| June 19, 2026Can you guess what’s pictured above? Click the image to find out! |
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| | Happy Juneteenth! I’m looking forward to the first-ever official parade in Ypsi to honor the holiday tonight. My biracial daughter is a little too young to understand the significance of the emancipation of enslaved people, but she’s certainly not too young to partake in her culture in other ways.
Speaking of age-appropriate matters, I’ll throw this out there: is four years old too young to know what a zombie is? This week, Claire had Halloween camp through AAPS Rec & Ed. We were encouraged to dress the kids in costumes, and here are the snaps from each of her four days. On Wednesday, she went as a zombie.
Some in my family were surprised she knew what a zombie is. I detected, although there was nothing explicit, some mild judgment. But to me, a zombie is no different than a vampire, a witch, or a skeleton – just a mythical creature of Halloween for kids to see in playful videos and animation. It’s not as though she’s seen the Walking Dead or any depictions of human flesh being eaten.
Am I missing something? Let me know via email. Feel free to be judgy! I often am. For instance, I baffle over folks who show kids a lot of supposedly age-appropriate movies in which children are separated from their parents. That’s where mine would probably have a big emotional reaction – Nemo getting kidnapped by a scuba diver or Fievel losing his family in a storm – not with something clearly and outlandishly imaginary.
One thing that’s NOT imaginary: You’re invited to enjoy an ice-cold seltzer and a sneak peak of our July issue while hanging out with Observer editor in chief Brooke Black and publisher Danielle Jones at Top of the Park from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday! Find them on the green!
Your news is here. The state defends conditions at the women’s prison, the AAPS budget looks rough, that blockbuster eight-person FBI indictment continues to reverberate, and Braun Court redevelopment proceeds. Also, I talked to the president of the Ypsi little league that is being deluged with gifts and donations after a social media influencer spotlighted their dire circumstances. It is, frankly, a story that restores faith in people and the Internet.
This is last week’s most-clicked link.
– Steve Friess, editor |
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| | | A gusher outside AADL’s Malletts Creek branch on Wednesday. Credit: Steve Friess |
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| | | | | | Minnesota social media star raises $75K for Ypsi little league: Dadchats, whose real name is Dillon White and who has 3 million followers on TikTok and 1.9 million on Instagram, drew more than 1.1 million TikTok views for a post about a letter he received from the Ypsilanti National Little League president Katie DeLano asking for help after spending thousands to repair vandalism at their facilities. He was moved by her story — she’s a single mom on disability paying out of her own pocket for umpires to keep the league running — and read off a list of needs that ranged from a security camera system and game equipment to uniforms and concession stand inventory. As the photo above shows, YNLL was immediately deluged by deliveries of gifts as well as generous cash donations. Three days after the first video, White reported in a follow-up that his online community had given enough for the league to be “fully funded for the next nine years.” He also said he’s been in talks with former pro baseball player Jackie Bradley Jr., a childhood hero of his, about doing “something” for the Ypsi league.
What’s more, DeLano tells a2view she’s had “a very long conversation” with reps from the Detroit Tigers about YNLL’s “immediate and long-term needs.” She’s also received “an overwhelming response from businesses who saw Dillon’s post — many reaching out to offer sponsorships or donate items for auctions. As I work through all of these connections, I think they’re going to become incredible long-term resources for the league.”
