Saturday, September 28, 2024

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Editorials

COMMENTARY

Additional parking needed in downtown E.L.

Finding parking downtown could become a little bit easier very soon — if the City Council approves a proposal to add 45 spaces to the 76-space parking lot on the southwest corner of Albert Avenue and Bailey Street, that is.

COMMENTARY

Group's lack of transparency inappropriate

Even when MSU’s Young Americans for Freedom officials don’t talk, they make news. This time, they’re remaining mum about how they fund their notoriously controversial speakers, who have included British National Party Chairman Nick Griffin and Minuteman Civil Defense Corp. president and co-founder Chris Simcox.

COMMENTARY

Politicians planting questions not surprising

In what could be a potential blow to the Clinton presidential campaign’s credibility, a Hillary Clinton campaign staffer was caught planting questions during a public question-and-answer session — not once but twice since April.

COMMENTARY

Welcoming the new E.L. City Council members

The results are in, and we’ve all had a little time to adjust to the changes to the East Lansing City Council. Fresh, new faces will replace an incumbent and the mayor. Nathan Triplett, who received 26.8 percent of the vote, is a legislative aid in the Michigan House of Representatives. At 24 years old, he’ll be the youngest person on the council, and he’s a former MSU student.

COMMENTARY

Writers' creativity deserves fair compensation

As members of the Writers Guild of America step away from their computers and out to the picket lines, we’re forced to face the reality of life without television and film writers — that is, a life of reality TV. That’s right, as the “The Daily Show” airs reruns, Fox is gearing up to run “American Idol” for six of the 15 hours the network has to fill every week.

COMMENTARY

Triplett, Peters, Baten best for City Council

As Tuesday’s election draws near, three seats on the East Lansing City Council are left to be filled. The State News Editorial Board interviewed three of the four candidates — incumbent Diane Goddeeris could not be reached — and is prepared to endorse three individuals to fill the empty seats. Candidates qualified for these positions are challengers Nathan Triplett and Roger Peters, and incumbent Beverly Baten.

COMMENTARY

Everyone deserves equal health care benefits

The Michigan Supreme Court will hear arguments next week involving whether or not public employers can legally offer domestic partner benefits in a case that will set the tone for years to come regarding how people receive and share benefits.

COMMENTARY

Potential MSU tuition refund too miniscule

After a brutal 9.6 percent increase in this year’s tuition, the MSU Board of Trustees announced Friday they’ll be giving each student about $60 back. That’s great, but in the grand scheme of things, will it really make that much of a difference? It seems like just a drop in the bucket when looking at the bigger picture.

COMMENTARY

Quick government response to fires expected

Since the moment the federal government and the national media realized the spreading San Diego wildfires were reaching natural-disaster scale, the comparisons to Hurricane Katrina began rolling in. The disaster relief and government response was markedly better in California for a number of reasons, but the two disasters are different in so many ways it is irresponsible to compare the two.

COMMENTARY

Let's agree to disagree, protect free speech

Protesters once again gave MSU Young Americans for Freedom, or YAF, exactly what they wanted Friday when they showed up and angrily tried to drown out the message of the student organization’s speaker — British National Party chairman Nick Griffin.

COMMENTARY

Students need to get involved with academics

Some people think two ASMSU student representatives sitting on seven of the university’s 20 committees with student seats hold a monopoly on student influence at MSU. But the two students said they want to see more student involvement, and if they weren’t there, no students would sit on such committees.

COMMENTARY

Eco-friendly gas station good move for E.L.

It’s the place you go for a late-night beer run. It’s where you finally drag yourself to buy groceries after staring at an empty fridge for two weeks. And now, it’s the place you can go for eco-friendly fuel.