Lansing — From the dark green vintage REO automobile parked on the Capitol's front lawn, to the Civil War garb worn by period reenactors Thursday, Lansing turned back the clock 100 years.
Bob Johnson knows every home in East Lansing from top to bottom, but now that he is retiring as East Lansing's city assessor, city officials are left trying to fill his shoes. Almost 30 years of documenting city homes and determining their value.
Central United Methodist Church will host its annual "Celebration of Music in Worship" Sunday.
Lansing — Outside Gier Park Elementary School, a 6-foot wooden pole stands decorated in the name of peace, with paintings by students in a plot filled with mulch and flowers. The pole's objective is to promote peace to improve the sometimes rocky relationship between Gier Park Elementary School at 401 E.
East Lansing has dogs on its mind. The city wants to create a dog park where "man's best friend" can run free, unhampered by leashes. And dog owners want a place where they can bring their four-legged friends without worrying about keeping them on a leash, Wendy Longpre, assistant director of the East Lansing department of Parks, Recreation and Arts said. "We really do want to provide an area where people can recreate with their dogs," she said.
With her long, black curly hair swept back by glasses, Pearl Hernandez laughed and joked with those around her as she got her face painted by one of her friends. The result: One side of the sixth-grader's face was painted purple, the other cheek had a stencil of a planet. The Pattengill Middle School student never used to be so outgoing.
Jeff Riedinger has been recommended as the dean of MSU's International Studies and Programs. He has been serving as acting dean since 2005, and his appointment is subject to approval by the MSU Board of Trustees at the June 15 meeting. Riedinger would succeed John Hudzik, who served as ISP dean from 1995-2005.
At the northern border of Ingham County where Shiawassee and Clinton counties meet, Jamie McAloon-Lampman was foraging for mushrooms in a wooded area on her property and found something she didn't expect. She and her husband stumbled across a litter of coyote pups, with the parents nowhere in sight.
Elise, Mich. — Students in Algiers, Algeria gathered in a classroom Tuesday for an experience of a lifetime. With some wearing green and white MSU T-shirts sent by the university, students of Cheikh Bouamama High School awaited a video conference call from students from a Junior Achievement class at Ovid-Elsie High School in Elsie, Mich. The class, taught by business department teacher Bonnie Ott, aims to educate and update students on international relations and global business. The call, a result of the Partnership Schools Program, or PSP and MSU's College of Education, was designed for 11th- and 12th-grade students from both schools to share cultural and technological similarities and differences.
Nearly 50 years ago, student Richard Snider heard a crunch with each step he took on, what were then, Michigan Agricultural College campus sidewalks. The crunch came from a pesticide called DDT, which was dropped over campus by World War II jets in pellet form to combat elm bark beetles and mosquitoes. Now an MSU professor, Snider recalls research conducted by one of his mentors that warned strolls through campus would be without the sound of chirping birds if the crunches continued. In a new documentary filmed and co-produced by nine, MSU students, "Dying to Be Heard" sounds off on research conducted by MSU Professor George Wallace on DDT, and its deadly effects on birds and other wildlife on campus. Findings from Wallace's research were used in Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," a book that helped plant the seed in the modern environmental movement.
Construction will begin at 8 p.m. March 29 on Interstate 96 between M-52 and M-59. The construction will take place at night Sunday-Thursday throughout June. There also will be a single lane closure starting at 8 p.m.
Okemos — Ten minutes before Jeremy Lance's first guest arrived, he spotted an envelope lying at his hair cutting station, waiting to be opened. He immediately recognized where the envelope came from: Intercoiffure.
Robbie Ortega generally has no problem sharing the road with bicyclists when he drives around East Lansing.
Sparty's storied run has come to a disappointing finish. Last Friday, Sparty could not muster enough strength to defeat Cy, the Iowa State Cyclone, in The Most Dominant College Mascot on Earth competition.
Norm Young, 67, cracked a wide smile and began laughing modestly after having the Ranney Park handball courts named in his honor. "You want the truth?" said Young, a former MSU wrestler and 1961 NCAA champion.
Palm trees and sandy beaches are not things that come to mind when thinking about MSU, but that will soon change. The MSU Board of Trustees unanimously approved the pursuit of degree and research programs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, May 18. A group of deans from five MSU colleges visited the Southern Persian Gulf city in March to investigate starting programs in Dubai. "We've had an institutional interest to find a location in the Middle East to expand our presence in the region," said John Hudzik, MSU vice president of Global Engagement and Strategic Projects.
Five summers ago, Jonathan Sage began working at the Ohio Light Opera as a carpenter. Now, the 2007 theater design graduate has worked his way up to technical director for the company located at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, where he is preparing for an upcoming production of the "Sound Of Music." Sage has Kirk Domer, associate chair and head of design of the department of theater, to thank for bringing him to Ohio all those summers ago and for nominating him for the Sudler Prize in the Arts award. Sage caught wind that he was nominated by Domer but was unsure he would actually receive the award. "I had heard my nomination was through," Sage said.
As royal blue bracelets reading "Be Brave" wrapped around children's' wrists at Williamston's elementary schools Thursday, 11-year-old Dan Warschefsky sat in a chair to take everything in. Students from Discovery and Explorer Elementary schools flocked outside into the sunny, mid-80-degree weather, danced to music, walked a fitness path and donated to a research fund - exactly what Dan had set forth to do. "I just wanted to raise money for my brother's fund," Dan, a fifth-grade student, said.
Flint, Detroit and East Lansing - one of these is not like the other. Yet, a Brookings Institution study released this week identifies those cities, Saginaw, Muskegon and Kalamazoo as six of 80 industrial cities that are economically weak. The news that East Lansing is as financially troubled as these cities was alarming to City Manager Ted Staton. "There's a famous quote by Benjamin Disraeli, 'There are lies, damn lies and statistics,'" he said.