Police report thousands of blood-alcohol tests reviewed again
DETROIT (AP) — Michigan State Police officials say thousands of blood-alcohol tests were incorrectly analyzed.
The department’s forensic science division told prosecutors across the state the problem was an “incorrect calibration model” used in 4,001 results over a four-month period.
A letter from state police explaining the issue was released this week by the Wayne County prosecutor’s office. Police typically use a breath device in roadside stops.
Despite the problem, half the tests didn’t require any correction. State police said the revised results also didn’t have an impact in cases where the blood-alcohol level was initially found to be near 0.08, the threshold for drunken driving.
Nonetheless, new reports with accurate information are being sent to prosecutors.
Detroit-area defense attorney Luther Glenn says the results should be examined by a third party.
Lawsuit filed against theater chain over captions for deaf
BENTON HARBOR (AP) — A southwestern Michigan man and a civil rights group are suing a theater company, saying it does not provide captions at a Benton Harbor venue.
Graham Forsey of St. Joseph and the National Association of the Deaf say the discrimination suit was filed recently against Loeks Theater, Inc.
They say that without captions, deaf and hard of hearing patrons can’t understand movie dialogues and soundtracks. Forsey is deaf.
Loeks operates Celebration! Cinema in Benton Harbor, southwest of Grand Rapids.
Celebration! Cinema Vice President of Marketing Steve VanWagoner said updated standards for supporting the deaf community are being reviewed by the Justice Department.
He says theaters in “Benton Harbor and other locations will receive captioning equipment in the coming months upon the adoption of the new standards.”
Nazi-looted paintings to stay with museum
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge has ruled in favor of a Southern California museum in its 10-year legal battle over the ownership of two German Renaissance masterpieces that were seized by the Nazis in World War II.
U.S. District Court Judge John F. Walter ruled last week that Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum, where the paintings “Adam” and “Eve” have been for more than 30 years, is the rightful owner of the two life-size oil-on-panel paintings.
Marei von Saher alleged that the paintings were seized from her father-in-law, Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, after his family fled Holland during the Holocaust.
The Norton Simon countered that it legally acquired the works in the 1970s from the descendant of Russian aristocrats who had them wrongly taken by the Soviet Union in the 1920s.
Lucas Cranach the Elder painted the works in around 1530. In 1971, they were acquired by the museum for $800,000, the equivalent of about $4.8 million today. They were appraised at $24 million in 2006.
The dispute is one of many to emerge in recent years involving precious art looted by the Nazis.
The judge said that because Goudstikker’s art dealership decided not to seek restitution for the works after the war, his family thereby abandoned their claim to the art.
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