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After a protracted battle over its LGBT content, residents of Jamestown Township, Michigan, voted no (62.5% to 37.5%) on August 2 to a 10-year millage renewal and increase for the Patmos Library. (A millage rate is the tax rate used to determine local property taxes.) Bridge Michigan has reported that 84% of the library’s $245,000 annual budget derives from the now rejected millage, which means, according to library board president Larry Walton, Patmos will likely run out of funds in early 2023, despite the library having $325,000 in reserve. It will also mean residents won't have their property taxes raised...

It was the night of March 8, 1994. Working at the National Weather Service, Bushong’s radar was lighting up with stuff he’d never seen before. He was on the phone with an Ottawa County emergency dispatcher who was looking for help identifying lights in the sky over Holland. The dispatcher was getting a lot of calls. Police officers were calling in, too. Bushong was seeing images on his radar that corresponded to what people were calling in from the ground. He had to control his radar by hand to zero in on the sky south of his station in Muskegon....

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) — A former Baptist missionary doctor from Wyoming accused of molesting nearly two dozen girls and women in Bangladesh, along with a girl in Allendale, won't face trial. An Ottawa County judge ruled that Donn Ketcham, now 87, is incompetent to stand trial because he suffers from dementia. Prosecutors told 24 Hour News 8 they don't plan to appeal, which means the charge against him will be dismissed. Ketcham's alleged victims from his decades in Bangladesh — known then as MKs, or missionary kids — said the local case was their only chance for justice.

Jodie May of Grandville, Michigan, was forced to appear before a district judge earlier this week on a larceny charge for taking away her daughter’s cellphone as punishment. May took the iPhone 6 from her 15-year-old daughter in April after the teenager got in trouble at school, according to reports. “I was just being a mom, a concerned parent and disciplining my daughter,” May told WOOD-TV. What began as discipline became a criminal matter after May’s ex-husband reported it to Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office and claimed she committed a crime. After the mom’s arrest in May, she was immediately released...

HUDSONVILLE, Mich.--A Michigan mother arrested after stealing her teen daughter's cell phone as a form of discipline has been vindicated. The Ottawa County prosecutor dismissed the charges against the local woman on Tuesday. Questions remain, however, as to why she was arrested in the first place. "I would like answers on why it got so far and how it got this far where this happened within my home. I'm disciplining my child, then I'm being the one handcuffed," Jodie May told WOOD-TV. May was nursing her 4-week-old baby the day before Mother's Day when a deputy knocked on her door,...

Jesse Jackson says Holland's battery plant belongs in Detroit Published: Wednesday, September 08, 2010, 4:11 PM Updated: Wednesday, September 08, 2010, 4:15 PM Troy Reimink | The Grand Rapids Press Troy Reimink | The Grand Rapids Press In addition to voicing his opposition to urban farming in Detroit ("cute but foolish"), civil rights leader Jesse Jackson's remarks to the Detroit City Council on Tuesday featured some provocative comments about the new battery plant in Holland. Specifically: It should be in Detroit. The Detroit News quoted him as telling the Council: "The governor, a Democrat, brags about Michigan getting a battery...

Raccoon attacks girl, 6, as she plays with friends The Associated Press 6/10/02 5:40 PM GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- A raccoon attacked a 6-year-old girl in front of several friends, biting her 10 times after jumping on her back. Samantha Ortiz of Georgetown Township, which is near Jenison in eastern Ottawa County, was walking on a bicycle trail with five friends about 6:30 p.m. Friday when she looked back and saw the raccoon. She said she moved to the side of the trail to let the animal pass, but it jumped on her back and started biting. "I put...