SW Michigan

On Monday, John C. Knapp, founding director of the Frances Marlin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., was chosen to be Hope College's next president.

Western Michigan University basketball players found it difficult to breathe in the 7,220-foot altitude Monday night in Laramie, Wyo. At times, the Broncos also found it tough to shoot, defend, execute the game plan - you name it - during their College Basketball Invitational quarterfinals game at Wyoming.

MATTAWAN, MI -- Officials at Mattawan Consolidated Schools are backing off a tentative agreement with the Mattawan Education Association to mandate union dues for teachers through June 2016. Mattawan teachers already had approved an agreement to maintain so-called "agency-shop" status for the MEA, and needed the school board's approval of the pact before Michigan's new right-to-work law takes effect this Thursday.

At issue in the Michigan affirmative action case is whether states are free to replace race-conscious affirmative action admissions plans with race-neutral alternatives. The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine whether a 2006 ballot initiative banning affirmative action at public universities in Michigan violates the equal protection rights of minorities.

DETROIT -Rev. Jesse Jackson on Friday called for mass protests in response to Gov. Rick Snyder's appointment of Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, and it appears he may get his wish. Rev. Charles Williams II, pastor of King Solomon Baptist church and the Michigan leader of Al Sharpton's National Action Network, said 657 people, according to the sign-in sheet, attended a emergency manager mobilization meeting at his church Saturday.