VP to focus on students

Vennie Gore's daughter tells him he talks for a living. With his recent appointment to assistant vice president for Housing & Food Services at MSU, effective August 13, he expects that to continue. Gore is currently the associate director for Housing and Food Services at the University of Washington. He meets with students, faculty, campus clients and other to talk about plans for the university - and his job at MSU will be much of the same. Gore is used to a life with no routine, he said.

Perceived rights

An issue that raised its mangy head a year ago during midterm elections is starting to creep slowly back into the news.

Grewe: 'I'm very proud'

MSU baseball head coach David Grewe met with his team last week and commended the players for battling back toward the end of the season.

Police briefs 06/01/07

Spend trails day in Northern Tier

The 15th annual National Trails Day is Saturday and the city of East Lansing is encouraging everyone to spend time on the Northern Tier Trail or one of the several trails in the Lansing area. For more information, call the Department of Parks, Recreation and Arts at (517)333-2580 or a map of the Northern Tier Trail can be found at www.cityofeastlansing.com.

E.L. Family Aquatic Center opens

The East Lansing Family Aquatic Center, 6400 Abbott Road, opens today for the summer season. The center features a 190-foot tube water slide, play structures and sand areas.

E.L.'s Project Pride cleanup Saturday

Unconventional recyclables such as tires, used furniture and scrap metal will be accepted at the city of East Lansing's Project Pride cleanup Saturday. Items can be taken to the Abbott Center parking lot, 1400-1500 Abbott Road, for disposal.

ISP dean waits MSU board appointment

Jeff Riedinger has been recommended as the dean of MSU's International Studies and Programs. He has been serving as acting dean since 2005, and his appointment is subject to approval by the MSU Board of Trustees at the June 15 meeting. Riedinger would succeed John Hudzik, who served as ISP dean from 1995-2005.

ART inspires confidence

With her long, black curly hair swept back by glasses, Pearl Hernandez laughed and joked with those around her as she got her face painted by one of her friends. The result: One side of the sixth-grader's face was painted purple, the other cheek had a stencil of a planet. The Pattengill Middle School student never used to be so outgoing.

Youthful and blue

While everyone else is focusing on Bush's incompetence and the red-state/blue-state standoff, a more significant and quiet revolution is under way among younger voters.

E.L. considers new dog park

East Lansing has dogs on its mind. The city wants to create a dog park where "man's best friend" can run free, unhampered by leashes. And dog owners want a place where they can bring their four-legged friends without worrying about keeping them on a leash, Wendy Longpre, assistant director of the East Lansing department of Parks, Recreation and Arts said. "We really do want to provide an area where people can recreate with their dogs," she said.

Coalition pushes medicinal marijuana

Irvin Rosenfeld has been smoking 10-12 joints of federally supplied medical marijuana a day for 25 years - he said it has saved his life. "Without my medical cannabis, I would be homebound, I would most likely be unemployed and I would be a drain on society," said Rosenfeld, a 54-year-old stockbroker from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He smokes to alleviate excruciating muscle pain from a disease that causes tumors to form on the ends of his bones.

Court makes pay discrimination easy

There is the assumption among many people that if you work hard, show effort and are loyal, you will be successful in whatever field they go into. Unfortunately, this assumption is often countered with factual knowledge of wage inequities, which still exist. In addition to the egregious problem of employment discrimination, the U.S.

Badges, not books

Laney McCormick sits at a desk and listens to people complain. It may not be the most exciting job, but it's how she's getting her start in the law enforcement field. As a cadet for the East Lansing Police Department, or ELPD, she sits at the front desk and tries to direct people to an appropriate officer. Criminal justice classes at MSU weren't cutting it for McCormick, who wants to be a police officer, so she decided to get the necessary experience to enter the ranks. "At MSU, all the classes were about theory and law enforcement today," she said. For almost a year, McCormick has been a cadet at ELPD.

MSU helps mentor program in Lansing

Lansing — Outside Gier Park Elementary School, a 6-foot wooden pole stands decorated in the name of peace, with paintings by students in a plot filled with mulch and flowers. The pole's objective is to promote peace to improve the sometimes rocky relationship between Gier Park Elementary School at 401 E.

Children do not mimic ideology of their parents

The amount of assumptions and contradictions underlying each misconception that Isaac DeVille spews onto the paper in his article, "Liberal family life" (SN 5/29), is despicable. Who is he to assume that all children blindly accept the political allegiance of their parents?

Police briefs 05/31/07

Local gospel music celebration Sunday

Central United Methodist Church will host its annual "Celebration of Music in Worship" Sunday.

Columnist does not speak for all fraternities

One of my favorite op-ed battles to date has to include the ongoing literary gems debating the greek system and what they call the "college" experience in "Elitist and proud" (SN 5/25), and "Fraternity stereotypes reaffirmed by columnist" (SN 5/29). Both sides have proven themselves highly amusing, to say the very least.

New bills promise to alleviate $800M deficit

Legislators took a major step in healing the state's budget woes for the 2007 fiscal year Wednesday. Two bills that would transfer money between funds were approved by the Michigan House of Representatives, thus alleviating the state's $800 million deficit. Because of higher interest rates, the Michigan Higher Education Student Loan Authority, or MHELSA, raked in roughly an unexpected $90 million, said Greg Bird, spokesman for the Office of the State Budget. Lawmakers decided to take the excess money from MHELSA and filter it into the Michigan Merit Award Trust Fund, which helps fund Medicaid and other programs, aside from funding Michigan Merit Award money. The surplus money will be funneled into programs supported by the General Fund, which would save money for the General Fund, thereby helping ease fiscal deficit. Building on the General Fund growth, representatives also decided Wednesday to get a $410 million advance on the state's annual tobacco settlement money.