Tag Archives: Michigan

Michigan Patient Tests Positive for Plague

A Michigan resident who had been vacationing in Colorado has tested positive for bubonic plague.

The Michigan Department of Health says the unnamed resident is the state’s first ever recorded case of the disease.  They said it’s likely the contracted the disease in Colorado because they visited an area “with reported plague activity.”

The confirmed infection is the 14th case of the life threatening disease this year.  Three people have died from the plague this year: two in Colorado and one in Utah.

The Centers for Disease Control said that the plague has been reported almost exclusively in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado since 1970.  Only one infection has been confirmed to have taken place outside of those states, and that was in a lab environment.

Doctors say the disease is still extremely rare.

“Now, it’s very rare, especially in the U.S. There are only about 7 to 10 cases a year, but it still exists,” medical contributor Dr. Holly Phillips told “CBS This Morning.” “Think of rodents in very rural states — western states, southwest, ranches, farms — that’s likely what happened here.”

The number of overall infections this year is more than double the national average of seven cases.

Police See Wheelchair Bound Man Trying To Mow Lawn; Take Over The Job

Three police officers in Kalamazoo, Michigan took a break from enforcing the law this week to mow the lawn.

And no one in the community is complaining about it.

Officer Joe Hutson discovered a man in a wheelchair trying to mow his lawn.  Officer Hutson radioed his partner, officer John Khillah, asking him to bring a second mower and weed trimmer and then took over the mowing job from the wheelchair bound man.

Officer Khillah brought the mower, trimmer and a leaf blower from the nearby Public Safety Station #2 along with Sgt. Ken Skibbe.  The three men then mowed, trimmed and took care of the lawn trimmings for the homeowner.

“We are showing people our officers are committed to a service-oriented style of policing,” Capt. Jim Mallery said in an interview with the Kalamazoo Gazette last month.

The KPD reported the man’s lawn was “manicured to perfection” on the department’s Facebook page.

Scientists Puzzled By Michigan Earthquake

Scientists are trying to explain a 3.3 magnitude earthquake that struck 13 miles southeast of Battle Creek, Michigan Wednesday.

The quake was recorded 20 miles from the epicenter of a 4.2 magnitude earthquake that struck on May 2nd, the strongest recorded in Michigan in 67 years.

The Wednesday quake was far enough apart from May’s quake that scientists say it’s not an aftershock of the first.  Apparently there are two separate fault lines in the region. The first quake revealed a fault line that had only been previously speculated by scientists but had not been proven.

“After the May event, I suspected we wouldn’t see another event, so I was a bit surprised by this one,” said Harley Benz, a seismologist with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). “What more surprised me is that they weren’t in the same locations.”

John Yellich of the Michigan Geological Survey concurred the two quakes were not connected.

“Two separate ones today. That’s what it looks like,” Yellich said. “Nothing unusual and the fact that we are getting two of them in the same area, it could be that it’s all of this movement just readjusting. It appears to be two different areas.”

Benz said the quakes could be “glacial rebound”, a conditions where land masses pressed down by tons of ice during Michigan’s last glacial period are starting to rise.

While some environmentalists were quick to related the quakes to the process known as “fracking”, Benz said that evidence shows the quakes are tectonic, or related to the natural movements of the earth’s crust.

Supreme Court Throws Out Ruling Against Catholic Group

A Catholic organization that was being threatened with fines by the IRS because they were not providing insurance coverage including contraception has been given a reprieve by the Supreme Court.

The court granted Michigan Catholic Conference their request for an exemption for religious regions against the mandate by the Department of Health and Human Services.  The ruling means that the previous decision against the group was vacated and the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit must consider the Hobby Lobby decision in reviewing the case.

A counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty praised the ruling in a message to the Christian Post.

“That’s what is so bizarre about the government’s position,” said Mark Rienzi a senior counsel with the Becket Fund.

“The government says they are not a ‘religious employer’ and therefore they have to sign forms to authorize and require other people to give out contraceptives for them. That makes no sense at all.”

Rienzi said the Court will likely have to take up one of these cases in the future.

I think that the Court will continue the path it has set in the long string of mandate cases to date … and it will protect religious ministries from this mandate,” said Rienzi.

“This whole fight is unnecessary and silly. Obviously the government can distribute contraceptives without the forced involvement of the Catholic Church and its ministries. The government can put a man on the moon — they can distribute pills without religious ministries.”

The group is the sixth the justices have sided with on the issue since December 2013.

Michigan Mayor Retaliates Against Anti-Christian Protesters

After a group of anti-Christianists sued to have a “reason station” placed in a city facility to counter a “prayer station”, the mayor of Warren, Michigan announced a new city campaign.

The city will be handing out free posters that say “In God We Trust” and will be hanging them throughout the facility where the anti-Christian group will be sitting.

The decision by Mayor James Fouts comes after the city lost a court battle with the anti-Christian groups Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the ACLU.

“Obviously, I was concerned about the court order that forced the city of Warren to have a reason station within our city hall atrium,” Fouts said in a statement.

“The prayer station had been functioning for years without any problems or any controversy. They’re now allowed to have an atheist station under the euphemistic guise of a reason station.”

The mayor said all religions were able to place displays, noting a Ramadan display that was set up during that period of the Muslim calendar.

“However, this group is a non-religion, and I don’t know what display they’re going to put up unless they are attempting to disparage our prayer station, which I cannot tolerate,” Fouts said.

