Focus West Michigan
Focus West Michigan for 7-30-24
today on Focus West Michigan, a former Kent County investment advisor has been sentenced for embezzlement. Michigan's primary is a week away. There's new laws for driving around snowplows and more state and West Michigan news. For WGVU, I'm Joe Belecke. Today is Tuesday, July 30, 2024. Focus West Michigan is brought to you by listeners like you to support this show and everything we do visit WGVUNews.org and click the donate button. A former Kent County investment advisor has been sentenced for embezzling $260,000 from his clients. WGVU's David Limba has more on the sentence. Late last week, 46-year-old Jamie Weston Barker, who worked as a registered investment advisor for Forest Hill's financial Inc. in Ada, Michigan, was sentenced for embezzling $260,000 from his clients. Weston Barker pled guilty as charged in January under a delayed sentence to one count of conducting a criminal enterprise, three counts of embezzlement, and three counts of using a computer to commit a crime. Because Weston Barker paid $160,000 in restitution to his victims before the end of his delayed sentence, this date agreed he could be sentenced to 30 months concurrently and two of the embezzlement charges, with the remaining charges dismissed. Weston Barker also agreed that other victims of uncharged offenses listed in the plea agreement have a right to seek restitution from him for any financial loss they may have suffered. Weston Barker embezzled his victims' money after telling them he would invest it for them, but instead stole the money for himself using a computer for online fund transfers. I'm David Limba. Just one week until Michigan's primary election day, and County Clerk's offices are busy taking in absentee and early ballots. WGVU's Dean Morrison spoke with one clerk who suggests this is one way to feel confident about election results. Tuesday, August 6th is primary election day across Michigan. 2024 is the first year of early voting statewide. Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumous Lyons says that meant putting out a call to recruit more election workers. Election inspectors are Republican and Democratic, so we have bipartisan election inspectors in each precinct, each early voting site, and each absentee counting board. Here in Kent County, we have anywhere between 1,500 and 2,000 election inspectors that are trained and that we deploy on election day at the local level. For Clerk's election start months in advance of Election Day, a staff prepares ballots, has them proofread, tests election equipment to be sure it's functioning properly, counting accurately, and is essentially zeroed out before tabulating begins, all of which the public is invited to watch. It starts with transparency. I want to roll the red carpet out for voters to participate in their elections. You know, don't just take my word for it. Go watch the equipment be tested. Observe in the polls on Election Day or in the counting boards. Come and watch how the county canvas plays out to verify that the election results were accurate. You can register to vote at your clerk's office right until polls close on Election Day. absentee ballots can be mailed, placed in an area drop box, or hand delivered to the clerk's office, where posthumous lion says you can also sign up to volunteer for November. We are definitely always working and always preparing for the next election. I'm Dee Morrison. An assassin's bullet nearly killed former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in 2011, so WGV use Phil Dawson reports during a Democratic party rally in Grand Rapids. Giffords was calling for an end to gun violence. We are at a crossroads. A gunman shot former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in the brain in 2011, and she still struggles with mobility and speech. But in a Grand Rapids stop, she had no difficulty calling for new gun safety laws. We let the shooting continue or we can act. We can protect our families. Giffords came to Grand Rapids to support the re-election of West Michigan Congresswoman Hillary Sculton. Sculton says gun violence is the number one killer of children in America. She supports gun safety legislation and encourage voters to elect candidates who share those views. The future belongs to those who are willing to work for it. To those who are willing to go out and vote for it. It's the voting that matters. I'm Phil Dawson. The Michigan Supreme Court has returned a case regarding student on student sexual harassment to a lower court. Parents sued a school district for failing to protect their child from sexual harassment by another student. They argued the L. Pina school district failed to protect their daughter under Michigan's Elliot Larson Civil Rights Act. The court majority held the plaintiff's case fell short, but the justices returned the case to a lower court to determine whether there is a case against the school district for allowing a hostile educational environment. Early in-person voting opened across Michigan this past weekend, and as Colin Jackson reports, election officials are praising the policy changes that allowed that to happen. Since 2022, Michigan election policies have changed in a few ways. Aside from the early voting period, clerks can now begin some pre-processing of absentee ballots ahead of Election Day. It's something supporters say leads to faster results. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson says new laws against intimidating election workers are making officials feel more secure. We've also been running scenario planning exercises with law enforcement, first responders, and our clerks all across the state to make sure that we've got a rapid response plan in place if anything does erupt or occur on Election Day so that we can be ready. Officials are hoping the changes avoid a repeat of the 2020 election cycle when Michigan became a target of attempts to overturn the presidential election results. I'm Colin Jackson, in Detroit. There's fewer than 100 days until the final day of the November general election, and a lot of big decisions for Michigan voters. Rick Plutta has more. Voters will choose a replacement for Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, who is about to retire. She says voters are excited over a history-making choice in the presidential race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. There's no doubt in my mind that the people of the country are ready to support a woman for president. Michigan Republican Party Chair Pete Hookstra says Republicans will focus on the economy and border security. He's also on the lookout for an October surprise. You know that there's something that may happen, but you really can't predict what it will be. Also on the ballot are races that will decide control of the U.S. House, the State House, and the Michigan Supreme Court. I'm Rick Plutta. Organized labor leaders are reportedly pushing for Vice President Kamala Harris to choose Michigan U.S. Senator Gary Peters as her running mate. Axios is reporting