Free Republic

It is time to reassess Michigan’s gubernatorial race; and flipping a coin might be the best approach to picking the winner. Polls show Gov. Rick Snyder and Democratic challenger former Congressman Mark Schauer neck and neck with Gov. Snyder’s momentum heading downward. Maybe Gov. Snyder – said by some to be the smartest man in the room – knows precisely what he’s doing. Maybe his advisers have spotted something encouraging in the polling numbers others have missed, but the governor has slipped into a dead heat after being the favorite to win re-election only a few weeks ago. Gov. Snyder’s...

Twenty-three public school districts that signed their union contracts after right-to-work became law kept language in that told employees they had to financially support a union as a condition of employment, according to a study done by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Those 23 districts employed about 2,160 teachers. “There are thousands of teachers in these districts who may be misled into believing they don’t have a choice when it comes to financially supporting a union in order to keep their job,” said Audrey Spalding, director of education policy and author of the study, in a press release. Capitol...

Don’t skateboard at Kroger – it’s against the rules. Bringing food from outside the store is also strictly prohibited. And please don’t think about grocery shopping at one of the 50 or so Kroger grocery stores in Michigan without a shirt: you run the risk of being asked to leave. But, if you’d like to peruse the produce aisles with a semi-automatic rifle slung across your shoulder, go right ahead. Kroger thinks that’s just fine in states where it is legal to openly carry guns, like Michigan. In fact, the grocery store chain has publicly stated that it doesn’t want...

Jim Geragthy, acclaimed author and National Review’s chief campaign analyst, has been grousing about the lack of quality polling in key Senate races this year. His frustration is well-founded. So yesterday must have felt like Christmas in September for Jim and political junkies everywhere, as two pollsters released a deluge of surveys covering the most contested races in the country. In light of the results, I’d expect that national Republicans are kicking off the week with an extra spring in their step, as well. We were leaked an advance copy of last week’s much-anticipated Politico/GWU Battleground poll, which was packed...

The Alfred Fisher Mansion,the largest residential listing in Detroit, has sold for $1.6 Million in deal that closed in late August. Designed by architect Richard Marr and built in 1926, the mansion contains 15 bedrooms, 17 bathrooms, a ballroom, sun room, and a billiards room. There is also an indoor pool. These listing photos don't do the interior justice (there's a strange party situation in the basement) but the grounds are looking lovely. When the mansion first came on the market the ask was a mere $1.2M...."

After stealing $600 worth of merchandise from Walmart, a Michigan woman made her getaway on one of the store’s motorized wheelchairs, according to cops who collared her two miles from the retailer.. Shirley Mae Mason, 46, was arresteud Monday night and charged with the theft of the $1200 electric cart and six bags stuffed with clothing. During questioning by police, Mason said that she decided to swipe the motorized cart after failing to secure a car ride from the store. Mason, according to a police report, said she just “didn’t feel like walking.” Mason, seen above, was booked into the...

Michigan Teachers and Allies for Change (M-TAC), which MLive described as “a grassroots organization started by Ann Arbor Public Schools teachers and parents,” was in the news last week for a rally in Ann Arbor seeking more money for public schools. According to MLive, the group is "non-partisan and is not affiliated with a union." The featured politicians on the stage at the rally were all Democrats: Lisa Brown, who is running for Lt. Governor, State Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, State Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor, State Rep. Gretchen Driskell, D-Saline; and State Rep. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor. MLive...

A seiche, which is the Great Lakes version of a tidal wave, hit the eastern shoreline of Lake Superior near Sault Saint Marie around 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014. The seiche (pronounced SAYSH) was caused by a dramatic change in wind direction due to severe thunderstorms. The wind was blowing out of the southeast for a long time period, pushing water along the shoreline out into Lake Superior. Then a line of strong thunderstorms moved through, and the accompanying west wind blew the water back into shore. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported a 65-inch change in water...

As Republicans contemplate the possible size of their November victory, outlier races may get interesting. Scott Brown, a few weeks ago considered certain to lose, may well win in New Hampshire. Most folks would not have thought that Republican Terri Land had a chance in a blue state like Michigan, but she continues to run close to Peters in the race. Al Franken also cannot pull away in his re-election fight, and all the polls show that race tightening. Surely the trophy in any general election is for one party to knock off a legislative leader of the other party....

