Government

State police are investigating a hit-and-run incident that occurred over the weekend in White Pigeon Township. According to a department media release, a large mailbox was struck between 8 p.m. Saturday and dawn Sunday on Indian Prairie Road near Marl Lake Road. The vehicle was heading in a southeast direction and may have been a beige-colored Ford passenger car. Investigators …

Authorities say a western Michigan woman died after a car hit a deer, it flew into the air and struck the windshield of her vehicle. Kent County sheriff’s officials say 49-year-old Susan Fries of Ada Township died Monday evening in Cascade Township after the deer broke through her vehicle’s windshield. The animal was first struck by a car going the …

Northern Indiana police say an 11-year-old boy was struck and killed by a car as he pulled a wagon along a rural road. A report released Monday by the LaGrange County Sheriff’s Department says the boy died Friday evening along a road a few miles north of the town of Topeka. The 63-year-old motorist told officers that by the time …

A ballot committee proposing to legalize the use of marijuana for recreational purposes in Michigan has submitted more than 360,000 voter signatures in a bid for a statewide vote in 2018. The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol turned in the signatures to state election officials in Lansing on Monday. Michigan already allows for the use of marijuana for medical …

Republican Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan has ruled out running for U.S. Senate next year. Upton, of St. Joseph, has held southwestern Michigan’s congressional seat for 30 years. He said Friday there was “a path” to running, but he has chosen “not to follow it.” He instead will seek re-election to the House, saying “we need focus and fortitude in …

A Middlebury man was injured in a hit-and-run accident last week in Cass County. Sheriff Richard Behnke said deputies were called at 11:20 p.m. Friday to M-217, near Wayne Street. Investigators said 57-year-old Dale Shrock was driving north on M-217 when another vehicle collided with the car Shrock was driving. Shrock told deputies the driver of the other car left …

Two Cass County residents were involved in an accident Wednesday morning in Pokagon Township. Cass County Sheriff Richard Behnke said 55-year-old Dowagiac resident Donald Fazi was driving north on M-51 when his vehicle crashed into the back of a car driven by Elizabeth Ecker, 28, of Niles. Ecker had stopped her car to turn left onto Indian Lake Road, authorities …

A 53-year-old Elkhart man died over the weekend after he was struck by a car in Cass County’s Pokagon Township. Sheriff Richard Behnke said deputies were called Sunday to M-51, near Pokagon Highway, in response to a subject in the roadway. Moments later, the sheriff’s department was advised that the man had been hit by a vehicle. The victim, Howard …

Cass County Sheriff’s Department responded Monday morning to a single-vehicle fatal crash in Penn Township. Deputies responded at 10:44 a.m. to Decatur Road, near Shurte Street, where a vehicle driven by 34 year-old Russell Jett, Jr. of Kalamazoo had struck a tree. Investigators said the Jett’s vehicle traveled across both lanes of traffic and struck a tree on the opposite …

Police say a 4-year-old boy has died after being wounded in a shooting that left his estranged parents dead. Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Assistant Chief Vernon Coakley said the shooting Thursday morning outside a home killed Julina G. Gibson and Nicholas A. Mitchell. Coakley told the Kalamazoo Gazette the boy, Nicholas J. Mitchell, died later Thursday at a hospital. …