Flint
Worker, hospital reach settlement in racial bias case
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — The lawyer for a white employee who sued a Flint hospital alleging race discrimination says his client has been paid a $200,000 settlement.
Attorney Glen Lenhoff said Tuesday that Hurley Medical Center laundry worker Mark Hilliker received the money a day earlier.
Hilliker filed a lawsuit last year in Genesee County Circuit Court, saying his black supervisor made derogatory comments to him because of his race.
In a written statement, Hurley says “there has been a final determination to the matter,” but the hospital “is unable to release any specific details surrounding the settlement outcome.”
Lenhoff says Hilliker “feels vindicated” by the settlement.
Hilliker says his supervisor called him “white boy” more than 100 times between October 2011 and February 2013.
Kalkaska
Trial for man in 1996 killing of Michigan woman
KALKASKA, Mich. (AP) — A 35-year-old man identified through new DNA evidence has been ordered tried for the 1996 rape and killing of a 68-year-old woman in her northern Michigan home.
A Kalkaska judge ruled Monday there’s enough evidence to try Jason A. Ryan of Davison on first-degree murder and criminal sexual conduct charges.
Authorities say Ryan raped Geraldine Montgomery in her Kalkaska home. They say she was locked her in her car trunk and left her to die of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Defense lawyer Jodi Hemingway has suggested Ryan and Montgomery had consensual sex and she killed herself.
Thirty-nine-year-old Jamie Peterson is serving life for the killing. The charges against Ryan grow out of the University of Michigan’s Innocence Clinic’s efforts to exonerate Peterson.
State police say the men committed the crime together.
Oak Park
Pro-marijuana ballot initiatives planned for 2014
OAK PARK, Mich. (AP) — Supporters of last year’s successful pro-marijuana Michigan ballot issues plan to launch campaigns in as many as a dozen other communities this year.
Organizers plan to begin gathering signatures next month for proposals in places including Hazel Park, Oak Park, Utica, East Lansing, Mount Pleasant and Port Huron, the Detroit Free Press reported. The push also is to include backing some candidates for local and state office.
“This is going to be big,” said Tim Beck, 62, a pro-marijuana supporter from Detroit who co-founded the Safer Michigan Coalition. Beck, a retired health insurance executive, has worked for more than a decade on legalization campaigns throughout the state.
Last year, voters in Ferndale, Jackson and Lansing approved proposals that call on local police not to arrest people for marijuana possession if they are found with an ounce or less of the drug, are at least 21 years old and are on private property.
Marijuana users in those communities still face risks because state law bars marijuana use and possession unless it’s medical marijuana. In the Detroit suburb of Ferndale, for example, police have vowed to continue making marijuana arrests in compliance with state law.
Michigan voters approved marijuana use for some chronic medical conditions in 2008, but the new measures go beyond that. Law enforcement officials and youth drug prevention groups for years have fought efforts to ease marijuana restrictions.
Even largely unknown candidates who strongly support marijuana legalization could get nominated in primaries where several candidates split the vote and a marijuana proposal draws an unexpectedly strong turnout, according to one political observer.
Flint
County expands medical examiner work past borders
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Genesee County is taking steps to expand services offered by its medical examiner’s office outside of the county.
The Flint Journal reports an agreement could allow Genesee County to provide forensic pathology services to Otsego County. Medical Examiner Dr. Brian Hunter says the agreement could produce a $20,000 annual revenue stream.
Hunter estimates the potential revenue from the Otsego County deal based on a proposed charge of $1,230 per autopsy.
Genesee County already provides forensic pathology services for Clinton and Newaygo counties through similar agreements.
The Genesee County Board of Commissioners is expected to vote Wednesday on the Otsego County agreement.
Bridgeport Twp.
Man charged with talking too long at board meeting
BRIDGEPORT TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A Saginaw County man was arrested after authorities say he refused to stop talking past a three-minute time limit for public comment at a township board meeting.
Mark A. Adams was arraigned Friday in Saginaw District Court on a felony charge of resisting and obstructing a police officer and a misdemeanor count of disturbing the peace.
Adams was arrested at the March 4 meeting by three Bridgeport Township police officers. Authorities say he refused to stop talking when township officials told him to do so.
The Saginaw News reports the arrest took place on Adams’ 59th birthday.
