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

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…

CITY ADMINISTRATOR STEVE Powers was hired in 2011. His job performance during the past 3 years has not yet been evaluated by City Council. The Charter requires Council to evaluate both the City Administrator and the City Attorney annually.…

by Steve Rosenfeld WHAT COULD HAVE been done? What can be done now? These are the questions on most people’s minds after another senseless mass shooting, this one near the University of California, Santa Barbara, in Southern California…

by P.D. Lesko “PLEASE, CALL ME Lily,” says the woman on the phone, with a warmth that doesn’t betray the obvious fact that she has extended the same invitation to scores of interviewers. She was born in Detroit, Michigan on September 1,…