Howell: Police find 500 marijuana plants in Livingston Co.
HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — Police have discovered more than 500 marijuana plants during a two-day helicopter search in Livingston County.
Lt. Philip Menna, acting supervisor of the Livingston and Washtenaw Narcotics Enforcement Team, said the search conducted Monday and Tuesday revealed plants that could produce up to a pound of marijuana, with a street value of $800 to $1,000.
Menna did not immediately know how many people could face charges. He tells the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus that charges could be authorized after the Michigan State Police Northville Crime Lab analyzes the suspected marijuana .
The investigation was part of the department’s Help Eliminate Marijuana Planting program. Operation HEMP is the state’s eradication-and-suppression program for pot.
Lansing: $31.6M in fed grants goes to Mich. state police
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan State Police is getting $36.1 million in federal homeland security money to bolster the state’s protection, prevention and response to emergencies.
Officials say more than 80 percent of the grants announced Tuesday in a release will be allocated to local and tribal governments.
The grants include $19.3 million for the State Homeland Security Program, $13.5 million for the Urban Areas Security Initiative, and $1.4 million to support and enhance border enforcement efforts on land and water shared with Canada.
Pontiac: Hotel: Visiting film crew walked out on $37K bill
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A tony suburban Detroit hotel says it was stiffed by a film company that left town without paying nearly $37,000 in food, lodging and services.
A lawsuit filed in Oakland County Circuit Court by the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham claims it provided Little Murder Productions and Arizona-based Mind in Motion Entertainment with an open account last year when the independent film production crew was filming “Little Murder,” a thriller set in New Orleans, post-Hurricane Katrina.
Those named in the suit include Peter “Gaga” Antonjevic; actress Lake Bell; actors Carey Elwes and Josh Lucas; Ryan Ansell, an investor; and Tim Gendreau, Mind in Motion president.
Muskegon: Judge rules for prison in lawsuit by sleepy worker
MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a former Michigan prison employee who lost his job in 2007 after repeatedly falling asleep while working in the kitchen.
Joseph Roetter says he had narcolepsy. He claimed the Corrections Department could have accommodated his condition.
Roetter even came up with a remedy: Just shake him and shout if he falls asleep. But a federal judge in Grand Rapids, Robert Holmes Bell, says shake-and-shout wouldn’t be enough to keep Roetter sharp in the kitchen at Brooks prison in Muskegon County.
Roetter supervised inmates in the kitchen and sometimes worked alone. In a court filing Tuesday, his lawyer says an appeal is planned.
Rochester: Oakland University approves tuition increase
ROCHESTER, Mich. (AP) — Oakland University says its 2010-11 tuition will increase 5.76 percent for undergraduate students, and slightly more for graduate students.
Officials at the suburban Detroit university approved the increases Tuesday.
For full-time undergraduates, tuition will go up by $18 per credit hour to $9,716.
The 5.77 percent hike approved for graduate students will increase tuition by $30 a credit hour to $12,972.
The school says it’s boosting financial aid by $4.8 million, or 24.8 percent. The increase provides a 53 percent discount to more than half of Oakland’s undergraduate students.
The Rochester-based public university has about 19,000 students.
Blackman Township: Elderly woman surprised to find marijuana in mail
BLACKMAN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Bills, catalogs, junk mail — marijuana?
Indeed, police say an elderly woman in Jackson County’s Blackman Township was surprised to get a 2-pound package of marijuana last week from someone in Arizona. She was not the intended recipient.
Police learned that the return address on the package was bogus. They don’t know who sent the weed, which is worth about $2,400.
Deputy Director Jon Johnston tells The Jackson Citizen Patriot that the marijuana was sent to the woman’s home by mistake or someone planned to snatch it from the mailbox before she checked.
The pot will be destroyed.
Grand Rapids: Anti-tax group funds ad against Sen. Hardiman
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — An anti-tax group is running a TV ad against 3rd District Republican congressional candidate Bill Hardiman.
The 15-second ad was released Tuesday by Club for Growth, which has endorsed state Rep. Justin Amash in the five-way GOP race.
The ad, which will air throughout the district, calls Hardiman “pro-tax” and “not what we need in Congress.” It displays his picture next to that of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Hardiman says in a statement that he has a long record of cutting taxes as a state senator, Kentwood mayor and city commissioner. He criticized Club for Growth’s “slash and burn tactics.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Vernon Ehlers (AY’-luhrz) of Grand Rapids is retiring, leaving the 3rd District seat open.
Grand Rapids: Foster parent facing charge in child’s death
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A foster care provider is being held in the Kent County Jail after a 5-year-old girl in her care died in a local hospital.
The Grand Rapids Press and television stations WOOD and WWMT report Tuesday that Emily Marie Meno died Saturday. Hospital staff contacted authorities Friday when the girl was brought in.
WOOD-TV says the woman is awaiting arraignment on a charge of open murder.
The girl had been placed in her care through a Christian services organization.
The Associated Press left messages Tuesday afternoon with the sheriff’s department and prosecutor’s office.
