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…
Interview: Ingrid Ault Talks About Why You Should “Think Local First”
1. Talk a little about Think Local First and how the organization has grown since its inception.
In 2003 our founder Lisa Dugdale gathered the original 25 businesses that started Think Local First of Washtenaw County. In the past ten…
Council Members Sending Private Electronic Communications During Open Meetings
WARD 5 COUNCIL member Chuck Warpehoski, in violation of Council rules and, perhaps, Michigan’s Open Meetings Act law, has used email and Twitter on multiple occasions during the months of November and December during open meetings. At the…
“Retired” Ann Arbor City Employees Earning $100K+ While Collecting Taxpayer Funded Health Care/Pension Benefits
AS OF DECEMBER 1, 2012, Ann Arbor city engineer Homayoon Pirooz “retired” with a pension funded by the taxpayers of Ann Arbor. However, in a scenario that has become common, Mr. Pirooz did not retire. He took a new job—a full-time position…
Deliverance: Charter Schools, Political Payback & Union Busting
by Warren Liverance
OUR LEGISLATURE AND governor set their sights on the reform of the public education system. According to a Free Press article “more than 50 percent of high schools have fewer than 10 percent of their students…
GOP Leaders Teach That Educators Are Costly Parasites. Are Americans Really Uneducated Enough To Believe It?
by Chris Savage
TO SAY THAT Republicans are on a mission to destroy unions in this country is not an understatement. Across the country, and particularly in the Midwest, Republican legislators and governors have spent the past three…
A2Politico: The New Jim Crow
by P.D. Lesko
MY TWO SONS have been, at various times, advanced in social studies, reading, mathematics and science, according to their scores on the MEAP tests. During the past two years, their overall proficiency scores dropped…
