Free Republic

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (WJBK) - Police are searching for a man who stole a Southfield police cruiser and then ditched it in a neighborhood on the city's west side Tuesday.

ELYRIA, Ohio (AP) — Police in northeast Ohio say they're looking for thieves who stole a wheelchair ramp from a woman's home, and a local business is offering to replace it with a free upgrade.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Nine people were indicted Wednesday on federal charges of accessing President Barack Obama's student loan records while they were employed for a Department of Education contractor in Iowa.

MICHIGAN (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – On Friday Michigan joins 37 other states by banning smoking in public places. Governor Jennifer Granholm is expected to sign the measure into law Friday afternoon at the Michigan Brewing Company in Lansing. The law will take effect in May, banning smoking in restaurant, bars, workplaces and government buildings. Cigar bars, casinos, and smoke shops are exempt.

The buyer of a pretty property in northern Wisconsin will get a former hideout of Chicago mobster Al Capone along with a bar and restaurant complete with portholes to shoot from

The hunt is reportedly on in Israel for a mattress stuffed with a million dollars.A Tel Aviv woman claims to have thrown out her mother's mattress when she bought her a new replacement as a surprise. Her distraught elderly mother then revealed she had hidden her life savings of $1m (£700,000) inside.

At a breezy 38 minutes, HBO's "Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House" (9 p.m., Monday) gives the veteran White House reporter all the attention she merits.

Polk County, Florida – More charges are expected after deputies caught a Winter Haven man siphoning more than 923 gallons of fuel from underground tanks at gas stations in Pasco and Polk counties. 70-year-old Hobert Gibson was arrested Tuesday and charged with two counts of grand theft. Over the last ten months, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd suspects Gibson has stolen 3,000 to 10,000 gallons of fuel each week. But so far, only one gas station has come forward.

this just in ........ http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071012/BUSINESS06/71012029/0/COL22 previous post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1910302/posts

MONROE, Mich. (Map, News) - Officials are trying to determine what caused several holes discovered in steam lines at the Fermi II nuclear power plant near Monroe. DTE Energy spokesman John Austerberry says several 1/4-inch holes were discovered Thursday by workers performing routine maintenance. He says the holes appear to have been drilled.

It would be an interesting feature of an employee’s first day: sign a contract, fill out a W-2 and roll up your sleeve for your microchip injection. Sounds like sci-fi, but it’s happened, and now a handful of states are making sure their citizens will never be forced to have a microchip implanted under their skin.

Detroit Free Press blocks posting,go to www.freep.com click on local news, you will find it

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's president Saturday ordered the resumption of uranium enrichment and an end to snap inspections of its facilities after the U.N. nuclear watchdog voted to report Tehran to the Security Council. Iran had warned that it would resume enrichment if the International Atomic Energy Agency board voted to refer it to the Security Council, which it did on Saturday. Tehran also said a proposal by Moscow to enrich uranium in Russia was dead. "As of Sunday, the voluntary implementation of the additional protocol and other cooperation beyond the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty has to be suspended under...

TUCKER, Ga. (AP) -- A strange chain of events that began with a traffic accident and a gas leak ended this week with the discovery of nearly $900,000 worth of marijuana growing in a suburban apartment. It began when a drunken driver crashed into an apartment building Sunday morning, said Officer Darren Moloney, spokesman for the Gwinnett County Police Department. The collision ruptured a gas line, prompting firefighters to respond to check for leaks. While checking inside one of the units, they found an indoor pot growing operation, Moloney said.

An anti-terrorism law creating a national standard for all driver's licenses by 2008 isn't just upsetting civil libertarians and immigration rights activists. State motor vehicle officials nationwide who will have to carry out the Real ID Act say its authors grossly underestimated its logistical, technological and financial demands. In a comprehensive survey obtained by The Associated Press and in follow-up interviews, officials cast doubt on the states' ability to comply with the law on time and fretted that it will be a budget buster. "It is just flat out impossible and unrealistic to meet the prescriptive provisions of this law...

A U.S. soldier court-martialed for refusing to wear the insignia and blue beret of the United Nations and serve under the world body's command is now appealing his case to a federal appeals court. Michael New was among several hundred troops sent to Macedonia by President Clinton in 1995 on a U.N. peacekeeping mission. But New refused to obey the order, calling it illegal for him to serve under a foreign power.

Public asked not to light up before visits from public sector workers Key points • Letters to be sent asking for no smoking one hour before public worker visits • Plan to draw smokers' map of Scotland identifying where smokers live • Smoking ban to come into force 26 March 2006 Key quote "Does your organisation know which of the homes visited by its staff are occupied by smokers? If not, it would be advisable to develop such a list. Once the situation relating to individual properties is ascertained, steps can be taken to reduce the exposure the staff might...

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- After a year of legal warfare, voters finally have an answer to who won a disputed state Senate seat: no one. The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the candidate who got the most votes can't serve because she didn't live in the district long enough, and the runner-up can't serve because she didn't win. The result is that the 37th District Senate seat, representing part of the Louisville area, is vacant, as it effectively has been since the start of the 2005 General Assembly. The court didn't recommend a solution, and Gov. Ernie Fletcher wouldn't...

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- The relationship between the University of California and Los Alamos National Laboratory began as a wartime affair conducted against the tense backdrop of the race to finish an atomic bomb. The union has endured for 63 years, some of them rocky. Wednesday marked a new chapter as the government - apparently forgiving a series of alleged financial and security gaffes - asked the university to continue managing the lab that built the atom bomb. A UC bid, made in partnership with engineering giant Bechtel Corp., prevailed over a rival team made up of the University of...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Police officials Thursday disputed a newspaper report accusing them of using undercover officers to infiltrate and monitor anti-war groups and other activist organizations. The report in Thursday's New York Times said videotapes obtained by the newspaper showed police conducting surveillance on people attending an Iraq war protest, a monthly bicycle ride staged by cycling activists and a vigil for a cyclist who had died in an accident. The Police Department's top spokesman, Paul Browne, criticized the report as misleading. He said plainclothes police - not undercover officers - regularly attend protests to maintain order and stop...