There’s a “study” out this week that names Ann Arbor as the “most-educated city” in America. Such rankings are catnip for many media outlets that report it as actual news, so you may have seen or heard about this.

They’re not news. The purpose of these lists isn’t to enlighten anybody about anything; it’s a highly subjective rearrangement or compilation of existing data from disparate sources concocted to draw clicks to some financial or media website. Even something as famous as the U.S. News & World Report rankings of colleges and universities are suspect and manipulative. A different tabulation that gives various factors more or less weight can turn out completely different lists. It’s piffle.

It’s nice when your town scores well, so I get the boosterish rationale of “reporting” on it. But there’s a dark side to taking such things seriously, as I learned early in my career at the Rockford Register Star in Rockford, IL. In 1996, the big headline from Money magazine’s “best places to live” issue was that Madison, WI, was No. 1 and Rockford, seventy miles south, was No. 300, or dead last.

That label haunted Rockford. Being No. 300 was equated with the “worst” even if Money didn’t frame it as such. Once the Associated Press picked up on the tidy dichotomy of the list’s first and last places existing so close to one another, the city became a national laughingstock. There were real-world consequences, too. What company wants to relocate or build in the supposed worst place in America?

And Rockford, for all its flaws, didn’t seem so bad to me. There were more dangerous, poorer, uglier, costlier places. The weather is indistinguishable from Madison, so that couldn’t be a factor. Rockford was just a nice, average Midwestern city on a lovely river surrounded by bucolic farms and quaint small towns. And yet that ranking gave the city a complex and a reputation for years.

Ann Arbor certainly has a highly educated population. Is it the “most”? Maybe. Heck, probably!  But all this list really tells us is what we already knew: this is a small city that’s home to a big university.

Your real news is here. It’s a holiday week, so there’s a bit less of it. A new schools tax will be on the November ballot, a popular teacher’s firing is causing ire, and there’s a new nature preserve in southwest Washtenaw that could make a nice jaunt for a long weekend.

Please take good care of your pets and other sensitive creatures amid the cacophony of fireworks to come. Whenever July 4th falls on a weekend, people tend to be louder for longer regardless of the law.

– Steve Friess, editor
…with help from Anna McLean

P.S. Observer deputy editor Brooke Black is looking for a resident of the Abbot, Carpenter, Lawton, or Dicken elementary school districts to profile in the My Neighborhood series in this year’s upcoming City Guide. It’s a chance to talk about why you love where you live — just like these proud residents of Burns Park, Lakewood, and Haisley! If this sounds interesting, email Brooke. We can assign a contributor to write the profile or you can write it yourself.

U-M leaders getting round-the-clock security following threats, vandalism: Regents Jordan Acker, Mark Bernstein, and Sarah Hubbard told the Detroit News (paywall) they have been assigned 24-hour protection for several months amid fear of reprisals from pro-Palestinian activists angry about the school’s refusal to divest from companies believed to profit off Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Hubbard, whose home was vandalized in May 2024, added that “a number of other leaders at the university” also are receiving security after vandalism and death threats. The university would not disclose who is getting security, for how long, or at what price. Acker says his three young children find the need for security guards “emotionally very jarring.”

House GOP seeks $234.4M cut from U-M funding: Speaker Matt Hall tells MLive the two-thirds reduction for the university in the budget that passed last month is intended to discourage enrollment by international and out-of-state students and spur the school to accept more Michiganders who are more likely to remain here after graduation. Hall also complained about Michigan being overly focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs as well as “all these weird cultural experiments and changing the society.” U-M lobbyist Chris Kolb pushed back, noting that the school’s 18,000 in-state students is more than “the total enrollment at all but four other Michigan public universities.” This week, the legislature missed its legal deadline to approve a budget because of gridlock over differences between the Republican-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate.

Vocational school millage coming to November ballot: The Washtenaw Intermediate School District board of directors voted last week to ask voters to approve a 1 mill property tax for the coming decade to generate $25 million for expanded career technical education programs, according to a press release. Enrollment in CTE fields such as health sciences, entrepreneurship, engineering, robotics, construction trades, cybersecurity, aviation, and aerospace has increased by 69 percent in the past four years even as overall enrollment has declined, WISD says, and hundreds of students are on waitlists across the county.

