Government

It’s going to take at least a few days to get all the wreckage sorted out from Friday’s 193-vehicle crash on Interstate 94 in Kalamazoo County. That means added frustration for the owners of the cars and trucks involved, who had to leave the vehicles on the highway. Several tow truck company employees tell the Kalamazoo Gazette that they’re urging people to …

State police say a 193-vehicle pileup that closed a stretch of Interstate 94 in Michigan for two days started in eastbound lanes and likely spread to westbound lanes because motorists became distracted by the crashes. Lt. Dale Hinz says investigators have no evidence that cars or trucks crossed the median in eastern Kalamazoo County. He says a trucker killed Friday …

St. Joseph County Circuit Judge Paul Stutesman last week granted another adjournment in the criminal sexual conduct case against David Wing, a former St. Joseph County public school teacher and administrator. Defense attorney Ronald Grubbs requested that a pretrial status conference be delayed another 30 days, citing technical problems with accessing some of the prosecution’s evidence against Wing, 59, of …

The St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners last week made its annual appropriation to the county’s Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. Commissioners budgeted more than $257,000 to the Centreville-based agency. County administrator Pat Yoder said the agency this year will be allocated an additional $90,000 to rectify a previous accounting error. As a result, $86, 817 will be transferred …

Members of St. Joseph County’s AFSCME general unit will continue to have the option to work four, 10-hour days. County commissioners last week approved the concept after it was offered for the balance of the year in 2014 starting in May. County administrator Pat Yoder said based on his observations and feedback, the opportunity worked well. The option is available …

Police have lifted an evacuation order for a three-mile area around a stretch of I-94 in Kalamazoo County that is closed in both directions due to two pileups involving as many as 150 vehicles with at least one death reported. According to initial reports, as many as 50 semis are involved in the pileups including one that was hauling 40,000 …

Investigators are trying to find the cause of a fire in a Three Rivers mobile home that killed two young boys on Wednesday. Antonisha Winters lost her four and two-year-old sons in the blaze on the west side of the city. Firefighters found the bodies of the boys in a badly-burned bedroom shortly after arriving on the scene. The children …

An Indiana woman and a Sturgis man appeared before a magistrate Wednesday related to their alleged involvement in an armed robbery last week. Charges of armed robbery and felony firearms were officially leveled against Kayla Cockburn, 20, of Middlebury, and Michael Z. Strong, 20, of Sturgis. Their bond was set at $100,000 each and they remain in the St. Joseph …

A pair of legislators who collectively represented St. Joseph County for a full decade was honored by a panel of county officials this week. Former State Sen. Bruce Caswell and former State Rep. Matt Lori were acknowledged by the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners during Tuesday’s meeting. Resolutions honoring the pair were read by Commissioner Rick Shaffer and approved …

A family of four somehow escaped without any major injuries after their minivan was dragged for 16 miles early Wednesday by a semi on Interstate 75 in northern Michigan. Matt Menz says he rear-ended the big rig around 2 a.m. in a white-out in Roscommon County because he couldn’t see that the truck had slowed down. He and his wife …