Free Republic

It is telling that backers of a plan to change the state constitution to benefit unions at the expense of taxpayers are focusing on what the amendment won't do — rather than what it will do. In a new television ad, supporters of the so-called "Protect Our Jobs" amendment in essence tell viewers that Proposal 2 is a harmless plan even though it will fundamentally change the state's constitution. Proposal 2 supporters don't want voters to know that if it passes, more than 170 laws in Michigan could be altered or eliminated, including many that have collectively saved taxpayers billions...

It always seemed that the oddness of Thaddeus McCotter’s political career had already maxed out. From referring to himself in the third person as a state senator to quoting Led Zeppelin on the House floor to running for president, he always managed to outdo himself. His career kept growing weirder until it reached its climax in one of the strangest political collapses in recent memory. McCotter went from briefly being one of the highest-ranked Republicans in the House of Representatives to its most surreal flameout, serving as a cautionary tale for no one in particular, since one would be hard-pressed...

Chippewa Valley Schools is asking parents to pay for periodicals that the Michigan Department of Education says must be supplied by school districts. In doing so, they may be breaking the law. Sixth grade social studies teachers in the district sent a letter to parents saying that "limited school tax, district and school funding" made it increasingly difficult to pay a combined $8.75 for 26 issues of a publication and four maps. The magazine, "Time for Kids," comes out monthly from Time magazine. Parents were also asked to pay for a "Map of the Month." The letter read: "In order...

Excessive spending on salaries and politics are among the reasons teachers in the Roscommon Area Public Schools severed ties with the Michigan Education Association, said Jim Perialas, interim president of the new teachers' union. The MEA’s executive salaries, which are among the highest in the country, had angered the teachers, he said. Perialas said a newly formed local union could provide the same basic services that the MEA provided and for less than half the cost. Perialas said his teachers were facing a dues increase from the MEA this year that would have increased their annual payments from $850 to...

Chicago teachers want 16 percent raises and are fighting accountability benchmarks. The 26,000-member Chicago Teachers Union went on strike Monday, leaving nearly 400,000 students in the lurch. Teacher strikes are illegal in Michigan, but they have happened in the past, most recently when Detroit Public Schools teachers walked out on students in 2006. Paul Kersey, director of workforce policy at the Illinois Policy Institute, works at an office so close to where the striking Chicago teachers are marching that he said he could hear the protesters outside his window. Kersey, who formerly was director of labor policy at the Mackinac...

Michigan's open spaces could be dotted with turbines nearly 500 feet tall — the same height as the 40-story Guardian Building in downtown Detroit — if voters pass Proposal 3 in November. The proposal, which would mandate that 25 percent of Michigan's energy come from renewable sources such as wind by 2025, would require a huge increase in the number of turbines across the state. The newest turbines have rotor blades that are longer than a football field. Experts are split about how many of the mammoth structures would be needed to generate as much as 20 percent of the...

Congressman Mike Rogers [R-Michigan] gave an interview recently and said he walked out of a meeting a few weeks ago between you and US Ambassador Dan Shapiro with a sense that you were at wit’s end over American policy toward Iran. Are you? No, I am not at wit’s end. I believe we have to stop Iran, I believe we can stop Iran, and I think certain things are needed to do that. One of them is setting clear, designated limits to Iran’s nuclear weapons programs activities. I think that has not yet been done, but I am an old...

"I think it was a planned, premeditated attack," Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said, according to Roll Call, the newspaper that covers Congress. But he said he did not know who carried out the attack. "People don't go to demonstrate and carry RPGs and automatic weapons," sad Arizona Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on Levin's committee. "This was not a 'mob' action [or] a group of protesters."

Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm never met a stage she didn’t like. But she might have finally landed on one that got the best of her. In a wild and rambling speech Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention, Granholm winked and swayed and waved her way through a series of statements that excited an audience of loyalists but was short on facts. We can forgive DNC organizers for introducing her as the “governor of Michigan” and even bypass the Canadian and former governor’s amnesia about her lineage when she claimed she was “from the great state of Michigan.” Those are...

If a corporation in Michigan teamed up behind the scenes with government officials to extract money from the checks of taxpayers and promised to spend that money electing Mitt Romney and other Republicans, what would be the reaction? MLive reporter David Eggert wrote that "Michigan’s union-backed ballot measures are a hot topic at the Democratic National Convention." How the union heads frame the issue of the home health care ballot is significant. Marge Faville, president of SEIU Healthcare Michigan, "a union of home health workers headed toward extinction unless voters are persuaded to keep it alive" is quoted in the...

