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A man is now $1 million richer despite the advice given to him by his girlfriend. The man, who chose to remain anonymous, won the money on a scratch-off lottery ticket he bought at a Michigan gas station. "I stopped to get gas and the pump didn't print out a receipt so I grabbed a couple of $5 winning tickets and went inside the store," the man told the Michigan Lottery. "On my way in, my girlfriend told me not to buy any lottery tickets, but I didn't listen. I bought one 50X The Cash ticket and paid for it...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Requiring photo ID is “racist,” except when it’s done by Obama, the NAACP, unions, or any other liberals Former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee recently announced that he wants to be the Democrats’ 2016 presidential candidate.In July 2011, Governor Chafee signed a bill that requires voters to show photo ID. In March 2012, Obama’s Justice Department blocked Texas’s voter ID requirement, claiming that it was “racist.”However, the very same Justice Department requires photo ID for everyone who enters.So let’s say that someone is denied their right to vote because they don’t have voter ID, and they...

After years of unfounded hysteria from so-called environmentalists, the media and Hollywood that fracking causes drinking water contamination, the Environmental Protection Agency just issued a major blow to anti-fracking activists. A new report from the EPA, based on a study sanctioned by Congress, shows drinking water contamination only results if fracking wells aren't built or maintained properly, which is a rarity. "We did not find evidence that these mechanisms have led to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States. Of the potential mechanisms identified in this report, we found specific instances where one or more of these mechanisms...

The unfunded liability of the Michigan public school pension system increased from $25.8 billion to $26.5 billion from 2013 to 2014, according to an actuarial report released in May. The system's growing costs have been called a “budget killer” and are taking an increasing amount from the funding Michigan devotes to schools. The state has agreed in recent years to essentially pick up increases in the cost of the school pension system. These payments have risen from $155 million in 2012 to $796 million in 2015, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency. Democratic politicians and union representatives have claimed that...

Michigan’s closed state employee pension system got some good news this year: unfunded liabilities did not increase. But taxpayers are still on the hook for the $6.2 billion promised to retirees that the state has failed to save enough for. A new valuation shows the system’s liabilities grew roughly $500 million since the last report — but so did the value of assets set aside to cover those liabilities. The state carries $16.2 billion in pension liabilities, and $10.0 billion of investments. Some of the system’s previous assumptions have been updated to reflect actual experience, which added $400 million to...

Police in Shelby Township responded to a call to pick a rather unusual suspect on Thursday: a pig. The department posted the above picture to its Facebook page Thursday night. Debbie DeRiemaecker tells 7 Action News that she was doing yard work at her home on Wolf Drive when all of a sudden a pig came barreling toward her. It chased her into the front yard before getting distracted by a decorative ball. DeRiemaecker wasn't sure what to do, so she called 911 laughing and explained the situation. Moments later, she tells 7 Action News, a cop car pulled up....

HOWELL, Mich. (WJBK) - GOP Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz brought his campaign to Howell tonight where 650 people applauded his conservative Texas principles. The senator spoke about unions, said he did not back federal assistance to keep GM and Chrysler alive and spoke about the right to carry guns on school grounds.He also made a remark about Vice President Joe Biden, which he later apologized for, on Twitter. "Union members are a plus for this country," he said. "It's very interesting, but union members have been left behind. "(President) Barack Obama, (Senate Democratic Leader) Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton have...

A 27-year-old Ypsilanti Township woman was duct-taped and led into a back room while five young men ransacked her home early Thursday morning. The woman and her boyfriend, a 24-year-old man, were sitting in the living room at their home in the 500 block of Bagley in Ypsilanti Township when there was a knock at the door around 12:36 a.m., according to police. When the woman answered the door, five young men burst in the door and pushed her to the back of the house where they duct-taped the woman's wrists, Derrick Jackson of the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office said....

(INTELLIHUB) — A ten-day US Army urban military training exercise has begun in Flint, Michigan with explosions rocking neighborhoods and scaring residents who had no idea what was actually happening. With less than three hours between a city press release and the beginning of the exercise, residents were left in the dark about the urban military training until the last possible moment. Most had no idea what was happening as their homes shook from the force of the simulated explosions. “It was like a big huge explosion, it shook my whole house, it shook the ground.” (Watch video at link)...

It’s not just Democrats considering a challenge to Michigan Rep. Dan Benishek, who plans to run for a fourth term after pledging to serve only three. Several Republicans in the state were mentioned as potential primary challengers to the 1st District incumbent. State Rep. Peter Pettalia had been encouraged to run before Benishek announced his intent to seek another term, and “that talk hasn’t stopped” since, Pettalia told CQ Roll Call. The legislator declined to say which “supporting groups” have reached out to him. But, as a “loyal Republican,” Pettalia noted he’d have to give “deep thought” to challenging a...

