Free Republic

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – State lawmakers in country music's capital have passed a groundbreaking measure that would make it a crime to use a friend's login — even with permission — to listen to songs or watch movies from services such as Netflix or Rhapsody. The bill, which has been signed by the governor, was pushed by recording industry officials to try to stop the loss of billions of dollars to illegal music sharing. They hope other states will follow. The legislation was aimed at hackers and thieves who sell passwords in bulk, but its sponsors acknowledge it could be employed...

CARROLLTON TWP. — Micaela J. Solano said Carrollton High School’s principal is denying her half-sister, Carrollton senior Claudia D. Castanon, a “lifetime memory” by not letting her walk in commencement ceremonies tonight. Castanon said she ranks No. 5 in the Top Ten of her senior class, but said Principal Traci Smith won’t let her walk in the event because Castanon missed the high school’s “Candlelight” ceremony and the rehearsal for commencement, both of which took place on Tuesday.

No love for thy neighbor: Trenton woman accused of taunting dying girl, 7, with coffin

MIDDLEVILLE -- A Grand Rapids-area mother who helps neighbors in the morning by watching their children for a short time before the bus comes has been told she's breaking the law. Lisa Snyder's house is at the corner bus stop on Thornbird Drive just outside Middleville. Two of her friends, who need to leave for work, bring their children to her home in the morning before the bus arrives to take them Thornapple Kellogg schools. Snyder said she doesn't think she's doing anything wrong, but she was notified by the Michigan Department of Human Services that she has to stop...

Quadriplegic former Marine Joshua Hoffman waited in a van at Michigan's Adventure, hoping to see fiancee Heather Lovell in the park for an hour or two. Her father, Rockford resident Joel Lovell, explained to park staff that Hoffman is paralyzed and cannot talk. He assumed Hoffman would be admitted free. But Lovell was told he would have to pay admission for Hoffman and the nurse tending to his medical needs. No exceptions.

Bay City, Michigan - In 1994, a jury awarded a New Mexico woman $2.9 million after she was burned by spilled McDonald's coffee. Now a Bay County woman claims she's steamed at Starbucks for the same reason. Irene Bruno alleges she endured severe burns and permanent scars three years ago when a worker at a Midland County Starbucks Coffee outlet improperly secured a lid on a large cup of coffee, causing the hot liquid to spill onto Bruno's lap, inner thighs and legs. Bruno, in a lawsuit filed in May in U.S. District Court, claims the lid on the coffee...

LANSING, Mich. -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm has met Sarah Palin several times and says the Alaska governor seems like a very nice woman. But the Michigan governor says that doesn't mean the Republican vice presidential candidate should be exempt from tough questions in an Oct. 2 debate with her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden. "She wouldn't ask to be treated with kid gloves. This is the vice presidency," Granholm told reporters Thursday. "She's tough. She's made that very clear."

Credit card companies successfully nixed a Mythbusters segment exposing RFID's security flaws, according to Arbiter of Truth and Mythbusters co-host, Adam Savage. Texas Instruments comes on along with chief legal counsel for American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else... They were way, way outgunned and they absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode talking about how hackable this stuff was, and Discovery backed way down being a large corporation that depends upon the revenue of the advertisers. Now it's on Discovery's radar and they won't let us go near it.

Not very long ago, in a land not at all far away, there was a little company called Blueport. It held the copyright on a piece of software that the US Air Force liked using for logistics. Blueport protected its software with a time bomb—a bit of code that made the software self-destruct when the license expired. That date was approaching, and Blueport wanted to negotiate a new license with the USAF—and you know, get paid. Instead, it got a bit of the ol’ shock and awe. The Air Force not only didn’t pay up, it paid big contractor SAIC...

When Michigan lawmakers decided last summer to move the state's presidential primary to Jan. 15, the intent was to make Michigan as important as Iowa or New Hampshire in the national campaign cycle. Instead, the move seems to have created maximum hassle and expense with minimal benefit. As it turns out, Michigan's Democratic primary is pretty much a bust because the national Democrats have stripped Michigan of its delegates as punishment for moving the primary date without consent. Moreover, John Edwards and Barack Obama pulled their names from the Michigan ballot. The Republican ballot will have a full slate of...

GRAND RAPIDS -- If not rain nor snow nor dark of night, what did prompt reports last winter that mail went undelivered on the Northwest Side of Grand Rapids? The Postal Service isn't saying, even though nearly half of the 59 letter carriers from the postal station at 1625 Walker Ave. NW faced suspensions ranging from two days to nine months. The last of the suspensions of 29 workers ended in August. But officials refused to reveal details. In fact, with the help of their unions and arbitration, all of the workers received back pay for their time off, said...

LET'S SAY YOU'RE A student at Saginaw Valley State University. Times are tough, and with your part-time job you can barely pay for school. In fact, you've read how you might face a double-digit tuition increase this fall if state lawmakers fail to restore a 10 percent cut in state aid or pay for increases that Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm has proposed. Now you find out that SVSU is providing a new perk for its full-time employees -- a semi-membership at the Bay City Country Club. Yep, you read it right. The university has paid $25,000 for a one-year trial...

I’m very proud to announce that today I have become a citizen of the United States! About 16 years ago my parents left or sold everything they owned and came to America with the intention of giving my sisters and I a better life...

GLADWIN -- The 72-year-old Billings Township woman pulled the gun from a safe, aimed it at a knife-wielding bandit and pulled the trigger. No bullets.

The first woman to serve as Saginaw's mayor could become the first councilwoman to serve time for a felony conviction if prosecutors make their arson fraud case stick against Wilmer Jones Ham.... But Councilman Willie Haynes defended Ham's decision to stay on and dismissed the accusations, saying the stakes for the crime were too low to make sense. "I don't think she should step down because I'm quite sure she didn't do it," Haynes said. "I know she's innocent. You're talking about a $5,000 car. I know she wouldn't do nothing for no $5,000. Wilmer wouldn't do that. The facts...

CIA agent's naming led to giant hoax by Bush foes Fred Barnes September 15, 2006 THE rogues' gallery of those who acted badly in the CIA "leak" case turns out to be different from what the media led us to expect. Note that we put the word "leak" in quotation marks, because it's clear now that there was no leak at all, just idle talk, and certainly there was no smear campaign against former US ambassador Joseph Wilson for criticising President George W.Bush's Iraq policy. It's as if a giant hoax were perpetrated on the country - by the media,...

NEW YORK (Variety) - Defying the general malaise in post-9/11 news viewership, Fox News Channel displayed energetic third-quarter audience growth compared to the previous year, while other cable news outlets showed a predictable -- but significant -- drop. Spanning the period of July 1 through Sept. 26, Fox News jumped 24 percent to an average audience of 629,000 total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. CNN, on the other hand, dropped 26 percent to an average of 518,000 viewers. Recently remodeled CNN Headline News, which is now challenging the overhauled MSNBC for third place, fell 17 percent to 226,000 vs....