by time for an open group conversation and a limited number of Open Mic readings. There are many more celebratory events during April, including a National Poetry Month Meet-up April 23 (4:00 p.m.) at the downtown Ann Arbor Library. This month, take a step out of your comfort zone and enjoy a poem — or write one! How To Grow A Beautiful Heart KAREN L. TOTTEN No one said it would be easy An early spring rain and sun can awaken you, the ripening summer days. Just stand by the open windows and listen to Joni sing, try to sing along. Walk down shady streets beside yr. dear friends as they travel through their lives. Be someone’s anchor; be yr. own. Beauty and tribulation can walk together, but don’t let sadness make you mourn yr. life. Learn the verses to love poems, to sad poems, and recite as needed. Yr. past regrets and mistakes become kindling for the cold flames of yr. secrets. Draw courage from these transformations as you become you over and over again, every moment. Yr. heart turns bright scarlet as the burning bush of autumn behind the little house on Beyer Road, a meeting place for God and spirit. In the moments of one hero’s true life remember joy waits in the golden light of forgiveness in yr. luminous wounded heart. APRIL 7, 2023 APRIL 7, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS WORD SEARCH: RIVERS! S R D S A A V S Y E N I S E Y C Y D A O M E O E O R A N G E O J R S N M A S L Z F I R H D L H O D C U M Z L G E L B E N O D E R A R B E O S A A R R I R U N V D R M E W N I E A H L A O B W V A Y K O B Y O H O E D L R A T Y N A M M A C M N S O R H I N E Z U P E N O A E L N T U N N G L S A K G N P B E Y H D D P O I Y R O T G U H N U A S U C R C S A N Z O T U A K M O S G F Z O N G E A R A L O E N I R R A W A D D Y A N M N S T W I L L A M E T T E G A WORD BANK: Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. Amazon Brahmaputra Colorado Columbia Congo Danube Elbe Huang Hudson Indus Irrawaddy Jordan Lena Mekong Murray Nile Oder Orange Orinoco Parana Rhine Rhone Seine Somme Syr Darya Thames Tigris Ubangi Volga Willamette Yangtze Yellow Yenisey Yukon 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS EASTER Benny the bully Easter Bunny Benny was a troublesome, spoiled child who always wanted things his way. He bullied everyone he could. He would cheat during all games that were not adult-supervised. The children were afraid of him and would let him win; everyone thought he was a natural at all the games and sports. It was the last day before spring break and Benny was threatening the only friends he had left. Jane and Charles were the only kids who played with him. He wanted them to visit after school, hoping to persuade them to vote for him to be the town’s Easter Bunny. Benny always wanted to play this role; he was finally tall enough this year. However, Jacob, who always played the role, was not giving in to Benny. Benny used his usual threat of not letting their parents purchase any toys at all of the locations his dad's factory supplied. Jacob was a polite, well-mannered young man who wanted to become a teacher. Jacob was tired and frustrated with Benny’s rude, overbearing, bullying behavior. His plan was to remind the kids how much fun they had without the bully. He talked with everyone he could during recess, hoping they would stand up to the bully. During spring break he posted posters all over FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 town saying, “Remember when the fun never ends, vote for Jacob.” “What? No way!” Benny said as he ripped down his opponent's posters. He laughed out loud, hollering for everyone to hear, saying, “You won't win this year!” He pushed down anyone standing near a poster before destroying it. Jane asked him to stop tearing down the posters. Benny shoved her and said, “What a little baby girl,” teasing her. She got real upset with him and walked off, leaving him and Charles. “You should not have treated her that way,” Charles said. Benny got up in his face and asked, “What are you going to do about it?” He then put Charles in a headlock, nuggying his head saying, “You whiner … always whining.” Charles was embarrassed and walked off upset, wanting to punch Benny. The next morning Charles awoke early riding his bicycle to everyone's house. He invited them to a secret meeting at the old zoo. Everyone agreed to arrive early; they knew Benny did not like to wake up early when school was out. At the meeting everyone vented their frustrations about Benny. They swore a secret pact not to tell Benny about their plans or the meeting. The morning of the vote was upon them, everyone was in attendance. Benny spoke first, stating his plans to have a big egg hunt and ice cream party. Jacob spoke and reminded them how much fun they had playing the games and all the treats in years past. This year the golden egg would contain $5.00. The children were amazed — where would he would get that kind of money? It was time for the vote, everyone placed it into the bunny basket. The vote was counted and it read Benny 28 and Jacob 7. Benny shouted, “I knew I would win, nah-nah, in your face loser!” He then announced that the APRIL 7, 2023 party would be on Friday not Saturday as usual. Everyone turned and looked at him thinking he was too much. Now he’s changing the day of the party. They all agreed to Friday’s party then dispersed leaving upset. The morning of the party Benny arose early, excited about playing the Easter Bunny. He put on his suit and hurried to greet everyone. One hour passed and no one was there. He thought, “Oh everyone’s just late because of the new time of the party.” Three hours had passed still no one showed — not even his two friends. Six hours had passed and his mother was cleaning up wondering why no one had showed. Benny ran to his room crying see BUNNY next page  - APRIL 7, 2023 SOLIDARITY Cuba or bust In 1979 my father, the Reverend James K. Parks went to Cuba with Christians for Socialism. He said that their mental health care was better than ours: “You will never get rich but you don’t need to worry about what happens when you get old.” Solidarity work has motivated both spiritual and KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 If you read my Groundcover articles “The Problems We Cause for Ourselves” and especially “Welcome Refugees…” you will know Cuba and the United States have a long, intimate history. Actions and their results – known as karma – have brought me into this history. Jose Marti is the historical saint of solidarity in America. Journalist, poet and revolutionary, he is the Patron Saint of the Cuban revolution. He was a journalist in the United States and referred to the United States as America.” the “other political aspirations. I am notorious for being both spiritual and political. In 1992 I was asked to look at the Caravan to Cuba project that was proposed by Pastors for Peace. I became the lead organizer for southeast Michigan and we did one or more caravans every year beginning that year. They were all hosted by the Martin Luther King Center in Marianao, Cuba. The MLK Center has a significant relationship for me to this day. I was also assistant to the founder of the U.S.Cuba Labor Exchange, working with trade union centered delegations. I began traveling to Cuba regularly, met Odalys on a solidarity project in 1997 and by 2000 was married to her in Cuba. Odalys is Cuba; when I married her, I married Cuba. Solidarity and love are expressions of life and are found in the changes that surprise us, as compatibility and incompatibility do their dialectical dance. The friendship of solidarity is a strong foundation and runs deeper than romantic love, so we are blessed to have a deep friendship. The struggle continues, Hasta la victoria siempre is a common phrase meaning "towards victory forever!" I am part of a large and extended family and have been supporting several households for 26 years now. Priorities change and my ahijadas (godchildren) became the priority, especially mother and son ahijados. I am a mentor, protector and spiritual friend. The money I have sent left me with no savings, and now is the time to go back and see family that I have not seen since before COVID-19. I have two missions. One coincides with the Ann Arbor delegation to May Day this year. May Day is International Workers day and is celebrated widely in Cuba. Every trade union hall has a party that starts the night before. On May Day, millions march with many international contingents. It’s a collective 24 hour party. Cuba solidarity includes Yousef Rabhi, Felix Sharp Caballero, Democratic Socialists of America, among others. We will do a report back in July, maybe the 26th, which is considered the beginning of the Cuban revolution. My second mission is to spend time with my Cuban family, including those who want to emigrate and help me in my last years. We are sons and daughters of the earth with homes in Cuba and Ann Arbor. We want to promote relations between the peoples. I hope you will be our guest in Guanabacoa, our neighborhood on the other side of Havana Bay. We will ride the ferry back and forth. I want to take tennis shoes and eye drops among other donations when I go. I think I can get a ticket but need financial help for everything else to stay at least one month in Cuba. Credit and debit cards do not work in Cuba so my social security will not be available until I am back in the United States. I have to take enough cash for the duration. I have people who work for Radio Havana English broadcasts; maybe I will get an interview and report our work to the world. The possibilities for solidarity work are as big as your imagination. Imagine a sailboat flotilla around the island or a bicycle tour into the provinces. The Golden Rule sailboat was in Cuba recently. Visit vfpgoldenruleproject.org and learn about this Veterans for Peace project which will take place in Toledo and Detroit in September. My time in Cuba is always busy with family and solidarity work. If you want to support this trip you can find the Venmo code at the bottom right corner of any Groundcover issue, and pay to @groundcovernews. Enter Ken Parks 490 in the notes. Muchas gracias for your solidarity. Grant your blessings that we continue the struggle for the flourishing of human dignity and well being. Hasta la victoria siempre! To contact me please call 313.918.2453. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11  BUNNY from last page because no one liked him. His mother consoled him saying maybe they forgot because of the new time. Benny knew deep down in his heart he had treated everyone terribly. His mother went to the grocery store to purchase some milk. She invited him but he refused to go. Benny knew he had to fix this or there would be no Easter. He jumped on his bicycle pedaling fast, reaching Jane’s house first. He knocked at the door and she talked from behind the door, still upset with him. Benny apologized and asked, “Can we all start over? I promise not to push, shove or try to take over every situation, please forgive me Jane.” She was amazed, never hearing him so humble. She opened the door and asked, “Do you mean it? You know, about being sorry for being a bully?” Benny crossed his heart and said, “If I act like that again you can punch my lights out! I was terrible, please forgive me. You think everyone else will accept my apology?” “I don’t know but you should try,” said Jane. Benny then asked Jane if she would go with him. Thank you Truth Or Lies readers you voted right, "King Charman the Leprechaun," published March 10, was FALSE. She knew he had changed. She got on her bicycle and rode all over with him as he apologized to everyone. They all met at the Ice Cream parlor; once again he apologized to everyone at the same time. He then asked, “Could we celebrate Easter tomorrow? And can Jacob be the Easter Bunny?” Everyone agreed and laughed while getting to know the new Benny.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Spinach-cheese lasagna ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 ½ pounds fresh spinach, coarsely chopped 1 15 oz. container ricotta cheese 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese 1 egg ¾ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon pepper 30 ounces spaghetti sauce 10 uncooked lasagna noodles 8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded (I use a bit over two cups) ¾ to 1 cup water Directions: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine the spinach, ricotta, ½ cup parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix. Spread ½ cup spaghetti sauce in a greased 12x8x2 inch pan. Arrange 4 lasagne noodles side-byside on spaghetti sauce, break other noodles to fill remaining space. Spread one-half of spinach mixture on noodles and evenly spread. Sprinkle ½ of mozzarella on top. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS S R D S A A V S Y E N I S E Y C Y D A O M E O E O R A N G E O J R S N M A S L Z F I R H D L H O D C U M Z L G E L B E N O D E R A R B E O S A A R R I R U N V D R M E W N I E A H L A O B W V A Y K O B Y O H O E D L R A T Y N A M M A C M N S O R H I N E Z U P E N O A E L N T U N N G L S A K G N P B E Y H D D P O I Y R O T G U H N U A S U C R C S A N Z O T U A K M O S G F Z O N G E A R A L O E N I R R A W A D D Y A N M N S T W I L L A M E T T E G A APRIL 7, 2023 Repeat layering ending with spaghetti sauce. Sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup of parmesan cheese. Run a knife around the edges of the casserole. Carefully spoon water around the edge; don't worry if it mixes with sauce. Cover the casserole TIGHTLY with tin foil, crimping edges. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until noodles are tender. Allow to rest for 10 minutes and then serve. A family favorite, I make our favorite basic marinara for the sauce. Holy Thursday, Mass of the Lord’s Supper: April 6th 7pm; Good Friday: April 7th Stations of the Cross 12pm; Veneration of the Cross 1:30pm Easter Vigil: April 8th, 8:00pm Easter Sunday: April 9th, 8:30am, 10:30am, 12:30pm; 2:30pm Spanish Mass (no 5pm evening Mass) INTERNATIONAL COMFORT CUISINE! Available: Mon. - Fri. from 11-2 • Weekly menu at peoplesfood.coop PFC Kitchen proudly presents : $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 4/30/2023

2 $ MARCH 24, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 7 YOUR DONATION BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. 49th Annual Dance for Mother Earth Powwow is March 25-26. Page 4 MEET YOUR VENDOR: LARZELL WASHINGTON PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Ozone House: a sanctuary for struggling youth in Washtenaw County. page 5 Photography by Saif Sarab THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER in this ISSUE WHAT the STREET TOOK Markona Love, page 3 PHOTO ESSAY: THURSDAYS at OZONE Saif Sarab, page 6 U-M OPENS the 27th EXHIBITION of ARTS in MI PRISONS Aaron James, page 7 THE WOMEN of GROUNDCOVER NEWS Lit Kurtz, page 10 and 11 WHAT HAPPENED to the MIDDLE CLASS? Mike Jones, page 10 A GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY OPEN MIC MARCH 25TH, 6-8PM ARGUS FARM STOP, LIBERTY CAFE Join the Groundcover News community for another open mic centering on community perspectives on social injustices! content CORRECTION In last issue's article titled "The Ann Arbor rental market is a pretty scary place," it was stated that landlords can't require you to resign a lease until 150 days have passed of a lease. Instead it should have read, "In 2021, City Council amended the Early Leasing Ordinance so that landlords cannot require tenants to sign leases before 150 days remain on the lease." For a year-long lease, this is about 7 months into the leasing period. If you have any questions, please email renterscommission@a2gov.org A WORKSHOP ON BUILDING NARRATIVE POWER MARCH 24TH, 2-4:30PM ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY DOWNTOWN BRANCH - FREESPACE Join journalist Lauren Slager and Groundcover News for an op-ed writing workshop at the Ann Arbor District Library. Link lived experience with a call to action to inspire change in your community! Participants will be invited to speak at the following open mic and publish in Groundcover News. MARCH 24, 2023 HEAR ME OUT! CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Aaron James Mike Jones Lit Kurtz Markona Love Calista Redington Saif Sarab Will Shakespeare Maya Strohband PROOFREADERS Angelina Akdis Susan Beckett Robert Coulter Elliot Cubit Sooyun Kim GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Layla McMurturie Jesse Owen Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith Erin Trame VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Logan Brown Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Zachary Dortzbach Robert Klingler Grace Sielinski Mira Simonton-Chao Alex Tarbet Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenburg Navya Yagalla Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons MARCH 24, 2023 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR What the street took To my Sisters and Brothers of the street … I write this directly to you and about Us — who carry an experienced awareness of a reality that we all share. Our conversation is meant to be heard by all, so to educate and create awareness in other human beings who care. We lose all our monetary possesLarzell Washington, vendor No. 128 In one sentence, who are you? I try to be an understanding person. Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? Everywhere, but more recently, Bobcat Bonnie’s on Michigan Ave. What is your favorite thing to do in Ypsilanti? Talk to people. Why did you start selling Groundcover? I believe it was just my niche in life. Life recruited me. What words do you live by? Forgive while you are still here. Lack of forgiveness is a psychological disorder. What are you most likely to be famous for? Communicating well with people. Or bank robbery ... just joking! What's the best way to start the day? Saying “good morning.” What is a small thing that makes your day better? A nice, cold Faygo. Orange flavor. What would be the first thing you did if you won the lottery? Shop for joy! If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? A nice chef’s salad with ranch and thousand island dressing. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? I would like to see Washtenaw County recognize mental health more. That it is a real situation. sions, getting shoved to the street, but the struggle is in what of Us we leave on the street that we may never recover and the pain carried from losing an irreplaceable part of Us. For me, it was my most loved and trusted companion Kona, and the peace of mind from believing the system would take the necessary action. The story is so sadly common — unscrupulous landlords and a landlord-biased system. Many landlords/apartment managers of low income housing are nothing more than criminals riding the “river of bias” streaming through our authoritative system. Really, you're forever one foot out the door, often ending up in a homelessness carousel. This creates an insecurity that is painfully and possibly permanently burnt into a consciousness that may struggle with recovering from a previous ignorance of insecurity. So many people who have not had this experience do not realize they are just one step away from “one step beyond.” So, how did we get here/there from here/there? What did we (Us) lose of ourselves, how do we lose it and is there a way back, emotionally? How were you put on the street(s)? I can only imagine the countless — possibly close to infinite — ways. Each tragic story is so specific to each special human being. I say “special human being” because that human being got knocked down, taken out, and now you see that “special human being” trudging with a backpack or shoving a cart … you’re witnessing somebody of great courage attempting to get the f*** back up! We all need to respectfully ask that person their story. We all have something to learn from everybody, especially the homeless who show the greatest strength and courage, fighting a seemingly endless battle. Their story might help save your life or somebody's that you love. This battle starts day one and you soon realize the system is completely inadequate; therefore it’s a seemingly unwinnable battle. But you're watching a human being who MARKONA LOVE Groundcover vendor No. 590 knows how you're looking at them but fights on. I have seen this fight clearly since I was young, all over the world. There is an endless list of tragic ways in which some of our hearts were taken from us. How do “Homers” (the housed unaware) cope and grieve? Attend funerals, Shivas, consoling potlucks at home, vacations from work and more. Ask Homers how hard it was to cope … then ask how they would have done it if they have to shove all that pain deep down, hold their head up and drive on into the wind — work it to get it (food, heat, sleep, transportation, safety) or just give up and die! The homeless can and do come from various economic stations. Intelligence, education, or original status does not make you impervious to a “slip and fall” to the street. Some of our Ann Arbor homeless people have several jobs and are still unable to obtain permanent housing. Many of Us also volunteer, support other homeless people in need and contribute actively to our community. Many homeless people are cognizant and ultraaware of politics in order to just navigate a dysfunctional system. We (Us) have to be more informed and aware than others in order to be consistently facilitating a far more complex way of survival. Homers base their assumptions on a preconceived bias, based solely on appearance. These misconceptions support the system, pigeonholing us into a convenient place on their game board. Then we become pliable to the machine merely to become fuel for their fodder. You are now whatever they want you to be — your life becomes a loose kite with them carelessly holding the string. You hope for grace, but that's spread far and thin these days. So you reach for a belief/faith or maybe some luck from the cosmos. In the end it relies on HOPE. Hope is the edge of the cliff. To all So many people who have not had this experience do not realize they are just one step away from 'one step beyond.' of you on the streets, from the street, or on the way to the street — hold on, don’t let go — don't give up that hope, that's yours. Keep it safe and nourished. Don't let it go. Believe it or not there are other human beings who will love and care about you but, it might take awhile for someone to see you for who you truly are, a special person that needs some help and understanding — empathy, love. Everyone of us is a beautiful human being who just needs some level of help — getting it right. It's a comfortable release for the ignorant to quickly judge instead of caring with any empathy. Yes, it’s an effort. Anything worthwhile is, like an investment. Do not give up hope, ever! After putting some real time in on the street you start to lose faith in this system; it wears you down with poorly placed protocols, incompetence and just plain inaction … sometimes purposeful. We (Us) know of this, and several of Us have experienced this firsthand — some more than others, usually due to prejudice. This just beats you down, and some politicians are counting on that. It’s all figured into the design of the bills they write. This practice includes all Washington politicians, from one end of the spectrum to the other, even the ones that throw Us an occasional crumb. This is something Homers aren’t told but many of Us experience directly. And, in the same way they suppress minority rights, they then turn Us against each other to divide and conquer. Remember who is at the keyboard that are the switches of your destiny — life! Oh! Don’t forget social media — they’ve mastered it to their own, eventual self-destruction. They’ll try to shove you so far into the corner that you start dropping diamonds. This is something I experienced, and am still experiencing. If we (Us) try to help or inform others, Uncle Sam comes down on Us with no mercy, with “Maxwell’s Silver see STREET page 8  GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 "

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POWWOW MARCH 24, 2023 Drum circle from the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow in 2018. Images obtained from the U-M Powwow website. 49th Annual Dance for Mother Earth Powwow is March 25-26, 2023 When you know who you are; when your mission is clear and you burn with the inner fire of unbreakable will; no cold can touch your heart; no deluge can dampen your purpose. You know that you are alive! — Chief Seattle, Duwamish (1780-1866) The 49th Annual Dance for Mother Earth Powwow, co-sponsored by the University of Michigan Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives and the U-M Native American Student Association, will be held on March 25-26 at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor. The powwow is a celebration of American Indian culture. The annual event is one of the largest student-run powwows in the country, bringing together over 1,000 Native American singers, dancers and artists from across North America. “People from diverse indigenous nations gather for the purpose of dancing, singing and honoring the traditions of their ancestors,” according to ethnomusicologist Tara Browner. The ritual likely originated from one of the Algonquian nations known as the Northeast Indians. In the past, individual tribes would gather and celebrate by themselves. Today, powwow is intertribal and inclusive. The contemporary powwow is a fusion of different tribal traditions. “The songs and dances performed at 21st-century powwows derive primarily from those practiced by the warrior societies of the Plains Indians,” Browner said, “with the greatest influences coming from the Heluska WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 Native Americans in its origin, history, growth and success. The annual powwow event is in line with U-M’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion mission, which aims to “work to create a university community that reflects the vast, rich heterogeneity of the state and the broader society.” On Sept. 29, 1817, the Treaty of Fort Warrior Society styles common to the Omaha and Ponca peoples.” Powwow in Washtenaw County In 1972, a small group of faculty, staff and graduate students at the University of Michigan initiated the powwow event in Ann Arbor. An energetic group of undergraduates, the Native American Student Association, took charge of planning and publicity for the annual event in 1976. The powwow continues to get bigger and better each year. Local powwows have been held at Huron High School, the Michigan League, the Michigan Union, Cleary College of Ypsilanti, Pioneer High School, Chrisler Arena and Saline Middle School. In 2017, with the help of Eastern Michigan University’s Native American Student Organization, U-M started to hold the powwow at Skyline High School. Land gift to U-M The University of Michigan is tied to Meigs was signed between Michigan’s territorial governor, Lewis Cass, and the native tribes of Ojibwe (Chippewa), Odawa (Ottawa), and Bodewadimi (Potawatomi). These tribes resided in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula at the time of Fort Meigs’ Treaty. A remarkable unraveling in the treaty of 1817 is summarized by the following statement: “In the treaty process, Gov. Cass persuaded the Natives to cede 3,840 acres of land, half of which was earmarked for St. Anne’s Church, and half for ‘a college of Detroit’ in which the natives would be eligible to enroll.” After the treaty was finalized, Judge Augustus Woodward, the Rev. Gabriel Richard and the Rev. John Monteith drafted legislation that founded the University of Michigan in Detroit under the name Catholepistemiad on Aug. 26, 1817. The university moved from Detroit to Ann Arbor in 1837. The land gift to U-M by the tribes was sold and the income investment became the foundation of U-M’s endowment. Groundcover News will be tabling at this year's powwow! Come by to experience and embrace Native American culture in Southeast Michigan through song, dance, cuisine and more! MARCH 24, 2023 AGENCY SPOTLIGHT GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Ozone House: a sanctuary for struggling youth in Washtenaw Ozone House is a non-profit organization based in Ann Arbor that opened its doors in 1969 due to the growing number of runaway youth migrating to Washtenaw County. Today, they are the only agency in Washtenaw County that provides free, confidential, and voluntary shelter and support services to runaway, homeless, and high-risk youth ages 10 to 20 and their families. The mission of Ozone House is to “[help] young people lead safe, responsible, and healthy lives through intensive intervention and prevention services.” The organization consistently provides non-judgemental support and safety for youth in crisis through various programs including emergency services, counseling, drop-in hours, housing, job training and transportation. Ozone House offers free counseling and case management services to provide youth a safe space to talk about any issues at home that may be affecting their mental well-being. Licensed social workers are available to provide crisis intervention and individual or family therapy as well. Similarly, Ozone hosts meals and drop-in hours throughout the week, inviting 13 to 20-year-olds the opportunity to relax in a controlled space, eat a hot meal, take a shower or even just talk to a peer in a safe environment. Shelter is one of the main resources that Ozone House provides to youth in the community and there are three different types: SafeStay, Transitional Living, and Supported Opportunities for Living on Your Own. SafeStay offers emergency shelter where those in need can participate prepares homeless or at-risk youth for their first job. Tim, an 18-year-old who participated in this program, CALISTA REDINGTON U-M student contributor “put his customer service skills to use at McDonald’s, where he has worked for several years.” The program helps with resume building, interview skills, and ultimately concludes with a 100-hour paid internship. This program has helped numerous young adults find stability in a career and build a new life for themselves. Ozone House also provides transin individual and family therapy, group therapy, life skills workshops, educational support and safe recreational activities. This resource is for youth ages 10 to 17 who need an escape from their situation at home or a safe place to stay, whether overnight or only a few hours. Transitional Living, called Miller House, is open to 18-to-22-year-olds who do not have a safe or stable home. Residents can stay for up to 18 months, giving them time to get back on their feet. Residents must go to school or have a job and participate in case management, life skills training, counseling and paying “rent” that goes into a savings account for later use. Miller House sets their residents up for success by teaching them the skills they need to regain stability in their lives. Supported Opportunities for Living on your Own, or SOLO, offers supportive housing for youth 18 to 21 with disabilities. Job and leadership training is another resource that Ozone House offers to struggling youth in the community in the form of WorkZone. WorkZone is an employment training and paid internship program that portation for those in need, partnering with the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, or The Ride. This is a notfor-profit local organization that helps youth get a ride to their school if their living situation is unstable or provide reduced fare cards so they can get to school and work. Affordable or free transportation is extremely important for those seeking help from Ozone House. Since moving to their new location at 1600 N. Huron River Drive, Ozone House has upgraded their maximum capacity and can currently hold 25 youth per night. They are always looking for volunteers and for the community to get involved in their cause, specifically for the crisis line, to listen and provide critical information to those in need. They also accept donated goods. They encourage volunteers to help advocate for public policies that improve the lives of young people or invite Ozone House staff and young people to share about key issues. Ozone House is an extremely important resource within the Washtenaw County community that provides help to youth experiencing homelessness and instability. Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and science tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Databases at AADL Did you know all AADL library card holders have access to databases? You can search consumer reports, genealogy, and much more! Visit AADL.org/ collections/databases AADL Shelf Service Place your request with our Shelf Service and let AADL know the types of things you’re looking for. AADL staff will fill a bag with items we think you’ll like! For more information visit AADL.org/shelfservice FEATURED EVENT 5 Friday, April 7 • 7-10pm Kerrytown FoolMoon is back with light-filled art and creative experiences in the Kerrytown district. Dress up, light the luminaries, celebrate, spread smiles, and share some love with A2 local businesses! This year’s theme—U.F.O.s (Unidentified Foolish Objects)—brings arts + lights + wonder! FoolMoon is in partnership with Assembli. All the details can be found at AADL.org/fool

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PHOTO ESSAY Thursdays at Ozone by Saif Sarab MARCH 24, 2023 Holy Thursday, Mass of the Lord’s Supper: April 6th 7pm; Good Friday: April 7th Stations of the Cross 12pm; Veneration of the Cross 1:30pm Easter Vigil: April 8th, 8:00pm Easter Sunday: April 9th, 8:30am, 10:30am, 12:30pm; 2:30pm Spanish Mass (no 5pm evening Mass) MARCH 24, 2023 ARTS + CULTURE GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Left: State of Mind by Christopher Stark. Middle: A tribute to Norman Rockwell, Self-Portrait by Robert Tate. Right: Don't Wait Until Too Late by Jeffery Hoaglin. Below: Hopelessness by VAN. U-M opens the 27th annual Exhibition of Arts in Michigan Prisons AARON JAMES PCAP Three hundred and sixty unique artists inside 25 Michigan prisons are collaborating with the University of Michigan’s Prison Creative Arts Project, to showcase 645 pieces of art including paintings, three-dimensional creations and drawings. The 27th Annual Exhibition of Artists in Michigan Prisons runs March 21 through April 5 at the Duderstadt Center Gallery. This exposition is the world’s largest display of its kind, where underground art meets academic exhibition. A community of often unheard artists partnering with U-M facilitators and curators radically form what late PCAP founder and English professor Buzz Alexander called “our bridge.” Prices of art vary greatly and each artist receives their full asking price if their work sells. This reinforces that their art is an “extension of someone.” Emily Chase, art therapist and PCAP’s Arts Programming Coordinator said. Chase believes “art expresses something subjective about experience that quantitative research cannot.” Chase describes feelings of polarization on selection trips inside prisons meeting artists. “I feel joy in connection while my heart is breaking,” she said. “Mutual change happens through that connection.” Master of Social Work student Sarah Hebert-Johnson shared that engaging with incarcerated artists “challenges the dominant narrative of punishment.” “The deep conversations with talented people make me rethink society,” she said. For some, like artist BEE, this rethinking reminds society that, “Some people are already in prison, and they will never step a foot inside a prison.” He said this about his juxtaposition-themed painting, State of Mind. After her first selection trip inside, such liberation awareness encouraged undergraduate student Suzy Moffat to add Art and Design to her Anthropology major. She’s been on 13 eye-opening trips to correctional facilities this year. “My thinking has become less cut and dry, more understanding and empathetic,” Muffat said. “Art is already a medium for that. Without going in and talking [to the artists], I don’t think I would have added Art and Design.” PCAP Community Engagement Specialist Sarah Unrath has worked directly with artists both presently and formerly in prison. “It gives me goosebumps walking in the gallery, that precious arena that exudes the whole gamut of emotions of what it means to be human,” Unrath said. Unrath calls PCAP interactions authentic. “It’s something you just can’t shake. Whether that’s through revelations that happen during workshops and undergraduate courses, the powerful experiences of art selection trips, or the radical community of Linkage, PCAP seeps into the fibers of your being and changes the way you do life.” The exhibition is presented with support from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council. It’s held at the Duderstadt Gallery, 2281 Bonisteel Blvd. on U-M’s North Campus in Ann Arbor. The eclectic Opening Celebration and reception kicks off on March 21 at 5 p.m., with the Ceremony starting at 6:30 p.m. in the Duderstadt Basement. It features speakers from U-M, the Michigan Department of Corrections, artists from previous exhibitions, and exhibition co-founder, Janie Paul. Early releases of Paul’s new book about the exhibit, "Making Art in Prison: Survival and Resistance," will be available on opening night.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY RESOURCES  STREET from page 3 constantly been enlightening me with, Hammer.” Still, we need to give credit where it is due — the social workers that are doing the work on and off the streets, who tirelessly are at homeless encampments trying day in and out to save lives, with very little appropriate support from the system that assigned them. And there needs to be a special awareness to the Washtenaw General Defense Committee and Washtenaw Camp Outreach, tirelessly and fearlessly being there for the desperate homeless. There are many other involved entities, including Mission, Solidarity House, Mercy House, Purple House, Peace House, Hamilton House, the Ypsi Freighthouse and other warming centers, and the Hope Clinic (especially Heather) and so many others I’m not fully aware of. Many selfless individuals dedicate themselves when the system just works to keep you in the corner. They all, in some part/manner, have assisted in a step back up for me … although unfortunately too late for my faithful Kona. Here’s how I’m trying to get hold of that kite string: face them directly, unflinchingly, never ever even considering defeat. You have never lost until you’ve given up. Ken Parks has “Breathe in, breathe out and do some good today.” All of Us owe a great deal of respect and gratitude to Ken Parks for standing strong on the front lines decade after decade. The powers that be must be saying, “How is this man still here, still fighting for them?” I have great appreciation for the loving grace of Ken for grabbing me by the cuff when I might have been going under, for Christie Blais’s (of PATH) diligence, patience, and kindness, and for Lindsay Calka (Groundcover News publisher and friend) who encouraged me to finally use the pen. I thought I was going to be writing about Kona first, or how we got here — but, out there…they’re all me, we are, all going through the same s*** — we are all One — unforgettably feeling pain shoved deep, haunting every homeless step. But, everybody who works with or at Groundcover News is dedicated to a better world in which we love, accept and support. Groundcover vendors are the brothers and sisters that immediately opened the family door without hesitation or judgment. Their shoulders are keeping me up now. They know I'm/we are here because we've been knocked down, and inevitably have seen a lot a s*** — and are ready to get back up and get it right. This is the rest of the family that has the love, skill, and/or determination to be there and raise Us up; advertisers, volunteers, editors, publishers, sponsors (Argus's for kindly and supportively allowing me/us to sell papers there). This is the Ann Arbor Groundcover family! — or one of our approximately 100 integrated street papers worldwide that are dedicated to those of us following closely behind… May Grace be to OUR Streets Markona Love Author's note: This piece is dedicated to KONA (bird pictured right in byline photo). Kona gave me the life I was destined for — against All odds from her many great sacrifices — ultimately Her Life. She is the Love of MY Life … Kona showed me that every sentient being feels love and pain. Knowing this is a heavy burden in life but, the journey was unimaginably joyful. I literally cried from overwhelming pure joy countless times; I had never known that it was possible to see life flushed in such brilliant colors, like nothing I could have ever dreamed or imagined — constantly checking “how can this be possible, to be in such a state of bliss, naturally?” With Kona anything was possible. Then, Kona was gone —- I was washed into a grey sea that I will forever tread to keep a memory of an impossible dream. Kona was and Always Will Be 'My Conduit to the Cosmos' P. S. The political extremists have dug in deep and entrenched in our system and have slandered and discredited me and everything else under the sky, just shy of shooting me in the head to keep me silent. So, might as well just “on my own … here we go." Write and Speak! "Stay Tuned To This Bat Channel" to see if I’m still blinking, when this comes to print. It is your time to get aware and step the f*** up! No, not for me. I’m just a speck in the dust that covers all the mistruths. Let’s start by getting back to the Ann Arbor you thought you never lost. Talk is cheap. Change always takes work and sacrifice. May we all one day see each other! MARCH 24, 2023 MARCH 24, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES The women of Groundcover News LIT KURTZ Groundcover vendor No. 159 Only a select group of people will ever understand life without mainstream housing. Even a smaller group will appreciate what it is like to be a woman facing this struggle. Women have special challenges on the street. From the teen who has been abandoned by parents or freshly aged out of foster care to the elderly woman with no family, there are challenges and vulnerabilities that are unique to being a woman. In a 2017 article, former Groundcover Human Service Director Laurie Wetcher noted that families make up half of the unhoused population and that, of those families, 90% are headed by single women. These women's lifestyles will invariably have an impact on future generations. The women of Groundcover News and street papers around the world know the struggles all too well. Yet despite obstacles or because of them, we are among those who have defied the odds and changed our circumstances through the entrepreneurship model this publication offers. The women of Groundcover make up a small percentage of vendors; presently only a third of active Groundcover vendors are women. We are women who are small businesses with taxpaying responsibilities. We are the ones who face all weather conditions and frequent societal hostilities and rejections while remaining steadfast in improving ourselves in this entrepreneurial endeavor. We are women from different ethnic backgrounds, varied age groups, different races and classes all working on a common goal. The noticeable differences of the larger world are obscured as we fight for survival and to share the common message of the plight of the unhoused. Although we are from different walks of life, our shared struggles unite us into a sisterhood that is undeniably our own. Yet well into the 21st century we face the struggle that many women have faced throughout American history — lack of inclusion. There seems to be no accomplishment worthy of recognition by our housed peers. For example, Kung Fu Panda is not only an artist who has faced housing insecurity, she is an artist in her own right with her own style. However, she is not present in the art galleries around our city. La Shawn Courtwright published a book of poems. Felicia Wilbert is published as well. Yet even during Women’s History Month these ladies' works are not sought out and featured in any of the displays featuring women's accomplishments. As a woman, I myself am proud to have been the first vendor nominated in 2016 for the Best Vendor Contribution Category at the International Street Paper Conference in Greece where I was one of the top five finalists. And yes, I plan to join the list of other women vendors from Groundcover who have published a book. Still, the glaring omission of unhoused women remains an anachronism in a world and community who feel they have “dotted all i’s and crossed all t’s” when it comes to equity and fairness for everyone. Increasingly, though, we are a force that is becoming more and more difficult to ignore. So, this Women’s History Month I celebrate myself and all women of Groundcover News and of street papers around the world. I hope you will join in this Women’s History Month to show your appreciation and help to celebrate us too. Besides selling Groundcover News, I am a writer, blogger, and am becoming a social media influencer. You can find out more about my activities at http:// litspage.com MARCH 24, 2023 What happened to the middle class? Once upon a time, not long ago, people liked to chill and live life slow. “Leave it to Beaver,” the family show in the 1960s and 70s was the poster family of the American middle class. I was raised in a middle class household. During this time period in American history the economy and the middle class was thriving. From the time I was a child to this very moment is like night and day, so much so it can make you lose faith in capitalism. Capitalism is an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by a few private owners for profit, rather than by the state. The essential feature of capitalism is the motive to make a profit. MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Middle class families’ jobs have been exported overseas to various different parts of the globe. That’s why people like myself no longer live in a middle class neighborhood. Car companies like Ford, GM and Chrysler, along with other jobs that used to sustain the middle class, are gone. Inflation is the rate of increase in prices over a given period of time. Everything has gone up besides our paychecks. Recession is part of the business cycle when things are not going well, resulting in things like high unemployment. There is a saying, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” Unfortunately, all of this is by design, through big government, Wall Street bankers, and more. A lot of people who are still in the middle class find themselves in a struggle to remain there, often having a hard time making ends meet. ARE YOU A PHOTOGRAPHER LOOKING TO GIVE BACK TO YOUR COMMUNITY? - Join the Groundcover News crew of volunteer photographers! Commitment can be anything from assignment-based images (for publication in the newspaper) or photography at Groundcover News events (for use on social media and Groundcover communications). If you have lived experience with homelessness there may be paid opportunities. Email contact@groundcovernews.com to learn more and sign-up for our list-serv. MARCH 24, 2023 WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH GROUNDCOVER NEWS THE WOMEN OF GROUNDCOVER 11 LIT KURTZ #159 is a writer, blogger, and social media influencer. She became associated with Groundcover as a result of being one of 4,000 teachers laid off in the school district that she worked. Since joining the organization, Lit has represented Groundcover on the international stage at the INSP conference, being the first vendor from Groundcover to be a finalist in the Best Vendor Contribution competition. As a former teacher, she is passionate about helping youth who are experiencing housing instability. Recently, she has organized and led a homeless advocacy workshop at the Ypsilanti District Library to get community members more aware of, and more involved in, the homelessness crisis. AMANDA GALE #577 's life is about worshipping Jesus, thriving in life for Him, for herself and for those she loves. She works for a local retailer, sells Groundcover and volunteers for various worthy causes. She loves her mom, her pet turtle Ticia, appreciates her church and prays for God's blessings. BEVERLY BOSS #583 started selling Groundcover last year and has found success as an outgoing, independent saleswoman! She grew up in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. FELICIA WILBERT #234 is a cheerful, God-loving entrepreneur. She is a mother and grandmother who has overcome many obstacles only because of the grace of God. She has been working off and on with Groundcover since 2015, both selling and writing. She appreciates Groundcover and Groundcover readers. Without them she would have to create another way to survive. Felicia is the mastermind behind Truth or Lies Mystery Lane and has two murder-love-story-mystery books available for purchase on Amazon. SHELLEY DENEVE #22 Shelley began selling Groundcover in the depths of the recession in 2010 to avoid eviction. She has worked steadily at Subway for years but continues to be a contributing member of the Groundcover community, writing and supplementing her income as needed. DENISE SHEARER #483 likes to comfort people, make people smile and laugh. Denise has been selling Groundcover since 2018. She currently both writes and illustrates cartoons for Groundcover. CINDY "KUNG FU PANDA" GERE #279 is a happy-go-lucky creative artist, warm greeter of Ann Arbor and Grouncover vendor who sells at the Sweetwaters Cafe on Washington Street in downtown A2. Cindy writes a column for the newspaper where she interviews low income and homeless artists in the Ann Arbor and Ypsi area. Her work is on display at the Groundcover News office in addition to Journey of Faith Church’s Art on a Journey gallery. TERESA BASHAM #570 is the mother of five beautiful children and grandmother to 10! Teresa started selling Groundcover in May of last year and started publishing her poetry in the paper in the fall. Check out some of her work in the upcoming poetry issue or read past poems in the archives on the Groundcover website. LA SHAWN COURTWRIGHT #56 is a Groundcover vendor and writer. Although many readers know her for her fierce poetry, La Shawn has recently written freelance reporting assignments for Groundcover News. La Shawn has a book of poetry published entitled "The Fold: a Collection of Poetry." She says, "this collection of poetry speaks to a very common theme of real human experiences, and they are just a small part of mine ... For anyone who has had to experience incarceration for any amount of time can understand where I'm coming from in two of poems." these TABITHA LUDWIG #360 has been selling Groundcover since 2016. She is currently expecting her fifth child, a baby girl whose due date is in July of this year. In her free time she enjoys watching movies and reading.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Gebrannte Mandeln MAYA STROHBAND Groundcover contributor This tasty treat is frequently found at German Christmas markets. The smell alone makes any kitchen feel like a winter wonderland! These candied almonds take approximately 25 minutes to prepare and only use six simple ingredients. Ingredients: 1 cup (~8 oz) of almonds 1 cup of cane sugar 1/3 cup of water 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon Pinch of salt Directions: Add the water, sugar, salt, vanilla extract or bean paste, and cinnamon into a non-stick pan. Bring to a boil until the sugar is fully dissolved. Stir occasionally to prevent burning. Add the almonds and reduce heat to medium-high when sugar is fully dissolved. MARCH 24, 2023 Be sure to stir the almonds frequently for the next 20 minutes. The sugar will crystallize after approximately 20 minutes and return to a dry state. Don’t worry! This is supposed to happen. Reduce heat to medium and continue stirring. The sugar will dissolve again and thickly coat the almonds. Once the crystallized sugar has fully dissolved and coated the almonds, spread the mixture on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let cool. They will be very hot! Let cool down completely and enjoy! PUZZLE SOLUTIONS BECOME A GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR • Make money on your first day • Choose your own schedule • Work for yourself • Join a supportive community • Get started this week for FREE INTERNATIONAL COMFORT CUISINE! Available: Mon. - Fri. from 11-2 • Weekly menu at peoplesfood.coop PFC Kitchen proudly presents : $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 4/30/2023 NEW VENDOR ORIENTATIONS ARE EVERY TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, 10 AM @ THE GCN OFFICE. Trainings take 90 minutes. New vendors will get a temporary badge and 10 free papers to start. BLAKE TRANSIT Willam St. AADL The Groundcover office is located in the basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ (423 S 4th Ave, downtown Ann Arbor) Packard St. Fifth St. Fourth Ave.