State of Michigan employees took an average of 10.7 days of sick leave during the 2014 fiscal year, according to an annual report. Those 10.7 sick days are in addition to 18 days of vacation time the average state employee used. ForTheRecord says: According to the most recent available U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, private sector workers took on average 2 to 5 sick days a year in 2009. Leisure and hospitality and construction workers took 2 sick days a year on average while education and health services workers took up to 5 sick days a year on average.

On Wednesday, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy hosted a forum at the Capitol to discuss the state's law on civil asset forfeiture and some of the glaring problems associated with it. Lee McGrath, legislative counsel for the Institute for Justice; Dan Korobkin, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan; and Rep. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) comprised the panel. Despite hailing from dramatically different political backgrounds, all three agreed on the problem facing Michigan citizens and the preferred method to solve it. McGrath opened the program by declaring, “To describe forfeiture is to condemn it.” Civil...

The Department of Justice is concentrating on “far-right” groups in a new study of social media usage aimed at combatting violent extremism. The Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) awarded Michigan State University $585,719 for the study, which was praised by Eric Holder, the former attorney general, earlier this year. “There is currently limited knowledge of the role of technology and computer mediated communications (CMCs), such as Facebook and Twitter, in the dissemination of messages that promote extremist agendas and radicalize individuals to violence,” according to the NIJ grant. “The proposed study will address this gap through a series...

The two things everyone knows about Ty Cobb are that he was a phenomenal baseball player and that he was the worst racist ever to play the game. But one of these things is mostly wrong. Cobb, the first player voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, the holder of more than 90 records upon his retirement and still the pace-setter with a .366 lifetime batting average, could be rude, but not nearly as nasty as you think. And far from being the most notorious racist in baseball history, he was an early and vocal supporter of integrating the big...

**SNIP** The 35-year-old Smith is charged with felonious assault, felony firearm, domestic violence assault and battery, and malicious destruction of personal property on accusations he fired as many as ten shots at ex-wife’s parked Mercedes-Benz during a domestic dispute early in the morning of Sunday, May 10, outside his Detroit home. While Smith has not been asked to resign, the leader of the Michigan Senate has said he should give “serious consideration” to whether or not he can still serve his constituents. In a statement out May 12, the day charges were filed against Smith, Republican Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof’s...

More than four years ago, Congress passed, and President Obama signed, the Patriot Sunsets Extension Act of 2011. Since that day, May 26, 2011, it’s been known that key provisions of our nation’s counterterrorism surveillance programs are set to expire this June 1. That is why Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and I worked diligently on a bipartisan and bicameral basis to produce the USA Freedom Act. As with any legislation, the USA Freedom Act is not perfect. It does end the bulk collection of phone records and other data by...

GENEVA (AP) - Switzerland approved on Friday the handover of bank documents to the United States on the source of a donation to a U.S.-based Islamic charity suspected of money laundering and recruiting terrorists over the Internet. The supreme court's decision allows Swiss authorities to override banking secrecy and provide documents, including those for a $300,000 transfer made May 14, 1998, from a Geneva bank to the Michigan-based Islamic Assembly of North America. The decision was in response to a February 2003 U.S. government request for judicial assistance in its investigation of the assembly and its Idaho-based Saudi computer expert...

For two decades the Mackinac Center for Public Policy has recommended repealing the state’s prevailing wage law. It is an expensive mandate that artificially raises the cost of state-funded construction projects. Bills to make prevailing wage an artifact of history have been adopted by the state Senate. Mackinac Center research suggests repeal will eventually free up money for more road, school and other government construction projects. It's an example of how not all reforms that impact the budget are actually "cuts." State prevailing wage laws mandate that construction projects funded by the state pay fabricated union scale wages. Our 2007...

MACKINAC ISLAND, MI -- Mike Rowe made dirty jobs look cool. Can he do the same for the tool and die industry? The state today at the Mackinac Policy Conference annouced a partnership with Rowe and his foundation, mikeroweWorks, to produce videos that show students skilled trades are sustainable, good career paths. Rowe's videos, targeted to middle and high school students, will highlight industries like tool and die, health care, construction and welding. "Closing the skills gap is not about creating opportunity. It's about making sure that people understand all of the opportunities that currently exist," Rowe said Wednesday. "Michigan...

A man was shot dead at a Detroit gas station late at night on Tuesday. The man was trying to flee a carjacking while he was filling up with gas. Video at https://youtu.be/sjzbu_t89E4Detroit Police Chief James Craig told reporters Tuesday he wouldn’t gas up in Detroit late at night unless he had to.