Free Republic

The city of Kalamazoo, Michigan has now decriminalized public urination, defecation, and littering to be more “equitable.” Small business owners in the area had voiced their opposition to the effort, but their concerns were ignored. ......snip...... Kalamazoo Mayor David Anderson said that decriminalizing these offenses will help the city be more “equitable.” City Commissioner Chris Praedel said pretty much the same thing, according to a report from Fox 17, that it is “fair and equitable to who these laws were most affecting, the unhoused population, as well as provide a better solution for those trying to get on their feet.”...

WR Phillip Blanks dives to catch a 3-year old boy dropped from a burning, 3rd floor Phoenix apartment. I just spoke to the former Marine who says he was “put on this earth to protect people.” KALAMAZOO — Catching a child who was dropped from a burning building was just Phillip Blanks doing his job. The retired U.S. Marine and former football player at Kalamazoo Central High School doesn’t want special recognition for helping save a 3-year-old boy from an apartment fire in Phoenix, Arizona. Blanks, a body guard today, said protecting others is just part of his job. Blanks...

Phillip Blanks, 28, ran to the home in Phoenix on July 3 barefoot to try and help He was able to save Jameson Long from the flames on the third floor balcony 'There wasn't much thinking. I just reacted. I just did it', he said Wednesday Blanks, who now works in the security industry, is a former wide receiver and said the boy was 'twirling in the air like a propeller' as he fell 'I know how to catch. I've learned how to catch a football', he added The boy's mother Rachel, 30, died in the blaze; Blanks said: 'She's...

KENT COUNTY, Mich. — Subtlety was never the intent of the wedding decor for Audra and Jeff Johnson's nuptials. The couple married on July 4th in Kalamazoo, surrounded by friends and family donned in "Make America Great Again" hats. “It looked like America threw up all over my wedding and I’m not sorry," bride Audra Johnson told WXMI. Johnson says in addition to celebrating their love, she and her husband decided to use their wedding day as an opportunity to celebrate President Donald Trump. No detail was overlooked, down to the groomsmen's 'don't tread on me' cuff links. Each reception...

... Yet city leaders have found the benefits of the Kalamazoo Promise, as the free college plan is known, go only so far. Just 38% of students who finished high school between 2006 and 2012 earned a college degree or certificate, according to the Upjohn Institute, a nonprofit research center that has studied the program. This was up only slightly from the 34% average for the three years before the program existed. Among black students, just 23% from the classes of 2006 through 2012 earned a college credential, compared with 22% before the program. The percentage of Kalamazoo residents living...

SAGINAW, MI – When police executed search warrants at three Catholic Diocese of Saginaw properties last year during an investigation into claims of sexual abuse of minors, documents show they seized nearly 60 items of evidence. Among them, located in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet at diocese headquarters, was a file labeled “victim list.” That information is contained in search warrant paperwork detailing what police seized during the March 2018 raid. The paperwork was recently unsealed and copies were obtained by MLive and The Saginaw News. The list of confiscated property shows investigators took 57 items during the...

All Steve and Bridget Tennes want is to sell their apples, peaches and blueberries at a Michigan farmers’ market without being required to get into the gay-wedding business, and they’re hoping for an assist from Colorado baker Jack Phillips. The Tenneses, who make their home on the Country Mill Farm with their six children, contend that their Catholic faith has been maligned by East Lansing officials who have sought to bar them from the farmers’ market over the couple’s refusal to host same-sex ceremonies on their property. That’s where Mr. Phillips comes in. It was the state’s animus toward the...

In San Francisco, there is an an 800-ton monument that retells California history, from the Spanish missions to American settlement. Several bronze sculptures and relief plaques depict American Indians, white miners, missionaries and settlers. A female figure symbolizing white culture stands atop a massive stone pillar. The design of the “pioneer monument” was celebrated in newspapers across the country when it was erected in 1894. Today, however, apctivists argue that the monument – particularly its depiction of a Spanish missionary and Mexican “vaquero,” or cowboy, towering over an American Indian – is demeaning to American Indians. Should the city take...

