|
July 17, 2026Can you guess what’s pictured above? Click the image to find out! |
|
| | Two weeks ago, as I was minutes away from shipping the July 2 edition of a2view, my editor sent an early morning text pointing to an alert about a rapidly spreading parasite causing intense diarrhea that seemed to be hitting southeast Michigan especially hard. Given the long holiday weekend ahead and the likelihood of a lot of people eating uncooked produce, I hurriedly added it atop our Hit These Links section even as I wondered if it was a bit of alarmism.
It was not. We are experiencing what may be the largest outbreak of cyclosporiasis in U.S. history.
The shocking spike in cases across the region – but especially in Washtenaw and Wayne counties – feels like a much, much less scary version of the early days of Covid. There are very important differences – this is not passed person-to-person, doctors and public health officials know how to prevent and treat it, and there have been no deaths so far. But there’s a bit of journalistic PTSD about visiting the state website at the appointed time each morning to see how the case numbers spiral – 3,309 on Tuesday, 3,762 on Wednesday, 4,568 on Thursday. Washtenaw County accounted for 500 cases, including twenty-five hospitalizations, according to a Health Department social media post.
The state typically sees fifty of these a year so, yeah, this is a big deal.
And while obviously not Covid-bad, this ailment is nothing to scoff at. Friends of ours were on a weekend in another city and couldn’t return for two more days because they were so sick they couldn’t fly back. They didn’t seek medical help there because they figured doctors there might pass it off as mere food poisoning or a typical stomach bug.
Epidemiologists say they think the parasite is spreading through lettuce but haven’t pinpointed what sort or where it’s coming from. It’s always the stuff that’s good for you, isn’t it? It’s never, I don’t know, potato chips or cookies. I mean, I’m glad for that because I love chips and cookies much more than lettuce, but still.
At the grocery store yesterday, it struck me that public health officials ought to plaster signage all over the produce section warning of an outbreak and urging shoppers to wash what they buy rigorously. Not everyone reads a2view — although everyone should. Spread the word! Forward this to all your public health official friends!
Your news is here. I’ve covered the cyclosporiasis matter here in the intro because it seemed just that significant and pressing, but we’ve also got the latest in the Warde Manuel-Sherrone Moore saga; U-M is building a $175 million library repository on its newly acquired Concordia property; those surprise Whitmer vetoes threw a spanner in the works for AAPS teacher contract talks; Art Fair, Thunder Over Michigan, and Ypsi Pride are all this weekend; and the EPA wants your Gelman Plume stories.
This is last week’s most-clicked link.
– Steve Friess, editor
P.S. Looking for something to do tonight? Observer editor in chief Brooke Black is leading a Q&A at Book Love Bar with local author Darren Cools about his new YA sci-fi novel, Light in the Canyon. RSVP here! |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | | Canadian wildfire smoke had Art Fair attendees masking up like it’s 2021 on Thursday. Air quality is expected to be quite poor again today but may improve over the weekend; it’s a good idea to check whether outdoor events you plan to attend are still on. Credit: Steve Friess |
|
| | | | | | Is Warde Manuel’s job in jeopardy? That’s what reporting from the Wall Street Journal asserts after the newspaper obtained a preview of the as-yet unreleased report on the circumstances surrounding the firing of football head coach Sherrone Moore in December. Moore lost his job because of his inappropriate extramarital workplace relationship with his assistant, but the WSJ says the external probe found Manuel seemed to know about it long before that and made only minor efforts to address it before it exploded into front-page news. Earlier this week, Manuel didn’t deny that he was in buyout talks, but as of now he remains in the job he started in January 2016. U-M’s Board of Regents met Thursday without discussing either the report or Manuel’s future during the meeting. After, president Domenico Grasso told MLive he considers Manuel “one of the best athletic directors in the country.” While the report was not made public, regent Paul Brown said he expects some of it to be disclosed — but noted that there “was no major smoking gun” that condemns Manuel. |
|
