I need some help. My mother is coming for Thanksgiving and she doesn’t eat gluten, dairy, or black pepper. She actually likes lots of food, but feeding her is always hard nonetheless. Got any recipes for creative (and not too complicated!) side dishes? Email me, please!

Speaking of emailing me, you sure did this past week after we polled you on what other e-newsletters you read. The top two results didn’t surprise me much – the New York Times was out front by a large margin followed by MLive.

But the inadequacy of the list I concocted on the fly emerged with third place, which went to “other.” Many wrote in to elaborate, with several folks mentioning Bridge Michigan and the Michigan Advance as invaluable regional news sources.

Beyond those, other mentions in my inbox included the Wall Street Journal, the Conversation, the Atlantic, the Guardian, and Reuters. Substackers Heather Cox Richardson, Paul Krugman, and Joyce Vance also popped up, as did a few options I’d not heard of before — Numlock, Michigan Legislative Consultants, and International Intrigue.

Nobody signs up for everything (do they?), but there are some really interesting perspectives and veins of news on offer in that array of outlets. That should keep y’all busy.

Speaking of which, your news is here. Local new teacher retention remains low following the pandemic, U-M is standing up to the Big Ten over a $2.4 billion investment, the women’s basketball team is having an historically great start, and students at a popular yoga studio are anxious in a way that downward dog can’t fix.

Also, if you want to get to know new editor-in-chief Brooke Black better, watch her interview with CTN and bookmark her blog posts as she writes weekly of her adventures around town.

This was last week’s most-clicked link.

– Steve Friess, editor

P.S. Look out for next week’s a2view in your boxes on Wednesday in advance of the holiday weekend!

Tough roads to go: That super-confusing intersection between N. Hamilton St. and Washtenaw Ave. in Ypsi was the county’s most dangerous in 2024 with 132 crashes, according to data analyzed by Michigan Auto Law. Another of my least favorites, the roundabout at State St. and Ellsworth Rd., came in No. 2 with eighty-five accidents. Check out the whole list here and read this 2023 piece from the Observer for more about that infamously dreadful roundabout.

Trans rights and wrongs: The decision by Michigan Medicine to discontinue gender-affirming care for patients under age nineteen continues to reverberate, with pro-LGBTQ protesters using the opening of the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion last week to express their anger. Intriguingly, that same week, Byron Center High athletic director Brady Lake urged supporters of the girls’ volleyball team not to protest the possibility of a trans player on Skyline High’s squad. (Neither the school nor the state has confirmed her existence.) The teams faced off Tuesday in the state quarterfinals; Byron Center beat Skyline handily. “Please trust me when I say that the biggest threat to our success on Tuesday is not on the court; it is the distraction to our girls that will come from those around them fixating on this story,” Lake wrote.

Local new teacher retention beats state average but…: That’s not much to brag about. Across Michigan, 26 percent of new teachers remained with their districts five years after their hire as of the 2024–25 school year, continuing a precipitous plummet from 70 percent in 2020–21. Ann Arbor Public Schools retained 31 percent and Ypsilanti Consolidated Schools held on to 35 percent of their new hires, but that’s also dramatically lower than the 78 percent and 85 percent they respectively retained in the 2020–21 year. Read more

Another data center download: With nearby residents still piping mad over the seemingly inevitable construction of a 250-acre OpenAI-Oracle facility in Saline Twp., the Michigan Public Service Commission has scheduled a hearing to take public input on DTE’s application to handle the electrical needs of the project. That meeting, set for 6:30 p.m. on December 3, is not quite what opponents sought; DTE is asking for a decision by December 5 on whether the state will fast-track its application and avert any further hearings so construction can start early in 2026. In related news, the board of Pittsfield Twp. — where as of now nobody is trying to build a data centers — held a special meeting yesterday to approve a moratorium on zoning changes that would allow for such facilities. 

