While the People’s Food Co-op was the first Ann Arbor storefront committed to locally grown organic food, the past few decades have seen a marketplace flooded with Goliaths like Whole Foods, stalwarts like Arbor Farms and upstarts like Plum Market.

Despite the competition, the co-op — founded in 1971 and today housed inside a small, historic building on the edge of Kerrytown — remains strong and ready to grow, said its new general manager, Lesley Perkins.

“We’re no longer the only game in town,” said Perkins. “But our business model, where members buy shares and elect the board, is our strength. If we didn’t have this, we’d be just another little health food store out of business.”

New general manager for People's Food Co-op Lesley Perkins stands outside the door of the store. Perkins hopes to expand the bakery as well as catering, amount many other changes.

Janet Miller | For AnnArbor.com

After two years without a permanent general manager, Perkins joined the co-op in the spring, promising change, such as reconfiguring the coffee bar operation for a better work flow and building the catering-end of the operation.

Perkins’ only experience with food cooperatives was as a customer since the 1990s. But as president of Kerrytown Market & Shops for a decade, she knew how to run a business and understood the area. She also had experience in the food industry. Along with her husband, Perkins bought and ran the 17-room Betsy Bay Inn and a 100-seat restaurant in Frankfort, which they sold last year.

The interview process for general manager was long, and a bit intimidating, Perkins said. After sitting down with a search committee made up of three employees and three co-op board members, Perkins was asked to meet with more employees and board members in a town hall-style session.

“While there were just 14 people, it felt like hundreds,” she said. “It was a little scary.”

Six months after she applied, she landed the job.

Perkins' first order of business was to paint her windowless, gray basement office a cheery gold. Next came small physical changes to the cafe half of the building, which houses the coffee operation and hot bar. A wall was removed, opening up the narrow building and creating a sight line from the front door to the back wall, along with new paint.

Bigger changes are on the way: A new hot bar/salad bar will be ordered, which will double the space for hot dishes. The kitchen will begin producing more variety and there will be more grab-and-go items.

“There is a huge trend with grab-and-go,” she said. “Cafe Verde needs to be modernized and needs a good cleaning up, but we don’t want to close down the operation in the process.

Gross sales at People's Food Co-op, which has 7,500 members, totaled about $6.5 million in 2012, compared to about $6.2 million in 2011, annual reports show. While a dividend wasn’t paid to members in 2011 or 2012, they can expect one late this summer, Perkins said.

Now, she said it’s time for the co-op to grow. The baking department will add another shift and move into selling wholesale. The bakery just received a standing order from a University of Michigan department. They also hope to update the catering possibilities for the store.

It’s impossible for the retail side of the co-op to physically expand. The co-op is landlocked, shelves are packed and aisles are tight, Perkins said.

“The co-op’s only real issue is a space issue,” she said.

“We are looking for ways to expand, but it’s measured in inches,” she continued.

Still, it’s important to be able to respond to trends, Perkins said. “People who started the 1960s and '70s wave of food co-ops were baby boomers. But there’s a whole new wave of younger people who expect different things, they expect it to be more like Whole Foods and we have to evolve."

She said the co-op would consider the possibility of opening a new store, but only if the decision was supported by the members.

It’s important, she said, to appeal to the millennials as the next generation of co-op members, while still satisfying the baby boomers who founded the co-op.

The Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education during a meeting Wednesday, April 24.

Courtney Sacco I AnnArbor.com file photo

The two-day process will be held at the Courtyard Marriott at 3205 Boardwalk Boulevard in Ann Arbor. The Board of Education finalized a list of questions for the six candidates last week.

During Monday's session, which is expected to last until about 5 p.m., the following candidates will be interviewed:

• Jeanice Kerr Swift, assistant superintendent of Colorado Springs District 11 in Colorado Springs, Colo.
• Brian Osborne, superintendent of South Orange-Maplewood School District in New Jersey
• Richard Faidley, superintendent of Derry Township Schools in Hershey, Pa.

