Legal aid prof hired to run Michigan unemployment agency
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A legal aid professor will lead Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency after he helped create legislation aimed at improving it in the wake of a scandal in which people were falsely accused of fraud.
The hiring of Steve Gray was announced Monday. He starts June 3.
Gray is director and founder of the University of Michigan Law School’s Unemployment Insurance Clinic, which helps families navigate the unemployment benefits system. He participated in a workgroup that crafted new unemployment insurance laws in 2017.
Stephanie Beckhorn is acting director of the Department of Talent and Economic Development, which oversees the Unemployment Insurance Agency. She says it’s an “honor to have someone with such intense dedication and understanding of the system” lead the agency.
Gray succeeds Michelle Beebe and will make $145,000 a year.
Body of man missing for months found during movie shoot
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A group of people making a movie discovered the body of a Pontiac man under tree branches, five months after he was reported missing.
Oakland County investigators say 41-year-old Lanard Curtaindoll was shot in the chest at a club run by his girlfriend. The body was found on April 24 in a vacant Pontiac field while a group was making a movie in the area.
The sheriff’s office says the father of Curtaindoll’s girlfriend has been charged with murder. Ken “Hawk” Hawkins appeared in court Saturday and was returned to jail without bond. It’s not known if he has a lawyer yet who could comment on the case.
Investigators say Curtaindoll’s girlfriend fled after her father’s arrest.
Michigan librarian gets $90,000 after fraud case dismissed
LAINGSBURG, Mich. (AP) — A mid-Michigan librarian is getting $90,000 as part of a settlement after allegations of fraud against her were dismissed.
The city of Laingsburg announced the settlement with 60-year-old Sandra Chavez of Owosso in a news release and apologized. The Lansing State Journal on Monday reported the settlement’s financial terms, which it obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Chavez had sued alleging violations of the state’s whistleblower protection act after she was charged with false pretenses, malicious destruction of police property and larceny. She was accused of falsifying her time sheet, damaging a police camera set up to observe her attendance and stealing a camera memory card.
Charges were dismissed in July. The city’s release says it was determined she didn’t “defraud, cheat, or engage in time card fraud.”
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