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News | Michigan

MICHIGAN

Local speaks about gender on 'Oprah'

A Lansing woman who has run for several political offices was featured on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" last week because of her gender experiences. Melissa Sue Robinson, who is transgender and was born male, said she was asked to take part in a special segment on identical twins who have sex changes by a producer of the show. "Somehow they found out about me," she said.

MICHIGAN

Update: E.L. firefighters help with relief

As East Lansing Fire Marshal Bob Pratt drove on Sunday down a residential street in Bogalusa, La., a city that Hurricane Katrina devastated with high winds, he tallied the damaged houses. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight; eight out of 10 houses on a random block have tarps on roofs," Pratt said on his cell phone, as he sat by his partner, East Lansing Firefighter-Paramedic Dawn Carson.

MICHIGAN

Motorcycle memorial

Muskegon resident Dave Johnson looks on during a memorial speech for veterans of all wars classified as missing in action or prisoners of war at the seventh annual Michigan Remembers Run on Saturday. Johnson, a veteran of the U.S.

MICHIGAN

Judge strikes down abortion ban

Members of a pro-life group, MSU Students for Life, will work to voice protest to an abortion ban that was struck down last week in Michigan. "We are trying to educate our members so they can have more knowledgeable discussions with people who may not know that much about it," said Ken Curell, the president of Students for Life and international relations junior. The Legal Birth Definition Act, passed by the Michigan Legislature in June 2004, was declared unconstitutional by U.S.

MICHIGAN

Pedaling police to monitor crowds

As MSU police see it - two wheels are better than four. And they're putting that policy into practice during home football games for the first time this year during home football games with the MSU bike police on patrol "They're able to get into places our vehicles can't," MSU police Sgt.

MICHIGAN

Officials: Free-roaming felines shouldn't be fed

Just like when Garfield the Cat tried to mail Nermal to Abu Dhabi, East Lansing officials are trying to eradicate a city wide cat problem. The city's feral and "free-roaming" cat populations are steadily on the rise because of food left outside to feed the feline floaters. Jamie McAloon-Lampman, Ingham County's Animal Control director said the cars are a problem. "Feral is a cat that's never been held by a human being.

MICHIGAN

Closing of Union Beaner's affects workers

The Beaner's Gourmet Coffee location in the Union closed before school started and remains closed after the franchise owner developed "a very serious personal issue," said Union Director Jim Sheppard.

MICHIGAN

Local bars scrutinize out-of-state IDs

Local bars are on the look-out for out-of-state IDs, especially after receiving information listing the number of MSU students that are actually from outside of Michigan. The Responsible Hospitality Council has created a list of the top ten out-of-state pieces of identification bar employees have noticed and passed it around to all the council's members. "We want to make all the establishments aware that if you see an out-of-state ID, there's a good chance it's fake," said Joe Goodsir, president of Rick's American Cafe, 224 Abbott Road, and director of the executive committee on the council. Goodsir said that there are 1,094 MSU students from other states that could be 21, and he said he also knows the breakdown of how many students are from each state. "If you're working and you see eight IDs from Arizona, there's only seven that are possibly from MSU," Goodsir said.

MICHIGAN

E.L. food co-op widens selection

An East Lansing store offering a variety of organic produce has expanded its products to include more than just pesticide-free vegetables. The East Lansing Food Co-Operative, 4960 Northwind Drive, will now carry bread, cheese, pastries, cookies and black magic brownies, which all come from an Ann Arbor deli.

MICHIGAN

Study finds hearing loss in youth

A new study being conducted at Purdue University shows that people who listen to loud music on headphones might be damaging their hearing. Robert Novak, director of clinical education in audiology at Purdue University said they are researching the sound levels produced by iPod and MP3 music players at their clinic. "We are seeing young people that have a head start on the hearing aging process," Novak said.

MICHIGAN

MSU student sets up gas-saving business

The terms Alari Adams learned in business classes - market principles, systematic risk, cost of capital, sales forecasts - are good in principle, she says. But as she introduces a new fuel-saving business venture to East Lansing, it's time to put them to work. Adams, a general business administration and pre-law senior, will begin to market and sell fuel conditioners out of her East Lansing apartment, targeting MSU students, faculty and staff, she said. Advertised as gasoline saving and environmentally conscious, the fuel conditioners are ceramic magnets that attach to the fuel line on cars, trucks and boats - basically anything that burns gas, Adams said. After hearing students complain about high gas prices keeping them from traveling on Labor Day weekend, she talked with her father about franchising his distribution business of Magnon Energy Group Inc. products into East Lansing. She has about 50 units for sale in her apartment, each about $100. "I heard how discouraged (students) were, how they couldn't go anywhere for Labor Day weekend," Adams said.

MICHIGAN

Dove hunting will be on Nov. ballot

Michigan's second dove hunting season has yet to take flight because of a ballot initiative to create a statewide ban on the sport, and groups who want to be able to shoot the birds are fighting back. Now, Michigan voters will decide the fates of the law and doves living in the state when they cast their ballots in the November 2006 general election. Because of the ballot initiative, the 2005 and 2006 seasons have been canceled. In June 2004, Gov.

MICHIGAN

Mich. launches suicide prevention plan

With more deaths caused by suicide in Michigan than homicide and HIV/AIDS combined, the Michigan Surgeon General's Office has released its first-ever suicide prevention plan. The plan, announced by Surgeon General Dr. Kimberlydawn Wisdom has many goals, said Tiffany Menard, spokeswoman for the Surgeon General.

MICHIGAN

Center seeks goods for hurricane victims

The Central United Methodist Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and International Family Care Services have created the Katrina Response Relief Distribution Center in Lansing to collect personal care items and other supplies to help with the relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims.