State Roundup

Grand Rapids
Vandal strikes at ArtPrize entry in Grand Rapids

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A large, rotating sphere that was installed in Grand Rapids as part of the annual ArtPrize competition has been damaged by a vandal.
MLive.com reports Judy Rogers of Gowen returned to her entry “Love Is...” on Monday night to find that the work had been knocked over.
Witnesses told police someone hammered on the artwork until the sphere came off its support.
Rogers says she can’t believe someone would damage the piece.
The entry is covered in drawings about love by students from Lincoln Heights and Cedar Crest Elementary schools in Greenville. The globe rotates while amplified music from school choirs is played.
It’s the second vandalism report this year during ArtPrize. A work titled “Bridging Humanity” on the Gillett Pedestrian Bridge was reported vandalized last month.

Vassar
Soldier who lost 4 limbs set to visit hometown

VASSAR, Mich. (AP) — A soldier will visit his Michigan hometown this week for the first time since losing all four limbs while fighting in Afghanistan.
MLive.com reports Army Staff Sgt. Travis Mills, his wife, Kelsey, and their 1-year-old daughter, Chloe, will be the grand marshals of Vassar High School’s homecoming parade on Thursday.
Travis Mills also is expected to address the crowd before the football game begins Friday night.
The 25-year-old Vassar native was hurt when he dropped a bag on an improvised explosive device April 10 during his third deployment to Afghanistan.
He’s one of only a few servicemen to lose all four limbs in combat during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and survive.
Mills says in a Web-posted message that he “can’t wait to see everyone” in Vassar.

Grand Blanc
Students protest new rules, leave homecoming event 

GRAND BLANC, Mich. (AP) — Several hundred students didn’t see eye-to-eye with Grand Blanc High School’s new face-to-face only rule at this year’s homecoming dance.
About 800 of the 1,500 students left Saturday night’s event, including 15 couples who were asked to leave for violating the policy, MLive.com reported Monday.
“I noticed last year it was getting pretty bad,” said principal Jennifer Hammond. “I told administrators it was time to do something. We had numerous complaints from parents, from students, from community members. That just reinforced what we were thinking.”
Students at the school, about 45 miles northwest of Detroit, weren’t blindsided by the new rule, Hammond added.
It was printed on homecoming dance tickets, announced in advance over the school’s public address system, and told to students as they entered the dance.
Parents were notified of the events from the dance Sunday in an emailed letter from Hammond.
“For the past few years, the manner in which our students have been dancing has become inappropriate and, at times, downright lewd and overtly sexual,” she wrote. “It has gotten so bad that many staff members no longer want to chaperone the dances.”
Some students disagree.
“I don’t think we should be forced to dance face-to-face,” said 17-year-old senior Taylor James, who attended the dance but was not asked to leave. “I don’t think they should get kicked out and be forced to dance a certain way.”
The new rule is too strict, said sophomore Kelsey Rodriguez. She said the students who were asked to leave were not being vulgar.
“I think it’s kind of crazy, because the way we dance is part of our culture these days,” she said.

Deerfield Twp.
Store clerk, 73, staves off trouble by pulling his gun

DEERFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A 73-year-old store clerk in Michigan staved off trouble at his store for the second time in recent years by pulling a gun.
Venture Corners clerk Fred Price tells the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus of Howell that he pulled his weapon Monday on a man he thought had a gun. Authorities say an apparently drunken man went into the store in Livingston County’s Deerfield Township and demanded beer.
Price says the man wouldn’t leave the property, so he pulled a gun. The would-be customer at the store about 45 miles northwest of Detroit was later arrested.
In 2010, a man walked into the store demanding money. Price knocked what turned out to be a starter pistol out of the man’s hand and shot at a getaway car.

East Lansing
MSU professor is hospitalized after his nude outburst

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Authorities say a Michigan State University professor has been hospitalized after police responded to reports about a man who took off his clothes in a classroom building and was heard yelling.
The East Lansing school says campus police responded Monday afternoon and the professor was taken into protective custody. No charges are expected.
No injuries were reported
Michigan State senior Hayden Boroski tells MLive.com that he called 911. He says the professor was yelling while in a hallway wearing only socks.
The Lansing State Journal reports that MSU’s Counseling Center contacted students in the professor’s class and assistance is being offered to them if needed.

Marquette
170-mile bathtub push planned for several charities

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (AP) — Members of a fraternity plan to push a street-modified bathtub roughly 170 miles across part of the Upper Peninsula this week to raise money for a police department.
WLUC-TV reports the annual Tau Kappa Epsilon fundraiser is Friday.
The trip is planned for between Sault Ste. Marie, which is home to Lake Superior State University, and Marquette, which is home to Northern Michigan University.
In previous years the effort has raised money for research on Alzheimer’s disease, the Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum and Special Olympics.
Proceeds this year benefit the Marquette police department’s K-9 unit.V