A lot of this week’s news is influenced by what’s happening in Washington D.C. Whether it’s financial aid, marriage equality, consumer prices, jobs at the VA or NOAA, or even whether to do a study of the power grid, all roads seem to lead back to the Trump White House in one way or another.

That’s probably not going to let up for several years. And for that reason, I’ve chosen to elevate other local news to the top of our lineup. The Trump effect is certainly important, but I think we’re going to have to pace ourselves. Meanwhile, lots of important decisions are happening here – a referendum is coming on Library Ln., the new Thurston Elementary is moving ahead, and U-M is now in business with OpenAI.

Meanwhile, we parents of young kids are always anxious about whether the semi-annual time changes will throw off precious sleep schedules. Why do we do daylight saving again? Does anyone still have a defense of it? If so, by all means, email me.

– Steve Friess, editor

Referendum to decide Library Lane plan: Voters will be asked in an Aug. 5 special election to amend the city charter to allow the transfer of ownership of city-owned property at 319 S. Fifth Ave. and 326 S. Division St. to AADL for use as part of a mixed-use development that would include a new library, according to city records. A companion referendum asks voters to repeal the 2018 vote that requires it to be an “urban park and civic center commons.”

Council votes down $1.7M municipal utility study: The measure died after members deadlocked 5-5 on whether to proceed with a feasibility study of a potential city to take over the power grid from DTE, according to city documents. Councilmember Lisa Disch explained her vote against the study in an email to constituents in which she said the uncertainty around the Trump administration made spending that money at this time unwise: “Having lived through the past six weeks of terrifying federal action, I decided that I could not vote to spend $1.7M to move forward with this study at this time.” Members of Ann Arbor for Public Power held a rally outside of City Hall ahead of the meeting urging the approval of the report and afterwards announced that they will launch a petition drive to put the issue on the ballot, MLive reports.

Board approves plan for new Thurston Elementary: Despite vocal opposition from parents and neighbors seeking to protect the Thurston Nature Center, AAPS trustees voted 4-3 to move forward with the current plan for its replacement, WEMU reports. Opponents say the plan will harm the nature center and create flooding problems. Replacing the school is one of the first projects being funded by a $1 billion bond issue passed in 2019. 

Pauline Blvd. getting $5.4M upgrade including bike lanes: Council unanimously approved a project that will see the replacement of the water main between Seventh and Main streets, resurfacing of the road, the addition of raised intersections, a raised crosswalk, a speed hump, ADA accessible ramps, and on-street bike lanes, according to city records. The work will begin “early in the 2025 construction season to minimize interference with the University of Michigan’s home football games.”

Houses proposed for cleaned-up Armen Cleaners lot: The site at 630 S. Ashley was cleared and then remediated of toxic chemicals that seeped into the soil from the dry cleaning business that operated there for decades. The city’s planning commission will soon weigh a proposal from Maven Development to build a pair of three-story residences connected by a garage in the middle, MLive reports (paywall). There would also be an accessory dwelling unit above the garage. 

A2 grocers, restaurateurs on eggshells over egg prices: Iggy’s Eggies owner Eli Boyer is concerned because his business model depends on cheap eggs, the Michigan Daily reports. Likewise, Georgia Panos, manager of Village Kitchen of Ann Arbor, says various egg suppliers are in a “bidding war” and that she will have to raise menu prices to account for the increases.

Former U-M soccer player slain: Police in Princeton, NJ, arrested Matthew Hertgen, thirty-one, in the death of his younger brother, twenty-six-year-old Joseph Hertgen, and a cat, ClickOnDetroit reports. Joseph Hertgen played for the Wolverines from 2017 to 2019. His brother, also a one-time college soccer player, is accused of using a knife and a golf club to slash and beat Joseph to death on Feb. 22.

Neighboring store owner thwarts robbery in progress: Ali Hadma of the hookah shop Cups on a Mission in Ypsi went to Vara Juice after receiving a distress call from an employee there, WXYZ reports. Hadma wrestled a weapon, which turned out to be a BB gun, from the suspect just as an employee was pulling cash from the register. The incident was caught on video, which Hadma has posted on Instagram. Barrage Lamar Scott, thirty-seven, is charged with armed robbery.

