A symphony plays in the background as Lisa Panetta-Sawaya serves a muffin to one of the first customers at Mona Lisa's Coffee House, her newest café. Panetta-Sawaya opened the first Mona Lisa's café in Haslett in 2004, and after its success, she decided to open another café when Ooh la la Crepes, 1133 E.
Brenda Young didn't know why she was called into her Lansing Community College office on a Sunday morning last year.
On Super Bowl Sunday, the Detroit People Mover was a public transportation adventure. Patrons were greeted at stations by bomb-sniffing dogs. Riders were liable to break out into choruses of "Let's go Steelers" without warning.
Instead of studying environmental science in a classroom next fall, students can spend the semester in a new study-away program at MSU's W.K.
The man charged with the murder and rape of a Lansing Community College professor last year had slept in campus buildings on more than one occasion, testimony in his trial showed Thursday. Carolyn Kronenberg, 60, was found beaten, strangled and raped before her class was scheduled to begin the morning of Jan.
The April 2-3 disturbances and the security system in Emmons Hall were among the topics university officials discussed with members of the Residence Halls Association, or RHA, on Wednesday. Lee June, vice president of Student Affairs and Services, said MSU police are willing to meet jointly with RHA to address any of the members' questions and concerns about possible future disturbances, in efforts to correct and prevent any incidents similar to the ones in 2005. He said in the future, if action needs to be taken, police need to announce their intentions more times and louder on speakers. In the event of future disturbances, "I am sure you as students will do the positive things you did last year," June said.
The 2006 Chinese Spring Festival Gala will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Saturday at Haslett High School, 5450 Marsh Road in Haslett.
The Muslim Students' Association will be having its annual diversity dinner at 6:30 p.m. tonight at Eagle Eye Golf Club, 15500 Chandler Road. Both Muslims and non-Muslims are welcome at the event.
It was Groundhog Day in the United States and Canada. It was Crepe Day in France. It was Candlemas worldwide, from Brazil to Liechtenstein.
By Andrea Byl For The State News America's number one killer of women took Christin Faccio's mother and she wants it to stop. Her mother, Marilyn Faccio, 48, died of a heart attack in 2002; the unidentified heart disease symptoms echoed a common chorus.
Black History Month began Wednesday, and Latanya Simpson, president of MSU's Black Student Alliance, said there are a number of events planned in honor of the month. A film series will begin tonight with the showing of "Sankofa" at 7 p.m.
For the past nine years, Robert Kolt has hosted a Super Bowl party in his Haslett home. But it's only when the advertisements appear that the TV volume increases and conversations go quiet, with eyes intently focused on the screen. Kolt, an MSU instructor, and about 15 other faculty members in the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing gather not to watch the game — but to grade the Super Bowl advertisements, which usually earns them national recognition in the media. "I think we were the first ones to do it, and we continue to do it," Kolt said. "The professors at Michigan State are pretty good, tough critics." But during this Sunday's game, MSU's professors won't be the only ones judging. Now advertising professionals, university professors and students worldwide can rate the advertisements themselves through an interactive Web site called MSU Ad Pulse. Richard Cole, executive vice president and chief administrative officer with the Detroit Medical Center, came up with the idea for the Web site as a way to extend the rating of the advertisements to a broader base of people. "It's just like anything — you don't know exactly what the outcome will be, but many more ideas will keep flowing," he said. Cole takes office at MSU on March 1 as the new chairman for the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing. The site — a project between MSU and Collaboration LLC, a marketing firm based in Pleasant Ridge, Mich.
Chicano History Month began Wednesday and will be recognized throughout February with a number of events, members of Movimiento Estudiantil Xicano de Aztlan said. There will be a Chicano unity dinner at 7 p.m.
With more than 100,000 visitors expected in Detroit, traffic conditions will likely be congested. On-street parking and parking garages will be limited and alternative modes of transportation are recommended. • Park and Ride a carpooling program offered in Detroit, should be the easiest way to travel around Detroit during Super Bowl weekend.
About 100 law-enforcement agencies are combining their resources to keep Detroit safe during this Super Bowl weekend — they've sent divers into the Detroit River checking for explosives, prepared a special response team in case of biological hazards and plan to shut down the surrounding roads. "This is the largest event of its kind that has ever occurred in this area," said Wayne County Sheriff Sgt.
Ice cream, chocolate and Spartan spirit sound more like football game fun than an engineering project. But biosystems engineering seniors Matthew Kloes, Kim Lewis, Marc Sawyers and Shelley Vecchio have found a way to incorporate flavor and fun into their senior design project, while still focusing on developing skills necessary for future careers. The four students are working to produce chocolate-covered ice cream bars formed into a Spartan block "S" shape. "It's a pretty interesting project," Kloes said.
More than half the students who graduate from four-year universities lack the skills to be considered proficient in literacy, according to a recent study from a national institute. The survey, released last month by the American Institutes for Research — a Washington, D.C.-based social science research organization — tested the literacy of 1,827 students graduating from 80 randomly selected two- and four-year universities. It covered three core areas — prose literacy, document literacy and quantitative literacy — and found that many students could not do basic tasks such as figuring out the cost-per-ounce of various food products in supermarkets. "I would never have expected that because I'm getting a good education here," said MSU psychology sophomore Julia Degreg.
Lansing and East Lansing officials are taking steps to attract high-tech jobs to the region, a collaboration that's been slow in the making. On Tuesday, area leaders announced a formal agreement creating a Lansing Regional SmartZone, a designation allowing city and state tax dollars to be funneled into technology developments, three years after applying to be a part of the statewide program in 2002.