| January 28, 2022 
 Brandon Visser loves his old Toyota pickup. It’s been a bit like an old friend over the years, simple and easy to scoot around in for errands. Calling it a sentimental vehicle, Visser’s truck has taken him on many adventures, including hunting trips to Canada nine times. He’s owned it for more than a decade. So the 30-year-old Grand Rapids man was more than a little upset when the 1997 truck, a T1000 model, was stolen and damaged twice over the span of just months in late 2020. Visser’s hardship has been part of an unsettling trend during the pandemic in several West Michigan communities, especially two of the region’s largest cities. Police have reported a massive increase of stolen cars, beginning in 2020 and continuing throughout 2021. READ MORE ►7 tips so you won't be an easy target for auto thefts  In Saginaw County — where 817 residents have died from COVID-19 since it arrived 23 months ago — the Army’s stay may span the entirety of a surge of virus cases tied to the highly-contagious omicron variant. Based on testing data at Covenant, officials calculated a dramatic increase in hospitalizations that began in late December may level off in February. At any given point this week, more than 120 COVID-19 patients were housed at Covenant. Ten weeks earlier, when the Army arrived, that number was about 80.Originally, the Saginaw-based mission was scheduled to end in mid-January, but omicron’s wrath led federal officials to extend the Army’s stay by one month. READ MORE  Four-year-old Fiona’s eyes lit up when her dad told her she could go to pre-k five days a week. Her father, Jamie Holt, was teary eyed at her reaction. “You would have thought I bought her a pony,” he said. Holt’s employer, TentCraft in Traverse City, has signed onto the Tri-Share Child Care program, splitting child care costs between the employer, employee and a state fund. The Tri-Share program is designed to catch families that fall in between making too much for federal aid but are still squeezed on their monthly budget. It’s one of the state’s latest attempts at viewing child care as economic development tool to get parents back into the workforce. READ MORE ►Michigan launches child care pilot splitting cost between family, business and government  Legal online sports betting and casino gaming launched in Michigan on Jan. 22, 2021, and the industry boomed during its first year in the state. Just under $3.7 billion was wagered on sports across the 14 Michigan Gaming Control Board-approved betting apps, while online casinos raked in $1 billion in adjusted revenue, which includes deductions for free play incentives and bonuses provided to bettors. While the total sports betting handle figure is staggering, it was online casino gaming that proved to be the principal revenue driver, with operators paying $201.7 million in taxes to the state, according to data reported to the MGCB. READ MORE  Defense attorneys for accused Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley, on Thursday filed a notice in Oakland County Circuit Court that they plan to claim the 15-year-old was insane when he opened fire killing four classmates, and injuring six others, including a teacher. Based on the filing, Crumbley is expected to undergo a psychological examination. Under Michigan law, a person is legally insane if they lack “substantial capacity either to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his or her conduct or to conform his or her conduct to the requirements of the law. Mental illness or having an intellectual disability does not otherwise constitute a defense of legal insanity.” READ MORE ►New Oxford High shooting lawsuit hopes to limit government immunity protection for public schools Get your local news 24/7 Connect with MLive
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