Government

Michigan will lift all indoor capacity restrictions and mask requirements next week, 10 days sooner than planned amid vaccinations and plummeting COVID-19 infections, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Thursday. The state’s main coronavirus order will expire at the end of Monday instead of July 1, bringing an end to mandatory 50% occupancy limits inside restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues and at …

With restrictions easing in relation to COVID-19, the St. Joseph County Commission on Aging wants to celebrate by offering something fun and different for its members, and really for any senior in the county who is eager to get out of the house and socialize with others. This desire led to working with a local family known for its “Open …

A man accused of killing two neighbors in southwestern Michigan told police that he shot them because they were too loud, according to a court document. William Wolfe knocked at the apartment door and shot Virgil Walker, 49, and his wife, Kailey Walker, 30, “without warning,” a Kalamazoo County sheriff’s investigator said in an affidavit supporting murder charges last week. …

A northern Indiana man has been sentenced to 60 years in prison after pleading guilty for his role in the 2019 torture-slaying of a woman whose body was dumped in southern Michigan. An Elkhart County judge who sentenced Matthew Murzynski on Thursday ordered that the Elkhart man be incarcerated, for his own safety, in a different prison from two other …

Michigan State Police troopers are investigating a larceny from a motor vehicle that occurred around 5 p.m. Wednesday in Nottawa Township. The victim was mowing a field adjacent to Nottawa Road, near Wasepi Road. Authorities said the victim had parked her car at the edge of the field while her 13- and 11-year-old sons remained inside the vehicle. The suspect …

Two people were arrested on drug-related offenses as well as suspected stolen property. State police troopers stopped a vehicle pulling a trailer Tuesday on U.S. 12 near Fiske Road after noticing an equipment violation. Troopers discovered the vehicle had been reported stolen from Steuben County, Indiana. The driver, a 39-year-old man from Union City, and the passenger, a 36-year-old woman …

A dump truck collided with a semi tractor-trailer in Park Township. Sheriff Mark Lillywhite said deputies were dispatched at 2:20 p.m. Wednesday to the area of Michigan Avenue and Parkville Road. Investigators said a dump truck was traveling south on Parkville Road when its 78-year-old driver, a Constantine resident, failed to stop at the Michigan Avenue intersection. The dump truck …

An 18-year-old Three Rivers man was arrested last week after fleeing at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour from police in Park Township. Sheriff Mark Lillywhite said deputies attempted to stop the driver shortly before 7 o’clock Friday evening on M-216 near U.S. 131. Authorities noticed the motorcycle was being driven at a high rate of speed. The …

A divided Vicksburg Village Council voted last month to prohibit smoking in the municipality’s newly created social district. By a 4-3 margin, council members agreed to prohibit smoking in the specially marked areas. The measure means anyone who wishes to light up must do so somewhere outside the boundaries of the social district. The matter arose in April, when a …

Deputies from the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department are investigating a breaking-and-entering incident that took place last week in Lockport Township. Investigators were called May 25 to the 56000 block of North Main Street. The victim told authorities that a number of items were stolen, including two boats and an undisclosed quantity of power tools.