Letter to the Editor

An Open Letter to City Council, DDA and AAATA Boards  In the photo below is the view of the boarding location (de facto bus bay) for AirRide on Fifth Street across from the Library. Note the new $8.1M Blake Terminal in the background and…

The Ann Arbor Independent’s Editorial Board is pleased to announce that it has added two new members. Ms. Natalie Wright, an Ann Arbor resident, is currently a second-year student at Washtenaw Community College and the editor of the…

Michigan is known as the Great Lakes State for a reason. However, if we continue to allow deep drilling endeavors there will be little reason to claim this namesake. Hydraulic fracturing, better known as “fracking,” places the resources of…

All Michiganders should be alarmed about frack waste coming from other states, not just residents who live near the receiving landfill.  Citizens should be alarmed even if the load doesn’t glow, like the one from Washington County,…

Women Must Have Access to Safe Abortions and Contraception My father-in-law graduated from Rush Medical School (now the U. of Illinois) in 1935. Interning at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital he had patients who’d almost bled to death…

Using Public Money to Run a For Profit Venture Capital Fund? Council members, elected officials and media: SPARK, a NON-PROFIT, is taking taxpayer money and they are managing a FOR-PROFIT fund. Tax-payer money is being…

Domestic Violence When we think of domestic violence it is easy to think, “This doesn’t happen in my neighborhood. Domestic violence is a problem that affects only other people.”  However, the reality is very different.  Domestic…

Washtenaw County Bar Association Candidate Survey Nearly 80 percent of the respondents indicated that they did not know me. Yet 52 percent of the respondents felt my technical qualifications (defined as legal ability, legal knowledge,…

An Open Letter to the AAATA Board Questioning the Legality of CEO Michael Ford’s Retroactive Raise The Michigan  Constitution art 11, Sec. 3, provides: “Neither the legislature nor any political subdivision of this state shall grant or…

Economic Development Entities and Public Schools Thank you to The Ann Arbor Independent and Rep. Jeff Irwin for working to expose the damage being done to public schools across Michigan by so-called “economic development” organizations…