The appointment of Dr. Michael Cher as chair of the Urology Department and Dr. Suzanne White as chair of the Emergency Medicine Department, both in the WSU School of Medicine, is noted. Biographical information and photos of both are included in the announcement.

A brief mentions that Wayne State will celebrate International Literacy Day Sept. 6, 3:30-5:30 p.m., at the Law School 's Spencer M. Partrich Auditorium. Contact information is provided.

A sidebar accompanying a story on the the Michigan Republican and Democratic Conventions lists the candidates for the WSU Board of Governors. On the Democratic ticket are incumbent Eugene Driker and Deborah Dingell. On the Republican ticket are Andrew McLemore and John Akouri. Mentioned as a Democratic candidate for the State Board of Edcuation is Casandra Ulbrich, a WSU development officer.

An opinion piece about various aspects of the state Democratic and Republican Conventions mentions that since 1970 the Democratic Party has nominated at least one African American for one of the four top state constitutional offices on the ticket. This year Detroit attorney Amos Williams received the party's nod for attorney general. For the Republican Party, Andrew McLemore, a candidate for the Wayne State University Board of Governors, is the only African American on the statewide slate.

An AP article about nominees named at the Michigan Democratic Party Convention in Detroit last weekend notes that candidates were chosen for the boards at Wayne State, Michigan State and the University of Michigan . Names were not given in the article. Delegates nominated Detroit attorney Amos Williams for Michigan attorney general and Macomb County Clerk Carmella Sabaugh for secretary of state. Grand Rapids attorney Jane Beckering will join incumbent Michael Cavanagh as Democratic candidates for the state Supreme Court.

A feature on Ronald Waters, founder of a Detroit start-up company that consults on industrial and product design services, includes comments from Edward King in the School of Business Administration . He said the best place for an entrepreneur to begin a search for investors for a new company is among family and friends. Owners of young companies that have a good early track record should also seek out bank loans, providing they have a comprehensive business plan in hand, King said.

Dr. Herbert Smitherman, Wayne State's School of Medicine, reminisced about his association with Maryann Mahaffey during a public memorial held Aug. 26 at the Detroit Opera House. Smitherman recalled working with Mahaffey on healthcare issues. "We met working on health care policies. If there was anything that negatively impacted Detroiters, no matter the political consequence, Mahaffey was always on the frontline." Smitherman said the former council president "fought for those without a voice." Mahaffey was always concerned about poverty, Smitherman said. "She always said to me we need to fight poverty and not people in poverty."

Professor Edward King, director of Small Business Services in the School of Business Administration was interviewed by Carol Cain, host of the "Michigan Matters" program, regarding various aspects of starting a small business. The taped weekly show airs on both TV stations, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.

A story picked up from the Detroit Free Press about disparities in health care between poorer and more affluent population areas mentions that separate federally funded projects at Wayne State are using $11 million in grants to intervene earlier in the study and management of African-American health issues. Prevention of heart disease before it results in costlier health problems is the focus of a one-year study by Dr. Phillip Levy at Detroit Receiving Hospital . He points out that earlier treatment of high blood pressure, for example, could save significant amounts of money when compared to the costs of treating heart failure. Dr. John Flack, a blood pressure specialist at the WSU School of Medicine, points out that elevated blood pressure "begins earlier in the black population in the United States and is more severe." He said studies show that African Americans may not be treated as aggressively for the disease.

A story about an Israeli entrepreneur who fled the United States recently to avoid prosecution for scheming to manipulate his U.S. company's stock options includes a comment by WSU law professor Peter Henning. He said unlawful flight from prosecution can be used as evidence of criminal intent. "It puts him in a tough position to say he didn't do anything wrong," Henning said. The story ran widely in U.S. newspapers.

A feature about two Xavier University students who fled New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina last year, mentions that they took classes at Wayne State when Xavier closed temporarily. They returned to the New Orleans university, where they are following a pre-med curriculum, in January. Both students said the hurricane experience made them stronger, better people. "You learn to be grateful for what you have because at any moment it can be taken away," observed Iris Alao.

