White Pigeon Township’s board of trustees Tuesday unanimously supported the establishment of a pet cemetery. Designated for the northwest corner of White Pigeon Township Cemetery on Vermont Avenue, the pet cemetery portion will have a capacity of 1,040 gravesites. Jean Tefft, township office coordinator, said the cemetery will be open to anyone, not just the pets of White Pigeon Township residents. …

St. Joseph County authorities continue to investigate the death of a man whose body was found along a road early Monday in Florence Township. St. Joseph County Sheriff’s deputies were called around 4 a.m. to Klinger Lake Road, just north of Mintdale Road, where deputies found the body of an unidentified man. Investigators remained at the scene until late morning …

A recall effort in which a trio of Three Rivers Board of Education members has been targeted appears to have reached a conclusion. County clerk Lindsay Oswald said the minimum number of valid signatures required for the recall to appear before voters in the November election fell short on all three petitions. A minimum of 1,165 valid signatures was necessary …

Law-enforcement officials investigating the 2007 case involving the homicide of 11-year-old Jodi Parrack are pursuing a new avenue, thanks to a change in Michigan’s DNA collection law. A 65-year-old White Pigeon man, arrested in August for allegedly assaulting and restricting with a dangerous weapon a 10-year-old neighbor, is not considered a person of interest in the Parrack homicide, said Constantine …

State police have arrested a 52-year-old man in connection with the sexual assault of a 14-year-old boy at a southern Michigan cemetery. WOOD-TV and WXMI-TV report that the man and boy were in a van stopped about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. The trooper learned during the traffic stop that the boy had been sexually assaulted at a cemetery in Coldwater. The …

The bear is back. A 9-foot stuffed polar bear returned to Michigan State University on Tuesday after spending the summer with a taxidermist. It was the first time the bear had been away from the lobby of the Natural Resources Building since 1966. The Lansing State Journal says the bear has clean white fur, a new jaw and new pads …

Next Monday is Labor Day, which is a federal holiday. This means that you won’t be getting any mail, the banks will be closed, and you won’t find a single garbage truck on the road. This results in everyone having their trash picked up one day later. It also means that your local refuse Driver will be working the following …

Glen Oaks Community College announced last week it has entered into a partnership with Michigan State University to offer an Associate of Applied Science in Business degree with a concentration in Agricultural Operations. The partnership allows students to earn a certificate from the MSU Institute of Agricultural Technology while working toward an associate’s degree from Glen Oaks. The agreement, according …

Sturgis city commissioners recently voted to repeal Michigan’s Fireworks Safety Act, saying the 2011 law took away local government’s ability to regulate consumer fireworks. The law liberalized fireworks sales in the state and limited local governments’ oversight authority. Following the latest July 4 holiday, commissioners had complained about widespread use of loud pyrotechnics in Sturgis neighborhoods, claiming it created a …

The July unemployment rate in St. Joseph County increased by nine-tenths of a percent compared to a month earlier. The monthly labor-market analysis by the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget showed St. Joseph County’s 5.6 percent July unemployment rate was higher than June’s 4.7 percent. July’s unemployment rate, however, was 1.5 percent less than the same month one …