Free Republic

Every failing city in America follows the old Detroit playbook. The only thing better than learning from your own mistakes is learning from someone else’s. Unfortunately, today’s urban leaders haven’t been paying attention. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, New York, and other cities could have avoided their current dire conditions if only they had heeded the lessons of Detroit. In 1950 the Motor City was home to nearly two million people and built half the cars in the world. Today two-thirds of those people are gone and its auto industry is a shell of its former self. After decades...

In the seventh century BCE, the Greek poet Homer wrote the Odyssey. This fascinating tale of adventure and loss would captivate readers for centuries, even millennia. It tells the story of Odysseus attempting to travel home after the Trojan War. One of the most intriguing things about this lengthy poem is that there is significant controversy surrounding the locations mentioned throughout. Based on the best available evidence, where did Odysseus really travel to in the Odyssey? Does the Odyssey take place all over the Mediterranean? The most common belief is that the Odyssey takes place over a very large area....

A federal judge has sentenced former Detroit Riverfront Conservancy CFO William Smith to 19 years in federal prison for embezzling more than $44 million from the nonprofit over more than a decade. The judge also ordered him to pay more than $48 million in restitution. The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy released a statement after the sentencing. It reads: "Today, we move forward to a bright future. We are incredibly grateful to U.S. District Judge Susan DeClercq for imposing a sentence commensurate the damage Will Smith inflicted on the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and its community of visitors, donors, and supporters. The U.S....

A glamorous city known for sprawling mansions, boutique shops and glamor is at risk of becoming 'the next Detroit,' according to experts. Los Angeles is being rocked by an exodus of big budget TV and film production companies — long considered the backbone of the local economy. Detroit was once the center of America's auto production, but fell into decline when factories began to shut, triggering a major housing crisis. Now, some fear LA faces a similar threat. FilmLA reports that on-location production in the city fell by 22.4 percent in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same...

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Two brothers are in critical condition, and at least three other family members were shot after an altercation at a house in the 14500 block of Sussex Street in Detroit on Saturday afternoon. Assistant Chief Charles Fitzgerald of the Detroit Police Department said that two brothers were arguing over a family matter, when they got into a fight. A family member who called FOX 2 said that the two brothers were fighting over something to do with their mother, who had died earlier in the day. Fitzgerald said that during a fight, the gun fell out...

The Hamtramck clerk alleged pervasive ballot trafficking in the city’s elections. Meanwhile, Michigan’s AG met with a fraud suspect. Voter fraud has been taking place in the Detroit-area suburb of Hamtramck “for years,” potentially affecting “hundreds of ballots,” the city clerk told The Federalist. She wrote Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel weeks ago imploring action, but heard “nothing” in response. “That’s the only thing I can do, since there’s nobody else that helps me put a stop to them breaking the law,” Hamtramck City Clerk Rana Faraj told The Federalist. “It’s been ongoing for years, and nobody does anything about...

Following efforts with our interagency partners, I can report that a career Director level employee at US Customs and Border Protection has been charged with allegedly attempting to defraud FEMA, as well as lying to federal agents.. This is part of the new FBI’s renewed efforts to crack down on public corruption and deliver accountability for the American people. Justice will be done. Thanks to our partners @AGPamBondi @TheJusticeDept and our @FBIDetroit team for their work.

Christmas 2009, 23 year old Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a plane heading from the Netherlands to Detroit Michigan. He was not successful. Philip Haney was a founding member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2002, serving as a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer. Fluent in Arabic and knowledgeable about Islamic culture, he played a significant role in identifying potential terrorist threats. He left DHS after 15 years and became a whistleblower. In an article he wrote for The Hill, he stated that the Obama administration had forced him to remove raw intelligence data...

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced he would not fight the Trump administration’s campaign to deport illegal immigrants. During the 2025 Detroit Policy Conference, Duggan said that while he supported lawful immigration, the city would not resist Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ efforts to remove people in the United States illegally. “Detroit is not a sanctuary city,” Duggan said. “We are a welcoming city. A welcoming city means if you are in this country lawfully as an immigrant, we encourage you to come here. We support your success. If you are in this country illegally, we should not be shielding you...

