Free Republic

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Many patients stop taking their medicine far sooner than they should, researchers say, and that decision can be deadly when the drugs treat heart disease or diabetes. It took only one month after leaving the hospital for 1 out of 8 heart attack patients to quit taking the lifesaving drugs prescribed to them, a study of 1,521 patients found. "One month is very surprising," said study co-author Dr. Michael Ho of the Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The heart patients who stopped taking three proven drugs _ aspirin, beta blockers and statins -- were three times...

Candice Miller announced earlier this week she would run in 2006 for another term in Congress rather than jump into the governor's race, but a recent poll suggests she would have been a strong opponent to Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The poll conducted Aug. 2 through Tuesday and released Thursday by Lansing-based EPIC/MRA shows the former Michigan secretary of state easily outdistancing Ada businessman Dick DeVos in a GOP gubernatorial primary. It also shows that Miller at this point would pose much more of a threat to the Democratic governor, with 47 choosing Granholm and 45 percent Miller in a...

AUSTIN, Texas -- With one high-flying display of muscle and moxie, Maurice Ager and the Michigan State Spartans put the exclamation point on their bruising run through the NCAA Tournament. Taking a pass from Alan Anderson on a fast break in the second half, Ager took one step and leaped high over Duke's J.J. Redick before hammering down a spectacular tomahawk dunk. He then pounded his chest with his fist. The jam and Ager's emotional outburst were indicative of the Spartans' rugged 78-68 win over the top-seeded Blue Devils in the Austin Regional on Friday night. The fifth-seeded Spartans (25-6)...

LANSING - The living will, held out as the blessed escape hatch for avoiding the kind of battle being fought over Terri Schiavo, is the last place you should be looking for refuge, University of Michigan researchers say. Unless you're close to death and know what medical choices you'll be facing, anticipating some hypothetical future is almost impossible, said Angela Fagerlin, research scientist with the University of Michigan Medical School and Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System. "People have a really difficult time predicting their preferences," Fagerlin said. "And 30 percent of preferences change in as little as a year....

If a man relieves his bladder in the deep woods in the dark of night, when he thinks there's no one around, is it still indecent exposure? And does it give law officers a reason to search his car? No, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge David M. Lawson has thrown out evidence in a federal case against Donald Whitmore, 50, of Mio. The judge ruled that a forest ranger did not have just cause to search the vehicle Whitmore was driving even though she "observed the defendant answering an urgent call of nature, alfresco."

<p>Democrats are so confident that Big Labor is in their pocket they often forget what it is unions need most -- jobs.</p> <p>Sometimes even labor leaders forget that, as they blindly sign on to a job-killing agenda of high taxes, big spending and excessive regulation.</p>

<p>LANSING - The incoming chair of the Michigan Democratic Party called on Attorney General Michael Cox to resign Friday for declining Gov. Jennifer Granholm's request to represent her in the University of Michigan affirmative action case.</p> <p>Detroit lawyer Melvin ``Butch'' Hollowell said Cox's refusal to file a brief requested by Granholm was inexcusable and unprecedented. The attorney general is required to represent the governor, and if Cox disagrees he should give up the job, Hollowell said.</p>

<p>WINDSOR -- In his first gambling experience, Constantin Digalakis amassed more than $10,900 in winnings over two days at Casino Windsor, a Canadian gambling parlor only minutes from downtown Detroit. On the third day of his 1997 spree, however, he lost it all, plus an additional $6,400.</p>

<p>"California's secretary of state plans to file a friend-of-the-court brief on the issue Friday, said Beth Miller, a spokeswoman for Republican Bill Jones. He is "very concerned about the potential precedence it could set in terms of federal elections in California," she said. "</p>

<p>Three Pontiac men took the law -- and a blistering hot metal spatula -- into their hands when they learned a neighbor had been regularly sodomizing his 7- and 10-year-old nephews.</p> <p>Two of the men held down the uncle while the third pressed the smoking spatula on his genitals, buttocks, stomach and legs. They paused only long enough to reheat the spatula on the kitchen stove for repeated branding before tossing the uncle out onto the sidewalk, breaking his arm.</p>

<p>Since the act of eating a fast-food cheeseburger involves a series of voluntary behaviors -- you must decide you want McDonald's, you must go there, you must take money from your pocket and you must lift the burger to your lips -- it's hard to see how anything that comes from eating that cheeseburger could be someone else's fault.</p>

<p>State Rep. William Callahan stirred up a firestorm of controversy Monday by pointing to U.S. Rep. Sander Levin's religious affiliation as a reason Levin should not be re-elected.</p> <p>Callahan and Levin are running against each other in the Aug. 6 Democratic primary for a new district made up largely of Macomb County.</p>

<p>COMMERCE TOWNSHIP -- When Gordon Traskos unpacks his concession trailer -- where he serves pickles, hot dogs, hamburgers and fresh-squeezed lemonade -- he is also packing heat now. Traskos, 66, carries his .45-caliber Kimber with him on most days -- not because he feels unsafe, but because he feels safer with it, he said. "I don't feel uncomfortable if I'm not carrying it," said the semi-retired manager of a family-owned hardware store. "I just like being able to have it when I want."</p>

<p>He gets good grades, runs track in middle school, and zooms around on a skateboard. He wolfs down his food and drinks a gallon of milk a day. He's a typical, healthy 14-year-old, everybody says.</p> <p>Everybody, that is, except his mother.</p>

This is the second TV ad the RNC has used in the last few weeks in Georgia. It appears that the Republicans are targeting Clevland hard for a senate seat pickup. Here is the other: http://www.georgiavalues.com/moreabout/NRSC_GA_01.mpg

<p>About 100 people marched through downtown Ferndale on Sunday morning in a Straight Pride Parade, billed as a celebration of the heterosexual lifestyle.</p> <p>The parade was organized by talk-radio hosts Kramer and Twitch of WKRK-FM as a tongue-in-cheek event in a community that recently hosted more than 15,000 people for a gay-pride gathering. Organizers could not be reached for comment.</p>

FERNDALE - A parade where at least 200 people are expected to display pride in their heterosexuality is set to roll along Nine Mile on Sunday. The City Council on Monday approved a request from talk radio station WKRK-FM 97.1 to conduct the parade, which runs from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. from Paxton to City Hall. The council unanimously approved the radio station's request although one city official expressed some misgivings. "I'm somewhat skeptical," said Councilman Dave Lennon, "that Ferndale may be used as a stage for a cheap publicity stunt." Joel Morgan, promotions director for the station, explained...

When I was in high school I used to be terrified of my girlfriend's father, who I believe suspected me of wanting to place my hands on his daughter's chest. He would open the door and immediately affect a good-naturedly murderous expression, holding out a handshake that, when gripped, felt like it could squeeze carbon into diamonds. Now, years later, it is my turn to be the dad. Remembering how unfairly persecuted I felt when I would pick up my dates, I do my best to make my daughter's suitors feel even worse. My motto: wilt them in the living...

<p>Michigan voters would choose any of the three Democratic candidates for governor over Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus if the election were held today, a new poll shows, but there are encouraging signs for the Republican.</p> <p>Posthumus, the favorite to win the GOP nomination, slightly narrowed the gap between himself and the top two Democrats -- Attorney General Jennifer Granholm and former Gov. James Blanchard -- and more voters are undecided than in a similar poll in January.</p>

Apparently this is, or has, started to run in Georgia. What do you think? I haven't seen recent polling data from this race, maybe someone knows.