Interviews Tuesday will begin at 8 a.m. The following candidates will be interviewed then:

• Henry Hastings, instructor at Eastern Michigan University College of Business
• Sandra Harris, retired superintendent of Oak Park School District in Oak Park
• Benjamin Edmonson, principal of Roberto Clemente High School in Ann Arbor

After all the candidates have been interviewed Tuesday, the Board of Education will meet with its search firm, Ray & Associates, to narrow the field to two or three finalists.

School board President Deb Mexicotte said she anticipates the meeting will last from about 3:15 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The interviews are open to the public.

Board members plan to visit the finalists' districts July 10-13.

Ann Arbor Public Schools Superintendent Patricia Green's retirement is effective July 9. Hired on a five-year contract in July 2011, Green will leave after two years in the position.

In the interim period, David Comsa, the district's legal counsel and deputy superintendent of human resources and legal services, has been named the interim chief superintendent.

On July 15 and 16, the finalists will meet with various constituent groups and the public. Mexicotte said she anticipates public candidate presentations in the morning and public question and answer sessions in the early evening.

The next time the school board will convene will be July 17 at the Courtyard Marriott, when it expects to select a superintendent.

• Related: Read bios of Ann Arbor Public Schools superintendent candidates

Amy Biolchini covers Washtenaw County, health and environmental issues for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at (734) 623-2552, amybiolchini@annarbor.com or on Twitter.

Ann Arbor's city staff snapped this photo in April 2012, showing how streetlight poles on Main Street are rusting on the inside. The poles are corroding under the decorative bases.

City of Ann Arbor

The light poles are rotting from the inside out, and internal rusting already caused two them to topple from storm winds last year.

Two others were deemed in immediate risk of falling and were replaced.

The estimated $516,000 cost to replace the streetlights on Main Street includes new decorative poles with banner brackets and LED light fixtures — including two poles that will be taller to accommodate banners being strung across Main Street for special events.

Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com

"Replacing the poles is urgent," said Mayor John Hieftje. "From what staff has told me, if we were to have a good wind storm, we could see several of the poles come down."

Hieftje said his biggest fear is one of the light poles could fall and injure someone, and that's not something anyone wants to see happen.

"Main Street is kind of an iconic spot in our town," Hieftje said. "And to have the light poles falling over in one of the areas of our city that people identify with, that sounds like a disaster to me."

The estimated $516,000 cost to replace the streetlights on Main Street includes new decorative poles with banner brackets and LED light fixtures — including two poles that will be taller to accommodate banners being strung across Main Street for special events.

The Downtown Development Authority's governing board voted last week to appropriate $300,000, leaving another $216,000 for the Council Council to approve.

The council meets next on July 15.

DDA officials said the decorative streetlights — including some with multiple LED globes — have become an important symbol of the Main Street commercial area.

DDA Executive Director Susan Pollay said she believes they were installed sometime in the early 1980s, one of the first installations of pedestrian-scale lighting in the DDA's history.

"It's hard to see it on the outside, but on the inside they are deteriorating — rusting. Water has gotten in," Pollay explained. "And so city staff have been trying to figure out a way to get them replaced as part of the city budget process. It was resolved the DDA was to assign $300,000 to this project."

The $300,000 from the DDA is coming from property taxes paid by downtown property owners that go to the DDA. The DDA nets about 17 percent of property taxes from downtown properties.

Internal rusting already caused two light poles on Main Street to topple from storm winds last year. Two others were preemptively replaced.

City of Ann Arbor

She said city staff members have let the DDA know the new-generation streetlight poles don't have the same problem and have proven to be far more durable.

The project will include replacing the globe fixtures with new LED lights. Craig Hupy, the city's public services administrator, said though the LED lights on Main Street are newer, it makes sense to replace them at the same time as the light pole replacement.

"The LEDs that are there are nearly first generation with a life expectancy of about 8-10 years," Hupy said. "Current technology is for LEDs that last up to 20 years."

Hupy said there is a major expense in taking out the LED "guts" and putting them back in a new globe, only to repeat the process in about five years. That's why he believes it makes sense to put the new LEDs in now and not worry about revisiting them for potentially 20 years.

City staff discovered the poles were corroding under the decorative bases last year after two of them fell. Hupy said most of the others still standing are in a deteriorated state.

Pollay said the replacement of the rusted-out streetlights is expected to start in September and finish by the end of the year. The effort is being coordinated with the Main Street Area Association, taking into consideration holiday lighting plug-ins and banners that hang from the poles.

Maura Thomson, executive director of the Main Street Area Association, said she's glad to know new streetlights are on the way.

"They are in desperate need," she said. "This is great news for Main Street."

Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's email newsletters.

Photo by Ebru Yildiz

Of course, he and his Terpsichorean confederates, contemporary dancer/choreographer Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass, from Barnes’ company—are out to prove otherwise in “One Radio Host, Two Dancers,” a multi-faceted, multimedia 90-minute confection that had its second incarnation ever at Power Center Saturday evening, where it closed the Ann Arbor Summer Festival’s main-stage productions.

Glass tells us it’s the participants' shared sensibility that makes possible the artistic meeting of these two unlikely bedfellows. And to be sure, there’s a common exaltation of the everyday in all three artists’ work that lets Glass, Barnes and Bass click and bond in the stories they tell in words and deed.

But if you’re looking for commonalities or a through line in this variety-show-like production, it’s that good dance, like a good radio show or a good life, has a beginning, middle and end. Without that, each is incomplete. And that, more or less, is the subject matter that this threesome explores, in stories and dances, poignant and funny, about starting out, soldiering on and finishing up: in love, in life, in work, in play. How did you become a dancer? How did I get started in radio? How’d this show come about?

And what’s it like to do the same thing over and over? Bo-ring, says a touring Riverdance ensemble member in a TAL clip; along with her fellow dancers, she is hoping the Mega Millions lottery will free her from tedium. Wonderful, counters Glass, host of a public radio show that’s now up to 500 or so broadcasts.

How does love start? Awkwardly, is the answer, in the words of kids Glass interviewed for TAL on the eve of a middle-school dance. Barnes and Bass illustrate just how so with a dance in which there’s “petting,” as in, I’ll pat-you-on-the-head, and by calling on stage six perfect strangers from the audience for a “slow dance.”

How does love continue? In a great segment, a marketing man explains to Glass how he takes on the project of marketing himself—to his wife.

How does love end? Sometimes with life itself. Glass features TAL clips of Donald Hall reading poems about the last days with his wife Jane Kenyon, who died of leukemia. With the poems as score, Barnes and Bass, wrapped in oversized coats, dance their own precarious, slow, sweet good-bye dance on a tabletop. (A side note: In introducing this section, Glass made no mention of Hall and Kenyon’s deep Ann Arbor connections, which would have been a nice customization. Kenyon was an Ann Arbor native and a University of Michigan graduate; she met Hall at U-M, where he taught for 17 years.)

Later, Glass talks about and incorporates material from a dear friend: the late David Rakoff, humorist, essayist and frequent TAL contributor. Rakoff’s last book, a novel in verse that receives posthumous publication next week, has a title that could almost be that of Glass’s show: “Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish.”

Layering of media and materials abounds in “One Radio Host, Two Dancers.”

Glass, live, sets up and comments on Glass recorded interviews, so that present meets past. In more recent clips, he interviews Barnes and Bass—the latter reluctant, like so many dancers, to let words speak for her dances and dancing. And Barnes and Bass comment on and enlarge the stories in Barnes' almost-vaudevillian dances that are vernacular, moving and sometimes goofily off-hand even as they are carefully set. Like most abstract dances, they are stories in themselves. Loping, then trotting, then walking in endless clockwise loops in spangled dresses, for example, the pair tell their own story about beginnings, middles and ends and running life’s course.

Sometimes Glass joins them in their dances, doing well and poorly, for the humor of it all. You can see who’s trained here, and who’s not. But as important as the dancing is to the conceit of the show and to the actuality of it, I always felt a little like Barnes and Bass were there as second bananas to Glass, illustrating his points (about art and life), helping him with his show, his slant, even in the interviews he conducted with them.

Maybe that’s inevitable; somebody’s gotta be the boss. But in that guise, or that of host, Glass is still, in these early days of this production, somewhat too self-referential and self-conscious in the treatment of his material. We can see the wheels turning a little too much as he moves from story to story. And some tightening wouldn’t hurt.

