Tuesday, January 13, 2026

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

Multimedia

MICHIGAN

Whole Foods to open Okemos store in 2015

Whole Foods Market, the eighth-largest food and drug store in the U.S., will open a new location in the East Lansing area in 2015. Founded in Austin, Texas in 1980, with a staff of 19 people, Whole Foods will build its newest Michigan location on East Grand River Avenue, engulfing the space currently home to Velocipede Peddler, 2758 E.

FEATURES

Second day of World Dwarf Games features badminton, swimming

In the second day of the 2013 World Dwarf Games, athletes competed in badminton singles, team boccia and swimming. The World Dwarf Games allows athletes with dwarfism or disproportionate dysplasia the opportunity to compete against and meet more than 400 athletes from across the world. For Sri Lanka’s badminton singles gold medalist Randika Cooray, the games are an opportunity to escape the cruelties of the real world and be in a world for a week in which she isn’t laughed or stared at. “It’s phenomenal – meeting people and knowing they are going through the same aches and pains that I am,” Cooray said. Cooray joked that she thought a group of children playing football was going to laugh at her when she walked by them the other day.

MICHIGAN

Local festival features fierce bath tub races

The annual International Bath Tub Races held in Bath, Mich., is much more than a series of tubs on wheels flying down Main Street. For Bath residents, it’s war. The bath tub races, one event out of the many during the Bath Days Festival, was held Saturday, drawing a crowd of 2,000-3,000 spectators. JD Larner, MC for the event and a lifelong Bath resident, said the races, a beloved Bath tradition, began in the early 1980s. There are a few rules as to what a tub used in the race can feature.

MSU

MSU Formula Racing Team offers networking

Few things get blood pumping like going from zero to 60 miles per hour in less than five seconds. MSU’s Society of Automotive Engineers, or SAE, Formula Racing Team is winding down its successful season and gearing up for next year.

MICHIGAN

Recent study shows major increase for prison costs

For years, when policymakers were asked how they would protect the public, the answer was to put more people behind bars. Although this policy applied to the entire nation, Michigan saw the effects more than most states. The effect was an explosion in prison populations and, in turn, an explosion in the budget for correctional facilities, MSU economics professor Charles Ballard said.

MSU

MSU adapts to lower high school graduation rates

From Friday night football games, to homecoming dances, to simply schmoozing with friends, high school is remembered by most with a certain nostalgic aura. But Michigan might see significantly less students trekking across gymnasiums to receive their diplomas, according to research from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, or WICHE. The report, Knocking at the College Door, details shifts in graduation rates state by state, placing Michigan in the dwindling product category, saying the state is expected to lose 15 percent or more high school graduates in the near future.

MSU

MSU joins fight to gain more research funding

Last week, MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon signed an open letter to Congress and President Barack Obama, taking a stand against federal funding cuts geared toward higher education and their research ventures. Her mission? To end an innovation deficit. To fill a gap between what research does and what it can do.

FEATURES

World Dwarf Games return to East Lansing

Four years of hopes, dreams and hardwork met on track and field Saturday at MSU for the first day of the World Dwarf Games. “It’s so relieving everyone’s in the same position all the time,” Great Britain competitor Ollie Clarke joked.

MSU

MSU researchers debunk game theory

Two MSU researchers quashed a spin on evolutionary game theory from 2012 that held coercion as a more favorable action than cooperation. “In an evolutionary setting, these zero determinant strategies (those using coercion) will go extinct,” said Christoph Adami, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics.

NEWS

Founding Father

Around MSU, there are few who universally command the respect and have a more decorated history than George Perles. As a student, coach, administrator, even as a radio personality and member of the MSU Board of Trustees, Perles’ impact can be seen and felt across the university’s landscape. “I’m grateful for the opportunities MSU has given me,” Perles said.

MICHIGAN

MSU brightens future of electric car technology

While the internal combustion engine fundamentally changed lives for individuals in the 1900s, faculty and students at MSU are working to bring about another monumental technological advancement for the 21st century through work with hybrid and electric cars.

MSU

MSU faculty make strides in brain research

In April, President Barack Obama released his plan for the BRAIN Initiative, a $100 million project to investigate further into the depths of the brain: how it learns, retains and recovers from injury. Teams of MSU researchers have worked to stay ahead of the game with various projects, including two discoveries made this month.

MICHIGAN

A stitch in time

Woven Arts, located at 325 Grove St., is one of the “hidden gems” for Lansing’s knitters, weavers, crocheters and spinners, according to Lansing resident Kathy Scieszka, who has been an active knitter there for a while. The store, however, offers more than hand-painted and hand-spun yarns. For many it offers a sense of community.