Free Republic

Why spend so much time commenting on Detroit? Because the city of more than 700,000 people is bankrupt, turning the water off on over one hundred thousand water customers, and now axing the contracts of nonprofit human service groups that have been providing safety net services for Detroit’s legions of poor people residing in devastated neighborhoods. Is there any hope? Inell Byrd, a 41-year-old home health aide still living in Detroit’s North End, told New York Times writer James Eligon, “I know the city is coming back.” That was the concluding sentence of Eligon’s moving portrait of residents of the...

A new warship to be named the USS Detroit will be commissioned in a 2016 ceremony along the Detroit River. The 389-foot long, 7.5-million-pound littoral combat ship, shown here in a June 27 photo, is being built in Marinette, Wis. It will sail after the Detroit ceremony to its home port in San Diego. (Lockheed Martin) (more details and a slideshow at link)

Michigan man kills 2-year-old girl by shooting her execution-style to torture her dad: policeRaymone Bernard Jackson, 24, walked up to the little girl as she sat on her porch with her dad and then opened fire, police said. Then he shot the child’s dad and a 12-year-old family friend. 'Anybody that feels that they can execute a child in the state of Michigan, we’re going to go after them,’ state police said. A little girl sitting on the porch with her daddy on a beautiful summer day was shot execution-style by a “coward” who wanted the child’s father to watch...

A Michigan referee of an adult-league soccer match died Tuesday, two days after being punched in the head by a player, authorities said. John Bieniewicz, 44, died at Detroit Receiving Hospital from injuries suffered in what police said was an unprovoked attack. The blow left the victim unconscious and not breathing on the field, Livonia Police Chief Curtis Caid said. After the attack, the player fled the field and waved his middle finger at the crowd. Bieniewicz was in critical condition when he reached the hospital and was pronounced dead Tuesday morning.

Watch out, Detroit. Here comes the United Nations. WND has learned that after issuing a statement last week condemning Detroit’s decision to send water shut-off notices to tens of thousands of customers behind in their payments, the U.N now plans to conduct confidential policy discussions with the Obama administration to be followed by a formal public report to the U.N. Human Rights Council. On Monday, the U.N. Human Rights Council’s office in Geneva confirmed to WND that the U.N. plans to intervene directly in the Detroit water crisis, determined to apply international law to judge the U.S. in violation of...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) attacked both the Hobby Lobby U.S. Supreme Court decision and Republican Terri Lynn Land over the 5-4 vote that came down in favor of closely held businesses being able to decide whether they would offer contraceptive coverage to their employees under the Affordable Care Act.The Michigan Democratic Party took the opportunity to again blast Land, issuing several press releases July 1 attacking Land for what the state party described as her “radical agenda” on birth control and her initial silence on the Hobby Lobby ruling.“I support access to birth control, but...

DETROIT (AP) — A man who was punched in the head over the weekend while refereeing an adult-league soccer match in suburban Detroit died Tuesday, authorities and a longtime friend of the referee said.

As Detroit prepares for a sweltering summer, thousands of residents are having their water shut off by the city because they cannot afford it. At a rate of 3,000 households per week since March, Detroit has made the executive decision to shut off the tap of some 150,000 of its residents for as little as being behind by two payments. On the ground, groups like Detroit Water Brigade have popped up with emergency plans to stockpile donated drinkable water, implement affordable rainwater collection systems for potable and sanitary use, and strategies to create networks for distribution. Detroit is a struggling...

Several people protested outside the Detroit Water And Sewerage Department building Thursday, saying customers are having service cut off at an alarming rate and the practice is inhumane. Organizer David Bullock with the Change Agent Consortium says the water department is going after customers that may be as little as $150 delinquent and says the department ignores large corporations which are behind. “People always want to attack the poor … why are we attacking poor people?” he asked. But when asked which large companies are behind in their payments, Bullock would only say that WWJ should research the issue. “I...

Residents of Detroit, Michigan who are $150 or two months past-due on their water bills are having their water shut off by the bankrupt city. Now, even the United Nations has stepped in, saying Detroit is in violation of the human right to water. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) is facing $5 billion in bad debt, and is scrambling to recoup its losses. The city, which filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in history last year, argues that the financial burden of paying water bills has been put on the back burner by many families who didn’t believe services...

