Edward Miller

Journalists like to say they serve as watchdogs, ready to bark when they uncover abuses by the powerful — especially by government officials. A healthy skepticism about the performance of […]

Northwestern University’s Penelope Abernathy has come out with another study on the demise of local newspapers — her specialty. More bad news, she says. Papers are disappearing at the rate […]

The news from the Middle East has been unbearable, and I have avoided writing about it here. There are days when I cannot bring myself even to read the latest […]

The acute labor shortage on the Outer Cape would likely become massively worse under a second Donald Trump presidency — which appears increasingly probable if you believe public opinion polls. […]

Writing headlines is one of the hardest jobs at a newspaper. The available space is small, so the head can have only a few words, but it has to reflect […]

The first time I met Provincetown Police Chief Jim Golden, back when I was an editor at the Banner, he told me his reason for refusing to answer questions about […]

Those of us who believe that New England’s peculiar town meeting form of government has unique value sometimes refer to it as the purest version of democracy. It’s not without […]

Our subscriber Elizabeth Perillo in Woodstock, Ga. was offended by two photographs in the Sept. 7 edition of the Independent. Her letter to the editor last week said the pictures […]

Several of us at the Independent spent a couple of days last week in Keene, N.H. at the Radically Rural Summit, which I have mentioned in this column before. We […]

Five years ago, Walter Rowell, who was then 21, ran for Wellfleet Select Board. His campaign featured some unusual proposals, including his idea that Wellfleet and Provincetown should “annex” Truro, […]

Last week a group of 22 prominent funders, led by the MacArthur Foundation, announced “a national initiative to strengthen communities and democracy by supporting local news” with grants totaling more […]

A press release from the Cape Cod National Seashore appeared in my inbox the other day promoting the value of the Park to the local economy. A new report from […]

Two weeks ago, I wrote about police raids at the weekly Marion County Record in Kansas and the home of its editor. Since then, those events have generated a remarkable […]

We’ve made it to the downhill side of August, and the people who keep the tourism economy of Outer Cape Cod afloat are looking wearily at the calendar, dreaming of […]