Business activity picked up substantially in March, according to the Southeast Michigan Purchasing Managers Index, which grew four points to 55.7. The three-month average grew from 52.9 to 54.2. A figure above 50 indicates an expanding economy. New orders drove the growth, with that subset of the index gaining 7.3 points to 55.9. The employment index increased 6.4 points to 60.6, and the production index increased 1.5 points to 52.9. A slowing in the growth of commodity prices also helped. "Commodity prices, mainly of petroleum and petroleum-based products, are quite volatile. The moderation in their rate of growth is welcome, though easily reversible," said Nitin Paranjpe, an economist and member of the faculty in supply chain management at Wayne State University's School of Business Administration. The index is a research partnership between the business school and the Institute for Supply Management-Southeast Michigan.

It didn't take long for Michigan's new emergency manager law to face a legal challenge. Last Wednesday, one day before the law officially known as PA 436 first took effect, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the act was filed in Detroit. There's not a clear-cut answer, in part because, as lawyers of the plaintiffs indicate, no other state has ever tried implementing something as extensive as Michigan's emergency manager law. Wayne State University law professor John Mogk, who includes state law among his specialties, noted, "I agree that the EM law is more far-reaching than any other. There are issues raised that will require expansive interpretation of previous case law." Mogk explained that cities are a creation of the state and, as such, the legislature may grant the governor wide latitude when it comes to addressing something like a financial emergency. Robert Sedler, a Wayne State professor who specializes in constitutional law, said it's possible PA 436 could be deemed to be too far-reaching by the federal courts. Giving emergency managers the power to set aside ordinances legally approved by a duly elected city council, while at the same time empowering those EMs to enact what are essentially new ordinances, could be considered "a serious incursion on the rights of self-governance." Sedler, however, offered a word of caution to those who hope to see a judge declare the law unconstitutional. "Federal courts are reluctant to strike down laws on their face," he explained. "They prefer constitutional challenges that address how laws are actually applied."

Wayne State University professor Jim Brown and his graduate students have been working with students at the Charles Drew Transition Center in Detroit since the end of January. The center is a post-secondary vocational school that serves special education students, ages 18-26, with moderate and severe cognitive impairments, physical impairments, hearing and visual impairments and other health disabilities as well as autism. Students in the program have spent Tuesdays on campus with Brown and his Wayne State graduate students learning elements of visual arts, and on Thursdays, Brown and his graduate students visit the center to work with the class. A completion program for the students will be held April 9 at Wayne State University. "The program helps the students (at the center) focus on thinking skills. The arts can reach other ways of thinking than other subject areas," Brown said.

A feature story profiles Réna Bradley who participates in the Detroit Revitalization Fellows program, a Wayne State University project that matches rising professionals in fields related to urban issues with organizations working at the forefront of Detroit revitalization efforts. Since September 2011, 29 fellows have been working in key positions throughout the city. Since returning to Detroit for the program, Bradley has landed on the front lines of fighting urban decay at the Detroit Land Bank Authority--a public-private partnership using government and foundation funds to help the city rehabilitate tax forfeited properties so families and businesses will move back to reclaim neighborhoods. She is involved in many aspects of the operation from project management to marketing.

Late last month, student-run startups from the Blackstone LaunchPad incubator gathered for pitch competition on the campus of Wayne State University. The startups were able to pitch for up to $5,000 in funding from the Warrior Fund, WSU's pre-seed fund to support student tech startups. Blackstone, which operates on the campuses of Wayne State and Walsh College, is dedicated to taking a raw business idea from any student and helping them shape it into a viable startup. One of the four winners of investment from the Warrior Fund: SIB Medical. Aubrey Agee, Blackstone's senior program administrator, says this startup is spun out of technology developed at Wayne State University. The tissue preservation device was invented by professors in the medical school, but three students, including one theater major, are attempting to commercialize it. The students plan to use their $5,000 in prize money to license the tech from WSU, and the first market they hope to penetrate is early detection of colorectal cancer.

