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May 15, 2026Can you guess what’s pictured above? Click the image to find out! |
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| | A couple of years ago in a2view, I wrote about some potted hibiscus trees and asked the a2view hive mind whether they could be revived. Readers were very encouraging and helpful, and I’m happy to say they are thriving and producing flowers regularly. They live in our bedroom during the winter and I’ve yet to take them back outside on account of the surprising late-spring frost warnings.
But now I have another problem – aphids. I started noticing in November when I brought them inside that one of the three trees is just covered in them. Even though the Internet tells me they’re really bad for plants, this hearty guy has lived, grown, and flowered just fine for many months regardless. Alas, now they’re appearing on the other two and, in addition to being deleterious to vegetation, they’re also disgusting. I’ve tried spraying with soapy solutions per Google, but it feels like a messy, painstaking, losing battle at least until I am able to get these plants outside so I can use the hose to rinse them.
Then, the other night, I read The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle to my son for the first time. In it, the titular insect learns to share, of all things, yummy aphids. Far be it from me to take gardening tips from kiddie lit – although this legendary Jeopardy! superchamp finds children’s books to be the best way to cram. But would it work? And where would I go to get some ladybugs? My kids would lose their minds if that’s a viable solution.
So, my green-thumbed friends, would setting cute bugs on ugly bugs work? Any better ideas? Email me!
Your news is here. DTE got a wave of bad press this week, the tornado-attacked Veteran’s ice rink won’t reopen this year, there’s new county v. sheriff drama, and more.
This is last week’s most-clicked link.
– Steve Friess, editor |
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| | | Mother’s Day 2026. Credit: Steve Friess |
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| | | | | | A2 hands DTE a rough PR week: First it was the Guardian zeroing in on the power company’s apparent funding of a “front group” called the Ann Arbor Responsible Energy Coalition that argues in a ubiquitous ad campaign against the idea of the city taking over the local power grid. The “group,” which uses the same address as DTE’s headquarters, claims in social media posts and elsewhere that such a takeover would cost taxpayers $1 billion and ratepayers a 40 percent bill increase. The newspaper’s piece uses DTE as a top example of private utilities, which enjoy “soaring profits,” deploying problematic efforts to manipulate public opinion. Then, days later, the Wall Street Journal dropped a brutal story about townies bemoaning DTE’s “massacre” of trees in the name of protecting powerlines. “The result,” writes Detroit-based correspondent Ryan Felton, “has been an affront to many in Tree Town, as Ann Arbor is affectionately known, leaving many trees looking more like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.” It’s probably not enough, but DTE is also in the news this week for partnering with the city to offer $1 million in incentives for multifamily rental property owners looking to invest in energy efficiency upgrades. |
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| | U-M stands to profit from OpenAI gambit: Opponents of data centers have been focused on U-M because of the mammoth computing center it wants to build with the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Ypsilanti Twp., but Business Insider writes that the school also has a vested interest in whatever comes of the one already under construction in Saline Twp. The article notes that U-M plunged $20 million of its endowment into OpenAI even before Microsoft’s $1 billion investment led to the creation of ChatGPT. U-M aims to make $2 billion from the deal, Business Insider writes. “It’s common for endowments to invest with Silicon Valley venture capitalists, though it’s rarer to see a direct stake,” writes tech reporter Stephen Council. |
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| | Next stop for massive mini-A2 model train set?: After Don Butcher gave his 720-square-foot display (pictured above) to the Kiwanis Thrift Sale, the nonprofit decided to seek a place where it could be shown to the public, Ally Choi writes. The array is a replica of 1950s downtown he started in 1994 when he was in his seventies. Kiwanis, along with the Treeline Conservancy, the Ann Arbor Model Railroad Club, and the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor are trying to find it a permanent home downtown. Choi writes that “Butcher built most of the buildings (some that light up; all built to scale) and all the switching from scratch. … [He] points out details I would have otherwise missed: landscapes of small sticks from real trees and bushes, windows from broken bottles. ‘You could stare at the thing for hours and never, ever catch everything,’ he says.”
Patch crews struggle to keep up with potholes: It’s winters like the one we just had with extreme temperature swings and lots of snow that create pavement damage, Ann Arbor Public Works Manager Paul Matthews tells Ben Klayman. Vehicles, which are bigger and heavier than they were decades ago, only exacerbate the situation. As a short-term fix, city officials, like municipalities all over the state, use cold and hot asphalt patches. The cold ones are a ready-to-use, cost-effective approach employed during the winter when asphalt plants are closed, while hot patch is a premium repair method using heated asphalt to provide greater adhesion and durability. “Patching potholes is similar to putting a bandage on a gaping wound—it slows the bleeding, but doesn’t repair the damage,” the Michigan Department of Transportation says on its website.
