Grand Rapids
Commission OKs medical marijuana registrations
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- The Grand Rapids City Commission has voted to require medical marijuana caregivers to register as a home occupation.
The law requires a registered primary caregiver be at least 1,000 feet from any school and that all marijuana be in the main building in an enclosed, locked facility.
It also says no more than five patients may get marijuana within a week.
The commission deleted a provision allowing warrantless inspections of caregivers' locations before passing the ordinance Tuesday.
Michigan voters approved medical use of marijuana in November 2008. Since regulations took effect April 6, the state says it's received 19,550 applications.
It has approved 10,022 patient and 4,305 caregiver registrations.
Corunna
Trucker tells Michigan jury he killed 2 gentlemen
CORUNNA, Mich. (AP) -- The man who confessed to fatally shooting an abortion protester and a businessman in a small Michigan community told jurors Tuesday he deserves to die for the killings.
Harlan Drake testified for hours at his first-degree murder trial in Shiawassee County, about 25 miles west of Flint. He admits killing anti-abortion activist James Pouillon and businessman Mike Fuoss.
"I deserve to die for committing those murders. ... Obviously, I've murdered two gentlemen," Drake, 34, said.
Michigan does not have a death penalty.
Drake said he's not a "safe person" and should be "locked up somewhere." His lawyers say he should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, but prosecution experts claim he understood the wrongfulness of his acts last Sept. 11.
Pouillon was shot four times as the activist stood near Owosso High School carrying a sign with a picture of a dead fetus. Fuoss, who once employed Drake's mother, was shot 17 times in his office just outside Owosso, 30 miles west of Flint, Mich.
Drake said he asked to see the autopsy reports "so I could see what my aim was like."
He said he considered killing himself after the fatal shootings but didn't want to make a mess in his wife's truck, The Flint Journal reported on its Web site.
Defense lawyer Robert Ashley has said Drake's mental-health problems began when his semi-truck slammed into a car, killing two teens in Ottumwa, Iowa, in 2004. Police said Drake was not at fault.
Detroit
Some dogs linked to dogfighting ring will live, says judge
DETROIT (AP) -- A judge says some dogs seized from a dogfighting ring in eastern Michigan can keep barking.
The Humane Society of Kent County will get ownership of at least 11 dogs that have been living there in western Michigan. Lawyer Bradley Defoe says the group might get to keep another six or seven dogs.
Federal prosecutors in Detroit said state law required the dogs to be euthanized if they were connected to dogfighting, even their puppies. But U.S. District Judge David Lawson had a different opinion Tuesday.
More than 40 dogs were seized last year when authorities filed dogfighting charges against three men. The dogs, mostly pit bulls, were temporarily placed at kennels in Kent, Ingham and Lenawee counties. Some died.
Detroit
Ex-prosecutor will help Riddle fight corruption charges
DETROIT (AP) -- Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle has turned to a former federal prosecutor to defend him against corruption charges at a second trial.
Richard Convertino formally signed on Tuesday as Riddle's new lawyer. He says he has one goal: an acquittal for the former top aide to Monica Conyers, wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers.
Riddle is accused of working with Conyers to shake down people when she was on the Detroit City Council. His first trial ended in a mistrial last month.
Conyers will be sentenced Wednesday for conspiracy. She admitted taking bribes for her vote on a sludge contract.
Convertino says secretly taped phone calls appear to damage Riddle. But he says Riddle "hasn't had an opportunity to really be heard." Trial is set for July.
Benton Harbor
College bans sex offenders on list
BENTON HARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- Lake Michigan College has banned people convicted of sex crimes against children and listed on the state sex offender registry from attending classes on its four campuses, officials say.
Three students have been suspended under the new rule, although they will be allowed to take online courses, a spokeswoman for the community college told the Herald-Palladium of St. Joseph.
Administrators made the decision last month after a man signing up for winter semester classes at the Bertrand Crossing campus near Niles told school officials he was a registered sex offender and his victim had been a child, the newspaper reported. The man was not allowed to enroll.
"This brought to light that we could have other students enrolled who could have the same conviction on their record," college spokeswoman Laura Kraklau said. "So that's kind of what sparked it."
Officials describe the three students as "suspended" because they can take classes on campus once they are no longer required to register as sex offenders and are no longer on probation or parole.
But because sex offenders must register for either 25 years or life under Michigan law, the students essentially have been expelled.
Aside from Bertrand Crossing, Lake Michigan College has campuses in Benton Harbor, Benton Township and South Haven.
The ban does not cover students convicted of a sex crime against an adult.
Day care is provided at the South Haven and Benton Township campuses, Kraklau said. Children also visit the other campuses, she said. For example, Bertrand Crossing offers youth robotics and fabrication classes for children as young as 5.
U.S. Department of Education officials told the Herald-Palladium they did not know whether other colleges or universities have similar rules.
Miriam Aukerman, an attorney with Legal Aid of Western Michigan, said the Lake Michigan College rule was too broad and could punish people who pose no threat to children, including 17-year-olds convicted of having sex with 15-year-olds and other "Romeo and Juliet" offenses. The age of sexual consent in Michigan is 16.
"There are people on the registry who are on for offenses they committed when they were 9 years old," Aukerman said.
Research shows sexual offenses committed at such young ages are poor indicators of future conduct, she said. "It's very different from what we think about as the kind of predatory behavior that people are concerned about."
Published: Thu, Mar 11, 2010
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