Free Republic

Before her life changed last year, Lauren Ziegler hated running. The Grand Valley State University student, now 22, grew up playing team sports in high school, then joined a CrossFit club in college as a way to stay fit as an undergrad. “I started competing in CrossFit competitions in college,” Ziegler told Runner’s World. “I loved every part of my CrossFit workouts except for the running. It was my least favorite thing in the world. The most I would ever run was two or three miles a week.” One morning before class in December 2018, Ziegler woke up to find...

“Political power, properly so called, is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another.” - Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto Controversy is swirling around an art event in Grand Rapids. An art festival is bringing a Down’s syndrome drag show from Britain, called Drag Syndrome, to town. The controversy isn’t aimed at Daniel Vais the London-based group’s founder and artistic director. Nor is it aimed at DisArt, the group organizing their Grand Rapids appearance but rather at Peter Meijer, the owner of the venue who has decided he doesn’t wish to make his establishment available for this...

WHAT was President Ford's MOST REPEATED WARNING? - "Government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to..." President Gerald Ford stated in Rockford, IL, March 11, 1976: "People say ... why don't you expand that program, why don't you spend more Federal money?... I don't think they have understood one of the fundamentals ... I look them in the eye and I say, 'Do you realize that a government big enough to give us everything we want is a government big enough to take from us everything we have?'" Gerald Rudolph Ford was the 38th U.S....

SAGINAW, MI – When police executed search warrants at three Catholic Diocese of Saginaw properties last year during an investigation into claims of sexual abuse of minors, documents show they seized nearly 60 items of evidence. Among them, located in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet at diocese headquarters, was a file labeled “victim list.” That information is contained in search warrant paperwork detailing what police seized during the March 2018 raid. The paperwork was recently unsealed and copies were obtained by MLive and The Saginaw News. The list of confiscated property shows investigators took 57 items during the...

In Washington, D.C., he's been labeled "loser," accused of being a secret Democrat, and ostracized from the legislative caucus he co-founded, but on Monday night Rep. Justin Amash (R–Mich.) found himself in friendlier territory—and embraced the opportunity. At a town hall in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Amash's constituents gave him applause and praise—but also fired pointed questions from left, right, and center political perspectives—during a nearly two-hour meeting marking the congressman's first public appearance since tweeting that he believed President Donald Trump had engaged in "impeachable conduct." It was the sort of spectacle that's all too rare in politics today; a...

The Grand Rapids Police Department is searching for two vandals who defaced the gravesites of President Gerald R. Ford and First Lady Betty Ford at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. Cops released photos of the March 27 incident that shows a man and woman sitting on a wall that’s part of the memorial site. The man appears to be carving or writing something on the panels that read “Lives Committed to God, Country and Love.” Surveillance video of the incident obtained by CBS affiliate WWMT also shows the woman kick a skateboard into the memorial wall.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Grand Rapids man who admitted to tossing water balloons into a crowd of President Donald Trump supporters pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor charge and says he might do it again. “Actions are going to be louder than words these days,’’ a grinning Robert Dale Truax Jr. said after his appearance in Grand Rapids District Court. “Try to get three water balloons out this time. I only got out two.’’ Truax pitched the two water balloons into a sea of people gathered outside Van Andel Arena on March 28 as Trump addressed supporters inside. No...

New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said a chant from President Donald Trump's supporters mocking her was emblematic of Trump finding a female politician to attack. "You know this is part of a pattern that the right and the far-right and, frankly, the President is consistent with," Ocasio-Cortez told CNN in New York. "He doesn't have another woman, Hillary Clinton or whoever else, to vilify anymore so they need to find another woman to kind of prop up and become a lightning rod." At a rally in Michigan on Thursday, members of the crowd could be heard chanting "AOC sucks"...

The #Trump rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan was packed with people, but the protesters weren't too sure what they were protesting. Some were protesting #fascism, some were on the #YANGGANG, it was a grand old time.

Since Donald Trump Jr. first gave an impassioned and well-received speech in support of his father and conservative values at the 2016 Republican National Convention, rumors have swirled about his own political future. At a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for President Donald Trump on Thursday, Trump Jr. told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he would "never rule anything out" when it comes to potentially making a run for office. "Right now, I'll never rule anything out," said the president's eldest son, according to Newsweek. "I do enjoy it. I like being in the fight. I like being in...

In his first major rally since Special Counsel Robert Mueller cleared him of any collusion with Russia, President Trump took the stage before a boisterous full house at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Thursday night -- and proceeded to tear into Democrats and the FBI as unintelligent "frauds" who tried desperately to undermine the results of the 2016 election. "The Democrats have to now decide whether they will continue defrauding the public with ridiculous bullsh--," Trump said to thunderous applause, "-- partisan investigations, or whether they will apologize to the American people." Trump continued to unload on...

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA!” a crowd of more than 200 protesters chanted at President Donald Trump supporters as they entered Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids Thursday afternoon to hear the president speak. “I came here to stand up for what I believe in,” said Grand Rapids resident Cam Deen, “and that’s anti-racism, anti-bigotry and anti-sexism. I feel Trump embodies the opposite of those things.” The protesters on Fulton Street in front of the arena were contained within a city block by salt trucks on either end and were separated from Trump supporters...

President Trump held a rally in my hometown last night. By all first person accounts the Grand Rapids, MI rally was a resounding success from wheels down… to wheels upAnd everything in between.Just look at all those young white nationalists supporting Trump. But as usual fake news was hard at work, giving equal time and attention to all the protestors who showed up in “Trump is literally Hitler!” masks and pink tights,rallying for the “socialist alternative”which I would remind them is currently operating without power or democracy in the country formerly known as Venezuela. But yeah lady, great slogan. Because...

President Trump live feed from Grand Rapids March 28 2019

GRAND RAPIDS — President Donald Trump will make a visit to Grand Rapids on Thursday in an early bid for re-election. The likely 2020 Republican Party nominee is expected to sound off on a range of issues inside the Van Andel Arena beginning at 7 p.m., while outside protestors have planned resistance.

https://twitter.com/JohnJamesMI/status/1057036124210774016

Ina Garten plans to cook up something special, should she ever have the opportunity to host some of Washington's top politicians. The Food Network's "Barefoot Contessa" star was asked by New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni what she would serve political figures. For Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, Garten would prepare lobster macaroni and cheese. For Senate hopeful Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, an avowed BBQ lover, she would serve pulled pork shoulder with maple beans, cornbread, and a kale salad. Former Vice President Joe Biden would receive "something fun, like a lobster and clambake," Garten said. And President Trump? "A...

One woman's trip to the gym ended with a brawl and destruction, video shows. A pair of videos posted to Facebook by Alexia Delange show an unidentified woman threatening to kill a Planet Fitness employee in Grand Rapids, Michigan before she starts throwing objects at the man — including a desktop computer. She continues to threaten and shout expletives at the worker, the video shows, and then lunges at him. She tumbles to the floor but gets back up and throws some punches. The video shows the employee deflecting the attacks. "Let's go," she shouts. She then appears to blame...

A white sex offender arrested for allegedly urinating on a 5-year-old black girl and calling her a racial slur has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the case as prosecutors and police determined the story was fabricated.

A Grand Rapids, Michigan man accused of urinating on a 5-year-old girl was cleared of all charges Friday after police determined the child's story was fabricated. A police spokesperson for the Grand Rapids Police Department confirmed to Fox News Friday night that no charges would be filed against 60-year-old David Allen Dean. A 5-year-old girl, who was not identified, falsely claimed the man urinated on her as she was hiding in bushes while playing hide-and-seek with friends.