Rewind: News Highlights From The Last 7 Days

General Motors will lay off 369 workers at Grand River Assembly and Lansing Regional Stamping, coinciding with the end of Camaro production. The layoffs will take place in four phases over January, February and March. GM “anticipates having job opportunities for all impacted team members per the provisions of the UAW-GM National Agreement.”

The FBI is investigating a bomb threat made by email to Congregation Shaarey Zedek, an East Lansing synagogue at 1924 Coolidge Road, on Sunday. The message, received around 11 a.m., read: “There are multiple explosives in the Synagogue. They are well hidden and they will go off in a few hours. YOU WILL ALL DIE.” East Lansing police determined there was no threat. In October, 19-year-old Seann Pietila pleaded guilty to making threats against the synagogue in June. According to the Anti-Defamation League, more than 400 Jewish facilities had received similar false bomb threats since Saturday. 

Michigan State University’s trustees voted Friday to release thousands of documents to state Attorney General Dana Nessel related to the investigation of former MSU doctor and convicted sex offender Larry Nassar. Nessel suspended her investigation into MSU’s handling of the case in 2021 because the documents were still being withheld. In July, a group of Nassar survivors filed a lawsuit against MSU to make the documents public. In another Friday vote, the trustees reached a settlement agreement totaling $15 million with the families of Alexandria Verner, Arielle Anderson and Brian Fraser, three students who were killed in the Feb. 13 mass shooting on campus.

Sparrow recorded its highest third-quarter total of drug-related deaths in seven years, according to its Dec. 12 quarterly report. The three-month total of 62 was higher than the 49 observed in the first quarter and 53 in the second. Michelle Fox, Sparrow’s chief investigator in the Medical Examiner’s Office, said she already expects the fourth quarter numbers to surpass last year’s count.

The Michigan Department of Civil Rights is investigating a student’s complaint of sex discrimination by Williamston Community Schools, WLNS reported. The department said it launched an investigation in October after receiving the complaint in September. The student is being represented by the ACLU of Michigan.

Lisa Grysen, a former DeWitt clerk-treasurer who was fired in August, is accused of embezzling $48,472 in tax payments made over four years, the Lansing State Journal reported. She faces embezzlement charges of $20,000 to $50,000.

Prosecutors dismissed charges against a woman accused of embezzling funds from Aiding Hearts, a health services company based in Bath Township, between 2019 and 2020, the Lansing State Journal reported. Nicole Boose was accused of tampering with payroll and allegedly pocketing paychecks while she was an employee, but the charges were dismissed last month on the day of her preliminary hearing. Boose was arraigned at Clinton County’s 65A District Court on 19 counts of embezzlement on June 16. Her attorney, Edwar Zeineh, said the U.S. Department of Labor found that the company owed Boose money.

Norm Fasteners, a Turkish manufacturer of bolts and fasteners, will build its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Bath Township. The 365,000-square-foot facility will in part be funded with a $3.8 million grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund for the purpose of adding a township sewer to the plan. Norm Fasteners is a supplier for Volkswagen, Ford and John Deere and operates 14 facilities in Turkey, others throughout Europe plus an office in Canada. 

Downtown Lansing Inc. is selling “Sad Little Town” t-shirts after Nancy Kaffer used that phrase to describe Lansing in a Free Press opinion piece and suggested moving the capital to Detroit. The merch includes six t-shirt styles and four hats, all priced at $30. The business making the apparel, SadLittleTown, said a portion of profits will go to Downtown Lansing Inc., REO Town, Old Town Lansing and the South West Action Group.

CORRECTION: Downtown Lansing Inc. is not actually selling the "Sad Little Town" apparel, as stated in the lead sentence in print and above. Rather they will only receive a portion of the profits for these sales produced and sold by SadLittleTown, as stated in the final sentence.

PUBLIC SAFETY: 

A four-vehicle crash near Eaton Rapids Road and the eastbound entrance of I-96 on Monday morning resulted in the death of one 60-year-old man who officials believed had experienced a medical emergency. … A van crashed into a CATA bus at the corner of Larch Street and César E. Chávez Avenue in Old Town on Sunday, injuring three people, including the van’s driver, who police said was in critical condition. … Inmate Christopher Shenberger, 43, of White Lake, was sentenced to an additional 58 to 240 months in prison for threatening his sentencing judge and others, Attorney General Dana Nessel said.