Free Republic

A headline on Newsweek’s web site grabbed my attention in early May: “Wokeness Has Come for Adoption. It’s the Children Who Will Suffer.” This is a subject I know well: My wife and I have fostered three child refugees—from Zimbabwe, Guatemala, and Honduras respectively. These foster children are functionally adopted, and have become full-fledged members of our family. The article noted that a vice-president at Bethany Christian Services, the largest Christian adoption agency in the country, had told a reporter that allowing white families to adopt black children from the foster care system “can cause a lot of harm to...

Bethany may renew their federal contracts by deciding to abandon Christianity in foster-care placements. But in the bigger picture, more abandoned children will run the streetsOn March 1, Bethany Christian Services sent shock waves through the adoption and foster care community with its landmark decision to place children with same-sex parents. There staring out from the pages of The New York Times stood the imposing figure of Chris Palusky, president of this historic Christian agency rooted in the Dutch Reformed world of Grand Rapids, Michigan.The news of surrender hit hard. Bethany, the ten-ton gorilla of adoption and foster care, and...

Vandals spray painted "TRUMP" and "MAGA" on six headstones at a Jewish cemetery in Grand Rapids, Michigan, according to CBS Kalamazoo affiliate WWMT-TV. Grand Rapids Police Sergeant John Wittkowski said in a written statement that officers began investigating the vandalism at Ahavas Achim Cemetery Monday -- the day before Election Day. Noah Arbit, founder and chair of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, said in a statement that, "The desecration at Ahavas Israel is evocative of the febrile political atmosphere our country finds itself in right now. But it doesn't have to be this way. "Time and again, the President of...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8_XKb42W8k

On Monday, November 2nd, President Donald J. Trump will deliver remarks at Make America Great Again Victory Rallies in Fayetteville, North Carolina at 11:30 AM EST, Scranton, Pennsylvania at 2:00 PM EST, Traverse City, Michigan at 5:00 PM EST, Kenosha, Wisconsin at 7:00 PM CST, and Grand Rapids, Michigan at 10:30 PM EST. The Make America Great Again Victory Rallies will feature remarks from President Donald J. Trump and Republican candidates.

Trump is flying there as I write. Pence is speaking, calling Michigan “ Trump country” and saluting John James. https://youtu.be/y_cbwGfRRRw

KENT COUNTY, Mich. — President Donald Trump was scheduled to spend the final hours of the 2020 presidential election in Grand Rapids Monday night in a final push to win the battleground state of Michigan. Trump was expected to make two stops in Michigan on Monday: One in Traverse City, and one in Kent County at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport. The president also held a rally in Grand Rapids on the night before the 2016 election. Trump has fondly spoken of the final swing of campaign events in 2016 as a reason why he won the state of...

Supporters of President Donald Trump lined up early Monday morning for his final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan — 14 hours ahead of the president’s appearance. President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence closed out the 2016 campaign in Grand Rapids, speaking to tens of thousands after midnight into the early hours of Election Day. That rally, at least, was indoors.

A Michigan gun shop owner told Breitbart News that Black Lives Matter-related riots in Grand Rapids back in May brought a flood of single mothers into her store seeking to protect their children. Lisa Mayo owns Flashpoint Firearms in Comstock Park, Michigan, just a few miles north of Grand Rapids. She said her biggest sales day occurred after rioting in downtown Grand Rapids the night after a George Floyd protest took place. WOOD TV reported that the Grand Rapids Police Department headquarters was tagged with expletives. Storefront windows were smashed. Properties were destroyed. Police cruisers were torched. An estimated $2.4...

Cincinnati Gun “Buyback” Program Puts Guns Back In Right Hands U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- The Grand Rapids Michigan Police Department has announced they will be running two gun turn-in events in Grand Rapids, two weeks apart. From woodtv.com: The police department said it will be holding two buyback events where people can get rid of firearms in exchange for a prepaid gift card with no questions asked.The first will be held Saturday, Oct. 24 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. at 1534 Kalamazoo Ave. SE. Then on Saturday, Nov. 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Genesis Non-Profit Housing Corporation.Participants...

Accused conspirators charged in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also discussed "taking" Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, an FBI agent testified at a court hearing Tuesday. During the hearing in Grand Rapids, Mich., to discuss the charges filed last week against members of a self-proclaimed militia accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor, FBI Special Agent Richard Trask revealed that months ago some of the suspects met in Dublin, Ohio, where Northam, also a Democrat, was discussed as a potential target.

      GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN — U.S. District Judge Janet T. Neff sentenced Charles Edward Skipp of Grand Rapids to 42 years in prison, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge. Skipp pleaded guilty to 10 felony offenses in February 2020, which included being a felon in possession of firearms, stealing firearms from a licensed firearm dealer, retaliating against a witness, discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, knowing transfer of firearms for use in a crime of violence, aiding and abetting retaliating against an informant, aiding and abetting arson in the commission of a federal felony,...

Grand Rapids, MI ~ Friday, July 17, 2020 VIDEO: Attorney General William P. Barr Delivers Remarks at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum Thank you very much, Andrew for your very kind introduction and I’d like to say that I really appreciate the work that Andrew and Matt, our U.S. Attorneys for the Eastern and Western District of Michigan our doing here for the people of Michigan and all the law enforcement community from Michigan, that is here today. We really appreciate your work and as Andrew said, after my remarks they are going to put on a presentation of...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The first person to be charged for rioting Saturday night into Sunday morning in downtown Grand Rapids has been charged but he certainly will not be the last. On Monday morning, 18-year-old Adrian Baker of Gobles was charged with the 10-year felony in Grand Rapids District Court. Judge Michael Distel explained the charge to the teen. “You did while in concert with five or more other persons wrongfully engage in violent conduct and thereby recklessly cause or create a serious risk of causing public terror or alarm,” Distel told Baker, who was appearing via video...

Monday at 5:00, protesters are expected to gather in downtown Grand Rapids, in objection to Governor Gretchen Whitmer's stay at home order. According to the Detroit Free Press, Monday's demonstrations will include Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf as a speaker. Recently, Sheriff Dar Leaf appeared on FOX News, where he referred to the stay at home order as: unconstitutional. He's also taken to Facebook, showing his support to the Owosso barber who gained national attention after refusing to adhere to the governor's orders.

KV: So you graduated from Drury with a degree in History, you’re a history guy. If you could have dinner with three historical figures, living or dead, who would they be? And I’m ruling out football figures. MB: This is probably not going to get a good review, but I’m going to say Adolf Hitler. It was obviously very sad and he had bad motives, but the way he was able to lead was second-to-none. How he rallied a group and a following, I want to know how he did that. Bad intentions of course, but you can’t deny he...

President Trump’s order to take out Qasem Soleimani was morally, constitutionally and strategically correct. It deserves more bipartisan support than the begrudging or negative reactions it has received thus far from my fellow Democrats. The president’s decision was bold and unconventional. It’s understandable that the political class should have questions about it. But it isn’t understandable that all the questions are being raised by Democrats and all the praise is coming from Republicans. That divided response suggests the partisanship that has infected and disabled so much of U.S. domestic policy now also determines our elected leaders’ responses to major foreign-policy...

Congratulations are in order for the former senator from Connecticut, Joseph Lieberman. He will be in Monday’s Wall Street Journal with the first really sensible column from a Democrat in this entire election cycle. It’s an op-ed piece that asks why the Democratic Party’s candidates can’t “simply admit Qasem Soleimani’s death makes Americans safer?” “President Trump’s order to take out Qasem Soleimani was,” Mr. Lieberman writes, “morally, constitutionally and strategically correct.” He reckons the President’s decision “deserves more bipartisan support than the begrudging or negative reactions it has received thus far” from his fellow Democrats. Well put. Mr. Lieberman calls...

Boy Invites His Entire Kindergarten Class to His Adoption Hearing—and the Ceremony Was Incredibly Sweet. A 5-year-old boy named Michael from Grand Rapids, Michigan, showed up for an adoption hearing on Thursday. The heartwarming thing was that his entire kindergarten class turned up to cheer him on and congratulate him on starting a new chapter in his life

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A Grand Rapids church is working to change the relationship between churches and the LGBTQ community. The First United Methodist Church on Fulton Street and Barclay Avenue hosted their fourth ever inclusive Communion service on Sunday night. This comes after Kent County Judge Sara Smolenski says she was denied Communion at her home church for being gay. Smolenski says she’s been a parishioner at St. Stephen Catholic Church in East Grand Rapids for 62 years and this has never happened to her before. “Why exclude anyone when they have sincere desire to come to God’s...