The Ann Arbor Independent - A locally owned newspaper in Ann Arbor

THE CITY ADMINISTRATOR’S proposed $99 million General Fund budget was released ahead of last week’s Ann Arbor City Council meeting. The budget projects that expenses will outstrip revenue, and in what has become a commonplace occurrence,…

by P.D. Lesko Download a copy of Ralph Welton's Separation Agreement here. While City Administrator Steve Powers announced Welton’s “resignation” in Jan. 2015, the Separation Agreement signed by Welton and city HR Director Robyn…

By Stavi Tennenbaum EVA ROSENFELD, JUNIOR, and co-editor in chief of Community High School’s nationally acclaimed CHS Communicator newspaper, is an avid reader, artist, Neutral Zone Board leader and widely published journalist. A Google…

THE MICHIGAN ECONOMIC Development Corporation (MEDC) has a program for Michigan cities called Redevelopment Ready Communities (RRC). It is a voluntary certification offered at no cost to the communities that elect to participate. According…

by Brent McDermott I’M EMBARRASSED TO  drive my car. The bumper has a green streak and prominent dent. The driver’s side door opens up just enough for me to squeeze my small frame into the driver’s seat. And when that door closes, it has…

by Christian Usera SCRABBLE. THAT’S THE one cryptic (16 point) word I had to go off of when I started this journey. Not knowing what to expect, I enter the Arbor Brewing Company, where I’m greeted by a man with a shaved head with an “OM”…

Both Republican and Democratic U.S. Congressional leaders want to see colleges and universities, such Washtenaw Community College, have more skin in the game when it comes to paying for defaulted student loans. Such a policy shift could put…

WASHTENAW COMMUNITY COLLEGE Board of Trustees President Richard Landau was recently quoted in the media as saying that televised broadcasts of the community college’s Board of Trustee meetings are a “silly” idea and “a product no one has…

by Donna Iadipaolo A TEAM OF high school students from Ann Arbor recently won the regional competition for the 2015 National Science Bowl® (NSB) and will next compete at the National Finals in Washington D.C. at the end of April.…

by Bryan Kelly AFTER MONTHS DORMANT, Ann Arbor officials have rekindled the effort to market for development the Library Lot, a parcel of land about the size of the parking lot that used to be adjacent to the downtown library. I have…