Donald Trump has been president for three days and one of the big automakers, Stellantis, is already announcing the reopening of a plant in Illinois which will make new Durango trucks in Detroit. This is not a coincidence. This is what happens when the United States has a leader who cares about American jobs and building products in America. This is also a reminder of why so many American union members backed Trump in the 2024 election, even though union leaders backed Kamala Harris. Do you think this plant would be reopening if Harris had won? Yahoo Finance reports: Stellantis...

Black fellow just prayed that amazing emotional prayer. I did not catch his name. Very earnest.

Berry Gordy’s record label used the ‘sound of young America’ to bring people togetherOn January 12, 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. started Tamla Records with the help of an $800 loan from his family, starting a journey that would forever change the music industry. The following year, it merged into Motown Record Corporation. For Gordy, starting his own label was the product of a longtime love of music. When he returned from Army service in 1953, he opened a short-lived record store in Detroit. Later, to amuse himself on the Ford assembly line, Gordy would make up songs. Eventually, he found...

The same conditions that allowed rape gangs to run rampant in the U.K. are already in place in some U.S. jurisdictions.The United Kingdom’s “grooming gangs” scandal has reentered the public spotlight, largely thanks to X posts by Elon Musk showcasing court transcripts.They detail how groups of men, mainly Pakistani Muslims, groomed and raped thousands of English girls across the country over a decades-long period. The simultaneously infuriating and blood-curdling descriptions of the violations those girls suffered are only compounded by the British authorities’ complicity in and cover-up of the abuse.The first reports on these crimes came out in the early...

No one yet has the full story on the infamous June 29 Northwest Airlines Flight #327 from Detroit to Los Angeles, on which thirteen Syrian musicians acted so suspiciously that passenger and WomensWallStreet.com writer Annie Jacobsen feared she was about to be killed by terrorists. The identity of the band remained unknown for a while until I identified them as the backup band for Canaanite crooner Nour Mehana, whom I dubbed the "Syrian Wayne Newton." Regardless of the behavior of Nour Mehana's band, Ms. Jacobsen's story has focused international attention on the very serious issue of terrorists sizing up our...

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, a longtime Democrat, says he will run for Michigan governor as an independent in 2026. “It’s clear to me that there are a lot of people in this country who are tired of both parties and tired of the system," Duggan said in an interview Tuesday. “And so I want to offer people a choice.” Duggan, 66, is credited by many for leading Detroit after it emerged from bankruptcy to become a thriving, more vibrant city. He formally announced his intentions in a video released Wednesday morning but discussed his future before that with The Associated...

Lions running back David Montgomery has revealed how he overcame his dark thoughts. Montgomery said he was overwhelmed with stress and had suicidal thoughts when he was a rookie on the Bears in 2019, with fantasy football managers contributing to the situation. “When I was a rookie, I had a real, real stressful time in the league,” Montgomery said on Sports Illustrated’s “Fantasy Dirt” podcast with Michael Fabiano and Lindsay Rhodes. “I was at a point where I would have this suicidal thought and it just a depressing and a scary year for me. And unfortunately, fantasy, the people in...

The founder of Motown Records was born in the city he helped make synonymous with soulfulness, DetroitA company that was started with a loan of $800 went on to help shape the sound of the 20th century. We could only be talking about Motown Records, founded on January 12, 1959 by Berry Gordy Jr, who was born in the city he helped make synonymous with soulfulness, Detroit, on November 28, 1929. Unfailingly spritely, just ahead of his 90th birthday, Gordy announced his retirement at the Hitsville Honours ceremony, safe in the knowledge that his achievements will last forever. Gordy built...

Drop all charges against J6 defendants and Free all J6 prisoners on DAY 1.

A federal jury in Detroit awarded more than $12 million Friday to a former Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) employee who was terminated after declining to get a COVID-19 vaccination, citing religious discrimination. According to the verdict form, Lisa Domski, who worked at the insurance company for more than 30 years as an IT specialist, received $10 million in punitive damages against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. The jury also awarded her approximately $1.7 million in lost wages and $1 million in noneconomic damages. Domski claimed she was a victim of religious discrimination after the company denied...

Police reportedly could not stop laughing at the slapstick security footageDetroit is a world-class city with some F-tier criminals. Several of these criminals went to great lengths this week to steal a single catalytic converter from a used car lot and gained themselves a ton of embarrassment in the process. It took three thieves to pull of this grand caper at Govanni Used Cars on Thursday. One to drive the getaway vehicle into a pole, one to use a sawzall to cut through the gate lock and snag a single catalytic converter and another to fall out of said getaway...