the lookout issue 10

Photo Cluboffers V-day

PAGE 4

tryoutsunderwayPAGE 6

Pomponspread

local music

Students

photo shootPAGE 11

thelookoutLansing Community College’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1959

Feb. 7 - 20, 2011

Volume 52, Issue 10www.lcc.edu/lookout

Nathan WilsonNews Editor

LCC hosted the Michigan Louis Stokes Alliance for Minor-ity Participation (MI-LSAMP) at Dart Audi-torium on Feb. 3 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

MI-LSAMP is an al-liance formed in 2005 by Michigan State Uni-versity, University of Michigan, Wayne State University and West-ern Michigan Univer-sity.

The program is de-signed to benefit

See MI-LSAMP, page 2

Nathan Wilson News Editor

LCC closed all of its campuses Feb. 2 in re-sponse to a severe win-ter storm that tore across Northeast America.

The decision came at 4 p.m. on Feb. 1 as the storm bore down on Michigan.

Chris Strugar-Fritsch, executive director of the Administrative Services Division, said he is fed weather information from the local police de-

partment and LCC Emer-gency Medical Services.

“It’s really more about the conditions, and every condition is different,” he said. “There is no rule of thumb ‘eight inches, we close.’ We don’t do that.”

For instance, Strugar-Fritsch explained LCC experienced an 11-inch snowfall one year and the college was open the next day.

“It was a real light snow and there was no wind,” he said.

The primary factor in

closing LCC on Feb. 2 was the blizzard winds.

“The city had an-nounced a local state of emergency by 3 p.m.,” Strugar-Fritsch said.

“By 4 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, it was very obvious that the storm wasn’t going to miss us. It was headed right toward us. So we felt the best de-cision was to cancel class-es for Wednesday.”

Between 7 and 9 p.m., LCC workers began plowing and putting salt on the campus grounds.

Classes remained open at LCC on Tuesday evening.

Timothy Martz, man-ager of Field Operations, said Stiles Landscape Services provided Bob-cats with blades and four-wheel drive vehicles to remove the snow.

According to Martz, 10 to 12 snow removal per-sonnel spent over 30 cu-mulative hours cleaning the campus.

Strugar-Fritsch said the last time LCC classes closed due to weather was 2007.

Photo by Michael CaterinaStoring snow: Plows moved snow on the third floor of the Gannon Building ramp to the center of each parking aisle. The snow is shown piled almost six feet deep in some areas.

Snowstorm


LCC presented Black History Month’s 2011 Kickoff Ceremony at Dart Auditorium the eve-ning of Feb. 1.

Antonio Manning, stu-dent chair of the Black History Month Commit-tee, started the program by leading the audience in a moment of silence for fallen star Mariah Byrd.

Willie Davis Jr., Ph.D.,

an LCC teacher and fac-ulty chair of the Black History Month Commit-tee, welcomed the audi-ence and offered a pre-view of the program.

See History, page 3

closes campus Feb. 2

Photo byNathan Wilson

Black History Month opens at LCC

Photo by Michael CaterinaPowerful performance: MSU’s Omega Psi Phi performs Step It Up! in Dart Auditorium for LCC’s Black History Month 2011 Kickoff Feb. 1.

MI-LSAMP involves LCCExpanding

technology: U of M

graduate stu-dent Andrew Richardson speaks with

Board of Trustees member

Jerry Hol-lister after the

MI-LSAMP presentation Feb. 3. The

presentation included

robot demon-strations and opportunities

available for LCC

students.

NEWS2 Feb. 7 - 20, 2011www.lcc.edu/lookout

underrepresented minori-ties by expanding technol-ogy, engineering and math throughout America and the state of Michigan.

LSAMP plans to achieve this by increasing the quali-ty and quantity of minority students pursuing degrees and careers related to sci-ence and math.

Among the speakers present were college presi-dents, college staff and stu-dents. LCC President Brent Knight delivered opening remarks and celebrated the significance of MI-LSAMP.

Mary Sue Coleman, the president of U of M, ex-pressed her enthusiasm about MI-LSAMP and said, “In these five years, I’m pleased to say we’ve seen a 28-percent increase in graduates from one year to the next, year after year.”

“This is a two-fold cel-ebration,” said John Dunn, president of WMU. “It’s an announcement of new funding to expand the suc-cessful initiative aimed at recruiting a number of tal-ented young people. … To-day is also a celebration of the success we’ve seen over the first five years.”

A. James Hicks, MI-LSAMP program director, said, “You are a part of a national wave of excellence of supporting domestic, underrepresented minor-ity students. … We have a long term goal of trying to produce 50,000 minority graduates. I believe we can reach it.”

“LSAMP has changed my life,” said Rodney Sin-gleton, a graduate of MSU, who has benefited from the program.

After the speakers, a vid-eo sharing experiences of MI-LSAMP students was

presented to the audience.During the program,

robots developed by the Computer Science Depart-ment of U of M were pres-ent on the stage behind the speakers.

Andrew Richardson, a graduate of U of M, explained the mapping robots are designed to ex-plore urban environments, similar to robots used by the military to detect im-provised explosive devices (IEDs).

To view video of the ro-bots, visit The Lookout’s Facebook page.

MI-LSAMPContinued from page 1

Robotics: LSAMP

presented mapping

robots, developed by U of M graduate

students, at the presen-

tation in Dart Auditorium Feb. 3. MI-

LSAMP offered

opportuni-ties for LCC

students.

Photo by Courtney Baker

Photo by Nathan Wilson

Man on top: A. James Hicks, director of LSAMP, speaks at the celebration of MI-LSAMP in Dart Auditorium. LSAMP is a program funded by the National Science Foundation, whose goal is to increase the numbers of minorities pursuing bachelor's degrees in sci-ence, math, engineering and technology.

Feb. 7 - 20, 2011www.lcc.edu/lookout

NEWS3


Lansing residents and members of the Right to Life for Greater Michigan gathered on the steps of the State Capitol Jan. 24 to show their support for life.

Many participants who braved the frigid tem-peratures displayed signs made by students from the Clinton County area.

LCC student Rebekah Stenske, who attended the event, said, “It’s good to show support for life and the most basic right that everyone deserves to have in the world.”

Sharon Pohl, another supporter, said, “Well, I was praying about it and I just felt that it was a good thing to come out and support the unborn be-cause they have no voice.” Pohl said she attended the event to “make people aware that they (fetuses) are human beings from the moment of conception to natural death.”

Chris Smith, who has two daughters who were participating in the March for Life in Washington D.C. the same day, also at-tended the Lansing rally.

“I am a mother of six and I’ve lost a child and I could not imagine any-body wanting to hurt their own children,” Smith said.

“So I’m out here to sup-port everyone who has had an abortion and those

who would never dream of having one in saying that we all have to come together and save these babies.”

Jeff Hall, the pastor of Community Faith Church in Holt, welcomed the people in attendance and introduced Chris Venek-lase as the featured speak-er.

Veneklase is the coor-dinator for the 40 Days for Life campaign in Lan-sing, a campaign of prayer and peaceful vigil outside abortion clinics.

“Just because abortion and killing a child is le-gal in our nation does not make it right; it does not mean we should not fight against it,” Veneklase said.

Veneklase explained that ending abortion is a spiritual battle fought on many levels, including legislative, educational and supportive.