“I will not allow either a racial hate group to go up, a religious hate group to go up, or a group that disparages a particular ethnicity to go up on the city hall atrium.”

Christian Sign Returned To Park But With Disclaimer

Officials in Ottawa County, Michigan are returning a sign to a public park that contains Psalm 13:1.

The catch is that it will have a disclaimer to satisfy a resident who complaint of its presence.

The sign had been in Hager Park over 40 years stating “the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”  Last year, a resident who chose to hide their identity complained about the sign saying they were illegally promoting Christianity.

The sign was removed by Ottawa County Parks and Recreation director John Scholtz who said he removed the sign to “reduce potential conflicts.”

The County Board of Commissioners voted 9-2 to return the sign but also to include a sign that would talk about the history of the sign’s placement.  The sign was part of an agreement with the landowner who deeded the land to them.

The anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent a letter to the county demanding they do not return the sign.

Michigan City Allows Anti-Christianists To Put Display In “Prayer Station”

Officials of Warren, Michigan have given in to the virulent anti-Christian Freedom from Religion Foundation and are permitting the group to put up a display in city hall near a “prayer station.”

Anti-Christianist Douglas Marshall, a member of the activist group, demanded the Downtown Development Authority permit him to run a “reason station” where he would promote “free thought.”

The Mayor initially denied the request saying the goal of the anti-Christianist was to disrupt the actions of the prayer station.

“To my way of thinking, your group is strictly an anti-religion group intending to deprive all organized religions of their constitutional freedoms or at least discourage the practice of religion,” Mayor Jim Fouts wrote. “The City of Warren cannot allow this.”

The FFRF claimed they had nothing to do with it as they rushed into court to file a federal lawsuit with the ACLU and the anti-Christian group Separation of Church and State.

The FFRF and Douglas Marshall have sued the city previously in what the Mayor said were attempts to disrupt religious groups from being able to have city displays.

February Could Show Record Setting Cold

Meteorologists say that February 2015 could end up as one of the coldest months in Detroit history with an average temperature of just over 13 degrees.

“I’m doing some calculations but I think we are on track here to have the coldest month ever in Detroit, the way things are looking,” said AccuWeather’s Dean DeVore. “And it’s going to be brutally cold here today.”

“It’s like an open spigot from like Barrow, Alaska down to the Great Lakes. Meantime, they can’t buy a drop of rain on the west coast for the past month or so,” AccuWeather’s Dave Bowers added. “It’s been wicked. It really is quite a contrast. The western half of the country is having an extremely warm winter, and here it really is more like the Northwest Territories in our backyard.

“We’re running about almost 12 degrees below normal his month.”

Other cities across the U.S. have been setting records for cold temperatures.  Cleveland fell to -5 on Monday breaking a record set in 1873 and the first time since 1889 it was below zero on February 23rd.  The temperature hit -17 on Friday, shattering the previous low and was just 3 degrees short of the all time record for low temperature in the city.

Ann Arbor, Michigan hit -7 on Monday which broke the previous record for the date set in 1900.

Family Christian Stores Files Bankruptcy

The nation’s largest Christian bookstore chain specializing in Bibles, books, music and church supplies has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Family Christian Stores, the Grand Rapids, Michigan based non-profit company has 266 stores across 36 states.  FCS employs around 4,000 employees.  Corporate officials say that they don’t anticipate closing stores or laying off employees.

“We strive to serve God in all that we do and trust His guidance in all our decisions, especially this very important one,” stated FCS president and CEO Chuck Bengochea. “We have carefully and prayerfully considered every option. This action allows us to stay in business and continue to serve our customers, our associates, our vendors and charities around the world.”

FCS had bought itself back from private equity owners in 2012 with a pledge to donate 100 percent of profits to “widows and orphans.”

FCS released a statement regarding the restructuring:

Through a newly formed subsidiary, Family Christian Ministries will serve as the lead bidder for the Section 363 sale process, putting forward a plan that acquires the streamlined organization’s assets and maintains operation of the chain’s 267 stores in 36 states, as well as its e-commerce site www.familychristian.com. Family Christian Stores is asking the court for a schedule to complete the sale process in about 60 days.

After the judge approves the sale, we’ll be immediately cash-flow positive and profitable. This process is similar to the one taken by the automobile and airline industries in recent years. We see this as the start of a fresh new day for Family Christian Stores and look forward to delighting our customers for many years to come.

Among our next steps are to make various capital improvements to our stores, as well as invest in an expanded product line and implement a new retail strategy that will enable us to better serve our customers.

Half Century Old Cross To Be Removed Because of Anti-Christianist

A cross that stood on a hill above Grand Haven, Michigan for over 50 years will now be removed after an anti-Christian man who does not live in the community threatened a lawsuit.

Grand Haven City Council voted 3 to 2 for the removal of the cross from Dewey Hill despite massive opposition from the community for the move.

Grand Haven resident Brandon Hall, who writes for West Michigan Politics, says that the community is united against a man they see as a bully.

“One thing I want to make clear: Grand Haven is not divided. It is very united in support of the cross,” Hall said. “All my atheist friends hate what is going on here.  It’s very surprising that one guy can come from out of state and start all this. It is very shocking and disappointing.”

Mitch Kayle, who is openly bigoted against Christians, has bragged on social media of his actions attacking anything that might be Christian in public.  He has conducted similar hate campaigns in Hawaii.

“He is an atheist extremist who targets Christians and gives atheists a bad name,” Hall said.

A group of residents is raising funds to purchase the land the cross sits upon to keep it standing above the city.