Free Republic

Five years and $500 million later, Michigan has fewer film jobs than it did when the state started its subsidy program. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan had 1,561 film jobs in 2013 (the latest year information is available). In 2008, the state had 1,663 film jobs. See chart nearby. Michigan currently spends $50 million per year subsidizing film productions. Previously, the program was uncapped – in 2010-11, the state spent $115 million. Overall, as of this year, taxpayers have devoted $494.7 million to the program. Because film productions are so mobile, among other reasons, the economic...

A Detroit man, who has been jailed for not paying a child support bill for a child that everyone agrees is not his, now faces a $30,000 charge for the same child. “I feel like I’m standing in front of a brick wall with nowhere to go,” said Carnell Alexander, the man facing the bill. Detroit agrees with Mr. Alexander that the child in question is not his, but insists that he must pay regardless. The state of Michigan said that Mr. Alexander father a child in 1987, and demanded that he pay back child support over two decades ago....

An 11-year-old hunter from Oceola Township, Michigan, took a rare albino 12-pointer with a crossbow last week while hunting with his father. The albino buck was well known in the area, but Gavin Dingman ended up being the lucky hunter to harvest it. Sadly, the celebration ended for Dingman and his family, as they became the subject of death threats and social media backlash. "My dad was just like, 'Take a deep breath. Are you sure you can take the shot? If you're not 100 percent, we don't want to injure it,'” Dingman told the Livingston Daily on Monday. The...

Against the interests of Michiganders, Governor Rick Snyder has signed a bill banning Tesla Motor’s direct-to-consumer automobile sales in the state.The original focus of House Bill 5606 was on determining how franchise-dealership fees are charged. Then, right before the vote, an amendment banning automobile sales directly to consumers was added by State Senator Joe Hune. This backhanded maneuver shielded the amendment from public comment and debate. Passed unanimously in the State Senate and with only one dissenting vote in the House, the “anti-Tesla bill” is an economic loss for Michigan. The state will miss out on tax revenue from sales...

Michigan’s Republican governor signed legislation on Tuesday that officially bans Tesla Motors and any other carmaker from selling directly to consumers in the state. But Rick Snyder, who is seeking re-election next month, maintained in a letter to lawmakers that the bill simply clarified the state’s existing law and that such direct sales already were not legal in Michigan, home to Detroit’s big auto companies. Now, state law requires that Tesla, or other car companies, must sell vehicles through networks of franchised dealers. If the company doesn’t have its own network, the state requires it to sell vehicles through another...

Detroit officials are fuming after two visiting United Nations lawyers scolded the city for cutting off water to delinquent customers and described the shut-offs as a “human rights” violation.

PAW PAW, Mich. – One is a building with bars. The other is a building with a bar. A very drunk woman apparently had trouble telling them apart and ended up in a southwestern Michigan jail cell.

....In the poll, Peters leads Republican candidate Terri Lynn Land 53 percent to 39 percent among registered voters. That spread is roughly in line with the findings from other recent polls....

Please watch in Fullscreen & HD with sound for best quality. To avoid skipping, please let the video fully load. Seeking Michigan is an ongoing personal project that I started work on in February 2013. Over the past year, I have been making trips around Michigan and up to the Upper Peninsula on a frequent basis to discover and explore the beauty of this state. Sleeping in the back of my car, walking through forests at night, getting lost on dirt roads, and driving for hours on end around this gorgeous place has been an incredible inspiration to me. So...

At a time when state spending has reached a record high, proposals in a "Jobs Blueprint” posted on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer’s website would increase it by about $3.7 billion, according to an analysis by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. The extra money would go to public schools, universities, community colleges, film subsidies, state revenue sharing payments to local governments, higher unemployment benefits, universal pre-school programs and more. Schauer offers few details on how he would pay for the increases beyond non-specific suggestions like “cut wasteful spending to save taxpayer dollars,” "review state contracts" and “make government more...

Prosecutors: Michigan Girl Meant To Kill Family By COREY WILLIAMS PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A 15-year-old girl accused of stabbing her younger brother as part of a plot to kill her family so that she could run off with a 23-year-old man appeared in a suburban Detroit courtroom Thursday, where a judge set her bond at $1 million. The girl, who is charged as an adult with assault with intent to murder and conspiracy to commit murder in last Friday's attack, wore a red jail jumpsuit at the hearing, which her parents attended. Michael Rivera, the man she allegedly...

