Evidently Santa Ono read the John U. Bacon classic Three and Out about Rich Rodriguez and thought, “Hmm, that sounds good.” The U-M’s president is trading our beautiful region for muggy, shapeless Gainesville. As my daughter would say (very appropriately in this case!), “See ya later, alligator!”

One person who is sticking around this summer? My new intern, rising LSA junior Anna McLean! She is co-editor of the Focal Point desk at the Michigan Daily and won me over the moment I learned she had co-authored an outstanding investigative piece about the criminal history of a prominent Ann Arbor developer. It was the best piece of student journalism I’d seen in many years; I sent the link to Observer editor John Hilton that week with the note, “Way to go, Daily kids!” Now one of those kids is on my team!

The news is here as always. If you think you know the “real” reason why Santa Ono is leaving or why Dana Nessel suddenly dropped felony charges she’s been defending for a year, please drop me a line because I find the available explanations really unsatisfying.

– Steve Friess, editor
…with help from Anna McLean

Clarification: Last week, in noting the groundbreaking of Garrett’s Space in Superior Twp., I described it as a support and treatment center for young adults struggling with thoughts of self-harm. Julie Halpert, the nonprofit’s co-founder as well as a frequent Observer contributor, corrected that description. “We describe our mission as helping young adults struggling with depression and anxiety,” she emailed. “Some are just facing bumps in the road and need an extra layer of support. Many of those who will be at Garrett’s Space – and are there today in our wellness programming – are not having thoughts of self-harm.”

Theories abound regarding Santa Ono departure for University of Florida: Columnist Nolan Finley of the Detroit News writes (paywall) that the university president decided it was time to go after four Democratic regents tried to get him to co-sign a never-published column for The New York Times expressing solidarity with Harvard as the Ivy League school challenges the Trump administration’s attacks on academic independence. Yet veteran journalist John U. Bacon writes on X that Ono has seemed to be itching to bounce for months, having reportedly applied to lead Oxford and Harvard “and didn’t get close on either.” Florida began pursuing him in October and he interviewed in January – long before Harvard took its anti-Trump stand. In his bombshell letter to the community Ono gave no reason for leaving U-M after less than three years and only months after signing a lucrative contract extension. The Gainesville Sun reports (paywall) that Ono’s base compensation package could be worth $3 million. His tenure, the shortest in U-M history, was marked by tumult over the war in Gaza and the school’s DEI retreat. One prominent faculty member, economist Justin Wolfers, tweeted tartly: “A leader who exits at a moment like this is a leader we wouldn’t want. Florida got a lemon.” On Wednesday, leading GOP gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds, now a Florida congressman, raised objections to Ono’s selection and pointed to pro-DEI statements in 2022, but sitting governor Ron DeSantis, also a Republican, defended the pick.

U-M Dearborn chancellor to serve as interim president: Domenico Grasso assumes the role “effective immediately,” although he won’t be officially installed until next week’s regents meeting, the University Record writes. The sixty-nine-year-old, who holds a PhD in environmental engineering from U-M, has led the Dearborn campus since 2018. U-M says it will launch a formal search for a permanent replacement soon. In an introductory e-mail to the university community, Grasso describes himself as “a first-generation college student, a military veteran, an engineer with a deep appreciation for the liberal arts, a professor and an administrator.” 

Michigan AG drops charges against seven pro-Palestinian protesters: In a move that took many by surprise, Dana Nessel announced Monday she won’t prosecute students accused of felony police obstruction stemming from the dismantling of the encampment on the Diag at U-M last year, Michigan Public reports. Nessel said in a statement the matter had become a “lightning rod of contention” and that bringing the cases to trial wouldn’t be a good use of department resources. The decision was announced at a court hearing on Monday where Judge J. Cedric Simpson was expected to rule on whether Nessel’s office should be replaced with an independent prosecutor. Palestinian advocates argued that Nessel, who is Jewish, had shown bias against Muslims and others opposing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The attorney general also referenced “a local non-profit” – the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor – sending a letter to the court opposing her removal from the case as a factor in her decision. 

Sheriff, ICE clash over arrest notification: Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it notified the Washtenaw County dispatch and courthouse before arresting Honduran national Nixo Flores Sosa near the courthouse in Ypsi on May 1, the Detroit News reports. Sheriff Alyshia Dyer disputes that claim. Federal agents say they learned Flores Sosa, who was deported in 2018, was back in the U.S. after he was charged with domestic violence in September 2024.

