Michigan

Car dealers have found a new way to profit from people with money trouble: leasing them hand-me-down vehicles. The deals are pitched to customers as the cheapest way to drive a used car off the lot, with the added benefit of an easy escape for those who can't keep up with the payments. Few customers are told about the advantages on the other side of the trade. Leases can allow dealerships to sidestep interest rate caps, and there are fewer financial disclosures rules than with a conventional car loan.

Floodwaters that swept through the Midwest last week failed to recede Tuesday after another inch of rain fell in Illinois and surrounding states, and forecasters warned that more was on the way. Heavy rainfall and severe thunderstorms battered the region with half a foot of rain last week, inundating several small towns - including Marseilles, Ill., and Kokomo, Ind. - and causing damage from lower Michigan to Missouri. Water coursed through downtown Chicago, submerging cars, knocking out power to thousands of residents and forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights from O'Hare International Airport.

A woman apparently took a wrong turn and drove into a lake, drowning herself and three young girls, authorities said Thursday. Dr. Karen Lynn Gilhooly, 46, was taking her daughter and two classmates to a dance concert Wednesday evening when the car plunged into Long Lake. Gilhooly may have taken a wrong turn onto a road that ends at a boat launch. She turned a short distance ahead of another road that goes toward the arts center where the concert was held.

The time was right for Trey Burke. The Michigan star made it official Sunday: He's leaving the Wolverines to enter the NBA draft. The move came as no surprise after Burke was voted the Associated Press national player of the year and led Michigan to the NCAA title game as a sophomore. Burke also considered going to the NBA a year ago, but he came back for another season. Now he departs with his stock seemingly peaking. "I just felt like this was the best opportunity for me," Burke said.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court will hear Michigan's appeal of a surprising ruling that struck down its voters' ban on giving “preferential treatment” to students based on their race, weighing the emotionally tense issue of affirmative action for the second time in a year. The Michigan measure is nearly identical to the California proposition that in 1996 abolished race-based affirmative action policies for admission to the state's colleges and universities. But defenders of affirmative action went to federal court in Michigan and won a ruling from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals that held the state measure unconstitutional on the grounds it took away a civil rights provision that benefited minorities.

Indiana Coach Tom Crean got pretty emotional after the Hoosiers' 72-71 victory over Michigan on Sunday. But it wasn't all the kind of emotion one might expect from a coach whose team had just come back from a five-point deficit in the final 41 seconds to claim the victory and the Big Ten title. During the postgame handshakes, Crean and Michigan assistant coach Jeff Meyer reportedly got into each other's faces while exchanging angry words and "rapidly - and ridiculously - patted the other on the back," according to Yahoo!

Louisville, the No 1 seeded team in the NCAA tournament, is now national champion. The Cardinals defeated Michigan, 82-76, Monday night at the Georgia Dome as guard Peyton Siva took over in the second half. Siva scored 18 points -- 14 in the second half -- and also had six rebounds, five assists and four steals. Luke Hancock led Louisville in scoring with a career-high 22 points after scoring 21 against Wichita State in a semifinal on Saturday. Hancock had 16 in the first half to help rally the Cardinals from an early 12-point deficit.

With a new poll hinting at a tightening race in the pivotal Michigan primary, Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum tried to stoke blue-collar resentments Monday in the conservative western part of the state. The former Pennsylvania senator is aiming for a knockout blow of Mitt Romney in one of his rival's traditional strongholds.  Santorum told supporters in the gritty Great Lakes harbor town of Muskegon that he is anticipating "what could be a sound heard 'round the world here in Michigan" next week.

If Denard Robinson is still hoping an NFL team will give him a shot as a pro quarterback, he better pray no scouts watched his ceremonial first pitch before Tuesday's Detroit Tigers-Toronto Blue Jays game. Robinson, the ex-Michigan quarterback who set an NCAA record for rushing yards, will probably continue to be dogged with questions about his throwing accuracy after one-hopping his pitch about midway to home plate. The 2013 NFL draft hopeful didn't look like he put much effort into the throw and was seen joking afterward with his catcher, Tigers pitcher Drew Smyly.