Simmering Big Ten–Michigan feud boils over: Some U-M regents are wary of a proposal to allow $2.4 billion in private equity investment into the league, fearful doing so would hand off control of the conference. This week, board president Mark Bernstein told the Associated Press the Big Ten is trying to bully U-M into agreeing to the arrangement with UC Investments under threat of sanctions, a charge denied by Maryland president Darryll Pines, who is leading the negotiations. U-M is not the only school queasy about the potential deal; USC leaders also have expressed doubts, and senator Maria Cantwell of Washington is urging caution. It’s gotten so bad, the Detroit Free Press and USA Today offered a clickbait-y (and misleading) headline suggesting U-M might quit the Big Ten.

A yoga studio sweats its future: For nearly twenty years, the Ann Arbor School of Yoga has occupied a former church at 420 W. Huron St. Soon, however, the building will be for sale, leaving over a hundred students and their teacher, Laurie Blakeney, wondering what’s next. Blakeney’s students tell reporter Alex Kourvo they worry new owners will make the rent unaffordable. “It’s hard to think that this might potentially be another bit of our history erased,” one says. Read more

Federal public health info erodes: The Washtenaw County Health Department relies in part on data and guidance from various branches of the Department of Health and Human Services, but cuts and policy changes under HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are making local experts doubt the veracity or accuracy of information coming from D.C., Davi Napoleon writes. In addition, rollbacks to long-standing policies governing clean air, vehicle emissions, and greenhouse gas emissions could have a ripple effect here in Washtenaw County. Read more

Fixing Barton Dam: In a My Town essay, Ron Carnell waxes philosophic about the critical but oft-overlooked structure that serves most of Ann Arbor’s water needs. The city is installing a “mineral drain” to prevent erosion, he learned in conversation with senior utilities director Glen Wiczorek. “Ann Arbor residents may argue about development downtown, bike lanes, and roundabouts, but when it comes to the dam that keeps their taps flowing, they seem content to let it stay in the background,” he writes. Read more

U-M women’s basketball is on fire, ranked No. 6 in the nation after a 4-0 start that included a surprise blowout of Notre Dame last week. Just how good are they? We’ll see tonight when they face No. 1 UConn on the road. 

Pioneer High’s eighty-seven-year-old cross country head coach, who has run the program for fifty-eight years, is being replaced amid a feud with the school’s athletic director. He’s not going quietly. Read more

Months after local rowers raised $120,000 to replace a launching dock on Argo Pond, someone scorched it last week while using it, evidently, to set off fireworks. The Ann Arbor Rowing Club says it’ll cost $15,000 to fix. Read more

Mayor Christopher Taylor is running for a fourth term. If he wins, he’ll become the longest-serving mayor in city history.

In what is likely to be his only State of the University address, interim president Dominico Grasso announced a five-year, $250 million investment in a biomedical innovation institute. Read more

Lawyers for Ann Arbor homeowner Lisa Cook, aka the Federal Reserve governor who Trump wants to fire, are accusing the administration of cherry-picking facts to justify dismissing her. Read more

Don’t be surprised to see a house roll by on Saturday. That’s just the home once occupied by Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish architecture student who became a famed anti-Nazi diplomat. It was in the way of the new dorms, so it’ll be plopped next to a home where Arthur Miller once lived. Read more

The regents, by the way, officially named that the two-phase central campus dorm complex Wolverine Village yesterday. Zzzz. The big surprise there is that such a quotidian name isn’t already in use.

That loopy bronze-colored sculpture at Gallup Park isn’t the only new piece of public art around town. Concentrate provides a useful roundup.

Meet Lawrielle West, the first full-time, paid director of the county’s African American Cultural and Historical Museum.

An “illegal arts and crafts studio” sounds badass to us, but Ypsilanti threatened to shut it down. Now the city says Dzanc House can stay open while it gets its zoning squared away. Read more

Hamas and Israel may have a tenuous peace deal, but Tahrir Coalition isn’t done demanding U-M divest from companies it says profit from Israel’s military.

