Free Republic

A new survey of communities from the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan shows an uptick in the percent that say they are better able to meet their fiscal needs. This is good as it generally tracks with an improving state economy, but there are some warning signs ahead. The survey notes, “For the first time in six years, more Michigan communities report that they are better able to meet their fiscal needs this year than those who say they are less able to do so.” (See chart nearby.) Local government property tax revenue...

A new Mark Schauer for governor political advertisement features four teachers from four different school districts who claim that Gov. Rick Snyder has cut funding to their districts. But in fact, on a per-student basis, all four districts actually received more taxpayer money in 2013-14 than they did in 2010-2011, which was the last budget approved by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The ad features seven teachers but only four specifically cite lower funding. For months Schauer, who is the Democratic candidate for the state’s top office, has claimed that Gov. Snyder cut funding to public schools. This claim has been refuted...

Federal taxpayer funds continue to flow to a slew of U.S. universities that are spending the cash on programs that promote anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and anti-American viewpoints, according to a large group of Jewish and civil rights organizations that are now pushing Congress to rectify what they call a systemic problem. Taxpayer funds have been allocated to universities under Title VI of the Higher Education Act (HEA) since 1965. However, Congress and the Education Department have exerted little oversight, leading these funds to be spent on biased educational programs that promote radical views about Israel and even America, according to the...

Mufid A. Elfgeeh, a 30-year-old man who owns a food store in upstate New York, has been arrested and charged with funding Islamic terrorist group ISIS, attempting to send jihadists to fight with them in Syria and even plotted to gun down U.S. troops, according to Federal authorities. The Democrat & Chronicle reports that Elfgeeh is the nephew of Abad Elfgeeh, an ice-cream shop owner who was arrested in Brooklyn in 2003, after being accused of being deeply involved in a terrorism network. Authorities alleged that Abad Elfgeeh funneled millions of dollars to his homeland of Yemen and had links...

Thursday at the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health hearing titled, “Combating the Ebola Threat,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) said he will be requesting funding for a "pandemic." Smith said, "This is unprecedented. Many people are not cooperating with efforts to contain the disease. There is an information gap. Despite the efforts through cell phone and radio to get the message out, there is a learning curve. as we consider what to do to meet this health challenge, I suggest we get funding levels for pandemic preparedness. This is for congress and the executive branch, in a restricted...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The GOP-controlled House has voted to slash the budget for the Internal Revenue Service's tax enforcement division by $1.2 billion, a 25 percent cut that would mean fewer audits of taxpayers and make it more likely that people who cheat on their taxes will get away with it. The House approved the cuts by voice vote after little debate Monday night as it took up a $21 billion spending bill that sets the IRS budget. The cuts reflect GOP outrage over the agency's scrutiny of tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status and frustration over the agency's failure...

FULL TITLE: Congress Is Using Its Favorite Budget 'Gimmick' To Avoid A 'Highway Shutdown,' But Everyone Else Hates It Right- and left-leaning groups are divided on the fate of federal highway spending. But one thing they can agree on is they don't like the way House Republicans' bill set to be voted on Tuesday is paid for. The House GOP's bill, which was drafted by House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp, would inject a cash infusion of more than $10 billion into the Highway Trust Fund. Camp said this money would pay for the infrastructure projects the fund...

Republicans in the House and Senate have voted thumbs down on President Obama's request for $3.8 billion to deal with the crisis on our southern border. Most lawmakers think it's too much money and not enough funds earmarked for border security. Washington Times: Even Texas Gov. Rick Perry, personally recruited by the president to persuade Republicans to support the measure, threw cold water on the idea. He said the president doesn’t need that much money and instead should send National Guard troops to secure the border. The apparent defeat caps a whirlwind several days for the White House, which responded...

Very few Americans realize there exists a large network of far left philanthropists and foundations in America dedicated to destroying the American way of life, our Christian-based culture and our free enterprise system. They seek to remove America from its constitutional foundations and move it toward a European-style socialism. Much of this effort is coordinated by a little known group called the Tides Foundation and its related group, the Tides Center. Over the course of its 33 year history, the Tides network has given hundreds of millions of dollars to anti-free enterprise groups, gun control groups, anti-private property groups, abortion...

NEW YORK (MainStreet) — This spring, new research out of Canada's McGill University that reviewed historical temperature records and geological data (ice cores, tree rings and lake sediments) concluded with 99% certainty that our current climate change predicament cannot be ascribed to natural cycles. But many are still dubious that man-made climate change is real. What's more, some skeptics even claim climate change is a money-making scam. In reality, you can follow the "dark money" to see how targeted funding is perpetuating these misconceptions -- even as climate change awareness and research groups lose funding.The article attempts to attack "skeptic"...

