This weekend, more than 20 students from colleges throughout Michigan and Ohio will compete in the fourth annual Downtown Holland Ice Sculpting Competition. The event is held in a partnership with the National Ice Carving Association - a global organization that says it is dedicated to promoting ice carving as an art and business, to providing ice-carving education to all ages, and to networking ice carvers across the country and around the world.

Authorities said a suburban Detroit man beat his girlfriend with a 2-foot metal cross during an hours-long assault.

Narrow Iowa victory in hand, Mitt Romney was looking toward the next-up New Hampshire primary - essentially on his home turf - and sharper criticism from his Republican rivals, including chief challenger Rick Santorum.

The Community Foundation for Muskegon County will be hosting live-streaming of the award-winning January Series of Calvin College. The series of speakers with diverse topics at the Grand Rapids college begins today and runs through Jan. 24.

A man with a gun was arrested Tuesday afternoon near the Grand Haven post office, said Lt. Renee Freeman of the Grand Haven Department of Public Safety.

The state said seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates have decreased in 14 of Michigan's 17 major labor markets. The Holland-Grand Haven market, or Ottawa County, dropped one-half of a point from October to November 2011.

Flotilla 31-05 of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at Sector Field Office Grand Haven, 650 S. Harbor Ave. The public is invited to discover the benefits from an auxiliary membership.

Officials said corn stalks prevented a vehicle from crushing a 7-year-old boy following a rollover crash and allowed him to escape with minor injuries.