Veterans Day

WW2 veteran Robert Smith (center), 90, of Flushing, puts his hat back on after a moment of silence on Friday at the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly Township during a Veterans Day Program.
Smith, a former Army pilot, spent 11 months as a Prisoner of War after his plane was shot down on May 26, 1944.





Michigan National Guard Veteran Ruben Arceo, 77, of Flint, stands at the grave of his former captain World War II veteran Jesse E. Bradley Jr at the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly on Veterans Day. Once-a-year Arceo stands at the grave of his captain to honor him for over an hour as the Guidon Bearer while displaying the Flag of the 125th Infantry after being given the flag from his family. 'It was quite an honor to be his Guidon.' Arceo said, who has taken the position for the past nine years. 'At my age I will probably be here for as long as I can possibly do it.'

Fair day

Jacob Garchow, of Davison, 8, hugs on his buddy Diamond before his cousin shows the horse in the western walk / trot competition on Monday during the first day of the 2011 Genesee County Fair at the EA Cummings Center in Mt. Morris.



A man walks through the 4H area on Monday during the first day of the 2011 Genesee County Fair at the EA Cummings Center in Mt. Morris.



Twiggy the Water Skiing Squirrel jumps free and onto the back of a woman after being crowded by children loking to pet him after his performance on Monday during the first day of the 2011 Genesee County Fair at the EA Cummings Center in Mt. Morris.



Candidates for the 2011 Genesee County Fair Queen prepare to take off in a parade along the midway on Monday during the first day of the 2011 Genesee County Fair at the EA Cummings Center in Mt. Morris.

Just the start

Lady waits for her owner Elf Khurafeh Shrine Clown Ronnie O to start his clown cart during a stop to Simms Chevrolet in Vienna Township on Tuesday during the first day of the Tune Up Party Week for the upcoming Back to the Bricks to be held in Flint next week. Cruisers will make their way to six communities around Genesee County during the Tune Up Party Week which includes car shows, dancing, music and more to get them ready for the car cruise in Flint.



Tyler Hayes, of Montrose, gets out of his 1970 Volkswagon Beetle while stopping at Simms Chevrolet in Vienna Township on Tuesday with his friend Brian Stadler, of Clio, at one of the five locations for cruisers during the Back to the Bricks Tune Up Party Week in Clio. Hayes bought the car that was totaled three years ago and started adding junk yard parts to the vehicle.



Erie Walker (left), 76, of Flint, hangs out by his custom 1993 Chevrolet truck at Simms Chevrolet in Vienna Township on Tuesday while stopping along the route during the first day for the Back to the Bricks Tune Up Party Week. 'They say that's supposed to be a young man's truck old man. You ain't got no reason to be with nothing like that,' Walker said, about the response he gets about his truck he bought originally to drive to work that is now equipped with hydraulics, spinning rims, and a television with sound system. 'They look around to try to find the owner. I'll be standing around and they will look around trying to find the owner.'

Back to the field

Got a chance to shoot the first practice of the year for football at my old high school.

Doggie love

Flipping hot out

D'Andre Brown, of Flint, sits on a crate in the middle of Jean Avenue in Flint on Wednesday while cooling off from the heat in the spraying water of an open fire hydrant in his neighborhood.
'Right now I'm straight but earlier in the day when I woke up I couldn't breathe hardly,' Brown said, while finding a way to cool down since his house doesn't have any air conditioning.
Temperatures in the city reached 92 degrees with a heat index of 101 degrees leaving many people throughout Genesee County finding ways to cool down.




Tyquavious Brown, 10, of Flint, flips over Nigel Crader, 12, of Flint, as Shamir Spencer (left), shields herself from the water while playing in a pool in their front yard on Mason Street in Flint on Tuesday as a way to keep cool from the heat wave. Temperatures reached 93 degrees with a heat index of 97 degrees. Hotter temperatures are expected to continue over the next couple of days.

Bad Boys for good cause

Criminal Justice and Political Science Instructor Nick Robinson reacts after snapping a sledgehammer while breaking out a window of a vehicle during a Smash Lab at ITT in Swartz Creek on Friday. 'It went actually a lot smoother than I thought it would,' Robinson said about his swing.
The event put on by a Criminal Justice student organization was to raise money for the purchase of a crime scene trailer.



ITT Criminal Justice student Jake White, of Davison, is seen through the broken windshield of a Chevy Cavalier while taking a swing with a sledgehammer on Friday during a Smash Lab at ITT in Swartz Creek. 'It helps you get your anger out in one hit,' White said.