"MCDonalds Mcdonalds, can't you see...Seven-forty is not for me..." The chant, recited through a megaphone, was being led by a man identifed as a Christian Pastor ("Reverend Charles" we'll call him), near a McDonalds restaurant in Detroit last week. Dozens of people in the parking lot uttered the chant with him, as the crowd sought to malign McDonalds restaurants while at the same time demanding a $15.00 per hour wage. "They want fifteen, they want a union, they want to be organized" Pastor Charles told the tv news crews. "The McDonalds corporation should allow that to happen immediately." The illogic...

The argument against liberals ever being in charge of our lives can be reduced to a single word: Detroit. Detroit has fallen from its position as one of the greatest cities in America at the beginning of the 1950s to a perfect reminder of what liberal Democrats will do when given enough power and enough time to show who they really are. “The Motor City” had an unbroken succession of liberal Democrat mayors for more than 40 years and each of these men has contributed to the steady decline of their city. Acting in concert with greedy unions these mayors...

Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, is putting the finishing touches on his supposed “investigation” of the IRS scandal that will, in essence, be a press release for the IRS and the administration, a reliable source tells me. The Michigan Democrat apparently dismisses all of the allegations made over the targeting of tea party and other conservative organizations and instead attacks the Office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which revealed the scandal when it issued its May 2013 report about the “inappropriate criteria” used to “identify tax-exempt applications for review.”

Over the weekend, former President Jimmy Carter attended the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) conference in Detroit. There, he assured Muslims that the “principles of Allah” were designed to “bring peace and justice to all.” ISNA’s ties to terror-supporters are quite deep.

LANSING — Michigan's largest teachers' union should allow members to resign at any time and stop enforcing an annual one-month opt-out window, a state labor judge ruled, relying on the state right-to-work law that took effect last year. The administrative law judge, Julia Stern, recommended Tuesday that the Republican-controlled Employment Relations Commission order the Michigan Education Association to no longer limit school employees to leaving the union solely in August of each year. She said the law that took effect last year incorporated a federal law interpreted to give public employees the ability to leave their union anytime.

A white homeowner who gunned down an unarmed 19-year-old black woman on his porch last year has been sentenced to at least 17 years in prison. Theodore Wafer was convicted of second-degree murder in August for killing Renisha McBride outside his home in Dearborn Heights in Detroit, Michigan home in the early hours of November 2.

A perfect storm is brewing in Michigan that may propel a Republican into the U.S. Senate seat Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), a Democrat, has held since 1979. Terri Lynn Land, Michigan’s ex-Secretary of State and a Republican National Committeewoman, is running her U.S. Senate campaign on an aggressive conservative populist message that seems more fit for red state Republicans than a Republican running in a bluish-purple state like Michigan. A national mood against President Barack Obama is hurting Democrats, especially those who don’t have the luxury of incumbency like Land’s opponent Rep. Gary Peters (D-MI). Package all that together with...

Apparently, some teacher’s union officials have taken too much public school math. michigan outline “On a Saturday in May, members of the Michigan Education Association held a walk in Midland bringing attention to public school funding,” the Michigan-based Mackinac Center reports in the organization’s July/August report. “They claim education funding is down nearly $19 million in the greater Midland area in the last four years.” “MEA president Steve Cook has claimed that Michigan’s public school budget has been cut by $1 billion. The problem is that these claims are not true.” “State spending on public education actually increased $800 million...

A federal appeals court ruled against a group of Christian evangelists who were forced to leave an Arab-American street festival in Dearborn, Michigan, in 2012. Festival-goers threw rocks and water bottles at members of the Bible Believers group when they denounced Islam and called Mohammed a false prophet. In response, Wayne County authorities threatened to ticket the Christian group if they did not leave. On Wednesday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals backed county authorities, ruling 2-1 that police were only trying to keep public order. "The video from the 2012 festival demonstrates that (evangelists') speech and conduct intended...

Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Sunday that President Obama’s inertia on whether to launch airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria is part of an overall foreign policy failure that is empowering China, North Korea, Russia and other rival nations. “It’s all related,” Rogers, R-Mich., told “Fox News Sunday." “The world sees the United States as withdrawn.” Rogers said the president’s apparent disengagement or slow response is the reason China has engaged U.S. pilots and Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved into eastern Ukraine without fear of consequence. “U.S. foreign policy is...

LANSING, Mich. – Today Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton, introduced the first of two bills to enact a patient-centered healthcare plan to provide a free market alternative that expands access to quality care without expanding government. SB 459 provides the regulatory infrastructure that would enable a low cost, high quality care, free market environment within the confines of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The second bill, which will be introduced shortly, would convert current Medicaid enrollees to low cost, high quality Qualified Health Plans featuring Direct Primary Care Services and High Deductible Health Plans wrapped within a Health Savings Account. The...