Free Republic

“I’m fat, I’m black, and I’m very visibly Muslim, this is going to make some people angry, and it’s going to empower some,” Vernon told WWJ Newsradio 950’s Zahra Huber. Vernon had some doubts before making the video, as she knew that she would receive a lot of negative comments. She changed her mind, and decided she wanted to “show people stuff that’s never been done before, by a person who looks like me. I’m going to be super true, super raw, super high-fashioned with it, to basically make you see it,” said Vernon. She admitted that she lacked self-confidence,...

As a candidate and since taking office, President Trump vowed to protect and defend Christians in the Middle East. In between talk of a Muslim ban and building a wall along the Mexico border, Trump assured besieged Christian minorities that his commitment was ironclad. Now, many Iraqi Christians living in the United States feel the president lied to them. “We voted for Trump. All the Christian people, the Chaldean people, voted for him, that was the first thing he said, that he was going to help them,” said Sumar Khalasawi, a Chaldean Christian living in Macomb County, Mich. “But he...

LANSING, MI - Michigan State Police Col. Kriste Kibbey Etue shared a message on social media criticizing the NFL players' protests, calling them "degenerates" and "millionaire ingrates who hate America and disrespect our armed forces and veterans," according to The Associated Press. Etue, who heads the statewide police department, shared the meme entitled "Dear NFL" on her Facebook page Sunday. It was a post widely shared on social media by those critical of hundreds of NFL players this past weekend who locked arms and/or kneeled during the pre-game playing of the national anthem. Some forms of the meme are calling...

The Michigan Legislative Black Caucus on Wednesday called for the resignation or firing of the head of the State Police for sharing a Facebook post calling NFL players who protest during the national anthem "anti-American degenerates." The caucus, which is comprised of 22 Democratic legislators, said Col. Kriste Kibbey Etue — who has apologized — can no longer be trusted to fulfill her duties in an objective and unbiased manner. Liberal activists and at least one Democratic gubernatorial candidate have also called for her ouster.

FULL TITLE.... Detroit regains its crown as most violent large city in America, overtaking St Louis, according to new FBI data Detroit was America’s most violent big city in 2016, according to the latest government data released on Monday  The Motor City experienced more murders last year than Los Angeles even though the latter’s population is four times that of the formerDetroit police, however, say that the FBI's data is flawed and that the city actually experienced a decrease in violent crime Among the most violent cities, Detroit is followed in order by St. Louis; Memphis; Baltimore; and Wilmington, Delaware  The...

One young man at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has taken taking a knee quite a bit further. Graduate student Dana Greene, Jr. spent more than 20 hours on his knees on the pavement, facing a flag at the “block M” on the campus Diag, beginning at 7 a.m. on Monday. “If got to kneel until my knees bleed, then that’s what I’m going to do,” he told MLive. “I am doing this for every student on this campus that has ever felt like they didn’t belong here.”

Forty-five guys dressed up as “Magnum P.I.” during a bachelor party Saturday night and went to the Detroit Tigers game against the Chicago White Sox at Comerica Park. They wore Hawaiian shirts, Tigers caps and pressed-on mustaches. They even carried around a life-size cutout of Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, the lead character from his popular ’80s private-detective drama. Amazingly we haven’t even gotten to the oddest part of the story yet. The 45 Magnums were ejected from the game by stadium security, as the groom’s younger brother told the Detroit-adjacent News-Herald, because one of them was smoking and they...

The Chicago-based group Truth in Reporting gives the state a grade of “F” in its new 50-state analysis of government spending and budgeting. Specifically, the report’s authors faulted New York for its relatively high pension and health care obligations, as well as its high tax burden. California, New Jersey, Illinois and Massachusetts earned similarly low scores from the group.

A federal court issued an order Friday that requires the city of East Lansing to allow a farmer to return to its 2017 farmer’s market after city officials developed a rule for the purpose of keeping him out because of his marriage views. The city ousted Steve Tennes and Country Mill Farms after reading a post on his Facebook page that expressed his religious belief in marriage as the union between one man and one woman. “Just like all Americans, a farmer should be free to live and speak according to his deeply held religious beliefs without fear of government...

California pension worries most often focus on CalPERS and CalSTRS, the state’s two multi-employer behemoths. But the state has many other underfunded plans, and these city and county systems pose significant challenges for governments that contribute to them. The City of Los Angeles faces the largest municipal pension funding gap, measured in absolute dollar terms. According to the city’s 2016 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, Los Angeles’ Net Pension Liability totaled $8.2 billion. Curiously, this number does not appear on the city’s government-wide balance sheet (called a Statement of Net Position). Instead, the $8.2 billion is reported as part of LA’s...

