Tuesday, June 28 — On Saturday, local firefighters and policemen took to the basketball court as the first step in a drive for blood donations. The final score — which saw firemen in the lead — launched a running competition between these organizations. Now, however, it’s anyone’s game, as it’s up to donors to decide who they want to win.

A major donation to Michigan State University will soon introduce students to a plethora of foreign writers, as well as spurring cultural connections between the U.S. and Israel.

The Michigan State University Museum is honoring the memory of Michigan’s soldiers with an exhibit on Michigan’s role in the Civil War.

Although they just turned 21 in April, the pair has already graduated from LCC’s fashion design program, created a dress for singer Katy Perry and secured internships with designer Betsey Johnson in New York; they arrived just in time for the excitement of Fashion Week.

Art Alley’s biggest accomplishment in this first year, however, has been the ambitious project known as MI-ArtShare, a project designed to help the arts flourish in Michigan ' and to help artists flourish as well ' by allowing shows to move seamlessly between galleries for maximum exposure.

Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, has dedicated his life to enhancing the relationship between animals and humanity. Now that fight has been chronicled in Pacelle’s first book, “The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them.

It’s been a long road, but after its christening celebration on Sunday, the temple at 3015 S. Washington Ave. south of REO Town stands as a true-to-form, traditional Vietnamese Buddhist temple. The character is in the angles, shapes and furnishings of the place ' including a traditional bell, rack and drum all imported from Vietnam.

Since February, Skintimate Studios has been running a contest in conjunction with designer Mara Hoffman in an effort to hunt down original women’s ensembles. Designers from across the country submitted their drawings for review by both the public and the studio’s own judges.

This weekend, the Lansing Media/ Theatre Project will bring a digital twist to its comedic routine at the Riverwalk Theatre. In its production of “The Digitizer,” LMTP will mix traditional acting with video and video game effects and animations, as well as interactive programs that will allow the audience to impact the course of the fun.

There was nothing cloak and dagger in the arrangement, though. These artists ' far from the “taggers” that many cities have attempted to crack down upon ' were invited as part of the latest in a joint effort by the REACH Studio Art Center and the REO Town Commercial Association to breathe new cultural life into the city.