Ann Arbor: Report: Toxin detected in city’s water supply
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Ann Arbor officials say the city’s water supply is safe despite an advocacy group’s claim that it contains traces of a chemical that may cause cancer in humans.
AnnArbor.com and The Detroit News report study results released Monday by the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group say water in the southern Michigan community contains 0.21 parts per billion of hexavalent chromium.
The group said Ann Arbor ranked 12th in a study that also found the toxin present in 31 of 35 cities tested nationwide.
Chromium-6 is typically derived from metal plating or leather tanning operations
Researchers found the highest contamination in Norman, Okla., which registered 12.9 parts per billion. The group says the EPA doesn’t require testing for hexavalent chromium and hasn’t established a legal threshold for drinking water.
Ohio: Troopers: Napping man shoots self on Ohio Turnpike
SANDUSKY, Ohio (AP) — Ohio troopers say they believe it was an accident when a Michigan motorist shot himself on the Ohio Turnpike after parking with his family.
The State Highway Patrol says 30-year-old Mahmoud Ajaj of Dearborn was holding a gun while napping when the weapon fired just after 1:30 a.m. Monday.
Patrol investigator Sgt. Gregory Blake tells the Sandusky Register Ajaj said he had grown tired while driving his wife and two young children. He pulled over about 33 miles southeast of Toledo.
Ajaj told troopers the gun was for protection in case someone tried to rob them.
Blake says it appears he accidentally squeezed the trigger as he fell asleep, firing into his left leg.
Ajaj was treated at a Toledo hospital and then released. No charges have been filed.
Eagle Harbor Twp.: Michigan monks who sell jam in UP settle lawsuit
EAGLE HARBOR TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A township in the Upper Peninsula has settled a lawsuit with monks over construction of a building next to where their local fruit preserves are sold.
Eagle Harbor Township in Keweenaw County has agreed to allow the building for fruit storage under Michigan’s right-to-farm law. The Society of St. John sued in federal court in 2009, claiming the township had violated its rights as a religious group.
The township says the monks have operated the Jampot under an exception to the local zoning ordinance. Officials in 2008 had turned down an expansion and questioned whether the property was only for religious purposes.
The agreement filed last week also clarifies what rights the monks have on their property. The monks are affiliated with the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
Muskegon: Woman police say took girl to burglary sentenced
MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) — A west Michigan mother who authorities say took her 2-year-old daughter along on a burglary has been sent to prison.
Twenty-six-year-old Nicole Bugajski was sentenced Monday in Muskegon County Circuit Court to 16 months to 20 years in prison. She pleaded guilty last month to second-degree home invasion.
Bugajski was charged in October with home invasion after her arrest in Muskegon Township, about 35 miles northwest of Grand Rapids.
Police say they found her daughter in the back of a car driven by Bugajski’s 51-year-old mother, Kimberly Mahnke. Mahnke also is charged with home invasion. The girl now lives with her father.
Bugajski also pleaded guilty Monday in district court to misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Mount Clemens: Dead banker’s gunshot wound may be self-inflicted
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) — Authorities say a gunshot to the head of a southeast Michigan banker may have been self-inflicted and investigators have stopped pursuing the case.
Sheriff Mark Hackel says Monday that David Widlak’s gun was used in the shooting. Still, he says any new information will be examined.
Hackel says investigators also found that Widlak erased information from his office computer, iPad and vehicle GPS.
Divers found the gun Oct. 20 off Lake St. Clair, not far from where duck hunters discovered the Grosse Pointe Farms man’s body three days earlier. The 62-year-old Community Central Bank chief executive had been missing since leaving his Mount Clemens office on Sept. 19.
A private autopsy determined Widlak died from a gunshot to the head. A medical examiner left the cause undetermined.
