Rewind: News from the last 7 days

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Former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders stumped for the Harris-Walz campaign at MSU Sunday before more than 800 people at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center. The Vermont senator touted his policies regarding climate change, canceling student debt and raising the hourly minimum wage to $17. UAW President Shawn Fain also spoke.

Arisknight Arkin-Everett Winfree, 32, of East Lansing, was sentenced to life for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl who came to the U.S. from Italy to be an au pair. The charges included kidnapping, coercing and enticing someone to travel for the purposes of illegal sexual activity; attempted coercion and enticement; and two counts of sexual exploting a minor. He was also accused of sexually exploiting three other women, including another minor, in 2022.

Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, who retires from the U.S. Senate at the end of the year, was honored when Washington Park on the city’s south side was renamed for her in a ceremony led by Mayor Andy Schor. The MSU grad was elected an Ingham County commissioner at 24, served in the state House of Representatives from 1979 until 1990, then four years in the Michigan Senate before being elected to the U.S. House in 1996 and becoming the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Michigan.

Rape survivor and activist Brenda Tracy filed a lawsuit against former MSU head football coach Mel Tucker for defamation for claiming they had developed a mutual romance. This came about a year after her allegations against Tucker for sexual harassment led to his dismissal. Tracy’s lawsuit, filed in Ingham County Circuit Court, seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages. No dollar amount was given.

MSU announced that its 2024-‘25 enrollment of 52,089 students is its highest, up 773 from last year, comprising students from 138 countries, all 50 states and all 83 Michigan counties. It also reported its largest number of students of color. The total of 41,234 undergrads, including 10,978 new students, is the most ever. Seventy-eight percent of the new students are from Michigan.

MSU Board of Trustee candidates Democrats Rebecca Bahar-Cook and Thomas Stallworth and Republicans Mike Balow and Julie Maday told the Lansing State Journal they disagree with the board’s decision to ask Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to remove Trustees Rema Vassar and Dennis Denno (both pictured) misconduct. Whitmer has not responded with any action in more than seven months since the request. “I don’t think (their behavior) was so malfeasant as to require a referral to the governor,” Bahar-Cook said. The four are running for the two eight-year terms on the board.

Jaquan Foreman, 22, of Lansing, has been sentenced to 37 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release for possessing and selling machine guns. He belonged to a Lansing-area gang connected to shootings and murders and was supplying machine-gun conversion devices to other gang members. Foreman was arrested on open warrants last November. The U.S. district attorney said Foreman belonged to the Spin Back Gang, whose feud with Money Bound Mafia resulted in “numerous shootings and murders in the Lansing area.”

U of M Health-Sparrow and Potter Park Zoo have announced a partnership that allows families that have a new baby at Sparrow or any family with a child in the Children’s Center to have a free zoo membership. The membership includes discounted access to over 100 zoos and aquariums nationwide and exclusive membership events.