West Michigan News - Page 15

Sometimes, a film can effortlessly open at number one at the box office while still being a pretty huge disaster. This is the case with ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings,’ which rode a wave of terrible reviews and an even more terrible marketing campaign to a hugely disappointing start. With a lot of big movies opening the next two weeks, the new Biblical epic won’t even find time to grow some legs. Chances are strong that it is dead on arrival.

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An honorary doctorate being awarded by Michigan State University to Washington Post columnist George Will at MSU's fall commencement ceremonies is the focal point of protests in East Lansing today.

More than 800 people had RSVP'd and were expected this morning for protests that were also held earlier this week, according to organizers.

The ignitor is that the protests organizers say Will, who taught at MSU briefly the 1970s. They claim Will has a history of provocative statements and writings compromising and discrediting the severity of rape.

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon has released a statement saying that while the conservative Will's "visit will be painful for many, ... it does not mean the university wishes to cause survivors of sexual assault distress. And it does not mean we are backing away from our commitment to continuously improving our response to sexual assault."

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Tyree Jackson, who led Mona Shores High School's football team to a 12-2 season and an MHSAA Division 2 state runner-up finish, is this week's Meijer-97.9 WGRD High School Athlete of the Week.

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On Thursday, the former host of a Grand Rapids Christian radio show was sentenced in federal court to 40 years in prison for sexual exploitation and child pornography, our news-gathering partner WZZM-13 reported.

John Balyo, 35, received 25 years for the charge of sexually exploiting a child and 15 years for possession of child pornography.

In November, in a separate case, Baylo was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in state prison for sexually assaulting a boy in Calhoun County.

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Well, this is interesting. Maybe not the reality of it, but its depth, breadth and reach.

According to a new Deloitte survey on mobile consumer trends, we -- as in us U.S. consumers -- are becoming more and more obsessed with our electronic devices. Just call it device addiction.

Some of the facts: Nearly 90 percent check their phones in the first hour of being awake and 23 percent look at their devices up to 50 times a day. Wow.

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Getting pulled over by a cop is no fun, especially if you end up with a ticket for some minor violation.

But what if instead of getting a ticket, the cop gave you a present? That's probably something that all of us would be OK with.

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Getting pulled over is the worst. All of the sudden you see flashing lights behind you. Hear the siren. Oh crap, right?

Well, some drivers in Lowell had quite a different experience with traffic stops recently.

Police in Lowell pulled people over... and then gave them presents? If it sounds too good to be true, like one of those made-for-TV Christmas movies-- it isn't! This really happened in Lowell!

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Grand Rapids, the reigning Beer City USA and recently voted Best Beer Town in the USA has been named one of the 2014 Best Beer Cities by Livability, a company that explores what makes small-to-medium sized cities great places to live.

But wait: Grand Rapids is only No. 6 on this list?!? What cities could have possibly beaten us out?

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Sometimes it's just cool to blow things up. And it's even cooler to launch things into space.

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I've been a fan of Trans-Siberian Orchestra since they put the project together, and I was a fan of Savatage before that.  

I got to see one of the first tours the band did, when it was much more stripped down, and it was really good even then.

Flash forward several years, and the show keeps getting bigger, better and more amazing!

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Honestly, we could have just copied and pasted last weekend’s box office report and gotten away with it. Outside of the shifting numbers, the order of the top 10 is almost identical to what it was a week ago. This is Hollywood in a holding pattern. The weekend after Thanksgiving is a wasteland. That’s probably why ‘The Pyramid’ was dumped this weekend. However, the lone newcomer in the top 10 didn’t just bomb, it bombed spectacularly.

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For Alabama, Oregon, Florida State and Ohio State, the college football championship hunt begins.

Meanwhile, Michigan State, Western Michigan, Central Michigan and Notre Dame are going to bowl games.

As for Michigan fans, sorry but you have to wait until next year.

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