Government

A man who pleaded guilty to torching several barns last year in a northern Indiana county was sentenced Monday to 50 years in prison followed by decades on probation. An Elkhart County judge sentenced Joseph Hershberger to 96 years, but suspended nearly half of that sentence, ordering Hershberger to serve 46 years on probation following his release. He must also pay $80,000 …

St. Joseph County District Court officials said Jiminez Lopez, age 24, has been arraigned after he allegedly drove a vehicle into the rear of a car that killed a 6-month-old boy Nov. 1 in Mendon Township. Lopez is charged with failure to stop at the scene of an accident causing death, driving with a suspended license and operating under the …

Michigan State Police troopers are investigating a single-vehicle, roll-over crash last week in Fawn River Township. The incident occurred around 11:30 Friday morning on Franks Avenue, south of Ivanhoe Street. Investigators said a 2006 Ford F-150 was traveling north on Franks Avenue when the driver, a 16-year-old boy from Sturgis, lost control. The vehicle went off the road and rolled …

St. Joseph County’s roster of public defender attorneys appears to be set for the 2022-23 state fiscal year, as the matter was discussed during last week’s board of commissioners’ executive committee meeting. Chief Public Defender Keith Stickley said the proposed eight-person roster is comprised of: Laurie Hines, John Bush, Rhonda Ives, Luke Nofsinger, Tim George, Paul Gipson, Melissa Hallack and …

There was no violence. Many candidates who denied the legitimacy of previous elections lost and quietly conceded. And few listened when former President Donald Trump tried to stoke baseless allegations of electoral fraud. For a moment, at least, there’s a sense of normalcy in the U.S. The extremism that has consumed political discourse for much of the last two years has been replaced by …

A 50-year-old Indiana man was injured in a one-vehicle crash over the weekend in Cass County’s Jefferson Township. Sheriff Richard Behnke said deputies were called shortly after 9 a.m. Sunday to the area of M-60 and Stone Lake Drive on the south side of Cassopolis. Investigators said a car driven by Michael Douglas II, a South Bend resident, was heading …

Michigan’s Democrat attorney general and secretary of state have won reelection, fending off challenges from Republicans who gained prominence in the state party through loyalty to former President Donald Trump and pushing his false claims of a stolen election in 2020. Attorney General Dana Nessel won reelection in Tuesday’s race against GOP candidate Matthew DePerno, who is under criminal investigation for allegedly …

Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer won a second four-year term in Tuesday’s election, defeating Republican challenger Tudor Dixon in the battleground state where abortion had become a key issue. Whitmer was first elected in 2018 after years in the Legislature and has since become a leading voice in the Democratic Party, delivering the party’s response to former President Donald Trump’s …

Voters in battleground Michigan enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution, joining reliably Democratic California and Vermont in taking that step. An anti-abortion measure in Kentucky was too early to call. The Tuesday ballot measures came months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion it guaranteed to women nationwide. The decision in June has led to near-total …

Almost 50 percent of St. Joseph County’s 41,889 registered voters took part in Tuesday’s general election. County Clerk Lindsay Oswald said the figure is likely the highest turnout for a mid-term election. Voters in Flowerfield Township agreed Tuesday to support an increase of nearly 1 mill for a 10-year period to fund fire-protection and ambulance services. The request was approved, …