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MSU

MSU gets grants to study causes of ADHD

Most people are exposed to small amounts of harmful chemicals every day, but MSU researchers will soon delve into the role people's genes play in developing Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. The researchers will use two grants, a total of more than $3 million, to conduct a study of children's behavior, environment and genetic makeup to determine possible correlations, said Joel Nigg, associate professor in the Department of Psychology and lead researcher in the study. "The genetics part is important, but it's not in a vacuum," Nigg said.

MSU

Press secretaries to give lecture at MSU

Five current and former press secretaries of Michigan governors will speak at 5:30 p.m. today in the Big Ten A room of the Kellogg Center. "Meet the Press Secretaries" is the 2005 Edward Zabrusky Public Relations Lecture.

MSU

ASMSU to discuss new groups, parking rates

Members of ASMSU's Student Assembly will vote on bills about everything from accepting student groups into the association to lowering parking-meter rates on campus during their meeting today. Academic Assembly members voted to give the MSU International Student Association and Arab Culture Society seats on their assembly, but the groups won't become members unless Student Assembly members vote them in as well. Student Assembly also will vote on a bill to support the lowering of parking-meter rates on campus, said Derek Wallbank, Communication Arts and Sciences representative for the assembly. The meeting is at 6:30 p.m.

MSU

McPherson accepts new post

There are a few recurring themes in former MSU President M. Peter McPherson's work - agriculture, land-grant universities, and national and international politics. McPherson, who stepped down from the top job at MSU in 2004 after 11 years, will renew his involvement with land-grant institutions when he takes over as president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, or NASULGC, in 2006. He has spent the past year working with the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, an organization he co-founded to encourage agriculture and rural development in African nations. McPherson said he has begun meeting with the group's executives, but his main focus will be the Partnership for the remainder of the year. "I've got a lot to do here over the next few months," he said from the Partnership's Washington, D.C.

MSU

A burning bush

A dark plume of smoke rose high above north campus Tuesday afternoon after what started as a small brush fire on the north end of Farm Lane grew to a nearly two-story blaze west of the Natural Science Building. "One of our officers was out and she noticed it smoking," MSU police Sgt.

MSU

ASMSU faces shortage of Academic Assembly college representatives

Out of 26 possible college representative seats on ASMSU's Academic Assembly, 19 are empty. Each college has two seats available for representatives on the assembly, including the Undergraduate University Division, or no preference majors. James Madison College and the Eli Broad College of Business are the only schools with both seats filled, while eight colleges have no representatives. Academic Assembly has other representatives from campus groups, but the assembly needs more college representatives, said Jason Ardanowski, Academic Assembly's director of University Governmental and Budgetary Affairs. "This isn't enough people," Ardanowski said.

MSU

Council elects executive chairs

The Executive Committee of Academic Council met Tuesday for the first time since classes started this year. After approving three sets of past minutes, the first major item on the agenda was to elect a chairperson and a vice chairperson for the executive committee.

MSU

MSU prof succumbs to battle with cancer

When Eric Canosa was a student of English Professor Arthur Athanason, he admired how Athanason wouldn't arrange the classroom's chairs in a long row, but instead form a circle as a way to open up the class for discussion. "The class was led by itself," Canosa said.

MSU

Student business club to discuss program

The Student Investment Association is having its general-membership meeting from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. today in N100 Business College Complex. The student group is scheduled to detail its analyst program and planned trip to New York.

MSU

Legislators discuss status of underpasses

University, state and federal officials gathered on campus Friday to formally announce $16.8 million in funding for two Farm Lane underpasses. The underpasses, which have been in the works since 2002, will allow for traffic to move underneath the trains that cross Farm Lane near Service and Mount Hope roads. "I have spent hours waiting for trains to come through," said U.S.

MSU

Student released after weekend meningitis scare

An MSU student was released from Sparrow Hospital on Saturday after being diagnosed with a meningitis-type bacteria, hospital officials said. After feeling flu-like symptoms, the student was taken to the Lansing hospital and was tested for bacterial meningitis. The student tested positive for a special strain of bacteria, called Neisseria meningitidis, but did not test positive for the full-fledged bacterial meningitis, said Nan Simons, a Sparrow Hospital spokeswoman. The student's family requested the student's name not be released, MSU spokesperson Terry Denbow said. Bacterial meningitis is an infection that causes inflammation of tissues and fluid around the brain and spinal cord.

MSU

Old Spice seeks clean comics

By Norrel Hemphill Special to The State News It was hard to miss the three men walking around in white Old Spice bathrobes, camera crew in tow, during Saturday's tailgating festivities at the tennis courts. Representatives from Old Spice were filming a commercial with three MSU students as leads in search of America's Cleanest Comic.

MSU

New regulations shrink tailgate

Fewer than 100 cars were parked in the newly implemented student-only tailgate area near the tennis courts on Saturday - a noticeable difference from past years, when about 400 cars and thousands of people would fill the area on football game days. "They've effectively killed tailgate," biochemistry senior Shankar Arul said while he tailgated at the tennis courts.

MSU

Experts reflect on intensity of hurricanes

A recent study claims global warming is to blame for a growing intensity of tropical storms, but it remains unclear whether warming was to blame for the severity of Hurricane Katrina, scientists say. In August, Massachusetts Institute of Technology climatologist Kerry Emanuel reported in the journal "Nature" that major storms spinning in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans have increased in duration and intensity by about 50 percent since the 1970s. During that period, global average temperatures have risen by about 1 degree Fahrenheit along with increases in the level of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping pollutants from industry smokestacks, traffic exhaust and other sources. It makes sense that Hurricane Katrina was such an intense storm because the Gulf of Mexico's temperature was above average before it hit, said David Hyndman, associate professor in the MSU Department of Geological Sciences. "When you warm sea-surface temperature, you are getting stronger storms," Hyndman said. Global warming spurred by human activity has everything to do with the growing strength of tropical storms, Hyndman said.

MSU

MSU officials introduce new pre-game lecture series

John Hannah won't stop inspiring new ideas at MSU. This Saturday, the public will have the opportunity to hear the first in a series of lectures to be held on campus on home football Saturdays - a series that officials began considering last fall after a lecture surrounding the dedication of a statue of Hannah, MSU's 12th president. "That's really where the germ of the idea began," said Sue Carter, chairwoman of the sesquicentennial events committee and an organizer of the series. The series is part of a yearlong celebration of MSU's sesquicentennial, or 150th anniversary. The lectures will be held three hours prior to kickoff in the Kellogg Center Auditorium.