$5.6M Head Start grant renewed: Despite jitters over whether the Trump administration would cut early childhood education programs, WISD announced this week it had received word it would continue to get its funding. The money goes to providing free preschool for three- and four-year-olds; more than 440 are expected to be eligible this fall countywide.

Opponents of Library Lane measures organize belatedly: Supporters of the plan to give AADL the ability to build a mixed-use high-rise spanning the current site of its downtown branch and the neighboring parking structure had raised about $60,000 to campaign for passage by early June, Julie Halpert writes in this month’s Observer. The Committee to Save Ann Arbor’s Parks, which opposes the plan as a defiance of a 2018 voter-approved city charter amendment that required the Library Lane lot to become a park, only launched a simple website last month and has an ad in this month’s Observer. Absentee ballots are beginning to arrive for what is expected to be a low-turnout election.

Community High English teacher’s dismissal causes anger: Parents and students are upset by the firing of Emma Hamstra, who lost her job after teaching allegedly inappropriate poems, MLive reports (paywall). Hamstra’s attorney declined to provide a list of the poems except for one by Franny Choi entitled, “To the Man Who Shouted ‘I Like Pork Fried Rice’ at Me on the Street,” about the objectification of an Asian woman. The school board discussed the matter in closed session and voted 6-1 to terminate Hamstra, who taught in the district for five years. Hamtra’s attorney said he expects a union challenge to the decision.

Slightly later start times for AAPS elementary students this fall: The district, in unveiling its calendars for the next two school years, revealed that changes to the busing plan would result in K-5 schools starting at 8:50 a.m. instead of 8:45 a.m. There’s no change to K-8, middle, or high schools. The changes came as the district returns to a three-tier bus system; the two-tier system that had been in place combined middle and high school routes.

Cellphones banned in Chelsea classrooms: Students will be required to keep their devices in their lockers during school hours to minimize distractions, superintendent Mike Kapolka tells MLive (paywall). The district has been testing limits on access to phones, with some teachers collecting them at the start of a period but allowing them to be used between classes or during lunchtime. “This change is rooted in our commitment to minimizing distractions, protecting instructional time, and supporting a focused and more connected school environment,” Kapolka says.

Santa Ono’s bizarre journey from president to pariah: Micheline Maynard documents the dizzying plummet from esteemed leader to Wolverine traitor and MAGA reject in the July Observer. Ono quit U-M in May expecting to be confirmed as president of University of Florida, along the way renouncing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts he had championed for much of his academic career. His ideological conversion was seen as insufficient to figures like Donald Trump Jr., and eventually a Florida oversight board rejected him.

Two arrested in drive-by shooting spree: In a social media post, Michigan State Police said the MSP and Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office apprehended a twenty-two-year-old Belleville man and a twenty-one-year-old Ypsi man who confessed to nine random shootings south of Ypsi between June 17 and 29. Nobody was injured in the incidents. Police say they also recovered a semi-automatic rifle and bullet casings consistent with the shootings when they made the arrests. The post credits “tremendous cooperation from the community” in identifying the suspects.

Man who killed trans woman asks for forgiveness: Ronnie Magbray, convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 2023 stabbing death of forty-four-year-old Amira O’Neill amid a drug deal gone bad, said at his sentencing he took “full responsibility of what happened” and “I leave here broken because my hands was the cause of death, and I’m truly sorry,” MLive reports (paywall). Trial judge Arianne Slay sentenced Magbray to between eight and fifteen years in prison.

Ex-coach gets two years probation for choking incident: Joshua Smith, who worked at Ypsilanti Middle School, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor aggravated assault in May in exchange for having other charges dropped, MLive reports (paywall). This week, he was sentenced by judge Carol Kuhnke, who also mandated he attend an anger management program. The thirty-one-year-old was caught on camera using a shirt to choke a fourteen-year-old in a dispute over whether the boy would do pushups. 

Harbaugh, Manuel added to Matt Weiss lawsuit: Plaintiffs have added the athletic director and the former football head coach to their action against U-M seeking damages after a now-fired assistant coach was criminally charged with illegally gathering the private, intimate images and information of female student-athletes, ClickOnDetroit reports. Lawyers for the sixty-two student-athlete plaintiffs from U-M and several other universities say Harbaugh and Manuel should not have allowed Weiss to remain on the job after potential misconduct became apparent in December 2022; Weiss was fired Jan. 20, 2023. According to court documents, Weiss allegedly hacked databases to download personal and medical information of more than 150,000 athletes at more than 100 colleges and universities.