ITT student student James Heyworth, of Flint, smashes out the rear window of a vehicle during a Smash Lab at ITT in Swartz Creek on Friday. 'It felt good. It let's out some stress of school and work and it helps out the Criminal Justice program here at the school,' Heyworth said.

Off the hook

Ben Johnson, of Genesee Township, was 18 years old when he started using heroin. After multiple liver failures, bleeding ulcers, kidney failure, dropping down to 69 pounds and hitting rock bottom in a Saginaw jail cell four years ago, Johnson, now 37, began recovering from his addiction and has been clean for four years. Diagnosed with testicular cancer as a teen, he used prescription opiates to numb the pain of treatment. Johnson said prescription drug use ultimately led him to heroin. “I got hooked on it and I kept playing all the doctors in Genesee County and the pharmacists,” Johnson said. “It just progressed into something ugly.”



Ben Johnson shows a photo of his girlfriend Wanda Cole, who he said has helped him through his recovery from a severe heroin addiction.

Looking for an answer

Tokaye Murray, 20, of Flint, looks back at a bunch of balloons where her boyfriend Antonio Stark was gunned down on April 10th, 2011 at the corner of Pierson Road and Flemming Road in Flint's north side as a group of about 20 concerned residents pray while gathered at the gas station on Friday April 15th, 2011, to hold a press conference to demand that there be more police protection to their area.
Murray who is 3-months pregnant with Stark's child.

Out

McBain High School basketball players and fans react after teammate Nathan Brown (44) (right) made a buzzer beater shot to send them into overtime against Flint Beecher High School during the Class C semi-final match at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. The key play led to McBain's 70-66 overtime win against Beecher.



Antuan Burks (20) (center), of Flint Beecher High School, gets emotional with teammates after their team's 66-70 loss to McBain High School during the Class C semi-final match at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.

Michigan Fallen Soldier March

Second Lieutenant Richard Dunkley (left), of the Michigan Army National Guard and wife Mary (center) lead a group of soldiers from around the state and civilians on a 13-mile Michigan Fallen Soldier March along Silver Lake Road in Linden to the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly.



A group of soldiers participating in the 13-mile Michigan Fallen Soldier March walk past rows of headstones while entering the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly at the end of the march from the VFW Post 4642 in Linden in memory of those who have fallen while serving in the military.



Members of the VFW Post 1370 Honor Guard of Pontiac, MI perform the Folding of the Flag ceremony at the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly marking the end of the 13-mile Michigan Fallen Soldier March.

Showing love

Darlene Maziarz (center), 39, of Flint, sings 'Amazing Grace' amongst a crowd gathered in the snowstorm during a candlelight vigil for her friend, homicide victim LeAnne Bates, outside of her home on Laredo Avenue in Flint. Bates, 40, had been shot and was found dead by the time police arrived, according to police reports.
The homicide was one of three spread across the city of Flint Sunday.

Courtroom outburst

Genesee County Sheriff's Department deputies work to remove a man that made an outburst against a jailhouse informant's testimony in the preliminary hearing for Dantoine M. Brown and Lorenzo D. Releford, who are charged in the killing of a Jeanne Hank in her Grand Blanc apartment, in front of Judge Latchana at the McCree Building in downtown Flint.

Scary reality

A casket is pushed on stage during a presentation put on by the Genesee County Sheriff's office to show students the damage of getting involved with drugs on Monday during the presentation at Lake Fenton High School. The presentation was organized by the Fenton-area task force formed after the back-to-back fatal heroin overdoses last month.



Sam Jawhari, of Fenton, comforts Brandi Allen, who was best friends with Jawhari's daughter Briona and Erika Schlosser, that both died from apparent heroin overdoses, following a presentation at Lake Fenton High School presentation put on by the Genesee County Sheriff's Office to show the students the damage that getting involved with drugs does to a person's life. 'For a wake-up call like this to happen is exactly what we needed. It's what this whole school district needed to know that this stuff is here and that it's happening and real, ' Allen, also a recovering addict, said about the message from the event.

Semi-loss

Kathy Thomas (13), of Flint Hamady High School, brings the ball down while being double-teamed by Sarah Cullip (3) and Mikaela Kelly (22) of St. Ignace High School during the Class C semifinal game on Thursday at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. Hamady lost to St. Ignace 63-55.



