Evanston, Ill. — Despite being on a 17-game losing streak, the Northwestern women's basketball team gave MSU fits Thursday night. While MSU is clearly the better team, and the score, a 55-48 win, showed that, it was not the kind of result the Spartans wanted heading into a Sunday showdown with No.
While Michigan's $800 million deficit is thirsty for dollars, one nonprofit corporation is looking to dry the public's palette by raising a tax on beer. The Center for Michigan, a nonpartisan think-tank, has created "Eight Ideas to Structurally Change How Michigan Does the Public's Business in These Difficult Economic Times." The plan, which has been developed for months, gives ideas to alter both spending and taxation. Aside from an increase on the beer tax, the plan also calls for the creation of a soft drink tax. Executive director John Bebow said the current beer tax is "reaching irrelevance." The $6.30 tax per barrel of beer hasn't changed since 1966.
On Saturday, Mateen Cleaves had his No. 12 MSU jersey retired at Breslin Center. Less than a week later, the former MSU star has found a new home.
It's a sound that can make a head coach jolt out of a deep sleep, sweating cold bullets. Pop.
Attending MSU sporting events during the past decade or so, I've had to stifle more than a few moans at the juvenile antics of the student section.
Members of American Indian tribes from across the country are coming to Jenison Field House to compete against one another in traditional dancing, drumming and singing. The North American Indigenous Student Organization, or NAISO, is hosting the 24th annual MSU Pow-Wow of Love this weekend. "We love to have students of every background — it's not only fun, but it's educational," said Allie Sturk, a NAISO member and ASMSU's director of racial, ethnic and progressive student affairs. Any kind of event that advocates diversity and culture is important, she said, especially after the passing of Proposal 2, which banned affirmative action in the state. Don Lyons, another NAISO member, said many people's only knowledge of American Indian culture is connected to casinos. He said the powwow can serve as an introduction to tribes with rich histories and traditions. "Student have no idea that American Indians are still here," he said. The powwow dancing, drumming and singing ceremonies have traditional significance and purpose, said NAISO fundraising chairman Jeff Gargoshian. "We believe that the creator gave us this way of life," he said. Some ceremonies, for example, are done when "a feather drops," Gargoshian said.
The No. 6-ranked Spartans are getting ready for their rivalry matchup against Michigan at Joe Louis Arena on Saturday, the fifth game between the two teams this season. Oh, and they also are preparing for tonight's home game against Ferris State. It's not difficult for MSU (17-8-2 overall, 13-6-2 CCHA) to treat the Bulldogs (9-18-3, 6-14-2) as an afterthought to a key matchup with the No.
It's no secret that anti-abortion proponents are a spectacularly uncool group of people. Statistically speaking, outside of "American Idol" enthusiasts and motorists with "Love Wins" bumper stickers, pro-lifers rank among the most uncool segments of the American population. "Jay and Silent Bob" creator Kevin Smith can't write a movie script without satirizing a pro-life character.
Overall grade: B The best word to describe the MSU women's basketball team this season is inconsistent.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm followed through on her promise to Michiganians on Thursday when she unveiled a budget proposal focused on increasing funding for education. Granholm's proposal includes initiatives to increase investment in higher education by more than $43 million, increase per pupil funding in K-12 schools by $178 per student and invest $200 million to expand early childhood education. "This budget continues the trend of investing record amounts in education," Granholm said in a statement.
MSU men vs. Michigan 9 p.m. Tuesday, Breslin Center TK — Michigan is about as disciplined as my IM team.
The MSU gymnastics team will carry its No. 17 rank into New Hampshire this weekend for the Fox Run Invitational, where the Spartans will look to do something they've become quite accustomed to doing at this tournament — winning. Every other year, head coach Kathie Klages, now in her 17th season, takes her energetic gymnasts to this meet to bring home a victory. "We are very familiar with it," Klages said.
Whether chatting on AIM, text messaging with cell phones, sending e-mails over the Web or wall-writing on Facebook.com, all of these futuristic methods of communication share one similar phenomenon: Screens are replacing human faces. "We (communicate) in so many different channels, we don't concentrate on a verbal channel anymore," said William Donohue, professor of communication.
The last time the Spartans' offense was as anemic as it was in Wednesday's loss to Purdue, Tom Izzo wasn't even alive yet. MSU's scoring output in its 62-38 loss at Mackey Arena was its lowest since Jan.
It's no secret Tom Izzo has borrowed a few principles from his other favorite sport, football, during his career as MSU men's basketball head coach.
I must say that Alex Lishinski wrote an interesting criticism about people of faith in his letter to The State News, "Belief in god wasteful, necessitates blind faith" (SN 2/1). A letter in which he completely degrades anyone who isn't as socially enlightened as he has proclaimed himself to be.
Despite a combined $3 billion deficit looming over Michigan, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said the only way to get out of the state's economic crisis is by investing more in the economy. "If we are to revitalize Michigan, we … must invest in our people and diversify our economy," Granholm said Tuesday, during her State of the State address.
I must commend your paper on the recent article "Unlikely threat from China may not be improbable, far-fetched" (SN 1/22), by opinion columnist Pete Nichols.
I was on campus when the IM Sports pools opened, and they were state of the art, but that was almost 50 years ago.
College costs could rise under a plan to increase the amount of Pell Grant money awarded per student each year. The plan, proposed Monday by President Bush, would gradually increase the federal grant from $4,050 to $5,400 for low-income college students. But some speculate it will come at a price. The Bush administration could cut federal programs for "very needy" college students, such as the Perkins Loan Program and the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, said Val Meyers, associate director of MSU's Office of Financial Aid. "(Bush) is proposing some really nice increases, but he has to pay for it by taking away other stuff," Meyers said.