“We need to humble ourselves and acknowl-edge that our nation has made a terrible choice in

legalizing the killing of in-nocent children,” he said.

After Veneklase’s speech, guest singer Bo-ris Williams performed “Amazing Grace” to the applause of the atten-dants.

During the event, a statement from Michi-gan Attorney General Bill Schuette was read, ex-pressing his support for life.

Maureen Meehan-Po-lash, president of Right to Life for Greater Lansing, and her husband David recited the number of abortions performed each year since 1973. During the somber procession, silk roses ascribed to each year were deposited in a basket by the podium.

According to Guttmach-er Institute, approximate-ly 52 million abortions have taken place since Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court decision in 1973 that recognized abortion as a fundamental right.

Veneklase said people can help their cause by volunteering at pregnancy centers, donating diapers or car seats and participat-ing in the 40 Days for Life campaign.

“There you give wit-ness to love and you offer help,” he said. “Just stand-ing there (outside abor-tion clinics) in prayer and praying for these women that are in need can give them courage.”

“Initially the program was designed for what we call ‘edutainment,’” he said, “which was developed to look at is-sues … at LCC to disad-vantaged youth, espe-cially African-American youth.”

Representing the Of-fice of the President at LCC, business consul-tant Dr. Stanley Chase, Ph.D. said, “It’s not just a month of celebration, it’s a month of recogni-tion. This is a month through which we and African-American peo-ple, specifically here with our committee and LCC, take an opportu-nity to say: ‘This is who we are.’”

Among the featured speakers were State Rep. Mark Meadows of the 69th District, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero and Director of External Af-fairs Tim Baltimore.

After the tributes by politicians, the musical presentation began. Iee-sha On’trel, a local art-ist, performed “Natural Confidence” and “Liber-ty,” singing and playing the drums, even beat-ing out a rhythm on the stage surface.

Minister LaNette Hes-ter also entertained the audience with spiritual songs from her album “My Destiny.” Every performance was indic-ative of the passion and excitement that charac-

terized the program and events to come.

After the music and po-etry, LCC student Prince Spann encouraged the audience to participate in a class in Dart Audito-rium 174 every Tuesday from 2 to 4 p.m.

The class will teach more about the past, present and future of African-Americans.

Robin Smith of the LCC Board of Trustees emphasized that every-one contributes to his-tory each day.

“I want you to start thinking today … ‘What

footprint will I leave in history?’ Because you will leave a footprint for some-one to follow,” she said.

Manning said he was pleased with the num-ber of people who at-tended the ceremony despite the incoming winter storm.

“The Office of the President, the Office of Student Life and other organizations on the campus were very es-sential to this happen-ing, and it shows our commitment as a col-lege to diversity,” Man-ning said.

Pro-lifers rally at Capitol HistoryContinued from page 1

Worship songs: Recording artist Minister LaNette Hester performs her song “My Destiny” during LCC’s Black History Month 2011 Kick-off Feb. 1 in Dart Auditorium.

Photo by Michael Caterina

8 9 10 11

18171514

21 22 23 24 25

Soul Food Luncheons every Tues. in the Ken-nedy Cafeteria.1-3 p.m.

Soul Food Luncheons contd.

Soul Food Luncheons contd.

Movie Festival Abel Sykes Building Haiti: A PaymentHistory 5-7 p.m.

Hip-hop PoetryEvery Fri. in the Herman Conference CenterNoon-1:30 p.m.

Hip-hop PoetryContd.

Hip-hop PoetryContd.

Grand FinaleDart Auditorium6:30-9 p.m.

Energy/Technology Program134 Gannon Building2-3:30 p.m.

Health Careers127 TLC1:30-3:30 p.m.

Education ProgramDart Auditorium12:30-2:30 p.m.

Movie Festival contd. The Rabbit Proof Fence6:30-8:30 p.m.

Movie Festival contd. Rastafarian Women1-2:30 p.m.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

7

16

February: remaining Black History Month events

For a cause: Abortion pro-testors hold signs display-ing their views at the State Capitol Jan. 24.

Photo by Michael Caterina

* Photo courtesy of http://thech-isholmsource.com


NEWS4

IN BRIEFNEWS

Obama confronts energy crisis— Infallible Rhetoric —


LCC’s Photo Club will host a Val-entine’s Day Shoot on Monday, Feb. 14 on the second floor of the Gannon Building between Cyber Cafe and Java City, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The club will sell 5 x 7 prints for $3 or two prints for $5.

The photos are instant prints, so students can receive their portrait im-mediately.

According to Photo Club Adviser John Rocco, the Valentine’s Day shoot will feature a festive background with hearts.

Rocco said the Valentine’s Day shoot is not necessarily geared to-ward couples.

“It could be a single person, it could be a couple or it could be a group of people,” he said.

Photo Club uses the money from shoots to go on field trips and to buy equipment to donate to LCC’s Pho-tography Program.

“Besides providing a little bit of rev-enue, the biggest thing really is … the visibility,” Rocco said.

“The shoot gives students the expe-rience in terms of actually doing por-traits.”

He added the club usually makes $80 or $100 during shoots. Photo Club made $65 during their 2010 Christmas shoot.

The club will also host a St. Patrick’s Day shoot on Thursday, March 17.

Photo Club is open to any LCC student interested in photography, not necessarily photo majors.

For more information regarding Pho-to Club, contact John Rocco at (517) 483-1721 or [email protected].

President Barack Obama delivered his second annual State of the Union Address on Jan. 25.

The aspect of his speech that caught my attention was his solu-tion for taking control of the deficit and en-couraging American innovation.

Having spent bil-lions of dollars on an impotent bailout and projecting trillions more in spending, the deficit hardly seems his first priority. I was pleased to hear Obama offer specific solutions, not just an enthusiastic “Yes, we can!”

He suggested invest-ing (spending) in bio-medical research, in-formation technology and clean energy tech-nology.

I truly hope Obama can meet his goal of severing America’s ad-

diction to oil, particu-larly from countries like Venezuela and Iran who despise us.

Switching to a cleaner fuel would also benefit the economy by creat-ing new jobs. However, I don’t expect this clean fuel change to take place soon.

America has prom-ised to replace oil with clean energy for de-cades, but gas prices continue to rise and oil still dominates the world economy.

I was astonished when Obama said the

California Institute of Technology is currently developing technology to convert sunlight and water into fuel for cars. It would be miraculous if such common re-sources could truly be utilized to replace oil.

“To help pay for it (clean energy), I’m ask-ing Congress to elimi-nate the billions of taxpayer dollars that we currently give to oil companies,” Obama said.

That may have been my favorite excerpt of the entire speech.

While I remain real-istically skeptical of the challenges of inventing a new energy source, I hope Obama can jump-start the process that has taken so long for America to focus on.

I just hope this doesn’t cost another $2.52 trillion in federal debt.

Photo Club hosts Valentine’s Day shoot

File photo by Michael CaterinaBig smiles: Photo club member Nicole Haring takes a picture of a couple during the club’s 2010 Valentine’s Day Photo Shoot. This year’s shoot will take place on Monday, Feb. 14 in the second floor Gannon Buliding lobby by the Cyber Cafe from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Prints that are 5x7 in size are available for $3 each or two for $5.

