Free Republic

Before the week’s headline Supreme Court debate, senators are poised to get the Delta Queen back cruising America’s waterways. The legendary riverboat has been barred from carrying overnight passengers since an exemption to the 1966 Safety of Life at Sea Act for the largely wooden vessel lapsed back in 2008. Lawmakers from Cincinnati to St. Louis have pushed for the Delta Queen to get a new lease on life since then, and the Senate has scheduled a Monday evening vote on passage of a bipartisan bill that would do just that... Sen. Rob Portman, who hails from Cincinnati, remembers the...

Ford Motor Co. is set to announce new investments in three plants in Michigan, reports reveal. The carmaker will reportedly invest a “significant amount” in assembly plants in Wayne, Flat Rock, and its Romeo Engine Plant, according to The Detroit News. The latest news of the carmaker’s U.S. expansion comes only two months after the company announced it was investing up to $700 million in its Michigan facilities. In February, Ford CEO Mark Fields said his company’s decision to create jobs in America rather than in Mexico is a “vote of confidence” in Trump’s incoming administration and the pro-business environment...

Ford Motor Co. is set to announce new investments in three plants in Michigan, reports reveal. The carmaker will reportedly invest a "significant amount" in assembly plants in Wayne, Flat Rock, and its Romeo Engine Plant, according to The Detroit News. The latest news of the carmaker's U.S. expansion comes only two months after the company announced it was investing up to $700 million in its Michigan facilities. In February, Ford CEO Mark Fields said his company's decision to create jobs in America rather than in Mexico is a "vote of confidence" in Trump's incoming administration and the pro-business environment...

DELTA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Public school advocates are suing to block the state of Michigan from helping private schools with the cost of complying with state requirements such as immunization reporting and safety drills. The lawsuit will be filed later Tuesday in the Court of Claims. The Michigan Association of School Boards and groups representing school administrators and others said at a news conference that spending $2.5 million in the current state budget on nonpublic schools is unconstitutional.

Lisa D. Cook, a Michigan State economist who served on President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), took sharp aim at her old boss's successor in an appearance at the Center for American Progress (CAP) on March 15, 2017. "I was waiting to see what they did when the first jobs report came out," she said at CAP. "They embraced it." She went on to claim that "during the campaign, she was horrified that Bureau of Labor Statistics statisticians were under attack." Actually, one thing she did not do was to compare the numbers in the latest jobs report with...

The Environmental Protection Agency awarded Michigan $100 million to help replace Flint’s badly eroded and damaged water infrastructure. The funding was provided by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act of 2016 and enables the beleaguered city to replace its decaying lead water pipes. Michigan is providing the required 20 percent match of $20 million. The fix is part of the Trump administration’s goal of updating the country’s water infrastructure, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said Friday in a press statement. “The people of Flint and all Americans deserve a more responsive federal government,” he said. “EPA will especially focus...

DETROIT - President Donald Trump is set to visit the Detroit area on Wednesday. The White House said the President will be making remarks at the American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti. READ: President Trump expected to discuss fuel economy during Michigan visit Air Force One is scheduled to arrive at Detroit Metro Airport about 12:15 p.m. Wednesday. Trump is expected to make remarks at the American Center for Mobility about 2:20 p.m. LIVE STREAM (12:15 p.m.): President Trump arrives in Michigan -- watch here LIVE STREAM (2:20 p.m.): President Trump speaks in Ypsilanti, Michigan

<p>GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. - Four students at Grand Rapids Christian High School were suspended for two days after holding signs supporting President Donald Trump's immigration policies.</p> <p>The students who were disciplined made signs that read "Trump" and "Build the Wall". Video the 13 Watchdog team obtained shows the teenagers attempting to pose for pictures in front of a banner “Immigrants are a Blessing Not a Burden." The video shows a teacher rushing over to stop them after each pulled a piece of paper out of their pockets intending to be signs.</p>

Maybe it’s just nostalgia talking, but the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of animals used to be so much simpler.For hundreds of years, the meat-packing industry bore the responsibility for transforming Bessie the Cow into carnivores’ favorite source of protein, and more recently the Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors of the U.S. Department of Agriculture ensured that the finished product was “safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.”Not so anymore. Due to agency rules issued during the Obama era, FSIS inspectors enjoy expanded duties, including monitoring facilities for any “disrespectful” or “insult[ing]” communication (no, not among the animals). Should they uncover...

KENTWOOD, Mich. — American Legion officers say they were told they weren't permitted to wear their affiliated jackets at a Dave & Buster's in Michigan because they showed evidence of gang affiliation. Victor Murdock and Adrienne Brown of the American Legion Riders Post 179 out of Grandville say they were told they couldn't wear their vests inside the Kentwood restaurant. The vests have patches of the American flag, the Prisoner of War flag and a bald eagle. The Texas-based company said in a statement that the group was asked to remove the jackets or turn them inside out because the...

