When it comes to doing Detroit proud, Kid Rock hits all cylinders with his song "Times Like These." Some days, driving north or south on Woodward, I get a bit choked up when I hear him sing: "I heard them say they're shuttin' Detroit down. But I won't leave cuz' this is my hometown."

Catholic leaders are outraged over a recent decision by the Obama administration that would require Catholic-affiliated institutions to cover contraceptives and sterilization in their employee health care plans -- a rule they say would violate one of their core beliefs.

Don't expect quick action on a bipartisan plan by state lawmakers to increase gas prices and vehicle registration fees to raise $1.4 billion a year to repair state roads and bridges. Key lawmakers in the House and Senate are already hitting the brakes on the most controversial parts of the 30-bill package.

Palm trees in Pontiac? The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released its first guide to what plants will thrive in what area. In general, it's a few degrees warmer than the old version that's been around for 22 years.

Anguish and loneliness are still with Bob Bashara almost two weeks after his wife, Jane, was found dead. But he said the tears are nearly gone. "I don't know if I can cry anymore," Bashara said.

Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano's political operatives pressured Ficano appointees to buy and sell tickets to his fund-raisers and spend their free time working for a campaign machine that has raised more than $600,000 from county employees since 2003, a dozen former appointees said.

Amid the firestorm that has engulfed his administration since last fall's severance pay scandal erupted, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano is admitting to poor oversight and sloppy management but insists he has done nothing illegal or unethical and won't resign.

More than two and a half years after the end of the Great Recession, cash is still king for many consumers. In the aftermath of the deepest downturn since the 1930s, money has poured into deposit accounts that earn little or no interest.

The man who told police he killed Jane Bashara at the behest of her husband was released from custody Friday afternoon -- and the Bashara family says it wants protection from him.

After a full day of classes at Lake Shore High School in St. Clair Shores, foreign exchange student Zhou Yukun hopped on a school bus and headed home. But home wasn't with a local family -- it was a dorm built especially for students like him who come from faraway lands.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and union leaders expressed confidence Thursday that the three-year tentative labor contract reached late Wednesday with more than half the city's unions would ward off insolvency and a state-appointed emergency manager.

Ferris Bueller, Darth Vader, body-painted models, dogs, all-star celebrities, hipster vampires and CGI-aliens are just some of the colorful characters scheduled to touch down during the Super Bowl telecast Sunday. But the biggest star could be actor and director Clint Eastwood, expected to appear in a two-minute Chrysler ad giving America a pep talk, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

As investigators work to untangle a web of conflicting information and accusations surrounding the killing of Grosse Pointe Park mother Jane Bashara, they're awaiting evidence submitted to the State Police crime lab that could help solve the mystery.

The purported accomplice said he killed a Grosse Pointe Park woman last week -- but how and why is an evolving story, a source familiar with the investigation told the Free Press on Wednesday. Defense lawyer David Griem said the man's accounts of Jane Bashara's killing "sound like something out of cheap pulp fiction."

Kade'jah Davis was the kind of kid who kept the spirit of neighborliness alive in her Detroit neighborhood. The 12-year-old honor student could be seen playing basketball with friends, helping a neighbor carry in groceries or sitting on the porch, sharing stories with an elderly neighbor.

She may not be as famous as Punxsutawney Phil, the grandstanding groundhog from Pennsylvania who has been around since 1887. And she's not as infamous as Staten Island Chuck -- the grumpy groundhog who bit New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg three years ago.

WASHINGTON -- Going on the offensive and putting his vast war chest and organization to work, Mitt Romney romped over his Republican rivals in Florida on Tuesday, redefining himself as the front-runner to face President Barack Obama in November.

The investigation into the mysterious death of a Grosse Pointe Park woman intensified Tuesday as police interrogated a possible accomplice who said he was there when Jane Bashara was strangled in her home, a source familiar with the investigation told the Free Press.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing's administration has reached tentative agreements -- contracts with substantial worker concessions -- with a significant number of the city's 48 labor unions in a down-to-the-wire effort to ward off a state-appointed emergency manager, according to people close to the negotiations.

There were no major elections in 2011, but the Moroun family didn't take its foot off the political giving gas as it fought plans for a public bridge across the Detroit River, campaign finance reports show.

A privately funded study to be released today outlines three ways the Chicago waterways could be closed off from the Great Lakes to keep invasive species, such as Asian carp, from moving between them. The cheapest solution would cost taxpayers more than $3 billion and would take at least a decade to complete.

A clear majority of Michigan voters oppose the idea of raising gas taxes and registration fees to fund road and bridge improvements, according to a Free Press/WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) poll.

Two of Japan's largest auto suppliers with operations in Michigan, Yazaki and Denso, pleaded guilty to price-fixing on electronic auto supplies and will pay $548 million in fines. Four Japanese executives from Yazaki also pleaded guilty and will serve between 15 months and two years in U.S. prisons.

From closing all the city's recreation centers and privatizing ambulance services to increasing bus and garbage fees to merging the health department with Wayne County's, the Detroit City Council is mulling drastic reductions to help ward off the state's appointment of an emergency manager.