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BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - A jury has found an 18-year-old man not guilty of a crime for carrying a loaded M-1 rifle as he walked through the downtown of an affluent Detroit suburb.

The trial for Sean Combs, the 18-year-old from Troy found carrying a rifle through downtown Birmingham, begins today. Combs' trial begins at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in front of Judge Marc Barron at 48th District Court. Combs is charged with brandishing a firearm, disturbing the peace and obstructing an officer after an April 13 incident at the corner of Merrill and South Old Woodward. Combs was arrested around 10 p.m. after refusing to show police officers identification after they asked about the WWII-era M1 Garand .30-caliber rifle strapped to his back, police reports state. Under Michigan law, as an adult, Combs...

Despite the triple-digit heat, a small group of open carry advocates gathered Friday evening at Birmingham's Shain Park to support Sean Combs, the 18-year-old Troy resident who was arrested in April after he was found carrying a loaded rifle through downtown Birmingham. A similar group of open carry advocates also met at Shain Park on June 11 to support Combs, later attending the Monday night meeting of the Birmingham City Commission. Combs, who is heading to trial Monday following an evidentiary hearing on June 20 at the 48th District Court, was present at Friday's gathering along with his mother, brothers...

What does it mean to “brandish” a firearm? A Michigan jury will have to answer that question in next month’s trial of 18-year-old Sean Combs, who was arrested in April after being stopped by police while carrying a loaded M-1 Garand rifle strapped to his back. An armed Combs was walking with his girlfriend through downtown Birmingham, an affluent Detroit suburb with a popular nightlife district. It was about 10 p.m. on a Saturday and sidewalks were crowded when police spotted Combs and suspected him to be under 18 — too young to legally carry a gun. According to a...

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. - 18-year-old Troy teen Sean Combs An 18-year-old Troy teenager is heading to court as a poster boy for the fight over open carry gun rights in Michigan. Sean Combs, 18, of Troy, was arrested back in April after he was spotted with a loaded 1942 M-1 Garand military rifle slung across his back in downtown Birmingham. The legal question at this time is if what Combs did was allowed, because Michigan is an open carry state, or was he, as the police say, brandishing a firearm. Tonight, it will be up to a jury. A judge says...

Sean Combs, the Troy 18-year-old who was arrested in April after he was found carrying a loaded rifle in downtown Birmingham, will be back in court Wednesday for a hearing to determine whether charges of brandishing a firearm, disturbing the peace and obstructing an officer will move forward or be dismissed. Combs was arrested around 10 p.m. April 13 after he refused to show police officers his identification after they asked about the M1 Garande rifle strapped to his back, according to police reports. The rifle was loaded with one round in the chamber, police say. As an adult under...

Sean Michael Combs is probably like a lot of 18-year-old young men, except maybe for the M-1 rifle slung across his back. The Troy High School student was arrested April 13, according to the Detroit News, after strolling down the street in the Detroit suburb of Birmingham with the weapon strapped on his back. He now faces three misdemeanor charges, according to the newspaper, "for brandishing a weapon, resisting and obstructing police, and disturbing the peace - each punishable by up to 93 days in jail." After the arrest, Birmingham Police Chief Don Studt acknowledged Combs had a legal right...

Gun rights advocates attended a public meeting while openly carrying their firearms in order to express their support for a young man who was arrested for open carry. Sean CombsA few weeks ago, we featured this story about Sean Combs, a Michigan teen who was arrested by police because he was openly carrying an M1 Garand. Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which includes brandishing a firearm and obstructing an officer. And for those of you who aren’t fully up-to-date on Michigan carry laws, yes: it’s legal to openly carry a firearm. A few Michiganders made use of...

BIRMINGHAM, MICH. -- "Open Carry" advocates took to Monday's Birmingham City Council meeting with their guns displayed to support a high school student who was arrested for exercising his Second Amendment right. According to The Detroit News, 18-year-old Sean Combs was arrested in April for walking downtown with an M-1 rifle strapped to his back. Combs was charged with brandishing a weapon, resisting and obstructing police and disturbing the peace. Combs' supporters say the arrest was illegal because it violated his civil rights and the charges need to be dropped. "I'm in support of anyone who gets into trouble for...

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. - Gun carrying protestors let their voices be heard during a Birmingham City Commission meeting. A number of protestors came armed with AK-47’s, a variation of rifles and pistols during Monday night’s meeting. The advocates of Michigan’s open carry law attended the meeting to support a young man who was arrested for openly carrying a weapon. “We understand that it’s not something that’s apart of the public norm or something you see in everyday life, but there is not a law against it,” said open carry advocate Phillip Hofmeister. Sean Combs, 18, from Troy was arrested back in...

