A crowd gathered in a North Ottawa Community Hospital operating room Thursday afternoon to watch as Dr. Samir Hamati demonstrated the hospital's new robotic surgery tool. Hamati demonstrated how the device, known as the da Vinci, was used, moving pinchers on the three-armed robot with controls he manipulated with his thumbs and middle fingers. The doctor sat at an enormous console, looking at a magnified view of what he was doing in front of him. The operating room audience also got to watch through a separate monitor.

It seems that Aliina Weykamp and her Grand Haven teammates have very good memories. Weykamp and the Buccaneers remembered last year's loss to rival Spring Lake all too well, and were determined not to let it happen again. The Lakers made the Bucs sweat when Kelsey Kippe scored a goal to tie the game at 2-2 with 7:28 remaining. But just 18 seconds later, the Bucs' all-state senior Weykamp found some space 35 yards from the Lakers' goal and drilled a shot past goal keeper Mollie Cook, giving the home team a hard-earned 3-2 victory.

Demolition machines made a meal out of the former Longnecks Grille & Tavern, 1506 S. Beacon Blvd., on Friday. Demolition machines chewed through the former eatery attached to the Days Inn to make way for a new development on the site - a Tim Hortons/Coldstone Creamery. Developers for the Tim Hortons project received approval from the Grand Haven Planning Commission earlier this year to construct the 2,510-square-foot restaurant. The development won't be attached to the hotel, and it will include a drive-through and be open 24 hours.

Spring Lake's victory in the 1,600-meter relay and the pole vault salvaged a tie with Newaygo in Lakes Eight Conference boys track and field action on Tuesday. The Lakers earned five points for their relay victory and five more for sophomore Joel Boon's win in the pole vault as the two teams each finished with 68.5 points.

It rained hard enough to keep the garbage company from hauling the dumpsters away, but not hard enough to keep people away for the first Grand River GreenUp held Saturday at Riverside Park. More than 300 people showed up for the cleanup and picked up enough garbage to fill two 30-yard dumpsters, according to Brock Rodgers, vice president of the Grand Haven Area Jaycees. The local Jaycees coordinated the event with the help of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council.

Grand Haven's girls track and field team has enough pure athleticism to win its share of meets this spring. That was clear on Thursday as the Buccaneers raced past visiting Hudsonville at Buccaneer Stadium, 89-48. Now coach John Tarr's squad has to polish up on the small details if it hopes to compete with the top-echelon teams in the O-K Red. "We're really talented,' Tarr said, "but we're kind of raw. We need to work on some of the technical things. Against Rockford (on April 14), we could have won that meet.

Although the wind, sleet, rain, and bitter cold suggested otherwise, area charter fishermen got a first glimpse of a sign that their busy season is just around the corner. A Department of Natural Resources truck delivered 171,836 baby chinook salmon to the Municipal Marina docks near Chinook Pier in Grand Haven on Tuesday, continuing an annual tradition of refurbishing area waters with a fisherman's treasure.