Drug dealer serving life asks for parole
JACKSON, Mich. (AP) — A Detroit-area man seeking parole after nearly 30 years in prison for drug crimes committed when he was a teenager says he won’t return to drug dealing.
Known on the streets as “White Boy Rick,” 47-year-old Richard Wershe was sentenced to life in prison for intending to deliver cocaine. Prosecutors say he’d stashed about 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms) of the drug.
Wershe told Michigan parole board members on Thursday that he’s grown up and been rehabilitated in prison, saying he now knows “drugs destroy my community.”
No immediate decision was made on his parole request.
Wershe was 17 when he was caught with a load of cocaine. He says he had worked as an FBI informant and reported corrupt Detroit police officers but wasn’t given leniency.
Cops: Man upset about onions in food threatens eatery owner
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Michigan man, apparently upset because his food included onions, is jailed on charges he made drunken threats to shoot the owner of a Pittsburgh restaurant before exposing himself.
Forty-three-year-old Yuba Sharma, of Rochester, remained in the Allegheny County Jail on Thursday on charges of terroristic threats, indecent exposure, public drunkenness and resisting arrest.
Police say Sharma ate at All Indiana restaurant on Monday night and then returned Tuesday to rant and complain about the onions.
The owner tells police Sharma threatened to shoot him, so he called police. That’s when Sharma — confronted by the restaurant owner and another employee — pulled down his pants and exposed himself.
Online court records don’t list an attorney for Sharma.
Police say he resisted arrest and had to be lifted and carried to a police cruiser.
Snyder, GOP leaders have tentative deal on teacher pensions
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Rick Snyder and Republican legislative leaders say that have reached a tentative framework on making changes to Michigan’s teacher retirement system.
They reported the agreement after a meeting at the Capitol Thursday. The progress means Snyder will be involved in budget decisions again after GOP leaders excluded him.
Details are being hashed out. But the framework calls for newly hired school employees to default into a better 401(k) plan, but leave them the option of choosing a pension plan that would likely cost them more of their paycheck than now. Current workers hired since 2010 get a blended pension and 401(k).
There also could be a trigger to close the new pension system if it isn’t adequately funded.
Snyder says the framework “provides some good things for school employees.”
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