Free Republic

A Michigan man was not acting erratically or threatening other people at an Ann Arbor high school music recital, but he was openly — and legally — carrying a firearm. That was enough for a school choir director to call police and for a music professor to publicly shame him at the event. The incident happened Thursday evening at Pioneer High School when Steven Lorenz, the director of choirs at the school, spotted the man openly carrying a gun and called police.

A federal judge has been shot in the leg at his home in Detroit Thursday night. SNIP Police are looking for two suspects in a black Chrysler 200 or 300 series or a Dodge Charger.

The U.S. Coast Guard rescued a freezing man from the middle of Lake St. Clair Thursday morning who was trying to walk across the icebound water into Canada. After he was rescued, the 25-year-old American said his plan was to walk from Detroit to Toronto.

U.S. Rep. Candice Miller (R-Harrison Township) announced Thursday that she will not seek re-election in 2016. "I freely pass the baton to whomever my community chooses to serve as their next voice in the US House of Representatives," Miller said in a statement. "I pledge to support their choice to the very best of my ability, as I pledge to finish my term with a commitment to fulfill my duties and responsibilities to the best of my ability, as I swore in my oath of office."

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and 19 other Republicans are backing legislation to block the Federal Communications Commission’s new rules on net neutrality. Blackburn's two-page bill, introduced Tuesday, would make sure that the FCC's regulations approved last week would have "no force of effect." It would also restrict the commission from approving any new regulations that are substantially similar, unless Congress first authorized it. The bill's 19 co-sponsors include most of the Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, which has jurisdiction over the agency. That includes Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio), vice chairman of the subcommittee. "My...

Currently, 61 members of Congress have confirmed they will not attend the speech. Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) California Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — “I am disappointed Speaker Boehner chose to irresponsibly interject politics into what has long been a strong and bipartisan relationship between the United States and Israel. As President Obama has noted, it is inappropriate for a Head of State to address Congress just two weeks ahead of their election. I agree that Congress should not be used as a prop in Israeli election campaigns,...

When Alison Norris couldn’t find work in Detroit, she searched past the city limits, ending up with a part-time restaurant job that’s 20 miles away but takes at least two hours to get to via separate city and suburban bus systems. For many city residents with limited skills and education, Detroit is an employment desert, having lost tens of thousands of blue-collar jobs in manufacturing cutbacks and service jobs as the population dwindled. What’s available to those without cars—about 40 percent of Detroit’s population, according to federal figures—often are low-paying retail or sales positions far outside the city. […] The...

The nasty weather didn’t stop a group of around 60 anti-Israel activists from storming the steps of the Washington Convention Center and blocking at least one entrance to the conference grounds. Code Pink and other anti-Israeli groups went into a frenzy against AIPAC, the “Israel lobby,” and what they believe is the “Apartheid” State of Israel. I also saw harassment of men, women, and children who had done nothing to deserve it except make the mistake of revealing their conference badge before they reached the door. Those who were obviously religious Jews (based on their head coverings, clothing, and...

Some Democrats may be boycotting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech Tuesday, but tickets for non-members to get in to see the affair are proving to be a very hot item. Each member is allotted a ticket to give out for seating in the viewing galleries, similar to a State of the Union address, and they are so in demand that Republicans have pleaded with boycotting Democratic colleagues to share their extras. “I could scalp that ticket, there are so many people who want it,” said Rep. Tim Walberg, Michigan Republican. Support for Israel has become dominant within the GOP,...

The debt-plagued city of Chicago took another financial blow late Thursday when Moody's Investors Service downgraded the city's debt rating, citing its overwhelming pension burden. Even if recent state pension changes survive a court challenge, the ratings statement said, "we expect Chicago's unfunded pension liabilities — and the costs of servicing those liabilities — to continue to grow, placing significant strain on the city's financial operations." The drop, to a rating of Baa2, could drive up borrowing costs for the city and cause problems with some of Chicago's current interest-rate swap contracts.

 When given the chance, a convicted murderer had straightforward explanation for killing his cellmate in October at the Saginaw Correctional Facility. "The reason I killed him was because he was a child molester," Steven D. Sandison said Monday, Feb. 23, in Saginaw County Circuit Court. Speaking during his plea hearing before Chief Circuit Judge Fred L. Borchard, the 51-year-old Sandison was polite, addressing the judge as "sir," in explaining why he killed Theodore Dyer on Oct. 29 at the prison in Freeland. At Borchard's request, Sandison first answered questions from his attorney, James Gust, to establish a "factual basis" for why he...