The Detroit Lions fan who posted racial epithets directed toward two other fans Sunday has agreed to give up his season tickets, according to the team, and won’t be allowed back at Ford Field. The fan – whom the Lions have not identified – posted a picture of an African-American woman named Stacey and another man on Snapchat. The post included profanity and racial slurs, calling them “Ignorant [n-word]” because they were sitting in their seats during the national anthem.

<p>Love him or hate him, you will never have to guess what Kid Rock is thinking. The Michigan native, rock star, and potential candidate for U.S. Senate will flat out tell you — with language that leaves nothing to the imagination.</p>

My heart is breaking for Chicago, and for all Americans, as one of our greatest cities crumbles before our (and the world’s) eyes. I don’t see any way out of the vicious circle of political corruption, irrevocable pensions obligations overwhelming tax revenue, vanishing public services, and a decline in civil order leading toward a third world level of crime.  As a result, the city consumes itself, strangling business and entrepreneurship, and killing off precious assets. Now, comes a story that captures it all in one heart-rending example. Sam Cholke of DNAChicago writes: BRONZEVILLE — Chicago’s top-rated bed and breakfast...

Before analyzing Kid Rock as a cultural phenomenon, we first have to spend some time with the Frankfurt School, a group of European academics who rose to prominence in the mid 20th century. No, seriously. The word "dialectic" gets thrown around enough to warrant some clarification. Now used primarily as a pseudo-intellectual shibboleth to refer to social changes, the philosophical roots of the modern concept of dialectic are surprisingly important. Dialectic describes Hegel's idea that as society moves toward its perfected state, it must resolve internal contradictions – issues that cause social unrest and then lead to social change. According...

Detroit bus drivers say they’re fed up working in deplorable conditions — with primitive seating, daily assaults from passengers and bug-infested coaches — and they’re demanding the city take action. The drivers say their working conditions are disgusting — they have no choice but to breathe diesel fumes, passengers verbally abuse and spit on them, and they’re forced to dodge roaches, bed bugs and rodents. Those are just some of the complaints

They are the schools Mayor de Blasio doesn’t mention. At 32 city elementary and middle schools, the average English-math proficiency rate on state exams has not exceeded 10 percent of students for four years in a row. Seventeen of these schools — which enroll nearly 10,000 kids — have been part of the mayor’s signature Renewal program, which has spent $582 million on teacher training, social services and an extra hour a day of instruction. Four did so poorly that the city Department of Education closed them in June. ... Families for Excellent Schools, a pro-charter-school group that analyzed the test...

ANN ARBOR, MI - Conservative commentator Debbie Schlussel is suing the city of Ann Arbor for not releasing the name of a Muslim woman who reported a false hate crime. The lawsuit, filed Monday, Aug. 27, alleges the Ann Arbor Police Department violated the Freedom of Information Act when it refused to release the name of a Muslim woman who reported a hate crime on Nov. 11, 2016. In the highly publicized case ...

Michigan resident Robert Ritchie—known to fans as that Cicero of shitty country-rap, Kid Rock—has fired back at watchdog groups suggesting that his near-constant comments about running for office might actually make him subject to the U.S.A.’s electioneering laws. Faced with accusations that selling signs with slogans like “Kid Rock For Senate ’18" makes him a candidate—and thus beholden to the Federal Election Campaign Act, which requires candidates to track and report donations and campaign contributions—Ritchie fired back with the same sort of measured response that the Michigan electorate can probably hope to see from him if they get blazed out...

NOVI, Mich. (WJBK) - Shoppers at a Walmart in Novi, Mich. were in for some frightening moments as they witnessed a woman pull out a loaded gun Monday afternoon. Police say the gun was pulled out during a fight over school supplies. "It was in the back to school section over a notebook," says Novi Police Det. Scott Baetens. Novi officers say two Farmington Hills women, ages 32 and 46, were inside the Novi Towne Center Walmart, shopping for school supplies. Apparently, so was a 20-year-old South Lyon woman and her mother, 51. "One girl was going to buy a...

DETROIT (WXYZ) - Detroit police are investigating after a 1-year-old baby was stabbed to death in southwest Detroit on Tuesday night. Police say it happened just before 10 p.m. near W. Grand Blvd. and W. Vernor and the baby's mother is the one in custody. It all started with a suicide call when a woman said she was going to kill herself, but also said there were dead people inside the apartment. Police rushed to the apartment and there was a woman in the hallway bleeding from what police say looked like a self-inflicted wound. When they checked the woman...