Detroit News at noon: Boy Scouts vs. Metamora, Apple vs. FBI, FDA vs cheese

Today is Wednesday, February 17, 2016. Here are the headlines we've picked especially for you.

We interrupt your flight

• Two planes making their way through a de-icing area at Detroit Metro Airport this morning clipped wings, causing damage to both planes.

• Also going down at the airport: A Vietnamese couple’s inability to keep their story straight resulted in U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents seizing $4.65 million in funny money from the travelers.

Bomb threat investigated

• West Bloomfield High School is open for classes today after police investigated a bomb threat at the school. The threat came via Twitter and was directed at the principal: “This is what is going to happen," the threat said. "The bomb that my uncle and I constructed will go off if you continue this.”

Handling Flint contamination

• Work has begun on replacing lead services lines to an estimated 35,000 homes and businesses in Flint. It's all part of an effort to improve the city’s water quality and remedy the widespread lead contamination that has plagued the city since the switch to Flint River water. 
• Flint's CFO is warning the city could run out of cash for its water fund by this summer without state help.
• A Michigan judge who inserted himself into a pending civil lawsuit against the state of Michigan over lead contamination in Flint has removed himself from the case after plaintiffs’ attorneys complained.
• For complete coverage of the Flint water crisis, click here. 
• Meanwhile, in Metro Detroit, residents in Harrison Township want to know how a black, oily substance ended up splashed on their homes, vehicles and property.The tar-like substance apparently fell from above.

Boy scouts vs. Metamora

• Picturesque Metamora, best known for its horse farms and gentle rolling hills, is shaping up to be the site of a showdown between the town and the Boy Scouts of America over a proposed nearly-square-mile gravel mine. Reporter Frank Donnelly has the story. 

Happening in sports

• If you didn't catch it, the Detroit Pistons made a huge move Tuesday to trade for Orlando Magic standout Tobias Harris. Pistons president and coach Stan Van Gundy made a bold move to position the team to be a playoff contender, sending reserve point guard Brandon Jennings and starting forward Ersan Ilyasova to Florida. The question is, are more moves on the horizon?
• UM hoops lost to Ohio State. But the poor shooting wasn't the only thing that had fans up in arms. Twitter has spoken, and Twitter did not at all like the “floor seat” camera angle ESPN used for most of the game.

• The NFL season may have just ended, but the Lions have begun making moves. The team cut local favorite Joique Bell (a Wayne State grad) to save $2.5 million in cap space. But the team has much more it needs to get done in the offseason, as Lions reporter Josh Katzenstein lays out. 

Apple vs FBI

• Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook says his company will fight a federal magistrate’s order to help the FBI hack into an encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino, Calif., shooters. The company said that could potentially undermine encryption for millions of other users.

Pass on the cheese, please

• A strange story: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is saying some Parmesan suppliers doctored grated cheese with wood pulp and sold it to grocery stores. 

The lighter side 

• Auto critic Henry Payne had a chance to check out Acura's beast, the NSX. Here's what he had to say about the Japanese brand's "Jewel of the Midwest."

•  Christine Beatty, whose racy text messages with ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick were the beginning of the end of his administration, emotionally thanked her ex-husband Tuesday on the Steve Harvey show for his support during the ordeal. 
• And America has a new top dog: CJ, the German shorthaired pointer!

Detroit News at noon is a daily roundup of the biggest news on www.detroitnews.com.

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