Niles

NILES — More than 600 tips and some 90 interviews have yet to produce a prime suspect in the Feb. 5 slayings of Niles-area residents John and Carolyn Tarwacki., 1st Lt. Michael Brown, commander of the Michigan State Police in Niles, said today. Yet Brown and Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz say they remain confident the case will be solved. Both referred to the solid track record of MSP Detective Sgt. Fabian Suarez in cold cases, a category that now applies to the Tarwacki homicides.

NILES, Mich. - We now know the official cause of an Amtrak crash last fall in Niles that injured 14 people. The National Transportation Safety Board says the October 21, 2012 crash in Niles involved signal maintenance operations.  The NTSB has issued recommendations to address the improper use of jumper wires during maintenance and repairs that apparently contributed to causing the crash. The train in Niles derailed when it ended up on the wrong track due to a reversed switch.

NILES - South Bend Washington head football coach Antwon Jones is the new head football coach at Niles high school. "I'm looking forward to building a program and winning a lot of games" Jones told WSBT. Jones was introduced on Thursday, where he had a chance to address his new team for the first time. Jones comes to Niles following an 11-4 season at Washington, where he took the Panthers to the 4A state title game. Jones' impact with the Washington football program was immediate, and powerful.  He inherited a team that went 0-10 in 2007, and immediately turned the program around, going 7-3 in his first season at Washington, and winning 8 games the following year.

NILES - Arson is suspected in a pair of house fires this morning that heavily damaged the vacant properties in the 400 block of North Fourth Street in Niles. Niles Fire Chief Larry Lamb labeled the blazes that broke out shortly after 9:30 a.m. “suspicious," adding the buildings at 404 and 410 N. Fourth Street both were ablaze when firefighters arrived. The houses are next door to one another. Police officers were seen checking footprints in the snow, and there were reports that witnesses saw someone leaving one of the houses shortly before flames were spotted.

NILES, Mich. - Niles police are looking for the person who shot a teenager from Detroit. Shortly before 7:30 p.m. Monday, officers were called to a home in the 200 block of N. 6 th St. on the report that someone had been shot. When they arrived, police found 19-year-old Jonathan Cook inside the house with a single gunshot wound to his abdomen. After being treated on the scene, Cook was taken to South Bend's Memorial Hospital where he was in stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery.

A company that makes specialized transport trailers is planning to bring as many as 400 jobs to Niles by the end of the year. Niles Township Supervisor Jim Kidwell said one reason Pratt Industries, Inc. is moving to Niles is because the old United Fixtures Shipping building on 3rd Street is just the right size for its operation. Equipment and machinery will be moved into the building over the next two or three months. Then Pratt will begin the hiring process.

NILES, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Rick Snyder has ordered U.S. flags to be lowered to half-staff on Friday in honor of a 23-year-old Navy medic from Niles who was killed while on patrol in Afghanistan's Helmand province. The military says 23-year-old Benjamin D. Rast of Niles died April 6. He was assigned as a hospitalman to the 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. Visitation for Rast has been scheduled for 4-8 p.m. Friday in Niles at the Brandywine High School gym in Niles.

CASSOPOLIS - A Niles woman accused of driving a pickup truck involved in a fiery head-on crash on U.S. 12 near Niles that killed a family of four will soon face a 15-year felony charge rather than a one-year misdemeanor, Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz said today. The prosecutor said attempts to reach a plea agreement with Cecilia Cheney, 44, reached an impasse Monday, prompting the dismissal of four counts of moving violation causing death. He now will charge Cheney with involuntary manslaughter, he said.

The St. Joseph River is high along Marmont Street in Niles.   The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for that part of town -- starting tomorrow evening, running through Tuesday.   Neighbors say they're watching the forecast closely, but caution there's no need for alarm right now.  They say the river has a ways to go before it causes any serious problems.   As a precaution, the city of Niles blocked off part of Marmont Street, to keep people from driving too close to the water.

An AEP spokesperson says a little over 1,000 customers are without power in the Barron Lake area on the east side of Niles. Power has been restored to about 550 since the outage happened at 8:22 a.m. Crews are working and they expect to have everything restored by 12:30 p.m. The cause of the outages is still under investigation