Free Republic

About 25 members of the pro-affirmative action group By Any Means Necessary -- also known as BAMN - broke out with chants of "Minority enrollment's been going down, open it up or we'll shut it down" and "We don't need another committee, open it up to Detroit city," during the University of Michigan's Board of Regents meeting Thursday afternoon. The chants quickly turned physical as the protester pressed forward toward the regents. Security responded and the group continued to press forward as multiple protesters were forced to the ground after refusing to back down and move their protest out of...

Muslim groups have stepped up efforts to co-opt protests over the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., with a drive to equate the teen’s death to the death of a radical Islamist shot during an FBI raid in 2009, a Washington-based security watchdog group is warning. Using social media, conference calling and traditional outreach methods, leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are portraying Brown and Detroit mosque leader Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah as African-American victims of police targeting, according to the Washington-based Center for Security Policy (CSP). In a conference call organized by CAIR-linked "Muslims for...

LANSING, Mich., Nov. 17 -- The Michigan State Senate Republicans issued the following news on the behalf of Michigan State Sen. Patrick Colbeck: On Saturday, November 15, state Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton, spoke at the national ProFamily Legislators Conference in Dallas on potential health care changes in Michigan that would lower prices, provide better care and reduce bureaucracy.

A consultant considered an architect to the federal health care law who said a “lack of transparency” and “stupidity of the American voter” were critical to getting it passed reportedly received $481,050 from the state of Michigan, and a recently elected state representative said he wants an investigation. Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who created an econometric model intended to project health care spending and costs under different assumptions, along with his team, was granted a $481,050 contract by the state of Michigan, according to the Washington Post. He was paid that to help set up state...

The Truth: According to the website for the Oscar G Johnson Medical Center Veterans Affairs hospital in Iron Mountain, Michigan, the chapel is described as "non-denominational, although weekly Protestant and Catholic services are scheduled there "on a regular basis." The hospital was told that Christian symbols, statues and religious items inside the chapel were no longer permitted. This according to a June 3, 2014, article by Christian Today. The article said that the chapel "was found in non-compliance with a 2008 federal regulation that mandates that the house of worship be nonsectarian." In order to comply with the regulation statues,...

Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber made $4 million pimping Obamacare. ** $400,000 from Health and Human Services ** $1.6 MM from other states, and that’s just four of them. ** Another $2 milion from HHS for other work. It was a nice gig. The dude made millions because of his central role in lying to get health care passed. Video surfaced this week of Jonathan Gruber admitting the Obama administration lied to “stupid” Americans in order to get Obamacare passed. Jonathan Gruber made $400,000 from HHS. He also made an additional $3.6 million for consulting with states. Glenn Kessler at The...

On Friday, an overwhelming majority of House members passed legislation sponsored by Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) which approved construction of the long-delayed Keystone XL Pipeline. By 252 to 161, the House opted to send the measure to the U.S. Senate, where it will face a vote from the upper chamber next week which could, for the first time, force the president to determine whether to approve or veto the oil transit route. 31 Democratic representatives voted with every Republican member of Congress save Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), who voted present, to approve construction of the pipeline. It is an...

House Republicans have scheduled two more hearings on the U.S. response to Ebola, focusing on the health system's readiness for more cases and the development of cures and treatments. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittees on Health and Oversight and Investigations will host the events on Tuesday and Wednesday. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden will appear at one to discuss training for U.S. health workers and other preventative measures against the virus's spread. "The threat of the Ebola outbreak is real and extends beyond its source in West Africa," said Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred...

At 90 and counting, a feminine conservative icon is sharper than feminists who are half her age, particularly the ones who teach in college. ““What they do is make women believe they are victims of the patriarch, and they are trying to abolish the patriarchy,” Schlafly told Anne Reed of the AFA Journal. “That is ridiculous.” As it happens, seven years ago, this writer covered an English professor from Brigham Young University, Valerie Hegstrom, who told an appreciative crowd of her peers from across the country: “When people ask me how I can stand it, I say that I believe...

