Midwest
Vivek Ramaswamy hosts town hall in Springfield, Ohio, as residents share concerns about city's migrant influx
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy hosted a town hall Thursday in Springfield, Ohio, a city that’s been thrust into the 2024 race, calling for an open conversation on the migrant debate dividing the country.
“We’ve been told, mostly by the media, to shut up, sit down, do as you’re told, to sweep it under the rug, or else you’re guilty of some sin,” Ramaswamy began the town hall Thursday evening. “And I just think that the truth in this country is we don’t have to agree on everything. We really don’t. We never have in America. But the beauty of this country is we should be able to talk about it in the open, and that’s what we’re going to do tonight.”
“Our ground rules for tonight is honesty and respect for your fellow citizens,” Ramaswamy told the crowd.
HAITIAN INFLUX CAUSING ONE MAJOR SAFETY CONCERN AMONG SPRINGFIELD RESIDENTS
Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy hosted a town hall in Springfield, Ohio, as the city has been engulfed in 2024 politics. (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
Ramaswamy, a Donald Trump supporter and Ohio native who grew up in nearby Columbus and frequently made visits to Springfield as a child, met with city officials as well as Haitian community leaders prior to the town hall. It was held at a small banquet venue with roughly 200 Springfield residents in the room, with an additional 100 in an overflow room.
He stressed after meeting with the Haitian group that he didn’t blame them for wanting to come to the U.S., but he faults the “federal policies” of the Biden-Harris administration.
HAITIAN REFUGEES ‘DON’T UNDERSTAND THE LAWS,’ FORMER LAWMAKER SAYS AMID FATAL WRECK, CULTURAL CLASHES
Many Springfield residents shared their concerns about the toll the city has taken since the influx of Haitian migrants.
Chrissy, a resident of Springfield for 66 years, took aim at city officials for not organizing such an event with the public to address their issues.
“How will you know about a city if you’re not bringing the people together, right, and talking to them?” Chrissy complained to Ramaswamy.
Vivek Ramaswamy spoke with residents of Springfield, Ohio, during a town hall on Sept. 19, 2024. (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
Ramaswamy responded by saying what he thought “may not be very popular in this room” about the city officials, noting that they had been invited to attend the town hall but did not show up.
“I actually think they do care, at least the subset I met with,” Ramaswamy said. “But I will tell you what I do see happening in the country. I think there’s a culture of fear, actually. I think the reason they’re not here tonight is not because they don’t care about this, it’s because they’re scared.”
“These are just good, patriotic Americans who love their country and city who are struggling, because the people who they elected to run their federal government all the way down have let them down. And you don’t have to be scared of actually being face to face with your fellow citizens,” he added.
SPRINGFIELD PASTORS SPEAK OUT ON HAITIAN REFUGEE CHALLENGES: ‘THE SUFFERING IS REAL’
Brock, a half-Black Springfield resident of over 20 years, sounded the alarm on the “hateful language” that has “spiked” since their town received such national attention.
“I can probably count on my hand, both hands, how many a racial slur has been said my whole life. I’ve been called the n-word twice this week,” Brock said before sharing how friends of his with darker skin have been chased out of stores and accused of being Haitian.
While reiterating his belief that the United States isn’t a “racist country,” Ramaswamy responded by acknowledging the “weird uptick in racial tension in this country” that didn’t exist in his upbringing, tying the surge in bigotry to the DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] ideology he says “creates more racial animus.”
Springfield, Ohio has been at the epicenter of 2024 politics in recent weeks. (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
A woman claimed to Ramasawamy her daughter had been stalked at a Walmart by “immigrants,” and she said in a separate incident she was chased by a migrant carrying a “machete” while she was going to work. But after her daughter called the police to file a report about the latter incident, the police “never checked on the crime.”
“So that’s how you know there’s no crime in Springfield, because no one is reporting it,” the mother added.
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Others accused both city officials and the country broadly of prioritizing providing care for migrants versus the homeless and veterans.
While much of the town hall was somber, the crowd broke out with massive cheers after Ramaswamy was asked whether he was going to run for governor of Ohio.
“I’m a little more inclined than I was ten seconds ago,” Ramaswamy quipped.
Springfield has been hit with a tidal wave of national media coverage as the city’s struggles with the migrant crisis have become a wedge issue in the 2024 race.
