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NEWS

E.L. kicks off creation of community center

Jamie Gumbrecht
February 16, 2001

East Lansing residents of all ages stepped through the caution-taped doors Thursday of the future Hannah Community Center to see dim workman’s lights and hear the rumble of construction.The Hannah Community Center Reconstruction Kick-off marked the beginning of structural improvements that will transform the building from a middle school to a mix of classrooms, an aquatic center, two gymnasiums and a 540-seat auditorium.The future community center, located at 819 Abbott Road, also will service every generation of residents with a drop-in baby-sitting room and centers geared toward seniors and teens.Nearly 100 community members turned out for the event, that included presentations by city officials and architectural and construction firms.“This was reassuring,” East Lansing resident Judith Merchant said of Thursday’s festivities.

NEWS

Students honor end of boycott

Sheena Harrison
February 16, 2001

Nearly 20 students gathered in the Culturas de las Razas Unidas room Thursday night to listen to music, talk and eat grapes by the handful. Ironically, it’s a scene that would have flared tempers exactly five years ago. “Anyone eating grapes in this room would have had their butts kicked,” journalism senior Ernesto Mireles said. Past and present members of Movimiento Estudiantil Xicano de Aztlan, MSU’s Chicano student group, held a reception celebrating last November’s end of a 16-year California table grape boycott called by United Farm Workers, a major farm union co-founded by worker rights advocate Cesar Chavez. The protest focused on higher wages for farm workers and better working conditions, especially concerning the use of potentially dangerous pesticides. MEXA members supported the boycott through several protests that occurred throughout the 1990s in hopes the university would stop allowing non-union grapes into its cafeterias. In February 1996, six of the group’s members camped in the CRU room during a six-day hunger strike in an attempt to force the university into a campuswide boycott. Mireles took part in the fast. “One guy even went to the hospital because he had a diabetic attack,” he said.

MICHIGAN

Bird watchers get online for annual species count

Shannon Murphy
February 16, 2001

Bird enthusiasts around the nation will come together online today through Sunday as part of the National Audubon Society and Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology’s fourth annual Great Backyard Bird Count. In an attempt to track birds, the society’s e-event will host an online survey that allows participants to let researchers know what types of birds were seen during the three days.

FEATURES

Grammy Time

Dan Julian
February 16, 2001

Gary Hoppenstand doesn’t look at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards as just another awards show. “They are sort of the equivalent of the Academy Awards for the motion picture industry,” the professor of American Thought and Language said.

SPORTS

Evans will be tough rebound competition

Eric Mckinney
February 16, 2001

As a senior at Woodham high school in Pensacola, Florida no one gave Reggie Evans a second glance, but as the nation’s leading rebounder the junior is regarded as one of Division I’s best forwards.“Coming out of high school I didn’t get any scholarship offers at all,” Evans said of Division I programs.

MICHIGAN

LCC board to debate possible program cuts

Brandi Lewandowski
February 16, 2001

Cody Masalkoski will attempt to tell Lansing Community College’s Board of Trustees that he’s against a proposal to cut six of the college’s programs. “They’re all excellent programs,” the LCC criminal justice sophomore said about the jeopardized programs.

FEATURES

Grammys dont hold interest for music critic

Dan Julian
February 16, 2001

It’s that time of year again, kids. The Grammy Awards are coming, and to be perfectly honest, who cares? I contacted a lot of students Wednesday for the story you see running just to the right of this column, and the general consensus I got was that students here just don’t care about it - and I can’t really blame them. One student made me chuckle when he replied to me on the phone, “Dude, now’s not a good time (to ask me questions about the Grammys) because I’m with my girlfriend and it’s Valentines Day.” What can people really say about the Grammys?

SPORTS

Assistant coach enjoys opportunity

Leslie Escobar
February 16, 2001

Daune Koester calls her new position as assistant coach of the MSU women’s volleyball team an “awesome opportunity.” The 26-year-old Detroit native said though she has had many years of volleyball experience, this will be a new one. “I’ve never been this excited about working - it’s a great job and a great conference,” she said. Koester, hired this month, replaced former assistant coach Laura Abbinante and joins head coach Chuck Erbe and first assistant Todd Dagenais.

SPORTS

Womens gold begins season

Keith Dunlap
February 16, 2001

The MSU women’s golf team opened its spring season by finishing 16th out of 18 teams after Wednesday’s final round of the TRW Regional Challenge in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif., according to MSU Sports Information. The competition was stiff for the Spartans, as the three-day tournament featured 15 teams ranked in the top 25. MSU, which was ranked 25th by www.golfstat.com entering the tournament, finished with a final team score of 941 - 57 strokes behind tournament winner and No.

FEATURES

The Queen comes back to the stage

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY The Associated Press NEW YORK - Before Erykah Badu made her grand entrance at Radio City Music Hall on Wednesday night, rapper Common - one of her two opening acts - told the audience to get ready for the “queen.” When she appeared, she certainly played the part. Dressed in regal white with her trademark high head wrap, the slender neosoul diva held court before a capacity crowd of her adoring subjects while incense and a candle burned on a table at center stage. But even queens are human - and it was when Badu revealed her vulnerability and emotions that she made the biggest connection with the crowd. In her third concert on a nationwide tour that ends in Dallas next month, Badu took awhile to let the audience into her esoteric world.

MICHIGAN

Engler announces plan for identification of fathers

Aaron M. Miller
February 16, 2001

A new pilot project, announced this week by Gov. John Engler, seeks to raise the number of fathers identified when children are born to 100 percent in Michigan.Engler said in a written statement that “immediate establishment of paternity at birth provides a child with many benefits, including access to a complete medical history, inheritance rights, insurance, social security, veteran’s and other benefits.”The one-year, $300,000 pilot program will include Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey, Lakeland Medical Center in Niles and Genesys Health Park in Grand Blanc.The three hospitals, which were chosen for the pilot because of geographical variances in the number of unwed births, designed their own plans to implement the program.

COMMENTARY

Ad reflects need for coverage, awareness

Mary Sell
February 16, 2001

Believing that people, though sometimes stupid, are basically good on the inside has made going through life a little easier for me. Believing when someone hurts or offends me, they truly might not realize how what they said affected me, has made me a more forgiving person. And believing there is a difference between being racist and being unaware has made me realize The State News has a problem. On Monday, we ran an ad for a sorority’s self-defense class.

MSU

U officer mourns loss of K-9 partner

Jeremy W. Steele
February 16, 2001

It was a reassuring sight.Whenever MSU police Sgt. Maureen Ramsey would make a traffic stop, she could always look back at her vehicle and see someone watching to make sure she was safe.“He would be standing on the platform between the seats and I barely saw the silhouette of his two ears,” the 13-year campus police force veteran recalled, still wearing her K-9 officer pin.“The police officer doesn’t become dependent on them in regards to safety, but it’s like having a four-pawed guardian angel.”But for the last month, those pointed, furry ears have been noticeably absent from Ramsey’s patrol car.

MSU

Lecture discusses race relations, adversity

Karalee Miller
February 16, 2001

A positive spin on the term racial profiling was the core of the Rev. Joseph Lowery’s speech Thursday, part of Slavery to Freedom: An American Odyssey, a visiting minority faculty lecture series sponsored by the College of Osteopathic Medicine. “We didn’t have to have a violent revolution to overcome our oppression,” Lowery said before his speech.