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

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…

IN 2013, THE newspaper did a comprehensive look at the restaurant inspection reports for Ann Arbor’s Main Street restaurants. The number of priority violations (violations, such as holding food at improper temperatures, or lack of…

LAST WEEK THE National Merit Scholar Corporation announced that about 16,000 U.S. high school students had been named semifinalists in the 2015 National Merit Scholarship competition. In Washtenaw County, 93 students were named…

The Washtenaw Food Policy Council (WFPC), the County appointed food policy group, recently approved a 23 point agenda, aggressively prioritizing support for a viable, economical, and sustainable local food system. The policy agenda…

Readers abandoning print newspapers in favor of online news may want to consider the effect it’s having. A study conducted by a researcher at the University of Houston (UH) finds those who read printed news publications read more news and…

By P.D. Lesko THE EMAILS WERE clear: the PR rep. at Washtenaw Community College was not amused that The Ann Arbor Independent published an article about Dr. Gus Demas, a $500/day consultant hired by the college’s president. The college’s…

FROM CANNING to needlepoint, the Ann Arbor Reskilling Festival will offer classes that teach skills once passed on as a matter of survival. The event is scheduled for Sept. 25 and will take place from 6-9 p.m. at The Yellow Barn. The venue…

Friday, September 12 AACTMAD Advanced English Country Dance.  Come see what swell new dances people picked up over the summer! Great live music, with many callers leading the 10th annual What We Learned On Our Summer Vacations program.…

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…