When Justin Combs turned 16, his father, hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, gave him a $360,000 silver Maybach. When Justin Combs decided to play football in college, UCLA gave him a $54,000 scholarship. As UCLA confirmed this week that the recent graduate of New York's New Rochelle Iona Prep would enroll on a full athletic scholarship, some questioned if the cash-strapped school should pay for the education of the son of a man worth an estimated $475 million — and whether the 18-year-old should have accepted the offer.

Anyone Know Why?

HOUSTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The Democratic candidate for Texas comptroller has ignited a passionate firestorm by calling his opponent's bodice-ripping romance novel "pornography." Fred Head, who the Houston Chronicle said was a long shot to beat Republican rival Susan Combs, has focused his campaign on her steamy 1990 novel, "A Perfect Match," which he says makes her support of abstinence education hypocritical. Romance novel writers, publishers and fans have flocked to Combs' defense and are vociferously attacking his portrayal of her as a "pornographic book writer," the Chronicle said. Combs, currently the state's agriculture commissioner, said she has been...

Brig. Gen. Obd al-Karim, commander of the 6th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi National Police Division, holds up a homemade grenade seized from an improvised explosive device facility during recent operations in the Al-Doura district of Baghdad as Col. Michael Beech, commander of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division looks on during a press conference to discuss Operation Together Forward. Story and photo by Sgt. Trevor Snyder124th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment BAGHDAD -- Iraqi and Coalition forces are systematically combing through businesses and homes in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Al-Doura as part of a continuing operation to stem the...

Assistant: Call to wife of Democrat not made on Strayhorn's behalf A top aide to Republican gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn called Democratic candidate Chris Bell's wife last week and suggested that Bell drop out of the governor's race and instead run for comptroller. Strayhorn spokesman Mark Sanders said he told Alison Bell that "there would be support for him" if Chris Bell ran to succeed Strayhorn as comptroller. Sanders said that he and Alison Bell have known each other since they worked on a campaign together 15 years ago and that he wanted to advise his longtime friends that...

U.S. Army Sgt. Joseph P. Hebert, a paratrooper with Company C, 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, searches a house in Zormat, Afghanistan, during Operation Nijmegan , Sept. 12, 2005. Operation Nijmegan was a joint operation conducted by Afghan National Army soldiers and U.S. Army paratroopers from 2nd Battalion. U.S. Army photo Joint U.S.-Afghan Patrol Combs Zormat Area Operation Nijmegan kicked off with a search of a village suspected to be housing an enemy organizer and ended with distribution of humanitarian assistance items. By U.S. Army Sgt. Chuck D. Meseke Combined Task Force Devil ZORMAT, Afghanistan, Oct. 6, 2005...

A few weeks ago, we introduced you to Brooklyn indie agit-popsters Kids Against Combs, who’d just finished an album that used the private phone number of Fox News loudmouth Sean Hannity as its title. (See "Combs Nail Hannity," This Just In, July 15.) Sean Hannity (631) 673-8003 was set to be released on July 21 by 10-34 Records. But, according to a press release sent out last week by the band, Kids Against Combs and 10-34 were issued papers on July 15 from Hannity’s attorneys, "threatening to sue both parties if they proceeded with releasing an album named after Hannity’s...

Combs gets seat on panel Monday, June 06, 2005 By Brian Wheeler A prominent Jackson Republican has landed a seat on an advisory group to the national party. A Republican National Committee spokesperson said the Rev. Ira Combs will sit on the new RNC African-American Advisory Committee. As the name indicates, the group of more than 50 people from around the country will offer counsel on how to build support among minority voters. Members are not compensated. "For a guy from Jackson that is involved in politics, this would be a pretty good opportunity to get involved in a committee...

Fonda flick doesn't fly in Hardin County By JOHN FRIEDLEIN The owner of Hardin County's two movie theaters is refusing to show the nation's top-grossing movie. Like many veterans, Ike Boutwell has an issue with "Monster-in-Law" star Jane Fonda. On the ticket window at the Elizabethtown Movie Palace is a sign that tells movie goers the cinema will not show the film because of what she did in Vietnam. Below the message are pictures of Fonda clapping with a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft crew in 1972. The sign on the marquee outside Showtime Cinemas in Radcliff reads: "No Jane Fonda movie...

May 14, 2005   Police: Sex offender boards bus for Denver  By Kelsey Warner Journal Staff Writer As of Wednesday morning Cortez was no longer home to James Scott Combs - a sexually violent predator who moved to the area in April. "He did board the bus," Lt. Darrell Hinton, of the Cortez Police Department, said. The bus, which departed from Durango, left at 8:20 a.m. and was bound for Denver. Combs, 44, was convicted in 1992 of four acts of gross sexual assault on a 10-year-old in Bangor, Maine. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for...