Free Republic

Amidst all the opinions out of the nation's highest court on Tuesday -- majority and minority, concurring in part and dissenting in part, or just too vague to classify -- was there any clear message? Yes. Definitely. But you had to peer through all the legal haze, an admix of angry rhetoric and discreet evasions, in order to divine where the Supreme Court of the United States is headed on the always simmering issue of race-based admissions to the country's colleges and universities. But it's finally headed in the right direction, however many zigs and zags the learned justices may...

resident Obama was doing his favorite thing this week: talking to crowds of adoring young people who already agree with him while acting like he persuaded them about something. They also seemed to give Obama the impression that he's a really funny guy. On Wednesday, he told a crowd of 1,400 at the University of Michigan that he visited a local deli, Zingerman's. He proceeded to tell a long story about ordering the small Reuben sandwich, which he said was "killer." That description got a good laugh. Then he explained how he thought the sandwich was too big, so he...

Our post-partisan President reached a new low yesterday. Speaking at Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan he declared Paul Ryan’s budget a “stinkburger” or “meanwich.” Obama is apparently promoting an increase in the minimum wage. He went to Zingerman’s because they allegedly offer a “fair” wage. The left doesn’t seem to understand that a “fair” wage is whatever an employee agrees to work for. In other words, it isn’t determined by government bureaucrats or academics. That’s beside the point of course, we know Obama believes everything in our lives must be decided in Washington. The problem of course is that Zingerman’s...

A pro-Palestinian activist on the University of Michigan’s campus recently posted what experts described as “an overtly threatening” photo of himself wearing a traditional Arab headscarf and jamming a knife into a pineapple. The emergence of the photo comes just days after Palestinian activists on the University of Michigan’s campus leveled death threats and racial epithets at pro-Israel students who opposed a resolution to divest from Israel. Pro-Palestinian campus activists, angered by the student government’s recent decision to reject their divestment measure, leveled death threats at one student and have reportedly called other pro-Israel students “dirty Jew” and “kike.” The...

The University of Michigan would not explain how it is responding to death threats and racial epithets that were reportedly issued by pro-Palestinian activists at students who oppose a resolution to divest from Israel. University of Michigan police were first contacted last week after two pro-Palestinian activists shouted “threats of violence” at a student who refused to support their boycott initiative during a “sit-in” at the student government’s headquarters. The Washington Free Beacon has further learned that the pro-Israel student received death threats and that others have allegedly been called “kikes” and “dirty Jews” by backers of the virulently anti-Israel...

Pro-Palestinian activists on the University of Michigan campus have had the cops called on them for threatening pro-Israel students and staging a sit-in over the student government’s refusal to back an anti-Israel initiative to divest from the Jewish state. University of Michigan police were contacted Wednesday evening after two pro-Palestinian activists allegedly threatened a student who refused to support their boycott initiative. The threatening rhetoric used by these pro-Palestinian activists is part of wider campaign by the University of Michigan’s pro-Palestine group Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), which is part of the virulently anti-Israel Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment...

John Dingell, the longest-serving member of the United States House of Representatives, is considering not running for re-election, according to a report in the Detroit News. Dingell, who represents the Ann Arbor area along with areas of Wayne County, has run successfully 29 times since 1955. The 87-year-old Dearborn Democrat recently broke the record for the longest-serving congressman in history. According to the report, Dingell is considering retirement. His spokesman, Christopher Schuler, states Dingell is doing the same thing as he has always done before running for re-election, which is determining how to best serve his constituents. The News states...

Keshia Thomas, a Black woman who protected a White man at a Ku Klux Klan rally back in 1996, recently recalled her act, according to BBC News. “I knew what it was like to be hurt,” Thomas said. “The many times that, that happened, I wish someone would have stood up for me.” Thomas was 18 years old, when Klansmen decided to hold a rally in Ann Arbor, Mich., her hometown. Known for being a heavily liberal and multiracial area, hundreds of residents gathered in a show of force against the group. Though officers protected the White supremacists with riot...

Former state Rep. Pam Byrnes, a Democrat from Washtenaw County's Lyndon Township, announced Thursday she's running for Congress to help fix a "broken system" in Washington. Byrnes is seeking the 7th District seat held by Tim Walberg, a Republican from Tipton who unseated Democrat Mark Schauer in 2010 to regain the seat. Walberg held the seat in 2007 and 2008 before losing to Schauer in November 2008. Byrnes will take her shot at unseating Walberg in 2014. "Washington is broken and Tim Walberg is part of the problem. He puts special interests and corporations ahead of middle-class Michigan families," Byrnes...

Detroit - A federal judge has ruled a property management company owned by the founder of Domino´s Pizza doesn ´t have to immediately implement mandatory contraception coverage in the health care law. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff ruled Sunday in favor of Tom Monaghan and his Domino´s Farms Corp.,near Ann Arbor. Monaghan,a devout Roman Catholic,says contraception isn´t health care but a "gravely immoral" practice. Zatkoff granted Monaghan´s emergency motion for a temporary restraining order until a final decision is made in the case.

