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May 1, 2026Can you guess what’s pictured above? Click the image to find out! |
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| | It is not often that I compare my old stomping ground – Las Vegas – favorably to Ann Arbor. It was a fascinating place as a journalist to live and cover, especially during its periods of rapid growth, but on almost every lifestyle score that matters to us – seasons, natural beauty, educational opportunities, proximity to family – we are very happy to be here.
That said, there was one thing Vegas really does better and less sentimentally than anyone: tear down buildings. In Vegas, they don’t even need to be that old; when one outlives its relevance, they stuff it full of dynamite, play some electronica, and make a big, thrilling spectacle out of its demise.
They certainly do not pick it apart bit by bit over the course of days as is happening this week to Wolverine Tower (pictured below). Maybe it’s cheaper this way, although it seems to me it should be less expensive, quicker, and more efficient to collapse a building in one big blast rather than this messy, painstaking process. I sat watching from a nearby parking lot on Tuesday the sad scene of that single mechanical claw taking thousands of bites out of it like a buzzard pecking at an eleven-layer cake.
An implosion isn’t just pleasing to our primal instincts; it attracts thousands of watchers to contribute to the economy, draws attention to whatever the future plans of the property are, and brings lots of media interest. Back in the day, I got two big bylines for the New York Times out of the felling of the Frontier Hotel – this one on the day-of and another about the Maryland family I referred to as the Grim Reapers of architecture for basically inventing this manner of dropping buildings.
Next time – and with all the new high-rises coming in there obviously will be a few next times – someone ought to consider applying a little pizzazz.
Your news is here. That resounding rejection of a teacher contract offer was meant to embarrass the district; Sherrone Moore’s former mistress goes on national TV; a detained, undocumented Ypsi dad is out on bail; and it’s graduation weekend.
This is last week’s most-clicked link.
– Steve Friess, editor |
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| | | The Class of 2026 pose. Credit: Steve Friess |
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| | | | | | Union president says vote intended to embarrass AAPS: Fred Klein tells a2view the Ann Arbor Education Association negotiators agreed to the tentative agreement in order to expose the school administration’s unwillingness to compromise. The vote was resounding: 99.6 percent of members said no this week. The proposed two-year pact would have given teachers 1.5 percent raises per year, increased class sizes and health insurance costs, and decreased paid planning time. “We decided it was time for our members to see what the district had come up with after six months,” Klein emails. “We did this to get direction from our membership and to make public the proposals we were getting from the district. The vote from our membership was a clear and unified message (NO!!!!!) that will send us back to the table to begin bargaining from the start. Working without a contract is better than working with a bad contract.” AAPS teachers have worked without a contract since Dec. 31. For her part, superintendent Jazz Parks seemed surprised by the outcome, writing in a letter to the community that “the tentative agreement … represented a genuine, good-faith effort to address the priorities raised during negotiations while also meeting our responsibility to ensure the district’s long-term financial health.” Asked whether AAPS teachers might strike, Klein replied by saying it’s illegal for teachers to strike in Michigan. “It has happened before, but we hope it doesn’t come to that again as we prefer to get a fair deal at the table,” he writes. In an email to members, the AAEA noted it is not calling for a sickout or any other work action today despite some “political and advocacy groups” suggesting it. |
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| | Paige Shiver goes national: Weeks after disgraced ex-football coach Sherrone Moore pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges related to threats made and actions taken toward her the day he was fired in December, Shiver went on Good Morning America last week to talk about the four-year affair that triggered his downfall. Shiver says she felt trapped and that he “had complete control over me, over my emotions, over my career, and he knew that, and he used it against me.” She also disclosed she became pregnant early in the relationship and had an abortion for health reasons. U-M has spent more than $11 million on an outside law firm’s investigation into how the relationship — which Shiver said was an open secret in the athletics department — was allowed to persist, MLive learned via a FOIA request. |
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| | Ypsi dad released from ICE custody: Miguel Rosas Ruiz, who was detained March 10, is an undocumented immigrant who came to the U.S. from Mexico in 2001, according to a court filing. The fifty-year-old has raised four children who attend or have graduated from Ann Arbor schools, and owns a painting business. Ruiz was held at North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin until being released on bail on April 16. His case became a local cause célèbre, with two crowd-funding campaigns raising thousands for his family’s expenses and prompting Ann Arbor mayor Christopher Taylor and other elected officials to advocate for his release. |
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| | | | | Another local ICE detainee lingers: As you read above, the news was good for Miguel Rosas Ruiz – but another Ypsi man remains at North Lake despite public efforts to earn his release. Mamady Camara, a twenty-one-year-old asylum seeker from Guinea who worked as a caregiver for the father of celebrated local author Davy Rothbart, was arrested in January during a visit to the Detroit ICE office for a check-in. Camara was deemed a flight risk and denied bail during a February hearing, despite living with cousins in Ypsi and the fact that “dozens of letters were written on his behalf expressing how important he is to our community,” Rothbart tells Alex de Wild.
Sirens to keep singing: Ann Arbor’s brief flirtation with taking down the outdoor public alert system ended abruptly when that tornado-laden storm blew through on April 15, Emily Pinsuwan writes. Whatever financial savings might have been realized and alternative technology that exists to warn people that danger is en route, townies poured onto social media and other channels to say the blaring sirens were the thing that woke them and compelled them to seek shelter at 2 a.m. “As our experiences with extreme weather and storms increase and intensify, local governments should identify more, and not less, ways to notify residents,” U-M environmental justice professor Tony Reames tells Emily.