So what spurred her to write Dillon? DeLano explains: “It was a four-in-the-morning plea borne out of complete desperation — I couldn’t sleep worrying about how we were going to pay the umpires the next day. I remembered seeing one of Dillon’s posts where he talked about helping his community, so I typed up my story and just prayed he would read it. Dillon was the only person I reached out to on social media, and I never imagined it would turn into this.” |
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| | U-M reconsidering alternative data center site: Crain’s Detroit reports the university, under heavy pressure from Ypsilanti Township and others not to develop its planned Textile Rd. site for the $1.2 billion supercomputer joint venture with Los Alamos National Laboratory, is going to do more environmental assessments of its 200 vacant acres at the American Center for Mobility. “As we have said previously, no final site decision has been made and the university continues to evaluate multiple factors and sites related to the project,” U-M spokesperson Paul Corliss told Crain’s via email. |
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| | AAPS hunts for $4.3M to cut: As the district faces rising costs from price increases for goods and services as well as from negotiations with employee unions, its new CFO Anté Britten says something’s got to give. “[O]ur revenues are not matching those costs,” Britten told the board of trustees, according to MLive. A final budget is probably not going to be sealed until the state finishes its own, but projections are the district will get $312.8 million while expecting to spend more than $317 million. Among other things, student enrollment declines may wipe out an expected $250 per-student increase from the state. The district is considering land sales, staffing reductions, and potential school consolidation. |
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| State says women’s prison not rife with mold: After three inmates died of still-undisclosed causes at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility over the past month, the Michigan Department of Corrections had the facility retested for “systemic black or toxic mold conditions.” As tests in February and May also indicated, the “overall indoor air quality exposure at the facility, with respect to fungal contamination, falls within acceptable norms for facilities of this type,” according to an MDOC report. That outcome comes amid furor over the deaths and the conditions at the prison which prompted more than thirty lawmakers to demand MDOC director Heidi Washington’s resignation. |
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| | | Sheriff faces one battle after another: A year and a half into her tenure, Alyshia Dyer has faced a constant drumbeat of unflattering news stories about drama within the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office that, she tells Jenn McKee, is drowning out her success. The list of controversies include an alleged joint found in her vehicle, which she said this week was a cardboard wrapper; lawsuits over the conduct of her human resources department and whether the county can commandeer it; the death of an unarmed motorist by police; and an ugly end to a thirty-hour standoff with a man having a mental health crisis. Dyer defended the conduct of her officers in her interview with McKee and pointed to her proudest accomplishment to date – reinstating in-person visits at the county jail.
Will 2026 be a change election year for A2? The battle lines are drawn for the August 4 Democratic primary between mayor Christopher Taylor’s pro-growth coalition and a slate of Democratic Socialists including Taylor challenger Yousef Rabhi, a county commissioner. With the primary essentially determinative of the eventual winner in this overwhelmingly blue city, Drew Saunders provides an indispensable overview of the candidates for mayor as well as five council seats. In all but two cases where the candidate did not speak to the Observer, we also provide links to Saunders’s full interviews with each hopeful.
Honored educator, activist takes a bow: Kathy Kosobud, recipient of this year’s David McMahon Human Rights Award from the Michigan Education Association, tells Patti Smith of her first brush with advocacy, her 1968 letter to the Ann Arbor News – as a high school junior – supporting a walkout by Black students to protest not being allowed to take AP classes at Ann Arbor High. Smith’s profile follows Kosobud through her teaching career all the way to her present activism on behalf of transgender students. |
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| | | Each year we debate which Fourth of July parade to see. Easy call this time with this 106-year-old expected to ride.
Lima Township is playing hardball with Consumers Energy’s plans for a new power plant.
Debbie Dingell isn’t getting anywhere in her quest for more information about the FBI indictments of eight pro-Palestinian activists last week.
How’s the $2 million transformation of the former Treasure Mart into a new downtown church going? Blessedly!
Jill Biden was here.
There were five cops on duty at this week’s council meeting, three more than usual. Some insist it was intended to intimidate certain speakers.
U-M is “emphasizing its impact on the nation” as the U.S. turns 250 via an ad campaign that culminates on July 3 and 4 with full pages in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
There’s nothing funny about this caught-on-video assault on an IHOP waitress, but it feels superfluous for Fox 2 Detroit to note that after the incident, the diners also stiffed their bill.
After the city threatened action, the Courthouse Square Senior Apartments building finally fixed the AC. Cool!
