Coming off a 9-4 season and an appearance in the Capital One Bowl, optimism for the upcoming season was high Tuesday during the MSU football team’s annual media day at Spartan Stadium. Entering his third season as head coach, Mark Dantonio said one of the biggest things his team did last year was come back from disappointment.
At the beginning of the MSU football team’s fall camp, everybody wears a name tag — even Mark Dantonio. With a “Coach Dantonio” written on tape across his stomach, Dantonio kicked off his third season as MSU head coach with the team’s first practice Monday and noted not much has changed from his first two fall camps in East Lansing.
MSU is looking to increase its ties to a sustainable university in Central America with a new graduate program. José Zaglul, president of EARTH University in Costa Rica, spoke at the International Center on Monday morning about his university’s efforts in sustainability and entrepreneurship. Gordon Guyer, who was president of MSU in 1992 and 1993, helped select 8,000 acres in the midst of the rainforest that became EARTH University.
A new program funded by stimulus money gave young people the chance to work in East Lansing this summer. The Youth Workforce Development Program allows young people ranging from 16-24 to gain work experience with East Lansing’s Department of Public Works.
Teachers in the K-12 range will have the opportunity to participate in research at MSU under a program designed to refine classroom teaching methods and inspire innovative curriculum changes across the state. With the help of $500,000 in federal stimulus money from the National Science Foundation, Xiaobo Tan, an MSU assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been developing the Research Experiences for Teachers in Engineering, or RET, program, with a focus on bio-inspired technology and systems. The program officially will begin training teachers by next summer, Tan said. “We’re going to have these teachers working in individual faculty members’ labs, participating in … cutting-edge research projects,” Tan said.
Mother nature was responsible for a power outage that caused more than 400 East Lansing residents to lose power, but not in the way one might expect. A squirrel chewing through fuses caused blackouts in the neighborhoods surrounding Trowbridge Road and Lilac Avenue near the south side of campus.
Developments might be moving forward to add both rental housing and permanent residential units in East Lansing. The East Lansing City Council will vote on approving plans for two different developments in the area at its 7:30 p.m.
MSU, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Grand Rapids Public Schools are hoping to make Grand Rapids children more FIT. The collective is working on a project called the FIT initiative, which is funded by a $1 million grant from Blue Cross. Tracy Thompson, director of the FIT program and outreach specialist in the MSU College of Human Medicine, said the program aims to help all children, regardless of body size. “The directive is to address childhood obesity and we’re trying to be aware of the fact that it’s not just taking those who happen to be overweight but children of all sizes,” Thompson said.
Letters might be signed and sealed, but delivery could be up in the air if a United States Postal Service, or USPS, proposal to cut Saturday delivery is successful. Last week, before Congress, Postmaster General John Potter suggested eliminating delivery service on Saturdays to address the decline in mail volume, which decreased by 9.5 billion pieces in 2008.
Power outages have been reported in the neighborhoods surrounding Trowbridge Road and Lilac Avenue, across the street from campus. Consumers Energy has reported 466 customers are temporarily experiencing power failures because of some tripped fuses at a substation located near the neighborhood.
The possible move of Guantanamo Bay detainees to a Standish Maximum Correctional Facility is inciting debate among state officials as they weigh its pros and cons. Last week, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., confirmed the prison, which is set to close Oct. 1, is a potential facility for the detainees. “Sen. Levin believes that the idea should be considered if the arrangements are acceptable to state and local officials,” Levin officials said.
A plan to increase the state’s beer tax might seem like a buzz kill, but some state officials are hopeful the increase would alleviate the budget deficit. “By adding less than a quarter to a six-pack, we could save some of these programs that we believe are very important to our future,” said Judy Putnam, spokeswoman for the Michigan League for Human Services, or MLHS.
The East Lansing Police Department has identified a suspect for at least two of the five explosions that occurred during the summer months. Police said they identified a 20-year-old male MSU student from Linden, Mich., who might have been responsible for two of the recent series of explosions. On May 25, the first explosion at the intersection of Grove and Elizabeth streets was reported.
Rain, shine or humidity, people flocked to the Great Lakes Folk Festival this weekend in East Lansing. The festival, produced by the Michigan Traditional Arts Program at the MSU Museum, offered festivalgoers an opportunity to partake in a multicultural experience of food, music, arts and dance. For three days, downtown East Lansing was transformed into a cultural center with heritages ranging from African to Scandinavian.
Sunday was the second-hottest day of the summer thus far, but it didn’t keep area residents inside. The high was 91 degrees Sunday, WLNS 6 News meteorologist Jim Geyer said.
The genetic causes for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease could be hidden in Michigan. A group of MSU researchers is studying a Mid-Michigan community to look for the genes behind common illnesses.
Legislators, wine makers and the public gathered Thursday at Kellogg Center to sample the state’s award-winning wines at the 32nd annual Michigan Wine and Spirits Competition and public Gold Medal Reception.
The heat and humidity didn’t stop the herds of people and horses that flocked to the MSU Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education this past weekend for the 2009 Michigan State 4-H Horse Show.
I’m writing in response to the editorial “Clunkers program success proves need for extension”:http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2009/08/clunkers_program_success_proves_need_for_extension (SN 8/3). I would like to offer readers another opinion of the program. First, the article explains the program as a success, and hardly expands on what its original goals were.
We have found ourselves debating whether or not the government should take over our health care system and our industries; we should instead look to solutions that actually work and will give us the best chance to retain our world standing.