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Opinion
EDITORIAL: Council Can Send A Strong Message By Rejecting Proposed Appointees to the Environmental Commission
SINCE NOVEMBER 2013, City Council members have shown they are prepared to more closely scrutinize proposed appointees to city boards and commissioners. Council’s newly-found backbone—comprised primarily of council members Mike Anglin in…
EDITORIAL: Ann Arbor District Library Trustee Must Resign
IN JANUARY 2011 Ann Arbor District Library Trustee Prue Rosenthal sent this email in response to news from the Library’s Executive Director that there had been two heroin overdose victims discovered at the Downtown Library: “Scary to think…
EDITORIAL: The Trustees of the AADL Have An Obligation To Inform Public About Crime
THE PRESIDENT OF the Ann Arbor District Library’s Board of Trustees is Prue Rosenthal. At a 2013 board meeting, a member of the public urged the AADL trustees to be more open and transparent, “asking them to allow the public to attend…
EDITORIAL: Additional Money For Michigan Universities Should Fund Increased Student Financial Aid
DR. MARY SUE Coleman has been asking Governor Rick Snyder for additional funding with admirable tenacity. He is proposing an $80.3 million dollar increase. Dr. Coleman undoubtedly hopes that the University of Michigan will receive a large…
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Michigan’s 2004 Same-Sex Marriage Ban Repealed
The federal judge who recently ruled that Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional evidently hasn’t learned much from the past. In a way, weren’t we here a couple thousand years ago? The ancient and primitive Greeks and…
OP-ED: Understanding Schools of Choice in Michigan And The Impact for Ann Arbor Public Schools
by Dr. Jeanice K. Swift
YOU MAY HAVE heard that Ann Arbor Public Schools is currently inviting students from beyond our school district boundaries to consider enrolling in our quality AAPS schools. Because the Schools of Choice topic can…
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: “Potholes Aren’t The Fault Of The City”
Our city council members need to have regular updates about the “happenings” in the Michigan Legislature. But I want to thank you for pointing out the absurdity of paying a lobbyist $50,000 to “carry the news” between Lansing and Ann Arbor.…
OP-ED: It’s Time To Consider a No-Strings-Attached, Basic Income for All Americans
by Lynn Parramore
WHAT IF YOU could receive a guaranteed basic yearly income with no strings attached? Didn’t matter how much money you made now, or in the future. Nobody would ask about your job status or how many kids you have. The…
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Michigan’s 14th President and 13th White Male
Cordial greetings. I appreciated the trial subscription to The Ann Arbor Independent. Ann Arbor is in need of an independent newspaper, providing careful and in-depth reporting about local affairs, and I had looked forward to becoming a…
OP-ED: U.S. Military Budget Disguises The Truth—Where’s Our Peace Dividend?
by Steve Rosenfeld
SECRETARY OF Defense Chuck Hagel unveiled his 2015 Pentagon budget in a detailed speech where he proposed spending $496 billion—about $45 billion less than the White House, retiring a tank-shooting aircraft and spy…