Rewind the news, week of October 14, 2026

The Delta Township Board of Trustees last week approved a request from Eyde Development to rezone 53.98 acres bordering South Marketplace Boulevard and West St. Joseph Highway in Eaton County, land which it already owns, to allow for its plans to build up to 480 new one- and two-bedroom apartments on the site. Along with the request, the company presented a plan for 16 buildings with 24 apartments in each building, utilizing about 40 acres of the parcel. Eyde COO Mark Clouse also told officials there are plans for additional apartments on the remaining property. The township would need to grant approval for specific plans before any proposed development could move forward.

East Lansing’s new fire chief is John Newman, who was sworn in by his brother last Thursday after serving as the city’s interim fire chief since April 2025. Newman was also briefly acting city manager this past spring, after former City Manager Robert Belleman’s suspension and resignation, until Annette Irwin was appointed interim city manager.

Grand Ledge Police Chief Ron Erickson resigned in late September and his resignation became effective on Friday, according to WLNS. The city’s police department is now being led by David Juras, acting police chief and a top officer in the department, according to the city’s website.

Collection for Lansing’s annual coat drive ends this Friday, with the giveaway by Community Connect set for Nov. 19 at Union Missionary Baptist Church. New or gently used coats, hats and gloves can be donated at Lansing City Hall (124 W. Michigan Ave.), Foster Community Center (200 N. Foster Ave.), Gier Community Center (2400 Hall St.), Schmidt Community Center (5825 Wise Rd.), Letts Community Center (1220 W. Kalamazoo St.) and Maurer’s Sanitary Cleaners (2815 E. Saginaw St.).

An Eaton County Road Commission employee was struck and killed in a work zone crash on Oct. 6 on what officials said was supposed to be his last day with the road commission. “He was preparing to begin a new chapter up north, and, in doing so, finally live out his dream of calling Northern Michigan his home,” the road commission said in a statement. “He was excited for what was ahead and looking forward to continuing his career.” Lansing Road was temporarily closed for road work, with flag workers directing traffic and three road commission trucks parked nearby, when the incident occurred. A 33-year-old man driving a pickup had stopped for a flag worker’s directions. A man from Owosso, driving a Kenworth sanitation truck, was unable to stop and crashed into the pickup, pushing it into the three unoccupied road commission trucks, according to preliminary information from the State Police. The 24-year-old road commission employee was hit by both, according to State Police. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The pickup truck driver and a passenger were treated for minor injuries. The crash remains under investigation. Alcohol or drugs do not appear to be a factor in the crash.

After almost two decades, Edric Hinton’s family finally has answers to the previously unsolved 2009 homicide of the 19-year-old. During a news conference on Monday, the Lansing Police Department’s cold case investigator Shannon Thielen said a tip from a confidential source led to the recovery of a shotgun. Hinton was visiting acquaintances at 916 W. Cavanaugh on Aug. 1, 2009, when a bullet, fired through an apartment window from the outside, hit him. “At our department, when someone’s murdered,” Lansing Police Chief Rob Backus said, “it brings us a specific response with an influx of resources.” Detectives located witnesses and developed suspects, but reached a dead end. “Ultimately, we ran out of evidence,” Backus said. After the original team investigated the homicide, two more cold case investigators handled the case before Thielen was assigned in 2019. 
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According to Thielen, in the fall of 2025, a 12-gauge shotgun and other corroborating evidence were recovered by crime scene investigators. The suspected shooter, Esteban Reyes Jr., and the suspected getaway driver, Lee Anthony Lynn, are both dead, according to police. “While this means that no criminal charges can be brought forward,” Thielen said, “the recovery of the weapon, the forensic confirmation and the corroborating statement allow us to provide answers to the Hinton family that they’ve waited too long for.” A spokesperson for the police department said Hinton was an innocent bystander.
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Hinton’s twin brother, Eric Hinton, spoke on behalf of the family. “To have this come full circle … is devastating, and nobody knows until you go through it,” he said. “This is not the outcome that we wanted, but this is the best one that we’re going to get.” With the resolution, Eric said he hopes his family can move forward lighter and freer. “All through life, you set these milestones … I had always wondered what 21 would look like for us and what 30 and 40 would actually look like. My 40th is coming around in a few years, so I plan to throw us a birthday party and hopefully [add] some aspects that he would have enjoyed.” Eric said he hopes people do the right thing in the future. “There are people in this community that I know to be home … that knew this and didn’t step up and do the right thing. … That’s a reflection of us.”
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A City Pulse cover story in March 2013 planned to profile years’ worth of cold cases, but reporters learned the police had little organization of their cold cases and were not able to produce basic information like names and dates, and the story became an exposé. Within two months, then-Mayor Virg Bernero funded a new full-time investigator at $100,000 a year and credited the City Pulse investigation..

A 10-hour outage across Michigan State University on Sept. 19 had long-lasting effects. The T.B. Simon Power Plant outage narrowly avoided serious problems at the greenhouses, along with an unknown amount of food being tossed. Students did not have hot water for several days. Had the disruption happened a few weeks later, when the temperatures were much lower at night, a lack of heat “could have been catastrophic,” Eric Runkle, a co-chair on the greenhouse user committee, told City Pulse. “There are over a hundred different sections in the greenhouse complex,” he said. “It could have really jeopardized research.” Along with the moderate temperatures, Runkle said outdoor crop research is only beginning to transition indoors. No one has reported an issue with ongoing experiments due to the disruption, he said.
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This type of campus-wide outage, including the loss of power and steam, is unprecedented in the university’s recent history, according to MSU Infrastructure Planning and Facilities spokesperson Erica Venton Evans. The investigation into the specific cause remains ongoing, but “it involved an electrical fault within the plant’s high-voltage power bus system.” Evans did not provide a detailed account of the outage’s impact, including the cost of emergency services, short-term restoration and permanent repairs, or a timeline on how long repairs would take.  “The university’s focus remains on completing a thorough technical review, understanding all contributing factors, and identifying actions that can further improve system reliability and resilience.” By Lieza Klemm