“One Radio Host, Two Dancers” is neatly framed, though. There’s a mini-proscenium theater on the stage (by set/costume designer Kelly Hanson) at the work’s start, a theater within a theater. After a dance intro, Glass arrives with an old tan leather suitcase, which he unpacks of stand and notes. The show begins.

And it ends with a rewind: He departs after packing up and disappearing behind the curtain of this jewel-box theater. Barnes and Bass unplug its lights, dust it off and tote the stage away. We can just see Glass’s feet as he moves off stage along with it.

The year just passed the halfway mark, so we at AnnArbor.com thought it would be a good time to assess where this community stands

Washtenaw County is dealing with a number of ongoing issues; by the end of this year, our coverage will be reporting about more situations that will make this community angry, puzzled or worried.

But in the meantime, it’s summer. We just celebrated a national holiday. And - if the rain stops - we’re going to be able to enjoy the events and activities that help define this community.

So in that spirit, here are our Top 5: Positive developments for the Ann Arbor area during the 1st half of 2013

1. The Ann Arbor Public Schools is getting serious about redistricting. After only receiving two bids from consulting firms, the district widened its search - a sign that AAPS will be tackling the tough issue in coming months. The district faces many challenges: Hiring a superintendent, cutting millions from its budget and maintaining enrollment are at the top of the list. No one doubts that reconfiguring or closing schools will be difficult. Yet moving forward lets the district assess its capacity and facilities spending; and it will remove questions for parents who’ve wondered for some time: Will my building close?

Construction excavators remove debris at the former Georgetown Mall in late June.

2. Demolition removed two high-profile examples of blight. Georgetown Mall’s tenants left the property in 2009; the houses meant to make way for the unbuilt Near North project also were vacant for years. But over recent months, both the central Ann Arbor mall and the partial block along the North Main corridor were the sites of demo crews doing their work. The next steps for the properties are disparate: Georgetown awaits an approved development, North Main is now in the floodplain. Still, the demos represent wins for neighbors and the image of the city.
3. Ypsilanti is ready to welcome the $12M Eastside Recreation Center. Washtenaw County wants to build a rec center on the vacant Water Street property, but whether that could happen without a fight appeared in doubt this spring. Some in the city started to raise questions about whether the center should be moved elsewhere on the property - or just plain elsewhere. A council vote in May put the uncertainty to rest: All of the city officials voiced approval for the plans as they were formed since 2011 - and outlined in a letter of intent in 2012. Now it looks like the residents of the east side of the county will be able to use the center starting in 2015.
4. Knight’s Restaurant will open downtown. We’re happy to see this Ann Arbor institution find the opportunity to expand. That it’s happening at the corner of East Liberty and Maynard in the former Borders flagship store is even better. Beyond the addition of Knight’s to the downtown restaurant scene, the redevelopment of the building into mixed-uses by a private investor is positive for the city and nearby merchants. The new office space has been leased and it’s likely that new retail tenants will be announced soon. By this time next year, the block could be as active as it was before the book chain closed.
5. The city is taking another look at downtown zoning. We’re generally in favor of downtown development; and we look at consultant hiring warily. However, just like in our No. 1 example, we think hiring a consultant to look at downtown zoning - with an Oct. 1 deadline for completion - is a good step for the city. Downtown is changing rapidly, thanks in part to zoning changes over recent years. It seems like many in the city considered the zoning issue done, after a very public process in 2004. But the recent approval of 413 E. Huron high-rise raised many concerns about the process. Better to identify weakness in the zoning - or changes the majority in the city would want to see - quickly, before more building projects are proposed. Both property owners and residents deserve that.

Firefighters and investigators were investigating the cause of an apparent house explosion and fire Sunday in Ypsilanti Township.

Three people — a man, woman and an infant — were in the home on the 1300 block of Gattegno Street at the time of the incident, authorities said. The woman and child escaped without injury, but eyewitnesses reported seeing the man fleeing the house with his clothes on fire, Ypsilanti Township Fire Chief Eric Copeland said.

