Rewind: News from the last 7 days

The U.S. Energy Department is considering revoking $500 million allocated to General Motors to convert the Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant to EVs, Reuters reported. The plant had planned significant refurbishment and retooling to produce electric vehicles. This project is among a list of $12 billion in awards that the government could cancel as part of the ongoing shutdown. GM is reducing its EV investments, including scaling back the production of two electric Cadillac SUVs. The Biden administration announced in July 2024 that it would award $1.7 billion to support the conversion of 11 shuttered or at-risk auto manufacturing and assembly facilities in Michigan and seven other states to manufacture electric vehicles and their supply chain.

Lansing Charter Commission Chair Brian Jeffries said that changes to language on the lansingvotes.gov/yourcharter website were unrelated to criticism that the commission had crossed a legal line by using “persuasive” wording. His statement said the update was made “to reflect the same language and wording in our first educational mailer for consistency purposes and was not the result of any recent public comments.” The phrases “improves transparency” and “increases accountability” were changed to “seeks to improve transparency” and “seeks to improve accountability.” The changes followed criticism of the mailer and the website by City Council President Ryan Kost and Councilmember Brian T. Jackson at the Sept. 29 Council meeting. Kost later filed a complaint with state officials. Jeffries said the commission believes the mailer was educational, not persuasive, and that the changes aligned the online language with the mailer.

MSU’s Office for Civil Rights and Title IX Education and Compliance has launched an online dashboard to give the public insight into how it responds to discrimination and harassment reports, information that was previously only available through public record requests. The university released a biennial report that features strategic planning efforts from the office and its different internal departments. The dashboard comes just months after MSU and other universities lost federal grants for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. This includes projects that mentioned race or gender in their scope, as part of President Donald Trump’s push to restrict DEI programming.

East Lansing police found “a deceased person” in the Red Cedar River Monday, just east of Cedar Village apartments. ELPD Interim Capt. Adam Park said MSU police assisted in the recovery of the body, that they didn’t believe there was an ongoing threat to the community and that they would “release further information at a later time.”

The Capital Region International Airport has refused the Transportation Security Administration’s request to play a Department of Homeland Security video of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blaming the government shutdown on Democrats, WLNS reported. The video also warns about potential changes to airport operations due to staffing limitations and TSA workers not receiving pay during the shutdown. “LAN’s policy for digital content does not permit the referenced video or any other content that could be viewed as political or partisan,” the statement said. The story cited several other airports around the country that also refused the request.

The Ingham County Sheriff’s Office and Delta Dental are sponsoring an opportunity today (Oct. 15) for anyone who wants to dispose of unused prescription drugs to drop them off in the front visitors’ parking lot at Delta Dental of Michigan’s office on Okemos Road, north of Kinawa Drive. The drive-through event, taking place from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m., is in advance of National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on Oct. 25.

Lansing Mayor Andy Schor has signed an executive order generally prohibiting “private individuals filming inside City buildings for private commercial purposes,” with limited exceptions, following an Aug. 31 video shoot on the roof of Lansing’s Fire Department station downtown. Artist P.B. Yanna said that she did the shoot in cooperation with unnamed Fire Department officials, then posted the music video “Fire Drill” on her social media accounts.

An Eaton County Circuit Court jury has found Heather Renee Bodell of Kalamo Township, 48, guilty of embezzlement from a vulnerable adult, between $50,000 and $100,000. The felony carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. Bodell faced an accusation of embezzling more than $70,000 from a senior citizen who employed her to help with daily activities. The jury returned the verdict after a five-day trial. Judge Janice Cunningham has scheduled Bodell’s sentencing for December.

Public Safety

An Owosso man, 48, died when a vehicle he was driving east on Grand River Avenue in Leroy Township, between Gramer and Wallace roads, crossed the center line and hit a westbound semi driven by a Fowlerville man, 66. The Owosso man, who was dead at the scene, was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from his vehicle. … An Eaton Rapids man, 44, died when he crashed into a ditch on Kinneville Road between Edgar and Byrum roads in Onondaga Township. Anyone with information on the crash may contact Deputy Kevin Stalzer at 517-676-8444, ext. 1939