Conversation piece by Tamara-Hew Butler

Five women are standing together in the drawing, each wearing factory coveralls, each with bright scarves tied around their heads, each raising their right arms and flexing their biceps. They are all Rosies, "a group of women defined not by the identity of a single riveter in a single factory, but by the collective might of hundreds of thousands of women whose labors helped save the world," explains the introduction to "Rosie, a Detroit Herstory." The Wayne State University Press book, which officially arrives Monday, is special in several ways, starting with the fact that it was created by two Detroit women: author Bailey Sisoy Isgro and illustrator Nicole Lapointe, whose friendship just happened to begin through a Rosie-themed trivia question.

Math Corps, founded in 1991, is a combined academic and mentoring program for Detroit public school students in grades 6-12. It features a summer camp, year-round Saturday programs, and enrichment courses for elementary school children. In addition to math, it also focuses on life skills, said Executive Director Steven Kahn. WSU Math Corps, which is attracting national and international attention, is spinning off from the university as it begins to expand to new sites. The program is heading into DPS middle schools in the coming academic year through a new pilot with the district, other states with a $3 million National Sciences Foundation grant and possibly the West African countries of Ghana and Nigeria, which have been benchmarking it. It's a story not often told: a Detroit nonprofit exporting an impactful program. But the program hasn't spread in Detroit beyond the approximately 3,000 students who've come through over its 26-year-history.

Actor Hill Harper is deepening his connections to Detroit by establishing a new youth empowerment program in partnership with Wayne State University and local companies. Harper, who stars in the CBS drama "CSI:NY," is launching the Summer Empowerment Academy at the Detroit university. It is a weeklong mentorship program for incoming ninth-grade students in the city. Wayne State representatives and alumni are scheduled to host workshops on the college planning and admissions process, while entrepreneurs and employees from Microsoft and TechTown Detroit will also speak to the kids about technology careers. Tours of Quicken Loans and the Motown Museum are also planned.

If you’re living with a chronic illness—as half of all Americans are—then you may want to check any unnecessary bickering. According to a recent study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, the only thing worse than living with a chronic condition is fighting with your partner while living with a chronic condition. Researchers were interested in getting a better understanding of how the day-to-day interactions in a marriage impact the health of a person living with a chronic disease.

With August football practice fast approaching, every coach’s favorite cheer will be to “stay hydrated” and “keep urine clear” during the summer heat. In 2017, a University of Texas football coach created a urine-based “Longhorn Football Hydration Chart,” which labeled players with yellow urine as “selfish teammates” and those with brown urine as “bad guys.” This “hydration shaming” practice has permeated high school sports, thereby encouraging a sporting culture which equates superior performance with superior hydration.

Henry Ford Health System, Wayne State University, and the Detroit Health Department have teamed up to offer  free immunization fairs in Detroit. As part of the Vaccines For Children program, children who are less than 19 years old, uninsured, underinsured, Medicaid eligible, American Indian or Alaskan Native are eligible to receive the recommended vaccines at no cost. 

Wayne State University researchers are working with a refugee resettlement agency on efforts that aim to ease anxiety, depression and stress among Syrian refugees in the Detroit area. The Wayne State School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences has developed the project with Samaritas, the state's largest resettlement organization. The program includes a dance class for children, art therapy for teenagers and yoga for women. Organizers say incorporating art, movement and mindfulness seeks to help refugees deal with emotions and trauma. They cite the importance of such programs in a state that has taken in the second-highest number of Syrian refugees coming to the U.S.

Robert Sedler, professor of law and constitutional law expert, was a guest on the Craig Fahle show discussing recent Michigan Supreme Court decisions. Sedler said that Michigan school districts can ban the open carry of weapons on school property. Michigan law prohibits holders of concealed pistol permits from carrying them on school property except that parents picking up or dropping off children may have the pistol in the car. The Court held that Michigan law prohibiting units of local government - defined as city, village, township or county - from enacting gun regulation did not include school districts. Also discussed was the upcoming decision from the Michigan Supreme Court in a challenge to the ballot proposal for a redistricting commission. The challengers contend that it is a general revision of the constitution, which can only be done by a convention. The Court of Appeals unanimously held that it is a constitutional amendment and not a general revision. Sedler said that the decision is clearly correct, because the amendment only deals with one topic, redistricting, and does not change the form of government.

The Michigan Supreme Court decided late Tuesday to keep a proposal to change the way Michigan draws voting district lines on the November ballot in 4-3 decision released late Tuesday night. The decision came after months of contentious legal proceedings which kept the proposal, by the group Voters Not Politicians, in limbo. The opposition group, Citizens Protecting Michigan’s Constitution,  unsuccessfully argued that the measure was too broad to legally go before voters. Instead, that group argued it would require a constitutional convention in order to make the changes. Susan Fino, professor of political science, commented to Bridge ahead of the decision last week. “It’s clearly a valid initiative petition that meets all the constitutional requirements, so unless the Court is willing to expose themselves as overtly political, they really can’t keep it off the ballot.”

Mayor Mike Duggan has selected a former UAW-Ford executive to lead the city's Department of Neighborhoods. Ex-UAW-Ford vice president Jimmy Settles Jr. is to replace Charlie Beckham, who is retiring Sept. 1. Marick Masters, director of the Douglas A. Fraser Center for Workplace Issues at Wayne State University, said he'd intended to hire Settles at the university before Settles got a call from the mayor. "He can do a lot more good there," Masters said. "He is very good at connecting with people, but he’s also demanding. He expects a workforce to work. He realizes that you have to have high levels of productivity to compete."