Chelsea city managers resign: Martin Colburn was placed on leave in June and subsequently quit, with the city now seeking applicants for an interim city manager post, the Sun Times News writes. No explanation was given. Assistant city manager Susan Montenegro also resigned. Police chief Kevin Kazyak is the acting interim city manager.

New nature preserve opens: Iron Creek Preserve is a seventy-nine-acre public greenspace in Manchester Twp. on property donated to the Legacy Land Conservancy by Sybil Kolon and Maan Abdulbaki, according to a press release. The site in the southwest corner of the county features a mature oak-hickory forest and pockets of wetlands as well as 1,000 feet of waterfront on Iron Creek, a tributary of the River Raisin.

Dick’s coming to Briarwood as part of redevelopment: The sporting goods chain will occupy one of the new storefronts being built along with a four-story apartment building and a grocery store on the site of the former Sears, MLive writes (paywall). Dick’s, which currently has a location nearby on Lohr Rd., is expected to open in September 2026 after the apartment building, the Harlan, opens. 

Turkish Village Café takes Avalon’s Liberty St. spot: Owner Eddie Alasad of Sterling Heights, owner of several Leo’s Coney Island locations, was inspired by a 2023 trip to Turkey to open Turkish Village Cuisine in Dearborn last year. The new venture, he tells Dave Algase in this month’s Observer, is a coffee shop with inexpensive fast-casual fare intended to appeal to the college crowd. He is joined in the businesses by Mission Restaurant Group partner Jon Carlson. Some desserts on offer are made in-house and others are shipped by two-day air from Turkey.

Michigan Daily profiles seven downtown bookstores: The summer staff has taken a useful look at Crazy Wisdom, Literati, Motte & Bailey, Third Mind, Vault of Midnight, West Side, and Dawn Treader. Each has its own niche and history, and the owners tell the backstories and how they came to their businesses.

Free garden plots, tools, seeds available through Growing Hope: The Ypsi group, which also runs the Ypsilanti Farmers MarketPlace, aims to help residents grow their own food, Eastern Echo reports. Teens can apply to a leadership program for paid urban farming experience, and EMU students are encouraged to join to save on food costs. To learn more, click here. 

Concert to benefit River Raisin Ragtime Revue on Sunday: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings country-blues singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jerron Paxton appears at The Ark for a show to support the Lenawee County-based group, which presents a free outdoor concert in Adrian on Saturday. Tickets start at $40 for the one-hour 7:30 p.m. performance. Paxton, a thirty-six-year-old Los Angeles native, appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air in December.

Clements Library puts out call for research-fellow housing: U-M’s special collections library asked in its month’s e-mail newsletter for volunteers willing to either voluntarily host or rent rooms to academicians coming to Ann Arbor in the coming school year. The visiting research fellows, whose stays range from a week to four months, hail from other universities including Yale, Cambridge and Harvard. To sign up, click here.

By Jennifer Taylor

Friday (Independence Day): Watch floats, marching bands, and local luminaries march down State St. from the Diag at the Ann Arbor Jaycees Annual 4th of July Festival & Parade (10 a.m.). They head west on E. Liberty, south on Main, then east on William, and are followed by a Firefighter’s Spray Park (10:30 a.m. or when the parade ends, at Maynard at E. William) fora chance to cool off by running through hose streams, to spray fire hoses, and see a demonstration of firefighting tools. 10 a.m., Free.

Saturday: Take self-guided tours of the Saline History & Depot Museum’s caboose, livery barn, and railroad depot. Also, a chance to ride a vintage railway “velocipede” handcar. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saline Area Historical Society, 402 N. Ann Arbor St., Saline. Free.

Sunday: Celebrate the Dalai Lama’s 90th Birthday with an event that includes a smoke puja (a ritual offering), a slideshow and talk on the Dalai Lama’s life by Jewel Heart resident spiritual advisor Demo Rinpoche, a talent show, and outdoor games. Potluck brunch with cake. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Jewel Heart Buddhist Center, 1129 Oak Valley. Free.

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

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