Friday, July 26, 2024

News

MSU

Penn and ink earn book award

William Penn called home from California in May expecting a full report of the day’s activities from his wife and children.He wasn’t expecting to hear that he’d won the American Book Award.“I said, ‘Uh, yeah right,’” the MSU English professor said.

MICHIGAN

BATmobile travels across Michigan roadways

Michigan police departments are using the BATmobile to catch a few jokers on the roads.The Breath Alcohol Testing van, or BATmobile, is a vehicle used in processing drunken drivers by having blood alcohol level testing available on the scene.The van is part of the high-tech equipment police are using in part of the Drive Michigan Safely Task Force campaign, “You Drink & Drive.

MICHIGAN

Program turns empty tanks into cash for grillers

Gas grills around the state were fired up on Wednesday for the Fourth of July, but where do users go to refill their propane tanks once they’re empty? If the tank doesn’t have an overfill prevention device, or OPD, it may be difficult to find anyone to refill it. New regulations in Michigan will prohibit tanks that lack the prevention device from being filled, beginning April 1, 2002.

MICHIGAN

Company offers renewable energy

It’s not easy being green. But G is for green power, and that’s good enough for John Strickler, director of communications for the Lansing Board of Water and Light. The board has a contract with Granger Electric Co. to purchase methane gas from landfills and sell it to customers as renewable energy. Joel Zylstra, president of Granger Electric Co. said as a landfill begins to decompose it emits methane gas, which can be used just like natural gas. “It has significant environmental benefits,” he said.

MICHIGAN

E.L. seeks grant to fund City Center II building

East Lansing is hoping to create more foot traffic downtown with what is being termed “City Center II.” East Lansing City Council approved an application for a Core Communities Grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. If East Lansing receives the $700,000 it’s asking for, the city would purchase the building at 303 Abbott Road, which housed the Old Kent Bank. “We would use it as part of a redevelopment,” City Manager Ted Staton said. The city is considering using the land for a movie theater, retail space, condominiums and a parking area. “I think it is a good idea because we are looking for additional space for owner-occupied housing downtown and looking for space for a theater,” Councilmember Beverly Baten said.

MSU

Kids learn at vet camp

How would a blood and guts smoothie taste? To campers at the MSU Veterinary Camp, they tasted great.On Wednesday, campers, like 13-year-old Jessie Priestley, wet their whistles with the strawberry, banana and lemon flavor of “cow intestine smoothies.”“I liked when we got to make the smoothie things,” the Dexter resident said.Suttons Bay resident Laura Patmore, 13, said when she got to “do the guts,” it was one of her favorite moments at the camp.

MICHIGAN

Police to watch for drunken drivers

The Michigan State Police are putting the brakes on drunken drivers during the Fourth of July holiday.“Our troopers are being instructed not to work on investigations that are not essential, but to concentrate on patrolling,” said Sgt.

MICHIGAN

Police, firefighters battle blood deficit

The battleground has been set and lines have been drawn in the sand. When it is all over, members of the Lansing Police Department or the Lansing Fire Department will stand victorious, while the others will hang their heads in shame. The two departments have squared off in a blood drive for the Mid-Michigan Chapter of the American Red Cross, 1800 E.

MSU

Bosses Day contest invites university employees to recognize supervisors

Is your supervisor exceptionally skilled or sensitive to your needs? If so, nominate him or her for the first annual MSU Supervisory Award, sponsored by MSU Child and Family Care Resources. The prize is meant to reward bosses who have demonstrated sensitivity toward managing the professional and personal demands of their employees. “We’ve had some nominations and the response has been favorable,” said Lori Strom, coordinator of Child and Family Care Resources.

MICHIGAN

E.L. enters 425 agreement

Ted Roudebush said he is unhappy that he now has to follow East Lansing’s rules.Roudebush, who bought a house in DeWitt Township in 1995, now lives on land that is part of a 425 agreement between East Lansing and the township.A 425 agreement allows local adjoining governments to agree to foster development on a shared piece of land, said Jim van Ravensway, East Lansing’s director of planning and community development.“The land is in DeWitt Township, but there were developers that wanted to develop that land, but DeWitt could not provide services to them,” he said.

MICHIGAN

Redistricting plan draws controversy

Republican plans to redraw Michigan’s congressional and legislative districts passed quickly through the state Senate on Tuesday. The assembly, after a 21-14 party-line vote, approved a plan analysts say would likely flip Michigan’s representation in Washington, D.C., from a Democratic to a Republican majority. Democrats have cried foul, saying the process has been unnecessarily hurried by the Republicans, who are in a strong position to decide the new boundaries, as they control both state legislative chambers and the governor’s office. District lines are redrawn every 10 years after each U.S.

MSU

ACLU files request

The Lansing-area chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed another Freedom Of Information Act request for the university’s files regarding the undercover police infiltration of Students for Economic Justice on Monday.Henry Silverman, president of the ACLU Lansing-area chapter and an MSU history professor, said the ACLU is not trying to make a nuisance of itself.“We are not trying to harass the university, we are simply trying to find out if there was any reason for this action,” he said.Silverman said the ACLU will push the case as far as possible, even if it means going to court.

MSU

Researchers find pesticide hazardous to human health

When Rachel Carson published the novel “Silent Spring” in 1962, she warned that the pesticide dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane, or DDT, might have more long-term effects on the environment than killing insects.The pesticide, which had been produced in lots of 600 million pounds per year in the United States, was later banned in the country in the late 1970s.MSU researchers have found dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethene, or DDE - a metabolite of DDT - might have a long-term effect on human beings.Wilfried Karmaus, an associate professor of epidemiology, researched children in areas of Germany where the pesticide is still used, with the help of epidemiology graduate student Scott Asakevich.Many of the girls exposed to the pesticide were nearly an inch shorter than average.