Rewind: News from the last 7 days

Four people were killed Saturday, including three from Lansing, and 17 injured after a semi struck more than a dozen vehicles stopped for a traffic backup on westbound Interstate 96 in Leroy Township near Webberville. The Lansing victims, two women, ages 20 and 43, and a 47-year-old man, were in a Chevy Trax and were related, police said. A 29-year-old Carson City man driving a Ford F-150 pickup was also killed. The stretch of highway, near M-52, had been closed so DTE Energy crews could install power lines across it. The crash caused a large fire. Two of the injured remained hospitalized Monday, including the driver of the semi. Police added that it appeared the driver of the semi did not see the backup and could not stop his vehicle.

Vice President Kamala Harris made her second Lansing-area campaign stop Sunday, speaking for 22 minutes before about 6,000 people in a rally at Jenison Field House on MSU’s campus. Harris told attendees that she would do everything in her power to “end the war in Gaza and to ensure the rights of dignity, freedom and security for the Palestinian people.” Multiple protests on MSU’s campus have called for the end of U.S. involvement in the 13-month-old Israel-Hamas War and divestment from Israel. Harris spoke at UAW Local 652 hall in Lansing in invitation-only event in October.

The contract for registered nurses with the Professional Employee Council of Sparrow Hospital/Michigan Nurses Association expired Wednesday, leaving nurses at U M Health-Sparrow without one. U M Health-Sparrow and the union both said there is no work stoppage and nurses are continuing to provide care. Negotiation sessions are scheduled throughout November. Association president Jeff Breslin told WKAR News that the hospital and union are “a ways apart” on key issues, including wages, health insurance and workplace safety. The union plans an informational picket Tuesday outside the hospital.

Emma Huver, 27, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter and two other charges Monday in the 2023 death of her 2-year-old son, King Muhammad. Sentencing is Dec. 13. Huver had already been sentenced to five years in prison in a federal case. The toddler shot himself in the head with a loaded handgun in a vehicle at a gas station in the 3000 block of Dunckel Road.

Bradli Stoutmiles (right) and Aiden Wilson were convicted by an Ingham County jury Tuesday of first-degree premeditated murder in the 2023 shooting death of Jose Flores. They were also convicted of additional related charges, including assault with intent to commit murder in the case of a surviving victim, felony firearm and discharging a gun from a motor vehicle. They were also acquitted of a charge of felony firearm as it related to the fleeing and eluding charge. Stoutmiles will be sentenced on Jan. 22 and Wilson on Jan. 29. Because they were each under age 19 at the time of the murder, they do not face automatic mandatory life in prison and each will undergo a pre-sentencing investigation, said Ingham County Prosecutor John Dewane.

The state Christmas tree, a 60-foot spruce donated by the Albertson family of Eagle, was harvested and delivered Saturday to the Capitol. The lighting ceremony will be Nov. 22 during the 40th annual Silver Bells in the City. The tree was transported with help from the Michigan Association of Timber, the Great Lakes Timber Professional Association and the state Department of Technology, Management and Budget’s Christmas tree crew. Local Boy Scout troops untied it. The Lansing Board of Water & Light and the Michigan Capitol Commission will decorate it.

The East Elm Street bridge over the Red Cedar River in south Lansing will be replaced starting in 2026, thanks to a $34 million federal bridge investment program grant for eight spans statewide in the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Bridge Bundle program. The bridge will be replaced to restore its load-carrying capacity to accommodate larger freight vehicles for businesses such as the Grand River Assembly Plant. The program is an initiative to repair and expand Michigan’s bridge system to drive economic development in the state.

The Potter Park Zoo entrance sign (pictured) on Pennsylvania Avenue is being replaced after 16 years due to deterioration. A new sign will be installed this fall, thanks to a Team Lansing Foundation grant, and will symbolize “the continued progress we strive for every day,” zoo officials said in a blog post. The previous sign, designed by Robbin Sawyer, was installed in March 2008.