Editorial page editor Nolan Finley's recent columns in The Detroit News highlight two narratives emerging in Detroit's post-bankruptcy era - one of a resurgent downtown juxtaposed with struggling neighborhoods. Following opening remarks by Finley, he and WDIV anchor Devin Scillian, will lead a panel discussion at 3 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26 with local community experts at the Detroit Policy Conference focused on the disparities in economic and entrepreneurial opportunity that exist among the "two Detroits." Panelists include Dennis Archer Jr., president and CEO of Archer Corporate Services; Cindy Pasky, president and CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions; Detroit City Councilman André Spivey; and Eric Williams, director of the Program for Entrepreneurship and Business Law, Wayne State University.

Robert Forsythe, Wayne State University School of Business Administration dean, and David Kudla, Mainstay Capital CEO were guests on "Spotlight on the News" talking about the March 26-27 ENGAGE International Investment Education Symposium. Forsythe said the conference is a way to showcase the university and the city of Detroit.

Sean Smith recently was inducted into the Wayne State University Hall of Fame joining a five-member class that was enshrined during ceremonies. Smith represented the Wayne State Warriors during his two seasons with the men's swimming and diving team after transferring from the University of Kentucky for the 2007-08 season. As a junior, he posted top-5 finishes at the Division II NCAA Championship and shattered school records in the 100 backstroke and the 200 backstroke. Smith captured first place in the 200 backstroke and joined the title-winning 400 medley relay, setting school, conference and NCAA Championship records in each event. As a senior in 2009, he claimed two national championships while delivering six All-American performances. Smith, who was named the 2009 GLIAC Athlete of the Year for men's swimming, also led Wayne State to the conference title with four first-place finishes in the GLIAC Championship.

What are the missing links between Black history and American history? Host Bankole Thompson is joined by a panel of experts to discuss the relationship between the two narratives and how they function together. Guests include Wayne State University History Professor Kidada Williams, Wayne State Lecturer in Africana Studies Kefentse Chike, Principal of Paul Roberson Malcolm X Academy Dr. Jeffrey Robinson, CEO of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History Juanita Moore, and Rev. of the Galilee Missionary Baptist Church Tellis Chapman. The panel also examines the prominence of Detroit, a city that has served as the backdrop for many crucial moments throughout Black history in the U.S. "I think Detroiters have a sense of this history, but there are times I wonder and I worry whether or not some of that has been lost by some of the younger people. So, I worry that young black Detroiters don't know the rich history of protest and struggles and advancement of the city," said Williams. Chike adds that poignant conversations about Detroit's Black history, an inclusive education model and taking action to preserve that legacy is when things can move beyond theory and make a real difference. "I think the key is, again, moving from theory or knowing, to being and doing," says Chike, "and I simply challenge people of African descent to be African period."

WSU President M. Roy Wilson will use an appearance before the Michigan Senate higher education appropriations subcommittee this afternoon to detail the ways Wayne State is being hurt by the state's current higher education funding formula. Since Michigan implemented performance-based funding in 2012, Wayne State has received the smallest increase by percentage each year. This year, Wayne State would get a 0.6% increase under budget plans announced earlier this month by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. No other university would receive less than 1.7%. Grand Valley State University would get a 4% increase. "This is not a sustainable pattern for us. So far, we've been able to absorb it. We've made cuts. We have 50 faculty who have accepted an early-retirement incentive, (but) we're at a point where we can't keep doing that."

Environmental political dramas may seem a relatively recent phenomenon, but Dr. Thomas Stockmann was a whistle-blower over a century before Erin Brockovich made it cool. Stockmann is the protagonist of Henrik Ibsen's 1882 play "An Enemy of the People," which the Hilberry Theatre Company will perform in repertory beginning Friday. When Stockmann discovers that the popular public baths in his town are contaminated, he comes into conflict with his brother Peter, the town's mayor. With a vested financial interest in keeping the baths open, Peter works to turn the local press - and the community at large - against Thomas. Blair Anderson, director of the Hilberry production, says Ibsen has long been on his directorial "wish list" because the Norwegian playwright's work still has "tremendous resonance to our contemporary society." He says "Enemy" confronts the idea that majority rule is always best.

