Thursday, March 28, 2024

News

MICHIGAN

E.L. hosts family fair

Tonja Robertson-Fowler had an arm full of flyers on summer programs for Zacchious Fowler, her 7-year-old son.The East Lansing resident was one of more than 200 parents attending the second Family Resource Fair on Saturday.The fair is held to help Lansing-area parents find activities for their children and to help people find opportunities to volunteer.

MSU

Web site shows professors ratings

After more than five years of planning, MSU officials uploaded a Web site that shows results of students’ opinions about teachers.The site, Students’ Opinion of Courses and Teaching, www.soct.msu.edu, allows students, faculty and staff members to see students’ ratings for undergraduate courses and course instructors.

MICHIGAN

County purchases nonlethal weapons

Mason - Matthew Flint staggered backward, grabbed his chest and began violently coughing. Flint, an Ingham County Sheriff’s Office sergeant, had just been shot with a round of pepperballs from the office’s new Jayco SA200 Pepperball Launcher System. A pepperball is a small cylinder that breaks on impact, filled with oleorecin calsicum, a powder version of what is found in pepper spray.

MICHIGAN

Group breaks from farmer bill

A two-week legislators’ break won’t be as much of a concern for local farmers after some of the debate has ended.A joint federal committee has been examining two different versions of a bill passed by the U.S.

MICHIGAN

Business owners expect festival tourism to pump up commerce

Despite concerns about summer tourism earlier this year, East Lansing business owners aren’t worried about sales dropping during the city’s summer festival season.But Lori Martin, a research specialist at MSU’s Travel, Tourism and Recreation Resource Center, said the tourism outlook for 2002 is uncertain while the nation recovers from recession.“There are a few wild cards out there,” she said.Those wild cards include the possibility of terrorism, weather and gas prices.Despite the unknowns, the center’s researchers expect increases in tourism throughout the state, including a 3 percent increase in traffic volume due to tourism in the region including Ingham County.And East Lansing officials aren’t expecting much of a drop-off as the Great Lakes Folk Festival and East Lansing Art Festival near.“It seems like people are looking for more things that they can spend time with their family or friends,” community events specialist E.

MICHIGAN

Residents concerned about increased apartments, traffic

New apartment complexes on Chandler and Abbott roads have East Lansing city officials and residents worried about increased traffic.Abbott Road becomes Chandler Road at the Clinton County Line north of Lake Lansing Road.Resident Terry Linger said he avoids the road as much as possible because of its poor condition.The two-lane road is under the control of the county and can’t support the amount of traffic renters going back and forth from work and MSU create, he said.“Most of them will be going during rush hour,” he said.

MICHIGAN

Group promotes, protects forest products industry

The timber industry gained a helping hand this week.The Michigan Forest Products Council, a public affairs group for timber industries, officially began work Tuesday.“It’s basically to promote and protect the industry,” said Steve Hicks, acting chairman of the council’s board of directors.Hicks said the council will essentially serve as a representative in the state capital for the industry that provides more than 200,000 jobs and $12 billion.But people shouldn’t interpret the council’s creation as a sign that the industry is in jeopardy, Hicks said.“We’re not in trouble,” he said.

MSU

Campus briefs

Panel discussion to address conserving campus energy The panel discussion “Michigan’s Energy Future: Shaping the New Century,” will be held at 7 p.m.

MSU

Speaker addresses public health

Madalyn Pollock fidgeted with her pearl necklace Wednesday as tears filled her eyes.Photos of her husband flashed across the screen in Wharton Center’s Pasant Theatre as an introduction to journalist Laurie Garrett’s presentation.

MICHIGAN

Engler pushes bonuses

Before the Legislature breaks for two weeks of vacation, Gov. John Engler is hoping to move an early retirement plan for judges through the Senate and into immediate effect.The plan, which would offer bonus benefits for judges who retire early, has been criticized by many Democrats as “court-packing” and bribery.