Free Republic

Scholars criticize 'imperial' presidency Saturday, September 13, 2003By Steven HarmonThe Grand Rapids Press ALLENDALE -- Thanks to a pliant Congress and an apathetic public, President George W. Bush has expanded the imperial presidency, perhaps placing the United States in a more vulnerable position than before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. That was the general view of panelists at a conference on the presidency Friday, hosted by Grand Valley State University's Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies. By running roughshod over world opinion in the runup to the Iraq war, Bush now faces world isolation as the occupation has gotten messy,...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A long-time sports columnist for The Grand Rapids Press turned himself in Wednesday on two marijuana charges, one a felony. David Mayo was released from the Kent County Jail Wednesday afternoon after appearing via video arraignment on a felony charge of posessing five to 45 kilograms of marijuana (11-99 pounds) with intent to distribute and a misdemeanor charge of maintaining a drug house. A Kent County sheriff's lieutenant told 24 Hour News 8 Mayo's home was one of five indoor marijuana-growing operations busted by the Kent Area Narcotics Enforcement Team and the US Drug Enforcement...

In his Grand Rapids home, Jan Cydzik sat on a sofa facing the grandfather clock, his only compensation for the forced labor, hunger and beatings he suffered as a child. In no way does it make up for the misery, but the money he paid for the clock was part of the $1,500 he received from the German government for all he endured at the hands of the Nazis during World War II. "Three years of slave labor," he said, his voice tinged with the Old World. "All that I earned for it is right here. Better than nothing. Better...