In his blog, Crain's health reporter Jay Green wrote: "I was flabbergasted but not surprised when I read the headline a couple weeks ago that a large number of medical school graduates did not match with a hospital residency program this year. Of course we need thousands more doctors - 90,000 more by 2020 - to not only keep up with U.S. population trends but to also take care of up to 32 million more people with health insurance under Obamacare the next 10 years…With 141 accredited medical schools, there are more schools and students in the U.S. and Canada than ever before, including the 3-year-old Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine. Caribbean and Mexican medical schools are still pumping out hundreds of foreign medical graduates." Greene points out that locally both Wayne State University School of Medicine and the University of Michigan Medical School matched their students above the national average of about 93 percent. Wayne State, with its 274 graduating seniors, matched at 98.5 percent, which was 2.5 percentage points higher than it accomplished in 2012. "That high rate," Greene writes, "probably is because many of Wayne State's graduates choose primary care specialties."

A $100,000 gift to Wayne State University seeks to help students who need a little extra money to finish work on their degrees. The pledge comes from the Mandell and Madeleine Berman Foundation. Wayne State says the money will go to create the Finish Line Annual Scholarship. University spokeswoman Jennifer Harte says the scholarship "is designed to encourage undergraduate students who are near graduation but require additional support to complete their degree." Recipients will receive up to $5,000 for the 2013-14 academic year. Requirements include having at least 110 credits, holding a 2.5 or better grade average, coming from Detroit, attending classes full time, needing financial aid and having temporarily stopped taking classes during one of the past four semesters.

Cynthia Bir, Wayne State University biomedical engineering professor, offered tips on how baseball players like Miguel Cabrera blend split-second decision-making to achieve exact timing, and devastate opposing pitching. Bir said it takes special skills with their eyes, arms, hips feet and the sum of all parts. "It takes a certain amount of time to actually see the ball and a certain amount of time to process that information and react to it. And we're talking about milliseconds…It's his ability to be able to time all that and then have his hips start to rotate first, then his shoulders, then his arms, then the bat and then stepping forward to put his actual mass behind the ball."

Wayne State University's College of Engineering announced this year's Global Experience Scholarship Program recipients, who will spend six to eight weeks at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology. The college, in collaboration with Wayne State's Office for International Programs, announced in February the creation of the scholarship program that would provide engineering and computer science undergraduates an opportunity to gain research and industry experience abroad. The program is just one way the college is providing students with a global perspective, one of the five established pillars to a Wayne State engineering and computer science education. The college has partnered with a number of other Chinese universities including Hubei University of Automotive Technology, Soochow University and South China University of Technology. According to College of Engineering Dean Farshad Fotouhi, future cohorts of recipients may travel to these and other institutions. In fact, Fotouhi sees this as just the beginning of a much larger initiative. http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/04/01/awards-and-certifications-from-april-1/

A federal lawsuit filed by opponents of Michigan's emergency manager law zeroes in on the powers Public Act 436 gives to the state, and those it takes away from residents who vote local elected officials into office. The lawsuit, filed late Wednesday rests on questions that have troubled critics for years: Does the emergency manager law violate the voting rights of residents by tossing out their ability to elect local leaders? And is it being unfairly applied to cities across Michigan when it comes to race. Wayne State University law professor Robert Sedler, who specializes in constitutional law, said Thursday that the lawsuit raises "a serious question of whether this violates equal protection" because the Constitution says laws and rights must be applied evenly to all citizens. Sedler said Michigan's emergency manager law could be interpreted as legally unfair in that it will limit Detroiters' right to self-governance while residents in other cities maintain the ability to elect their leaders. But Sedler said the legal challenge could lose some bite if Detroit's emergency manager Kevyn Orr follows through on his plan to work collaboratively with the mayor and City Council.

