FLINT, Mich. — A Grand Blanc, Michigan man has been charged with felony embezzlement for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from a local nonprofit youth football organization over a span of several years.

According to a felony complaint filed in Genesee County's 67th District Court, Richard Merrell is accused of embezzling between $1,000 and $20,000 from the Grand Blanc Youth Football Club, a nonprofit organization, between 2019 and 2024.

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The complaint alleges that Merrell, who was acting as an agent, servant, or employee of the organization, converted money or property to his own use without the consent of the nonprofit. The funds were allegedly taken while under Merrell’s control by virtue of his role within the organization.

The felony charge carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of $15,000, or three times the amount embezzled—whichever is greater. If convicted, Merrell may face a consecutive sentence if the court determines the nonprofit status of the victim warrants additional penalties.

The warrant for Merrell’s arrest was authorized on March 27, 2025, by the Genesee County Prosecutor's Office.

No further details have been released regarding the specific amount allegedly taken or how the embezzlement was discovered. Merrell’s first court appearance has not yet been scheduled.

The case is being handled by the 7th Judicial Circuit Court and the 67th Judicial District Court in Flint.

I have reached out to Merrell and thge youth group for comment but have not yet heard back from anyone.

This is a developing story.

 

 

CHICAGO, IL - An Illinois bill that could drastically change homeschooling rules in the state would create "a pipeline to the criminal justice system for parents," a state Democratic lawmaker warned Thursday.

Rep. La Shawn Ford, who represents a district that includes parts of Chicago, made the remark as parents, students and opponents of HB 2827, the Homeschool Act, rallied in the city’s downtown.

The bill, which is advancing through the Illinois state legislature, would charge parents with a misdemeanor if they fail to register their kids in a "homeschool declaration form" to the nearest public school they would otherwise be attending. It also requires documentation of immunizations and health examinations for children who wish to participate in public school activities. Click here to read more.

 

TAMPA, FLA — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed his support for a bill banning what he called weather modification “nonsense” before it hits the Senate floor on Thursday.

SB-56, dubbed the so-called “chemtrails bill” after its sponsor pointed to the conspiracy theory while defending the bill in committee, prohibits “the injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of a chemical, a chemical compound, a substance, or an apparatus into the atmosphere within the borders of this state for the express purpose of affecting the temperature, weather, climate, or intensity of sunlight.”

“Many of us senators receive concerns, complaints on a regular basis regarding these condensation trails, aka chemtrails,” bill sponsor Ileana Garcia said in a committee hearing last month. “There’s a lot of skepticism.”

The bill would also require the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to set up a system allowing residents to report “suspected geoengineering activities” and directing the FDEP to investigate those claims. Click here to reasd more.

 

The U.S. economy is staring down the barrel of a tax increase to the tune of several hundred billion dollars. If the Trump administration follows through with its threats (never a sure thing), we will this week see the imposition of so-called reciprocal tariffs to ostensibly match the burden placed by other countries on U.S. exports.

As President Donald Trump and administration officials tell it, the move is rooted in a desire to stop foreign countries from ripping Americans off through unfair trade. But such claims warrant considerable skepticism.

The administration’s words and actions make it increasingly clear that this reciprocity talk is just a fig leaf for higher tariffs. They aren’t a means to an end but the end themselves. And unless Congress acts − an unlikely proposition − American businesses and consumers alike will suffer.

On its face, the pursuit of tariff reciprocity may seem a commonsense approach. Although not exactly the golden rule, it seems darn close. Why not give U.S. trading partners a taste of their own medicine?

But the seductive logic of reciprocity falls apart upon even cursory examination.

Tariffs are a tax on American consumers

Tariffs are a costly and inefficient tax usually borne by the importing country’s consumers. Click here to read more.

 

LANSING, Mich - General Motors is planning to ramp up its production of light-duty trucks in the United States after President Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on auto imports, Reuters reported on Thursday.

In a message sent to employees, GM said it will increase the truck production at its assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The auto company based in Detroit said in a statement that it “will be making operational adjustments at Fort Wayne Assembly, including hiring temporary employees, to support current manufacturing and business needs,” according to The Detroit News.

Plant Director Dennys Pimenta told employees that the change could add more overtime days to the schedule for workers, and a company source told Reuters that hundreds of temporary workers could get hired at the plant, which currently employs around 4,150 workers. GM’s plants in Canada and Mexico that also focus on making light-duty and full-size trucks will not see any changes to production schedules, a source told The Detroit News. Click here to read more.