2 $ MARCH 10, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 6 YOUR DONATION BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Non-police crisis response piloting in Ypsilanti. Page 11 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT GOAL ARE YOU WORKING TOWARDS RIGHT NOW? GARY ROBINSON, #224 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Boober seeds bearing fruit — Kevin helped me and so many others. page 8 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Kevin Spangler, Groundcover vendor No. 307 and founder of Boober Tours, driving a pedicab in downtown Ann Arbor. Photo credit: Barry Chatillion. @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER from the DIRECTOR's DESK Friday, March 24, we invite writers (and future writers!) with lived experience to a workshop on building narrative power. The workshop will be led by journalist and poverty solutions advocate Lauren Slagter. "Op-ed" might techincally stand for LINDSAY CALKA Managing Director If you attended Street Wisdom, the Groundcover News open mic honoring Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, you already know our writers and vendors have a lot more to say than just what meets the page. Street Wisdom packed the house and had a lasting impact on many who attended. Ever since that Friday in November at Argus Farm Stop, we’ve been excited to secure another time to share space as a community. At the end of March, Groundcover News will be hosting a two-part event entitled “Hear Me Out.” "opposite the editoral page," but here at Groundcover we consider the "op-ed" simply a powerful tool for communicating informed opinion to large audiences. Together we will practice linking our own compelling stories and experiences to quantitative data and calls to action in order to inspire social change. Come with an idea, or a piece already written. Even the best writers need an editor! The day after that, Saturday, March 25, 6-8 p.m. at Argus Farm Stop (Liberty Cafe) we invite all community members to an open mic where workshop participants will speak out, reading the individual projects borne out of the workshop. Time permitting, we will open the floor to everyone to speak on their experiences with social injustices. Hear Me Out — you don’t want to miss this one! A GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY OPEN MIC MARCH 25TH, 6-8PM ARGUS FARM STOP, LIBERTY CAFE Join the Groundcover News community for another open mic centering on community perspectives on social injustices! A WORKSHOP ON BUILDING NARRATIVE POWER MARCH 24TH, 2-4:30PM ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY DOWNTOWN BRANCH - FREESPACE Join journalist Lauren Slager and Groundcover News for an op-ed writing workshop at the Ann Arbor District Library. Link lived experience with a call to action to inspire change in your community! Participants will be invited to speak at the following open mic and publish in Groundcover News. MARCH 10, 2023 HEAR ME OUT! CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Jim Clark — vendor manager ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Angelina Akdis Elizabeth Bauman Susan Beckett Alexandra Granberg Ken Parks Samiha Rahman Denise Shearer Felicia Wilbert David Winey PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Mia Barr GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Elliot Cubit Jesse Owen Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith Erin Trame VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Logan Brown Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Zachary Dortzbach Robert Klingler Grace Sielinski Mira Simonton-Chao Alex Tarbet Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenburg Navya Yagalla Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons MARCH 10, 2023 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What goal are you working towards right now? Getting a car, then getting an apartment. — Gary Robinson, #224 I am working towards getting my t-shirt business off the ground, I’m working to be a better person and trying to educate myself on financial literacy. — Joe Woods, #103 Ultimately, I’m working towards being somebody that my kids to look up to. Right now that means selling the paper more and stabilizing my life. — Sean Almond, #561 My goal is to graduate from college, to get my journalism and audio engineering associate's degree. —Mike Jones, #113 That’s personal. — James Tennant, #174 Peace in my life. — Larzell Washington, #128 I got a voucher so I’m working on getting an apartment. —Mansell Williams #96 To be here. I'm working to be, and stay, present in my own life. —Ken Parks, #490 I'm working on getting my dental health figured out and working on getting housing! — Glen Page, #407 What would YOU ask? If you have a question you would like Groundcover vendors to answer in this column, email us at contact@groundcovernews.com We will be featuring vendor responses in future issues. St. Patrick’s Day is a great, festive holiday. It’s a good reason to have fun. It’s a good excuse to eat good corned beef sandwiches. It’s a good excuse to eat potatoes for the day. St. Patrick’s Day is also a good day to make corned beef stew. And it’s a good excuse to drink green lime punch, if you don’t want to drink beer. Green is one of my favorite colors and people wear a lot of green on St. Patrick’s Day. I love to go to St. Patrick’s Day parades and see a lot of beautiful clothing and beautiful things.The last time I went to a St. Patrick’s Day parade was in the 90s. It was in downtown Detroit. I had just made a new friend; she was with one of her friends and we went to the parade. Dennis Archer GROUNDCOVER NEWS The joys of St. Patrick's Day I like to make beautiful St. Patrick’s Day artwork. I love going to St. Patrick’s Day parties with my friends. I love Irish music, too. St. PatDENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 rick’s Day music is soothing for when you are just relaxing at home, or doing housework. St. Patrick’s Day music is good when you are partying, too. St. Patrick’s Day can also be a was the mayor at the time and he waved at me. I saw men in kilts, which is like a man’s skirt. I saw women in beautiful crocheted green hats. Afterwards we went to a restaurant and had corned beef sandwiches. That was a good day. spiritual holiday because St. Patrick was a saint. It can also be romantic — just like Valentine’s Day — because you can celebrate it with people you love. Both St. Patrick and St. Valentine were saints. I always love celebrating both holidays! 3 Truth or lies: King Charman the leprechaun In the year 1600 BC, King Charman Plenza was ordered by the Forest Fairies to wed by St. Patrick’s Day. Queen Zia of the fairies warned him if he did not wed, all would be lost. The kingdom would fall and the forest would disappear and he would turn into a leprechaun. The king laughed and insisted that this was a tall tale. Four days before St. Patrick's Day, Zia appeared before the king pleading for him to find a bride. King Charman was a young, handsome, playful man, who never took his responsibilities seriously. The morning of March 17, 1600 BC, King Charman awoke feeling energetic and curious. Eager to fulfill his kingly duties he walked to his dressing table and looked in the mirror. He saw no one. The king thought, “What is the meaning of this?” He looked again; still he could not see himself. Just as he was speaking, the king's hands and feet turned into a leprechaun form. The king called for his servant Oswaw. King Charman told Oswaw that he could not see his reflection in the mirror. Oswaw said, “Hold it, what have you done with King Charman? You will be beheaded!” The king said, “What do you mean? I am the king!” Osawa said, “The king is not a leprechaun.” up camp. The trio would often venture out on camping trips. Charman watched from a short FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 The king hollered, “Oh no! I am a leprechaun; the fable has come true, oh no!” The castle started rumbling, then it started sinking. The king hollered for everyone to flee the castle. As he ran outside for cover, he noticed the forest starting to disappear. King Charman was all alone within an hour, as if he never existed. The forest was gone. King Charman sat on a stoop and cried out for the fairies. The fairies were gone with the forest. King Charman went into hiding. Time passed. Decades passed, centuries passed, still Charman stayed hidden. In the year of 1300 BC, Charman was hiding in the redwood trees (they were his favorite). He heard voices and Charman jumped up to go see where they were coming from. It was Judy, Trina and their cousin, Regina, who were setting distance. He was curious about the tents they were putting together. He noticed Regina; her hair was a golden red and she had green eyes. Charman fell in love, constantly watching her. He decided to leave her a path of flowers leading to the river. Regina would wash the dishes at the river twice a day. She noticed the path of flowers, laughing, wondering who placed them there. Charman knew he had only one chance to woo her. The next afternoon he placed her a bouquet of flowers by the river. She noticed the flowers, giggling, wondering who left them. He finally got up enough nerve to speak to her. He said, “Hello my name is King Charman.” She looked and did not see anyone. He then said, “Can you find a four leaf clover please?” Regina laughed and said, “Who is asking?” “King Charman, I am!” “Where are you?” Regina asked. Charman said, “You must find a four leaf clover in order to see me.” Regina asked, “How would I find that clover?” Charman said, “Over there, just look through the grass, you will see KING CHARMAN page 7 

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOUSING Imagine paying thousands of dollars for various fees months before living in your apartment. This is the reality for Ann Arbor renters. In addition, tenants experience a lack of maintenance, instability, renewal struggles, landlords dodging legislation, and waitlists, not to mention immense cost! Finding a place to rent is vital for those who aren’t ready to invest in a house. Over the past decades, deceitful landowner tactics have made the process of finding housing extremely difficult and downright unfair. I sat down with Zachariah Farah, University of Michigan alumnus and current member of the Ann Arbor Renters Commission, to discuss these landlord tactics. As a member of the Central Student Government, he was approached by the Graduate Employees' Organization’s Housing Caucus for support in changing the city’s Early Leasing Ordinance. The ELO determines when a landlord can ask for renewal. At the time, landlords had the liberty to ask for renewal only 70 days into the present lease term. If you were to decline this renewal opportunity, your home could be rented to a new tenant. This was a pressure tactic by landlords. With only 70 days in your unit, how would you know whether you want to SAMIHA RAHMAN U-M student contributor necessary. Nowadays, what happens if you do agree to renew your lease? The landlord must accept your wish, regardless of how many individuals are on a waiting list. In 2022, Ann Arbor passed Right to Renew, requiring landlords to make a good faith renewal offer to current tenants. If landlords don’t comply, they are required to pay a two-month relocation stipend. This law is designed to prioritize the stability of current tenants. continue living there or not? CSG drafted an amendment to the Early Leasing Ordinance, which was passed by City Council in 2021. Although CSG and GEO were requesting the time be extended to 210 days into the lease, they were only able to get the date amended to 150 days, offering light reassurance that your unit won’t be shown or rented out to someone else. Upset landlords immediately dashed to find loopholes. Landlords implemented waitlists, exploiting prospective tenants, charging them a “waitlist fee” with no guarantee for a unit. Landlords take advantage of desperate students and residents looking for extremely limited housing, creating a sense of false hope and charging more money than MARCH 10, 2023 The Ann Arbor rental market is a pretty scary place GEO’s Housing Caucus is also starting conversation around rent stabilization to help fight the ridiculous cost of rent. However, in Michigan, municipal-level rent control is preempted by state law. Many tenants around Michigan are seeking a reversal of the state-level preemption. This would allow cities to have control and start acting right now to control the high cost of rent. see RENTAL page 7  GET CONNECTED The Renters Commission is looking to fill two vacant tenant seats. Individuals belonging to historically underrepresented groups are encouraged to apply. Applications are especially welcomed from individuals with disabilities, individuals who have experienced housing insecurity, individuals who have enrolled in low income/ Section 8 housing, or individuals belonging to racial and ethnic minority groups. Applicants need not be renters, though some personal experience with renting or struggling to rent is preferred. You can read more about the Commission here: a2gov.org/renterscommission To apply, please fill out this application form: http://a2gov.legistar.com/Page.aspx?M=Q If you have any questions, please email renterscommission@a2gov.org Housing issues and solutions in northern Michigan Housing shortages plague the entire state of Michigan but the causes — with the exception of NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) — and solutions vary by locale. It is difficult to find suitable sites to build on around Ann Arbor. In northern Michigan it is difficult to find the skilled tradesman needed to build housing. Ironically, that shortage of workers is due in large part to the lack of affordable housing. Rural areas also often have greater difficulty getting approved for Low Income Housing Tax Credits. (The federal government offers tax credits to private investors like banks that use that money to help finance the construction of low-income housing.) “There has to be some kind of funding that usually comes from the state or federal level to subsidize it a little bit, just because it's so expensive to build,” said Corey Monroe, development coordinator for Haan Development which is building 60 units of affordable housing on Emmet St. in Petoskey. They received assistance SUSAN BECKETT Publisher emeritus The cost of living there is high, too — from the Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation’s Emmet Housing Solutions Fund after they were denied the tax credit funding. In vacation destinations such as Grand Traverse, Charlevoix and Emmet counties, 32% of housing is non-homestead (rental properties or second homes) and the cost of an average house ranges from $500,000 to $600,000, depending on the county. Across the ten counties served by the non-profit Housing North, 40% of the population is rent-burdened. comparable to that of Washtenaw County — but they generally lack services such as public transportation that help make ends meet. Exceptions include Boyne City which offers Monday through Saturday daytime pickup and drop-off anywhere in Charlevoix County, and Traverse City which has public buses Monday through Saturday. Both have consistently made choices to maintain livability for a large cross-section of residents. Some remedies to the affordable housing shortage could be implemented this year. American Rescue Program Act funds for shovel-ready projects should include projects that increase the housing stock for low and moderate income families. A renter’s tax credit, issued monthly by the IRS, could help some middle-income year-round residents afford to rent properties that are typically occupied just a few months each year by vacationers, or only during the school year by college students. It would also provide relief to the multitude of low and middle-income renters whose rent exceeds 30% of their income. Currently, the primary beneficiaries of our tax code are wealthy individuals and corporations, often at the expense of those with lower incomes or little wealth. Congress spends approximately $200 billion per year on housing, but the majority of that goes to the highest income households through benefits like the mortgage interest deduction. The wealthiest seven million households in the country receive more housing assistance through tax credits than the 55 million lowest-income renters, according to a 2017 article in The Hill. There are four new Michigan laws granting municipalities greater power to offer tax-reduction incentives to build affordable housing within their boundaries. Maybe that will persuade some developers to build for ordinary people instead of the wealthy. And maybe it’s time to adjust the federal tax code to discourage the ownership of multiple houses. MARCH 10, 2023 HOUSING GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ARTS + CULTURE MARCH 10, 2023 Installation image of Dopamine Dressing by Charlie Edwards. Dopamine dressing is so much more than putting on a pretty outfit It’s no secret that wearing clothes you love drastically changes the outcome of your day. Allow me to present the idea of dopamine dressing: the act of putting on clothes that make you happy. I explored this concept after visiting the University of Michigan Museum of Art in February to see YehRim Lee’s new exhibit with the same name. What is dopamine dressing really? Dopamine dressing consists of putting on brighter-colored clothing with a personal, meaningful backstory to boost your mood. Its goal is to allow believers to have more freedom in their fashion choices and challenge them to be bold. While not scientific by any means, the intention behind dopamine dressing is extremely powerful. With such a title, I expected the UMMA’s Dopamine Dressing exhibition to be filled with brightly colored clothing. I was instead surrounded with 21 neon and pastel clay sculptures. Initially alarmed, I truly experienced the idea of dopamine dressing in action. This begs the question, does the experience of dopamine dressing — or art in general — bring one happiness? At the small but mighty exhibit, I was able to spend a small chunk of my day exploring this question. Lee’s use of color and sculpture entranced me. With most pieces being around two square feet I was able to see the level of detail and thought put into every curve and color layer. ANGELINA AKDIS U-M student contributor Some of my favorite pieces included “Three Hearts are Trouble” and “Wall Flower Green #2.” The amount of detail associated with each layer of paint and overlap of clay was astounding. Each time I walked around to look at a piece I found a new detail or section that intrigued me. Even though the room was relatively small, I could stay there for hours examining each sculpture from every angle. I was struck by how the production of dopamine transcends the act of dressing or viewing art. YehRim Lee, a Chinese ceramic artist, uses her art to capture the human condition. With a goal to have viewers look closer at life through her art she uses multiple painted layers and complex structures to challenge their thoughts. When I looked at her pieces I could see this in her colors. As a result of her constant re-firing technique I was prompted to think about constant human evolution — not only in style but in evolving tastes — reflecting how our dopamine triggers are consistently evolving. After exploring, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is the intentional experience of wanting happiness that brings you dopamine in the first place. As seen in Lee’s exhibit, happiness comes in many shapes and forms. Walking around the small but colorful room exploring the intricacies of each piece I was brought happiness. I, however, truly enjoy exploring art. This may not bring others the same satisfaction. At the very least Dopamine Dressing further shows me how art has the ability to evoke emotions, inspire new perspectives, and bring people together. Whether it's through the beauty of a sculpture, the excitement of live performance, or the thought-provoking messages conveyed in a film, art can play a significant role in promoting well-being and happiness for those who engage with it. I highly recommend carving out 30 minutes of your day to view it! Dopamine Dressing is on display until August 2023 and free to view. YehRim Lee in her studio. Photo credit: U-M Penny Stamps School. MARCH 10, 2023 CONTINUED  KING CHARMAN from page 3 find it.” Regina laughed, and proceeded to find the clover, thinking one of her friends was playing a joke on her. Regina reached down, and grabbing a handful of grass, searched through it. Finally after five minutes she found a clover, holding it up saying, "I found one!” Charman said, “You won't be scared, will you? I'm a leprechaun." “A what! A leprechaun doesn't exist.” Charman explained what happened to him, waiting for her reaction. Regina told him she would not be scared, she wanted to see a leprechaun. The king came out of hiding. Regina looked and said, “You are real!” Charman remembered he was running out of time. He had two days before St. Patrick’s Day. He asked Regina if she would grant him a favor. Regina said, “Maybe, what is it?” Charman said, “Will you marry me?” She said, “What? Marry you? You are a leprechaun!” said Regina. Charman explained how he would turn back into a twenty-five-year-old man if she married him. He told her he only had two days left, and to please help him. Regina thought about what he said, laughing and still Thank you Truth Or Lies readers, "The Unexpected Valentine," published February 10, was based on a TRUE story. However, the places and names were changed. not believing Charman. However she wanted to see if it was real, and agreed to marry him. He said, “If you put on this ring you would be my wife.” The ring was a green four leaf clover encased in twenty-carat gold. She looked at the ring. Her heart pounded; she placed it on her ring finger. Regina looked at Charman: he started to transform right before her eyes. “Thank you, my love,” King Charman Plenza said, “and you will be Queen Regina Plenza.” He asked her to wait at the river while he went to retrieve his ancient treasure of gold, diamond and gems. Once he returned, Regina could not believe her good fortune. Every St. Patrick’s Day he gave her a new gem for rescuing him. Their union lasted through ten decades. Forever loving each other!  RENTAL from page 4 Different cities have different situations, so providing individual freedom is most sensible. Farah also discussed some of the Renters’ Commission’s work surrounding rental fees. The list seems endless — security deposits, waitlist fees, application fees and even a no-hassle fee (a real thing). Farah expressed his disappointment. “These are hundreds of dollars people are not going to get back,” he explained. “We want the city to regulate those.” The Renters’ Commission is currently analyzing these fees to provide the council with a report. Landlords claim tenants will receive all of these fees back; however, often this does not happen. Tenants often must resort to extreme lengths, like threatening legal action, to be heard. Tactics like simply being assertive, or underutilized resrouces like small claims court and the Student Legal Services at U-M can save tenants hundreds of dollars. If you are waiting on obtaining a fee/security deposit back or have been waiting for over a month to have something repaired, U-M GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 students have access to free lawyers waiting to provide free legal advice that might prevent the need to go to court. Those who aren’t U-M students can email the Renter’s Commission at KVanderLugt@A2gov.org for assistance. Landlords are also required to provide a physical copy of the “Rights and Duties of Tenants” booklet when tenants move in, with noncompliance subject to a $500 fine. So how did this problem of acquiring fair housing within Ann Arbor even come about in the first place? One factor is that the University of Michigan is rapidly increasing the population of Ann Arbor, with more students, staff, and faculty every year. One solution is for the University to pay its fair share by contributing to the affordable housing fund, a city fund that supports the construction of lower-cost housing within the city to accommodate the growing population. The University is not living up to its responsibility, and definitely not using its full ability, considering its considerable endowment and the prominent role they have played in this complication.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS BOOBER TOURS MARCH 10, 2023 Boober seeds bearing fruit — Kevin helped me and so many others I hadn't spoken with Kevin Spangler in quite some time. I met him when I was homeless. He gave me a job, gave me some inspiration, gave me some hope. He taught me some valuable, memorable lessons (mix LSD, pedicabs, foreign exchange students, Buddha, swimming, nakedness, Barton Pond, but that's another story...). The night we spoke five months ago, he was tired. To be a Boober driver is not the easiest job, if only because of the schedule — awake when bar nightlife begins (around 9 p.m.), cabbing through this time till usually 3 or 4 a.m., and then the wind-down takes an hour or two simply from the exercise and the excitement. Then up for the games, or campus events, catching naps in between. When you’re in rehabilitation (as anyone who has been through addiction knows), sleep time is treasured moments whenever you get them. Most of the employees when I worked for Spangler were either just out of jail, had felonies, were homeless or were trying to get clean. Besides this, employees would try to keep the enthusiasm that the owner held and expected. “Boober Tours, the only way!” was the common greeting. He was the example. On each cab read “Boober Tours, the only way!” He asked his employees before being hired to do one thing: “Give me two lists, 1) one hundred reasons to stay sober and 2) one hundred reasons why drugs screwed up your life.” I personally only got to 40 or so on each list. He still hired me. Seeing him tired was rare for me. This Kevin was a bit different. The glow behind the eyes was still there, simply dimmed. I know this was the same man who with a conscious mind tried to better himself in some way each day while determined to possibly inspire any of the many individuals he came into contact with on a daily basis, direct reflections of his Buddhist practices. “Advertising,” he said. His eye had a different spark which, good or bad, was there. His new book was “Rising Out of Depression and Going up the Royal Road.” I asked about the telling of his story and sharing this with customers. Most of the sayings that were printed on the middle compartment of the pedicab for any passenger to see were now taped or painted over — his business being just that, a business. He had a number of drivers, people who wanted to work, who loved to earn that money and now had Boober DAVID WINEY Groundcover contributor as a job not just to get by or to start over, but as their main income. I asked him about the new bike lanes, his current employees, his thoughts on the growth in Ann Arbor. He now has 15 regular employees. Two years ago, kids would line up to drive for him during a football game. All his vehicles are now electric! I love this as I was a bit lazy and loved the electric bikes, always vying for them. I bet he would love them humanly operated, but the physical prowess to do such takes an athlete, and to keep employees with the enthusiasm he does, the electrics make it easier. And of course, the environment, another main reason for his business. Residents rent his cabs (groups, family or friends or students, 6+ seaters) to shop at the local stores, all on a cab (electric) to cover greater distances than one would do in a car. It is simply smart. It's taken me five months to write this, simply because Boober Tours was in the middle of changing their shop location again. Any small business person knows the difficulties of renting a place in any city; with the growth of downtown Ann Arbor in the last few years, renting as a human for personal use or renting space as a business, is still very difficult. This is Boober's Tours' third location. The business and Kevin have outgrown the previous two locations. He must be doing something right. Right? I questioned a volunteer at one of the University of Michigan museums and asked her if she had ever been on one of the rickshaw cabs, the people who ride around on bicycles with a cab on back. She laughed. She had some friends visit from out of town, a bit of money in their pockets, and she convinced them to ride a “Boober Cab” — they thought it would be a waste. Similar to every ride I had as a driver, the passengers always loved the experience. She said the same! They probably could have taken a limo or something; they took a “Boober Cab" and loved it! Illustration by Jeanelle Mapili I would guess every business has its growing pains and tries to remain true to its ideals. Those who know where Kevin came from, where he is today, and how many people he helped — giving them a job when no one else would — would be proud of him. In this short history of Ann Arbor, not a blink in anything (his Buddhist teachings affecting me?) and to have Boober Tours be a current landmark in my time with Ann Arbor and U-M in itself is a great accomplishment. I know he helped me and many others during our time in recovery. Those people will be affected for the rest of their lives. I also know that anyone and everyone who does take a ride from Boober loves it! I asked him, “Kevin, what is your current goal?” “A moral self-governing society in the next 50 years.” That sounded pretty f-ing great to me. To quote Joni Mitchell and her words from her song “California:” Reading the news and it sure looks bad They won't give peace a chance That was just a dream some of us had It — Boober Tours — was just a dream Kevin had. I believe Joni was talking of a bigger picture. Those 1960s-1970s hippie activists took on the whole pie, knowing it would take years, but still they planted seeds in us that have been growing for years. Seven years sober he has now! Congrats Kevin! CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: EXCEPTIONAL COMMUNITY MEMBER EDITION This April Groundcover News will be publishing a special edition magazine that will highlight exceptional people in our community ... however you choose to define exceptional! Choose someone and either interview them, write a biography or discuss with them what it means to be an active member of our community. Be creative in your methods to convey their story or message! Like all of Groundcover News publications, everyone is invited to submit! DEADLINE: MARCH 20TH, 12PM EMAIL SUBMISSIONS@GROUNDCOVERNEWS.COM MARCH 10, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS WORD SEARCH: LATIN PHRASES! K N Z P Z I A P E R S E N O A Z A F P O S T S C R I P T U M C P I Q T P E R P R O S Q E D I R D O N E R U T A D I F X G R O E F D T T O P E R C E N T C T I V K A M S X S A D G N Z A E D E P L X O H R D V I Z B I M E R F I G Q E X L I B T E V D F S W A V T V Z I D Q E F E E E U R L E J F O B E N D E R F N S F C O T E P Q L U E A B A S A T V L G C C Q I M J Q S C O E E U M I B I D C E U S A T R I N L O C O T I E R R E P O A D N A U S E A M T O E Q Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. WORD BANK: Ad lib Ad nauseam AMDG Circa De facto De jure E.g. Et alia Et cetera Ex lib FD Fec Fidei defensor Fl I.e. I.q Ibid Id est In loco N.B. No. Numero Op. cit. P.a. P.S. Per pro. Per se Percent Post scriptum Protem Prox Q.E.D. Q.E.F. Q.v. Seq Sic Ult Verb.sap Versus Videlicet Viz 9

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS THINK ABOUT IT Does the system work? I am talking about the current system: its political economy and ideological foundation, the culture and social system we all have been socialized into. It’s called “growing up,” getting in compliance, that is. The December 30, 2022 issue of Groundcover News has an article I wrote, “Mother Nature’s Last Call,” which talks about our current geological age of humans and capitalism as the anthropocene. The victory of capitalism over feudalism was a centuries-long struggle for private property to replace the remaining commons as the dominant political economy. Feudalism privatized indigenous commons but created a social contract that gave peasants some rights to the land they lived on and worked. Private property is now regarded as the foundation for civilization and the creation of wealth.The social contract of feudalism viewed land use as some shared responsibility. The peasants had to give the lords a share of the crop but had rights to live on the land and benefit from their plot. When the growing business class saw the profits possible from sheep’s wool spun in the textile mills, they began the ideological, judicial and police/military campaign promoting the virtues of private property and the need to drive the peasantry off the land. You may have heard of the enclosure laws and vagrancy laws which KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 revolutionary changes from feudalism to capitalism as an important advance in social evolution, preparing the way for the next revolutionary leap to socialism and then communism as we fulfilled the vision of sharing that is deep in the heart of humanity. “From each according to their ability, to each based on their contribution” is the ethic of socialism. “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need” is the ethic of communism. The struggle is intense. So is the system working? The capicreated large numbers of refugees. Many Scots went to Ireland following promises of land; as their numbers grew, the overflow went to “the new world” as the settler class that supported the privatization of indigenous land. Land-hungry peasants flooded “America” and became working class or settlers on indigenous land. The Indian wars began with the arrival of Europeans and coincided with the slave trade. Investing in violence for land and slaves was the business of the colonial phase of capitalism. The lure of profit brought many into “the pursuit of happiness,” as it was called. Capitalism is still evolving as it privatizes your time with many wonderful appearances of happiness that seem irresistible. There is no doubt that capitalism has created amazing productive capacity. Marx wrote positively about the talism of this epoch is designed to create large amounts of wealth, measured in capital, by extracting from nature and producing goods and services by human, animal or robot labor. This market mechanism, in which everything is a commodity for sale and speculation, has regular crises but is able to play financial games that basically move wealth from the bottom to the top. It is designed for that purpose. There is constant tinkering with the financial flow but the main current creates a wealth gap that has unbalanced the world towards war as the solution to any looming economic crises. Sanctions have done more damage than the nuclear weapons which are prepared to destroy the world upon command. We are in a life and death struggle. Natural law will overrule human law as our dysfunction continues. Therefore, climate chaos. We are at the point of no return, greatly addicted to our comfort zone. Definitely time to take a breath and reconsider reality. Do we have the nerve to consider a new social design that makes good work fun, productive and beneficial? Enough said. Time to work on redesigning our lives, especially towards “Democracy at Work” in the words of Richard Wolf’s Course on Capitalism. What did World War II resolve? The people wanted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the capitalist class wanted war. Hollywood was attacked first. “Salt of the Earth,'' an unsurpassable movie (and book) tells the story of this war. It has intensified since Star Wars (the Strategic Defense Initiative) and full spectrum domination warfare focused on information control. The capitalist designers and defenders have large amounts of money for their campaign which amounts to a war on the working class. If you say anything you will be accused of class warfare. We have all the resources we need, particularly our ability to face reality as death approaches. People — foremost, young people — have some sense of big changes coming as the ideological wheels of fascism and communism are turning. It is time to talk intergenerationally about what we want to do. MARCH 10, 2023 MARCH 10, 2023 CRISIS RESPONSE ALEXANDRA GRANBERG Groundcover contributor Last month, Care-Based Safety, a grassroots group, announced that they have secured funding to pilot an unarmed, non-police crisis response program in Ypsilanti in mid-2023 – the first of its kind in Michigan, according to the group. How the program – for now referred to by CBS as the Future Program – will look is still evolving. Some elements will likely be included: mobile response groups on the streets and transformative justice tools – with focus on individual and community healing rather than punishment in the face of violence. Another element will be an urgent response program through a public, 7-digit phone number, separate from 911 and with no referrals to police. Washtenaw County’s mental health department currently provides a similar service for mental health crises – but unlike CBS’s hope for the Future Program, that is a police collaboration. CBS has asked several impacted groups for local feedback. They have also consulted similar, successful initiatives in cities across the US. The idea is that the pilot will inform a model that can be scaled up and later implemented in all of Washtenaw County. Any existing actions here would not be duplicated by existing departments. Rather, the program seeks to fill a gap. No violence, no police Last summer CBS broke out from, and is functionally independent of, CROS, Coalition for Re-envisioning Our Safety. CROS was formed in April 2021, after the Ann Arbor City Council passed a resolution to create a new, unarmed public safety program. CROS focuses on advocacy; CBS on research, program design and fundraising. While the resolution made no mention of independence from police, CROS and CBS intend to create such a model. “An unarmed response is not a true unarmed response unless it is unarmed non-police,” Hoai An Pham, a CROS member, said in an interview to Hour Detroit. Crucially, CBS response teams would not handle active violence involving guns or non-consensual domestic issues. It would address issues such as conflict de-escalation and wellness checks, involving for example mental health, overdose, post-violence situations and complaints. Despite this, concerns about a non-police response have been voiced by Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton, among others. One worry is that a seemingly non-violent situation can escalate into violence, requiring police. According to a data review by the New York Times, however, it appears only a fraction of policing is devoted to handling violent crime. Citing the review, CBS writes that most emergency calls are about “interpersonal complaints, traffic-related issues, wellness checks and medical calls.” No police, no violence Homelessness and mental illness are often more prevalent among incarcerated people than in the general population. Members of CBS and CROS want to see a system that focuses on community well-being – preventing rather than criminalizing problematic behavior. In CBS’s strategic plan published in February, the group states: “We believe in a future where public health programs and infrastructure are resourced, including the creation of new, care-based programs, making policing and state-sponsored punishment obsolete.” Ideally, the new program will not be connected to police at all, providing an alternative to crises. But Natalie Holbrook, a CBS member and spokesperson based in Ypsilanti, and part of the American Friends Service Committee, says she would “personally prefer 911 calls related to hunger or mental health crises to be directed to the program, over what is happening now.” A Washington Post investigation from 2015 showed that every fourth person who was killed by police suffered with mental illness. The AA City Council in its proposal states some of these deaths occur “where the deployment of police officers was not necessary.” Some police are also concerned about this. Among them, though not alone, is former Ann Arbor Police Chief Michael Cox, who told the Michigan Daily that mental health training is inadequate – and that therefore it is not ideal to send police to deal with mental health calls. Mayor Christopher Taylor has said explicitly that police are overworked, forced to deal with situations best dealt with by unarmed personnel. Violent failure Reform remains the popular go-to among both local and federal politicians, when advocating change in the police system. But attempts at reform – whether material, intellectual or organizational – have proven insufficient in the past. Body cameras, a type of material reform, were introduced on a wide scale shortly after police fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014. Three years later a study showed that the increased surveillance had not prevented police from using unwarranted violence. When police killed David McAtee in the summer of 2020, they had simply turned off their cameras. Chokeholds had already been banned in New York for 20 years, when a police officer choked Eric Garner to death in 2014. The case drew attention and drove police reforms around the country. Five years before George Floyd died under the knee of now-former policeman Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, the city had carried out these types of reforms. Among them was a warning system to detect problematic cases within the police force. Chauvin, with 17 complaints filed against him at the time, had evidently escaped this. Inherent violence CBS states that re-training or reforming police “is not a viable solution, given that the underlying purpose of policing is fundamentally different from the underlying purpose of providing direct care.” Driving CBS and abolitionism, both of which have roots in the Civil Rights movement, is the idea that policing as a system is inherently violent. In the words of abolitionist leader Mariame Kaba: “Everywhere, have they suppressed marginalized GROUNDCOVER NEWS Non-police crisis response piloting in Ypsilanti populations to protect the status quo … When a police officer brutalizes a black person, he is doing what he sees as his job.” The police and mass incarceration systems, they mean, are not broken but working as they were designed to – leaving nothing to “be fixed.” While CBS is informed by research and statistics, its members are also people of the community who in some way have been impacted by the current system, or love somebody who has been harmed by police – as is the case for Holbrook. She believes the state is incapable of providing the care and protection that a community can. Holbrook dreams of strong neighborhoods that look after themselves; sharing power, “rather than handing it over to the state,” which, she says, “takes individual power away.” “We simply want something else to rely on. A system rooted in care and compassion.” A river runs through it So far, funding for CBS efforts comes from the Michigan Justice Fund with the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, and United Way of Washtenaw County. At the time of writing, CBS is in the process of hiring two co-directors to head the pilot in Ypsilanti. The co-directors will help develop the program based on community feedback, as well as years of research and interviews with experts. In April, CBS hopes to finalize the design in order to put the program to practice this summer. After that, the group will dissolve, having fulfilled its function – passing on the leadership to the new response team and Future Program. Read more about the proposed program and background at linktr.ee/ carebasedsafety 11 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS K N Z P Z I A P E R S E N O A Z A F P O S T S C R I P T U M C P I Q T P E R P R O S Q E D I R D O N E R U T A D I F X G R O E F D T T O P E R C E N T C T I V K A M S X S A D G N Z A E D E P L X O H R D V I Z B I M E R F I G Q E X L I B T E V D F S W A V T V Z I D Q E F E E E U R L E J F O B E N D E R F N S F C O T E P Q L U E A B A S A T V L G C C Q I M J Q S C O E E U M I B I D C E U S A T R I N L O C O T I E R R E P O A D N A U S E A M T O E Q

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Baked caramel popcorn ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 5-7 quarts popped popcorn 2 cups brown sugar ½ tsp. salt ½ tsp. vanilla 1 cup butter ½ cup light syrup ½ tsp. baking soda Directions: Melt butter and stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Once boiling, leave for 5 minutes without stirring. Then remove from heat. Add baking soda and vanilla. In a very large bowl, pour over popcorn and mix well. Spread onto 2 shallow layer large cooking sheets. Bake at 250 degrees for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool and break apart. Store in an airtight container. Such a special treat, you won’t be able to stop eating the corn! MARCH 10, 2023 Holy Thursday, Mass of the Lord’s Supper: April 6th 7pm; Good Friday: April 7th Stations of the Cross 12pm; Veneration of the Cross 1:30pm Easter Vigil: April 8th, 8:00pm Easter Sunday: April 9th, 8:30am, 10:30am, 12:30pm; 2:30pm Spanish Mass (no 5pm evening Mass) BECOME A GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR • Make money on your first day • Choose your own schedule • Work for yourself • Join a supportive community • Get started this week for FREE NEW VENDOR ORIENTATIONS ARE EVERY TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, 10 AM @ THE GCN OFFICE. Trainings take 90 minutes. New vendors will get a temporary badge and 10 free papers to start. BLAKE TRANSIT Willam St. AADL The Groundcover office is located in the basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ (423 S 4th Ave, downtown Ann Arbor) Packard St. Fifth St. Fourth Ave.

