Tuesday, February 17, 2026

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News | Michigan

MICHIGAN

City council to discuss tower, Web site launch

Tonight’s East Lansing City Council meeting will mark the first meeting of Councilmember Vic Loomis and Councilmember Bill Sharp’s new term.It will also feature a full agenda, because it is the first council meeting in nearly a month.Among the issues to be discussed or acted upon during the 7:30 p.m.

MICHIGAN

MADD red-ribbon campaign urges safe Thanksgiving holiday drive

As Michigan motorists take off for the holidays, Mothers Against Drunk Driving is reminding drivers not to mix booze with navigating roads.MADD initiated its 15th annual statewide Red Ribbon “Tie One on For Safety” safe and sober driving holiday public awareness campaign Monday at the state Capitol.Red ribbons will be tied to automobiles to serve as reminders to drive alcohol-free in response to the campaign.“This is a memorial to families who have lost loved ones to drunk drivers, and it continues to get the public support to enforce the laws tightly,” said Chuck Hurley, a former national board member of MADD and vice president of the National Safety Council.“Many have likened drunk drivers to terrorists, randomly killing innocent people.”Hurley said the National Safety Council is predicting 532 people will be killed in traffic accidents during the Thanksgiving Day holiday, and about 40 percent of those deaths will be alcohol related.“Some events are hard to predict and hard to prevent,” he said.

MICHIGAN

Cottage Inn Pizza opens near U

MSU’s student population makes East Lansing the place for a pizzeria, said the owner of the new spot in town. Cottage Inn Pizza owner George Hoover said the new location in East Lansing was in part because of MSU.

MICHIGAN

Students hit the books for charity

Packaging senior Salimah Turner always spends her Sunday afternoons studying. But this past Sunday, she joined members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority in the Wonders Hall Kiva to help raise money for a charity and scholarships during their Study-A-Thon, which is held twice a year. More than 40 students were expected to participate in the study day, which was from 10 a.m.

MICHIGAN

Free parking offered in downtown

The city of East Lansing is getting into the holiday spirit.For several weekends in November and December, parking in the downtown lot ramps and at meters will be free. Ami Field, assistant community events director for the city, said this program has been going on for several years as a way to lure people into doing their holiday shopping downtown.“It’s basically to encourage people to come downtown to do their holiday shopping, it’s an incentive,” she said.The free parking days kick off Friday through Sunday and return Dec.

MICHIGAN

Local organizations vie for city grants through Community Improvement Challenge

The city of East Lansing will hold a workshop tonight for area resident groups interested in receiving matching grants for community projects. The grants, awarded by the city through the Community Improvement Challenge Program, allow community organizations like neighborhood associations or churches, to complete expensive programs they would not otherwise be able to afford. During the meeting at 7 p.m.

MICHIGAN

Metropolitan areas fail to make the grade for clean air

The state of Michigan won’t want to bring this report card home. A study released Tuesday by the Sierra Club gave Michigan and Detroit, Ann Arbor, Flint and Grand Rapids areas failing grades for efforts to clear up the air with transit spending. Lansing was not surveyed. The study, which had been put together over eight years, had pooled information from across the country. Anne Woiwode, director of the Mackinac Chapter of the Sierra Club, said the organization looked at the largest metropolitan areas.

MICHIGAN

Fog conceals Leonid meteor shower for many Sunday

Eyes stuck to the sky in East Lansing on Sunday morning might have been looking for the meteors predicted to pierce through the night - but all they saw was fog. The Leonid shower occurs every November when the Earth passes through the debris of the Comet Tempel-Tuttle.

MICHIGAN

Homeless hidden by affluent community

Since she began volunteering one year ago, Erica Benson’s eyes were opened to a world she had never known - a world without welcome mats, milk and cookies after school and steady paychecks. The linguistics graduate student volunteers at Haven House, 121 Whitehills Drive in Lansing, a shelter for homeless families. Gov.

MICHIGAN

Festival launches holiday season

Fireworks will light up the sky behind the Capitol dome tonight to kick off the holidays with Silver Bells in the City. An electric light parade and the lighting of Michigan’s official holiday tree in front of the Capitol are a few of the attractions at the 17th annual celebration in downtown Lansing. “Thousands of people gather in a huge crowd and share the spirit of the season,” said Joanne Eason, a spokeswoman for the event.

MICHIGAN

Community plans crisis response

Lansing-area media, governmental, emergency, and business organizations made steps Thursday to prepare for crisis management.Community leaders met for a Crisis Communication Summit to plan for a joint response in the event of a terrorist attack at the Radisson Hotel, 111 N.

MICHIGAN

Membership rises in white supremacist groups

Although unity has become a common thread among Americans since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, white supremacist groups in Michigan and other Midwestern states are using the incident to recruit new members, a recent study found.The Center for New Community, a faith-based organization in Chicago, released a report, “State of Hate: White Nationalism in the Midwest 2000-2001.”In the study, the group found 338 white nationalist groups in 10 Midwestern states, including Michigan.

MICHIGAN

Legislators dont want Toronto trash

Michigan lawmakers sent a message to Toronto saying “Michigan doesn’t want your trash.”The letter addressed to the Canadian neighbors asked Toronto city officials to reconsider solving the city’s trash problem at the expense of Michigan’s environment, economy, public health and safety.About 180 Canadian trucks carry trash across Michigan-Canada border crossings each day, said Matt Resch, a spokesman for Lt.

MICHIGAN

Area storytellers gather for annual event

Each night before she went to bed, Cheryl Bradley was fascinated by her mom’s stories of growing up on the farm. When the East Lansing resident had her own children years later, she continued the tradition, sharing the stories of their grandmother’s youth, adding in her own youth and making up others. But eventually, she said, they became too big to sit in her lap and listen. Then, about 14 years ago, Bradley heard about a Mason storyteller giving a presentation on the art. “It was an evening around Christmas and I went to it,” she said.