Thursday, April 3, 2025

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MSU

Aides tour research facilities

U.S. congressional representatives for Michigan legislators made their way to MSU to tour the university and its research facilities.The group wrapped up a three-day tour of Michigan research universities.

MSU

Camera improves cancer detection

For $400, the average gadget guru can buy a digital camera suitable for holiday snapshots and family portraits.For around $400,000, MSU’s Department of Radiology bought a digital camera made to save lives.The camera is actually a digital mammography unit, which allows doctors to take a snapshot of all areas of the breast.“You record images and download them,” said Arlene Sierra, director of clinical services for the department.

MSU

Energy usage surges to record level with heat

Staying cool takes more than just a good pair of sunglasses and a leather jacket.It takes energy.Electricity use jumped recently as Michigan residents battled summer heat with fans and air conditioners.Jackson-based Consumers Energy set a record for power usage with 7,780 megawatts from 2 p.m.

MSU

Classic car show to raise funds for charity

Classic cars are going to make MSU’s campus a safer place this weekend. Cars on Campus and the MSU Alumni Association are sponsoring a weekend of charity events to benefit MSU Safe Place and Highfields Inc. MSU Safe Place works to help those who experience domestic violence within the MSU community.

MSU

Legislators offer solutions to tuition hike criticisms

It’s been more than two weeks since Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus sent a questioning letter about tuition increases to university presidents around the state.In response, many of the presidents have called or written with arguments for their increases.“Everyone has a different answer,” Posthumus said.

MSU

Professor heads pop culture association

It was 1962 when the Main Library decided to expand its collection beyond agricultural studies and Shakespeare.Nearly 40 years later, more than 250,000 popular culture pieces rest in the library’s growing Special Collections - and pop culture studies at MSU keep growing.Gary Hoppenstand, an American Thought and Language professor and associate department chairman, was elected president of the Popular Culture Association, a 3,000-member organization dedicated to the scholarly study of pop culture of all kinds.“It entails quite a bit,” Hoppenstand said.

MSU

Glass art exhibit heats up gallery

On a hot Sunday afternoon, people were doing their best to stay out of the 90-degree heat. But some stopped to watch a man play with 2,000-degree molten glass anyway.Art Allison, from Pottsboro, Texas, was demonstrating the art of glassblowing to spectators outside of Mackerel Sky, 217 Ann St.“I’ve been doing this for 22 years now and this is what I like to do,” Allison said.Allison was in East Lansing for a demonstration that was part of the First Sunday Gallery Walk, which is a coalition of East Lansing and Lansing galleries that hold exhibitions for the public on the first Sunday of every other month.Allison started working with glass while a student at Kent State University in 1979, and since then has made a living out of it.“All it is is just blowing a bubble and then decorating it,” he said.

MSU

Camp bridges technology gap

Michigan area middle-schoolers have been trying their hands at new technology during the third annual Kids Learning In Computer Klubhouses, or KLICK, Leadership Camp, held on MSU’s campus this week. The KLICK program is an after-school program designed to teach middle-schoolers of low economic backgrounds or communities how to use new technology.

MSU

Kids enjoy art at 4-H garden

Soaked from head to toe, 4-year-old Mason resident Adrienne Hough grinned from cheek to cheek.“I like the frogs,” Hough said, as she danced under the squirts of water coming from cement frogs, one of the features in the Michigan 4-H Children’s Garden.Hough was one of about 50 children who enjoyed art under the hot sun during the garden’s “Art Day.”Mason resident Karen Krepps said she took the morning off from work to spend the day with her grandchildren, Jacob and Faith Krepps.“It’s great,” the elder Krepps said.

MSU

Tentative hearing to review evidence in professors death

At 9 a.m. Tuesday, a woman charged with murdering her husband, an MSU professor, might have a preliminary hearing.The hearing is scheduled to determine if there is enough evidence for 28-year-old Jonaki Ray to go to trial in the death of Dinesh Balagangadhar, 29, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, but Ray’s attorney is hoping to postpone it.DeWitt police Chief Douglas Rogers said Ray has not given a reason for the stabbing, which took place at the couple’s DeWitt home July 1.Balagangadhar died of a single stab wound to the upper chest area, which penetrated the heart and lungs.Rogers said Ray claims she was preparing a meal and accidentally stabbed her husband when either she turned into him or he turned into her.She has been held at the Clinton County Jail since her arrest.Ray’s attorney, Frank Reynolds, said he is meeting with Clinton County Prosecuting Attorney Charles Sherman today and hopes to postpone the preliminary trial.“There (are) some very important pieces of lab work that are not back yet,” he said Sunday.The lab reports, Reynolds said, are important pieces of evidence needed before the hearing.DeWitt police Detective Scott Ciupak is handling the investigation and would not comment on the specifics of his investigation.He did say there were some concerns about Ray’s status in the United States.

MSU

Rape survivors urged to speak up

The MSU Department of Police and Public Safety is trying to encourage survivors of rape to report the crime.MSU police Chief Bruce Benson said survivors of sexual assault cases are overwhelmingly reluctant to come forward.“The numbers don’t vary a lot,” he said.