Free Republic

Declaring herself "broken" and "disgraced," former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway tearfully took responsibility for fraud Tuesday before a judge sentenced her to a year and a day in prison for concealing assets while she was pleading with a bank for a sale on her underwater home. But U.S. District Judge John Corbett O'Meara rejected community service and instead chose prison. Crying and reading from a statement, Hathaway, 59, blamed her crime on "personal issues" but added: "That is no excuse." The 2011 sale of Hathaway's Grosse Pointe Park home, near Detroit, erased the balance of her mortgage, $664,000....

Around 2 a.m. on December 12, four students approached the apartment of Omar Mahmood, a Muslim student at the University of Michigan, who had recently published a column in a school newspaper about his perspective as a minority on campus. The students, who were recorded on a building surveillance camera wearing baggy hooded sweatshirts to hide their identity, littered Mahmood’s doorway with copies of his column, scrawled with messages like “You scum embarrass us,” “Shut the **** up,” and “DO YOU EVEN GO HERE?! LEAVE!!” They posted a picture of a demon and splattered eggs. This might appear to be...

Unless there is any doubt, the vast majority of Democrats value partisan support for a failed president over support for our own national security and for that of Israel. Hence, they want to delay once again a vote on the Menendez-Kirk bill imposing sanctions on Iran unless it agrees to an acceptable final deal. The bill was introduced more than a year ago. The timing just isn’t right, you see. Will it ever be? A letter by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) signed onto by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.),...

**SNIP** Gov. Rick Snyder just signed a new law that says medical retainer agreements are not insurance. What does this mean in plain, non-lawyer English? Under the Michigan law, individuals and doctors may enter into retainer agreements. The customer pays the doctor a monthly retainer and in exchange for that, the customer gets access to a menu of routine services at no additional charge. These agreements, under Michigan law, do not constitute insurance therefore are not subject to all of the laws, rules and regulations that apply to insurance. This is a great idea. For starters, it gets the insurance...

A black man who was found guilty of murdering two white teenagers execution-style in a vacant Detroit field defiantly declared “black lives matter” Wednesday before being sentenced to life in prison. Fredrick Young and Felando Hunter were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without parole for robbing, torturing and murdering Jourdan Bobbish and Jacob Kudla, who had met up with them in July 2012 to buy drugs, a local Fox affiliate reported. Young shocked the courtroom when he was given the chance to address the victims’ families, but instead apologized to the families of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

According to the press releases issued by the administration of then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm five years ago, Michigan's economy was undergoing a transformation. In a June 2010 press release, Granholm declared that the company LG Chem in Holland was making Michigan “a world capital for advanced batteries.” In October of 2010, she said in a press release about a proposed biogas facility in Reed City that the state was being transformed into “the clean energy capital of North America.” Five years later, plans for a biogas facility in Reed City died and LG Chem was made to repay $842,000 from a...

ALLENDALE, MI -- Trayvon Martin had an average American family upbringing in southern Florida. He had his faults, but was no criminal, his mother said. Still today, Sybrina Fulton tries to reconcile the memories she has of her son with his death by gunfire in a gated community, as he walked to his father's home from a nearby convenience store. Days before his 2012 death she had been horseback riding with him to celebrate both of their February birthdays. "What could have been to cause my son to lose his life," Fulton said to thousands gathered at Grand Valley State...

Michael Moore, a guy who has made his whole career about ambushing people and then cutting the film to make them look silly, mean or evil-- and importantly, unable to reply--suddenly looks silly, mean and evil. I mean sillier, meaner and more evil than he normally looks with his oversized clothes and food stained sweatshirts in the 10,000 square foot mansion and the Manhattan condo he apparently doesn’t even use. Moore was doing his usual sniping on social media, because he believes someone still cares about his opinion. The self-appointed mouthpiece for the 99% with the $50 million bank account...

One of the three man accused in the death of University of Michigan medical student Paul DeWolf is on trial for three charges this week in Washtenaw County Trial Court. Joei Jordan, 21, pleaded guilty to first degree home invasion and conspiracy to commit home invasion in the second degree when he appeared in Washtenaw County Trial Court on Tuesday prior to jury selection. The charges were related to a home invasion of 210 N. Ingalls St., the home next to DeWolf's at 220 N. Ingall St. Prosecutors previously said the home invasion at 201 N. Ingalls was committed prior...