The man was initially unaccounted for, but Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office spokesman Derrick Jackson said authorities later located him at the University of Michigan Hospital, where he was being treated for injuries.

After questioning him at the hospital, police do not consider him a suspect, Jackson said. He drove himself to the hospital after sustaining injuries while leaving the home.

Jackson said 911 dispatchers received several calls starting at 11:22 a.m. reporting a loud explosion and house fire.

No other structures were reported damaged. The cause of the explosion isn't known.

"The fire marshal is saying that it looks consistent with a natural gas explosion at this point," Jackson said.

But DTE Energy spokesman Scott Simons disputed that, saying that crews were on the scene taking measurements and that "there was no reading of natural gas."

The home at 1360 Gattegno Street.

Photo via the Ypsilanti Township assessor's office.

The home, at 1360 Gattegno Street, was sold in foreclosure as recently as 2008 and is currently registered to Star Properties IV LLC of Saline, according to the township assessor's office.

Keith Jason, who lives next door to the house, said he was returning home with his family shortly after 1 p.m. when he found his neighborhood shut down and saw smoke billowing from nearby his home.

Jason, the student services coordinator for the College of Technology at Eastern Michigan University, said the male who was injured was an EMU student whom he spoke with in passing.

"They had a baby that was less than a year old that was in the house with them," he said.

Firefighters from multiple neighboring jurisdictions were assisting Ypsilanti Township crews at the scene.

A neighbor's surveillance camera caught this footage of the moment the house exploded:

View Larger Map

Staff writer Ben Freed contributed to this story.

Top of the Park, the outdoor component of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, wrapped up its annual three-and-a-half-week run on Sunday with music, socializing, and more.

Photographer Daniel Brenner captured these images.

Officials believe a water heater caused an Ypsilanti Township house to explode Sunday.

Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com

• Previous article: Fire crews investigating house explosion in Ypsilanti Township

A water heater is likely to blame for the explosion that rocked an Ypsilanti Township neighborhood Sunday, officials said Monday morning.

A man who lives at the home in the 1300 block of Gattegno Street told authorities he had been having trouble keeping the water heater in the basement lit and was trying to re-light it Sunday, said Ypsilanti Township Fire Marshal Vic Chevrette.

“He took about five steps away and the explosion occurred,” Chevrette said.

The gas-powered heater, which is about five to 10 years old, has been recovered by fire and insurance company investigators, who are trying to determine if the regulator may have been left open.

“The only source (of the explosion) we had was the water heater,” said Chevrette, adding the stove was ruled out because it's electric and the furnace was not running.

The gas lines going into the house were also checked for leaks and none were found.

“(This) wouldn’t fall on the gas company,” Chevrette said.

Detectives from the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office are also continuing to investigate the matter, Sgt. Geoff Fox said.

The man remains at the University of Michigan Burn Unit, officials said. Authorities were not releasing any updates on his medical condition.

Officials said 911 dispatchers received several calls about the explosion at 11:22 a.m. Sunday. The man was seen running from the residence with his clothes on fire, witnesses said. A woman and infant escaped without injury. The man was later located at the hospital. Authorities said he drove himself there.

John Counts covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at johncounts@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.

Interviews with the six candidates for the next superintendent of Ann Arbor Public Schools will begin at 10 a.m. Monday and AnnArbor.com will be covering it live.

The two-day process to find Patricia Green's replacement is being held at the Courtyard Marriott at 3205 Boardwalk Boulevard in Ann Arbor.

Green's retirement is effective Tuesday. She served two years in the position.

The Board of Education finalized a list of questions for the six candidates last week and will interview three candidates Monday and three on Tuesday.

The candidates are:

• Jeanice Kerr Swift, assistant superintendent of Colorado Springs District 11 in Colorado Springs, Colo.
• Brian Osborne, superintendent of South Orange-Maplewood School District in New Jersey
• Richard Faidley, superintendent of Derry Township Schools in Hershey, Pa.
• Henry Hastings, instructor at Eastern Michigan University College of Business
• Sandra Harris, retired superintendent of Oak Park School District in Oak Park
• Benjamin Edmonson, principal of Roberto Clemente High School in Ann Arbor

Thomson Reuters Corp. has voluntarily agreed to suspend the early release of a consumer sentiment survey conducted by the University of Michigan while the New York Attorney General’s office investigates the practice, a story on Bloomberg Businessweek reported.

