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MICHIGAN

Pets featured at E.L. event for children

Zane McMillin
July 28, 2009

Reptiles and insects were all the rage Tuesday at the final 2009 Play in the Park interactive children’s entertainment event at Valley Court Park, 201 Hillside Court. Preuss Pets, a family owned exotic pet store located in Lansing’s Old Town, was the main attraction with an assortment of reptilian creatures, including a Savannah monitor lizard and a 62-year-old South American red-footed tortoise named Fred. Jessica Howe, a community events intern with the city of East Lansing, organized July’s four Play in the Park events and said Tuesday’s Pets in the Park was unique because audience members were able to interact with animals they might usually only be able to see through the glass in a pet store. “We’re just going to talk about how (the animals) survive in the wild,” Howe said.

MSU

MSU professor organizes program to boost worker quality

Zane McMillin
July 28, 2009

Supervisors should be more attentive to the work and family needs of employees to maximize worker health and efficiency, according to a recent study co-authored by an MSU professor. Ellen Kossek, an MSU professor of organizational behavior and human resource management, helped create a training program aimed to ease tensions between employees’ work and family demands by instructing supervisors to address those concerns.

MSU

MSU student attains internship in NASA program

Zane McMillin
July 21, 2009

Cheryl Goetz beat more than 100 applicants vying for 18 spots for a summer internship at the Houston-based National Space Biomedical Research Institute, or NSBRI, to study the health risks of long-term space flight on the human body. Goetz, a mathematics and premedical senior, said she has been working since May with the NASA Flight Analogs Project, a program that studies the effects of microgravity and space flight on the human body at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston, Texas. “Every day I learn something new,” she said.

MICHIGAN

Jet America suspends Lansing flights for 31 days

Daniel Luscombe
July 20, 2009

Plans to offer low-cost flights out of Lansing this summer never left the ground after Jet America suspended flights and began refunding tickets earlier this month. The carrier, which was supposed to begin service July 13, planned service to Lansing Capital Region International Airport with direct flights to Newark, N.J., as well as to Melbourne, Fla., near Orlando.

MICHIGAN

New law might permit electronic ballots for citizens overseas

Dan Luscombe
July 13, 2009

New state legislation might make it easier for Michigan residents serving abroad in the military to cast absentee votes and to have them counted in time for Election Day. Operation: Make Our Troops Count is a proposal that would allow service men and women abroad to receive absentee votes electronically via e-mail and then mail them to their local county clerk.

MSU

Federal grant given to MSU plant ecologist

Brittany Shammas
June 24, 2009

An MSU researcher could unlock genetic factors that contribute to plant invasions with the help of a $630,000 grant awarded by the National Science Foundation. The grant, which will be distributed during the next four years, was awarded last month to Jennifer Lau, a plant evolutionary ecologist with the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station’s Kellogg Biological Station.

MSU

GVSU students admitted to MSU Med School

Zane McMillin
June 24, 2009

Six premedical students from Grand Valley State University have been admitted to the MSU College of Human Medicine under an agreement geared toward students from and wishing to practice medicine in areas with low medical accessibility.

MSU

Sculpture walk held at MSU

Zane McMillin
June 23, 2009

For Franklin, Mich.-based sculptor Russell Thayer, MSU is a family tradition. And for that reason, he said he’s delighted to have one of his sculptures featured on campus.

MICHIGAN

Jazz lives on in East Lansing

Marissa Cumbers
June 21, 2009

Whenever Carl Cafagna hits a note on the sax, clarinet or another instruments he’s mastered, he is carrying on his father’s passion for jazz. “My son became what I always wanted to be,” said Al Cafagna, Carl’s father and a retired MSU philosophy professor.

MICHIGAN

Scrapfest takes off in Old Town

Zane McMillin
June 21, 2009

With the purpose of highlighting the importance of recycling and the concept of making art out of trash, 12 teams of varying sizes hastily sorted through a scrap yard Saturday at Friedland Industries, 405 E. Maple St., in Lansing’s Old Town, to collect up to 500 pounds of scrap metal each for the first-ever Scrapfest event.

MSU

CSI camp teaches forensics to kids

Brittany Shammas
June 21, 2009

After a week of research, 50 forensic science hopefuls were given the chance to apply their skills Friday at the mock murder scene of Bad Choice, a dummy with two X’s for eyes drawn on his Styrofoam head.