COLDWATER — Most people in Michigan need to supplement their vitamin D, especially during the winter with its cloudy skies and less skin exposed to the sun.Dr. Lauren Vogel, medical director for the Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency, pointed out 40 percent of the population is vitamin D deficient.“It controls your bone metabolism but it also is en enzyme modulator for tissue repair," Vogel said.This is important because it helps regulate [...]
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Vitamin D deficiency warning
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Meth lab sends Kiser to prison
COLDWATER — Fremont, Indiana, resident Chad Kiser, 42, was found sleeping in his car in July 2016. He will now spend 23 months to 10 years in prison because of the meth lab components, pseudoephedrine and guns in his car.In pleading guilty, Kiser admitted to using the drug several times a month. He said he was in Coldwater waiting for his daughter.As Kiser opened the car door in the lot at 186 E. Chicago St., Coldwater, officers from the Coldwater Police Department saw a [...]
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Leutheuser named to commerce committee
LANSING — Rep. Eric Leutheuser, of Hillsdale, was named chair of the House Commerce and Trade Committee for the 2017-18 session last week.Leutheuser was also appointed as a member of the Workforce and Talent Development; Regulatory Reform and Financial Liability Reform committees.“I’m honored by the trust placed in me by Speaker Tom Leonard,” Leutheuser said. “I enjoyed serving on the Commerce and Trade committee during the last session and [...]
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Pole painting planned downtown
COLDWATER — The Downtown Development Authority gave Interim Coldwater City Manager Keith Baker approval to go ahead and spend $3,500 more than budgeted to repaint the 69 decorative lamp posts downtown.Quincy Commercial Painting bid $9,315 for the three-step process. First, a rust inhibitor will be applied, followed by primer, then a final finish coat.Baker said the estimate was based on a single coat.“This will be a long lasting, durable finish that [...]
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Group discusses safety concerns
HILLSDALE — After meeting with representatives from Branch County on Jan. 20 Senator Mike Shirkey held a similar meeting with representatives from Hillsdale County on Friday.The issue at hand initial discussion about Amish buggies on Michigan roads.On hand for the discussion was State Representative Eric Leutheuser along with representatives from the Hillsdale County Road Commission, Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Office, Hillsdale County 911, Prosecutor Neal Brady, [...]
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Collins gets more prison for nude photos
COLDWATER — Matthew Collins, 38, will serve 58 months to 15 years for having nude pictures of his girlfriend on his cellphone.Branch County Circuit Court Judge Bill O’Grady imposed the time consecutive to the two- to 10-years Collins is already serving, sentenced after his Coldwater arrest violated his parole on earlier charges.Collins and his teenaged girlfriend waited until she turned 16, the age of consent, to have sex. They were arrested in September 2015 at a [...]
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Mom charged for cooking meth
COLDWATER — Siera Rodriguez, 23, will face three 40-year felony charges after a tip lead Michigan State Police to her apartment Sunday.Troopers asked if they could search at 196 N. Angola Road, Apt. 1, and Rodriguez allowed them in. Her two children, ages 18-months and 3-years-old, were with her.Inside the refrigerator was a “one-pot cook” meth lab that was still active. The unemployed Rodriguez said she was cooking meth to sell to make money.Child [...]
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Smiley drug trial ends with plea
COLDWATER — A Branch County Circuit Court jury won’t have to come back today to decide if it believes all of the circumstantial evidence is enough to convict Brandon Smiley, 35, on charges that he possessed cocaine and heroin on I-69 on Aug. 17, 2016, with intent to deliver the drugs.Because of procedural problems, Branch County Assistant Prosecutor G. Scott Smith offered a plea to two attempts to possess the drugs, two-year felonies. Smiley entered no contest pleas and [...]
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ProMedica looking to October for hospital purchase
COLDWATER — ProMedica Health Systems of Toledo is ready to advance its purchase of the Community Health Center of Branch County by nine months.“We have a target acquisition date of Oct. 1 this year,” CHC President and CEO Randy DeGroot said Monday night.“That still must be approved by boards,” DeGroot said.Both boards will consider the sale date in February.The deal was negotiated in 2015 between the non-profit Toledo hospital [...]
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Tip up festival underway
READING — This year’s Reading American Legion Tip Up Festival got off to a successful start Wednesday night with the annual euchre tournament.The euchre tournament was just one of several activities taking place at the Reading American Legion. The annual Feather Party will begin at 6 p.m. today with the selling of the paddles. Assorted meats, poultry, seafood and cheese will be given away.The second annual coyote hunt sponsored by Belle Stier of Sterling Realty [...]
