For the second consecutive year, the Wayne State University Athletics "W" Week Community Service Initiative, in partnership with Wayne Cares, Marriott Hotels and Covenant House Michigan, hosted a Basic Needs Drive to collect toiletry items for area homeless youth and adults. The campus-wide drive began April 2 and collected thousands of personal hygiene items, including more than 5,000 toiletries generously donated by 11 Detroit-area Marriott Hotels. The drive culminated Friday with WSU athletes and volunteers sorting, assembling and distributing personal care kits for those in need in Detroit, those affected by tornadoes throughout the region and Covenant House Michigan's efforts to provide shelter and supportive services to homeless and at-risk youth.

The annual used book and media sale known as "Bookstock" is going on this week at Laurel Park Place mail in Livonia. Proceeds from the event support education and literacy programs throughout Metro Detroit. This year, one of the beneficiaries of "Bookstock" is Wayne State's School of Library and Information Science, which is creating a new graduate certificate program for its students. Kafi Kumasi, assistant professor at the school, says the certificate will help future librarians in Detroit and other inner cities connect with their communities.

A Wayne State University School of Medicine researcher is one step closer to understanding the genetic basis that enable bonobos to learn language, play music and use rudimentary tools. Derek Wildman, Ph.D., led a team that isolated the DNA and sequenced the genome, or whole inherited genetic make-up, of Kanzi, a bonobo based at the Bonobo Hope Great Ape Trust Sanctuary in Des Moines, Iowa. The sequencing, only the second of its kind, was performed at both WSU and an off-site private company. Wildman is associate professor of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, and of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He is the director of the Molecular Evolution Group at WSU's Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's task force on children exposed to violence is holding its last public hearing next week at Wayne State University. Holder launched the task force last fall as part of his Defending Childhood initiative, with ex-New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre as co-chair. The task force is to take public testimony 5-7 p.m. Monday at WSU's Adamany Undergraduate Library. Detroit U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West and Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary Lou Leary are scheduled to give opening remarks Tuesday. The program Tuesday features presentations by Detroit police Chief Ralph Godbee and New York city Probation Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi

Wayne State University President Allan Gilmour talked with WJR's Warren Pierce about the University's planned biomedical research building and WSU's new admissions policy.

A full-day conference, 'A Year in Tahrir: The Future of Arab Spring and Its Implications in the United States,' was held at Wayne State University last weekend. The movement in the Arab World was discussed in a wide variety of conferences by scholars and members of various organizations. During one discussion titled 'The Arab Spring and American Politics,' Wayne State University professor Saeed Khan noted that the movements originally united Arab Americans across the board, but now there are questions about how they will respond as time passes. He said that the older generation still feels very much directly involved while the younger generation is beginning to feel more on the periphery, and both have not seen the results they had hoped for originally. "The challenge for the youth moving forward is whether or not they will continue to engage and to feel motivated (by the Arab Spring)," he said.

Federal agents are investigating allegations a labor boss stole money from a union whose members guard nuclear power plants, a NASA space center, auto plants and Detroit's three casinos. Racketeering and fraud investigators recently raided the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America's international headquarters in Roseville and the Troy home of labor leader David Hickey, according to federal court records. Search and seizure warrants chronicle a quirky investigation that is focusing on the union's finances and a labor leader who also performs as a popular magician. Along with financial records, agents seized several cases filled with magic tricks, including a rubber dove, foam bricks and card tricks, according to federal search warrants filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit. Agents probably suspect the magic tricks were purchased with money stolen from the union, said Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor and current law professor at Wayne State University. "If you find a bag of money, you take the bag of money. If you have a bag of tricks, then you seize the bag of tricks," Henning said.

In research that is being hailed as a major breakthrough, cerebral palsy symptoms were dramatically reduced at birth in a study by Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center. The study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, involved the use of rabbits, an anti-inflammatory drug and a nanodevice. Researchers developed a model of cerebral palsy in rabbits that replicated the disorder's neuroinflammation found in the human brains and subsequent motor deficits. The animals that were treated with the anti-inflammatory drug were able to walk and hop within five days. "The importance of this work is it indicates that there is a window in time immediately after birth where it can be identified, and a nanodevice can reverse the features of cerebral palsy," said Dr. Roberto Romero, chief of the National Institutes of Health Perinatology Research Branch at Wayne State University. "This is certainly an exciting breakthrough and it certainly points toward new hope for those affected by cerebral palsy," said Rangaramanujam M. Kannan, a chemical engineer and a member of the PRB research team and an author of the study. "The use of a rabbit model is a unique aspect of the work, since this model mimics the phenotype of CP as seen in humans. This also illustrates the potential of research collaborations across disciplines in advancing and translating novel technologies for the treatment of debilitating childhood disorders," said Dr. Sujatha Kannan, a pediatrician and first author of the study.

A feature on the FOX Small Business Center website highlights TechTown's role in boosting entrepreneurship in Detroit and contributing to the city's economic growth. TechTown CEO Leslie Smith said the incubator has reinvented itself to help the city rebuild. TechTown's original mission was capitalizing on intellectual property coming out of the university, particularly in the bioscience field, Smith said. "Then in 2008, the automotive industry collapsed, and we started to look at entrepreneurship differently," she said. "Not just for scientific and intellectual property from the university, but as support for entrepreneurs displaced by the collapse. We had to figure out how to expose Detroiters to entrepreneurship as a vehicle to change their economic reality."

