Members of the Sturgis City Commission earlier this month gave approval to accommodations for an expanded Sturgis Fest lineup, slated for the last full week of June. Added to this year’s events are a car exhibition on U.S. 12 and a dog show in Franks Park. Cathi Abbs, executive director of Sturgis Area Chamber of Commerce, indicated another surprise is …

A western Michigan man will spend the rest of his life in prison in the slaying of his 2-year-old son. WOOD-TV and the Kalamazoo Gazette report that 41-year-old Brian Roberts of Kalamazoo was sentenced Monday. He was convicted earlier this month of first-degree murder and child abuse in the death of Nehemiah Dodd. Kalamazoo officers found Nehemiah unconscious Dec. 31, …

Construction is expected to begin next week on an estimated $14 million project to replace a highway bridge in southern Michigan. State transportation authorities say the project will replace the Interstate 94 bridge at Exit 92 and resurface parts of the business loop in Battle Creek. Work is set to begin Monday and finish by Nov. 15. The Michigan Department …

Operators of southwestern Michigan’s Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant say that one of its units has returned to service after a 34-day shutdown for refueling. Unit 2 at the plant went back online about 2 a.m. Tuesday. Indiana Michigan Power runs the plant, which is along Lake Michigan in Berrien County’s Lake Township, near Bridgman. The Fort Wayne, Indiana-based company …

Investigators from the St. Joseph County Area Narcotics unit executed a search warrant Monday in the village of Colon. While conducting parole- and probation-compliance checks with agents of the Michigan Department of Corrections, SCAN officers obtained probable cause for a search warrant on a residence in the 400 block of Burr Oak Road. After the execution of the search warrant, …

Members of the Community Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Board of St. Joseph County voted Tuesday to separate the agency from the Federally Qualified Health Center. The health center, located under the same roof as CMHSAS in Centreville, operates on a $1.4 million budget, with $831,000 of its annual funding coming from the federal agency Health Resources Services Administration. …

Speed was a factor in a single-vehicle accident that resulted in injuries to four people Monday in Lockport Township. Members of the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department said the incident occurred shortly before 7 o’clock Monday night on Schweitzer Road, west of Holtom Road. Investigators said a Pontiac passenger car driven by an 18-year-old Sturgis woman was westbound on Schweitzer …

A longtime Sturgis Township farm operation plans to launch a 4,000-head, commercial hog-raising operation next fall in cooperation with a Constantine feed mill. Two 420-by-40-foot commercial barns are planned for a 500-acre section of the 2,500- acre Fairgrove Farms, located between Shimmel and Stubey roads, with a three quarter-mile access road off Stubey. Jennifer Bennett and Bill Pueschel, representing Fairgrove …

Helen Virginia (White) Richardson, age 87, of Constantine, passed away Monday, April 27th, 2015 at Thurston Woods Village, Sturgis. She was born on August 5th, 1927 in Elizabethton, TN, a daughter of George and Lucy (Furchess) White. Helen attended Elizabethton Public Schools. On April 15, 1945 in Elizabethton, she married Allen DeWitt Richardson. He preceded her in death on May 30, 1994. …

Thomas Lowell Kimble, age 64, of Three Rivers passed away on Thursday, April 23, 2015 at his home surrounded by his loving family. He was born in Three Rivers on June 2, 1950 the son of Russell H. and Pauline Emily (Freese) Kimble, Sr. Tom was a lifetime resident of Three Rivers. He attended Three Rivers Schools and was employed …