Free Republic

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder will drink Flint water at home and at work for at least a month to show to residents it is safe with the use of a faucet filter, he said Monday. The Republican governor, who has apologized for his administration's role in the city's lead-tainted water crisis, visited a house that had been confirmed to have high levels of lead and left with five gallons of filtered water. He said he understands people feel that if officials say the water is OK, then he should drink it, too. "What better way to...

The chair of the Michigan Republican Party has pledged to vote for Donald Trump at the Party's National Convention. She also happens to be the niece of one of the GOP's most prominent Trump critics -- Mitt Romney. Ronna Romney McDaniel said she hasn't spoken with the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican nominee about her decision.

A member of the House Armed Services Committee wants an explanation for why the next Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer will be named for a politician instead of a war hero. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican from California and a Marine Corps veteran, sent a letter to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus Wednesday, asking him to explain his decision to name DDG-120 after former Sen. Carl Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, who retired last January after 36 years in office. The letter was first reported by Defense News. Hunter cited July 2012 Congressional Research Service report to Congress that showed that destroyers...

Critics are nearly unanimous: The movie "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice" is a dog. That didn’t prevent the producers from grossing $193.2 million within four days of its March 25 release date, according to Box Office Mojo. The movie review website Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 29 percent rating, which is the same score given to “Dumb and Dumber To” (that's not a typo) and “Grudge Match” — a boxing movie featuring the fight between then 67-year-old Sylvester Stallone and 70-year-old Robert DeNiro. ForTheRecord says: The Michigan film office granted the production company a $35 million taxpayer subsidy in...

The Detroit News reported that the whistleblower who brought the Flint water crisis to light had earlier sent an email claiming that the city's response to the lead contamination of residents "borders on criminal neglect." The June 25, 2015, email from U.S. EPA employee Miguel Del Toral email read in part: "They have had no corrosion control treatment in place for over a year now and they have lead service lines. It’s just basic chemistry on lead solubility. You will have high lead leaching into the water where you are doing nothing to mitigate that.” “The only reason we don’t...

SAGINAW, MI — A transgender adjunct professor at Saginaw Valley State University has filed a federal lawsuit against the school that alleges she was fired from her administrative position because of her gender transition. . . . Davenport, who began presenting as a female in March 2014, still remains an adjunct English professor at the university in Saginaw County, she also served as the assistant to the director of Academic Programs Support until December 2013, when university officials eliminated that position, "allegedly for budgetary reasons," the lawsuit claims. . . . Davenport, a Hazel Park resident, alleges violations of Title...

While the tactics of chief Donald Trump rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)97% to win delegates without voters come under intense scrutiny, a quiet, thus-far-little-focused-on development has occurred that could provide a ray of hope for the Trump team fighting political insiders on their home turf. Paul Manafort, Trump’s new Republican National Convention manager, just delivered not only a big win in Michigan’s delegate game: He undercut Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) by throwing a separate victory to Ohio Gov. John Kasich. CNN reported on Saturday evening: Ted Cruz suffered a rare convention loss Saturday after delegates backing John Kasich and Donald...

Over the weekend, Kasich’s campaign teamed up with Trump’s operation in Michigan to help Trump delegates gobble up convention committee posts that would otherwise have gone to Cruz. While the effects of the Michigan deal may be marginal, it was the best evidence yet that Team Kasich is more comfortable with a Trump nomination than a Cruz one. The Kasich campaign defended aiding Trump on the grounds that Cruz deserved it as a punishment for trying to scoop up too many delegates. But whether it was bad blood, pique or part of a larger strategy, Kasich’s part in any anti-Trump...

ESCANABA, Mich. — An Upper Peninsula cake decorator is in hot water with several Facebook users as a controversial post slowly catching viral waves makes its way through the social network. A recent status update by Bake It U.P. Cakes explains that the business denied services to a same-sex couple after it was commissioned to decorate a cake for an upcoming wedding. The decorator was unaware it was for a same-sex couple, and as soon as she found out, the business backed out of the transaction. The post states, "This has nothing to do with the person, or the lifestyle...

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, with the help of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, prevented Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) from slating his preferred delegates in Michigan over the weekend. “The Texas senator’s campaign ran eight delegates for eight committee spots and lost every one, alleging it was “double-crossed” by Kasich supporters,” CNN reports. “The Michigan delegation picked one Trump supporter, Matt Hall, and one Kasich supporter, Judi Schwalbach, for the two seats on the powerful rules committee. The Cruz campaign lost votes for both seats.” This maneuvering becomes important if no candidate reaches the 1,237 delegate threshold to clinch the nomination on...

