Wayne State University will hold the first-ever commencement at Ford Field in downtown Detroit this May. More than 3,500 students are scheduled to participate in the exercises, which conclude the academic year. Captain Jerry Linenger, a NASA astronaut and a WSU School of Medicine alumnus ('81), will give the keynote address.

During its live coverage of the Detroit Tigers Opening Day events, WDIV morning news anchors Rhonda Walker and Guy Gordon showed footage of their recent visit with the Wayne State University Warriors baseball team. WDIV fielded a team of four who donned Warrior caps and honed their baseball skills on the WSU ball field.

A brief notes that Wayne State University's Hilberry Theatre is presenting George Bernard Shaw's classic satire "Major Barbara." Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Wednesday, April 11, at 2 p.m. and Thursday, April 12, at 8 p.m. at the Hilberry Theatre.

A "Spotlight on Excellence" segment featured Wayne State University President Alan Gilmour talking about the University's involvement and role in the community. He said educating students is the most important thing we can do. Gilmour noted the University's participation in the revitalization of Midtown and the community service performed by faculty, staff and students.

Irvin D. Reid, a member of the Financial Review Team for Detroit, Wayne State University president emeritus and Eugene Applebaum chair, opines about the need for a financial manager in the city. He writes: "Detroit's leaders are fiddling while the city burns. We are collapsing under the weight of debt created by legacy costs, uncollected revenues and bloated payrolls for too many city workers for a population only 40 percent of its size just 15 years ago. Detroit still has a footprint designed to serve that former population, but a third of the city is vacant."

The Southeast Michigan Purchasing Managers Index rose to 66.1 in March, the highest reading since last May. An index above 50 indicates economic expansion. The three-month average is 65.7. "Production, new order activity and employment all showed solid growth in March, pointing to a stronger economy," said Nitin Paranjpe, an economist and supply chain faculty member at Wayne State University's business school. Paranjpe analyzed the survey data, gathered in conjunction with the Southeast Michigan chapter of the Institute for Supply Management. "In this time of high unemployment, the stronger economy is paradoxically leading to some labor shortages, especially in industrial, mechanical and electrical engineers," Paranjpe said. "This may lead to high wage pressures for engineers." Fox 2 business editor Murray Feldman aired a report during this morning's "Money Works" segment.

Infant mortality rates continue to rise across the state, but the state is implementing a plan that could reduce deaths and disparities based on geography, socioeconomic issues and race. The Department of Community Health last fall convened a summit to identify strategies to reduce and prevent infant deaths. Based on recommendations from politicians, health specialists and community leaders, the department developed a plan to reduce the infant mortality rate. A study by the National Institutes of Health and Wayne State University determined performing a cervical ultrasound to identify pregnant women with a short cervix and then using vaginal progesterone treatments reduces premature births. Sonia Hassan, associate dean for maternal, perinatal and child health care at Wayne State University's School of Medicine, said it's important physicians and health care professionals tell patients about the test to identify whether they are at risk for premature births.

Detroit is playing a role in molding the future shape and use of the Internet thanks to a couple of federal grants being put to work at Wayne State University. WSU researchers Hongwei Zhang, assistant professor of computer science, and Patrick Gossman, deputy chief information officer for special projects, received a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to build an experimental wireless networking infrastructure for research, education and application exploration. This new network will focus on providing faster high-speed Internet service wirelessly over large geographic areas. "It's difficult to predict when this will come but we know it's coming," Zhang says. "It's not coming tomorrow but it's coming." Zhang and another Wayne State researcher, Le Yi Wang, are also working a $900,000 federal grant to use similar advanced wireless Internet technology to improve vehicle transportation. This new system would allow for vehicles to be operated and controlled as groups instead of individually.

Hospice of Michigan has tested a home care program for patients who have an advanced illness -- but aren't ready for hospice care - and found it cut costs and reduced hospital visits. The @HOME Support Program provides comprehensive support and services to patients in the last 24 months of life. It is run separately from the organization's hospice services, which are geared toward patients with a life expectancy of six months or less. A three-year pilot study funded by a grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation was conducted in Detroit by Hospice of Michigan's Maggie Allese Center for Quality of Life and Wayne State University's School of Social Work. It found at-home care costs rose, but overall costs went down because of reductions in emergency room visits and outpatient and inpatient care. Costs for one group of patients decreased by more than $3,000 a month, a 36 percent drop.

High School students are preparing to take the ACT through Wayne State University's K.A.L.E.S. Preparatory Institute, a 10-week program designed to improve the community and show high-schoolers what college is like. The program is showing results - officials can point to students who entered the program with a score of 12 and have already improved to an 18. A score of 21 on the ACT is generally considered the baseline for getting into college, according to Monica Davie, WSU's associate director of undergraduate admissions, who also runs K.A.L.E.S. About 85 percent of the high-schoolers in the program apply to WSU and about 40 percent of those attend WSU, Davie said. The students spend most of the day doing intensive ACT prep work -- the course can cost more than $1,000 if taken privately. WSU provides course material, notebooks, a bus pass to get to campus and a lunch voucher. The students also spend an hour or two in character development, hearing from community members and business leaders about how to be successful in life.

Wayne State University's Walter P. Reuther Library and WSU University Libraries are making available an online exhibit documenting the 1968 sanitation workers strike in Memphis, Tenn. The online experience captures the landmark struggle that influenced the American labor and civil rights movements. The exhibit contains historic documents and photographs of the events in Memphis, along with video clips from a symposium held at WSU in 2003 that commemorated the 35th anniversary of the strike. The exhibit's link is http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/iamaman/.

