Free Republic

Is Motor City getting its mojo back? After years of losing loyal customers frustrated by quality and reliability problems, domestic automakers are showing a new-found focus on customer service that is winning back skeptics – boosting sales, market share and profits.

DETROIT-Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan urged Detroit’s pastors and majority black population Friday to join him in an effort to buy neglected properties and take other steps to help revitalize the struggling city where the movement started more than 80 years ago. The fiery orator offered few specifics in a speech to the Detroit City Council, but made plain his displeasure with Gov. Rick Snyder’s decision to appoint an emergency financial manager. He likened the takeover to buzzards circling over a carcass. “The city abandoned, crime and violence rampant, and the governor has seen fit to take away the...

Two members of Congress are asking if the Treasury Department disproportionately targeted more Republican or conservative owned auto dealerships during the government-lead restructuring of General Motors in 2009. Breitbart.com reported today that Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Jim Renacci (R-OH) released a letter asking Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to release documents regarding the process and methodology that determined which GM dealerships were closed.

Two members of Congress are asking if the Treasury Department disproportionately targeted more Republican or conservative owned auto dealerships during the government-lead restructuring of General Motors in 2009. Breitbart.com reported today that Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Jim Renacci (R-OH) released a letter asking Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to release documents regarding the process and methodology that determined which GM dealerships were closed. GM was loaned $50 million by Congress as part of the restructuring included consolidating dealerships and closing some of the under-performing GM dealerships. In 2009 and 2010 there were several reports in the press raising the question whether...

If Alabamians got excited about former Chief Justice Roy Moore's granite monument of the Ten Commandments, imagine how they'll react when the world's oldest known copy of the Ten Commandments arrives in Alabama for display. The parchment from the Dead Sea Scrolls contains a complete handwritten Hebrew text of the commandments dated to within 30 years before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. It will be part of a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit that starts Jan. 20 and ends April 24 at the Gulf Coast Exploreum in downtown Mobile. The exhibit will feature 12 scrolls from the Israel Antiquities Authority,...

Shocking CCTV footage from a gas station in Detroit shows a 64-year-old man being stabbed in a brutal attack while witnesses stood by and watch. The horrifying images show the victim being repeatedly knifed by a hooded attacker, while two other men in the store look on without trying to intervene. Police are looking for the attacker and the two witnesses following the incident at the gas station off of Lodge Freeway near 8 Mile Road.

Scandal: Senate Democrats, including supporters of the Disclose Act, provided the names of groups they wanted targeted in a taxpayer-funded witch hunt overseen by an IRS employee and Obama campaign donor. Using the Citizens United case as a pretext, retiring Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., on July 27, 2012, wrote IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman to investigate 12 conservative groups he accused of violating their tax-exempt status and engaging in coordinated political activity. The groups Levin asked to be targeted for special scrutiny were Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, Priorities U.S.A., Americans Elect, American Action Network, Americans for Prosperity, American Future Fund, Americans...

Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) repeatedly pressed the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the tax-exempt status of specific conservative nonprofit organizations in letters to then-IRS commissioner Doug Shulman and director Lois Lerner in 2012.

After a tumultuous four years overseeing a city long riddled with blight, corruption, crime, and historic financial issues, mayor David Bing has had enough, telling a stunned audience at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History Tuesday that he’d leave when his term ends in December. The 69-year-old Bing, a hall-of-fame NBA player who spent most of his career with the Pistons and then was a successful businessman in Detroit had never ran for office before narrowly winning the 2009 race to replace Kwame Kilpatrick, who in less than a term in office had gone from rising Democratic star...

<p>A Saudi man was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport with a pressure cooker, less than a month after a bomb using one of the kitchen devices was used to kill three and injure hundreds.</p>

Federal agents arrested a Saudi Arabian traveler who arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Airport with a pressure cooker, a key component used in the Boston Marathon bombings last month. Hussain Al Kwawahir will be arraigned at 1 p.m. in federal court for allegedly using an altered passport and lying to a Customs and Border Protection Agent about the pressure cooker.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Republican on Sunday said he expected more witnesses to step forward with information about last year's deadly attack on a U.S. mission in Benghazi and how President Barack Obama's administration responded to the unfolding events. "I do think we're going to see more whistle blowers. I certainly know my committee has been contacted," Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday". Last week, Republican charges that White House covered up details of the September 11, 2012 attack gathered more steam after former U.S. diplomat Greg Hicks...

