State Roundup

Ann Arbor Professors upset over bill to ban partner benefits ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- Professors at the University of Michigan predict there will be resignations if state lawmakers ban health insurance for domestic partners of public employees. Andries Coetzee tells AnnArbor.com he's already looking for a new job. He says the insurance has helped his seven-year partner, whose cancer is in remission. The linguistics professor is questioning his decision to turn down a job at New York University and choose Michigan 10 years ago. At least seven U-M professors have signed a letter, asking Gov. Rick Snyder not to sign House Bill 4770 if passed by the Senate. The university says same-sex benefits are important for recruiting and keeping top faculty. Rep. Dave Agema, a Republican from the Grand Rapids area, says taxpayers shouldn't have to cover the bill. Warren Priest put on leave after sex abuse report WARREN, Mich. (AP) -- The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit says it has placed a 66-year-old priest on leave after finding "sufficient substance" behind a complaint that he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor early in his ministry. The 1.3 million-member archdiocese announced Sunday that the Rev. Gary Schulte went on administrative leave Friday from St. Sylvester Parish in Warren. The Associated Press left a phone message Sunday for Schulte. The archdiocese says its victim assistance coordinator received a complaint in September. The archdiocese says it "found the complaint to be of sufficient substance" to require restrictions on Schulte's work as a priest, including barring him from celebrating Mass. Schulte was ordained in 1972 and also has worked at parishes in the Detroit suburbs of Clawson, Beverly Hills, Royal Oak and Madison Heights. Southfield Man to stand trial in wife's strangulation death SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) -- A Southfield father will stand trial in the strangulation death of his wife which was witnessed by the couple's three daughters. Rahim Lockridge is scheduled to appear Nov. 10 for a hearing in Oakland County Circuit Court in Pontiac. A Southfield district judge found enough evidence at a Friday preliminary examination to bind Lockridge over on a charge of open murder. Lockridge's attorney said Friday that he was defending himself and didn't intend to kill Kenyatta Lockridge Sept. 19 in the couple's home, north of Detroit. The daughters, ages 17, 11 and 8, testified their parents were fighting over missing money. The 17-year-old said their mother hit their father, who then put Kenyatta Lockridge in a headlock. The girl testified her mother then stopped breathing. Traverse City Diver finds, documents 3 Lake Michigan shipwrecks TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) -- Ross Richardson could have removed some of the artifacts from three shipwrecks he found not far from the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in West Michigan. Instead, the diver from Benzie County's Lake Ann in the northwest corner of Michigan's Lower Peninsula left them in Lake Michigan. "My trophies are the stories, the videos and the photos I can share with people," he told the Traverse City Record-Eagle for a story Saturday. Richardson decided to search that part of Lake Michigan -- about 135 miles north of Grand Rapids -- after a piece of wreckage washed ashore last year. Using side-scan sonar, Richardson found what he sought in about 25 feet of water, a quarter-mile offshore. Diving there over the summer, he claims to be the first to document the wrecks. "It's a very remote area, and there's not a lot of boat traffic," he told the newspaper. "Someone might have seen them over the years, but they've never been documented." Richardson estimated that the wrecks may date to the second half of the 19th century. One could have been a steam-powered ship. The other two appear to have been sailing vessels. One of the ships has numerous artifacts. "We think it's great that he's bringing this information to light," Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore deputy superintendent Tom Ulrich said. "Our experience has been that the divers and snorkelers who dive these wrecks are often their ... fiercest protectors." Richardson is working with officials to identify the wrecks, and hopes to help in their preservation and promotion. "I approach it from the point of view of what I want to look at, and that's what I like to share," he said. Last year, he discovered the Westmoreland in Lake Michigan near the Leelanau Peninsula. The 200-foot steamer sank during a storm in 1854. Richardson has not said much about the Westmoreland's exact location because he doesn't want other divers to remove artifacts from the steamer. Published: Tue, Nov 1, 2011