The Ann Arbor Independent Editorial Team 2257 posts 224 comments

by Kate Sheppard JAMES HANSEN, NASA’s top climate expert, believes scientists have an obligation to speak out when their findings have important implications for the public. Hansen has been speaking publicly about the threats posed by…

by Jill Richardson ASK A BUNCH of food writers what food trends they observed in 2013, and you get a long list of sometimes surprising answers. “Octopus everything: grilled, carpaccio, salad, escabeche! It’s everywhere!” says Sandra A.…

by Sarah van Gelder IN 1986 CARLO Petrini and a group of friends threw a big pasta feed in Rome’s storied Piazza di Spagna (the Spanish Steps). The event was a protest against the opening of the first McDonald’s in Italy. Out of that…

Using a tax increment financing scheme, since 2006, over $5 million dollars have been diverted from the cash-strapped public schools and given to Ann Arbor SPARK officials. WHILE ANN ARBOR  Public Schools officials, parents and students…

SPENDING ON LOBBYING was down across the board in 2012, but  the education industry led the way in tightening the purse strings. According to OpenSecrets.org, “In 2011, the industry, which includes both for-profit and nonprofit colleges and…

by Lynn Parramore IF YOU’VE GOT the money, there’s hardly anything you can’t buy in America. You can purchase a cushy upgrade to your prison cell, an internship at a famous magazine, or a fast-track through airport security. You can even…

ANN ARBOR CITY Council member Sally Hart Petersen announced in a press release sent to the media on January 14 that she plans to run for mayor. Petersen, elected to represent Ward 2 in 2012, unseated former state legislator Tony Derezinski…

by Drew Dellinger WHEN MARTIN Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech, he did something extraordinary for a speaker mounting a challenge to the existing order: he positioned those in his movement not as outsiders and dissidents,…

A REPORTER FOR The Weather Channel stood in a Minnesota snowstorm, talking about local efforts to move homeless children into heated shelters. “How cold is it supposed to get?” the anchor, back in the studio, asked. The reporter replied:…

THE END IS near! Page-sniffers, mourn the loss of our dog-eared friends! I MEAN … HURRAH for a library that saves trees! (Sob.) BiblioTech is an all-digital public library on the south side of San Antonio, Texas that offers 10,000 titles…