Patrick Center

In the aftermath of the 2013 floods Kent County communities along the Grand River are now in line to receive millions in federal funding for flood control and improving economic activity if the region wins a competition for those dollars.

“There’s a limit to what HUD or the federal government can provide and they just simply want to make sure that they’re spending their money as wisely as possible.”

The Vatican has permanently removed a retired Diocese of Grand Rapids priest from ministry after investigating a child sexual abuse case from the mid-1980s.

Today, Father Charles Antekeier is 79-years old. But when he was in his late 40s serving as Pastor of Grand Rapids’ Saint James Parish, the Vatican’s  Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has determined sexual abuse of minor occurred. The Diocese of Grand Rapids was approached by the victim forwarding the case to Rome. In a statement, Bishop Walkowiak said. “While there are no words that can heal such wounds, I humbly ask for forgiveness for the pain and injury you and your families have suffered.”

 The American beer industry’s economic impact today is $253 billion.

That's roughly 1.5 percent in U.S. Gross Domestic Product, creating 1.75 million direct and indirect jobs.

That’s a far cry from nearly four decades ago.

“In 1976 there were 50 breweries left in the United States. Today there are somewhere north of 3,000 and growing.”

That's Jim McGreevy, President and CEO of The Beer Institute. The agency just released its 2014 Beer Serves America report, revealing Michigan’s beer production as a revenue generator. 

President Gerald R. Ford would have turned 102 on Tuesday.

The 38th President of the United States was honored in Grand Rapids with dignitaries, family and friends laying a wreath at his presidential museum tomb. 

Paying tribute was Paul O’Neill, the country’s 72nd Secretary of the Treasury and a man who served President Ford.

“It’s not that he was a saint," O'Neill says, "but by God he was pretty close.”

Paul O’Neill served as President Gerald R. Ford’s Deputy Director of the Office Management and Budget.