Fraud case against robotics expert dropped after no verdict
EAST LANSING (AP) — Prosecutors have taken the unusual step of dropping a fraud charge against a renowned robotics expert after a jury failed to reach a verdict in a trial about expenses at Michigan State University and a professional organization.
Ning Xi was director of MSU’s Robotics and Automation Laboratory.
Federal prosecutors accused him of collecting $183,000 in travel payments based on fraudulent documents.
He also was accused of similar conduct in getting reimbursements from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
A mistrial was declared after a jury in Grand Rapids federal court couldn’t reach a verdict.
A judge dismissed the indictment on July 11.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagen Frank expressed doubt that a second trial would produce a different result.
Defense attorney Ronald Safer says the payments were legitimate, even if Xi’s bookkeeping was bad.
He says Xi was on more than 1,000 flights over eight years.
Judge orders shutdown of manufacturer amid health concerns
BELDING (AP) — A judge has ordered a Michigan manufacturer to cease operations amid concerns among health officials about a June dumpster fire and the release of chemical clouds.
The Daily News of Greenville reports an Ionia County judge signed a temporary restraining order last month about the Kassouni Manufacturing Inc. facility in Belding, about 120 miles northwest of Detroit.
The order was requested by the Ionia County Health Department.
Circuit Court Judge Ronald Schafer ordered KMI to cease operations and secure the facility, which produces chlorine tablets used for swimming pools and calcium chloride for melting ice and snow, as well as does plastic injection molding.
State health and environmental officials also have been involved after the fire.
Illegal trash dumpster leaves witty nod to Arlo Guthrie song
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. (AP) — Whoever dumped trash at the building made famous in Arlo Guthrie’s 1967 Thanksgiving protest anthem “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” has a sense of humor.
The director of what’s now the Guthrie Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, discovered on Tuesday that someone had filled the dumpster with garbage and left a grubby sofa nearby.
They also left a sign that said: “Officer Obie told me to do it.”
The sign was a reference to former Stockbridge Police Chief William Obanhein, the Officer Obie of the song who arrested Guthrie for illegally dumping trash.
Guthrie, who was traveling Tuesday, said in a note to The Berkshire Eagle through a family member: “I hope they left an envelope with some money in it."
According to the song, an envelope with a name on it led to Guthrie’s arrest.
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