Magna Powertrain Lansing, a division of Manga International, is expanding and expected to create more than 30 jobs in Delhi Township.

According to excerpts from the article:

The expansion at Magna Powertrain Lansing LLC, a division of Ontario-based Magna International Inc., is part of Magna's statewide effort to invest $49.2 million into four facilities and create 508 jobs over the next five years.

The Michigan Economic Growth Authority, or MEGA, approved a $5.6 million tax credit for the automotive supplier over the next seven years. With it, Magna will expand inside the state rather than Ohio, Indiana or Canada.

Frank Ervin, manager of governmental affairs for Magna USA, said the local jobs will be created as the company consolidates other operations.

Read the entire article here.

Danny Trevino opened Lansing’s first official medical marijuana dispensary in the city's Old Town neighborhood.

According to excerpts from the article:

In a storefront in Lansing's Old Town, Darryl Brija waits patiently in a chair while Rochelle Harris checks his driver's license and measures out a quarter-ounce of marijuana.

Brija, 52, of Potterville, hands over $90 in cash. Harris hands him the plastic bag of marijuana, which Brija slips into his jacket pocket.

The transaction is business as usual at Lansing's first official medical marijuana dispensary, which might test the limits of the state's medicinal marijuana law.

Read the entire article here.

Using farmland to produce food is more energy efficient than using the crops to produce fuel, according to a recent Michigan State University (MSU) study.

According to excerpts from the article:

"It's 36 percent more efficient to grow grain for food than for fuel," said Ilya Gelfand, an MSU postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study. "The ideal is to grow corn for food, then leave half the leftover stalks and leaves on the field for soil conservation and produce cellulosic ethanol with the other half."

Other studies have looked at energy efficiencies for crops over shorter time periods, but this MSU study is the first to consider energy balances of an entire cropping system over many years. The results are published in the April 19 online issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

"It comes down to what's the most efficient use of the land," said Phil Robertson, University Distinguished Professor of crop and soil sciences and one of the paper's authors. "Given finite land resources, will it be more efficient to use productive farmland for food or fuel? One compromise would be to use productive farmland for both—to use the grain for food and the other parts of the plant for fuel where possible. Another would be to reserve productive farmland for food and to grow biofuel grasses—cellulosic biomass—on less productive land."

Read the entire article here.

Bobby Mason, owner of the Michigan Brewing Company (MBC), is working with LaFollette Custom Homes to turn the historic 109-115 E. Grand River building in Williamston into a brewpub.

According to excerpts from the article:

Inside a building with dust of years past, and sunlight peeking through windows all around, Steve Eyke is tapping notes, measurements and observations into a laptop computer.

The construction notes and design plans will, over the next several months, be morphed into decorative columns, beams, woodwork and other design elements to create a historically accurate re-creation of a signature Williamston building of the 1880s.

Foundation crews from Leik Foundation were on hand April 5 to begin the initial work of shoring up the foundation of the 109-115 E. Grand River building in the city's downtown.

The first floor will be transformed into an MBC brewpub, with the possibility of several uses on the second and third floors including offices, low-income rental property or lofts.

Read the entire article here.

Not only did Michigan State University (MSU) beat out MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in the competition for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), it also surpassed the esteemed university on U.S. News & World Report’s list of best physics graduate programs in the nation.

According to excerpts from the article:

In the past, when rankings have come up, MSU's Vice President for University Relations Terry Denbow will often say something about how the league MSU finds itself in is more important than a small rise or fall.

To credit his consistency, he said the same this year. And then he added that, where people once might have thought of MSU being in MIT's league, "maybe now MIT is in our league."

"I'll be honest with you," Denbow said. "I plan to use, 'We are No. 1 in graduate nuclear physics' a lot.' "

Read the entire article here.

Rachel Kuntzsch, owner of Kuntzsch Business Services in Grand Ledge, is working with area non-profits to advance sustainability efforts in the Capital region and across the state.

According to excerpts from the article:

If Michigan ends up leading the nation in developing alternative energy systems and the use of renewable resources, Rachel Kuntzsch expects play a role in making that happen.

"Right now, it's easy being green," she said. "There is a lot of emphasis on sustainability and sustainable solutions."

Kuntzsch, a 35-year old Grand Ledge resident, founded Kuntzsch Business Services in 2004, and operated it out of her basement for several years until it outgrew the capacity of a home office, and in 2008 moved to the refurbished building at 300 N. Bridge St.

Kuntzsch hired the company's first full-time employee in 2007, and has added four more in the past 18 months.

Read the entire article here.

Time magazine recently published a piece about Lansing Community College’s (LCC) promise to give tuition money back to students who cannot find a job within a year of taking a six-week class in certain subjects.

