With Election Day looming this Tuesday, neighbors across mid-Michigan are getting ready to venture out to the polls. It’s not a typical election, and the ballot will include some weighty local issues of immediate concern to daily life, from schoolhouses to covering public safety services. Whether concerned parent of the school your child attends or…
Two Olympic medal winner and former 100-meter world champion Fred Kerley, aged 29, has recently been making headlines for things other than racing. The track athlete, previously astounding onlookers with his quickness and resolve, recently got arrested in Miami after it is alleged he engaged in a physical altercation with fellow competitor and former girlfriend…
Charley Scalies, the genial character actor best known for playing the zealously devoted longshoreman Thomas “Horseface” Pakusa in the highly regarded second season of The Wire, passed away Thursday at 84. He died peacefully in a Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, nursing home after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, according to his daughter, Anne Marie Scalies. Raised…
Surprise resignation: In a surprise news release, University of Michigan President Dr. Santa J. Ono said that he would step down after having held the post for a fairly brief three-year period. Ono has been selected as the sole finalist to be president at the University of Florida, which he will start this summer, subject…
Golf lost a real pioneer. Jim Dent, a very early African-American pioneer on the golf course who was known for massive drives and perseverance, passed away on Friday at the age of 85. He passed away in his hometown of Augusta, Georgia. The PGA Tour indicated Dent had been recuperating from a stroke. Dent’s name…
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – May 4 is a blue day for baseball fans and Detroit Tigers alike. We mark the 15th anniversary this year of Ernie Harwell’s passing, which happened in 2010 at age 92. For everyone who ever listened to the Detroit Tigers or appreciated the art form of baseball play-by-play, Harwell’s shadow…
A winning lottery ticket is often a wish fulfilled. For Kentucky native James Farthing, who recently claimed a life-changing $167.3 million Powerball jackpot, though, the excitement was brief. A day after his staggering victory was announced, Farthing sat in a Florida jail cell, waiting on serious felony charges after a night that had slipped away…
In a significant move toward transparency, the State of Michigan made nearly 2,000 pages of election training materials available to the public after being pushed by state lawmakers. The materials, including training newsletters, clerk guides, and guides used on election day, were made public Friday. This comes on the heels of a subpoena from the…
The air was charged outside the Kent County Courthouse in Michigan this week when two vastly different groups of protesters came together to be heard on the soap opera unfolding in the trial of ex-Grand Rapids cop Christopher Schurr. The courthouse, once a stodgy institution for justice, was the focal point of a larger conversation…
In a highly charged and tragic case that shook neighborhoods and reopened the debate about hate crimes in America, an Illinois man was given 53 years in prison for brutally murdering a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy and attempting to murder his mother. Joseph Czuba, 73, was already convicted earlier this year of his offenses, which prosecutors…