Igor Marfey has a lot going for him, MBA from Wayne State University, promising career prospects fresh out of college and a steady paycheck as a financial analyst with Robert Bosch. And he gave it all up to chase the entrepreneurial dream at a local start-up. The 27-year-old is employee No. 1 at Larky, an Ann Arbor-based start-up that is creating a mobile app that helps consumers maximize the discounts available to them through membership organizations, loyalty programs and coupons from local businesses. It's also one of the first start-ups participating in the newly revamped Adams Entrepreneur Fellowship Program, a local initiative that is taking a slow-food-style approach toward fostering entrepreneurship. The Adams Entrepreneur Fellowship Program places up-and-coming business people, i.e. recent college grads, with equally promising local start-ups. The year-long program also pairs the aspiring entrepreneurs with established business owners and investors who act as mentors. Nilesh Joshi is a 30-year-old recent graduate from Wayne State University with a Master's of Science in Chemistry and an idea to start his own company making bio-degradable chemicals. After going through the Blackstone LaunchPad program for Wayne State University students, he had $5,000 in seed capital from the program's Warrior Fund and the validation of his business idea.

When Michigan's state government -- responding to the steady hemorrhage of manufacturing jobs in the 2000s -- launched its No Worker Left Behind program, it wanted to channel displaced workers into the knowledge economy. The move, it turned out, is helping drive growth in Detroit's health care sector. Though the metro area's total population dropped 10 percent between 2003 and 2011, jobs in its health care industry surged by 11,400. Detroit is eventually hoping to see substantial economic impact from medical startups from TechTown, a research park and incubator affiliated with Wayne State University, and from the university's $100 million biomedical research facility under construction across the street from TechTown and expected to open next year. "The university is a huge anchor for downtown Detroit," said Dr. Valerie Parisi, dean of the Wayne State University's School of Medicine. Many believe the city's renaissance will come from higher education and health care, she said. "It's been dubbed 'eds and meds.' " Parisi noted that the medical school recently captured a National Institutes of Health contract worth $165 million to continue housing the NIH's perinatology research branch. An economic impact study found that the contract will allow the city to retain more than 130 knowledge-based jobs.

Wayne State University has received a $100,000 commitment from the Mandell and Madeleine Berman Foundation to create the Crossing the Finish Line Annual Scholarship. The scholarship is designed to encourage undergraduate students who are near graduation but require additional support to complete their degree. The foundation's generosity was shepherded by Mandell "Bill" and Madeleine Berman and their daughter Ann. "Bill, Madge and Ann Berman are dedicated supporters of Wayne State, and even more importantly, they are dedicated supporters of education," Wayne State University President Allan Gilmour said. "The Crossing the Finish Line Annual Scholarship Fund, established through their foundation, helps hardworking students complete their degrees and achieve their educational goals."

Removed from a car parked nearby, a state-of-the-art engine sits unused next to a desk in a dusty corner of a classroom. Students at Wayne State University in Detroit have installed an older engine model, and are tinkering with it to make it more fuel efficient. Their challenge: Reinvent the guts of an ordinary car, the 2013 Chevy Malibu, and transform it into a poster child for green driving. Wayne State is one of 15 universities across the country participating in the Department of Energy's EcoCar2 competition to see which school can build a car that reduces fuel consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and tailpipe emissions. Car-building competitions often turn wild: Students design stealth-shaped vehicles and solar-paneled cars that are futuristic, yet unrealistic. In the EcoCar2 challenge, students must use cars that are ready-made for today's roads. And they must build a car that regular, Walmart-loving mainstream Americans might actually want to buy.

Former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly joined the Wayne State University Law School faculty this week as the school's first 'distinguished jurist in residence.' "Justice Kelly has been both a leader in our state and a national leader to promote improved ethics and transparency for how we select our supreme court justices - so we certainly hope to provide an opportunity for her to continue that work," said Wayne Law interim dean Jocelyn Benson.

Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Kelly is joining the faculty of Wayne State University Law School as its first "distinguished jurist in residence," the school announced this week. Kelly, 74, who served on the high court 16 years, retired from the court in 2012 due to a provision in the state constitution that bars jurists from seeking re-election after age 70. A Wayne Law alumnus, she already serves on the executive committee of the law school's Board of Visitors. "I look forward to this," Kelly said in a statement released by the law school this week on her appointment. "It's an opportunity to be creative. It seems a natural fit to me that I should come back here." Kelly also co-chaired the Michigan Judicial Selection Task Force with retired Judge James Ryan of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That panel in 2012 made seven judicial reform recommendations and drafted proposed legislation to update the electoral process.