Shortly after Barack Obama won reelection in November, New Jersey governor Chris Christie pointed out that Republicans’ cloudy political prospects had a bright silver lining. “One of the reasons you have 30 Republican governors in America, and why we’re the only organization to add Republican strength,” Christie said, “is because people see us getting things done.” Christie’s stance countered most of the elite postelection commentary, which gleefully pronounced the Republican Party’s political irrelevance. But the governor was right. Since Obama first took office in 2008, Republicans have picked up a net nine governorships, bringing their total to 30 states,...

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• A statue of the Virgin Mary was beheaded and the head was stolen between April 27 and 30 out of the 2600 block of South Trenton Drive.

Another one of the Energy Department’s taxpayer-financed “investments” just went belly-up. This one died very quietly, without making a formal announcement, but USA Today noticed: A Michigan maker of vans for the disabled that received a $50-million Energy Department loan has quietly ceased operation and laid off its staff. Vehicle Production Group, or VPG, stopped operations after finances dipped below the minimum threshold required by the government as a condition of the loan, says its former CEO, John Walsh. Though about 100 staff were laid off and its offices shuttered, it has not filed for bankruptcy reorganization. For a change,...

City of Dearborn Apologizes for Arresting Christians at 2010 Arab Festival; Settlement Reached in Lawsuit In June of 2010, a few of us were on our way out of Dearborn's annual Arab International Festival, when some young Muslims began asking us questions, which we were happy to answer. Here's unedited footage of our last 20 minutes or so at the festival: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkfVAeG3rn4 Nearly three years later, thanks to our lawyers Robert Muise and David Yerushalmi, the City of Dearborn has apologized for arresting us. Detroit, Michigan (May 6, 2013) — After more than two years of intense motion practice and...

The city of Dearborn, Mich., has agreed to pay Christians who were arrested at its Arab International Festival in 2010, remove all criticism of them from a city website and post a public apology that will remain online for years, according to a legal team on the case. The American Freedom Law Center said today that the settlement follows more than two years of court negotiations and resolves the Christians’ claims against the city. It does not, however, remove the Dearborn Arab Chamber as a defendant in the case, which will continue. The Christians were arrested in 2010 by city...

A Michigan abortionist whose clinic was shut down in 2012 faces allegations from a doctor who found a severed infant's head inside the body of one of his patients. In an email read by Michigan state Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker (R-Lawton), a Muskegon OB/GYN has urged the state to revoke the medical license of abortionist Dr. Robert Alexander. The physician observed that he has treated several of Alexander’s patients in the emergency room, including one woman in her second trimester whose uterus Alexander allegedly perforated during an abortion. “Dr. Alexander perforated the woman’s uterus so badly that it was hanging on...

Robert Alexander’s abortion clinic was shut down in December by the city of Muskegon, Michigan after unsafe and unsanitary conditions were found. Now, state officials are wondering why the state medical board has not terminated Alexander’s medical license. The state legislature had planned to hold a hearing on Tuesday on Alexander and a Muskegon OB/GYN was expected to testify at the hearing. Instead, the doctor wrote that Alexander should have his license revoked. The doctor talked about one case in particular as a reason why, saying Alexander botched an abortion on a woman in her second trimester. “Dr. Alexander perforated...

Six former members of Congress to hear space alien testimony By Justin Sink - 04/29/13 11:29 AM ET Six former members of Congress have signed up for a week of congressional-style testimony on the existence of space aliens. The hearing, which will occur this week at the National Press Club, will feature some 30 hours of testimony on the possible existence of extraterrestrials and be recorded for a documentary film. Around three dozen researchers and academics are expected to testify. Participants will include ex-Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska), and ex-Reps. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), Darlene Hooley (D-Ore.),...

Once again proving that racism crosses party lines, Gloria Platko, a Democratic Township Clerk in Buena Vista, Michigan, is refusing to step down from her position after being busted calling Township Supervisor Dwayne Parker an “an arrogant (racial slur),” reports Mediate.com. Interim Township Manager Dexter Mitchell taped a phone conversation and, though Platko’s words are clear, the 63-year-old Dixiecrat claims that it was a “slip of the tongue.” Hear the full conversation below. Platko’a remarks come at the 6:00 mark. Speaking to NBC 25 reporter Walter Smith-Randolp, Platko pulled out the go to bigot card when denying that she’s racist:...

