State Roundup

Beulah
Dad: Autistic teen improves after being poisoned
BEULAH, Mich. (AP) — The father of a 14-year-old northern Michigan autistic girl whose mother is charged with trying to kill her says his daughter’s condition has improved in recent days.
A posting on Matt Stapleton’s Facebook page says Isabelle is breathing on her own, walking, talking, and out of the critical care unit at a Grand Rapids hospital after doctors decided Friday to remove her from a ventilator.
Kelli Stapleton was charged last week with attempted murder in what police describe as a murder-suicide attempt. State police say Stapleton and her daughter were found unconscious from carbon monoxide poisoning in a van Tuesday.
The Stapletons live in Elberta, west of Traverse City. Kelli Stapleton has written about Isabelle’s severe autism on a blog called The Status Woe.

Ann Arbor
Family asks for help after July slaying of student
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Family members of a University of Michigan medical student who was found slain in July said they don’t know who might have killed him and want anyone with information about the case to come forward.
Second Lt. Paul DeWolf, 25, was attending the Ann Arbor school on an Air Force scholarship. He was found dead July 24 at his off-campus apartment of a single gunshot to the neck after failing to report for work at a hospital. Authorities have released few details of the killing.
“He just wanted to help people and that’s why it comes as a complete surprise and shock to us that this would happen to him,” Thom DeWolf, his father, told WOOD-TV.
“We don’t understand why,” Kris DeWolf said of her son’s death. “This was a child, a young man who really had no enemies.”
Asked whether the family had a message for anyone responsible for Paul DeWolf’s death, his father said they should think about what kind of person he was and surrender to authorities.
“At some point in their life, they will have to face a judge,” Thom DeWolf said. “Whether it’s an earthly judge or an eternal judge and an earthly judge will be much easier than an ethereal judge will be.”
Paul DeWolf, a native of Schoolcraft in southwestern Michigan, had planned to graduate from medical school next year. The night before his body was found, his family said he was at his apartment studying for a surgery he was planning to participate in and was texting his sister, Rebekah.
“That was my last conversation,” she said. “He told me ‘perfect, thanks’.”
Thousands of dollars of reward money is being offered for information in the case.

Georgetown Twp.
Authorities say remains found in woods by hunter
GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Authorities say a hunter has found human remains in a heavily wooded area near a West Michigan subdivision.
MLive.com reports the remains were found Sunday afternoon in Ottawa County’s Georgetown Township as the hunter scouted locations in the Bend Area open recreation space.
The township is located southwest of Grand Rapids. Authorities didn’t immediately release information about identifying characteristics of the remains.
Additional details were expected later.

Detroit
Hearing for man in wife’s death may take 5 days
DETROIT (AP) — Prosecutors say a key hearing for a Detroit-area man they say hired a handyman to kill his wife is expected to take about five days.
The preliminary hearing to decide if there’s enough evidence to try Robert Bashara (buh-SHAIR’-uh) for first-degree murder began Monday.
Jane Bashara’s body was found Jan 24, 2012, in her Mercedes-Benz in a Detroit alley, a few miles from the couple’s home in Grosse Pointe Park. Joseph Gentz has pleaded guilty to strangling her, saying he did so at her husband’s behest.
Bashara already is serving up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to trying to hire someone to kill Gentz in jail. He’s denied being involved in his wife’s death.

Detroit
56 arts ideas get $2.1 million to reshape Detroit
DETROIT (AP) — A documentary celebrating Detroit’s 1970s Jit dance craze, a competition showcasing the city’s jazz scene and an after school program on classical Arab music are among the 56 projects that will receive some of the $2.1 million awarded in the first Detroit Knight Arts Challenge.
The program of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation funds the best ideas for enriching the city through arts. Winners were announced Saturday from more than 1,400 entries.
“Every day, in neighborhoods across Detroit, artists, entrepreneurs and designers are building on an impressive cultural legacy to shape new narratives for the city,” Alberto Ibarguen, president and CEO of Knight Foundation said in a news release announcing the awards. “Their ideas challenge us and inspire the artist in all of us.”
Among the other 2013 winners are projects that will expand a literary walk where Detroiters meet nationally renowned authors, launch an interactive Hip-Hop Mardi Gras Parade and revitalize blighted areas in Brightmoor through community art projects.
Applicants had to answer one question: What’s your best idea for the arts? The idea had to be about the arts and take place in or benefit Detroit. Recipients must match funds within a year.
The winner of the Knight Arts Challenge People’s Choice Award will be announced on Tuesday. The $20,000 bonus prize goes to one of five finalists chosen in a public vote.