| August 28, 2026Can you guess what’s pictured above? Click the image to find out! |
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| | It turns out, people don’t really like it when elected politicians try to shame journalists into not reporting — or even discussing — on something.
Two weeks ago, I included a link to a Substack post by former city attorney Bruce Laidlaw. In it, Laidlaw shared an account of being stymied in pursuit of unredacted public documents related to the death, apparently by suicide, of SouthTown codeveloper Margaret Poscher. (In case you haven’t read it, be forewarned that it deals with suicide. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call 988.)
Last week, I explained our reasoning and defended Laidlaw’s effort, which was supported by links to a pile of previously unpublished material that raises fair questions about how well the police investigated the death and what impact Poscher’s considerable life insurance payouts to wife and business partner Heidi Poscher had in, among other things, the tenuous viability of SouthTown.
(Note: Heidi Poscher, who has changed her name at least four other times in her life, now calls herself Caroline Poscher. Caroline is her middle name. When asked by a friend on Facebook about the change, she said she “always” used it for business. This is demonstrably false as decades of public documents and her own introductions of herself in testimony to council and other boards proves.)
The fact that three councilmembers — and now they’ve been joined by a planning commissioner, by the by — wrote angry notes to us about this struck many people (and us) as peculiar, if not a downright conspiracy. What’s more, a fresh FOIA result obtained by former councilmember Elizabeth Nelson this week found that one councilmember, U-M political science professor Lisa Disch, sent a draft of her nastygram to the Observer from her personal email address to the personal (non-city) email addresses of every other councilmember and the mayor.
Despite these efforts to mute coverage of the thrice-convicted felon Heidi “Caroline” Poscher, the Observer received more complimentary feedback from readers for last week’s response than for anything in my time as a2view editor. (More of you gave me gluten-free Thanksgiving recipes for my mom and told me which parking lots you hate most, but I asked for that.) In this case, it was note after unsolicited note thanking us for not backing down. And yeah, there were a few negative replies, notably from that planning commissioner who, oddly, didn’t identify himself as one.
It’s emboldening and affirming – and we aren’t even the ones who muckraked this material. So thank you. We will continue to look into this matter and any other that piques our curiosity or strikes us as having relevance to the public interest.
Your news is here – and includes an exclusive first look at the new tentative contract between AAPS and the teacher’s union. Also, a judge dismissed the Trump administration’s ICE-related lawsuit against Washtenaw County; the library’s bedbugs are gone; Juicy Kitchen has finally reopened; and congresswoman Debbie Dingell did some Jon Ossoff–level (inspired?) trolling of the president.
This is last week’s most-clicked link.
– Steve Friess, editor |
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| | | | | | | | | EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK AT NEW AAPS TEACHER CONTRACT OFFER: You can read here the tentative agreement the Ann Arbor Education Association shared with building reps and other union leaders on Thursday in advance of a membership meeting on Monday at Skyline High. Members will vote on the agreement from Wednesday, September 2 through Friday, September 4. Key elements include: 1.5 percent raises per year for two years, to be paid retroactively for the 2025-26 school year; a new salary step that is 4 percent higher than the previous highest step, to be created starting January 2027; no increases in class sizes, reductions in paid teacher prep time, or cuts to elementary school programs; and a 2 percent increase in the district’s health insurance premium contributions on top of a state-mandated increase. This agreement expires at the end of 2027, which means negotiations begin anew this spring — assuming this is ratified by the membership.
Superintendent Jazz Parks announced the agreement earlier this week by saying that “reaching this moment took hard work, good faith, and shared commitments.” Nobody from AAEA has yet made public comments about the quality of the offer.
The new TA is notably different from the one that AAEA members, who have been working under an expired contract since January 1, almost unanimously rejected in April. And it comes the same week Parks told the board the district should immediately sell its two administrative buildings — one on Earhart Rd. and the other on State St. — to raise $9.5 million. Parks said the district would renovate another building in the district to put its administrative offices. AAPS needs to stabilize its finances in the face of dropping enrollment that is reducing its per-pupil state funding. Look for my report on proposed school consolidations in the September issue of the Observer. |
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| | Judge tosses federal lawsuit against county over ICE: The Trump administration sought damages for Washtenaw County’s policy of restricting immigration enforcement officials from entering county-owned buildings, but U.S. district judge F. Kay Behm dismissed it this week in an eighty-six-page ruling. “Neither the federal government nor the President may conscript local officials to enforce their will,” wrote Behm, a Biden appointee. “The government cannot otherwise compel localities to enforce the President’s priorities in the manner it wishes.” |
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| Courtesy: Richard Primus (second from left) |
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| Clerking for the Notorious RGB: To commemorate the anniversary of the appointment of late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Davi Napoleon talked to four Ann Arborites who worked for the “notoriously tough boss.” The anecdotes from Richard Primus, Eli Savit, Jonathan Weinberg, and Scott Hershovitz are charming, but it’s the vintage photos (like this above) that make this package an absolute delight.
AAPS confronts sagging reading scores: Just 56 percent of third-graders met or exceeded proficiency standards in English Language Arts in the M-STEP assessments in the 2024–25 school year, the district’s worst showing since the test began in 2015, Shelley Daily reports. It’s a statewide trend that has prompted the district to rethink how to teach reading – including a shift to new curriculum materials and more access to training for educators. Daily writes about the shift to the new approach in the first of a series of articles about literacy in Ann Arbor.
