The Ann Arbor Independent Editorial Team 2253 posts 224 comments

IN A 7-4 VOTE City Council members decided to disallow the use of social media during meetings: no Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat or Pinterest. Council members’ emails sent during their public meetings are subject to a variety of rules, as…

AAPS SUPERINTENDENT DR. Swift is preparing to launch another “listening tour” similar to the successful one she conducted shortly after her hiring. We congratulate her on this effort to get out of Balas and into the community to hear from…

CITY OF ANN Arbor officials put out a press release when new Fire Chief Larry Collins was hired. It was short and sweet. What it didn’t include was the fact that Collins had been fired from his previous job on Sept. 4. Before heading the…

by P.D. Lesko ANN ARBOR POLITICAL insiders ask the question: Could Irv Mermelstein be the next Tom Weider? Between 1995 and 2002 Weider, a feisty redhead and hard-nosed attorney, represented a group of substitute teachers against the Ann…

The Ann Arbor Independent filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the incident report filed by AAPD officers after the shooting of Aura Rosser. The ACLU of Michigan has been in contact with the AAPD, as well, urging the release of…

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF the A2FixIt program and corresponding app was warmly welcomed in the editorial page of this newspaper. We complimented city staff who worked to design and launch the program which allows people to use a cell phone to…

P.D. Lesko TWO OF THE three judges who serve in the 14-A District Court were involved in judicial tenure review complaints. By now, if you don’t know the Judge Cedric Simpson and Judge Kirk Tabbey stories, you’re missing out on some…

The children are restless and complain, “When does it start? Can we go!” Just when the kiddos are about to gang up on our tour guide, an enthusiastic 20-something U-M student named, Stuart Richardson, directs us up the stairwell to the…

CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS fell down on the job between 2011 and 2014. The job performances of City Administrator Steve Powers and City Attorney Stephen Postema went without review. The Charter calls for Council members to evaluate only two city…

by Gretchen Wright STUDENT DEBT LEVELS for newly minted bachelor’s degrees continue to rise, but how high varies greatly by state and by college, according to a new report from the Project on Student Debt at The Institute for College…