Free Republic

On July 4, 1960, the Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard rang in Independence Day with a dire Associated Press report by one Norma Gauhn headlined “American Dialects Disappearing.” The problem, according to “speech experts,” was the homogenizing effect of “mass communications, compulsory education, [and] the mobility of restless Americans.” These conformist pressures have only intensified in the half-century since the AP warned “that within four generations virtually all regional U.S. speech differences will be gone.” And so as we enter the predicted twilight of regional American English, it’s no surprise that publications as venerable as the Economist now confirm what our collective...

Michigan residents will likely be paying more for their electricity after a well-funded ballot initiative prompted the state’s largest utilities to adopt higher renewable energy usage. On Friday, DTE Energy and Consumers Energy — Michigan’s two biggest utility companies — announced a compromise with a ballot committee to dramatically increase their renewable portfolio standards. DTE and Consumers have agreed to establish a goal of at least 50 percent clean energy by 2030, which includes a pledge that 25 percent of their electricity sales originate from renewable sources by that same year. In return, Clean Energy, Healthy Michigan will essentially drop...

...James’ name has continued to gain national attention after receiving a long list of endorsements for his efforts to defeat Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, including National Security Adviser John Bolton, who endorsed James days before President Donald Trump appointed him to serve. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: John Bolton Endorses Michigan Army Veteran For US Senate) The Bolton endorsement came the same day the American Conservative Union, hosts of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) endorsed James. The GOP candidate was also endorsed by the Senate Conservatives Fund in late January. The former Navy SEAL involved in the raid that killed...

Says to GOP opponent: 'You may not hate Muslims, but Muslims definitely hate you!' Video @ link: Michigan's first-ever Muslim candidate for governor, Dr. Abdul al-Sayed, took a shot at fellow gubernatorial candidate Patrick Colbeck on Thursday that some Republicans are saying was below the belt. Colbeck, speaking at a candidate's forum in East Lansing, expressed his concerns about Sharia law and the extremist Muslim Brotherhood's tactic of civilization jihad. Colbeck took exception with an article he says was planted last month by Sayed supporters at the left-wing website Buzzfeed, which painted Colbeck as a fringe extremist using "unfounded conspiracy...

MACOMB TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Police looking for the remains of up to seven girls who have been missing for decades stopping digging Tuesday in suburban Detroit, suspending a multi-day effort while they decide whether to search elsewhere in Michigan or resume the excavation in roughly the same area. Authorities repeatedly have said they're confident they will solve the cold cases, raising the hopes of anxious family members who are desperate to learn what happened to their loved ones. The timeout could last a week, Warren Mayor James Fouts told The Associated Press. "I'm disappointed, obviously, there was not a...

SALINE, MI - A 47-year-old Adrian woman lost her job after police determined she put laxatives in a departing co-worker's going-away brownies. Police were called on May 3 to MMI Engineered Solutions, 1715 Woodland Drive in Saline, after the company received a tip from an employee that the woman planned to put laxatives in brownies she was bringing to a send-off for another worker, said Saline Police Chief Jerrod Hart. The company intervened, confiscated the suspect brownies and called police before the brownies could be eaten, Hart said. When interviewed by police, the 47-year-old initially denied putting laxatives in the...

A need that was identified years ago may soon be filled. Novi City Council has approved the conditional purchase and sale of a 10-acre property located along Grand River Avenue, just east of Town Center Drive and south of 11 Mile Road for $3.15 million. The developer, Sakura Novi LLC., an affiliate of Robert B. Aikens and Associates, plans to construct a $50 million Asian Village. The village, which will feature housing, restaurants, lifestyle services, retail and office space as well as a 25,000 square-foot Asian market and food-hall operated by Novi-based One World Market, will be a significant asset...

You know those stories that make you roll your eyes so far back in your head you think they might get stuck there? This hot mess from POLITICO is one of those stories:From POLITICO (sorry!): Maybe you’ve never heard of Hillsdale. Or maybe you hadn’t heard about the school before it precipitated a floor fight in the Senate during tax bill negotiations last fall. But the tiny Christian college with a graduate school in statesmanship, a strong conservative bent and roots in an anti-slavery Baptist church, has long been a treasured institution in right-of-center circles—known for its required classical liberal...

A Republican lawmaker wants answers from the Department of Agriculture about taxpayer-funded research experiments at a Maryland facility that have allegedly led to the deaths of hundreds of cats and kittens. Citing documents reviewed by his office, Michigan Republican Mike Bishop described a decades-old research project at the USDA's Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, in which hundreds of kittens are bred, fed meat that is infected with Toxoplasma, and later killed and discarded by "incineration." In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue dated Monday, Bishop wrote that he was "shocked to hear that the USDA, the very...

