Free Republic

Back in job market again after end of my current contract. I updated my listings (as a UNIX/LINUX C and C++ expert) on Dice and Monster the other day, and the phone began ringing off the hook. Well, one recruiter wants to know if I am interested in full time work, direct hire, in Detroit, for the process control of a steel mill whose business is reportedly burgeoning. This looks like a MAGA move to me, and the recruiter points out that it isn't all decay, there is rebuilding going on too. My rhetorical question: how crazy does a high...

The 1967 Detroit Riots were among the most violent and destructive riots in U.S. history. By the time the bloodshed, burning and looting ended after five days, 43 people were dead, 342 injured, nearly 1,400 buildings had been burned and some 7,000 National Guard and U.S. Army troops had been called into service. --SNIP-- “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal. Reaction to last summer’s disorders has quickened the movement and deepened the division. Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American.”

Fifty years ago this weekend, a deadly urban riot began in Detroit. It started around 3:30 a.m., when police arrested 85 patrons of a blind pig -- an illegal after-hours bar -- in the midst of an all-black neighborhood that had been all-white 15 or 20 years before. The statistics are horrifying. Rioting went on for six nights, with some 2,500 stores looted and burnt, some 400 families displaced and property damage was estimated around $300 million in 2017 dollars. Forty-three people, many of them innocent bystanders, were killed. More than 1,000 people were wounded. The reality was even more...

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is sounding the alarm with her Democratic base, warning a Senate run by Detroit bad boy Kid Rock could be the second coming of Donald Trump. The “Wasting Time” and “All Summer Long” rap rocker-turned-country singer tweeted on Wednesday that he’s running for U.S. Senate in Michigan. Although it’s been largely dismissed so far as a publicity stunt, Warren isn’t taking any chances with the longshot Republican. “I know a lot of people are thinking: this is some sort of joke, right?” Warren wrote in an email blast with the subject line “Senator Kid Rock (R-MI).”...

U.S. immigration authorities have arrested and moved to deport 199 Iraqi immigrants, mostly from the Detroit area, in the last three weeks after Iraq agreed to accept deportees as part of a deal removing it from President Donald Trump’s travel ban, officials said on Wednesday. In the Detroit area, 114 Iraqi nationals were arrested over the weekend, and 85 throughout the rest of the country over the past several weeks, Gillian Christensen, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman, said in a statement. The actions came as part of the Trump administration’s push to increase immigration enforcement and make countries,...

Hundreds of women showed up for free gun training in Detroit, Mich., on Sunday. The event, which has been held annually for the last six years, saw its best turnout yet. Organizers said about 700 women expressed interest in the training and around 600 attended. The goal, they said, was helping women learn how to protect themselves. "We teach women how to shoot and discharge a firearm, and a personal protection strategy," Rick Ector, the founder of Legally Armed in Detroit and creator of the event, told the Detroit Free Press. "This is an event to see if owning a...

Pro Football Hall of Fame safety Yale Lary passed away in the early hours on Friday at the age of 86. The Texas A&M product was a fixture in the Detroit Lions secondary during an 11-year career (1952-53, 1956-1964) that was interrupted by his service in the U.S. Army.

Tesla made headlines recently when its market capitalization nosed past both General Motors’ and Ford’s to make it the most valuable U.S. automaker. Overall U . S . auto sales are down after last year’s highs, and the Big Three (Ford, GM, and Chrysler) automakers have been turning in lackluster numbers lately. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s company is on track to sell 100,000 cars this year, after delivering almost 80,000 last year. So is Tesla poised to dominate Detroit’s Big Three? I seriously doubt it. Tesla is an amazing company. Its cars have improved suspensions, new top speeds, and autonomous driving—the...

The arrests of Dr. Nagarwala and two others last week represent the first federal female genital mutilation (FGM) investigation in United States history. FGM is common in the Islamic world, particularly in Africa. According to UNICEF, 98 percent of Somali girls and 87 percent of Egyptians have endured the procedure. FGM involves removing varying amounts of the victim’s — usually a pre-pubescent girl — clitoris, labia majoria, and labia minora. In its most extreme form, the victim is “infibulated,” having virtually all her external genitalia removed and being sewn up, leaving her with only a tiny hole from which to...

