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

by John Schneider I’LL KEEP MY college commencement speech brief. Dear graduates: Quit whining about your debts. You’re smart people. You were aware of the options. You made the calculation that an education was worth the financial…

ANN ARBOR CITY Council members recently passed a resolution urging the State’s Attorney General to stop defending Michigan’s ban against gay marriage. In 2011, Ann Arbor City Council went on the record objecting to a Republican-backed drive…

WARD 3 COUNCIL member Stephen Kunselman repeatedly alleged that a resolution brought to Council’s June 2, 2014 meeting by Mayor Hieftje, Ward 1 Council member Sabra Briere, Ward 3 Council member Christopher Taylor, Ward 4 Council member…

by P.D. Lesko TRUSTEES GLENN NELSON and Irene Patalan have said they intend to step down from the Ann Arbor Board of Education. In 2003, they ran as a part of a slate of candidates and have, for a decade, served. In that time, they have…

by Muhammad Kahn A DETROIT NEWS report revealed that Education Achievement Authority (EAA) Chancellor John Covington used credit cards issued to him by the EAA for personal expenses. Nearly $240,000 has been charged to two credit cards,…

by Jill Richardson The new comedy show "Last Week Tonight" with John Oliver included a well-deserved riff on the food industry in its first episode. Oliver, who you might know from his work on Comedy Central’s fake news program, The…

ACCORDING TO DATA compiled by the Ann Arbor Police Department, during the month of May there were 338 crimes, total, reported. The homes of 26 residents were invaded by thieves. Of those break-ins, 12 were forced entries, or almost half of…

by Liz Dwyer NEXT TIME YOU head to Paris, you might see more people riding bikes across the Seine. That’s because France has just launched a trial experiment that will pay 10,000 people to bicycle to work. According to Reuters, 20 of…

by Larry Schwartz IT’S A DIRTY world out there, no doubt.  Air pollution, water pollution, chemical runoff, food additives, stress, inequality, and all manner of terrible movies.  No wonder it’s hard to go anywhere without encountering…

Protected Bike Lanes As long as I’ve lived in Ann Arbor, I’ve found most in-town bicyclists to be self-centered, stupid and dangerous. Most of the “facts” in your article are cherry-picked and irrelevant to local conditions. The only…