A man seducing and corrupting the moral purity of an unmarried woman is a felony with possible prison time. Displaying a sports team bumper sticker without being a member of the organization is a misdemeanor. Throwing a few bucks into the office college basketball tournament pool is illegal gambling. And playing the national anthem for people to dance to is prohibited. Though routinely broken and ignored by citizens and government officials, these laws and more are on the books in Michigan. In fact, there are so many statutes in the state code that it is likely every resident would be...

Langston Bowens is a high school senior at Grosse Pointe South in Michigan, and helped arrange for Sen. Rick Santorum to speak at his school. But a funny thing happened after the speech was announced: School district officials changed their minds and cancelled the event. The story may have ended there, but Langston Bowens refused to be bullied by officials he felt objected to the speech based on their own, personal beliefs, so he took a stand. Col. Allen West sat down with Langston at the Reagan Center library in Santa Barbara to find out how he was able to...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republicans are struggling to recruit strong U.S. Senate candidates in states where the party has the best chances to reclaim the majority in Washington. It's a potentially troubling sign that the GOP's post-2012 soul-searching could spill over into next year's congressional elections. The vote is more than 18 months away, so it's early. But candidate recruitment efforts are well underway, and thus far Republicans have been unable to field a top-tier candidate in Iowa or Michigan. In those two Mideast swing states, the GOP hopes to make a play for seats left open by the...

A top-ranking Republican congressman said yesterday he expects the feds to make more arrests in their ever-widening probe of the deadly Boston Marathon bombings, which took a new frightening turn yesterday when officials revealed the accused terrorist brothers made “spontaneous” plans to launch an attack on Times Square. “I hear a lot of definitive statements out there that it was just these two men and it’s over, but I will tell you I hear these briefings every day, and I don’t think this is over,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Committee on Intelligence....

There are music fans, and then there are Bob Seger fans. Evie Branan had been in a coma for five years and when she emerged, the first words out of her mouth were, “I want to go to a Bob Seger concert.” “Why would I say that?” Branan laughed later when recounting the story to her hometown paper, the Flint Journal, in Michigan. “Maybe my last thoughts were Bob Seger before I had my stroke.” While Branan may have been unsure about why she wanted to see Bob Seger in concert so badly, she was certainly a fan of the...

Michigan legislators are working to put the brakes on Common Core and restore authority over what is taught in Michigan classrooms to state policymakers, local school leaders, and—most importantly—teachers and parents. As the Washington Times reports, “The state House on Wednesday passed an amendment, attached to the Education Department budget, that prohibits any funding for the controversial Common Core system.”

Pet-loving citizens take note: Don't be late when renewing a dog license or forget to register that new puppy with the county. Not licensing your dog in Michigan means the local sheriff is required by law to have it killed. As Michigan Capitol Confidential first reported two years ago, the antiquated “Dog Law” (Act 339 of 1919) has not been followed in decades, but still is on the books. A recent bill is attempting to repeal it. The statute states that if a county treasurer locates an unlicensed dog, the animal is to be considered a “public nuisance” and killed....

2014 retirements: Dems heading for the hills By: Alexander Burns April 23, 2013 04:49 PM EDT Doesn’t anyone want to run for Senate in 2014? Midway through candidate recruitment season, the bad news for Democrats is this: They are watching a generation of talent leave the Senate and head for retirement. The less-bad news: So far, few marquee-name Republicans are interested in these seats either. When Montana Sen. Max Baucus called it quits on Tuesday, he became the latest in a long series of senior legislators to announce that they’ve had quite enough of life on the Hill. National Democrats...

Michigan is in the national news because of a disturbing development in human fetal stem cell experimentation. Neuralstem, Inc. announced that it has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to expand an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) Phase II study to the University of Michigan. The stem cells used in the study come from spinal cord tissue taken from a healthy, 8-week-old aborted baby. Phase I of the trial tested whether human fetal stem cells can safely be injected into the spinal cord. According to Neuralstem, the aim of Phase II is to obtain the maximum tolerated...

