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June 12, 2026Can you guess what’s pictured above? Click the image to find out! |
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Summer comes upon us really suddenly, doesn’t it?
As parents, we start planning for it around February, but then it arrives with a sizzle and the calendar is filled with camps, countless festivals, and lots of swimming. Between the full bloom of peonies in the Arb, this week’s belated reopening of the storm-damaged pool at Vets Park, and the start of AADL’s quite famous Summer Game and YDL’s lesser-known Summer Challenge, plus Top of the Park kicking off today, the transition out of school was startlingly abrupt.
I wasn’t that fond of summer as a kid, probably because my parents sent their sensitive, nonathletic son to a highly competitive Jewish sleepaway camp in New Hampshire for eight weeks every year for eight years starting when I was almost six. (My mother insists incorrectly that I was almost seven, as if that makes it better.) Until late high school, I associated summers with persistent homesickness and bullying.
I’m determined to make it different for our kids. On Thursday, with my husband working and their proper camps yet to begin, they had a rigorous day of Camp Daddy — caterpillar hunting at Parker Mill, mucking about in the river after running around the Gallup Park playground, Bill’s hotdogs for lunch, escaping afternoon heat at the indoor playground at 2|42, a swim at Rutherford Pool, a treat at Ice Cream Time.
We do, as noted, have various camps arranged for the coming weeks. But we also hope to pop Up North at some point to bang about at one of those famous “cottages” we hear all about if it’s not crazy expensive; that scene feels purpose-built to sate our son’s growing obsession with bridges and shells. And later in the summer, we plan to meet up with family in Hersheypark.
Got any summer traditions? Any lesser-known regional events we need to know about? E-mail me!
Your news is here. There’s been another death at the women’s prison, the feds indicted eight U-M-related pro-Palestinian protesters, the county saw its first reported homicide of 2026, and there’s a pretty unusual local connection to the World Cup.
This is last week’s most-clicked link.
– Steve Friess, editor |
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| | | | | | | | | Feds indict eight on charges tied to “orchestrated” anti-Israel campaign: The accused, all of whom have ties to U-M and will be held at least until midday today when they have a detention hearing, are alleged to have executed a planned campaign of intimidation with the goal of getting the university to divest its endowment from companies believed to be profiting from Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Charges vary depending on the defendant but include conspiracy to transmit threats, witness intimidation, and destruction of property. The unsealed sixty-three-page indictment asserts the group is responsible for a series of events that included pro-Palestinian vandalism at the homes and offices of U-M regents and other incidents. In its report on the arrests and charges, which could result in lengthy prison sentences, the New York Times writes that they “appeared to signify an escalation in the federal government’s efforts” to quell pro-Palestinian campus activism. Six of the defendants have “identified themselves online as University of Michigan students, and a seventh had worked as a researcher there,” the Times reports. TAHRIR Coalition, an alliance of student groups opposed to investing in Israeli companies, gathered at the federal courthouse in Detroit on Wednesday to protest the arrests. |
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Third death at women’s prison intensifies calls for reform: No cause of death has been revealed so far for thirty-six-year-old Ashley Hoath, who died on June 6 at Trinity Hospital after falling ill earlier that morning. Nor, for that matter, has the Michigan Department of Corrections revealed the cause of death for fifty-seven-year-old Rebecca Fackler or Khaira Howard, twenty-eight, who died at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in mid-May. Inmates, including Howard, have complained for months about unsanitary conditions and the inadequacy of health care at the prison, and dozens of lawmakers have demanded the resignation of MDOC director Heidi Washington. So far, governor Gretchen Whitmer has said nothing publicly about the matter. Washington recently issued a statement urging the public “out of respect for the family, to refrain from speculation without the facts, while investigations are conducted. I can promise you that the community will have answers to what caused this death, and the ones that have preceded it.” |
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| | Why Gaza remains a hot local issue despite the war’s end: The stunning loss by regent Jordan Acker to Dearborn civil rights attorney Amir Makled at the Michigan Democratic Party convention in April reflects the fact that the Palestinian conflict with Israel remains a potent political force. I delved into how it’s shaping an array of Michigan races this year and why it sparked a national controversy at U-M commencement. The news this week of the federal indictments against eight activists is likely to only exacerbate the matter.
Huron’s IB program sends grads to top colleges: Scarlett London writes about the remarkable success of graduating seniors this year heading to such competitive schools as Yale, Columbia, Northwestern, and Stanford. Huron High college counselor Emily Mashal says it’s notable because Huron serves a large population of first-generation, low-income, and out-of-district students.