Thomson Reuters will continue to release the University of Michigan produced survey to its clients at 9:55 a.m. but will not give the information to special subscribers two seconds early.

According to the survey's website, over 500 phone interviews are conducted every month to determine consumer sentiment in regard to personal finances, business conditions and buying conditions. The survey was founded in 1946 by University of Michigan professor George Katona.

The New York attorney general is investigating whether this tiered system constitutes a violation of insider trading regulations, according to the Bloomberg report. When news of the tiered system was first released in June, university spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald told CNBC that U-M’s arrangement with Thomson Reuters complied with regulations and that the index is produced with private funds.

Read the full article from Bloomberg Businessweek.

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Get in touch with Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2

Taproot headlines the first A2 Fest this weekend.

The four-member Taproot started off locally in 1997 and went national in 2002, scoring a rock hit with “Poem.” They released a new album, “The Episodes,” in April 2012.

Breaking Point Entertainment, from Monroe, which promotes both music and sporting events, is presenting A2 Fest, the company’s first foray into the Ann Arbor market. Jeff Pitock, the company’s president, said he expects 4,000-6,000 people over the course of the two-day event, with more than 60 bands—many of them from Michigan—performing on seven stages.

“A2 Fest is stacked with local and national talent not only in rock, but hip-hop as well,” said Pitock. “The idea is an all-in-one package for festival goers.”

The event also includes martial arts and cage fighting on Friday night. “(It will be) a full-on competition,” said Pitock. “Michigan Combat League are the people that are hosting. (There will be)15 matchups … It’s the real deal.”

“We refer to it as two days of mixed music and mayhem,” Pitock said. “Just because it says mayhem doesn’t mean it’s the brawling, hateful kind of stuff. … All of them are good bands, from emo bands to rock bands to even a few metal bands.”

Taproot guitarist Mike DeWolf said the Ann Arbor homecoming marks the end of this leg of “The Gift” tour, in which the band plays all the songs from its 2002 major label debut album.

“It was kind of exciting for us to play some of the songs we haven’t played (for a while) and for the fans to hear some songs they haven’t heard in a really long time,” DeWolf explained.

“It should be a good time for everybody” he said of A2Fest. “I’m excited to hang out and see all these kinds of big mishmash of bands.”

Saturday will also include a performance by the joke/metal band Green Jelly, known as much for their rowdy behavior back in the 1980s as for their minor 1992 hit "Three Little Pigs."

Friday’s musical headliner will be Cleveland-based industrial metal band Ventana, an offshoot of another Cleveland metal band, Mushroomhead. Other Friday bands will include Losing September, Saint Diablo, Ghost in the Machine and Fall II Rise.

Other scheduled bands for Saturday are Critical Bill, Blue Felix, Psychostick, Motown Rage and Another Lost Year, as well as artists from Flint’s Day Uno hip-hop label and The Dayton Family.

Pitock said he is particularly excited to have Chris Webby on the bill.

He’s “making some serious waves in the industry,” Pitock said. “He is the next to follow in the footsteps as fellow (rap) performers such as MGK and Mac Miller.”

You might say Detroiter Russ Glenn got into the music business by accident.

While studying resource and environmental management at a college in Australia, Glenn was at a club one night when the house band ran out of songs. They asked for volunteers to come up and play, and he jammed on one of his favorite songs, Jane’s Addiction’s “Jane Says.”

Nowadays Glenn, who performs at Crazy Wisdom Tea Room Friday, plays a mix of mostly acoustic rock-folk-funk that brings to mind such artists as Jack Johnson and Ben Harper. “A Brand New Earth” is his third and latest independent release.

According to critics, Glenn “writes melodic, soothing odes that crawl inside the recesses of your subconscious and root there for days at a time,” and have compared him to “a fiery version of Van Morrison” with a “Morrissey and Stipe vibe.”

