All East Lansing city offices, including official buildings, will be closed Monday in observance of Fourth of July weekend. Closures include the East Lansing Department of Public Works, 1800 E. State Road; Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbot Road; the East Lansing Public Library, 950 Abbot Road; 54-B District Court, 101 Linden St.; and East Lansing City Hall, 410 Abbot Road.
The Capital Area Transportation Authority, or CATA, will not be in service Sunday in observance of the Fourth of July. The services not available include any fixed-route, Spec-Tran and other CATA services that regularly run.
Job satisfaction, tenure and promotion are strengths that recently helped make MSU the 14th best place to work in academia, according to The Scientist magazine’s annual workplace survey. MSU’s weaknesses were listed as peers and research resources.
More than 250 farmers, growers and chemical company representatives sat with their feet dangling off the sides of wagons Wednesday as tractors pulled them into corn and soybean fields for the 2010 MSU Weed Tour. The annual tour, sponsored by MSU’s departments of Crop and Soil Sciences and Horticulture, took place in fields near the MSU Plant Pathology Field Lab on College Road and allowed growers from across the state to look at research plots and make comparisons for weed treatments.
With Thursday’s implementation of a 10 percent tax on all ultraviolet tanning, getting that summer glow indoors is going to cost more for MSU students. The federal tax, which was passed in March as part of the nation’s health care overhaul, is expected to generate $200 million in its first year and $2.7 billion during the next 10 years, according to the nonpartisan U.S. Joint Committee on Taxation.
MSU-owned public TV station WKAR’s TV and radio broadcasting power soon will increase as the station’s 57-year-old tower will be replaced at the Dobie Road, Okemos site this summer. The station’s original tower, built in 1953, now is considered outdated, making WKAR eligible for federal grants to fund a replacement.
After months of waiting, the Meridian Township Parks & Recreation Department was joined by the Michigan Mountain Biking Association, or MMBA, BikeWorks, Denny’s Central Park Bicycles and the Meridian Township Police Department to officially open the course to the public Wednesday. The Eastgate Bicycle Pump Track Grand Opening is located at Eastgate Park, 4023 S. Meridian Road, in Okemos.
This year, MSU Carillonneur Ray McLellan will be performing with a special purpose in mind. McLellan’s performance will feature a dedication to Milton Muelder, an MSU faculty member and carillonneur who died recently, as well as compositions by two of his other musical influences. The summer series kicked off Wednesday evening at the Beaumont Tower with a performance from Steven Ball, a carillonneur from the University of Michigan.
Despite budget cuts and an overall lack of revenue, the East Lansing Police Department recently secured grant funding to replace an aging K9 unit vehicle. The department was awarded a $19,633 grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, a unit within the U.S. Department of Justice. State and local economic difficulties challenged the department to purchase a new vehicle, which is expected to be added to the fleet within the next few months.
An East Lansing-based company came closer to its goal of helping an MSU professor commercialize his product with a $100,000 award from a statewide competition. InPore Technologies was selected for the SmartZone Award as part of the Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest, or GLEQ, Statewide Business Plan Competition, a contest to determine the most promising business plans for start-up companies.
This year will be the second year the CMS Jazz Camp returned to MSU, with day and night programs available to high schoolers throughout Michigan. The camp is being held during the week, with an ending concert Friday from camp attendees. The camp features a number of programs for people who are interested in expanding their skills in playing jazz instruments.
Hosting international scholars through the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program is a crucial way East Lansing and MSU further their global reach, city officials said. The program, organized through the U.S. Department of State, is run through 18 U.S. universities and brings in about 200 Fellows each year for study and professional experiences across the country. The program has more than 4,000 alumni in 157 countries across the globe — including 78 Fellows from 53 countries to MSU.
Although Michigan residents feel more financially secure, their trust in government officials is plummeting, according to a State of the State Survey recently published by an MSU professor. The quarterly telephone survey is conducted by MSU’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, or IPPSR, through the College of Social Science.
Taking advantage of retirement incentives offered by amendments to the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System, or MPSERS, 17,063 school employees across 95 percent of school districts filed to retire before the June 11 deadline, according to a press release Friday from Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s office.
Children circled through numerous stations to examine fossils of fish, bugs and several other organisms and learn about their significance on the first day of a fossil camp hosted by the MSU Museum. The annual Fossil Camp at the MSU Museum began Monday with a class of 12 students.
When MSU alumna Michelle Adams was a senior at MSU, she took a course about sustainability in the production of apparel and textiles. The class showed Adams she could combine her passion for sustainability with design, and it inspired her to start her own textile company, Rubie Green, in 2007.
More than 40 people went to the Harris Nature Center’s Howl at the Moon monthly night walk at 9 p.m. Friday. The walk was about 2.8 miles through the trails behind the center.
Max’s Race, a 5K run/walk to raise money for Cure Kids Cancer and the Maxwell C. Matthews Foundation, was held Saturday at MSU to celebrate its sixth year of fundraising to benefit children’s cancer research. Although Max did not have cancer, the family thought raising money for children’s cancer research was the best way to make people aware of the illnesses to which children are subjected.
To inform citizens about the importance of knowing one’s HIV status, the Michigan Department of Community Health, or MDCH, recognized Sunday’s National HIV Testing Day. Across Michigan, there are more than 18,000 people diagnosed with HIV. About 4,000 of that number are unaware they have the virus and could spread the disease without understanding the complications.
Barbara Conley, an MSU cancer specialist, was selected to be the new associate director of the Cancer Diagnosis Program at the National Cancer Institute, or NCI, in Maryland. Conley will leave in mid-August after serving about five years as the chief of MSU’s Division of Hematology and Oncology, a position that enabled her to oversee projects at MSU, such as the development of the Clinical Cancer Research Center and the MSU Breslin Cancer Center.