A brief notes that David Brandon, chairman and CEO of Domino\'s Pizza, received the Michigan Executive of the Year Award from the Wayne State University School of Business Administration.

A brief mentions that the \"Nano@Wayne\" Seminar Series will be held Tuesday, May 2, at Wayne State\'s Welcome Center Auditorium. Contact information is provided.

Attorney Richard Bernstein, member of the Wayne State University Board of Governors, commented about Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's proposal that Detroiters pay $300 a year for trash pick-up. Kilpatrick's garbage fee plan involves the elimination of a fee for garbage pick-up built into the city's property tax structure, which was scaled according to property value. Bernstein said that the fee could be interpreted as retaliation for a victorious lawsuit brought against the Detroit Department of Transportation last year. The U.S. Justice Department is currently monitoring D-DOT, to force it to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act by providing accessible transportation.

\"Leaders on Leadership,\" co-produced by the WSU School of Business Administration and Detroit Public Television, featured John Brown, chairman of the board of Stryker Corporation. Since assuming the post as CEO in 1977, Brown has led the company from private to public; transitioned the business from hospital furniture to orthopedics; grown from $17 million to $5 million in annual sales; and, exceeded 20 percent growth every year (but one) for 27 years.

Detroit Free Press medical writer Pat Anstett features a Wayne State University School of Medicine program that takes a different approach to schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. The program was started by Dr. Matcheri Keshavan, who joined WSU last year as professor and associate chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences. Keshavan says early intervention can spare people from devastating recurrences. \"The longer they go untreated, the harder it is to get them back into the community,\" said Keshavan. The program offers group and one-on-one counseling; strategies for motivation and goal-setting, and help with drugs. A companion program is studying children of people with schizophrenia, to look for early warning signs in a group at higher risk of the disorder. The work is funded with grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, the Flynn Foundation and, recently, a $1-million, three-year grant from the state of Michigan. A sidebar is included providing contact and resource information for Wayne State\'s Psychiatric Centers.

David Magidson, theater professor at Wayne State and director of the Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival, comments about this year\'s event and one of the films titled \"West Bank Story,\" a musical spoof. Magidson says \"West Bank Story\" is exactly the mix of head, heart and chutzpah that the event, now in its eighth year, has always been about. \"What seems like harmless musical comedy actually helps clarify a complex issue. \"It\'s about issues that often seem insurmountable, but through humor seem approachable.\"

Two books published by Wayne State University Press have been placed among the top 20 as the 2006 Michigan Notable Books award recipients. The authors will be honored Saturday by the Library of Michigan in Lansing. The Wayne State University Press award recipients include: The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars and the Legacy, by Charles K. Hyde; and, Under Michigan: The Story of Michigan\'s Rocks and Fossils, by Charles Ferguson Barker.

Jeff Stoltman, marketing professor at Wayne State University, talks about the new advertising campaign launched by Meijer. This week, Meijer began running new TV ads touting its low prices, using a cast of unusual actors, including Big Foot, the Loch Ness monster, two fighting knights and a genie on a magic floating carpet. In the ultracompetitive grocery-store market, chains often teeter between messages of high quality and low pricing. With tough economic times, many chains focus on a message of \"everyday low prices\" as opposed to the price-chopping advertising strategy of yesteryear. \"Just the argument that our prices are low, well, Wal-Mart says that. You have to give a little more power and energy and creativity to ads,\" Stoltman says. Stoltman applauds Meijer for coming up with creative ads, but, that said, ads alone won\'t be enough to draw more customers. \"I don\'t see it driving traffic to the store,\" he adds.

On Friday, May 5, a conference titled "The Role of Governments in Achieving or Obstructing Worldwide Peace" will be presented at Wayne State's General Lectures Auditorium featuring three Nobel laureates. Shirin Ebadi, Iranian human rights activist and 2003 Nobel laureate; Jody Williams, 1997 laureate, who's trying to clear the world of landmines; and Rigoberta Menchu Tum, 1992 laureate, whose emphasis is indigenous peoples, will be participating. Peace Promoter Betty Williams, 1976 laureate, of Northern Ireland will appear in a video. Supreme Court Chief Justice Maura Corrigan will introduce the laureates. Following an intermission, the three will engage in a discussion with U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. A phone number for seat reservations is provided.

Jerry Herron, professor of American Studies, comments about the newly released film "United 93," an intense dramatization of the hijacked United Airlines flight that crashed in rural Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. Herron says at least by Hollywood standards, the time is right for a film like "United 93." "It's close enough to retain its historical power but not far enough away that people will have forgotten the details," Herron says. He adds that throughout American history, movies have helped shape our world view and enabled us to come to grips with events that have rocked us to our core. "Maybe more than any other people, we've used movies to try and define our historical consciousness of what's going on and what it means," Herron said. "Films are how we tell each other how we felt about things that have happened to us."

Wayne State University\'s Office of the Vice President for Research will host another event in its \"Nano@Wayne\" Seminar Series May 2 at 2:30 p.m. The event, in the Welcome Center Auditorium, will feature Catherine Murphy, professor of chemistry at the University of South Carolina. In her talk, \"Synthesis, Assembly and Reactivity of Metallic Nanorods,\" Murphy will cover her research group\'s work on metallic nanorods and their electronic and optical properties. Her research group has developed a relatively cheap and green method for making silver and gold nanoparticles of controlled size and shape, using aqueous solutions at room temperature. The seminar is free and open to the public.