Fixing the worst roundabout in town: Choi also delves into the plan to revamp that mess at State and Ellsworth by 2027, thirteen years and more than 1,200 crashes after it was installed to handle a high-traffic spot. While the number of collisions have gone up, officials say the severity has diminished dramatically from when it was a traditional perpendicular intersection. A study found failures to yield are the primary culprit, so the Washtenaw County Road Commission plans to reinstall overhead signage, resurface the pavement, install raised pedestrian crosswalks, add a buffer to emphasize separation between the two travel lanes, and redesignate the eastbound entrance’s left lane. Read more here. |
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| | Arbor Farms Market (above) reopened Tuesday after a fire on its sign left a big gash on the facade on Sunday. As I tell my husband every time I come home with a kid with a bleeding scrape, it looks worse than it is.
The drama surrounding professor Drew Peterson’s pro-Palestinian remark at commencement continues to plenty of redundant press attention, but this pair of essays in the Forward – one critical and one supportive of Peterson – are worth reading.
Here’s one of the first planned housing developments under the city’s new land use plan.
The feud between the county government and sheriff’s office under Alyshia Dyer got fired up again Thursday morning when she blasted an investigation into the origins of a pot cigarette found in her government-issued SUV.
Read his lips: No new city taxes.
U-M’s women’s softball team plays Kansas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament tonight.
The vanless Crystal Bowersox saga gets the Free Press’s Neal Rubin treatment.
A now-resolved cyberattack shut down Canvas, the cloud-based learning management system used by U-M and thousands of other schools.
Ypsi made the top ten on a list you don’t want to be on.
What do you think should be done with N. Main? The city and the Downtown Development Authority invite your input at three events next week. Find out the details here.
Veteran’s Memorial Ice Arena won’t reopen until at least 2027 after being wrecked by that tornado. The pool might reopen this summer, though.
It’s evidently never too late to honor a Revolutionary War veteran.
U-M spent $54.9 million in tuition assistance helping more than 6,300 students in the most recent academic year, more than double the $26.3 million the year before.
Where do most Ann Arbor high school graduates go to college? Not far.
To nobody’s surprise, U-M has a very smart expert to explain hantavirus to us.
A “bear track” in Ann Arbor was probably just a large dog, but a black bear was spotted in neighboring Wayne County.
The DDA is deploying a “service team” to address litter and vandalism downtown.
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| | | Korean fried chicken joint closes: Bonchon, a franchise that opened just last year, shut down its operations at Woodland Plaza at the end of April, MLive reports. Franchisee Gaby Coleman tells the outlet she and the parent company had unspecified disagreements that led to the closure.
Where students can choose their noodle: Ramen Run, a new South University convenience store, specializes in the college-dorm staple, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. Customers can take the titular product home for about $4 per pack, but most boil them on-site and add an array of mix-ins – dumplings, kimchi, boiled eggs, rice cakes, onions, mozzarella, and corn.
House of Chimney Cakes for sale: A bright-pink dessert spot on S. Fourth Ave. is seeking a new owner or it will close sometime this year, writes MLive. Proprietor Amanda Debek says the rent, which went from $4,100 a month to nearly $6,700, was just too high. The shop opened in August 2024. |
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| | | Goodwill opens used bookstore on W. Stadium: It’s a first for the nonprofit’s Greater Detroit area, an outlet focused specifically on selling gently used books, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. “It is a book town,” Jeff Ukrainec, vice president of donated goods operations explains, with “permanent residents as well as the students, so you definitely have a nice mix. … It’s a heavily traveled area with great visibility and great exposure. So I think it’s going to [be a] win-win for the book sales as well as the donations. People are going to see us and want to donate their merchandise, and that’ll help us in the long run.”
Rock the Block draws 100+ to help Habitat for Humanity: The volunteers descended on the West Willow neighborhood in Ypsilanti Twp. last weekend to knock out repairs and other home upkeep projects, the first of three such events scheduled this year. The other dates are June 12 and October 23; for more information on getting involved, click here.
Tickets available for JCC’s fortieth anniversary bash: The Jewish Community Center of Ann Arbor celebrates four decades with its Spotlight to Summer soiree at the Kensington Hotel from 6–10 p.m. on June 2. Highlights of the evening, for which tickets start at $80 a person, include a show by mentalist Sidney Friedman. |
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| | | Friday: World-renowned veteran local harmonica wiz Peter Madcat Ruth leads his all-star C.A.R.Ma Quartet in an eclectic mix of traditional and improvisational music at Rancho Tranquilico.
Saturday: About 300 local dogs (with their owners) usually attend the 46th Annual Walk & Wag & Run, the Humane Society of Huron Valley’s annual fundraising 1-mile walk, 5K race, and kids dash.
Sunday: Manchester holds its 60th Annual River Raisin Amateur Canoe & Kayak Races, a race down the River Raisin ending in downtown Manchester.
See the Observer’s online calendar for many more local events. |
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