Rewind the news, week of October 7, 2026

A bowhunter was shot on Saturday evening in Essex Township, according to the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office. The 38-year-old hunter is in critical condition at a hospital, as stated in a Sheriff’s Office Facebook post. Police believe people on a nearby property were target shooting and an errant round struck the bowhunter, who was in a hard-sided ground blind. This is an isolated incident and the investigation remains ongoing by the Sheriff’s Office and Michigan Department of Natural Resources.  Assisting in this incident were Clinton Area Ambulance Service, Maple Rapids Fire, Dewitt Twp PD, Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources, and Clinton County Central Dispatch. The current bow season started on Oct. 1 and runs through Nov. 14, which will be followed by a Dec. 1-Jan. 1 season. Regular firearm season begins on Nov. 15, although there are earlier windows for some youth and adults with qualifying disabilities, among other exceptions.

Embattled Clinton County Board of Commission member Brian Hurtekant resigned in early September and has been replaced. Steve Lonier, owner-operator of Shady Lodge Farm, was appointed to be the District 4 commissioner to replace Hurtekant for a term that expires at the end of 2028. The district includes DeWitt, Watertown, Riley and Olive townships. The county board members had previously voted, 4-3, to censure Hurtekant, after he was accused of posting an unredacted police record with a juvenile’s information on it on his Facebook page. Hurtekant obtained the report through a FOIA request using his title, but he was getting it for personal reasons, according to the censure. The records relate to a gun that was recovered earlier this year from a juvenile; the gun had been assigned to Clinton County Sheriff Sean Dush, who didn’t realize it had gone missing until then, according to a report from WLNS 6.

East Lansing is deploying AI parking police devices, called SafetySticks, which are “thinner than a red fire hydrant,” and placed in no parking zones, according to a report from Lansing State Journal. The city has seven of the solar-powered devices, which had a trial run in April and are expected to go live in about a month, according to the State Journal. “They have the technology to recognize a vehicle and a license plate,” Capt. Adrian Ojerio of the East Lansing Police Department told the newspaper. “When they recognize a vehicle and license plate is stationary in a no parking zone, what will happen is it will start a timer.” That timer will ultimately trigger a ticket that can be appealed.

A.G. Sulzberger, publisher and chairman of the New York Times, spoke at Wharton Center’s Pasant Theatre on September 29 for an event that helped to mark 175 years of the Gray Old Lady. “President Donald Trump, who has sued us three times, used multiple government agencies to target our business, expelled journalists from the Pentagon and now the White House, and insulted us more times than anyone can count,” Sulzberger said. “I told him a free press is an essential part of our national fabric and that our journalists will not be deterred by his attacks. And they have not been.” He said even the NYT is a small fish in a big pond. “I often tell my colleagues that the main thing we’ve won over the last decade of transformation and growth is the right to compete for the next decade. We must remain oriented to the future, awake to both its opportunities and risks. We must remember that though we may be a success story in our industry, our industry is systematically failing. We are a fraction of the size of tech giants that dominate the flow of information and attention. Google makes more profit every day than the “Times” does in an entire year.” Raymond Holt contributed.

East Lansing artist and architect Kristin Pennock won the prestigious public vote grand prize and $100,000 at Grand Rapids’ ArtPrize festival. Her artwork was an accordion-style record, displayed over walls, spanning 216 feet, and hung on little plastic clips to keep the folded feel. Her work is entitled “Sketchdiet: A Year of Drawing Everything I Ate” and covered her intake throughout 2024. The prize was announced on Saturday. In an Instagram post, Pennock said, “Entering ArtPrize was a life event, a first, a dream. Then the DeVos Place hosted my SketchDiet piece, ArtPrize staff supported me, other artists inspired me, and the community not only came with open minds to engage with my work — but came again with friends and even voted for it. THANK YOU GRAND RAPIDS! I cannot imagine this happening anywhere else. An unbelievable, inspiring experience and I am most grateful to everyone who helped it happen and came into my life from this.”

The Sweetie-licious Bakery Cafe in DeWitt is temporarily closed as the business recovers from a Sunday morning fire. Owner Linda Hunt and her daughter Ellie Sutherland vowed in a Facebook post Sunday that they would come back from the fire, which was discovered and reported by an unidentified passing motorist in the pre-dawn hours. There were no injuries as no one was in the business, located at 108 N. Bridge St., at the time. DeWitt Fire Chief John Braska said the damage could have been much worse if not for . The cause of the fire is still under investigation.Firefighters from DeWitt Area Fire and Rescue and the DeWitt Township and Bath Township fire departments were all involved in extinguishing the blaze. Hunt and Sutherland also expressed gratitude in a long message for all of the support from the community and to those who responded to fight the fire.

East Lansing Police released an image recently and asked for help solving a Sept. 19 armed robbery. The robbery happened around 10:30 p.m. in the area of Charles and Elizabeth streets. Police are asking anyone with surveillance cameras – and who live in the area between Abbot, Gunson, Albert and Burcham streets – to review footage between 10:15 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. on 9/19/2026. Anyone with footage matching these four people can email Detective Katey Harrison at kharris@cityofeastlansing.com.