State Roundup

Shelby Township
Police seek help after nut theft, post squirrel pic

SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Police in suburban Detroit are having a little fun while asking for help from the public in figuring out who swiped roughly 28,000 pounds of packaged nuts.
The Shelby Township Police Department says a truck and trailer packed with 18 pallets of walnuts and other snack nuts were taken the weekend of June 27. Police say the truck and trailer were found July 1 in Detroit, but the nuts worth more than $128,000 were gone.
The department on Tuesday issued an appeal for information on its Facebook page — posting a mug shot of a squirrel along with details of the case.
Police in the Macomb County community have had a few noteworthy animal encounters recently, rounding up a goat in a parking lot and capturing a stray pig.

Lansing
Snyder signs bills for early warning about finances

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Rick Snyder has signed a package of bills he says is designed to give Michigan school districts help more quickly if the state determines they are at risk of a financial emergency.
The Republican governor signed the bills Tuesday, saying in a statement that: “We need to enable school districts to resolve potential financial issues before they become unmanageable.” He says the state wants to make sure districts have the resources to educate students.
One bill requires some school districts to submit to the state budget assumptions used when determining its annual budget. Sponsors said the legislation, which could affect hundreds of Michigan schools, is aimed at identifying potential financial stress.
Opponents say the changes would only identify and not fix problems at struggling schools.

Kalamazoo
Charge for not renewing dog license dropped

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — A western Michigan woman says she’s no longer facing a misdemeanor charge after being arrested for failing to renew her dog’s license.
Becky Rehr says she drove to the Kalamazoo County sheriff’s office June 23 to prove she recently renewed the license for the family’s 11-year-old dog, Dexter. The Kalamazoo Gazette says Rehr’s 14-year-old daughter waited in the car as her mother was arrested, fingerprinted and held for three hours.
Rehr told the newspaper in an email the dismissal at the request of the prosecutor’s office was approved Monday.
The prosecutor’s office earlier said dismissal of the charge was typical in such cases once there’s proof a dog license was obtained. County animal control says it gave the 47-year-old Cooper Township woman numerous notices before a warrant was issued.

Grand Rapids
Temperatures higher than year ago in lakes

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Weather officials say water temperatures in the Great Lakes are higher than at the same time a year ago.
MLive.com reports that warmer Great Lakes waters could help keep Michigan from having an extremely cold winter.
The data from the Great Lakes Environmental Research Center covers lake temperatures from Sunday and July 5, 2014. Lake Superior has the biggest difference in average surface water temperature, up 3.5 degrees this year to 48 degrees. Temperatures for Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are roughly 3 degrees higher on the surface than last year.
Surface temperatures are about 2 degrees higher on Lake Ontario and 0.4 degrees higher on Lake Erie.

Port Huron
Ex- guard gets 6 months for having sex with inmate

PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) — A former St. Clair County jail guard who admits having sex with an inmate while he was on work release has been sentenced to 10 months in jail, with four months of that suspended.
Twenty-seven-year-old Gemma Cowperthwaite pleaded guilty to a reduced criminal sexual conduct charge in May. Circuit Judge Daniel Kelly sentenced her Monday.
The inmate says he met the deputy while in jail in July 2014. He says he and Cowperthwaite had sex at her home this spring.
Before the sentencing, the ex-deputy said it was the “biggest mistake” of her life.
The judge says Cowperthwaite betrayed the trust of the sheriff and court system.
The Times Herald of Port Huron reports that Sheriff Tim Donnellon says his ex-deputy “deserves every minute of time she’s been sentenced to.”

Saginaw
New mural made after original demolished

SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — There’s a new “Imagine Saginaw” mural in town.
The original downtown Saginaw mural was demolished as part of an effort aimed at eliminating blighted properties, including the building on which it was painted.
Artists Eric Schantz and James Hughes were determined to recreate it in a new location, so they did just that during the Fourth of July weekend. The Saginaw News reports they painted the same inspirational message — although on a smaller scale than the original — on the side of a garage.
Schantz in 2011 had helped organize a group of young people during a conference at First Congregational Church to paint the original mural. The popular mural asked its viewer to imagine ideas such as “Peace,” ‘’Hope,” ‘’Love,” and “Respect” in Saginaw.