Free Republic

Orlando Arena -- alternately known as Amway Arena, TD Waterhouse Center, and most annoyingly (a rare feat, considering the corporate naming entities) the O-rena -- was demolished on Sunday. With the Orlando Magic now playing their home games in the newish Amway Center (opened in 2010), it came time to end the O-rena's run. But not before it once played host to Greg Kite in pinstripes, and not without its debris taking a scratch out of a bystander's leg some two blocks away.

Holly Chen is a former first-grade teacher, just over 5 feet tall, with a taste for sequins... "The most powerful weapon is to move somebody emotionally," she says... Today, Ms. Chen directs one in every 10 Amway reps—getting a cut along the way. Her total haul is estimated by one direct-sales magazine at $8 million a year. "I don't even know how much I make," she says to the group gathered in Las Vegas, part of the U.S. branch of chao fan. Turns out these are flush days for Michigan-based Amway, which sells its own brands of cosmetics and personal...

Before Huckabee, a word from the sponsor . . . by Christi Parsons and John Chase WEST DES MOINES--They came to hear Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee speak, but first the crowd of hundreds had to sit through a soft-sell pitch on the wonders of multi-level marketing. For half an hour, two businessmen paced the stage where Huckabee would soon stump. They never said the name of the company during their talks, but afterward some members of the crowd shared with others the good news of a company called Quixtar Inc. Quixtar is a sibling company of multi-level marketing giant...

Amway sues to ID bloggers Saturday, October 13, 2007 By Chris Knape The Grand Rapids Press GRAND HAVEN -- The case could be called Amway versus the Internet, or some might argue, Amway versus free speech. The Ada Township-based multi-level marketing giant this week filed a sweeping suit in Ottawa County Circuit Court against 30 people classified as John Does for disparaging the company in blogs, online forums and YouTube videos. The suit, filed by Quixtar, the online version of Alticor Inc.'s Amway business, asks the court for an injunction and damages of more than $25,000 against the anonymous posters....

Amway, again: Alticor announces name change Wednesday, June 13, 2007 By Chris KnapeThe Grand Rapids Press ADA TOWNSHIP -- Amway is coming back. Alticor Inc. today confirmed it is in the process of dumping the 7-year-old Quixtar Inc. label and relegating the Alticor name to the back burner as it focuses on rebuilding the Amway brand in North America. Employees received the news in an internal memo from company chairman Steve Van Andel and President Doug DeVos last week, though no public announcement has been made. "We are going through a global transformation of our business," the memo read. "This...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos and his wife gave the private foundation they run more than $29 million during a recent three-year period and handed out nearly $10 million from the foundation to schools, think tanks and various charities over that time. They were the only contributors to the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation, which donated an average of $3.3 million annually in 2002, 2003 and 2004. The largest beneficiary of the foundation those three years was the Education Freedom Fund, which got $978,000. Dick and Betsy DeVos are on the board of the fund, which...

Bob McEwen has been purposefully vague about one of his income-earning sources during his past 12 years in Washington (lobbying), and has not said anything about another one people know little or nothing about (speeches for and tapes sold to Amway-Quixtar reps), which may earn him more money than lobbying. Read why the known facts and questions raised make McEwen's election at least a big gamble, and perhaps more than that, at these posts: McEWEN CONNECTIONS POSTS: Part 6--The McEwens and Amway-Quixtar Part 5--The Amway-Quixtar (AQ) Business Part 4--Those "Self-Employed" Contributors Part 3--The Non-Disclosure Gambit (READ FIRST) Part 2--Jefferson Group...

The son of one of Forbes magazine's 200 richest people said Thursday that he will run for governor in 2006. Dick DeVos, 49, said at a policy conference that "I'm intending to be a candidate." He is the son of Richard DeVos, said by Forbes magazine to have a net worth of about $3 billion.

Dick DeVos, the former president of Alticor Inc., has announced that he will run for governor of Michigan in the 2006 election. DeVos told 24 Hour News 8 the news on Thursday while on Mackinac Island where he is attending a conference this weekend. DeVos is a major Republican donor and the husband of former state GOP Chairwoman Betsy DeVos. He filed paperwork last month with the Secretary of State Office. Creating an exploratory committee is a first step toward forming a full campaign committee.

