From the Associated Press — A judge has rejected constitutional challenges to how Michigan sentences teens convicted of first-degree murder, ending seven years of litigation. Since 2010, federal Judge John Corbett O’Meara has made a series of decisions, some favoring so-called juvenile lifers who were given no-parole sentences when they were under 18. But some rulings were stopped by an appeals court. O’Meara closed the case Tuesday, noting that Michigan law has greatly changed because of decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court. No-parole sentences for teenagers still are possible but they’re not mandatory. O’Meara says judges can consider the “factors of youth” when they sentence teens. Attorney Deborah LaBelle had urged O’Meara to strike the law as unconstitutional. She says no-parole sentences are supposed to be rare, but prosecutors still are trying to keep more than 200 inmates behind bars for life at new hearings.... [Read Full Story]
Governor Rick Snyder’s latest budget proposal is getting positive marks from a Michigan group that represents urban school districts. Middle Cities Education Association spokesperson TJ Bucholz tells WSJM News the governor has proposed setting aside $150 million for intervention with at-risk students.... [Read Full Story]
A plan to reduce truancy in Michigan has been proposed in the state Senate. Co-sponsored by state Senator Tonya Schuitmaker, it would create a statewide definition of what truancy is, along with protocols for dealing with chronically absent kids.... [Read Full Story]
Tickets to this year’s Blossomtime Pageants will go on sale this month. The public sale begins on February 14. This year’s theme is “If it starts with B, it must be Blossomtime,” and the pageants will be held next month. Tickets are $20.00 and you can get them by calling the Blossomtime office or stopping there. The big event will be at Lake Michigan College’s Mendel Center.... [Read Full Story]
Congressman Fred Upton has proposed legislation that would prevent big-time lottery winners from receiving Medicaid benefits. The St. Joseph Republican tells WSJM News someone who wins $80,000 or more in the lotto should have to count that money toward their income when applying for the federal program.... [Read Full Story]
Michigan lawmakers met Tuesday in Lansing to increase the fine for selling tobacco to minors and the fine for minors trying to purchase tobacco products. The sponsor of the bill is state Senator Steven Beida, from Macomb County.... [Read Full Story]
Governor Rick Snyder’s budget proposal, so far, is looking pretty good to state Representative Kim LaSata. The Berrien County Republican tells WSJM News she’s glad the governor is setting aside more for higher education. Still, there’s more progress to be made for students.... [Read Full Story]
Governor Rick Snyder is proposing to grow Michigan’s savings account, known as the Rainy Day Fund, to $1 billion as he layed out his new budget on Tuesday. State Budget Spokesman Kurt Weiss told Michigan News Network the governor’s plan does not call for a Republican proposal to reduce the state income tax.... [Read Full Story]
From the Associated Press — Ann Arbor officials say 96 deer have been killed this year as part of the city’s deer management efforts. The Ann Arbor News reports that sharpshooting as part of the city’s second-annual deer cull ended this week and all parks and nature areas that were
closed during the hunt that started Jan. 30 are now back to their normal operating hours. The deer were hunted at designated parks and nature areas and University of Michigan properties, including Nichols Arboretum and near North Campus. A state permit allowed killing up to 100 deer, plus sterilizing up to 80. Veterinarians sterilized 54. Sharpshooters killed 63 deer during last year’s hunt. In 2015, city officials decided that the deer culling program would be for four years to help deal with deer overpopulation.... [Read Full Story]
A parental kidnapping in Benton Harbor is under investigation by the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department. Deputies accuse 34-year-old Scottie Hall and 27-year-old Courtney Gibson of taking their two children against a court order, and fleeing to Indiana last evening. The children, 12-year-old Hailey Hall and 8-year-old Scottie Hall, Jr. were found safe today in Indiana. A court order had put them into protective custody and foster care just a few hours before they were taken. The sheriff’s department has not indicated the reasons for that court ruling.... [Read Full Story]