My Town: In this month’s essay, pilot Beth Kirschner describes a day in the life of the Ann Arbor Airport, a facility known locally as a mecca for small-plane enthusiasts. Kirschner explains there’s a broader diversity of aircraft that use the airport as its base, from U-M’s three Survival Flight helicopters to the volunteer Civil Air Patrol that does aerial surveillance after natural disasters. The piece comes in advance of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual pancake breakfast fundraiser on Sunday (June 14) at the airport. |
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| | | Zingerman’s is selling Cornman Farms, its 27.6-acre events center in Dexter, for $3.3 million. Check it out.
NASA has named a U-M alum as part of the four-person Artemis III crew heading into orbit next year.
Here on Earth, there’s also a U-M connection to the World Cup – the groundskeeper.
The county commission may put a 0.2 mills property tax on the November ballot with proceeds going to the Washtenaw County Health Project and the county’s health department. The proposed millage would last three years and is intended to fill gaps left by federal cuts.
The Jewish Community Center was tagged with anti-Semitic imagery. Does doing things like this make haters feel better?
An online design magazine feasted on the thoughtful decor of the 768-square-foot house of Shannon Brydges and Kyle Goodman, owners of Malofta Vintage.
The city got a $20,000 grant to provide free use of all-terrain wheelchairs to improve trail access starting later this year at Black Pond Woods Nature Area and Leslie Science & Nature Center. They look totally badass.
Serious question: Local media write that the shooting death of a twenty-three-year-old in Ypsilanti Twp. this week was the first homicide of the year in the county. But this unarmed man, whose family filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Wednesday against the sheriff’s office, was killed in a hail of police bullets on Jan. 6. Why isn’t that also counted as a homicide?
Speaking of the sheriff, MLive has discovered she put an ex-boyfriend in charge of human resources – the department that has generated two whistleblower complaints.
Just in time for the end of the school year, here’s a heartwarming profile of a Milan family with three generations of crossing guards.
AAPD says they will start fining folks for using gas leafblowers this summer. Interestingly, they disabled the comments on this social media post about it. Didn’t want the blowback, huh?
Remember that JetBlue flight attendant who quit his job by grabbing two beers and taking the emergency slide off the plane way back when? Well, Webster Twp. supervisor Mike DeAngelo’s resignation last week had a similar, if less dangerous, flair.
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| | | La Piña Loca adds second location: The mom-and-pop paletería, which opened in 2019 on Platt and Ellsworth and added a kitchen for savory Mexican snacks more than two years ago, opened a new site on Carpenter just south of Michigan Ave. in Pittsfield Twp., Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. Owner Benjamin de Jesus Garduno tells Algase they took over the lease of Borimex Restaurant, and they announced their opening on Facebook in late May.
NYC restauranteur plans downtown A2 noodle shop: Sugo Pasta Bar is expected to open in September or October, Moreno Cerutti tells What Now Detroit. Cerutti owns Osteria Carlina Group, which has three Italian restaurants in New York.
Afternoon Delight owner to retire, seeks buyer: Joanne Williams, who started working at the venerable breakfast-lunch spot in high school and eventually became a partner with founder Tom Hackett, says she wants to “to slow down a bit and focus on other things,” CityBiz reports. It’s unclear whether the restaurant will close; Williams says she hopes to find a buyer, although no price has been announced. |
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| | | Bobby Jones Open returns to Ypsi: The golf event, which raises money for the rare spinal disorder for syringomyelia, is unusual in that only people named Bobby Jones – typically Robert or Roberta – can play. Organizers expect about forty players from around the U.S. and England to participate when the annual event is played here for the first time since 1997, MLive writes. According to the Bobby Jones Open site, the stunt, which raises awareness of the ailment that afflicted the pro golfer Bobby Jones, who founded Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament, has raised more than $395,000 and drawn more than 350 Bobby Joneses. The event is being held June 16–17 at the Eagle Crest Golf Club
U-M alum formed Perfect Pair to ease loneliness: Emily Lerner’s nonprofit, which was founded in 2020 to recruit college-student volunteers to visit residents of assisted living facilities around Ann Arbor, now has chapters on thirty-five campuses in twenty-three states, CBS Detroit reports. The organization recently received funding from the Government Employees Health Association.
Cyclists ride to battle diabetes: The American Diabetes Association’s Michigan Tour de Cure fundraiser kicks off from the Domino’s Farms Petting Farm at 7 a.m. Saturday (June 13), with participants paying $30 and raising at least $250 to follow one of three routes. The event has already raised more than $347,000 of its $400,000 goal. |
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