1. Officials in Battle Creek are offering a new deal to try and get teachers to move back into the city.
They’re offering teachers $3,000 for down payments and closing costs, if they move to some of the city’s low income and vulnerable areas.
Teacheres will also get $12,000 to renovate homes.
The assistant city manager says the money is coming from a $700,000 grant from the Kellogg Foundation. The program is expected to launch in the fall, and will be offered to 45 teachers over the next three years.
Teachers can apply on the city’s website, or at City Hall.
2. After more than a decade of marketing the entrance to the west side of Grand Rapids, the mural over Leonard Street is getting a fresh design.
The West Grand Neighborhood Association spent more than a year gathering ideas from the community and getting plans in place.
Last month workers started on the mural by laying down a new paint base.
This month, painters started working at night, using a projector to do the outline.
The people behind the new murals say they hope it represents the diversity of the west side.
3. Say goodbye to the iPod Nano and Shuffle, iPods are now all about the touchscreens.
On Thursday, the company took the iPod Nano and Shuffle off its website.
They are still available in stores, but production is officially over.
The last iPod standing is the iPod touch which is available in 32 and 128 gigabyte versions.
Apple released the first shuffle and nano in 2005. The company started producing the iPod Classic three years ago.
4. Nostalgia is hitting TGIF fans hard, because those shows are coming back thanks to Hulu.
TGIF used to air on ABC on Friday nights, now Hulu has the rights to five of those shows including Full House, Family Matters, Step by Step, Perfect Strangers, and Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper.
The deal includes more than 800 episodes.
Hulu also snagged the rights for Golden Girls, The O.C. and Seinfeld.
5. Blue Dog Tavern is victorious as their sandwich is named the winner of Grandwich 2017.
Their westside-inspired kielbasa sandwich, The West Side Juicy Johnny, is make of locally-sourced kielbasa from Frank’s Market, red dragon stone ground cheese from The Cheese Lady, fried pirogi from Polish Girl Catering and house-made smoked bacon kapusta topped with charred scallion Dijon sour cream on a custom marble bye bun from Nantucket Bakery.
The sandwich was number one out of nine other sandwiches crafted throughout Grand Rapids.
The Blue Dog says they’ve sold more than 600 of the sandwiches since it’s been on the menu.
