When the Neutral Zone amicably ended its partnership with the University Musical Society on an annual showcase concert in 2012, its teenaged clients agreed with the decision. They were also determined to keep the spirit of...
Read MoreOn October 9, 2014, Aastrom Biosciences, a homegrown biotech company, announced that it was changing its name to Vericel and moving its corporate headquarters from Ann Arbor to Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company has pursued...
Read MoreHappy hibernation, SnowBuddy! Spring has sprung, and the volunteer-run sidewalk snowplow is sleeping away the warm weather in a garage on Cherry St.Welcome, Water Hill Music Festival! On Sunday, May 3 (see Events), residents of...
Read MoreWhen the Observer interviewed Rick Snyder in December 2010, the newly elected governor figured he had six months–from his inauguration on January 1 until the legislature’s summer break on July 1–to reinvent...
Read MoreAt Pioneer High, he was stalked by scouts. At the U-M, he led a baseball revival. Once he turned pro, however, Zach Putnam’s rocket ride to stardom sputtered. Traded, waived, released, repeatedly demoted, he has pitched in...
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What’s the deal with the highway interchanges where North Main St. meets M-14? I’m talking about the Barton Dr., Whitmore Lake Rd., and North Main St. entrances and exits. They are confusing at best and often quite...
Read MoreWhen James Woolliscroft heard the news in January 2007 that Pfizer was closing its drug research campus on Plymouth Rd., he thought, Wow, what an opportunity.This was far from the majority sentiment in Ann Arbor. The city faced...
Read More“You’ve heard of folklore, right?” asks Larry Collins, Ann Arbor’s new fire chief. “Well, there’s a thing called fire lore. What happens is, over the years, what the old-timers said takes on a...
Read MoreIt’s there in big type at the top of SPARK’s latest annual report: “13,034 new jobs since 2006.”Sumi Kailasapathy doubts it.”The job creation claims for previous years made by SPARK have proven to...
Read MoreWhen President Obama announced in December that he would normalize relations with Cuba, photographer Jack Kenny and retired attorney Kurt Berggren got to thinking about an official visit with Ann Arbor’s newest sister...
Read MoreKelly Hone spends her workdays with Chico the chinchilla, Badger the ferret, and Snowflake the hedgehog. Mice, chicks, bunnies, red-footed tortoises, Petunia the pot-bellied pig, and Nigerian dwarf goats round out her retinue....
Read More“It was love at first sight,” gushes Nichole Nilsson. She’s speaking of her first visit to Nixon Farms while planning her September 2013 wedding. “The minute we walked into the barn, we thought this was...
Read MoreBrendan McCall and his wife, Lili Kostova, searched for a year and a half for a house to buy. McCall, thirty-two, is executive chef and partner at Mani Osteria and Isalita restaurants, both located in downtown Ann Arbor....
Read MoreIf you need a quick doggie fix in downtown Ann Arbor, you’re in luck. There are plenty of pooches, purebreds, and hounds working side by side with their owners who will be glad to oblige–as long as treats and petting...
Read MoreUber in action is nearly impossible to see. Except for an identifying decal in their rear window, “Uber X” cars look like what they are: privately owned vehicles. But they’re out there. Just ask bar...
Read More“I want you to know that I never considered your father an alcoholic because his drinking never interfered with his job,” my mother-in-law confessed to her sons at the end of her life. Until that day, she had never...
Read MoreSoybeans grew last summer in the fields of the three Nixon properties on the city’s far north side. Deer grazed in the woods, and frogs croaked in the wetlands.In February, the fields, woods, and wetlands lay beneath a...
Read MoreFifteen years ago Andrew Kyte, then a teenager, walked into the workshop of Mike Wolfe, a blacksmith on Ann Arbor’s west side, and wrote his name on the wall above the door. “I wanted to leave my mark,” he...
Read MoreIn October, someone called “Wolverine Devotee” posted an email message on mgoblog.com. Supposedly sent by U-M athletic director Dave Brandon to a fan, it ended curtly: “I suggest you find a new team to support....
Read MoreMaurita Holland says the last straw was when the deer ate her rain garden. The retired School of Information prof replaced a patch of turf with a sunken garden of native plants–only to discover that the deer that roam her...
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