SCHOOL SHOOTING-MICHIGAN

Charges weighed for Michigan shooting suspect's parents

OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A prosecutor considering criminal charges against the parents of a boy accused of killing four students at a Michigan school says their actions went “far beyond negligence”. Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald says a gun “seems to have been just freely available” to Ethan Crumbley. McDonald says charges still are being considered against his parents. The 15-year-old Crumbley has been charged as an adult with two dozen crimes, including murder and terrorism for a shooting Tuesday at Oxford High School in Oakland County, Michigan. The prosecutor says there are others “who should be held accountable." Investigators say the semi-automatic gun was purchased by Crumbley’s father last week.

AUTO WORKERS-ELECTION

UAW votes for direct election of leaders in wake of scandal

DETROIT (AP) — Members of the United Auto Workers union have overwhelmingly approved picking their leaders by direct ballot elections. In doing so they have rejected a system that many blamed for corruption in the union’s top ranks. The so-called “one member, one vote” measure got nearly 64% of 140,586 valid ballots that were received by Monday’s mail-in deadline. About 36% favored the current system of leadership picked by delegates to a convention. That's according to results released Thursday. The results are not official until approved by the Labor Department and a federal judge. The election of the union’s 13-member International Executive Board is likely to take place next summer or fall.

WATER INFRASTRUCTURE

Michigan Senate approves $3.3B water infrastructure bill

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Senate has unanimously approved $3.3 billion in water infrastructure spending to replace lead pipes and repair dams statewide while also sending money to a Detroit-area system that has struggled with flooding. The influx of aid will next be considered by the House, likely in the new year. It includes about $2.4 billion in federal funding. Sen. Jon Bumstead, sponsor of the bill, says it would fund “transformational improvements” to aging water infrastructure. Michigan has an estimated 460,000 lead pipes. State regulations, made tougher following Flint’s water crisis, generally require that every line be replaced by around 2040.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-MICHIGAN

3rd military medical team sent to Michigan amid COVID surge

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A third 22-member medical team from the U.S. military is being deployed to Michigan, where hospitals are grappling with record-high numbers of COVID-19 patients amid the state’s fourth surge of infections. The nurses, doctors and respiratory therapists will assist Covenant Healthcare in Saginaw starting Dec. 12. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer calls it “much-needed relief.” Two other 22-member teams began treating patients in Grand Rapids and Dearborn this week. More than 4,500 people, most of them unvaccinated, were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases as of Wednesday. The 4,269 adults with confirmed infection surpassed the previous pandemic high that was reported two days earlier.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-US

'The fire that's here': US is still battling delta variant

While all eyes are on the new and little-understood omicron variant, the delta form of the coronavirus isn’t finished wreaking havoc in the U.S., sending record numbers of patients to the hospital in some states, especially in the Midwest and New England. The U.S. recorded its first known omicron infection on Wednesday, in a fully vaccinated person who had returned to California from South Africa, where the variant was first identified just over a week ago. For now, the extra-contagious delta variant accounts for practically all cases in the U.S. and continues to inflict misery at a time when many hospitals are struggling with shortages of nurses and a backlog of patients. And now the fear is that omicron will foist more patients, and perhaps sicker ones, onto hospitals.

XGR-PUBLIC SAFETY

Michigan House passes $368.5M in public safety funding

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan House has passed a $368.5 million public safety and police funding plan. The vote Thursday came with an increase in funding for school resource officers after the Oxford High School shooting this week when four students were killed and several students and a teacher were wounded. The plan also includes funding for recruiting and retaining public safety officers, and providing educational scholarships and support for different efforts like increased body camera usage. The plan passed with bipartisan support 97-3 and will now head to the state Senate for approval.

AP-US-KELLOGG'S-STRIKE

Striking Kellogg's workers to get 3% raises in new contract

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Kellogg’s has reached a tentative agreement with its 1,400 cereal plant workers that will deliver 3% raises and end a nearly two-month-long strike if it is approved. The Battle Creek, Michigan-based company said Thursday the five-year deal with the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union also includes cost of living adjustments in the later years of the contract and it maintains the workers’ current health benefits. The deal covers workers at four plants in Battle Creek; Omaha, Nebraska; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Memphis, Tennessee where all of Kellogg’s well-known brands of cereal, including Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies. The workers who have been on strike since Oct. 5 will vote Sunday on the new contract.

RIVER CRASH-PORT HURON

Woman dead, 3 kids critical after car enters Michigan river

PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) — Police say a 26-year-old woman died and her three children were hospitalized in critical condition after her car crashed into a river in Port Huron. Police said Wednesday that officers and firefighters were called to the scene Tuesday afternoon after a vehicle reportedly drove through a parking lot and into the Black River, with a male passenger seen jumping from the vehicle before it entered the water. Divers removed the woman motorist and three young children, but officials said the woman, identified as 26-year-old Corey Michelle Pratto, died at a hospital. The Detroit News reports that her three children, ages 6, 5, and 3, were in critical condition.

SCHOOL SHOOTING-MICHIGAN-EXPLAINER-TERRORISM

EXPLAINER: Why was Michigan suspect charged with terrorism?

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan prosecutors are charging a teen with terrorism in a deadly mass shooting at his high school, a novel approach made possible by a law enacted after the 9/11 attacks nearly 20 years ago. The state’s 2002 anti-terrorism law defines a terroristic act as one intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or to affect the conduct of a government through intimidation or coercion. Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald says it's not a typical charge, but says those who were shot aren't the only victims and thousands of kids were terrorized. Ethan Crumbley also was charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in the attack at Oxford High School. He has pleaded not guilty.

AP-US-BP-REFINERY-POLLUTION

BP agrees to $500K penalty, soot limits at Indiana refinery

Oil giant BP has agreed to pay a $512,450 penalty and reduce soot emissions from its Whiting refinery in Indiana. The company reached a consent agreement Thursday with regulators and activists who accused the company of violating an earlier deal. The sprawling facility is on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. Its high-temperature processing units release tiny “particulate matter,” or soot, which is linked to asthma and other respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses. The refinery is 15 miles southeast of Chicago. It's the largest in the Midwest and the sixth-largest in the U.S.

News from © The Associated Press, 2021