News

Members of the Colon Community Schools Board of Education are mulling a number of options in an effort to trim as much as $500,000 from the district’s $5.7 million budget. The board, which met Monday before a standing-room-only audience in excess of 80 people, is considering options that include the privatization of its transportation services, the elimination of up to …

Deputies from the St Joseph County Sheriff’s Department were called last week to investigate a breaking-and-entering attempt in Flowerfield Township. The incident occurred at a residence in the 50000 block of Wetherbee Road. A neighbor reported hearing the house alarm going off and seeing a male suspect running from the house. The alarm was triggered as a result of the …

Four western Michigan high school students have been arrested after a handgun was discharged in a boys’ restroom.  Kalamazoo police say in a release that a 10th-grader brought the small caliber, semi-automatic pistol Tuesday morning to Loy Norrix High School and inadvertently fired it.  Two other 10th grade students — a boy and girl — kept the gun in their …

By a 4-3 margin, members of the Mendon Community Schools Board of Education voted Monday to not renew the contract of Superintendent Rob Kuhlman. Board members Keith Heitkamp, Lynn Cool, Chris Ames and Regina Schinker opted against renewing Kuhlman’s contract; the measure was supported by Roger Cupp, Linda Thompson and board president Jim Fassett. Mendon school officials a month ago …

The Three Rivers Police Department is working with officials from Three Rivers Community Schools regarding a situation involving the distribution an explicit photo of a student. Police said the inappropriate digital photo of a minor was consensually sent, but then distributed beyond the account of the recipient. As many as 12 people will likely be questioned, police said. A summary …

A 72-year-old cancer patient has been arrested on drug-related charges more than a year after police seized medical marijuana plants from his rural St. Joseph County home. Thomas Williams was arrested and charged last week with drug manufacturing and conspiracy. The charges stem from a November 2013 police seizure when officers stormed into his Colon Township home, seizing cash, his …

State police investigators have provided additional details regarding the arrest of a Three Rivers couple last week on a variety of charges following a traffic accident in Centreville. Cass county authorities said they arrested a 48-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman on charges related to the possession of methamphetamine, marijuana stolen property and two warrants. The couple was involved in …

One suspect is in custody and another remains at large after they were found stealing diesel fuel from a farm over the weekend in Sturgis Township. Deputies were on patrol during the early morning hours Sunday when they located the occupants of a red Dodge pickup stealing from fuel tanks at Black Gold Farms, located in the 69000 block of …

A woman who promoted herself in the Kalamazoo areas as “No. 1 Tax Lady” is in hot water with the Internal Revenue Service. Fontrise Charles is charged with filing false returns for others to ensure big refunds over a three-year period. The indictment also accuses her of filing her own false returns. The 39-year-old Charles appeared Monday in Grand Rapids …

A judge in southwestern Michigan has heard a tearful plea from a young man who killed his grandfather at age 14 but hopes he can get a new sentence that would give him a chance at parole. Nineteen-year-old Dakotah Eliason was in a Berrien County court Friday because the U.S. Supreme Court says teens can’t automatically be given no-parole sentences …