Ethriam Brammer, associate director for the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies at Wayne State University, was a guest on "Street Beat" to discuss the 2012 AARP Michigan Multiculturalism and Aging Conference scheduled April 27-28 at WSU.

The exodus of residents from Detroit has left behind vacant lots and derelict buildings. And while abandoned spaces are generally bad news for a city, they offer opportunity for a soil scientist. "From my point of view it is a blessing," said Jeffrey Howard, an associate professor of geology at Wayne State University. "It's kind of a scary place to do work, but, scientifically, other people are envious of the urban soils we have here." Unlike natural soils, urban ones are excavated, filled, compacted and generally disturbed, sometimes repeatedly, as years pass. But, again unlike natural soils, urban soils can come with clear timelines, often marked by a date on a building's cornerstone or records at the city clerk's office, that make it clear how long ago a site was disturbed and weathering and other natural processes began their work. Howard collaborated with Wayne State University archaeologist Tom Killion.

Neal Rubin, Detroit News columnist and co-chair of Bookstock, talked to WJR's Frank Beckmann about the Bookstock program designed to help promote reading through selling used books. Last year, $2,000 scholarships were given to three Wayne State University library science students from the master's program.

A review of "Hairspray," the final production of the 2011-12 season at Wayne State University's Bonstelle Theatre, notes that it has "plenty of humor and musical numbers that capture the spirit of the era." The best singing, according to the reviewer, comes from Katrina Carlson, Ivy Haralson and Carollette Philips, a Hilberry Theatre company member. "Hairspray" continues through April 22 at the Bonstelle Theatre. A link to ticket information is included. (print edition only)

Wayne State University President Allan Gilmour was a guest on "The Craig Fahle Show" discussing the new biomedical research building project on campus. The building would house programs in cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders -- such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity -- systems biology, bioinformatics and computational biology, behavioral translational science and biomedical engineering.

With former executive Mitt Romney likely to win the Republican presidential nomination, tight election races looming in November and attacks on unions by Republicans in state governments, labor is firmly back in the Democratic fold. "The stakes are very, very high," said Marick Masters, Wayne State University professor who studies labor and politics. Unions are deploying hundreds of thousands of members to knock on doors, and are spending big to counter aggressive efforts by Republican Super PAC groups, which have stolen the show so far in fundraising this election cycle. "If you factor in all the personnel at the state and local level and all the costs of using those personnel, all the PAC money, all the independent expenditures ... you are probably going to see labor spending close to $1 billion on political activity, including lobbying at the local, state and national level in 2012," Masters said.

Wayne State University's Hilberry Theatre will produce playwright Lisa D'Amour's much-buzzed-about 2010 play "Detroit" next season. The Hilberry production will run in repertory Jan. 11-April 15. It replaces a previously announced production of Molière's "A Doctor in Spite of Himself." Though the play is titled "Detroit," it could be set in many other U.S. cities. Still, it's a story that will resonate locally, says director Lavinia Hart. "We're a city bereft of revenue, neighborhoods, opportunity. We live in a city of a dwindling work force, including firefighters and police officers. But Detroiters are survivors and their sense of humor is gritty and wry," says Hart.

Gov. Rick Snyder wants Michigan to redouble its effort to court returning military veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan and find them civilian jobs, he told reporters today in a conference call from Afghanistan. Snyder also said today that the state is in an "ongoing dialogue" with the armed forces about engaging veterans, and he wants to see a more developed "subsection" of the state's mitalent.org website addressing job opportunities for recent veterans. State officials estimate that the Michigan jobless rate in that group has hovered recently above 23 percent and could worsen as the wind-down of combat operations brings more service members home. Wayne State University is noted as one of the local employers taking part in recent job fairs for veterans in Michigan.

Wayne State University plans to renovate a 1927 car-dealership building, designed by Albert Kahn, as the centerpiece of a $93-million biomedical-research hub. The 127,000-square-foot building, originally a Buick-Pontiac dealership and later Detroit's last Cadillac outpost, will be expanded by 75,000 square feet and will serve as home base for 40 to 50 research teams totaling hundreds of researchers. A photo of the current site is included.

Dr. David Gorski, associate professor of surgery at Wayne State University, commented in an article examining the increasing number of American brides turning to crash diets as a method of weight loss before the big day. According to Gorski, "detoxing" cleanses make misleading claims. "Do you notice they never tell you what the toxins actually are?" he said. "There's no science to back them up."

Wayne State University plans to pump more than $90 million into a new biomedical research facility at the edge of its campus -- a move that continues its push to improve Detroit's Midtown. The university is hoping to use $30 million from the state, along with $63 million from its coffers, to renovate the old Dalgleish Cadillac building and tear down the American Beauty Iron Building next to it. The project would be the largest in WSU's history. Work on the Albert Kahn-designed building would begin in November. Plans include extensively remodeling the current 127,000-square-foot building and adding 70,000 square feet. The building would house programs in cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders -- such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity -- systems biology, bioinformatics and computational biology, behavioral translational science and biomedical engineering. Location was key to the move, Wayne State University President Allan Gilmour said. The new building sits between the Henry Ford Health System and the Detroit Medical Center. Gilmour said the hope is to drive other improvements in the area, such as restaurants and even residential developments. Images of the current site are included.