Over 1,000 people stood outside 
in the snow and frigid November 
temperatures Thursday evening, 
waiting to listen to conservative 
political commentator Ben Shapiro’s 
talk at the Rackham Auditorium. 
The event was hosted by the 
University of Michigan chapter of 
Young Americans for Freedom. 
Shapiro will continue his lecture 
tour at other campuses throughout 
the fall. 
Controversy seized campus as 
Shapiro — known for his mantra 
“Facts 
don’t 
care 
about 
your 
feelings” — kicked off his “Exposing 
the Great Reset” lecture tour at the 
University. While Shapiro spoke 

Wednesday evening, over a dozen 
protestors also stood on the steps 
outside of Rackham, chanting “Ben’s 
a mouthpiece of the state. No sense, 
just hate” and holding signs such as 
“No to Shapiro. No to Bigotry.” 
Charles Hilu, Young Americans 
for Freedom (YAF) Chairman, 
introduced Shapiro by crediting 
YAF’s dedication to putting on 
public speaking events like the 
lecture on Tuesday. 
“Throughout this great history, 
we’ve relied on the presence of 
great spokesmen, people who can 
make the case to the public for the 
ideology of freedom,” Hilu said. 
“People like Barry Goldwater, like 
Ronald Reagan, like William F. 
Buckley, Jr — and now, thanks to 
the generous support of (YAF), one 
of those great spokesmen comes to 
Michigan tonight.” 

Shapiro spoke about the idea 
of a “Great Reset” in the global 
economy following the COVID-
19 pandemic. Shapiro said he does 
not think corporations should be 
working with national governments 
to enact policy changes such as 
those involving climate change and 
mental health. 
“The 
fact 
that 
corporations 
are working hand in glove with 
the government right now should 
be a very scary thing to all of us,” 
Shapiro said. “What’s scary about 
our current economic moment, is 
that the leaders in the ‘Great Reset’ 
are not actually governmental actors 
who would be answerable to you.”
Shapiro then transitioned into 
a Q&A session during which he 
invited audience members to ask 
questions about his views on any 
topic of interest.
When asked about the results 
of the 2020 election, Shapiro said 
he does not think voter fraud 
contributed to former President 
Donald Trump’s loss to President 
Joe Biden. Still, Shapiro said he is 
opposed to mail-in voting. 
“Fraud wasn’t the cause of Donald 
Trump losing the 2020 election,” 
Shapiro said. “Donald Trump was 
the cause of Donald Trump losing 
the 2020 election. I don’t like the 
changeable rules to allow for vast 
mail-in balloting. I, on principle, 
oppose it. I think that people should 
go on the day of the election and vote 
on the day of the election.”

Ann Arbor City Council met 
Monday 
evening 
at 
Larcom 
City Hall to elect the mayor 
pro tempore for 2022 to 2024, 
establishing 
the 
order 
of 
succession for acting mayor. The 
entire meeting lasted roughly 45 
minutes.
City 
Councilmember 
Travis Radina, D-Ward 3, was 
unanimously 
elected 
by 
the 

Council as Ann Arbor’s mayor 
pro tem, and will serve as Ann 
Arbor’s first openly gay mayor 
pro tem in over two decades. 
Mayor pro tem is an elected 
position 
that 
establishes 
the 
temporary mayor of Ann Arbor 
if the currently elected mayor, 
Democrat Christopher Taylor, is 
unavailable.
At the meeting, Radina said he 
is excited to hold this position for 
the upcoming term.
“I am honored that my new 
colleagues have placed (their) trust 
in me to serve in this important 
leadership role for our city, and 

welcome 
the 
opportunity 
to 
expand my service to this Council 
and the community we all love,” 
Radina said. “I am particularly 
humbled to be selected by the 
current composition of the City 
Council, which has become the 
most diverse in our city’s history. 
The magnitude of that honor and 
the responsibility that comes with 
it is not lost on me.”
The meeting was also the 
first time the five newly elected 
councilmembers joined the rest of 
the Council in Larcom City Hall.