Nominations open for Young Citizens of the Year: Five teens will be honored with $4,500 scholarships from the Robert Bruce Dunlap Memorial Fund, which is managed by the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation. Students must be enrolled in high school in Washtenaw County and “have engaged in community service activities which impact Washtenaw County that are not school-based.” Click here to read the rules and nominate someone by the March 24 deadline. The winners will be announced in May.

Eight fired from NOAA facility in Ann Arbor: The workers at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory were among hundreds axed nationwide at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Michigan Public reports. “There are going to be real impacts on communities, on research, and on our ability to predict things that are going to impact human health,” says Nicole Rice, a former spokesperson for the lab who lost her job. She says water quality monitoring is among the areas that the cutbacks will impact. Representative Debbie Dingell condemned the move: “Firing hundreds of experts and scientists at NOAA will endanger American lives going forward.”

Disabled student faces major cuts to financial aid, support services: Law and public policy graduate student Vincent Pinti, who has spinal muscular atrophy and requires 24/7 assistance, says a $23,000 grant he relies on is being cut to $3,000, the Daily writes. Pinti is also fearful of cuts to Medicaid in the GOP budget. “I can’t be simultaneously paying for $133,000 a year out of pocket in caregiving and also trying to pay for my law school debt,” he says. “And that’s why these programs exist, because it’s a recognition by the government … that people with disabilities need more support in order to be able to actually be integrated into society.” 

Slotkin brings fired Ann Arbor VA vet to State of the Union: The Michigan senator, who gave the Democratic response on Tuesday, was joined by thirty-five-year-old Andrew Lennox, whose job was axed when the Trump administration laid off hundreds of Department of Veterans Affairs employees. Lennox, a ten-year Marine veteran who deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, drew national attention for speaking out when he lost his job in a supervisor training program at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. “In order to help veterans, you just fired a veteran,” Lennox declared.

Dos Hermanos owners say customer arrested by ICE: Owners of the Mexican grocery store in Ypsi took to Facebook to describe, in Spanish, how immigration police apprehended a man in their parking lot on Sunday. Nicolas and Reyes Arreola say the man was a regular customer and a hard-working, law-abiding resident. They said they will warn people via social media if they see immigration officials near the store.

Progressives rally against Elon Musk at Tesla dealership: About 300 members of Ann Arbor Indivisible picketed last week outside the Jackson Ave. store to show displeasure for the company’s CEO who is leading the Trump administration’s massive federal cutback effort, the Sun Times News writes. The protest was part of an international effort to target Tesla in response to Musk’s role in slashing the federal workforce. 

A2 state rep sponsors marriage equality measure: Democrat Jason Morgan reintroduced a bill this week to repeal the state constitution’s dormant same-sex marriage ban, Michigan Public reports. The U.S. Supreme Court narrowly voted to legalize same-sex marriage in 2015, but it’s grown more conservative since, and Morgan, who is gay, fears the court could reverse that ruling, restoring the gay marriage ban Michigan voters approved in 2004. It would take a two-thirds vote in both houses of the legislature to put the matter on the ballot again.

Felicia Brabec announces for state senate: The Democrat, a former state rep who did not run for re-election last year after two terms, launched her campaign to replace term-limited state senator Jeff Irwin in Lansing, according to her website. The district she is running in encompasses portions of Ann Arbor and much of the southern half of the county. Brabec, also a former Washtenaw County commissioner, is the first candidate to announce for the August 2026 primary.

Three rural plots to be preserved: Scio Twp. is assembling $633,000 in state and local money to buy a conservation easement to ninety-one acres of farmland near N. Zeeb Rd. owned by the Hicks family, MLive writes (paywall). Meanwhile, a seventy-acre farm across from St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church is on the verge of being bought for $574,000 by Northfield Twp. to prevent future development there, MLive reports (paywall). The township is also using millage funds to buy the development rights to a sixty-four-acre farm on the northwest corner of Earhart Rd. and Pontiac Tr.

U-M among schools partnering with OpenAI: The artificial intelligence pioneer is spending $50 million to link up with several schools including Harvard, Oxford, and MIT, in an effort to conduct research in an initiative called NextGenAI, the University Record writes. The collaboration will bring “additional artificial intelligence resources, research funding and computing power to campus.”

