This Hour: Latest Michigan news, sports, business and entertainment - Fox 2 News Headlines

This Hour: Latest Michigan news, sports, business and entertainment

Posted: Updated:

SCHOOL SAFETY PROGRAM

Mich. reveals program to prevent school violence

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan's attorney general is backing a proposed new program aimed at preventing violence in the state's schools.

Bill Schuette announced the OK-2-SAY initiative on Tuesday alongside law enforcement, lawmakers and officials from Republican Gov. Rick Snyder's office.

The OK-2-SAY program would provide a confidential hotline for students to report tips about behaviors that could lead to violence. The hotline would be available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Schuette says students and parents could share information by phone, text message email or mobile app.

The program is being introduced as legislation is the state House and Senate.

Schuette says the program is expected to cost $3.5 million over four years. He says the money will come from settlements the state has received from various lawsuits.

JUDICIAL SALARIES-MICHIGAN

Commission suggests 3 pct raise for Mich. judges

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A commission has recommended that Michigan judges get a 3% pay increase.

The State Officers Compensation Commission suggested the raise on Tuesday. It also says pay should remain frozen for other top state officials, including the governor and state lawmakers.

Although the commission doesn't directly set salaries for judges below the Supreme Court level, the judges receive a percentage of what justices on the high court receive.

The Detroit Free Press reports the 3% pay raise for judges would take effect Jan. 1, 2015, if the recommendation is approved by majority votes in both chambers of the Legislature.

Circuit and probate judges in Michigan currently are paid $139,919. District judges make $138,272.

The Lansing State Journal says the last pay increase for judges was in 2002.

TRIPLE SHOOTING-DETROIT

Police: Woman dead, 2 men wounded in shooting

DETROIT (AP) - Police say a 55-year-old woman is dead and two men are wounded following a shooting at a vacant Detroit residence believed to have been used for drug activity.

Police say the three were shot early Tuesday.

The men ages 73 and 47 were listed in temporary serious condition following the shooting. No details about a possible suspect were immediately released.

Police say the three may have been living in the place where they were shot. Circumstances surrounding the shooting are under investigation.

TRAIN TRACKS-SUV

SUV on railroad tracks stops Amtrak for 2 hours

DECATUR TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - A sport utility vehicle found on railroad tracks in southwestern Michigan prompted officials to suspend Amtrak passenger train travel in the area for about two hours.

The Van Buren County sheriff's department says the SUV belonging to a 69-year-old Decatur man was in Decatur Township, about two miles west of a rail crossing, on Tuesday morning. Investigators found the man nearby, saying he had been sleeping.

His wife reported he was last seen Monday night and had been having difficulty due to prescription medication.

The man told investigators that he swerved to miss a deer, drove down a maintenance road and through a field and swamp before trying to cross the tracks. The SUV got stuck, so he got out. The man was taken to an area hospital for evaluation.

HIT MAN-HUSBAND

Husband in Michigan hit man case withdraws plea

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) - A 68-year-old man accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill his wife of 27 years is expected to face trial after withdrawing his plea.

Charles Tringali of Roseville was scheduled to be sentenced Monday in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens after previously pleading no contest to a charge of solicitation to murder. Instead, The Macomb Daily reports a trial now is scheduled for Sept. 24.

Defense lawyer Steven Freers says Tringali didn't want to kill his wife and was "influenced by powers that be." Freers earlier said Tringali was set up.

Police say they received a tip last year that Tringali wanted someone to kill his wife. They say Tringali met an undercover detective and discussed details for the killing.

SCHOOL LOCKER-SWASTIKA

Charges sought after swastika carved into locker

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Police say they're seeking malicious destruction of property charges against three Michigan high school students after a Jewish classmate found a swastika carved into her locker.

East Lansing police Lt. Scott Wriggelsworth tells the Lansing State Journal that police, school administrators and the girl's family agreed the best way to handle the incident was for her three classmates to be charged with the misdemeanor.

The Ingham County prosecutor's office is expected to make a determination about what charges might be brought and plans to review the case.

Wriggelsworth says an investigation began after the swastika was reportedly carved in late April. Another student's locker at East Lansing High School also was damaged.

Superintendent Dave Chapin says "appropriate disciplinary actions" have been taken against the three students.

MICHIGAN JUDGE-FRAUD

Hathaway lawyer: Don't lock her up for fraud

DETROIT (AP) - An attorney for a former Michigan Supreme Court justice says community service would be an appropriate sentence for a scandal that forced her out of office.

Diane Hathaway is returning to federal court next Tuesday for her sentence for bank fraud. She concealed assets while urging a bank to allow a short sale on a lakefront home in Grosse Pointe Park, near Detroit.

Hathaway quit the Supreme Court in January, a week before pleading guilty. In a court filing, her attorney, Steve Fishman, says it's a serious crime but not one that threatened the banking system. He says Hathaway has been publicly humiliated and given up her law and real estate licenses.

Prosecutors haven't filed a sentencing memo yet but have said some prison time seems appropriate.

UNSTABLE DAM-MICHIGAN

Property owners sue after Boardman River flooding

EAST BAY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Some property owners hit by flooding last year during a dam removal project in Michigan's northwestern Lower Peninsula are suing.

The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports the lawsuit filed Friday says their property values dropped due to the Boardman River flooding.

The suit names the Boardman River Dams Settlement Agreement Implementation Team and others as defendants. Chuck Lombardo, spokesman for the team, says "the matter has been referred to the attorneys and insurance carriers of the parties involved."

The Oct. 6 flood happened during a span of hours in what was supposed to be a slow draining of the Brown Bridge Dam in Grand Traverse County's East Bay Township. The dam removal project is part of a broader effort to return the Boardman River to a more natural state.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.