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Detroit, MI
The worst Detroit sports uniform from every pro team
Calvin Johnson on his fourth annual charity golf outing
Calvin Johnson speaks at his foundation’s celebrity golf outing at The Cardinal at Saint John’s on Monday, June 15, 2026.
Detroit’s pro sports teams have some pretty iconic uniforms, from the winged wheel of the Detroit Red Wings, to the old English D of the Detroit Tigers to the Honolulu blue of the Detroit Lions.
But for every classic jersey from a Motown team, there is at least one gathering dust in the back of a closet – and not because it’s a cherished item.
There have been some duds in the Detroit sports uniform rotation, with misguided color schemes, wacky logos, unfortunate throwbacks and sleeves where they are not supposed to be (looking at you, Pistons). If it weren’t for these bad uniforms, we might not be able to cherish the brilliant ones quite as much.
But as painful as it might be to revisit these sartorial tragedies, let’s do it, anyway.
Here are the worst jerseys from every major Detroit men’s pro team (excluding the Red Wings, because we honestly couldn’t find one to call bad).
Tigers: 2024-present City Connects
Swing and a miss.
The Tigers debuted their highly-anticipated City Connect jerseys in 2024, and they haven’t exactly been a hit. The black-and-blue color scheme doesn’t scream “automotive industry,” even if the carefully hidden VIN number and the less-carefully hidden highway sign on the sleeve are supposed to pay homage to the Motor City.
That’s the best part of the uniform, by the way – “Motor City” across the chest was a slam dunk, even if the quasi Star Trek font is more reminiscent of spaceships than Model Ts. But by far the worst part is the hat. Not even a downtown tourist shop would sell a hat that ridiculous looking.
The Tigers seemed to have rectified the situation by introducing two alternate jerseys this past offseason, both of which score much higher than the City Connect jersey. But for whatever reason, the Tigers still insist on occasionally breaking out these duds. Banish them, we say.
Lions: 2017 Color Rush
The NFL’s color rush uniforms would likely show up on many “worst” lists for various NFL teams, but Detroit’s color rush attempt in 2017 was especially egregious.
Grey may be a color (technically), but it certainly isn’t a Lions color, as demonstrated by the clashing silver helmets the Lions wear with their traditional unis. At least the Lions all-black uniforms from the past two seasons have an accompanying helmet that matches, truly elevating what an alternate jersey can bring to the field.
But even if the color rush uniforms came with a matching grey helmet, they would still look pretty bad. The best thing that can be said about them is that they are bland, and you have virtually zero chance of seeing a fan wearing one of these in or around Ford Field.
Pistons: 2019-20 City Edition
Remember when the NBA tried to get us all to buy sleeved jerseys in the mid 2010s? And how the Pistons wore a sleeved “Motor City” jersey that used the wrong shade of blue, the wrong shade of red and looked like a shirt for rec league?
The red City Edition uniform is somehow way worse than that.
The brightness of Detroit’s red lends itself much better as a secondary color, as it’s way too bright and harsh to be the featured color on a basketball uniform. The double stripe down the middle serves no purpose and looks to be the only idea the designers had for this uniform. And did we mention how red it is?
These uniforms were shelved after one season, and while the Pistons tried a red City Edition uniform again a couple of years later, they haven’t gone back since. A wise decision.
DCFC: 2025 away
In a vacuum, Detroit City’s 2025 away kits aren’t bad. The lines are clean, the crest keeps its gold sheen and teams are allowed to take a break from their standard color combinations every once in a while.
But green just doesn’t feel right for this team. If it were a lighter green to match the Spirit of Detroit, then maybe the connection to the city would have been strong enough to merit a second look. Forest green, however, just feels like too far a diversion from a team that wears red so well.
Disagree with our rankings? Let us know.
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You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
Milwaukee, WI
Hundreds rally on Milwaukee’s South Side against ICE arrests and in solidarity with immigrants
Hundreds of people gathered at Kosciuszko Park on Milwaukee’s South Side, marching through the neighborhood and raising signs in protest of recent ICE arrests across Wisconsin.
READ ALSO | Father with no criminal record detained by ICE on Milwaukee’s south side, family says
Community members, organizations, and city leaders joined together in the march, which organizers said is meant to be peaceful and to raise awareness about human rights.
