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News | Michigan

MICHIGAN

Faithful pray in Life Chain

Jamie Gumbrecht
October 8, 2001

It might have looked like a protest along Grand River Avenue on Sunday when groups of students and community members lined the roadway with white signs, but a closer look showed that the “protesters” were praying quietly for life.The groups were participating in the Life Chain, a national non-denominational movement on the first Sunday of October to promote pro-life thinking.“We’re not a political group, we’re a prayer group,” said Marty Johnson, an East Lansing resident who helped plan the event.

MICHIGAN

Bill to collect tax on Internet sales

Steve Eder
October 5, 2001

The state Senate passed a bill to add Michigan to the Streamlined Sales Tax Project on to Gov. John Engler’s desk Thursday. Engler said he will sign the bill, adding Michigan to a group of states working together to coordinate the collection of Internet sales taxes.

MICHIGAN

Firefighters battle for increased state funding

Steve Eder
October 4, 2001

Lansing - Michigan firefighters met at the state Capitol Wednesday to return fire at Gov. John Engler after he vetoed $9.4 million in fire protection grants. Matt Resch, a spokesman for Engler, said the governor vetoed the budget because it would have increased fire protection grants statewide to $9.4 million from last year’s $7.4 million.

MICHIGAN

Student commission still looking for members

Sara Luneburg
October 4, 2001

Jonathan Rosenthal is excited to get to work improving student and East Lansing community relations.The business administration and pre-law junior has made a lot of changes in his life in the past year - transferring to MSU from Florida State University, taking a position with MSU’s undergraduate student government as director of communication affairs and his appointment to the University Student Commission during the Oct.

MICHIGAN

Need for educators rises

Leslie Escobar
October 2, 2001

While teacher shortages continue to be a problem for public school districts across the nation, the East Lansing Public School District remains unaffected by the trend.According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 2.4 million teachers will be needed in the next 11 years to fill K-12 classrooms across the country in public school districts.While teacher shortages have been a problem for several years, it has become an important issue only recently in Michigan, said Michigan Education Association spokeswoman Karen Schulz.“Really this is a problem now, but for many years to come, schools will be facing the dilemma of not having enough people out there who want to teach,” she said.Schulz said reasons for the shortage are a high number of retirees and the difficulty of keeping teachers in urban school districts.But Kevin Green, spokesman for the East Lansing Public School District, said the district has not experienced a teacher shortage and doesn’t expect one anytime soon.He said the school district is popular because of the starting salary for teachers and highly rated special education programs.