Government

Two men have been convicted in the 2019 torture-slaying of a northern Indiana woman whose body was found inside a trash bin dumped in southern Michigan. An Elkhart County jury found Donald Owen Jr., 22, and Mario Angulo Jr., 20, guilty of murder Thursday in the October 2019 and killing of 31-year-old Kimberly Dyer at a house in Elkhart. The …

Michigan residents who visit secretary of state offices will always need an appointment, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Thursday, making permanent a change that was made to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. Gone are the days when a person could walk into a branch and wait in line. Benson called it an “antiquated, inefficient, take-a-number system that …

A sheriff’s deputy bitten by a dog in southern Michigan killed the animal and then fatally shot the angry owner who confronted him with a knife, state police said Thursday. The incident happened Wednesday night in Hillsdale County’s Reading Township after the deputy responded to a call about a dog on the loose. “When the deputy made contact at the …

A Kalamazoo chiropractor who opposed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders when the coronavirus pandemic struck and helped with an effort to repeal her emergency powers announced Wednesday that he will run against the Democrat in 2022. Garrett Soldano, a Republican, last spring started a Facebook group called “Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine” that gained roughly 380,000 members before the social media …

In honor of Arbor Day, the St. Joseph County Commission on Aging invited Carolyn Grace from the St Joseph County Conservation District and Ashley Ives, a Farm Bill Specialist from the US Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to visit our Enrichment Centers on Thursday, April 29. In addition to giving away white pines to our COA members, Carolyn …

The body of a southwestern Michigan man swept last month from a pier into Lake Michigan has been recovered. Members of the Michigan State Police dive team located the body of Dakota Yergeau, 27, Wednesday near the south pier at Silver Beach in St. Joseph. Yergeau and another man reportedly were on the pier in southwestern Michigan on March 28 …

Faced with the country’s highest rate of new coronavirus infections, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday urged a two-week suspension of in-person high school classes, all youth sports and indoor restaurant dining. She stopped short of ordering restrictions, instead asking for voluntary compliance to slow the spread of COVID-19. High schools should shift to virtual learning, both school and non-school …

Washington will rush federal resources to support vaccinations, testing and therapeutics, but not vaccines, to Michigan in an effort to control the state’s worst-in-the-nation COVID-19 transmission rate, the White House said Friday. The announcement came as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer strongly recommended, but did not order, a two-week pause on face-to-face high school instruction, indoor restaurant dining and youth sports. She cited …

Several minor issues were resolved during Tuesday’s county commission meeting. Two people were re-appointed to the Veteran’s Affairs Board: Park Township resident William Thompson and Bill Walters of Nottawa Township. Their terms are for a four-year period. Also, commissioners agreed to dedicate funds it received through the recent sale of the Covered Bridge Healthcare building into the county’s capital-improvement fund. …

A citizen’s tip helped state police troopers and their investigation into a hit-and-run incident occurring earlier this week in Branch County’s Sherwood Township. Troopers said the tip led them Tuesday to a residence on Hackman Road in Burr Oak Township, where they discovered the vehicle believed to have been involved in the incident. The 2005 Chevy Equinox was impounded for …