At a Glance

Mom cleared after years in prison agrees to settlement

BATTLE CREEK (AP) — A county in southwestern Michigan recently agreed to a $1.9 million settlement with a woman who spent seven years in prison before her sexual assault conviction was thrown out.

In 2002, Lorinda Swain was convicted of molesting a family member, but the conviction was set aside in 2009 after new witnesses raised doubts about her guilt. The alleged victim and other witnesses also recanted their testimony.

For the next seven years, Swain’s case moved between Calhoun County and Michigan’s highest courts. The state Supreme Court ordered a new trial in 2016, but prosecutors decided to drop the case.

Swain sued the county, saying her rights were violated when certain information gathered by investigators wasn’t shared with her defense team.

Quicken Loan to introduce computer  coding to students

DETROIT (AP) — Quicken Loans is introducing computer coding to 5,000 Detroit students.

The mortgage lender says Code(D)etroit will teach modern coding fundamentals to 1,250 students each day, beginning June 18, during the Techstars Startup Week Detroit.

Quicken Loans is partnering with Detroit-based technology training institute Grand Circus. Grand Circus will work with Quicken Loans to find and train volunteer instructors for the code training.

Laura Grannemann, vice president of the Quicken Loans Community Investment Fund, says the company is “hyper-focused on building education programs” that will prepare Detroit students for tomorrow’s jobs.

Grinchy law denies prize to Christmas glitch lottery winners

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina lottery officials say they will not pay $35 million in prizes won by players when a Christmas Day glitch in a game briefly made everyone a winner.

The South Carolina Education Lottery Commission voted Wednesday to reimburse players only the $1 paid for Holiday Cash Add-A-Play tickets.

Officials say a coding glitch made each of the 71,000 tickets bought for about two hours last Dec. 25 a winner.

The game generated trees on a tic-tac-toe grid, paying up to $500 when someone got three in a line. Lottery officials say trees were printed in all nine slots.

A statement from the lottery cited a state law that prizes resulting from a ticket printed in error must not be paid.

Two lawsuits have already been filed by players.

Creative road signs warn Maine motorists in funny ways

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Motorists traveling around Maine over the holiday weekend saw residents’ creativity on display.

Message boards warned motorists that, “A Cold Suppah Is Bettah Thana Hot Ticket.” Another one said, “Spend Money on Lobstahs — Not Speeding Tickets.” Yet another said, “Put Down UR Cell — Or You May End Up In One.”

It was part of contest run by the Maine Department of Transportation.

People were asked to come up with clever messages, and six winners were selected out of nearly 2,000 entries.

They’ll be displayed for a few weeks.

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