VIRUS OUTBREAK

Hospitals begin to limp out of the latest COVID-19 surge

Hospitalizations fueled by the highly contagious omicron variant in the U.S. have begun falling after peaking at record levels in some communities. But doctors are warning that the wave is leaving behind lots of postponed surgeries and an increasingly worn-out health care workforce in its wake. Across the U.S., the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 has tumbled more than 28% over the past three weeks to about 105,000 on average.

SCHOOL SHOOTING-MICHIGAN

Mom, son texted about gun day before school shooting

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan judge has listened to testimony as she seeks to determine if the parents of a teenager accused of killing four students at his high school should face trial. An investigator testified Tuesday that Jennifer Crumbley and her son, Ethan Crumbley, traded text messages a day before the shooting after he was caught looking up ammunition on his phone while at Oxford High School. She asked him if he showed teachers a picture of his gun, to which he replied that he didn’t. Jennifer and James Crumbley, her husband, are charged with involuntary manslaughter. They are accused of making a gun accessible to Ethan and failing to intervene when he showed signs of mental distress.

VIRUS OUTBREAK

Michigan Legislature approves $1.2B bill to combat COVID-19

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan lawmakers have passed a $1.2 billion spending bill to combat COVID-19, including $300 million to help hospitals and other health care facilities give recruitment and retention bonuses. The pending allocation is the latest from funding that was enacted by Congress and President Joe Biden last year. The Republican-led Senate and House approved the legislation Tuesday. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will sign it after senators concur with a House change. The measure includes $150 million for school safety, $100 million for early treatment of patients and $70 million in grants to adult foster care facilities and homes for the aged.

AP-US-MICHIGAN-GOVERNOR-KIDNAPPING-PLOT

2nd guilty plea planned in alleged plot to kidnap Whitmer

DETROIT (AP) — Records show another man charged in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has agreed to plead guilty. That would leave four to face trial in March and give prosecutors a second insider who could be a key witness. Kaleb Franks in a document filed Monday said he would join Ty Garbin as the second person to admit guilt in the scheme to kidnap the Democratic governor. FBI agents stepped in and arrested the group in October 2020. Garbin pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to slightly more than six years in prison. The government said six men wanted to kidnap Whitmer because of their disgust over COVID-19 restrictions.

2002 SLAYING-SENTENCE

Woman sentenced to life for role in 2002 Michigan slaying

CHARLOTTE, Mich. (AP) — A woman has been sentenced to life in prison for her role in the 2002 slaying of a man whose burned remains were found dumped in western Michigan. An Eaton County judge sentenced Dineane Ducharme on Monday to the mandatory life sentence she faced after being convicted in Roberto Caraballo’s death. A jury convicted her in December of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and other charges in connection with Caraballo’s death. The Lansing State Journal reports that Michigan law mandates life in prison without the chance of parole for people convicted of first-degree murder. Ducharme was among three people charged with Caraballo’s death.

SWEDEN-POLAR MUSIC PRIZE

Iggy Pop, Ensemble Intercontemporain win Polar Music Prize

STOCKHOLM (AP) — American rocker Iggy Pop, known as “the godfather of punk”, and Ensemble Intercontemporain, a contemporary music orchestra based in Paris, have won the 2022 Polar Music Prizes, a Swedish music award. The award panel said Tuesday that Iggy Pop, a singer and songwriter whose real name is James Newell Osterberg, has “created furious rock music by blending together blues and free jazz influences with the roar of the Michigan automotive industry.”Ensemble Intercontemporain was founded in 1976 by the composer Pierre Boulez. The ensemble is focused on contemporary art music and has made itself known for exploring new musical areas and artistic expressions such as dance, theater and technology.

MICHIGAN BUDGET-ROADS

Whitmer to propose $1 billion boost to transportation budget

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will propose a $1 billion, or nearly 20%, boost to Michigan’s transportation budget to repair roads and increase other spending. The $6.3 billion plan she will present to lawmakers Wednesday includes new road and bridge funding from the federal infrastructure law. Three-quarters would go to state roads and bridges and one-quarter to local roads and bridges. Whitmer’s proposal includes a call for augmenting the transportation budget with general funds. It also factors in a nearly 1-cent-per-gallon fuel tax hike that took effect last month under a 2015 law. Whitmer says Michigan has made “huge progress” fixing roads, “but there’s still so much more to do.”

MISSING TEEN-FATHER

Virginia inmate sentenced in Michigan for daughter’s killing

ALLEGAN, Mich. (AP) — A man serving life sentences in Virginia for raping and killing a woman in 1980 was sentenced Monday to an additional 35 to 50 years in prison in Michigan for the 1989 killing of his 14-year-old daughter. Dennis Bowman pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in December for the killing of his daughter Aundria Bowman, whose body was found two years ago buried in his backyard in Hamilton, southwest of Grand Rapids. He told police he pushed his daughter down the stairs, killing her, after she threatened to report he had molested her. He buried her in a barrel in the backyard. Bowman is serving two life sentences for the 1980 rape and murder of Kathleen Doyle in Norfolk, Virginia.

MICHIGAN BUDGET-TEACHER BONUSES

Whitmer will propose retention bonuses for teachers, staff

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will propose spending $2.3 billion over four years to recruit and retain teachers and other school staff, enticing them with annual $2,000 bonuses that would grow to $4,000 by 2025. Her plan to address educator shortages, provided to The Associated Press, is part of the budget Whitmer will present to lawmakers. Starting in the fall, all full-time returning K-12 public employees would get $2,000, with part-timers receiving less based on hours worked. They would get an additional $2,000 in 2023. Teachers and other certified staff like counselors would qualify for $3,000 in 2024 and $4,000 in 2025.

BENZIE COUNTY SLAYING

Man held on murder charge after neighbor found dead in home

HOMESTEAD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A northern Michigan man man faces an open murder charge after an elderly neighbor was found dead inside her burning home. Fifty-seven-year-old Jeffrey Duane Stratton of Homestead Township is being held without bond after being arraigned Sunday in a Benzie County court. The Benzie County Sheriff’s Office says Stratton was captured by Michigan State Police after running from his home. A police dog led officers there from the nearby home where 72-year-old Linda Henry was found dead Friday afternoon and surrounded by flames. Sheriff’s deputies had been sent to the home on a report of a breaking and entering in progress. It’s not clear how the woman died.