United Nations human rights experts described Detroit’s mass water shut-offs as “a man-made perfect storm” Monday and called on city officials to restore water to those unable to pay, including those with disabilities or chronic illnesses. Meanwhile, Detroit’s officials said the two lawyers’ actions and conclusions were agenda-driven and not based on “facts” about the city’s progress in helping residents keep or regain service. Leilani Farha and Catarina de Albuquerque, who were in town to observe the effect of water service shut-offs, said they affect the poorest and most vulnerable—and particularly discriminate against Detroit’s majority black population. …

In recent arguments against states requiring voters to show a photo ID, the United Auto Workers Local 6000 has compared concerns about voter fraud to belief in the fictional Loch Ness monster and Yeti. The union wrote on its Facebook page that requiring a photo ID for voting is the goal of the “billionaire funded” American Legislative Exchange Council, and is intended to create obstacles for voters who might support a more “progressive” agenda. When its own members, however, want to exercise their freedoms under the new right-to-work law in Michigan to opt out of paying union dues as a...

Hassan Sayed is looking at years in prison after beating his wife as their children looked on, then dragging her with a car. The incident was caught on tape. Sayed's wife was driving when he started to threaten her. She was so frightened, she pulled over and began to run from Hassan as their children watched. Away from her enraged husband, she called police. In the meantime, Sayed had gotten into the driver's seat. When his wife started to walk back to the car, Sayed started pushing her and punching her in the face. As she stumbles back to once...

On one side, there are dilapidated houses, gardens overflowing with weeds and a high crime rate. On the other, there are streets filled with spacious homes, well-manicured lawns and yoga studios. This is one of numerous fences that have been erected by the wealthy 'haves' of the Michigan suburb of Grosse Pointe Park to 'prevent 'have-nots' from Detroit from driving into the city'. The brick barrier, reading 'Road Ends', represents a significant divide between the two cities, which despite their proximity, differ greatly in terms of average salary, crime rates and general desirability.

Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Gary Peters (D-MI) has launched a new advertisement that falsely claims GOP candidate Terri Lynn Land wants to cut women’s access to various female health services. The new ad comes as Peters and his campaign have completely publicly ignored an investigation by Breitbart News into Peters’ military background, in which documents and interviews with military leaders—including one of Peters’ former commanding officers—have shown that he fabricated much of his service record for political gain on the campaign trail. “This is an important election for women,” a woman in the Peters campaign ad says. “And...

Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Rep. Gary Peters (D-MI) accidentally proved to the Daily Beast he lied on his campaign website and on the campaign trail about his military record as part of an effort to disprove a Breitbart News investigation—and the Daily Beast’s Tim Mak fell hook, line and sinker for the Peters’ campaign’s spin despite being provided with evidence by Peters that Peters lied. “To rebut the Breitbart story, the Peters campaign provided The Daily Beast with a document signed by a commanding officer showing that the candidate qualified as a Seabee Combat Warfare Specialist on August 5,...

SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — Only a couple of families have taken advantage of a new service available at a Saginaw funeral home. Drive-thru viewings. Paradise Funeral Chapel recently started offering the option, which allows mourners to pay their last respects on the go. It was designed in part to cater to those with physical limitations.

Half of all the Democratic women in the U.S. Senate are featured in a new video voicing their support for Kentucky Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes. The video, released Thursday after first being shown at Grimes’ event with Hillary Clinton Wednesday evening, shows six women in the U.S. Senate saying “Shatter the glass. Break the ceiling. It’s time for Alison!” Of the twelve women in the Senate Democratic caucus, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Patty Murray (D-WA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) are shown...

The 2014 Michigan gubernatorial election should be a referendum on the major changes to Michigan made by Governor Rick Snyder’s administration. Unfortunately, the debate is saturated instead with false claims of education cuts. Snyder’s opponent, former congressman Mark Schauer, centered his campaign around the allegation that Snyder “cut $1 billion from the schools.” Most school revenue in Michigan is channeled through the state. So the annual budget is closely followed. Overall spending on education is up over Snyder’s term. From the fiscal year 2011 budget — the last budget passed prior to the Snyder administration — to the fiscal 2015...