Here’s Detroit reporter Charlie LeDuff, a truly great writer and character, giving a Detroit squatter a taste of her (his? It’s somewhat in question.) own medicine. A homeowner had allegedly been attacked by the squatter while trying to sell the property, so LeDuff paid a visit: Detroit homeowner Sarah Hamilton wanted to sell her house, but was having some trouble. No, it wasn’t a down seller’s market — it was a squatter. Hamilton had a difficult battle: In the process of trying to get Lynn Williams out her house, WJBK-TV reported Hamilton was threatened with a knife. But things got...

LANSING, MI — Michigan’s gay marriage ban remains in place after a federal court ruling on Thursday, and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette both made clear they will continue to defend it. “When I became governor, I took an oath to support and defend our state constitution, without exceptions,” Snyder said in a statement, referencing the 2004 voter-approved amendment that defined marriage as between one woman and one man. “My obligation to carry out that oath is not a matter of personal preference. As I have said throughout this process, I will respect the court’s decision...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: This is John in Mount Clemens, Michigan. Hey, John, are you still there? CALLER: I am, Rush, and I'm humbled that you're talking about my call before I even get on the air. RUSH: Well, you know, most hosts would have stolen your idea, never mentioned you, and had the screener hang up on you and nobody would have ever known you existed, but I have more integrity than that. CALLER: That's what separates you from the pack. RUSH: I think your thinking on this is simplistically brilliant. It's one of those things I wish I would...

By a two-to-one vote, a federal appeals court in Cincinnati upheld the right of states to ban same-sex marriage, overturning lower court decisions in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee that found such restrictions to be unconstitutional.

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld gay marriage bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, reversing a recent trend in the federal courts to strike down such bans.

Detroit homeowner Sarah Hamilton wanted to sell her house, but was having some trouble. No, it wasn’t a down seller's market -- it was a squatter... But things got more interesting after WJBK reporter Charlie LeDuff entered the picture. He met with the homeowner and her attorney, and was given a set of keys and the proper paperwork...

I’d almost forgotten to write this column. I’m sitting here watching election returns, and I am just stunned. Massachusetts? Maryland? MARYLAND?!?! Forget the Senate for a minute, or the massive Republican majority in the House, and think about the fact that Republicans did so well in the gubernatorial races across the country. In Michigan, after passing a “Right-To-Work” law, Gov. Rick Snyder wins handily. Union money and muscle plus President Obama campaigning against him couldn’t sink a man with the Twitter handle @OneToughNerd. Speaking of unions, no one had a bigger target placed on their back by the unions than...

PPP's final polls for Governor in Florida, Michigan, and Illinois find incredibly tight contests in all three states. Florida is the closest. Rick Scott and Charlie Crist both have 44%, with Libertarian Adrian Wyllie polling at 6%. PPP usually has a policy of not releasing poll results to the decimal, but when we find a tie on our final poll of the cycle somewhere we make an exception. Crist is at 44.0% to 43.8% for Scott- in terms of raw respondents to the poll that's 526 for Crist and 524 for Scott. Wyllie may be playing a spoiler role for...

Obama says wealthy don't need another champion Associated Press By NEDRA PICKLER 2 hours ago DETROIT (AP) — Yelling out a populist theme until his voice turned hoarse, President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Michigan voters in the midterm campaign's final weekend to cast ballots for Democrats who support a higher minimum wage

Full title: Release the suppressed footage of white men catcalling Shoshana Roberts so that Hanna Rosin can re-edit the video. The insensitively-named organization Hollaback!, together with internet marketing agency Rob Bliss Creative, recently released a video of an actress being repeatedly harassed by catcallers as she went about her business in New York City. Unfortunately, as Hanna Rosin has pointed out in her Slate piece entitled "The Problem with that Catcalling Video: The White Guys Were Edited Out," the video was made in a way that reflects the omnipresent implicit racism of our day: it doesn't depict a representative number...

The director of a video showing a woman being catcalled on the streets of New York has weighed in on the seeming racial disparity of the men featured. Rob Bliss, who posted the video on behalf of the anti-street-harassment group Hollaback!, told CNN that those shown were just a small sample. "First, we regret the unintended racial bias in the editing of the video that over represents men of color," Hollaback! said in a statement released Tuesday. "Although we appreciate Rob's support, we are committed to showing the complete picture. It is our hope and intention that this video will...