THANKSGIVING PARADE-DETROIT

Detroit Thanksgiving day parade to see stepped-up security

DETROIT (AP) — The 95th America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Detroit will step off Thursday morning with beefed up security in place along the route. Police say major intersections along Woodward Avenue will see heavier police protection following the deaths of six people and injuries to more than 60 others when an SUV plowed into marchers and spectators during a weekend parade in Wisconsin. There also will be limited to no access from side streets and main arteries directly into Woodward. Police vehicles, heavy machinery from the city’s Public Works department and heavy barriers will be placed strategically along the route to prevent breeches. The parade is scheduled to start about 8:45 a.m. near Wayne State University.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-MICHIGAN

Military to help Michigan cope with COVID-19 patient surge

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The federal government is sending 44 military medical staffers to Michigan to help beleaguered hospitals treat COVID-19 patients amid a fourth surge that is the worst in the country. It also will open beds at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Detroit for transfers. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sought the assistance. The two teams of 22 physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists will arrive next week and care for patients for 30 days at Beaumont Hospital in Dearborn and Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids. As of Wednesday, more than 4,000 people were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases - near peak levels.

AP-US-OBIT-FISHBACK

Army officer who reported prisoner abuses dies at age 42

NEWBERRY, Mich. (AP) — A former Army officer and Detroit native who reported in 2005 that military prisoners in the Middle East were being beaten and abused by U.S. soldiers has died. A funeral home says Major Ian Fishback of Newberry, Michigan, died suddenly Friday. He was 42. No cause of death was listed. The New York Times reports Tuesday that Fishback’s family says he died in an adult foster care facility in Michigan. Fishback was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to the newspaper, he wrote about the abuses in a letter to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The allegations eventually led the U.S. Senate to approve anti-torture legislation in 2005.

DISC JOCKEY-STABBING

Man charged in slaying of longtime Detroit DJ John O'Leary

DETROIT (AP) — A 38-year-old man has been charged in the stabbing death of longtime Detroit rock radio personality John O'Leary. Authorities say Sean Lamoureux appeared in court where he was formerly charged with open murder and larceny. The body of the 67-year-old O'Leary was found hidden beneath shingles, sheets and a wheelbarrow at the house in Highland Park where he and Lamoureux were housemates. O'Leary spent decades on rock stations in Detroit before he left WCSX-FM in 2013..

DETROIT INTERSTATE

Whitmer seeks federal funds to convert I-375 to boulevard

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is asking the Biden administration for funding to replace Interstate 375, a 1-mile depressed freeway in Detroit that was built by demolishing Black neighborhoods 60 years ago. The state wants to convert the highway to a six-lane boulevard at street level. The $1 trillion U.S. infrastructure law enacted last week includes $1 billion to reconnect communities that were divided to make room for freeways. Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, two predominantly African American neighborhoods, were razed in the late 1950s and early 1960s to build I-375. Whitmer has invited Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to tour the area.

KELLOGG'S STRIKE

Kellogg's and its striking workers to resume talks next week

Kellogg's and its 1,400 striking cereal workers agreed to return to the bargaining table a day after the company threatened to start permanently replacing some of the workers. Contract talks are set to resume next Tuesday between the Battle Creek, Michigan-based company and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union. The two sides met for one day earlier this week, but didn’t make much progress toward ending the strike that began Oct. 5. The strike includes four plants in Battle Creek; Omaha, Nebraska; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Memphis, Tennessee that make all of Kellogg’s brands of cereal, including Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-DOCTOR-SEXUAL-ASSAULT

Bo Schembechler statue on U-M campus defaced with red paint

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — A statue on the University of Michigan campus of legendary football coach Glenn “Bo” Schembechler has been vandalized and a message supporting sexual assault victims of a former sports doctor scrawled on the steps beneath it. The Detroit Free Press reports that a crew is removing red paint splattered on the statue outside the Ann Arbor school’s football building. The university said Wednesday that the vandalism is being investigated. A report by a law firm hired by U-M found that officials including Schembechler failed to stop the late Dr. Robert Anderson, despite reports in the 1970s that he sexually assaulted student athletes.

OLD FAIRGROUNDS-DETROIT TRANSIT CENTER

Transit center approved for old fairgrounds site in Detroit

DETROIT (AP) — An $18.6 million transit center will be constructed on the site of the former Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit. Detroit City Councilmembers on Tuesday approved by a 5-2 vote a plan that calls for buses and passengers to use what had been the fairground’s Dairy Cattle Building. The Coliseum building will be torn down. In past years, it hosted circuses, rodeos and other large events. Plans also include an outdoor park. Officials hope to start construction on the transit center next year. Most of the project’s cost would be covered by bond sales. The Michigan State Fair last was held at the site in 2009.

CAREGIVER-MURDER CHARGE

Caregiver charged with murdering elderly Detroit man

DETROIT (AP) — A 30-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of an elderly Detroit man who was in his care. Wayne County prosecutors say that Nassim Moustapha Messelmani of Westland stabbed and shot 72-year-old Edward McLendon last week and then turned himself in to authorities. He remains in jail and his next court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 1.

HOME EXPLOSION-FLINT

Girl, 4, woman, 55, killed in Michigan house explosion

FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Authorities say a 4-year-old girl and a 55-year-old woman were killed in an overnight explosion and fire that destroyed three homes in Michigan, damaged several more and sent debris falling onto a neighborhood. The cause of the explosion Monday night remains under investigation. Authorities said Tuesday that the woman died at a hospital, and that fire crews and a police cadaver dog found the child in the rubble of her home. Her father is in critical condition and another person suffered minor injuries. Earlier Tuesday, authorities said the adult victim was a 70-year-old man and the then-missing child was a 3-year-old girl but they corrected that information later in the day.

News from © The Associated Press, 2021