Russ Carroll was a bit above it all and Dan Zowada was more down to Earth, but they shared an interest in the stars, and the two kids like that in a class will always form their own constellation. As high school ended, they took separate paths. Carroll, who is brilliant, went mostly west. Zowada, who was creative, stayed put. Then three years and two weeks ago, Zowada died — which is where the rest of the story begins. Nearly 2,000 miles away from the glow of Detroit's skyline, in the desert of southwest New Mexico, sits the Dan Zowada Memorial Observatory — Wayne State University’s gateway to the cosmos. The observatory and land were gifted to WSU's Department of Physics and Astronomy by Carroll, a retired entrepreneur and astronomer, in honor of Zowada, his late childhood friend.

US Ecology, an Idaho-based company, is close to receiving approval for a large expansion of its hazardous waste facility on Detroit’s east side, near Hamtramck. The expansion would increase the facility’s storage capacity nine-fold, from 76,000 to 677,000 gallons. Despite the facility’s spotty history, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) is completing its approval of US Ecology’s proposed expansion. Noah Hall, founder of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center (GLELC) and professor of law at Wayne State University, is a sharp critic of MDEQ. He said the agency often gives polluters a free pass in Michigan, especially “in disenfranchised communities and in populations that our political system hasn’t cared much about.”

It started off as two guys out of college coming up with an idea to help their community in Detroit: a nonprofit group out to make waiting for a bus in Detroit less taxing. Now Sit on Detroit, which supplies bus benches at stops throughout the city, is hoping to raise its profile even more at a workshop Saturday at apparel maker Carhartt's retail store in downtown Detroit. They'll demonstrate how to build a bus bench and discuss how the public can get involved. The organization started in 2013 as two former Wayne State University urban planning students, Kyle Bartell and Charles Molnar, saw a need in Detroit to make public transit users more comfortable while waiting for rides.

A former labor official told federal prosecutors that United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams directed subordinates to use funds from Detroit’s automakers, funneled through training centers, to pay for union travel, meals and entertainment. Money filtered through the training centers for the benefit of UAW officials is at the center of a widening scandal that has led to seven convictions, a shakeup at the highest levels of the auto industry and raised questions about the sanctity of labor negotiations between the union and Detroit's automakers. "Maybe this is what the senior levels of the UAW were used to, but at its core, this is a significant betrayal of trust," said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor. "This is how a small fraud becomes a much bigger one."

Research conducted at the Wayne State University School of Medicine has helped confirm the effectiveness of a blood biomarker that can indicate if patients with a head injury can avoid a costly CT scan because the blood test results indicate no traumatic brain injury (TBI). The findings, published online in The Lancet Neurology on July 24, validated the use of a diagnostic blood test developed by Banyan Biomarkers Inc. to rule out the need for a head CT scan in patients 18 years and older with suspected TBI.

Michael Belzer, associate professor of economics with Wayne State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, outlines research showing the link between pay and safety as well as the economic pressures pushing drivers to work extremely long hours. These long hours, he explains, regularly violate U.S. regulations and contribute significantly to truck crashes.

WSU President M. Roy Wilson hosted a reception Tuesday, July 24, at New Holland Brewing to discuss higher education with Holland residents. The evening was one part of his “Road Warrior” challenge, a 500-mile bicycle ride across the state. As he biked through Michigan, he stopped in four cities — Marshall, Holland, Owosso and Imlay city — to spark conversations with community members about their expectations of higher education. “There’s really no better way to get to know a community than this,” Wilson said. Having never been to Holland before, he arrived with an open mind to learn what the Holland community can bring to Wayne State. For Wilson, the evening was very much an opportunity to think outside of the box and get to know cities he doesn’t usually interact with.

Dr. M. Roy Wilson isn't just thinking outside of the box when it comes to understanding the needs and concerns of those seeking higher education, he's literally going beyond the box to do so. And he's doing it on two wheels. The 64-year-old president of Wayne State University is stepping out of Detroit to embark on his second 'Road Warrior bicycle tour' in an effort to engage citizens in open and candid dialogue about higher education. The 500-mile trip will take Roy and his four companions through Holland and Owosso before landing in Imlay City on Thursday, July 26. While in Imlay City, Wilson will be at Hiram's Tavern from 5:30-7 p.m., to chat with patrons and visitors.

Many forms of childhood cancers have gone from being a death sentence to a curable disease. Thanks to advances in treatments, the overall survival rate for childhood cancers has increased from 10% a few decades ago to nearly 90% today. This means that by the year 2020, an estimated half a million survivors of childhood cancer will be living in the U.S. With more children surviving, though, it has become increasingly clear that cancer and the subsequent treatments, such as chemo or radiation therapy, can have long-term negative effects that extend beyond physical problems such as hair loss, pain, and physical disability. Indeed, similar to “chemo brain” in adults, childhood cancer and its treatment may have harmful effects on brain development, causing problems with attention, memory, and language, and also leading to depression and anxiety. Based on studies using neuroimaging to examine brain structure and function also suggest that the treatments that are needed to save children’s lives can also be harmful to neural development.