Dick DeVos creates exploratory committee for gubernatorial bid 3/5/2005, 4:20 p.m. ET The Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Dick DeVos, a southwestern Michigan businessman and a major Republican donor, has taken a step toward running for governor next year by creating an exploratory committee. DeVos, the husband of former state GOP Chairwoman Betsy DeVos, on Friday filed paperwork with the secretary of state's office, the Detroit Free Press reported. Creating an exploratory committee is a first step toward forming a full campaign committee. DeVos, president of Alticor, has said that he may not make a decision on whether to...

As George W. Bush was first moving onto the national political stage, he often turned for advice to an old friend who secretly taped some of their private conversations, creating a rare record of the future president as a politician and a personality. In the last several weeks, that friend, Doug Wead, an author and former aide to Mr. Bush's father, disclosed the tapes' existence to a reporter and played about a dozen of them. Variously earnest, confident or prickly in those conversations, Mr. Bush weighs the political risks and benefits of his religious faith, discusses campaign strategy and comments...

Jay VanAndel, co-founder of Amway, donated $1 million to the Fla. GOP before his death in December. He was 80 and was suffering from Alzeimers. Listed as 231st wealthiest person in the US - $2.3 billion. In comparison, the Fla. Dems top soft money givers were as follows: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $332,000 Jacksonville trial lawyer Wayne Hogan $253,000 Florida Great Lakes Radio Consortium $240,000 Service Employees International Union $214,000 Texas trial lawyer Frederick M. Baron $200,000 Communications Workers of America $200,000 http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw111352_20050208.htm

An experimental wonder drug, Rimonabant, helps you lose weight, quit smoking and it also helps protect your heart. Trials have shown that 33% of people on Rimonabant lost 10% of body weight and kept their weight down for two years - this is a record, no other diet drug has managed to keep a person's weight down for so long. The second 33% lost 5% of body weight and kept it down. As well as keeping you lean, the drug also helps you quit the smoking habit. This will be of great interest for many smokers who are afraid to...

Jay Van Andel, co-founder of Amway, dies at 80 Company and community mourn loss of leader and philanthropist Jay Van Andel, co-founder of Amway Corp., died Tuesday, December 7, 2004, at his home in Ada, Mich. He was 80. He was preceded in death by his wife of 52 years, Betty, who passed away at their Caribbean home on Peter Island on January 18, 2004. He is survived by his sons Steve (Cindy) and David (Carol), and daughters Nan and Barb (Rick) Van Andel-Gaby. Van Andel is also survived by 10 grandchildren: Leigh, Jesse, Aaron, Kyle, Christian, Marie, Rachel, Jason,...

Amway Co-Founder Jay Van Andel Dies Tuesday, December 07, 2004 GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Jay Van Andel (search), the co-founder of Amway Corp. (search) who helped parlay neighborhood soap sales into a billion-dollar business and later became a leading philanthropist for conservative causes, has died.

Court Urges Marketers to Call Cease-fire in Strange Legal Case CINCINNATI (AdAge.com) -- A federal court yesterday pleaded for Procter & Gamble Co. and Amway Corp. to stop suing each other as it rejected Amway's appeal, the latest This is P&G's old 'Man in the Moon' logo that is at the center of the Satan-worship lawsuit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- development in seven years of litigation between the two over unfounded rumors linking P&G to Satan worship. Libel suit dismissed The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld dismissal by a lower court of a libel suit Amway filed against P&G in 1999....

P&G suit against Amway dismissed -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cincinnati Enquirer A federal court in Utah has dismissed a suit by Procter & Gamble Co. against several Amway Corp. distributors, Amway said Thursday. Cincinnati-based P&G had claimed that Amway and its distributors spread rumors about a link between P&G and Satanism. A P&G spokeswoman said the company disagreed with the ruling and was still considering its legal options. There still is a case pending against several distributors in Texas, she said.

Cheney pulls in $500,000 for Bush's re-election run Tuesday, July 01, 2003By Steven HarmonThe Grand Rapids Press At an event that raises more than $500,000, confidence is not typically in short supply. With Vice President Dick Cheney in Grand Rapids on Monday raising money for President Bush's re-election campaign, West Michigan Republicans could not be faulted for feeling ascendant. "Things look pretty good, especially today," said Roosevelt Tillman, a businessman who attended the noon fund-raiser at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. "You raise over a half-million dollars at a lunch, it speaks volumes about the president and his leadership."...