Russ Glenn plays at Crazy Wisdom Tea Room, 114 S. Main St., Friday, July 12 at 8:30 p.m. Admission is free. Details at www.crazywisdom.net or 734-665-9468.

The legacy of the former Borders flagship store continues to be reinvented as new restaurants like Slurping Turtle sign leases to move into the downstairs retail spaces.

Ben Freed | AnnArbor.com

Iron Chef America participant and Chicago-based restaurateur Takashi Yagihashi announced Monday that he has signed a lease for 5,296 square feet in the former Borders flagship store to open a Slurping Turtle restaurant.

The new restaurant will join Knights Steakhouse in the first floor of the landmark downtown building as the space begins to take on a theme of expanding Ann Arbor’s downtown culinary offerings.

Yagihashi owns two restaurants in Chicago, Slurping Turtle and Takashi. He has previously expressed interest in bringing Slurping Turtle, his Japanese tapas and noodle house concept, to Ann Arbor, but said in January that he was still negotiating a lease.

According to the restaurant's website, menu offerings at Slurping Turtle include sashimi, a "bincho grill," a range of noodle dishes and "bento brunch."

Before moving to Chicago, Yagihashi was the chef for eight years at Tribute in Farmington Hills. The restaurant, which closed in 2009, was lauded by the New York Times as “maybe the best restaurant between New York and Chicago.”

Takashi Yagihashi has been interested in bringing Slurping Turtle to Ann Arbor for more than 6 months. He found his location in the former Borders flagship store downtown.

From Facebook

Cavendar said the building owners hope to hand control of the spaces over to the tenants by early fall with restaurants opening as early as January of 2014.

Yagihashi won a James Beard award in 2003 and has appeared on multiple television shows including “Top Chef Masters.”

Office space in the landmark building on East Liberty Street is completely filled with companies and schools focusing on data and information. Barracuda Networks, PRIME Research North America and the University of Michigan School of Information have combined to lease approximately 65,000 square feet and they expect to have approximately 500 employees in the building within the next five years.

The building had been vacant and under renovation since Borders closed the store in September 2011 as part of bankruptcy proceedings.

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Get in touch with Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2

A closely-watched clinical trial at the University of Michigan has produced positive results for ALS patients treated with stem cells, according to media reports.

The trial is the first of its kind to use stem cells for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. It's a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

Dr. Eva Feldman

Courtesy of U-M

At the time of the clinical trial, the patients that saw positive effects were in the early stages of the disease and did not have ALS symptoms of trouble speaking or swallowing, according to the Detroit News.

According to the ALS Association, the disease affects as many as 30,000 people in the U.S. each day.

• Read the full report in the Detroit News

Amy Biolchini covers Washtenaw County, health and environmental issues for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at (734) 623-2552, amybiolchini@annarbor.com or on Twitter.

Shawn Phillips

Since those early days, the self-taught musician recorded more than 20 albums that draw on folk-rock, jazz, progressive, pop and classical styles. Born in Texas, he lived for a decade in Italy, and now works as a firefighter and EMT in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where he issues new music from his home studio.

The All Music Guide calls Phillips "one of most fascinating and enigmatic musicians to come out of the early '70s singer-songwriter boom," and even if you can't fit him into any other category, he definitely belongs in the one labeled “musicians to see when you have the chance.”

And guess what? Your chance comes Friday.

Shawn Phillips performs at The Ark, 316 S. Main St., at 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $20. Details: www.theark.org or 734-761-1800.

July is unofficially "list season" in the world of college football, with annual rankings and award watch lists popping up seeming ly everyday in anticipation of the upcoming college football slate.

Ron English is 10-38 in four years at Eastern Michigan

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com file

Eastern Michigan coach Ron English has landed on an undesirable one.

English was named one of the five worst coaches in college football Monday by Sports Illustrated. Columnist Stewart Mandel brought back the annual column, which names the 10 best and five worst coaches in the NCAA Division I ranks, after a six-year hiatus.

English made the revived list after compiling a 10-38 career record in four years at Eastern. The Eagles went 2-10 last season after going 6-6 the previous one. English is entering the final year of his five-year contract.

