MSU

Correlation found between economy, microfinances

Anthony Odoardi

June 16, 2010

A correlation between the growth of a nation’s economy and the performance of microfinance institutions, or MFIs, has been found in a study lead by an MSU researcher. MFIs are banks that offer small loans to small businesses usually with no collateral required. Christian Ahlin, an associate professor of economics at MSU, said the process begins with microcredit, which is extending small loans used to start and upgrade small business. Microfinance expands on microcredit and acts much more similarly to a bank, he said.

MICHIGAN

Big Ten university city officials to meet

Pat Evans

June 16, 2010

Several city managers from cities with Big Ten universities will meet Thursday and Friday in East Lansing. City managers from Ann Arbor, Evanston, Ill., Champagne, Ill., Iowa City, Ia. and State College, Penn., will join East Lansing City Manager Ted Staton in discussing common threads in city governments of Big Ten universities.

MSU

Fairy, elves garden tea party to be held

Pat Evans

June 16, 2010

MSU’s Michigan 4-H Children’s Garden is hosting the Fairy and Elves Tea Party 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Thursday. Participants are asked to wear their fanciest fairy and elf attire for tea in the garden.

MICHIGAN

Humane Society to host adoption day

Pat Evans

June 16, 2010

To celebrate Adopt-A-Shelter-Cat Month, the Capital Area Humane Society will be holding a Cat Adoption Event 12-7 p.m. on June 18. The event will be held at the Capital Area Humane Society, 7095 W. Grand River Ave., in Lansing.

MICHIGAN

Korea culture camp to be held Monday

Emily Wilkins

June 16, 2010

The Korean Culture Camp of Eastern Michigan will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday next week at St. Thomas Aquinas School, 915 Alton St. The camp has been operating for 21 years with the goal of providing a first-hand Korean experience to adopted Korean children.

MSU

MSU to host tour to control weeds

Emily Wilkins

June 16, 2010

The MSU Departments of Crop and Soil Sciences and Horticulture will host a tour of the latest techniques for dealing with and eliminating persistent weeds from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday at the MSU Plant Pathology Field Lab. The day will include a breakfast of coffee and doughnuts as well as lunch and a tour of non-genetically modified soybean weed control at the MSU Plant Pathology Field Lab.

MICHIGAN

Potter Park hosts events for dads

Emily Wilkins

June 16, 2010

To celebrate Father’s Day, Ingham County dads will receive free admission to Potter Park Zoo on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The day will include a Keeper Talk about the role of dads in the wild and at the zoo, taking place at 2 p.m. Fathers will also have a chance to win a penguin feeding. The Magellanic penguin exhibit includes a new father of three penguin chicks born last month.

MSU

Macomb, St. Clair counties mull MSU agriculture collaboration

Emily Wilkins

June 15, 2010

MSU Extension is working with Macomb and St. Clair counties to create a position for an MSU Extension educator to promote agricultural products in those areas. The Michigan Extension program is part of MSU, and works with federal, state and county governments to apply MSU research with other areas of Michigan. The program, along with the two counties, want to create the MSU Extension educator position to focus on economic development of agribusiness.

MSU

Rare MSU flower blooms for first time in 15 years

Ashley Brown

June 15, 2010

After 15 years of waiting, the amorphophallus titanum, or corpse flower, finally bloomed in the Michigan 4-H Children’s Garden last Friday, and filled the room with a smell so disgusting it caused headaches. The corpse flower is known as the largest flower in the world, but is actually the largest inflorescence, which is a cluster of flowers. Found only on the edges of Sumatran rainforests, the corpse flower can grow to more than six feet tall and three or four feet in diameter.

MICHIGAN

MSU educator hosts fishing training workshop

Meagan Choi

June 15, 2010

Mark Stephens, an education program coordinator in MSU’s Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resources Studies, led a two-day Fishing for the Future of the Great Lakes workshop May 15-16 at Gardner Middle School, 333 Dahlia Dr., in Lansing. Stephens, who coordinates the Project Friends Involved in Sportfishing Heritage, or Project FISH, program, said the workshop equips people to teach kids about fishing and aquatic resource stewardship.