2 $ FEBRUARY 24, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 5 YOUR DONATION BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Ann Arbor for Public Power is working to bring real power to the people. Page 4 MEET YOUR VENDOR: BEVERLY BOSS PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Madras Masala Indian Restaurant in 2020. Photo credit: Amy Cantu. A memory train to Madras Masala. page 8 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER in this ISSUE THE WISDOM of the BODY CAN TEACH, LEAD and HEAL Ken Parks, page 3 HOMELESSNESS — a CHANGE in DISPOSITION; a CHANGE for the BEST Mohammed Ahmed, page 6 HOW ABILITY AFFECTS HOUSING Washtenaw County United Way, page 7 HOW DOES SOMEONE LIVE with NO COMPANIONSHIP? TOLEDO STREETS VENDOR JOE on HOMELESSNESS, MENTAL ILLNESS and WORK Joe Taylor, page 7 MEMORY TRAIN to MADRAS MASALA Maithili Banerjee Pratiti, page 8 PUZZLES page 9 SLUSH to STEAM — the GENTRIFICATION that COMES with UPGRADING SCHOOLS Lior Cooper, page 10 FEBRUARY 24, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Jim Clark — vendor manager ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Mohammed Ahmed La Shawn Carlisle Lior Cooper Cindy Gere Zachariah Farah billy hill Mike Jones Ken Parks Maithili Banerjee Pratiti Maya Strohband Joe Taylor United Way of Washtenaw County GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Grace Sielinski Mira Simonton-Chao Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenburg Navya Yagalla PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Alexandra Granberg Zachary Dortzbach Jesse Owen Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith Erin Trame CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons FEBRUARY 24, 2023 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Slavehood LA SHAWN CARLISLE Groundcover vendor It is said that I have the spirit of a slave That's because I do That's because I am I'm a slave to obeying the Lord Jesus Christ! I'm a slave also to other things Beverly Boss, vendor No. 583 In one sentence, who are you? I am a kind, caring and outgoing person. Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? Liberty and State Street. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Go to the park. Why did you start selling Groundcover? To help get news out there about the homeless and better help the community. What words do you live by? You only have one life to live; live happy. What is something someone on the street wouldn't know? I was in foster care. What are you most likely to be famous for? Helping others. What's the best way to start the day? Coffee! What is a small thing that makes your day better? People with a positive attitude. What would be the first thing you did if you won the lottery? Help the homeless. Like living my life to my greatest potential While being loving to my neighbors, as I know that some of them despise, even hate me I'm a slave to my lost family By existing systems in another form Like back in the old days of slavery My family has been dissimilated, scattered, broken, torn in both their bodies and minds I'm still a slave even in these Even as I know better Yet, I gave, give in to lies Spoken By? It doesn't matter who Where, when, do I get up Where, when, can I come down Most likely the last thing, I ever thought I would phantom My words today and hopefully not lived Will be latter That's the real The only truths that matter!! So, I as a modern day slave speak them through my pen!! If I must speak, say them with my voice, I speak them vociferously If you call or think me loud That's your dilemma, problem! It has not one thing to do with ME! I might be a slave, Only in my body!! If you can not, do not, understand this I only gather that you must not have met, KNOW ME!! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 The wisdom of the body can teach, lead and heal I am learning to tune in to the wisdom of the body with practicing a natural breath. It begins with good posture and awareness of the breath. If you can complete 21 deep breaths you are now a champion on the beginner’s road. Whatever arises in the mind is okay, especially if you begin to exhale it and experience detachment. It’s an exercise in finding your core. The play of body, speech and mind is a core exercise. After my second inguinal hernia What would YOU ask? If you have a question or issue you would like Groundcover vendors to discuss, email us at contact@groundcovernews.com We will be featuring vendor responses in future issues. surgery at the age of 70, I found an article “Do squats not kegels” and learned about pelvic floor weakness syndrome — partly caused by the modern toilet and loss of the ability to squat. Pilates was recommended to me. Pelvic floor weaknewss affects everything. I am at the stage of life where my core fell through the pelvic floor; now bladder and bowel issues bounce around pain in my hip and knee. I am stalled by the bureaucratic quagmire of corporate dysfunction that turns healthcare into a and we want to stop it. To sit in good posture may hurt. KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 The recommended full lotus is not in my range of motion. It is good to start where you are and just sit – even on a chair – and simply observe the breath. Simple is good. After 42 years as a beginner, often lost in perfectionism, I am starting over again. It is a great blessing to ourselves commodity in the marketplace. Another distraction from a focused breath. The experience of clarity, no matter how brief, is testimony to the positive nature of the mind. Our tendency to fixate on thoughts, from chasing them into oblivion to avoiding them, is strong. Detachment begins with just observing the play of the mind and “letting go” of any fixation. It is so easy to get lost in our habitual patterns of stereotyping and craving. Suffering arises naturally, be it physical or mental, and others to begin the day with gratitude for our ancestors. Offerings are good, water is life and can represent many kinds of offerings. I love offering body, speech and mind to benefit all beings without exception. My fresh start is to begin every day with whatever I can do to get started in a good way. “Spring forward, feel your toes'' is a Groundcover article I wrote in July 2021. I was beginning to learn the wisdom of the body and play with pain in a more healing manner. Pain is an important message. It is asking for a change that you may see BODY page 8 

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CLIMATE In September 2022, the World Meteorological Organization under the direction of the United Nations compiled and released the 2022 United in Science report. It outlined the complete failure of developed nations to uphold their pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Frighteningly, it reminded us that these failed emissions goals were not projected to reverse climate change or even stop it, but rather only to lessen global devastation. One of the notable conclusions of the report is that the ambition of emissions-reduction plans would need to be increased seven-fold to limit global warming to 1.5ºC (2.7ºF). In other words, our leaders have utterly failed to protect our planet and our future, and yet again, political inaction has caused the walls of climate disaster to close in on us further. Standing up to meet this existential challenge, the City of Ann Arbor has geared up its efforts to reduce emissions and increase sustainable practices, setting an ambitious goal to achieve 100% renewable energy powering our community by 2030. In Michigan, over a quarter of our emissions comes from generating power. In fact, despite our claimed slogan of Pure Michigan, we burn coal and methane to produce the majority of our electricity. In a single year, Michigan’s energy sector produces approximately 58.9 million metric tons (13 billion lbs) of the carbon dioxide equivalents that are currently warming our planet. Here in Southeastern Michigan, our energy production is particularly dirty. We purchase our electricity from DTE Energy, a state-protected, for-profit monopoly utility. DTE’s monopoly ensures that DTE decides how to produce the electricity we use to power everything from streetlights to electric vehicles to the heating and air conditioning in our homes. So how exactly does DTE produce this power? Are they really as green as they claim to be in their advertising? According to DTE’s 2021 fuel mix disclosure, 58% of DTE’s electricity comes from burning coal, the energy source that emits the most greenhouse gasses. ZACHARIAH FARAH Ann Arbor for Public Power Shockingly, less than 10% comes from renewable energies like wind and solar. These numbers make DTE one of the dirtiest utilities in the United States, sparking serious concerns about how Ann Arbor can transition to 100% renewables if we have no choice but to buy our power from DTE. We know we can’t count on DTE to make this ambitious transition. In October 2022, the Sierra Club released a report analyzing the energy transition plans of power utilities across the country. DTE received a failing F grade (14.6/100) for its completely inadequate climate commitments. Interestingly, the utility company with the highest grade is a public power utility in Oklahoma with a score of 99.5/100. Public power utilities are publicly-owned entities that don’t operate with the objective of generating profit for shareholders (like with DTE), but rather to provide reliable electricity for the greater good of the communities they serve. Because public power utilities are controlled by democratically elected boards, they are directly accountable to the people and businesses they serve. Overall, this accountability results in significantly better service. On average, public power utilities are cleaner, cheaper and more reliable than their private, investor-owned counterparts. A coalition of local organizations came together in 2020 to form Ann Arbor for Public Power. We believe that the only way to decarbonize our energy grid by 2030 is to take control from DTE and bring the decision-making back to the people of our city. Making our utility public opens up GET CONNECTED If you are interested in helping us achieve A2P2's vision of affordable, reliable and renewable public power in the city of Ann Arbor, please sign up to volunteer and receive their newsletter on the website: AnnArborPublicPower.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/a2publicpower Instagram and Twitter: @a2publicpower Youtube: @annarborpublicpower6388 Cartoon by Izzy Hedin-Urrutia several exciting opportunities. First, instead of paying our bills to DTE, we’d pay them directly to the public power utility. This means we’d get rid of DTE’s extractive corporate structure that siphons over $1 billion annually of our rate-payer dollars out of our grid. We’d also be able to streamline the process of installing solar panels on residential roofs, a proposal that DTE has been fighting for years because it threatens their corporate profits. Most importantly, we’d be able to decide exactly how we produce our electricity. We could invest in solar and wind power and fully eliminate our dependence on coal. All of this would be possible because we the people would elect those who control our utility. Creating a public power utility would certainly be transformative. This process is also realistic. A2P2 has FEBRUARY 24, 2023 A2P2 is working to bring real power to the people identified the legal pathway to acquire DTE’s grid and establish a municipal public power utility in its place. In fact, Ann Arbor’s right to do this is enshrined in the Michigan Constitution. To make this a reality, we need to build overwhelming support for public power in our city so that when we bring it to the ballot box we know that we will win. So far, A2P2 has been supported by thousands of hours of donated labor by volunteers across our community who believe that we must take bold climate action now. Editor's note: Chelsea, Lansing, Marshall, Niles and Wyandotte all have public power. There are more than 40 public power communities in Michigan and over 2,000 nationwide. FEBRUARY 24, 2023 CLIMATE The Animal Kingdom's letter to humanity regarding global warming Good morning, Mark Robinson here reporting for Get-Cha-Mind Right Radio Alaska. Topping the news this morning, the Global Animal Affairs Committee plans to organize animals from all over the globe to discuss and write a letter to you, humanity, about the overwhelming effects of global warming. The board members of GAAC are: Big Mike the Polar Bear, Grizzy the Grizzly Bear, Lindsay the Blue Jay, Anastasia the Great Bald Eagle, and Chippie the Chipmunk. All five of them are childhood friends now fully grown with families of their own. One beautiful day Lindsay the Blue Jay ran into Big Mike the Polar Bear, and whispered something in his ear. Soon after a conversation ensued. The news spread like wildfire and animals were having great discussions all over the animal kingdom. As a result, the committee decided to take action and do something about the problem of global warming. They asked all animals from all over planet Earth — the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia, air, land and sea — to write to the committee on effects of global warming in their “neck of the woods.” The committee will read all letters from the animal kingdom and then, the committee will write a final letter to humanity with all the animals’ concerns. The response was great and immediate. All letters from all the animal kingdom were read by the Global Animal Affairs Committee. Once again good morning, this is Mark Robinson reporting for GetCha-Mind Right Radio Alaska. Topping morning headlines, Global Animal Affairs Committee, announces Animal Kingdom letter to Humanity, concerning global warming. I had a chance to meet and talk to committee President Big Mike (the Polar Bear). He said, “The Committee wishes to convey the terrible effects climate change has on wildlife and biodiversity and to see if the animal kingdom and mankind can work together to solve this serious issue.” “One more question, Big Mike, before I let you go. How do you see mankind reacting and responding to the letter from the Animal Kingdom?” “I would hope mankind would receive the letter in good spirit and expect a swift response due to the serious nature of the problem. We only got one home, Mother Earth, let's take care of her." “I want to say thanks to the committee and all the countless animals who took time out of their busy to-do lives, to take note and respond to the issues and the terrible effect that concerns them and their family and loved ones on the subject of climate change.” Dear Humanity Dear Humanity and Mankind, we hope this letter is received with love and respect for our beloved Planet Earth. I, Big Mike (the Polar Bear), the president of Global Animal Affairs Committee, would like to start by saying climate change has most definitely devastated the region and surrounding areas of Alaska. GAAC is located in the wilderness of Alaska, but climate change is not just affecting this part of the Planet Earth. Global warming is pervasive. I would like to note: this letter is written by animals from all regions of the animal kingdom worldwide. “Pervasive” (especially of an unwelcome influence or physical effect) spreading widely throughout an area or a group of people. Global warming and the heating of the Earth's surface have been observed MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 since the pre-industrial period due to human activity, such as land and ocean temperatures increasing, rising sea levels, loss of ice at Earth’s poles and mountain glaciers. Frequent and severe change in extreme weather, drought, floods, etc. have been observed. The elements — earth, air, fire, wind and water — will become agents of harm to living creatures of Planet Earth. We must consider coming together and pooling all our resources in order to combat the problem. Near the North Pole, the island of Greenland is warming almost twice as fast as Antarctica, which is causing the ice to melt and the rise in global sea levels. The world’s oceans will rise one to four feet in a person's lifetime. One out of three species will die off if climate change continues. Does mankind know that the beautiful Koala is in danger of being extinct? Because of the effects of climate change, heating of the Earth has made the plants the Koala eats toxic in the Eucalypt Forest. The list continues; less than 500 Bengal Tigers are left in the animal kingdom. Something has to be done to put a stop to the annihilation of millions of species in the animal kingdom. Some animals can adapt to global warming better than others. Most species are in migration mode. Animals are moving to more comfortable climates because some species can’t handle real hot temperatures or vice versa. We the animal kingdom and the whole wide world should be on code red. The evidence is too great to ignore. We humbly ask for your consideration in regards to the subject and hopefully we can work together soon to improve our beloved and dear planet and its inhabitants. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and science tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Databases at AADL Did you know all AADL library card holders have access to databases? You can search consumer reports, genealogy, and much more! Visit AADL.org/ collections/databases AADL Shelf Service Place your request with our Shelf Service and let AADL know the types of things you’re looking for. AADL staff will fill a bag with items we think you’ll like! For more information visit AADL.org/shelfservice FEATURED EVENT 5 Illustration by Cindy "Kung Fu Panda" Gere, Groundcover vendor No. 279. Illustration colored by Cameron, office visitor, age six. Sunday, March 5 • 1–3pm Downtown Libary AADL is excited to host the 2023 Washtenaw County CSA Fair in-person at the Downtown Library! Visit local farmers at their information table to find out more about their CSA offerings for this year and sign up for one for yourself or your family! For more information, visit AADL.org/ csafair

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS FEBRUARY 24, 2023 Homelessness — a change in dispostion, a change for the best MOHAMMED AHMED Groundcover contributor Homelessness creeps up on us; right now, somewhere on this planet, someone is being served with employment termination papers or they are losing their business or source of income, and their rent or mortgage is past due, with no option but eviction or foreclosure in sight. I am going through it right now. I continue to be amazed by the boundlessness of human generosity and kindness. Here is the thing, my friend: organization is sophistication. If you are an organized person who is solution-based, you will power through it on your own with the available resources. But if you are an introvert who has social anxiety and prefers to distance yourself from social interactions, the guide below will help you. What do you do when your husband, boyfriend, mother, landlord, grandma, girlfriend, fiancé, wife or whomever you were living with kicks you out, or somehow your circumstances change and you are homeless with no money for a hotel, no car, no friends, no family, no savings and only $5 to your name? 1. Google and find your local homeless shelter and go. If it's winter, inquire about warming centers, warming shelters and rotating shelters, as one needs a warm place to sleep. Additionally, at your local homeless shelters you'll find a supply of clean undergarments and socks, toiletries, bus tokens and discounted transportation cards, bicycles, free clinics, a slew of donated items ranging from food to clothing to shoes, and assistance with obtaining an ID. The best homelessness perk I ever got was a foot massage from a University of Michigan Medical School student, through the foot clinic program. God bless her, she will make one fine physician. Also Google and contact your local housing homelessness and shelter authority. I haven’t been homeless in the summer yet, but except for warming and rotating shelters, the advice is the same. You might find cooling shelters in summer. 2. Join a gym. When you're homeless, your biggest battle is against time, and your main enemy is idleness; so keeping occupied and finding a warm place if it's winter or an air-conditioned place if it's summer through a gym is a triple win, and here's why: Planet Fitness is open 24 hours a day, and the YMCA is open most days of the week. The gym gives you access to a clean place to shower and store clean clothes for work and social events. In addition, working out is fun. I like to go there two or three times a day. It is also a place to meet new people, make new friends, and develop both social and economic connections and opportunities. When I had shelter, I rarely visited the gym. 3. Find gainful employment: Being homeless does not mean you have to stop working; you can continue to go to work if you have a job. Figure out which bus route is best for you; understand the bus schedule so you know exactly how much time you need from bed to bus stop with all the intricacies in between. Google Maps has an option where you can choose your arrival time, and the application will tell you what time to start your bus trip. In my personal experience, I have been heavily reliant on temporary employment, or "gig apps," as I call them, where businesses advertise their daily labor needs, which I can apply for and fill on the same day. Pay is either instant, daily or the day after, which keeps constant money in my pocket for me to take care of my needs as a modern man. I recommend checking out Instawork, Wonlo, Veryable, Hyer, Adia, Bacon, Gigsmart, We Work. All of these apps are awesome for making income. Secret shopper apps as well. 4. Food: eat less; be less indulgent. Recognize that food is a fuel source rather than a delicacy. Look for local food banks and pantries. Most homeless shelters provide two meals a day and religious organizations will provide free breakfast services. Certain restaurateurs in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area will place unclaimed delivery orders in front of their establishments for those in need to take free of charge. 5. Physical appearance merits attention. As a general respect for society, troubles, degree of destitution or lack of comforts should not be visible in one’s physical appearance. Homeless shelters often have agreements that provide a voucher to purchase needed clothing at the local Salvation Army and/or thrift stores. A respectful appearance and a well-groomed and well-kept demeanor will get you a long way in life. I do laundry in a twoweek cycle, budgeted for and organized. I also keep two colognes, use non-scented deodorants, always use lotions, and use my personal nail and grooming kit on a weekly basis. Fingernails, especially if they are long, must be kept clean. Looking good will lead to self-esteem appreciation, which will in turn make you smile, which will in turn lead to a succession of reciprocating smiles. Homelessness helped me get rid of a lot of bad behavior, such as narcissism, greed, selfishness and close-mindedness. I’ve developed a general appreciation for my fellow humans regardless of their whatever, and it's beautiful. Homelessness is a catalyst for a better you. Once you master coming out of it — whether to a lease or a title deed in your own name or to a federal housing voucher, you will be a more organized, more athletic and more economically upwardly mobile individual with more defined goals and dreams and the confidence to match and achieve them. "Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal." — Earl Nightingale Ahmed recommends using gig apps like Wonlo (top right), Instawork (middle right), Veryable (right bottom) and Gigsmart The Ann Arbor YMCA offers financial assistance for membership on a case-by-case basis, based on gross annual income, household size and special circumstances. They utilize Housing and Urban Development income data in Washtenaw County in order to distribute aid in a way that reflects the community. Contact nmoorehouse@annarborymca. org for more details. (above) to find work on a day to day basis. Selling and writing for Groundcover News also offers flexible employment for people experiencing homelessness. FEBRUARY 24, 2023 DISABILITY GROUNDCOVER NEWS “How does someone live with no companionship or love in their lives?” Toledo Streets vendor Joe on homelessness, mental illness and work You may be asking yourself how the listed words in the title of this article fit together. Let me explain why I have grouped them together. The most recent count of homeless people I can find is 600 to 800 in Toledo. A good portion of them have a mental and/or physical disability. Which played a big part in their present situation. From not being able to hold a job to not being able to get a job because of a disability. Which in turn is a big factor in how homelessness starts. I have sat down with some of the homeless people that were willing to elaborate about their life and how they got where they are. I will not be using real names as they have requested of me. Some of their stories even overwhelmed me emotionally. As I listened, I felt the struggles and pain. It was almost too much to take in at times. Each person was unique, but somewhat the same, if that makes sense. Jane, as we will call her, was born with Epilepsy and Tourette’s. From the time she could remember her family was ashamed of her. To the point when they had company outside of family, they would lock her in her room or the basement like an unwanted animal. She remembers like it was yesterday. She was home-schooled so as not to embarrass her parents. Which makes it almost impossible to function in today’s society. When she turned 18 she was kicked out into the street with nothing but the JOE TAYLOR Toledo Streets vendor clothes on her back. Without a diploma and no job or social skills, it was almost impossible to survive. She tried a variety of workplaces, from fast food to the factory. Nothing was comfortable for her. Jane faced many challenges to the point she would only last a few days at each job. The end result being no income, except what she would make panhandling. Her emotional state was very distraught and hollow while talking with me. Despite her hesitation, Jane got help to get SSI benefits two years ago. As of six months ago she was approved. She tells me now she is so used to being homeless, she will live the rest of her life this way. I asked her if there was anything I could help with. Jane replied, “Love one another no matter what.” Jane is right, so many of us are fixated on appearance and material things. We forget to look past these things to see the true beauty of a person. Next, I spoke with John. John is a 44-year-old man who has been in and out of prison since the age of 22. He suffers from Bipolar II. He had loving parents who did everything they could to support him. Still, he was kicked out of school non-stop, from kindergarten to senior high school. John’s parents died in a car accident when he was 25. He explained that he gave up on life after they passed. He was convicted of crimes from robbery to attempted murder. He does not receive any government assistance at this time. Since the last time he was released from prison in 2017 he has been homeless. The way he talked about his disability is “a fight in your brain.” One side of his brain says yes and the other side says no. Which in his head creates confusion. “It is a war within your head that drives you to anger,” he said. Every job he held ended with him assaulting customers or nonstop arguments with bosses and co-workers to the point that it became physical. He gave up trying to be a productive member of society. Some of John’s everyday struggles are homelessness, hunger, loneliness, trust issues and getting into daily fights. Now he asks for spare change or food to survive. He made it clear he prefers to be homeless. This way he doesn’t have to worry about affection or dealing with people too much on a daily basis. The few times he has asked for help, he was admitted to different mental facilities, which seems to only make him madder. When I first approached him he was very standoffish with me. I was a little distrusting of his demeanor at the time I met him. I explained to him I just wanted to tell a story. He was kind of hesitant but decided to give me a chance. After talking with John, I felt a heaviness in my heart. How does someone live with no companionship or love in their lives? So many thoughts going through my head. I had to walk away from this story for a couple days. We take life for granted on a regular basis. I personally suffer from seizures and Bipolar I with self-destructive tendencies. I can relate to mental and physical disabilities. It is hard to hold a job and function daily. Which is a big part of selling street papers. They help me to grow constantly. We are a very judgmental world in many ways. I believe Lucas County, Ohio, needs more avenues for people with disabilities. More places to fit their needs in the work industry, so they can be productive in a positive way and feel somewhat normal. It is hard to function when it feels like you are destined to fail. Honestly, in my opinion, the system that is in place has failed many people. As a society we must learn to be more accepting of those with disabilities. Open your eyes to the people around us. Listen for a minute, you would be surprised by how much they have been through and are going through. Courtesy of Toledo Streets / International Network of Street Papers 7 How ability affects housing equality UNITED WAY OF WASHTENAW COUNTY Housing insecurity is an issue that disproportionately impacts people from various marginalized groups, one of which is people with disabilities. One cannot discuss housing insecurity without bringing disability into the conversation. The terms “unhoused” and “houselessness” were recently adopted and preferred by individuals coping with housing insecurity. Proponents of the updated terms say that houselessness does a better job capturing their situation. Home is more than the physical space. Home is composed community, memories and family, while the house is the actual structure that they’re living without. It is estimated that 25% of people who are unhoused are people with disabilities. Although there are laws in place to protect the rights of people with disabilities, discriminatory policies and housing practices still exist. An example of a discriminatory of housing practice is when property owners and property management companies require that applicants earn three times the monthly rent in order to be considered for housing. As a result of living on a fixed income, many people with disabilities don’t make enough to pay market rent rates and are left looking for affordable, and in some cases, accessible housing without success. Often the applicants are put on waiting lists that range between six months to eighteen months. When you add the need for accessibility to the equation, finding affordable housing is considerably more challenging. A recent report found that only 6% of homes nationwide are accessible while more than 15% of households include someone with a physical disability. Many shelters across the country are not accessible. This leaves people with physical disabilities with unstable and unsafe housing options. The lack of accessible and truly affordable housing around the country, coupled with attitudinal barriers, directly impacts people with disabilities. To address this situation people in positions of power need to adopt policies that prohibit discriminatory renting practices and be prepared to enforce these policies. Everyone, including people with disabilities, should have access to safe, affordable, and accessible housing. Originally published as part of United Way of Washtenaw County's Disabiltity Awareness Challenge in 2022.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY A memory train to Madras Masala It was January 20. A Friday. But for the residents of Ann Arbor, it was not just a typical day. This isn't yet another report of how Madras Masala, one of the city's most well-known Indian restaurants, caught fire. This article merely aims to bid a fond farewell to Madras Masala, one of the most cherished Indian restaurants of the community by reminiscing about some pleasant experiences. First, a brief history. According to the Ann Arbor Fire Department, the fire started in the kitchen of the restaurant Madras Masala. The students still remember the thin layer of smoke stretching Maynard Street to the Diag. This fire incident may look like just a restaurant closing, but the students believe it is the end of an era. In addition to serving as a gathering spot for fans of Indian cuisine, Madras Masala served as a bridge between various cultural groups. On a regular weekday or weekend, you could see not just Indians, but people from different ethnicities enjoying Indian food. Many believe it was not just about the food but also about the warmth the owner of this Indian restaurant gave its customers. Amanda, a junior at the University of Michigan, said,"I come from a white family, and I didn't have exposure to south-Asian culture while growing up. But after I came to college, long-time presence downtown, Madras Masala was not only a place to make new memories but also a place to remember ones from the past. You can get curious about why MAITHILI BANERJEE PRATITI U-M student contributor I fell in love with Indian food and culture through Madras Masala. I remember that the owner addressed the female customers as 'Ma,' which meant 'mother' in Hindi and Telugu." Madras Masala was a go-to restaurant for people of different age demographics too. When news of the fire broke, the internet was flooded with comments from many generations of people. Jackson Kim, a 79-year-old man, commented on the Ann Arbor Fire Department's post about Madras Masala, "Two of my grandsons used to go to the University of Michigan. I used to visit them every weekend and take them to Madras Masala for lunch. Although my grandkids graduated in 2016, we continued visiting that restaurant because we had many beautiful memories there." Because of the restaurant's Madras had such a diverse set of customers. Throughout the interviews that I did, I got various answers. For some people, it was the food. For others, it was the restaurant's ambiance, but the most popular one was that Madras's food was designed so that people with different dietary restrictions would have equal options to choose from. For instance, Madras served halal food, which is a diet preferable to Muslims. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of restaurants in Ann Arbor that serve halal food, which made Madras Masala a go-to place among the Muslim community. Phoebe Sarkar, a Bangladeshi American, said, "I grew up in New York having desi halal food, and I missed 'ghorer khabar' (home-cooked food) after I had moved to Ann Arbor for college. When I used to miss home food, I ordered food from Madras because it was halal and carried the smell of my ghorer khabar." Like Phoebe Sarkar, Madras Masala was a home away from home for thousands of people. Madras Masala is associated with so many beautiful tales and memories, but no one was able to bid it a good farewell because it vanished without warning. The unannounced comeback of Madras Masala in Ann Arbor remains a question among the University of Michigan students and Ann Arborites. It is said, "Good things don't last for long." But as Madras was better than good to the people of Ann Arbor, it will last forever through the memories people have created in that restaurant. FEBRUARY 24, 2023 Madras Masala on the afternoon of January 20, 2023.  BODY from page 3 I met Joya d’Cruz at Crazy Wisdom Women movement was born to address begin on your own but often requires an experienced healer. All of us have some healing power, which begins when you notice someone's pain and feel concerned. Prayer is a common request and excellent offering. If you have any experience with nutrition and massage, those are important healing skills. Remember your grandma’s chicken soup and someone’s hand on your shoulders to relieve the load you feel. Applied kinesiology is an important skill which tests muscle strength to get clues about your specific issue. I first experienced it with Dr. Goodheart who my parents swore by. Google says “pseudoscience,” while the Merriam Webster dictionary defines it as “a diagnostic system that uses manual testing of the functional integrity of muscles to identify illness in other parts of the body.” My rebirthing healers used applied kinesiology to look at decisions made at my birth. You will test strong or weak to any statement you make like a built in lie-detector. The body does not lie. during a workshop on emotional intelligence. She is a focusing-oriented therapist, mentored by Eugene Gendlin who has offered great guidance to me. Gendlin learned the wisdom of the body beginning with his father’s experience of escaping fascist Austria. “How did you do that Dad?” “My body told me which customs line to get in!” Eugene was on a healing path that led to writing the book “Focusing.” The act of focusing is one of the main tools of the wisdom of the body. That book will help you do that. Many meetings are difficult for me due to my hearing disability. We had a good Article Review meeting at Groundcover News earlier this year which I could feel but not understand, so I asked Joe Woods to summarize it for me and learned that “stereotyping” was a main theme. (We are planning an article on the topic together.) The suffering that arises from stereotyping includes the many kinds of violence we experience in this world, from war and mass shootings, to emotional and sexual abuse, racism and poverty. The Missing and Murdered Indigenous generations of suffering that persists now. Our ability to learn needs exercise. Let’s grow the wisdom of the body. Tuning in to your own suffering helps you feel anyone’s pain. Hugs are often healing for all of us. Breathing peace is a way to start the healing process. We have mentors among us as ancestors and living persons who are experienced in pointing out the way. I was honored to meet Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk who among other things organized expeditions of young people carrying humanitarian aid into the war zone to help villages hit by natural disasters. He was on tour as a guest of the Fellowship of Reconciliation when I met him. “Whatever you can do to stop the war,” was his message. I was reborn in his presence and became a draft resister. He founded Plum Village in France which promotes global awareness of simple breathing. When the student is ready the teacher will appear. The Tibetan Kagyu lineage led by the 17th Karmapa is a deep connection for me. I am reconnecting with my Mennonite-Church of the Brethren heritage, a gift of my parents and the Shalom Community Church of Ann Arbor. Simply breathing opens the door to new experiences and relationships. Old relationships can be reborn into deeper creativity. Explore yourself and be amazed at how deep are the obstacles that arise in life and at how well you can harness that energy as you turn to the clear light nature, the mother of the wisdom of the body. Bethlehem United Church of Christ is turning to street wisdom from the office of Groundcover. Further, they are turning to the wisdom of the body, speech and mind in the Upper Room at 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays with a Tibeten Buddhist practice. Explore your community and grow many kinds of skillful means and wisdom. Great blessings are waiting for you. Be curious and enjoy. My core fell through the floor and I am now untangling a bladder/bowel Gordian knot as I breathe to work with my core in a healing process. The struggle is good. Hasta la victoria siempre! FEBRUARY 24, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. MATH PUZZLES JAN GOMBART GROUNDCOVER CONTRIBUTOR 1.On a table are 11 pennies. The first player picks up 1, 2, or 3 pennies. The second player picks up 1, 2 or 3, and they continue taking turns. The player who picks up the last penny loses. How does the first player win?

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ANN ARBOR SCHOOLS FEBRUARY 24, 2023 Slush to STEAM — the gentrification that comes with "upgrading" schools When I was in fourth grade, the news came out that my elementary school would soon be remodeled, revamped and renamed. No longer would it just be Northside Elementary; now, it was Ann Arbor STEAM at Northside. Even as a 10-year-old I could objectively see why they were doing this kind of upgrade: the administration was a mess, there were more unused classrooms than used ones because there were 188 kids stretched among the six grades taught there. VHS tapes were still the most common form of media at our school in 2014. Despite the fact that these new upgrades appeared good, there was something deep down that made me feel like something wasn’t right about the way in which they were making all these changes. As time marched on, the school became more and more unrecognizable from what it used to be, more and more different from how I remembered it. And no, I’m not talking about the multi-million dollar new gym, or the iPads guaranteed to every STEAM student, or even the massive blue squares they used for the exteriors of the building additions; those were the changes that were paraded around at countless celebrations of the completion of the “new” school. Those aren’t LIOR COOPER Groundcover contributor the differences I’m talking about. It started in 5th grade. We had retained most of our original Northside cohort going into that school year, the first year of the STEAM experiment, but our grade had nearly doubled in size from the sheer number of new students coming to the school. Our whole school experienced a population boom: our school of 188 students suddenly grew to 401. This sudden jump in population also meant a steep demographic shift within both my cohort and my school as a whole. Within a single year, Northside went from being a school where 51% of the students were economically disadvantaged in the 2013-14 school year, to a school where that percentage was 25% in the 2014-2015 school year. My grade went from having exactly half of us being considered economically disadvantaged to only 34%. This trend hasn’t changed since that first year of the new school, either: In the 2021-2022 school year, 16% of the student body as a whole were considered economically disadvantaged. This change was not because the economic situations of the families already at Northside were suddenly improved; This was because new families — richer families — were becoming a part of the now “new-andimproved” STEAM community. Families that had been going to Northside for possibly generations — the school had been around for around eighty years at that point — felt sidelined by the district and “progress-at-all-costs” mentality when it came to changes with the school. Before becoming STEAM, Northside was a Title 1 school, meaning at least 40% of its student body is considered low income. With that Title 1 status comes funding targeted towards helping the families of these economically disadvantaged students. Even with its flaws, Northside used its Title 1 money to really help ensure students were on grade level, even if they left students who were above grade level (like me, for instance) with nothing to do but read since we already understood the material being taught. Post-STEAM transformation, the school was no longer a Title 1 school, but it’s not like STEAM really needed the funding. They used their sudden influx of money from the district to help push above-grade-level students to go as far in their academic journey as they could go, meaning a number of my peers ended up entering high school ready to take calculus. On the other hand, they gave nearly no funding to helping students who were below grade level, who are often those same kids who are considered “economically disadvantaged.” The sudden drop in how many low-income kids there are at this one school, as well as the demoralizing lack of academic support they receive, speaks truth to the gentrification that has been taking place all over Ann Arbor for decades. You cannot revamp, remodel, and rename without ensuring that everyone impacted by that change can be properly and equitably supported. With each year that the issues I outlined with STEAM go ignored, more and more kids run the risk of being academically and socially left behind by this enigma of a school. - FEBRUARY 24, 2023 COMMUNITY RESOURCES GROUNDCOVER NEWS Washtenaw County Food Pantries Ann Arbor Ypsilanti MAIZE AND BLUE CUPBOARD 420 S State St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Sunday 2-6 p.m. Monday 3-7 p.m. Tuesday 3-7 p.m. Wednesday 12-7 p.m. Thursday 3-7 p.m. Friday 3-7 p.m. Must provide M-Card to enter BACK DOOR PANTRY 2309 Packard St Ann Arbor Thursday 4 p.m. – 7 p.m. SALVATION ARMY 100 Arbana Dr. Ann Arbor Tuesday and Thursday 10 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. and 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. CATHOLIC SOCIAL SERVICES 815 Taylor Tuesdays: 2 - 5 p.m. Thursdays: 10 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES 5200 Venture Thursday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. = Last names beginning with A-M 2-4 p.m. = Last names beginning with N-Z COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK 3 West Eden Ct. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Fridays 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. HOPE CLINIC 518 Harriet St. Available Pantry Appointment Times Tuesday - 12:30 -2:30 p.m. Wednesday - 4-6 p.m. Friday- 9:30 -11:30 p.m. Saturday -10-11:30 p.m. You must have a grocery appointment to shop at the pantry, call (734) 484-2989 weekdays, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. to reserve a time. Stop by the front office any time during business hours and ask for a bag of Emergency Food. Monday - Friday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. HOPE CLINIC FARM STAND 454 Harriet St Monday: 9:30 a.m. -12 p.m. Thursday: 12:30 p.m. - 3 p.m. Saturday: 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. CHRISTIAN LOVE FELLOWSHIP CHURCH 1601 Stamford Fourth Saturday of every month 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. SOS COMMUNITY SERVICES 114 North River St. Tuesday 1 – 6:30 p.m. Wednesday 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. EMU SWOOPS PANTRY 104 Pierce Hall Monday and Thursday 12-5 p.m. Wednesday 12 – 6:30 p.m. 24/7 WALK-UP PANTRIES Solidarity Pantry 169 N Washington St Peace House Ypsi 706 Davis This is not a complete list. If you need additional food resources, Food Gatherers has an interactive map of area pantries and programs on their website www.foodgatherers.org/foodresources/map/ 11 untitled billy hill writer the phrase the good shepherd is an interesting one. the reason being, is that people throughout time have always trusted the notion that there is a greater order to things. so the phrase, “the good shepherd “ is one we avoid a deep thinking upon. case in point: a shepherd, being a human who rears sheep so their wool and milk and flesh and offspring can be sold as profit, just to line the shepherd’s pockets. the dilemma becomes obvious. the irony being; the wild mountain goats, that roam the countryside freely, feeding themselves, coming & going as need be, able to bathe and sleep where mother nature intended. those lone billy goats who are ostrichsized for not giving in with the herd, who just execute their collector’s plan. the personal freedom exemplified and by virtue of the truth of who we are, secretly the sheep know there is purpose in the goat’s musings. though scapegoated, to put the focus on such issues, our ideal shepherd, the wild mountain goat who from the vantage points of view from the peaks above can perceive all the workings of the world below at the same time, in their own proper context, which the folks in the moment, who have their faces buried in their toil, and farming, for example, are too engrossed in to notice. the natural ability to adapt to circumstances and in still natural order through presence, is a great instructor and powerful ally. clearly the problem lies not with the free goats reminder of the folks mis_taken trust in wolves in shepherd’s form, rather the problem is of the sheep being bred into slavery. if any of these sheep were allowed, to thrive and flourish for the first time in their existence, a certain residence of the truth would be unleashed from within the deep being of our fortunate pasture dweller, the other sheep would instantly pick up on, and notice intuitively. sooner than later the cat would have been discovered to have already discarded the bag long ago, still. people do not always find freedom, and satisfaction in self expression, relates directly with our desire to fit in as a self-preserving technique. the control of fear exercised dis-allows further inquiries that could lead to insight and clarity that allows self mastery. through self-honesty and responsibility, a sign of someone mature enough to deal with things as they are, and to co-create their own reality, actually. a lot of unplanned and unexpected pregnancies could be avoided if people were empowered to handle and own their own energies and life force in a healthy honest way. encouraging the reason a lot of others to step into their values and live from a purpose driven place in one’s self, enables us to take the wheel in our own lives. to become and stay our own counsel, to guide our own course as, the same stuff as the universe, that courses through every cell of our bodies of which our bodies are composed of, in all existence, ushers us onward upon our own path. to accept responsibility with this, is why progress occurs. left to our own devices, in our natural conditions we thrive as ourselves.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Chicken enchilada soup MAYA STROHBAND Groundcover contributor This simple soup takes approximately 15 minutes to prepare and is a wonderful dinner during the colder months. This delicious meal uses ingredients found in most pantries and, with its quick prep time, is sure to become a staple in any kitchen! Serves about four. Ingredients: 1 rotisserie chicken (ideally shredded but can be roughly chopped) 4 cups chicken stock 14 oz canned tomatoes 14 oz canned sweet corn 19 oz canned red enchilada sauce Optional garnishes (lime wedges, cilantro, sour cream, tortilla chips or shredded cheddar cheese) FEBRUARY 24, 2023 Directions: Add all ingredients to a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add your choice of garnish — lime wedges, cilantro, sour cream, tortilla chips or shredded cheddar cheese all go well with the soup. Add hot sauce for an extra kick! PUZZLE SOLUTIONS Math puzzle solutions: 1. Work backwards. You want to leave one penny on the table to win. The play before, 5 is the number to leave. He picks up 1, 2, or 3 and you pick up 3, 2 or 1 to leave 1. To get to 5, you should leave him 9. So, on the first play, pick up 2. BECOME A GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR • Make money on your first day • Choose your own schedule • Work for yourself • Join a supportive community • Get started this week for FREE NEW VENDOR ORIENTATIONS ARE EVERY TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, 10 AM @ THE GCN OFFICE. Trainings take 90 minutes. New vendors will get a temporary badge and 10 free papers to start. BLAKE TRANSIT Willam St. AADL The Groundcover office is located in the basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ (423 S 4th Ave, downtown Ann Arbor) Packard St. Fifth St. Fourth Ave.

