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Southwest Michigan Today: Tuesday May 8, 2018

Election Day means requests for millages and renewals in Southwest Michigan. A Michigan State University trustees is acquitted on assault charges. Legislation would require phone solicitors to give the option for opting out of future calls. 

Several requests for new millages and renewals are being decided Tuesday in Southwest Michigan. Voters in the Kalamazoo school district will decide whether to approvethe largest bond proposal in KPS history. Voters in St. Joseph Countywill decide whether to levy a one-mill property tax increase for seven years to pay for a countywide 911 dispatch and phone system. Polls are open until eight o’clock. MLive has a rundown of elections in West Michigan. The Secretary of State list of elections in Michigan by County.  

Michigan State University Trustee Mitch Lyons has been acquitted on a charge of assault related to an incident after a middle school girl’s basketball game. Lyons, who coaches the team from Grand Rapids was accused of shoving a referee in December of last year at a game in Jackson County. He faced one misdemeanor count of assault and battery.MLive reports that a Jackson County District Court Judge found Lyons not guilty in his bench trial Monday. Lyons has served as a Michigan State trustee since 2011. He has announced that he will not seek re-election this year.

Wayne State University officials say they are extending a partnership with the Detroit Medical Center for the next six months. The university and the hospital system had recently vowed to sever their century-old relationship. Wayne State president M. Roy Wilson says in a statement that the two sides have agreed to extend their existing contract for another six months. Wilson says a joint advisory committee will search for a “new working model” for the two institutions. If one cannot be found the committee will then help transition services to other providers. (WDET

Phone solicitors would have to give people the option of opting out of calls under a new bill in the state senate. Under current law, telemarketers can’t keep calling people who have asked to be taken off of caller lists but lawmakers behind the bill say solicitors have found a way around this. The bill’s sponsor state Senator Morris Hood says telemarketers will hang up before a person can ask to be taken off from a call list. Hood says if the law requires telemarketers to give the option to get off of a calling list upfront it should cut down on hangups and harassment. Hood says he’s hopeful the bill will be taken up by a committee soon. (WCMU

A years-long wait to develop land in northern Michigan may be nearing an end. In 2016, Acme Township sold the land known as the Village at Grand Traverse to the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. But development of the mixed-use property was held up until Acme Township fixed the sewer system at the site. Township Supervisor Jay Zollinger says the township has finished work on the sewer and paid a fine to the state for building it without a permit. To develop the land, the tribe must first get approval from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. Tribal officials say they are still waiting on that approval. (Interlochen Public Radio