The East Lansing city council authorized the construction of the first building in a high-rise development project that will carve a new shape in the city’s skyline.
The streets of the Big Apple were lit up with images of the rainbow flag this past weekend as New Yorkers celebrated the legalization of same-sex marriage. The northeastern state is the sixth, but largest, state to pass the law. Shortly after being approved in the state Senate by a vote of 33-29 late Friday night, the news was announced and quickly became the trending topic of Twitter feeds. Comparative cultures and politics senior Sean Watkins was making his way into Manhattan when he heard the news, but it wasn’t long before he joined the celebration. “I was really happy for it,” he said.
East Lansing currently is in the running to receive a $50,000 grant to support its small businesses. Intuit will give out a total of $100,000 to the top two cities in its Love a Local Business program next month.
MSU faculty member Gary Reid received the Michigan Association of Broadcasters’, or MAB’s, highest honor at the organization’s annual conference on Mackinac Island Monday night. Reid, who serves as a distinguished senior academic specialist in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media, received a lifetime achievement award for his contributions to the state’s broadcasting and radio industries. “I was actually stunned,” Reid said upon learning of the award.
The East Lansing City Council is slated to make a significant stride in a pair of development projects that will add to the downtown skyline. The council is set to approve the first of two mixed-use development agreements that would authorize construction of an eight-story, mixed-use building near the Ann Street Plaza, on the corner of Grove Street and Albert Avenue.
Working on the farm is notoriously tough, with agriculture students generally working on crop farms from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the summer, but the overabundance of rain has graduate student Erin Taylor and others working until sundown — sometimes as late as 10 p.m. — to get crops planted.
Last week marked the start of the MSU Community Language School’s language summer camps for kids. The Community Language School was created in 2008 as a part of MSU’s Center for Language Teaching Advancement.
In the next few weeks, local police and firefighters are hoping to see as much blood as possible. During the 11th Annual Battle of the Badges, local police and fire departments compete against one another to have the most donors give blood to the American Red Cross in their name.
Thanks to a recent grant from the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship, MSU graduate student Vanessa Hull will be able to continue her research on endangered giant pandas.
While fans of Irish singer Bono’s music flocked to Spartan Stadium for an anticipated U2 concert Sunday, fans of his humanitarian efforts convened in the Kellogg Center Auditorium for the Midwest Summit on African Development. MSU hosted the summit, which began Saturday, in partnership with ONE, an organization that works to fight poverty, and Bono helped create.
The university and surrounding areas continue to prepare for the arrival of Irish rock band U2 on Sunday, university officials said today. The band will play at 7 p.m.
For the first time in more than a decade, Spartan Stadium will be hosting a concert event, leading many local police to stress the differences between this event and a typical football Saturday. This Sunday, U2 will be making their long-anticipated trip to East Lansing to perform, and MSU police Sgt.
For Carol Kasuda, her involvement with the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery program — a free transportation program for cancer patients who need to get to treatment — is very rewarding and worthwhile. Kasuda, who has volunteered since 1999, said she was out running an errand after retiring and noticed she was behind an American Cancer Society van for the program.
Student train travelers might have a harder time commuting to and from campus as speeds of a branch of track servicing East Lansing slowed last week, even though the train line that runs through East Lansing has seen record ridership this year. Maximum speeds on the section of the Blue Water line from Battle Creek, Mich., to Kalamazoo slowed to 25-60 mph, down from 79 mph previously, said Rudy Husband, a spokesman from Norfolk Southern Corp., the company who owns the section of track. The track includes several West Michigan stops and also is en route to stations in and near Chicago.
Researchers at MSU and the Michigan Biotechnology Institute, or MBI, say they plan to use a $4.3 million grant from the Department of Energy to further their examination of alternative fuel technology. Money from the grant will go primarily to researchers at MBI, a Lansing-based company owned by the university.
When interdisciplinary studies in social science senior Peter Croce first arrived at MSU, he was surprised by the limited number of students using skateboards to navigate campus.
When Michigan banned smoking in indoor businesses more than a year ago, Patrick Kent, owner of Blue Midnight Hookah Lounge, immediately saw his shop’s profits drop more than 15 percent. But the tobacco-based portion of his business still was thriving. Rather, Kent’s losses were more edible in nature: The new law outlawed the food service portion of his business, banning him from selling malts, wraps and smoothies in the same location as tobacco smoking.
More than a year after Michigan’s Dr. Ron Davis Smoke-Free Air Law was adopted, some state lawmakers have introduced legislation that once again would allow smoking in East Lansing bars and restaurants. Four separate bills have been introduced by state Reps.
Lisa Campion was once an 11-year-old girl attending her first session with 4-H Exploration Days at MSU. Through five or six years with the 4-H Exploration Days program and her continued participation with 4-H, Campion learned about her love for environmental sciences, something that helped her decide what she wanted to do with her life. Campion, now 24, graduated from MSU in 2007 with a degree in environmental science and management and a degree in fisheries and wildlife.
As Redbox progressively adds more video games to its selection of available media, the company could pose a threat to local video game stores. The movie rental kiosk company announced this past weekend that they will be making video games available to rent at more than 21,000 of their locations. Although movies will continue to be rented out for $1 a night, video games will cost twice that. Redbox is owned in part by McDonald’s Corporation and Coinstar Inc. Together, the companies have distributed more than 27,000 kiosks nationwide in locations such as grocery stores, retailers, drugstores, restaurants and convenience stores. Since its launch in 2003, Redbox, along with other new movie renting and streaming alternatives, have put a strain on the movie rental industry. Blockbuster, for example, has closed thousands of stores worldwide, and Hollywood Video has gone out of business. Tom Leach is the owner of Video to Go in the Frandor Shopping Center, in Lansing, a video rental store that once also carried video games.