The Ann Arbor Independent Editorial Team 2257 posts 224 comments

by P.D. Lesko Michigan Republicans want to see House Bill 4770 and House Bill 4771 signed ito law by Governor Rick Snyder. The bills would prohibit public employers from including domestic partner benefits in their public employee…

by P.D. Lesko How many direct hits from within can the Hieftje-Hive-Mind-Collective Cube withstand? In summer 2009, the Cube took its first hit from within: Ann Arbor residents woke up to a front page piece in the Ann Arbor News that was…

By Chris Savage By some estimates, there are close to two hundred million blogs in the world, about half of which are in the United States. This number is growing each year. At the same time, the size and number of what are considered…

by P.D. Lesko Class size: one time when size does matter. Research on the success of K-12 students has concluded definitively that class sizes impact the performance of all students. Kids learn better in small classes. According to…

by William Belle I'm repeating myself. (Repeating yourself is a sign of senility. If I've said that once, I've said it a thousand times.) The best films I've seen do not necessarily involve a car chase scene. The special effects are…

By Chris Savage In late November of this year, the Michigan Supreme Court issued a tersely worded order (pdf) that said simply this: On order of the Court, the application for leave to appeal the July 19, 2011 judgment of the Court of…

by P.D. Lesko For the past year, Governor Rick Snyder has been getting pretty much everything he wanted from the state's Republican-controlled legislature. Together, the state's Republicans have been accused of legislatively sucker…

by P.D. Lesko DDA Board member and former Second Ward City Council member Joan Lowenstein (right) is having a really tough time of it, politically speaking. Should you care? Absolutely. It's a better show than "Real Housewives," but with…

by P.D. Lesko City Council committee appointments are out, and it looks as though newly elected Second Ward Council member Jane Lumm worked some black magic to get herself spots on two of the most powerful Council committees. For…

by P.D. Lesko I read a Tweet from Ann Arbor SPARK on November 17th: "Paul Krutko, Ann Arbor SPARK's CEO, speaking at the VC breakfast in San Jose, California. http://twitpic.com/7felds." Krutko was the Chief Development Officer for the…