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On Friday, June 13—the day before thousands of “No Kings” rallies attracted millions of demonstrators in cities and towns across the United States to oppose the Trump administration—a downstate woman sent a flurry of emails to the Leelanau County Sheriff’s Department as well as federal authorities including the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to alert them about alleged “domestic terrorism” in Leelanau County and a host of outlandish claims. Out of concern about “some bad actors and their weird crazy rhetoric about me,” Nancy Janulis, a Glen Arbor summer resident who organized a No Kings rally at the Glen Lake Narrows, contacted the Leelanau Sheriffs Department to provide event details. The mood that morning was upbeat, patriotic, and collaborative. As bikers raced along the south shores of the Glen Lakes toward the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb to complete the M22 Challenge, approximately 200 citizens stood on the sides of M-22 at the bridge holding flags and banners. Organizers Janulis and Linda Dewey had asked participants to “please stand in solidarity and join us on this nationwide day of peaceful affirmation of our right to due process, free speech and equal protection.” Leelanau Sheriff Mike Borkovich “had friendly conversations with the protesters, and he was upbeat and friendly with me,” said Janulis. “We visited about fishing and the cold lake temperatures this year. I’m happy he attended. We had no incidents at the rally.”

Thousands of “No Kings: Nationwide Day of Defiance” demonstrations are planned throughout the United States for Saturday, June 14 — including a sign and flag-waving silent rally at the Glen Lake Narrows on M-22 from 10:30 am-1 pm. “Please stand in solidarity and join us on this nationwide day of peaceful affirmation of our right to due process, free speech and equal protection,” say Nancy Janulis and Linda Dewey, organizers of the Glen Arbor event. National organizers describe the No Kings protests as “a national day of action and mass mobilization in response to increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption from President Trump and his allies.”