ANN ARBOR, MI — After four years of litigation by the Thomas More Law Center, John Satawa will once again be able to erect a Nativity display on a public median in Warren, Michigan—a tradition that his family and neighbors have been observing every Christmas since 1945. Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center, commented: “Every December, militant secularists declare war on Christmas celebrations. This is one battle they lost. And we are extremely pleased that Mr. Satawa and his neighbors will be able to resume their wonderful tradition just in time for this Christmas.” The Nativity...

Six newly refurbished, bi-level commuter rail cars made their first test run from Pontiac to Jackson and back Tuesday night, passing through Ann Arbor. Officials involved in the Ann Arbor-to-Detroit commuter rail initiative are hoping to hear back sometime next week whether the cars passed the test, which is required to be cleared for service. And if that happens, the public could be invited to ride demonstration trains starting next year. "Things seemed to go well," said Carmine Palombo, director of transportation programs for the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments. Tuesday's train, led by an Amtrak locomotive, made stops in...

The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced late last week that it is representing U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Dooley, a 1994 Graduate of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point and released the letter sent by 57 Muslim groups demanding the removal of military instructions that they say is offensive to Islam. In April 2012, LTC Dooley, a highly decorated combat veteran, was publically condemned by General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and relieved of his teaching assignment because of the negative way...

The TSA’s Freudian Craigslist Slip Either someone just attempted the subtlest of jabs at our nation's force of uncomfortably invasive rent-a-cops or the recruiters at the Transportation Security Administration need to invest in a better thesaurus. A job posting on the Ann Arbor, Michigan Craigslist invites would-be screeners to "[b]e part of a imperious security team protecting airports and skies as you proudly establish your future." Imperious, indeed. The Dictionary.com definition of imperious is "domineering in a haughty manner; dictatorial; overbearing." The definition from Google is even better, describing it as "assuming authority without justification." If it was a joke...

In a letter to President Barack Obama, University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman blamed the rising costs at state colleges on “declining state support.” “Higher education is a public good currently lacking public support,” Coleman wrote in her Dec. 16 letter. “There is no stronger trigger for rising costs at public universities and colleges than declining state support. The University of Michigan and our state’s 14 other public institutions have been ground zero for funding cuts.” The state is scheduled to give the University of Michigan and its two satellite campuses about $54 million less in 2011-2012 than the...

Superintendent Patricia Green told the Ann Arbor school board that she's taking new steps to close a so-called "discipline gap" and expects by March to outline a comprehensive district-wide plan to reach that goal. The information was presented Wednesday at a meeting when the Board of Education heard new student suspension data from the 2010-2011 academic year that shows consistent discipline disparity among students of different races and income levels. It’s no secret the district traditionally has had a disproportionate number of black, special needs and economically disadvantaged students be removed or suspended from the classroom, said Board President Deb...

The ACLU has sued the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority and CEO Michael Ford over the agency’s refusal to accept an advertisement calling for a boycott of Israel from pro-Palestinian activist Blaine Coleman of Ann Arbor.The lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Detroit alleges AATA violated Coleman’s First Amendment right to free speech and 14th Amendment right to due process. It argues AATA’s policy is vague and overly broad. It asks the court to order AATA to display the advertisement under the same terms offered to other advertisers and to award Coleman damages, court costs and reasonable attorney fees...Coleman sent...

Ann Arbor officials are considering an expansion of the Greenbelt district boundaries one mile east into Salem Township and one mile west and south into Lodi Township.The Greenbelt Advisory Commission recommended the expansion plan at its Sept. 14 meeting, and GAC Chairman Dan Ezekiel, a local science teacher, appeared before the Ann Arbor City Council Monday night to lobby for its approval by council."The result would be to add seven sections in Lodi and three sections in Salem, and a section is a square mile," Ezekiel told council members.The council voted 9-1 to give initial approval to the expansion, with...

An increase in the amount of graffiti in downtown Ann Arbor and other parts of the city has city officials responding to what they consider a growing nuisance. In recent months, city officials say, there has been a clear increase in the amount of graffiti, which they argue detracts from the aesthetic appeal of the community, can decrease property values and has a negative impact on sense of safety and security. This graffiti has been on a building on the 300 block of East Liberty Street in downtown Ann Arbor for several weeks and has not been removed yet. It's...

An Ann Arbor Public School board member and president of the teacher’s union both underestimated the cost of hiring a teacher by more than 40 percent in a guest column the pair penned for a local newspaper. Glenn Nelson, a member of the school board, and Brit Satchwell, president of the Ann Arbor Education Association, wrote a guest column for Heritage Newspapers, in which they stated the average cost of a teacher including benefits was $65,000 in an article criticizing Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget cuts. But the average cost of a Michigan school teacher is about $94,195 while the average...