University of Michigan

Tuesday

Michael Sobolik

China targets US citizens with biowarfare weapons

On June 3 the Department of Justice announced charges against two nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The offenses ranged from conspiracy and false statements to visa fraud and smuggling. The final charge was the most concerning, as the item in question was a fungus called Fusarium graminearum. According to DOJ, this fungus is “a potential agroterrorism weapon” responsible for head blight, a disease that targets multiple crops from wheat and maize to barley and rice. It causes billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year, and its effects are pronounced: vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive disruptions in both humans and livestock. Welcome to the newest front in the Chinese Communist party’s (CCP) cold war against Americans.

Biowarfare

Friday

Cockburn

Why is Jeremy Boreing exiting the Daily Wire?

Wired for sound Rumors abound about god king’s exit The right-wing media rumor mill threatened to spin off its axis earlier this week with the shock announcement that “god king” Jeremy Boreing was stepping down as co-CEO of the Daily Wire. Boreing, a keen film enthusiast who starred, wrote and directed in the Wire’s comedy movie Lady Ballers, is withdrawing to “focus on creative projects for the company,” per Axios’s Sara Fischer. The DW’s many detractors had a field day with the news – speculating that there was more to the story. Boreing and Ben Shapiro had fallen out, one hater claimed, and were retaining different PR agents to brief against each other!

Tuesday

Ben Domenech

Gretchen Whitmer’s struggle shows Democrats’ Israel problem isn’t going away

Democrats have an Israel problem that isn’t going away any time soon. Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer illustrated why this weekend in a CNN appearance that had her dodging the actions of her fellow partisans. At issue is the actions of Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, who is Jewish — and who has targeted eleven campus protesters from the University of Michigan, several of whom allegedly engaged in acts of violent obstruction against police officers charged with clearing their illegal encampment. The blowback against Nessel’s decision to charge the protesters, seven of them with felonies, led to Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan to accuse her and her office of anti-Palestine bias: We’ve had the right to dissent, the right to protest.

Friday

Amber Duke

Meet football’s Catholic first family

Jim Harbaugh made a surprise appearance at the annual March for Life in Washington, DC last Friday, just a couple of weeks after he won the college football national championship as the head coach of the University of Michigan Wolverines. Harbaugh marched alongside about 100,000 other pro-lifers in the snowy cold and gave an impassioned speech to the crowd while introducing former NFL player Benjamin Watson.   “Thank you all for being here. It’s a great example that you’re setting. It’s testimony for the sanctity of life.” Harbaugh said. “It’s a great day for a march... This is football weather!” “You know, we all talk about human rights.

Monday

Bill Kauffman

Detroit detour

Detroit, Michigan A cowboy's work is never done, as Sonny Bono once croaked. (I interviewed Sonny shortly after he was elected to Congress in the Republican wave of 1994. He confirmed to me that Cher thought that the faces on Mount Rushmore were a natural formation.) Segueing from one Armenian American to another: when I lured my wife from the Chandleresque precincts of Southern California to the Edenic plains of New York’s Burned-Over District (“married an LA doll and brought her to this small town,” as John Mellencamp growled), she asked to visit two cities: Utica and Cleveland. Having made her dreams come true, as is my wont, I thought my work was done. But no.

Detroit