According to excerpts from the article:

Money-back guarantees hardly seem to go with higher education. And offering them to prospective applicants during a recession sounds downright insane. But that's the sweetheart deal a community college in Michigan has started dangling to try to increase its enrollment. Beginning in May, people who take six-week courses in certain subjects will be guaranteed a job within a year—or they'll be refunded their tuition money.

It's a radical idea, particularly for a school located in Lansing, Mich., where unemployment sits at 11.7%. Lansing Community College, the third largest community college in the state, has 30,000 students a year, but is looking for more. The new money-back guarantee will apply to the four most in-demand technical jobs in the area: call-center specialists, pharmacy technicians, quality inspectors and computer machinists. The average pay for these jobs in 2008 ranged from $12.10 an hour (call-center specialists) to $15.72 (computer machinists).

The cost for one of these six-week training courses—which don't come with a degree but rather a certificate granting qualification in a specific area—averages around $2,400.

Read the entire article here.

East Lansing resident Greg Van Drie wants to start a for-profit urban farm at the new Beaumont development, a large apartment and condo complex that’s not yet complete.

According to excerpts from the article:

East Lansing city officials would have to sign off on the deal since the land currently is not zoned for agricultural uses.

"I think it's an amazing idea," said Darcy Schmitt, the city's planning and zoning administrator. "They would actually provide vegetables and fruits for local restaurants and residents, and it's just a really neat opportunity."

The Beaumont project is only about a quarter finished, said developer Pat Gillespie of East Lansing-based Gillespie Group.

Read the entire article here.

The area surrounding East Lansing’s Technology Incubation Center (TIC) is starting to fill up, and two new tenants have been added to the mix: MSU Technologies and MSU Business-CONNECT.

According to excerpts from the article:

Both MSU Technologies, which promotes the transfer of MSU’s best research ideas into the marketplace, and Business-CONNECT, a new MSU office that helps businesses connect with MSU and its research enterprise in more efficient and productive ways, demonstrate MSU’s commitment to the economic future of Michigan.

“MSU Technologies brings our inventions to the marketplace, so it is only fitting to operate MSU Technologies in the marketplace,” MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said when the move was announced in 2009. “This move will improve service to faculty and allow us to interact with companies and investors in a cutting-edge business environment.”

Simon joined other representatives from MSU and the city of East Lansing to formally open the offices.

Read the entire article here.

Pat Gillespie’s Stadium District mixed use property in Downtown Lansing, first opened in 2008, is nearly full.

According to excerpts from the article:

One commercial spot and three condominiums remain open in the nearly $13 million building that opened in May 2008 at the southeast corner of Michigan Avenue and South Cedar Street.

The structure is considered a key downtown development project.

A restaurant and bar operator from the Chicago area has a letter of intent to lease the last 4,125 square feet of the 36,000-square-foot commercial space, said developer Pat Gillespie of East Lansing-based Gillespie Group.

Read the entire article here.

Not only did On Target Living owner Chris Johnson create the country’s first million dollar training program, he’s also created the premier training facility for trainers in the Midwest.

According to excerpts from the article:

It seems too good to be true that one of the most sought after experts on fitness and nutrition lives right here in the Lansing area—and there is a studio staffed with personal trainers right around the corner.

After Chris Johnson, owner of On Target Living in Haslett, received his undergraduate business degree from Western Michigan University in 1980, and after a multi-year, multi-job stint in the working world, he came to Michigan State University and earned his master’s in exercise physiology.

Then, in December of 1990, a month before the Michigan Athletic Club opened, Johnson was hired as its fitness director. He built the program from the ground up, and says that what he learned along the way eventually helped the MAC have the first million dollar training program in the country (circa 1996).

Read the entire article here.

Nicholas Chilenko, president of East Lansing-based Nicholas Creative, offers small businesses advice concerning web design in his column in Entrepreneur magazine.

According to excerpts from the column:

The Internet offers a wealth of new opportunity for small businesses, but web surfers are a sensitive bunch. One wrong move and your new customers could be forever lost in the ether. Keep them happy by following these website usability guidelines.

Get organized. Most Internet users appreciate a familiar website layout and can become confused when presented with nontraditional formats. Give them what they want. Visitors typically start scanning a web page at the top left corner and move diagonally down to the bottom right, so it makes sense to place your logo and navigation at the top of the page. The main content and teasers to deeper information should be in the center of the page.

Easier = better. Visitors should be able to find any content on your site within a few clicks. Arrange your navigation in descending order of popularity with concise and obvious labels. Be wary of fancy drop-down or pop-out menus, as they can be cumbersome and annoying to use (but effective if executed properly).

Read the entire article here.