A 21-year-old woman from Ann Arbor, Michigan, pleaded guilty to making a false report after she fabricated a fake hate crime following the election of President Trump. Halley Bass originally told the police that a strange man had pricked her face with a pin in downtown Ann Arbor on Nov. 15., but in reality, she had scratched herself with her own "safe space" safety pin after "becoming upset" in her women's literature class at the University of Michigan.

A new report suggests that former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm would have been a top candidate for secretary of education in Hillary Clinton’s cabinet had the Democratic nominee won the presidential election. Mike Allen of the recently launched news site Axios reported on Tuesday that Clinton had prepared her “ghost cabinet” list before Election Day. Granholm also was listed as the second choice for attorney general if sitting Attorney General Loretta Lynch were not retained by a Clinton administration. John Sexton, former president of New York University and former board member of the Federal Reserve, was listed second as...

Faced with the threat that Asian carp could enter the Great Lakes, Michigan is turning to the public for new ideas and plans to offer a prize to whoever comes up with a way to stop the voracious fish. Michigan's global search challenge comes after the U.S. government and others have spent hundreds of millions searching for a solution to stop the carp from entering the world's largest freshwater system. If they aren't stopped, officials fear the aggressive fish will crowd out prize native fish and hamper recreational boating in large sections of the lakes...

YPSILANTI, MI - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that officers took four individuals "who were illegally in the United States" into custody on Wednesday, Feb. 22, in Ypsilanti. ICE Spokeswoman Rachel Yow said the targeted enforcement took place Wednesday morning, in a statement to The Ann Arbor News. "ICE Enforcement and Removal (ERO) officers conducted targeted enforcement actions in the area of Ypsilanti on Wed. morning, Feb. (22)," Yow said in a statement. "During the course of action, ERO officers encountered multiple persons who were illegally in the United States. Four individuals were taken into custody and are currently...

.....activist group at the University of Michigan is demanding campus officials provide them with “a permanent designated space on central campus for Black students and students of color to organize and do social justice work.” The demand is one of several lodged by “Students4Justice,” who this month ratcheted up campus demonstrations to pressure administrators....

In the end, the Iraqi Christians of Sterling Heights, Michigan, say they felt abandoned and left vulnerable by their government. snip*** The city on Tuesday night agreed to a settlement with a Muslim group that wants to build a mega-mosque on 15 Mile at Mound Road, in the heart of a residential area filled with Christians who escaped Muslim persecution in Iraq. snip*** The city planning commission had denied the mosque permit in September 2015, but nearly a year later the mosque sued the city claiming discrimination. In December 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice joined in with a similar...

A city of 130,000 people in southeastern Michigan is under the gun of Islamic pressure following its denial of a mega-mosque in a residential neighborhood populated largely by Christian refugees who fled Islamic persecution in Iraq. Sterling Heights already has two mosques, but a third, the American Islamic Community Center, applied for a permit and was rejected after it was determined its proposed use was incompatible with the residential area. Too much traffic, too little parking, the city planning commission decided by a 9-0 vote against the mosque in September 2015. But in December, the mosque sued the city and...

(paragraph text copied from website) Brigadier General John D. Slocum, Selfridge Air National Guard Base commander, discusses why basing the F-35 at Selfridge is the most strategic and economical choice for our county, state, and nation. find video at http://mif35.org Selfridge ANGB is perfectly positioned for basing the F-35 Lightning II. When you factor together our strategic location to international borders, Michigan's network of Military & National Guard resources, and our existing first-class infrastructure, Selfridge is the most operationally effective location that also gives our tax payers the most bang for their buck. THE MICHIGAN NETWORK Selfridge Air National Guard...

The Nation of Islam had its annual gathering in Detroit over the weekend and thousands of attendees chanted “Allahu Akbar” as Louis Farrakhan made his way onto the stage. During his appearance at Joe Louis Arena, Farrakhan denounced Jews and told them they are not God’s “chosen” people. “I want to disabuse the Jews today of the false claim that you are the chosen of God — that Israel or Palestine belongs to you,” he said. “I want to disabuse you of that. I’m going to tell you about your future. You that think you have power to frighten and...

Michigan has thousands of aging and under-maintained dams that could pose localized risks. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality tells the Detroit Free Press that all but six of the state's 88 potential high-hazard dams are approaching 50 years old, the average engineered life span for a dam. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave Michigan a D grade on the condition of its dams in 2009, saying more than 90 percent of the state's nearly 2,600 dams would reach or exceed their design life by 2020.