International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) general president Jimmy Hoffa Jr. is suspected by his members of trying to squash a union comprised of some of his own Teamsters organizers.Hoffa’s battle with his own organizers’ union overlaps with a host of other problems for the prominent labor leader, including a pension crisis that is undercutting his support and a potential UPS strike that he might not be able to afford, according to insiders.Hoffa still has not granted a contract to the Federation of Agents and International Representatives (FAIR), a union that represents Teamsters organizers. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) allowed...

During a hearing into the constitutionality of voter identification laws enacted across the country, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) tore into claims by the Department of Justice that those laws were racially discriminatory. In the space of five minutes, Gowdy knocked down the claims, one by one, that a voter ID law passed in South Carolina in 2011 discriminated against African-Americans or was dissimilar to laws the Justice Department had cleared in a variety of other states. Gowdy began by noting that, when the Palmetto State’s voter identification law was passed, a third of the state’s congressional delegation were African-American; former...

We've just received word that the former Delphi Tower in Saginaw Michigan has been evacuated, and that it's being treated as a HAZMAT situation. Police, Fire, and HAZMAT crews are on the scene. The building houses the Saginaw offices of US Senator Carl Levin. Little else is known, but we were contacted by one evacuee who told us that "Levin got a suspicious letter in the mail." Given the two recent Ricin-tainted letters received in D.C., we assume they're taking no chances. More as it develops.

Despite repeated failures, the Michigan Legislature is pushing ahead with extending, and in some ways expanding, a government program that hands out select tax breaks, subsidies and loans to particular firms and special interests. The “21st Century Jobs Fund” law enacted in 2005 created a smorgasbord of selective business subsidy-granting techniques targeted at different types of economic activities and actors. Reviews of this and other state “economic development” programs show that they consistently fall short on jobs projections, lack sufficient documentation for auditors, and spend tens of millions of state dollars with little or no return for taxpayers. Capitol Confidential...

American citizens can be ordered to decrypt their PGP-scrambled hard drives for police to peruse for incriminating files, a federal judge in Colorado ruled today in what could become a precedent-setting case. Judge Robert Blackburn ordered a Peyton, Colo., woman to decrypt the hard drive of a Toshiba laptop computer no later than February 21--or face the consequences including contempt of court. Blackburn, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that the Fifth Amendment posed no barrier to his decryption order. The Fifth Amendment says that nobody may be "compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself," which...

WASHINGTON,- A group hoping to prove existence of extraterrestrials plans hearings in Washington led by former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, it announced. The gathering, called "The Citizen Hearing on Disclosure" and hosted by the Paradigm Research Group, based in Bethesda, Md., will offer more than 30 hours of congressional-style hearings, April 29 to May 3, at the National Press Club in Washington, The Detroit News reported Thursday. Cheeks Kilpatrick, a member of Congress from 1997 to 2010 and mother of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, will join five other former members of Congress to interview witnesses who claim a...

“The reason I haven’t written about Mr. Gosnell is the same reason Philadelphia journalists don’t write about homicide trials in Detroit” The butchery of infants born alive after abortions at the Philadelphia clinic run by Kermit Gosnell is gruesome beyond description, as described in my prior post, A Culture of Death is their choice. The details are not new. The horrific Grand Jury Report (h/t Dave Weigel) was issued over two years ago. Yet this mass murder, reportedly of 100 infants although only seven cases were charged, has been met with near silence by the mainstream media.

...(and Recommends Eric Holder Be Arrested) Sporting a graying beard and his signature camouflage hat, rocker and gun rights advocate Ted Nugent on Thursday dismissed the Senate’s gun control bill as a “feel-good measure” that won’t stop any shootings. Towards the end of his interview on CNN, Nugent recommended that Attorney General Eric Holder be arrested for gun trafficking.

LONDON, Ont. — Plans for the new Detroit-Windsor bridge cleared another hurdle Friday when it got a much-anticipated presidential permit. “A lot of people are very excited. We’ve been in this region waiting for some time for this announcement,” said Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis. “We all knew the presidential permit wasn’t a question of if, it was a question of when.” Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder made the announcement in Detroit with politicians on both sides of the border in attendance. But trouble could be brewing as Ambassador Bridge owner and billionaire Manuel (Matty) Moroun filed a civil lawsuit this year...

