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

by Leslie Basden I got a job interview yesterday and was offered a position. It’s the first interview I’ve had in about a year. I can blanket my field with resumes and not receive a single call. My job consists of counseling others to help…

by P.D. Lesko In Ann Arbor, it's the achievement gap that gets the starring role in the ongoing drama enacted on a regular basis by both members of the Board of Education, as well as the District's paid professionals. This is a drama that…

BRANDON JESSUP IS young, black and lives in Detroit. Newspapers and magazines all around the country that trumpet bad news generated by statistical analyses and studies about the city will tell you that Brandon Jessup should be unemployed,…

by P.D. Lesko It's February, and in another 60 days or so those in the mood to run for mayor and City Council as Democrats or Republicans will have gone to the City Clerk's office and taken out petitions. Those running as Independents have…

by P.D. Lesko Michigan's Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission (APAAC) and a state diversity group have been pressuring Michigan Republican Senatorial candidate Pete Hoekstra (below, right) to pull his controversial Super Bowl…

by J.D. Berman Now that we're officially in the 2012 election cycle, candidates for office may want to take note of a new poll on voter attitudes toward poverty and opportunity. According to a survey commissioned by Spotlight on Poverty,…

by P.D. Lesko The bumper sticker is a classic one: If you're against abortion, don't have one. Limiting the rights of others is often mistaken for standing on principle. The University of Michigan graduate student research assistants…

by P.D. Lesko Guess what you can get in Michigan for a $10,000 donation to Rick Snyder's campaign? You can get $18,000,000 in state money to bail you out when your project crashes and burns just 10 months after it's launched. You can also…

by P.D. Lesko Jesse Jackson, Rachel Maddow, Michigan blogger Chris Savage and a host of left-leaning pundits have been punditing and writing themselves blue in the face over the past 10 months since Public Act 4 was passed by the Michigan…

by P.D. Lesko President Obama came to Ann Arbor to tell the country that federal aid to colleges should be tied to tuition costs. Federal aid to students would remain untouched, and a cranky Congress would have to pass the President's…