GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Grand Rapids has a unique claim to fame - it was the first city in the world to add fluoride to its public water supply to prevent tooth decay. In Michigan’s second largest city, community water fluoridation has been in practice in some form for 80 years.

Effective immediately, only two people are permitted at the bedside of patients during the day and one person overnight at Helen DeVos.

West Michigan secures $3.3 million in Low-Income Housing Tax Credits to develop 92 affordable housing units in Wyoming and Muskegon.

Over the past 24 hours, troopers from the Grand Rapids post handled 83 crashes in Ottawa, Muskegon and Kent counties.

Motorists should be prepared for slippery roads and rapid changes in visibility and road conditions due to lake effect snow, the weather service said.

While the snow eased up for much of West Michigan Wednesday, a few more inches in lakeshore counties led some districts to cancel school again for Thursday.

Grand Rapids Catholic Central added another big win to its resume, pushing its way into the MLive Michigan Girls Basketball Top 25 for the final week of January. Catholic Central, which had beaten a strong Portland team earlier during the season, added an impressive 53-40 victory over Division 1 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern.

Snow will continue into the overnight hours before winds bring in more lake-effect snow Thursday morning on a northwesterly wind.

Vibrant Futures secured a $750,000 SBA grant to launch a women’s business center supporting child care operators in West Michigan.

The conference schedule is halfway done for boys high school basketball teams around Grand Rapids, and the next month will determine which squads head into the playoffs with a league championship on their résumé.

KENTWOOD, MI — A distillery near Grand Rapids in Kentwood has officially closed its doors to the public after six years of serving hand-crafted spirits and hard seltzers. Wise Men Distillery announced in a Jan. 29 Facebook post that the company made the “tough decision” to close the business.

Some West Michigan districts have canceled classes for Wednesday even as Arctic blast is expected to begin easing its grip on the region.