Ann Arbor native, filmmaker describes his “17 Blocks” journey: Davy Rothbart, a Community High and Michigan alum who is back in town this year as a Knight-Wallace journalism fellow at U-M, unveils his new documentary on March 18 at the Michigan Theater. He describes to Jan Schlain in this month’s Observer the unusual process of creating the movie by filming the family he befriended in southeast Washington D.C. and leaving them the camera when he was out of town. The “home movies” took on tragic weight after a family member was shot to death while trying to break up a robbery. Their “struggles with addiction and gun violence eventually lead to a journey of love, loss, and acceptance,” IMDB writes.

Cow building to become Good Soil Cafe: The vacant edifice with the huge bovine on its roof on Ecorse Rd. in Ypsi Twp. will be a joint venture between owner Stewart Beal of Beal Properties and Melvin Parson, founder and director of We The People Opportunity Farm, the Eastern Echo reports. Parson says the business, which is supported by a $100,000 grant from the Michigan Justice Fund, will create jobs for formerly incarcerated people when it opens next winter.

Ten Thousand Villages of Huron Valley in final weeks: The nonprofit fair-trade crafts shop on S. Main closes March 30, a victim of rising rent and falling foot traffic, manager Emily Carroll tells Dave Algase in this month’s Observer. The parent organization is closing all of its retail locations not run by local boards in order to focus on online sales, Carroll says. Thirteen of the forty stores listed on its website will close this month. Remaining inventory is currently thirty percent off; those discounts will go up as the closing date nears.

Dexter Brunch Place opens in Riverview Café space: The new eatery announced on social media that it began welcoming customers on Feb. 22, weeks after the early January closure of the previous restaurant in the space amid a rent dispute. Dexter Brunch Place is owned by Enzo and Nela Shahinllari, a Plymouth couple, the Sun Times News writes.

Habitat for Humanity launches Women Build effort on Saturday: It’s an annual project that last year saw more than 170 women raise more than $81,000 and help erect a house for a low-to-mid-income woman, according to a media alert. This year’s effort begins at 349 Firwood St. in Ypsi on International Women’s Day, where teams of women will help build a home on Fridays and Saturdays from April to November. To get involved by donating or joining a team, click here.

Anonymous foundation pledges $250K for 1891 bridge restoration: The Huron Waterloo Pathways Initiative says the donor will match gifts toward the $500,000 cost of restoring the retired Bell Road Bridge and installing it over Mill Creek near downtown Dexter – a key step toward completing an 0.8-mile segment of the Border to Border trail from Dexter-Chelsea Rd. to Mill Creek Park. To contribute, click here. 

Food pantry expects increased need amid federal aid cuts: SOS Community Services says they’re already seeing unusually high visitor volume at their Ypsi facility as inflation has stressed family budgets, WEMU reports. “It’s hard to imagine seeing more than 300 households a week, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see an all-time high, considering potential cuts to other lifeline programs like Medicaid, Social Security, and Section 8,” says Barbara Cecil, SOS development director. To help out, click here.

By Jennifer Taylor

Friday: Crack up with Mary Santora, a Cleveland comic with a relatable style who delivers darkly humorous jokes about dating, junk food habits, and Midwest working class life. Santora appears at 7:15 and 9:45 p.m., at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase, one of several events around town that are part of this weekend’s Tree Town Comedy Festival. Fifteen shows, various locations. All tickets available in advance at treetowncomedy.com and (if not sold out) at the door. 

Saturday: Hear Elvis Costello & Steve Nieve. Costello, ostensibly part of the 1970s and 80s British “new wave,” transcended the category with his brainy lyrics, canny melodic sense, and stylistic versatility. Keyboardist Nieve has been a member of Costello’s various bands since 1977. 8 p.m., Michigan Theater. Tickets $45 to $250 in advance here, and (if available) at the door. (800) 745–3000. 

Sunday (Daylight Saving Time Begins): Build castles at “Brick Bash 2025,” the annual Skyline High Band fundraiser. It’s a hands-on LEGO exhibition with a DUPLO play area for young kids as well as displays of LEGO builds. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Sat.) and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Sun.), Skyline High, 2552 N. Maple. $8 at the door only (Venmo preferred). (734) 637–9429. 

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

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