| | Whitmer vetoes complicate AAPS teacher talks: The Democratic governor shocked her party and the labor unions that have long supported her by “regrettably” (her word) killing nine bills passed in the waning days of the 2024 legislature that Republicans, upon seizing control of the House in 2025, refused to transmit for her signature. Hours after a long-awaited Michigan Supreme Court decision not to dispute a lower court ruling finding the House’s inaction was unconstitutional, the term-limited, outgoing two-term governor spiked the measures anyway on grounds that retroactively implementing them would create “an insurmountable administrative burden on the state.” One of those measures would have required governmental entities to pay at least 80 percent of employee health care premiums, a major sticking point in negotiations between the Ann Arbor Education Association and AAPS. “We are gutted by this decision,” the union wrote on Facebook. “Teachers are having to make the hard decision between healthcare and basic household essentials.” A tentative contract offered by AAPS in May, which was shot down in a near-unanimous vote, included a provision requiring teachers to allow the district to not cover that threshold of insurance costs. The teachers’ prior contract expired in December. |
|
| | Charge dropped, Wilkerson sues former employer: Former AAPS school board member Don Wilkerson resigned in May while battling an accusation of domestic violence from his estranged wife, only to file last month to run in a special election this fall to get his seat back. Now he’s also suing the financial services firm Rehmann Group LLC for wrongful termination after his March 30 misdemeanor arrest. Wilkerson’s attorney says it’s both unlawful and contrary to corporate policy to fire someone for a misdemeanor arrest. The charge was dropped in late May and the police record was destroyed, according to a court record, but a personal protection order remains in place to prevent Wilkerson from having contact or being in the vicinity of his wife. Wilkerson insists the dropped charge means he’s been exonerated – despite a court order asserting that “this dismissal should not be used as evidence that violence did or did not occur.” Wilkerson faces political newcomer John Benson in a nonpartisan election to serve the two remaining years on the term Wilkerson won in 2024. |
|
| |
| | |
|
The Joy of Tuesday by Janina Tukarski Ellis. Courtesy: The artist |
|
| Art Fair (coverage) is here!: Alex de Wild profiles one painter from each of the three fairs that make up the city’s signature event – it even gets a page in this children’s board book – about how their distinct work embraces the theme of intersections. First up is South Carolina–based artist Janina Tukarski Ellis, who has a booth at the Original and whose ethereal paintings capture busy public spaces. Then there’s South Dakota native Tyler Voorhees, who is at the Guild’s Summer Art Fair and talks about the origin of his surrealist murals of various laborers. And finally, State Street District Art Fair presenter and 2025 Best in Show winner Phillip Harris, also from SC, explains his oil paintings of natural landscapes. Also this month, Emily Pinsuwan tracks the history of Art Fair Bingo in this delightful My Town piece that is topped by – what else? – a special Art Fair bingo card by cartoonist Lauren Houser.
Ann Arbor as statewide political incubator: With a real prospect that two of the top Democratic candidates will hail from Tree Town, Micheline Maynard writes about the rising stars of Washtenaw County prosecutor Eli Savit and former Detroit public health director Abdul El-Sayed. Savit already secured the nomination for attorney general and El-Sayed is locked in a tight August 4 primary battle with congressperson Haley Stevens to be the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. Maynard takes a look at how Ann Arbor’s activist ethos has shaped both candidates.
Concordia curveball(s): It wasn’t just that U-M gobbled up another huge chunk of untaxable land in June when it bought most of Concordia’s former Geddes Rd. campus that startled and rankled the city, as I report this month. Councilmember Jon Mallek, who represents the area, says the city felt burned by not being given a chance to bid for the land before the announcement was made. At the time I wrote the piece, U-M had no specific plans for the land, but that changed yesterday when regents approved construction of a $175 million, 140,000-square-foot central library repository initially capable of housing 8 million volumes next to Earhart Manor. “The facility will bring together for the first time, six functions and up to 100 staff, librarians, and student employees who steward highly valued library collections,” according to the agenda item. “The project eases existing space shortages and creates an opportunity to eventually re-envision and transform valuable campus spaces for more active community use.” BBB N B N B Hi
|
|
| | |
This very well could be the last major decision Warde Manuel makes for the Wolverines. Let’s hope it works out better than the last time he hired an assistant coach to dreplace a head coach who left for a professional league following a natty.
Got fifteen minutes or so to tell AAPS how you want iit to solve its budget mess? Fill this out. If this sounds familiar, it is – there have been at least two similar recent public questionnaires, including one in 2024 and another earlier this year.
And if you really love government surveys, the EPA also wants fifteen minutes from you to hear your Gelman Plume story. Alternatively, residents can schedule one-on-one meetings with an EPA contractor on the topic over the coming month.
