Margie Teall

I caught up today with Margie Teall, who represents the 4th Ward on the Ann Arbor City Council. Teall has worked as a photographer and assistant director of religious education at the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor. She and her husband, Graham, live in the Lower Burns Park area with their two daughters, Clara, a graduate of Pioneer High School, and Gillian, who attends Community High School.

Random Dog

422 Detroit Street

Zingerman's Deli, located at 422 Detroit St. in Ann Arbor, has been a community staple since it opened in 1982. The company is making moves to expand to keep pace with demand for its brand of tasty but high-priced sandwiches.

Jonah's Graduation

Jonah Salim is one of my best friends in the world and I am truly blessed to know him. A native of Iraq, Jonah fled to the United States three years ago as a political and religious refugee, escaping violence and persecution in his war-torn country. He found a new life of peace in Bay City, Mich., in late 2007 and was granted asylum to stay in the United States as a refugee in June 2008. This past Saturday, we celebrated his recently earned doctoral degree from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. He currently serves as a missionary in peacemaking at the First Presbyterian Church of Bay City, but is now looking for a full-time pastoral gig and trying to overcome the hurdles of finding work as a Middle Eastern man in America.

Virg Bernero

Michigan gubernatorial candidate Virg Bernero was thrust into the national media spotlight last year when he became the leading spokesman for Michigan's struggling automotive companies. The Lansing mayor's scathing criticisms of Wall Street and Washington led CNN to call him America's angriest mayor. "I may be," he told me in an interview on Friday just after this picture was taken. "But there's a lot to be angry about and my anger is nothing like the anger that's out there in the streets in Michigan. People are angry and they're expressing it in a variety of ways. You see this Tea Party movement. People want to get involved. You see people spending the night at the capitol, putting up tents trying to get the message through to the Legislature to do something. For gosh sakes, we're in a crisis here and these people are dawdling. These folks don't seem to understand the urgency."

Nothing To Lose

It's been an eventful two weeks for William Keith Bostic Jr. Last week, the 22-year-old Texas native was graduating from the University of Michigan with President Barack Obama delivering his commencement speech. This week, he's making moves to run for mayor of Ann Arbor. Bostic was a late surprise this week when his name appeared on the list of candidates seeking the mayor's seat in this year's elections. He's circulating petitions to run as an independent in the November general election. "I really have nothing to lose," he said.

Master

Portrait Of A Mayor

This is Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje. After a decade in office, he's running for reelection for another two-year term. We met up today to talk about his campaign. Story to come soon.

Unhappy Hour

At Salon Vox in downtown Ann Arbor, exceptional customer service is considered an essential part of the guest experience. Until last year, that included occasionally offering complimentary alcoholic beverages to guests while they had their hair styled. What harm is there in a free glass of wine or beer? It turns out if a business doesn't have a license to sell liquor, it isn't even allowed to give away alcohol, according to the Michigan attorney general's office. Salon Vox, 115 W. Liberty St., is now making a push to change state law to be able to offer up free drinks to customers — without the threat of getting charged with a misdemeanor crime.

Scenes from Commencement

I was live blogging during commencement for AnnArbor.com, so I didn't get to do much else. But I did snap a few shots early on — some of which document the immense amount of cell phone activity inside Michigan Stadium (to the point where my iPhone was rendered useless). One of the highlights of the day was University of Michigan student speaker Alex Marston, who had everyone including the president laughing during a well-delivered, 4-minute speech.

President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama addressed a crowd of more than 80,000 at the University of Michigan commencement ceremony today in Ann Arbor. It was the largest crowd for Obama since his inauguration in Washington, D.C.