Grand Rapids

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Museum Puts Mastodon Bones Found by Work Crew on Display

(Newser) - A selection of bones belonging to a juvenile mastodon that roamed the woods of Michigan 13,000 years ago is now on display at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, after workers unearthed it by chance last year. Excited museum officials showed off some of the long-extinct pachyderm's remains on...

Want to Get (and Stay) Married? Here's Where to Go

LawnStarter ranks the best US cities for wedded bliss

(Newser) - Maybe there actually is something to getting married in front of Cinderella Castle. Orlando, Fla., where the "happiest place on Earth" (Disney World) is located, is just one of the entries making up the top 10 in LawnStarter's ranking of the best US cities to get (and stay)...

Police Officer Charged With Murder in Driver's Death

Patrick Lyoya, 26, was killed by a shot to the head during a traffic stop

(Newser) - The Michigan police officer who killed Patrick Lyoya, a Black man, with a shot to the back of his head has been charged with second-degree murder. Prosecutor Chris Becker announced charges Thursday against Grand Rapids officer Christopher Schurr, weeks after Lyoya was killed following a chaotic traffic stop on April...

'No Question a Powerful Bullet' Killed Patrick Lyoya

Family releases results of independent autopsy after Grand Rapids, Michigan, shooting

(Newser) - The family of a Michigan Black man who was shot dead by police on April 4 says an independent autopsy confirms a bullet to the back of the head killed Patrick Lyoya. The AP reports that syncs with the footage released by the police chief of Grand Rapids, where the...

Doctors Seem to Pose With Removed Organ in Online Post

Michigan hospital chain investigates residents' OR joking

(Newser) - A hospital system in western Michigan has launched an investigation after photos posted on Instagram appeared to show doctors posing with fibrous tissue and an organ removed during an operation. A patient appears to be on an operating room table in the fibrous tissue photo, WOOD-TV reported Saturday. "Longest...

Someone Tried to Recycle a Civil War Cannonball

Michigan's Kent County recycling center evacuated Tuesday

(Newser) - "DO NOT RECYCLE CANNONBALLS." That was the message from a county commissioner in Michigan on Tuesday after a Kent County resident tried to, well, recycle a cannonball. Grand Rapids police evacuated the county recycling center just after noon Tuesday after finding a live cannonball believed to have a...

Son, Parents Face Life in Prison in Dismemberment Case

Cops say concealing Ashley Young's death was a family affair

(Newser) - It's not only a Michigan man who could face life in prison after a woman's mutilated body was discovered in the apartment building he owns. Jared Chance's parents—including a father who worked as an Illinois police officer for 25 years, per WWMT —could face the...

DNA Cleared Him. Now He's Suing After 129 Days in Jail

Xavier Davis says he told cops after his arrest for sexual assault: 'You have the wrong person'

(Newser) - "For whatever reason, they decided Xavier Davis was the guy." That from the lawyer for 31-year-old Davis, arrested in January as the suspect in a sexual assault in Grand Rapids, Mich. The problem: DNA evidence and Uber and phone records showed Davis wasn't the guy, and charges...

Girl, 8, Dies Taking Food to Homeless Man

Nevaeh Alston was hit by car while crossing street with mom

(Newser) - Spelled backward, her name reads "Heaven," and her uncle tells WoodTV that Nevaeh Alston "was a like a piece of heaven right down here on earth." The 8-year-old died Tuesday after she was struck by a car while crossing a street to deliver food to a...

Teen Set to Testify Against Alleged Rapist Turns Up Dead

Mujey Dumbuya went to police in November, and her body was found in January

(Newser) - In November, 16-year-old Mujey Dumbuya told Michigan police that her boyfriend's uncle, a groundskeeper employed by her school district, raped her in a school parking lot in Grand Rapids. According to court documents viewed by WWMT , Dumbuya described the incident as the latest in a string of rapes that...

10 Cities With Worst Murder Clearance Rates

Just 17.5% of murders solved in Flint over a decade: 24/7 Wall St.

(Newser) - Police solved 61.5% of all reported murders in 2015—but that means 38.5% of homicides went unsolved. So where were people most likely to get away with murder? 24/7 Wall St. rounds up the metropolitan areas, using FBI crime data from 2005 to 2015. The worst 10, with...

Prosecutor Gives 87-Year-Old Man a Pass

He was accused of soliciting a prostitute

(Newser) - Howard Arthur Klein lived 87 years without so much as a blot on his criminal record. In truth, the elderly Michigan man didn't have a record at all until a night in June when he was nabbed in a sting, accused of soliciting a prostitute who was actually an...

Being Annoying Is Now Legal in Grand Rapids

City dumps old law against jerks

(Newser) - A new vacation spot for America's most irritating people? After a 38-year ban, it's now OK to be annoying in Grand Rapids, Mich. On the advice of the city attorney, the city has decided to ax an old statute that says "no person shall willfully annoy another...

Coming Soon to Grand Rapids: Actual Rapids?

Officials, engineers team up in push to bring back long-missing whitewater

(Newser) - Grand Rapids' mayor gets a frequent question: "Where's the rapids?" Soon, he may be able to give a less disappointing answer. There haven't been rapids in the Michigan city for a century, since the riverbed was smoothed to make way for floating timber. But officials, engineers, and...

Cops: Man Intentionally Infected Women With HIV

Michigan's David Dean Smith says he exposed hundreds

(Newser) - Awful story out of Michigan: Authorities say a 51-year-old man who is HIV-positive confessed to intentionally exposing hundreds of people to the disease through unprotected sex, report MSNBC and the Grand Rapids Press . Court documents say that David Dean Smith harbored a "desire to harm women" and tried to...

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