Free Republic

More than 450,000 Michigan locations remain without power Saturday following an ice storm that brought freezing temperatures to the state. The power-outage tracking website poweroutage.us reported that more than 470,000 customers, mostly in the southeastern part of the state where the storm hit, are experiencing outages as of Saturday morning. Wayne County, which is home to Detroit, has the most reported outages with more than 170,000, while Hillsdale County has a higher level of outages than any other county, with more than 65 percent of the 21,000 customers tracked experiencing an outage.

HILLSDALE COUNTY, Mich. (WILX/Gray News) – Troopers in Michigan pooled their own money to buy a family Christmas presents after they learned the father, whom they arrested, did not buy any gifts for his children. According to Michigan State Police, troopers were sent to the home on Christmas Day and arrested the father for domestic violence and felonious assault. While they were there, the troopers learned that the father had not given his four children any Christmas presents. After leaving the home, troopers decided to pool together their own money to buy and wrap gifts for the kids. The troopers...

A vacant lot owned by a Jackson woman was foreclosed by Hillsdale County because she failed to pay a $7 late fee on her property taxes. A Freedom of Information Act request found that Pam Baker, a Jackson resident, owed Hillsdale County $7.70 in interest and late fees for delinquent taxes from 2013 on land she owned near Lake LeAnn in Somerset Township. The 2013 taxes on the property, which she owned since 2000, were due on Feb. 14, 2014. Baker says she paid her taxes two weeks late because she was in a car crash seven days before the...