Benton Harbor Area Schools, Superintendent Shelly Walker, and former high school principal Rodger Triplett are being sued in federal court by the family of an autistic teenager over the girl’s sexual assault by a former star football player. 18-year-old Timothy Bell, Jr. is serving a year in the Berrien County Jail for oral sex with the girl, who was 15 at the time, in 2015 just after the Tigers’ football season concluded. Bells was 16 at the time, and recorded part of the incident on his cell phone. Bell entered a guilty plea to a lesser charge in July. The girl’s family filed the suit in federal court in Grand Rapids on Tuesday, alleging the school district protected Bell and created a hostile environment for the victim. In the lawsuit, they say she was forced to face her attacker daily and was taunted for months. Officials with Benton Harbor Area Schools have declined to comment.... [Read Full Story]
Police are investigating a parental kidnapping in Benton Harbor. The Berrien County Sheriff’s Department tells us Scottie Hall and Courtney Gibson allegedly took their children from a home at 600 Nate Wells Sr. Drive just hours after the court ordered them into protective custody and placed them in foster care yesterday. They are believed to be in Indiana, driving a 2001 Lincoln four door sedan with Indiana plates of XLL-123. Deputies say Hailey Hall is 12, five-feet tall with brown hair and weighs around 100 pounds, while Scottie Hall Jr. is 8, around 4’6″, 65 pounds, and also has brown hair. Anyone who knows where Hall and Gibson went with the kids is urged to call the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department.... [Read Full Story]
State Representative Mary Whiteford says she hopes to hear talk about infrastructure needs when the Rick Snyder administration gives its 2018 budget presentation Wednesday. The Casco Township Republican tells us she also wants to hear about natural resources spending.... [Read Full Story]
Are political opinions getting loud and emotional where you work? Dan Bretz, a labor law expert at Clark Hill in Detroit, tells Michigan News Network you’d better watch what you say.... [Read Full Story]
The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Department is looking for a few good weather spotters. SkyWarn coordinator Paul Reissmann tells WSJM News they train volunteers each year how to spot weather conditions that are about to get serious.... [Read Full Story]
It looks like the Benton Harbor High School band program will soon be getting new uniforms. Next week, the board of education will vote on a bid for the first new uniforms the band’s had in quite a while, says Band Director Ron Evans.... [Read Full Story]
Coming soon will be a resurfacing project for Hilltop Road in St. Joseph. It’s an effort being taken on jointly by the city, the township, the road commission, and the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission. Project Engineer Alan Smaka, with Wightman and Associates, tells us they’re doing a variety of work on the road.... [Read Full Story]
Democrats have failed to prevent the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as education secretary, and Congressman Fred Upton predicts they’ll fail to stop all of the other cabinet appointments of President Donald Trump. That’s why he tells WSJM News he hasn’t been pleased to watch the behavior of Senate Democrats in the past few weeks.... [Read Full Story]
There’s been a bumper crop of potholes this year. Nick Schirripa, with the Michigan Department of Transportation, tells WSJM News this winter’s freeze-thaw cycle has created the problem.... [Read Full Story]
From the Associated Press — As Republican lawmakers push for an income tax cut, Governor Rick Snyder instead will propose growing Michigan’s savings account to $1 billion. State budget director Al Pscholka told The Associated Press Tuesday that Snyder wants to add a “sizable” $260 million to the budget stabilization, or rainy day, fund in the next fiscal year. It would be the largest deposit since Snyder’s first year in office. The Republican will unveil his budget plan Wednesday. Pscholka says it’s smart to save money because of “one-time” tax revenues and looming budget pressures. Lawmakers voted to permanently shift general funds to road repairs starting in 2018. Other squeezes include Medicaid expansion costs and the phase-out of business equipment taxes. Snyder also will propose directing $1.2 billion to the Public School Employees Retirement System.... [Read Full Story]
Cold temperatures may cause some problems for your phone. Verizon’s Steve Van Dinter told Michigan News Network you should take some precautions to keep it from getting damaged.... [Read Full Story]
Following President Trump’s executive order calling for a travel ban from seven predominantly Muslim countries, Governor Snyder says this is the perfect time to discuss “how to be welcoming.”... [Read Full Story]
