Free Republic

A Michigan state lawmaker being busted for driving drunk — in a car with “ELECTED” vanity plates — told cops that arresting him would not “be good,” since he controls the department’s budget, a police report shows. Rep. Jewell Jones (D-Inkster) told Michigan state

Sitting on the crumbling porch of a small, boarded-up house where Malcolm X once lived, community activist Aaron Sims recalls Inkster as the place where African American workers on Henry Ford’s assembly line settled because they weren’t welcome in the nearby factory town of Dearborn. Sims describes several years of fighting to save the dilapidated home where the civil rights leader lived during part of his formative years, shares his hopes of turning the modest property into a museum for his small, struggling suburb and talks proudly of twice casting his ballot for Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president.

"You are more likely to the win the lottery than to reach this age," Gerontology Research Group director Robert Young said.Recently crowned as the oldest person in the world, Michigan resident Jeralean Talley turned 116 years old on Saturday. Talley became the world's oldest person last month after the death of Gertrude Weaver, who was also 116. Weaver held the title for less than a week, as she died just five days after Japan's 117-year-old Misao Okawa. Talley is one of three living members of the 19th century club, having been born on May 23, 1899 in Montrose, Ga. In...

NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Feb. 24, 2005 -- Army Staff Sgt. Kevin Bowe and his wife, Sgt. Brandy Bowe, spent their "honeymoon" on a Caribbean island. There was plenty of sun and stunning views of crystal-clear, blue-tinted waters. But this couple didn't visit Jamaica or the Bahamas. In fact, the only home the two Army Reservists have shared so far in their short marriage has been in Cuba – at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay. Kevin, who is responsible for the tools in his unit's motor pool, and Brandy, a military police officer, were married in December 2003, while she...