Eight sue U-M claiming wrongful termination: The plaintiffs, a full-time employee and seven student workers, allege in a federal lawsuit that they were fired for participating in pro-Palestinian protests, the Daily writes. In a press release, attorney John Philo of the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, said, “The University’s shameful and unconstitutional attempts to silence viewpoints by firing student workers and forever barring them from any future employment must be reversed.”

Ypsi addiction treatment center to reopen after federal funding cuts: The Ann Arbor City Council is expected this month to approve a $85,000 grant from its marijuana tax revenue to help Home of New Vision reopen its Engagement Center, according to city records. The treatment center closed last month after losing $1.2 million in federal funding. Between public donations and council support, the organization expects to reopen June 1. Other service groups facing a loss of federal support are also seeking financial intervention from the city; at Monday’s meeting, Food Gatherers CEO Eileen Spring said the regional food bank is in crisis and needs help closing a $2.5 million budget gap, MLive reports (paywall).

City OKs library site rezoning: Council voted unanimously Monday to permit high-rise development of the AADL’s downtown branch property, a2view’s Anna McLean reports. The move, which requires a second vote on June 2, will allow a proposed mixed-use development combining housing and a new library on the 1.21-acre site at Fifth Ave. and William St., according to city records. At the meeting, longtime community activist Alan Haber reiterated concerns voiced in Julie Halpert’s piece on the matter in this month’s Observer, that the proposed project neglects the public open space called for in a 2018 city charter amendment.

Residents demand safer Stadium Blvd.: A group led by former councilmember Kirk Westphal is calling on council to reduce car lanes and add protected bike lanes on the busy thoroughfare to curb auto accidents, a2view’s Anna McLean reports. “We do have an ongoing emergency happening right before our eyes,” Westphal told council on Monday. “We have preventable deaths and serious injuries happening every year on city-owned roads. This is completely unacceptable and not expensive to fix.” Westphal has launched an online petition that has more than 350 signatures so far.

A2 zoning plan scaled back, moves forward: The planning commission capped building heights at three stories in low-rise residential areas as a part of its updated comprehensive land-use plan, a compromise after council pushed back on the original four-story limit, MLive reports (paywall). After a nearly six-hour meeting where residents expressed affordability and neighborhood character concerns, city planning manager Brett Lenart called the approval a “big step forward” for redeveloping Ann Arbor. The proposed low-rise zones would replace current single- and two-family zones, a transition planners believe will help enable dramatic population growth.

U-M reportedly suspending Sherrone Moore for two games: The head football coach won’t be on the sidelines for the Sept. 13 home game against Central Michigan or the away game against Nebraska as self-imposed punishment for his role in the 2023 scouting scandal, ESPN reports. Moore was offensive coach when staffer Connor Stalions is alleged to have bought tickets to opponents’ games to record sideline signals in advance of their U-M matchups. Then-head coach Jim Harbaugh was suspended for the final three games of the 2023 regular season as well. The self-imposed suspensions do not preclude the NCAA from further sanctions; a final resolution is expected before the start of the season.

Report says college football brought $226.7M in tourism revenue in 2024: Destination Ann Arbor released a commissioned study on Monday, the start of National Travel and Tourism Week. It estimates that each home game brings about $28 million in “direct visitor spending from attendees residing outside Washtenaw County.” Adding “indirect and induced effects,” it calculates that out-of-county visitors supported 2,198 local jobs, generated $12.9 million in tax revenue, and resulted in 100,496 hotel-room nights.

Fourteen Wolverine teams have perfect four-year “academic progress” rates: Between the 2020-21 and 2023-24 school years, not a single team member dropped out or was declared academically ineligible in men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, rowing, softball, women’s soccer, women’s tennis, men’s track and field, volleyball, and water polo, according to MGoBlue. In the 2023-24 school year, twenty-one of twenty-seven teams, including the football team, had perfect scores of 1,000. The men’s basketball team had the lowest score that year, 938, just above the NCAA minimum standard of 930.