2 $ FEBRUARY 10, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 4 YOUR DONATION BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. The racialization of Washtenaw County's unhoused population. Page 4 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE SONG? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Graphic by Agniva Bhaumik, Michigan in Color THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER You might think that a community street newspaper like Groundcover News is the exact opposite of Michigan in Color at The Michigan Daily, the long-standing student-run newspaper of the University of Michigan. But these two publications that seem very different from the outside have more in common than you might think. Groundcover News was founded in 2010 with the purpose of empowering low- to no-income people of Washtenaw County to transition from “homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed.” Groundcover News is grounded in several principles, including the beliefs that “all people have the right to dignity,” “poverty is political — systemic change is necessary,” “building community is essential to social change” and “solutions to poverty must involve people who are directly affected.” As a street paper, Groundcover is sold by people experiencing poverty or FEBRUARY 10, 2023 from the JOINT DESK of Michigan in Color and Groundcover News LINDSAY CALKA Managing Director homelessness as an immediate and dignified means of obtaining income — all while wielding journalism and advocacy to fight poverty from its roots. Michigan in Color was founded by three women of Color in 2014 as a safe and brave space for people of Color at the University of Michigan to express themselves and their urgent needs. Since its founding, MiC has remained committed to its mission of liberation for people of Color, especially in intersection with other marginalized JESSICA KWON Former MiC Editor identities — liberation which necessitates abolishing oppressive forces like imperialism, capitalism, colonialism, occupation, apartheid and white supremacy, which mutually reinforce one another. Here at Groundcover News and Michigan in Color, we believe our missions are intertwined. The fight for abolition cannot be separated from the realities of racism and the stark “pileup of inequities” experienced by working class and oppressed peoples. We are committed to publishing work that challenges traditional ways of knowing — and no, that doesn’t just mean we identify as “alternative” media. For these reasons, Groundcover and MiC stand in solidarity with each other and proudly present this special collaborative edition. Our intentions for this issue are twofold: first, we want to build connections between the U-M community and the unhoused community of Washtenaw County. Make no mistake: the University of Michigan is a wealthy institution attended by thousands of financially-privileged students. The students and faculty of the U-M community hold social privilege that cannot be understated — but this truth can also muddle the simultaneous reality that there are many working class students who often struggle with feeling alone and invisible in their experiences; first generation, see MIC COLLAB next page  CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Jim Clark — vendor manager ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Agniva Bhaumik Amy Deng Akash Dewan Mike Jones Saarthak Johri Jessica Kwon Anchal Mahl Cedric McCoy Ken Parks Will Shakespeare Denise Shearer Maya Sheth Felicia Wilbert GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Logan Brown Luiza Duarte Caetano Zachary Dortzbach Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Mira Simonton-Chao Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenburg Navya Yagalla Emily Yao PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Jesse Owen Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons FEBRUARY 10, 2023 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What is your favorite song? "Beautiful Eyes" by Glenn Lewis. — Gary Robinson, #224 "Let it Be" by the Beatles. — Tony Schol, #9 "I love the Lord He Heard My Cry" by Pastor Danny Hollins. — Lit Kurtz, #159 "My Ambitionz" by Mozzy. — Derek Allen, #177 "Haunt Me" by Sade. — Joe Woods, #103 "Know You Will" by Hillsong UNITED. — Amanda Gale, #573 "Mainstreet" by Bob Seger. — Fred Allen, #170 "Gotta Get Mine" by MC Breed. — Brian Hargrove, #158 The Chinese National Anthem. — James Tennant, #174 "1980" by Rehab and Steaknife. It's our song! — Tabitha Ludwig #360 and Sean Almond #561 Philidelphia sound, Motown. — Schillington Morgan, #148 "Fireflies" by Owl City. — Tre McAlister, #519 "Desert Rose" by Sting. — Cindy Gere, #279 "Goodnight Irene" by Pete Seeger. — Ken Parks, #490 "Purple Rain" by Prince. — Gary Leverett, #554 Listen for yourself! Scan the QR code to listen to the "Groundcover News vendor top hits" playlist on Spotify.  MIC COLLAB from last page low-income students who don’t enjoy the same privileges as their peers, students who have experienced homelessness themselves, students whose dire needs are seldom met by the University. Our second intention is to raise awareness of the circumstances of the Washtenaw unhoused community, in their own words, and of the ethical responsibilities U-M students, from their positions of relative privilege, have to those unhoused around them — whether it be mutual aid, a Groundcover News purchase, a simple conversation or even just eye contact and a smile. The more knowledge community members have of Groundcover News, the better the street paper model works. Groundcover vendors contend with the challenge of the University population's yearly turnover, especially because they are not allowed to sell on campus. Each year, relationships are made, people move away and are replaced by 7,00010,000 new residents who have no clue what Groundcover News is — unless, perhaps, they come from another city with a street paper. In sharing print space with each other, we hope to expose future customers and readers to Groundcover News early, and amplify their support of its work, operations and mission. We hope that this collaboration will inspire you in the U-M community to develop relationships with unhoused people, carry couple of physical dollar bills on your persons to provide financial aid to those in need and to purchase — and read — Groundcover News as often as you can. We hope you will interact with Groundcover News vendors on the streets, because even when you lack the means to lend them help monetarily, a smile or a conversation can bring them comfort and emotional support. And we hope you will learn something about the topics covered in this collaboration — anti-homeless infrastructure, the Trotter Multicultural Center and the Ann Arbor public school system, to name a few — and think about them, and the lenses through which we view them. Peace, appearances and transforming reality Peace is a revolution of values that respects the appearances of reality and also respects the reality from which appearances arise. Our most profound context is derived from the truths we hold to be self-evident. Everything is interrelated. Loving kindness and compassion make this interrelated reality a workable situation. It promotes discriminating awareness to make sense of the vast display of appearances. Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Thich Nhat Hanh are among our 20th century “saints” who pointed the way. As A. J. Muste said, “There is no way to peace, peace is the way.” The 2023 MLK event by the Chapter 93 branch of Veterans For Peace discussed this revolution of values with a look at MLK’s landmark speech “Beyond Vietnam, A Time to Break Silence.” This outstanding presentation by Bob Krzewinski and Bill Shea will help anyone who hears it begin to mature as a human being for peace. MLK’s eloquent analysis and meditation on reality is the way to begin a genuine education for peace. Only then can we look at our current situation in the context of militarism, racism and materialism — the great sins of “Manifest Destiny” and “American exceptionalism.” All actions have results. We have a responsibility to look at how those results play out. White There is no way to peace, peace is the way. — A.J. Muste KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 supremacy is linked to the most dangerous supremacies of imperialism and fascism. How is it that we have avocados year round and avocado-producing countries have a flood of refugees at the border? It is our responsibility to answer the question of young people, “What world system are you supporting?” We hear the refrain “another world is possible!” Breathe peace and go to work on the everyday things that create our lived experience. This is the work that meetings, vigils and rallies will promote. The heart of the struggle is to be aware of the results of our work.The chain-of-command mentality may not even know who is at the top of the chain. When compliance with instructions is automatic, we can easily carry out orders that are destructive to the common good. A good neighbor may regularly promote the war on nature if compliance requires chemical warfare. When weeds become the enemy, it is mother earth who suffers. When painkillers shut down the causes of pain, we will go from one pain to another and never learn our true condition. When violence becomes the norm, we may focus compulsively on the details of the latest mass killing and not look at the dysfunction that produces violence as a habitual response to suffering. The suffering we experience can only be cured by looking at causes and context and exercising our creativity. Curiosity is the key. Explore interrelatedness and discover the peace which prevails in the same way that the grass still grows and the birds still sing. We can begin peace by demilitarizing the war machine. Put a flower in the barrel of a gun. Love your enemy enough to risk your life for peace. At least study a wide variety of views that help find the clues to promote love as the best option! Loving your enemy is the most revolutionary value to begin living in peace. Aikido — the way of harmonizing energy — is a state of mind; play with whatever comes your way. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 "

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS FEBRUARY 10, 2023 The racialization of Washtenaw County's unhoused population CEDRIC MCCOY MiC Assistant Editor In the last decade, scholars across academia have begun to investigate the phenomenon of homelessness through contemporary, intersectional lenses. Historically, being unhoused has been understood as being unimpacted by societal and systemic influences and more often interpreted as resulting from a series of an individual’s choices or circumstances. Modern studies have deemed this framework to be objectively false: homelessness is a complex issue that requires multifaceted approaches in order to determine its root causes as well as its catalysts. Vijay Mago et al describe this in “Analyzing the impact of social factors on homelessness: a Fuzzy Cognitive Map approach.” “Homelessness is a complex social problem with a variety of underlying economic and social factors such as poverty, lack of affordable housing, uncertain physical and mental health, addictions, and community and family breakdown. These factors, in varying combinations, contribute to duration, frequency, and type of homelessness… Homelessness is difficult to define, thus governments struggle with uncertainty when creating and implementing policies they hope will effectively manage or eradicate this problem.” The rise in our unhoused populations is problematized further by concurrent factors that act as limiting and oppressive, such as race, gender, ability and immigrant status. This article takes a look at the demographics of Washtenaw County’s unhoused population by race in order to demonstrate the dramatic overrepresentation of People of Color in our local homeless community. In his article “Racialized Homelessness: A Review of Historical and Contemporary Causes of Racial Disparities in Homelessness,” Dr. Matthew Z. Fowle describes the narratives that have formed around homelessness in the last half-century: “Research examining the prevalence of homelessness by race and ethnicity implies that homelessness prior to the 1980s was predominantly experienced by single older White men. However, a broader understanding of the histories of homelessness among Black, Latinx, and Native American people suggests substantial racial overrepresentation has existed for far longer than the past 40 years—in many cases, for centuries.” Fowle goes on to identify the early manifestations of what would become “homelessness” in the colonization of America. By primarily making connections to the forced migrations of Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans, Fowle crafts a new narrative — one in which the displacement of People of Color in America is understood as a cultural institution that has been operating since the conception of this nation by Europeans. This understanding directly parallels the origins and histories of Washtenaw County and its municipalities. For example, the name “Washtenaw” is an English approximation of the Ojibwe (sometimes “Ojibwa,” “Ojibway” or “Chippewa”) word used to describe the land that various peoples inhabited prior to colonization. Not only was this land stolen and its peoples forced elsewhere, but so are its name and cultural significance. The Detroit metropolitan area became one of the larger centers of trade and commerce in the late 18th–19th century for the early Midwest. Originally colonized by the French, Indigenous peoples were the first to be enslaved and used in the fur trade industry. These Indigenous slaves were the primary labor force of the area, until wealthy French slave owners and their African slaves began to settle in the region soon after. Harvard professor Dr. Tiya Miles describes these early enslavement practices and demographics in her 2017 book “The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits” as well as her U-M Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program Mapping Slavery in Detroit. Immigration to (as well as migrations from) Detroit, located in Wayne County, had a significant impact on the racial demographics of surrounding areas in the coming centuries. By the peak of American industrialization and the subsequent Great Migration in the 20th century, Black Americans as well as Latine and Indigenous peoples began to constitute significant portions of the regional population. Upon the collapses of major American manufacturing industries and factories in the Midwest during the mid-20th century, however, newly immigrated populations lacked the social and economic capital to relocate again; thus, many of these communities have remained a part of the makeup of the region. People of Color in the state of Michigan in general, but Washtenaw County specifically, are demographically underrepresented in the population when compared to the national average. Despite this, People of Color are drastically overrepresented in the unhoused population. Since 2005, the Washtenaw County Continuum of Care (CoC) has published its Point-InTime (PIT) counts of its unhoused population; these reports include county-wide demographics, as well as interpretations of the data and occasionally plans for improving the current findings. The most recent report, completed in January 2022, found that roughly 211 persons in Washtenaw County met the government definition of chronically unhoused on the evening of the count (though in 2020 upwards of 2,800 met the definition of literally unhoused). Of those 211, 43% identified as Black or African American. While there was a reported decrease in the overall number of unhoused people, as well as a decrease in homelessness for all racial minorities, Black people still represented nearly four times as many unhoused persons as they do people in the general population. Furthermore, the national average of unhoused Black people is 40%; thus in Washtenaw County, Black people specifically are overrepresented in nearly every possible category of homelessness, even in comparison with the rest of the country. But why is this overrepresentation so dramatic? Let us return to the original remarks from “Analyzing the impact of social factors on homelessness.” Empirically, Black-identifying persons suffer from higher rates of mental health disorders (as well as a lack of access to treatment), poverty, inability to build wealth, lack of access to affordable housing and homeownership, among other social factors. To be overrepresented in both the predictive metrics for homelessness as well as the complicating factors makes certain that Black people would be overrepresented in homelessness itself. Beyond being unhoused, exiting homelessness is incredibly difficult for Black people. On this, Teresa Wiltz of Pew Trusts writes: “People of color are more likely to get pushed into homelessness because they are more likely to have a criminal record, which makes it tough to find housing or a job. Or they have a past eviction. Or they have money to pay the rent, but can’t afford the security deposit to move into a new place. Perhaps the landlord doesn’t accept housing vouchers.” Historically, housing injustice in Washtenaw county has been fueled by discriminatory housing practices. Racially restrictive homeownership clauses in its most populous cities (that still exist in many current home deeds), such as in Ann Arbor, document the inaccessibility of housing to Washtenaw’s Black residents. Washtenaw also faces a significant opportunity gap in terms of employment and education for its Black residents, stunting upward mobility. Pair this with the state of Michigan’s eviction crisis in a country where Black people — specifically Black Women — are disproportionately affected by eviction, and the causes of the racialization of Washtenaw’s unhoused population become clear. Thus, Black people are notably more likely to be unhoused and stay unhoused, especially in Washtenaw County. This isn’t some new discovery, unfortunately: MLive reported on the racial disparity found in the CoC’s reporting in 2017, and in 2018, Washtenaw’s own CoC identified the racial disparity in their reporting and published its assessment of its data collection methodologies in order to ensure that the overrepresentation was not in error; and though not specifically focused on the racial disparity, The Michigan Daily reported on Ann Arbor’s homelessness crisis in 2020 and 2021. Ultimately, the racialization of Washtenaw’s homeless crisis is one made by and sustained by intersecting systems of oppression aligning to target (both directly and indirectly) the Black population. The continued lack of access to recovery and transition programs, as well as housing, stems from public lawmakers and representatives not allocating funding and personnel to the issue. Within the greater context of a capitalist framework, homelessness should be understood as an inherent characteristic rather than a side effect of our society. There are some steps we can take in our own communities to help reduce the impacts of homelessness for our unhoused population: volunteering at shelters and resource centers, engaging in mutual aid and using our voting power to demand our representatives amend legislation that will otherwise continue to harm our unhoused. In the meantime, we can also lean into compassion and understanding, and care for each other in every moment possible. Housing inequity is caused by the ruling class’s systems, but the solution can only come from our community. FEBRUARY 10, 2023 HOMELESSNESS Movie night ANONYMOUS MiC contributor I don’t wish I had never been homeless. How else would I have developed my impeccable Scottish accent? Or how to make cheese and off-brand Ritz crackers feel gourmet? Or how that the back door in the local library never got locked so you could sneak in to use Wi-Fi even in the dead of winter? That being said, waking up the morning of your 16th birthday to put on a wrinkled, hand-washed AP Environmental Science t-shirt you got for free is not ideal. Neither is the cold. “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” is why I have such a good Scottish accent, by the way. I snuck back to my house (not my house) after school one day and squatted in the backyard with the clunky old laptop I had borrowed from an uncle. I connected to the Wi-Fi and held the Dell out of the snow for the 23 minutes and 16 seconds it took to download the movie. That night, I told my younger siblings, “Now we have a movie we can watch without the internet, how fun!” In “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” the squid-faced pirate (Davy Jones, apparently) spoke in a Scottish accent. I brazenly mimicked that same inflection to make my family laugh. Every time we’d watch the scene with the hordes of crabs running around every which way, I’d take in a deep breath and, channeling every single one of my Scottish ancestors (of which there are none), yell out accented, improvised dialogue. I’d shout, “What have you done to my brethren!” as they scuttled about my warped screen, rolling my r’s like any self-respecting Scotsman. My siblings would collapse in heaps of giggles, sprawled out in glee. I’d pull the shared blanket back over them to conserve heat. I cannot count how many times I’ve seen that movie. I was homeless and it’s fine because it happened but also it’s not fine because what did we do to deserve that? Why did that have to happen to us? Why does that have to happen to anyone? In what world is that an acceptable reality? After some time, your brain starts to warp your perception of reality to reconcile the cognitive dissonance brought on by the whole situation. The human brain is made deeply uncomfortable by conflicting information. “I was homeless,” you reason, “because I deserved to be. I must be a truly terrible person deep down inside. I believe I have good intentions but that must be my deceptive evil subconscious, so evil that it lies even to me. I must be a bad person and that is my explanation and now I move on with my life knowing I am, at the end of the day, no good at all. It all makes sense.” If you believe you are a bad person for long enough, you become one. There is no use in not stealing, telling the truth or sharing a smile because you are constantly told that you are fundamentally bad and will be treated as such. Engaging in bad behavior is not just a possibility but an eventuality. So of course you stole that pen. You are bad and that is what bad people do. It’s what you always would have done even if you want to be good because, at the end of the day, your true nature will always win out. A bad person has no business trying to be good because they will always be bad. Being good is a fruitless effort. You will always be bad because it’s the only thing that makes sense. Such is the nature of self-fulfilling prophecy. I was never able to fully convince myself of my badness. My intentions are good and my actions minimize harm and I would rather not hand all my agency to a self-fulfilling prophecy like that. Some classmates make me wish I was bad, though. The righteous anger of a good person just isn’t enough for someone who claims “poor people don’t work hard enough,” while their parents pay their tuition and connect them to cushy internship opportunities. I want to tell them working three jobs isn’t laziness and that existing in poverty is costly and time-consuming, racking up more expenses than any well-off person could ever imagine having to deal with. There are no bootstraps to pull yourself up by when the world is designed to make you fail. It’s fine most times but some days I think I should kick everyone’s walls in and see how they like it. Sometimes I wish I had never been homeless. If only to rewatch “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End”. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PUBLIC PLACES FEBRUARY 10, 2023 Examining Ann Arbor's hostile and hospitality architecture SAARTHAK JOHRI MiC columnist If you’ve ever taken a long walk through Ann Arbor, you might note that for a relatively walkable city, benches are somewhat rare. They’re a bit more common at bus stops, but there’s usually something a bit odd about them. A bar is affixed — usually welded on so removal is impossible — to the bench, dividing it into sections. It’s often cylindrical, making it difficult to use as an armrest. Smaller benches are made impossible to sit in for plus-size individuals and the overall lack of benches makes it harder for those with chronic pain or fatigue to traverse the city on foot. So the question arises: Why are they built this way? This bench division is a long-standing practice of hostile architecture, which makes cities less hospitable for those mentioned above. But that very hostility is intended toward one of the most vulnerable populations — the unhoused. Bars that divvy up benches make it more difficult for unhoused people to use them to sleep. Hostile architecture to prevent the repose of the unhoused manifests itself in many other ways all over the world: several sharp stones placed inside structures, spikes on the ground under the pretense of modern art, benches that are fixed to tilt forward, the lack of access to public bathrooms, loud noise blaring through the speakers of local businesses — Ann Arbor being especially complicit in those last few. If you’ve ever taken a walk through downtown — especially in the winter — you might notice that many restaurants have built small huts, igloos and heated patios for diners to eat in. This hospitality architecture heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, when restaurateurs had to figure out how to serve patrons under quarantine regulations in the cold of winter, even with the risk of fire to their building. Even after things warmed up and patrons began getting vaccinated, local businesses kept this practice, for the sheer novelty of the customer experience. And isn’t that just a little odd? These restaurants were able to acquire permits and quickly build small, heated housing in the streets of Ann Arbor for the purposes of the profits they brought in; to use the words of the Michigan General Defense Committee, it seems tents on the streets are fine as long as there aren’t any unhoused individuals in them. Now, let me be clear — this is not a condemnation of our local businesses doing whatever they can to survive — but our unhoused population is doing exactly that to a much more severe degree. What we should call into question is our city’s priorities and how we think about the architecture they form. Ann Arbor isn’t as extreme an offender in blatantly hostile structures as some other cities. What’s still striking about these choices is that so much thought is placed into making a city hostile to the unhoused rather than addressing its own housing issues. If you’ve taken a walk anywhere see HOSTILE page 11  Illustration by Maya Sheth, Michigan in Color Boober and public benches offer respite from weariness and weather First of all, I want to talk about public benches. They are very helpful to people with disabilities and elderly people. They are very much needed. I think they need to be on every street and by every business. I think they make the community look good. They are good for vendors who sell things. They are good for vendors who sell things who have disabilities and who are elderly. They are also good for anyone else who is just tired from being on their feet all day in rough weather. I hope they put more public benches in the community. I use public benches everywhere I DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 go if they’re there. I use public benches for waiting for the bus or sitting in the park or just resting by a library. Everywhere that I go I would like to have a public bench or public chair because there’s people with disabilities, including me, whose feet don’t always do what I want them to do. I appreciate the public benches that are painted pretty colors and the benches that are dedicated to a loved one by someone who loved them. Boober pedicabs are very much needed and appreciated too. I think people who provide rides with Boober are offering a very needed service and I really admire them. They make me happy. Riding on Boober is very comforting. Riding on Boober is also a relief from trying to walk on ice and snow. Riding on Boober is a relief when your legs and feet are tired. Boober is not only a needed service in winter weather but in hot, summer weather, too. I think it’s a relaxing ride with or without the driver playing music. I have taken Boober for a short ride and a long ride — you can do both with Boober! Riding on Boober is very comfortable and relaxing. Boober gives a kind of service that makes me feel there are still people in the world who care. FEBRUARY 10, 2023 VALENTINE'S DAY Truth or lies: The unexpected valentine “Good morning! You are currently rocking with K-M Vibes of Manhattan, New York City, the station that plays all your favorite hits. DJ Chopper is the greatest, chopping out hits from old to new …” Jack Harloway, aka DJ Chopper, was a popular, up-and-coming disc jockey. Chopper had won a five-year radio apprenticeship during his last year in college at Musicland University. All during school he never participated in any programs or dances, uncomfortable that everyone teased him about the birthmark on his face. It spanned from the middle of his eyebrows, curving around his eyes and ending at the tip of his nose, shaped like a heart. He did ask Ashley Blake to the prom in high school; however, she shut him down, criticizing the birthmark. He had a crush on his science partner Daphne Pager in college, but he never acted on his feelings. However, he never gave up on his DJ career and was ecstatic about his position at the local radio station. It was his third year working at the station and he was now working the morning shift. This position was very important to all his of co-workers; everyone wanted the morning shift except Chopper. He knew the position FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 came with a lot of public association and appearances. His co-worker “DJ Head” was a confident handsome man, popular with the ladies. DJ Head often teased Chopper on and off the radio about talking to the ladies … “Good day ladies, its DJ Head the smooth operator — ‘smooth with the ladies playing the smooth sounds of love' — unlike Chopper, who’s always chopping up your smoothness with his uncouth sense for love.” It was Chopper’s turn to speak. “Once again Chopper fans, hop on to this beat.” He played LL Cool J’s “I Need Love.” Being a shy man, the evening shift was perfect for Chopper: he could express himself without being seen. Unfortunately for him, Valentine's Day GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Illustration by Amy Deng, Michigan in Color was the next holiday on the schedule. The holiday he hated the most. He often remembered that the only valentine he ever received in school read “Be my Valentine, Scarface. Sike!” The station decided to hold an auction at the state fair auditorium to raise money for muscular dystrophy. The winner would receive a free movie and dinner date with their favorite DJ. He was worried that once the winner saw the birthmark on his face they would be appalled. DJ Head was an arrogant man, talking about the auction and how the ladies were going to come out and bid for him. On the other hand, Chopper was totally shy, trying to avoid his questions about who was going to bid on him. He wanted to opt out of the auction; however it was mandatory that each DJ participate. One morning two weeks before the auction, Chopper had had enough abuse from his co-worker and he just told his story on the radio. He expressed his dislike of Valentine's Day due to the see DJ CHOPPER page 11 

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS EDUCATION My struggle with education MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Throughout my life I struggled with school. I got my education through the Ann Arbor School District. I attended Bach Elementary School, Slauson Middle School and Pioneer High School. As a young lad I first attended Mack Elementary School. Mack Elementary had a predominantly Black student body; it was where all my neighborhood friends went to school. One week into the start of my schooling, Ann Arbor Public Schools relocated me to Bach Elementary because I lived on Ashley Street between Kingsley Street and Miller Avenue. I was outside the district and had to attend Bach Elementary, which had a predominantly white student body. Every year in elementary school, at the end of the school year, I would have a one-on-one talk with the teacher about my disruptive behavior. I was simply moving to the next grade because I was too big, he explained, and he was not going to let me disrupt next year's class. In the fifth or sixth grade the principal of Bach Elementary, my teacher and my grandmother had an Individualized Education Program meeting concerning my disruptive behavior. In that meeting they decided to put me in special education for the emotionally impaired. I was sent to Thurston Elementary School. Mr. Lee was the teacher and Judy was the assistant teacher. In special education class they required two teachers per classroom. Besides Mr. Lee, in special ed. the teachers were called by their first names. The first thing I noticed was that the educational curriculum was more reflective of third-grade education. I noticed this throughout the special education system as a whole — even in middle school and high school the educational material was kept at a third- to fourth-grade level. They tended to deal with behavioral issues more than actually educating the students. For example, every day in school, the teacher, the assistant and the students would have two group meetings per day to discuss behavioral issues. The teacher and the assistant would basically engage in conversation with the students that would end with a student (or students) being put on timeout where the student would sit in a corner in a study carrel. If the disruptive behavior continued, then the student would be sent to the blue room. The blue room was just that: a blue room with five divided sections for disruptive students to sit in for 15 minutes. My favorite staff member was a big Black guy, named Big Mike, who ran the blue room. Let's say the student doesn’t want to and refuses to go to the blue room; then the teacher and staff (Big Mike) would gang up and restrain the student until he submitted or calmed down. I was never restrained during the time I was in special education. Middle school was the worst. By this time, I’d earned my way back to general schooling. I lived in Principal Michael’s office at Slauson Middle School. It got so bad they decided to put me back in special ed. After another IEP meeting they sent me to Pleasant Lake School, which was located out in the country (the boondocks). Then Pleasant Lake relocated to Ann Arbor's Lakewood School. A lot was learned there. This was when I started my journey in rational thinking. I hated everything about special ed: no girls in class; when we walked down the school hallways they made us line up in a single-file line; we had to ride the short bus with other students with severe disabilities to school. I felt deep inside myself I needed to get out of that place. I wanted to be like all the other students in general school. I made up my mind that I would get out of special ed. and back into general school. My problem was that I wanted to argue with teachers and staff. I learned the power of rational thought. Being emotionally impaired means you have a tendency to not think rationally and allow emotion to dictate behavior. Eventually, I learned the philosophy of “if you can’t beat them, join them.” I learned how to have proper dialogue with them and soon I was back in general school again. It was a long process in order to get back into general school. It was called the “step system.” There were five steps to complete. They used a point system; every class the teacher would give points on your behavior in class and you had to get so many points a day. The student had a sheet of paper to keep track of his points. Step one, the sheet of paper was pink. If you were well-behaved that week you would get rewarded; it was called honor roll and progress. The students that got enough points for good behavior got to watch a movie and eat cheese popcorn. A teacher named Gary used to make the best cheese popcorn. Two weeks of good behavior then you move to step two. Step two, the student would get a blue sheet of paper to keep a record of points. It took three weeks to move to step three. Step three was a yellow sheet of paper. It took four weeks to move to step four. Step four was a green sheet of paper. The final step — a purple sheet Jones studying at the Washtenaw Community College student building. Photo submitted. of paper. After this step you are allowed to re-enter general public school parttime for a semester. If you behaved and continued on the right path, the next semester you could re-enter general public schools full-time. In 1988, at the tender age of 15 years old, I started high school at Pioneer. That year, Pioneer hired a Black principal, Dr. Jones. Students in this era produced no-nonsense principals like Dr. Jones. I am going to make it plain for you: in one week’s time, a lot of Black students got kicked out of high school forever, including myself. I’m not going to lie; the people that got kicked out of school were involved in gangs and street activities. This is when alternative schooling came into effect. Many students who were having problems in general high school and were no longer allowed to attend “forever” had a choice to continue high school courses in order to graduate or obtain a G.E.D. certificate from alternative schools. In the Ann Arbor area, students like myself went to Stone School. Most students continued taking high school courses at Stone School in order to graduate but I decided to get the G.E.D. certificate instead. General Education Development signifies that you have an equivalent level of knowledge compared to a high school graduate, without actually having graduated high school. I felt that I had no other choice because I was so far behind in high school credits. It only made sense to get my G.E.D. The G.E.D. test consists of four tests: English, math, social studies and science. It took me a semester to complete. I did well on English and social studies but struggled a little on math and science. I still passed all four tests on the first try. I felt a sense of accomplishment. As time went on, I lingered around at my grandparents’ house smoking weed, listening to Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre and being constantly reminded by the commercials on TV that “this is your brain on drugs” or “a mind is a terrible thing to waste” and finally this one: “you are never too old to go back to school.” I struggled, but came up with the conclusion to go to college. Needless to say, my struggles continued as I attended my first year at Washtenaw Community College in 1994. The first thing I learned about college is that it’s like a full-time job. It requires a lot of time and effort. I wanted to be a doctor as a youngster, so I took a medical terminology class. I dropped that class because I felt discouraged; it was like learning another language and I was taking a full class load and got overwhelmed and dropped out completely. I returned back to WCC in 1996. I took a computer application class in Microsoft Excel, and got a B grade. I also passed a basic writing class in 2009. As adult life started taking its toll on me as far as being married, raising a family and all the other life challenges, I decided to put schooling on the back burner. I became a cab driver and drove Blue Cab for nearly 15 years where I serviced the Washtenaw County area. I drove University of Michigan students to all the nightclubs — Scorekeepers (Skeeps), Good Time Charley’s and Rick’s — and back and forth to the airport. Those were the good-ol-days of cab driving. Thanks to Uber and Lyft, I am now a retired cab driver with a new occupation, writing and selling Groundcover newspapers. Now that my daughter is all grown up and is an army nurse and my son is in high school, I feel this is the time to go back to school to further my education. In the winter 2023 semester, I’m taking an English class toward my Journalism Associate’s degree and Music Production and Audio Engineering certificate. Music runs in my blood. I’m a lifetime musician. In my youth I played the bass guitar and piano. In 2012, I started a music group called Get-ChaMind Right Crew. GCMRC is a crew of emcees and artists in the wilderness of North America striving to have their see EDUCATION page 12  FEBRUARY 10, 2023 FEBRUARY 10, 2023 ON CAMPUS GROUNDCOVER NEWS William Trotter Center: legacy of Black student activists’ vision of a multiracial University of Michigan In the 1960s, young Americans, especially college students, found themselves in revolt. Activism to change the world was in full force. There was agitation for women’s liberation, including reproductive rights. There was crusading to protect the environment and save the planet. There was activism for educational diversity, equity and inclusion. And of course, there was a major civil rights movement to end racial injustice, social injustice, economic injustice, healthcare disparities, racism, poverty, militarism, discrimination and inequality. With Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s leadership and the involvement of millions of “ordinary” people, Congress passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The following year, in 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act. Both were signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. In 1967, President Johnson came up with a non-discrimination executive order; it created a national office for affirmative action compliance. The key goal of this executive order was to encourage colleges, K-12 schools, state governments, local governments and businesses to take serious actions to recruit, train and retain people of Color. The federal government wanted any organization that was getting government contracts to help promote diversity, equity and inclusion in America. The Civil Rights Movement pushed for a multiracial democracy and Johnson’s administration used the compliance power of the federal government to ensure more multicolored and multi-cultural college campuses and workplaces. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis, on April 4, 1968 was an earthquake that shook the moral conscience of our nation. It led to riots and profound demonstrations in most of the major cities and towns. There was sadness everywhere. Dr. King’s death led to increased activism by Black students and their multiracial allies. Those activists did sit-ins, protests, and even occupied buildings which housed university presidents and other administrators. There was always a list of demands. At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, students demanded more students of Color be admitted, more faculty and staff of Color be hired, that a building be designated as a U-M multicultural center and that a Center for Afro-American and African Studies be established. The implementation of the above demands, among others, was gradual, and some have yet to be WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 9 met. In the early 1970s, the William Monroe Trotter Multicultural Center was first established off-campus at the corner of Washtenaw Avenue and South University Street. The University community of students, administrators, faculty, staff and alumni were happy to see the recent relocation to a more central campus location. Trotter’s legacy William Monroe Trotter was an African-American journalist, civil rights activist and real-estate businessman in Boston. He was born on April 7, 1872 in Chillicothe, Ohio and died April 7, 1934 in Boston. After Trotter graduated Phi Beta Kappa with distinction from Harvard University, he founded and edited The Guardian, a progressive newspaper that was published in the building that had previously housed an abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. During the early 20th Century, Trotter helped W.E.B. Du Bois and other civil rights activists organize a group to achieve racial equality: the Niagara Movement. That effort led to the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Trotter was a fearless activist. He challenged the pragmatic views of Booker T. Washington in 1903 and was arrested for heckling Washington at the AME African-American Church in Boston. He pushed back against presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson on questions of racial inequality, segregation and discrimination. In 1919, against the wishes of the U.S. government, Trotter was named a delegate to the National Equal Rights League at the Paris Peace Conference. Related to Sally Hemings William Monroe Trotter’s father, James Trotter, was born a slave in Mississippi. James’s father was a white slave owner of James’s mother, Letitia; William Monroe Trotter Multicultural Center is located on State Street. Photo credit: Jessica Kwon. she and her children were set free by their master after their owner married. Letitia and her mixed-race children (including James) were sent to Cincinnati, Ohio, a northern state with a supportive community for free Black people. Young James Trotter fought on the Union side during the Civil War and was promoted to lieutenant in the famous 55th Massachusetts Regiment. Trotter’s mother was Virginia Isaacs. Like William’s father, she was a Black American of mixed race said to have been born free. Her mother was born a slave and lived at Monticello, the primary slave plantation of America’s third president, Thomas Jefferson. Virginia Isaacs' mother was Ann Elizabeth Fossett. She was the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth “Betty” Heming, a slave who gave birth to six children by owner John Wayles, including Sally Hemings, who all looked white but were born into slavery. Conclusion As Ann Arbor welcomes the Multicultural Center to its new central campus location, let us remember that shared values of many at the University of Michigan — activism, social justice, excellence, civic engagement and community engagement — are part and parcel of William Monroe Trotter’s legacy. There is so much that has changed since the 1960s and 1970s. Some challenges remain. But to have a “Michigan in Color” is to have a “Gorgeous Mosaic.” Dr. King’s dream shall never die. His hopes for pluralism, diversity and inclusion still live. On this campus, the difference is beautiful. This article was originally published in Groundcover News in May 2019.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS DOWNTOWN FEBRUARY 10, 2023 Photography by Akash Dewan, Michigan in Color Stop ignoring homeless people on State Street ANCHAL MALH MiC contributor If you ever find yourself at the University of Michigan, chances are you’ll take a trip down State Street. During the early evening hours after the last classes for the day have ended, State Street comes alive. Many of the local campus eateries, shopping and living complexes are centrally located there. Although it is a hub for college students and located in the heart of one of the country’s best college towns, Ann Arbor is still a city where individuals and families with no association with the University reside. Recognized as the third best public university in the nation, it is no surprise to University of Michigan students and associated employees that the cost of living in downtown Ann Arbor and its surrounding neighborhoods is high. The level of prestige, elite status and innovative research tied to the Michigan name alludes to an exclusive lifestyle attainable by the average student on campus. It’s important to acknowledge that the average U-M student most likely doesn’t have an issue with meeting housing costs due to help from family members or other resources. The median student household income of a student that attends the University of Michigan is $154,000, while the average American household’s median income is $67,521. Therefore, when apartment complexes located close to campus like Foundry Lofts, The Hub and The Varsity begin charging more than one thousand dollars per occupant in a unit, it’s no shock that other complexes in Ann Arbor have started following suit. According to PayScale, housing costs in Ann Arbor are 16% higher than the national average. In 2023, the average Ann Arbor apartment is predicted to cost between $1,368 and $1,917 per apartment. With 47,659 students currently enrolled as either an undergraduate or graduate student at the University, there is demand for housing that needs to be met. And as recalled before, the average U-M student has the means to meet prices put in place by landlords. However, where does this leave low-income and/or unhoused residents of Ann Arbor not associated with the University? And how do they manage to survive in a town built to cater to those who come from an upper-class society? According to the Washtenaw Housing Alliance, in 2020, 2,800 individuals experienced homelessness or sought emergency housing. More recently, at the end of 2022, the demand for a place in Ann Arbor homeless shelters rose by 30%. During my time as a student, I’ve noticed the housing crisis gets worse on everyday walks down State Street as the population of unhoused people continuously grows. There is a common misconception that those who face housing insecurity or financial troubles misuse their money or “don’t spend it on the right things.” (Who are we as a society to police the way people choose to spend their money? Unhoused persons may struggle with addiction and when medical resources are unavailable, treatment for substance abuse is unattainable.) However, research shows that the average person is only one or two paychecks away from experiencing homelessness. In general, society holds extremely negative perceptions of people in poverty experiencing homelessness. It often leads to the dehumanization and criminalization of the homeless population. Unhoused persons are more likely to be subjected to violent crimes, harassment and public degradation. There are rules present in cities across Michigan prohibiting sleeping, receiving free food or loitering, all activities unhoused persons engage in to survive. In Ann Arbor, the Michigan State Police once threatened to evict residents of Camp Take Notice, a tent community that provides food and shelter to individuals in need. The policies established to erase Ann Arbor’s homelessness crisis continue to isolate homeless persons, restrict them from receiving help and further perpetuate the idea that an individual’s actions are what got them to that place. It fails to acknowledge other non-controllable and systemic circumstances that can cause someone to become homeless. Furthermore, people tend to look away when they see a homeless person on State Street. For some reason, they have this elaborate fantasy that they’ll be singled out by an unhoused person, where they will then be forced to offer money. When the people of Ann Arbor turn a blind eye to the town’s homeless population, it denies their experience, ignores the realities of the Ann Arbor housing crisis and further alienates unhoused persons from society. Extending a hand or simply smiling at someone is an act of kindness that’s often forgotten about. Walking past someone asking for food or money in front of our local Target or Starbucks is a form of dehumanization that U-M students actively participate in every single day. As another student, I understand that sometimes we can be trapped in our own world with tunnel vision, focused on being on time to the next class or meeting. However, when you consciously put in your AirPods, fake a phone call with an imaginary friend or decide to cross the street early before you are approached by a homeless person, it becomes clear that they are not seen as a person in your eyes as they become invisible to you. - 120 E. Washington St. Ann Arbor, MI 734-327-9239 FEBRUARY 10, 2023 CONTINUED  HOSTILE from page 7 around Central Campus — South University, State Street, downtown — you’ll undoubtedly question why so much of this city is under construction. Sites and advertisements promise new luxury high-rises taking up even more space in this city in the midst of such little access to affordable housing. This architecture is Ann Arbor’s most hostile action against the unhoused and the rest of the city’s population. To their credit, our local government is attempting to restrict the construction of even more exorbitantly expensive housing — student or otherwise — and has granted funds for a more affordable housing development explicitly targeted for individuals leaving their unhoused status. However, these steps taken don’t mean we shouldn't hold our city accountable for their actions. When aiding the unhoused with its millions of dollars in federal funding remains Ann Arbor’s lowest priority, when money and time is wasted on construction that hurts local businesses and police manpower is used to sweep shelters for the unhoused, it’s clear that our city’s attitude toward the unhoused has thus far been less than understanding. We can acknowledge and thank those who are as hospitable as we should be, like the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County’s Robert J Delonis Center in Ann Arbor. The unaddressed status of unhoused individuals in our city is a failure on our city’s part in housing issues, and their efforts need to be for the unhoused — rather than a bar dividing a bench.  DJ CHOPPER from page 7 prank that was pulled on him in school. He also stated he was looking for a wife, not a playgirl to break his heart. How he wanted to love one woman and have children in the future. DJ Head assumed that he had embarrassed Chopper, asking about his birthmark on the radio, and that the women would not like him or bid on him due to his birthmark. The holiday was quickly approaching. Four days before the auction, Chopper got off work and went to his car in the parking lot. He could not believe his eyes — his car was covered in Valentine’s Day cards, even the roof. There was a large card signed by fans and a red bow sitting on the hood, surrounded by other pink, purple and red cards. He gathered all the cards, planning to read them once he got home, where he fixed his dinner and put on the TV. To his amazement they were talking about the upcoming auction on the news. Just then, he remembered the cards and retrieved them from his car to read them. Reading the first three cards, he was flattered and blushing — feeling something he had not felt in all his life. The next day at work Head started in on him again, not knowing about the cards. Chopper began his morning shift thanking all the people who gave him a card. He then admitted that he had given up on Valentine’s Day until he received all the cards, and he was looking forward to the auction. The morning of the auction arrived too soon. Chopper was thinking, who would bid for him, the man with the birthmark? He never expected anyone to bid on him, but he was getting more bids than DJ Head. Then all of a sudden one person placed a bid for him that was five times the previous amount, totaling $3,000. He could not see through the crowd, wondering who bid all that money for him. Standing on the stage waiting, finally he could see it was Daphne Pager from his science class. He had not stayed in touch with her, assuming she did not care for him. He was relieved it was Daphne, the woman he had a crush on in college and he felt comfortable talking with. During the date she asked Chopper why he never called her after graduation. He replied that he did not think she cared for him and was embarrassed to be seen with him. She placed her hand over his hand and explained to him it's not about looks; it's the love you have in your heart and share. Chopper knew he had found his wife, his Valentine for life. Love finally blossomed that year. From that day, they never separated, getting married the following year on Valentine’s Day. The Blessings, published January 13, was based on a true story, however the names and places were changed to protect the families. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Peanut butter fudge CHRIS FIELDS Groundcover contributor Ingredients: ½ cup butter or margarine ½ cup brown sugar 1 16 oz jar peanut butter 2 cups powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Desired toppings (nuts, chocolate chips, dried date pieces) Directions: Combine butter and brown sugar in a medium saucepan and stir over low heat until mixture begins to bubble around the edges. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla extract. Sift in powdered sugar one cup at a time, stirring until smooth. Pour mixture into a round or square baking dish lined with foil (8 inch cake pan works well) and press toppings into the top. Chill until hard. Slice into cubes and serve at room temperature! FEBRUARY 10, 2023  EDUCATION from page 8 music heard throughout the world. Get-Cha-Mind Right Crew Music is on music platforms now. My other passion is to express myself through writing. I like writing rap songs and love songs and things I experience in my lifetime. I also find it necessary to express or write about issues that concern me. For example, I wrote an article on the “Gentrification of Ann Arbor” in the Nov. 1, 2022 issue of Groundcover News. I got a great response and encourage all to check out that article. I am truly happy to have found my passion and purpose in music and writing. The saga continues and the beat goes on. I plan to take one or two classes a semester and prioritize my time in order to get school assignments done. I am confident that things will work out and I will successfully accomplish my goals. I’m finishing up my second week of class and things are going well. I like my instructor and there are good vibes overall. Meeting new people and getting back into schooling is exciting; I’m looking forward to getting involved in different student activities. I have reached out to the school radio station and have been trained to host my own show. Sometime soon I’ll be hosting my own show on the school’s station, Orchard Radio. I’m also looking to get involved with the WCC newspaper, The Washtenaw Voice. Even though I struggled with schooling throughout my life, I feel encouraged. I know if I just take my time and put my school work first, I believe I can obtain a degree in journalism and a music production and audio engineer certificate.

