The Ann Arbor Independent Editorial Team 2257 posts 224 comments

Democrat Gary Peters is being targeted by the Koch PAC for his support of Obamacare. DEMOCRATS ARE FACING their toughest Michigan Senate fight in two decades. A sour national political climate, a little-known candidate and big…

County Administrator Verna McDaniel says Ann Arbor Commissioners Rabhi and LaBarre asked her to prepare a report that addressed  The Ann Arbor Independent’s March 11 story that documents county employee and elected officials’ stays at Las…

YOU DON’T NEED to wait at the docks for the latest installment of Charles Dickens’s Old Curiosity Shop. But what if your iPhone could recreate the excitement — and convenience — of reading a novel in serial form? Check out a new app…

by Jesse Kohn Dror Burstein is a telescope. To read Netanya, the Israeli author’s new memoir, is to pass inside the Givatayim observatory where Burstein’s grandfather once accompanied him, where the magnified vision of the moon so…

By Marc Joseph AS ENVIRONMENTALISM goes mainstream, corporations are marketing the word “green” as a panacea for the world’s climate crisis. Today the word describes a set of prescribed, mostly consumerist actions: buy local, organic and…

by Jill Richardson NICOLETTE HAHN NIMAN, author of Righteous Porkchop, just coined a new catchphrase that ought to go viral: “Sugar is NOT just an empty calorie.” Her statement contradicts the notion we’ve had for years that the worst…

DR. JEANICE SWIFT hopes to attract students from districts throughout Washtenaw County in the 2014-2015 academic year. AAPS has designated 100 seats in kindergarten, 100 seats in first grade, 25 seats in grades 3, 4, 5, 50 seats in grades…

IN ANN ARBOR IT is said that some bleed maize and blue. Between its 2009 launch and its 2013 end, journalistic “experiment” AnnArbor.com bled talent.  Reporters frustrated by low pay and, several say, difficulty getting hard-hitting stories…

According to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) Solar Market Insight Year in Review 2013, photovoltaic (PV) installations expanded rapidly last year, increasing 41 percent over 2012 to reach 4,751 megawatts…

by Tom Watkins NEITHER CHINA NOR America is an island. What happens in one country impacts the other and often, all humanity. This makes China’s minority “problem” a world problem. The leadership of China met in Beijing in November,…