Two Central Montcalm High School students were expelled for the remainder of the school year following a school board vote Monday night. The board met in separate closed sessions, per parental request, to discuss disciplinary action for the male student and female student.

Health Care Plus is not losing money as Montcalm County officials previously thought. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Director David Feldpausch previously told the Board of Commissioners he was predicting Health Care Plus would lose $5,000 or more this year due to a combination of more claims and greater claim amounts. The plan was thought to have been losing money since 2008 and commissioners were in the process of seeking legal advice.

Central Montcalm Public School Superintendent Jake Helms has decided it is time to retire … again. Helms told school board members at their Monday night meeting that it is time to begin a replacement search process, either by hiring an outside firm or organizing a search themselves.

An uncertain future continues to loom for the Montcalm Technical Rescue Team (MTRT). The MTRT was created in 1996 to perform confined space rescues in Montcalm County. Duties expanded in 2001 to include high angle rescue, trench rescue, search and rescue, collapse rescue, water rescue, assisting the sheriff’s Dive Team, terrorism response and assisting in weather emergencies.

Read The Daily News Funeral Notices for Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011

The fourth quarter was a series of runs for both the Forest Hills Eastern Hawks and Greenville Yellow Jackets girls basketball teams. It was the Hawks run that was enough for the victory. The Yellow Jackets led 25-22 with nearly two minutes remaining in the third quarter. A 14-0 run over the next six plus minutes propelled the Hawks to a 37-35 victory in the opening round of the Cornerstone University Holiday Tournament on Monday night.

Bruce Traverse is getting a big gift for Christmas this year — a lot more free time. He is retiring on Friday after working 32 years at Carson City Hospital, the last 25 as the president and CEO.

Ron Snead came to Ferris State University for the first time more than four decades ago amid one of the most painful chapters of racial unrest in the school’s history. He now is entering the final year of his eight-year term on the school’s Board of Trustees, serving the last two years as the board president.

Two Montcalm County residents are in jail after police responded to a robbery Friday at Cedar Springs Mobile Estates, Mobile Home Park. The victims, a 42-year-old man and 41-year-old female, told Officer Chad Tucker of the Cedar Springs Police Department that they responded to a knock at their door about 8:20 p.m. saying “come on in” only to have two young men enter, one with a shotgun.

Read The Daily News Funeral Notices for Monday, Dec. 19, 2011.