Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is hoping for clemency from President Donald Trump, but he might need friends in high places to plead his case directly with the White House. The 48-year-old Democrat has filed a petition for commutation — a reduction of his sentence — but he doesn't appear to meet the Justice Department's standards for considering clemency. Kilpatrick isn’t eligible for a pardon under the department’s guidelines because he’s still serving a prison sentence. In 2016, nearly 29,000 people signed a Change.org petition asking President Barack Obama to grant clemency to Kilpatrick, arguing that while Kilpatrick was “wrong,” 28 years in prison is "excessive." “Certainly, a 28-year sentence is among the longest given for a public corruption case ever. That’s the basis for a claim of unfairness. Whether that resonates is a different question,” said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University and a former federal prosecutor. “I think you can make an argument that he’s received a substantial punishment so far, but whether that results in a reduction in his sentence is very much an open question.” Henning added: “I suspect the local U.S. Attorney’s Office would not look upon it favorably on a pardon or clemency, but that doesn’t preclude it from happening.”

Abortion is re-emerging as a wedge issue in Michigan’s gubernatorial election amid speculation over the fate of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that invalidated broad state laws that criminalized abortion. Democrat hopefuls say they would fight for a woman’s right to choose a legal abortion if federal safeguards are overturned. Republican candidates say they would defend an old state law that would again make it a crime. Experts who say the ban would again take effect if Roe v Wade is overturned point to a Michigan Supreme Court decision in 1973. Justices blocked the enforcement of the state law against physicians but did not repeal it. The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in 1997 that there is no right to abortion under the state Constitution. Robert Sedler, a professor of law and constitutional expert at Wayne State University, agreed that if Roe were overturned, “as of that moment abortion would be illegal in Michigan.” But Sedler said he cannot imagine the high court, no matter its makeup, overturning Roe. “It would be cataclysmic,” he said. “The criteria for overturning is it has to be undercut by later decisions, and there can’t have been societal reliance on that decision.”

The research of Dr. Doug Risner, a distinguished dance professor in the Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance, was recently featured in a segment on NBC Nightly News for the award-winning documentary film, DANSEUR. Risner serves as research advisor and consultant for the documentary, which is receiving increasing national coverage.

It’s been two decades since doctors fully recognized that breathing that stops and starts during sleep is tied to a host of health issues, even early death, but there still isn’t a treatment that most people find easy to use. Airway pressure masks, the most common remedy, have improved in design, getting smaller and quieter, but patients still complain about sore nostrils, dry mouths and claustrophobia. Now, new ways of conquering sleep apnea, and the explosive snoring that comes with it, are vying for a place in the bedrooms of millions of people craving a good night’s sleep. Products range from a $350 restraint meant to discourage back sleeping to a $24,000 surgical implant that pushes the tongue forward with each breath. Mouthpieces, fitted by dentists, work for some people but have their own problems, including jaw pain. Some patients try surgery, but it often doesn’t work. Doctors recommend weight loss, but diet and exercise can be challenging for people who aren’t sleeping well. Researchers are now focused on how to get people to use a mask more faithfully and predicting who is likely to abandon it and could start instead with a dental device. For specialists, the first-choice, most-studied remedy remains continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP - a motorized device that pumps air through a mask to open a sleeper’s airway. About 5 million Americans have tried CPAP, but up to a third gave up during the first several years because of discomfort and inconvenience. “It’s the bane of my existence as a sleep doctor,” said Dr. James Rowley of Wayne State University in Detroit. “A lot of what sleep doctors do in the first few months after diagnosis is help people be able to use their CPAP.”

Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson is about to embark on a journey across the state of Michigan, and he’s doing it on his bike. Wilson appeared on-air with Fox 2 to discuss the second annual Road Warrior bicycle tour, which will take place July 23-26. He’ll travel more than 500 miles in less than five days, and is hoping to meet people and inspire conversations about higher education and strengthening Michigan’s economy. Wilson will host a reception at a local restaurant in each city where community members can come by and learn more about WSU, which is celebrating its sesquicentennial this year.

For the region’s 690,000 adults with some college education, no degree or credential, returning to school can seem daunting, especially for individuals saddled with debt. Recognizing the need to grow Southeast Michigan’s talent pipeline, Detroit Drives Degrees is working with regional leaders to increase access among adults to pursue postsecondary educational opportunities for high-quality credentials, two-year and four-year degrees. Wayne State University now offers one of the most innovative strategies in the country to re-engage adult learners through its new Warrior Way Back program, which relieves past student tuition balances of former students who did not graduate to allow them to return and complete their degree. 