Boobers are ubiquitous. From 
the bars lining South University 
Avenue to the paths criss-crossing 
the Diag, it is almost impossible 
to traverse the University of 
Michigan campus without seeing 
one of Boober Tours’ new electric-
powered pedicabs zip past on the 
sidewalk, with the driver shouting, 
“Boober Tours! It’s the only way!” 
over blasting music. 
“Boober” is a portmanteau of 
“bike” and “Uber” — the ride-
sharing company. Since 2016, 
Boober Tours in Ann Arbor has 
provided community members 
with an alternative way to get 
around. The company currently 
has about 15 drivers who drive the 
pedicabs throughout the city. 
But 
now, 
Kevin 
Spangler, 
founder of Boober Tours, is trying 
something new. In an interview 
with The Michigan Daily, Spangler 
said he wants to take his company 
to the next level by collaborating 

with local dispensaries around 
Ann Arbor.
“We’re also creating another 
way to arrange tours, which (we’re 
calling) ‘Doober’,” Spangler said. 
“So instead of Boober tours, it’s 
‘Doober Tours’ because ‘doobies’ is 
a slang name for marijuana.”
Over the past year, Spangler has 
been partnering with Wacky Weed 
Tours, another tour service, to use 
Boober’s pedicabs and drivers to 
help visitors experience marijuana 
culture throughout Ann Arbor. 
Sarah O’Leary, founder of Wacky 
Weed Tours and a close friend of 
Spangler’s, said the tour has been 
a success due to Michigan’s low 
marijuana sales tax, which makes 
it cheaper for Boober passengers 
to sample a variety of marijuana 
products. She also touted the 
density of dispensaries downtown. 
O’Leary said everyone in Ann 
Arbor recognizes Spangler and his 
Boobers. She said partnering with 
him was an obvious choice, and 
she jumped at the opportunity to 
be a part of his mission to entertain 
the Ann Arbor community.

“Everyone knows Kevin, and 
everyone should know Kevin,” 
O’Leary said. “He and I have 
similar 
reasons 
in 
terms 
of 
purpose. We both want to be 
successful entrepreneurs, and we 
want to build community, so we 
get along great.”
O’Leary said her tour takes 
participants to some of the oldest 
marijuana stores in Ann Arbor so 
they can learn about the history of 
the weed industry. These historical 
“high-lights” include Mission Ann 
Arbor, a dispensary located on 
South Main Street established 
in 2010 after Michigan legalized 
medical marijuana in 2008.
James Klotz, general manager 
of Mission Ann Arbor, said he loves 
when customers roll up on a Boober 
to shop at the store regardless 
of whether they are part of the 
Wacky Weed Tour. Klotz said he’s 
even started offering discounts 
for Boober riders to encourage his 
customers to take advantage of the 
pedicab transportation system. 
“We created tickets to promote 
Boober,” Klotz said. “You can get 

a (Boober) over here to get a free 
pre-roll out of it. We feel like it 
was a good partnership because 
if people don’t have cars, they can 
get around through Boober, and 
that also adds a little bit of extra 
advertising for us.”
Though 
collaborating 
with 
businesses 
located 
downtown 
has been good for business so far, 
Spangler said he is also hoping to 
start working with dispensaries 
farther from the city center. 
“We want to do ‘Doober tours’ 
outside of downtown because 
we’re getting new ad deals,” 
Spangler said. “Instead of moving 
to another city, I’m expanding our 
footprint to outer-town, and I’m 
trying to connect Westside Ann 
Arbor with Main Street and then, 
in the future, North Campus.”
Spangler’s vision to help connect 
different geographical parts of the 
Ann Arbor area resonated with 
JARS, a medical and recreational 
marijuana retailer that opened on 
the Packard/Platt strip in 2021. 
JARS is also partnering with 
Boober Tours, advertising on the 

pedicabs. In an interview with 
The Daily, JARS retail manager 
Katie Howe said advertising on 
the Boobers provided an effective 
way for JARS to promote their 
dispensary to college students who 
might not otherwise know about 
them.
“(Boober) 
provided 
some 
exciting brand exposure for us, 
being able to ride past big groups,” 

Howe said. “We are in the heart 
of the residential commercial 
space and we’re able to marry 
the two communities together. I 
like to think of us as a common 
meeting place, so we can really 
expand our reach with the help 
of (advertisements on the) Boober 
cabins.”

Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the 
State of Michigan’s chief medical 
executive, delivered the inaugural 
Susan 
Moore, 
M.D. 
Memorial 
Lecture Tuesday night. The lecture, 
titled “Recognizing and Addressing 
Health Inequities: Building Upon The 
Lessons Learned During COVID-19,” 
was hosted by Michigan Medicine’s 
Department of Anesthesiology to 
honor Dr. Susan Moore, a 2002 
graduate 
of 
the 
University 
of 
Michigan Medical School. In 2020, 
Moore passed away from COVID-
19 after posting a video speaking 
out about receiving racially biased 
treatment in an Indiana hospital.
Dr. Matthew Wixson, assistant 
professor of anesthesiology and the 
department’s associate chair for 
diversity, said the video received 
national attention. As a person of 
Color working in healthcare, Wixson 
said watching it affected him on a 
deeply personal level. 
“If it can happen to Dr. Moore, who 
was a celebrated and accomplished 
graduate (of medical school), it can 

happen to anybody,” Wixson said. 
“Today and in the future, Dr. Moore’s 
legacy is an inspiration to make 
lasting change.”
Bagdasarian said Moore’s death 
and the COVID-19 pandemic called 
attention to preexisting racial health 
disparities seen across the country. 
Bagdasarian said at one point in 
May 2020, the COVID-19 mortality 
rate was five times higher for non-
Hispanic Blacks in Michigan than 
non-Hispanic whites. According to 
Bagdasarian, health disparities are 
caused by socioeconomic differences, 
reduced 
access 
to 
healthcare, 
education and healthy food and 
exposure to racial and ethnic 
discrimination.
“You’re seeing that disparity,” 
Bagdasarian said. “You’re seeing 
that (COVID-19) cases in African 
Americans were much higher.”
In addition to disparities in 
COVID-19 
cases 
and 
deaths, 
Bagdasarian said there has also 
been a significant difference in 
vaccination rates between different 
racial and ethnic groups. She said 
the Michigan Department of Health 
and 
Human 
Services 
reported 
51.7% of non-Hispanic whites in 

Michigan have completed an initial 
COVID-19 
vaccination 
sequence, 
while only 39.5% of non-Hispanic 
Blacks have. Bagdasarian said part 
of this difference can be explained 
by previous medical mistreatment 
of Black Americans, such as the 
Tuskegee Syphilis Study conducted 
from 1932 to 1972, which resulted in 
a marked mistrust in the healthcare 
system.

“We’ve 
heard 
about 
fears 
about what has been done to 
Black communities in the past,” 
Bagdasarian said. “We’ve also heard 
that Black voices are not listened to.”
According to Bagdasarian, there 
have been numerous local and 
statewide efforts in Michigan to 
address health disparities based 
on race and other demographic 
identities. 
One 
of 
the 
steps 

Bagdasarian found effective was 
the establishment of the Michigan 
Coronavirus Task Force on Racial 
Disparities in April 2020, which 
was launched by Executive Order 
2020-55 in an effort to address racial 
disparities in healthcare.
“This was a task force of 
community leaders, health care 
professionals (and) people from 
the affected communities coming 
together and trying to solve this 
problem 
of 
health 
disparities,” 
Bagdasarian said. “Their goals were 
to increase transparency in data 
recording, reduce barriers to mental 
health and medical care, to decrease 
medical bias, improve infrastructure 
and support recovery.” 
Bagdasarian said the task force 
partnered with local communities 
throughout the state to establish 
COVID-19 
testing 
sites 
and 
vaccination centers, relying on the 
CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index 
to determine what areas would 
most 
benefit 
from 
healthcare 
infrastructure. Besides the pop-up 
sites, Bagdasarian said it is important 
to make sure that vaccines become 
more widely available at trusted 
medical centers, including primary 

