Monday, January 12, 2026

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MICHIGAN

Patio rules leave local restaurants half-empty

On warm days when downtown East Lansing is bustling, the patio at Dublin Square Irish Pub is often at capacity. But because of a city ordinance many local restaurants want to see rescinded, the inside of the restaurant is half-empty.

MSU

To bind a book

Lead letters are arranged on a “KWIK PRINT” gold-stamping machine. Unadorned white walls rise from the black laboratory surfaces where Eric Alstrom is working on his next book. His inspiration does not come from his work space, but from the fascination of what one person can create with a few sheets of paper, a leather binding and a sliver of gold leaf. “It’s a mixture of the hands-on, the artistic and the historical,” Alstrom said. Alstrom, the collections conservator in the Conservation Lab of Giltner Hall, has been conserving and creating books for about 20 years.

MSU

Graduate union members could picket graduation

When graduates pose for pictures outside Breslin Center this May decked out in caps and gowns, flanked by family members and diploma in hand, a line of graduate students thrusting picket signs in the air could be in the background.

BASKETBALL

WNIT game attendance is disappointing

Ice hockey — out. Men’s basketball — out. In terms of the postseason, the MSU women’s basketball team is all we have left. The Spartans will play in the semifinals of the WNIT on Wednesday with a change to play in a national championship game.

FEATURES

Fierce Fashion

It could have been the short black bobbed wigs atop his models’ heads. Or maybe the elegant pleated collar framing one gray shift dress. It might have even been the orange patterned jacket with the puffy sleeves. Whatever it was, it made apparel and textile design senior Tony Gianacakos the winner of MSU’s Project Runway.

FEATURES

How to hem your pants

There’s no need to pitch a fit if your pants don’t fit correctly. With a few simple hemming tricks, you can take the length of your pants a long way.

COMMENTARY

University policy must be modified

The university’s Anti-Discrimination Policy needs to be changed, and we propose doing so. You see, the ADP is used to punish anyone who discriminates against or harasses others, including both violators of actual law and violators of “university community … standards of conduct more stringent than those mandated by law.”

COMMENTARY

Wrongfully convicted deserve compensation

Legislation making its way through the Michigan House of Representatives could soon allow the wrongly convicted to sue the state for at least $50,000 for each year they spent in prison, a law similar to those already in existence in 22 other states.