Sitting in the pediatrician's office with their 6-day-old daughter, the two moms couldn't wait to meet the doctor they had picked out months before. The Roseville pediatrician - one of many they had interviewed - seemed the perfect fit: She took a holistic approach to treating children. She used natural oils and probiotics. And she knew they were lesbians. But as Jami and Krista Contreras sat in the exam room, waiting to be seen for their newborn's first checkup, another pediatrician entered the room and delivered a major blow: The doctor they were hoping for had a change of heart. After "much prayer," she decided that she couldn't treat their baby because they are lesbians. "There's no law that prohibits it," Wayne State University Constitutional Law Professor Robert Sedler said of Roi's actions. "It's the same as a florist refusing to sell flowers for a same-sex wedding." Legislative efforts to add LGBT individuals to federal and Michigan anti-discrimination laws have been made over the years, none successfully. Sedler, who teaches equality issues at Wayne State University, said Roi didn't violate any laws. "Basically, the pediatrician handled this in an appropriate way," Sedler said. "She turned them over to another doctor." However, Sedler added, Roi's actions as a licensed doctor raise an ethical issue. "Here you have a doctor saying I won't treat a baby of a lesbian couple … I think that's very troubling," he said. "It's clearly not illegal, but it certainly raises an ethical question."

There are lessons to be learned from the Ebola outbreak of 2014 because the dreaded virus is not going away, Dr. Craig Spencer said Tuesday while recounting his tale of surviving the disease after treating patients in West Africa. Spencer, a graduate of Grosse Pointe North High School and Wayne State University Medical School, said Ebola cases in West Africa are starting to rise again following months of decline. U.S. medical schools should do more to prepare American doctors to help out, he told medical students at a packed lecture hall at WSU's Detroit campus, where he received the Global Peacemaker Award from WSU's Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. "The virus is having a hard time going away," he said. "There's normalcy that's coming back, but it's not a reason to be complacent.

So how do you pronounce paczki? How do you spell it? Wayne State University students took a crack at it in this video, which also features Alina Klin, a senior lecturer in Polish Studies at the university. It was put together by Wayne State. The students sort of get it right.

The doctor who became the first and only person to be diagnosed with Ebola in New York City said he hopes to use his notoriety to improve the understanding and treatment of epidemic diseases. Dr. Craig Spencer is scheduled to deliver a lecture Tuesday at Wayne State University titled "The Challenges and Controversies of the Ebola Epidemic: Experiences from a Provider and Patient." Spencer is an alumnus of the Detroit university. Spencer also will receive the Global Peacemaker Award from Wayne State University's Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. Global public health issues such as the Ebola epidemic "are clearly related to the ravages of war, violence and poverty, which have decimated public health systems in places like Liberia," said Frederic Pearson, director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies.

President Barack Obama signed legislation last week to provide more resources to veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). About 15 percent of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are women. But studies for PTSD treatment have largely focused on men. Dr. Deane Aikins, an associate professor at Wayne State University and part of a group looking to treat the disorder in women, talked with WDET's J. Carlisle Larsen about the study and where researchers are finding hope for successful treatment of PTSD.

Dr. Craig Spencer knew the risks when he returned from Africa to New York City in October. His one-month stint with Doctors Without Borders had him treating Ebola patients in the west African nation of Guinea. More than 9,100 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have died from the virus. Back in New York, Spencer monitored his own temperature for a fever - an early sign for the virus - but went about normal activities, using the subway and going to a bowling alley and other public places. But on Oct. 23, six days after his return, he developed a fever and was admitted to Bellevue Hospital. He had Ebola. "I survived because I had much more advanced care. I had 24-hour, round-the-clock attention from a very well-prepared and well-trained hospital staff," said Spencer, 33. "There are more people on staff at the hospital where I was treated than were in all three countries combined before the outbreak."

Human trafficking is a $32 billion per year industry, making people the second largest illegal commodity on the planet, behind drugs. However, labeling human trafficking as a global problem can also inadvertently send the message that it is not happening locally. Human trafficking is happening in cities, suburbs, and rural areas, across the U.S. and in Michigan. In an effort to raise awareness, on Feb. 10, the WSU President's Commission on the Status of Women presented a panel of four legal and social work experts who discussed the topic in detail. Included among the panelists was Blanche Cook, assistant professor at Wayne State University Law School and previously an assistant U.S. attorney specializing in human trafficking cases.