The Disney College Program is a paid internship in either the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida or the Disneyland Resort in California. The MSU/LCC Disney College Pro-gram Campus Representative team is seeking recruits for fall 2011.

The live presentation will take place Feb. 23 at MSU’s C107 McD-onel Hall at 3:30 p.m. and again at 6 p.m. in N130 Business College Complex. The MSU Museum will present its

annual Darwin Discovery Day on Sunday, Feb. 13 from 1-5 p.m. Rich Bellon, an MSU scholar, will answer questions about Charles Darwin and his life.

The event will feature critters from the MSU Herpetology Club, tours of the museum’s Bug Room and specimens from the museum’s collections and dinosaurs in Habi-tat Hall. Cake and refreshments will be served in celebration of Darwin’s birthday.

Michigan’s 2011 Winter Warm-Up is an eight-week physical activity program featuring the Blues’ Com-munity Challenge.

The challenge is a contest between nine Greater Lansing communities, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mich-igan will award grants to partici-

LCC and MSU promote Disney College Program

MSU Museum presents Darwin Discovery Day

Michigan Warm-Up launches Feb. 12

pating communities. The program will launch on Feb.

12 at 9 a.m. at the Lansing Mall, where participants can have health screenings and learn about prizes and incentives. The program lasts until April 2.

For more information on the event, visit www.cphlansing.com.


The Tri-City Ghost Hunters Society (TC-GHS) of Michigan is a nonprofit, paranormal investigation team that preserves historical loca-tions and offers inves-tigations to anyone in need.

Mandy Moore and LCC student Nicole Beauchamp founded the society in July 2009.

TCGHS has investi-gated old Civil War forts, hotels, art galleries, col-leges and homes, includ-ing Midland Cemetery (Mich.), Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (W. Va.) and Fort Wayne (Mich.).

According to Beau-champ, the group uses electromagnetic field (EMF) detectors, audio recorders, digital and infrared cameras, ther-mometers, still cameras, night vision and laser grids.

Beauchamp explained that a laser grid produces multiple colored dots, and if a shadow passes through the grid, it will

block out the lasers. During an investiga-

tion in Waverly Hills Sanatorium (Ky.), Beau-champ threw a toy ball down a hall in the third floor, where a child’s spirit is said to exist.

According to Beau-champ, the ball returned to her and spun around in circles on the floor. She caught the event on vid-eo, which can be found on http://www.youtube.com/user/TCGHS.

“We have collected many EVPs, which are electronic voice phenom-enons; we’ve caught two (photos of) shadow peo-ple. Shadow people are … extremely dark fig-ures, and they only come around in the darkness.”

Beauchamp said her most frightening experi-ence took place at Fort Wayne in Detroit.

“I was about to go into the sally port when I just got this really bad feel-ing. … I started to get re-ally uncomfortable,” she said. “Out of nowhere, it sounded as if someone had picked up a broom or a wooden two by

four and just whipped it across the room.”

She said she left after the noise and did not continue down the stairs into the sally port.

Another disturbing ex-perience took place when Beauchamp was acciden-tally locked inside one of the wards at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asy-

lum. “I could not get the

door open. It was liter-ally locked. ... And the asylum hasn’t been in operation since 1993,” Beauchamp said.

In April, TCGHS is planning on investigat-ing a morgue in Ken-tucky. The team has also been privately asked to

investigate two land-marks in Michigan dur-ing May, but TCGHS cannot reveal the loca-tions yet.

According to Beau-champ, they may be the last people to investigate these locations.

On March 19, TCGHS will host a Children’s Paranormal Workshop

from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Holly Township Library. Children who are inter-ested in the paranormal will have an opportunity to ask questions and view the team’s equipment.

“Our goal is to put them (children) at ease with any fears that they may have about ghosts,” Beauchamp said.


FEATURES5LCC student investigates American paranormal

Exploring asylums: TCGHS members use their paranormal detection equipment. From left, Harold Beauchamp, Vikki Freeman, Nicole Beauchamp and Mandy Moore investigate Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (TALA) in West Virginia.

Photo by The Tri-City Ghost Hunters Society


SPORTS6

OK, time to panic. The Michigan State Univer-sity men’s basketball is terrible this year.

The standards in East Lansing are among the highest in the nation, and rightfully so, after mak-ing the final four last year. This, however, is begging to get embarrassing.

After tough losses to Penn State, Illinois and Purdue, red flags started to appear in the minds of many Spartan faithful.

Luckily (or so we thought) a home game against Michigan would stop the bleeding and maybe, just maybe, give the Spartans the spark they needed to get their season back in gear.

But the Spartans came up short again. MSU lost to the Wolverines to fall to 4-4 in the conference, and more importantly, lost faith in themselves.

Oh yeah, did I men-tion junior guard Korie Lucious was suspended for the remainder of the season due to “conduct detrimental to the team,”

according to Head Coach Tom Izzo? Who knows what the real story is with that situation.

While we are on the subject of our beloved coach, let’s talk about the schedule this season, es-pecially early in the year.

The Spartans played Connecticut, Duke, Syra-cuse and Texas all within the first two months of the season, three of the games on the road, none-theless. They lost all of them. Way to go, Tom.

If it was not bad enough that arguably the best team in the country (Ohio State) comes out of the Big Ten, teams like Wisconsin, Purdue and even Minnesota are mak-ing smaller runs of their

own. Sparty was ranked sixth in the Big Ten as of Jan. 30 and did not show many signs of improve-ment.

The only silver lining belonging to the dark cloud that is Spartan Bas-ketball this year is the effort of junior forward Draymond Green. Aver-aging 13 points and eight rebounds a game,

Green has almost sin-gle-handedly given MSU hope for a push into the NCAA tournament in March. That’s right, we have to hope to get into the bracket.

It would not surprise me if we all turned our televisions on in a couple months to watch MSU play in the NIT, and eventually lose. After all, that’s about the only thing the Spartans have been able to do consis-tently this season.

Who knows, maybe we can make a late run and grab some momentum going into the postsea-son. Here’s hoping. Go State!

Shape up Sparty

Dominick Mastrangelo Sports Editor

The Pompon Club at LCC will hold an official tryout on Feb. 10 from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Gannon Building room 256.

The tryout will be open to the public; however only LCC students will be able to make the team.

The club will hold prac-tices on Feb. 7, 8 and 9 also from 8 to 10 p.m. which are optional to those trying out. The official tryout, howev-er, will be mandatory.

Students who are in-terested in trying out are encouraged to wear appro-priate footwear and work-out clothing to all practices and the tryout.

According to Stacy Koll-man, who is an organizer of the Pompon Club, the team is anything but a cheerleading squad.

“Cheerleaders scream and stunt — we’re more like an organized dance team,” Kollman explained.

Kollman said the Pom-pon Club will perform dur-ing halftime of the remain-ing home basketball games this semester.

“We are relatively new, so we’re trying to get in-volved in as much as we can,” she said.

According to Sara Pef-fley, another organizer of the Pompon Club, a recent rule change has mandated that by virtue of being a club, the squad must accept

all individuals who try out.This, however, does not

mean that everyone who is cast will perform. The Pompon Club still has spe-cific criteria for who they are looking to add to their squad, and consequently end up performing.

“We’re looking for some-body who can free-learn and pick up on the routines quickly,” Kollman said. “There is a reason we only give them three days to learn the routine before the tryout.”