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Mockridge charged for hiding boyfriend, drugs
COLDWATER — Cassandra Mockridge, 27, along with her boyfriend, Jason Hursley, 38, will face heroin charges after she was found hiding Hursley, a parole absconder.Mockridge was stopped for a traffic offense on Jan. 7 by Coldwater Police. Passenger Hurlsey left before police found out that he was wanted for parole violation, but they warned Mockridge not to have contact with him.Checking her Orleans Boulevard apartment the next day, officers found both high on drugs. [...]
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Search turns up drugs; two arrested
COLDWATER — Acting on information, officers from the Coldwater Police Department executed a search warrant Tuesday evening on the apartment of Lawrence Hale, 58, in the 200 block of West Chicago Street in Coldwater. Officers conducting the search found the drugs they expected, and now Hale faces up to life in prison as a habitual felon.Also arrested was Andrea Wilson, 41, of Fremont, Indiana. She was charged with possession of meth, hydrocodone opioid and a [...]
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Slone, "a domestic case gone wild"
COLDWATER — “Dale Earnhardt you are not,” Branch County Circuit Court Judge Bill O’Grady told Darren Slone when sentencing him to two years probation with 11 months jail.Slone, 30, pleaded no contest to two counts of felonious assault with a motor vehicle, two-year felonies.“I have dealt with you a number of years. Each time it seems to involve a motor vehicle,” the judge said.There was no recommendation for probation. [...]
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Endicott future unclear
LITCHFIELD — The future of the closed Endicott power plant remains in limbo while the new owners explore possibilities of setting up a new generation operation to replace the closed coal fired plant.Michigan South Central Power Agency General Manager Glen White said the plant purchaser, InnerPoint Energy Corporation, had asked the power agency for a “letter of intent” to buy future power if the plant was re-activated.Based on a preliminary report from [...]
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Revitalizing downtown Quincy
QUINCY — The Quincy Downtown Development Authority and village council is looking for input from the public on a proposed revisioning of downtown Quincy.The village will be hosting three informational meetings on Feb. 15 for the public to discuss the proposal, which would change the landscape of the north side of downtown. Sessions are from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 3-5 p.m. and 5:30-7 p.m. with the first half hour of each session being a presentation of the project. The [...]
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Looking Up: Full Moon to get some shade this week
Watch the Full Moon as it rises this Friday night, February 10. It may look like the “Man in the Moon” has had enough of the sunshine and is getting some shade.This is not a full, total lunar eclipse or even a partial eclipse. This is what astronomers call a “penumbral eclipse.”The Moon will be skimming the shadow of the Earth just enough to shade part of the lunar face, making it noticeably duller at its maximum extent. The top of the Moon will be darkest. [...]
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Prison drug supplier charged
COLDWATER — The alleged outside supplier of Suboxone to two Lakeland Correctional Facility inmates last fall is now in the Branch County Jail, charged with introducing contraband into the prison.Donavin Hanna, 23, of Sterling Heights, is being held on a $20,000 bond on the five-year felony.Hanna reportedly mailed Suboxone film to inmates Vincent Delly, 37, and Matthew Murphy, 26.According to the Michigan State Police investigation, prison staff monitoring phone [...]
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Emelander supplied crack cocaine, Bible
COLDWATER — Teenager Aryoana Strassman testified at his preliminary exam that Greg Emelander, 36, president at Conviction Ministries Inc., took her to Grand Rapids to buy crack cocaine and also bought her a book, the Bible.Strassman, 19, was given a plea bargain for truthful testimony. She will plead guilty to misdemeanor possession of heroin and cocaine.After hearing testimony, Branch County District Court Judge Brent Weigle bound Emelander over to Branch County Circuit [...]
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Man 'chasing God' on I-69 jailed
COLDWATER — Branch County Jail officials are trying to find a place to care for James Hawkins, 52, arrested on I-69 Wednesday night “chasing God.”Michigan State Police Trooper Kevin Paison was told to look out for a car traveling at a high rate of speed. He got behind Hawkins with his lights and siren on, but for six miles, the driver refused to stop, traveling at 106 mph.Hawkins later told the trooper that he thought he was getting an escort. He also [...]
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Fire victim identified
ANGOLA, Ind. — Steuben County (Indiana) officials identified the man who died in a Thursday morning fire at a Jimmerson Lake home as Gene Mitchell, 94, also of Lima, Ohio.The other resident, who suffered burns and other injuries, was not identified.The Steuben County Corner’s Ofice said Snyder died of smoke inhalation and severe thermal burnsOrland (Indiana) and Angola (Indiana) Fire Departments arrived at the dead end of Lane 340 to find flames coming [...]
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