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DEERFIELD, MI - Members of American Legion Post 392 will host their 16th annual Testicle Festival on Saturday, March 18, offering savory options to patrons, such as cattle testicles and chicken gizzards. The event, which will run from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., typically draws a good crowd, according to Legion member Al Rau. "We usually get anywhere from 1,500 up to 2,000 people throughout the day," Rau said. "They come and go." Rau said the origins of the Testicle Festival trace back to a farmer who used to bring the delicacies to town with him twice a year and...

At least 50 people carting weapons, flags and posters expressing anger with the porous border took to Vassar, Mich., streets to rally against a plan to ship some of the illegal minor-aged immigrants to their community. Many in the crowd carried AR-15 rifles and handguns — the latest sign of the growing unrest around the nation that’s marking the federal government’s response to tens of thousands of illegals crossing into U.S. territories in recent months. They also carted “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and a “Second Amendment Revolution” flag, a design that includes the basic Betsy Ross pattern with the...

<p>Ingham County circuit court judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who ruled today that Michigan governor Rick Snyder (R) must direct Detroit’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, to withdraw the Chapter 9 bankruptcy petition he filed yesterday, also wrote that she would transmit a copy of her order to President Obama. “I know he’s watching this,” the Detroit News quotes Aquilina saying, noting that she predicted that Obama would eventually step in and take action. Aquilina ruled that the 2012 law that allowed Governor Rick Snyder (R) to approve the city’s bankruptcy violates the Michigan Constitution.</p>

Vin Ferrara, a former Harvard quarterback, was looking for an aspirin in his medicine cabinet when his eyes fixed upon a ribbed plastic bottle used to squirt saline into sinuses. Ferrara squeezed the bottle, then pounded on it — finding that it cushioned soft and hard blows with equal aplomb, almost intelligence. “This is it,” Ferrara declared. Three years later, Ferrara’s squirt bottle has led to a promising new technology to protect football players from concussions. Football helmets have evolved over more than a century from crude leather bonnets to face-masked, polycarbonate battering rams. But they still often fail to...

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2006 – A once-unidentified sailor killed in the Pearl Harbor attack almost 65 years ago was laid to rest today with full honors and a grave marker bearing his name, thanks to sleuth work by a Pearl Harbor survivor and U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command's expertise. Navy Seaman 2nd Class Warren Paul Hickock was buried with full military honors in Honolulu on March 29, more than 64 years after he died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His remains were only recently identified. Courtesy photo   Seaman 2nd Class Warren Paul Hickok was reinterred this morning...

CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq (March 20, 2006) -- After enlisting in the Marine Corps more than a year apart, two brothers from Canton, Mich., have crossed paths in Iraq, while deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Lance Cpl. Ian L. Eichel, a 23-year-old motor transportation mechanic with Regimental Combat Team 7, said he was pleasantly surprised March 17, 2006, when a gunnery sergeant drove his brother, 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Aaron J. Eichel to the motor transportation lot here to put the two brothers in touch. “I was just going on duty at the motor pool when he drove up...

Gnawing leisurely on the remains of a moose carcass, the wolf pack's alpha male seemed unaware that mortal danger was coming ever closer. Suddenly the eight-member rival pack burst into view. The alpha scrambled to his feet, but too late. Howling and barking, the enemy chased him down and mercilessly attacked, killing the hapless victim within a couple of minutes. It's not unusual for the gray wolves on Isle Royale National Park to target each other, said John Vucetich, a Michigan Tech University wildlife biologist who witnessed the carnage from an airplane in January. But the rival pack's brazen invasion...

Granholm holds lead but DeVos gains, poll says 3/9/2006, 11:13 p.m. ET By JOHN FLESHER The Associated Press (AP) — Republican challenger Dick DeVos is edging closer to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, but the Democratic incumbent remains ahead as voters hold her less accountable than President Bush for Michigan's economic woes, according to poll results released Thursday. The telephone survey, conducted Sunday through Wednesday by Lansing-based EPIC/MRA for WXYZ-TV in Southfield, also showed Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow well ahead of her three potential GOP rivals. Fifty-one percent of the 600 likely voters polled supported Granholm, while 41 percent backed DeVos....

TROY, Mich. — A judge who sentenced three teenagers to probation for being drunk at their high school prom had them jailed after he saw them drinking and ridiculing him on a Web site one of them created. "I told them, 'If you think this gives me any pleasure, you're wrong,'" Oakland County District Judge Michael Martone said after sentencing the last of the girls, Amanda Senopole, to 10 days in jail last week. "You know, it's just a crying shame," Martone said. "I work my butt off trying to help kids like this, trying to figure out what works....

Gov. John Engler has signed a bill eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes, his spokesman said Friday. The legislation gives judges more discretion but still requires them to follow sentencing guidelines when sending drug criminals to prison. Under the old law, for example, someone possessing 50 to 224 grams of narcotics or cocaine had to be sentenced to between 10 years and 20 years in prison. The new law eliminates the 10-year minimum. Supporters say the bill signed Wednesday will help alleviate Michigan's skyrocketing prison population. The state Department of Corrections does not know how many of Michigan's 49,296...