Northern Michigan University President Les Wong will hold a university forum at 3 o’clock today on campus. Topics will include updates on current academic reviews, the University branding study, higher education funding proposals and the legislative process to date. The President will also discuss the co-generation plant project and other facilities projects, progress on the campus health initiative and timelines for the provost, athletic director and international programs director searches. University forums are open to the public. All students, faculty and staff are invited to attend. The session will be held in room 102 of Jamrich Hall.
Two Escanaba men have been charged in connection with a break-in at a hunting camp in Delta County Sunday afternoon. 22-year old Robert Westerlund and 21-year old Zachary Delaney are charged with larceny in a building and breaking and entering. Westerlund also was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. State Police say the owners of the camp in Masonville Township were on ATV’s when they spotted the pair fleeing the scene in their trucks. One of the suspects rammed his truck into one of the ATV’s forcing the operator to jump off and out the path of the fleeing truck. The second ATV operator moved her machine behind a tree to avoid being struck by the second suspect. Police recovered several stolen items. Westerlund and Delaney remain lodged in Delta County jail.
An Upper Michigan man accused of leaving a bag containing explosive materials outside of the McNamara Federal Building in Detroit in February of last year can be treated involuntarily with medication for his mental health. U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Greeley handed down a decision in Marquette yesterday ordering the staff at a federal prison in North Carolina to treat 43-year-old Gary Mikulich by trying to get him to take the medication orally or by giving injections. Mikulich, of Kingsford, was arrested in March of last year and is considered incompetent to stand trial. Following his arrest last year, Mikulich’s family released a statement saying he was schizophrenic and often neglected to take his medications. The government had requested the ruling to order involuntary treatment.
Court dates have been set for a Northern Michigan man charged with robbing a bank last fall in Chocolay Township after he was found competent to stand trial. 29-year-old Justin Dee McLean of Cheboygan, was found competent earlier this week, and his first pre-trial hearing will be on May 16. He is charged with one count of armed bank robbery in connection with robbery of the Chocolay Township branch of Northern Michigan Bank last October. He was arrested in Wyoming a few days after the robbery, and was returned to Michigan to stand trial. The jury trial is scheduled to begin June 18-th in Federal Court in Marquette. He faces up to 25 years in prison, if convicted.