2 $ JANUARY 27, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 3 YOUR DONATION BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Are you really listening? Street paper vendors engage in everyday acts of communication. Page 7 MEET YOUR VENDOR: JUSTEN WHITE PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. VENDOR APPRECIATION WEEK FEBRUARY 6-12, 2023 THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER Vendor Appreciation Week spans February 6-12 this year. Vendor Week is the seven days we reserve each year to celebrate Groundcover News vendors and all they do in the community. This edition you are reading now is the Vendor Appreciation Week issue, which we fill with vendor voices and messages that affirm the work of selling Groundcover News. We receive complaints every now and then at the Groundcover office. We typically do not publish them, unless they are specifically submitted as Letters to the Editor, in which case we are obliged to publish. Still, some complaints rise to the level of necessitating a response. The following message is a complaint that was filed to the Michigan Attorney General’s office in October, 2022. “Groundcover news is parading as a nonprofit foundation in Ann Arbor Michigan established to assist homeless people in the community [to] get their act together and get back into society rehabilitated. These individuals who LINDSAY CALKA Managing Director ground cover is providing vendor licenses are not at all homeless or in need of rehabilitation. These men and women are regular people who are using these licenses to steal money from unexpecting hard working people. Their pitch is usually, ‘can you buy a newspaper to help support the homeless of the community? 100 percent of the process [sic] are given to those who are in need.’ This is in fact a lie. These individuals are pocketing 100% of all monies collected. Some of these individuals are making over a thousand dollars a day via cash another torrent Venmo sales and cash app or square sales which go directly to their personal bank accounts. The people running ground cover know of these but continue to support This behavior because these fraudsters are keeping their organization valid and afloat. Most of these homeless vendors are making anywhere from 5 to 10000 a week. This terrible theft needs to stop immediately. The organization is stealing from the innocent. Please look into this immediately and stop this crime.” I’ll admit, it's not a great Vendor Appreciation Week message. Although it is upsetting to read, I wanted to put it out into the world in order to correct the false accusations and grand misunderstandings, and to open a conversation about Groundcover News. “Groundcover news is parading as a nonprofit foundation in Ann Arbor Michigan established to assist homeless people in the community get their act together and get back into society rehabilitated.” False. Groundcover News is JANUARY 27, 2023 from the DIRECTOR's DESK: clearing up misconceptions a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower low-income persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. We recognize these people as members of the community (and society) already, not people needing to be brought into society. “These individuals who ground cover is providing vendor licenses are not at all homeless or in need of rehabilitation.” True. Not all Groundcover vendors are experiencing homelessness. The only qualification is self-identified experience with homelessness and poverty. This means vendors can be years out of homelessness, looking to fill in the gaps in their income by selling the paper. Vendors can be actively experiencing homelessness, or, never experienced homelessness at all — just seeking low-barrier employment to avoid homelessness. Successfully selling Groundcover can make it see MISCONCEPTIONS page 10  CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Jim Clark — vendor manager ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Teresa Basham Elizabeth Bauman Susan Beckett Beverly Boss La Shawn Carlisle Cindy Gere Alexandra Granberg billy hill Mike Jones Cynthia Price Jo Reddit Ken Parks GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Mira Simonton-Chao Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenburg Navya Yagalla PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Alexandra Granberg Zachary Dortzbach Jesse Owen Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith Erin Trame CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JANUARY 27, 2023 VENDOR WEEK MEET YOUR VENDOR GROUNDCOVER NEWS Vendor Appreciation Week: February 6-12, 2023 Show vendors how much they are valued in the community! There are many ways to get invovled with Vendor Week festivities. 1. Bring a treat, snack or hot beverage during office hours for vendors to enjoy while buying papers (Monday-Saturday 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.) 2. Bring your vendor a hot chocolate, cup of coffee or pack of hand warmers if you see them selling. It's cold out there! Justen White, vendor No. 543 In one sentence, who are you? A man striving to keep chivalry alive. Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? Main Street. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Play pool and challenge the public to chess. What is your favorite spot in Ann Arbor? Anywhere not in Ann Arbor, haha! What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover News? I’m motivated by the chance to better other people’s lives. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Prime rib with Yorkshire pudding. What words do you live by? Be better than your yesterday’s self. What is your superpower? To make anyone smile when they are upset. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? More affordable housing for people who make less than $30K a year. What are your hobbies? How did you get started doing them? Pool, chess, skateboarding. I simply gravitated towards them. What is something someone on the street wouldn't know? I am a huge nerd and outdoor enthusiast. What's the best or worst thing about selling Groundcover News? The worst thing is dealing with rude people. If you could do anything for a day what would it be? Go shopping in Japan. If you had a warning label what would it say? Caution: Born and raised in Hell, Michigan! What are you most likely to be famous for? My one-handed pool skills! Gary Leverett: Most likely to remember your name Shillington Morgan: Healthy food expert Brian Hargrove: The most relentlessly optimistic and loving person James Tennant: Most thought provoking debater Joe Woods: Most determined haggler and seller of ideas James Manning: Most creative embroidery Cindy Gere: Most earnest and personal multimedia artist Mike Jones: Most iconic townie Lit Kurtz: Ardent homelessness advocate Christopher Ellis: Prolific poet Ken Parks: Deepest thinker and biggest believer in humanity Justen White: Most humble chess player and extreme sports enthusiast Lonnie Baker: Best dressed (Go Blue!) Shelley DeNeve: Most loyal Felicia Wilbert: Future NYT Bestsellers List Snap: Most knowledgeable about all there is to know about soccer Fred Allen: Mr. Fix-it 3. Tip your vendor when buying a copy of Groundcover News. 4. Take a photo with your vendor or of your copy of Groundcover News and share on social media. Tag us! @groundcovernews on Instagram and Twitter and @groundcover on Facebook. We will be reposting all week. 5. Tell your Groundcover vendor how much you appreciate them and their steady presence in the community. 6. Talk to your friends and family about how selling Groundcover is legitimate work that changes lives. 7. Show your support for Groundcover News vendors by buying and displaying a sign in your front lawn or in the window of your home or business! Signs are $30 and can be pre-ordered by making a $30 donation on the Groundcover News website. Signs can be picked up at the Groundcover News office during Vendor Appreciation Week. They are yellow and black. Proceeds will go towards purchasing new, protective Groundcover vendor vests. Lonnie Baker, Groundcover vendor No. 99, and board member Jack Edelstein in October. THANK YOU GROUNDCOVER VENDORS! I BUY AND READ GROUNDCOVER NEWS. Best of Groundcover News Derek Allen: Best bars Teresa Basham: Fiercest defender of those she cares about, and of justice Mary Bolden: Epitome of Southern charm! Pony Bush: Best smile Amanda Gale: Most personable. Can have an interesting conversation with anybody! Gary Robinson: Best dance moves Leon Odom: Devoted father and caregiver Hal Klenk: Best singing voice Larzell Washington: Can make anyone’s day by saying "God Bless You!" Tony Schol: Could win the Tour de Ann Arbor Will Shakespeare: Most giving and best book recommender Sean Almond and Tabitha Ludwig: Best couple Beverly Boss: Boss saleswoman Tre McAlister: Most likely to help out a friend Denise Shearer: Most loveable La Shawn Courtwright: Most tenacious poet 3

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS The Washtenaw County Continuum of Care completed its annual Point in Time count early Thursday with dozens of volunteers taking a snapshot of people experiencing homelessness. Mandated by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Continuums of Care are bodies charged with ending homelessness, in particular through getting involvement community-wide. The result? The count of unsheltered people, conducted from 10 p.m. Wednesday to 2 a.m. Thursday, increased over the previous year’s count by more than threefold, up from 6 to 22. Volunteers and Washtenaw County staffers scoured the entire county in the light snow, handing out snacks and even offering a one-night hotel stay if the people they encountered wanted it. In some sense, the increase in unhoused persons found for the count reflects greater diligence and location information going in, but it is also likely that the sheer numbers increased. It is important because it JANUARY 27, 2023 Point in time count seeks snapshot of homelessness CYNTHIA PRICE Editor An intrepid group of Point in Time volunteers ready to leave for the count. Organizer Andrew Kraemer is seated in front. informs how much funding a county CoC receives from HUD. The volunteers, recruited and organized by Washtenaw County CoC Data Coordinator Andrew Kraemer, must watch a training video, and they receive a route. Many have years of experience. Teams were able to connect before going out for the count. They also give a brief survey to anyone they find experiencing unsheltered homelessness. The challenges inherent in that snapshot approach likely result in underreporting, but that condition applies equally to all of the 400 CoCs in the U.S. The online 2022 count report for Washtenaw County warns, “The reader is … cautioned that since compliance with these [methodology] standards may vary, the reliability and consistency of the homeless counts may also vary among CoCs.” (That report may be found at the HUD exchange website by filtering the search for MI-509.) The 2022 report states that there were 172 homeless people in the County as of the 2022 Point in Time Count. The full figures for 2023 will be released at the end of February. Different CoCs make detailed plans to get the number of people experiencing extended houselessness down to zero. The Point in Time count is just one way they obtain data that shapes their planning. Critics say that even within the snapshot framework there are ways to take a more accurate count. Outreach to see PIT page 9  Family housing emergency resources – HAWC back on track Family homelessness is exploding this winter. When Covid emergency funds ended and inflation spiked, families fell off the cliff, especially large families. To make matters worse, the Washtenaw County single point of entry, HAWC, was undergoing a rocky transition from being run by the Salvation Army to being run by Washtenaw County’s Office of Community and Economic Development. Staffing HAWC services has been the main challenge in transitioning the hotline to a new service provider. With phone calls often not answered and messages not returned for days or more, even the resources available for imminent emergencies were not reaching those who needed them. Word got around to not even bother calling HAWC. The Shelter Association of Washtenaw County and MISSION were providing limited emergency hotel stays with funds from the Emergency Sheltering Program. David Goldbaum, Program Manager of MISSION's Family Emergency Sheltering program, was concerned about the conditions families with children were living in due to systemic dysfunction. Kathy Wyatt, Executive Analyst and Assistant to the Washtenaw County funding from the County and its cities. At the height of the pandemic, when SUSAN BECKETT Publisher emeritus sheriff, reported that judges are just sick over the evictions they are forced to sanction by law, knowing that these families have nowhere to turn. Fortunately, HAWC staffing is now in place to both answer calls and provide immediate stipends or hotel stays for those who would otherwise spend the night exposed to winter weather. The County provided $50,000 in funding to the Emergency Sheltering Program for the stipends and hotel stays, but with 29 families on the literally homeless list and an average wait-time of 101 days for placement in permanent housing, officials expect the sheltering program will need $695,000-$995,000 to shelter those families through March. They are hoping for additional proximity to others posed danger of infection and hospitalization, the Covid Emergency Rental Assistance program provided federal funds to help people pay for their own lodging. Now the CERA program has ended and rental prices, along with the cost of everything else, has made self-sufficiency impossible for some families. The Covid-19 risk to vulnerable family members makes the traditional doubling up of families untenable for many. Most of the families now on the waiting list for housing are new to the system. It has been especially difficult for larger families who require multiple rooms. The average size of the families now calling HAWC is 3.8 people. HAWC does the initial intake and provides emergency shelter assistance if needed, then refers families to SOS Community Services and individuals to the Shelter Association (the Delonis Center) for a thorough assessment that could lead to permanent housing. SOS has hired three additional staff to do these assessments. They were completing training in late January. The Shelter Association was trying to hire two additional assessment staffers as of late January. Families can now expect an assessment one to two weeks after their HAWC intake. Call 734-961-1999 to get started. Having financial records on hand will expedite assistance. Urgent cases — those with no shelter — can come in person at 8:30 a.m., Monday-Thursday to the Delonis Center or SOS. Editor’s note: During the Continuum of Care board meeting on January 18, HAWC call center data was presented, praised for improvements and then critiqued after further examination. It was determined that many metrics were missing from the call center’s data presentation including time between intake and assessment. Groundcover News will follow up on the stated improvements of HAWC staffing and oversight to determine if HAWC begins to meet community standards across the board. Individuals and families should continue to call HAWC, as CoC representatives are concerned that improvement in call center metrics is due to widespread frustration with the hotline rather improvement. than operational JANUARY 27, 2023 AGENCY SPOTLIGHT Supportive Connections now open for referrals in Washtenaw County LA SHAWN CARLISLE Groundcover contributor Hi everyone. I'd like to present Supportive Connections, an Ann Arbor City criminal deflection service. I interviewed Karen Field, the program director, to get to know the program better in order to share with Groundcover readers. LC: When was Supportive Connections founded? KF: Supportive Connections started when I was hired as the program director in July 2022. We opened for referrals on November 2, 2022. LC: As the program director, what are your goals and/or plans for Supportive Connections? KF: The mission of Supportive Connections is to assist individuals who are in crisis or need of social service supports and at risk of becoming involved or re-involved with the criminal justice system. Our primary focuses are substance abuse and mental health. Our program is not directly connected to the court or law enforcement, so we rely on the community for referrals. Anyone can refer to our program. A person can even call to ask for services themselves. Once a person is referred to Supportive Connections, we reach out to the referred person. Participation with Supportive Connections is voluntary. If someone wants to participate, we look at the individual's needs and concerns. Our case manager, Johnathan Laye, works within existing community resources as much as possible. We also have some funding to support our mission, which can pay for things such as substance abuse treatment and mental health services. We have many people in our community doing great work. I am not looking at stepping on anyone's toes or reinventing the wheel. If a referred person is already working with or receiving services from a community agency, we will reach out to that agency or worker to see if there is any assistance that we can provide. We are hoping we can help fill any gaps and coordinate assistance. As much as possible, we want to help where needed and not duplicate or undermine other efforts. I believe there are enough people in need in our community for all programs to coexist and work together. LC: With this being said, I'd like to note that in my mind it is a wonderful idea to have supports in place. Yet, fundamentally, it is a much greater provision to implement community access resources that aid and/or assist in preventative programs that are able to detect and look at how to avoid further injury to people in crises. A format where we can be taught what to avoid in some cases. To allow questions to be asked by the consumers, then have some tenured advocates or recipients that are successful in the utilization of specific programs and services to answer them. Another key part of offering services is to address the need for transportation to access these supports and/or services. Many people give up or are discouraged due to limited or the lack of safe and adequate means to access and receive services that are and may become available. Yes, the limitations that exist in order to access these benefits and services that aid in support from community programs can make some people give up, while others are even more frustrated because of the gap that does not bridge access for provisions to be made. What are you doing to make people aware of the program? KF: Community outreach is, and will continue to be, vital to our program. We have contacted a number of community agencies and community leaders. We have made presentations to over two dozen organizations and groups. We are continuing to reach out to community agencies and respond to all inquiries about our program. LC: Where is the office located? KF: Our office is currently located at the Justice Center, 305 E. Huron Ann Arbor, Mich. If someone is not comfortable coming into the Justice Center Building, we will make efforts to meet them at another community location. LC: How many agencies are aware of the Supportive Connections program? KF: We have reached out to over 50 community agencies, organizations, and groups by email and inperson. I also think word of mouth is working as we have received referrals from agencies with whom we have not yet met. LC: Is there any data that you are using to design the Supportive Connections program? KF: We are collecting a number of data for this program and will utilize it to continue to develop and refine this program. This is a new and a dynamic entity, which is open to some modification as determined by community needs. LC: I know that it is wise for individuals to review records and documents with agents/people who gather information. This way, if there seem to be or are things that the client does not see as an accurate record, they can have that noted. A person's needs are met better when they are more clearly understood, stated and documented with a meeting of the minds. Most importantly let us always keep in mind that it is more productive to prevent a crisis and address things that are preventable. Let us not leave the marginalized in a place to use substances as an answer. Let us restore hope and trust in our communities and their professional and voluntary agents. As a further update, as of January 19, 2023 there is a free Narcan vending machine in the front vestibule (Huron St. entrance) of City Hall. Obtain this at your own discretion and purpose of comfortability for a crisis that may arise, whether it be known or unknown to you. Thank you, City of Ann Arbor, for your willingness and ability to move forward with a unified goal to connect the otherwise silenced and unheard (because of shame or the lack of connection) to community facilities and their resources. For anyone looking to contribute to or engage with Supportive Connections please contact them by phone at 734-794-6934, or by email at SupportiveConnections@a2.gov.org, or online at a2gov.org/ SupportiveConnections. Sunday, February 5 • 4–6pm Downtown Libary As part of the 2023 Washtenaw Read, AADL hosts Kiley Reid, author of the 2023 Washtenaw Reads title Such a Fun Age for a talk, reading, and Q&A session. This event includes a signing with books for sale. For more information about Washtenaw Reads and previous years’ reads, go to wread.org. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and science tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Databases at AADL Did you know all AADL library card holders have access to databases? You can search consumer reports, genealogy, and much more! Visit AADL.org/ collections/databases. AADL Shelf Service Place your request with our Shelf Service and let AADL know the types of things you’re looking for–AADL staff will fill a bag with items we think you’ll like! For more information visit AADL.org/shelfservice FEATURED EVENT 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES Old world vs. New world order MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Illustration by Cindy "Kung Fu Panda" Gere, Bold moves have been made of late by conductors of ideology of the old world order, as the new world emerges. One must ask, is it out of desperation and fear of a new world order and ideology? Taking a look at global affairs and issues: Russo-Ukrainian War, Roe v. Wade Supreme Court reversal, the deadly protests in Iran after Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran morality police. And there are the culture wars, race relations in the United States and Europe and tension between the U.S. and China. As I reflect on the old world order, I must say, I can’t wait to see what a new world has to offer. Let's talk about “isms” — racism, sexism, nationalism and so on. Unfairly, these "‘isms” will exist in the new world, let us not be naïve. But I'm quite sure that those who look forward to the new world are conditioned to resist by any and all means necessary, because the old world is not going out without a fight. Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine is simply an attempted land grab, reclaiming territory lost in 1991 as a result of the fall of the USSR. He thought the war with Ukraine would be a walk in the park but underestimated the will and the resolve of the Ukrainians. September 16, 2022, was the start of civil unrest in Tehran and throughout the region, over the death of Mahsa Amini. Young Iranian people, especially young women, are outraged at the Iranian government for abuse against women. This struggle is the age-old war on and against women. The Roe v. Wade Supreme Court reversal was a low and unexpected blow. As a result, it turned up the heat for midterm elections. A lot is on the line here: we take two steps forward, we can’t afford to take three steps back. This was one of the major reasons for the record return of absentee ballots in midterm elections. Are there culture wars in the United States and Europe? I know many culture defenders in the United States. “Isms'' is a problem in Europe as well. Groundcover vendor No. 279. Illustration colored by Cameron, office visitor, age six. These remnants of old ideology and the old world philosophy are a testament of the will and audacity of a people stuck on ideology of the past. China, North Korea and that region are a hot and contentious region of the globe, to say the least. It’s hard to know where the leaders in that region stand in regards to Russia and the war on Ukraine and also China’s plan to “landgrab” Taiwan. No doubt about it, it’s going to be a tight fight. We must look forward to embracing the unknown and the new that is to come, and learn from our past history in order to CO-EXIST. JANUARY 27, 2023 Challenges being a houseless woman selling Groundcover News assault and assumptions. These are the extra weights to carry. The first weight is all the rudeness and hostile attitudes about homelessness. People assume you are lazy, don’t want a job, do drugs or are just begging. People think they are higher class than you. The second weight — which is speBEVERLY BOSS Groundcover vendor No. 583 There are a lot of challenges being a houseless woman selling Groundcover News. Some of them are attitudes about homelessness in general and extra challenges of dealing with sexual cific to being a woman — is the sexism, sexual assault, invisibility, verbal assault and assumptions you are a prostitute. Many people in the community are only one check away from being homeless. Have empathy! Angelz in the sky (part 2) TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 I know I'm missin you, Some timez I wanna cry, Some timez I wish I could touch, Give ya a kiss, Some timez I wanna talk, I love & miss ya so much, All tha time I wish, All tha time I ask why, Therez so much I wanted ta do, Now I just gotta move on, Wit chu in my heart, Izz where you'll stay, Til that end day. JANUARY 27, 2023 VENDOR VOICES GROUNDCOVER NEWS Are you really listening? Street paper vendors engage in everyday acts of communication The need to communicate with another human being is quite human. Passersby also have their share of stress on a daily basis. Here's what I tell my clients: "I'm here to sell a magazine, but I'm here for you first." Selling is important, but so is listening to passersby. The pink flowery hijab In a cheerful tone, and spontaneously, I call out to her: "Your hijab is beautiful!" She smiles. Then I add: "You are very pretty." Seeing her radiant face, I understand that I have touched a sensitive chord. She moves forward, rummaging in her bag. I refuse the money. She doesn't understand. I am just happy to see her smile at me and I feel grateful. She insists on giving me the money. I refuse it and wish her a nice day by giving her the magazine. The elderly lady JO REDWITCH L'Itineraire street paper vendor An elderly lady stops, wallet in hand: "Would you like a magazine, ma'am?" She answers me with a nod. "Do you want today's or the 1 November issue, which contains two pages I wrote? It's the article called ‘Letter to my younger self.’" I show her the photos that accompany my article. She might be the more visual type, you never know. She holds her purse tightly, it's rush hour and it's crowded, but this detail doesn't bother her at all. "My niece just had a baby. Her husband works a lot and my niece is exhausted. I’m going to her house to help her cook. " I listen to her patiently in spite of the traffic in the subway. It's 5 p.m. sharp. Her story over, she leaves me with a big $10. "Keep the change, thanks Jo." The early childhood educator Another woman stops and calls out to me: "I read your piece: ‘Letter to my younger self.’ Then, as you suggested, I tried to do the same – I wrote as if I were talking to myself as a child. I wondered if I had made the right choices, especially in early adulthood. As I reread it, I started to cry, tore it up and threw it in the trash." "Why?" I asked her. "You know, I work in daycare and have had some serious health issues this year." I nodded... "And I had an epiphany. Since the health thing with my heart, I've come to the realization that I never thought about myself. I sacrificed my whole life for my husband, my children. Now I feel stuck." I listened to each of them. The elderly lady needed empathy and recognition for helping her niece. My regular client needed me to tell her that it was not too late to take care of her own needs instead of those of others while the young woman in the hijab simply needed to hear a compliment. Active listening, for me, is listening without intervening. Just listening. I try to understand the other person's inner world, show real empathy, and then give the person time to tell their story. Also, it's always good to verify with the person to make sure that I have understood. Maybe the person doesn't need you to help them solve their problems, maybe they just need an ear. Genuine listening gives importance and value to people who need to talk, and even more to the person who is too often silent. Courtesy of L’Itinéraire / International Network of Street Papers. L’Itinéraire is a street paper located in Montreal, Quebec. Welcome refugees and consider being a co-sponsor Immigrants are often refugees from economic or natural disasters. Many post-colonial — poor — countries are impacted by a disaster, some by two or more. In a homeland targeted by the global investor class for “regime change,” a type of coup d’etat by sanctions and financial destabilization, we see full spectrum warfare. The "flood" of refugees at the United States border is on our social screen. The cause of this exodus from third (poor) to first world (rich) countries is well studied by Monthly Review in particular, with its focus on the “politics of underdevelopment” and the “new world order,” better known as the neoliberal form of imperialism. “The Open Veins of Latin America” by Eduardo Galeano is a classic book on the subject. The Biden administration has addressed this situation, not by looking at the causes, but by shifting USCIS (Citizen and Immigration Services) policy to allow Haitians, Cubans, Nicarauguans and Venezuelans with family in the United States to be sponsored by a supporter from that family — but only if the sponsor qualifies. I do not qualify as a supporter because my income is too low, but with a backup supporter we could apply and bring some of my Cuban family to Ann Arbor. KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 apartment, Cuban culture could easily accommodate six or more people. We would, however, abide by Ann Arbor residency compliance rules. My life is complex and interesting. All the above-named persons, except Santiago Alberto, are active on Facebook, and I pay to keep their cell phones open. With this background, I invite you to friend-request them, and consider being a backup supporter or possibly a lead supporter — and I held two babies in my hands in Cuba; Daniela Valdes Negret in 2001 and Kevin Toledo in 2006. I committed to be padrino — a mentor, protector, spiritual friend. So I am a co-parent with the biological father. This is a serious responsibility in Cuba and I am being implored to start the work to bring them here. Daniela has a threeyear-old, Santiago Alberto, named after my middle name, Albert. He is my third ahijado, spiritual child. I held him before he was born. I want to invite mother and son to live with me. We know how to live in a small space. I also have a stepdaughter, Daymara Rovira Negret, who was once a Cuban national weightlifting champion in her age and gender class. She is a physical trainer. If we had a two-bedroom become a part of our ever-growing extended family. We are all part of a large global family between Cuba and the United States, as well as Canada, Mexico and other Caribbean islands at the center of our lives. Our experience of natural borders will open our understanding of the nation state. Let’s do something good together. Consider sponsoring or co-sponsoring someone you find a connection with. My phone number is (313) 918-2453. 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY JANUARY 27, 2023 The brunch revolution — Around the Kitchen Table with Peace House Ypsi ALEXANDRA GRANBERG Groundcover contributor Waffle iron sizzling. Kids laughing. Community mingling. Around the Kitchen Table with Peace House Ypsi is no mimosa-and-avocado-toast, reservations-only, kind of brunch. Free, weekly brunches — a concept sprouted from Peace House, run by Sheri Wander and her husband Pat — were already underway a couple of years before the pandemic hit. When that happened, the brunch had to be re-imagined. Wander started running weekly food deliveries instead. But it just wasn’t the same. “The whole point of the brunch was building community, and I was mourning the loss of that,” said Wander. A few months earlier, Wander had met Lisa Gizzi, a long-term food enthusiast and vegan. Gizzi had run her own, fully vegan prepared food business before realizing “I just wanted to feed my friends, my family, anybody.” So she quit her food business and started thinking about how to make food — tasty, healthy, and, in her case, vegan — more accessible. “Food should be free.” In September 2022, Gizzi and Wander thought the timing was right to restart communal meals. Peace House had been approached by Growing Hope, a nonprofit focused on strengthening the local food system in Ypsilanti. “There was a natural space for collaboration,” said Wander. They all met up, decided they liked each other and that they wanted to work together. The previous brunches had been held at the small space that Peace House provides. Growing Hope had a much larger space to offer, and that’s where it clicked. The bigger space could accommodate more people, and its central location in downtown Ypsilanti made it more accessible. Bee Mayhewn, the kitchen manager at Growing Hope’s Incubator Kitchen, was able to use her connections to get food donations for the brunches — though a lot still comes out of Wander and Gizzi’s own pockets. All three are involved in the cooking along with other volunteers, a setup they hope will grow more sustainable. To that end, Wander would like to be able to get grocery store gift cards to people who want to contribute with their cooking or baking but can’t afford ingredients. Beggars can be choosers The renewed brunches have brought a more diverse clientele than those at Peace House: a lawyer mingling with someone experiencing homelessness; a college student sitting with a dad of five. Some bring food to share, others just happen to walk by. Gizzi estimates that the brunchgoers are a fifty-fifty mix of people who need a free meal, and people who just crave a good brunch. “Whether you’re seeking community or are food-insecure, it doesn’t matter once you’re through the door,” said Wander. And community is what it’s mostly about, according to Wander: “Food is an important tool in community building, such a natural way of sharing our cultures, family stories, experiences. The act of sitting around a table together often creates a relaxed space.” But why brunch? Gizzi says they tried dinner at first, but once they switched to brunch “it exploded” — from some 20 people in the beginning to upwards of 75 last Sunday. Part of the explanation could be that many other places offer free dinners, but elaborate breakfasts are hard to come by. The more diverse brunch crowd was “more what we wanted it to be, and what the community wanted,” said Wander. Then there’s this: Brunch is considered a bourgeois luxury, something they wanted to “flip on its head.” “Sometimes beggars can be choosers,” said Wander. The statement carries a fundamental doctrine. “The expectation is often that one should be thankful for whatever food, if it’s free. We tried making this brunch a celebration, a treat, with vegan and gluten free options — fancy stuff. We all deserve that.” Wander used to think of Ypsilanti as a food desert, but now views it more as “food apartheid” — a systemic limit to easy access to healthy, fresh food. The tagline for the now monthly brunch is Relationships are made around the kitchen table. Unofficially Gizzi adds and revolutions — because “food is political.” These brunches, however, are meant to be a low-barrier event, where anybody and everybody can come and sit down with others, sharing informal knowledge and information over a meal, or just taking the food to go. Making a free meal into a luxurious Top: Saif and Malaika, two Around the Kitchen table attendees, enjoying full plates of brunch food. Bottom left: Grace Wu and Heidi Bechtel are kitchen volunteers from Growing Hope. They assisted with serving the buffet-style brunch. Bottom right: The vegan waffle bar at the January 15 brunch was complete with berries, coconut, candy pieces, sprinkles and so much more! brunch is about making a statement. But, Around the Kitchen Table is also about good eating. And the brunches can be just that — waffles with whipped cream, or the best vegan cheesy potatoes around. The next brunch is February 19, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., at the Growing Hope Kitchen on 16 South Washington St, Ypsilanti. More info: peacehouseypsi.org. JANUARY 27, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. MATH PUZZLES JAN GOMBART GROUNDCOVER CONTRIBUTOR 1. Bruce was a pupil at Madison Elementary School in 1945. The year of his birth is a perfect square. How old was he on his birthday in 1988? 2. Three men are lined up behind each other. The tallest man is in the back and can see the heads of the two in front of him; the middle man can see the one man in front of him; the man in front can’t see anyone. They are blindfolded and hats are placed on their heads, picked from three black hats and two white hats. The extra two hats are hidden and the blindfolds removed. The tallest man is asked if he knows what color hat he’s wearing; he doesn’t. The middle man is asked if he knows; he doesn’t. But the man in front, who can’t see anyone, says he knows. How does he know, and what color hat is he wearing?  PIT from page 4 people in the community who know where to find people could be stepped up, and the data in the report on sheltered homeless people (which is obtained separately) could include houses of hospitality and other stopgap measures. One local critic notes that the universities could provide information about unhoused students, since they offer assistance to those students. While those who “couch-surf” are not unsheltered, attempting to derive information about them for the report would round out the picture. Look for an analysis of the 2023 count in a March issue of Groundcover News.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR WEEK  MISCONCEPTIONS from page 2 possible for vendors to move out of homelessness. Homelessness can take many forms, and poverty even more. You never know what someone’s life experience is, and we know that definitely cannot be assumed from what meets the eye. “These men and women are regular people…” True! No explanation needed. “... who are using these licenses to steal money from unexpecting hard working people.” False. Groundcover vendors are individually licensed for charitable solicitation by means of selling newspapers. Groundcover News is a real publication that has a real purchase price. I personally think that Groundcover is worth more than just $2 — especially with that $2 Co-op coupon in every issue! “Their pitch is usually, ‘can you buy a newspaper to help support the homeless of the community? 100 percent of the proceeds are given to those who are in need.’ This is in fact a lie.” False, though this one toes the line. This is a pitch that someone, usually new, might use to distance themselves from the transaction. It is not the norm, not what is taught and gets corrected once observed. The information in this pitch is true but phrasing it in third person makes it sound like the money is going to a third party, instead of that member of the homeless community, who is speaking. “These individuals are pocketing 100% of all monies collected.” True. That is how Groundcover works. Groundcover vendors purchase the newspapers they sell at a wholesale price and re-sell them on the street to customers, keeping the revenue they make, including tips. The money vendors receive on the street is the vendor’s income, as selling the newspaper is the job. “Some of these individuals are making over a thousand dollars a day…” False. Many community members are very generous, and sometimes, vendors are surprised with a larger gift that exceeds what someone might consider just a tip. But, those gifts are few and far between and certainly not enough to warrant the daily take-home pay to be anywhere near $1,000 a day. “... via cash another torrent [sic] Venmo sales and cash app or square sales which go directly to their personal bank accounts.” True. Groundcover vendors are encouraged to use personal accounts to accept cashless payments from customers. This is something we pushed during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and continued ever since. It has truly been a successful, safe and easy way to facilitate the exchange. Unless a vendor uses the Groundcover Venmo account, the money goes directly to them. If a vendor uses the Groundcover Venmo account, the money goes directly to them as cash on a weekly basis. “The people running ground cover know of these but continue to support this behavior because these fraudsters are keeping their organization valid and afloat.” False. Behavior that deviates from the Vendor Code of Conduct puts Groundcover News, and therefore, other current and future vendors’ employment/income at risk. We have a standardized violation policy that we act upon if we witness an incident or can validate a reported infraction. “Most of these homeless vendors are making anywhere from 5 to 10000 a week.” False — for now. Some Groundcover vendors sell the paper to fill in gaps in their income, selling only one or two times a week, and some consider selling Groundcover a fulltime job. To make $10,000 selling the regular $2 paper (that vendors profit $1.50 off of) would take selling 15,000 newspapers in a week. On average, all 35-45 active vendors sell 1700-2200 newspapers every two weeks. If, in the future, the newspaper is in such high demand that one vendor can make $10,000, we would celebrate, not shame them. Groundcover News values economic autonomy. “This terrible theft needs to stop immediately. The organization is stealing from the innocent. Please look into this immediately and stop this crime.” Homelessness and poverty are already highly criminalized identities. Selling Groundcover is legitimate work and exists because so many other informal employment opportunities are criminalized. I do not write this in blind defense of every Groundcover vendor, and every Groundcover News transaction, or interaction. Even though I wish there was, there is no guarantee that every interaction purchasing Groundcover will be a positive one — people have bad days, might be stressed, traumatized from the experience of being unsheltered, or just from being a human in this world. I know many complaints are valid. We welcome them, especially in view of the earlier point: holding vendors accountable is necessary to ensure that Groundcover vendors can keep doing what they’re doing. I write this to shine light on the many misconceptions that community members have about our newspaper, and our workplace. I want to recognize that the experience of selling Groundcover means going up against the guilt, fear and/or hatred people have towards another person asking them for money. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS JANUARY 27, 2023 About a year ago now, Mary and Max Wisgerhof, office volunteers, shared with me an essay from the Atlantic by James Parker entitled, “An Ode to Giving People Money.” It is a short, profound narration of someone’s experience when asked to give money. Its concluding paragraphs: “Here’s my tip: If you’re temperamentally indisposed, keep your money. A penny given a poor man 'grudgingly,' wrote the French Catholic mystic Léon Bloy, 'pierces the poor man’s hand, falls, pierces the earth, bores holes in suns, crosses the firmament and compromises the universe.' So don’t do that. “But if you are inclined to give, then give wholeheartedly. Not for charity, not for empathy, not for any groaning abstraction, but that the divine economy of giving might circulate through you unobstructed. Through your glands and through your veins. The person before you needs money, and you need to give it. Unplug the wellspring of life, and hand it over.” The entire essay can be found at: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ archive/2022/04/an-ode-togiving-people-money/622835/ This week is Vendor Appreciation Week. Recognize this paper not as a prop for asking someone for money, but as a unique and valuable asset in our community. Recognize the act of selling Groundcover not as a crime, but as a service to the community. Thank your vendor for distributing a newspaper filled with solutions-based journalism, community voices, puzzles, recipes, stories and a chance to communicate. Look to the back page to see ways to go above and beyond in this celebration. Thanks for buying — and reading — Groundcover News. Math puzzle solutions: 1. 52 years old. The year of his birth was 1936 = 44 x 44. 2. Since the first man doesn’t know, he can’t see two white hats (otherwise he would know his hat is black), so the other two can conclude that their hats are white and black or black and black. If the second man saw white, he would conclude that his hat must be black. Thus, the third man knows that his hat is black. JANUARY 27, 2023 THINK ABOUT IT untitled billy hill writer there are times in individuals' lives where things make sense. a certain familiar sense of simplicity, we allow ourselves to return with from time to time — where the truth speaks with us. when we collect ourselves we can begin to notice how things are, beyond how we think about life. when we withdraw from fleeting thoughts and silly identifications, and move into our purpose — the soul of our being — and connect with our inner person — the voice of wisdom in life — we remember who we are and where our life’s work has been this entire time, still. in the bigger picture, the small details of existence appear self-evident. like all those options we just realized were always here, in this very moment. it has been stated that most of human psychology is a dance of relating self to others as a strategy of self organization. as one wonders about what is beyond the borders of the known, eventually a clear picture emerges within the same truth we are. plato’s cave analogy, the story of captives who, restrained in a cave to near complete darkness and oblivion, save through the shifting glimmer of a partial ray of sunlight that casts semi silhouettes of the hostages themselves. from the point of view dependent on desperate grasping at truth, the same truth in the described scenario; displaced circumstantially, the cave dwellers assume that their relative awareness is all there is in existence in the universe (a so-called optical illusion of the self). plato further illustrates, through this tale, with the additional twist of philosophy: if one of the cave’s victims of fate were to manage an escape and release from their indentured servitude to the ignore-ance of wholeness in the cave’s obscurity and set free to learn the greater world they are a part of, their past ignoring the rest of life would become irrelevant. the freed individual would take their place in the greater life they are part of, in direct sunlight for the first time to see the world first person. if, plato continues, the free person were to, after exploring their world, return to the cave to report to the others of the greater existence of life they’d been deprived of, the captives would disbelieve, perhaps ridicule and probably resent the messenger due to their condition. through which the messenger must be forced to the solitary return, to beyond the cave. modern day life has inspired a new lens to add to the allegory of the cave: plato’s cell phone. that nowadays a lot of folks forget to look past the screen on their palm to see to the rest of the world they seek to know. the antidote to the situation is an old one; empower ourselves to enjoy where we are whether thick or thin. the way things are in this moment is what our lives are like, actually. being able to find our balance with the universe as it GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 happens is how growth teaches us who we are. to be able to enjoy ourselves both is an asset and an ability and the enthusiasm is contagious. it brings us back to ourselves.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Vegan butternut squash chili ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 red onion, diced 2 cups vegetable stock 2 cloves of garlic 1 green pepper, diced 2 ½ to 3 cups cubed butternut squash 28 oz can diced tomatoes 1 1/2 cups canned black beans 1 1/2 cups canned kidney beans 1 tablespoon chili powder, more or less to your preference ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper Cilantro, chopped Directions: Sauté onions in ¼ cup of vegetable stock or water for 3-5 minutes, then add garlic and sauté for an additional minute. Add the green pepper and sauté for 3 minutes. Add butternut squash and sauté for an additional 5 minutes. Add diced tomatoes and vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Finally, add the beans and spices and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Serve topped with cilantro. JANUARY 27, 2023 BECOME A GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR • Make money on your first day • Choose your own schedule • Work for yourself • Join a supportive community • Get started this week for FREE NEW VENDOR ORIENTATIONS ARE EVERY TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, 10 AM @ THE GCN OFFICE. Trainings take 90 minutes. New vendors will get a temporary badge and 10 free papers to start. BLAKE TRANSIT Willam St. AADL The Groundcover office is located in the basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ (423 S 4th Ave, downtown Ann Arbor) Conquer the Cold is Back! The challenge returns January 10–February 10, 2023! Register now at CommuteandWin.org #OwnWinter @getdowntown The getDowntown Program provides commuting programs and services to downtown Ann Arbor employees and employers. A program of TheRide, getDowntown's partners include the City of Ann Arbor and the Ann Arbor DDA. Packard St. Fifth St. Fourth Ave.