Will everything have subtitles now that a Belgian theater conglomerate is buying the Emagine in Saline?

AAPS is winding down its German language course offerings, much to the ire of parents, teachers, students, and alumni.

Huron High freshman Annamarie Riccardi last weekend won the Music Teachers National Association’s state-level woodwind competition. The flutist now competes as a division finalist for a berth in the national finals in March. Here’s her YouTube channel, where you watch and hear her play.

Bori opens above Jolly Pumpkin: The newest Korean restaurant and karaoke club downtown debuted last week, according to its Facebook post. Chef James Park (above), who has worked in the kitchens of Miss Kim and Jolly Pumpkin, is in charge of the new Mission Restaurant Group venture.

Hot pot maestro expands to Korean BBQ: A+ Wagyu BBQ is Eric Zhou’s follow-up to the highly regarded Palace Tang, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. The Courtyard Shops location had been vacant since the 2020 departure of the French bistro Mikette. Both of Zhou’s eateries involve diners cooking their own food at their tables.

Ypsi to get West African eatery: Chef Bangaly Kaba plans to open Galy’s, which will offer dishes inspired by the food of Senegal, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire, in spring 2026, What Now Detroit reports. The Ypsi-raised Kaba has served as head chef at Mediterraneo in Ann Arbor. The restaurant will replace Crawdaddy’s Creole, which closed earlier this year.

Give blood Sunday, beat the Buckeyes: The 43rd annual Be a Hero at the Big House blood drive, which runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., is the marquee event in a monthlong effort to collect more pints of donated blood than Ohio State ahead of The Game on November 29. To sign up to give there or elsewhere around town during the campaign, which ends Wednesday, click here. Also, volunteers are needed on Saturday to set up and Sunday to operate the event and break it down. Here’s a history of the Blood Battle; U-M is on a three-year losing streak against OSU.

Thanksgiving Day run to battle brain cancer: The Ann Arbor Turkey Trot’s 1K for kids under ten kicks off at 8:15 a.m. and the 5K starts at 8:45 a.m. at 337 E. Liberty St. A portion of the proceeds go to ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation, which raises money for research into the aggressive tumor that took the life of former U-M football head coach Lloyd Carr’s grandson, Chad, in 2015. Tickets, which cost $52 for the 5K and $25 for the 1K, are available online. 

United Way of Southeast Michigan launches $35M fundraising campaign: The regional umbrella charity, which absorbed the United Way of Washtenaw County in 2023, announced its goal to collect that sum and mobilize 45,000 volunteer hours by October 2026. The effort, co-chaired by two Ford Motor Co. executives, comes as the nonprofit’s study found 42 percent of households in its four-county metro Detroit region “struggle to afford basic necessities like food, housing, and health care” amid cuts to federal assistance programs.

By Jennifer Taylor

Friday: See U-M students in the U-M MUSKET production of Matilda, the 2010 musical based on Roald Dahl’s children’s novel. It centers on a bookish five-year-old girl with telekinesis. 7:30 p.m. (Fri. and Sat.) and 2 p.m. (Sun.), Power Center. Tickets $15 (students and kids age twelve and under, $9) in advance online and, if available, at the door. 

Saturday: Hear noted New Orleans jazz clarinetist Evan Christopher, whose distinctive “woody” sound fuels early jazz classics, overlooked works, and originals. With pianist Mike Karloff, cellist Mike Karoub, and guitarist Erik McIntyre. 7:30 p.m., Kerrytown Concert House, 415 N. Fourth Ave. Tickets $30 to $40 (students, $20 to $30) in advance online or, if available, at the door.

Sunday: See a family-friendly performance by Revolution Chinese Yoyo, a U-M student Chinese yo-yo troupe that blends the traditional pastime of Chinese Yoyo (diabolo) with modern music. 3–4 p.m., Ann Arbor District Library Downtown. Free.

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

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