Congressman Fred Upton condemns white supremacy. A Kalamazoo business owner closes shop after being accused of Nazi sympathies, and Kalamazoo Prosecutors are still weighing whether to press charges in the crash that killed a fire chief. Allegan County gets money for fire equipment.
The owner of a craft beer to go business in Kalamazoo says it is closing after he was accused of being a Nazi. Aaron Van Arsdale tells the Kalamazoo Gazettethat he has received death threats after social media images appeared of him with a swastika on his head and giving a Nazi salute. Van Arsdale, who owns Craft Draft 2 Go says posting the pictures taken at a tailgate before a football game was "bad judgment." But Van Arsdale says he is not a Nazi. Messages on social media sites have urged customers not to patronize the craft brewer.
Firefighters in Allegan County will be able to buy equipment that helps them breathe on the job thanks to a federal grant. US Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow announced the award from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Thursday. The amount is about $174,000. It’ll buy two dozen air bottles and another 24 breathing apparatuses. Jon Cook of the Allegan Fire District Board says the “much-needed equipment” the FEMA money will buy will help protect the firefighters.
US Representative Fred Upton has criticized President Trump’s comments about last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, though he didn’t call the president by name. In a statement, Upton says, in his words, “there are no ‘very fine’ white supremacists.” He said he condemns hate groups and added that his father fought against the Nazis in World War II. As the Kalamazoo Gazette reports, Trump has said that some of the participants at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville were, as he put it, ‘very fine people.’
The Kalamazoo County Prosecutor is still deciding whether to file charges in the crash that killed Comstock Fire Chief Ed Switalski. The Kalamazoo Gazette reports the prosecutor is asking the sheriff’s department for more information about the case before it makes a decision. Switalski died in June. He was hit by a car while standing on the shoulder on I-94 while responding to an emergency call. Police have described the driver as a 24-year-old Battle Creek man but have not given his name.
Michigan’s unemployment rate edged down slightly in July. The state reported that the jobless rate last month was 3.7% a tenth of a percent lower than it was in June. But the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget says the state’s labor force contracted as the number of employed and unemployed people fell in July. It’s the third straight month that Michigan’s labor force has declined.
Former West Michigan Congressman Vern Ehlers has died. Ehlers served the Grand Rapids area in Congress from 1993 until he retired in 2011. Before that the Republican served 10 years in the Michigan Legislature. MLive reports that Ehlers died Tuesday, he was 83 years old. Ehlers was a nuclear physicist and a professor at Calvin College before getting into national politics. In a statement, Saint Joseph Congressman Fred Upton says Ehlers committed his life to serving others as a teacher who prepared students for careers in math and science, and then as a lawmaker who raised awareness about the environment and the Great Lakes.
Michigan State University has been contacted by the National Policy Institute, the white nationalist group headed by Richard Spencer, to rent space on campus. WKAR reports that MSU President Lou Anna Simon released a statement saying the National Policy Institute has requested space to accommodate a speaker on campus in September. The NPI describes itself as “dedicated to the heritage, identity and future of people of European descent.” Simon says the university is not aware of any connection between this request and any MSU-related group or individual. She says no decision has yet been made, and the university is reviewing the request closely in light of the deadly events in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend.
The owner of a craft beer to go business in Kalamazoo says it is closing after he was accused of being a Nazi. Aaron Van Arsdale tells the Kalamazoo Gazette that he has received death threats after social media images appeared of him with a swastika on his head and giving a Nazi salute. Van Arsdale, who owns Craft Draft 2 Go says posting the pictures taken at a tailgate before a football game was "bad judgment." But Van Arsdale says he is not a Nazi. Messages on social media sites have urged customers not to patronize the craft brewer.
The first game of the Summer Collegiate World Series was postponed Wednesday night by rain. Battle Creek will play game one of the best of three series at St. Cloud Thursday night. The Bombers will host game two Friday. If necessary game three will be played in Battle Creek on Saturday.