State Roundup

East Lansing Man charged in death of 6-month-old son EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- A 26-year-old East Lansing man has been charged with homicide in the death of his six-month-old son. Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III says Tuesday in a release that Yumar Burks also is charged with first-degree child abuse. Antonio Burks died Friday. The Lansing State Journal and WILX-TV report that Yumar Burks was arraigned Tuesday in East Lansing District Court. He faces an April 5 pretrial hearing and an April 8 preliminary examination. He was ordered held without bond. It was not immediately clear if Burks had an attorney. Jackson Fired U. of Toledo administrator hired in Michigan JACKSON, Mich. (AP) -- A University of Toledo administrator who was fired in 2008 over her criticism of gay rights has been hired to lead a human resources department in Michigan. The Jackson Citizen Patriot reports that Crystal Dixon, of Maumee, Ohio, is expected to start work next month as director of a joint human resources department for the city of Jackson and surrounding Jackson County. She will be considered a county employee but will work for both departments. Interim county Administrator Adam Brown says Dixon has experience and professionalism. She has spent the last three years working as a human resources and business consultant. Dixon lost her University of Toledo job after writing in a newspaper column that gay rights can't be compared to civil rights because homosexuality is a choice. Holland Group reports finding shipwreck in Lake Michigan HOLLAND, Mich. (AP) -- An organization that documents shipwrecks says it's found the wreck of a 60-foot, single-masted sloop in Lake Michigan that may date back to the 1830s. Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates this week announced that that the wreck was found off southwestern Michigan in water about 250 feet deep between Saugatuck and South Haven. The discovery was made while working with author Clive Cussler and his sonar operator Ralph Wilbanks of the National Underwater & Marine Agency. Holland-based Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates says the vessel sits upright and is in relatively good condition. The group says the sloop's construction and design are consistent with ships built in the 1820s and 1830s. Video of the wreck is expected to be shown April 16 at an event in Holland. New Buffalo Twp. Dive team finds bones in SW Michigan river NEW BUFFALO TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- A dive team searching a southwestern Michigan river has found bones that authorities believe are the remains of a person. The Berrien County sheriff's department says the dive team found the bones Tuesday in the Galien River in New Buffalo Township. Authorities say they searched the area after three New Buffalo High School students who were fishing March 23 found a bone that a medical examiner determined was human arm bone. One of the students snagged the bone with his lure and later took the bone to a teacher for examination. The teacher turned over the bone to authorities. Investigators believe the remains have been in the water for an extended amount of time. Authorities were working to identify the remains. Midland Dow Chemical CEO repays about $720,000 in expenses MIDLAND, Mich. (AP) --Dow Chemical Co. said its chairman and CEO has repaid almost $720,000 in personal expenses that the company mistakenly paid for over four years, an error discovered after Dow audited its internal customer events department. The audit "found shortcomings in record-keeping and processing," Dow said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. Andrew Liveris "promptly reimbursed" Dow $719,923, and the company said it has revised and strengthened its policies to ensure that its process for reimbursement requests moves faster. Dow's customer events department organizes and runs marketing and business development meetings around the world, including arranging meals and accommodations and procuring tickets to major global sporting and entertainment events. These meetings and events are hosted by Dow executives and other employees. The Midland, Mich.-based company did not detail the expenses that the audit found it incorrectly paid on Liveris's behalf, but said they were not primarily business-related or should have been billed to Liveris as personal items. The expenses were incurred between 2007 and 2010. Liveris received $17.7 million in compensation in 2010, up 13 percent from his 2009 package, according to Associated Press calculations of data filed with regulators Friday. The increase mainly came from a rise in the value of stock options that he was granted, and receipt of a performance-based bonus for the year, compared with no bonus for 2009. Dow's net income rose nearly six-fold in 2010 to $1.97 billion, or $1.72 per share, as revenue climbed about 20 percent to $53.67 billion. The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. The AP formula does not count changes in the present value of pension benefits. That makes the AP total slightly different in most cases from the total reported by companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The value that a company assigned to an executive's stock and option awards for 2010 was the present value of what the company expected the awards to be worth to the executive over time. Companies use one of several formulas to calculate that value. However, the number is just an estimate, and what an executive ultimately receives will depend on the performance of the company's stock in the years after the awards are granted. Most stock compensation programs require an executive to wait a specified amount of time to receive shares or exercise options. Published: Thu, Mar 31, 2011