A federal appeals court has thrown out Michigan's voter-approved ban on affirmative action in college admissions and public hiring, and Michigan's attorney general said he will take the case to the nation's highest court. 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati said in yesterday's decision that the 2006 amendment to the Michigan Constitution is illegal because it presents an extraordinary burden to opponents who would have to mount their own long, expensive campaign to protect affirmative action. The court said that the burden undermines a federal right that all citizens "have equal access to the tools of political change." Soon after the decision, Attorney General Bill Schuette announced in a statement his intention to file a petition of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court within 90 days to appeal the split 8-7 en banc ruling. Michigan voters amended the constitution to ban the consideration of race in college admissions and government hiring. Proposal 2 forced the University of Michigan and other public schools to change policies. The full court in 2011 overturned a decision by one of its three-judge panels and said it would reopen the case. It has taken more than a year for the court to reach a decision. Co-defendants in the lawsuit against Proposal 2 included the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary and a collection of 36 Latino and African-American students and applicants to the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University.

Lei Ding, assistant professor of urban studies and planning at Wayne State University, offered an analysis of the metro Detroit housing market based on a recent Interest.com Home Affordability Study. The study rated the ability of a median-income household to buy a median-priced home in the top 25 markets of the country. Detroit earned an "A" in the study suggesting that available housing prices are very affordable. Ding said the very affordable housing price (due to the prevalence of distressed sales) and low interest rates contribute to the high affordability in Detroit.

Barbara Redman, dean of Wayne State University's College of Nursing; Peter Hammer, WSU law professor; Kate Kohn-Parrott, president and CEO of the Greater Detroit Area Health Council; and John Freeman, director of Protect Your Care-Michigan participated in a panel discussion about the future of health care and the Affordable Care Act. The panelists were guests on The Craig Fahle Show.

The Collegiate Inventors Competition named the 2012 winners of the annual contest to find the best graduate student and undergraduate inventors in the U.S., choosing from hundreds of entrants from across the country. Second runner-up was Tamer Badawy of Wayne State University, for an innovation that enables a diesel engine to run optimally on a surprisingly wide variety of fuels.

Five women who graduated from Wayne State's School of Law in 1998 have built strong careers and nurtured a close friendship for nearly 15 years - and now they've joined together to create an endowed scholarship to help beginning law students start their own career paths. "I am hopeful that our scholarship may inspire other groups to give, or it may inspire other students to keep in touch with each other after they graduate, even though they all may be on differing career paths," said Marcy Hahn, a member of the Law School's Board of Visitors.

The instructors leading the free Breath Brake seminar Thursday evening at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History will be an unexpected bunch - they are all kids fighting cancer. But what they have to teach can help anyone, says Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg, head of the nonprofit Kids Kicking Cancer. Kids Kicking Cancer teaches its young charges focused breathing techniques that help reduce both pain and stress, each of which can undermine recovery. "We explain that as martial artists the children can bring in this powerful energy with their breath and blow out the darkness of pain, fear and anger," says Goldberg, who's also a professor of pediatrics at Wayne State University's School of Medicine.

This editorial supports early college programs in the K-12 districts suggesting that young students are able to "maintain their grip" and "start a career ahead of their peers and to reduce college expenses and debt by substantial amounts." In Macomb County more than 300 students take part in the Early College program operated jointly by the community college and the Macomb Intermediate School District. Wayne State University, Ferris State University, Macomb Community College, Rochester College and the University Michigan-Flint are included in the listing of participating institutions.

Robert Hogle, Wayne State University C&IT's director of computer operations support, was recently interviewed for a feature article in Symantec's October 2012 issue of CIO Digest, a quarterly publication containing strategies and analysis for senior IT leaders around the world. In the article and accompanying videos, Hogle discusses C&IT's current effort to consolidate systems in Wayne State's data center. The project leverages both server virtualization and updates to WSU's data backup and recovery system to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. Hogle anticipates that Symantec's NetBackup hardware and software will provide a tenfold reduction in duplicated data, putting the brakes on the impact from data storage growth. Additionally, restorations of large data files will be much faster - what sometimes took days will be reduced to minutes.

Research from Wayne State University shows preemies who were massaged three times a day over five days made more effective immune cells, than those who weren't massaged. They also gained a bit more weight. However, researchers aren't sure if the babies who were massaged will be healthier down the road since they had about the same number of infections as those who weren't massaged.

Pure As Pond Ice likes to advertise itself as a nonprofit that is "creating a healthier Detroit for youth by using hockey as a tool for life success." It's a motto that has made the Midtown-based organization $1,000 richer now that it has won the Tweet Award from this year's Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition. "We would like to create thriving communities that revolve around hockey," says Timothy Hooker, co-founder of Pure As Pond Ice, which was co-founded by local college students and hockey enthusiasts at the Blackstone LaunchPad program at Wayne State University. It first started as a way to create a scholarship fund and then help collect hockey equipment for underprivileged youth in the Motor City. Today it's raising $18,000 to create an after-school hockey program. It's working with Think Detroit PAL to make the three-day program a reality.

