WMUK News

Kalamazoo has a link to an African-American woman who, involuntarily, contributed to seven decades of medical breakthroughs in cancer, AIDS, polio, even the coronavirus vaccine: Jermaine Jackson is a nephew of the late Henrietta Lacks. He recently completed a traveling exhibit about her.

Julie Barber works at the Kalamazoo Humane Society. She knows a few things about caring for animals. One day last summer, her husband called: he’d found a stray kitten with black and white fur. It had a BB embedded in its forehead.

Arthur Riley of Kalamazoo has a fond memory from Charlevoix, where he lived years ago. He said winters Up North started out snowy and gray. “But then the Lake froze,” – Lake Michigan – “And then we had a lot of sun. It was absolutely beautiful." (When the Lake freezes it cuts down on lake effect snow – more on that soon.)

In Oshtemo Township a drama has been brewing over the future of the stately but run-down Number 10 school on Stadium Drive near Ninth Street. The owner of a local construction and tree-cutting business has bought it and wants to fix it up. But he’d have to park heavy trucks there, and Oshtemo says that’s a no-go. Planners may give a final thumbs-down at a meeting Thursday, March 11. If the schoolhouse changes hands it may get torn down.