Lansing

It was such an odd Labor Day weekend without the start of college football taking place. Al combs through the ripple-effect of no MSU football due to COVID-19 and its financial impact on businesses in the Lansing area. Also, Adrian Peterson to the Lions? How? Why?

July 30 is the first day Eid al-Adha.

The Islamic holiday commemorates the prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son for Allah and is a time of prayer, charity, and social connection.

The holiday also occurs during the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Lansing has seen two men’s soccer clubs start and end in the last ten years.

Amateur club, Lansing United, played from 2014 to 2018. Meanwhile, Lansing Ignite, a professional team that was part of the United Soccer League, lasted for just a season and folded last year. 

Now, a group of community organizers want to bring another men’s team back on the field that will be run by its fans.

With the cancellation of the Minor League Baseball season this year, Cooley Law School Stadium, the home of the Lansing Lugnuts, has sat mostly vacant all summer.

However, a new series of games kicked off at the stadium July 23 to give fans a taste of the baseball they’ve been missing.

High school football players will be headed back onto the field for practice in less than a month.

The Michigan High School Athletic Association announced last week fall sports would be going ahead as normally scheduled.

When the state began to reopen at the beginning of June, cases of COVID-19 began to creep back up with outbreaks linked to businesses and large gatherings.

One of those outbreaks is tied to popular East Lansing bar, Harper’s Restaurant and Brewpub. As of Tuesday, the Ingham County Health Department has found over 170 total cases connected to the bar. 32 of them are secondary, meaning people who didn’t go to Harper’s themselves but got sick from someone who did.

After a white police officer killed George Floyd in May, there have been nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic injustice. Now, calls to defund the police have grown louder across the country.

In Lansing, one city council member is proposing cutting the city’s police budget in half over a 5-year period and redirecting that money to other public safety initiatives.

It’s been a month since a White Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd.

In the weeks since, there have been nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic injustice. Calls for change are widely varied - from increasing implicit bias training, to fully defunding and dissolving police forces in favor of expanded social services.

It’s only been a few weeks since restaurants have been able to ditch curbside and fully re-open in-person dining in Michigan including at local staple, Lansing Brewing Company. But, reopening at LBC came to a screeching halt last weekend when someone who came in tested positive for COVID-19. 

Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19 every year, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. 

The first formal celebration of Juneteeth in Lansing was in 1993. This year, in-person celebrations have been cancelled due to the pandemic, but Lansing’s Juneteenth Committee is sharing a public service announcement to spread awareness about the holiday and what it represents.