 

I once stood within the halls of academia, benefiting from the generous funding of the National Institutes of Health. I was part of the system, a researcher fueled by grants that were supposed to propel scientific progress.

But after years inside the machine, I have come to a sobering conclusion: The NIH is fundamentally broken and morally corrupted. Corruption, waste, and fraud are not occasional lapses but systemic failures. The agency must be gutted and reformed if we are to salvage scientific integrity.

One of the most damning indictments against the NIH is the reproducibility crisis. Science is supposed to be built on verifiable, repeatable results, yet the vast majority of research funded by the NIH fails this basic test. Click here to read more.

 

 

NASHVILLE, TN - The final police report on Nashville’s deadly Covenant School shooting, released more than two years after the attack, claims the motive of the attack was “notoriety” and makes little mention of the shooter’s radical positions on gender, race, or religious animus.

While pages from the writings of the 28-year-old woman who murdered three children and three adults at The Covenant School in March 2023 demonstrate that she was fixated on gender ideology and “white privilege,” police say that she was primarily motivated by a desire for notoriety. Investigators said that neither her documented hatred of Christianity or affluent white people played a role in her targeting of The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school in a wealthy area of Nashville.

“Regarding why she selected The Covenant, many have speculated [the shooter] selected this location for racial, religious, or economic motives,” the report said. “It is certainly true she raged over these topics at times in her writings. But none of those motives impacted her decision to attack The Covenant.” Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - A researcher who argued that infant mortality is higher for black newborns with white doctors because of racial bias omitted a variable from the paper that “undermines the narrative,” according to the researcher’s internal notes.

The study forms a keystone of the racial concordance field, which hypothesizes patients are better served by medical providers of the same race, and has served as a rationale for affirmative action. It faces new questions just as universities moveto defund their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs or face legal action.

The August 2020 study in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) concluded that the gap in mortality rates between black newborns and white newborns declines by 58% if the black newborns are under the care of black physicians. A possible driver of the phenomenon could include a “spontaneous bias” by white physicians toward the babies, the researchers wrote.

 

MARYSVILLE, Calif. — Marysville’s police chief called on state lawmakers to “wake up” after a convicted felon and sex offender killed a Marysville police officer last week while law enforcement cracked down on a suspected Northern California drug ring with ties to Mexico.

“We’re not going to stop giving up the fight to take (fentanyl) off our streets and make the community safer,” Police Chief Christian Sachs told reporters Monday. “And maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I’ll be completely transparent with you, this starts in our Legislature, and the broken system.”

Officer Osmar Rodarte, 30, was shot Wednesday morning while executing a search warrant at an Olivehurst home as part of a SWAT unit. He died soon after at Adventist Health and Rideout hospital in Marysville.

The search was part of a years-long effort by local, state and federal agencies investigatinga group of family members suspected of transporting potentially thousands of pounds of drugs from Mexico into California, supplying street-level dealers in Northern California, authorities said. Click here to read more.

 

A Colorado bill would consider “deadnaming” or “misgendering” forms of “coercive control” in custody cases.

The bill’s summary says that “a court shall consider deadnaming, misgendering, or threatening to publish material related to an individual’s gender-affirming health-care services as types of coercive control. A court shall consider reports of coercive control when determining the allocation of parental responsibilities in accordance with the best interests of the child.”

“Coercive control” is defined in the bill as a “pattern of threatening, humiliating, or intimidating actions, including assaults or other abuse, that is used to harm, punish, or frighten an individual.” Coercive control includes anything that “takes away the individual’s liberty or freedom and strips away the individual’s sense of self, including the individual’s bodily integrity and human rights.”

The legislation notes that “deadnaming or misgendering” are considered means of coercive control and further states that no school dress codes may be based on gender. Click here to read more.

 

NEW JERSEY - A proposed ordinance in Summit, New Jersey has sparked backlash over concerns that it would effectively criminalize homelessness.

The proposal would fine or jail individuals for sleeping, camping, or storing personal items in public spaces, even though the city only reports a small unhoused population.

What we know:

Summit city officials are considering an ordinance that would ban sleeping, camping, or storing personal belongings in public spaces. The measure was introduced at a recent city council meeting. If passed, violators could face fines of up to $2,000 or up to 90 days in jail.

Although Summit has a reported unhoused population of around five individuals, the city has already formed a dedicated task force and allocated resources to address the issue.

The proposal follows a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding an Oregon law that allows cities to ban homeless people from using blankets, pillows, or cardboard boxes for shelter. Click here to read more.