Rewind: News Highlights From The Last 7 Days

Kevin Guskiewicz..(Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

Michigan State University introduced Kevin Guskiewicz as its 22nd president in a press conference Monday. MSU trustees selected Guskiewicz, the chancellor of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the lone finalist for the position, in a unanimous vote Friday. He will officially start March 4, 2024, having signed a five-year contract with an annual base salary of $975,000 — a significant increase from his UNC salary of $657,743. Guskiewicz spent 30 years at UNC and played an important role as a neuroscientist and leading concussion researcher. He served as the dean of UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences from 2016 to 2019, when he was appointed interim chancellor of the school. UNC removed the interim tag later that year.

The family of Stephen Romero, who was killed in an officer-involved shooting Dec. 1, plans to sue the Lansing Police Department. On Friday, following the release of limited bodycam footage, family attorney James Harrington of Fieger Law said he plans to file a civil lawsuit and criticized the eight-minute video posted by LPD as “police propaganda” and a “government-made slideshow.” Romero, 33, died after a domestic violence call in the 1600 block of Massachusetts Avenue just before 11:30 p.m. The video depicts the officers telling him to get on the ground, after which Romero gets on his knees and lifts his shirt to reveal a handgun in his waistband. The video then cuts out before shots were fired. Chief Ellery Sosebee identified the officers involved as Donovan Moore and Jeff Kurtz, both of whom have been with the department for four years and have been on administrative leave pending the results of a Michigan State Police investigation.

Michigan State University and the former interim director of its Native American Institute have agreed to a settlement following accusations of harassment, discrimination and retaliation. Christie Poitra will get $150,000 after nearly two years of legal disputes. The incident came in 2018, when Poitra was working under then-director John Norder. One of her co-workers reported that Norder had behaved inappropriately towards Poitra, who filed a complaint with the Office of Institutional Equity. Norder was found to have violated MSU’s sexual harassment policy and was removed from his position and suspended for four weeks, but he is still listed as an associate professor of anthropology. With Norder out, Poitra resumed his responsibilities but wasn’t named interim director for over a year. She remained the interim director through 2021 before receiving any raise in pay, but Poitra said she was still making $30,000 less than Norder had in the same position. She resigned in May 2022.

 Sycamore Creek Church issued the first check from a yearly reparations fund to the Justice League of Greater Lansing on Sunday, WKAR reported. During a service at the church’s Eastwood Campus, 2200 Lake Lansing Road, Pastor Tom Arthur presented an oversized symbolic check for $3,684 to the Justice League’s founder, Willye Bryan, and its president, Prince Solace. The Justice League reported nearly $400,000 raised since 2021. Starting next year, the group plans to begin using some of those funds to offer $50,000 education scholarships. The church plans to donate 1 percent per year from its endowment fund to the Justice League for at least two more years.

Cannabis company Skymint announced Monday that it plans to lay off 143 employees and close its 56,000-square-foot Harvest Park production facility in Windsor Township by March 1, 2024. Formerly one of Michigan’s leading cannabis companies, Skymint has struggled in recent years and in March was placed into a receivership by an Ingham County judge for allegedly owing more than $127 million to a Canadian lender, Tropics, LP. Skymint cited steadily decreasing revenues and surplus supply for the decision. Operations at its 22 retail dispensaries will continue, the company announced, while the 143 employees were given a 60-day notice.

Walter Jemison, a 50-year-old Lansing resident, was convicted by jury trial Monday of assault with intent to commit murder, being a felon in possession of a firearm and discharging a firearm in a building in 2021. On Tuesday, Ingham County Prosecutor John Dewane said Jemison “had a lengthy history of violent and felonious conduct including bank robbery, assault with intent to do great bodily harm, and drug dealing. He had previously served many years in federal and state prisons, and been sentenced as a habitual offender as far back as 2015.” The case is set for sentencing before Circuit Judge James Jamo on Feb. 14.

PUBLIC SAFETY:

A 57-year-old woman was hospitalized following a shooting at the 5900 block of South Waverly Road near Miller Road at around 6:30 p.m. Monday evening in Lansing. … An arrest was made following a Friday police car chase that began outside of Lansing and ended on Long Boulevard. … Ricky Jaimal Meeks, 41, of Lansing, was sentenced 10 years in prison Wednesday for illegally possessing a firearm that was used in a Muskegon-area homicide.