Government

A former Constantine Police reserve officer was sentenced Friday to at least 20 months in prison for lying under oath in a case related to the homicide of 11-year-old Jodi Parrack. Raymond McCann II, who previously pled no contest to lying under oath during the investigative subpoena into the 2007 homicide of Parrack, was sentenced in St. Joseph County Circuit …

A pair of funding requests from the St. Joseph County E-911 Central Dispatch was approved by county commissioners last week. The agency was allotted $4,128 for security cameras to replace black-and-white cameras that are 15 years old, and $74,200 was granted to repair and make improvements to the Centreville communications tower. County administrator Pat Yoder said the upgrade for security …

A former Constantine reserve police officer is headed to prison for lying to investigators probing the November 2007 slaying of an 11-year-old southwest Michigan girl. 47-year old Raymond McCann of Constantine was sentenced in a St. Joseph County court to 20 months 20 years in prison after pleading no contest last month to one count of perjury. McCann was arrested in April 2014, …

Authorities say a 12-year-old boy has been critically injured after being hit by a pickup truck while trying to board a school bus in Calhoun County. The Battle Creek Enquirer and the Kalamazoo Gazette report David Newman was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Kalamazoo after being hit Friday morning in Eckford Township, near Marshall. The sheriff’s department says …

The St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners this week was introduced to someone they’ll be seeing more frequently later this year. Lindsay Oswald, who last week was appointed to serve the remaining 18 months of Pattie Bender’s term as county clerk and register of deeds, was presented by Circuit Court Judge Paul Stutesman. Oswald will start her appointed term July …

The city of Three Rivers has announced it will not be conducting a leaf or brush pick up this spring. Furthermore, the city issued a reminder that it is against city ordinance to place yard waste or debris in the street or on the terrace area between the street and the sidewalk. Residents must make their own arrangements to dispose …

St. Joseph County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wenzel said 2014 was another good year for his office. Addressing the county’s board of commissioners, Wenzel said with the additional duties of administering soil-erosion permits, the office is keeping busy and maintaining a high profile in the county. The office in 2014 issued 147 permits and more than 600 inspections were conducted over …

Authorities say a 3-year-old Amish girl died when a kerosene stove malfunction set her southern Michigan home on fire. The Branch County sheriff’s department says the fire broke out about 11 a.m. Wednesday at a home in Butler Township, east of Coldwater. The Daily Reporter of Coldwater identifies the victim as Leah Graber and says her mother was cooking when …

Dozens of drivers are being ticketed following January’s massive pileup on snowy Interstate 94 in southwestern Michigan that killed a 57-year-old trucker and closed a stretch of the roadway for two days, police announced Thursday. Traffic citations for 63 drivers, mostly for traveling too fast for road conditions, come after Michigan State Police completed the investigation into the Jan. 9 …

Plans to begin pursuing a major addition to a portion of the St. Joseph County Courthouse were approved Tuesday by members of the county commission. The idea calls for a two-story addition to the west side of the current courts building. Each floor of the proposed rectangular-shaped addition would exceed more than 7,000 square feet and be designated for circuit, …