2 $ JANUARY 13, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 2 YOUR DONATION BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Food should be free! Ypsilanti shutters the Love Stand. Page 4 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT WOULD MAKE ANN ARBOR A BETTER PLACE FOR FAMILIES? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. green gold? Who can afford FOOD ACCESS EDITION Fresh, local produce at Argus Farm Stop. Photo credit: Alexandra Granberg. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor # NEW ISSUE EVERY OTHER FRIDAY!

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER community EVENTS UNARMED RESPONSE PUBLIC FORUM In April 2021, the Ann Arbor City Council passed Resolution R-21129 to develop an unarmed crisis response team. The City of Ann Arbor asked Public Sector Consultants to gather feedback from community members about the best way to create a team of unarmed social and human services professionals to respond to crisis and public safety calls in the city. January 19, 6 p.m. Virtual via Zoom: https://pscinc.co/discuss Meeting ID: 859 4501 3079 Passcode: 090446 UNITED WAY 21-DAY EQUITY CHALLENGE DISCUSSION GROUP Sign-up for the challenge at UWGive.org January 14, 21 and 28, 4 p.m. Booksweet Bookshop, 1720 Plymouth Road MLK and MILITARISM: WHAT WOULD MLK SAY TODAY? MLK declared there were three issues that adversely influenced American Culture: Racism, Extreme Materialism and Militarism. Bob Krzewinski and Bill Shea of local Veterans for Peace chapter 93 will discuss MLK's point of view on Militarism and suggest what he might say about new international militarism and current events. January 16, 6 - 7:30 p.m. Ann Arbor District Library, Multi-Purpose Room NEWS WRITING BEST PRACTICES INTERVIEWING SOURCES AND IMPROVING YOUR ARTICLES TUESDAY, JAN 24, 2023 6:30PM YDL-WHITTAKER 5577 WHITTAKER ROAD WRITING A NEWS STORY TAKES A KEEN EYE AND A LOT OF LISTENING. GET GUIDED PRACTICE INTERVIEWING YOUR SOURCES AND TIPS ON INCORPORATING THEIR THOUGHTS INTO YOUR STORY. YOU'LL ALSO LEARN TO HIGHLIGHT THE MAIN HOOK OF YOUR ARTICLE AND HOW TO WRITE IN A WAY THAT KEEPS EVERYONE READING UNTIL THE LAST LINE. IN PARTNERSHIP WITH YPSIWRITES AND GROUNDCOVER NEWS. QUESTIONS? Call 734-482-4110 X2411. SCAN THE QR CODE TO REGISTER! JANUARY 13, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Jim Clark — vendor manager ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Mira Simonton-Chao Anna Gersh Jan Gombart Alexandra Granberg Mike Jones Emma Lapp Sophia Lupton Will Shakespeare Kaylee Smith Washtenaw GDC Felicia Wilbert GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alex Granberg Robert Klingler Mira Simonton-Chao Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenburg Navya Yagalla PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 JANUARY 13, 2023 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What would make Ann Arbor a better place for all families to live? Earlier this year, Fortune magazine ranked Ann Arbor first on its list of the nation's "best places to live for families."Concetrate magazine responded to this ranking by publishing an article that asked 12 Ann Arbor residents and leaders the question: "What would make Ann Arbor a better place for all families to live?" Jessica Letaw, community activist and advocate for housing and affordability, responded, "I’d be more interested in how Groundcover News would rate Ann Arbor; and I’d be excited to attract to our community the people who think that kind of coverage counts." More housing for the "missing middle." — James Manning, #16 Actually affordable housing. — Ken Parks, #490 Everybody to be loving and caring and don’t recognize color, because we all come the same place. — Felicia Wilbert, #234 Get rid of the crooked mayor. Don’t let people who are rich control everything. — Schillington Morgan, #148 Make it more affordable. — Fred Allen, #170 Continuity within the community — especially between the homeless and non-homeless community. — Kevin Claypool, #584 Better affordability across the board. — Mike Jones, #113 Child support is a B! I got word that the Wayne County Sheriff came to my house with a child support warrant for my arrest. I wasn’t home at the time. The next day I gave them a call and talked to some Wayne County detective. He explained to me I had a warrant and I needed to just turn myself in to the 36th District Court to be arraigned and I would be released. The next day I did just that, driving my girlfriend's Jeep to downtown Detroit to the 36th District Court house. I walked in and before you knew it I realized I couldn’t just leave. I was in a court chambers, a jail cell. The judge sentenced me to 30 days for contempt of court or whatever. Mind you my girlfriend's jeep is outside in a paid parking lot in downtown Detroit and would soon be towed away. I had to make a collect call to my girlfriend to tell her about me getting locked up for 30 days and she needed to come get her Jeep before it got towed away. Wayne County Jail and Washtenaw County Jail are two completely different places state of Michigan. I met guys from Hawaii, Florida, Wisconsin and other states.That was in 2004. In 2007, there was another child MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 — Washtenaw County Jail is Disneyland compared to Wayne County Jail. In Washtenaw County Jail you got a couch, big screen TVs, you can order Big Macs. Wayne County Jail is just a jail that rhymes with hell. Because that’s what it is. I was placed on the 13th floor, cell 1308. I will never forget that cell number. There I met a lot of people from all over the country. In Michigan, a person can be charged for felony non-child support, and if you try to leave the state or reside out of state, you will receive a free flight courtesy of the U.S. Marshals back to the support warrant for my arrest from the Wayne County Sheriff. Back in court again, this time at the Coleman A. Young Building on the 19th floor, the building on Woodward and Jefferson you see on the Detroit local news all the time. This time my girlfriend came to court with me. Once again I was found in contempt of court and sentenced to 45 days in the county jail. I was sent to the Dickerson facility on the eastside of Detroit, where I served 30 days and was then released and that was my last time being incarcerated. 76% of non-custodial fathers with children under the age of 19 pay child support in the United States. The state child support office in Michigan provides services for more than 830,000 children and families. There is a lot I don’t like about the Michigan child support system but one good thing I got out of the whole process was ACCOUNTABILITY. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 Truth or lies: The blessings Mrs. Levan Flora had just celebrated her 100th birthday in her South Carolina home. However, she was feeling anxious. She had worked as a nurse and caretaker up until the age of 78. Her husband had passed away when she was 80, leaving her alone. She never bore any children, but they did adopt a daughter who was now also deceased. Her daughter never had a chance for a family; she was in a fatal auto accident returning home from school. Levan always believed that she What would YOU ask? If you have a question you would like Groundcover vendors to answer in this column, email us at contact@groundcovernews.com We will be featuring vendor responses in future issues. would be reunited with them in heaven. She had outlived all of her relatives. Levan could still get around and occasionally would sneak off and drive her golf cart to the mall across the street from her estate. She was blessed to be able to still comprehend things and did not have body illness or dementia; she just walked slowly. Her butler and maid were still employed after 35 years and they often assisted her with keeping track of her estate. She was wealthy and had been stressing over who she would leave her wealth to. The very next morning Levan FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 was up early feeling refreshed and eating a hearty breakfast. She was thinking about her dream, not wanting to say anything about it to her help. Levan had decided to slowly withdraw her money from the bank and get as much cash as possible. After going to the bank she snuck off to the mall and purchased all the blankets she could. Levan kept this routine for the Levan did not attend church services ever since her husband passed away. She still prayed and believed in God, knowing she would meet with her family in heaven. One day Levan was feeling happy — bedtime came quickly that day, for she could turn off her mind and sleep. After she said her prayers she went to bed, still wondering who she would leave her wealth to. Levan started to dream about God instructing her to give all her wealth away in order to enter the gates of heaven. God also told her, “You shall know who to give your home to when the time comes.” next three weeks. However one day when she next arrived at the mall, there was a family of five holding signs. The man held a sign stating that he had lost his job and they were homeless. “Please help.” Not even considering her safety, she knew God wanted her to help them. Levan did not hesitate; she pulled up to the family in her golf cart and asked how she could help them. The man, Jack, introduced himself and his family. He then asked her if she had any work he could do to earn money for his family. Levan introduced see BLESSINGS page 10 

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMUNITY RESOURCES WASHTENAW GENERAL DEFENSE COMMITTEE On December 4, 2022 the Love Stand, a free food stand in Depot Town, was shut down by the City of Ypsilanti due to citations of blight and incorrect zoning. The owner and operator of the stand failed to pull necessary permits, including historic district commission and zoning permits. Zoning — specifically historic zones — are weaponized to protect the property values of homeowners and business owners by keeping poor people out of those areas. These "health and safety" spatial regulations were originally implemented in the United States to designate safe areas for white people to own property, segregated from the rest of the community. As fuel prices skyrocket, so does the price of everything else. Most food types (dairy, meat and produce) have inflated by more than 10% over the past year alone. The price of eggs has inflated more than 30%. To no one's surprise, wages have stayed relatively the same, forcing individuals and families to live more precariously just to access basic needs. Food pantries are essential resources, but oftentimes they are only open at specific times and days. The Love Stand was a key resource in Ypsilanti as a 24/7 access point for free food. Community members were witnessed using the stand constantly — from the middle of the day to the middle of the night. After an initial news blast reporting on the ordered closure, community members responded with overwhelming frustration with the city, showing the need for such a resource. We had a community resource. The city ordered the removal of that community resource. We will continue to organize to protect access to free food in our community. We invite all community members acting in good faith to participate in stocking, maintaining and gathering from open-access free food pantries at 169 N. Washington St. (immediately north of the Ypsilanti Transit Center) and 706 Davis St. (Peace House Ypsi). Details of where to access more food pantries and free hot meals in Washtenaw County can be found in the Washtenaw Street Survival Guide. PROTECT FOOD ACCESS! Solidarity Pantry is a 24/7 access outdoor food pantry located at 169 N. Washington St., Ypsilanti. JANUARY 13, 2023 Food should be free! Ypsi shutters the Love Stand JANUARY 13, 2023 AGENCY SPOTLIGHT Down Maynard Street, a welcoming stand points towards the back entrance of Betsy Barbour Residence Hall: “Maize and Blue Cupboard — Walk This Way!” Walking in, I am greeted with smiles and pleasantries by volunteers who are students just like me. I am given a brown bag to hold whichever shelved food items I would like, along with a sample of pre-made overnight oats. I am even given a recipe for the oats on a small slip of paper, with a list of all the ingredients I can also get from the pantry. The Maize and Blue Cupboard is a student-organized food pantry that provides food, household supplies and resource support for the University of Michigan community. Their mission is to ensure that all members of the University can receive equitable access to healthy, nutritious and nourishing food and can prepare it for themselves or others. To learn more about the Cupboard, I spoke with Keith Soster, Director of Food Sustainability and Student Community Engagement. The Maize and Blue Cupboard was initiated in 2011 by university SOPHIA LUPTON U-M student contributor shoppers per week. Who does the pantry serve, and who are the shoppers? The Cupboard is targeted to anyone with an MCard, but Soster also points out, “We will not turn anyone away. If somebody in the Ann Arbor community were to come in, we are going to allow them to shop and we are also going to give them a list of resources in Ann Arbor.” These resources range from students Wesley Zhu and Forrest Burczak. Soster explained their foundational goal is to alleviate food insecurity on campus by offering food to those students, faculty and staff in need. In order to reduce the stigma often associated with food insecurity, the name Maize and Blue Cupboard was chosen specifically to be inviting to all. “Sometimes [the name of] food banks and pantries can prevent people from utilizing its services,” noted Soster. Over the last couple of years, the number of shoppers has continually increased to about seven hundred Maize & Blue Cupboard creamy carrot soup MIRA SIMONTON-CHAO Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 yellow onion 1 or 2 fresh carrots ¼ bag frozen carrots ¼ bag of a different frozen vegetable, ideally root or squash 2 tsp vegetable or chicken boullion 1 tsp salt 1 can coconut milk Pepper to taste Any other vegetables Directions: Coarsely chop vegetables. Heat a large pot on medium-high heat with butter or oil. Add yellow onion and saute for 3-5 mins. Add the cut carrots, frozen carrots, and other frozen vegetable of your choosing to the pot with 1 cup of water. Add chicken boullion, salt, some cracked pepper to taste and 1 tsp cumin (optional). Add can of coconut milk— if you don’t have coconut milk you can use about 1 cup of heavy cream or milk. Simmer until large carrots are soft. Ladle 1-2 cups into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour the blended mixture into a different pot or bowl. Repeat until you have a full pot of yummy creamy carrot squash soup. Other veggies you could add to the mix: celery, a small amount of potato, any kind of fresh squash (I would recommend baking this before blending), and ginger! churches that serve hot meals to housing insecurity programs. So if you are a non-University of Michigan community member, you are still welcome at the Maize and Blue Cupboard. Moreover, you will be provided with additional resources that are provided in Ann Arbor if you are in need of additional help or social services. Although Soster’s work is to connect the Cupboard to other departmental resources across campus, he is quick to note that it is a team effort. “Students play a big part in the operations of it all,” explains Soster. “It's amazing how many people come in to volunteer. We usually see more donations or volunteers [during the GROUNDCOVER NEWS Tackling food insecurity with Maize and Blue holiday season], just because people get in the spirit of giving, and I think that's awesome. I'm really excited about that.” The Maize and Blue Cupboard is open from 3-7 p.m. Monday through Friday, except for Wednesday when it opens at noon. It not only runs during the fall and winter semesters, but the Cupboard continues to operate in the summer as well. They also offer mobile deliveries if people are unable to come to the central campus location. Whether you are struggling with food security, just need a little assistance getting back on your feet, or would like to lend your own helping hand and volunteer, reach out to the University of Michigan’s Maize and Blue Cupboard! As for me, I returned to my dorm with a brown bag of groceries, proud to be at a university with a food pantry that provides to any and all a full stomach, a smile and a warmed heart. mbc.studentlife.umich.edu/ 420 S State St., Ann Arbor 734-936-2794 Easy tomato beef pasta EMMA LAPP U-M student contributor Ingredients: Neutral oil 16 oz can of canned spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce 1 lb. package of ground beef Whatever type of pasta you want — I prefer to make this dish with garganelli Cheese (mozzarella or parmesan is great) 2 tsp Italian seasoning Salt and pepper to taste Directions: The first thing that you are going to want to do is start to boil the water for the pasta. While the water is boiling, heat up a pan on the stove and add a little bit of oil. Add beef and heat up to a point where it is broken down. While doing this, add seasonings. Hopefully around this time, the water should be boiling so add your choice of pasta to it! Try these recipes from shoppers at Maize and Blue Cupboard that utilize common pantry ingredients! Once the ground beef is looking cooked (brown), open the can of diced tomatoes and add that to the pan with the ground beef. Combine these two together completely, but turn the pan temperature down so that it keeps it just warm and isn’t overcooking the dish. Strain the pasta and add it to the pan with the beef and tomatoes and mix them all together. Add finishing touches (more seasonings, cheese) and serve! 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD ACCESS JANUARY 13, 2023 Ken Parks, Groundcover vendor No. 490, is a regular at Argus Farm Stop on Liberty street where he buys groceries with his Bridge Card. Outside, he has deep conversations with some of the other customers while selling Groundcover News. Every Thursday he picks up his produce box. "I could have used some of this when I made my soup earlier," he said as he opened his weekly surprise. Photo credit: Alexandra Granberg. Local food is better — if you can afford it ALEXANDRA GRANBERG Groundcover contributor “Eat your vegetables.“ A platitude perhaps irritatingly linked to memories of your gradeschool teacher or endless nagging at family dinners. But it strikes a chord when you consider that as many as 85% of Americans really don’t eat enough vegetables. That large majority is lacking the vitamins and minerals essential for normal physical and mental development, based on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recommended daily intake. They are suffering from something called micronutrient deficiency, or hidden hunger. Hidden hunger is a serious public health problem with repercussions beyond the individual. In and of themselves, vitamins don’t contain calories to fill us up when we feel hungry; their absence alone doesn’t lead to malnutrition and weight loss as long as we get enough food of any kind. This makes hidden hunger difficult to detect. But these micronutrients – found in whole foods like beans and vegetables — are vital for maintaining life functions such as the immune system, disease protection and childhood growth. A lack of them can lead to stunted growth, reduced brain function or child and maternal mortality. Not just how much, but what we eat, therefore matters a great deal. Carrot comes to town Dark green and orange vegetables, legumes and whole grains are among the most under-consumed foods worldwide. Thankfully, local food — which rapidly disappeared from our plates with the industrial revolution and subsequent depopulation of rural areas — is coming back around. In Ann Arbor, Argus Farm Stop is spearheading this trend. Their grocery stores/cafes on Liberty and Packard Streets sell only fresh, local products from over 200 producers in the region, year-round. It is a catch-all daily farmer’s market if you will. Though the Ann Arbor Farmers Market offers many of the same products, it is open only twice a week — once a week in the winter. Unlike a traditional retail model, Argus uses a consignment model which allows producers to set their own prices. In this setup, producers keep 70 percent of the sales price of their goods, as opposed to the 15 percent they might get in a traditional retail relationship. This arrangement has helped generate more than $15 million in income for local producers since 2014. This is all good. Small, local businesses can provide an opportunity for communities to take control of their economy. Money spent at local businesses is more likely to stay in the community, and the wealth created is less likely to end up as over-inflated corporate profit. Local producers also tend to care more about the impact their products have on a community, as they are part of that community themselves. With food, this often means less of the harmful chemicals and toxic sprays otherwise used in the industry — better for local ecosystems and biodiversity, and for human health. Transportation routes are radically shortened, leaving much smaller carbon footprints. And wider access to healthy, fresh and seasonal products – in Ann Arbor seven days a week thanks to Argus — means more people get to enjoy these goodies. In other words, locally grown food benefits most people. But in one important aspect it benefits some more than others. Double hunger, triple burden In Washtenaw County an estimated 38,470 people are experiencing food insecurity — meaning they lack the economic means to buy enough food — according to Feeding America. More than 33 million people nationwide, about 10% of Americans, are food-insecure according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Food insecurity among Black and Hispanic people is close to double that, 19.8% and 16.2% respectively. The modern, high-sugar, low-nutrient diet is shared by almost every one of us — 85% evidently — including those who could afford better food. But it affects the least affluent most. When we talk about food security, we often mean access to enough quantities of food to fill stomachs. While this might meet the most acute need, hidden hunger is growing. Not only do people who experience food insecurity typically consume fewer calories overall, on average they eat half as much fruit as someone who is food secure. Proteins and whole grain products are also frequently missing from an already sparse diet. see LOCAL page 11  JANUARY 13, 2023 IN THE CLASSROOM GROUNDCOVER NEWS Opening young minds to critical issues of nutrition in difficult circumstances ANNA GERSH Groundcover board member The readers of this publication already understand many of the challenges faced by homeless and near-homeless people. That’s what this paper is here to do, but it’s important to discuss these issues with everyone, not just those folks who read newspapers. We know that to meaningfully address the problems of our many fellow humans who live in poverty, we need every mind directed toward these issues as early as possible! That’s why Groundcover News visited Eastern Michigan University’s Bright Futures after school program at Wildwood Elementary School. We asked Mr. Brett’s 2nd through 5th-graders to think about nutrition and staying healthy when there is no refrigerator or a stove to protect and prepare food. We asked the kids what they thought would be the ideal food for someone who moved around a lot and didn’t have a reliable place to store their food. We talked about foods with high levels of nutrition, foods that help our bodies stay warm (and keep cool!), and food that keeps well over long periods of time. After our brainstorming sessions and discussion, the kids spent some time thinking about and then drawing what they saw as the best foods to meet those criteria. When we returned to see what they came up with, the kids shared their ideas in a special presentation. Thanks so much to Mr. Brett and all our new friends at Bright Futures at Wildwood ES for your great thinking on this important topic! Top left: Ellie is participating in Mr. Brett's brainstorming activity. Top right: Sammy, Xavier and Shawn participate in the creation process. Bottom left: Sammy recommends an orange because it stays clean and has lots of vitamin C. Bottom right: Alana recommends yams, chicken and mac'n' cheese. Abby suggests watermelon because its very tasty. They are pictured working on brainstorm activity. 7

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MLK DAY JANUARY 13, 2023 The evolution and revolution of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — from segregation to equality On January 16, 2023, the University of Michigan and the metropolitan community of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti will celebrate the life and accomplishments of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The University of Michigan has one of the largest MLK birthday celebrations in the nation. U-M’s MLK events formally started in 1986 on the Ann Arbor campus. Today, the Dearborn and Flint campuses have become integral components of Dr. King’s birthday celebration. In addition to the January 16 events on U-M campuses, there are also significant events to celebrate MLK's birthday at Eastern Michigan University, Concordia College, Washtenaw Community College, and the public school systems of Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Lincoln Consolidated, Willow-Run, Dexter, Saline and Chelsea, as well as most of the major towns and townships in Washtenaw County. What is the Michigan connection to Dr. King’s birthday celebration? Four days after the assassination of Dr. King on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, Michigan Congressman John Conyers introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to honor Dr. King with a federal holiday on his birthday. Conyers's bill was reintroduced in Congress year after year. The MLK Federal Holiday Bill was eventually approved in the Senate (78-22) and President Ronald Wilson Reagan signed it into law in 1983. Michigan was among the first states to celebrate MLK as a federal holiday. Some states, such as Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Arizona refused to honor King on the third Monday of January as prescribed by the 1983 legislation. But America’s civil rights advocates and millions of ordinary citizens persevered. By the year 2000, all 50 states in the United States had chosen to make the MLK federal holiday a state government holiday, too. Furthermore, University of Michigan Professor Emeritus of Architecture and Afro-American Studies, Dr. James Chaffers, was invited to serve on the National Design Council for Dr. King’s Memorial Statue, located near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. In 2023, the University of Michigan’s theme for its annual symposium at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor is: “The (R) EVOLUTION OF MLK FROM SEGREGATION TO ELEVATION.” The Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives and the School of Business are the primary planners of U-M’s MLK Symposium events. They have defined “EVOLUTION” as the gradual process WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 of development and/or diversification from earlier realities, especially from simple to more complexity. The concept of “REVOLUTION” is defined as a forcible, sudden or complete change in favor of a new system. I intend to present Dr. King’s evolution from his birth to his staggering impact as a civil rights leader, struggling against segregation in the southern and northern regions of America. Dr. King had a dream that he said, “was rooted in the American dream.” After the basic anti-discrimination civil right laws and the voting rights law were passed respectively in 1964 and 1965, Dr. King called for genuine equality in income opportunities, non-discriminatory fair/open housing policies, socio-economic advancement, healthcare access and equity, and educational access and equity. The bottom-line is that Dr. King called for an equitable and inclusive multiracial democracy which strives for a “more perfect union” through an implementation of the constitutional Bill of Rights and the key preambles of the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence —“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, and among them are the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” After the Keynote Speech at the U-M Hill Auditorium by Dr. Aletta Maybank, Chief Equity Officer and Vice President of the American Medical Association, U-M Distinguished University Professor of History and Public Policy, Dr. Earl Lewis will moderate the conversations on equity, diversity and inclusion. Mr. Jalen Rose, former U-M and NBA basketball player and founder of the Jalen Rose Leadership academy, and Mr. Edward Buckles, director and documentary film producer will join the conversation at Hill Auditorium. Specific topics may include Black excellence, poverty solutions, campus climate, healthcare disparities, economic inequality, unequal Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pictured with his wife Coretta Scott King, son Martin Luther King III and daughter Yolanda Denise King. They had two other children, Dexter Scott and Bernice Albertine King. Photo credit: Parade. educational access and resources, racial injustice, wealth gap, school achievement gap, career achievement gap, homelessness, mass incarceration and criminal justice reform. A Brief History of Dr. King’s Evolution Dr. King was born on January 15, 1929 in the segregated southern city of Atlanta. His baptismal name was Michael King, not Martin Luther King. His dad was a renowned pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church who traveled to Germany in 1934. History. com editors said that Dr. King’s dad was “inspired by the Protestant Reformation Leader, Martin Luther.” As a result, King Sr. changed his own name as well as that of his six-year old son. Historians say that Dr. King entered College at the age of 15. He attended a Divinity School in Pennsylvania known as Crozer Theological Seminary, following his graduation from Morehouse College at the age of 19. After he received his Divinity Degree from Crozer, he enrolled at Boston University. Dr. King majored in Systematic Theology and his doctorate was awarded in 1955 — one year after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of Linda Brown and overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision of 1896. That decision said that Separate but Equal was the law of the land. In May 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren and other members of SCOTUS said that Plessy was wrongly decided. The Brown decision was momentous! After about six decades of separate and unequal law, African Americans looked forward to a more equal, tolerant and inclusive society. In 1955, Dr. King was appointed pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama after the previous pastor, Rev. Dr. Vernon John, left. That same year, Dr. King became one of the leaders of the Montgomery Improvement Association which worked with community leaders such as Ms. Rosa Parks to undertake the Bus Boycott of December, 1955.The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted for more than one year before the local civil rights group achieved a durable victory. On May 17, 1957, King gave a speech before an audience estimated between 15,000 and 30,000. History.com noted that Dr. King’s speech “drew strong reviews and positioned him in the forefront of the civil rights leadership.” Dr. King was nearly assassinated in Harlem, New York City, on September 20, 1958. He was at a signing ceremony for his first book, titled “Strides Toward Freedom” at Blumstein’s department store. He was approached by a mentally deranged woman named Izolia Ware Curry. She asked Dr. King if he was really Martin Luther King. After he said yes, the woman proceeded to say that she had been looking for him for five years, and she stabbed Dr. King in thee chest with a 7-inch knife. King underwent an emergency surgery. The doctors told him that the blade came so close to his aorta that one sneeze could have punctured the aorta and killed him instantly. A little white girl from White Plains High School sent a very kind letter to Dr. King telling him that she read the newspaper story, and was happy to learn that he did not sneeze. That letter can be located at the Morehouse College’s central archives of Dr. King’s papers. Dr. King also talked about it in his April 3, 1968 “Mountaintop Speech.” The second major assassination attempt on King’s life took place in Memphis. King arrived in Memphis to see MLK next page  JANUARY 13, 2023 PUZZLES  MLK from last page support a strike staged by the Black Garbage Workers Union. On the wet and stormy night of April 3, 1968, King was feeling a little cold, but he summoned enough energy and strength to deliver the “Mountaintop speech” at Mason Temple Church of Memphis. He was prophetic when he preached, “ … like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now … I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I am not afraid of any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the Lord.” The next day, around 6 p.m., April 4, 1968 Dr. King was assassinated while standing on the balcony of his second floor room at the Lorraine Motel by a career criminal named James Earl Ray. Dr. King’s family refused to believe that Mr. Ray acted alone. Dr. King’s Revolutionary Spirit, Impacts and Legacy Many historians cannot say for sure when Dr. King’s revolutionary spirit started. However, the change of his name from Michael King to Martin Luther King when he was about six years old was a major change in his young life. Enrolling in college at the tender age of 15 in the segregated South may have contributed to his revolutionary spirit. Obviously, having Pastor Martin Luther King Sr. as a dad and a role model could have fired up Dr. King’s revolutionary spirit. We do know that King had read most of the Great Books before his death. Dr. King was a voracious consumer of knowledge and information. In general, he believed that “the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.” King’s 1947 article, published in his college newspaper, The Maroon Tigers, argued that “…education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one’s self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices and propaganda. At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances, do not give the objective and unbiased truths.” Stanford University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute published Dr. King’s 1947 College article, with the title, “The Purpose of Education.” Dr. King also said, “…To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from fiction … But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be a man gifted with reason, but with no morals.” This writer believes that Dr. King experienced a great revolution of the mind and spirit while studying at Morehouse College in Atlanta. We know that he loved to read, think and reflect. He was knowledgeable about the writings of ancient civilizations in Egypt, the Holy Land and Greece. He was familiar with writings about the Roman Empire and the Renaissance era. He was aware of the voluminous work of Germany’s Martin Luther who embarked on the reformation of the Christian Church. Dr. King was influenced by the writing and oratory of the legendary abolitionist, Fredrick Douglass. King was knowledgeable about the work of anti-slavery activists such as David Walker’s “Appeal,” Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad, William Lloyd Garrison’s “The Liberator,” W.E.B. DuBois's “Souls of Black Folk” and Booker T. Washington’s Black development strategies to mention a few. Dr. King left a legacy of non-violent direct action for social change, a life of service and activism, inclusive multiracial democracy, resilience and perseverance, community self-analysis of value choices and world-mindedness. We encourage our readers to watch the video “The Other America” and to listen to the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” and “What is Your Life’s Blueprint?” speeches on Youtube. Because race still matters in American life, culture and society, we do encourage our readers to view the video of Dr. Cornel West's 2002 speech titled “Race Matters.” It was delivered as the Jessie and John Danz Lecture at the University of Washington in Seattle. There have been noticeable improvements in society since the late 1960s. The nation is more diverse and more prosperous. However, issues of racism, poverty, inequality, inequity and inclusivity are still problematic. In the cold winter of 2014, some homeless people in Washtenaw County froze to death. It’s much better today. In Los Angeles, five homeless people die every night. There are still more than 44,000 people who are experiencing homelessness on the streets of Los Angeles. Mayor Karen Bass got the city council to pass “A Homeless EmerGROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 LOGIC PUZZLE BY JAN GOMBART 1. Create an eight-digit number using the digits 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1. Make sure the ones are separated by one digit, the twos are separated by two digits the threes are separated with three digits and the fours are separated by four digits. What is the number? gency Ordinance.” Most urban counties in America are faced with similar shelter and health emergencies. What would Dr. King say? He would want us to declare a national emergency now. Enough partisan politics! Enough NIMBY policy debates and public hearings!! Action now to save lives!! Learn more and articipate in the conversation: https://oami.umich. edu/um-mlk-symposium/events/

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AFFORDABILITY Eating out on $20 a day in Ann Arbor The city of Ann Arbor is well-known for having a lot of good eats, but it is not necessarily known for being affordable. As someone who is new to Ann Arbor and also happens to be a broke college student, I wanted to explore the city, try out the famous food and do it all on a budget. My goal was to find three different places to eat, all within walking distance of the campus; one for breakfast, one for lunch and one for dinner, and do it all while spending only twenty dollars. I found that for breakfast there are a lot of large chains where you can get something affordable to eat, but I had somewhat of a harder time finding an affordable breakfast meal from a local restaurant. The place I did end up finding is called RoosRoast. This cute little cafe has two locations, one walkable located downtown on East Liberty St. and one that is a bit further from campus. The RoosRoast located on Rosewood St. has an extensive drink menu along with a good selection of breakfast items and pastries. I decided KAYLEE SMITH U-M student contributor to go with their “duh bagel sandwich” made up of a fresh everything bagel topped with cheddar cheese and cream cheese for only $4.50. This sandwich was the right call, filling and delicious. Lunch and dinner were my favorite parts of the day. There were so many options for these meals it was hard to narrow them down, but I did my best. For lunch, I decided to go with Joe’s Pizza, an Ann Arbor staple. Joe’s is a New York-style pizza place located on Central Campus on South University Avenue. There are multiple Joe’s Pizza locations in the world. The restaurant originated in New York City and the Ann Arbor location is one of the only restaurants not located in New York City, the others being in China. There is a limited menu, and by limited I mean the only option is pizza, but in my opinion that is all you need for a delicious lunch. There are seven different kinds of pizza and a slice ranges from $3 for a cheese slice to $4.75 for Caprese and supreme. I decided to go with plain cheese because not only is it the most budget-friendly option, but it is also my favorite. The restaurant is set up uniquely. You walk up to the counter and tell the worker which slice you want and they stick it right in the oven for you. The slice comes out hot and perfectly crispy. For dinner, I tried No Thai! which was voted Ann Arbor's best Asian restaurant. It is located near Pinball Pete’s at South University. The majority of the dishes are $12. First, you choose your dish, such as pad Thai or drunken noodles. Second, you pick your protein. You can choose between chicken, beef, tofu, or for an extra dollar, shrimp. Lastly, you select your spice level. The options are no spice, weak sauce, medium, yoga flame, or dim mak. I decided to go with the Pad Thai with chicken and weak sauce. This meal did not disappoint. It came out steaming hot and fresh. While it is on the pricier side of this list, the portion size is fairly large and I had a good amount left over. Although restaurants in Ann Arbor do not come across as affordable, there are some worthwhile budget-friendly options. If I were to rank the restaurants I visited based on flavor and price I would put No Thai! at the top of the list, followed by Joe’s and lastly, RoosRoast. For the full day of eating I was able to stick to the $20 budget and have a good time while doing it. Ann Arbor is a great place to venture out and try new things! JANUARY 13, 2023  BLESSINGS from page 3 herself and answered yes while looking at his pregnant wife. She asked their names again and explained that they could go over to her estate and wait for her while she shopped. She then asked Jack to assist her while she shopped so they could talk more. Levan told the wife Rebecca to tell the butler, Ronald, to prepare food and she would be home soon. The first thing she did in the mall was go to the pay phone and call Ronald and inform him to assist the family in any way possible. She visited all of the stores that sold blankets, once again purchasing them all. While helping, Jack said, “Wow! Do you really need all of those blankets?” Levan answered, “Yes, and you shall see I need even more than this.” Jack shook his head and kept carrying the bags and packed them into the golf cart. Finally the shopping spree was over and Leven asked how he lost his job. Jack stated that he had worked for Fry’s Electronics and the company just shut down without giving a warning to its employees. Levan remembered hearing about it on the local news. “Where do you and your family sleep at night?” she asked. “We stay in a hotel when we can afford it and in our family van. We park at the truck stops when we can. The children have not attended school this year due to our situation,” Jack stated. “I have been applying for jobs. However, I have to get messages and our mail through the shelter." "What kind of work would you have for me?” he asked. Levan smiled and said, “Don't worry about that. We must get you and your family secure first, then you can work for me.” She knew that he was an honest man who valued his family and worked hard to take care of them. Returning home she was tired, but she knew she had to make sure his wife was comfortable. Levan fed the family then took them to her guest house in the back of her estate and gave them the keys. The husband and wife hugged each other with tears of gratitude in their eyes. Levan said that they would talk about work the next day, that they should just get settled and rest up for a big day. She then retired to her room knowing her work still wasn't done. She closed her bedroom door and continued her assignment. That night she dreamed God was happy with the decision she made to help the family; however, the voice in her dream said once again to give away all her wealth. Arising the next morning, she knew she did not have a lot of time to get the job done. Feeling that the angels were awaiting her arrival, she pushed herself to continue her mission. At breakfast she told the couple that they would inherit her house and part of her money. Jack and Rebecca both said they could not accept and asked where her family was. Levan explained how she had no family members left, and this was the best solution for her problem. She then asked the family if they could assist her Saturday morning passing out all the blankets at the shelters. They said they would be happy to help with the blankets. Levan then showed them the estate and informed Jack of the business she owned that would be his – Paul's Hardware, located two miles from the house in the next shopping district. Jack cried and thanked God for his blessing from Mrs. Flora. Levan called a notary to meet with them at dinner. She already had her documents ready. When the notary arrived, she wrote a new will and testament and was happy that she had done what God asked of her. She left the estate, the hardware store, all her automobiles and three million dollars to the family she took in. She also left her butler and maid one million each. The only job left was Saturday morning giving out the blankets. Jack, Rebecca and the children - passed out over 2,000 blankets that weekend. Levan was excited and happy they were with her, especially the children. Monday morning came and Levan was bedridden, feeling weak and exhausted. However, she knew her work was done. She called Rebecca into her room and gave her a jewelry box containing all her jewelry. She took off her wedding band and handed it to her. Levan said, “My mother passed this to me for my wedding. This is for your daughter.” Rebecca was thinking how she did not have a daughter, only three sons. Levan smiled and said, “Remember this is for her.” Rebecca thanked her for everything and asked Levan if she wanted to call for the doctor. Levan smiled and said, “My doctor has already informed me it's my time to come home. Don't bother, I will be fine.” That night Levan passed away in her sleep. When the family went to check on her she was laying in her bed smiling. They were sad she left them so quickly; they had just met her and she blessed them beyond belief! That evening Rebecca decided to watch the news. The breaking report was how a family gave out blankets to the poor with $2,500 tucked inside each blanket. Four months later Rebecca did have a daughter and named her Levan; Rebecca understood what Levan’s mission was. The Christmas Miracle, published Decemeber 15, was LIES. JANUARY 13, 2023 AFFORDABILITY  LOCAL from page 6 And as if going hungry is not bad enough, people who live with food insecurity often face the triple burden of malnutrition: a combination of under-nutrition (too few calories), being overweight (too many bad calories, often from junk food) and micronutrient deficiency – hidden hunger. This is a dual problem of availability and cost. “Food deserts” are areas without access to grocery stores or affordable food. While this is often a problem in rural and remote areas, it also affects city dwellers. Sometimes food insecurity can even be more widespread in cities than in rural and suburban areas. For someone who can barely afford to feed themselves at all, paying the high price of healthy, nutritious food — like the stuff at farmers markets — is out of reach. Highly processed junk food, on the other hand, is both cheap and widely available. “It’s not just a shortage of calories, it’s a shortage of affordable nutrients,” said Michael Malmberg, Chief Operating Officer at Daily Table, a nonprofit grocery store chain in Massachusetts. When means are sparse, quantity becomes more important than quality. The step to buying a filling burger for a few hard-earned bucks is, understandably, smaller than spending the same amount of money on a bag of kale. A luxury within reach? While local food is better than non-local food in almost every way, it is often not cheap. In fact, the kale from farmer John is almost guaranteed to cost you more than the greens that traveled 1,500 miles to grocery stores in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. This is understandable, as smallscale producers must bear the brunt of large production costs themselves, and organically grown produce naturally has a shorter shelf life. So, who can afford to buy this green gold, supporting a local economy while also feeding their own families with nutritious food to secure a healthier, possibly happier life for them? Food insecure or not, the answer is generally: not nearly everyone. This consumer reality is of course a reflection of the wider economic inequity in the United States. But large food corporations are, by definition, driven by profit and could care less about people. Places like Argus on the other hand — a mission driven business whose stated goal is to “grow our local agricultural economy” — have a greater stake in their community. According to Rosie Estes and Tess Rian, who both work at Argus and feel passionately about the subject, the commitment to expand local food goes hand in hand with increasing food access. “That the two ideals should somehow be incompatible is false,” said Rian. The Double Up Food Bucks program, which started in Detroit and is now offered nationwide, is one attempt at merging the two. The program, initiated by the Ann Arbor-based Fair Food Network, reimburses stores for half the money spent exclusively on fruits and vegetables with federal food assistance funds, using the EBT Bridge Card, once known as food stamps. Since its start in 2009 the Double Up program has helped over 758,000 people across 30 states add more produce to their diet, while also injecting tens of millions of dollars into the local economy. Both the Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor food co-ops participate in the program, as do several farmers markets in the area. (Kroger, Meijer, Busch’s and Walmart do not.) Normally, Bridge Card owners earn one dollar in food credits for every dollar they spend on produce. At Argus the program works slightly differently, where produce bought with the Bridge Card is currently discounted 50 percent. Estes and Rian agree that the most valuable thing a Bridge Card will get you at Argus is the weekly produce box packed with select, fresh produce worth $30, for only $3.75. The price is made possible with a grant from the Michigan Fitness Foundation, in addition to the Double Up half-off deal. In 2022 (until mid-December) $6,766 was spent on these produce boxes using Bridge cards — a total worth of $53,520 spent exclusively on local produce. Counting all Bridge Card purchases at Argus last year, including produce boxes and other Double Up produce, total sales were $71,695. While harder to calculate the value of all food bought through food assistance — due to the Double Up discount on the same card — Estes roughly puts the number around $100,000. Early indicators show these numbers might be on the rise. That would mean local food is reaching more people, advancing both vendors (financially) and residents (health-wise) in the area. In addition to Argus’ mission, owner Kathy Sample also thinks access to healthy, fresh food is important. “We operate with food access clearly in mind and look for ways to improve that.” When funding for the Double Up program ran low, Fair Food Network capped the price of their reimbursement at $20 per day. Instead of simply adapting at the customers’ expense, Argus is investigating new ways to bridge this funding gap. At the time of writing, Argus customers with a Bridge Card can still buy unlimited produce for half price. Any discount over $20 is subsidized by a customer donation program and the owners. “The commitment to provide accessible produce is significant. We need more of that; let’s make that the rule, not the exception,” said Rian. Food communities, unite! Another runner in the race to end hunger in Washtenaw County is Food Gatherers. The food bank and rescue program collects food from several sources and distributes it through food pantries at schools, assisted living communities, the Delonis Center Community Kitchen and other partners — in 2021 an equivalent of 6 million meals. But despite the earnestness of nonprofits like Food Gatherers, or small businesses like Argus, the gap between addressing food insecurity issues and growing the local food economy remains. Estes and Rian think all the pieces are there, they just need to come together. "There is a food access crisis in Washtenaw County, but not enough bridges between the abundant local food scene here and people who need fresh food,” said Estes. “What does our abundance mean if it’s not accessible to everyone?” Estes suggests that a diverse group of local community members is needed “to advocate for and find solutions to these issues — solutions that are easily implemented for both consumers and small businesses.” The Washtenaw Food Policy Council has a Food and Access Policy Action Team, which anyone can join. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 Far from everyone in need of food assistance qualifies for the Bridge Card. To reach more people, and “to address issues of equity and food access,” Rian believes we need programs beyond the Double Up program and government structures: “This is where coalition building can really be powerful.” She stresses that the coalitions should be headed by those who are directly affected. That is not going to happen at Whole Foods or any other profit-driven conglomerate, both agree. Instead, the local food community — already intertwined with both food and the local community — need to find where they fit into this equation. There are obstacles. Some are practical; taking on a large infrastructure like expanding the use of Bridge Cards and all the extra work that entails — finding grants, program upkeep and so on — can be demanding for a small business. Financially it can be rough. And venturing into new spheres can feel like a risky business move, when adding up the cost of time, labor and marketing. There are political hurdles, too. Programs like Double Up and the Bridge Card are government funded. “So it is also important to elect politicians who will work to implement stronger food access infrastructure,” said Estes. But ultimately, local food and food access belong together. In fact, Estes thinks ”they can’t be mutually exclusive.” Acknowledging that is the first step. Author’s note: I work at Argus Farm Stop, on Liberty street. I encourage all new customers to come by.

