Free Republic

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...

THOMSON – Thomson prison is one small step closer to opening. Thursday, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved $166 million to reactivate Thomson and two other prisons, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-East Moline, said in a news release. In October, the federal government paid $165 million for the prison in Thomson, a town along the Mississippi River in Carroll County. The state built the 1,600-cell, maximum-security prison a decade ago, then decided it couldn't afford to run it. It had been looking for a buyer for years. The prison is expected to bring 1,100 jobs and...

A study from Ancestry.com has determined that President Obama is related to John Punch, the first black African enslaved for life in America--which would make Punch the 11th great-grandfather of Obama. The connection is made through Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunhan. The website's records say she had ancestors who were white landowners in Colonial Virginia who descended from an African man, Punch. According to the site's press release, Punch tried to escape indentured servitude in colonial Virginia in 1640 and was punished by becoming enslaved for life. The records show that Punch had children with a white woman, and her...

Ally, which is 74 percent owned by the U.S. government, makes loans to GM and Chrysler customers and finances dealer inventories. The government first bailed out the company, then known as GMAC Inc., in late 2008 as part of the Bush administration's aid to the auto industry. The Obama administration provided additional funding in May and December 2009. ResCap had been a drain on Ally's finances for years, struggling to make payments on its heavy debt ever since the bottom fell out of the U.S. housing market in 2007. In regulatory filings before the bankruptcy, Ally said that deterioration in...

The state with the highest racially charged search rate was West Virginia, where 41 percent of voters chose Keith Judd, a white man who is also a convicted felon currently in prison in Texas, over Obama just this May. Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Alabama, and New Jersey rounded out the top 10 most-racist areas, according to the search queries used. Even if states that are considered fairly liberal, racism is prevalent enough in certain areas to put the entire state high up on the list. "Other areas with high percentages included western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, upstate...

Terms of the five-year deal, announced in Shanghai on Thursday, were not disclosed. GM is hoping to piggyback on Manchester United's fan base of an estimated 659 million people to boost its Chevy brand, especially in such growing Asian car markets as China, where the soccer club has 108 million fans. "If our aspirations are to build global icon status for Chevrolet ... soccer far and away is the world's biggest sport," Paul Edwards, GM executive director of global marketing strategy, said in an interview. "Manchester United stands head and shoulders above the other teams in terms of scale, brand...

KABUL, Afghanistan – A suicide car bomber and Taliban militants disguised in burqas attacked a compound housing hundreds of foreigners in the Afghan capital on Wednesday, killing seven people, officials and witnesses said. The Taliban said the attack was a response to President Barack Obama's surprise visit just hours earlier. At least 17 people were also wounded in the assault, most of them Afghan children on their way to school, the Interior Ministry said. The second major assault in Kabul in less than three weeks, the attack highlights the Taliban's continued ability to strike in the heavily guarded capital even...

NEW YORK — Bank of America says it has begun a pilot program offering some of its mortgage customers who are facing foreclosure a chance to stay in their homes by becoming renters instead of owners. The "Mortgage to Lease" program, which was launched this week, will be available to fewer than 1,000 BofA customers selected by the bank in test markets in Arizona, Nevada and New York. Participants will transfer their home's title to the bank, which will then forgive the outstanding mortgage debt. In exchange, they will be able to lease their home for up to three years...

Volt Named 2011’s Collectible Car of Future Years from now General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Volt extended-range hybrid sedan will be the most desirable North American-made model from the 2011 model year, according to the Friends of the National Automotive History Collection in Detroit. The group names a future collectible each year. Past winners, which have all been domestic brand cars, include the Chevy Camaro (2010), Ford Flex (2009), Dodge Challenger (2008), Dodge Viper SRT10 (2007), Pontiac Solstice (2006), Ford Mustang (2005) and Chrysler 300 (2004). The honor was first bestowed on the Buick Riviera and Oldsmobile Aurora in 1995. The...