Dr. Alireza Amirsadi, assistant professor in Wayne State University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, commented about the effects of Michigan's unusually mild winter. "The changes in the weather -- a heat wave or cold snap or windy weather and all these drastic changes -- create extreme ionic changes in the environment," said Amirsadri. Those changes can cause more migraines and body aches. But more light exposure as we head outdoors also can raise energy levels, he said. "Better mood comes with better motivation, and better motivation comes with more energy," he said. Still, watch out: Those emerging from seasonal affective disorder or depression might transition through an irritable phase first, he noted.

Data Driven Detroit, a nonprofit hub for community information, has relocated its Detroit-based headquarters to TechTown, Wayne State Universityfs business incubator. TechTown converted space typically not available for lease upon learning of D3Œs urgent need to vacate the Barden Cos. Building following the recent sale of the property. According to TechTown President and CEO Leslie Smith, TechTown was delighted to be able to support D3 in a time-critical situation, as well as to enlist a powerful information resource to join its ranks. gTechTown and D3 share a common mission and vision,h Smith said. gAs catalysts for Detroitfs social and economic revitalization, we are now poised to identify and act upon a myriad of opportunities that co-locating may create. Data Driven Detroitfs comprehensive research and analyses add a new element to TechTownfs toolkit of wraparound services for clients, and give our organization a scientifically valid basis for refining its strategic focus and path forward.h

Astronauts Terry Virts and Mark Kelly joined Craig Fahle on Thursday to discuss their events and appearances at Wayne State. Virts spoke yesterday at Wayne State's Department of Physics and Astronomy for the 2012 Vaden W. Miles Memorial Lecture; Kelly is the scheduled keynote speaker for the Brain injury of Michigan fundraiser this Saturday. Virts was the pilot for space shuttle Endeavor.

Wayne State University has launched a new pre-seed fund supporting student-run tech startups, the first of its kind in Detroit. The Warrior Fund, which is made possible through a grant from the Michigan Initiative for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, will be administered by the tech transfer office and Blackstone Launch Pad. A total of $25,000 is available for startups, which Andrew Olson, commercialization principal with the tech transfer office, hopes to award $2,500 or $5,000 at a time. The fund will announce its first investment recipient in a few weeks.

A national foundation has sought out a Wayne State University researcher in an effort to discover whether overall genome instability rather than a specific molecular mechanism may cause chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS). Henry Heng, associate professor at the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics and the Department of Pathology at WSU's School of Medicine, recently received a $133,000 grant from the National CFIDS Foundation in collaboration with the Nancy Taylor Foundation for Chronic Diseases. Heng is to assess disease damage in patients with CFIDS, which also is known as chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalopathy (CFS/ME). He will use an advanced type of genomic testing to look for chromosomal aberrations or genomic instability in CFS/ ME patients. Heng believes scientists who have looked to single genes and mutations as the cause of diseases with complex sets of symptoms need to broaden their search to genomes.

Commenting about the large number of vacant lots in Detroit, Robin Boyle, chair of Wayne State University's Department of Urban Planning says at this point we don't have an answer for the scale of vacant land that we have here in the city of Detroit. Boyle says that many cities are experimenting with new uses for vacant urban land, including large installations of solar panels and, of course, community gardening. "But none of them have the scale of the vacancy that we are facing here in this city," he says. In 2006, Michigan voters approved Proposition 4 to amend the state Constitution to restrict government's powers to take private land for public use. Among other things, Prop 4 expressly barred the seizure of land from one private owner to give it to another private owner, such as a real estate developer. Prop 4 also made it much harder for cities such as Detroit to clear blighted neighborhoods to build something new. Under the new law, a city must prove by clear and convincing evidence that every property within a targeted district is blighted. It's not enough to show that it's true for 90 percent of the properties. Those provisions make it more difficult to assemble land in Detroit for big projects, said John Mogk, professor of law at Wayne State University and an expert on government and development law. Mogk suggests that California's eminent domain law is better suited than Michigan's to conditions in a city like Detroit. California's law protects owner-occupied houses from seizure by the government, but it offers less protection to land speculators and absentee landlords, two groups that own or control thousands of properties in Detroit. "So long as we're facing the limitations that we are, I don't think land can be assembled in Detroit for major redevelopment," Mogk said. "At this point, I don't think it's possible."

For 13 years, the Studio Theatre, downstairs at Wayne State University's Hilberry Theatre, has hosted the Louise Heck-Rabi Dramatic Writing Competition. Winning student playwrights get the opportunity to work with student directors and actors and have their work showcased in a full production. This year's Heck-Rabi one-act festival is made up of three short plays and is found to be "an emotional and fun time at the theater." Plot overviews, dates and ticket information are given. Photos are included.

Michigan is making a concerted effort to attract and retain its skilled workforce, specifically with well-educated immigrants, through the Global Talent Retention Initiative of Southeast Michigan. The New Economy Initiative-funded effort is working to attract and keep its graduates (both home-grown and from out-of-state/country) in the science, technology, engineering and math fields. The idea is to accelerate the growth of Metro Detroit's new economy by deepening our talent pool. The initiative will hold a number of joint career conferences hosted by the three University Research Corridor institutions (Wayne State University, University of Michigan, Michigan State University) and four partner institutions. These conferences aim to entice foreign-born college students to stay in Michigan to live and work by helping them connect with immigration-friendly employers and prepare them for the cultural nuances unique to their job search in Michigan.

An article highlighting the Everyday Heroes initiative, notes that Silas Norman Jr., M.D., assistant dean for admissions at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, was honored among four Detroiters making a difference in the community. On Tuesday evening, the four winners were recognized at a sold-out reception at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The initiative is sponsored by 100 Black Men of Greater Detroit, the Urban League of Detroit & Southeastern Michigan and Verizon Wireless.