Rewind: News from the last 7 days

A 15-year-old passenger died Tuesday from injuries in Thursday night’s street racing crashes, the Lansing Police Department said. He was the only one of the 13 injured who had not been released. Two vehicles racing each other at high speeds on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near Pierce Road in south Lansing collided with a third vehicle and set off crashes involving two others. Police said the third vehicle was attempting to make a legal turn, although video suggests it may have made a rolling stop. Police Chief Ron Backus said Tuesday that the drivers were a 19-year-old man in a Chevrolet Malibu and a 23-year-old man in a Jeep Cherokee. Police have not yet made any arrests. Mayor Andy Schor said that those who caused the crashes would face “serious consequences.” He added that the department would soon have more officers on the street due to new recruits and that he supports red light cameras to catch speeders.

The Ingham County Health Department reported a second case of a child contracting measles, a 1-year-old boy who was infected following exposure to a 12-month-old girl who also has the virus. A health officer reported the boy’s symptoms as mild. The boy, who may have exposed others during an April 15 visit to Lansing Urgent Care in Frandor, was infected despite having received one dose of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Anyone at the urgent care center from 4:30 to 7 p.m. that day is asked to monitor for symptoms of measles for 21 days from the date of exposure. They should call a doctor if symptoms develop before seeking treatment to ensure they can take precautions to prevent further exposure. At least seven other cases have been reported in Michigan this year.

Officials have broken ground on the new 65,000-square-foot, three-story Lansing City Hall. Mayor Andy Schor said the building will have a first-floor service center to pay taxes, bills and fines, as well as the City Council chambers. City staff will occupy the second and third floors. It will be named after former Mayor David Hollister, as is the current building. Officials expect completion by the end of 2026.

Former MSU Professor Iskandar Arifin, 50, has pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography, with a deal that Ingham County Circuit Judge Morgan Cole will cap his minimum prison sentence at 32 months, the Lansing State Journal reported. Cole scheduled sentencing for Arifin on June 11. MSU’s website indicated that Iskandar taught investment and finance classes at the Eli Broad School of Business. Five more counts were dismissed in the plea deal.

A Lansing man, 50, was arrested for driving the wrong way on Interstate 94 near Battle Creek after police said he caused a crash that injured two people. The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office said the driver, whose name was not released, was highly intoxicated as he traveled west in the eastbound lanes of I-94 as his pickup struck another vehicle near the 107-mile marker. Officers arrested him at the scene and took him to the Calhoun County Jail. Two individuals in the vehicle the driver struck suffered nonfatal injuries.

East Lansing has hired Marcia Gebarowski to serve as the first executive director of its 39-year-old Downtown Development Authority. Gebarowski, who began this week, is an MSU grad with a bachelor of science degree in resource development and environmental sciences. She earned a master’s degree in urban planning from Wayne State University. Gebarowki was business development director for Ann Arbor SPARK. Before that, she was a senior project manager for the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

An unidentified construction worker fell about 40 feet from US-127 near Trowbridge Road as the beam he was cutting broke loose. He fell onto railroad tracks below the highway, with the beam landing on top of him. An East Lansing spokesperson said she had no information about his injuries. The Michigan Transportation Department is rebuilding US-127 from Interstate 69 in southern Clinton County south to the southern Ingham County line.

Public Safety
A semitrailer crashed into stopped traffic on Interstate 96 in Boston Township in Ionia County, killing an unidentified 80-year-old Okemos man and injuring several others. The Michigan State Police said the crash involved eight vehicles but did not give details on the number injured or severity of the injuries. … A trailer in a driveway between the Spare Time Entertainment Center and the Quality Inn caught fire, which an spread to Spare Time. Lansing firefighters extinguished the blaze, with no one injured and no cause for the fire reported.