It looks like Ted is getting a taste of his own medicine. CNN reports from Lansing, Michigan; Ted Cruz suffered a rare convention loss Saturday after delegates backing John Kasich and Donald Trump boxed him out of key positions in the Michigan delegation. The Texas senator’s campaign ran eight delegates for eight committee spots and lost every one, alleging it was “double-crossed” by Kasich supporters. The Michigan delegation picked one Trump supporter, Matt Hall, and one Kasich supporter, Judi Schwalbach, for the two seats on the powerful rules committee. The Cruz campaign lost votes for both seats. The rules committee...

<p>Ted Cruz suffered a rare convention loss Saturday after delegates backing John Kasich and Donald Trump boxed him out of key positions in the Michigan delegation.</p> <p>The Texas senator's campaign ran eight delegates for eight committee spots and lost every one, alleging it was "double-crossed" by Kasich supporters.</p>

About 400 years ago, a throng of dusty workmen laid down their shovels and huddled around an ancient painted wall -- a fresco, technically -- unearthed in a tunnel near Italy's Bay of Naples. The men were at work on a massive construction project, burrowing through a hill to build a canal for a local armament factory and mill. No one expected to find fine art. But as the workmen dug deeper into the hill, they encountered wonder upon wonder -- house walls painted blood red and sunflower yellow, fragments of carved inscriptions, pieces of Roman statues. The architect supervising...

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today announced he is filing a lawsuit in Wayne County to shut down the Summit Women’s Center, an abortion clinic located at 15801 W. McNichols Rd. in Detroit, for illegally operating. To protect the public, state law requires that medical and other professional services be provided through corporations owned by licensed professionals. Regarding the practice of medicine, this ensures that doctors direct care and supervise medical services. The law also mandates that the corporation is liable for negligence or misconduct in professional services it provides. Summit Women’s Center provides medical services through Summit of Detroit,...

Tumbling sales of Fiat Chrysler’s main midsize car have driven the company to indefinitely lay off 1,300 employees at a Detroit-area factory. Workers on the second shift at Fiat Chrysler’s assembly plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, will be furloughed starting July 5 as the slow-selling Chrysler 200 has started to stack up on dealer lots. Sales of the cars were down 61 percent through March, and inventory grew to a 150-day supply, according to Ward’s Automotive. Automakers consider 60 days to be optimal to give dealers enough of a selection for customers. Fiat Chrysler sold only 7,500 of the cars...

The University of Michigan is one of our nation’s premier institutions of higher learning. Young people from all over the country move to Ann Arbor every year to obtain an education, and to have their ideas challenged by exposure to fellow students from many walks of life. Or maybe not. Last Thursday afternoon a number of anonymous chalk messages appeared on campus. But because these chalk messages read “#Stop Islam” and “Trump 2016,” these innocuous messages elicited 911 calls and apology from the president of the university. Apparently such statements constitute “hate speech.”

A study published by the University of Michigan claims that the state's decision to hire a nonunion contractor to run prison cafeterias led to gangs. But the report’s methodology allowed a labor union critical of privatization to hand-pick which prison guards participated in focus groups that the author used as a foundation for his report. According to the report, "The Michigan Corrections Officers recruited participants, arranged interview locations, and reimbursed participants for travel." Roland Zullo wrote the publication for the Institute for Research on Labor, Employment, and the Economy at the University of Michigan. It concluded that the contractor's employees...

I have a close friend, Mark, who was born in Scotland and has lived in England since he was ten years old and he has shared with me how Muslims are steadily destroying his country.Over twenty years ago, a large number of Muslims, many from Albania, began immigrating to England. Many of them stuck together, moving into the same cities, just like they are doing here in the US.The Muslims claimed that they had no intention of changing English culture or laws. Yet, Mark told me that as their numbers grew in some of the cities, they wasted little time...

A hungry squirrel in Michigan was caught on camera taking a cue from a famous New York subway rat by taking a slice of pizza and carrying it up a tree. The video posted to YouTube by Chris Weeden shows the squirrel dragging a slice of pizza on the ground near a tree while the people filming from inside a nearby building provide commentary. The people sound surprised as the squirrel is able to climb the tree while holding the slice of pizza and makes it to a high branch. The squirrel evoked memories of New York's famous "Pizza Rat,"...

Five individuals who have donated to Democratic politicians pleaded guilty to a scheme that drained Medicare out of $33 million dollars. Two physicians and three owners of hospice and home care companies based out of Detroit, Mich., were charged on June 18, 2015 as part of the largest Medicare fraud case in history for submitting fraudulent claims for home health care and hospice services that were either not provided or deemed medically unnecessary.The elaborate operation revolved around Muhammad Tariq, Shahid Tahir, and Manawar Javed—the owners of the home health care and hospice companies—paying kickbacks and bribes to physicians for referrals...