Judge temporarily blocks changes at Michigan pet cemetery
HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — A judge has granted a temporary restraining order to prevent the sale of a shuttered Michigan pet cemetery that houses remains of an estimated 74,000 animals.
The Livingston Daily Press & Argus reports Livingston County Circuit Court Judge David Reader issued an order that also prevents the property’s owners from disturbing the pet cemetery, including prohibiting “digging up any of the pets’ remains.” Several people whose pets are buried there had sued .
The Associated Press sent a message seeking comment Tuesday to Shari Pollesch, an attorney representing Carol Street Park Ridge LLC, which is listed as currently owning the property.
The more than 40-year-old Heavenly Acres pet cemetery in Livingston County’s Genoa Township closed after its lease expired Sept. 30. The property was being put up for sale.
Michigan Sugar Company settles air, water pollution lawsuit
BAY CITY, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan beet sugar company will pay $562,500 in fines and environmental restoration costs for air and water pollution violations under a deal with the state Department of Environmental Quality.
The agreement settles a lawsuit the DEQ filed against Michigan Sugar Co. in August 2017. Department Director Liesl Eichler Clark said Tuesday the agreement is “an important milestone in addressing nuisance odor and water quality violations” at the company’s Bay City processing facility.
In addition to complying with its wastewater discharge permit, installing odor-control equipment and reducing trucking debris on nearby roads, the company will restore two rock reefs in Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay, creating habitat for walleye and whitefish.
Michigan Sugar Co. also will plant more than 100 trees to create a dust and noise barrier near its factory.
Parents charged after toddler dies from fentanyl poisoning
CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A Detroit-area couple has been charged in the opioid overdose of their 18-month-old daughter who died on Christmas Day.
Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith told the Detroit Free Press that an autopsy showed Ava Floyd had ingested up to 15 times the amount of fentanyl authorities had seen in the county’s last 30 overdose deaths.
Smith’s office says 28-year-old Antonio Floyd and 27-year-old Shantanice Barksdale were arraigned Monday and jailed on second-degree murder charges. They face Jan. 29 preliminary examinations.
Smith says the couple was producing fentanyl in their Clinton Township home, and authorities believe the baby drank something containing the drug.
Ava was taken to a grandmother’s home where she stopped breathing.
Attorneys for Floyd and Barksdale on Tuesday declined to comment on the case.