Just in time for Pride Month, all seven buildings of Braun Court – once Ann Arbor’s de facto LGBTQ+ district – are gone.
The city is buying 6,800 solar panels for the Sustainable Energy Utility. Bright idea!
An Ann Arbor man pleaded guilty to federal charges in a $2.7 million commodities trading scam.
Now that the new comprehensive land-use plan is set to turbocharge high-rise development, council has decided to develop “a comprehensive anti-displacement plan.”
The $165 million Hadley Family rec center at U-M opened this week, although the climbing wall and the pool are not ready.
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| | | Eight closures in monthly roundup: Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer about the loss of three downtown businesses – Molly’s Cupcakes, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Persian House of Imports – as well as Dollar General, Bonchon, Borimex Restaurant, Pita Express & Catering, and Blue Whale Cafe elsewhere in the region. Borimax owner Gladys Ponce says ICE’s near-daily presence outside the grocery scared her customers away. Of the closures, only Molly’s Cupcakes has an obvious successor – Orijin Bakery, an extension of the Boro, is expected to take its place next month.
Twenty years of the Rocket: The eclectic novelty shop in Ypsilanti, which my four-year-old calls “the kitty cat store” because we once bought a rubber cat there, now has two decades under its candy-coated belt, the Eastern Echo reports. Owners and EMU alums Eli Morrissey and Paul Balcom have since also opened a storefront in Ferndale. They’ve survived a fallow period for Ypsi businesses, they say. “When we came into downtown that was the height of its decline for sure,” Morrissey told the Echo. “I’m happy that it’s come a long way, but it has gone through its bumps along the way.”
More room for shrooms: Spores Cafe has been renamed Spores Ann Arbor and relocated to E. Liberty from its S. State berth, Algase reports this month. The shop, in a house owned by longtime tailor Vahan Basmajian, no longer offers coffee and isn’t open in the mornings anymore. Algase notes it is one of at least nine stores in the city offering entheogenic plants and fungi. |
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Food Gatherers provides free meals for kids: The annual Summer Food Service Program kicked off this week at three Washtenaw County sites – South Pointe Scholars in Ypsi, Symons Elementary in Milan, and Whitmore Lake High – where kids eighteen and under can go once a week for boxes containing seven breakfasts and seven lunches. The program is weekly through the week of August 10. Anyone up to age twenty-six who is enrolled in a state-recognized education program is also eligible. Children do not need to be present for adults to pick up meals. For more information, call (734) 761–2796 or email [email protected].
High schoolers can use Planet Fitness free this summer: The gym chain is providing access to its 2,900 locations – including its two locations in Ann Arbor and one in Ypsi – throughout June, July, and August to kids ages fourteen to nineteen. “With teen mental health, confidence, and physical wellness continuing to be top concerns for families, the program removes financial barriers to fitness and provides a welcoming, judgment-free environment where teens can build healthy habits during the summer months,” reads a press release from the chain. To register, click here.
YDL’s Moving Together fights senior isolation: The library district, thanks to a $5,000 grant from Molina Health, is offering a three-month program that provides activities – cornhole, bingo, art, and fitness – for older people to enjoy, Concentrate reports. Interested participants must ask a librarian about the activities to earn a prize, and they get another prize if they complete ten activities in three months. Some activities can be done virtually. |
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Friday: Ann Arbor Summer Festival’s Top of the Park today offers kids nature activities and yoga, plus live music by rock-rap duo We Are Scorpio, and funk/rock band Mollywop! from 5 p.m. on. The festival runs every Tuesday through Sunday through June 28.
Saturday: Domino’s Petting Farm’s Pollinator Day features demonstrations of honey extraction, honey tastings, crafts, and a food truck.
Sunday: Leslie Science & Nature Center hosts a Father’s Day Fungi event, a presentation on basic mushroom identification, followed by a guided mushroom hike.
See the Observer’s online calendar for many more local events. |
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