Good news on gun, overdose deaths: The Washtenaw County Health Department released encouraging data for 2025 that showed drops in those, as well as one fewer death by suicide versus 2024, Annabelle Ye writes. Officials pointed to Narcan vending machines, grants provided by a $16.3 million opioid settlement fund, and public education campaigns as among the reasons for the improvements. |
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| | | Ann Arbor teachers aren’t the only ones working without a contract amid protracted, bitter negotiations.
MDOT is weighing flex lanes for I-94 from Ann Arbor–Saline Rd. to US-23.
Juicy Kitchen is finally open again.
U-M researchers set records in fiscal year 2026 with 726 new inventions and forty start-ups.
Debbie Dingell went viral with this zinger, which would no doubt make her late husband and one-time “Dean of Twitter” very proud. She also had some snappy words there at an appearance with Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed at U-M on Wednesday.
Sheriff Alyshia Dyer put MLive on blast over this report about Ann Arbor and Ypsi being in the top fifty “most violent areas” in Michigan.
Yes, there are rent-a-cops downtown. For your safety, of course.
The Frontier Club, an exclusive golf course, is being developed in Lodi Twp.
Scio Twp. is considering cuts to WAVE bus service because the public transit property millage isn’t producing enough revenue.
Evidently nothing – not even the Big House scoreboard – is sacrosanct. Although, to be honest, I’m surprised this has taken so long.
Ypsi Pride, postponed in July because of the heavy smoke from Canada’s wildfires, is Sunday.
No, really. Why do people do obnoxious things like this?
Or this?
The bedbugs have checked out of Ypsi’s downtown library.
Chelsea has what looks like a pretty awesome, innovative new park.
Also in Chelsea, the city council fired its city manager “with cause” after six months on the job. Nobody will say why, though.
The Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund awarded $308,600 to Ypsilanti Twp. for a pavilion and bathroom at North Bay Park and $400,000 for accessibility improvements at Parker Mill Park. Here’s hoping that includes paving Parker Mill’s ridiculously rutted parking lot.
Not to be outdone, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments is giving $1.6 million to the county and Superior and Ypsilanti twps. to improve the bike path along Clark Rd.
The Associated Press checked in on the Papyrus Conservation Summer Seminar at U-M, believed to be the only such instructional program in the Americas.
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| | | Breadmaker retires after three baker’s dozen years: Jeff Renner of Scio Twp., who turns eighty next month, delivered his last baguettes to Arbor Farms Market in June, capping a forty-six-year career that includes a blue ribbon from the state fair and other accolades. Renner tells Dave Algase this month it all started when he became a stay-at-home dad in 1975 and he started making bread for the preschool bake sales. “People would always buy it,” he recalls. “I mean, it was gone immediately, and then they’d say, ‘You know, I’m having a party. Can you make some of that for me?’”
West African restaurant opens in Ypsi: Galy’s is the brainchild of Guinea-born immigrant Bangaly Kaba, who learned traditional recipes to allay homesickness, the Eastern Echo writes. His aim is to offer cuisine from across the region, not just any particular country. “The food from America and Africa is very different, but it also depends on what you classify as ‘different’ because Southern American food is similar to African food,” Kaba says. “Food from New Orleans is very similar to West African food; so is creole. There’s a few similarities there.”
Flip Retro plays the nostalgia card: The new trading spot for collectibles and video games has opened in the West Stadium Shopping Center, Algase writes this month. Twenty-three-year-old Yousif Alghazaly, who was born and raised in Ann Arbor, says the store was inspired by playing Pokémon tournaments with his brothers during Covid. Several brands of cards are on hand for both casual play and high-end collections, with graded examples behind glass priced up to $6,000. |
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| | | Humane Society of Huron Valley waives cat adoption fees amid influx: The regional shelter says it is handling 149 felines rescued from hoarder situations in Ann Arbor Twp., Manchester, Northville, and Ypsi over the summer, WXYZ reports. Fees to adopt adult cats have been waived to make space.
County promotes use of Bridge cards at restaurants: The Washtenaw County Health Department is spotlighting the fact that certain eateries can accept the public assistance cards as payment. They must be restaurants that serve “food that would be considered meals” and have seating available, which excludes food trucks, ice cream shops, and smoothie shops. The effort appears aimed at persuading restauranteurs to enroll in the program; there are only eight in Washtenaw County, including four Subways.
Group erects white crosses to draw attention to suicide: Each day between August 19 and September 17, the veterans mental health nonprofit 22 a Day is adding twenty-two crosses to a field at the corner of S. Huron River Dr. and Veterans Memorial Pkwy. in Ypsilanti Twp. to commemorate the number of past and current military servicemembers who die by suicide every day according to Veterans Administration data. The group seeks volunteers to help position the crosses every morning at 10 a.m. |
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| | | Friday: Ride a ferris wheel, see a truck and tractor pull, or witness the crowning of a fair queen at the four-day Chelsea Community Fair, which ends Saturday.
Saturday: See traditional Arabian dance and music performances, try some food, henna art, calligraphy, and crafts at the Arabian Nights Festival.
Sunday: Run, walk, row, or roll 5K or a mile at the Unified Dexter 5K to raise funds for the U-M Adaptive Sports & Fitness AdaptX program.
See the Observer’s online calendar for many more local events. |
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