care offices and family healthcare 
facilities.
“We know that trusted messengers 
are key,” Bagdasarian said. “One of 
the things that’s come up again and 
again when we’ve done focus groups 
is that patients who are hesitant 
about vaccines for themselves or 
their children. They want to talk 
to their trusted messenger. … They 
want to talk to a physician they 
know and trust, and they want to get 
their children vaccinated by their 
pediatrician. That’s not happening.”
Bagdasarian 
emphasized 
that 
while racial disparities in health care 
became more obvious during the 
COVID-19 pandemic, they are part 
of a longstanding systemic issue. In 
urban areas of Michigan, she said, 
Black infants are about three times 
more likely to die before their first 
birthday than white infants, and the 
maternal mortality rate is also higher 
amongst Black Michiganders than 
White Michiganders. 

“So how do we dismantle this 
system?” Bagdasarian asked. “I think 
everyone can tackle it in a way, but we 
must do the work.”

News
Wednesday, November 30, 2022 — 3 

 ‘Everyone knows Kevin’: Boober partners with Ann Arbor dispensaries in 
effort to unite community 

ANN ARBOR

Collaboration sparks conversations around marijuana culture

City Council elects Travis Radina 
for Ann Arbor mayor pro tem

NEWS

Five newly elected councilmembers attend first meeting

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

SHANNON STOCKING & 
SEJAL PATIL
Daily News Editor & 
Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

CHEN LYU
Daily Staff Reporter

TESS CROWLEY/Daily
Boober T
ours founder Kevin Spangler drives a pedicab on campus in November 2021.

Ben Shapiro speaks at UMich, 
incites mixed reactions 

GOVERNMENT

Students protest outside Rackham over controversial viewpoints 

Michigan Chief Medical Executive delivers talk on health inequalities

RESEARCH

Pandemic called attention to racial disparities, socioeconomic differences

NADIA TAECKENS
Daily Staff Reporter

Distinguished University Professorship 
recipients speak at inaugural lecture series

ACADEMICS

Three faculty members discuss their work in mathematics, 
economics and engineering

Three 
University 
of 
Michigan 
professors 
— 
Karen Smith, Joel Slemrod 
and 
Lutgarde 
Raskin 
— 
were 
honored 
with 
the 
Distinguished 
University 
Professorship 
and 
each 
delivered 
an 
address 
at 
the lecture series Tuesday 
afternoon at the Alexander G. 

Ruthven Building. The newly 
appointed 
Distinguished 
University Professors have 
the opportunity to name their 
own Professorship after a 
person of distinction in their 
field.
To recognize the University 
of 
Michigan’s 
exceptional 
scholars 
and 
faculty, 
the 
Board of Regents established 
the Distinguished University 
Professorships in 1947. Those 
who receive the Professorship 

must 
be 
nominated 
by 
colleagues or their deans. U-M 
President Santa Ono opened 
the 
event 
and 
introduced 
the Professorship recipients. 
He said though the three 
faculty members come from 
diverse fields of mathematics, 
economics and engineering, 
they are all united by shared 
values.

SEJAL PATIL
Daily Staff Reporter

American conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro speaks to students at a Young 
Americans for Freedom event at Rackham Auditorium Tuesday night.

EMILY BLUMBERG & 
MARTHA LEWAND
Daily Staff Reporters

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Chief Medical Executive for the State of Michigan, discusses the 
impact of health disparities on marginalized communities, particularly those of color, at the 
Medical Science Building Tuesday evening. 

KEITH MELONG/Daily

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

JENNA HICKEY/Daily