The Ann Arbor Independent Editorial Team 2257 posts 224 comments

by Nick Surgey GOOGLE, THE TECH giant supposedly guided by its “don’t be evil” motto, has been funding a growing list of groups advancing the agenda of the Koch brothers. Organizations that received “substantial” funding from Google…

by Jay Walljasper POWERFUL VOICES AROUNDWashington have singled out programs to improve biking and walking as flagrant examples of wasteful government spending. Since last summer, proposals have flown around the Capitol to strip away…

Please note: Kai Petainen is a member of The Ann Arbor Independent’s Editorial Board. ON DECEMBER 4th Ann Arbor SPARK CEO and President Paul Krutko sent a letter to local elected officials, as well as the Ann Arbor City Administrator Steve…

THE SUPERINTENDENT OF the Ann Arbor Public Schools, Dr. Jeanice Kerr Swift considers “both organizations, the AAPSEF and the PTO Thrift Shop as tremendous partners in our work on behalf of Ann Arbor children.” Mary Cooperwasser, a former…

WEMU AS WELL AS The Ann Arbor News recently reported on data contained in a Peer Comparison Report released by Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority officials which focuses on a comparison of per passenger costs with “peer public transit…

FROM A TRAIN STATION to sidewalks, the city’s 2015-2020 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) is jam-packed with projects that city staff suggest will “provide for large, physical improvements that are permanent in nature that are needed for the…

1.  Talk a little about Think Local First and how the organization has grown since its inception. In 2003 our founder Lisa Dugdale gathered the original 25 businesses that started Think Local First of Washtenaw County. In the past ten…

WARD 5 COUNCIL  member Chuck Warpehoski, in violation of Council rules and, perhaps, Michigan’s Open Meetings Act law, has used email and Twitter on multiple occasions during the months of November and December during open meetings. At the…

AS OF DECEMBER 1, 2012, Ann Arbor city engineer Homayoon Pirooz “retired” with a pension funded by the taxpayers of Ann Arbor. However, in a scenario that has become common, Mr. Pirooz did not retire. He took a new job—a full-time position…

by Warren Liverance OUR LEGISLATURE AND governor set their sights on the reform of the public education system. According to a Free Press article “more than 50 percent of high schools have fewer than 10 percent of their students…