Government

A 75-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his ex-wife at their western Michigan home. Jimmy L. Thrasher was arraigned Tuesday in Kalamazoo District Court on murder and firearms charges. Judge Tiffany A. Ankley ordered him jailed without bond until a probable cause hearing May 26. The judge also granted his request for a …

Sheriff’s department deputies were called earlier this week to a business in Park Township, where a lawn mower was reported stolen. The incident was reported Monday after the John Deere zero-turn mower with a 48-inch deck was stolen from a shipping crate earlier in the day. The theft occurred at Green Mark Equipment, at the corner of U.S. 131 and …

A 55-year-old Sturgis man appears to have suffered a medical condition while driving earlier this week, leading to a single-vehicle accident in Sherman Township. The St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department said the man was driving south on Shimmel Road around 5 p.m. Monday, when he drove his vehicle over the center line and off the roadway near Storms Road. The …

Calling the timing of Tuesday’s request “very, very poor,” Three Rivers Community Schools’ Board of Education President Mike Bosma said it came as no surprise to him that the district’s request Tuesday for approval of a 1.95 mill sinking-fund request was defeated. Tuesday’s vote came less than a week after the board agreed to not renew the contracts of three …

Saying local voters were already set to oppose the state sales-tax increase request and were further dismayed by the Three Rivers Community Schools Board of Education, Lockport Township Clerk Wayne Timm said the township’s 1.4 mill increase request for a three-year period was likely doomed before voting even started Tuesday. The request failed by a vote of 380 opposed to …

A 3-mill, five-year sinking fund-millage request sought Tuesday by Burr Oak Community Schools failed by a 20-vote margin. Out of 202 votes cast, 111 rejected the proposal while 91 voted in favor. The relatively close result could prompt district officials to consider asking for a similar request later, according to Superintendent Terry Conklin. If approved, the request would have generated …

With nearly 1,000 votes cast, voters in the city of Sturgis Tuesday rejected a request to amend a city ordinance regarding the number of dogs kept on any premises in the city limits. Almost 15 percent of the city’s registered voters decided by a margin of 648 against and 294 in favor of changing the ordinance to not put a …

Michigan voters were asked Tuesday to increase the sales tax a penny to help raise $1.2 million for roads… and their answer to Proposal 1 was a resounding “no.”  Nearly 80-percent of voters voted “no” compared to just 20 percent that said “yes”. Despite the loss, Governor Rick Snyder says he plans to stay after the issue. He says he’s …

A 75-year-old man has been arrested after a 74-year-old woman was shot to death in their southwestern Michigan home. Kalamazoo County sheriff’s officials say the woman was found wounded early Monday morning in Texas Township, south of Grand Rapids. She later was pronounced dead. Officials say the man police arrested was the only other person at the home at the …

An employee at South Main Shell in Three Rivers was assaulted during an armed robbery early Friday. Police said a man hit the clerk with a handgun during the robbery, which occurred around 2 a.m. An undetermined amount of merchandise was stolen. Police have recovered a mask and gun used in the robbery. Those items were found by a police …