State Roundup

Jackson: Jackson County girl recovering after dog attack
BLACKMAN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A 6-year-old Michigan girl who was viciously attacked by pit bulls four months ago is recovering nicely, family members said.

Three dogs attacked Tyah Norris inside a fenced area behind a home within the block where she lives in Jackson County’s Blackman Township.

Since then, Tyah has had a skin graft on her head, and the swelling on her face has gone down.

“She’s doing lots better,” grandmother Linda Powers told the Jackson Citizen Patriot for a story published on Monday.

Tyah had hundreds of stitches, multiple surgeries and spent almost three weeks in the hospital.

In October, doctors took skin from the back of the girl’s thigh and used it to repair the wound on her head. The skin took to the area, which spared Tyah more procedures, her mother, Joyce Norris, told the newspaper.

Tyah hasn’t yet returned to her first-grade class because the condition of her head remains too fragile. Instead, she goes to school twice a week for an hour and a half to work alone with a teacher, Joyce Norris said.

Criminal cases are pending against the owners of the dogs. The animals were euthanized shortly after the attack in late August.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Friday before Jackson County Circuit Judge John McBain.

Roseville: Police say woman tried to set her husband on fire
ROSEVILLE, Mich. (AP) — Police say a Roseville woman has been arrested after lighting her husband on fire and attempting to stab him in front of the couple’s two children.

Police tell The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens that the unidentified woman poured rubbing alcohol or nail polish on the man about 7:30 p.m. Sunday and ignited it with a cigarette lighter. They say she also chased him around their apartment with a knife.

Authorities say the man was being treated at Henry Ford Macomb Hospital in Warren for serious burns to his chest and legs. His condition was not immediately known.

Detroit: Detroit police to release 24-hour crime summaries
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Police Department will begin making public a 24-hour summary of major crime in the city.

Daily releases of incidents will begin Monday through the department’s public information office. The department will have discretion over the release of victim or witness names.

Chief Ralph Godbee says in a release that making such information public will help the department in its effort to report major crime patterns to Detroit residents. Police have been using crime data to target areas for stepped-up enforcement.

How the department compiled and reported crime statistics was called into question after Detroit police revised 2008 homicide totals from 344 to 375.

Kalamazoo: City police seize weapons, drugs in home, seek tips
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — Police in Kalamazoo say they hope tips from the public will help them find those who are behind a crime operation linked to illegal weapons, drugs and explosives.

Public safety Lt. Mike McCaw said that his department acted Sunday on information about a range of crimes going on at a home.

McCaw says officers questioned several people at the home and searched the building, finding firearms and drugs but not explosives reported to be there.

He says items seized include a sawed-off shotgun, loaded revolver, a pound of marijuana and a large amount of crack cocaine “packaged for distribution.”

Monroe: Ex-judge will try to settle hot dog vendor dispute
MONROE, Mich. (AP) — After more than a year in court, two sides fighting over a hot dog stand in Monroe are working with a mediator to try to cut through the legal mustard.

A business called the Dog Pound is suing Monroe after a plan to sell hot dogs from a cart was rejected. The lawsuit was moved to federal court in Detroit in 2009 because the owners raised constitutional claims.

Former Oakland County Judge Fred Mester is serving as a mediator. The owners of the hog dog cart say Monroe won’t allow it because other food businesses fear competition.

Federal Judge David Lawson wants to get an update on the case in February.

Lansing: Poachers keep Mich. conservation officers busy
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Did you hear the one about the deer hunter who took shots from a golf cart?

Conservation officers say it’s a true story. The Michigan deer hunting season always has law breakers, and officers report incidents on a state website.

The Department of Natural Resources says a maintenance worker confessed that he was shooting deer at a golf course while sitting in a cart. A loaded shotgun was seized.

The location was not disclosed.

Another officer investigating a light in a field discovered a deer carcass that was steaming. The hunter said he had poured boiling water on the deer to wash it out. But the story changed when the hunter admitted he shot it before running to town to get a license.