Mayor & Council Member Petersen “Filtering” Info About Important Land Deal?
Please note: Council member Sally Hart Petersen was informed by Mayor Hieftje of U of M's proposal to purchase the Edwards Brothers property on State Street on November 18th. She attended a November 27th meeting with the owners of the…
MEAP Data Reveal That 5th Graders At One-Third Of Ann Arbor Schools Perform At Levels Consistent With Schools In Nation’s Poorest Inner-City Districts
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT SHOULDN’T be predicated on which of Ann Arbor’s 21 public elementary schools a child attends. The AAPS elementary curriculum is standardized throughout the District, and teachers are uniformly compensated, qualified,…
EDITORIAL: When Content-For-Clicks Trumps Journalistic Ethics
THE “NEW” ANN ARBOR News is still churning out the same old “content-for-clicks” journalism that it was criticized for serving up to the community by the Columbia Journalism Review, as well as the American Journalism Review in separate…
Study Reveals Number Of K-8 Students Walking And Biking To School Rose Between 2007 and 2012
THE NATIONAL CENTER for Safe Routes to School released the results of a study that concluded more K-8 students are walking and biking to school. The 43 page study, titled “Trends in Walking and Bicycling to School from 2007 to 2012” was…
Op-Ed: Why is Google Funding Grover Norquist, Heritage Action and ALEC?
by Nick Surgey
GOOGLE, THE TECH giant supposedly guided by its “don’t be evil” motto, has been funding a growing list of groups advancing the agenda of the Koch brothers.
Organizations that received “substantial” funding from Google…
Op-Ed: The Bicycling Community Is Becoming a Political Force to Be Reckoned With — And That’s Great News
by Jay Walljasper
POWERFUL VOICES AROUNDWashington have singled out programs to improve biking and walking as flagrant examples of wasteful government spending.
Since last summer, proposals have flown around the Capitol to strip away…
In “Tense” Meeting Ann Arbor SPARK Executive Board Votes To Make 2012 and 2013 Audit Statements Available to The Public For First Time
Please note: Kai Petainen is a member of The Ann Arbor Independent’s Editorial Board.
ON DECEMBER 4th Ann Arbor SPARK CEO and President Paul Krutko sent a letter to local elected officials, as well as the Ann Arbor City Administrator Steve…
Ann Arbor Educational Foundation Funds Grants, Pulls Back From Funding After School Buses
THE SUPERINTENDENT OF the Ann Arbor Public Schools, Dr. Jeanice Kerr Swift considers “both organizations, the AAPSEF and the PTO Thrift Shop as tremendous partners in our work on behalf of Ann Arbor children.” Mary Cooperwasser, a former…
AAATA Fiscal Year Begins With Service Hour Costs Trending Up & Ridership Trending Down
WEMU AS WELL AS The Ann Arbor News recently reported on data contained in a Peer Comparison Report released by Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority officials which focuses on a comparison of per passenger costs with “peer public transit…
EDITORIAL: The City’s Five Year Capital Improvement Plan
FROM A TRAIN STATION to sidewalks, the city’s 2015-2020 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) is jam-packed with projects that city staff suggest will “provide for large, physical improvements that are permanent in nature that are needed for the…