The month in home sales: Alex Kourvo writes about two 1950s ranches with unusual profiles, a house with four en suite bedrooms, and a sale in one of Ann Arbor’s three cohousing communities. Check out her write-up and our interactive map. |
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| | | | | U-M’s No. 18–ranked women’s tennis team (above) won its fourth Big Ten championship in five years. The NCAA championship tournament starts this weekend.
NFL teams selected six Wolverines in this year’s draft. Two – edge rusher Derrick Moore and linebacker Jimmy Rolder – are heading for the Detroit Lions.
The Michigan House, controlled by Republicans, passed a bill last week that would cut funding for the state’s flagship schools, U-M and MSU, by 62.6 percent. I might’ve made a bigger deal out of this if there were any chance Democrats, who control the Senate and the governorship, won’t laugh it out of Lansing.
The Last Word spent $244,077 on liquor in 2025, topping the list for the county according to data obtained by MLive. Sixteen establishments spent more than $100,000. Cheers!
EMU will automatically accept AAPS and Ypsilanti Community Schools graduates with a GPA of 2.5 or higher under a new program.
Kent Syverud, who won’t be U-M president because of a brain cancer diagnosis, will nonetheless get the same $2 million base salary as he moves to A2 to instead teach law and serve as a special adviser to the Board of Regents.
The developers of the controversial Oracle–OpenAI data center planned for Saline Twp. known as The Barn say they’ve secured the $16 billion in financing they need to complete it. Some of that, presumably, goes to this PR campaign, which includes a schnazzy website.
The number of Lyme disease cases in Washtenaw County is skyrocketing.
Is DTE funding opposition to a possible ballot measure that could kick them out of Ann Arbor? And whose bright idea was that?
MLive’s Jackie Smith digs up the story behind an English teacher fired at Community High and, truth be told, some of the objectionable classroom moments were legitimately wild.
Observer cofounder Mary Hunt has died at eighty-one.
Former Fourth Ave Birkenstock co-owner Paul Tinkerhess has patented a new kite-string winder design.
The Trump administration has quietly given up on an effort to cap overhead research costs at 15 percent, an effort that could have cost U-M millions.
This contestant name-checked the Ypsi “crabgrass” band he used to play with during his interview segment on Jeopardy! last week.
A jury convicted Jude Walton’s killer.
As his fourth season comes to a close, Earl Lee, the South Korean-born, NYC-living musical director of A2SO, reflects.
Eli Savit tells WEMU how he’ll win over moderates and conservatives in the general election for state attorney general.
This may come as a shock: Ann Arbor residents don’t much like paying nearly $5 for a gallon of gas.
A decade of litigation later, no homes will be built on the former Loch Alpine golf course.
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| | Bartenders hope to make AC Lounge a cocktail hotspot: The lobby bar at Marriott’s AC Hotel, which opened in February, is run by “head alchemist” Casey Miller (above, left) and “beverage enthusiast” Ian Youngs (above, right), Algase writes in this month’s Observer. Miller, who previously worked at the Last Word, hired Youngs away from the Black Pearl, and they’ve created a program that fuses European influence with distinctive local elements.
Dairy Queen for sale: The franchise’s location on Michigan Ave. in Ypsi is on the market for $499,900, according to a social media post by commercial real estate agent Doug Ziesemer. Ziesemer says the ice cream stand, which has no indoor seating, does about $250,000 per month and is only open April to October.
Cafe-in-residence to go out on its own: Curious Coffee, a small-batch roaster that has operated out of Bløm Mead + Cider for the past year, is opening in its own space three blocks away at the former Mighty Good storefront on N. Main, owner Mike Bawden tells Algase in this month’s Observer. Bawden, who left his career in academia in Germany when his wife became a U-M art history professor, says, “But it is also a little scary as well. It’s a big step for us. We have all the signs that there’s a market for it.” The new café is due to open in early May. |
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Medical supply and equipment drive is Saturday: The Rotary Club of Ann Arbor and Blueprints for Pangaea are teaming up to accept used items from 1 to 3 p.m. at CubeSmart Self Storage at 4750 S. State. Donors don’t even need to get out of their vehicles; helpers will remove whatever supplies and equipment. Here is a comprehensive list of what they’ll accept.
Ypsi painter coats over tagging at Little League field: Tod Nunley, owner of Tod’s Painting Service, volunteered his time and materials to cover up the the buildings at Harris Park defaced over the winter by vandals, WXYZ reports. Nunley says he grew up playing Little League on the same fields.
Mullets for Miles event raises money for youth suicide prevention group: The Miles Jeffrey Roberts Foundation will be cutting off volunteers’ mullets at the Pretzel Bell from 4–6:30 p.m. on May 9. Participants are raising money for the Ann Arbor nonprofit named for a Skyline High student who died by suicide in 2017. |
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| | | Friday: All are invited to bring a dish to pass and a story to share on the theme of “community” to the Open Spoon full moon community potluck at the Washtenaw Food Hub.
Saturday: Antique and modern tractors, trucks, and farm vehicles compete in pulling heavy weights at the Spring Transfer Sled Pull event.
Sunday: At the May Porch Music Fest, musicians continue the Water Hill Music Fest tradition of performing on front porches and in yards in the neighborhood all afternoon.
See the Observer’s online calendar for many more local events. |
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