Every week, as some 3,000 additional families’ water is shut off by their “public” utility, Detroiters protest on Freedom Friday. “We are hiding out in our own house with no water,” Shelah, a 15-year-old youth and poverty skola whispered on the phone to me. She went on to tell me she and her mama and 9-year-old brother were among thousands of poor families who have had their water service cut off in the last few months by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. Since spring, up to 3,000 Detroit households per week have been getting their water shut off –...

ON LAKE MICHIGAN NEAR POVERTY ISLAND, Mich. – In a remote part of northern Lake Michigan, divers have started looking at an underwater pit, hoping to find the resting place of the Griffin, a ship commanded by the 17th century French explorer La Salle.

Most of us don’t completely trust the government. We certainly don’t want government to be able to prevent us from getting information we want or need. We are against governments suppressing information…unless it is stuff that we personally want suppressed. Then that’s different, of course. I thought of that this week when Governor Rick Snyder signed legislation that prevents the press or public from being able to get gun records. From now on, we will be unable to find out who owns guns, and who has permits and licenses to have them. Well, conservatives and gun lovers are thrilled about...

Detroit has too much of some things – stray dogs, abandoned houses – and not enough of others, such as residents who pay their water bills. The latest sign of Detroit’s decline came from the city’s water department, when it said in March it would begin shutting off water for up to 3,000 homes and businesses a week in an attempt to stop the utility from sliding even further into debt. The announcement sparked outrage among activists groups, who say the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) is going after the city’s most vulnerable citizens to shore up its bottom...

A U.S. Navy sailor from Washington State is currently serving on a submarine thousands of miles away in the Pacific Ocean, but a judge has ordered him into an impossible custody scenario: Appear in a Michigan courtroom Monday or risk losing custody of his 6-year-old daughter. Navy submariner Matthew Hindes was given permanent custody of his daughter Kaylee in 2010, after she was reportedly removed from the home of his ex-wife, Angela, by child protective services. But now a judge has ordered him to appear in court Monday, or risk losing his daughter to his ex-wife in addition to a...

by Gina Cassini | Top Right NewsThe date has been set - in stone. Circuit Court Judge Margaret Noe has ordered Matthew Hindes to appear in court on Monday, or risk losing full custody of his daughter. There's one problem -- a big one: Matthew Hindes is a Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, and is currently stationed on a submarine deployed in the Pacific Ocean! Yes, the judge is out of her mind, but it is worse than that. Hindes has had full custody of his daughter since 2010. He received full parental rights when his daughter was taken from...

The Michigan Education Association is following through with its vow to threaten the credit of employees who don't voluntarily pay dues despite their desire to exercise their right under the law and leave the union. Bangor Public Schools kindergarten teacher Kimberle Byrd received a notice from a collection agency for unpaid dues in the amount of $394.20 with the Michigan Education Association listed as the creditor. Byrd said she thought she was out of the union when her union contract expired in 2013. The notice from the collection agency. A new contract with a tentative agreement for teachers in the...

DETROIT — The top legislative body of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has taken major steps toward recognizing gay marriage. The General Assembly voted Thursday in favor of redefining Christian marriage in the church constitution as the union of "two people," not just "a man and a woman." The redefinition will take effect only if most of the 172 regional Presbyteries approve it in voting over the next year.

Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Gary Peters (D., Mich.) has received thousands of dollars from the labor union representing IRS agents, leading to strong criticism from Republicans. Peters has collected $8,500 from the National Treasury Employees Union over his career, according the National Republican Senate Committee. The union has spent more than $100,000 so far in the 2014 cycle, including a $2,500 donation to Peters Senate campaign. The NRSC demanded that Democrats benefitting from the largesse of the union return the money, since IRS employees are “stonewalling” a congressional investigation into the agency’s admitted targeting of conservative non-profit organizations. The scandal...

This story isn’t that unusual. But the swift response from the bishop is.Details: A gay man in Marquette was told he can no longer have an active role in his Catholic church after he and his longtime partner held a commitment ceremony, according to news reports out of Northern Michigan.Bobby Glenn Brown and his partner ,Don Roberts, held a ceremony celebrating 31 years together among friends and family on Saturday, June 14. The next day, officials at St. Michael Parish said he couldn’t continue his role on the pastoral council or positions of cantor, lector and a member of the...