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MICHIGAN

Dairy expo and 4-H days this week

The 11th annual Michigan Dairy Expo and 4-H Dairy Days started Monday and ends Friday. The events, which are held at the Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education, focus primarily on educating young people in the dairy industry.

MICHIGAN

Women on Wheels bike tour Saturday

The Tri-County Bicycle Association will host the 27th annual Women on Wheels bicycle tour Saturday. The ride is open to bicyclists of all skill levels with an emphasis on providing a safe environment for women and novice riders.

MSU

Magnet brings toys to class

Hunched over a laptop, Eric Wood typed commands, hoping to bring a toy Lego car to life. Suddenly, the car was moving in a straight line. "It's following this command button here," he said. Wood, who teaches at Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa, Fla., was among the 100 educators who traveled to MSU's College of Engineering Monday as part of the Summer Magnet and Related Training Institute.

MICHIGAN

Land emphasizes motorcycle safety

Ride Your Motorcycle to Work Day is Wednesday. The national event is aimed to encourage the use of motorcycles in order to reduce traffic, pollution and road surface destruction. Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land encourages riders to keep safety a priority when riding motorcycles.

MICHIGAN

Wage increase debated

Michigan's new $7.15 minimum wage will not be enough to cover workers' basic needs, according to a recently released report from the Michigan League for Human Services. The league, a nonprofit advocacy organization for low-income Michigan citizens, released the report stating that even with the wage increase, many will be forced to get help, such as food assistance and housing subsidies. "Low-wage workers have a really difficult time making ends meet in Michigan right now," said Sharon Parks, the league's vice president for policy.

MSU

Police train for hazmat response

Sopping wet, Les Bentley emerged from the yellow decontamination tent cold and disoriented. He was greeted by two other victims who had experienced the same warm-watered scrub down, shivering in their bathing suits.

MSU

Sideshow banners displayed at MSU

A three-legged man playing soccer is on display at Kresge Art Museum as a part of a nontraditional exhibit of circus sideshow banners. The collection of 12 canvas banners depicts exotic attractions ranging from a man riding a bicycle upside down through the air, to an underweight man playing tennis. There was some concern with how the exhibit would be received, said Cari Wolfe, assistant education curator. "Initially, there was some apprehension to being sensitive to certain issues - the armless and legless boy, the woman who is very large, that sort of thing," Wolfe said.

MICHIGAN

The gospel of C-SPAN

Lansing - For eight years, Doug Hemmig has been traveling the nation's highways covering politics and preaching the gospel of C-SPAN. When the C-SPAN Campaign 2008 bus arrived at the state Capitol Thursday as part of its "Road to the White House" tour, Lansing got a sermon. The tour promoted C-SPAN's coverage of the 2008 presidential race.

MSU

Local forum to improve leadership

The Mid-America Cooperative Council and MSU Product Center are hosting a two-day forum for Michigan cooperative board and management staff members. The 2007 Cooperative Education Forum for Directors and Senior Management will take place Aug.

MSU

MSU lets medical doctor research microbial ecology

It wasn't until he went to college at Massachusetts Institute of Technology that Vincent Young discovered his interest in research. And it wasn't until he came to MSU that he realized his interest crossed into departments many medical doctors wouldn't dream of studying. Young, an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine/Infectious Diseases at the College of Human Medicine and the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, is working on microbial ecology research, studying bacteria communities. However, Young is trained as a medical doctor, and the other researchers often work with bacteria in the soil, not in the human body. "We had to do a lot of convincing of the National Institute of Health that a person who is normally working in soil can contribute to medical fields," Young said about the struggle acquiring the grant he recently received from the institute. For Young, the idea of being a medical doctor originated growing up in Buffalo, NY. "When I was little, I was always thinking, 'You know, it would be kind of fun to be a doctor because you're going to help people,' and research wasn't anything I was exposed to when I was little," he said. So the idea to be both a doctor and a researcher came when he discovered the MD/doctorate programs that exist, which train students as both doctors and scientists, he said. "It's the idea that I learned both about the disease - and in medical school you have to learn a bit about the basic science of the disease - but I realized ? how did people find all this so we can try to design new therapies or have a new understanding of disease?" Young said, adding that he did an MD/doctorate program at Stanford University. For Young, the best part of the job is the social aspect. "If you just look at the type of research I do where I'm collaborating with people in crop and soil sciences and microbiology - for me, some of the best things about coming to work is when I get together with my colleagues and we get to talk about the science," he said. Basics of Research: For most of Young's career, he has been focusing his studies on disease-causing bacteria located in the human gastrointestinal tract.

MICHIGAN

House to establish policy task forces

Republicans in the Michigan House of Representatives announced Wednesday plans to create five task forces that would allow more direct contact and input from taxpayers. Starting this month, the task forces will travel across the state, holding public meetings for citizens and political experts to discuss issues facing the state for the Republican's new agenda.