More than a dozen Wayne State University student volunteers worked early last Thursday morning to help install a giant red kettle at Campus Martius Park in Detroit. Between 5:30 and 7:30 a.m., the students and Allingham Crane workers used a crane to lift the structure -- roughly 56 feet tall and 24 feet wide -- into place and manually attached 25,000 LED lights. The lights are to be lit Nov. 16 to celebrate the official kickoff of the organization's Red Kettle Campaign. The students, members of the men's baseball team, joined Maj. Mark Anderson, the Salvation Army's general secretary and metro Detroit commander, in ringing the first bell of the season. Photos are included.

Wayne State University senior fencer Tiaja Sabrie is profiled in this story about the three-time letter winner. As a foil for the Warriors fencing team, Sabrie competed in all nine events in 2011, and she placed 15th in the NCAA regional after a 16th-place finish at the Midwest Fencing Conference Championship. She's compiled a 199-120 record during her time with Wayne State, including a 75-40 mark last season.

An article features Wayne State University's Tech Town. Leslie Smith, TechTown CEO, comments extensively in the piece. She sees economic development in basic terms, as "largely a series of deals." Smith says they're forging a balance between the protection that incubators provide and the independence that startups need to acquire. "They like it here, but if you just let them stay indefinitely, it's like having a bunch of 40-year-olds in your basement." They need to move on. So she is working on alumni networks to fan the collaborative embers even as startups leave the nest.

The Wayne State University Board of Governors is beginning the process to replace retiring President Allan Gilmour. The board will hold a special meeting at 11 a.m. Monday to form a search committee, the school said in a media advisory Friday. It is the first step in finding a permanent replacement for Gilmour, 78, who has announced he will retire at the end of the school year. WJR, WWJ and WWJ-TV 62 also noted the Board of Governor's meeting during news reports.

Students from assistant professor Krysta Ryzewski's Archaeological Field Methods course at Wayne State University are searching for the neighborhood that once stood where the ruins of the Michigan Central Depot looms today. According to a Detroit News story by Bill Loomis, this small group is excavating a former thriving neighborhood that once occupied the park and adjacent areas; in all, about 20 blocks of streets and alleys that ran from 15th to 20th streets and from the train station to Michigan Avenue. "We are currently conducting excavations of a 19th century neighborhood in Detroit's Roosevelt Park, which was demolished to make the entrance for the train station in the 1910s," said Ryzewski. "We are trying to understand who these people were who lived here."

Wayne State University student Steven Patterson discusses his transition from military service in Iraq to civilian life in a feature series honoring veterans.

Joique Bell was a unique player when he was at Wayne State. But there's another name to keep tabs on. Toney Davis, who will finish up his redshirt junior season Saturday when Wayne State hosts Michigan Tech. "I see a bright future for him," Bell said of Davis, who leads Wayne State in rushing with 985 yards on 195 carries and 13 touchdowns. "He is going to have to continue to work hard. … It is a patient game. Everything is not going to go the way you want it." And what Davis ultimately wants is to follow in Bell's footsteps. All the way to the NFL. "It is something I think about, especially since (Bell) is doing so well," said Davis, who is third on the career rushing list with 3,192 yards and second in touchdowns with 44. "It is perfect," Wayne State coach Paul Winters said of Bell playing in Detroit. "I had no idea how much of an impact it would have playing for the Lions." A photo of Davis is included.

TechTown Thursday announced that the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange, an organization representing Boston's digital marketing, media and Internet technology community, has selected the Detroit-based nonprofit incubator and accelerator to host the first MITX Up Detroit, an event that will pair TechTown startups with veteran marketers for a free two-hour mentoring session on Tuesday, Nov. 13. "Most entrepreneurs initially fail to realize that a smart marketing strategy can yield significant returns on investment," said Leslie Smith, president and CEO of TechTown. "It typically takes a few years for that aha moment to strike - when mistakes or missed opportunities become glaringly obvious. TechTown clients learn from day one that success often hinges on marketing, which makes MITX Up Detroit the perfect complement to our existing curriculum."

In honor of Veterans Day, Sunday, the Detroit News highlighted veterans with ties to Wayne State University, who strive to improve the lives of others and, in turn, are enriching their own. Cornelius Porter III wanted to shed light on the struggles of combat veterans transitioning from the battlefield to the home front. So the Army veteran, who served from 2001-06, produced and directed the documentary "Back Home - A Tale of a Warrior's Battle."

Democrats retained control of the elected boards running the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University, while likely picking up a seat on the MSU board, unofficial returns showed.