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

by Donnelly Wright Hadden Our State government is in a frenzy to spend money and cut taxes, because it has a temporary budget windfall. Michigan officials had better save some of that money to bail out local governments next year,…

by Patricia Lesko County Commissioner Ricky Jefferson. Photo | Washtenaw County Let me preface this by saying that in 2013, when our son was diagnosed with whooping cough, we received excellent support and supervision from the…

Washtenaw County Health Department has announced it will lift its remaining COVID-19 health orders in K-12 educational settings effective Feb 28. This includes two orders, one requiring masks, and another for isolation and…

by Ari LeVaux It’s a noun. It’s a verb. It’s a way of life. “Creamy,” said my friend Luci Brieger, when I asked how her summer was going. Creamy has many meanings at her farm, Lifeline Produce in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley, all of them…

by P.D. Lesko 2/11/22: This article has been updated with comments from Council member Kathy Griswold (D-Ward 2). Council member Kathy Griswold's (D-Ward 2) resolution asked City staff for the answers to a few questions: Who owns the…

The University of Michigan Board of Regents has appointed a committee of faculty, staff, students and alumni to assist with the search for the University of Michigan's next president and to collect feedback from the university community.…

To Claim Our Hero, We Must Also Own Our Hate by Jay Saper While we as Michiganders may take pride in Ann Arbor-educated Rabbi Cytron-Walker having heroically helped his fellow congregants held hostage at his Colleyville, Texas,…

by P.D. Lesko "If you want to work on affordability, the thing that you do is try to increase supply. So, that is going to be a community conversation that we are going to continue to have. Obviously it’s going to mean that we have to…

by P.D. Lesko Note: Our family belonged to Congregation Beth Israel from 1992-2004. I served on the Board in the early-90s. When the protests by Witness for Peace began, we were members of the synagogue. We joined Temple Beth Emeth…

by Maggie Villiger More than two years after the first cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed, people are exhausted by the coronavirus pandemic, ready for all this to end. When – if ever – is it realistic to expect SARS-CoV-2 will recede from…