My first Ann Arbor Observer article appeared in the October 1980 issue. This October will be my last as editor. Our deputy editor, Brooke Black, is already planning her first issue as editor-in-chief in November. Publisher Patricia Garcia is also retiring and will be succeeded by our media director, Danielle Jones.
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The new record holder is at the far northeastern corner of the district in Superior Twp., and cost more than three times as much: $12.495 million. That’s what the family of the late Louis P. Ferris Jr. got for his eighty-five-acre spread at 4000 Vorhies Rd.
Read MoreThe federal government’s demands for cash payments from universities have made headlines around the country. In August, when the Justice Department fined UCLA $1.2 billion for allegedly tolerating antisemitism, California governor Gavin Newsom called it “extortion.”
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How far will newspapers go to earn online revenue? Pretty far, judging from the ads that follow articles on MLive.com.
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After the Wolverines’ national championship in 2023, Jim Harbaugh returned to the NFL and took much of his staff with him. The league’s draft then selected thirteen Michigan players, including quarterback J.J. McCarthy and eight other starters on offense. Michigan did return three defensive All-Americans, but the weakened offense left a lot on the defense last season. Too much.
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The August 5 special-election ballot consisted solely of two city charter amendments: Proposal A authorized the city to sell the air rights above the underground Library Lane parking structure to the Ann Arbor District Library for $1 for a “mixed-use development that includes additional library services, housing, retail and programmable open public space.” Proposal B repealed a 2018 amendment that had reserved the structure’s ground-level roof for “an urban park and civic-center commons.” Both got about 58 percent of the more than 23,000 votes cast.
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For months, a giant cleat has hung over Michigan Football, in the form of the NCAA’s lengthy sign-stealing investigation. In mid-August, it slammed to the ground, causing financial and reputational pain, but not completely knocking out the program.
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Since 2008, Liberty St. has been home to what may be Ann Arbor’s ultimate “if you know, you know” secret: Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair.
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In the alleys behind Ann Arbor restaurants, workers dump the used oil into large metal containers. Most belong to three collection companies: Evergreen Grease, G.A. Wintzer & Son Co., and Buffalo Biodiesel. They sign restaurants to lengthy contracts that create a near-territorial system.
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Pioneer High at 3:01 p.m. has the feel of a busy commuter airport. Students pour out of classrooms shouldering backpacks, swinging musical instrument cases, laughing and chatting. Many are holding cell phones.
Those phones are a point of contention at all levels of the education system: from individual classrooms to the school district, and all the way up to the Michigan legislature.
As move-in began this August, Vic Village South’s website advertised, “Leasing Now Open for 2025–26!” Social media ads announced, “We have 1, 2, 3, and 4-Bedroom apartments available!”
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Founder Pat Montgomery established Clonlara School in 1967 to “allow children to be themselves, free to explore their interests and develop into individuals who [feel] free in their own skin,” she told the Observer in 2017. Through what it calls Full Circle Learning (FCL), Clonlara empowers its students to pursue topics that spark their curiosity, and learn what they learn along the way.
Read MoreOn Tuesday, Ann Arbor voters headed out to the polls to cast their ballots on Proposals A and B for the special 2025 August election. After a heated race marked by lawsuits, lawn signs, and fervent online discourse, early...
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As the increasingly bitter campaign over the future of the downtown library races to a close, both sides are spending the final days before Tuesday’s election making their cases by going door to door, flooding social media, and pushing targeted ads through mail and online platforms.
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“It will be heartbreaking for a lot of people if it is allowed to dry up and die.”
Read MoreMates watched the passage of President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” in July with alarm. It will slash Medicaid funding by about $1 trillion over ten years—and the “big juicy target” is support for people with disabilities like her son Corbin.
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As a lawyer for the City of Detroit in the 2010s, Savit says, “I saw the ways in which President Trump’s policies had harmed communities—and I also saw the ways in which state attorney generals were uniquely equipped to fight back.” People had been asking him if he planned to run for higher office ever since he was first elected in 2020, and Trump’s return was the tipping point.
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Chelsi Preuc at the Washtenaw County Health Department says that through June, the department received reports of eighty-five cases of Lyme disease, up from fifty in the same period last year.
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“It’s probably the biggest sale in town,” says bookseller Gene Alloway. He plans to line up early on Friday, September 5, when the three-day event begins at WCC’s Morris Lawrence Building. “The books are in fine shape,” says the owner of Motte & Bailey Booksellers, “and they have lots of different subjects.”
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