MSU Residential College of Arts and Humanities Center for Poetry will host a husband-and-wife team of authors, poet Rick Mulkey and novelist Susan Tekulve, this week, from November 4 to 6. Events featuring the two will be free of charge and open to the community, and the schedule is set as follows:

Tuesday, November 4: Join Tekulve at 3 pm for a writing workshop, "Moments of Being and Non-Being: Finding Extraordinary Stories in Every Day Objects and First Homes,” at C210 conference room of MSU’s Snyder-Phillips Hall.

Image above: Plan rendering provided by DTN, looking west across Abbot Road from above City Hall toward Valley Court Park. The largest building is a planned 7-story parking ramp with a 10-story building wrapped around it. (This does not show the entire Park District area plan.)

What would a “yes” vote on the parking lot sales ballot question mean to East Lansing residents in terms of changes to our city’s debt and our city’s real estate tax revenue? That’s a question on the minds of many East Lansing residents as they go to the polls.

In what appears to be a first, a group of sitting East Lansing City Council members has let a developer pay for a political mailing in which those Council members advocate for a “yes” vote—a “yes” vote from which the developer would likely financially benefit.

Two local places, a world apart on an East Lansing game day.

The City is selectively notifying some East Lansing residents of an investigation at Hannah Community Center related to a mishap involving a mercury spill. An email message has gone out from the City addressed to “East Lansing Hannah Community Center Visitors.” The letter advises recipients that a vacuum hose that had previously been wrongly used to clean up a mercury spill at the water treatment plant was then also wrongly used at Hannah Community Center.

On Tuesday, October 28, a Dead Poets Contest will take place starting at 7:30 pm at Dublin Square Irish Pub and Restaurant, 327 Abbot Road in East Lansing. Contestants are invited to read one or two poems by a departed poet, reading for a maximum of 4-5 minutes, and to dress “in the spirit” of that poet (generously interpreted—anything from a hat/scarf to full costume).

High school water polo districts for East Regions 3 and 5 will be held this weekend at East Lansing High School. The cooperative team of Holt/East Lansing (HOTEL) will host teams from Grand Blanc, Grand Ledge, Haslett, Okemos, Ann Arbor Pioneer, Chelsea, Dexter and Saline as they battle it out for a place at the regional tournament Oct. 31/Nov. 1 at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor. HOTEL is currently ranked in second place with a 3-1 record in District 3 play—the highest ranking the combined team has ever had going into the tournament. HOTEL faces Dexter at 7:45 p.m. on Friday night.