Store In Lansing Mall not like others

EAST LANSING, Mich– The Freetail Store in the Lansing Mall is attempting to change the narrative of what a traditional shopping experience is, one day at a time

“This is a concept I don’t think has ever been tried,” owner and founder Michael Karl said. Karl founded The Freetail Store in December of 2020. The store seeks to give those who couldn’t normally afford a traditional shopping experience the ability to shop with dignity and integrity. Accordingly, the store gives away everything it receives for free. Community donations of clothes, toys, diapers and other non-perishable items are turned over daily to the store in order to be distributed to those who need it.

Raisin Canes to open in East Lansing

LANSING, Mich—The first Raisin Canes in Michigan is coming to East Lansing. The announcement, which came in early February, has excited many students. The new location of the Raisin Canes is expected to be on the corner of M.A.C. Avenue and East Grand River. “One day I woke up to 20 text messages saying that a Canes was coming to Michigan,” Mitch McSweeney, a Raisin Canes superfan, said. “I was so excited.”

Chateau Coffee Celebrates Grand Opening

By: Nathan Stearns

LANSING, Mich—For Tarek Chawick, opening Chateau Coffee was a culmination of his upbringing in Lebanon. “Coffee really runs through the streets there,” Chawick said

Chawick, a 24-year-old graduate student at Michigan State, also runs Chateau Coffee full time as the sole owner. The shop celebrated its grand opening on Feb. 1 and is located at 1701 South Waverly Road in Lansing. Chawick isn’t alone in running the shop, however, he employs a team of baristas who also happen to either be in school or recent graduates.

With the COVID-19 still raging, Troy Fire and Police forced to adjust on the fly

With COVID-19 cases spiking across Michigan (and the U.S.), the fire and police department in Troy have been forced to be more mindful of where to expend their limited resources in addition to implementing new protocols to ensure the safety of its firefighters and police officers. “Just with the way our system operates, we are usually only having one person in the (firetruck) at a time, ”said Lt. Dan Mahrle of the Troy Fire Department. “Other firefighters will actually take their personal vehicles to the scene, so that helps us out a little bit.”

Mahrle said that since the Troy Fire Department contracts out local emergency service calls (car accidents, medical distress, etc.) to Alliance Mobile Health when medical emergencies occur in Troy, firefighters have been fortunate since they aren’t directly dealing with COVID-19 positive members of the community. A new training program for firefighters 

The Troy Fire Department, which consists of 180 volunteer firefighters and 11 tenured paid staff members across six stations, is the largest volunteer firefighter unit in the state of Michigan. As such, during the pandemic, those 11 paid staff members, including Lt. Mahrle, were forced to put their heads together and come up with a new training program to allow for new volunteer firefighters to understand the risks of the virus.