ANTRIM
Teacher pleads guilty to sexual conduct
TRAVERSE CITY — An Ellsworth man who spent nearly three decades as an educator in his hometown faces prison for initiating an illegal sexual relationship with a student.
Michael Henry Peterson, who taught math at Ellsworth Community School for 29 years, pleaded guilty last week to two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct after authorities said he repeatedly had sexual contact with a female student, 15, inside a classroom and at her home.
GRAND
TRAVERSE
Munson, Petoskey hospital may be partners
TRAVERSE CITY — A proposed merger between Munson Healthcare and Spectrum Health of Grand Rapids may bring the Traverse City hospital into the same system as its oldest rival.
Northern Michigan Regional Health System in Petoskey began affiliation talks with Spectrum over two years ago and it's likely they'll eventually merge, a board member said.
Now each organization must weigh the impact of the other's decision to determine how a new northern Michigan division of Spectrum would govern both systems.
"Those two hospitals have been traditionally competitors so there is some element of duplication, and if the mergers come to pass, there will be some form of consolidation," said Michael La Penna of Grand Rapids, whose firm provides strategic and financial consulting to the health care industry. "It's just a matter of common sense that would occur."
Consolidation likely would occur in some medical specialties, affiliated businesses such as home health care, and back room operations such as accounting and billing, La Penna said.
"One community is probably going to sense a loss and one community is going to perceive a gain," La Penna said. "The larger, more robust hospital will become a larger gravitational force."
La Penna said Petoskey already is losing doctors and it makes economic sense for the two hospital systems to join forces.
KALKASKA
Police: Woman made up sexual assault
A Kalkaska woman falsely reported that a man sexually assaulted her in a hotel room, police said.
Authorities charged Susan Marie Perry, 31, with false report of a felony after she told Michigan State Police this month that a man sexually assaulted her in his room at Turtle Creek Casino. The felony is punishable by up to four years in prison and/or $2,000.
She told police a man forced himself on her, then chased her as she fled his hotel room, court records show.
But surveillance video showed the woman leaving the hotel room without chase.
