Monday, August 24, 2026

Take a peek behind the curtain and test drive the NEW StateNews.com today!

Commentary

COMMENTARY

Random rules

The tallies in Monday’s East Lansing school district election are in - and voters picked three people to take two open seats on the school board.

COMMENTARY

Expensive addition

Two proposed bills that would charge gas pipeline companies a yearly fee for each mile of pipe in the state go about dealing with safety issues the wrong way. It’s clear lawmakers want to use the fees to ensure pipeline companies put safety first.

COMMENTARY

Board matters

It’s easy for college students to forget the importance of K-12 education - and their roles as citizens in helping to make sure public education survives and thrives. But those students - and the entire MSU community - should be interested in the affairs of local school districts.

COMMENTARY

Gas pipeline needs better placement

The recent natural gas pipeline accidents in East Lansing and the surrounding areas should offer a perfect example of why we need to get the Wolverine Pipe Line Co.’s gas pipeline out from under the streets and neighborhoods of Meridian Township and East Lansing and put it in the protected right-of-way along the highways of Interstate 96.

COMMENTARY

Costly choices

Motorcycle riders should be allowed to choose whether they want to wear a helmet or not. But they can only get that choice if they are willing to accept all the costs that could come as a result. For years, Michigan motorcycle riders in the state have asked the Legislature to repeal of the state’s helmet law, citing the effectiveness of helmets, the number of other states that do not have mandatory helmet laws, and the number of actual motorcycle-related deaths and their causes.

COMMENTARY

Ballot initiative bad for students

I am increasingly concerned, along with many students and parents, about the proposed ballot initiative being conducted by the Michigan Health & Hospital Association and the Citizens for a Healthy Michigan.

COMMENTARY

New approach is needed for bikes

I read with interest recent letters to the editor regarding the MSU parking authorities’ removal and confiscation of the writers’ bicycles and the proceeding imposition of costly fees and inconvenient processes to retrieve them from impound. The most obvious thought that comes to mind, as an alumnus, is all the fuss that’s been generated over the last several years concerning the shortage of parking for privately owned automobiles, usually driven with only one occupant per car. It seems that, in a rational world, MSU would encourage, not discourage, the use of alternate - and parking-efficient - forms of transportation, such as bicycling.

COMMENTARY

Forked tongues

It may leave us scratching our heads in wonder, but some people choose to take drastic steps to alter their bodies.

COMMENTARY

Missing wheels

It was a shock for many students - perhaps more than 1,000 - to walk outside during the last few weeks planning to ride their bicycles to work, class or home. But there was nothing where they last left their rides. Since mid-May, the MSU Department of Police and Public Safety has impounded - although some might say stolen - about 1,250 unregistered bikes found throughout campus.

COMMENTARY

Suspicious list

A federal judge was right to declare Michigan’s sex offender registry unconstitutional. From its beginning in 1994 and its launch to the Internet in 1999, the registry has failed to make a distinction between sex crime offenders of who pose a continuing danger and those who no longer threaten society. U.S.

COMMENTARY

Getting hungry

With the threat of state food banks losing more than 10 million pounds of food next year because of budget cuts, individual donations from are needed more than ever. The Michigan Department of Agriculture will cut more than 15 percent of funding to the Food Bank Council of Michigan.