MICHIGAN

City Council to decide on restaurant liquor license

Pat Evans

June 14, 2010

An idea for a late-night concession stand that might turn into a full blown hot dog restaurant — with beer — will be voted on by East Lansing City Council at its meeting Tuesday night. The proposed business, What Up Dawg?, would occupy a building on M.A.C. Avenue near the St. John Student Center, 327 M.A.C. Ave., one of the prospective owners Seth Tompkins said. After the lease was signed, Tompkins began pursuing the only aspect that potentially will delay the project — a liquor license.

MSU

MSU alumna discusses immigration reform

Aseel Machi

June 14, 2010

Sharing her past memories of obstacles growing up as an immigrant in America and her ideas for immigration policies and reform, MSU alumna Iris Gomez, Immigrants’ Protection Project of the Mass. Law Reform Institute director and author of the novel “Try to Remember,” spoke with the East Lansing community Monday evening at the Edgewood United Church. Hosted by the church, the event addressed an overview of policy reforms and unique perspectives of these reforms from local citizens and immigrants, said Barbara Thibeault, who works in the MSU School of Social Work and organized of the event.

MSU

MSU, MDOT partener for road study

Ashley Brown

June 14, 2010

A partnership between MSU and the Michigan Department of Transportation, or MDOT, could bring enhanced awareness of traffic and road conditions to drivers after university research with infrastructure-sensing technology is complete. MSU obtained a three-year grant of $400,000 from the Federal Highway Administration to develop a technology that can track and store data from vehicles by the weight of their loads as they drive over sensors in the roadways.

MSU

Bean grant seeks health gains

Meagan Choi

June 14, 2010

Jim Kelly, a professor in the MSU Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, is a co-principal director of a $4 million project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, which involves 10 institutions to discover new nutritional benefits of the common bean and provide the corresponding tools for plant breeders. Kelly, whose specialty is dry bean breeding and genetics, said the Common Bean Coordinated Agricultural Project, or BeanCAP, will be identifying and matching genetic markers from different dry bean varieties — such as navy, black, pinto and kidney — to about 15 nutritional characteristics, including anti-cancer properties, vitamins and minerals.

MICHIGAN

Vote 2010 kicks off with campaigning

Karen Confer

June 14, 2010

In a kickoff event for Vote 2010, a flurry of volunteers knocked on doors in East Lansing neighborhoods Saturday, asking students to sign pledges of voting in the November elections. Set up by Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee, the kickoff event in East Lansing was one of dozens across the state. Volunteers went door-to-door and asked residents to sign a pledge to vote in November.

MSU

Link discovered between bipolar disorder, hypertension

Ashley Brown

June 14, 2010

A researcher at MSU has found a link between bipolar disorder and hypertension, which he said could help the treatment for both ailments. Dale D’Mello, an associate professor in the MSU Department of Psychiatry, said patients with bipolar disorder tend to suffer from a higher rate of hypertension, obesity, diabetes and more manic episodes than normal patients.

MSU

Glass artist to be featured at MSU

Andrew Krietz

June 14, 2010

The work of glass artist Craig Mitchell Smith will be featured this Friday through Sunday at the MSU Horticulture Gardens. Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is the theme of the show, with each work crafted specifically with the theme in mind.

MSU

MSU Observatory to host free stargazing

Pat Evans

June 14, 2010

Stargazers will have several opportunities to observe the solar system this summer at the MSU Observatory, located on the corner of Forest and College Roads. The public observings will be offered 9:30-11 p.m. June 18 and 19, and July 16 and 17, if weather conditions permit.

MICHIGAN

Summer Solstice Jazz Festival to hit E.L.

Pat Evans

June 14, 2010

The Summer Solstice Jazz Festival will hit downtown East Lansing from June 18-20. The festival is a joint production by the city of East Lansing, Wharton Center and the MSU College of Music. The two headliners are Somi, a New York-based singer/songwriter and Joe Lovano, an internationally-known jazz performer.

MICHIGAN

Teams race along urban adventure course

Pat Evans

June 13, 2010

Dirty Feat is the first urban adventure race in Lansing and East Lansing. The race took more than 80 teams of two people each through downtown East Lansing, along the Red Cedar River, across the MSU campus and throughout the city of Lansing in a race of more than 30 miles.