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Happy 2023! ANONYMOUS Not abandoning the lessons of year 2022 I welcome you already 2023 Although many think that they have failed because 2022 is gone 2022 in my eyes brought me closer to my goal to not be limited in my Mind, person, often referred to as my personality, character. I see 2023 as the gates of opportunity For the time 2022 has carried me with and through, on out of it! I have come, privileged to write this testament Will you agree? Oh! I know that we have not accepted the most beautiful, powerful parts of us! We just at times are entranced by a gaze pretending not to look as we peek At what is more beautiful, most worthy to contemplate! Not even imagine, Can not see Oh! How much 2023 means to me. Happy New Year!!!! TWO RECIPES ON PAGE 5: Creamy carrot soup and Easy tomato beef pasta Logic puzzle solution: 41312432 JANUARY 13, 2023 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS Conquer the Cold is Back! The challenge returns January 10–February 10, 2023! Register now at CommuteandWin.org #OwnWinter @getdowntown The getDowntown Program provides commuting programs and services to downtown Ann Arbor employees and employers. A program of TheRide, getDowntown's partners include the City of Ann Arbor and the Ann Arbor DDA.

2 $ DECEMBER 30, 2022 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 1 YOUR DONATION BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Women, life, freedom: What you should know about Iran's protest. Page 8 MEET YOUR VENDOR: BRIAN HARGROVE PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Undercover art intel: Native American art store opens in Ann Arbor. page 7 Inty Muenala in front of his store, NTVES, a Native American fine art and craft store located at Briarwood Mall. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor # NEW ISSUE EVERY OTHER FRIDAY!

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER from the DIRECTOR's DESK biweekly edition of Groundcover News. The date of publication will be the date printed on the paper. Don't be alarmed if it is a different month or year than the day you purchase (like you might see with this issue). In addition to the outcome of consisLINDSAY CALKA Managing Director Did you notice the yellow banner on the cover? "New issue every other Friday!" It's not a big change but it's an important one. The issue you are holding right now will only run for 14 days — two weeks exactly — and there will be a new edition out January 13, 11 a.m. The decision to go "twice monthly" last year was one we did not regret, but in 2023 we wanted to make the publication cycle as consistent as possible for both the vendors and our customers. This is the first tency, this change will increase the amount of issues we will be publishing in a year. Even though it is small, the uptick from 24 to 26 issues means more space for more writing, and therefore new contributors! Remember, anyone can write for Groundcover News. The submission deadline is every other Monday — the Monday after each new issue release — and can be done by emailing submissions@groundcovernews.com. If you are interested in writing as a community reporter, consider attending our news writing workshop with Ypsilanti District Library in late January (details listed on next page). If it isn't already, Friday is about to be your favorite day of the week! DECEMBER 30, 2022 letter to the EDITOR Dear Michigan Ability Partners, I wanted to thank you for all of the support you have given me over the years. I spent a night outside a few days ago in Ann Arbor, from around noon till noon the next day. This was once an everyday occurrence for me. As the evening got colder, walking past many of the places I used to “sleep,” I recalled how miserable and hopeless I was. I was thinking, “How do people do it?” “How did I do it?” — even though I knew I would eventually return to my apartment (MY apartment?!). When I did eventually return I was overwhelmed with relief, gratitude and an appreciation with an understanding: had I not been housed I truly do not know where I would be today, or even if I'd be alive. I didn't realize the healing process would take so long. A counselor at Delonis said I was a success story, which (at the time) I balked at, as her definition of success was quite different from mine. Sometimes it seems as though I knew more people who passed away in my three years of homelessness in Ann Arbor than all the people I have met in my 50 years of life! All were wonderful amazing individuals in their own way and are gone mainly because of becoming homeless and all that comes with being such. I still have a long way to go to become the “success” in my mind and knowing with your continued support I wouldn't have made it this far and still have a hope for the future. Again, Thank you! Sincerely, David Winey CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Jim Clark — vendor manager ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Teresa Basham Elizabeth Bauman Odile Hugonot Haber Cindy Gere GEO Abolition Caucus Mike Jones Emma Kin Ken Parks Denise Shearer Kevin Spangler VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alex Granberg Robert Klingler Mira Simonton-Chao Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Claude VanValkenburg Navya Yagalla PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Anabel Sicko Sandy Smith @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 DECEMBER 30, 2022 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Facing the new year It can be hard coping with Brian Hargrove, vendor No. 158 In one sentence, who are you? I’m Brian Hargrove. Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? Around everywhere. When and why did you start selling Groundcover News? I restarted December and it's been good for me since I’ve been selling them. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Talk to people and have fun meeting people. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Eat some food and be around good friends. What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover News? I’m motivated by the prospect of getting off the streets by making my situation better. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Pizza, ice cream and soul food! What words do you live by? Keep my focus on God. What is your superpower? I can lift a lot of things. What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? More people helping homeless people get off the street. This would make it better for everyone in Ann Arbor. What are your hobbies? Reading a good book at the library. What is something someone on the street wouldn't know? I’m a happy person who likes to make everybody smile. What's the best or worst thing about selling Groundcover News? The worst thing is people who are rude. facing a new year. It can be hard because you never know what’s going to happen in a new year. It can be hard facing a new year because you never know what’s going to change; sometimes people and things change for the bad instead of for the good. You never know who or what you are going to lose that makes life happy and pleasant for you. Sometimes good things happen in the new year. Sometimes you gain new people and things that make life pleasant and happy. Music is always pleasant and DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 Jesus always makes life more pleasant. Having a cup of iced tea or lemonade is a good way to cope with the day, anytime of year. Singing a spiritual song in your mind about God and Jesus is always a good way to cope any day of the year. Toys are also something pleasant to help cope anytime of the year and on any day. Things change for the good happy. Nice artwork is always pleasant and happy anytime of the year. Celebrating God and sometimes; things change for the bad sometimes. I like to love and celebrate God and Jesus when things change for both the good and the bad. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 The killing machine: mass incarceration Mass incarceration rips apart families and communities, disproportionately hurts people of color and costs taxpayers $260 billion a year. Michigan has an incarceration rate of 599 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities), meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than almost any democracy on Earth. There are two million people in the nation’s prisons and jails — a 500% increase over the last 40 years. Changes in sentencing law and policy, not changes in crime rates, explain most of this increase. What is the cause of mass NEWS WRITING BEST PRACTICES INTERVIEWING SOURCES AND IMPROVING YOUR ARTICLES TUESDAY, JAN 24, 2023 6:30PM YDL-WHITTAKER 5577 WHITTAKER ROAD WRITING A NEWS STORY TAKES A KEEN EYE AND A LOT OF LISTENING. GET GUIDED PRACTICE INTERVIEWING YOUR SOURCES AND TIPS ON INCORPORATING THEIR THOUGHTS INTO YOUR STORY. YOU'LL ALSO LEARN TO HIGHLIGHT THE MAIN HOOK OF YOUR ARTICLE AND HOW TO WRITE IN A WAY THAT KEEPS EVERYONE READING UNTIL THE LAST LINE. IN PARTNERSHIP WITH YPSIWRITES AND GROUNDCOVER NEWS. MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 incarceration? Drug offenses still account for the incarceration of almost 400,000 people, and drug convictions remain a defining feature of the federal prison system. Police still make over a million drug-possession arrests each year, many of which lead to prison sentences. I had a chance to interview a childhood friend, Brian, who has been incarcerated several times. Brian's first prison sentence was in 1996 and he was just released from his most recent stint in April 2022. Now homeless and staying at the Robert J. Delonis Center after getting kicked out of statefunded housing, Brian said, “It's not easy making it in society without housing, a place you can call your own.” Brian added, “Being homeless, staying at the warming center, is like prison because you are always in a toxic environment. Drugs, violence, etc.” Register online for Groundcover and Ypsilanti District Library's workshop by scanning the QR code!

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS OPINION DECEMBER 30, 2022 “Fund safety, not police:” How U-M administration makes us less safe and stifles alternatives U-M GRADUATE EMPLOYEES' ORGANIZATION ABOLITION CAUCUS On November 17, as University of Michigan President Santa Ono was leaving after his speech at the Ross School of Business, he was confronted by a march of two hundred members of Graduate Employees Organization 3550. This march, which kicked off our union’s contract negotiations with the University, featured speakers calling for a living wage and for a campus free from policing. Our march was trailed by four U-M police cruisers. Ono’s hasty departure presented an opportunity: two GEO members held up a banner, created during the 2020 strike, to block the president’s path and prevent him from continuing to ignore us. The banner read “FUND SAFETY NOT POLICE.” The underlining of “ICE” also signals GEO’s current demands for codifying protections for international graduate student-workers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The two students were quickly pushed aside by members of the President’s security detail, eager to shuffle off the disruption so Ono could return to business-as-usual. Each year, the University of Michigan spends over $32 million on policing and security. While the university’s endowment reached a record $17 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic, essential student services (such as Counseling Services, Services for Students with Disabilities, and the Center for the Education of Women) remain underfunded and the salaries of graduate students and other workers have not kept up with the rising cost of living in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County. This is why, in fall 2020, GEO went on strike for a safe and just campus. In the two years since, U-M has failed to redirect funds from policing. It has instead used diversion and counterinsurgency tactics, such as starting a toothless task force on public safety and a scholarship in the name of George Floyd. It has also attempted to normalize policing across campus. Under the “Ambassadors Program,” the university sent campus police officers and work-study students to enforce social distancing rules — a plan that was quickly canceled under pressure from the undergraduate Students of Color Liberation Front and the 2020 strike. As we wrote in the Michigan Daily earlier this year, “When it comes to campus safety, the university is trapped in an endless cycle of scandals and promises to do better.” U-M is quick to cry poor when it’s cutting budgets, freezing wages and raising tuition; yet the cost of policing continues to grow. The Division of Public Safety and Security, which houses the U-M Police Department, currently receives over $32 million dollars annually from the university. But what do they actually do in and around campus with this enormous budget? To answer this question, we obtained the daily activity logs of U-M police from January 2001 through July 2022. These data reveal several crucial facts that support the abolitionist call to dismantle U-M police and redirect its resources towards the life-affirming services that graduate workers, undergraduate students, staff, faculty and community members need. First, the vast majority of U-M police activity is not in response to violence, but rather to property crimes like a stolen bike or laptop, traffic violations, or drug and alcohol use. In 2021 for example, there were over 200 police activity logs related to drug or alcohol use. Likewise, most arrests are for drug and alcohol offenses (33%), traffic violations (13%), or disorderly conduct (18%). Disorderly behavior includes people experiencing a mental health crisis, urinating in public, and sleeping, resting, or hanging out in public spaces (such as the Nichols Arboretum). Contrary to what the cops say, it is police involvement in such things that is the major source of violence in communities. These statistics show how U-M police criminalize poverty, displace the poor, and effectively control who is allowed to be in or near campus — thereby further gentrifying the Ann Arbor area. Second, U-M police are involved in situations they shouldn’t be — and they make things worse. For example, campus hospitals are major hot spots for police activity. Michigan Medicine pays tens of millions of dollars to maintain a Division of Public Safety and Security presence in hospitals. As a result, people seeking care are harassed and arrested for things like possession of marijuana; the narrative “Marijuana was found in patient property” appeared 128 times in the police logs in 2022 alone. This is part of a long history of medical providers collaborating with police and other state agencies to criminalize or commit disabled people; those with unmet mental health and/ or housing needs; Black, Indigenous, Latinx, queer and trans people; and immigrants. For many marginalized groups, seeking care comes with surveillance, policing, punishment and Percentage of police activity between 2001-2022 that involved arrests, broken down by police activity type (excluding ambulance/fire calls). Absolute numbers of arrests shown in parentheses. control. Policing in hospitals negatively impacts patient and community health outcomes. Police violate patient-provider confidentiality and trust and deter patients from seeking out necessary care out of fear of persecution by police, as well as child/family welfare and immigration authorities. In U-M’s case, we found that police are often called to handle suspected cases of domestic violence, child neglect, or mental health crises (including suicide attempts). All of these are serious matters that the police are ill-equipped to handle, and which require a noncarceral, non-police, community-controlled and anti-racist response. Third, U-M police directly collaborate with other police agencies, from the Ann Arbor Police Department to the Washtenaw County’s Sheriff’s office to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The logs reveal that U-M police have detained and turned people over to these other police forces, including ICE. Campus police are thus part of the larger system of racist violence that inspired the 2020 uprisings and GEO’s strike. The recent U-M task force on policing has failed to provide more information about these collaborations. Aligning with police is predictable given that U-M’s current Director of Housing Security, John Seto, was the Chief of the AAPD when police shot and killed Aura Rosser, a Black woman, during a domestic dispute (Aura had moved to Ann Arbor to find safe access to community mental health). These are only three main takeaways about U-M police activities. For more, see the interactive map on the GEO website: abolitiongeo.org. You can use this map to see what U-M police do in the place where you work, study, teach, and live — and ask yourselves whether this keeps you safe. Yet this data is incomplete. The map does not show the activities of police forces that collaborate with U-M police, such as ICE or AAPD. The City of Ann Arbor has denied our FOIA request for similar data on AAPD’s activities, and the city administrator, Milton Dohoney, subsequently denied our appeal. The data are also incomplete with respect to U-M police activities. Critical information is missing, including the race of the people arrested by U-M police during each incident, which the DPSS website does not make available. We know these data exist because the Michigan State Police publishes aggregated statistics about arrests made by U-M police broken down by race. U-M has denied our Freedom of Information Act request for these data, and the University President’s office has rejected our appeal of that decision. In a letter dated September 15, 2022, the Office of the President wrote that “the university is not required to make a compilation, summary or report of information, nor create a new public record, in order to respond to your request,” and pointed us to the existing DPSS website which doesn’t contain the information we have requested. This chain of events demonstrates that the university president is also the campus’s top cop: actively committed to concealing police activities amid calls for even a modicum of transparency. While the recent U-M task force on policing has called for more transparency, so far we have only faced institutional opacity. This active hiding of the racist nature of policing is intended to protect police power and undermine abolitionist efforts to build safe alternatives. But police power can and must be dismantled. Crucially, U-M police is relatively new. The campus police was see POLICE next page  DECEMBER 30, 2022 AROUND TOWN How to be happy during the Michigan winter As the days become shorter and the weather becomes colder, it becomes difficult to maintain a positive attitude on life. The sun setting as early as 5 p.m. depletes motivation, and fatigue makes it harder for individuals to continue their daily activities. Some may even experience Seasonal Affective Disorder. This is due to the lack of sunlight the body receives, resulting in higher levels of melatonin, drowsiness and depression. In addition to the psychological effects, Northwestern Medicine reports that low temperatures can increase the likelihood of getting sick. The immune system weakens and becomes less effective at fighting viruses. Once there is snow on the ground, it becomes important for individuals to be aware of their mental and physical wellbeing. Luckily, there are ways to combat the dangers of Michigan winters. Here are some easy accessible methods that you can participate in to take care of yourself during wintertime. Considering how long Michigan winters tend to last, this season is the perfect time to start a new project with an end date in mind. Dr. Supriya Blair, clinical psychologist, suggests this solution to create a sense of excitement, curiosity and fulfillment. Having a goal helps individuals to stay motivated throughout winter as they attempt to accomplish their projects. Depending on the timeline of the project, this motivation can sustain people against the cold temperatures for a long time. Even the smallest efforts towards a goal can provide encouragement to continue the season with a positive attitude. This is adaptable for everyone as there are multiple possibilities: beginning a new workout plan, cleaning out a room, or setting a reading down and view oneself in a new light can help relieve feeling overwhelmed and anxious. Finally, those struggling to make it EMMA KIN U-M student contributor goal every week. This practice is very versatile since it is up to the individual to decide what they can manage. Staying accountable and setting small achievements can change one’s entire life during winter. Journaling is a creative outlet for people to release tension and worries by becoming intimate with themselves. When the lack of sunlight takes a toll on the human body, journaling can deliver self-care and contentment. Because of this, Dr. Blair also suggests journaling and making it a habit. What to journal is up to the writer as the purpose is to make one aware of one’s wellbeing. Many begin with a gratitude journal and answering simple questions. Some examples to consider for gratitude are to think about the relationships, achievements or lessons that developed during this year. Reflecting on the year is a productive way to stay mentally healthy since it helps lower stress levels and allows clarity of one’s being. Once again, this resource for joy is obtainable for the majority of people since it only requires paper, pencil and one’s thoughts. Even in this day and age, paper is an option though electronic devices have become the new norm for writing. Taking time to sit through the winter should focus on three components during their daily lives: exercise, diet and sleep. These three components are essential to having a healthy body and mentality. Exercising reduces multiple health risks like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers. Getting 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day is very important for one’s health, and everyone can experience the health benefits of physical activity. Although it may be difficult to afford a gym, taking a brisk walk outside is just as helpful as working out in a gym. Eating a healthy diet is just as critical as moving the body. An extra emphasis on vegetables, fruits, whole grains and protein energizes the body throughout the day, and the nutrients help cells to grow and repair, resulting in a healthier and stronger immune system. Again, cost for produce may be an issue for some, but there are resources available to gain nutritious food. The Maize & Blue Cupboard provides healthy and nourishing food to those who lack equitable access. They also provide cooking utensils and household items to support the community. Lastly, sleep is key for good health and well being in the winter. Getting between seven and nine hours of sleep is important for hormone and cell growth. It can also affect how well one thinks, works, learns and gets along with others. Because all three of these factors occur naturally, extra focus should be placed on these activities to avoid the effects of winter. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and science tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out. Fifth Avenue Studios To foster the creation of original audio content, AADL has launched Fifth Avenue Studios to support local podcasters, musicians, and audio creators in the Ann Arbor area. Want to launch a podcast? Record and release an album? Produce an audio drama? Visit AADL.org/ fifthavenuestudios and pitch us your idea! Fastest WiFi in Town Every AADL location has loginfree wireless inside all buildings and parking lots, available 24 hours a day. No restrictions, no monitoring, and some of the fastest speeds in town! FEATURED EVENT 5  POLICE from last page only established in the early 1990s. On a campus with a long and proud history of radicalism, university administration also hoped that police would crack down on the anti-racist student activism that had intensified in the late 1980s. Their demands have yet to be met. Today, GEO members are committed to creating a safe and just campus for all, just as earlier generations of activists were. Our platform for negotiations with the university includes the demand that U-M fund the proposal for a non-police, unarmed emergency response being explored by the City of Ann Arbor. Led by the Coalition for Re-Envisioning Our Safety (CROS), the proposal would create a community-based program and hotline modeled on the best practices of crisis response teams across the country. GEO is proud to be among the more than forty community groups — including mutual aid groups, housing justice groups, and abolitionist groups such as Liberate Don’t Incarcerate — that have endorsed the plan. DPSS’s over $32 million budget can be put towards alternatives such as CROS, as well as towards other beneficial ends, including: better wages for staff and student workers, better health and mental care, better support for survivors of sexual violence, or housing for the unhoused — all of which would be preferable to a dangerous, bloated and racist police force, shielded by unaccountable administrators. Sunday, January 29 • 1–4pm Downtown Libary Looking for a preschool? The annual Preschool Expo brings representatives from area preschools to one location on one date. Connect with schools in Washtenaw County and explore your options to find the best preschool for your child. For more information visit AADL.org/preschoolexpo

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMONS DECEMBER 30, 2022 Odile Hugonot Haber was visisting People's Park in December 2022 when she documented the destruction of the park by the University of California. They intend to build student housing in its place. People's Park is a very famous historical place and the site of an epic battle ODILE HUGONOT HABER Groundcover contributor A battle of epic proportions is happening in Berkeley, California even now, a continuation of a battle first fought in the 1960s on 62 acres in the middle of Berkeley. It was won by the people and gave birth to the famed People's Park. In the aftermath of the “Free Speech” which consisted of students speaking about the effect of the war in Vietnam, in particular we remember the Mario Savio speech: “There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels…upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you got to make it stop!” When, in the summer of 1969, the peace activists were kicked off Provo Park, they went to do their peace events on a piece of land nearby, off campus. There they built a Free Speech Stage where they could continue their anti-war speeches and actions. That land had been seized by the University under eminent domain a year before. They had demolished the 53 red, shingle-topped houses that had served as habitations to students, leftists, artists — a poorer population that the university blamed for being the "counter culture” that was at the base of the peace and freedom movement. The UC said they wanted to build student housing but left the land in shambles and progressively people moved onto it, women with their children at first. People started digging, laid sod, planted flowers, trees, and built a playground for the children. Some people were crucial in advancing the project and raising money for it. They were Michael Delacour, Jon Reed, Wendy Schlesinger, Frank Bardacke, Stew Albert, Judy Gumbo and so many others … The idea went public and grew big … They reclaimed the land that had been taken long ago — from the Costanoan Indians, also known as Ohlone; they believed that the land was under the care of the people who used it and lived on it. On May 15, 1969, known also as Bloody Thursday, 5,000 people gathered and marched to the steps of Sproul Hall. They also confronted the police, erecting a fence around the park. Mayor Johnson called for martial law and Governor Reagan activated the National Guard. Eventually buckshot was fired; 150 people were wounded, 40 were hospitalized, one became blind and James Rector was killed. The battles lasted a week. Eventually people put flowers in the guns, and peace came back. People’s Park went on. People’s Park was well known around the world as a people’s victory and a successful Commons. The park was neglected by the University, but it grew more beautiful as the people worked. "Everyone gets a blister” was the park’s motto, posted on a mural outside. Over the years, as Berkeley grew to be exorbitantly expensive, artists and activists left, so the park was neglected and some drugs dealers moved in. Nevertheless the garden continued to grow, sheltering many bird species, and while the University liked to call it a “crime scene,” there was apparently much less crime there than in the 20 blocks around that area. Recently the University decided one more time to grow student housing. On August 22, 2022 they came with Caterpillars and started butchering all the remaining plants — redwoods, palm trees and rose bushes — and destroying gardens. The park looked terrible with parts of trunks thrown everywhere. They said they are building 1,100 apartment for students and some for community members, and that 60% of the park will remain and be memorialized, as they will abide by the landmark designation. The Park Defense has challenged the University in courts for its failure to have an adequate environmental report. For now, activists got the courts to place an injunction on any construction until November. They would like to see the University consider other alternatives. Activists fear that the university will wait for a time when no one is paying attention to continue their sinister business. While 48,000 students, researchers, and staff are on strike at the University of California, the cost of living seems to be more of an issue to them than People's Park, even though climate change is so forward in the consciousness at this time. Student classes are disturbed by the strike, says the Daily Californian. It seems that the actions of the UC system indicate an overall lack of respect and understanding for nature, the community it serves and their workers. This is a deplorable way to administer a university. Michael Delacour is one of many organizers who conceived, built and fought for the People's Park in Berkeley, California. The above picture is from 1969. DECEMBER 30, 2022 ARTS + CULTURE Art intel presents international Native artist Inty Muenala. He has traveled the world and has landed on the shores of Ann Arbor. I was wandering the Briarwood Mall and lo and behold, right before me was a very colorful shop named Natives written in a unique way NTVES. I, as a Native Canadian from the Kaska Dene Tribe, was in fact shocked to see this store. We tribal people are so underrepresented in the mainstream. I personally have known Muenala for years as a vendor for his artwork at the Ann Arbor Pow Wow. As a native dancer I always had people come up to me after the fact saying, “When is the Ann Arbor Pow Wow going to be held?” Sadly I would tell them it was now in fact over and to look for it the next year. But now I can also tell them NTVES is here and we all hope to stay. NTVES was created by Inty Muenala and his wife Lizbeth Conejo Kawaii. Muenala comes from the Kichwa tribe of South America Ecuador in the Otavalo region; his tribe honors the Condor, a bird of greatness representing liberty, love and protection. He has has been making art for 25 years. He was educated in the capital of wonderful His beautiful wife helps create the jackets and GROUNDCOVER NEWS Undercover art intel: Native American art store opens in Ann Arbor My last question was what the store fashion designs. His son is finishing up at his university, studying international marketing and business. He hopes to join the family after graduation. What is found in the new native CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 Ecuador at the Central University of Quito, and he was also educated in New York in 2002 at the Art Students League. Muenala’s art reflects the web of life and natural native spirituality of the ages before 1492. His colors blast on the canvas and create vibrant images that tell stories of native life. Muenala has traveled across continents to display his works in France, Russia, Italy, Canada, the United States and his home lands of Quidore. I asked him what made him come to Ann Arbor. He talked about how the lakes and water reflect his home village back in Ecuador. He loves the lush trees here as well. store? Wonderful paintings and native-made clothing from Lizbeth. There are wonderful sculpted pipes, beadworks and blankets. Other items are sage dreamcatchers and, of course, Muenala’s paintings. My personal favorites are the shields, jackets, blankets and the wolf pipe in the image shown below — all reflect my Wolf Clan. My clan of wolf represents family, loyalty and warriorship. Muenala can also be seen with his artworks at the Ann Arbor Art Fair in July and the Dance for Mother Earth Pow Wow. The Pow Wow will be held this year Saturday, March 25 and Sunday, March 26, 2023. was about — besides just bringing Native American culture to every American home. He replied, “Where there is no representation other than reservations and online, I want to bring together the sacred part of our native ways and strength, with the web of life — unity of all — and show off the native tribes of the Americas to the world.” Native Americans are very important to the original cultures of the Americas. My tribe is Kaska Dene from the Yukon, Canada. Seeing the store brings faith back into my world and I hope and pray yours. Let us all join together in the sacred ways of this shop and bring back the unity of the United States of America because that was the original dream of the Indian soul. Yours truly, Kung Fu Panda aka Kulema, Fire Woman. NTVES.COM FACEBOOK.COM/NTVES2020/ INSTAGRAM: @NTVES.CO 7 Conquer the Cold is Back! The challenge returns January 10–February 10, 2023! Register now at CommuteandWin.org #OwnWinter @getdowntown The getDowntown Program provides commuting programs and services to downtown Ann Arbor employees and employers. A program of TheRide, getDowntown's partners include the City of Ann Arbor and the Ann Arbor DDA. Top and bottom left: Decorative pipes and a wolf shield available for purchase at NTVES. Bottom right: Muenela's largest pieces, including "Water is life, Sacred Protector" are on display throughout the store.

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS WOMEN'S RIGHTS DECEMBER 30, 2022 Women, life, freedom: What you should know about Iran's protest September 16, 2022, is a day that will forever be remembered in Iranian history. On this day, the religious morality police in the country of Iran killed an innocent woman by the name of Mahsa Amini. She was only 22 years old. In present day Iran, the government in power is an strict Islamic regime, forcing authoritarian religious laws on its citizens. One of these laws is forcing all women to wear a hijab in public. On September 13, Mahsa was out walking with her hijab only partially covering her hair. The morality police took her into custody and three days later, she was dead. The government tried to claim that her death was caused by pre-existing medical issues, but her family vehemently denied this, saying that Mahsa was completely healthy and did not have any medical conditions. Since her death, protests have shot up all over the country as the Iranian public was enraged after hearing the news of her death. These protests have continued across Iran and have gained traction all around the world. In response, the government has responded with cruel and extreme actions, from arresting thousands of protesters, to detaining political prisoners for long periods of time, and in RYAN YOUNESSI U-M student contributor many cases executing some of them. Even with the horrifying actions taken by the government, the protests have not been quelled. Iranians have responded to the situation in a multitude of ways. Individuals of all ages have marched demanding that change take place in the country. The majority of these protesters are young people, sometimes as young as 14 or 15 years old. Some protests have even gone to the extent of shutting down different sectors of the economy, with workers boycotting and not showing up to work, even in critical areas of the economy such as oil and steel. The protests have significantly differed from ones in past years. First, instead of calling for reforms in the law or modernization of the government system, protesters are demanding a total upheaval of the regime and the ushering in of a new government. Second, the protests do not seem to have a singular figure representing the movement. Third, the individuals participating in the protests are from regions all over Iran and even in the heavily religious areas of Mashhad and Qom. This phenomenon has never happened in the past. Additionally, there has been a resounding reaction from the international community. From foreign leaders all across the world, including figures like President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emanuel Macron, to the European Union and United Nations, a response like this has not been witnessed. People all over the world have been protesting in big cities and even in their local communities. Just in the past two months, six different protests have taken place in the city of Ann Arbor. The protests have not stopped yet, and it is the hope of many that some long overdue change will take place in Iran. Since the start of the protests, the Iranian government has responded with violence and condemnation. Due to Join the Conversation! Unarmed Crisis Response Team Public Forum In April 2021, the Ann Arbor City Council passed Resolution R-21-129 to develop an unarmed crisis response team. The City of Ann Arbor asked Public Sector Consultants, a nonpartisan research and consulting firm, to gather feedback from community members about the best way to create a team of unarmed social and human services professionals to respond to crisis and public safety calls in the city. Join the conversation at one of the upcoming public forums! Monday, January 9 1:00 PM Downtown Ann Arbor District Library 343 S. Fifth Avenue Multipurpose room— basement Thursday, January 12 6:00 PM Pittsfield Ann Arbor District Library Branch 2359 Oak Valley Drive Program room Thursday, January 19 6:00 PM Virtual via Zoom https://pscinc.co/discuss Meeting ID: 859 4501 3079 Passcode: 090446 censorship of the government, it is not known the exact number of individuals who have been arrested or killed, but outside groups believe that over 15,000 people have been arrested, and several hundred people have been killed. The government has tried to claim that Western nations instigated the protests in the nation and that they are behind the protests, but this is simply not true. With the government in control of all media and the internet, they have used state-run television to provide misinformation to the Iranian public about the protests; they also shut down the internet, disconnecting social media apps like WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram to stop Iranians from communicating with one another and the outside world. Even with the horrible actions taken by the government, the Iranian people have refused to give up. With protests still going on, there is no sign of them stopping. The new generation of Iranians are ready for a different Iran than they grew up in and there is no stopping them from achieving their goal. There is a long fight ahead but the international community must coalesce see IRAN next page  DECEMBER 30, 2022 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor corner policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website.  IRAN from last page around the Iranian people and support them. As the child of two Iranian immigrants, I have heard firsthand the difficulties and oppression that exists with living in Iran. Family friends of mine have had loved ones killed for speaking out against the government. The fight for basic human rights must go on in Iran and cannot stop until real change is made. I encourage you to get involved. Join protests, call your representatives and urge them to take action, take the time to hear and learn from Iranians in your community. Finally, always remember these three words: Zan, Zendegi, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom).

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES Mother nature's last call KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 When I was a child I knew the Earth was flat because I went to the edge in a dream, looked into the fog far below and saw the mystery of the bottomless void. We lived in Oregon and California in my early childhood so I saw the Pacific Ocean and the curve of the horizon. The Earth is round. What a great discovery. Then I learned that China was on the other side and started digging holes in the ground. I learned that the diameter of the earth is big enough that it would take a lot of digging to get to the red hot molten core at the center — another void that was found in my six-year-old mental capacity. My sense of awe and curiosity grew from there, as all children who love dinosaurs well know. Where does power come from? Every sentient being — a being with consciousness — has perceptions and emotions that lead to actions and, ultimately, results. Karma is the word. Everyone has a karmic accumulation of actions and results that is carried throughout life until awareness arises and we see the depths of reality. There is no bottom. The debate about the extent of human influence upon geological time is raging now. Is our awareness and intelligence up to examining what geological age we live in? Are we in the Anthropocene? Alan Haber, the Ann Arbor Commons guy, mentioned that we may be in the Pyrocene (age of fire). Whatever the case, our Paleolithic heritage lives in indigenous culture and our DNA. I am back from a break after some adventures in the alleys of my mind. The downtown library has a large magazine collection. I was fortunate to find the November issue of Monthly Review and a good article by Carles Soriano entitled, “Anthropocene, Capitalocene and Other ‘Cenes.” Soriano is a geologist from the Geoscience Barcelona Institute of the Spanish National Research Council. Monthly Review is an important voice, as the editors have been studying, writing and publishing about the “metabolic rift” (the damage that occurs due to capitalism’s extractive nature) that Marx observed. As capitalism evolved, the expropriation of nature and the exploitation of labor created great wealth known as capital accumulation. It takes great mental focus to understand this process of commodifying everything, largely because we are addicted to the consumerism that is the global culture. It drives excess wealth in the first world and poverty in the third world, where people are consequently fleeing to the first world. Fortunately, the Editor’s Note in November’s Monthly Review is a good place to learn about and focus on the basics of capitalism and geological age. I want to be in a group studying MR’s article “Anthropocene, Capitalocene and Other ‘Cenes.’” It is not long but goes deep quickly with much to meditate on and analyze. My past articles usually refer to what I consider essential reading, from “Black Elk Speaks” to “Inflamed: Deep Healing and the Anatomy of Injustice.” Maybe we will come up with some shared language. It’s a wonderful thing to share a language that helps you navigate reality. I am asking for help in organizing collective study that will enable us to come to some conclusions on how to approach this examinat ion and organize ourselves. Groundcover News has an important relationship with the University of Michigan and it is time for us to take a fresh look at what we can do together. My good karma connected me with the 50th anniversary celebration of the Native American Student Association where I met some brilliant minds fully embodied in indigenous-centered life. What a blessing to meet a professor there from the School of Environment and Sustainability, Kyle White, who is aware of history and science as we face our current situation. I believe we can lighten the load of individualism as we share in the intellectual organizing work and get our hands in the dirt. Every kind of labor is precious and it is the commodification of everything that distorts our perception of reality. Human beings and our labor power become alienated when commodified. The perception of self and others is a limiting cognitive bias, which we can heal into an experience of completeness. Everything is interconnected; solidarity includes all living beings without exception. When Mother Nature calls, it's best to get the message and look forward to the next step. Boober Pink Castle EDM Club. Boober update KEVIN SPANGLER Groundcover vendor No. 307 It has been a while since Boober has put out an article. Where do we start? We last left off getting a new 3200 square foot warehouse. That was interesting. I found out what it was like to get into a five year lease. We didn’t move in because we were having to put a garage door in to make the space work for Boober. Then we started learning about permits … time … architects … We never moved in and I went to the guy we signed a lease with and said long-term this agreement will not work and offered $2,000 to buy the lease out. He didn’t like this and said it would cost a lot more to get out. It was at that time I shook his hand and said I’ll figure it out. That was July 1. We decided to throw a rave because my friend has DJ equipment. So we rallied the troops on social media and threw a rave on Sunday, July 3. We had 100 people show up to the new venue Pink Castle EDM Club. We took the name from the previous name; the space was previously called Pink Castle Fabrics. Well, we only operated for two months. Towards the end we were running an after-hours club, 2:30-7 a.m. It all ended when the landlords found the whole parking lot covered in chalk and they checked the cameras including the cameras inside. They said to me, “You can’t do that.” Well, we do what we do to try to make the rent. Honestly it just barely made the rent. But the experience was worth it — the stories we created, the fun we had. And we were able to hang out which I have not done in seven years. My friend and I maintained sobriety through the whole thing. In the end we were let out of the five-year lease with a better story that will be remembered in many hearts. Now, the Boober progress. We started another business called Action Jackson Electric Bicycle Parts. We have invested our money into parts for pedicabs and electric bikes. Our next step is setting up an Amazon account. Been working on these projects for a while and collecting many parts. Oh yeah, we bought a party bus for the Pink Castle but it now serves as storage for all our parts. We also started a nonprofit called The Royal Road and will be creating a cultural center that teaches how to forgive, reprogram our brains and create goals. We have increased our fleet with eight new carriages that fit four to six people. We have also expanded the fleet to 25 pedicabs; some are projects to resell and learn how to fabricate different products. We have expanded to an old auto shop with four garage doors. We’ve patched the roof, put insulation in and currently we are grinding the floor and basically freshening up the whole place to store all of our equipment and have space to work on projects. We have two new sponsors, JARS cannabis and Spa Daze. We now have accomplished one of our goals of massages once a week. Oh, one more thing. I got my license to drive again after 20 years so we can operate pedicabs in major cities. All in all, we have been enjoying this time on Earth and will continue to spread the message of forgiveness. DECEMBER 30, 2022 - DECEMBER 30, 2022 POETRY To my Lil Boodaboo TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 There comez a time, In your life, To where ya don't want drama around, You want peace of mind, Don't wanna be on shaky ground, Don't wanna be a tool of any kind, Don't wanna be lied to, Don't need that knife Going through your heart, Don't wanna fall apart. You do wanna be next to One you wanna love, The one you dream of, The one you fell in love, Somehow you'll know, That cha don't wanna go, There'll be somethang in your heart, That will let you know, You never wanna be apart. To my Lil Boodaboo RON PAGERESKI Groundcover contributor My poetry is bad I must admit. On the open mike, I'm not a hit. But bide your time if you've got a while I'll do my best to make you smile. Inspired to write by one I met who later said I made her fret. She thinks I'm weird, my mind all bubbly but I'm as harmless as a Teletubby. She looks down on me, I fault her not, a humble life is all I've got. Where she went is all a blur, I still long to be friends with her. But social class is her life's story I fall quite short in every category. I'd love to take her out, eat fried chickens she looks down on me like slim pickens. In her mind my face does reside, reminding her of a horse's backside. I said, let's go out and have a beer, she told me, take a long walk on a short pier. I know her heart I'll never win, I thought I told her I don't know how to swim? My thoughts of her are pure, not kinky, But, I'm as virtuous as Tinky Winky I'll never get a letter or call on the phone, I guess I'll eat some fried chicken alone. GROUNDCOVER NEWS Swimming with chickens 11

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Garbanzo bean and vegetable soup ELIZABETH BAUMAN Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 1 tbsp olive oil 2 stalks celery, diced 1 carrot, diced 1 medium yellow onion, diced 1 cup sliced Bella mushrooms (I also use white) 2 tbsp minced garlic 2 tbsp tomato paste 14.5 oz. can fire-roasted diced tomatoes 32 oz. vegetable broth 15 oz. can of garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained 1 small zucchini, sliced ¼ cup parsley Salt and pepper to taste Directions: Using a heavy pot, heat oil on medium heat. Add celery, carrot and DECEMBER 30, 2022 onion and sauté for five to six minutes (onions should become translucent). Add the mushrooms, garlic, tomato paste and tomatoes and sauté for another 3 minutes. Turn the heat to low and add the vegetable broth, beans and zucchini. Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Add the parsley, salt and pepper and simmer for a few more minutes. Serve hot. So perfect on a good winter day! PUZZLE SOLUTIONS BECOME A GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR • Make money on your first day • Choose your own schedule • Work for yourself • Join a supportive community • Get started this week for FREE NEW VENDOR ORIENTATIONS ARE EVERY TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, 10 AM @ THE GCN OFFICE. Trainings take 90 minutes. New vendors will get a temporary badge and 10 free papers to start. BLAKE TRANSIT Willam St. AADL The Groundcover office is located in the basement of Bethlehem United Church of Christ (423 S 4th Ave, downtown Ann Arbor) Packard St. Fifth St. Fourth Ave.