Michigan's economy was an overriding theme at both the Republican and Democratic state party conventions Saturday. The article notes that the Republican Party nominated John Akouri and Andrew McLemore for the WSU Board of Governors. Democrats were expected to nominate incumbent Eugene Driker and Debbie Dingell.

The Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute is blanketing metro Detroit with a $1 million advertising campaign designed to help the institution compete in the region's health care market. Until now, the institute has kept a relatively low profile while other hospitals and health systems have bolstered efforts to woo patients with catchy slogans, marketing gimmicks and flashy advertising. Attracting patients has become increasingly important for the region's health care institutions, as they depend more on paying patients to help offset the growing costs of business and of caring for the uninsured. The 1,200-person staff at Karmanos includes 300 faculty from the Wayne State University School of Medicine.

This preseason feature on the Wayne State University football team leads with. . . "Since Wayne State University officials and donors pumped more money into the football program this year, players feel obligated to show they are worthy of the support." Along with a new artificial turf playing field comes higher expectations for the team, reporter Eric Lacy points out. "It's nice to see positive things happening to the program," said junior linebacker Alan Guy. "Now it's up to us to get the job done." Receiver Nick Body added, "But none of these improvements matter if we don't win." The article mentions that the Warriors struggled on offense last year but have several skill-position players returning. On defense, the team graduated only two starters from a squad that improved 85 places in the NCAA defensive rankings.

A feature story on Brownstown Township resident Larry Arreguin, who is an adviser to Gov. Jennifer Granholm's office for Southeast Michigan, notes that he has a bachelor's degree in public affairs from Wayne State University .

This newsletter, called Energy Efficient Motorsport, carries an item about an energy-efficient race car competition in Italy , Sept. 7-10, that will include an entry from Wayne State University , the only non-European entrant. The judging panel for the event includes the chief designer for the Ferrari Formula One racing team.

Peter J. Henning, Wayne State law professor and a specialist in white-collar crime, commented about the government's widening investigation into the alleged stock option manipulation activities at Comverse Technology Inc. The company's former CEO, Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, fled the U.S. this month rather than face charges of scheming to manipulate his company's stock options. Government officials speculate that he may return to Israel where he maintains citizenship. Henning said the decision to evade U.S. authorities could be used as evidence of criminal intent. \"It puts him in a tough position to say he didn\'t do anything wrong but he felt the need to go to Israel in the middle of a war.\"

Two measures proposed for this year\'s ballot in Michigan appear to be in direct conflict. One would automatically give school districts, universities, and community colleges enough money each year to at least cover costs that rise because of the inflation rate. The other proposal would limit overall increases in state spending to a combination of inflation plus population growth. Opponents of the two measures say that if both were approved by voters, the state could be required to return more money to taxpayers while increasing spending on schools and colleges.

Two months after the University of California (U-C) begins its book-digitization project with Google, the university may provide the search company with 3,000 books a day for scanning. U-C is joining Harvard and Stanford Universities, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and the University of Oxford, as well as the New York Public Library, in the search-engine company\'s library-digitization effort. Under terms of a contract, U-C will provide at least 2.5 million volumes to Google for scanning, starting with 600 books a day and increasing over time to 3,000 volumes a day. Materials pulled for scanning will be back on the shelves of their libraries within 15 days. The university agrees to pay for pulling and shelving the books, bandwidth and hardware to store digital copies, rooms in which to do the digitization, and transportation of materials to those rooms, among other things. Google will cover its own labor, hardware and software to do the scanning, space in which to do scanning, and transportation to its spaces, along with other costs.

The lead item in today's report highlights Wayne State and a Boston firm that specializes in early-stage university business ventures. The firm, Allied Minds, is partnering with Wayne State to establish a start-up company called GliaGen LLC. The new company will focus on new diagnostic and therapeutic technologies to treat neurodegenerative diseases using technology developed by Leon Carlock and Maria Cypher of the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics at the WSU School of Medicine. In addition to commercializing the patent pending technology, GliaGen will support further research at Wayne State . Matt Roush, editor of the IT Report, also featured GliaGen in his daily, morning drive-time report on WWJ Radio.