Rewind: News from the last 7 days

K.J. Torbert has been named Michigan’s Mr. Basketball, just like his father. K.J. Torbert is an East Lansing High student and the new 2025-26 Hal Schram Mr. Basketball in Michigan, according to WILX. The voting for which of the five stand-out players would be Mr. Basketball wasn’t even close; Torbert won 53% of the vote, the runner-up won 18%. Torbert was part of the state championship-winning East Lansing High team last year and has committed to Bowling Green State University. Kelvin Torbert, his father, was Mr. Basketball in the 2000-2001 season (for Flint Northwestern High). The last time a Lansing area player was picked as Mr. Basketball was the year before the first time that a Torbert won the Mr. Basketball title, 1999-2000, when Waverly High’s Marcus Taylor was awarded.

A new report shows Michigan’s low-income housing gap is growing wider, according to MLive. The publication cites the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s latest report, which finds Mcihigan is nearly 200,000 housing units short of meeting demand. Many of the people who need low income housing are seniors, people with disabilities, low-wage workers and caregivers. The study found that in Michigan, there are 37 available housing units for every 100 extremely low-income renters, according to MLive.

Michigan has declared a state of emergency after an EF3 tornado hit the Union Lake area on March 6, killing at least four people and injuring others. A state of emergency can open up additional state resources and in the declaration, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Branch, Cass and St. Joseph counties qualify for the state of emergency following the storms. Three of the deaths happened in Branch County, one happened in Cass County and at least 22 people reported injuries. The winds reached up to 160 miles per hour in Union Lake in a rare March tornado for Michigan. It was the earliest EF3 to hit Michigan ever by about 10 days. EF3 is the strongest category of tornado to hit Michigan since an F4 in 1977, according to the National Weather Service’s initial report on the tornadoes. Three other tornados were recorded: Edwardsburg in Cass County had winds up to 95 miles an hour for an EF1, Three Rivers in St. Joseph County had winds up to 130 miles an hour for an EF2 and Clarendon Township in Calhoun County had winds up to 85 miles an hour for an EF0.

It’s a big week for Lansing mascots with Lansing Community College looking for a new name for their new mascot and the Lansing Lugnuts looking for someone to inhabit their Big Lug mascot this season. Big Lug applicants need to fill the biggest shoes in town, be available at game times and be able to handle the hot days inside the costume. LCC’s new athletic mascot needs a name, many of the suggestions so far are based on the Stars nickname for the college. Orion, Apollo, Nova, Halley, Hubble, Celeste, Lance, Astro and Starry. People can vote on those names or suggest their own at lcc.edu.

Potter Park Zoo announced the death of Amur tiger Vikentii, who arrived at the zoo in 2023. The male tiger was 16 years old, past the median life expectancy for a captive tiger. The zoo said he took a sudden decline in mobility and after a week of treatments, staff decided on euthanasia. Amur tigers are one of the most endangered big cats in the world. The zoo has a lion, another one of the most endangered big cats. Look for more about the zoo’s plans in next week’s City Pulse.

East Lansing approved its annual deer cull, where federally-licensed sharpshooters kill deer at city parks at night, according to East Lansing Info. The culls began five years ago and each year claim about 50 to 60 deer, with a high of 79 in 2022, over two to four nights, according to figures shared by East Lansing Info. The cull is intended to reduce the population of deer, which can cause collisions.

Pinball Pete’s in East Lansing is facing a civil rights lawsuit from a job applicant who alleges that a hiring manager refused to take her application because she is a woman. According to the complaint, the hiring manager said he was “skirting the law a little,” but would not let his own daughter close the establishment. He reportedly told the applicant he typically hires men for night positions because of the perceived risks and would not let his own 26-year-old daughter walk from the venue at night. The applicant has said she was denied a second request for an application and was told she was “too petite” to stop a robbery. Read the full details at LansingCityPulse.com

Flooding has closed a small section of the Lansing River Trail underneath Cesar Chavez Avenue. There is no timetable for the repair of this section of River Trail. Detours are: Northbound: north on the Turner Street sidewalk, then west on Dodge River Drive back to the River Trail. Southbound: east on Dodge River Drive, then south on the Turner Street sidewalk back to the River Trail.

Lansing Police officers are investigating the death of a 30-year-old man found with a gunshot wound early Tuesday morning (March 10). Police were dispatched to the 100 block of South Hosmer, near the city’s stadium district. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene and no arrests have been made, according to a statement from the police department. The shooting is considered a homicide and police said they are working to determine what happened.

A 74-year-old Laingsburg man died in an ice fishing accident on March 5, according to the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office. Responders were called to Lake Victoria that morning, where they found the man in the water and began efforts to rescue him. He was transported by ambulance and was declared dead at University of Michigan Sparrow hospital, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Warmer temperatures have made hazardous ice conditions across the region with apparently solid ice quickly becoming unsafe, according to a statement from the Sheriff’s Office. “Anyone planning to venture onto frozen lakes or ponds should use extreme caution and check ice conditions frequently,” the Sheriff’s Office said.

A 72-year-old man was found dead on a property on S. Dewitt Road in Bingham Township on Monday afternoon, according to Clinton County Sheriff’s Office deputies. The Sheriff’s Office said, in a statement on Facebook, that the man was found deceased in a burnt area of the property, which had several grass fires. The death remains under investigation.

Police are investigating after a report that a man working at KFC on S. Martin Luther King Jr.  Boulevard said he was sprayed in the face by “bear spray,” according to the Lansing State Journal. Police told the newspaper that they could not initially verify if the substance the man was sprayed with was bear spray.