When I heard the city of East Lansing and MSU had selected Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” for the 2011 One Book, One Community program, I was simply glad I recognized the title.
It’s admirable that for the first time in years, Michigan’s budget was ready in May. Gov. Rick Snyder should be commended for following up on his campaign promise to prioritize a state budget that attacks the state’s $1.5 billion deficit. It’s not often we see follow-through on a campaign promise.
U2 has topped the charts with affected guitar riffs and spectacular, hair-raising crescendos for as long as the current student body at MSU has been able to appreciate music. In a month they will give a performance at Spartan Stadium, which raises the question, “What musicians will stand the test of time?”
What do stem cells, domestic partnerships and the state budget all have in common? Nothing, according to Gov. Rick Snyder’s legal team. Two provisions in the state budget, one that would create additional state-level oversight for stem cell research conducted by universities and another that would ask universities to eliminate health care coverage for domestic partnerships were deemed unconstitutional by the governor’s legal counsel.
Why aren’t tax increases more commonly mentioned as a possible solution to America’s debt? I understand no one wants to give up anything; we’re conditioned not to. It’s the American way of life to hold on to everything you have so tightly they have to bury you with it. But we’ve been cutting and hacking and slashing at government spending for the last six months. Has it gotten us anywhere? It doesn’t look like it.
The Women’s Lounge inside the Union is an outdated ideal that (kind of) divides men and women. That’s no reason for it to go anywhere. The Women’s Lounge shouldn’t be eliminated because it is a piece of MSU tradition that still is in use — although those uses have evolved as times change. In addition, the options for replacing it don’t service students effectively.
Through its many sharing instruments, the Internet has allowed all of us to be Promethean. It only takes one person with a little know-how to buy a video or some music and then distribute the entire thing across the Internet to anyone who wants it.
Public employees should start stocking up on aspirin, vitamin C and antibacterial soap because in all probability they won’t be able to afford getting sick in the future. The Michigan Senate passed a bill last week that forces public employees and teachers to pay at least 20 percent of their health care premiums, starting January of next year.
Dear President Barack Obama: I was relieved to hear Navy Seals killed the man responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The world is a safer place now that the functional head of al Qaeda cannot order the mass murder of innocent people.
Smoking is widely acknowledged as being bad for your health. But is it also bad for your wealth? If you want to work in medicine, it might be. A new policy at Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital requires that prospective employees have to be nicotine-free. At first glance, it’s an example of a hospital practicing what it preaches: health.
One weekend I was driving back to campus, and my mind started to wander. I started hearing the voices of the tea party supporters screaming about too much spending.
The Michigan Senate recently passed legislation that eliminated the Michigan Business Tax, replacing it with a 6 percent corporate income tax on businesses in Michigan.
There’s a story happening right now. It has all the classic elements of a story Americans should love: sex, power and money. It also has buzzwords Americans have learned to fear: economic decline, bailouts and numbers with a fascinating amount of zeroes after them. Still, the odds you haven’t heard it are good.
Nothing happens in a vacuum. If an MSU student sexually assaults or harasses another student in an off-campus venue, that action should be taken into account if the behavior continues on-campus.
I’ve never been great on first dates. Breaking a life into digestible bits overvalues some things and devalues others, while going into any kind of context or nuance means one has to spend too much time going into detail about something that might mean nothing at all.
When voters chose to make Gov. Rick Snyder “CEO” of Michigan, they also signaled support of Snyder’s philosophy toward jobs and government investment. At the moment, it is one particular concept — return on investment, or ROI — that unfortunately threatens to leave film tax credits on the cutting room floor.
Well, this is it. Just another semester for some, the culmination of a college career for others and an ending (of sorts) for all. When something ends, people choose to look in two directions: backward to the progress that’s been made and forward to prepare for the unknown and what lies ahead.
The State News fired me up earlier this week with the front page headline Queer Christians (SN 4/25). This is the second time in recent memory “Queer (something)” has been attached to some story in order to do … I am not sure what. In fall 2006, The State News ran a story about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community celebrating National Coming Out Day.
If every year of college goes by this fast, I need to take more time to appreciate the little things. By the end of next week, I’ll have completed my first year as a college student, which is shocking to think about. It doesn’t seem like so long ago I had settled into my tiny dorm room (away from the comforts of home) and into the vast MSU campus.
ASMSU will find itself with a little extra money for next school year after a program for tailgate clean-up turned a profit. That’s good to hear, but having money isn’t the same thing as using it wisely.