Two Detroit doctors and a woman are charged over brutal genital mutilation of two seven-year-old girls - but they claim it was part of a Muslim religious practice and no crime was committed Dr Jumana Nagarwala, 44, is charged with performing genital mutilation on two seven-year-old girls from Minnesota in February Another doctor Fakhruddin Attar and his wife Farida have also been charged in relation to the mutilation Dr Nagarwala allegedly carried out the procedures at Dr Attar's private clinic She denies any wrongdoing and claims she was performing a religious practice for families in a Muslim sect Authorities claim...

DETROIT (AP) — Zehra Patwa learned only a few years ago that during a family trip to India at age 7, she was circumcised, which is common for girls in parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Patwa, 46, doesn't remember undergoing the procedure, which is also called female genital mutilation or cutting and which has been condemned by the United Nations and outlawed in the U.S. But she doesn't want to. "I have no desire to get that memory back. ... Psychologically, it feels like a violation, even though I don't remember it," said Patwa, a technology project...

A Detroit physician and his wife were arrested this morning and charged by criminal complaint unsealed today for their alleged participation in a conspiracy that involved performing female genital mutilations (FGM) on minors. Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel L. Lemisch of the Eastern District of Michigan, Special Agent in Charge David P. Gelios of the FBI’s Detroit Division and Special Agent in Charge Steve Francis of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) Detroit Field Office made the announcement. Fakhruddin Attar, M.D., 53, and his wife,...

The caption says simply: “This happened in Downtown Detroit last night.” And then starts a video that shows about 25-40 men punching, kicking and brutally beating people on the streets of Greektown, one of Detroit’s most popular hotspots. In the video, one man is lying with his head over the curb appearing unconscious and very badly injured. He gets punched and kicked as the cell-phone filming crowd of young men shouts and laughs.

A Henry Ford Hospital emergency room doctor has been arrested and charged in connection to performing female genital mutilation on young girls. Jumana Nagarwala, 44, of Northville Michigan is accused of performing female genital mutilation on underage girls. According to a criminal complaint, Nagarwala performed the procedure on girls ages six to eight years old at a medical clinic in Livonia.

Two metro Detroit companies are planning expansions that would generate a collective $7.3 million in private investment and create a total of 105 jobs, according to a news release from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. DiverseNote LLC, a social technology enterprise based in Ypsilanti, is planning to lease and improve space in Detroit's New Center area, investing $2.7 million and creating 60 jobs in the advanced computing sector. It chose Detroit over a competing site in Austin, Texas, the MEDC said in the release. Meanwhile, Sterling Heights-based Universal Tool Equipment and Controls Inc. plans to lease an additional facility in...

DETROIT - Two women have been arrested in connection with a wild fight that led to a stabbing at Rouge Park on Detroit's west side. The fight, which was captured in a viral video, is believed to have been over a parking spot. Two women, ages 22 and 21, are in custody after the stabbing. Video of the fight has made its way all around social media. It shows two women fighting on the ground while crowds battle to record the fight and egg them on. Police said the fight started over a parking spot. One group of women was...

America's public education system is failing the citizens of Detroit, where the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund reports that 47% of people in Detroit are illiterate. In nearby suburbs, up to one-third are functionally illiterate. The report, titled "Addressing Detroit's Basic Skills Crisis" makes the problem seem as intractible as the Flint water crisis that is about to hit its third anniversary. Director Karen Tyler-Ruiz described that level of illiteracy to WWJ: "Not able to fill out basic forms, for getting a job — those types of basic everyday (things). Reading a prescription; what’s on the bottle, how many you should...

One of the course designers, Doreen Bradley, director of learning programs and initiatives at the U-M Library, says misinformation, disinformation, half-truths and propaganda have always been around, but are these days so readily sharable that students encounter a much greater volume than ever before. Students taking the class will: •Learn how to find trusted sources of statistics. •Be challenged to confront their own biases. •Consider how their opinions, and the opinions of others, can affect the interpretation of news items. •Practice dissecting a news graph in order to understand the message that graph is trying to convey. •Assess how their...

Wayne County Executive Warren Evans has issued an ultimatum to the people who propose to build a professional soccer complex in exchange for the “Fail Jail” site in downtown Detroit. Evans said that the project must not cost taxpayers any more than simply finishing the jail as originally planned would. That’s simply not good enough. While Evans’ defense of his constituents’ interests is laudable, he and the Wayne County Commission should go further. They should prohibit any and all subsidies, incentives, tax breaks or other public funding for the proposed stadium project. Public subsidies of professional sports stadiums don’t benefit...