Illinois’ Tim Beckman, Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, USC’s Lane Kiffin and Kansas’ Charlie Weis are also on the list, which is presented in alphabetical order. Alabama’s Nick Saban was named college football’s best coach while Michigan's Brady Hoke was one of five coaches mentioned as coaches who "could be on the list in three years."

• Read the entire Sports Illustrated article

Kyle Austin covers sports for AnnArbor.com.

The fact that Dexter Township Clerk Harley B. Rider started cruising on a motorcycle at the age of 15 is not altogether surprising.

Harley Rider

File photo | AnnArbor.com

When he bought his first motorcycle, it was a Honda -- which prompted the nickname of "Honda Rider," according to a Detroit Free Press interview with Rider.

Though he's been given grief for his name, Rider, 64, has never owned a Harley-Davidson cycle.

• Read the full interview in the Detroit Free Press

Amy Biolchini covers Washtenaw County, health and environmental issues for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at (734) 623-2552, amybiolchini@annarbor.com or on Twitter.

The National Weather Service has issued a significant weather advisory for northeastern Washtenaw County in effect until 2:30 p.m.

A strong thunderstorm was spotted near Whitmore Lake at 1:39 p.m. moving east at 20 mph, the weather service said.

The storm could produce pea-sized hail and winds up to 40 mph as well as heavy rain, forecasters said.

The storm was expected to be affecting Dixboro at 1:55 p.m. and the Salem Township area at 2:10 p.m.

Torrential rain could flood low-lying areas, the weather service warned. Don’t drive on flooded roads.

A man wearing a scarf on his face walked into a Scio Township CVS, showed employees a handgun tucked into his trousers and then fled with an undisclosed amount of money Saturday night, police said.

Deputies from the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office were called to the CVS located at 5445 Jackson Ave. around 9:40 p.m. Saturday, according to a crime summary.

"The suspect entered the store and demanded money from employees while showing them a handgun that was tucked in his pants," police said in the summary.

The man fled to an unknown location once he got the money, police said.

The suspect is described as a white man in his mid-20s, 6 feet tall, skinny, wearing a brown hoodie, black jeans and gloves. A black scarf covered his face.

Police continue to investigate.

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If you have any information please contact the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office at (734) 994-2911 or anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.

The University Club, which first opened in the Michigan Union in 1937, will close its doors for good Aug. 13. The club will be replaced by Au Bon Pain, a cafe and bakery with approximately 315 locations worldwide.

The University Club at the Michigan Student Union will close to make way for an Au Bon Pain.

Angela Cesere | AnnArbor.com

“Our selection committee was very impressed with both Au Bon Pain and Starbucks,” Susan Pile, the director of the Michigan Union. said in a statement.

“Both are a good fit with the broad range of students and others who visit the Union each day.”

The union has been undergoing renovations to its ground floor level throughout the summer. Vendors on that level, which include Ahmo’s Mediterranean Grill, Panda Express, Subway, Freshens and Wendy’s, are expected to open later in the summer.

The Michigan Union said in a press release the Au Bon Pain will be open the same hours the union is open, 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Sunday. The University Club only has been open for lunch for a number of years.

According to its website, the University Club began as a faculty club that included a billiards room and a two-story lounge and adjoining library. In 1970, the club reinvented itself as a “members-only” dining room and bar but continued to have trouble attracting membership due to high fees.

The “U-Club” became a nightclub frequented in the 1980s after membership fees were eliminated for University of Michigan students. Its popularity was enhanced by the fact it allowed entrance to students under 21 years old.

Pile said in the release the U-Club has struggled to capture a wide audience and remain financially viable for the university. The club stopped serving alcohol and became a lunch-only establishment in the 1990s.

Plans for the remodeling done by Au Bon Pain to the U-Club space will include a performance area for music and other presentations, according to the press release.

The new cafe will be Au Bon Pain’s second location in Michigan, joining a franchise in the Renaissance Center in Detroit. The Starbucks will be the tenth in the Ann Arbor area, and the fourth in the city’s downtown joining locations on Main Street, State Street and South University Avenue.

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Get in touch with Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2