Traverse City Record-Eagle

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    Cheetah Swapping
March 19, 2009

Michigan in Brief: 3/21/2009

Mich. gets $6.5M hospital stimulus

LANSING -- Michigan will get nearly $6.5 million in federal stimulus money to give hospitals that care for a disproportionate number of low-income or uninsured patients.

The money announced Friday by Michigan Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow comes through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. States already get federal money each year to help hospitals cover the cost of caring for patients who can't afford to pay.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act increases the amount going to states from $11.1 billion to $11.3 billion for 2009. Michigan will see its share increase from $259.6 million to $266.1 million.

States must show they've used their annual allotment before they can tap the extra money for hospitals in the stimulus plan.

Battle Creek zoo swaps cheetahs

BATTLE CREEK -- Zoos in Denver and Battle Creek are trading female cheetahs in hopes that both will have cubs with new mates.

The Denver Zoo said Friday it has sent a 5-year-old cheetah named Kibara to the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek in exchange for an 8-year-old cheetah named Katili.

Kibara was Denver's only female cheetah.

In Denver, Katili will be paired with a male cheetah named Barafu, who is Kibara's twin.

Cheetahs are classified as endangered by the World Conservation Union. About 10,000 cheetahs are believed to exist in the wild, and 96 are in captivity in North America.

State agrees to pay inmate $500

DETROIT-- After nearly six years of litigation, the Michigan attorney general's office has settled a prisoner's lawsuit -- for $500.

Donald Swackhammer, a convicted killer from Grand Rapids, claimed he was targeted by guards because he filed grievances. He said he was strip-searched in view of others at Oaks Correctional Facility in Manistee in 2002.

Swackhammer, 34, filed his own lawsuit in 2003, seeking more than $30,000. A federal judge in Grand Rapids dismissed it, but an appeals court reinstated it in 2006 on First Amendment grounds.

A trial in February ended in a mistrial. The lawsuit was settled for $500 before a second trial in Grand Rapids was to start this week, said Russ Marlan, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Couple guilty of stealing from Palace

PONTIAC -- A Michigan couple have pleaded guilty to taking more than $1.5 million from Auburn Hills-based Palace Sports & Entertainment Inc.

Thirty-nine-year-old Eric McDonald and 37-year-old Amy McDonald pleaded guilty Friday in Oakland County Circuit Court to charges including embezzlement of $100,000 or more.

Sentencing before Judge Colleen O'Brien is set for April 7.

Amy McDonald had worked for Palace Sports. Police say a Palace credit card was used to buy electronics and other items found in the couple's Waterford Township home, about 25 miles northwest of Detroit.

Ann Arbor News editor retiring

ANN ARBOR -- Ed Petykiewicz is retiring after serving as editor of The Ann Arbor News since 1988.

Petykiewicz made the announcement Friday during a newsroom meeting. He said his departure date hasn't been set, but it probably will be later this spring.

The 58-year-old Petykiewicz was chief of the Lansing bureau of Booth Newspapers from 1983-88. Earlier, he was a national correspondent for Newhouse Newspapers in Washington, D.C., and a regional correspondent for Booth Newspapers in Washington.

Woman goes free in daughter's death

BAY CITY-- A Bay County woman whose murder conviction and life sentence were overturned has gone free after pleading no contest to first-degree child abuse in the 1999 death of her 7-year-old daughter.

The Bay City Times reports 49-year-old Donna Yost walked out of jail Friday after entering the plea in Bay County Circuit Court.

A no-contest plea isn't an admission of guilt but is treated as one for criminal law purposes.

WNEM-TV reports Yost was sentenced to three years' probation.

A jury in 2006 convicted Yost of killing her daughter, Monique, with an overdose of medication. The state appeals court later ordered a new trial, saying too much evidence for the defense was excluded at trial.

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