With right-to-work laws going into effect Thursday, at least 41 school districts and five colleges have approved contracts that allow them to skirt the new and controversial law for at least a few years. Republicans in the state House of Representatives are furious that districts have found a way to avoid the law by extending their contracts and are threatening to financially punish the districts and institutions, potentially costing them thousands -- and in some cases, millions of dollars. House Republicans have voted for budgets that cut funding for the institutions and districts that signed contracts between Dec. 10, 2012 -- the day that the right-to-work bills received final passage and a signature from Gov. Rick Snyder -- and Thursday. Under the law, any contracts in place before the law goes into effect on Thursday, would be legally binding until they expire, including provisions mandating that employees pay union dues. The cuts, which would take effect if the education and community officials can't prove at least a 10 percent savings from the contracts, would: cut 15 percent from state appropriations to universities; eliminate a 2 percent increase that has been slated for community colleges; cut technology and performance grants for K-12 public schools, and withhold some revenue-sharing funds from communities. For universities the cuts are in the millions. U-M could lose up to $47 million and Wayne State University up to $27 million. But, while the proposed cuts may be gaining traction in the state House, they are not as certain to get the votes in the state Senate. "I'm going to be real cautious with anything that has to do with tying appropriations to local decisions," said Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe. And Snyder has been guarded in his comments, pointing out that the budget bills are just starting to move and are subject to many changes. "If people are bargaining in good faith and showing real benefits, I don't believe they should be penalized," he said. "But if they're simply extending the date, then I can see legislators having a concern."

Restaurant servers are more likely to give better service to patron types they believe are more inclined to tip well, a Wayne State University researcher has found, a principle that has significant consequences when African-Americans are at the table. In an effort to determine whether servers based their service levels on perceived tipping differences across customer demographics, Zachary Brewster, assistant professor of sociology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, analyzed data derived from a survey of 200 servers in 18 restaurants in a southeastern U.S. metropolitan area. In "The Effects of Restaurant Servers' Perceptions of Customers' Tipping Behaviors on Service Discrimination," published recently in the International Journal of Hospitality Management, servers reported their perceptions of the tipping behaviors of 18 different table scenarios involving a number of demographic characteristics including race, sexual orientation and age, with combinations featuring small and adult children. Brewster found that sensitivity to demographic differences predicted whether servers reported giving excellent service at the prospect of receiving excellent tips.

Life Beyond Barriers, an initiative that combines the power of medicine, science, engineering and entrepreneurship to enhance the quality of life for the injured and disabled, announced an ongoing charitable donation of up to $15,000 per year to fund prototype design and development at the Wayne State University biomedical engineering undergraduate design laboratory. This funding significantly enhances the four-year, clinically focused design program that is at the center of biomedical engineering education at Wayne State. This support not only enriches the education of our undergraduate biomedical engineering students, it aims to improve the quality of life for people facing injuries and disabilities around the globe as well," said Michele Grimm, biomedical engineering undergraduate program chair, Wayne State University College of Engineering. "By providing our students with the funding, and an avenue, to develop quality solutions to real-world patient challenges - and potentially take them to market - Life Beyond Barriers clears a path for entrepreneurial growth previously not available to our students. An extraordinary opportunity has been presented to us, and I have no doubt our students will embrace the Warrior spirit and seize it."

Gov. Rick Snyder joined young professionals Monday for some face time. Snyder challenged the group of young Metro Detroit professionals to get involved in helping shape the city's future. "I need you to say as we go through these issues about the future of the city, how you feel about it," said Snyder, during a private meeting with the nonprofit Detroit Young Professionals at the Wayne State University Welcome Center. "Show up at meetings and participate and talk. Bring your friends." Joining Snyder was Kevyn Orr on his first day as Detroit's emergency manager. Bobby Smith, 29, moved to Detroit from New Jersey 10 years ago to attend Wayne State University. He remained in the city as he developed En Garde Detroit, which provides youth with access to the sport of fencing.