8/12/2025

ONTONAGON COUNTY - A 50-year-old Wisconsin man died Thursday in a work-related accident at the Highpoint Gravel Pit in Rockland Township in Ontonagon County.

Terry Gene Johnson, of Manawa, Wisconsin, was pronounced dead at the scene at approximately 2:20 p.m. The Ontonagon County Sheriff’s Department responded to the incident but did not release specific details regarding the nature or cause of the accident. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is investigating the incident. No further details will be released by the Sheriff’s Department until the investigation is complete. Assisting agencies included SONCO Ambulance, Michigan State Police, Michigan DNR Law Enforcement, Rockland Volunteer Fire Department, Ontonagon County Medical Examiner’s Office, and Cane Funeral Home.

8/12/2025

ASHLAND / N. WISCONSIN – Hearings on Controversial Line 5 Begin Today. Today at 9 am, the first of a series of contested case hearings for Enbridge’s Line 5 reroute will take place at Northwood Technical College in Ashland. The public hearing will challenge permits and regulatory approvals by the Wisconsin DNR for the 41-mile reroute of the 72-year-old pipeline. Challengers include Clean Wisconsin, Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and Midwest Environmental Advocates and the Bad River Band, which already has filed a federal lawsuit, with a judge ruling Enbridge must remove the pipeline from their Reservation by June 2026. Though the DNR approved Enbridge’s plan in September 2024, these groups disagree that the project will comply with the Wisconsin Environmental Act.

8/12/2025

MARQUETTE - One more of the five U.S.-based men who were arrested August 2024 in connection to the sextortion scheme that led to a Marquette teen’s suicide death has been sentenced.  Jarell Daivon Williams, of McDonough Georgia, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan Friday. The sentencing memorandum was entered online yesterday. According to those documents, Williams has been ordered to serve 3 years’ probation and pay $49,123 in restitution.  Williams was arrested alongside four other men on money laundering charges in connection to the sextortion ring investigators found led to the death of Marquette teen Jordan DeMay. The 17-year-old died by suicide in 2022 after falling prey to a sextortion scheme orchestrated by two Nigerian brothers.  All of the U.S.-based men pleaded guilty to the charges in exchange for plea deals.