Michigan is going to need to almost double the amount of college graduates living in the state by the end of the decade in order to have a competitive, knowledge-based economy, according to a report released Thursday. Business Leaders for Michigan released their report "Business Leaders' Insights: How Higher Education Can Help Michigan Become a Top Ten State" Thursday morning. Doug Rothwell, president and chief executive officer of the group, said higher education has a major role in Michigan's economic growth strategy. According to the report, 34 percent of Michigan residents have a college degree. Rothwell said that number needs to be closer to 70 percent by 2020 for Michigan to compete. Rothwell said all universities need to play a certain role, and not all schools in Michigan are set up to do the same thing. He said research universities -- like University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University -- were set up with different missions than schools like Northern Michigan University.

Relationship experts have been focusing recently on marital partners' beliefs about their marriage--specifically a partner's belief that the other partner understands and cares for him or her. Whether true or not, this belief--this perception that a partner is responsive, and reciprocates one's love and appreciation--is associated with satisfaction and intimacy in marriages. Could it also be related to physical health? That's the question that Wayne State University psychological scientist Richard Slatcher has been exploring in his work. Slatcher and his colleagues wondered if such beliefs might also have a positive impact on health and longevity through some biological pathway. The biological pathway they targeted for study is the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal, or HPA, axis, and the hormone cortisol. Cortisol helps regulate the immune system spiking soon after waking, then diminishing all day - called a steep cortisol slope. A flatter slope--often with a much smaller morning spike--is associated with poorer physical health. Slatcher wanted to see if perceived partner responsiveness is linked to steeper--that is healthier--cortisol slopes many years later. It did, as the scientists report in a forthcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science. Perceived responsiveness was associated with both steeper cortisol slope and higher wakeup cortisol level. Importantly, this link between responsiveness and healthy cortisol was driven, at least in part, by diminishing negative emotions over the decade. In other words, believing that one's partner cares--this perception leads to a decline in negative emotions, which in turn affects cortisol--and ultimately health.

A surveillance camera outside a Detroit gas station captured an SUV flipping, trapping a newborn baby inside at Warren and I-75 after a car rear-ended the SUV. The woman who was driving the SUV screamed that her baby was trapped inside of the overturned vehicle. Teri Falcon, a Wayne State University criminal justice student, saw the devastating accident. The 32-year-old trained medic who served in the Marines, was able to crawl inside the SUV to see an infant hanging upside down, strapped in a car seat. Falcon lifted the car seat up with one hand and unlatched it with the other freeing the baby.

Governor Snyder proposes to increase higher education funding by a total of 2 percent, or $28 million, with increases ranging from 0.6 percent at Wayne State University, 4 percent at Grand Valley State University and 1.9 percent at Michigan State University and University of Michigan. Performance-based metrics include factors such as weighted undergraduate completions in critical skills areas, research spending, six-year graduation rates, total completions, administrative costs as a percentage of core expenditures, and the percentage of students receiving Pell Grants.

Detroit Lions running back Joique Bell rushed for 860 yards and seven touchdowns last season. He's poised for another big year, but as he told students at Allen Park Middle School on Friday: football is not forever. That's why Bell has a game plan for when his playing days are over: He's getting his master's degree in sports administration at his alma mater, Wayne State University. "After talking to a few players and coaches, you know, networking around, I thought it would be beneficial to go back and get my second degree," Bell said.

When Carrie Lohr took over the Wayne State women's basketball program in 2011 it didn't take her long to transform the team into not only a conference contender, but a national one as well. This year, with an experienced roster back, and fresh off the schools second-consecutive Sweet 16 appearance she knew coming into the season that this team had the potential to be a great one. "Just the work they put in in the summer," Lohr recalled. "They were asking us to put a basketball in their hands, they wanted more."

Since the measles outbreak that originated at Disneyland in California, a national debate has been started about that vaccine and its importance. Dr. Paul Kilgore, an associate professor in Wayne State University's Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, says the virus is highly contagious and can be deadly. "Measles is the most contagious virus known to man," Kilgore said. "And it's easily passed from one person to another. Those that are exposed and susceptible to the virus, 90 percent of those become infected with measles and get the disease." Michigan is one of the states that allows parents to opt out of vaccinations based on religious, medical or philosophical reasons. fear of autism is fueling a lot of anti-vaccine sentiment. Kilgore says it's unfounded. "There is no association with autism or autism spectrum disorder," Kilgore said. "And the contents of the vaccine now are composed so they don't contain Mercury or any Mercury-containing compound."