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Southwest Michigan Today For Tuesday January 9, 2018

Will a deal on leadership of the Kalamazoo County board hold up? Perrgio appoints a new CEO. A former Battle Creek mayor and civic leader has died. WMU's Josh Davis is MAC men's basketball player of the week - again. 

Republicans on the Kalamazoo County Board won’t say whether they’ll honor a deal they struck last year with Democrat Stephanie Moore. In 2017 Moore voted with Republicans to elect Dale Shugars as chair of the majority-Democratic commission. The GOP members then helped Moore become the vice-chair. Moore says the Republicans agreed to elect her chair in 2018. But as the Kalamazoo Gazette reports, some Republicans on the board have declined to say how they’ll vote. The commission will appoint its leaders for the year Tuesday night at 7:00

Perrigo says an experienced pharmaceutical company executive will become its new Chief Executive Officer. Uwe Rohrhoff is the former CEO of German company Gerresheimer AG. Rohrhoff will take over leadership of Perrigo, which makes store brand pharmaceuticals, on January 15th. Retiring Perrigo CEO John Hendrickson will stay on until March 15th to help with the transition. Perrigo is based in Dublin, but most of its operations are in Allegan.

A former Battle Creek mayor and civic leader has died. The Battle Creek Enquirer says Preston Kool passed away on Friday. He served one term as mayor from 1967 to ’69. Kool also played a major role in the campaign that resulted in the merger of the city and township of Battle Creek in the early 1980’s. Kool was instrumental in establishing what was originally called the Burnham Brook Center, it was renamed for the Kool family in 2015. Preston Kool was 86 years old.

Several current and former state lawmakers have been ordered to testify in the federal court challenge of a straight-ticket voting ban. Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof and four others will be deposed and will and turn over some records in the case. The Detroit Free Press reports that the lawmakers had sought to keep those records private. Governor Rick Snyder signed a straight-ticket voting ban in 2016. But it’s on hold while the courts consider its constitutionality. Opponents say the ban will have a disproportionate impact on African-American voters in big cities.

Walking on Lake Michigan might look like fun but it’s a very bad idea. That’s according to Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey, who says it’s easy to fall through weak spots in the ice, even where the lake appears to be frozen solid. Bailey says a person who falls through the ice will find it “almost impossible” to get out. The St. Joseph-Benton Harbor Herald-Palladium reportsthat a non-expert should not dive in after someone who falls through. Instead, they should call for help and be prepared to tell rescuers how long the person was in the water.

For the second straight week, Western Michigan University junior guard Josh Davis has been named the Mid-American Conference West Division men’s basketball player of the week. Davis averaged 18 points and nine rebounds in two Bronco wins. Davis scored 26 points and hit all 10 of his shots from the field in Western’s first Mid-American Conference game against Akron a week ago. The Broncos play at Toledo Tuesday night.