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COMMENTARY

E.L. should re-evaluate underage drinking laws

The minor in possession, or MIP, epidemic in East Lansing is spiraling out of control, and John Hudson's column "Law enforcement policies about underage drinking too stringent" (SN 2/16), is a step in the right direction. Like hundreds around campus, I've had plenty of personal experience. Halloween weekend, after a typical Gunson Street party, I called my sober roommate to give me a ride home.

NEWS

Witness tells court he lied to police

Cash Kruth
February 21, 2007

Lansing — Haywood Lockhart, a key witness in the murder trial of Gary Mason, testified Tuesday he lied to police on five separate occasions in order to avoid suspicion. "They may have tried to charge me with something," Lockhart said, when asked why he didn't tell police the truth. Mason and Kumbi Salim, formerly known as Stanley Price, are charged with the murder of Martin V.

NEWS

A safe place

Colleen Maxwell
February 21, 2007

You can tell just by looking at her that Smiti Bhatia is confident. She's self-assured, from her walk to her smile.

MSU

Speaker to focus on role of federal government

Jacob Carpenter
February 21, 2007

Ashland University Professor John Lewis says he's blind to the red and blue political world of conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat. Lewis will present his alternative political views, focusing on individual rights, for MSU community members at 7:30 p.m.

COMMENTARY

Not all Michigan bands play 'mainstream' music

I was shocked when I read the interview of the band mAgeNtA6, "Local band's fate teeters on audience turnout at next performance" (SN 2/18). This is the kind of band that gives local music a bad name. For my entire life, I have been around local music, and for anyone who has ever been to a local music festival — such as Festival of the Arts in Grand Rapids or the many music festivals that fill the air in Lansing during the summer — the views expressed by the band members are totally unjustified.

COMMENTARY

Section stronger through unification

Corner Blitz, best known for its T-shirts and the guy who sits near the back dressed like Jesus, may be disappearing — at least as it is currently known. And the proposed changes couldn't be better. For years, Corner Blitz has been the specialty student section of Spartans football; a kind of lower-rent, football Izzone.

MSU

Council votes secure academic programs

Sarah Harbison
February 21, 2007

The College of Engineering's "Admit When Ready" policy and the Academic Scholars Program — two programs that have been running on a trial basis — now have permanent statuses within MSU. Approved unanimously by Academic Council at Tuesday's meeting, both programs will remain unchanged.

NEWS

Underdog MSU did all the little things right

Drew Neitzel's 3-point attempt bounced off the rim once, twice and a third time. It hovered above the cylinder, with so much riding on it that it felt like it weighed 100 pounds. As it descended back toward the basket one final time, all of Breslin Center held its breath and wondered the same thing.

COMMENTARY

Disbelief in God due to lack of proof shows gall

In his letter "Argument is insulting to atheists, has no validity" (SN 2/14), Mark Adler rather unkindly suggests that Matt Cowan's religious analogy in "Christianity doesn't need column to incite reaction" (2/7), is among "the most ridiculous … that (he has) ever heard," and that "the argument is completely without substance." I confess I am inclined to agree with him, in part.

BASKETBALL

Oh, what a Neit!

Ethan Conley
February 21, 2007

You could feel it building all night, but it wasn't until a dead-ball situation in the closing minutes that it became readily apparent: MSU just wanted it more. The Spartans battled tooth-and-nail with No.

MSU

Speaker to highlight civil-rights struggle

Tara Thoel
February 21, 2007

The final speaker in the lecture series — Slavery to Freedom: An American Odyssey — comes to campus Thursday. Taylor Branch is an author and chronicler who recently finished a three-volume narrative history, "America in the King Years." The narrative discusses the fight for civil rights in the United States during 1954-68.

NEWS

Lesbian activist dies after lifetime of support, service

Tara Thoel
February 21, 2007

Barbara Gittings, a pivotal activist in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, community died Sunday. She was 74 years old. In 1958, her career in activism started when she founded the New York chapter of Daughters of Bilitis, or DOB, the nation's first lesbian organization, according to the Equality Forum, a national LGBT civil rights organization.

NEWS

WEB EXTRA: Iraq war rally displays opposing views

Petra Canan
February 21, 2007

A crowd of about 60 people bore the winter winds for a rally at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday on the corner of Division Street and Grand River Avenue in front of the Marine Corps Recruiting Station. United for the same cause — the war in Iraq — but opposite in message, the group stood divided by the rushing traffic, waving the American flag and lighting candles as the horns of passersby blared and students stopped to take in the commotion. The initial demonstration was held by members of Students for Economic Justice, Direct Action and Student Action Against War.

MSU

MSU's clear creations shine

Jacob Carpenter
February 21, 2007

You can't blame Scott Bankroff for working up a sweat at his job. The MSU master glassblower spends 20 to 30 hours a week with his face a few feet from a natural gas torch where temperatures can reach up to 1,700 degrees Celsius.

NEWS

Council says dog leashes required

Kristen Daum
February 21, 2007

Mark Grebner walked his 13-year-old dog, Babs, on East Lansing streets — without a leash. He trained her that way, after he found out East Lansing didn't have a law preventing it. But now law requires the Ingham County Commissioner and East Lansing resident of 37 years to put his Babs on a leash. Grebner was the only resident who spoke to the East Lansing City Council during a public hearing on Tuesday for the ordinance that requires dogs to be leashed in public places. "East Lansing prohibits almost everything imaginable to prohibit, except to leash dogs in public," Grebner told the council, adding that a leash law would only affect about two other residents who walk their dogs without leashes.