Free Republic

Like many 6-year-olds, Julian Gagnon likes to pick things up off the ground. Sticks, rocks, you name it. Earlier this month, he made his most important discovery yet. Important enough to garner the attention of University of Michigan’s Museum of Paleontology. Julian found an ancient mastodon tooth during a Sept. 6 hike with his family at Dinosaur Hill Nature Preserve in Rochester Hills. UM museum scientists verified its authenticity, and Julian will donate it to the museum to ensure its preservation. Julian is probably the first person to touch the tooth in 12,000 years, said Adam Rountrey, the paleontology museum’s...

Washington-- When Congress passed its $2 trillion economic relief package in response to the coronavirus epidemic battering the country, lawmakers provided relief to Americans, small businesses struggling under the economic pain of the crisis and state and local governments on the frontlines of combatting the virus. But mayors in small and medium-sized communities from coast to coast are sounding the alarm after they were left out of the package, despite facing the same cash crunch as their larger neighbors. Only localities with populations of 500,000 were eligible for direct aid under the law, known as the CARES Act. Those cities...

DETROIT — On the surface, Thiago Olson is like any typical teenager. He's on the cross country and track teams at Stoney Creek High School in Rochester Hills, Mich. He's a good-looking, clean-cut 17-year-old with a 3.75 grade point average, and he has his eyes fixed on the next big step: college. But to his friends, Thiago is known as "the mad scientist." In the basement of his parents' Oakland Township, Mich., home, tucked away in an area most aren't privy to see, Thiago is exhausting his love of physics on a project that has taken him more than two...