Students who have any questions about the Pom-pon Club or any of these practices/tryouts can con-tact Stacy Kollman at (517) 231-4381 or Sara Peffley at (517) 388-3839.

Try out for LCC Pompon

— A New York state of mind —

Kick line: LCC’s Pompon club performs at an LCC basketball game Nov. 20, 2010. Photo by Michael Caterina


SPORTS7

Erik Stiem Staff Writer

After dealing with an undisclosed sickness for the past few years, Mariah Byrd, former co-captain of the LCC women’s basketball team, was sent to the hospital Nov. 26, the day after Thanksgiv-ing. She stayed there until her passing on Dec. 18, 2010.

The funeral was held Dec. 29, with her whole team in attendance, as well as girls who had the privilege of playing with Byrd last year.

“It was a sudden shock. No one antici-pated this. We knew she was sick, but we didn’t know to what degree,” explained LCC Women’s Coach Ervin Brunson “She will be missed.”

Brunson described

Byrd as an “impact person,” who touched the lives of those she played with and men-tored.

Moving on after los-ing such a commend-able person and team-mate is no easy task.

“It does have an im-pact because there are times that the girls have their moments, and there are times when it hits them. It hits all of us, the coaching staff as well, because Mari-ah was a unique indi-vidual and a special person,” Brunson said.

“You can’t just walk away without the thought of her because she brought a lot to the team.”

Brunson said Byrd was a spunky, yet laid-back individual who took joy in be-ing a leader and saw teammates feed off of

her positivity; yet her friendliness extended beyond the confines of her own team.

Many other pro-grams, including schools LCC does not even play this year, remembered playing Byrd and sent their condolences. Her im-pact on the LCC wom-en’s basketball team, as well as the league, was without a doubt unfor-gettable.

“We have dedicated our whole season to Mariah, and hope that we continue to gain closer bonds to each other, gain experience that things happen sometimes unexpect-edly that you can’t prepare for, that (you) don’t want to prepare for,” Brunson said.

“We just have to move on with life and hope that what we’ve

done will represent her and some of the posi-tive things she wanted out of this year’s team.”

“I explained to the girls, we, as a team, need to continue to move on because if (Mariah) was here, she would say the same thing, that we’ve got to keep strong,” remarked the coach.

Flying high in the Gannon Building is the women’s basketball banner, with an action shot of Mariah Byrd representing the team.

Looking up to her, as they always have, re-minds the Lady Stars who they’re playing for every time they enter their home court.

It is easy to imagine Byrd with a big smile looking back down, proud of the lives she has touched and enjoying her newfound freedom.

Dominick MastrangeloSports Editor

After a 76-68 loss to Jack-son Community College on Jan. 12, it appeared the Stars had little left to offer their fans.

Over the next two weeks, they did everything they could to prove such an as-sumption to be false.

After defeating Lake Michigan College on Jan. 19 in a 102-92 overtime thriller, the Stars took to the road again with a renewed sense of confidence and a passion that had not been seen yet this season.

“We’ve been having a blast lately,” sophomore guard Colin Ward said after a 71-63 victory over Kalamazoo Valley Com-munity College on Jan 22. “The game against Jackson was huge for us.”

Ward scored 14 points and recorded five assists.

The Stars headed home to face rival Grand Rapids Community College in their first home game back at LCC since their overtime thriller just a week before.

“It feels great to be back,” said Alvino Ashley before the game against GRCC. LCC won 74-61.

“We find our mojo here really easily.”

Ashley scored 22 points while pulling in nine re-bounds, leaving him just shy of what would have been his second double-

double of the season. “Man, I love playing

here!” Ashley exclaimed after the game.

After taking care of

GRCC, the Stars took to the road once again to face Kel-logg Community College on Jan. 29. But the Stars finally stumbled. KCC de-

feated LCC 83-71 in what Head Coach Mike Ingram called one of the most dif-ficult losses this year for the Stars.

“This one was a tough one to lose,” Ingram said. “We’ve got to be more con-sistent on the road. I know we’ll get right back into the swing of things — this is just one loss.”

The Stars would have next played Glen Oaks Community College but with classes being can-celed on Feb. 2 due to in-climate weather, the cag-

ers enjoyed an unexpected day off.

According to LCC Athletic Director Scott Latham, since the game versus Glen Oaks is a con-ference game, it must be made up; however, a date and time for the makeup game had not been con-firmed as of Feb 4.

The Stars were sched-uled to take to the road again to face Muskegon on Feb. 5 before coming home to face Ancilla and then Jackson in a rematch of their Jan. 12 victory.

Men get back on track, have streak snapped

Mariah Byrd remembered: The legacy of a Star

Up for two: Sophomore Mike Martin goes up for a dunk attempt during the Stars’ 76-68 loss to Jackson Community College Jan. 12.

Photos by Michael Caterina

Scrappin’: Sophomore Alvino Ashley, right, fights for po-session during the Stars’ 102-92 overtime victory over Lake Michigan College Jan. 19.

Never forgotten: Mariah Byrd puts up a shot during a 2009-2010 season game. Byrd passed away Dec. 18.

File photo by Michael Caterina

Feb. 7 - 20 , 2011www.lcc.edu/lookout

8SPORTS

Erik Stiem Staff Writer

After a tough loss at the hands of Kalamazoo Valley Commu-nity College, ranked No. 11 in the country, the Lady Stars re-bounded by pulling off two big in-conference wins.

The 94-68 loss to Kalama-zoo Valley CC on Jan. 22 was the Lady Stars’ worst defeat of the season. Kalamazoo’s deep bench and consistent shooting proved too much for the LCC women to handle in the contest, dropping their conference re-cord to 2-5.

Four days later, however, the Lady Stars were back on the winning track.

“The girls were mad because they felt they could have played better in some of the previous games,” said Head Coach Ervin Brunson, “Now everybody has

stepped up their level of play.” The Lady Stars took their an-

ger out on Grand Rapids CC Jan. 26 at LCC, dominating the boards and the overall flow of

the game, while cruising to a 65-43 victory.

Stellar defense and strong play around the hoop limited Grand Rapids CC, which was

out-rebounded by LCC, 47-23. LCC’s combination of Denay

Kelly, Tornisha Jones and So-quitta DeShazor makes up the highest rebounding trio in the conference, with each player av-eraging at least eight rebounds a game.

Limiting second chances for opponents and creating them for their team has been a big reason for LCC’s success.

“This group plays with a high intensity level,” Brunson said.

On Jan. 29, the Lady Stars traveled to Battle Creek to take on Kellogg CC, a game that was

tight throughout the matchup. LCC prevailed in the end, 62-57.

As of Feb. 4, LCC was 13-5 overall and 4-5 in conference play, which places them fifth place out of nine teams in the conference.

Due to the snowstorm and LCC’s closing, the game vs. Glen Oaks, scheduled to take place Feb. 2, was postponed to a later date that is still undeter-mined.

The Lady Stars played in Muskegon Feb. 5. Results will be posted in the next issue of The Lookout.

Tough losses motivate LCC women Pushing

through: At left, Freshman Kristian Hines

scrambles for the ball

against Jack-son Commu-nity College defense dur-ing the Stars’ 113-91 loss Jan. 12. At right, fresh-man Denay

Kelley drives to the bas-ket against Jackson CC

defenseJan. 12. Photos by

Michael Caterina


9

Sometime around sixth grade, I started watching Toonami with my dad. And what was the coolest show on Toonami, every-body?