Police officers in Jackson, Mississippi are now required to take a Spanish-language class four times a year, according to Jackson Police Department Police Chief Lee Vance. “The purpose of this program is for our officers to learn basic commands,” said Vance. “We’re not looking to make anybody fluent.” Vance also said the Spanish class is a part of a pre-scheduled Jackson Police Department’s in-service training program which included topics like constitutional law and reviewing pursuit policies. Each Spanish class is two-hours long and mandatory for all officers. If an officer refuses to attend the class—which has never happened—he or she...

First in Detroit, then in Stockton, Calif., and now in New Jersey, judges and other top officials are challenging the widespread belief that public pensions are untouchable. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey delivered the latest blow on Tuesday, when he proposed to freeze that state’s public pension plans and move workers into new ones intended not to overwhelm future budgets or impose open-ended demands on taxpayers. The first crack came in Detroit, where a judge ruled that public pensions could, in fact, be reduced, at least in bankruptcy. Then, just a few weeks ago, an opinion by the bankruptcy...

Two prominent House committee chairs are “deeply disappointed” in Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler for refusing to testify before Congress as “the future of the Internet is at stake.” Wheeler’s refusal to go before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday comes on the eve of the FCC’s vote on new Internet regulations pertaining to net neutrality. The committee’s chairman, Representative Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah), and Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton (R., Mich.) criticized Wheeler and the administration for lacking transparency on the issue.

<p>DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A Detroit jury couldn’t reach a verdict in the case of an off-duty suburban police sergeant accused of robbing three men suspected in the theft of a cellphone belonging to his daughter.</p> <p>Wayne County Circuit Judge Tim Kenny declared a mistrial Friday for Michael Notoriano. The suspended St. Clair Shores officer was charged with armed robbery and unlawful imprisonment stemming from the July 2013 incident.</p>

Two Michigan parents said that a local doctor recently refused to see their six-day-old child because they are lesbians, the Detroit Free Press reported Wednesday... Jami and Krista Contreras said they made an appointment with pediatrician Vesna Roi at the advice of their midwife, according to television station WJBK. But when they brought their daughter for an appointment with the pediatrician, they said they were met by another doctor who told them that Roi would not treat a baby with two mothers, according to the Free Press. Roi sent a letter of apology to the parents, later acquired by the...

He is a Muslim. He asked his victims if they were Muslim. Then he stabbed them when they say they weren’t. If this isn’t a hate crime, what is? The fact that Terrence Lavaron Thomas has not been charged with a hate crime shows yet again that hate crime laws are political tools in the hands of the powerful, used to menace the powerless groups they dislike. In the Detroit area, the Muslim community is powerful — so this must not be a hate crime. “Detroit Muslim accused of stabbing victims over religion not charged with hate crime,” by Gus...

“Great Lakes ice is now running ahead of last year and ice will increase with more brutal cold coming,” says meteorologist Joe d’Aleo. “We are likely to have the most ice since records began.” “By the end of February the entire country east of the Rockies will have averaged below normal,” says d’Aleo. “Boston will have either the coldest or second coldest month in their history. It is nearly 13F below normal in Cleveland and all points east for February. Boston has the second most snow for the season and is very likely to be the snowiest ever by the...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Cold weather records continue to fall across West Michigan and more brutal cold is on the way. Friday morning’s low of -13 degrees in Grand Rapids tied the existing record low set in 1966. Hundreds of schools closed due to the extremely cold temperatures with wind chills colder than -20 degrees. Thursday’s high of 7 degrees in Grand Rapids was a new record for the coldest high temperature for the date, and we’re already on pace for this to be one of the coldest February months ever. We’ll briefly warm to the upper 20s on...

MACKINAC COUNTY, Mich. (WZZM) -- The Michigan Department of Natural Resources says recent video of a cougar is the 28th confirmed sighting in the Upper Peninsula since 2008. The DNR posted a 60 second video Feb. 19 of the cat feeding on a deer carcass in Mackinac County. Two hunters from Remus used a trail camera to capture video of the male cougar repeatedly returning to the deer kill site to eat. The DNR says cougars were originally native to Michigan, but were driven out of the state around 1900. The last known cougar taken in the wild occurred in...