Oracle got its tax break for its $43 billion Saline Twp. data center – but a much smaller one than they asked for.
Ypsi is conducting a tree inventory.
The South China Morning Post delves into the death by suicide in March of a promising Chinese postdoctoral fellow one day after being questioned by the FBI.
After four deaths since May at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, a prisoner claiming to be sickened by mold and fungus there was transferred to a secure medical facility. Meanwhile, the state finally released its autopsy for one of the inmates, twenty-eight-year-old Khaira Howard, who died on May 13.
Is this the future of veterinary care? Probably, (A)I think.
Michigan Medicine CEO David C. Miller, who took the gig a year ago, is leaving to assume the same role at Vanderbilt.
A redeveloper bought the defunct JoAnn’s on Carpenter for $5.1 million and plans to open Vasa Fitness there by next May.
The Royal Air Force Red Arrows perform at this weekend’s Thunder Over Michigan – because nothing celebrates America’s 250 years of independence like asking our former colonial oppressors’ military to put on a show.
Is it public art or a wayfinding sign? Why not both?
Council appears likely to rezone forty-one acres off E. Stadium and S. Industrial to make way for a seven-story market-rate apartment complex. Renters of the thirty-three units that would be demolished are understandably nervous.
The fabulous, essential Bentley Historical Library has a snazzy new website. Clickbait!
Morgan Wallen takes over the Big House next weekend. If you can’t be out of town, here’s what to know.
Homegrown Ken Burns is up for yet another Emmy.
|
|
| | |
| | Yet another shroom store pops up: Psilly and its playful name celebrate Ann Arbor’s openness to entheogens, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. The store on N. Main at W. Madison grew out of a successful delivery business launched by fifty-year-old Ann Arborite Kyle Page and his sister, Cari Johnson (pictured above). Algase notes this is the latest of “no fewer than ten storefronts” that have opened since the city decriminalized recreational entheogenic plants and fungi in 2020.
Dick’s debuts at Briarwood: The 60,000-square-foot store essentially succeeds Sears as the mall’s fourth anchor, with both an exterior entrance and an overhead door connected to the mall’s east wing, Algase writes. The smaller Lohr Rd. location closed in June after nearly fifteen years in Waters Place.
Swedish candy store coming downtown: Sweet Hop Swedish Candy is expected to open August 1 in the space on E. Liberty vacated by Ginger Deli, MLive reports. It’s the brainchild of Randy and Corinne Thompson of Monroe, who got the idea from a visit to a candy store in Savannah, GA. None of the inventory will have artificial dyes, the owners say. |
|
| |
| | | 5K Border to Border Trail benefit is tonight: The race along a scenic route that ends at a beer garden serving Bell’s Oberon kicks off at 6:30 p.m. from Wiard’s Orchard in Ypsi. Runners must preregister and pay $48 in advance; the event is sponsored by Oberun in partnership with the Huron Waterloo Pathways Initiative, which supports the B2B.
Golf event raises funds for Uganda health care: Tee-off is 8 a.m. on July 25 at Hudson Mills Metropark in Dexter for the benefit supporting the Tsiyon Family Hospital in Sayyi, Uganda. Entry costs $125 per player plus $10 vehicle entry fee, and preregistration is required. Lunch is provided and there will also be a putting contest, a hole-in-one competition, and prizes for the longest drive and the shot closest to the pin.
Student Advocacy Center of Michigan aims to reduce youth crime: The Ypsi-based nonprofit offers Check & Connect, a program that tries to keep kids in school by pairing them with an adult mentor for two years who provides support for everything from helping students stay on top of classwork to providing transportation. The two-year commitment helps build trust, Concentrate reports. |
|
| |
| | | Friday: The Ann Arbor Art Fair runs today and tomorrow all over downtown, hosting more than 1,000 artists from Michigan and around the nation. Festivities include live music, an art activity zone for kids, and more.
Saturday: Ypsi Pride runs from noon-10 p.m. in Depot Town, the first time the LGBTQ+ festival is not on a Friday night in June. Features lower-sensory-stimulation activities, youth programming, story time, and community organizations as well as ninety vendors and thirteen food options.
Sunday: KissME, Ann Arbor’s annual swing dance weekend, culminates today in an outdoor dance in and out of the river at Island Park to live music by the local band the River Skippers.
See the Observer’s online calendar for many more local events. |
|
| | | | |
|
|
|
|
