News

A three-way traffic signal on South Nottawa Street at Wenzel Street will become a blinking light for the next 90 days, in anticipation of its potential removal. Sturgis city commissioners have approved a temporary control order that will change the stoplight to a flashing yellow signal for two-way traffic on South Nottawa Street and a red flashing light for Wenzel …

Thanks to the alertness of a Three Rivers police officer, the suspect in a Kalamazoo bank robbery has been arrested. Sgt. Andrew Howes was on patrol Monday when he spotted a vehicle matching the description of one used in a July 10 robbery at Consumers Credit Union. Howes stopped the vehicle on Millard Street. The suspect, later identified as Simon …

Authorities have released the name of a worker who died in a fall at a grain elevator company in Kalamazoo County. The sheriff’s department says 31-year-old Marcos Fonseca of Marcellus died after the fall Tuesday morning at H&H Feed & Grain Inc. in Schoolcraft Township, just west of Vicksburg. The department says he fell about 15 feet when he left …

Authorities are looking for a man who robbed a Sturgis convenience store while wearing trash bags to disguise his identity. Police say the man walked into Sturgis Party Store around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, showed a handgun and demanded money. The man took cash and police say he was last seen running away from the store. Anyone with information about the robbery is …

Police in the Kalamazoo area say the death of a 19-month-old boy is being investigated as a homicide. Police say Nyshuin Lewis was pronounced dead Tuesday after officers with the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety responded to a report of an unresponsive child at a Kalamazoo Township home near the community’s border with the city of Kalamazoo. Officers and medical …

Officials are advising Michigan’s propane users to lock in prices before the heating season gets underway. Valerie Brader of the Michigan Agency for Energy says customers can save money by signing contracts now, while propane supplies are significantly above the five-year average. Prices in more than 30 states jumped during the 2013-2014 heating season after cold temperatures and other factors …

Michigan’s unemployment rate has held steady in the latest month at 5.5 percent, 1.6 points lower than a year earlier. The state announced Wednesday that the seasonally adjusted jobless rate for June was identical with the rate in May. The U.S. rate fell 0.2 points to 5.3 percent in the latest month. The Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget …

Authorities say a 4-year-old girl has died after she became entangled in clothing at her western Michigan home and was accidentally strangled. The Ottawa County sheriff’s department says Makayla VanderLaan died Tuesday after being found unresponsive Sunday at her Grand Haven Township home at River Haven Village mobile home park. The department says the girl was playing alone in her …

The state appeals court says Calhoun County can keep $11,400, a gun and a camera seized from a car, although the owner wasn’t charged with a drug crime. The court says there’s a preponderance of evidence that the cash was tied to illegal activity. In a seizure case, that’s a lower standard than beyond a reasonable doubt. Brye Rounds was …

A former employee of Michigan State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine has been sentenced to five years of probation for embezzling more than $100,000 from the university. The Lansing State Journal reports 39-year-old Brandi Moody of DeWitt Township also was ordered Wednesday to pay restitution. She’ll have a six-month jail sentence suspended if she repays $43,000. She paid $100,000 in …