National Day of Prayer: The National Conference for Community and Justice will host its 20th annual Interfaith Symposium, \"The Emerging Religious Landscape of Metropolitan Detroit,\" 8 a.m.-noon May 4, at Wayne State University's McGregor Center. Ticket and contact information is provided.

Jesse Vivian, a pharmacist and professor in Wayne State\'s Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, commented in a story about the legal controversies surrounding the drug Vioxx. Michigan is the only state in the country where lawmakers have prohibited residents from suing the company that makes the arthritis medication. Vivian said the system is not working the way it should and that oftentimes lawsuits have revealed dangerous information about drugs that even the Food and Drug Administration never knew. \"Suing the manufacturers is one way of assuring the patients\' safety,\" Vivian explained.

Northern Michigan University would receive a 0.3 percent funding increase under a newly released House subcommittee plan that gives some other universities funding increases of more than 4 percent. Wayne State University would see a reduction of 1.9 percent. The House plan will go to the chamber's Appropriations Committee, where it could be subject to change. The higher education funding proposal then would have to be negotiated with representatives from the Senate and the Granholm administration. Granholm administration budget department spokesman Greg Bird said they are "very concerned with what the House does as far as funding for Wayne State."

The Ann Arbor screening of "Live and Become", 8 p.m., Thursday, May 4, at United Artists Commerce, will be followed by a discussion moderated by David Magidson, professor in Wayne State University's theater department. "Live and Become" is the winner of the fourth annual Sarah & Harold Gottlieb Award for Contributions to Jewish Culture that is presented to the festival's best film. The film recounts the ironic yet life-affirming tale of a young boy from Ethiopia who survives and thrives in modern Israel by pretending to be Jewish. When the film festival's screening committee considers which movies to present, members look at "the quality of the movie-making and the importance of what the movie is talking about," said Magidson, who has served as festival director for the last seven years.

This story that aired during the morning newscast noted that electricity had been restored at Children's Hospital and two buildings at Wayne State University. DTE Energy officials said an outside contractor severed the two power lines that run to the hospitals on Wednesday morning. One of the power lines has been restored and the other should be operating again by Friday, the station reported.

Some public universities would get state funding increases of more than 4 percent in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 under a plan advanced by a House subcommittee Wednesday. A few universities, particularly Wayne State University, could come out worse under the House proposal than the other plans. Wayne State would see a reduction of 1.9 percent, which alarmed the Granholm administration. \"We\'re obviously very concerned with what the House does as far as funding for Wayne State,\" said Greg Bird, a budget department spokesman for the Granholm administration. Stewart said the House funding formula is based on enrollment, degrees granted and research. Other factors include curriculum strengths and unique features of each university. The plan, endorsed by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education, would give higher education about $10.6 million more for university operations than Granholm's proposal. Central Michigan University, Ferris State University, Grand Valley State University, Oakland University, Saginaw Valley State University, the University of Michigan-Dearborn, the University of Michigan-Flint and Western Michigan University would get funding increases of more than 4 percent under the House plan. Michigan State University would get a 3.6 percent increase. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor would get a 3.5 percent boost. Eastern Michigan University would get a 2.9 percent increase, followed by Michigan Technological University (2.1 percent) and Lake Superior State University (1.9 percent). Northern Michigan University would get a 0.3 percent increase.

The Helppie Institute for Child Health Advocacy - an arm of the Helppie Family Charitable Foundation - is featured as part of the "Giving and Living" stories in today's Detroit Free Press. The Helppie Institute for Child Health Advocacy supports specialized programs at Children's Hospital of Michigan. In 1997, the institute gave $5 million to the hospital and in February established the Helppie Endowed Professor of Pediatrics with a $750,000 gift to Wayne State University. The recipient, Dr. Vincent Palusci, is director of the hospital's new Child Protection Center, which evaluates kids for signs of abuse or neglect.

In a story about rejuvenation of the Eastern Market area, Susan Mosey, president of the University Cultural Center Association, notes that prior to 2000 the Wayne State University area saw \"almost no money at all dropped into this neighborhood.\" But by 2010, Wayne State, the Center for Creative Studies and museums including the Detroit Institute of Arts will have invested $562 million in new buildings and infrastructure. That\'s sparked $410 million in private development ranging from lofts to hi-tech businesses and restaurants.

Michael Harbut, a specialist of environmental medicine and professor of internal medicine at Wayne State, commented about the Detroit area's air quality receiving failing marks in an annual report released Wednesday by the American Lung Association. The report, covering 2002-04, ranked the area again as the sixth worst among 179 U.S. metropolitan areas as the most polluted in year-round particle pollution, commonly referred to as soot. \"The industrial base in Wayne County is old and creaky and dumps a lot of pollution in the air, and the cars are internal combustion cars and dump a lot of pollution in the air,\" Harbut said. According to the 230-page report, smog levels also registered at unhealthy levels in 18 of the state\'s counties, including Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw and St. Clair.