“We are standing in solidarity; we don’t believe what’s happening out here in the streets is valid. We think this administration is messed up and we see the politics trickling down now to Milwaukee,” Christina Lopez-Prado said.
The protest comes after federal agents conducted a series of arrests across Wisconsin in the last couple of days. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Tuesday that they have arrested 39 people and that many of them have criminal histories.
Watch: Hundreds rally on Milwaukee’s South Side against ICE arrests and in solidarity with immigrants
Protest held over ICE activity in Milwaukee
TMJ4 has been covering the recent ICE arrests, getting video and finding multiple people without any criminal record who have been detained by ICE.
“As an immigrant myself from Guatemala, I sympathize so much with the people of my community. Especially those who live in fear for what ICE is doing to our communities,” Julia said. “I have hope because the only thing stronger than fear is hope.”
Emilio De Torre of Milwaukee Turners said the nature of the arrests has shaken the community.
“It’s disruptive. People are afraid to go outside, afraid of being racially profiled,” De Torre said.
De Torre also addressed what demonstrators want from the federal government.
“Milwaukee does not want the kind of chaos that has been reigned down in Minneapolis, in Chicago, in LA. We want our federal government to follow the Constitution, to follow due process, and to make sure their reactions meet the thing that necessitated it,” De Torre said.
DHS said in its statement that all people arrested have or will receive full due process and will remain in ICE custody pending their removal or removal proceedings.
TMJ4 reached out to DHS for an updated number on arrests made in Wisconsin. They did not provide any new information.
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Minneapolis, MN
In the 70s
A retrospective look meant to counter hindsight bias pertaining to the Bicentennial era, presented in the manner of Leonard Michaels (“I Would Have Saved Them If I Could”; “The Men’s Club”) and his short story “In the Fifties.“
In the seventies, my family moved to Minnesota from Vermont. I also started school that same year. That was the year everything changed for the worse. I attended six different elementary schools: two red-brick bastions of stale white bread conformity, three inner-city schools, and one school overseas.
In the seventies, I spent whole days exploring wooded and riverine areas, skating and sledding in the winter, riding my bike around the parkways and lakes ringing Minneapolis, or at the beach, where I would swim as far out as I could without the lifeguards getting mad. Given that my family put the “diss” in dysfunctional, being a free-range kid saved my sanity.
In the seventies, my mother commandeered the TV set during the summer of 1973 to watch the Watergate hearings when my brother and I wanted to watch cartoons and situation comedy reruns. We didn’t understand exactly what Nixon had done, but being deprived of entertainment gave us a tangible reason to hate him.
Because home delivery of the Sunday New York Times was not yet an option in the seventies, some of my fonder childhood memories are of going to a suburban news outlet after Sunday school at the First Unitarian Society, where my brother and I would browse the comic books and paperbacks until our mother pried us out of there or the store manager shooed us out.
Because of the 1973 and 1979 energy crises, gas tripled in price during the seventies.
The price of nearly everything increased. I look back wistfully now at my mother maintaining that Big John Baked Beans were too expensive at forty-nine cents a can.
Racist, sexist, ethnocentric and homophobic jokes became less acceptable during the seventies but were still very much a part of the culture.
Corporal punishment and shaming (especially body shaming) were regarded as acceptable parenting methods in the seventies.
In 1973, the American Psychological Association stopped categorizing homosexuality as a mental illness. However, therapists and clinicians wasted no time finding other ways of pathologizing difference. Oppositional defiant disorder, anyone?
The 1970s also saw the rise of the so-called New Right (many of them old-time reactionaries in new clothing), the growth of megachurches and increasing political clout of the religious right, exemplified by Anita Bryant and Jerry Falwell.
Every other news cycle seemed to yield new scarehead articles and more unsettling stories: Killer bees, encephalitis-bearing mosquitoes, the Glensheen Mansion murders, Son of Sam, the Church Committee revelations concerning the FBI and CIA’s misdeeds; to name just a few.
Last but not least, nostalgia became a mass phenomenon in the 1970s with K-Tel’s compilation albums of bygone musical hits, movies like American Graffiti, and TV shows such as “Happy Days” which painted a picture of 1950s in roseate colors for all those yearning for a simpler place and time, or imbued with selective memories. The more things change, the more things stay the same.
We’ll get straight to the point: The financial hardships that Daily Kos is facing this year are tough.
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