A Kalamazoo mother says her daughter has been isolated and bullied all because her father followed the law. As Newschannel 3 reported, the KRESA West Campus was locked down after the father of a 4-year-old legally open carried his gun on campus. Now, the man's wife is speaking out for the first time about the ramifications of that decision. The mother says her daughter refuses to go back to the music class, because she's alone. All of the students have been transferred to another class on a different campus. The mom says her husband just wants to protect his daughter,...

The 911 calls and arrest video from February's massacre in Kalamazoo depict the horror and chaos as a gunman struck again and again, leaving six people dead. Jason Dalton had his family dog in the car with him when he allegedly began his shooting rampage. Dalton apparently was working as an Uber driver and taking fares during his shooting spree. He blames the Uber app he was using for the violence, telling police after he was arrested Feb. 20 that the app took him over "like artificial intelligence that can tap into you body," according to a police document. More...

The condition of a 14-year-old girl is improving, more than a week after she survived a mass shooting in southwestern Michigan. Vickie Kopf posted an update about her daughter on Facebook. She says Abigail Kopf's ventilator was removed Sunday. The girl is breathing on her own and is listed in serious condition.

A 14-year-old girl wounded in a deadly shooting spree in Michigan this weekend was initially pronounced brain dead at the hospital before she squeezed her mother's hand and was rushed to surgery, her family told authorities. She is now in critical condition and "fighting for her life," her family said. The teen, who was shot in a Kalamazoo Cracker Barrel parking lot Saturday, was pronounced brain dead shortly after arriving at Bronson Methodist Hospital, Michigan State Police Lt. Dale Hinz told ABC News today. Her family told the lieutenant that an hour or two later, the hospital was in the...

A 14-year-old girl wounded during the shooting rampage in Kalamazoo, Mich., was declared brain-dead and about to have her organs harvested when she suddenly showed signs of life, according to a new report Monday. Michigan State Police Lt. Dale Hinz told ABC that the girl's family said Bronson Methodist Hospital was preparing to remove the girl's organs for donation when she squeezed her distraught mom's hand. The girl squeezed her mother's hand again when the mom asked if her daughter could hear her, Hinz said. She also gave thumbs-up signs with both hands when a doctor asked her to give...

President Obama called local officials in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Monday morning to pledge federal resources for their probe of a mass shooting, and said the tragedy highlights the need for more gun laws. "Clearly we're going to need to do more if we're going to keep innocent Americans safe," Mr. Obama told the nation's governors at a White House meeting. "I've got to assume that all of you are just as tired as I am of seeing this stuff happen in your states." Mr. Obama said he took executive actions on gun control earlier this year "that will make it harder...

CNN)Police have arrested Jason Brian Dalton in connection with three shooting incidents that killed six people and injured two more in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, prosecutor Jeff Getting said Sunday. "This is just the most awful thing I can think of," Getting said at a press conference held to announce the arrest of Dalton, 45, and to reassure the community that there is no longer a threat.

Six people were killed and two others wounded in a series of random shootings in Michigan Saturday evening, police said. A 14-year-old girl was shot and very seriously injured. Authorities earlier said that she'd died. Jason Brian Dalton, 45, was taken into custody early Sunday and was being questioned over shootings at three different locations in Kalamazoo County, police said.

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety has identified the suspect in a deadly shooting spree in Kalamazoo as 45-year-old Jason Dalton. Police, and the Kalamazoo Crime Lab are searching a house ...

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: Police are responding to shots fired at OP Avenue and 6th Street in Texas Township, near the Cracker Barrel. There is police involvement at the scene, Kalamazoo County undersheriff says. Unclear is cops or possible suspect opened fire. ----- TEXAS TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) Police in Kalamazoo County are searching for a suspect who is randomly shooting people, at least six have been killed........

Originally from Associated Press, so link only..Six people are dead and three injured.

We had several shootings tonight in the county and in the city of Kalamazoo. They all appear to be related. We have multiple people dead,” Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas told 24 Hour News 8. At least six people have been killed in the ongoing series of incidents, Matyas told FOX 17. “We have somebody who is just driving around finding people and shooting them dead in their tracks,” the officer ad