Yankees great tells grads to “fall in love with something”: Hall of Fame shortstop Derek Jeter, who briefly attended U-M in 1992 before being drafted to play pro baseball, joked on Instagram that it took “longer than I planned” to get a degree after receiving an honorary doctorate Saturday. “You’re not ready-made,” Jeter told the Class of 2025. “You’re still evolving. No one should peak at twenty-one, twenty-two years old. So don’t keep looking behind you, you’re not going that way.” Other than a pro-Palestinian banner flown overhead and scattered boos following Ono’s speech, the commencement was a sedate and less political affair than last year, the Daily reports.

Husband convicted in wife’s stabbing, shooting death: Jurors took less than three hours to find Luke Edwards, seventy-four, guilty of first-degree murder in the 2024 slaying of sixty-six-year-old Donna Marie Johnson, MLive reports (paywall). Edwards is expected to be sentenced in July; the conviction carries a mandatory life sentence without parole. The jury rejected Edwards’ claim that the crime was committed by a pair of men who had been blackmailing Johnson.

Man in wheelchair killed in car crash: The seventy-nine-year-old Ann Arbor man was crossing Huron St. at Fourth Ave. Monday night when he was hit by a white SUV, according to an AAPD post on Facebook. The twenty-two-year-old driver fled the scene but later turned herself in. Police say alcohol is being investigated as a contributing factor. 

State sued over bodycam recordings of nude female prisoners: The lawsuit filed in Washtenaw County Circuit Court alleges that since January, the Michigan Department of Corrections has been recording inmates at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Pittsfield Twp. during strip searches, showering, using toilets, and in other states of undress, WXYZ reports. The process has continued despite a policy change in March, assert the twenty unnamed plaintiffs. They’re seeking $500 million in damages for the women who appear in the recordings as well as a halt to the practice and the destruction of the footage.

May Day protests in Ann Arbor, Dexter oppose Trump policies: Congresswoman Debbie Dingell condemned federal immigration enforcement actions and possible budget cuts by the administration to Medicaid, Social Security, and veterans’ services at a rally in Dexter that drew more than 500 protestors, the Sun Times News reports. In Ann Arbor, demonstrators marched from West Park to City Hall to urge continued resistance to Trump, WEMU reports. 

LEO-GLAM announces tentative contract: The U-M Librarians, Archivists, and Curators Bargaining Unit of the Lecturers’ Employee Organization says it has a four-year deal, the Daily reports. The proposed contract includes raises, paid sick leave, and other benefits, LEO organizer Natalie McCormick writes.

Special collection enables New York Times report on Unabomber: A lengthy Sunday front-page piece about the brother of the late domestic terrorist relied in part on correspondence received by Ted Kaczynski that is held in U-M’s Labadie Collection. David Kaczynski, who turned in his brother, sought reconciliation but was shunned; Ted Kaczynski died by suicide in prison in 2023 after facing a terminal cancer diagnosis. The story of how U-M, where Ted Kaczynski earned his graduate degree and doctorate, came to hold his papers is told in this episode of the “Listen In, Michigan” podcast and is at least as fascinating as the Times report.

Nine Washtenaw students win National Merit scholarships: Each will receive $2,500 based on their academics and “definitive marks of excellence,” according to the organization’s website. The winners are Ronak K. Ailawadi, Leland R. Weiser, and Arjun A. Alva of Skyline High; Sophie Erb-Watson and Grace Marie Liu of Greenhills School; Arella He of Pioneer High; Weiran Alice Jiang of Saline High; Claire Y. Wang of Huron High; Luke K. Mourad of Chelsea High, and Simran K. Kapoor of Washtenaw International High.

WEMU general manager defiant amid Trump order: In an online post, Molly Motherwell calls the president’s executive order instructing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop funding NPR and PBS “no different than a press release for practical purposes” because CPB is not under the president’s authority. She also sought to reassure the Ypsi-based station that the order “does not close local public media stations” but could threaten their finances if the congress eliminates federal funding for CPB. WEMU gets $135,000 a year, or 8 percent of its operating budget, from federal sources, and 82 percent from donors, sponsorships, and EMU, she writes.

Dexter, Pittsfield approve tax measures: Voters overwhelmingly supported a renewal of millages for parks and public safety agencies in Pittsfield Twp., according to county data. In Dexter, voters approved a $242 million bond issue to pay for renovations and expansions at local public schools.