Dragon Ball Z. I loved Dragon Ball Z! I watched it every single weekday for over a full year. I saw ev-ery episode from the Vege-ta saga (started a little late) to Majin Buu’s entrance (when the talking grew ridiculous and I got a life).

Yes, I sat through 20 minutes of talking that’s only purpose was to de-scribe the remaining three minutes of action that in-evitably comprised every episode, and I loved every second of it. I watched it so much my mom scheduled dinner around it.

Little did I know that this was my first step into the world of anime.

Sadly enough, it took me three to four years to take my next step.

Sometime I think dur-

ing early high school (I’m bad with dates – alright?), Adult Swim started play-ing a bunch of anime. Among them were some of my favorites to this day.

Actually, before I get to the Adult Swim programs, I should probably mention the other Toonami animes: Aside from Rurouni Ken-shin and Yu Yu Hakusho (both great shows), I didn’t really watch them.

I liked .hack//Sign, but I didn’t watch it too much since my brother didn’t (I’m rewatching this one now.) I saw Gundam Wing a few times too, but I start-

ed too late to really care (and I still don’t). And now I want to watch The Big O, more than any other an-ime (except one), but back then I just didn’t get it.

I stopped watching Toonami when they re-placed it with Miguzi – be-cause it sucked.

Anyway, Adult Swim: Inuyasha was probably

the second anime I saw. This was the show that inadvertently introduced me to the rest. Because Inuyasha was on Adult Swim, and because it was awesome, I stayed up a little later and watched a few more shows. Namely, Trigun.

Trigun. Oh my God, Tri-gun! It was funny, it was meaningful, it was action-packed – it was so good I cried! Seriously. When I watched the series finale, tears ran down my face. One of the best animes, ever.

I never actually watched

Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo when they were on Adult Swim because they were on late and I like sleep, but last year I remembered them and decided to watch them. I can now say that was one of the few decisions in my life I don’t regret.

My friend Logan ob-sessed about Fooly Cooly for about a year, and while I thought it was good, it’s one of those shows that makes people scratch their head and say, “Wha?”

Anime is one of those things that make me smile. I’ve seen plenty more than I’ve mentioned, but these are probably the most im-portant to me; the ones I define my life by.

By the way, if anybody runs into a copy of Witch Hunter Robin, I really want to watch it. Send me an email ([email protected]) telling me where it is, and I’ll thank you in my next column.

10 Feb. 7 - 20, 2011www.lcc.edu/lookout

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

— Shouting a Nuance —

I think I’m turning Japanese

Photo courtesy of hilberry.com

Shauna StockenStaff Writer

In the heart of MSU’s campus hides The Record Lounge located at 503 E. Grand River Ave., East Lansing.

This basement shop with huge personality not only sells record albums but has unique clothing, shoes, posters and much more to choose from.

The Record Lounge and The Loft Urban Lounge (The Loft) at 414 E. Michi-gan Ave., Lansing, are celebrating the third suc-cessful year The Record Lounge has been open. The anniversary at The Loft housed Michigan tal-ent with a concert called Middle of the Mitten.

“It’s a really awesome thing all of ... you com-ing out to support local music,” the lead singer of Versus The Ocean said.

The concert was held on Jan. 29 from 6 p.m. until 1 a.m. with back to back bands that kept fans en-tertained all night and into the early morning.

My favorite performance of the night was indie band Elliot Street Lunatic. CJ, the drummer, definitely made the band complete with a sound as attractive as the

overall appearance of the band mates.

I don’t want to compare musical abilities of The Beatles and Elliot Street Lunatic; rather, I’ll make a shout out to bassist gui-tarist Jordan Hahn, who rocked the same bass gui-tar the Beatles did back in the 1960s.

At times the instru-ments were louder than the person singing, posing problems understandings the lyrics.

Despite the minor sound problems, the acts ran smoothly, giving the audience their money’s worth of entertainment.

The show was $7 at the door or $5 for anyone who had purchased tickets

from The Record Lounge in advance.

As the night progressed, The Loft filled with in-tense fans adding an up-beat energy to the concert.

“My favorite part of performing is the crowd interaction; I like when the crowd gets in-volved,” said Jason Marr, lead singer of Elliot Street Lunatic.

While the band has been invited in years past, this is the first Middle of the Mitten concert the band could attend.

This concert was ev-erything I love about live music and I recommend everyone to join the fourth annual Middle of the Mit-ten in 2012.

Don’t hate the hater Local talent hits The Loft

Photo by Courtney BakerThree years old: Versus The Ocean performs at The Loft in downtown Lansing during The Middle of The Mitten concert Jan. 29. The concert celebrated The Loft’s third year of being open.

Puzzle solution can be found at www.lcc.edu./lookoutThis week’s puzzle is sponsored by:

King Crossword

Lee RumlerA&E Editor

I attended a Michigan Press Association confer-ence in Detroit on Jan. 28 and 29.

While it wasn’t exactly where I would have cho-sen to spend my weekend, it did offer me an oppor-tunity to watch The Misan-thrope, written by Molière, at Wayne State’s Hilberry Theatre.

As a 21st Century cynic who had never seen a 17th Century comedy of manners, I didn’t expect too much from Moliere’s “masterpiece,” but before the play even began, I was pleasantly surprised.

Instead of announcing the rules of the theater over a crackling loudspeaker, as most modern theatres do, The Hilberry employed the use of Célimène’s manser-vant, Basque.

He announced, in come-dic verse, that the audience should turn off their cell

phones and other, more ancient forms of technol-ogy (pagers) and locate the exits just in case the place caught on fire.

The rest of the play de-tailed one man’s search for truth in an aristocratic so-ciety.

Literally, he was sick of everyone lying to each other.

In order to understand Alceste’s problem (and the comedy in the play), one must realize that in 17th Century France, every aristocrat was a two-faced charlatan.

One would spout off streams of praises to an-other’s face, but as soon as the latter turned his back, the former would verbally assault his every fault.

Kind of like middle school girls.

But Alceste was differ-ent: He believed one man shouldn’t pile on a moun-tain of false compliments, raving and flattery to an-other. He thought that practice was especially strange if he was just say-ing hello.

Even to his friend Phil-inte, he callously refused compliment, claiming that if Philinte greeted everyone with the same fervor he greeted Alceste, which he did, Alceste couldn’t be sure if Phil-inte actually meant his kind words.

He kind of reminded me of an ancient, modest Dr. House, although he isn’t nearly as harsh until pro-voked by Oronte, a kind, pompous and somewhat fruity fellow who sought out Alceste to critique his sonnet.

Alceste’s story, though definitely appealing to a high-brow audience, is worth watching – if only to laugh at the dirty jokes spo-ken in rhyme.


A&E11

Ingredients:8 slices of white bread4 slices of ham4 slices of Swiss cheeseVegetable oil3 eggs2 cups corn flakes2 oz. pure maple syrup

Serves 4

Directions:Lay out two pieces of white bread. Next, take one slice of Swiss cheese and cut in half laying each half on each piece of bread. (This is key in making sure your sandwich does not fall apart during frying) Next, lay one slice of ham on one side of the two slices of bread. Beat your eggs and grind up your corn flake crumbs finely. Heat veg. oil in a frying pan. Now put the two slices of bread together to form a sand-wich. Then, dip your sandwich into the egg mixture, next into

the corn flake crumbs, making sure to get all four edges to seal. Fry your sandwich in the veg. oil for about one to two minutes on each side until golden brown. Cut your Monte into four pieces, cutting corner to corner so you have four triangles for design and small finger food. Drizzle maple syrup on top and enjoy.