2 $ JULY 14, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 15 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. New Yspi Cafe focuses on community, promotes local art, provides healthy meals Page 10 MEET YOUR VENDOR: SCHILLINGTON MORGAN PAGE 3 GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. Public art sculpture by Terra Incognita on display at Ingall's Mall during Ann Arbor Summer Festival. This installation was one of many elements of the series “Ann Arbor is Burning — a celebration of the radical queer imagination” organized by Express Your Yes Foundation. THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor #

2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER from the DIRECTOR's DESK Groundcover News’ third Community Arts Edition showcases works by Groundcover artists and creatives in the greater Washtenaw community. Through the pieces we publish we challenge the idea of what “art” is and is not. We aim to uplift art practices of all kinds — poetry, sculpture, painting, activism and more. This year, our Community Arts Edition unintentionally took up a theme: art spaces in Washtenaw County. On pages 10 and 11, we highlight Now Studios in Ann Arbor and The Deep End Cafe in Ypsilanti. Both art spaces are not only promoting marginalized artists, but also showing through practice what is possible in these environments. the meaning that is born out of knowing the people behind the product. Behind every piece of art is an artist! That is why we are hosting a LINDSAY CALKA Managing Director Groundcover News Community Art Market on the evening of Friday, July 21, 4-8 p.m. (weekend of the Ann Arbor Art Fair). If you’re heading downtown for the festival already, consider stopping by Bethlehem United Church of Christ, There are many homeless and low-income artists who do not have access to gallery spaces to sell their work, exception for limited sites on the internet where customers cannot meet the artist and connect to them as people. At Groundcover, we understand the importance of face-to-face interactions and meeting the artist vendors and purchasing their products. If you avoid the Ann Arbor Art Fair at all costs, consider making an exception and come downtown to hang with the Groundcover crew! Poster by Mira Simonton-Chao JULY 14, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor Layla McMurtrie — deputy editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Mohammed Almustapha Teresa Basham Noah Bodie (Nobody) Luiza Duarte Caetano Christopher Ellis Cindy Gere Alexandra Granberg Mike Jones Eric Kopchia Layla McMurtrie Ron Pagereski Denise Shearer Laurie Wechter Joe Woods PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Sandy Smith Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Harleen Kaur Robert Klingler Holden Pizzolato Alex Tarbet Melanie Wenzel Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Navya Yagalla Emily Yao CONTACT US Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon – Sat, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, PITCH A STORY + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES PACKAGE PRICING Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons JULY 14, 2023 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR Butterfly art pleasant Art made of butterflies is very to see. Butterflies have beautiful, unique colors at times. There are all kinds of butterfly artwork. Sometimes it calms people to look at butterfly art and it is very comforting for me to look at butterfly art. You can use butterfly art in all seasons of the year. I like to wear clothing that Schillington Morgan, vendor No. 148 Where do you usually sell Groundcover News? Not all the same place – wherever there is an open spot. When did you start selling Groundcover? In 2012 or 2013. What is your favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor? Talk with righteous people. What is your favorite spot in Ann Arbor? The People’s Food Co-op. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn’t know? I am not phony. What's the worst thing about selling Groundcover News? When some people do not want the truth. What are you most likely to become famous for? Inventing things. What are your hobbies? Art. I just started doing it. What would you do if you won the lottery? Buy Big Momma’s House so good people could have a place to stay. What do you wish you knew more about? How to get and stay in HEAVEN! What change would you like to see in Washtenaw County? Not to keep building and bringing in the fake, unrighteous people. What's the best way to start the day? Sing my prayers to our Lord. What's the most impressive thing you know how to do? Make things when I get good ideas. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Be with our Lord God forever. has butterfly art. And sometimes on Halloween, I like to use butterfly wings and be a fairy princess. Butterfly wings can be used for fairy princesses and even angels. There can also be such a thing as a Christmas butterfly — that’s going to be a different article from me sometime. Butterflies can be brown, orange, blue, yellow, a lot of different beautiful colors. It’s good to make butterfly pillows too. And you can make butterfly dolls or stuffed animals. I like to color and cut out butterflies and decorate my home with them. and comforters, butterfly pajamas and purses with butterflies on them and butterfly earrings. A song that I really enjoyed by Bob Carisle is called “Butterfly Kisses.” And Denise Williams made a song called DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 “Black Butterfly.” Butterflies are very beautiful beings that God made. We can enjoy them and imagine them in a lot of beautiful ways. For Pride month, there can also be rainbow butterflies of different colors. I’m going to buy some butterfly stickers and decorate my wheelchair and some of my personal belongings with them. You can also get butterfly dishes and maybe decorate your bathroom and bedroom with butterfly stickers and pictures, too. I went to the Detroit Zoo and saw a butterfly exhibit full of real butterflies. You can make animations of butterfly people, too. I like butterfly bedsheets GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 JOE T-Shirts JOE WOODS Groundcover vendor No. 103 Groundcover News was first founded as a street paper to help homeless people provide basic necessities for themselves while going through their transition to housing. Over the years, Groundcover has evolved in many different ways to address more than just basic necessities and a roof over your head. Groundcover News actually gives people the opportunity, resources and support to achieve dreams and goals on top of providing a decent, legal income for themselves. And I say that because of vendors within the organization — myself included — who utilize Groundcover to the fullest to start and or pursue different goals. I started a t-shirt company called JOE T-Shirts: Jesus Over Everything, LLC. I first thought of the concept because my initials are an acronym for “Jesus Over Everything,” but the main concept is Jesus, and my goal is that my T-shirts plant positive seeds all over the world as people read my messages on my shirts. Joe’s limited edition 2023 Hash Bash T-shirt design. So come by our Community Art Market at Bethlehem United Church of Christ on Friday, July 21, 4 – 8 p.m. and grab a shirt or two. You'll be getting a great product and also helping out a great cause within Groundcover News; it's people selling papers to provide the basics, to thrive in becoming entrepreneurs and actually being able to make a decent honest living to provide for themselves without any handouts or any assistance from the government for housing. I speak for myself on that part. I thank everybody that purchased the paper and who buys from me and other vendors. I thank everybody that deals with us on a daily basis — because we are human just like you are human. I want to give all praise to Jesus Christ for opportunities even when the situation may seem bad. In the long run, if you stick to your guns and stay persevering and do what you need to do, you can achieve goals that once looked impossible.

4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS OPINION Dreamcatchers: the good, the bad, the ugly Dreamcatchers are more than just a decorative and attractive accessory. They have roots in legend and folklore and are rich in revealing history. The legends and meetings associated with each dreamcatcher reveal how Native Americans relied on the Earth for their home. Modern day interpretations have altered the intentional significance of a dreamcatcher. The concept of the first dreamcatchers were created by Native American culture that believed the air at night was filled with good and bad dreams. Each creation was intentionally designed as a protective charm that was placed hanging above cradles of young children and beds of adults, the belief being the dreamcatcher would protect them from bad dreams. Dreamcatcher enthusiasts believed that their bad dreams were trapped in the web and destroyed by the light of day. TERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 JULY 14, 2023 Dreamcatchers are more than just round hoops with feathers and beads. Each dreamcatcher is unique, with shapes and accessories having specific meanings to the Native American. Traditional, authentic dreamcatchers are made using only organic natural materials — from the wooden hoop, to the sinew webbing (animal intestines) and handmade beads. Can you spot the differences between these two dreamcatchers? The left is a tchotchke, decorative rather than functional, and the right is a traditional dreamcatcher. Art, it's so much more Art — what is art? I had to think deeply about this question. I wanted the answer to be genuine, not some copy-pasted Google jargon. So, after a cup of coffee and a few drags of the mango vape, here's what I came up with: Art, my dear reader, is the act of transmitting an idea or a thought from one mind to another, or to humanity in general. Humans are social beings, whose complexity includes an appreciation for beauty, vibrancy and color. As we go on living, we accumulate memories and experiences, both serene and chaotic, sweet and bitter. These experiences and memories become an inspiration for creativity. The beauty in art, for me, lies in the realization and understanding of the ideas or representations of the artist's thoughts by the consumer. Something magical happens when we read a poem, enjoy a nice portrait or hear a song that resonates with us. It makes us feel happy or leads us to reminisce about past times. In a sense, art allows us to feel collectively cohesive and socially connected. It lets us feel human and say, “Hey, the artistic human who wrote the song or painted the portrait or the singer who sang it did so with so much feeling. They must have experienced a similar situation or encounter to mine,” and this, in turn, connects us together. How much effort goes into sculpting or composing a song, painting a picture or cooking a meal? Art requires a MOHAMMED ALMUSTAPHA Groundcover contributor cherished memory during a wedding dance. Meanwhile, another song can be chanted by thousands at a concert. Art is the creation and appreciation great deal of energy — both mental and physical. The accuracy and focus of a painter's hands, the subtle flicks of a guitarist's fingers, the agony, pain and heartbreak a poet feels when writing that love song — it is not easy for humans to bring beauty into the world, yet it is so easily enjoyed. We experience art every day, whether it's the songs we listen to, the logos on our T-shirts, or our favorite piece of art that resonates with us. Art is also an expression of the collective progression and sophistication of our species. Look how far we have come from Neanderthals drawing on cave walls to Michelangelo, Picasso and Tupac. Art is healing. There is a reason why music therapy, pottery and drawing therapy work. The concentration and focus required in creating art can be calming. It is relaxing and makes one feel good, contributing to our overall well-being. A beautiful song can bring two souls together in love or create a of beauty. Art is respect in the sense that we understand the hard work and effort artists put into bringing joy into the world. Art is love in its many forms, whether romantic, familial or patriotic. Art is understanding. Art is compassion. Art is life. Art is color. Art is vibration. Art is the beautiful feeling you get when your favorite song comes on. Art is the smile that lights up your face when you see a pretty picture. Art is the intense happiness of the first bite of your favorite meal because food is art too. Culinary art, in my eyes, is the most intense because it takes the chef's precise mixing of ingredients at the right timing to create a masterpiece that one enjoys not only with the palate but also with the sense of smell and sight. We humans are the greatest work of art. I started to look at all my fellow humans as beautiful art pieces created by the greatest artist of all — not speaking in terms of physical beauty but in the sheer capacity to be generators of good, laughter, happiness, joy and love. Our capacity to do things for each other, to be empathetic, and to think about how our actions will make others feel is amazing. The variations in our culture, traditions, thinking, phenotype — it makes us truly amazing. If we could all start to look at each other as pieces of art, here is what I think would happen: if we looked at women as walking living art, there would be no more domestic violence, no more sexual violence, no more sex trafficking, and no more assaults. If we looked at children as art, there would be no more child abuse and child kidnapping. If we view each other as works of art, we raise the collective appreciation of each other and can progress into a better future. All I'm saying is this: take some time out, listen to a good song, go to a flower garden, attend a poetry slam or a museum. It will invigorate your state of mind. My favorite artwork is “Napoleon Crossing the Alps” by Jacques-Louis David. It shows Napoleon in his full military regalia crossing the Alps on his Arabian mare, Marengo. The portrait shows the determination of the short little Corsican to achieve his goal and objective. It motivates me every time I look at it. My favorite song is “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles; it picks up my spirit every time. I'm still looking for a favorite poem. “Striving to be a better man today than I was yesterday, and a better man tomorrow than I am today.” JULY 14, 2023 POETRY Sleeping in the rough NOAH BODIE (NOBODY) Groundcover contributor (days and nights of absolute despair and futility) Other people, those with a permanent and safe roof over their heads, can take that as well as much else easily for granted; however, most of them will never know or understand what it is like for those who have to try sleeping in the rough, outdoors, underneath the stars, in the rain or during other severe inclement conditions, even if and when they are fortunate enough to have a tent or some other type of temporary structure, until it is vandalized or removed; sometimes by municipal authorities and anyone else who simply wants to kick them down the road, as if the person were some useless empty can. Just ask anyone who has experienced such treatment for themselves; it is really agonizingly tough, which is an understatement to be certain; truly; it's downright dehumanizing, immoral and should be against the law; yet ironically, under the law, those living unhoused (aka homeless) have little, if any, actual protection as well as little, if any, justice. Yeah, justice is definitely blind, for sure. Who gave society the right to deprive an unhoused person of their civil and human rights, merely due to the fact that they do not have a permanent abode of their own to call home and sanctuary?! Explain that one, if at all possible. Though, on second thought, don't bother; because no one is probably even listening, nor obviously caring; not to mention about how, truth be told, neither am I; not unless and until each of us open both of our hearts as well as our minds to what else might be possible and have a meaningful dialogue together and, somewhere down the road, build a better as well as different future; where everyone can attempt to live in mutual peace and harmony. Imagine that, if you can. Cemetery morning RON PAGERESKI Groundcover contributor Mourners gather to pay respects Handful of dirt each collects To toss upon the box they brought His death an end he had not sought But came for him by and by Comes for all, time we cannot buy Survivors, sad and so depressed Focusing on the soul dispossessed Wealthy dead, no longer proud Coffin draped in satin shroud A soft silent tear mingling… With the morning mist GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and science tools— you name it! Plus, we heard there are plenty of Summer Game codes hidden across all of our locations, exclusive to library visitors. Exhibits at AADL In an effort to increase the visual education and artistic experience of all visitors, the Library’s exhibits feature local, regional, and national artists as well as traveling exhibits. The Downtown Library has multiple spaces throughout the building with regularly rotating exhibits. See what’s on display at AADL by visiting AADL.org/events-feed/ exhibits. Public Computers AADL has public computers available for use by cardholders and non-cardholders at all five libraries. Each station has USB ports, headphone jacks, and some of the fastest internet in town. All buildings also feature publicly accessible WiFi in buildings as well as extending to parking lots adjacent to the buildings. FEATURED EVENT THE ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY TINY FILM FESTIVAL July 8–August 6 The Ann Arbor District Library is once again hosting the Tiny Film Festival for movies one minute or less! Film and edit your movie and upload it from July 8 to August 6, 2023. Winners will be announced at the Summer Game Game Over Gala on August 27. 5

6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PRINT GALLERY Christopher Ellis JULY 14, 2023 GROUNDCOVER GALLERY Eric Kopchia “The Village,” Multimedia sculpture “The Universe” “Semi galaxies” JULY 14, 2023 PRINT GALLERY Cindy Gere GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 “Unity,” Acrylic on canvas, 13 x 10" “Spirits,” Acrylic on canvas, 4 x 4' Laurie Wechter For every issue of Groundcover News, Gere decorates her newspapers with stickers, tape and gems. Her papers were used to design the Community Art Market poster. “Face Value” Multimedia on paper 14 x 18" “Internal Affairs: Chapter and Verse” Acrylic on paper, 9 x 11"

8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS PRISON ARTS Bask in the Light Art Show 2023 U-M SCHOOL OF PUBLICH HEALTH, BLACK AND PINK Bask in the Light is an art project that centers the work of people incarcerated in the state of Michigan who identify across the LGBTQ+ spectrum and/or are living with HIV/AIDS. The show opening was held on April 13, 2023 at the Michigan League on the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus. This event represents the culmination of a year of work by Black and Pink volunteers at the School of Public Health and Michigan Medicine, and many, many letters sent back and forth through prison walls. Through their work, ten participating artists express longing for community and connection, desire for healing and repair, and resistance to incarceration and heteronormativity. The title of the show, Bask in the Light, comes from the work of artist Ladi Dä, reflecting the strength and beauty of transgender, gender non-conforming and intersex individuals trapped in the prison industrial complex. This project was funded by a DEI Innovation Grant at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and the Carceral State Project at the University of Michigan. Ladi Dä I Am Ladi Dä. My survival depends solely upon my Activism. My art is inspired by the daily experiences of the transgender, gender nonconforming, and intersex individuals trapped in the Prison Industrial Complex. It is meant to keep us inspired and remind us that everyone knows: “WE ARE THE STRONGEST INDIVIDUALS IN THE WORLD.” Take it from someone who's spent over two decades incarcerated for a crime they did not commit. This piece was drawn on an MDOC grievance form with a segregation pen while housed in Solitary confinement where I currently reside. Love you, Ladi Dä. “Bask in the Light” JULY 14, 2023 “Won’t Explain” Painted coasters JULY 14, 2023 PRISON ARTS Transcend AARON Bask in the Light contributor Transcending the lines of a bar that was never set. How fundamental and emotional, can one person get? subliminal test broken cabinet in my chest I ache, and I crave To be unlonely If only… If only Whispers AARON Tears whisper unanswered questions. Silently shed from my eyes to the only things that seem to catch them, my shirt, or the floor. Why can’t the whispers leave me be. Artist statement: I write from my heart, and only about things as I understand them. I love myself, but do feel a lot of angst. I’m working on compiling a book of my poems entitled “Who can understand this pain I can’t seem to convey?” Thank you for reading my work. Love to all of you. They’re self reflecting and I hate that what I see is self loathing and every sin set on a reel so I may see that all the pain I’ve caused is real. DWIGHT Bask in the Light contributor Some men live for others and make their every act known Some live in seclusion, choosing to live life alone But of these men the group I’m in are the Men Behind the Wall They’ve forfeited their freedom, tossed away their rights By day they walk in darkness and sorrow fills their nights They’ve learned to hide their teardrops but still they fall At wee hours they cry and home seems gone for Men Behind the Wall Some have lost their family, most have lost their friend For them, today brings heartache that tomorrow cannot mend Where letters are not answered, when no one takes their call They cannot take the lost and what a cost it is for Men Behind the Wall Their past is forever in their future however far away Their story has been written with little left to say No one to stand beside them and catch them when they fall The debts they’ve made are never paid for Men Behind the Wall If there is one who’s righteous, then let them cast that stone And to be that has lived perfection, then let him die alone The ONE who was perfect was judged in Pilate’s mall He knows their debt and loves them despite them being Men Behind the Wall GROUNDCOVER NEWS Men Behind the Wall 9 Michael McCloud Dear Art Viewers, Hello, my name's Michael McCloud. I'm 33 years old. I'm from Jackson, Mich. I have turned to making, doing and creating art because it's peaceful to me and time distracting. Most of all I love my color schemes and how I make my colors pop off the paper, like they're just coming right at you. This piece you're looking at is called Kill COVID. I created this piece because, as the U.S.A. we have faced a tragic time as far as COVID. There's many messages in Kill COVID, it's just up to you, the art viewers, on how you look and judge my art piece. I hope you enjoyed my piece and look forward to seeing more from me. Thank you. “Kill COVID.” McCloud made an envelope out of DOC order forms to send in his artwork.

10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS ART SPACE Ann Arbor is burning — arts and culture for whom? ALEXANDRA GRANBERG Groundcover contributor I met Petals Sandcastle (they/them) on the grass in the Diag-State-Hill triangle. It's familiar grounds for Petals, who studied at the University of Michigan. A stone's throw away is Now Studios, run by and homebase for the Express Your Yes Foundation. Petals is founder and guiding light. It's a 501(c)(3) creative nonprofit fusing activism with art. It's an underground art and performance venue, political playhouse and more, full of “creative disruptors and thought leaders.” It's also a safe space for people to be themselves, away from the heat of the neutral gaze — one that is “passively active, indifferent.” Last year the studio arranged over a hundred free events in the city. Most recent is an event series under the project Ann Arbor is Burning — a celebration of radical queer imagination, part of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival. Now Studios advocates for the city's abundant resources to go to the homeless, queer, Black, immigrant, disabled and other marginalized communities. “I keep coming back to this place [Ann Arbor] thinking, certainly it doesn’t want to be a soulless playground. But very few want to give money or leverage an inch of their privilege. It's a hard pill,” Sandcastle says. “This place does not want us.” Beyond art This year Ann Arbor was named the number one best place to live in the United States, based on a “10 expert list” search by StudyFinds.org. “Best for whom?” asks Petals, see STUDIOS next page  Sandcastle holding one of their paintings "Gerf" at Now Studios. JULY 14, 2023 A2 Artisan Market should be your Sunday destination about finding parking and admission is free as well. In 1991, artists and craftsmen from MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Ann Arbor's best kept secret is the Sunday Artisan Market. It is located in the Farmers Market pavilion from April until Christmas, from 11a.m. – 4 p.m. every Sunday. For those who don’t know, parking is free every Sunday in Ann Arbor, so you don’t have to worry the Farmer’s Market felt they needed another day when they could highlight their art because of the lack of good space at the Wednesday and Saturday Farmers Markets. Thus began the Artisan Market. This Sunday destination in the Kerrytown District is a wonderful place to bring the family to soak in the sunshine and to enjoy the many restaurants and places to shop. My friend TJ, who is a vendor at the Artisan Market (Kinetic Re-Design), has a booth that sells tie-dyed shirts and fabric. I purchased a shirt from my friend TJ and I love it. One can also find vendors that sell jewelry, wood crafts, photography and much more. Far left: Lloyd Holdwick and his display, Artistics in Wood. Left: TJ sells funky tie-dyed suits at his booth Kinetic Re-Design. Top: TJ and Mike Jones together as Jones models a Kinetic Re-Design original button-up shirt. Above: Jewelry display at the Sunday Artisan Market. JULY 14, 2023 ART SPACE GROUNDCOVER NEWS New Ypsi cafe focuses on community, promotes local art, provides healthy meals The Deep End Cafe & Gallery opened in Ypsilanti just three months ago, and owner Candace Cavazos hopes to use the space to benefit the community in multiple ways: to promote local artists, make healthy eating affordable and provide free meals to people in need in Washtenaw County. Being from Detroit, Cavazos never planned to open a store in Ypsilanti, but she found out about the space and thought it was a good fit for her vision. Cavazos was aided and inspired by the mission of The Squeeze Station in Detroit, making healthy eating accessible. “Their mission is to basically bring healthy eating to the community, especially in Detroit where there's a food desert,” Cavazos said. “We learned that this area in Ypsi has similar issues when it comes to getting access to affordable healthy foods.” So, The Squeeze Station helped Cavazos put together a food menu that includes a variety of breakfast items, wraps, salads, quesadillas, tacos and more. The cafe also offers coffee drinks, tea, smoothies and fresh pressed juice. Most recently, The Deep End has begun a program called “Each One Feed One” to help provide free meals to people in the community. Customers can purchase any beverage, meal or treat for someone in need and get 10% off of their order. The cafe will have a sign outside that states how many free LAYLA McMURTRIE Deputy Editor meals are currently available. Cavazos wants to do more than just provide meals and beverages though. As a poet herself, she hopes to promote other local artists. “My personal mission is to just make a space for underrepresented artists, make space for people that come from low-income backgrounds,” Cavazos said. “My goal is to just really provide a high-quality experience to people that come and engage with the underrepresented artists that come through here.” Cavazos features a new local artist each month and allows local creatives and organizations to host events in the space and sell locally created art prints, books and products inside the cafe. The name “The Deep End,” comes from the feeling throughout her own life of being in the deep end, and being successful in her creative pursuits anyway. She hopes to show other people with Founder of The Deep End, Candace Cavasos, behind the register at the cafe and gallery. Photo by Mike Jones. hardships that they can do so, too. “I come from a very low income background; my parents both struggle with addiction and it was hard for me to achieve college and achieve all these things that statistics said I was not going to achieve, so I feel like I was born under pressure,” Cavazos said. “If you feel like you have to break cycles in your family, then I think that the pressure of that can sometimes be crippling. But if you are encouraged and you're in a community where people can inspire you and encourage you and validate you, then you can become a diamond and that's kind of what the brand is for The Deep End — ‘Be where the pressure is and become a diamond under pressure and let's celebrate all the people that decide to keep fighting and keep swimming and not let the pressure fold them so that they can also become diamonds.’ ” To learn more about The Deep End Cafe & Gallery and stay up to date on specials and events, follow their Instagram @tdecafe, visit their website www.tdecafe.com, or go to the brick and mortar at 310 Perrin St. in Ypsilanti. 11  STUDIOS from last page invoking (at least for this writer) Lenin's question "Liberty for whom?" “Washtenaw is the worst county for upward mobility. This city thinks it’s liberal. It's a place for students and [property] owners.” “Others are just here to be paraded, tokenized and to tick boxes,” Petals says. “The cognitive dissonance of this place is crippling. There's a serious disconnect between the brochures and what plays out on the pavement.” During the Ann Arbor Art Fair, Now Studios activates “an entire militia” of artivists. It's an attempt to “un-Karen” hitherto ignorant people and put queerness in front of the masses. It's powerful, but also a tough process for those putting their bodies on the line, Petals says. Now Studios, in addition to hosting community arts events creates space for civic enagegment with City Council meeting watch parties, protests, Beating heart Of course there should be anger and rage, says Petals — without it, there's no push back to the status quo. “But love really is at the center of this,” they say, referring to the multiple free events the studio puts on to build community and understanding. In May, Now Studios converted Main Street into one big art and community space during the weekend’s closed streets. Crayons and big canvases, hula hoop rings and a silent disco drew families and friend groups alike. The street was packed with happy people enjoying themselves and each Selfie taken after storming the June 20 Ann Arbor City Council meeting. Individuals pictured were advocating for the passage of an ordinance that would restrict police from conducting traffic stops for minor violations. It was approved unanimously. political performance art, clubhouse mind-share and issue-based community organizing. “We don't fit into the cookie cutter box; we're human, with rotting teeth and rent and dreams, not just the town jester — put your hand on my heart, it beats.” other. It was joyous and fun, easy and free (of charge). The asphalt was covered in crayon messages of love. This writer, who was there, wonders if anyone ever stopped to ask: Who made this possible for me and why?

12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MONEY SAVERS Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews.com or fill out the contact form on our website. JULY 14, 2023 JULY 14, 2023 PUZZLES 1 14 17 19 22 25 31 34 40 43 44 45 50 53 59 62 64 65 PUZZLE SOLUTIONS ACROSS Across 1. Area 7. Falling flakes 11. Software program, briefly 14. Irritate 15. Great Plains nation 17. Downright 18. Misers' sins 19. Deception 20. Breakup 22. Soft throw 23. Greek god of love 24. Campaigner, for short 25. Words on a Grecian urn 26. Romanian money 27. Saliva 31. Cunning 33. Circumference 34. Where all must go? 40. Dweeb 41. Marry a woman 43. Opposed to 46. Put in stitches 49. "Geez!" 50. Baby seal 51. Creole vegetable 52. Appear 53. Some cosmetic surgeries 58. Agcy. 59. Kind of mapping 60. Pierre's boat 62. Oily fish in the Atlantic 63. Depth charge targets during WWII 64. Rotten 65. Chuck 66. Seal 54 55 56 57 60 63 66 DOWN 1. Gulp 2. Regular 3. Delicate blue perennial 4. Victorian, for one 5. Lyrical poem 6. Whole 7. Picket line crossers 8. ___ Scotia 9. Arab League member 10. Charge 11. Honor 12. Carbolic acid 13. Mortar and ___ 16. Takeaway game 21. Former French coin 27. Editor's "It wasn't me!" 28. "Before," when before 29. "___ alive!" 30. Become friendlier 32. Abominable Snowman 33. Meas. of a country's economy 35. Plant bristle 36. Legal thing 37. Skill 38. Legume in many soups 39. Get out of 42. Hand over with confidence 43. Poise 44. Kind of hen or pig 45. Add 46. Hit the slopes 47. Greek god of darkness 48. Sushi condiment 51. "Good ___" (Pratchett and Gaiman novel) 54. Anglo-Saxon letter 55. Checked item 56. ___ list 57. Aces, sometimes 61. Deck (out) 61 51 46 47 48 32 35 36 37 41 49 52 58 20 23 26 33 38 39 42 27 28 29 30 21 24 2 3 4 5 7 9 GROUNDCOVER NEWS f CROSSWORD 8 10 15 18 16 13 rom the International Network of Street Papers 6 11 12 13 S P H E R E S N O W A P P W E A R O N C O M A N C H E A R R A N T A V A R I C E S L I E D I S B A N D M E N T L O B O D E E R O S W I L Y P O L L E U S P I T T L E G I R T H C L E A R A N C E S A L E T W E R P A G A I N S T P U P O K R A L I P E C T O M I E S O N E T O O N E W I V E S E W M A N A C T B U R B A T E A U M E N H A D E N U B O A T S B A D T O S S S I G N E T

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS INSP JULY 14, 2023 Shediart: The history, process and techniques of Shedia’s upcycling project TONY INGLIS International Network of Street Papers Editor When INSP visited Greek street paper Shedia in Athens, we visited the home of its various social projects, including its long in fruition, and now operating, upcycling project Shediart. Here, former vendors, and otherwise socially marginalised people involved at Shedia, were trained in reconstituting old, unsold Shedia magazines into beautiful, artistic, functional products. In the workshop, as items were being made, one of the people behind the idea, Katrin Kretschmer, explained how it came to be and what was going on. INSP: How was the Shediart concept born? Katrin Kretschmer: There were so many old magazines in storage and no one really knew what to do with them. If you bring them to a recycling plant, you get very little in return for them — maybe around 50 euros — and it is quite a job to transport them. So, while it's the ideal disposal method, it's difficult for us in terms of time and effort. And recycling — okay, it's better than burning them of course, but there's no real benefit for any person (other than the overall environmental aspect), which is what they were printed for in the first place. So we thought, is there an alternative? What else can we do? And I started to try different things, just experimenting using the paper — what could it do? Could you use a tool to turn the paper into a pulp and mold with it? Or perhaps weave it like a textile? I tried different techniques, making some jewellery, and I said, ok it’s possible to produce good and different things out of this paper we use. And when we had nailed down the techniques, we started to have workshops. We invited the Shedia vendors to come to upcycling workshops. They were open — anyone who was interested could come just to see if they took an interest in handicrafts and being creative. But we didn't say anything about creating jobs in the beginning, mainly because we wanted the people who were really interested, and not just those interested in money but also in the art form. No one was excluded. We had a lot of workshops to begin with. Some people said it was a bit difficult — maybe they weren't so dexterous, or their eyes weren't so good. And there were a few people who said they'd like to do it but just didn't find that they were particularly good at it. It’s not the simplest thing to do right away. But if you can do things with your hands, and you really like it, you can learn. Some needed a few months to improve and produce really beautiful things. And some others, from the start, just were talented at it and it was second nature to them. And as we work as a team, we learn from each other, come up with more ideas and learn how to make the techniques better, to make the whole process more efficient and make the end products more beautiful. So it's an ongoing process. INSP: When you make a specific kind of product, is there, for example, a checklist, a set process — how does each piece come together in a practical sense? KK: Our thought from the beginning was we didn't want to create useless stuff. I suppose jewellery could be called useless but people like to have it! But we didn’t initially want to produce art that is stationary, like a sculpture that just sits in your living room. Perhaps we will at some point. For now, our checklist is: Is it useful? Is it beautiful? Is it more or less practical to produce? And do we have someone who can produce it? Because we also have a few ideas, though nobody skilled in doing it yet, that would require proper sewing. There are many things that we could do if we had people who were really qualified. But we have already trained as much as we can at this point. And we need to create an income from the project so that we can bring more people on board. We really want to pay people for their work. We really want to have another work opportunity for those who were former vendors, if possible. It's not easy, and if you want to adopt this, to copy and paste it to other street papers, there may be fluctuations in the difficulty of doing that. We can't say ‘this is how it is,’ but we can show you how we do it, and maybe it will be a fit. If there are only two to four people in a street paper who might be interested or able after some lessons — and for us it really took about two years, we even had lessons about how to host a workshop — it was not that we said we know everything now. We asked for help — how to speak to different age groups, how to run things. We care that we do it properly. The training, for those involved, even for a short time, has such a big impact that it’s worth it. INSP: And in the workshops, how many of the techniques used were planned out and were trial and error? see SHEDIA next page  JULY 14, 2023 INSP  SHEDIA from last page KK: We started with the simplest things. With the easier techniques. You feel and you see if it’s working or not. Initially we used this technique where we roll the paper into straws. These need to be straight and rigid. For those who found that difficult, we tried other things. Some didn’t take to any of those, but fortunately the ones who did make it can do all of the techniques extremely well. Katrin then talked through some of the common techniques they use. Here we have some strips of the magazine paper, and we take wooden or metal sticks (like a cocktail or kebab stick) and you roll any size strip of paper around the stick. It has to be tight around the stick. Glue the end and it becomes a straw. Then you use these [firm but malleable] straws to weave. Another is we shred the paper and blend it into a pulp. We mix it in a bucket like a smoothie! Then we dry it [using essentially a large sieve] and drain it. Then, using molds of shapes, of whatever you like really, you can use it to create things. That’s how we make bowls, clocks and even lampshades. Sometimes we use the pre-pulped strips, from the shredder, to create products. On some products, we like to show a bit more of the magazines, so you can see where this beautiful product really came from. Inside the mold, we put in strips of paper, then the pulp. So, even though the final product looks very nice and intricate, it is simple. If you have decent use of your hands, it can be done. Exactly. If you have the knowledge, and some help from say a shredder or a mixer, then you can do it. It’s not a mystic thing! We teach this — we go to schools; we have companies come here to learn. INSP: Not only is Shediart becomin turn increasing its ing a success in terms of its products, sustainability, but those involved are also earning even more of an income — and, crucially, other skills and self-esteem building — when leading workshops and classes on how to make these products. At the moment, two women (over the age of 50, as is the case with the majority of individuals involved in Shedia social projects), Christiane and Vanessa, are employed at Shediart. Christiane, now 61, has experienced drug addiction, prison time and has been otherwise socially excluded or unable to find employment. Watching her work and talking to her at Shediart, it is clear that she is not only happy with the income she is now receiving (she used to sell the street paper) but absolutely loves the work. “No matter how difficult an item is to make, I come to the work with love,” she says. INSP was lucky enough to sit in on a workshop held by Vanessa and Christiane at the original Shediart workshop (located in a small unit in a city centre arcade that lets out shops to local social projects). The attendees were refugee children, who were brought along by charity Caritas. The joy on both their and Christiane and Vanessa’s faces was evident throughout. KK: We even have the kids work with the pulp at an early stage — they will make bowls, pins and badges, and keychains by working the pulp into ice cube trays, letting them dry and then painting and designing them. Our idea ties together many things. There’s the obvious benefit of the income generated for those who do the work. In Greece, there is a big trash and environmental problem. So there is a sustainability aspect. The thoughts and impetus behind that part of it, we also want to spread. It is still a problem here, even if it is getting better. It shows that not only is Shedia an organization with a social conscience in terms of the actual paper, but generally throughout our projects. People come to our workshops and ask ‘what kind of paper can and should we use?’. We say absolutely anything — even pizza delivery advertisements you get through your letterbox. That’s why any street paper could do it too. Just try and use it. INSP: How about in terms of start-up costs, and what is the sustainability of the project now? KK: There was not much of a cost in the beginning. I was taking the workshops just until we had those with the knowledge to take them themselves. In the beginning there was no money involved. We had some funding to pay our employees until we started selling. But now since the production, there is no need for this support. We originally trained eight people fully to do this, and two are currently employed, but we have high hopes this will increase. Demand for the products and the workshops is high, but it’s still the beginning. Courtesy of the International Network of Street Papers GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15

16 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Homemade granola LUIZA DUARTE CAETANO Groundcover contributor Ingredients: 2 cups of oats 1 cup of nuts and/or seeds ½ cup fat (such as melted butter or vegetable oil) ¼ cup of sweetener (such as maple syrup, honey or sugar) 1 tsp of spices (cinnamon, cloves, allspice, etc.) 1 pinch of salt 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional) ½ cup of extra toppings (such as dried fruit or chocolate chips) Directions: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl, mix together the oats with the nuts and seeds, salt and spices. Add the vanilla (if using), melted fat and sweetener and mix thoroughly. JULY 14, 2023 Spread over the baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Take out, rearrange granola on the baking pan with a flipping motion. Bake another 25 min. Once the granola cools, add the extra toppings (if using) and store in an airtight container for up to four weeks. IT’S SUMMER, LET’S GET GRILLIN’! $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 8/15/2023