Ecologist encourages locals to “create a habitat”: Sheila Schueller, whose upbringing spanned the wilds of Jamaica, Akron, Austria, and Greece, tells Shelley Daily in this month’s Observer about her mission to teach the public year-round ideas for supporting pollinators like butterflies, bees, and beetles. The School of Environment and Sustainability lecturer, who oversees the Ann Arbor’s Pollinator-Aware Yard Care initiative (formerly No Mow May), says it’s easy and doesn’t require giving up grass entirely: “Maybe keep a little patch unmowed and create a little native plant bed,” she suggests. In the fall, “leave the leaves and stems to provide a habitat for insects over the winter.” 

Vinyl, cassettes shop to close on May 25: In a Facebook post, the owners of Your Media Exchange Ann Arbor say they’ve seen a significant slowdown in sales since last summer even as their Toledo location thrived. They decided to shut down the downtown A2 location after three years rather than sign a lease extension. All items in the store now are marked down 10 percent and they won’t be buying any additional merchandise.

Brasserie opens this week along with new hotel: La Serre is envisioned as an “approachable and unpretentious” community gathering place, Bill Kohl of Greenwood Hospitality Group tells Dave Algase in this month’s Observer. Greenwood operates the 188-room Vanguard Hotel, part of the Marriott Bonvoy Autograph Collection. Kohl says the group settled on the concept because his local research revealed an opportunity for more French cuisine. It’s open for breakfast and dinner, with a lunch shift planned to start next month once the staff gains its bearings.

Local Jo-Ann still open, serving as warehouse outlet: Most locations of the bankrupt big-box crafts store have closed, but the site on Carpenter Rd. is still full of cheap goods, a2view’s Steve Friess discovered this week. The company’s regional warehouse is using the Ann Arbor store as a destination for selling off its stock, so there’s new merchandise available on a regular basis. A clerk said on Monday that she doesn’t know when they’ll close but that they’d just gotten a large shipment of goods to put out. Most are on sale for at least half off.

Letter carriers to pick up food donations on Saturday: The annual national Stamp Out Hunger effort is taking on new urgency this year amid funding cuts to food banks and USDA programs that help stock shelves of pantries. In Washtenaw County, letter carriers will pick up shelf-stable nonperishable items left in bags near mailboxes to be given to Food Gatherers. 

Public defender headlines storytelling fundraiser on Friday: Student Advocacy Center’s annual event, “Telling Tales Out of School,” will feature Delphia Simpson as well as other raconteurs, plus music and snacks. Tickets for the event, which starts at 7 p.m. at Huron High, are $30 or $10 with student ID. Click here for more information and to buy.

Arbor Hospice seeks gardening helpers: The nonprofit needs help throughout the summer tending to its eight-acre property with thirteen gardens and three ponds, according to an email from volunteer coordinator Ruth Moore-Lilly. Volunteers can sign up to pitch in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. by e-mailing Moore-Lilly here.

By Jennifer Taylor

Friday: See Ann Arbor Civic Theatre’s production of “Steel Magnolias,” Robert Harling’s 1987 portrait of Southern eccentricity and feminine strength. 7:30 p.m. (Thurs. to Sat.) and 2 p.m. (Sun.), Arthur Miller Theatre, 1226 Murfin. $25 (seniors, $22; students, $15) online and (if available) at the door. (734) 971–2228. 

Saturday: Watch dog trainers from throughout the Midwest and Canada lead their animals through an obstacle course and jumps of various heights at Ann Arbor Kennel Club’s All Breed Agility Trials. 8 a.m. until about 4 p.m. on Sat. and Sun., Ann Arbor Dog Training Club, 1575 E. North Territorial, Whitmore Lake. Free to spectators.

Sunday (Mother’s Day): Catch U-M jazz piano professor Ellen Rowe’s annual Mother’s Day concert featuring an ensemble of five musicians performing tunes by swing and bebop composer-pianist Mary Lou Williams. Williams wrote songs like “Froggy Bottom,” “Walkin’ and Swingin’,” and “Roll ‘Em” for Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and others. 2 p.m., Kerrytown Concert House, 415 N. Fourth Ave. Tickets $35 to $45 (students, $24 to $35) in advance here and (if available) at the door. (734) 769–2999.

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

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