Friday, December 26, 2025

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MICHIGAN

Potter Park Zoo gets new animal exhibits

Potter Park Zoo, 1301 S. Pennsylvania Ave. in Lansing, welcomed six new critters this weekend. Five adult ostriches and one female red panda went on exhibit at the zoo. The ostriches were raised on an ostrich breeding farm in mid-Michigan and are on loan to the zoo. Jiao, the red panda, comes from the San Diego Zoo.

NEWS

Medical council caps residents work hours

Medical residents are getting a break. Sort of.Under rules approved this month by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, medical residents will be limited to 80-hour work weeks.Marvin Dunn, the council’s director of resident review activities, said the new regulations will begin July 1, 2003 to help combat sleep deprivation of residents on duty.

NEWS

ONLINE UPDATE: School board tie broken with drawing

Mason - MSU communication Professor William Donohue was chosen Friday the newest member of the East Lansing school board, breaking a nearly two-week tie with fellow candidate Randy Bell. Donohue and Bell, who tied in the June 10 school board election with 1,259 votes, decided the election by drawing from two pieces of paper - one that said “elected” and one that said “not elected.” The tie-breaker was conducted under the terms of a 1955 state law, which calls for a hat drawing in the event of a tie. Bell, a 46-year-old MSU faculty member, filed a petition Friday asking for a recount in the election.

NEWS

Sentences handed out in Blair case

Three MSU students were sentenced Wednesday for supplying alcohol to an 18-year-old Bay City man who drowned in October in the Red Cedar River. Political science and pre-law senior Nicole Bukowski, 21, education junior Cassandra Duggan, 20, and family community services senior Laurel Trezise, 20, were sentenced by 54-B District Judge Richard Ball to six months probation, $1120 in fines and 24 hours of community service. Two other students, kinesiology sophomore Nicholaus Belski, 18, and psychology senior Sara Kaufman, 21, were given similar sentences May 13 on the same charge. The five students were charged in connection with the death of Eric Blair, whose body was found in the Red Cedar River on Oct.

NEWS

Commission may decide on pipeline

The Michigan Public Service Commission is expected Friday to decide whether to approve a controversial gasoline pipeline along Interstate 96 - a project some Lansing residents and officials say could endanger area groundwater.The Wolverine Pipeline Co. wants to build a $40-million, 26-mile pipeline from Stockbridge to the north side of Lansing to replace a 65-year-old line that goes through Meridian Township and East Lansing.

SPORTS

Lugnuts prepare for second half

After failing to earn a first-half playoff spot, the Lansing Lugnuts will try to build on a strong finish and nab one of the four remaining postseason spots.Lansing won nine of its last 11 games for a 37-32 first-half record.

ICE HOCKEY

Spartans look ahead to NHL draft

A quartet of Spartan sophomores - led by center Jim Slater - expect to hear their names called at this weekend’s NHL Entry Draft in Toronto, but the players say they have no inkling as to which team will pick them. “I really don’t have a clue,” defenseman Duncan Keith said from his home in Penticton, British Columbia earlier this week.

COMMENTARY

Warning to death

It’s been more than eight months since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but the threat of terrorism is not over. We were reminded of that recently in East Lansing, generally considered an unlikely place for terrorists to strike.

COMMENTARY

Deep problems

A charge of racism is an accusation that cannot be taken lightly. But steps also should be taken to verify such claims and give the accused a chance to respond. Former Lansing official Genice Rhodes-Reed stood at a public meeting this week to accuse Mayor David Hollister’s administration of subtle racism.

COMMENTARY

Township residents need vote on annex

I am writing in response to the article “Students’ motives doubted,” (SN 6/17). I first must say that regardless of whether the city helped out the students, or as some are saying, “asked them to start the process” of annexation, it is a raw deal and should not be allowed in the first place.

COMMENTARY

More to consider in American diversity

This is in response to the letter by E. H. Muldoon, “America in need of collective ideals,” (SN 6/17). Muldoon is not sure what he is talking about - is it the homosexuality that’s hurting the “American way,” or is it the immigrants?

COMMENTARY

Writer not correct, love worth effort

I read Drew Harmon’s column, “Modern relationships outdated, people may be better off alone,” (SN 6/17), in the paper, and I wanted to offer a counter vision to his grocery-store analogy.

MSU

Alumnus earns debate internship in D.C.

Leadership on MSU’s debate team helped a 2002 graduate become the first person from the university - and only the sixth ever - to land a prestigious Washington, D.C., internship at a nonprofit think tank.Austin Carson, who graduated with a degree in international relations, begins the yearlong William J.

FEATURES

Taste of summer

Wine, food, music. No, this isn’t an MSU house party - it’s the third annual Festival of the Sun. As Mid-Michigan’s largest wine- and food-tasting festival, it features wines from around the world, some Michigan brews and the area’s finest restaurants and caterers. “This year we have wine from Australia, France, California,” said Linda Sutton, executive director of the Old Town Commercial Association.

NEWS

Cigarette prices may rise

Gov. John Engler on Wednesday joined the bandwagon of state lawmakers looking to raise the state’s cigarette tax. Flanked by legislative leaders and representatives from the Michigan Education Association and Michigan Association of School Administrators, the governor proposed a 50-cent tax increase on cigarettes.