News

Western Michigan University’s student-run newspaper and radio station have received a big vote of support, and money. That's because students at the university approved a new $5-per-semester fee to help maintain the Western Herald and WIDR.

The annual “Blue Ribbon Tree” campaign to fight child abuse and neglect in Kalamazoo County gets underway this week. It’s sponsored by the Kalamazoo County Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Council.

The Council’s Executive Director Karen Hayter says child abuse and neglect is a growing problem in the Kalamazoo area. She says the number of confirmed cases in the county has more than doubled since 2005. Hayter says more than 4,000 cases of abuse and neglect were reported to Child Protective Services in 2011 alone.

A judge in Lansing says a lawsuit challenging Michigan’s “right to work” law can go ahead. The Gongwer News Service says Ingham County Circuit Judge William Collette issued the ruling Wednesday.

The suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and other “right to work” opponents says lawmakers broke the state’s Open Meetings Act when the legislature passed the law in December. That’s because the Republican majority temporarily closed the Capitol Building to people protesting the bill.

Newspaper editor Charlotte Hall will become the first woman to head Kalamazoo College's Board of Trustees. Hall will take over from current board chairman Don Parfet in June.

Hall was an editor at several newspapers, including the Orlando Sentinel. She's also the chairwoman of the American Society of News Editors and is a visiting professor of journalism and Washington and Lee University.

Hall graduated from K College in 1966. She says her top priorities include enlarging the college's financial base and attracting more students.

Officials at Western Michigan University say they’re considering a formal alliance the Thomas M. Cooley Law School. They say the boards of both schools are now involved in talks that started three years.