Public schools need more truth, not less.The aftermath of my recent life-affirming presentation at Vicksburg High School in Michigan showed that some leaders don’t believe honesty is the best policy. Despite some incredible feedback from students, parents and even teachers, the school decided to cower to a vocal minority of students and parents who detest who I am. Contrary to the school district’s dishonest public statement, it wasn’t what was said at the assembly that caused the negative reaction. It was that some, who took to social media to protest me, discovered (gasp!) that I’m a Christian with a Biblical worldview...

The Conyers family power struggle intensified Thursday as Ian Conyers, the great nephew of disgraced former Rep. John Conyers Jr., took steps to boot the ex-congressman’s son John Conyers III from the ballot in the race to replace him. John Conyers III should be kicked from the ballot because he did not collect the requisite 1,000 valid signatures to run for his father’s old seat in Michigan’s 13th District, the formal challenge filed by an attorney for Ian Conyers asserts. The challenge urges officials to throw out 617 of the 1,240 signatures on John Conyers III’s filing petition because because...

Detroit hip-hop station 105.1 The Bounce says it's pulling Kanye West songs off of its Morning Bounce playlist following a recent string of erratic episodes from the rapper, including West saying he believes slavery was a "choice." The station made the announcement on its Facebook page on Thursday morning. "We feel like Kanye has gone too far with his latest statement declaring that 'slavery was a choice.' We are over it," the station wrote on Facebook. "We don't want to hear Kanye's music, we don't want to play Kanye on our show, we don't want to talk about Kanye anymore....

If only there were a prize for moronic ideas. An apple-polishing group of 18 Republican members of Congress signed a letter Wednesday addressed to the Nobel Prize committee recommending President Trump for the Peace Prize, the most coveted human rights honor in the world. The tuchus-smooching letter was penned by Indiana Rep. Luke Messer, who badly needs Trump's support in a tight upcoming election. The Midwestern pol gushed over what he and his colleagues see as the President's diplomacy, and others see as threats and war-mongering, to get North and South Korea to sit down and talk peace. "Since taking...

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a case in which a Michigan township changed its zoning laws to prevent a Christian school from entering the community. “This is a deeply disappointing decision, not only because of what it means for our clients, but because it will embolden other cities and towns across the country to keep religious organizations from contributing to their community,” said Hiram Sasser, general counsel to First Liberty, which represents Livingston Christian Schoolin the case against Genoa Charter Township. “We are extremely disappointed the Supreme Court will allow this terrible precedent to stand.” For a case...

On April 24, the web site Buzzfeed published a commentary piece masquerading as a news story entitled “A Republican Running For Governor In Michigan Is Using Unfounded Conspiracy Theories Against A Muslim American Rival.” That article focused on the controversy brewing in Michigan between gubernatorial candidates Patrick Colbeck and Abdul El-Sayed. Politics aside, there is one passage in the Buzzfeed article that simply cannot go unchallenged because it echoes the worst kind of disinformation from the global Jihadist movement:

How Democrats Suppressed the #MeToo Movement in the Party Threats, blacklisting and sex scandals in the feminist party. April 27, 2018 Daniel Greenfield aniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism. A funny thing happened to the #MeToo movement in the Democrat Party. While #MeToo burned a fiery trail through the media, leaving behind the wrecked careers of top talent, after suffering some initial losses, the Democrats built a firewall by ruthlessly targeting activists. Their approach was eerily similar to that of Harvey Weinstein....

Recent news reports about the exposure of Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s possible ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and the biased–even corrupt–attacks by the so-called “mainstream” media on State Senator Patrick Colbeck for bringing the issue up, should pique the curiosity of every American who has an interest in the security and sanctity of our nation, our rule of law and our culture. Without delving into the political battle raging in Michigan, I feel compelled to clear the air about one particular Muslim Brotherhood organization of which El-Sayed was not just affiliated, but of which he was a leader:...

“I will never sign another bill like this again,” President Trump said after signing last month’s 2,232-page, $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill. President Trump is right. The omnibus bill Congress passed this March betrayed everything for which conservatives stand.Not only did it bust the spending caps conservatives worked so hard to secure in 2011 by more than $250 billion, but it also failed to build the border wall President Trump promised during his campaign. The bill also included language limiting the ability of federal law enforcement officers to enforce our nation’s immigration laws. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi identified...

We have to have borders, and we have to have them fast, and we need security, we need the wall – we’re going to have it all…and if we don’t get border security, we’ll have no choice: We’ll close down the country.

"The good thing about the caravan. People are watching. They are coming in from Honduras. They are coming in from other places. They are taking this long trek up Mexico. We want Mexico to help us and we have to demand it. But Mexico is going to help us. But there are hundreds of people out of 2,000. Our laws are so corrupt and stupid, I call them the dumbest immigration laws on Earth. If a person puts their foot over the line, we have to take them into our country. We have to register them. We then have to...