*Photo by Michael CaterinaRecipe provided by HMFS 263 Gourmet American Cooking.

In the Kitchen with

Chef NickMonte Cristo Sandwich

Lee RumlerA&E Editor

Everybody likes local tal-ent. For some people, sup-porting local musicians is as simple as going to a few live shows and maybe buy-ing a couple EPs. But for LCC students Sean Brad-ley, Casey Cavanaugh and Austin Howard, contribut-ing a few dollars just wasn’t enough.

According to Bradley, the trio recognized that de-spite the talent of Lansing’s musicians, they didn’t re-ally have many places to gain exposure on a large scale. Their solution to this was creating LansingMu-sic.tv.

“LansingMusic.tv is a web show that documents and promotes the Lansing music scene by filming performances, interview-ing bands and people and promoting new local re-leases, shows etc,” Bradley said. “By doing all of these things ... we are helping to integrate the scene and make it more cohesive.

“It is a platform for mu-sicians in Lansing to show-case what they are doing, no matter the genre of mu-sic.”

And LansingMusic.tv has covered quite the range of artists. From Frank and Earnest to P2DaHI (pro-nounced P-to-the-H-I), LansingMusic.tv pro-motes, or is willing to pro-

mote, all the music Lansing has to offer.

The website hosts a va-riety of features designed to inform Lansing locals of new releases, new talent or show locations.

“Our website, Lansing-Music.tv, includes reviews of local records and pro-motional write-ups on local shows and events,” Bradley said. “We have also begun to record local shows for users to down-load for free.”

The crew also makes a habit of recording acoustic sets after interviews. Ac-cording to Bradley, “We try and get (them) with every band.” The recordings, both live and acoustic, are made available for free on http://www.purevolume.com/lansingmusictv.

All of the trio’s video content is hosted on You-Tube, http://www.youtube.com/user/LansingMusicTV. They are also on Twitter @lansingmusictv and Face-book at Facebook.com/lan-singmusictv.

Bradley said that How-ard recently received $10,000 worth of video pro-duction equipment from the brand new Office of Community Media in Lan-sing to produce content for Lansing Public Access tele-vision.

“As per the grant, we are required to produce at least one hour of content per month for 24 months,” Bradley said. “Then after 24 months, Howard owns the equipment and has no more responsibility as far as the grant is concerned.”

The group also plans to put some of their content on LCC TV The Link.

LansingMusic.tv is con-tinuing to grow, and the three men are working hard to keep their content strong, a crusade aided by the local talent.

“The styles that the bands do is so different that it never gets old or stale,” Bradley said. “There is always something new and exciting going on in Lansing.”

Photo courtesy of Sean Bradley

LMTV: Showcasing Lansing music

Arts & Entertainment

IN BRIEFLee RumlerA&E Editor

Coming soon (Friday, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m.) to a Dart Auditorium near you is the Public Offenders’ Pro Bono, a $5 night of comedy, music and film to benefit the LCC Theatre Scholarship Fund.

The Public Offenders is a group of young, local comics who aren’t afraid to get dirty. Before the group was formed, ac-cording to member Dan Currie, the comics’ audacity could land them in a bit of trouble.

“The problem we ran into is, as you’re an amateur and you’re working up, eventually you want to start getting booked at clubs, and a lot of places are afraid to book dirty comics because they don’t want to ruin an image or anything like that,” Currie said.

“So, because we weren’t get-ting booked anywhere, we start-ed booking ourselves. We got a group of guys together who were having similar issues ... (and) we created our own ven-ues, basically.”

The group doesn’t write ex-clusively dirty jokes, though. According to Currie, the rule is “Don’t write clean, don’t write dirty; write funny.”

The point of Pro Bono, Cur-

rie said, is to “let people know there’s stand-up in Michigan.

“Michigan, people don’t think about it, but it has a big comedy presence ... compared to Ohio, Nebraska, any place else besides L.A. or New York. We have a lot of comedy clubs, and there’s ac-tually a big boom right now.”

Currie said the group doesn’t see many students at the shows, even though the majority of the

students he talks to claim they love stand-up. He is hoping Pro Bono will rectify that.

The group has been together for four months, according to founder Tom Slovinski, but this short time isn’t the comics’ only experience.

“Separately, we’ve been do-ing comedy anywhere from nine months to three years,” Slovin-ski said.

The group has performed all over the state at locations in-cluding The Blind Pig, Rubbles, Mac’s Bar, The Pike Room and Connxtions Comedy Club.

Individually, they’ve per-formed at the New York Comedy Contest, Zanie’s in Chicago, The Improv in Chicago, Mark Rid-ley’s Comedy Castle, Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase, Laff Tracks and Joey’s Comedy Club.

Slavinski and member Denny Green have been running the open mic at Connxtions for a year and a half.

According to Slavinski, the comics scheduled to appear at the show are Dan Currie, Den-ny Green, Ivan Wolfgang, Matt Clark, Zak Engeland, Jacob Zamonski, Mike Evitts and him-self.

Tickets can be purchased at the door.

Local comics to visit Dart

Comedy for a cause: The Public Of-fenders, a group of Lansing-area com-ics, will perform at Dart Auditorium Feb. 11 in a benefit show for the LCC Theatre Scholarship Fund. Tickets are $5 and the show starts at 8 p.m.

Photo by Laura Wixson

Andy Callis will direct Samuel Beckett’s comic masterpiece Endgame on Fridays and Saturdays, Feb. 18, 19, 25 and 26 at 8 p.m.

The performance will take place in the Black Box Theatre, Gannon Building 168. It will cost $5 for LCC faculty, staff, alumni and students and $10 for the general public.

Riverwalk Theatre in downtown Lansing is putting on the Broadway hit Hairspray. The pro-duction will run Thursday through Sunday, Feb. 17 - 20 and Thursday through Sunday, Feb. 24 - 27.

Thursdays open at 7 p.m., Fridays and Satur-days at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $20 for adults and $18 for seniors, students and military.

The LCC Library has acquired a Playstation 3 and a Nintendo Wii available for patrons during study breaks.

Gamers need only bring their StarCard or driv-er’s license to the Multimedia Desk in the library to check out a game.

The gaming room may only be utilized one hour at a time and is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

LCC performs Beckett

Hairspray comes to Riverwalk

Library gains gaming room


FEATURES12LCC Yoga Club twists out spring semesterShauna StockenStaff Writer

Every Saturday from 5 to 6 p.m., groups of all ages meet in the Gannon Build-ing 252 for Yoga Club.

Yoga Club is offered free through LCC and welcomes any-one whether they’re a student at LCC or simply someone who is interested in try-ing beginner’s yoga.

According to Rob Eschbach, the advi-sor of Yoga Club, he created Yoga Club due to a high demand by LCC students.

The instructor of the club is Clinton Lockert, 88, a professor at LCC. Lockert began yoga 48 years ago whernhe was a professor at MSU.

