Rain showers sent children and their parents fleeing for cover under the colorful canopies Wednesday afternoon at the East Lansing Family Aquatic Center, but after the sun came out less than five minutes later, the celebrations continued. The 2010 Summer Splash took place Wednesday to mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of the aquatic center, 6400 Abbot Road.
Philip Strong, who currently is the assistant dean for Lyman Briggs College, has been named the leader of the Neighborhood Concept pilot project in Hubbard Hall for next year. As leader of the Hubbard pilot program, Strong will coordinate programs involved with the Neighborhood Concept and work with faculty and students. He also will be in charge of assessing the effectiveness of the programs.
Four area lawyers will vie to become 30th District Circuit Court Judge in Tuesday’s primary. The six-year position opened after the retirement of Judge James Giddings, leaving no incumbent in the race to become Ingham County’s newest judge. Competing for the position are: Clinton Canady, Gregory Crockett, Jim Jamo and Billie Jo O’Berry.
MSU’s graduate student government and the city of East Lansing plan to introduce a new parking program in the fall for graduate and professional students, following a deal reached Tuesday.The Council of Graduate Students, or COGS, has discussed the possibility of such a program with city officials since fall 2009. Under the program, which was approved by the East Lansing City Council on Tuesday, the city would sell a bulk number of parking permits at $150 — a 50 percent discount — per semester for Lot 10, or the Division Street ramp.
New and returning MSU students might find themselves climbing up a wall or pigging out on free food samples upon their return to the university before the start of the fall semester. Officials at MSU’s University Activities Board, or UAB, have spent much of the summer securing sponsorships and planning activities for its 30th annual U-Fest, which is scheduled to be held from 7-11 p.m. Aug. 30 at the Union.
Textbooks might become a lot cheaper for students at MSU and across the nation if a bill in the U.S. Senate becomes law. The Open College Textbook Act, introduced in Sept. 2009, would provide one-year grants to universities and professors to produce quality textbooks that would be available for free online.
Learning Arabic can be difficult for both native speakers and newcomers to the language. But MSU’s Detroit Center hopes to give educators useful strategies for this task during a two-week STARTALK workshop. The national program to improve the teaching of languages, including Chinese, Arabic and Hindi, began Monday and continues through Aug. 6.
Based on past voter turnouts and filings for absentee ballots, about 1.7 million voters are expected to vote in Tuesday’s primary, according to the Michigan Secretary of State.
The Capital Area Transportation Authority, or CATA, will offer free rides to all customers with a Michigan voter registration card during regular service hours Tuesday, the date of the primary elections. Valid cards must be presented to the driver upon boarding to receive a free ride.
The MSU Community Music School is turning students into triple threat performers with its new Musical Theatre Camp this week, teaching young performers the ropes of the stage in a little more than a week’s time. From Monday through Friday, more than 60 students from grades 2-12 will fill their days with singing, choreography, acting, costume design and other activities that will prepare them for the basics of a stage production.
MSU’s University Archives & Historical Collections is beginning to assemble a new system called Spartan Archive, which will aim to be one of the leaders in digital archives, or an archive in which the documents were originally in digital format. The Spartan Archive will be a database of MSU’s digital records, some dating back as far as the 1970s. Because older digital documents can be in a variety of formats and difficult to open, Spartan Archives will put all documents on a similar, easy to access format.
More than 175 children and parents attended the seventh annual Bug Day on Tuesday at Michigan 4-H Children’s Garden. Various stations were set up around the gardens with hands-on activities, such as making a bug hat out of a paper plate, creating an insect out of pipe cleaners and tasting honey with graham crackers.
With magic tricks, blues music, free food and speeches from a variety of Michigan’s advocates for disability rights, the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, was celebrated Monday on the Capitol steps in Lansing. The ADA provides disabled citizens with civil protections that provide equal opportunities in education, communications, transportation and employment.
Although most still are in operation, some local hookah bars have watched their profits go up in smoke as a result of Michigan’s workplace smoking ban. The law prohibits smoking in public areas, but because more than 75 percent of sales are derived from tobacco products, hookah lounges such as Blue Midnight Hookah Lounge, 330 Albert Ave., are not required to cut smoke from the premises.
Burger lovers in East Lansing and at MSU have something to look forward to this fall. A franchise location of Five Guys Burgers and Fries will open in September at 623 E. Grand River Ave., replacing Take 2 Authentics, with construction beginning Monday, said owner Michael Abrams.
The Ingham County TRIAD Senior Prom provided dinner, dancing and live music for about 300 people who attended, and was sponsored by the nonprofit Ingham County TRIAD and Elder Law of Michigan, said Lansing police Sgt. Traci Ruiz, who organized the event and is the chair of TRIAD.
Area alumni and participants dodged rain showers and fly balls Saturday morning in the hope their team walked away not only a winner, but a bit richer for charity. The MSU Alumni Association hosted the MSU Young Alumni Softball Tournament, a first of its kind for the organization, at East Lansing Softball Complex, 6400 Abbot Road.
Inspired by a documentary he watched as a college student and the patients he now treats as a physician, John Goudreau is researching a protein called Parkin that might help prevent Parkinson’s disease. There is no cure for the disease, which kills brain cells and can cause tremors, loss of movement and psychological impairment.
Going pro twice, local BMX — or bicycle motocross — rider Greg Days has been racing since he was 10 years old. He went pro at age 17, but retired five years later to start a family, he said.
MSU’s Dean of the College of Nursing, Mary Mundt, was appointed co-chair of the new Michigan Nursing Education Council with the goal of upgrading the state’s nursing curriculum to a national level.