Rewind: News Highlights From The Last 7 Days

UAW workers at GM’s Lansing Redistribution Center officially joined the strike against the Big Three Friday. Employees walked out of the Redistribution Center at 4400 W. Mount Hope Hwy at noon to hit the picket line a week after the first group of workers at three plants in Wentzville, Missouri; Wayne, Michigan; and Toledo, Ohio, did the same. The UAW Local 1753 represents more than 200 workers at the plant who joined those from the 38 GM and Stellantis distribution centers that added to the strike last week.

East Lansing’s new city manager, Robert Belleman, officially took office Monday. The East Lansing City Council voted 4-1 on Sept. 19 to approve a two-year contract that will pay Belleman a starting salary of $180,000. Belleman served as Saginaw County controller and chief administrative officer from February 2012 through June of this year but was fired by the county’s Board of Commissioners after some officials expressed displeasure with his job performance. The Council selected Belleman as its choice in a 3-2 decision last month, ending a search that began in January when the Council fired longtime City Manager George Lahanas in a unanimous decision. Former Lansing Fire Chief Randy Talifarro served as the city’s interim manager since February. 

U.S. Department of Justice officials are considering the death penalty for a man charged in the murder of a Lansing toddler this summer, the Lansing State Journal reported. Rashad Trice, 27, faces charges in multiple jurisdictions after a statewide search over the Fourth of July weekend ended when police found 2-year-old Wynter Cole-Smith dead in Detroit. He faces 20 charges in state court, with three cases in Ingham, Macomb and Wayne counties consolidated by the Michigan Attorney General’s office. If Trice is convicted on federal charges, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland will have the final say on whether the death penalty will be considered. 

The City Rescue Mission’s controversial statement of faith is legal under Lansing city law, WLNS-TV reported. The City Attorney’s Office provided this update in response to an inquiry from First Ward Councilman Ryan Kost at the Sept. 18 City Council meeting, where Kost read a selection from the organization’s statement of faith on the record: “… any board member, staff member, or volunteer of the Mission confirmed to be involved in sexual sin (including molestation, homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality…) will be immediately removed from any positions of ministry or service.” Kost asked if the statement was a violation of the city’s Human Rights Ordinance, but Deputy City Attorney Lisa Hagen-Lawrence said the statement was “consistent with constitutional law.” 

Mayor Andy Schor announced Sept. 20 that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the Lansing Housing Commission nearly $2 million to combat youth homelessness. The funds come as part of HUD’s Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program, which also granted $4.6 million to the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. The grant will fund small housing projects for homeless youths between 18 to 24 years of age throughout 61 mostly rural counties in Michigan.

Construction on the Trader Joe’s store in Meridian Charter Township may resume next month, the Lansing State Journal reported. Trader Joe’s East Inc. previously purchased 2.2 acres on Grand River Avenue and Northwind Drive and can now continue development on the project following a seven-month delay. In August, the township issued a permit allowing for the shell of the 13,500-square-foot property to go up after work had been halted in January due to steel supply chain issues and then again in May due to an expired work permit. The store will be the grocery chain’s first in the Greater Lansing area. 

Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a body they found in the Grand River Sept. 18. The subject is a man with a full beard and mustache who was balding. He was 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed approximately 167 pounds. Police responded to the area of Grand and Oakland avenues just before 1:30 p.m. Last month, Ingham County deputies discovered another man dead in the Grand River near Burchfield Park. They later identified him as Jeffrey Lynn-Ellis Spade, a 30-year-old man who had disappeared from his group while kayaking. 

Two people died in an Eaton County car crash on Lansing Road Saturday morning. Eaton County Sheriff deputies responded to the crash near Kinsel Highway in Eaton Township around 10 a.m. and found a Kia Soul and Ford Taurus that had struck each other while travelling southbound and northbound, respectively. The two passengers in the Kia Soul, Charlotte residents William McGuirt, 87, and Barbara McGuirt, 84, were both pronounced dead at the hospital. The two passengers in the Ford Taurus suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The sheriff’s department said the accident is under investigation and that it doesn’t suspect speed or alcohol to have played a role.