The Humane Society of the United States’ fight for a few inches might be far tougher than one would expect. The national animal rights group has been lobbying the state of Michigan to give more room to certain confined livestock animals, saying that many don’t have room to stand up, lie down, turn around or extend their limbs.
With newly appropriated funds from the federal government, East Lansing city buildings will be lit with a more environmentally friendly light. An Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant, which is being allocated under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, or ARRA, will give East Lansing $213,200 to use toward energy conservation.
For Matt Corrion, farming isn’t just hard work — it’s a family legacy. Corrion, whose family runs Corrion Farms in Essexville, Mich., and produces a plethora of crops, continued more than 25 years of tradition Sunday at the East Lansing Farmer’s Market. The market was the first such event to occur in the city in about a decade.
For almost two weeks, Pamela Whitten, dean of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, has been mum about the status of both the School of Journalism and its former director, Jane Briggs-Bunting.
The sight of a barn and sound of a tractor mean something different to Greg Thon than to most people. Thon grew up on a farm, and instead of leaving it in his past, he’s pursuing agriculture as a future.
Writing has always been a passion for MSU alumnus Adam Holwerda, who used the self-publishing Web site lulu.com to publish his first book of short stories, “Clayton’s Secret Notebook.”
President Barack Obama will visit Michigan on Tuesday. He will speak at Macomb County Community College’s Robert E. Turner Advanced Technology Center. The speech is ticketed and closed to the public.
Nicole Rovig was installed as the new MSU registrar July 1. The Office of the Registrar keeps academic records and works with the Office of Admissions and the Office of Financial Aid. It also manages course scheduling.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will hold a forum at 12:30 p.m. today in Charlotte. Doors open at noon at Country Mill Farms, 4648 Otto Road. Vilsack will talk about stimulus projects and ask for suggestions about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s role in strengthening rural economies.
Students returning in the fall no longer will go the housing office in their complex if they have a problem with their roommate. Instead, students will visit a new central housing office at C-101 in Wilson Hall, which is part of an overhaul of the university’s Division of Housing & Food Services.
The mysteries of the earliest cosmos have become a more clear thanks to research compiled by a group including MSU researcher Brian O’Shea. “I study how galaxies are built,” said O’Shea, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy. “Sort of from the big bang up to nowadays.”
When Jim van Ravensway was a student at MSU in the 1970s, he never imagined he would be working for the local government. “I just sort of fell into it,” the director of East Lansing’s Planning and Community Development Department said.
Buried in all the gloom-and-doom news tied to the fall of the auto companies, Michigan is (finally) quietly getting some good news. Basically, green jobs are the way to go.
Have you ever driven down the road and looked with pride at the rear end of a rusty truck or a real beater of a vehicle that sports an MSU sticker in the window or a license plate framed with the name of your alma mater?
It seems most politicians are under the impression that Michigan is having a going-out-of-business sale and the state will accept any agreement as long as it will provide some budgetary relief. Sadly, that assessment might be fairly accurate.
Miscellaneous items valued at about $1,000 were stolen between June 30 and July 1 from the MSU Surplus Store, MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said.
To MSU police Detective Anne Stahl, a racing heart, sweaty hands or a high blood pressure could be the difference between an innocent man and a criminal. Stahl is MSU’s only polygraph analyst, likely the first at MSU in at least 50 years. Her work, which is sought out by police departments throughout Mid-Michigan, relies on the physiological reactions an individual’s body has to the stress of lying and can be key in criminal investigations.
Fresh Michigan-grown produce and other local goods will be available to students and residents at the new East Lansing Farmer’s Market, which starts Sunday. “There was a farmer’s market years ago and we actually canceled it because of low participation,” East Lansing Communications Coordinator Ami Van Antwerp said. “Staff has been talking about it internally for years. Finally we … decided to launch it this year.”
The first year of efforts to reduce energy usage by consolidating classrooms led to some green savings for MSU. During the 2008-09 year, seven buildings that previously held classes and events in the evening saw the classes moved to more utilized buildings nearby to save energy, said Jennifer Sowa, a project coordinator in the Office of the Vice President for Finance and Operations.
Russ Zarras, a physics senior, was raised on funk and couldn’t resist the siren song of George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic. Lansing resident Kari Hanson saw an opportunity to see her boyfriend, Brice, and children hear music and dance under the stars to Huey Lewis and the News.