Kathy Thomas (13) (center), of Flint Hamady High School, walks away dejected as members of St. Ignace High School run past while headed to the locker room after a 63-55. loss to St. Ignace during the Class C semifinal game on Thursday at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.

East side cleanup

'Bye bye,' Kara Robnolte, 23, of Flint says, while waving to the abandoned house next to her mother's home on Oklahoma Avenue in Flint's east side on Tuesday while celebrating with a neighbor as a City of Flint demolition crew tears down the house.
'That house has been through so many families. My nephew used to live there. Crack heads used to live there. Prostitutes used to live in there. I'm just kind of glad it's gone now,' Robnolte said, about the house that has been abandoned for almost two years. ' Now my mom can buy those lots and I can fence it all in and let my dog run.'

On trial

Mary Chapman is comforted in her chair as she seems uneasy following her preliminary hearing on Wednesday in front of Judge David J. Goggins at the McCree building in downtown Flint, where she is accused with her granddaughter Vamerolyn Chapman on felony murder and second degree vulnerable adult abuse in the death of a 71-year-old under her care.

Bee keeper

Bee keeper Leo Stevens, of Flushing Township, is seen through a comb while posing for a portrait at his honey farm in Flushing Township. Stevens is in the process of getting ready for spring after half of his bees died off because of the hard winter. A normal loss of bees might only be about 25 percent.

Family feud

Marissa McGinnis, 7, dives for cover behind her snow fort as her sister Madeson (right), 10, prepares to take on their sister Maci, 5, and father Michael while having a snowball fight at their house on Morrison Street in Burton.



Madeson McGinnis, 10, of Burton gets a close up shot on her father Michael while having a snowball fight at their house on Morrison Street in Burton.

Solidarity forever

Sitdown Striker Richard Wiecorek (right), of Burton, and Geraldine Blankenship (center), an original member of the Women's Emergency Brigade, look back to a screen showing a short film about the Sitdown Strike during White Shirt Day in honor of the Sitdown Strikers at UAW Local 599 in Flint.
For more than 70 years UAW men and women have marked February 11th as the historic day in 1937 when GM agreed to recognize the union and negotiate a contract. Working people in Flint and throughout America had triumphed. White Shirt Day celebrates workplace empowerment. The shirts represent equal respect and treatment for blue-collar workers, and the unity and strength of UAW members.



Families of Sitdown Strikers join hands while singing 'Solidarity Forever' before eating the lunch of the sitdowners during White Shirt Day in honor of the Sitdown Strikers at UAW Local 599 in Flint.




Sean Crawford, 28 of Flint, hugs his great aunt Geraldine Blankenship, an original member of the Women's Emergency Brigade, as she sits at the table with members of Sitdown Strikers during White Shirt Day in honor of the Sitdown Strikers at UAW Local 599 in Flint. 'She's my darling. To see people admire and appreciate the things I've always admired and appreciated about her is great,' Crawford said, a former General Motors employee.

Looking out for his dogs

Jacob Cobb, of Mt. Morris Township, puts his chihuahua Tiny on his shoulder to keep her paws warm while talking to the mailman at his business, Cobb's Bait & Tackle, on Saginaw Street in Mt. Morris Township after letting his dogs out to go potty.

Trying to give kids a smile

Cole Thomas (right), 10, of Genesee Township, checks the numbness in his mouth while sitting with his grandfather Gary after having dental work done at Park Dental Center in Burton during the American Dental Association's 'Give Kids a Smile Day'. More than a dozen dentists around Genesee County offered free preventive and restorative services to children from low-income families during the one-day nationwide event.



Logan Mowry, of Swartz Creek, holds a mirror while watching Dental hygienist Jean Lorence show him the proper way to floss while having having dental work done at Park Dental Center in Burton during the American Dental Association's 'Give Kids a Smile Day'.



Dental hygienist Gail Peterson tries to comfort Alanah Hannigan, 3, of Burton, as she sits nervously with her mother Nicole Owens during her first visit to the dentist as part of the American Dental Association's 'Give Kids a Smile Day' at Parkside Dental Associates in Burton.

Fun in the snow

Jamonie Brown (right), 11, jumps past Dalvion Boyd, 7, while taking turns jumping in the snow at a neighbors house on Wyoming Avenue in Flint in the fresh snow following an overnight snowstorm.



Joshua Dishaw (left), 8, of Flint, throws snow in the air after playing with neighbors Dalvion Boyd, 7, and Jamonie Brown (right), 11, at his house on Wyoming Avenue in Flint in the fresh snow following an overnight snowstorm.