The six people killed in last February’s shootings in the Kalamazoo area will be honored with a permanent memorial. The idea is still in the planning stages, and fundraising is yet to begin. Last February 20, Uber driver Jason Dalton allegedly shot eight people and killed six in three separate shootings while still driving passengers around Kalamazoo in between the incidents. The first shooting injured Tianna Carruthers at an apartment complex northeast of Kalamazoo. In the second incident, Dalton allegedly killed 17-year-old Tyler and 53-year-old Richard Smith of Mattawan at a car dealership, and then gunned down four women in their cars outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Texas Township. That shooting injured then-14-year-old Abbie Kopf of Battle Creek and killed Mary Lou Nye of Baroda, and Mary Jo Nye, Barbara Hawthorne, and Dorothy Brown, all of Battle Creek. Dalton is still awaiting trial on 16 charges.... [Read Full Story]
The Benton Harbor City Commission has added its voice to the chorus of those opposed to the possible closure of three schools in the community. At Monday’s meeting, the commission unanimously passed a resolution condemning the possible neighborhood school closures. Mayor Marcus Muhammad tells WSJM News when schools are shut down, the effects are wide ranging.... [Read Full Story]
New cyber security guidelines by the Department of Defense are expected to have a huge impact on at least 800 Michigan manufacturers which have to meet the guidelines by the end of the year. That’s according to Elliott Forsyth with the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center.... [Read Full Story]
From the Associated Press — Democratic and Republican party leaders in Michigan and Kent State University are condemning online comments from a county-level Republican that appeared to suggest shooting protesters. Dan Adamini, secretary of the Marquette County GOP, last week tweeted, “Violent protesters who shut down free speech? Time for another Kent State perhaps. One bullet stops a lot of thuggery.” In 1970, the Ohio National Guard fatally shot four Kent State students during Vietnam War protests. Adamini said Monday that he was calling for an end to violence after a demonstration last week at the University of California, Berkeley that stopped a speech by right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos. Some protesters broke windows and tossed smoke bombs. Kent State officials called Adamini’s posts “abhorrent.” Michigan Republican Party spokeswoman Sarah Anderson says Adamini was speaking for himself.... [Read Full Story]
Democrats in the U.S. Senate have started out the week trying to prevent the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s choice for education secretary. Speaking on the Senate floor Monday, Michigan Democrat Gary Peters said there’s bipartisan opposition to Betsy DeVos.... [Read Full Story]
Schools all over the state are being asked to do emergency drills for cardiac arrest this week. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Bob Wheaton tells WSJM News about 326,000 people go into cardiac arrest each year and only about 10% survive. So, the state recommends schools have automatic external defibrillators.... [Read Full Story]
The mother of an 8-month-old boy who prosecutors say was murdered last year has been sentenced to 270 days in jail for her role in the case. Autumn Atchley was in Berrien County Court Monday for sentencing in the death of little Carter Donovan. Donovan died as a result of trauma to the head while in the care of an Atchley acquaintance, Brandon Beshires, nearly a year ago. Beshires has been sentenced to life in prison in the case. Prosecutors say Atchley initially lied to hospital staff about what had happened when she brought Donovan there. She was charged with being an accessory after the fact. She’ll also get 30 days credit for time served and two years of probation.... [Read Full Story]
From the Associated Press — A Michigan lawmaker with a lengthy criminal record has resigned from office as part of a deal to resolve charges alleging he submitted fraudulent pay stubs to secure a $3,000 loan in 2010. Third-term Democratic state Representative Brian Banks of Harper Woods announced his resignation in a Wayne County courtroom Monday. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of filing false financial statements while three felony counts were dropped. He could face up to a year in prison. Sentencing is February 17. The 40-year-old was charged in June by state Attorney General Bill Schuette. Banks was previously convicted of writing bad checks and credit card fraud.... [Read Full Story]