ATLANTA — Michigan will have three or four thank-you notes to hand out should it win Monday night's national championship game against Louisville at the Georgia Dome. It can start with Penn State, which beat the Wolverines by 14 points in State College on Feb. 27. Penn State, before that night, was 0-14 in Big Ten play. That had to be a defibrillator-like shock to the system. Michigan can thank the NCAA for tournament expansion and ditching the rule that once required that a team win its conference title or postseason tournament.

All in all, a pretty good day for Coach Rick Pitino. Named to basketball's Hall of Fame earlier Monday, he then saw his  Louisville Cardinals rally from a 12-point first-half deficit to defeat Michigan, 82-76, in the NCAA national championship basketball game at the Georgia Dome. So the NCAA selection committee was right. It made Louisville  the overall No. 1-seeded team in the 68-team tournament. "We beat a great basketball team, probably because I have the 13 toughest guys I've ever coached," Pitino said during a postgame ceremony.

  Join Times college basketball writer Chris Dufresne at noon today for a live video chat as he breaks down tonight men's basketball title game between Louisville and Michigan. The video chat will take place on this blog post. As Dufrense wrote yesterday , "Louisville has won 15 consecutive games en route to its third NCAA championship game. The Cardinals won titles in 1980 and 1986 under Denny Crum. Current Coach Rick Pitino is trying to become the first coach to win NCAA titles at two different schools after leading Kentucky to the 1996 crown.

ATLANTA -- Florida Gulf Coast was a carnival cruise while it lasted and Wichita State was a hoot, but there will be nothing "mid" about the majors playing for Monday's national title. The final call is strictly blue grass vs. blue blood. Louisville, the top overall No.1 team in the tournament, will play Michigan from the Big Ten, the nation's top overall conference this season. Everyone else — thanks for participating. In Saturday's national semifinal games in front of a football-sized Georgia Dome crowd, Louisville held off interloper Wichita State, 72-68, then Michigan survived the vortex that had been Syracuse's zone defense, 61-56.

LOUISVILLE Starters P; Player; Ht.; WTt; Stats F; Wayne Blackshear; 6-5 230; 7.6 ppg F; Chane Behanan;6-6; 250; 9.6 ppg C: Gorgui Dieng;6-11; 245; 9.4 rpg G: Russ Smith;6-1; 165;18.9 ppg G: Peyton Siva;6-0 185;9.8 ppg Reserves F; Luke Hancock;6-6; 200; 7.7 ppg F: Tim Henderson;6-2;195; 0.8 ppg MICHIGAN Starters P; Player; Ht.; Wt.; States F; Glenn Robinson III;6-6;210; 10.9...

If Denard Robinson is still hoping an NFL team will give him a shot as a pro quarterback, he better pray no scouts watched his ceremonial first pitch before Tuesday's Detroit Tigers-Toronto Blue Jays game. Robinson, the ex-Michigan quarterback who set an NCAA record for rushing yards, will probably continue to be dogged with questions about his throwing accuracy after one-hopping his pitch about midway to home plate. The 2013 NFL draft hopeful didn't look like he put much effort into the throw and was seen joking afterward with his catcher, Tigers pitcher Drew Smyly.

During a single week in August, Faye Miller's comfortable world vanished. That's when Miller, 51, a homemaker in Rochester Hills, Mich., took her therapist's advice and started to examine her marriage. Through Google and phone records, she learned: Her husband of 10 years, Dr. Kenneth Mitchell, already had a wife in California when he married Miller. In 2003 he married another woman in Quebec. And Mitchell, 48, who attended Lutheran church with Miller, had converted to Islam in 2002, taken the Arabic name Mustafa and traveled twice to Saudi Arabia on religious pilgrimages, according to court records.

ATLANTA -- This one, Michigan fans, is on the books. Two decades after the famed Fab Five led the Wolverines to two NCAA tournament championship games that were later vacated, another group of fabulous young players has Michigan back in the title game after a 61-56 victory over fellow No. 4 seed Syracuse on Saturday night. Michigan Coach John Beilein made the most of his first Final Four game in a career that has spanned every level of college basketball, climbing from junior colleges to Division III to Division II to Division I to the chance to become the best team in the nation.