Central Michigan indoor track and field student-athletes will be scattered throughout the region this weekend representing the university at two different meets. A contingency of multi-event student-athletes will travel to University Park, Pa., for the Penn State National beginning Friday, while the throwers will on Friday take the much shorter trip to Saginaw for The Cardinal at Saginaw Valley State University. The Penn State National begins at 4:45 p.m. Friday, and resumes at 10 a.m. Saturday. Field events at the Cardinal begin at 3 p.m. Friday.

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Tom Culver can attest to the fact that much can be learned from an avid philatelist. Better known as stamp collectors, Culver said he has learned about global politics by what countries print on their stamps. "You'll know all the answers on 'Jeopardy! if you collect stamps," Culver said. He has been attending the Mid Michigan Stamp Collecting meet-up for more than 50 years. Tuesday at the Isabella County Commission on Aging, 2200 S. Lincoln St., three of the about seven members sifted through thousands of stamps Culver bought by the pound from a stamp dealer.

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 A 34-year-old former campus police officer has pleaded guilty to misconduct for persuading two Central Michigan University students to bare their breasts. The Morning Sun in Mount Pleasant says that http://bit.ly/AhjsPa ">Jeffrey Card faces up to five years in prison at his Feb. 24 sentencing. Card entered the plea Monday in Isabella County Trial Court. Card was on patrol when he gave the women a ride in September from a bar. He's accused of betting them that their blood alcohol levels were higher than 0.05 percent. They briefly flashed their breasts when Card won the bet.

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Sherry Ruckman decided to combine her love of clothes with her love of family by opening and running a secondhand clothing store. City Closet opened two weeks ago at 888 S. Mission St. The new store sells new and gently used clothing from brand names like Hollister, American Eagle, Abercrombie and Fitch, Pink and Lucky. "It's definitely more of a variety than what were used to," said Hastings senior Stephanie Lukas. The clothes are cheap and in great quality. Plus, Im always up for some new stores coming into Mount Pleasant. It gives us more options and places to shop.

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Authorities say strain of norovirus was responsible for sickening more than 200 students in the Mount Pleasant School District earlier this month. The Morning Sun reports (http://bit.ly/yxYwvf) Tuesday that health officials confirmed that one of the most common strains of norovirus was found. The district cancelled classes Jan. 12 and 13 because of illnesses. Norovirus is part of a family of viruses that are spread person-to-person and cause flu-like symptoms including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramping.

A recent Central Michigan University graduate is a step closer to opening his hot dog restaurant in downtown Mount Pleasant. Dog Central was originally scheduled to open in fall 2011, though Owner Paul McFall said the project took a little longer than planned. "I recently spoke to the builder (and) it's looking like the second week of March," McFall said. Opening the restaurant has taken longer because of setbacks with the planned building, he said. There was just lots of red tape, McFall said. Its an old building that wasnt quite up to code anymore. Dog Central will be located at 111 E. Michigan St., near Martys Bar, 123 S. Main St., and The Bird Bar & Grill, 223 S. Main St.

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Mount Pleasant senior Meghan Borland says the modern, cookie-cutter lifestyle filled with Facebook, Twitter and microwavable meals leads people too far from what is actually important. "There's this beauty in imperfection," Borland said. To see it is refreshing. Borland has been spending 12-hour days working on pieces for her next big show. April 21, her BFA thesis exhibition will be held in the Central Michigan University Art Gallerys main gallery. She said she hopes people will come see it and bring their thinking caps. Her gallery will feature ceramic recreations of clay in nature. Viewers will get to see thousands of intricate ceramic leaves, faux trees that smell like honey and a hydroponic garden to support her living exhibit. She said some who have seen her recreations have called them man-made fossils.

More Central Michigan University officials are indicating displeasure with campus leadership, the college's student newspaper reports. Both the sociology, anthropology and social work department and the philosophy and religion department this month voted to endorse the schools Academic Senate vote in December indicating "no confidence" both in CMU President George E. Ross and Provost Gary Shapiro, Central Michigan Life reports. The Academic Senate, a faculty-led curriculum policy-making body, last month pointed to divisive contract negotiations between administration and faculty along with Novembers announcement that officials underestimated the College of Medicines development costs by about 5 million as reasons for its vote. Members of the endorsing college departments echoes some of those sentiments in the student publication's report.

Central Michigan University junior Lindsey Dulude was one of 18 Mid-American Conference standouts to earn volleyball academic All-MAC honors for the 2011 season, the league office announced on Thursday. Juniors Samantha Brawley and Val DeWeerd, along with sophomores Kelly Maxwell and Jenna Coates, were named to the Academic All-MAC Honorable Mention Team. Dulude, a language arts major with a 3.96 grade-point average, earns a spot on the squad for the first time in her career. The outside hitter was named to two all-tournament teams, while finishing the season third on the team in kills per set with 2.62. She appeared in 125 out of the team's 128 total sets and was second on the team in aces with 26.

Some Central Michigan University students make hard decisions about their education in order to advance in the modeling world. Howell sophomore Krissy Salenik said she is transferring to a college closer to home so she can become a signed model. "I always get emails with people saying, 'When will you be home next?'" she said. And with working at La Senoritas, its hard to know when Im going to have the time off. Salenik said modeling is an easy way for her to make money. I am paying for my own school, so everything I can do to make money is a plus, she said. Once she finds the time to go home, she said modeling is the only thing she has time to do.