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer recently visited the West Bloomfield School District with a familiar message: Michigan schools, like West Bloomfield, are receiving less and less money. Except, according to state data, neither statement Schauer made April 23 was accurate. The Oakland Press reported Schauer's claims of a reduction in spending on K-12 education without challenging them. "Public education has been cut dramatically, it's been systematically privatized," said Schauer, walking alongside running mate Lisa Brown, Oakland County's clerk. "What I've seen here at (West Bloomfield High School) is amazing. They're doing more with less, they've felt the state budget cuts,...

The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) solicited millions in donations from private health care companies for a nonprofit organization to promote Obamacare, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO released a report on Monday following a request from Republican senators to investigate HHS’s coordination with Enroll America, a “nonprofit, nonpartisan” organization founded by former White House staffers. The report noted that former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius contacted the CEOs of five organizations last year to “solicit support” for Enroll America, which it would use to promote Obamacare. Additionally, the report links the...

Fire inspection fees in Ann Arbor have increased 590 percent since 2003, and inspections are happening more often now. The reason, said Ann Arbor Fire Marshal Reka Farrackand, is in "the interest of public safety as well as to comply with city ordinance." Commercial property inspections cost business owners $690 in 2013, up from $100 in 2003. The increase in cost made news when one business property owner refused to let the city inspect his buildings, according to MLive. Ann Arbor, like many cities in Michigan, has seen its state shared revenue decrease, and while that has been widely reported,...

The Wayne County school district that the president of the Michigan Education Association highlighted as losing $40 million under Gov. Rick Snyder's watch has actually had its funding increase. In a column for The Detroit News, MEA President Steve Cook wrote: "Take the Wayne-Westland school district, which has lost $40,465,325 during Snyder's tenure." He went on to complain about what he claims are cuts to education and about corporations. But it is unclear where he got his numbers, said Jenny Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Wayne-Westland Community School District. "According to Deputy Superintendent/Administrative and Business Services Jim Larson-Shidler, the figure...

When given the opportunity, Michigan families choose schools where teachers were paid a little more but per-pupil spending was lower, according to a new Schools of Choice study. On average, students tended to use Michigan's Schools of Choice program to attend districts that had slightly higher student-to-teacher ratios, spent less per pupil and paid teachers more, according to the study done by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. During the 2011-12 school year, students used schools of choice to attend districts that paid teachers about $1,000 more in salary. "The key to understanding this apparent paradox is that students are...

The Kansas Supreme Court said Friday the state’s current public school funding levels are unconstitutional. In the much-anticipated ruling, the court said Kansas’ poor school districts were harmed when the state made the decision to cut certain payments when tax revenues declined during the Great Recession. The Supreme Court sent the case back to district court for more review to “promptly” determine what the adequate amount of funding should be, but didn’t set a deadline for a hearing. It did, however, set a July 1 deadline for legislators to restore money for two funds aimed at helping poorer districts with...

According to the New York Times, “The United States and the European Union have embraced the revolution here as anotherflowering of democracy, a blow to authoritarianism and kleptocracy in the former Soviet space.” ( After Initial Triumph, Ukraine’s Leaders Face Battle for Credibility,  NYTimes.com, March 1, 2014, emphasis added)“Flowering Democracy, Revolution”?  The grim realities are otherwise. What is a stake is a US-EU-NATO sponsored coup d’Etat in blatant violation of international law.The forbidden truth is that the West has engineered –through a carefully staged covert operation– the formation of a proxy regime integrated by Neo-Nazis. Confirmed by Assistant Secretary of State...

The Obama Administration’s former Homeland Security Chief has taken over the University of California. “Janet Napolitano had zero experience leading a college before she became president of the University of California last year,” Eric Kelderman wrote in The Chonicle of Higher Education on February 21, 2014. “Yet after just four months on the job, Ms. Napolitano, 56, has outlined major goals for the system, including a reconsideration of tuition policies, improving cooperation with the other two higher-education systems in the state, ensuring the prominent role of research and graduate education, and making the campuses carbon-neutral by 2025.” “She even has...

The Council on American Islamic Relations, CAIR, claims to be an anti-defamation organization. In fact, as we shall see, it is anything but. CAIR was founded in 1994 by Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmed, who had ties with the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which was established by the terrorist organization Hamas. Therefore, it is an outgrowth of the IAP. It opened its first office in Washington, D.C. with a donation from the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the largest Islamic charity in the U.S. CAIR should be, but is not, registered as a foreign agent. Only 1%...

Paul Egan of the Detroit Free Press had a good story Sunday covering the argument about education funding in Michigan. The story is worth reading in its entirety, but some parts in particular stick out and reiterate work done by Michigan Capitol Confidential and deserve to be reposted with comment. Right off the bat Egan takes on the main piece of misinformation that Democrats and some supporters of the status quo in education have been touting: Did Snyder cut $1 billion from K-12 education, as many critics claim? The answer is no, state records show. State funding for K-12 schools...