After Lockert’s yoga instructor retired, Lockert’s colleague and fellow yoga mem-ber took over the class.

Eventually the new yoga instructor moved back to India, transforming Lock-ert from a yoga mem-

ber to an instructor.“I started with a

group of 13, and even-tually I was instruct-ing classes of 90 peo-ple,” said Lockert.

After 10 years of yoga at MSU, Lock-ert was invited to be-come a professor at LCC, teaching begin-ning, intermediate,

advanced yoga and special classes for peo-ple with handicaps.

Lockert said he do-nates his time to make LCC’s free yoga club possible for the public.

“It is my gift for the future yo-gis,” said Lockert.

Yoga Club doesn’t demand weekly at-

tendance, but weekly participation in Yoga Club can help build re-lationships with some of the usual members, such as Lindy Moore, a 55-year-old horticul-ture student at LCC.

Due to Moore’s se-vere spine and back problems, her physi-cal therapist rec-

ommended yoga.“Plus, it’s good ex-

ercise,” said Moore.With a friendly and

encouraging atmo-sphere, anyone can feel “at home” during Saturday Yoga Club.

Those interested can stop by Yoga Club on Saturday, Feb. 19 and wish Lockert a happy 89th birthday. There will be carrot cake and organic apple cider for everyone.

Loosen up: Lindy Moore, 55, a horticulture student, does a stretch during a Yoga Club meeting Saturday, Jan. 29.

Photos by Courtney Baker

Finding Center: LCC Yoga Instructor Clint Lockert leads the Yoga Club members through various positions during a meeting, Jan. 29. The club is open to anyone and meets every Saturday in GB 252.


DISTRACTIONS13SUDOKU

8

3

4

6

1

3 1

3

7

1 8

5

2

3

3 6

4

9 8

2 9

5

6

8 9

7

9

6

5

James Tennant Jr.

LeBaron Rodgers

An Ordinary Life

Desktop Blues

Netflix is dope, no doubt about it.

If you have been under a rock for the past few years here is an explanation.

Netflix is a service that delivers DVDs in the mail directly to your home and you return them the same way.

Netflix also offers se-lect movies to “Watch Instantly” on your com-puter or other high-tech toys like a Wii or an Xbox 360. Fortunately for me, my roommate owns both.

I have had the same Neftlix DVD sitting on the TV stand for four months now because all I ever do is watch instantly.

One of my favorite parts about watching in-stantly is the TV series that are available. For

example, all six seasons of Lost are available to watch right now online.

Lost is an hour-long show that played an epi-sode every week from Sept. 2004 to May 2010.

The crazy plot twists and cliffhanger endings of every episode would have been insane to follow over a six-year period.

Good thing I didn’t have to do that.

I watched the first

few episodes and I was hooked. Having Netflix made it possible for me to spend an entire day or night delving deeper into the world of Lost, one epi-sode right after another.

Watching this critically acclaimed show without waiting a week in be-tween each episode re-ally gave me insight into the show.

I caught more of the intricate details in charac-ter development and the many different plots that were going on in each episode.

Netflix has changed the way I watch TV and it must be true for others.

I think that this ad-vance in technology will make for even more in-teresting and innovative TV shows and movies.

Netflix; more than movies— Fully Flippin’ it —

Recently the “beef” in Taco Bell products has been under scrutiny.

According to the suit filed by an Alabama law firm, Taco Bell is using a meat mixture that con-tains binders and extend-ers, and does not meet the minimum requirements set by the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture to be labeled as “beef.”

This interests me be-cause I am always inter-ested in exactly what it is I am eating. Usually, its GMOs (genetically modified food) and meat products chock full of chemicals and all other sorts of stuff I hadn’t heard of.

Recently, I have been trying to avoid such non-food yet called food items, and when news of the Taco Bell lawsuit broke, I was not surprised.

For one, I don’t believe you can sell the amount of beef in one of those 99-cent tacos for 99 cents and make a profit. I figured the meat used could not be of a high quality. News arti-cles have quoted Attorney

Dee Miles saying the meat mixture contained just 35 percent beef, with the re-maining 65 percent con-taining water, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodrex-trin, anti-dusting agent and modified corn starch.

The “beef” in Taco Bell products also contains phosphates and water, both of which are specifi-cally cited as ingredients that can cost meat its “beef” label.

Taco Bell plans to face the lawsuit claiming that it stands behind its “beef.” The class action lawsuit is not looking for monetary compensation; they are merely asking that Taco Bell not advertise what they call “taco meat fill-ing” as beef.

This seems to me like an elaborate case of de-nial. I do not understand how Taco Bell will be able to weasel themselves out of this situation when the facts are so clear and their fault is so certain.

The lawsuit claims this is false advertising and people have the right to know what they are eat-ing. I second that motion, agreeing that while fast food is convenient, people need to realize just how poor the nutrition of such food actually is.

After viewing the USDA guidelines to what constitutes beef from mixed meat or the sug-gested, “taco meat fill-ing,” it is clear that the ingredients found in Taco Bell’s “beef” do not meet the standards.

On behalf of those who desire a fast taco at 2 a.m., I ask that Taco Bell faces the fact that its beef does not meet my standards as a consumer and finds an alternate way to deliver the product they claim it is or change the title of its product to what it is.


OPINION14—Everyone should read George Orwell—— The Collected Klutz—

What an awesome day Taco Bell; inside the ‘beef’There are many dates

throughout history and our lives that stand out to us. One of those days for me is Feb. 17.

Why, you might ask? Because it’s the celebra-tion of the day I was born.

I was born on the third Monday of Feb-ruary, also known as Presidents’ Day. Since this holiday is on the third Monday of Feb-ruary it only lands on my birthday every sev-en years. I feel it is an honor to share the day I was born with such great men in the his-tory of our country.

I also share a birth-day with one of the greatest basketball players ever, Michael Jordan. And because of this, as a child, I

thought it meant I was destined to become a professional basketball player.

So I started my short-lived basketball career in the fourth grade. Af-ter my freshman year of high school I real-ized I just wasn’t cut out for professional basketball. That was a sad day.

Feb. 17 is also a Na-tional Holiday called “My Way Day.” This

holiday couldn’t have landed on a better date. I mean, is there a more splendid way to cele-brate my birthday than to have everything “my way?” I don’t think so.

Another interesting fact is that the charac-ters Blondie and Dag-wood, from the popu-lar comic strip Blondie, were married Feb. 17, 1933. I knew there was a reason I liked that comic strip.

The Beach Boys’ song “Surfin” hit the nation-al pop charts on Feb. 17, 1962. I always was a fan of their music.

I have to say Feb.17 is an amazing day in his-tory. I hope that only great things continue to happen on this day, seeing as it is my birth-day.

In regards to your article slamming Vick, get over it! Seriously, it has been talked to death. Get off your PETA band wagon and try talking about something that happened in the last six months. He did pay his debt to society!

Stop criticizing the man because he got his job back. I don’t understand how or why dogs became more valued than people: for example, the Steelers’ quarterback has had multiple charges against him for lewd and inappropriate sexual behavior against mul-tiple women, and yet he didn’t get near the attention or negative press as Vick.

Vick is a human who made a bad choice that happened to break laws in this country. He is not that different from many other people who live here. The only difference is his job puts him in a public eye! If the news was flooded with reports of every time an American auto worker committed a crime and if the public showed the same outrage to the Big Three as we did to Vick, the auto companies would have been out of business decades ago! I have a B.A. in criminal justice and even I can cut the man some slack.