Karen Knopper, founder of Pet Suite Retreat, an animal boarding facility, has pledged $1.9 million to Wayne State University’s School of Medicine in Detroit. Knopper helped her father run Danny’s Markets, a Detroit grocery store.“I’m doing what my father would have done,” says Knopper. “There’s just such a need for philanthropy in Detroit.” Knopper is honoring her parents’ legacy through the Knopper Family Endowed Chair and the Knopper Family Endowed Research Fund in the School of Medicine. Together, the gifts will support research endeavors in the department of ophthalmology, visual, and anatomical sciences.

A Dearborn man captured on an Islamic State battlefield this month was tricked by fellow Muslims into traveling overseas and became trapped in war-torn Syria, his brother said Friday. Relatives, public records and legal experts helped establish a narrative timeline of Ibraheem Musaibli's final months in the United States, his alleged attempts to escape an Islamic State prison with help from the FBI and potential prosecution in a high-profile criminal case in Detroit. The chronology emerged Friday, one day after it was revealed the Dearborn native had been captured by Coalition-backed forces in Syria while believed to be fighting for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Though Musaibli was captured overseas, he could be prosecuted in Detroit, the federal jurisdiction which covers his hometown of Dearborn, said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor. The Times reported that it is likely Musaibli has been charged in a sealed federal court filing. "We’re not going to have any issues of entrapment or that the government somehow acted unfairly in targeting him. He was on the battlefield," Henning said. "It's much easier when it's a black-and-white case."

On the top of what is likely Detroit's hippest parking structure, a mural is gaining attention. The focus on the colorful piece of artwork over the entrance to an elevator shaft, however, has as much to do with the artist's federal lawsuit against General Motors as it does about the impression left by the piece. The Swiss artist Adrian Falkner is accusing the Detroit automaker of copyright infringement in a GM ad campaign for Cadillac. Falkner, who signs his work "SMASH 137," maintains that the mural on top of the Z Garage, one piece of Dan Gilbert's empire of Bedrock-owned properties downtown, was a centerpiece of an ad campaign in 2016 for the Cadillac XT5. GM dismisses the claim, which seeks unspecified compensation. John Rothchild, an associate professor at Wayne State University Law School, said such cases are not necessarily unique. "It's not unusual to have a case challenging the use of an image in the background of an advertisement of a television program," he said. "That happens frequently. This is a little bit unusual because it involved graffiti in an outdoor location, but even that is not unique."

Summer isn't the offseason for Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson. For him, fitness and recruitment are a year-round endeavor.

During his 500-mile bike ride across the state of Michigan, Wayne State University’s president will be stopping in Holland to talk with residents about higher education.

With the help of a $1.54 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, a research team from Wayne State University will establish a targeted approach to sustain cardiac function during an energetic crisis and heart failure. Led by Jian-Ping Jin, M.D., Ph.D., professor and William D. Traitel Endowed Chair of Physiology in the School of Medicine at Wayne State, the research team has focused on the area of protein structure-function relationships, particularly on protein engineering to improve muscle and heart functions.

Professor Jonathan T. Weinberg is Wayne State University Law School’s inaugural associate dean for research and faculty development.  

Professors at Wayne State University were asked to investigate a three-story worker’s row house, or tenement house, located in Corktown. Thomas Killion, associate professor of anthropology at Wayne State and his students worked for three years on the archaeological dig at the row house, one of Detroit's oldest surviving structures.

Wayne State University has reached the $750 million goal of its “Pivotal Moments” fundraising campaign, three months early and ahead of its 150th anniversary as it continues its work in Detroit, officials announced Tuesday.

Co-developed in 2011 by Sarah Draugelis and two of her WSU classmates, Team fEMR is now used by at least five medical relief organizations, including doctors and students at Wayne State with the World Health Student Organization (WHSO) and International Samaritans of Ann Arbor.

Turkey's first vice president Fuat Oktay was sworn into office in the parliament on Tuesday. Oktay, born in 1964 in Turkey's central Anatolian Yozgat province, served as the head of the Prime Ministry's Disaster and Emergency Management Agency from January 2012 to June 2016. From June 2016 until now, he has served as undersecretary in the Prime Ministry. Oktay earned a bachelor's degree in business studies from Cukurova University in 1985. He finished his master's degree in manufacturing engineering and business studies in 1990 at Wayne State University in the U.S.

As a young psychologist in the 1980s who had researched treatment of the mentally ill, I was concerned by many reports suggesting that the growing number of homeless people may be due to deinstitutionalization.

A new study shows that many cities will see a shortage of obstetricians and gynecologists by 2020, and Detroit is ranked the sixth highest on that list. By 2050, the study is predicting a shortfall of doctors in that field. “Not surprised,” said Doug Skrzyniarz, associate vice president of Government Health Affairs at Wayne State University.

Active U.S. military members may now qualify for a 50 percent tuition discount through Wayne State University. The Active Military Student Discount is designed for members who are on active duty in any of the U.S. Armed Forces, including the Reserves and National Guard.