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MSU

Changing temps could cause flood

A torrential downpour became a mid-winter snowstorm in a matter of minutes Thursday, as the National Weather Service placed the areas surrounding the Red Cedar River under a flood warning. After temperatures came close to reaching 60 degrees this week, numbers on the thermometer will plummet this weekend, deep freezing MSU's campus and parts of the state into next week, said Mark Walton, hydrologist at the Grand Rapids National Weather Service station. Since December, the jet stream has been unusually active and it's been noticed by everyone, said Jeff Andreson, MSU geography associate professor and state climatologist.

NEWS

Group to spend MLK Day volunteering

Emily Sorger
January 14, 2005

Instead of sleeping in on Monday, when classes are canceled to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., an MSU volunteer group and other students will be using their day off to make a difference. Into the Streets, a student-run community-service organization in the Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, will use the holiday to hold its annual MLK Jr.

NEWS

'Suburban white kid' ready to honor King

OK, I'm coming out with all my guns here - this national holiday never gripped me the way all the other excuses to miss school did, like Memorial Day, or even the creative guise of professional development days in high school. And as I take time away from my newspaper reporting job to spend a few minutes gathering my opinion of Martin Luther King Jr.

NEWS

Exhibit highlights black artists

Jacqueline Wayneguite
January 14, 2005

Rarely seen pieces and new museum acquisitions partly focusing on black history are the highlights of an exhibit in Kresge Art Museum this week to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. The exhibit - "In Honor of Martin Luther King Jr.: African American Art in the KAM Collection" - will feature 25 pieces, including photographs, paintings and sculptures, many of which address issues of what it means to be a black American.

MICHIGAN

Part of E.L profits to go to tsunami victims

Melissa Domsic
January 13, 2005

Five restaurants on Grand River Avenue agreed to donate a portion of their sales from 5 to 8 p.m. today to aid tsunami victims in Southeast Asia and southern Africa after alpha Kappa Delta Phi, an Asian American sorority, asked them to help. Taste of Thai, 1105 E.

COMMENTARY

Tasty tobacco

Different flavors of cigarettes hitting the shelves have a lot of people talking. Recently, Michigan Department of Community Health Director Janet Olszewski and Surgeon General Kimberlydawn Wisdom sent a letter to R.

MICHIGAN

E.L.: Enrollment drop tied to less housing

Kris Turner
January 13, 2005

Enrollment of city residents in the East Lansing Public Schools has declined for the past 10 years, according the district. Due to school of choice, which allows residents of neighboring communities to attend East Lansing schools, vacancies left by students have been filled in some years. A November 2003 report, along with annual district assessments, point to the lack of younger children in the area as cause for the drop. City officials say this concern is a driving force behind many of their policies, including urban development and new rental restrictions. "Much of the focus of the work that we do in the city of East Lansing is on how do we develop more housing that will be attractive to young families," said Deputy City Manager Jean Golden.

NEWS

MIDDAY UPDATE: E.L. man stood up for equality

Tom Keller
January 13, 2005

Paul Downie's fight for equality began with one small sip. It was in 1952 that the young Army serviceman was sitting at an Augusta, Ga., bus terminal waiting for his bus home to metro Detroit. There he noticed two adjacent drinking fountains, accompanied by overhead signs marked "white" and "colored." Feeling the need to make a statement, he got up and took a drink from the fountain marked "colored," then pulled up a chair in the waiting room designated for blacks. The other white passengers in the station stared at him in disbelief. "If looks could kill, oh my," Downie said. More than 50 years later, Downie, now an East Lansing resident, has not forgotten his causes. Age has slowed him somewhat, but the 74-year-old Episcopal priest remains a fighter.

COMMENTARY

Student, not MSU, at fault in mishap

I read in Tuesday's edition of The State News that a student lost her passport in Peru during a Study Abroad trip and could not return home with every other person in the MSU group as scheduled ("Study abroad student left behind" SN 1/11). The story included details about her accommodation being taken care of and an alumni family taking her under their wing to help out. That story must have been false because in Wednesday's paper the same reporter, Margaret Harding, reported that the student was left alone, without money or a place to stay, and could rely only on herself ("Stranded student returns" SN 1/12). Or perhaps that story, too, is inaccurate. "The student's passport was lost or stolen the day they planned to leave, and she had to stay behind," Harding wrote in the earlier edition.

SPORTS

Q&A Player of the week: Maurice Ager

Matt Bishop
January 13, 2005

Men's basketball junior guard Maurice Ager is this week's player of the week. MSU's current leading scorer continued his hot hand against Northwestern, scoring a game-high 18 points in the Spartans' 87-58 win.

COMMENTARY

Stuck abroad

Cost of traveling to Peru on study abroad: $2,262 Cost of the passport application fee: $85 Leaving a student behind, terrified, without money and a place to stay: heartless. MSU's Study Abroad program to Peru did just that to Julie Crane.

NEWS

Simon discusses medical school attributes at expansion meeting

Margaret Harding
January 13, 2005

Stakeholders in the possible relocation of part of MSU's medical school to Grand Rapids left a meeting Tuesday with high hopes, said Steven Heacock, who will serve as the group's spokesman. "There was more than a feeling of optimism - there's a feeling that we're getting to the work that needs to be done," Heacock said.

NEWS

Wing Zone offers 25 sauces, late hours

Aaron Foley
January 13, 2005

A year ago, if you were looking for good chicken within a reasonable vicinity of campus, your options were limited. The wingdings in dorm cafeterias have that odd oxymoron factor - they're greasy on the outside and dry as hell on the inside.

NEWS

Students mourn tsunami victims

Jun Yang
January 13, 2005

On Wednesday evening, the outside of Wharton Center was lit by candles glowing in the hands of people gathered to remember the lives lost in the tsunami in Southeast Asia.

MSU

Building begins on $3.5-million vet center

Ground broke today on a $3.5-million addition to the College of Veterinary Medicine meant to help prevent infectious diseases from spreading in animals. The new facility, called the Matilda R.