Welfare-limiting legislation approved by the state Legislature last week has some worried the safety net currently in place to protect Michigan residents — including people with disabilities, victims of domestic violence, children and recent college graduates — no longer will be there to catch them when their income falls.
Storefronts in downtown East Lansing opened their doors to customers this weekend, offering deals and specials as part of East Lansing’s annual sidewalk sales.
MSU alumna Elizabeth Marazita and her husband Michael Spano opened Wanderer’s Teahouse and Café on Grand River Avenue in October 2010 when they moved back to the Lansing area from Switzerland.
An application by Reno’s Sports Bar and Grill, 1310 Abbot Road, for a modified special use permit and site plan was reviewed at the East Lansing Planning Commission’s meeting Wednesday.
One day, in the spring of 2004, Saginaw County, Mich., farmer Dallas Sutliff went to work and found 24 acres of his corn had been damaged — decimated by wild pigs. With property adjacent to a hunting facility that housed wild boars, Sutliff soon realized about 50 pigs escaped from the nearby facility and were responsible for the several thousands of dollars worth of damage to his crops.
After a brief statement from departing City Manager Ted Staton regarding his resignation, it was business as usual for the East Lansing City Council at Tuesday night’s meeting. The council voted 3-2 to deny an application from Dino Cascardo to allow sale of packaged beer, wine and spirits at the East Lansing BP gas station, 504 Michigan Ave.
Residents of East Lansing showed how much they love their local businesses last month when they voted in Intuit’s Love a Local Business competition — enough times to earn the city $26,000 in cash grants. Intuit, a software company that aims to solve financial management problems of small- and mid-sized businesses, created the Love a Local Business competition to help support small businesses throughout the country. “Any way we can help the small businesses grow a little bit or get back on their feet is a win for us,” Monica Appelbe, Intuit’s public relations manager, said East Lansing was one of two cities in the country selected as competition winners in June. ”It’s great news,” Lori Mullins, East Lansing community and economic development administrator, said.
Flash mobbing is an online sensation that has hit center stage in locations across the world over the past couple of years, and a local organization is preparing to make Lansing the next location to follow the trend. A flash mob organized by Meridian Entertainment Group will perform spontaneously at the annual Common Ground Music Festival in Lansing this week.
In honor of the company’s 84th anniversary Monday, some customers who entered 7-Eleven, 918 E. Grand River Ave., greeted employees with, “Happy Birthday 7-Eleven.” Every year, 7-Eleven stores give out free Slurpees on July 11, and the public response did not come up short at the East Lansing location with a line that extended into the parking lot.
Whether the federal government is forced to default or a deficit-reducing plan allows for the raising of the nation’s debt ceiling, citizens — from students to the retired — could be forced to make sacrifices because of the federal government’s financial woes.
As a crowd of vendors and customers gathered Sunday to end the East Lansing Farmers Market, another crowd was geared up nearby to take part in the two-mile Blues Family Health Walk with the Mayor.
For about four hours, former MSU instructor Steve Helderman was held hostage Thursday by a Grand Rapids man who shot and killed seven people the same day. The whole time, Rodrick Dantzler never took his finger off the .40-caliber handgun he used to kill his wife, child and eventually himself, Helderman’s brother Tom Helderman said.
High heels of every conceivable variety pointed down at the sidewalk outside an empty storefront in Lansing’s Eastwood Towne Center.
Last week, Brennan Woods had a meal unlike anything he ever has had before — hand-squeezed sage lemonade, a burger made with tall grass beef, caramelized red onions, balsamic vinegar, organic greens, fontina cheese on foccacia bread — and he got it from a trailer. Woods, an MSU alumnus, first heard about Trailer Park’d “Slow” Fast Food, a nomadic local food trailer based in Lansing, from friends and was encouraged to try it. “It was pretty packed when I went there — there was a long line,” he said.
On Friday, an exhibit chronicling the effects of social networking in today’s society will begin its run at (SCENE) Metrospace, 110 Charles St. The exhibition, titled “Unfriended,” will be open through August 21 and features ten artists from both local and national scenes.
More than 40 affiliates of various departments and organizations in Michigan met on Wednesday at the Northern Transformation Corporation directional meeting in East Lansing.
Children, ukulele players and a clown came together in East Lansing Wednesday evening to participate in the 37th annual Bailey Neighborhood Ice Cream Social Wednesday at the Orchard Street Pump House, 368 Orchard St. The event is sponsored by the Bailey Community Association and the Orchard Street Pump House board.
A group of Lansing area doctors are planning to build a facility geared to offer new options for cancer patients in the area. The affiliated physicians and businesses — collectively named Compass Health Care — are amid securing approval to open an outpatient cancer treatment center and will be ready to serve patients by late 2012 or early 2013, said Joe Wald, a spokesman for the physicians and an instructor in the MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences.
Classes were not in session, there was no firework show and the streets were empty. But despite the ghost town-like appearance, the students and residents who remained in East Lansing to celebrate Independence Day found ways to make the holiday as festive as possible.
For the past four years, Dick Janson has enabled East Lansing residents to have jobs and children to build relationships — just by giving them a bike.