Several months ago, Elijah Woody was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon.   Elijah Woody is an active member of an open carry group, Hells Saints, in Detroit, that was featured in an MSNBC video about open carry.  I wrote about Elijah's arrest and allegations of misconduct by the Detroit police officers, all of whom are black, as is Elijah.  The trial ended yesterday, Friday, the 16th of January, 2015.  I found the story riveting.  It makes you appreciate juries.   This is the sort of story that Eric Holder should be concerned with, but will never be investigated by...

Today Micheal Moore went to speak in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The event was held at the Fountain Street Church. ( In reality it is a sanctuary for druggies, anti- war protesters, America haters etc.) I arrived and there was a crowd gathered around the Osama of the Left. As I approached the target from the high ground, I got flashbacks from my Marine Corp days. Gotta love that high ground, (more about that later). I was armed with not one but two large American Flags. Combat boots for stomping, hard plastic hand wraps for skull collapsing, and other assorted Bushido...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Residents in the Riverside Estates Mobile home park described the scene as complete chaos when they said a man started shooting at them, killed himself, and then lit his trailer on fire. One witness said it's a miracle that no one else was killed. Chrissebring said, “My girlfriend told me it was gunshots, so we looked outside, and he was shooting through his door at trailers!” During the fire Christopher Chrissebring said thousands of rounds of ammunition were exploding. Michigan State Police are investigating and they said firefighters had trouble putting out the flames because of the ammunition that was...

During his breaking news coverage of the Supreme Court’s decision to hear four different cases challenging same-sex marriage bans in four different states this term — Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee — Fox News’ Shepard Smith compared the remaining resistance to marriage equality in this country to those who wanted to keep segregation intact during the Civil Rights Movement. “Not in every case, but in most cases, the same states which were fighting integration are fighting this as well,” Smith said. “Those states which always seem to be behind the curve for reasons which are explainable and understandable. Those are...

Scott Walker, the Republican governor of Wisconsin, is calling for a member of the Republican National Committee to step down from his post. A Michigan newspaper, the Morning Sun, is reporting that Walker, a likely 2016 presidential contender, has said Michigan committeeman Dave Agema should resign. “Dave Agema’s abhorrent comments have no place in our party,” said Walker, per the paper. “I join Chairman Priebus and others in calling on him to resign.” Agema, a former member of the Michigan House, has been a headache to national Republicans for years. He’s posted material on social media saying that Muslims don’t...

Ypsilanti Township residents Dave and Sue Weber argue a county-run facility is no place to be showing what they consider offensive, right-wing political propaganda. They said they started going to the county's recreation center on Washtenaw Avenue last fall and were dismayed to see Fox News show up on four of the 12 television screens in the cardio area during election season. "In September, when we toured the facility before joining, we didn't notice Fox on at all," Dave Weber said. "But now October comes around, pre-election time, that's when it multiplied onto four screens, four out of the 12...

Retired attorney Kurt Richard Haskell conjectured on the Paris attacks on Sunday during an interview from Costa Rica with 1776 Channel, which can neither confirm nor readily dismiss his theories. “The Muslims being used in these plots are being trained overseas by undercover CIA pretending to be Al Qaeda/ ISIS. I think all of them were trained that way. They think they are in terrorist training camps when they are instead being trained to be patsies.” -Kurt Haskell during interview with 1776 Channel Haskell ran for U.S. Congress in 2012 as a Democrat in Michigan’s 7th District where he received...

KALAMAZOO, MI -- Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan is closing its Battle Creek clinic, citing "increasing competition and declining patient demand" as a result of the Affordable Care Act. The last day of operation will be Jan. 31. Spokeswoman Desiree Cooper said the need for Planned Parenthood's health-care services has declined because of the ACA, which has greatly improved access to subsidized contraceptives and women's health-care services. The ACA requires insurances plan to provide women with an annual physical and contraceptives without a deductible or co-pay. That means women who formerly were reliant on Planned Parenthood for services and...

<p>They have the Detroit Auto Show going on, but also in the Motor City now has a frozen house!</p> <p>This 100 year old Detroit home has turned into a gigantic icicle formation --- after all the pipes burst. According to neighbors, when the weather turned cold in November, whoever was staying here left and never told the water company.</p>

Ford did it. They actually went and did it. It's been rumored about and speculated on for months, but now we know it's real.This is it: the new Ford GT. Ford just dropped a bomb on the rest of the world, and it's got a twin-turbo EcoBoost V6, if you can believe it.