Opinion

DR. ROSE BELLANCA, in following popular president Dr. Larry Whitworth, had no easy way to blaze her own presidential path. She had two strikes against her. First, she is one of a minority of community college presidents in Michigan and the…

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…

IN THE T.V.  advertisement released by the Snyder campaign last week, Gov. Snyder assures voters that Michigan is on the “road to recovery.” Those who have not felt the recovery will feel it soon, he says. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s…

by Melissa Sklar OUR BEES ARE in trouble. Widespread reports claim that we have lost a third of our global bee population and other pollinators like the Monarch are rapidly disappearing. When I started my awareness raising group in April…

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…

AT ITS MOST recent meeting, the Ann Arbor City Council once again showed a deplorable lack of respect for transparency, process and the public, as did City Administrator Steve Powers. At the September 2 meeting, an item to approve $75,000…

by Stephen Lange Ranzini SINCE I LIVE downtown immediately next to the newly constructed section of Huron between Ashley and Main, I have carefully observed the management of the Jackson Road reconstruction project and want to express my…

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,…

ON SEPT. 4,  Michigan’s minimum wage will rise to $8.15 from $7.40. Back on May 28, Michigan legislators passed The Workforce Opportunity Wage Act, under the auspices of which the state’s minimum wage will increase from $7.40 to $9.25 per…