Most of the more than 90 Legionnaires’ disease cases during the deadly 2014-15 outbreak in the Flint area were caused by changes in the city’s water supply — and the epidemic may have been more widespread than previously believed, according to two studies published Monday. “There was clearly a large proportion of cases that can be attributed to the switch in the water,” said Shawn McElmurry, an environmental engineering associate professor at Wayne State University who leads the research partnership. “While there may not have been a good enough epidemiological investigation at the time, and the data may not have been collected..., this makes it very clear that the increase in the Legionnaires’ cases is attributable to the change in water quality.” 

Dating anxiety is well-documented, but, being single also has moments of anxiety. In fact, the fear of being single is often based on social judgment that “there is something wrong with you” for not maintaining relationships, says Stephanie Spielmann, assistant professor of psychology at Wayne State University, who has studied the fear of being single. 

What is going to happen when people all over the world start running out of fresh water? How are we going to deal with that kind of global crisis? And what would it mean for us here in the Great Lakes region, where we have 20 percent of the world’s available surface supply right outside our door? Noah Hall, Wayne State University professor of law, specializing in environmental and water law, and founder of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, talked about what these global water shortages could mean for the Great Lakes.

Gretchen Valade’s ambitions for jazz in Detroit only seem to grow and grow. Now the jazz-loving philanthropist — among the most generous individual patrons of Detroit arts — is donating another $2 million to Wayne State University’s jazz program, on top of a $7.5 million commitment she announced in December 2015.

The Wayne State University Board of Governors agreed Friday to issue $129 million in bonds to help finance several construction projects at the school, including the Mike Ilitch School of Business in District Detroit.

“If you hate legal immigration, then Trump’s new plan is for you,” Jonathan T. Weinberg wrote. The plan, according to Weinberg, would give us a nearly 40 percent cut in what President Trump calls “chain migration,” and the rest of us call “family-based migration” – legal immigration to the United States to join a close family member who is a U.S. citizen or green card holder. “Trump’s plan is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how U.S. immigration law works, and what immigration to this country has always looked like. This plan isn’t an attack on illegal immigration; it’s an attack on the legal immigration that has made this country strong,” Weinberg wrote.

What makes a president’s words ring throughout history? What are the best presidential speeches in history? Wayne State University history professor Marc Kruman says the most impactful presidential speeches usually come at inaugural addresses when the leaders tend to be aspirational. Kruman says Trump’s first inaugural address, which referenced “American carnage” and other dark and negative imagery, played to his campaign style. Kruman says Trump is unlikely to change his style and delivery any time soon. “I’d be surprised if he sought to redirect it,” says Kruman.

The first year of Donald Trump’s presidency has inspired a fresh wave of women’s movements. Both one day and one year after his inauguration, millions of people across the globe participated in the first and second women’s marches, demonstrating support for causes such as equal pay, safe workplaces and campuses, reproductive rights and a stronger social safety net.

Hundreds of Wayne State University students, alumni and staff celebrated the university’s 150 years of achievements during its sesquicentennial celebration kick off last Friday. The event, held inside a packed Community Arts Auditorium, was the first in a series of events that will be held throughout the year to celebrate the milestone. “All last year, throughout the many receptions and conferences and other public events I was always talking about the fact that this was going to be our sesquicentennial year,” said Wayne State President M. Roy Wilson. “And it’s finally here.” 

Wayne State University is turning 150, and the Detroit school is preparing to kick off a yearlong Sesquicentennial Celebration.

A Wayne State University professor tasked by Gov. Rick Snyder with helping investigate whether the Flint area Legionnaires’ outbreak was connected to the switch to the Flint River said on Friday state officials tried to stall his team so they didn’t find anything in the water system. Shawn McElmurry, an environmental engineering associate professor hired by the state, testified Friday in the preliminary hearing of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon that the group was being set up to fail. He also worried the budget limits for the 2016 study would hinder his sampling and research because he wouldn’t be able to hire as many staffers as necessary.

General Motors cars cruised the streets in the shadow of Detroit’s Harper Hospital in 1952. Above them was the room of Henry Opitek, a cardiac patient who would come to owe his life to the engineers who built those cars — and who helped foster a partnership between the automotive and medical industries that continues today. The combined efforts of Harper doctors and G.M. engineers would produce a miraculous machine — a mechanical device that would temporarily replace Opitek’s heart. The operation was performed by a team led by Dr. Forest D. Dodrill, who had approached G.M. about a partnership after reasoning that pumping blood would be much like pumping fuel. “Dodrill took a big step that at least demonstrated open-heart surgery could be done while circulating blood with a pump,” said Dr. Larry W. Stephenson, a professor of surgery at Wayne State University who documented the operation at length in a 2002 article for the Journal of Cardiac Surgery. “His achievements were one of the big steppingstones going forward.”

The sight of meteors similar to the one that that flashed above Windsor and Detroit Tuesday night is more common than some may think. "There's sort of ten-ish per year that get hundreds of people reporting that they've seen it," said David Cinabro, the chair of Wayne State University's physics and astronomy department.

“Corruption in labor unions is a matter of longstanding public concern. Federal law imposes fiduciary responsibility on union officers and key administrative personnel. Union leaders and members, along with independent auditors and watchdogs, should maintain constant vigilance over the financial operations of a union’s principal and subsidiary institutions.” 

“We are thrilled to be joined by an attorney general (Loretta Lynch) who herself has been a trailblazer, history maker and staunch defender of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream of justice and equality for all Americans,” Wayne State President M. Roy Wilson said. “Now as much as ever, it is critical that we all reaffirm our commitment to these values, which remain firmly at the core of Wayne State’s mission.”

Dr. David Rosenberg, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Wayne State University, talks about developing technology in brain imaging that can help doctors and patients objectively recognize and identify mental illness.

Whether you’re for abortion or against – can the state force you to say anything about it? What about posting a notice with information for the other side? This year, the U.S. Supreme Court must decide.

There have been at least three cases in the past two days in Michigan where people with dementia or early onset dementia walked out in the cold and died. Psychologist Dr. Peter Lichtenberg, the director of the Institute of Gerentology at Wayne State University, tells Michigan News Network many people with dementia do some kind of wandering. “Some of it the need for stimulation, and some of it is sort of an idea that comes to them to go somewhere, and then losing that train of thought,” Lichtenberg said. “It’s incredibly dangerous with the way the weather is now.”  

Last year brought news of upheavals in the world, around the country and in our backyard. News of hurricanes and the California fires made me more grateful than ever to claim southeastern Michigan as home. It also makes me concerned that not everyone in southeast Michigan benefits from our region's riches. Worse, I fear that we are being reckless with our treasures. Thus, I offer this resolution for southeastern Michigan: Let's think like a region in 2018.    

In the wake of words deemed annoying or worthy of banishment, A Detroit university has offered up a batch it wants back in the linguistic limelight. Wayne State University on Tuesday released its annual Word Warriors list. It includes "insuperable," meaning impossible to overcome, and "nugatory," of no value or importance. Among other "neglected" words it wants to revive are "couth," which means cultured, refined and well-mannered, and "frangible," referring to something that's fragile.