Stating that Vick will always be a criminal for the rest of his life is a gross exaggeration. People can change! Narrow-minded people like you were the reason for the Salem witch trials. Can we please talk about the sports and not the outdated personal lives of the athletes?

Warmest Regards,

Lisa Pierce, A True Sports Fan

I am a Michael Vick supporter and have been throughout his NFL career. As a sport spectator and a former high school athlete, we are taught that sports are to teach us how to increase our performance on the field and court as well as overcome adversity and learn from our mistakes.

The article about how Vick shouldn’t have gotten his job back is totally ignorant, and I agree that no amount of apologies will bring the dogs back or change anything. As I continued to read the article, I came across even more ignorance about how “NFL com-missioner Roger Goodell dropped the ball on this one” and how the Lombardi Trophy will be soon hoisted by a criminal. I hate to bring it your attention, but it already has been in most recent history by Ben Roethlisberger.

Ben Roethlisberger has been accused of numerous sexual assault cases and yet he pays off the victims and gets a measly four-game suspension, as well as a standing ovation on his return. Yet, Vick served his NFL-issued suspensions, the forfeiture of his signing bonus, as well as criminal prosecution. He overcame adversity through his work ethic that was displayed on the field this year.

But I beg the question, when do animal rights outweigh human rights? And I would like to know how the commissioner “dropped the ball”: because he saw fit to give an-other person a second chance? I’m not saying what Vick did was not wrong and every-thing cries out in its own way, but where is the scrutiny for Roethlisberger as well as other sports figures who are accused of sexual assault? It seems like from a media standpoint that it is OK to force sexual acts on a person who may be a “groupie” and pay them off, yet if you fight an animal you are the scum of the earth.

If you are going to scrutinize one person you have to scrutinize them all. Without do-ing so it makes it seem as if one person is bigger than their job and everyone should be held accountable. Whether they are accused of animal fighting or sexual assault, they should all be viewed in the same eye.

Justin A. Jones

Letters to the EditorReaders react to sports editor’s Jan. 24 column ‘Vick makes me sick’


OpiniOn15

Policies: all letters should be 200 words or less and signed with a name, address (email or otherwise) and phone number. The Lookout reserves the right to edit letters for grammar, spelling, length and clarity.

Mail: 1000 – The Lookout Lansing Community College P.O. box 40010 Lansing, MI 489401-7210 Email: [email protected]: (517) 483-1290

The Lookout is the independent, biweekly student newspaper of Lansing Community College. All opinion/editorial articles are the sole opinion of the writer and may not reflect the views of the staff, students, faculty and college as a whole. Opinion/editorial articles may or may not be located exclusively on editorial pages and may appear on news, sports and arts & entertainment pages.

- The Lookout Staff

Write a Letter to theEditor

Sarah Sanders Kaitlin Lutz Michael Caterina Dominick Mastrangelo

Nathan Wilson Shauna Stocken

Lee Rumler

Kelly Lehtonen Larry Hook

Editor in [email protected]

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Editor Photo Editor Sports Editor A&E Editor

News Editor Staff Writer Advertising Manager Adviser

the lookout

In our own words | Staff Editorial

The Lookout recently attended the Michigan Press Association an-nual conference in De-troit on Jan. 28 and 29.

Several other jour-nalists from Michigan attended the event, which featured guest speakers including Gov. Rick Snyder.

Previously members of The Lookout staff at-tended the gubernato-rial debate in Wixom. Since Snyder has be-come governor we had looked forward to hearing his plans for the state of Michigan.

Considering the most used phrase of the past 10 years has been, “in today’s economy,” it

was no surprise that Snyder began with, “Job one is jobs.”

The other topic that was heavily focused upon was spending and budget.

Snyder is looking to Indiana and Utah as models for Michigan’s budget.

While his plan to modify the budget is a no-brainer to any Michigander, it is strange that he chose these two states as they both have a lesser GDP (Gross Domestic Prod-uct) than current Mich-iganders.

One would think the plan is to increase the standards of liv-

ing for Michiganders. By mirroring a budget in place by states who bring in more income than our state would give Snyder another way of looking at our own state budget.

The focus of the bud-get change is obviously to lower the state debt. However, where we put our money is still incredibly important.

Snyder did mention the budgets of these two states are very similar to the budget model put in place in Michigan a few years ago.

The difference, he claimed, was the way the budget was treated

and handled through-out the past four years.

Currently his list of plans include a tax re-form during the month of February, a state government reform during the month of March and an educa-tion reform during the month of April.

He is asking Michi-ganders to be open to change and to be less cynical and skeptical.

It would seem that both the federal and state governments are looking for trust from the American people right now, something that The Lookout feels can be given once earned.

Snyder plans to earn this trust by convert-ing the budget to a web page Michiganders can access at any time to track where their tax dollars are going.

He also explained his decision-making process, noting that it was centered around the impact of each deci-sion on Michiganders across the state.

When discussing an issue, Snyder said three of the questions he asks of any proposed policy change are: how does this benefit Michigan-ders, who is the smart-est person on the other side of the issue and what do they have to

say and finally why this way?

If Snyder follows this model, policy changes that pass would have to be beneficial to the state of Michigan.

It is certain, however, that when changing the budget of a state, who is to put it lightly past its economic prime, Michiganders expect their government to look to several other states, not just a few who have policies with which the governor is familiar.

If Snyder wants change, we are on board. If he wants trust, we will have to wait and see.

Gov. Snyder seeks trust during MpA convention

ROOMMATE WANTEDFurnished room with private kitchenette and bathroom. Cable TV, internet, other utilities included. $425 per month. 517-599-7258.

ANTIQUE TOYSAND GAMES SOUGHTAny condition. 1975 or before. Will pay cash if it’s something I need for my personal collection. Especially looking for an antique Slinky in its original box or Hot Wheels cars from the late 1960s in the package. Call 517-589-5273. Leave a message if no one answers.

1982 TOPPS BASEBALLCOMPLETE SETComplete set of 792 cards, all in mint condition. Cal Ripken rookie card and many Hall-of-Famers including Nolan Ryan, Johnny Bench, George Brett, Robin Yount, Carl Yazstremski and Rickey Henderson. $100 firm. Call 517-483-1291 daytime.

PINBALL MACHINEFOR SALEGame Plan 1979 “Sharpshooter” solid state game. Old western theme. Very fast and fun. Four players. $525. Call 517-589-5273 and leave a message.

ROOM FOR RENT401 S. Washington Square, Loft #411. One mile from downtown LCC campus. Two rooms available, $550 per person per month. Price includes air conditioning, dishwasher, furniture, parking, washer and dryer. No smoking, no pets. Spacious and beautiful apartment. Walking distance from downtown restaurants, bars and LCC. Contact Vanessa at 818-438-0675.

PLACE YOURAD HEREAdvertising in The Lookout’s classified section is inexpensive and effective. Cost is just $8.50 for 20 words or less. Additional words are 50 cents. Call 483-1295 to place an ad.

Classified Advertising


16

the lookout issue 10

Documents

lcc teacher

closing lcc

lcc workers

time lcc classes

lccs black history month

black history months

black history month

university of michigan