Rewind: News from the last 7 days

A plane crash in a wooded area east of downtown Bath on Thursday killed the two pilots and their mechanic, who were on a test flight following planned maintenance in Battle Creek. Bath Township officials presumptively identified the deceased Sunday as Rodolfo Pimental Zamora, Francisco Javier del moral Jimenez and Alvaro Espejo Rodriguez, all of Mexico, based on information provided by the Mexican consulate. Clinton County Chief Medical Investigator Michelle Fox said final identification won’t be complete until they finish forensic tests, which could take up to eight weeks. Duncan Aviation, which serviced the plane, said the Hawker 800XP was on a “stall flight” when the crash happened, which is when an aircraft’s wing loses lift because the angle of attack becomes too high.

The East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission voted 7-1 in a special meeting Thursday to demand Police Chief Jennifer Brown’s resignation. Last month, Brown told WLNS, “We have a very transient population, and over the last month, starting with Welcome Weekend, we have had a disproportionate number of minorities come into the community and commit crimes, and as police officers we are simply responding to those crimes.” Oversight Commission Vice Chair Kath Edsall said Commissioner Mike McDaniel was the only no vote, the Lansing State Journal reported.

The East Lansing Human Rights Commission, the NAACP Lansing Branch and the Women’s Center of Greater Lansing have also called for Brown’s resignation, WLNS reported. That commission called for an external investigation into the Police Department as a whole and use of pepper spray during Welcome Weekend. The chief apologized for her comments, but the commissioners said she does not have the public’s trust.

City of Lansing officials celebrated in a ceremony Friday completing its $14.1 million East Michigan Avenue construction project, which stretched from Howard Street to Pennsylvania Avenue and lasted about 18 months. The six-phase project included upgrades that planners designed to make the roadway safer, more attractive and more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly. It was reconfigured from five lanes to four, with new sidewalks, traffic signals and updated sewer and water mains. That section of Michigan now has two westbound lanes, a center turn lane and one eastbound lane. Workers added cycle track marks to sidewalks to accommodate bicyclists.

Punks With Lunch Lansing has filed an amended complaint to a lawsuit it filed in June, seeking to add the nonprofit’s co-founder, Martin Mashon, as a defendant and its executive director, Lansing mayoral candidate Kelsea Hector, as a complainant, the Lansing State Journal reported. The lawsuit, originally filed against co-founder Julia Miller and former employee Derek Deloof, states that Miller, then the nonprofit’s board president and executive director, made numerous “unauthorized purchases … unrelated to PWL’s mission or programs.” Those purchases included a Dodge Ram van and a Chevrolet Traverse. The vehicles were titled for Punks With Lunch, but the lawsuit states that Miller fraudulently claimed “a tax exemption reserved for nonprofit entities” and that she and Deloof used the vehicles for personal benefit. It also claims that Miller, Deloof and Mashon have harassed the nonprofit and Hector in social media posts, comments and private messages. Punks With Lunch and Hector are seeking damages exceeding $25,000.

MSUFCU said in a statement Sunday that it had detected and quickly removed card skimmers from a “small number” of ATMs. Card skimmers are devices that criminals can slip into ATMs to gather information from physical credit and debit cards, allowing them to commit fraud. The credit union added that the criminals stole card information from about two dozen of its members, contacted those affected and is working with law enforcement to identify those who placed the devices. MSUFCU said all of its ATMs are operational and secure.

Clinton and Gratiot counties Judge Cori Barkman has sentenced Ashley Monroe of Watertown Township, 36, to 30 years to 60 years in prison for second-degree murder for killing two and injuring more than a dozen others while driving drunk at a park in Wacousta Township in May 2024. The judge also sentenced Monroe to eight concurrent terms of two to five years for driving while intoxicated, causing serious injury. Barkman also ordered Monroe to pay restitution of more than $73,000 and gave her 515 days of credit for time spent in jail. Monroe pleaded no contest in August to one count of second-degree murder and eight counts of driving while intoxicated, causing serious injury, with an agreement that her minimum prison sentence would be 30 years.