Michigan Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema, who caused a stir last month when he posted an article to his Facebook page that labeled the homosexual lifestyle as “filthy,” is now comparing homosexuality to alcoholism and says it leads to drug abuse.

Since Monday, school district officials in Grosse Pointe, Michigan have canceled a decision to allow Rick Santorum to speak at Grosse Pointe South High School, then reversed that cancellation. There is a catch, though: students who want to see the former U.S. senator and presidential hopeful must first obtain permission from their parents. A local chapter of the group Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) had originally invited Santorum to speak at the high school on April 24, explains the Detroit Free Press. The group raised $18,000 for the speech — presumably to cover costs and pay any fees to Santorum....

The archbishop of Detroit, Allen Vigneron, told the Detroit Free Press on Sunday that Catholics should not receive Communion while advocating gay marriage: For a Catholic to receive holy Communion and still deny the revelation Christ entrusted to the church is to try to say two contradictory things at once: “I believe the church offers the saving truth of Jesus, and I reject what the church teaches.” In effect, they would contradict themselves.....

The Dead Zone: Detroit Becomes Urban Wasteland By Chuck Holton CBN News Reporter Tuesday, April 09, 2013 DETROIT -- Welcome to Detroit, or what some call "The Dead Zone." It's an area of near-complete destruction many miles across, with no schools or hospitals and few public services. Crime is the only growth industry, with murder being an everyday occurrence. "No police, citizens are leaving because crime is very high," the Detroit Police Department's Sgt. John Bennett said. "Those who can leave, are able to leave, they are leaving. Course there are some who cannot leave." Urban Wasteland While there is...

In the Wayne-Westland Community Schools, high school math teachers are the lowest paid as a group and make on average almost $25,000 less a year than the physical education teachers. The high school science teachers make $11,000 less than the district’s gym teachers on average. The salaries are set by a six-year teacher’s contract Wayne-Westland agreed to in 2008 and runs through 2014. The salary schedule determines pay solely by years of experience and education background. On average, physical education teachers were the highest paid group and made $78,675 a year. Teacher gross salaries can also include pay for extracurricular...

Ever since Asian carp were accidentally introduced into U.S. rivers in the 1970s, the invasive fish have been hungrily making their way to the Great Lakes, causing residents of the watershed to dread the arrival of carp in delicate Lake ecosystems, and their potential impacts on the 7 billion dollar fishing industry that represents a major economic driver for the region. Now, a new study suggests that Asian carp have breached southern Lake Michigan, although they have not yet arrived in numbers great enough to devastate native ecosystems. Scientists at Notre Dame University, Southern Michigan University, and The Nature Conservancy...

GRAND COUNTY, Colo. - The coroner says a 31-year-old Michigan man was fatally shot Monday night after authorities say he forced his way into the Hot Sulphur Springs home of a Grand County sheriff's deputy and his wife, who is a county deputy district attorney. Grand County Coroner Brenda Bock identified that dead man as Joshua Stevens, 31, of Coral, Michigan. An autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death is scheduled for Wednesday. Authorities say Stevens was shot outside the couple's home. At this time, authorities aren't saying who fired the shots that killed Stevens, according to Susan...

DETROIT, MI - Dr. Benjamin Carson, a potential presidential candidate, has plans to return to his hometown of Detroit. Carson, a world renowned neurosurgeon, is scheduled to speak April 11 for Covenant Community Care's fundraiser, "Courage to Care: Inspiring Tomorrow's Heroes." The event will be held at Detroit's Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, 2080 W. Grand Blvd. Admission, according to a Detroit News event listing, is $50. For more information call (313) 228-0290. Carson recently gave a viral speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. that put him in the national spotlight. Several media outlets have speculation that he...

A Detroit police officer on the force for more than a decade has been accused of orchestrating a series of robberies in southeast Michigan. 34 year-old Clifton Whatley was arraigned Thursday in a Taylor court on three counts of armed robbery, two counts of bank robbery and other charges. A judge set bond at $1 million and Whatley is in custody.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan member of the Republican National Committee said Thursday he will not resign after posting an article critical of gay people on his Facebook page, despite calls from members of his own party that he step down. Dave Agema, who served as a state representative from 2007 until December posted an excerpt from an article titled "Everyone Should Know These Statistics On Homosexuals" on his Facebook page Wednesday. A group of 21 Michigan Republicans has called it "deplorable."