The “Keep Home Care Safe” proposal campaign has made another tactical change. Its website no longer makes the claim that passing the proposal would create the Home Help Program. Its new claim is that the proposal is needed to safeguard those who participate in the federally created Home Help Program, which allows elderly and disabled people to receive care in their home instead of having to move into a nursing home. It was created in 1981. Backers of Proposal 4 as the ballot measure is now known, want voters to believe that the state constitution is an appropriate place to...

LANSING, MI - It has been known for years that former Gov. Jennifer Granholm appeared on "The Dating Game" in 1978. Now, you can watch it below. After Granholm's fiery speech to the Democratic National Convention last week - which some have called her Howard Dean moment - a video has surfaced on YouTube of her on the dating show. She has puffy hair - lots of it - wears tight jeans and suspenders, and asks questions of the three bachelors like "What was the most famous girl you ever dated famous for?" The host says she hails from British...

Former governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention challenging Republicans and Mitt Romney to save Detroit. But Manny Lopez with the Mackinac Center, a think-tank in Michigan, says her speech was full of inaccuracies.

The West Bloomfield Police Department is mourning the loss of one of their own this morning. According to media reports, the West Bloomfield Police Officer was shot and killed early this morning. West Bloomfield is located about 40 minutes northwest of Detroit. Authorities are at a home where a man has barricaded himself inside with a gun. There is a bomb squad there as well. This could be related to the shooting.

The Wall Street Journal says Michigan is the new battlefield in organized labor’s national campaign to preserve political power. In a Labor Day editorial, The Journal discusses the so-called “Protect Our Jobs” amendment that would enshrine collective bargaining in the Michigan Constitution. The editorial reflects the work of Mackinac Center analysts, noting the effect of the proposal: “The amendment would reduce the ability of Michigan lawmakers to change labor laws and end-run efforts to give workers a choice about whether to join a union.” The Journal also notes that organized labor hopes to invalidate and ban other meaningful reforms with...

DETROIT - A man is in the hospital after being shot when he allegedly tried to rob a man who had a gun at a gas station on Detroit’s west side. According to police, a man stopped at Sunoco Gas Station near Joy and Hubbell roads Friday night. He went into the station and when he was walking back to his car two men attacked him and tried to rob him. “I think it’s just terrible, it’s bold,” said a woman who asked not to be identified. During the altercation, the man pulled a gun, which he is licensed to...

DETROIT - Detroit police said a store owner on Detroit's west side shot three men who were allegedly breaking into his business early Friday morning, killing one of them. Police said the 51-year-old owner heard the men breaking into his liquor store on Joy Road near Ohio just after 3 a.m. He opened fire on them, killing a man in his 20s. The other two were critically wounded and are hospitalized, police said.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Flush with cash, Mitt Romney plans to open a new front in the White House race by challenging President Barack Obama in upper Midwest states where he might not have dug in otherwise. Obama is intensifying his efforts to cast his Republican rival as out of touch, which he's already been working pretty hard at doing. This is the beginning of the homestretch to Election Day, when everything in the two campaigns goes into overdrive and a September or October surprise could upend it all. -snip- In the coming weeks, Romney's team is expected to pay for...

Charlotte: Unimpressed by US President Barack Obama's fiery speech seeking re-election, the two Indian-American Governors, Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal, today said that Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, is the best person to lead the country. Both Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana, and Haley, the Governor of South Carolina, are rising stars of the Republican party and were quick to issue statements after Obama concluded his Democratic presidential nomination acceptance speech. "The last time Barack Obama spoke before the Democratic National Convention, he told us of hope and change that we could believe in. What a difference four years...

Barack Obama is keeping his promise to lower the sea levels, and he’s starting with the drought plagued Midwest where Lake Michigan water is being shipped by the boat loads over to China! By using a little known loophole in the 2006 Great Lakes Compact, Obama minions are allowing Nestle Company to export precious fresh water out of Lake Michigan to the tune of an estimated $500,000 million to $1.8 million per day profit. By draining the precious jewel of the Great Lakes in the middle of America, our federal water managers are allowing the export of our water out...