that Peters has been working to drum up support for the nomination. In a statement, a spokesperson for Peters said, "The vice president has many strong options for her running mate and we want to respect her process." Michigan is considered a key battleground state for the November presidential election. One thing that doctors and drug dealers used to have in common was the pager. But these days, I actually have never met a drug dealer who is carrying a pager, so they have all moved on. On the next planet money, why do doctors still use pagers? And on how I built this, Andrew Lacey of the healthcare startup, Prunuvo. That's on the next how I built this and planet money from NPR. Saturday afternoon at 2 here on WGVU, your West Michigan NPR. Snow may be the last thing on drivers minds right now, but there are new changes to the rules for driving around snowpows this coming winter. It requires drivers to keep a 200-foot distance between their vehicle and a snowplow along with other regulations. WGVU's Dean Morrison spoke with Kent County Road Commissions Managing Director, Jerry Byrne. It is about education, it is about voluntary compliance as most laws are. The idea is really to protect the motorists and protect the road worker. And by getting a distance of 200 feet when that truck is actively engaged in stormable operations, it reduces greatly the chance of motorists reending one of our vehicles, because typically our vehicles are going to be traveling at something less than half the speed of the typical motorists. So when a snowstorm motorist is traveling at 40, we're at 20, they quickly come up behind our vehicle and on occasions we're at our vehicle. People obviously know on some level they can't stop as quickly, but you forget or you're taken unawares or you don't realize it's as slick as it is. So the other issue from my understanding of the law is at intersections, and that's especially a concern for snowplow drivers and safety. Correct, we see far more accidents at intersections than we do bearing a rear-ended at a highway speed if you want a snowstorm. So when we're in cleanup operations, we typically have to pull through that intersection and back up at least two or three times to clean the intersection. In motorists, inevitably, we will pull right in behind the truck and there's no visibility our drivers backing slow and we're backing onto their hood. So we see probably a dozen or more of those type accidents every year. And it's tough because usually that happens in cleanup operations, so people are kind of out of the driving into snow mode because we're cleaning up. It's not snowing at the time. So they're really not thinking about winter maintenance, they're thinking about going where they want to go, the roads in reasonably good shape, we're just cleaning those intersections. So this is probably more important than the highway speed type of accidents of following behind, just giving that driver the opportunity to clean that intersection and not tucking right in behind them where you can't be seen. Do they have backup cameras? I mean, I've got a minivan that anybody drives behind me and it's beeping like crazy. The problem is, because of the snow swirling behind a vehicle, they really not very efficient because they're normally covered with snow, not a lot of luck. Almost all vehicles that they have them in dry conditions, they work great. When the back of that truck and you've interviewed and we've seen the back of those trucks in the middle of winter, they're packed with snow and that camera is the same situation. It's packed with snow. As you mentioned earlier, this is about kind of changing habits and awareness and they're not going to, from my understanding, have police officers measuring the distance between cars and plows. But if there's an issue and you weren't in compliance, you're going to get the ticket as a driver. Exactly, exactly. That is it. We've talked to state police, Sheriff's Department in during snow removal operations. They're extremely busy on accidents and other calls. So no, they're not going to follow behind it. But it's really no different than a speed limit law. It's about voluntary compliance. You don't have a police officer at every corner doing radar. It's voluntary compliance. It's common sense. It's laws are there to protect you, us as individuals, and your compliance is really going to save you, could save your life, could save your insurance premium. It's voluntary compliance and that's what we're looking for. Is it going to be tough for people to gauge? What is 200 feet? Yes. That question has come up a lot. What does that mean? It means something different everybody. Well, 200 feet sounds like a long distance and it is. Are you going to always be able to comply with that in Russia or traffic? No. But it means just have some common sense and back off. Don't tuck right in behind that vehicle. If you're 150 feet, you'll probably be in good shape. If you're 75 feet, you're going to start crowding that. So the 200 is just a broad concept to get people to back off to get that space. A true judge, no. It's hard to judge exactly what 200 feet is. In the law allows you to pass. The critical part of all passing a snowfall truck is being observant. So you're coming up to that. You've got a 200 foot gap. Look which way the snow was coming off that blade and make sure you're passing in the other direction. So if you're on a three lean road and we're pushing the snow to the right, then pass on the left. If we're throwing the snow to the left, then pass on the right. Passing a snowfall truck when they're scraping and removing that snow is dangerous no matter what. The law is going to let you do that. But if that windrow of snow was coming off in your path in that vehicle, chances are you're going to go out of control. So while it does allow you to pass, when you're in that 200 foot and you're thinking, do I really have to get past that truck? Is it that critical? Take a look and see what that truck is doing because that's going to still be dangerous to pass that truck and potentially have that windrow of snow hit your vehicle while you're passing. Anything else that you want people to know that I didn't mention you think is important? It's really the same concept of moving over for a law enforcement officer, a wrecker, emergency vehicle, a highway maintenance worker, slow down, move over. If you slow down, think about what you're doing and that's really what this law is about. Back off, slow down, think about what you're doing. You're going to pass, you can do it legally, but think about it and slow yourself down. Same concept of the move over law. It's there to protect the worker, but it's also there to protect you as a motorist. This has been Focus West Michigan from WGVU for Tuesday, July 30, 2024. I'm Joe Bilecki. Our audio operations manager is Rick Beerling and our news and public affairs director is Patrick Center. We'll be back with more news and events in West Michigan tomorrow, wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening. [Music]